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DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.?
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.?
ENQUIRY INTO THE TALMUD JESUS STORIES, THE TOLDOTH JESCHU, AND SOME CURIOUS STATEMENTS OF EPIPHANIUS BEING A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF AN
BY G.
CHRISTIAN ORIGINS.
R.
S.
MEAD,
M.R.A.S.
B.A.,
Where are divers opinions, they may be all false; there can be but one true and that one truth ofttimes must be fetched by piece-meal out of divers branches of contrary opinions. For, it falls out not seldom, that truth is, through ignorance or rash "
:
vehemence, scattered into sundry parts and like to a little silver melted among ruins of a burnt house, must be tried out from heaps of much superfluous ashes. There is much pains in the search of it, much skill in rinding it the value of it, once found, requites ;
;
the cost of
both."
BISHOP HALL.
LONDON AND BENARES THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 1903
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS I.
FOREWORD
PAGE
Christ and Criticism
....... ......
Brahman and Jew The Christian and the Torah The Jew and the Gospel The New Humanism
Theology the Divider An Appeal to Humanists The New Jewish Encyclopaedia
The Talmud History and Dogma The Womb of Christianity The Interest of our Enquiry The Main Object of Search The Problem The Need of its Definition The Resultant Dilemma .
"
Occult
Research
"
Its Possible Validity
.
3 4 6
7
.....
8 9
11 .
.
.
.
.
.....
11
12 13
14 15
...... ...... ....
Some Verified Results The Sane Attitude of the Layman The Scope of our Enquiry II.
1
2
15 16 18
20 22 23 25
....... .........
THE CANONICAL DATE OF JESUS Ultra-Scepticism Criticism
The
Position of the
Layman
....
Encyclopaedias ignore our Problem Recent Research on the Date of the Nativity
The
Pilate
.
.
Date
In the Acts In the Pastoral Epistles Van Manen on Pauline Literature
28 29
30
32 33 35 36
....
The Pilate Tradition in the Gospels The "Oldest" Written Gospel The Date of the "Common Document" The Strength of the Tradition .
.
.
.
...
37 38 41 43 45 46
VI
III.
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. EARLIEST EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE
RECEIVED
DATE The Absence
of
Evidence in the First Century
.
.
........ ..... ?...... ......... ......
Pliny the Younger Suetonius.
The
"Christian!"
Tacitus
Is it a Christian
.
Formula
!
an Interpolation Josephus Is it
The Spurious Passage The Jacobus Passage The Silence of Josephus The Book of James The Gospel of Peter The "Acts of Pilate" "
"
"
IV.
55
56 58 60 61 61
65
.... .....
Real Conditioning of Jewry
68
Psychological Moment Study of the Law
70
Need
of it
72 73
.....
.... .... ..... .... "
.
.
Objections to the Traditional View The Tradition of the Esotericists Mysticism and Orthodoxy The Writing of the Oral Tradition The Main Interest of the Talmud for Christians .
Justinian
s
.
74 75 76 77 78
"
"
THE TALMUD
69 71
Fathers of Orthodoxy Great Heresy
Evolution of Tradition Glimpse behind the Scenes The Evidence of the Book of Jubilees The Oral Law and its Heredity
.
.
.
.
79 81 81
84
IN HISTORY Novella
.......
The Crusades The Inquisition The Paris Trial .
.
.
.
.
.
.
89 90 90
In England Sensible Pope
Spanish Apostates
Even the Prayers
86
87 88
Persecution in Spain
One
53
64
A
V.
50 50 52
62
"
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD The The The The The The The
48
.......
of the
Jews
fall
under the Ban
.
91 91
92
Vll
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
PAGE "
A
"
History of Apostates
Pfefferkorn
94
Reuchlin
94
The Germ of the Index The Talmud-Fires Relighted The Censor
95
His Absurdities Imnianuel Deutsch
98
Cryptography Anti-Semitism
Odium Theologicum VI.
IN THE TALMUD
S
96 97
99
.......
102 103
OUTER COUKT
The Need of Preliminaries The Manhood of the Soul Of the Talmud in General Its Forms and Languages The Talmuds of Palestine and Babylonia
104 105 106
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.106 .107 108
Statistics
109
No
Complete Translation The General Ignorance on the Subject Translations in Progress An Unsatisfactory State of Affairs .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
114
Internal Difficulties
VII.
110
.111 .113
THE EARLIEST EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE TALMUD JESUS STORIES 116 The Earliest Persecution of the Christians by the Jews .117 The Testimony of Paul 118 Of the Acts 119 The Terminus a quo 120 The Probable Origin of the Mamzer Stories .
Justin Martyr Bar Kochba s Persecution
.
121 .
.
.
.
.
.122
.... ......
General Charges The Proclamation and the Curse Estimate of the Evidence Celsus
The Virgin Birth Dogma BenPandera John the Baptist Frequent Remodelling of the Gospel Story Value of the Evidence Tertullian
.
.
124 124 126
127 128 129 130 131 132
132
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
Till
PAGE VIII.
THE TALMUD
YEARS B.C. STORY OF JESUS
100
The Translation of the Censured Passages The Name Jeschu The Ben Perachiah Story
.
.
.
"
"
135 136
.........140
King Jannai Queen Salome and the
"
Golden Age
Joshua ben Perachiah Jesus a Learned Man
"
IX.
.141 .141
.
.
.
.
"
Is it the Original Form The Problem Restated
.
.
.....
.
The Murder of the Innocents The "Little Ones" Was Herod Guilty ? The Inn and the Horns The Excommunication of Jesus The "Brickbat" The Jehuda ben Tabbai Story "
"
.
.
137 138
.
.
.... ....
"
145 146 146 147 148
of the Jesus Story
?
.
.
.
.
149 150
THE TALMUD MARY STORIES The Mary Stories Unhistorical The "Book of Genealogies" Ben Stada and Ben Pandera The Lud Stories A Famous Discussion on Bastardy .
.
.152
.....
Criticism thereon
How
.
The Vision
of Rab Bibi
A Commentary
thereon
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
......
The Story of Miriam in Hell The Hinge of Hell s Gate Miriam and the Soldier
.
.
.
.
.
161
162
163 164
"
"
154 155
.
.
it
153
.156 .157 .158 .160 .160
.
.
.
became a Mary Story The Story of Paphos ben Jehudah How it became a Mary Story
X.
142 143
.
.
.165
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS STORIES The Bringing of Magic out of Egypt The Writing on the Skin The Evolution of Legend The Hiding of the Parchment The Circumcision of the Heart The Rabbis puzzled by their own Creations A Mediaeval Commentator .
.
.
.
168
..... .....
Rabbi Tarn Miriam Megaddela
167 168
.
.
169
170 171
172 173
.
.
.
.
.
.
.174
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. The Magdalene and the Sophia The Mystic Element Concerning the Enticer to Idolatry
IX
....
The Stoning of Jesus The Hanging of Jesus Traditions
"Lud"
The Forty Days Hanged
No Knowledge Jesus
"
Proclamation
XL THE TALMUD BALAAM
.
.
.
.
.
185 185 .
the Nicolaitans
Suggested Explanation On the Going out" from a "
.
.
.186
.
187 "
A
.... ....
Company
.
"
.
.
189 191
192 "
.
193
...... ..... ...... ......201 ..... .......
...
Exegesis Gehazi-Paul
187 189 190
"
"
Doeg, Ahitophel, Gehazi Those who have no Part in the World to come
194
195 196 197
"Elisha"
The Disciples of Balaam inherit Gehenna The Age of Balaam-Jeschu A Chronicle of Balaam Phineas-Listaa
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
200 200
.
.
......... .... ........
Onkelos-Aquila
Boiling Filth The Lecture Room of
Haman-Jeschu
Ben Pandera
198
199
.
Balaam the Lame Man The Necromancy of Onkelos Exegesis
.182
.
183 184
"
Minim
181
181 .
.
Siphre
.179
.
180
Torah v. Gospel Balaam- Jeschu a Prophet A Hypothesis Balaam-Nicolaos Burning One s Food Publicly for
.
"
........ .
Apology
was
JESUS STOKIES
The Balaam Midrash Comments thereon Resh Lakish and Rashi Abbahu Chia bar Abba
An
f
178
of Crucifixion
near those in Power
Bileam-Jeschu
Jesus
before
PAGE 174 175 176 176 177 178
202
203
204 205 207 208
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
:
PAGE XII.
THE DISCIPLES AND FOLLOWEKS OF JESUS TALMUD The Minim Passages The Five Disciples of Jesus The Crucifixion The Number Five The Proof from Scripture The Puzzle of the Names Todah Bunni "
Netzer Are the
Names Genuine
?
IN THE
210 210 211 212 "
.
.
.
.
.
.
Jacob
The Heresy
of R. Eliezer
...
AHalachaof Jeschu
.
A
Variant of the Story Eliezer s Connection with Christianity In Search of Dates
Ben Dama and the Serpent
A
of
James and the Viper
An Early Christian Mode of Healing Brother of the Lord James the James the Ascetic
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Lord"
"
"
Philosopher
Date Indications A Saying from the Gospel .
.
.
.
.
are to be Destroyed
Minim Minim Weinstein on Boycott of Minim "
"
"
"
.
.
.
.
.231 .231 232
.232
.....
The Personified Gospel Some More Minim Passages The Curse on the Minim Minoth The Answer of the Rabbis to the Minim The Books of the Minim Friedlander on
225 226
230 230
Olbias
They
224 224
226 227 228 229
Probable Solution
The Talmud Jacob The Story of the Bribed
220
220 221 222
"Shrines"
Some Difficulties The "Brother of the
217 218 219
.....223
James the Disciple not James the Just The Testimony of Paul
A
.
"
"
The
.
.....
Variant
The Story
.
213 213 213 215 215 215 216 216
234
234 235
... ....
.
.
.236 .
..... ...... .
236
237 237 238 239
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
XI PAGE 239 240
Impurity of Minim Minim compared with Tax-gatherers The Rolls of the Law written by Minim to be Destroyed The Shema and the Minim The Minim and the Eastward Direction The Importance of the Talmud for the Study of .
.
.
240 241
241
.
.......
Christian Origins
XIII.
.
.
242
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU 243
Causes of Hatred
The Inquisition knows
....
the Toldoth
little of
Suggested Keasons for this Silence The Paucity of Material Recent Publication of New Material
.
244
.
245 245 246
.
.
Krauss "Leben" His Estimate of the Toldoth
247 248
Good Christian Sources s View Only One Source of Information
248
"
"
249 250
Bischoii
.......
General Literature
Extent of
New
Material
in English
.
.
2f>l
.
252 253 254 255 255 256
Bischoff s Classification
Printed Texts
Krauss
New
.
.....
Texts
Language Titles
The Name XIV.
A JEWISH
"Jeschu"
.
...
.
.
LIFE OF JESUS
.258
The Seduction
How The
the Bastardy of Jeschu was Robbing of the Shem
made Public
259 261
.
.
.262 .... .... .... .... .268
Jeschu claims to be Messiah and works Miracles with the Shem Jeschu and Queen Helene .
Jesclm
s
.
.
Miracles in Galilee
The Magic Contest with Judas Jeschu is Condemned to Death Jeschu is rescued by his Disciples The Betrayal of Jeschu Proofs from Scripture Jeschu is Hanged on a Cabbage-Stalk The Body is Stolen from the Grave
266
.
The Proclamation
of the
Queen
.
.
.
267
.
.
270
... .
263 264 265
.
271
,272
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
Xll
The Body is Recovered The Disciples of Jeschu make Strife in Israel How Elijahu removed them from Israel The Commandments of Jeschu
The Heresy of Nestorius Shimeon Kepha The Scriptures of Shimeon XV.
.
.
.... .
.
.
.....
276 277 279
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS Toldoth as distinguished from Talmud Stories
.
.
Tertullian
....... ....... ....... ........
Does he refer to a Jesus Story Jesus is Stoned The Clementines Pagan Writers
Porphyry Hierocles
?
Julian the Emperor The Chi est" John "
The Acts
of Pionius
Arnobius
Ephrem Syrus Jerome Epiphanius John Chrysostom Gregontius
John
of
Damascus
Agobard Hrabanus Maurus
Ussum ha-Mizri Suidas Peter Alphonsi
Raymund
Martini
.......
The Cabbage-Stalk Luther Schemtob ibn Schaprut History of Jeschu ha-Notzri History of Jeschu ben Pandera Value of Schemtob s Evidence Aramaic Toldoth Forms
.
.
XVI.
PAGE 273 273 274 275
THE
100
281 281 282 283
283 284 284 285 285 286 286
287 287 288 288 289 289 289 290 292 293 293 294 295 296 296 297 297 298 299 300
YEARS B.C. DATE IN THE TOLDOTH
....
302
Impossibility of Tracing accurately the Evolution of the Toldoth
302
Value of Toldoth
.
for
our Enquiry
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
Xlll
Genesis of the Toldoth
The Oldest Oral Sources The Oldest Toldoth Elements
A New
Date Indication in the Toldoth
The Jungle of Dates Queen Helene
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.306
....
Krauss Unsatisfactory Theory The Helene Element very old
309
Helen of Adiabene "Monobaz"
a Gloss
309 310 311 312
?
Helene- Salome
Helene-Selene
The Simon Magus Legend Pros and Cons of the Argument The Date according to the Jewish History-writers The Date according to the Earliest Toldoth-writers The Ben Perachiah Date is probably the Earliest The Exoneration of Miriam Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah ? The Shem .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.312 .313 .
.
.
317 319
YHWH
XVII.
Evolution of Mystery Shem Story a Later Development
Fight in the Air Hanging on the Cabbage-Stalk
.
.
.
.
The Origin
323
"I.
OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS
of the
Its use in the
Name
"
Christian
"
.
.
.324
"
Acts"
Peter"
A
Pagan Designation Date of Origin
TheNotzrim The Meaning
..... ......
of Nazareth Bethlehem-Nazareth Nazareth = Galilee
The The The
Galileans "
319 320 320 321 322
.322
"Canal"
ON THE TRACKS
In
.
315 315 316
.317
Mystic Masonry
The The The The The
307 308
309
Oleina Is
PAGE 303 304 305 305
Nazoraeans or Christians
Jessseans
Value of Epiphanius
The Therapeuts The Name "Essene"
"
....
324 325 325 326 326 328 328 329 330 330 331 332 333 334
XIV
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. The Mind of Epiphanius The Isseei of Nilus The Therapeut = Christian Controversy The Therapeut Dilemma The Name-Juggling of Epiphanius The Osseni The Nazora?i The Flight to Pella Towards the Facts of the Case "
"
.
.
....
........ ...... .......
Nazorsean Scriptures
The Hebrew Gospel Ancient Readings The Nazinei The Nazirs The Neo-Nazirs
339
340 341 342 343 343 344 345 347
"Sun-worshippers"
347 348 349
Their Mystic Doctrine Ebionites
349 350
The The The The The
351
"Poor"
Riddle of the
Name
.... ..... ....
Twofold Ebionism Hypothesis Early Date of Gnosticism Paul and the Gnosis
The Abortion The Puzzle of the Pauline Communities "
"
.
New
.
.
.
357 358
.
.
358 359
The Samaritans
,.
.360
Samaritan Sects
The Importance of Dositheus Some Curious Legends
.....
"BOOK
OF
.
.
363
ELXAI"
"
....
Date Indications
The Church Fathers and the
361
.....363
The Shepherd of Hennas Hermas a Composite Document "
360 361 362
Dositheus and the 100 Years B.C. Date The Conflation of Traditions
CONCERNING THE
355 356 356
.
Definition of Ebionism
Dositheans
353 354
.
"
Necessity for a
351
352
.
Ebionite Christology
The Doctrine of Election The Shepherd of Hernias" on Election The Heresy of all Heresies
XVIII.
337 338
346
....... ... ...
The Rechabites The Sampsaeans
PAGE 335 336 336
"
Book of Elxai
"
365 366 367 368
XV
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. The Date of the Book The Three Years of Trajan The Book older than the Prophecy "
"
Who
PAGE 369 369
....
370
was Elxai?
Elxai- Sophia
lexai-Christos
Jexai-Jesus
Sobiai-Sophia
371
372
........ ......
Marthus arid Marthana Our Lady Martha The Sophia and her Twin Daughters The Impure and the Virgin Wombs Mary and Martha The Merinthians The Christology of the Book of Elxai .
.
.
.
376 378
.... .
Manifestations of the Christ
The Twice-born
A
Further Date Indication
Fire
.
.
.....
and Water
Ichthus
The Autun Inscription From "The Descent into Hades" Fish and the Eucharist The Antiquity of the Elxai Tradition The Mogtasilah The Schinmn of Elxai .
XIX.
THE
100
YEARS
B.C.
DATE
379 379 380 381 381 382 383 384 384
.
.
.
.
......
Elcesei-Cephar-naum
375
377
"
Many
374 374 375 375
"
"
"
"
.
373
385
385 386 386
IN EPIPHANIUS
.... .....
The Over-confidence of Epiphanius 388 388 Epiphanius and the Jannai Date The Character of Epiphanius 389 The Value of Epiphanius as a Hseresiologist 390 The Riddle of Epiphanius .391 ... The Most Remarkable Passage in Patristic Literature 393 .
.
.
Patent Errors therein
The
Silence of the Commentators
Epiphanius on the Canonical Date Mystically necessitated
Numbers
"
Harmonizing"
.
.
.... .... .... .... it is
Written
"
.... ....
Industry of Epiphanius
His Magnificent Inconsistency The Bete Noire of Epiphanius
.
.
Epiphanius repeats his Riddle In Order that it might be Fulfilled as Drummond on Criticism
The
.
.
.
394 394 395 396 396 397 398 399 400 401
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
XVI
Histories Epiphanius and the The Succession from the Tradition of the Jews "
"
The Children of Joseph James The Names of the Sisters of Jesus Salome and Maria Salome and Miriam Epiphanius a Converted Jew The Living Oral Tradition of Jewry The Birthday of the Christ The Crucifixion and Resurrection Mystery Rite Plagiarism by Anticipation
.
.... .......
..... .
Farewell to Epiphanius Was Jesus in Egypt prior to 30 B.C.
X X.
.
....
"
"
.
.
?
PAGE 402 403 404 404
405 405 406 406 407 408
409 410 411 412
AFTERWORD
A A
.....414 .....415 413 414
Retrospect Legitimate Subject of Criticism A Question for Jewish Scholarship Its Importance for Jewish Apologetics The Bona Fides of the Talmud .
A
.
.
.
.
416
Line of Defence
417
The Method of Haggada The Jannai Puzzle Its
417 418
......419 419
Apparent Senselessness
The Seeming Silence of the Rabbis The Strength of the Christian Tradition .
.
.
.
.
Common Document" Suggested Genesis of the The Pilate Date from a New Point of View
A
.421
"
.
.... ..... .
.
"Pontius Pilate Name-change Review of this Suggestion "a
The Making of "History" The Secret Sermon on the Mountain The Son of God and Virgin Birth The Suppliant," the World and the Fullness The "Mind" The "Mind" and the "Man" the Logos The Memory of the "Race The Mind and the Senses
425
"
"
"
"
"
"
.
.
.
.
.
.
"
"
"
"
....
"
"
"[of
Virtue and Vice
.
422 422 423 424
.
426 428 429 430 431 431
432 433
433 The Root of Humanity 434 The Christ The Ground of Reconciliation between Jew and Christian 435
A Humble
Petition
ADDITIONAL NOTES
435 .
437
DID JESUS LIVE 100
FOREWORD.
L
WHEN some five and a half centuries era the
Buddha
convention, and throw open the
down
Way
irrespective of race or birth,
all,
before the Christian Christ and
arose in ancient Aryavarta to substitute
actuality for tradition, to break
to
B.C.?
we
the barriers of
of
Righteousness
are told that
He
His race and times, self-reliance and a freedom
set aside the ancestral scriptures of
and preached a Gospel
of
from bibliolatry that will ever keep His memory green the independent thinkers of the world.
among
When down
Amme
to the alists
the Christ arose in Judaea, once
more
to
the barriers of exclusiveness, and preach the
break
Way
and legal
ha-aretz, the rejected of the ceremonipurists,
we
are told that
He
extended the
His great authority over the ancient writings His fellow-countrymen, and cited the Torah as the
aegis of
of
very
Law
We
of
God
Himself.
are assured
nation of Deity
by Traditionalists that the Incar the very Giver of that Law, ex
Itself,
plicitly attested the
genuineness of the Five Books
He, with His inerrant wisdom, asserted that Moses wrote them, just as
it
was believed by the people
of
;
His day. 1
DID JESUS LIVE 100
2 Whereas,
if
B.C. ?
there be anything certain in the whole field
cannot be the whole
of Biblical research, it is that this
truth of the matter. It has
been said in excuse that the Christ did not
come on earth This
cism."
to teach
may
His
well be
so,
disciples the
and yet
"
higher
criti
a fact of pro
it is
found significance that, as we shall see in the course of the present enquiry, even in His day this very Torah, and much more the Prophets and Sacred Writings, Brahman and
were called into serious question by many. If, however, the Christ actually used the words as
Him
cribed to
stand
why
in this matter,
it
is
under
difficult to
a plan so different in this respect
was adopted
West from the apparently far more drastic attempt was made so many years before in the East. It
in the
that
may, however, have been found that the effect of a so abrupt departure from tradition had not proved so successful as
had been anticipated,
for the
Brahman,
instead of giving of his best, and allowing himself to become the channel of a great spiritual outpouring for
the benefit of the world, quickly resumed his ancient position of exclusiveness
So in the case
of the
and
Jew,
spiritual isolation.
who
was, as
it
were, a like
channel ready to hand for the West, whereby the new spiritual forces could most efficaciously be liberated, it
may have been thought of
that
"chosen"
gently treated
But even
and
that
if
the traditional prejudices
"peculiar"
perhaps greater
people
results
so the separative forces in
were more
would
human
nature were
too strong, and the Jew, like the Brahman, into a
more
rigid exclusiveness than ever.
Wisdom behind Her
Servants doubtless
follow.
knew
fell
back
But the that this
FOREWORD. would
3
and reserved both Brahman and Jew for some
be,
future opportunity of greater promise, while She tem porarily utilized them, in spite of spite of
brethren; for
and
all of us,
Brahmans and Buddhists, Hebrews
Christians, are of like passions,
the bonds of our self-limitations all
children of one Mother, our
and
themselves, and in
the mistakes of their Buddhist and Christian
and struggling
and ignorance
;
common human
we
in
are
nature,
one Father, the divine source of our being. It may have been that in the first place the great Teacher of the West made His appeal to the Brahmans of
*
"
Jewry, and only when He found that no impression could be made upon their rigid adherence to rules and customs, did he go to the people. There are many Say of
ings strongly opposed to Legalism, as
understood by
subsequent Kabbinical orthodoxy, and, as we shall see, there were many mystic circles in the early days, even on what was considered the ground of Judaism," which "
not only rejected the authority of the Prophets and Sacred Writings, but even called into question the Torah
proper in much of its contents. Moreover, we find that Jesus was, among other things, called by the adherents of orthodox Eabbinism a "Samaritan," a name which
connoted
"
"
heresy
we
in general for the strict Jew, but
seems
student of history sometimes to stand merely for one who held less exclu which, as
shall see,
to the
sive views.
However or
hoped
and whatever was attempted The the beginning, the outcome was that
all this
for at
until about the
end
may
be,
of the first
century the Christians
regarded
the documents
of
their only
Holy
and when they began
Scripture,
the Palestinian canon as to
add
Christian
DID JESUS LIVE 100
4
own
B.C. ?
clung to the Books of Jewry, and regarded them with the same enthusiastic reverence as the Eabbis themselves. The to this their
sacred writings, they
still
"
"
of it
good
was that a strong link
thus forged
the
;
evil,
of East
with West was
that the authority of this library
and myths, histories and ordi nances, the literature of a peculiar people, and the record of their special evolution, was taken indiscriminately of heterogeneous legends
more
as being of equal weight with the
new movement.
speak, universalizing views of the
to
Moreover, every
God
moment
liberal and, so
of the evolution of the idea of
Jewry was taken as a full revelation, and the crude and revengeful Yahweh of a semi-barbarous stage equated with the evolved Yahweh of the mystic and in
humanitarian.
For good or
ill
Christianity has to this day been
bound up with
this record of ancient Judaism.
Ancestors
Jew have become
of the
glorified Patriarchs of
men walked
humanity, who beyond
with God.
The
regarded as the making
is
of the Christians.
the Christians as God, so
all
other
Biblical history of the
Jew
straight in the desert of
human immorality and paganism Lord
The
for the Christian the
Jesus,
much
of a
who
highway is
for the
worshipped by
so that the cult of the
Father has from the second century been relegated to an entirely subordinate position Jeschu ha-Notzri
was a Jew. The Jew and the Gospel.
On
^
the other
s ^ rail g e
hand we have to-day before us in the Jews profoundly interesting phenomenon
an(j
a nation without a country, scattered throughout the world, planted in the midst of every Christian which nation, and yet strenuously rejecting the faith of
FOREWORD.
5
Christendom holds to be the saving grace of humanity. as the Brahmanists were the means of sending forth
Even
Buddhism
into
the
arid then,
by building up round themselves a stronger wall of separation than ever, cut themselves off from the new endeavour, so world,
were the Jews the means
of
launching Christianity into
the world, and then, by hedging themselves round with an impermeable legal fence, shut themselves entirely
from the new movement. blood-tie
and
idea
the
In both cases the ancient a
of
religion
for
a
nation
triumphed over time and every other modifying force. What, then, can be of profounder interest than to learn
what the Jews have
Christianity
anything
?
And
yet
and
how few Christians to-day know how few have the remotest
of this subject
conception of the founder of their faith
said concerning Jesus
;
traditions of !
For
so
Jewry concerning the
many
centuries have
they regarded Jesus as God, and everything concerning Him, as set apart in the history of the world, as unique
and miraculous, that to find Him treated of as a simple man, and that too as one who misled the children of His people, appears to the believer as the rankest blasphemy. Least of all can such a mind realize even faintly that
the claims of the Church on behalf of Jesus have ever
been thought, and are
still
thought, by the followers of
the Torah to be equally the extreme of blasphemy, most
solemnly condemned by the first and foremost of the commandments which the pious Jew must perforce believe came straight from God Himself. Astonishing, therefore, as it appears, though Jew
and Christian use the same Scripture in common, with regard to their fundamental beliefs they stand over
DID JESUS LIVE 100
6
B.C. ?
against each other in widest opposition
who
sincerely loves his fellows,
with
man
as
man, irrespective
who
;
and the man
feels his kinship
of creed, caste, or race,
stands aghast at the contradictions revealed by the warring elements in our common human nature, and is
dismayed at the
infinite opposition of the powers he displayed in his brethren and feels potential in
sees
himself.
The New
But, thank God, to-day we are in the early years of the twentieth century, when a deeper sense of human
kinship
God
of
Him Him
dawning on the world, when the general idea
is is
so evolved that
in the
tawdry
rags of
we dare no longer human passions, or
clothe create
in the image of our ignorance, as has been mostly the case for so many sorrowful centuries. are at
We
last
beginning
developed
as
ascribe to
to
to learn that
God
and
just
a
wise
Deity
a
is
at least as highly
mortal;
we
refuse
and jealousy, an which we should be
fanaticism
inhumanity and mercilessness, of There are many to-day heartily ashamed in ourselves. who would think themselves traitors to their humanity,
much more to the divinity latent within them, were they to make distinctions between Jew or Christian, Brahman or Buddhist, or between all or any of these and the Confucian, or Mohammedan, or Zoroastrian.
They are
all
our brethren, children of a
common
parent,
Let the dead past bury its dead, and let us follow the true humanity hidden in the hearts of
these say.
all.
But how to
to do this so long as records exist
?
How
do this while we each glory in the heredity of our
bodies,
and imagine that
it is
the spiritual ancestry of
FOREWORD. our souls
What
?
story of his
with
all its
is it
fathers,"
some fashion the
to
hate,"
Christ has
Why
any
rate
and identify himself
on the ground "
"
parents
as one of the
"
it,
"
we
"
Are
little
of,
ascribed to the
it ?
should a
Jew
of to-day,
should a* Christian
why
twentieth century, identify
himself with the hates of years gone by
and Talmudic Eabbis; what have we of
inhumanity
mediaeval
retorts of the hate of persecuted
?
What have
Church Fathers
to do with the bitter controversies of
fierce
?
of religion,
are to think
dark sayings
of the early years of the
we
cling to the
natural imperfections and limitations
not these rather, at in
makes a man
that
fight for
"
7
to
do with the
inquisitors,
Jewry
?
Why
or
the
can we
not at last forgive and forget in the light of the new humanism which education and mutual intercourse is
shedding on the world? Wise indeed are the words brother
he
whom
"
?
about this
is
He
that loveth not his Theology the
he hath seen, how can he love God whom
hath not seen
trouble
"
:
And
in
yet
theology all the not seen.
God whom we have
Theology, which ought to be a help and a comfort, be comes the greatest scourge of humanity, for in theology we do not say this or that is true because the present facts of nature
and human consciousness
truth, but this is true because
declared
it
was
so
a thing
many
testify to its
years ago
we can never know on
God the
plane of our present humanity, and a declaration which, as history proves, has led to the bitterest strife and discord in the past, and which
is still
to-day a serious
obstacle to all progress in religion.
When,
then,
we take pen
in
hand
to review part of
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
8
the history of this great strife between Christian and
Jew
gone by, we do so because we have greater humanity than in the inhumanity
in days
faith in present-day
of the past. Let us agree to seek an explanation, to confer together, to sink our pride in our own opinion,
and discover why we are enemies, one things theological, while
we
of another, in
are friends perchance in
things scientific and philosophic.
An Appeal Humanists.
But
to .,
~.
.
book
this ,.
.
is
man whose
not intended for the ,.
.
A
.
.
.
Christianity greater than his humanity, nor for him whose "Judaism" is stronger than his love of "
is
human
kind;
it
is
not meant for the theologian who more than truth, or for the
loves his preconceptions
who thinks he is the only chosen of God. It is a book for men and women who have experience of life and human nature, who have the courage to face things as they are who know that on the one hand the Churches of to-day, no matter how they strive carefully fanatic
;
to
disguise
the fact, are confronted
by the gravest
possible difficulties as to doctrine, while clergy,
owing
many
to a total lack of wise guidance
in authority, are
of
the
by those
becoming a law unto themselves,
or,
because of the terrorism of ecclesiastical laymen, are forced to be hypocrites in the pulpit and, on the other ;
hand, that Judaism cannot continue in
mould without doing the utmost violence
its
traditional
to its intelli
gence.
Traditional theology, traditional history, traditional views in general are being questioned on all hands, and
an ever-growing conviction that the conscious ness and conscience of a Church, whether that Church there
is
be the Congregation of Christendom or the Dispersion of
FOREWORD.
y
from century to century; that religion not an exception to the law which is seen to be
Israel, evolve is
in every
operative activity
and
;
who have
of nature
department it
that, therefore,
is
and human
incumbent upon
the best interests of religion at heart
all "
to
right and duty of [any] Church to restate her belief from time to time, as required by the
maintain
the
progressive revelation of the
Churchmen
objects of the
Holy Union
s
Spirit,"
as one of the
declares.
To-day, in thinking and progressive Christendom, we of the mind and heart of
have before us the spectacle
the earnest seeker after truth torn and lacerated by
much
the contradictions and manifest absurdities of
most painful
state
of affairs
that
is
in
to
in
from
this
be found in
the
The only
the tradition of the Faith.
relief
.
the
the
early days courageous recognition, marvellous mysteries of the inner life and the inner nature of man were objectivized and historic! zed by
those
who
import, or
either did not understand their true spiritual
who
deliberately used this
instruction of the
method
many who were unable
their proper terms the spiritual verities of
To
perfectioning.
this
we
for the
to grasp in
man
in his
end
of our
will return at the
present enquiry and endeavour to show how even Jew and Christian can learn to understand and respect
each other even on the ground of religion. And, indeed, the time is very opportune, for some of The New the preliminary conditions for a better understanding clo^ledia
are being prepared
world for the record people.
of
the
The
To-day there is being given to the a faithful time what purports to be "
first
multifarious Israelite
has
activity"
been
a
of
the
mystery
Jewish to
the
"
(
10
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
Christian, a mystery to humanity, from generation to
generation
;
known him, of
thing
he has lived in our midst, and we have not
we have been content
nay,
to believe
him, while he for the most part has
inarticulate as to himself, his hopes,
and
his fears.
any been
The
Jewish Encyclopaedia l is to remedy this evil, for it sets before itself the endeavour to give, in systematized, "
comprehensive, and yet succinct form, a full and accurate account of the history and literature, the social and intellectual life of the Jewish people, of their ethical
and
religious views, their
traditions in all ages
Such a work
and in
all
customs,
rites,
and
lands."
an undertaking of the most profound interest and importance, and we look forward to its is
publication with the liveliest anticipation, asking our selves the questions What will the Jew in this compre :
hensive Encyclopaedia have to tell us of Christianity ? How will he treat the traditions of his fathers concerning
Jesus
?
To-day we can no longer burn or torture him His account of himself, more
or confiscate his goods. 2 over, is to be given
by the best intelligence in him. What, then, will he say concerning Jesus and the long centuries of bitter strife between the Christians and
own From
his
it is
people
?
the three volumes which have so far appeared
not possible to answer this question
is the question of all questions in
demands a wise answer, 1
Three
of its twelve
Jewish
will be seen
volumes only have so
respect.
but that
it
affairs that
from our present far appeared.
York Funk & Wagnalls 1901, in progress.) 2 Though the East of Europe is not yet quite :
;
(New
;
powerless in this
FOREWORD. To ignore
enquiry.
is of
generalities,
As
11
New
the
it, or merely to confine it to vague no advantage to the world. Testament was added to the Old The Talmud.
Covenant Bible by the Church Fathers, and formed the basis of their exegesis, so was the Talmud added to the Torah by the Eabbis, and formed the special study The Talmud covers the whole period later Jewry. the early Christian centuries. to
of
say
Encyclopaedia well say "
The Talmud
attention of the
has the Talmud
For as the editors
?
Christianity
What
of of
of
the
:
a world of its own, awaiting the
is
modern
reader.
In
its
encyclopaedic the variety of thought and opinions, of doctrine and science, accumulated by the Jewish people in the course of more than seven centuries, it
compass
and formulated Full of
all
comprises
the
most part by their teachers. spiritual truths and of fantastic
for the
loftiest
imagery, of close and learned legal disquisitions and of extravagant exegesis, of earnest doctrine and of minute accurate knowledge and of popular con invites the world of to-day to a closer ac
of
casuistry,
ceptions, it
*
quaintance with
To-day
it is
its
voluminous
becoming
that the study
of
contents."
a canon of historical research History and
ancient history can hardly
ever
reward us by the attainment of incontrovertible fact it can at best only tell us what the opinions of certain
;
writers were about the facts of which
years of
Many study vinced some of us that certain historically of
of
we
are in search.
Christian origins have con
it is
impossible to be absolutely
any objective
fact relating to the
We
can only Jesus as handed on by tradition. say that this or that seems more likely to have occurred
life of
;
12
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
and here again our preference,
if we trace it deep be found to enough, depend entirely on subjec tive considerations. Canonical Christianity gradually
will
evolved the mind-bewildering dogma that Jesus was in deed and truth very God of very God, unique and
miraculous in every possible respect; and the Church for some seventeen or eighteen centuries has boldly
thrown
down
this
the
to
challenge
and
intellect
experience of humanity. Strong in the strength of her faith in miracle she has triumphed in her theology, and on it the West even until the imposed present day but ;
at last she has herself developed an intellect
no longer fully believe in in her children,
who
this.
A
new
which can
work
spirit is at
are busily trying to convince their
mother that she has been mistaken
in
many
things,
and
has often misundertood the wisdom of the Master. The
Womb 111
of
y
It is because of this stupendous claim on behalf of
Jesus, a claim which has perhaps astonished none
more
than Himself, that the Church has brought upon herself a scrutiny into the history of her origins that it is totally unable to bear.
Every single assertion about
her great Teacher is scrutinized with a minuteness that is not demanded in the case of any other historical
who
problem, and the lay student
the
follows
re
specialists meets with so many contra dictions in the analysis of the traditional data, and is brought face to face with so many warring opinions, that he is in despair of arriving at any patent historic
searches
certainty record.
of
on
any
single
Nevertheless he
is
in the Evangelical confronted by the unavoid
point
able fact that a great religion
came
to birth
;
and,
if
he be not an out and out five-sense rationalist, his
FOREWORD. only birth
relief
lies
1
in the belief that the secret of
must have been hidden
the real history of the
in a psychic
movement must
3
this
womb, and
therefore be
sought in some great drama that was enacted in the unseen world.
But the
interest
in
lessened because of the historical
contrary never be
by no means The uncertainty on the
the problem
is
;
The subject can
a thousand-fold increased.
it is
made
solely a matter of dry historical research
;
most profoundly in structive psychological phenomena, and that too not only in the study of the minds of the ancient writers, but it
will always be involved in the
also in the appreciation of the preconceptions of their
modern
Hence
that any book dealing with the question of Christian origins is before all others a human document from which, no matter what view a critics.
man may
take, there
is
it is
always something to be learned
our complex human nature. with regard to our present enquiry, what can be of greater interest than to observe how that from of
And
the same facts, whatever those facts
may have
been,
on the one hand, under the expansive influence of love, wonder, credulity, and intense religious enthusiasm, there was evolved the story of
incarnate in
man
;
God Himself uniquely
while on the other, from feelings of
and disbelief, and, later, of hate, annoyance, bred of an equal enthusiasm for religion, there was built of surprise,
up the story
of a deceiver
of
Israel
?
evolved, generation by generation, and
Here we side
by
see side,
absolutely contradictory representations purporting to
be the accounts of the doings and sayings of one and the same person.
Interest
DID JESUS LIVE 100
14
B.C. ?
The philosophic mind can thus derive much food reflexion
of the Christian
by a comparison
and
traditions concerning Jesus,
him
to
for
and Jewish
his studies will lead
understand how that a thing which
may
be
perfectly true psychically or spiritually, and of great
help to the religious
when taken
can,
life,
out of
its
proper sphere, and aggressively asserted as a purely physical and historical fact, be turned into a subject of Thus it may be that grossest material controversy.
we
shall be able to estimate, at their just values,
some
things which cannot but appear extremely shocking to conventional religious minds, and be able to under
how what was
regarded by the one side as a be could saving truth, regarded by the other as a mischievous error; how what was declared by the stand
Christians to be the highest honour, could be regarded by Jew as a proof of dishonour how what was believed
the in
;
by the former as the
revelation,
could
historic facts of a
be treated
unique divine disparagingly, or with
mockery and even humour, by those who held to the tradition of what they believed to have been equally a The Main
unique revelation of the Divine. But it is not the doctrinal quarrels which chiefly
Search.
interest us in studying these traditions of Jewry.
in our opinion,
is
of far greater
Jewish traditions, in spite in the
main assign a date
from that
of
interest
is
What, that the
some gross contradictions, which widely differs
to Jesus
The main object problem, to show that
of Christian tradition.
enquiry is to state this moderate probability for many centuries this was
this
Jewish tradition as or defend
it.
of
in the
to the date of Jesus, not to attack
Moreover, we have taken up this subject
FOREWORD.
1
5
not only on general grounds of interest, but also for a special reason.
For
many
though not as yet even heard
this problem,
the general public,
of
by
nevertheless, of great interest to
is,
students of Theosophy, and, therefore,
it
seems to
for of that there are no im press, not for solution mediate hopes but for a more satisfactory definition
than has been as yet accorded to it. The problem, then, we are about to attempt more The clearly to define is not a metaphysical riddle, not a
some moral puzzle (though
spiritual enigma, not
these factors of
problem
distance of
none the
be
may
physical
what
less
on
is
made fact,
to
inhere in
well
within
called the
this
account
historic of
it),
the
period.
Problem,
all of
but a
middle It
is
immense importance
and interest generally, and especially to thoughtful students of "origins," for it raises no less a question than that
Founder
of
an error in the date
and
the
of
life
of
the
not by the narrow of some seven or eight comparatively margin years (as many have already argued on the sole basis of of Christianity;
that,
too,
generally accepted traditional data), but by no less a difference than the (in such a connection) enormous time-gulf of a full century.
be popularly
summed up
Briefly, the
in the startling
ludicrous question: Did Jesus live 100
Now, had
all
problem may and apparently
B.C.
?
such questioning been confined to a The Need
small circle of first-hand investigators of the hidden side of things, or,
things
historic
if
we may say
underlying
so, of
the
the
blurred
noumena
of
records
of
phenomena handed down to us by tradition, there would be no immediate necessity for the present enquiry;
its
of
Detinition>
16
DID JESUS LIVE 100
but
B.C. ?
late years very positive statements on this matter, based on such methods of research, have been of
printed and circulated
questions
;
among
those interested in such
and what, in the opinion
makes the matter even more
of
pressing,
is
the
that
writer,
these
statements are being readily accepted by ever-growing numbers. Now, it goes without saying, that the majority of those who have accepted such statements
have done so either for subjective reasons satisfactory to themselves, or from some inner feeling or impression
which they have not been at pains to analyse. The state of affairs, then, seems clearly to demand, that as they have heard a little of the matter, they should now hear more, and that the question should be taken out of the primitive
of
crudeness of a choice between two sets
mutually contradictory assertions, and advanced a
stage into the subtler regions of critical research.
The Resultant
far as the vast majority of the general public who chance to stumble on the amazing question which
As
may
heads our enquiry,
is
only to be expected offhand not only with an angry
concerned,
that they will answer it No, but with the further
it is
reflection
that
the
very
formulating of such a query betokens the vagaries of a seriously disordered mind indeed, at the outset of our ;
investigations we were also ourselves decidedly of the opinion that no mind trained in historic research, even the most cautious, would hesitate for a moment to sum
up the
probabilities of the accessible evidence as point
But when all is said and ing to a distinct negative. done, we find ourselves in a position of doubt between, on the one hand, the seeming impossibility of impugning the genuineness of the Pilate date, and on the other, an
FOREWORD.
1
7
uncomfortable feeling that the nature of the inconsis tencies
the
of
Hebrew
rather
tradition
than diminishes the possibility that there thing after all in what appears to be
strengthens may be some
most in
its
namely, that Jesus lived in the days
sistent factor of Jannai.
It is not, then, with any hopes of definitely solving the problem that these pages are written, but rather with the object of pointing out the difficulties which
have to be surmounted by an unprejudiced historian, before on the one hand he can rule such a question en
on the other can permit himself to give even a qualified recognition to such a revolutionary proposition in the domain of Christian origins and tirely out of court, or
;
by an object lesson what be the sane attitude of mind with
further, of trying to indicate
me
appears to
to
regard to similar problems,
had some experience occult research, but
which those
of the
of us
possibilities
who have
of so-called
who have
not the ability to study such matters at first-hand, should endeavour to hold.
In what honestly prejudice,
consider
is
to
it
set forth in this essay, then, I hope most endeavour to treat the matter without
save for this general prepossession, that I saner for the only normally endowed indi
vidual to hold the
mind
in suspense over all categorical
statements which savour in any
way
of the
nature of
"revelation," by whomsoever made, than to believe either on the one hand without investigation, or on the
other in despair of arriving at any facts in the unsubstantial material
in as history,
mind anew
some
"historic"
bed-rock of
commonly
and thus in either case into
real
believed
to crystallise one s
form,
on
lines
of
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
18
evidence concerning the nature of which
we
are as yet
almost entirely ignorant. "Occult"
And, first of all, let me further set forth very briefly some of the considerations which render it impossible for
me
to
assume either a decidedly negative, or even a
purely agnostic, attitude with regard to possibilities of research other than those open to normal ability and industry; for if a man would honestly endeavour, in any fashion really satisfactory to himself, to interpret the observed phenomena of life, he is compelled by a necessity greater than himself to take into considera tion all the facts of at least his personal
experience,
no matter how sceptical he may be as to the validity of the experiences of others, or how critical he may be concerning his own. On the other hand, I most freely admit that those who have not had experiences similar to
own, are quite
my
attitude with
that
it
mind
assuming an agnostic declarations, but I doubt
justified in
regard to
my
can be considered the nature
of a truly scientific
deny a priori the possibility
to
of
my
experience,
or merely contemptuously to dismiss the matter without
any attempt
at investigation.
good fortune for so I regard it to who have their subtler senses, know to a greater or less degree, more fully developed than is normally the case, and also to be intimate with a few It has
a
been
my
number
whose power
of people
of response to extra-normal ranges of
im
whatever may be pression, vibration, or stimulation (or the more correct term) may be said to be, as far as my experience goes, highly developed. personal friends,
and with
whom
whom I
I
These latter are
have known for
many
my
years,
have been most closely associated.
FOREWORD.
19
From
long knowledge of their characters, often under very trying circumstances, I have no reason to believe they are trying to deceive me, and every reason to believe in their good faith.
certainly would have
They
were possible, any by practising, concerted imposition upon me, and everything to lose. For, on the one hand, my devotion to the studies I nothing to gain
pursue, and the
work upon which
entirely independent
of individuals
ments, and, on the other,
humanity in general
to
it
if
is
my
I
am
engaged,
is
and their pronounce
feeling of responsibility
such, that I should not have
the slightest hesitation in openly proclaiming a fraud,
were I to discover any attempt at it, especially in matters which I hold to be more than ordinarily sacred for all who profess to be lovers of truth and labourers
common welfare. Nor again is there any of their trying to influence some pro here question
for
our
spective
"follower,"
particular sect, for in similar studies,
either
we
are
and one
desirability of breaking
of themselves, or of
more of
our
down
some
or less contemporaries
common
the
ideals is the
boundary walls
of
sectarianism.
Now,
this handful of friends of
mine who are endowed
unanimous in declaring that the historical Jeschu," Jesus, lived a century before the traditional date. They, one and all, claim that, if in this special fashion are
"
they turn their attention to the matter, they can see the events of those far-off days passing before their
mind s
eye, or, rather, that for the time being they
to be in the
midst
of
observe events in actual
seem
them, even as we ordinarily
life. They state that not only do their individual researches as to this date work out
20
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
and the same result, but that also when several them have worked together, checking one another,
to one of
the result has been
Familiar as I
Its Possible
tive
still
am
hallucination,"
the same.
with the hypotheses
"honest
"
of all kinds, I
jectivism
self-deception,"
of
"
collec
and
have been unable to
"sub
satisfy
myself that any one of these, or any combination of
them, will instance,
satisfactorily
the
explain
For
matter.
even granting that certain of the Jewish may have been previously known to
Jesus stories
some
of my colleagues, and that it might be reasonably supposed that this curious tradition had so fascinated
their imagination as to
in
what might be there
faculty
become the determining
factor
called their subjective dramatising
two considerations which, in my my own knowledge and experience,
are
opinion, based on
considerably weaken the strength of this sceptical and otherwise apparently reasonable supposition. First, the general consideration that
my friends
widely from each other in temperament;
mostly
of different nationalities,
and
differ
they are
vary consider
all
of Christian origins,
ably in their objective knowledge and in their special views of external Christianity. Moreover though they all sincerely endeavour to be impartial
on so important a matter, seeing that it life of a Master for whom they have in a sense the deepest reverence while some of
touches the
very real them do not happen to be special followers of this on the contrary, are specially particular Teacher, others, attracted
by
this
Way, and
might,
naturally expected to counteract
received
tradition
any tendency
in
therefore,
the interest
be of
to apparent extrava-
FOREWORD.
21
gance, which was not justified by repeated subjective
experiences of such a nature as
their
to outweigh and natural objective training preconceptions.
Second, the very special consideration, that I have
had the opportunity on many occasions of testing the accuracy of some of my colleagues with regard to statements either of a similar nature or of a more
And
personal character.
lest
my
evidence
on
this
point should be too hastily put out of court by some
impatient reader, such verification.
me
let
briefly refer to the nature of
But before doing so, it would be as well to have it understood that the method of investigation to which I
am
referring does not bring into consideration
any
question of trance, either self-induced, or or
As
hypnotically effected.
far as I
mesmerically can judge, my
outward seeming in quite their They go through no outward ceremonies, or internal ones for that matter, nor even any outward are to
colleagues
normal
all
state.
preparation but that of assuming a comfortable posi tion moreover, they not only describe, as each normally ;
has the power of description, what is passing before their inner vision in precisely the same fashion as one
would describe some objective scene, but they frequently
as
as
surprised
their
auditors
that
are
the
scenes or events they are attempting to explain are not at
all
as they expected to see them,
them
as
tliose
who cannot
and frequently as
critically,
knowledge
" "
see
of the subject
for
and remark on sceptically, as
themselves, but
whose
from objective study may be
greater than theirs.
Now, although
it
is
true
that in the majority of
22
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
Some Verified cases I have not been able to check their statements,
and doubt whether owing in a
number
mass
it
will ever be possible to
to the lack of objective material,
of
do so
nevertheless,
few when compared with the statements made, but numerous enough in of instances,
have been able to do
themselves, I course,
be
similar
cases,
argued,
as
so.
has been done
that all of this
is
in
It can, of
somewhat
merely the bringing
into
subjective objectivity the imaginative dramatisa
tion
of
facts
read, or even
which have been normally heard or momentarily glanced at, and which have
sunk beneath the threshold
of consciousness, either of
that of the seers themselves or of one or other of their
some permutation or combination of such an explanation seems somewhat
auditors, or even these.
But
feeble to one who, like myself, has taken
dictated
down
labori
from
MSS., described, for passages MSS., instance, as written in archaic Greek uncials ously
the contents of which, as far as I
known
to exist
am
aware, are not
passages laboriously dictated letter
by by a friend whose knowledge of the language extended hardly beyond the alphabet. Occasionally
letter,
gaps had to be left for certain forms of letters, with which not only my colleague, but also myself, were previously entirely unacquainted these gaps had to be ;
up afterwards, when the matter was transcribed and broken up into words and sentences, which turned filled
out to be in good construable Greek, the original or copy of which, I am as sure as I can be of anything, seen neither my colleague nor myself had ever physically. tion given
Moreover, I have had dates and informa
by these methods which
I
could only verify
23
FOREWORD.
afterwards by long and patient research, and which, I am convinced, no one but a widely read scholar of classical antiquity could
This briefly
is
have come
across.
the nature of some of the facts of
my
personal experience in this connection, and while others
who have not had such experience may
permissibly put unable to do so; and not only am I unable to do so personally, but I further consider it it
am
I
aside,
more honest
my
to
admit them
readers to
to
my
privacy in this respect, in order that they may be in a better position to estimate the strength or weakness of
my
preconceptions or prejudices in the treatment of
the exceedingly interesting problem which
we
are about
to consider.
It will thus be seen at the outset that I ,. ,.,
a priori
to refuse
methods
ence rises up before "
impatient
,,
any validity
of research
pshaw."
;
me and it
because in some instances I
my
colleagues
my
repeated experi
by an no means follows that, by have been enabled to verify statements, I
am
justified in accepting the remainder on trust.
have no question, but
good faith
I
modus
their
"
of
ignorance.
