W4 Columbia (HnitJers^iti) intljeCitpofilrmgork THE LIBRARIES i'li^ySrM' '^m^ •irj\ f^- ^i#^ 7 A STUDY PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY BY LEWIS G. JANES ndvra SoKifid^eTE- to mUv Karexere CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 17s Dbarborn Street 18S7 t 1 i > J J > > 1 J ' > > • ■ > I > > Copyright, 1884, By Lewis G. Janbs. a ^q u9^ ^ ■••: • • • * « • * ■ ....... • ; . . • • • • • ... • . * ..t... • •• 0." . • •• • • » . , . . • . • v« • . • TO MY PUPILS AND ASSOCIATES IN THE ADULT CLASSES CONNECTED WITH THE SECOND UNITARIAN CHURCH, Brooklyn, N.Y., In remembrance of the pleasant and fruitful hours which we have spent together in the search for that IDEAL TRUTH which is dearer to us than any fauUy expression in the symbols of an imperfect language, I DEDICATE this little book. Jan. 19, 1886. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface 5 Preface to Second Edition 7 Introduction 9 I. Palestine in the Roman Period 13 11. Society and Religion in the Ro- man Empire 39 III. Sources of Information .... 69 rV. Theological Aspects of the Re- ligion OF Jesus 98 V. Social Aspects of the Religion OF Jesus 118 VI. Myth and Miracle in the Gos- pel Stories 144 VII. The Christianity of Paul . . . 174 VIII. The Church in the Apostolic Age 204 IX. The Martyr Period 235 X. Christianity the State Religion 266 Bibliography 304 Index 307 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. In issuing a new edition of these lectures, obe- dient to the continued demand of the public, the author desires to express his grateful acknowledg- ments for the cordial and appreciative greeting which they have received from the liberal and secular press, for the kind favors of commenda- tion and friendly criticism from private individu- als, and for the fair and candid treatment which has generally been bestowed upon his book by reviewers who differ widely from his theological point of view. A careful reconsideration, in the light of the published criticisms, suggests but little modifica- tion of the judgments and conclusions herein recorded. Two or three friendly critics have maintained that too great credence has been allowed to the non-miraculous part of Philostra- tus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, in the chapter on "Myth and Miracle" (pp. 147-159). While acknowledging the weight of some of these dis- senting arguments, and admitting that the esti- mation of the degree of historical verity justly assignable to the work of Philostratus is a ques- tion for the nicest critical judgment, and one, moreover, on which the ablest scholars are not in fuU accord, — the author is impelled to adhere in 8 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION the main to the conclusions previously arrived at, after a careful study of both sides of this mooted question. In this decision, he is sustained by the judgments of such unbiassed modern historians as Ritter — who sees no reason to doubt the hon- esty either of Philostratus or of Damis, the contem- porary disciple of Apollonius — and Lecky, who in several instances refers to the narrative of Philos- tratus without discrediting its non-miraculous por- tions, as well as by the general consensus of those early Christian and Pagan writers who make mention of Apollonius. It must be admitted, however, that the work of Philostratus contains some glaring historical inaccuracies ; but, in our judgment, these do not justify us in relegating it in its entirety to the domain of pure fiction, any more than similar considerations justify a like treatment of the Christian Gospels. This entire question, however, is incidental and illustrative merely, and has little bearing upon the main pur- pose and argument of the book. A recent " Critico-Historical Sketch of the Dru- ids," from the able pen of William Emmette Cole- man, appears, justly, to discredit much that has been generally accepted as truth concerning them on the authority of Csesar, Pliny, and other classi- cal writers. The account of the Druids herein contained (pp. 62, 63) follows, temperately, the generally received authorities, but perhaps requires some further modification. L. G. J. BSOOKLTS, N.Y., Dec. T, 1886. PREFACE. 1 TAKE great pleasure in recommending Dr. Janes's Primitive Christianity to the community at large. One of the most satisfactory aspects of my Brooklyn pastorate has been the work of Dr. Janes in connection with an adult class on Sun- days, and the evening class to which he refers in his introduction. In both of these connections, he has shown a remarkable faculty for laborious study and intelligent and persuasive exposition. The chapters herewith presented were originally prepared for lectures to the evening class. They proved themselves entirely equal to the purpose for which they were designed, conveying definite information and inciting vigorous debate. The origin of these lectures, in the exigencies of class instruction, suggests the hope that they will be found widely useful in churches and elsewhere for the purposes of such instruction. Their topical arrangement will be a great advantage to the class and teacher using them. At the same time, they are deserving of a more general currency. They are a wonderfully clear PREFACE and strong expression of the best results of the higher criticism of the New Testament, and the origins of Christianity. They are no mere com- pilation, but the outcome of an independent mind working freely upon a great mass of mate- rials, to which few, except the professional scholar, can give the attention they deserve. If I am not mistaken, Dr. Janes has brought to these mate- rials a singularly just and patient mind, which has saved him from 'the falsehood of extremes,' and enabled him 'to see things as they are.' It is, for me, an admirable feature of his book that it does not apprehend the life of Jesus and the early Christians as any merely historical problem, but demands at every step to know what there is here to help us in the storm and stress of our own time's Philosophy, and Ethics, and Sociology, and Keligion. If the various questions which are now so serious and engrossing can be met in such a spirit as my friend has shown within the compass of his little book, that ' bridal-dawn of thunder-peals, ■Which all the past of time reveals, Wherever Thought has wedded Fact,' will not be long delayed, nor anything but wel- come when it comes. John W. Chadwick. Beookltn, N.Y., Dec. 26, 1885. INTRODUCTION. The questions involved in the study of the ori- gins of Christianity and the eariiest phases of its development are ordinarily supposed to lie within the exclusive province of the professional theolo- gian. It is freely intimated that a layman has no business to meddle with them. The theologian, having thus monopolized the treatment of these important subjects, is generally careful to avoid any such discussion of them as may tend to throw doubt upon the currently accepted doctrines of the divine origin and infallible truth of the Christian system. When, by chance, a Christian minister, having a mind unwarped by theological bias and a sub- limer confidence in the sacredness of truth and the method of free discussion than, unhappily, is usual, dares to transgress the bounds of custom, and gives to the public the plain facts of history and the results of the critical judgment of the best and most reverent scholars upon these topics, he does but demonstrate by his experience that intel- lectual liberty is rarely possible within sectarian boundaries, even though the body with which he communes may be the most cultured and liberal of 10 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY all the sects, — may assume indeed to be no sect, but the church universal. As far as the enlightenment of the public is in- volved in the event, it does not seem to matter much whether the voice of truth is silenced by the rack and thumb-screw, as of yore, or by the friendly request of an assistant bishop, as at the present day. Silenced it is for the moment, and that effectually ; while in the ears of the eagerly waiting people rings the old-time query, never more forceful or pertinent than to-day, Why seek ye not, even of yourselves, what is true ? In this spirit of single-minded search for the truth, it is proposed to investigate the origins of Christianity, the character and validity of the New Testament literature, and the different phases of custom and belief which existed in the earliest Christian communities. The writer perhaps owes it to his readers to inform them that his work was commenced and prosecuted with no original pur- pose or expectation of publication, and that it em- bodies the results of some years of careful study in connection with his duties as teacher of an ad- vanced class of Sunday-school pupils. The papers herein collected were originally prepared and de- livered as a course of lectures before an Associa- tion* engaged in the systematic study of the world's great religions. Their publication is due solely to the cordial appreciation and earnestly ex- pressed desire of those who listened to their deliv- ery. Their original form will not be essentially •The Association for Moral and Spiritual Education, Brooklyn, N.Y. INTRODUCTION 11 modified ; but sub-titles and explanatory notes will be inserted for the convenience of the general reader, and a carefully prepared topical index will, it is believed, add to the usefulness of the lectures. It is hoped that the reader will unite with us in the attempt to hold our educational and inherited prejudices and prepossessions, as far as possible, in abeyance, bearing in mind that maxim of Confu- cius which affirms that "the superior man, in the world, does not set himself either for anything or against anything: what is right he will follow." The sense of this maxim is rendered more tersely, if less unequivocally, by Paul, in the text which may be rendered : "Test all things thoroughly, and hold fast to that which is morally beautiful." Commencing our investigation with an examina- tion of the local environment of the earliest phase of Christianity, involved in the political, social, and religious condition of Palestine in the Roman period, we will next consider the state of society and religion in the Roman Empire outside of Palestine, — that fruitful ground into which the earliest seeds of Christian thought and life were transplanted. Thereafter, we will investigate the sources of our information concerning the life and teachings of Jesus, and the different stages of the evolution of the new religion, up to the time of its secular triumph. The literature bearing upon these topics is al- ready enormous, and is expanding with every added year. The work involved in the prepara- tion of these lectures has therefore not been in- considerable : it is much greater, indeed, than the 12 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY somewhat meagre results may appear to indicate. The greatest care has been taken to insure accu- racy in regard to all statements of fact, reliacf^ having been placed only on authorities of recog- nized weight and impartiality. For the conclu- sions and deductions from ascertained historical facts, herein set forth, no one is responsible save the writer, who commits them to the candid judg- ment of the unbiassed reader, trusting that they may serve a good, if humble, purpose toward the discovery of truth and the consequent enfranchise- ment of mankind from superstition and theological bondage. L PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD. A TRITE subject, but one of supreme interest and importance, is that to which we are to devote our attention,— the Origin and Growth of Christianity. Of making books upon this topic there has been no end. It can hardly be anticipated that the present effort will add anything to the information of those unprejudiced investigators whose inclina- tion and leisure have permitted them to make acquaintance with the current literature bearing upon this question in all its different relations. These, however, are of necessity the few: the present lectures are intended for others,— for those whom lack of time has prevented from keeping pace with the growth of a literature whose bulk is already portentous. Treating the topics involved in this study from the stand-point of sympathetic rationalism, and, in accordance with the latest results of critical and exegetical research, regarding Christianity as a product of natural evolution from the existing environment, with its inheritance of past influences and traditions, the attempt will be made to group together and present as clearly and consistently as possible the salient points in each division of the 14 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY subject in such a brief and succinct form that the reader may readily retain them in his memory, and find the theme, notwithstanding its familiarity, not devoid of interest or unworthy of his serious attention. From the CaptiTity to the Roman Period.* Palestine, in the generations immediately pre- ceding the birth of Jesus, — a land less in extent than the State of New Hampshire, — from its location, the character of its people, and the peculiarities of their national religion, became the seat of a remarkable series of political and social events. The period of the ancient Hebraism, interrupted in its development by the dispersion of the Northern tribes and the Babylonian cap- tivity of the Southern tribes, had long since passed. Persia and Chaldea had bestowed upon Israel their gifts of the belief in a future life and a bodily resurrection. The Persian conception of the speedy destruction of the world by fire and the coming of a supernatural saviour had pene- trated the popular mind of Judaism, and modified its growing Messianic expectation. Satan, the old time messenger and servant of Yahweh, had been endowed with the attributes of the Persian Ahriman, thus becoming the devil of the New Testament;! and the Chaldean superstition of *As it is our purpose hereafter to show the natural relation of the thought and life of Jesns to his social and intellectual environment, the material for this lecture has accordingly been drawn wholly from other than New tThe word "devil" is of Aryan origin, and is not found at all in the Old Testament. PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 15 active demoniacal influences in human affairs, while it was rejected by the cultivated classes, had obtained a strong hold upon the credulity of the common people. The Persian protectorate, cut short by the con- quests of Alexander the Great, had been succeeded by the period of Greek domination, which in turn was interrupted by the successful issue of the Maccabjean struggle for freedom, followed by a century of independence and comparative pros- perity under the leadership of the descendants of Judas Maccabseus. Success, however, as often happens, brought corruption in its wake ; and the later Asmonean leaders were no longer animated by the resolute and incorruptible patriotism which spurred on their ancestors in the struggle for liberty. For many years, the country was disturbed by political dissensions, which finally wrought the overthrow of the independent Commonwealth. During all this period of strife, the more faith- ful adherents of Judaism, who held to the old theocratic conception of Israel, kept aloof from political strife, acknowledging Yahweh* as their only King and Ruler, and submitting to the authority of their superiors with silent but indig- nant protest. They left the petty dissensions of politics to the holders and seekers for office, who then, as now, were abundantly able to create a popular commotion with little assistance from the substantial and thinking classes of the people. •The name "Yahweh" will be used throughout these lectures instead of the familiar "Jehovah," as expressing more accurately the correct orthography and pronuncia- tion of the word. 16 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY- Occasions of Roaaan Interference. About the year 69 B.C., a contest for the throne arose between two Asmonean pretenders, John Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. To decide the dispute, five years later, Scaulus, the Roman commander in Syria, was appealed to as an arbitrator. He assigned the throne to Aristobulus; but, in the following year, Pompey the Great, who was then at the head of affairs in Rome, annulled the act of Scaulus, transferred the regal office to Hyrcanus, and carried Aristobulus a captive to Rome, where, with his two daughters and his son Absalom, he graced the public triumph of the great Roman general, in the year 61 B.C. Four years later, Alexander, another son of Aristobulus, raised an insurrection in Palestine; and, in the year 54 B.C., Crassus, then the Roman commander in Syria, taking advantage of the turbulence incited by these dissensions, took possession of the city of Jerusalem with his army, and shocked the entire religious community by committing the sacrilege of entering and plundering the temple. On the advent of Julius Caesar to supreme power, soon after this event, the fortunes of the Jews im- proved. He granted them many privileges, and relieved them from oppressive exactions, both in Rome, where a colony had existed since the time of Pompey, and in their native country. Aris- tobulus having been poisoned in Rome at the instigation of the party of Pompey, and his son Alexander having been beheaded, Csesar recog- nized Hyrcanus as High Priest and bestowed upon him the title of Prince, making him ruler PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 17 of Palestine under the protection of the empire. A few years later, in 44 B.C., Herod, a prince of Idutnea or Edom, — the ancient hereditary rival and foe of Israel, — having married the daughter of Hyrcanus, was made tetrarch or governor of the country under his father-in-law. In the year 40 B.C., the Parthians, who had revolted and overthrown the Seleucidse, — the suc- cessors of Alexander the Great in the eastern provinces, — and had maintained thus far an effec- tive resistance against the Roman power, invaded Judea in alliance with Antigonus, a son of Aris- tobulus, and seated him upon the throne, carry- ing Hyrcanus to Persia, a prisoner. About the same time, the Roman Senate bestowed the king- dom upon Herod; and in the year 37 B.C., by the aid of Mark Antony, he stormed Jerusalem, captured the Holy City, expelled the Parthian invaders, and assumed the regal power. Thus, the patriotic Jews were at last subjected to the unexampled degradation and ignominy of behold- ing an accursed Edomite seated upon the thron« of David. The Sects : the Pharisees and Saddncees* During this period of political dissension, the people were also rent by religious disputes between the rival sects, the Pharisees and Sadducees. The latter have sometimes erroneously been termed the Liberals of Judaism. They have been regarded as innovators upon the ancient customs and beliefs of their people. In their leading doctrines, on the contrary, they were pre-eminently the represen- 18 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY tatives of the historic life and thought of Israel. They were the traditional custodians of the priestly office and emoluments ; constituting, as it were, an ancient order of hereditary nobility. The Asmonean rulers were originally in sym- pathy with the growing religious life of the people. They had attained their leadership through their pre-eminent merits and patriotism and with the popular support. But, not unnaturally, they were rejoiced when they began to find favor in the eyes of the ancient order of nobility. Mutual interests, apart from the life and thought of the people, cemented a cordial bond of sympathy between them. The Sadducees, holding them- selves superior to the masses by reason of their priestly functions, and puffed up by their alliance with the ruling house, grew more and more con- servative and narrow-minded. They sought to build up a hierarchy, to identify the entire range of religious duties with themselves and their official position. "Thus gradually," says Rabbi Geiger, a learned Jewish historian, "they changed their position. Instead of remaining the servants and ministers of religion, they made religion their servant." * The germs of a priestly order which formed the nucleus of this sect doubtless existed from a period long antedating the Babylonian captivity, but the sect as it appeared in the generations approaching the advent of Christianity was un- known to the Old Testament writings. Its origin ^Jiidaism, and its History, hy Rabbi Geiger, whicb see for an admirable account of the Jewish sects. PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 19 is obscure, and the meaning of its designation uncertain * The sect of the Pharisees was un- known prior to the Maccabaean era, about 165 B.C. In opposition to the priestly assumptions of the Sadducees, their opponents held that all the people should be regarded as sanctified in the service of Yahweh, all alike should be elevated to a condition of priestly holiness. Accordingly, they adopted strict rules of life, and insisted upon the formal observance of the rites of their relig- ion in order to approximate as nearly as possible to the special requirements of the priestly office. The Sadducees naturally magnified the temple worship, in which they were chiefly interested, and advocated strict conformity to the letter of the law,— the Thorah. The Pharisees were the leading supporters of the synagogue, an institution which arose during the Maccabaean period. They pro- claimed the superior sanctity of the oral law or tradition, which they attributed also to Moses, and advocated the right of all to be teachers and in- terpreters of the Thorah. Public prayers, daily ablutions, the consecration of the daily meals, were characteristic Pharisaic observances, the in- tent of which was to render every man, as nearly as possible, a priest. The scribes, who traced their origin to the time of Ezra,t were the copyists, readers, and commentators on the law in the syn- agogues, and were almost exclusively drawn from the sect of the Pharisees. They have sometimes ■7^^1*1™® '^l'"'!® *^® '^'^^^ Sadducee from the name of one main "the wise." ^ P"®'*' °*''''"' "■'"'' * ^""^^ ^^'^ *<> t Circum 444 B.C. 20 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY erroneously been regarded as constituting a sepa- rate sect by themselves. The Sadducees adopted the aristocratic designa- tions of "sons of the families of rank" and "sons of the high priests." The Pharisees were known as "separatists," "the learned," sometimes even "the people." Fraternizing with the main body of the populace, they accepted the popular doctrines of a future life, a bodily resurrection, and the com- ing of a personaj Messiah. They declared that the exclusive priesthood would go down, the peo- ple would be emancipated, a descendant of the house of David would arise and reign over them, the servant and representative of Yahweh. Many of them anticipated the miraculous destruction of the existing world and society, and the establish- ment of a perpetual kingdom of God, a regen- erated world in the glories and joys of which all true believers would participate. The Sadducees, on the contrary, including, it is said, twenty thou- sand priests living in gluttony and luxury in Jerusalem alone, satisfied with their power and emoluments, contented with the present life, wish- ing for no change, repudiated the notions of a resurrection and a future existence as unwarranted by the teachings of the law, and rejected the doc- trine of the personal Messiahship. Jexvish lUonasticism : the Essenes^ About a century before the Christian era there arose in Palestine the small monastic sect of the Essenes.* During the reign of Herod, it is esti- "Our information concerning the Essenes is derived mainly from the works of Flavins Josephus. PALESTINE IX THE ROMAN PERIOD 21 mated that they numbered about four thousand ascetics or "come-outers," withdrawn from among the Pharisees, and carrying to an extreme the Pharisaic doctrine of separatism. Members were received into this order by a solemn ceremonial of initiation, which included the rite of immersion. They took vows of chastity and seclusion, per- formed frequent ceremonial ablutions, refused to make sacrificial offerings at the temple, were pro- hibited from taking oaths, and held all their property in common. They had no fixed dwelling- places, but appointed some of their members or sympathizers in every considerable town or city to entertain them as they journeyed through in the course of their itinerant wanderings. They had certain conventual establishments in the wilderness near the Jordan, in the neighborhood of which they practised husbandry during the intervals of their journeyings and religious exer- cises. They were extreme formalists, placing greater importance even than the Pharisees upon the performance of all the minutise of their relig- ious observances. They wore a peculiar white costume and a sacred girdle. They carefully pre- served and often repeated the names of the angels. They venerated as sacred the rays of light, and turned toward the sun to pray. The Essenes were as fatalistic in their beliefs as the Mohammedans. Unlike the Pharisees, they rejected the doctrine of a bodily resurrection, and believed in a spiritual immortality for both the righteous and evil-doers. They interpreted many passages of Scripture allegorically in defence of 22 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY their peculiar doctrines. By the poor, they were known as skilful physicians ; and they were popu- larly reputed to be remarkable prophets. Many of their customs and beliefs, as well as those of the Pharisees, bear marked evidences of Persian or Zoroastrian origin. Some modern writers have attempted to trace their monastic habits and ascetic tendencies to the influence of Buddhism, but no certain or probable contact of this sect with the religion of Sakya-Muni has yet been clearly demonstrated. They appear, on the contrary, to have originated in Palestine by a natural evolu- tion out of Pharisaic Judaism. Some writers have attempted to identify them with the Therapeutae, represented to have been a monastic sect or order of itinerant physicians which arose in Egypt at about this period ; but our information concerning them is not sufficiently trustworthy to enable us to affirm even their existence as a fact beyond dispute.* Though we cannot assert any probable connec- tion between the doctrines of any of the Jewish sects and those of Buddhism, it is manifest that other Eastern notions, chiefly of Zoroastrian ori- gin, were gradually creeping into the thought and faith of the people of Israel. Besides the more prominent beliefs of this character, to which allu- sion has already been made, ideas were probably already working in the Hebrew mind, which sub- sequently took form in the mystical and esoteric ♦The earliest accounts of the Therapeutas appear in a •work attributed to Philo, but which is of doubtful authen- ticity. It is probably of much later date, and its testimony must be regarded as untrustworthy. See Kuenen, lieligion Of Israel, \ol. 111. PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 23 doctrines of the Kabbala * the earliest account of which we find in a work attributed by current Jewish tradition to Rabbi Akiba, who wrote about 120 A.D., but which, in reality, was probably written several centuries later. The Oriental doc- trine of creation by Emanation was certainly cur- rent at this time; and the Aramaic version of the Scriptures, which was commonly used in the synagogues, designated God by the term Memra, or the "Word," whenever it was desired to separate him in thought from the visible creation.f Tke Kauaim, or Zealots. Out of the long oppression of the Jews by for- eign rulers and the indignities offered to their religion, culminating in the desecration of the sacred temple of Yahweh, grew the party of the Kanaim, or Zealots. Its members were patriots whose zeal for their ancestral faith impelled them to renounce all foreign domination, and to strive to break the bonds of the oppressor by the force of arms. The Kanaim held unswervingly to the ancient theocratic character of the Commonwealth. "There is but one kingdom: it is the heavenly kingdom,-the kingdom of God." This was the motto of the Zealot. "Thou shalt make no graven image" was the command of the Thorah. To touch a pie ce of money with the image of the • Hebrew ''tradition," often spelled "Ca^hala." + The"Targams,"or Aramaic versions of the Om Testa- ment writines, were at this time probably oral. The Tar- Sim ^fOnkel^B. the first of the ^vritten Targums da^es from the secondcentury o' our era. See t'^f able discus Bity. 24 A STUDY OP PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Roman emperor on it was therefore a sin in his eyes. Yahweh only was king. To pay taxes to a foreigner, the representative of false gods and an alien religion, was therefore a crime. To make contracts under the seal of the Roman officials was blasphemy. "How can you pretend to be pious?" said one of this sect to a leading Pharisee. "You write in contracts the name of the ruler by the side of that of Moses, beginning 'In the year of the Emperor,' and concluding 'According to the Law of Moses and Israel.' If the name of the unbeliever is in this way incorporated into con- tracts, can you call that piety ?" This uncompromising patriotism and resolute adherence to the old faith of Israel did not fail to meet with a response in the hearts of the people. Associations were formed, which had for their ob- ject the delivery of the people from the foreign yoke; and insurrections were frequent from the time of Judah of Gaulonitis, in the generation be- fore Christ, to that of Bar-Cochba, more than a century later, who was accepted as the true Mes- siah by a large number of the people, including some of the leading Rabbis of the day. During this period, it is said that more than fifty leaders arose among the Jews, claiming the Messianic office, each of whom had a considerable pcpular following. Sectional Characteristics: Oalilee, Samaria, and Judea. Galilee appears to have been the fountain-head of these insurrectionary movements. The Gali- leans were a mixed race, having intermarried with PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 25 the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhood after the deportation of the northern tribes by the Assyrians, They were regarded with suspicion and contempt by the more conservative classes who inhabited Judea, and came under the direct influence of the government and the priestly party of the Sadducees who gathered around the temple as the centre of their worship and the chief cita- del of their faith. This region was often called "Galilee of the Gentiles" by the blue-blooded Jews of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the Galileans strenuously maintained their rights as children of Abraham, and were strict in their allegiance to the law and the temple at Jerusalem. Like the Jews of Judea, they despised their neighbors, the Sama- ritans, whose blood wa3 even less pure than their own, and who had established a new temple on Mt. Gerizim, breaking loose entirely from all allegiance to the aristocratic element of Jerusalem and Judea. So bitter was the feeling against the Samaritans that it was customary for travellers between GalUee and Judea to avoid Samaria, which lay in the direct route, by crossing over to the east of the Jordan. Judah of Gaulonitis, himself a native of Galilee or an adjacent district, may be regarded as the founder of the sect of the Zealots. He taught that to obey the foreign ruler, or in any way de- part from the original theocratic constitution of Israel or to compromise in the least degree with the secular power, was rebellion against the sacred law of Yahweh. Rising in insurrection with a considerable following in the generation before 26 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY the birth of Jesus, after a severe struggle he was defeated, captured, and crucified. His followers were scattered and disarmed, but the spirit which animated them was not thereby quelled. A gen- eration later, John of Giscala, a descendant of Judah, became the leader of another rebellion which likewise came to a disastrous end. Theu- das, a third sectarian leader, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, also hailed from Galilee. He met with some local and temporary success, and had many enthusiastic followers, but finally suc- cumbed to the fate of his predecessors. The mar- tyrdom of these leaders of the Kanaim by cruci- fixion only served to perpetuate their memories and give currency to their revolutionary senti- ments, and thus added fuel to the patriotic flame which was glowing in the hearts of the people. The RoTlval of Prophecy: John the Baptist. From among the less cultivated classes there also arose certain religious enthusiasts claiming the ofifice and assuming the characteristic garb of the Hebrew prophets. They announced the speedy destruction of the existing order of society, and the coming of the kingdom of heaven through supernatural intervention. The popular concep- tion of the heavenly kingdom involved the univer- sal triumph and control of the Jewish theocracy, the annihilation of its enemies, and the re-estab- lishment of united Israel, with a descendant of the house of David to rule over them as the ser- vant and representative of Yahweh. Many antici- PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 27 pated the return of the prophet Isaiah in person, as the herald of Israel's better day. John the Baptist, the most noteworthy of the latter-day prophets, was undoubtedly an historical personage. A brief sketch of his career is given us by Jose- phus, in passages of unchallenged authenticity. The account harmonizes in the main with the conception of the man which we derive from the familiar New Testament description, and presents a graphic suggestion of the effect of his impas- sioned exhortations upon his followers. Josephus also alludes to one Banus, possibly a leader of the Essenes, who immersed his disciples in the Jordan river. At a later day, one Jesus, a Judean Jew, uttered stern warnings and foreboding prophecies of evil to Jerusalem during its investment by Titus, prior to its final destruction in the year 70 B.C. These leaders drew to themselves chiefly the less educated Pharisees and the so-called "people of the land," a large class of mixed parentage, whose poverty and menial occupations forbade a strict observance of the minutiae of Pharisaic ritu- alism, though their sympathies and associations were generally with this most numerous and pop- ular sect. Orowth of the Messiaaic Idea. Out of all this turmoil and conflict of the sects, these disputes about idle formalities of ritualistic observance and textual interpretations, one doc- trine grew steadily into ever greater prominence in the hearts and hopes of the people,— the belief in a coming Deliverer, "the anointed of Tahweh," 28 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY — the Messiah. Out of the vague natural hope of the earlier time for the reunion of a scattered and divided people under a prince of the house of David had grown a strong belief that a leader would be raised up to them, sustained by the supernatural power of Yahweh, who would put an end to the existing social order, and establish anew the kingdom of God on earth. The Persian notions of a bodily resurrection and a millennial era of earthly prosperity, to be heralded by the coming of Sosiosch, "the conquering Saviour," had penetrated the faith of Judaism, and intensified and transformed the popular conception of the Messianic character. We would doubtless err greatly, if we supposed that any single, consistent picture of the coming Saviour was present to the minds of all classes. The better educated of the Pharisees probably still held the faith of the great prophets of the captivity, which regarded Israel itself as the Messiah of the nations, the leader of the world out of polytheism and idolatry to a knowledge of Yahweh as the one true God, and the conception of righteousness as his most faith- ful and acceptable service. The popular expec- tation, however, looked for a personal deliverer, either in the character of a great military chief- tain like David, who would destroy the enemies of Israel with the weapons of natural warfare, or in that of a chosen servant of Yahweh, endowed with supernatural powers, who would overcome the nations by the might of the Eternal, and her- ald the appearance of the everlasting kingdom. PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PEBIOD 29 I^ibeval and Conservative Pharisecs.-HlUel. In times like these there appear not only men like these fanatical chieftains who fomented m- surrection, but also leaders by right of moral and intellectual superiority, who voice the higher con- ceptions of truth as they appear to the more intelligent classes, and who are yet free from that ourblind conservatism and time-serving subser- ^ence to rulers, which characterized the educated Sadducees. Such a man was Rabbi Hiilel, born about ninety years before Jesus, and dying, it is said, at the full age of one hundred years, when the founder of Christianity was about ten years old. Hiilel was a liberal Pharisee, the leader of one of the two great parties into which the popu- lar sect was divided. Such were his services to Judaism that the Talmud declares, "After the time of Ezra, the law came into oblivion; but Hiilel established it anew." HiUel was a very poor youth, but ardently am- bitious to learn. It is related of him that, being unable to pay the small fee for admission to the lecture-room of Shammaya and Abtalyon, he climbed up to the window in order to hear the discourses of these eminent teachers. The night was unusually cold; and he lay there, benumbed, untU the snowflakes, which were falling thick and fast, covered him entirely. Stiffened with cold and sleet, he passed the whole night in this peril- ous position. In the morning, when the obstruc- tion to the window was perceived, he was discov- ered almost dead from exposure. He was taken 30 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY into the house, restored to consciousness with great difficulty, and thenceforth, to reward his ardor for learning, instruction was bestowed upon him gra- tuitously. The Character of Hillel's Teaching: the Oolden Bale. A proselyte once came to Shammai, a distin- guished leader of the more conservative party of the Pharisees, — the contemporary and rival of Hillel, — and desired to be initiated into Judaism, provided he could be instructed in its precepts within the time during which he could stand upon one foot. Shammai repulsed him harshly as a trifler unworthy of a serious response. On making a similar application to Hillel, however, he received this reply : "My son, listen. The essence of Juda- ism is, Whatever is displeasing unto thee do not do unto others.* This is the foundation and root of Judaism : all else is commentary. Go, and learn." "Won by the paternal kindness and "sweet reason- ableness" of the teacher, this man speedily became a convert to the faith. Hillel inculcated the belief in the merciful and fatherly character of God, encouraged the cultiva- tion of an unselfish desire for the welfare of others, taught the necessity and honorable nature of useful labor, and advocated a wise liberality in adjusting the harsher features of the law to the existing *It is noteworthy that the golden rule is given negatively in the recently discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apos- tles," a document of very early date, perhaps older than either of our canonical Gospels. Confucius also gave it in this negative form. PALESTINE IN THE KOMAN PERIOD 31 requirements of society. He believed that the irreclaimably evil would suffer eternal punish- ment ; but, in regard to those whose conduct was an intermixture of good and evil, he said, "He who is abundant in mercy will sink the scale unto mercy." Shammai and his disciples were the Mallocks of their day, preachers of the pessimistic philosophy that life is not worth living. "It is far better for men not to be born than to be born," they said. But Hillel replied : "Well, we are born. Therefore, let us be thoroughly alive, and examine well our actions." "Energetically seize life," was his motto. "Why do you make changes and innovations?" his opponents asked. "If I work not myself," he replied, "who will work for me? But, if I work for myself alone, what am I then ? Is it for myself that I desire what is good, or is it not rather the whole people who require to be quickened?" The old Jewish law made every seventh year a year of release, and all debts previously contracted and not paid were then cancelled and forgiven. When trade increased and men borrowed money, not merely from personal necessity, but for busi- ness purposes, this provision caused much hardship and inconvenience. Hillel declared that this must be remedied, and that thereafter contracts might be made with the express provision that the year of release should not cancel the debt. "But this is in violation of Holy Writ ," said his opponents. "It may be," said Hillel ; "but, if we cling to the letter, all morality will be lost. Whether any- thing be written or not, the life decides." In 32 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY rebuke of ascetics like the Esseues, and of extreme formalists among the Pharisees, be said : "Do not seclude thyself from thy fellow-men. Do not pretend to be pre-eminently pious. To forsake others as renegades and bask in the sunlight of exclusive piety is immoral." It is evident that the great rabbi was no advocate of a merely superficial system of morality or religious observance. Hillel was wont to spend much time in medita- tion and study, and was regular in his attendance at the synagogue. One day he left the sacred edifice hastily after the lesson for the day, excus- ing himself by the plea that he must attend upon a dear guest at his home. His disciples asked him, "Who is this dear guest whom thou enter- tainest?" "That guest," he replied, "is my own soul. During my intercourse with the world, it must be pushed back; but, nevertheless, it claims its right." Although liberal in his interpretation of the law, Hillel was, nevertheless, a Pharisee, advocating strict adherence to the usual formalities of religion, unless they were in manifest conflict with the welfare and happiness of man, whom they were intended to serve. He kept the seventh day as commanded in the law, but also taught that all days should be deemed equally holy, and conse- crated to God's service by clean and righteous actions. When Shammai found anything particu- larly excellent in his studies, he said, "Let it be preserved for the Sabbath." Hillel said : "Praised be God from day to day. This is a day on which I may rejoice in God's goodness : another also will afford it." PALESTINE IK THE ROMAN PERIOD 33 Such was the teaching of this reformer among the Pharisees, the most eminent Jew of the gen- eration before the birth of Jesus. Possibly, the young Galilean peasant may have sat at the feet of the aged teacher, and learned lessons of liber- ality and wisdom. In aU probability, he often listened to these teachings as they passed from one to another, and were repeated in the synagogues, where they constituted at length a part of that oral law which was ultimately recorded and pre- served to us in the Talmud.* We may well believe that these doctrines of Hillel helped to inspire the humane and tender counsels of the founder of Christianity. Tbe Iiangaag;e8 o£ Palestine. The popular language of Palestine at the advent of Christianity was the Syro-Chaldaic, or Aramaic, a mixed Semitic tongue which superseded the ancient Hebrew iu which the Old Testament was written, subsequent to the Babylonian captivity. It is probable that neither Jesus nor any of his immediate disciples could speak or write in any other language. Greek had become the language of polite society and the official tongue through- out the Roman Empire, and was probably known to the leading scholars in Jerusalem ; although Jo- sephus, who spoke and wrote in Greek nearly a century after the birth of Jesus, refers to it as "an alien and strange tongue," and affirms that, during the siege of Jerusalem, he alone was able to act as •See article on the Talmud by Emanuel Bentsch {Liter- ary Remains). 34 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY interpreter between the besieged inhabitants and the Greek-speaking commanders of the Roman army. The study of Greek or any foreign tongue was discouraged by the rabbis, who desired to preserve the minds of the people as free as possible from the contamination of foreign religious and philosophical ideas. "It is ■v^ritten," said one of these Hebrew teachers, " 'Thou shalt meditate on the law day and night.' Fiad me an hour which is neither day nor night, and in that you may study Greek."