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                        THE LIFE OF JESUS
                               by

                          ERNEST RENAN

                        COMPLETE EDITION

                             LONDON:

                          WATTS & Co.,

           5 & 6 JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E-C-4

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                               To
                          THE PURE SOUL
                               of
                      MY SISTER HENRIETTE,
          Who died at Byblus, on September 24th, 1861.

     Dost thou recall, from the bosom of God where thou reposest
long days at Ghazir, in which, alone with thee, I wrote these
pages, inspired by the places we had visited together? Silent at my
side, thou didst read an copy each sheet as soon as I had written
it while the sea, the villages, the ravines, and the mountains were
spread at our feet. When the overwhelming light had given place to
the innumerable army of stars, thy shrewd and subtle questions, thy
discreet doubts, led me back to the sublime object of our common
thoughts, one day  thou didst tell me that thou wouldst love this
book -- first, because it had been composed with thee, and also
because it pleased thee. Though at times thou didst fear for it the
narrow judgements of the frivolous, yet wert thou ever persuaded
that all truly religious souls would ultimately take pleasure in
it. In the midst of these sweet meditations, the Angel of Death
struck us both with his wing: the sleep of fever seized us at the
same time -- I awoke alone! ... Thou sleepest now in the land of
Adonis, near the holy Byblus and the sacred stream where the women
of the ancient mysteries came to mingle their tears. Reveal to me,
O good genius, to me whom thou lovedst, those truths which conquer
death, deprive it of terror, and make it almost beloved.

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                             PREFACE

LIKE many another "infidel," Ernest Renan grew up in an atmosphere
of piety. He was born in the Breton fishing-town of Treguier in
1823. When he was only five years old his father, a ship-outfitter,
was drowned at sea. Henceforth the home influence of a sensitive
and impressionable child was exercised by two women, Renan's mother
and his sister, Henriette, who was twelve years his senior. The
latter was the bread-winner of the family and proved a second
mother to the young Ernest. In his manhood she became his most
trusted counsellor and friend.



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                THE LIFE OF JESUS by ERNEST RENAN

     Renan's mother remained a Catholic to the end of her life, but
Henriette lost all belief in the Supernatural long before her 
brother had entertained a single doubt of his hereditary faith. Yet
she put no obstacle in the way of his cherished ambition to become
a priest. His first school was the ecclesiastical college at
Treguier, where he soon showed such brilliancy that, through the
kind efforts of Dupanloup (afterwards Bishop of Orleans), he was
sent to a superior college in Paris. Thence he passed to the
Seminary of Issy, and afterwards to St. Sulpice and St. Stavistas
(the lay college of the Oratorians). It was during his stay in the
last of these establishments that Renan reluctantly came to the
conviction that he could never enter the Catholic priesthood.
According to his own account, the critical study of the Bible was
the main factor of his change. His bias was strongly pietistic, and
he loved and admired his clerical teachers. Bad priests never seem
to have come his way.

     When he announced his decision -- he was now twenty-
two -- the older men among his instructors sought to dissuade him,
hoping that his faith might return when he had settled down to his
clerical duties. Dupanloup, however, agreed that he ought to choose
a lay career and offered to help him with money.

     He was encouraged to take the final step by Henriette, who
sent him 500 francs while he was looking for employment. It was not
long before Renan obtained a post as usher in a boys' school, where
he started a lifelong friendship with Berthelot, the famous
chemist, who was then eighteen. His duties occupying only the
evenings, Renan had plenty of time at his disposal for reading
during the day.

     In 1849 the French Government sent Renan on a scientific
mission to Italy. On his return to Paris he received a small post
in the Bibliotheque Nationals, which, together with the savings of
Henriette, who had now come to live with him, kept the two alive.
In 1852 was published Renan's work on the most renowned Islamic
philosopher of the Middle Ages, Averroes. This brought him his
doctor's degree and established his reputation as a thinker. He
married two years later, and in 1859 he published new translations,
with commentaries, of the Book of Job and the Song of Songs.

     The chair of Hebrew and Chaldaic at the Collage de France now
became vacant, and Renan offered himself as a candidate. Naturally,
he was bitterly opposed by the Catholics. Napoleon III was then the
ruler of France and his wife, the Empress Eugenie, supported the
Catholic reactionaries. The Emperor was bound to conciliate so
powerful a body of his subjects, without whose support he could not
hope to retain his precarious authority. But he did not lack
admiration for Renan and wished to do something for him. So he sent
him on an archaeological mission to Syria.

     Renan sailed for the East with the devoted Henriette as his
companion, and they made their first stay at Beyrout. A few months
later his wife joined him, but was compelled by her home duties to
return to France in the following summer. Henriette remained behind
and shared, as far as she could, her brother's investigations of
Phoenician antiquities.


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                THE LIFE OF JESUS by ERNEST RENAN

     In July, 1861, Renan had finished his work, and the two paid
a visit to the Upper Lebanon. Renan was now engaged in making his
first draft of the 'Vie de Jesus,' his sister copying it out for
him page by pane.

     The brother and sister went back to Beyrout, in order to
prepare for a journey to Cyprus, where the mission was to reach its
end. Time, however, was found for excavations at Gebeil (the
ancient Byblus), in the fabled land of Adonis. Here Renan and
Henriette were struck down with a severe attack of fever.
Henriette's case proved fatal. They buried her in the land of
Adonis, as Renan tells us in his beautiful dedication to her soul,
which prefaces the book by which all the world knows him. Renan
returned to France. The mission bore fruit in the important 'Corpus
Inscriptiontem Semiticarum,' of which he was the editor. A richly
illustrated report of the mission's achievements was published in
1864. The previous year had seen the appearance of the 'Vie de
Jesus.

     Shortly before the issue of his most popular work Renan had
obtained the chair of Hebrew and Semitic languages in the
University of Paris, which had been left vacant through the death
of Quatremere, under whom he had studied. The Catholics were
furious. Even among the Liberals there was suspicion of the new
professor, and it was feared that Renan was sympathetic to the
Imperial regime.

     His inaugural address provoked more than one interruption, the
climax coming when he referred to Jesus as "a man so great that ...
I should not wish to contradict those who, impressed by the unique
character of his movement, call him God." This damning with faint
praise, as they were bound to consider it, gave offence to the
Catholics. Four days later Renan was suspended from his
professorial duties, although he retained his salary and for two
years taught Hebrew in his own house to those students who desired
it. The publication of the 'Vie de Jesus' prevented his
reinstatement. The French ministry offered him a post in the
Bibliotheque Imperiale, which he declined with scorn.

     The Vie de Jesus was only the first of a series dealing very
fully with Christian origins. Three years later appeared 'The
Apostles.' To this were subsequently added 'The Gospels and the
Second Christian Generation,' 'Saint Paul, The Antichrist,' 'The
Christian Church, and Marcus Aurelius.' The last brought the story
down to the last quarter of the second century. It is perhaps the
most remarkable of the series. Few have depicted so vividly, and
with such a wealth of erudition, the social and intellectual life
of Pagans and Christians in the days of the last of the great Stoic
Emperors as did Ernest Renan.

     The great French scholar's 'New Studies of Religious History'
(collected in 1884) show the catholicity of his interests, dealing
as they do with such themes as the Islamic mystery play of the
martyrdom of Hussein, the growth of the legend of the Buddha, and
the life of St. Francis of Assisi. His 'History of Israel,' which
was published in 1887-91, revealed Renan's competency to handle Old
Testament problems with the same skill and learning that he applied
to those of the New.

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                THE LIFE OF JESUS by ERNEST RENAN

     It will always be gratifying to Englishmen of broad sympathies
and culture to remember that Renan delivered in London the Hibbert
course of lectures for the year 1880. His subject was the influence
of Roman institutions on the development of Catholicism, The
liberal-minded Dean Stanley was among those who showed their
cordiality to the famous heretic.

     Renan's exquisite 'Recollections of My Youth' (1883), which is
perhaps his best known work after the 'Vie de Jesus,' must have
endeared him to the hearts of millions. Seldom has a more touching
story been told, or one so candid and dignified, of the struggle of
a soul thirsty for truth and ready to sacrifice everything in its
service.

     The political fluctuations of Renan, at one time Suspicious of
democracy as a possible foe of culture and finally reconciled to it
and hopeful of its future evolution, hardly concern us here. Nor
need we dwell on his experiments in drama, which would never have
won him fame.

     The Chair of Semitic Languages, which Renan forfeited, through
his own indiscretions and the bigotry of his orthodox enemies,
under the Second Empire was ultimately restored to him under the
Third Republic. He had become one of the most celebrated men of
letters in France, and his sympathetic courtesy and geniality of
temper had gained for him the respect, if not the affection, of
many to whom his religious opinions were repugnant. When he died in
the autumn of 1892, at the age of nearly sixty-nine, he was still
busy with his classes at the Collage de France, whither he had
returned after a very short holiday in his native Brittany, which
he loved so well.

     Seventy-two years have passed since Ernest Renan's 'Vie de
Jesus,' the first biography of Jesus to present him as entirely
human, was launched on a world already much troubled with doubts
about the Supernatural. In less than six months 60,000 copies of
this momentous work were sold. Edition quickly followed edition, no
less than twenty-three appearing within the space of twenty years.

     Although thousands welcomed the 'Vie de Jesus' for its
lucidity and charm, as well as for the tenderness and sympathy with
which Jesus and the great movement he is reputed to have started
were delineated, the rage of Orthodoxy against the book and its
author was at least as great as that provoked by Strauss's 'Leben
Jesu' nearly thirty years earlier.

     Here for the first time was a purely naturalistic biography of
one whom Christendom had so long adored as God manifest in the
flesh. The 'Leben Jesu' by Strauss can hardly be called a
biography; it is a searching criticism of the Gospels, and makes
scarcely an attempt to construct a history in the place of the
legend, which Strauss did more perhaps than any previous critic to
demolish. To much the same category belong the works of those
Biblical scholars who preceded Strauss -- Herder, Reimarus,
Evanson, Bahrdt, Venturini, Paulus, and others. Arguments about the
mutual relations of the Gospels, their trustworthiness and their
probable dating; conjectures (sometimes fantastic) about what might


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have happened in Galilee and Jerusalem some nineteen hundred years
ago -- all this the earlier Higher Critics of the New Testament
gave. But none before Renan drew a real portrait of a man who could
be loved as a man and judged as a man.

     The charm and the skill with which Renan handles his theme may
well serve to hide the critical and literary blemishes of his work.
His Jesus is a young carpenter of Nazareth, who was at first one of
the disciples of the fiery revivalist, John the Baptizer, and took
up his slogan, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Later he broke
away from the group and formed his own body of disciples. "The
Kingdom of Heaven" meant nothing less than the restoration of the
ancient theocracy in all its glory, as Jewish piety imagined it to
have once existed, involving the overthrow of Roman rule and, in
the opinion of many Jews, the reestablishment of the dynasty of
David in Jerusalem. To the future king the name of Messiah (Heb.
Moshiah = "Anointed") was given. Jesus did not at first claim to be
the Messiah. He preached an ethic of love and justice, of pity and
self-renunciation, of humility and purity of heart, which should
prepare his fellow-countrymen -- foreigners were outside the scope
of his propaganda -- for the wonderful era that was shortly coming.
Jesus enforced his teaching with simple parables, stories drawn
from natural happenings, observable by all, and from the everyday
life of the people -- the sower scattering his seed on different
soils, the mustard-seed that grew into a stately tree, the net
breaking under the weight of the fish it enclosed, the shepherd
hunting for the lost sheep, the merchant selling all his goods to
buy the precious pearl. The Rabbis often used parables in their
expositions. Parables with similar themes to those of the Gospels
appear in the Talmud.

     Simple folk loved Jesus and eagerly listened to his
discourses. Among them he wrought many faith-cures. But his
popularity with the Galilean peasants, whose attachment to Jewish
Orthodoxy was rather loose, drew on him the keen resentment of the
Pharisees, who, like Jesus, were Messianic in their outlook and
much of whose ethical teaching resembled his, and still more the
hostility of the Sadducees, who were pro-Roman and unfriendly to
Messianic visions, and from whose ranks came the great hierarchy of
the Temple. Popularity with the multitude and opposition from their
religious and political leaders spurred Jesus to greater boldness.
He was no loner content with the role of a prophet of the Kingdom,
a wandering "Son of Man" (Ezekiel had borne that title). He claimed
to be himself the Messiah. He even foretold his death by violence,
his ascent to God his Father's right hand, and his eventual return
in triumph on the clouds of heaven, accompanied by a host of
angels. His character underwent a measure of degeneration. "The
Galilean idyll," which graced his earlier career, disappeared, and
the gentle, persuasive teacher was turned into an angry enunciator,
and his mind became obsessed with apocalyptic horrors. Even fraud
now assisted his propaganda. According to Renan, the raising of
Lazarus was a trick, planned by the subject of the pretended
miracle with the aid of Martha and Mary.

     The end was inevitable. With the aid of a treacherous disciple
the enemies of Jesus tracked him down and, after a mock trial
before the High Priest on a blasphemy charge, dragged him before 
Pontius Pilatus, precurator of Judea, who reluctantly sentenced him

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to crucifixion as a rebel against Roman rule. Jesus was buried by
a wealthy Jewish sympathizer in his own family tomb. The story of
his resurrection a day or two later was started by the
hallucinations of a frenzied devotee, Mary of Magdala. A woman's
love and folly had given to the world a risen God!

          Renan's reconstruction of the story of Jesus does not
lack plausibility in many of its features, but he has certainly
failed to present a figure worthy of any great respect. This
deluded visionary and fanatic, even stooping to fraud, has no claim
to the glowing panegyric with which Renan closes his narrative.
That Jesus was not only lovable, but, in a sense, worshipful, Renan
truly felt and would have his readers feel. Was it not his Catholic
upbringing that induced this frame of mind rather than the calm
survey of the facts which he believed a critical study of the
Gospels substantiated?

     At times Renan is even weakly sentimental. From an aesthetic
viewpoint, if from no other, one must condemn his surmise that
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane cast a thought on the girls he
might have wooed in Galilee. No wonder a young French lady put down
the 'Vie de Jesus' with the remark: "What a pity it does not end
with a marriage!"

     Renan, of course, did not accept without qualification the
traditional views on the dating and authorship of the Gospels. But
his conservatism would be hard to match to-day outside the ranks of
the theologians. Bernard Shaw is hardly more uncritical than he
sometimes is. Renan adhered to the opinion, first broached by
Lachmann in the eighteenth century, that Mark was the earliest
Gospel and, broadly speaking, reliable as a biographical source --
an opinion which is still the prevailing one among Protestant
scholars (Catholics are forbidden by the Papal Biblical Commission
to maintain Mark's priority), though it is disputed by some eminent
critics, like Raschke, who regards Mark as a late document. Renan's
treatment of the Fourth Gospel is strangely arbitrary. Although not
attributing it to John the son of Zebedee, he sees in it a valuable
source of biographical data for the life of Jesus. His offensive
interpretation of the story of Lazarus has no justification
whatever, and is on a par with the vagaries of Paulus and
Venturini, on which Strauss expended his scorn. The story is, in
all probability, a didactic fiction, which the Fourth Evangelist
may have built up on a basis of popular conjectures, gathering
round a legendary or historic name.

     To-day the question is being seriously mooted whether any
materials exist for a life of Jesus, even conceding his
historicity. No more drastic critic of previous attempt at
biographical reconstruction has been written than Dr. Albert
Schweitzer's 'Von Reimarus zu Wrede' (translated under the title of
'The Quest of the Historical Jesus'), "that cemetery of departed
hypotheses," as the late Prof. W.B. Smith so amusingly described
it. Circumspect readers of Dr. Schweitzer's lengthy work will
regard his own efforts in the way of Jesuine biography as open to
the same charge of arbitrariness which he shrewdly and wittily
makes against so many other critics.



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     It is not surprising that, in view of "such quantities of
sand," the belief has been steadily growing during the last twenty-
five years that Jesus belongs wholly to the realm of myth.
Ingenious attempts, sometimes bewilderingly erudite, have been made
by many scholars -- Arthur Drews, W.B. Smith, J.M. Robertson,
Kalihoff, Jensen, Couchoud, Bergh van Eysinga, and others -- to
explain the rise of Christianity without an historical Jesus. But
there has been so far little measure of agreement among the
Mythicists, beyond denial of the reputed founder's existence. The
alleged traces of a prechristian cult of a sacrificed and
resurrected Savior God, named Jesus or Joshua, seem very dubious.
The final victory may well lie with the Historicists. And yet it
cannot be said that their position is rationally unchallengeable.
The history of the numerous and often contradictory defenses of the
Gospels is a history of continual critical surrenders. Did Jesus
claim to be the Messiah? Wrede and many other Historicists say no.
Guignebert believes that an hallucination of Peter was the source,
not only of the myth of the resurrection, but of the doctrine of
the Messiahship of Jesus, though this seems to militate against all
psychological probability. Wrede, Hamack, and the Liberal School
generally, regard Jesus as an ethical teacher, whose views of the
Kingdom of Heaven were mystical rather than political. He was a
prophet of the inner life. On the other hand, Schweitzer discovers
in Jesus an apocalyptic seer, preaching an "interim ethic," whose
value can hardly be detached from those forecasts of catastrophe
and millennial glory in which time has proved him mistaken.
According to Eisler, the Galilean propagandist was an aspirant to
David's crown, though piously refusing to enforce his rights till
God should intervene.

     Many evangelical data, once proclaimed unassailable, are now
seriously questioned even by opponents of the Mythicists. Among
these are the Twelve Apostles, the treachery of Judas, and the
Sermon on the Mount. Where do we reach the bottom-rock of
historical fact? Some will say that the Crucifixion is at least
certain. The late Canon Cheyne, however, expressed doubts even of
this event, and it seems possible to give an explanation of it in
terms of myth. The interesting thesis of Mr. J.M. Robertson that a
mystery play underlies the story of the Passion seems to receive
support from the discovery of some cuneiform tablets relating to
the Babylonian god Marduk, whose death and resurrection were
dramatically represented long before the Christian era. Marduk, the
son of Ea and intercessor with his father for mankind, was tried,
condemned to death, slain, buried in a mountain cave, and raised to
life. He is also said to have visited "the spirits in prison" (a
curious parallel to I Peter iii. 19). Possibly some form of this
dramatic mystery was known in certain heterodox circles of Judaism.
Prof. Zimmern in Germany and Dr. S. Langdon in England, both
Assyriologists of repute, hold that the Marduk Passion-myth has
some bearing on the problem of Christian origins. The Witness of
Paul, which has been cited again and again as one of the unshakable
pillars of the tradition, has become at least questionable. Not
only is the formidable attack by Van Manen on the authenticity of
the whole of the Pauline Epistles to be reckoned with, but also the
fact that the defence of them to-day generally involves the
surrender of several as non-Pauline and the admission of large
interpolations in the rest. At any rate, the theology of Paul, or
of those who wrote under his name, seems to demand a longer growth
of propaganda preceding it than the Orthodox tradition assumes.

                                   A.D. Howell Smith.
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                THE LIFE OF JESUS by ERNEST RENAN

                          INTRODUCTION

              IN WHICH THE SOURCES OF THIS HISTORY
                     ARE PRINCIPALLY TREATED

     A HISTORY of the "Origin of Christianity" ought to embrace all
the obscure and, if one might so speak, subterranean periods which
extend from the first beginnings of this religion up to the moment
when its existence became a public fact, notorious and evident to
the eyes of all. Such a history would consist of four books. The
first, which I now present to the public, treats of the particular
fact which has served as the starting-point of the new religion;
and is entirely filled by the sublime person of the Founder. The
second would treat of the Apostles and their immediate disciples,
or, rather, of the revolutions which religious thought under-went
in the first two generations of Christianity. I would close this
about the year 100, at the time when the last friends of Jesus were
dead, and when all the books of the New Testament were fixed almost
in the forms in which we now read them. The third would exhibit the
state of Christianity under the Antonines. We should see it develop
itself slowly, and sustain an almost permanent war against the
empire, which had just reached the highest degree of administrative
perfection, and, governed by philosophers, combated in the new-born
sect a secret and theocratic society, which obstinately denied and
incessantly undermined it. This book would cover the entire period
of the second century. Lastly, the fourth book would show the
decisive progress which Christianity made from the time of the
Syrian emperors. We should see the learned system of the Antonines
crumble, the decadence of the ancient civilization become
irrevocable, Christianity profit from its ruin, Syria conquer the
whole West, and Jesus, in company with the gods and the deified
sages of Asia, take possession and a purely civil government no
longer sufficed. It was then that the religious ideas of the races
grouped around the Mediterranean became profoundly modified; that
the Eastern religious everywhere took precedence; that the
Christian Church, having become very numerous, totally forgot its
dreams of a millennium, broke its last ties with Judaism, and
entered completely into the Greek and Roman world. The contests and
the literary labors of the third century, which were carried on
without concealment, would be described only in their general
features. I would relate still more briefly the persecutions at the
commencement of the fourth century, the last effort of the empire
to return to its former principles, which denied to religious
association any place in the State. Lastly, I would only foreshadow
the change of policy which, under Constantine, reversed the
position, and made of the most free and spontaneous religious
movement an official worship, subject to the State, and persecutor
in its turn. I know not whether I shall have sufficient life and
strength to complete a plan so vast. I shall be satisfied if, after
having written the Life of Jesus, I am permitted to relate, as I
understand it, the history of the Apostles, the state of the
Christian conscience during the weeks which followed the death of
Jesus, the formation of the cycle of legends concerning the
resurrection, the first acts of the Church of Jerusalem, the life
of Saint Paul, the crisis of the time of Nero, the appearance of
the Apocalypse, the fall of Jerusalem, the foundation of the
Hebrew-Christian sects of Batanea, the compilation of the Gospels, 


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and the rise of the great schools of Asia Minor originated by John.
Everything pales by the side of that marvelous first century. By a
peculiarity rare in history, we see much better what passed in the
Christian world from the year 50 to the year 75 than from the year
100 to the year 150.

     Those who will consult the following excellent writings will
there find explained. a number of points upon which I have been
obliged to be very brief: --

     Etudes Critiques sur l'Evangile de saint Matthieu, par M.
Albert Reville, pasteur de l'eglise Wallonne de Rotterdam.
     Histoire de la Theologie Chretienne au Siecle Apostolique, par
M. Reuss, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie et au Seminaire
Protestant de Strasbourg.
     Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs pendant les Deux Siecles
Anterieurs a l'Ere Chretienne, par M. Michel Nicolas, professeur a
la Faculte de Theologie Protestante de Montauban.
     Vie de Jesus, par le Dr. Strauss; traduite par M. Littre,
Membre de l'Institut.
     Revue de Theologie et de Philosophie Chretienne, publiee sous
la direction de M. Colani, de 1850 a 1857. -- Nouvelle Revue de
Theologie, faisant suite a la precedente depuis 1858.
     While this work was in the press, a book has appeared which I
do not hesitate to add to this list, although I have not read it
with the attention it deserves -- Les Evangiles, par M. Gustave
d'Eichthal. Premiere Partie: Examen Critique et Comparatif des
Trois Premiers Evangiles. Paris, Hachette, 1863.

     The criticism of the details of the Gospel texts especially
has been done by Strauss in a manner which leaves little to be
desired. Although Strauss may be mistaken in his theory of the
compilation of the Gospels; and although his book has, in my
opinion, the fault of taking up the theological ground too much,
and the historical ground too little, it will be necessary, in
order to understand the motives which have guided me amid a crowd
of minutiae, to study the always judicious, though sometimes rather
subtle, argument of the book, so well translated by my learned
friend, M. Littre.

     I do not believe I have neglected any source of information as
to ancient evidences. Without speaking of a crowd of other
scattered data, there remain, respecting Jesus, and the time in
which he lived, five great collections of writings -- 1st, The
Gospels, and the writings of the New Testament in general; 2nd, The
compositions called the "Apocrypha of the Old Testament"; 3rd, The
works of Philo; 4th, Those of Josephus; 5th, The Talmud. The
writings of Philo have the priceless advantage of showing us the
thoughts which, in the time of Jesus, fermented in minds occupied
with great religious questions. Philo lived, it is true, in quite
a different province of Judaism to Jesus, but, like him, he was
very free from the littlenesses which reigned at Jerusalem; Philo
is truly the elder brother of Jesus. He was sixty-two years old
when the Prophet of Nazareth was at the height of his activity, and
he survived him at least ten years. What a pity that the chances of
life did not conduct him into Galilee! What would he not have
taught us!


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     Josephus, writing specially for pagans, is not so candid. His
short notices of Jesus, of John the Baptist, of Judas the
Gaulonite, are dry and colourless. We feel that he seeks to present
these movements, so profoundly Jewish in character and spirit,
under a form which would be intelligible to Greeks and Romans. I
believe the passage respecting Jesus to be authentic. It is
perfectly in the style of Josephus, and, if this historian has made
mention of Jesus, it is thus that he must have spoken of him. We
feel only that a Christian hand has retouched the passage, has
added a few words -- without which it would almost have been
blasphemous  ["If it be lawful to call him man."]  -- has perhaps
retrenched or modified some expressions. It must be recollected
that the literary fortune of Josephus was made by the Christians,
who adopted his writings as essential documents of their sacred
history. They made, probably in the second century, an edition
corrected according to Christian ideas. At all events, that which
constitutes the immense interest of Josephus on the subject which
occupies us is the clear light which he throws upon the period.
Thanks to him, Herod, Herodias, Antipas, Phihp, Annas, Caiaphas,
and Pilate are personages whom we can touch with a finger, and whom
we see living before us with a striking reality.

     The Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, especially the
Jewish part of the Sibylline verses, and the Book of Enoch together
with the Book of Daniel, which is also really an Apocrypha, have a
primary importance in the history of the development of the
Messianic theories, and for the understanding of the conceptions of
Jesus respecting the kingdom of God. The Book of Enoch especially,
which was much read at the time of Jesus, gives us the key to the
expression "Son of Man," and to the ideas attached to it. The ages
of these different books, thanks to the labors of Alexander, Ewald,
Dillmann, and Reuss, are now beyond doubt. Every one is agreed in
placing the compilation of the most important of them in the second
and first centuries before Jesus Christ. The date of the Book of
Daniel is still more certain. The character of the two languages in
which it is written, the use of Greek words, the clear, precise,
dated announcement of events which reach even to the time of
Antiochus Epiphanes, the incorrect descriptions of Ancient
Babylonia there given, the general tone of the book, which in no
respect recalls the writings of the captivity, but, on the
contrary, responds, by a crowd of analogies, to the beliefs, the
manners, the turn of imagination of the time of the Seleucidae; the
Apocalyptic form of the visions, the place of the book in the
Hebrew canon, out of the sense of the prophets, the omission of
Daniel in the panegyrics of chapter xlix. of Ecclesiastics, in
which his position is all but indicated, and many other proofs
which have been deduced a hundred times, do not permit of a doubt
that the Book of Daniel was but the fruit of the great excitement
produced among the Jews by the persecution of Antiochus. It is not
in the old prophetical literature that we must class this book, but
rather at the head of Apocalyptic literature, as the first model of
a kind of composition, after which come the various Sibylline
poems, the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of John, the Ascension of
Isaiah, and the Fourth Book of Esdras.





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     In the history of the origin of Christianity, the Talmud has
hitherto been too much neglected. I think, with M. Geiger, that the
true notion of the circumstances which surrounded the development
of Jesus must be sought in this strange compilation, in which so
much precious information is mixed with the most insignificant
scholasticism. The Christian and the Jewish theology, having in the
main followed two parallel ways, the history of the one cannot well
be understood without the history of the other. Innumerable
important details in the Gospels find, moreover, their commentary
in the Talmud. The vast Latin collection of Lightfoot, Schoettgen,
Buxtorf, and Otho contained already a mass of information on this
point. I have imposed on myself the task of verifying in the
original all the citations which I have admitted, without a single
exception. The assistance which has been given me for this part of
my task by a learned Israelite, M. Neubauer, well versed in
Talmudic literature, has enabled me to go further, and to clear up
the most intricate parts of my subject by new researches. The
distinction of epochs is here most important, the compilation of
the Talmud extending from the year 200 to about the year 500. We
have brought to it as much discernment as is possible in the actual
state of the studies. Dates so recent will excite some fears among
persons habituated to accord value to a document only for the
period in which it was written. But such scruples would here be out
of place. The teaching of the Jews from the Asmonean epoch down to
the second century was principally oral. We must not judge of this
state of intelligence by the habits of an age of much writing. The
Vedas, and the ancient Arabian poems, have been preserved for ages
from memory, and yet these compositions present a very distinct and
delicate form. In the Talmud on the contrary, the form has no
value. Let us add that before the Mishnah of Judas the Saint, which
has caused all others to be forgotten, there were attempts at
compilation, the commencement of which is probably much earlier
than is commonly supposed. The style of the Talmud is that of loose
notes; the collectors did probably than classify under certain
titles the enormous mass of writings which had been accumulating in
the different schools for generations.

     It remains for us to speak of the documents which, presenting
themselves as biographies of the Founder of Christianity, must
naturally hold the first place in a Life of Jesus. A complete
treatise upon the compilation of the Gospels would be a work of
itself. Thanks to the excellent researches of which this question
has been the object during thirty years, a problem which was
formerly judged insurmountable has obtained a solution which,
though it leaves room for many uncertainties, fully suffices for
the necessities of history. We shall have occasion to return to
this in our Second Book, the composition of the Gospels having been
one of the most important facts for the future of Christianity in
the second half of the first century. We will touch here only a
single aspect of the subject, that which is indispensable to the
completeness of our narrative. Leaving aside all which belongs to
the portraiture of the Apostolic times, we will inquire only in
what degree the data furnished by the Gospels may be employed in a
history formed according to rational principles.





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     That the Gospels are in part legendary is evident, since they
are full of miracles and of the supernatural; but legends have not 
all the same value. No one doubts the principal features of the
life of Francis d'Assisi, although we meet the supernatural at
every step. No one, on the other hand, accords credit to the Life
of Apollonius of Tyana, because it was written long after the time
of the hero, and purely as a romance. At what time, by what hands,
under what circumstances, have the Gospels been compiled? This is
the Primary question upon which depends the opinion to be formed of
their credibility.

     Each of the four Gospels bears at its head the name of a
Perspoenagie known either in the Apostolic history or in the Gospel
story itself. These four personages are not strictly given us as
the authors. The formulae, "according to Matthew," "according to
Mark," "according to Luke," "according to John," do not imply that,
in the most ancient opinion, these recitals were written from
beginning to end by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; they merely
signify that these were the traditions proceeding from each of
these Apostles and claiming their authority. It is clear that, if
these titles are exact, the Gospels, without ceasing to be in part
legendary, are of great value, since they enable us to go back to
the half-century which followed the death of Jesus, and, in two
instances, even to the eye-witnesses of his actions.

     Firstly, as to Luke, doubt is scarcely possible. The Gospel of
Luke is a regular composition, founded on anterior documents. It is
the work of a man who selects, prunes, and combines. The author of
this Gospel is certainly the same as that of the Acts of the
Apostles. Now, the author of the Acts is a companion of St. Paul,
a title which applies to Luke exactly. I know that more than one
objection may be raised against this reasoning; but one least, is
beyond doubt -- namely, that the author of the third Gospel and of
the Acts was a man of the second Apostolic generation, and that is
sufficient for our object. The date of this Gospel can, moreover,
be determined with much precision by considerations drawn from the
book itself. The 21st chapter of Luke, inseparable from the rest of
the work, was certainly written after the siege of Jerusalem and
but a short time after. We are here, then, upon solid ground; for
we are concerned with a work written entirely by the same hand, and
of the most perfect unity.

     The Gospels of Matthew and Mark have not nearly the same stamp
of individuality. They are impersonal compositions, in which the
author totally disappears. A proper name written at the head of
works of this kind does not amount to much. But if the Gospel of
Luke is dated, those of Matthew and Mark are dated also; for it is
certain that the third Gospel is posterior to the first two, and
exhibits the character of a much more advanced compilation. We
have, besides, on this point, an excellent testimony from a writer
of the first half of the second century -- namely, Papias, bishop
of Hierapolis, a grave man, a man of traditions, who was all his
life seeking to collect whatever could be known of the person of
Jesus. After having declared that on such matters he preferred oral
tradition to books, Papias mentions two writings on the acts and
words of Christ: first a writing of Mark, the interpreter of
Apostle Peter, written briefly, incomplete, and not arranged in 


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chronological order, including narratives and discourses
(OC-Yokv-rce TCPCXXoivroc), composed from the information and
recollections of the Apostle Peter; second, a collection of
sentences (16yL(X) written in Hebrew by Matthew, "and which each
one has translated as he could." it is certain that these two
descriptions answer pretty well to the general physiognomy of the
two books now called "Gospel according to Matthew." "Gospel
according to Mark"; the first characterized by its long discourses;
the second, above all, by anecdote -- much more exact than the
first upon small facts, brief even to dryness, containing few
discourses, and indifferently composed. That these two works, such
as we now read them, are absolutely similar to those read by
Papias, cannot be sustained: firstly, because the writings of
Matthew were to Papias solely discourses in Hebrew of which there
were in circulation very varying translations; and, secondly,
because the writings of Mark and Matthew, were to him profoundly
distinct, written without any knowledge of each other, and, as it
seems, in different languages. Now, in the present state of the
texts, the "Gospel according to Matthew" and the "Gospel according
to Mark" present parallel parts so long and so perfectly identical,
that it must be supposed, either that the final compiler of the
first had the second under his eyes, or vice versi, or that both
copied from the same prototype. That which appears the most likely
is that we have not the entirely original compilations of either
Matthew or Mark, but that our first two Gospels are versions in
which the attempt is made to fill up the gaps of the one text by
the other. Every one wished, in fact, to possess a complete copy.
He who had in his copy only discourses wished to have narratives,
and vice versa. It is thus that "the Gospel according to Matthew"
is found to have included almost all the anecdotes of Mark, and
that "the Gospel according to Mark" now contains numerous features
which come from the Logia of Matthew. Every one, besides, drew
largely on the Gospel tradition then current. This tradition was so
far from having been exhausted by the Gospels that the Acts of the
Apostles and the most ancient Fathers quote many words of Jesus
which appear authentic, and are not found in the Gospels we
possess.

     It matters little for our present object to push this delicate
analysis funher, and to endeavor to reconstruct in some manner on
the one hand the original Logia of Matthew, and on the other the
primitive narrative such as it left the pen of Mark. The Logia are
doubtless represented by the great discourses of Jesus which fill
a considerable part of the first Gospel. These discourses form, in
fact, when detached from the rest, a sufficiently complete whole.
As to the narratives of the first and second Gospels, they seem to
have for basis a common document, of which the text reappears
sometimes in the one and sometimes in the other, and of which the
second Gospel, such as we read it to-day, is but a slightly
modified reproduction. In other words, the scheme of the Life of
Jesus, in the Synoptics, rests upon two original documents --
first, the discourses of Jesus collected by Matthew; second, the
collection of anecdotes and personal reminiscences which Mark wrote
from the recollections of peter. We may say that we have these two
documents still, mixed with accounts from another source, in the
two first Gospels, which bear, not without reason, the name of the
"Gospel according to Matthew" and of the Gospel according to Mark."


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     What is undubitable, in any case, is that very early the
discourses of Jesus were written in the Aramean language, and very
early also his remarkable actions were recorded. These were not
texts defined and fixed dogmatically. Besides the Gospels which
have come to us, there were a number of others professing to
represent the tradition of eye-witnesses. Little importance was
attached to these writings, and the preservers, such as Papias,
greatly preferred oral tradition. As men still believed that the
world was nearly at an nd, they cared little to compose books for
the future; it was sufficient merely to preserve in their hearts a
lively image of him whom they hoped soon to see again in the
clouds. Hence the little authority which the Gospel texts enjoyed
during one hundred and fifty years. There was no scruple in
inserting additions, in variously combining them, and in completing
some by others. The poor man who has but one book wishes that it
may contain all that is dear to his heart. These little books were
lent, each one transcribed in the margin of his copy the words, and
the parables he found elsewhere, which touched him. The most
beautiful thing in the world has thus proceeded from an obscure and
purely popular elaboration. No compilation was of absolute value.
Justin, who often appeals to that which he calls "The Memoirs of
the Apostles," had under his notice Gospel documents in a state
very different from that in which we possess them. At all events,
he never cares to quote them textually. The Gospel quotations in
the pseudo-Clementinian writings, of Ebionite origin, present the
same character, The spirit was everything; the letter was nothing.
it was when tradition became weakened, in the second half of the
second century, that the texts bearing the names of the Apostles
took a decisive authority and obtained the force of law.

     Who does not see the value of documents posed of the tender
remembrances, and simple narratives, of the first two Christian
generations, still full of the strong impression which the
illustrious Founder has produced, and which seemed long to survive
him? Let us add, that the Gospels in question seem to proceed from
that branch of the Christian family which stood nearest to Jesus.
The last work of compilation, at least of the text which bears the
name of Matthew, appears to have been done in one of the countries
situated at the north-east of Palestine such as Gaulonitis,
Auranitis, Batanea, where many Christians took refuge at the time
of the Roman war, where were found relatives of Jesus even in the
second century, and where the first Galilean tendency was longer
preserved than in other parts,

     So far we have only spoken of the three Gospels named the
Synoptics. There remains a fourth, that Which bears the name of
John. Concerning this one, doubts have a much better foundation,
and the question is further from solution. Papias -- who was
connected with the school of John, and who, if not One of his
auditors, as Irenaeus thinks, associated with his immediate
disciples, among others, Aristion, and the one called Presbyteros
Joannes -- says not a word of a "Life of Jesus" written by John,
although he had zealously collected the oral narratives of both
Aristion and Presbyteros Joannes. If any such mention had been
found in his work, Eusebius, who points out everything therein that
can contribute to the literary history of the Apostolic age, would
doubtless have mentioned it.


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     The intrinsic difficulties drawn from the peru fourth Gospel
itself are not less strong. How is it that, side by side with
narration so precise and so evidently that of an eye-witness, we
find discourses so totally different from those of Matthew? How is
it that, connected with a general plan of the life of Jesus, which
appears much more satisfactory and exact than that of the
Synoptics, these singular passages occur in which we are sensible
of a dogmatic interest peculiar to the compiler, of ideas foreign
to Jesus, and sometimes of indications which place us on our guard
against the good faith of the narrator? Lastly, how is it that,
united with views the most pure, the most just, the most truly
evangelical, we find these blemishes, which we would fain regard as
the interpolations of an ardent sectarian? Is it indeed John, son
of Zebedee, brother of James (of whom there is not a single mention
made in the fourth Gospel), who is able to write in Greek these
lessons of abstract metaphysics, to which neither the Synoptics nor
the Talmud offer any analogy? All this is of great importance; and,
for myself, I dare not be sure that the fourth Gospel has been
entirely written by the pen of a Galilean fisherman. But that, as
a whole, this Gospel may have originated towards the end of the
first century from the great school of Asia Minor, which was
connected with John, that it represents to us a version of the life
of the Master, worthy of high esteem, and often to be preferred, is
demonstrated in a manner which leaves us nothing to be desired,
both by exterior evidences and by examination of the document
itself.

     And, firstly, no one doubts that, towards the year 150, the
fourth Gospel did exist, and was attributed to John. Explicit texts
from St. Justin, from Athenagoras, from Tatian, from Theophilus of
Antioch, from Irenaeus, show that henceforth this Gospel mixed in
every controversy, and served as corner-stone for the development
of the faith. Irenaeus is explicit; now, Irenneus came from the
school of John, and between him and the Apostle there was only
Polycarp. The part played by this Gospel in Gnosticism, and
especially in the system of Valentinus, in Montanism, and in the
quarrel of the Quartodecimans, is not less decisive. The school of
John was the most influential one during the second century; and it
is only by regarding the origin of the Gospel as coincident with
the rise of the school that the existence of the latter can be
understood at all. Let us add that the first Epistle attributed to
St. John is certainly by the same author as the fourth Gospel; now,
this Epistle is recognized as from John by Polycarp, Papias, and
Irenaeus.

     But it is, above all, the perusal of the work itself which is
calculated to give this impression. The author always speaks as an
eye-witness; he wishes to pass for the Apostle John. If, then, this
work is not really by the Apostle, we must admit a fraud, of which
the author convicts himself. Now, although the ideas of the time
respecting literary honesty differed essentially from ours, there
is no example in the Apostolic world of a falsehood of this kind.
Besides, not only does the author wish to pass for the Apostle
John, but we see clearly that he writes in the interest of this
Apostle. On each page he betrays the desire to fortify his
authority, to show that he has been the favorite of Jesus; that in
all the solemn circumstances (at the lord's supper, at Calvary, at 


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the tomb) he held the first place. His relations on the whole
fraternal, although not excluding a certain rivalry with Peter; his
hatred, on the contrary, of Judas, a hatred, probably anterior to
the betrayal, seems to pierce through here and there. We are
tempted to believe that John, in his old age, having read the
Gospel narratives, on the one hand remarked their various
inaccuracies, on the other was hurt at seeing that there was not
accorded to him a sufficiently high place in the history of Christ;
that then he commenced to dictate a number of things which he knew
better than the rest, with the intention of showing that in many
instances, in which only Peter was spoken of, he had figured with
him and even before him. Already during the life of Jesus, these
trifling sentiments of jealousy had been manifested between the
sons of Zebedee and the other disciples. After the death of James,
his brother, John remained sole inheritor of the intimate
remembrances of which these two Apostles, by the common consent,
were the depositaries. Hence his perpetual desire to recall that he
is the last surviving eye-witness, and the pleasure which he takes
in relating circumstances which he alone could know. Hence, too, so
many minute details which seem like the commentaries of an
annotator -- "it was the sixth hour"; "it was night"; "the
servant's name was Malchus"; "they had made a fire of coals, for it
was cold"; the coat was without seam." Hence, lastly, the disorder
of the compilation, the irregularity of the narration, the
disjointedness of the first chapters, all so many inexplicable
features on the supposition that this Gospel was but a theological
thesis, without historic value, and which, on the contrary, are
perfectly intelligible, if, in conformity with tradition, we see in
them the remembrances of an old man, sometimes of remarkable
freshness, sometimes having undergone strange modifications.

     A primary distinction, indeed, ought to be made in the Gospel
of John. On the one side this Gospel presents us with a rough
drought of the life of Jesus, which differs considerably from that
of the Synoptics. On the other, it puts into the mouth of Jesus
discourses of which the tone, the style, the treatment, and the
doctrines have nothing in common with the Logia given us by the
Synoptics. In this second respect the difference is such that we
must make choice in a decisive manner. If Jesus spoke as Matthew
represents, he could not have spoken as John relates. Between these
two authorities no critic has ever hesitated, or can ever hesitate.
Far removed from the simple, disinterested, impersonal tone of the
Synoptics, the Gospel of John shows incessantly the preoccupation
of the apologist -- the mental reservation of the sectarian, the
desire to prove a thesis, and to convince adversaries. It was not
by pretentious tirades, heavy, badly written, and appealing little
to the moral sense, that Jesus founded his divine work. If even
Papias had not taught us that Matthew wrote the sayings of Jesus in
their original tongue, the natural, ineffable truth, the charm
beyond comparison of the discourses in the Synoptics, their
profoundly Hebraistic idiom, the analogies which they present with
the sayings of the Jewish doctors of the period, their perfect
harmony with the natural phenomena of Galilee -- all these
characteristics, compared with the obscure Gnosticism, with the
distorted metaphysics, which fill the discourses of John, would
speak loudly enough. This by no means implies that there are not in
the discourses of John some admirable gleams, some traits which 


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truly come from Jesus. But the mystic tone of these discourses does
not correspond at all to the character of the eloquence of Jesus,
such as we picture it according to the Synoptics. A new spirit has
breathed; Gnosticism has already commenced; the Galilean era of the
kingdom of God is finished; the hope of the near advent of Christ
is more distant; we cater on the barrenness of metaphysics, into
the darkness of abstract dogma. The spirit of Jesus is not there,
and, if the son of Zebedee has truly traced these pages, he had
certainly, in writing them, quite forgotten the Lake of
Gennesareth, and the charming discourses which he had heard upon
its shores.

     One circumstance, moreover, which strongly proves that the
discourses given us by the fourth Gospel are not historical, but
compositions intended to cover with the authority of Jesus certain
doctrines dear to the compiler, is their perfect harmony with the
intellectual state of Asia Minor at the time when they were
written, Asia Minor was then the theater of a strange movement of
syncretical philosophy; all the germs of Gnosticism existed there
already. John appears to have drunk deeply from these strange
springs. It may be that, after the crisis of the year 68 (the date
of the Apocalypse) and of the year 70 (the destruction of
Jerusalem), the old Apostle, with an ardent and plastic spirit,
disabused of the belief in a near appearance of the Son of Man in
the clouds, may have inclined towards the ideas that he found
around him, of which several agreed sufficiently well with certain
Christian doctrines. In attributing these new ideas to Jesus, he
only followed a very natural tendency. Our remembrances are
transformed with our circumstances; the ideal of a person that we
have known changes as we change. Considering Jesus as the
incarnation of truth, John could not fail to attribute to him that
which he had come to consider as the truth.

     If we must speak candidly, we will add that probably John
himself had little share in this; that the change was made around
him rather than by him. One is sometimes tempted to believe that
precious notes, coming from the Apostle, have been employed by his
disciples in a very different sense from the primitive Gospel
spirit. In fact, certain portions of the fourth Gospel have been
added later; such is the entire twenty-first chapter, in which the
author seems to wish to render homage to the Apostle Peter after
his death, and to reply to the objections which would be drawn, or
alrbady had been drawn, from the death of John himself (ver.
21-23). Many other places bear the traces of erasures and
corrections. It is impossible at this distance to understand these
singular problems, and without doubt many surprises would be in
store for us, if we were permitted to netrate the secrets of that
mysterious school of Ephesus, which, more than once, appears to
have delighted in obscure paths. But there is a decisive test.
Everyone who sets himself to write the life of Jesus without any
predetermined theory as to the relative value of the Gospels,
letting himself be guided solely by the sentiment of the subject,
will be led in numerous instances to prefer the narration of John
to that of the Synoptics. The last months of the life of Jesus
especially are explained by John alone; a number of the features of
the passion, unintelligible in the Synoptics, resume both probility
and possibility in the narrative of the fourth Gospel. On the 


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contrary, I dare defy anyone to compose a Life of Jesus with any
meaning from the discourses which John attributes to him. This
manner of incessantly preaching and demonstrating himself, this
erpetual argumentation, this stage-effect devoid of simpplicity,
these long arguments after each miracle, these stiff and awkward
discourses, the tone of which is so often false and unequal, wouId
not be tolerated by a man of taste compared with the delightful
sentences of the Synoptics. There are here evidently artificial
portions, which represent to us the sermons of Jesus, as the
dialogues of Plato render us the conversations of Socrates. They
are, so to speak, the variations of a musician improvising on a
given theme. The theme is not without some authenticity; but in the
execution the imagination of the artist has given itself full
scope. We are sensible of the factitious mode of procedure, of
rhetoric, of gloss. Let us add that the vocabulary of Jesus cannot
be recognised in the portions of which we speak. The expression
"kingdom of God," which was so familiar to the Master, occurs there
but once. On the other hand, the style of the discourses attributed
to Jesus by the fourth Gospel presents the most complete analogy
with that of the Epistles of St. John; we see that, in writing the
discourses, the author followed not his recollections, but rather
the somewhat monotonous movement of his own thought. Quite a new
mystical language is introduced, a language of which the Synoptics
had not the least idea ("world," "truth," "life," "light,"
"darkness," etc.). If Jesus had ever spoken in this style, which
has nothing of Hebrew, nothing Jewish, nothing Talmudic in it, how,
if I may thus express myself, is it that but a single one of his
hearers should have so well kept the secret?

     Literary history offers, besides, another example, which
presents the greatest analogy with the historic phenomenon we have
just described and serves to explain it. Socrates, who, like Jesus,
never wrote, is known to us by two of his disciples, Xenophon and
Plato; the first corresponding to the Synoptics in his clear,
transparent, impersonal compilation; the second recalling the
author of the fourth Gospel, by his vigorous individuality. In
order to describe the Socratic teaching, should we follow the
"dialogues" of Plato or the "discourses" of Xenophon? Doubt, in
this respect, is not possible; everyone chooses the "discourses,"
and not the "dialogues." Does Plato, however, teach us nothing
about Socrates? Would it be good criticism, in writing the
biography of the latter, to neglect the "dialogues"? Who would
venture to maintain this? The analogy, moreover, is not complete,
and the difference is in favour of the fourth Gospel. The author of
this Gospel is, in fact, the better biographer; as if Plato, who,
while attributing to his master fictitious discourses, had known
important matters about his life, which Xenophon ignored entirely.
Without pronouncing upon the material question as to what hand has
written the fourth Gospel, and while inclined to believe that the
discourses, at least, are not from the son of Zebedee, we admit
still that it is indeed "the Gospel according to John," in the same
sense that the first and second Gospels are the Gospels "according
to Matthew" and "according to Mark." The historical sketch of the
fourth Gospel is the Life of Jesus, such as it was known in the
school of John; it is the recital which Aristion and Presbyteros
Joannes made to Papias, without telling him that it was written, or
rather attaching no importance to this point. I must add that, in 


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my opinion, this school was better acquainted with the exterior
circumstances of the life of the founder than the group whose
remembrances constituted the Synoptics. It had, especially upon the
sojourns of Jesus at Jerusalem, data which the others did not
possess. The disciples of this school treated Mark as an
indifferent biographer, and devised a system to explain his
omissions. Certain passages of Luke, where there is, as it were, an
echo of the traditions of John, prove also that these traditions
were entirely unknown to the rest of the Christian family.

     These explanations will suffice, I think, to show, in the
course of my narrative, the motives which have determined me to
give the preference to this or that of the four guides whom we have
for the Life of Jesus. On the whole, I admit as authentic the four
Canonical Gospels. All, in my opinion, date from the first century,
and the authors are, generally speaking, those to whom they are
attributed; but their historic value is very diverse. Matthew
evidently merits an unlimited confidence as to the discourses; they
are the logia, the identical notes taken from a clear and lively
remembrance of the teachings of Jesus. A kind of splendour at once
mild and terrible -- a divine strength, if we may so speak --
emphasises these words, detaches them from the context, and renders
them easily distinguishable. The person who imposes upon himself
the task of making a continuous narrative from the gospel history
possesses, in this respect, an excellent touchstone. The real words
of Jesus disclose themselves; as soon as we touch them in this
chaos of traditions of varied authenticity, we feel them vibrate --
they betray themselves spontaneously, and shine out of the
narrative with unsqualled brilliancy.

     The narrative portions grouped in the first Gospel around this
primitive nucleus have not the same authority. There are many not
well-defined legends which have proceeded from the zeal of the
second Christian generation. The Gospel of Mark is much firmer,
more precise, containing fewer subsequent additions. He is the one
of the three Synoptics who has remanied the most primitive the most
original, the one to whom the fewest after-elements have been
added. In Mark the facts are related with a clearness for which we
seek in vain among the other evangelists. He likes to report
certain words of Jesus in Syro-Chaldean. He is full of minute
observations, coming doubtless from an eve-witness. There is
nothing to prevent our agreeing with Papias in regarding this eve-
witness, who evidently had followed Jesus, who had loved him and
observed him very closely, and who had preserved a lively image of
him, as the Apostle Peter himself.

     As to the work of Luke, its historical value is sensibly
weaker. It is a document which comes to us second-hand, The
narrative is more mature. The words of Jesus are there, more
deliberate, more sententious. Some sentences are distorted and
exaggerated. Writing outside of Palestine, and certainly after the
siege of Jerusalem, the author indicates the places with less
cxactitude than the other two Synoptics; he has an erroneous idea
of the temple, which he represents as an oratory where people went
to pay their devotions. He subdues some details in order to make
the different narratives agree; he softens the passages which had
become embarrassing on account of a more exalted idea of the 


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divinity of Christ; he exaggerates the marvellous; commits errors
in chronology; omits Hebraistic comments; quotes no word of Jesus
in this language, and gives to all the localities their Greek
names. We feel we have to do with a compiler -- with a man who has
not himself seen the witnesses, but who labours at the texts and
wrests their sense to make them agree. Luke had probably under his
eyes the biographical collection of Mark and the Logia of Matthew.
But he treats them with much freedom; sometimes he fuses two
anecdotes or two parables in one; sometimes he divides one in order
to make two. He interprets the documents according to his own idea,
he has not the absolute impassibility of Matthew and Mark. We might
affirm certain things of his individual tastes and tendencies; he
is a very exact devotee; he insists that Jesus had performed all
the Jewish rites; he is a warm Ebionite and democrat -- that is to
say, much opposed to property -- and persitided that the triumph of
the poor is approaching; he likes especially all the anecdotes
showing prominently the conversion of sinners -- the exaltation of
the humble he often modifies the ancient traditions in order to
give them this meaning; he admits into his first pages the legends
about the infancy of Jesus, related with the long amplifications,
the spiritual songs, and the conventional proceedings which form
the essential features of the Apocryphal Gospels. Finally, he has
in the narrative of the last hours of Jesus some circumstances full
of tender feeling, and certain words of Jesus of delightful beauty,
which are not found in more authentic accounts, and in which we
detect the presence of legend. Luke probably borrowed them from a
more recent collection, in which the principal aim was to excite
sentiments of piety.

     A great reserve was naturally enforced in presence of a
document of this nature. It would have been as uncritical to
neglect it as to employ it without discernment. Luke has had under
his eyes originafs which we no longer possess. He is less an
evangelist than a biographer of Jesus, a "harmoniser," a corrector
after the manner of Marcion and Tatian. But he is a biographer of
the first century, a divine artist, who, independently of the
information which he has drawn from more ancient sources, shows us
the character of the founder with a happiness of treatment, with a
uniform inspiration, and a distinctness which the other two
Synoptics do not possess. In the perusal of his Gospel there is the
greatest charm; for to the incomparable beauty of the foundation,
common to them all, he adds a degree of skill in composition which
singularly augments the effect of the portrait, without seriously
injuring its truthfulness.

     On the whole, we may say that the Synoptical compilation has
passed through three stages: first, the original documentary state
(7.6ytoe of Matthew, XE:Zpgvr(x q 7p(xx Oivroc of Mark), primary
compilations which no longer exist; second, the state of simple
mixture, in which the original documents are amalgamated without
any effort at composition, without there appearing any personal
bias of the authors (the existing Gosiels of Matthew and Mark);
third, the state of combination or of intentional and deliberate
compiling, in which we are sensible of an attempt to reconcile the
different versions (Gospel of Luke). The Gospel of John, as we have
said, forms a composition of another order, and is entirely
distinct.


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     It will be remarked that I have made no use of the Apocryphal
Gospels. These compositions ought not in any manner to be put upon
the same footing as the Canonical Gospels. They are insipid and
puerile amplifications, having the Canonical Gospels for their
basis, and adding nothing thereto of any value. On the other hand,
I have been very attentive to collect the shreds preserved by the
Fathers of the Church, of the ancient Gospels which formerly
existed parallel with the Canonical Gosfels, and which are now lost
-- such as the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gospel
according to the Egyptians, the Gospels styled those of Justin,
Marcion, and Tatian. The first two are principally important
because they were written in Aramean, like the Logia of Matthew,
and appear to constitute one version of the Gospel of this Apostle,
and because they were the Gospel of the Ebionim -- that is, of
those small Christian sects of Batanea who preserved the use of
Syro-Chaldean, and who appear in some respects to have followed the
course marked out by Jesus. But it must be confessed that, in the
state in which they have come to us, these Gospels are inferior, as
critical authorities, to the compilation of Matthew's Gospel which
we now possess.