,^
refuses to be laid
1
the truth of
unable The Sane ,
am
of the
therefore
Of
nature
their
of the
almost complete seeing That it is of a more subtle nature than "
I
in
ordinary sight, or memory, or even imagination, I am very well assured but that there should be entrusted :
to
an apparently favoured few, and
tively suddenly, a
means
of
compara knowledge which
that, too,
of inerrant
seemingly reduces the results
the unwearied
toil of
the most laborious scholars and historians to the most
beggarly proportions, I
am
Attitude of
to these so-called occult the Layman,
the ghost of
But
am
not prepared at present to
24
DID JESUS LIVE 100 would
accept.
It
suppose
that in
rather
exact
seern
B.C. ?
more
proportion
degree of accuracy that
may
to
scientific
the
to
startling
at times be attained
these subtle methods of research, the errors that
by
may
arise can be equally appalling.
And, indeed,
this
perusal of the little
borne out not only by the studied, but enormous, literature is
of antiquity and of the present the declarations of those of also but repeated by day,
on such subjects, both
my
colleagues themselves
who have endeavoured
to
fit
themselves for a truly scientific use of such faculties.
They far
all
declare that their great aim
as possible the personal factor
;
is
to eliminate as
for
if,
so to say,
the glass of their mind- stuff, through which they have to
is
see,
not most accurately polished and adjusted,
things seen are all blurred, or distorted into the most fantastic shapes. This glass is in itself of a
the
"
"
plastic and protean; it with every hope and fear, changes with every desire, with every prejudice and prepossession, with every
most subtle
nature,
most
love and hate.
Such
factors,
then,
are
not unthought of by
my
colleagues; rather are they most carefully considered. But this being so, it is plain that it is very difficult to a
discover
sure
criterion
of
accuracy in such subtle
research, even for the practised seer, or seeress, who is willing to submit himself to the strictest discipline;
who have not developed these who desire eventually to some certain criterion of truth, and who
while for those of us distinct
arrive
inner senses, at
further believe that this
we must be content
but
is
a thing beyond all sensation,
to develop our critical faculties
on
FOREWORD.
25
we can with
the material accessible to us, and do all
we abandon
before
the subject to
it
"
revelation."
mind opposed to the best interests of religion for, if we are in any way hold the workman is only in we that our belief, right expected to work with his own tools. To use in an
Nor
latter attitude of
this
is
;
expanded sense a phrase no confusion of castes
of the
"
"
;
there should be
"
Gita,"
or to
employ the language
of
one of the Gospel parables, a man should lay out the talent entrusted to him to the best advantage, and if he do this, no more for the moment, we may believe, "
"
is
expected of him.
to labour for the
trade
is
We
have
each in our own way, but a workman whose
all,
common good
;
that of objective historical research
is
rarely
with the tools of seership as well, while the seer presumably is not expected to devote his life to trusted
historical criticism.
are entrusted with
natures, but so far
come
Doubtless there
may
two or more talents
we have not
be some
as yet in our
who
different
of
own times
across the desirable blend of a competent seer and
a historical
We
critic.
must, then, each of us in his
gether for righteousness
we employ our
;
we may
masters of two or even more
adapt the wording
of a
to
in the present
and prove our become
in the future
"cities,"
and thus
(to
famous agraphon) having proved
ourselves trustworthy in the of
if
single talents rightly,
selves profitable servants,
opportunity
own way, work
hoping that
showing
"
lesser,"
ourselves
be accorded the faithful
in
the
"
greater
(mysteries)."
Having, then, prefaced our enquiry by these brief The r remarks on the nature of the methods of research em-
Scope of n(* uiry>
26
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
ployed by those whose statements have lately brought this
question into prominence
in
certain
circles,
we
enumerate the various deposits of objective material which have to be surveyed and analysed,
proceed to
before a
mind accustomed
to historical study and the can feel in a position to estimate
of evidence
weighing even approximately the comparative values
of
the
various traditions.
We
have, then, in the first place to consider the Christian tradition that Jesus was born in the reign of
Herod, and was put to death under Pontius Pilate, and further, to glance at the material from Pagan sources claimed to substantiate this tradition; in the second to acquaint ourselves
with the Talmud Jeschu stories
which purport to preserve traditions of the life and date of Jeschu totally at variance on almost every point with the Christian account further to investigate the ;
Toldoth Jeschu or mediaeval Jewish Jesus legends
;
and
some very curious passages in the the Church Father Epiphanius of Salamis.
lastly to consider
writings of
That there are many better equipped and more com petent than myself to discuss these difficult subjects, is more keenly aware than I am. But seeing that there are no books on the subject readily accessible to the general reader, I may be excused for coming
no one
forward, not with the pretension of discovering any facts previously unknown to specialists, but with the very
attempting some new combinations of some of the best-known of such facts, while generally
modest ambition
of
some
of
indicating
those
and
who cannot
the outlines of
the
question for
find the information for themselves,
of pointing to a
few
of the difficulties
which con-
FOREWORD.
27
front a student of the labours of these specialists, in
the hope that some greater
mind may
no distant date
at
be induced to throw further light on the matter. Finally, seeing that in the treatment of the Jewish
Jeschu stories
things exceedingly distasteful to lovers of Jesus will have to be referred to, and that
many
generally, in the whole enquiry,
in
the
most
violent
me
considered, let
avoided
them
many
points involved
will
controversy
have
to
be
say that I would most gladly have were possible. But a greater
it
if
necessity than personal likes or
dislikes
setting forth of the whole matter as
are told that the truth alone shall
it
is
make
compels the found.
We
us free
and
;
compels us sometimes to deal with most distasteful matters. Few things can be more unpleasthe love of
it
ing than to be even the indirect to
the
sincere
necessities
Jesus live of
the
lovers
the
of
100
Jewish
impossible to
B.C.
of
a
enquiry into ?
means
great
of giving pain Teacher, but the
the question
:
Did
primarily involves a discussion
Jeschu
omit them.
stories,
and
it
is
therefore
THE CANONICAL DATE OF JESUS.
II.
Ultra-
THOSE who
are
familiar
with
the
innumerable controversies which
history
of
the
have
raged round the question of Christian origins, are aware that some of the disputants, appalled by the mass of mythic
and mystic elements in the Gospel narratives, and dismayed at the contradictions in the apparently most simple data furnished by the evangelists, have not only not hesitated to reject the whole account as devoid of the slightest historical value,
deny that Jesus
far as to
Most
of
these
writers
of
but have even gone so Nazareth ever existed. 1
had
presumably
devoted
much
labour and thought to the subject before they reached a so startling conclusion but I am inclined ;
think that their minds were
to
even had they found
of
such a type that,
less contradiction in the
purely data of the Gospel documents, they would probably have still held the same opinion. Not only was their historic sense so distressed by the vast objective
element
subjective 1
jamais Veen
which
it
confronted
"
s
:
(Geneva pt. this I have not been able to procure a copy. ;
was
Ganeval (L.), Jesus devant 1 Histoire n a a M. 1 Abbe Loyson d un Penseur Libre Reponse There is also a pt. iii., but of i., 1874, pt. ii., 1875).
for instance,
See,
with
"
THE CANONICAL DATE OF that
it
29
JESUS.
could find relief only in the most strenuous reduce the historic validity of the residue to
efforts to
but
zero,
it
found
itself
strongly
determination by the fact that scrap of unassailable external
presumed
it
confirmed in this could discover no
evidence
in
either
,
even
or
in
the
contemporary literature, the next two generations, whereby not
literature of
merely the soberest incidents recounted by the Gospel writers, but even the very existence of Jesus, could be substantiated.
Though
this
extreme view, that Jesus
never existed, has
than
it
those
perhaps
to-day
had some twenty years
who hold
of
Nazareth adherents
fewer
numbers
ago, the
of
that the ideal picture of Jesus painted
by the Gospel writers bears but a remote resemblance original, not
only as to the doings, but also to a lesser extent as to the sayings, have
to its historical
increased so enormously that they can no longer be classed
merely
as
a
school,
but
must
rather
be
considered as expressing a vast volume of educated opinion strongly influencing the thought of the times. True, there is still a wide divergence of opinion on
innumerable other points which are continually issuing into greater
and greater prominence There
as the evolution
however, no longer for the unfortunate student to make up any necessity his mind between what appeared to be the devil of of
criticism
proceeds.
is,
undisguised antagonism on the one side and the deep sea of inerrant orthodox traditionalism on the other.
The problem and
far greater
is far
more complex,
numbers are interested
in the old days a
far
in
more it.
subtle,
Whereas
mere handful, comparatively, had the
Criticism,
30
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
hardihood to venture between the seeming devil and the deep, to-day not only every theological student,
but every intelligent enquirer, is forced to seek his information in the most recent books of reference books in which he finds that not only are
available
innumerable questions raised on all sides concerning matters which were previously regarded as settled for all
time, but
and
also
that opposing views
are
frankly
freely discussed.
The
and the deep have almost faded away,
devil
and none but minds strongly prejudiced by anachron istic methods of training can discern the ancient crudity of their lineaments with any great distinctness.
Concessions have been studied moderation of
made on
all sides
and a
language
;
there
is
a
courtesy in
treating the views of opponents which remove con troversy from the cockpit of theological invective into
the serener air of impersonal debate. The Position 6 * man!
But how fares it with the thoughtful layman who is not sufficiently skilled in scholarly fence to appreciate the niceties of the sword-play of those who are pre sumably on either applause
amid
all
He
side seeking indirectly to
win
his
confused
is
naturally exceedingly the detail, and for the most part presumably ?
applauds the view which best suits his preconceptions. But this much he gleans on all sides a general impression that the ancient tyranny of an inerrant he is assured that traditionalism is on its death-bed ;
bonds have been already struck from his limbs, and he lives in hope that before long he will be
many
of its
entirely free to try to realise
God
in spirit
what the worshipping
and in truth may mean.
of
THE CANONICAL DATE OF If
"
he take up such recent works as the
the
of
the
Bible,"
Jewish
"Encyclopaedia
Encyclopaedia,"
31
JESUS. "
Dictionary and the
Biblica,"
he finds that, although in Old
Testament subjects tradition has to all intents and pur poses been practically almost abandoned by all scholars, in the treatment of rities in
New Covenant documents
the two former works
his
display a
still
autho
marked
The tendency of the contributors to the first difference. above-mentioned work is still on fundamental points, might very well be expected, conservative and largely apologetic of tradition (though by no means so aggres
as
sively so as has been the case in the past), while that of
the essayists of the second is
to say, departs
cases breaks with
is
emphatically advanced, that
widely from it so
tradition,
has not the slighest theological timidity their hardihood.
The
non-specialist
is
and in most
entirely that even a reader
thus for the
to hear both sides distinctly
on
is
who
surprised at
time enabled
first
all points,
and so
to
gain an intimate acquaintance with the arguments for and against traditionalism. And though he may not
be able positively to decide on any special view as to details, or even as to the main fundamental points, he
cannot
fail to
For whatever this
much he
writers, that
losing his
be vastly instructed and greatly relieved. may be the exact truth of the matter, learns from the general tone of all the
he
is
no longer thought
immortal soul
if
to
he find
be in danger of
it
impossible
to
believe in the inerrancy of tradition. It results, then, that the ordinary reader is left with out any certain guide in these matters the old style of Bible repository which told you what to exactly ;
32
DID JESUS LIVE 100 and whose end
believe,
was
B.C. ?
is
edification,
foreign to the spirit of our latest books of
But though the reader
is
left
entirely reference.
without a guide
ex
(if
pre-conceived view can ever be a truly spiritual guide), he is inevitably thrown back on himself and made to think, and that ternal authority selected to suit a
is
the
beginning of a
new
era in general
Christian
instruction.
the
general state of affairs brought about by the pronouncements of the occupants of the
Such, then,
teaching chairs in Protestant Christendom
principal
and
it is
is
very evident that
;
their manifold pro
among
nouncements a man
can find learned authority for almost any view he may choose to hold. He may, for instance, so select his authorities that he can arrive at the general conclusion that there is not a single docu in the New Testament collection which is genuine
ment
in the old sense of the
and refuse
to be tied
word
down
;
to
he
may even
go further source "
"
any particular
genuine, seeing that there is such a diversity But opinion as to what are the precise sources.
of
as
if,
while taking this critical attitude with regard to the canonical contents of Christian tradition, he would
adopt a positive view on a point entirely negatived by that tradition, to retain his consistency he
Encyclopaedias ignore
our Problem,
is
bound
to
try to discover some strong ground for so doing. Now, if we search the two great works to which we ,
.
.
n
,,
.,
,,
,,
have referred for any authority in support of the hypothesis of the 100 years B.C. date of Jesus, we shall find none.
the subject. of
Indeed,
we cannot
find
even a reference to
Moreover, in the very
earlier date
which make
few encyclopaedias
reference to
the
Talmud
THE CANONICAL DATE OF Jeschu
stories,
we
shall find that
33
JESUS.
no Christian scholar
has even dreamed of entertaining the possibility of such In the older books of reference this hypothesis.
a
universal abiding by tradition was to be expected, but in the set
most recent works, where tradition is so often and the most out-of-the-way material
at naught
seems
sifted for the smallest scrap of usable evidence, it
somewhat
strange, not only that there is no one courageous enough to suggest the possibility of there being some small grain of probability at the
at first sight
bottom
of
some
of
the Jewish legends, but that there
is
no notice whatever taken them by any writer. It would -appear that they are regarded either as being of a so utterly apocryphal nature as to deserve no mention, of
or as falling outside the scope of the undertaking.
But before we abandon our two search elsewhere, let us see
recent authorities
come
dictionaries
and
what conclusions our most
to concerning the traditional
chronological data supplied by the evangelists.
As
is
well known, or ought to be known,
Dionysius Exiguus, who that we owe the custom
of dating events
posed year of the birth of Jesus. self
on an
Victorius
is
to
from the sup
Dionysius based him
period which he borrowed from Aquitaine, who flourished about a cen
artificial
of
tury before himself, and inventor.
it
It
is
who
is
said to
hardly necessary to
have been
add that there
its is
repute nowadays who accepts the A.D. of as coincident with the first year of the life Dionysius
no scholar
of
of Jesus.
Turner, of Oxford, in his article on the of the
New
Testament,"
Recent Re-
flourished in the sixth century, j)*^
in Hastings
"
"
Chronology
Dictionary of the 3
^h
e g
34
DID JESUS LIVE 100
sums up
Bible,"
follows "
somewhat
his conclusions
positively as
:
The Nativity
"The
age
more or
of
in B.C. 7-6.
our Lord at the Baptism, thirty years
less.
26 (26-27). The duration of the ministry between two or three
Baptism in
"The "
B.C. ?
A.D.
years. "
The Crucifixion
"
results "
:
Birth of Jesus
"
"
29."
Encyclopaedia Biblica," von Soden of Berlin, Chronology," reaches the somewhat less positive
In the
under
in A.D.
"
circa
of public
Beginning Death of Jesus
Von Soden The
30
4
B.C.
work
?
circa
28-29
A.D.
A.D."
assigns one year only to the ministry.
variations, however, are so inconsiderable
that
these scholars may be said to be fairly agreed on the method of treating the traditional data. They both abandon the statement in the third Gospel that Jesus
was born
at
the time of the general census under
Cyrenius (Publ. Sulpicius
Quirinius),
which
is
well
attested by Josephus as having taken place 6-7 A.D.
Von that
Soden, like so "
other scholars,
is
of opinion
the account in Lk. rests on a series of
mistakes."
many
Bonn, in his article on the
Usener
of
Bib."),
in discussing
these
"
"
Nativity
"chronological
("
Enc.
difficulties
which learned subtlety has struggled with for centuries," also definitely abandons the Quirinius date. Turner, however, while stating that St. Luke is in error in the name of Quirinius," thinks that there is "no inherent "
improbability in the hypothesis of a census in Judaea
THE CANONICAL DATE OF somewhere within the years
B.C.
JESUS.
35
He
seems in
8-5."
Kamsay, who Bethlehem ?
this census question faintly to endorse
in
"
his
study,
Was
Christ
born
"
at
1898) put forward a thorough-going apology for this statement of the third evangelist, which has
(London
;
been welcomed with great delight by traditionalists. Turner mentions the hypothesis that the missing name in a mutilated inscription which records that someone was twice governor of Syria, was that of Quirinius, and that there was another census during his first term of office.
Unfortunately even so this would not help us, for, as he points out, the period B.C. 10 to Herod s death, B.C.
4 (which
Herod date
is
our limit for the reconciliation of the
date of the third), of
exhausted by the
is
other governors.
But
"Kecords
Thomas
of the
J.
Nativity"
all this is practically
with the question
in
main
tenures
thesis
s
has
exhaustive
his
(London; 1900).
a side issue
the
of
strength of
known
Moreover, Eamsay
been well answered by reply,
with the Quirinius
of the first evangelist
as
tradition,
compared the
for
the nativity concerns the problem of the
historicity of the single traditions only of the first
Either or both
third Gospel writers.
may
and
be in error,
and even the John the Baptist element may be a later development, and yet the fundamental chrono logical
element
of
the
main
tradition
would be en
tirely unaffected.
All four evangelists make the drama of the trial and The death of Jesus take place under the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate (26-36 A.D.). This is the main chrono logical factor in the
whole
no matter how far we
puzzling details and succeed in any attempt at
of the
may
;
Pilate
36
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
reducing it to its simplest terms, the whole problem.
it
remains the crux
of
But before considering the statements it
writers,
ences to Pilate in the are Acts
iii.
13,
and
The references
In the Acts.
into the
of the Gospel with the other refer
will be as well to deal
mouth
New
iv.
27,
Covenant documents.
and
1
Timothy
in Acts are found in
of
vi.
These
13.
a
speech put Peter and in a prayer (in the same
style as the speeches)
which
is
said to have been uttered
common impulse by the friends of the apostles. Now, in the judgment of many scholars, one of the
with a
most certain Acts,
is
criticism with
results of
regard
to
the
that the speeches are the most artificial element
in the book.
As Schmiedel
"Enc.
Apostles,"
Bib."):
"It
"
says
(art.
Acts of the
without doubt that the
is
author constructed them in each case according to his
own
conception of the
Even Headlam,
situation."
"
writer of the conservative article in Hastings
the
Diction "
admits that the speeches are clearly in a sense the author s own compositions," though he adds there "
ary,"
"
"
is [?
no reason for thinking a priori that the speeches substance of the speeches] cannot be historical."
then exceedingly probable that the references to Pilate derive immediately from the writer of the Acts It is
himself.
ground scholars
And of
as the writer of
similarity of
with the
the Acts
is,
language, identified
writer
of
on the by most
the third Gospel,
the
authority for his references to Pilate in all likelihood
There are few who would sources." go back to his be bold enough to argue for the preservation of an earlier tradition in the Acts than in the sources of "
the writer of the third Gospel.
THE CANONICAL DATE OP The references
37
JESUS.
in the Acts, therefore, will not be
held by the ordinary critical, much less by the sceptical, mind to be an independent confirmation of the Gospel tradition with regard to Pilate.
As
Timothy, its value as an witness is at once discounted unimpeachable early by the general character of the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 to the reference in 1
Timothy and
Titus).
the
of
article
"
Dictionary,"
Letters
want Paul
"The
in
Testament,"
distinguished from
writer
Hastings
others
all
by
their
agreement with any period in St. the Bk. of Acts, and also
historical
life
New
conservative
frankly states that these so-called Pastoral
"are
of s
Aberdeen, the
of
McClymont
as recorded in
by their strongly-marked individuality alike in style and substance circumstances which have given rise "
"
doubt
to serious
he thinks
them
s
affect
by supposing
year of the this supposition may over
difficulty, it
last
does not in the slightest
main argument
the
This, however,
obviated"
"largely
But though
life.
come the Acts
way
be
may
have been written in the
to
apostle
of their genuineness."
difference of
of
style
and substance.
Deissmann
of
Heidelberg, in
the
"Encyclopaedia
"
Biblica
"
(art.
no doubts as
Epistolary Literature
"),
while he has
to the genuineness of ten of the Pauline
Letters, with regard to the Pastoral Epistles can only
allow at best that they
from genuine letters
Very
Manen to
of
"
may perhaps
different is the view, in the of
whom
contain fragments
Paul."
same work,
Ley den, the distinguished Dutch
the
summary
of the
"
of
van
specialist,
Later Criticism
"
in the
In the Epistles,
DID JESUS LIVE 100
38
Paul
"
article
"
B.C.
?
Van Manen em
has been entrusted.
phatically repudiates the genuineness not only of the Pastoral but of the whole of the rest of the Letters
ascribed
traditionally
the
Though the
Paul.
to
rest
of
do not immediately concern us in this may be of interest very briefly to set down
Letters it
study,
the general result of this later criticism for it is not the opinion of an isolated scholar, but the outcome of ;
the studies of a school.
do this the more readily
I
my own previously expressed of the Marcionite collection ten Letters view that the because
with
it conflicts
were largely authentic. Van Manen Literature.
"
With
Van Manen
writes
:
respect to the canonical Pauline Epistles, the
later criticism here
under consideration has learned to
recognise that they are none of
them by Paul
neither
;
fourteen, nor thirteen, nor nine or ten, nor seven or eight,
nor yet even the four so long
garded as
universally
re
unassailable."
unable any longer in all simplicity to hold by the canonical Acts and epistles, or even to the epistles solely, or yet to a selection of them. The This criticism
conclusion
it
"
is
has to reckon with
possess
no
bear his
name
epistles of
historical data
Paul
;
is
this
:
(a)
That we
that the writings which
are pseudepigrapha containing seemingly
from the
life
and labours
of the apostle,
which nevertheless must not be accepted as correct without closer examination, and are probably, at least
most
for the
part,
borrowed from
also underlie our canonical
book
Acts
of
of Acts.
Paul
which
(I) Still less
does the Acts of the Apostles give us, however incom narrative of Paul s pletely, an absolutely historical career
;
what
it
gives
is
a variety of
narratives con-
THE CANONICAL DATE OF
39
JESUS.
cerning him, differing in their dates and also in respect the influences under which they were written.
of
Historical criticism must, as far as lies in
learn to estimate the value of to
power,
what has come down
through both channels, Acts and
us
its
to
epistles,
compare them, to arrange them and bring them into consistent and orderly connection." That it will ever be able, on van Manen s lines, to contradictory data into
these
bring
orderly
connection,"
we have but
and
"consistent
little
hope
for once
;
the comparative genuineness of the main Pauline Letters is
given up, there
no possible criterion
is
How
left.
ever, the courageous attempt uncompromisingly to face the difficulties is the earnest of the dawn of a new age
in Christian thought,
and we ourselves ask
for
nothing
better than that the facts should be faced.
from
It results then
this
view (again to quote van
the Paulinism of the lost Acts of Paul
Manen)
that
and
our best authority for that way of thinking, of Paul, is not the theology,
of
"
our canonical epistles the
the historical
of
system
Paul, although
ulti
it
mately came to be, and in most quarters still It is the later development with it.
identified
a school, or, of
if
the expression
progressive believers
Paul
and
placed
of
preferred, of a circle,
is
who named themselves
themselves
is,
as
it
after
were under
his
aegis."
Where
this circle
must be looked
for
geographically
cannot be said with any certainty. This much, how it was an environment where ever, is evident, that :
no obstruction was in the
from
the
Jews
or,
first
perhaps
instance encountered
still
worse,
from
the
DID JESUS LIVE 100
40
B.C. ?
them; where men speculation and of mysticism,
too closely resembling
disciples
as friends of gnosis, of
probably under the influence of Greek and, more especially, Alexandrian philosophy, had learned to cease
and
regard themselves as bound by tradition, themselves free to extend their flight in
to felt
To
every direction.
avail
ourselves
a somewhat
of
was among the heretics. The expression be to on first came the list epistles placed among later
the
:
it
The
Gnostics.
oldest
witnesses
to
their
exist
ence, Meyer and other critics with a somewhat wonderful unanimity have been declaring for more as
than
a
half
learn from
calls
is
Basilides,
the
of
him the
in
first
are
Tertullian, traces
authoritative group still
are
century,
Marcion
Heracleon.
epistles
apostle of
of
to
Valentinus,
whom,
we
as
be found of an
Paul.
heretics
Tertullian
and (address
"
ing Marcion) your apostle. This latter view is confirmatory of our own con tention with regard to the important part played by the Gnostics in the development of general Christian doctrine,
and we are pleased
somewhat
avail ourselves of a
among But
We
the
to notice the phrase later expression
:
it
"
to
was
heretics."
to return to our reference to Pilate in 1 Timothy.
no reason why we should assign an and every reason why we do so. Marcion (about 140 A.D.)
see that there is
early date
to this
should hesitate to
Letter,
says nothing about it it was not in his Pauline canon is of course negative evidence, but of positive we ;
That
have none. probably did
It
may
very well have existed, indeed most
exist, in
Marcion
s
day, for his collection
THE CANONICAL DATE OF
41
JESUS.
had to satisfy a doctrinal and not a historic
test.
Van
does not attempt to suggest dates for any of the individual Epistles, though he seems to date his circle
Manen
"
"
about 120
;
he,
moreover, assigns 130-150 to the Acts, a
date which agrees with our
own
conclusions.
For
if,
as we conclude, the third Gospel was written about
125-130, and if the same hand, as many hold, also wrote the Acts, 130-150 may very well represent the termini of the date of that document
s
be remembered that
to
It autograph. Justin Martyr
however, 150) knows nothing of the Acts even
is, (c.
ferring to
Simon Magus,
not have omitted had he all
a reference
known
of
when
re
which he could
it,
and one which
subsequent heresiologists triumphantly set in the "
forefront of their
"
refutations
is
known
A.D.
177
famous heretic
;
no clear quotation from the Acts
and that there till
of that
In any case the reference in 1 Timothy cannot very well be held to be a less assailable witness to the an tiquity of the Pilate tradition,
we
will not say
than the
writer of the third Gospel, but than the author of his
main
"
source."
The strongest current
of the tradition is traced in the The Pilate
by all four whether we place the date the fourth Gospel later than those of
fact that the Pilate date is given confidently
evangelists. of the
It matters little
autograph
of
the synoptic writers, and assume that the writer of the
former had the letter of the latter before him, or prefer
had independent access to the same In either case his authority, as far as
to think that he
main Pilate rest
sources. is
concerned, will not presumably be
on firmer ground than that
of the
held to
author of the
the Gospels,
42
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
common document," or common ever we may call it, of the synoptic "
"
The widely-held view
or
material,"
tradition.
of the priority of
what
1
Mark, or
of
labours under so
"
many disadvantages others I prefer the simpler hypothesis of a written source (distinct from our present Mark or original
that with
Mark,"
many
autograph) underlying the matter
its
common
to all
three synoptics, the simplest form of which, however,
preserved in canonical Mark.
still
tain as anything
Pilate
was
can be in
distinctly
ment which
all
named
all
It is
is
almost as cer
this uncertainty that
in the form of this docu
three evangelists used, and which the
fourth Gospel writer also
knew
either directly or
by
intermediary of the writings of his contemporaries, for I do not hold that they were necessarily his prede
But what
is most striking is the abrupt and unsupported way in which the name of Pilate was
cessors.
apparently introduced in the common document." It is true that the writer, or maybe an early editor, of the "
first
Gospel seems to have
lessen this abruptness
the
name
felt
compelled slightly to "
by adding
the governor
and that the writer
Pilate,
of
the
"
after
fourth
government house." But the Mark and Luke documents make it appear that the common
speaks
first of
the
"
source they used was either setting forth some state ment that was well known to all, or that it had already made fuller reference to Pilate, perhaps in its opening
1
See
my
recent work,
"
The Gospels and Lower and
the most recent Results of the
A
the Gospel Study in the Higher Criticism :
;
which I conclude for about 120-130 A.D. (London, 1902), as the most probable date for the form in which we now have them. in
THE CANONICAL DATE OF
43
JESUS.
And this later hypothesis I find would be Old the opinion of van Manen, who, in his article on sentences.
"
Christian "
The
an
Literature,"
writes
:
on close comparison, point us back to The written gospel which unfortunately does Gospel,
"Oldest"
gospels,
oldest
not exist for us except in so far as traces of
it
began somewhat the
of
reign
recover
Tiberius
naum ....
Jesus
.
.
Pontius
Caesar,
.... .
it
Perhaps In the fifteenth year
as follows:
of Judaea,
governor
we can
preserved in later recensions.
there
Pilate
came down
to
of
being
Caper
."
Marcion s gospel this did not contain introduction, but began apparently It is to be remarked, however, that
"
abruptly
He came down
to Capernaum."
no Marcion had direct access to the
ment
"
used by our synoptists
am somewhat
but I
ment and
it
is
"
"Whether
impossible to say
from a
"
Gnostic
"
environment,
we had any information concerning
ditions
of
the
link
the penultimate
Matthias,"
Basilido-Valentinian circles and the origins,
It is
"
tra
between
we
probably be put on the track of the parentage
common
;
inclined to think that that docu
originally derived
if
or
common docu
should of
our
synoptic source.
from considerations
of this
nature that I have
not insisted upon the otherwise apparently equally strong confirmation of the date of Jesus in the fact that
all
He was existence ("
four
emphatically
evangelists
a contemporary of is
historically
xviii. v. 2) Antiqq.,"
not mentioned in that the omission
;
it
John the
assert
that
Baptist, whose
vouched
for by Josephus be said that John was might oldest written Gospel, and "
this
"
by the
earlier
writers of a factor
44
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
which has been made so much writers argues that
it
of by all the later Gospel was not known in his day. My
main
interest has been to select the strongest link in the chain of tradition, namely the Pilate date. have thus traced our Pilate tradition to the
We
common document used by the synoptic evangelists. Beyond that we cannot go with any certainty the rest "
"
;
is
pure speculation, in the absence of objective data of
We
any kind.
cannot date the
common document
;
through any recensions before the canonical evangelists
;
it
of
autograph
we do not know whether
the
it
passed reached the hands of
we do not know whether
it
originally written in Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic do not know whether the synoptists worked on the
was
we
;
of
copy
own
an
on a translation, or made their other con
original, or
translations
;
we do not know what
temporary documents were in existence, though it is quite certain, according to the statement of the writer of the third Gospel, that there
Now "
it
common
is
to
were
" "
many
others.
be noticed that the writer of as
document,"
the
seen in the simplest form
preserved by Mark, puts all the blame of Jesus con demnation on the chief priests and says very little about Pilate. This is remarkable, for we know the bitter hatred of the still
more
the
memory
Jews
to the point, of
Pilate
for the Eomans, and, what is we know from Josephus that
especially
was most
bitterly
days of
political
detested by the Jews.
On
the
suspicion
other
owing
hand, to
the
in
those
many
revolutionary cabals
among the Jews, it was exceedingly dangerous for a Jewish writer, or for those generally identified with the
THE CANONICAL DATE OF Jews, as the Christians
still
45
JESUS.
were, to speak against the
Imperial rulers or their officers,
and
it
was the custom
very numerous politico-religious writings of the time, of which we have examples in the still extant specimens of pseudepigraphic and apoca of the writers of the
lyptic literature,
to disguise the real objects of their
by throwing their matter into prophetical where the present or immediate past was written form, of as yet to come, and where the names of the actual detestation
were
persons
altered
or
and
hidden under symbol
metaphor.
The "
direct
mention
of
name
the
of
Pilate in the The Date
common
order of
haps
it
-"
;
may even have been
partially encouraged
by
the imperial favour so recently bestowed on Josephus "
History of the Jewish War." But whatever validity may be in such a speculation, the practical excul
there
pation
of
Pilate
seems
Christianity was seeking in the eyes of the fix
Eoman
to
point to
a
to dissociate itself
world.
Can we
a probable date for this state of affairs
time
when
from Jewry in
?
any way
It is
very be suggested. We glean from an analysis of history that up to at least the end of the first century the Christians were indis difficult to
do
so,
but termini
may
criminately classed with the Jews by the authorities. The Jews were the objects of frequent repression and persecution at the hands of the Roman magistracy but not on religious grounds. They were regarded as ;
political
of
document," then, seems to point to another mon DOCUliterature and it may be hazarded that per- ment
revolutionaries.
The
Jewish Christians and Jews
is
antagonism said
between
by some learned
Talmudists to have developed acutely only in Trajan
s,
46
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? 1
but the entire separation probably did not take place till Hadrian s (A.D. 117-138). In this how base themselves Talmudic data. But on they reign (A.D. 98-117),
many years elapsed before the antagonism reached this acute stage ? cannot say but we may with very fix the very latest limit for our confidence great
We
;
common document century.
For our
in
the
first
earliest
years
the second
of
however,
limit,
we have
nothing to help us, except the consideration that the destruction of Jerusalem
blow
to the
hopes
in
70 was a crushing
A.D.
who looked
of those
for a material
fulfilment of Messianic prophecy, and the very thing to
spiritual view
Messianism, as
of
inner communities, and to the inevitable
with the The strength Tradl
and therefore
our
more
a
was the case in the
who were more
bow
content to
to reconcile themselves
rulers.
if we were common document
But even
~
who took
those
strengthen the position of
to
assume the higher limit
as about 75 A.D., at this
of
com
paratively early date, whatever may have been the rights of the dispute as to who was the more to blame for
it,
the death of Jesus under Pilate was a bald fact
that could presumably have been most readily verified if it were untrue, it is most difficult to believe that it ;
could have got a footing for a
The
most credulous.
among
bitter
moment even among
opponents at once retorted:
Jews would have
the
there was no such trial under Pilate at
1
See Joel (M.),
"
the
of the Christians
all
Why,
!
Blicke in die Religionsgeschiclite zu Anfang
des zweiten christlichen Jahrhunderts (Breslau 1880), i. 14-41, Geschichte der Juden" see also Graetz (H. IL), and ii. 87 ff. "
;
"
;
(Leipzig
;
1865, 2nd. ed.),
iv.
90
ff.
THE CANONICAL DATE OF
47
JESUS.
On the other hand, the name of Pilate may have been inserted in some intermediate redaction of the "
common document
evangelists of records,
;
"
before
it
reached the hands
of
the
with the lapse of time, and the destruction
and the development
of Christianity outside
among the Dispersion, the difficulty of veri would thus be greatly increased. It might be
Palestine fication
even that the document originally simply stated that Jesus was brought before the Governor," and the "
name
of Pilate
was subsequently added
greater precision, in the
" "
in a desire for
fashion of the time.
haggadic of the matter, the Pilate
Whatever may be the truth date
has every appearance of being as strong an element as any other in the whole tradition.
historical
on
the appearance of a most candid statement, and the introduction of the name, had there It bears
its face
been no warrant for
it, argues such a lack of what we consider historical to-day morality, that it is without parallel except in the pseudepigraphic and apocalyptic
literature of the period.
Ill
EAELIEST EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO
THE EECEIVED DATE. The Absence
IN our last chapter we dealt with the date of Jesus the
to
accepted
canonical
sources,
in the First
according
Century.
endeavoured to track out the main strength tradition preserved sult of
this
seemed
to
by the synoptic writers.
investigation
was that the
of
The
and the re
probabilities
be strongly in favour of our possessing a historical fact in the statement that Jesus was a con
temporary
of Pilate.
We
now turn
to a consideration
of the earliest external evidence.
It has
ment
always been an unfailing source
of astonish
to the historical investigator of Christian begin
not one single word from the pen of any Pagan writer of the first century of our era, which can in any fashion be referred to the marvellous nings, that there
is
story recounted by the Gospel writers.
The very
exist
ence of Jesus seems unknown.
can hardly be that there were once notices, but that they were subsequently suppressed by Christian It
copyists because
of
their
hostile
or even
nature, for inimical notices of a later date
preserved.
The reason
scandalous
have been
for this silence is doubtless to
be discovered in the fact that Christianity was con-
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE.
49
founded with Judaism, no distinction being made between them in the minds of non-Jewish writers. Converts to Christianity were held to be proselytes to Judaism, and it was a matter of no importance to a Roman what particular sect of Jewry a convert might
Such a question as what particular phase of Messianism the Judsei might be agitated about never circumcision or uncircumcision had occurred to him
join.
;
He had
no interest for him.
a vague idea that the
Judsei were a turbulent folk politically dangerous
to
the state, that they had a strange superstition and were haters of the
human we can
race,
and there he
left
it.
As, then, nothing about the Christians in Pagan writers of the first century, we turn to our earliest notices of the second century as found in the find
writings of Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Tacitus. All three were men who held imperial offices, were
and presumably had access to the All three were distinguished archives of the empire. writers and historians, and probably all three were well
known
at court,
personal friends.
We
know
for a fact
from his
letters
that Pliny and Tacitus were intimate friends, and also that Pliny and Suetonius were friendly correspondents.
Pliny was born 61
was
A.D., his
greatest literary activity whether or no he
in the reign of Trajan, but as to
survived his imperial master (d. 117) we have no infor mation. Tacitus was of the same age as Pliny and survived Trajan, but the exact date of his death known. Suetonius was some ten years younger,
is
un
beiiiLi
he was private secretary to Hadrian (emp. 117-138 A.D.), but the year of his death
born about 70-71
also is
unknown.
A.D.
;
50
DID JESUS LIVE 100
turn to the famous letter of Pliny
If we, then, first
Pliny the
to Trajan
we
and
to Trajan s reply
much
find
shall
B.C. ?
("
interest
to
Pliny as
96, 97),
concerning
Christians of distant Pontus and Bithynia for trial before
x.
Letters,"
us
the
who came up
Propraetor, but nothing in
either Pliny s report or in the
presumed rescript of the Emperor that will give us the smallest clue to the date of Jesus. But even had we found in this correspond ence direct or indirect confirmation of the traditional
we should still have had to consider the arguments of those who have contended either that both pieces are forgeries or that interpolations have been made in the 1 If, however, we have a genuine letter original text. date,
Pliny before us, and I am inclined to think it largely genuine, it is with very great probability to be assigned 2 but as the question of the date to the year 112 A.D. of
;
and
this correspondence does not genuineness in us it we can find concern immediately (for nothing to help our present investigation), we pass to the state
ments Suetonius.
of
of Suetonius.
There are two short sentences in Suetonius of the i.e.,
Twelve Caesars to
96
Christians.
Suetonius
"
"
Lives
(from Julius Caesar to Domitian
both of which appear to refer to the In his Life of Claudius (emp. 41-54 A.D.)
A.D.),
tells
us (ch. xxv.), that the Emperor banished
the Jews, or certain Jews, from
Eome
On
because of the
the literature see Platner s (S. B.) Bibliography of the Younger Pliny (Western Reserve University, Ohio 1895); also 1
"
"
;
Wilde
(C. G.
"
I.),
S.J.,
Trajani Epp. mutuis
De
0. Plinii Caecilii Secundi
Disputatio"
(Leyden
maintaining their genuineness, gives a
;
summary
opinions. 2
See
Mommsen
"
(T.),
Hermes
"
(1869),
iii.
et
Imp.
1889), who, while
53.
of
contrary
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE. which
disturbances
persistent
arose
51
them
among
"
Chresto."
impulsore
For long fierce controversy has raged round these two at the words, which we may translate by the phrase "
of
instigation
Chrestus
" "
(lit.,
Chrestus being
the
impulsor It is contended on strong philological grounds that this must refer to a living person. 1 It has thus been ").
supposed by some to refer simply to a Jew called Chrestus who was then living at Eome but this seems ;
to
me
know
to be a very unsatisfactory explanation. "
that
Chrestus
"
is still
where we should expect that Tertullian third
("
" "
Christus
Apol.," iii.),
accuses
;
we know
further
at the beginning of the
Komans
the
For we
sometimes found in MSS.
of
so
mispro nouncing the name of Christ, and from Lactantius a century later, that it was still a Institt.," iv. 7), century,
("
common
custom.
It is not necessary
confusion of Christus
here to enquire whether this
and Chrestus was
really only an
ignorant mistake on the part of non-Christians, or whether there may not be some further explanation of the
phenomenon
2 ;
an outsider
anyhow not be likely to
may 1
know
like
Suetonius would
the difference, and so
we
very well in this passage take Chrestus for Christus.
See Smilda (H.),
"C.
Suetonii Tranquilli Vita Divi
Claudii"
Geschichte (Groningen 1896), p. 124, n. also Schiller (H.), der romischen Kaiserzeit" (Gotha 1883), i. 447, n. 6. 2 The most ancient dated Christian inscription (Oct. 1, 318 A.D.) runs "The Lord and Saviour Jesus the Good" Clirestos, not "
;
;
;
This was the legend over the door the Marcionites were Anti-Jewish and Church, Christos.
of
a Marcionite
Gnostics,
and did
not confound their Chrestos with the Jewish Christos (Messiah).
DID JESUS LIVE 100
52 But even
so
we
B.C.
?
are confronted with the
difficulty
that according to the received tradition the Christian
Christ was never at Eome, and did not survive to the reign of Claudius.
Moreover,
be argued that Suetonius does not
it
if
"
employ
intended
we have
it
to
Hebrew
to carry a metaphorical
Christos
Messiah, the
there were reference
The
sort
When,
"Chris-
impulsore Chresto
literally,
necessarily
simply the Greek for the
is
"anointed,"
and
claiming to be this
many may then
but
meaning, even so
remember that Christus does not
refer to Jesus.
some
"
the phrase
at this
period
"
anointed."
The
be simply to a Messianic riot of
the Jews. 1
among we come
then,
across the term
"
Christiani
"
Pagan writers referring to disturbances of the first century, we are not to assume offhand that those thus in
designated must necessarily have been followers of Jesus of Nazareth they may on the contrary have been ;
simply Jewish Messianists, and most probably
And
Zealot type.
when
this
may
of
the
be argued to be the case
Suetonius, in the second of his famous sentences,
Nero (emp. 54-68), tells us (c. xvi.) that were severely punished or put Christiani
in his Life of
"
certain to the
"
torture
who
;
these he characterises as
believed in a
"
a class of
new and noxious
superstition." people This might apply to Messianists, for the Eomans had been compelled to deal with many disturbances of this
nature in Palestine in the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius and Nero, and doubtless tumults of a similar character
had arisen among the Jews
of the Dispersion as well.
See Schiller (H.), Geschichte des romischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero" (Berlin 1872), p. 434. 1
"
;
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE. But we cannot be sure that Suetonius, even
if
subject.
the meaning
is
of
the question were not rendered far
more complicated by what Least of
this
53
all
is
found in Tacitus on the
can we dispose
of
the difficulty
by assuming that the two sentences in Suetonius are interpolations by a Christian hand, for it is almost impossible to believe that any
could have
Christian
used such phraseology.
famous passage
therefore, finally turn to the
We,
Tacitus
("
Ann.,"
xv. 44),
were so
that the Christians
Christus
who
where we
from
called
a
was put
in the reign of Tiberius
under Pontius
in Tacitus.
find it clearly stated
certain to death
This statement occurs in a brief
Pilate.
but graphic account
of
the horrible cruelties which
these Christiani are said to have suffered under Nero.
64
Eome
in connection with the Great Fire at
was
It
A.D.
believed at
in
was commonly the time that the conflagration had been
Tacitus will have
it
that
it
started by the express orders of the
To divert the public
Emperor
mind and remove
himself.
this imputation,
Nero had singled out the Christiani to play the part of detesta scapegoat, seeing that they were held in general tion for their evil practices.
They were accused, put
to
the torture, condemned and done to death with refine
ments
of cruelty.
From
the time
of
strongly questioned
Gibbon, however,
it
has been
whether at that date Christians
were numerous enough at Eome to have been so singled that tho out, and it has been accordingly maintained had been vented simply on the of the
fury
Jews
populace
in general, seeing that the fire
their quarter
;
in short, that Tacitus
had broken out is
in
in error and has
54
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
transferred the popular detestation of the Christians in his
own day
In
to the times of Nero.
connection
this
we have
to
recall
the
short
sentence in Suetonius which apparently refers to the same event when we read Tacitus, but which seems to
have nothing to do with it when we read Suetonius. can further speculate as to whether Suetonius
We may
have derived his information from Tacitus, or Tacitus may have embellished the statement of Suetonius. 1 But if Suetonius had had the passage of Tacitus before him, and had believed in his great contemporary s view of the matter, he would have made more use of
surely
Suetonius
is
seems
more probable that reproducing the dry bones of some brief
his graphic details
official record,
?
It
far
while Tacitus, in working out a character
sketch of Nero from insufficient data, and with a strong prejudice against him. has collected together unrelated
and painted them in with the gaudiest colours by some tragic stories he
events,
of a vivid imagination excited
had heard concerning the Christians
own
of his
But
of a later
time and
2
day.
it is
not so
much
the persecution of Christiani
Enc. Bib.") gives the Christian, Name (art. date of the passage in Tacitus as 116-117, and of those in Suetonius 1
Schmiedel
"
"
of,"
as 120 A.D., but this
is unproved. See Bruno Bauer, "Christus und die Caesaren: Der Ursprung des Christenthums aus dem romischen Griechenthum (Berlin 2
"
;
1879
;
2nd
ed.).
That in general Tacitus
is
a historical romancist
who has too long fascinated schoolmasters and their pupils by the beauty of his style, and not a sober historian, is an accepted judg ment among competent historical scholars. See especially Tarver Tarver gives a (J. C.), "Tiberius the Tyrant" (London; 1902) totally different estimate of Tiberius from the caricature of Tacitus, ;
to
whom
less
the good fame of an anti-senatorial emperor was of far importance than the neat turning of a phrase.
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE. under Nero that concerns
whom
that the Christian!
us, as the explicit
55
statement
Tacitus has in mind, were the
who was put to death under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. If this state ment is from the pen of Tacitus, and if it was based
followers of that Christus
on information derived from nothing more
be
to
Eoman
The
said.
records, there is
positive answer to our
question has been found, and the accepted date stands firm.
The famous sentence runs rn
ejus
Pentium Pilatum
we have Even so,
Auctor nominis
impentante per
supplicio affectus
procuratorem
erat"
assume its genuineness, that is that before us a sentence written by Tacitus himself. it is is
very
difficult to
persuade oneself that the
derived from some
the contrary
it
has
should not have the
name
Eoman
record.
of Pilate introduced with
no
than simply that of Procurator. In the reign of Tiberius under
further qualification
Procurator of what
official
the appearance of being part Surely in an official record we
all
of a Christian formula.
"
?
would mean something definite he would know that the whole story of Christus had to do with Judsea, but to a Eoman the Pilate the
Governor"
to a Christian, for
phrase would convey nothing of a very precise nature. Later on in the Tacitean narrative it is true we are told the Christian sect arose in Judaea, but on the other
hand we must remember that "
Pilate the
Governor
"
it
is
just this sudden
which meets us
gation of the synoptic tradition, as
in our investi
we showed
in our
might then (if the sentence is genuine) be of interest to determine the date of writing of this
last chapter.
It
Is it a Chris-
tian
first of all
statement
On
"
:
Jesus
.
Ziberw
Clvristus
Let us
as follows
m-T~
j.
of
Formula
?
56
DID JESUS LIVE 100
part of the
"
Annals,"
exactitude.
but this
is
B.C. ?
impossible to do with
It seems,
any however, probable that it was written subsequently to 117 A.D., a date when the Pilate formula was indubitably firmly established Christian circles.
among
seems to know
It is also to be noticed that Tacitus
nothing of the
name
of
Jesus; and
is exceedingly that in official record the improbable any proper name of the person would be omitted, and a name used which
with Palestinian
familiar
officials
known
to be a general title
it
must have
affairs
which was at that time
Moreover, Jesus was not, being claimed by many. to the canonical tradition, accused of being a according claimant to Messiahship, a matter which did not con
Eoman
cern the
magistrates,
offence of claiming to be far
but with the political It is then
of the Jews.
King more probable that Tacitus derived
his information
from hearsay, and imagined that Christus was the actual and only name of the founder of the Christian sect. Is it
But
an Inter-
tion that us.
these considerations depend
all
upon the assump
we have
Now
it
a genuine sentence of Tacitus before has been often pointed out that Tiberio "
"
imperitante It
cannot
entirely opposed to all Tacitean usage. be paralleled elsewhere in his vocabulary, is
and moreover
The early
contrary to regular use.
is
Emperors were still regarded solely as heads of the Eepublic, and as such were called Principes we should, therefore, expect Principe Tiberio," or some such com ;
"
bination.
are seldom to
Philological arguments, however, as a rule,
very convincing; but it is not very easy one offhand. The sentence,
dispose of the present
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE.
57
moreover, has a strong appearance of being inserted in the rest of the narrative. Many, therefore, consider it
an interpolation, and some even are of opinion that the whole of the chapter is a fabrication. As Hochart This chapter contains almost as says able difficulties as it does words." 1 "
:
But
this
laborious
scholar
of Tacitean criticism,
left
wing work in bringing out the
many
inexplic
represents the extreme
and valuable as
difficulties
his
is
which have
to be
surmounted before we can be positive that the whole chapter under discussion (much more then the sen tence which specially interests us) tends,
2
an interpolation, his
is not,
authority
is
as he con
somewhat
weakened by his subsequent lengthy researches, 3 which he courageously revived the whole question
in of
the authenticity of the famous MS., purporting to contain the last six books of the "Annals" and the
which was
first
Poggio Bracciolini
and
"
first five
of the
"
Histories
of Tacitus,
brought to light about 1429 by the sole MS. from which Niccoli
made.
been
Hochart
maintains
learned humanist Poggio himself
all copies
that
in
we have
have since the
very
a Pseudo"
Tacitus, "
Annals
and that "
we
in these books of the
"
Histories
and
are therefore face to face with an elabo
rate pseudepigraph.
Annales de la Faculte des Lettres de Bordeaux," 1884, No. 2. Hochart (P.), Etudes au Sujet de la Persecution des Chretiens For arguments in favour of its sous Neron" (Paris; 1885). neronische Christenverfolgenuineness see Arnold (C. F.), "Die 1
"
2
"
(Leipzig; 1888). Tacite I Authenticite des Aunales et des Histoiree de au Sujet Considerations Nouvelles and 320 1890), p. (Paris des Annales et des Histoires de Tacite" (Paris ; 1894), p. 293.
gung"
"
3
"
De
"
;
;
58
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
On
the whole, however,
I
am
inclined to think that
the strain of supporting this conclusion is too great for even the most robust scepticism (though it may be that
In any stranger things have happened in literature). case it does not affect the main point of our argument
admitting the genuineness of the even of the sentence which specially
namely,
that,
chapter and concerns our enquiry, we cannot be sure that we have in it a confirmation of the canonical tradition of the Pilate date from an independent source.
We
Josephus.
in the
have, then, passed in review our earliest notices
works
of
Pagan writers of the second century, and may next turn our attention to that Jewish writer century who above all others might be expected to supply us with the certainty of which we the
of
first
are in search.
Joseph ben Mattatiah, the priest, or, to use the name he adopted in honour of the Flavian House, Flavius Josephus, was born 37-38 A.D. and survived till at least 100
His father Matthias was a member
A.D.
of
one of
the high priestly families, was learned in the Law and held in high repute in Jerusalem. Matthias was thus a contemporary of
been an
Pilate,
eye-witness
of
and should therefore have those
wonderful
events in
Jerusalem which the Gospel narratives so graphically depict in connection with the death of Jesus he might ;
even have been expected to have taken part in them at the very least he could not have failed to have heard
;
of
them
if
they actually occurred in the
way
in
which
they are described. Josephus,
was from
if
we can
accept his
own account of himself, Law and had
his earliest years^trained in the
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE. an insatiable love
of religious learning.