* Education among the Xewa, Josephus declares that the education of the young was the first object of solicitude among the Jews. The Talmud re-echoas this sentiment, and preserves to us the fine saying, "The world is saved by the breath of school-children." We would greatly err, however, if we supposed that the education of the Jewish youth at this period embraced any general or comprehensive course of studies. Neither scienca nor letters formed any part of their curriculum. By education was under- stood, simply, instruction in the law of Moses and the learning by heart of the Psalms and certain passages from the prophetical writings. To this was added the oral commentary of the rabbis, which often tended to obscura rather than to illu- minate the real meaning of the Scriptures. The opposition to anything like what we understand • Greek words, however, were entering into the corrupt Aramaic which consMtutcd the popular dialect. Several such are found in the Book of Dantel, written about 165 B.C. The word Synagogxie is also of Greek origin. PALESTINE IX THE ROMAX PERIOD 35 by the term secular education, or even to a system as universal and comprehensive as that which the Greek and Roman youth enjoyed, was universal and exceedingly bitter. Strikingly similar preju- dices in regard to education still prevail in the East, even among scholarly and thinking minds, as we have recently seen illustrated in the attitude of the eloquent teacher of the Brahmo-Somaj of India, Babu Protap Chunder Mozoomdar. The Jewish prejudice against graven images, embodied in a commandment of the decalogue, operated to prevent any general education of the people in painting, sculpture, and the fine arts. This prejudice doubtless arose naturally out of the perception of the immoralities connected with many forms of idolatrous worship among the heathen. The erection of the Roman standards, with the eagles and insignia of the Emperor, at the gates of Jerusalem and before the sacred temple, was the occasion of violent outbursts of popular fury; and the current worship of the em- peror or his statues enforced throughout the other Roman provinces was steadily and fearlessly re- pelled by all classes of the Jews. Carreat Peculiarities of the Sfnogogne SerTice. In the services of the synagogue, the Psalms were chanted, and their language was familiar to all the people. The prophets, especially Isaiah, and the Apocalypse of Daniel, were frequently read; and many passages were interpreted, as in the current Christian exegesis, to refer to the com- 36 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY ing of the Me33ianic kingdom. With the lapse of time, the services in the synagogue and temple were becoming somewhat less free and sponta- neous than they had formerly been. A stated rit- ual, in accordance with the tendency of the Phari- saic formalism of the time, took the place of the original simplicity and spontaneity of the syna- gogue service. Some of the prayers in use in the synagogues in these early periods have been pre- served to us in the writings of the rabbis. They contain such familiar expressions as these, — as familiar, doubtless, to the ears of the youthful Jesus as to our own : — "Our Father, who art in heaven, proclaim the unity of thy name, and establish thy kingdom perpetually." "Let us not fall into the power of sin, transgression, or iniquity, and lead us not into temptation." . . . "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, and the majesty." "Our Father who art in heaven: thy will be done on high. . . . Do whatsoever seemeth good in thy sight. Give me only bread to eat, and raiment to put on. Forgive, O Lord, those who have this day offended thee." Prof. Toy, in his interesting study* recently published, has shown us how deeply the thought and phraseology of Jesus were rooted in the lan- guage of the Old Testament. The careful student can hardly fail to recognize the fact that it is not necessary to go beyond the boundaries of Pales- tine to account for the entire groundwork of the teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth, as it is em- * Quotations in the New Testament, by Prof. C. H. Toy, of Harvard Divinity School. PALESTINE IX THE ROMAN PERIOD 37 bodied ia the Triple Tradition of the Synoptical Gospels. Samniary and Conclusion. A land barren by nature save the long, green meadows between the highlands and the sea-coast, and save also the northern province of Galilee at certain seasons, whose fields and meadows were brightened with a myriad flowers,— redeemed in part from its natural sterility under the impulse of the potent necessities of its inhabitants, until its terraced hill-sides were beautified by groves of olive-trees, pomegranates, and clustering vineyards, —a little land, isolated by nature, yet by its posi- tion made the highway between the great nations of antiquity; a people of warm southern tempera- ment and Semitic intensity of religious devotion, cherishing in their hearts the lofty conception of the unity of God, though narrowed by the exclu- siveness of their education and life ; a people di- vided into various sects upon the great problems of the reality of a future life, and of duty in ref- erence to obedience to the mandates of a foreign ruler; a people cherishing the memories of a former greatness due, as they thought, to the might and favor of Yahweh their God, whose chosen nation they regarded themselves, and hop- ing for, believing in, a coming Deliverer anointed to do his work ; a people full of lofty sentiment, of narrow but intense religious aspirations, writh- ing under the oppression of a hated alien ruler whose power they were impotent to undermine,— Buch a land, such a people, were Palestine and the 38 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Jews nineteen hundred years ago. To such an environment and heritage of social and religious ideas was born the peasant boy of Galilee whom Christendom to-day worships as the incarnate Deity. Bearing in mind these facts in contem- poraneous history, and that wonderful provision of nature whereby the finer elements of a hundred generations sometimes combine in a single for- tunate organization, born in the fulness of time, may we not expect to discover that the fruit upon the vine in autumn is not a more natural and in- evitable result of that universal providence which is manifested in the working of all eternal and immutable laws than was the appearance, charac- ter, and teaching of the Nazarene Prophet in his time and among these, his people? Such, I be- lieve, will be your unbiassed verdict, when we have considered together the nature of his teach- ing and the circumstances of his environment. n. SOCIETY AND RELIGION IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. At the advent of Christianity, the civilized world was at peace. A quarter of a century before the birth of Jesus, the gates of the temple of Janus in Rome, which were always open when the Empire was involved in war, were closed by the order of Augustus Caesar, for the third time since the foundation of the Eternal City. Rome was mistress of the world, and had conquered peace by the might of her invincible arms. During the previous century, she had extended her power in the East under the great command- ers, Sulla, LucuUus, and Pompey. Asia Minor had been subdued, and all its vast territory was reduced to a tributary condition. The king of Armenia had been defeated. Syria and Palestine submitted to Pompey, and were converted to Roman provinces. On the north-east, the Par- thian successors of the ancient Persian empire alone maintained their independence, having thus far resisted all attempts at Roman invasion and conquest. 40 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Rome before the Csesars.— The Servile Inanrrec* tion. Rome, in the early part of the century nominally a republic, was never one in reality. While the government was republican in form, the greater part of the population of the capital and chief cities were slaves, deprived of all civil rights. In the year 73 B.C., this class rose iu insurrection, led by Spartacus, a Thrakian gladiator. For nearly three years, they maintained a partially successful warfare against the veteran armies of the republic, a large part of Italy being in the hands of the servile classes during this period. It was not until several powerful armies had been defeated, and forces of great magnitude were brought into the field, that the insurgents were overthrown. Such was the might of an oppressed class, struggling for equal political rights against the most powerful nation that the world had ever known. To these people, the religion of Jesus, with its communistic spirit and its doctrine of the kingdom of heaven soon to be established on the earth, — the inheritance of the poor and the op- pressed, — would come with the blessing of renewed hope and the promise of ultimate deliverance.* Pompey, victorious in the East, and successful in his conflicts with the pirates of the Mediterra- nean, was master of Rome for a time, but soon •The early Fathers of the Church, as will be seen here- after, like the Fathers of the American republic, failed to make a practical application of these principles to the existing institution of slavery, but, on the concrary, often directly recognized and sustained it. Nevertheless, the principles existed as a leaven, working for the ultimate regeneration of society. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 4i had to contend with the rival talents and ambition of Julius Caesar. The first Triumvirate, compris- ing Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar, subsequently became arbiters of the destinies of the growing empire and virtual masters of the world. Caesar, appointed to command the armies of Rome in Gaul, completed the conquest of that country, and extended his victorious arms into Germany and Britain. His subsequent history, his conflicts with and triumphs over his rivals, his final attainment of the imperial power, which he held until his assassination in the year 44 B.C., these facts are too familiar to the students of history, and too little germane to our subject, to require further elaboration. Rome under tSie Caesars.— The Jewish Colonr> Rome, the queen city of the world, at this time contained a population variously calculated at from a million and a half to eight million souls. The latter estimate is doubtless greatly exagger- ated : probably about two millions would approxi- mate the actual number of inhabitants. This population included a considerable colony of Jews, many of whom had emigrated to Rome during the earlier years of Pompey's supremacy. The Hebrew colonists dwelt in a mean quarter of the city, beyond the Tiber; and, on account of their social exclusiveness and the character of their religion, they were regarded with jealousy and suspicion by the masses of the native population. Nevertheless, they were industrious and frugal, and were generally entitled to the credit of being 42 A STUi>Y OF PKIJIITIVE CHRISTIANITY good citizens. Julius Caasar recognized their virtues, and granted them many favors. This Jewish colony subsequently became the nucleus of the Christian Church in Rome, and the earliest assemblies of Christians in the metropolis were held in the Jewish quarter of the city. Under the imperial sway of the Caesars, Rome attained a power and magnificence never previ- ously or subsequently equalled. Cicero, Catiline, Crassus, Pompey, the younger Cato, Scipio, — these are a few of the great names among her citizens during the century preceding the Christian era. For two hundred years, Greece had been the political subject of Rome, but had itself subjected the Eternal City intellectually, and through it the intelligence of the world, giving to the great empire its official language and its highest de- velopment of art, literature, and philosophy. Four centuries before the Christian era, the philosophy of Greece had reached its culmination in the transcendent genius of Plato, whose far-reaching thought has rendered all subsequent ages his debtors. The influence of the Platonic philosophy upon the development of Christian doctrine was not inconsiderable, and will constitute an impor- tant element in our later discussions. Religion under the Empire.— Roman Tolerance. Rome was more cosmopolitan and tolerant than any other nation of antiquity which had sought to extend its domain by conquest. The genius of Greece, on the contrary, had been pre-eminently dogmatic and intolerant. Even her most distin- SOCIETY AND RELIGION 43 guished philosophers were expatriated, or sub- jected, like Sokrates, to the penalty of death, if their teachings appeared to conflict with any of the leading features of the popular theology. Her religion, accordingly, did not readily coalesce with the alien faiths of her conquered provinces. The attempt to introduce it by force into Palestine had already resulted in the revolt of the Asmoneans and the final overthrow of the Greek dynasties which had governed that country since its conquest by Alexander. Rome, on the contrary, did not seek to overthrow the religions of her subject peoples, but tolerated and protected them, unless they opposed her secular dominion, often assimi- lating them in part into her own cultus with their foreign rites and ceremonies.* She had early adopted the gods of Greece, whose intenser personality thau that of the ancient Roman deities attracted the worship of the masses of the people ; while the priests, philosophers, and educated classes were initiated into the mysteries of the "Sacred Drama of Eleusis," which prom- ised consolations for the trials of the present life, and taught the doctrine of the resurrection and the life to come. In the Eleusinian cultus, the Greek and later Roman faith reached their highest ethical development. Promises of future reward were offered to the initiated on certain conditions, not merely of ceremonial observance, but also of personal purity and piety, of justice and right- doing between man and man. The doctrine of •See Reaan'8 English Conferences for an nteresting discussion of tUe influence of the Roman religion upoD early Christianity. 44 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY a spiritual, pantheistic monotheism seems to have been taught, of which the objective anthropomor- phism of the popular mythology offered no sug- gestion. Absolute chastity was required of the priests during the celebration of the mysteries ; and celibacy was made obligatory to certain orders of the priesthood, from the time of the assump- tion of the priestly office. Abstinence from certain articles of food was required of the celebrants. Initiation was preceded by a rite of purification resembling Christian baptism ; and a sacred meal, similar to the eucharist, constituted a portion of the ceremonial. On the nineteenth day of the great annual festival, a solemn sacrifice was offered to Asklepios, the god who had died, and was subse- quently resuscitated as lakchos. The familiar-rep- resentations of lakchos as a young child, with his mother, Persephone, — sometimes identified with the Egyptian deities, Horos and Isis, in the later Roman period, — douotless helped to suggest the familiar conception of the Virgin and child in early- Christian art ; and the mystic representation of the resurrection, long familiar to the favored initiates of Greece and Rome, prepared the way for the acceptance of the mythical legend of the resurrec- tion of Christ. "The idea of the saviour Daim6n sprung from the mother goddess," says Lenormant, "is essentially a Pelasgic and popular conception." * It was connected with the rites of Eleusis from their earliest period, and, together with the univer- *A most complete and interesting account of the Myste- ries may be found in a series of articles by Prof. Fran9oi8 Lenormant, entitled "The Eleusinian Mysteries: A Study of Religious History," in the Contemporary Review of May, July, et seq. 1880. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 45 sal belief in the iacarnatioQ of the gods, was a forerunner, if not a causal prototype, of the subse- quently developed Christian doctrines of the mirac- ulous birth and the divine incarnation of Jesus. Oriental Influences.— Mithracism. About the year 180 A.D., the Emperor Commo- dus introduced into Rome the rival mystic and ritualistic worship of the Persian god Mithra, or Mithras. The new cultus speedily became popular among the literary and fashionable classes, and obtained public recognition until the time of Con- stantine. Subsequent even to the secular ascen- dency of Christianity, it was handed down from age to age through the esoteric order of the Rosi- crucians and the secret societies of the Middle Ages. The ceremonies observed in the worship of Mithra are described by TertuUian, a Christian writer of about 200 A.D., as strongly resembling the sacraments of the Church. The initiates were admitted by a rite of baptism. They worshipped in little chapels, similar to Christian churches. They made use of a species of eucharist, eating the sacred bread, draSna, accompanied by solemn religious ceremonies, while the neophyte was tested by twelve consecutive penances, or tortures. As in the Eleusinian Mysteries, the doctrines of a life after death, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of rewards and punishments, were taught by Mithracism. The influence of this new religion upon the thought and literature of the time was absorbing and all-pervasive. "I some- times aUow myself to say," says Renan, "that, had 46 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY not Christiauity taken the lead, Mithracism would have become the religion of the world." The Gnostics doubtless borrowed largely from Mith- racism ; and the popular sects of Judaism are also thought to have derived many of their rites and doctrines from kindred mysteries, through Baby- lonia. The indirect influence of these conceptions upon the current and subsequent development of Christian doctrine was doubtless considerable.* The leading Mithraic festival, celebrated at the winter solstice, identical in time with the Roman Saturnalia, was ultimately assimilated by Chris- tianity, and recognized as commemorative of the birth of Jesus, which the apostolic tradition had assigned to the spring-time instead of the 25th of December. The cross was a Mithraic symbol long before the advent of Christianity.f It also constituted one of the eight altar implements of the Buddhists, and from very early times had been recognized as the sacred symbol of the god Nilus in Egypt. It is also of frequent recurrence in those buried cities of the Troad which Dr. Schlie- mann has recently exhumed. Decay of tbe ICeligious Sentiment. — Eaheineriam. The latter days of the Republic and the earlier decades of the Empire were noteworthy for mani- fest evidences of the decay of the religious sen- timent. The intellectual classes in Italy and ♦Mithracism is treated incideutally by Renan, English Cmiferences, and by Dean Milman, IHstorj/ of Christianity. See also Lecky, and article in Encyclopaeclia Britannica. tFor a fuller discussion of the cross as a religious symbol, see The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art, by Richard Payne Knight, A.M. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 47 Greece, including the priesthood, had become almost completely divorced from any vital belief in the current systems of mythology, based largely upon magic and divination, which constituted the popular religion. Repelled from these supersti- tions, they found their solace in the pursuit of philosophy and the investigation of the esoteric doctrines of the mysteries. The theories of Eu- hemeros, a Greek writer who endeavored to trace the myths and stories of the gods to a natural source in purely human incidents, obtained wide acceptance among the educated classes. Euhe- meros taught that the gods were originally great kings or heroes, whom their admirers had deified. All that is related of them, he said, is but the exaggeration and glorification of common events, which we may readily trace back to their historical sources. Thus, when Krouos is said to have swallowed his own children, and to have been dethroned by Jupiter, we are to understand that we have the allegorized history of a king in ancient times, when human sacrifices were offered, who was dethroned by another king, who at the same time abolished these sacrifices. The conception of Euhemeros early passed over from Greece to Rome. His book was translated into Latin, and his views speedily became predominant. So gen- eral was the contempt for the superstitions of the popular mythology that it is reported that, when two members of the priestly hierarchy — the augurs or haruspices — met in public, it was with the utmost difficulty that they could restrain their laughter. 48 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY II was an easy transition from the doctrine of Euhemeros to the adoration of living men as gods. The emperors demanded and received divine honors, a custom which may have been suggested by a similar one long prevalent among the Hindus, and recognized in their code as a sacred obliga- tion. We read in the Institutes of Manu : " Even though a child, the king must not be treated lightly, from an idea that he is a mere mortal. No : he is a powerful divinity who appears in human shape."* A survival of this custom, trans- mitted to the Eastern branch of the Christian Church, still prevails in Russia, where the czar, or Caesar, is addressed in the popular catechism — prepared by the government and which every child is compelled to learn — as "our god on earth." The transition from these beliefs to the doctrine of the Divine Incarnation as promulgated by Christianity would evidently be easy and natural. Revival of Paganism.— Commerce and Ciriliza- tion. This doctrine, indeed, in its pre-Christian form, appears to have been directly connected with a marked change which was observable in the tone of religious sentiment throughout the empire from about the time of the advent of Christianity. Dur- ing the years of peace which succeeded the assump- tion of imperial power by Augustus Caesar there occurred a noteworthy revival of the dormant relig- ious feeling among the people. This tended to as- sume the form of the veneration of the sacred city ♦Manu VII., iv.,8. See also Early Laws and Citstoma, by Sir Henry Sumner Maine. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 49 itself, — of Rome, now the mistress of the civilized world, — and of the emperor as her incarnate repre- sentative. Statues of the emperor appeared every- where, and received the adoration of the populace. Altars dedicated to the genius of Rome were set up at the cross-roads throughout Italy and in many of the provinces. The Jews alone steadily repelled this form of worship, as they also rejected the related doctrine of the divine incarnation of Jesus. Nor was this revival of the religious sentiment the only significant event of this long period of peace. Commerce, which had previously struggled against the conflicting interests and jealousies of alien States, now extended its beneficent iufluences without hindrance among the friendly provinces of the mighty empire, carrying with it material pros- perity and a genuine cosmopolitan spirit, sowing everywhere the seeds of brotherhood and peace. No political economist of the "American School," fortu- nately, had yet arisen to sound the praises of high protective or prohibitory tariffs, or to raise a craven and selfish protest against "competition with the pauper labor" of the neighboring provinces. The only obstacles which this growing spirit of frater- nity among the nations had to combat were the physical diflBculties of overcoming the separating conditions of time and space, and the local preju- dices, religious and political, of nations which were not included under the protection of the eagles of Rome. So important was this new impetus to the commercial spirit to the future of Christianity that it may be affirmed in general terms that the subse- quent progress of the new religion was co-extensive 60 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRI8TIANITY with the limits of commercial freedom. The con- fines of the Roman Empire became, practically, the boundaries of Christian propagandism. The out- lying nations which had not been reduced to the condition of Roman dependencies — with the ex- ception of those whose civilization was of later growth — have never been permanently converted to the Christian faith. The Stoic Philosophy. The most remarkable ethical movement of the period now under consideration may doubtless be discovered iu the rise and progress of the Stoic Philosophy, especially in its influence upon the lives and public careers of the "five good emper- ors," Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines. Introduced into the Roman Empire from Cyprus by Zeno soon after the time of Alexander the Great, its germs were not improbably, like those of Christianity, of Semitic origin.* At first, it attracted little popular notice, and subsequently drew public attention only to be regarded as an enemy to the state religion, in consequence of which it experienced a period of persecution and martyrdom which preceded aud temporarily ri- valled that which subsequently befell the Christians. Its leading advocates and teachers were of stainless *Zeno was himself of Phoenician birth, a native of Citmm in Cyprus, a city populated in part from Phoe- nicia, o "A striking feature in post-Aristotelian philoso- phy," says Zeller, "... is the fact that so many of its representatives come from Eastern countries, in which Greek and Oriental modes of thought met and mingled. . . . Next to the later Neo-Platonic school, this remark is of none more true than the Stoic."— TAe Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, by Dr. E. Zeller, Professor in the University of Heidelberg, p. 35 et seq. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 51 personal reputation, and its doctrines embodied the purest principles of self-abnegation and altru- istic morality. Its disciples were animated by a lofty patriotism and a fine spirit of benevolence toward their fellow-men of every social condition, a spirit which conflicted with the despotic impulses of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero as inevitably as it sustained and directed the good emperors during that succeeding interval which Gibbon terms "the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was the most happy." In its ethical and humane tendencies, it prepared the way for the precepts of the Christian gospel, though its noteworthy freedom from the contamination of popular superstitions and from the metaphysical mysticism of the current philoso- phies unfitted it for general popular acceptance in the age in which it appeared. "Equality and the abstract idea of the rights of man," says Renan, "were boldly preached by Stoi- cism." The amelioration of the condition of the poor and the oppressed was an ever-present pm'- pose in the minds of its disciples. It was Trajan, the friend of the Stoics, acting doubtless under the benign infiuence of the pure teachings of this >.,. philosophy, and not a Christian emperor, who first established orphan asylums in Rome. It was An- toninus Pius who founded additional asylums for poor young girls, in honor of his wife, the Empress Faustina, whom he loved so well. Christianity, in its public charities, did but assume and continue a work which had originated under the influence of Stoicism; yet we hear it proclaimed continually, 52 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY and recently by a religious teacher no less eminent and liberal than Henry Ward Beecher, that the earliest institutions for public charity were estab- lished by the Christian Emperors.* It is foreign to our purpose to present here a complete exposition of the doctrines of Stoicism. It is suflBcient to direct attention to it as a noteworthy moral force in the centuries imme- diately succeeding and following the advent of Christianity, antedating the new religion in the promulgation of many of its humane and ethical principles. The system which proclaimed the doctrine of human equality, and which honored Epictetus, the slave, as one of its worthiest rep- resentatives and apostles, was surely not devoid of that democratic principle which afterward com- mended the Christian religion to the oppressed peoples of Europe. Had it presented its doctrines in a more popular form and consented to compro- mise with current superstitions, the face of history during the succeeding centuries might have been widely changed.f E^pt nnder the Greeks and Romanst Passing now in thought from the immediate vicinity of Rome to the shores of Africa, we find Egypt a subject nation, long shorn of its ancient pre-eminence and power. Five hundred years *Rev. Xewenhatn Hoare, of London, late chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, i~ tho author of an interesting pamphiet showing that hospitals for the afflicted existed many centuries before Christianity. t An admirable popular presentation of the doctrines of Stoicism may be found in F. May Holland's Reign of the Stoics. See also Kenan's Marciis Aurelius, and standard works on the history of philosophy. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 53 before, it had been conquered by the Persians; and for more than a century it remained a Persian province. Subsequently, for a second period, it was subjected by the Persian arms. Under the influence of Zoroastrianism, the latent dualism in its ancient religion had been developed. The sun- god Seth, the old-time physical antagonist of Osiris, took on the moral depravity of the Persian Ahriman, and became the prototype of the Hebrew Satan and the Christian Devil. In the esoteric doctrines of the priesthood were prefigured many of the metaphysical notions of the Gnostics and of the orthodox Christian theology. In the year 332 B.C., Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great; and for a thousand years thereafter, in its intellectual development, it re- mained essentially a Greek province. Alexander founded the city of Alexandria, which contamed a composite population of Greeks, Egyptians, and Jews. It speedily became one of the great capitals of the world, and the chief centre of Greek culture and civilization. After the death of Alexander, Egypt passed under the rule of the Ptolemie3,-a succession of rulers of Macedonian extraction, to which dynasty belonged the celebrated Cleopatra, who reigned jointly with her brother in the year 30 B.C., at the time of the Roman conquest. The Greek influence effected not merely a politi- cal, but also a social and intellectual revolution in Egypt. Its religious and literary life, as well as its art and architectural development, had been hin- dered and restrained by the rigid sacerdotalism of the ancient regime. Together with political servi- 54 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAXITY tude, Egypt derived from the Greeks and Romans a larger measure of mental liberty than she had before enjoyed, the influence of which was mani- fested in a new and wonderful intellectual life which centred in the Alexandrian schools. The popular religion of the Roman Empire commingled with the old historic faith of the country. The gods of Egypt were identified with those of Greece and Rome, and foreign notions were projected into the ancient religion, — a tendency which resulted in intellectual confusion, and ultimately in bring- ing the popular mythologies into contempt among the thinking classes of the people. The fragment of the ancient Egyptian race, however, though powerless politically, still clung to their ancestral faith, which awaited the universalizing, solvent, and assimilative influence of Christianity to com- pel its final disintegration. The remnants of the indigenous race, known to us as the Kopts, were early converts to the new religion ; and Alexandria became an important Christian bishopric. Alexandrian Influence on Christianitf.— Philo JTndaens. The subject of the relations of the religion of ancient Egypt to the Hebrew cultus is one of exceeding interest, but here calls for no extended treatment. The large colony of Jews in Egypt had long since adopted the Greek language, which they employed not only in their daily intercourse, but also in the worship of the synagogues and the cer- emonies of their religion, — the ancient Hebrew faith as modified in Judaism. They had even SOCIETY AXD RELIGION 55 transformed a forsaken temple of the Egyptian cat-goddess, Pasht, at Leontopolis, into a copy of the temple at Jerusalem,— a proceeding which was not regarded with favor by the Jews of Palestine, who viewed with increasing distrust and jealousy the influences proceeding from their brethren in Egypt. In Alexandria, under the patronage, it is said, of the reigning Ptolemy, the Hebrew Script- ures had been translated into Greek. This trans- lation, the Septuagint, was frequently used and quoted by the Christian Fathers, and furnished an invaluable aid to the introduction and promulgation of the new religion. Those social and commercial influences which we have already noted as prevai] ing throughout the Roman Empire, that tended subsequently to promote the spread of Christianity, were notably present in this new metropolis. Alexandria was a great commercial centre, her population being mainly devoted to manufactures and trade. The common people among the Jews had learned of the skilled workmen of Egypt the secrets of their crafts, and for mutual protection had associated themselves in guilds like the mod- em trades-unions, the members of which engaged to support each other when out of work.* The influence of Alexandria, in bringing to- gether people of diverse races and religions, in promoting a cosmopolitan spirit in religion and philosophy, in sustaining commerce and thus •It i3 noteworthy that manv of the social influences tend- ine to the amelio'ration of the condition of the laboring VWiT, which are commonly assumed to have received their original impetus from Christianity, are traced by the im- partial historian to pre-Christian times. 56 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY bringing distant parts of the empire into closer relations, in hastening the decay of the ancient faiths and furnishing material and proselytes for the new, was of the greatest significance in the his- tory of early Christianity. The Alexandrian school of philosophy, which attempted to fuse into a single system Oriental mysticism, Jewish intuitionalism, — the doctrine of a divine revelation, — and the metaphysical idealism of Plato ; which culminated during the third century of the Christian era in Neo-Platonism, — the final form and product of Greek philosophy, — and the influence of which was predominant in the formation of the dogmatic theology of the Christian Church, had an origin almost contemporary with the beginnings of Chris- tianity. Its earliest representative was Philo Ju- dseus, a Greek-speaking Jew, a Pharisee by belief and association, though by descent, it is said, of the priestly family of Aaron* In the philosophy of Philo, Judaism first escaped from the bondage of its national exclusiveness, and admitted that spiritual truth was discoverable elsewhere than in the Hebrew writings. This admission, however, was not full and explicit, but was accompanied by the historically indefensible claim that the truths of the Platonic philosophy were themselves derived from the writings of Moses and the prophets. The philosophy of Philo was an attempt, by means of an elaborate system of allegorical interpretation, to discover these abstruse metaphysical dogmas in the Hebr ew Scriptures. •Philo was a contemporary of Jesus, bom probably some twenty or thirty years before the Nazarene prophet, and dying some years later than Jesus. SOCIETY AND RELIGION sr Philo's teaching was based upon that Oriental dualism which, originating perhaps in the later development of Zoroastrianism, had penetrated Judaism and the religion of Egypt after the Per- sian conquests, and found its clearest philosophical expression in the doctrines of Plato. It conceived an absolute separation and antagonism between spirit and matter; between the Infinite High and Holy One, whose nature was purely subjective and spiritual, and the objective universe. How, then, could the universe be created, since there was this infinite separation between God and matter ? This was the problem which Philo attempted to solve, in harmony with the teaching of the Scriptures and the doctrine of Plato. Upon the familiar lan- guage of Genesis, "And God said. Let there be light," he based his theory of the creative Word, —the Logos* Not the infinitely pure and spirit- ual deity, accordingly, but the Logos, an emana- tion from the supreme God, was the creator of the universe. Philo did not absolutely personify the Logos, nor identify it with any historical indi- vidual, as in the later Christian development of the doctrine. His thought appears to hover be- tween the conception of the Logos as an attribute —a purely metaphysical idea, similar to the ideas of Plato— and its "more complete personification. The Logos was the Demiourgos, the shaper of primeval matter; the first begotten Son of God, • This doctrine, as we have seen, badai'ready penetrated Jadaism from the East, and was used by the Rabbis of Palestine in their Aramaic commentaries on the Scnpt- nres This nse was pro oably known to Philo, and may Save helpid to suggest his theory of the common origin of the Hebrew writmgs and the Platomc phaosophy. 58 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITT the shadow and seeming portrait of God, by means of which, as by an assumed instrument, the world was made; the heavenly food of the soul, from whom all eternal instructions and wisdoms flow ; the fountain of wisdom; heavenly and immortal nourishment : such are the descriptive expressions in the writings of Philo, many of them strikingly like the familiar teaching of the Fourth Gospel.* "He strains every nerve toward the highest divine Logos, ... in order that, drawing from that spring, he may escape death and win everlasting life.f . . . Nothing is more luminous and irradiat- ing than the divine Logos, by the participation in which other things .dispel darkness and gloom, earnestly desiring to partake of the living Light.^ . . . The stamp of the seal of God is the immortal Logos.§ . . . The divine Logos is free from all sins, voluntary and involuntary. . . . Those who have knowledge of the truth are properly called the sons of God : || he who is still unfit to be named the son of God should endeavor to fashion him- self to the first-born Logos of God. ... It is im- possible for the love of the world and the love of God to co-exist." TT It is hardly possible to conceive that the author of the Fourth Canonical Gospel was not familiar with these expressions drawn from the writings of Philo, or that his identifica- tion of Jesus with the Logos was not based upou the then current teachings of the Alexandriaa ♦ See Mangey's ed. of Philo's Works, vol. i., pp. 308, 106, 482, 560. Compare John i.-xiv., 3; vi., 35, etc. tCompare John vi., 40. t Compare John i., 4, 5-9. § Compare John vi., 27. II Compare John i., 12. IT Compare John xvii., 9-14, etc. y SOCIETY AND RELIGION 59 philosophy. Of the further development of this doctrine in the systems of the Gnostics and the orthodox Christian theology, we shall have occa- sion to speak hereafter. Carthage and Phcenicia,— their Gifts to Civiliea- tioii. Four centuries before the Christian era, the great Punic or Carthaginian empire had possessed all the coast of Africa west of Egypt, and con- trolled the greater number of the islands of the Western Mediterranean. It had inherited from its Phoenician founders the traits of a great commer- cial nation, and was one of the first countries in the world to substitute sailing vessels for galleys propelled by oars. A century and a half before the Christian era, this nation was virtually extin- guished. All that remained of it was the power- less subject of Rome. So little had Carthage bequeathed to the world, that we know less of her history than of any other nation of antiquity. Her religion was borrowed from Phoenicia. Baal, Ashtoreth, and Melkarth, gods of the fierce and destructive powers of nature, were her deities ; and, as in the parent country, they were worshipped with sensual and barbarous rites and bloody sac- rifices, often of human victims. The gentler and humaner religion of Rome was a pleasing substi- tute for this cruel barbarism. The new Roman city of Carthage, founded by Augustus C^sar, grew rapidly, but never attained the commercial promi- nence of its predecessor. It became an important Christian bishopric early in the third century. 60 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Among other notable names in the history of the Church, Carthaginia furnished that of Augustine, whose influence was predominant in the formation of the Christian theology.* Phoenicia, with its great commercial cities. Tyre and Sidon, had reached the zenith of its power eight hundred years before the Christian era, and had now long been falling into decay. It had been conquered by Alexander the Great, by whose armies Tyre was reduced to ashes, many of its inhabitants were slain, and the remainder were sold as slaves. Though subsequently rebuilt, it never regained its former commercial importance. Phoenicia lacked that supreme ethical element in its civilization which alone suffices to insure per- manence in the life of nations. Apart from the commercial spirit which it transmitted to other nations, there was little in its example worthy to live in history. No important remains of a Phoeni- cian literature have been preserved to us,t though that country modified and transmitted to Europe from Egypt the vehicle of all modern literature, — the alphabet. Phoenicia was a nation of shop- keepers. Its morals, religion, official stations, as well as its goods, were for sale to the highest bidder. * May not some of the barbarous features of this theology be traceable to the indefinable, but none the less positive influence of survivals of this earlier theological barbarism ? tThero is, nevertheless, considerable indirect evidence that PhOBiiicia was not without a distinctive and charac- teristic philosophy of indigenous growth and strong Se- mitic peculiarities. Speaking of the Greek and Roman Empires in the centuries immediately preceding the Chris- tian era, Ritter declares, "The wisdom of the Magi, of the Egyptians, and of the Phoenician priests and the Jews soon became famous."— /fistory of Ancient Philosophy, by Dr. Heinrich Ritter. Vol. iv., p. 18. SOCIETY AND RELIGION 61 Conquered by the Romans in the year 64 B.C., its life and civilization were assimilated into the greater life of the Western world, and it ceased to exist as a nation. The Keltic Conimuoities.— The Draids and their Religion. Spain, Gaul, and Britain, nations of Western Europe, were annexed to the Roman Empire during the half-century preceding the advent of Christianity. Spain soon became thoroughly Ro- manized, and remained for many years one of the chief centres of Roman literature and civilization. The Keltic element predominated in its population, as also in Gaul and Ireland. At this period, Spain and Gaul swarmed with Roman burgesses and merchants. It was almost impossible for a native of Gaul to transact a piece of business without the intervention of a Roman. Roman farmers and graziers were busy introducing improved methods of agriculture, — an occupation for which the Keltic peoples had never manifested any fondness. Their principal pursuits were navigation and pas- toral husbandry. They were the first people who regularly navigated the Atlantic Ocean. The inland Kelts, whose domains extended back into the western districts of Switzerland and Germany, were mainly occupied in breeding and rearing domestic animals. They were everywhere a people of rude tastes, and literature and the arts were in a very low state among them. The politi- cal structure of the Keltic communities was that of a loosely compacted confederation, tending to 62 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY feudalism. Its basis was the clan-canton, organ- ized with a governing prince or chief, a council of elders, and a community of freemen capable of bearing arms. All non-combatants were excluded from citizenship. Women were held in so low an estimate that they were ranked with slaves, the laws permitting the torture of these two classes, but prohibiting the torture of freemen. The Keltic priesthood, known as the Druids, united all Gaul and the British Isles in a common religious brotherhood. It constituted a compact organization, the chief of which, a sort of pope, was elected by a convocation of priests, as the pope of Rome is now chosen by the college of cardinals. Priests were exempt from taxation and military service. They held annual councils, and administered a kind of governmental jurisdiction over the people. They were permitted to inflict capital punishment by sacrificing condemned criminals in their religious ceremonies. Bodies of human victims often smoked on the same sacrifi- cial altars with those of beasts. The Druids thus constituted a sort of ecclesiastical state or theoc- racy, and ruled over an unintelligent and believ- ing people similar to the Irish peasants of the pres- ent day. The word "Druid " is derived by the best philologists from two Keltic roots meaning "God- speaking," which indicates a belief in supernatural inspiration similar to that claimed for the Hebrew prophets. The Druidical religion inculcated the worship of one supreme Being, but encouraged also the veneration of fetiches. A sacred fire, kindled with certain religious ceremonials, was reverenced SOCIETY AND KELIGIOX 63 as a symbol of the sun. Circular temples, open at the top to admit the sunlight, were dedicated to the solar deity. Their religious rites were often celebrated in sacred groves of oak. The Druids taught the doctrine of a future life, and a state of rewards and punishments. They professed "to reform morals, secure peace, and encourage goodness." "They assumed," says Caesar, "to discourse of the hidden nature of things, of the extent of the universe and of the earth, of the forms and movements of the stars, and of the power and rule of the gods." They practised astrology, divination, and magic. Relics found among Druidical remains in Ireland are thought to have constituted parts of astronomical instruments designed to illustrate the motion and phases of the moon. A sacred character was ascribed to the oak, mistletoe, hyssop, vervain, and marshwort. These plants were plucked only after ceremonial ablutions and offerings of bread and wine. This primitive religion was supplanted in part by that of the Romans, and subsequently the Keltic populations easily assimilated the forms and doctrines of Latin Christianity, many of which were prefigured in the older faith. Character aud Religion of the Teatonic Peoples. Concerning the Teutonic tribes of Northern Europe, little was known before the time of Caesar. At the commencement of the Christian era, they constituted a horde of semi-barbarous peoples, many of them agriculturists and having some fixed settlements. Their chief occupations, how- 64 A SlUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY ever, were hunting, the care of cattle, and the pur- suit of arms. They were brave and independent by nature, but given to the vices of gambling and intoxication, the evil influences of which largely counteracted the nobler traits which might have raised them earlier out of barbarism. Their population was divided into nobles, free- men, and serfs. The freemen elected their chiefs, whom the Romans often called kings. The Teu- tons held women and aged people in high regard. They honored chastity no less than valor, and presented a picture of domestic life more perfect and beautiful than could be found elsewhere in the Western world. This characteristic, with a robust mentality and ingrained love of personal liberty, were the chief gifts of this people to the civilization of the future ; gifts which led them as naturally and inevitably to Protestant Chris- tianity, and through it to Rationalism, as the characteristics of the Kelts led them to Catholi- cism. "It was the rude barbarians of Germany," says Guizot, "who introduced this sentiment of personal independence, this love of individual liberty, into European civilization; it was un- known among the Romans, it was unknown to the Christian Church, it was unknown in nearly all the civilizations of antiquity." He might have added with truth. It is the most powerful and characteristic element of our modern civilization. The religion of the Teutons was in part devel- oped from the Nature-worship of the primitive Aryan peoples, with an intermixture, apparently, of Semitic or Babylonian elements, an inheritance, SOCIETY AND BELIGION 65 perhaps, from the Turanian tribes, whom they supplanted in Europe. In part, doubtless, it was of later indigenous growth. It was essentially a polytheistic system, including the worship of Odin or Thor, and his consort Fria, or Frigga, Tiu, the heaven-god, corresponding with Zeus, Jupiter, and the Vedic Dyatls-pitar, and many other subordi- nate deities. Priests, bards, and sacred groves were dedicated to this worship. The doctrine of a future life in Walhalla was taught. The gods were considered mortal like human beings, as with the Buddhists. Domestic animals, including horses, and sometimes human victims, were offered as sacrifices. The religion of the Teutons was less influenced by the Pagan cultus of Rome than that of the Kelts, during its transition to Chris- tianity. Besnme and Conclasion. At the advent of Christianity, Greece, through the conquests of Alexander, had already contribu- ted to the civilization of the future her wealth of art, literature, and philosophy, the sum of which is known as Hellenic culture. Rome, under the mighty power of the Caesars, was bestowing upon the Western world the blessing of the most per- fect code of laws which was then in being, and uniting the nations in a common brotherhood of citizenship. Phoenicia had long before communi- cated the commercial spirit to Carthage and to Greece, and through them to Rome, thus bringing distant peoples into closer communion ; a mighty and too little recognized influence in promoting civilization and brotherhood. 