     It will now be seen, I think, what kind of historical value I
attribute to the Gospels. They are neither biographies after the
manner of Suetonius, nor fictitious legends in the style of
Philostratus; they are legendary biographics. I should willingly
compare them with the Legends of the Saints, the Lives of Plotinus,
Proclus, Isidore, and other writings of the same kind, in which
historical truth and the desire to present models of virtue are
combined in various degrees. Inexactitude, which is one of the
features of all popular compositions, is there particularly felt.
Let us suppose that, ten or twelve years ago, three or four old
soldiers of the Empire had each undertaken to write the life of
napoleon from memory. It is clear that their narratives would
contain numerous errors and great discordances. One of them would
place Wagram before Marengo: another would write without hesitation
that Napoleon drove the Government of Robespierre from the
Tuileries; a third would omit expeditions of the highest
importance. But one thing would certainly result with a great
degree of truthfulness from these simple recitals, and that is the
character of the hero, the impression which he made around him. In
this sense such popular narratives would be worth more than a
formal and official history. We may say as much of the Gospels.
Solely attentive to bring out strongly the excellency of the
Master, his miracles, his teaching, the evangelists display entire
indifference to everything that is not of the very spirit of Jesus.
The contradictions respecting time, place, and persons were
regarded as insignificant; for the higher the degree of inspiration
attributed to the words of Jesus, the less was granted to the
compilers themselves. The latter regarded themselves as simple
scribes, and cared but for one thing -- to omit nothing they knew.

     Unquestionably certain preconceived ideas associated
themselves with such recollections. Several narratives, especially
in Luke, are invented in order to bring out more vividly certain
traits of the character of Jesus. This character itself constantly
underwent alteration. Jesus would be a phenomenon unparalleled in
history if, with the part which he played, he had not early become 


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idealised. The legends respecting Alexander were invented before
the generation of his companions in arms became extinct; those
respecting St. Francis d'Assisi began in his lifetime. A rapid
metamorphosis operated in the same manner in the twenty or thirty
years which followed the death of Jesus, and imposed upon his
biography the peculiarities of all ideal legend. Death adds
perfection to the most perfect man; it frees him from all defect in
the eyes of those who have loved him. With the wish to paint the
Master, there was also the desire to explain him. Many anecdotes
were conceived to prove that in him the prophecies regarded as
Messianic had had their accomplishment. But this procedure, of
which we must not deny the importance, would not suffice to explain
everything. No Jewish work of the time gives a series of prophecies
exactly declaring what the Messiah should accomplish. Many
Messianic allusions quoted by the evangelists are so subtle, so
indirect, that one cannot believe they all responded to a generally
admitted doctrine. Sometimes they reasoned thus; "The Messiah ought
to do such a thing; now, Jesus is the Messiah; therefore Jesus has
done such a thing." At other times, by an inverse process, it was
said: "Such a thing has happened to Jesus; now, Jesus is the
Messiah; therefore such a thing was to happen to the Messiah." Too
simple explanations are always false when analysing those profound
creations of popular sentiment which baffle all systems by their
fullness and infinite variety. It is scarcely necessary to say
that, with such documents, in order to present only what is
indisputable, we must limit ourselves to general features. In
almost all ancient histories, even in those which are much less
legendary than these, details open up innumerable doubts. When we
have two accounts of the same fact, it is extremely rare that the
two accounts agree. Is not this a reason for anticipating many
difficulties when we have but one? We may say that among the
anecdotes, the discourses, the celebrated sayings which have been
given us by the historians, there is not one strictly authentic.
Were there stenographers to fix these fleeting words? Was there an
annalist always present to note the gestures, the manners, the
sentiments, of the actors? Let anyone endeavor to get at the truth
as to the way in which such or such contemporary fact has happened;
he will not succeed. Two accounts of the same event given by
different eye-witnesses differ essentially. Must we, therefore,
reject all the colouring of the narratives, and limit ourselves to
the bare facts only? That would be to suppress history. Certainly,
I think that, if we except certain short and almost mnemonic
axioms, none of the discourses reported by Matthew are textual;
even our stenographic reports are scarcely so. I freely admit that
the admirable account of the Passion contains many trifling
inaccuracies. Would it, however, be writing the history of Jesus to
omit those sermons which give to us in such a vivid manner the
character of his discourses, and to limit ourselves to saying, with
Josephus and Tacitus, "that he was put to death by the order of
Pilate at the instigation of the priests"? That would be, in my
opinion, a kind of inexactittide worse than that to which we are
exposed in admitting the details supplied by the texts. These
details are not true to the letter, but they are true with a
superior truth, they are more true than the naked truth, in the
sense that they are truth rendered expressive and articulate --
truth idealised.



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     I beg those who think that I have placed an exaggerated
confidence in narratives in great part legendary to take note of
the observation I have just made. To what would the life of
Alexander be reduced if it were confined to that which is
materially certain? Even partly erroneous traditions contain a
portion of truth which history cannot neglect. No one has blamed M.
Spranger for having, in writing the life of Mohammed, made much of
the hadith or oral traditions concerning the prophet, and for often
having attributed to his hero words which are only known through
this source. Yet the traditions respecting Mohammed are not
superior in historical value to the discourses and narratives which
compose the Gospels. They were written between the year 50 and the
year 140 of the Hegira. When the history of the Jewish schools in
the ages which immediately preceded and followed the birth of
Christianity shall be written, no one will make any scruple of
attributing to Hillel, Shammai, Gamaliel, the maxims ascribed to
them by the Mishnah and the Gemara, although these great
compilations were written many hundreds of years after the time of
the doctors in question.

     As to those who believe, on the contrary, that history should
consist of a simple reproduction of the documents which have come
down to us, I beg to observe that such a course is not allowable.
The four principal documents are in flagrant contradiction one with
another. Josephus rectifies them sometimes. It is necessary to make
a selection. To assert that an event cannot take place in two ways
at once, or in an impossible manner, is not to impose an a'pyiori
philosophy upon history. The historian ought not to conclude that
a fact is false because he possesses several versions of it, or
because credulity has mixed with them much that is fabulous. He
ought in such a case to be very cautious, to examine the texts, and
to proceed carefully by induction. There is one class of narratives
especially to which this principle must necessarily be applied.
Such are narratives of supernatural events. To seek to explain
these, or to reduce them to legends, is not to mutilate facts in
the name of theory; it is to make the observation of facts our
groundwork. None of the miracles with which the old histories are
filled took place under scientific conditions. Observation, which
has never once been falsified, teaches us that miracles never
happen but in times and countries in which they are believed, and
before persons disposed to believe them. No miracle ever occurred
in the presence of men capable of testing its miraculous character.
Neither common people nor men of the world are able to do this. It
requires great precautions and long habits of scientific research.
In our days have we not seen almost all respectable people dupes of
the grossest frauds or of puerile illusions? Marvellous facts,
attested by the whole population of small towns, have, thanks to a
severer scrutiny, been exploded. If it is proved that no
contemporary miracle will bear inquiry, is it nut probable that the
miracles of the past which have all been performed in popular
gatherings would equally present their share of illusion, if it
were possible to criticise them in detail?

     It is not, then, in the name of this or that philosophy, but
in the name of universal experience, that we banish miracle from
history. We do not say, "Miracles are impossible." We say, "Up to
this time a miracle has never been proved." If to-morrow a 
thaumaturgus present himself with credentials sufficiently 

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important to be discussed, and announce himself as able, say, to
raise the dead, what would be done? A commission, composed of
physiologists, physicists, chemists, persons accustomed to
historical criticism, would be named. This commission would choose
a corpse, would assure itself that the death was real, would select
the room in which the experiment should be made, would arrange the
whole system of precautions, so as to leave no chance of doubt. If,
under such conditions, the resurrection were effected, a
probability almost equal to certainty would be established. As,
however, it ought to be possible always to repeat an experiment --
to do over again which has been done once; and as, in the order of
miracle, there can be no question of ease or dffficulty, the
thaumaturgus would be invited to reproduce his marvellous act under
other circumstances, upon other corpses, in another place. If the
miracle succeeded each time, two things would be proved: first,
that supernatural events happen in the world; second, that the
power of producing them belongs, or is delegated to, certain
persons. But who does not see that no miracle ever took place under
these conditions, but that always hitherto the thaumaturgus has
chosen the subject of the experiment, chosen the spot, chosen the
public; that, besides, the people themselves most commonly in
consequence of the invincible want to see something divine in great
events and great men -- create the marvellous legends afterwards?
Until a new order of things prevails, we shall maintain, then, this
principle of historical criticism -- that a supernatural account
cannot be admitted as such, that it always implies credulity or
imposture, that the duty of the historian is to explain it, and
seek to asceitain what share of truth, or of error, it may conceal.

     Such are the rules which have been followed in the composition
of this work. To the perusal of documentary evidences I have been
able to add an important source of information -- the sight of the
places where the events occurred. The scientific mission, having
for its object the exploration of ancient Phoenicia, which I
directed in i86o and 1861, led me to reside on the frontiers of
Galilee, and to travel there frequently. I have traversed, in all
directions, the country of the Gospels; I have visited Jerusalem,
Hebron, and Samaria; scarcely any important locality of the history
of Jesus has escaped me. All this history, which at a distance
seems to float in the clouds of an unreal world, thus took a form,
a solidity which astonished me. The striking agreement of the texts
with the places, the marvellous harmony of the Gospel ideal with
the country which served it as a framework, were like a revelation
to me, I had before my eyes a fifth Gospel, torn, but still
legible, and henceforward, through the recitals of Matthew and
Mark, in place of an abstract being, whose existence might have
been doubted, I saw living and moving an admirable human figure.
During the summer, having to go up to Ghazir, in Lebanon, to take
a little repose, I fixed, in rapid sketches, the image which had
appeared to me, and from them resulted this history. When a cruel
bereavement hastened my departure, I had but a few pages to write.
In this manner the book has been composed almost entirely near the
very places where Jesus was born, and where his character was
developed. Since my return I have laboured unceasingly to verify
and check in detail the rough sketch which I had written in haste
in a Maronite cabin, with five or six volumes around me.



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     Many will regret, perhaps, the biographical form which my work
has thus taken. When I first conceived the idea of a history of the
origin of Christianity, what I wished to write was, in fact, a
history of doctrines, in which men and their actions would have
hardly had a place. Jesus would scarcely have been named; I should
have endeavoured to show how the ideas which have grown under his
name took root and covered the world. But I have learned since that
history is not a simple game of abstractions; that men are more
than doctrines. It was not a certain theory on justification and
redemption which brought about the Reformation; it was Luther and
Calvin. Parseeism, Hellenism, Judaism, might have been able to have
combined under every form; the doctrines of the Resurrection and of
the Word might have developed themselves during ages without
producing this grand, unique, and fruitful fact, called
Christianity. This fact is the work of Jesus, of St. Paul, of St.
John. To write the history of Jesus, of St. Paul, of St. John, is
to write the history of the origin of Christianity. The anterior
movements belong to our subject only in so far as they serve to
throw light upon these extraordinary men, who naturally could not
have existed without connection with that which preceded them.

     In such an effort to make the great souls of the past live
again, some share of divination and conjecture must be permitted.
A great life is an organic whole which cannot be rendered by the
simple agglomeration of small facts. It requires a profound
sentiment to embrace them all, moulding them into perfect unity.
The method of art in a similar subject is a good guide; the
exquisite tact of a Goethe would know how to apply it. The
essential condition of the creations of art is, that they shall
form a living system of which all the parts are mutually dependent
and related.

     In histories such as this, the great test that we have got the
truth is to have succeeded in combining the texts in such a manner
that they shall constitute a logical, probable narrative,
harmonious throughout. The secret laws of life, of the progression
of organic products, of the melting of minute distinctions, ought
to be consulted at each moment; for what is required to be
reproduced is not the material circumstance, which it is impossible
to verify, but the very soul of history; what must be sought is not
the petty certainty about trifles, it is the correctness of the
general sentiment, the truthfulness of the colouring. Each trait
which departs from the rules of classic narration ought to warn us
to be careful; for the fact which has to be related has been
living, natural, and harmonious. If we do not succeed in rendering
it such by the recital, it is surely because we have not succeeded
in seeing it aright. Suppose that, in restoring the Minerva of
Phidias according to the texts, we produced a dry, jarring,
artificial whole, what must we conclude? Simply that the texts want
an appreciative interpretation; that we must study them quietly
until they dovetail and furnish a whole in which all the parts are
happily blended. Should we then be sure of having a perfect
reproduction of the Greek statue? No; but at least we should not
have the caricature of it; we should have the general spirit of the
work -- one of the forms in which it could have existed.




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     This idea of a living organism we have not hesitated to take
as our guide in the general arrangement of the narrative. The
perusal of the Gospels would suffice to prove that the compilers,
although having a very true plan of the Life of Jesus in their
minds, have not been guided by very exact chronological data;
Papias, besides, expressly teaches this. The expressions, "At this
time ... after that ... then ... and it came to pass ..." etc., are
the simple transitions intended to connect different narratives
with each other. To leave all the information furnished by the
Gospels in the disorder in which tradition supplies it, would only
be to write the history of Jesus as the history of a celebrated man
would be written, by giving pell-mell the letters and anecdotes of
his youth, his old age, and of his maturity. The Koran, which
presents to us, in the loosest manner, fragments of the different
epochs in the life of Mohammed, has yielded its secret to an
ingenious criticism; the chronological order in which the fragments
were composed has been discovered so as to leave little room for
doubt. Such a rearrangement is much more difficult in the case of
the Gospels, the public life of Jesus having been shorter and less
eventful than the life of the founder of Islamism. Meanwhile, the
attempt to find a guiding thread through this labyrinth ought not
to be taxed with gratuitous subtlety. There is no great abuse of
hypothesis in supposing that a founder of a new religion commences
by attaching himself to the moral aphorisms aleady in circulation
in his time, and to the practices which are in vogue; that, when
riper, and in full posession of his idea, he delights in a kind of
calm and in full poetical eloquence, remote from all controversy,
sweet and free as pure feeling; that he warms by degrees, becomes
animated by opposition, and finishes by polemics and strong
invectives. Such are the periods which may plainly be distinguished
in the Koran. The order adopted with an extremely fine tact by the
Synoptics supposes an analogous progress, If Matthew be attentively
read, we shall find in the distribution of the discourses a
gradation perfectly analogous to that which we have just indicated.
The reserved turns of expression of which we make use in unfoldin
the progress of the ideas of Jesus will also be observed. The
reader may, if he likes, see in the divisions adopted in doing this
only the indispensable breaks for the methodical expsition of a
profound and complicated thought.

     If the love of a subject can help one to understand it, it
will also, I hope, be recognised that I have not been wanting in
this condition. To write the history of a religion, it is
necessary, firstly, to have believed it (otherwise we should not be
able to understand how it has charmed and satisfied the human
conscience); in the second place, to believe it no longer in an
absolute manner, for absolute faith is incompatible with sincere
history. But love is possible without faith. To abstain from
attaching one's self to any of the forms which captivate the
adoration of men is not to deprive ourselves of the enjoyment of
that which is good and beautiful in them. No transitory appearance
exhausts the Divinity; God was revealed before Jesus -- God will
reveal himself after him. Profoundly unequal, and so much the more
Divine, as they are grander and more spontaneous, the
manifestations of God hidden in the depths of the human conscience
are all of the same order. Jesus cannot belong solely to those who
call themselves his disciples. He is the common honour of all who
share a common humanity. His glory does not consist in being
relegated out of history; we render him a truer worship in showing
that all history is incomprehensible without him.

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                            CHAPTER I

           PLACE OF JESUS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

     THE great event of the history of the world is the revolution
by which the noblest portions of humanity have passed from the
ancient religions, comprised under the vague name of Paganism, to
a religion founded on the Divine Unity, the Trinity, and the
Incarnation of the Son of God. It has taken nearly a thousand years
to accomplish this conversion. The new religion had itself taken at
least three hundred years in its formation. But the origin of the
revolution in question is a fact which took place under the reigns
of Augustus and Tiberius. At that time there lived a superior
personage, who, by his bold originality, and by the love which he
was able to inspire, became the object and fixed the starting-point
of the future faith of humanity.

     As soon as man became distinguished from the animal, he became
religious -- that is to say, he saw in nature something beyond the
phenomena, and for himself something beyond death. This sentiment,
during some thousands of years, became corrupted in the strangest
manner. In many races it did not pass beyond the belief in
sorcerers, under the gross form in which we still find it in
certain parts of Oceania. Among some, the religious sentiment
degenered into the shameful scenes of butchery which form the
character of the ancient religion of Mexico. Among others,
especially in Africa, it became pure Fetichism -- that is, the
adoration of a material object, to which were attributed
supernatural powers. Like the instinct of love, which at times
elevates the most vulgar man above himself, yet sometimes becomes
perverted and ferocious, so this divine faculty of religion during
a long period seems only to be a cancer which must be extirpated
from the human race, a cause of errors and crimes which the wise
ought to endeavour to suppress.

     The brilliant civilisations which were developed from a very
remote antiquity in China, in Babylonia, and in Egypt, caused a
certain progress to be made in religion. China arrived very early
at a sort of mediocre good sense, which prevented great
extravagances. She neither knew the advantages nor the abuses of
the religious spirit. At all events, she had not in this way any
influence in directing the great current of humanity. The religions
of Babylonia and Syria were never freed from a substratum of
strange sensuality; these religions remained, until their
extinction in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, schools of
immorality, in which at intervals glimpses of the divine world were
obtained by a sort of poetic intuition. Egypt, notwithstanding an
apparent kind of fetichism, had very early metaphysical dogmas and
a lofty symbolism. But doubtless these interpretations of a refined
theology were not primitive. Man has never, in the possession of a
clear idea, amused himself by clothing it in symbols; it is oftener
after long reflections, and from the impossibility felt by the
human mind of resigning itself to the absurd, that we seek ideas
under the ancient mystic images whose meaning is lost. Moreover, it
is not from Egypt that the faith of humanity has come. The elements
which, in the religion of a Christian, passing through a thousand
transformations, came from Egypt and Syria, are exterior forms of 


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little consequence, or dross of Which the most purified worships
always retain some portion. The grand defect of the religions of
which we speak was their essentially superstitious character. They
only threw into the world millions of amulets and charms. No great
moral thought could proceed from races oppressed by a secular
despotism, and accustomed to institutions which precluded the
exercise of individual liberty.

     The poetry of the soul, faith, liberty, virtue, devotion, made
their appearance in the world with the two great races which, in
one sense have made humanity -- viz. the Indo-European and the
Semitic races. The first religious intuitions of the Indo-European
race were essentially naturalistic. But it was a profound and moral
naturalism, a loving embrace of nature by man, a delicious poetry,
full of the sentiment of the Infinite -- the principle, in fine, of
all that which the Germanic and Celtic genius, of that which a
Shakespeare and a Goethe, should express in later times. It was
neither theology nor moral philosophy -- it was a state of
melancholy, it was tenderness, it was imagination; it was, more
than all, earnestness, the essential condition of morals and
religion. The faith of humanity, however, could not come from
thence, because these ancient forms of worships had great
difficulty in detaching themselves from Polytheism, and could not
attain to a very clear symbol. Brahminism has only survived to the
present day by virtue of the astonishing faculty of conservation
which India seems to posses. Buddhism failed in all its approaches
towards the West. Druidism remained a form exclusively national,
and without universal capacity. The Greek attempts at reform,
Orpheism, the Mysteries, did not suffice to give "solid aliment to
the soul. Persia alone succeeded in making a dogmatic religion,
almost Monotheistic, and skillfully organized; but it is very
possible that this organization itself was but an imitation, or
borrowed. At all events, Persia has not converted the world; she
herself, on the contrary, was converted when she saw the flag of
the Divine unity as proclaimed by Mohamedanism appear on her
frontiers.

     It is the Semitic race which has the glory of having made the
religion of humanity. Far beyond the confines of history, resting
under his tent free from the taint of a corrupted world, the
Bedouin patriarch prepared the faith of mankind. A strong antipathy
against the voluptuous worships of Syria, a grand simplicity of
ritual, the complete absence of temples, and the idol reduced to
insignificant theraphim constituted his superiority. Among all the
tribes of the nomadic Semites, that of the Beni-Israel was already
chosen for immense destinies. Ancient relations with Egypt, whence
perhaps resulted some purely material ingredients, did but augment
their repulsion to idolatry. A "Law," or Thora, very anciently
written on tables of stone, and which they attributed for their
great liberator Moses, had become the code of Monotheism, and
contained, as compared with the institutions of Egypt and Chaldea,
powerful germs of social equality and morality. A chest  or
portable ark, having staples on each side to admit of bearing
poles, constituted all their religious material; there were
collected the sacred objects of the nation, its relics, its
souvenirs, and lastly the "book," the, journal of the tribe, always
open, but which was written in with great discretion. The family 


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charged with bearing the ark and watching over the portable
archives, being near the book and having the control of it very
soon became important. From hence, however, the institution which
was to control the future did not come. The Hebrew priest did not
differ much from the other priests of antiquity. The character
which essentially distinguishes Israel among theocratic peoples is
that its priesthood has always been subordinated to individual
inspiration. Besides its priests, each wandering tribe had its nabi
or prophet, a sort of living oracle who was consulted for the
solution of obscure questions supposed to require a high degree of
clairvoyance. The nabis of Israel, organized in groups or schools,
had great influence. Defenders of the ancient democratic spirit,
enemies of the rich, opposed to all political organization, and to
whatsoever might draw Israel into the paths of other nations, they
were the true authors of the religious preeminence of the Jewish
people. Very early they announced unlimited hopes, and when the
people, in part the victims of their impolitic counsels, had been
crushed by the Assyrian power, they proclaimed that a kingdom
without bounds was reserved for them, that one day Jerusalem would
be the capital of the whole world, and the human race become Jews.
Jerusalem and its temple appeared to them as a city placed on the
summit of a mountain, towards which all people should turn, as an
oracle whence the universal law should proceed, as the center of an
ideal kingdom, in which the human race, set at rest by Israel,
should find again the joys of Eden.

     Mystical utterances already make themselves heard, tending to
exalt the martyrdom and celebrate the power of the "Man of
Sorrows." Respecting one of those sublime sufferers, who, like
Teremiah, stained the streets of Jerusalem with their blood, one of
the inspired wrote a song upon the sufferings and triumph of the
"servant of God," in which all the prophetic force of the genius of
Israel seemed concentrated. "For he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form
nor comeliness. He is despised and rejected of men: and we hid, as
it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him
not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet
he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his
mouth. And he made his grave with the wicked. When thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand."

     Important modifications were made at the same time in the
Thora. New texts, pretending to represent the true law of Moses,
such as Deuteronomy, were produced, and inaugurated in reality a
very different spirit from that of the old nomads. A marked
fanaticism was the dominant feature of this spirit. Furious
believers unceasingly instigated violence against all who wandered
from the worship of Jehovah -- they succeeded in establishing a 


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code of blood, making death the penalty for religious faults. Piety
brings, almost always, singular contradictions of vehemence and
mildness. This zeal, unknown to the coarser simplicity of the time
of the judges, inspired tones of moving prophecy and tender
unction, which the world had never heard till then. A strong
tendency towards social questions already made itself felt;
Utopias, dreams of a perfect society, took a place in the code. The
Pentateuch, a mixture of patriarchal morality and ardent devotion,
primitive intuitions and pious subtleties, like those which filled
the souls of Hezekiah, of Josiah, and of Jeremiah, was thus fixed
in the form in which we now see it, and became for ages the
absolute rule of the national mind.

     This great book once created, the history of the Jewish people
unfolded itself with an irresistible force. The great empires which
followed each other in Western Asia, in destroying its hope of a
terrestrial kingdom, threw it into religious dreams, which it
cherished with a kind of somber passion. Caring little for the
national dynasty or political independence, it accepted all
governments which permitted it to practice freely its worship and
follow ifs usages. Israel will henceforward have no other guidance
than that of its religious enthusiasts, no other enemies than those
of the Divine unity, no other country than its Law.

     And this Law, it must be remarked, was entirely social and
moral. It was the work of men penetrated with a high ideal of the
present life, and believing that they had found the best means of
realizing it. The conviction of all was that the Thora, well
observed, could not fail to give perfect felicity. This Thora has
nothing in common with the Greek or Roman "Laws," which, occupying
themselves with scarcely anything but abstract right, entered
little into questions of private happiness and morality. We feel
beforehand that the results which will proceed from it will be of
a social and not a political order, that the work at which this
people labors is a kingdom of God, not a civil republic; a
universal institution, not a nationality or a country.

     Notwithstanding numerous failures, Israel admirably sustained
this vocation. A series of pious men, Ezra, Nehemiah, Onias, the
Maccabees, consumed with zeal for the Law, succeeded each other in
the defence of the ancient institutions. The idea that Israel was
a holy people, a tribe chosen by God and bound to him by covenant,
took deeper and firmer root. An immense expectation filled their
souls. All Indo-European antiquity had placed paradise in the
beginning; all its poets had wept a vanished golden age. Israel
placed the age of gold in the future. The perennial poesy of
religious souls, the Psalms, blossomed from this exalted piety,
with their divine and melancholy harmony. Israel became truly and
specially the people of God, while around it the pagan religions
were more and more reduced, in Persia and Babylonia, to an official
charlatanism, in Egypt and Syria to a gross idolatry, and in the
Greek and Roman world to mere parade. That which the Christian
martyrs did in the first centuries of our era, that which the
victims of persecuting orthodoxy have done, even in the bosom of
Christianity, up to our time, the Jews did during the two centuries
which preceded the Christian era. They were a living protest
against superstition and religious materialism. An extraordinary 


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movement of ideas, ending in the most opposite results, made of
them, at this epoch, the most striking and original people in the
world. Their dispersion along all the coast of the Mediterranean,
and the use of the Greek language, which they adopted when out of
Palestine, prepared the way for a propagandist of which ancient
societies, divided into small nationalities, had never offered a
single example.

     Up to the time of the Maccabees, Judaism, in spite of its
persistence in announcing that it would one day be the religion of
the human race, had had the characteristic of all the other
worships of antiquity -- it was a worship of the family and the
tribe. The Israelite thought, indeed, that his worship was the
best, and spoke with contempt of strange gods; but he believed also
that the religion of the true God was made for himself alone. Only
when a man entered into the Jewish family did he embrace the
worship of Jehovah. No Israelite cared to convert the stranger to
a worship which was the patrimony of the sons of Abraham. The
development of the pietistic spirit, after Ezra and Nehemiah, led
to a much firmer and more logical conception. Judaism became the
true religion in a more absolute manner; to all who wished, the
right of entering it was given; soon it became a work of piety to
bring into it the greatest number possible. Doubtless the refined
sentiment which elevated John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul
above the petty ideas of race did not yet exist; for, by a strange
contradiction, these converts were little respected and were
treated with disdain. But the idea of a sovereign religion, the
idea that there was something in the world superior to country, to
blood, to laws -- the idea which makes apostles and martyrs -- was
founded. Profound pity for the pagans, however brilliant might be
their worldly fortune, was henceforth the feeling of every Jew. By
a cycle of legends destined to furnish models of immovable
firmness, such as the histories of Daniel and his companions, the
mother of the Maccabees and her seven sons, the romance of the
racecourse of Alexandria -- the guides of the people sought above
all to inculcate the idea that virtue consists in a fanatical
attachment to fixed religious institutions.

     The persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes made this idea a
passion, almost a frenzy. it was something very analogous to that
which happened under Nero two hundred and thirty years later. Rage
and despair threw the believers into the world of visions and
dreams. The first apocalypse, "The Book of Daniel," appeared. It
was like a revival of prophecy, but under a very different form
from the ancient one, and with a much larger idea of the destinies
of the world. The Book of Daniel gave, in a manner, the last
expression to the Messianic hopes. The Messiah was no longer a
king, after the manner of David and Solomon, a theocratic and
Mosaic Cyrus; he was a "Son of Man" appearing in the clouds -- a
supernatural being, invested with human form, charged to rule the
world, and to preside over the golden age. Perhaps the Sosiosh of
Persia, the great prophet who was to come, charged with preparing
the reign of Ormuzd, gave some features to this new ideal. The
unknown author of the Book of Daniel had, in any case, a decisive
influence on the religious event which was about to transform the
world. He supplied the mise-en-scene, and the technical terms of
the now belief in the Messiah; and we might apply to him what Jesus
said of John the Baptist -- Before him, the prophets; after him,
the kingdom of God.
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     It must not, however, be supposed that this profoundly
religious and soul-stirring movement had particular dogmas for its
primary impulse, as was the case in all the conflicts which have
disturbed the bosom of Christianity. The Jew of this epoch was as
little theological as possible. He did not speculate upon the
essence of the Divinity: the beliefs about angels, about the
destinies of man, about the Divine personality, of which the first
germs might already be perceived, were quite optional -- they were
meditations, to which each one surrendered himself according to the
turn of his mind, but of which a great number of men had never
heard. They were the most orthodox even, who did not share in these
particular imaginations, and who adhered to the simplicity of the
Mosaic law. No that which orthodox Christianity has given to the
Church then existed. It was only at the beginning of the third
century, when Christianity had fallen into the hands of reasoning
races, mad with dialectics and metaphysics, that that fever for
definitions commenced which made the history of the Church but the
history of one immense controversy. There were disputes also among
the Jews -- excited Schools brought opposite solutions to almost
all the questions which were agitated; but in these contests, of
which the Talmud has preserved the principal details, there is not
a single word of speculative theology. To observe and maintain the
law was just, and because, when well observed, it gave happiness --
such was Judaism. No credo, no theoretical symbol. One of the
disciples of the boldest Arabian philosophy, Moses Maimonides, was
able to become the oracle of the synagogue, because he was well
versed in the canonical law.

     The reigns of the last Asmoneans, and that of Herod, saw the
excitement grow still stronger. They were filled by an
uninterrupted series of religious movements. In the degree that
power became secularized, and passed into the hands of unbelievers,
the Jewish people lived less and less for the earth, and became
more and more absorbed by the strange fermentation which was
operating in their midst. The world, distracted by other
spectacles, had little knowledge of that which passed in this
forgotten corner of the East. The minds abreast of their age were,
however, better informed. The tender and clear-sighted Virgil seems
to answer, as by a secret echo, to the second Isaiah. The birth of
a child throws him into dreams of a universal palingenesis. These
dreams were of every-day occurrence and shaped into a kind of
literature which was designated Sibylline, The quite recent
formation of the empire exalted the imagination; the great era of
peace on which it entered, and that impression of melancholy
sensibility which the mind experiences after long periods of
revolution, gave birth on all sides to unlimited hopes.

     In Judea expectation was at its height. Holy persons -- among
whom may be named the aged Simeon, who, legend tells us, held Jesus
in his arms; Anna, daughter of Phanuel, regarded as a prophetess --
passed their life about the temple, fasting, and praying that it
might please God not to take them from the world without having
seen the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel. They felt a powerful
presentiment; they were sensible of the approach of something
unknown.




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     This confused mixture of clear views and dreams, this
alternation of deceptions and hopes, these ceaseless aspirations,
driven back by an odious reality, found at last their
interpretation in the incomparable man, to whom the universal
conscience has decreed the title of Son of God, and that with
justice, since he has advanced religion as no other has done, or
probably ever will be able to do.

                           CHAPTER II

                  INFANCY AND YOUTH OF JESUS --
                      HIS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

     Jesus was born at Nazareth, a small town of Galilee, which
before his time had no celebrity. All his life he was designated by
the name of "the Nazarene," and it is only by a rather embarrassed
and roundabout way [NOTE: The census effected by Quirinus, to which
legend attributes the journey from Bethlehem, is at least ten years
later than the year in which, according to Luke and Matthew, Jesus
was born. The two evangelists in effect make Jesus to be born under
the reign of Herod (Matt. ii. 1, 19, 22; Luke i. 5). Now, the
census of Quirinus did not take place until after the deposition of
Archelaus -- i.e., ten years after the death of Herod, the 37th
year from the era of Actium (Josephus Ant., XVII. XIII. 5, XVIII.
i. I, ii. I). The inscription by which it was formerly pretended to
establish that Quirinus had levied two censuses is recognized as
false (see Orelli, Inscr. Lat., No. 623, and the supplement of
Henzen in this number; Borghesi, Fastes Consulaires [yet
unpublished] in the year 742). The census in any case would only be
applied to the parts of the Roman provinces, and not to the
tetrarchies. The texts by which it is sought to prove that some of
the operations for statistics and tribute commanded by Augustus
ought to extend to the dominion of the Herods, either do not mean
what they have been made to say, or are from Christian authors who
have borrowed this statement from the Gospel of Luke. That which
proves, besides, that the journey of the family of Jesus to
Bethlehem is not historical, is the motive attributed to it. Jesus
was not of the family of David (see Chap. XV.), and, if he had
been, we should still not imagine that his parents should have been
forced, for an operation purely registrative and financial, to come
to enrol themselves in the place whence their ancestors had
proceeded a thousand years before. In imposing such an obligation,
the Roman authority would have sanctioned pretensions threatening
her safety.]  that, in the legends respecting him, he is made to be
born at Bethlehem. We shall see later the motive for this
supposition, and how it was the necessary consequence of the
Messianic character attributed to Jesus. The precise date of his
birth is unknown. It took place under the reign of Augustus, about
the Roman year 750, probably some years before the year 1 of that
era which all civilized people date from the day on which he was
born.

     The name of Jesus, which was given him, is an alteration from
Joshua. It was a very common name; but afterwards mysteries, and an
allusion to his character of Savior, were naturally sought for in
it. Perhaps he, like all mystics, exalted himself in this respect.
It is thus that more than one great vocation in history has been 


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caused by a name given to a child without premeditation. Ardent
natures never bring themselves to see aught of chance in what
concerns them. God has regulated everything for them, and they see
a sign of the supreme will in the most insignificant circumstances.

     The population of Galilee was very mixed, as the very name of
the country indicated. This province counted among its inhabitants,
in the time of Jesus, many who were not Jews (Phoenicians, Syrians,
Arabs, and even Greeks). The conversions to Judaism were not rare
in these mixed countries. It is therefore impossible to raise here
any question of race, and to seek to ascertain what blood flowed in
the veins of him who has contributed most to efface the
distinctions of blood in humanity.

     He proceeded from the ranks of the people. His father Joseph
and his mother Mary were people in humble circumstances, artisans
living by their labor, in the state so common in the East, which is
neither ease nor poverty. The extreme simplicity of life in such
countries, by dispensing with the need of comfort, renders the
privileges of wealth almost useless, and makes everyone voluntarily
poor. On the other hand, the total want of taste for art, and for
that which contribute to the elegance of material life, gives a
naked aspect to the house of him who otherwise wants for nothing.
Apart from something sordid and repulsive which Islamism bears
everywhere with it, the town of Nazareth, in the time of Jesus, did
not perhaps much differ from what it is today. We see the streets
where he played when a child, in the stony paths or little
crossways which separate the dwellings. The house of Joseph
doubtless much resembled those poor shops, lighted shop, by the
door, serving at once for kitchen, and bedroom, having for
furniture a mat, some cushions on the ground, one or two clay pots,
and a painted chest.

The family, whether it proceeded from one or many marriages, was
rather numerous. Jesus had brothers and sisters, of whom he seems
to have  been the eldest. All have remained obscure, for it appears
that the four personages, who were named as his brothers, and among
whom one, at least, James, had acquired great importance in the
development of Christianity, were his cousins-german. Mary, in
fact, had a sister also named Mary, who married a certain Alpheus
or Cleophas (these two names appear to designate the same person),
and was the mother of several sons who played a considerable part
among the first disciples of Jesus. These cousins-german who
adhered to the young Master, while his own brothers opposed him,
took the title of "brothers of the Lord." The real brothers of
Jesus, like their mother, became important only after his death.
Even then they do not appear to have equalled in importance their
cousins, whose conversion had been more spontaneous, and whose
character seems to have had more originality. Their names were so
little known that when the evangelist put in the mouth of the men
of Nazareth the enumeration of the brothers according to natural
relationship, the names of the sons of Cleophas first presented
themselves to him.

     His sisters were married at Nazareth, and he spent the first
years of his youth there. Nazareth was a small town in a hollow,
opening broadly at the summit of the group of mountains which close
the plain of Esdraelon on the north. The population is now from 

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three to four thousand, and it can never have varied much. The cold
there is sharp in winter, and the climate very healthy. The town,
like all the small Jewish towns at this period, was a heap of huts
built without style, and would exhibit that harsh and poor aspect
which villages in Semitic countries now present. The houses, it
seems, did not differ much from those cubes of stone, without
exterior or interior elegance, which still cover the richest parts
of the Lebanon, and which, surrounded with vines and fig-trees, are
still very agreeable. The environs, moreover, are charming; and no
place in the world was so well adapted for dreams of perfect
happiness. Even in our times Nazareth is still a delightful abode,
the only place, perhaps, in Palestine in which the mind feels
itself relieved from the burden which oppresses it in this
unequalled desolation. The people are amiable and cheerful; the
gardens fresh and green. Anthony the Martyr, at the end of the
sixth century, drew an enchanting picture of the fertility of the
environs, which he compared to paradise. Some valleys on the
western side fully justify his description. The fountain, where
formerly the life and gaiety of the little town were concentrated,
is destroyed; its broken channels contain now only a muddy stream.
But the beauty of the women who meet there in the evening -- that
beauty which was remarked even in the sixth century, and which was
looked upon as a gift of the Virgin Mary -- is still most
strikingly preserved. It is the Syrian type in all its languid
grace. No doubt Mary was there almost every day, and took her place
with her jar on her shoulder in the file of her companions who have
remained unknown. Anthony the Martyr remarks that the Jewish women,
generally disdainful to Christians, were here full of affability.
Even now religious animosity is weaker at Nazareth than elsewhere.

     The horizon from the town is limited. But if we ascend a
little the plateau, swept by a perpetual breeze, which overlooks
the highest houses, the prospect is splendid. On the west are seen
the fine outlines of Carmel, terminated by an abrupt point, which
seems to plunge into the sea. Before us are spread out the double
summit which towers above Megiddo; the mountains of the country of
Shechem, with their holy places of the patriarchal age; the hills
of Gilboa, the small picturesque group to which are attached the
graceful or terrible recollections of Shunem and of Endor; and
Tabor, with its beautiful rounded form, which antiquity compared to
a bosom. Through a depression between the mountains of Shunem and
Tabor are seen the valley of the Jordan and the high plains of
Peraea, which form a continuous line from the eastern side. On the
north the mountains of Safed, in inclining towards the sea, conceal
St. Jean d'Acre, but permit the Gulf of Khaifa to be distinguished,
Such was the horizon of Jesus. This enchanted circle, cradle of the
kingdom of God, was for years his world. Even in his later life he
departed but little beyond the familiar limits of his childhood.
For yonder, northwards, a glimpse is caught, almost on the flank of
Hermon, of Caesarea-Philippi, his furthest point of advance into
the Gentile world; and here, southwards, the more somber aspect of
these Samaritan hills foreshadows the dreariness of Judea beyond,
parched as by a scorching wind of defoliation and death.

     If the world, remaining Christian, but attaining to a better
idea of the esteem in which the origin of its religion should be
held, should ever wish to replace by authentic holy places the mean
and apocryphal sanctuaries to which the piety of dark ages attached

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itself, it is upon this height of Nazareth that it will rebuild its
temple. There, at the birthplace of Christianity, and in the center
of the actions of its Founder, the great church ought to be raised
in which all Christians may worship. There, also, on this spot
where sleep Joseph the Carpenter and thousands of forgotten
Nazarenes who never passed beyond the horizon of their valley,
would be a better station than any in the world beside for the
philosopher to contemplate the course of human affairs, to console
himself for their uncertainty, and to reassure himself as to the
Divine end which tie world pursues through countless falterings,
and in spite of the universal vanity.

                           CHAPTER III

                       EDUCATION OF JESUS

     THIS aspect of nature, at once smiling and grand, was the
whole education of Jesus. He learned to read and to write,
doubtless, according to the Eastern method, which consisted in
putting in the hands of the child a book, which he repeated in
cadence with his little comrades, until he knew it by  heart. It is
doubtful, however, if he under stood the Hebrew writings in their
original tongue. His biographers make him quote them according to
the translations in the Aramean tongue; his principles of exegesis,
as far as we can judge of them by those of his disciples, much
resembled those which were then in vogue, and which form the spirit
of the Targums and the Midrashim.

     The schoolmaster in the small Jewish towns was the hazzan, or
reader in the synagogues. Jesus frequented little the higher
schools of the scribes or sopherim (Nazareth had perhaps none of
them), and he had none of those titles which confer, in the eyes of
the vulgar, the privileges of knowledge. It would, nevertheless, be
a great error to imagine that Jesus was what we call ignorant.
Scholastic education among us draws a profound distinction, in
respect of personal worth, between those who have received and
those who have been deprived of it. It was not so in the East, nor,
in general, in the good old times. The state of ignorance in which,
among us, owing to our isolated and entirely individual life, those
remain who have not passed through the schools, was unknown in
those societies where moral culture, and especially the general
spirit of the age, was transmitted by the perpetual intercourse of
man with man. The Arab, who has never had a teacher, is often,
nevertheless, a very superior man; for the tent is a kind of school
always open, where, from the contact of well-educated men, there is
produced a great intellectual and even literary movement. The
refinement of manners and the acuteness of the intellect have, in
the East, nothing in common with what we call education. It is the
men from the schools, on the contrary, who are considered badly
trained and pedantic. In this social state ignorance, which among
us, condemns a man to an inferior rank, is the condition of great
things and of great originality.

     It is not probable that Jesus knew Greek. This language was
very little spread in Judea beyond the classes who participated in
the Government and the towns inhabited by pagans, like Caesarea.
The real mother tongue of Jesus was the Syrian dialect mixed with 
Hebrew, which was then spoken in Palestine. Still less probably had

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he any knowledge of Greek culture. This culture was proscribed by
the doctors of Palestine, who included in the same malediction "he
who rears swine and he who teaches his son Greek science." At all
events, it had not penetrated into little towns like Nazareth.
Notwithstanding the anathema of the doctors, some Jews, it is true,
had already embraced the Hellenic culture. Without speaking of the
Jewish school of Egypt, in which the attempts to amalgamate
Hellenism and Judaism had been in operation nearly two hundred
years, a Jew, Nicholas of Damascus, had become, even at this time,
one of the most distinguished men, one of the best informed, and
one of the most respected of his age. Josephus was destined soon to
furnish another example of a Jew completely Grecianised. But
Nicholas was only a Jew in blood. Josephus declares that he himself
was an exception among his contemporaries; and the whole schismatic
school of Egypt was detached to such a degree from Jerusalem that
we do not find the least allusion to it either in the Talmud or in
Jewish tradition. Certain it is that Greek was very little studied
at Jerusalem, that Greek studies were considered as dangerous, and
even servile, that they were regarded, at the best, as a mere
womanly accomplishment. The study of the Law was the only one
accounted liberal and worthy of a thoughtful man. Questioned as to
the time when it would be proper to teach children "Greek wisdom,"
a learned Rabbi had answered At the time when it is neither day nor
night; since it is written of the Law, Thou shalt study it day and
night."

     Neither directly nor indirectly. then did any element of Greek
culture reach Jesus. He knew nothing beyond Judaism; his mind
preserved that free innocence which an extended and varied culture
always weakens. In the very bosom of Judaism, he remained a
stranger to many efforts often parallel to his own. On the one
hand, the asceticism of the Essenes or the Therapeutoe; on the
other, the fine efforts of religious philosophy put forth by the
Jewish school of Alexandria, and of which Philo, his contemporary,
was the ingenious interpreter, were unknown to him. The frequent
resemblances which we find between him and Philo, those excellent
maxims about the love of God, charity, rest in God, which are like
an echo between the Gospel and the writings of the illustrious
Alexandrian thinker, proceed from the common tendencies which the
wants of the time inspired in all elevated minds.

     Happily for him, he was also ignorant of the strange
scholasticism which was taught at Jerusalem, and which was soon to
constitute the Talmud. If some Pharisees had already brought it
into Galilee, he did not associate with them, and when, later, he
encountered this silly casuistry, in it only inspired him with
disgust. We may suppose, however, that the principles of Hillel
were not unknown to him. Hillel, fifty years before him, had given
utterance to aphorisms very analogous to his own. By his poverty,
so meekly endured, by the sweetness of his character, by his
opposition to priests and hypocrites, Hillel was the true master of
Jesus, if, indeed, it may be permitted to speak of a master in
connection with so high an originality as his.

     The perusal Of the books of the Old Testament made much
impression upon him. The canon of the holy books was compose of two
principal parts: the Law -- that is to say, the Pentateuch -- and
the Prophets, such as we now possess them. An extensive allegorical

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exegesis was applied to all these books; and it was sought to draw
from them something that was not in them, but which responded to
the aspirations of the age. The Law, which represented not the
ancient laws of the country, but Utopias, the factitious laws and
pious frauds of the time of the pietistic kings, had become, since
the nation had ceased to govern itself, an inexhaustible theme of
subtle interpretations. As to the Prophets and the Psalms, the
popular persuasion was that almost all the somewhat mysterious
traits that were in these books had reference to the Messiah, and
it was sought to find there the type of him who should realize the
hopes of the nation. Jesus participated in the taste which everyone
had for these allegorical interpretations. But the true poetry of
the Bible, which escaped the puerile exegetists of Jerusalem, was
fully revealed to his grand genius. The Law does not appear to have
had much charm for him; he thought that he could do something
better. But the religious lyrics of the Psalms were in marvelous
accordance with his poetic soul; they were, all his life, his food
and sustenance. The prophets -- Isaiah in particular, and his
successor in the record of the time of the captivity -- with their
brilliant dreams of the future, their impetuous eloquence, and
their invectives mingled with enchanting pictures, were his true
teachers. He read also. no doubt, many apocryphal works -- i.e.
writings somewhat modern -- the authors of which, for the sake of
an authority only granted to very ancient writings, had clothed
themselves with the names of prophets and patriarchs, One of these
books especially struck him -- namely, the book of Daniel. This
book, composed by an enthusiastic Jew of the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, under the name of an ancient sage, was the resume of the
spirit of those later times. Its author, a true creator of the
philosophy of history, had for the first time dared to see in the
march of the world and the succession of empires only a purpose
subordinate to the destinies of the Jewish people. Jesus was early
penetrated by these high hopes. Perhaps, also, he had read the
books of Enoch, then revered equally with the holy books, and the
other writings of the same class, which kept up so much excitement
in the popular imagination. The advent of the Messiah, with his
glories and his terrors -- the nations falling down one after
another, the cataclysm of heaven and earth -- were the familiar
food of his imagination; and, as these revolutions were reputed
near, and a great number of persons sought to calculate the time
when they should happen, the supernatural state of things into
which such visions transport us appeared to him from the first
perfectly natural and simple.

     That he had no knowledge of the general state of the world is
apparent from each feature of his most authentic discourses. The
earth appeared to him still divided into kingdoms warring with one
another; he seemed to ignore the "Roman peace," and the new state
of society which its age inaugurated. He had no precise idea of the
Roman power; the name of "Caesar" alone reached him. He saw
building, in Galilee or its environs, Tiberias, Julias,
Diocaesarea, Caesarea, gorgeous works of the Herods, who sought, by
these magnificent structures, to prove their admiration for Roman
civilization, and their devotion towards the members of the family
of Augustus -- structures whose names, by a caprice of fate, now
serve, though strangely altered, to designate miserable hamlets of
Bedouins. He also probably saw Sebaste, a work of Herod the Great, 


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a showy city, whose ruins would lead to the belief that it had been
carried there ready made, like a machine which had only to be put
up in its place. This ostentatious piece of architecture arrived in
Judea by cargoes; these hundreds of columns, all of the same
diameter, the ornament of some insipid Rue de Rivoli -- these were
what he called "the kingdoms of the world and all their glory." But
this luxury of power, this administrative and official art,
displeased him. What he loved were his Galilean villages, confused
mixtures of huts, of nests and holes cut in the rocks, of wells, of
tombs, of fig-trees, and of olives. He always clung close to
nature. The courts of kings appeared to him as places where men
wear fine clothe. The charming impossibilities with which his
parables abound, when he brings kings and the mighty ones on the
stage, prove that he never conceived of aristocratic society but as
a young villager who sees the world through the prism of his
simplicity.

     Still less was he acquainted with the new idea, created by
Grecian science, which was the basis of all philosophy, and which
modern science has greatly confirmed -- to wit, the exclusion of
capricious gods, to whom the simple belief of ancient ages
attributed the government of the universe, Almost a century before
him Lucretius had expressed, in an admirable manner, the
unchangeableness of the general system of nature. The negation of
miracle -- the idea that everything in the world happens by laws in
which the personal intervention of superior beings has no share --
was universally admitted in the great schools of all the countries
which had accepted Grecian science. Perhaps even Babylon and Persia
were not strangers to it. Jesus knew nothing of this progress.
Although born at a time when the principle of positive science was
already proclaimed, he lived entirely in the supernatural. Never,
perhaps, had the Jews been more possessed with the thirst for the
marvelous. Philo, who lived in a great intellectual center, and who
had received a very complete education, possessed only a chimerical
and inferior knowledge of science.

     Jesus on this point differed in no respect from his
companions. He believed in the devil, whom he regarded as a kind of
evil genius, and he imagined, like all the world, that nervous
maladies were produced by demons who possessed the patient and
agitated him. The marvelous was not the exceptional for him; it was
his normal state. The notion of the supernatural, with its
impossibilities, is coincident with the birth of experimental
science. The man who is strange to all ideas of physical laws, who
believes that by praying he can change the path of the clouds,
arrest disease, and even death, finds nothing extraordinary in
miracle, inasmuch as the entire course of things is to him the
result of the free will of the Divinity. This intellectual state
was constantly that of Jesus. But in his great soul such a belief
produced effects quite opposed to those produced on the vulgar.
Among the latter the belief in the special action of God led to a
foolish credulity, and the deceptions of charlatans. With him it
led to a profound idea of the familiar relations of man with God,
and an exaggerated belief in the power of man -- beautiful errors,
which were the secret of his power; for if they were the means of
one day showing his deficiencies in the eyes of the physicist and
the chemist, they gave him a power over his own age of which no
individual had been possessed before his time, or has been since.

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     His distinctive character very early revealed itself. Legend
delights to show him even from his infancy in revolt against
paternal authority, and departing from the common way to fulfil his
vocation. It is certain, at least, that he cared little for the
relations of kinship. His family do not seem to have loved him, and
at times he seems to have been hard towards them. Jesus, like all
men exclusively preoccupied by an idea, came to think little of the
ties of blood. The bond of thought is the only one that natures of
this kind recognize. "Behold my mother and my brethren," said he,
in extending his hand towards his disciples; "he who does the will
of my Father, he is my brother and my sister." The simple people
did not understand the matter thus, and one day a woman passing
near him cried out, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the
paps which gave thee suck!" But he said, "Yea, rather blessed are
they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Soon, in his bold
revolt against nature, he went still further, and we shall see him
trampling under foot everything that is human -- blood, love, and
country -- and only keeping soul and heart for the idea which
presented itself to him as the absolute form of goodness and truth.

                           CHAPTER IV

              THE ORDER OF THOUGHT WHICH SURROUNDED
                    THE DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS

     As the cooled earth no longer permits us to understand the
phenomena of primitive creation, because the fire which penetrated
it is extinct, so deliberate explanations have always appeared
somewhat insufficient when applying our timid methods of induction
to the revolutions of the creative epochs which have decided the
fate of humanity. Jesus lived at one of those times when the game
of public life is freely played, and when the stake of human
activity is increased a hundredfold. Every great part, then,
entails death; for such movements suppose liberty and an absence of
preventive measures which could not exist without a terrible
alternative. In these days man risks little and gains little. In
heroic periods of human activity man risked all and gained all, The
good and the wicked, or at least those who believed themselves and
are believed to be such, form opposite armies. The apotheosis is
reached by the scaffold; characters have distinctive features,
which engrave them as eternal types in the memory of men. Except in
the French Revolution, no historical center was as suitable as that
in which Jesus was formed to develop those hidden forces which
humanity holds as in reserve, and which are not seen except in days
of excitement and peril.

     If the government of the world were a speculative problem, and
the greatest philosopher were the man best fitted to tell his
fellows what they ought to believe, it would be from calmness and
reflection that those great moral and dogmatic truths called
religion would proceed. But it is not so. If we except Cakya-Mouni,
the great religious founders have not been metaphysicians. Buddhism
itself, whose origin is in pure thought, has conquered one-half of
Asia by motives wholly political and moral. As to the Semitic
religions, they are as little philosophical as possible. Moses and
Mohammed were not men of speculation: they were men of action. It
was in proposing action to their fellow-countrymen and to their 


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contemporaries that they governed humanity. Jesus, in like manner,
was not a theologian, or a philosopher, having a more or less well-
composed system. In order to be a disciple of Jesus, it was not
necessary to sign any formulary, or to pronounce any confession of
faith; one thing only was necessary -- to be attached to him, to
love him. He never disputed about God, for he felt him directly in
himself. The rock of metaphysical subtleties, against which
Christianity broke from the third century, was in no wise created
by the founder. Jesus had neither dogma nor system, but a fixed
personal resolution, which, exceeding in intensity every other
created will, directs to this hour the destinies of humanity.

     The Jewish people had the advantage, from the captivity of
Babylon up to the Middle Ages, of being in a state of the greatest
tension. This is why the interpreters of the spirit of the nation,
during this long period, seemed to write under the action of an
intense fever, which placed them constantly either above or below
reason, rarely in its middle path. Never did man seize the problem
of the future and of his destiny with a more desperate courage,
more determined to go to extremes. Not separating the lot of
humanity from that of their little race, the Jewish thinkers were
the first who sought for a general theory of the progress of our
species. Greece, always confined within itself, and solely
attentive to petty quarrels, has had admirable historians; but
before the Roman epoch it would be in vain to seek in her a general
system of the philosophy of history embracing all humanity. The
Jew, on the contrary, thanks to a kind of prophetic sense which
renders the Semite at times marvelously apt to see the great lines
of the future, has made history enter into religion. Perhaps he
owes a little of this spirit to Persia. Persia, from an ancient
period, conceived the history of the world as a series of
evolutions, over each of which a prophet presided. Each prophet had
his hazar, or reign of a thousand years (chiliasm), and from these
successive ages, analogous to the Avatar of India, is composed the
course of events which prepared the reign of Ormuzd. At the end of
the time when the cycle of chiliasms shall be exhausted, the
complete paradise will come. Men then will live happy; the earth
will be as one plain; there will be only one language, one law, and
one government for all. But this advent will be preceded by
terrible calamities. Dahak (the Satan of Persia) will break his
chains and fall upon the world. Two prophets will come to console
mankind, and to prepare the great advent. These ideas ran through
the world, and penetrated even to Rome, where they inspired a cycle
of prophetic poems, of which the fundamental ideas were the
division of the history of humanity into periods, the succession of
the gods corresponding to these periods -- a complete renovation of
the world, and the final advent of a golden age. The book of
Daniel, the book of Enoch, and certain parts of the Sibylline books
are the Jewish expression of the same theory. These thoughts were
certainly far from being shared by all; they were only embraced at
first by a few persons of lively imagination, who were inclined
towards strange doctrines. The dry and narrow author of the book of
Esther never thought of the rest of the world except to despise it,
and to wish it evil. The disabused epicurean who wrote Ecclesiastes
thought so little of the future that he considered it even useless
to labor for his children; in the eyes of this egotistical celibate
the highest stroke of wisdom was to use his fortune for his own 


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enjoyment. But the great achievements of a people are generally
wrought by the minority. Notwithstanding all their enormous defects
-- hard, egotistical, scoffing, cruel, narrow, subtle, and
sophistical -- the Jewish people are the authors of the finest
movement of disinterested enthusiasm which history records.
Opposition always makes the glory of a country. The greatest men of
a nation are those whom it puts to death. Socrates was the glory of
the Athenians, who would not suffer him to live among them. Spinoza
was the greatest Jew of modern times, and the synagogue expelled
him with ignominy. Jesus was the glory of the people of Israel, who
crucified him.

