Supernatural Religion Volume II Part 31

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deliberately desired to deny the connection of Jesus with Nazareth and Galilee, in accordance with his evident intention of a.s.sociating the Logos only with the Holy City. We must not pause to show that the author is generally unjust to the Galilaeans, and displays an ignorance regarding them very unlike what we should expect from the fisherman of Galilee.(1) We have already alluded to the artificial character of the conversation with the woman of Samaria, which, although given with so much detail, occurred at a place totally unknown (perhaps allegorically called the "City of Lies"), at which the Apostle John was not present, and the substance of which was typical of Samaria and its five nations and false G.o.ds. The continuation in the Gospel is as unreal as the conversation.

Another instance displaying personal ignorance is the insertion into a discourse at the Last Supper, and without any appropriate connection with the context, the pa.s.sage "Verily, verily, I say unto you: he that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me."(2) In the Synoptics, this sentence is naturally represented as part of the address to the disciples who are to be sent forth to preach the Gospel;(3) but it is clear that its insertion here is a mistake.(4) Again, a very obvious slip, which betrays that what was intended for realistic detail is nothing but a reminiscence of some earlier Gospel misapplied, occurs in a later part

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of the discourses very inappropriately introduced as being delivered on the same occasion. At the end of xiv. 31, Jesus is represented, after saying that he would no more talk much with the disciples, as suddenly breaking off with the words: "Arise, let us go hence" [------]. They

do not, however, arise and go thence, but, on the contrary, Jesus at once commences another long discourse: "I am the true vine," &c. The expression is merely introduced artistically to close one discourse, and enable the writer to begin another, and the idea is taken from some earlier work. For instance, in our first Synoptic, at the close of the Agony in the Garden which the fourth Gospel ignores altogether, Jesus says to the awakened disciples: "Rise, let us go" [------].(1) We need not go on with these ill.u.s.trations, but the fact that the author is not an eyewitness recording scenes which he beheld and discourses which he heard, but a writer composing an ideal Gospel on a fixed plan, will become more palpable as we proceed.

It is not necessary to enter upon any argument to prove the fundamental difference which exists in every respect between the Synoptics and the fourth Gospel. This is admitted even by apologists, whose efforts to reconcile the discordant elements are totally unsuccessful. "It is impossible to pa.s.s from the Synoptic Gospels to that of St John,"

says Canon Westcott, "without feeling that the transition involves the pa.s.sage from one world of thought to another. No familiarity with the general teaching of the Gospels, no wide conception of the character of the Saviour is sufficient to destroy the

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contrast which exists in form and spirit between the earlier and later narratives."(l) The difference between the fourth Gospel and the Synoptics, not only as regards the teaching of Jesus but also the facts of the narrative, is so great that it is impossible to harmonize them, and no one who seriously considers the matter can fail to see that both cannot be accepted as correct. If we believe that the Synoptics give a truthful representation of the life and teaching of Jesus, it follows of necessity that, in whatever category we may decide to place the fourth Gospel, it must be rejected as a historical work. The theories which are most in favour as regards it may place the Gospel in a high position as an ideal composition, but sober criticism must infallibly p.r.o.nounce that they exclude it altogether from the province of history. There is no option but to accept it as the only genuine report of the sayings and doings of Jesus, rejecting the Synoptics, or to remove it at once to another department of literature. The Synoptics certainly contradict each other in many minor details, but they are not in fundamental disagreement with each other and evidently present the same portrait of Jesus, and the same view of his teaching derived from the same sources.

The vast difference which exists between the representation of Jesus in the fourth Gospel and in the Synoptics is too well recognized to require minute demonstration. We must, however, point out some of the distinctive features. We need not do more here than refer to the fact that, whilst the Synoptics relate the circ.u.mstances of the birth of Jesus, two of them at least, and give some history of his family and origin, the fourth Gospel, ignoring all this, introduces the great