66 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHKISTIANITY Rome, with her State religion, — a hollow ecclesi- asticism to the more intelligent, — stood ready, at the demand of self-interest, to dethrone Jupiter, and to pass over the temples of her gods, her images, her festivals, the paraphernalia of her priests, and the title of Pontifex Maximus, then held by Caesar as the head of the Pagan cultus, to that new religion which, through the supremacy of the empire among the nations of the world, was soon to make such mighty strides toward universal dominion. Her sculptured heads of Jupiter were to descend to posterity, rechristened by the name of St. Peter ; and her little god Vati- canus, whose function it was to watch over the first lisping of infants, was to bestow his name upon the Vatican, — the palace of the Christian popes. The great Aryan monotheism of Zoroaster had met in Babylon the great Semitic monotheism of the Hebrew prophets, and, together with some more questionable benefactions, had blessed it with its gift of a belief in a life beyond the grave, and thus prepared the way for one of the leading doctrines of Christianity. The word "Father" as applied to the Supreme Being had entered Juda- ism from that other contact with the Aryan races through the Greeks, and was used by Jewish Rabbis of the century preceding the birth of Jesus. The Hebrew doctrine of the Messiah had taken a new and more personal form under the influence of contemporary Persian notions, and the stimulus of foreign oppression. Millennial expec- tations imported from Babylon were "in the air." SOCIETY AND KELIGIOX 67 The writers of the Book of Daniel and the apoc- ryphal Book of Enoch had applied the term "the Son of Man"— a common designation of the prophets— to designate the coming Messiah. Jon- athan ben Uzziel, a Jewish Rabbi and contempo- rary of Jesus, was interpreting various passages in the Old Testament with the phrase Memra, "the Word," derived probably through Babylon from India. Hillel had abeady proclaimed the "Golden Rule" as the substance and foundation of Judaism. The ancient religion of Egypt was without vitality, but preserved a lingering existence. Some of her gods had passed over to Rome ; the figures of Isis and Horos, and Persephone and lakchos were prefiguring the familiar Christian representation of the Virgin and Child. The Greek gods were emigrating to Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, Gaul, and Spain, as well as to Rome. The Eternal City welcomed the new gods as heartily as she despised them all, both new and old. The recognition of the old gods under new names — the transfer of functions and characteris- tics from one to another— was leading the way through scepticism to monotheism. In Rome, the gods were said to be more numerous than the people. In Athens, every street corner had its statue of a deity. The world was weary of con- flict, unsatisfied with existing philosophies, dis- gusted with priestly arrogance, sophistry, and in- sincerity, but longing for a religion which would proclaim the growing faith in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. From the time of Alexander, war had been the 68 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY most potent civilizer, drawing together the nations, with their diverse civilizations and religions, into a closer unity, to which each contributed its peculiar gift, which the world received and assimilated into its common life. Looking back through the cen- turies over the broad sweep of the entire horizon of this ancient world, above the conflict of arms, the groans of the poor, the dying, and the oppressed, the loud laughter of the Roman augurs at the ab- surdity of their rites, the sneers of sceptical philos- ophy-mongers who believed neither in the gods nor in the moral law, — may we not behold the working of that Power, eternal and invincible, that in all ages makes for righteousness, civili- zation, and brotherhood? Do we not perceive the growing intelligence and virtues of man, triumph- ing over his wrath and wickedness and folly, al- ready building up the better kingdom of the future, — the Kingdom of God on earth, which is also the Republic of Man ? Shall we not see in the peasant child of Galilee the "Son of Man" indeed, — the natural product of his race and time, participating in some of its errors and super- stitions, but ready to speak the vital word for hu- manity fearlessly and unfalteringly, willing to die rather than falter or recant? All the circum- stances of this period point to the conclusion that old uses were outgrown ; a new era was about to dawn in the life of humanity, — the product of easily discernible and perfectly natural causes. A fateful hour had arrived in the history of civiliza- tion, and it did not seek in vain for its man. in. SOURCES OF INFORMATION". Like Zoroaster, Buddha, and the great religious teachers of India, Jesus of Nazareth left no written word. Absorbed in the pressing labors of the moment, anticipating no extended future for the existing order of society, knowing, probably, no language but his native Galilean tongue, his im- passioned appeals, his charming illustrative para- bles, his brief and sententious aphorisms, have been transmitted to us through the medium of oral tradition, collected and put in writing some time after his death. In the extant documents, the original tradition is intermingled with a mythical and legendary accretion of subsequent origin and development, and translated into an alien tongue. We have absolutely no contempo- rary record of the life and teachings of Jesus, either in or out of the writings of the New Testament. £arly Christian liiteratare. — Tiie Story of the mannscripts. The earliest of these writings, in the order of their composition, are the Epistles of Paul. These and the other genuine Epistles of the New Testa- ment and the Apostolic Fathers throw valuable 70 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAXITT light upon the primitive phases of Christian belief ; but, beyond the mere fact that they assume the previous existence and tragical death of Jesus, and give currency to the early tradition of his resurrection, they afford us absolutely no informa- tion concerning him. Paul quotes but once the language of Jesus, — a single phrase in connection with a reference to the commemoration of the last supper: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me." (I. Cor. xi., 25.) For information concerning the life and teach- ings of Jesus, therefore, we are confined exclu- sively to the four Gospels.* Testimony, corrobo- rative of his historical verity, may, as already indicated, be derived from the New Testament Epistles and the writings of the early Christian Fathers, who everywhere assume it as an unques- tioned fact, and also from a few fragmentary allusions in the works of Jewish and Pagan writers in the first and early part of the second centuries. The destructive theory which doubts the existence of Jesus as an historical personage, and regards the gospel stories as entirely mythical, has no support whatever in the history and literature of the early Christian centuries. Of the reasons for the lack of frequent allusions to Jesus by Jewish and Pagan writers of the period, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. ♦Perhaps an exception should also be made in favor of the recently published Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and the extaut fragnieuts of the "Gospel of the Hebrews," ■which are doubtless as old or older than the Gospels, and in general confirm the testimony of the Synoptics. Refer- ence will hereafter be made to these docuuients. SOURCES OF INFOKMATION 71 For testimony concerning the date and reliability of the gospel histories, apart from the internal evidence of the documents, we must depend almost exclusively upon the writings of the early Fathers of the Church, sustained or corrected by such pertinent facts as may be derived from the secular history of the period. We have also certain ex- tant documents, mainly anonymous or pseudony- mous, known as the Apocryphal Gospels* and Epistles, which were regarded as genuine by some portion of the early Christian communities, and which are valuable for comparison with the books of the New Testament. Some of them are doubt- less as old as or older than our canonical Gospels, and they throw considerable light upon the develop- ment of doctrine and the differentiation of heretical sects from the main body of Christian believers dur- ing the earliest Christian centuries. In this lecture, it is proposed to examine the bearings of this lit- erature in all its branches upon the question of our actual information concerning the life and teach- • The names of some of the early Apocryrhal Gospels, as „S writiiiiis of the I; atners, aie «vs 72 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY ings of Jesus and the character of the earliest Christian tradition. A tolerably clear comprehen- sion of this subject appears to be absolutely essen- tial to a true historical estimate of the beginnings of Christianity. Character and Origin of the Four Oospels. The four canonical Gospels are preserved to us in extant manuscripts of the fourth, fifth, and later Christian centuries. All of them were origi- nally written, probably, during the second century of our era. Their authorship is unknown, and, with the possible exception of the Third Gospel, it cannot even be conjectured with reasonable probability. Ren an supposes that Mark and Luke were written in Rome and Matthew in Palestine ; but for these hypotheses we are obliged to rely mainly upon uncertain traditions, sustained or corrected by the known character of the docu- ments themselves. Tradition also asserts that 1 he Fourth Gospel was composed at Ephesus, but it 5. The Gospel of Nicodemus, probably written during the third century; 6. The Gospel of the Egyptians, of very early date; 7. The Gospel of Peter; 8. The Gospel of Paul; 9. The Gospel of Andrew; 10. The Gospel of Apelles ; 11. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. This important docu- ment, recently discovered by Bishop Bryennios in the Greek quarter of Constantinople, in a manuscript of the eleventh century, from internal evidence must be ad- judged as old or older than any of our canonical Gospels. Its Chri-tology is not more developed than that of the Synoptics. It terms Jesui "the servant of (jod," and contains no allusion to the stories of the miraculous birth or to Jesus as the Son of God. i2. The Gospel of Barnn- bas; 13. The Gospel of Basilides, a Gnostic work of the second century; 14. The Gospel of Cerinthus, also a Gnostic writing; 15. The Gospel of the E;>ionites, said to have been written in Aramaic, and sometimes identified with the Gospel of the Hebrews; 16. The Gospel of the Encratites; 17. The Gospel of Eve; 18. The Gospel of Hesychius. These, as well as the most of the following, SOURCES or INFORMATION 73 presents strong internal evidence of Alexandrian origin or influence. Prof. Robertson Smith terms them al] "unapostolic digests of the second cen- tury." In the extant Greek version of the earliest manuscripts, we undoubtedly possess the original form of these documents with but little modifica- tion. There is no probability that any of them were translated entire from the Aramaic or Hebrew languages. Certain memoranda in the Aramaic tongue, however, doubtless existed prior to the composition of our Gospels; and one or more of the so-called Apocryphal Gospels appears to have been written in Aramaic. Among these memoranda, there seems to have been a very early collection of the logia or sayings of Jesus, unac- companied, probably, by any historical data, the compilation of which was currently attributed to the Apostle Matthew. The First Gospel presents strong internal evidence of manufacture or com- position out of several primitive documents, and it is probable that its author incorporated a transla- tion of this early collection of the sayings of Jesus were Gnostic works. 19. The Gospel of Marcion. Some orthodox writers regard this as a mutilated form of our Third Gospel, but it was douhtless of considerably earlier date,— a^ old or older than any of our Gospels. 20. The Gospel of Jude ; 21. The Gospel of Judas Iscariot ; 22. The Gospel of Matthias; 23. The Gospel of Merinthus ; 24. The Gospel according to the Nazarenes; 25. The Gospel of Perfection ; 26. The Gospel of Philip ; 27. The Gospel of Srythianus; 28. The Gospel of Tatian; 29. The Gospel of Thaddeus ; 30. The Gospel of Truth, used by the Valentin- ians, a school of the (xrostics ; 31. The Gospel of Valen- tinus; 32. The Gospel of Life; 33. The Gospel of Longinus. These and other unenumerated Gospels were all certainly in existence before the synod of Laodicea, 365 A.D., "the first Christian assembly at which the canon was made the subject of a special ordinance." Some of them are un- questionably of as early or even of earlier date than any of those subsequently called Canonical. 74 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY nearly or quite entire in his manuscript. Ewald, one of the most acute and thorough of our modern Biblical critics, distinguishes no less than twelve documents which he believes to have been worked up into our Synoptical Gospels. Divergent Traititioas of the Fourth and the Synoptical Oospels. In the first three Gospels, we find many points of agreement, — a general concurrence as to the leading features in the public career of Jesus, and a marked similarity, often amounting to identity, of language, which indicates the common use, in part, of an earlier oral or written tradition. Be- tween the synopsis or concurrent testimony of the first three Gospels and that of the Fourth Gospel, however, there is a divergence so complete as often to amount to irreconcilable opposition. It is im- possible to harmonize the manifest and radical differences of these two traditions. All attempts in this direction involve the greatest violence to the natural dictates of the rational judgment. The Synoptical Gospels represent the public labors of Jesus to have occupied a period of only about one year, giving an account of but a single visit to Jerusalem during his ministry. The Fourth Gospel extends the period of his public ministrations to more than three years, and repre- sents him as frequently travelling back and forth between Galilee and Judea. The synoptics as- sume that nearly all of his miracles were wrought in Galilee, only one or two being assigned to his final visit to Judea. The Fourth Gospel expressly SOURCES OF INFORMATION 75 limits the number of his miracles in Galilee to four, and assigns nearly all the more important ones to the vicinity of Jerusalem. The synoptics assume the prevalence of the belief in obsession or possession by evil spirits among the Jews,-a fact which is abundantly confirmed by extra-Biblical evidence. Many of the miracles of Jesus, as therein reported, consist of the alleged exorcism of these personal demons. The Fourth Gospel hardly contains a reference to this current super- stition, and reports no miracle of this character. The Synoptical Gospels contain no reference to the miraculous transformation of water into wine at Cana of Galilee or to the resurrection of Laza- rus, though these most marvellous of all the wonderful works attributed to Jesus are made the corner-stone and key-stone of the superstructure of the Fourth Gospel narrative. More significant even than these differences is the marked divergence in the reports of the con- versations and teachings of Jesus in the two tra- ditions. The synoptics report his words in brief and forcible aphorisms, illustrated by the apt and striking use of the parable. The style and lan- guage employed are as individual and characteris- tic as those of Shakspere * The chief burden and subject of his discourse is the explanation and illustration of his doctrine of the coming kingdom of heaven. In the Fourth Gospel, he is made to discourse in long, mystical disquisitions, largely • rnmnare for example, the parables of Jesus with those of bSJ or Buddhalhosa, or^with those preserved to us in the Talmud and the Old Testament. 76 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY devoted to the exaltation of his own personality, in style and matter wholly unlike that of the synoptical reports. None of the characteristic parables of the first three Gospels appear in the Fourth, which, indeed, contains no proper example of this allegorical method of teaching. In the synoptics, particularly in the first two Gospels, the Jews appear as the kin and people of the writers, differing only as those who rejected the Messianic claims of Jesus would naturally differ from his disciples and followers. They are represented everywhere with entire naturalness. Their differ- ent sects, customs, and beliefs are truthfully de- scribed, as we know them from independent sources. The Fourth Gospel, on the contrary, is manifestly the product of one who was not himself a Jew. The Jews are spoken of in the third person, as an alien people, and in a contemptuous tone as children of the Evil One. The scribes, Sadducees, and Herodians, so often introduced in the synoptical narratives, do not appear at all in the Fourth Gospel. The natural and human Jesus of the synoptics is displaced by one who seems rather like a ghostly apparition, flitting aimlessly to and fro between Judea and Galilee. He is no longer the "Son of Man," moving naturally among his people, and speaking the language of their daily concern, but the pre-existent Logos, whose human parentage was an illusion, who existed even before the creation of the world, co-eternally with God himself. The representation of God as "our Father" and of all mankind as his children, so characteristic of the humane teaching of Jesua SOURCES OF INFORMATION 77 in the synoptics, is supplanted in the Fourth Gospel by the everywhere intruded assumption of a special and supernatural relationship between Jesus and the Deity. The inclusive "our Father gives place to the exclusive "my Father." Artiflcial Theology of the Foarth Gospel. The theology of the synoptics is natural and simple, though embodying the current anthropo- morphic conceptions of the divine nature. That of the Fourth Gospel, on the contrary, is artificial and dogmatic. Its dualism is especially prominent and characteristic. Jesus, as the divine Logos, wages war against Satan and his emissaries, as Ormuzd against Ahriman in the Persian system. Faith in his supernatural character and mission is essential to salvation instead of conduct only, as in the synoptical tradition. The last supper, in the Fourth Gospel, loses its natural interpretation as the paschal feast of the Jews, and takes on a char- acter which prefigures its subsequent dogmatic importance as a Christian sacrament. To divest it of its Jewish characteristics, it is removed from the day of the paschal feast, the fourteenth of the month Nisan, to the preceding day; and Jesus himself appears as a substitute for the paschal lamb, sacrificed upon the anniversary of the Pass- over, instead of a day later, as represented in the synoptics. There are evidences, also, that tne writer of the Fourth Gospel was even unac- quainted with the topography of Palestine which strongly favors the conclusion that the Apostle John neither wrote nor directly inspired it. 78 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY These considerations, which might be strength- ened by other internal evidence, appear to render it impossible for us to accept the Fourth Gospel as a correct representation of the life, character, or teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth. For a true historical basis, -we must "searcli the Scriptures" of the synoptics ; relying mainly upon that consensus of testimony — those facts, ideas, and traditions which the three writers report in common — known to Biblical students as "The Triple Tradition." I have read with care, and with the respect due to so able and eminent an authority, the defence of the theory of the early appearance and Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel by Prof. Ezra Abbot ; but his arguments, though subtle, refined, and exceedingly ingenious, are insufficient to my mind to explain away these very plain and evi- dent discrepancies between this and the synop- tical tradition. The only portion of the Fourth Gospel narra- tive as presented to us in the accepted version of the New Testament differing from the synop- tics, which instantly appeals to all readers as bearing the impress of the Jesus of the parables and the Sermon on the Mount, is the story of the woman taken in adultery ; and this is known and admitted by the learned revisers of the New Tes- tament to have formed no part of the original ver- sion of this document. It is omitted from the oldest extant manuscripts. It is, however, quoted by early Christian writers from the more primi- tive "Gospel of the Hebrews," and doubtless con- stituted a part of an older tradition than that SOURCES OF INFORMATION 79 originally drawn upon by the writer of the Logos epic* The Patristic liiteratnre and Early Apocryphal Oospels. A correct understanding of the nature of our material for the study of the life and teachings of Jesus necessitates a brief inquiry as to the age and comparative reliability of the gospel narra- tives. The sources of our information in this in- vestigation, in addition to such internal evidence as the documents themselves may furnish, must be sought in the writings of the Christian Fathers of the first three centuries. It is claimed by those who maintain an earlier authorship of the Gospels than the first quarter of the second century that they are recognized and quoted by the earliest non- canonical Christian writers. From a careful study of the patristic literature, however, it becomes evident that the narratives or memoranda thus quoted were never regarded as sacred Scripture in any such sense as were the writings of the Old Testament. It is also clear, upon examination, that the passages referred to are in no instance exact and literal excerpts from any extant manu- scripts of our Gospels. Previous to the last quarter of the second century, moreover, no one of the canonical Gospels is identified in the writings of the Fathers by the titles now prefixed to them : so that, even were the alleged quotations in complete •Renan, speaking of the irreconcilable difference be- tween the Fourth Gospel and the synoptics, declares that he would "stake his future salvation upon it without the slightest hesitation."— iJecoHectioTis of my Youth, by Er- nest Renan. 80 A STUJ)Y OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY agreement, it would be impossible to determine with certainty whether the excerpts were taken from our Gospels or from other documents whose language was in part identical with them. Certain non-canonical writings, on the other hand, were undoubtedly extant, and were quoted by their titles before any of the canonical Gospels were so identified. One of the earliest of these writings was the "Gospel of the Hebrews," frag- jaents of which have been preserved to us in the writings of the Fathers recently collected and col- ated by Dr. Nicholson. The "Gospel of the In- fancy," preserved to us among other of the so- oalled "apocryphal" writings, was also so quoted at a very early period, and was accepted by a Gnostic sect of the second century as of equal authority and authenticity with our Fourth Gospel. Beside the writings of this character which we still pos- sess, many others were doubtless in existence which are now lost. In support of this fact, in- deed, we have the testimony of the New Testa- ment itself. The writer of the Third Grospel declares : "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, . . . it seemed good to me also, having had perfect under- standing of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus." Besides forty or more primitive Gospels, the most of them known to us by their titles, there were also extant at a very early day a vast number of Epistles attributed to the apostles and early Fath- ers of the Church, together with such documents SOURCES OF INFORMATION 81 as the Acts of Peter, the Acts of Paul, the Acts of Andrew, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Reve- lations, respectively, of Peter, Paul, Bartholomew, Cerinthus, Stephen, Thomas, Moses, and Esdras, the sibylline oracles, and the Epistle of Christ to Abgarus, King of Edessa, and the reply thereto. Many of these documents are quoted as genuine and authoritative in the same writings of the Fathers from which are derived the supposed evi- dences of the early existence of our Gospels. Some of them are now known to be spurious. Others are doubtless genuine. A number of these extant writings have been published together as the Apocryphal New Testament, constituting, as affirmed by William Wake, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, "a complete collection of the most primitive antiquity, for about a hundred and fifty years after Christ." Whatever may be the ad- judged value or worthlessness of this extensive lit- erature in other respects, it is important, as testify- ing to the universal belief in the historical verity of Jesus of Nazareth during the earliest Christian centuries. The Probable Age of the Canouical Gospels. In regard to the testimony of the early Fathers of the Church, as bearing upon the probable age of the canonical Gospels, Prof. Davidson * asserts that "Papias (150 A.D.) knew nothing, so far as we can learn, of a New Testament canon He neither felt the want, nor knew the existence, of » The New Testament Canon. By Samuel Davidson, D.D., L.L.D. See also article in Encyclopffioia Bntanmca. 82 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY inspired Gospels. . . . Justin Martyr's canon (150 A.D.), so far as divine authority and inspiration are concerned, was the Old Testament. ... In his time, none of our Gospels had been canonized, not even the synoptics, if, indeed, he knew them all. Oral tradition was the chief fountain of Christian knowledge." Clement of Rome, the earliest of the Christian writers outside of the New Testament, quotes freely and frequently from the Old Testa- ment and from other writings, probably apocry- phal books now lost. His Epistle to the Corin- thians, generally recognized as genuine, contains no quotation from the New Testament. It alludes, however, to certain "words of Jesus, our Lord," which are nowhere to be found in our canonical writings, and which must have been derived from lost Gospels or from oral tradition : "Remember the words of Jesus, our Lord, for he said: Woe unto that man. It were good for him if he had not been born, rather than that he should offend one of mine elect. It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about him, and he cast into the sea, than that he should pervert one of mine elect." * The superficial verbal resemblance of this passage to a familiar New Testament quo- tation, and also its notable variations therefrom, are evident at a glance. The so-called Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, documents of doubt- ful date and authorship, contain no New Testa- ment quotations, or passages claimed to be such. The Apostolic Canons and Constitutions, formerly •The Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians may be found entire in the recently published Christian Literature Primer, No. I., "The Apostolic Fathers." SOURCES OF INFORM Al ION 83 attributed to Clement, are now known to be of much later date, probably as late as the sixth cen- tury. There are several extant versions of epistles ascribed to Ignatius of Antioch, who suffered mar- tyrdom, as alleged, about 116 A.D. They are, however, of doubtful authenticity. The shorter and more probably genuine collection contains a few quotations which bear some resemblance to New Testament passages ; but the language is not wholly identical with that of the Gospels, and no claim is made by the author that they are quoted therefrom. The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philip- pians, generally conceded to be genuine, contains numerous passages which conservative apologists regard as quotations from the canonical Gospels. In every instance, however, there are obvious devi- ations from the New Testament phraseology. A few instances will enable the reader to compare and judge for himself : — "Judge not, that ye be not judged ; forgive, and it shall be forgiven you ; be pitiful, that ye may be pitied; for with the measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again "Not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for rail- ing. . . . "Blessed are the poor, and they that are perse- cuted for righteousness' sake ; for theirs is the king- dom of God." These passages, like those contained in the first chapter of the recently published Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, present satisfactory evidence of the existence of a very early tradition, in many 84 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY respects similar to that embodied in our Gospels ; but the manifest differences in language, together with the fact that they are nowhere referred to the books of the New Testament, forbid us to receive them as quotations therefrom. Justin, who suffered martyrdom in the year 167 A.D., evidently knew nothing of our Gospels, though he quotes from certain Memoirs of the Apostles, of uncertain authorship and contents. The only genealogy of Jesus which he recognizes is traced through the Virgin Mary, whereas the genealogies of Matthew and Luke are both traced through Joseph. The only writing of the New Testament certainly identified by him is the Apoc- alypse, which he attributes to "a certain man whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied by a revelation made to him." Unlike Papias, however, and the earlier Fathers, whose reliance was placed mainly on oral tradition, Justin evidently depends upon writings which he deems authoritative, and which con- tained much that our Gospels present, in a slightly modified form. His account of the occasion of the alleged birth of Jesus in Bethlehem agrees, in the main, with that of the Third Gospel, and ig- nores the totally irreconcilable tradition of the First Gospel. It differs from Luke, however, in representing Jesus to have been born in "a cave near the village," instead of in a manger near the inn in Bethlehem. This tradition is also preserved in some of the Apocryphal Gospels, but in none of those declared canonical. A comparison of many parallel passages from the writings of Justin and SOURCES OF INFORMATION 85 our Gospels, made by the author of Supernatural Religion, demonstrates that Justin's version is almost always the terser and more abbreviated, which indicates that he drew probably from a more primitive tradition than that of the canoni- cal Gospels.* In the writings of Hegisippus, a contemporary of Justin, there are a few similar verbal resemblances to the language of the New Testament. In no instance, however, is there absolute identity of expression. Papias, bishop of Hieropolis, in Phrygia, during the first half of the second century, who died about 167 A.D., aud who wrote, probably, about the middle of the century, was the first to mention a tradition that Mark and Matthew composed accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus. We have already quoted the opinion of Dr. Davidson that he knew nothing of inspired Gospels or of a New Testament canon. It is evident also, from his descriptions, that he could not have known our First and Second Gospels as at present consti- tuted. The writing of Mark, as described by him, was an Ebionitic document, more like the pseudo-Clementine Homilies than like our Gospel ; and that of Matthew he asserts to have been written in Aramaic, whereas the original of our First Gospel was undoubtedly written in Greek. The writing known to Papias was probably the Logia, or record of the teachings of Jesus, ascribed * Dr. Ezra Abbot argues learnedly that our 0-ospels, and especially the Fourth, were known to Justin Martyr. His arguments, however, do not appear conclusive. The nu- merous alleged resemblances to the Fourth Gospel in Jus- tin's writings are more reasonably accounted for on the supposition of bis acquaintance wiih the writings of I'hiio. 86 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY to Matthew, or some similar primitive document which may have served as the basis, in part, of our First Gospel. Papias placed little reliance on these writings, whatever they may have been. "I held," he says, "that what was to be derived from books did not profit me as that from the living and abiding voice." The limits of this discussion forbid a detailed examination of all the passages which throw light upon the questions of the age and authenticity of the canonical Gospels. The author of Supernat- ural Religion, whose treatment of this subject is most thorough and exhaustive, and whose facts have never been successfully impugned, has placed side by side, in the original Greek, all the excerpts from the writings of the Fathers supposed to bear upon this question, with the corresponding New Testament passages. We may safely adopt, as our own, his conclusions : "After having exhausted the literature and testimony bearing on the point, we have not found a single distinct trace of any one of those Gospels during the first century and a half after the birth of Jesus. Only once during the whole of that period do we find any tradition even that any one of our Evangelists composed any gospel at all, and that tradition, so far from favoring our synoptics, is fatal to the claims of the First and the Second. . . . There is no other reference during the period to any writing of Matthew or Mark, and no mention at all of any writing ascribed to Luke. . . . Any argument for the mere existence of our synoptics, based upon their supposed rejection by heretical leaders or SOURCES OF INFORMATIOX b7 Beets, has the inevitable disadvantage that the very testimony which would show their existence would oppose their authenticity. There is no evi- dence of their use, however, by heretical leaders, and no direct reference to them by any writer, heretical or orthodox." The Earliest References to the Four Oospels. Irenseus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul from 178 to 200 A.D., was the real founder of the Christian canon. He was the first to use our four Gospels exclusively. He also accepted the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul (rejecting Hebrews), the first Epistle of John, and the Apocalypse. Some of the remaining books of the New Testament he published in an appendix as of less authority, and some he ignored entirely. Irenseus thus explains why he accepted the four Gospels and no others : — "It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four quarters of the earth in which we live and four universal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the 'pillar and ground' of the Church is the gospel and the spirit of life, it is fitting that she should have four pillars breathing out immortality on everv side and vivifying men afresh. . . . There- fore, the Gospels are in accord with these things. . . . For the living creatures are quadriform, and the gospel is quadriform. . . . These things being so, all who destroy the form of the gospel are vain, unlearned, and audacious, — those, I mean, 88 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY who represent the aspects of the gospel as being either more in number than as aforesaid, or, on the other hand, fewer." The argument is cer- tainly a remarkable, if not a convincing, one I The Canon of Muratori, of uncertain date, but believed by conservative scholars to have been contemporary with the writings of Irenseus, also recognizes the four Gospels, and no others. Clem- ent of Alexandria, TertuUian, and the Christian writers of the third century generally did likewise, though they differed greatly among themselves as to the authenticity of other books afterward pro- nounced canonical. The four Gospels are also found in the ancient Syriac version of the New Testament, known as the Peshito, which Dr. Ezra Abbot* assigns to the latter part of the second century ; and they were probably current in North Africa about this time, as is evidenced by their ex- istence in the old Latin version. The genuineness of the Fourth Gospel, however, was still denied by a considerable section of the Christian Church, who are mentioned, and of course condemned, by Ire- naeus and other writers for their heresy. Epipha- nius calls them, in contempt, 'Aloyoi, — a term which has the double meaning of "deniers of the Logos" and "men without reason." The rational conclusion upon the whole matter appears to be that the four canonical Gospels became generally recognized as exclusively authoritative * Dr. Abbot quotes approvingly from Norton's Genuine- ness of tlie Gospels tho opinion tliat at least sixty thousand copies of our Gospela were extant during the lasr, quarter of the second century ; but, since not a single copy of thij period has descended to us, we may safely regard the opin- ion as baseless and extravagant. SOURCES OF INFORMATION 89 in orthodox circles during the last quarter of the second century. Though we have no positive evidence of their existence before this time, it is reasonable to presume that they were compiled, and existed pretty nearly in their present shape, some years previous to their general acceptance, having originally been used by different and widely separated communities, and, therefore, on account of their local use and origin, not being generally known. At the same time, there were other Gospels, some of them of earlier origin, which were similarly regarded as authoritative by certain sections of the Church, though neither these nor our canonical Gospels were at first looked upon as sacred or inspired writings like the Old Testament, or even as of equal value with oral tradition. None of them probably existed during the lifetime of any of the Apostles, nor can be traced with certainty to their personal influence or inspiration. From the general consent of the tradition pre- served in the first three Gospels, and its agree- ment, in the main, with the information trans- mitted to us from other sources, such as the primitive Gospel of the Hebrews and the Teach- ing of the Twelve Apostles, we may conclude that the main features of the picture of the life and teachings of Jesus which they present to us, when freed from its evident mythical accretions, may be accepted as historically trustworthy. The numer- ous though minor differences in the synoptical narratives which forbid the conception of collusion between their authors, and the consequent rational 90 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHBISTIANITT probability that they originated in diverse locali- ties, and reported a generally prevalent and uni- versally accepted tradition, renders them in the main reliable, though anonymous, witnesses. Yet we must admit, in all candor, with a recent able writer,* that we cannot affirm, with absolute certainty, of any single word attributed to Jesus that he spoke it exactly as recorded. With the author of The Cradle of the Christ, we may recog- nize the fact that the features of the historical Jesus have been so obscured by legendary accre- tions, which enter into the popular evangelical conception of the ideal Christ, that it is a problem for the nicest and most accurate critical analysis to separate the one from the other, and thereby reveal the truth of history. Fortunately, however, the accurate scholarship of the present generation has furnished us with a rational clew to the legen- dary labyrinth of the Gospels. The TestimoniT of Joseptina anal the Pagan Elia- torians. Of contemporaneous references to Jesus, as has been remarked, there exists not a single one. Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing at about the close of the first century, possibly alludes to him in a passage where he is reported as referring to "James, the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ." The longer passage, written in the tone of a Christian believer, in strong contrast with every other portion of the writings of Josephus, is now admitted by all candid critics, whether of the *Rev. John W. Chadwick, in The Bible of To day. SOURCES OF INFORMATION 91 orthodox or the liberal faith, to be an interpola- tion. Josephus, however, gives us an interesting account of the character, preaching, and death of John the Baptist in passages of unquestioned authenticity, tending to confirm the impressions of that remarkable man obtained from the glimpses of him afforded by the gospel narratives, and thus, indirectly, to confirm the general truth of the Christian tradition. The earliest references to Jesus in the writings of the Roman historians date from the early part of the second century, and are exceedingly brief and unsatisfactory, tending only to confirm the facts of his existence and of his tragical death. Suetonius alludes to him as "one Chrestus, a Jew, who stirred up tumults in Rome" at the time of the Emperor Claudius. A longer passage from Tacitus,* of doubtful authenticity, but generally accepted as genuine by Christian historians, adds but little to our information, and is valuable only as confirmation of the general belief of the period in the existence of Jesus as an historical personage. The younger Pliny, about 104 A.D., writes from Bithynia, of which province he was the Roman governor, an interesting account of the Christians who resided in that neighborhood, but adds noth- ing to our knowledge of the life and work of We must turn then to the Synoptical Gospels as • Tacitus 8Deak8 of the Jews as a people "without relig- ion "nnd regards Christianity as exitiabilis superstiHo,- "'TraiseribTe^superstition.". &e says that Jesns wa, <.ex^ cuted, in the reign of Tiberias, by the procurator, Pontius •piintA " thus conflrmins the gospel narrative. Jne'speaks of Christranity asprova et immodica super- stitw. 92 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHKISTIANITY our only reliable source of information concerning the religion of Jesus. We may recognize the probability that the author of the Fourth Gospel built up his doctrinal system around an extant local tradition of the life of Jesus, differing in some respects from that of the synoptics, and in others confirming the testimony of the first three Gospels. The additional features, however, which constitute the main part of this Gospel, for reasons already given, we cannot regard as trustworthy. To the Epistles of Paul, we may go for a history of the remarkable development of doctrine and expansion of the universalizing tendencies in the new religion which occurred under his leadership and inspiration, to the Apostolic Fathers for the succeeding phase of the growing faith, and to the Christian writers, the Gnostics, and the con- temporary pagan historians and scholars of later periods, for its subsequent development. The Relative Age and Tendencies of the Can«iii« cat Oospels. Concerning the relative age, purport, and relia- bility of the Gospels, widely different views have prevailed in the past, and still prevail, among Biblical scholars. The most rational conclusion appears to be that which regards Mark, our Second Gospel, as the earliest in composition, Matthew the second, and, but little later in time, Luke the third, and John, or the Fourth Gospel, the last in the order of time. Those critics who consider that the exaltation of the personality of Jesus, and the more frequent use of the term, "the Son SOURCES OF INFORMATION 93 of God," ia Mark, indicate a later development of Christology, would place Matthew before Mark in chronological order, as does Keim.