When
59
he was
but fourteen years old, he tells us, the high priests and doctors used to come to ask him questions on difficult points of the Torah and its traditions. This may of course refer simply to his wonderful memory, in the
which
the most part such learning but over and beyond this, we are told, he
exercise
of
consisted
;
for
was most eagerly anxious to know and practise the inner side of religion, and busily enquired into the For three years he the desert, apparently to some Essene-like community, and submitted himself to its vigorous tenets of all the sects of Jewry.
retired to
In 64
discipline.
find
him
at
Rome
some friends
of
the age of twenty-six, we interested in obtaining the freedom A. D., at
of
his, priests
who even
in
prison
Gentile fare and managed to support them selves on the ascetic diet of figs and nuts.
refused
all
War
Josephus was given the important command of Galilee, and displays an intimate
During the Jewish
knowledge
of the
Gospel tradition,
country in which, according to the
was the
chief scene of the ministry of
As a self-surrendered prisoner in the hands of Eomans he played a very important part in the
Jesus.
the
hastening of the end of the war, and was subsequently held in high estimation by the rulers of the Empire
and devoted himself
and an account
to writing a history of his people
of the war.
Many
additional reasons
could be adduced, but enough has already been said to show why Josephus, who might be called the historian "
of the
Messianic
age,"
is
just the very writer
who might
us something decisive about the Nor can the detestation Christians and their origins.
be expected to
tell
60
DID JESUS LIVE 100
of the
Jews
for the
the
of
memory
B.C. ?
which
"
traitor,"
makes them
still
those days
with exaggerated suspicion, in any way
regard every line of his writings
lessen the authority of Josephus in
the complaint of Christians against
this
him
about
respect
is
;
for
not that he
misrepresents them or their beginnings, but that he absolutely ignores their existence. The Spurious Passage.
It is true that
we have
that famous passage in his
" "
Antiquities
iii.
(xviii.
3)
which amply and doctrinally
confirms the Gospel tradition
but
;
how
a so transparent
forgery could have escaped detection in even the most uncritical age
For many years
a marvel.
is
it
has been
abandoned by all schools of criticism, even the most conservative, and we have only to turn to any modern translation or text to find
definitely characterised as
it
an interpolation or enclosed in brackets. 1 only that we are confronted with upwards
It
is
of a
not
dozen
most potent arguments against its authenticity, but that we have also the explicit statement of Origen in the third century that Josephus (with whose works he was ac quainted, and whom he is quoting to prove the historic existence of John the Baptist) had no belief whatever Jesus being
in
passage
states
the
Christ,
whereas
categorically that
Nevertheless, there are
still
while admitting that
it
1
2
See, for instance, F.
1890), iv. pp. 151, 152.
The
spurious
a few daring scholars who,
heavily interpolated, en-
is
Kaulen
Josephus jiidische AltertMmer and B. Niese s critical text,
the
he was the Christ.
s
German
"
(Koln
;
translation,
"Flavius
1892, 3rd ed.), p. 620, n.
(Euvres completes de Flavius Josephe (Paris 1900), has so far given us only five books of the Antiquities." 2 Origen, Contra Celsum," i. 47.
by T. Reinach,
"
"
"
"
;
Flavii Josephi Opera" (Berlin; most recent French translation, edited "
;
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE.
61
1 deavour to save some fragments of the passage, and even one stalwart apologist who maintains its complete
genuineness.
But
2
there be anything certain in the whole field of The Jacobus Passage criticism, it is that this passage was never written by if
-
And
Josephus. "
Antiqq.,"
Jesus called
of
this
being
so,
the
reference
xx. ix. 1) to a certain Jacobus, Christ,"
"
(in
the brother
constitutes the only reference
voluminous writings of Josephus which Origen could discover but unfortunately the statement of Origen casts grave doubts upon the words brother of to Jesus in the
;
"
3
Jesus called Christ, for he twice describes
the
declares that Josephus
Jerusalem and the destruction
of
fall
3
as a divine retribution for the
murder of Temple this James a most highly improbable opinion to father upon Josephus, and no trace of which is to be found of the
either in the passage in
sidering
now
which the phrase we are con
stands, or in the rest of Josephus
works.
It is therefore exceedingly probable that this epithet
was taken from Origen and incorporated
into the text
These being the only Josephus by references that can be adduced in the voluminous later
of
scribes.
writings of the Jewish historian,
knows nothing of various
Though
of
"
the
it
Christ,"
follows that Josephus
though he knows much
"
Christs."
the argument from silence
must
be received with the greatest caution, 1
1895, 2nd cd.) ; xxxv. 1-18. 2
Bole
(Brixen 3
"
See Miiller (G. A.),
briick
;
(F.), "Flavius
;
Cliristus bei
and Reinach
Josephus (T.),
"
Contra
in all cases The Silence
cannot
Flavins"
"Rev.
Celsum," i.
47,
ii.
13.
fail
(\\\\\*-
Etud. Jin
Josephus iiber Christus und die
1896).
Origen,
it
Christen"
62
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
deeply to impress us in the case of Joseph ben Mattatiah for it is almost humanly impossible that, if the details of the Christian tradition and the affairs of the ;
world had been historically in the time of Josephus just what they are stated to have been in our Christian
canonical documents, the historian of that special age and country could have kept silence concerning them. If these things
were just as they are said
to
have been,
no convincing reason that we can assign for the silence of a man who, like Josephus, was in a most there
is
admirable position to know about them. Josephus had been trained in an Essene-like com
munity and seems even "
Essene
He
"
interests.
to is
have gone to Borne
just the
man
in
to tell us of
those early Christian communities which were formed
on models closely resembling those of the Pious and He goes to Home just when the Poor and the Naked. have been there, and no doubt was there, and just about the time when, if we are to believe Tacitus, the Christiani were singled out for public perse Paul
is
also said to
cution and cruel martyrdom by Imperial tyranny
yet he knows nothing of all ministry and death of Jesus
this.
With regard
;
and
to the
might be said that all this had happened before Josephus was born, though surely it might be expected that his father would have told
him
still
it
is
tragedy at
such stirring, nay overwhelming, events strange that with regard to the gruesome
of
;
Kome he
as of a
apparently knows not even so
it
much
of Christians.
community Was, then, the story
have
it
now ?
Were
in those days other
than we
the origins of Christianity, as
we
have elsewhere suggested, hidden among the pledged
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE. members
63
mystic communities and ascetic orders,
of the
and only imperfectly known among their outer circles, which were also largely held to secrecy ? Was it all of older date
Who
shall say
than we are accustomed to regard it ? with utter confidence ? The silence of
Josephus permits us to speculate, but gives us no answer to our questionings. It may be even that some items of
what the Jewish writer
us of other
tells
leaders of sects and claimants to Messiahship
been conflated and transformed
may have
on by our Gospel writers or their immediate predecessors, and so used to out the story of a
fill
historic data. of research
We
But
life for
later
which they had but little and obscure subject
this is a delicate
which requires new treatment. 1
thus see that, as far as our present enquiry
is
we can
obtain no positive help from any concerned, Pagan or Jewish writer of the first century, or for that
matter
of the first quarter of the second.
It
remains to
enquire whether from the fragments gospels or the remains of Old-Christian traditions and of extra-canonical
from the apocrypha generally we can get any help. If the general learned opinion on this literature, or
any rate on all of mention of the Herod at
namely, that
it is later
nothing to help
it
or
which in any way makes Pilate
dates,
holds
good,
than our Gospels, then we have
us.
But the recent
brilliant study of Corirady
2
on the The "
Book of James," commonly called the Protevangelium "
"
The Jesus of History and See the attempt of Solomon (G.), the Jesus of Tradition Identified" (London 1880). 2 Conrady (L.), Die Quelle der kanonischen Kindheitsgeschichte "
1
;
"
Jesus
"
(Gottingen
;
1900).
"Book
64
DID JESUS LIVE 100
(the
name given
to it
by
Postel,
who
B.C. ?
first
brought
light in the sixteenth century), the original of
to
it
which
is
already admitted by some to reach back as far as the middle of the second century, opens up a question
answered in the affirmative, would mean a revolution of our on views the canon and of complete the
"
if
which,
origins
1
of
Christianity."
Conrady believes that
he has demonstrated that in some of their details of the history of the infancy our first and third evangelists borrow from a common source, and that this source is
no other than our extant have
Book
He would
"
Protevangelium."
James is of Egyptian origin. Jewish Christian, but most probably an Egyptian and an Alexandrian. It is to be that this
it
"
The author was not
"
of
a
hoped that Conrady may follow up his excursion into this field of investigation
nature
by other researches
of a similar
and since he has raised the presumption that
;
we have
"
in the
"
Protevangelium
one
of the
"
"
many
Gospel writings referred to in the introduction third Gospel,
we may glance through the
of the
literature,
2
other than that of the distinct Pilate apocrypha, for a reference to Pilate. The
"
Gospel
we
This Peter,"
shall find only in the so-called
a considerable fragment of
"
Gospel
which relating
passion and death of Jesus was discovered in a
Akhmim
in
1885 and
first
been written during the 1
See
Review 2
Nicliol s "
published in 1892.
last ten years
of
to the
tomb
Much
at
has
on this interesting
review of Conrady s (book in
"The
Critical
(London), January, 1902.
See Preuschen
kanonischen
Antilegomena Die Reste der ausserEvangelien und urchristlichen Ueberlieferungen
(Giessen; 1901).
"
(E.),
:
"
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE.
65
fragment, but the general opinion of scholars is that the writer shows a knowledge of all our four Gospels. If,
however, the original of this fragment could be shown to be older than our Gospels (a most difficult under it would also rank among the "many." taking),
Although agreeing substanially with our Gospel accounts, very considerably in its more abundant details
it differs
from the simple narrative of the and is strongly Docetic, that is to
"
common
document,"
say, represents Jesus
Its Gnostic character, as suffering only in appearance. 1 however, in this respect (for as I have shown elsewhere the origin of Docetism does not depend on purely
doctrinal
considerations)
does
not,
necessarily point to a late date,
in
my
its
opinion,
elaboration of
though argue a later development of tradition as compared with the simplicity of the narrative of the On the other hand it may be "common document." detail
seems
that the
to
"common
process of
document"
had already begun the
"
selection."
Finally in this connection
we may have
pay more at- The Nicodemus or Acts to
"
tention to the so-called
"
"
Gospel
of
thirteen chapters of which describe Pilate," the trial of Jesus before Pilate, the condemnation, cruci
the
of
fixion
first
and resurrection, substantially in agreement with
our canonical Gospels, but containing many other details not found elsewhere. Though the present form of these
Acts
is
not earlier than the fourth century, the question
of there being
what the Germans
call a G-rundsclirift
them comparatively very early date underlying exceedan in Harris has recently been raised by Eendel a
of
1
"Fragments
of
a
Faith
Forgotten"
(London;
1900),
427.
5
p.
"
Acts of
66
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
1 ingly interesting monograph, in which he pleads for a
new
investigation of the subject, on the ground that he
has detected traces
Greek text
our
of
a
Homeric Gospel under the
Acta," that is to say a Gospel story of verses of the great Homeric out patched together literature. Among many other points of interest, he thinks he has shown that in the passage where Joseph
of
"
begs the body of Jesus from Pilate, "that Pilate has been turned into Achilles, that Joseph is the good old
Priam, begging the body of Hector, and that the whole story is based upon the dramatic passages of the twenty-
book
fourth pothesis
it
the
of
must be
Iliad";
said that
and in favour
we
of his
hy
know from
certainly the Sibylline literature that Jewish writers long prior to
the
first
century
our era used Homeric verses for
of
similar purposes.
Professor Harris thus contends that such a
Homeric
may have existed prior to Justin Martyr (c. and so this famous apologist, when in his Dialogue 150), with Trypho (cc. 102, 103) he twice refers to certain
Gospel
"
"
"
Acts of
Pilate,"
may
be saved from the
now
generally
endorsed imputation that his wish solely was father Justin may have had this much to his statement.
ground
for his assertion that there
G-rundschrift of our
was
in existence the
though of course these were by no means the official Eoman reports which he seems to have believed them to be.
"
Acta
The subject
much
"Acta,"
"
is
a fascinating one, but will not help us
in our present enquiry
for granting the exist ence of the underlying document, and also its Homeric 1
Kendel Harris
"
(J.),
Pilate "(London; 1898).
;
The Homeric Centones and
the Acts of
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE RECEIVED DATE.
67
nature, thus
accounting for its strange conflation of miracles and events (separately recorded in our canonical Gospels),
by the necessity
of the
vague and general
nature of the verse-tags which had to be employed by the Centonist it argues a later date than our Gospels. 1 It will thus be seen that our review of the earliest
external evidence for the date of Jesus, even
when we
take into consideration the most unusual lines of research, leaves us with nothing so distinct as does the result of
the analysis of the tradition of our canonical Gospels. The argument for the authenticity of the Pilate tradition centres round the obscure question of the date of the "common
document."
back the greater
is
The
earlier
we can push
this
the probability of the genuineness of
the tradition.
We
will
stories,
next turn our attention to the Talmud Jeschu
but before doing so
it
will be advisable to give
the general reader some idea of the Talmud itself, and append some further necessary preliminaries.
to
however, that the new edition of the Acts of for Pilate," being prepared by Dr. Ernst von Dobschiitz the great Berlin collection of early Church documents, will throw some new light on the subject. 1
It is to be hoped,
which
is
"
IV.
perhaps not too much to say that the Talmud has been the chief means whereby the Jews have preserved themselves as a nation ever since the time of the final
The Real Con- IT Jewry.
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD
is
destruction of their Temple, and the extinction of the last
shred of their political independence, until the
present day.
The Talmud
the chief
is
embodiment
of
that mysterious power which has kept alive the peculiar spirit
that
it
It is
the
Jewry, and never permitted Israel to forget
of
was a people apart. the Talmud which beyond
norm
of life for the
Jew
;
all else
has established
for it is the repository of
that multitude of rules of conduct and laws of custom
(Halachoth),
which the Kabbis, with a
ingenuity (which though intensely serious
bewildering is
frequently
a strangely perverse casuistic), deduced from the Law that Torah, which the Jews, in every fibre of their
had been given by God Himself, who had chosen their fathers from out the nations and being, believed
for ever
bound them
to
Himself by a special pact and
covenant.
But over and beyond this the Talmud is a vast store house of the strangest mixture of wise saws and witty sayings, of legend
and
folk-lore
and phantasy, parable
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD. and story, homily and
allegory,
69
1 magic and superstition,
compared to nothing so much as to some seething bazaar of the Orient, where all sorts and conditions of
to be
wisdom and
swarm
folly
together and are blended in
inextricable confusion.
The most convenient point of departure for a brief excursion into the domain of systematised Talmudic beginnings marks the
2
is
the period from 70 to 200
A.D.,
which
attempts at arrangement (for would give the reader a too precise idea of confused nature) of those rules of custom which first definite
codification its
Talmud
in
deprived the Jews
of
constitute the oldest deposit of the existing
both
forms.
its
The
fall of
Jerusalem in 70
A.D.
The Psycho-
even that comparative political independence which they Moment, had previously possessed. It was a terrible blow to the hopes of the nation, especially to for a material fulfilment of the
sacred rolls which
bore
those
all
who looked
promises in the the names of their ancient
many
they kept the Law, and were true to their covenant with Yahweh, all enemies should be
prophets
that
if
placed in subjection under their feet. And now not only was the Holy City destroyed and the Elect of the earth
prostrate
before the hated power of idolatrous
Rome, but the Holy Temple itself, the chief means, as they then believed, whereby they were to carry out their covenant, It
was a heap
was indeed a
of ruins
terribly tragic
!
moment even
in the
history of a people inured to tragedy in the past and 1
2
The Haggadic as contrasted with the Halachic element. The material itself of the oldest deposit of the Talmud being,
course, of
still earlier
date.
of
70
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
destined to a future replete with tragic terrors. It is true that even so the spirit of the Zealots 1 was not yet
broken
they were yet stubbornly to essay the fortune of arms in Trajan s time in the opening years of the ;
first century, and again in the desperate attempt of Bar Kochba in the closing years of Hadrian s reign (132-135 A.D.). But with the final shattering of their
hopes of a material Messianic victory by the crushing defeat of their champion, even the most irreconcilable The Study
of
were forced to abandon the unequal struggle. One thing alone remained to save out of the general ruin in Palestine the treasure of the Law. This
were convinced, had come upon them because they had not rightly kept their covenant with Yahweh. To the keeping of this bond they would now desolation, they
devote
remaining strength. The Study of should be the means of their future deliverance. "
all their
the Law From this
"
determination,
into which
they threw
all
the perseverance of their stubborn nature, there resulted a marvellous enthusiasm for collecting and preserving the traditions of their predecessors concerning the Law,
and
of still further developing
conduct and laws
of
custom
to
an infinity
meet
all
of rules of
the
diverse
changes and chances of Jewish life. By the end of the second century what were at that time held to be the more authoritative early traditions emerged in a final definitely fixed form the Mishna. 1 They were, so to speak, the national fanatics who appealed to the arbitrament of arms, to Yahweh as God of Battles, and by no means a philosophical sect," as Josephus would have it, except in "
so far as religion "Die
and
politics
were one for them.
Religion des Judentums
(Berlin, 1903), pp. 187, 188.
See Bousset ( W.),
im neutestamentlichen
Zeitalter
"
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD.
71
This was the nucleus of our present Talmud, the skeleton, so to say, round which the industry of the next three centuries built
by
development Gemara.
And
up the study completing
of the
Law
into
Mishna
the
its
with
full
the
seems almost as though it required The Need ltf that something of this kind should have been done if the Jews were to be preserved to play the important indeed
it
part they have played,
Western
in
and doubtless have
For had
history.
it
not
still
been
to play, for
the
e^ger zeal for this
Study displayed by the Palestinian
Rabbis of the
two centuries
first
of
our era,
it is
very
probable that the Jews would have been entirely ab sorbed in the nations. It was a period when in Baby
Jews who had contentedly remained behind at the time of the Eeturn (and they h those days constituted the majority of the nation),
lonia the descendants of the
had almost entirely forgotten the Law and its traditions from what we can make out of the dim historical ;
indications,
they seem
have been almost utterly
to
which they subsequently became In Egypt, again, where very large numbers
ignorant of that for so
famous.
of
the
md
Hebrews were permanently
settled,
Greek culture
Alexandrian mysticism had gradually weakened
yhe old exclusiveness
philosophy arid cosmopolitanism had greatly sapped the strength of pure legalism and narrow materialism, and the crude objectivity of ancient ;
legend and myth had long been allegorised into subtler forms more suited to immediate intellectual and spiritual
needs.
work elsewhere
The same
factors
were doubtless at
in the Diaspora or Dispersion of Israel,
while even in Palestine
itself
the
influence
of
the
of
72
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
numerous communities and to
a
more
universal view
strengthened
by the
associations of
things
crushing disaster
who looked
had
been
so
which had be
fallen the nation, that the forces of rigid conservatism
were being weakened in every direction, and the idess an Israel of God to be formed out of the Righteous of the world, irrespective of race, seemed to threaten of
the very existence of The Fathers xy
Indeed I
Jewry
am by no means
as a nation apart.
certain that there
was any
widespread orthodoxy in Jewry prior to the days of Mishnaic Rabbinism these Rabbis seem to me to ha\e ;
played for Judaism the same part that the Church Fathers played for Mcene Christianity they "
"
;
established a canon and an orthodoxy. Prior to th;s there was an exceeding great liberty of belief many even ;
rejected the Temple-cultus, at
rate as far as the
any was no general canon of scripture, saving the Pentateuch, and even this, as we shall see later on, was called into question by many;
sacrifices
were concerned
;
there
not only so, but even the Temple at Jerusalem was nol then regarded as the only place where the national cultue could be practised, for in Egypt in the vicinity of the traditional land of Goshen, the Jews had a temple
wherein they worshipped Yahweh for more than two hundred years (circa B.C. 160-A.D. 7 1). 1 As the Talmudic Rabbis created an orthodoxy by developing the Pharisaic traditions, so did their con temporaries, the Massoretic Textualists, stereotype the text of the Torah. At first the Greek translation of the Jews in Egypt had been regarded as equally inspired 1
"
Ginsburg
Edition of the
(C. D.),
Hebrew
Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical
Bible
"
(London
;
1897), pp. 404, 405.
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD.
73
with the original on which it was based; but in Mishnaic days, after the rise of Christianity which
adopted this translation as its scripture, the day on which the Septuagint translation was made was regarded by the Eabbis as a day of mourning. The widely from the Samaritan and from the original on which the version of the so-called Seventy was made from the third
Massorah tradition
century
of the text differs
onwards, as
B.C.
may
be seen from Ginsburg
s
monumental work. From all sides, then, we have proof that what we call Judaism to-day was not necessarily what Judaism was in the even in the
century before our era, or our era.
first
of
first
century seems most highly probable that the The strongest factor which helped to intensify Talmudic,
Indeed
that
is
it
to say
"
orthodoxising,"
activity
was the rapid
its emergence from an embryonic stage in which it was hidden in the womb of communities of a somewhat similar nature to those
spread of general Christianity, on
of
to
the Therapeuts.
More than ever was
put a fence round the Torah, that the
it
Law
necessary should be
preserved by Jews, as Jews, for Jews, when, by means of the ceaseless propaganda of Christianity of all shades, the Gentiles seemed to be robbing the Hebrews of their birthright
their
Holy Writ.
of their
Law and
The main claims
their Prophets
of
and
the Christians on
behalf of their Founder, so argued the
Eabbis,
were
based on mistranslation and misinterpretation of the sacred scriptures of their race. More than ever was it necessary to preserve these writings in their original tongue and purity, and to strengthen the tradition of the authoritative interpretation
of
their
fathers.
So
Great
74
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
thought the Rabbis, and unweariedly they laboured to
make The Evolution
strong their special tradition and develop
we owe
It is to this period that
it.
the formulation of
of Tradition.
many
vague, floating opinions and dim reminiscences
into distinct
and
out of
contradictory traditions of a view
many
should constitute
rigid formularies,
"
the
tradition."
and the selection that
Nay, sometimes the
bitterness of controversy brought to birth
"
"
traditions
which had had no previous existence. Just as the industry and high literary ability of the Sopherim, from the time of Ezra (about 440-400
B.C. 1 )
to the
days of the apocalyptic scribe or scribes of Daniel (about 164 B.C.), and even later, gradually evolved out of originally very scanty materials a grandiose tradition of preexilic greatness, priestly legalism, sonorous prophecy,
and splendid hymnody, 2 so did the Eabbis Talmudic period, 70-200 A.D., the Tanaim, all
legalise the
immediate predecessors, these gradually developed scriptures were not
tradition evolved by
that
of the first
their
only written throughout by those
archaic
worthies
whose names they bear, and immediately inspired by the Holy Spirit, but that Yahweh himself had given to
Moses the
five
His own hand.
books of the Torah proper written by It is on this fundamental presupposition
that the whole
Talmud
is
based.
of
the Halachic
development of the These norms of conduct and laws of
custom are founded on the Torah, expanded to include all three divisions of the Books or Holy Books," "
"
The
"
traditional date of Ezra s promulgation 444, but as late as 397 has been argued for. 2 For the latest remarks on the development Die Theologen." Bousset, op. cit., pp. 139. 1
"
"
"
of
of the
Law
is
Scribism see
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD.
75
1 Law, Prophets, and Hagiographa (or Holy Writings), as upon infallible revelation from Deity Himself, extend
ing to every word and letter.
In
brief,
the Eabbis would have
it
that the canon of
the Old Covenant revelation ceased with Ezra, whereas
modern
scientific research
has shown that in the highest
probability only began with that famous scribe. For the Eabbis of Palestine and Babylonia, 2 then, there it
was no prophet after Malachi; prophecy and direct inspiration had ceased with Ezra from that time they ;
would admit no addition
to the
Law, they acknowledged no subsequent prophet and of no
the authority of
It
subsequent scripture.
was
for
them a question only and logical
of the correct tradition of interpretation,
development of what had been once for all infallibly laid down. They were to vindicate the authority of the schoolmen and legalists against the claims of subsequent prophecy and apocalyptic of all kinds, and to do so they could find authority for their authority solely in the
An
"
Oral
Law."
exceedingly interesting glimpse behind the scenes A Glimpse e t was stereotyped by the
of scripture industry, before it
enactments of Talmudic Eabbinism, is afforded by a study of The Book of Jubilees," which was included in "
This interesting expansion of
the Alexandrian canon.
Genesis was written about therefore
before
us a
1
Torah, Nebiini, Ketubim.
The Jews
3
See Charles (R. H.),
Genesis"
Genesis
3
We
have slight
Alexandria had a far more extended canon.
(London; 1902).
is
B.C.
document which by a
2
of
135-105
"The
The
Book
of
Jubilees or the Little
traditional Christian title Little
a misnomer, as Jubilees is far more voluminous than it should rather be called the Detailed Genesis."
canonical Genesis
"
;
76
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
divergence of the wheel of fate might have been included in the Bible, for when we see such a book as Chronicles
Haggadic tendency writing of the second century B.C., which wrote up Kings and Samuel in the interests
(a
views) included in the canon, and observe that Jubilees treats the matter of Genesis and
of later priestly
Exodus
in precisely the
of a still later
that of the Chronicles
Samuel,
we
same
fashion, in the interests
and more developed
see the
priestly
view than
redactor in revising Kings and of scripture in the
making
shop and the continuation
of
the industry
work the
by
same writing guild, attended by very and only just failing to obtain a place in
fellowship of the great success,
the Palestinian canon.
of Jubilees,
thoroughly ashamed of of the crudities of the Ezra redaction of Genesis
The Jubilees
The Evidence
many
writer was
and Exodus, and rewrote the whole matter to suit the Jewish enthusiasm views of his own day and circle ;
was on top
of
the
wave
in
the
palmy
of
days
Maccabaean conquest, and the ambition of the priestly The whole spirit of the writer fanatics was boundless. is
further characterised by a detestation of
all
non-Jews
which fully justifies the strictures of the classical writers of the first century, and throws a flood of light on the nature
of
subsequent Zealotism, and the mania
exclusiveness
that
tickled
the
vanity
diabolised the gods of all other nations.
interesting also is the
document
of
Israel
of
and
Exceedingly
for students of later
Talmudic developments, for it presents us with earlier (and that, too, written) forms of Haggada and Halacha Mishnaic times were compelled to acquaintance with the literature of this
which the Eabbis modify.
An
of
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD. period also shows us
how
erroneous
persuasion of later days that the
is "
77
the general Jewish
Oral Tradition
"
had
been handed down unchanged.
Of great importance the Bible texts which often
also are the readings of
approximate more closely to those preserved in the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch (c. 250-200 B.C.) than those fifth
of the far later
Massorah
of the fourth or
century.
The Eabbis would have
it
finally that this Oral
Law
had always existed side by side with the Written Law In the first ever since the days of Moses onwards. or Pirke Aboth," chapter of the Mishna tractate Aboth," containing the Sayings of the Fathers," we are given what purports to be an unbroken succession "
"
"
of
Jerusalem, of
this
Moses of
who
to
the
destruction
of
are said to have been the depositories
Oral Law.
Joshua
;
Moses
from
individuals,
;
The succession runs
the Elders
the Prophets
;
the Great Assembly (from
famous
as follows
Ezra
s
;
the
:
Men
time to about
they were called, the last of which were Hillel (about 70 B.C. to
200
B.C.)
;
the
"
Five
10 A.D.) and Shammai; and son Simon.
Pairs,"
finally,
as
Gamaliel and his
the account given in the Mishna of the and it is not surprising that scientific research not only questions, but actually
Such
is
heredity of its tradition, if
reverses, the
judgment
of the
Mishnaic
Eabbis with
regard to the development of the Written Law, for it practically begins where they would have it cease, that
modern of the
scholars should hesitate to accept their account
Oral
Law without
question.
Even the most inattentive reader must be struck
The Oral 1
Heredity.
78
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
with the vague and fragmentary nature descent.
was known
little
Evidently
of the line of
of the past
;
even
tjie history great literary activity from the fourth to the second century B.C., which had practically
the
of
given them their Written Torah in the form in which
was utterly
lay before them,
it
of the
the
Great
Talmud
produce
Prophets,
made
much
of in
of the
Oral
are
nothing
of a historical
and labours
life
scantiest information,
we hear not
their literary activity
while
of
a word.
the very existence of the Accordingly, fe J Crreat
The Eabbis
nature concern
nay, of the succeeding period they can only the names of teachers to whom tradition
we can glean but the
theTraditional View.
"
;
ascribed certain sayings, but of whose
Objections to
so
nameless.
are
Men
The
immediate depositories
as the
Law from the evidently knew ing them
who
Assembly,"
forgotten.
"
Men
of the
has been questioned by modern Assembly and it has been conjectured with great prob
research,
ability, that the historical
germ
of the traditional idea
to be traced to the general
assembly of the people who were called together to accept that Law which had been rewritten by Ezra after the Eeturn (Neh. viii.-x.). is
"
In course
instead of an assembly of people
of time,
receiving the law, a college of individuals transmitting
the law was conceived
of,
and
this notion
latest
whom
of
extended."
Whatever
else
(Eng.
is
Kabbis
Schiirer (E.),
Christ"
memory
fill
1
Palestinian 1
the
to
prophets and those subsequent times still
up the gap between the scribes to
seems
"
A
trans.,
obscure
it
is
the Tanaite
of
clear
period,
that or
the first
History of the Jewish People in the Time of
London
;
1893), Div.
ii.,
vol.
i.
p. 355.
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD.
were busily engaged in establishing a for Judaism, and making it strong "orthodoxy"
Talmudic rigid
79
age,
against manifold
"
heresies."
l
The
fine literary activity of the nation
history of the past
which had produced
not only the great momurnents of scripture we still pos sess in the Old Testament documents, but much else, was utterly forgotten.
And
if
documents, some
we now know were written
of
which
as late as the Maccabsean
period, could be ascribed with every confidence to a David or a Daniel, we are justified in assuming that
the authority given for the Oral Tradition was, for the most part, of a similarly unhistoric nature. No doubt
the heredity of the methods employed by the
Tanaim
could be traced with very great probability as far back as Five Pairs," somewhere approach the earliest of the "
ing the beginning of the second century
that the
B.C.
;
but the
industry could only discover the names of two teachers for each generation, striking fact
greatest
seems to indicate either that no others were known, or that many names and tendencies had had to be eliminated in seeking the paternity of
that
special
tendency which the Tanaim erected into the test of orthodox Jewry. As to the Oral Law being con temporaneous with Moses, we must place this fond
same category with the still more start of later claim Kabalism, that its Tradition was first ling belief in the
delivered by
God Himself
to
Adam
in Paradise.
Again, the fact that the appeal for authority was to 1
See Weinstein (N. "
1901),
Die
"
J.),
Zur Genesis der Agada" (Gottingen and Kampf des Patriarchats ;
"
Minim,"
pp. 91-156,
gegen das Eindringen polytheistischer Ideen in die GelehrtenKreise des palastinisclien
Judenthums,"
pp. 157-252.
80
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
The Tradition an oral and not to a written source, 80 tericilts."
strange
when we remember
books
of
in
some
existence,
is
at first sight
that there were thousands of
them claiming the Thus the
authority even of an Enoch or an Adam. writer of
"
IV.
which
Esdras,"
in
every probability A.D.), tells us
was composed under Domitian (85-96 18
(xiv.
Holy books
Spirit .
Ezra prays to God he may again
ff.) "that
.
that
to grant
write
him out
his
the
which had been burnt (with the temple,
.
one understands). God bids him take to himself five companions, and in forty days and nights he dictates to them ninety-four books, of which seventy are esoteric writings, and the remaining twenty-four are the canon of the
Old
Testament."
l
It is
moreover to be noticed
that the numbers differ greatly in various forms of the text
;
thus
we have
also 204, 904,
the
number
eighty-four instead of ninety-four, but
and 974.
But whatever may have been
in the original text, this
that there existed at the end
very different
much we
of the first
century
learn, A.D.
a
view from that so strongly insisted on by
Talmud
namely, that there was a very extensive written tradition not only contempora neous with the Torah, but of equal inspiration with it, the builders of the
nay, of so precious a nature that
it
was kept apart and
guarded from public circulation. The adherents of this view, who, we know from the indications of the many mystic communications of the time and also of preceding centuries, were very numer ous, seem, it is true, to have been as ignorant of the actual history of the development of the twenty-four 1
K. Budde s
Biblica."
art.,
"The
Canon,"
17, in the "Encyclopaedia
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD. (or
and
twenty-two) books
of the
81
Torah as were the Tanaim,
this is strange, seeing that it is in the greatest
we must
ability to their predecessors that
assign the
more
spiritual elements into the Torah It was these esotericists and their communities
writing-in of the itself.
who were and
prob
in intimate contact with that ever-widening
tendency which we can
spiritualising
trace
in
Essenism, Therapeutism, Philonism, Hermeticism, and Gnosticism and it is their writings which as strongly influenced the development of Christianity as did the ;
twenty-four books of the Torah. Doubtless all of these schools and associations had Mysticism ,,
Oral
as
interest
well as
.,
,.,
,
written
,
,
.
.
.
but their main
traditions,
and Ortho^oxy.
was vision and apocalyptic.
themselves to the culture of of contemplation,
and
their
They devoted prophecy and the practice whole energy was centred
on the unfolding of those mysteries of the inner life which gave them a certainty of heavenly things. Whereas the chief concern of the Tanaim was the separation of
the national
life
from contact with
all
foreign religious influences by the ever more and more stringent insistence upon that peculiar legalism which the others had found, or were finding, more and "
"
more irksome, or had spiritual
more
liberal
the needs of
those
entirely cast off for a
interpretation, suited to
who were gathered round
the
cradle
of
the infant
Proteus that was destined to develop eventually into a new world -faith. It
midst
seems somewhat a sign of weakness that in the The Writing of so much that was written conservatism had to Tradition!
rely entirely on an oral tradition for its authority. that, however, as
it
may, the lack
of
Be
written authority 6
82
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
Mishnaic legalism as the orthodoxy of Israel seems gradually to have evolved a virtue out for establishing the
and we
of necessity,
Talmud
the tradition
that
in the
must on no account be
down but
Indeed solely committed to memory. times would have it that not only was the Mishna
written later
never written down even when
it
had reached
form about 200
A.D.,
contents of the
Talmud Completion,
committed
never
Saboraim
l
its final
but that the whole voluminous
to
(500-650
Amoraim
the
down
find it repeatedly laid
writing until the
time of the
the schoolmen
who followed
A.D.),
who wove
or those
or Gemara, were
the
Gemara on
to the
Mishna.
But
in
spite of
what we know of
memorising faculty
orientals,
2
of
the prodigious
and in
of the
Talmud
we might
scholars, while
the
of
spite
fascinating stories told of the marvellous feats of
memory
be tempted to
accept the oral tradition of the far less voluminous and
comparatively less complex Mishna text, the enormous mass and utterly confused and chaotic nature of the contents of the that
Gemara make
was handed on
it
it
very
solely
difficult to believe
by verbal
repetition.
seems far more probable that the Mishna was Indeed, fully committed to writing at the time of its final it
redaction about 200-207 A.D.
completion
how an
at
;
for
when we hear
this date, it is difficult to
authoritative
form
of
of its
understand of
codification
such
heterogenous material could have been arrived at by See Strack (H. L.), 1900, 3rd ed.), p. 55. 1
2
Even Western
"
Einleitung in den
Thalmud
"
(Leipzig
;
scholars have declared that the oral tradition of
a Vaidic text, for instance,
is
to be preferred to a written copy.
THE GENESIS OP THE TALMUD.
memory alone and if this be true much more must it hold good for the Mishna,
the exercise of the of the
With regard it
;
more voluminous matter
far
83
may,
of the
Gemara.
to the Halachic contents of the
Mishna, have been that the tradition of the
of course,
precedents on which the lawyers based their decisions had been kept private as the hereditary possession of a special profession
;
but surely some brief written notes
had
existed, perhaps also private collections of notes been made, even prior not only to the time of an Akiba in the beginning of the second century, but even of a
Gamaliel in the days of Paul. 1 Are we to believe that a Joshua ben Perachia and a
Judah ben Tabbai and a Simon ben Shetach, a Shemaiah and an Abtalion, a Hillel and a Shammai, a Gamaliel and an Akiba, left nothing in writing ? 2 Nithai, a
They surely must have done
good with regard to the tradition tative Halachoth,
much more
is
And
so.
of the
it
if
this holds
most authori
likely to have been
the case with that huge mass of Haggadic legend and
homily, and flotsam which the Talmud is of
and jetsam filled.
of like nature,
with
Indeed, a scientific review
Talmud passages germane to the question, most confused state of mind on the subject,
the
all
reveals a
even among* the many makers of that stupendous patchwork themselves. While on the one hand we find it 1
most stringently forbidden
At the* final
redaction of Rabbi Jutlah
s
down Halach-
Mishna there existed
number
of previous Mishnas (e.g., of R. Akiba, of R. of R. Meir). It is said even that there are traces in the
already a
Nathan,
to write
Talmud
of Mishnas attributed to Hillel and other early Tanaim. See Block (J. S.), "Einblicke in die Geschichte der Ent. stehung der talnmdischen Literatur (Wieu ; 1 884), pp. 2 ff. 2
"
84
DID JESUS LIVE 100
we come
oth,
across
written Halachoth oth
;
B.C. ?
references
isolated
and though the writing
to of
older
Haggad-
apparently included in the general we meet with very precise references to prohibition, and books even collections of such books. 1 Haggada In fact, while the North-French Kabbis of the well
as
is
Middle Ages held that the Talmud was never committed to writing till after its final completion at the end of the
fifth
century
the Spanish Kabbis maintained
A.D.,
Mishna was written down by Kabbi Jehuda (136-217 A.D.), the Palestinian Gemara by Eabbi that the
Jochanan (199-279), 2 and the Babylonian Gemara by Eab Aschi (375-427) and Eab Abina (head of the Sura School 473-499). This difference of opinion was prob ably owing to the fact that the French Eabbis had to
depend almost entirely on their memories, owing
The Main ^
Talmud
for
Christians.
MSS. by the
their
the
burning
the
Spanish Eabbis
of
of
to
Inquisition, while
an earlier date were
still
in
enjoyment of their literary liberty. But whatever may have been the precise mode of ^ ne genesis, development and transmission of the text
un til lies
it
growth in the form which now and however difficult it may be to sift
reached
before us,
its full
out reliable historical data from the dim and confused indications of its contradictory assertions, the tractates
Talmud remain
of the
like the
mounds
of
some great
buried city of the past to challenge the industry and ingenuity of the courageous explorer to ever fresh 1
See Block "
ung,"
2
2,
And
s
"
Einblicke,"
pp.
viii,
ix
this
in
cited in the Palestinian
even a century
;
and Strack s
"
Einleit-
pp. 49-55. face of the fact that many of the authorities
Das Verbot des Schreibens,
later.
Gemara
"
lived after
R. Jochanan, some
THE GENESIS OF THE TALMUD. exertions, in the hope of laying bare traces
the outlines of
some
85
from which
of the ancient buildings
may
be
reconstructed.
And
to
none can the Talmud be
of greater interest
than to the student of Christian origins.
We
will
not go so far as to say with Eeuchlin that the Talmud written by Christ s (or even the Mishna) is a book "
nearest
relations,"
but
it is
ungainsayable, as has so
often been pointed out before, that every purely ethical precept in the Gospels can be paralleled in the Talmud
by sayings ascribed to the ancient Rabbis of Israel. In the Talmud we have a strong stream of tradition
which generation by generation, we might almost say year by year, runs parallel with the primitive streamlet
which into
so rapidly widens out into the river, and finally the flood of Christianity. Here, if anywhere,
should
we expect
to find reliable information as to
how
what subsequently became the great religion of the West arose, who was its founder, what the matter and method of the teaching, and who were the earliest followers of the teacher.
But before we the
history
of
discuss the passages
which are said
we must
give some rough idea of the written Talmud, and show how
to refer to Jesus,
these passages were gradually singled out to form the
ground
of bitterest
controversy and persecution.
V._THE TALMUD IN HISTORY "
Jutsinian
s
FROM
Justinian, who, as early as 553 A.D., honoured a special interdictory Novella, down to Clement by
it
VIII. and later a space of over a thousand years both the secular and the spiritual powers, kings and emperors, popes and anti-popes, vied with each other ,
and
in hurling anathemas
bulls
and
edicts of
and conflagration against
sale confiscation
whole
this luckless
book."
So
writes
Immanuel
Deutsch, and
graphic and romantic panegyric, which
truly,
for
in
the
his first
time gave the English-reading public a reasonable account of the Talmud and its history. 1 2 Although it has been lately disputed whether it is
Talmud expressly
the
edict
"
to
Concerning the
which Justinian referred in his of
February 13, 553, it seems highly probable that Deutsch is correct. By this outrageous Novella the wretched Hebrews were Deutsch
1
Quarterly 2
far
An
;
1899), p.
"What
is
the
Talmud?"
in
"The
(London), Oct. 1867, pp. 417-464.
Review"
Popper (W.),
York
art.
(I.).,
Jews,"
Censorship of Hebrew Books" (New This is the best monograph which has so
"The
3.
appeared on the subject of Talmud persecutions and censorship. excellent bibliography of the literature is given on pp. iv.
and
v.
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY.
87
permitted to use only a Greek or Latin translation of
They were strictly for Hebrew, and, above all things, they were prohibited from using what is called the second edition (secunda editio), which was evidently
the Torah in their synagogues.
bidden to read the
Law
in
"
"
also
written
edition
"
in
Hebrew
or
Aramic.
This
"second
can hardly mean anything else than the Mishna
completions, for the Greek equivalent of mishna was Sevrepcixris, generally taken by those imperfectly
and
its
acquainted with Hebrew to signify some second rank or form of the Law, instead of "learning" in the "
"
secondary sense of
"
repetition."
Such impolitic tyranny in those darkest days of narrowest ecclesiasticism, which had succeeded in closing every school of philosophy
Christian world, could not but the
more dear
persecuted
to
the
Jews.
and learning in the
make
the
The more
for their faith s sake, the
Talmud
all
they were
more desperately
they clung to the immediate cause of their martyrdom that tradition in which no Christian had part or lot. The Talmud thus gradually became more precious to
Jew
even the Torah itself, which, by had become the common property of the translation, Gentiles, few of whom at this time in the West could the
than
read a word of the ancient
Thus ignorance bred
Hebrew
fear
original.
and fostered hate, and The
by the eleventh century, we find the passions a fierce fanaticism let loose against the luckless
already, of
Hebrews, when the
Crusaders, in
their
wild
rush
behind them a path of desolation for the Dispersion of Israel in every land
towards Constantinople,
left
they traversed, marked out by blood and
fire,
by the
Crusades,
88
DID JESUS LIVE 100
bodies of murdered of
Hebrew
ones and smouldering piles said that, after this avalanche
little
It is
rolls.
B.C. ?
of ruthless destruction, in
many towns
scarce a single
prayer-book remained for the use of a whole synagogue. There is another side to the romance of the Crusades, of
which our
school-books
frequently
they
into
degenerated
where hecatombs
of
no word
breathe
Hebrews paid
;
not
in
Jew-hunts,
pure
anew the
ever
one slain Christ, whose ever-living well believe, felt keener torture at the
ancient debt of heart,
we may
savagery
His
of
self-styled followers than did
even the
bodies of the victims of their hate. The
Inquisi-
But it was not till the thirteenth century, which witnessed the founding of the Mendicant Orders, and the establishment of that instrument of terror known as the
Holy
Inquisition, that
we meet with what may
be called the organised official destruction of Hebrew books, and the saddest part of the sad story is that in it was a Jew who brought matters and procured the deliverance of the books of
almost every instance to a crisis,
his race to the flames.
The place
first
in
fanatical
official
1233,
burning
at
Hebrew
of
Montpellier,
where
Antimaimonist, persuaded
and Franciscans
of the Inquisition,
the
books took a
Jew,
a
Dominicans
who knew nothing
purely internal struggle between conservatism and liberalism in Jewry, to commit to the flames all of this
the works of the great Maimonides. In the same year, at Paris, no less than 12,000
volumes
of the
Talmud were burned.
information to those
who could
of the great literature
Converts gave not read a single line
which they so madly longed
to
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY. extirpate,
89
and eagerly pointed out the hiding places
where the precious were stored away.
rolls of their
former co-religionists
In 1236, Donin, of Eochelle, in France, a convert The baptised under the name of Nicolas, laid thirty-five formal charges against the Talmud before Pope Gregory IX. 1 the chief of which was that in many passages it ;
used blasphemous language in speaking of Jesus and Mary. A few years later (May or June, 1239), Gregory issued
a
spiritual,
stringent in
decree to
France,
all rulers,
England,
Castile,
temporal and
Aragon
and
Portugal, commanding them to seize every copy of the Talmud upon which they could lay hands. Whereupon in France a formal trial was held before a commission consisting of
whom knew
two Bishops and a Dominican, not one of word of Hebrew, and the Talmud
a single
was incontinently condemned
to the flames.
The Jews,
however, appealed against this cruel decree with such energy that the carrying out of the sentence was post poned, and a new trial ordered, at which Mcolas himself
was the accuser, while four French Eabbis undertook the defence, led by E. Jehiel of Paris. "After
seeking to invalidate most of the charges,
Eabbis turned to the most important point, and acknowledged that the Talmud contained slighting the
references to a certain Jesus. But, by taking into account the dates mentioned in the Talmud, and other 1 He is said to have done so in revenge for having been ex communicated by the French Rabbis because of the doubts he had See expressed concerning the validity of the Talmudic tradition. art. Jewish Apostasy and Apostates from Judaism in the Encyclopaedia," on which I have drawn for some of the following "
"
details.
"
Paris
90
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
evidence furnished by the early Church Fathers them show that another Jesus, who,
selves they attempted to
had lived at some time
was the subject
earlier than Jesus of
of these
notices."
Nazareth
l
It is hardly necessary to add, however, that the
un
fortunate Rabbis failed to convince the commission.
The Talmud was again formally condemned. No less than twenty waggon-loads of MSS. were collected in Paris, and on June 17, 1244, a huge auto-da-fi, of some 17,000 or 18,000 volumes lit up a conflagration, the insatiable
which spread rapidly
flames of
to
every
Jewish home throughout the Holy Roman Empire and devoured that treasure of tradition which the Rabbis held dearer than their Persecution in Spain.
lives.
With the condemnation of the Talmud all the rest of Hebrew literature was practically involved. Thus in 1263 we find another convert, baptised under the name Paul Christian (Pablo Christiani or Fra Paolo, of Montpellier), inducing the Pope, Clement IV., to issue of
an order that should
be
were found
all
Hebrew MSS.
collected to contain
for
of
every kind in Aragon
examination,
and
any passages obnoxious
if
they
to Chris
they should be destroyed or strictly expurgated while in 1266, also at Barcelona, we meet with a com
tians,
In England.
;
mission assembled for the same purpose. In England, however, the Talmud was apparently not burnt, for a simpler means of suppressing it was found wholesale expulsion of the
the
in 1
Popper, op.
cit.,
p.
10.
Bui
this
Jews,
a
method
apology can be as
little
sustained as can the evasion of Wiilfer, Lippmann and Isaac Abarbanel, that the Jesus of the Talmud and the Jesus of the
Toldoth were different persons. (Berlin
;
1902), pp. 8, 9, 273, n. 4.
See Krauss,
"Das
Leben Jesu
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY. in other countries as well.
91
resorted
to
we
Honorius IV., in 1286, writing to the Arch
find
Nevertheless,
dam bishop of Canterbury, warning him against that nable book," and strictly admonishing him that he "
should allow no one to read
it (meaning doubtless that no Jew should be permitted to read it, for the Christians,
in consequence of their ignorance of for in the
"
Hebrew, could not) a evils flow from
Pope s opinion all which phrase suggests that the influence of the Talmud and traditions was not confined to Jewry. teachings it,"
In the midst
Pope
alone,
of all this hurly-burly of
Clement
Before
sense.
V.,
showed some
anathema one One
signs of
common-
Sensible
pe
*
the Talmud on sight, know something about it, and in
condemning
Clement desired
to
1307 proposed that chairs should be founded for the study of Hebrew, Chaldee and Arabic in the Universities of
Paris,
liberal
Salamanca, Bologna and Oxford.
But
this
came to nothing, and though we are somewhat of a lull succeeded to the most acute
proposal
told that
stage of
Talmud persecution from 1232
to 1322, it
was
owing probably to the great secrecy to which the Jews were compelled to resort in multiplying and trans mitting the remnants of their literature from generation to generation, rather than to any greater toleration on the part of the authorities.
In Spain, indeed, things were
Solomon Levi and
of
Burgos,
still
at fever heat,
who was formerly
where
a Eabbi
Jewish orthodoxy familiar with the great Talmudists of the age, but who became a Christian pillar of
under the name rose
to
devoted
of
Paul de Santa Maria, and quickly
the position of
mV
great
talent
Archbishop of Carthagena, and learning to overthrow
Spanish r
s
92
DID JESUS LIVE 100 His
B.C. ?
Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives of Lorca, who also became a Christian under the name of Geronimo de Santa Fe, accused the Talmud of Judaism.
disciple,
teaching blasphemy and of every hostility against the Christians, after he had unsuccessfully conducted a 1
debate concerning the Messianity of Jesus for no less than twenty-two months with some of the learned
He
Rabbis of Aragon (1413-1414).
Jews
"The
fall
e
known
is
to the
Blasphemer."
Even the prayer-books
Even the the Jews
as
of
the
Hebrews could not
Already in 1336 Abner of Burgos (Alfonso a Talmudic scholar, philosopher and Burgensis),
escape.
physician, "
to
who
become
a
said
is
sacristan
have
to
a
of
turned
wealthy
Christian,
church
of
wrote bitter attacks against his former Valladolid," co-religionists, declaring that one of their daily prayers, "
Birkat
ha-Minim,"
whereupon Alfonso
was directed against the Christians an edict forbidding them
;
XL issued
to recite this prayer.
We
find subsequently that
even the simplest Hebrew
prayers could not escape the subtle refinements of accu sation brought against them by inquisitorial informers.
Thus we learn that
in
Germany who on conversion took the name declared that the
certain Pessach,
a of
Peter in
Jewish prayer-books
tained attacks on Christianity.
1
1399,
secretly con
The following
is
a
curious instance of this rage of accusation.