     A gigantic dream haunted for centuries the Jewish people,
constantly renewing its youth in its decrepitude. A stranger to the
theory of individual recompense, which Greece diffused under the
name of the immortality of the soul, Judea concentrated all its
power of love and desire upon the national future. She thought she
possessed divine promises of a boundless future; and as a bitter
reality, from the ninth century before our era, gave more and more
the dominion of the world to physical force, and brutally crushed
these aspirations, she took refuge in the union of the most
impossible ideas, and attempted the strangest gyrations. Before the
captivity, when all the earthly hopes of the nation had become
weakened by the separation of the northern tribes, they dreamt of
the restoration of the house of David, the reconciliation of the
two divisions of the people, and the triumph of theocracy and the
worship of Jehovah over idolatry. At the epoch of the captivity a
poet, full of harmony, saw the splendor of a future Jerusalem, of
which the peoples and the distant isles should be tributaries,
under colors so charming that one might say a glimpse of the
visions of Jesus had reached him at a distance of six centuries.

     The victory of Cyrus seemed at one time to realize all that
had been hoped. The grave disciples of the Avesta and the adorers
of Jehovah believed themselves brothers. Persia had begun by
banishing the multiple devas, and by transforming them into demons
(divs), to draw from the old Arian imaginations (essentially
naturalistic) a species of Monotheism. The prophetic tone of many
of the teachings of Iran had much analogy with certain compositions
of Hosea and Isaiah. Israel reposed under the Achemenidae, and
under Xerxes (Ahasuerus) made itself feared by the Iranians
themselves. But the triumphal and often cruel entry of Greek and
Roman civilization into Asia threw it back upon its dreams. More
than ever it invoked the Messiah as judge and avenger of the
people. A complete renovation, a revolution which should shake the
world to its very foundation, was necessary in order to satisfy the
enormous thirst of vengeance excited in it by the sense of its
superiority, and by the sight of its humiliation.

     If Israel had possessed the spiritualistic doctrine which
divides man in two parts -- the body and the soul -- and finds it
quite natural that while the body decays the soul should survive,
this paroxysm of rage and of energetic protestation would have had
no existence. But such a doctrine, proceeding from the Grecian
philosophy, was not in the traditions of the Jewish mind. The
ancient Hebrew writings contain no trace of future rewards or
punishments. While the idea of the solidarity of the tribe existed,


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it was natural that a strict retribution according to individual
merits should not be thought of. So much the worse for the pious
man who happened to live in an epoch of impiety; he suffered like
the rest the public misfortunes consequent on the general
irreligion. This doctrine, bequeathed by the sages of the
patriarchal era, constantly produced unsustainable contradictions.
Already at the time of Job it was much shaken; the old men of Teman
who professed it were considered behind the age, and the young
Elihu, who intervened in order to combat them, dared to utter as
his first word this essentially revolutionary sentiment, "Great men
are not always wise; neither do the aged understand judgment." With
the complications which had taken place in the world since the time
of Alexander, the old Temanite and Mosaic principle became still
more intolerable. Never had Israel been more faithful to the Law,
and yet it was subjected to the atrocious persecution of Antiochus.
Only a declaimer, accustomed to repeat old phrases denuded of
meaning, would dare to assert that these evils proceeded from the
unfaithfulness of the people. What! these victims who died for
their faith, these heroic Maccabees, this mother with her seven
sons -- will Jehovah forget them eternally? Will he abandon them to
the corruption of the grave? Worldly and incredulous Sadduceeism
might possibly not recoil before such a consequence, and a
consummate sage, like Antigonus of Soco, might indeed maintain that
we must not practice virtue like a slave in expectation of a
recompense, that we must be virtuous without hope. But the mass of
the people could not be contented with that. Some, attaching
themselves to the principle of philosophical immortality, imagined
the righteous living in the memory of God, glorious for ever in the
remembrance of men, and judging the wicked who had persecuted them.
"They live in the sight of God; ... they are known of God." That
was their reward. Others, especially the Pharisees, had recourse to
the doctrine of the resurrection. The righteous will live again in
order to participate in the Messianic reign. They will live again
in the flesh, and for a world of which they will be the kings and
the judges; they will be present at the triumph of their ideas and
at the humiliation of their enemies.

     We find among the ancient people of Israel only very
indecisive traces of this fundamental dogma. The Sadducee, who did
not believe it, was in reality faithful to the old Jewish doctrine;
it was the Pharisee, the believer in the resurrection, who was the
innovator. But in religion it is always the zealous sect which
innovates, which progresses, and which has influence. Besides this,
the resurrection, an idea totally different from that of the
immortality of the soul, proceeded very naturally from the anterior
doctrines and from the position of the people. Perhaps Persia also
furnished some of its elements. In any case, combining with the
belief in the Messiah, and with the doctrine of a speedy renewal of
all things, it formed those apocalyptic theories which, without
being articles of faith (the orthodox Sanhedrim of Jerusalem does
not seem to have adopted them), pervaded all imaginations, and
produced an extreme fermentation from one end of the Jewish world
to the other. The total absence of dogmatic rigor caused very
contradictory notions to be admitted at one time, even upon so
primary a point. Sometimes the righteous were to await the
resurrection; sometimes they were to be received at the moment of 



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death into Abraham's bosom; sometimes the resurrection was to be
general; sometimes it was to be reserved only for the faithful;
sometimes it supposed a renewed earth and a new Jerusalem:
sometimes it applied a previous annihilation of the universe.

     Jesus, as soon as he began to think, entered into the burning
atmosphere which was created in Palestine by the ideas we have just
stated. These ideas were taught in no school; but they were in the
very air, and his soul was early penetrated by them. Our
hesitations and our doubts never reached him. On this summit of the
mountain of Nazareth, where no man can sit to-day without an
uneasy, though it may be a frivolous, feeling about his destiny,
Jesus sat often untroubled by a doubt. Free from selfishness --
that source of our troubles which makes us seek with eagerness a
reward for virtue beyond the tomb -- he thought only of his work,
of his race, and of humanity. Those mountains, that sea, that azure
sky, those high plains in the horizon, were for him not the
melancholy vision of a soul which interrogates Nature upon her
fate, but the certain symbol, the transparent shadow, of an
invisible world and of a new heaven.

     He never attached much importance to the political events of
his time, and he probably knew little about them. The court of the
Herods farmed a world so different to his that he doubtless knew it
only by name. Herod the Great died about the year in which Jesus
was born, leaving imperishable remembrances -- monuments which must
compel the most malevolent posterity to associate his name with
that of Solomon; nevertheless, his work was incomplete, and could
not be continued. Profanely ambitious, and lost in a maze of
religious controversies, this astute Idumean had the advantage
which coolness and judgment, stripped of morality, give over
passionate fanatics. But his idea of a secular kingdom of Israel,
even if it had not been an anachronism in the state of the world in
which it was conceived, would inevitably have miscarried, like the
similar project which Solomon formed, owing to the difficulties
proceeding from the character of the nation. His three sons were
only lieutenants of the Romans, analogous to  the rajahs of India
under the English dominion. Antipater, or Antipas, tetrarch of
Galilee and of Peraea, of whom Jesus was a subject all his life,
was an idle and useless prince, a favorite and flatterer of
Tiberius, and too often misled by the bad influence of his second
wife, Herodias. Philip, tetrarch of Gaulonitis and Batanea, into
whose dominions Jesus made frequent journeys, was a much better
sovereign, As to Archelaus, ethnarch of Jerusalem, Jesus could not
know him, for he was about ten years old when this man, who was
weak and without character, though sometimes violent, was deposed
by Augustus. The last trace of self-government was thus lost to
Jerusalem. United to Samaria and Tdumea, Judea formed a kind of
dependency of the province of Syria, in which the senator Publius
Sulpicius Quirinus, well known as consul, was the imperial legate.
A series of Roman procurators, subordinate in important matters to
the imperial legate of Syria -- Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, Annius
Rufus, Valerius Gratus, and, lastly (in the twenty-sixth year of
our era), Pontius Pilate -- followed each other, and were
constantly occupied in extinguishing the volcano which was seething
beneath their feet.



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     Continual seditions, excited by the zealots of Mosaism, did
not cease, in fact, to agitate Jerusalem during all this time. The
death of the seditious was certain; but death, when the integrity
of the Law was in question, was sought with avidity. To overturn
the Roman eagle, to destroy the works of art raised by the Herods,
in which the Mosaic regulations were not always respected -- to
rise up against the votive escutcheons put up by the procurators,
the inscriptions of which appeared tainted with idolatry -- were
perpetual temptations to fanatics, who had reached that degree of
exaltation which removes all care for life. Judas, son of Sariphea,
Matthias, son of Margaloth, two very celebrated doctors of the law,
formed against the established order a boldly aggressive party,
which continued after their execution. The Samaritans were agitated
by movements of a similar nature. The Law had never counted a
greater number of impassioned disciples than at this time, when he
already lived who, by the full authority of his genius and of his
great soul, was about to abrogate it. The "Zelotes" (Kenaim), or
"Sicarii," pious assassins, who imposed on themselves the task of
killing whoever in their estimation broke the Law, began to appear.
Representatives of a totally different spirit, the Thaumaturges,
considered as in some sort divine, obtained credence in consequence
of the imperious want which the age experienced for the
supernatural and the divine.

     A movement which had much more influence upon Jesus was that
of Judas the Gaulonite, or Galilean. Of all the exactions to which
the country newly conquered by Rome was subjected, the census was
the most unpopular. This measure, which always astonishes people
unaccustomed to the requirements of great central administrations,
was particularly odious to the Jews. We see that already, under
David, a numbering of the people provoked violent recriminations
and the menaces of the prophets. The census, in fact, was the basis
of taxation; now taxation, to a pure theocracy, was almost an
impiety. God being the sole Master whom man ought to recognize, to
pay tithe to a secular sovereign was, in a manner, to put him in
the place of God. Completely ignorant of the idea of the Etate, the
Jewish theocracy only acted up to its logical induction -- the
negation of civil society and of all government. The money of the
public treasury was accounted stolen money. The census ordered by
Quirinus (in the year 6 of the Christian era) powerfully reawakened
these ideas, and caused a great fermentation. An insurrection broke
out in the northern provinces. One Judas, of the town of Gamala,
upon the eastern shore of the Lake of Tiberias, and a Pharisee
named Sadoc, by denying the lawfulness of the tax, created a
numerous party, which soon broke out in open revolt. The
fundamental maxims of this party were -- that they ought to call no
man "master," this title belonging to God alone; and that liberty
was better than life. Judas had, doubtless, many other principles,
which Josephus, always careful not to compromise his
co-religionists, designedly suppresses; for it is impossible to
understand how, for so simple an idea, the Jewish historian should
give him a place among the philosophers of his nation, and should
regard him as the founder of a fourth school, equal to those of the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, Judas was evidently the
chief of a Galilean sect, deeply imbued with the Messianic idea,
and which became a political movement. The procurator, Coponius,
crushed the sedition of the Gaulonite; but the school remained and 


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preserved its chiefs, Under the leadership of Menahem, son of the
founder, and of a certain Eleazar, his relative, we find them again
very active in the last contests of the Jews against the Romans.
Perhaps Jesus saw this Judas, whose idea of the Jewish revolution
was so different from his own; at all events, he knew his school,
and it was probably to avoid his error that he pronounced the axiom
upon the penny of Caesar. Jesus, more wise, and far removed from
all sedition, profited by the fault of his predecessor, and dreamed
of another kingdom and another deliverance.

     Galilee was thus an immense furnace wherein the most diverse
elements were seething. An extraordinary contempt of life, or, more
properly speaking, a kind of longing for death, was the consequence
of these agitations. Experience counts for nothing in these great
fanatical movements. Algeria, at the commencement of the French
occupation, saw arise, each spring, inspired men, who declared
themselves invulnerable, and sent by God to drive away the
infidels; the following year their death was forgotten, and their
successors found no less credence. The Roman power, very stern on
the one hand, yet little disposed to meddle, permitted a good deal
of liberty. Those great brutal despotisms, terrible in repression,
were not so suspicious as powers which have a faith to defend. They
allowed everything up to the point when they thought it necessary
to be severe. It is not recorded that Jesus was even once
interfered with by the civil power in his wandering career. Such
freedom, and, above all, the happiness which Galilee enjoyed in
being much less confined in the bonds of Pharisaic pedantry, gave
to this district a real superiority over Jerusalem. The revolution,
or, in other words, the belief in the Messiah, caused here a
general fermentation. men deemed themselves on the eve of the great
renovation; the Scriptures, tortured into divers meanings, fostered
the most colossal hopes. In each line of the simple writings of the
Old Testament they saw the assurance, and in a manner the program,
of the future reign, which was to bring peace to the righteous, and
to seal for ever the work of God.

     From all time this division into two parties, opposed in
interest and spirit, had been for the Hebrew nation a principle
which contributed to their moral growth. Every nation called to
high destinies ought to be a little world in itself, including
opposite poles. Greece presented, at a few leagues' distance from
each other, Sparta and Athens -- to a superficial observer, the two
antipodes; but in reality, rival sisters, necessary to one another.
It was the same with Judea. Less brilliant in one sense than the
development of Jerusalem, that of the North was on the whole much
more fertile; the greatest achievements of the Jewish people have
always proceeded thence. A complete absence of the love of nature,
bordering upon something dry, narrow, and ferocious, has stamped
all the works purely Hierosolymite with a degree of grandeur,
though sad, arid, and repulsive. With its solemn doctors, its
insipid canonists, its hypocritical and atrabilious devotees,
Jerusalem has not conquered humanity. The North has given to the
world the simple Shunammite, the humble Canaanite, the impassioned
Magdalene, the good foster-father Joseph, and the Virgin Mary. The
North alone has made Christianity; Jerusalem, on the contrary, is
the true home of that obstinate Judaism, which, founded by the
Pharisees, and fixed by the Talmud, has traversed the Middle Ages, 
and come down to us.

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     A beautiful external nature tended to produce a much less
austere spirit -- a spirit less sharply monotheistic, if I may use
the expression -- which imprinted a charming and idyllic character
on all the dreams of Galilee. The saddest country in the world is
perhaps the region round about Jerusalem. Galilee, on the contrary,
was a very green, shady, smiling district, the true home of the
Song of Songs, and the songs of the well-beloved. During the two
months of March and April the country forms a carpet of flowers of
an incomparable variety of colors. The animals are small and
extremely gentle -- delicate and lively turtle-doves, blue-birds so
light that they rest on a blade of grass without bending it,
crested larks which venture almost under the feet of the traveller,
little river tortoises with mild and lively eyes, storks with grave
and modest mien, which, laying aside all timidity, allow man to
come quite near them, and seem almost to invite his approach. In no
country in the world do the mountains spread themselves out with
more harmony or inspire higher thoughts. Jesus seems to have had a
peculiar love for them. The most important acts of his divine
career took place upon the mountains. It was there that he was the
most inspired; it was there that he held secret communion with the
ancient prophets; and it was there that his disciples witnessed his
transfiguration.

     This beautiful country has now become sad and gloomy through
the ever-impoverishing influence of Islamism. But still everything
which man cannot destroy breathes an air of freedom, mildness, and
tenderness, and at the time of Jesus it overflowed with happiness
and prosperity. The Galileans were considered energetic, brave and
laborious. If we except Tiberias, built by Antipas in honor of
Tiberius (about the year 15), in the Roman style, Galilee had no
large towns. The country was, nevertheless, well peopled, covered
with small towns and large villages, and cultivated in all parts
with skill. From the ruins which remain of its ancient splendor we
can trace an agricultural people, no way gifted in art, caring
little for luxury, indifferent to the beauties of form, and
exclusively idealistic. The country abounded in fresh streams and
in fruits; the large farms were shaded with vines and fig-trees;
the gardens were filled with trees bearing apples, walnuts, and
pomegranates. The wine was excellent, if we may judge by that which
the Jews still obtain at Safed, and they drank much of it. This
contented and easily satisfied life was not like the gross
materialism of our peasantry, the coarse pleasures of agricultural
Normandy, or the heavy mirth of the Flemish. It spiritualized
itself in ethereal dreams -- in a kind of poetic mysticism,
blending heaven and earth. Leave the austere Baptist in his desert
of Judea to preach penitence, to inveigh without ceasing, and to
live on locusts in the company of jackals. Why should the
companions of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with
them? Joy will be a part of the kingdom of God. Is she not the
daughter of the humble in heart, of the men of goodwill?

     The whole history of infant Christianity has become in this
manner a delightful pastoral. A Messiah at the marriage festival --
the courtesan and the good Zacclicus called to his feasts -- the
founders of the kingdom of heaven like a bridal procession -- that
is what Galilee has boldly offered, and what the world has
accepted. Greece has drawn pictures of human life by sculpture and 


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by charming poetry, but always without backgrounds or distant
receding perspectives. In Galilee were wanting the marble, the
practiced workmen, the exquisite and refined language. But Galilee
has created the most sublime ideal for the popular imagination; for
behind its idyl moves the fate of humanity, and the light which
illumines its picture is the sun of the kingdom of God.

     Jesus lived and grew amid these enchanting scenes. From his
infancy he went almost annually to the feast at Jerusalem. The
pilgrimage was a sweet solemnity for the provincial Jews. Entire
series of psalms were consecrated to celebrate the happiness of
thus journeying in family companionship during several days in the
spring across the hills and valleys, each one having in prospect
the splendours of Jerusalem, the solemnities of the sacred courts,
and the joy of brethren dwelling together in unity. The route which
Jesus ordinarily took in these journeys was that which is followed
to this day through Ginaea and Shechem. From Shechem to Jerusalem
the journey is very toilsome. But the neighborhood of the old
sanctuaries of Shiloh and Bethel, near which the travellers pass,
keep their interest alive. Ain-el-Haramie, the last halting-place,
is a charming and melancholy spot, and few impressions equal that
experienced on encamping there for the night. The valley is narrow
and somber, and a dark stream issues from the rocks, full of tombs,
which form its banks. It is, I think, the "valley of tears," or of
dropping waters, which is described as one of the stations on the
way in the delightful eighty-fourth Psalm, and which became the
emblem of life for the sad and sweet mysticism of the Middle Ages.
Early the next day they would be at Jerusalem; such an expectation
even now sustains the caravan, rendering the night short and
slumber light.

     These journeys, in which the assembled nation exchanged its
ideas, and which were almost always centers of great agitation,
placed Jesus in contact with the mind of his countrymen, and no
doubt inspired him while still young with a lively antipathy for
the defects of the official representatives of Judaism. It is
supposed that very early the desert had great influence on his
development, and that he made long stays there. But the God he
found in the desert was not his God. It was rather the God of Job,
severe and terrible, accountable to no one. Sometimes Satan came to
tempt him. He returned, then, into his beloved Galilee, and found
again his heavenly Father in the midst of the green hills and the
clear fountains -- and among the crowds of women and children, who,
with joyous soul and the song of angels in their hearts, awaited
the salvation of Israel.

                            CHAPTER V

             THE FIRST SAYINGS OF JESUS -- THE IDEAS
                OF A DIVINE FATHER AND OF A PURER
                   RELIGION -- FIRST DISCIPLES

     Joseph died before his son had taken any public part. Mary
remained, in a manner, the head of the family, and this explains
why her son, when it was wished to distinguish him from others of
the same name, was most frequently called the "son of Mary." It
seems that having, by the death of her husband, been left 


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friendless at Nazareth, she withdrew to Cana, from which she may
have come originally. Cana was a little town at from two to two and
a half hours' journey from Nazareth, at the foot of the mountains
which bound the plain of Asochis on the north. The prospect, less
grand than at Nazareth, extends over all the plain, and is bounded
in the most picturesque manner by the mountains of Nazareth and the
hills of Sepphoris. Jesus appears to have resided some time in this
place. Here he probably passed a part of his youth, and here his
greatness first revealed itself.

     He followed the trade of his father, which was that of a
carpenter. This was not in any degree humiliating or grievous. The
Jewish customs required that a man devoted to intellectual work
should learn a trade. The most celebrated doctors did so; thus St.
Paul, whose education had been so carefully tended, was a tent-
maker. Jesus never married, All his power of love centered upon
that which he regarded as his celestial vocation. The extremely
delicate feeling towards women which we remark in him was not
separated from the exclusive devotion which he had for his mission.
Like Francis d'Assisi and Francis de Sales, he treated as sisters
the women who were loved of the same work as himself; he had his
St. Clare, his Frances de Chantal. It is, however, probable that
these loved him more than the work; he was, no doubt, more beloved
than loving. Thus, as often happens in very elevated natures,
tenderness of the heart was transformed in him into an infinite
sweetness, a vague poetry, and a universal charm. His relations,
free and intimate but of an entirely moral kind, with women of
doubtful character, are also explained by the passion which
attached him to the glory of his Father, and which made him
jealously anxious for all beautiful creatures who could contribute
to it.

     What was the progress of the ideas of Jesus during this
obscure period of his life? Through what meditations did he enter
upon the prophetic career? We have no information on these points,
his history having come to us in scattered narratives, without
exact chronology. But the development of character is everywhere
the same; and there is no doubt that the growth of so powerful an
individuality as that of Jesus obeyed very rigorous laws. A high
conception of the Divinity -- which he did not owe to Judaism, and
which seems to have been in all its parts the creation of his great
mind -- was in a manner the source of all his power. It is
essential here that we put aside the ideas familiar to us, and the
discussions in which little minds exhaust themselves. In order
properly to understand the precise character of the piety of Jesus,
we must forget all that is placed between the Gospel and ourselves.
Deism and Pantheism have become the two poles of theology. The
paltry discussions of scholasticism, the dryness of spirit of
Descartes, the deep-rooted irreligion of the eighteenth century by
lessening God, and by limiting him, in a manner, by the exclusion
of everything which is not his very, self, have stifled in the
breast of modern rationalism all fertile ideas of the Divinity. If
God, in fact, is a personal being outside of us, he who believes
himself to have peculiar relations with God is a "visionary," and,
as the physical and physiological sciences have shown us that all
supernatural visions are illusions, the logical Deist finds it
impossible to understand the great beliefs of the past. Pantheism, 


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on the other hand, in suppressing the Divine personality, is as far
as it can be from the living God of the ancient religions. Were the
men who have best comprehended God -- Cakya-Mouni, Plato, St. Paul,
St. Francis d'Assisi, and St. Augustine (at some periods of his
fluctuating life) -- Deists or Pantheists? Such a question has no
meaning. The physical and metaphysical proofs of the existence of
God were quite indifferent to them. They felt the Divine within
themselves. We must place Jesus in the first rank of this great
family of the true sons of God. Jesus had no visions; God did not
speak to him as to one outside of himself; God was in him; he felt
himself with God, and he drew from his heart all he said of his
Father. He lived in the bosom of God by constant communication with
him; he saw him not, but he understood him, without need of the
thunder and the burning bush of Moses, of the revealing tempest of
Job, of the oracle of the old Greek sages, of the familiar genius
of Socrates, or of the angel Gabriel of Mohammed. The imagination
and the hallucination of a St. Theresa, for example, are useless
here. The intoxication of the Soufi proclaiming himself identical
with God is also quite another thing. Jesus never once gave
utterance to the sacrilegious idea that he was God. He believed
himself to be in direct communion with God; he believed himself to
be the Son of God. The highest consciousness of God which has
existed in the bosom of humanity was that of Jesus.

     We understand, on the other hand, how Jesus, starting with
such a disposition of spirit, could never be a speculative
philosopher like Cakya-Mouni. Nothing is further from scholastic
theology than the Gospel. The speculations of the Greek fathers on
the Divine essence proceed from an entirely different spirit. God,
conceived simply as Father, was all the theology of Jesus. And this
was not with him a theoretical principle, a doctrine more or less
proved, which he sought to inculcate in others. He did not argue
with his disciples; he demanded from them no effort of attention,
He did not preach his opinions; he preached himself. Very great and
very disinterested minds often present, associated with much
elevation, that character of perpetual attention to themselves, and
extreme personal susceptibility, which, in general, is peculiar to
women. Their conviction that God is in them, and occupies himself
perpetually with them, is so strong that they have no fear of
obtruding themselves upon others: our reserve, and our respect for
the opinion of others, which is a part of our weakness, could not
belong to them. This exaltation of self is not egotism; for such
men, possessed by their idea, give their lives freely, in order to
seal their work: it is the identification of self with the object
it has embraced, carried to its utmost limit. It is regarded as
vain glory by those who see in the new teaching only the personal
phantasy of the founder; but it is the finger of God to those who
see the result. The fool stands side by side here with the inspired
man; only the fool never succeeds. It has not yet been given to
insanity to influence seriously the progress of humanity.

     Doubtless, Jesus did not attain at first this high affirmation
of himself. But it is probable that, from the first, he regarded
his relationship with God as that of a son with his father. This
was his great act of originality; in this he had nothing in common
with his race. Neither the Jew nor the Mussulman has understood
this delightful theology of love. The God of Jesus is not that 


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tyrannical master who kills us, damns us, or saves us, according to
his pleasure. The God of Jesus is our Father. We hear him in
listening to the gentle inspiration which cries within us, "Abba,
Father." The God of Jesus is not the partial despot who has chosen
Israel for his people and specially protects them. He is the God of
humanity. Jesus was not a patriot, like the Maccabees; or a
theocrat, like Judas the Gaulonite. Boldly raising himself above
the prejudices of his nation, he established the universal
fatherhood of God. The Gaulonite maintained that we should die
rather than give to another than God the name of "Master"; Jesus
left this name to anyone who liked to take it, and reserved for God
a dearer name. While he accorded to the powerful of the earth, who
were to him representatives of force, a respect full of irony, he
proclaimed the supreme consolation -- the recourse to the Father
which each one has in heaven -- and the true kingdom of God, which
each one bears in his heart.

     This name of "kingdom of God," or "kingdom of heaven," was the
favorite term of Jesus to express the revolution which he brought
into the world. Like almost all the Messianic terms, it came from
the book of Daniel. According to the author of this extraordinary
book, the four profane empires, destined to fall, were to be
succeeded by a fifth empire, that of the saints, which should last
for ever. This reign of God upon earth naturally led to the most
diverse interpretations. To Jewish theology the "kingdom of God" is
most frequently only Judaism itself -- the true religion, the
monotheistic worship, piety. In the later periods of his life Jesus
believed that this reign would be realized in a material form by a
sudden renovation of the world. But doubtless this was not his
first idea. The admirable moral which he draws from the idea of God
as Father is not that of enthusiasts who believe the world is near
its end, and who prepare themselves by asceticism for a chimerical
catastrophe; it is that of men who have lived and still would live.
"The kingdom of God is within you," said he to those who sought
with subtilty for external signs. The realistic conception of the
Divine advent was but a cloud, a transient error, which his death
has made us forget. The Jesus who founded the true kingdom of God,
the kingdom of the meek and the humble, was the Jesus of early life
-- of those chaste and pure days when the voice of his Father re-
echoed within him in clearer tones. It was then for some months,
perhaps a year, that God truly dwelt upon the earth. The voice of
the young carpenter suddenly acquired an extraordinary sweetness.
An infinite charm was exhaled from his person, and those who had
seen him up to that time no longer recognized him. He had not yet
any disciples, and the group which gathered around him was neither
a sect nor a school; but a common spirit, a sweet and penetrating
influence was felt. His amiable character, accompanied doubtless by
one of those lovely faces which sometimes appear in the Jewish
race, threw around him a fascination from which no one in the midst
of these kindly and simple populations could escape.

     Paradise would, in fact, have been brought to earth if the
ideas of the young Master had not far transcended the level of
ordinary goodness beyond which it has not been found possible to
raise the human race. The brotherhood of men, as sons of God, and
the moral consequences which result therefrom, were deduced with
exquisite feeling. Like all the rabbis of the time, Jesus was 


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little inclined towards consecutive reasonings, and clothed his
doctrine in concise aphorisms, and in an expressive form, at times
enigmatical and strange. Some of these maxims come from the books
of the Old Testament. Others were the thoughts of more modern
sages, especially those of Antigonus of Soco, Jesus, son of Sirach,
and Hillel, which had reached him, not from learned study, but as
oft-repeated proverbs. The synagogue was rich in very happily
expressed sentences, which formed a kind of current proverbial
literature. Jesus adopted almost all this oral teaching, but imbued
it with a superior spirit. Exceeding the duties laid down by the
Law and the elders, he demanded perfection. All the virtues of
humility -- forgiveness, charity, abnegation, and self-denial --
virtues which with good reason have been called Christian, if we
mean by that that they have been truly preached by Christ -- were
in this first teaching, though undeveloped. As to justice, he was
content with repeating the well-known axiom -- "Whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." But this old
though somewhat selfish wisdom did not satisfy him. He went to
excess and said -- "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the
law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." "If thy
right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee." "Love
your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that
persecute you." "Judge not, that ye be not judged." "Forgive, and
ye shall be forgiven." "Be ye therefore merciful as your Father
also is merciful." "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
"Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall
humble himself shall be exalted."

     Upon alms, pity, good works, kindness, peacefulness, and
complete disinterestedness of heart, he had little to add to the
doctrine of the synagogue. But he placed upon them an emphasis full
of unction, which made the old maxims appear new. Morality is not
composed of more or less well-expressed principles. The poetry
which makes the precept loved is more than the precept itself,
taken as an abstract truth. Now, it cannot be denied that these
maxims borrowed by Jesus from his predecessors produce quite a
different effect in the Gospel to that in the ancient Law, in the
Pirke Aboth, or in the Talmud. It is neither the ancient Law nor
the Talmud which has conquered and  changed the world. Little
original in itself -- if we mean by that that one might recompose
it almost entirely by the aid of older maxims -- the morality of
the Gospels remains, nevertheless, the highest creation of human
conscience -- the most beautiful code of perfect life that any
moralist has traced.

     Jesus did not speak against the Mosaic law, but it is clear
that he saw its insufficiency, and allowed it to be seen that he
did so. He repeated unceasingly that more must be done than the
ancient sages had commanded. He forbade the least harsh word; he
prohibited divorce and all swearing; he censured revenge; he
condemned usury; he considered voluptuous desire as criminal as
adultery; he insisted upon a universal forgiveness of injuries. The
motive on which he rested these maxims of exalted charity was
always the same. ... "That ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 



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the good. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?
do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren
only, what do than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect."

     A pure worship, a religion without priests and external
observances, resting entirely on the feelings of the heart, on the
imitation of God, on the direct relation of the conscience with the
heavenly Father, was the result of these principles. Jesus never
shrank from this bold conclusion, which made him a thorough
revolutionist in the very center of Judaism. Why should there be
mediators between man and his Father? As God only sees the heart,
of what good are these purifications, these observances relating
only to the body? Even tradition, a thing so sacred to the Jews, is
nothing compared to sincerity. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who,
in praying, turned their heads to see if they were observed, who
gave their alms with ostentation, and put marks upon their
garments, that they might be recognized as pious persons -- all
these grimaces of false devotion disgusted him. "They have their
recompense, said he; "but thou, when thou doest thine alms, let not
thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thy alms may be
in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, himself shall
reward thee openly." "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as
the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be
seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But
thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast
shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy
Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when
ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they
think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him."

     He did not affect any external signs of asceticism, contenting
himself with praying, or rather meditating, upon the mountains. and
in the solitary places, where man has always sought God. This high
idea of the relations of man with God, of which so few minds, even
after him, have been capable, is summed up in a prayer which he
taught to his disciples: --

     "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy
kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation; deliver
us from the evil one." He insisted particularly upon the idea that
the heavenly Father knows better than we what we need, and that we
almost sin against him in asking him for this or that particular
thing.

     Jesus in this only carried out the consequences of the great
principles which Judaism had established, but which the official
classes of the nation tended more and more to despise. The Greek
and Roman prayers were almost always mere egotistical verbiage.
Never had Pagan priest said to the faithful, "If thou bring thy
offering to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath
aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go 


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thy way; first be reconciled with thy brother, and then come and
offer thy gift." Alone in antiquity, the Jewish prophets,
especially Isaiah, had, in their antipathy to the priesthood,
caught a glimpse of the true nature of the worship man owes to God.
"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me: I am
full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and
I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-
goats. ... Incense is an abomination unto me; for your hands are
full of blood: cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment,
and then come." In later times, certain doctors, Simeon the just,
Jesus, son of Sirach, Hillel, almost reached this point, and
declared that the sum of the Law was righteousness. Philo, in the
Judaeo-Egyptian world, attained at the same time as Jesus ideas of
a high moral sanctity, the consequences of which was the disregard
of the observances of the Law. Shemaia and Abtalion also more than
once proved themselves to be very liberal casuists. Rabbi Johanan
ere long placed works of mercy above even the study of the Law!
Jesus alone, however, proclaimed these principles in an effective
manner, Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a
greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of
protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors;
by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion;
and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved
the Divine rank the world has accorded to him. An absolutely new
idea, the idea of a worship founded on purity of heart, and on
human brotherhood, through him entered into the world -- an idea so
elevated that the Christian Church ought to make it its
distinguishing feature, but an idea which, in our days, only few
minds are capable of embodying.

     An exquisite sympathy with nature furnished him each moment
with expressive images. Sometimes a remarkable ingenuity, which we
call wit, adorned his aphorisms; at other times their liveliness
consisted in the happy use of popular proverbs. "How wilt thou say
to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and,
behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to
cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

     These lessons, long hidden in the heart of the young Master,
soon gathered around him a few disciples. The spirit of the time
favored small churches; it was the period of the Essenes or
Therapeutae. Rabbis, each having his distinctive teaching, Shomaia,
Abtalion, Hillel, Shammai, Judas the Gaulonite, Gamaliel, and many
others whose maxims form the Talmud, appeared on all sides. They
wrote very little; the Jewish doctors of this time did not write
books; everything was done by conversations, and in Public lessons,
to which it was sought to give a form easily remembered. The
proclamation by the young Carpenter of Nazareth of these maxims,
for the most part already generally known, but which, thanks to
him, were to regenerate the world, was therefore no striking event.
It was only one Rabbi more (it is true, the most charming of all),
and around him some young men, eager to hear him, and thirsting for
knowledge. It requires time to command the attention of men. As yet
there were no Christians; though true Christianity was founded,
and, doubtless, it was never more perfect than at this first
period. Jesus added to it nothing durable afterwards. Indeed, in
one sense, he compromised it; for every movement, in order to
triumph, must make sacrifices; we never come from the contest of
life unscathed.
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     To conceive the good, in fact, is not sufficient; it must be
made to succeed among men. To accomplish this less pure paths must
be followed. Certainly, if the Gospel was confined to some chapters
of Matthew and Luke, it would be more perfect, and would not now be
open to so many objections; but would Jesus have converted the
world without miracles? If he had died at the period of his career
we have now reached, there would not have been in his life a single
page to wound us; but, greater in the eyes of God, he, would have
remained unknown to men; he would have been lost in the crowd of
great unknown spirits, himself the greatest of all; the truth would
not have been promulgated, and the world would not have profited
from the great moral superiority with which his Father had endowed
him. Jesus, son of Sirach, and Hillel had uttered aphorisms almost
as exalted as those of Jesus. Hillel, however, will never be
accounted the true founder of Christianity. In morals, as in art,
precept is nothing; practice is everything. The idea which is
hidden in a picture of Raphael is of little moment; it is the
picture itself which is prized. So, too, in morals, truth is but
little prized when it is a mere sentiment, and only attains its
full value when realized in the world as fact. Men of indifferent
morality have written very good maxims. Very virtuous men, on the
other hand, have done nothing to perpetuate in the world the
tradition of virtue. The palm is his who has been mighty both in
words and in works, who has discerned the good, and at the price of
his blood has caused its triumph. Jesus, from this double point of
view, is without equal; his glory remains entire, and will ever be
renewed.

                           CHAPTER VI

           JOHN THE BAPTIST -- VISIT OF JESUS TO JOHN,
            AND HIS ABODE IN THE DESERT OF JUDEA -- 
                 ADOPTION OF THE BAPTISM OF JOHN

     AN extraordinary man, whose position, from the absence of
documentary evidence, remains to us in some degree enigmatical,
appeared about this time, and was unquestionably to some extent
connected with Jesus. This connection tended rather to make the
young Prophet of Nazareth deviate from his path; but it suggested
many important accessories to his religious institution, and, at
all events, furnished a very strong authority to his disciples in
recommending their Master in the eyes of a certain class of Jews.

     About the year 28 of our era (the fifteenth year of the reign
of Tiberius) there spread throughout Palestine the reputation of a
certain Johanan, or John, a young ascetic full of zeal and
enthusiasm. John was of the priestly race, and born, it seems, at
Juttah, near Hebron, or at Hebron itself. Hebron, the patriarchal
city per excellence, situated at a short distance from the desert
of Judea, and within a few hours' journey of the great desert of
Arabia, was at this period what it is to-day -- one of the bulwarks
of Semitic ideas, in their most austere form. From his infancy John
was Nazir -- that is to say, subjected by vow to certain
abstinences. The desert by which he was, so to speak, surrounded
early attracted him. He led there the life of a Yogi of India,
clothed with skins or stuffs of camels' hair, having for food only
locusts and wild honey. A certain number of disciples were grouped 


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around him, sharing his life and studying his severe doctrine. We
might imagine ourselves transported to the banks of the Ganges, if
particular traits had not revealed in this recluse the last
descendant of the great prophets of Israel.

     From the time that the Jewish nation had begun to reflect upon
its destiny with a kind of despair, the imagination of the people
had reverted with much complacency to the ancient prophets. Now, of
all the personages of the past, the remembrance of whom came like
the dreams of a troubled night to awaken and agitate the people,
the greatest was Elias. This giant of the prophets, in his rough
solitude of Carmel, sharing the life of savage beasts, dwelling in
the hollows of the rocks, whence he came like a thunderbolt to make
and unmake kings, had become, by successive transformations, a sort
of superhuman being, sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, and as
one who had not tasted death. It was generally believed that Elias
would return and restore Israel. The austere life which he had led,
the terrible remembrances he had left behind him -- the impression
of which is still powerful in the East -- the somber image which,
even in our own time, causes, trembling and death -- all this
mythology, full of vengeance and terror, vividly struck the mind of
the people, and stamped as with a birth-mark all the creations of
the popular mind. Whoever aspired to act powerfully upon the people
must imitate Elias; and, as solitary life had been the essential
characteristic of this prophet, they were accustomed to conceive
"the man of God" as a hermit. They imagined that all the holy
personages had had their days of penitence, of solitude, and of
austerity. The retreat to the desert thus became the condition and
the prelude of high destinies.

     No doubt this thought of imitation had occupied john's mind.
The anchorite life, so opposed to the spirit of the ancient Jewish
people, and with which the vows, such as those of tho Nazirs and
the Rechabites, had no relation, pervaded all parts of Judea. The
Essenes or Therapeutae were grouped near the birthplace of John, on
the eastern shores of the Dead Sea. It was imagined that the chiefs
of sects ought to be recluses, having rules and institutions of
their own, like the founders of religious orders. The teachers of
the young were also at times species of anchorites, somewhat
resembling the gourous of Brahminism. In fact, might there not in
this be a remote influence of the mounis of India? Perhaps, some of
those wandering Buddhist monks who overran the world, as the first
Franciscans did in later times, preaching by their actions and
converting people who knew not their language, might have turned
their stops towards Judea, as they certainly did towards Syria and
Babylon? On this point we have no certainty, Babylon had become for
some time a true focus of Buddhism. Boudasp (Bodhisattva) was
reputed a wise Chaldean, and the founder of Sabeism, Sabeism was,
as its etymology indicates, baptism -- that is to say, the religion
of many baptisms -- the origin of the sect still existing called
"Christians of St. John," or Mendaites, which the Arabs call el-
Mogtasila, "the Baptists." It is difficult to unravel these vague
analogies. The sects floating between Judaism, Christianity,
Baptism, and Saboism, which we find in the region beyond the Jordan
during the first centuries of our era, present to criticism the
most singular problem, in consequence of the confused accounts of
them which have come down to us. We may believe, at all events, 


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that many of the external practices of John, of the Essenes, and of
the Jewish spiritual teachers of this time, were derived from
influences then but recently received from the far East. The
fundamental practice which characterized the sect of John, and gave
it its name, has always had its center in lower Chaldea, and
constitutes a religion which is perpetuated there to the present
day.

     This practice was baptism, or total immersion. Ablutions were
already familiar to the Jews, as they were to all religions of the
East. The Essenes had given them a peculiar extension. Baptism had
become an ordinary ceremony on the introduction of proselytes into
the bosom of the Jewish religion, a sort of initiatory rite. Never
before John the Baptist, however, had either this importance or
this form been given to immersion. John had fixed the scene of his
activity in that part of the desert of Judea which is in the
neighborhood of the Dead Sea. At the periods when he administered
baptism he went to the banks of the Jordan, either to Bethany or
Bethabara, upon the eastern shore, probably opposite to Jericho, or
to a place called AEnon, or "the Fountains," near Salim, where
there was much water. Considerable crowds, especially of the tribe
of Judah, hastened to him to be baptized. In a few months he thus
became one of the most influential men in Judea, and acquired much
importance in the general estimation.

     The people took him for a prophet, and many imagined that it
was Elias who had risen again. The belief in these resurrections
was widely spread: it was thought that God would raise from the
tomb certain of the ancient prophets to guide Israel towards its
final destiny. Others held John to be the Messiah himself, although
he made no such pretension. The priests and the scribes, opposed to
this revival of prophetism, and the constant enemies of
enthusiasts, despised him. But the popularity of the Baptist awed
them, and they dared not speak against him. It was a victory which
the ideas of the multitude gained over the priestly aristocracy.
When the chief priests were compelled to declare themselves
explicitly on this point, they were considerably embarrassed.

     Baptism with John was only a sign destined to make an
impression, and to prepare the minds of the people for some great
movement. No doubt he was possessed in the highest degree with the
Messianic hope, and that his principal action was in accordance
with it. "Repent," said he, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
He announced a "great wrath" -- that is to say, terrible calamities
which should come to pass -- and declared that the axe was already
laid at the root of the tree, and that the tree would soon be cast
into the fire. He represented the Messiah with a fan in his hand,
collecting the good wheat and burning the chaff. Repentance (of
which baptism was the type), the giving of alms, the reformation of
habits, were, in John's view, the great means of preparation for
the coming events, though we do not know exactly in what light he
conceived them. It is, however, certain that he preached with much
power against the same adversaries as Jesus, against rich priests,
the Pharisees, the doctors -- in one word, against official
Judaism; and that, like Jesus, he was specially welcomed by the
despised classes. He made no account of the title "son of Abraham,"
and said that God could raise up sons unto Abraham from the tones 


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of the road. It does not seem that he possessed even the germ of
the great idea which led to the triumph of Jesus -- the idea of a
pure religion; but he powerfully served this idea in substituting
a private rite for the legal ceremonies which required priests, as
the Flagellants of the Middle Ages were the precursors of the
Reformation, by depriving the official clergy of the monopoly of
the sacraments and of absolution. The general tone of his sermons
was stern and severe. The expressions which he used against his
adversaries appear to have been most violent. It was a harsh and
continuous invective. It is probable that he did not remain quite
a stranger to politics. Josephus, who, through his teacher Banou,
was brought into almost direct connection with John, suggests as
much by his ambiguous words, and the catastrophic which put an end
to John's life seems to imply this. His disciples led a very
austere life, fasted often, and affected a sad and anxious
demeanor. We have at times glimpses of communism -- the rich man
being ordered to share all that he had with the poor; the poor man
appeared as the one who would be specially benefitted by the
kingdom of God.

     Although the center of John's action was Judea, his fame
quickly penetrated to Galilee and reached Jesus, who, by his first
discourses, had already gathered around himself a small circle of
hearers. Enjoying as yet little authority, and doubtless impelled
by the desire to see a teacher whose instruction had so much in
common with his own, Jesus quitted Galilee, and repaired with his
small group of disciples to John. The newcomers were baptized like
every one else. John welcomed this group of Galilean disciples, and
did not object to their remaining distinct from his own. The two
teachers were young; they had many ideas in common; they loved one
another, and publicly vied with each other in exhibitions of kindly
feeling. At the first glance, such a fact surprises us in John the
Baptist, and we are tempted to call it in question. Humility has
never been a feature of strong Jewish minds. It might have been
expected that a character so stubborn, a sort of Lamennais always
irritated, would be very passionate, and suffer neither rivalry nor
half adhesion. But this manner of viewing things rests upon a false
conception of the person of John. We imagine him an old man; he
was, on the contrary, of the same age as Jesus, and very young
according to the ideas of the time. In mental development, he was
the brother rather than the father of Jesus. The two young
enthusiasts, full of the same hopes and the same hatreds, were able
to make common cause, and mutually to support each other. Certainly
an aged teacher, seeing a man without celebrity approach him, and
maintain towards him an aspect of independence, would have
rebelled; we have scarcely an example of a leader of a school
receiving with eagerness his future successor. But youth is capable
of any sacrifice, and we may admit that John, having recognized in
Jesus a spirit akin to his own, accepted him without any personal
reservation. These good relations became afterwards the starting-
point of a whole system developed by the evangelists, which
consisted in giving the Divine mission of Jesus the primary basis
of the attestation of John. Such was the degree of authority
acquired by the Baptist that it was not thought possible to find in
the world a better guarantee. But far from John abdicating in favor
of Jesus, Jesus, during all the time that he passed with him,
recognized him as his superior, and only developed his own genius 
with timidity.

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     It seems, in fact, that, notwithstanding his profound
originality, Jesus, during some weeks at least, was the imitator of
John. His way, as yet, was not clear before him. At all times,
moreover, Jesus yielded much to opinion, and adopted many things
which were not in exact accordance with his own ideas, or for which
he cared little, merely because they were popular; but these
accessories never injured his principal idea, and were always
subordinate to it. Baptism had been brought by John into very great
favor; Jesus thought himself obliged to do like John; therefore he
baptized and his disciples baptized also. No doubt he accompanied
baptism with preaching, similar to that of John. The Jordan was
thus covered on all sides with Baptists, whose discourses were more
or less successful. The pupil soon squalled the master, and his
baptism was much sought after. There was on this subject some
jealousy among the disciples: the disciples of John came to
complain to him of the growing success of the young Galilean, whose
baptism would, they thought, soon supplant his own. But the two
teachers remained superior to this meanness. The superiority of
John was, besides, too indisputable for Jesus, still little known,
to think of contesting it. Jesus only wished to increase under
John's protection; and thought himself obliged, in order to gain
the multitude, to employ the external means which had given John
such astonishing success. When he recommenced to preach after
John's arrest, the first words put into his mouth are but the
repetition of one of the familiar phrases of the Baptist. Many
other of John's expressions may be found repeated verbally in the
discourses of Jesus. The two schools appear to have lived long on
good terms with each other; and after the death of John, Jesus, as
his trusty friend, was one of the first to be informed of the
event.

     John, in fact, was soon cut short in his prophetic career.
Like the ancient Jewish prophets, he was, in the highest degree, a
censurer of the established authorities. The extreme vivacity with
which he expressed himself at their expense could not fail to bring
him into trouble. In Judea, John does not appear to have been
disturbed by Pilate; but in Perea, beyond the Jordan, he came into
the territory of Antipas. This tyrant was uneasy at the political
leaven which was so little concealed by John in his preaching. The
great assemblages of men gathered around the Baptist, by religious
and patriotic enthusiasm, gave rise to suspicion. An entirely
personal grievance was also added to these motives of State, and
rendered the death of the austere censor inevitable.

     One of the most strongly marked characters of this tragical
family of the Herods was Herodias, grand-daughter of Herod the
Great. Violent, ambitious, and passionate, she detested Judaism,
and despised its laws. She had been married, probably against her
will, to her uncle Herod, son of Mariamne, whom Herod the Great had
disinherited, and who never played any public part. The inferior
position of her husband in respect to the other persons of the
family gave her no peace; she determined to be sovereign at
whatever cost. Antipas was the instrument of whom she made use.
This feeble man, having become desperately enamored of her,
promised to marry her, and to repudiate his first wife, daughter of
Hareth, king of Petra, and emir of the neighboring tribes of Perea.



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The Arabian princess, receiving a hint of this design, resolved to
fly. Concealing her intention, she pretended that she wished to 
make a journey to Machero, in her father's territory, and caused
herself to be conducted thither by the officers of Antipas.

     Makaur, or Machero, was a colossal fortress built by Alexander
Jannaeus, and rebuilt by Herod, in one of the most abrupt wadys to
the east of the Dead Sea. It was a wild and desolate country,
filled with strange legends, and believed to be haunted by demons.
The fortress was just on the boundary of the lands of Hareth and of
Antipas. At that time it was in the possession of Hareth. The
latter, having been warned, had prepared everything for the flight
of his daughter, who was conducted from tribe to tribe to Petra.

     The almost incestuous union of Antipas and Herodias then took
place. The Jewish laws on marriage were a constant rock of offence
between the irreligious family of the Herods and the strict Jews.
The members of this numerous and rather isolated dynasty being
obliged to marry among themselves, frequent violations of the
limits prescribed by the Law necessarily took place. John, in
energetically blaming Antipas, was the echo of the general feeling.
This was more than sufficient to decide the latter to follow up his
suspicions. He caused the Baptist to be arrested, and ordered him
to be shut up in the fortress of Machero, which he had probably
seized after the departure of the daughter of Hareth.

     More timid than cruel, Antipas did not desire to put him to
death. According to certain rumors, he feared a popular sedition.
According to another version, he had taken pleasure in listening to
the prisoner, and these conversations had thrown him into great
perplexities. It is certain that the detention was prolonged, and
that John, in his prison, preserved an extended influence. He
corresponded with his disciples, and we find him again in
connection with Jesus. His faith in the near approach of the
Messiah only became firmer; he followed with attention the
movements outside, and sought to discover in them the signs
favorable to the accomplishment of the hopes which he cherished.

                           CHAPTER VII

                DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAS OF JESUS
                  RESPECTING THE KINGDOM OF GOD

     Up to the arrest of John, which took place about the summer of
the year 29, Jesus did not quit the neighborhood of the Dead Sea
and of the Jordan. An abode in the desert of Judea was generally
considered as the preparation for great things, as a sort of
"retreat" before public acts. Jesus followed in this respect the
example of others, and passed forty days with no other companions
than savage beasts, maintaining a rigorous fast. The disciples
speculated much concerning this sojourn. The desert was popularly
regarded as the residence of demons. There exist in the world few
regions more desolate, more abandoned by God, more shut out from
life, than the rocky declivity which forms the western shore of the
Dead Sea. It was believed that during the time which Jesus passed
in this frightful country he had gone through terrible trials; that
Satan had assailed him with his illusions or tempted him with
seductive promises; that afterwards, in order to recompense him for
his victory, the angels had come to minister to him.

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     It was probably in coming from the desert that Jesus learnt of
the arrest of John the Baptist. He had no longer any reason to
prolong his stay in a country which was partly strange to him.
Perhaps he feared also being involved in the severities exercised
towards John, and did not wish to expose himself at a time in
which, seeing the little celebrity he had, his death could in no
way serve the progress of his ideas. He regained Galilee, his true
home, ripened by an important experience, and having, through
contact with a great man very different from himself, acquired a
consciousness of his own originality.

     On the whole, the influence of John had been more hurtful than
useful to Jesus. It checked his development; for everything leads
us to believe that he had, when he descended towards the Jordan,
ideas superior to those of John, and that it was by a sort of
concession that he inclined for a time towards baptism. Perhaps if
the Baptist, whose authority. it would have been difficult for him
to escape, had remained free, Jesus would not have been able to
throw off the yoke of external rites and ceremonies, and would
then, no doubt, have remained an unknown Jewish sectary; for the
world would not have abandoned its old ceremonies merely for others
of a different kind. It has been by the power of a religion, free
from all external forms, that Christianity has attracted elevated
minds. The Baptist once imprisoned, his school was soon diminished,
and Jesus found himself left to his own impulses. The only things
he owed to John were lessons in preaching and in popular action.
From this moment, in fact, he preached with greater power, and
spoke to the multitude with authority.

     It seems also that his sojourn with John had, not so much by
the influence of the Baptist as by the natural progress of his own
thought, considerably ripened his ideas on "the kingdom of heaven."
His watchword henceforth is the "good tidings," the announcement
that the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is no longer simply a
delightful moralist, aspiring to express sublime lessons in short
and lively aphorisms; he is the transcendent revolutionary, who
essays to renovate the world from its very basis, and to establish
upon earth the ideal which he had conceived. "To await the kingdom
of God" is henceforth synonymous with being a disciple of Jesus.
This phrase, "kingdom of God," or "kingdom of heaven," was, as we
have said, already long familiar to the Jews. But Jesus gave it a
moral sense, a social application, which even the author of the
book of Daniel, in his apocalyptic enthusiasm, had scarcely dared
to imagine.

     He declared that in the present world evil is the reigning
power. Satan is "the prince of this world," and everything obeys
him. The kings kill the prophets. The priests and the doctors do
not that which they command others to do; the righteous are
persecuted, and the only portion of the good is weeping. The
"world" is in this manner the enemy of God and his saints; but God
will awaken and avenge his saints. The day is at hand, for the
abomination is at its height. The reign of goodness will have its
turn.





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     The advent of this reign of goodness will be a great and
sudden revolution. The world will seem to be turned upside down: 
the actual state being bad, in order to represent the future, it
suffices to conceive nearly the reverse of that which exists. The
first shall be last. A new order shall govern humanity. Now the
good and the bad are mixed, like the tares and the good grain in a
field. The master lets them grow together; but the hour of violent
separation will arrive. The kingdom of God will be as the casting
of a great net, which gathers both good and bad fish; the good are
preserved, and the rest are thrown away. The germ of this great
revolution will not be recognizable in its beginning. It will be
like a grain of mustard-seed which is the smallest of seeds, but
which, thrown into the earth, becomes a tree under the foliage of
which the birds repose; or it will be like the leaven which,
deposited in the meal, makes the whole to ferment. A series of
parables, often obscure, was designed to express the suddenness of
this advent, its apparent injustice, and its inevitable and final
character.

     Who was to establish this kingdom of God? Let us remember that
the first thought of Jesus, a thought so deeply rooted in him that
it had probably no beginning, and formed part of his very being,
was that he was the Son of God, the friend of his Father, the doer
of his will. The answer of Jesus to such a question could not
therefore be doubtful. The persuasion that he was to establish the
kingdom of God took absolute possession of his mind. He regarded
himself as the universal reformer. The heavens, the earth, the
whole of nature, madness, disease, and death, were but his
instruments. In his paroxysm of heroic will he believed himself
all-powerful. If the earth would not submit to this supreme
transformation, it would be broken up, purified by fire, and by the
breath of God. A new heaven would be created, and the entire world
would be peopled with the angels of God.