* Those who regard Luke as merely an expansion of Marcion's Gospel would place the Third Gospel before either Mark or Matthew. This view is adopted by Waite, Keeler, and other recent liberal writers. The arguments in favor of the priority of Mark, presented by Dr. E. A. Abbott, the writer of the article on the Gospels in the Encyclopaedia Bri- tannica, by Renan, and other able and competent critics, appear to me, however, to be conclusive and unanswerable. Dr. Abbott regards this view as the most satisfactorily demonstrated proposition in New Testament controversy. The principal reasons for accepting the priority of Mark may thus be briefly stated : — 1. Its style is more crude and primitive than that of either of the other canonical Gospels. Its Greek is more corrupt. It reports certain of the sayings of Jesus in the original Aramaic in which they were spoken. It was written probably by a Jewish Christian, of no great pretensions to schol- arship, but familiar with both the Greek and the Aramaic languages. 2. It is the shortest and least systematic in its arrangement of all the biographies of Jesus. It contains only twenty-four verses not also found in Matthew and Luke. This would naturally be the fact, if the last-named Gospels were written later, using either Mark, or the material from which * The History of Jesus of Nazara, by Prof. Theodor Keim, — one of the most valuable and interesting historical studies of the New Testament period. 94 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Mark was compiled, as a basis. The later writers would naturally use much of the material of the ear- lier, adding to it such facts or modifications of these original statements as they should deem important. 3. Luke and Mark contain matter in common which is not found in Matthew ; Matthew and Mark also contain matter in common not found in Luke ; but Matthew and Luke contain no matter in common which is not also found in a slightly modified form in Mark. This condition of affairs is hardly explainable upon any theory save that of the priority of Mark. 4. The supernatural element is less developed in Mark than in either of the other Gospels. The stories of the miraculous birth are wholly wanting, and also the story of the resurrection and ascen- sion ; the final verses of the concluding chapter not being found in the earliest manuscripts, and being, doubtless, a later addition by a different author. 5. The term "Son of God," as applied to Jesus in the Second Grospel, is not, as some assume, an evidence of developed Christology, but the con- trary. It was the common designation of the members of the "kingdom of God," the regener- ate Jewish state. It is used in this natural sense in the Fourth Gospel, in some of the Epistles, and in early Hebrew writings.* "The genesis of Jesus as Son of God," says Prof. Allen, "precedes his genesis as the Messiah of the Jews." f •Notably, in the writings of Philo, of earlier date than any of the New Testament literature. ^Christian History, by Joseph Henry Allen, Professor in Cornell University, late lecturer in the Harvard Divinity School. SOURCES OF INFORMATION 95 The Gospels are all what are known to scholars as "tendency writings" ; that is to say, they have each some ulterior motive and object beyond that of making a clear and succinct statement of his- torical truth. Thus, the writer of Mark aims, above all, to exalt and magnify the human per- sonality of Jesus. The tradition which refers its authorship to a personal follower of the Apostle Peter is significant and not improbable. Its char- acter is such as we would naturally anticipate, if inspired by contact with o^e who had seen and known the Master. The writer of the First Gospel (Matthew) aims to present Jesus in the character of the Messiah of the Jews, fulfilling the alleged Messianic proph- ecies of the Old Testament. Its style of compo- sition is less natural and more mechanical than that of Mark. It presents distinct evidences of manufacture, and the free use of older documents which are apparently wrought into its structure with little alteration. Some of them even embody contradictory traditions, as the genealogy of Jesus, which names Joseph as his father, and the incon- sistent birth-story of the early chapters. The short sentences and aphorisms scattered through the Second and Third Gospels are collected into the "Sermon on the Mount," in Matthew. The story of the birth of Jesus and the reports of his public career are arranged with special reference to the fulfilment of Messianic prophecies. The author of the Third Gospel presents Jesus as the Saviour of both Jews and Gentiles, empha- sizing his relation toward the latter. He traces the 96 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY genealogy of Jesus not only to Abraham, the father of the Hebrews, as in Matthew, but back of him to Adam, the father of the human race. He also re- lates the story of the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman and the parable of the good Samaritan, illustrative of the universal or Pauline tendency of this Gospel. He makes Jesus send out not only the twelve apostles to the twelve tribes of Israel, as in Mark and in Matthew, but also seventy others, to every nation of the earth. The style of the Third Gospel is more finished and elegant, and its contents are more orderly in their arrangement than either the First or the Second. The writer of the Fourth Gospel presents Jesus as the eternally existent, incarnate Logos, the maker of the world, and its supernatural re- deemer. To this end, he omits the birth-stories as unnecessary to his purpose, and completely subordinates historical accuracy. A ghostly ap- parition, exalting his own spiritual office and su- pernatural power, and placing supreme emphasis on dogmatic statements of truth, takes the place of the living man, calling his fellow-men to salva- tion through righteousness. In their quotations from the Old Testament, the gospel writers most frequently make use of the Sep- tuagint version, as would be natural in a Greek writ- ing. Mark and Matthew, however, sometimes vary from the renderings of the Septuagint, making, ap- parently, a direct translation from some extant Aramaic version of the Scriptures, either oral or written. Mark's renderings of Scriptural passages are freer and less literal than those of Matthew. SOURCES OF INFORMATION 97 Bearing in mind the nature of these, our only sources of information concerning the life and teachings of the Nazarene Prophet, we will at- tempt hereafter to draw therefrom a just and true conception of his work, his doctrine, and his per- sonality. If, haply, beneath the legendary accre- tions of an unscientific age and an uncritical people, through the false lights of a tendency lit- erature, the composition of which was instigated by other aims than that of historical accuracy, we shall nevertheless be able to discover the feat- ures of a man in all respects like unto such as we are, but with a soul on fire with a righteous and unselfish purpose to elevate and save his fellow- men,— then, in the satisfaction and encouragement of this discovery, we need not repine at the vanish- ing of a god. IV. THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE RE- LIGION OF JESUS. It is our purpose, in this and the succeeding lecture, to give as clear and distinct a presentation as possible of the salient points in the life and teachings of Jesus. As has already been fore- shadowed, our chief, I may almost say our sole, reliance will be placed upon the Synoptic Gospels, especially upon that consensus of statement known as the Triple Tradition. Next to that, we shall accept as most reliable the separate statements of Mark and Matthew, and, after them, of Luke. The Fourth Gospel will be deemed of value to us only in so far as it confirms the synoptical tradi- tion in certain particulars, and also in so far as it throws light upon the question of the natural growth of Christian doctrine, and of the mythical and miraculous legends which gathered around the human life of the founder of Christianity, as they have also gathered around and partially obscured the lives of other religious teachers. Omitting this portion of our subject for the pres- ent for separate treatment hereafter, all that we really know of the life of Jesus and of his theo- logical beliefs may be briefly sketched. THE RELIGION OF JESUS 99 Unhisterical and Unreliable Character of the Birth 8toriea. Of his early history, our informatioQ is extremely limited. He was born, doubtless, in Nazareth,* a small hillside town in Galilee, from three to eight years before the first year of our era, as at present improperly reckoned. Herod the Great died about four years before the commencement of the Chris- tian era; and, if the tradition, which assigns the birth of Jesus to his reign, can be deemed reliable, the question of his earlier birth is definitely set- tled. The exact year, however, or time of the year, is absolutely unknown. The earlier tradi- tion fixed the spring as the season of his birth. The final acceptance of the 25th of December, some centuries later, grew out of the substitution of the Christian festivities for the Roman Satur- nalia and Mithraic festivals, which occurred at the period of the winter solstice, and celebrated the triumph of the god of light in the growing day. This day had long been known among the Romans as dies natalis solis invicti, — the birthday of the conquering sun. The stories of the birth in Bethlehem are mu- tually contradictory and irreconcilable. They are not even mentioned in Mark, the oldest of the Gospels, or in the Fourth Gospel. They are alluded to nowhere in the other Gospels except in the contradictory accounts of the opening chapters. Matthew t states that the family of Joseph first ♦Mark; i., 9, 24; vi., 4; x., 47; xiv., 67; xvl., 6; Matt.: iv., 13; xxi., 11 ; xxvi., 71 ; Luke : iv., 16, 23, 24; xviii., 37; xxiii., 6, 7 ; xxiv., 19 ; Johu : i., 45, 46 ; Iv., 44 ; xix., 19, etc t Chapter ii. 100 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY lived in Bethlehem of Judea, fled to Egypt to avoid the massacre of infants ordered by King Herod, and on their return thence chose Nazareth in Galilee as their home, from fear of Archelaus, the son and successor of Herod. Luke,* on the contrary, represents them as dwelling originally in Nazareth, and going to Bethlehem, the home of their ancestors, to be enrolled for taxation. He knows nothing of the journey into Egypt reported by Matthew. There is no historical evidence of any enrolment or assessment of taxes at the time alleged by Luke, or of any custom which required families to be enrolled at the home of their ances- tors instead of their own dwelling-place.f The only assessment of which we have any information occurring near this period took place ten or more years subsequent to the death of Herod, and not until after the deposition of Archelaus. The massacre of the children is also a wholly unhis- torical and improbable legend. Josephus, who willingly records everything which bears against the character of Herod, knows nothing of this occurrence. Similar stories are related of Krishna, one of the avatars or incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu, of Moses, the Hebrew law-giver, and of Sargon, an Akkadian king, — all probably ref- erable to current solar mythologies for their explanations. The legend of the birth in Bethle- hem grew, probably, out of a misrepresentation of a passage in Micah (v., 2), erroneously supposed to be a prophecy of the Messiah. * Chapter ii. ., _ t See Josephus and later Jewish historians. Also Kenan, Vie de Jisus, etc. THE RELIGION OF JESUS 101 The Parentage and Ancestry of Jeans. The parents of Jesus were Joseph and Mary * humble Galilean peasants. Except in the contra- dictory legends of Matthew and Luke, and in the still more extravagant and incredible stones of the Apocryphal Gospels, we have no confirmation of any contemporary belief in the miraculous birth of a virgin. This story conflicts with the genealo- gies contained in these early chapters of the First and Third Gospels, which trace the lineage of Jesus through Joseph as his natural father. The Nazarenes, or Ebionites.-a very early sect of Jewish Christians, who numbered among them- selves the descendants of the family of Jesus,— rejected this legend, which doubtless grew out of the misinterpretation of an Old Testament text.f Joseph and Mary probably had a considerable family of children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus,t— a fact frequently recognized by the Evangelists, and also by the writers of the Apoc- ryphal Gospels. James, the brother of Jesus, subsequently became a recognized leader of the Nazarenes, or Jewish sect of Christians. Some early writers suppose Joseph to have been_ a widower with children before his marriage with Mary; others, that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were all younger than himself. But these suppositions are wholly conjectural: we really know nothin g in regard to the matter. -^MattTI^^ „eans tisaiali vn ,14. '■"^j'r.rrhf, tpxt has really no ^iessi- ^iSSn;rcao?eTrTe?ereBce''to'any^even^'1n\he remote fumre.^ See Ku^nen, Bible for Learners, etc. tM.aikvi.,3, etc. 102 A STUDY OF riUMITIYE CHRISTIAJJITY We have no reliable evidence that Jesus bore any relationship to David or the royal line of Israel. His birth and residence in Galilee, out of the region allotted to the tribe to which David and Solomon belouged, would tend to discredit this tradition, which doubtless grew up after the r6le of the Jewish Messiah had been assigned to Jesus. In the Triple Tradition, indeed, he appears expressly to disclaim this ancestry, arguing in favor of his own Messianic pretensions that, since David called the Messiah his Lord, he could not therefore be his son or descendant.* nis Early liife and Occnpatious. The father of Jesus was a carpenter ; and early traditions, both of the canonical and Apocryphal Gospels, represent Jesus as working with him at his trade.f With the single exception of the story of his contest with the rabbis in the temple, recorded in the Third Gospel, J which reminds us of a similar legend in the life of Buddha, we have absolutely no reliable tradition of his early life. The early maturity of Jewish youth makes this legend not wholly improbable, though it would appear more reasonable to assign the locality of the occurrence, if it ever happened, to some Gali- lean synagogue, rather than to the temple at Jerusalem. At the synagogue and the schools connected therewith, Jesus was doubtless in- structed in the Law and the Prophets, according to the uncritical methods of interpretation then in ♦Mark xii., 35-37; Matt, xxii., 41-46; Luke xx., 41-44, t Mark vi., 3, etc. t Luke ii., 41-52. THE RELIGION OF JESUS 103 vogue; and here also he may have learned some- thing of the disputations of the rabbis of the different Pharisaical schools. There is no evi- dence, however, that he received any general or secular education, or that he knew any language save his native Syro-Chaldaic tongue. The Relations of Jesus ^ith Joha the Baptist. The oldest Gospel opens with a brief account of his conversion and baptism by John the Baptist, an episode in his life which is confirmed in the triple tradition, as well as by the character of his subsequent teaching, and may be accepted as his- torical* The stories of the Third Gospel con- cerning the birth of John the Baptist, and the assumption of his relationship to Jesus,t must, however, be rejected,-not merely because of their miraculous implications, but because they are irrec- oncilable with the more reliable account of the later relations of John and Jesus contained in the synoptics. The tradition that John recognized Jesus at the time of his baptism as one greater than himself-as the Messiah of the JewsJ-is wholly discredited by the consenting testimony of the synoptical writers. If these legends had had any foundation in fact, John, when in prison, would never have had occasion to send his dis- ciples to Jesus with the question, "Art thou he who should come, or do we look for another?" § We must believe that Jesus was profoundly im- pressed by the teaching of this re markable man . §Matt. xi., 2-6; Luke vi., 18-23. 104 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY His impassioned exhortations to repentance, his announcement of the speedy coming of the Mes- sianic kingdom, his stern denunciation of the Phar- isees and Sadducees as "a generation of vipers," his condemnation of riches and extortion, his advocacy of a simple communistic life, are all notably characteristic of the subsequent life and public teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth.* His initiation to discipleship by the ceremony of immersion, preceded by a confession of sins, to which Jesus himself submitted, though not admin- istered thereafter to others by the founder of Chris- tianity, was adopted by his disciples, and became a solemn rite of the earliest Christian commu- nities.f The public career of Jesus, according to the sy- noptical writers, lasted only about one year. The Fourth Gospel would extend this period to more than three years; but, brief as the former time appears, we have no rational option but to accept the necessary inference from the consenting ac- counts of the synoptics. It is of the theological or religious aspect of his teaching during this short period of his public labors that we propose now to treat, leaving its social and ethical phases for subsequent consideration. The Story of the Temptation. We may infer from the legend of the temptar tion that Jesus withdrew into the wilderness after his baptism, as was the custom of the Essenes, the • Matt, iii., 7-12; Luke iii., 7-18. t Mark i., 4 ; Luke iii., 3, et seq. THE RELIGION OF JESUS 105 disciples of John the Baptist, the Buddhist monks, and Hindu ascetics, for a period of fasting and solitary meditation. That he should there be tempted "of Satan," and ministered unto by angels, as briefly reported by ^lark,* Tras quite in concur- rence with the popular beliefs of his time and peo- ple. This general and indefinite statement of the oldest Gospd, confined to two brief verses, is ex- panded into the long and circi^stantial accounts of the contest between Jesus and the devil, in eleven verses of Matthew and thirteen of Luke.f wherein the enemy and Saviour of mankind are made to quote Scripture at each other with the facility of modern antagonistic sectarians, the only evident point of superiority lying in the fact that Jesus has the last word, and his antagonist retires discomfited. The growth of the longer and less natural version of the story out of a possible and natural fact introductory to his career as a public teacher, and its consequent legendary and uahis- torical character, are too reasonable and apparent to require more than the simple statement of the record in confirmation thereof. It is natural to suppose that the contact of Jesus with the Baptist, and his subsequent solitary med- itations, greatly intensified certain convictions and impulses which had long been growing within him. His belief in the speedy coming of the heavenly kingdom— an event everywhere anticipated in the synoptics as about to occur in the then living gen- eration-dominated his thought and controlled his life thereafter. It involved the curre nt concep- • Mark i., 12, 13. tMatt. iv., 1-11; Luke iv., 1-13. 106 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY tion, — derived, probably, from the Persian popular belief, — that the old order of things was to pass speedily away, the world was to be renovated by fire, and a new and eternal kingdom was to be established, wherein the just would live forever in perfect security and happiness. God himself, the "heavenly Father," would be the ruler of this heav- enly kingdom. The Messiah, or Deliverer, would sit at his right hand and render judgment to all mankind according to the deserts of their past lives. Jlewiah Conception of t3ie Character of God. The conception of the Deity popularly held among the Jews at the time of Jesus was still strongly anthropomorphic, though less grossly so than that which we find exemplified in the earlier writings of the Old Testament. The harsher ele- ments in the character of Yahweh had been modi- fied, and the conception of his nature broadened and spiritualized by the experiences of the Jews during and subsequent to the Babylonian captivity. Doubtless, something of this result is due to the exalted spiritual conception of Ahura-Mazda held by the Persians, and perhaps also in some degree, though less evidently, to the broadening and lib- eralizing influence of Hellenic culture. The stern, jealous, tribal God of the Old Testament, resem- bling an Oriental despot in his character and deal- ings with men, had given place to one who was the God of all the earth, the Father of his chosen people, and, through their exaltation and suprem- acy among the nations, some time to be recognized THE RELIGION OF JESUS lOT as the Father and Ruler of the world. In its lof- tiest phase, as illustrated in the teachings of the later prophets and the more enlightened of the rabbis, the highest service of this heavenly Father was made to consist, not in sacrifice or ceremonial, but in the doing of righteousness. Jesnsi' Doctrine o« the Hearenly Father. More fully than any of his contemporaries did Jesus inherit the spirit and sublime ethical pur- pose of the prophets. He regarded the Pharisaic formalism of the times as superficial and displeas- ing to the heavenly Father, and sought to bring his people to the heavenly kingdom by stimulating them to live righteous and true lives. He believed firmly in the special, watchful providence of God. Yahweh, in his thought, had a loving, personal care over all his children. Not even a sparrow could fall to the ground without his notice. He dealt blessings upon all with an even hand. Ha made his sun to rise upon the evU and upon the good alike : he sent his rain upon the just and upon the unjust. Whatever of estrangement there was between men and the heavenly Father was due, therefore, not to the harshness and severity of his government, but solely to the wickedness or wilful perversity of man. The Character and Efficacy of Prarcr. The God of Jesus is omniscient, knowing all human needs without man's solicitation. Yet he delights to bear and answer the prayer of faith. Whatever is asked of him in a childlike and sub- 108 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY missive spirit, iu a spirit of utter self-abnegation and trust, he will grant, though it involve such a physical miracle as the removal of a mountain. Yet, though Jesus held this perfect faith that the Father would answer the sincere prayer of a trust- ful heart, the long prayers of the Pharisees in the synagogues and public places, their "much speak- ing" and "vain repetition," were held by him in abhorrence. It was only upon the importunity of his disciples that he consented to give them that simple formula for supplication known to us as "the Lord's Prayer." Even this was not to be used in public or formal repetition. The disciples were commanded to retire into their closets, to pray in secret, that the Father who seeth in secret might reward them openly.* This habit of complete privacy in prayer, which he commended to his disciples, was evidently in accordance with his own consistent practice. He sent away his disciples, and "departed into a moun- tain" to pray. He knelt alone in the wilderness and in desert places ; and only iu a few short ejac- ulations, drawn from him as in the agony of cruci- fixion, do we find him giving utterance to suppli- cations to God in the presence of others, f The differentiation of modern Christianity from the re- ligion of Jesus is in no respect more notable than in its universal custom of formal praying at set times and in public places. ♦Matt, vi., 5-15; compare Luke xi., 1-13, etc. See also Mark xi., 22-26. tMark: vi., 46; x.iv., 32-40; Matt, xxvi., 36-45; Luke : ix., 18; xxii., 41^5, etc. THE RELIGIOX OF JESUS 109 The Unitarianism of Jesus. In his thought of God there is nothing of poly- theistic or trinitarian implication. He accepted fully the lofty Unitarianism* of the Hebrew law- giver from whom he quotes, "Hear, O Israel, the Eternal our God, the Eternal is one." To this high and lofty One, merciful as well as just, all- seeing, caring for the humblest of his creatures, was due the love of the whole heart of man, his child. The conception of himself or of another as a Son of God in any exclusive or supernatural sense, of a God coming upon earth in human form, would have been as abhorrent and unnatural^ to Jesus as it has ever been to his people. The trini- tarian dogma is a belief as impossible to the true Israelite as any other form of polytheism or idola- try. In its later Christian development, it is a purely Aryan philosophical conception, and entered Christianity from other than Jewish sources. In this respect, there is no reason to believe that Jesus was anything but a Hebrew of the Hebrews, _"an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile. God alone is good, he said, rejecting the appella- tion "Good Master." Yet he held up the perfec- tions of the divine character as a model and ex- ample for human endeavor in that most exigent and lofty exhortation to noble living,— "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect." Jeans' Moctrine of the Future liife. The thought of Jesus concerning God, however, " . It need scarcely be said that we use this word with no narrow or sectarian meaning. 110 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY has another side than this attractive and winning one, — the side of inexorable justice and severity toward the wrong-doer, which is involved in his conception of the future life. The modern doc- trine of a spiritual immortality for all men is nowhere explicitly taught by him; nor does he anywhere definitely describe the state of the right- eous after death. We are left to infer his belief from the character of his allegorical descriptions, and from information elsewhere derived of the current conception of his time and people. His kingdom of heaven was evidently an earthly kingdom, — no far-away abode of the sublimated spirit apart from material conditions, no misty Nirvana like that of the Buddhists. Accepting the current Pharisaic notion of a future life upon the earth, involving the conception of a bodily resurrection, he believed not only in the establish- ment of the heavenly kingdom, with its joys in- effable for the righteous, but also, if we may accept the record, in the eternal punishment of the unrepentant sinner in the fires of Gehenna. Nay, more. He taught that the few only were destined for salvation and happiness. The many would "depart into everlasting punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels." The dread abode of the wicked is sometimes characterized as "eternal fire," sometimes as "outer darkness," in which there would be "weeping and gnashing of teeth."* These expressions, similar to those which we find in the later Egyptian inscriptions, descriptive of * Matt, xviii., 8, 9 ; Mark ix., 45, 46 ; compare Luke xvi., 19-27 ; also Matt.: xx.. 16 ; xxii., 13, 14; xxiii., 34; xxv., 30, 41^6, etc. THE KELIGION OF JESUS 111 the place of future punishment, may possibly be regarded as strong figures to describe a condition of torment which would otherwise be inconceiv- able, though they appear to have been interpreted very literally by the early disciples and Fathers of the , Church. The physical character of his entire conception of the life hereafter, moreover, would appear to discredit this more lenient inter- pretation. Whatever the exact nature of the future state of the wicked might be, it was evidently one of conscious, unlimited suffering in the thought of Jesus. I would willingly accept, if it were possible, the ingenious explanation of our Universalist friends, who interpret the teaching of Jesus as to the duration of this suffering as mean- ing "age-long," or for the length of an aeon,— a long, indefinite, but limited period,— but this mod- ification of the terrible sentence of the wicked from the mouth of Jesus rests solely upon the doubtful interpretation of a word in a language which he neither wrote nor spoke. In the absence of any explicit doctrine of ultimate restoration, and in view of the general consensus of opinion in the Church in all ages of the world, the Univer- salist interpretation scarcely appears rational or acceptable. The salvation of men, however, in the teaching of Jesus, depended upon the acceptance of no dogmatic standard of truth, but solely upon right- eous living. "Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye can in no wise enter into the kingdom." "This do" not tJiis believe, "and ye shall be saved." 112 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Herein, Jesus stood upon both Jewish and rational ground ; for it is the teaching of the highest ethical philosophy of the present day, as well as of Israel's prophets, that supreme happiness is possible only to those who "cease to do evil, and learn to do well." The popular Christian doctrine of a vicarious atonement and substituted righteous- ness has no place either in the teachings of the Nazarene prophet or in the ethics of Kant or Spencer. Jesns' Belief in Demoniacal Influences. Together with the doctrine of eternal punish- ment, Jesus also accepted the current superstitions of the existence of a personal devil, and of the possibility of possession or obsession by evil spir- its. The word "devil" is doubtless of Aryan ori- gin. It is not found in the Old Testament. The devil of the later Judaism was identified with the Hebrew Shethan, or Satan, a mythical personage who first appears in Job as one among the "sons of God," a trusted messenger and servant of Yahweh. From his early character of adversary or accuser, a sort of prosecuting attorney of Yah- weh's court, he had fallen, under the influence of the Persian dualism, to the position of an arch- enemy of God and man. His prototype, Set or Setb, in the Egyptian mythology, experienced a similar deterioration after the Persian conquest of Egypt. The alleged facts which have been held to jus- tify the belief in demoniacal possession, which the Jews brought with them from Babylon, doubtless THE RELIGION OF JESUS 113 find their ratioaal explanation in the phenomena common to certain nervous disorders, such as epi- lepsy and hysteria, which prevail in a more aggra- vated form among a rude, ignorant, and supersti- tious population than under more favorable social conditions. It is this class of disorders which is especially susceptible to the influence of a power- ful will, or that little comprehended but very posi- tive agency popularly known as hypnotism, or "animal magnetism." We shall treat this subject hereafter in our discussion of the mythical and miraculous elements in the gospel narratives. It is suflacient at present merely to allude to these facts as the probable natural basis for the belief honestly held by Jesus and many of his contem- poraries in demoniacal influences, and in the effi- cacy of his own power for their cure or amelio- ration. The Kelation of Jeans to the Cnrreut Messianic Expectation. In the earlier part of the public career of Jesus, he appears to have been moved solely by the pro- found necessity imposed upon him by the belief in the speedy advent of the heavenly kingdom, and by his perception that the masses of his people were totally unprepared for this great change. He took up the message of John the Baptist, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and preached it to the common people, the despised "people of the land," who, neglected by the more rigorous Phari- saic teachers, appealed strongly to the sympathetic nature of the Galilean prophet. Such as these 114 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY eagerly listened to his teaching, and "heard his message gladly." By parable and apt illustration, he described his vision of the heavenly kingdom, and impressed upon his hearers the duty of in- stant preparation in view of the immanence of the great change. He appears to have had little thought at first of the Messianic expectation as being fulfilled in his own person. He was the prophet of the heavenly kingdom, — the "Son of God," which meant simply the faithful citizen and messenger of God's kingdom. The people, however, full of the hope for a com- ing deliverer, impressed by the earnestness of his appeals, the depth and purity of his moral nature, his strong, magnetic personality, soon hailed him as the Messiah. The thought grew upon him. What if he was indeed the chosen one of Israel, the "anointed of Yahweh," the immediate herald of the coming change? When the populace greeted him as the Son of David, in accordance with the popular expectation that the Messiah would spring from the royal line of Israel, he at first questions his disciples : "But whom say ye that I am?" Upon their recognition of him as the Messiah, he does not indeed directly repel the honor, but cautions them that they tell no man oi this thing. A little later, we find that the idea has taken full possession of him ; for we discover him arguing in favor of his own Messianic pretensions that the Messiah cannot be the "Son of David," since David calls him his Lord or Master. At the time of his final journey to Jerusalem, he has become fully convinced of his Messianic THE RELIGION OF JESUS 115 mission. He accepts the plaudits of the people during his triumphal entry into the city, and his subsequent bearing before and during his trial and crucifixion likewise attests the sincerity of his be- lief. It is not impossible that he expected some miraculous interposition to prevent the final catas- trophe, as would be indicated, apparently, by the despairing cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mark, who coai3S nearer to the primitive tradition than either of the other evan- gelists, reports this and certain other notable ex- pressions of Jesus in his native Syro-Chaldaic tongue. This agonized expression, so natural and human, but so unlike the supernatural Jesus of the Fourth Gospel and our popular Christian concep- tion, could hardly have crept into the gospel nar- rative, unless it had some foundation in the actual occurrence. The writer of the First Gospel con- firms the tradition of Mark ; but Luke, illustrating an advanced development of Christology, omits this human cry of almost despairing agony, and substitutes for it the calm acceptance of the inevi- table in the final words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The still less natural and more dramatic writer of the Logos epic makes Jesus die with the dignity and supernatural endurance of a God, fully self-conscious to the last, and deliber- ately conforming his actions on the cross to the fulfilment of Scripture : — "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a ves- sel full of vinegar ; and they filled a sponge with 116 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to hia mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished ; and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." Coiiclnditig Thoughts. In this lecture, we have attempted, fairly, with no bias of preconceived opinions, to set forth the leading features in the teaching of Jesus on its theological side, as reported in the Synoptical Gos- pels. While recognizing the fine humanity of his doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the pro- found sincerity of all his beliefs, there is evidently much in this teaching which the liberal and cult- ured thought of modern times has forever dis- carded, much that bears the impress of a primi- tive and ignorant age and of a narrow and restricted intellectual environment. For us there is no encompassing host of demons, no personal prince of evil, no bodily resurrection, no eternal kingdom of immortals to be established upon the earth. If we still hold to the fatherhood and per- sonality of God, it is in quite a different sense from that embodied in the simple, anthropomor- phic conception of Jesus. The Messianic doctrine of the Jews is to us a beautiful dream, which the Prophet of Nazareth did not fully realize either according to the popular expectation or his own more spiritual interpretation. Not in any of these theological conceptions do we find the secret of the influence of Jesus upon the life and thought of later generations. In this brief review, we have discovered no strik- THE RELIGION OF JESUS 117 ing deviation in the thought of Jesus £rom the current beliefs of his time and people. Herein, at least, there are none of the distinctive features of the peculiar philosophy of Buddhism,— no hint of Hindu agnosticism or of the doctrine of the Nir- vana as the summum bonum of human aspiration. The entire atmosphere of the primitive tradition of the synoptics, after eliminating such of its supernatural and mythological elements as are not confirmed by the consent of the three writers, is Hebrew, and Hebrew only. The Prophet of Nazareth moves naturally in the Palestine of eigh- teen centuries ago: he breathes its peculiar relig- ious and social atmosphere, and incarnates its lof- tiest moral and personal characteristics. Though transcending the ritualistic formalism of his time and the traditional limitations of his national religion, we may, nevertheless, repeat as a truth of history his own judgment of his relation to the law and religion of his people,— He came not to antagonize or to destroy, but to fulfil. V. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE RELIGION OF JESUS. Jeans' Doctrine of the Kingdom of Ilearen. The religion of Jesus would by no means be adequately viewed or comprehended in its entirety, if regard were had only to its technically religious or theological aspect. Beside its Godward look, its attitude toward the current suparnaturalism of the time, its relations of consent or negation toward the ancient faith of his people, it had also its manward look, its ethical and social side. In entering upon a consideration of this phase of the thought and teaching of the Galilean prophet, we would completely fail to understand it, to give its several precepts their proper force and correct in- terpretation, if we neglected again, and even more clearly and emphatically than heretofore, to strike the key-note of his entire system of thought, as it is revealed to us in his doctrine of the kingdom of heaven and its speedy advent. In his general conception of the heavenly king- dom as a new spiritual and social order to be established on the earth, with the will of the heav- enly Father for its sole and perfect law, with all SOCIAL ASPECTS 119 evil and hurtful couditions completely overcome and destroyed ; the necessity for toil obviated by the constant production of all necessary articles of food through the spontaneous fruitfulness of the regenerated earth; the cessation of war and con- flict; the destruction even of death itself by the complete eradication of sin through which death had come into the world,— Jesus did not appar- ently differ from many of the earnest and faithful followers of Judaism in his generation, among the different sects of the Pharisees and the "people of the land." Pictures of this "good time coming" were drawn from the older prophets, and exag- gerated by the glowing imagination of the hope- ful and faithful representatives of the faith of Israel. "It shall come to pass at the end of days that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be estab- lished on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it. And many nations shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke among many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."* • Isaiah ii., 2-4. 120 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY In the writings of the rabbis, we find wonderful pictures of this heavenly kingdom. Wild animals are to become tame and harmless, "the lion and the lamb shall lie down together" ; immense bunches of grapes are to burden the vines ; springs of living water are to burst from the barren rock, as under the rod of Moses, at the desire of whosoever may thirst ; and life is to be a continual round of "de- light in the law of the Lord." There are many evidences, outside the New Testament, that this expectation was held by the early Christians as well as by the Jews. Irenseus, writing during the latter part of the second century, declares that Papias, an earlier Christian writer, quotes from the memoirs of the apostles, as genuine words of Jesus, this saying: "The day shall come when each vine shall grow with ten thousand boughs, each bough with ten thousand branches, each branch with ten thousand twigs, each twig with ten thousand bunches, each bunch with ten thou- sand grapes, each grape shall yield twenty five measures of wine." The Speedy Advent of the Heareuly Kingdom. The special thought of Jesus, that wherein he differed from many of the Jews around him, that which impelled him to his prophetic labor and which dominated and gave color to his ethical sys- tem, was the profound conviction that this great change was "at hand." * It was coming now, — in this generation. "There be some standing here which shall not taste death till they have seen the *Marki.,15; Matt, iii., 2, etc. SOCIAL ASPECTS 121 kingdom of God come with power." Such is the assurance of Jesus as preserved in the oldest gos- pel.* "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." . . . "So likewise ye, when ve shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." These are the words of Jesus as reported by Matthew.f This is the concurrent testimony of all the synoptical writers in many similar texts, derived incontestably from the prim- itive tradition out of which they drew their mate- rials for the biographies of the Galilean prophet. No teaching in the New Testament is so plainly presented or so frequently reiterated as this. It is inconceivable that these assurances should have entered into the gospel narratives, unless Jesus really uttered them ; for no writer of after times, desiring to present the claims of Jesus as an in- fallible teacher, could possibly have invented and referred to him these unfulfilled promises and pro- phetic utterances which by no possibility could ever be fulfilled, since the time plainly set for their accomplishment had already long since passed away. These assurances of Jesus are at once the proof of his reality as an historical personage and of his human fallibility and liability to error, — a fact of the most striking significance.^ •Mark ix., 1. t Matt, xvi., 28 ; xxiv., 33, 34; xxiii., 36, etc. Compare Luke ix., 27; x., U ; xii., 40; xxi., 8. 32, etc. tThe current orthodox claim of the fulfilment of these prophecies in the alleged phenomena of the "day of Pen- tecost" is wholly unsatisfactory. Apart from the want of evidence sufficient to establish the historical verity at these phenomena, they in no manner fulfil the condition! 122 A STUDY OF PlilJIITIVE CHRISTIANirT The Kiiigdoui of Heaven described iu Parables* Believing thus in the speedy advent of the heavenly kingdom, and perceiving the blindness and unpreparedness of his people, the overmaster- ing desire of Jesus was to arouse them from their apathy, and induce them to make clean their lives iu preparation for the new life which awaited the "sons of God," — the children of the kingdom. To those who heard him willingly and accepted some- thing of his message, he explained the nature of this new life in apt and beautiful allegories. In the parable of the Sower,* he thus taught that the preparation for the coming kingdom was an in- ward process, an ethical regeneration of the soul, and not merely an external obedience to the precepts of the law.f In the parable of the mus- tard seed,t he presented the hopeful assurance that the acceptance of the kingdom, "in spirit and in truth," by a few humble believers, would ulti- mately result in the world's regeneration. In the parable of the tares, § he assured his disciples that the faithful doers of the word, though few in number, would be preferred to the many whc carelessly neglected or wilfully rejected his warn- ings. In the allegories of the treasure hidden in of the advent of the heavenly kingdom ns set forth in the prophecies. The belief in the second advent of Christ as an event yet to occur, which his been common in all ages of the Christian Church, testifies to the admission of theo- logians that the New Testament prophecies are yet unful- filled, but fails to take cognizance of thvit clear and vital element in the prophecies which limits the period of tbeir accomplishment to the then living generation. •Matt, xiii , 3-23; Mark iv., 3-15; Luke viii., 6-15. t Compare Luke xvii.. 20, 21. $Matt. xiii., 31, 32; Mark iv., 30-32; Luke xiii., 18, 19. §Matt. xiu., 24-30, 36-43. SOCIAL ASPECTS 123 the field and of the "pearl of great price,"* he solemnly impressed his belief that all else was as nothing compared with the necessity of "seeking first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness." In the parable of the householder,! he held out the merciful assurance that even late repentance and return to righteous living would secure all the rewards of the kingdom, in which "the first should be last, and the last first." In the parable of the nobleman and the servants,:}: he illustrated the truth that the faithful laborer should be abun- dantly rewarded, while he who perceived the truth without laboring to spread it should be surely punished. Jesns mot a Zealot. — Sis Doctriae of Noa-ISesist- ance. Jesus taught that the best preparation for the coming kingdom was to commence now to live as nearly as possible the ideal life of the sons of God. The time was short before the great change would take place : therefore, it was better to bear the ills of the present life with patience and without phys- ical resistance rather than increase them by foment- ing insurrection against the "powers that be," thus bringing down upon his followers the persecution and oppression of the government. This thought appears to lie at the foundation of his teaching iu regard to the non-resistance of evil. "Resist not evil," he said. "If any man smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if * Matt, xiii., 44-46. t Matt, xx., 1-16. J Luke xix., 11-27. 