In one of the most famous and apparently the most which extols Alenu innocent prayers of the nation "),
("
the omnipotence of
God on
earth, there
is
a passage which
1 Dalman gives the original text of sixteen subsequently expur gated prayers from the Liturgy of the Synagogue.
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY. runs
"
:
93
He
hath not made our portion like theirs nor For they like that of all their multitudes.
our lot
worship and bow down before idols and vanities" The words and vanities stand in unpointed Hebrew E by one of the well-known methods of kabal"
"
W
K
istic
computation the sum
;
316,
precisely
J Sh
U
or Jeschu, the
of
number-letters
these
sum
of
the
Talmudic form
of
Jesus
the same
as
Pessach would thus have
the
it
that
=
letters !
even the most
Jewry contained attacks
innocent-looking prayers
of
on Christianity, and
in truth marvellous that in
the face
it
is
such bitter and relentless persecution a Jewish writing remained. Indeed, had it
of
scrap of
not been for the inexhaustible sources of replenish ment in the East, and the wonderful memory of the Eabbis, the triumph of the Destroyer would have been complete and the Talmud wiped from off the face of
the earth by the Inquisition. With the age of the Kenaissance, however, and the
enormous impetus given to liberal studies by the invention of printing, 1 some respite was given to the Talmud, but by no means as yet was liberty assured for though the unfortunate Jews had no longer to fear the wholesale destruction of their
long-suffering
;
books in
all
countries,
they were
the galling tyranny of the
still
subjected
to
official censor.
Indeed, even in this age of comparative enlightenment the bitterest foes of the Talmud still lived in hopes of reviving the old campaign of extermination with all terrors,
and
it is
its
sad to record that the history of nearly
The first Hebrew book printed was probably a commentary of Kashi on the Torah (February 17th, 1475). 1
A
History
ofA P
states
-
94
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? the troubles of the second stage of persecution
all
still
almost entirely
Not
to
is
l
a history of apostates." the bitter enmity of Victor von "
of
speak 2 Karhen, a German Jew who became a Dominican in the early part of the sixteenth century, the most
name
notorious
Pfefferkorn
name
Moravia, a
of
all
Pfeffer
Dominicans, and in 1507 published
also joined the
attack in a fierce tract,
his first
despised above
in the present day. 3
Jews even
others by the
korn
that of Joseph (baptised as Johann)
is
"Der
Judenspiegel,"
an onslaught which was intended to culminate in one fatal blow to Judaism, namely the confiscation of
And
Talmudic writings.
all
first
succeeded beyond
mediate result
his
of
Maximilian
Emperor
all
indeed Pfefferkorn at
agitation
was
revive
the
to
to
im
the
for
expectation,
induce
the
time-honoured
decree of confiscation, which was eagerly carried out
under Pfefferkorn
s
who knew only
supervision,
too
well where he could lay hands on the precious books of his
former co-religionists. "
says, Reuchlin.
the
famous
distinguished
and
Hebraist
appointed to
sit
mind refused
to
1
Popper,
his
Hellenist
of
on the commission.
the
ensued."
most
the time,
was
His enlightened a most
He
accordingly set himself to painstaking fashion to make himself
op. cit., p. 22.
2
So Deutsch
3
The
"
Humanist,
condemn the Talmud without
searching enquiry. in
Deutsch
this time, as
a conflagration of a very different kind
Eeuchlin,
work
But
but Karben in Jewish Encyclopaedia
"
;
Jewish
Encyclopaedia."
"
(art. sup. cit.)
says that he
was
"
a
butcher by trade, a man of little learning and of immoral conduct, convicted of burglary and condemned to imprisonment, but released upon payment of a fine."
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY. master of
its
95
The Talmud had
voluminous contents.
an impartial mind among its judges; had found a courageous defender, for in October
at last found it
nay,
1510, Eeuchlin issued his famous answer to Pfeffer-
korn s onslaught, and boldly declared himself in favour of the book.
Hereupon ensued hosts of
official
a fierce battle, in
which the massed
theology and obscurantism were mar
shalled against the courageous
champion of enlightened and elementary justice. Europe was flooded with pamphlets, and faculty vied with faculty in angry toleration
condemnation
of
Without exception, every
Eeuchlin.
university was against him.
Indeed
the faculty of
Mainz, among other egregious notions, put forward the ludicrous proposition, that as the Hebrew Bible did not agree with the Vulgate (Jerome
s
Latin translation), the
Hebrew must manifestly have been
in
falsified
many
places by the malevolence of the Jews, and, in particular,
the wording of the
"
"
original references
Old Testament had been deliberately
to Jesus in the
altered.
Had
Eeuchlin stood absolutely alone he would have been overwhelmed by the first onrush of his countless but to their lasting credit there rallied to his banner a chosen band of enlightened and courageous friends, the Humanists, who, though they were dubbed foes
;
"
Talmutphili,"
of the
Holy
declared themselves to be the
Ghost,"
and the
"
Hosts
of Pallas
fighting for the credit of Christianity
"
Knights Athene,"
and not
for the
.
Talmud as Talmud. At first the Pope, Leo X., favoured Eeuchlin, but the The Germ outcry was so fierce that he finally weakened, and in 1516 sought a way out
of the
hurly-burly by promulgate
of
DID JESUS LIVE 100
96
B.C. ?
ing a Bull that in future no book should issue from the press without previous submission to the official censor.
The germ of the Index Expurgatorius had been conceived. 1 Librorum Prohibitorum "
"
"
Index
"
But before
this
instrument of emasculation and pro
hibition could be brought into play, the first complete
edition of the
Talmud had escaped the
censor,
and had
already been printed at Venice in 1520, at the very time when the knell of much in the old order of things
was being sounded in Germany, and Luther was burning the Pope
s
bull at Wittenberg.
This much, at
least,
Eeuchlin and those
had escaped the
who
fire.
was won by the courage of round him the Talmud
rallied
Not only
so,
but
many began
to
study the treasures of Jewish literature for themselves, and in Italy there ensued the greatest industry in print ing
Hebrew books
;
indeed,
some writers have called
this
Golden Age of the Talmud. It was a time when the greatest minds among the Humanists were drink the
"
"
ing deeply of
The Talmud Relighted.
"
Jewish
philosophy,"
the age of revived
Kabalism and mystic culture. But it was not to be expected that the
fierce spirit
persecution would quietly yield to the gentler in fluences at work, and be content with censorship alone f
;
nay, these humanising tendencies exasperated it to such a pitch, that in 1550 Cardinal Caraffa, the Inquisitor-
General, and
in this connection,
one need hardly add
a Dominican, almost succeeded in lighting
up the
He procured again throughout the land. a Bull from the Pope repealing all previous permission
Talmud
1
From
fires
that day onwards the Talmud has always been on the is still on the Index of Leo XIII.
Index, and
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY.
97
Talmud, and bursting forth with fury at his minions, seized every copy he could find
to study the
the head of
Eome and committed
in
it to
the flames.
In Italy also Sixtus of Sienna, a converted Jew, supported by Pope Paul IV., incited the mob to burn every copy of the Talmud upon which they could lay In Cremona, Vittorio Eliano, also a convert, hands. testified
against
the Talmud,
and 10,000
to
12,000
Hebrew books were burned in 1559. His brother Solomon Eomano also procured the burning of many thousands of Hebrew rolls. In the same year every Hebrew book in the city of Prague was confiscated. But, fortunately, this was the expiring flicker of the The the Destroyer in that form, and in the future we
life of
hear of no more burnings. The Talmud was hereafter to the tender mercies of an ignorant censor and therewith of a deliberate self-censorship, ship,
committed
whereby every sentence which might by any means be thought to refer to Christianity was omitted by the
Jews themselves, so that their books might escape the sad disfigurement of slap-dash obliteration. There was much expurgation by ignorant heads and careless hands, till
gradually
lists of
passages were
converts, to guide the
1578, the
"licensed"
unlearned
drawn up, mostly by
officials,
and
Basle edition of the
finally, in
Talmud was
conformity with the censorship and the decisions of the egregious Council of Trent on which
issued
in
nearly every subsequent edition of the book has been based. Not only so, but we find the Kabbis themselves
forming their 1
and
own
censorship committees
1
to
prevent
In 1631 the Jews held a synod at Petrikau, in Poland, decided to leave out all such passages for fear of the 7
Censor,
DID JESUS LIVE 100
98
B.C.
?
any book being printed by their co-religionists which might bring down the wrath of the authorities upon
The seventeenth and
their long-suffering communities.
eighteenth centuries thus witnessed the circulation of an emasculated and defaced Hebrew literature, from
which not only was the root
of offence to Christian sus
ceptibilities cut out, but much that was entirely innocent 1 The nature of this ridiculous of any offence whatever.
and hysterical susceptibility to find offence in the simplest words and phrases may be seen from Deutsch s
humorous word-picture. His
"
In
the
Basle
edition
1578
of
.
.
.
which
remained the standard edition almost ever since
amazing
creature,
the
anxiety to protect the for
the
Censor,
Faith
stepped
from
Talmud was supposed
all
in.
In
has that his
and every danger
to hide bitter things
against Christianity under the most innocent words and
very wonderful things. When found some ancient Koman in the book
this official did
phrases
he, for example,
swearing by the Capitol or by Jupiter of Rome/ his mind instantly misgave him. Surely this Eoman must be a Christian, the Capitol the Vatican, Jupiter the
And
Pope.
forthwith he struck out
Eome and
sub
any other place he could think of. A favourite seems to have been Persia, sometimes it was Aram spot and Babel. So that this worthy Roman may be found
stituted
unto this day swearing by the Capitol of Persia or by the Jupiter of Aram and Babel. But wherever the *
word Gentile occurred, the Censor was
Nevertheless, we find that the Amsterdam Talmud (1644-1648) was not bowdlerised.
Christians.
the 1
seized with the
See Popper, op.
cit.,
chh. viii.-xii.
edition of
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY. most frantic
A
terrors.
be aught but Christian
99
could not possibly
Gentile
whether he lived in India or in
;
Athens, in Eome or in Canaan whether he was a good Gentile and there are many such in the Talmud ;
or a wicked one.
him
christened
Instantly he christened him, and
moved him, an Egyptian/ an
as fancy
Arab, a Amalekite/ an Negro sometimes a whole people. We are speaking strictly
Aramaean,
an
All this
to the letter. "Deutsch
;
is
himself was a
when he wrote
tiariity
extant in our best
his
editions."
Jew converted
famous
to Chris- Immanuel
article in 1867, yet
how marvellously
does he differ from his predecessors of the Middle Ages, who led the onslaught on the
Talmud, and expressly singled out the subsequently expurgated passages for the main strength of their attack Deutsch passes them by with scarcely a !
notice,
and seems never
main cause
the
of all
have realised that they were the trouble, and we have the new to
and pleasant spectacle of a converted Jew penning the most brilliant defence of the Talmud which has ever been written outside the
circles of
orthodox
Jewry."
So I wrote when this chapter appeared as an article in "The Theosophical Eeview" (Oct. 1902); I had then
no doubt on the subject, because of the frequent use of the words our Lord throughout this famous defence. "
"
What, then, was my surprise to find that an old friend of Deutsch s denied absolutely that he was a convert, and asserted that the editor of the Quarterly," much to "
Deutsch into
"
annoyance, had deliberately changed our Lord throughout the article. The s
"
Jesus
"
"
"
Jewish
(Nov. 21, 1902) also pointed out that I was mistaken in describing Deutsch as a convert to Chronicle"
100
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
Whereupon I wrote to the Chief Rabbi, Adler, who courteously replied as follows was very intimate with the late Immanuel Deutsch,
Christianity.
Dr. "
I
and
Hermann can
:
state
that in
unhesitatingly that he was deeply the first edition of the Quarterly *
annoyed Eeview Jesus was spoken
our Lord.
of as
This was
changed in the subsequent seven or eight editions of that
number
of the
*
It so appears, however, in
Quarterly.
Literary Remains
the republication of the article in the of the late
The
Immanuel Deutsch (Murray
self -constituted censor, therefore,
his activity to
interest
even in 1867 notice
;
is
it
1874)."
a matter of profound
how morality
behind morality in ordinary
;
had not ceased
in
affairs,
theology hangs even in our own
day. Cryptogiap y
But
to the student of history
and the watcher
fates of nations, the proceedings of the ignorant
censor are of profound interest.
of the
Talmud
would almost seem
It
by a curious turning of the karmic wheel, the very methods used deliberately by the Jews them selves in the far-off days of Talmud genesis had come as though,
back to vex the Jewish soul against its will. How often in those days of bitter religio-political strife had they not substituted Babylon or
Edom
Rome, and under glyph and for
hidden their real thought and feeling And now what they had done willingly, and imagery so vexed the soul of history, was being done to them !
unwillingly by the hands
knows what
of
the
dull censor.
a thorough study of the
Who
Talmud from
this
point of view may not yet reveal of hidden history ? For, as Deutsch says, and in its wider sense it remains true until the present day
:
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY.
101
We
have sought far and near for some special book subject, which we might make the theme of our a book that should not merely be a observations "
on the
garbled translation of a certain twelfth century
Intro
duction/ interspersed with vituperations and supple mented with blunders, but which from the platform of
modern culture should pronounce impartially upon production which,
through age
for
if
no other reason, claims respect
a book that would lead us through the
which the Talmud
and thought, and fancy, that would rejoice even,
of fact,
stupendous labyrinths of
a
consists,
and
in hieroglyphical fairy-lore, in abstruse propositions
syllogisms, that could forgive wild bursts of passion, and not judge harshly and hastily of things, the real
which
meaning
of
fool s cap
and
We
have
may have had
to be
hidden under the
bells."
italicised the
words which point
to a
most
especially in con
important element in the Talmud, nection with our present enquiry, an element of con cealment, the secrets of which even a text in which
all
the expurgated passages have been replaced, and the
whole
critically restored to its original purity,
nowise reveal to the pure objectivist. will
doubtless for
Talmud
in
many
many
a
day
to
would in
This element
come make the
passages as puzzling a study as those
strange books of alchemy to which Eeuchlin so aptly
compared
it.
But
in
of its great difficulty, it
spite
cannot but be that with a deeper study of this element, and perhaps some day with the help of those methods of a scientific subjectivism to
which we referred in our
Introduction, some clear light
may
at
no distant date
be thrown, even on some of those passages which the
BID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
102
hate and fear of centuries have singled out as referring to Jesus in the Anti-
Whether
Talmud.
or not the present praiseworthy attempt, as
set forth in the pages of the
"
Jewish
Encyclopaedia,"
at
supply the thinking public with a reliable account of the Talmud in its multifarious aspects, will cover the last to
whole ground and boldly face the most difficult of problems without fear or prejudice, remains to be
Unknown
as
this
ancient controversy
not
is
all its
seen.
the
to
unknown on
the English-speaking world, Continent even in our own day. Indeed, in Eussia and Austria it still enters into the deplorable Anti-semitic it
Thus we
question.
Lecturer in
Academy
x
Hebrew
is
and
find a Professor of Theology of the Imperial
Eoman
Catholic
at St. Petersburg, in a recent work, 2 raising
the whole question again, not in the interests of science
and
history, but in the interests of theology
and Anti-
he brings forward a number of the Jesus passages in the Talmud, and in his con cluding words introduces us to a thoroughly mediaeval
In
semitic propaganda.
He tells
state of affairs.
it
us that
all
who had heard
of the
publication of his book told him with one voice that he would be put away by the Jews. Some tried to dis
suade him by reminding him of the fate of Professor Chiarini, who died suddenly when he determined on
undertaking a translation of the Talmud others spoke of the monk Didacus of Vilna, a Jewish convert, who ;
was 1
and
killed,
Deckert s title-page !
Pranaitis
of
others
persecuted in
"
(I.
copy of this
is
it
stands on
(op. sub. tit.).
B.),
Christianas in
Kabbinicae Doctrine de Christianis
No
who were
a contradiction in terms, but so
This seems
in the British
Talmude Judseorum,
Secreta"
Museum.
(St.
Petersburg
;
sive
1892).
THE TALMUD IN HISTORY.
103
various ways because they disclosed the secrets of the
Jewish religion not only himself but his relatives would ;
be exposed to danger.
But, continues this theological
Bombastes, after evoking the phantasms of his
own
im"
agination, no consideration for his own personal safety will deter him from his task, and from rushing into the
fray between Semites and Anti-semites, who both think they are fighting for the truth whereas he at last really ;
knows what
is
willing to bear
He
the truth of the whole matter. all,
even to
is
offer his life for the cause.
pure childishness, but it shows the Odium If ingrained medievalism of the theological nature. Pranaitis thesis had remained in its original Latin, This
is,
of course,
might have soon sunk into oblivion, but
it
it
was
immediately translated into German by Dr. Joseph Deckert of Vienna, 1 who more than doubled its length
by adding notes and comments, crammed with cita from the most recent Anti-semitic literature
tions
and the reports especially
singled
of
ritual
murder
trials.
2
Deckert
out for animadversion a book by
a Jewish controversialist Dr. Lippe, 3 and
we move
in
a hurly-burly so utterly foreign to the temper of the twentieth century in its dealings with every other subject,
that
we
logicum 1
"
are almost inclined to think that
Odium Theo-
enemy which humanity
will ever slay.
is
the last
Das Christenthum im Talmud der Juden oder
der rabbinisclien Lehre iiber die Christen 2 3
See
art., "Blood Accusation,"
in
die Geheimnisse
"
(Vienna
"Jewish
;
1894).
Encyclopaedia."
Das Evangelium Matthaei vor dem Forum der und des Talmud (Jassy 1889). This also is not in -the "
Lippe (K.),
Bibel
"
;
Museum
a curious work, with, among other things, no less than six pages of misprints in it, and many more not noticed by the author. British
;
it is
VI. The Need
of Preliminaries.
IN THE
PERHAPS some
iny readers will think that I have
of
already devoted too history,
and that
plainly what
TALMUD S OUTER COURT. much
it is
space to the
high time for
Talmud and its me to tell them
Jewish tradition has to say
this chaos of
about Jesus, and so have done with the matter. when I remember my own erroneous impressions years ago on
context
their
many
across statements (shorn of
first
coming and environment)
affirmed that the
But
which
Talmud declared
confidently
categorically that
Jesus had lived a century earlier than the date assigned to
him by the
crucified in Jerusalem he it
is
and that instead
evangelists,
was stoned
absolutely necessary
at Lud, I feel that
first of all to
learned reader some rough notion
of his being
give the
of the genesis
un and
history of our sources of information, and that instead
having to plead excuse for the space I have devoted to preliminaries, I have rather to apologise for the
of
brevity and roughness of
and
to
before
the foregoing two chapters
append some additional introductory indications the
general reader can be furnished with the for approaching the con
most elementary equipment
sideration of the passages themselves with
any profit. Indeed the whole subject bristles with such dis heartening difficulties on all sides that I have been
IN
THE TALMUD S OUTER COURT.
105
frequently tempted to abandon the task, and have only been sustained by the thought that my sole reason for
taking pen in hand was simply to point out some of the more salient difficulties, and to exclude from the outset any expectations of a more ambitious perform And not only are the difficulties connected with ance.
questions of history and of fact disheartening, but the whole subject is, as we have seen, involved in an atmos
such a painful nature that one would gladly escape from it and leave the dead to bury their dead. But the past is ever present with the eternal soul, the of
phere
dead come ever back to
life,
and there
is
no rest
till
we
can forgive one another, not when we have temporarily forgotten but while we still remember.
We
write not to fan into fresh flame the smouldering The Manhood
but with far fairer hopes. The times have changed, and older souls have come to birth than those who raged so wildly in the Early and the fires
of ancient hate,
Middle Ages, and there are wiser minds to-day than those unyielding formalists on either side who shut the freer life of greater things out of
the
synagogues of
Jewry and from out the Catholic churches of the Christian Name. For man is man though he be Jew or Christian, mind is mind though it give praise to
Yahweh or worship to the Christ, and none but bigots can deny there is growth for every soul in its own way by virtue of its special guide and code of ancient lore. But sure
day will dawn when every soul manhood and begin to learn the way of
as destiny a
will reach to
greater things, and once a soul sets foot passions
fall off
from
history unmoved.
it,
and
it
upon
this
way
can gaze into the face of
106
DID JESUS LIVE 100
And many
B.C. ?
are already fast nearing the birthday of
their
manhood,
love
of
doubt but that the
for there is little
impartial investigation, which
is
ever more
strongly characterising every department of learning in
own
day,
thought
and
our
is
paving the way towards a new era of comprehension, in which the values
assigned by the past to
things will be entirely
many
.changed; particulars will
no more be throned above
universals, nor will the temporal thoughts of
men rank
higher than the ever-present Thought of God. But from this fair hope of order to return to the puzzling records of a disordered past. Of the General.
The Talmud, then, is a vast store-house of Jewish Midrashim collected at various dates between 100-500 A.D.
It consists of a generally older deposit called the
Mishna and
of additional strata
or completion
And
known
to use technical
terms
as the
Gemara
for the sake of
almost impossible to trans brevity. late them correctly, 1 for such words as Talmud, Mishna indeed
and Midrash in the
it
first
is
instance signify simply
"
"
study
general sense, then some special study or some special method of study, and then again the works in a
which have grown out of such general study or special Midrashim are thus in general explanations
methods.
or amplifications of Biblical topics,
Its
Forms
Languages,
and the Talmud
is
a
heterogeneous collection of Midrashim of every kind. The result of this Study of the Law has been handed
down
two forms and three languages. Both forms contain the same Mishna in Hebrew (the Biblical in
language of the Eabbis), while the two Gemarfis are composed in the unstable Aramaic vernacular of the 1
See Strack s
"
"
Einleitung,"
2,
Worterklarungen."
IN THE
TALMUD S OUTER COURT.
107
and in two widely differing dialects, the Western or Palestinian and the Eastern or Babylonian, the former of which especially was an odd mixture of Greek, times,
Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, and Hebrew it was, so to speak, the commercial language of the then East, even as ;
"
"
Greek was
then West.
of the
Talmud have
for long
These two forms of the
been commonly known as the
Jerusalem and Babylonian (Talmud Yeruschalmi and Talmud Babli); but the former designation is very erroneous, for Jerusalem was never a centre of Talmudic
and the epithet Palestinian is to be preferred as more correct even than the oldest known titles of activity,
this collection,
namely Talmud
Talmud
West.
of the
of the
Land
of Israel or
collection is at least four times the The Talmuds
The Babylonian
and though the latter may have contained more matter than it does in its
size of the Palestinian,
originally
present form, the difference is mainly owing to the fact that the Eabbis of the West were content to give the opinions of their predecessors without the detailed discussions on which they were supposed to have based their decisions
;
whereas the Babylonian Talmud
fre
quently has entire folios filled with what the modern mind (unless by chance some new and unexpected light
thrown on the matter) can only consider childish questions and answers, which show nothing else than
is
how
the texts of the Torah could be twisted out of
recognition
to
support
later
which the original writers never dreamed 1
of.
"
(Paris
;
special
points
the verses
all
view
had clearly
1
See Schwab (M.),
Jerusalem
of
of
"
Traite
des Berakhoth
1871), Introd., p. Ixxvi.
This
du Talmud de is
the opinion of
and a y
oma
108
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
It is also to
be remembered that for the later Jews the
collection
Babylonian
while the Palestinian
days the latter
The Jews
is
gradually became The Talmud, fell into disuse. In our own
never taught, but always the former. had more peace and
of Babylonia, moreover,
leisure for this strengthening of
the defences of the
Torah than their Palestinian contemporaries, who were the ever-growing power
harried by
Eome.
Even
in
Christianized
immunity from persecu Talmud in 500
this
Babylon
of
tion only continued to the close of the
indeed, its
by a our
"close"
fierce
outbreak
own day
when under that
was forced upon
the
of
Hebrew found doctors
of
of
;
from without
Thereafter until
intolerance.
the protection
the learned
it
no
Islam Israel
;
peace then
played
except it
so
was dis
tinguished a part in the intellectual development of Europe, and displayed the remarkable versatility of
genius which their enforced cosmopolitanism developed to a degree that is difficult to parallel in any other
But
nation.
kept Jewry
to
return
to
the Talmud,
as a people apart, in spite
of
which has its
being throughout the nations, and which has in directly brought the Orient to the Occident, and settled it in our midst.
scattered
statistics.
Some
may
idea of the voluminous nature of the
be formed
when
it is
Talmud
stated that the text of the
Babylonian collection alone, in the editio princeps of 1520, the model which has been mostly followed as far as form is concerned, occupies no less than twelve huge a distinguished French Rabbi, who has given the world the only complete translation of the Palestinian Talmud which exists, and
not of a Philistine.
IN folio
THE TALMUD S OUTER COURT.
volumes, consisting of 2947
folio leaves
109 and 5894
1
pages.
In both Talmuds the Mishna 2
broken up into
is
six
Orders or Sections (Sedarim), known as The Six par excellence, just as the Torah proper was called "The These orders are again "The Five Fifths." Five" or "
"
sub-divided into sixty-three tractates or treatises, and these again into 523 chapters or paragraphs.
The Mishna text stands surrounded by the Gemara text in unpointed
Hebrew
characters, a mystery often
those initiated into a knowledge of Hebrew. For indeed it is not only the voluminous nature of the to
an unpointed text, be surmounted by the first-hand student of the Talmud, but in addition he has material,
3
and the wilderness
which are the only
of
difficulties to
to be an
adept in solving the countless puzzles of Eabbinic abbreviations, mnemonic technicalities, and ungrammatical forms, and to be further not only master
but equipped with a philo logical intuition that few even of the most learned in this age of learning can be expected to possess. of three different languages,
It is not then surprising to find that as yet
no complete translation 1
Hershon
(P.
I.),
"A
of the
Talmudic
Talmud.
Miscellany"
Introd. (by W. R. Brown), p. xvi. 2 It is a mistake to call the Mishna
We
we have No Complete have no
(London
;
1880),
text and the Gemara though in printed form the Mishna stands out in bolder type, surrounded by the Gemfira, the latter is not a commentary but a completion or appendix of "commentary,"
"
"
as is so often done, for
additional matter. 3 Even of the canonical Talmud alone, for there is a large num ber of extra-canonical tractates as well to be taken into account. See Strack s Einleitung," ch. iv., Die ausserkanonischen Trac "
tate,"
pp. 44-46.
"
110
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Talmudic Vulgate, no Authorised Version, much
Even
Eevised Version.
series of world-bibles,
"
in that
less a
magnificent pioneer
The Sacred Books
of the
East,"
though we have versions of most complex Brfihmanical law-books, we fail to find a single tractate of the Talmud translated. And this is to be regretted, not only because the Talmud as a whole is as yet a closed
book
to
the non-specialist, but because a translation
into the vernacular
ideas of the ignorant
the
Talmud
would
for ever
among
the Jews,
a storehouse of
is
revolutionise the
who imagine
wisdom from
that
its first to
its last syllable.
The
non-specialist, therefore, has to be content with
translations of portions only of this library of Jewish
most part with versions of single tractates, and even so he has to depend almost solely on work done by Jews or converted Jews, for in the tradition, for the
whole
list of
Talmud
we
tractate translations
are told,
the names of only five Christians born are to be found. 1
What we want
The General the Subject
Talmud, students
for, to
is
a
scientific
summarise
know anything
Bischoff,
translation
how few
of
the
theological
of this great literature,
how
few Christian scholars have really worked through a How few Jews even, at any single complete tractate 2 rate of German birth, have any longer any profound !
knowledge of the Talmud The only real Talmudists 3 !
1
See Bischoff
"
(E.),
And
Kritische Geschichte der
und Zungen
are
to
be
Thalmud Uber-
(Frankfort a. M. ; 1899), p. 85. in England real Talmudic scholars will not exhaust the
setzungen aller Zeiten 2
nowadays
"
fingers for their counting. 3 Of the old school, of course, not scientific students of ancient
scripture
and
literature.
IN THE
TALMUD
S
OUTER COURT.
Ill
found in Kussia, Galicia, Hungary, and Bohemia, and even so the work of the younger generation presents us with a picture
of
complete degeneracy and decline.
It
is true that in recent years there has been some small in the interest of Jewish activity in Talmud study, partly
missions on the side
of
Christian
theologians, partly
in the interest either of Anti-semitism
on the one hand
or of Jewish apologetics on the other, but in no case in
the interest of pure scientific enquiry for the furtherance
knowledge of the history of culture, religion and language. Moreover, owing to the difficulty of original 1 study the non-specialist has to depend entirely on of our
translations,
and as we have no immediate expectation Babylonian Talmud, and
of a complete translation of the
the French translation of the Palestinian
much
Talmud
leaves
to be desired, he has to be content with piecing
together a patch-work of translation of single tractates, some of which even the best furnished libraries fail to 2
supply.
And if such difficulties confront the non-specialist who is keenly desirous of learning all he can about the Talmud, and
is
willing to take an infinity of pains in
the matter, the general reader has to be content with
such a very distant glimpse of the country as to remain Moreover, ignorant of all but its most salient features.
even with regard to the material available the student finds himself severely handicapped, for he can form no just opinion as to its value,
and must rely entirely on
the opinion of experts to guide him in his choice of the best sources of information. Thus before I came across 1
2
Who,
as a rule, has the
a/. Bischoff, op. cit.,
pp.
more open mind. 9, 10.
Translations
112
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
BischofF s very useful history of existing
Talmud
trans
had already acquainted myself with the only complete version of the Palestinian Talmud and the work in progress on the Babylonian Talmud, but could
lations, I
of course
form no opinion as
to the accuracy
and
reli
ability of these translations.
Of the Palestinian Talmud, then, we possess a com l it is rendered plete French version by Moi se Schwab ;
into readable
us
tells
2
French and
that
it
is
is
generally clear,
but Bischoff
a free translation, and
in
many
passages open to objection. With regard to the translations of the Babylonian
Talmud which a
are in progress, lovers of accuracy are in
worse plight.
still
Eodkinson
s
English version
3
puts the mediaeval censorship to the blush, proceeding as it does on lines of the most arbitrary bowdlerisation in the interest of apologetic
"
purification."
In his Intro
duction, most of which is taken directly from Deutsch s famous article, Eodkinson sets forth his scheme as follows
:
Throughout the ages there have been added to the text marginal notes, explanatory words, whole phrases "
and sentences invented in malice or ignorance by enemies
or
by
its friends.
.
.
.
We
its
have, therefore,
punctuated the Hebrew text with modern punctuation marks, and have re-edited it by omitting
carefully
such irrelevant matter as interrupted
all
and 1
2
"
orderly arrangement
Le Talmud de Jerusalem
Op.
cit.,
of
the
clear
the various arguments.
"
(Paris
;
1871-1889).
p. 57.
New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud English Translation and Original Text, edited, formulated and punctuated," by Michael L. Eodkinson (Cincinnati 1896, in progress). 3
"
:
;
TALMUD S OUTER COURT.
IN THE .
.
.
We
113
continue our labours in the full and certain
who comes to purify receives divine help In Goldschmidt s German translation 2 I thought
hope that he
had at
last
1
"M
come
and
across a serious
reliable guide,
I
but
Bischoff for ever removes this confidence by telling us
that seldom has scientific criticism been so unanimous
condemnation
not only the untrustworthy nature of Goldschmidt s text, but also of the super abundant errors and the obscure and false German of in its
of
his translation. 3
Even more reprehensible attempt
Jean de Parly, 4 who instead little more than a summary
What
first
s
pious
of a translation gives us of the
arguments
As he says in his Introduction
various tractates. "
than Kodkinson
at edification is the literary jest of a certain
of the
(p.
xvi)
:
have suppressed in the translation is, in the place, all those sterile controversies and discussions I
given in the original under the form of question and answer, and in the second the biblical verses cited in "
he gives us the ghastly corpse a mutilated and disembowelled Talmud.
the text of
;
Indeed, as
in
brief
we read of the many abortive attempts An Talmud in its full contents known to the
make the world, we are almost tempted to
undertaking 1
2
Op. "
cit.j
Der
uebersetzst
pp.
lies
4
Op. "
cit.,
Some have
xii, xiii.
babylonische
Talmud
.
.
.
moeglichst
und mit kurzen Erklaerungen
Goldschmidt (Berlin 3
any such
to believe that
under a persistent curse.
;
versehen,"
wortgetreu
von Lazarus
1896, in progress).
p. 62.
Le Talmud de Babylone, Texte complet
principaux Commentaires 1900). Parly (Orleans
et
.
.
.
accompagne des par Jean de
synthetiquement traduit
"
;
8
Unsatis-
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
114 begun the
task,
and either abandoned
it
or died before its
accomplishment; others have emasculated the original out
of all recognition
We of the
;
all
are thus without
Talmud
have
failed.
really reliable translation
any
as a whole, and the task
we have under
taken in this present essay would have been utterly impossible of accomplishment but for the fortunate circumstance, that the text of the very passages we specially desire to study has been recently critically edited and fairly translated is
but
;
of this later on.
It
only necessary to add here that Bischoff s learned
monograph
gives a critical bibliography of all existing
translations,
and that Strack
s
"
as Bischoff calls it (p. 10), to
"
classical
"
Einleitung,"
which we have already
referred on several occasions, in its third edition (1900),
a
gives
full
bibliography up
literature of the subject. true, gives us only
the articulation of theless, a Internal Difficulties.
to
Strack
date of the general s
Introduction,
it
is
an anatomical study of the Talmud, its bare bones alone, but it is, never
monument
of patient
industry and research.
So much, then, for a very brief indication of the literature of the subject and the nature of the initial difficulties
which confront a student
but these
initial
internal
difficulties
difficulties
investigator.
which
are
as
perplex
of the
Talmud to
;
the
nothing historical the
For the most part the only indications
time in the Talmud are that certain things are stated to have been done or said by such and such a Eabbi, of
unfrequently we find that the Rabbi in question could not possibly have said or done the things attributed to him.
and
not
Nor
will the traditional dates of the completion of
THE TALMUD S OUTER COURT.
IN
Mishna and the various redactions
the
Gemaras help us
to
any
of
115 two
the
general certainty, so that
we
can say confidently that as such and such a thing is not found in the Mishna it must therefore be later
than 200
A.D.,
and such a thing
or again that as such
found only in the Babylonian Gemara, it evidently must be a late invention, for the first Talmud schools
is
1 There Babylon were founded only about 200 A.D. must have been wide overlappings, and part of the
in
Haggadic material of the Palestinian Gemara must have been in existence long prior to the comple Mishna, which concerned itself more especially with Halacha, while the Babylonian schools
tion
of
the
derived their tradition in the
first
place immediately
from the Palestinian. In any case since the Talmud
contempt to
itself
shows such great seems
for history, or rather let us say since it
be utterly deficient in the historical sense,
incumbent upon us
first of all to
sources the earliest date
we can
establish
it is
from outside
for the existence of hos
Jewish stories concerning Jesus otherwise it might be argued that the Talmud stories were almost entirely invented by later Babylonian Eabbis, and had no currency tile
;
in Palestine
where the
"
"
historical facts
were known.
1 The Jews in Babylonia, no doubt, shared in the changes and movements that Ezra and his successors, who came from Babylonia, introduced into Palestine. But for the four centuries covering the period from Ezra to Hillel there are no details and the history of the succeeding two centuries, from Hillel to Judah I., furnishes only a few scanty items on the state of learning among the Babylonian See Bacher s art., Academies in Babylonia," in Jews." Jewish Can it possibly be that up to the third century Encyclopaedia." A.D. the "traditions" of the Babylonian Jews did not support "
;
"
the contentions of the Palestinian Rabbis
"
?
VII.
The
Earliest
THE EARLIEST EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO THE TALMUD JESUS STORIES.
CHRISTIAN tradition will have
that already as early
it
thTcM-istians as about 30 A.D. the followers of Jesus were most by the Jews, On the bitterly persecuted by the Jewish authorities.
other hand,
we know
undistinguished
that Christians and Jews were
by the
Roman
authorities
until the
century, and that, too, not among the Dispersion a consideration which in the opinion of some critics tends
years of the
closing
first
only in Palestine but
somewhat line of
to
also
weaken the strength
demarcation which
is
of
the traditional
regarded as having been
drawn between Jewish and Gentile Christians Diaspora by Pauline propaganda.
in the
Moreover, we are
Talmud scholars that according to Jews and Jewish Christians were
further assured by
Jewish tradition
not distinctly separated out
(98-117
(117-138
A.D.), or
even
still
till
later
the reign of Trajan in
Hadrian
s
time
A.D.).
It is impossible to reconcile these contradictory data for
though we may almost
tive evidence of classical writers
the or
official
wrongs
Roman was
;
entirely eliminate the nega
by the persuasion that
ignorant or careless of the rights
of the matter,
and contemptuously lumped
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS Jew and
117
STORIES.
Christian together as of the same family as
far as their superstitio
was concerned, the Christian and
Jewish traditions appear to be in straitest contradic tion, even though we suppose that the Palestinian Eabbis who
first
evolved the Talmud paid attention
only to the state of affairs in the land of Israel proper
and were not concerned with the Dispersion. It may indeed be that in the beginning the Eabbis paid no attention to Gentile Christians of any grade in Pales tine,
but regarded them as Heathen, and the vast
majority of them as Amme ha-aretz, entirely outside the pale of Jewry and its privileges; it may be that they were only concerned with born Jews who were
abandoning the externals of the Law and introducing into Jewry what the Eabbis considered to be poly theistic views theistic if
the
which set at naught the
commandments testimony
of
the Torah.
Paul as to himself
of
there was the bitterest persecution the
Talmud
Now
indirectly admits
mono
rigid
But even
many
genuine, years before
it.
in spite of the brilliant critical ability of
Manen and
his school, I
am
so,
is
still
van The
inclined to regard the
majority of the Pauline letters as largely genuine, and therefore as being our earliest historical witnesses to
Christianity.
From
these
we
learn
that
already
upwards of a generation before the fall of Jerusalem, which immensely intensified the propaganda of more and
spiritual views
throughout the nation, there was bitter persecution on the part of the Jewish autho
liberal
rities against heresy,
and that among the victims
persecution were the followers of Jesus.
have to deduce
this
We
of this
do not
from enigmatical sentences or
Testi-
118
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
confused traditions, but on the contrary we have before us what purports to be not only the testimony of an eye-witness, but the confession of one
leading part in the persecution. Galatians (i. 13) Paul declares
who had taken
that
the
his con
before
was engaged in persecuting and wasting Church of God." If this declaration of the great
version he "
a
In his Letter to the
propagandist
"
"
is
a statement of fact,
and not a rhetorical
embellishment, or a generous exaggeration in contrition for previous harshness tradi (begotten of zeal for the "
tion of the fathers
towards those with
")
now
the co-believer,
it is
the opinion of those Talmudic scholars
Jews
whom
he was
in straitest contradiction with
who
assert that
and Jewish Christians
continued together in the comparative harmony reign of Trajan. The graphic details of this persecution as given in the till
Of the
Acts.
Acts,
and
its
far-reaching character, as suggested by the
Paul by the authorities with letters against the heretics even among the Dispersion at Damascus, may presumably be set down as a later Haggadic ex furnishing of
pansion, or the ascription of circumstances of
date to Pauline times. 1
nature of the
"
havoc
"
a
later
But whatever was the exact
in the time of Paul, at the time
Acts (130-150 A.D.) it was still a lively remembrance that there had been much perse cution at the hands of the Jews, that is to say most of the redaction of the
probably from the Mishnaic Eabbis and their adherents a fact confirmed by the Talmud, which in a number of passages allows us to conclude that 1
at
during the
Otherwise we have to account for the existence of a
Damascus at a date when, according to canonical Church at Jerusalem had hardly been formed.
first
"
first
Church
"
tradition, the
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS
STORIES.
thirty-five years of the second century the great
founder of
Akiba
Law, and the virtual the Talmud method, was the most strenuous
who was
himself,
119
so zealous for the
and implacable opponent of Christianity. And if there was persecution, there must have previously been con most embittered nature,
troversy, and controversy of the
and if bitter dispute then presumably scandal and slander. We are certain then that the strife was at fever heat The
Terminus. a quo.
in the first quarter of the second century, just prior to
the compilation of our four canonical Gospels; the common document (as we saw in a previous chapter) "
"
shows further that
it
was in manifestation some half
century prior to the redaction of these documents, say somewhere about 75 A.D., while if we can accept the testimony of the Letter to the Galatians as that genuine declaration by Paul himself, we must back the beginnings of the struggle another half push of a
century or 1
so.
1
it would be interesting to determine the conversion, but this is impossible to do with The various authorities give it as anywhere between
In this connection
exact date of Paul
s
any precision. 28-36 A.D., the 28 limit making
it
almost coterminous with the
according to the canonical This early date, however, allows no time for anything but a sudden and unorganised outbreak of official fury directed against the followers of Jesus immediately after his execution (according to canonical tradition), and such a sudden outbreak earliest possible date of the crucifixion
date.
seems
out
"wasting"
was the Acts
"
(viii.
memory
1
of
keeping with the extended
of the "Church of
Church 3) the
"
of tradition as
same
Did the
God"
as the
"
"persecuting"
referred to
by Paul.
and But
imagined by the scribe of the of God in Paul s living
Church
"
latter then possess the identical story related
a century later in the canonical Gospels? And if so, why does Paul seem to be almost entirely ignorant of this story in spite of lengthy acquaintance with that "Church" while wasting it, and in spite of subsequent conversion ?
120
DID JESUS LIVE 100
then, that few reject this testimony, as far
Seeing, as
most
B.C. ?
concerned there
of us are
is
to prevent the genesis of the original
nothing a priori forms of some of
Talmud
stories going back even to some 30 while for others we can at best only push years A.D., their origin back stage by stage with the evolution of
these
Christian
and
that
dogma
to say with the externalizing
is
historicizing of the mystic teachings of the inner
As
tradition.
Christian popular propaganda gradually
departed from the sober paths simple
owing and romantic experiences
of the exalted
and the bringing cizing them,
of the
"
mysteries"
confront
its
remorseless logic of material
Mamzer Stones.
For instance, the Christ of a
"
"
extravagance with
the
fact.
(said the mystics)
Son
was born
logic,
logic,
God, nay God Himself, in course
of
Mary was
which in
met
that virgin
this case
whereupon was simple and
this extravagance
retort that, seeing that his paternity
ledged,
histori
;
time asserted that
Eabbinical
common
by
mystics
the unwitting believer in Jesus as the Messiah in the exclusive Jewish sense, and
in his being the of
of the
to earth
1
virgin
historical
and
so did the Eabbinical opponents of this
new movement The Probable
of prosaic history
to the externalizing
ethical instruction,
Jesus was therefore
;
by the natural was unacknow
illegitimate,
a
bastard
(mamzer).
Eound
this point there naturally raged the fiercest
controversy, or
contemptuous 1
The
rather
retorts,
spiritual birth, the simple mystic fact
it
was
met with
the
most
which must have broken out the
by which a man becomes twice-born" that so puzzled the Rabbi Nicodemus,
according to the writer of the fourth Gospel.
"
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS instant the virginity of
Mary
121
STORIES.
as a physical fact
was
publicly mooted by the simple believers of the general
Christian body. This particular dogma, however, must have been a comparatively late development in the
evolution
of
document"
common popular Christianity, for the of it, the writers of the
knows nothing
second and fourth Gospels tacitly reject it, while some of the earliest readings of our Gospels distinctly assert that Joseph was the natural father of Jesus. 1
mamzer element
rji
Talmud
the
For the
stories, therefore,
we
opinion, no need to go back further than
have, in
my
the
quarter of the second century or so as the
first
earliest terminus
For most
a
quo.
of the other
have no means
main elements, however, we
of fixing a date limit
by the
we can
is
canonical documents
criticism
that as say early as 30 A.D. even, circumstances were such as to lead of
;
all
us to expect the circulation of stories of a hostile nature. From the persecution in the time of Paul till the redaction of the Acts a
full
century
elapses,
from
which we have preserved no witnesses that will help concerning anything but the mamzer element. even when, following immediately on the period of the Acts redaction, we come to the testimony of us
And
Justin Martyr, 2 in the middle of the second century, 1
For the latest study of this subject see F. C. Conybeare s Three Early Doctrinal Modifications of the Text of the in The Hibbert Journal (London 1902), I. i. 96-113 Gospels," and also J. R. Wilkinson s criticism in the succeeding issue (Jan"
article,
"
"
;
;
1903). 2
The
dates of Justin
s
genuine writings are variously con is that they may be placed
jectured, but the general opinion 145-150 A.D.
Justin
122
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
we
have
be
to
with
content
generalities,
though
fortunately (in this connection) such generalities as
put
had long existed such as presupposes the existence and wide
it
entirely out of doubt that a state of affairs
circulation
similar
of
those found in
to
stories
the
Talmud.
From the how we may
general testimony of Justin, no matter discount it by his demonstrable blundering in some points of detail, we are certain that the separation between
Jews and Christians had
been made absolute, and statements of believe
this
that the
we can
if
enthusiastic
stages
for years
trust the repeated
apologist,
we must
the separation had been
of
throughout marked by a bitterness and persecution
of
a quite mediaeval character.
BarKochba s
In his
"
Justin seeks to rebut the
"
first
Apology
whom
objection that the one
the Christians call
"the
was simply a man born of human parents, that his and wonder-workings were done by magical Messiah"
means
the
main contention
of
Talmud Rabbis
the
he does by appeal to prophecy
this
(c.
xxx.).
;
De
veloping his arguments Justin naively admits that the Christians base themselves on the Septuagint Greek translation
1
of
the
theless he accuses the
own
books, and
Hebrew Jews
sacred
of
writings;
never
not understanding their
surprised that his co-believers are considered as foes and enemies by the Jews because is
of their interpretation of
1
Hebrew prophecy
In connection with the origin
of
a point,
which Justin commits
a ludicrous blunder, when he makes Herod a contemporary of Ptolemy, the founder of the Alexandrian Library an
anacharonism
of
250 years
!
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS we may remark,
in
which modern
123
STORIES.
scientific
criticism
sympathises with the Eabbis. Nay, so were the Jews against them, that whenever they had had the power they had not only punished the Christians but also put them to death a charge
practically bitter
he repeats in several passages l declaring that in his own day the Jews were only deterred from doing so by ;
Eoman
the
authorities. 2
revolt against the
Eomans
For instance, in the recent Bar Kochba (132-135
led by
Justin declares that this popular Messiah specially singled out the Christians for torture if they refused A.D.),
to
that
deny
was
Jesus
the
and
Messiah
utte"r
blasphemies against him (c. xxxi.). It is to be noted, 3 state that Bar however, that Eusebius and others
Kochba punished the
Christians (that is to say, Jewish Christians resident in Palestine) for political reasons,
because they refused to join their fellow countrymen against the Komans, and not on theological grounds. nevertheless, in spite of this conflict of testimony, are still to believe Justin, it is of interest to
If,
we remember
that E. Akiba, the founder of the Talmudic
method, and the Eabbi who
Talmud
is
represented
in
the
as the greatest opponent of Christianity, threw
on the side
Bar Kochba, acknowledged him as the true Messiah and paid the penalty of his enthusiastic championship with his life. his
all
great influence
From Justin s still
of
we derive Dialogue with Tryphon further information, the interest of which would "
"
1
See
2
Ibid., xvi.
3
Eusebius, Chron.," and Orosius, "Hist.," Justini Opera" (Jena 1847), i. 79.
"
to Otto s
Dial.
c.
Tryph.,"
xvi., ex., cxxxiii.
"
"
;
vii.
13;
c/.
note
]24
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
be greatly increased for our present research if the Tryphon with the Tarphon
R
identification of Justin s
the Talmud, the contemporary of Akiba, could be
of
maintained. 1
In addition to the general declaration that the Jews
General
hate the Christians
up
in
"
(c.
The Letter
xxxv.)
a state of affairs "
to
Diognetus
(c.
attribute to Justin, in the words
still
"
summed
which some
v.),
the Jews
make
war against the Christians as against a foreign nation we have some important details given us which, according to the fancy and taste of the reader, can "
down
either be set
odium
as embellishments begotten of
theologicum, or be taken as throwing historic light on the state of affairs and temper of the times which
Talmud Jesus
originated the
Thus God,"
stories.
in ch. cxvii., speaking of Jesus as the
and addressing
the
Jew Tryphon,
"
Son
of
Justin adds,
name the high priests and teachers of your caused to be profaned and blasphemed have people "whose
throughout the
earth."
was true
If this accusation
in
can only refer to the spreading far and wide of inimical stories about Jesus; at that time
Justin
s
time,
stories of this
Koman
the
it
kind were spread everywhere throughout
empire, and the source of them was attri
buted by the Christians to the Jewish priestly aris tocracy and especially to the Kabbinical doctors, in words the Mishnaic Talmudists
other
and
Moreover Justin twice
TheProclama11
e
cally
of
those days
earlier.
asserts
that after
(cc. xvii.
the
"
and
cviii.)
resurrection
"
categori-
the
Jews
sent out a specially elected body of men, some sort of 1
But
see
Strack s
"
Einleitung in den
Talmud
"
(3rd
ed.), p. 80.
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS STORIES. 125 official
commission apparently,
to proclaim that a godless
"
throughout the
and lawless
sect
world,"
had arisen
from one Jesus, a Galilean impostor, whose followers asserted that he had risen from the dead, whereas the fact of the matter
by
was that he had been put
and that subsequently
crucifixion
stolen from the grave
The genesis
by
his
his disciples
(c. cviii.).
extensive commission
of this
death
to
body had been with
may
great probability be ascribed to the imaginative rhetoric of Justin playing on the germ provided by the floating tradition,
Paul was furnished with
that
repression against the as stated
Damascus, commission
heretics
when he
letters
of
set forth for
by the compiler of the Acts.
A
to disprove the dogma of the physical resurrection would not have been necessary until that dogma had gained a firm root in popular belief, and this
we hold was
a
late
development
vulgar
(the
though somewhat
historicising of a
earlier
mystic fact) than the dogma of the immaculate conception but even so it would appear to be a somewhat absurd pro ceeding to send out a commission to deal with this ;
point only.
There
may
be,
truth in Justin cxxxiii.) that it
curse
those
however, some greater substratum of
repeated assertions (cc. xvi., xcvi. and was the custom of the Jews publicly to
s
who
believed in
"
the
"
Christ
in
their
and to this he adds that not only were synagogues the Jews forbidden by their Rabbis to have any deal ;
ings of any kind
with Christians
(c.
cxii.),
but that
they were distinctly taught by the Pharisee Rabbis and make fun
the leaders of their synagogues to revile and of Jesus after prayer
(c.
cxxxvii.).
126
DID JESUS LIVE 100 E.G.?
In fact Justin will have
it
that all the preconceived
which the general public cherished against the Christians was originated by the Jews (c. xvii.),
evil opinion
whom
he accuses of deliberately stating that Jesus had taught all those impious, unspeakable and detestable crimes with which the Christians were himself
charged (c. cviii.) an accusation which in no case can be substantiated by the Talmud passages, and which we may presumably set down to Justin s rhetoric.