     A radical revolution, embracing even nature itself, was the
fundamental idea of Jesus. Henceforward, without doubt, he
renounced politics; the example of Judas, the Gaulonite, had shown
him the inutility of popular seditions. He never thought of
revolting against the Romans and tetrarchs. His was not the
unbridled and anarchical principle of the Gaulonite. His submission
to the established powers, though really derisive, was in
appearance complete. He paid tribute to Caesar, in order to avoid
disturbance. Liberty and right were not of this world, why should
he trouble his life with vain anxieties? Despising the earth, and
convinced that the present world was not worth caring for, he took
refuge in his ideal kingdom; he established the great doctrine of
transcendent disdain, the true doctrine of liberty of souls, which
alone can give peace. But he had not yet said, "My kingdom is not
of this world." Much darkness mixed itself with even his most
correct views. Sometimes strange temptations crossed his mind. In
the desert of Judea Satan had offered him the kingdoms of the
earth. Not knowing the power of the Roman empire, he might, with
the enthusiasm there was in the heart of Judea, and which ended
soon after in so terrible an outbreak, hope to establish a kingdom
by the number and the daring of his partisans. Many times, perhaps,
the supreme question presented itself -- will the kingdom of God be
realized by force or by gentleness, by revolt or by patience? One 


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day, it is said, the simple men of Galilee wished to carry him away
and make him king, but Jesus fled into the mountain and remained
there some time alone. His noble nature preserved him from the
errors which would have made him an agitator, or a chief of rebels,
a Theudas or a Barkokeba.

     The revolution he wished to effect was always a moral
revolution; but he had not yet begun to trust to the angels and the
last trumpet for its execution. It was upon men and by the aid of
men themselves that he wished to act. A visionary who had no other
idea than the proximity of the last judgment would not have had
this care for the amelioration of man, and would not have given
utterance to the finest moral teaching that humanity has received.
Much vagueness no doubt tinged his ideas, and it was rather a noble
feeling than a fixed design that urged him to the sublime work
which was realized by him, though in a very different manner to
what he imagined.

     It was indeed the kingdom of God, or, in other words, the
kingdom of the Spirit, which he founded; and if Jesus, from the
bosom of his Father, sees his work bear fruit in the world, he may
indeed say with truth, "This is what I have desired." That which
Jesus founded, that which will remain eternally his, allowing for
the imperfections which mix themselves with everything realized by
humanity, is the doctrine of the liberty of the soul. Greece had
already had beautiful ideas on this subject. Various Stoics had
learnt how to be free even under a tyrant. But in general the
ancient world had regarded liberty as attached to certain political
forms; freedom was personified in Harmodius and Aristogiton, Brutus
and Cassius. The true Christian enjoys more real freedom; here
below he is an exile. What matters it to him who is the transitory
governor of this earth, which is not his home? Liberty for him is
truth. Jesus did not know history sufficiently to understand that
such a doctrine came most opportunely at the moment when republican
liberty ended, and when the small municipal constitutions of
antiquity were absorbed in the unity of the Roman empire. But his
admirable good sense, and the truly prophetic instinct which he had
of his mission, guided him with marvelous certainty. By the
sentence, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to
God the things which are God's," he created something apart from
polities, a refuge for souls in the midst of the empire of brute
force. Assuredly such a doctrine had its dangers. To establish as
a principle that we must recognize the legitimacy of a power by the
inscription on its coins, to proclaim that the perfect man pays
tribute with scorn and without question, was to destroy
republicanism in the ancient form, and to favor all tyranny.
Christianity, in this sense, has contributed much to weaken the
sense of duty of the citizen, and to deliver the world into the
absolute power of existing circumstances. But in constituting an
immense free association, which during three hundred years was able
to dispense with politics, Christianity amply compensated for the
wrong it had done to civic virtues. The to the things of earth; the
mind was free, or at least the terrible rod of Roman omnipotence
was broken for ever.





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     The man who is especially preoccupied with the duties of
public life does not readily forgive those who attach little 
importance to his party quarrels. He especially blames those who
subordinate political to social questions, and profess a sort of
indifference for the former. In one sense he is right, for
exclusive power is prejudicial to the good government of human
affairs, But what progress have "parties" been able to effect in
the general morality of our species? If Jesus, instead of founding
his heavenly kingdom, had gone to Rome, had expended his energies
in conspiring against Tiberius, or in regretting Germanicus, what
would have become of the world? As an austere republican, or
zealous patriot, he would not have arrested the great current of
the affairs of his age; but, in declaring that politics are
insignificant, he has revealed to the world this truth, that one's
country is not everything, and that the man is before, and higher
than, the citizen.

     Our principles of positive science are offended by the dreams
contained in the program of Jesus. We know the history of the
earth; cosmical revolutions of the kind which Jesus expected are
only produced by geological or astronomical causes, the connection
of which with the spiritual things has never yet been demonstrated.
But, in order to be just to great originators, they must not be
judged by the prejudices in which they have shared. Columbus
discovered America, though starting from very erroneous ideas;
Newton believed his foolish explanation of the Apocalypse to be as
true as his system of the world. Shall we place an ordinary man of
our time above a Francis d'Assisi, A St. Bernard, a Joan of Arc, or
a Luther, because he is free from errors which these last have
professed? Should we measure men by the correctness of their ideas
of physics, and by the more or less exact knowledge which they
possess of the true system of the world? Let us understand better
the position of Jesus and that which made his power. The Deism of
the eighteenth century, and a certain kind of Protestantism, have
accustomed us to consider the founder of the Christian faith only
as a great moralist, a benefactor of mankind. We see nothing more
in the Gospel than good maxims; we throw a prudent veil over the
strange intellectual state in which it was originated. There are
even persons who regret that the French Revolution departed more
than once from principles, and that it was not brought about by
wise and moderate men. Let us not impose our petty and commonplace
ideas on these extraordinary movements so far above our everyday
life. Let us continue to admire the "morality of the Gospel" -- let
us suppress in our religious teachings the chimera which was its
soul; but do not let us believe that with the simple ideas of
happiness, or of individual morality, we stir the world. The idea
of Jesus was much more profound; it was the most revolutionary idea
ever formed in a human brain; it should be taken in its totality,
and not with those timid suppressions which deprive it of precisely
that which has rendered it efficacious for the regeneration of
humanity.

     The ideal is ever a Utopia. When we wish nowadays to represent
the Christ of the modern conscience, the consoler, and the judge of
the new times, what course do we take? That which Jesus himself did
eighteen hundred and thirty years ago. We suppose the conditions of
the real world quite other than what they are; we represent a moral


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liberator breaking without weapons the chains of the negro,
ameliorating the condition of the poor, and giving liberty to
oppressed nations. We forget that this implies the subversion of
the world, the climate of Virginia and that of Congo modified, the
blood and the race of millions of men changed, our social
complications restored to a chimerical simplicity, and the
political stratifications of Europe displaced from their natural
order. The "restitution of all things" desired by Jesus was not
more difficult. This new earth, this new heaven, this new Jerusalem
which comes from above, this cry: "Behold I make all things new!"
are the common characteristics of reformers. The contrast of the
ideal with the sad reality always produces in mankind those revolts
against unimpassioned reason which inferior minds regard as folly,
till the day arrives in which they triumph, and in which those who
have opposed them are the first to recognize their reasonableness.

     That there may have been a contradiction between the belief in
the approaching end of the world and the general moral system of
Jesus, conceived in prospect of a permanent state of humanity,
nearly analogous to that which now exists, no one will attempt to
deny. It was exactly this contradiction that insured the success of
his work. The millenarian alone would have done nothing lasting;
the moralist alone would have done nothing powerful. The
millenarianism gave the impulse; the moralist insured the future.
Hence Christianity united the two conditions of great success in
this world -- a revolutionary starting-point and the possibility of
continuous life. Everything which is intended to succeed ought to
respond to these two wants; for the world seeks both to change and
to last, Jesus, at the same time that he announced an unparalleled
subversion in human affairs, proclaimed the principles upon which
society has reposed for eighteen hundred years.

     That which in fact distinguishes Jesus from the agitators of
his time, and from those of all ages, is his perfect idealism.
Jesus, in some respects, was an anarchist, for he had no idea of
civil government. That government seems to him purely and simply an
abuse. He spoke of it in vague terms, and as a man of the people
who had no idea of politics. Every magistrate appeared to him a
natural enemy of the people of God; he prepared his disciples for
contests with the civil powers, without thinking for a moment that
there was anything to be ashamed of. But he never shows any desire
to put himself in the place of the rich and the powerful. He wishes
to annihilate riches and power, bat not to appropriate them. He
predicts persecution and all kinds of punishment to his disciples;
but never once does the thought of armed resistance appear. The
idea of being all-powerful by suffering and resignation, and of
triumphing over force by purity of heart, is indeed an idea
peculiar to Jesus. Jesus is not a spiritualist, for to him
everything tended to a palpable realization; he had not the least
notion of a soul separated from the body. But he is a perfect
idealist, matter being only to him the sign of the idea, and the
real, the living expression of that which does not appear.

     To whom should we turn, to whom should we trust to establish
the kingdom of God? The mind of Jesus on this point never
hesitated. That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination
in the sight of God, The founders of the kingdom of God are the 


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simple. Not the rich, not the learned, not priests; but women,
common people, the humble, and the young. The great characteristic
of the Messiah is that "the poor have the gospel preached to them."
The idyllic and gentle nature of Jesus here resumed the
superiority. A great social revolution, in which rank will be
overturned, in which all authority in this world will be
humiliated, was his dream. The world will not believe him; the
world will kill him. But his disciples will not be of the world.
They will be a little flock of the humble and the simple, who will
conquer by their very humility. The idea which has made "Christian"
the antithesis of "worldly has its full justification in the
thoughts of the master.

                          CHAPTER VIII

                       JESUS AT CAPERNAUM

     BESET by an idea, gradually becoming more and more imperious
and exclusive, Jesus proceeds henceforth with a kind of fatal
impassibility in the path marked out by his astonishing genius and
the extraordinary circumstances in which he lived. Hitherto he had
only communicated his thoughts to a few persons secretly attracted
to him; henceforward his teaching was sought after by the public.
He was about thirty years of age. The little group of hearers who
had accompanied him to John the Baptist had doubtless, increased,
and perhaps some disciples of John had attached themselves to him.
It was with this first nucleus of a Church that he boldly
announced, on his return into Galilee, the "good tidings of the
kingdom of God." This kingdom was approaching, and it was he,
Jesus, who was that "Son of Man" whom Daniel had beheld in his
vision as the divine herald of the last and supreme revelation.

     We must remember that, in the Jewish ideas, which were averse
to art and mythology, the simple form of man had a superiority over
that of Cherubs, and of the fantastic animals which the imagination
of the people, since it had been subjected to the influence of
Assyria, had ranged around the Divine Majesty. Already, in Ezekiel,
the Being seated on the supreme throne, far above the monsters of
the mysterious chariot, the great revealer of prophetic visions,
had the figure of a man. In the book of Daniel, in the midst of the
vision of the empires, represented by animals, at the moment when
the great judgment commences, and when the books are opened, a
Being "like unto a Son of Man" advances towards the Ancient of
days, who confers on him the power to judge the world, and to
govern it for eternity. Son of Man, in the Semitic languages,
especially in the Aramean dialects, is a simple synonym of man. But
this chief passage of Daniel struck the mind; the words, Son of
Man, became, at least, in certain schools, one of the titles of the
Messiah, regarded as judge of the world, and as king of the new era
about to be inaugurated. The application which Jesus made of it to
himself was therefore the proclamation of his Messiahship, and the
affirmation of the coming catastrophe in which he was to figure as
judge, clothed with the full powers which had been delegated to him
by the Ancient of days.





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     The success of the teaching of the new prophet was this time
decisive. A group of men and women, all characterized by the same 
spirit of juvenile frankness and simple innocence, adhered to him,
and said, "Thou art the Messiah." As the Messiah was to be the son
of David, they naturally conceded him this title, which was
synonymous with the former. Jesus allowed it with pleasure to be
given to him, although it might cause him some embarrassment, his
birth being well known. The name which he preferred himself was
that of "Son of Man," an apparently humble title, but one which
connected itself directly with the Messianic hopes. This was the
title by which he designated himself, and he used "The Sun of Man"
as synonymous with the pronoun "I," which he avoided. But he was
never thus addressed, doubtless because the name in question would
be fully applicable to him only on the day of his future
appearance.

     His center of action, at this epoch of his life, was the
little town of Capernaum, situated on the shore of the lake of
Gennesareth. The name of Capernaum, containing the word caphar,
"village," seems to designate a small town of the ancient
character, in opposition to the great towns built according to the
Roman method, like Tiberias. That name was so little known that
Josephus, in one passage of his writings, takes it for the name of
a fountain, the fountain having more celebrity than the village
situated near it. Like Nazareth, Capemaum had no history, and had
in no way participated in the profane movement fevered by the
Herods. Jesus was much attached to this town, and made it a second
home. Soon after his return he attempted to commence his work at
Nazareth, but without success. He could not perform any miracle
there, according to the simple remark of one of his biographers.
The knowledge which existed there about his family, not an
important one, injured his authority too much. People could not
regard as the son of David one whose brother, sister, and brother-
in-law they saw every day, and it is remarkable, besides, that his
family were strongly opposed to him, and plainly refused to believe
in his mission. The Nazarenes, much more violent, wished, it is
said, to kill him by throwing him from a steep rock. Jesus aptly
remarked that this treatment was the fate of all great men, and
applied to himself the proverb, "No one is a prophet in his own
country."

     This check far from discouraged him, He returned to Capernaum,
where he met with a much more favorable reception, and from thence
he organized a series of missions among the small surrounding
towns. The people of this beautiful and fertile country were
scarcely ever assembled except on Saturday. This was the day which
he chose for his teaching. At that time each town had its
synagogue, or place of meeting. This was a rectangular room, rather
small, with a portico, decorated in the Greek style. The Jews, not
having any architecture of their own, never cared to give these
edifices an original style. The remains of many ancient synagogues
still exist in Galilee. They are all constructed of large and good
materials; but their style is somewhat paltry, in consequence of
the profusion of floral omaments, foliage, and twisted work, which
characterize the Jewish buildings. In the interior there were
seats, a chair for public reading, and a closet to contain the
sacred rolls. These edifices, which had nothing of the character of


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a temple, were the center of the whole Jewish life. There the
people assembled on the Sabbath for prayer and reading of the law
and the prophets. As Judaism, except in Jerusalem, had, properly
speaking, no clergy, the first comer stood up, gave the lessons of
the day (parasha and haphtaya), and added thereto a midrask, or
entirely personal commentary, in which he expressed his own ideas.
This was the origin of the "homily," the finished model of which we
find in the small treatises of Philo. The audience had the right of
making objections and putting questions to the reader; so that the
meeting soon degenerated into a kind of free assembly. It had a
president, "elders," a hazzan -- i.e., a recognized reader, or
apparitor -- deputies, who were secretaries or messengers, and
conducted the correspondence between one synagogue and another, a
shammash, or sacristan. The synagogues were thus really little
independent republics, having an extensive jurisdiction. Like all
municipal corporation, up to an advanced period of the Roman
empire, they issued honorary decrees, voted resolutions, which had
the force of law for the community, and ordained corporal
punishments, of which the hazzan was the ordinary executor.

     With the extreme activity of mind which has always
characterized the Jews, such an institution, notwithstanding the
arbitrary rigors it tolerated, could not fail to give rise to very
animated discussions. Thanks to the synagogues, Judaism has been
able to sustain intact eighteen centuries of persecution. They were
like so many little separate worlds, in which the national spirit
was preserved, and which offered a ready field for intestine
struggles. A large amount of passion was expended there. The
quarrels for precedence were of constant occurrence. To have a seat
of honor in the first rank was the reward of great piety, or the
most envied privilege of wealth. On the other hand, the liberty,
accorded to everyone, of instituting himself reader and commentator
of the sacred text afforded marvelous facilities for the
propagation of new ideas. This was one of the great instruments of
power wielded by Jesus, and the most habitual means he employed to
propound his doctrinal instruction. He entered the synagogue and
stood up to read; the hazzan offered him the book, he unrolled it,
and, reading the parasha or the haphtara of the day, he drew from
his reading a lesson in conformity with his own ideas. As there
were few Pharisees in Galilee, the discussion did not assume that
degree of vivacity and that tone of acrimony against him which at
Jerusalem would have arrested him at the outset. These good
Galileans had never heard discourses so adapted to their cheerful
imaginations. They admired him, they encouraged him, they found
that he spoke well, and that his reasons were convincing. He
answered the most difficult objections with confidence; the charm
of his speech and his person captivated the people, whose simple
minds had not yet been cramped by the pedantry of the doctors.

     The authority of the young master thus continued increasing
every day, and, naturally, the more people believed in him, the
more he believed in himself. His sphere of action was very limited.
It was confined to the valley in which the Lake of Tiberias is
situated, and even in this valley there was one region which he
preferred. The lake is five or six leagues long and three or four
broad; although it presents the appearance of an almost perfect
oval, it forms, commencing from Tiberias up to the entrance of the 


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Jordan, a sort of gulf, the curve of which measures about three
leagues. Such is the field in which the seed sown by Jesus found at
last a well-prepared soil. Let us run over it step by step, and
endeavor to raise the mantle of aridity and mourning with which it
has been covered by the demon of Islamism.

     On leaving Tiberias we find at first steep rocks, like a
mountain which seems to roll into the sea. Then the mountains
gradually recede; a plain (El Ghoueir) opens almost at the level of
the lake. It is a delightful copse of rich verdure, furrowed by
abundant streams, which proceed partly from a great round basin of
ancient construction (Ain-Medawara). At the entrance of this plain,
which is, properly speaking, the country of Gennesareth, there is
the miserable village of Medjdel. At the other extremity of the
plain (always following the sea) we come to the site of a town
(Khan-Minyeh), with very beautiful streams (Ain-et-Tin), a pretty
road, narrow and deep, cut out of the rock, which Jesus often
traversed, and which serves as a passage between the plain of
Gennesareth and the northern slopes of the lake. A quarter of an
hour's journey from this place we cross a stream of salt water
(Ein-Tabiga), issuing from the earth by several large springs at a
little distance from the lake, and entering it in the midst of a
dense mass of verdure. At last, after a journey of forty minutes
further upon the arid declivity which extends from Ain-Tabiga to
the mouth of the Jordan, we find a few huts and a collection of
monumental ruins, called Tell-Houm.

     Five small towns, the names of which mankind will remember as
long as those of Rome and Athens, were, in the time of Jesus,
scattered in the space which extends from the village of Medjdel to
Tell-Houm. Of these five towns, Magdala, Dalmanutlia, Capernauni,
Bethsaida, and Chorazin, the first alone can be found at the
present time with any certainty. The repulsive village of Medjdel
has no doubt preserved the name and the place of the little town
which gave to Jesus his most faithful female friend. Dalmanutha was
probably near there. It is possible that Chorazin was a little more
inland, on the northern side. As to Bethsaida and Capernaum, it is
in truth almost at hazard that they have been placed at Tell-Houm,
Ain-et-Tin, Khan-Minyeh, and Ain-Medawara. We might say that in
topography, as well as in history, a profound design has wished to
conceal the traces of the great founder. It is doubtful whether we
shall ever be able, upon this extensively devastated soil, to
ascertain the places where mankind would gladly come to kiss the
imprint of his feet.

     The lake, the horizon, the shrubs, the flowers, are all that
remain of the little canton, three or four leagues in extent, where
Jesus founded his Divine work, The trees have totally disappeared.
In this country, in which the vegetation was formerly so brilliant
that Josephus saw in it a kind of miracle -- Nature, according to
him, being pleased to bring hither, side by side the plants of cold
countries, the productions of the torrid zone, and the trees of
temperate climates, laden all the year with flowers and fruits --
in this country travellers are obliged now to calculate a day
beforehand the place where they will the next day find a shady
resting-place. The lake has become deserted. A single boat in the
most miserable condition now ploughs the waves once so rich in life


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and joy. But the waters are always clear and transparent. The
shore, composed of rocks and pebbles, is that of a little sea, not
that of a pond, like the shores of Lake Huleh. It is clean, neat,
free from mud, and always beaten in the same place by the light
movement of the waves. Small promontories, covered with rose
laurels, tamarisks, and thorny caper bushes, are seen there; at two
places, especially at the mouth of the Jordan, near Tarichea, and
at the boundary of the plain of Gennesareth, there are enchanting
parterres, where the waves ebb and flow over masses of turf and
flowers. The rivulet of Ain-Tabiga makes a little estuary, of full
of pretty shells. Clouds of aquatic birds hover over the lake. The
horizon is dazzling with light. The waters, of an empyrean blue,
deeply imbedded amid burning rocks, seem, when viewed from the
height of the mountains of Safed, to lie at the bottom of a cup of
gold. On the north, the snowy ravines of Hermon are traced in white
lines upon the sky; on the west, the high undulating plateaux of
Gaulonitis and Perea, absolutely arid, and clothed by the sun with
a sort of velvety atmosphere, form one compact mountain, or rather
a long and very elevated terrace, which from Coosarea Philippi runs
indefinitely towards the south.

     The heat on the shore is now very oppressive. The lake lies in
a hollow six hundred and fifty feet below the level of the
Mediterranean, and thus participates in the torrid conditions of
the Dead Sea. An abundant vegetation formerly tempered these
excessive heats; it would be difficult to understand that a
furnace, such as the whole basin of the lake now is, commencing
from the month of May, had ever been the scene of great activity.
Josephus, moreover, considered the country very temperate. No doubt
there has been here, as in the campagna of Rome, a change of
climate introduced by historical causes. It is Islamism, and
especially the Mussulman reaction against the Crusades, which has
withered as with a blast of death the district Preferred by Jesus.
The beautiful country of Gennesareth never suspected that beneath
the brow of this peaceful wayfarer its highest destinies lay
hidden.

     Dangerous countryman! Jesus has been fatal to the country
which had the formidable honor of bearing him. Having become a
universal object of love or of hate, coveted by two rival
fanaticisms, Galilee, as the price of its glory, has been changed
to a desert. But who would say that Jesus would have been happier
if he had lived obscure in his village to the full age of man? And
who would think of these ungrateful Nazarenes, if one of them had
not, at the risk of compromising the future of their town,
recognized his Father, and proclaimed himself the Son of God?

     Four or five large villages, situated at half an hour's
journey from one another, formed the little world of Jesus at the
time of which we speak. He appears never to have visited Tiberias,
a city inhabited for most part by Pagans, and the habitual
residence of Antipas. Sometimes, however, he wandered from his
favorite region. He went by boat to the eastern shore, to Gergesa,
for instance. Towards the north we see him at Paneas or Cossarea
Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon. Lastly, he journeyed once in
the direction of Tyre and Sidon, a country which must have been
marvelously flourishing at that time. In all these countries he was


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in the midst of Paganism. At Coesarea he saw the celebrated grotto
of Panium, thought to be the source of the Jordan, and with which
the popular belief had associated strange legends; he could admire
the marble temple which Herod had erected near there in honor of
Augustus; he probably stopped before the numerous votive statues to
Pan, to the Nymphs, to the Echo of the Grotto, which piety had
already begun to accumulate in this beautiful place.

     A rationalistic Jew, accustomed to take strange gods for
deified men or for demons, would consider all these figurative
representations as idols. The seductions of the naturalistic
worships, which intoxicated the more sensitive nations, never
affected him. He was doubtless ignorant of what the ancient
sanctuary of Melkarth, at Tyre, might still contain of a primitive
worship more or less analogous to that of the Jews. The Paganism
which, in Phoenicia, had raised a temple and a sacred grove on
every hill, all this aspect of great industry and profane riches,
interested him but little. Monotheism takes away all aptitude for
comprehending the Pagan religions; the Mussulman, thrown into
polytheistic countries, seems to have no eyes. Jesus assuredly
learnt nothing in these journeys. He returned always to his well-
beloved shore of Gennesareth. There was the center of his thoughts;
there he found faith and love.

                           CHAPTER IX

                     THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS

     IN this terrestrial paradise, which the great revolutions of
history had till then scarcely touched, there lived a population in
perfect harmony with the country itself, active, honest, joyous,
and tender-hearted. The Lake of Tiberias is one of the best
supplied with fish of any in the world. Very productive fisheries
were established, especially at Bethsaida and at Capernaum, and had
produced a certain degree of wealth. These families of fishermen
formed a gentle and peaceable society, extending by numerous ties
of relationship through the whole district of the lake which we
have described. Their comparatively easy life left entire freedom
to their imagination. The ideas about the kingdom of God found in
these small companies of worthy people more credence than anywhere
else. Nothing of that which we call civilization, in the Greek and
worldly sense, had reached them. Neither was there any of our
Germanic and Celtic earnestness; but, although goodness among them
was often superficial and without depth, their habits were quiet,
and they were in some degree intelligent and shrewd. We may imagine
them as somewhat analogous to the better populations of the
Lebanon, but with the gift -- not possessed by the latter -- of
producing great men. Jesus met here his true family. He installed
himself as one of them; Capernaum became "his own city"; in the
center of the little circle which adored him he forgot his
skeptical brothers, ungrateful Nazareth and its mocking
incredulity.

     One house especially at Capernaum offered him an agreeable
refuge and devoted disciples. It was that of two brothers, both
sons of a certain Jonas, who probably was dead at the period when
Jesus came to stay on the borders of the lake. These two brothers 
were Simon, surnamed Cephas or Peter, and Andrew. Born at 

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Bethsaida, they were established at Capernaum when Jesus commenced
his public life. Peter was married and had children; his mother-in-
law lived with him. Jesus loved this house, and dwelt there
habitually. Andrew appears to have been a disciple of John the
Baptist, and Jesus had perhaps known him on the banks of the
Jordan. The two brothers continued always, even at the period in
which it seems they must have been most occupied with their master,
to follow their business as fishermen. Jesus, who loved to play
upon words, said at times that he would make them fishers of men.
In fact, among all his disciples he had none more faithfully
attached.

     Another family, that of Zabdia or Zebedee, a well-to-do
fisherman and owner of several boats, gave Jesus a welcome
reception. Zebedee had two sons: James, who was the elder, and a
younger son, John, who later was called to play so prominent a part
in the history of infant Christianity. Both were zealous disciples.
Salome, wife of Zebedee, was also much attached to Jesus, and
accompanied him until his death.

     Women, in fact, received him with eagerness. He manifested
towards them those reserved manners which render a very sweet union
of ideas possible between the two sexes. The separation of men from
women, which has prevented all refined development among the
Semitic peoples, was no doubt then, as in our days, much less
rigorous in the rural districts and villages than in the large
towns. Three or four devoted Galilean women always accompanied the
young Master, and disputed the pleasure of listening to and of
tending him in turn. They infused into the new sect an element of
enthusiasm and of the marvelous, the importance of which had
already begun to be understood. One of them Mary of Magdala, who
has rendered the name of this poor town so celebrated in the world,
appears to have been of a very enthusiastic temperament. According
to the language of the time she had been possessed by seven demons.
That is, she hah been affected with nervous and apparently
inexplicable maladies. Jesus, by his pure and sweet beauty, calmed
this troubled nature. The Magdalene was faithful to him, even unto
Golgotha, and on the day but one after his death played a prominent
part; for, as we shall see later, she was the principal means by
which faith in the resurrection was established. Joanna, wife of
Chuza, one of the stewards of Antipas, Susanne, and others who have
remained unknown, followed him constantly and ministered unto him.
Some were rich, and by their fortune enabled the young prophet to
live without following the trade which he had until then practiced.

     Many others followed him habitually, and recognized him as
their Master: a certain Philip of Bethsaida; Nathanael, son of
Tolmai or Ptolemy, of Cana, perhaps a disciple of the first period;
and Matthew, probably the one who was the Xenophon of the infant
Christianity. The latter had been a publican, and, as such,
doubtless handled the Kalam more easily than the others. Perhaps it
was this that suggested to him the idea of writing the Logia, which
are the basis of what we know of the teachings of Jesus. Among the
disciples are also mentioned Thomas, or Didymus, who doubted
sometimes, but who appears to have been a man of warm heart and of
generous sympathies; one Lebbaeus or Thaddeus; Simon Zelotes,
perhaps a disciple of Juclas the Gaulonite, belonging to the party
of the Kenaim, which was formed about that time, and which was soon

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to play so great a part in the movements of the Jewish people.
Lastly Judas, son of Simon, of the town of Kerioth, who was an
exception in the faithful flock, and drew upon himself such a
terrible notoriety. He was the only one who was not a Galilean.
Kerioth was a town at the extreme south of the tribe of Judah, a
day's journey beyond Hebron.

     We have seen that in general the family of Jesus were little
inclined towards him. James and Jude, however, his cousins by Mary
Cleophas, henceforth became his disciples, and Mary Cleophas
herself was one, of the women who followed him to Calvary. At this
period we do not see his mother beside him. It was only after the
death of Jesus that Mary acquired great importance, and that the
disciples sought to attach her to themselves. It was then also that
the members of the family of the founder, under the title of
"brothers of the Lord," formed an influential group, which was a
long time at the head of the Church of Jerusalem, and which, after
the sack of the city, took refuge in Batanea. The simple fact of
having been familiar with him became a decisive advantage, in the
same manner as after the death of Mahomet the wives and daughters
of the prophet, who had no importance in his life, became great
authorities,

     In this friendly group Jesus had evidently his favorites, and,
so to speak, an inner circle. The two sons of Zebedee, James and
John, appear to have been in the first rank. They were full of fire
and passion. Jesus had aptly surnamed them "sons of thunder," on
account of their excessive zeal, which, if it could have controlled
the thunder, would often have made use of it. John especially
appears to have been on very familiar terms with Jesus. Perhaps the
warm affection which the Master felt for this disciple has been
exaggerated in his Gospel, in which the personal interests of the
writer are not sufficiently concealed. The most significant fact is
that, in the Synoptical Gospels, Simon Barjona, or Peter, James,
son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, form a sort of intimate
council, which Jesus calls at certain times when he suspects the
faith and intelligence of the others. It seems, moreover, that they
were all three associated in their fishing. The affection of Jesus
for Peter was strong. The character of the latter -- upright,
sincere, impulsive -- pleased Jesus, who at times permitted himself
to smile at his resolute manners. Peter, little of a mystic,
communicated to the Master his simple doubts, his repugnances, and
his entirely human weaknesses with an honest frankness which
recalls that of Joinville towards St. Louis. Jesus chided him, in
a friendly manner, full of confidence and esteem. As to John, his
youth, his exquisite tenderness of heart, and his lively
imagination, must have had a great charm. The personality of this
extraordinary man, who has exerted so peculiar an influence on
infant Christianity, did not develop itself till afterwards. When
old he wrote that strange Gospel, which contains such precious
teachings, but in which, in our opinion, the character of Jesus is
falsified upon many points. The nature of John was too powerful and
too profound for him to bend himself to the impersonal tone of the
first evangelists. He was the biographer of Jesus, as Plato was of
Socrates. Accustomed to ponder over his recollections with the
feverish restlessness of an excited mind, he transformed his Master



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in wishing to describe him, and sometimes he leaves it to be
suspected (unless other hands have altered his work) that perfect
good faith was not invariably his rule and law in the composition
of this singular writing.

     No hierarchy, properly speaking, existed in the new sect. They
were to call each other "brothers," and Jesus absolutely proscribed
titles of superiority, such as rabbi, "master," father -- he alone
being Master, and God alone being Father. The greatest was to
become the servant of the others. Simon Barjona, however, was
distinguished among his fellows by a peculiar degree of importance.
Jesus lived with him, and taught in his boat; his house was the
center of the Gospel preaching. In public he was regarded as the
chief of the flock; and it is to him that the overseers of the
tolls address themselves to collect the taxes which were due from
the community. He was the first who had recognized Jesus as the
Messiah. In a moment of unpopularity, Jesus, asking of his
disciples "Will ye also go away?" Simon answered, "Lord, to whom
should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Jesus, at
various times, gave him a certain priority in his church; and gave
him the Syrian sumame of Kepha (stone), by which he wished to
signify by that that he made him the corner-stone of the edifice.
At one time he seems even to promise him "the keys of the kingdom
of heaven," and to grant him the right of pronouncing upon earth
decisions which should always be ratified in eternity.

     No doubt this priority of Peter excited a little jealousy.
Jealousy was kindled especially in view of the future -- and of
this kingdom of God, in which all the disciples would be seated
upon thrones, on the right and on the left of the Master, to judge
the twelve tribes of Israel. They asked who would then be nearest
to the Son of man, and act in a manner as his prime minister and
assessor. The two sons of Zebedee aspired to this rank. Preoccupied
with such a thought, they prompted their mother Salome, who one day
took Jesus aside, and asked him for the two places of honor for her
sons. Jesus evaded the request by his habitual maxim that he who
exalted himself should be humbled, and that the kingdom of heaven
will be possessed by the lowly. This created some disturbance in
the community; there was great discontent against James and John.
The same rivalry appears to show itself in the Gospel of John,
where the narrator unceasingly declares himself to be "the disciple
whom Jesus loved," to whom the Master in dying confided his mother,
and seeks systematically to place himself near Simon Peter, and at
times to put himself before him in important circumstances where
the older evangelists had omitted mentioning him.

     Among the preceding personages, all those of whom we know
anything had begun by being fishermen. At all events, none of them
belonged to a socially elevated class. Only Matthew or Levi, son of
Alpheus, had been a publican. But those to whom they gave this name
in Judea were not the farmers-general of taxes, men of elevated
rank (always Roman patricians), who were called at Rome publicani.
They were the agents of these contractors, employees of low rank,
simply officers of the customs. The great route from Acre to
Damascus, one of the most ancient routes of the world, which
crossed Galilee, skirting the lake, made this class of employees
very numerous there. Capernaum, which was perhaps on the road, 


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possessed a numerous staff of them. This profession is never
popular, but with the Jews it was considered quite criminal.
Taxation, new to them, was the sign of their subjection; one
school, that of Judas the Gaulonite, maintained that to pay it was
an act of paganism. The customs officers, also, were abhorred by
the zealots of the law. They were only named in company with
assassins, highway robbers, and men of infamous life. The Jews who
accepted such offices were excommunicated, and became incapable of
making a will; their money was accursed, and the casuists forbade
the changing of money with them. These poor men, placed under the
ban of society, visited among themselves. Jesus accepted a dinner
offered him by Levi, at which there were, according to the language
of the time, "many publicans and sinners." This gave great offence.
In these ill-reputed houses there was a risk of meeting bad
society. We shall often see him thus, caring little to shock the
prejudices of well-disposed persons, seeking to elevate the classes
humiliated by the orthodox, and thus exposing himself to the
liveliest reproaches of the zealots.

     Jesus owed these numerous conquests to the infinite charm of
his person and his speech. A penetrating word, a look falling upon
a simple conscience, which only wanted awakening, gave him an
ardent disciple. Sometimes Jesus employed an innocent artifice,
which Joan of Arc also used: he affected to know something intimate
respecting him whom he wished to gain, or he would perhaps recall
to him some circumstance dear to his heart. It was thus that he
attracted Nathanael, Peter, and the Samaritan woman. Concealing the
true source of his strength -- his superiority over all that
surrounded him -- he permitted people to believe (in order to
satisfy the ideas of the time -- ideas which, moreover, fully
coincided with his own) that a revelation from on high revealed to
him all secrets and laid bare all hearts. Every one thought that
Jesus lived in a sphere superior to that of humanity. They said
that he conversed on the mountains with Moses and Elias; they
believed that in his moments of solitude the angels came to render
him homage, and established a supernatural intercourse between him
and heaven.

                            CHAPTER X

                   THE PREACHINGS ON THE LAKE

     Such was the group which, on the borders of the lake of
Tiberias, gathered around Jesus. The aristocracy was represented
there by a customs officer and by the wife of one of Herod's
stewards. The rest were fishermen and common people. Their
ignorance was extreme; their intelligence was feeble; they believed
in apparitions and spirits. Not one element of Greek culture had
penetrated this first assembly of the saints. They had very little
Jewish instruction; but heart and goodwill overflowed. The
beautiful climate of Galilee made the life of these honest
fishermen a perpetual delight. They truly preluded the kingdom of
God -- simple, good, and happy -- rocked gently on their delightful
little sea, or at night sleeping on its shores. We do not realize
to ourselves the intoxication of a life which thus glides away in
the face of heaven -- the sweet yet strong love which this
perpetual contact with nature gives, and the dreams of these nights


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passed in the brightness of the stars, under in azure dome of
infinite expanse. It was daring such a night that Jacob, with his
head resting upon a stone, saw in the stars the promise of an
innumerable posterity, and the mysterious ladder by which the
angels of God came and went from heaven to earth. At the time of
Jesus the heavens were not closed, nor the earth grown cold. The
cloud still opened above the Son of man; the angels ascended and
descended upon his head; the visions of the kingdom of God were
everywhere, for man carried them in his heart. The clear and mild
eyes of these simple souls contemplated the universe in its ideal
source. The world unveiled perhaps its secret to the divinely
enlightened conscience of these happy children, whose purity of
heart deserved one day to behold God.

     Jesus lived with his disciples almost always in the open air.
Sometimes he got into a boat, and instructed his hearers, who were
crowded upon the shore. Sometimes he sat upon the mountains which
bordered the lake, where the air is so pure and the horizon so
luminous. The faithful band led thus a joyous and wandering life,
gathering the inspirations of the Master in their first bloom. An
innocent doubt was sometimes raised, a question slightly skeptical;
but Jesus, with a smile or a look, silenced the objection. At each
step -- in the passing cloud, the germinating seed, the ripening
corn -- they saw the sign of the Kingdom drawing nigh, they
believed themselves on the eve of seeing God, of being masters of
the world; tears were turned into joy; it was the advant upon earth
of universal consolation.

     "Blessed," said the Master, "are the poor in spirit: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

     "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be Comforted.

     "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

     "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.

     "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

     "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

     "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the
children of God.

     "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

     His preaching was gentle and pleasing, breathing nature and
the perfume of the fields. He loved the flowers, and took from them
his most charming lessons. The birds of heaven, the sea, the
mountains, and the games of children furnished in turn the subject
of his instructions. His style had nothing of the Grecian in it,
but approached much more to that of the Hebrew parabolists, and
especially of sentences from the Jewish doctors, his
contemporaries, such as we read them in the "Pirke Aboth." His
teachings were not very, extended, and formed a species of sorites 


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in the style of the Koran, which, joined together, afterwards
composed those long discourses which were written by Matthew. No
transition united these diverse pieces; generally, however, the
same inspiration penetrated them and made them one. It was, above
all, in parable that the Master excelled. Nothing in Judaism had
given him the model of this delightful style. He created it. It is
true that we find in the Buddhist books parables of exactly the
same tone and the same character as the Gospel parables; but it is
difficult to admit that a Buddhist influence has been exercised in
these. The spirit of gentleness and the depth of feeling which
equally animate infant Christianity and Buddhism suffice perhaps to
explain these analogies.

     A total indifference to exterior life and the vain appanage of
the "comfortable," which our drearier countries make necessary to
us, was the consequence of the sweet and simple life lived in
Galilee. Cold climates, by compelling man to a perpetual contest
with external nature, cause too much value to be attached to
researches after comfort and luxury. On the other hand, the
countries which awaken few desires are the countries of idealism
and of poesy. The accessories of life are there insignificant
compared with the pleasure of living. The embellishment of the
house is superfluous, for it is frequented as little as possible.
The strong and regular food of less generous climates would be
considered heavy and disagreeable. And as to the luxury of
garments, what can rival that which God has given to the earth and
the birds of heaven? Labor in climates of this kind appears
useless: what it gives is not equal to what it costs. The animals
of the field are better clothed than the most opulent man, and they
do nothing. This contempt, which, when it is not caused by
idleness, contributes greatly to the elevation of the soul,
inspired Jesus with some charming apologues: "Lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth," said he, "where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor dust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. No man can
serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and Mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no
thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more
than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air:
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet
your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than
they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin;
and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore
take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these
things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that
ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of 



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God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow
shall take thought of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof."

     This essentially Galilean sentiment had a decisive influence
on the destiny of the infant sect. The happy flock, relying on the
heavenly Father for the satisfaction of its wants, had for its
first principle the regarding of the cares of life as an evil which
choked the germ of all good in man. Each day they asked of God the
bread for the morrow. Why lay up treasure? The kingdom of God is at
hand. "Sell that ye have and give alms," said the Master. "Provide
yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that
faileth not." What more foolish than to heap up treasures for heirs
whom thou wilt never behold? As an example of human folly, Jesus
loved to cite the case of a man who, after having enlarged his
barns and amassed wealth for long years, died before having enjoyed
it! The brigandage which was deeply rooted in Galilee gave much
force to these views. The poor, who did not suffer from it, would
regard themselves as the favored of God; while the rich, having a
less sure possession, were the truly disinherited. In our
societies, established upon a very rigorous idea of property, the
position of the poor is horrible; they have literally no place
under the sun. There are no flowers, no grass, no shade, except for
him who possesses the earth. In the East these are gifts of God
which belong to no one. The proprietor has but a slender privilege;
nature is the patrimony of all.

     The infant Christianity, moreover, in this only followed the
footsteps of the Essenes, or Therapeutoe, and of the Jewish sects
founded on the monastic life. A communistic element entered into
all these sects, which were equally disliked by Pharisees and
Sadducees. The Messianic doctrine, which was entirely political
among the orthodox Jews, was entirely social among them. By means
of a gentle, regulated, contemplative existence, leaving its share
to the liberty of the individual, these little Churches thought to
inaugurate the heavenly kingdom upon earth. Utopias of a blessed
life, founded on the brotherhood of men and the worship of the true
God, occupied elevated souls, and produced from all sides bold and
sincere, but short-lived, attempts to realize these doctrines.

     Jesus, whose relations with the Essenes are difficult to
determine (resemblances in history not always implying relations),
was on this point certainly their brother. The community of goods
was for some time the rule in the new society. Covetousness was the
cardinal sin. Now, it must be remarked that the sin of
covetousness, against which Christian morality has been so severe,
was then the simple attachment to property. The first condition of
becoming a disciple of Jesus was to sell one's property and to give
the price of it to the poor, Those who recoiled from this extremity
were not admitted into the community. Jesus often repeated that he
who has found the kingdom of God ought to buy it at the price of
all his goods, and that in so doing he makes an advantageous
bargain. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a
field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy
thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking 


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goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold all that he had and bought it." Alas! the
inconveniences of this plan were not long in making themselves
felt. A treasurer was wanted. They chose for that office Judas of
Kerioth. Rightly or wrongly, they accused him of stealing from the
common purse; it is certain that he came to a bad end.

     Sometimes the Master, more versed in things of heaven than
those of earth, taught a still more singular political economy. In
a strange parable, a steward is praised for having made himself
friends among the poor at the expense of his master, in order that
the poor might in their turn introduce him into the kingdom of
heaven. The poor, in fact, becoming the dispensers of this kingdom,
will only receive those who have given to them. A prudent man,
thinking of the future, ought therefore to seek to gain their
favor. "And the Pharisees also," says the evangelist, who were
covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him." Did they
also hear the formidable parable which follows? "There was a
certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and
fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named
Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to
be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table:
moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass
that the beggar died, and was carried by the angles into Abraham's
bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he
lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham,
have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his
finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this
flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime
receivedst thy good things; and likewise Lazarus evil things: but
now he is comforted and thou art tormented." What more just?
Afterwards this parable was called that of the "wicked rich man."
But it is purely and simply the parable of the "rich man." He is in
hell because he is rich, because he does not give his wealth to the
poor, because he dines well, while others at his door dine badly.
Lastly, in a less extravagant moment, Jesus does not make it
obligatory to sell one's goods, and give them to the poor except as
a suggestion towards greater perfection. But he still makes this
terrible declaration: "It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God."

     An admirable idea governed Jesus in all this, as well as the
band of joyous children who accompanied him and made him for
eternity the true creator of the peace of the soul, the great
consoler of life. In disengaging man from what he called "the cares
of this world," Jesus might go to excess and injure the essential
conditions of human society; but he founded that high spiritualism
which for centuries has filled souls with joy in the midst of this
vale of tears. He saw with perfect clearness that man's
inattention, his want of philosophy and morality, come mostly from
the distractions which he permits himself, the cares which besiege
him, and which civilization multiplies beyond measure. The Gospel,
in this manner, has been the most efficient remedy for the
weariness of ordinary life, a perpetual sursum corda, a powerful
diversion from the miserable cares of earth, a gentle appeal like 


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that of Jesus in the ear of Martha -- "Martha, Martha, thou art
careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful."
Thanks to Jesus, the dullest existence, that most absorbed by sad
or humiliating duties, has had its glimpse of heaven. In our busy
civilizations the remembrance of the free life of Galilee has been
like perfume from another world, like the "dew of Hermon," which
has prevented drought and barrenness from entirely invading the
field of God.

                           CHAPTER XI

                 THE KINGDOM OF GOD CONCEIVED AS
                   THE INHERITANCE OF THE POOR

     THESE maxims, good for a country where life is nourished by
the air and the light, and this delicate communism of a band of
children of God reposing in confidence on the bosom of their
Father, might suit a simple sect constantly persuaded that its
Utopia was about to be realized. But it is clear that they could
not satisfy the whole of society. Jesus understood very soon, in
fact, that the official world of his time would by no means adopt
his kingdom. He took his resolution with extreme boldness. Leaving
the world, with its hard heart and narrow prejudices on one side,
he turned towards the simple. A vast substitution of classes would
take place. The kingdom of God was made -- 1st, For children, and
those who resemble them; 2nd, For the outcasts of this world,
victims of that social arrogance which repulses the good but humble
man; 3rd, For heretics and schismatics, publicans, Samaritans, and
Pagans of Tyre and Sidon. An energetic parable explained this
appeal to the people, and justified it. A king has prepared a
wedding feast, and sends his servants to seek those invited. Each
one excuses himself; some ill-treat the messengers. The king,
therefore, takes a decided step. The great people have not accepted
his invitation. Be it so. His guests shall be the first comers; the
people collected from the highways and byeways, the poor, the
beggars, and the lame; it matters not who, the room must be filled.
"For I say unto you," said he, "that none of those men which were
bidden shall taste of my supper."

     Pure Ebionism -- that is, the doctrine that the poor (ebionim)
alone shall be saved, that the reign of the poor is approaching --
was, therefore, the doctrine of Jesus. "Woe unto you that are
rich," said he, "for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto
you that are full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh
now, for ye shall mourn and weep." "Then said he also to him that
bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy
friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich
neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made
thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the
lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot
recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection
of the just." It is perhaps in an analogous sense that he often
repeated, Be good bankers -- that is to say, make good investments
for the kingdom of God, in giving your wealth to the poor,
conformably to the old proverb, "He that hath pity upon the poor,
leadeth unto the Lord."



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     This, however, was not a new fact. The most exalted democratic
movement of which humanity has preserved the remembrance (the only
one, also, which has succeeded, for it alone has maintained itself
in the domain of pure thought). had long disturbed the Jewish race.
The thought that God is the avenger of the poor and the weak,
against the rich and the powerful, is found in each page of the
writings of the Old Testament. The history of Israel is of all
histories that in which the popular spirit has most constantly
predominated. The prophets, the true, and, in one sense, the
boldest tribunes, had thundered incessantly against the great, and
established a close relation, on the one hand, between the words
"rich, impious, violent, wicked," and, on the other, between the
words "poor, gentle, humble, pious." Under the Seleucidae, the
aristocrats having almost all apostatized and gone over to
Hellenism, these associations of ideas only became stronger. The
Book of Enoch contains still more violent maledictions than those
of the Gospel against the world, the rich, and the powerful. Luxury
is there depicted as a crime. The "Son of man," in this strange
Apocalypse, enthrones kings, tears them from their voluptuous life,
and precipitates them into hell. The initiation of Judea into
secular life, the recent introduction of an entirely worldly
element of luxury and comfort, provoked a furious reaction in favor
of patriarchal simplicity. "Woe unto you who despise the humble
dwelling and inheritance of your fathers! Woe unto you who build
your palaces with the sweat of others! Each stone, each brick of
which it is built, is a sin." The name of "poor" (ebion) had become
a synonym of "saint," of "friend of God." This was the name that
Galilean disciples of Jesus loved to give themselves; it was for a
long time the name of the Judaising Christians of Batanea and of
the Hauran (Nazarenes, Hebrews) who remained faithful to the
tongue, as well as to the primitive instructions of Jesus, and who
boasted that they possessed among themselves the descendants of his
family. At the end of the second century, these good sectaries,
having remained beyond the reach of the great current which had
carried away all the other Churches, were treated as heretics
(Ebionites), and a pretended heretical leader (Ebion) was invented
to explain their name.

     We may see, in fact, without difficulty, that this exaggerated
taste for poverty could not be very lasting. It was one of those
Utopian elements which always mingle in the origin of great
movements, and which time rectifies. Thrown into the center of
human society, Christianity very easily consented to receive rich
men into her bosom, just as Buddhism, exclusively monkish in its
origin, soon began, as conversions multiplied, to admit the laity.
But the mark of origin is ever preserved. Although it quickly
passed away and became forgotten, Ebionism left a leaven in the
whole history of Christian institutions which has not been lost.
The collection of the Logia, or discourses of Jesus, was formed in
the Ebionitish center of Batanea. "Poverty remained an ideal from
which the true followers of Jesus were never after separated. To
possess nothing was the truly evangelical state; mendicancy became
a virtue, a holy condition. The great Umbrian movement of the
thirteenth century, which, among all the attempts at religious
construction, most resembles the Galilean movement, took place
entirely in the name of poverty. Francis d'Assisi, the man who,
more than any other, by his exquisite goodness, by his delicate, 


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pure, and tender intercourse with universal life, most resembled
Jesus, was a poor man. The mendicant orders, the innumerable
communistic sects of the Middle Ages (Pauvres de Lyon, Begards,
Bons-Hommes, Fratricelles, Humilies, Pauvres evangiliques, etc.)
grouped under the banner of the "Everlasting Gospel," pretended to
be, and in fact were, the true disciples of Jesus. But even in this
case the most impracticable dreams of the new religion were
fruitful in results. Pious mendacity, so impatiently born by our
industrial and well-organized communities, was in its day, and in
a suitable climate, full of charm. It offered to a multitude of
mild and contemplative souls the only condition suited to them. To
have made poverty an object of love and desire, to have raised the
beggar to the altar, and to have sanctified the coat of the poor
man, was a master-stroke which political economy may not
appreciate, but in the presence of which the true moralist cannot
remain indifferent. Humanity, in order to bear its burden, needs to
believe that it is not paid entirely by wages. The greatest service
which can be rendered to it is to repeat often that it lives not by
bread alone.

     Like all great men, Jesus loved the people and felt himself at
home with them. The Gospel, in his idea, is made for the poor; it
is to them he brings the glad tidings of salvation. All the
despised ones of orthodox Judaism were his favorites. Love of the
people, and pity for its weakness (the sentiment of the democratic
chief, who feels the spirit of the multitude live in him, and
recognize him as its natural interpreter), shine forth at each
moment in his acts and discourses.

     The chosen flock presented, in fact, a very mixed character,
and one likely to astonish rigorous moralists. It counted in its
fold men with whom a Jew respecting himself would not have
associated. Perhaps Jesus found in this society, unrestrained by
ordinary rules, more mind and heart than in a pedantic and formal
middle-class, proud of its apparent morality. The Pharisees,
exaggerating the Mosaic prescriptions, had come to believe
themselves defiled by contact with men less strict than themselves;
in their meals they almost rivalled the puerile distinctions of
caste in India. Despising these miserable aberrations of the
religious sentiment, Jesus loved to eat with those who suffered
from them; by his side at table were seen persons said to lead
wicked lives, perhaps only so called because they did not share the
follies of the false devotees. The Pharisees and the doctors
protested against the scandal. "See," said they, "with what men he
eats!" Jesus returned subtle answers, which exasperated the
hypocrites: "They that be whole need not a physician." Or again:
"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after
that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he
layeth it on his shoulder rejoicing." Or again: "The Son of man is
come to save that which was lost." Or again: "I am not come to call
the righteous, but sinners." Lastly, that delightful parable of the
prodigal son, in which he who is fallen is represented as having a
kind of privilege of love above him who has always been righteous.
Weak or guilty women, surprised at so much that was charming, and
realizing for the first time the attractions of contact with
virtue, approached him freely. People were astonished that he did 


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not repulse them. "Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw
it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a
prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
toucheth him: for she is a sinner." Jesus replied by the parable of
a creditor who forgives his debtors' unequal debts, and he did not
hesitate to prefer the lot of him to whom was remitted the greater
debt. He appreciated conditions of soul only in proportion to the
love mingled therein. Women, with tearful hearts, and disposed
through their sins to feelings of humility, were nearer to his
kingdom than ordinary natures, who often have little merit in not
having fallen. We may conceive, on the other hand, that these
tender souls, finding in their conversion to the sect an easy means
of restoration, would passionately attach themselves to him.

     Far from seeking to soothe the murmurs stirred up by his
disdain for the social susceptibilities of the time, he seemed to
take pleasure in exciting them. Never did anyone avow more loftily
this contempt for the "world," which is the essential condition of
great things and of great originality. He pardoned the rich man,
but only when the rich man, in consequence of some prejudice, was
disliked by society. He greatly preferred men of equivocal life and
of small consideration in the eyes of the orthodox leaders. "The
publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came unto you and ye believed him not: but the publicans
and the harlots believed him." We can understand how galling the
reproach of not having followed the good example set by prostitutes
must have been to men making a profession of seriousness and rigid
morality.

     He had no external affectation or show of austerity. He did
not fly from pleasure; he went willingly to marriage feasts. One of
his miracles was performed to enliven a wedding at a small town.
Weddings in the East take place in the evening. Each one carries a
lamp; and the lights coming and going produce a very agreeable
effect. Jesus liked this gay and animated aspect, and drew parables
from it. Such conduct, compared with that of John the Baptist, gave
offence. One day, when the disciples of John and the Pharisees were
observing the fast, it was asked, "Why do the disciples of John and
of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said
unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with
them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom
shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those
days." His gentle gaiety found expression in lively ideas and
amiable pleasantries. "But whereunto," said he, "shall I liken this
generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and
calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and
ye have, not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not
lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say,
He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they
say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of
publicans and sinners. But Wisdom is justified of her children."

     He thus traversed Galilee in the midst of a continual feast.
He rode on a mule. In the East this is a good and safe mode of
travelling; the large black eyes of the animal, shaded by long
eyelashes, give it an expression of gentleness. His disciples 


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sometimes surrounded him with a kind of rustic pomp, at the expense
of their garments, which they used as carpets. They placed them on
the mule which carried him, or extended them on the earth in his
path. His entering a house was considered a joy and a blessing. He
stopped in the villages and the large farms, where he received an
eager hospitality. In the East, the house into which a stranger
enters becomes at once a public place. All the village assembles
there, the children invade it, and, though dispersed by the
servants, always return. Jesus could not permit these simple
auditors to be treated harshly; he caused them to be brought to him
and embraced them. The mothers, encouraged by such a reception,
brought him their children in order that he might touch them. Women
came to pour oil upon his head and perfume on his feet His
disciples sometimes repulsed them as troublesome; but Jesus, who
loved the ancient usages, and all that indicated simplicity of
heart, repaired the ill done by his too zealous friends. He
protected those who wished to honor him. Thus children and women
adored him. The reproach of alienating from their families these
gentle creatures, always easily misled, was one of the most
frequent charges of his enemies.

     The new religion was thus in many respects a movement of women
and children. The latter were like a young guard around Jesus for
the inauguration of his innocent royalty, and gave him little
ovations which much pleased him, calling him "son of David," crying
Hosanna, and bearing palms around him. Jesus, like Savonarola,
perhaps made them serve as instruments for pious missions; he was
very glad to see these young apostles, who did not compromise him,
rush into the front and give him titles which he dared not take
himself. He let them speak, and, when he was asked if he heard, he
replied in an evasive manner that the praise which comes from young
lips is the most agreeable to God.

