Jesus Christ Our Saviour's person, mission, and spirit

Front matter

(ilptp.-©apjrigljt Ifru_

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Preface

The new Life of Christ, by the distinguished Domini¬ can, P&re Didon, has already—in the original French— reached within a few months its twentieth edition.

So unprecedented a success is the best justification for presenting it in these volumes to the English-reading pub¬ lic, and we are satisfied that it will be welcomed in this country by Christians of all denominations as a valuable addition to the religious literature of the day.

It is a remarkable fact that the last fifty years have witnessed more attempts to portray the person and life of the Redeemer of mankind than all the other Christian ages put together. This is doubtless due in a great measure to the historical spirit which forms one of the most prominent mental characteristics of the century. But its principal cause is to be looked for elsewhere, and we shall find it in the variety of beliefs which claim to represent true Chris¬ tianity amongst us, each one being naturally led to give a presentation of the life and doctrine of the Founder in harmony with its own teachings. Even those who have ceased to believe in the supernatural character of Chris¬ tianity are confronted with the person and work of Christ as the greatest factors of history, and some attempt must be made to account for them. Hence the numbers of “ Lives of Christ ” which come to us from abroad or take

IV

PREFACE.

rise amongst us, corresponding to every shade of belief or unbelief, and, as a consequence, with differences sometimes so radical, that if the question made of old by the Master himself were to be repeated to us, “ Whom do men say that the Son of Man is ? ” our reply would have to show Him proclaimed by turns the central figure of history and a half¬ legendary myth, the noblest ideal of humanity and an un¬ practical enthusiast, a dreamer and the eternal Son of the eternal God.

In the present work He is shown to us principally as the Son of Man—that is, in His human aspect, and as He appeared to His contemporaries.

In the ages ol Faith men sought not to see Him thus. While fully realizing the historical truth of the Gospel narrative, their deep reverence in a way forbade them to dispel the haze which time had gathered around the more accidental circumstances of the life of Our Lord. Not so with us. At the same time that we dwell lovingly on the examples of Christ, and seek for guidance and strength in His divine teachings, we want to see Him live and move in His own time, amid His real surroundings; and, with the new historical methods and a more familiar knowledge of what is far distant and long past, we strive to reconstruct the living features of the home, the country, the people, and all the other environments amid which the Saviour chose to accomplish His blessed work.

This our present historian has not failed to do. Com¬ bining the abundant materials collected by so many others with his own personal observations among the unchanging physical and social features of Eastern countries and East¬ ern customs, he succeeds in bringing up before us a vivid picture of Judsea and Galilee: of the Jewish people with their various religious divisions and their common aspira-

PREFACE.

V tions and hopes; the galling yoke of the Romans which they so impatiently bore, and their readiness to grasp at any means ol deliverance—in a word, their whole politi¬ cal, religious, and moral condition when Christ appeared amongst them.

A familiar knowledge of such details is invaluable, for only by means of it can many particulars of the Gospel be properly understood. But, what is still more important, it enables us fully to account for many things which seem inexplicably missing in the sacred narrative.

We refer in particular to the indistinctness of certain doctrines which have become, nevertheless, the light and life of the Church in subsequent ages. Thus, for instance, how often has it been, to the thoughtful reader of the Gospel, a subject of wonder and perplexity that so funda¬ mental a doctrine as that of the divinity of Our Lord should not have been set forth by Him more prominently and more distinctly ! But, when we come to know the circumstances in which He spoke, we realize at once the wisdom, not to say the necessity, of His revealing but gradually, and often indirectly, the deep and solemn secret of His divine nature.

In reality, Christ, though universally expected at the time of His coming, appeared among men entirely different from what was anticipated. The Messiah of the Jewish imagination was to be a powerful conqueror; he was to lift up the chosen people from their abasement, to give them sway over their enemies, and be himself their Lord and king. But that he should be a divine person—God himself in human form, living in their midst—seems to have been entirely foreign to their thoughts. True, a careful study of the prophecies might have taught them to look for more than a man in the coming Redeemer, and in the

VI

PREFACE.

apocryphal writings of the period we have proof of ob¬ scure yet real anticipations of a similar kind among the more enlightened. But to the bulk of the people, includ¬ ing some of the most religious, the thought of substantially identifying one who appeared amongst them as a man with their great Jehovah would have seemed a horrible blas¬ phemy.

