An inquiry concerning the origin of Christianity...

Preface To The First Edition

To those whose interest is already so much awakened upon the subject of the divine origin of Christianity, that they feel the necessity of arriving at some certain conclusion, more than they fear any possible results to which such inquiries may lead, this attempt to contribute to the solution of the difficult question is offered. The hypothesis, that there is a mixture of truth and fable in the four Gospels, has been admitted, in different degrees, by many critics bearing the Christian name. The same method of free investigation which led Priestley and Belsham to throw doubt upon the truth of the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, may allow other inquirers to make further excisions from the Gospel history. The reasons given by those eminent critics for proceeding so far may appear more valid than any which can be urged for stopping where they did. The right of private judgment in the separation of truth from fiction being once accorded, the precise limits which ought to be assigned to the credible portion of the miraculous narratives are far from being obvious ; and the ascertaining of these limits becomes a matter of interesting research to all who wish to know

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what they are to believe or disbelieve on the subject of the Christian religion.

The following pages are the result of an investigation undertaken with this view, and pursued for some time with the expectation that, at least, the principal miraculous facts supposed to lie at the foundation of Christianity would be found to be impregnable ; but it was continued with a gradually increasing conviction that the true account of the life of Jesus Christ, and of the spread of his religion, would be found to contain no deviation from the known laws of nature, nor to require, for their explanation, more than the operation of human motives and feelings, acted upon by the peculiar circumstances of the age and country whence the religion originated.

The analysis of the four Gospels, proceeding on the admission that they may contain a mixture of truth and error, is a very complicated but not impracticable task. It is necessary to form an opinion as to the date of each writing, the general character of each author, and his peculiarities as a writer ; to institute continual comparisons between the events or discourses which he relates, and the opinions and controversies which arose subsequently to his own time ; to weigh the probability in favour of the real occurrence of a fact, considered in reference to the ascertained history of the time, with that in favour of its invention by the author or some intermediate narrator ; to consider what greater degree of weight is due to the testimony from the accordance of all, or of several of the writers ; and to ascertain whether they wrote independently, or copied from each other. By this labo-

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rious method of sifting and examining, it must be admitted that it would be possible to obtain a tolerably correct history from a collection of records acknowledged to be of a very mixed character.

The doctrine of the divine inspiration, or of the unquestionable veracity, of the Gospel writers, has hitherto hindered the full application of this free method of investigation to the New Testament, on the part of believers in Christianity ; and unbelievers seem generally to have been more intent upon raising objections and cavils to the narratives as they stand, than in searching out the real truth. Hence it has frequently been observed, that no clear and intelligible account has been given of the life of Jesus Christ on simply natural grounds ; whence it has been argued, that no alternative remains but to regard him as the miraculous endowed personage presented to us in the four Gospels.

The first two chapters of this work give a sketch of conclusions formed in the manner above stated, from the study of the Old and New Testament, and of Josephus. It is admitted that some parts of this sketch cannot claim a higher character than that of plausible conjecture. The authority of the main sources of information being shaken, it is evident that conjecture is, in many cases, all to which the utmost research can attain. The whole is, however, expressed in the historical style, for the sake of simplicity ; consequently, when the reader meets with some assertions not sufficiently supported by the notes, his patience is entreated until he arrives at the chapters which follow.

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The field of investigation being of almost interminable extent, the object has been rather to select a few striking points of inquiry than to exhaust the subject ; many interesting points are therefore merely glanced at, and the volume is offered more as a collection of hints than as a complete treatise on the important subject which it approaches.

The greater part of the work having been written before reference was made to the commentators mentioned in the notes, the reader, who may be versed in biblical criticism, will have to excuse in some parts an unconsciousness that the same things had already been said by others. This applies especially to the chapters on Isaiah and Daniel, much of which the author has found to be nearly the same in substance as what had been said by Porphyry, Aben Esra, Kimchi, and Grotius. But the whole is suffered to remain, because some suggestions here offered differ much from the explanations of the above, and, it is believed, of all other commentators. The attention of the student of the prophecies is directed especially to the explanation suggested of the seventh chapter of Daniel.