But whether
Estimate of the Evidence,
^{.^j^
an(j
or not Justin can be believed in all his
no
ma tter how we may
statements, there
show that
to
still
in his
soften
down
his
remains strong enough evidence
day the bitterest
hostility existed
between Jews and Christians, or at any rate between official Judaism and that type of Christianity for which Since Justin attributes
Justin stood. stories 1
about Christians,
1
In connection with which C.
that Origen
("
Gels.,"
vi.
and it is
all
the scandalous
all
the
scoffing at the
mournful
of
27) says that
interest to note
when
"
Christianism
"
began to be taught, the Jews spread about reports that the Christians, presumably in their secret rites, sacrificed a child and ate its flesh, and that their meetings were scenes of indiscriminate
first
immorality that even in his own day (c. 250 A.D.) such charges were still believed against them, and they were shunned by some on this account. The curious vitality of this slander is remarkable, for not only did the general Christians of those days charge the heretics of the Christian name, to whose assemblies they could not gain access, with precisely the same crime of ceremonial ;
"
"
murder, but even up to our own days in Anti-semitic Eastern
Europe it is still the favourite vulgar charge against the Jews a Even as I correct these strange turning of the wheel of fate the horrible account of the Times in The read I 2) (May proofs, !
murder
of
some sixty or seventy Jews and Jewesses, and the
serious injury of some five hundred more, with detailed description," rape too horrible for "
"
several cases of
by the
Christian/ populace of Kishineff, in Bessarabia,
fanatical
who were
roused
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS most cherished
of
beliefs
STORIES.
and
Justin
the
127
popular
Christianity of his day, to the Kabbis, it is evident that
what the Jews said was the very antipodes Justin believed, and that,
as
of
what
be seen from the
may
retort of the stealing of the body, the greatest miracles
and dogmas of the
side
of popular Christianity were met on the Kabbis by the simplest retorts of vulgar
reason.
The evidence
taken as a whole,
of Justin, therefore,
leaves us with a very strong impression, nay, for all but irreconcilables, produces
an absolute conviction, that in
his time, taking our dates at a to,
in widest circulation; it
minimum,
stories similar
and even more hostile than, the Talmud
stories
were
while Justin himself will have
that they were in circulation from the very begin of things Christian.
ning
So
far,
however, we have
we have failed to nature which we can identify anything with some distinct detail of the Talmud stories. To do this we must mount some quarter of a century,
come across nothing but
generalities
;
of a definite
find
and turn
to the of
fragments of Celsus preserved to us in Origen, who wrote his refutation of
attack
on the Christians somewhere towards
the polemic
Celsus
s
the middle of the third century. Origen in his preface us tells that Celsus himself was long since dead, (4)
and
later
on he adds more precisely (i. 8) that Celsus Hadrian s time (emp. 117-138 A.D.), and
lived about later.
ever,
Church Fathers, how have blundered in this respect, and
The most learned seems to
of the
by the report of a supposed ritual murder by the Jews of Dubossari, and this in spite of the publication of absolute testimony
to fury
to the falsity of the charge.
"
"
Celsus.
128
DID JESUS LIVE 100
though there
is
still
the exact
to
as
dispute
modern
B.C. ?
date,
on data supplied by the criticism, basing True Word," is passages cited by Origen from Celsus s till as late as of that Celsus survived opinion generally itself
"
In any case Origen wrote a full seventy-five years after Celsus had withdrawn from the controversy, and though we may place the writing of the statements
175
A.D.
of Celsus as late as
the possibility,
if
175
A.D.,
we have
also to allow for
not the probability, that the
memory of
have reached
of Christianity
this sturdy
opponent may back some quarter or even half century earlier. Celsus in his treatise rhetorically throws many his
arguments into the form of a dispute between a
and Jesus
(Pref. 6,
the extraordinary
and
i.
Jew
This
28).
things Jesus seems
of
Jew
declares that to
have done
were effected by magical means (i. 6), and Origen later on (iii. 1) says that this was the general accusation brought against the miracle-workings by all Jews who were not Christians. This is one of the main elements
Talmud stories. From a quotation from
of the
The Virgin Birth Dogma.
^^
^
Celsus
26)
(i.
the Jewg agserted that
we
further
a yery few yearg
had elapsed since the dogma of Jesus being the Son of God had been promulgated by the Christians, presum "
"
ably referring to the
dogma
of the
Developing his argument, the (i.
28) that the
dogma
of the
"
virgin
Jew
"virgin
invention, the facts of the case being
come from
a village in Judsea,
birth."
goes on
"
:
birth"
to
say
was an
that Jesus had
and was the son
of a poor
Jewess who gained her living by the work of her own hands that his mother had been turned out of doors ;
by her husband,
who was
a carpenter
by
trade,
on being
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS
STORIES.
129
convicted of adultery that being thus driven away by her husband, and wandering about in disgrace, she gave ;
birth to Jesus, a bastard
poverty (had to
work
;
that Jesus on account of his
for his living and) was hired out to go
l
that while there he acquired certain (magical) Egypt which powers Egyptians pride themselves on possessing
to
;
;
that he returned
home
highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a
2 god."
In this passage from Celsus we have precisely the of the Talmud Jesus stories, and therefore
main outline
an exact external proof that in his day at any rate (whenever that was, whether 150-175 or even 125-175) stories precisely similar to the Talmud stories were the
Jewish
stock-in-trade
dogmatic
And
if
objections
to
Christian
tradition.
more
is still
precise proof
demanded, we have Ben Origen s voluminous
only to turn over a few pages of refutation to the passage (i. 32), where the Church Father again refers to the quotation from the Jew of Celsus given above, and adds the important detail from Celsus that the paramour of the mother of Jesus was a soldier called Panthera, a name which he also repeats later on (i. 69), in a sentence, by the by, which has in
both places been erased from the oldest Vatican MS., 1 Can this possibly be based on some vulgar version of a wellknown Gnostic myth of those days ? Jesus went down as a servant or
slave into
Egypt
;
that
as a servant into the
is
to say, the Christ or divine soul descends It is a common element of the body.
Egypt
in the early mystic traditions that the Christ took on the form of a servant in his descent through the spheres, and in many traditions Egypt is the symbol of the body, which is separated by the Red "
Sea 2
"
and the Desert from the Promised Land." last two paragraphs are again quoted by Origen
The
"
"
"
(i.
9
38).
Pandera.
130
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
and bodily omitted from three codices and from
some
in
Now this is
others. 1
of the
Talmud
precisely the
name given
them Jesus is called Pandira), or Ben Pandera
stories
Jeschu ben Pandera (or
in this country
in
;
simply.
But before we leave Origen
John the
one or two scraps
in our present investigation.
mystery
may
be useful to note
which he has
and which are
in the controversy,
cised
it
of information
let fall
importance for us
of
Eeferring to the historiDove at the Baptism,
of the descent of the
Celsus puts the argument into the mouth of his Jew is no testimony for this except the (i. 48), that there word of one of those who met with the same punish
ment
as Jesus.
To
this
great blunder on Celsus into the
mouth
John with of
Jesus."
s
Origen replies that it is a part to put such an argument
of a Jew, for
"
Jews do not connect
the
Jesus, nor the punishment of John with that Now in the first place it is to be observed
that Celsus says nothing about any
and in the
"
John,"
second that Origen gives us clearly to understand that the Jews denied that John the Baptist, who was a well-
known
historical character,
Jesus.
This
who
is
had anything
an important piece
to
do with
of evidence for those
believe that the Baptist element, which does not
appear in the common document," was a later develop ment. Can it be that Celsus had in mind some early "
form
of the Baptism story, in which some other than John the Baptist played a part ?
Elsewhere Celsus, in speaking Jesus, does not ascribe 1
it to
of
the
Judas, but to
betrayal of "
many
See notes on both passages by Lommatzsch in his
contra
Celsum"
(Berlin
;
1845).
dis-
"
Origenis
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS 11), a curious
ciples" (ii.
statement
ing what he has heard or read, and
Celsus
if
is
STORIES. is
131
repeat
not merely guilty
of gross error or of wilful exaggeration.
But indeed Celsus categorically accuses the Christians ,..
,
_.^.
,.
,
.
Frequent Remodelling
27) of changing their gospel story in many ways in O f the Gospel order the better to answer the objections of their storv
(11.
-
opponents his accusation is that some of them, as it were in a drunken state producing self-induced visions, 1 "
;
remodel their gospel from its first written form in a threefold, fourfold and manifold fashion, and reform it so that
they
may
be able
the
refute
to
objections
brought against This may be taken to mean either that the Christians it."
were engaged in doing so in Celsus redacting was habitual. "
the
threefold
and
If,
s day, or
that such
however, we are to regard "
"
fourfold
of Celsus as referring three and four canonical to our mani gospels, and his "
"
"
fold
as referring to the
duction,
it
is
on in Celsus fifty
difficult to
of our
many
"
Lukan
"
intro
imagine that this was going
time unless his
memory went back some
therefore, more simple to statement as meaning that the external
or
years
regard the 1
s
" "
so.
It
is,
coming to appear to themselves" el s T b tyeorcd cu avrols. This very puzzling sentence is translated by F. Crombie The Works of Origen," Edinburgh, 1872, in The Ante-Nicene Christian as Library lay violent hands upon themselves," which does not seem to be very appropriate in this connection. But tyeo-rdvai i s the usual word used of dreams and visions, and I have therefore "
Lit.,
("
"
"
")
ventured on the above translation.
Celsus probably
meant
suggest that these Christian writers were the victims of their those who understand the importance of hallucinations ;
vision-factor in the evolution of Christian
dogma and
to
own the
"
"
history
thank Origen for preserving this expression of his opponent, though they may put a construction on the words that neither Celsus nor Origen would have agreed with. will
132
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? story had
gospel
been continually altered
and
re
formulated to meet objections in brief, that the latest forms of it were the product of a literary evolution
which
in
a
prominent
see that the testimony of Celsus,
an entirely
mystic
experiences
played
part.
We thus
Value of the
outside witness, not only strongly endorses the general
but also adds convincing details which conclusively prove that the Jewish Jesus stories of his day were precisely of the same nature as those testimony
of Justin,
Talmud, and though we cannot conjecture with any certainty what may have been the precise
we
find in the
date of any particular story, we are justified in rejecting the contention of those who declare that the Talmud stories are all of a
or so.
and
very late date, say the fourth century
in claiming that there is nothing to prevent
them going back to the middle of the second century, even on the most conservative estimate, while most
them may go back far earlier. Advancing another generation we come to the testi mony of Tertullian, which is exceedingly important not only with regard to the Talmud Jesus stories, but some
Tertullian.
of
of
also in respect of a far
more obscure
preserved in the mediaeval of
Jesus,"
enquiry. his
"
as
we
"
Toldoth
line of tradition
Jeschu,"
or
shall see in the second part
Writing somewhere about 197-198
De
"
xxx.), in
a
"
Story our
of
A.D.,
in
highly rhetorical
(c. Spetaculis peroration in which he depicts the glorious spectacle of the second coming, as he imagines it (when he
Heathen opponents of the Christians, philosophers and poets, actors and wrestlers in the Games, tossing on the billows of hell-fire) the hotshall see all the
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE TO JESUS
STORIES.
133
Carthage bursts out that, perhaps, he will not have time to gaze upon
of
tempered Bishop
however, after all the tortures of the Heathen, but that all his attention will be turned on the Jews who raged against the Lord. Then will he say unto them This is your carpenter s "
:
son,
your harlot
s
son;
your Sabbath-breaker, your
Samaritan, your demon-possessed
This
!
is
He whom
ye bought from Judas this He who was struck with reed and fists, dishonoured with spittle, and given a ;
draught
of gall
and vinegar
disciples have stolen
This
!
He whom
is
secretly, that
His
be said
may
it
He
has risen, or the gardener abstracted that his lettuces might not be damaged by the crowds of "
visitors
l
!
All these elements appear in order in the Toldoth," and the carpenter s son and the harlot s son appear in the Talmud stories. have thus exhausted our "
We
external evidence
the date of
till
Mishna, 200-207
of the
advantage
A.D.,
the final redaction
beyond which
it is of
no
to go. 2
Enough has already been said for our purpose, which was the very simple one of disposing of the flimsy and superficial argument that the Talmud Jesus stories 1
See also Jerome,
ed. Bened.),
Oehler i.
"Ad
Heliodorum"
and compare Theodoret,
s "Tertulliani
quoe
"
(Tom. H.
supersunt
S.,"
IV., P. II., p. 12, 11, as cited in
iii.
Onmia"
(Leipzig;
1853),
62, n. 2
See, however,
Richard von der
Aim
(i.e.,
Friederich Wilhelm
Ghillany), Die Urtheile heidnischer und jiidischer Schrifsteller der vier ersten Jahrhunderte iiber Jesus und die ersten Christen "
:
Eine Zuschrift an die gebildeten Deutschen zur weiteren Orientirung in der Frage iiber die Gottheit Jesu (Leipzig 1864J, a continuation of his Theologische Briefe an die Gebildeten der deutschen Nation" (3 vok, Leipzig; 1863). "
;
"
134
DID JESUS LIVE 100
must have been
B.C. ?
entirely the invention of late Babylonian
Kabbis, and that Mishnaic times were utterly ignorant
them, as being too close to the supposed actual facts, which unthinking apologists further presume must have been known to all the Jews of Palestine. We
of
now
pass to a consideration of the stories themselves.
THE TALMUD
100 YEARS OF JESUS.
VIII.
In 1891 Dr. Gustaf H. Dalman,
B.C.
STORY
of Leipzig, printed a The Transla-
censured passages in the Talmud, Zohar and Midrashim, Liturgy of the Synagogue which are said to refer to Jesus, and to this H. Laible appended
critical text of all the
an introductory essay, 1 in which most were translated.
of the passages
In 1893 A. M. Streane published an English version which Dalman translated the remain
of this essay, for
ing passages, and to which Dalman, Laible, and Streane contributed additional notes, the English edition thus 2 From lack of any other superseding the German.
work found,
in
which a version
the
non-specialist
be
of all the passages
may
must perforce
content
be
with this Dalman-Laible-Streane translation, though a comparison with other translations of single passages
makes one
hesitate to accept its entire accuracy, and Streane himself admits in his preface (p. vi) that 1
Die "Jesus Christus im Thalrnud init einem Anhange thalmudischen Texte mitgeteilt," von G. Dalman (Berlin 1891), in A "Schriften des Institutum Judaicum in Berlin," nr. 10. .
.
.
:
;
second edition appeared in 1900. 2 "Jesus
Christ in the
Talmud," etc.
(Cambridge
;
1893).
Censured rassa g es -
136
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
occasionally
some Talmud expressions with regard
"
The Name
our Blessed Lord
"
to
have been modified.
am, therefore, glad to be assured by a learned Talmudist that Streane s version, in spite of these draw I
backs and
its
reliable for all general purposes.
sufficiently
ever, retain throughout the "
or perhaps
Jeschu,"
on the whole
is
very ungraceful diction,
Hebrew
more correctly
or
how
I,
Aramaic form which
"
Yeschu,"
Streane has replaced by the familiar Jesus, because I 1 that Jeschu is a "genuine Jewish
hold with Krauss
and not a nickname invented
name,"
Jews
the
(as
in despite
by
charged against them by Christian writers)
form Jeshua (Joshua, Jehoshua 2 ), which Christians maintain was the proper Hebrew to escape writing the
name
of Jesus, thus
he was the
"
showing forth by the very name that
Saviour
"
;
of
least
all
that
the
name
Jeschu was originally begotten of a cruel letter play based on the the initials of the words of imprecation "
/mmach Scheme be
memory
blotted
Fezikro
name and
"
out!"),
("
as
May
his
persistently
charged
against the Jews by their mediaeval Christian opponents,
and
finally
(under stress of hate and ignorance) accepted
and adopted by Jews themselves in some forms
of
the Toldoth Jeschu. 3
Jeschu,
of the later
I
hold,
was
simply the original Hebrew or Aramaic form of the name, as may be seen from the Greek transliteration vg (lesus), 1
Krauss
"
(S.),
or the Arabic
Isa.
Das Leben Jesu nach judischen
Quellen"
(Berlin
;
1902), pp. 250-253. 2
"
Lit.,
The Lord
will
save."
See, for instance, the Vienna Toldoth MS. Compare with this Pessach s invention as given above in the chapter, The Talmud in 3
"
History."
THE TALMUD 100 Let
then,
us,
STORY OF JESUS. 137
B.C.
first of
turn to what, from the
all
chronological point of view,
is
the most extraordinary
passage found not once but twice in the passage, 1 Babylonian Gemara. The Kabbis have taught The left should always The Ben be repelled, and the right, on the other hand, drawn story. a
"
:
nearer.
But one should not do
it
2 .
.
.
as K.
Joshua
ben Perachiah, who thrust forth Jeschu with both hands. What was the matter with regard to E. Joshua ben
When King
Perachiah?
Jannai directed the destruc
tion of the Eabbis, E. Joshua ben Perachiah and Jeschu
went to Alexandria. When security returned, Eabbi Simeon ben Shetach sent him a letter to this effect:
From me, Jerusalem in Egypt,
my
the holy city, to thee, Alexandria spouse tarries in thee, and I
My
sister.
Thereupon Joshua arose and came; and a certain inn was in the way, in which they treated dwell desolate.
Then spake Joshua How fair respect. inn (akhsanga) Jeschu saith to him But, she (akhsanga=a& hostess) has little narrow
him with great this
is
Eabbi,
:
I
Joshua replied
eyes.
:
Thou
:
godless fellow, dost thou
occupy thyself with such things ? directed that 400 horns should be brought, and put him under strict excommunication. Jeschu ofttimes came and said to him,
*
Take me back.
One
about him.
that he would take 1
just
day,
the Shema,
reciting]
[?
Joshua did not trouble himself
"
Sanhedrin,"
him
3
as
Joshua was
Jeschu came
back.
to him,
reading
hoping
Joshua made a sign
107b, and, in almost identical words,
to
"
Sota,"
47a. 2
The words omitted by Streane
Gehazi 3
"
are,
as Elislia
nor."
The words
"
:
Hear,
Israel,"
etc.,
Dent.
vi.
4
ff.
who
repelled
138
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
him with
Then Jeschu thought that he had altogether repulsed him, and went away, and set up a brickbat and worshipped it. Joshua said to him Be his hand.
:
converted thee
!
Jeschu saith
From him
:
:
Thus have
I
been taught by
that sinneth and inaketh the people to
taken away the possibility of repentance. And the Teacher [i.e., he who is everywhere mentioned by title in the Talmud] has said Jeschu had prac sin, is
*
:
tised (this
sorcery and had corrupted and misled Israel.
"
l
This famous passage, if taken by itself, would of course fully confirm the hypothesis of the 100 years B.C. date of Jesus. The arguments for and against the authenticity of
its
statements embrace, therefore, practi*
Let us cally the whole substance of our investigation. of all first consider the face value of these statements. Jannai or Jannseus (John), who also bore the Greek of the famous Maccaboean
King Jaimai.
name Alexander, was one line of kings, the son of
over the Jews 104-78
Though
it is
John Hyrcanus
I.,
and reigned
B.C.
now impossible from the
imperfect record
to ascertain the exact state of
Jewish domestic
or the precise causes of
fierce
the
affairs,
internal religious
2 struggle, during the reign of this wild warrior king, the
salient fact dwelt
on by Josephus in both his accounts
major part of his reign was engaged in a bitter feud with the Pharissean party, whom he had deprived of all their privileges. This that Jannai
is
the
for
Fharisaean party was practically the national religious 1
2
This formal charge See Schiirer (E.),
Time
of Jesus Christ
vol.
pp. 295-307.
i.
"
is "
A
also found in
"
Sanhedrin,"
43a.
History of the Jewish People in the
(Eng. Trans.; Edinburgh, 1897), Div.
i.,
THE TALMUD 100 party
who resented
Hasmonsean
the
STORY OF JESUS. 139
B.C.
oriental
and above
rulers,
all
despotism of their detested the usurpa
by Jannai. The Pious and Pure could not brook the sight of a wild warrior tion of the high priestly office
"
like Jannseus discharging the duties of the high priest
in the holy strife
as Schurer puts
place,"
intensified
marked the
first
by
religious
it.
Bitter internal
fanaticism
Jannai
eighteen years of
Pharisees finally led a rebellion
accordingly
The
s reign.
against
the
hated
monarch, in which no less than 50,000 Jews are said to have fallen, and finally the leaders of the nationalist 1 party fled to the stronghold of Bethome or Besemelis.
Jannai besieged Bethome and captured it. The prisoners were taken to Jerusalem, and there no less than 800 of
them are
said to have been crucified to make sport before Jannai and his wives and concubines, the wives
and children
of
wretched Pharisees having been
the
previously butchered before their eyes. act
is
of the
This atrocious
said to have struck such terror into the hearts
unfortunate
than 8000 of them
"
Eabbis fled,
"
of the time, that
and during Jannai
no
less
s life- time
2 This happened about 87 B.C. kept far from Judaea. The greatest hero of those times, according to Rab
who
withstood the tyrant to the face and boldly berated him with the unaided weapons of Rabbinic wisdom, was Simeon ben Shetach, who is
binical tradition,
still
said moreover to have been the brother of Jannai s wife
Salome.
Many stories of his wise sayings before Jannai are handed on in the Talmud, though it must be conFor Josephus in his two accounts Bell. Jud.," i. 4. 6, and Antiqq.," xiii. 14. 2) gives these two widely different names. 1
("
"
2
Josephus,
ibid.
140
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? they sound to modern ears somewhat There are some, however, who think that
that
fessed puerile.
Simeon too had Queen Salome and the <
Golden
to
flee,
and that
of
his withstanding
Jannai took place before the revolt. When Salome, however, succeeded her impious spouse, her policy with regard to the Pharisees was the direct antithesis of Jannai s cruel measures.
the beginning of her reign [78-69
B.C.]
"
Salome from
took her stand
unhesitatingly on the side of the Pharisees, lent an ear to their demands and wishes, and in particular gave sanction again to all the Pharisaic ordinances abolished since the time of John Hyrcanus. During legal
these years the Pharisees were the real rulers of the l land."
As Josephus
says
Salome
:
"
had indeed the name
regent, but the Pharisees had the authority
they as
who
;
for it
of
was
restored such as were banished, and set such
were prisoners at liberty, and from masters
differed in nothing
to say all at once, they (of the
2
country)."
Pharissean tradition, therefore, naturally depicts the reign of Salome as a golden age, and we are told with true oriental hyperbole, that
"
under Simeon ben Shetach
and Queen Salome rain fell on the eve of the Sabbath, so that the corns of wheat were as large as kidneys, the barley corns as large as olives, and the lentils like
golden denarii
;
the scribes gathered such corns, and
preserved specimens of them in order to show future generations
what
sin
entails"
3
a
somewhat prepos
terous proceeding, one would suppose, unless the scribes 1
2 3
ScMrer, "Bell.
op. cit., ibid., p. 309.
Jud.,
"
Taanith,"
i.
23a.
5. 2,
and
"
Antiqq.," xiii.
16. 2.
THE TALMUD 100 of that
STORY OF JESUS. 141
B.C.
time were gifted with prophetical clairvoyance subsequent evil days on which the Eabbis
to descry the
time and again. have been thus long in dwelling on the importance Joshua ben l of Salome from a Kabbinical point of view for reasons
fell
I
which will appear more fully later on for the present to be remarked that, if there is any historical basis ;
it is
at all for the passage
Perachiah presumably
under consideration, Joshua ben Alexandria in 87 B.C., and
fled to
was probably recalled by Simeon ben Shetach in 78 B.C. He must then have been a very old man, for he is said have begun to teach as early as 154 B.C., 1 an asser In tion, however, which I have been unable to verify. to
any case Joshua ben Perachiah and Nithai of Arbela were the second of the famous "Five Pairs" of the
Guruparampara chain cal term) of Talmudic "
"
(to use a
tradition,
Brahmanical techni while Simeon ben
Shetach and Judah ben Tabbai form the third to this
"
tradition of
<c
Pair."
the
then, j esus a fathers," According Man Jeschu was regarded as having been originally the pupil Learned 2 of the time, Eabbis of one of the two most learned "
"
Baring-Gould (S.), "The Lost and Hostile Gospels: An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschn, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of which Fragments remain" (London This very uncritical writer does not give his autho 1874), p. 56. rity, but probably it was Eichard von der Aim, to whose studies we have already referred, and from whom Baring-Gould lifts all his information with regard to the Talmud Jesus stories and Toldoth Jeschu, though without any acknowledgment. 2 I have put the title Kabbi in quotation marks when used 1
;
"
"
"
"
have seen it stated by Jewish term Kabbi was not so used till after 70 A.D. Unfortunately I have lost my references to this point, but see Bousset (W.), Die Keligion des Judentums in neutestamentlichen Zeitalter Der eigentliche Titel Rabbi (Berlin 1903), p. 147
of teachers of this period, because I
authorities that the
"
"
"
"
"
;
:
-
142
DID JESUS LIVE 100
nay, of the most learned, the
B.C. ? "
"
spouse
of
Jerusalem
;
not only so, but Jeschu was apparently Joshua s favourite See the result of disregarding this counsel of pupil.
wisdom, said the Eabbis
famous case
of
of later days; there is the great Joshua ben Perachiah
was too stern with disastrous results
But,
it
and with what
!
be
may
his disciple Jeschu,
the
who
said,
why
waste time in speculating
on such a transparent anachronism. To this we reply Even granting the anachronism a priori, without further :
enquiry seeing that the literature of the times teems with many demonstrably ghastly anachronisms the passage shows us clearly where Jewish tradition placed
he was a learned man, as indeed is invari ably admitted in many other stories whether or not he got his wisdom from the greatest Jewish teacher of Jesus.
For
it
;
the times or not, The Murder Innocents.
is
another question.
It is further to be
remarked that there
is
a striking
similarity between the state of internal Jewish affairs in Jannai s time and the numerous hangings and burn
In ings of Pharisees in the days of Herod (37-4 B.C.). both reigns the national religious party was led in
by those learned in the Law. The Pharisees stood religion and religious purism against the aristocratic
revolt for
the hereditary Sadducaean priesthood, who were interested in the Law solely as a convenient
party
of
instrument
of
custom whereby they could extort tithes of the people. They were entirely
and taxes out scheint erst sein."
in
It there
nachneutestamentlicher Zeit aufgekommen zu be any solid ground for this contention, it would,
of course, be of great critical
importance in considering the date of
those passages in the canonical gospels in
which the term appears.
THE TALMUD 100
B.C.
STORY OP JESUS. 143 which had been and
indifferent to all those tendencies
were
still
spiritualising the national religious literature,
and presumably they were above
all
opposed to what
they considered the innovating fanaticism of the mystic circles as the Chas-
and disciplinary views held by such sidim and Essenes.
Both reigns are characterised by the triumph of the Sadducaean party, and by the ruthless murder of large
numbers
of the Pharisaean leaders,
in
indubitably
Essene
circles,
closest
nay,
it is
whom
were
Chassidim
and
some
contact with
of
most probable that members
of these circles, or of associations of a similar nature,
were the directly inspiring sources of these religious It must then have been a bitter memory with revolts. the followers of these strict schools of discipline, the later schools of the prophets," which were seeking to "
establish the rule of the Eighteous and the consequent direct reign of
Yahweh on
earth, that
numbers
of their
holy ones and seers had been ruthlessly done to death 1 by a Jannai or a Herod.
one of their grades, were
seers, in 1
similar mystic circles these prophets
in
Now,
Whether
in the former case their death
known
as
had been the
and The
"
little
cruel
and
lingering torture of crucifixion is a point of importance only for those Talmudic scholars who argue that crucifixion was an utterly
unknown mode
of execution among the Jews. There was, they beheading, strangling, hanging, stoning and subsequent expos ing of the body of the stoned on a post as a warning ; moreover, to shorten the cruelty of the lingering death by stoning, the victim say,
was
rendered unconscious by a soporific drink but never In this connection, however, we must remember that it is said that Jannai remained a Jew in all things, and imposed Jewish customs on all conquered cities on pain of utter destruction, first
;
crucifixion.
so that
mode
it
may
be doubted whether he
of execution of his domestic foes.
"
hellenised
"
solely in the
"
Little
144
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
A
"
ones
or
"
children."
most interesting tradition
"
Mandai tes, the In the Xlth Tractate
"
Codex Nasarseus
the
of
Christians of St. John.
Eight-hand Genza there
of
in the little-known
this designation is still preserved
so-called of their
most beautiful story of Jesus conies to Johanna to be
the mystic
is
a
Baptism. Jesus comes as a simple approacher seek But ing initiation into the mystic school of Johanna. Johanna is not to be deceived, and immediately recog "
"
baptised.
nises
Him
as the Master,
Manda d
Hajje Himself, the
Life," by whose power Johanna has been l teaching and initiating all the long forty and two years
c<
Gnosis of
of his ministry.
It is too long to quote the beautiful story of
Johanna, in giving the lower initiation (?
psychic) baptism
how
external
of
to Jesus, receives the true spiritual
Baptism from Manda d Hajje Himself, when He gave him the grip of the Eushta, and laid His hand upon "
him
in Jordan
of flesh
;
and He made him lay off his garment and He clothed him in a raiment of
and blood
;
glory."
It is
enough
for our
purpose to set
sentences put into the
mouth
peace, Little One.
Now
that
we may
.
.
.
down
Johanna
of
a few of the c<
:
Come
in
I go with thee, Little One,
enter the stream.
.
.
.
Come, come,
Little
One of three years and one day, youngest among his brethren but oldest with his Father, who is so small yet 2 his sayings are so exalted." Seniority in the Essene 1
2
apparently now passes on into the seventh seven years." The Liberation of Johanna," by Miss A. L. B. HardSee
He
"
"
The Theosophical Be view," vol. xxxi., no. 181, pp. 20-25 (September, 1902) ; also Brandt (W.), Mandiiische Schriften aus der grossen Sammlung heiliger Biicher gennant Genza oder Sidra castle, in
"
"
THE TALMUD 100
STORY OF JESUS. 145
B.C.
and Therapeut communities, it must be remembered, was not reckoned by age, but by the number of years
member we were to
the brother had been a
What, now,
if
unrelated
totally
of the order.
scraps
apparently Was Herod
fuse these
information
of
together
Might we not ask ourselves how many elements are be sifted out nocents
"
;
the
how many
mystic history birth in
of
its
traditional
"murder
myth Can
present form?
and
was
"
"
to
of the in
conflations of historical fact
before the
?
brought to there be in it even
some reminiscence
of the 800 victims of Bethome ? The Talmud Eabbis know nothing of Herod s wholesale murder of the children as recounted in the introduction
Gospel Josephus knows nothing ben Matthai had no reason for white yet Joseph washing the character of Herod, had such a dastardly
of our first canonical of it
;
;
outrage been an actual other crimes
fact, for
without
he records his numerous
and
hesitation;
Talmud
the
Kabbis hated the memory of Herod so well that they could not have failed to record such a horror, had he
been really guilty of
But
The narrative rently
it.
Talmud introduced by citing what
to return to the is
words
some famous saying
of our
passage. is
appa Eabbinic wisdom. It
of
must be remarked, however, that if Streane s trans lation is correct, 1 the wisdom of the saying does not Rabba
(Gottingen 1893), p. 195; Tempestim (F.), Le Code Nazareen vulgairemeiit appele Livre d Adam traduit pour la premiere fois en Frangais," in Migne s Dictionnaire des Apocryphes," vol. i. (Paris 1856) and Norberg (M.), Codex iibersetzt uiid erlautert
"
;
"
"
"
;
Nasaraeus,
Liber
Adami
appellatus
;
latineque Hafnise, n.d., probably first decade of last century). 1 Moses Levene translates more intelligibly from "Sot .
.
.
10
redditus
a,"
47a
:
146
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
immediately appear on the surface, and we must take it in a symbolic sense as referring to such ideas as good
and
sheep and
orthodoxy
and
heresy; being the commonest of all symbolic terms, not only in Jewish and Christian but also in evil, "
"
right
The
"Inn"
"Horn*."
and
goats,
"
"
left
Egyptian, Pythagorean and Orphic mysticism. As to the inn and hostess story, it is very evident take it literally, we have the tti&t, it we are to
mountain out
veritable birth of a
Why
of a mole-hill.
the whole orchestra of the Temple at Jerusalem, appa rently,
should
be
requisitioned
to
give
world-wide
of the excommunication of Jeschu, simply because he admired the eyes of a landlady (if that indeed be the meaning of the original) l is passing non-
notice
oriental comprehension. the intolerable burden
To
relieve ourselves, then, of
the absurdities which the
of
of the story
imposes upon us, I venture to suggest that we are here face to face with an instance of Deutsch s cap and bells element in the Talmud, and literal
meaning
"
"
therefore
make
bold to offer
to the underlying
ExcommuniJesus!
Evidently
the
my
mite of speculation as
meaning.
main point
is
was
Jeschu
that
formally excommunicated for heretical tendencies from the school or circle over which Joshua presided. The
400
horns,
trumpets
or
trombones
may
be
taken
simply to mean that the excommunication was exceed The reason for excommuniingly formal and serious. "The
hand
right
hand
repels."
See
of a "
man
should always allure when the
Jesus and Christianity in the
"
Talmud,"
left
The
Review," xxix. 316 (December, 1901). oval whereas Streane s Levene gives the lady s eyes as would seem to be the very opposite of a com "little narrow eyes"
Theosophical 1
"
"
;
plimentary remark.
THE TALMUD 100 cation
was plainly
Egypt.
Now
doctrinal.
The kernel
Jewish tradition "
Jesus learned
magic
in
of this persistent accusation
may
that
asserted
invariably
STORY OF JESUS. 147
B.C.
"
perhaps be reduced to the simple historical element that Jesus went to Egypt and returned with far wider
and more enlightened views than those of his former codisciples, and in this connection it is to be remembered that
many
scholars
resemblance
have
between
from
argued,
earliest Christian churches
the
strong
the general canonical tradition and features
the
of
of
those of the Essene communities, that Jesus was an Essene, or let us say more generally a member of an I therefore venture on the specula Essene-like body. tion that the
"
inn
"
of
our story
may
cryptically refer
one of such communities, which Joshua considered very excellent, but which Jesus considered to have a to
narrow outlook from the standpoint liberal view of things spiritual. It is also
of a
too
to
recall
more
of interest
mind that excommunication from the
to
Essene community required the votes of no less than 100 brethren; can the 400 "horns" by any possibility refer to the voices or votes of
some
specially
convened
assembly for a very important and formal decision against one whose superior knowledge refused to be
bound down by the
traditional limitations of the order
Perhaps also there are some who the question
the
"inn"
:
Has the
of
" "
birth
the familiar
meaning looked at by the cryptic expressions
As we
may
of the
Gospel
?
ask themselves "
little
story
one
"
in
any new
light of these mystic
and
?
are, then, in highest probability dealing
with The
a
story
which
conceals
an
under-meaning,
it
"
*
t)ft&
may
Brick-
148
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
be conjectured that some precise
further
detail
of
history underlies the extraordinary expression he set up a brickbat," which has hitherto been invariably con "
strued as a contemptuous or humorous "
he became an
but, on
This
idolater."
we have
may
of saying,
way
be the meaning,
remember that
in contrary, the general formal charge at the end taken from the same authority from which the Gemfira derives the
the
story, there is
nor,
if
no mention
of idolatry in this gross sense,
do we anywhere else in the Talmudic or Mediaeval, meet with
I mistake not,
Jewish Jesus
stories,
Has
this grossly material charge. sion, then, "
"
peter
to
this strange expres
any hidden connection with the
symbolism, or with the
its initiations
the
hewn-stone
"
rock
"
and
and
"
corner-stone,"
therefore originally with Egyptian mystic "
"
"masonry"
and
of a
Grand Master
this
famous
But we have not yet done with
?
story, for
occurs yet again in the Talmud, though in a different In the Palestinian Gemarfi we thus read form.
it
:
The Jehuda a
Story
The inhabitants
Jerusalem intended to appoint Jehuda ben Tabbai as Nasi l in Jerusalem. He fled "
and went away Jerusalem
of
to Alexandria,
wrote:
Alexandria the small.
and the inhabitants
From Jerusalem
How
long lives
the
my
of to
great betrothed
with you, whilst I am sitting grieved on account of him ? When he withdrew to go in a ship, he said Has Debora, the landlady who has taken us in, been :
wanting in something ? One 2 Eabbi, her eye was bright !
1
2
of
his
He
answered
disciples :
Lo,
said
:
you
Prince or President of the Sanhedrin.
Dalman-Streane add (op. cit., 33), a euphemism for blind" but this gloss would seem to change the whole sense of the story. "
THE TALMUD 100
STORY OF JESUS. 149
B.C.
have done two things; firstly, you have rendered me What suspected, and then you have looked upon her. did
I
?
say
beautiful in appearance
?
I did not say
anything (like this) but (beautiful) in deeds. was angry with him and went his way." l
As
the Palestinian
Gemara
is
And
he
generally considered to
Is it
the
be older than the Babylonian, it is naturally argued oft that we have here the original form of the story which story
we have been
discussing;
name
the
of
Jeschu was
plainly inserted at a later date, and in this fact
we
have the simplest possible explanation of this wild anachronism. And it must be confessed that this argu ment is one of great strength, and for most people entirely disposes of this question.
But even
so, it
may
of the story
still
be conjectured that the
was a deliberate proceeding on
remodelling the part of the Eabbis to suit their tradition of certain
the life of Jesus. Hence, in rejecting the not date, absolutely necessary to reject the whole of the Babylonian version as entirely devoid of every in
details
it is
element of genuineness. Again, as to the lateness of the Babylonian version, it is to be observed that the Gemara quotes from an earlier source or tradition of the story, 2 and therefore
we have was in
to
all
push the date back to
remarked that the setting version is far more exact in 1
2
"
Pal.
Chagiga,"
the whole Babylonian
its historical details
(op. cit., p. 43),
who
concluding paragraph as follows
which reports
which
;
it is
77d.
See Laible-Streane
of the
of
this source,
It is further to be
probability Palestinian.
this story, says
elsewhere."
gloss the "
:
opening words
The same
authority
?
150
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
a far more deliberate tradition than the vague and pointless Palestinian account.
But even with regard
The Problem
date
am
itself, I
so absolutely disposed of as as
we
Joshua ben Perachiah
to the
not altogether satisfied that it
seems at
can be
glance, for
first
shall see in considering another,
it
and in some
respects independent, line of Rabbinic tradition pre
served in the earliest elements of the Toldoth Jeschu, the Joshua ben Perachiah date
is the
date,
and how on
an apparently so ludicrous anachronism could
earth
have held
its
own
for so
centuries
many
logical puzzle of the greatest interest
that the
Jews had no
and in
this
is
a psycho
argues plainly
difficulty at all in accepting
connection
Eabbis had no
;
it
we must remember
it,
that the
whatever in the Christian gospeltradition as history, as we can plainly see from the Jew of Celsus, and that they therefore never dreamed of their
testing
belief
basic
by the Christian gospel
tradition
story.
The
original version in the Palestinian
Gemara,
like
its
Babylonian (or originally Palestinian) variant, is evidently a story of the contact of Jewish orthodoxy with Alexandrian liberalism and mysticism, personified
Deborah the most famous
in
the
main
point
willing to praise the circles,
cast off
of ancient prophetesses,
the orthodox
being that
hospitality
of
the
Jew was
Alexandrian
but refused to praise their doctrines; nay, he a disciple who ventured to praise them, in fear
of the taint of heresy thus indirectly attaching to self.
The upholder
of this rigid
Jehuda ben Tabbai, the
"
"
pair
him
orthodoxy is given as Simeon ben Shetach.
of
In adapting this story to the details of their Jeschu
THE TALMUD 100
STORY OF JESUS. 151
B.C.
tradition there seems to be no reason
should have altered the tradition
imperatively
been
more natural
far
name
required to
why
the Rabbis
unless the details of that it,
for it
would have
have allowed Simeon ben
Shetach to write to his contemporary Jehuda, than to have made him write to Joshua ben Perachiah, the "
leading light of the preceding pair." But it must be confessed that reason has seldom any
thing to do with tradition, and therefore petent to reveal its mysteries.
We
will
now
seldom com
proceed to consider an even more starts is found in one of the Mary
ling anachronism which stories.
is
THE TALMUD MARY
IX. The Mary
IT
historical.
Talmud Mary
in vain to seek for
is
the accusation
any
STORIES. element in the
historical
they revolve entirely round her unfaithfulness to her husband,
stories, for
of
and, therefore, in
my
opinion,
owe
their origin to,
and
cannot possibly be of earlier date than, the promulga tion of the popular Christian
virginity of the
dogma was
We
decide.
mother
first
of Jesus.
mooted
of
dogma
the physical
When this miraculous
exceedingly difficult to
is
believe, however, that even at the time of
the compilation of the canonical Gospels Joseph was still
held to be the natural father of Jesus, as
seen above, and from this of
reign
we deduce
Hadrian (117-138
A.D.)
we have
that even in the
the
dogma
of
the
miraculous birth was not yet catholicised." But how far back can we push the first circulation "
this
startling
belief?
For instantly
it
of
was publicly
mooted even by a restricted number of the faithful, it was bound not only to have attracted the widest notice
among
the Jews, but also to have called forth the most
contemptuous retorts from those who not only hated the Pagan idea of heroes born of the congress of divine and mortal parents as a Heathen superstition and an idola belief, but who were especially jealous of the
trous
THE TALMUD MARY
153
STORIES.
legitimacy of their line of descent as preserved in the In this connection public records of their families. there
Talmud which deserves our
a passage in the
is
careful attention.
It is interesting in other respects,
chiefly because it is
found in the Mishna
(iv.
3),
but
and
therefore puts entirely out of court the contention of
those
who
assert
that
what
is
generally regarded as
the oldest and most authoritative deposit of the Talmud contains no reference whatever to Jesus and not only ;
found in the Mishna, but it purports to base on a still older source, and that too a written one.
is it
itself
This
remarkable passage runs as follows Simeon ben Azzai has said I found in Jerusalem The Book :
"
:
a book of genealogies
and
so
is
;
therein was written
a bastard son of a married
woman."
:
l
That so
J
This Simeon ben Azzai flourished somewhat earlier
than Akiba, and may therefore be placed at the end of first and the beginning of the second century. He was one of the famous four who, according to Talmudic
the
"
tradition,
entered Paradise
"
;
that
is
to say,
he was
one of the most famous mystics of Israel. He was a Chassid, most probably an Essene, and remained a celibate
and
rigid ascetic
might, therefore, give us is
till
expect him
some information
We
the day of his death. to be specially fitted to
as to Jesus,
recorded to have said
is
and yet what he
the very opposite of our
expectation.
Ben
Azzai,
found a book
we
are to believe, declared that he had
of genealogies at
Jerusalem
presumably then before the destruction of the city in 70 A.D. This book of genealogies can be taken to mean nothing else 1
"
Jebamotli,"
49a.
of
154 r
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
5
than an
record
official
;
nevertheless
we
are told that
it
contained the proof of Jeschu s bastardy, for so and so is one of the well-known substitutes for Jesus and "
"
Jesus alone in the Talmud, as has been proved and admitted on either side. If
we
are right in ascribing the genesis of the
Mamzer
element of the Jesus stories to doctrinal controversy, we can only conclude that the categorical statement
we
considering was originally either a deliberate invention, or the confident assertion in the heat of are
controversy of some imperfect memory that was only too eagerly believed to refer to Jesus. The Jewish apologist on the contrary can argue that this ancient tradition fully justified his forefathers of later genera tions for
their belief in
historic fact authenticated
an out-and-out claim that the
answer to historicising
the bastardy of Jeschu as a by the records while if he be ;
may even
rationalist he "
this of
virgin birth record,
"
go so far as to doctrine was invented in
and that there has been no
a mystic
as
fact,
seeing that there are no mystic
we have supposed,
but only the baseless imaginings of unbalanced enthusiasm. This we cannot believe, and therefore conclude that "
facts,"
legends came to birth some where towards the close of the first century.
the earliest Jewish
Ben Stada Pandera
Mary
It is exceedingly difficult to classify these
legends
or to treat
logical fashion, but
seem
by
to
them
it is
names
for
any satisfactory chrono
remarkable that in them there
be two deposits
different
in
Mamzer
of
Jeschu
tradition
characterised
Ben Stada and Ben
Pandera, names which have given rise to the wildest philological speculation, but of which the current mean-
THE TALMUD MARY STORIES. ing was evidently simply
may have been their
son of the
"
line of descent. 1
exclusively in the Talmud, where
designation of Jeschu,
155
harlot,"
whatever
Ben Stada occurs
it is
the most frequent
though Ben Pandera
is
also
found
;
found in the Toldoth Jeschu, and as we have seen in the Church Fathers, while Ben Stada is
Ben Pandera
is
never met with in these sources.
The Ben Stada stories are mostly characterised by The Lud anachronisms which are as startling as those of the Ben Perachiah date, but which are its exact antipodes. They are further generally characterised by references to
distinct
or
Lud,
either
by the bringing in of
the names of the most famous Eabbis of this famous school of
Talmud
I
study.
would suggest, therefore,
that these legends might be conveniently called the
Lud
stories. 1
See Krauss
(Berlin
1902), p.
;
Das Leben Jesu nach jiidischen Quellen 276, where full indications of the literature are "
"
(S.),
A
probable speculation is that of Bleek in Nitzsch s eine Reihe talmudischer und patristischer Ta uschungen, welche sich an den missverstandenen Spottnamen Ben Pandera gekniipft," in Theologische Studien und Kritiken
appended. article,
"Ueber
"
".
Bleek supposes that Pandera is 1840), pp. 115-120. caricature-name to mimic the Greek Trdp0evos (Parthenos),
(Hamburg; a
"Virgin."
Greek
But there
is
also
perhaps a
connection
with
1
the
(Panther), an animal that was regarded as the symbol of lasciviousness. Whether or not there may have been further iravQ-np
some connection between this panther-idea and the Egyptian PashtBut Pasht or Bast, the or cult, it is impossible to say. "panther" goddess, is suppossed to have had rites resembling those of Aphrodite Pandemos, and the girls of her temple were "cat"
therefore presumably prostitutes. given as equivalent to the old
means a
"pack
saddle."
The
The
derivation of
"
bastard
"
is
French "son
fils de bast, where last of Bast" in Egypt would
have been a like term of unequivocal meaning. Still we can hardly venture to connect these too bast s, and so must leave the matter as a curious freak of coincidence.
/
<J
156
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
The Mishna School at Lud (Lydda) is said to have been founded by K. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, the teacher of E. Akiba, 1 and it was doubtless the great reputation
Akiba
of
as
the most implacable foe of Christianity
name
which, in course of time, connected the
with stories
of
Mary
Akiba which
originally were perfectly innocent of any reference to the mother of Jesus. Thus, in later times, we find tradition bringing Akiba of
personal conversation, we her one of Akiba s contem giving poraries as a husband, and finally we meet with a curious legend in which Miriam is made the contem
and
Miriam together
find
it
still
in
later
porary of a Eabbi of the fourth century
!
But to consider these fantastic developments Talmudic tradition in greater detail. The following the famous academical discussion on the refinements bastardy,
which in course
Pandera legend with some
we
as
still find
them
of time supplied the
of its
most striking
of is
of
Ben
details,
in various forms of the Toldoth
Jeschu.
A Famous
A
shameless person is, according to E. Eliezer, a bastard according to E. Joshua, a son of a woman <c
;
her separation
in
and son
of a
;
woman
according to E. Akiba, a in her separation.
bastard
Once there
sat
when two boys passed by one had head covered, the other bare. Of him who had A bastard his head uncovered, E. Eliezer said,
elders at the gate
;
his
!
1
But when we
Helena
of
are told that tlie famous Jewish proselyte, Queen Adiabene, passed fourteen years in Palestine (46-60
communion with the doctors of the Hillel school at Jerusalem and Lud, there was presumably a school at Lud even prior to the time of Ben Hyrcanus. A.D.) in close
THE TALMUD MARY STORIES. E. Joshua said, E.
Akiba
said,
separation
A son of a woman in A bastard and son of
her separation a woman in her !
How
said to E. Akiba,
They
!
157
has thine
heart impelled thee to the audacity of contradicting the
He said to them, I am of thy colleagues ? about to prove it. Thereupon he went to the boy s her found mother, and sitting in the market and selling words
He said to her, daughter, if thou tellest me the thing which I ask thee, I will bring thee to eternal
My
pulse.
She said
life.
E. it
to him,
Swear
Akiba took the oath with
Then
in his heart.
thy son
this
?
to
it
me
said he to her,
chamber
I
Thereupon he cancelled
Of what sort
*
She said to him,
myself to the bridal
!
his lips, while
When
was in
my
I
betook
separation,
husband stayed away from me. But 1 parariymph came to me, and by him I have this
and
my
So the boy was discovered
woman
the son of a they,
Great
his teachers.
the Lord
is
5
God
to be
is
my son.
both a bastard and
in her separation.
Thereupon said
E. Akiba, in that he has put to shame In the same hour they said, Blessed be
of Israel,
who has
revealed His secret to
Akiba ben Joseph. 2 Eliezer, Joshua and Akiba were contemporaries, but Akiba was by far their junior; for Eliezer ben "
E.
Hyrcanus was Akiba s teacher, while Joshua ben Chanania was a disciple of Jochanan ben Zakkai, who died about 70 A.D. Akiba was put to death in 135 A.D. ;
The
setting of the story, therefore, places us
about the end
We may
somewhere
of the first century.
pass over the strange ascription of an act Criticism thereon. 1
2
That
the bridegroom 18b. "Kallah," is,
s best
man.
158
DID JESUS LIVE 100
of heartless perjury to
Akiba
as the
B.C. ?
means whereby he
extorted the confession from the boy s mother, and the far more curious addition at the end of the passage which blesses the God of Israel for revealing "His "
secret
after the use of such questionable means, with
remark
the
that
it
would be interesting to know to abandon the
whether Talmud apologetics prefer the
reputation of
Akiba in
this
Talmud
instance,
or
for
of
here
its
great authority there is no third
choice.
What the
is
name
most striking in the story is that neither boy nor that of his mother is given.
of the
l
supposes that the story originally contained the names of Jeschu and Miriam, but that the compiler of Laible
the
Gemara
struck them out, both because the mother
described as a pulse-seller, while elsewhere in the
is
Talmud she and
called
is
Miriam the women
also because of the startling
He
ing Miriam and Akiba contemporaries. the story itself
is of
early origin,
s hair-dresser,
anachronism
of
mak
holds that
and was originally a
Jesus story.
To
this
we cannot
agree, for
if it
had been
originally
Jesus story its inventors could not so foolish as to introduce Eabbis of have been possibly the beginning of the second century among the dramatis
intended
as
a
This would have been really too inane even the wildest controversialists at any date even
personce.
for
remotely approaching the time when Jews and Jewish Christians were still in contact.
How
it
The main intention enhance the reputation 1
of
the story
of K.
Laible-Streane, op.
is
evidently
to
Akiba, to display the cit,,
p. 35.
THE TALMUD MARY STORIES. depth
of his
159
penetration and his fine appreciation of the
subtlest shades of bastardy, a subject of great importance
was then presumably a tradition first had no connection what
in Eabbinical law.
It
Lud
and at
of the
school,
ever with the Jeschu stories. the
Mamzer
retort to the virgin-birth
larised in legend
famous story
of
vague Mamzer
may
In course
and
of time,
when
dogma was popu
folk-tale, the details of this other
bastardy were added to the originally legends of Jeschu, and to this source we
conjecture, with high probability,
is
to be traced
the origin of the coarse details of Miriam s unfaithful ness to her husband as found in the various forms of the
Toldoth Jeschu. The link was simply the word
"
bastard"
;
the rich gain to the legend material finally entirely out weighed the inconvenience of the wild anachronism.
The story
is
introduced by the commission of a shock
ing act of disrespect on the part of one of the boys, for according to Eabbinical law and custom, a teacher was to be treated as worthier of greater
others,
even than one
s
parents.
honour than
To go uncovered
all
in the
presence of a teacher was thus thought to be an act of utter shamelessness in the West, of course, the very ;
opposite would be the case. Disrespect to the Eabbis as shown in this and other ways is one of the main
burdens of accusation brought against Jesus in the Toldoth Jeschu.