Consequently, unless Christ chose in His limitless power to transform all at once the minds of a whole people and make them welcome what was hitherto entirely out of har¬ mony with their thoughts—as to suddenly show forth His hidden greatness, so as to crush all resistance—methods entirely opposed to the economy and spirit of His work—it only remained for Him to lead on, slowly and gently, the minds of His followers, and through them, subsequently, mankind at large, to a full comprehension of His myste¬ rious nature.

And this is just what we find Him doing in the Gospel narrative. Like His Messiahship, like the kingdom purely spiritual which He proposes to establish, His divine nature is commonly no more than hinted at, or left to be gathered from His attitude and actions, or, if suddenly it shines forth, it is only for an instant. In some cases it would almost seem as if the Saviour involuntarily betrayed His secret rather than deliberately revealed it. Hence, when formally questioned on the subject, He answers ambiguously, or leads off the thoughts of His hearers in another direction. Yet all the time His real character was impressing itself, un¬ consciously it may be, on the minds of His disciples. Even from the outset, His miracles had raised Him up in their estimation to the dignity of a Prophet or Divine Messenger. The startling character of the wonders He wrought, their vast range, extending over all Nature and reaching down

PREFACE.

vii into the regions of death itself—the very naturalness with which they seemed to be accomplished—all was calculated to suggest to those who habitually witnessed them the hidden presence of the Creator himself.

So also the tone of supreme authority which the great Teacher assumed in His discourses. He reasons not, nor does He exhort. He affirms and He commands. To the writer, if he may speak of himself, the Sermon on the Mount alone is an unmistakable revelation of His divinity, not because of the surpassing beauty of its doctrines, but because of the attitude and manner of the Teacher. God himself could scarce have taken a higher tone. He alone could, without impiety, thus gather all around Himself, making even religion to be loyalty to His per¬ son, and claim to hold in His hand the everlasting fate of man.

And this is nothing exceptional. Again and again, in His other recorded utterances, we find the same assump¬ tion of divine rights—a pretension to occupy in the hearts of men a place which belongs to God alone— such a sense of His incomparable greatness, that He, the humble and gentle Jesus, hesitates not to proclaim un¬ worthy of Him and of the Gospel whoever is not ready to relinquish, for His sake, family, friends, country, and life itself.

Whilst gathering in, day after day, the impression of such discourses, the disciples could hear their Master claim the divine prerogative of forgiving sins declare Himself Lord of what was most sacred to the Jew—the divine in¬ stitution of the Sabbath. They could see Him set aside the established authorities, and cleanse, as by a natural right, the temple, which He calls “ the house of His Father.” They could listen to Him as, in that same temple and in

TREFACE.

viii

the presence of learned doctors and priests, He claimed the closest and most extraordinary share in the opera¬ tions and rights of God Himself—identity of action ; a power to give life; the right to be honored as the Father is honored ; the right to pronounce final and irreversi¬ ble judgment on all men. They knew He was wont to speak with all the freedom of a loving child of God as “ His Father,” and that on one occasion at least He had gone so far as to affirm that “ He and the Father were one.”

In what measure they realized the full sense of such utterances it is not easy to determine. The enemies of Jesus were prompt enough to perceive their bearing, and we find them more than once rising up in indignant protest against what they call the blasphemous assumptions of the Teacher of Galilee. Indeed, it would seem that these were the grounds on which they mainly based the accusations which led to His condemnation and death. As for His fol¬ lowers, it was obvious to them that there was much more than they could fathom in the mysterious being who had led them away from their homes and held them, as it were, captives, wondering and delighted at all they heard and witnessed. Doubtless, too, they caught occasional rapid, transient glimpses of the great truth, as was the case with Peter, when, at Caesarea, he made that profession of faith which won the praise of Our Lord Himself. More than this might not have fitted in with the divine work, such as it had been ordained ; perhaps it would have been beyond what in the disciples’ human nature could have borne. As a fact, when we come to consider their history as a whole, we are led to the conclusion that the full, steady light of the divinity of their Master shone upon them only after His resurrection.