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Teacher at once as the Logos who from the beginning was with G.o.d and was himself G.o.d. The key-note is struck from the first, and in the philosophical prelude to the Gospel we have the announcement to those who have ears to hear, that here we need expect no simple history, but an artistic demonstration of the philosophical postulate. According to the Synoptics, Jesus is baptized by John, and as he goes out of the water the Holy Ghost descends upon him like a dove. The fourth Gospel says nothing of the baptism, and makes John the Baptist narrate vaguely that he saw the Holy Ghost descend like a dove and rest upon Jesus, as a sign previously indicated to him by G.o.d by which to recognize the Lamb of G.o.d.(1) From the very first, John the Baptist, in the fourth Gospel, recognizes and declares Jesus to be "the Christ,"(2) "the Lamb of G.o.d which taketh away the sins of the world."(3) According to the Synoptics, John comes preaching the baptism of repentance, and so far is he from making such declarations, or forming such distinct opinions concerning Jesus, that even after he has been cast into prison and just before his death,--when in fact his preaching was at an end,--he is represented as sending disciples to Jesus, on hearing in prison of his works, to ask him: "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" (4) Jesus carries on his ministry and baptizes simultaneously with John, according to the fourth Gospel, but his public career, according to the Synoptics, does not begin until after the Baptist's has concluded, and John is cast into prison.(5) The Synoptics clearly

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represent the ministry of Jesus as having been limited to a single year,(1) and his preaching is confined to Galilee and Jerusalem, where his career culminates at the fatal Pa.s.sover. The fourth Gospel distributes the teaching of Jesus-between Galilee, Samaria, and Jerusalem, makes it extend at least over three years, and refers to three Pa.s.sovers spent by Jesus at Jerusalem.(2) The Fathers felt this difficulty and expended a good deal of apologetic ingenuity upon it; but no one is now content with the explanation of Eusebius, that the Synoptics merely intended to write the history of Jesus during the one year after the imprisonment of the Baptist, whilst the fourth Evangelist recounted the events of the time not recorded by the others, a theory which is totally contradicted by the four Gospels themselves.(3)

The fourth Gospel represents the expulsion of the money-changers by Jesus as taking place at the very outset of his career,(4) when he could not have been known, and when such a proceeding is incredible; whilst the Synoptics place it at the very close of his ministry, after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when, if ever, such an act, which might have contributed to the final catastrophe, becomes conceivable.(5) The variation from the parallels in the Synoptics, moreover, is exceedingly instructive, and further indicates the amplification of a later writer imperfectly acquainted with the circ.u.mstances. The

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first and second Synoptists, in addition to the general expression "those buying and selling in the Temple," mention only that Jesus overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those selling doves. The third Synoptist does not even give these particulars.

The author of the fourth Gospel, however, not only-makes Jesus expel the sellers of doves and the moneychangers, but adds: "those selling oxen and sheep." Now, not only is there not the slightest evidence that sheep and oxen were bought and sold in the Temple, but it is obvious that there was no room there to do so. On the contrary, it is known that the market for cattle was not only distant from the Temple, but even from the city.(1) The author himself betrays the foreign element in his account by making Jesus address his words, when driving them all out, only "to them selling doves." Why single these out and seem to exclude the sellers of sheep and oxen? He has apparently forgotten his own interpolation. In the first Gospel, the connection of the words of Jesus with the narrative suggests an explanation: xxi. 12 "... and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats _of those selling doves, and saith to them_, &c." Upon the occasion of this episode, the fourth Gospel represents Jesus as replying to the demand of the Jews for a sign why he did such things: "Destroy this temple, and within three days I will raise it up," which the Jews understand very naturally only in a material sense, and which even the disciples only comprehended and believed "after the resurrection." The Synoptists not only know nothing of this, but represent the saying as the false testimony which the false witnesses bare

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against Jesus.(1) No such charge is brought against Jesus at all in the fourth Gospel. So little do the Synoptists know of the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman, and his sojourn for two days at Sychar, that in his instructions to his disciples, in the first Gospel, Jesus positively forbids them either to go to the Gentiles or to enter into any city of the Samaritans.(2) The fourth Gospel has very few miracles in common with the Synoptics, and those few present notable variations.