We
are,
or
then, justified in supposing that
any folk
of infidelity or
legend bastardy stood a good chance of being gradually worked into the Mamzer patchwork. And indeed we find that this was actually tale
The following story method of conflation.
the case. this
is
a good instance of
160 The Story
of
Paphos ben Jehudah.
DID JESUS LIVE 100
There
"
B.C.
?
a tradition, Eabbi Meir used to say
is
:
Just
as there are various kinds of taste as regards eating, so
there are also various dispositions as regards women. is a man into whose cup a fly falls and he casts
There
but
it out,
the same he does not drink
all
used to there
is
throws
another who,
it,
a fly falls into his tumbler,
and
this is the
of
way
men
When
she is speaking with her brothers he does not hinder her, But there is also
relatives,
the man, who,
when
out and eats
fly)
(the cup).
of
when
out and drinks
it
generally.
and
it
Paphos ben Jehudah, who lock the door upon his wife and go out. And
Such was the manner
it
a fly falls into a dish, sucks
(the dish).
This
is
the
it
(the
manner
of a
bad man, who sees his wife going out bareheaded and spinning in the street and wearing clothes slit up on both sides and bathing together with
How
it
became a
Mary
Story.
l
men."
Meir was a pupil of Akiba and Paphos ben Jehudah was Akiba s contemporary. E.
(or
It
Pappos) not is
necessary to enter into a consideration of the details of Eabbinic metaphor with regard to the "various dis
All
positions."
we
learn from
this
with regard to Paphos ben Jehudah his wife
we
passage directly that he locked
is
however, led to conclude, indirectly, that she ultimately proved unfaithful to her tyrannical What, then, more simple than for a story spouse.
up
teller to
;
are,
connect this with the details of unfaithfulness
found in his Jeschu like
Miriam
;
repertoire.
The erring wife was just
before long she actually became Miriam,
Paphos ben Jehudah was confidently given as So they had it in later times, had it, Miriam s husband we may suppose, at Lud, that most uncritical of legend
and
finally
!
1K Gittin,"90a.
THE TALMUD MARY STORIES. factories,
and
we
finally
tator as Eashi (ob.
1105
even so great a commen A.D.) endorsing with all confidence find
this hopeless anachronism,
when he
Paphos ben
"
says
:
Miriam, the women s hair Whenever he went out of the house into the
Jehudah was the husband dresser. street,
161
of
he locked the door upon her, that no one might
be able to speak to her. And that is a course which became him not for on this account there arose enmity ;
between them, and she in wantonness broke her faith with her husband."
But even eight or nine centuries before Rashi s time the Babylonian Kabbis had found the Ben Stada Lud developments a highly inconvenient overgrowth of the
Ben Perachiah
earlier it is
strange to find
to say
date, as
we
shall see later on,
and
Rashi so ignorant of what they had
on the subject.
Startling, however, as is the anachronism which we The have been discussing, it is but a mild surprise compared with the colossal absurdity of the following legend, if
we
interpret
"
When Eab
But there wept.
He
(away),
is
in the traditional fashion,
Joseph came to this verse (Prov. xhi. 23), is destroyed without judgment/ he
that
said
when
:
Is there really
it
is
attendant, Go, bring
children
teacher.
The former
me Miriam
He went and s
is
going
Certainly (for) so Bibi bar Abbai; the angel
it
dresser.
someone who
not his time?
happened with Rab death was found with him.
has of
it
the
brought him
The angel
of
said to his
women s Miriam
hair
the
death said to him,
Miriam the women s hair-dresser. The mes I Then will to said her him, senger bring [the other] The angel of death said to him, Since thou back.
I
said
11
Vision of
162
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
reckoned (among the
hast brought her, let her be l dead)."
Commentary
Eab Joseph bar Chia was born 259
A.D.
;
he was
head
of
at Stili, in Babylonia
the
famous Babylonian
The only E. Bibi and that
Eabbinical School at Pumbeditha.
we know this Bibi
of flourished in the fourth century,
was believed
death-bed vision
is
have been the seer
to
of the
quite evident from the following
note of the Tosaphoth on the passage The angel of death was found with him, :
"
related
story as
in the time of the second temple, for she
that so and so
Shabbath It is
[i.e.,
Jeschu], as
is
was mother
of
related in (treatise)
[104b]."
by no means clear what the writer
Tosaphoth meant precisely by temple."
who
what had happened to him long ago, for this to Miriam the women s hair-dresser took place
He
"
of
the
the time of the second
probably, however, meant the time before
splendid edifice of Herod replaced the second temple proper, the meagre building that had become gradually overlooked by the gorgeous Greek the
new and
palaces of the nobles of It
Herod s
days.
must be remarked, however, that
this explanation
does great violence to the wording of the story as it is found in the Geinara. Can it be then that some other Bibi was originally referred
to,
and that the story was
subsequently transferred by posterity to his far later
but more famous namesake
?
That the simple words "bastard" and "adulteress" were strong enough indications of suitability for the match-makers
of legend to unite in 1
"
Chagiga,"
4b.
marriage stories
of
THE TALMUD MARY STORIES.
163
otherwise the strongest incompatibility of age and date, we have already seen that the very common name of Miriam should further expand this family circle of ;
cross-breeds
And to
therefore quite to be expected.
is
by most
this will doubtless be held
account for the transference to
Miriam the mother
of
Jeschu
sufficiently
address
the
of
the following two
of
legends but closer inspection warns us not too lightly to accept this explanation. In one of the tractates ;
of
a
the Palestinian
Talmud we are given the who was privileged
to see a
the punishments in hell.
Among
certain devout person
vision of
some
of
story of
other sights.
saw
Miriam, the daughter of Eli Betzalim,\ The story Miriam in T suspended, as K. Lazar ben Jose says, by the paps of Hell, her breasts. R. Jose ben Chanina says The hinge of "He
also
11
T
.
i
<.
:
hell s gate [?
was fastened in her
the angels of punishment],
ear.
Why
is
He
said to
this
done to her
them ?
The answer was, Because she fact.
Others
said,
fasted and published the Because she fasted one day, and
counted two days (of feasting) as a set-off. He asked them, How long shall she be so ? They answered him, Until Simeon ben Shetach comes
;
then we shall take
out of her ear and put it into his ear." 1 As K. Jose ben Chanina was a contemporary of R. Akiba, R. Lazar ben Jose was presumably a Rabbi of
it
an
earlier date,
but
I
can discover nothing about him.
The main point of interest for us is the sentence, until Simeon ben Shetach comes." This can only mean that "
Simeon ben Shetach was not
at the time of the vision
yet dead,
and therefore 1
"
Pal.
this
Miriam was
Chagiga,"
77d.
at
latest
of
164
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
contemporary with him and therefore can very well be placed in the days of his older contemporary Joshua
As
ben Perachiah.
Eli Betzalim, 1 I can discover
to
nothing about him.
It
is
true that a certain Eli
is
given as the father of Joseph .in the genealogy incorpo rated into the third Gospel, a genealogy which would be quite useless if at the time of its compilation Jesus had not been regarded as the natural son of Joseph, but in the very different genealogy prefixed to the first Gospel, and also purporting to give the descent of Joseph, a certain Jacob takes the place of Eli and the
name
But even had the two genealogies
not found.
is
we should not have been helped
at
all,
Eli
agreed,
for they are
given as the genealogies of Joseph and not of Mary. It would also be of interest to know in what Simeon
ben Shetach had offended, for he
is
otherwise
known
as the Kabbinic president of the golden age of Pharisaean
Queen Salome, as we have seen In any case the story is an ancient one, for already in the days of Eabbi Lazar and Rabbi Jose there were variants of it. prestige in the days of
above.
The
The phrase
"Hinge
Gate."
"hinge
argues an Egyptian
hell s
of
gate"
is
and
curious,
perhaps Chaldsean) setting
(or
may be compared with the "pivot of the gate the Khamuas folk-tales, where they
of
;
it
of Amenti"
relate
the
was commanded Hades." punishment that he should be requited in Amenti, and he is that of
1
Krauss
"
Dives in
Leben
"
It
224) translates
"
Eli Betzalim
"
by Miriam as M. Zwiebelblatt, but does not venture on any explanation. The onion, however, was a symbol of lasciviousness, and may, therefore,
"
("
Zwiebelblatt
"
Jesu,"
p.
(Onion-leaf) and
(p. 225) refers to this
perhaps be taken as a synonym of harlot.
THE TALMUD MARY man whom thou pivot
(?) of
lamentation."
it,
and whose mouth was open in great
l
Finally, in these
the
thrice-repeated
Talmud Mary-legends we come to Miriam daughter of Bilga story,
which runs as follows "
whose right eye the Amenti was fixed, shutting and
didst see, in
the gate of
opening upon
165
STORIES.
:
Bilga always receives his part on the south side on Miriam and
account
of
Miriam, daughter
apostate and went to
of
who turned
Bilga,
marry a soldier belonging to the and went and beat upon the roof
government
of Javan, 2
of the altar.
She said
to
him
Wolf, wolf, thou hast
:
destroyed the property of the Israelites and didst not help them in the hour of their distress
"
3
!
This Miriam of Bilga can hardly be supposed to the actual daughter of Bilga of I. Chron. xxiv. 14,
mean
the head of one of the priestly courses of the house of
Aaron.
It
daughter of
one
of the priests of
the Bilga course or
descent, for in the days of
line of
1
must mean simply that Miriam was the
Griffith (F. LI.),
(Oxford; 1900),
"Stories
p. 49.
of the
See also
High
"The
Bilga himself
we
Priests of Memphis"
Gospels and the
Gospel"
175-180, where I have pointed out the importance of this episode in the new-found demotic papyrus as a probable source of the Dives and Lazarus story. Was Lazar the
(London
name
1902),
;
pp.
of the seer in
folk-tales
?
some Jewish variant
of these
popular Egyptian
And has some alchemy of name- transmutation brought
name Lazarus of the Dives story of the third Gospel The speculation is a wild one, but not wilder than the
to birth the
writer
?
transformations of legends with which folk-lorists are on well acquanted. 2 3
That "
is,
Pal.
Sukka,"
all
hands
Greece (Ionia).
Sukka,"
55d, also in substantially identical words,
56b, and in
"
Tosephta
Sukka," iv. 28.
"
Bab.
166
DID JESUS LIVE 100
know
B.C. ?
no attack on Jerusalem by the Greeks,
of
as the
story evidently suggests.
In this case, however,
Talmud story
who
or
the
does not seem to be the
it
Jews themselves who
with Miriam, mother
of
leaves us to suppose that
passages
Dalman has
this
1 Jeschu, but Dalman,
it is
one of the censured
What
Talmud.
the
of
connect
however,
ground,
with
for bringing this story into relation
the Mary-legends I cannot discover
;
he seems to depend
on Laible, 2 who refers to Origen quoting Celsus as his
Jew
declare
that
"
Mary gave birth to Jesus by a certain soldier, Panthera." If, because of this, we are to take the above as a making
Mary of the
story, it should be noticed that the "
house
of
Greece,"
be placed prior to the of Jerusalem occupation by Pompey in 63 it,
in
any
case,
we
soldier
and therefore the date
incident must
in
" "
first B.C.
find a confirmation of
;
is
of the
Eoman so that
Ben
the
Perachiah date. This brings us to the end of our Mary stories our next chapter will deal with the remaining Talmud Ben Stada Jesus stories. ;
1
2
Dalman-Streane, Ibid,, p. 19.
op. cit., p. 20n.
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS STOKIES.
X.
As we have
seen already from the evidence of the early The Bringing
Church Fathers, one of the most persistent charges of the Jews against Jesus was that he had learned magic In the Toldoth Jeschu, while we
in Egypt. of
Jeschu
s
learning magic in Egypt, the
the story of his acquirement of miraculous power
robbing
of the
robbing
(the
is
the
or Ineffable
Tetragrammaton
at Jerusalem by a strange The Talmud, however, knows nothing of this
Name) from device.
Shem
hear
still
main feature in
of
the Temple
the
Shem from
the Temple
;
but in record
ing the tradition of the bringing of magic out of Egypt it adds details of the means whereby this magic is fabled to have been conveyed out of the country,
the variants of the story
we can
and
in
trace the evolution of
whereby Jeschu is said in the strange Toldoth to have outwitted the magic guardians of the device
the
Shem.
Thus "
in the Palestinian Gemfiril
He who
writing
is
we read
scratches on the skin in
guilty, but he
:
the
fashion
who makes marks on
of
the skin
exempt from punishment. them: But has not Ben Stada
in the fashion of writing, is
Kabbi Eliezer said brought (magic)
to
spells out of
Egypt
just in this
way
?
out of Egypt
DID JESUS LIVE 100
168
They answered him
On
:
is
also
?
account of one fool
ruin a multitude of reasonable
The same story
B.C.
we do not
l men."
handed on in the Babylonian
Gemara, but with a very striking variant There is a tradition Rabbi Eliezer said :
The Writing
"
:
to the wise
men, Has not Ben Stada brought magic spells from
an incision in his body ? They answered a fool, and we do not take proofs from
in
Egypt
He was
him,
2 fools."
The Tosephta adds yet another variant tion
He who upon
"
of the tradi
:
body
the Sabbath cuts letters
view
according to the
is,
the view
according to Eliezer said
to
the
the
of
wise:
of
K.
wise not
Ben Stada
upon
his
Eliezer guilty, guilty.
K.
surely learned
Should sorcery by such writing. They replied to him of a fool destroy all reason we in any wise on account :
able The EvoluLegend.
men ?
"
3
The mention indicate that
of R. Eliezer
we have
the story, however, oldest of
this
and the name Ben Stada
here to do with a
must be regarded
tradition,
for
it
cites
Lud as
R.
tradition
one
of
;
the
Eliezer ben
Hyrcanus, the teacher of Akiba, and the founder of the
Lud
school.
The Palestinian Gemara evidently pre more detailed account. In it the
serves the oldest and
academical discussion has to do with a very nice point of Sabbath breaking. Writing of any kind on the
Sabbath 1
2 3
"
Pal.
Bab.
was
strictly
Shabbath," Shabbath,"
forbidden.
13d.
104b.
"Tosephta, Shabbath," xi. (xii.)
mandel,
p. 126).
The question then
towards the end
(ed.
Zucker-
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS arises
:
But what
parchment
be on one
it
if
Further
?
is
s
STORIES.
169
skin and not on
there not a difference between
1 scratching in the form of writing, and making marks (that is in some way other than scratching) in the form of writing (that is presumably resembling writing in
some way)
?
K. Eliezer meets the decision of his colleagues with the objection that
Ben Stada brought
his spells out of
Egypt by marks on the skin and not by scratching." These marks on the skin were presumably not letters "
"
proper, that discussion
is
is
the fashion of or
"
the writing of words in Hebrew, for the marks in not as to writing, but as to "
writing."
or drawings of
sigils,
The Tosephta, elaborate
it
"
it
then refer to diagrams
some kind, or to hieroglyphics ? makes havoc of this
will he noticed,
argument
ascribes to the
Does
wise
of "
the
Palestinian
Gemara, and
a judgment the very reverse of
what they had given according to the Gemara over the has become scratching cutting "
"
upon the While account
"
more
;
letters
body."
as is
for still
Babylonian Gemara the whole The Hiding further altered no longer is it a men t. the
;
question with Eliezer of refuting the opinion of his marks on colleagues with regard to the main point, "
the skin in the fashion of
writing,"
no longer
is
it
a
question even of cutting letters upon the body," but we have a totally new and startling gloss, namely the "
bringing out of Egypt by Ben Stada of spells (presum ably written on parchment) in an incision in his body. 1
Laible
"
as tattooing ; (op. cit., p. 46) speaks of this "scratching but there seems no reason why we should give technical precision to
such vague indications.
170
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
This writing on parchment and hiding the parchment an incision in the body is precisely the account
in
adopted by the Toldoth Jeschu, and when we come to discuss this second highly complex line of tradition
All that need be said
shall refer again to the subject.
here
is
we
that the Palestinian Gemaril seems plainly to
have preserved the earlier account, namely the inscrib ing of some figures, or more probably hieroglyphs, on the skin.
The idea
in
the
mind
of the Palestinian
Eabbis was presumably that the Egyptians were known to be very jealous of their magic lore and did all they could to prevent books of magic being taken out of the country Jeschu, then, according to the oldest Rabbinic ;
tradition,
some
was
said to have circumvented their vigilance
The Circum-
subterfuge as that which has been by handed on in the story in the Palestinian Gemara. 1 The rank growth from the original nucleus of the
Heart.
legend
is
such
plainly
What
Tosephta.
the nucleus
know, but
it
shown the
real
in
the
inwardness or nucleole of
may have been we shall perhaps never may possibly have been derived from some
such mystical expression as the heart,"
Talmud and
the
or the hiding of
wisdom
"
circumcision of the
in the heart.
Mean
while the story under discussion provides a text in the 1
It is curious to note that a similar device has
been recently
The Four Feathers," use of by a novelist (A. E. W. Mason, London, 1902). The scene is laid in the Soudan, and on p. 90 we
made read
"
Abou Fatma drove the donkey down amongst the ... In the left shoulder a tiny incision had been made "
:
trees.
and the skin neatly stitched up again with fine thread. He cut the stitches, and pressing open the two edges of the wound, forced out a tiny package little bigger than a postage stamp. The package was a goat s bladder, and enclosed within the bladder
was a note written in Arabic and folded very
small."
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS
171
STORIES.
Babylonian Gemara for a commentary in the Gemara itself which runs as follows :
"Ben
Eab Chisda
Stada was Ben Pandera.
said: The Rabbis
The husband was Stada, the lover Pandera. (Another said): The husband was Paphos ben Jehuda; Stada was his mother; (or) his mother was Miriam the
women s hairdresser as they would say at Pumbeditha, S tath da (i.e., she was unfaithful) to her husband." l It is exceedingly difficult to make out from the stopping of this translation who said what, but the sentence his mother was Miriam the women s ;
"(or)
seems to be a gloss or interpolation, and as they would say seem to follow naturally
hairdresser,"
the words "
after
"
"
Stada was his
mother."
Be
this as it
may
be,
our interesting passage makes it quite clear that by this time legend had reached so rank a growth that
even the Kabbis themselves in
many
places
had
lost all
At
trace of its origin, of its earliest authentic form.
any
rate they were all at
sixes
and sevens on the
All they were quite certain of was that Ben Stada and Ben Pandera were intended
subject in Babylonia.
one and the same person, but as to who Stada or Pandera may have been they had no definite infor
for
mation.
Rab Chisda was one the
school
at
of the
Sura (one
of
most famous Eabbis the greatest centres
of
of
Talmudic activity in Babylonia) and died 309 A.D. he evidently was greatly puzzled to account for the appa ;
rently contradictory
Rabbinical 1
"
"
Bab
Bab.
aliases
The
tradition.
Shabbath,"
Sanhedrin,"
104b
67a.
;
bestowed on Jeschu by Rabbis
of
Pumbeditha
repeated in almost identical words in
their own Creations
-
172
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
(another of the great centres of Talmudic learning in Eastern Jewry), on the contrary, seem to have pre served a correct tradition of the origin of the nick
name Ben Stada, though they appear to have taken Ben Pandera as a proper form. Whether or not the Pumbeditha derivation
is
correct in the
letter,
is
a
question for specialists to decide it is in my opinion, however, certainly correct in spirit, for, as I have already argued, Ben Pandera came into existence as an ;
offset to the
ology, and
I
"virgin
am
s
son"
of
Christian popular the
further persuaded that
also a similar genesis,
Ben Stada had
whatever may have been the pre
cise philological details of their birth.
That the
later
Babylonian Rabbis were puzzled and is quite evident from the
at loggerheads on the subject
record of their
Gemara
;
a certain tradition of the additional
the
by
but that there was elsewhere
Ben Perachiah date
information
is
contained
shown in
the
mediaeval Tosaphoth to this passage.
A
"
Mediaeval r
Ben
Stada.
Rabbenu Tarn
says that this
is
not
Jeschu ha-Notzri (Jesus the Nazarene), for as to Ben Stada we say here that he was in the days of Pappos ben Jehudah, who lived in the days of Rabbi Akiba, as proved in the last chapter of Berachoth [61b], but Jeschu lived in the days of Jehoshua ben Perachiah, as
is
And not proved in the last chapter of Sota [47a] like Rabbi Jehoshua ben Perachiah who pushed away c
is
:
Jeschu ha-Notzri with both hands, and Rabbi Jehoshua His mother was was long before Rabbi Akiba. Miriam, the in
the
angel of
women s
hairdresser,
and what
Rab
is
related
the Chagiga [4b] death was found with him, etc., he said to his
first
chapter of
:
Bibi
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS messenger dresser
Kab
:
Go and
Bibi
fetch
me Miriam
means that there
that
women s
Miriam, a
173
STORIES,
the
women
hair
s
lived in the days of hairdresser.
was
It
another (Miriam), or the angel of death was also relat
Kab
ing to
before."
Bibi a story which happened a long time
l
Our Eabbi Tarn
"
(France),
who
"
presumably E. Jacob
is
of
Troyes Rabbi Tam.
flourished in the twelfth century, 2 but I
cannot discover to what school he belonged, and there fore to ever,
whom
"
we say here
categorically
Jeschu
of history,
Lud
denies
and
"
refers.
that
Ben
Eab Tam, how Stada
was
that, too, in face of the
the
wide
which had so strongly imposed itself upon the Babylonian Eabbis. We have ourselves seen how Ben Stada came into existence only some spread
tradition
"
"
where about the end
when he was Eabbenu Tam, therefore, is quite Ben Stada lived in the days right when he says that of Paphos ben Jehuda, who lived in the days of Akiba. The truth of the matter, according to Eab Tam, was born
of the first century,
of controversy.
"
"
that the historical Jeschu lived in the days of Jehoshua ben Perachiah as to the Eab Bibi story, he adds, it too ;
a gross anachronism, the Miriam
is
either
some
referred to
was
totally different person, or the story has
been handed on incorrectly. Eabbi Tam and his school, therefore, held solely to the Jehoshua ben Perachiah date and they apparently ;
Ben Stada
rejected all the 1
2
"
Tosaphoth See Krauss
Shabbath," "Das
stories,
but whether or no
104b.
Leben
Jesu" (Berlin 1902), pp. 227, the appearance of being a by-name, and we cannot be certain of the identification.
274.
But
Tam
(S.),
has
all
;
DID JESUS LIVE 100
174
B.C.
?
they also rejected the Jehoshua ben Perachiah story to the date, we have no means of
and simply held
given above
If the translation
ascertaining.
is
correct,
they also held to some ancient categorical statement that Jeschu s mother was a certain Miriam whose occupation was that of hair-dressing
we
meshes Miriam
Ben Stada
of the
net.
Miriam, "the women s simply another name-play
Pandera genus. the
in
is
"
"
hair-dresser,"
megaddela nesaiia
the twin of
is
and
Miriam
"
Miriam the
But
As
for
Jew
was equivalent Magdala had an unen
Magdala
the looseness of
Eabbinical
as
far
for a
"
of
harlot, for
for
;
Mary Magdalene
purposes in such word-play.
notoriety
women.
women s
"
the combination
1
the
be
to
Ben Stada and Ben
of the
original Miriam,
all practical
to saying
seems
hair-dresser,"
Miriam,
Miriam Megaddela
viable
but in doing so
;
became entangled in the
believe they unconsciously
the lives of
tradition,
its
then,
is
seems exceedingly probable that we have concerned, here the origin of the otherwise strange combination it
Miriam the women fore
ascribe
the
s
hair-dresser,
and we should there
and place
time
of its birth
to the
same period as the Ben Stada invention and the same which produced the Lud legends. But the origin of the glyph of the Magdalene, out of
circle
The Magthelsophia
wnom
tne Christ cast seven devils in the historicised
Christian tradition,
is,
in
my
opinion, to be traced to a
mystic Gnostic source and not to controversial word In Gnostic tradition we find the Sophia in her play. various aspects possessed of 1
"Threni Rabba," c.
pp. 274, 275, 286, 303
;
2
f.
106
many names. (ed.
Wilna)
see also Laible, op.
;
Among them
see Krauss, op.
cit.,
16 and 17.
cit.,
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS be mentioned
may
the Holy Spirit
:
the Mother or All-Mother
Shining Mother
of the Living, or
again She
Mother
;
Above
the Power
;
175
STORIES.
;
of the Left-hand, as
opposed Eight-hand the Man-woman Prouneikos or Lustful-one, the Harlot the Matrix to Christos,
;
Him
of the
;
;
;
Eden
Virgin Barbelo Daughter of Consort of the Masculine Merciful Mother
;
Light
One
Achamoth
;
;
the
;
;
;
;
Kevelant
the
Perfect Mysteries Mercy Kevelant of the Mysteries of the whole Magni tude Hidden Mother She who knows the Mysteries ;
of
Perfect
;
;
;
;
Elect
of the
Twins
;
;
the
Ennoea
Holy Dove which has given birth
to
and the Lost or Wandering Sheep,
;
Helena (who the Church Fathers said was a harlot whom Simon Magus had picked up at Tyre) and many other names. All these terms refer to Sophia or the the term in
its
most general sense
individual aspects, according as perfect
purity
;
or
in
the
she
"
Soul
"
using
in her cosmic or is
above in her
midst, as intermediary, or
below as fallen into matter. 1
By help
of the
thoughtful reader
above apparently unrelated data the The may now be able to sift out some of
the elements from the chaos of
myth and legend with
which we are dealing. Personally we should prefer to continue with the mystical side of early Christianity
and take ourselves out
of the hurly-burly of vulgar con of the task upon which we are but the necessities troversy,
engaged compel us to return to the Talmud Lud stories, and the account they give of the condemnation and death of Jesus. Both Talmuds contain a short statement 1
See
my
"Fragments of
pp. 334, 335.
a Faith
Forgotten"
(London
;
1900)
Mystic
176
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
referring to this, which in both cases
is appended to the from the Mishna following passage In the case of all the transgressors indicated in the :
"
Concerning the Enticer to Idolatry,
m lorah ,
as deserving or death, no witnesses are placed in
concealment except in case of the sin of leading astray If the enticer has made his enticing speech to idolatry. to two, these are witnesses against him, to the court of justice, and he
is
and lead him
But
stoned.
if
he
have used the expression not before two but before one, I have friends, who have a liking he shall say to him :
But
cunning, and wishes to say nothing before the others, witnesses are placed in con cealment behind the wall, and he says himself to the
for that.
seducer
* :
saying to
he
if
Now
tell
is
me
once again what thou wast If he now repeats it,
me, for we are alone.
How
the other says to him:
we
forsake our
and go and worship wood and then the enticer is converted, well and
Father,
heavenly stone
should
If
?
*
it is for This is our duty good but if he replies our good/ then those who are standing behind the :
;
;
wall is
bring him
stoned."
before the
court of justice, and he
1
The Mishna apparently approves ticer to "
compass
says the enticed,
alone,
It is also to
the wall.
ment twice idolatry
The Stoning of Jesus.
his legal
is
of lying to the
condemnation,
when
"
en
For we are
there are others behind
be noticed that the legal punish
referred to for the offence of seducing to
stoning.
To the above quoted passage from the Mishna the Palestinian Gemara adds :
t<
The enticer 1
"
is
the idiotj e tc.
Pal. Sanhedrin," 25c
"
;
Lo,
is
he a wise
Bab. Sanhedrin,
"
67a.
man
?
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS
No he
as an enticer he
:
is
is
man
not a wise
How
not a wise man.
;
STORIES. 177 as he is enticed
do they treat
him
so as
come upon him by surprise ? Thus for the enticer two witnesses are placed in concealment in the inner most part of the house but he is made himself to to
;
;
remain in the exterior part
lamp
of the
house,
wherein a
lighted over him, in order that the witnesses
is
see
him and
his voice. Thus, for with Ben Sot da variant of managed [a Stada or Satda] at Lud. Against him two disciples of learned men were placed in concealment and
may
distinguish
instance, they
was brought before
he
stoned."
the
justice,
and
different,
and
of
_j
The Babylonian Gemara runs as follows
And
"
court
l
is
somewhat
:
who
for all capital criminals
are mentioned The Hanging
in the Torah they do not lay an ambush, but (they do) for this criminal. "
How
lamp
do they act towards him ? They light the in the innermost part of the house, and
him
for
they place witnesses for him in the exterior part of the house, that they may see him and hear his voice, though
And that man says to him Tell me what you have told me when we were alone. And when he repeats (those words) to him, that man says to him
he cannot see them.
:
:
How
can we abandon our
idolatry
Such
is
?
If
he returns
God
it
is
in
well
Heaven and ;
but
practise
when he
our duty, and so we like to have
it,
says
:
then the
who
are listening without, bring him to the And thus they have done to tribunal and stone him.
witnesses
i
15d.
"Pal.
Sanhedrin,"
vii.
25d
;
also
"Pal.
Jabamoth,"
xvi.
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
178
Ben Stada ^Jbefore "
Lud
and they hanged him on the day
at Lud,
Passover."
l
Both these accounts are part and parcel of the Lud The accusation in both cases is the sin of
"
tradition.
leading
into idolatry
away
;
the death in both cases
is
by stoning, clearly stated in the Palestinian Genmra, and clearly inferred from the Babylonian, which, how Jeschu was hanged on the day before
ever, adds that
Passover
the
that
;
is
to say, apparently,
that after
body was hanged or exposed for a warning any rate this would be the only meaning attached to
stoning, his at
;
the statement by a Jew who had never heard the Christian tradition (and the Talmud Jews evidently
r
refused to listen to a
was
to expose the
word
body
of
of
it),
for the
Jewish custom
an offender who had suffered
the penalty of death by stoning, on a post as a warning 4
to
all.
The name for
we
any
however, warns us against seeking
"
Lud,"
historical basis in the details of the story,
should, therefore, dismiss
legends were
it
not that there exists
it
and
with the rest of the Lud still
another
Talmud tradition referring to the subject, and in this This tradition runs as the name Lud does not appear. follows The Forty
f~
"
:
But there
is
mation before Passover festival fc
^ e nera ^ went
a tradition
:
On
Jeschu was hung
^ ort
^ before him
the Sabbath of the [sic, ?
hanged].
But
for the space of forty
Jeschu goeth forth to be executed because he has practised sorcery and seduced Israel and
days, while he cried
1
"
Sanhedrin,"
same words
;
the passage
is
continued in almost the
Ben Stada was Ben on which we have already commented at length.
as
Pandera," etc.,
67a
:
"
Bab.
Shabbath,"
104b.
"
THE TALMUD BEN STADA JESUS
STORIES.
179
Let any one who can bring
1 estranged them from God.
forward any justifying plea for him come and give infor But no justifying plea was found mation concerning it. for him, and so he was hung on the Sabbath of the Passover
Ulla has said, But dost thou think
festival.
that he belongs to those for whom a justifying plea is sought ? He was a very seducer, and the All-merciful
has said [Deut. nor conceal him.
what
xiii.
Thou
8]:
However,
different, for his place
Here there there
shall not spare him,
in Jeschu s case it
was near those
in
was some 2 power."
is
no mention
3
of
supposes that Sanhedrin/ 43a, was originally a continuation of Sanhedrin," 67a, and that therefore Laible
"
"
the omission of that
it
"
Lud
"
is
quite understandable, seeing
had occurred immediately
exceedingly
before.
difficult to believe in
It
is,
however
such a slicing up
of
an originally consecutive account, and therefore I
am
inclined to think that in the passage just quoted
we
not the orignal form of the later Lud legend, at have, any rate an entirely independent account. The story seems to be in the nature of an apology for the execu if
tion of Jeschu. crucifixion (of
and
nothing),
remember that
The hanging is admitted, but not the which both Talmud and Toldoth know it
is
interesting in this connection to
"hanging"
is
also preserved in Chris
tian tradition as an equivalent of crucifixion.
or not this
1
" "
hanging
in the
This formal charge
of the
is repeated twice in 107b, and Sota," 47a.
Sanhedrin,"
43a.
"
"
Op.
minds
Sanhedrin,"
"
Gemarfi, 2 Bab. 3
J
Lud, but on the contrary No Knowno mention of stoning but only of hanging, crucifixion. is
cit.,
p. 85.
Whether
Eabbis was
the
Babylonian
180
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
at this time thought of as the
death, and they intended further
ment
of the canonical
to
admit
penalty of stoning,
of
this infringe
is difficult
to
The formal charge, however, brought against
decide.
Jeschu
immediate method
is
given as that of
practised
"having
sorcery
and seduced Israel and estranged them from God." These words can only refer to leading away to idolatry," "
Jesus
"near
power!"
and the penalty for this was, as we have seen, stoning. But Ulla, a Palestinian Kabbi of the beginning of the fourth century, objects
:
Why
Jeschu was plainly guilty nothing to apologise for.
of the
On
Gemarfi remarks that Ulla
all this
is
precaution
charge
when
We
?
have
this the compiler of the
mistaken in taking this
an apology or a plea that every possible precaution was taken that Jeschu should have the fullest possible chance given him of proving his tradition
old
for
The
innocence.
real reason for all those precautions
was that Jeschu was a person near those importance, and "
that
is
we
as
a
in
power
shall see later on.
We
stories.
Laible
l
and
at the time,
by blood with the
a trait preserved in the Toldoth Jeschu,
So much, then, for the Lud
shall next treat of
name transformation 1
"
to say presumably, connected
Jewish rulers
Jesus
of great distinction
some
stories
with
stranger even than Ben Stada.
87) interprets this as refer ring to the Roman drag in Pilate by the hair but in this, Laible seems incapable of taking a purely un "
(op. cit., p.
authorities,"
and
so tries to
as in so
much
biassed
standpoint, for he naively
else,
;
presupposes throughout the
absolute historicity of every detail found in the canonical Gospel stories.
XI.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STOEIES.
THAT the Jeschu
1
number
in a
Balaam
of
identification
of the
Talmud
(Bileam)
stories
we
with
BileamJeschu.
are con
sidering cannot possibly be held in doubt, will be amply seen from the passages which we are now about to
The precise way in which the identifica bring forward. was arrived at, is, however, somewhat difficult to
tion
discover.
It
of this curious
may
be that
we have
name-transmutation
the starting-point
still
preserved in a
Midrash on the famous Balaam story in Numbers on the other hand the origin of this strange name-change ;
may
be found in the domain
word-play.
Let us
first
of
name-caricature and
consider
the
extraordinary
Midrash connected with the Numbers Balaam "
(
He
that blesseth his friend
[Prov. xxvii. 14].
How strong was the voice
Rabbi Jochanan said
;
(It
was heard)
Rabbi Jehoshua ben Levi said the voice of Balaam.
God gave strength one end
of the
:
story.
The Balaam
with a loud voice of
Balaam
sixty
?
miles.
Seventy nations heard
Rabbi Eleazar ha-Gappar says and he went up from :
to his voice,
world to the other because he was look
ing about and seeing the nations adoring the sun and And he the moon and the stars and wood and stone. 1
For the
literature, see Krauss,
"
Leben
Jesu,"
pp. 267, 268.
182
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
looked about and saw that a man, son of a woman, will arise, all
who
make
seeks to
the world
God and
himself
to
seduce
without exception.
strength to his voice, that
all
Therefore, he gave nations of the world
Take heed that you (it), and thus he spake not after that as it is written [Num. man, go astray xxiii. 19], God is not a man, that he should lie, and might hear
if
:
he says that he
God, he
is
and say that he
into error
is
is
a liar
:
and he
going away and
will fall
come
will
(again) at certain spaces of time, (then) he hath said
and
f
will not
do
Look what
it.
written [Num. xxiv.
is
And
he took up his parable and 23], shall live when he makes himself God "
said, Alas,
who
Balaam
!
in
tended to say: Alas, who shall live from that nation which gives ear to that man who makes himself God ? 1 "
4
Comments
R. Jochanan
ornament Tiberias,
of
Nappacha) was a distinguished schools at Sepphoris and
(bar
the
Talmud
and died in 279
A.D.
Jehoshua ben Levi was one
and flourished in the
school,
century
;
the
at
of the first
age of eighty.
Rabbis of the Lud half
of
the
third
while R. Eleazar ha-Gappar (the Pitch-seller)
was a contemporary
of the
famous
"
Rabbi,"
R. Jehuda
ha-Nasi (Jehuda the Prince), or Jehuda the Holy, who was the final redactor of the Mishna; he flourished
somewhere about 200-220 A.D. This story then is presumably to be placed somewhere about the begin ning of the third century. The story is in the form of a na ive prophecy after the event (of which we have thousands of examples in allied
Hebrew
literature),
1 Jalkut Shimoni Jelammedenu. "
"
on
Num.
and makes Balaam quote xxiii. 7,
under the name
of
his
Midrash
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STORIES.
183
But xxxiii. 19) as holy scripture. is made to drop the Eleazar afterwards E. immediately prophetical form of the argument against Christian dogmatics and frankly to tell us what Balaam intended
own words (Num.
"
to
say."
The quotation, from Num. xxiv. 23 live when he makes himself God
who
"
Alas,
shall
"
!
is
remarkable, for
our Authorised Version gives an absolutely different rendering: "Alas, who shall live when God doeth
And
"
this
!
that the Eabbinical exegesis of this passage
differed entirely
from the received interpretation
of the
English Authorised Version may be seen from the following glosses as found in the Babylonian Gemara.
Woe
"
to
Eesh Lakish
him who said:
lives because
Woe
he takes
[sic]
who vivifies name of God." 1
to him,
God.
himself
who saves his life) by the Eesh Lakish (E, Simeon ben Lakish) was a Palestinian Eabbi who flourished about 250-275 A.D. he is clearly
(or
;
interpreting this passage in
by the
stories, for it is precisely
Shem, that Jeschu
connection with the Jesus "name
vivifies himself,
and
of
God,"
the
vivifies others,
in the Toldoth Jeschu.
Eashi says "
*
(ob.
1105
A.D.),
commenting on
this
passage
:
Balaam who
vivifies
himself by the
name
Another reading has
making himself God.
of it,
God,
who
God, that is, Woe to those men that vivify and amuse themselves in this world and tear the yoke of the Law from their necks vivifies
himself as to the
and make themselves
name
of
fat."
Here Eashi not only makes what was given as said lu Bab.
Sanhedrin,"
106a.
Resh Lakish
s
184
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
by Balaam about another an act committed by Balaam but further adds that the act committed by Balaam was in reality no other than his making himself
himself,
The only doubt apparently which Eashi had in mind was whether the prophecy referred to Balaam
God. his
(i.e.,
Jeschu) only, or whether
it
might
be con
also
sidered as embracing the Christians as well, for presum tear the ably they alone can be meant by those who "
yoke of the Law from their necks." Abbahu. Moreover in the Palestinian Gemara in expansion of the same famous verse in Numbers which contains the
most
important pronouncement of the traditional Balaam ben Beor, 1 and which constituted the main
argument claims, "
I
E.
of
the
we read Abbahu has
Kabbis against Christian dogmatic
:
God/ he
lies
;
I
said
If a
:
am Son
of
man
says to thee,
I
Man, he shall rue
it
ascend to heaven, this holds good and will not effect it.
of
him,
He
am * ;
I
has said
*
.
it
E.
who is
Abbahu
was the pupil of E. Jochanan, The argument put in his mouth
of Csesarea
died in 279 A.D.
clearly
meant
as a complete refutation of Christian
dogmatic claims by the quotation of one of the most solemn pronouncements of the Torah.
And
if
such inconvenient quotations from the Torali
were met by the more enlightened name, as we know they were by the
argument that the inspiration 1
Num.
xxxii. 19,
A.V.
"
:
God
is
of
of
the
Christian
Gnostics, by the
the Torah was of very
not a man, that he should
lie
;
neither the son of man, that he should repent hath he said, and shall he not do it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it ;
good?"
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STORIES. variable quantity and quality, that
it
185
came sometimes
from a good, sometimes from a mixed, and sometimes from an evil source, the Rabbis replied with still further quotations from
read "
the same Torah.
we
Thus
:
R. Chia bar
Abba
saith to thee, There be of the Sea, I
am He
If the son of the
two Gods, answer him,
of Sinai/
Red Sea God appeared upon Sinai
said:
[That
is
I
whore pria
bar
am He
to say, at the
to Israel as a youthful warrior,
an old man, as beseems a lawgiver but If the son of R. Chia bar Abba said
as
;
both are one.]
:
the whore say to thee, There be two Gods, answer him,
Gods but the Lord
It is here [Deut. v. 4] written not "
hath spoken with thee face to face. R. Chia, or more fully Chia Rabbah, was son of Abba he was a pupil of Sela, and flourished about 216 A.D.
J
;
"
Rabbi" (
= Jehuda
redaction of the
ben Simeon
Mishna
is
III.), to
whom
the final
attributed.
now
evident that the main claims of dogmatic Torah Christianity, that Jesus was God, that he was Son of It is
1 Man, and that he had ascended to Heaven physically in a miraculous manner, and would return again, were
met on the
side of the Rabbis with quotations
from the
This title, as used in Christian tradition, seems to me to be entirely shorn of all its characteristic meaning if taken, as modern scholarship takes it, to be simply a Greek literal translation of the Aramaic idiom which was in common use as a synonym of man 1
"
"
pure and simple, thus signifying that Jesus was the man par I am, therefore, inclined to think that the Greek term excellence. was of Gnostic We know that in Gnostic tradition origin. The Man," or Man," was a title of the Logos Son of Man was therefore a very appropriate designation for one who was kin to Him," that is, one in whom the was Light-spark "
"
"
"
"
"
;
"
"
bursting into a
"
Flame."
"
v.
186
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Torah, which they considered to be the infallible word of
God, and that the main passage on which they re
was the prophetic declaration
lied
as
they
under
believed,
the
of
direct
Balaam, made, inspiration
of
Yahweh.
But
if
we
are asked to believe that here
we have
to account for the astounding
basis
sufficient
a
identi
fication of the subject of
subsequent haggadic prophecy with the prophet himself, we can hardly be persuaded that
is
Such a topsy-turvy transfor
the case.
this is
mation
a tour deforce beyond even the capability of
the legerdemain of Talmudic legend-making.
The only thing that could have given the smallest justification for such an identification would have been some striking similarity between the doings of Balaam and
of
Jeschu
whereas the very opposite is found to we have already seen, and as we are
;
be the case, as
expressly told in the Babylonian Gemara. "
Prophet.
x iii-
And
Balaam, son Soothsayer
22].
Jochanan said
Rab Papa
At
:
said
herself for
a
prophet.
[Josh.
Eabbi
a prophet, at last a soothsayer.
is
what people say
:
She was
of
princes (and then) she prostituted l
mere
According
was
he
first
This
:
prominent men and %
of Beor, the soothsayer ?
carpenters."
the
to
tradition
of
ancient
Israel,
Balaam ben Beor was a soothsayer who was on one famous occasion compelled to prophesy truth by the power of Yahweh. Balaam-Jeschu, on the contrary, was a prophet tradition of
any rate the apparently oldest In the third the Talmud period had it. so at
;
century R. Jochanan 1
Bab.
still
admitted that Jeschu was
Sanhedrin,"
106a.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS "
"
a prophet, but contended that afterwards he
at first
away and was no longer inspired by the
fell
God.
This
Balaam
187
STORIES.
we
see
spirit of
the exact reverse of the ancient
is
Could anything, then, be more puzzling
s case.
than the name-identification Jesus-Balaam in spite of this?
And here the saying attributed to Kab Papa, the founder A Hy po of the lonia,
Talmud school at Neresch, near Sura in Baby who died 375 A.D., must delay us for a moment.
This saying
is
universally regarded as referring to Mary,
which case
would confirm the tradition quoted above in a previous chapter, that Jesus was near those in power." But does this saying really refer to Mary ? in
it
"
Eab Papa
is
apparently quoted as further explaining Jochanan as to the prophetical
the statement of E. status of
"
When,
Balaam."
then, he says,
"
She was
first
high estate and then she prostituted herself for she," by carpenters," can any possibility, refer to the of Jesus and not to Mary, who is nowhere teaching of
"
mentioned, and
awkwardly
tertained, E.
teaching
of
who
in
any case would come in most
hypothesis can in any way be en saying would then mean that the
If this
?
Papa s
Jesus formed
first
of
all
part of a true
prophetical movement, but afterwards it got tangled up with the carpenter story of popular propaganda and all those other dogmas which the Eabbis so
strenuously opposed.
Be
this as it
may,
if
there were not some hidden link Balaam-
in the chain of transformation
Balaam-Jeschu that
it
which eventuates in the
identification, it is
almost inconceivable
could ever have held together for a moment.
Let us now see whether this hidden link
is,
after
all,
so
188
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
We
have already seen that the the Kabbis against Jesus was that he
to discover.
difficult
main charge
of
had corrupted and ruined Israel. In Hebrew the name Balaam means precisely destroyer or corrupter of the
Have we not
1
people.
prehensible name-change
And
otherwise incom
of this
?
this be so, it is interesting to call to
if
clever conjecture that Nicolaos
(VIKOLV
mind the
and Xdo?) in Greek
the exact equivalent of Balaam in Hebrew.
is
and
here, then, the missing link,
most natural explanation
a
And
with Nicolaos before us we are at once reminded certain Nicolaitans
who came under
the severe displea
sure of the Jewish Christian circle to
whom
the over-
writer of the canonical Apocalypse belonged (Rev. 6
and
commentators, but
that under this 2
Can
ii.
These Nicola itans have been a great puzzle
15).
to the
of
name
many
scholars are of opinion
the Pauline Churches are aimed
then, be possible that the Nicola itans were for the Jewish Christians the Balaamites, the innovators at.
it,
who were throwing off the yoke of the Law and intro ducing new ideas contrary to the orthodoxy of Jewry ? If this
be
the identification Jeschu-Balaam
so,
may
be
conjectured to have been one of the immediate outcomes 1
See article
"
Balaam
"
in
"The
Jewish
"
Encyclopaedia."
The
Am
Rabbis, playing on the name Balaam, call him Belo (with out people that is, without a share with the people in the world ;
to come), or 2
*
Billa
Am
Manen s
(one that ruined a
people)."
The Encyclopaedia in which, however, the Leyden professor, while stig matising Balaam = Nicolaos as a mere guess, does not in any way refer to the Talmud problem we are discussing. That the See van
Biblica
"
article,
Nicola itans," in
"
"
;
Nicola itans = the Balaamites, however, is strongly supported by Kohler in his article in The Jewish Encyclopaedia," to which we "
have just referred.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STORIES.
189
propaganda, and we have again found the another Kabbinical nickname of Jeschu in
of Pauline
origin of yet
doctrinal controversy. "
may have gone back even leading astray further than the days of Pauline propaganda and we But the
"
;
believe that the original charge against Jesus
to be
is
found in the following passage preserved in the Baby lonian Gemara. There shall no evil befall thee
"
[Ps. xci. 10].
(That and bad shall dreams not evil that phantasies means) shall come Neither vex thee. any plague nigh thy tent
;
Notzri."
What
who burns
his food publicly, like
is
is
Dalman 2
?
opinion that
"public
"
to
learned."
burn
means
says that this
renounce openly what one has
of
publicly/
Jeschu ha-
the meaning of this strange phrase,
food publicly
s
to
Burning
1
"
"
"
(that means) that thou shalt not have a son or
disciple
one
^
con
of food is a
burning
3
Laible
temptuous expression for the public offering of sacrifice That the Christians in their assemblies offered to idols. sacrifice to idols
time as
of old
was
that of
it is
Naturally, therefore,
have commenced
In
as firmly the opinion of the
it
many
Jews
at the present day[!].
was concluded that Jesus must
it."
this connection
we
are further reminded that the An Apology brought against the Nicolaitans by the final
charge
redactor of the Apocalypse is eating things sacrificed to idols and committing fornication upon which van "
"
;
Manen comments all
that 1
3
"
is
Bab.
"
:
not because they made a mock of
holy and trampled honour underfoot, but Sanhedrin,"
Ibid. y p. 52.
103a.
2
Op.
cit. t
p. 34.
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
190
because they, like Paul/ had set aside the Jewish laws regarding foods and marriage, freely using food that *
and contracting marriages within the prohibited degrees, which in the eyes of the author of the Apocalypse were unchaste had been
set before
heathen
deities,
unions, just as in the eyes of the writer of I. Cor. v. 1 the marriage of the Christian who had freed himself
from scruples with his deceased father s wife (not his own mother) was so, or as in the eyes of so many Englishmen the marriage with a deceased wife s is
at the present
sister
day."
however, no consensus of opinion with regard to the meaning of the phrase burning one s food
There
is,
"
The Eabbis, we must remember, applied
publicly."
"
in the loosest fashion to every a strict Jewish custom or belief; not was that thing that the early Christians, be believed to and it is hardly
the term
"
idolatry
have been accused
least of all Jesus himself, could "
idolatry,"
their
most
in the literal
to think that there "
burning
A
Suggested Expknation.
meaning
bitter opponents.
of
one
s
may
food
I
of the
of
word, even by
am, therefore, inclined
be some other meaning of this
publicly."
The main point of the accusation is evidently conft was t h e doing of tained in the WQrd pub li c l v />
which apparently might publicly," something not only have been tolerated privately, but which was or other
"
to do in private. Now presumably the natural thing tradition is that Jesus of Christian burden main the
went and taught the people publicly
the poor, the
outcast, the oppressed, the sinners, to all of
whom,
of the cording to Rabbinical law, the mysteries
were not
to be
expounded unless they had
ac
Torah
first of all
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STORIES. purified themselves.
Amme
were
was not
ha-aretz
These ignorant and unclean livers (men of the earth), and the Torah
And
for them.
was admitted
191
Am ha-aretz
was that no
it
if
much more
to the schoolhouse,
strictly
were guarded the approaches to those more select communities where the mysteries of the Creation and "
"
theosophy of Judaism, were To some such community of this kind we
the
of
the
"Chariot,"
studied.
Jeschu originally belonged; and from it he he burnt his food publicly,"
believe
was expelled because that
is
"
the
to say, taught
and
people
so
violated
wisdom the
to
the unpurified
ancient
rule
the
of
order.
In connection with
remarkable passage, Gemara, which demands
this there is a
preserved in the Babylonian
our closest attention. "
When
our wise
It runs as follows
men
left the
others say, the house
or, as
of
house
:
of
Eab Chisda On the
Kab Shemuel bar Nach-
g fronTa "
mani, they said of him: laden say,
[Ps. cxliv. 14].
Thus our learned men are
Kab and Shemuel,
or, as others
Eabbi Jochanan and Eabbi Eleazar (were
and are
of a
One said our learned in the Law, laden with commandments [i.e., good works],
different opinion).
and the other
said
the commandments,
:
:
our learned in the
and
Law and
in
with sufferings. that our company shall not are laden
There is no breaking in, be like the company of Saul, from whom Doeg, the Edomite, has gone out, and no going forth, that our shall not be like the
company of David, from has Ahitophel gone out, and no outcry/ that our company shall not be like the company of Elisha,
company
whom from
whom
Gehazi has gone out,
in our streets/ that
Com P an
y-"
192 we
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
have a son or a disciple who burns his food publicly like Jeschu ha-Notzri." 1 Kab Chisda was one of the Kabbis of the Talmud shall not
Sura in Babylonia, and died 309 A.D. R. Shemuel bar Nachman (or Nachmani) was a teacher in school of
the Palestinian school at Tiberias, but twice went to
He was
Babylonia.
who was
II.