Although the belief in the miraculous origin of Christianity forms at present a prominent feature in the creeds of all sects of professing Christians, it would be an unnecessary and perhaps injudicious limitation to hold that the relinquishment of this belief is equivalent to an entire renunciation of the Christian religion. Whatever be men's conclusions concerning the muchdebated question of the nature and powers of Jesus

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Christ, no conclusions of this kind need obstruct their perception of the general excellence of the moral system which is connected with his name, nor impede their acknowledgment of the beneficial influence which the Scriptures exercise over mankind, nor lead to hostility towards the ancient and useful institutions which the sanction of Christ and his followers has caused almost universally to accompany the admission of his religion. Most of the doctrines of Christianity are admitted to be so much in accordance with the purest dictates of natural reason, that, on recognizing the latter as the supreme guide, no violent disruption of the habits and associations of the religious world is necessary. The philosophizing tone adopted by many of the most distinguished modern advocates of religion renders the transition easy from Christianity as a divine revelation to Christianity as the purest form yet existing of natural religion. The contemplation of the Creator may still be indulged, and lessons of morality and wisdom still sought, according to the forms which Christianity has consecrated. The transference of the sanction from a supposed revelation to natural reason will be so little prejudicial to these high exercises of the mind, that, on the contrary, it will extend their interest by allowing them wider scope, and by rendering them more susceptible of all the improvements which experience, circumstances, and growing intelligence, suggest. Christianity will no longer be fettered by the necessity of a continual adaptation to written precept, but will assume a position allowing it to ex-

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pand freely according to the wants of each successive age, and to advance with the advancement of mankind.

The author of this volume would therefore willingly have it considered as employed in the real service of Christianity, rather than as an attack upon it. Many doctrines, which were once thought to he essential parts of the system, have been successively dismissed into the class of its corruptions ; yet, after the wound occasioned by the separation has been healed, Christianity has been found to remain still vigorous, and has even appeared more sightly as relieved from an excrescence. And now, if the progress of inquiry should lead men to carry the pruning-knife nearer to the root than they had at first contemplated, and to consign even the whole of the miraculous relations in the New Testament to the same list as the prodigies of Hindoo or Romish superstition, we may still find enough left in Christianity to maintain its name and power amidst growing knowledge and civilization. And this will be in that purer moral spirit, and those higher views of the nature of man, the progress of which, although naturally coincident with the advancement of the human mind, received so vigorous an impulse from the life of Jesus, that this spirit and these views have come to be indissolubly associated with the idea, and expressed under the name, of Christianity. Christianity, thus regarded as a system of elevated thought and feeling, will not be injured by being freed from those fables, and those views of local

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or temporary interest, which hung about its origin. It will, on the contrary, be placed on a surer basis ; for it need no longer appeal for its support to the uncertain evidence of events which happened nearly two thousand years ago, a species of evidence necessarily attainable only by long and laborious research, impracticable to most men, and unsatisfactory and harassing even to those who have most means of pursuing it ; but it will rest its claims on an evidence clearer, simpler, and always at hand, — the thoughts and feelings of the human mind itself. Thus, whatever in it is really true and excellent, will meet with a ready attestation in every breast, and, in the improvement of the human mind, find an ever-increasing evidence.

November, 1838.

Preface To The Second Edition

A re-perusal of the New Testament several times ^ince the first edition of this work appeared, and some further acquaintance with modern criticism on the subject, have not led the writer to alter the leading conclusions then arrived at. But some important points are now dwelt upon more at length, and additional notes and quotations given where the original most required them.

In the first two chapters, it is endeavoured to mark more clearly the relationship of the Christians to the Essenes and Galileans. In the chapters on the four Gospels, an attempt is made to define more distinctly the characteristics of each; and, since to ascertain how they were formed is one of the most vital, whilst it is the most difficult and laborious, part of the subject, the writer's own remarks are accompanied by notes showing the conclusions of some of the most recent German critics, a class of writers who have worked out this subject with an industry and acuteness which have probably attained to all the certainty of which the case admits.

In chapters vii. ix. xvi. there are some additions on

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the events immediately following the crucifixion, on the miracles of Jesus, and on his character.