After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus, according to the Synoptics, constrains his disciples to enter a s.h.i.+p and to go to the other side of the Lake of Gennesaret, whilst he himself goes up a mountain apart to pray. A storm arises, and Jesus appears walking to them over the sea, whereat the disciples are troubled, but Peter says to him: "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee over the water," and on his going out of the s.h.i.+p over the water, and beginning to sink, he cries: "Lord save me;" Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and when they had come into the s.h.i.+p, the wind ceased, and they that were in the s.h.i.+p came and wors.h.i.+pped him, saying: "Of a truth thou art the Son of G.o.d." (3) The fourth Gospel, instead of representing Jesus as retiring to the mountain to pray, which would have been opposed to the authors idea of the Logos, makes the motive for going thither the knowledge of Jesus that the people "would come and take him by force that they might make him a king."(4) The writer altogether ignores the episode of Peter walking on the sea, and adds a new miracle by stating that, as soon as Jesus was received on

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board, "the s.h.i.+p was at the land whither they were going."(1) The Synoptics go on to describe the devout excitement and faith of all the country round, but the fourth Gospel, limiting the effect on the mult.i.tude in the first instance to curiosity as to how Jesus had crossed the lake, represents Jesus as upbraiding them for following him, not because they saw miracles, but because they had eaten of the loaves and been filled,(2) and makes him deliver one of those long dogmatic discourses, interrupted by, and based upon, the remarks of the crowd, which so peculiarly distinguish the fourth Gospel.

Without dwelling upon such details of miracles, however, we proceed with our slight comparison. Whilst the fourth Gospel from the very commencement a.s.serts the foreknowledge of Jesus as to who should betray him, and makes him inform the Twelve that one of them is a devil, alluding to Judas Iscariot,(3) the Synoptists represent Jesus as having so little foreknowledge that Judas should betray him that, shortly before the end and, indeed, according to the third Gospel, only at the last supper, Jesus promises that the disciples shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel,(4) and it is only at the last supper, after Judas has actually arranged with the chief priests, and apparently from knowledge of the fact, that Jesus for the first time speaks of his betrayal by him.(5) On his way to Jerusalem, two days before the Pa.s.sover,(6) Jesus comes to Bethany where,

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according to the Synoptics, being in the house of Simon the leper, a woman with an alabaster box of very precious ointment came and poured the ointment upon his head, much to the indignation of the disciples, who say: "To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor."(1) In the fourth Gospel the episode takes place six days before the Pa.s.sover,(2) in the house of Lazarus, and it is his sister Mary who takes a pound of very costly ointment, but she anoints the feet of Jesus and wipes his feet with her hair. It is Judas Iscariot, and not the disciples, who says: "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor?" And Jesus makes a similar reply to that in the Synoptics, showing the ident.i.ty of the occurrence described so differently.(3)

The Synoptics represent most clearly that Jesus on the evening of the 14th Nisan, after the custom of the Jews, ate the Pa.s.sover with his disciples,(4) and that he was arrested in the first hours of the 15th Nisan, the day on which he was put to death. Nothing can be more distinct than the statement that the last supper was the Paschal feast.

"They made ready the Pa.s.sover [------], and when the hour was come, he sat down and the apostles with him, and he said to them: With desire I desired to eat this Pa.s.sover with you before I suffer" [------].(5) The fourth Gospel, however, in accordance with the principle which is dominant throughout, represents the last repast

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which Jesus eats with his disciples as a common supper [------], which takes place, not on the 14th, but on the 13th Nisan, the day "before the feast of the Pa.s.sover" [------],(1) and his death takes place on the 14th, the day on which the Paschal lamb was slain. Jesus is delivered by Pilate to the Jews to be crucified about the sixth hour of "the preparation of the Pa.s.sover" [------],(2) and because it was "the preparation," the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus were broken, that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the great day of the feast.(3) The fourth Gospel totally ignores the inst.i.tution of the Christian festival at the last supper, but, instead, represents Jesus as was.h.i.+ng the feet of the disciples, enjoining them also to wash each other's feet: "For I gave you an example that ye should do according as I did to you."(4) The Synoptics have no knowledge of this incident.

Immediately after the warning to Peter of his future denial, Jesus goes out with the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane

and, taking Peter and the two sons of Zebedee apart, began to be sorrowful and very depressed and, as he prayed in his agony that if possible the cup might pa.s.s from him, an angel comforts him. Instead of this, the fourth Gospel represents Jesus as delivering, after the warning to Peter, the longest discourses in the Gospel: "Let not your heart be troubled," &c; "I am the true vine,"(5) &c; and, although said to be written by one of the sons of Zebedee who were with Jesus on the occasion, the fourth Gospel does not mention the agony in the garden but, on the contrary, makes Jesus utter the long

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prayer xvii. 1--26, in a calm and even exulting spirit very far removed from the sorrow and depression of the more natural scene in Gethsemane.