Rabbi."
temporary or
who was
a pupil
Shemuel was, then, presumably
"
Rab
a pupil of K. Jonathan ben Eleazar,
a pupil of R. Chanina,
of
a con
of R. Chisda.
Abba was
the founder of the school at Sura
on the Euphrates, and died 247 A.D. Mar Shemuel was head of the Babylonian school at Nehardea, and died 254 A.D. ;
was a Palestinian Rabbi who flourished
R. Jochanan
130-160
A.D.; R. Eleazar flourished
The words follows in
of the text
90-130
A.D.
taken from the Psalms run as
the Authorised Version:
"That
our oxen
may be strong to labour that there be no breaking that there be no complaining in our in or going out ;
;
streets."
Doeg,
Doeg, says Cheyne,
2
"had
been detained (so one
Yahwe i.e., by some obscure had and cunningly watched David religious prescription, Soon with the priest Ahimelech. in his intercourse tradition tells us)
after,
before
he denounced the latter to the suspicious Saul, his runners to put
and when the king commanded Ahimelech and the other priests refused,
against
it
was
this foreigner
to
who
them."
1
2
"Bab.
Berachoth,"
See article
17a "
"
Doeg,"
f.
Enc.
and they up his hand
death,
lifted
Bib."
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS is
Doeg the
by the strange
called
title
"
193
STORIES.
the mightiest of
shepherds."
Ahitophel, the Gilonite, was a councillor of David,
and was much esteemed
for his unerring
insight;
he,
however, revolted against David and cast in his lot with Absalom s rebellion. He met his death by hang ing (2 Sam.
xvii. 23).
= Valley (
of vision) was cast out by Elisha and smitten with leprosy for fraudulently obtaining money from Naaman at the time of the latter s
Gehazi
miraculous cure by the prophet. With these data before us
Talmud
let
us return to
our
very evident that the whole has to do with heresy, with going of the story point or with some scandal or breaking of the forth," It
passage.
is
"
established rule or order of things, or with paving the
way
We
for so doing.
stories
Balaam
is
have seen that in the Talmud
a substitute for Jeschu
;
can
it,
then,
be possible that in Doeg, Ahitophel and Gehazi also we have to do with name-substitutions ?
The answer
to this question will perhaps be
made
by quoting the following passages from the
clearer
Akiba
He
no part in the world to come who reads foreign books, and who whispers I will lay upon thee no sick over a wound and says says:
also has
:
ness,
which I have
laid
upon Egypt,
for I
am
the Lord,
"
thy physician. This interesting passage
is
followed by one of even
greater interest.
Three kings and four private persons have no Three kings, namely, portion in the world to come. 13 "
i
n the World come
to
Mishna. "R.
Those who
194
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh.
Manasseh has a portion xxxiii.
13],
K.
Jehudah says
:
therein, for it is said [II. Chron.
he prayed unto him; and he was him, and heard his supplication, and
"and
entreated of
brought him again to Jerusalem into his
kingdom."
was objected to him, He brought him again into kingdom, but he did not bring him again into the It
his life
Four private persons, namely, l C^ Balaam, Doeg, Ahitophel, and Gehazi." These passages are old, for they are found in the Siphre the future world.
of
Minim.
Mishna.
100-135 books
"
To take the saying ascribed to K. Akiba (fl. The Gemara 2 says that by foreign "
A.D.) first.
are
for long
taken to refer exclusively to Jewish Christians but this has been hotly dis
or Christians generally of
puted
The term Minim was
meant Siphre Minim.
late years
;
It
by many.
seems certain that
though Jewish Christians
may be sometimes included Minim does not mean them exclusively. Minim always mean heretics in a bad sense,
in this term,
Nor does it
"
"
sometimes means
tion, that is to say,
"
heretics
"
in its original significa
simply the
members
of
some par
That, however, most of the Rabbis con sidered these Siphre Minim, in a bad sense, to include ticular school.
the Gospel,
MS.,
3
follows "
lit.
is
evident from a gloss in the
where the word Evangelium
is
Munich
caricatured as
:
Rabbi Meir margin, of
calls evil],
it,
Awen
gilldjon [blank paper,
Rabbi Jochanan
gilldjon [blank paper of
calls
it,
Aivon
sin]."
R. Meir was one of the great redactors of the Mishna 1
"
Sanhedrin," xi.
2
Sanhedrin,"
90a
lOOb.
"
;
Mishna,"
x. 1,2. 3
Shabbath,"
116a.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS and flourished about 130-160 his contemporary.
that
is,
Gillajon
a paper which
therefore blank. 1
It
must be
E.
;
195
Jochanan was
literally a
"
margin,"
unwritten upon, and
left
is
A.D.
means
STORIES.
is
confessed, however, that
such apparently meaningless jesting is quite below the level of Eabbinical caricaturing with which we are acquainted, and I
am
inclined to think that
not got to the bottom of the matter.
no better conjecture myself. The formula of healing is
Dalman has
I can,
however,
offer
Whether
or not
we
are to take
a substitute for the
"
"
body
an
interesting
one.
"
"
Egypt literally, or as it was among certain
as of
Gnostic schools, must be left to the fancy and taste of the reader; the phrase, I am the Lord, thy reminds us however, physician," strongly of the the
"
and the
"
Healers,"
"
Servants
"
of the
Great Healer,
and suggests memories of some of the derivations con jectured for the names Therapeut and Essene.
We
pass over the three
kings in our second but we cannot passage, pass by the four private
may
Mishna
persons, Balaam, Doeg, Ahitophel and Gehazi, for the combination is so extraordinary that even the most
reader must be struck by it. What has Balaam ben Beor to do dans cette galere? Whose company did he leave ? Balaam ben Beor may be
careless
"
"
have joined forces with the Israelites he Balaam came in, he did certainly did not leave them. said rather to
not
"go
out."
The point
of
the
story
is
that
there
who have no
are certain
part in the world to come. Akiba has just told us of what kind the orthodox
persons II.
;
1
Dalman,
o^.
cit.,
p. 30.
Exegesis.
196
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
considered these to be; they were heretics who looked to other Scriptures as well as the Torah, as we
Jew
know
the Gnostics did most freely, and
the general
Christians as far as the Gospel Scripture was concerned
;
they were further healers and wonder-makers, which indeed many of the Essenes, Therapeuts and Gnostics
and which general Christian tradi tion asserts Jesus and the Apostles were. set themselves to be,
But why should Balaam
head the
the
of
list
condemned, when it is precisely the prophetical pro nouncement of Ben Beor that the Eabbis were using
was worth against Christian dogmatic claims ? Balaam here clearly stands for Jeschu and if this be for all it
;
then
so,
it is
reasonable to suppose that Doeg, Ahitophel
names
some other teachers
and Gehazi stand
for the
who had
under severe Rabbinical displeasure.
fallen
of
Who
they were precisely we have now no means of discovering, and the supposition that they refer to Peter,
the
James and John l
following
Gemara Paul.
considerably discounted by strange passage from the Babylonian is
:
went
"Elisha
to
Damascus
for
what did he go?
R. Jochanan has said, that he went for the conversion
But he was not converted.
of Gehazi.
him
Be converted
:
!
He
answered him
am
converted by thee and maketh the people to
that I
repentance
is
taken
the
mouth
See Streane,
of
Is
it
thus
sin
the
possibility
of
2 away."
once strike the attentive
1
:
For him that sinneth
?
Rabbi Jochanan flourished 130-160
into
Elisha said to
A.D.
It will at
reader that the words put
Gehazi are identical with those
op. cit., p. 57.
2
"
Bab.
Sanhedrin,"
107b.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS answer
of the
of
197
STORIES.
ben
Jeschu to Joshua
famous twice-told story excommunication. 1 as found in the
Perachiah
Jeschu
of
s
The answer is an extraordinary one, and may be taken to mean that the evil (from the point of view of The thing had spread
the Kabbis) was irremediable. too far
even
;
strict fold of
hold the
if
the leaders were
now
to return to the
Jewry, the people would
new views which abrogated
still
continue to
their servitude to
the galling yoke of the Law.
The mention
of the
name Damascus, moreover,
in
connection with Gehazi, at once brings Paul to mind, and disturbs the balance of the Peter and James
and John supposition as the under-names Ahitophel and Gehazi.
of
Doeg,
by any means, then, Gehazi may be held to be a for Paul, we have to ask ourselves what has blind If
"
Elisha
"
to
do in this connection
?
Does
"
Elisha
"
re
present some chief of the Sanhedrin ? It may be so, but we should also recollect that the Essene com
munities and similar mystic associations were always They were in con looking for the return of Elisha. nection
with the line of descent from the
"
Schools
and expected their great prophet to Prophets," return again in power to announce the advent of the of the
Messiah.
It is hardly necessary in this connection to
recall to the reader s recollection the John-Elias of the
Gospel story or to refer the student to the elaborate Gnostic tradition of the incarnation of the soul of Elisha in the body of John under the direct supervision of the Master, as
found in the
1
"Sanhedrin,"
" "
107b, and
Pistis "Sota,"
Sophia 47c.
later
"Elisha.
DID JESUS LIVE 100
198
accommodations
the necessities of a historicising The recollection, however, of these and
evolution.
"
?
to
makes us hazard the conjecture
similar ideas and facts
that
B.C.
Elisha
"
for the official
Mishna passage may be
in our
head
"
blind
Essene community, or
of the chief "
"
a
who looked
to Elisha as company this its spiritual head. It was from company that Gehazi had gone Whether or not the other
at
any
rate of that
"
"
"
"
out."
"
companies" of
Saul and David
somewhat
tions of a
the consideration
that the far as
for
who
those
are fully persuaded our Talmud passage, as
of
meaning
the four
must leave
similar nature, I
of
literal
refer to associa
may
concerned, was
are
private persons
the one furthest from the intention of
its
Rabbinical
authors.
The
However
Disciples
this
may
inherit*
Gehenna.
tnat tne disciples as
Gehenna,
Balaam en Uoc would
of
we read
Rabbis were convinced
be, the
111
inherit
devoted to the
in the tractate "
"
Sayings of the Fathers "The disciples of our father :
world and inherit the world [Prov.
viii.
21]
That
:
to inherit substance,
The
disciples of
I
may
and that
(
:
enjoy this
come, as it is written
cause those that love I
may
fill
inherit Gehenna,
God, shalt bring them down :
bloodthirsty and deceitful
l not live out half their days there should by any chance be "
.
slightest hesitation
in
me
their treasuries.
of destruction, as it is written
into the pit of destruction
Balaam
Abraham
Balaam the impious
and go down into the pit But thou, [Ps. Iv. 24]
men shall And if
to
these
in
the
rnind
of
the
still
reader
the that
passages equates with Jeschu, the 1
"
Aboth,"
v. 19.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STORIES. from
following remarkable passage Gemfira should for ever set his
A Min said
mind
the
199
Babylonian
at rest.
Chanina Hast thou by any chance The Age He answered j eschu. ascertained what age Balaam was ? "
to K.
:
:
There
nothing written concerning
is
Bloodthirsty and deceitful
is said,
out half
their
days,
years
thirty-four
hast spoken well
Balaam
old.
;
which
in
men
But
since
it
shall not live
he was either thirty-three or The Min answered: Thou
for I it
it.
have myself seen a chronicle of said
is
old
Thirty-three years
:
was Balaam the lame man, when the robber Phineas him."
am
I
J
l
slew
not quite certain what R. Chanina R. Chanina ben
tended.
the
of
Chama was
first
who nourished while R.
century;
a pupil of
here in
Dosa was a contemporary
R. Jochanan ben Zakkai, third
is
"Rabbi
s,"
in
the
of
last
Chanina ben
and therefore must
be placed at the beginning of the third century; he
Sepphoris in Palestine. That this specimen of Rabbinical exegesis, however, may be ascribed to the
lived
at
Chanina in preference to the later, is suggested by the very similar passage in the same Gemara, which earlier
reads "
:
Jochanan said
R.
half their days.
:
Doeg and Ahitophel
Such, too,
Bloodthirsty and deceitful their days.
1
2
3
"
not
the tenor of a Boraitha
men
2
and
of
Doeg were not more than Ahitophel not more than thirty-
3
Bab.
Sanhedrin,"
A saying
106b.
or tradition not included in the canonical Mishna.
"
Sanhedrin,"
:
shall not live out half
All the years of
thirty-four, three."
is
lived
106b (end).
of
200
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
As
K. Jochanan flourished about 130-160 A.D.
seems easier "33
or
34"
it
assume that the splitting up of the between Ahitophel and Doeg was the
to
later development, rather
than that the supposed ages
Doeg and Ahitophel should have been conflated into the age of Balaam, I am inclined to think that the Chanina of our penultimate passage is intended for of
R
the earlier Chanina.
be
If this
so,
and the story can
be taken as genuine, that is as an old tradition, then early confirmation from outside sources of
we have an
the thirty-three years of Jesus at the time of his death. But to consider the wording of the passage in greater detail.
A
Laible translates
Chronicle of is
Min
as
Jewish Christian
"
difficult to believe that a
"
;
Jewish Christian
but of
it
any
school can have referred to Jesus as Balaam, and there
have kept the original without translation. The academical answer bases itself on the threescore and fore I
ten years given as the normal life of man in the Torah. It is interesting to note that E. Chanina knows of no
Jewish tradition which gives the age of Jeschu he can only conjecture an answer by means of a kind of ;
Eabbinical sortilegium the "
Min
that
is
just
Wonderful
texts.
of
what
I
have read in one
replies of the
a
Chronicles of
Balaam" Gospel story apparently. can hardly suppose, however, that we have a direct we have plainly a Chronicle quotation from this
We
"
"
;
Kabbinical gloss put into the Phineas-
Now
mouth
of the
Min.
Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron,
was the
priestly leader of the
army
of
Israel
which
destroyed the Midianites, and slew their kings, and with them Balaam son of Beor (Num. xxxi. 2 ff.). But
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS STORIES.
201
"
why
should Phineas. be called a
Greek
from the
Xj/o-r?/?),
as
"
robber
listaa
(Aram,
Laible
translates
Kashi explains this word as meaning
it?
(sar
"general"
tzaba), and we should remember that though listaa is a it was robber loan-word from the Greek Xycrrr)? (a "
"),
with the Jews rather the zealots for the
par
excellence.
we
that Lista a
is
doubt
of patriotic leaders, of
Law, as Phineas was represented to be The meaning is thus simple and clear
enough, and
No
title
1 see no reason for Laible s conjecture,
a caricature-name for
P lista a
would be convenient somehow
it
Pilate.
to
bring
Talmud Jesus Stories, but as a matter of fact his name and every incident of the Gospel story connected with him are conspicuous in the Talmud by their absence. If listaa was a caricature-name, we Pilate into the
should not find the combination
"
Phineas
Listaa,"
but
Otherwise we should expect to come a across some such doubles as Ben Stada Balaam Listaa by
itself.
nowhere found in the Talmud. remains to be explained the curious com- Balaam Balaam the lame man" but I have so far
species of combination
There
still
bination
"
;
met with no
am
satisfactory conjecture
quite unable to hazard one of
on
this point,
my
own. 2
and
Laible
conjectures that the epithet had its origin in the break
ing
down
of
Jesus under the weight of the cross or the but did the Eabbis know anything
piercing of his feet
;
what Laible presupposes throughout, without any
of 1
2
Op.
The
cit.,
p. 60.
article in
"
The Jewish Encyclopaedia
Rabbinical literature
"
says
:
Balaam
in
pictured as blind of one eye and lame in one foot ( San., 105a) ; and his disciples (followers) are distin guished by three morally corrupt qualities, viz., an evil eye, a "
is
haughty bearing, and an avaricious
spirit."
the
202
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
enquiry of any
sort, to
able history of Jesus
have been the actual ungainsay-
?
Finally, with a sublime tour de force of inconsistency,
the
Talmud
gives us a story where
are introduced together in the entirely
different
Onkelos.
evil plight,
but as
persons and giving absolutely con
This story runs as follows
tradictory advice. The Necromancy of
same
Balaam and Jeschu
:
Onkelos bar Kalonikos, nephew of Titus, desired to to Judaism. He conjured up the spirit of
secede
Titus and asked
He
answered
him
The
:
:
Who
is
esteemed in that world
?
Onkelos asked further
Israelites.
:
Ought one to join himself to them ? He answered Their precepts are too many thou canst not keep them go rather hence and make war upon them in this :
;
;
world
[Lam.
;
i.
so shall 5]
thou become a head
;
for
it
is
said
Their adversaries are become the head,
:
Everyone that vexeth the Israelites becomes a head. Onkelos asked the spirit Wherewith art thou judged ? He answered: With that which I have appointed for
i.e.,
:
myself: each day my ashes are collected and I am judged ; then I am burnt and the ashes scattered over the seven seas. "
of
Thereupon Onkelos went and conjured up the
He
Balaam.
world
?
The
:
spirit
answered
:
The
is
spirit
esteemed in that
Israelites.
Onkelos
:
Wherewith art thou judged ? With answered: boiling pollution. spirit Thereupon Onkelos went and conjured up the Onkelos asked
^
Who
:
Ought one to join himself to them ? The Seek not their peace and their good always.
asked further spirit said
asked him
:
The
"
of Jeschu.
world
?
He
The
asked him
spirit
:
answered
Who :
The
is
spirit
esteemed in that
Israelites.
Onkelos
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS asked further
The
said
spirit
Ought one
:
:
Onkelos asked spirit said "
touches
the
Wherewith
:
With
:
to join himself
boiling
of
what a
the wise
is
He who
:
first
place
stance
?
The
filth.
See
between the apostates
is
and the heathen prophets
In the
He
ill.
scorneth the
judged with boiling
distinction there
was he selected
?
filth.
"
Israel
apple
them
His eye.
of
thou judged
art
For the teacher has said
words
to
Seek their good and not their
who toucheth them,
203
STORIES.
of
^J
l
!
we ask who was Onkelos and why
as the protagonist in this necromantic
?
Scholars of eminence, though entirely without refer
ence to this passage, have identified the name Onkelos with the Talmudic Akilas, the Greek Akylas ( A/cJXa?),
and the Latin Aquila. The most famous Aquila in Jewish history was the translator of the Old Covenant documents into Greek, in a slavishly literal version which was held in the greatest esteem by the Jews as correcting the innumerable errors of the Septuagint ver sion on which the Christians entirely depended.
not certain of the exact date
of this Aquila,
We are
but he
is
generally placed in the first half of the second century.
Now was
a
Jerome and other Fathers,
Irenseus, Eusebius,
and the Jerusalem Talmud to
2
itself,
the
say that this Aquila
Jewish
faith.
Moreover, Epiphanius states that "Aquila was a relative (the exact nature of the relationship denoted by the other wise unknown form TrevOepiSt]? is doubtful) of the proselyte 3
"
Bab.
Gittin,"
a "Megill.,"71c.
3
"
De Pond,
56b 3;
ff. "
et Mens.,
Kiddush.," "
c.
14, 15.
59c. 1.
Onkelos
204
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
Emperor Hadrian, and was appointed by him to super intend the rebuilding of Jerusalem under the new name of Aelia Capitolina that, impressed by the miracles of ;
healing and other wonders performed by the disciples of the Apostles who had returned from Pella to the nascent
he embraced Christianity, and at his own request was baptised that, in consequence of his continued
city,
;
devotion to practices of astrology, which he refused to abandon even when reproved by the disciples, he was expelled from the Church
and that, embittered by this he was induced treatment, through his zeal against ;
become a Jew,
Christianity to
to
study the Hebrew
language, and to render the Scriptures afresh into Greek with the view of setting aside those testimonies to
Christ which were drawn from the current version on [sic,
?
of]
the
l
Septuagint."
With Dickson, the writer of the article from which we have been quoting, we may set aside the account of Epiphanius as a theological romance to discount the value of Aquila
s
translation
;
interesting fact that Aquila
kind of Hadrian, and this
is
he,
however, preserves the
was a
"
"
relative
of
some
strongly confirmatory of
our conjecture that the Onkelos, nephew of Titus, and the Aquila of history are one and the same person.
With regard
Exegesis.
Talmud
to the
Aquila plays the part
passage, however, in which
not very easy Onkelos-Aquila is about
of protagonist, it is
to glean the precise meaning.
become a proselyte to Judaism whereupon he seeks counsel from three of the greatest foes of Jewry accord to
;
ing to Eabbinical traditions. 1
See article
Christian
:
"
Aquila
Biography"
in
(London
These
all
Smith and Wace s ;
1877).
are "
made
to
Dictionary of
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS
if
not in this
rate in the world to come.
Titus, the
of the Israelites,
admit the pre-eminence world, at
any
Roman
plain
in
to
his
Jeschu
Jews
soldier, says that the
and customs are
man
Balaam
;
religious rules
and advises his kins
far too elaborate,
make war against them
is less
views and advises a moderate is
made
Jews
to regard the
extreme
policy; while
as the chosen race,
Yahweh s
the specially beloved, the apple of
urges Aquila
205
STORIES.
eye,
and
to seek ever their good.
And
yet the punishment assigned to these three by Rabbinical opinion is in exact inverse proportion to their hostility to Israel. Whatever may be the technical
tion,"
"
between
distinction
"
they are evidently far
who
boiling pollu
filth
we
filth
of
torment
burnt simply
is "
"
"
"
boiling
"
more severe forms
than the punishment of Titus, without the added vileness of Moreover, that by
and
boiling filth
or
"
pollution."
are to understand
something of the most loathsome nature possible, far ex ceeding even the foulness of boiling pollution," may be "
seen from the statement that this
lowest abode in
hell, into
"
*
boiling filth
is
the
which there sinks every foul
ness of the souls which sojourn in the upper portions.
chamber, and every superfluity, in no spark of holiness, falls thereinto. For
It is also as a secret
which there
is
this reason it is called
boiling
mysterious words of
xxviii.
vomit and is
said in
And
filthiness,
Is.
xxx. 52
Is.
that there :
Thou
the reason that this
1
filth,
8 is
:
according to the
There
so
"
shalt call
it filth. "
"
is
much
no place clean, as
boiling filth
it
l
was chosen
Entdecktes Laible, op. cit., p. 95, quoting from Eisenmenger, Judenthum" (see for latest edition F.X. Schiefel a, Dresden, 1893), ii. 335 ff., who refers to hammelech," 135c, chap. xix. "
"
Emek
Boiling Filth.
206
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
by the Rabbis
as the
punishment
of
Jeschu
in the following deduction ascribed to
is to
be seen
Rab Acha bar
Ulla (who flourished presumably in the second half of the fourth century) From this [from Eccles. xii. 12] it follows, that he :
*~~
"
who
words
jeers at the
punished by boiling is
of the doctors of the
What
the text in Ecclesiastes
made,
I
am
not certain.
which runs:
verse 11,
Law,
is
l filth."
"The
is
which reference
to
would seem
It
words
to refer to
of the
wise are as
goads, and as nails fastened
by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd," rather than to And further, by these, my son, verse 12, which reads "
:
be admonished
:
and much study
And "
of
making many books there
is
a weariness of the
in connection with this the Tosaphoth
At
?
(derision)
by boiling
Dalman
all
filth as 4
no end,
add
:
12] then really written jyS events it is true that he is punished
there [Eccles.
Is
is
flesh."
we
xii.
are saying in Ha-Nezakin. 2
"
3
a note The Tosaphoth mean, be allowed to not derive this punish may although ment from the words in Eccles. xii. 12, as Rab Acha bar
adds in
"
:
it
Ulla does,
Erubin,
how Rab Acha
21b,
it is
derived
nevertheless
the
boiling
But
true." "
"
filth
even
illegitimately from this text is nowhere explained as far as I can discover, and I fear my readers are no less
wearied than myself in following such arid bypaths of perverse casuistry. 1
"
Bab.
Ernbin,"
of the passage 2 3
That
is
from
chap.
Tosaphoth
to
21b, referring evidently to the last paragraph Gittin," 57, quoted above.
"
v. of
"
Gittin," "
"
Erubin,
56b.
21b.
4
Op. dt.
t
p. 39.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS The only thing we learn
definitely
n STORIES.
from
207
all of this is
Jeschu refused to be bound by the exegesis
that
of
Kabbis and their decisions, and in this he seems
the
mind
have been a wise man, if their decisions were anything like the one before us; whereas for the Kabbis this "scorning" of the words to the non-Kabbinical
was the
of their doctors
this
arrived at
was the torment
it,
by what means they
of
"
boiling
have now come to the end ,
,
filth."
our Balaam Jeschu The Lecture Room of Ben ., ,. a consideration of Pandera. on to pass
,
but before we
stories,
and therefore
torment Hell could brew, and
the Kabbis, no matter
for
We
sin of all sins,
of the greatest
deserving
to
-
of
what the Talmud has
to say concerning the disciples
and followers
we
of Jesus,
Targum Sheni
to
Esther
will vii.
append a passage in the 1 which is exceedingly 9,
curious in several ways and deserves our attention.
The Targum,
after
that
Haman
appealed with tears to Mordecai for mercy, but in vain, proceeds to tell us that
Haman
and lamentation
relating
thereupon began a great weeping
for himself in the
garden of the palace. He answered and spake And thereupon is added thus Hear me, ye trees and all ye plants, which I have planted since the days of the creation. The son of "
:
:
Hammedatha Ben
is
about to ascend to the lecture-room
of
Pandera."
Tree after tree excuses post of
Haman
;
itself
from being the hanging-
finally the cedar proposes that
Haman
be hanged on the gallows he had set up for Mordecai. 1
The A. V.
reads
"
:
said before the king,
And Harbonah,
Behold
also,
one of the chamberlains, the gallows fifty cubits high,
which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said,
Hang him
thereon."
208
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Here
again, as in the case of
Balaam ben Beor, we
have as protagonist a character who was ever regarded as one of the most inveterate enemies of the Jews
Haman Haman
ben is
With haggadic
Hammedatha. as
represented
license
being in the midst of the
and yet it is Yahweh himself (though indeed there seems to be some strange confusion between the persons of Yahweh and "
"
garden
Haman
in the midst of the
in the narrative)
"
"
trees
;
who addresses the
trees
"
which
have planted since the days of the creation," and who about to ascend to the announces that Haman is I
"
lecture-room of Ben
Pandera."
The word translated by lecture-room is aksandria, which Levy in his Worterbuch connects with Alex "
"
"
"
1 andria, but which Laible says must be explained by eeSpa, the regular term for the lecture room or lecture
and certainly Laible here seems to give the more appropriate meaning, for what can Alexandria have to do in this connection ?
place of a philosopher
"
Hamanschu
The lecture-room
a jesting
synonym
was not made
not
all
Ben Pandera
"
is
then evidently
which in
this particular
wood, otherwise the trees could
of
have excused themselves.
according to
all
of
of the gallows,
case
and not
;
Here then
again,
Jewish tradition, Ben Pandera was hanged
crucified, for the
word gallows expressly excludes
notion of crucifixion.
It is indeed a
remarkable fact
that the point which is above all others so minutely laboured in Christian tradition, the pivot of Christian -
dogmatics, It
is
is
consistently ignored by Jewish tradition.
also a
point of great interest for us in this same or very similar elements
strange story that the 1
Op.
tit.,
p. 91.
THE TALMUD BALAAM JESUS appear in some of the forms
which we
of
209
STORIES.
the Toldoth Jeschu, in
body of Jeschu cannot be hanged on any tree because he had laid a spell upon them by means of the Shem the plants, however, had not been find that the
;
brought under this
spell, and so the body was finally on a hung cabbage-stalk." That there is some hidden connection between this "
apparently outrageously silly legend and the Haman haggada is evident, but what that connection originally
was
seems now impossible to discover. There may element at bottom of it all, mystic
it
even be some
"
"
"
trees seem to suggest and in garden and this connection we must remember that there is much as the
"
"
"
;
garden in the Toldoth, and that, as we have seen from Tertullian De Spect," c. xxx.), there already was some well-known early Jewish legend connected talk of a
"
"
("
"
with a his
"
gardener
who
that
might not be damaged by the crowds of as the Bishop of Carthage adds ironically while
lettuces
visitors,"
yet perchance unintentionally preserving the
and
"
abstracted the body
"
lettuce
"
"
"
link of early legend-evolution. the surface and in the letter all this is utter
cabbage-stalk
As on
nonsense,
we can only suppose
that originally there
must
have been some under-meaning to such a strange farrago of childish fancies;
subject
when
Toldoth. disciples
we
will
therefore
return
to the
dealing with the general features of the stories relating to the
Meanwhile the Talmud and
followers
of
Jesus
must engage
attention.
14
our
THE DISCIPLES AND FOLLOWERS OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. The Minim
It
is
impossible
to
Minim
be certain
whether
all
the
of
Talmud passages refer expressly subsequent to Christians or not, for the word Min is in itself no certain guarantee, and it must ever depend on the "
"
context as to whether sense or not. article
on
"
it
can be taken in this precise
Since, however,
Mr Moses
Levene, in his l
Jesus and Christianity in the
Talmud,"
we
quotes these passages as referring to the Christians,
cannot go altogether wrong in provisionally following his lead, for
we may
plead that according to
common
Jewish tradition they are taken in this sense, and this is all that concerns
these
Minim
But besides
us at present.
passages there are others concerning which
there can be no possible doubt as to against
whom
they
we
will
are intended to be directed, and with these
begin, using the Dalman-Laible-Streane version. The first passage is a wearisome academical exercise still
The Five C
Jesus?
i
n name- and word-play, and runs as follows is a tradition: Jeschu had five "There :
(talmidim)
Mathai was brought before the judgment
"
1
See
"
disciples
Mathai, Nakkai, Netzer, Bunni, Todah.
The Theosophical
Review,"
vol. xxix. pp.
seat.
316-320.
He
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 211 said
to
Yet
it
the judges:
written
is
Mathai
and appear before God ? him Nay, but Mathai Mathai (when)
They answered
to be executed
and
shall (he) die
come
shall I
when)
[Ps. xlii. 3]. is
put to death?
to be
(
"
:
"
Mathai
Is "
:
for it is said
;
name
his
:
"
perish
?
[Ps. xli. 6]. "
to
Nakkai was brought. He said to them be put to death ? Yet it is written
* :
:
They death
;
[Ex. xxiii.]
7.
Nay, but Nakki is to be put to In covert places doth he written
him
*
:
"
for
it
is
:
put to death the Naki" Netzer was brought.
[Pa. x. 8].
He
"
to be put
Nakkai
"
innocent) and righteous slay thou not replied to
Is
Naki (the
"
death
to
Yet
?
them
said to it
* :
written
is
"
:
Is
Netzer
A
Netzer
"
up out of his roots [Is. xi. 1]. him: is to answered Netzer be put to death; They for it is said Thou art cast forth from thy sepulchre, (branch) shall spring
"
:
an abominable Netzer
like
my first born but Bunni "
[Is. xiv.
Bunni was brought. He death ? Yet it is written
"
to
"
"
said
*
19].
Bunni
to be put Beni (rny son), [Ex. iv. 22]. They answered him Nay, to be put to death for it is written "
:
:
Is
Israel
is
:
is
:
;
Behold, I will slay Binkha (thy son), thy
[Ex. "
Todah was brought. put to death ? Yet
Todah
"
it
He
said to
it is
them
written
"
:
:
A
Is
Todah
psalm for
"
(thanksgiving)
answered him
me
born
iv. 23].
to be
for
first
is
:
written 1.
c.
"
:
Whoso
1,
heading].
offereth
They
be put to death
is to
;
Todah honoureth
*
"
[Ps.
[Ps.
Nay, but Todah
23]."
Laible introduces his discussion of these 1
"
Bab.
Sanhedrin,"
43a.
"
proofs from
212 The
Cruel-
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? "
with the following extraordinary sentence found related of these disciples indeed,
scripture "
What
:
is
namely, their crucifixion, as well as the circumstance that this narrative is immediately connected with the account of the Crucifixion
of
etc.
Jesus,"
1
But in the first
absolutely not a single word said about in the whole passage, nor is crucifixion
place there
is
crucifixion
implied even for the liveliest imagination nor in the second does the preceding passage in Sanhedrin, 43a, ;
"
"
which
refers to the death of Jeschu, say anything of
but twice distinctly states that Jeschu was put to death by hanging." Such positive statements concerning matters of the greatest uncertainty are not crucifixion,
"
proper in an investigation
Jeschu ,was
be that
crucified,
of
this
nature
though I
am
;
may
it
inclined to
think he was not, and that the passion of the cruci from some such mystery- tradition as
fixion originated
that preserved
in
the
beautiful
ritual
of
new
the
found fragment of the Acts of John, 2 and certain mystery-rites to which we shall refer at length later on, but the passages in the Talmud which Laible adduces do not prove his confident statement. The Number
As
to
the
number
seems probable that
examples hand,
of
this
of disciples, if
been
philologico-legalistic
we should have had seven or more
the
me
moreover, to
there had
it
other
any
on
wrangling
number increased
to
no necessity for to account for the number five on some more trying complex hypothesis, or to be surprised that the Talmud six or
Op.
cit.,
See
my
pp. 431
if.)-
2
;
I,
therefore, see
71. "
Fragments
of a Faith Forgotten"
(London
;
1900,
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 213 has preserved no tradition of the symbolically necessi tated
"
twelve."
It is, however, to be noticed that the compiler of the Toldoth Jescliu printed by Huldreich (pp. 35 and 36)
names as Simeon, Matthai, Elikum, Mardochai, and Toda, and says that their names were afterwards changed to Peter, Matthew, Luke, Mark, and Paul.
gives the
we can only say The or of Jesus any disciple any other great teacher had no better apologia to put forward pro vita As
that
to the contents of the wrangle, of
if
he had but
sua,
existence
;
"Proof
Cr
ture!"
little justification for
we know, however,
his continued
that the arguments
of
Christianity against Jewish legalism were at the very
powerful as the arguments of the Eabbis What then can we think against Christian dogmatics. of the academical state of mind that could preserve
least
as
such barren word-play as a precious tradition to be And yet we handed down to an admiring posterity !
must not
forget that this
was not peculiar
to the
Jews
;
Babylonians, Egyptians, Zoroastrians, Greeks, Briihmans, Buddhists and Arabs, all delighted in such pseudophilological exercises,
and
as for text-proof for every
thing under the sun, general Christianity slavishly followed the Kabbis for many a long century. What, however, interests us most deeply in this The
quaint Talmud passage
is
the
list of
Puzzle of
names, for with
the exception of Matthai (Matthaeus, Matthew),
it
is
exceedingly difficult to equate them with the names of the twelve as preserved in Christian tradition. The attempt to equate Todah with Thaddaeus hardly Todah. "
commends name back
"
itself,
as
for
the Jacobite
Syrians give this
Thaddl and the Nestorians as Thaddai
214
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? Moreover we have
and not Todah.
to ask
Who
:
was
Thaddaeus, or the composite-named Thaddseus-Lebbaeus-
Judas
was he
further,
;
as in the apocryphal
of the
Acta
Nor can we regard
Twelve or
of the
Seventy
?
Laible
the suggestion of
Todah may be the Theudas
Acts
of
fortunate, for this Theudas, as
v.
Josephus
36,
2
1
that
as
tells us,
very 3
was
some popular prophet who pretended to magical power, and led many of the Jews in revolt about 45 or 46 A.D.
;
so that the author or redactor of the Acts
an anachronism, latest prior to 37 hard put to
Be
passage.
spoken
here guilty of
Gamaliel must have spoken
for
at
and apologists are consequently
A.D.,
to
it
is
defend the
this as it
may,
this
"
"
inspiration
of
this
Theudas can hardly be
of as a disciple of Jesus.
We, however, do know
of
Theudas who was a
a
and the link between Paul and Valentinus
"
disciple,"
he was a Gnostic. 4
If,
then,
Todah
is
same
the
;
as
Theudas (which is generally taken to be a shortened Theudas form of Theodorus), the only disciple known to Christian tradition with which he could "
"
possibly be identified
many
other
the Theudas of Paul
is
"
disciples,"
;
like so
however, he had never seen Jesus
in the flesh. 5 1
Op.
p. 76.
rit.,
"For is made to say to the Sanliedrin before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be some body, to whom a number of men, about five hundred, joined
2
Where Gamaliel
:
who was slain and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to naught."
themselves 3
:
;
"
Antiqq.,"
4
Clement
5
See
my
xx. 5, 1.
of Alexandria, "
essay,
pp. 107, 108.
"
Stromat.," vii. 7.
The Gospels and
the
Gospel"
(London
;
1902),
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 215 As
name Bunni,
to the
has been conjectured by Bunni. is the same as
it
and others that Bonai or Bunni
l
Thilo
Taanith," 20a), Nicodemus, from a Talmud passage where the name of a certain Nakdimon ben Gorion is said ("
The
have been properly Bunni.
to
difficulty in accept
ing this equation, however, is considerably increased by the further supposition of Laible that Nakkai also
stands
for
Mcodemus.
In
connection no one
this
seems so have thought of Bannus, the Essene teacher of Josephus, and I therefore suggest his name for what
But surely there were many Bunnis and many disciples of Jesus whose names have not been pre
it is
worth.
served
?
Finally,
if,
Netzer
as Laible says,
unquestionably can only reply that
stands for Notzri = Nazarene,
we not much
such a designation is for one of the disciples of Jesus.
On
" "
Netzer.
of a distinctive title
we may ask
Can
be possible Are the that in four of the five names Jewish tradition has Genuine? the other hand,
:
it
preserved genuine names of "disciples" And to this we Christian tradition ? If
the names were not
genuine, surely academical discussion would be without therefore deprived of all sting
?
unknown
may the
to
reply
:
whole
point,
and
There remains, how
a further
question, suggested by the NetzerCan these names pos Notzri-Nazarene speculation sibly be meant for leaders of schools, and that there ever,
:
was
no
question of putting the leaders to death physically, but every question of giving an aca demical coup de grdce to their doctrines and activity ? 114
Codex
Apocryphus
"
Evangelium
Nicodemi," p.
Novi 550
Testament!"
n.
(Leipzig;
1832),
216
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
We
Jacob.
what the Talmud has
will next turn to
to tell
us of a disciple of Jesus called Jacob. First of all we have a curious story of the great Rabbi Eliezer
ben Hyrcanus (the founder
who
teacher of Akiba),
of the school at
flourished about
Lud and
70-100
A.D.,
who, we know, was put under the ban by Jewish orthodoxy for reasons that are now by no means
and who, nevertheless,
clear,
was regarded a story which brings
after his death
as a great light of Israel. It is out very strongly the fastidiousness of the Eabbinical mind with regard to any source of doctrine, even a
Halacha, as far as Halachoth go, which might any way be suspected of heresy. The story is found in two almost identical forms, and we might fairly sensible
in
choose either for quotation, but perhaps the citation of both of them will bring out the points more clearly,
and be an instructive object lesson in tradition-modi The first is found in the Babylonian Gemara fication. and runs as follows The Heresy of
"
:
handed
The Rabbis have
When
R.
man
mature years
was about
Eliezer
down to
the
following
:
on
be
imprisoned account of heresy, 1 he was brought to the court of The judge said to him: Does a justice to be tried. of
like thee
busy himself with such
The Judge is just towards The judge thought that Eliezer was speaking of
nullities
me.
him
?
:
thought upon his Father in heaven. Then spake the judge Since I believe thee, 2 thou art ;
but
Eliezer replied
he
:
acquitted. 1
Minuth.
"
Laible, op.
forbidden Christian 2
cit.,
p. 62, says
a leaning towards the
religion."
Dalnian translates
"
:
Since
I
am
held by thee to be
just."
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 217 when
"Now
came home
Eliezer
his disciples pre-
,
sen ted themselves him, but he admitted Permit no consolation. Then E. Akiba said to him to
console
:
me to tell thee something of what thou hast taught me. He answered Say on. Then said R Akiba Perchance :
:
thou hast once given ear to a heresy, which pleased thee on account of which thou wast now about to be thou imprisoned for heresy. Eliezer replied Akiba, remindest me. I was once walking in the upper street ;
:
of Sepphoris
l
there I
;
met with one
of the disciples of
2 Jeschu ha-Notzri, by name Jacob of Kephar Sechania, A Halacha Jeschu. ... who said to me It is found in your Law [Deut. xxm. :
Thou
19]:
shalt not bring the hire of a
whore
.
.
into
.
... thy God. May a retiring place of such gifts ? I knew out for the high-priest be made not what to answer him to this. Then he said to me the house
of
:
Of the hire Thus Jeschu ha-Notzri taught me 3 harlot has she gathered them, and unto the hire :
harlot shall they return
i.
[Mic.
come; to the place of offal shall
From
7].
of
an
of
an
offal it
has
This explanation
it go.
pleased me, and on this account have I been impeached heresy, because I transgressed the Scripture
for
:
Eemove thy way i.e.,
far
heresy."
The second form
of the story is
mentary on Ecclesiastes labour
man
;
with
fied
follows 1
3
i.
cannot utter
seeing,
I
though
[Prov. v. 8], from her,
from her
4
from
fail
to
8
"
:
it
found in
All things are the eye
;
nor
the
ear
see
the
connection.
filled
is
com
a
full of
not satis
with It
hearing,"
runs
:
A city in lower A.V.
Galilee.
2 4
"
:
it."
Siknin. "
Aboda
Zara,"
16b
f.
as
of
218 A
"
Variant of
the Story.
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
It is related of
A
*
heresy.
K. Eliezer that he was seized for
certain governor took
him and brought him
judgment to judge him. He said to Kabbi, shall a great man like you be occupied with such vain things ? He answered The Judge is to the place of
up him
:
:
towards
faithful
And
me.
as
he
(the
governor)
imagined that he was speaking (so) on account of him, though he had only spoken in reference to Heaven (God), he said to him Because I am faithful in your Can it be that these eyes, I also venture to say :
:
academies are erring (and occupy themselves) with these vain things ? Dimus, 1 you are set free. "
When
Rabbi Eliezer had been dismissed from the
tribunal, he was pained because he had been seized for His disciples came to see him in order to heresy.
comfort him, but he did not accept (their consolation).
Then
Akiba came
E.
perhaps one
of
to see him,
and said to him
:
Kabbi,
the heretics has said before you some
word which pleased you. He answered Lo, by Heaven, you remind me. Once when I was going up in the street of Zippori, a man, named Jacob of Kephar Sechania, came to me and told me something from Jeschu ben Pandera, and I liked it. And this it was :
:
It is written in
hire of a
Yahwe bidden.
;
your Law
:
Thou
shalt not bring the
whore or the wages of a dog into the house of how is it with them ? I said They are for :
He
said to
me
Forbidden
:
for sacrifice,
but
allowed for purposes of destruction. I said to him But what may then be done with them ? He answered :
:
You may build with them baths and privies. I said to him You have said well, for at this time the Halacha :
1
That
"
is,
dismissus
es."
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 219
When
was hidden from me.
it is
filth
said
:
I praised his
me Thus Ben Pandera hath
words, he said to
From
he saw that
said
:
:
they went [? came], to filth they may go, as For of the hire of an harlot she gathered
them, and unto the hire
an harlot shall they return
of
;
This pleased
be applied to public privies.
they may me, and, therefore, I have been seized for heresy, and also because I transgressed what is written in the
Law
Eemove
:
thy
way from her
that
is,
the
*
heresy."
In the
place the story
first
is
apologia for R. Eliezer devised
the nature of Eliezer
not know,
all
and lived in
s
we know exile
;
liberalism is
clearly intended as an
by a
may
later age.
What
have been we do
that he was finally
condemned
but the fact that the Haggada we
are considering connects the very slight lapse on the part of E. Eliezer, which it admits, with the teachings of Jeschu, or, at
any
rate,
with Halachoth preserved in
the tradition of his school,
is
a strong confirmation of
the supposition that Eliezer was deeply interested in
the Christianity of his day, and perhaps this accounts to some extent for the fierce opposition of his pupil the purist Akiba.
The
story shows, moreover, that Jeschu
was regarded
(and this was admitted by the Rabbis) as being learned
Law, so that a Halacha attributed to him pleased even such a connoisseur as Eliezer. Though the matter
in the
discussed
may seem
to us
more than
doubt a point
of the greatest
purists of the
Talmud
trivial, it
was no
importance for the legal
The question seems
period.
to
have had to do with a retiring place to the chamber in 1
Koheleth Kabba to Eccles.
i.
8 (Pesaro
;
1519).
Eliezer s Con-
Christianity,
220
DID JESUS LIVE 100
which the high priest had
B.C.
?
week before
to pass the last
the day of atonement. 1 In Search of
According to the story, E. Eliezer is evidently refer ring to something which had taken place long ago, so long ago that he had personally forgotten all about it.
The retentive mind not allowed it
it to
of his pupil
Akiba, however, had
escape his memory, and so he recalls
to his teacher s fading recollection.
Eliezer
is
thus
man, and we may place him then, somewhere about 100 A.D. Thus we
represented as an old
presumably,
suppose he had met Jacob some fifty years ago, somewhere about the middle of the first century, and
may
so the words,
the
first
form
"
Thus Jeschu ha-Notzri taught
of the story
me,"
of
might be held to confirm the
Christian traditional date
of
canonical data at 50
Jacob could very well have
A.D.,
been a personal disciple
On
Jesus,
for
according to
of Jesus.
the other hand, the words used do not absolutely
necessitate such a construction, for such expressions as
has taught Shammai, or Plato, me would be the usual form in quoting the sayings of those teachers while the variant, thus Ben Pandera 2
"
thus
"
Hillel,
or
"
"
"
;
hath
said,"
in the second form of the story, strongly con
firms this view, showing that
D,<ma
Serpent,
We
has said
"
was taken
has taught me," and nothing more. have another story of this same Jacob, however,
as identical
Ben
"
with
"
which, instead of placing him at this early date, makes
him
a contemporary of
Akiba
(fl.
100-135).
story also there are two variants, the
first of
Of
this
which
is
given twice in the Palestinian Gemara and runs as follows: 1
2
"
Mishna,
A name,
Yoma," i. 1.
See Laible,
op.
cit.,
p. 64.
however, which Jacob could scarcely have used.
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD
221
happened that K. Eleazar ben Dama was bitten Then came Jacob of Kephar Sama, 1 to heal him in the name of Jeschu Pandera. 2 But B. "
It
by a serpent.
Ishmael suffered him not.
Eleazar said to
him
:
T will
bring thee a proof, that he has a right to heal me.
But
he had no more time to utter the proof for he died. R. Ishmael said to him Blessed art thou, Ben Dama, ;
:
that thou wentest in peace from this world, and didst
not break
through the fence of the wise, for it is breaketh through a fence, a serpent shall bite him, not a serpent has bitten him, but (it means that) a serpent should not [sic] bite him
written
And whoso
:
5
in the time to
The variant "
It
3
come."
Gemara runs thus A Ben Dama, son of R. Ishmael s by a serpent. Then came Jacob
in the Babylonian
:
happened that
was bitten
sister,
Kephar Sechania to heal him. But him not. Ben Dama said:
of
suffered
my
brother, allow
me
to be healed
R. R.
Ishmael Ishmael,
by him, and I
will
bring thee a verse from the Torah, showing that it is But he had not time to complete what he was allowed. for his spirit departed from him and he died. Then R. Ishmael exclaimed over him: Happy art thou, Ben Dama, that thy body is pure, and that thy spirit has passed away in purity, and that thou
saying
;
hast not transgressed
the
words
of
thy companions
4
(chcibirim)"
Rabbi Ishmael, when found alone, stands always 1
2
I cannot discover the locality of this village. In "Pal. Aboda Zara," 40d, at the bottom,
narrative 3
"
4
"
Pal.
is
found, the
Shabbath,"
Bab. Aboda
name
is
where the same given as Jeschu ben Pandera.
14b (lower
Zara,"
27b.
for
part).
Variant.
222
DID JESUS LIVE 100
K. Ishmael ben
Elisha,
to this
B.C. ?
contemporary of Akiba. then, Jacob of Kephar
the
According Sechania cannot possibly have been a personal disciple of Jesus, even according to the canonical tradition of the
We
date.
tradition,
have to notice
that according to the
also,
rigid legalists of the
was thought
to
Talmud, the poison of a serpent be less noxious than the contact with the
magnetism or even thought-sphere of a follower of Jesus. The Story the Viper.
of
Perhaps the following story, taken from the Gospel Pseudo-Matthew," or of the Infancy of Jesus and "
of
"
"
Mary
(ch. xli.),
originated in the same medley
may have
legend from which the Talmud derived the main in
of
cident of
its
Ben Dama
story.
on a certain day Joseph called his firstborn
"And
son James to him and sent him into the kitchen-garden And Jesus followed to gather herbs to make pottage.
James into the garden, and Joseph and Mary And while James gathered herbs there not.
his brother
knew
it
suddenly came a viper out of a hole and wounded the hand of James, and he began to cry out through excessive
pain.
And when
with a bitter cry, Oh!
wounded my hand.
And
at that bitter cry ran to
already fainting, he said a very bad viper has
Oh!
Jesus,
who
stood opposite,
James and took hold
of his
hand, and did no more than merely breathe upon the hand of James, and soothed it. And immediately James was healed, and the serpent died. And Joseph and
not what had happened; but at the cry of James they ran into the garden and found the
Mary knew
serpent already dead and James quite 1
"
Cowper
1897), p. 82.
(B. H.),
The Apocryphal
healed."
Gospels"
1
(6th ed.,
London
;
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 223 the Christians of these early days An Early
That, moreover,
and
were accustomed
later
to heal psychically
by means
some holy name
of prayer or the invocation of
is
well
attested from outside and hostile sources by the follow
Talmud Thus in the
ing
story,
which
Palestinian
is also
found in two variants.
Gemara we read
:
His grandson (the grandson of Jehoshua ben Levi) had swallowed something. A man came and whispered "
to
him
(a spell) in the
name
of
Jeschu ben Pandera,
and he got well. When he went out, he (Jehoshua ben Levi) asked him What did you say over him ? He answered According to the word of somebody. He said What had been his fate, had he died and not :
:
:
And it happened to him as it which proceedeth from the ruler"
heard this word?
were an error 1 [Eccles. x. 5].
A commentary which
evil
I
on Ecclesiastes
proceedeth from the ruler as follows <
x.
5
("there
is
an
have seen under the sun as an evil which preserves the same story
")
:
The son
of
in his throat.
Kabbi Jehoshua ben Levi had something He went and fetched one of the men of
Ben Pandera,
to
bring out what he had swallowed.
He
What didst thou (Jehoshua ben Levi) said to him him ? over He A answered certain verse after a say certain man. He said It had been better for him, :
:
:
had he buried him and not
And
so
it
happened
to him,
said over as it
him that
verse.
were an error which
2 proceedeth from the ruler. The error that proceedeth from the ruler "
"
1
"Pal.
3
"
Aboda
Zara,"
Koheleth Rabba
"
40d. to Eccles. x. 5.