PREFACE.

IX

But how brightly it then and ever after lighted up their thoughts and impressed itself on their utterances. “ My Lord and my God,” exclaimed Thomas at the feet of his risen Saviour; and that supreme act of faith is echoed with growing intensity through the Gospel of St. John, through the Epistles of St. Paul, through the whole thought and life of the early Church. Everywhere we find the great truth proclaimed with a directness and a power which are missing, because they could not find a place in the teach¬ ings of Christ himself.

We have dwelt at some length on one of the difficulties suggested by the sacred narrative. Many more might be met in a similar way. Our historian disposes of several by the very manner in which he relates the actions and sayings of the Divine Teacher. Yet his object is different. He writes neither as an apologist nor as an exegete, but rather as a Christian philosopher and moralist. Hence he abounds in reflections which, though occasionally losing something of their power in the rhetorical flow of the great French orator, yet reveal a striking originality and depth of thought.

This last feature, besides the other remarkable qualities of the book, can not fail to fix the attention and awaken the interest of a large circle of readers. There are few, if any, who will not be much benefited by a careful perusal of it. To the habitual readers of the Gospels—and we ardently wish that the number of such may steadily in¬ crease—it will prove most helpful, by the clear light it throws on the actions and teachings of the Redeemer, while it may lead back others unfamiliar with the sacred text itself to draw directly from that inexhaustible treasure of divine truth. Perhaps to more than one it may bring home for the first time the irresistible claims of our Saviour to

X

PREFACE.

their loyalty and love, and cause them to repeat, as they lay down the book, the confession of the Roman centurion on Calvary, “ Truly this was the Son of God.”

Baltimore, Md.,

Feast of St. John the Baptist,

NOTE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

The English version of Reverend Father Didon’s great work has been placed in my hands by the Messrs. Appleton, with a note of the London publisher, Mr. Kegan Paul, to the effect that “ the whole has been carefully and minutely revised by Father Didon himself, with the assist¬ ance in France of an English scholar.”

Thus my responsibility as editor has been limited to a no less scrupulously “ careful and minute ” comparison of the version of the Scriptures selected by the translators with the corresponding text in the Douay Bible. No doctrinal error, as far as I can judge, is discernible in this edition. The same scrupulous care has been extended by me to the translation as a whole. Some needful correc¬ tions have been made in the plates. The approbation of the General of his Order, and the commendatory letter written to Father Didon in the name of Leo XIII, attest the value of this book.

Like the most eminent prelate whose name graces the title-page, I consented, at the solicitation of the largeminded publishers, to do my share toward giving to the American public a Life of Our Saviour worthy of being welcomed into every Christian home, and calcu¬ lated to benefit readers of every creed and class.

Bernard O’Reilly.

APPROBATION OF THE CENSORS AND MASTER-GENERAL OF THE DOMINICAN ORDER.

“ By order of the Very Reverend Father Joseph-Maria Larroca, Master-General of the Friars-Preachers, we, the under¬ signed, have read with care the book entitled Jesus-Christ, by Father Didon, of the Order of Preachers, Lecturer of Sacred Theology.

“ Not only is the whole doctrinal portion of this book in con¬ formity with the teachings of Theology, but the historical portion as well is nobly understood and set forth.

“The author shows us Christ-Jesus in the surroundings amid which He lived, rising above them by the divinity of the purpose which He cherishes and of the means which He employs. If the author sometimes uses the language of his adversaries, he pres¬ ently gives us to understand that he especially aims to contend with them on their own ground ; and he does so successfully where, in particular, he calls to his aid the positive arguments of history in order to refute their impious a priori theories.

“ The literary form itself, at once simple and elevated, is in harmony with the majesty of the subject.

“ For the above reasons, we judge this work to be worthy of being given to the public.”

Rome, March 20 , i 8 qo .

Fr. Alberto Lepidi, Professor of Sacred Theology , and Prefect of Studies in the Roman College of St. Thojnas Aquinas.

