the inner meaning of the four gospels;: reinterpreted in the light of modern research, and in...

T H E INNER MEANING OF THE F 0 U R GOSPELS.

THE INNER MEANING OF

THE FOUR GOSPELS

Re-interpreted in the Light of Modern Research, and in Relation to Spiritual and Social Needs.

GILBERT T. SADLER • ••

M.A., LL.B.

Author of '• The Origin and Meaning of Christianity,'' •' The Gnostic Story of Jesus Christ,'' • 'Reason-Love-Vision,'' " The Relation of Custom to Law,"

&c., &c.

L 0 N D 0 N: C. W. D AN IE L, LTD.

Graham House, Tudor Street, E.C.4

1920.

CONTENTS PAGE.

Foreword .. . 11

The Sources of the Four Gospels 17

1. The Birth of Christ 20

2. The Genealogy 21

3. The Virgin Birth : . . 22

4. The Flight to Egypt 22

5. Nazareth 22

6. John the Baptist . . . 24

7. The Baptism of 1 esus 25

8. The Temptation . . . 26

9. The Sermon on the l\1ount 26

10. Leper Cleansed 39

11. The Centurion 39

12. The Storm Calmed 39

13. Demoniacs ... 40

14. The Miracles of Healing 40

15. The Disciples as Apostles 43

16. John and Christ . .. 43

17. Prayer and Invitation 44

18. The Sabbath / ... 45

19. Who is Christ's Mother? 45

20. Parables of the Kingdom 46

21. The Relatives of 1 esus . . . 48 22. The Death of John the Baptist 49

23. Jesus Walking on the Sea 49

24. Clean and Unclean 50

25. The Canaanite Woman -· 50

26. A Miracle Desired ... 51

27. Peter's Confession ... 51

5

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

28. The Transfiguration 52

29. The Tax 53

30. The Little Child Allegory 54

31. Church Discipline ... 54

32. Unlimited Forgiveness 56

33. The Journey to Jerusalem 56

34. The Mission of the Seventy 57

35. The Good Samaritan 57

36. Martha and Mary 58

37. Prayer 58

38. Christ greater than Jon as and Solomon 59

39. Watch 59 40. The Galileans and the Barren Fig-tree 60

41. A Question of the Sabbath 61

42. The Man with Dropsy . . . 61

43. Calling Men to a Feast . . _ . 61

44. Count the Cost 62 45. The Lost Sheep : Silver and Son 62

46. The Clever Steward 63

47. Dives and Lazarus 63 48. Lepers Cleansed . . . 64

·49. The Unjust Judge ... 64 50. Pharisee and Publican 64 51. The Logos, Truth, Life ... 65

52. The Water to 'Vine 67 53. Nicodemus ... 67 54. The Samaritans 67

55. The Man at Bethesda 68

56. Christ the Bread ... 68 57. The Adulterous Woman ... 69

58. Against the Pharisees 69

59. The Man Born Blind 70

60. Lazarus Raised 70 6

CONTENT-S .

61. The Fi'�hermen 62. On Divorce .. .

63. The Rich Young Ruler 64. Parable of the Labourers 65. On Humility 66. Two (?) Blind Men 67. Entry into Jerusalem 68. The Fig-tree Cursed 69. John the Baptist Again 70. Parable of the Vineyard ... 71. Tribute to Cesar ...

72. The Resurrection Puzzle ... 73. The Chief Commandments 74. A Puzzle as to The Messiah 75. The Worst Kind of Pharisee 76. "0 Jerusalem" 77. The Messianic Coming . . .

78. The Parable of the Maidens 79. The Parable of the Talents

80. The Judgment by Christ ... 81. Judas ... 82. The Last Supper ...

83. Gethsemane . ..

84. In the House of Caiaphas 85. The Fate of Judas 86 Pilate and Barabbas 87. The Crucifixion 88. The Burial ... 89. The Resurrection

PAGE.

7 1

71

73

75

76

76

77

78

78

79

80

80

82

82

82 84

84

85

85

88

88

89

90

93

97

97

99

99

100

90. The Commission ··y 101

91. Christ Coming Again 101

Index to Sections and to Parallel Passages 103

7

APPROXIMATE DATES.

The rise of the Christ-group of Nazarenes within judaism .•.

Their persecution by the Jewish authorities ...

The framing of the Gnostic Initiation story of the descended and ascended Christ

The II Epistles of Paul '' (really by a Pauline School)

The collection of the "Sayings" of the Christians, ascribed to Christ, but taken mostly from Jewish writings and Rabbis . . . �··

The '' Gospel of Mark I I •• •

The '' Gospel of Matthew · ' The " Gospel of Luke " . . .

The Book of Acts (compiled by the compiler of the Gospel of Luke)

The '' Gospel of John" .. . The Epistles of Ignfl.tius .. . The writing� of Justin Martyr

The work of Irenaeus on Heresies

' The '' Acts of John'' and the ''Acts of Andrew "

The works of Hippolytus of Portus, Rome ...

9

A.D.

30 30-60

30-80 80-90

90-100 90 95

100

110 120 120 150 180 180 220

1 1 A 11 through life I see a Cross Where sons of God yield up the ir breath: There is no gain except by loss, There is no life except by death: There is no vision but by faith : No glory but by bearing shame, No justice but by taking blame :

And that Eternal Passion saith, Be emptied of glory and right and name."

(Walter C. Smith.)

I' Would'st thou love one who never died for thee, or ever die for One who had not died for thee? And if God dieth not for man, and give not Himself eternally for man, man could not exist : for as God is love, man is love : every kindness to another is a little death in the Divine Image.1' .__

(Wm. Blake in Jerusalem.)

'I Except ye fast to the world ye shall in no wise find the kingdom of God.''

(Words of Jesus in the First Oxyrhynchus Fragment.)

" One God in every seed self-sacrificed."

(Alfred Noyes,)

"Dare live by Truth-Love-Faith, Thou struggling soul, and free ; Thus feel the Infinite Self-crucified in thee!" (G.T.S.

10

FOREWORD.

THE attitude of this little book towards t he Gospels may be briefly indicated. The Commentarv will explain it in detail.

The present writer for years resisted t he idea that there was no man Jesus . But by persistent · exam-ination of the stories concerning Jesus, it was borne in upon hitn that t he o ld exp lanation of thent was very unsatisfactory .

That t he con�pilers o f these four G ospels believed a man Jesus lived is no doubt true : but they used material which arose from an

earlier gnostic, m·ystic circle, perhaps 'in A lexandria. In t hat drcle, t he " Christ" was a divine figure in Jewish rninds, and he was set forth in " The Book of Enoch " (B.c.70) as O ne eternally with God. The Gnostics added the term and t he Figure to their idea of the Logos or Primal Man, who had descended to earth , being " crucified " in s o doing, and had risen to lift men to eternal life.

The Cross, to Gnostics, tneant t hQ boundary between t he eternal and p henom.enal: and in it the Son of God was fixed.

That p icture ·was really the mystic or secret ·way of set ting forth a process that is u ever " happening. But we can now see it 'li.JaS not a

11

FOREWORD.

" second " divine Being u1ho descended. God, the Infinite Life, ever descends or is crucified (se lf-limited) into this universe in order to evo lve here souls as sons, so as to love t hent and be loved by the1n for ever. This is the meaning of Reality. This is the lV o rl d-Religion of the future, greater even than Christianity, though suggested, or p ointed to, by Christianity.

The Gnostics said the " Christ " was t h e satne as their eternal " Logos " of God, the " Pritnal .Wan" of ".Poitnandres1 (a gnostic b ook going back to a pagan. pre-Christian o riginal). The " Christ " descended, died, and rose again to save tnen fro1n sin and destruction. So said the Gnostic Christians about A.D. 30-80 in Alexandria and Ep hesus .

Then the Ch u1·ches (originally gtoups of the Christ-men, looking for Christ to come soon from, t he sky), not being a ble to grasp this gnostic philosophy , t h ought it nteant "a " Man had come fro1n hea·ven to earth, been crucified and risen. So they taught the 1nystic ston' as if it ·were a historical incarnation of the " H ea·venly M " an.

(1) u To-day it is needful " to get " be hind " the Four Gosp els to the Gnostic idea of t he Christ-Logos n ot as a tnan, but as a divine Life descending and ascending. Then we 1nust get

(1) See my The Gnostic Story of Jesus Christ. 12

FOREWORD.

to the real meaning of t hat Gnostic message that " it is the Infinite Life who is ever in this process of being crucified '' into nature and finite souls (from protoz,Ja to nwn) , �o as to save souls, i . e . , achieve in t hem the Infinite Lif�, and so give Himself into them . That is the m eaning of the deep fact that God is Love, life-sharingness. The universe exists that we tnay achieve His Life! God is not a Father apart from men, sending once a Son of Go_d from heaven to save men. That is but pict.ure-theology. God is Crucified as Life-sharing Lo·ve. And ntan nutst also share his life U'ith his fello·w-nten, and so be -at one wit h God, the unifying Soul of the untverse.

The real reason ·why ignorance, sin and pain exist in men's lives is because God is there as self-limited and hatnp ered, in order to live -in men ! God is imprisoned for us. Only as ntan achieves the spiritual powers does God work -in and for man. But as man s truggles to gain the spiritual life, more and rnore, he feels i t i s the crucified Infinite Life struggling in him, and ascending in him ! u Matter " is God's psychic states, organised will-energies, as a womb and school for souls, who are being evolved brere . By pain,. man learns the spiritual powers of God; and the result is worth the pain !

There are stages in the Path of souls towards realising t he Infinite Life of the spirit. Souls

18

FOREvVORD.

pass through, and yet car·ry on into higher stages, the swoon-consciousness 1)f plants, the sense-consciousness of ani1nals, and the self-consciousness (the property-grasping life) of the natural man.

The Sa·viour is the Infinite Life (not a Son of God, but God Himself) as He-She is crucifi�d into nature to arise in finite souls, who are thus I' transfigured and i1nmortalised by an Infinite element !

The Gnostics, being· dualists, placed the Suprerne God outside the phenomenal world, as

Plato did. Hence the descending God they called the "Logos." So Plato, in his " Timaeus," said the Son of God was set into the universe as a x of circles (the same and the other, or the Eternal and the phenomenal united

in a x ) . Justin llfartyr insisted ( thrice) that this referred to __ the cross of Christ, and it no doubt tt'as a precursor of the idea of " Christ .cruci� fie d." (Apology 1.60.) HIe 1-rtust now see that the un-iverse exists (·�.Vith all its sin and pain) jllS

the process of God's life, " cntcified" for us, that we may live in His spiritual joy and power. (2) The World-Religion goes beyond Christianity of the Gospels in a second manner. Not only ·must we see that " Christ ' ' is no n1.an) and no tnere second divine being (Logos), but is God Hirnsr.lf who " e'ver" is crucified to give His blessed life to us, but ·we 1nust also " add to the

14

FOREWORD.

sp-iritual powers " re·vealed in the New Testament so splendidly. The New T estarnen t writers, following t h e early Christ-group o f pious souls in J erusale1n, showed t h e three spiritual powers of hum.ilit·y, magnanimity (Matthew 5, 38-48), and purity (even in desire). These three powers are unveiled in the " Sennon on t he Mount " and indeed t hroughout the New Testament. They are the flowers of the East. lVe need also the four /lowers of the West, viz., Freedom (no subservience, as once in sla·ves and women), Reason ( the cultivation of the sciences, and open-m.indedness), the Imagination of Beauty (in the hannony of art, and of a new social ordering of hum.an lives), an d Service (active life-work for social good). The East and the West must meet! These seven spiritual powers of God in nwn are thus "more than the ideal called 'Christ' " in the New Testament. These seven " colours " fuse into the white Light of Life-sharing L ov e using Reason to create Beauty, which is t he divine life, crucified into nature to ascend in free souls . A ll exists to that end : but the 1\' ew Testament ideal, as unveiled in the wondrous passages, Matthew 5 and 6, I. Corinthians 12 and 13, Colossians 3 , Romans 12, is not the whole of the Will Divine. The World-Religion needs to gather from the West (ancient Greek and ·modern Anglo-Saxon ideals) as well as from the East (Buddhist and Hebrew ideals).

15 B

FOREWORD.

Thus the Christian ideas of divorce and almsgiving, the subservience of slaues and of wives (Ep hesians 5, 22-24) are but ten1-porary ones. We ha·z:e now outgrown them. Slavery is not con demn ed in the 1Vew T estarnent as an institution, and though Phile1non was told to b e kind to Onesimus, h e was not told to cease to be his master. Slaves were told to o b ey th eir masters, not to claim, r-elease as Sons of God ! The ideas of p ersonal freedom and social service are Western rather than Eastern.. A lmsgiving creates paupers as we see on t h e steps of continental cathedrals. Each man s hould be a citizen with a right to maintenance, if "'Willing" to work, w hile health lasts. The New Testament is the tnost splendid contribution to t h e WorldReligion, but not the whole of it. Thus, in both t h e ideas of God and man,. in spiritual and in social life, the New Testament supplies a partial but not a complete World-Religion .

The present little b ook on the Gosp els seeks to show (a) w hat the stories originally meant and (b) to indicate how no bly they con tribute to the World-Relig·ion of t he Infinite crucified in t he finite . The stories are descriptions of the life of God in the early Christ-group, and in men of love all over the world .

16

THE INNER MEANING OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.

FROM WHAT SOURCES WERE THE FOUR GOSPELS

COMPILED?

THE G ospel of Mat t hew, briefly cal led Matthew, c onta ins most o f wh at is in M a rk , and many Sayings of the Chris t , ca lled Logia. I t seems t o be cle ar that Matthew used an edit ion of Ma rk, a nd a l so a C ol lect ion of the s ay ings of Je sus, which Pap ias spoke of as Logia . 1 It has been supp osed that Matthew used a n en larged edit ion of the L ogia, and th is has been ca l led " Q "2 : but i t is sufficient to say that the re we re several edit ions of the Logia. Th .e one used by Luke was a d ifferen t one f rom tha t used by Matthew. --

Ma rk used the Logia als o, as in desc rib ing the p a rables of Jesus (4 , 1-34) , the sayi ngs on the inner l ife (7, 1-23) , and the teach ing on t he cross ( 8, 27 -3 8) . Ma rk a l so used a c ol lect ion of " Messi anic " texts f rom the Old Testament , which Dr. Rende ! H a rris ca l l s The B ook of Testirnonies3 (see Luke 24, 27, 44) . The sources of Ma rk we re The Book of Messi an ic pa ssages , the Logia and a lso a Mystery -bo ok (on the initiation of a man to Ch ristian i ty) . Th is l ast was framed on the Myste ry-rel ig ions , and gave r ise t o the stor ies of the b ap t ism , temptat i on , cruc ifixi on and resu rrect ion . I t conta ined sh ort

(1) Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 3, 39. (2) J. Moffatt : Introduction to the Likrature of the New

Testament: pp. 200-202. The Passion story was not in the Logia.

· (3) See Rende! Harris, Testimonies.

17

THE I NNER MEANING OF

8cenes, as in a drama. Luke used NI ark a nd the Logia, and has a specia l section (9, 51-18, 14) givi ng parables which are not i n the other Gosp e ls . Luke 1 and 2 were from a work of art on how the b i rth of the d ivi ne Son of God " must have bee n . " The Fourth Gospe l (briefly c a l led John, though not b y the early Christ ian of that name, but emana ti ng from a Johann i Qe School at Ep hesus or Alexandria ) used Mark a nd Matthew and Luke app a rent ly , and freely added d iscourses a nd stories, composed a g sp i ri tua l ly he1p ful to Christ ians .

Mark, without the Logia, was original ly a book let of the stages of an I n i t iate into the Christ i an mystery .

These stages were twelve :

(I)-The bap tism ( i t is known the initiate wa s bapt i sed as i n all mysteries , Rom . 6, 1-10 :

and the .s tory of the bap tism of Christ s ignified that of the Christia n) .

( 2)-The temptat ion (James 1, 1-13 , 12-18) .

(3)-The contest against demo ns ( recorded in the stories o f C hrist conquering t he demons, a Gnostic concep t ion of the Saviour) .

(4)-The tra nsfigurat ion of the C h rist .

(5) -The anoint ing (or chrism : here the Pa s:. s ion-story begins with the story, i n Mar k 14, of the anointing) .

(6)-The supper ( to " eat the God " ) . (7)-The lo ne line ss i n Geths em ane .

18

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

(8)-The claim to be the Christ (Mark 14, 62) .

(9)-The mocking ( taken direct from the mystery-rel igio ns) .

(10)-The crucifixion (the in i t iate was t ied to a X; see the Acts of John).

(1 1)-The burial.

(12)-The resurrection thence .

[The ascension m ay be added, and the comi ng a� Judge, for " the saints shal l judge the world .")

The plan in the fol lowing notes is to take the Story of Christ i n 90 sections, of varying length according to the subjects : some shorter passagei being omitted.

Section (1) is o n Luke 1 and 2 .

(2) to (32) are o n Matthew, which includes most of Mark a l so , but the references are to Matthew.

(33) to (50) are on the specia l p arables in Luke, which are not i n the other gospels .

(51) to (61) are on the chief passages in John, mostly miracle-parab les.

(62) to (90) resume the story in Matthew (and Mark) , ch iefly o n the Pass ion of the Christ .

(91) is on John 14-17, on The Return of Chriit .

By this means a l l the chief stories can be referred to and interp reted briefly, without a constant reference from one Gospel to a nother. Anyone tak ing a s·ection a day with these Notes, in thre.e months can exami ne practical ly the whole of the Four Gospels .