124 A STUDY OF PRlittlTIVE CHRISTIANITY any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also."* He for- bade his disciples to take with them either gold or staves in their journeys.f When his enemies sought to entrap him by asking whether it were lawful to render tribute unto Caesar, he pointed to the emperor's image and superscription on the current coin of the empire, and said, "Render unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, but unto God the things that are God's." J In assuming this attitude toward the existing gov- ernment, he at once thwarted the machinations of his more active and violent enemies, who sought to identify him with the party of the Kanaim, or Zealots, — who taught the duty of resisting taxa- tion and abjuring the authority of the Romans, — and disappointed his more literal and patriotic followers, who believed that the Messiah, in his own person, would lead the faithful of Israel to overthrow and destroy the oppressor by force of arms, and thus re-establish the kingdom of the house of David. JTesns' Coiuuinitislic Teaching. — His Gxaltatiou o£ Povert}'. As the kingdom of heaven was to constitute a sort of ideal community, where all would be equal before the heavenly Father, it appears also that Jesus and his disciples attempted to realize this social ideal in their intercourse with the world and *Matt. v., 38^1; Luke vi., 27-35. tSo Matt. X., 10, and Luke ix., 3. Mark, on the con- trary, contains an express command to take a stafE with thera(V[ark vi.,8). J Matt, xxii., 17-22; Mark xii., 13-17; Luke xx., 21-26. SOCIAL ASPECTS 126 with each other. It seems to have been a condi- tion of discipleship that the true believer should relinquish his individual property, and hold all things in common with his brethren. One of the disciples was therefore appointed the treasurer, or custodian of their common fund.* Not only com- munity of interest, but the blessedness of poverty appears to have been explicitly taught by the Galilean prophet. To the rich young man who had fulfilled the entire law in its spirit, loving God and dealing justly with his fellow-man from his youth up, he still further commanded that he should sell all that he possessed, and give the proceeds thereof to the poor, before he could be accounted a true disciple.f Jesus was not alone among his people in his abhorrence of riches and exaltation of poverty. The long conflicts of the Jews with foreign ene- mies, the destruction and spoliation of their cities and their sacred temple, and the later period of lawless violence during the reign of Herod, seem to have given rise among them to two diverse ways of regarding poverty and riches. Those who dwelt in the larger towns and cities — the artisans, tradesmen, and inheritors of the priestly office and its emoluments — became very frugal and saving, careful to obtain the greatest possible advantage in bargain and trade. Of this class were the sellers of doves and changers of money in the court of the temple, whom Jesus in his indigna- tion is said to have driven out with a whip of •So John xiii., 29, followiDg a generally current tsraf dition. t Matt, xix., 16-22 ; Mark x., 17-22 ; Luke xviii., 18-24. 126 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY small cords. Others, however, accepted their pov- erty as the righteous appointment of God, to rebel against which was impiety. Certain religious en- thusiasts, particularly among the Galilean peas- ants who believed in the speedy advent of the heavenly kingdom, taught that it was wrong to accumulate property, and that all in excess of one's personal needs should be given to the poor. In the Jerusalem Talmud is preserved an account of Rabbi Jeshobeb, a contemporary of Jesus, who gave all his property to the poor. For so doing, he was reproved by the celebrated teacher, Gama- liel, at whose feet Paul sat.* Less than a century later, this improvident mania had become so prevalent that a convention of rabbis, held at Usha, a town of upper Galilee, decreed that no one should bestow upon the poor more than one-fifth of all he possessed.! The Essenes and disciples of John the Baptist despised riches, commanded alms-giving and the equal dis- tribution or communistic possession of property. These sects, as well as Jesus and his disciples, believed that the poor would enjoy special privi- leges in the heavenly kingdom. Ingenious at- tempts have been made by Christian commenta- tors to soften or explain away the saying of Jesus : "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."t They have even gone so far as to invent a Greek word, Kafiikog, defined as a heavy ♦Jerusalem Talmud, tract Peah, 15, b. t Babylonian Talmud, tract Kethuboth, 50, a; drachin, 28, a. See alf=o Reiian, Vie de J^siis, p. 169, ff. tMarkx., 25; Matt, xix., 24; Luke xviii., 25. SOCIAL ASPECTS 127 cord or rope, thus suggesting difficulty, but not impossibility, in the salvation of the rich. The word, however, is spurious, being found nowhere outside the fertile imaginations of its originators. The "needle's eye" has also been explained as the designation of a low gate in the city walls of Jerusalem, through which a camel could only pass by kneeling and being stripped of its load, the proverb being thus robbed of its terrors, and made to convey only the trite suggestion of the impossi- bility of taking worldly riches into the life beyond the grave. As a matter of fact, however, Jesus in this say- ing merely quoted or adapted a common Semitic proverb, which is found in a slightly altered form in the Talmud and the Koran as well as in the New Testament.* That his own interpretation was very literal appears not only from his admo- nition of the rich young man, but also in the par- able of Lazarus and the rich man : the former of whom reposes after death in the bosom of Abra- ham, for no virtue, so far as we know, save his poverty ; while the latter is suffering the torments of unquenchable fire, for no reason, so far as we know, save his riches.f In the parable of the wedding feast, also, Jesus appears to have taught that only the poor could inherit the heavenly kingdom.^ He pronounced blessings upon the poor and curses upon the rich.§ He commended his disciples to "lend, hoping for *See Babylonian Talmud, tract Bera Koth,55,h; Baba metsia, 30, h. Koran, Sura vii., 38. t Luke xvi., 19-26. t Matt, xxii., 1-11. Compare Lake xiv., 12-14, 1&-24. § Luke vi., 20, 24, 25. 128 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIiVNITY nothing in return." He forbade them to "lay up treasures upon the earth." He bade them "take no thought of the morrow," but live from day to day like the lilies of the field "which toil not." * He ordered them to make no provision for their journeys, but to solicit alms everywhere among those who would receive them, and to shake off the dust of their feet against that house which should refuse to entertain them.f He declared plainly the impossibility of at once serving God and Mammon.J The attempts to soften, discredit, or explain away these explicit teachings of Jesus, whUe their obvious relation to his belief in the speedy advent of the heavenly kingdom, constituting their only rational explanation, is overlooked or ignored, have been both ingenious and amusing. They stand, however, as certainly reflecting the thought of the Master as anything recorded in the New Testament. The earliest communities of Jewish Christians accepted these doctrines ; and their successors derived from them the designation of "Ebionites," from the Hebrew Ebionim, "the poor," — a designation which came to be regarded as synonymous with the terms "saint" and "friend of God." The Pessimism of Jesus. — His Xiewa of mar- riage and the Family. It would appear from all these considerations that Jesus' view of existing society was essentially * Matt, vi., 19-21, 28-32 ; Luke xii., 27-34. t Matt. X., 8-15 ; Mark vi., 8-11 ; Luke ix., 3-5. % Matt, vi., 24. SOCIAL ASPECTS 129 pessimistic. The present and natural social order he regarded as not worth saving. Its inevitable burdens were to be endured while they must, in hope that patient endurance would speedily work out "a more exceeding weight of glory." In reference to the domestic relations, Jesus ex- hibited the same tendencies of thought and feel- ing which he manifested toward society in general. He declared that in the heavenly kingdom there would be "neither marrying nor giving in mar- riage." * Endeavoring to conform himself to this ideal condition in the midst of the existing order, he formed no family relations himself. He even withdrew from the companionship of his father's family, and declared that his true disciples, fol- lowing his example, must "forsake father and mother, brother and sister, husband and wife," and devote themselves wholly to preparation for the coming kingdom. His true relations, he de- clared, were his disciples and foUowers.f Yet we are not to suppose that his thought and action herein were occasioned by any deficiency of the natural affections. His love for little children was not the manifestation of a disposition natu- rally cold or ascetic. Of such, he declared, was the kingdom of God. "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child," he affirmed, "he shall not eater therein." X He took little chil- *Matt. xxii.,30; Mark xii.,25; Luke xx., U5. According to another text (Matt, xix., lC-12), he even countenanced self-mutilation as an alternative to marriage. t Matt, viii., 21, 22; x., 34-38; xix., 29; xii., 46-50; Mark X., 29,30; iii., 31-35; Luke ix., 59-62; xiv., 26; xvlii., 29, 30; Viii., 19-26. $Mark X., 15; Luke xviii., 17. 130 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITT dreu in his arms and blessed them, rebuking his disciples when they would prevent their mothers from bringing them into his presence.* "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones," was his command to his followers. He appears to have regarded children as representatives of that purity and simplicity of character and that sin- cerity of faith and trust which he deemed essential to the members of the ideal community of the heavenly kingdom. The relations o£ Jesus with his disciples, and with those families who received and entertained him, appear to have been always friendly and social. In this respect, certainly, he was no as- cetic. He dined with Pharisees and Publicans alike,t and was even accused by his enemies of being "gluttonous and a wine-bibber." Herein, he resembled neither the Essenes nor the disciples of the Baptist, who, like the Nazarites of old, were total abstainers, and lived on the most spare and frugal diet. His views of the sacredness of the marriage relation, regarded as a necessary accompaniment of the existing social order, were of the most exi- gent character. He forbade divorce save for the single cause of adultery; J but he also defined adultery as the inward desire of the heart, which, if admitted literally as a sufficient cause for di- vorce, would perhaps open the doors as widely as is desired by any of our modern social reformers.§ *Matt. xix., 13-16; Mark x., 13, 14, 16; Luke xviii., 15, 16. tMatt. ix., 10-17; xi., 18, 19; Luke vii., 33, 34, 36. JMatt. xix., 3-9. § Compare Mark x., 2-12. In tbia older and perhaps more SOCIAL ASPECTS 131 Doubtless, his doctrine of divorce, also, can only be rightly estimated as it is related to his belief in the speedy coming of the heavenly kingdom. Bis Views of Education aud Ijabor. Jesus nowhere commends education or the sys- tematic cultivation of the mind. Literary or scien- tific attainments formed no part of his own per- sonal equipment, nor did he conceive of them as necessary or valuable to others. They were not an essential part of the preparation for the kingdom of the future, wherein all useful knowledges would arise in the mind spontaneously by a divine intu- ition. Opposing the acquisition of property, and ad- juring his disciples to live as the lilies which toil not, he naturally refrained from any explicit rec- ognition of the necessity, importance, and honor- ableness of labor. Incidentally, indeed, he de- clared that "the laborer is worthy of his hire," *— a principle which, carried to its logical conclusion, would conflict radically with every system of ser- vile labor. Yet he nowhere expressly recognizes, either in approval or condemnation, the existing iustitution of chattel slavery, — an institution which, in the subsequent evolution of society, became a constantly aggravated social evil. Had he given reliable version, the prohibition of divorce is absolute, not even adultery or fornication being recosrmzed as a legiti- mate cause for divorcement. This would of course deprive the above suggestion of all force or pertinency. •Luke x.,7. Tne connection, however, implies only the enunciation of the right of the disciplfis to food and lodg- ing—the bare necessities of life— whi:e they were prose- cuting their missionary labors. 132 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY it a thought, doubtless, like the apostle who re- turned the fugitive Onesimus, he would have deemed it better to endure the evil for a time with- out protest rather than to interfere directly with a social order which was so soon to pass away. The Ethical Teaching of Jesns. The ethical teaching of Jesus finds its highest illustration in the Golden Rule and the collection of aphorisms, beatitudes, and allegorical sayings known as the Sermon on the Mount.* Perfection in practical righteousness is herein held up as the end and object of all human endeavors. Happi- ness and misery, here and hereafter, are declared to depend upon the character and actions of the individual.f By these he will be judged and known, as the tree is known by its fruit.J The teachers of religion are to be tested, not by their professions, but by their practical works ; and the people are warned against "false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, while inwardly they are as ravening wolves." Everywhere, the inward motive and purpose of the heart is regarded as the supreme test of char- acter rather than outward observance or appear- ance. It is not the act alone, but the sinful thought which constitutes adultery.§ Not he alone who kills, but he who is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment. || Gifts placed upon the altar wnile anger is in the heart are of no avail. "First be reconciled to thy • Matt. v.-Tii. t Matt, vii., 16, 2t , etc. t Matt, vil., 15-20. § Matt. T., 28. U Matt, v., 22. SOCIAL ASPECTS 133 brother, then come and offer thy gift."* The formality of an oath adds nothing to the simple majesty of the truth. "Let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."t Alms given in the sight of men possess no saving virtue. "When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. I say unto you. They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth : that thine alms may be in secret : and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." t A like secrecy, as we have seen, was commanded in prayer, as it was also in f asting.§ The honest scorn of pretence and hypocrisy which characterizes the teaching of Jesus, his virile denunciation of evil in high places,— of the scribes and Pharisees, who sit on the high seats in the synagogues and devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers, || —is little like the conventional meek and lowly Saviour of the current emasculated Orthodoxy of the present day, but resembles rather the lofty courage and fearless preaching of the ancient prophets, or the plain- speaking of the American Abolitionists, and justi- fies the fine conception of Thomas Hughes of the "manliness" of Jesus. Yet on his tenderer side, as illustrated in the beatitudes and many of the parables, there is a • Matt, v., 23, 24. t Matt, v., 33-37. _ t Matt. vi.. 1^. 5 Matt. Ti.l 6, 6, 16-18. II Matt. xxiu. ; Luke xi., 37-M. 134 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY felicity of presentation, a gentle persuasiveness and "sweet reasonableness," which must have been most winning and attractive. It contrasts strongly with the dry, metaphysical reasoning of the philosophers, appealing only to a few culti- vated intellects, or with the sublimated mysti- cism of the Brahmanical schools; and no less strongly with the hair-splitting logic and dog- matic appeal to traditional technicalities of the contemporary rabbis. Jesus was no philosopher ; his simple idealism was free from the mysticism of the schools; he propounded no logical or deeply reasoned system of belief. He accepted the crude cosmogonical and cosmological notions of his time and nation without question. He taught the simple, strong, natural morality of an exception- ally fine ethical nature, fed by the nourishing stimulus of the Hebrew prophets. He did not stop to argue the question with his hearers : his vital words were spoken with the straightforward earnestness of one who stood upon the firm foun- dation of assured inner conviction. "He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." His Doctrine of the Forsirenesa of Sins* Upon one point only, besides his belief in future punishment, he appears to have been in concur- rence with the dogmatic statements of modern Orthodoxy: he accepted, apparently, the current Jewish doctrine of the divine forgiveness and re- mission of sins,* — the natural and humane ac- *See Ex. xxxii., 32; Ps. Ixxviii., 38; xcix., 8; ciii., 3; Jer. XXXI., 34; Isa. xxxiii., 34; Dan. ix., 9, etc. SOCIAL ASPECTS 135 companiment of an arbitrary system of morality, based upon alleged revealed commandments of the Deity. To this he added the belief that this power of forgiving sins and cancelling the natural results thereof was committed by the Father to the Messiah, or " Son of Man," as his duly ap- pointed representative or servant * This doctrine, however, in his mind, did not descend to the gross- ness of the modern theory of a vicarious atone- ment. The forgiveness of sins was conditioned, not upon the acceptance of any dogmatic belief or the substitution of an innocent victim for the guilty, but solely upon repentance,— an inner moral change in the direction of righteous living, attested and assured by the free and full forgive- ness of their enemies on the part of the sinners.f medera Criticisms upon the Ethical System of Jesas. The ethical teachings of Jesus have been criti- cised from two quite different stand-points, which may be distinguished as the practical and the ideal. On the one hand, it is affirmed that his moral in- structions are unpractical and impossible to apply to the affairs of our every-day life, because they are too exclusively altruistic. Modern society, it is claimed, could not exist, if we were to leave evil unresisted, if we were to turn the other cheek to the smiter after having been once unjustly stricken, if we were to give our cloak unasked to • Matt, ix., 1-6, etc.; Mark iii., 29. rMatt. vi., 12, 14, 15; Luke vi., 37; xvii., 3, ». 136 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY the beggar who had demanded and received our coat or to the thief who had stolen it. It appears quite evident, however, from our pre- vious consideration of these questions that this extreme altruism was not intended for application during a long continuance of the natural social order. It is due almost wholly to the erroneous belief of Jesus that the present order of society was to endure but for a day ; that a new, divine, and eternal order was soon to be established in its place. Had he looked forward to what we may now look back upon, — to many centuries of con- tinuance under the old social order, to a natural evolution in human affairs instead of the super- natural revolution which he anticipated, — his teach- ing might, and doubtless would, have been greatly modified in some of these particulars. Nevertheless, we have reason to be profoundly grateful for the vision of a perfect social order which is suggested by these ideal conceptions of the Prophet of Nazareth. It is by such visions as these that the world is lifted up and led onward to higher planes of thought and life. Like a rift in the clouds through which the sunlight streams, they gladden the hearts of men with the promise of diviner possibilities in the life that now is. In our way, we also may look forward to a higher order of human society to be established upon the earth. Each and all of us may in some manner so live as to hasten the period of its fulfilment. We, too, may pray with the disciples of the Nazarene that the kingdom of God may come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. SOCIAL ASPECTS 137 Prof. Francis W. Newman and other able writ- ers have criticised the ethical appeals of Jesus from quite another stand-point,— because they are not sufficiently altruistic in their foundation. It is affirmed by this class of critics that they are almost universally based upon self-interest instead of a desire to benefit society as a whole or to do right because it is right. Even the Gk)lden Rule, it is alleged, would measure the love for the neighbor by the love for self. The beatitudes are each accompanied by some promise of selfish reward,— the offered attainment of some future happiness. The entire moral system of Jesus rests upon the accompanying assurance of eternal happiness in the heavenly kingdom for the workers of right- eousness, and the co-ordinate threat of eternal misery for those who in this life fail to accept the conditions of salvation. The most recent attempts to establish morality upon an assured scientific basis, however, recog- nize the necessity of giving due weight to the egoistic as well as the altruistic side of human action. An extreme and unqualified altruism would defeat the rational end of all moral action by speedily destroying the life or health of the agent. Action without regard to ends, ultimate or immediate, is everywhere properly regarded as irrational; and action which does not have expUc- itly in view the ultimate happiness of all, includ- ing the actor, can only be regarded as moral when, by previous analysis and comparison, we have been enabled to subsume all moral actions under a universal law which has been proved to result in 138 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY the security of universal happiness, and we are therefore impelled to obey the law without regard to its special or ultimate consequences.* To no such profound philosophical view of morals, however, had the prophet of Nazareth attained. His ethical appeals were direct, simple, personal, devoted to the production of immediate results. Viewed broadly, except as they were af- fected by the erroneous expectation of the speedy coming of the heavenly kingdom, they do not suffer or lack in impressiveness, as tested by the rigid rules of an abstract moral philosophy. The ethical element was everywhere dominant in the religion of Jesus. His "heavenly Father" was a moral ideal personified, — a conception not inferior, but superior to that of the Hebrew prophets and law-givers. God to him was still, and ever more supremely, the "Eternal, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness." The test of morality was at once and inseparably theocratic and utilitarian: the two ends were in no wise differentiated in his thought. To do right was alike conceived as per- fect obedience to the divine will and as the means of securing happiness among men. The Religioa of Jesus as related to Judaism. "What, finally, was the relation of the religion of Jesus to Judaism and its system of morals as enunciated in the Thorah? This question can *See Spencer's Dnta of Ethics, Savage's Morals of Evo- lution, Prof. EverRtt'3 essay oa "The New Morality," etc. See also John Stuart Mill, Autobiography. Mr. Mill even lays down the principle that the greatest happiness cannot be attained when it is consciously made an end and object of pursuit. SOCIAL ASPECTS 139 hardly be answered more satisfactorily than in the language of one of the most lucid and rational critics of the gospel literature, Ferdinand Chris- tian Baur * "Jesus," he says, "declared at the outset that he was not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and might thus appear to have taken up an entirely affirma- tive position toward the Old Testament. It might be said that the difference between the teaching of Jesus and the law, or the Old Testament, was not one of quality, but of quantity. On this view, no new principle is advanced in his teaching : all that is done is to widen the application of the moral precepts which the law contained, and assert their authority over the whole extent of the moral sphere to which they are capable of referring. That is given back to the law which should never have been taken away from it. The law is de- clared to be capable of expansion in its meaning and its range of application, and this is said to be done. "This interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount appeals to the fact that, in the further discussion of the subject, individual injunctions of the law are taken up, and each of them brought back to the original meaning of the law or interpreted in a sense which satisfies the moral consciousness. But, though there is no enunciation of a general principle which is to apply to all cases alike, yet, when we consider what is said to be the true ful- filling of the law in each separate instance, and • The Church History of the First Three Centuries, by Dr. Ferdinand Christian Baur, late Professor of Theology in the University of TUbingen. 140 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY see how ia each instance what is done is to con- trast the outward with the inward, to disregard the mere act as such, and lay stress on the disposi- tion as that which alone confers any moral value on a man's acts, we cannot but recognize in this a new principle, and one which differs essentially from Mosaism. What the law contained, it is true, but only implicitly, is now said to be of most importance, and enunciated as the principle of mo- rality. The expansion of the law quantitatively amounts to a qualitative difference. The inner is opposed to the outer, the disposition to the act, the spirit to the letter. This is the essential root prin- ciple of [the religion of Jesus] ; * and, in insisting that the absolute moral value of a man depends simply and solaly on his disposition, the [religion of Jesus] was essentially original." Hifitorical Verity- of the ITIan JTesas. And now, as we pass on to a consideration of the later phases of the development of the Chris- tian faith and doctrine, let us bear onward with us this sublime picture, — not indeed of a God or a supernatural being, but of a man, — a man loving in all ways to identify himself with his fellow-men, even the poorest and lowliest among them. More frequently than by any other designation, he refers to himself as "the Son of Man," a common desig- *We substitute this phrase for "Christianity," in order to obviate the confusion which might arise from the use of a term which ordinarily implies certain doctrinal beliefs not found in the teaching of Jesus. As a matter of fact, this term was not applied to the new religion during the lifetime of its founder. SOCIAL ASPECTS 141 nation of the prophets, and at the time of Jesus probably not regarded as a Messianic title. Urged by an irresistible affection for his fellow-men, he gave the best labors of his life for their moral inspiration,— for their salvation from sin and prep- aration for the life of ideal perfection in the heav- enly kingdom. Viewing his character in this purely natural and human aspect, we need not and will not consent to the uncritical judgment of those destructive writers who would deny to the gospel stories all historical validity or regard Jesus as the servile imitator of the founder of another and widely different religion. After sep- arating from them the legendary and mythical accretions of an unscientific and credulous age, does there not yet remain to us the "saving rem- nant" of the New Testament narratives? Look- ing upon this picture, with all its lights and shadows of a noble yet fallible humanity, may we not say of the Prophet of Nazareth,— "He was a, man: Take him for all in all, ^^ We shall not look upon his Uke again. Would it then be just to conclude, with Chris- tendom, that the career of Jesus presents phenom- ena wholly unique in the world's history? Such is, perhaps, the natural impulse of the human mind, after contemplating a life of heroic self-abne- gation and devotion to the welfare of human kind. With a like thought, we have doubtless risen from the perusal of the noble tribute to the founder of another of the world's great religions in Edwin 142 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Arnold's Light of Asia.* We are touched in a similar manner by the contemplation of the noblest characters of fiction, — the Jean Valjeans and the Romolas, ideal exemplars of this religion of lofty self-sacrifice. But sober second thought should lead us to question whether we ought not rather to bear in mind the human limitations of even the noblest of those who have lived and died for man, lest we fall into a species of idolatry and hero-worship inconsistent with the mandates of rational religion. At least let us not exalt one unduly by the disparagement of all others. The orthodox doctrine of "total depravity," the dark background against which the ideal picture of the supernatural Christ is limned, has no place in the healthy creed of rational religion. Old Father Taylor, of Boston, the seamen's missionary, whose abundant humanity outweighed the depressing implications of his creed, when he was asked, "Do you think there ever was as good a man as Jesus?" instantly replied, "Yes, millions of them 1" Have not you and I also known hearts as true and souls as full of manly courage ? Let us not deny Jesus his proper place in the world's history, nor place him so far above the level of our common manhood that he shall fail to ♦We cannot protest too strongly against the systematic depreciation and condemnation of botli Jesus and the Buddiiain such works as Dr. Oswald's Secret o/ f/ie East, of which more hereafter. Making all due allowances for theological errors, due largely, as we have seen, in the case of Jesus, to the failure to give due weight to a single mis- taken belief, the noble personality and fine moral insight of those two great teachers are influences for good that the world will not willingly let die, or consent to see mis- represented or undervalued. SOCIAL ASPECTS 1^3 be to us always a rational example and inspiration to all noble things. Let him live in our hearts and minds a heroic, manly character, "not too saintly to be human." Is this indeed so difficult? "Long fed on boundless hopes, O race of man, How angrily thou spurn' st aU simpler fare 1 •Christ,' some one says, 'was human, as we are. No judge eyes us from heaven our sin to scan. "We live no more when we have done our span !' •Well, then, for Christ,' thou answerest, 'who can care? From sin which heaven records not, why forbear? Live we like brutes, our life without a plan !' So answerest thou. But why not rather say, •Hath man no second life ? Pitch this one high I Sits there no judge in heaven our sin to see? More strictly then the inward judge obey. "Was Christ a man like us ? Ah I let us try If we then, too, can be sucli men as hel' " VL MYTH AND MIRACLE IN THE GOSPEL STORIES. The earliest phase in the development of the Christian faith is that presented in the life and teachings of the Nazarene Prophet ; that, in short, which we have attempted to deduce in the two preceding lectures from the record of the Triple Tradition of the Synoptical Gospels. The four Gospels also contain the record of a later phase in the growth of the new religion, — that embodied in the mythical and miraculous accretion which gathered at a very early day around the striking personality of the Man of Nazareth. Though the modern scientific spirit, which recognizes the enduring supremacy of law throughout the opera- tions of nature, including the various mutations of human affairs, would perhaps justify us in relegating the miraculous elements in the gospel stories to the realm of the imaginary and unreal on a priori grounds, in view of the importance which these elements have ever maintained in the popular apprehension, we cannot refrain from a further careful consideration of their true histori- cal meaning and the probable sources of their origin. MYTH AND MIRACLE 145 Demoniacal Possession and the miracnlons Cure of Disease. We have already suggested that there may be a certain historical foundation for the alleged phe- nomena of demoniacal possession and exorcism, interpreted as the relief of nervous diseases, such as epilepsy or hysteria ; and a like germ of actual fact may lie at the basis of other stories of mirac- ulous cure found in the synoptical tradition. The influence of a powerful mind and will over im- pressionable natures is so frequently illustrated in the affairs of our every-day life that it requires no supernatural hypothesis for its explanation. A trusted physician or nurse often exercises a more potent influence over an invalid than that derived from medicine or the more obvious hygienic appli- ances. Belief in the curative efficacy of religious rites and priestly manipulations is common among all ignorant peoples, resting, doubtless, on similar, wholly natural, and non-miraculous facts, exagger- ated by the imagination. We have only to sup- pose a like exaggeration, such as universally occurs in the oral transmission even of the reports of ordinary every-day occurrences, to account for the greater number of the alleged miraculous events recorded in the Synoptical Gospels.* Tiie Birth Stories of the Synoptical Gospels. A critical examination of the records of other reported phenomena of an extraordinary character • A recent interesting study of the alleged miracles of the present and past generations may be consulted in The JXct-kmary of Miracles, Instructive, Realistic, and Dog- matic, by L. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. 146 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY discloses so many discrepancies of statement that, apart from any general scientific hypothesis of the incredibility of miracles, and from the fact tha^ the witnesses to the events are all anonymous and testify at second hand, we are justified in rejecting them by the recognized rules of testimony con- cerning ordinary statements of fact. We have already pointed out some of these discrepancies in the stories of the miraculous birth of Jesus. Apart from the fundamental disagreements in the narra- tives of Matthew and Luke, it is wholly incredible that Mark, the earliest writer, and John, the latest biographer of Jesus, should omit all reference to this alleged and most wonderful occurrence, if it bad the least foundation in fact. The natural genesis and growth of these legends among an uncritical and unscientific people like the early Christian converts are easily accounted for. Bishop Lightfoot says of the Jews of this period : "They were given over beyond measure to beliefs in all sorts of delusions, exorcisms, amulets, charms, and dreams. They were ready to believe everything strange, wild, aud unnatural." Renan declares that "miracles were considered at that time the indispensable mark of the Divine and the sign of the prophetic calling."* Nor was this tendency an exclusive characteristic of the Jews. The masses of the people, and even many of the *Life of Jesus, p. 230. There are some indications that Jesus was himself less credulous than the masses of his people, and that ho did not regard miracles as necessary credentials to his oflBce as a teacher of morals and religion. Thus, he rebuked the Pharisees for "seeklna: after a sign," declaring, according: to the oldest Gospel, "There shall no sign be given unto this generation" (Mark viii., 11, 12). MYTH AND MIRACLE 147 educated classes throughout the Roman Empire, were addicted to like beliefs. The birth stories of the Gospels, indeed, were evidently not of Jewish, but of Aryan origin. The earliest Jewish converts, as we have seen, and their successors, the Ebion- ites, rejected the story of the miraculous birth and the alleged virginity of the mother of Jesus,— a fact which was accounted to them as heresy by the already growing Orthodoxy of the earliest Christian centuries. The birth stories of the Gospels have much in common with the similar legends related of Krishna, Buddha, Apollo, Horos, and other Pagan deities. Through all of them run the easily discernible features of a primitive solar mythology, to which they are refer- able for their true explanation. The religion of Jesus at once came into contact and competition with the current faiths of Paganism, and the non-Jewish or Hellenized Christian apologists could by no means fail to ascribe to Jesus the possession of powers as wonderful and of an origin as divine as those claimed for the older demi-gods of the Aryan mythology.* How completely these stories were ignored by the earliest Jewish Chris- tians, however, appears in the total absence of reference to them in the Gospels, outside the early chapters of Matthew and Luke, in which they are related. The Similar liCgend o£ Apollonias o£ Tyana. Perhaps the growth of the Christian legend can be better und erstood and illustrated by reference •The apolication of the title "Son of God" to Jesus, by a not unnatural misapprehension of the non-Jewish con- verts to Christianity, doabtless served to suggest and en- courage the belief in the divine incarnation. 148 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY to the history of another remarkable man whose life was contemporary with the earliest Christian century, and whose story, upon its mythical and legendary side, bears striking and noteworthy resemblances to that of the founder of Christianity as preserved to us in the gjspel traditions. Apol- lonius of Tyana was undoubtedly an historical personage. His leading biographer, Philostratus, whose work has descended to our time, was a Greek writer of repute who lived in the second and third centuries of the Christian era. Before Philostratus wrote, however, several biographies of Apollonius had already been composed, the first during his lifetime by one Damis, his friend and disciple, and others later by Maximus, of ^gse, and Maeragenes. Ritter says of the work of Damis, which constituted the main reliance of Philostratus in the composition of his more elaborate biogra- phy, that it was "probably free from all intentional dishonesty."* The memoirs of Apollonius by Maeragenes are referred to by Origen in his reply to Celsus, and the leading facts in his career were well known before the time of Philostratus. The Oemeral Reliability of the liife of Apollo- nius by PhiSostratna. The biography by Philostratus was undertaken at the urgent request of Julia Domna, the wife of the Emperor Septimius Severus, in the early part of the third century of the Christian era, rather more than a hundred years after the death of * The History of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. IV., p. 481. By Dr. Heinricli Kilter. MYTH AND MIRACLE 149 Apollonius. Baur* regards this work as a "ten- dency writing," the object of which was to har- monize the doctrines of the Pythagorean philoso- phy with the prevailing Platonism of the extant systems of Paganism. He conceives that Philo- stratus intentionally attributed to Apollonius wonderful works of a like character to those ascribed to Jesus by the Christians, and thus inferentially throws doubt upon the historical value of his biography. The general tenor of the work, however, is unquestionably personal and biographical rather than philosophical. Its de- fence of the Pythagorean philosophy is fragmen- tary, incomplete, and wholly incidental to its main object. Its leading facts and features are explicitly asserted to have been derived from the older memoranda of Damis, against which no such suspicion has ever obtained. They were accepted as in the main trustworthy by eminent contro- versialists of the time, and are confirmed in many particulars by internal evidence and by such allusions to Apollonius as we find in earlier and contemporary writers, and may be regarded as generally authentic, with the same allowance for exaggeration and interpolation in the mythical and miraculous portions of the narrative which we make in our estimation of the Christian Gospels. Ritter, whose treatment of this subject is candid and rational, does not agree with Baur that Philo- stratus had Christ in mind in composing his biography of Apollonius, and affirms that those • Christ and Apollonius. Also History of the Church in the First Three Christian Centuries, by Ferdinand Chris- tian Baur. 150 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY who take this view "appear to have looked but little into the general character of Pbilostratus as an author."* This conception of Baur may properly be discarded as resting upon no visible evidence, either internal or external to the work itself. It is noteworthy that all these writings relating to Apollonius were composed in the Greek lan- guage, which was the native tongue of their subject. Their authorship is unquestioned; anc the memoranda of Damis, the chief source of theii information, were written during the lifetime of Apollonius. In all these respects, the biography by Philostratus, which is the only one possessed by us, presents testimonials to its validity superior to the Christian Gospels, the authorship of which is anonymous or pseudonymous, which were written in a language that Jesus did not write or speak, and in the composition of which we have no assured evidence that their writers possessed any memoranda prepared during the lifetime of their subject. The liife and Ijabera «f Apollenius. Apollonius was born in Tyana, the capital city of Cappadocia in Asia Minor, shortly after the birth of Jesus.t He obtained his earlier educa- tion at Tarsus under one Euthydemus, a well-known •History of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. IV. So likewise the autlior of -ApoUouius Tyauajus" in tlie Encyclopaedia ^?Mn°mniel M. Tredwell, of Brooklyn, N.Y. (Mem. Am. Eth. Soc). an enthusiastic student of the Apollonian liter- ature, fixes the time of his birth in the precise year from which our era is erroneously dated. Of the exact date, however, there appears to be considerable uncertainty. MYTH AKD MIRACLE 151 instructor, and afterward withdrew to iEgse, a small village containing a temple dedicated to the god ^sculapius, where he spent some years in study and meditation upon the problems of relig- ion, philosophy, and practical ethics. He there met Euxenus, a disciple of Pythagoras, by whom he was instructed in the philosophy of that eminent teacher. While very young, he renounced the foUies and superficial pleasures of society, lived abstemiously upon a vegetarian diet, totally abjured the use of wine, wore no covering upon his feet, and only the simplest clothing. He re- frained from cutting his hair, as did the Hebrew Nazarites and Hindu ascetics, and slept upon the hard ground. After spending some five years in ascetic con- templation and study, he travelled for a long time through the Eastern countries,— Assyria, Persia, Babylonia, India, and Egypt,-studying their dif- ferent religions and social customs. During his travels, and subsequently, he is said to have per- formed many marvellous works ; though his biog- rapher, in a tone strikingly similar to that of the modem Theosophists and advocates of "Esoteric Buddhism," everywhere disclaims the implica- tion of miracle or violation of law apparently involved in the stories.* Apollo nius is said to •Pvthasoras was also reputed to be a thaumaturKl'^t or wo^r of miracles, and the healers of disease iQ general wprelccredited by the popular superstition as the pos- Tessors of remarkable and'^ supernatural Powers. These claims should not be regarded as the result of deliberate fS or dishonesty, but rather as a recegnized feature in thArn?rent methods of medical treatment, involving an element of i^ste^ and concealment which the profession bas not yet wholly outgrown. 152 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY have possessed the faculty of clairvoyance, or "second sight," by means of which he perceived and described the murder of the Emperor Domi- tian, when many miles distant from the place of its occurrence. He also foretold future events upon the occasion of his own journeyings, and in the more important affairs of Roman history. He is said to have appeared to his friends Damis and Demetrius bodily, though at a distance from his actual abiding place, while yet alive ; and to have appeared to the Emperor Aurelian when he was about to destroy Tyana, and to a young un- believer who ridiculed his doctrine some years after his death. Alleged Instances ef Oemoiiiacal Exorcism and Cure attributed to Apollonins. He possessed a remarkable power over the wills and actions of others; something akin, appar- ently, to the phenomena known to us as "animal magnetism." At one time, he is said to have quelled a turbulent and riotous crowd of people by simply waving his hands over their heads. At Lesbos, he is reported to have cured a young man possessed of devils; and many other instances of demoniacal exorcism are also attributed to him. A young man in Athens, through whom the demon uttered cries of fear and rage, could not face the look of Apollonius,— an incident reminding us of the healing of the demoniac of Gadara b^ Jesus. In another instance, a statue is said to have fallen, overturned by the evil spirit as he departed out of the afflicted person, — recalling the entrance of the MYTH AND MIRACLE 153 demons into the swine and their destruction in the sea, in the Christian legend. In Asia Minor, Apollonius is said to have cured many people of the plague then raging; and, in Rome, it was reported and currently believed that he restored to life a girl of noble family who had been dead for some time.