     He lost no opportunity of repeating that the little ones are
sacred beings, that the kingdom of God belongs to children, that we
must become children to enter there, that we ought to receive it as
a child, that the heavenly Father hides his secrets from the wise,
and reveals them to the little ones. The idea of disciples is, in
his mind, almost synonymous with that of children. On one occasion,
when they had one of those quarrels for precedence which were not
uncommon, Jesus took a little child, placed him in their midst, and
said unto them: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this
little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

     It was infancy, in fact, in its divine spontaneity, in its
simple bewilderments of joy, which took possession of the earth.
Everyone believed at each moment that the kingdom so much desired
was about to appear. Each one already saw himself seated on a
throne beside the Master. They divided among themselves the
positions of honor in the new kingdom, and strove to reckon the
precise date of its advent. This new doctrine was called the "Good
Tidings"; it had no other name. An old word, "paradise," which the
Hebrew, like all the languages of the East, had borrowed from the
Persian, and which at first designated the parks of the
Achaemenidae, summed up the general dream; a delightful garden,
where the charming life which was led here below would be continued
forever. How long this intoxication lasted we know not. No one, 


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during the course of this magical apparition, measured time any
more than we measure a dream. Duration was suspended; a week was an
age. But, whether it filled years or months, the dream was so
beautiful that humanity has lived upon it ever since, and it is
still our consolation to gather its weakened perfume. Never did so
much joy fill the breast of man. For a moment Humanity, in this the
most vigorous effort she ever made to rise above the world, forgot
the leaden weight which binds her to earth and the sorrows of the
life below. Happy he who has been able to behold this divine
unfolding, and to share, were it but for one day, this unexampled
illusion! But still more happy, Jesus would say to us, is he who,
freed from all illusion, shall reproduce in himself the celestial
vision, and, with no millenarnan dream, no chimerical paradise, no
signs in the heavens, but, by the uprightness of his will and the
poetry of his soul, shall be able to create anew in his heart the
true kingdom of God!

                           CHAPTER XII

             EMBASSY FROM JOHN IN PRISON TO JESUS --
                DEATH OF JOHN -- RELATIONS OF HIS
                    SCHOOL WITH THAT OF JESUS

     WHILE joyous Galilee was celebrating in feasts the coming of
the well-beloved, the sorrowful John, in his prison of Machers, was
pining away with expectation and desire. The success of the young
Master whom he had seen some months before as his auditor reached
his ears. It was said that the Messiah predicted by the prophets,
he who was to re-establish the kingdom of Israel, was come, and was
proving his presence in Galilee by marvelous works. John wished to
inquire into the truth of this rumor, and, as he communicated
freely with his disciples, he chose two of them to go to Jesus in
Galilee.

     The two disciples found Jesus at the height of his fame. The
air of gladness which reigned around him surprised them. Accustomed
to fasts, to persevering prayer, and to a life of aspiration, they
were astonished to see themselves transported suddenly into the
midst of the joys attending the welcome of the Messiah. They told
Jesus their message: "Art thou he that should come? Or do we look
for another?" Jesus, who from that time hesitated no longer
respecting his peculiar character as Messiah, enumerated the works
which ought to characterize the coming of the kingdom of God --
such as the healing of the sick and the good tiding of a speedy
salvation preached to the poor. He did all these works. And blessed
is he," said Jesus, whosoever shall not be offended in me." We know
not whether this answer found John the Baptist living or in what
temper it put the austere ascetic. Did he die consoled and certain
that he whom he had announced already lived, or did he remain
doubtful as to the mission of Jesus? There is nothing to inform us.
Seeing, however, that his school continued to exist a considerable
time parallel with the Christian Churches, we are led to think
that, notwithstanding his regard for Jesus, John did not look upon
him as the one who was to realize the divine promises. Death came,
moreover, to end his perplexities. The untenable freedom of the
ascetic was to crown his restless and stormy career by the only end
which was worthy of it.


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     The leniency which Antipas had at first shown towards John was
not of long duration. In the conversations which, according to the
Christian tradition, John had had with the tetrarch, he did not
cease to declare to him that his marriage was unlawful, and that he
ought to send away Herodias. We can easily imagine the hatred which
the grand-daughter of Herod the Great must have conceived towards
this importunate counsellor. She only waited an opportunity to ruin
him.

     Her daughter, Salome, born of her first marriage, and, like
her, ambitious and dissolute, entered into her designs, That year
(probably the year 30) Antipas was at Machero on the anniversary of
his birthday. Herod the Great had constructed in the interior of
the fortress a magnificent palace, where the tetrarch frequently
resided. He gave a great feast there, during which Salome executed
one of those dances in character which were not considered in Syria
as unbecoming a distinguished person. Antipas, being much pleased,
asked the dancer what she most desired, and she replied, at the
instigation of her mother, "Give me here John Baptist's head in a
charger."  [A portable dish on which liquors and viands are served
in the East.]  Antipas was sorry but he did not like to refuse. A
guard took the dish, went and cut off the head of the prisoner, and
brought it.

     The disciples of the Baptist obtained his body and placed it
in a tomb, but the people were much displeased. Six years after,
Hareth having attacked Antipas, in order to recover Machero and
avenge the dishonor of his daughter, Antipas was completely beaten;
and his defeat was generally regarded as a punishment for the
murder of John.

     The news of John's death was brought to Jesus by the disciples
of the Baptist. John's last act towards Jesus had effectually
united the two schools in the most intimate bonds. Jesus, fearing
an increase of ill-will on the part of Antipas, took precautions
and retired to the desert, where many people followed him. By
exercising an extreme frugality, the holy band was enabled to live
there, and in this there was naturally seen a miracle. From this
time Jesus always spoke of John with redoubled admiration. He
declared unhesitatingly that he was more than a prophet, that the
Law and the ancient prophets had force only until he came, that he
had abrogated them, but that the kingdom of heaven would displace
him in turn. In fine, he attributed to him a special place in the
economy of the Christian mystery, which constituted him the link of
union between the Old Testament and the advent of the new reign.

     The prophet Malachi, whose opinion in this matter was soon
brought to bear, had announced with much energy a precursor of the
Messiah, who was to prepare men for the final renovation, a
messenger who should come to make straight the paths before the
elected one of God. This messenger was no other than the prophet
Elias, who, according to a widely-spread belief, was soon to
descend from heaven, whither he had been carried, in order to
prepare men by repentance for the great advent and to reconcile God
with his people. Sometimes they associated with Elias, either the
patriarch Enoch, to whom for one or two centuries they had
attributed high sanctity; or Jeremiah, whom they considered as a 


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sort of protecting genius of the people; constantly occupied in
praying for them before the throne of God. This idea, that two
ancient prophets should rise again in order to serve as precursors
to the Messiah, is discovered in so striking a form in the doctrine
of the Parsees, that we feel much inclined to believe that it comes
from that source. However this may be, it formed at the time of
Jesus an integral portion of the Jewish theories about the Messiah.
It was admitted that the appearance of "two faithful witnesses,"
clothed in garments of repentance, would be the preamble of the
great drama about to be unfolded, to the astonishment of the
universe.

     It will be seen that, with these ideas, Jesus and his
disciples could not hesitate about the mission of John the Baptist.
When the scribes raised the objection that the Messiah could not
have come because Elias had not yet appeared, they replied that
Elias was come, that John was Elias raised from the dead. By his
manner of life, by his opposition to the established political
authorities, John in fact recalled that strange figure in the
ancient history of Israel. Jesus was not silent on the merits and
excellencies of his forerunner. He said that none greater were born
among the children of men. He energetically blamed the Pharisees
and the doctors for not having accepted his baptism, and for not
being converted at his voice.

     The disciples of Jesus were faithful to these principles of
their Master. This respect for John continued during the whole of
the first Christian generation. He was supposed to be a relative of
Jesus. ln order to establish the mission of the latter upon
testimony admitted by all, it was declared that John, at the first
sight of Jesus, proclaimed him the Messiah; that he recognized
himself his inferior, unworthy to unloose the latches of his shoes
that he refused at first to baptism him, and maintained that it was
he who ought to be baptized by Jesus. These were exaggerations,
which are sufficiently refuted by the doubtful form of John's last
message. But, in a more general sense, John remains in the
Christian legend that which he was in reality -- the austere
forerunner, the gloomy preacher of repentance before the joy on the
arrival of the bride-groom, the prophet who announces the kingdom
of God and dies before beholding it. This giant in the early
history of Christianity, this eater of locusts and wild honey, this
rough redresser of wrongs, was the bitter which prepared the lip
for the sweetness of the kingdom of God. His beheading by Herodias
inaugurated the era of Christian martyrs; he was the first witness
for the new faith. The worldly, who recognized in him their true
enemy, could not permit him to live; his mutilated corpse, extended
on the threshold of Christianity, traced the bloody path in which
so many others were to follow.

     The school of John did not die with its founder. It lived some
time distinct from that of Jesus, and at first a good understanding
existed between the two. Many years after the death of the two
Masters people were baptized with the baptism of John. Certain
persons belonged to the two schools at the same time -- for
example, the celebrated Apollos, the rival of St. Paul (towards the
year 50), and a large number of the Christians of Ephesus. Josephus
placed himself (year 53) in the school of an ascetic named Banou, 


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who presents the greatest resemblance to John the Baptist, and who
was perhaps of his school. This Banou lived in the desert, clothed
with the leaves of trees; he supported himself only on wild plants
and fruits, and baptized himself frequently, both day and night, in
cold water, in order to purify himself. James, he who was called
the "brother of the Lord" (there is here, perhaps, some confusion
of homonyms), practiced a similar asceticism. Afterwards, towards
the year 80, Baptism was in strife with Christianity, especially in
Asia Minor. John the Evangelist appears to combat it in an indirect
manner, One of the Sibylline poems seems to proceed from this
school. As to the sects of Hemero-baptists, Baptists, and
Elchasaites (Sabiens Mogtasila of the Arabian writers),  [NOTE:
Sabiens is the Aramean equivalent of the word Baptists." Mogtasila
has the same meaning in Arabic.]  who, in the second century,
filled Syria, Palestine, and Babylonia, and whose representatives
still exist in our days among the Mendaites, called "Christians of
St. John," they have the same origin as the movement of John the
Baptist, rather than an authentic descent from John. The true
school of the latter, partly mixed with Christianity, became a
small Christian heresy, and died out in obscurity. John had
foreseen distinctly the destiny of the two schools. If he had
yielded to a mean rivalry, he would to-day have been forgotten in
the crowd of sectaries of his time. By his self-abnegation, he has
attained a glorious and unique position in the religious pantheon
of humanity.

                          CHAPTER XIII

                   FIRST ATTEMPTS ON JERUSALEM

     JESUS, almost every year, went to Jerusalem for the feast of
the passover. The details of these journeys are little known, for
the Synoptics do not speak of them, and the notes of the fourth
Gospel are very confused on this point. It was, it appears, in the
year 31, and certainly after the death of John, that the most
important of the visits of Jesus to Jerusalem took place. Many of
the disciples followed him. Although Jesus attached from that time
little value to the pilgrimage, he conformed himself to it in order
not to wound Jewish opinion, with which he had not yet broken.
These journeys, moreover, were essential to his design; for he felt
already that, in order to play a leading part, he must go from
Galilee, and attack Judaism in its stronghold, which was Jerusalem.

     The little Galilean community were here far from being at
home. Jerusalem was then nearly what it is to-day, a city of
pedantry, acrimony, disputes, hatreds, and littleness of mind. Its
fanaticism was extreme, and religious seditions very frequent. The
Pharisees were dominant; the study of the Law, pushed to the most
insignificant minutiae, and reduced to questions of casuistry, was
the only study. This exclusively theological and canonical culture
contributed in no respect to define the intellect. It was something
analogous to the barren doctrine of the Mussulman fakir, to that
empty science discussed round about the mosques, and which is a
great expenditure of time and useless argumentation, by no means
calculated to advance the right discipline of the mind. The
theological education of the modern clergy, although very dry,
gives us no idea of this, for the Renaissance has introduced into 


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all our teachings, even the most irregular, a share of belles
lettres and of method, which has infused more or less of the
humanities into scholasticism. The science of the Jewish doctor, of
the sofer or scribe, was purely barbarous, unmitigatedly absurd,
and denuded of all moral element. To crown the evil, it filled with
ridiculous pride those who had wearied themselves in acquiring it.
The Jewish scribe, proud of the pretended knowledge which had cost
him so much trouble, had the same contempt for Greek culture which
the learned Mussulman of our time has for European civilization,
and which the old Catholic theologian had for the knowledge of men
of the world. The tendency of this scholastic culture was to close
the mind to all that was refined, to create esteem only for those
difficult triflings on which they had wasted their lives, and which
were regarded as the natural occupation of persons professing a
degree of seriousness.

     This odious society could not fail to weigh heavily on the
tender and susceptible minds of the north. The contempt of the
Hierosolymites for the Galileans rendered the separation still more
complete. In the beautiful temple which was the object of all their
desires they often only met with insult. A verse of the pilgrim's
psalm, "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,"
seemed made expressly for them. A contemptuous priesthood laughed
at their simple devotion, as formerly in Italy the clergy,
familiarized with the sanctuaries, witnessed coldly and almost
jestingly the fervor of the pilgrim come from afar. The Galileans
spoke a rather corrupt dialect; their pronunciation was vicious;
they confounded the different aspirations of letters, which led to
mistakes which were much laughed at. In religion they were
considered as ignorant and somewhat heterodox; the expression,
"foolish Galileans," had become proverbial. It was believed (not
without reason) that they were not of pure Jewish blood, and no one
expected Galilee to produce a prophet. Placed thus on the confines
of Judaism., and almost outside of it, the poor Galileans had only
one badly interpreted passage in Isaiah to build their hopes upon.
"Land of Zebulon, and land of Naphtali, way of the sea, Galilee of
the nations! The people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon
them hath the light shined." The reputation of the native city of
Jesus was particularly bad. It was a popular proverb "Can there any
good thing come out of Nazareth?

     The parched appearance of nature in the neighborhood of
Jerusalem must have added to the dislike Jesus had for the place.
The valleys are without water; the soil arid and stony. Looking
into the valley of the Dead Sea, the view is somewhat striking;
elsewhere it is monotonous. The hill of Mizpeh, around which
cluster the most ancient historical remembrances of Israel, alone
relieves the eye. The city presented, at the time of Jesus, nearly
the same form that it does now. It had scarcely any ancient
monuments, for, until the time of the Asmoneans, the Jews had
remained strangers to all the arts. John Hyrcanus had begun to
embellish it, and Herod the Great had made it one of the most
magnificent cities of the East. The Herodian constructions, by
their grand character, perfection of execution, and beauty of
material, may dispute superiority with the most finished works of
antiquity. A great number of superb tombs, of original taste, were
raised at the same time in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. The style

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of these monuments was Grecian, but appropriate to the customs of
the Jews, and considerably modified in accordance with their
principles. The ornamental sculptures of the human figure which the
Herods had sanctioned, to the great discontent of the purists, were
banished, and replaced by floral decorations. The taste of the
ancient inhabitants of Phoenicia and Palestine for monoliths in
solid stone seemed to be revived in these singular tombs cut in the
rock, and in which Grecian orders are so strangely applied to an
architecture of troglodytes. Jesus, who regarded works of art as a
pompous display of vanity, viewed these monuments with displeasure.
His absolute spiritualism, and his settled conviction that the form
of the old world was about to pass away, left him no taste except
for things of the heart.

     The temple, at the time of Jesus, was quite new, and the
exterior works of it were not completed. Herod had begun its
reconstruction in the year 20 or 21 before the Christian era, in
order to make it uniform with his other edifices. The body of the
temple was finished in eighteen months; the porticoes took eight
years; and the accessory portions were continued slowly, and were
only finished a short time before the taking of Jerusalem. Jesus
probably saw the work progressing, not without a degree of secret
vexation. These hopes of a long future were like an insult to his
approaching advent. Clearer-sighted than the unbelievers and the
fanatics, he foresaw that these superb edifices were destined to
endure but for a short time.

     The temple formed a marvelously imposing whole, of which the
present harem, notwithstanding its beauty, scarcely gives us any
idea. The courts and the surrounding porticoes served as the daily
rendezvous for a considerable number of persons -- so much so that
this great space was at once temple, forum, tribunal, and
university. All the religious discussions of the Jewish schools,
all the canonical instruction, even the legal processes and civil
causes -- in a word, all the activity of the nation was
concentrated there. It was an arena where arguments were
perpetually clashing, a battle-field of disputes, resounding with
sophism and subtle questions. The temple had thus much analogy with
a Mohammedan mosque. The Romans at this period treated all strange
religions with respect when kept within proper limits, and
carefully refrained from entering the sanctuary. Greek and Latin
inscriptions marked the point up to which those who were not Jews
were permitted to advance, But the tower of Antonia, the
headquarters of the Roman forces, commanded the whole enclosure,
and allowed all that passed therein to be seen. The guarding of the
temple belonged to the Jews; the entire superintendence was
committed to a captain, who caused the gates to be opened and shut,
and prevented any one from crossing the enclosure with a stick in
his hand, or with dusty shoes, or when carrying parcels, or to
shorten his path. They were especially scrupulous in watching that
no one entered within the inner gates in a state of legal impurity.
The women had an entirely separate court.

     It was in the temple that Jesus passed his days while he
remained at Jerusalem. The period of the feasts brought an
extraordinary concourse of people into the city. Associated in
parties of ten to twenty persons, the pilgrims invaded everywhere, 


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and lived in that disordered state in which Orientals delight.
Jesus was lost in the crowd, and his poor Galileans grouped around
him were of small account. He probably felt that he was in a
hostile world which would receive him only with disdain. Everything
he saw set him against it. The temple, like much-frequented places
of devotion in general, offered a not very edifying spectacle. The
accessories of worship entailed a number of repulsive details,
especially of mercantile operations, in consequence of which real
shops were established within the sacred enclosure. There were sold
beasts for the sacrifices; there were tables for the exchange of
money; at times it seemed like a bazaar. The inferior officers of
the temple fulfilled their functions doubtless with the irreligious
vulgarity of the sacristans of all ages. This profane and heedless
air in the handling of holy things wounded the religious sentiment
of Jesus, which was at times carried even to a scrupulous excess.
He said that they had made the house of prayer into a den of
thieves. One day, it is even said, that, carried away by his anger,
he scourged the vendors with a "scourge of small cords," and
overturned their tables. In general, he had little love for the
temple. The worship which he had conceived for his Father had
nothing in common with scenes of butchery -- All these old Jewish
institutions displeased him, and he suffered in being obliged to
conform to them. Except among the Judaising Christians, neither the
temple nor its site inspired pious sentiments. The true disciples
of the new faith held this ancient sanctuary in aversion.
Constantine and the first Christian emperors left the pagan
construction of Adrian existing there, and only the enemies of
Christianity, such as Julian, remembered the temple. When Omar
entered into Jerusalem, he found the site designedly polluted in
hatred of the Jews. It was Islamism -- that is to say, a sort of
resurrection of Judaism in its exclusively Semitic form -- which
restored its glory. The place has always been anti-Christian.

     The pride of the Jews completed the discontent of Jesus, and
rendered his stay in Jerusalem painful. In the degree that the
great ideas of Israel ripened, the priesthood lost its power. The
institution of synagogues had given to the interpreter of the Law,
to the doctor, a great superiority over the priest, There were no
priests except at Jerusalem, and even there, reduced to functions
entirely ritual, almost, like our parish priests, excluded from
preaching, they were surpassed by the orator of the synagogue, the
casuist, and the sofer or scribe, although the latter was only a
layman. The celebrated men of the Talmud were not priests; they
were learned men according to the ideas of the time. The high
priesthood of Jerusalem held, it is true, a very elevated rank in
the nation; but it was by no means at the head of the religious
movement. The sovereign pontiff, whose dignity had already been
degraded by Herod, became more and more a Roman functionary, who
was frequently removed in order to divide the profits of the
office". Opposed to the Pharisees, who were very warm lay zealots,
the priests were almost all Sadducees -- that is to say, members of
that unbelieving aristocracy which had been formed around the
temple, and which lived by the altar, while they saw the vanity of
it. The sacerdotal caste was separated to such a degree from the
national sentiment, and from the great religious movement which
dragged the people along, that the name of "Sadducee" (sadoki),
which at first simply designated a member of the sacerdotal family 


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of Sadok, had become synonymous with "Materialist" and with
"Epicurean." A still worse element had begun, since the reign of
Herod the Great, to corrupt the high-priesthood. Herod having
fallen in love with Mariamne, daughter of a certain Simon, son of
Bogthus of Alexandria, and having wished to marry her (about the
year 28 B.C.), saw no other means of ennobling his father-in-law
and raising him to his own rank than by making him high-priest.
This intriguing family remained master, almost without
interruption, of the sovereign pontificate for thirty-five years.
Closely allied to the reigning family, it did not lose the office
until after the deposition of Archelaus, and recovered it (the year
42 of our era) after Herod Agrippa had for some time re-enacted the
work of Herod the Great. Under the name of Boethusim, a new
sacerdotal nobility was formed, very worldly and little devotional,
and closely allied to the Sadokites. The Boethusim, in the Talmud
and the rabbinical writings, are depicted as a kind of unbelievers,
and always reproached as Sadducees. From all this there resulted a
miniature court of Rome around the temple, living on politics,
little inclined to excesses of zeal, even rather fearing them, not
wishing to hear of holy personages or of innovators, for it
profited from the established routine. These epicurean priests had
not the violence of the Pharisees; they only wished for quietness;
it was their moral indifference, their cold irreligion, which
revolted Jesus. Although very different, the priests and the
Pharisees were thus confounded in his antipathies. But a stranger,
and without influence, he was long compelled to restrain his
discontent within himself, and only to communicate his sentiments
to the intimate friends who accompanied him.

     Before his last stay, which was by far the longest of all that
he made at Jerusalem, and which was terminated by his death, Jesus
endeavored, however, to obtain a hearing. He preached; people spoke
of him; and they conversed respecting certain deeds of his which
were looked upon as miraculous. But from all that there resulted
neither an established Church at Jerusalem nor a group of
Hierosolymite disciples. The charming teacher who forgave everyone,
provided they loved him, could not find much sympathy in this
sanctuary of vain disputes and obsolete sacrifices. The only result
was that he formed some valuable friendships, the advantage of
which he reaped afterwards. He does not appear at that time to have
made the acquaintance of the family of Bethany, which, amid the
trials of the latter months of his life, brought him so much
consolation. But very early he attracted the attention of a certain
Nicodemus, a rich Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, and a man
occupying a high position in Jerusalem. This man, who appears to
have been upright and sincere, felt himself attracted towards the
young Galilean. Not wishing to compromise himself, he came to see
Jesus by night, and had a long conversation with him. He doubtless
preserved a favorable impression of him, for afterwards he defended
Jesus against the prejudices of his colleagues, and, at the death
of Jesus, we shall find him tending with pious care the corpse of
the Master. Nicodemus did not become a Christian; he had too much
regard for his position to take part in a revolutionary movement
which as yet counted no men of note among its adherents. But he
evidently felt great friendship for Jesus, and rendered him
service, though unable to rescue him from a death which even at
this period was all but decreed.


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     As to the celebrated doctors of the time, Jesus does not
appear to have had any connection with them. Hillel and Shammai
were dead; the greatest authority of the time was Gamaliel,
grandson of Hillel. He was of a liberal spirit, and a man of the
world, not opposed to secular studies, and inclined to tolerance by
his intercourse with good society. Unlike the very strict
Pharisees, who walked veiled or with closed eyes, he did not
scruple to gaze even upon Pagan women. This, as well as his
knowledge of Greek, was tolerated because he had access to the
Court. After the death of Jesus, he expressed very moderate views
respecting the new sect. St. Paul sat at his feet, but it is not
probable that Jesus ever entered his school.

     One idea, at least, which Jesus brought from Jerusalem, and
which henceforth appears rooted in his mind, was that there was no
possible union between him and the ancient Jewish religion. The
abolition of the sacrifices which had caused him so much disgust,
the suppression of an impious and haughty priesthood, and, in a
general sense, the abrogation of the Law, appeared to him
absolutely necessary. From this time he appears no more as a Jewish
reformer, but as a destroyer of Judaism. Certain advocates of the
Messianic ideas had already admitted that the Messiah would bring
a new law, which should be common to all the earth. The Essenes,
who were scarcely Jews, also appear to have been indifferent to the
temple and to the Mosaic observances. But these were only isolated
or unavowed instances of boldness. Jesus was the first who dared to
say that from his time, or rather from that of John, the Law was
abolished. If sometimes he used more measured terms, it was in
order not to offend existing prejudices too violently. When he was
driven to extremities, he lifted the veil entirely, and declared
that the Law had no longer any force. On this subject he used
striking comparisons. "No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an
old garment, neither do men put new wine into old bottles." This
was really his chief characteristic as teacher and creator. The
temple excluded all except Jews from its enclosure by scornful
announcements. Jesus had no sympathy with this. The narrow, hard,
and uncharitable Law was only made for the children of Abraham.
Jesus maintained that every well-disposed man, every man who
received and loved him, was a son of Abraham. The pride of blood
appeared to him the great enemy which was to be combated. In other
words, Jesus was no longer a Jew. He was in the highest degree
revolutionary; he called all men to a worship founded solely on the
fact of their being children of God. He proclaimed the rights of
man, not the rights of the Jew; the religion of man, not the
religion of the Jew; the deliverance of man, not the deliverance of
the Jew. How far removed was this from a Gaulonite Tudas or a
Matthias Margaloth, preaching revolution in the name of the Law!
The religion of humanity, established, not upon blood, but upon the
heart, was founded. Moses was puperseded, the temple was rendered
useless, and was irrevocably condemned.

                           CHAPTER XIV

              INTERCOURSE OF JESUS WITH THE PAGANS 
                       AND THE SAMARITANS




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     FOLLOWING out these principles, Jesus despised all religion
which was not of the heart. The vain practices of the devotees, the
exterior strictness which trusted to formality for salvation, had
in him a mortal enemy. He cared little for fasting. He preferred
forgiveness to sacrifice. The love of God, charity, and mutual
forgiveness were his whole law. Nothing could be less priestly. The
priest, by his office, ever advocates public sacrifice, of which he
is the appointed minister; he discourages private prayer, which has
a tendency to dispense with his office.

     We should seek in vain in the Gospel for one religious rite
recommended by Jesus. Baptism to him was only of secondary
importance; and with respect to prayer he prescribes nothing,
except that it should proceed from the heart. As is always the
case, many thought to substitute mere goodwill for genuine love of
goodness, and imagined they could win the kingdom of heaven by
saying to him, "Rabbi, Rabbi." He rebuked them, and proclaimed that
his religion consisted in doing good. He often quoted the passage
in Isaiah which says: "This people honor me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me."

     The observance of the Sabbath was the principal point upon
which was raised the whole edifice of Pharisaic scruples and
subtleties. This ancient and excellent institution had become a
pretext for the miserable disputes of casuists, and a source of
superstitious beliefs. It was believed that nature observed it; all
intermittent springs were accounted "Sabbatical." This was the
point upon which Jesus loved best to defy his adversaries. He
openly violated the Sabbath, and only replied by subtle raillery to
the reproaches that were heaped upon him. He despised still more a
multitude of modern observances, which tradition had added to the
Law, and which were dearer than any other to the devotees on that
very account. Ablutions, and the too subtle distinctions between
pure and impure things, found in him a pitiless opponent. "There is
nothing from without a man," said he. "that entering into him can
defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they
that defile the man." The Pharisees, who were the propagators of
these mummeries, were unceasingly denounced by him. He accused them
of exceeding the Law, of inventing impossible precepts, in order to
create occasions of sin. "Blind leaders of the blind," said he,
"take care lest ye also fall into the ditch." "O generation of
vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

     He did not know the Gentiles sufficiently to think of founding
anything lasting upon their conversion. Galilee contained a great
number of pagans, but, as it appears, no public and organized
worship of false gods. Jesus could see this worship displayed in
all its splendor in the country of Tyre and Sidon, at Caesarea
Philippi and in the Decapolis, but he paid little attention to it.
We never find in him the wearisome pedantry of the Jews of his
time, those declamations against idolatry, so familiar to his co-
religionists from the time of Alexander, and which fill, for
instance, the book of "Wisdom." That which struck him in the pagans
was not their idolatry, but their servility. The young Jewish
democrat, agreeing on this point with Judas the Gaulonite, and
admitting no master but God, was hurt at the honors with which they
surrounded the persons of sovereigns, and the frequently mendacious

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titles given to them. With this exception, in the greater number of
instances in which he comes in contact with pagans, he shows great
indulgence to them; sometimes he professes to conceive more hope of
them than of the Jews. The kingdom of God would be transferred to
them. "When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will
he do unto these husbandmen? He will miserably destroy those wicked
men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which
shall render him the fruits in their seasons." Jesus adhered so
much the more to this idea as the conversion of the Genfiles was,
according to Jewish ideas, one of the surest signs of the advent of
the Messiah. In his kingdom of God he represents as seated at a
feast by the side of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, men come from the
four winds of heaven, while the lawful heirs of the kingdom are
rejected. Sometimes, it is true, there seems to be an entirely
contrary tendency in the commands he gives to his disciples: he
seems to recommend them only to preach salvation to the orthodox
Jews; he speaks of pagans in a manner conformable to the prejudices
of the Jews. But we must remember that the disciples, whose narrow
minds did not share in this supreme indifference for the privileges
of the sons of Abraham, may have given the instruction of their
Master the bent of their own ideas. Besides, it is very possible
that Jesus may have varied on this point, just as Mohammed speaks
of the Jews in the Koran, sometimes in the most honorable manner,
sometimes with extreme harshness, as he had hope of winning their
favor or otherwise. Tradition, in fact, attributes to Jesus two
entirely opposite rules of proselytism, which he may have practiced
in turn: "He that is not against us is on our part." "He that is
not with me is against me." Impassioned conflict involves almost
necessarily this kind of contradictions.

     It is certain that he counted among his disciples many men
whom the Jews called "Hellenes." This word had in Palestine divers
meanings. Sometimes it designated in the Jews, speaking Greek, and
dwelling among the pagans; sometimes men of pagan origin converted
to Judaism. It was probably in the last named category of Hellene,
that Jesus found sympathy. The affiliation with Judaism had many
degrees; but the proselytes always remained in a state of
inferiority in regard to the Jew by birth. Those in question were
called "proselytes of the gate," or "men fearing God," and were
subject to the precepts of Noah, and not to those of Moses. This
very inferiority was doubtless the cause which drew them to Jesus,
and gained them his favor.

     He treated the Samaritans in the same manner. Shut in, like a
small island, between the two great provinces of Judaism (Judea and
Galilee), Samaria formed in Palestine a kind of enclosure in which
was preserved the ancient worship of Gerizim, closely resembling
and rivalling that of Jerusalem. This poor sect, which had neither
the genius nor the learned organization of Judaism, properly so-
called, was treated by the Hierosolymites with extreme harshness.
They placed them in the same rank as pagans, but hated them more.
Jesus, from a feeling of opposition, was well disposed towards
Samaria, and often preferred the Samaritans to the orthodox Jews.
If, at other times, he seems to forbid his disciples preaching to
them, confining his Gospel to the Israelites proper, this was no
doubt a precept arising from special circumstances, to which the
apostles have given too absolute a meaning. Sometimes, in fact, the
Samaritans received him badly, because they thought him imbued with

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the prejudices of his co-religionists -- in the same manner as in
our days the European freethinker is regarded as an enemy by the
Mussulman, who always believes him to be a fanatical Christian.
Jesus raised himself above these misunderstandings. He had many
disciples at Shechem, and he passed at least two days there. On one
occasion he meets with gratitude and true piety from a Samaritan
only. One of his most beautiful parables is that of the man wounded
on the way to Jericho. A priest passes by and sees him, but goes on
his way; a Levite also passes, but does not stop; a Samaritan takes
pity on him, approaches him, and pours oil into his wounds, and
bandages them. Jesus argues from this that true brotherhood is
established among men by charity, and not by creeds. The "neighbor"
who in Judaism was specially the co-religionist, was in his
estimation the man who has pity on his kind without distinction of
sect. Human brotherhood in its widest sense overflows in all his
teaching.

     These thoughts, which beset Jesus on his leaving Jerusalem,
found their vivid expression in an anecdote which has been
preserved respecting his return. The road from Jerusalem into
Galilee passes at the distance of half-an-hour's journey from
Shechem, in front of the opening of the valley commanded by mounts
Ebal and Gerizim, This route was in general avoided by the Jewish
pilgrims, who preferred making in their journeys the long detour
through Perea, rather than expose themselves to the insults of the
Samaritans, or ask anything of them. It was forbidden to eat and
drink with them. It was an axiom of certain casuists that "a piece
of Samaritan bread is the flesh of swine." When they followed this
route, provisions were always laid up beforehand; yet they rarely
avoided conflict and ill-treatment. Jesus shared neither these
scruples nor these fears. Having come to the point where the valley
of Shechem opens on the left, he felt fatigued, and stopped near a
well. The Samaritans were then as now accustomed to give to all the
localities of their valley names drawn from patriarchal
reminiscences. They regarded this well as having been given by
Jacob to Joseph; it was probably the same which is now called
Birlakoub. The disciples entered the valley and went to the city to
buy provisions. Jesus seated himself at the side of the well,
having Gerizim before him.

     It was about noon. A woman of Shechem came to draw water.
Jesus asked her to let him drink, which excited great astonishment
in the woman, the Jews generally forbidding all intercourse with
the Samaritans, won by the conversation of Jesus, the woman
recognized in him a prophet, and, expecting some reproaches about
her worship, she anticipated him. "Sir," said she, "our fathers
worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship." Jesus saith unto her, "Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth."

     The day on which he uttered this saying he was truly Son of
God. He pronounced for the first time the sentence upon which will
repose the edifice of eternal religion. He founded the pure worship
of all ages, of all lands, that which all elevated souls will 


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practice until the end of time. Not only was his religion on this
day the best religion of humanity, it was the absolute religion;
and if other planets have inhabitants gifted with reason and
morality, their religion cannot be different from that which Jesus
proclaimed near the well of Jacob. Man has not been able to
maintain this position; for the ideal is realized but transitorily.
This sentence of Jesus has been a brilliant light amid gross
darkness; it has required eighteen hundred years for the eyes of
mankind (what do I say! for an infinitely small portion of mankind)
to become accustomed to it. But the light will become the full day,
and, after having run through all the cycles of error, mankind will
return to this sentence as the immortal expression of its faith and
its hope.

                           CHAPTER XV

          COMMENCEMENT OF THE LEGENDS CONCERNING JESUS
          -- HIS OWN IDEA OF HIS SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER

     JESUS returned to Galilee, having completely lost his Jewish
faith, and filled with revolutionary ardor. His ideas are now
expressed with perfect clearness. The innocent aphorisms of the
first part of his prophetic career, in part borrowed from the
Jewish rabbis anterior to him and the beautiful moral precepts of
his second period, are exchanged for a decided policy. The Law
would be abolished; and it was to be abolished by him. The Messiah
had come, and he was the Messiah. The kingdom of God was about to
be revealed; and it was he who would reveal it. He knew well that
he would be the victim of his boldness; but the kingdom of God
could not be conquered without violence; it was by crises and
commotions that it was to be established. The Son of man would
reappear in glory, accompanied by legions of angels, and those who
had rejected him would be confounded.

     The boldness of such a conception ought not to surprise us.
Long before this Jesus had regarded his relation to God as that of
a son to his father. That which in others would be an insupportable
pride ought not in him to be regarded as presumption.

     The title of "Son of David" was the first which he accepted,
probably without being concerned in the innocent frauds by which it
was sought to secure it to him. The family of David had, as it
seems, been long extinct; the Asmoneans, being of priestly origin,
could not pretend to claim such a descent for themselves; neither
Herod nor the Romans dreamt for a moment that any representative
whatever of the ancient dynasty existed in their midst. But from
the close of the Asmonean dynasty the dream of an unknown
descendant of the ancient kings, who should avenge the nation of
its enemies, filled every mind. The universal belief was that the
Messiah would be son of David, and, like him, would be born at
Bethlehem. The first idea of Jesus was not precisely this. The
remembrance of David, which was uppermost in the minds of the Jews,
had nothing in common with his heavenly reign. He believed himself
the Son of God, and not the son of David. His kingdom and the
deliverance which he meditated were of quite another order. But
public opinion on this point made him do violence to himself. The
immediate consequence of the proposition, "Jesus is the Messiah," 


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was this other proposition, "Jesus is the son of David." He allowed
a title to be given him without which he could not hope for
success. He ended, it seems, by taking pleasure therein, for he
performed most willingly the miracles which were asked of him by
those who used this title in addressing him. In this, as in many
other circumstances of his life, Jesus yielded to the ideas which
were current in his time, although they were not precisely his own.
He associated with his doctrine of the "kingdom of God" all that
could warm the heart and the imagination. It was thus that we have
seen him adopt the baptism of John, although it could not have been
of much importance to him.

     One great difficulty presented itself, his birth at Nazareth,
which was of public notoriety. We do not know whether Jesus strove
against this objection. Perhaps it did not present itself in
Galilee, where the idea that the son of David should be a
Bethlehemite was less spread. To the Galilean idealist, moreover,
the title of "son of David" was sufficiently justified if he to
whom it was given revived the glory of his race and brought back
the great days of Israel. Did Jesus authorize by his silence the
fictitious genealogies which his partisans invented in order to
prove his royal descent? Did he know anything of the legends
invented to prove that he was born at Bethlehem; and particularly
of the attempt to connect his Bethlehemite origin with the census
which had taken place by order of the Imperial legate, Quirinus? We
know not. The inexactitude and the contradictions of the
genealogies lead to the belief that they were the result of popular
ideas operating at various points, and that none of them were
sanctioned by Jesus. Never does he designate himself as son of
David. His disciples, much less enlightened than he, frequently
magnified that which he said of himself; but, as a rule, he had no
knowledge of these exaggerations. Let us add that during the first
three centuries considerable portions of Christianity absolutely
denied the royal descent of Jesus and the authenticity of the
genealogies.

     The legends about him were thus the fruit of a great and
entirely spontaneous conspiracy, and were developed around him
during his lifetime. No great event in history has happened without
having given rise to a cycle of fables; and Jesus could not have
put a stop to these popular creations, even if he had wished to do
so. Perhaps a sagacious observer would have recognized from this
point the germ of the narratives which were to attribute to him a
supernatural birth, and which arose, it may be, from the idea, very
prevalent in antiquity, that the incomparable man could not be born
of the ordinary relations of the two sexes; or, it may be, in order
to respond to an imperfectly understood chapter of Isaiah, which
was thought to foretell that the Messiah should be born of a
virgin; or, lastly, it may be in consequence of the idea that the
"breath of God," already regarded as a divine hypostasis, was a
principle of fecundity. Already, perhaps, there was current more
than one anecdote about his infancy, conceived with the intention
of showing in his biography the accomplishment of the Messianic
ideal; or, rather, of the propfiecies which the allegorical
exegesis of the time referred to the Messiah. At other times they
connected him from his birth with celebrated men, such as John the
Baptist Herod the Great, Chaldean astrologers, who, it was said 


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visited Jerusalem about this time, and two aged persons, Simeon and
Anna, who had left memories of great sanctity. A rather loose
chronology characterized these combinations, which for the most
part were founded upon real facts travestied. But a singular spirit
of gentleness and goodness, a profoundly popular sentiment,
permeated all these fables, and made them a supplement to his
preaching. It was especially after the death of Jesus that such
narratives became greatly developed; we may, however, believe that
they circulated even during his life, exciting only a pious
credulity and simple admiration.

     That Jesus never dreamt of making himself pass for an
incarnation of God is a matter about which there can be no doubt.
Such an idea was entirely foreign to the Jewish mind; and there is
no trace of it in the Synoptical Gospels: we only find it indicated
in portions of the Gospel of John, which cannot be accepted as
expressing the thoughts of Jesus. Sometimes Jesus even seems to
take precautions to put down such a doctrine. The accusation that
he made himself God, or the equal of God, is presented even in the
Gospel of John, as a calumny of the Jews. In this last Gospel he
declares himself less than his Father. Elsewhere he avows that the
Father has not revealed everything to him. He believes himself to
be more than an ordinary man, but separated from God by an infinite
distance. He is Son of God; but all men are, or may become so, in
divers degrees. Everyone ought daily to call God his father; all
who are raised again will be sons of God. The Divine sonship was
attributed in the Old Testament to beings whom it was by no means
pretended were equal with God, The word "son" has the widest
meanings in the Semitic language, and in that of the New Testament.
Besides, the idea Jesus had of man was not that low idea which a
cold Doism has introduced. In his poetic conception of nature one
breath alone penetrates the universe the breath of man is that of
God; God dwells in man and lives by man, the same as man dwells in
God and lives by God. The transcendent idealism of Jesus never
permitted him to have a very clear notion of his own personality.
He is his Father his Father is he. He lives in his disciples; he is
everywhere with them; his disciples are one, as he and his Father
are one. The idea to him is everything; the body, which makes the
distinction of persons, is nothing.

     The title "Son of God," or simply "Son," thus became for Jesus
a title analogous to "Son of man," and, like that, synonymous with
the Messiah," with the sole difference that he called himself "Son
of man," and does not seem to have made the same use of the phrase
"Son of God." The title Son of man expressed his character as
judge; that of Son of God his power and his participation in the
supreme designs. This power had no limits. His Father had given him
all power. He had the power to alter even the Sabbath. No one could
know the Father except through him. The Father had delegated to him
exclusively the right of judging. Nature obeyed him; but she obeys
also all who believe and pray, for faith can do everything. We must
remember that no idea of the laws of nature marked the limit of the
impossible, either in his own mind or in that of his hearers. The
witnesses of his miracles thanked God "for having given such power
unto men." He pardoned sins; he was superior to David, to Abraham,
to Solomon, and to the prophets. We do not know in what form, nor
to what extent, these affirmations of himself were made. Jesus 


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ought not to be judged by the law of our petty conventionalities.
The admiration of his disciples overwhelmed him and carried him
away. It is evident that the title of Rabbi, with which he was at
first contented, no longer sufficed him; even the title of prophet
or messenger of God responded no longer to his ideas. The position
which he attributed to himself was that of a superhuman being, and
he wished to be regarded as sustaining a higher relationship to God
than other men. But it must be remarked that these words,
"superhuman" and "supernatural," borrowed from our petty theology,
had no meaning in the exalted religious consciousness of Jesus. To
him nature and the development of humanity were not limited
kingdoms apart from God -- paltry realities subjected to the laws
of a hopeless empiricism. There was no supernatural for him,
because there was no nature. Intoxicated with infinite love, he
forgot the heavy chain which holds the spirit captive; he cleared
at one bound the abyss, impossible to most, which the weakness of
the human faculties has created between God and man.

     We cannot mistake in these affirmations of Jesus the germ of
the doctrine which was afterwards to make of him a divine
hypostasis, in identifying him with the Word, or "second God," or
eldest Son of God, or Angel Metathronos,  [that is, sharing the
throne of God; a kind of divine secretary, keeping the register of
merits and demerits.]  which Jewish theology created apart from
him. A kind of necessity caused this theology, in order to correct
the extreme rigor of the old Monotheism, to place near God an
assessor, to whom the eternal Father is supposed to delegate the
government of the universe. The belief that certain men are
incarnations of divine faculties or "powers" was widespread; the
Samaritans possessed about the same time a thaumaturgus named
Simon, whom they identified with the "great power of God." For
nearly two centuries the speculative minds of Judaism had yielded
to the tendency to personify the divine attributes, and certain
expressions which were connected with the Divinity. Thus, the
"breath of God," which is often referred to in the Old Testament,
is considered as a separate being, the "Holy Spirit." In the same
manner the "Wisdom of God " and the "Word of God" became distinct
personages. This was the germ of the process which has engendered
the Sephiroth of the Cabbala, the AEons of Gnosticism, the
hypostasis of Christianity, and all that dry mythology, consisting
of personified abstractions, to which Monotheism is obliged to
resort when it wishes to pluralize the Deity.

     Jesus appears to have remained a stranger to these refinements
of theology, which were soon to fill the world with barren
disputes. The metaphysical theory of the Word, such as we find it
in the writings of his contemporary Philo, in the Chaldean Targums,
and even in the book of "Wisdom," is neither seen in the Logia of
Matthew nor in general in the Synoptics, the most authentic
interpreters of the words of Jesus. The doctrine of the Word, in
fact, had nothing in common with Messianism. The "Word" of Philo,
and of the Targums, is in no sense the Messiah. It was John the
Evangelist, or his school, who afterwards endeavored to prove that
Jesus was the Word, and who created, in this sense, quite a new
theology, very different from that of the "kingdom of God." The
essential character of the Word was that of Creator and of
Providence. Now, Jesus never pretended to have created the world, 


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nor to govern it. His office was to judge it, to renovate it. The
position of president at the final judgment of humanity was the
essential attribute which Jesus attached to himself, and the
character which all the first Christians attributed to him. Until
the great day he will sit at the right hand of God, as his
Metathronos, his first minister, and his future avenger. The
superhuman Christ of the Byzantine apsides, seated as judge of the
world, in the midst of the apostles in the same rank with him, and
superior to the angels who only assist and serve, is the exact
representation of that conception of the "Son of man" of which we
find the first features so strongly indicated in the book of
Daniel.

     At all events, the strictness of a studied theology by no
means existed in such a state of society. All the ideas we have
just stated formed in the mind of the disciples a theological
system so little settled that the Son of God, this species of
divine duplicate, is made to act purely as man. He is tempted -- he
is ignorant of many things -- he corrects himself -- he is cast
down, discouraged -- he asks his Father to spare him trials -- he
is submissive to God as a son. He who is to judge the world does
not know the day of judgment. He takes precautions for his safety.
Soon after his birth he is obliged to be concealed to avoid
powerful men who wish to kill him. In exorcisms the devil cheats
him, and does not come out at the first command, In his miracles we
are sensible of painful effort -- an exhaustion as if something
went out of him. All these are simply the acts of a messenger of
God, of a man protected and favored by God. We must not look here
for either logic or sequence. The need Jesus had of obtaining
credence, and the enthusiasm of his disciples, heaped up
contradictory notions. To the Messianic believers of the
millenarian school, and to the enthusiastic readers of the books of
Daniel and of Enoch, he was the Son of man -- to the Jews holding
the ordinary faith, and to the readers of Isaiah and Micah, he was
the Son of David -- to the disciples he was the Son of God, or
simply the Son. Others, without being blamed by the disciples, took
him for John the Baptist risen from the dead, for Elias, for
Jeremiah, conformable to the popular belief that the ancient
prophets were about to reappear, in order to prepare the time of
the Messiah.

     An absolute conviction, or rather the enthusiasm, which freed
him from even the possibility of doubt, shrouded all these
boldnesses. We little understand, with our cold and scrupulous
natures, how any one can be so entirely possessed by the idea of
which he has made himself the apostle. To the deeply earnest races
of the West, conviction means sincerity to one's self. But
sincerity to one's self has not much meaning to Oriental peoples,
little accustomed to the subtleties of a critical spirit. Honesty
and imposture are words which, in our rigid consciences, are
opposed as two irreconcilable terms. In the East they are connected
by numberless subtle links and windings. The authors of the
Apocryphal books (of "Daniel" and of "Enoch," for instance), men
highly exalted, in order to aid their cause, committed, without a
shadow of scruple, an act which we should term a fraud. The literal
truth has little value to the Oriental; he sees everything through
the medium of his ideas, his interests, and his passions.


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     History is impossible if we do not fully admit that there are
many standards of sincerity. All great things are done through the
people; now, we can only lead the people by adapting ourselves to
its ideas. The philosopher who, knowing this, isolates and
fortifies himself in his integrity is highly praiseworthy. But he
who takes humanity with its illusions, and seeks to act with it and
upon it, cannot be blamed. Caesar knew well that he was not the son
of Venus; France would not be what it is if it had not for a
thousand years believed in the Holy Ampulla of Rheims. It is easy
for us, who are so powerless, to call this falsehood, and, proud of
our timid honesty, to treat with contempt the heroes who have
accepted the battle of life under other conditions. When we have
effected by our scruples what they accomplished by their
falsehoods, we shall have the right to be severe upon them. At
least, we must make a marked distinction between societies like our
own, where everything takes place in the full light of reflection,
and simple and credulous communities, in which the beliefs that
have governed ages have been born. Nothing great has been
established which does not rest on a legend. The only culprit in
such cases is the humanity which is willing to be deceived.

                           CHAPTER XVI

                            MIRACLES

     Two means of proof -- miracles and the accomplishment of
prophecies -- could alone, in the opinion of the contemporaries of
Jesus, establish a supernatural mission. Jesus, and especially his
disciples, employed these two processes of demonstration in perfect
good faith. For a long time Jesus had been convinced that the
prophets had written only in reference to him. He recognized
himself in their sacred oracles; he regarded himself as the mirror
in which all the prophetic spirit of Israel had read the future.
The Christian school, perhaps even in the lifetime of its founder,
endeavored to prove that Jesus responded perfectly to all that the
prophets had predicted of the Messiah. In many cases these
comparisons were quite superficial, and are scarcely appreciable by
us. They were most frequently fortuitous or insignificant
circumstances in the life of the Master which recalled to the
disciples certain passages of the Psalms and the Prophets, in
which, in consequence of their constant preoccupation, they saw
images of him. The exegesis of the time consisted thus almost
entirely in a play upon words, and in quotations made in an
artificial and arbitrary manner. The synagogue had no officially
settled list of the passages which related to the future reign. The
Messianic references were very liberally created, and constituted
artifices of style rather than serious reasoning.

     As to miracles, they were regarded at this period as the
indispensable mark of the divine, and as the sign of the prophetic
vocation. The legends of Elijah and Elisha were full of them. It
was commonly believed that the Messiah would perform many. In
Samaria, a few leagues from where Jesus was, a magician, named
Simon, acquired an almost divine character by his illusions.
Afterwards, when it was sought to establish the reputation of
Apollonius of Tyana, and to prove that his life had been the
sojourn of a god upon the earth, it was not thought possible to 


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succeed therein except by inventing a vast cycle of miracles. The
Alexandrian philosophers themselves, Plotinus and others, are
reported to have performed several. Jesus was, therefore, obliged
to choose between these two alternatives -- either to renounce his
mission or to become a thaumaturgus. It must be remembered that all
antiquity, with the exception of the great scientific schools of
Greece and their Roman disciples, accepted miracles; and that Jesus
not only believed therein, but had not the least idea of an order
of nature regulated by fixed laws. His knowledge on this point was
in no way superior to that of his contemporaries. Nay, more, one of
his most deeply-rooted opinions was that by faith and prayer man
has entire power over nature. The faculty of performing miracles
was regarded as a privilege frequently conferred by God upon men,
and it had nothing surprising in it.

     The lapse of time has changed that which constituted the power
of the great founder of Christianity into something offensive to
our ideas, and if ever the worship of Jesus loses its hold upon
mankind, it will be precisely on account of those acts which
originally inspired belief in him. Criticism experiences no
embarrassment in presence of this kind of historical phenomenon. A
thaumaturgus of our days, unless of an extreme simplicity, like
that manifested by certain stigmatists of Germany, is odious, for
he performs miracles without believing in them, and is a mere
charlatan. But, if we take a Francis d'Assisi, the question becomes
altogether different; the series of miracles attending the origin
of the order of St. Francis, far from offending us, affords us real
pleasure. The founder of Christianity lived in as complete a state
of poetic ignorance as did St. Clair and the tres socii. The
disciples deemed it quite necessary that their Master should have
interviews with Moses and Elias, that he should command the
elements, and that he should heal the sick. We must remember,
besides, that every idea loses something of its purity as soon as
it aspires to realize itself. Success is never attained without
some injury being done to the sensibility of the soul. Such is the
feebleness of the human mind that the best causes are ofttimes
gained only by bad arguments. The demonstrations of the primitive
apologists of Christianity are supported by very poor reasonings.
Moses, Christopher Columbus, Mohammed, have only triumphed over
obstacles by constantly making allowance for the weakness of men,
and by not always giving the true reasons for the truth. It is
probable that the hearers of Jesus were more struck by his miracles
than by his eminently divine discourses. Let us add that doubtless
popular rumor, both before and after the death of Jesus,
exaggerated enormously the number of occurrences of this kind. The
types of the Gospel miracles, in fact, do not present much variety:
they are repetitions of each other, and seem fashioned from a very
small number of models, accommodated to the taste of the country.

     It is impossible, among the miraculous narratives so tediously
enumerated in the Gospels, to distinguish the miracles attributed
to Jesus by public opinion from those in which he consented to play
an active part. It is especially impossible to ascertain whether
the offensive circumstances attending them, the groanings, the
strugglings, and other features savoring of jugglery, are really
historical, or whether they are the fruit of the belief of the
compilers, strongly imbued with theurgy, and living, in this 


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respect, in a world analogous to that of the "spiritualists" of our
times. Almost all the miracles which Jesus thought he performed
appear to have been miracles of healing. Medicine was at this
period in Judea what it still is in the East -- that is to say, in
no respect scientific, but absolutely surrendered to individual
inspiration. Scientific medicine, founded by Greece five centuries
before, was at the time of Jesus unknown to the Jews of Palestine.
In such a stale of knowledge, the presence of a superior man,
treating the diseased with gentleness, and giving him by some
sensible signs the assurance of his recovery, is often a decisive
remedy. Who would dare to say that in many cases, always excepting
certain peculiar injuries, the touch of a superior being is not
equal to all the resources of pharmacy? The mere pleasure of seeing
him cures. He gives only a smile, or a hope, but these are not in
vain.

     Jesus had no more idea than his countrymen of a rational
medical science; he believed, like everyone else, that healing was
to be effected by religious practices, and such a belief was
perfectly consistent. From the moment that disease was regarded as
the punishment of sin, or as the act of a demon, and by no means as
the result of physical causes, the best physician was the holy man
who had power in the supernatural world. Healing was considered a
moral act; Jesus, who felt his moral power, would believe himself
specially gifted to heal. Convinced that the touching of his robe,
the imposition of his hands, did good to the sick, he would have
been unfeeling if he had refused to those who suffered a solace
which it was in his power to bestow. The healing of the sick was
considered as one of the signs of the kingdom of God, and was
always associated with the emancipation of the poor. Both were the
signs of the great revolution which was to end in the redress of
all infirmities.

     One of the species of cure which Jesus most frequently
performed was exorcism, or strange disposition to believe in demons
pervaded all minds. It was a universal opinion, not only in Judea,
but in the whole world, that demons seized hold of bodies of
certain persons and made them act contrary to their will. A Persian
div, often named in the Avesta, Aeschma-daiva, the "div of
coneupiscence," adopted by the Jews under the name of Asmodeus,
became the cause of all the hysterical afflictions of women.
Epilepsy, mental and nervous maladies, in which the patient seems
no longer to belong to himself, and infirmities the cause of which
is not apparent, as deafness, dumbness, were explained in the same
manner. The admirable treatise, On Sacred Disease, by Hippocrates,
which set forth the true principles of medicine on this subject
four centuries and a half before Jesus, had not banished from the
world so great an error. It was supposed that there were processes
more or less efficacious for driving away the demons; and the
occupation of exorcist was a regular profession, like that of
physician. There is no doubt that Jesus had in his lifetime the
reputation of possessing the greatest secrets of this art. There
were at that time many lunatics in Judea, doubtless in consequence
of the great mental excitement. These mad persons, who were
permitted to go at large, as they still are in the same districts,
inhabited the abandoned sepulchral caves, which were the ordinary
retreat of vagrants. Jesus had great influence over these 


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unfortunates. A thousand singular incidents were related in
connection with his cures, in which the credulity of the time gave
itself full scope. But still these difficulties must not be
exaggerated. The disorders, which were explained by "possessions,"
were often very slight. In our times, in Syria, they regard as mad
or possessed by a demon (these two ideas were expressed by the same
word, medjnoun  [The phrase, Daemonium habes Matt. xi. 18; Luke
vii. 33; John vii. 20. viii. 48, and following, X. 20, and
following), should be translated by "Thou art mad," as we should
say in Arabic, Medjnoun ente. The verb &aIloviv has also, in all
classical antiquity, the meaning of "to be mad."])  people who are
only somewhat eccentric. A gentle word often suffices in such cases
to drive away the demon. Such were doubtless the means employed by
Jesus. Who knows if his celebrity as exorcist was not spread almost
without his own knowledge? Persons who reside in the East are
occasionally surprised to find themselves, after some time, in
possession of a great reputation, as doctors, sorcerers, or
discoverers of treasures, without being able to account to
themselves for the facts which have given rise to these strange
fancies.