19


1.

LUKE 1 & 2.

The Birth of C h1·ist. These chapters were a work of ar t i n Aramaic

(late H eb rew) , t ranslated in to Greek by the compiler of the Third Gospel, who was also the compi ler of The Book of Acts (1, 1). Luke 1 , 8-15, on the b i rth of John the Baptist, was modelled on Judges 13, 1-5, the b i rth of Samson.

The story of the infancy of Jesus i s model led on the s tory of the b i rth and i nfancy of Sa1nuel in 1 Samuel, chaps. 1-3. Samuel was a fi rstborn son, so was Jesus. I-Iannah sang a song (1 Samuel, 2, 1-· 10), which is largely reproduced as Mary's song (Lu ke 1, 46-55). Samuel was presented i n the house of the Lord a t Sh i loh , to aged Eli, when his parents went up to their yearly worship at Sh i loh . Jesus s im i larly i s said to have been presented in the house of the. _Lord at J erusalern to aged Simeon, when " his parents " went up yearly to worsh ip at the Temple. The words "this shal l be a s ign " occur in both stories. Young Samuel is called i n the Temple of the Lord: Jesus is found in the temple when twelve years old. Before and after the incident i n Samuel's story we read the words " the child grew before the Lord " (1 Samuel 2, 21; 3, 19). Similar words occur before and after the story of Jesus being found in the temple (Luke 2, 40, 52).

These fi rst two chapters in Luke were sim·ply composed to glorify the Chr ist.

20

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

The story of the Shep herds is based o n the myth of Mithras ( the Persian god, said to have been born i n a cave as Jesus was, accordi ng to Justin), for as Professor Cumont (Ghent) writes : " Shepherds witnessed the miracle of the entrance of Mi thras into the world. . . Worship fully the shepherds drew near, offering the d ivine i nfant the first-fruits of their flocks and their harvests . "

The sto ry of t h e Christ in t h e Temple is paral leled in the Egypt ian story of Si -Osri (son of Osiris) : " The chi ld grew, he grew strong. He began to speak with the scribes i n the temple . Al l who heard h im were lost i n wonder a t h i m . " (" Stories of the H igh Priests of Memphis ," edited by F. Ll . Gri ffiths . ) We see thus how Easterns composed stor ies to glori fy their d ivine beings. This story is p re-Christ ia n .

2 .

MATT. 1, 1-17.

The Genealogy .

This l ist is d ifferent from that of Luke , bu t both seek to set out the genealogy of Joseph , whose connect ion in the story wi th Jesus was only a legal one . It seems to be the genealogy of " Mess iah ben Jo seph " (son of Joseph) of whom the Jews spoke. Then, when the Vi rgi n-b i rt h b ecame a doct ri ne (from Gnostic ism) , a merely legal desce mt from David was al l that cou ld be produced .

Jesus ( 1 , 21) meant Saviour, the G nostic s tak ing it as the nearest J ewish equ ivalent for the Soter, in whose descent they bel ieved.

21


3. MATT. 1, 18; 2, 12.

The Virgin·Birth.

It is true t ha t Isa iah 7, 14, i n the G reek version gives " p arthen os , " a virg in (shal l conceive, etc . ) , but though th is wou ld be used to confirm the Gnostic doctri ne, i t cou ld hardly a lone h ave or ig inated i t . The usual p rocess of gene rat ion was accounted s infu l, in those days, and the idea of a god bei ng born of a v irg in was the usu al one.4

Revel at i on 12 shows a p re-Christ i an Jewish ide a of the ·M essi ah as o ne who should be born of a virgin (no husband is me nt ioned� , a mythica l figure, the mother, being rea l l y the Jewish church (Rev. 12, 17). I n both passages the chi ld is sa id to be the " shep herd " of h i s peop le (Matt . 2 , 6 ; Rev. 12, 5, i n Moffat t 's Tr ansl at ion; and see Rev. 7, 17, and John 10, 11-16; cp . a lso Poi1nandres, the Gnost ic work on the Shepherd) .

The Magi f rom the East represent , i n th is wor k o f ar t , the fact that the E astern w ise m e n would bow before the Chr is t-sp i r i t. The y " fel l down and worsh ipped h im " (ve rse 11).

4. M ATT. 2, 13-18.

The Flight to Egypt. The idea that Chr is t came from E gypt p rob

ably was a Gnos tic concep t ion , mean ing that 14) See Pfleiderer : Early Christian Conception of Chi'ist.

22

THE FOUH GOSPELS.

from Ale xandri an G nosticism Christi ani ty c ame as a doctr ine . I t was an enthusi asm for the inner Ideal (a s given in M atthew 5 and 6) , which men were ca l led on to obey as a p rep arat ion for Mess ia h 's Coming . H ose a 1 1 , 1 , was misinterp reted t o suppo rt the ide a o f the fl ight : for th at text o rigin al ly referred to th e exodus of th e Hebrews from Egypt : " Out of E gypt I h ave c al le d my son . "

5.

MATT. 2, 19-23 .

Nazareth. N az areth is here ment ione d as a p l ace str ange

to M ary and Josep h , but in Luke it is s aid to have been their home ! I t is unl ikely th at there was such a p l ace . The modern en -N as i r a is h ardly " N az areth . "5

The · Christ w as the Nese r (netzer) or Shoot, the Branch of Jesse ( Is ai ah 1 1 , 1 ) , and so t he e arl iest Christi ans seem to h ave c alled themselve s the " N az arenes," and were l ater cal led " Chris-.'ti ans ."

From such a n ame the home of the Chris t w as said to be N az areth . But i t m ay h ave been an imagin ary, symbolic n ame, l ike Golgoth a and Gethsemane. Even the existence of " C aper n aum " is uncert ai n . Josephus mentions some such n ame, but only of a fount ain , not o f a town .

(5) See Ency. Biblica, article " Nazareth." 23


6.

MATT. 3, 1 -12.

Jo hn the Baptist.

I t is essen t i a l to u nde rs tand the con trast between the Jo hn-group and the Jesus-group . The John-group was comp osed of Jews who be l ieved the Mess i ah was merely " The Com i ng One " : " He t ha t should come ." The Jesus-group fel t t he Mess iah " i n the m idst ," and real ly i n t he i r �hea rt s as the Love-Ideal , compose d -so far as they k new i t-of Humi li ty, Sinceri ty, Magnanim i ty and T rust . This was set out i n the Serm on on the Mou nt . The Joh n-group taught tha t to receive the com i ng Christ i t was necessa ry to repent and do ou twa rdly good deeds, e.g., " Do violence to no m a n , " " Share your c loth ing, etc . "-see Lu ke 3, 10-14, and M at t . 3, 10 . This was the l egal way of l i fe by ru les .

The C h ris t ian fel t a deeper Life-p rincip le o f sp i ri tua l inwa rd ness, a nd ca l led i t " C h ris t ," the " Saviour . " To-day men rea l i se s t i l l m o re ful ly the Wi l l of God tha t m a n shou ld have f reedom (of p e rson) , reaso n ( educa ted) , imag inat i o n ( to c reate beauty i n fo rms) , and socia l act ivi ty of serv ice in o ne's da i ly work. To-day we have the l egal -m i nded, s t ickle rs for the " let ter " of rules, a nd devoi d of tha t sac red p assion to give m ore l i fe and fu l ler , wh ich is Love i ndee d .

T h e lega l i sts were n o t i n the Kingdom o f God , thoug h near to it. The least of sou ls tha t l ived by the sp i ri t or C h ris t , was greater t han " Joh n . " " John t h e Bap t i s t " p robably was no m a n th en . He was a personi ficatio n o f t h e " For erun ne r."

24

I THE FOUR GOSPELS.

There may have been a group o f Jews i n a John cu lt, who b aptised other Jews as a s ign o f their repen tance .

7 .

MATT. 3, 13-17 .

The Baptis1n of Jesus.

This represents the baptism o f th e Christgroup, the N azarenes, or o f each new I n i t ia t e i nto that group .

Thi s story i s taken from Mark 1 , 9-1 1 . I t seems a s i f there was fi rs t a John-grpup near Je rusa lem, and from among those b ap tised b y these men there arose a Jesus-group .

Some Jews who looked for the " Co ming One " (see Acts 19, 3, 4) cal led men to repent , and, as a s ign of rep e ntance, to be bap tised in Jordan . O f those who submi t ted, som e had their inward i l luminat ion, or chrism (anoint in g) , and rea l i sed a new Sp i r i t i n th �ir hearts (Jeremiah 31 , 31-34) . They knew themselves as God 's sons. The Ideal or " Son o f God " was in them . They met, and fel t the ideal Love " in the ir midst . " Thus arose t he Jesus-group from those bapt ised by the Joh n -g roup . Then came the story i n Matt . 3, 16, 17 . M att . 3, 13 -15 a re l ater verses-an after-thought of the Eva ngel ist -and not in Mark .

8. MATT. 4, 1-1 1 .

The T en1ptation.

The story i s en larged from Mark 1 , 12, 13 . I t is not h istory . N o one coul d stand on th e

2i


p i nn acle o f t he Temp le and see al l the world from a m o un t ain in Jude a. The three temptatio ns sho w how Ch rist i ans, co nsc i ous o f new sp i r i t ual p o we rs, are temp t ed to p r ide and to seek po l i t ica l or m ateri al ga i n . I t h as ever be e.n so . Bo th bap t ism and temp ta t i on be lon ged to, and no w be l o ng to the Chr ist-gro up , not to a n1 a n Jes us . The m an Chri st i s the symbo l fo r the In it iate i nto the new mora l Myste ry-Rel i gion .

9 .

�1ATT. 5-7.

The Serrnon on the Mount. T he " p o o r " ( L uke 6, 2 0) were the Ptokoi , a

c lass of p io us so uls , re cognised among the Jews. Of them the Chr ist-gro up c ame, aro used by t he form a l ism of th e Scr ibe s and P har isees . The be at it udes sho w that these meek and p i o us so uls are those who are (eve n no w) r ea l ly h appy.

The Chris tian i s l ike sa l t to p reserve h um an i ty from decay, l ike a l ight ( o il - l amp) p ut on the l amp-sta nd (the bri ck p ro ject i n g from the wall i ns ide a Je wish ho use) . H is good ness is a qual i ty of t h e he art , and is not lim i ted to those of h i s own nation ; i t exceeds that of the Ph a r isee . Five i l l ustra t ions of th i s fol l o w :

( 1 ) Not o nly do not c om m it m urder, b ut do not be angry selfish ly, do not p lan or des i re to do any harm to a nother .

(2 ) Not o nly d o not com m i t ad ul tery, b ut do no t a l low the d es i re so to act possess yo u.

26

THE FOUR GOSPELS. ' ( 3) Do not use oat hs, but only " Yes " and

" No " : for oat hs make l ight of " Yes " and " No . "

·

(4) Do no t resist an injury, by gi ving an inju ry b k ,, f ' ' ac : n o eye o r a n eye .

(5) Do good, not i l l , to foreigners or any w hom you t hink are your enemies (private, commercia l or nat ional) .

Concerning (4) , the Lex Ta1 ionis of Exodu s 21 , 24, Lev. 24, 20, Duet . 19, 21 , i s abroga ted here.

Not even money pay ments for injurie s are to be seized by force of the Law of Torts . For �ociety to revenge i tself by the crimina l l aw is oenounced here a lso . There is m uc h revenge left i n t he crimina l l aw . Society wants t he " b lood " of the murderer ! When the Roma n Law took over the methods of sel f- help and backed t hem up , i t ca l led t he disp u ti ng p arties i nto a Court to settle about the debt or theft . Then began the care of t he State to enforce reven ge on the wrong-doer (B .C .451 in The Law of t he Twelve Tables) . A criminal l aw fol lowed on . At fi rst crimes ( as the ft) were treated as torts (civi l wrongs) , but the reven geful acts of the injured man were accepted as r i gh t and just by t he State, and l ater came the Quaestiones o r councils t o judge crime s, a n d in a l l ages revenge has existed in crimina l l aws. Criminals are often in e n temporari ly angr y, or they are d iseased as in a lcoholism, or are sex-maniacs, o r feeble ·minded, or they l ack education . Most ne ed a Home rat her than a prison, a tra in ing to

27


be ci t izens rat her tha n the l as h,* o r the years of penal serv i tude wh ich deepen the evi l i n them. The whole at t i tude of the p ub l i c to cri m e mus t ch ange, and, whi le high- handed cr uel ty or theft or gross neglect must be c learly exp osed and conden1 ned, those who d o t he se t hi ngs must be pat ien t ly t ra ined a nd not b u l 1ied i n s i lence, i n ce l l s , a s p a riahs of society . Force must o n ly be us ed by Love, not by Re venge, and only used aga ins t t he d i seased or i rrat ional for their good .

Further, war, w hi c h i s a series of reprisa Is , i s impossib l e for a man w ho dares to love h is fel l o w·men : for he cannot th us b less men i f he k i l l s them . Wars too are for p ropert y, w hich is p laced se cond to hum an l i ves. Matt hew 6 tel l s of t he hyp ocrisy of the P harisees, t he need of simp l ic i ty and s i ncer i ty in a lmsgiv ing , p rayer and fast ing . T he " Lord's Pra yer " i s a col lect ion of - short Jewis h p rayers to s ho w what a s incere p rayer i s . I t i s not meant to be constant l y repeated.

" Lay not up " (6, 19) meant h o ard not . The Jews hoarded r i ch ga rn1ents or go ld coi ns in boxes in their houses, or i n the gro und ( t hieves u d ig t hro ug h, " verse 20) , or i n t he Temple i n c harge o f t he Sadd ucees .

Anxi "ety abo ut food and c lo t hi ng i s shown to be unnecessary for the Christ i an . I t seems tha t t hi s mus t have meant : Do not worry about food for you r F �t her l ives and w i l l care for you by means of y our fel l o w-C hrist ians , if ever you a re i n need ( see Acts 2, 44- 45 ; 4, 32---37) . The

(*) Flogging is still a penalty in British Law, e.g., for robbery with violence. But judges have declared it is useless. (See H. S. Salt on Flogging.)

28

THE FO UH GOSPELS.

word s were those of the Church (the ve hicle o r " body " o f Christ) t o t h e i ndividual C h rist ians .

Society to-day must beco me a chu rch , the U niversal Church, with the sp i ri t of the sevenfold Life of God.

The social unrest is not m erely a desi r e. for money, but fo r status, for a rec ogni ti o n of men a s persons. They are not to be used up a s means to the enrichment of the few : but to co -operate as sons of God. The p lace of ren t and i nterest i n a true society would be a smal l one . They would be given s imp ly where real inconvenience existed to the lenders of houses o r money, an d not as now, where a m a n m ay feel no i nconveni ence and yet make much gain without work of any social service.

But how is a New Order to come ? If b y l awforce or war-force i t is sough t , su ch wi l l br i ng only b itterness, and more force and scramb l i ng . Men need the vision of the Crucified God , who l ives to g fve them His Life . Then t hey w il l love and he lp one another . Let us dare to love for God is love f While smal l i ndustries may be in privat e partnership the great industri es (agriculture, c otton, wool , stee l , m i nes ) and the ra ilways must surely then be owned by society as a whole, and controlled by elected Bo ards representing the workers and the consumers . Matthew 7 tel ls Christians to " Judge not, " but th is conc ise statement is an Eastern way of say ing : Do not be eager or hasty to judge ( = condem n) . See Luke 6, 37. The soul is to come to any condemnatory ju dgment very slowly (Matthew 7, 5) , after clearing one 's own heart of evi l . But opin ions must at t imes be form ed , a 'nd even

29


exp ressed , not i n h a te b u t i n deep sorrowful i ndigna ti o n as the " Woes " of M a tthew 23 ; a nd e xp ress�d t hus for the good of the evi l doer, t ha t he may see hi s evi l , a nd rep e nt (cp . Mat the w 1 8, 1 5-1 8) .

Pra ye r i s se t forth as a necessa ry p a rt of the true l ife, b u t too muc h insis te nce pe rhaps w2s give n to p e ti tion i ng Go d, cp . Lu ke 1 1 , 1-1 3. T he Easte rn is im por tu na te, no t sc ie ntific. He sees no t tha t a re gu la r n a tu ral o rder is bes t for a l l , a basis for the sp i ri tua l l i fe, a nd t ha t p rayer is a l is ten i ng f o r God's wi l l . So " Thy wil l , not mi ne, be do ne " (Mat thew 26, 39) is the true p raye r, b u t should be said j o yo usl y .

The teac hi ngs of C hri s tian i ty, summa rised in Ma tthew 5, 6, 7 , we re not o rig i na l . T he followi ng a re so 1ne of the pa rallels : -

The Ideas in the " Sermon."

Mt. 5, 3, 4.-" Blessed are the poor i n spirit. . . . Blessed are they th�t mourn."

Mt. 5, 5.--" Blessed are thP meek, for they shall in herit the earth."

Mt. 5, 8.-" Blessed are the pure in heart."

Mt. 5, 9.-'' Blessed are the peacemakers. ''

80

The same Ideas in Pre. Christian Writing�.

Is. 61, 1, 2.-" Good tidings unto the meek (piou s poor) . . . to comfort all that mourn."

Ps. 37, 11.-" The meek shall i n herit the land."

Ps. 24, 3, 4.-'' Who shall ascend i n to the hill of the Lord? . . He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.''