* During his life, he was regarded by many as the incarnation of the god Jupiter. He was mentioned with honor by his contemporary, Lucan,t the author of "Pharsalia" ; and another contemporary, in contemplating his career, is said to have exclaimed, "We have a god among us!" His death occurred probably at Ephesus, when he was about a hundred years old. It was believed by many that he did not die, but that he was taken up bodily into heaven, as in the stories of the Hebrew patriarch Enoch and the prophet Elijah. A popular legend subsequently assigned the place of his translation to the temple of Diana Dictynna in Crete, upon the occurrence of which event it was said that the voices of young maidens were heard singing, '-Quit the earth, O divine Apollonius, and ascend up into heaven." The Deificatieii »ad Worship of Apoll«iiins. After his death, he received divine honors at Tyana and throughout Asia Minor, and was held in universal respect by the Pa gan world for many ♦Philostratus, while reporting these marvellous occur- rences on the aiithoricy ot Damis, does not regard «iem as evidences of supernatural or miraculous power, bat ref f ra them to the profound knowledge of the powers of nature which Apollonius had acquired through investigation and study. t Marcus Ann'Bus Lucanus, a Roman poet, circum 29-66 A.D. 154 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY generations. Hierocles, the governor of Bithynia, a noted Pagan controversialist, wrote a work in opposition to Christianity, the main feature of which consisted in an ingenious parallel between Christ and ApoUonius. His object, however, waa not to claim divine honors for ApoUonius, but to combat the similar claim made for Jesus by Chris- tian apologists. His work* was rationalistic in its leading features ; and he declared that the intel- ligent heathen did not regard ApoUonius as a god, but only as a man beloved of the gods.f The phi- losopher Eunapius, in consideration of the re- markable character of ApoUonius as described by Philostratus, proposed to entitle his biography 'EmSjjfiia eZj- avdpuirov- deov, The Advent of the God' Man. Even Christian apologists, like Sidonius ApoUinarisJ and Cassiodorus,§ have nothing to say against ApoUonius, but, on the contrary, speak loudly in his praise. |j A temple was erected to his honor at Tyana, his native city; and his statue was placed therein among those of the gods. Another temple was erected to him subsequently by the Emperor Cara- caUa, and Alexander Sever us enshrined him among his household deities. For four centuries, he re- ceived divine honors throughout Greece and Asia *A6yot ^ilalydti-, Words of the Love of Truth, or True Discourse. ^ „ t Our information is derived from the essay of Eusebius, Contra Hieroclem. tCireum 431-484 A.D.. some time Bishop of Clermont in Auverp-ne, and author of historical epistles, poems, etc. § Lived 468-560 A.D., author of a Universal History to A.D. 519, and other works. II See ApoUonius of Tyana. By Albert R6ville, Doctor of Theology, Rotterdam. MYTH AND MIRACLE 155 Minor, and hia renown extended to remote coun- tries.* The Religion and Ethical Teaching of Apol- loniu8> The religion in.;ulcated by Apollonius tacitly recognized the gods of the Roman pantheon, but tended strongly toward monotheism. He espe- cially recommended, says Ritter, a pure worship of the Supreme God who is separate and alone, to whom should be offered the pure prayer of the spirit, which requires not even words for its ex- pression. He forbade all animal sacrifices, and also taught that no sacrifices of any sort should be offered to the Supreme God, on the ground that whatever belongs to earth is impurity to God. Herein, doubtless, we see the influence of those Eastern philosophies of which ApoUonius was a faithful student. la his travels, not only in his native country, but in Egypt, Assyria, India, and Persia, he taught everywhere a higher morality than that inculcated by the current religions, and endeavored to reform the grosser abuses of the heathen modes of wor- ship, thus spending his life in the effort to benefit and elevate mankind. Soon after his return from his long sojourn in the East, he applied for initia- tion in°to the sac red mysteries of Eleusis; but his *Thfl noat and controversialist Lucian, writing about 150 A D^th^o friend of Celsus. whom Froude calls "the mo^t followers of Apollonius as he did that of the Christians. 156 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITV popular repute as a magician, or worker of mira- cles, caused his application to be rejected. Four years later, however, when his character and the beneficence of his labors were better known, he was received and initiated.* "ApoUonius," says a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "is not to be looked upon as a shallow and vulgar impostor, though, to influence men's minds, he had recourse to artifices and pretensions unworthy of a true phi- losopher. With some of the spirit of a moral and religious reformer, he appears to have attempted, though vainly, to animate an expiring Paganism with a new and purer life." f Remarkable CJoineidences of the Apollonian and Chriistian Traditions. We have sketched the salient points in the career of Apollonius thus at length, in order both to rescue from unmerited oblivion the name and story of one who in his day was well counted among the benefactors of mankind, and also, by comparison with the Christian legend, to illustrate the growth of mythical and miraculous accretions around the record of a noble human life. The relegation of these elements to their proper region of unreality does not in the least justify us in ques- tioning the historical verity of the personage about whom they have gi'own into being ; nor do the striking coincidences of the Christian and the Apollonian legends detract at all, as some have claimed, from the probable truth of the story of •"The Eleusiniin Mysteries," by Fran9oi8 Lenormant, Contemporary lievieu^'ttlay, et seq., 1880. t Ai tide, "Apollonius Tyanasus," Encyclopaedia Britan- nica, ninth edition. MYTH AND MIBACLE 157 the man Jesus of the Triple Tradition of the Syn- optical Gospels. The contemplation of these co- incidences, however, and of the leading features in the Apollonian tradition, cannot fail to throw valuable light upon the genesis and development of the Christian mythus, and to convince us that the story of Jesus, on its supernatural side, is no single or unique phenomenon in the history of the world's religions. The significant fact of the contemporaneous growth of° these two legends, each centering about an undoubted historical personage, will go far to explain the similarity of the mythical and miracu- lous elements which enter into the popular versions of both. Each came into being in the midst of a society familiar with the leading features of the Greek and Roman mythologies, with which were also mingling the simUar beliefs of Persia and India. The acquaintance of Apollonius and his disciples with the Eastern mythologies is notewor- thy and suggestive. The likeness of the two nar- ratives, however, appears in just this subsequent accretion of myth and miracle, and in nothing else. The personal histories of Jesus and Apollonius— the one an uncultivated Galilean peasant, dying an ignoble death upon the cross at the age of about thirty-three years, in an obscure corner of Asia; and the other an educated pagan, rounding out a full century in the light of the highest civilization then known to the world, and dying in favor, apparently, with God and man-are totally dissimi- lar. The one was a Pythagorean philosopher : the other taught no system of philosophy ; and that 158 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY which commingled with his simple moral teaching in after times was not the doctrine of Pythagoras, but that of Plato. The supposition that the Christian story was borrowed from the Apollonian is, therefore, as unreasonable as the contrary hypothesis of Baur ; and all comparisons between the two narratives made with the intent to throw doubt upon the identity of Jesus as an historical character, or to undervalue his work as a religious teacher, are futile and irrational. Moreover, the conclusion in regard to the non- miraculous character of the marvellous works reported of Apollonius, through the frank admis- sions and explanations of Philostratus, is precisely similar to the conclusion to which we are com- pelled by the critical investigation of the gospel stories. In both instances, perhaps, there may be some foundation for the alleged phenomena of exorcism and cure in the potent influence of mind over mind. We discard at ouce, however, all idea of reality in connection with such relations as that of restoring life to the dead, except as it may have been based upon the relief of some such condition as trance, and assign to their proper mythological sources the origin of the fables about the miraculous birth and bodily translation of Apollonius. The appearance in both the Apollo- nian and the Christian legends of certain elements, apparently of Eastern or Hindu origin, and the well-authenticated account of the travels of Apol- lonius in India, together with the attempt of certain recent writers to attribute a Buddhistic origin to the entire gospel tradition, make it MYTH AND MIRACLE 159 imperative for us to examine further the grounds of this opinion. The Alleged Buddhistic Origiu of tha Christian Tradition. We have already demonstrated that the Man Jesus of the Triple Tradition of the synoptics was a Hebrew, and a Hebrew only ; moving naturally in the Palestine of eighteen centuries ago, speaking the language and discussing the familiar topics of his time and people. His admitted pessimism was native to the soil and thought of Palestine, and neither in its expression nor in its vision of the future did it present any of the characteristic features of Buddhism. If the pessimism of Jesus differed from that of Job and the author of Eccle- siastes, it was rather in this : that it qualified its despair of the existing social order by the great hope and promise of a new and diviner order soon to be established on the earth, in the joys of which all the righteous would consciously participate. To this everywhere present and dominant doctrine of the Gospels, Buddhism presents no analogy. In examining the ingenious argument of Dr. Felix Oswald in favor of the Buddhistic origin of the Christian tradition,* it is evident at a glance that his analogies, on their Christian side, are borrowed chiefly from the Fourth Gospel, and from the contradictory birth stories of the First and Third Gospels, which, as we have seen, are excluded from the material upon which we are * The Secret of the East. By Dr. Felix Oswald. Compare especially the "Concordance of Buddhism and Chris- tianity," pp. 12&-139 in Appendix. 160 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY permitted to draw for a rational outline of the life and thought of Jesus.* Other alleged analo- gies bearing upon the mythical or historical sides of the narrative of the Synoptical Gospels, like the stories of the temptation, the transfiguration, and the choosing of the disciples,t bear so little re- semblance in detail and present such marked points of dissimilarity that the candid critic can discover therein no evidence of derivation the one from the other. Of the alleged "Dogmatical Analo- gies," X some tested by a true critical analysis are found neither in the Synoptical Gospels nor in the authentic teachings of Buddhism ; § and others have been shown to grow so naturally out of the Judaism of Palestine that no hypothesis of foreign influence is required to account for their natural genesis and development. On the other hand, it must be admitted that some notable analogies may be discovered between the Buddhist mythus and the birth stories of the First and Third Gospels, and the possibility that the mythical accretions which gathered about the historical personalities of Prince Siddartha and Jesus had a common origin may also be admitted. That the origin of the Christian mythus can be traced directly to Buddhism, however, it would be difficult to prove. Tt bears the easily discernible »Cf. paragraphs 1-14, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27, pp. 128-136, Seoret of the East. ^Secret, of the East, paragraphs 15, 17, 20, pp. 132, 133. t Secret of fhe East, pp. 136, 137. § Where, for instance, can we discover the "belief In the necessity of redemption by a supernatural mediator," or in the eflcacy of vicarious atonement, in the authentic teachings of Buddhism, in anything like the Christian sense ? MTTH AND MIRACLE 161 impress of a solar mythology, the leading features of which were widely distributed throughout Asia and Europe * Upon this questioa, probably, there is no better authority than Prof. Max Miiller, who acknowledges the startling coincidences between Buddhism and Christianity and the prior origin of the former faith. In reference to alleged his- torical channels through which Buddhism has influenced Christianity, however, he declares : "I have been looking for such channels all my life, but hitherto I have found none. What T have found is that for some of the most startling coincidences there are historical antecedents on both sides; and, if we know these antecedents, the coincidences be- come far less startling." t The Growth of Miraculous I^egends iUastrated iu the Gospel Stories. Investigating further the miraculous relations of the Gospels, we find that the Triple Tradition contains no r ecord of the restoration of the dead • This is likewise true of the mythical elements in the ADoilonian tradition, the tUtimate origin of which, lite Th^ose in the gospel stories, may be traceable, perhaps, to ^";*^^r\Te^tttra°dXssfd'tfa"JS^fere^^ held at Sk,n College, in June. 1882 to discuss the real or onnarpnt coincidences between Buddha and Christ. ITot. AluneraVo declared such a discussion, in general terms, Sst an impossibility, saying that .'the name oB^^^ i^m is aoDlied to religious opinions, not only ot tne most v1?ying Ct of a decidedly opposite character, held by ^prlifi in the highest and lowest stages of civilization, SivTdeVfnto'^enS sect,, nay, f-^-ese reigns, based upon charges of denying the gods, failure to offer sac- rifices, and holding secret meetings, or "illicit as- semblies," were conducted under laws of the em- pire already existing, and originally promulgated without reference to Christianity or any particular form of religious faith. These prosecutions were instigated by popular clamor, and were local and unimportant in their character. Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, who regarded the new religion as "a culpable and extravagant superstition," was forced by accusations brought under the laws of the empire to arrest, condemn, and execute certain Christians who refused to re- nounce their faith. He was not incited to this course by any special edict or command of the emperor, nor did he in any way exceed the man- dates of existing laws. The celebrated rescript of Trajan, issued on receipt of despatches from Pliny concerning the prosecution of the Christians, appears to have been intended to favor and protect the accused rather than to urge on their persecu- tors. It required that punishment should only be inflicted according to the due forms of law, and ordained that opportunity should be offered for recantation and conformity to the law, which, if accepted, would be a sufficient defence against the prosecution. Dean Mil man, an able and candid Christian historian, testifies to the forbearance of THE MARTYR PERIOD 239 Trajan and Hadrian as well as Pliny in their deal- ings with the Christians, declaring that "Trajan is absolved, at least by the almost general voice of antiquity, from the crime of persecuting the Chris- tians," and asserting further that, "under a less candid governor than Pliny and an emperor less humane and dispassionate than Trajan, the exter- minating sword of persecution would have been let loose, and a relentless and systematic edict for the suppression of Christianity would have hunted down its followers in every quarter of the empire."* It is evident that the attacks on Christianity at this time originated with the ignorant and super- stitious populace of certain localities, remote, usually, from the capital ; and that, in so far as they received the sanction of the imperial govern- ment, they were instigated by no general desire to persecute or destroy. The Christians were still often confounded with the Jews, who, both in Pal- estine and in Mesopotamia, were manifesting signs of discontent and rebellion. A few years later, this rebellious spirit culminated in the insurrection of Bar-Cochba, in which many thousands of lives were sacrificed. This tended to inflame and aug- ment the popular prejudice against both the Chris- tians and the Jews. The unyielding and fanatical temper of the Christians themselves undoubtedly helped to stim- ulate this spirit of persecution. Martyrdom was often counted as the greatest of blessings, and was regarded as a certain assurance of admission to •Milman also saya of an order of Hadrian reaffirming that of Trajan, The edict does credit to the humanity and wisdom of Ha.dTia.n.— History of Christianity, vol. ii. 240 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY the glories of the heavenly kingdom. In the cor- respondence of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, says Dean Milman, "there is throughout a wild eager- ness for martyrdom. . . . He even deprecates the interference of his Christian friends in his behalf. He fears lest their ill-timed and, as he thinks, cruelly officious love might by some influence . . . deprive him of that glorious crown," The follow- ing passages from the Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans are illustrative of a spirit which prevailed very generally among the Christians of his time : — I write to the churches, and I declare to all that willingly I die for God, if it be that you hinder me not. I beg of you do not become to me an unreason- able love. Let me be for the beasts, by whose means I am enabled to obtain God. I am God's wheat, and by the teeth of the beasts I am ground, that I may be found God'a pure bread. Rather entreat kindly the beasts that they may be a grave for me, and leave nothing of my body. . . . Supplicate our Lord for me, that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God. . . . May I have to rejoice of the beasts pre- pared for me i And I pray that they may be found ready for me; and I will kindly entreat them quickly to devour me, and not, as they have done to some, being afraid of them, to keep from touching me. And, should they not be willing, I will force them. • . . Those who say "Martyr" to me scourge me. It is true that I desire to suiier, but I do not know if I am worthy. The Gnostic heretics of this period were de- nounced by their orthodox opponents, not only for their errors of opinion upon dogmatic questions, but also for holding that martyrdom was unnecessary THE MARTYR PERIOD 241 and non-essential to salvation. The reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, on the whole, were favorable to the growth of the new religion. The latter emperor both professed and practised in accordance with the humane maxim of Scipio, which asserted that he would rather save the life of a single citizen than cause the death of a thou- sand enemies. There is no reliable evidence of the persecution of the Christians during his reign ; nor are there any notable instances of martyrdom, with the possible exception of Polycarp, the vener- able bishop of Smyrna, whose execution, however, is usually referred to the reign of his successor. The general voice, even of Christian antiquity, is favorable to the justice and tolerance of Antoni- nus Pius.* Marcus Anrelius and ibe Persecution of the Christiaus. The attitude of the great emperor, Marcus Aurelius, toward the Christian Church, has been severely and, as we think, unjustly attacked by Christian apologists and historians of recent times. A man of the purest personal character and lofti- est religious sentiments, — accepting the exalted ethical principles of the Stoic philosophy, — it is difficult to conceive that he could deliberately per- secute the adherents of any form of religion on account of their belief. "Marcus Aurelius," says Dr. Hedge, "standing midway between the first *A writer in the EncyclopcBdia Britannica says of this emperor, "Instead of stirring up the persecutions of the Christians, and gloating over the sufferings of their mar- tyrs, he extended to them the strong hand of his protec- tion through all the empire."— Art. "Antoninus Pius." 242 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY appearance of Christianity and its civil enfran- chisement, represents the high-water mark of Roman greatness, as he does the height of Impe- rial virtue in the annals of mankind. . • . Neither in St. Louis nor in English Alfred, to whom Merivale compares him, do T find the same piety, the moral sublimity, which I admire in the Roman sovereign." * The character of Marcus Aurelius was moulded by a nature at once profoundly religious and intensely practical. Though a careful student of philosophy, holding his teachers in reverent regard, he never lost himself in the mazes of meta- physical speculation, or permitted his mind to fall into the profound pessimism of the Oriental mystics, with its resulting absorption from the affairs of practical life and despair of the future of humanity. His teaching was as universal and as practical as that of Paul. He professed, in- deed, no belief in dogmas of a merely speculative character. His theology was, as nearly as possi- ble, a sort of cosmic theism. "He saw clearly," says Renan, "that, where the Infinite is concerned, no formula is absolute. . . . He distinctly separated moral beauty from all theoretical theology. He allows duty to depend upon no metaphysical opin- ion of the First Cause." f Herein, Marcus Aure- lius anticipated the rationalistic philosophies of Spinoza and Herbert Spencer. Very deeply relig- ious, nevertheless, was his attitude toward that Unknowable Reality of which all phenomena are ♦"Christianity in Conflict with Hellenism," by Fred- eric Henry Hedge, D.D., in Unitarian Review. ^ Marcus AureLius. By Ernest Renan. THE MARTYR PERIOD 243 dependent manifestations. "All that thou arrang- est is suited to me, O Kosmos 1" he says. "Noth- ing of that which comes from thee is premature or backward to me. I find my fruit in that which thy seasons bear, O Nature I From thee comes all. In thee is all : to thee all returns." * It may be said of Marcus Aurelius, as Carlyle once affirmed of Margaret Fuller : — He accepted the universe. He designated himself as "a man ready to quit life without regret" ; yet he found in life more of good than of evil, and accepted whatever of care and trouble fell to his lot with manly resignation. "The character of Marcus," again says Dr. Hedge, "is revealed in his self- communings, which have come down to us, an imperishable volume, — the so-called Meditations of the Emperor Antoninus. Better preaching I have not found, nor thoughts more edifying, in any Christian writer of that time. A sombre spirit, but how sweet, how grand 1" There was about Marcus Aurelius nothing of the autocrat or tyrant. Though clothed with unlimited power, he used it all to promote and increase the liberties of his people. He recognized all men as possessing a common humanity with himself.f One day, he thus reproached himself: "Thou hast forgotten what holy relationship unites each man to the human race, — a relation- ship not of blood or of birth, but the participation * Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. See also Selections, "Wisdom Series." (Roberts Brothers.) t "1 have formed an ideal of the State," he says, "in which there is the same law for all, and equal rights and equal liberty of speech for all,— an empire where nothing is honored so much as the freedom of the citizens." 244 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY of the same intelligence. Thou hast forgotteu that the rational faculty of each one is a god, derived from the Supreme Being." Matthew Arnold savs that Marcus Aurelius "is, perhaps, the most beautiful figure in history," and adds : "The great record for the outward life of a man who has left such a record of his inward aspirations ... is the clear consenting voice of all his contemporaries — high and low, friend and enemy, Pagan and Christian — in praise of his sincerity, justice, and goodness." Niebuhr de- clares him to be "certainly the noblest character of his time" ; and Renan closes his lecture before the Royal Academy with the following memorable words : "The religion of Marcus Aurelius is the absolute religion, — that which results from the simple fact of a high moral conscience placed face to face with the universe. It is of no race, neither of any country. No revolution, no change, no discovery, will have power to affect it." It is, nevertheless, unhappily the fact that Chris- tians were condemned under the laws of the empire, and upon some the penalty of death was inflicted, during the reign of this exemplary ruler. Even so candid and careful an historian as Dean Milman attributes to Marcus Aurelius the promul- gation of an edict which repealed the acts of toleration granted by his predecessors, and opened anew the flood-gates of oppression and persecu- tion. From the testimony of Watson, Renan, and other unbiassed historians, it appears, how- ever, that this edict was issued for the protection rather than the persecution of the Christians, aim- THE MAKTYK PERIOD 245 ing to renew the wise provisions of Trajan's rescript, which compelled a strict adherence to legal forms in the prosecution of alleged violators of the laws of the empire. To this period is usually assigned the martyr- dom of the venerable Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, whose calm dignity and patient endur- ance furnish so fine a picture in the annals of the martyrs. The Marlyrium of Polycarp, however, can hardly be deemed with certainty a reliable historical record ; though conservative historians have generally accepted it as a genuine document of the Smyrnian Church. Nor does it appear to be certain that the time of Polycarp's death is definitely assignable to the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Certain chronological notes appended to the Marlyrium by a later writer than its un- known author would fix the date in the year 155 A.D., or some six years previous to the acces- sion of the great Stoic emperor. At all events, there is no evidence that the emperor was directly or indirectly influential in promoting this act of persecution, or that he even knew of the event before its occurrence. "Polycarp," says Dean Milman, "closed the nameless train of Asiatic martyrs." At Lyons and Vienne, however, on the borders of Gaul and Italy, a colony of Christian emigrants from Phrygia, in Asia Minor, in doctrine and customs akin to the Montanists, suffered, about the year 177, from an ebullition of popular fury, to which some of them fell victims. They were first assaulted with mob violence, beaten, stoned, 246 A STUDY OF PKIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY dragged helpless about the streets, and finally compelled through fear to remain in confinement within their own houses. The order for their arrest, issued by the authorities, was in reality an act of mercy, inasmuch as it protected them for the time from the violence of the mob. Their leaders were accused before the magistrates of the most odious crimes, — of incest, concubinage, banquets upon human flesh, and the grossest offences against decency and morality. They were convicted on the testimony of their heathen slaves, and hurried to execution. It is a fact of strange significance that the institution of slavery, tolerated, if not justified, by the Christian Fathers, thus early in the history of the Church appeared as an avenging Nemesis in retribution for the fatal inconsistency which ignored the fundamental ethical and social doctrines of the new religion, or feared to carry them to their logical conclusions in practice. Even the more moderate of the non-Christian populace appear, at the time, to have believed these charges against the Christians, and to have consented to the execution of the condemned. . In accordance with the practice of the time, many were subjected to horrible tortures. Some per- ished in loathsome dungeons, others by the customary modes of execution. Among the vic- tims were Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne ; a recent convert named Maturus ; one Attains, a Phrygian ; and Pothinus, the aged bishop of Lyons. The most remarkable of the martyrs, however, was Blan- dina, a female slave, who, after suffering the most THE MARTYR PERIOD 247 horrible tortures unflinchingly, was thrice exposed to wild beasts in the public arena. At last, having been tossed by an infuriated bull, and terribly muti- lated, she was despatched by the sword of an attendant gladiator. She bore all her sufferings with the most heroic endurance, steadfastly pro- claiming, "I am a Christian, and no wickedness is practised among us." It is the testimony of Watson * and other un- biassed and competent historians that the em- peror was not aware of the proceedings at Lyons and Vienne until a considerable time after the commencement of the persecutions ; and the only influence which he appears to have exerted subse- quently was directed toward the protection of the accused from mob violence, by enforcing the provisions of the rescript of Trajan. The only instance of alleged persecution of the Christians at Rome is the condemnation and execution of Justin, the noted Christian apologist, with several of his companions. Justin had obtained unusual notoriety by his contests with Marcion and the Jew, Trypho, and had especially incurrea the hostility of one Crescentius, a Cynic philosopher, with whom he had been involved in debate and controversy. By the machinations of Crescentius, he was accused before the tribunal of Rusticus, an imperial justice, tried, condemned, and exe- cuted. The emperor took no part in his prosecu- tion, nor was 'there at any time any general persecution of the Church at Rome during this reign. On the contrary, the Christians were • Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. By Paul Barron Watson. 248 A feTUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY everywhere making their way to positions of trust and profit. They were enrolled among the impe- rial legions, and it is even asserted that they had obtained a foothold in the imperial household * On the whole, the reign of Marcus Aurelius was, to a marked degree, favorable to the progress of civilization, and not inimical to the advancement of the nobler phases of the Christian faith. The emperor instituted numerous reforms in the gov- ernment and regulation of the empire. He elevated the position of woman, and mitigated the severity of the institution of slavery, instituting regulations favorable to the manumission and protection of the servile classes. The public chari- ties founded by Nerva and Trajan were protected and extended under his influence. Free schools were established for the children of the poor. The gratuitous distribution of food to the needy was continued, under an improved system. An insti- tution was opened for the care and assistance of poor young girls. Renan, speaking of Marcus Aurelius, declares, "His fortune was immense, but all employed for good." The testimony of the most trustworthy among the early Christian writers should be conclusive as against the orthodox defamers of Marcus Aurelius. Tertullian, himself a Montanist, as, probably, were Blandina and the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, testifies as follows: "You will see that the princes who have been severe toward us •Matthew Arnold asserts that "Marcus Aurelius incurs no moral reproach by having authorized the punishment of the Christians ; he does not thereby become in the least what we mean by a persecutor."— Essay on Marcus Aurelius. THE MARTYR PERIOD 249 are those who have held to the honor of being our persecutors. On the contrary, all the princes who have respected divine and human laws include but one who persecuted the Christians. We can even name one of them who declared himself their protector, — the wise Marcus Aurelius. If he did not openly revoke the edicts against our brethren, he destroyed their power by the severe penalties against their accusers." We have also the unqual- ified statement of Origen, writing about the middle of the third century, that "the number of Christian martyrs was small and easy to be counted, God not permitting that all of this class of men should be exterminated." Watson, the most recent biographer of Marcus Aurelius, fixes the number of Christians who suffered death during his reign at about a hundred,* which is doubtless a liberal estimate. Stoicism a Preparation for Christiauity. Reviewing the period of the Stoic emperors from the stand-point of comparative religion, we cannot doubt that the public recognition and general diffusion of the principles of Stoicism were strongly influential in preparing the way for the progress of Christianity. Reichel asserts of the post-Aristotelian period, in the development of philosophy, that it supplied the scientific mould into which Christianity, in the early years of its growth, was cast, and bearing the shape of which it has come down to us.f While, on its dogmatic side, the influence of Platonism, and especially of the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria, is predomi- * Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. By Paul Barron Watsou. + Oswald J. Reicdel, B.C.L,. and M. A., vicar of Sparsholt, Berks. 250 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY nant, on its social and ethical side, Stoicism was scarcely less influential. Both Stoicism and Neo- Platonism were products of the intermingling of Greek with Semitic thought, the latter even predominating in the direction and development of Stoicism. Zeller affirms that "the Stoic phi- losophy contains no feature of importance which we can pronounce with certainty to be taken from the popular faith. Even the true worship of God, according to their view, consists only in the mental effort to know God, and in a moral and pious life."* And again: "Even at Athens there were teachers, not a few, whose foreign extraction indicates the age of Hellenism. Next to the later Neo-Platonic school, this remark is of none more true than of the Stoic. With this fact we may always connect the world-citizenship of this school."! A recent writer in the Nineteenth Century has well stated the relation of Stoicism to Christianity, and of both to the pre-existing faiths. "The new tone of Greek ethical thought displayed in the rise of Stoicism," he says, "must have been due, according to our national-psycho- logical stand-point, to some cross-fertilization by the ideas of a different race; and Sir Alexander Grants has shown that all the eminent Stoics were of Semitic origin. The similarity which has struck most observers between Stoicism and Chris- tianity receives its explanation from our present stand-point, when we remember that both were cross-fertilizations of Hellenism by Semitism. The * The Stoics, EjAcnireans, and Sceptics, p. 343. By Dr. B. Zeller. professor at Heidelberg. 1 1bid., p. 35. % Aristotle's Ethics (third edition), i., p. 307. THE MARTYR PERIOD 251 difEeience, too, may be due to the fact that, iu one case, the less intense Semites were the missionaries, while Christianity was propagated by the fiery zeal of the Jews. The spread of Stoicism among the Romans cannot but have had some influence iu preparing the way for Christianity."* The Persccutiona of Diocletian and Decicis. The emperors, from the reign of Marcus Aurelius to that of Decius (249-251 A.D.), if not friendly to Christianity, were at least indifferent to it. Elaga- balus (218 A.D.), who assumed the ma.nner3 and state of an Oriental despot, conceived the idea of a universal eclectic cultus, which should fuse the Jewish and Samaritan with the Pagan and Chris- tian religions, with the sun as the supreme object of adoration, and the emperor as his earthly incar- nation and representative, — a conception similar to that of Kuhn-Aten, the fourth Amen-hotep of Egypt. Alexander Severus (222-249 A.D.) carried his eclecticism so far that he enlarged the temples of Isis and Osiris, and enshrined in the palace as his household deities Orpheus, Abraham, Jesus, and Apollonius of Tyana. He awarded a piece of ground, the ownership of which was in dispute, to the Christians, for the alleged reason that it was better for it to be devoted to the worship of God in any form than to any profane or secular occu- pation.! •"The God of Israel," by Josepl" Jacobs, Nineteenth Century, September, 1879. tThe story of the alleged martyrdom of Vivia Perpetua and Felicitasin Northern Africa, during the reign of Sep- timius Severus, though usually accepted as historical, bears suggestions of its apocryphal character. The exact Dlace of their martyrdom is uncertain; the testimony 252 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY During the reigns of Decius and Diocletian, a more general opposition was stirred up against Christianity than at any previous period. An attempt was made throughout the empire to sup- press the churches, and prevent the further spread of the faith. Actual violence, however, appears to have been offered only to the bishops and leading ecclesiastics, while the humbler converts were sel- dom molested. Numbers of the clergy doubtless suffered imprisonment and death, exactly how many it is now impossible to determine. The occasion of these more general persecutions is doubtless to be discovered in the increasing claims of the new religion to exclusive recognition and universal supremacy, — claims which threatened to override, not only the ancient religion of the empire, but also its secular authority. Even Dean Milman refers it in part also to the relaxation of morals in the Christian communities, and the growth of the spirit of ecclesiastical domi- nation, with its accompanying dissensions and jealousies. Kxtcnt of the Persecntions.— Exaggeration of Ijater Bistorians. In reviewing the subject of the persecution and martyrdom of the Christians under the empire from the stand-point of an impartial investigator of the historical evidence, the conclusion is un- avoidable that the extent anc! enormity of these of the Acta Afartyrum iq of doubtful authenticity; the very minutiae of the recital sujrtrest doubt of its reality ; while the names <'Eternal Life" {Vivla Porpetua) aud "Happiness" {Felidtas) sugprest an allegorical rather than an historical interpretation of the narrative. THE MARTYR PERIOD 253 acts of the Pagan emperors have been greatly exaggerated by Christian historians and apolo- gists. Admitting that there is a substantial foun- dation for the charges of oppression, violence, and infliction of the penalty of death in many in- stances, these enormities sink into insignificance compared with those perpetrated by Christian authority in later times. Gibbon estimates the total number of the martyrs at about two thou- tand, and asserts that "the number of Protestants who were executed by the Spaniards during a single reign and in a single province far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries of the Roman Empire." Niebuhr, whose candor and impartiality can hardly be doubted, confirms the opinion of Dodwell and other his- torians that the persecution of Galerius and Diocletian, generally affirmed to be the most gen- eral and disastrous of all, was a mere shadow compared with the persecution of the Protestants in the Netherlands by the Duke of Alva. Accord- ing to Grotius, the number of Dutch martyrs was at least one hundred thousand. Motley says of these persecutions : "The barbarities committed amid the sack and ruin of those blazing and starv- ing cities are almost beyond belief. Unborn infants were torn from the bodies of their living mothers, . . . and whole populations were burned and hacked to pieces by soldiers in every mode which cruelty in its wanton ingenuity could devise." The Spanish Inquisition, during the eighteen years of Torquemada, punished, according to the lowest estimate, one hundred and five thousand persons, 254 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY of whom eight thousand eight hundred were burnt alive. The persecutions of the Jews of Spain and Russia by the Christians furnish examples of barbarity and wholesale slaughter, before which even the crimes of Xero pale into obscurity and insignificance. In Andalusia, two thousand Jews were executed, and seventeen thousand otherwise punished, in a single year. In our own day, the annals of Jewish persecution in Russia and Bul- garia compare in infamy with the recitals of the worst atrocities of the early Christian ages. Rec- ollecting the treatment of the Indian and the negro in our own country, American Christians ought in all decency to refrain from slandering the memories of the dead Roman emperors. The Piegan massacre, in which an entire village of non- combatants — disabled old men, women, and little children — were put to the sword and fire, — an act to this day neither rebuked nor disavowed by the government, — closes our mouths forever from the indiscriminate censure and condemnation of Dio- cletian, Decius, and Marcus Aurelius. General Canseii of the Persecutions* Bearing in mind the generally conceded policy of toleration toward alien religions which charac- terized the government of the Roman Empire, it is of great interest and importance to account for the apparent violation of this policy in the treat- ment of the Christians. The true explanation of the proven facts of the martyr period appears to lie largely in the charact^er of the new religion THE MARTYR PERIOD 255 itself, and in a general and not unnatural miscon- ception of some of its noteworthy customs, ideas, anc* dogmas on the part of the populace and those in authority. All the other religions which, with the growth of the empire, came in contact with the popular faith and attracted the attention of the government, were ethnic and limited in their sway, and did not aim at universal dominion. Hence, they were mutually tolerant within their respective spheres. Rome, as the capital of the empire, rec- ognized and to some extent assimilated them. Judaism alone of the older faiths was intolerant, exclusive, and repelled recognition and assimila- tion. Christianity was never an ethnic religion : 'it aimed from the first at universal dominion. From its very nature, it could admit of no compro- mise with the idolatrous Paganism of the nations. It resolutely refused to be combined with other faiths, or assimilated into the eclectic cultus of the capital. It resented the tolerance and indifference of Rome with an intolerant demand for exclusive recognition. Erecting no altars and offering no sacrifices, de- nying the very existence of the gods of Rome, meet- ing in secrecy, contrary to the laws of the empire, admitting none save those who had been united with them by the ordinance of baptism to partici- pation in their worship, the Christians came to be regarded naturally and not without reason as inim- ical to the popular religion, and as a source of danger to the security of the S^ate. Exaggerated reports concerniug the character of their baptismal ceremony and their "love-feasts" not unnaturally 253 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY gave rise to popular suspicions of the general prev- alence of immorality in the Christian communities. The New Testament Epistles and patristic writ- ings contain abundant evidence that these sus- picions were not wholly unwarranted. Paul's doctrine of a new life outside the sanctions of the law was doubtless as grievously misinterpreted in many instances as were the ethical precepts of Epicurus. This fact is conceded by able Chris- tian writers. Prof. Lindsay, of Glasgow Univer- sity, says : "In the Epistles of Paul, we find evi- dence that many of the Gentile Christians were even disposed to think of the new life of Christi- anity as one entirely outside the realm of ordinary moral law. This lawless or immoral tendency was strongly checked in the Christian Church, and only gained headway in the sects outside of it ; but traces of the tendency are not infrequent." In rightly estimating the circumstances of the period under consideration, however, we should not forget that there was no authoritative Church at this time, — no generally recognized consensus of Christian belief and practice, — but only as yet a number of distinct and unrelated communities, differing in customs and in doctrine, but all claim- ing the Christian name. Although the influence and authority of the Church at Rome were begin- ning to be recognized by a considerable portion of these communities, and the orthodox faith was endeavoring to clarify itself from the heresies of the sects, it yet lacked the power to enforce its authority; and, so far as the general public could see or understand, all the churches claiming the THE MARTYR PERIOD 257 name of Christian bad an equal right to it. Some of the Gnostic sects were openly given to immoral practices. A system akin to Plato's proposed cus- tom of '"complex marriage" prevailed in certain communities claiming the Christian name ; and we even have authentic testimony to the fact that a bishop held a view of the obligations of Christian hospitality which involved a practical recognition of this odious system.