Since the first edition of this work was published, the writer has read the celebrated Leben Jesu of Dr. Strauss, which contains a most minute and searching analysis of the various stories, anecdotes, and sayings, which mainly make up the Gospels ; and especially a careful weighing of the probable proportion of reality and fiction in each. The present work embracing a wider scope, that important part of the subject occupies only a few chapters, which remain with little alteration. In only a few cases, and by way of example, the subject is pursued at some length; in others, for the sake of brevity, conclusions are given without arguments. The reader, who may feel that more satisfaction is justly demanded on this head, will share the pleasure which the writer felt on becoming acquainted with the elaborate and erudite work referred to. There the most extensive theological reading is brought to bear upon the subject ; and this, combined with unwearied patience, and unvarying philosophical candour, leaves a strong conviction that the Gospels have been examined by minds the most competent as well as willing to give them a full and fair trial. #

* It came to the knowledge of the writer in the year 1839, that a translation of his first edition had been undertaken at Stutgard, accompanied by an introduction from the pen of Dr. Strauss, to whom he was then a total \ stranger, but who had seen a copy of the volume in the possession of one of ^p his own English friends. The fact of the translation, and the contents of that introduction, must be highly gratifying to the author; yet in a higher degree they reflect praise on the eminent theologian himself, who could

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The work of Dr. Strauss attributes, upon the whole, to the four Gospels, rather less of historical reality, (_and a larger proportion of the my thus and legend, than this volume. His opinions on the origin of the story of the resurrection, and his impressions of the views of Jesus, are somewhat different. He hesitates to ascribe to Jesus the political aim included in the Jewish notion of the Messiahship, but seems inclined to consider his views directed exclusively to spiritual dominion.* The most important agreement is that his investigations tend to dismiss all supernaturalism from the history of Jesus. The writer learns from friends well acquainted with the progress of theological learning in Germany, that the most recent opinions of many eminent scholars there are in the same direction. Comparing this tendency in the land of biblical criticism with the large, probably increasing, amount of unbelief in all classes around us, we are compelled to anticipate that the time is near, and that the spread of independent thinking will render it nearer, when no Christianity will remain but such as expresses the results of the higher moral powers implanted in man by nature.

take so sincere an interest in a recent English work, which at that time had found but few readers in its own country.

A review of this German translation appeared in the Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung of Halle, signed "Schnitzer." Some of the enlargements in the present edition partly meet the able and candid criticism which that article contained.

* This is gathered from § lxiv., French translation of the Third Edition, by E. Littre.

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Whether the degree of merit, which Christianity possesses in this sense, be so high as to entitle it to be considered pre-eminently the religion of the wise and good, and to render the duration of this distinction probable during many future centuries, it is not pretended to decide in this work. The aim has been simply to investigate the historical origin of the religion, uninfluenced by speculations on the consequences. Change of names would be a minor one ; a result of greater concern is the disturbance of cherished principles and feelings which, in the present juncture of the history of religion, the transition from supernatural creeds must to a large extent occasion ; and the contemplation of this imparts gravity to researches which at no very distant period may be generally smiled upon as both frivolous and antiquated. Yet the general conviction, that truth in the end must be beneficial, need not be shaken in this instance by an imagined foresight of some appalling consequences. The observation of many readers will probably accord with that of the author, that the Deist is not wanting in thoughts which admit of the serene enjoyment of life, of fortitude in adversity, and of perseverance in unseen efforts to do good ; that neither Deism, Pantheism, nor even Atheism, indicate modes of thought incompatible with uprightness and benevolence ; and that the real or affected horror, which it is still a prevailing custom to exhibit towards these names, would be better reserved for those of the selfish, the cruel, the bigot, and other tormentors of mankind. Although that species of

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philosophy which includes a religious faith, may, in the opinion of many, probably most, earnest thinkers, be supported by the furthest advances of the intellect, and also be allied with the purest pleasures of imagination ; although it be productive of the most permanent mental tranquillity, and, in some extreme cases, may probably be indispensable to preserve fortitude; — yet a persuasion of the deep foundations on which the religious sentiments rest, and an appreciation of their value, require neither the expression nor the feeling of alienation towards those who do not share those sentiments ; a moderate experience must convince us that theological belief, even of the simplest kind, and benevolence, do not necessarily exist in proportion to each other ; and that both a creed, and the want of one, may be met with in conjunction with that which irresistibly demands our sympathies, — a devotion to the cause of happiness on this earth.