     Many circumstances, moreover, seem to indicate that Jesus only
became a thaumaturgus late in life and against his inclination. He
often performs his miracles only after he has been besought to do
so, and with a degree of reluctance, reproaching those who asked
them for the grossness of their minds. One singularity, apparently
inexplicable, is the care he takes to perform his miracles in
secret, and the request he addresses to those whom he heals to tell
no one. When the demons wish to proclaim him the Son of God, he
forbids them to open their mouths; but they recognize him in spite
of himself. These traits are especially characteristic in Mark, who
is preeminently the evangelist of miracles and exorcisms. It seems
that the disciple, who has furnished the fundamental teachings of
this Gospel, importuned Jesus with his admiration of the wonderful,
and that the Master, wearied of a reputation which weighed upon
him, had often said to him, "See thou say nothing to any man." Once
this discordance evoked a singular outburst, a fit of impatience,
in which the annoyance these perpetual demands of weak minds caused
Jesus breaks forth. One would say, at times, that the character of
thaumaturgus was disagreeable to him, and that he sought to give as
little publicity as possible to the marvels which, in a manner,
grew under his feet. When his enemies asked a miracle of him,
especially a celestial miracle, a "sign from heaven," he
obstinately refused. We may therefore conclude that his reputation
of thaumaturgus was imposed upon him, that he did not resist it
much, but also that he did nothing to aid it, and that, at all
events, he felt the vanity of popular opinion on this point.

     We should neglect to recognize the first principles of history
if we attached too much importance to our repugnance on this
matter, and if, in order to avoid the objections which might be
raised against the character of Jesus, we attempted to suppress
facts which, in the eyes of his contemporaries, were considered of
the greatest importance. It would be convenient to say that these
are the additions of disciples much inferior to their Master who,
not being able to conceive his true grandeur, have sought to
magnify him by illusions unworthy of him. But the four narrators of


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the life of Jesus are unanimous in extolling his miracles: one of
them, Mark, interpreter of the Apostle Peter, insists so much on
this point that, if we trace the character of Christ only according
to this Gospel, we should represent him as an exorcist in
possession of charms of rare efficacy, as a very potent sorcerer,
who inspired fear, and whom the people wished to get rid of. We
will admit, then, without hesitation, that acts which would now be
considered as acts of illusion or folly held a large place in the
life of Jesus. Must we sacrifice to these uninviting features the
sublimer aspect of such a life? God forbid. A mere sorcerer, after
the manner of Simon the magician, would not have brought about a
moral revolution like that effected by Jesus. If the thaumaturgus
had effaced in Jesus the moralist and the religious reformer, there
would have proceeded from him a school of theurgy, and not
Christianity.

     The problem, moreover, presents itself in the same manner with
respect to all saints and religions founders. Things now considered
morbid, such as epilepsy and seeing of visions, were formerly
principles of power and greatness. Physicians can designate the
disease which made the fortune of Mohammed. Almost in our own day
the men who have done the most for their kind (the excellent
Vincent de Paul himself!) were, whether they wished it or not,
thaumaturgi. If we set out with the principle that every historical
personage to whom acts have been attributed, which we in the
nineteenth century hold to be irrational or savoring of quackery,
was either a madman or a charlatan, all criticism is nullified. The
school of Alexandria was a noble school, but, nevertheless, it gave
itself up to the practices of an extravagant theurgy. Socrates and
Pascal were not exempt from hallucinations. Facts ought to explain
themselves by proportionate causes. The weaknesses of the human
mind only engender weakness; great things have always great causes
in the nature of man, although they are often developed amid a
crowd of littlenesses which, to superficial minds, eclipse their
grandeur.

     In a general sense, it is therefore true to say that Jesus was
only thaumaturgus and exorcist in spite of himself. Miracles are
ordinarily the work of the public much more than of him to whom
they are attributed. Jesus persistently shunned the performance of
the wonders which the multitude would have created for him; the
greatest miracle would have been his refusal to perform any; never
would the laws of history and popular psychology have suffered so
great a derogation. The miracles of Jesus were a violence done to
him by his age, a concession forced from him by a passing
necessity. The exorcist and the thaumaturgus have alike passed
away; but the religious reformer will live eternally.

     Even those who did not believe in him were struck with these
acts, and sought to be witnesses of them. The pagans, and persons
unacquainted with him, experienced a sentiment of fear, and sought
to remove him from their district. Many thought perhaps to abuse
his name by connecting it with seditious movements. But the purely
moral and in no respect political tendency of the character of
Jesus saved him from these entanglements. His kingdom was in the
circle of disciples whom a like freshness of imagination and the
same foretaste of heaven had grouped and retained around him.


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                          CHAPTER XVII

              DEFINITIVE FORM OF THE IDEAS OF JESUS
                  RESPECTING THE KINGDOM OF GOD

     WE Suppose that this last phase of the activity of Jesus
continued about eighteen months from the time of his return from
the Passover of the year 31 until his journey to the feast of
tabernacles of the year 32. During this time the mind of Jesus does
not appear to have been enriched by the addition of any new
element; but all his old ideas grew and developed with an ever-
increasing degree of power and boldness.

     The fundamental idea of Jesus from the beginning was the
establishment of the kingdom of God. But this kingdom of God, as we
have already said, appears to have been understood by Jesus in very
different senses. At times we should take him for a democratic
leader desiring only the triumph of the poor and the disinherited.
At other times the kingdom of God is the literal accomplishment of
the apocalyptic visions of Daniel and Enoch. Lastly, the kingdom of
God is often a spiritual kingdom, and the approaching deliverance
is a deliverance of the spirit. In this last sense the revolution
desired by Jesus was the one which has really taken place -- the
establishment of a new worship, purer than that of Moses. All these
thoughts appear to have existed at the same time in the mind of
Jesus. The first one, however -- that of a temporal revolution --
does not appear to have impressed him much; he never regarded the
earth or the riches of the earth, or material power, as worth
caring for. He had no worldly ambition. Sometimes by a natural
consequence, his great religious importance was in danger of being
converted into mere social importance. Men came requesting him to
judge and arbitrate on questions affecting their material
interests. Jesus rejected these proposals with haughtiness,
treating them as insults. Full of his heavenly ideal, he never
abandoned his disdainful poverty. As to the other two conceptions
of the kingdom of God, Jesus appears always to have held them
simultaneously. If he had been only an enthusiast, led away by the
apocalypses on which the popular imagination fed, he would have
remained an obscure sectary, inferior to those whose ideas he
followed. If he had been only a puritan, a sort of Channing or
"Savoyard vicar," he would undoubtedly have been unsuccessful. The
two parts of his system, or, rather, his two conceptions of the
kingdom of God, rest one on the other, and this mutual support has
been the cause of his incomparable success. The first Christians
were dreamers, living in a circle of ideas which we should term
visionary; but, at the same time, they were the heroes of that
social war which has resulted in the enfranchisement of the
conscience. and in the establishment of a religion from which the
pure worship, proclaimed by the founder, will eventually proceed.

     The apocalyptic ideas of Jesus, in their most complete form,
may thus be summed up. The existing condition of humanity is
approaching its termination. This termination will be an immense
revolution, "an anguish" similar to the pains of child-birth; a
palingenesis, or, in the words of Jesus himself, a "new birth,"
preceded by dark calamities and heralded by strange phenomena. In
the great day there will appear in the heavens the sign of the Son 


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of man: it will be a startling and luminous vision like that of
Sinai, a great storm rending the clouds, a fiery meteor flashing
rapidly from east to west. The Messiah will appear in the clouds,
clothed in glory and majesty, to the sound of trumpets and
surrounded by angels, His disciples will sit by his side upon
thrones. The dead will then arise, and the Messiah will proceed to
judgment.

     At this judgment men will be divided into two classes
according to their deeds. The angels will be the executors of the
sentences. The elect will enter into delightful mansions, which
have been prepared for them from the foundation of the world; there
they will be seated, clothed with light, at a feast presided over
by Abraham, the patriarchs and the prophets. They will be the
smaller number. The rest will depart into Gehenna. Gehenna was the
western valley of Jerusalem. There the worship of fire had been
practiced at various times, and the place had become a kind of
sewer. Gehenna was, therefore, in the mind of Jesus, a gloomy,
filthy valley, full of fire. Those excluded from the kingdom will
there be burnt and eaten by the never-dying worm, in company with
Satan and his rebel angels. There, there will be wailing and
gnashing of teeth. The kingdom of heaven will be as a closed room,
lighted from within, in the midst of a world of darkness and
torments.

     This new order of things will be eternal. Paradise and Gehenna
will have no end. An impassable abyss separates the one from the
other. The Son of man, Seated on the right hand of God, will
preside over this final condition of the world and of humanity.

     That all this was taken literally by the disciples and by the
Master himself at certain moments appears clearly evident from the
writings of the time. If the first Christian generation had one
profound and constant belief, it was that the world was near its
end, and that the great "revelation" of Christ was about to take
place. The startling proclamation, "The time is at hand," which
commences and closes the Apocalypse; the incessantly reiterated
appeal, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear!" were the cries of
hope and encouragement for the whole Apostolic age. A Syrian
expression, Mayan atha, "Our Lord cometh!" became a sort of
password, which the believers used among themselves to strengthen
their faith and their hope. The Apocalypse, written in the year 68
of our era, declares that the end will come in three years and a
half. The "Ascension of Isaiah" adopts a calculation very similar
to this.

     Jesus never indulged in such precise details. When he was
interrogated as to the time of his advent, he always refused to
reply; once even he declared that the date of this great day was
known only by the Father, who had revealed it neither to the angels
nor to the Son. He said that the time when the kingdom of God was
most anxiously expected was just that in which it would not appear.
He constantly repeated that it would be a surprise, as in the times
of Noah and of Lot; that we must be on our guard, always ready to
depart; that each one must watch and keep his lamp trimmed as for
a wedding procession, which arrives unforeseen; that the Son of man
would come like a thief, at an hour when he would not be expected; 


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that he would appear as a flash of lightning, running from one end
of the heavens to the other. But his declarations on the neamess of
the catastrophe leave no room for any equivocation. "This
generation," said he, "shall not pass till all these things be
fulfilled. There be Some standing here which shall not taste of
death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." He
reproaches those who do not believe in him for not being able to
read the signs of the future kingdom. "When it is evening, ye say,
it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, It
will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye
hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not
discern the signs of the times? "By an illusion common to all great
reformers, Jesus imagined the end to be much nearer than it really
was; he did not take into account the slowness of the movements of
humanity; he thought to realize in one day that which, eighteen
centuries later, has still to be accomplished.

     These formal declarations preoccupied the Christian family for
nearly seventy years. It was believed that some of the disciples
would see the day of the final revelation before dying. John, in
particular, was considered as being of this number; many believed
that he would never die. Perhaps this was a later opinion suggested
towards the end of the first century, by the advanced age which
John seems to have reached; this age having given rise to the
belief that God wished to prolong his life indefinitely until the
great day, in order to realize the words of Jesus. However this may
be, at his death the faith of many was shaken, and his disciples
attached to the prediction of Christ a more subdued meaning.

     At the same time that Jesus fully admitted the Apocalyptic
beliefs, such as we find them in the apocryphal Jewish books, he
admitted the doctrine, which is the complement, or rather the
condition, of them all -- namely, the resurrection of the dead.
This doctrine, as we have already said, was still somewhat new in
Israel: a number of people either did not know it, or did not
believe it. It was the faith of the Pharisees, and of the fervent
adherents of the Messianic beliefs. Jesus accepted it unreservedly,
but always in the most idealistic sense. Many imagined that in the
resuscitated world they would eat, drink, and marry. Jesus, indeed,
admits into his kingdom a new passover a table, and a new wine; but
he expressly excludes marriage from it. The Sadducees had on this
subject an apparently coarse argument, but one which was really in
conformity with the old theology. It will be remembered that,
according to the ancient sages, man survived only in his children.
The Mosaic code had consecrated this patriarchal theory by a
strange institution, the levirate law. The Sadducees drew from
thence subtle deductions against the resurrection. Jesus escaped
them by formally declaring that in the life eternal there would no
longer exist differences of sex, and that men would be like the
angels. Sometimes he seems to promise resurrection only to the
righteous, the punishment of the wicked consisting in complete
annihilation. Oftener, however, Jesus declares that the
resurrection shall bring eternal confusion to the wicked.

     It will be seen that nothing in all these theories was
absolutely new. The Gospels and the writings of the Apostles
scarcely contain anything as regards apocalyptic doctrines but what
might be found already in "Daniel," "Enoch," and the "Sibylline 

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Oracles," of Jewish origin. Jesus accepted the ideas, which were
generally received among his contemporaries. He made them his basis
of action, or rather one of his bases; for he had too profound an
idea of his true work to establish it solely upon such fragile
principles -- principles so liable to be decisively refuted by
facts.

     It is evident, indeed, that such a doctrine, taken by itself
in a literal manner, had no future. The world, in continuing to
exist, caused it to crumble. One generation of man at the most was
the limit of its endurance. The faith of the first Christian
generation is intelligible, but the faith of the second generation
is no longer so. After the death of John, or of the last survivor,
whoever he might be, of the group which had seen the Master, the
word of Jesus was convicted of falsehood. If the doctrine of Jesus
had been simply belief in an approaching end of the world, it would
certainly now be sleeping in oblivion. What is it, then, which has
saved it? The great breadth of the Gospel conceptions, which has
permitted doctrines suited to very different intellectual
conditions to be found under the same creed. The world has not
ended, as Jesus announced, and as his disciples believed. But it
has been renewed, and in one sense renewed as Jesus desired. It is
because his thought was two-sided that it has been fruitful. His
chimera has not had the fate of so many others which have crossed
the human mind, because it concealed a germ of life which, having
been introduced, thanks to the covering of fable, into the bosom of
humanity, has thus brought forth eternal fruits.

     And let us not say that this is a benevolent interpretation,
imagined in order to clear the honor of our great Master from the
cruel contradiction inflicted on his dreams by reality, No, no;
this true kingdom of God, this kingdom of the spirit, which makes
each one king and priest; this kingdom which, like the grain of
mustard seed, has become a tree which overshadows the world, and
amid whose branches the birds have their nests, was understood,
wished for, and founded by Jesus. By the side of the false, cold,
and impossible idea of an ostentatious advent, he conceived the
real city of God, the true "palingenesis," the Sermon on the Mount,
the apotheosis of the weak, the love of the people, regard for the
poor, and the reestablishment of all that is humble, true, and
simple. This reestablishment he has depicted as an incomparable
artist, by features which will last eternally. Each of us owes that
which is best in himself to him. Let us pardon him his hope of a
vain apocalypse, and of a second coming in great triumph upon the
clouds of heaven. Perhaps these were the errors of others rather
than his own; and if it be true that he himself shared the general
illusion, what matters it, since his dream rendered him strong
against death, and sustained him in a struggle to which he might
otherwise have been unequal?

     We must, then, attach several meanings to the divine city
conceived by Jesus. If his only thought had been that the end of
time was near, and that we must prepare for it, he would not have
surpassed John the Baptist. To renounce a world ready to crumble,
to detach one's self little by little from the present life, and to
aspire to the kingdom about to come, would have formed the gist of
his preaching. The teaching of Jesus had always a much larger 


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scope. He proposed to himself to create a new state of humanity,
and not merely to prepare the end of that which was in existence.
Elias or Jeremiah, reappearing in order to prepare men for the
supreme crisis, would not have preached as he did. This is so true
that this morality, attributed to the latter days, is found to be
the eternal morality, that which has saved humanity. Jesus himself
in many cases makes use of modes of speech which do not accord with
the apocalyptic theory. He often declares that the kingdom of God
has already commenced; that every man bears it within himself; and
can, if he be worthy, partake of it; that each one silently creates
this kingdom by the true conversion of the heart. The kingdom of
God at such times is only the highest form of good. A better order
of things than that which exists, the reign of justice, which the
faithful, according to their ability, ought to help in
establishing; or, again, the liberty of the soul, something
analogous to the Buddhist "deliverance," the fruit of the soul's
separation from matter and absorption in the divine essence. These
truths, which are purely abstract to us were living realities to
Jesus. Everything in his mind was concrete and substantial. Jesus,
of all men, believed most thoroughly in the reality of the ideal.

     In accepting the Utopias of his time and his race, Jesus thus
was able to make high truths of them, thanks to the fruitful
misconceptions of their import. His kingdom of God was no doubt the
approaching a Apocalypse, which was about to be unfolded in the
heavens. But it was still, and probably above all the kingdom of
the soul, founded on liberty and on the filial sentiment which the
virtuous man feels when resting on the bosom of his Father. It was
a pure religion, without forms, without temple, and without priest;
it was the moral judgment of the world, delegated to the conscience
of the just man, and to the arm of the people.  This is what was
designed to live; this is what has lived. When, at the end of a
century of vain expectation, the materialistic hope of a near end
of the world was exhausted, the true kingdom of God became
apparent. Accommodating explanations throw a veil over the material
kingdom, which was then seen to be incapable of realization. The
Apocalypse of John, the chief Canonical book of the New Testament,
being too formally tied to the idea of an immediate catastrophe,
became of secondary importance, was held to be unintelligible,
tortured in a thousand ways, and almost rejected. At least, its
accomplishment was adjourned to an indefinite future. Some poor
benighted ones, who, in a fully enlightened age, still preserved
the hopes of the first disciples, became heretics (Ebionites,
Millenarians) lost in the shallows of Christianity. Mankind had
passed to another kingdom of God. The degree of truth contained in
the thought of Jesus had prevailed over the chimera which obscured
it.

     Let us not, however, despise this chimera, which has been the
thick rind of the sacred fruit on which we live. This fantastic
kingdom of heaven, this endless pursuit after a city of God, which
has constantly preoccupied Christianity during its long career, has
been the principle of that great instinct of futurity which has
animated all reformers, persistent believers in the Apocalypse,
from Joachim of Flora down to the Protestant sectary of our days.
This impotent effort to establish a perfect society has been the
source of the extraordinary tension which has always made the true 


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Christian an athlete struggling against the existing order of
things. The idea of the "kingdom of God," and the Apocalypse, which
is the complete image of it, are thus, in a sense, the highest and
most poetic expressions of human progress. But they have
necessarily given rise to great errors. The end of the world,
suspended as a perpetual menace over mankind, was, by the
periodical panics which it caused during centuries, a great
hindrance to all secular development. Society, being no longer
certain of its existence, contracted therefrom a degree of
trepidation, and those habits of servile humility, which rendered
the Middle Ages so inferior to ancient and modern times. A profound
change had also taken place in the mode of regarding the coming of
Christ. When it was first announced to mankind that the end of the
world was about to come, like the infant which receives death with
a smile, it experienced the greatest access of joy that it has ever
felt. But, in growing old, the world became attached to life. The
day of grace, so long expected by the simple souls of Galilee,
became to these iron ages a day of wrath: Dies irae, dies illa!
But, even in the midst of barbarism, the idea of the kingdom of God
continued fruitful. in spite of the feudal church, of sects, and of
religious orders, holy persons continued to protest, in the name of
the Gospel, against the iniquity of the world. Even in our days,
troubled days, in which Jesus has no more authentic followers than
those who seem to deny him, the dreams of an ideal organization of
society, which have so much analogy with the aspirations of the
primitive Christian sects, are only in one sense the blossoming of
the same idea. They are one of the branches of that immense tree in
which germinates all thought of a future, and of which the "kingdom
of God" will be eternally the root and stem. All the social
revolutions of humanity will be grafted on this phrase. But,
tainted by a coarse materialism, and aspiring to the impossible --
that is to say, to found universal happiness upon political and
economical measures -- the "socialist" attempts of our time will
remain unfruitful, until they take as their rule the true spirit of
Jesus, I mean absolute idealism -- the principle that, in order to
possess the world, we must renounce it.

     The phrase, "kingdom of God," expresses also, very happily,
the want which the soul experiences of a supplementary destiny, of
a compensation for the present life. Those who do not accept the
definition of man as a compound of two substances, and who regard
the Deistical dogma of the immortality of the soul as in
contradiction with physiology, love to fall back upon the hope of
a final reparation, which, under an unknown form, shall satisfy the
wants of the heart of man. Who knows if the highest term of
progress after millions of ages may not evoke the absolute
conscience of the universe, and in this conscience the awakening of
all that has lived? A sleep of a million of years is not longer
than the sleep of an hour. St. Paul, on this hypothesis, was right
in saying, In ictu oculi! It is certain that moral and virtuous
humanity will have its reward, that one day the ideas of the poor
but honest man will judge the world, and on that day the ideal
figure of Jesus will be the confusion of the frivolous who have not
believed in virtue, and of the selfish who have not been able to
attain to it. The favorite phrase of Jesus continues, therefore,
full of an eternal beauty. A and of exalted divination seems to
have maintained it in a vague sublimity, embracing at the same time
various orders of truths.

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                          CHAPTER XVIII

                      INSTITUTIONS OF JESUS

     THAT Jesus was never entirely absorbed in his apocalyptic
ideas is proved, moreover, by the fact that at the very time he was
most preoccupied with them he laid with rare forethought the
foundation of a Church destined to endure. It is scarcely possible
to doubt that he himself chose from among his disciples those who
were preeminently called the "Apostles," or the "Twelve," since on
the day after his death we find them forming a distinct body, and
filling up by election the vacancies that had arisen in their
midst. They were the two sons of Jonas, the two sons of Zebedee;
James, son of Cleophas; Philip; Nathaniel bar-Tolmai; Thomas; Levi,
or Matthew, the son of Alphoeus; Simon Zelotes; Thaddeus or
Lebbaeus; and Judas of Kerioth. it is probable that the idea of the
twelve tribes of Israel had had some share in the choice of this
number.

     The "Twelve," at all events, formed a group of privileged
disciples, among whom Peter maintained a fraternal priority, and to
them Jesus confided the propagation of his work. There was nothing,
however, which presented the appearance of a regularly organized
sacerdotal school. The lists of the "Twelve," which have been
preserved, contain many uncertainties and contradictions; two or
three of those who figure in them have remained completely obscure.
Two, at least, Peter and Philip, were married and had children.

     Jesus evidently confided secrets to the Twelve, which he
forbade them to communicate to the world. It seems as if his plan
at times was to surround himself with a degree of mystery, to
postpone the most important testimony respecting himself till after
his death, and to reveal himself completely only to his disciples,
confiding to them the care of demonstrating him afterwards to the
world. "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and
what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." This
spared him the necessity of too precise declarations, and created
a kind of medium between the public and himself. It is clear that
there were certain teachings confined to the Apostles, and that he
explained many parables to them, the meaning of which was ambiguous
to the multitude. An enigmatical form and a degree of oddness in
connecting ideas were customary in the teachings of the doctors, as
may be seen in the sentences of the Pirke Aboth. Jesus explained to
his intimate friends whatever was peculiar in his apothegms or in
his apologies, and showed them his meaning stripped of the wealth
of illustration which sometimes obscured it. Many of these
explanations appear to have been carefully preserved.

     During the lifetime of Jesus the Apostles preached, but
without ever departing far from him. Their preaching, moreover, was
limited to the announcement of the speedy coming of the kingdom of
God. They went from town to town, receiving hospitality, or rather
taking it themselves, according to the custom of the country. The
guest in the East has much authority; he is superior to the master
of the house, who has the greatest confidence in him. This fireside
preaching is admirably adapted to the propagation of new doctrines.
The hidden treasure is communicated, and payment is thus made for 


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what is received; politeness and good feeling lend their aid; the
household is touched and converted. Remove Oriental hospitality,
and it would be impossible to explain the propagation of
Christianity. Jesus, who adhered greatly to good old customs,
encouraged his disciples to make no scruple of profiting by this
ancient public right, probably already abolished in the great towns
where there were hostelries. "The laborer," said he, "is worthy of
his hire!" Once installed in any house, they were to remain there,
eating and drinking what was offered them as long as their mission
lasted.

     Jesus desired that, in imitation of his example, the
messengers of the glad tidings should render their preaching
agreeable by kindly and polished manners. He directed that, on
entering into a house, they should give the salaam or greeting.
Some hesitated; the salaam being then, as now, in the East, a sign
of religious communion, which is not risked with persons of a
doubtful faith. "Fear nothing," said Jesus; "if no one in the house
is worthy of your salute, it will return unto you." Sometimes, in
fact, the Apostles of the kingdom of God were badly received, and
came to complain to Jesus, who generally sought to soothe them.
Some of them, persuaded of the omnipotence of their Master, were
hurt at this forbearance. The sons of Zebedee wanted him to call
down fire from heaven upon the inhospitable towns. Jesus received
these outbursts with a subtle irony, and stopped them by saying:
"The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save
them."

     He sought in every way to establish as a principle that his
Apostles were as himself. It was believed that he had communicated
his marvelous virtues to them. They cast out demons, prophesied,
and formed a school of renowned exorcists, although certain cases
were beyond their power. They also wrought cures, either by the
imposition of hands or by the anointing with oil, one of the
fundamental processes of Oriental medicine. Lastly, like the
Psylli, they could handle serpents and could drink deadly potions
with impunity. The further we get from Jesus, the more offensive
does this theurgy become. But there is no doubt that it was
generally received by the primitive Church, and that it held an
important place in the estimation of the world around. Charlatans,
as generally happens, took advantage of this movement of popular
credulity. Even in the lifetime of Jesus many, without being his
disciples, cast out demons in his name. The true disciples were
much displeased at this, and sought to prevent them. Jesus, who saw
that this was really an homage paid to his renown, was not very
severe towards them. It must be observed, moreover, that the
exercise of these gifts had to some degree become a trade, Carrying
the logic of absurdity to the extreme, certain men cast out demons
by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. They imagined that this
sovereign of the infernal regions must have entire authority over
his subordinates, and that in acting through him they were certain
to make the intruding spirit depart. Some even sought to buy from
the disciples of Jesus the secret of the miraculous powers which
had been conferred upon them. The germ of a Church from this time
began to appear. This fertile idea of the power of men in
association (ecclesia) was doubtless derived from Jesus. Full of
the purely idealistic doctrine that it is the union of love which 


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brings souls together, he declared that whenever men assembled in
his name he would be in their midst. He confided to the Church the
right to bind and to unbind (that is to say, to render certain
things lawful or unlawful), to remit sins, to reprimand, to warn
with authority, and to pray with the certainty of being heard
favorably. It is possible that many of these words may have been
attributed to the Master in order to give a warrant to the
collective authority which was afterwards sought to be substituted
for that of Jesus. At all events, it was only after his death that
particular Churches were established, and even this first
constitution was made purely and simply on the model of the
Synagogue. Many personages who had loved Jesus much, and had
founded great hopes upon him, as Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary
Magdalene, and Nicodemus, did not, it seems, join these Churches,
but clung to the tender or respectful memory which they had
preserved of him.

     Moreover, there is no trace, in the teaching of Jesus, of an
applied morality or of a canonical law, ever so slightly defined.
once only, respecting marriage, he spoke decidedly, and forbade
divorce. Neither was there any theology or creed. There were
indefinite views respecting the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,
from which, afterwards, were drawn the Trinity and the Incarnation,
but they were then only in a state of indeterminate imagery. The
later books of the Jewish canon recognized the Holy Spirit, a sort
of divine hypostasis, sometimes identified with Wisdom or the Word.
Jesus insisted upon this point, and announced to his disciples a
baptism by fire and by the spirit, as much preferable to that of
John, a baptism which they believed they had received, after the
death of Jesus, in the form of a great wind and tongues of fire.
The Holy Spirit thus sent by the Father was to teach them all
truth, and testify to that which Jesus himself had promulgated. In
order to designate this Spirit, Jesus made use of the word
Peraklit, which the Syro-Chaldaic had borrowed from the Greek
(770epckx),-n'roq), and which appears to have had in his mind the
meaning of "advocate." "counsellor," and sometimes that of
"interpreter of celestial truths," and of "teacher charged to
reveal to men the hitherto hidden mysteries." He regarded himself
as a Peraklit to his disciples, and the Spirit which was to come
after his death would only take his place. This was an application
of the process which the Jewish and Christian theologies would
follow during centuries, and which was to produce a whole series of
divine assessors, the Metathronos, the Synadelphe or Sandalphon,
and all the personifications of the Cabbala. But in Judaism these
creations were to remain free and individual speculations, while in
Christianity, commencing with the fourth century, they were to form
the very essence of orthodoxy and of the universal doctrine.

     It is unnecessary to remark how remote from the thought of
Jesus was the idea of a religious book containing a code and
articles of faith. Not only did he not write, but it was contrary
to the spirit of the infant sect to produce sacred books. They
believed themselves to be on the eve of the great final
catastrophe. The Messiah came to put the seal upon the Law and the
Prophets, not to promulgate new Scriptures. With the exception of
the Apocalypse, which was in one sense the only revealed book of
the infant Christianity, all the other writings of the Apostolic 


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age were works evoked by existing circumstances, making no
pretensions to furnish a completely dogmatic whole. The Gospels had
at first an entirely personal character, and much less authority
than tradition.

     Had the sect, however, no sacrament, no rite, no sign of
union? It had one which all tradition ascribes to Jesus. One of the
favorite ideas of the Master was that he was the new bread -- bread
very superior to manna, and on which mankind was to live. This
idea, the germ of the Eucharist, was at times expressed by him in
singularly concrete forms. On one occasion especially, in the
synagogue of Capernaum, he took a decided step, which cost him
several of hisciples. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave
you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true
bread from heaven." And he added, I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst." These words excited much murmuring. "The Jews then
murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down
from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I
came down from heaven?" But Jesus insisting with still more force,
said, "I am that bread of life; your fathers did eat manna in the
wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living
bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he
shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world." The offence was now
at its height: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus
going still further, said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no
life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath
eternal life, and I win raise him up at the last day. For my flesh
is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the
living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that
eateth me, even he Shall live by me. This bread which came down
from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he
that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." Several of his
disciples were offended at such obstinacy in paradox, and ceased to
follow him. Jesus did not retract; he only added: "It is the spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The Twelve
remained faithful, notwithstanding this strange preaching. It gave
to Cephas, in particular, an opportunity of showing his absolute
devotion, and of proclaiming once more, "Thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God."

     It is probable that from that time, in the common repasts of
the sect, there was established some custom which was derived from
the discourse so badly received by the men of Capernaum. But the
Apostolic traditions on this subject are very diverse and probably
intentionally incomplete. The Synoptical Gospels suppose that a
unique sacramental act, served as basis to the mysterious rite, and
declare this to have been "the last supper." John, who has
preserved the incident at the synagogue of Capemaum, does not speak
of such an act, although he describes the last supper at great
length. Elsewhere we see Jesus recognized in the breaking of bread,


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as if this act had been to those who associated with him the most
characteristic of his person. When he was dead, the form under
which he appeared to the pious memory of his disciples was that of
president of a mysterious banquet, taking the bread, blessing it,
breaking and presenting it to those present. It is probable that
this was one of his habits, and that at such times he was
particularly loving and tender. One material circumstance, the
presence of fish upon the table (a striking indication, which
proves that the rite had its bath on the shore of Lake Tiberias)
was itself almost sacramental, and became a necessary part of the
conceptions of the sacred feast.

     Their repasts were among the sweetest moments of the infant
community. At these times they all assembled; the Master spoke to
each one, and kept up a charming and lively conversation. Jesus
loved these seasons, and was pleased to see his spiritual family
thus grouped around him. The participation of the same bread was
considered as a Kind of communion, a reciprocal bond. The Master
used, in this respect, extremely strong terms, which were
afterwards taken in a very literal sense. Jesus was, at the same
time, very idealistic in his conceptions, and very materialistic in
his expression of them. Wishing to express the thought that the
believer only lives by him, that altogether (body, blood, and soul)
he was the life of the truly faithful, he said to his disciples, "I
am your nourishment," a phrase which, turned in figurative style,
became, "My flesh is your bread, my blood your drink." Added to
this the modes of speech employed by Jesus, always strongly
subjective, carried him still further. At table, pointing to the
food, he said, "I am here" -- holding the bread -- "this is my
body"; and of the wine, "This is my blood" -- all modes of speech
which were equivalent to, "I am your nourishment."

     This mysterious rite obtained great importance in the lifetime
of Jesus. It was probably established some time before the last
journey to Jerusalem, and it was the result of a general doctrine
much more than a determinate act. After the death of Jesus it
became the great symbol of Christian communion, and it is to the
most solemn moment of the life of the Savior that its establishment
is referred. It was wished to see, in the consecration of bread and
wine, a farewell memorial which Jesus, at the moment of quitting
life, had left to his disciples. They recognized Jesus himself in
this sacrament. The wholly spiritual idea of the presence of souls,
which was one of the most familiar to the Master, which made him
say, for instance, that he was personally with his disciples when
they were assembled in his name, rendered this easily admissible.
Jesus, we have already said, never had a very defined notion of
that which constitutes individuality. In the degree of exaltation
to which he had attained, the ideal surpassed everything to such an
extent that the body counted for nothing. We are one when we love
one another, when we live in dependence on each other; it was thus
that he and his disciples were one. His disciples adopted the same
language. Those who for years had lived with him had seen him
constantly take the bread and the cup "between his holy and
venerable hands," and thus offer himself to them, It was he whom
they ate and drank; he became the true passover, the former one
having been abrogated by his blood. It is impossible to translate
into our essentially determined idiom, in which a rigorous 


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distinction between the material and the metaphorical must always
be observed, habits of style the essential character of which is to
attribute to metaphor, or rather to the idea it represents, a
complete reality.

                           CHAPTER XIX

              INCREASING PROGRESSION OF ENTHUSIASM
                        AND OF EXALTATION

     IT is clear that such a religious society, founded solely on
the expectation of the kingdom of God, must be in itself very
incomplete. The first Christian generation lived almost entirely
upon expectations and dreams. On the eve of seeing the world come
to an end, they regarded as useless everything which only served to
prolong it. Possession of property was interdicted. Everything
which attaches man to earth, everything which draws him aside from
heaven, was to be avoided. Although several of the disciples were
married, there was to be no more marriage on becoming a member of
the sect. The celibate was greatly preferred; even in marriage
continence was recommended. At one time the Master seems to approve
of those who should mutilate themselves in prospect of the kingdom
of God. In this he was consistent with his principle. "If thy hand
or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee; it
is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than
having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And
if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; it
is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than
having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire." The cessation of
generation was often considered as the sign and condition the
kingdom of God.

     Never, we perceive, would this primitive Church have formed a
lasting society but for the great variety of germs deposited by
Jesus in his teaching. It required more than a century for the true
Christian Church -- that which has converted the world -- to
disengage itself from this little sect of "latter-day saints," and
to become a framework applicable to the whole of human society. The
same thing, indeed, took place in Buddhism, which at first was
founded only for monks. The same thing would have happened in the
order of St. Francis if that order had succeeded in its pretension
of becoming the rule of the whole human society. Essentially
Utopian in their origin, and succeeding by their exaggeration, the
great systems of which we have just spoken have only laid hold of
the world by being profoundly modified, and by abandoning their
excesses. Jesus did not advance beyond this first and entirely
monachal period, in which it was believed that the impossible could
be attempted with impunity. He made no concession to necessity. He
boldly preached war against nature and total severance from ties of
blood. "Verily I say unto you," said he, "there is no man that hath
left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the
kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this
present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

     The teachings which Jesus is reputed to have given to his
disciples breathe the same exaltation. He who was so tolerant to
the world outside, he who contented himself sometimes with half 


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adhesions, exercised towards his own an extreme rigor. He would
have no "all buts." We should call it an "order," constituted by
the most austere rules. Faithful to his idea that the cares of life
trouble man and draw him downwards, Jesus required from his
associates a complete detachment from the earth, an absolute
devotion to his work. They were not to carry with them either money
or provisions for the way, not even a scrip, or change of raiment.
They must practice absolute poverty, live on alms and hospitality.
"Freely ye have received, freely give," said he, in his beautiful
language. Arrested and arraigned before the judges, they were not
to prepare their defence; the Peraklit, the heavenly advocate,
would inspire them with what they ought to say. The Father would
send them his Spirit from on high, which would become the principle
of all their acts, the director of their thoughts, and their guide
through the world. If driven from any town, they were to shake the
dust from their shoes, declaring always the proximity of the
kingdom of God, that none might plead ignorance. "Ye shall not have
gone over the cities of Israel," added he, "till the Son of man be
come."

     A strange ardor animates all these discourses, which may in
part be the creation of the enthusiasm of his disciples, but which
even in that case came indirectly from Jesus, for it was he who had
inspired the enthusiasm. He predicted for his followers severe
persecutions and the hatred of mankind. He sent them forth as lambs
in the midst of wolves. They would be scourged in the synagogues
and dragged to prison. Brother should deliver up brother to death,
and the father his son. When they were prosecuted in one country,
they were to flee to another. "The disciple," said he, "is not
above his Master, nor the servant above his lord. Fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the
ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many
sparrows." "Whosoever, therefore," continued he, "shall confess to
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny
before my Father which is in heaven."

     In these fits of severity he went so far as to abolish all
natural ties. His requirements had no longer any bounds. Despising
the healthy limits of man's nature, he demanded that he should
exist only for him, that he should love him alone. "If any man come
to me," he said, "and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple." "So, likewise, whosoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." There
was, at such times, something strange and more than human in his
words; they were like a fire utterly consuming life and reducing
everything to a frightful wilderness. The harsh and gloomy feeling
of distaste for the world, and of excessive self-abnegation, which
characterizes Christian perfection, was originated, not by the
refined and cheerful moralist of earlier days, but by the somber
giant whom a kind of grand presentiment was withdrawing, more and
more, out of the pale of humanity. We should almost say that, in
these moments of conflict with the most legitimate cravings of the
heart, Jesus had forgotten the pleasure of living, of loving, of 


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seeing, and of feeling. Employing still more unmeasured language,
he even said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself
and follow me. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he
that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospel's shall find it.
What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?" Two anecdotes of the kind we cannot accept as
historical, but which, although they were exaggerations, were
intended to represent a characteristic feature, clearly illustrate
this defiance of nature. He said to one man, "Follow me!" But he
said, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." Jesus
answered, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the
kingdom of God." Another said to him, "Lord, I will follow thee;
but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my
house." Jesus replied, No man, having put his hand to the plough,
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." An extraordinary
confidence, and at times accents of singular sweetness, reversing
all our ideas of him, caused these exaggerations to be easily
received. "Come unto me," cried he, all ye that labor and are
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

     A great danger threatened the future of this exalted morality,
thus expressed in hyperbolical language and with a terrible energy.
By detaching man from earth the ties of life were severed. The
Christian would be praised for being a bad son or a bad patriot if
it was for Christ that he resisted his father and fought against
his country. The ancient city, the parent republic, the state, or
the law common to all, were thus placed in hostility with the
kingdom of God. A fatal germ of theocracy was introduced into the
world.

     From this point another consequence may be perceived. This
morality, created for a temporary crisis, when introduced into a
peaceful country, and in the midst of a society assured of its own
duration, must seem impossible. The Gospel was thus destined to
become a Utopia for Christians which few would care to realize.
These terrible maxims would, for the greater number, remain in
profound oblivion -- an oblivion encouraged by the clergy itself;
the Gospel man would prove a dangerous man. The most selfish,
proud, hard, and worldly of all human beings, a Louis XIV., for
instance, would find priests to persuade him, in spite of the
Gospel, that he was a Christian. But, on the other hand, there
would always be found holy men who would take the sublime paradoxes
of Jesus literally. Perfection being placed beyond the ordinary
conditions of society, and a complete Gospel life being only
possible away from the world, the principle of asceticism and of
monasticism was established. Christian societies would have two
moral rules; the one moderately heroic for common men, the other
exalted in the extreme for the perfect man; and the perfect man
would be the monk, subjected to rules which professed to realize
the Gospel ideal. It is certain that this ideal, if only on account
of the celibacy and poverty it imposed, could not become the common
law. The monk would be thus, in one sense, the only true Christian.
Common sense revolts at these excesses; and if we are guided by it,


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to demand the impossible, is a mark of weakness and error. But
common sense is a bad judge where great matters are in question. To
obtain little from humanity, we must ask much. The immense moral
progress which we owe to the Gospel is the result of its
exaggerations. It is thus that it has been, like stoicism, but with
infinitely greater fullness, a living argument for the divine
powers in man, an exalted monument of the potency of the will.

     We may easily imagine that to Jesus, at this period of his
life, everything which was not the kingdom of God had absolutely
disappeared. He was, if we may say so, totally outside nature;
family, friendship, country, had no longer any meaning for him. No
doubt, from this moment he had already sacrificed his life.
Sometimes we are tempted to believe that, seeing in his own death
a means of founding his kingdom, he deliberately determined to
allow himself to be killed. At other times, although such a thought
only afterwards became a doctrine, death presented itself to him as
a sacrifice, destined to appease his Father and to save mankind. A
singular taste for persecution and torments possessed him. His
blood appeared to him as the water of a second baptism with which
he ought to be baptized, and he seemed possessed by a strange haste
to anticipate this baptism which alone could quench his thirst.

     The grandeur of his views upon the future was at times
surprising. He did not conceal from himself the terrible storm he
was about to cause in the world. "Think not," said he, with much
boldness and beauty, "that I am come to send peace on earth: I came
not to send peace, but a sword. There shall be five in one house
divided, three against two, and two against three. I am come to set
a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a
man's foes shall be they of his own household." "I am come to send
fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?"
"They shall put you out of the synagogues," he continued; "yea, the
time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth
God service." "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me
before it hated you. Remember the word that I said unto you: The
servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me,
they will also persecute you."

     Carried away by this fearful progression of enthusiasm, and
governed by the necessities of a preaching becoming daily more
exalted, Jesus was no longer free; he belonged to his mission, and,
in one sense, to mankind. Sometimes one would have said that his
reason was disturbed. He suffered great mental anguish and
agitation. The great vision of the kingdom of God glistening before
his eyes bewildered him. His disciples at times thought him mad.
His enemies declared him to be possessed. His excessively
impassioned temperament carried him incessantly beyond the bounds
of human nature. He laughed at all human systems, and his work, not
being a work of the reason, that which he most imperiously required
was "faith." This was the word most frequently repeated in the
little guest-chamber. It is the watchword of all popular movements.
It is clear that none of these movements would take place if it
were necessary that their author should gain his disciples one by
one by force of logic. Reflection leads only to doubt. If the
authors of the French Revolution, for instance, had had to be 


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previously convinced by lengthened meditations, they would all have
become old without accomplishing anything; Jesus, in like manner,
aimed less at convincing his hearers than at exciting their
enthusiasm. Urgent and imperative, he suffered no opposition; men
must be converted, nothing less would satisfy him. His natural
gentleness seemed to have abandoned him; he was sometimes harsh and
capricious. His disciples at times did not understand him, and
experienced in his presence a feeling akin to fear. Sometimes his
displeasure at the slightest opposition led him to commit
inexplicable and apparently absurd acts.

     It was not that his virtue deteriorated; but his struggle for
the ideal against the reality became insupportable. Contact with
the world pained and revolted him. Obstacles irritated him. His
idea of the Son of God became disturbed and exaggerated. The fatal
law which condemns an idea to decay as soon as it seeks to convert
men applied to him. Contact with men degraded him to their level.
The tone he had adopted could not be sustained more than a few
months; it was time that death came to liberate him from an
endurance strained to the utmost, to remove him from the
impossibilities of an interminable path, and, by delivering him
from a trial in danger of being too prolonged, introduce him
henceforth sinless into celestial peace.

                           CHAPTER XX

                       OPPOSITION TO JESUS

     During the first period of his career it does not appear
that Jesus met with any serious opposition. His preaching, thanks
to the extreme liberty which was enjoyed in Galilee, and to the
number of teachers who arose on all hands, made no noise beyond a
restricted circle. But when Jesus entered upon a path brilliant
with wonders and public successes, the storm began to gather.
More than once he was obliged to conceal himself and fly.
Antipas, however, did not interfere with him, although Jesus
expressed himself sometimes very severely respecting him. At
Tiberias, his usual residence, the Tetrarch was only one or two
leagues distant from the district chosen by Jesus for the center
of his activity; he heard speak of his miracles, which he
doubtless took to be clever tricks, and desired to see them. The
incredulous were at that time very curious about this class of
illusions. With his ordinary tact, Jesus refused to gratify him.
He took care not to prejudice his position by mingling with an
irreligious world, which wished to draw from him an idle
amusement; he aspired only to gain the people; he reserved for
the simple means suitable to them alone.

     On one occasion the report was spread that Jesus was no
other than John the Baptist risen from the dead. Antipas became
anxious and uneasy, and employed artifice to rid his dominions of
the new prophet. Certain Pharisees, under the pretence of regard
for Jesus, came to tell him that Antipas was seeking to kill him.
Jesus, notwithstanding his great simplicity, saw the snare, and
did not depart. His peaceful manners, and his remoteness from
popular agitation, ultimately reassured the Tetrarch and
dissipated the danger.


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     The new doctrine was by no means received with equal favor
in all the towns of Galilee. Not only did incredulous Nazareth
continue to reject him who was to become her glory: not only did
his brothers persist in not believing in him, but the cities of
the lake themselves, in general well disposed, were not all
converted. Jesus often complained of the incredulity and hardness
of heart which he encountered, and although it is natural that in
such reproaches we make allowance for the exaggeration of the
preacher, although we are sensible of that kind of convicium
seculi which Jesus affected in imitation of John the Baptist, it
is clear that the country was far from yielding itself entirely a
second time to the kingdom of God. "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe
unto thee, Bethsaida!" cried he; "for if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It
shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment
than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven,
shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have
been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained
until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for
thee." "The queen of the south," added he, " shall rise up in the
judgment of this generation, and shall condemn it : for she came
from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of
Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall
condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and
behold, a greater than Jonas is here." His wandering life, at
first so full of charm, now began to weigh upon him. " The
foxes," he said, " have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."
Bitterness and reproach took more and more hold upon him. He
accused unbelievers of not yielding to evidence, and said that,
even at the moment in which the Son of man should appear in his
celestial glory, there would still be men who would not believe
in him.

     Jesus, in fact, was not able to receive opposition with the
coolness of the philosopher, who, understanding the reason of the
various opinions which divide the world, finds it quite natural
that all should not agree with him. One of the principal defects
of the Jewish race is its harshness in controversy and the
abusive tone which it almost always infuses into it. There never
were in the world such bitter quarrels as those of the Jews among
themselves. It is the faculty of nice discernment which makes the
polished and moderate man. Now, the lack of this faculty is one
of the most constant features of the Semitic mind. Subtle and
refined works, the dialogues of Plato, for example, are
altogether unknown to these nations. Jesus, who was exempt from
almost all the defects of his race, and whose leading quality was
precisely an infinite delicacy was led, in spite of himself, to
make use of the general style in Polemics. Like John the Baptist,
he employed very harsh terms against his adversaries. Of an
exquisite gentleness with the simple, he was irritated at
incredulity, however little aggressive. He was no longer the mild
teacher who delivered the "Sermon on the Mount," who had met with
neither resistance nor difficulty. The passion that underlay his 


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character led him to make use of the keenest invectives. This
singular mixture ought not to surprise us. M. de Lamennais, a man
of our own times, has strikingly presented the same contrast. in
his beautiful book, The Words of a Believer, the most immoderate
anger and the sweetest relentings alternate, as in a mirage. This
man, who was extremely kind in the intercourse of life, became
madly intractable towards those who did not agree with him.
Jesus, in like manner, applied to himself, not without reason,
the passage from Isaiah: "He shall not strive nor cry; neither
shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall
he not break, and smoking flax shall be not quench." And yet many
of the recommendations which he addressed to his disciples
contain the germs of a true fanaticism -- germs which the Middle
Ages were to develop in a cruel manner. Must we reproach him for
this? No revolution is effected without some harshness. If
Luther, or the actors in the French Revolution, had been
compelled to observe the rules of politeness, neither the
Reformation nor the Revolution would have taken place. Let us
congratulate ourselves in like manner that Jesus encountered no
law which punished the invectives he uttered against one class of
citizens. Had such a law existed, the Pharisees would have been
inviolate. All the great things of humanity have been
accomplished in the name of absolute principles. A critical
philosopher would have said to his disciples: Respect the opinion
of others, and believe that no one is so completely right that
his adversary is completely wrong. But the action of Jesus has
nothing in common with the disinterested speculation of the
philosopher. To know that we have touched the ideal for a moment,
and have been deterred by the wickedness of a few, is a thought
insupportable to an ardent soul. What must it have been for the
founder of a new world?

     The invincible obstacle to the ideas of Jesus came
especially from orthodox Judaism, represented by the Pharisees.
Jesus became more and more alienated from the ancient Law. Now,
the Pharisees were the true Jews -- the nerve and sinew of
Judaism. Although this party had its center at Jerusalem, it had
adherents either established in Galilee or who often came there.
They were, in general, men of a narrow mind, caring much for
externals; their devoutness was haughty, formal, and self-
satisfied. Their manners were ridiculous, and excited the smiles
of even those who respected them. The epithets which the people
gave them, and which savoir of caricature, prove this. There was
the "bandy-legged Pharisee" (Nikfi), who walked in the streets
dragging his feet and knocking them against the stones; the
"bloody-browed Pharisee" (Kizai), who went with his eyes shut in
order not to see the women, and dashed his head so much against
the walls that it was always bloody; the "pestle Pharisee"
(Medinkia), who kept himself bent double like the handle of a
pestle; the "Pharisee of strong shoulders" (Shikmi), who walked
with his back bent as if he carried on his shoulders the whole
burden of the Law; the "What-is-there-to-do?-I-do-it Pharisee,"
always on the search for a precept to fulfil and, lastly, the
"dyed Pharisce," whose externals of devotion were but a varnish
of hypocrisy. This strictness was, in fact, often only apparent,
and concealed in reality great moral laxity. The people,
nevertheless, were duped by it. The people, whose instinct is 


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always right, even when it is most astray respecting individuals,
is very easily deceived by false devotees. That which it loves in
them is good and worthy of being loved; but it has not sufficient
penetration to distinguish the appearance from the reality.

     It is easy to understand the antipathy which, in such an
impassioned state of society, must necessarily break out between
Jesus and persons of this character. Jesus recognized only the
religion of the heart, while that of the Pharisees consisted
almost exclusively in observances. Jesus sought the humble and
outcasts of all kinds, and the Pharisees saw in this an insult to
their religion of respectability. The Pharisee was an infallible
and faultless man, a pedant always right in his own conceit,
taking the first place in the synagogue, praying in the street,
giving alms to the sound of a trumpet, and caring greatly for
salutations. Jesus maintained that each one ought to await the
kingdom of God with fear and trembling. The bad religious
tendency represented by Pharisaism did not reign without
opposition. Many men before or during the time of Jesus, such as
Jesus, son of Sirach (one of the true ancestors of Jesus of
Nazareth), Gamaliel, Antigonus of Soco, and especially the gentle
and noble Hillel, had taught much more elevated, and almost
Gospel, doctrines. But these good seeds had been choked. The
beautiful maxims of Hillel, summing up the whole Law as equity,
those of Jesus, son of Sirach, making worship consist in doing
good, were forgotten or anathematized, Shammai, with his narrow
and exclusive spirit, had prevailed. An enormous mass of
"traditions" had stifled the Law, under pretext of protecting and
interpreting it. Doubtless these conservative measures had their
share of usefulness; it is well that the Jewish people loved its
Law even to excess, since it is this frantic love which, in
saving Mosaism under Antiochus Epiphanes and under Herod, has
preserved the leaven from which Christianity was to emanate. But,
taken in themselves, all these old precautions were only puerile.
The synagogue, which was the depository of them, was no more than
a parent of error. Its reign was ended; and yet to require its
abdication was to require the impossible, that which an
established power has never done or been able to do.

     The conflicts of Jesus with official hypocrisy were
continual. The ordinary tactics of the reformers who appeared in
the religious state which we have just described, and which might
be called "traditional formalism," were to oppose the "text" of
the sacred books to "traditions." Religions zeal is always an
innovator, even when it pretends to be in the highest degree
conservative. Just as the neo-Catholics of our days become more
and more remote from the Gospel, so the Pharisees left the Bible
at each step more and more. This is why the Puritan reformer is
generally essentially " biblical," taking the unchangeable text
for his basis in criticizing the current theology, which has
changed with each generation. Thus acted later the Karaites and
the Protestants. Jesus applied the axe to the root of the tree
much more energetically. We see him sometimes, it is true, invoke
the text against the false Masores or traditions of the
Pharisees. But in general he dwelt little on exegesis -- it was
the conscience to which he appealed. With one stroke he cut
through both text and commentaries. He showed indeed to the 


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Pharisees that they seriously perverted Mosaism by their
traditions, but he by no means pretended himself to return to
Mosaism. His mission was concerned with the future, not with the
past. Jesus was more than the reformer of an obsolete religion;
he was the creator of the eternal religion of humanity.

     Disputes broke out especially respecting a number of
external practices introduced by tradition, which neither Jesus
nor his disciples observed. The Pharisees reproached him sharply
for this. When he dined with them, he scandalized them much by
not observing the customary ablutions. "Give alms," said he, "of
such things as ye have; and behold, all things are clean unto
you." That which in the highest degree hurt his refined feeling
was the air of assurance which the Pharisees carried into
religious matters; their paltry worship, which ended in a vain
seeking after precedents and titles, to the utter neglect of the
improvement of their hearts. An admirable parable rendered this
thought with infinite charm and justice. "Two men," said he,
"went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the
other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with
himself: God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I
fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And
the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his
eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be
merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his
house justified rather than the other."

     A hate which death alone could satisfy was the consequence
of these struggles. John the Baptist had already provoked
enmities of the same kind. But the aristocrats of Jerusalem, who
despised him, had allowed simple men to take him for a prophet.
In the case of Jesus, however, the war was to the death. A new
spirit had appeared in the world, causing all that preceded to
pale before it. John the Baptist was completely a Jew; Jesus was
scarcely one at all. Jesus always appealed to the delicacy of the
moral sentiment. He was only a disputant when he argued against
the Pharisees, his opponents forcing him, as generally happens,
to adopt their tone. His exquisite irony, his arch and provoking
remarks, always struck home. They were everlasting stigmas, and
have remained festering in the wound. This Nessus-shirt of
ridicule which the Jew, son of the Pharisees, has dragged in
tatters after him during eighteen centuries, was woven by Jesus
with a divine skill. Masterpieces of fine raillery, their
features are written in lines of fire upon the flesh of the
hypocrite and the false devotee. Incomparable traits, worthy of a
son of God! A god alone knows how to kill after this fashion.
Socrates and Moliere only touched the skin. He carried fire and
rage to the very marrow.