Fr. Joachim Berthier, O. P., Lecturer in Theology.

Imprimatur:

Fr. Joseph-Maria Larroca.

(Seal of the Master-General of the Order of Preachers.)

Contents

VOL. I.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION.i

Book I. The Birth Of Jesus

CHAP.

I.—The Time .i

II. —The Birth of Jesus—His Conception . . . .32

III. —The events in the life of Jesus from his birth

TO THE RETURN FROM EGYPT.47

IV. —Historical nature of the miraculous narratives

of the Birth and Infancy of Jesus . . .65

V. —Childhood and Youth of Jesus— His education . 76

VI.— The vocation of Jesus.. .91

Book II. John The Forerunner, And The Coming Of Jesus

I.—The Jews in Judaea toward the year 26—The com¬ ing of John the Baptist.109

IJ.—Religious action of John the Baptist—The Bap¬ tism of Jesus.135

III. —Jesus in the Desert—The Temptation . . . .153

IV. —The beginning of the public life .... 174

V. —Jesus at Jerusalem at the Passover of the year

781—His first apostleship in Judaea . . . 190

VI.—Jesus among the Samaritans.210

VII. —Jesus the Son of God.226

XIV

CONTENTS,

Book III. The Ministry In Galilee.—the Kingdom Of God

CHAP. PAGE

I.—Galilee and the Kingdom of God .... 246

II.— Jesus at Capernaum.275

III. —The cleansing of the leper—Opposition by the

Pharisees in Galilee.300

IV. —The Sermon on the Mount.318

V.—The journey to Nain.343

VI.— The Parables of the Kingdom of God . . .361

VII. —The supreme insult of the Pharisees .... 379

VIII.— Instructions to the Twelve — Death of John the

Baptist.395

IX.— The Messianic crisis in Galilee.413

X. —The journey of Jesus to the coasts of Tyre and

SlDON AND THROUGH DECAPOLIS .440

XI. —The future Death of the Messiah—The Transfig¬ uration .461

XII. —The last conversations at Capernaum . . . 480

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,

VOL. I.

FACING

PAGB

The Madonna of St. Sixtus

The Immaculate Conception

Raphael

Frontispiece

Murillo

The Marriage of the Virgin

Raphael

Nazareth from the South

The Holy Night

Correggio

Bethlehem, from the Southwest

The Adoration of the Kings

Pfannsch tn idt

View of the Shepherds' Field, from Beth¬ lehem

The Flight into Egypt

Boaguereau

Twelve-year-old Jesus on his Way to Jerusalem

Mengelberg

Christ disputing with the Doctors

Luini

The Temptation

Scheffer

Mount Tabor, the Scene of the Transfigu¬ ration ; from “The Waters of Megiddo”

The Hill of Samaria

The Plains of Gennesaret, from Khan Minyeh (Capernaum)

Kefr Kenna, the Traditional Cana of Galilee xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Christ raising the Daughter of Jairus

Richter

FACING

PAGE

The Valley of the Jordan, near El Riha,

THE MODERN JERICHO

On the Shore of the Lake, at Et Tabi-

GHAH, THE SUPPOSED SITE OF BETHSAIDA,

the Home of our Lord during his Mission in Galilee

Christ feeding the Multitude

Murillo

Christ walking on the Sea

Plockhorst

Northern End of the Dead Sea, near the Mouth of the Jordan

The Horns of Hattin (Kurun Hattin), the Traditional Mount of Beatitudes

The Well of Zacharias and Elisabeth, at Ain-Karim, the Birthplace of St. John the Baptist

MAPS.

Map of Palestine in the Time of Christ i

Plan of the Temple, at Jerusalem, in the Time of Christ

Introduction

CRITICISM AND HISTORY IN A LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST.

Jesus Christ is the great name in history. There are others for whom men have died; he alone is adored by all people, in all nations, and in all times.

He who bears this name is known throughout the world. Even among the savage and degenerate tribes of the human race, his apostles preach without ceasing that he died upon the cross; and the offscourings of mankind may be saved by loving him. Those who are neutral, in the modern world, recognise that none is better for the weak and miserable.