* Facts of this kind, though only occasionally coming to the surface, would naturally prejudice the people and their rulers against the entire body of Christian believers. We have already alluded to the popular miscon- struction of the doctrine of the approaching de- struction of the world by fire, in connection with the conflagration at Rome, which served as the excuse for the persecutions of Nero. In a like manner, a misunderstanding of the Christian sac- rament of the eucharist, conceived symbolically or actually as the body and blood of Christ, doubt- less gave rise to the rumor that children were sac- rificed and eaten at the secret evening repasts. It is noteworthy that a similar slanderous accusation has often been the occasion of Christian persecu- tion of the Jews ; and this belief still prevails among the ignorant people in Russia, Bulgaria, and the East.f • History of the Christian Church, vol. iii. By Rev. Dr. PhiUp SchafE. t "The Christianity which the emperors aimed at repress- ing; was," says Matthew Arnold, "in their conceptiou of it, something philosophically contempti'^le, politically sub- versive, and morally abominable. As men, they sincerely regarded it much as well-conditioned people among us re- gard Mormonism ; as rulers, they regarded it much as lib- eral statesmen with us regard the Jesuits."— Essay on Marcus Aurelius. 258 A STUPY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Tbe ITIontanists : Their Beliefs aud Practices. Many of the later martyrs were affiliated with the peculiar sect known as Montanists, from oue Montanus, their founder, a native of Phrygia. This sect originated about the middle of the second century. Its doctrines were, in some respects, a survival — in others, an exaggeration and distortion — of the early Christian belief. The Montanists were, as nearly as possible, the exact counterparts of the Gnostics, against whose peculiar doctrines they uttered their severest protest. They believed in the continuance of the miraculous gifts said to have been possessed by Jesus and the apostles, in prophecy by supernatural inspiration, in ecstasy and "speaking with tongues," in prolonged fasting and other ascetic observances. In opposition to the growing power of the presbyters and bishops, they taught the doctrine, naturally drawn from the principles of Pharisaic Judaism, of a universal priesthood, in whose raaks they even included women. They saw in the ecstatic phenomena of hysteria the manifestations of a supernatural power. In some respects, the Montanists were pro- totypes of the modern Quakers, believing their "mediums" or prophets to be the immediate recip- ients of divine inspiration. They retained the primitive Christian anticipation of the early de- struction of the world, aud the return of Christ in glory to reign over a regenerated earth. In praying, "Thy kingdom come," they therefore prayed literally, as did Jesus and his disciples, for the end of the world. They exercised fanatical severity in discipline, requiring unmarried women THE MARTYR PERIOD 259 to go veiled, forbiddiag any to wear ornaments or any save the plainest and simplest clothing. Tney regarded marriage as merely a concession to the sensual nature of man, and forbade second mar- riages as adultery. They taught the impossibility of a second repentance, and the eternal punish- ment of the unregenerate. Tertullian, one of their chief representatives, held that there were seven mortal sins, which, if committed after baptism, were unpardonable, and doomed the sinner to eternal perditioo. These fanatical people, with their hysterical visions and ecstasies, their secret assemblies and social exclusiveness, their rigid asceticism and irra- tional millennarianism, were regarded by the popu- lace very much as witches and professors of the "black art" were looked upon daring the preva- lence of the witchcraft delusion in Europe and America. The educated public sentiment of the time abhorred the professors of magic and sorcery ; and, while not sufficiently comprehending the method of science to regard alleged supernatural phenomena as the result of fraud, delusion, or abnormal physical and nervous conditions, they assigned to them a significance and an origin wholly evil, and regarded their practitioners as worthy of condign punishment. The Christian persecutions, therefore, were a natural consequence of ignorance, credulity, and superstition on both sides. While the Christians often suffered from unjust accusations, and, in the persons of their leaders, probably represented a higher standard of morality than that which 260 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY generally prevailed ia correspoudiug social circles in Pagan society, on the other hand, individuals, and even entire congregations, were open to just charges of immorality an(? gross superstition. It is hardly to be wondered at that indignation, justly aroused against a few, should often expend itself upon those who were blameless. The new doc- trine, but little understood, was sometimes con- demned, in the persons of its most worthy de- fenders, for evils which appeared in the lives of some of its professors, even as free thought and rational religion in our own day often suffer un- merited odium, owing to the unworthy lives of some of their advocates. DeTelopment of Christian Doctrine: Incarnation and Atonement. During this period, two leading doctrines of the Christian faith took form, and finally became recognized as fundamental to the Christian sys- tem. These were the doctrines of the divine incarnation and atonement for sin by an expiatory sacrifice, involving the shedding of blood. The latter, prefigured in the ancient Hebrew faith, was no less also a doctrine of the popular Pagan relig- ion. Personal mutilation, the sacrifice of auimals, and even at times of human beings, characterized a certain phase in the development of nearly all the early religions of the world ; and, accompany- ing these rites, we find the belief in their placat- ing or atoning efficacy. One of these rites, often celebrated at this period, was the taurobolium, or THE MARTYR PERIOD 261 criobolium, a kind of baptism in the blood of a sacrificed bull or ram. In the performance of this rite, the worshipper stood naked beneath a perforated platform, and was drenched from head to foot in the blood of the slaughtered animal. This horrible experience was thought to be a certain ransom from all sin, and a pledge of happiness in the life to come. As the worshipper, reeking with the deluge of blood, passed out through the crowd, the people pressed around him to win some share, even by a touch of the atoning blood, in his salvation from the conse- quences of sin. The doctrine of salvation by the blood of Christ appropriately took form during the sanguinary period of the martyrs ; and Origen even attributes a saving efficacy to the blood of the persecuted followers of the Nazarene, of a like character to that claimed for the blood of Christ. The doctrine of the incarnation was never a Jewish belief, and was absorbed by Christianity directly from heathenism. "We have, then," says Prof. Allen, "in the mind of Paganism at this epoch, the two characteristic religious ideas of the age— incarnation and expiatory sacrifice- distinctly conceived and plainly developed The important thing to notice of them is that they are the ideas of that age. They are not peculiar to Christianity: it would be truer to say that, in origin and essence, they are rather Pagan than Christian. That they had a powerful effect in shaping the Christian belief there can be no doubt. At least, they predisposed the mind of the Roman 262 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHKISTIANIT^ world to accept that belief so broadly and so easily as it did." * Justiu Martyr was one of the earliest of the Christian Fathers to place especial emphasis upon the doctrine of salvation by the blood of Christ. He also recognized the likeness of the Christian ceremony of the eucharist to certain heathen rites. In his First Apology, he says : "Of the food called by us Eucharist, no one is allowed to par- take but him who believes the truth of our doc- trineji, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the forgiveness of sins and to regenera- tion, and who so lives as Christ has directed. For we do not receive them as ordinary food or ordinary drink ; but as, by the word of God, Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was made flesh, ... so also the food which was blessed by the prayer of the Word which proceeded from him ... is, we are taught, both the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. . . . The same thing in the mysteries of Mithra, also, the evil demons initiated and caused to be done ; for bread and a cup of water are placed in the mystic rites for one who is to be initiated, with the addition of certain words, as you know or may learn." In his dialogue with the Jew, Trypho, he adduces many alleged sym- bols of the blood of Christ from the Hebrew writings and ceremonials, arguing particularly from the expression, "washing his robe in the blood of the grape," which he connects with Jesus' Oriental and symbolical statement, "This is my blood," that Jesus could have had no human * Christian History, vol. i. "The Mind of Paganism." THE MARTYR PERIOD 263 parentage, but was iu fact the son of that God who made the grape and the vine. The Christianity of this period, as well as the apostolic age, was deeply tainted with irrational superstitions. Justin Martyr was a firm believer in the active influence of demons in human affairs. Athenagoras, whom Dr. Jackson alleges to have been "the superior of all in his own aget in liter- ary merit and broad philosophical culture," and who wrote "the best defence of the Christians of his age,"* alludes, as to an uncontradicted fact, to "the angels who have fallen from heaven and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of giants who are the demons who wander about the world." Elsewhere, in the tone of the Persian dualism, he speaks of "the Prince of Matter, who exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God." From the demonism and puerile superstition of the Christian Fathers, mingled though it is with powerful arguments for monotheism and against idolatry, and with injunctions for a higher purity of thought and life, we and the rational world will henceforth turn to the lofty ethics, the pure spirit uality, the refined culture and noble life of Marcu? Aurelius, the Stoic emperor, as to a well of re- freshment after passing through a parched and barren desert. Surely, the closer we approach to the source of that religion under the influence of which we have been reared and nurtured, the more clearly do we perceive it to be n o unique or • Christian Literatvre Primers. 264 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY iufallible system of thought and belief, but rather of like texti.re and character with all the other religions of the world. It is divine as they are divine, — as the world and all things therein are divine, — and no otherwise. It is human as they are human, fallible as they are fallible. It arof?o by a natural process of evolution out of pre-exist- ing systems, to complete the overthrow of the pre- vailing though effete polytheistic cultm, and to supplement the narrowness and partialism of the decaying ethnic religions by the principles of uui- versalism and human brotherhood. la the pres- ence of its errors and its superstitions, and equally of the good that is in it, our conceit of Christian infallibility drops away, from very shame. We can doubt no longer that in every land and every faith may be traced, together with much human imperfection, the working of the Power Eternal that brings beauty from ashes, order from chaos, a nobler humanity from the conflicts of the ages, and in the future will evolve from the turmoil and contradictions of our present social order a new and yet diviner manhood. In looking back, finally, over the period now under discussion, we cannot doubt that the suffer- ings and deaths of the Christian martyrs were powerfully instrumental in promoting and estab- lishing the new religion. This, however, is a phe- nomenon not peculiar to any single form of faith. So has it always been since the world began. That cause, that opinion, for which people willingly g've their lives, is ever on the road to triumph. THE MARTvp PERIOD 265 •'The head that once was bowed to earth Up in the heavens now towers, And the martyr of a former day Becomes the saint of ours. While he who now, denounced and scorned, Speaks boldly for the right. Shall in the glorious f utu'" shine A prophet, crowned wiih light. «Y OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY exhibiting no theological bias whatever : "My most sweet wife" ; "My most dear husband" ; "My well- deserving father and mother"; "My most sweet child"; "Innocent little lamb." In one place, we read that a husband and wife "lived together with- out any complaint or quarrel, without taking or giv- ing offence." The simplicity of these inscriptions is evidence of a sincerity and truthfulness that it is to be feared are sometimes wanting in the elaborate eulogies of our modern churchyard literature. Of the heathen monuments of this period. Prof. Allen declares, "The inscriptions sometimes express a pious and humble trust in terms curiously like those of the Christian monuments."* In the pres- ence of a great and impressive event, a common human nature stands revealed behind the masques of the most varying creeds. To sum up this testimony of the early catacombs, it may be said that we find here no elaborate Christology, no deification of Jesus, no trinitarian dogma, no horror of eternal punishment, no theol- ogy even, save the simplest expression of theism. We find evidence of a Christianity scarcely differ- entiated from the surrounding Paganism, save in its disuse of polytheistic symbols ; but little affected by theological controversies or state per- secutions; cherishing gladly a simple trust in the leadership of that Good Shepherd in whose fold there was no distinction of birth, of riches, or of social position. Differentiation of Chriatiauitf from Paeanism. There thus seem to be many points of agreement between the popular conception of Christianity • Christian History. By Joseph Henry Allen. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 275 and the cou temporary Paganism, the chief differ- ence, superficially noticeable, appearing to be that from the former all polytheistic implications were excluded. Wherein, then, shall we find the secret of their divergence? Wherein, the motive of the impulse which led the devotees of the new faith to forsake and contemn the old? What elements can we discover, held in common by all the Chris- tian believers of this period, which will account for the rapid progress of the new religion, and for the general favor with which it was greeted by the common people? Evidently, the distinguishing characteristics of the growing faith were not those of notable moral superiority. The careful student of this period can hardly fail to confirm the conclusion of Dr. Hedge, that the primitive Church did not aim primarily at good behavior. "Had this been the end," he declares, "there would have been a rapid and marked improvement in the morals of society. But no such improvement appears."* The admo- nitions of Paul and of the Fathers prove, on the contrary, that the worst of social conditions were not uncommon within the bosom of the Christian communities. That feature in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles which avoided conflict with the constituted authorities by inculcating the doctrine of non-resistance ; which regarded a tem- porary submission to social injustices as preferable to active protest and forceful opposition, in view of the speody destruction of the existing order of • Article "Christianity in Conflict with Hellenism," in Unitarian Review. By F rederic Henry Hedge, D.D. 276 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY the world,— lent itself readily to the methods of designing theologians, and retarded the practical application of the ethical principles of the Gospels in the reorganization of society. One principle there was, however, which was so interwoven with the fundamental universalism of the new faith that it could not be kept wholly in abeyance,— the new and radical social doctrine of the equality of all men in the sight of God, the foundation of the Christian socialism of the Gospels, which was so mighty a power to bring hope and better promise for the future to the poor, the weary, and the heavy-laden. Where, if not in this new social doctrine, shall we look for the impulse which car- ried the new faith onward through this troubled period of its infancy to its final triumph? The practical communism of the earliest generations * was indeed modified by the necessities of living and laboring in the midst of an antagonistic social order, but the great hope for the future endured. The kingdom of heaven was yet anticipated upon a regenerated earth. Here and there, the new doc- * "The early Christian communism was an expression of the essential spirit of original Christianity, not an accident, as many students of the Bible would have us believe. Other incidents of this story are unintelligible, except as they presuppose this curious state of things. In that dreadful legend of the early Cliristiau community which is embodied in the Book of Acts, we find Peter exercising his supposed supernatural powers to strike dead Ananias and Sapphira for their lies. Apart from the miracle in- volved, the feeling of Peter is ethically incomprehensible, until we remember that their lying words covered actions ■which involved disloyalty to the fundamental institution of that early society. They had vowed their goods to the little Christian commune, and had kent back a part of the price. Their action was a fatal blow to the essential life of the community. Therefore, a singular manifestation of the effect of the first outpouring of the divine Siiirit in the Christian Church was commuaisra."— ifev. R. Heber Newton, in discourse preached May 24, 1885. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 277 trine reacted upon existing social conditions, tend- ing to reduce the barriers between classes and to improve the condition of the toiling poor. We may instance such evidences of this tendency as are presented in the story of one Hermas, a wealthy convert of the time of Trajan, who received bap- tism at an Easter festival, with his wife and chil- dren, and twelve hundred and fifty slaves, upon whom he subsequently bestowed their freedom, and gifts of money and property. One Chroma- tins, also, in the reign of Diocletian, is said to have had fourteen hundred slaves baptized with himself, after which they were emancipated.* The new faith, sustained by the hope of the coming recognition of human brotherhood, presses onward to its secular triumph. We are now to follow it, under the lead of Constautine, its great protector, to the throne of the Caesars. But, in this immense secular gain, how much is involved of loss, how much of this primitive simplicity, this freedom from dogmatism, this capacity for assimi- lating the better elements of the existing social order 1 The spirit of equality will retire yet further into obscurity, giving place to the rule of a despotic hierarchy. Heathen art, at first popu- larly welcomed to express the feelings of a * One can hardly wonder that the poor were ready to make any change in their religion which promised to im- prove their social condition. Thi3 wholesale baptism of slaves, however, throws a curious light upon the methods by which Christianity was so rapidly extended. It recalls the story of an army officer during the War of the Rebel- lion, who, on hearing of the conversion of thirty men in a rival regiment, under the exhortations of a revivalist, not to be outdone, ordered his corporal to detail at once a file ot forty men for baptism ! The incidents above narrated are recorded in Dr. Philip SchafE's History of the Christian Church. 278 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY commou humanity, will be condemned and pro- hibited as impious. The Good Shepherd, the joyous and beautiful figure of the earliest Chris- tian conception, will give place to the Man of Sorrows, "with marred visage." The "life in God," after the death of the body, — the peaceful rest for the weary, — will give way to the pictured horrors of eternal torment. Dogmatic theology, at last triumphant, will touch and blight even the lives and hopes of the common people. Slavery of the body will give place to a profounder enslave- ment and degradation of the intellect and reason, — a mental bondage for ages so complete that no Christian Epictetus shall arise to assert, "Although I am a slave, I also am a man." Europe, held in the iron embrace of an omnipotent ecclesiasticism, will hurry forward to the gloom of the Dark Ages " 'Tls true 'tis pity, And pity 'tis 'ti3 true." From ITlarciiiit Aurelina to Couxrautiue* The period from the time of Marcus Aurelius to the final secular triumph of Christianity under Constantino, though it included the era of perse- cution, was marked by a steady increase in the number of Christian communities, by a growing boldness of the polemical writers in defence of the new theology, and also by certain notable indica- tions that the new faith was coming to be regarded as a possible factor of strength to the imperial government, in case it could be assimilated and directed to its support. For good or ill, Chris- tianity had become a recognized political power. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGIOX 279 It must either be systematically opposed and undermined, or accepted, and placed, if not above, at least upon an equality with the existing Pagan cultus. Considerations of state policy lather than of moral or religious principle appear to have actuated the successive wielders of the imperial power in their treatment of the growing faith. If any among them were influenced by higher motives than those of selfish aggrandizement, it was the great Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Julian, whom Christian prejudice has named "the Apostate," but whose attempt to revive and purify the Pagan religion appears to have been actuated by a sincere abhorrence of what he deemed the errors and superstitions of Christianity.* Neither Constantino nor those earlier emperors, who vouch- safed a juasi-recognition of the government to the new faith by attempting to fuse it with Paganism, give evidence of a tithe of the sincerity and high- minded patriotism which impartial history concedes to Marcus and to Julian. The limits of this discussion forbid a detailed examination of the relations of the individual em- perors to Christianity. We must hasten on to the period of its secular triumph. Maximin, the predecessor of Constantino and Maxentius, was a man of dissolute and tyrannical character, whose early attitude toward Christianity was that of a persecutor. He prohibited the Christians from meeting in the cemeteries and catacombs, as had long been their custom ; he confiscated the prop- •"The Emperor Julian's watchword was, 'The worship of the gods: uo worship of dead vaen.' " —Seeley, Homan Imperialism. 280 A STUDY OP PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITT erty of the churches, waged war with the Christian State of Armenia, and even atttempted to reor- ganize the Pagan religion upon the model of the Christian episcopacy. Toward the close of his life, however, he apparently became convinced, not indeed of the moral error, but more probably of the impolicy of this course of action. He issued an edict of toleration, and commanded a cessation of all violent methods of persecution, recommending only the milder measures of per- suasion to win back the Christians to the faith of their fathers. His last imperial act was the pro- mulgation of an edict which restored to the churches their confiscated property, and proclaimed complete liberty of conscience in matters of religion throughout the empire. The subsequent course of his successor was therefore no abrupt and revolutionary change in the policy of the government. The Character and Auilude of Conslantine. The reign of Constantine witnessed the practi- cal dissolution of the Roman Empire by the removal of the capital to the Bosphorus, and the secular triumph of Christianity. As a political leader, a ruler of men, a captain of armies, this emperor well merits the title of "the Great." As an exemplar of religion and morals, he better merits the title of "the Infamous." He shrunk from no crime which seemed requisite to the furtherance of his insatiable ambition. Upon his hands was the blood of the weak and innocent as well as of his enemies in war,— of his own flesh and CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 281 blood as well as of the stranger. "His father-in-law, his brother-in-law, Liciuius, his own son, Cnspus, his nephew, the son of Licinius, a boy eleven years old, and, lastly, his wife, Fausta, were his vic- tims." Such a man could in no high or spiritual sense have been converted to the simple, childlike faith, the ideal socialistic system, of the Man of Nazareth. It was the mythical Christ, and not the human Jesus, the Prophet of Righteousness, who commanded his allegiance. If anything m Chris- tian doctrine attracted his intellect, it was, doubtless, the convenient dogma of substitution and aton^ ment, which appealed to his supreme egoism and selfish dread of that unknown future which the great emperor as well as the least of mankind was finally compelled to face. Not until the very close of his career, and upon his death-bed, did he profess repentance, and submit to Christian baptism,-an ordinance which, in the prevailing superstitious belief of the Christians, was efficar cious in sweeping away the penalty of all previous sins. Constantine's services to the Church were ren- dered while he was in the midst of his crimes, and before he had formally renounced the Pagan- ism of which he continued to be the PonUfex Maxmus,-the legal and recognized head and chief The story of his conversion to Christian- ity by a miraculous vision of the cross appears to rest wholly upon his own testimony. An ex- treme exercise of charity might lead us to inter- pret this alleged experience as a subjective illu- sion, similar to Paul's vision of the resurrected 282 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHKISTIANITY Jesus. More probably, however, it should be classed among pioas frauds, and regarded as a pure invention of the emperor for the purpose of conciliating the Christians to his support. Coustantine's Eclecticism : His Berogaitou of Pagauism. Constanline founded a number of Christian churches in Rome, contributed to their support from the public revenues, and even set apart a basilica within the Lateran palace as a place for Christian worship. Side by side with these tem- ples of the new religion, however, the worship of Cybele and the other Pagan deities continued unopposed even as late as the fifth century, — a hundred years after the recognition of Christianity by the empire. In Constantinople, the new capi- tal, Constantino not only erected several Christian - churches, but also a temple to Rhea, the mother - of the gods, one to Castor and Pollux, and one to • Tyche, the fortune of the city. Christian histo- rians have claimed for him the credit of being the first to grant authoritative recognition of Sunday as the Sabbath, but the edict commanding its celebration makes no allusion to the day as a Christian institution. It was still devoted to the worship of the conquering solar deity. Apollo, Bacchus, Mithra, and Osiris had long received honor as incarnations of the sun-god. To these, the emperor, and apparently the popular senti- ment, now added Jesus, — a circumstance the more natural owing to the fact that the popular Chris- tian mythology, now fully developed, had drawn CHRISTIANITY THE STATE UELIGION 283 many of its characteristic features from the solar mythus. The 25th of December was set apart as the birthday of the founder of Christianity ; and the first day of the week became a holy day, devoted to his worship,— a common inheritance from the heathen cultus of the solar deity. About the same time that the public recognition of Sunday was made obligatory, Constantine issued orders to the haruspices to continue the heathen practice of divination on one or more notable occa- sions. He also placed the image of Apollo and ^ the name of Jesus together on his coins. The Worship of the Emperor authorizetl aud continued by Constanlioe. The worship of the Emperor, inaugurated by the Caesars, still continued, and received new impetus and recognition at the hands of Constan- tine. He went further than any of his predeces- sors in providing for his own post-mortem adora- tion, ordaining that thereafter, annually, a golden statue of himself should be carried in solemn procession through the streets of Rome, and (hat every citizen, including the reigning emperor, should prostrate himself before it. "On the top of a monolith of porphyry," says Dr. Hedge, "he placed a statue of Apollo, rededicated to himself, with a halo of rays formed, it is said, of nails taken from the cross [of Jesus] which [the Empress] Helena had brought from Jerusa- lem. Between the nails, the inscription: 'To Constantine, shining like the sun, presiding over his city, an image of the new risen Sun of Right- 284 A STUDY OF PKIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY eousness.* This column, we are told, was long an object of formal worship to the Christians of Constantinople."* The adoration of the em- peror as an incarnate deity was transmitted, to- gether with the characteristic art of the early Church and many of the forms of primitive Christian worship, to the Oriental Church of our own day, the recognized head of which, the Czar of Russia, is still addressed by his subjects as "our God on earth." f Sectarian Disputes: The Donatists and CIr- cumcellions. Tyrant, murderer, and patron of idolatry as was this so-called Christian emperor, this pro- tector of the infant Church, he was excelled in cruelty and infinitely surpassed in bigotry by many of his Christian subjects. The African Church — fertile mother of an evil brood of irra- tional dogmas — became divided into two great sects, the Donatists and the Catholics. The former claimed to be the only elect people of Christ, the sole inheritors of apostolic succession. The latter stoutly resisted this exclusive claim. The battle of words soon culminated in appeals to physical force. When, by violence or artifice, the Donatists obtained possession of a church belonging to their opponents, they burned its altar, melted its cups, rebaptized all who desired to unite with their services, and even removed the •Article in Unitarian Review, "Christianity in Conflict with Hellenism." t For an interesting account of the Oriental Church, see Dean Stanley's Lectures on the Eastern Church. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 285 bodies of dead Catholics from the common place of sepulture,* This feud ultimated in the most barbarous scenes of riot, massacre, and licentious- ness, to which both parties contributed, and in which they gloried. The Donatists boasted of their martyrs: the Catholics testify to their own barbarities, appealing to the examples of Moses, Joshua, and Elijah, to justify the wholesale de- struction of their opponents. Optatus, a Catholic bishop, exultingly cries, "Is the vengeance of God to be defrauded of its victims?" It is probable that more people perished in this earliest sectarian feud than the total number of Christian martyrs during the persecutions of the heathen emperors. "Where Christianity has outstripped civilization," says Dean Milman, . . . "whether in the bosom of an old society or within the limits of a savage life, it becomes, in times of violent excitement, instead of a pacific principle to assuage, a new element of ungovernable strife."t The same able historian thus describes the African Christian of the period now under consideration : "Of his new religion he retained only the perverted language, or rather that of the Old Testament, with an implacable hatred of all hostile sects ; a stern ascetic continence, which perpetually broke out into paroxysms of unbridled licentiousness; and a fanatic passion for martyr- dom, which assumed the acts of a kind of method- ical insanity."! The Circumcellions, another of these fanatical • We are reminded of the present attitude of the Cath- olics toward those of other faiths,— an attitude which has often ultimated in acts almost as barbarous as those of the Donatists. ^ „ . , t msttyry of Christianity. t Ibid. 286 A STUDY OF PKIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY sects, asserted the theory of the civil equality of mankind ; proclaimed the abolition of slavery ; took the master from his chariot and placed the slave in his stead, compelling the master to walk by his side ; declared all debts to be cancelled, and granted release to the debtors ; and, in defence of these doctrines, — which, indeed, have no inconsiderable foundation in the literal teachings of Jesus, — they proclaimed a crusade against the existing order of society. Abandoning their accustomed duties as agricultural laborers, they attacked all who refused to be governed by their interpretation of the gos- pel teachings. Since Jesus forbade his disciples to use the sword, declaring that "they who take the sword shall perish by the sword," the Circumcel- lions took huge clubs for their weapons, with which they beat their enemies to death. Their commu- nistic socialism resulted in habits of marital promis- cuity and unbridled licentiousness. Their bands of marauders in the name of Christ were accom- panied by troops of abandoned women, whom they called "sacred virgins." Their piratical leaders were denominated "captains of the saints." Some of these fanatical sects, of which we can here give but one or two specimen descriptions, were still powerful at the close of the sixth Christian cen- tury. The Ceuflict of the Creeds: Arins and Athauasins. During the reign of Coustantine, the memorable theological conflict known as the Arian controversy culminated, and resulted in the formal proclamation of the doctrine of the Church concerning the CHRISTIAXITY THE STATE liELIGIOX 287 nature of Christ and his relationship to the Supreme Being. This controversy, which appealed exclu- sively to the metaphysics of theology, grew directly out of the doctrine of the Logos, first formally accepted as an essential feature in the Christian faith by the authoritative recognition of the Fourth Gospel, in the latter part of the second century. The term Logos, in the mystical philosophy of the Alexandrian neo-Platonists, represented an attri- bute rather than a person, an emanation from the supreme Deity rather than the generic inheritor of his personality. The Logos was often described figuratively as the "Son of God," while it remained in the mind of the metaphysician as an attribute co-eternal with God himself, — not made by him, but an eternal manifestation of his divine nature. An attribute is of course forever inseparable from its subject. The Christian theologians, however, treated the figurative expressions of this Oriental mysticism as they had treated the Orientalisms of Paul and Jesus. They personified the attribute, and identified the Logos, regarded as the Son of God, with the man Jesus ; torturing the Hebrew phrase of the Gospels, originally descriptive of citizenship of the heavenly kingdom, the regener- ated Jewish state, into a claim for a special and unique relationship between Jesus and the Father.* The Logos in Christian teaching was hyposta- • Ewald says of this term, "the Son of God" : "With it, the reigning Ijing of Israel could formerly be cMstinguished before all other members of the community of God. ... It was first used, not to flatter the monarch, but in accord- ance with the strict idea of the true religion,— that, if all members of the community are children of God, elevated to this dignity by divine grace and education, and at the same time always called to remain faithful to this higher 288 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY sized ; that is, as interpreted in the unyielding idiom of the Latin scholars, it was regarded as an inde- pendent substance, no longer merely as an attribute of God. In this rigid logic, this separate substance, endowed with personality, accredited with the affinity of sonship, could no longer be deemed co-eternal with the Father. Whether "first begot- ten," as announced by Philo, or "only begotten," as proclaimed in the Christian epic, it must have had a genesis and beginning. Yet it was admitted that through all time the Son and Father had dwelt together as separate and co-equal persons. To the ordinary mind, here was an insoluble contradiction, but not so to the metaphysician. In his thought, time itself had had a beginning. Both the parties to the Arian controversy agreed that there was no imewhen the Father and Son did not dwell together as equal persons. Yet said Arius, a presbyter, "There was when the Son did not exist." The Father dwelt alone in that eter- nity which was before time began, — in that eternity which, in the cant of the current metaphysics, was not infinite duration, but the actual opposite or negation of duration. Moreover, said Arius, if the Logos was born or created, it could not be "of the same substance" Qofioovaiog) with the Father, but could only be "of like substance" (^ofioioixjiog). Around these two Greek words, differing in but a letter, and the stage of life, then the trae King of the community is des- tined above every one else to attain such an exaltation, in order that he, as standing nearer to God than any one else, m^y enjoy more fully his grace and protection, while at the same time, should he depart from God, he must feel his chastisement mostdirectly and most severely."— £waici, p. 114. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 289 metaphysical notions which they represented, was waged the long and bitter battle of opposing theo- logical factions, — a battle whose weapons were not always spiritual or even logical, and in which no place remained for the manifestation of the sweet graces of Christian charity and brotherly love. In such a controversy, we of the present day can have but little interest. If the arguments of Arius were enforced by a more unyielding logic, the doc- trine and thought of his opponents were perhaps broader and more catholic than his; but the foundations of both parties rested in an arid waste of metaphysical speculation, as far removed as possible from the lofty ethical impulse which lay at the heart of the teaching of Jesus, and alien- ated from all rational conceptions of objective truth. Constantine at first apparently sympathized with the doctrine of Arius, in which was implied the superiority of the Father to the Son, but subse- quently threw the weight of his influence on the side of his great opponent, Athanasius, under whose leadership and inspiration the council of Nicaea finally formulated an authoritative state- ment of the orthodox belief in the following lucid terms : — "The Son is begotten from the substance of God, God begotten from God, light from light, very God from very God, begotten, not made, of the same sub- stance with the Father." * •For an interesting popular account of the Arian con- troversy, see Christian Ilistori/, by Joseph Henry Allen, See also Milman's History of Chrisiianity , Chadwick's The Man Jesus, Savage's Talks about Jestis, etc. For more elaborate explanations, see Neander, Mosheim, Uaur, etc, 290 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN* ?T Coustantiue's Influence as Peace-maker. During all these theological controversies, Con- fttantine maintained the position of a pacificator, endeavoring to bring harmony out of discord, to consolidate the growing Church into a powerful and homogeneous body, aud to make it the support and ally of the imperial throne. Doubtless, he saw in the rapidly growing hierarchy the germs of a power which, through its influence on the conscience and credulity of the people, would soon be able to make and destroy empires, to sustain or overthrow dynasties and kings. With a practical shrewdness which allied itself with the profound- est wisdom of state-craft, he seized upon all pos- sible means to weld together the schismatic sects, and to bind the one holy and Catholic Church to the fortunes of the empire. He flattered the bish- ops, humbly claiming to be himself but as one of them ; yet, in the councils of the Church, he was always the power behind and above the ecclesias- tics, guiding their actioQ according to his will. The radical divorce between dogmatic theology and true religion, between a recognition of the formal observances of ecclesiasticism and that essential nobility of character which constitutes the supreme beauty and glory of manhood, was never more completely exemplified than in the character and example of Constautine. We may admire his statesmanship, his shrewdness, his ability as a ruler ; but we must not permit our rec- ognition of these traits, or his position as the first Christian emperor, to lead us to regard him as in any sense a worthy representative of natural mo- rality or of true religion. CHRISTIAXITY THE STATE RELIGION 291 Early Councils. The Formation of the Caiion. The formation of the Christian Canon cannot be attributed to the influence of any single person or to the authority of any single council of the Church. Four men, Irenseus, TertuUian, Clement of Alexandria, and Augustine, were chiefly instru- mental in determining the selection of the books now deemed canonical and inspired; and several of the early councils indorsed and confirmed their selection. Of these four men, Irenseus was the earliest ; and his influence was the most important. Writing more than a hundred years before the first oecumenical or general council of the Church, his methods were uncritical, and his decisions, in most instances, were purely arbitrary. Prof. Davidson says of Irenseus, Clement, and TertuUian : "The three Fathers of whom we are speaking had neither the ability nor inclination to examine the genesis of documents surrounded with an apostolic halo. No analysis of their authenticity or genuineness was seriously attempted. . . . Irenseus was credu- lous and blundering; TertuUian, passionate and one-sided; and Clement of Alexandria, imbued wich the treasures of Greek wisdom, was mainly occupied with ecclesiastical ethics. . . . Their asser- tions show both ignorance and exaggeration." * The first collection of Christian writings, how- ever, was not formed by either of these distin- guished Fathers of the Church, but by Marcion, who, for his Pauline and Gnostic tendencies, was • The CJiristian Canon, by Samuel Davidson, D.D. See also abbreviated article by same author in Kncyclopsedia Britannica. 292 A STUDY OF PraMITIVE CHRISTIANITY accounted a heretic. His collection contained one Gospel — not identical with either of our four canonical Gospels — and ten Epistles of Paul, which, however, he did not consider inspired or of divine authority. Irenseus arbitrarily selected our four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul, the First Epistle of John, and the Revela- tion. In an appendix, as of less authority, he placed the Second Epistle of John, the First of Peter, and the Shepherd of Hermas. He rejected absolutely the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Second of Peter, the Third of John, Jude, and James. Clement of Alexandria, about 210 A.D., accepted all of our New Testament writings except the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Second of John and Jude, which, together with the Revelation of Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the First Epistle of Clement, he placed in an appendix, as of secondary importance. Tertullian, about ten years later, ignored the Second Epistle of Peter, the Third of John and James, and de- clared Hebrews, Jude, Second John, and First Peter not to be authoritative, ranking them with the apocryphal Shepherd of Hermas. Many early col- lections of the Christian writings omitted the Apocalypse, which is still ignored by the Eastern Church. Besides numerous other fragmentary copies of the New Testament writings, there are four great manuscripts of the Greek Bible now extant. The Codex Sinaidcus, at St. Petersburg, jn-obably the oldest of the four, dating, it is believed, from about the middle of the fourth century, contains not only CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 293 the canonical books of tho New Testament, but also the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas, now deemed apocryphal. The Codex Vaticanus, at Rome, of but little later date, ends at Hebrews ix., 4, by mutilation. The Codex Alexan- drinus, in the possession of the British Government at London, includes the two Epistles of Clement of Rome in the New Testament collection. The Codex Ephraemi, at Paris, is a palimpsest ; i.e., it is written over another writing, still partially legible. It agrees, in the main, with the other codices, but is of later date, and less perfect and reliable. The variations in these earliest extant collections of the New Testament writings attest the fact that no general and complete agreement has ever been reached respecting the books deemed canonical or authoritative. The Council of Hippo, in Africa, in the year 393 A.D.,— Augustine being present as the ruling spirit,— declared the books of the Bible as at pres- ent published to be canonical, including the Old Testament Apocrypha, but omitting Lamentations. The Council of Carthage, four years later,— Augus- tine again being present,— confirmed this list, and ordered that no other books should be read in the churches under the title of "Sacred Scriptures." At a second Council of Carthage, A.D. 419, Augus- tine's selections were again ratified. There is nothing, however, in the action of these councils, or in the character of the men composing them, which would tend to sustain their authority as infallible or even reasonably just and intelligent. Dr. Philip Schaff,the orthodox historian of the Church, 294: A STUDV OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY says of the bishops who constituted these councils, "Together with abundant talents, attainments, and virtues, there were gathered also . . . ignorance, in- trigues, and partisan passions, which had already been excited on all sides by long controversies pre- ceding, and now met and arrayed themselves, as hostile armies for open combat." * Nor is this mil- itant comparison a mere figure of speech, for vio- lent brawls and unseemly physical conflicts were not uncommon at these convocations. At the first Council of Nicaea, Nicholas, bishop of Myra, met the arguments of Arius by bestowing upon the jaw of that venerable presbyter such a violent blow that a temporary disuse of that important organ of de- bate was rendered necessary. Of the third general council of the Church, held at Ephesus, Dr. Schaff declares that its proceedings were marked by "shameful intrigue, uncharitable lust of condemna- tion, and coarse violence of conduct."