August, 1841.

CONTENTS,

PAGE

Chapter I

HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS.

The Jewish nation, which was of considerable political importance in the days of David and Solomon, was much weakened, during the reigns of Ahaz and his successors, by the encroachments of the Assyrians, and extinguished, for a time, as a political power, by the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. [B. C. 588.]

But the national feeling in a people of 800 years' standing, of peculiar manners, associations, and religious worship, survives the capture of their towns ; and, during each successive transportation of their tribes [B. C. 725-588], and their subsequent captivity at Babylon, the Jews consoled themselves with the hope of a speedy restoration to their own land.*

* Jer. xxxii. 15, For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Houses, and fields, and vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land, xxxiii. 7, And I will cause the captivity of Juclah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at first, xlvi. 27, But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel ; for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and

They compensated themselves for their present insignificance with the expectation of future greatness ; * and their very sufferings were made a theme soothing to their vanity, by being considered, not as the effect of superior power on the part of their enemies, but as a paternal and corrective chastisement from their own God.f

[B. C. 536.] "When Cyrus permitted the small remnant of pure Jews to re-occupy their own land, and to re-build their temple and city, J their most extravagant hopes seemed about to be realized. A new sera opened upon them ; § they were in the way to take rank again amongst the nations ; and if this could be attained out of a state of general servi-

be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. (1. 19 ; Ezek. xxxvii. ; xxxix. 25 ; xxvii. 25 ; Micah ii. 12.) Tobit xiv. 5, Afterwards they shall return from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of God shall be built in it for ever, with a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof.

* Obadiah 17, But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance — and there shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions; IS, And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Esau for stubble ; — 21, And saviours shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Micah iv. ; Micah v. 8, And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles as a lion among the beasts of the forest. Isaiah xlix. 18-26 ; Ix. 12, For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish : yea those nations shall be utterly wasted . . . The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee ; and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel . . . thy people also shall be ail righteous ; they shall inherit the land for ever ... a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation ; I the Lord will hasten it in its time.

f Ezekiel, passim, xxxix. 23 ; Micah i. 5, For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. Isaiah xlii. 24, "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers 9 Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned ? xlvii. 6, I was wroth with my people, and have given them into thine (Chaldea's) hand, xlviii. 10, Behold I have refined thee (Jacob), I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Lam. iv. 22 ; Hosea xiv. 1 ; Daniel ix. 11.

X By comparing Ezra i. 3, with 1 Esdrasiv. 63, it is seen that the decree of Cyrus was not understood as limited to the temple.

§ Haggai ii. 9, The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. Zech. i. 16-21 ; ii. 10-13.

tude, a patriotic Jew might easily believe his nation destined, in the end, to eclipse Egypt and Assyria. *

Accordingly, in their writings abont the time of the restoration, (and a large proportion of those called the prophets appear to be nearly of that date,)t these topics occnr in almost every page. The imagination and literary talents of the Jews had been much developed by their contact with the Chaldees and Persians, and naturally displayed themselves chiefly on such an exciting theme. Besides, the Jewish leaders would encourage their poets and orators to choose such subjects, in order to animate the people under difficulties.

It is not surprising, then, to find in the poetic writings of the Old Testament extravagant descriptions of a kingdom of Israel which should cover the earth, { and of a great prince who should restore the throne of David. § The beautiful an-

* Isaiah xiv. 2, Israel shall take them captive, whose captives they were ; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

f Haggai, B.C. 520; Zechariah, B. C. 519. Many parts of the older prophets appear to be interpolations of the same time. (See Ezek. xxxix. 23-29.) In chap. xiii. reasons will be given for considering Isaiah xl. chap. to the end, as written in the time of Cyrus.

X Haggai ii. 22 ; Zech. ii. 21 ; Micah iv. 5 ; Isaiah ii. 2 ; Dan. vii. 13, 14.

§ Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David ; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them, xxxvii. 22-26, And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all ; and they shall be no more two nations . . . and they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, and their children's children for ever, and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. (Kimchi says upon this text, The King Messiah is called David, because he will be of the seed of David.)