     But it was also just that this great master of irony should
pay for his triumph with his life. Even in Galilee the Pharisees
sought to ruin him, and employed against him the manoeuvre which
ultimately succeeded at jerusalem. They endeavored to interest in
their quarrel the partisans of the new political faction which
was established. The facilities Jesus found for escape in
Galilee, and the weakness of the government of Antipas, baffled 


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these attempts. He ran into danger of his own free will. He saw
clearly that his action, if he remained confined to Galilee, was
necessarily limited. Judea drew him as by a charm; he wished to
try a last effort to gain the rebellious city; and seemed anxious
to fulfil the proverb -- that a prophet must not die outside
Jerusalem.

                           CHAPTER XXI

               LAST JOURNEY OF JESUS TO JERUSALEM

     JESUS had for a long time been sensible of the dangers that
surrounded him. During a period of time which we may estimate at
eighteen months, he avoided going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
At the feast of Tabernacles of the year 32 (according to the
hypothesis we have adopted) his relations, always malevolent and
incredulous, pressed him to go there. The evangelist John seems
to insinuate that there was some hidden project to ruin him in
this invitation. "Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy
disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no
man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be
known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the
world." Jesus, suspecting some treachery, at first refused; but
when the caravan of pilgrims had set out, he started on the
journey, unknown to everyone, and almost alone. It was the last
farewell which he bade to Galilee. The feast of Tabernacles fell
at the autumnal equinox. Six months still had to elapse before
the fatal denouement. But during this interval Jesus saw no more
his beloved provinces of the north. The pleasant days had passed
away; he must now traverse, step by step, the painful path that
will terminate only in the anguish of death.

     His disciples, and the pious women who tended him, met him
again in Judea. But how much everything was changed for him
there! Jesus was a stranger at Jerusalem. He felt that there was
a wall of resistance he could not penetrate. Surrounded by snares
and difficulties, he was unceasingly pursued by the ill-will of
the Pharisees. Instead of that illimitable faculty of belief,
happy gift of youthful natures, which he found in Galilee --
instead of those good and gentle people, among whom objections
(always the fruit of some degree of ill-will and indocility) had
no existence, he met there at each step an obstinate incredulity,
upon which the means of action that had so well succeeded in the
north had little effect. His disciples were despised as being
Galileans. Nicodemus, who, on one of his former journeys, had had
a conversation with him by night, almost compromised himself with
the Sanhedrim by having wished to defend him. "Art thou also of
Galilee?" they said to him. "Search and look: for out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet."

     The city, as we have already said, displeased Jesus. Until
then he had always avoided great centers, preferring for his
action the country and the towns of small importance. Many of the
precepts which he gave to his Apostles were absolutely
inapplicable, except in a simple society of humble men. Having no
idea of the world, and accustomed to the kindly communism of
Galilee, remarks continually escaped him whose simplicity would 


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at Jerusalem appear very singular. His imagination and his love
of nature found themselves constrained within these walls. True
religion does not proceed from the tumult of towns, but from the
tranquil serenity of the fields.

     The arrogance of the priests rendered the courts of the
temple disagreeable to him. One day some of his disciples, who
knew Jerusalem better than he, wished him to notice the beauty of
the buildings of the temple, the admirable choice of materials,
and the richness of the votive offerings that covered the walls.
"Seest thou these buildings?" said he; "there shall not be left
one stone upon another." He refused to admire anything, except it
was a poor widow who passed at that moment and threw a small coin
into the box. "She has cast in more than they all," said he; "for
all these have of their abundance cast unto the offerings of God:
but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had."
This manner of criticizing all he observed at Jerusalem, of
praising the poor who gave little, of slighting the rich who gave
much, and of blaming the opulent priesthood who did nothing for
the good of the people, naturally exasperated the sacerdotal
caste. As the seat of a conservative aristocracy, the temple,
like the Mussulman harem which succeeded it, was the last place
in the world where revolution could prosper. Imagine an innovator
going in our days to preach the overthrow of Islamism round the
mosque of Omar! There, however, was the center of the Jewish
life, the point where it was necessary to conquer or die. On this
Calvary, where certainly Jesus suffered more than at Golgotha,
his days passed away in disputation and bitterness, in the midst
of tedious controversies respecting canonical law and exegesis,
for which his great moral elevation, instead of giving him the
advantage, positively unfitted him.

     In the midst of this troubled life, the sensitive and kindly
heart of Jesus found a refuge, where he enjoyed moments of
sweetness. After having passed the day disputing in the temple,
towards evening Jesus descended into the valley of Kedron, and
rested a while in the orchard of a farming establishment
(probably for the making of oil) named Gethsemane, which served
as a pleasure garden to the inhabitants. Thence he proceeded to
pass the night upon the Mount of Olives, which limits the horizon
of the city on the east. This side is the only one in the
environs of Jerusalem which offers an aspect in any degree
pleasing and verdant. The plantations of olives, figs, and palms
were numerous there, and gave their names to the villages, farms,
or enclosures of Bethphage, Gethsemane, and Bethany. There were
upon the Mount of Olives two great cedars, the memory of which
was long preserved among the dispersed Jews; their branches
served as an asylum to clouds of doves, and under their shade
were established small bazaars. All this precinct was in a manner
the abode of Jesus and his disciples; they knew it field by field
and house by house.

     The village of Bethany, in particular, situated at the
summit of the hill, upon the incline which commands the Dead Sea
and the Jordan, at a journey of an hour and a half from
Jerusalem, was the place especially beloved by jesus. He there
made the acquaintance of a family composed of three persons, two 


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sisters and a brother, whose friendship had a great charm for
him. Of the two sisters, the one named Martha was an obliging,
kind, and assiduous person; the other, named Mary, on the
contrary, pleased Jesus by a sort of languor and by her strongly-
developed speculative instincts. Seated at the feet of Jesus, she
often forgot, in listening to him, the duties of real life. Her
sister, upon whom fell all the duty at such times, gently
complained. "Martha, Martha," said Jesus to her, "thou art
troubled, and carest about many things; now, one thing only is
needful. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken
away." Her brother, Eleazar, or Lazarus, was also much beloved by
Jesus. Lastly, a certain Simon, the leper, who was the owner of
the house, formed, it appears, part of the family. It was there,
in the enjoyment of a pious friendship, that Jesus forgot the
vexations of public life. In this tranquil home he consoled
himself for the bickerings with which the scribes and the
Pharisees unceasingly surrounded him. He often sat on the Mount
of Olives, facing Mount Moriah, having beneath his view the
splendid perspective of the terraces of the temple, and its roofs
covered with glittering plates of metal. This view struck
strangers with admiration; at the rising of the sun, especially,
the sacred mountain dazzled the eyes, and appeared like a mass of
snow and of gold. But a profound feeling of sadness poisoned for
Jesus the spectacle that filled all other Israelites with joy and
pride. He cried out, in his moments of bitterness, "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not."

     It was not that many good people here, as in Galilee, were
not touched; but such was the power of the dominant orthodoxy
that very few dared to confess it. They feared to discredit
themselves in the eyes of the Hierosolymites by placing
themselves in the school of a Galilean. They would have risked
being driven from the synagogue, which, in a mean and bigoted
society, was the greatest degradation. Excommunication, besides,
carried with it the confiscation of all possessions. By ceasing
to be a Jew, a man did not become a Roman; but remained without
protection, in the power of a theocratic legislation of the most
atrocious severity. One day the inferior officers of the temple,
who had been present at one of the discourses of Jesus, and had
been enchanted with it, came to confide their doubts to the
priests: "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on
him?" was the reply to them; "but this people who knoweth not the
Law are cursed." Jesus remained thus at Jerusalem, a provincial
admired by provincials like himself, but rejected by all the
aristocracy of the nation. The chiefs of schools and of sects
were too numerous for anyone to be stirred by seeing one more
appear. His voice made little noise in Jerusalem. The prejudices
of race and of sect, the direct enemies of the spirit of the
Gospel, were too deeply rooted there.

     His teaching in this new world necessarily became much
modified. His beautiful discourses, the effect of which was
always observable upon youthful imaginations and consciences
morally pure, here fell upon stone. He who was so much at his 


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ease on the shores of his charming little lake felt constrained
and not at home in the company of pedants. His perpetual self-
assertion appeared somewhat fastidious. He was obliged to become
controversialist, jurist, exegetist, and theologian. His
conversations, generally so full of charm, became a rolling fire
of disputes, an interminable train of scholastic battles. His
harmonious genius was wasted in insipid argumentations upon the
Law and the prophets, in which we should have preferred not
seeing him sometimes play the part of aggressor. He lent himself,
with a condescension we cannot but regret, to the captious
criticisms to which the merciless cavillers subjected him. In
general, he extricated himself from difficulties with much skill.
His reasonings, it is true, were often subtle (simplicity of mind
and subtlety touch each other; when simplicity reasons, it is
often a little sophistical); we find that sometimes he courted
misconceptions, and prolonged them intentionally; his reasoning,
judged according to the rules of Aristotelian logic, was very
weak. But when the unequalled charm of his mind could be
displayed, he was triumphant. One day it was intended to
embarrass him by presenting to him an adulteress and asking him
what was to be done to her. We know the admirable answer of
Jesus. The fine raillery of a man of the world, tempered by a
divine goodness, could not be expressed in a more exquisite
manner. But the wit which is allied to moral grandeur is that
which fools forgive the least. In pronouncing this sentence of so
just and pure a taste, "He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her," Jesus pierced hypocrisy to the heart,
and with the same stroke sealed his own death-warrant.

     It is probable, in fact, that but for the exasperation
caused by so many bitter shafts, Jesus might long have remained
unnoticed, and have been lost in the dreadful storm which was
soon about to overwhelm the whole Jewish nation. The high
priesthood and the Sadducees had rather disdained than hated him.
The great sacerdotal families, the Boethusim, the family of
Hanan, were only fanatical in their conservatism. The Sadducees,
like Jesus, rejected the "traditions" of the Pharisees. By a very
strange singularity, it was these unbelievers who, denying the
resurrection, the oral Law, and the existence of angels, were the
true Jews. Or rather, as the old Law in its simplicity no longer
satisfied the religious wants of the time, those who strictly
adhered to it, and rejected modern inventions, were regarded by
the devotees as impious, just as an evangelical Protestant of the
present day is regarded as an unbeliever in Catholic countries.
At all events, from such a party no very strong reaction against
Jesus could proceed. The official priesthood, with its attention
turned towards political power, and intimately connected with it,
did not comprehend these enthusiastic movements. It was the
middle-class Pharisees, the innumerable soferim, or scribes,
living on the science of "traditions," who took the alarm, and
whose prejudices and interests were in reality threatened by the
doctrine of the new teacher.

     One of the most constant efforts of the Pharisees was to
involve Jesus in the discussion of political questions, and to
compromise him as connected with the party of Judas the
Gaulonite. These tactics were clever; for it required all the 
deep wisdom of Jesus to avoid collision with the Roman authority 

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while proclaiming the kingdom of God. They wanted to break
through this ambiguity, and compel him to explain himself. One
day a group of Pharisees and of those politicians named
"Herodians" (probably some of the Boethusim), approached him,
and, under pretence of pious zeal, said unto him, "Master, we
know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth,
neither carest thou for any man. Tell us, therefore, what
thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?"
They hoped for an answer which would give them a pretext for
delivering him up to Pilate. The reply of Jesus was admirable. He
made them show him the image on the coin; "Render," said he,
"unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the
things that are God's." Profound words, which have decided the
future of Christianity! Words of a perfected spiritualism, and of
marvelous justness, which have established the separation between
the spiritual and the temporal, and laid the basis of true
liberalism and civilization!

     His gentle and penetrating genius inspired him when alone
with his disciples with accents full of tenderness; "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the
sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief
and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd
of the sheep. The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out. He goeth before them, and
the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. The thief cometh
not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But he that is
an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. I am
the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine; and I
lay down my life for the sheep." The idea that the crisis of
humanity was close at hand frequently recurred to him. "Now,"
said he, "learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is yet
tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.
Lift up your eyes and look on the fields; for they are white
already to harvest."

     His powerful eloquence always burst forth when contending
with hypocrisy. "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and
do; but do not ye after their works: for they say and do not. For
they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on
men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one
of their fingers.

     "But all their works they do to be seen of men; they make
broad their phylacteries, enlarge the borders of their garments,
and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in
the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of
men Rabbi, Rabbi. Woe unto them! ...

     "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you
have taken away the key of knowledge, shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men! for ye neither go in yourselves, neither
suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, for ye
devour widows' houses, and, for a pretence, make long prayers:
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, 


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for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is
made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves!
Woe unto you, for ye are as graves which appear not; and the men
that walk over them are not aware of them.

     "Ye fools, and blind! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cumming and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not
to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a
gnat and swallow a camel. Woo unto you!

     "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for ye make
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within they
are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also.

     "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are
like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all
uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto
them, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

     "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye
build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of
the righteous, and say, 'If we had been in the days of our
fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood
of the prophets.' Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto yourselves,
that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill
ye up then the measure of your fathers. 'Therefore, also,' said
the Wisdom of God, 'I will send unto you prophets and wise men
and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some
of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them
from city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood
shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the
blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the
temple and the altar.' Verily, I say unto you, all these things
shall come upon this generation."

     His terrible doctrine of the substitution of the Gentiles --
the idea that the kingdom of God was about to be transferred to
others, because those for whom it was destined would not receive
it -- is used as a fearful menace against the aristocracy. The
title "Son of God," which he openly assumed in striking parables,
wherein his enemies appeared as murderers of the heavenly
messengers, was as an open defiance to the Judaism of the Law.
The bold appeal he addressed to the poor was still more
seditious. He declared that he had "come that they which see not
might see, and that they which see might be made blind." One day
his dislike of the temple forced from him an imprudent speech: "I
will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within
three days I will build another made without hands." His
disciples found strained allegories in this sentence; but we do
not know what meaning Jesus attached to it. But as only a pretext
was wanted, this sentence was quickly laid hold of. It reappeared
in the preamble of his death warrant, and rang in his ears amid
the last agonies of Golgotha. These irritating discussions always


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ended in tumult. The Pharisees threw stones at him; in doing
which they only fulfilled an article of the Law, which commanded
every prophet, even a thaumaturgus, who should turn the people
from the ancient worship, to be stoned without a hearing. At
other times they called him mad, possessed, Samaritan, and even
sought to kill him. These words were taken note of in order to
invoke against him the laws of an intolerant theocracy, which the
Roman Government had not yet abrogated.

                          CHAPTER XXII

              MACHINATIONS OF THE ENEMIES OF JESUS

     JESUS passed the autumn and a part of the winter at
Jerusalem. This season is there rather cold. The portico of
Solomon, with its covered aisles, was the place where he
habitually walked. This portico consisted of two galleries,
formed by three rows of columns, and covered by a ceiling of
carved wood. It commanded the valley of Kedron, which was
doubtless less covered with debris than it is at the present
time. The depth of the ravine could not be measured from the
height of the portico; and it seemed, in consequence of the angle
of the slopes, as if an abyss opened immediately beneath the
wall. The other side of the valley even at that time was adorned
with sumptuous tombs. Some of the monuments, which may be seen at
the present day, were perhaps those cenotaphs in honor of ancient
prophets which Jesus pointed out, when, seated under the portico,
he denounced the official classes, who covered their hypocrisy or
their vanity by these colossal piles.

     At the end of the month of December he celebrated at
Jerusalem the feast established by Judas Maccabeus in memory of
the purification of the temple after the sacrileges of Antiochus
Epiphanes. It was also called the "Feast of Lights," because,
during the eight days of the feast, lamps were kept lighted in
the houses. Jesus undertook soon after a journey into Perea and
to the banks of the Jordan -- that is to say, into the very
country he had visited some years previously, when he followed
the school of John, and in which he had himself administered
baptism. He seems to have reaped consolation from this journey,
specially at Jericho. This city, as the terminus of several
important routes, or, it may be, on account of its gardens of
spices and its rich cultivation, was a customs station of
importance. The chief receiver, Zaccheus, a rich man, desired to
see Jesus. As he was of small stature, he climbed a sycamore tree
near the road which the procession had to pass. Jesus was touched
with this simplicity in a person of consideration, and, at the
risk of giving offence, he determined to stay with Zaccheus.
There was much dissatisfaction at his honoring the house of a
sinner by this visit. In parting, Jesus declared his host to be a
good son of Abraham; and, as if to add to the vexation of the
orthodox, Zaccheus became a Christian; he gave, it is said, the
half of his goods to the poor, and restored fourfold to those
whom he might have wronged. But this was not the only pleasure
which Jesus experienced there. On leaving the town, the beggar
Bartimeus pleased him much by persisting in calling him "son of
David," although he was told to be silent. The cycle of Galilean 


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miracles appeared for a time to recommence in this country, which
was in many respects similar to the provinces of the north. The
delightful oasis of Jericho, at that time well watered, must have
been one of the most beautiful places in Syria. Josephus speaks
of it with the same admiration as of Galilee, and calls it, like
the latter province, a "divine country."

     After Jesus had completed this kind of pilgrimage to the
scenes of his earliest prophetic activity, he returned to his
beloved abode in Bethany, where a singular event occurred, which
seems to have had a powerful influence on the remaining days of
his life. Tired of the cold reception which the kingdom of God
found in the capital, the friends of Jesus wished for a great
miracle which should strike powerfully the incredulity of the
Hierosolymites. The resurrection of a man known at Jerusalem
appeared to them most likely to carry conviction, We must bear in
mind that the essential condition of true criticism is to
understand the diversity of times, and to rid ourselves of the
instinctive repugnance which are the fruit of a purely rational
education. We must also remember that in this dull and impure
city of Jerusalem Jesus was no longer himself. Not by any fault
of his own, but by that of others, his conscience had lost
something of its original purity. Desperate, and driven to
extremity, he was no longer his own master. His mission
overwhelmed him, and he yielded to the torrent. As always happens
in the lives of great and inspired men, he suffered the miracles
opinion demanded of him rather than performed them. At this
distance of time, and with only a single text, bearing evident
traces of artifices of composition, it is impossible to decide
whether in this instance the whole is fiction, or whether a real
fact which happened at Bethany has served as basis to the rumors
which were spread about it. It must be acknowledged, however,
that the way John narrates the incident differs widely from those
descriptions of miracles, the offspring of the popular
imagination, which fill the Synoptics. Let us add that John is
the only evangelist who has a precise knowledge of the relations
of Jesus with the family of Bethany, and that it is impossible to
believe that a mere creation of the popular mind could exist in a
collection of remembrances so entirely personal. It is, then,
probable that the miracle in question was not one of those purely
legendary ones for which no one is responsible. In other words,
we think that something really happened at Bethany which was
looked upon as a resurrection.

     Fame already attributed to Jesus two or three works of this
kind. The family of Bethany might be led, almost without
suspecting it into taking part in the important act which was
desired. Jesus was adored by them. it seems that Lazarus was
sick, and that in consequence of receiving a message from the
anxious sisters Jesus left Perea. They thought that the joy
Lazarus would feel at his arrival might restore him to-life.
Perhaps, also, the ardent desire of silencing those who violently
denied the divine mission of Jesus carried his enthusiastic
friends beyond all bounds. It may be that Lazarus, still pallid
with disease, caused himself to be wrapped in bandages as if
dead, and shut up in the tomb of his family. These tombs were
large vaults cut in the rock, and were entered by a square
opening, closed by an enormous stone. Martha and Mary went to 

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meet Jesus, and, without allowing him to enter Bethany, conducted
him to the cave. The emotion which Jesus experienced at the tomb
of his friend, whom he believed to be dead, might be taken by
those present for the agitation and trembling which accompanied
miracles. Popular opinion required that the divine virtue should
manifest itself in man as an epileptic and convulsive principle.
Jesus (if we follow the above hypothesis) desired to see once
more him whom he had loved; and, the stone being removed, Lazarus
came forth in his bandages, his head covered with a winding-
sheet. This reappearance would naturally be regarded by everyone
as a resurrection. Faith knows no other law than the interest of
that which it believes to be true. Regarding the object which it
pursues as absolutely holy, it makes no scruple of invoking bad
arguments in support of its thesis when good ones do not succeed.
if such and such a proof be not sound, many others are! If such
and such a wonder be not real, many others have been! Being
intimately persuaded that Jesus was a thaumaturgus, Lazarus and
his two sisters may have aided in the execution of one of his
miracles, just as many pious men who, convinced of the truth of
their religion, have sought to triumph over the obstinacy of
their opponents by means of whose weakness they are well aware.
The state of their conscience was that of the stigmatists, of the
convulsionists, of the possessed ones in convents, drawn, by the
influence of the world in which they live, and by their own
belief, into feigned acts. As to Jesus, he was no more able than
St. Bernard or St. Francis d'Assisi to moderate the avidity for
the marvelous displayed by the multitude, and even by his own
disciples. Death, moreover, in a few days would restore him his
divine liberty, and release him from the fatal necessities of a
position which each day became more exacting and more difficult
to sustain.

     Everything, in fact, seems to lead us to believe that the
miracle of Bethany contributed sensibly to hasten the death of
Jesus. The persons who had been witnesses of it were dispersed
throughout the city, and spoke much about it. The disciples
related the fact, with details as to its performance, prepared in
expectation of controversy. The other miracles of Jesus were
transitory acts, spontaneously accepted by faith, exaggerated by
popular fame, and were not again referred to after they had once
taken place. This was a real event, held to be publicly
notorious, and one by which it was hoped to silence the
Pharisees. The enemies of Jesus were much irritated at all this
fame. They endeavored, it is said, to kill Lazarus. It is certain
that from that time a council of the chief priests was assembled,
and that in this council the question was clearly put: "Can Jesus
and Judaism exist together?" To raise the question was to resolve
it; and, without being a prophet, as thought by the evangelist,
the high priest could easily pronounce his cruel axiom: "It is
expedient that one man should die for the people."

     "The high priest of that same year," to use an expression of
the fourth Gospel, which well expresses the state of abasement to
which the sovereign pontificate was reduced, was Joseph Kaiapha,
appointed by Valerius Gratus, and entirely devoted to the Romans.
From the time that Jerusalem had been under the government of
procurators the office of high priest had been a temporary one; 


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changes in it took place nearly every year. Kaiapha, however,
held it longer than anyone else. He had assumed his office in the
year 25, and he did not lose it till the year 36. His character
is unknown to us, and many circumstances lead to the belief that
his power was only nominal. In fact, another personage is always
seen in conjunction with, and even superior to, him, who, at the
decisive moment we have now reached, seems to have exercised a
preponderating power.

     This personage was Hanan or Annas,  [The Ananus of Josephus.
It is thus that the Hebrew name Johanan became in Greek Joannes,
or Joanslas.]  son of Seth, and father-in-law of Kaiapha. He was
formerly the high priest, and had in reality preserved amid the
numerous changes of the pontificate all the authority of the
office. He had received the high priesthood from the legate
Quirinius in the year 7 of our era. He lost his office in the
year 14, on the accession of Tiberius; but he remained much
respected. He was still called "high priest," although he was out
of office, and he was consulted upon all important matters.
During fifty years the pontificate continued in his family almost
uninterruptedly; five of his sons successively sustained this
dignity, besides Kaiapha, who was his son-in-law. His was called
the "priestly family," as if the priesthood had become hereditary
in it. The chief offices of the temple were almost all filled by
them. Another family, that of Boethus, alternated, it is true,
with that of Hanan's in the pontificate. But the Boethusim, whose
fortunes were of not very honorable origin, were much less
esteemed by the pious middle class. Hanan was then in reality the
chief of the priestly party. Kaiapha did nothing without him; it
was customary to associate their names, and that of Hanan was
always put first. It will be understood, in fact, that under this
regime of an annual pontificate, changed according to the caprice
of the procurators, an old high priest, who had preserved the
Secret of the traditions, who had seen many younger than himself
succeed each other, and who had retained sufficient influence to
get the office delegated to persons who were subordinate to him
in family rank, must have been a very important personage. Like
all the aristocracy of the temple, he was a Sadducee, "a sect,"
says Josephus, "particularly severe in its judgments." All his
sons also were violent persecutors. One of them, named, like his
father, Hanan, caused James, the brother of the Lord, to be
stoned under circumstances not unlike those which surrounded the
death of Jesus. The spirit of the family was haughty, bold, and
cruel; it had that particular kind of proud and sullen wickedness
which characterizes Jewish politicians. Therefore, upon this
Hanan and his family must rest the responsibility of all the acts
which followed. It was Hanan (or the party he represented) who
killed Jesus. Hanan was the principal actor in the terrible
drama, and far more than Kaiapha, far more than Pilate, ought to
bear the weight of the maledictions of mankind.

     it is in the mouth of Kaiapha that the evangelist places the
decisive words which led to the death of Jesus. It was supposed
that the high priest possessed a certain gift of prophecy; his
declaration thus became an oracle full of profound meaning to the
Christian community. But such an expression, whoever he might be
that pronounced it, was the feeling of the whole sacerdotal 


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party. This party was much opposed to popular seditions. It
sought to put down religious enthusiasts, rightly foreseeing that
by their excited preachings they would lead to the total ruin of
the nation. Although the excitement created by Jesus was in
nowise temporal, the priests saw, as an ultimate consequence of
this agitation, an aggravation of the Roman yoke and the
overturning of the temple, the source of their riches and honors.
Certainly the causes which, thirty-seven years after, were to
effect the ruin of Jerusalem did not arise from infant
Christianity. They arose in Jerusalem itself, and not in Galilee.
We cannot, however, say that the motive alleged in this
circumstance by the priests was so improbable that we must
necessarily regard it as insincere. In a general sense, Jesus, if
he had succeeded, would have really effected the ruin of the
Jewish nation. According to the principles, universally admitted
by all ancient polity, Hanan and Kaiapha were right in saying:
"Better the death of one man than the rain of a people!" In our
opinion this reasoning is detestable. But it has been that of
conservative parties from the commencement of all human society.
The "party of order" (I use this expression in its mean and
narrow sense) has ever been the same. Deeming the highest duty of
government to be the prevention of popular disturbances, it
believes it performs an act of patriotism in preventing, by
judicial murder, the tumultuous effusion of blood. Little
thoughtful of the future, it does not dream that, in declaring
war against all innovations, it incurs the risk of crushing ideas
destined one day to triumph. The death of Jesus was one of the
thousand illustrations of this policy. The movement he directed
was entirely spiritual, but it was still a movement; hence the
men of order, persuaded that it was essential for humanity not to
be disturbed, felt themselves bound to prevent the new spirit
from extending itself. Never was seen a more striking example of
how much such a course of procedure defeats its own object. Left
free, Jesus would have exhausted himself in a desperate struggle
with the impossible. The unintelligent hate of his enemies
decided the success of his work, and sealed his divinity.

     The death of Jesus was thus resolved upon from the month of
February or the beginning of March. But he still escaped for a
short time. He withdrew to an obscure town called Ephraim or
Ephron, in the direction of Bethel, a short day's journey from
Jerusalem. He spent a few days there with his disciples, letting
the storm pass over. But the order to arrest him the moment he
appeared at Jerusalem was given. The feast of the Passover was
drawing nigh, and it was thought that Jesus, according to his
custom, would come to celebrate it at Jerusalem.  [For the order
of the events, in all this part we follow the system of John. The
Synoptics appear to have little information as to the period of
the life of Jesus which precedes the Passion.]

                          CHAPTER XXIII

                       LAST WEEK OF JESUS

     JESUS did, in fact, set out with his disciples to see once
more, and for the last time, the unbelieving city. The hopes of
his companions were more and more exalted. All believed, in going
up to Jerusalem, that the kingdom of God was about to be realized

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there. The impiety of men being at its height was regarded as a
great sign that the consummation was at hand. The persuasion in
this sect was such that they already disputed for precedence in
the kingdom. This was, it is said, the moment chosen by Salome to
ask, on behalf of her sons, the two seats on the right and left
of the Son of man. The Master, on the other hand, was beset by
grave thoughts. Sometimes he allowed a gloomy resentment against
his enemies to appear; he related the parable of a nobleman who
went to take possession of a kingdom in a far country; but no
sooner had he gone than his fellow-citizens wished to get rid of
him. The king returned, and commanded those who had conspired
against him to be brought before him, and had them all put to
death. At other times he summarily destroyed the illusions of the
disciples. As they marched along the stony roads to the north of
Jerusalem, Jesus pensively preceded the group of his companions.
All regarded him in silence, experiencing a feeling of fear, and
not daring to interrogate him. Already, on various occasions, he
had spoken to them of his future sufferings, and they had
listened to him reluctantly. Jesus at last spoke to them, and, no
longer concealing his presentiments, discoursed to them of his
approaching end. There was great sadness in the whole company.
The disciples were expecting soon to see the sign appear in the
clouds. The inaugural cry of the kingdom of God, "Blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord," resounded already in joyous
accents in their ears. The fearful prospect he foreshadowed
troubled them. At each step of the fatal road the kingdom of God
became nearer or more remote in the mirage of their dreams. As to
Jesus he became confirmed in the idea that he was about to die,
but that his death would save the world. The misunderstanding
between him and his disciples became greater each moment.

     The custom was to come to Jerusalem several days before the
Passover, in order to prepare for it. Jesus arrived late, and at
one time his enemies thought they were frustrated in their hope
of seizing him. The sixth day before the feast (Saturday, 8th of
Nisan, equal to the 28th March) he at last reached Bethany. He
entered, according to his custom, the house of Lazarus, Martha
and Mary, or of Simon the leper. They gave him a great reception.
There was a dinner at Simon the leper's, where many persons were
assembled, drawn thither by the desire of Seeing him, and also of
seeing Lazarus, of whom for some time so many things had been
related. Lazarus was seated at the table, and attracted much
attention. Martha served, according to her custom. It seems that
they sought, by an increased show of respect, to overcome the
coolness of the public, and to assert the high dignity of their
guest. Mary, in order to give to the event a more festive
appearance, entered during dinner, bearing a vase of perfume,
which she poured upon the feet of Jesus. She afterwards broke the
vase, according to an ancient custom by which the vessel that had
been employed in the entertainment of a stranger of distinction
was broken. Then, to testify her worship in an extraordinary
manner, she prostrated herself at the feet of her Master and
wiped them with her long hair. All the house was filled with the
odor of the perfume, to the great delight of everyone except the
avaricious Judas of Kerioth. Considering the economical habits of
the community, this was certainly prodigality. The greedy
treasurer calculated immediately how much the perfume might have 


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been sold for, and what it would have realized for the poor. This
not very affectionate feeling, which seemed to place something
above Jesus, dissatisfied him. He liked to be honored, for honors
served his aim and established his title of son of David.
Therefore, when they spoke to him of the poor, he replied rather
sharply: "Ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not
always." And, exalting himself, he promised immortality to the
woman who in this critical moment gave him a token of love.

     The next day (Sunday, 9th of Nisan) Jesus descended from
Bethany to Jerusalem. When, at a bend of the road, upon the
summit of the Mount of Olives, he saw the city spread before him,
it is said he wept over it, and addressed to it a last appeal. At
the base of the mountain, at some steps from the gate, on
entering the neighboring portion of the eastern wall of the city,
which was called Bethphage, no doubt on account of the fig-trees
with which it was planted, he had experienced a momentary
pleasure. His arrival was noised abroad. The Galileans who had
come to the feast were highly elated, and prepared a little
triumph for him. An ass was brought to him, followed, according
to custom, by its colt. The Galileans spread their finest
garments upon the back of this humble animal as saddle-cloths,
and seated him thereon. Others, however, spread their garments
upon the road, and strewed it with green branches. The multitude
which preceded and followed him, carrying palms, cried: "Hosanna
to the son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord!" Some persons even gave him the title of king of Israel.
"Master, rebuke thy disciples," said the Pharisees to him. "If
these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry
out," replied Jesus, and he entered into the city. The
Hierosolymites, who scarcely knew him, asked who he was. "It is
Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, in Galilee," was the reply.
Jerusalem was a city of about 50,000 souls. A trifling event,
such as the entrance of a stranger, however little celebrated, or
the arrival of a band of provincials, or a movement of people to
the avenues of the city, could not fail, under ordinary
circumstances, to be quickly noised about. But at the time of the
feast the confusion was extreme. Jerusalem at these times was
taken possession of by strangers. It was among the latter that
the excitement appears to have been most lively. Some proselytes,
speaking Greek, who had come to the feast, had their curiosity
piqued, and wished to see Jesus. They addressed themselves to his
disciples; but we do not know the result of the interview. Jesus,
according to his custom, went to pass the night at his beloved
village of Bethany. The three following days (Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday) he descended regularly to Jerusalem; and, after
the setting of the sun, he returned either to Bethany, or to the
farms on the western side of the Mount of Olives, where he had
many friends.

     A deep melancholy appears, during these last days, to have
filled the soul of Jesus, who was generally so joyous and serene.
All the narratives agree in relating that before his arrest he
underwent a short experience of doubt and trouble; a kind of
anticipated agony. According to some, he suddenly exclaimed, "Now
is my soul troubled. O Father, save me from this hour." It was
believed that a voice from heaven was heard at this moment: 


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others said that an angel came to console him. According to one
widely-spread version, the incident took place in the garden of
Gethsemany. Jesus, it was said, went about a stone's throw from
his sleeping disciples, taking with him only Peter and the two
sons of Zebedee, and fell on his face and prayed. His soul was
sad even unto death; a terrible anguish weighed upon him; but
resignation to the Divine will sustained him. This scene, owing
to the instinctive art which regulated the compilation of the
Synoptics, and often led them in the arrangement of the narrative
to study adaptability and effect, has been given as occurring on
the last night of the life of Jesus, and at the precise moment of
his arrest. If this version were the true one, we should scarcely
understand why John, who had been the intimate witness of so
touching an episode, should not mention it in the very
circumstantial narrative which he has furnished of the evening of
the Thursday. All that we can safely say is, that during his last
days the enormous weight of the mission he had accepted pressed
cruelly upon Jesus. Human nature asserted itself for a time.
Perhaps he began to hesitate about his work. Terror and doubt
took possession of him, and threw him into a state of exhaustion
worse than death. He who has sacrificed his repose and the
legitimate rewards of life to a great idea always experiences a
feeling of revulsion when the image of death presents itself to
him for the first time, and seeks to persuade him that all has
been in vain. Perhaps some of those touching reminiscences which
the strongest souls preserve, and which at times pierce like a
sword, came upon him at this moment. Did he remember the clear
fountains of Galilee where he was wont to refresh himself; the
vine and the fig-tree under which he had reposed, and the young
maidens who, perhaps, would have consented to love him? Did he
curse the hard destiny which had denied him the joys conceded to
all others? Did he regret his too lofty nature, and, victim of
his greatness, did he mourn that he had not remained a simple
artisan of Nazareth? We know not. For all these internal troubles
evidently were a sealed letter to his disciples. They understood
nothing of them, and supplied by simple conjectures that which in
the great soul of their Master was obscure to them. It is certain
at least that his Divine nature soon regained the supremacy. He
might still have avoided death; but he would not. Love for his
work sustained him. He was willing to drink the cup to the dregs.
Henceforth we behold Jesus entirely himself; his character
unclouded. The subtleties of the polemic, the credulity of the
thaumaturgus and of the exorcist, are forgotten. There remains
only the incomparable hero of the Passion, the founder of the
rights of the free conscience, and the complete model which all
suffering souls will contemplate in order to fortify and console
themselves.

     The triumph of Bethphage -- that bold act of the provincials
in celebrating at the very gates of Jerusalem the advent of their
Messiah-King -- completed the exasperation of the Pharisees and
the aristocracy of the temple. A new council was held on the
Wednesday (12th of Nisan) in the house of Joseph Kaiapha. The
immediate arrest of Jesus was resolved upon. A great idea of
order and of conservative policy governed all their plans. The
desire was to avoid a scene. As the feast of the Passover, which
commenced that year on the Friday evening, was a time of bustle 


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and excitement, it was resolved to anticipate it. Jesus being
popular, they feared an outbreak; the arrest was therefore fixed
for the next day, Thursday. It was resolved, also, not to seize
him in tho temple, where he came every day, but to observe his
habits, in order to seize him in some retired place. The agents
of the priests sounded his disciples, hoping to obtain useful
information from their weakness or their simplicity. They found
what they sought in Judas of Kerioth. This wretch, actuated by
motives impossible to explain, betrayed his Master, gave all the
necessary information, and even undertook himself (although such
an excess of vileness is scarcely credible) to guide the troop
which was to effect his arrest. The remembrance of horror which
the folly or the wickedness of this man has left in the Christian
tradition has doubtless given rise to some exaggeration on this
point. Judas until then had been a disciple like the others; he
had even the title of Apostle; and he had performed miracles and
driven out demons. Legend, which always uses strong and decisive
language, describes the occupants of the little supper room as
eleven saints and one reprobate. Reality does not proceed by such
absolute categories. Avarice, which the Snoptics give as the
motive of the crime in question, does not suffice to explain it.
It would be very singular if the man who kept the purse, and who
knew what he would lose by the death of his chief, were to
abandon the profits of his occupation in exchange for a very
small sum of money. Had the self-love of Judas been wounded by
the rebuff which he had received at the dinner at Bethany? Even
that would not explain his conduct. John would have us regard him
as a thief, an unbeliever from the beginning, for which, however,
there is no probability. We would rather ascribe it to some
feeling of jealousy or to some dissension among the disciples.
The peculiar hatred John manifests towards Judas confirms this
hypothesis. Less pure in heart than the others, Judas had, from
the very nature of his office, become unconsciously narrow-
minded. By a caprice very common to men engaged in active duties,
he had come to regard the interests of the treasury as superior
even to those of the work for which it was intended. The
treasurer had overcome the Apostle. The murmurings which escaped
him at Bethany seem to indicate that sometimes he thought the
Master cost his spiritual family too dear. No doubt this mean
economy had caused many other collisions in the little society.

     Without denying that judas of Kerioth may have contributed
to the arrest of his Master, we still believe that the curses
with which he is loaded are somewhat unjust. There was, perhaps,
in his deed more awkwardness than perversity. The moral
conscience of the man of the people is quick and correct, but
unstable and inconsistent. it is at the mercy of the impulse of
the moment. The secret societies of the republican party were
characterized by much earnestness and sincerity, and yet their
denouncers were very numerous. A trifling spite sufficed to
convert a partisan into a traitor. But if the foolish desire for
a few pieces of silver turned the head of poor Judas, he does not
seem to have lost the moral sentiment completely, since, when he
had seen the consequences of his fault, he repented, and, it is
said, killed himself.




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     Each moment of this eventful period is solemn, and counts
more than whole ages in the history of humanity. We have arrived
at the Thursday, 13th of Nisan (2nd April). The evening of the
next day commenced the festival of the Passover, begun by the
feast in which the Paschal lamb was eaten. The festival continued
for seven days, during which unleavened bread was eaten. The
first and the last of these seven days were peculiarly solemn.
The disciples were already occupied with preparations for the
feast. As to Jesus, we are led to believe that he knew of the
treachery of Judas, and that he suspected the fate that awaited
him. In the evening he took his last repast with his disciples.
It was not the ritual feast of the passover, as was afterwards
supposed, owing to an error of a day in reckoning; but for the
primitive Church this supper of the Thursday was the true
passover, the seat of the new covenant. Each disciple connected
with it his most cherished remembrances, and numerous touching
traits of the Master which each one preserved were associated
with this repast, which became the corner-stone of Christian
piety and the starting-point of the most fruitful institutions.

     Doubtless the tender love which filled the heart of Jesus
for the little Church which surrounded him overflowed at this
moment, and his strong and serene soul became buoyant, even under
the weight of the gloomy preoccupations that beset him. He had a
word for each of his friends; two among them especially, John and
Peter, were the objects of tender marks of attachment. John (at
least, according to his own account) was reclining on the divan,
by the side of Jesus, his head resting upon the breast of the
Master. Towards the end of the repast the secret which weighed
upon the heart of Jesus almost escaped him: he said, "Verily I
say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." To these simple
men this was a moment of anguish; they looked at each other, and
each questioned himself. Judas was present; perhaps Jesus, who
had for some time had reasons to suspect him, sought by this
expression to draw from his looks or from his embarrassed manner
the confession of his fault. But the unfaithful disciple did not
lose countenance; he even dared, it is said, to ask with the
others: "Master, is it I?"

     Meanwhile, the good and upright soul of Peter was in
torture. He made a sign to John to endeavor to ascertain of whom
the Master spoke. John, who could converse with Jesus without
being heard, asked him the meaning of this enigma. Jesus, having
only suspicions, did not wish to pronounce any name; he only told
John to observe to whom he was going to offer a sop. At the same
time, he soaked the bread and offered it to Judas. John and Peter
alone had cognisance of the fact. Jesus addressed to Judas words
which contained a bitter reproach, but which were not understood
by those present; and he left the company. They thought that
Jesus was simply giving him orders for the morrow's feast.

     At the time this repast struck no one; and apart from the
apprehensions which the Master confided to his disciples, who
only half understood them, nothing extraordinary took place. But
after the death of Jesus they attached to this evening a
singularly solemn meaning, and the imagination of believers
spread a coloring of sweet mysticism over it. The last hours of a


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cherished friend are those we best remember. By an inevitable
illusion, we attribute to the conversations we have then had with
him a meaning which death alone gives to them; we concentrate
into a few hours the memories of many years. The greater part of
the disciples saw their Master no more after the supper of which
we have just spoken. It was the farewell banquet. In this repast,
as in many others, Jesus practiced his mysterious rite of the
breaking of bread. As it was early believed that the repast in
question took place on the day of the Passover, and was the
Paschal feast, the idea naturally arose that the Eucharistic
institution was established at this supreme moment. Starting from
the hypothesis that Jesus knew beforehand the precise moment of
his death, the disciples were led to suppose that he reserved a
number of important acts for his last hours. As, moreover, one of
the fundamental ideas of the first Christians was that the death
of Jesus had been a sacrifice, replacing all those of the ancient
Law, the "Last Supper," which was supposed to have taken place,
once for all, on the eve of the Passion, became the supreme
sacrifice -- the act which constituted the new alliance -- the
sign of the blood shed for the salvation of all. The bread and
wine, placed in connection with death itself, were thus the image
of the new testament that Jesus had sealed with his sufferings --
the commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ until his advent.

     Very early this mystery was embodied in a small sacramental
narrative, which we possess under four forms, very similar to one
another. John, preoccupied with the Eucharistic ideas, and who
relates the Last Supper with so much prolixity, connecting with
it so many circumstances and discourses, and who was the only one
of the evangelists whose testimony on this point has the value of
an eyewitness, does not mention this narrative. This is a proof
that he did not regard the Eucharist as a peculiarity of the
Lord's Supper. For him the special rite of the Last Supper was
the washing of feet. It is probable that in certain primitive
Christian families this latter rite obtained an importance which
it has since lost. No doubt Jesus on some occasions had practiced
it to give his disciples an example of brotherly humility. It was
connected with the eve of his death, in consequence of the
tendency to group around the Last Supper all the great moral and
ritual recommendations of Jesus.

     A high sentiment of love, of concord, of charity, and of
mutual deference, animated, moreover, the remembrances which were
cherished of the last hours of Jesus. It is always the unity of
his Church, constituted by him or by his Spirit, which is the
soul of the symbols and of the discourses which Christian
tradition referred to this sacred moment: "A new commandment I
give unto you," said he, "that ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not
what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all
things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
These things I command you, that ye love one another." At this
last moment there were again evoked rivalries and struggles for
precedence. Jesus remarked that if he, the Master, had been in
the midst of his disciples as their servant, how much more ought 


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they to submit themselves to one another. According to some, in
drinking the wine, he said, "I will not drink henceforth of this
fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in
my Father's kingdom." According to others, he promised them soon
a celestial feast, where they would be seated on thrones at his
side.

     It seems that towards the end of the evening the
presentiments of Jesus took hold of the disciples. All felt that
a very serious danger threatened the Master, and that they were
approaching a crisis. At one time Jesus thought of precautions
and spoke of swords. There were two in the company. "It is
enough," said he. He did not, however, follow out this idea; he
saw clearly that timid provincials would not stand before the
armed force of all the great powers of Jerusalem. Peter, full of
zeal, and feeling sure of himself, swore that he would go with
him to prison and to death. Jesus, with his usual acuteness,
expressed doubts about him. According to a tradition, which
probably came from Peter himself, Jesus declared that Peter would
deny him before the crowing of the cock. All, like Peter, swore
that they would remain faithful to him.

                          CHAPTER XXIV

                    ARREST AND TRIAL OF JESUS

     IT was nightfall when they left the room. Jesus, according
to his custom, passed through the valley of Kedron; and
accompanied by his disciples, went to the garden of Gethsemane,
at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and sat down there. Overawing
his friends by his inherent greatness, he watched and prayed.
They were sleeping near him, when all at once an armed troop
appeared bearing lighted torches. It was the guards of the
temple, armed with staves, a kind of police under the control of
priests. They were supported by a detachment of Roman soldiers
with their swords. The order for the arrest emanated from the
high priest and Sanhedrim. Judas, knowing the habits of Jesus,
had indicated this place as the one where he might most easily be
surprised. Judas, according to the unanimous tradition of the
earliest times, accompanied the detachment himself; and,
according to some, he carried his hateful conduct even to
betraying him with a kiss. However this may be, it is certain
that there was some show of resistance on the part of the
disciples. One of them (Peter, according to eye-witnesses) drew
his sword, and wounded the ear of one of the servants of the high
priest, named Malchus. Jesus restrained this opposition, and gave
himself up to the soldiers. Weak and incapable of effectual
resistance, especially against authorities who had so much
prestige, the disciples took flight, and became dispersed; Peter
and John alone did not lose sight of their Master. Another
unknown young man followed him, covered with a light garment.
They sought to arrest him, but the young man fled, leaving his
tunic in the hands of the guards.

     The course which the priests had resolved to take against
Jesus was quite in conformity with the established law. The
procedure against the "corrupter" (mesith) who sought to injure 
the purity of religion is explained in the Talmud, with details 

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the naive impudence of which provokes a smile. A judicial ambush
is there made an essential part of the examination of criminals.
When a man was accused of being a "corrupter," two witnesses were
suborned, who were concealed behind a partition. It was arranged
to bring the accused into a contiguous room, where he could be
heard by these two without his perceiving them. Two candles were
lighted near him in order that it might be satisfactorily proved
that the witnesses "saw him." He was then made to repeat his
blasphemy, and urged to retract it. If he persisted, the
witnesses who had heard him conducted him to the tribunal, and he
was stoned to death. The Talmud adds that this was the manner in
which they treated Jesus; that he was condemned on the faith of
two witnesses who had been suborned, and that the crime of
"corruption" is, moreover, the only one for which the witnesses
are thus prepared.

     We learn from the disciples of Jesus themselves that the
crime with which their Master was charged was that of
"corruption"; and, apart from some minutiae, the fruit of the
rabbinical imagination, the narrative of the Gospels corresponds
exactly with the procedure described by the Talmud. The plan of
the enemies of Jesus was to convict him, by the testimony of
witnesses and by his own avowals, of blasphemy, and of outrage
against the Mosaic religion, to condemn him to death according to
law, and then to get the condemnation sanctioned by Pilate. The
priestly authority, as we have already seen, was in reality
entirely in the hands of Hanan. The order for the arrest probably
came from him. It was before this powerful personage that Jesus
was first brought. Hanan questioned him as to his doctrine and
his disciples. Jesus, with proper pride, refused to enter into
long explanations. He referred Hanan to his teachings, which had
been public; he declared he had never held any secret doctrine;
and desired the ex-high priest to interrogate those who had
listened to him. This answer was perfectly natural; but the
exaggerated respect with which the old priest was surrounded made
it appear audacious; and one of those present replied to it, it
is said, by a blow.

     Peter and John had followed their Master to the dwelling of
Hanan. John, who was known in the house, was admitted without
difficulty; but Peter was stopped at the entrance, and John was
obliged to beg the porter to let him pass. The night was cold.
Peter stopped in the antechamber, and approached a brasier, round
which the servants were warming themselves. He was soon
recognized as a disciple of the accused. The unfortunate man,
betrayed by his Galilean accent, and pestered by questions from
the servants, one of whom, a kinsman of Malchus, had seen him at
Gethsemane, denied thrice that he had ever had the least
connection with Jesus. He thought that Jesus could not hear him,
and never imagined that this cowardice, which he sought to hide
by his dissimulation, was exceedingly dishonorable. But his
better nature soon revealed to him the fault he had committed. A
fortuitous circumstance, the crowing of the cock, recalled to him
a remark which Jesus had made. Touched to the heart, he went out
and wept bitterly.

 


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     Hanan, although the true author of the judicial murder about
to be accomplished, had not power to pronounce the sentence upon
Jesus; he sent him to his son-in-law, Kaiapha, who bore the
official title. This man, the blind instrument of his father-in-
law, would naturally ratify everything that had been done. The
Sanhedrim was assembled at his house. The inquiry commenced; and
several witnesses, prepared beforehand according to the
inquisitorial process described in the Talmud, appeared before
the tribunal. The fatal sentence which Jesus had really uttered,
"I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three
days," was cited by two witnesses. To blaspheme the temple of God
was according to the Jewish law, to blaspheme God himself. Jesus
remained silent, and refused to explain the incriminating speech.
If we may believe one version, the high priest then adjured him
to say if he were the Messiah; Jesus confessed it, and proclaimed
before the assembly the near approach of his heavenly reign. The
courage of Jesus, who had resolved to die, renders this narrative
superfluous. It is probable that here, as when before Hanan, he
remained silent. This was in general his rule of conduct during
his last moments. The sentence was settled; and they only sought
for pretexts. Jesus felt this, and did not undertake a useless
defence. In the light of orthodox Judaism, he was truly a
blasphemer, a destroyer of the established worship. Now, these
crimes were punished by the law with death. With one voice the
assembly declared him guilty of a capital crime. The members of
the council who secretly leaned to him were absent or did not
vote. The frivolity which characterizes old established
aristocracies did not permit the judges to reflect long upon the
consequences of the sentence they had passed. Human life was at
that time very lightly sacrificed; doubtless the members of the
Sanhedrim did not dream that their sons would have to render
account to an angry posterity for the sentence pronounced with
such careless disdain.

     The Sanhedrim had not the right to execute a sentence of
death. But, in the confusion of powers which then reigned in
Judea, Jesus was, from that moment, none the less condemned. He
remained the rest of the night exposed to the ill treatment of an
infamous pack of servants, who spared him no indignity.

     In the morning the chief priests and the elders again
assembled. The point was to get Pilate to ratify the condemnation
pronounced by the Sanhedrim, which, since the occupation of the
Romans, was no longer sufficient. The procurator was not
invested, like the imperial legate, with the disposal of life and
death. But Jesus was not a Roman citizen; it only required the
authorization of the governor in order that the sentence
pronounced against him should take its course. As always happens
when a political people subjects a nation in which the civil and
religious laws are confounded, the Romans had been brought to
give to the Jewish law a sort of official support. The Roman law
did not apply to Jews. The latter remained under the canonical
law which we find recorded in the Talmud, just as the Arabs in
Algeria are still governed by the code of Islamism. Although
neutral in religion, the Romans thus very often sanctioned
penalties inflicted for religious faults. The situation was
nearly that of the sacred cities of India under the English 


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dominion, or rather that which would be the state of Damascus if
Syria were conquered by a European nation. Josephus asserts,
though this may be doubted, that, if a Roman trespassed beyond
the pillars which bore inscriptions forbidding pagans to advance,
the Romans themselves would have delivered him to the Jews to be
put to death.

     The agents of the priests therefore bound Jesus and led him
to the judgment-hall, which was the former palace of Herod,
adjoining the Tower of Antonia. It was the morning of the day on
which the Paschal lamb was to be eaten. (Friday the 14th of
Nisan, our April 3rd.) The Jews would have been defiled by
entering the judgment-hall, and would not have been able to share
in the sacred feast. They therefore remained without. Pilate,
being informed of their presence ascended the bima or tribunal,
situated in the open air, at the place named Gabbatha, or, in
Greek, Lithostrotos, on account of the pavement which covered the
ground.

     He had scarcely been informed of the accusation before he
displayed his annoyance at being mixed up with this affair. He
then shut himself up in the judgment-hall with Jesus. There a
conversation took place, the precise details of which are lost,
no witness having been able to repeat it to the disciples, but
the tenour of which appears to have been well divined by John.
His narrative, in fact, perfectly accords with what history
teaches us of the mutual position of the two interlocutors.

     The procurator, Pontius, surnamed Pilate, doubtless on
account of the pilum or javelin of honor with which he or one of
his ancestors was decorated, had hitherto had no relation with
the new sect. Indifferent to the internal quarrels of the Jews,
he only saw, in all these movements of sectaries, the results of
intemperate imaginations and disordered brains. In general, he
did not like the Jews, but the Jews detested him still more. They
thought him hard, scornful, and passionate, and accused him of
improbable crimes.

     Jerusalem, the center of a great national fermentation, was
a very seditious city, and an insupportable abode for a
foreigner. The enthusiasts pretended that it was a fixed design
of the new procurator to abolish the Jewish law. Their narrow
fanaticism and their religious hatreds disgusted that broad
sentiment of justice and civil government which the humblest
Roman carried everywhere with him. All the acts of Pilate which
are known to us show him to have been a good administrator. In
the earlier period of the exercise of his office he had
difficulties with those subject to him which he had solved in a
very brutal manner; but it seems that essentially he was right.
The Jews must have appeared to him a people behind the age; he
doubtless judged them as a liberal prefect formerly judged the
Bas-Bretons, who rebelled for such trifling matters as a new
road, or the establishment of a school. In his best projects for
the good of the country, notably in those relating to public
works, he had encountered an impassable obstacle in the Law. The
Law restricted life to such a degree that it opposed all change,
and all amelioration. The Roman structures, even the most useful 


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ones, were objects of great antipathy on the part of zealous
Jews. Two votive escutcheons with inscriptions, which he had set
up at his residence near the sacred precincts, provoked a still
more violent storm. Pilate at first cared little for these
susceptibilities; and he was soon involved in sanguinary
suppressions of revolt, which afterwards ended in his removal.
The experience of so many conflicts had rendered him very prudent
in his relations with this intractable people, which avenged
itself upon its governors by compelling them to use towards it
hateful severities. The procurator saw himself, with extreme
displeasure, led to play a cruel part in this new affair, for the
sake of a law he hated. He knew that religious fanaticism, when
it has obtained the sanction of civil Governments to some act of
violence, is afterwards the first to throw the responsibility
upon the Government, and almost accuses them of being the author
of it. Supreme injustice; for the true culprit is, in such cases,
the instigator!

     Pilate, then, would have liked to save Jesus. Perhaps the
dignified and calm attitude of the accused made an impression
upon him. According to a tradition, Jesus found a supporter in
the wife of the procurator himself. She may have seen the gentle
Galilean from some window of the palace overlooking the courts of
the temple. Perhaps she had seen him again in her dreams; and the
idea that the blood of this beautiful young man was about to be
spilt weighed upon her mind. Certain it is that Jesus found
Pilate prepossessed in his favor. The governor questioned him
with kindness, and with the desire to find an excuse for sending
him away pardoned.