Secrets of Enoch, 52, 11." Blessed is he who implants peace and love.,

[The '' SeGrets of Enoch ·' w as written c. A.D. 1-50, says Dr. Charles. It was in existence before A.D. 70, and so may have been used for the ' ' Logi&. "]

THE FOUR

The Ideas in the 1 1 Sermon . ' '

Mt. 5, 16.-4 1 Your Father which is in heaven . "

M t. 5, 28.-" But I say unto you every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her, etc. ' '

Mt. 5 , 84, 37.-" Swear not at al l . . let your speech be yea, yea : nay, nay. "

Mt. 5 , 39.-" Resist not an injury. " · (Moffatt's trans : for the Greek is in the neuter : so McNeile ; and it does not refer to the Devil . )

[I t means be not revenj•·ed, harm not the aggressor.

Mt. 5, 48.-' ' Love your enemies. ' '

Mt. 6 , 6.-" Thou, when thou prayest enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, etc. "

Mt. 6, 9-12.-" Hallowed be Thy name : Thy kingdom come : Forgive us our debts. ' '

[The idea of sins flS debts i � '' thoroughly Jewish " ; McNeile.]

GOSPELS.

The same Idea! in PreChristian Writings .

Ecclus. 23, 1-4.-' ' 0 Lord, Father and Governor of my whole life. 0 Lord, Father and God of my life. "

Ecclus. 9, 5.-' ' Gaze not on a maid that thou fall not. " cf. Job 31 , 7, 9.-" I madC! a oovenant with mine eyes : how then should I (a married man) look upon a maid ? ' '

S ecrets of Enoch, 49, 1 .- ' ' I swear not by any oath, neither by heaven, nor by earth . . yea, yea : nay, nay. "

Secrets of Enoch , 1, 3.' ' Endure for the sake of the Lord every wound, every InJury, every evil word and attack. "

Secrets of Enoch, 1 , 4.-" If ill-requitals befall you, return them not, either to your neighbour or enemy, because the Lord will return them for you and he your avenger on the day of great judgment, that there be no avenging here among men . "

Is. 26, 20.-1 ' Enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy

doors about thee : hide thyself. "

(Phraseology same, though the idea is not exactly concerning prayer.]

Shemoneh-esreh, a collection of Hebr·ew prayers reached its final form A.D. 70, and existed earlier.

'' Thou art holy, and Thy name is holy . Forgive us, our Father. "

The Kaddish has " May His kingdom reign. " (McNei!e , p. 77. )


The I de as in the I I Sermon. 1 '

Mt. 6, 14 , 15.-" I f ye forgive men their trespasses, etc. ' ' " I f ye forgive n o t men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. "

Mt. 6, 19.-' ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth . . . where thieves dig through and steal . ' '

Mt. 6, 22.-' ' The lamp of the body is the eye. "

Mt. 7, 7.-" Seek and ye shall find. ' '

Mt. 7, 12.-" All thing� wha tsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye also unto them. "

Mt. 7, 13, 14.-" Enter ye in by the narrow gate . . . for br-oad is the way that leadeth to destruction. "

Mt. 7, 23.-'' Depart from :\Ie ye that work in iquity . "

The same Ideas in Pf'eChristian Writings .

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (above) and Ecclus. 28, 2.-" Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee. So shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest. "

[Exactly the thought in Mt. 16 , 14 , 15 , and in conne�

. tion with prayer too.] Secrets of Enoch, 51 , 2. -

• ' Hide not your silver m the earth. ' '

Prov. 20, 27.-'' The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord searching all the innermost parts of the belly. "

Prov. 8, 17 .-' ' Those that seek me diligently shall find me. "

Tobit 4 , 15.-" What thou thyself hatest, do thou to no m a n . " The positive form is really i n Levit 19, 18. -" Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. "

Ecclus. 2 1 , 10.-" The wav of sinners is made plain · . . but at the end is the �it of hell . ' '

Jer. 2 1 , 8.-' ' Thus saith the Lord : Behold, I set before you the way of l ife, and the way of death. "

[The · words were by the prophet but attributed to a Person Jehovah, or the I nfi nite Life imagined as a person. So the sermon was by Christians but attributed to the Lord Christ.]

Ps. 6, 8.-' ' Depart from me. all ye workers of iniquity. "

[Friedlander and others h?ve col lected many paral lels .)

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

Such are the parallels , and so numerous are they that they show the " Sermon " i.s not a sermon, but a gradually-produced mosaic of fi ne spi ritual ideas, worked out in the early com� muni ty, and form ing the i nward rghteousness of i l l imi table faith and love, which was " greater than the righteousness of the Scribes " ( Matt . 5, 20) .

The following sayings from The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs show that the ideas of the Sermon on the Mount were not origina l , but rather a mosaic of Jewish thoughts on the I n ner Prophetic I deal , a s opposed to Pharisa ism . " The s ingle-minded man coveteth not gold . . . there is no envy i n h i s thoughts . . . nor worry, for he walketh in s ingleness. Love the Lord and your neighbour. H ave compassion on the poor and weak . " (Issachar . )

" He that hath a pure m ind in love loo keth· not after a (another) woman with a view to fornication . " (Benjamin . )

" Work righteousness that ye may have i t as a treasure in heaven " (Levi ) . " Love ye one another from the heart, and i f a man s in aga inst thee, cast forth the p oison of h a te . . · and i f he repent, forgive h i m " (Gad . ) . The star at Christ's b irth , and the story of the baptism come perhaps partly from these words :

" A star shal l ar ise to you . . A man shal l a rise. And no s in shal l be found i n h im, and the heavens shal l be open unto h i m " (Judah) .

Many sayings of the Christ ians were simply Jewish proverbs, yet a deeper l i fe-principle was theirs. R . T. Herford has shown �hat ·many of

as C!


the p roverbia l sayings in the Gospels attributed to Jesus, were " p art of the common stock of dai ly speech . "6 The R abbis had, e .g . , these sayings : " I t i s enough for a d iscip le to be as his m aster " : " With what measure ye mete, itsha l l be measured to you aga in " : " Sufficient unto the day is the evi l thereof . "

Since these sayings are summaries of whole discourses by " Jesus "-e.g. , Luke 6, 27-38 : M atthew 6, 25-34-the idea that " Jesus " taught anyth ing quite n e·w must now be g iven up . Even the cal l , " Rep ent, for the �ingdom of heave n is at hand," had long been famil iar to Jews . H owever, lle rford admi ts that Jesus (or now we m ight say the Christ-group) had u in effect broken with the rel igion of the Torah " nevertheless 7 and was opposed to the Pharisees. " The confl ict was one between two fund a- . mental ly d ifferent conceptions of rel igion, viz . , that in wh ich the supreme authori ty was Torah ( the Jewish Pentateuch and l ater tradi t ions) , and that i n wh ich the supreme au thority was the immediate intuition of God in the individual soul and conscience . The Pharisees stood for the one : Jesus s tood for the other . "8

The fact cannot be easi ly disputed that Christ ia n i ty thus arose as an opposition to Pharisa ism , as the group of eighth century p rophets9 a rose as a m oral rebel l ion against the formal ism and u nsp i ri tua l character of the rel i· g ion of their day : see, l .g. , Isa iah 1, 10-20. Evil ca l l s up good . So Christ ian ity gave a

(6) Herford : Pharis[Lism, p. 1 17. (7) p. 163. (8) Idem. pp. 167, 168. (9) Hosea , Isaiah, Amos, Micah.

84

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

righteousness, not of the law (Torah) , but of a deeper sp irit ( Matthew 5) .

·

It could only be Hellenist ic Jewish Gnostics that could interpret th is sp ir i tual , p rophetic movement as the sto ry of a second divine " Person ," the Christ .

Christ iani ty was the revelat ion (by evolut ion) of the Ideal I nward Sp i rit , the true consciousness, which is the Tendency of a l l th ings , the will of God. The contribut ion of Christ ianity to the World-Religion is th is I n ner Ideal spir i t of :

1 . Humili ty.-Matthew 5, 3, 5, 21-26 ; 7, 1-5. 2 . Purity .-Matthew 5, 27-30. 3 . Magnanimity.-Matthew 5, 38-48.

No man Jesus was needed to reveal this sp lendid life. It was in Judaism, but h ad to be separated from Pharisaism .

Such was cal led the " Christ ," and those who accepted this " Way " of l ife were said to have " Christ in you," or to be " in Ch rist . " Christ was " being forn1ed " in them . The Epistles have many such exp ressions, which cou ld not be used of a man, or of a fi ni te l im i ted conscious being. No such man coul d he in mi l l ions of souls at once .

These three great powers of the sp irit can be trusted to produce a new socia l order. Thus by them a man would refuse to hang a criminal or k i l l an " enemy ." He would rather d ie fi rst . War is undermined here, and al l revengefu lness that is in the cr iminal l aw. The great m issionaries ( as Moffat, Chalroers, Pennel l) l iv ing among wild peoples prone to anger and bearing arms, have shown how strong unarmed Love can be .


But (a) the I dea l was not completed i n the Sermon on the Mount ; (b) the term " Christ, " a personal term , is not a permanent o ne for the Idea l ; and ( c) the idea of God i n the Sermon is inadequate .

(a) Modern life has opened up four 1n or11 aspects of the Inner I deal, viz. : -

4. The sp i ri t of Service (as i n a fami ly of c i t izens) .

5 . The . i tnaginat ion of Beauty, i n art and soc ia l order.

6. Open-mi ndedness-the scient ific sp irit , as opp osed to p rejud ice and bigotry. Reason .

7 , Self-ownersh ip o r freedom--as opposed to subservience, in sl avery, in marri age, or i n industry.

These four sp i ri tual powers arid the th ree above can evolve a true socia l order .

Thus m ankind h as reached the seven-fold moral Ideal of the Love us ing Reason to create beauty . There a re seven colours i n one wh ite Light Eternal . The New Testament left " status " nl uch a s i t was . I t d id not denounce slavery per se (see Eph . 6, 5-9 ; Col . 3 , 22-41), and though a Ch rist i an sl ave was to be received as a b rother, h is status was not changed. It was centuries before C h risti ans challenged the institut ion of slavery, or the subordi nat ion of wives (see Eph . 5, 22-24) or of empl oyes . Now has daw ned freedom of personali ty for a l l these. Cap i ta l ism h as done some good work but as a system i t is unstab le , and m ust p ass in to the co-operation of a l l men, as b rothers i n God's family. -

86

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

(b) The term " Jesus Christ " may be used for an aspect of God, God as the Ideal Wil l , but i t seems that i t cannot last . We are not yet ready with a better term, but we can think of the Infinite Life as ever loving . and l iving to help finite souls achieve the I nfinite and share that Life and Joy I mmorta l . But other values besides the ( 1-) Good-Wil l must be recognised as in the Infinite, viz . , (2) Reason, wh ich analyses and synthesises, and (3) Imagination, wh ich sees and creates Beauty.

(c) The idea of God in the Sermon on the Mount is an inadequate one. The term " Father " is a symbol , and has much truth in it, in that God is the Source of human l ife: and discipl i nes it for good ends.

But there is contingency, u ncertainty , u nforeseeab leness, accident in a l l human l ives, and perhaps i n p lant and an imal l ives too . Each conscious organism has a certai n newness, freshness, a freedom to some extent . God is the Infinite Life often h ampered or thwarted by finite l ives . � In men merely s in is real . The Pantheism of the one b ranchi ng in to the Many, is i nadequate. The M any (fi ni te souls) a re not merely the b ranches of the One. They h ave some freedom, and they can s in against the I nfin ite Life . Moreover they are al l ignorant, and they suffer by both s in and ignorance-and often the i nnocent suffer by the s in or ignorance of others. The New Testament ' ' Father " who sees i n secret is a magnificent truth, but it needs to be supp lemented now, after centuries of human experience, sorrow and of ph i losop hy thereon . God i s seg; l imited into the fini te stars and souls,

37


in whom He is the Wil l to the Ideal . N o p rayer can br ing man the cure for lunacy, deafness, cancer or influenza, a ny more than i t b rought the cure for p lague which from 1300 to 1700 A.D. took off 25 000 000 l ives by a p a inful death . The " Fathe� " �uggests a n on looking kind Deity who can interfere, can p revent accidents, and cure diseases at wi l l . But m a n has h imself to find out how to do these th i ngs. God is the l iving p ower of the Ideal Values, which are real only so far as man h as achieved them. God is the Reason aflame with Love expressed i n Harmony, so far as i n m a n th is Infini te Ideal Life exists . God is the U rge o r Will towards this Ideal Life i n fin i te souls . But He i s not an Onlooker, nor a P rovidence. He has crucified H imself to l ive i n and for fini te souls, or rather He is ever so crucified into nature a nd men. In some men, most men perhaps, God asp ires . God is the I nfini te , Asp ir ing Life, real ising Reason-Love-Beauty-i n fi ni te souls . Such a

l ife is i nexhaustible, and so is the I nfini te and i mmortal God. The New Testament was too largely influenced by the Jewish Deistic idea of God as separa te , i n heaven above or at least apart from m en . Such an idea is sti l l i n Judaism, as

expressed in the Jewish Encyclopmdia , article " God . "

The Jews expla ined s i n a s caused b y a Devil, the idea of which came from Persia : he was the Ruler of this world. But such a dual ism is no longer p ossib le.

38

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

10.

MATT. 8, 1-4.

Lep er Cleansed.

I t seems this story must be symbol ical . For lep rosy, whether with tubercular nodules or with degeneration of the nerves, is cured very slowly, i f at a l l . But the Christ-sp i ri t can " make the foulest clean," as a hymn says . It is the soul that is cleansed by the Ideal Divine .

1 1 .

MATT. 8, 5-13.

The Centurion .

Verses 10 and 11 are the key to the story, viz . , that the Genti les had more faith i n the Chr istl ife than the Jews p ossessed . See Acts 13, 46--=48. This story was a p arable which came to be told as a miracle, as in so m any cases in the Gospels : see in Joh n 6 the feeding of the 5,000 by Christ as the Bread of Life.

12 .

MATT. 8, 23-27.

The Storm Calmed.

Psalm 107 says : " He maketh the storm a calm ." To actual ly st i l l a storm would not be of any mora l value, and not even of p hysical worth, as storms are good to b ring h armony once more in nature . The story is a p a rable become a miracle. The storm is in men's souls . The hymn " Fierce raged the tempest " in its last

39


verse rea l ly in terprets the story as a p a rab le of Ch rist cal m i ng the t roubled sou l .

" And when our life is clouded o 'er, And storm-winds drift us from the shore, Say, lest we sink to r ise no more, -

' Peace, be still . ' "

The materia l of the story i s from Jonah 1 eind Psalm 107, 29.

13 . MATT . 8, 28-34.

De·m oniacs .

Just in Martyr's writ i ngs (about 150 A. D.) show that " devi ls , were regarded as the causes of sins, rather than the causes of di seases . They are declared to be responsible for heathen mytho logy, and for heresy . The Christ-sp ir it casts out such demo ns . The " d iseases ' � cured by " Christ " were real ly mental states of the soul, a s anger or despa i r or greed . For the " Christ " meant the d ivine I deal Spir i t , which was greater than Solomon and Jonah, and Lord of the Sab· bath . Such a sp i ri t was p erso nified as Christ . The evi l sp ir i t was perso nified as Satan .

14. MATT. 9, 18-38.

The " Dead , " " Blin d," " Dum b . " The m iracles of h ealing gen erally .

The basis of the stor ies lay in the experience of the Christ-group in the ir mi ss ionary efforts (9, 35) . They saw h ow men became " new creat ions " i n Christ (Acts 14, 27 : 2 Cori n . 5, 17) , This was set out as a fu lfi lment of Isa iah 35, 5-6, describing God's coming. " Then the eyes of

40

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

the b l ind sha l l be opened and the ears of the deaf shal l be unstopped. Then shal l the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shal l s ing." -. Stories on each of these points were therefore composed in regard to the " Christ . "

Blind man.-Matthew 9, 27-31 ; ZO, 29-34. Deaf man .-Mark 7, 31-37 ; 9, 25 .

-... Lame m an .-Matthew 9, 1-9 (palsy, 8ee verse

7) . Duntb n1 an . -M a tthew 9. 32-34.

See Matthew 15, 30-31 tel 1 i ng of a l l such being healed : and the summary in 1 1 , 5 of the Messiah's works . Mark 7, 31--37 o n the man who was " deaf and had an impediment in his speech ," and who " spake pla in " by Christ's help , is founded on Isaiah 32, 4. " The tongue of the stammerers shal l be ready to speak plainly . " To " cast out demons " meant to tame angry men or temporarily cure ep i lep tics by a co ntrol l ing p ower. The Jewish Encyclop cedia thus writes of Demonology in the New Testament : -

" The whole Jewish and pagan world at the beginn ing of the Christ ian era believed in those magic formulas by wh ich the evi l powers of the demons could be subdued, and the Jewish exorcists found a fert i le so i l everywhere for the cultivation of their Essene notions and their magic. This was the atmosphere in which Christian i ty arose, with the claim of " heal i ng al l that were oppressed by the devi l " (Acts 10, 38) . . . . The name of Jesus became the power by which the host of Satan was to be overcome. . . .