The greatest intellects of the past would be forgotten if memorials, as palaces, obelisks or tombs ; if written testi¬ monies, as papyrus or parchments, bricks, columns or medals, had not preserved their memory. Jesus survives in the con¬ science of the faithful: there is his witness and indestructible monument. The Church founded by him fills time and space with his name. She knows him, she loves him, she adores him. As he lives in her she lives in him. He is her dogma, her moral law, her worship. She teaches to all without exception, that he is the only Son of God made man, conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin ; that he has come into the world to suffer and to die for our salvation, to conquer death by his resurrection; that he has ascended to his Father in order to prepare us a place li

INTRODUCTION.

near him ; that he will return to judge the quick and the dead, giving to the good life eternal, casting the bad into darkness and spiritual death.

This Creed is at once dogma and history: it is the dogma and the popular history of Jesus. By it the believer can live. In a few deep and simple words, he learns that the greatest event in human history is the birth of Christ; that God loves him, since God willed to save him from evil and to give himself to him ; that charity is the supreme duty, because it was through love that his Master died ; that he must be unwearied in well-doing, since his Master will be his judge ; that he need not fear death, since his Master has overcome it, and because he himself is predestined to eternal life.

The man who believes in this teaching and in this Christ can go forward through life : he is armed for defence ; he may grow great, and nothing can stay him. The disciple of Jesus has become the sovereign of the world, but in no material nor brutal way; for the spirit of his crucified Master is only violent in regard to justice, goodness, self-denial, self-sacrifice, and moral worth. By sowing these virtues as the seeds of life, he prepares and enriches the human soil, which thereby becomes capable of the highest cultivation and of the richest harvest.

But as the reason of those who think seeks to understand elementary dogmas, asks an explanation of them so far as our imperfect and limited cognisance allows, demands that the attacks of hostile philosophy, science, and literature, be foiled ; so it desires to know in detail the human and divine life of Jesus, the words which he spoke, the law which he has formu¬ lated, his manner of teaching, preaching, striving, suffering, and dying.

The history of Jesus is the foundation of the faith. The doctrines and theology of the Gospel, Christian ethics, the

INTRODUCTION. lij

worship, the hierarchy, and the order of the Church, all rest upon it Thanks to the unwearied labour of the learned, the doctrine of Jesus, his ethical system, his worship and his Church have gradually become the object of distinct, perfect, and organised sciences, answering to the legitimate aspirations of those believers who desire to be at once men of faith and men of science ; and so the life of Jesus Christ must be told according to the demands of history. The present work is an attempt to meet these deep needs.

The partisans of what is now called the critical school say : The Christ of dogma and tradition, the Christ of the Apostles and of the Gospels, interpreted according to the doctrine of the Church, is not and cannot be the Christ of history. This ideal Christ, God and man, the Incarnate Word, miraculously conceived, calling himself the Only Son of God, in a meta¬ physical and absolute sense, abounding in miracles, speaking as the fourth Gospel makes him speak, rising again on the third day, ascending to heaven in the sight of his disciples after forty days, is not a real man. He only exists in the pious imagination of believers, and by that alone has he been created.

The true Jesus, the Jesus of history, was born like all other men, lived like them, did no more miracles than they ; he has taught a purer morality, founded a religion less im¬ perfect than others; and as all reformers, as a rule, yield to the unyielding nature of their surroundings, he was the victim of Jewish hostility ; he died like us ; he did not rise again ; he does not live with God.

Not only my Christian faith, but my impartiality as a man, revolts at this contradiction between dogma and history, laid down as a principle, and declared to be an axiom opposed to any life of Jesus as both God and man. Convinced that Jesus was the invisible God in a human form like ours, I as an historian, see him in his life, as now he is, in this double nature.

IV

INTRODUCTION.

The question of his divinity has divided the noblest minds ever since his advent; it will divide them to the end; it is indeed strange that Jesus alone has raised a problem which never sleeps in the conscience of men, a problem which never fails to stir them. I will here draw the attention of unprejudiced men, and of all fair-minded critics, to this simple historical reflection.