The prayer, like the rest of the prayers in the Gospel, is a mere didactic and dogmatic address for the benefit of the hearers.

The arrest of Jesus presents a similar contrast. In the Synoptics, Judas comes with a mult.i.tude from the chief priests and elders of the people armed with swords and staves, and, indicating his Master by a kiss, Jesus is simply arrested and, after the slight resistance of one of the disciples, is led away.(1) In the fourth Gospel, the case is very different. Judas comes with a band of men from the chief priests and Pharisees, with lanterns and torches and weapons, and Jesus--"knowing all things which were coming to pa.s.s"--himself goes towards them and asks: "Whom seek ye?" Judas plays no active part, and no kiss is given.

The fourth Evangelist is, as ever, bent on showing that all which happens to the Logos is predetermined by himself and voluntarily encountered. As soon as Jesus replies: "I am he," the whole band of soldiers go backwards and fall to the ground, an incident thoroughly in the spirit of the early apocryphal Gospels still extant, and of an evidently legendary character. He is then led away first to Annas, who sends him to Caiaphas, whilst the Synoptics naturally know nothing of Annas, who was not the high priest and had no authority. We need not follow the trial, which is fundamentally different in the Synoptics and fourth Gospel; and we have already pointed out that, in the Synoptics, Jesus is crucified on the 15th Nisan, whereas in the fourth Gospel he is put to death--the spiritual Paschal lamb--on the 14th Nisan. According

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to the fourth Gospel, Jesus bears his own cross to Calvary,(1) but the Synoptics represent it as being borne by Simon of Cyrene.(2) As a very singular ill.u.s.tration of the inaccuracy of all the Gospels, we may point to the circ.u.mstance that no two of them agree even about so simple a matter of fact as the inscription on the cross, a.s.suming that there was one at all. They give it respectively as follows: "This is Jesus the King of the Jews;" "The King of the Jews;" "This (is) the King of the Jews;" and the fourth Gospel: "Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews."(3) The occurrences during the Crucifixion are profoundly different in the fourth Gospel from those narrated in the Synoptics. In the latter, only the women are represented as beholding afar off,(4) but "the beloved disciple" is added in the fourth Gospel, and instead of being far off, they are close to the cross; and for the last cries of Jesus reported in the Synoptics we have the episode in which Jesus confides his mother to the disciple's care. We need not at present compare the other details of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, which are differently reported by each of the Gospels.

We have only indicated a few of the more salient differences between the fourth Gospel and the Synoptics, which are rendered much more striking, in the Gospels themselves, by the profound dissimilarity of the sentiments uttered by Jesus. We merely point out, in pa.s.sing, the omission of important episodes from the fourth

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Gospel, such as the Temptation in the wilderness; the Transfiguration, at which, according to the Synoptics, the sons of Zebedee were present; the last Supper; the agony in the garden; the mournful cries on the cross; and, we may add, the Ascension; and if we turn to the miracles of Jesus, we find that almost all of those narrated by the Synoptics are ignored, whilst an almost entirely new series is introduced. There is not a single instance of the cure of demoniacal possession in any form recorded in the fourth Gospel. Indeed the number of miracles is reduced in that Gospel to a few typical cases; and although at the close it is generally said that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, these alone are written with the declared purpose: "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of G.o.d."(1)

We may briefly refer in detail to one miracle of the fourth Gospel--the raising of Lazarus. The extraordinary fact that the Synoptists are utterly ignorant of this the greatest of the miracles attributed to Jesus has been too frequently discussed to require much comment here.

It will be remembered that, as the case of the daughter of Jairus is, by the express declaration of Jesus, one of mere suspension of consciousness,(2) the only instance in which a dead person is distinctly said, in any of the Synoptics, to have been restored to life by Jesus is that of the son of the widow of Nain.(3) It is, therefore, quite impossible to suppose that the Synoptists could have known of the raising of Lazarus and wilfully omitted it. It is equally impossible to believe that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels, from whatever sources they may have drawn their materials,

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could have been ignorant of such a miracle had it really-taken place.