41


P harisaism, whi le increasing the yoke of ceremon ial laws for the sake of love of G od, showed a way to overcome the fear of demons. Belief in the p ower of the Law became the ant idote aga inst the sp ir i t of p essim ism and_ asceticism which was fostered by the Essenes and by their Christ ian heirs . "

I n the New Testament there a re several indicat ions that the name of " Jesus " was used by early Christ ians (as exorcists) as a n ame in which to " cast out demons " : see Matthew 7, 22 ; Mark 9, 38 ; 16, 17 ; Luke 10, 17 ; Acts 19, 13. The n ame must have been a famous one, even perhaps a divine one/0 to be thus used . I t could hardly have been the name of a lowly Teacher l iv ing at the t ime, as i t is represented i n the above passages i n the Gospels as of a revered and m ighty Saviour, a hero or a god .

The raising of the dead meant the sp ir i tually dead . To ra i se dead men has no moral worth . They die aga in . Moreover why should one child be restored rather than another ? In Britain 100,000 die under five years of age every year : and s o in other l ands. The story is a parable become a m iracle . The " rais ing n is of those dead i n sin-see Ephes. 2, 6 : 5, 14.

In the story of Jai rus the " daughter " meant a people, viz . , the Jews (see Zechar, 9, 9-10) . Christ could heal the Jews, " dead " in obstinacy and b igotry and l egal ism .

(10) Or a demon-god, such as Beelzebub.

42

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

15.

MATT. 10.

The Discip les as Apostles .

A very important chapter of Church h istory. But not by a man Jesus who for one and a half years was supposed to have taught a few men i n Gal i lee ; for the chapter impl ies there had been persecutions (verses 16-39) . The Christ-group had i ts secret meetings (27) . I ts reject ion by the Sanhedrin was i ts " crucifixion " (38-39) . The Christian shared the lJ niversal Cross (Ep h , 2, 20) . Verses 17-23 . Mr . Montefiore says these verses a re " clearly of l ate date . " But why not the whole chapter then? And i f these words were put into the mouth of " Jesus, " much more may have been put into his mouth .

16.

MATT. 1 1 , 1-19.

John and Christ .

These verses were written long after the beginn ings of Christ iani ty , when Christians came to think of '' John " and " Christ " as having been real men on earth . The mystic story had become a k ind of " h istory," as Christians thought . " John " was thought of as El ijah returned to earth (14) , and " Christ " as the wonder-working Son of Man (4, 19) .

Original ly there were groups of men and women, aris ing from fhe Essenes, of whom 4,000 l ived i n vi l l ages near the Jordan and Dead Sea . One group was the John-group , another (from it) the Nazarenes or earl ies t Christ-men . Mark

4S


tells u s o n what p assages the John-story was bui l t , viz . , Isa iah 40, 3-5, and Malachi 4, 5 ; 3, 1 . Hence the p icture of .T ohn was on the l ines of El i jah as set out i n 2 K i ngs 1-8. 1 1

Josephus' reference to John1 2 b reaks the context and so is an interpolat ion by Christians, as

was also the reference to Jesus Chris t . The latter was clearly con1posed by a bel iever in Christ� but Josephus was not a Christ i an. S imi larly in The A ntiquities (20, 9, 1) we read of " the b rother of Jesus who was cal led Christ, whose name was James ." The passage was inserted by a Christ ian , from Galatians 1 , 19. Josephus would not so write . We know that the Christians m ade insertions i n the Psalms even ( e . g . , Ps. 22, 16) .

17.

MATT . 1 1 , 25-30.

Prayer and Invitation .

Eccles iasticus 5 1 supp l ied 1nany of the phrases here . The passage is concern ing the Eternal Ideal in God, cal led " the Son " ; an Ideal wh ich i f accepted i n a lowly mind gives rest to the soul , conquering p ride, va n i ty, greed and hate-and a l l thei r anxious ambit ions .

( 1 1) " He was c.t m a n with a garment o f hair (R . V. margin) and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. "

( 12) Antiq. 18, 5, 2.

44

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

18.

MATT. 12, 1-14. The Sa b bath .

Here was a point where Christians came into confl ict with the Scribes and Pharisees . Another was on " clean " foods, another on the ceremonial " wash ings " (Mark 7, 1�23) . On these and other points the Scribes had developed " tradit ions," extra rules, and the Pharisees thought in " keepi ng of them there was great reward ." But many ignored the clean heart and right sp ir i t for which the Christ, when He catne, would look.

Possibly there was an occasion when early Nazarenes p lucked corn on a Sabbath and came into conflict with the Pharisees, by whom such an act was accounted " reap ing " ! But more l ikely these two stories were original ly points of discussion between N azarenes and Pharisees . " May we pluck corn on a Sabbath ? ' ' " May we heal a man on a Sabbath ? " The R abb is frequently had such questions discussed.

Verses 24-25 a ttack the Pharisees, and po int to the Christ as greater than Jonah and Solomon . No lowly teacher would so spea k of h i msel f . The passage i s Church doctrine of that splendid ideal Sp ir i t , wh ich was greater than the p rophets and wise men of old, in whomsoever that Spi ri t was found.

19. MATT. 12, 46---50.

Who is Chr-ist 's 1\llother ?

" Christ' " is the Wil l of G od in souls who 46


asp ire to the Ideal l i fe (2 Corin . 3, 17) . All who obey , that Wil l are the brothers or mothers of Christ (cp . 1 Corin . 9, 5 on a group who so named themselves) .

20. MATT. 13, 1-52.

Para b les of t h e Kingdom. The Sower.-An explanat ion is g iven in verses

19-23 . The translat ion of Dr . Moffat is as fol lows : " When a nyone hears the word of the Realm, and does not u nderstand i t , the evil one comes, and snatches away wha t has been sown in his heart : that is the man who is sown on the road. As for h im who is sown on stony soi l , that is the man who hears the word and accepts it at once with enthus iasm : he has no root in h imself, he does not last, but when the word brings trouble o r persecution, he is at once repelled. A� for h i m who is sow!) among thorns, that is the man who l istens to the word, but the worry of the world, a nd the delight of being r ich choke the word ; so i t p roves unfru itful . As for him who is sown on good soi l , that is the m an who hears the word, and understands i t : he bears fru i t , p roduc ing now a hundred-fold, now sixty, and now th i rty-fold . "

Thus i t i s clea r that the seeds are souls, and not something put into souls. Each soul is an aspect of the Logos. The Logos is differentiated into souls, as a cloud i nto raindrops, each of wh ich fi nds some flower or b i t of soi l as a veh icle for i tself . The Logos is sown as souls into human bodies . Luke says : " The seed is the Logos of God . " This is the real i ncarnation,

46

THE FOUR G03PELg .

ever going on, that the Logos (Ideal LifePrinciple of God) i s sown i nto human bodies . This Word or Logos was cal led by Phi lo " the Son of God," and the Christ ians the " Christ . " Both thus personified it. I t i s the Love-p rinciple i n God .

The Tares . --This i s an al legory concerning the Church i nto which came men who caused " stumb l i ng "-see 18, 7. They could not be separated out a l l at once . C hrist woul d separate them at his comi ng : see 25, 31-46.

The mustard seed and leaven tel l of the quiet growth of . the Church from sma l l beginnings_. Christ is the seed, the leaven : i . e . ,. the Divine Ideal sown as souls i nto this world .

The Treasure and the Pearl.-All good th i ngs may be enemies of the best. The best is the Life which shares God's Life.

" Love thy God and love Him only, Then thy heart will ne 'er be lonely ; I n that one Great Spirit meet All things mighty, grave and sweet . . .

But this God is not apart, but in a l l things and persons, i n varying aspects.

The idea of the Pearl was p robably taken from the Gnostics, as also the p arables of the seed , 13 which go b ack to Plato (Timceus) . Bardesanes,1' the Gnostic .. wrote " The Hymn of the Soul ," and told of the one pearl i n Egypt which was to

( 13) See Mark 4 , 1-34. (14) Bardesanes was born at Edessa A. D. 155 and died 288.

See G.R.S. Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, pp. 892-414 on this hymn.

47


be found and cherished . The pearl was the gnosis or Truth , which New Testament �riters cal l the " C h r ist " (John 14, 6 ; cp . Chnst as Wisdom in 1 Cori n . 1 , 30) . The gnosis of Gnosticism was not a mere specul at ive truth, but rather a practical l i fe, a being l ifted by the Saviour who is (ever) crucified in the phenomenal to save souls .

2 1 .

MATT. 13, 53-58.

The Relatives of Jesus.

The p assage is taken from Mark 6, 1-6, but the names are taken , by a confusion , from the ch i ldren of another Mary : see Mark 15, 40. The i dea of C hrist as a ca rp enter comes probably from the G nostic conception of the Demiurge or world-fash ioner, which go

.es back to Plato . 1 5 The

Christ or Logos was the Fash ioner of the un iverse : see Colos . 1 , 15-17 ; 1 Corio . 8, 6. The Love-Ideal is the Final Cause of the universe : 16

and this is the fa i th of the future. The Infinite Lover i s self-crucified h ere and c.annot al l at once evolve the perfect L ife, but through difficult ies overcome it has a l ready dawned : and we l ive

" Knowing one thing the sacredest and faii·est , Knowing there i s not anything but Love. "

-F. W. H . Myers ' St. Paul.

( 1 5) See the Timceus on the inferior order of gods who fashion the chaotic world.

·

( 16) i. e . , the Aim or Goal of souls : and for them to reach it all things were organised.

48

\ .

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

22 .

MATT. 14, 1-12.

The Death of 1 o hn the Bap tist .

We have seen that there was p robably no man John the Bapt ist . He is the " forerunner " of the Ch rist, an ideal figure described as an E l ijah (2 Kings 1 , 8) . He represents the l aw at i ts best , duty as preceding love .

Montefiore says : the story of Joh n the Bap� tist's death i s " ful l of h istorical improbab i l i ties ," and may be regarded a s " legend a ry . " Thus " Herodias was not the wife of Herod's b rother Phi l ip , but of another b rother, also cal led Herod ." Further, no princess would da nce at court, 1 7 espec i a l ly if married .

.[For the story of the 5,000 fed see a pa ragraph in Joh n (56) . ]

23 .

MATT. 14 , 22-36.

Jesus TV alking on t h e Sea . The geographical detai ls are very vague . They

are only " framework " for a p icture of the Christ's power. The mater ia l is from Job 38, 16, and W isdom of Solomon 24, 5, concerning God walking on the sea . Power over d ifficul t ies i s what is meant really, such power a ri s ing from the " Christ " i n men . Montefiore says " The story seems a variant on 4, 35-41 . "

( 17) Commentary o n St . Matthew by Dr. McNeile , which refers to the low status of publ ic dancers.

49


Dr. Estl in Carpenter th inks " we h ave here again the materia l i s ing of symbols . " 18 This is an exp lanation of a good many stories of the C h riit .

24.

MATT. 15, 1-20 .

Clean a n d Unclean ;

Here i s the c lear con fl ict between ceremonia l i sm and i nward goodness which needs no ceremonia l ism . No doub t the Jews to-day put " meat·s " i n a secondary p l ace, and a Jewish m inister may advise an adult man who becomes a Jew that he shou ld not be ci rcumcised. But Judaism is becoming " l iberal ised " now. I s it not Christ ianity i n Jews which has done this ?

25.

MATT. 15, 21-3 1 .

T h e Canaanite Woman .

Even Dr. McNei le , who is i n the main conservative, wri tes : " The l i terary h i story of the narrative is disputed . If Matthew had no other source tha n Mark he contributes an unusual amount from h i s own pen, and that is of a highly artist ic and d ramat ic character . " The fact is, the whole s tory is a work of art . There was no

reporter to take down the words spoken : and that is true of many of the gospel stories (e .g. , Gethsema ne) .

(18) The First Thru Gospels : pp. 179, 180. �

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

The woman of Canaan represents the Genti le8 . " Christ " could save the Genti les even though at first the Christ-group went to save their own Jewish peop le : see Acts 13, 46 ; 15, 3 ; 18, 6, where Paul turned from the Jews to the Genti les.

[The feeding of the 4,000 is a reduplication of the story of the 5,000.]

26.

MATT. 16, 1-12 .

A Miracle D esired .

The Jews called on the Chr_i st-group to produce a mi racle (sign)-cp . 1 Corin . 1, 22 . But the Community's only sign was that of Jonah, viz . , the p reached word of the indwell ing " Christ " or Love-Ideal of God : see Colos . 1 , 27, 28.

The conversation in verses 5-12 show how a conversati-on could be invented by the evangel ists : for even conservative scholars agree tha t there was no feeding of the 4,000, real ly. Yet here two feedings are involved.

27.

MATT. 16, 13-28.

Peter's Confession .

This is an important p assage : but an ecclesiastical one ; not a p iece of the h istory of a man Jesus. Verses 17-19 are not in Mark .

The origi n of the passage lay in the h istorical fact that the · Peter-party (say about A.D. 60) rejected the idea that the Christ was a sufferer

11


{ 1 Cor io . 1 , 12, 23) . So Peter " denied " Chr ist, and this refusal to be l ieve the Chri s t was a suffering Chris t was written i n th i s story (see 16, 22) . The SchooL . of Peter could o nly think of Christ as a King who woul d reign . But the Pauline school (the Gnost ic School l ay behind the Paul i ne School ) , i n the ir " Ep ist les ," taught that Christ fu lfi l led Isa i ah 53, " and died for our s ins according to the Scrip tures " ( 1 Corio . 15, 3) .

The truth behi nd th is p icture l ies i n the deep explana t ion of the u n iverse as the crucifixion of God. The I nfi n i te i s ever crucified into the finite to evolve and educate fin i te soul s into His I nfin ite Li fe, and i ts immortal power and joy. Such was what the G nost ics meant (see Poimandres i n G . R. S. Mead's Thrice-Greatest Hermes) .

28.

MATT. 17, 1-13 .

The Transfiguration .

Dr. McNeile says : " Almost every detail lends i tself to a l legorical t reatment . " But could such be so of any histor ical even t? The m iracul ous nature of the story , and the symbol ic figures of Moses and El ias, represent ing the Law and the Prop hets ( than whom Jesus Chr ist is greater) , po in t to the non-h istor ical nature of this story. The o nly h is tory i n the Gospels is the conflict between the Chr i st-group and the Pharisees who stood for a l ower legal rel ig ion . In such a n opposi t ion Chris t i an i ty arose . It runs through the New Testament and is in the ep i stles (see Romans and Galat ians on the l aw and the sp ir it : and cp . Ph i l ipp ians 3 , 2-8) .

�

THE .FOUR GOSPELS .

The Transfigurat ion is a mystical story to show that the Christ-sp i ri t i s greater than the Law and the Prophets . See 2 Cori n . 3 .

29 .

MATT. 17, 24-27.

The Tax .

[On the demoniacs and hea l ing works see above.]

This l i ttle story represents19 the atti tude of the Christians, after A.D . 70, to the p ay ing of the tax imposed by the Romans for the upkeep of the temple of Jupi ter Cap ito l inus . 2 0

The stater =2 didrachma = twice Is . 4-!d . The " sons " are the Christ ians . The '" strangers ' ' are the pagans. Verse 27 means " g o and fish for it ," i . e . , get i t somehow. The Christ ians believed i t right to pay t ribute, for coins belonged to Cresar . See R omans 13, 7, writ ten before th is Logion, and perhaps from i t th is Logion and that of Matt . 22, 2 1 , were wri tten . Had a Teacher Christ told men to pay t ribute, such a dictum would surely be referred to in Rom. 13, 7. But the Epist les know not a Teaching Chris t .

30.

MATT. 18, 1-14 . The " Litt le Child " A llegory .

The l i ttle ch i l d original ly meant no boy o r gir l but the less- instructed Christian , the noviciate.

( 19) As J . Weiss h a s shown. (20) Josephus, B . J . , 7, 8, 6.

ss


See Proverbs 2 , 1 ; 3 , 1 ; 4, 1 ; 5, 1 ; 6, 1 , 20 ; 7, 1. " My son," i . e . , the student of sacred truth. See Roma ns 14, 1-15, how some Chr ist ians w.e.re more advanced than others .

I n M atthew 18, 1-6, a rebuke is offered (by the Church) to t hose who d isdained humble he· ginners in the fa i th, the " least of these brethre n. ' '

Such was the original idea. Then grew up stories about Jesus as a man receiving chi ldren or babies, and the discip les refusing to let the young folks draw near ! ! A sense of humour is needed by a modern Christ ian student !

Verse 5 . The p hrase " name o f Jesus ." This was usual ly used i n connect ion with exorcisms of " demons " by Christ i ans. See Mark 16, 17, " in my name shal l they cast out devi ls ."

But here i t is used as meaning " for the sake of Jesus," i . e . , whoso shal l receive or help any humble bel iever because he is a bel iever in me� etc . See· Matthew 10, 40-42.

31 .

MATT. 18, 15-20.

Church Discip line.

On verse 15, Hol tzmann says : " We have in these verses a p iece of ancient Christian law (Gemeindeordnu ng) put into the mouth of

14

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

Jesus. " Verses 15-JS show that the sanction for the moral ideal is not prisons and hangings nor immense fines imposed by one nation on another. It is the calm work of reasoning, then of exposure, and last of the sorrowful boycott if no repentance comes .

Veree 20. Those who bel ieve a man Jesus spake these words are at a loss how to i nterp ret them . Montefiore says : " Such a continued and mystical presence could hardly be cla �med by or asserted- of any ·man, but could only have been made by someone who believed he was a divine being " (Synop tic G osp els, 2, 682) . Montefiore th inks Jesus did not say the words. Wellhausen said that Jesus here speaks as if he were already in heaven .

Montefiore continues : " The idea of the continued mystic p resence of Jesus in his community is adapted and borrowed from the Jewish ide a of the presence of God i n Israel ."