! Dean Mil- man affirms that "intrigue, injustice, violence, de- cisions on authority alone, and that the authority of a turbulent majority, decisions by wild accla- mation rather than sober inquiry, detract from the reverence, and impugn the judgments ... of the later councils." % The impartial historian can hardly perceive any valid reason for exempting the earlier councils from the same judgment. In the midst of such influences, civil and ecclesi- astical, as we have described, were born the "infal- lible Church" of Catholic Christianity and the "in- fallible Bible" of Protestantism. When we reflect soberly up on this phenomenon, so extraordinary in * History of the Christian Church. t Ibid. t History of Christianity. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 295 its alleged results, so human — not to say sometimes inhuman — in its means and methods, can we fail to conclude that there is not one particle of evidence to sustain the claims for infallibility made on be- half of either the Bible or the Church ? Tlie IVatiiral Evolntion of Christianity. We are now approaching the conclusion of this discussion ; but, before we leave it for the consid- eration of matters of seemingly greater practical import, let us recall the leading features which have impressed themselves on our narrative of the historical evolution of Christianity, and draw from them such natural conclusions as we may concern- ing the genesis and development of the Christian faith. The rise, progress, and triumph of Christianity constitute indeed one of the most remarkable phe- nomena in the world's history. We cannot wonder that an uncritical people, regarding it superficially, have seen in it evidences of supernatural interven- tion and the working of a greater than human power. A careful study of the development of other religions, however, will illustrate the truth that the rapid growth of Christianity, though indeed re- markable, is not an entirely unique phenomenon in history. The spread of Buddhism was even more rapid, not only in its native India, but also among peoples of alien race, unlike civilization, and differ- ent religion. It still numbers more adherents than all the sects of Christendom combined. In later times, the growth of Mohammedanism during the lifetime of its founder far surpassed the progress 296 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHUISTIANITY made by Christianity in the earlier years of its ex- istence.* In our own day and in the lifetime of some of its members, the Brahmo-Somaj of India has converted some hundreds of thousands of the native population to its pure theistic faith. Many of the earliest converts to Christianity were drawn from the Jewish communities scattered among the cities of the Roman Empire. The dis- solution of the Jewish commonwealth and the distribution of its people throughout the nations thus became a natural influence of notable import in favoring the spread of the Christian faith. The new religion, however, influenced but little the Ju- daism of Palestine ; and the later accretion of myth and dogma imported into Christianity from Aryan and Egyptian sources speedily resulted in a sepa- ration of the Hebrew element, and cut short the progress of the growing faith among the people of its founder. Jesus, the Myth and the ITIan. It is insisted by the dogmatic defenders of Chris- tianity, on the one hand, and by its dogmatic oppo- nents, on the other, that the New Testament narra- tives must either be accepted as a whole — the su- pernatural and miraculous elements included — or rejected entirely as of no historical value. If we have been successful in our treatment of this im- portant branch of our subject, however, it should be clear that, by the canons of a true historical and * Dean Stanley, in his Lectures on the Eastern Church, in noting the spread of Mohammedanism in Africa, concedes to it some admirable features which are lacking ia Oriental Christianity. His frank treatment of this subject is very suggestive and instructive. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 297 critical exegesis, it fs quite possible to separate the characteristics of the mythical Christ from the gen- uine features of the Man of Nazareth; and this, too, by the application of no arbitrary rule. Hav- ing recovered the picture of the historical Jesus from our investigation of the consenting testimony of the synoptical Gospels, and set over against it the remaining material of the Evangelical writers, the result proves the correctness of the method, almost with the certainty of mathematical demon- stration. On the one hand, we have Jesus, the Man, — a Hebrew of the Hebrews, — true son and successor of the prophets, finding his inspiration, his doc- trines, his apt illustrations, his intense moral con- victions, all latent in the ideas, the customs, sur- roundings, and even in the superstitions and prej- udices of his people. His doctrine, like Paul's, was, "to the Greeks, foolishness"; but it was by no means unfamiliar or incomprehensible to the peo- ple of Galilee and Judea. His aphorisms, quota- tions, and illustrations show familiarity with the Hebrew scriptures and with the current uncritical methods of expounding and interpreting them in the synagogues, but none whatever with the litera- ture and philosophy of Greece and Rome. The Jesus of the Triple Tradition is a simple, noble, manly personage, full of intense conviction and pro- phetic enthusiasm, who moves naturally and freely in his native Hebrew environment. The traces of the miraculous which still linger in his story are well-known superstitious belongings of his time and people. Jesus was conscience, humanity, compas- 298 A STUDY OP PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY sion incarnate, but conscience, humanity, and compassion tinged by the-habitual atmosphere of Hebrew life and thought. Without the current Jewish expectation of a coming Messiah, and of the kingdom of heaven soon to be established on the earth, the historical Jesus of the Triple Tradi- tion would have had no existence. That three or four Greek writers of a later century should invent such a character, living and moving in an atmos- phere so foreign to any other imaginable environ- ment, as some recent writers have suggested, — that, indeed, would be a miracle as difficult for the rigorous and vigorous apostles of iconoclastic rad- icalism to explain as are some of the legendary stories of the gospel narratives for their orthodox opponents. On the other hand, when we pass from the man Jesus of the Triple Tradition to the Christ of the excluded birth-legends and the \^onderful fabric of mysticism and dogma fouud in the Fourth Gospel, we pass out of the Hebrew environment into the region of Aryan and Egyptian thought. The Christian mythus finds its explanation in legends foreign and abhorrent to the Hebrew mind : in the similar myths which cluster about the story of Krishna in India, and which were reflected in the later tradi- tions of Buddhism ; in the like mythological con- ceptions of the Egyptian Osiris worship, and the current religions of Greece and Rome. Back of these, it rests upon a common substratum of solar mythology, which constituted so important an ele- ment in the religions of India, Persia, Greece, Rome, Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt. CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 299 The Mythical Eleuieat as related to the ProgreM of ChrJstianity. To account for the marvellous progress of Chris- tianity among the Aryan peoples of Europe, some- thing more than the life and character of the his- torical Jesus is demanded by the rational investi- gator. That the mythical and philosophical accre- tions which gathered about his story in the gospel narratives helped to familiarize and popularize his teachings outside the boundaries of Judaism, there can scarcely be a doubt. This influence was greatly aided by the teaching of Paul, who in his own per- son combined Pharisaic Judaism with the results of Greek philosophical culture, and whose work was a preparation for the new Platonism of the Alexandrian schools, which drew into yet closer contact the alien faiths of Greece and Palestine. Finally, Paul's doctrine of Universalism severed Christianity from the ethnical narrowness of Ju- daism, and it fell as fruitful seed into a soil pre- pared by the political ferments succeeding the con- quests of Alexander and the Caesars,-into a world united as never before by the liberal and cosmopol- itan policy of the Roman Empire. Under the modifying influence of its mythical and dogmatic accretions, it is evident that the simple ethical teaching of Jesus was largely ob- scured and misinterpreted. There were three fac- tors, however, in the evolution of Christianity, to which its progress and ultimate triumph appear to be chiefly due, that are traceable directly to the thought of Jesus, and that offer an historical justification for the popular regard in which he is 300 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY held as the founder of the new faith. These, taking them in the order of their development, were: first, that feature in the teaching of Jesus which based morality upon the inner motive rather than the outward act; secondly, the natural ultimatiou and practical application of this principle through the socialistic communism of primitive Christian- ity,* and particularly in the wider principle of Pauline Universalism; and, thirdly, the outcome and survival of this democratic and equalizing principle in the form of the church organization. The abrogation of caste and of social distinctions in the church organization was the surviving rem- nant of the earlier communism, which not even the triumph of the Roman hierarchy could wholly obscure, though it succeeded in transforming the democratic equality of the earlier communities into the subordinated equality of the "Church militant," — of soldiers marching under the command of an autocratic leader. The organization of the Church was possible only through the principle of Univer- salism introduced by Paul, but based ultimately upon the thought of Jesus. The separate commu- nities were welded together by the result of the dogmatic controversies, and the circumstances of the political situation, into a compact organization of workers, which gave Christianity a tremendous advantage in its conflict with heathenism. The ethnic religions, in their popular forms, were a matter of family interest rather than of organized, • More than a year after these words were written, we are gratified to find our judgment confirmed in the able and scholarly address of Rev. Dr Heber Newton on "The Relig- ious Aspect of Socialism." See Index of June 25, 1885. CHRIST rANITY THE STATE RELIGION 301 concerted public actioa. They fostered no univer- sal church. The state religion was usually quite different from the popular faith; and, while the schools of philosophy and secret and select associa- tions of the mystagogues interested the intelligent classes, they did not appeal to the sympathies of the common people. With this principle of organized Universalism in the primitive Christian faith, the tendency and policy of the Roman Empire coincided ; and the Church accordingly took form and being under the guiding influence of the State. "The first form which Christianity assumed," says Tiele, "as an established religion, was Roman. The Roman Catholic Church is simply the Roman universal empire modified and consecrated by Christian ideas. It left the old forms, for the most part, standing ; but it ennobled and elevated them by a new spirit. Its organization, and the efforts after unity which controlled all its development, were inherited from the Romans ; and it was by their means that it was enabled to become the teacher of the still rude populations of the north, to pre- serve rather than diffuse tha treasures which it had received from the ancients and from Jesus." * Christianity and the Religion of the Fatare. Looking back over the history of these earliest Christian centuries, is it wonderful, then, that the new religion gained steadily in power, and pressed forward to its ultimate triumph? Nay. The won- 'The History of Reliction, by Prof. C. P. Tiele, of the University of Leyden. 302 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY der would have been had the event proved other- wise. At every step, we behold the inevitable re- sults of easily discernible and wholly natural causes. Had the simple, unalloyed teaching of the Prophet of Nazareth prevailed throughout the em- pire, that indeed would have been a miracle. But Christianity triumphant, as we have seen, was far from being the religion of Jesus : it was a compro- mise with Pagan power and sacerdotalism, — a hy- brid product which the Nazarene would never have recognized as the child of his simple enthusiasm for righteousness, his devotion and self-abnegation, his suffering and agony, his poverty and supreme self-sacrifice. Imperial Rome was not the kingdom of righteousness whose coming he desired and prophesied, — no, nor any nation, people, or relig- ious communion which has succeeded it, owning or professing the name of Christian. His was a beautiful ideal, never to be completely realized, as he anticipated, by any earthly society; but let us not doubt that this rejected stone will yet take its place in the temple of the Religion of the Future, — the true religion of humanity, — which shall be neither exclusively Christian nor Buddhist, nor Mohammedan nor Hindu, which shall be known by no sectarian designation. Into its fold shall be welcomed all sincere and earnest seekers for the truth; all who strive for its manifestation in a life of righteousness ; all who believe, in the lan- guage of one of its prophets, that "Truth is our only armor in all passages of life and death." Iti blessed ministry shall lead them, and lead all th< world at last, to a perfect recognition of the Broth CHRISTIANITY THE STATE RELIGION 303 ERHOOD OP Man ; and to that trustful acceptance of the universe, which, independent even of theistic dogma, stands to all reverent and thoughtful minds as the rational fulfilment of Jesus' doctrine of the Fatherhood of God BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following books have been consulted in the preparation of this volume, and may be examined with advantage by persons desiring to obtain further information on the subjects herein treated : Abbot, Ezra, D.D.— The Fourth Gospel. An examination re- specting its authorship, authenticity, etc. Abbott, Edwin A., D.D.— Gospels. (Article in the Encyclo- paedia Britannica, ninth ed.) Allen, Prof. Joseph Henry.— Christian History. (First Period.) Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius. — Meditations. _ Apocryphal New Testament.— Compiled by WiUiam Hone, London, 1820. Apollonius TYAN.EUS.— Article in Encyclopsedia Bntannica. Arnold, Matthew. — Literature and Dogma. God and the Bible. Saint Paul and Protestantism. . . ~, Earth, A. (Member of the Socitit^ Asiatique of Pans.)— The Religious of India. Translated by Rev. J. Wood, Edinburgh. Baur, Prof. Ferdinand Christian, late professor of theology in the University of Tubingen.— Christ and Apollonius. Church History of the First Three Centuries. Bible for Learners. By Dr. H. Oort and Dr. I. Hooykaas, Rotterdam. , ,,. , Brewer, L. Cobham, LL.D.— Dictionary of Miracles, Instructive, Realistic, and Dogmatic. . „ , ^, ,, Chadwick, Rev. John W.— The Bible of To-day. The Man Jesus. Davidson, Samuel, D.D., LL.D.— The New Testament Canon. Article " Canon," Encyclopsedia Britannica (ninth ed.). Deutsch, Emanuel.— Literary Remains, article on the Talmud. EusEBius.— Church History. Contra Hieroclem. Everett, Prof. Carroll C, D.D.— The New Morality. Ewald!— History of Israel. (Translated by Russell Martineau.) Frothingham, Rev. O. B.— The Cradle of the Chnst^ . Geiger, Dr. Abraham, Rabbi at Frankfort-on-the-Main.— Juda- ism and its History. , . „ t^ • Gibbon, Edward.— Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Grant, Sir Alexander.— Aristotle's Ethics. _ , ,, . .^ Haug, Martin, Ph.D., late professor of Sanskrit at the Umversity of Munich.— The Religion of the Parsis. (Translated by E. W, West, Ph.D.) BIBLIOGRAPHY 305 Hbdge, Rev. Frederic H., D.D.— Christianity in Conflict with Hellenism. (In Unitarian Review.) Heilprin, Michael. — Hebrew Poetry. Holland, Frederic May. — The Reign of the Stoics. Horns. — Introduction to the New Testament. iRENiEUS. — Five Books against Heresies. Jackson, Rev. George A.— The Apostolic Fathers. Fathers of the Third Century. (Christian Literature Primers.) Jacobs, Joseph.— The God of Israel. (In Nineteenth Century Review, September, iSjg.) JosEPHUs, Flavius. — The Works of. Kei.m, Prof. Thbodor. — History of Jesus of Nazara. Knight, Richard Paynb, A.M. — Symbolical Language of An- cient Art. KuENEN, Prof. Abram, of the University of Leyden. — The Re- ligion of Israel. Lenormant, Francois. — The Eleusinian Mysteries: A Study of Religious History. (In Contemporary Review, July et sea., iSSo.) Maine, Sir Henry Sumner. — Early Laws and Customs. Mill, John Sti;art. — Autobiography. MiLMAN, Henry Hart, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's. — History of Christianity. History of the Jews. MosHEiM, John Lorenz von. — Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. Affairs before Constantine. Mozoomdar, Protap Chunder. — The Oriental Christ. Muller, Prof. F. Max. — India: What can it teach us ? Neander, Johann August Wilheuvi. — General History of the Christian Religion and Church. Newton, Rev. R. Heber, D.D. — The Religious Aspect of So- cialism. Essay, in Index, June 25, 1885. Nicholson, Rev. Dr. — Gospel of the Hebrews. (Comp.) Oldenburg, Prof. — Buddha, his Life, his Law, and his Order. Oswald, Dr. Felix. — The Secret of the East. Philo Jud.«us. — The Works of. (Mangey's ed.) Philostratus. — Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Renan, Ernhst. — Origins of Christianity: Vol. I., Life of Jesus; Vol. II., Saint Paul; Vol. III., The Apostles; Vol. IV., The Antichrist; Vol. V., Marcus Aurelius. English Conferences (Hibbert Lectures). Recollections of my Youth. Rhvs-Davids, Prof. — Buddha and Buddhism. RiTTER, Dr. Heinrich. — History of Ancient Philosophy. Savage, Rev. Minot J. — The Morals of Evolution. Talks about Jesus. ScHAFF, Rev. Philip, D.D. — History of the Christian Church. Seeley, Prof. — Roman Imperialism. Spencer, Herbert. — Data of Ethics. Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, D.D., Dean of Westminster. — Christian Institutions. Lectures on the Eastern Church. Strauss, David Friedrich. — Life of Jesus. Supernatural Religion. Tacitus. Talmud. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. TiELB, Prof. C. P., of the University of Leyden.— History of Religion. 306 BIBLIOGRAPHY Toy, Prof. Crawford Howbll.— Quotations in the New Tes- tament. Watson, Paul Barron.— Marcus Aurelms Antoninus. Wilder, Dr. Alexander. — Paul and Plato. (Essay.) Zbller, Dr. E., professor in the University at Heidelberg. — The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics. INDEX. Abbot, Dr. Ezra, in defence of the Fourth Gospel, 78; on the Canonical Gospels, 85, note; on the early Gospds, 88, note; on the Peshito, 88. Abbott, Dr. Edwin A., on the relative age of the Gospels, 93. Abolitionists, 133. Abtalyon, Rabbi, 29. Acts of the Apostles, 26, 175, 186, 188, notet ; 205, %2%. .iEons, 220, 221, 227. , iEsculapius, 151. "M-gape, 201, note ; 212, 255. Age of the Four Gospels, ii,et seq. ; 92. Ahriman, 14, 53, 77. Ahura-Mazda, 106. Akiba, Rabbi, 23. Alexander of Abonoteichus, 153, note. Alexander Severus, 154, 251. Alexander the Great, 15, 50, 53, 60, 65. Alexandrian influence on Christianity, 54, 287. Alexandrian School of Philosophy, 56; in relation to the Fourth Gospel, 169. Alleged Buddhistic origin of the Christian tradition, 159-161. Allen, Prof. Joseph Henry, on the term "Son of God," 94; on Paul and Jesus, 174, 193; on Paul's personality, 183; on Gnosticism, 219; on early doctrines, 261; on heathen monu- ments, 274. Ananias and Sapphira, 276, note. .... . , .. Antichrist, 189; the doctrine of, 231; identification of Nero with, 232. Antiochus Epiphanes, 231. Antoninus. (See " Marcus Aurelius.") Antoninus Pius, his Stoicism, 50; founds asylums, 51 ; protects the Christians, 241, and note. Apocalypse, 189, 206, 228, 231, 232. Apocrypha, 163, note; 293. Apocryphal Gospels, 71, fiote; 73, 79, 84, loi, 102, 164. Apocryphal New Testament, 81. Apollo, Birth Legend of, 147; in the catacombs, 272; an incarnation of the sun-god, 282 ; recognized by Constantine, 283. Apollonius of Tyana, an historical personage, 148; his biography, 148-150; his philosophy, 149; life and labors, 150-153; his asceticism, 151; his alleged miracles, 151-153; his deifica- 308 INDEX tion, 153-155; his religion and ethics, 155; coincidences with the Christian legend, 156-159; his recognition by Alexander Severus, 251. Apostolic age, The Church in, 204. Apostolic Fathers, Epistles of, 69, 80. Aramaic, the language of Palestine, 33 ; not the language of the Gospels, 73 ; words in the Second Gospel, 93. Aramaic version of the Scriptures, 23. Arian controversy, 286-289, and note. Aristobulus, 16. Arius, 288, 289, 294. , _, . . . Arnold, Matthew, on Paul, 195, 198, 200; on early Christianity, 257, «(7^ff; on the catacombs, 273. Aryan birth legends, 147 ; as related to the gospel stones, 298. Aryan character of the " Oriental Christ," 171. Aryan origin of the Trinitarian^ dogma, 109. Aryan origin of the word " devil," 112. r . n ' Asceticism, of the Essenes, 22; relation of Jesus to, 129 ; of Apollo- nius, 151 ; of the Montanists, 258. Asklepios, 44. Asmonean leaders in Judea, 15. Athanasius, 2S9. Athenagoras, 263. Attalusj the martyr, 246. Augustine, 60, 183, 291, 293. Augustus Caesar, 39, 48, 59, 219, 231. Aurelian, 152. Babylonian captivity, 18, 106. Babylonian elements in the Teutonic religion, 64. Babylonian origin of Hebrew demonism, 112. Bacchus, 282. Banus, the immerser, 27. Baptism, 21,27, 104, 206-210. Bar-Cochba, 24, 239. Barnabas, Epistle of, 233. Batanea, 223, 224. . Baur, Ferdinand Christian, on the relation of Jesus to Judaism, 139 ; on Apollonius of Tyana, 149, and «(?/^; on Simon Magus, 225, and note. Beausobre on Simon Magus, 225. Bible, its claims to infallibility, 294. Bible of to-day, 176, note. Bibliography, 304.. , ,. Birth stories, Unhistoncal character of, 99, i4S-'47» 158, iS9> ^63, 104. Bishops, 215-217. Blandina, the martyr, 246, 248. Brahmo-Somaj, 35, 171, and note ; 296. Britain under the Romans, 61. , j t Buddha, left no written word, 69; parables of, 75, note ; a legend of, 102 ; birth stories, 147 ; coincidences with Christ, 161, and note. Buddhaghosa's parables, 75, note. Buddhism, not related to E3senism,22; its doctrine of Nirvana, 1105 unjustly depreciated, 142, note; its esoteric doctrine, 151, 267; its relation to Christianity, 159-161 ; its rapid growth, 295. Cabala, 23, 194. Cssar, 124 (see Julius and Augustus C). INDEX 309 Caligula, 51, 218, 219. Canon, 291-295. Canonical Gospels^ 70, et seg. ; 8i, 292. Canon of Muraton, 88. Captivity to Roman period, 14. Caracalla, 154. Carlyle, 243. Carthage, religion and history, 59 ; Coundl of, 293. Cassiodorus, 154, and note. Castor and Pollux, 282. Catacombs, Testimony of, 268-274. Cathedra, 211, 217. Cathobc Church, its relation to Paul, 190; its contest with the Donatists, 284, 285, and note ; its indebtedness to Constantine, 290; its claims to infallibility, 294; its doctrine of equality, 300; its inheritance from Paganism, 217, 301. Catiline, 42. Cato, 42. Causes of the persecutions, 254, et seq. ; 259. Celsus, 148, 155, note. Celt. (See " Keltic Communities.") Chadwick, Rev. John W. Preface, 176, note. Chaldean demonism, 15, 112. Chaldean origin of baptism, 206, and note. Chaldean origin of Hebrew myths, 169, note. Chaldea's gift to Israel, 14. Christianity of Paul, 174. Christianity the State Religion, 266. Christmas, The origin of, 46, 283. Chromatins, 277. Church in the Apostolic Agb, 204, Cicero, 42. Circumcellions, 285, si seq. Claudius, 51, 91, 219, 228. Clement of Alexandria, 88, 291, 292. Clement of Rome, in relation to the Christian Canon, 82 ; his alleged allusion to Paul, 190, and note; his superstition, 233; nis Epistle to the Corinthians, 82, 236. Clementine Homilies, uncertain date of, 82; on Simon Magus, 224-228 ; Dean Milman on, 225. Cleopatra, 53. Clerical orders, 2t4-2i7. Codex, Sinaiticus, 292 ; Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi, 293. Commerce and civilization, 48. Communism, of Jesus, 40, 124 ; as recognized by Paul, 201 ; of the early Church, 276; Heber Newton on, 276, note; survivals in Catholicism, 300. Comte, Auguste, on Paul, 174. Conflict with Onentalism, 219-222. , •• Constantine, 277; his character and attitude, 280; his eclecticism, 282; his recognition of Paganism, 282-284; his relation to the Arian controversy, 289 ; his influence as peace-maker, 290. Copts. (See " Kopts.") Crassus, 41, 42. Crescentius, 247. Crioboliura, 261. Crispus, aSx. 310 INDEX Cross, its uses in religious symbolism before Christ, 46. Cybele, 282. Damis, 148, 149. 1501 1521 i53> note. David, Jesus not the Son of, 102, 114. Davidson, Dr. Samuel, on the gospel canon, 81; on Irenaeus, Clement, and Tertullian, 291. Deacons, 215, 216. ^Decay of the religious sentiment, 46. Decius, 251, 252, 254. Demetrius, 152. Demiourgos, 57,221. 'SDemoniacal possession, 75, 112, 14s, 132, 233- Demosthenes, 184. Development of Christian doctrine, 260. Devil, m the New Testament, 14 ; in the story of the temptation, 105 ; the belief of Jesus in, no, 112 ; Aryan origin of, 112. Diana Dictynna, 133. Differentiation of Christianity from Paganism, 274. Diocletian, 252, 254, 277. Doctrines, of the Sadducees, 18, et seg.; of the Pharisees, 19, etseq.; of the Essenes, 21 ; of Jesus, 106, et seg.; of Paul, 192, et seg.; of the Gnostics, 220; of the Ebionites, 223 ; of the early Chns- tians, 260 ; of the Circumcellions, 2S6. Dodwell on the persecutions, 253. Domitian, 152, 237. Donatists, 284. Druids, Religion of the, 62. Dualism, of the Fourth Gospel, 77; .of Paul, 197, 199, 202, 227; of the Gnostics, 220; of the Ebionites, 222. Dyafls-pitar, 65. Earlibst references to the four Gospels, 87. Early Christian literature, 69. Early Councils, 291. Ebionites, 72, note ; loi, 128, 147, 222-228. Ecclesia, 214, and note ; 220. Edom, 17. Education among the Jews, 34. Egypt, under the Greeks and Romans, 52 ; conquered by Alexander, 53 ; under the Ptolemies, 53 ; the religion of, 67 ; Jesus' alleged journey into, 100; journey of ApoUomus into, 151, iss- Elagabalus, 251. Elders, 215. Eleusinian mysteries, 43, 155, 168. Elijah, 153, 285. El Mahdi, 232. Emanation, 23, 220, 227. Enoch, 153. Enoch, The Book of, 67. Epictetus, 52, 278. Epicureans, 22<;. Epicurus, 256. Epiphanius, on the Alogoi, 88 ; on the Ebionites, 223, 227. - Essenes, doctrines of, 20-22; baptism of, 21, 27, 207; relation of ^s, Jesus to, 104, 126, 130; asceticism of^ 223. 'Eucharist, a Mithraic ceremony, 45 ; origin of, 212-214; a ceremony INDEX 3^^ of the Ebionites, 223 ; popular misunderstanding of, 257; Justin Martyr on, 262 ; described by lren»us, 267. Euhemensm, 46. Euhemeros, 47, 48- Eunapius, 154. Euthydemus, 150. l™fprof: Carroll C, on the new morality, 138, note. Ew^d, on the Synoptical Gospels. 74; on the term Son of God, 287, note. Extent of the persecutions, 252. Ezra, the scribe, 19. Fatalism of the Essenes, 21. Fausta, 28r. Faustina, 51. Felicitas, 251, note. 206, 287. Fria, or Fngga, 65. Froude, James Anthony, on Lucian, iSS» «<«'• Future life, 21, 63, 65, 66, no. Galerius, 253. Galilee, 24-26. Gamaliel, 126, 182. Gaulonitis, Judah of, 24, 25- Gaul under the Romans, 6i. Gehenna, no. Hfbbon.' onT^'^iriod of the "five good emperors," 5., 235; - the martyrs, 253, 270. pofed ^eiatiTn to Simon'^Magus, 227; contemporary vnth the catacombs, 2^9. j^ . indebtedness to ^"°St' .T 220 t'o Paul, 19 1 ; °o India,'22o ; to.Mi.hracism, 46. 22?Mhlir'^dewsahoutmkrtyrdom,24o;immoraht,esamo^g,257.- Goethe, on the New Testament allegories 164. Golden Rule, taught by Confucius. 30, ^^ote , by tlUlel, 30, y Jesus 132, 137; Prof. Newman on, 137- " Synoptical Gospels," and 'Canon. ) laneuage of the Greek, t^e. offi^'t^'^f-^^r fhtl^^^^^^^^^^^^ IVj^sus^^Xxol".!;; &in';ir6l'd'T"esUment: 3I note; tie language of the Gospels, 73. GroSk'i^uence of the Church at Rome. 236. 312 INDEX Growth of the hierarchy, 217. Growth of the Messianic idea, 27. Growth of miraculous legends, 161. Guizot, on the Germans, 64. Hadrian, a Stoic, 50, 235 ; his attitude toward Christianity, 237-439, and note. Hedge, Rev. Dr. Frederic H., on Marcus Aurehiis, 241, 243; on the aims of the early Church, 275 ; on Constantine, 283. Hegisippus, 85, 189, 190. Helena, of Simon Magus, 225. Helena, the Empress, 283. Hellenism, 106,226,250. Herakles, The myth of, 165. Hermas, The baptism of, 277. Hermas, The Shepherd of, 292. Herod, 17, 99, 100, 125. Herodians, 76. Hierocles on Apollonius, 134, and note. Hillel, Rabbi, 29, et seq. ; 67. Hippo, Council of, 293. Horos, identified with lakchos, 44, 67; birth myth of, 147. Hyrcanus, John, 16, 17. Iakchos, The myth of, 44. 67. Idumea, 17. , . , „ j Ignatius of Antioch, Episfles of, 83; on the Lord's day, 211; on ^ martyrdom, 240.^ immaculate conception, 164. j ^ j Immersion, a rite of the Essenes, 21 ; a Jewish custom, 27 ; adopted by John the Baptist, 104; the earliest form of Cliristian baptism, 207, 208, and«<)j!«; 209, 210. . TN -J ^ Immortality, taught by the Essenes, 21; by the Druids, 63; not explicitly taught by Jpus, no. importations from Paganism, 66, 217. Incarnation, 44, 4?. 48, 49. 109. '66, 167, 233, 260-262. India: What can it teach us? 161, note. Inquisition, 230, 253. Introduction, 9. ^, r-x. • .• Irenseus, the founder of the canon, 87; announces the Onnstian dogmas, 267 ; his character, 291 ; his canon, 292. Isis, 44, 67, 251. Izdubar, The myth of, 165. Jacobs, Joseph, on the relation of Stoicism to Christianity, 250. James, the brother of Jesus, 71, note ; 90, loi. Janus, The temple of, 39. Jehovah. (See " Yahweh.") Jerome, 71, note. Jerusalem, its destruction by Titus, 27, 236. Jeshobeb, Rabbi, 126. Jesus, the Judean fanatic, 27. Jesus of Nazareth, left no written word, 69,; sources of his history, 70; his birth and parentage, 99-102 ; his eariy hie, 102; rela- tions to John the Baptist, 103; his temptation, 104, 160; his doctrine of the heavenly Father, 107 ; of prayer, 107, 108 ; his Unitarianism, 109; his doctrine of the future hfe, 109-112; ot INDEX 313 demoniacalinfluences, 112; his Messianic beliefs, 113; his doc- trine of the kingdom of heaven, 1 18-123; his parables, 122; his doctrine of non-resistance, 123 ; his commuDism, 124; his ex- ahation of poverty, 125; his pessimism, 128, 159; his views of mama^e, 120-131; of education and labor, 131; of slavery, 131; his ethical precepts, 132-134; his doctrine of forgiveness, 134; his ethics criticised, 135-138; his religion as related to Judaism, 138-140; his historical verity, 70, 140; the myth and the man, 2g6. Jewish colony in Rome, 41. * Jewish conception of God, 106. Jewish monasticism, 20. Job, 112, 159. John Hyrcanus, 16, 17. John of Giscala, 26. John, the Apostle, not the author of the Fourth Gospel, 77; proba- bly wrote the Apocilypse, 84, 189; his alleged martyrdom, 237. John the Baptist, sketched by Josephus, 27; his relations to Jesus, 103. Joseph, the father of Jesus, loi. Josephus, Flavius, on John the Baptist, 27, 91 ; on the languages of Palestine, 33 ; on Jewish education, 34 ; possibly alludes to Jesus, 90; the spurious passage, gi. Joshua, 285. Judjeo-Christianitj^, 222-228. Judah of Gaulonitis, 24, 25. Judaism, Persian influence on, 14, 28; Hillel on, 30; in Egypt, 54; its relation to Christianity, 13S-140; its intolerance, 255. Judas MaccabJEus, 15. Judea, Characteristics of, 24, 23- Julia Dorana, 148. Julian, the Emperor, 279, and note. Julius Caesar, protects the Jews, 16 ; his conquests, 41 ; his account of the Druids, 63. Jupiter, 65, 66. Justin Martyr, on the Gospels, 82, 84 ; his probable ignorance of the Fourth Gospel, 85, note; on the Sabbath, 211; his contests with Marcion and Trj-pho, 247; on the eucharist, 262; on demoniacal influences, 263 ; his death, 247. Kabala, 23. Kanaim, 23, 124. Kant, 112. Keeler on the age of the Gospels, 93. Keltic communities, 61. Keshub Chunder Sen, 171, and note. Kopts, 54. . Koran on nches, 127. Krishna, 100, 147, 298. Kronos, The myth of, 47. Kuenen, Prof. A., on Philo, 22, note ; on the Messianic prophecy, loi, note- Kuhn-Aten, 251. Lalita Vistara, 161, note. Lan^ages of Palestine, 33. Latin version of the New Testament, 88. 314 INDEX Lazarus, 75, 162, and note ; 167. Legend 01 the resurrection, 44, 176-181. Liberal and conservative Pharisees, 29. Licinius, 281. Lightfoot, Bishop, on Jewish superstitions, 146. Lindsay, Prof., on immoralities among the early Christians, 256. Logia of Jesus, 73, 85. Logos, in Philo, 57, 58; in the Fourth Gospel, 76, 77, 88, 96, 166, 167 ; as related to Paul, 194 ; to Gnosticism, 220 ; to the Arian controversy, 2S7, 288. Lord's day, 210-212. Lucan, 153, and note, Lucian, 155, note. Lustration, 20S. ^MaccabjEan struggle for freedom, 15. Maccabasus, Judas, 15. Masragenes, 148. Mahdi, 232. Mahomet, 184. (See also "Mohammedanism.") Mammon, 128. Manu, Institutes of, 48. Manuscripts of the New Testament, 292, 293. Marcion, his Gospel, 73, note ; 93, 292; his relation to Paul, 191, 2ig; his contest with Justin Martyr, 247; his canon, 291. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 235; his relation to the Christians, 241, 244-249; Dr. Hedge on, 241; his character and religion, 242- 244; Matthew Arnold on, 244; Niebuhr on, 244; Renan on, 244, 24S; Watson on, 247, 249; his pure religion, 263 ; motives of his attitude toward Christianity, 279. Martyr Period, 235. Martyrdom of Stephen, 185. Martyrs, The earliest, 236; Flavins Clemens, 237; Pliny's relation 10,238; Ignatius, 240; the relation of Marcus Aurelius to, 244- 249; Polvcarp, 245 ; Blandina, 246, 248 ; at Lyons and Vienne, 246; under Diocletian and Decius, 251; total number of, 253. Mary, the mother of Jesus, loi. Maturus, the martyr, 246. Maxentius, 279. Maximin, 279. Maximus of JE%x, 148. Memoirs of the Apostles, 84, 120. Memra, 23, 67. Messiah, Judah of Gaulonitis as, 24; Jewish belief in, 28, 106; the First Gospel on, 95; Jesus as, 114, 174; forgives sin, 135; doc- trine of, assures hi=;torical verity of Jesus, 298. Messianic idea, Growth of, 27; the Persian, 28, 66; relation of Jesus to, 113 ; a beautiful dream, n6. (See also " Messiah.") Milman, Dean, on early Christianity, 185; on Trajan and Hadrian, 239, and note ; on Ignatius of Antioch, 240; on Marcus Aure- lius, 244 ; on Polycarp, 245 ; on the persecutions, 252 ; on Chris- tianitjr and civilization, 285 ; on the early councils, 294. _ Miracles, in the gospel stories, 144: in the story of Apollonius, 152, 156-158; of cure, 145; of the Fourth Gospel, 165-170; grovrth of miraculous legends, 161. Mithra, or Mithras, 45, 168, 262, 282. Mithracism, 45, 262. INDEX 315 Mohammedanism, 21, 295, 296, note. Monasticism of the Essenes, 20. Montanism, 236, 245, 258-260. Moses, 19, 24, 100, 285. Motley on the persecutions in the Netherlands, 253. Mozoomdar, Protap Chunder, on education, 35 ; on the Oriental Christ, 171; his attitude in prayer, 272, «<7/^. Miiller, Prof. Max, on the relations of Christianity to Buddhism, 161, and note. Mysticism, of the Kabala, 22 ; of the Eleusinian cultus, 44 ; of Philo, 56, 57 ; of the Fourth Gospel, 75, 298; of Paul, 194, 199; of Gnosticism, 220-222 ; of the Neo-Platonists, 287 ; freedom of Stoicism from, 51 ; freedom of Jesus from, 134, 171, 222. Myth and Miracle in the Gospel Stories, 144. Mythical element as related to the progress of Christianity, 299. Natural evolution of Christianity, 293. Nature worship of the Teutons, 64. Nazarenes, loi, 190, 211. Nazarites, 130, 151. Neo-Platonism, doctrines of, 56; of the Fourth Gospel, 169; its influence on Christianity, 249, 250 ; as related to the Logos doc- trine, 287 ; to Paul, 299. Nero, opposes Stoicism, 51 ; persecutes the Christians, 192, 228-330, 236, 237, 257; identified with Antichrist, 231, 232. Nerva, 50, 235, 248. Newman, Prof. Francis W., on the ethics of Jesus, 137. Newton, Rev. Dr. R. Heber, on the early Christian commuidsm, 276, note ; on the religious aspect of socialism, 300, note. Nicsea, Council of, 289, 294. Niebuhr, on Marcus Aurelius, 244 ; on the persecutions, 353. Nirvdna, 110, 117. Odin, 65. Oldenburg, Prof., on the Lalita Visiara, 161, note. Onesimus, 132, 201. Onkelos, Targum of, 23, Ttote. Optatus, 285. Oral law, 33. Orcus, 230. Oriental Christ, 170. Oriental Church, 217, 284, and «o/tf. Oriental influences, on Essenism, 22; in the Roman Empire, 45 ; in connection with Paul's doctrines, 197 ; in relation to Chris- tianity, 219-222. Origen, refers to ApoUonius, 148 ; on the number of the martyrs, 249 ; on salvation by blood, 261 ; on future punishment, 268. Origin of the priesthood, 214-217. Ormuzd, 77. (See also " Ahura-Mazda.") Orpheus, 251, 272. Osiris, 251, 282, 29S. ... T, nf Oswald, Dr. Felix, on the relation of Christianity to Buddhism, 141, note ; 159-161, and notes. Palestine in the Roman Period, 13. Papias, in relation to the gospel canon, 81, 84, 85, 86; his quota- tion from the Memoirs of the Apostles, 120; does not menUon Paul, 190. 316 INDEX Parables, 75, and note ; 122. Parthian revolt, 17. Parties in the early Church, 188-191. Pasht, 55. Patristic literature, 70, 235, 256; on early beliefs, 267. Paul, the earliest writer in the New Testament, 69, 70 ; reports no miracles of Jesus, 163; the Christianity of, 174; Epistles of, 69, 163, 175, and note; his doctrine of the resurrection, 181; his early life, 182; his advocacy of Judaism, 184; his conversion, 185; his missionary labors, 187; his relation to the Apostles, 187-1Q1 ; conclusion of his labors, 191 ; his doctrines, 192-200; his ethics, 197; his dualism, 197, 199,202; the type of Protest- antism, 200; his universalism, 202, 242,299-301; described as Simon Magus, 225-228 ; his death, 192 ; has teaching misinter- preted, 256. Pelasgic origin of the Virgin and child, 44. Pentecost, 121, note. Perpetua, Vivia, 251, note. Persephone, 44, 67. Persia, her gilts to Israel, 14, 22; her angelology, 224. Persian origin of Jewish beliefs, 22. Peshito, 88. Pessimism of Jesus, 128, 159. Peter, 66, 81, 95, 228, 236, 276, note. Pharisees, their origin, 19; their observances, 19; denounced by John the Baptist, 104; relation of Jesus to, 130; denounced by Jesus, 133; rebuked for " seeking a sign," 146, note. Philo Judsus, 56; on the Therapeutas, 22, note ; his dualism, 57; his Logos doctrine, 58, 28S; his relation to Justin Martyr, 85, note; his use of the term "Son of God," 94, note; his rela- tion to the Fourth Gospel, 169; object of his philosophy, 205. Philostratus, 14S-150, ic,i,note; 158. Phoenicia, 59, 60, and notes. Plato, influence of his philosophy on Christian doctrine, 42, 158; his relation to Philo, 56, 57; his influence on Paul, 183; his doctrine of complex marriage, 257. Pleroma, 221. Pliny the Younger, on the Christians, 91; in relation to the perse- cutions, 238, 239. Pluto, 230. Polycarp, Epistle of, 83 ; his alleged allusion to Paul, 190, and note ; his martyrdom, 241, 245. Pompey the Great, 16, 40, 41, 42. Pontifex Maximus, 217, 218, 281. Pothinus, the martyr, 246. Prayer, Jesus' doctrine of, 107, 108; Oriental conception of, 271, 272, and note. Priesthood, the origin of, 214-217. Prophecy, revival of, 26. Proselytes to Judaism, 184. Pythagoras, 149, 151, aadnote; 158. Religion of the future, 301. Religion under the Roman Empire, 42. Renan, Ernest, on the four Gospels, 72 ; on the age of the Gospels, 93; on miracles, 146; on the resurrection, 179; on Nero, 229, 230, 231, 232 ; on Marcus Aurelius, 242, 244, 248. INDEX 817 Resurrection, of lakchos, 44 ! of Jesus, 70. 176-181 ; of Lazarus, 7S. 162, and note ; Paul's dootnne of, 181. Revival of Paganism, 48. Rh;s'DrviJI.°p'r:?','on-the La:i^. Vistara,.^^, n.te. Ritter, Dr Heinrich, on ApoUonius of Tyana, 148, i49. 'S», Chrfstiantr;. 50; its attitude toward Chnstianity. 235-260; its relation to the Catholic Church, 290, 301. Roman tolerance, 42, 254- Rosicrucians, 45- .. . „ ncrnecutes the Tews, Russia, Current supersUtions in, 48, 257, 284, persecutes me jcwa. 254- Rusticus, 247. Sabbath, 211, 2S2. Baptist, 104. Sadoq, 19, note. Sakya-Muni, 22. Samson, The myth of, 165. Sanctus, the martyr, 246. Sargon, 100. . ^i,,,--.^, i^ 112- his relation to Ahriman, ^^*^°I.t °Set''"5l,'S1n"lhe*Fourth Gospel, 77; in the story ot'the tem^t'ation, .05; identified .-''?/S„Vtne 'of th^ renounced by Christian converts, 209; in the doctrmes Ebionites, 222. Saturnalia, 46, 99- „. Saul. (See "Paul.") iSasTbV'philip, on the early Christians, 257; on the early coun- oils, 294- IXs,''no?a separate sect, .9; not mentioned in the Fourth Gospel, 76; denounced by Jesus, 133- Sects in Palestine, 17. Seleucids, 17- , . ,_, „., Sen, Keshub Chunder, 171, vaAnote. Septuagint, 55, 9^- Set, orSeth, 53, "2- Severus, Alexander, iS4i 251- Sevems, Septimius, 148,251, note. Shamas, 165. Sharamai, Rabbi, 30-32- Shammaya, Rabbi, 29. Siddartha, 160. Sidon, 60. . , , Sidonius Apollinans, 154. and nott. Simon Magus, 224-228. . „ ,„. „r.inions on — of the Fathers, ^^^TC^^W-t f3Tof'^a;i.r.rrelation of Christianity to, 246, 277, and nott. 318 INDEX Smith, Prof. Robertson, on the Gospels, 73. Social Aspects of the Religion of Jhsus, 118. Society and Religion in thb Roman Empirb, 39. Sokrates, 43. Solar mythology, 147, i6i, 166, 167-170, 282, 298. Son of God, in Philo's writings, 57, 58, 94, note ; not in the Teach- ing of the Twelve Apostles, 72, note ; in the Second Gospel, 92, 94 ; as applied to Jesus, 109, 1 14, 147, note ; as used by Paul, 198; identified with the Logos, 57, 287; Ewald, on the term, 287, note ; in the Athanasian Creed, 289. Son of Man, in Daniel, 67; as applied to Jesus, 68, 76, 140; a title of the Messiah, 135. Sons of God, in Philo, 58; in Job, 112; in the New Testament, 122, 123. Sosiosch, 28. Sources of Information, 6g. Spain under the Romans, bi. Spartacus, 40. Spencer, Herbert, on ethics, 112, 138, note ; 343. Spinoza, 242. Spiritual symbolism, 170. Stanley, Dean, on baptism, 209, note; on clerical orders, 214, 215, endnote; 216; on pagan customs, 2iS,andnote; on the cata- combs, 270, and note; on Mohammedanism, 296, note, Stephen's martyrdom, 185. Stoic philosophy, of Semitic origin, 50, and note ; 250; teaches the rights of man, 51; encourages public charities, 51; a prepara- tion for Christianity, 249-251. Stoics, The reign of the, 52, note. Suetonius, 91. Sulla, 39. Synagogue, 19, S3. 34. '»*'*; 35. 54. xo2, 297 ; the prototype of the Church, 214, 215. Synoptical Gospels, 37, 74, et stq. ; 91, 98, 121, 144, 145. '57. 160, 164, 170, 171, 180, 194, 19s, 297. Syria conquered by Pompey, 39. Syriac Version of the New Testament, 88. Syro-Chaldaic language, 33, 103, 224. Taotus, 91, and note ; 233. Talmud, compiled from the oral law, 33 ; on education, 34 ; parables m, 75, note; on riches, 126, 127, and notes. Targum of Onkelos, 23, note. Targums, 23, note. Taurobolium, 260. Taylor, Father, on the goodness of Jesus, 142. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 30, note ; 70, note; 72, note; 83, 89, 208, note. Tertullian, on Mithracism, 45 ; on the gospel canon, 88, 291, 292 ; on Marcus Aurelius, 248; on unpardonable sins, 259; Matthew Arnold on, 273 ; Prof. Davidson on, 291. Teutonic peoples. The religion of, 63. Theological Aspects of the Religion of Jbsus, 98. Therapeutae, 22, and note. Theudas, 26. Thor, 65. Thorah, 19, 23, 138. INDEX 319 Tiberius, 219. . „ „, , Tiele, Prof. C. P., on Nero, 229; on the Roman Church, $01. Titus, 27, 219, 236. Tiu, 65. Torquemada, 253. Toy, Prof. Crawford H., on the Targums, 23, note; on quota- tions in the New Testament, 36. _ Trajan, a Stoic, 50, 235; his attitude toward the Christians, 237-239, and note; founds public charities, 51, 248; incident in his reign, 277. Tredwell, Daniel M., on Apollonius of Tyana, 150, note. Triple Tradition, 37, 78, 98, 102, 144, iS7) 'S9i '&'. '70i '7'! 297. 298. Trypho, 247, 262. Tyche, 282. Tyre, 60. Unitarianism of Jesus, 109. Universalism, Pau'/s doctrine of, 92, 202, 211, 237. 242. 264, agg, 300. Uzziel, Rabbi Jonathan ben, 67. Vatican, 66. Vedas, 266. Vishnu, 100. Vivia Perpetua, 251, note. Waite, on the age of the Gospels, 93. Walhalla, 65. Watson, Paul Barron, on Marcus Aurelius, 244. 247. 249- Yahwhh, 14, 15, and note; 20, 28, 37, 106, 107, n2, ii4> "9; be- comes the Gnostic demiourgos, 221. Zaccheus, 271. Zadok, 1 9, note. Zealots, their doctrines, 23 ; Jesus not one, 124. Zeller, Dr. E., on Stoicism, 50, note ; 250. Zeno, the Stoic, 50. „ , ., ^ » Zeus, identified mth Tiu, 65 ; Nero called "Zeus, 229. Zoroaster, his religion a monotheism, 66 ; left no wntten word, 69. Zoroastrian influence on Judaism, 22 ; on the Egyptian religion, 53 ; on Gnosticism, 220. . .,.,.• ^ ., . \ Zoroastrianism, its dualism, 57; its ceremonial ablutions, 206, note, its sacrificial rites, 208, note ; its priestly ongin, 367. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES fl This book is due on "the date indicated below, or at the expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as i n^ provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with the Librarian in charge. DATE BORROWED wi C2B (1149) 100M DATE DUE DATE BORROWED DATE DUE Jr-i/ll\r:S \il/ L 031502457 931 J234 BRITTLE DO NOT PHOTOCOPY