     The title of "Kings of the Jews," which Jesus had never
taken upon himself, but which his enemies represented as the sum
and substance of his acts and pretensions, was naturally that by
which it was sought to excite the suspicions of the Roman
authority. They accused him on this ground of sedition, and of
treason against the Government. Nothing could be more unjust; for
Jesus had always recognized the Roman Government as the
established power. But conservative religious bodies do not
generally shrink from calumny. Notwithstanding his own
explanation, they drew certain conclusions from his teaching;
they transformed him into a disciple of Judas the Gaulonite; they
pretended that he forbade the payment of tribute to Caesar.
Pilate asked him if he was really the King of the Jews. Jesus
concealed nothing of what he thought. But the great ambiguity of
speech which had been the source of his strength, and which,
after his death, was to establish his kingship, injured him on
this occasion. An idealist that is to say, not distinguishing the
spirit from the substance, Jesus, whose words, to use the image
of the Apocalypse, were as a two-edged sword, never completely
satisfied the powers of earth. If we may believe John, he avowed
his royalty, but uttered at the same time this profound sentence:
"My kingdom is not of this world." He explained the nature of his
kingdom, declaring that it consisted entirely in the possession
and proclamation of truth. Pilate understood nothing of this
grand idealism. Jesus doubtless impressed him as being an
inoffensive dreamer. The total absence of religious and
philosophical proselytism among the Romans of this epoch made 


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them regard devotion to truth as a chimera. Such discussions
annoyed them, and appeared to them devoid of meaning. Not
perceiving the element of danger to the empire that lay hidden in
these new speculations, they had no reason to employ violence
against them. All their displeasure fell upon those who asked
them to inflict punishment for what appeared to them to be vain
subtleties. Twenty years after Gallio still adopted the same
course towards the Jews. Until the fall of Jerusalem, the rule
which the Romans adopted in administration was to remain
completely indifferent to these sectarian quarrels.

     An expedient suggested itself to the mind of the governor by
which he could reconcile his own feelings with the demands of the
fanatical people, whose pressure he had already so often felt. It
was the custom to deliver a prisoner to the people at the time of
the Passover. Pilate, knowing that Jesus had only been arrested
in consequence of the jealousy of the priests, tried to obtain
for him the benefit of this custom. He appeared again upon the
bima, and proposed to the multitude to release the "King of the
Jews." The proposition made in these terms, though ironical, was
characterized by a degree of liberality. The priests saw the
danger of it. They acted promptly, and, in order to combat the
proposition of Pilate, they suggested to the crowd the name of a
prisoner who enjoyed great popularity in Jerusalem. By a singular
coincidence, he also was called Jesus, and bore the surname of
Bar-Abba, or Bar-Rabban. He was a well-known personage, and had
been arrested for taking part in an uproar in which murder had
been committed, A general clamor was raised, "Not this man; but
Jesus Bar-Rabban"; and Pilate was obliged to release Jesus Bar-
Rabban.

     His embarrassment increased. He feared that too much
indulgence shown to a prisoner to whom was given the title of
"King of the Jews" might compromise him. Fanaticism, moreover,
compels all powers to make terms with it. Pilate thought himself
obliged to make some concession; but still hesitating to shed
blood, in order to satisfy men whom he hated, wished to turn the
thing into a jest. Affecting to laugh at the pompous title they
had given to Jesus, he caused him to be scourged. Scourging was
the general preliminary of crucifixion. Perhaps Pilate wished it
to be believed that this sentence had already been pronounced,
hoping that the preliminary would suffice. Then took place
(according to all the narratives) a revolting scene The soldiers
put a scarlet robe on his back, a crown formed of branches of
thorns upon his head, and a reed in his hand. Thus attired, he
was led to the tribunal in front of the people. The soldiers
defiled before him, striking him in turn, and knelt to him,
saying, "Hail! King of the Jews!" Others, it is said, spit upon
him, and struck his head with the reed. It is difficult to
understand how Roman dignity could stoop to acts so shameful. It
is true that Pilate, in the capacity of procurator, had under his
command scarcely any but auxiliary troops. Roman citizens, as the
legionaries were, would not have degraded themselves by such
conduct.





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     Did Pilate think by this display that he freed himself from
responsibility? Did he hope to turn aside the blow which 
threatened Jesus by conceding something to the hatred of the
Jews, and by substituting for the tragic denouement a grotesque
termination, to make it appear that the affair merited no other
issue? If such were his idea, it was unsuccessful. The tumult
increased, and became an open riot. The cry, "Crucify him!
Crucify him!" resounded from all sides. The priests, becoming
increasingly urgent, declared the Law in peril if the corrupter
were not punished with death. Pilate saw clearly that to save
Jesus he would have to put down a terrible disturbance. He still
tried, however, to gain time. He returned to the judgment-hall
and ascertained from what country Jesus came, with the hope of
finding a pretext for declaring his inability to adjudicate.
According to one tradition, he even sent Jesus to Antipas, who,
it is said was then at Jerusalem. Jesus took no part in these
well-meant efforts; he maintained, as he had done before Kaiapha,
a grave and dignified silence, which astonished Pilate. The cries
from without became more and more menacing. The people had
already begun to denounce the lack of zeal in the functionary who
protected an enemy of Caesar. The greatest adversaries of the
Roman rule were suddenly transformed into loyal subjects of
Tiberius, that they might have the right of accusing the too
tolerant procurator of treason. "We have no king," said they,
"but Caesar. If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's
friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar."
The feeble Pilate yielded; he foresaw the report that his enemies
would send to Rome, in which they would accuse him of having
protected a rival of Tiberius. Once before, in the matter of the
votive escutcheons, the Jews had written to the emperor, and had
received satisfaction. He feared for his office. By a compliance,
which was to deliver his name to the scorn of history he yielded,
throwing, it is said, upon the Jews all the responsibility of
what was about to happen. The latter, according to the
Christians, fully accepted it by exclaiming, "His blood be on us
and on our children!"

     Were these words really uttered? We may doubt it. But they
are the expression of a profound historical truth Considering the
attitude which the Romans had taken in Judea, Pilate could
scarcely have acted otherwise. How many sentences of death
dictated by religious intolerance been extorted from the civil
power! The king of Spain, who, in order to please a fanatical
clergy, delivered hundreds of his subjects to the stake, was more
blameable than Pilate, for he represented a more absolute power
than that of the Romans at Jerusalem. When the civil power
becomes persecuting or meddlesome at the solicitation of the
priesthood, it proves its weakness. But let the Government that
is without sin in this respect throw the first stone at Pilate.
The "secular arm," behind which clerical cruelty shelters itself,
is not the culprit. No one has a right to say that he has a
horror of blood when he causes it to be shed by his servants.

     It was, then, neither Tiberius nor Pilate who condemned
Jesus. It was the old Jewish party; it was the Mosaic Law.
According to our modern ideas, there is no transmission of moral
demerit from father to son; no one is accountable to human or 
Divine justice except for that which he himself has done. 

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Consequently, every Jew who suffers to-day for the murder of
Jesus has a right to complain, for he might have acted as did
Simon the Cyrenean; at any rate, he might not have been with
those who cried "Crucify him!" But nations, like individuals,
have their responsibilities, and, if ever crime was the crime of
a nation, it was the death of Jesus. This death was "legal in the
sense that it was primarily caused by a law which was the very
soul of the nation. The Mosaic law, in its modern, but still in
its accepted form, pronounced the penalty of death against all
attempts to change the established worship. Now, there is no
doubt that Jesus attacked this worship, and aspired to destroy
it. The Jews expressed this to Pilate with a truthful simplicity:
"We have a law, and by our law he ought to die; because he has
made himself the Son of God." The law was detestable, but it was
the law of ancient ferocity; and the hero who offered himself in
order to abrogate it had first of all to endure its penalty.

     Alas! it has required more than eighteen hundred years for
the blood that he shed to bear its fruits. Tortures and death
have been inflicted for ages in the name of Jesus on thinkers as
noble as himself. Even at the present time, in countries which
call themselves Christian, penalties are pronounced for religious
offences. Jesus is not responsible for these errors. He could not
foresee that people, with mistaken imaginations, would one day
imagine him as a frightful Moloch, greedy of burnt flesh.
Christianity has been intolerant, but intolerance is not
essentially a Christian fact, It is a Jewish fact in the sense
that it was Judaism which first introduced the theory of the
absolute in religion, and laid down the principle that every
innovator, even if he brings miracles to support his doctrine,
ought to be stoned without trial. The pagan world has also had
its religious violence. But, if it had had this law, how would it
have become Christian? The Pentateuch has thus been in the world
the first code of religious terrorism. Judaism has given the
example of an immutable dogma armed with the sword. If, instead
of pursuing the Jews with a blind hatred, Christianity had
abolished the regime which killed its founder, how much more
consistent would it have been! how much better would it have
deserved of the human race.

                           CHAPTER XXV

                         DEATH OF JESUS

     ALTHOUGH the real motive for the death of Jesus was entirely
religious, his enemies had succeeded, in the judgment-hall, in
representing him as guilty of treason against the State; they
could not have obtained from the skeptical Pilate a condemnation
simply on the ground of heterodoxy. Consistently with this idea,
the priests demanded, through the people, the crucifixion of
Jesus. This punishment was not Jewish in its origin; if the
condemnation of Jesus had been purely Mosaic, he would have been
Stoned. Crucifixion was a Roman punishment, reserved for slaves,
and for cases in which it was wished to add to death the
aggravation of ignominy. In applying it to Jesus they treated him
as they treated highway robbers, brigands, bandits, or those
enemies of inferior rank to whom the Romans did not grant the 


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honor of death by the sword. It was the chimerical "King of the
Jews," not the heterodox dogmatist, who was punished. Following
out the same idea, the execution was left to the Romans. We know
that among the Romans their soldiers, their profession being to
kill, performed the office of executioners. Jesus was therefore
delivered to a cohort of auxiliary troop's, and all the most
hateful features of executions introduced by the cruel habits of
the new conquerors were exhibited towards him. It was about noon.
They re-clothed him with the garments which they had removed for
the farce enacted at the tribunal, and, as the cohort had already
in reserve two thieves who were to be executed, the three
prisoners were taken together, and the procession set out for the
place of execution.

     The scene of the execution was at a place called Golgotha,
situated outside Jerusalem, but near the walls of the city. The
name Golgotha signifies a skull; it corresponds with the French
word Chaumont, and probably designated a bare hill or rising
ground, having the form of a bald skull. The situation of this
hill is not precisely known. It was certainly on the north or
north-west of the city, in the high irregular plain which extends
between the walls and the two valleys of Kedron and Hinnom, a
rather uninteresting region, and made still worse by the
objectionable circumstances arising from the neighborhood of a
great city. It is difficult to identify Golgotha as the precise
place which, since Constantine, has been venerated by entire
Christendom. This place, is too much in the interior of the city,
and we are led to believe that in the time of Jesus it was
comprised within the circuit of the walls.

     He who was condemned to the cross had himself to carry the
instrument of his execution. But Jesus, physically weaker than
his two companions, could not carry his. The troop met a certain
Simon of Cyrene, who was returning from the country, and the
soldiers, with the off-hand procedure of foreign garrisons,
forced him to carry the fatal tree. Perhaps they made use of a
recognized right of forcing labor, the Romans not being allowed
to carry the infamous wood. It seems that Simon was afterwards of
the Christian community. His two sons, Alexander and Rufus, were
well known in it. He related perhaps more than one circumstance
of which he had been witness. No disciple was at this moment near
to Jesus.

     The place of execution was at last reached. According to
Jewish custom, the sufferers were offered a strong aromatic wine,
an intoxicating drink, which, through a sentiment of pity, was
given to the condemned in order to stupefy him. It appears that
the ladies of Jerusalem often brought this kind of wine to the
unfortunates who were led to execution; when none was presented
by them, it was purchased from the public treasury. Jesus, after
having touched the edge of the cup with his lips, refused to
drink. This mournful consolation of ordinary sufferers did not
accord with his exalted nature. He preferred to quit life with
perfect clearness of mind, and to await in full consciousness the
death he had willed and brought upon himself. He was then
divested of his garments, and fastened to the cross. The cross
was composed of two beams, tied in the form of the letter T. It 


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was not much elevated, so that the feet of the condemned almost
touched the earth. They commenced by fixing it, then they
fastened the sufferer to it by driving nails into his hands; the
feet were often nailed, though sometimes only bound with cords. A
piece of wood was fastened to the upright portion of the cross,
towards the middle, and passed between the legs of the condemned,
who rested upon it. Without that the hands would have been torn
and the body would have sunk down. At other times a small
horizontal rest was fixed beneath the feet and sustained them.

     Jesus tasted these horrors in all their atrocity. A burning
thirst, one of the tortures of crucifixion, devoured him, and he
asked to drink. There stood near a cup of the ordinary drink of
the Roman soldiers, a mixture of vinegar and water, called Posca,
The soldiers had to carry with them their posca on all their
expeditions, of which an execution was considered one. A soldier
dipped a sponge in this drink, put it at the end of a reed, and
raised it to the lips of Jesus, who sucked it. The two robbers
were crucified, one on each Side. The executioners, to whom were
usually left the small effects (pannicularia) of those executed,
drew lots for his garments, and, seated at the foot of the cross,
kept guard over him. According to one tradition, Jesus pronounced
this sentence, which was in his heart if not upon his lips:
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

     According to the Roman custom, a writing was attached to the
top of the cross, bearing in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin, the words: "THE KING OF THE JEWS." There was something
painful and insulting to the nation in this inscription. The
numerous passers-by who read it were offended. The priests
complained to Pilate that he ought to have adopted an inscription
which would have implied simply that Jesus had called himself
King of the Jews. But Pilate, already tired of the whole affair,
refused to make any change in what had been written.

     His disciples had fled. John, nevertheless, declares himself
to have been present, and to have remained standing at the foot
of the cross during the whole time. It may be affirmed, with more
certainty, that the devoted women of Galilee, who had followed
Jesus to Jerusalem and continued to tend him, did not abandon
him. Mary Cleophas, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, wife of Khouza,
Salome, and others, stayed at a certain distance, and did not
lose sight of him. If we must believe John, Mary, the mother of
Jesus, was also at the foot of the cross, and Jesus, seeing his
mother and his beloved disciple together, said to the one,
"Behold thy mother!" and to the other, "Behold thy son!" But we
do not understand how the Synoptics, who name the other women,
should have omitted her whose presence was so striking a feature.
Perhaps even the extreme elevation of the character of Jesus does
not render such personal emotion probable at the moment when
solely preoccupied by his work, he no longer existed except for
humanity.

     Apart from this small group of women, whose presence
consoled him, Jesus had before him only the spectacle of the
baseness or stupidity of humanity. The passers-by insulted him.
He heard around him foolish scoffs, and his greatest cries of 


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pain turned into hateful jests: "He trusted in God; let him
deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son
of God. He saved others," they said again; himself he cannot
save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the
cross, and we will believe him! Ah, thou that destroyest the
temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself." Some,
vaguely acquainted with his apocalyptic ideas, thought they heard
him call Elias, and said: Let us see whether Elias will come to
save him." It appears that the two crucified thieves at his side
also insulted him. The sky was dark; and the earth, as in all the
environs of Jerusalem, dry and gloomy. For a moment, according to
certain narratives, his heart failed him; a cloud hid from him
the face of his Father; he endured an agony of despair a thousand
times more acute than all his torture. He saw only the
ingratitude of men; he perhaps repented suffering for a vile
race, and exclaimed: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
But his Divine instinct still prevailed. In the degree that the
life of the body became extinguished, his soul became clear, and
returned by degrees to its celestial origin. He regained the idea
of his mission; he saw in his death the salvation of the world;
he lost sight of the hideous spectacle spread at his feet, and,
profoundly united to his Father, he began upon the gibbet the
Divine life which he was to live in the heart of humanity
throughout infinite ages.

     The peculiar atrocity of crucifixion was that one might live
three or four days in this horrible state upon the instrument of
torture. The hemorrhage from the hands quickly stopped, and was
not mortal. The true cause of death was the unnatural position of
the body, which brought on a frightful disturbance of the
circulation, terrible pains of the head and heart, and, at
length, rigidity of the limbs. Those who had a strong
constitution only died of hunger. The idea which suggested this
cruel punishment was not directly to kill the condemned by
positive injuries, but to expose the slave, nailed by the hand of
which he had not known how to make good use, and to let him rot
on the wood. The delicate organization of Jesus preserved him
from this slow agony. Everything leads to the belief that the
instantaneous rupture of a vessel in the heart brought him, at
the end of three hours, to a sudden death. Some moments before
yielding up his soul his voice was still strong. All at once he
uttered a terrible cry, which some heard as: "Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit!" but which others, more preoccupied
with the accomplishment of prophecies, rendered by the words, "It
is finished!" His head fell upon his breast, and he expired.

     Rest now in thy glory, noble initiator. Thy work is
completed; thy divinity is established. Fear no more to see the
edifice of thy efforts crumble through a flaw. Henceforth, beyond
the reach of frailty, thou shalt be present, from the height of
the divine peace, in the infinite consequences of thy acts. At
the price of a few hours of suffering, which have not even
touched thy great soul, thou hast purchased the most complete
immortality. For thousands of years the world will extol thee.
Banner of our contradictions, thou wilt be the sign around which
will be fought the fiercest battles. A thousand times more
living, a thousand times more loved since thy death than during 


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the days of thy pilgrimage here below, thou wilt become to such a
degree the corner-stone of humanity that to tear thy name from
this world would be to shake it to its foundations. Between thee
and God men will no longer distinguish. Complete conqueror of
death, take possession of thy kingdom, whither, by the royal road
thou hast traced, ages of adorers will follow thee.

                          CHAPTER XXVI

                        JESUS IN THE TOMB

     IT was about three o'clock in the afternoon, according to
our manner of reckoning, when Jesus expired. A Jewish law forbade
a corpse suspended on the cross to be left beyond the evening of
the day of the execution. It is not probable that in the
executions performed by the Romans this rule was observed; but as
the next day was the Sabbath, and a Sabbath of peculiar
solemnity, the Jews expressed to the Roman authorities their
desire that this holy day should not be profaned by such a
spectacle. Their request was granted; orders were given to hasten
the death of the three condemned ones, and to remove them from
the cross. The soldiers executed this order by applying to the
two thieves a second punishment much more speedy than that of the
cross, the Crurifragium, or breaking of the legs, the usual
punishment of slaves and of prisoners of war. As to Jesus, they
found him dead, and did not think it necessary to break his legs.
But one of them, to remove all doubt as to the real death of the
third victim, and to complete it, if any breath remained in him,
pierced his side with a spear. They thought they saw water and
blood flow, which was regarded as a sign of the cessation of
life.


     John, who professes to have seen it, insists strongly on
this circumstance. It is evident, in fact, that doubts arose as
to the reality of the death of Jesus. A few hours of suspension
on the cross appeared, to persons accustomed to see crucifixions,
entirely insufficient to lead to such a result. They cited many
instances of persons crucified who, removed in time, had been
brought to life again by powerful remedies. Origen afterwards
thought it needful to invoke miracle in order to explain so
sudden an end. The same astonishment is found in the narrative of
Mark. To speak truly, the best guarantee that the historian
possesses upon a point of this nature is the suspicious hatred of
the enemies of Jesus. It is doubtful whether the Jews were at
that time preoccupied with the fear that Jesus might pass for
resuscitated: but, in any case, they must have made sure that he
was really dead. Whatever, at certain periods, may have been the
neglect of the ancients in all that belonged to legal proof and
the strict conduct of affairs, we cannot but believe that those
interested here had taken some precautions in this respect.

     According to the Roman custom, the corpse of Jesus ought to
have remained suspended in order to become the prey of birds.
According to the Jewish law, it would have been removed in the
evening, and deposited in the place of infamy set apart for the
burial of those who were executed. If Jesus had had for disciples


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only his poor Galileans, timid and without influence, the latter
course would have been adopted. But we have seen that, in spite
of his small success at Jerusalem, Jesus had gained the sympathy
of some important persons who expected the kingdom of God, and
who, without confessing themselves his disciples, were strongly
attached to him. One of these persons, Joseph, of the small town
of Arimathea (Ha-ramathaim),  [Probably identical with the
ancient Rama of Samuel, in the tribe of Ephraim.]  went in the
evening to ask the body from the procurator. Joseph was a rich
and honorable man, a member of the Sanhedrim. The Roman law at
this period commanded, moreover, that the body of the person
executed should be delivered to those who claimed it. Pilate, who
was ignorant of the circumstance of the crurifragium, was
astonished that Jesus was so soon dead, and summoned the
centurion who had superintended the execution, in order to know
how this was. Pilate, after having received the assurances of the
centurion, granted to Joseph the object of his request. The body
probably had already been removed from the cross. They delivered
it to Joseph, that he might do with it as he pleased.

     Another secret friend, Nicodemus, whom we have already seen
employing his influence more than once in favor of Jesus, came
forward at this moment. He arrived bearing an ample provision of
the materials necessary for embalming. Joseph and Nicodemus
interred Jesus according to the Jewish custom -- that is to say,
they wrapped him in a sheet with myrrh and aloes. The Galilean
women were present, and no doubt accompanied the scene with
piercing cries and tears.

     It was late, and all this was done in great haste. The place
had not yet been chosen where the body would be finally
deposited, The carrying of the body, moreover, might have been
delayed to a late hour, and have involved a violation of the
Sabbath -- now the disciples still conscientiously observed the
prescriptions of the Jewish law. A temporary interment was
determined upon. There was at hand, in the garden, a tomb
recently dug out in the rock, which had never been used. It
belonged, probably, to one of the believers. The funeral caves,
when they were destined for a single body, were composed of a
small room, at the bottom of which the place for the body was
marked by a trough or couch let into the wall, and surmounted by
an arch. As these caves were dug out of the sides of sloping
rocks, they were entered by the floor; the door was shut by a
stone very difficult to move. Jesus was deposited in the cave,
and the stone was rolled to the door, as it was intended to
return in order to give him a more complete burial. But the next
day being a solemn Sabbath, the labor was postponed till the day
following.

     The women retired after having carefully noticed how the
body was laid. They employed the hours of the evening which
remained to them in making new preparations for the embalming. On
the Saturday all rested.

     On the Sunday morning the women, Mary Magdalene the first,
came very early to the tomb. The stone was displaced from the
opening, and the body was no longer in the place where they had 
laid it. At the same time the strangest rumors were spread in the

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Christian community. The cry, "He is risen!" quickly spread among
the disciples. Love caused it to find ready credence everywhere.
What had taken place? In treating of the history of the Apostles
we shall have to examine this point, and to make inquiry into the
origin of the legends relative to the resurrection. For the
historian, the life of Jesus finishes with his last sigh. But
such was the impression he had left in the heart of his disciples
and of a few devoted women that during some weeks more it was as
if he were living and consoling them. Had his body been taken
away, or did enthusiasm, always credulous, create afterwards the
group of narratives by which it was sought to establish faith in
the resurrection? In the absence of opposing documents, this can
never be ascertained. Let us say, however, that the strong
imagination of Mary Magdalene played an important part in this
circumstance. Divine power of love! Sacred moments in which the
passion of one possessed gave to the world a resuscitated God!

                          CHAPTER XXVII

                  FATE OF THE ENEMIES OF JESUS

     ACCORDING to the calculation we adopt, the death of Jesus
happened in the year 33 of our era. it could not, at all events,
be either before the year 29, the preaching of John and Jesus
having commenced in the year 28, or after the year 35, since in
the year 36, and probably before the passover, Pilate and Kaiapha
both lost their offices. The death of Jesus appears, moreover, to
have had no connection whatever with these two removals. In his
retirement Pilate probably never dreamt for a moment of the
forgotten episode, which was to transmit his pitiful renown to
the most distant posterity. As to Kaiapha, he was succeeded by
Jonathan, his brother-in-law, son of the same Hanan who had
played the principal part in the trial of Jesus. The Sadducean
family of Hanan retained the pontificate a long time, and, more
powerful than ever, continued to wage against the disciples and
the family of Jesus the implacable war which they had commenced
against the Founder. Christianity, which owed to him the
definitive act of its foundation, owed to him also its first
martyrs. Hanan passed for one of the happiest men of his age. He
who was truly guilty of the death of Jesus ended his life full of
honors and respect, never having doubted for an instant that he
had rendered a great service to the nation. His sons continued to
reign around the temple, kept down with difficulty by the
procurators, oft-times dispensing with the consent of the latter
in order to gratify their haughty and violent instincts.

     Antipas Herodias soon disappeared also from the political
scene. Herod Agrippa, having been raised to the dignity of king
by Caligula, the jealous Herodias swore that she also would be
queen. Pressed incessantly by this ambitious woman, who treated
him as a coward, because he suffered a superior in his family,
Antipas overcame his natural indolence, and went to Rome to
solicit the title which his nephew had just obtained (the year 39
of our era). But the affair turned out in the worst possible
manner. Injured in the eyes of the emperor by Herod Agrippa,
Antipas was removed, and dragged out the rest of his life in
exile at Lyons and in Spain. Herodias followed him in his 


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misfortunes. A hundred years at least were to elapse before the
name of their obscure subject, now become deified should appear
in these remote countries to brand upon their tombs the murder of
John the Baptist.

     As to the wretched Judas of Kerioth, terrible legends were
current about his death. It was maintained that he had bought a
field in the neighborhood of Jerusalem with the price of his
perfidy. There was, indeed, on the south of Mount Zion, a place
named Hakeldama (the field of blood). It was supposed that this
was the property acquired by the traitor. According to one
tradition, he killed himself. According to another, he had a fall
in his field, in consequence of which his bowels gushed out.
According to others, he died of a kind of dropsy, accompanied by
repulsive circumstances, which were regarded as a punishment from
heaven. The desire of showing in Judas the accomplishment of the
menaces which the Psalmist pronounces against the perfidious
friend may have given rise to these legends. Perhaps, in the
retirement of his field of Hakeldama, Judas led a quiet and
obscure life; while his former friends conquered the world, and
spread his infamy abroad. Perhaps, also, the terrible hatred
which was concentrated on his head drove him to violent acts, in
which was seen the finger of heaven.

     The time of the great Christian revenge was, moreover far
distant. The new sect had no part whatever in the catastrophe
which Judaism was soon to undergo. The Synagogue did not
understand till much later to what it exposed itself in
practicing laws of intolerance. The empire was certainly still
further from suspecting that its future destroyer was born.
Daring nearly three hundred years it pursued its path without
suspecting that at its side principles were growing destined to
subject the world to a complete transformation. At once
theocratic and democratic, the idea thrown by Jesus into the
world was, together with the invasion of the Germans, the most
active cause of the dissolution of the empire of the Caesar. On
the one hand, the right of all men to participate in the kingdom
of God was proclaimed. On the other, religion was henceforth
separated in principle from the State. The right of conscience,
withdrawn from political law, resulted in the constitution of a
new power -- the "spiritual power." This power has more than once
belied its origin. For ages the bishops have been princes, and
the Pope has been a king. The pretended empire of souls has shown
itself at various times as a frightful tyranny, employing the
rack and the stake in order to maintain itself. But the day will
come when the separation will bear its fruits, when the domain of
things spiritual will cease to be called a "power," that it may
be called a "liberty." Sprung from the conscience of a man of the
people, formed in the presence of the people, beloved and admired
first by the people, Christianity was impressed with an original
character which will never be effaced. It was the first triumph
of revolution, the victory of the popular idea, the advent of the
simple in heart, the inauguration of the beautiful as understood
by the people. Jesus thus, in the aristocratic societies of
antiquity, opened the breach through which all will pass.




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     The civil power, in fact, although innocent of the death of
Jesus (it only countersigned the sentence, and even in spite of
itself), ought to bear a great share of the responsibility. In
presiding at the scene of Calvary the State gave itself a serious
blow. A legend full of all kinds of disrespect prevailed, and
became universally known -- a legend in which the constituted
authorities played a hateful part, in which it was the accused
that was right, and in which the judges and the guards were
leagued against the truth. Seditious in the highest degree, the
history of the Passion, spread by a thousand popular images,
displayed the Roman eagles as sanctioning the most iniquitous of
executions, soldiers executing it, and a prefect commanding it.
What a blow for all established powers! They have never entirely
recovered from it. How can they assume infallibility in respect
to poor men when they have on their conscience the great mistake
of Gethsemane?

                         CHAPTER XXVIII

            ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE WORK OF JESUS

     JESUS, it will be seen, limited his action entirely to the
Jews. Although his sympathy for those despised by orthodoxy led
him to admit pagans into the kingdom of God -- although he had
resided more than once in a pagan country, and once or twice we
surprise him in kindly relations with unbelievers -- it may be
said that his life was passed entirely in the very restricted
world in which he was born. He was never heard of in Greek or
Roman countries; his name appears only in profane authors of a
hundred years later, and then in an indirect manner, in
connection with seditious movements provoked by his doctrine, or
persecutions of which his disciples were the object. Even on
Judaism, Jesus made no very durable impression. Philo, who died
about the year 50, had not the slightest knowledge of him.
Josephus, born in the year 37, and writing in the last years of
the century, mentions his execution in a few lines, as an event
of secondary importance; and in the enumeration of the sects of
his time he omits the Christians altogether, in the Mishnah,
also, there is no trace of the new school; the passages in the
two Gemaras in which the founder of Christianity is named do not
go further back than the fourth or fifth century. The essential
work of Jesus was to create around him a circle of disciples,
whom he inspired with boundless affection, and among whom he
deposited the germ of his doctrine. To have made himself beloved,
"to the degree that after his death they ceased not to love him,"
was the great work of Jesus, and that which most struck his
contemporaries. His doctrine was so little dogmatic that he never
thought of writing it or of causing it to be written. Men did not
become his disciples by believing this thing or that thing, but
in being attached to his person, and in loving him A few
sentences collected from memory, and especially the type of
character he set forth, and the impression it had left, were what
remained of him. Jesus was not a founder of dogmas, or a maker of
creeds; he infused into the world a new spirit. The least
Christian men were, on the one hand, the doctors of the Greek
Church, who, beginning from the fourth century, entangled
Christianity in a path of puerile metaphysical discussions, and, 


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on the other, the scholastics of the Latin Middle Ages, who
wished to draw from the Gospel the thousands of articles of a
colossal system. To follow Jesus in expectation of the kingdom of
God was all that was implied by being Christian.

     It will thus be understood how, by an exceptional destiny,
pure Christianity still preserves, after eighteen centuries, the
character of a universal and eternal religion. It is, in fact,
because the religion of Jesus is in some respects the final
religion. Produced by a perfectly spontaneous movement of souls,
freed at its birth from all dogmatic restraint, having struggled
three hundred years for liberty of conscience, Christianity, in
spite of its failures, still reaps the results of its glorious
origin. To renew itself, it has but to return to the Gospel. The
kingdom of God, as we conceive it, differs notably from the
supernatural apparition which the first Christians hoped to see
appear in the clouds. But the sentiment introduced by Jesus into
the world is indeed ours. His perfect idealism is the highest
rule of the unblemished and virtuous life. He has created the
heaven of pure souls, where is found what we ask for in vain on
earth, the perfect nobility of the children of God, absolute
purity, the total removal of the stains of the world; in fine,
liberty, which society excludes as an impossibility., and which
exists in all its amplitude only in the domain of thought. The
great Master of those who take refuge in this ideal kingdom of
God is still Jesus. He was the first to proclaim the royalty of
the mind; the first to say, at least by his actions, "My kingdom
is not of this world." The foundation of true religion is indeed
his I work: after him, all that remains is to develop it and
render it fruitful.

     "Christianity" has thus become almost a synonym of
"religion." All that is done outside of this great and good
Christian tradition is barren. Jesus gave religion to humanity,
as Socrates gave it philosophy, and Aristotle science. There was
philosophy before Socrates, and science before Aristotle. Since
Socrates and since Aristotle, philosophy and science have made
immense progress; but all has been built upon the foundation
which they laid. In the same way, before Jesus, religious thought
had passed through many revolutions; since Jesus, it has made
great conquests; but no one has improved, and no one will
improve, upon the essential principle Jesus has created; he has
fixed forever the idea of pure worship. The religion of Jesus in
this sense is not limited. The Church has had its epochs and its
phases; it has shut itself up in creed, which are, or will be,
but temporary; but Jesus has founded the absolute religion,
excluding nothing, and determining nothing unless it be the
spirit. His creeds are not fixed dogmas, but images susceptible
of indefinite interpretations. We should seek in vain for a
theological proposition in the Gospel. All confessions of faith
are travesties of the idea of Jesus, just as the scholasticism of
the middle Ages, in proclaiming Aristotle the sole master of a
completed science, perverted the thought of Aristotle. Aristotle,
if he had been present in the debates of the schools, would have
repudiated this narrow doctrine; he would have been of the party
of progressive science against the routine which shielded itself
under his authority; he would have applauded his opponents. In 


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the same way, if Jesus were to return among us, he would
recognize as disciples, not those who pretend to enclose him
entirely in a few catechismal phrases, but those who labor to
carry on his work. The eternal glory in all great things is to
have laid the first stone. It may be that in the "physics" and in
the "Meteorology" of modern times we may not discover a word of
the treatises of Aristotle which bear these titles; but Aristotle
remains no less the founder of natural science. Whatever may be
the transformations of dogma, Jesus will ever be the creator of
the pure spirit of religion; the Sermon on the Mount will never
be surpassed. Whatever revolution takes place will not prevent us
attaching ourselves in religion to the grand intellectual and
moral line at the head of which shines the name of Jesus. In this
sense we are Christians, even when we separate ourselves on
almost all points from the Christian tradition which has preceded
us.

     And this great foundation was indeed the personal work of
Jesus. Tn order to make himself adored to this degree, he must
have been adorable. Love is not enkindled except by an object
worthy of it, and we should know nothing of Jesus if it were not
for the passion he inspired in those about him, which compels us
still to affirm that he was great and pure. The faith, the
enthusiasm, the constancy of the first Christian generation is
not explicable, except by supposing, at the origin of the whole
movement, a man of surpassing greatness. At the sight of the
marvelous creations of the ages of faith, two impressions equally
fatal to good historical criticism arise in the mind. On the one
hand we are led to think these creations too impersonal; we
attribute to a collective action that which has often been the
work of one powerful will and of one superior mind. On the other
hand, we refuse to see men like ourselves in the authors of those
extraordinary movements which have decided the fate of humanity.
Let us have a larger idea of the powers which nature conceals in
her bosom. Our civilizations, governed by minute restrictions,
cannot give us any idea of the power of man at periods in which
the originality of each one had a freer field wherein to develop
itself. Let us imagine a recluse dwelling in the mountains near
our capitals, coming out from time to time in order to present
himself at the palaces of sovereigns, compelling the sentinels to
stand aside, and, with an imperious tone, announcing to kings the
approach of revolutions of which he had been the promoter. The
very idea provokes a smile. Such, however, was Elias; but Elias
the Tishbite, in our days, would not be able to pass the gate of
the Tuileries. The preaching of Jesus, and his free activity in
Galilee, do not deviate less completely from the social
conditions to which we are accustomed. Free from our polished
conventionalities, exempt from the uniform education which
refines us, but which so greatly dwarfs our individuality, these
mighty souls carried a surprising energy into action. They appear
to us like the giants of an heroic age which could not have been
real. Profound error! These men were our brothers; they were of
our stature, felt and thought as we do. But the breath of God was
free in them; with us it is restrained by the iron bonds of a
mean society, and condemned to an irremediable mediocrity.




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     Let us place, then, the person of Jesus at the highest
summit of human greatness. Let us not be misled by exaggerated
doubts in the presence of a legend which keeps us always in a
superhuman world. The life of Francis d'Assisi is also but a
tissue of miracles. Has any one, however, doubted of the
existence of Francis d'Assisi, and of the part played by him? Let
us say no more that the glory of the foundation of Christianity
belongs to the multitude of the first Christians, and not to him
whom legend has deified. The inequality of men is much more
marked in the East than with us. It is not rare to see arise
there, in the midst of a general atmosphere of wickedness,
characters whose greatness astonishes us. So far from Jesus
having been created by his disciples, he appeared in everything
as superior to his disciples. The latter, with the exception of
St. Paul and St. John, were men without either invention or
genius. St. Paul himself bears no comparison with Jesus, and, as
to St. John, I shall show hereafter that the part he played,
though very elevated in one sense, was far from being in all
respects irreproachable. Hence the immense superiority of the
Gospels among the writings of the New Testament. Hence the
painful fall we experience in passing from the history of Jesus
to that of the apostles. The evangelists themselves, who have
bequeathed us the image of Jesus, are so much beneath him of whom
they speak that they constantly disfigure him from their
inability to attain to his height. Their writings are full of
errors and misconceptions. We feel in each line a discourse of
divine beauty, transcribed by narrators who do not understand it,
and who substitute their own ideas for those which they have only
half understood. On the whole, the character of Jesus, far from
having been embellished by his biographers, has been lowered by
them. Criticism, in order to find what he was, needs to discard a
series of misconceptions, arising from the inferiority of the
disciples. These painted him as they understood him, and often in
thinking to raise him they have in reality lowered him.

     I know that our modern ideas have been offended more than
once in this legend, conceived by another race, under another
sky, and in the midst of other social wants. There are virtues
which, in some respects, are more conformable to our taste. The
virtuous and gentle Marcus Aurelius, the humble and gentle
Spinoza, not having believed in miracles, have been free from
some errors that Jesus shared. Spinoza, in his profound
obscurity, had an advantage which Jesus did not seek. By our
absolute sincerity and our means of conviction, by our absolute
sincerity and our disinterested love of the pure idea, we have
founded -- all we who have devoted our lives to science -- a new
ideal of morality. But the judgment of general history ought not
to be restricted to considerations of personal merit. Marcus
Aurelius and his noble teachers have had no permanent influence
on the world. Marcus Aurelius left behind him delightful books,
an execrable son, and a decaying nation. Jesus remains an
inexhaustible principle of moral regeneration for humanity.
Philosophy does not suffice for the multitude. They must have
sanctity. An Apollonius of Tyana, with his miraculous legend, is
necessarily more successful than a Socrates with his cold reason.
"Socrates," it was said, "leaves men on the earth, Apollonius
transports them to heaven; Socrates is but a sage, Apollonius is 


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a god," Religion, so far, has not existed without a share of
asceticism, of piety, and of the marvelous. When it was wished,
after the Antonines, to make a religion of philosophy, it was
requisite to transform the philosophers into saints, to write the
"Edifying life" of Pythagoras or Plotinus, to attribute to them a
legend, virtues of abstinence, contemplation, and supernatural
powers, without which neither credence nor authority was found in
that age.

     Preserve us, then, from mutilating history in order to
satisfy our petty susceptibilities! Which of us, pygmies as we
are, could do what the extravagant Francis d'Assisi or the
hysterical Saint Theresa has done? Let medicine have names to
express these grand errors of human nature; let it maintain that
genius is a disease of the brain; let it see, in a certain
delicacy of morality, the commencement of consumption; let it
class enthusiasm and love as nervous accidents -- it matters
little. The terms "healthy" and "diseased" are entirely relative.
Who would not prefer to be diseased like Pascal, rather than
healthy like the common herd? The narrow ideas which are spread
in our times respecting madness mislead our historical judgments
in the most serious manner, in questions of this kind. A state in
which a man says things of which he is not conscious, in which
thought is produced without the summons and control of the will,
exposes him to being confined as a lunatic. Formerly this was
called prophecy and inspiration. The most beautiful things in the
world are done in a state of fever; every great creation involves
a breach of equilibrium, a violent state of the being which draws
it forth.

     We acknowledge, indeed, that Christianity is too complex to
have been the work of a single man. In one sense, entire humanity
has cooperated therein. There is no one so shut in as not to
receive some influence from without. The history of the human
mind is full of strange coincidences, which cause very remote
portions of the human species, without any communication with
each other, to arrive at the same time at almost identical ideas
and imaginations. In the thirteenth century the Latins, the
Greeks, the Syrians, the Jews, and the Mussulmans adopted
scholasticism, and very nearly the same scholasticism, from York
to Samarcand; in the fourteenth century everyone in Italy,
Persia, and India yielded to the taste for mystical allegory; in
the sixteenth, art was developed in a very similar manner in
Italy, at Mount Athos, and at the court of the Great Moguls,
without St. Thomas, Barhebraeus, the Rabbis of Narbonne, or the
Motecallemin of Baghdad, having known each other, without Dante
and Petrarch having seen any sofi, without any pupil of the
schools of Perouse or of Florence having been at Delhi. We should
say there are great moral influences running through the world
like epidemics, without distinction of frontier and of race. The
interchange of ideas in the human species does not take place
only by books or by direct instruction. Jesus was ignorant of the
very name of Buddha, of Zoroaster, and of Plato; he had read no
Greek book, no Buddhist Sudra, nevertheless there was in him more
than one element, which, without his suspecting it, came from
Buddhism, Parseeism, or from the Greek wisdom. All this was done
through secret channels and by that kind of sympathy which exists


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among the various portions of humanity. The great man, on the one
hand, receives everything from his age; on the other, he governs
his age. To show that the religion founded by Jesus was the
natural consequence of that which had gone before does not
diminish its excellence, but only proves that it had a reason for
its existence, that it was legitimate -- that is to say,
conformable to the instinct and wants of the heart in a given
age.

     Is it more just to say that Jesus owes all to Judaism, and
that his greatness is only that of the Jewish people? No one is
more disposed than myself to place high this unique people, whose
particular gift seems to have been to contain in its midst the
extremes of good and evil. No doubt, Jesus proceeded from
Judaism; but he proceeded from it as Socrates proceeded from the
schools of the Sophists, as Luther proceeded from the Middle
Ages, as Lamennais from Catholicism, as Rousseau from the
eighteenth century. A man is of his age and his race even when he
reacts against his age and his race. Far from Jesus having
continued Judaism, he represents the rupture with the Jewish
spirit. The general direction of Christianity after him does not
permit the supposition that his idea in this respect could lead
to any misunderstanding. The general march of Christianity has
been to remove itself more and more from Judaism. It will become
perfect in returning to Jesus, but certainly not in returning to
Judaism. The great originality of the founder remains then
undiminished; his glory admits no legitimate sharer.

     Doubtless, circumstances much aided the success of this
marvelous revolution; but circumstances only second that which is
just and true. Each branch of the development of humanity has its
privileged epoch, in which it attains perfection by a sort of
spontaneous instinct, and without effort. No labor of reflection
would succeed in producing afterwards the masterpieces which
nature creates at those moments by inspired geniuses. That which
the golden age of Greece was for arts and literature, the age of
Jesus was for religion. Jewish society exhibited the most
extraordinary moral and intellectual state which the human
species has ever passed through. It was truly one of those divine
hours in which the sublime is produced by combinations of a
thousand hidden forces, in which great souls find a flood of
admiration and sympathy to sustain them. The world, delivered
from the very narrow tyranny of small municipal republics,
enjoyed great liberty. Roman despotism did not make itself felt
in a disastrous manner until much later, and it was, moreover,
always less oppressive in those distant provinces than in the
center of the empire. Our petty preventive interferences (far
more destructive than death to things of the spirit) did not
exist. Jesus, during three years, could lead a life which, in our
societies, would have brought him twenty times before the
magistrates. Our laws upon the illegal exercise of medicine would
alone have sufficed to cut short his career. The unbelieving
dynasty of the Herods, on the other hand, occupied itself little
with religious movements; under the Asmodeans, Jesus would
probably have been arrested at his first step. An innovator, in
such a state of society, only risked death, and death is a gain
to those who labor for the future. Imagine Jesus reduced to bear 


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the burden of his divinity until his sixtieth or seventieth year,
losing his celestial fire, wearing out little by little under the
burden of an unparalleled mission! Everything favors those who
have a special destiny; they become glorious by a sort of
invincible impulse and command of fate.

     This sublime person, who each day still presides over the
destiny of the world, we may call divine, not in the sense that
Jesus has absorbed all the divine, or has been adequate to it (to
employ an expression of the schoolmen), but in the sense that
Jesus is the one who has caused his fellow-men to make the
greatest step towards the divine. Mankind in its totality offers
an assemblage of low beings, selfish, and superior to the animal
only in that its selfishness is more reflective. From the midst
of this uniform mediocrity there are pillars that rise towards
the sky, and bear witness to a nobler destiny. Jesus is the
highest of these pillars which show to man whence he comes, and
whither he ought to tend. In him was condensed all that is good
and elevated in our nature. He was not sinless; he has conquered
the same passions that we combat; no angel of God "comfort him,
except his good conscience; no Satan tempted him, except that
which each one bears in his heart. In the same way that many of
his great qualities are lost to us, through the fault of his
disciples, it is also probable that many of his faults have been
concealed. But never has any one so much as he made the interests
of humanity predominate in his life over the littlenesses of
self-love. Unreservedly devoted to his mission, he subordinated
everything to it to such a degree that towards the end of his
life the universe no longer existed for him. It was by this
access of heroic will that he conquered heaven. There never was a
man, Cakya-Mouni perhaps excepted, who has to this degree
trampled under foot family, the joys of this world, and all
temporal care. Jesus only lived for his Father and the divine
mission which he believed himself destined to fulfil.

     As to us, eternal children, powerless as we are, we who
labor without reaping, and who will never see the fruit of that
which we have sown, let us bow before these demigods. They were
able to do that which we cannot do: to create, to affirm, to act.
Will great originality be born again, or will the world content
itself henceforth by following the ways opened by the bold
creators of the ancient ages? We know not. But whatever may be
the unexpected phenomena of the future, Jesus will not be
surpassed. His worship will constantly renew its youth, the tale
of his life will cause ceaseless tears, his sufferings will
soften the best hearts; all the ages will proclaim that among the
sons of men there is none born who is greater than Jesus.

                            APPENDIX

                      RENAN AND HIS CRITICS

     IT is well known that the appearance of 'The Life of Jesus'
was the signal for an outburst of orthodox indignation against
the man who dared to reduce Jesus from a Divinity to a human
being. Renan, however, calmly disregarded the flood of criticism
under which a less happily poised nature would have been 


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submerged. Renan was a scholar, a poet, a dreamer, a worshipper
of the good and the beautiful. He was not a controversialist. His
attitude in the "imminent deadly breach" of theological warfare
was to lie still and let the storm of battle pass over him. Not
until twelve editions of the book had appeared did he even notice
his critics, and then he wrote for the thirteenth edition a
preface full of dignity and beauty. During this period of four
years Renan labored in essantly to unprove his work, and never
did the abuse and calumnies of the hostile critics prevent him
from profiting by such justice as their strictures contained.
Everything was dispassionately weighed and tested. A finer
attitude towards critical attack can scarcely be conceived.

     The objections brought against The Life of Jesus proceeded
from two opposing parties. On the one band, Freethinkers and
liberal Protestant theologians blamed Renan for lack of
thoroughness in the application of his critical principles, and
for retaining too pronounced a reverence for the traditional
figure of his hero. With these writers Renan found himself on
common ground; they started with the same principles, and merely
differed as to their application. On the other hand, the orthodox
attack was delivered in greater force, but was vitiated by a
fundamental misapprehension as to the reality of the supernatural
incidents of the Gospel narrative. If miracles are realities,
Renan's book is, as he says, a tissue of errors. If the Gospels
are divinely inspired and literally true, he has done wrong in
not contenting himself with piecing together the fragments of the
four texts, and out of them constructing, after the approved
manner of the harmonists, a redundant and contradictory whole.
If, however, the supernatural element is inadmissible, he is
justified in regarding the books which relate miraculous stories
as containing both fictitious and historical matter, as legends
full of inaccuracies and systematic expedients. The first
principle of criticism is to admit at least the possibility of
error in the texis which it examines: infallible texts it cannot
recognize. Renan, indeed, claims that he should be ranked not as
a skeptic, but as a moderate critic, since, instead of rejecting
faulty documents as mere trash, he endeavors, by careful
analysis, to extract from them their real historical value.

     These two assumptions, that miracles do not happen, and that
the Gospel writings are not divinely inspired, underlie the whole
narrative of Renan's Life of Jesus. And that such assumptions are
amply justified Renan has no difficulty in showing. The former
negation is, in fact necessary and prior to all rational
exegesis. It is the fruit of an experience which it is impossible
to deny. Miracles never happen: only the credulous believe they
have seen them; no miracle can be cited which has taken place in
the presence of those capable of testing it; no special
intervention of Deity, either in the composition of a book no or
in any other event, can be shown to have occurred. To admit the
supernatural is to stand outside the province of science; it is
to accept a non-scientific explanation: an explanation which is
set aside by the astronomer, the physician, or the geologist, is
not one which should be accepted without inquiry by the
historian. We all disregard the supernatural, and for the same
reason that we reject the existence of centaurs -- because we 


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have never seen them. To reject miracles we do not need prior
disproof of the credibility of the Gospel writers. The fact that
they recount miracles entitles us at once to say: "The Gospels
are legends; they may contain history, but certainly all they
relate cannot be historical.

     There is thus no common ground between the orthodox writer
and the Rationalist critic, since they start from diametrically
opposite premises. To the theologian the Gospels, like the rest
of the Bible, stand on a different footing from all other books;
their history is truer than any other history, since it is
without any admixture of error. To the Rationalist the Gospels
are texts to which the ordinary rules of criticism ought to be
applied. Criticism recognizes the relative value of the documents
submitted for its examination: they may contain errors; they may
be improved by comparison with other documents. Orthodoxy,
proclaiming that the sacred books contain neither contradiction
nor error, resorts to the most desperate expedients in order to
get out of difficulties which are created solely by its own
erroneous assumption. Much orthodox exegesis becomes for this
reason a tissue of subtleties. An isolated subtlety may be true;
a thousand subtleties cannot all be true. If we found in Tacitus
errors so pronounced as those committed by Luke in his references
to Quirinius and Theudas, we should, without hesitation, say that
Tacitus had been deceived. Reasonings which no one would admit in
the interpretation of a Greek or Latin classic, hypotheses which
no historian would dream of employing, are held to be plausible
and satisfactory when it is a question of defending a Gospel
writer.

     Orthodoxy reproaches Rationalism with altering historical
records because it does not accept word for word the documents
which orthodoxy holds to be sacred. But because a statement is
written down, does it follow that it must be true? The miracles
of Mohammed as well as those of Jesus have been put into writing,
and some of the biographies of Mohammed have a better claim than
the Gospels to be considered historical documents. But do we on
this account believe in the miracles attributed to mohammed? If
his biographer relates an incredible thing, we make no scruple
about rejecting it. If we had four lives of Buddha partly
fabulous and as mutually irreconcilable as the four Gospels, and
a learned Buddhist endeavored to purge the narratives of their
contradictions, we should not charge him with falsifying the
texts.

     The question of the supernatural lies at the bottom of all
discussion on these matters. If the miracles really happened and
the Gospels are really inspired, Renan candidly admits that his
method may be termed detestable. But if these beliefs are
unfounded. his method is the true and right one. To the rational
inquirer one simple reason settles the question: There is no room
for belief in a thing of which the world can offer no
experimental trace. We do not believe in miracles, just as we do
not believe in the devil, in sorcery, or in astrology. There is
no need to refute one by one the elaborate reasonings of
astrology in order to justify our skepticism with regard to the
influence of the stars on human events. It is sufficient to meet
them by the simple fact that experience shows that such an
influence has never been proved.

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     The theologian cannot be a historian. History is by its
nature essentially disinterested; it deals with facts, not
suppositions; its one care is with two inseparable aspects of
life -- art and truth. The theologian has an interest to serve --
his dogma. Even where the dogma is minimized as far as possible,
it is still a grievous burden to the artist or the critic. It is
essential that the study of books held to be sacred should be
carried on in a dispassionate spirit. Critical inquiry into the
origins of Christianity will not have said its last word until it
has cultivated in a purely secular spirit the method of the
Hellenists, a people who were strangers to theology, who thought
neither of edifying nor of scandalizing, who neither defended nor
overthrew the dogmas of their religion.

     The foregoing observations of Renan are sufficient evidence
of the gradual progress of his mind in the direction of
Rationalism between the first and the thirteenth editions of The
Life of Jesus. With increasing knowledge, and under the pressure
of fact and reason, his mind took a firmer and more intellectual
tone, his perception of the unity of the race strengthened, and
the haze of poetic sentiment in which to him the figure of Jesus
was enveloped was partially dispelled, though his sense of the
beauty and grandeur of the character of Jesus and of the
spiritual value of much of the Gospel writings remained as keen
as that of any orthodox believer. That the progress towards a
more assured Rationalism was to some extent reluctant seems
clear, though this fact only confirms our impression of its
genuineness and value. It was no superficial examination, but the
most serious reflection, which led to the more advanced views.
Renan pondered on these matters with no other prejudices than
those which constitute the essence of reason itself. the most
important problem which presented itself was that of the Fourth
Gospel. While holding that this work had some actual connection
with the Apostle John, he fully appreciated the difficulty of
defining the nature of that connection. He freely avowed that in
certain passages of his first edition he had inclined too much in
the direction of authenticity; that he had shown a certain
disposition to admit the apostolic authorship of the Fourth
Gospel, which was without adequate warrant; and that he was wrong
in repudiating the notion of its later origin. The second Epistle
attributed to Peter affords an analogous example of a writing
which must have emanated from a subsequent author, and the
authenticity of which cannot be reasonably sustained. In
conformity with this more advanced conception, Renan, while still
holding that in the Fourth Gospel we have a fund of information
equal, and in some respects superior, to that of the Synoptics,
struck out from his later editions expressions which implied that
the Gospel as it stands is the genuine record of the Apostle
John, or of any other eye-witness of the events narrated.

     That which Renan regarded as certain in the life of Jesus
may be stated in a few lines. He existed. His home was Nazareth
in Galilee. His preaching had a powerful charm for the multitude.
His aphorisms made a deep impression on his followers. Peter and
John were his principal disciples. He excited the hatred of the
orthodox Jews, who arraigned him before Pontius Pilate, then
Procurator of Judoed, under whom he was crucified. It was 


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believed that, after two or three days, he had risen from the
dead. Beyond this all is doubtful. As to the order of his mental
development; whether he believed in the miracles attributed to
him; whether he regarded himself as the Messiah; whether he was
purely a Jew or definitely broke with the Mosaic law -- these are
questions on which persons who seek for certainty must remain
silent. Little reliance can be placed on the Gospel statements on
these points, since they furnish arguments equally serviceable to
opposing views, and modify the character of Jesus to suit the
purpose of the writers. In such matters it is permissible to make
conjectures, provided they are put forward as such. The texts do
not give certitude, but they give something. It is necessary
neither to follow them with blind confidence, nor to reject them
with disdain. We can only strive to divine their meaning, without
being certain of having found it. The history of Jesus and of his
Apostles has, above all other histories, to be constructed out of
a vast mixture of ideas and sentiments. With such ideas and
sentiments a thousand trifles and conjectures are intermingled.
The details of these it is impossible now to trace with any
exactness; the traditions that have come down to us may be true,
but they may also be false. The best course is to follow the
original narratives as closely as possible, to discard
impossibilities, to sow in every direction the seeds of doubt,
and to regard the diverse relations of events as matters of
conjecture. Narratives dealing so largely with the supernatural
cannot be true to the letter; out of a hundred accounts of
supernatural occurrences probably eighty have been pieced
together by popular imagination. Only in rare cases does a basis
of actual fact lie behind the transformed legend. It is useless
to think that a single explanation holds good from one end of the
Bible to the other. That a particular explanation is repugnant to
our ideas is no reason for rejecting it. History has to deal with
a world which is partly good and partly evil, and in reading it
we are by turns charmed and disgusted, grieved and consoled.

     The method of science is in sharp contrast with the method
of theology. Science alone seeks after pure truth. Science alone
supports truth by convincing reasons, and subjects the methods of
her convictions to severe examination. Doubtless this is one
reason why, up till now, science has had so little influence on
the people. In the future, when the people have received the
better instruction which we hope for, they will yield their
judgment only to carefully deduced proofs. But the great men of
the past are not to be judged by the principles of a later
development, or blamed for believing on grounds which to us would
be inadequate. We should be lacking in gratitude if we did not
speak kindly of Christianity. But final recognition should never
blind our eyes to the truth. We are not wanting in respect to a
government when we perceive that it is unable to satisfy all
man's conflicting needs; nor to a religion when we allege that it
is not free from the formidable objections which science has
raised against all forms of belief in the supernatural. When
religions respond to the aspirations of the heart at the expense
of the protestations of reason, they in their turn by slow
degrees, crumble away, for no force in the world can permanently
succeed in stifling reason.

                          ****     ****

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