Jer. xxiii. 5, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

Isaiah xxxii. 1, 18, Behold a king shall reign in righteousness. . .and

b2 ticipations which, under various forms, have arisen in widely remote nations, of the future perfection of the earth,* were, in the minds of the Jews, blended in a peculiar manner with the hopes and fortunes of Israel. On this subject each prophet or poet indulged in his own fancies ; but one prevalent notion seems to have been, that this kingdom would be established, and their final triumph over the nations effected, not so much by military means, in which they were obviously deficient, as by some special intervention of their protector, the God of Israel. It was supposed that the presence of the Deity would be then made manifest to them in a more visible manner than had been known hitherto, and that signs an wonders, more impressive and more public than those grante in the days of Moses, would at last proclaim to the whol world the connexion subsisting between God and his chosen people. f Hence this state of things came to be called le my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings.

Jer. xxiii. 17, For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man sit upon the throne of Israel.

The kings of Judah were called the Lord's anointed ; therefore the expected restorer of their throne came to be described emphatically as the Anointed or Messiah : and it became a favourite literary amusement with the Jews to find passages of their scriptures applicable to him. To find oracles of the future was more interesting than to investigate critically the history of the past. Hence many passages were applied to the Messiah which originally referred to real personages, to personifications of their nation, or to subjects still more remote. Schoettgen gives a minute account of all the texts interpreted by the ancient Rabbis concerning the Messiah. Horse Heb. lib. 2.

* It is not likely that Virgil had read Isaiah ; yet the resemblance between the ideas in his Pollio and those of the Hebrew poet has struck all readers. In the Voluspa, a Scandinavian poem quoted in the 4th fable of the Edda, there is an end of the ages and a conflagration of the world, succeeded by a new earth of eternal verdure and happiness.

f Haggai ii. 6, 7, For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory Zech. ix. 13, 14, When I have bent

CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OP JESUS. 5

popularly the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven.*

The captivity and restoration were thought of less and less as events rolled on; but the writings which they had occasioned remained amongst the Jews, a conspicuous part of their scanty literature. There is, indeed, in them so much of rich imagery and wild beauty, that they are to this day read with pleasure by those who look upon them merely as poetical relics ; it is no wonder, then, that they should have continued for centuries in the hearts and mouths of all patriotic Jews, and that, when sufficiently veiled by antiquity, the prophets, as well as the law, should have been reverenced as divine oracles.

Events, however, did not correspond with these prophecies of Jewish greatness. With slow and painful efforts their temple and city were rebuilt under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah [B. C. 536 — 445] ; but they remained insignificant as a nation, and were successively tributary to the Persians and Macedonians, until the revolution

Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man ; and the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning ; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. Zech. xiv. 3, 4, Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east, and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley ; and half the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. Isaiah xxiv. 23, Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. See also Zech. xii. 4-8 ; Zephaniah hi. 8-20; Malachi iii. iv. ; Joel i. 15, ii. 27-32, hi. 1, 2, 9-21 ; Hosea ii. 21-23 ; Ezek. xxxix. 21, 22.

* Zech. xiv. 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. Ezek. xxxvii. 23, So they shall be my people, and I will be their God. xxxiv. 30, 31 ; Zech. viii. 8.

D HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH

effected by Judas Maccabseus. [B. C. 166.] Under him and the subsequent able princes of the Asmonsean race, they attained the rank of a respectable second-rate power, although inferior to the adjoining kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. But the Asmonsean dynasty grew weak from internal dissension ; and during the quarrel between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, Jerusalem was taken by Pompey, who first imposed upon the Jews a Roman tribute. [B. C. 63.] Under the patronage of the Romans, Herod the Idumean obtained the sovereignty, [B. C. 40,] to the exclusion of the native Asmonsean family; and, although generally hateful to the Jews as a heathen and usurper, maintained by a vigorous government the respectability of the nation. After his death, [B. C. 3,] however, the Jews were compelled to make another step towards national servitude, by the appointment of Roman governors of Judea, [A. D. 6 or 7,] who exercised a jurisdiction superior to that of the family of Herod, and of the Jewish sanhedrim.