New light on the life of Jesus

Front matter

Class

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

DR. BRIGGS'S WORKS.

Preface

THIS volume does not propose to give a new life of Jesus Christ our Saviour ; but to give a new light upon the life of our Lord which has come to the author in his recent studies. In the term 1861-62 of the Union Theological Seminary, it was my privilege to study with my classmates the Greek Harmony of the Gospels under the greatest of American Biblical scholars, Edward Robinson. An entire year was given to this study at that time. Subsequently in 1867 and 1868 I renewed this study, but from a more historical point of view, at the University of Berlin, under the guidance of one of the greatest theologians of the past century, Isaac Dorner. I then reviewed the entire literature of the Life of Jesus in those troublous times which were dominated by the negative criticism of Strauss, Baur, Renan, Schenkel, and Keim. As a result of these studies I made a revision of Robinson's Harmony for my private vin PREFACE

use. My studies for many years, from 1874- 1891 were concentrated upon the Old Testament, because I was called to use my utmost endeavors in battling for the rights of the Higher Criticism and in the work of reconstructing the Old Testament material in the light of that Criticism. In 1891 when I was transferred from the Hebrew chair to the new chair of Biblical Theology, it was necessary for me to renew my New Testament studies and to concentrate my attention upon them. It was inevitable that 1 should apply the same rigorous methods of Criticism to the New Testament that I had applied for many years to the Old Testament. I had the advantage of coming to the New Testament afresh from studies in the Hebrew and Aramaic Scriptures, and so was prepared to investigate and discern the Semitic originals at the basis of the New Testament.

The Harmony of Robinson was based on the chronological order of the Gospel of John. This order I abandoned many years ago. But it was only gradually that my confidence in the chronological order of Mark was weakened. One of these pre-suppositions, or both, are at the basis of the Harmonies of the Gospels and Lives of

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Jesus of modern times. So soon as these pre-suppositions were abandoned, and I felt as free to study the whole material as Tatian, the earliest harmonist, did, a cloud was lifted from the Gospels and a number of questions sprang up which pressed for a solution. The most essential of these were :

1. When did Jesus begin His Ministry ? 2. Where was Jesus during the absence of the Twelve? The answer to these two questions which came to me flooded the Gospels with new light. I saw that there was a Galilean Ministry of Jesus prior to the arrest of John the Baptist, and that while five pairs of the Twelve were absent on a Mission in Galilee, Jesus with James and John, one pair of the Twelve, was carrying on His ministry in Jerusalem, and at intervals with another pair, Thomas and Matthew, in Peraea ; and so the order of the ministry became altogether different from that pre-supposed in the modern Harmonies and Lives of Jesus.

At first the result was startling, but I was encouraged by finding that my results were in many respects in accord with that ancient harmonist, Tatian, and by recalling that the ordinary arrangement of the Life of Jesus is indeed quite x PREFACE

modern. It was not, however, until I began to trace the consequences of this new arrangement of the ministry in all its details, and I saw the material of the Gospels take its place with so much ease, so much propriety, and with such simplicity and beautiful harmony, that I was convinced that the essential problems of the Gospels had been solved.

Ten years ago I said : "We would prefer some chronological scheme. But such a chronological scheme is sufficiently difficult in the study of the life of the Messiah. It is still more difficult when we have to put His discourses in their historical relations. Any attempt to do this burdens us with numberless questions of historical criticism where it is impossible at present to attain definite results in some of the most important passages. Many attempts have been made to trace a development in the Messianic consciousness of Jesus, and in His doctrine of the kingdom of God, but none of these has found favor. It seems impracticable in the present stage of the criticism of the Gospels to give an accurate and comprehensive statement of such a development. It is sufficiently difficult if the study is limited to the Synoptics. It is at present impossible if the Gospel of John is in-

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eluded in the study." (Messiah of the Gospels, pp. 72-73.)

But now I have arranged the Life of Jesus in a simple and orderly chronological scheme. I have also traced the Messianic idea from its origin in a historical situation, in its development in accordance with historical circumstances, even to its climax. I have also traced in a volume soon to be published an orderly development in the entire Ethical Teaching of Jesus.

This new light solves most of the difficult problems of the Gospels, fills up the chasm between the Synoptists and the Gospel of John, and satisfies the most searching inquiries of modern Higher Criticism and Historical Criticism. I have subjected these results to the most careful criticism that I could apply to my own work, again and again. It may be that I have myself been to some extent blinded by the new light. If so I shall be glad to be corrected. The book must go into the fires of criticism, the hotter the better. If the light is a true light it will abide. The question is submitted with confidence to Christian scholars and to the Christian public.

The references to the author's previous works are given without mention of his name. He xii PREFACE

has avoided discussions of the opinions of other scholars, not because he undervalues them but to make the volume as untechnical as possible and to set forth distinctly the new view he proposes.

Chapters L, III., and IV. were printed as articles in the Expository Times, September, October, and November, 1903, and are reprinted with few additions.

Contents

Page

I. When did Jesus begin His Ministry ? . 1

II. Jesus and John the Baptist 17