Exactly : " Jesus " was a personified aspect of God . Such language was used of the Shechinah (Aboth 3, 3) .

"' Weiis holds that the verse could not have been spoken by Jesus. I t is based upon the fai th of the Christian Community in Christ 's i nvisible p resence, through the prayers of those who bel ieve in h im . " That was the only k i�d of presence ever known by the Christ ians . They were the " Body " of Christ .

68


32.

MATT. 18, 2 1-35.

Unlimited Forgiveness.

" Seventy t imes seven " means an un l imited number of t imes . To forgive means to bear no i l l -wi l l , to reta l iate not, to g ive no reprisals, but to do good to t hose who do us i l l , whether the " enemy " be one man o r a nat ion. When the m an (or nation) repents, he is to be received i nto fe l lowship aga in , which i s the second part of forgiveness . I t m ay be some _t ime ere he is t rusted aga in as a fr iend, as he may need to d i scip l ine and p rove h imsel f to be worthy of t rust, e .g . , i n money m atte rs .

THE SPECIAL SECTION IN L UKE. �

33.

LUKE 9, 51-62.

The Journey to J erusaletn .

The p assage real ly gives the i nstruction of the Church i n regard to t h e Smnaritans (compare John 4) who rejected the " Chr ist . " They were not to be i l l -treated i n any way. The gloss to verse 55 exp la ins why : " The Son of man came not to destroy men's l ives, but to save them ." The passage sets forth " C hrist " (the Inner Idea l ) as greater than E l ijah (2 K ings 1 , 10--12) . Luke 9, 57-62 tel ls t hose asp i r i ng to be Christ ians to count the cost . The words imp ly that there had been persecu t ions and pr ivations. Christi-ans m ight be driven from p l ace to p lace : see Acts 8, 1-3 . Those who know not the Ideal

56

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

Life can attend to the formal duties, such as burials . The Christian must be ready, i f need be, to give up a l l . Such was the Church's cal l (see 10, 1-24) for d iscip les to be m issionaries. I t was - a lmost essent ia l , and is so now.

34 .

LUKE 10, 1-24.

The Mission of the Seven ty .

This i s set out by a confusion, p robably, with the mission described in Matt . 10. I t was a mission inspired by an inner i nsp i ration : cp . Acts 13, 1-3. No visib le Jesus sent these men . The story impl ies that persecution had existed (verses 3, 10, 16) , as i n Matt . 10. No doubt the early Church made such preaching tours (see Acts 13, 1-3) . Verse 22 'is the theoiogical verse of Matt . 1 1 , 27 . Verse 19 is the Gnostic view that the Redeemer helps sou Is to figh t the demons.

'

35.

LUKE 10, 25-37.

The Good Samaritan .

\Vho is my ne ighbour ? was a question of interest among the Rabbis, some of whom answered : " Your fel l ow-Jew. " Ligh tfoot quotes Maimonides that such was the usual answer. (" When a Jew says ' h is nei�hbour, ' he excepts a l l gent i les ." ) This parable is thus the Christ ian p rotest against the Pharisaic narrow formal ism of that day. I t was as such a p rotest that Ch ristian i ty arose . The road from Jerusalem (3 ,000 feet up) goes twenty miles downhi l l


to Jericho and was of o l d infested wi th robbers p robably .

' Pompey destroyed some brigands

near Jericho . The mora l l aw of compassion (verse 37) i s not

a · monopoly of Christian i ty . Sto icism taught it and p re-Christ ian Judaism : see Duet. 24, 5-22 : Levit . 19, 1-18, and The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (107 B . C .) .

36 .

LUKE 10, 38-42.

Martha an d Mary .

Martha an d Mary seem to be a l legorical char· acters. Martha meant " Kuria ," mistress, a giver of l aws. Therefore she represents the Law, wh i le Mary by her eagerness to learn represented the teachable Christian , the humble l ife, the l ife of the Ptokoi or meek ones. Only that one th ing i s needed. The Church calls here for cate· chumens, in i t ia tes .

37 .

LUKE 1 1 , 1-13.

Prayer.

The compiler of this Third Gospel tried to p lace the Logia in to settings of h is own i magina· t ion . The shorter vers ion of the " Lord's Prayer " ( real ly a group of Jewish prayers) indicates that " Luke " used an earl ier edition of the Logia, perhaps, than, Matthew, even if Luke was written later than Matthew. The parable of the Friend a t m idnight is such a parable as would be commonly known among the Rabbis.

88

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

Verse 13 Luke changed the " good th ings " of which Matthew tells to " the Holy Spi ri t ." I This is a theological change, for the compiler of The Acts of the Apostle had m uch to say of the " Holy Spi ri t " (or " a h oly Spiri t ") . Hence the change here. Prayer is real ly l isten ing for the Voice of the I nfinite i n the fi ni te , and then obeying i t .

38 .

LUKE 11 , 29-33.

Christ greater than Jonah and Solomon.

We cannot imagine a ny Jew openly declaring h imself to be greater than Solom o n and Jonah . I f he were greater, he would not say so. The verses are Chr isto logy, not a h istory of what was said by a n1an Jesus. The wooden, u neastern, u nimaginative Commentar ies never perceive so simple a t ruth . They t reat the Gospels as h istory . They assume (but do not prove) that a man Jesus l ived . Their days are numbered, however, useful in many respects though they have been .

39.

LUKE 12, 35-59.

Watch .

Montefiore21 says that " verses 35 and 36 must clearly be later than Jesus ." I n our view, they imply the Church as speaker, not a man Jesus. So verse 37, " he ." Had a teacher spoken thus he would have said " I " . So through verses

(21) Synoptic Gospels, 2, 958. fi


35-40, 43. " I " appears i n verses 49-51, but the verses imply that faJili l ies h ad a lready be�n d ivided up which would not h ave occurred m one and a' ha lf years, the length of Christ'a min istry according to M ark .

The mean i ng original ly was : " We who look for the Com i ng Christ are persecuted . Surely H e wi l l soon come now a nd rel ieve and justify us . The t ime i s short . The Lord is at hand . Let men repent ere i t be too late . "

But no Lord came a n d no judgment as expected ! The old world rol led on, and the Romans ruled as severely as ever, and extended their sway into Bri ta in .

Such words a re not by the Eternal Logos made i ncarna te , but by a fal l ible C hurch , who however incarnated the idea of an inner goodness , and cal led i t the u Christ . ' ' They expected " Him " to appear openly to al l . But u He " real ly i s an aspect of the ever invisible God . God is ever H appearing " in the crises of history, and of the i nd ividual soul !

40. LUKE 13, 1-9.

The Galileans and the Parab le of the Barren Fig-tree .

The Jews would perish i f they repented not a nd accepted the Christ who soon would appear -such is the burden of th is p assage. The parable appears as a m i racle of the rather absurd cursing of a fig-tree, i n Mark . Luke used an earl ier edit ion of the Logia than M ark used. In

60

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

Luke'& version the story was sti l l a parable of the Jewish nat ion .

41 . LUKE 13, 10-17.

A Question on the Sab bath .

In discussion with the. Rabbis, the C hristians found themselves standing for a f reer concept ion of l ife. Their C hrist-sp irit was Lord of the Sabbath. They m ay h ave put forward a case of a woman long i l l : was she to be healed on the Sabbath ? The same quest ion is deal t with in Mark 2, 23 ; 3, 6 .

42.

LUKE 14, 1-6.

The Man with Dropsy .

Here too the question m ay h ave been : " If a man had dropsy, would you not heal him on the Sabbath ? " Here the Christ ians come into conflict with the Pharisees . Such a d iscuss ion reported verbal ly, and l ater in the Logia, came to be told as i f a mi racle had been done by the Christ on a Sabbath .

43 .

LUKE 14, 7-24.

Calling Men to a Feast .

The Messiah's coming is referred to . I t was l ikened to a feast . Many were cal led to i t , but few chosen for i t . They " chose " themselves real ly. If a man Jesus l ived , and so spake, why did he not say : " I the Messiah am come.

61


Here I am . Come a nd sit down to . my banquet ! " The Christ-group hop ed Chnst would soon come, bu t H e came not .

44 . LUKE 14, 25-35.

Count t he Cost !

Few are really d iscip les of the Inner Ideal (given i n M atthew 5, 20--48) . The passage implies that persecutions had begun by the Jews . Some C hristians (originally called Naza. renes from N etzer-Isaiah · 1 1 , 1) were driven from Jerusalem (Acts 8, 1-3) . Their persecut ion was l ater called "sharing the cross of Christ" (verse 27) , i . e . , l im i tation endured so as to save souls (Ep h . 2, 20 ; Col . 1 , 24) .

45. LUKE 15.

The L ost Sheep , Silver and Son.

These stories were Jewish parables, and were used here against the Pharisees . The elder son is clearly a symbol of the self-righteous respect· able Pharisee who h ad no vices, and looked askance at anyone who had.

Rev. G . Friedlander has shown that Philo had the main e lements of the story of the prodigal son : -

" Where there a re two sons, one good and o ne wicked, the father says he will bless11

(22) The Greek verb is only found in Luke in the New Testament books : it is also used by Philo.

6Q

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

the latter, not because he p refers h im to his brother who is better, but because he , knows that the good son can, by h i s meri t , fol low the right path : whereas the wicked son has no h ope of salvat ion without the prayer of the father . "23

Thus the p arable existed, i n idea at leas t , before Christianity .

46.

LU KE 16 , 1-18. -The Clever Steward .

The story i s used to indicate that the Christ ian wHI use wel l h is gifts and goods (by a lms) to enter heaven when he dies. I t is a story not of the h ighest moral tone, for frue virtue is act ion for i ts own sake, not for a reward to oneself . Verse 14 shows the story is used also aga inst the Phar i sees and taken into the Church 's teaching (or Logia) fo r that purpose perhaps . Not a l l the Pharisees were self-r igh teous hyp ocri tes : but tha t m any were i s acknowledged now by the Jews . 2 4

47.

LUKE 16, 19-31 .

Dives an d Lazarus. A rather weak Jewish story , s ince a man does

not go to heaven's joy merely because he is p oo r. Is there a great " gu l f " separa t i ng good and evi l men ?

(23) Philo : . Bohn 's Translation 4 , 278 , 279. (See 223, 224). (24) S ee Jewish Encyclopa?dia , article " Pharisees . "

63 E

THE INNER MEANING Of

48.

LUKE 17, 1 1-19.

Lepers Cleansed.

Montefiore, i n h is The Synop tic Gospels, says this story is a varian t of the heal i ng of the leper i n 5, 12-16 (Mark 1 . 40-45) , and " told with an ant i -Jewish tendency . Jesus hea]s from afar, as Elisha · healed Naaman. Was there any real fact behind the story ? I t i s doubtful . I ts main purp ose is symbol ic , and i ts h istorical character is very dubious . " Such remarks rea l ly appl!)r to a grea t deal i n the Gospels wh ich are not history, but symbol ic doctrine.

4J.

LUKE 18, 1-8.

The Unjust Judge .

Verse 8 shows the story i s not by a Messiah who was p resent and told the p arable . The Messiah was yet to come . The narrative indicates that some of the Christians had lost heart : cp . 2 Peter 3, 1-13. The material for the story �eems to be taken from Ecclesiasticus 35, 15.

50.

LUKE 18, 9-14.

Pharisee and Pu blican .

Christi an i ty exposed the legal i sm of (most of) the Pharisees , and p u t a r igh t spirit in i ts place (Jerem . 31 , 31-34 : Romans 8 , 1-9) .

64

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

SPECIA L SECTIONS IN JOHN.

51 .

JOHN 1 , 1-18 .

The L ogos, Truth , Life .

From Philo came the ideas on the Logos : Phi lo used Stoicism and the Old Testament and the Gnosticism of Alexandria (where he l ived) . I t has been shown that Ph i lo described the Logos as " the rock that fo l lowed Israel in the wi lderness, the Image of God, the first Man who is the archetypal man, the Son of God, the H igh Priest, the first-born Son, the Paraclete, and the Mediator. Al l of these aspects reappear in the New Testament descript ion of i ts Christ . "25

The theological discourses in Joh n are fu l l of beautiful and valuable thought on the outgoing self-reveal ing God, the Logos-Saviou r-Light -Life, of which the Gnostics sp oke . They personified th i s aspect of God, and took the Ch rist figure as another name for such .

No doubt the Johann ine school who composed the Fourth Gospel , and the th ree Ep istles, which are in the same style , bel ieved th at some k ind of a man Jesus -existed on earth a century earl ier . Indeed these books are written p artly to combat the Doketic Gnostics who asserted that Jesus was a p hantom or appearance on ly , and did not real ly suffer on a cross (see 1 John 5, 6--8, 20 ; 2 John 7) .

(25) G . Friedlander : Hellenism and Chris tianty : pp. 85-124 : where the various references to Philo are given in full . See also Prof. John Watson, i n The Philosophical Basis of Religion, page 1 7, Philo described the Logos also as the instrument of God in the creation of the world (cp. Col'Os . 1 , 15-17).

65 E 2


The Gnostic view was suppressed , though i t existed in the Church for m any years , and was

the truer view. For the idea of a Primal Man " Jesus " arose from the G nost ics i n Alexanaria tak ing the Christ, of The Book of Enoch, and the early Christ-group, as equivalent to the Logos, the Son of God, Saviour, whom the .Gn os tics t aught had already descended to save men : i . e . , He was ever do ing so, i t w a s a d ivine p rocess ion ever goi ng on ; but such was described, at that t ime, i n a symbol ic s tory of a div ine being as h aving o nce descended and l ived on earth . The article on Gnosticism " in The EncyclopCBdia Britannica (XI . Ed ition) has shown from the wri t ing of Rei tzenstein26 that Gnosticism was p re-Ch ristian in a l l its essen tial features .

The Gnost ic teach i ng of the n1ystic ChristLogos-Saviour as the Pr imal MAN who had come down and was crucified to save men and l if t men to heaven , came to be told as the story of a kind of man (see P h i l ip 2, 6-8) . He was

cal led " Jesus " as t hat was the nearest Hebrew \Vord (Joshua) to Saviour .

The t ru t h is that the Infin i te Life (Reason aflame with Love seeki ng expression in Har· m ony) is Himsel f ever being evolved in men as

they, by efforts, ach ieve that l ife . This i s the Gaspe] for a l l t ime .

(26) O n Poimandres, a pre-Christian Gnostic work i n Greek describing the 3 descents of_ the Logos , Primal Man , Life and Light. A translation is given in G. R. S. Mead , Th-rice-Greatest He-rmes.

66

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

52.

JOHN 2, 1-fl .

The Water to Wine .

This mi racle i s derived from a myst ic parable meaning that Chr ist, i . e . , the I n ner Ideal , can give a l ife which i s as wine to the feebler water of legal istic Judaism . Ph i lo used the s imi le a lso . There i s no moral value in a p u re mi racle of producing much wine, even if i t coul d be done .

53 .

JOHN 3, 1-2 1 .

Nicodemus.

Nicodemus is a f ict it ious character rep resenting the Jews, who had no i nsight at first, but yet were enquirers i nto the new rel ig ion of the mystic Chr ist-Ideal . I t needs a new b irth " from above " if a man is to grasp the way of the sp i ri t -see 1 Corin . 1 , 26-2, 16 ( in Moffatt's Translat ion) .

54.

JOHN 4 .

The Samaritans .

One of the problems of the early Christ-group was the Samaritans, who were not orthodox Jews, nor were they heathen : see Luke 9, Sl-56. The passage here is a story composed to show

- that the Christ-sp ir i t can be the Saviour (verse 42) of the Samaritans and free them from a local ised worsh ip of God (verse 21) . The " 5

67

THE INNER · MEAN ING OF

husbands " (verse 18) meant the rel igiou1 leaden of the Samari tans i n the p ast .

55 .

JOHN 5, 1-9.

The 1\!Ian at Bethesda .

The man represented the Jews who were 38 years i n the wi lderness (Duet . 2 , 14) , and the 5 porches are a symbol for the 5 books of Moses. The " Christ " can save the Jews . (Indeed the I nner Christ-Ideal was just the best in Judaism.)

56.

JOH N 6.

Christ t h e Bread .

Here we get the origin of the story o f the feeding of the 5,000. The material came from 2 Kings 4, 42-44, even to the b arley loaves and the p ieces left over (Joh n 6, 9, 12) . Several of the stories of the Christ set forth the Life of the Sp ir i t as doing marvels equal to those of El ijah and El isha, e .g. , heal ing the leper, raising the dead, ascending to heaven : and so here feedi ng the mul t i tudes wi th a few loaves . Such stories clearly are not h istory . The Christ-Ideal can feed myriads of soul s . Joh n 6, 1-63 has a reference to t he Eucharist/7 but contradicts the

\

(27) Cp. The ] ewish Story of J eschu, in the Talmud : translated into English by Foote a nd Wheeler, tells a merely i magi nary tale of Jesus (against the Christians) , but illustrates this point.

68

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

view of those hteral ists28 who sought Christ's " flesh . " See verse 63. I f men co.u ld h av<t Christ's flesh it would be use less to them .

57 . JOHN 7, 53-8, 1 1 .

The A dulterous Woman.