The violent controversy of which Jesus is the object was foretold in the prophecies. It will last as long as the world lasts ; it grieves, but does not surprise or trouble the Christian, for he sees in it a witness to his Master. It was found even in the life of Christ. When his disciples, in answer to his question, said: “ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” the Jews only said, “ He is a prophet” ; others, blinder still, declared that he was a blasphemer and a revolutionary.

When he had left the earth, while the apostles preached him in the Jewish synagogues as the Messiah both God and man, full of the wisdom and the power of God, the earliest sectaries, Nazarenes and Ebionites, declared him to be merely man.

The struggle on this point was prolonged through cen¬ turies ; a heathen philosopher, Celsus, without however deny¬ ing the miracles of Jesus, scoffed at his doctrine which he called absurd, and at his cross, which he considered infamous. Origen, in refutation, proclaimed the divinity of his Master.

Since then the times have changed. The Crucified has become great, has destroyed heathenism, has absorbed philosophy, and dethroned the Empire, has conquered the earth, civilized the barbarians, and created a new world. Who then were right, the Jews who reviled Jesus and slew him ; the heathen, like Tacitus, Suetonius, and that honourable prefect of Bithynia, Pliny the Younger, who disdained him and his disciples as a contemptible sect; philosophers like

INTRODUCTION.

V

Celsus, overwhelming him with their foolish wisdom, or the apostles, who adored in Jesus the Son of God?

If Jesus were in reality a mere man dishonoured by the Jews and by the heathen, how comes it that he has marked on the earth so deep a furrow, and founded a religion which domi¬ nates the world ?

The work is inexplicable; it is the readiest proof that Jesus was indeed all that the Church affirms.

I

The first element of a scientific history is that it should be set out by wise, clear-sighted, and impartial criticism.

Criticism, however, must not be confounded with history; though they are inseparable, they must remain distinct.

In its most general sense criticism is the exercise of judgment, a faculty essential to every reasonable being. To criticise and to judge are synonymous ; for judgment, like criticism, has for its object discrimination between the true and the false. It is the first of the rights, and the most necessary of the duties, of reason. Whatever be the domain explored by it: whether religion, philosophy, science, litera¬ ture, aesthetics, or even mathematics, the reason must be alert to discern the reality of phenomena, to recognize the truth, which is often deceptive, and the false, which is occasionally plausible.

Criticism, therefore, cannot be a special science ; it is rather a condition of all science. It is a part, even, of that logic which fixes for men the rules of just thought and sound judg¬ ment. These simple considerations demonstrate the absurdity of those who consider they have a monopoly of criticism. The critical school is the school of all men; every one can,

VI

INTRODUCTION.

and ought, to belong to it. The most ordinary temptation of the cultured mind is to criticise beyond measure, to desire to judge everything, even that of which it is ignorant. The wise man restrains this eager and intemperate desire; he learns to judge only what he knows, never forgetting that his knowledge is limited and his ignorance immeasurable.

A man may be an excellent critic in philosophy and a very bad judge in religion or in history. Certain branches of human knowledge require not only a speculative mind, but a long experience. Moral doctrines will be better judged by an ignorant person who has practised virtue than by a sceptic who knows nothing of the austere joys of self-sacrifice. The saints who live by the words of Jesus will always understand them better than the Hellenizing interpreter who rejects them and does not know their savour. ; A delicate taster can perceive niceties which escape the analyst.

When applied to history, criticism has a very definite func¬ tion. History has for its object the relation of facts ; now, past facts being only known to us by documents, and documents being edited by the more or less immediate witnesses of the facts themselves, criticism must examine, all together, facts, documents, and witnesses.

Certain facts are absurd : criticism puts them on one side; certain documents are tampered with, or of doubtful authen¬ ticity : criticism points them out or rejects them ; if the witnesses are unworthy of credence, it tears off the mask and gives them the lie.

In regard to the life of Jesus, preliminary criticism is required and privileged to examine the documents and the witnesses which give us information about this life; the antiquity and authenticity of the first, the testimonial value of the others ; it must examine the nature of the facts recorded in the documents, or related by witnesses.