This astounding miracle, according to the fourth Gospel, created such general excitement that it was one of the leading events which led to the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.(1) If, therefore, the Synoptics had any connection with the writers to whom they are referred, the raising of Lazarus must have been personally known to their reputed authors either directly or through the Apostles who are supposed to have inspired them, or even if they have any claim to contemporary origin the tradition of the greatest miracle of Jesus must have been fresh throughout the Church, if such a wonder had ever been performed.(2) The total ignorance of such a miracle displayed by the whole of the works of the New Testament, therefore, forms the strongest presumptive evidence that the narrative in the fourth Gospel is a mere imaginary scene, ill.u.s.trative of the dogma: "I am the resurrection and the life," upon which it is based. This conclusion is confirmed by the peculiarities of the narrative itself. When Jesus first hears, from the message of the sisters, that Lazarus whom he loved was sick, he declares, xi. 4: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of G.o.d, that the Son of G.o.d may be glorified thereby;" and v. 6: "When, therefore [------], he heard that he was sick, at that time he continued two days in the place where he was." After that time he proposes to go into Judaea, and explains to the disciples, v. 11: "Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." The disciples reply, with the stupidity with which the fourth Evangelist endows all those who hold colloquy with Jesus,

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v. 12: "Lord, if he is fallen asleep, he will recover. Howbeit, Jesus spake of his death; but they thought that he was speaking of the taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly: Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent that ye may believe." The artificial nature of all this introductory matter will not have escaped the reader, and it is further ill.u.s.trated by that which follows. Arrived at Bethany, they find that Lazarus has lain in the grave already four days. Martha says to Jesus (v. 21 ): "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And I know that even now whatsoever thou shalt ask of G.o.d, G.o.d will give thee. Jesus saith unto her: They brother shall rise again." Martha, of course, as usual, misunderstands this saying as applying to "the resurrection at the last day," in order to introduce the reply: "I am the resurrection and the life," &c. When they come to the house, and Jesus sees Mary and the Jews weeping, "he groaned in spirit and troubled himself," and on reaching the grave itself (v. 35. f.), "Jesus wept: Then said the Jews: Behold how he loved him!" Now this representation, which has ever since been the admiration of Christendom, presents the very strongest marks of unreality. Jesus, who loves Lazarus so much, disregards the urgent message of the sisters and, whilst openly declaring that his sickness is not unto death, intentionally lingers until his friend dies. When he does go to Bethany, and is on the very point of restoring Lazarus to life and dissipating the grief of his family and friends he actually weeps and groans in his spirit. There is so total an absence of reason for such grief at such a moment that these tears, to any sober reader, are unmistakably mere theatrical adjuncts of a scene

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elaborated out of the imagination of the writer. The suggestion of the bystanders (v. 37), that he might have prevented the death, is not more probable than the continuation (v. 38): "Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself cometh to the grave." There, having ordered the stone to be removed, he delivers a prayer avowedly intended merely for the bystanders (v. 41 ff): "And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou hearest me always: but for the sake of the mult.i.tude which stand around I said this, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." This prayer is as evidently artificial as the rest of the details of the miracle but, as in other elaborately arranged scenic representations, the charm is altogether dispelled when closer examination shows the character of the dramatic elements. A careful consideration of the narrative and of all the facts of the case must, we think, lead to the conclusion that this miracle is not even a historical tradition of the life of Jesus, but is wholly an ideal composition by the author of the fourth Gospel.

This being the case, the other miracles of the Gospel need not detain us.

If the historical part of the fourth Gospel be in irreconcilable contradiction to the Synoptics, the didactic is infinitely more so. The teaching of the one is totally different from that of the others, in spirit, form, and terminology; and although there are undoubtedly fine sayings throughout the work, in the prolix discourses of the fourth Gospel there is not a single characteristic of the simple eloquence of the Sermon on the Mount. In the diffuse mysticism of the Logos, we can scarcely recognise a trace of the terse practical wisdom of Jesus of Nazareth. It must, of course, be apparent even to the most superficial

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