The story is a mystic one, to show the opposition between lega l ism and ideal ism, l aw and love . On the stoning of (some) adul teresses see Deut . 22, 23 . The betrothed woman was accounted to be practical ly married . Jesus ( in the story) does not condone her s in . He ca l l s i t s in (v. 1 1) , but he does not seek to h ave harm done t o her. The Christ-sp ir i t i s against the lex talionis, which is a t the basis of the criminal law. I f A ki l l s B, why should C, D, E and F (cal led the " State " ) k i l l A ? I t is a state-mu rder i n real i ty . " Co ndemn not " ( to p unishment)-Luke 6, 27-38 ; Matt . 7, 1-5 ; 1 Corin . 6, 1-7 ; Rom. 12, 19-21 . (Rom. 13, 1-7, is rea l ly not upholding the State's punishments by force, but tel l ing C hrist ians not to resist them by force . The State is p agan largely and knows not the sp iri tual forces to use to evil men.)

1

58. JOHN 8, 12-59.

Against the Pharisees.

There is no doubt that the early Christ-group

(28) I f a man Jesus lived, and recl ined by a table at a ' ' last Supper, " the disciples could not have thought his words " This is my body " were to be taken literally of the bread, for they saw his body. If Jesus was not a man the words again do not refer to a literal body.

69


with in Judaism was opposed by the representat ives29 of formal ism a nd lega l ism and ceremoni· a l ism , and were persecuted and rejected . But the tendency i n Christian wri t i ngs was to make out a case aga inst all the Jews genera l ly : so here, verse 44.

59. /

JOHN 9. The Man born Blind . /

This man is a symbol of the Gentiles . Not only can Christ heal the Jews and Samaritans, but the Gent i les also . They were born blind, i . e . , h ave never had the sp i ri tua l l ight . That the s ight referred to here i s sp i ri tual is clear from verses 39, 40, where the Pharisees say : " Are we also b l ind ? " So the hea l ing was not h istory . I t was a p arable of the Christ 's power, re�set as i f a m iracle had h appened . See 10, 16, on Ch r ist for the Gent i les . The I nner Ideal Life can save al l men .

60.

JOHN 1 1 .

Lazarus Raised .

The key to th is story is i n verses 25, 26. " I am the Resurrect ion and the Life ." That this meant a p resent, spiritual resurrect ion , a Gnostic resurrect ion from s i n and evi l , is a lso clear from John 5, 21-25 : cp . Ephes. 2, 6. The editor of

(29) Many Pharisees were noble men but many were self· righteous at this period.

70

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

the story enlarged on i t i n 12, 1-1 1 , as i f i t were h istory . See Moffatt ' s Intro d u ction to the Literature of t he New Testament, p . 539.

The Fourth Gospel has a layer of sp i ri tua l p arables of the Logos, used and over la id by a cruder orthodox view of the Christ as i f he h ad been a kind of man on earth once . The task of our age is to get behind the New Testament to t he Gnostic origins of the Figure of the Christ , as the ever de,scend ing and ascending God.

61 .

JOHN 21, 1-13.

The Fishermen .

The whole account o f the early Christ ians as fishermen is founded on a m isconception of the s imi le of them as " fishers of men. ' ' Here is a parab le of what they would do, v iz . , w in the Gent i les to the Chr is t - l i fe . The figure 153 is taken from 2 Chonicles 2, 17, and referred (symbolical ly) to the Genti les. " Solomon num-. bered al l the strangers tha t were in the l and of IsraeJ-and there were found 153,600 . " (See sect ion 9 1 , for Joh n 14-17. )

62 .

MATT. 19, 1�12.

On Divorce.

These verses reflect a conversa t ion among Christians on the views of the Rabbis . Rabb i Hil le l , who l ived about A . D .20, al lowed d ivorce ( i t seems) if a man saw a more beaut i ful woman .

71

THE INNER MEANING OF'

Rabbi Shammai was more str ict , and the Christ ians s ided with h im.

They harked back to Genesis 2, 24, which spoke of a woman leav ing her p arents and going to her husband . But th is does not bear on d ivorce rea l ly . I t is a matter of fact . Legal rules are ever behind l ife . Publ ic op inion is in advance of l aws, and demands to be expressed in fresh l aws .

Condi t ions of l ife are d ifferent now from the days of the early Chris t ians . Then a woman (1) received but l i tt le education, and (2) was regarded as the subordinate of the husband. This l atter i s reflected in the New Testament, see e.g. , Ephes. 5 , 22, and is the Eastern view. To-day women have changed, and more opportunities for d ivorce are needed to give them a ful l l ife of serv ice. The State's care should be that all ch i ldren are well p rovided for, i n case husband and wife desire to separate and be free .

Christ ian i ty does not view the relation of the sexes in m arriage as exist ing only to satisfy a desire for ferti l i ty : for see 1 Gorin . 7 , 1-7. But modern though t rightly condemns the indulgence of appet ite ( 1 ) i n such a way as to b ring into the world ch i ldren that are not desi red ; (2) before m arriage, for chasti ty is possib le , as mi l l ions have p roved, p ossible and healthy too ; whi le the loss of it br ings endless evi ls , both moral and p hysical . See 1 Cor . 6, 12 ; 9, 27 . Cel ibacy was advised i n the New Testament because the Parous ia (" p resence " of Christ) was expected soon . See 1 Cor . 7, 29-32, 39, 40. That was a p iece of " i nterimseth ic ," concerni ng a rule of external conduct, but the · principles in the

72

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

Sermon on the Mount are external moral l aws, and not " interimsethic . "

63 .

MATT. 19, 16-30.

The Rich Young Ruler.

According to the ordinary commentaries, . . which till now have assumed ( not p roved)

there was a man Jesus, th is young man was told to sel l al l , e ither :

(a) So that he could l i teral ly fo l low Jesus about Palest ine, o r

( b) Because, i n h i s love o f money, he needed this sel f-d iscip l ine, o r

(c) Because the " end o f the age , was near, and " in the new order there would be no need of wealth " (so Montefiore) . But

(a) Is excluded because a m an could keep his wealth, and yet fol low Jesus, leav ing someone to manage i t ,

( b) Is not t rue, for to " sel l a l l " was app lied to all Christians in Luke 12, 33 ; 6, 24 ; 14, 33 (" renounce a l l that he has . ")

(c) Is beside the po in t , for i f this new era was at hand, i t would not matter if a man kept his wealth : a l l would soon be equa l ly well off .

From our standpoint of there being no man Jesus, but a Christ-group who cal led their felt Ideal " Christ ," th is story becomes clear.

I t is a work of art, a composit ion to indicate the relation of Christianity to Judaism . A Jew

78


becoming a Chr ist i an needed to be ready (any. h ow) to share h i s weal th . See Acts 2, 44 46 ; 4, 34-37 ; a nd cp . Ananias , who only pretended to so share h is weal th i n a t ime of need . Acts 5, 1-5.

This is h in ted a t i n Matt . 19 , 27-30. Peter had " left a l l . " No doubt the early Christians were b oycot ted by the ir relat ives for jo ining the new Christ-group , a " suspect " set of Jews at firs t .

Some th ink the " wea l th " in th i s story i s the k nowledge of God . But i t is a weal th which had to be given up , not the g lad teaching of truth . I t is l i teral wea l th , for see verses 25 and 29.

As to verse 17 " Why do you ask me about what is good ? " This in Mark (earl iest) -is " Why ca l l est thou me good ? " But Mark wou l d never have meant to say that Jesus was not good. See Mark 14, 61--62 ; 15, 39, 56-61 ; 16, 14-39.

Some confusion has arisen in Mark, which was cop ied by Luke . But Matthew m akes an attempt to correct i t . For another confusion in Mark, see 14, 65 : " Say unto H im , Prophesy "p rophesy wha t ? one cannot but ask . Matthew exp la ins it to mea n " prophesy who is it that struck thee . "

In o u r passage the r ich man real ly was asking about the good l i fe . Ma t thew, though using and a l tering Mark, may be rea l ly nea rer the original n1ean ing in verse 17.

Some rich Jew had asked the Christ-group what was their gospel , how should a m an act to gain eternal l i fe ? The reply was : keep the decalogue, but m ore, JO in the new Love-group

74

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

of sp iritual ly-minded men and women , the earnest of the Kingdom of God (Lu ke 17, 21) : but to do so you must be ready to share you r weal th . The Jew ret ired troubled .

There may h ave been a part icu lar r ich Jew who so came to the Christians, o r the story may be typ ical to show what a r ich Jew needed to do . In e i ther case Isaiah 58, 17 m ay have influenced the story as here told . The idea that only God is good came from G nost ic ism .

64. MATT. 20 , 1-16.

Para ble of the Labourers . This parable is only in M atthew . The

denar ion = about 9!d . The 12th h ou r =6 .0 p . m . The p arable was i ntended t o teach that the

eternal l ife . is the resul t of grace rather than of work . God, in H is grace, wil l grant this one, great, p ricel ess boon to a number of persons, who, looked at from merely a business standpoint, should be rewarded most unequal ly . " In the k ingdom al l are on equal footing " ( Montefiore) .

There is a para l le l in the Jewish Ta l m ud to i l lustrate how a Rabbi " in 28 years wrought more i n learning the l aw than many scholars i n 100 years . "

I t i s evident th is parable was not_ by a teacher at the beginning of Christianity , for i t impl ies that some became Christians years l ater than the first Christ ians . They expected the Christ soon to come . Would all be rewarded a l ike? some asked. Yes, is the rep ly, for all will enjoy God for ever .

75


65 .

MATT. 20, 17-28.

On Humility .

Verse 17 is the " framework " of the mystic story .

Verses 18 , 19 are a summary of the cross-drama, pu t into the mouth of " Jesus ," as all the Logia were . The " cup " belonged to a l l true Chr isti ans . This shows that the cross was not a wooden one, bu t a l ife-p ri ncip le, wh ich could be shared (see Ephes . 2, 20 : Phi l ip 3, 10) . The passage i mpl ies that persecut ion had been felt. Montefi ore says " the whole p assage i n i ts present form is later than Jesus . " We are fi nd ing that the whole of the Gospels is " la ter ," i . e . , there was no man Jesus, but a Community who felt and taught the i n ner goodwi l l as the wil l of God and made l igh t of ceremonies and r i tua l , in consequence . Christ i an i ty arose i n a group of sp iritual ly-m i nded Essenes cal led N azarenes, a Gnostic sect of Jews .

66 .

MATT. 20, 29-34.

Two (?) Blind Men .

Jericho i s about 15 n1 i les from Jerusalem . Matthew ha� two h 1 ind men ; Mark and Luke one, viz . , Bartimreus.

" Bartimreus " = son of Timreus (query i f Ti mreus = b l indness) . The story i.s a redupl icat ion of Matthew 9, 27 (cp . " Son of David " in both ) . The i dea i s that Christ ( the Life-giving Idea l ) gives l ight in the soul. Isa iah 35, 5-6 is

76

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

of spiritual l ight. Joh n 9, 39--41, shows Joh n 9 is a story of spiritual l ight, a n a l legot:y. The '" throwing away " of the man's garment (Mark 10, 50) means the cast ing aside of old sinful o r legal prejudice (bl i ndness) . The whole is symbolic. M. Loisy tends to regard i t so .

67.

MATT. 21, 1-17.

Entry into Jerusalem.

This is a symbolic story , the materia l coming from Zechariah 9, 9-10 : Psalm 1 18 , 25 ; 8 , 2 . (Greek version as to " out of the mouth of babes, etc ." ) .

This i s one of the passages which show most clearly that the stories of Jesus were l a rgely com· p ositions from a " Messianic " l ist of texts. That the Jews regarded many passages in the Old Testament as referring to the Messiah , though original ly some of them had no such meaning is clear from Edersheim's Life_ and Times of J estts the Messiah, I I . Appendix 9. Many references, there , a re of l a ter Rabbini ca l views , but show how freely the Old Testament was used . The figure of the "Christ " was in the minds of the Jews in t imes B.C . , and especia l ly after The Book of Enoch (simi l i tudes, B .C .70) was written . I t indicated Christ as already existi ng as the Son of Man in heave n , and about to come as the Judge of Men . The idea that the Christ h ad a lready had an ep isode on earth arose from Gnosticism , wh ich synthesised the heaven ly Christ of The Book of Enoch with the G nostic Logos·Saviour .

77


J. Weiss regards the story of the Entry of Jesus as in m any ways, unhistorical . Schwe itzer otherwise. I ts exact fol l ow i ng of Zech . 9, 9-10 i s not to be disregarded . For a m a n Jesu� to act the p rophecy out i n detai l ( as Schweitzer thinks) i s too absurd ! W here wou ld the_ spontaneity or orig ina l i ty of any great m an be, i f he thus acted a part set to h i m ?

Whi le the story is taken as th a t of a man Jesus , there i s no reason able exp l anat ion of i t . Taken as a work of a rt on an i deal Figure, as al l the rest of the stor ies are, i t becomes clear. The Messi ah , the I dea l L ife, is l owly, r iding on an ass, not on a war-horse. H is power is gentle yet efficient , as Love ever is . Love uses not the war-horse.

68 .

MATT. 21 , 18-22.

The Fig-tree Cursed.

Taken l i tera l ly as h istory� th is �tory has no m ora l va lue : rather the reverse . , The or ig inal is Luke 13, 6-9 who used a better form of the L ogia here, as so often (even though th e Gospel i tself was la ter than Matthew in com-

- posi t ion p robab ly) . -T h e p arabl e became a m i rac le , as in the case

of the feed ing of the 5,000 a nd the turn ing of water i nto wine .

69. MATT. 21 , 2 3-32.

John the Bap tist again .

What view d id the Jews take of the baptism by " John the Baptist " ? Th is que6tion was

78

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

put into the form of this story. The " bap tism of John " was not by a man John . I t was merely a bap tism indicat ing repentance, and was found among some later Jews-see Acts 18, 25 . Apol los knew only such a baptism before Aqui la and Priscil la i nstructed him further in the sp i r i tual baptism. The story is a confusio n . 3 0 I f John l ived as a man, why should not the p riests and elders have recognised John as a prophet, who preached repentance ? · The story of the two sons condemns the self- righteous formal ists .

70 .

MATT. 21 , 33-46.

Parable of the Vineyard.

If a man Jesus spake these words before he. was crucified, they are indeed hard to understand . The parable impl ies th at the Son (of God) had been k i l led . They gave a doctr ine of the Church, viz . , that the Jewish reject ion of the ir Christ-l i fe (as taught by the earl iest Christ ians) was a fol lowing o n and c l imax to a l l the i r persecutions to the prophets whom God sen t to them . The material of the parable is from Isaiah 5, 1 . Jewish writers often try to m ake l ight of the rejection of Christ ianity by the Jews . They assert, e .g. , that P il ate, not the Jews, crucified Jesus. But who t ried Jesus a nd who cr ied " Cruc_i fy him," according to the story ? See also Romans, ch aps . 9--11 . The Sanhedrin excommunicated the Chr ist-sect . See John 9, 22 : 12, 42 : 16, 2, i n Moffatt's Translat ion .

(30) S ee Montefiore, Synoptic Gospels, 1 , 276.

79 p


H ad the J�wish Sanhedrin accepted the Christ· group , there woul d not h ave been a separate Christ ian Church .

[On M atthew 22, 1-14 ; the Messianic Feast, see o n Luke, above . " The m ore original form i s i n Luke " (Montefiore) . The " robe of righteousness " was a G nostic phrase.]

71 .

MATT. 22, 15-22.

Tribute to Ccesa r.

Coins belong to Cresar, hearts belong to God. The s i lver denarius is the " penny " here (worth about 8!d . , i n 1913) . The Christ-group's answer here i s not origina l , nor i s i t profound. Not origina l , for " the bu lk of the Pharisees took much the same l ine . "3 1 They would not revol t by force against the Roman ru le (see Romans 13, 1-7) . There is a l im i t to obedience to State rule (Acts 5, 27-29) . The answer is not profound, for the Mora] I dea l m ust rule the State also .

72.

MATT. 22, 23-33.

The Resurrection Puzzle .

The questions in th is chap ter were probably often d iscussed between N azarenes32 (Christians)

(31) Montefiore , 1 , 280.

(32) This seems to have been the earliest name of the Christ-group which arose from the Essenes and Ebionites.

80

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

and orthodox Jews . They a re not very p rofound, but rather of a Rabb in ical nature. The saying i n this story is not origina l . A Jewish writ ing declares : " Rab used to say, ' in the world to come there is no eating or drinking or marrying ' . "33

The Christ i an Community thus s imply s ided with one current view of the m atter, as they did concerning t rib ute to Cresar. So on the p roh ib i t ion of d ivorce (except for si n ) , they sided with Shammai as agai nst H i l le l . These sayings (Logia) were not new a nd i nfa l l ib le ut terances of the Eternal Logos once incarnate . They were the I n ner Ideal i n Judaism . The dec larat ion here i n verses 31 , 32 i s rather " fanciful ,"34 for i t assumes God is a God of the l iv ing, a nd so Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were al ive ! ( I t is p robab le that these men never l ived, but were the eponymous ancestors of the Jews, tr ibes described as i ndividuals . 3 5 )

The whole doctrine of a future rising-up of bodies buried in the ground was Jewish, and is now an impossible one for scientific men . We know the bodies. have long since gone to dust , and those drowned in the sea have been eaten by fishes . Man does not need such bodies for a future l ife, i f the asp ir ing soul be an aspect of God, with " vibration-energies " finer than the body that d ies .

(33) Montefiore , 1 , 285, quoting Berachoth 17a , and adding : ' ' This was the official doctrine. ' '

(84) Ibid. ,___

(85) See Dr. Bennett on Genesis (Century Bible).

8 1

F 2


73 .

MATT. 22, 34-40.

The Chief Commandments.

Thi�s story ci tes Deut . 6, 5 , and Levit . 19, 18. The i dea was not new. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs told the Jews to love God and one's fel low men . 36 I n the Epist les we find the l a tter l aw as summing up the moral code : Rom. 13, 8-10 ; Ga la t . 5, 14. H ad a man Jesus taught the p assage i n M att . 22, 37 , 38, why did not the writers of R omans and Galat ians appeal to Jesus as thei r fina l authori(y? The Epistles were p rior,

' and gave the sayings of the Church.

74 .

MATT. 22, 41-46.

A Puzzle as to the Messiah .

Here is a Rabb in ical sop h istry . Psalm 110 was not by Da'{id, but if i t were, and it referred to the Messi ah, the doctr ina l point is that the Messiah was a di·vine being, greater than David. Such was the Church doctr ine (Ph i l ip 2, 5-10 ; 1 Cor. 8, 6 ; Colos . 1 , 15-17) , a nd the story is of a discuss ion between Christ ians and Scribes.

75.

MATT. 23, 1-39.

The Worst Kind of P harisee.

The teaching of the Pharisees could often be good, and ought to be obeyed (23 , 3) , but their

(86) The Testament of I ssacher. 82

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

sptnt was often p roud, legal , self-r ighteous, b igqted and u nloving. They only " appeared righteous." This fact i t was which ca l led up the new fai th , declaring an inner sp i r i t as the wil l of the Christ (Matt . 5, 20) .

Christ is here spoken of i n the th ird person (verses 8, 10) . Teachers had arisen i n the Church (cp . 1 Cori n . 12, 10, 29) . The passage is by the Church, not by a man Jesus a t t he beginn ing of Christ iani ty. The " woes " g iven here are sorrowful , not revengefu l . The Church (or earl ier the Communi ty) was the " body " of Chris t , H is vehicle, H is mouthpiece .(Ephes . 1 , 23 ; 4, 12, 16 ; 5, 30 ; Co los . 1 , 18, 24 ; 1 Carin . 12, 27) .

The Church had the power of " b i nd ing and loosing " (Matt . 18, 18) , i . e . , of forb idding or a l lowing certa in act ions . The Church cons ists of a l l who obey the Christ-Ideal (Mark 3 , 35) , for they are " crucified " to the " old

-man " (Gal .

5, 24 ; 6, 14 ; Co los. 3, 1-10) of the self-seek i ng wi l l .

The Ideal i s a state of heart, a sp ir i t , a k ind of l ife, a qual i ty of sou l . This was set out i n the Sermon on the Mount . S ince then, son1e more aspects have been added ( open-m i ndedness, imaginat ion, freedom) . We now approach to a ful ler vis ion than the New Testament gives, both of the Ideal and of God, whose wi l l the Idea l i s . So we app roach a World-Rel ig ion , which now i s dawning, a sp i ri t richer than any which the o ld rel igions gave to the world, bu t which could not ' have come but for them .

SB


76.

MATT. 23, 37-39.

u 0 J entsalem ! "

N o doubt the Christ i ans regarded the destruct ion of Jerusalem i n A . D . 70 as a pun ishment of God upon th'e Jews for the i r rejection of the Chr i st-group (Luke 13, 6-9 ; 19, 41-44) . Verse 38 " desol ate " implies that th is event had occurred : see 24, 15-21 ; Luke 21 , 20-24. But some o f the Jews had long been rebel l ing against the Roman rule , and the comi ng of Titus was not b rought i n by the Jewish persecution of the Chris t ians .

77 .

MATT. 24, 1-44.

The Messianic Coming.

Mr. Montefiore says : " This apoca lyp tic orat ion is, as a whole, certa in ly unauthentic. Much of i t is bu i l t up up on the familiar l i nes of Jewish apocalypses from D aniel ( 164 B .C. ) onwards ." Verse 15, " the appa l l ing horror ," spoken of by Da niel (9, 27 ; 1 1 , 3 1 ; 12, 1 1) was a reference to a l i tt le a l tar and sta tue of Zeus set up by Ant ioch us Ep iphanes I V . on the al tar i n the temple a t Jerusa lem , B . C . 164. This " horror " would be repeated, i t is here said, i .e . , the Roman En1peror's image would be set up.

If t hese verses were fa lsely ascr ibed to a man Jesus, and l i kewise the discourses of the Fourth Gospel , and those of the Gnostic Pistis Sop hia also (2nd century) , why could not all t he Logia i n the Synoptics be fa lsely ascribed ? With the

84

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

miracles as parables re-set , and the Crucifixionstory as part of a drama of i ni t ia t ion , a nd the Infancy-stories as works of art , there wi l l soon be very l ittle left for those who c l ing to the idea of a man Jesus. But art is better tha n h istory, and the unveifing o f G o d i s nobler than the l ife of one God-man, whose fin i te thoughts follow one another, and whose knowledge m ust be very i nadequate. It i s God H i mself that the world is real ly seeking, and to have a man Jesus is not the deepest longing of soul s . I ndeed, i t has become a h indrance to rel ig ion .

78.

MATT. 25, 1-13.

The Parable of the Maidens.

A p arable " m ade up to su i t the mora l , and ful l of i nconsistencies a nd awkwardnesses . " How could shops be open after midnight, or a bride need bridesma ids at that t ime ? If the moral be " Watch " ( 13) why did -all the m aidens go to sleep ? It was l ack of o i l , not sleep , that kept five fool ish maidens from going i n to the feast .

79.

MATT. 25, 14-30.

The Parable of the Talents.

See Luke 19, 1 1-27, on the p ou nds. A talent = £240. The parable seems founded on the . idea that Christ " gave gifts " to men (Ep h . 4 , 8-12, and cp . 1 Cori n . 1 1 , 28) . The Christ will come a nd cast any unprofitab le servant into " outer darkness " (30) . The p arable was p robably of

85


Jewish orig in ( the Rabbis taught m any such, as Edersheim3 7 has shown) a nd was used and adapted by Christ i ans .

80.

MATT. 25, 31-46.

The J udg1nent by Christ .

See 2 Cor io . 5, 10 ; 1 John 5, 12 ; 1 Peter 1 , 17 ; John 5 .. 20, 30 . C hrist was the com ing Judge_ from heaven , as The Book of Enoch had set forth , and i n deed verse 3 1 is a quotation from that book, which fre·quent ly has the p h rase " The Son of Man s i t t ing on the throne of his glory " (45, 3 ; 54, 4 ; 62, 3, 5) .

Here is another i ndicat ion · that the Gospel Sayings a re not a h istory of what was spoken by a man Jesus. The p robab i l i t ies are that parts of these sayings were orig inaUy i n poetical form, or at least, in Heb rew p ara l le l ism ; D r. Moffatt's Transl a t ion gives m any passages in Engl ish-prosepoetry, though not a l l of these were i n Greek or Hebrew poetical form : but some p robably were . Dr. Burney has argued that t he parab le of the Last Judgment in Matt . 25, 31-46, was originally in Hebrew poetical form . The Old Testament . has . a . great ma�y poe � i�a l p�ral lel isms, e-spectal ly I n 1ts p rophet ical wnttngst-tn Lamenta t ions and the Psalms, as " I made the earth, and man upon i t I created ," or " Her hand to the tent-peg she stretched forth , and her right hand to the workman's mal l et " (Judges 5, 26) : cp . Zech 9, 9 . " Rid ing upon an ass, even upon a col t ," which passage is wrongly used in

(�7) Life a n d Times of Jesus the Messiah : 2 , 2'83-297.

S6

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

Matthew, a s if two animals were intended. Dr. C. F . . · Burney says : " It is an -i n teresting fact that if the parab le of the Last Judgment is t ransla ted i nto Bibl ical Hebrew it fa l l s immediately into a rhythm ical form , qui te as regular and striki ng as the forms which are found i n the Old Testament prophetical and poetical books . Even the English suggests this , as i � the words :

" Hungry was I , and ye fed me, Thi·rsty was I , and ye · relieved me ; A stranger was I , and ye housed me ;

Naked , and ye clothed me. Sick was I and ye visited me ; I n prison was ·J al)d ye came to me. "

Dr. Burney suggests tha t poetry was a " new medium " by which Jesus conveyed truth, and such a method was used by Hebrew p rophets. But surely the writings o£ the prophets was not the form of their burn ing popular speeches. Their writin�s i nvolved art and composit ion . And the poetical forms i n the sayings i n the Gospels i nvolved art istic composit ion , viz . , that of the sp ir i tua l ly-minded Ch r i st ians who comp osed the poet ical passages . Such a wri ter here seems to h ave used the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Joseph 1 , 5-6) which says :

" I was sick and the Lord visi ted me : I was in prison and the Lord showed faYou r unto me. "

The mean ing of the parable is not · that Christ wi l l reward anyone who helps anyone, but wi l l reward those who help Christ ians . I t i s thus clearly a product ion of the Church , cal l ing for men to help needy Christ ians . The p hrase u These my b rethren, even the least " does not refer to any poor peop le, but to Chris t ians who were i n p overty, sickness, or put i nto prison .

87


The parable was composed, then, after Christians had been put i n to prison. No Jesus spake it .

Being poetry a nd implying that some Christians had been imprisoned, and u si ng " Christ " i n the th ird person (verses 31 , 34, .40) , i t could not be by a man Jesus. Thus it fal l s i n l ine with al l the other parables . They were p roductions of the Church us ing Jewish material and R abbinical sayings . 40

8 1 .

MATT. 26, 1-16.

Judas .

When the worshippers of D ionysus were persecuted, i t was said that Dionysus was persecuted, though he d id not l ive as a person . 3 8

When the priests of Attis were self-mutilated i t was sa id th a t At t i s was muti lated . 3 9 So, when the members of the Christ-group were rejected, by the Sanhedrin, i t was sa id that Christ was rejected and crucified. Judas was a n a me composed for the Judaism by which the Christ i a ns (being Jews) came u nder the authori ty of the Sanhedri n . They were then " excommunica ted,"41 cas t out of Juda ism , and

( 40) Even in the Synoptic Gospels , " Jesus " is One who was in many places at once (Matt. 18 , 20). He was the Son of God , greater than Solomon , Moses, Jonah, He was the Disposer of all souls ! No man (whose thoughts follow one another) could be all that. ' ' Jesus " is God in men.

(38) See Ency. Brit . , art. " DiQnysus . " (39) See Frazer, Golden Bough : " Adonis, Attis, Osiris , " 1 ,

265. {41 ) See Moffatt 's Translation of the New Testament : John

12, 42 : 16.2 : 9 .22.

88

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

thus were persecuted by Paul (as Saul) and others , and became a dist inct " risen " Church i n t ime (Acts 8, 1-4 : 12, 1-2 : 26, 10-1 1 ) .

The materials for the Judas story a re from Zech . 1 1 , 12-13 : Ps. 4 1 , 9 : Prov. 26, 6.

The story here of the a labaster box of o intment i s another vers ion of Luke 7, 36--50. Mr . Montefiore says : " How much of i t i s h istorical is dub ious. " I t impl ies that the death was certain . It i s an a l legory of Christ (the GodI deal for men and in men) recognised as d iv ine by the outcast Jews, and by the Gent i les, here symbol ised as a " s inner " (cp . Galat . 2, 15-17) . As often i n Jewish thought, a woman typified a people (Zech . 9, 9) . The word " gospel " i n verse 9 imp l ies there was a set Christ ian message . I t is p robable that the ini t ia te i nto Christ ianity was anointed, and these verses tel l of th is act .

82.

MATT. 26, 17-29.

The L ast Supp er.

Mith ras was said to have held a last supper with his d iscip les and the sun, ere he ascen ded back to heaven . 42 Just in saw many l ikenesses between that supper as a memorial r i tua l i n Mithraism when bread and wa-ter (or wine) were p artaken of, and the Christ ian s�pper . 43 But

(42) F. Cumont : The Mysteries of Mith ra.

(43) J ustin : A pology, 1 , 66. As to the bread and the cup, " the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras commanding the same thing to be done . "

89


Mithra ism was much older than Christ ianity . So the Christ ian mystic meal was the earl ier agape transformed by G n osticism . Thus 1 Corin. 10, 16--21 the Christ ian meal is l i kened to the pagan meals . Probably the Ch r i st ian meal grew out of a s impler agape or l ove-feast, derived from the Essenes. The Therapeut� al so44 had a common meal of bread and water . When Gnosticism (A . D . 30-80) had made Christ ian i ty as a new moral mystery-religion , the agape was the myst ic " eating of the God, " as in Mithraism : the " God " here i n Christ ian i ty being " Jesus Ch6st . " At most, the Eucharist is a symbol of the crucified l ife, hut more and more people feel i t is u nessent ia l , when once they grasp that crucified l ife . To " feed on Christ " is to feed on the I deal which i s God's w i l l for men . " Christ " means the MAN i n men, the d iv i ne sp i ritual ideal evolved in n1en as the i r t rue l ife, and st i l l being evolved .

83 .

MATT. 26, 30-56.

Gethse 1nane . 4.5 Peter's den ia l was a story based o n the h istori

cal v iew of the Petrine School ( 1 Corin . 1, 12 : 3, 22) , that the C hrist was not to be a sufferer, but a k ing .

(44} See Philo , O n the Con templa tive Life . (45) The n ame is a composition to suit the Messiah , like

Golgotha, N azareth . It means ' ' win e-press of the olives. ,

[ t was coined from I saiah 63, 2, 3, " I have ·trodden the wine-press alone. "

90

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

The " cock-crowing " is' a confusion with Mark

13, 34-37, " cock-crowing " being merely a phrase for a p eriod of t ime i n the n ight-3 .0 a . m . Perhaps Peter i s described as the " doorkeeper " (porter) i n Mark 13, 34 because he " held the keys " (Matthew 16, 19) .

For the materials for the story of Geths·emane, see Isa iah 51 , 17-22 : 63, 1--3.

For the fact that the Old Testament was drawn upon to compose the story, see Matthew 26, 24--56, which Dr . Moffatt thus transl ates :

" The Son of Man goes the road that the Scripture has described for h im . . . . . Al l this happened for the fu lfi lment of the p rophetic Scrip tures . " I t is pla in whence came the substance of the stories.

No reporter heard the words of Christ in the Garden . The story is not h istory , then , but i t is better. I t i s a · work o f a r t to show that the i n i t iate m ust face loneliness, must d ie to the " world " (Ga lat . 5, 24) , and that " all who want to l ive the rel igious l ife i n Ch rist Jesus w i l l be persecuted " (2 Tim . 3, 12 in Moffatt's Transla-t ion) . The story is part o

.f the in i t iat ion

mystery, which seems to the p resent writer to not only embrace the Passion-drama, but also other parts of Mark's Gospel (copied by Matthew and Luke) .

Mark used the Logia in some parables and sayings (Mark 4 , 1-34 : 7, 1-23 : 8, 27-38) . If

. the passages from the L ogia be removed, there ' 91


3eems to be an U r-Marcus, wh ich s imp ly was a text-book of i n i t i at ion r i tua l for the beg inner in the Chr ist i an l i fe, or the l2 stages of i ni t i at ion . The stories of what " Christ " d id a re rea l ly of what the Ch rist ians did, qu i te i n the Eastern custom of " p raxis " then . For the kiss (49) see 2 Sam . 20, 9 : Prov. 27, 6 (R .V . ) . Ma tthew's Greek word for kiss means " kissed abu ndant ly ," so that Prov . 27, 6, seems to be the source of the imagery used here : (" The kisses of an enemy a re p rofuse . ") .

The inc ident of the you ng man i n Mark 14, 5 1 , 52 i s from Amos 2 , 1 6 . Nl r . Montefiore says : " The Mess ian ic i n terp retat ion of Amos 2, 16 may have suggested the en t i re i nc ident ." The passage ru ns : " He that is of fi rm heart among the. heroes sh a l l flee away naked in that day ."

But the idea of the l i nen garment seems to be a G nostic one-for in the mysteries l inen garments were used-so that the story may be symbol ic , us ing the Amos pa ssage as materi al to .. set forth a symbol . And such is the Passion-story th roughout , a mystery drama,46 bu t using " Messian ic " m aterial for i ts exp ress ion . So " the discip les fled ," because of Zech . 14, 4-5.

For the heavenly a rmy ready to help Jesus, compare 2 K ings 6, 17, i n the E l isha legends. Many stories of the Christ take mater ia l from the E l ijah and E lisha stories : cp . 2 Kings 4, 42-44.

( 46) See J . !\f . Robertson : Pagan Christs . pp. 194-204 on the Passion -story.

92

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

84.

MATT. 26, 5.7-75 . .I In the House o{ Caiap has .

Peter was not i nside the ha l l , so no Christ ian .. heard the conversat ion between Jesus and Caiaphas. The story is thus a composit ion . The " tr ial " was in many respects i l lega l , and could not have been h istory .

Thus, Rev. Dr . Isaac l\tl . Wise tel ls us tha t : " I t was p roh ib i ted not on ly to execute a

crimina l on Sabbath, o r a fast-day but also to open h is tr ial on Friday, or the eve of a holyday, because, i f found gui lty, he could not be executed the next day.4 7

" Mark ( 14, 53) maintains that when Jesus arrived i n the h igh-priest's pa lace, a l l the p riests met there . . . . of whom there could not have been less than 200,000. " 4 8

" The whole trial frotn beginn ing to end is contrary to Jewish l aw and custom as in force at the t ime of Jesus. No court of justice, with jurisdict ion in penal cases, could or ever did hold its session in the pa lace of the h igh-priest . There were three legal bodies in Jerusalem to decide penal cases : the Great Sanhedrin of 71 members , and two M inor Sannedr in each of 23

(47) The Martyrdom of ]ems of Nazareth, 1874 , Washington , p. 19. Rabbi Wise 's authority is Maimonides, and Mishna Sanhedrin, which was not written till c. 200 A. D . , but " contains tradition d.ating back to pre-Christian times. The Gospel account of the Trial of Jesus does not represent facts " (Friedlander).

(48) p. 62.

98


members . The court o f p ri ests h ad n o penal ju risd ict ion except in the affairs of the temp le service, and then over p riests and Levi tes on ly . The Grea t Sanhedr i n held i t s sess ions in a ha l l cal led " Lishhath H aggazith " ( the ha l l o f hewn stone) . . . . No court of just ice i n Israel was perm i tted to ope n i ts sess ions at n igh t, and in cases of cap i ta l cr ime, no sess ion coul d be extended after the even ing hour ( Mishnah Sanhedr in IV. 1 ) . . A court convoked and act i ng i n rebel l i on to l aw and custom can be considered only as a band of rebels . What use have such men of wi tnesses . . . The judges went about at m idn igh t i n a populous c i ty to p roduce false w i tnesses ( ! ) . . . . Such is the fict i t ious ch aracter of Mark 's n ight ly t r i aL Mark a l so forgot the Jewish l aw concern i ng false w i tnesses ( Duet . 19, 16) . . . . Maimon ides shows how r ig idly th i s part of the l aws was enforced . . The po int at issue according to Mark was blasp hemy. . The m istakes i n th is po in t are numerous and obvious. 'I f (as here) none of the judges defend the cu lpr i t , the verdict of gu i l ty was i nva l i d . . . ; Aga in , h ad Jesus ma inta ined before a body o f Jewish l awyers to be the Son of God, they cou ld not h ave found h im gu i l ty of b lasphemy, because every Israe l i te h ad a perfect r ight to ca l l h imse l f a . son of God (Duet . 14, 1 ) . . The whole tr ia l must be g iven up as a t ransparent a nd u nski l led i nvent ion of a Gent i le C hrist ian of the second49 century, who k new noth ing of Jewish l aw and custom . 5 0

(49) The i nvention o f the story may surely have been earli�r, and by Jewish Gnostics in A l exandria perhaps , after the des truction of .T erusalem in A . D. 70.

(50) pp. 66-78. 94

THE FOUR GOSPELS .

[As a mystery-drama of the Christ-Logos, comp osed for in i t ia tes i nto the " crucified " l ife, and emanat ing from Alexandrian Gnostics the story is clear. I t i s not h i story, but i t came to be regarded as h istory.]

Further : " The conduct of P i l ate, according to the

G ospels , was so ent i re ly averse to h is character, as described by Josephus and Phi lo , th at it i s incredible on this ground a lone : and i f P i l ate was weak a nd fool i sh enough to yie ld to a clamouring crowd, why d id he imp ose upon h im the very worst and most cruel p unishment of the Roma n law - crucifixion . . and why did he h ave Jesus scourged, 5 1 which the c l amou ri ng crowd d id not demand ? "

" If i t is not true that Jesus was scourged and crucified, then the whole story is a dogmatic legend, written for the purp ose e ither of dramatic effect i n the rel igious mysteries, o r of vil ifying the Jews and flattering the R omans . "

" There a re a number o f a rgu ments i n favour of the a l legation that the early Christ ian teache rsadopted the cross, and the crucifixion story on account of the cross, for dogmatic p urposes . One of these a rguments i s the symbo l ic sign ifica· t ion of the cross in p re-Ch rist ian t imes : see , � .g. , Ezekiel 9 , 4-6, on the letter Tau T (600 B.C .) . . The crucifixion story came from abroad and was told with the avowed inte nt ion of incriminating the Jews . "52

(51) This stocy arose from I saiah , 50.6. (52) Why ? Surely because they had persecuted the earlies t

Christians. Christianity arose amid the opposition of scriba l formalism to the ethical inner righteousness as taught by the Christ-group (Matt. 5. 20).

95

G


The quota t ions from the Old Testament used in the Pass ion-story a re from the G reek Sep tuag int Vers ion, e . g . , Luke 23, 30, from H osea 10, 8. The story was not by a Jewish Rabb i n ical writer, but p roceeded from Alexandrian Gnost ic myst ics (Hel len ist ic Jews) .

Mr . J . M . Robertson i n " Pagan C hrists " (pp . 197-206) says :

" From Matthew 26, 17 o r 20, the narrative is si n1ply a p resen tment of a d ramat ic act ion and d ia logue . The events a re h uddled one upon another exact ly a.s h appens in a l l drama . Jesus p a rtakes wi th h i s d iscip les of the Passover , an even ing meal . they s i ng a hymn, and p roceed i n the dark ness to the Mount of Ol ives . Not a word is sa id of what happened or was said on the way : the scene i s s imply changed to the Mount . . What we are reading is the bare transcrip t of a primi t i ve p l ay . . Jesus p rays whi le h is d iscip les s leep . There i s thus n o one p resent or awake to record his words. The act ion goes on through the n igh t when

as Renan notes . . an E astern c i ty i s as i f dead . . The mock crowning and rob ing a re strict ly dramatic . . The resur-rect ion scene i s whol ly staged . . The scene of the Transfigurat ion, too, h as every appearance of h aving been a dramatic representa t ion i n the manne r of the p agan mysterie6 ."

The sp itt i ng and scourging came from Isaiah 50, 6. It was what " must h ave h appened " to the Mess iah ! Even MeN e i le says on verse 68 :

96

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

" The evangel ists probably had Isaiah (50, 6) in mind . "

For the Peter story , see above on 26, 30-56.

85 .

MATT. 27, 1-10.

The Fate of Judas . O n verses 3-10. Montefiore says " these are

in al l probabil i ty completely legendary. The basis is a m istrans l ated passage i n Zechariah 1 1 , 1 2, 13 ."

I n tha t passage53 are two var iant readi ngs , one i s '�treasury ," the other i s " potter ." Both readings are used i n this story, show i ng c lear ly that i t is a composit ion from the supposed Messian ic text i n Zecharia h . So with Zech . 9, 9-10 : Psa l m 22, 1, 18. There was no man Judas (see on �fatt. 26, 1 -16) .

86.

11ATT. 27, 1 1-31 .

Pilate and Barab bas. M r. Montefiore ca l ls both the tr ia l before

Ca i aphas and the trial before Pil ate " h ardly conceivable ."

Pilate is a lay figure . A man who washes h is hands i n p ubl ic to declare h is i nnocence , argues with the m ob, and says to Jesus, " Wh at is t ru th ? " is no t the cruel p rocurator of whom Josep h us - wrote. Moreover, there was no

(53) See R . V. margi n . 97


rep·or ter p resen t to record the conversations between Jesus a nd Pi l a te . The whole is an a r tist ic p roduct ion to re l a te the rejec t ion of the Chris t by both the R omans and the officia l Jews, the State Law and the State C hurch ! The in it iat ion of the C h rist i a n i nvolved that he died to the world, to the use of sta te force to get m oney, o r t o k i l l h is enemies, a n d to t h e legal ism of the Jewish Sta te Church (Gal . 6, 14 ; 5, 24) . Verse 14, the s i lence is from Isa iah 53, 7. " He opened not hi's m outh . "

Barab bas i s a figure inse rted from the drama of the Jewish a n nua l feast of Purim, which was a cont inuat ion of the Babylonian Sacaea . I n the feast of Pur im, a man represented Mordecai , and an effigy of Haman was h anged o n the gibbet prepa red for Mordeca i . The same G reek word i n the Sep tuagin t i s used for " gal lows " i n Esther 7, 10 as is used for the " t ree " ( ra ther gibbet) o n wh ich the Christ was h anged, according to Acts 5 , 30 : 10, 39 : 13 , 29 : 1 Pet . 2 , 24 : cp . Gal . 3, 13.

From the Purim drama the idea of Barabbas came. The composer pu t in a symbol ic scene to i nd icate the- choice between Judaism and Christ , Barabba.s mean ing " Son of the Rabb i ," and Christ being the " Son of the Father . "

The m ock ings (verses 27-31) a re taken from the mystery-re l igions, bu t us ing material from the supposed " Mess ianic " passage, Isaiah 50, 6. " I gave my b ack to the sm i ters : I h io not my face · from sp i tt i ng . " The in i t i a te i n the mysteryrel igions was c lad i n a colou red robe and c rowned a nd worshipped .

98

THE FOUR GOSPELS.

87.

MATT. 27, 32-56.

The Crucifixion . I t i s h ardly l ikely any Roman p rocurator would

write such a t i t le as " The King of the Jews " (37) . The story is symbol ica l , and the idea of it being in Greek, Lat in a nd Heb rew ·means that all nat ionB would acknowledge the Christ-sp i ri t a s king over the i r l ives .

The ren t vei l (51 ) is symbol ical as i s expla ined i n Ephes. 2 , 14. The vei l separa ted the Jews from the Court of the Gent i les i n t h e Temple . The Christ-l i fe does away with a l l such d ivis ion . Cp. I-leb. 9, 1-14 : 10, 19-20. Verse 42 i s based on Wisdom 2, 18.

Verses 51-53 a re not a l lowed to be h istorical by m any conservative cri tics .

Vene 46 i s from Ps. 22, I . Verse 35 i s from Ps . 22, 18.

The story i s myst ic, symbol ic, and bui l t up from Old Testament passages deemed to be Messian ic. But i t consists of i n it i a t ion scenes. Luke 23, 34, is a gloss, yet of great sp i r i tua l va lue . I t i s from Isa iah 53, 12.

8f t MATT. 27, 57-66.

The Buri.al . " He m ade his grave with the rich , " said

Isaiah 53, 9. Joseph of Arimathrea was a figure i nvented as a r ich Jew who buried the C h rist in a tomb.

-99

THE INNER MEANI NG OF

89.

MATT. 28, 1-15.

The Resurrection .

The Jews o f tha t age believed that the body p laced i n the grave wou l d rise aga i n (see Daniel 12, 1-3 : M atthew 27, 52) and so the Christ ians of A.D.80-90, considered the " m a n " Jesus must have raised h j s body (by God's help) from the grave ! Hence 1 Cor. 15 on th is . The unscient ific Jewish Ch rist i a ns wove doctrines very e as i ly, from what they thought must have been " true . " No crit ical research o r enquiry would be made in those of abundant credul i ty !

O riginal ly, t he idea of the C hrist having r isen came from Gnost i cs . The idea of the Christ was synthesised wi th the ir Logos-Saviour the Pr imal MAN who descended, was (ever ) " crucified " (or separated from , and yet in u n ion with, the phenomenal world ) , and rose back to heaven carrying souls with h im . But this was i nterp reted as i f a m a n Jesus Christ had descended, died and risen (Ph i l ip 2, 5-8) , a nd so the story a rose and 'was decorated wi th the " Mess ianic " texts, as to what the Mess iah m ust have done ! Various legends (28 , 1 1-15) were soon added .

The resurrect ion of every soul crucified to the lower nature to the " world ," is a great t ru th , but a sp i ri tua l one . I t has noth i ng to do with a body rising up . when in decay ! The resurrect ion is i n this l ife, a resurrect ion now to the immortal Li fe of G od , over wh ich sin, sorrow

tOO

THE FO UR GOSPELS.

and the death of the body have no p ower. ( Ep hes. 2, 6 : Phi l ip 3, 11 ) . 54

90. �IATT. 28, 16-20.

The Comndssion .

The mounta i n (verse 16) shows the - s tory is symbol ic : cp . the Sermon " on the Mount ," a lso the Transfigurat ion , and the g iv ing of the Law to Moses on a mounta i n ( a p lace of e levated thoughts, used as symbol for such e levation of the soul ) .

The Church and i t s theology is apparen t in 28, 19 .

The Comm ission is an i nward u rge : as i n Acts 13 , 1-3. I t has been felt by a Carey, a Livingstone, a Damien (wh o went to Molokai ) , and m any- a father who exp la ined the way of ho l iness to h i s son .

Those who thus teach< h ave God ever with them, for they exp ress the very nature of th ings , the eternal mora l l aw, wh ich sooner o r la ter, must prevai l .

91 . JOH N 14-17 .

Christ Coming Again .

These chap ters a re speeches pu t in to the mouth of " Jesus," just as other long speeches were

(54) " Spiri tualistic " phenomena are often real and gen uine, but they do not imply discarnate spi rits. They may be caused by psychic or magnetic force from the sitters or the medium or both , in a seance.

101

THE INNER MEANING OF THE FOUR GOSPELS .

composed by the writer of Pistis Sop hia ( a G nostic work o f the second century) and a ttributed to Jesus. But rea l ly they give a mystic doctrine of the Christ " go ing away ," so as t o " come again ," a s the Holy Spi ri t i n Christ ians (John 14, 18 : 16, 7-16) .

What did th i s mean ? I t referred to the in i t ia te no longer " seei ng "

Christ merely as a n Ideal , " after the flesh " (2 Corin . 5, 16) , p resented to the intel lect, but now fee l ing Christ with in as the very wi l l of the in i tiate, the Divine Life wel l ing up in the soul (John 4 , 14) . This was Christ " coming agai n " to be i n the heart, and not only known as an idea (John 14, 17, 20) .

102

INDEX

To sections. and to parallel passages.

SEC.

22 ' 14. 1-1 2 { 6 . 14-16 ) 9 . 7-17

6. 30-44 f 23 14 . 22-36 6. 45-52

24 1 5 . 1-20 7 . 1 -23

25 15. 2 1-31 7. 2 4-30

26 16 . 1-12 8. 13-2 1

27 1 6 . 13-28 8 . 27- 9. 1 9. 18-27

28 17. 1-13 9. 2- 1 3 9 . 28 -36

2 9 1 7 . 24-27 9. 14-29 9. 37-43

30 18. 1-14 9. 33-41 9. 46-50

31 1 8. 15-20

32 18 . 21-35 1 7 . 3

33 Lk. 9. 5 1-62 Mt. 8. 1 9-21

34 10. 1-24 11 . 20-30

35 1 0. 25-37

36 10. 38-42

37 11. 1-13

38 11 . 2 9-33 12 . 43-45

39 12. 35-59

40 13. 1-9

41 13. 10-17

42 14. 1-6

43 1 4 . 7-24

104

INDEX

To section s and to parallel passages . SJ.t;c.

68 : 2 1 . 1 8-2 1 1 1 . 1 2- 1 4

I 1 1 . 27-33 20 . 1 -8 69 ; 2 1 . 23-32 /

70 2 1 . 33-46 1 2 . 1 - 1 2 20. 9-19

7 1 I 22 . 1 5-22 1 2 . 1 3-1 7 20 . 20-26

72 ! 22. 23-33 1 2 . 1 8-27 2 0 . 27-39

I 73 I 22. 34-40 1 2 . 28-34 20. 4 0 I I 74 1 22. 4 1 -46 1 2 . 35-37 20 . 4 1 -44 75 ! 23 . 1-36 1 2 . 38-40 20. 4 5-47

76 I 23 . 37-39

n l 24 . 1-44 1 3 . 1 -37 2 1 . 5-36 I

78 1 25. 1 -1 3 I 79 1 25 . 1 4-30 1 9. 1 1 -28 so I 25 . 3 1 -46

26. 1 - 1 6 1 4 . 1 , 1 0 22. 1 -6 8 1 1

82 j 26. 1 7-1 9 1 4 . 1 2- 1 6 2 2 . 7-1 3

83 ! 26. 30-56 1 4 . 27-52 22 . 3 1 -53 I

s4 I 26 . 57-75 1 4 . 55-72 • 22 . 54-7 1

85 1 27 . 1 - 1 0

r 86 1 27 . 1 1 -3 1 1 5 . 2-1 9 23 . 3-25

27 . 32-56 1 5 . 20-4 1 23 . 26-49 87 I I

88 I 2 7 . 57-66 1 5. 42-47 23. 50-56 : r

89 � 28 . 1 -1 5 16 . 1 -8 24 . 1 - 1 1 I I 9o 1 28 . 1 6-20 { 1 6 . 1 5 - 1 8)

I 9 1 I John 1 4- 1 7 -

Knapp, Drewett a.nd Sons, Prlnter8, 30, Budge Row, London, E.C., IUld Kingeton-on-Tb�ee. c. 7794.

I l l 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 I , : � 3 9002 00484 84 1 3 ":

-- - - --- - - rr �

The WORLD RELIGION By GILBERT T. SADLER, M.A., LL.B.

Four Volumes 3s. 6d. net each.

I. THE INNER MEANING OF THE 4 GOSPELS.

A Re-interpretation of the Gospels in the light of

modern research, and in relation to modern spiritual

and social needs.

II. BEHIND THE NEW TESTAMENT. Reason

for the standpoint in the first book, giving refer

ences to ancient documents that lie behind the

Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament.

III. THE INFINITE IN THE FINITE. Show s that

in the depths of our being we are the infinite in

the finite, that the spiritual vision which reveals

this is best reached through Christianity.

IV. THE SOCIAL EXPRESSION OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. The constructive application

of the spiritual vision to the creation of a new social

order, showing that men will live by new powers

unveiled partly in Christianity and partly in

Western experience.

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J J

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the inner meaning of the four gospels;: reinterpreted in the light of modern research, and in...

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