"
most prob-
Mode<*>f
Healm s-
224
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
ruler, or one of the ably refers to some planetary names of the angels which were guarded so jealously by the Essenes, and of which we find so many ex "
"
"
"
amples in Gnostic and
and in Jewish
allied literature,
apocalyptic.
We have
James the "Brother
the
seen above that
it is
of
Lord."
impossible to
fix
the
date of Jacob Kephar Sechania from the contradic tory indication of the Talmud stories but if we survey of
;
the whole period from 50 to 135
A.D.,
which years may
be taken approximately as the Talmud termini for this Jacob, and look for a Jacob of pre-eminence
whom
with
Christians
among the name of
identify him, the
to
James, the brother of the Lord," presents having the best claim to our attention.
"
Eusebius
book
that in his day the most accu of this James was to be found in the fifth
tells
rate account of the
l
itself as
"
us
"
Commentaries
of
Hegesippus, who, he says, "
"
nourished
nearest
to
the
of
the
Apostles modern scholarship, however, assigns the date of writing of Hegesippus s Memoirs" to about 180 A.D. Eusebius
days
;
"
then proceeds to quote from Hegesippus the story of the martyrdom of this James, the setting and tone of
which
is
The most interesting part of the description of James himself,
very Jewish.
the story, however, where we read
is
:
James the Ascetic.
holy from his mother s womb drank no wine or strong drink, nor ate animal food no razor came "
He was
;
;
upon
his
head
;
he neither oiled himself nor used the
2 bath; he alone was permitted to enter the holy places, for he never wore wool, but [always] linen. And he used
to go alone into the Temple, 1
"
Hist.
Eccles.," ii.
23.
and was found on his 2
T & &yia.
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 225 the people, so that his knees
knees, interceding for
grew hard like a camel
because of his kneeling in forgiveness for the people.
s,
to
God, begging Indeed, on account of his exceeding great righteous
prayer
ness he was called
means
Greek
in
"
ness.
and Olbias, which and righteous
the righteous
c
defence of the people
1
we have
Here
the
picture
a
of
ascetic,
rigid
a The
Chassid, an Essene, a Therapeut, a Nazir, for from his
womb
mother s
difficult
ever,
he was vowed to holiness. understand what
to
sentence which I have translated,
mitted to enter the holy the
"Holy
of
places"
or the
Holies,"
impossible to
course,
believe
is
"he
It
meant by the alone was per
generally rendered
"Sanctuary."
that
how
is,
It
is,
of
James could have
been permitted to enter the Holy of Holies of the Temple at Jerusalem, which no one but the high priest,
and he only on a certain day in the year, could
Nor can we suppose
enter. all
James
that
alone
of
men was
"
shrines,"
accorded the privilege of entering the whatever they may mean 2 it can only mean ;
men
that such
rule as James, could do so
that
it
;
means that James
this privilege, that
who kept
who kept the same rigid for we can hardly suppose
alone as those
is,
alone of the Christians
was the only one
had
of the Christians
this rule.
For
text, see Kouth s (2nd. ed., Oxford; Reliquiae Sacra? 208, 209. 2 know that the Essenes, or at any rate some of the Essenes, would not visit the Temple at Jerusalem, because they regarded it 1
1846),
"
"
i.
We
they had, however, their
own
which they kept most strictly pure. Can of our text be explained in some such fashion ?
the
as polluted "shrines," "
shrines
"
by blood
sacrifices
;
15
226
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
With regard
James tho
one
^
to this
James the
^e titles of the Essenes
Just, the Righteous
and
of all
who vowed
James the
(
Just.
themselves to the service of God), Eusebius gives us some further information of a most interesting nature
when he quotes 1 from the sixth book of Clement of Alexandria s lost work "The Institutions," where Clement writes
"
:
Peter and James and John, after the
ascension of our Saviour, though they had been pre ferred
by the Lord, did not contend
for the honour, but
and in chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem the same book Clement adds The Lord imparted the "
;
"
:
gnosis to
James the
resurrection,
John and
Just, to
these
delivered
it
to
Apostles, and they to the Seventy." It seems probable from the first
Peter, after his
the rest
of
the
of these passages
James the Disciple and James the Just were quite It is also to be remarked that in the second paragraph James the Just is apparently pre that
different persons.
ferred to Peter and John, while the Peter,
John
of the first
The Gnosis
for
paragraph
are
James and
another election.
of
Clement was the inner teaching
of the
Master, given, as we see, after the resurrection," that is to say, when the Master returned to them after the "
death then,
was
of
His
was one able
to
physical
James
body.
the
Just
who, because of his strict training, receive this Gnosis psychically and
spiritually.
TheTesti-
mony
of Paul.
In the remarkable passage in which Paul recounts Epiphanies of the Master, after he had departed from the body, in precisely the same terms as those he the
uses in describing his 1
"
own Hist.
vision, this
Eccles.," ii.
1.
James
is
specially
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 227 mentioned as one who had enjoyed
The familiar passage runs
this
high privilege.
:
He
appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve after wards he appeared to above five hundred brothers at "
;
most
once,
whom
of
are fallen asleep
;
remain unto
then he appeared
the other Apostles,
all
and
but some
this present, to
of
last
James, then to as
all,
the
to
1 Abortion, he appeared to me also." It is here to be noticed that Paul speaks of James and the other Apostles of the time as being known, if not personally, at any rate by reputation, to his corre
He
spondents.
brothers were
remark
the
if
also says that
still
alive
;
"
"
Cephas
but
most of the
why
and the
"
Twelve
alive it is difficult to understand.
still
five
hundred
he should make this "
Can
were also be that
it
"
Twelve and that were of a past who while the was known to Paul, Cephas generation and whom he withstood to the face, was the Cephas of "
that
"
"
Cephas ;
a later
"
Twelve
However
this
"
?
may
be, the
James known
James the Eighteous, had had, according experience
of
to
Paul, Some
to Paul, direct
the spiritual presence of the Master,
while, according to Clement, he
had been one
of
the
means of communicating the inner teaching of the Master to the Twelve of his day, this James not
chief
being one of the original Twelve according to canonical tradition, and that this Twelve further communicated the Gnosis to the Seventy or outer circle of the inner
Twelve. 1
I.
James thus seems
Corinth, xv. 5-8.
to
have been one of the
For an explanation
of the otherwise
The Abortion," see my article, Some Notes on inexplicable term the Gnostics," in "The Nineteenth Century and After," Nov. 1902. "
"
Diffi
228
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
Three order; the Twelve or the Seventy two) being lower grades.
But
this
James the Righteous
by the title
"
Brother
of the
is
farther distinguished If this epithet is
Lord."
we
to be taken in its literal sense,
Seventy-
(?
are involved in a
host of difficulties, as
may be seen by turning to any recent Bible dictionary. 1 Moreover, with the passage of Hegesippus before
us, if
we
are not prepared to abandon
some have done, we should have to ask James was a vowed ascetic from his mother s womb,
entirely as
it
If
are
we
:
to think that it could
his traditional
have been otherwise with
brother Jesus
And
?
this difficulty is
only removed one stage by supposing that James was a cousin of Jesus, a hypothesis, moreover, contradicted
by
all
the canonical data, and only a desperate resort
to preserve the
Mary.
dogma
Further,
of
the
this ascetic
if
the blood brother of Jesus,
why
perpetual Virginity of
and
account
Jesus, as the canonical Gospel
the
after
The
"Brother
the
"resurrection,"
spiritual
James was
did he not believe on tells
us,
to
when, according
till
Paul,
he experienced his vision of the Christ ? There is, however, a scrap of information dropped
Lord."
to the
commun j tv
at Corinth, 2
which may throw a gleam of light on this obscure question, and relieve us of some of our difficulties. In his
first letter
or whatever they
to the Corinth thiasos of Christians,
were called in those days, the un
Apostle who
practically by his unrestrained threw open the Christ mystery to the propaganda official
1
"
See articles
"
James
Dictionary of the 2
I.
Corinth,
"
and Brethren and Cheyne s
Bible"
ix. 5.
"
of the
Lord
"
in Hastings
"Encyclopaedia
Biblica."
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 229 Western world, "
Have we
and
for its helping
asks a strange question
its
"
power
says Paul,
not,"
mystification,
:
lead about a sister wife
(or authority) to
yvvatKa) as well as
(a8e\</>t}v
the rest of the Apostles and the Brothers of the Lord "
and Cephas
What
?
about of a
this leading
mean
I
later
generations
"sister
may
wife"
do not pretend to say, and must refer the curious reader to the Acta of Paul and Thecla for how
"
"
Apostles
Lord
of the
may have
explained
but
it;
we have here
as one recognised official class "
as another,
and
and
we know
for all
"
Brothers "
"
Cephas
held an office which constituted a third class.
It is difficult to believe that all these took about
them of
"
a
"
many
sister wife
of the early
may, and be the Peter, the
here to
was a
"
Cephas
applying to those
by Irenaeus, has
MS.
who were
of the
Simon
"
Surely this kin to Him "
Gnostic Marcus, quoted
those whose
it,
it
can hardly be taken
the blood-brothers of Jesus.
1
"
greatnesses,"
whose
His face perpetually.
angels, contemplate
us,
but be this as
a title or the Gospel "
with
the rigid asceticism ;
"
"
(the Logos), as the
the Lord
communities
Brothers of the Lord
mean
title
If this
when we know
can in any way be "
as applied to
so,
the title
"
Brother of A Q
James has a new meaning
and many obscurities created by the
for
historicizing
Gospel narratives of Post-Pauline days may be cleared away, and the saying that he who doeth the will of "
God
is
my
brother
"
be found to have
not been for
gotten in the early days.
As for
the interpolated qualifying phrase 1
"
Adv.
Har.,"
I.
xiv.
1.
"
the brother
Probable 1
4-*
230 of
DID JESUS LIVE 100
Jesus called the Christ
"
B.C.
James
referring to a certain
mentioned by Josephus, 1 we have already dealt with it in the chapter on The Earliest External Evidence to "
the received Date of Olbias.
Jesus."
There remains only to refer to the title Olbias, which defence of the people." The Hegesippus says means authorities I have consulted say nothing about this "
name, and
am
I
unable to make anything out of it have
philologically, and, indeed, Hegesippus seems to
been in the same
case, for it certainly
and
"
"
defence of the people
says.
cannot mean loth
"
and James
(Alphseus)
;
canonical
tradition
of
of
Alphseus,
preserves
little
but
whom the
of the three
Jacob.
the
name,
together with James, son of Zebedee, complete the
The Talmud
he
as
righteousness,"
Olbias, however, reminds us strongly of Alphaios
list
Jameses which are such a puzzle even
to
the most laborious scholarship. now have to ask Can this Jacob the Eighteous, Jacob the Episcopus of the Jerusalem community, who
We
:
supposed to have been put to death in 67 A.D., be in any way identified with Jacob of Kephar Sechania of
is
the
Talmud
?
would favour render
it
answer
It is impossible to give a decided
to this question, for while
one tradition
this identification,
of the
another tradition would
But Talmudic tradition
impossible.
Talmud is
notori
and presumably selected the name Jacob simply because it was the name of one held in high honour by the Christians. The account of
ously indifferent to dates,
Josephus and the strong Hebrew colouring of Hegesippus, moreover,
make
it
of the story
appear exceedingly
probable that Jacob the Kighteous was well 1
"
Antiqq.,"
xx.
ix. 1.
known
to
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 231 the Jews. fashion
It is therefore probable that in this
there
is
vague
some connection between our two
Jacobs.
We now pass on to a strange story in which a Christian
The Story e
turned into ridicule in appropriate
is
"philosopher"
Imma
"
Shalom, the wife
and
of E. Eliezer
sister of
Eabban Gamaliel, had
a philosopher as a neighbour,
had the reputation of render him ridiculous.
taking no
Imma
I should like to
:
who
They wished
bribe.
to
him him and
accordingly brought
a golden candle-stick, presented herself before said
phik,s-
P ]ier
Kabbinical fashion.
have a share in the property
of
my family. The philosopher answered her Then We have But Gamaliel said to him have thy share :
*
:
!
the law
where there
:
is
a son, the daughter shall in
The philosopher
herit naught.
said
Since the day
:
when ye were driven out of your country, the Law of Moses is repealed arid there is given the Gospel, in which said
it is
On
"
a
:
Then the philosopher said to them the Gospel, am not come to do away with the Law of ass.
:
Moses, but to add to the is
shall inherit together.
the next day Gamaliel brought the philosopher
Libyan I,
Son and daughter
written in the
Law
Law
:
Where
Nevertheless
:
may
said
and has overturned the candle-stick.
Imma is
is
It
a son,
said to
The
:
"
ass
is
come
l
Shalom, or Airna Salome, was sister of the Date
Patriarch E. Gamaliel
who
come.
thy light shine like the candle
But Rabban Gamaliel
stick.
I
there
Then Imma
the daughter shall not inherit.
him
am
of M!oses
Moses
of
II.,
and wife
of Eliezer the Great,
curiously enough supposed elsewhere to have 1
"
Bab.
Shabbath,"
116 a and
b.
-"
of
232
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
had a leaning the
Hebrew
In the
The word
to Christianity.
for
is
Gospel
transliteration of Evangelion.
first
place
to our philosopher
be observed that according the day ("since
it is to
the year 70 A.D.
when ye were driven out of your country the date of the fall of Jerusalem, marked a period of the strongest possible differentiation between the Jew and Christian. "),
was
crushing blow to the national hopes, far more than the propaganda of Paul, which aided the It
this
spread of Christian and non-particularist ideas.
A
The main
Saying
Gospel,
point, however,
which interests us
mouth
question of the quotations put into the
The intention
philosopher.
have been
the
of the
Eabbis appears to
show the inconsistency
to
You
position.
of the
is
of the Christian
contend, said the Kabbis to those
whom
on their sacred property, that the Gospel has not come to put an end to the Law, but only to complete it but whatever you may say, it is
they regarded as trespassers
;
practically making the of
none
effect in
Law
we have
as
ever
known
It is true that Christian tradition has preserved
trace of
any
saying to the effect that son
should inherit together
but,
;
if
we
are to
author conceived the
first
the early Christian had
Personi-
fied Gospel,
communities to have been, as things in common and gave
all
common
it,
for it
was an entire upsetting
social organisation of
The
what the
fund, this would practically to setting aside the Law as the Rabbis under
their all to the
stood
no
and daughter take the Acts
narrative as giving back a correct picture of
amount
it
your communities.
But what
(^gp^ am
is
of the
whole
Jewry.
most curious
not come to
<j
o
is
the wording
"
:
away with the
I,
Law
the of
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 233 This saying is preserved in our present canoni by the writer of the first Gospel from his Think not that I came to second main source as Moses."
cal text
"
:
Law and the Prophets; I came not to 1 This saying, as the teller of to but complete." destroy, our Talmud story will have it, the philosopher found at destroy the
the end of his Gospel, meaning by book.
If there
were nothing more
this
evidently
to be said,
a
we might
dismiss the story as devoid of all historical basis, and consider it solely as a Haggada devised to preserve a controversial point.
But the curious
personification of
Gospel in the second quotation reminds us of an equally strange personification found in the tradition the
of the
Gnostic Basilides at the beginning of the second
For Basilides the Gospel was a living entity, Person by whom the whole soteriology of his
century. a
"
"
system was engineered. Can it therefore be possible that in one of the many traditions of the early days there was a
document where the
"
Gospel,"
was substituted for the
fied Glad-tidings,
stood so originally
the personi
teacher, or even
where the message was than the messenger ? Moreover we circles
among
thought more of have similar personifications in Gnostic tradition instance,
in
the
MS.
of
Marcus
than Basilides),
generation later
;
for
(who flourished a to which we have
already referred, the Tetras, Quaternatio or Quaternitas,
the
"
"
Colarbasic
Silence,
2
is
the inspiring intelligence
of the Gnosis. 1
2
Matt.
v. 17. "
Irenreus,
Adv.
H^r.,"
I.
xiv. 1.
This
"
Colarbasic
"
Silence, of
which Marcus said he was the receptacle, was a great puzzle to the worthy Church Fathers in their heresy-hunting, so much so that they eventually made of it a heresy derived from an arch"
"
234
BID JESUS LIVE 100
Of course the personification
B.C.
?
Gospel in our for as a accounted sufficiently natural creation of the vivid oriental imagination, but of the
Talmud sentence may be
we should hardly expect
from the side
it
the Kabbis
of
in this connection, and, as a matter of fact, it
is
found in
Christian tradition.
Another point
of great interest is that the Christian "
in this story
styled a
is
"
philosopher,
fore regarded as a learned
We
Some more Passages,
man.
have now exhausted
collected
and was there
by Dalman, and
all
will
Talmud passages
the
next turn to a few
ones found in the far shorter collection,
additional
or rather selection, of Levene, 1
the following passages to
who
takes
mean Jewish
Minim
in all
Christians.
have arranged these passages as far as I can accord to their chronological indications, and the first of ing them runs as follows I
:
The Curse on the Minim.
"
Eabban Gamaliel, whilst presiding
io.iical Sanhednn, who
present
Minim
?
is
i
at the academi-
T.I Is there
j
the sages able to compose a blessing said to
:
Then Samuel the
composed it To the apostates
[?
any one curse] for
came forward and
Little
:
"
let
there be no hope
;
then shall
the wickedness perish in a moment, and all Thine enemies speedily shall be cut off, and the kingdom of all
pride
Thou
shalt uproot speedily,
heretic of their
own
of fact, Gholarba in
and break and cast
imagination called Colarbasus.
Hebrew means simply
"
As "
All-four,
a matter
that
is,
the
divine Tetrad or Tetractys.
must, however, he stated that Levene does not translate he frequently shortens and paraphrases, as may be seen literally 1
It
;
by comparison
of his translation of the passages
with Dalman or Laible.
he gives in
common
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 235 down, and humble
Lord, breaker of the enemy, and humbler of
Thou, the
Blessed art
speedily in our day.
it
proud."
Eabbi Samuel the Little belonged to the first genera tion of Tanaim and flourished about 90-130 A.D.
;
K. Gamaliel II. flourished about 90-110 A.D.
At the death of Joshua Ben Chanania the Kabbis cried Who will now defend our cause against the Minim 2 R Joshua Ben Chanania was one of the most famous
"
out:
?"
Rabbis
of Israel
and flourished about 70-130
It is
A.D.
remarkable that in the Talmud tradition he
is
often
found in controversy with R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, and this confirms the sense of our passage that he was regarded as one of the greatest champions of Jewish orthodoxy,
for,
as
we have
seen, Eliezer
was suspected
of
sympathy with Christian views. The Tanaic Rabbis have taught When Rabbis Eliezer Ben Pardo and Chanena ben Teradion were "
:
on the charge
seized
Rabbi Eliezer said be thou,
Chanena,
charge, but offences.
thou,
to
woe
to
of
for
me
Christians
being
Eliezer,
:
Happy
thou hast been seized on one
that
I
have been seized for
But Rabbi Chanena answered for
[minoth],
Chanena ben Teradion
Happy
:
thou hast been seized on
five
be five
3 but woe to me that I have charges and hast escaped been charged with one offence, and have not escaped. ;
Thou hast been engaged
in the study of the
Law and in Law
charity, whilst I engaged only in the study of the
therefore punishment has overtaken 1
"
Berachoth," 3 4
Leveue adds "
Aboda
29a. "
:
Zara"
2
from Christian 1Gb.
"
Bab.
4 me."
Chagiga,"
influence."
5a.
Minoth.
236
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ? *
Eleazar ben Perata and
Chanania (not ben Teradion flourished about 100-135 the ;
one
the
of
"
Bar Kochba
ten martyrs
rebellion.
who
"
Chanina) latter
was
lost their lives in the
The story
is
somewhat
curious,
even from a Jewish point of view, for Ben Teradion was above all others specially noted for his charity. 1
A
"
Min asked Eabbi Chanena
certain
:
Now
that
burnt, you cannot cleanse yourselves your temple from your ceremonial defilement you are, therefore, is
;
unclean, for
it
is
abides in her skirts/
Come and Jews]
see
Who
:
defilement
Her filthiness 9] But Eabbi Chanena answered:
written [Lam.
i.
:
what is written concerning them [the remaineth among them in the midst of
[Lam.
xvi. 16]. 2
This E. Chanena
is
probably intended for Chanania
ben Teradion, a Palestinian Rabbi who, as we have seen, flourished about 100-135 A.D. The Books
of
The books
Minim
3
are not to be kept from on the Sabbath, but must be consumed on the spot with the names of God contained therein. Eabbi Joses said On a week day let the names of
the
of the
fire
"
:
God be cut out and hidden away, and
Eabbi Tarphon declared: May I be deprived if I do not burn them with the names
burnt. of
my
of
God "
children !
If a
man
serpent, let
1
2
be pursued to death by a robber, or by a fly for refuge into a heathen temple
him
See Hamburger,
mud und
"
Midrash," ii.
Real-Encyclopadie des
"
Judenthums,"
"
57a.
:
"
:
Tal
132, sub voce.
That is to say, even when Levene adds defiled the Shekinah dwells among them." 3 the Gospels of the Christians." Levene adds "
Yoma,"
is
the remainder
Israel
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 237 rather than into the house of a
Min
for idolaters sin
;
unwittingly, but the Minim do so deliberately. If in order to make peace Kabbi Ishmael said between husband and wife, the Law allows the name of "
:
how much more shall the books of these men be destroyed who stir up enmity and angry feeling between Israel and their Father who God
is
to be
blotted out,
To them the words
in heaven.
applied
Am
Do
:
1
I not hate
I not grieved
them,
with those
who
"
David may be
Lord, that hate thee
?
up against thee
?
rise
them with perfect hatred,
I hate
enemies.
of
I
reckon them
my
2
Here we
see that not even the strict observance of They
the Sabbath was to stand in the
way of the instant Minim nay, the terrible Siphre destroying the names of God which were the
destruction of profanity of
;
thought to give the material on which they were in sanctity, was set on
scribed a special and inviolable
one
side,
and
the cutting "work,"
this
of
not only on the Sabbath, when
them out might be held
but, according to E. Tarphon, even
to
entail
on week
days.
Jose (ben
Chalaphtha) belonged to the third Tanaim, and flourished about 130-160
K.
generation of he was a great enemy of mysticism. E. Tarphon A.D. belonged to the preceding generation, 90-130 A.D. he ;
;
was a
opponent of Christianity, as indeed our E. Ishmael ben Elisha was a contem shows. passage porary of E. Tarphon and E. Akiba. fierce
It is to be noticed, 1
Levene comments
2
Shabbath,"
however, that Friedlander, in his "
:
116a.
to be placed in the bitter
waters,"
are to
238 Friedlander
DID JESUS LIVE 100
Vorbeinerkung,"
passage,
the
which he gives as
"
of
this
the Giljonim and books of
the basis of his interesting essay on pre-
Minim,"
He
Gnosticism. 1
Jewish
Christian
?
makes the opening words
"
m1
B.C.
denies
that the
Gilionim are the Gospels of the Christians, and that the Minim of the oldest Talmud tradition are Christians.
He
tells
ism
is still to
us that in Galicia, where old-fashioned Talmud-
be found in
its
the traditional interpretation of Apikores."
that
"philosopher
own
Min
is
that
"
Min
is
an
an Epicurean, a sceptic, an atheist, a His despises God and his Law."
that by
is
theory
is,
who
most conservative form,
Min
is
meant, at any rate in
the earlier deposits of the Talmud, "an antiiiomistic Gnostic," that is, presumably a Gnostic who set aside
Jewish view, and contended that the the Jews was at best a secondary God.
the traditional
Yahweh
of
Friedlander of his
is
well worth reading, but a consideration
arguments would necessitate more space than the
treatment of our present subject will permit. The question of a pre-Christian Jewish Gnosticism, however,
one
is
the greatest importance
of the points of
in
a
2 consideration of Christian origins.
Weinstein on
Weinstein has also quite recently returned to the 3 subject and further developed his contention in his essay 1
Friedlander (M.),
"
Der
vorchristliche jiidische Gnosticismus
"
(Gottingen 1898). 2 Die jiidische Gnosis und die platonisch-pythaSee also goraischen Anschauungen der palastinischen Lehrer," in M. Joel s Blicke in die Religionsgeschichte zu Anfang des zweiten christ;
"
"
1880), i. 114-170. Genesis der Agada: Beitrag zur Eutwickelungs-Geschichte des talmudischen
liclien Jahrhunderts" (Breslau 3
Weinstein (N.
EntstehungsSchriftthums "
Agada,"
und
I.),
"
Die
; 1901), Theil II. pp. 91-156.
(Gottingen Minim,"
;
"Zur
"
Die alexandrinische
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 239 on the Essenes, 1 that by Minim in the Talmud we are nowhere to understand Jewish Christians, but that the chief characteristic of
Minism from pre-Christian times
always polytheism in brief, all non-monotheism without distinction was Minism, and that, too, not
is
;
most part under
in the sense of idolatry but for the
such high forms
Much Talmud
of belief as the Logos-theory.
work, however, remains to be done by such
Weinstein and
specialists as Joel, Friedlander,
their co-labourers before
we
are quite sure of the exact
value of this very general term, and require a complete
list of
first
of all
we
Talmud passages where the
term occurs meantime we return to the passages which Levene considers to refer specially to the Christians. ;
A man must not carry or take from the Minim, he Boycott of Mmim must not intermarry with them, and must not accept "
*
their cures for
Then
disease."
2
follows the story of
Ben Dama s being
bitten
which we have already dealt. by The post-Mishnaic Eabbis have taught An animal, if slaughtered, even according to the Jewish rites, by a snake, with
"
:
a Min,
is like
Min s) bread
an animal offered
to
idols.
His (the
like the bread of a Cuthite (Samaritan) like that offered to idols. The books of
is
and his wine
the Law, the Prophets and the Hagiographa which have been written by him, are like the books of magicians." 3
Here we have
a
prescriptions
legal
Min who as
to
the utmost displeasure of his
copies 1
"
2
"
of
the Jewish
all
and yet falls under the Eabbis. His food and
food,
the Scriptures, even of the Torah, are
Beitriige zur Geschichte der
Aboda
observes
Zara,"
27b.
Essiier"
(Wien
;
1892).
s
chullin,"
13a.
Impurity of i
240
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
polluted and contaminate as do food offered to
and books
of
sorcerers.
Min
This
idols
then must have
been regarded as doctrinally and therefore spiritually impure but there were evidently also Minim who did ;
not observe the Jewish prescriptions, otherwise the sentence even according to the Jewish rites 1 would be "
"
This passage accordingly seems as though would somewhat upset Weinstein s theory. The postMishnaic Eabbis may be dated from the third century meaningless.
it
onwards. Minim compared with Tax-gatherers,
Mark Ukvah
said
:
The voice
of
two daughters who
cry from Gehenna are they who exclaim, in
this
Minim. 2
namely Roman
world,
None
Give, give
tax-collectors
!
and
that go unto her return again, neither
A
take they hold of the path of life. speedy death awaits those who return to Judaism from Christianity [?
minoth], for they expire from
Mar Ukbah was
in
all
remorse."
probability
3
Chief of
the
Exile, or Prince of the Captivity, in Babylonia about
210-240 The Rolls
of
the Law written by Minim to be
Destroyed.
"Rav
Law
A.D.
Nachman
said:
We
that has been written
hold that a roll of the
by a Min
shall be
com
if by it be con found in the possession of a Min, and it cannot be ascertained whether he has transcribed it,
a Gentile, let
mitted to the flames; if
cealed;
let it
be concealed;
Gentile,
that 1
2
it
some say
may
if
found in the possession
be used for
4
"
"
{
the latter, Give converts. Give taxes 3 Levene gives no reference to this saying. 4
"
Gittin,"
45b.
a
reading."
If it stands so literally in the original. Levene translates Christians and adds, ;
of
be concealed, others,
let it likewise
"
"
The former
shouts,
THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS IN THE TALMUD. 241 Rabbi Nachman was rector in Babylonia,
Rabbi Abahu said
A
A.D.
Nehardea
Min was then
whether or not proselytes
presumably a born Jew; were included is uncertain. "
of the school at
and lived 245-320
The Shema l was commanded The Shema
:
to be repeated in a loud voice
on account
of the troubles
Minim,
caused by the Minim, but at Nehardea in Babylon, where there are no Minim, they repeat the Shema to-day
low
in a
voice."
2
Abbahu belonged
R.
to the third generation of the
Amoraim, and flourished 279-320 A.D. He was a great opponent of all Minim, and especially of
Palestinian
we have already seen above. "Rav Saiseth, who was totally blind, ordered his servant to place him in any other but the eastward Christians, as
when he wished
direction
did
Minim
because the
to pray,
3 so."
Shesheth belonged to the third generation of Babylonian Amoraim, and nourished about 300-330 R.
It is
A.D.
difficult to believe that all
to the east in prayer
but we know that the Essenes
;
and the Therapeuts did
Was
so.
of the early Christians also
We
are
quite
means exhausted, cited to,
by the
or at
given
this a general
custom
?
have now come to the end
we
but
Minim turned
in
of Levene s quotations, that the subject is by no
certain
as a glance at the
authorities
the lives
of
Talmud passages
we have
already referred the most renowned Rabbis as
Hamburger s
"
Real
-
Encyclopiidie,"
show. 1
a
The prayer beginning, "
Pesachim,"
56a.
"
Hear,
Israel."
3
"
Baba
Bathra,"
16
25a.
will
The Minim ward Direct tlon>
242 The ImportTalmud
for
7 Christian Origins.
f
It
DID JESUS LIVE 100 is
B.C. ?
a matter of capital importance for students of
Christian origins that without delay the Talmud should be minutely scrutinized from the first to the last page, so as to unearth every scrap of information bearing directly
or indirectly
Christianity, but this
competent Talmud well read in
all
is
on the many phases of early a task that none but the most
specialists,
who
are also exceedingly
the latest research into the puzzling
chaos of the early schools and
"
"
Christianity was inextricably
heresies
with which
the first mingled centuries, can hope to achieve with any measure of in
success.
We
next pass on to a consideration of such of the contents of the Toldoth Jeschu as bear in any way
upon our enquiry
;
but
first of all
we must inform our
selves concerning the history of these strange Toldoth.
XIII.
WE
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU.
have already seen in our short sketch
Talmud
"
in History
how
fierce
of
"
The
was the persecution
of
Western Jewry by Christian intolerance in the Inquisi tional period of the Middle Ages we have seen how hate ;
begat hate, and we are not surprised to find that the Jews of the later Middle Age had long learned most bitterly to execrate the
in so
memory
of their ancient Eabbi,
whose name they had been so cruelly persecuted for many centuries. The name of Jesus had become
a terror to them, the symbol of all that was cruel, even as
from the
much
earliest
that was
tortures
and
days
it
blasphemous
stripes,
had connoted
for
them
cruel because of their
blasphemous because his followers the Law most sternly
worshipped man as God, and forbade the Jew to do so.
But the
fierce
outbreak
which
raged
with
such
Jewry from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century was no new conflagration. The ancient fire of the early days of conflict had never been disastrous results to
extinguished it had smouldered on, ready to burst into flame as soon as Western Christendom in the
really
;
person of one or two scholars aided, as the Christian would say, by the zeal of Jewish converts, or, as the
Causes of
244
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
would put it, roused to fury by the sectarian hatred of Jewish renegades and apostates had either Israelite
learned enough Hebrew to read the Talmud traditions about Jesus, or had had its ears filled with accounts so distorted that
the
to
first
imagined that the Talmud was from
it
the last page a repository of blasphemy
against its Lord.
The
Inquisi
tion
knows
Little of the
Toldoth.
In this connection
it
is
somewhat curious
to note
that the rage of the Christian inquisitors was directed
almost entirely against the Talmud
voluminous contents
which
of
it
difficulty to disinter the brief
to Jesus, while
a
of
certain
worked up some
of
"
Life of
the
of
some
and scattered references
we hear comparatively
Jewish
from the
itself,
was a matter
little
Jesus,"
scattered
into a connected whole, but also
or nothing
which not only
Talmud passages
added other matter
(not found in the Talmud), some of the elements of which were referred to by Tertullian as early as the closing years of the second century.
very beginning of the Talmud persecution, about the middle of the thirteenth century, It is true that at the
we
find
has
Eaymund
Martini, the learned Dominican
distinction
the
considered
of
the
being Christian Hebraist of the Middle Ages, but
thought by some
to
have been
a
converted
who first
who
is
Jew. 1
which had in all Life," quoting a form of this probability been already expressly condemned at the "
trial
1
2 preceding the Paris burning of 1248.
Martini sat on the
Talmud
Inquisitorial
Again, in
Commission assembled
at Barcelona in 1266. 2
Lea (H.
(New York
"
C.), ;
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages
1888),
i.
558.
"
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU. 1415, the Antipope Benedict XIII.
specially
out for condemnation a certain treatise
no copy
of
which
is
now known
to
245
"
singled
Mar mar
Jesu,"
be extant, but which
thought by some to have been a form of the Toldoth 1 Jeschu, while in the first half of the sixteenth century, is
when
the
Talmud was recovering
right to existence,
its
Eeuchlin distinctly excluded this favourable judgment on the Talmud. It
"
"
from
Life
his
however, strange that we do not hear more of
is,
Suggested
the Toldoth Jeschu during this period, for it worked up th^sllence. into one consecutive narrative not only the main
TalmucJ Jeschu data, but also
Talmud
in the
much
else not
found either
or in Christian tradition either canonical
or apocryphal, and might, therefore, have been expected to have been singled out especially and consistently by
the emissaries of the Inquisition as the main ground of their accusation and attack. Can it have been that this
was considered by the ignorant inquisitors forming part and parcel of the Talmud itself or was
"Life"
;
as it
among the Jews that the agents of the Office failed to come across it except on the rarest Holy kept so secret occasions; or
Inquisition
was
itself
to the bitter persecution of the
it
that
we owe not
the genesis of the
some of its existing forms ? Tertullian briefly referring The Paucity ofMatenal preserved in great elaboration
Toldoth, but the elaboration of
The
fact that
we found
elements
to certain
still
-
in nearly all extant forms of the Toldoth convinced us that,
as
far
traditional
as
these
memory
elements were concerned, the
of the mediaeval compilers or re
dactors of the Toldoth reached back to at least the end 1
Griitz (H. H.), "Geschichte der
ed.), viii.
133-135.
Juden"
(Leipzig; 1865, 2nd
246
DID JESUS LIVE 100
of the
But the
second century.
B.C.
\
difficulties
connected
with the subject were (and are) very great for not only were all non-Jewish scholars who had considered ;
the matter agreed accessible to
that
Toldoth
the
them were worthless mediaeval
quite beneath the notice
number
the forms of
fabrications
of the historical student,
was very
of these recensions
but the In
small.
fact,
for all practical purposes the short thirteenth
Latin translation of
Eaymund
century the seventeenth Martini,
and eighteenth century Latin versions of Wagenseil and Huldreich, and finally the Judaeo-German Life "
"
published by Bischoff material available.
In
Recent Publi-
his
"
"
Vorwort, "
"
A* Serial
"
judisch-deutsch
work
"
Das
jiidische
in
1895,
"
manner.
We
stated
was the forerunner
Leben Jesu,
all
the
that
this
comprised
Bischoff had
Life
with the various recensions tific
1
"
of the
were therefore
of a large
which was
to deal
Toldoth in a scien in
waiting
high expectation of the help of this most useful undertaking, when a few months ago (at the time of this writing) there appeared an excellent work on the subject by
Samuel Krauss, enriched with many notes from the of Bischoff himself, and also with others by Strack. 2
Dr.
hand It
is,
therefore, to be supposed that this is the
referred to by Bischoff in his
we had was 1
"
Foreword,"
previously imagined, that the
to be entirely
Bischoff (E.),
"
book
and not, as
work promised
by himself.
Ein jiidisch-deutsches Leben Jesu Geschichte Jahre 3760 seit Erschaffung :
Jesu von Nazareth, geboren im der Welt" (Leipzig no date). ;
2
Krauss
(Berlin
;
"
(S.).
1902).
Das
Leben Jesu
nach jiidischen
Quell en
"
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU. Most opportunely,
247
our enquiry has this Krauss study appe ared, for in it not only have we a wealth of new material which was hitherto entirely inaccessible then, for
c
to
any but the most determined
have the
ment
first
specialists,
attempt at a scientific
of this difficult subject
;
a beginning has at last
been made towards an evaluation
and traditional materials
Jewish
of this
and
literature,
the
but also we
and unpartisan treat of
the legendary
most curious cycle of
shown
the
of
openmindedness
is
the
fact
unquestionably by Strack frequently dissent from each other in their comments and recomments.
undertaking
that Krauss, Bischoff and
Our present task
is,
therefore, considerably lightened
;
for instead of attempting unaided to review this over
grown and complicated
tradition as preserved in Bis-
choffs Judseo-German Toldoth and the Latin versions of
Wagenseil, Huldreich and
Eaymundus
trace the external evidence from
Talmud, we have
Martini, and to
where we
left
it,
in
work over ground already surveyed by Krauss, while at the same time we have to thank him for considerably widening the area treating of the
of research
by the addition
of
could never have traversed at
to
new all
territory
which we
without his
aid, for
no one but a past-master in a knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish Hebrew mediaeval literature could dream of attempting such
a
task
If, however, single-handed. compelled sometimes to differ from Krauss conclusions or to put a different value on some
we
find ourselves
of the chief
elements in the materials,
it is
not sur
prising, seeing that the scientific investigation of this
very obscure subject still
of hitherto bitterest prejudice is
entirely in its infancy.
248 His Estimate Toldoth.
DID JESUS LIVE TOO
Krauss, in his impartiality,
"
Einleitung,"
assures us of his entire
and declares that he has treated the Toldoth
purely as an ancient literary foundation
B.C, ?
which, he
of
monument, the
believes,
earliest
preserves a
text
1 As the result reaching back some 1500 years (K. iii.). of his labours, in which he claims to have proved the
general Toldoth tradition point for point, he declares that though the representation of the Life of Jesus "
"
contained therein
of
is
an odious nature, and in so
far
referable to Jewish hostility, nevertheless the bare facts
themselves are for the most part in contact with good,
and
that, too, Christian, sources;
and that instead
of
energies in abusing the Toldoth as
a spending Jewish lampoon, a pitiful fabrication, or execrable foolishness, it would be more profitable for Christian all its
theology to trace the book to
endeavoured "Good
Sources."
sources,"
Toldoth,
he has
"good
Christian
must be understood that he means that
it
they were
as
its sources,
do himself (K. 2). When, however, Krauss speaks of to
"
the Jewish compilers of the could not be expected to distinguish
"
good
who
for
between canonical, deutero-canonical and apocryphal Christian literature and tradition. The Toldoth makers
and redactors simply
reflected the general notions in
the Christian folk-consciousness of their times, and took these
varied
and
authentic facts, Christian
changing notions indifferently for
any rate, as valid beliefs of the Thus we find biblical, apocryphal
or, at
faithful.
and Talmud-Midrash traditions and legends
as to Jesus
1 The frequent references to Krauss work are thus signified when the note referred to is by Bischoff it will be further marked
;
"
B.
n."
249
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU.
mingled together in motley confusion, each and every one of them being put at precisely the same value (K.
And
165).
investigation
this indeed is of
a
an important point in any of
subject
nature; for
this
the
common persuasion in general Protestant circles that the canonical Gospel view was the only view, even in the early days,
is
entirely mistaken
the people fed
;
mainly on apocrypha. Krauss especially insists that the agreement of the Toldoth in certain of its forms and features with Gospel data
of
is
for it argues that
prime importance,
although
in the Toldoth literature these are naturally put forward as they appeared to Jewish, and, therefore, he admits,
biassed observers, they are nevertheless not deliberately distorted or
disfigured
(K. 154).
sions, it is true, bear all the
marks
The Toldoth recen of
an apologetic and
polemical literature, but this does not calumniate; alleges, but does not execrate (K. 155).
it
on the contrary, declares that the various the Toldoth must be classed as a satirical
Bischoff,
forms
of
and parodial literature of a polemical nature it is true that the Jewish compilers borrow certain traits from ;
the Christian prototype, but only to recast
them
in
own fashion. The various Toldoth recensions known to us all bear the marks of a Middle Age bitter their
polemical literature
against
the
intolerance
of
the
Catholic Church and in answer to the fierce denunciation
and cruel persecution by the Christians against the Jews it is a case of eye for eye and tooth for tooth. ;
These writings were pamphlets against the simple faith in unintelligent authority and the foolishness of a rank
growth
of Christian
legend and folklore
;
briefly, against
Bisehoff s
250
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
the pretensions and extravagances of the Church of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless it would be foolish to throw
away the
child with the bath water, for the Toldoth
writers were, in their
opponents (K. 154
With
;
way, as decent folk as their
B. n.).
opinion Strack also is in agreement; nevertheless Krauss holds firmly to his own point of this
view and refuses to modify it. The most useful stand point may perhaps be found somewhere between these
two contradictory views, but as far as our present study is concerned, our main interest is concerned only with the oldest elements discernible under the many changing forms Only one
Toldoth activity. our readers will say Why, even so much as that there was a
of this
But perhaps some
Information
we
m English.
j ew i sh
know
did not
Life of Jesus
of
;
:
where can we obtain any in
formation on the subject in English ? Truth to say, the Toldoth literature has been boycotted even by the learned in English-speaking lands.
Perhaps this may and it have been natural enough, may have been best hitherto to keep silence on a topic which in the past could not possibly have been discussed with moderation. But at the beginning of the twentieth century it is no longer possible to exclude from the field of research into Christian origins
any
subject,
even of apparently
which may hold out the throwing even a sidelight on the count
the most intractable kind, faintest
hope
of
less obscurities of received tradition.
As
far as
we
are aware there
is
only one book in
English which deals with the subject, and that too in a very superficial manner, but as it has never reached a second edition, either it has been very little
251
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU. read or the author has not thought it.
reprint
advisable
it
to
1
But even the learned have been hitherto very imand perfectly acquainted with the Toldoth literature,
General
have had to depend entirely on polemical sources of information rather than on a scientific statement and appreciation of the facts.
Martini short
s
thirteenth
Toldoth
Setting
aside
century
Latin
which
Luther
form,
Kaymundus of
rendering
knew from
fifteenth century reproduction of Porchettus,
a
the
and trans
German early in the sixteenth century, and which we shall consider later on, non-Jewish lated
into
had until quite lately to depend entirely on 2 the translations of the an ti- Jewish writers Wagenseil scholars
An The Lost and Hostile Gospels Baring-Gould (S.), Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of which Fragments Eemain 1
"
:
"
ch.
(London; 1874), This book contains a
v.
"The
Counter- Gospels," pp.
67-115.
and partial translation of Wagenseil s Huldreich s eighteenth-century Latin much of the matter in the chapters on the Talmud and Toldoth is taken from Clemens "Jesus von Nazareth" (Stuttgart; 1850) and von der Aim s "Urtheile" but 1864), whose name the author misspells, p. 48 (Leipzig digest
seventeenth-century and versions of the Toldoth ;
;
without any acknowledgment. Wagenseil s Latin has also been rendered into English in a penny pamphlet form, The Hebrew Account of our Lord (sole "
English edition, omitting nothing after the first page), Latinized by J. C. Wagenseil, 1681 Englished by E. L. G., 1885." (London
;
;
James Burns.)
It
is
difficult to refrain
from reprobating strongly
a production of this kind. 2
est
et
Tela ignea Satana^. Joh. Christophorus Wagenseilius, Arcani et horribiles Judccoruni adversus Christum "
:
Christianam
Keligionem Libri
ave/cSoroi"
(Altdorf
;
Hoc
Deum 1681),
Libellus which the last is Toldos Jeschu." W. s text was reproduced with a German transla tion in J. A. Eisenmenger s (not Eilenmenger a) Entdecktes Juden-
2
vols.,
containing six treatises, of
"
"
252
DID JESUS LIVE 100
at Niirnberg Nov. 26, 1633, Huldreich. 1 (b.
With
Extent of New
the
?
Oct. 9, 1705)
d.
and
Jewish-German
Bischoff s
of
publication
B.C.
Material. "Leben
in
Jesu"
to
1895,
which we have already
and Krauss larger work
referred,
we have
a
amount
large
accessible to us
of
in
new
not, however, that even so
;
any means all the material extant, still numerous MSS. hidden away
MSS. once known "
homely
Jews
(for a
the
of
Krauss
(p.
22)
and
23 (two known we have
;
of the
being only fragments) now wait for the translation of a good half of them.
new
MSS.
types, the portion
fall into
material which Krauss
doubtless sufficient for
all practical
has
translated
is
purposes.
Bischoff (K. 27-37) has divided these
Bischoff s
must be number of
have since disappeared), or modern Jewish medievalists, the
Nevertheless, as the of
we have by
for there
of these still to
however,
to exist
the hands of
in "
1902,
material rendered
MSS.
into five
Classification.
chief types;
it
however, to be observed that these
is,
groupings do not in the remotest fashion aim at any attempt at tracing out a historical genealogical tree, for, latest edition, Dresden, 1893, by (1st ed. [Frankfort], 1700 Das bei 40 Jahr X. Schiefel) the original title of which ran von der Judenschafft mit Arrest bestrickt gewesene, nunmehro aller durch Autoritat eines Hohen Keichs-Vicariats relaxirte entdecktes Judenthum oder griindlicher und J. A. E. s thum"
;
"
J.
:
;
.
.
.
:
wahrhaffter Bericht, welchergestalt die verstockte Juden die erschrecklicher Weise liistern Hochheilige Dreieinigkeit .
und verunehren
u.
s.
w., 2
1
.
.
Thle
;
and
also
by
Bullet, op. sub.
cit.
Joh. Jac. Huldricus, Sepher Toldotli Jeschua ha-Notzri a Judaeis [in Hebrew letters], Historia Jeschuae Nazareni, blaspheme corrupta, ex Manuscripto hactenus inedito nunc demum "
edita, ac Versione et Notis (quibus et Authoris asserta
deteguntur, vincuntur),
illu&trata"
(Leyden
;
Judaeorum nequitiae proprius ineptiae
1705).
ac
impietatis
con-
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU. as
Bischotf says,
of
the material, such
the very
in face of
chaotic nature
attempt must ever be
an
most subjective character (K.
the
253
that with the discovery of
It
27).
may
MSS. something
other
of
be of
more objective nature may be attempted, but at present the field is wide open for the most diverse a
speculations.
Bischoff s classification,
MSS.
of the
is
as follows
or, rather,
first
Type Wagenseil; put
1.
known
who presented
it
second because
it is
in its
because
(so called
to the
main subjects
from
its last
Royal Library at
more nearly
was printed next
Parma)
;
placed
former type
(6 MSS.).
Type Huldreich (the original is 2 MSS. copied from H/s printed text) 4.
the best
is
private owner,
allied to the
3.
it
it
(9 MSS.).
Type De Kossi
2.
tentative grouping,
:
after
lost,
but there are
put third because
;
W. s.
Type Modern Slavonic
put next because
;
it
shows
a knowledge of all the foregoing (4 MSS.). 5.
Type
Cairo
(6
in
fragments
Oxford-collection from the Geniza
the Old Synagogue at Cairo) last
;
last
put
the
Schechter-
or lumber-room of
because
it is
the
known.
Of printed Toldoth texts we have practically only Printed Texts, those of Wagenseil and Huldreich there was, however, ;
still earlier,
somewhere about 1640 (K. 17
;
B.
n.),
a text
published by Engelsberger, but no copy of it is now known to exist; there is also mixed Toldoth stuff in the ironical composition of Gustav (Gerschom) Bader, which bears as part of its title History of the Nazarene "
Law-giver."
254 Krauss
New
DID JESUS LIVE 100
None
however, have the slightest pre
of these texts,
tension of being critical
manuscript the
It
texts.
B.C. ?
they are all, so to speak, oneremained for Krauss to give us ;
attempt at a
critical text of (1) the Strassburg University Library MS., and (2) the Vienna Israeli tish while he has had Theological Academy s MS. No. 54 first
;
simply to reproduce (3) Adler of (4) the
s
Jemen MS. with portions
1 Leyden MS. dealing with the "
"
resurrection
the
"
(5) of three Slavonic
;
seduction
"
;
(6) a
"inventio crucis"
fragment from Bokhara in posses
"
Touch-stone
of
"
seduction
"
from the Vienna MS. No. 54
the Cairo Geniza fragments "
and
burial
MSS. dealing with
sion of E. Adler, dealing also with the
the
"
"
(7,
;
;
(8)
and (9) an extract from the Schemtob ibn Schaprut, from the MS. ;
Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau (p. 180). Of these texts Krauss gives German translations of only 1, 2, 3 and 9.
in the
It is to be regretted that
when the
subject was being
treated in a scientific manner, Krauss did not think of
bringing together it
all
the material between two covers
would have been vastly more convenient
Huldreich
s
and Bischoff s
had been printed for
appended ments"
texts,
as well,
every text;
and a German translation even
if
of the Slavonic type are too
tion into
;
Wagenseil s and Martini s version, if
the
"embellish
bad
for transla
German, they might have been rendered into
Latin.
These MSS. are
all late,
indications of date, two 1
a
Leyden
in B.
s
MS.
far as
we have any
be assigned to the sixteenth
p. 128, but I can find no mention of in either K. s description of MSS. (pp. 19-22) or
So the heading, "
"
may
and as
(pp. 27-37).
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU. century, two to
255
two
the seventeenth,
to
the seven
teenth-eighteenth, four to the eighteenth, and five to
the nineteenth century. The question of the language of the various forms of Language, the Toldoth
often very obscure, but Krauss
is
is
of
opinion that in German-speaking lands at any rate, and therefore also in Slavonic-speaking lands, the
Toldoth recensions were being intended as a
"
written in the vernacular,
first
Volkslectiire
"
;
they were only
Hebrew, and as this Hebrew is often very impure, they were probably translated by
later translated into
or
by Christian
opponents for polemical however, purposes. sharply contradicted n 9-12 13 Bischoff and B. (K. .s.), who declares that by instead of the vernacular Toldoth being intended for
apostates
This view
is,
;
popular consumption, they rather constituted the read ing of the intelligent Jewish to understand,
read the Toldoth in Hebrew.
by which we are who were unable to
laity,
presumably, those
Bischoff denies that the
Toldoth Hebrew
is
worse than much
and
it
is difficult
of the time,
to see
of
the literature
a priori why an
apostate should not have been able to write as
Hebrew
good
as a non-convert.
It seems, however, highly probable that the language of the oldest forms of the Toldoth was originally the Aramaic, as the oldest MS. fragments extant
(from
Cairo Geniza) show.
As
to the title
Jewish Life best
known
quently. "
ably.
of
by which the various forms
Jesus
one,
is
designated,
of
we have chosen
and the one that occurs most
the
the fre
The known titles, however, vary very consider means literally The Genera-
Toldoth Jeschu
"
Titles.
256
DID JESUS LIVE 100 Jeschu, hence Birth or
tions of
or Life of Jesus. or
Jeschu,"
Book
Jeschu
ha-Notzri"
We
(K.
Bull
May
of
Maanar
the
title
stands
1415,
Jeschu,"
"
Maase
It
(K. 31, 33).
that the Latin transliteration,
11
"
"
or
30), is
History of
"
for
Talui
,"
"
Jesu,"
Maase
We
or
"
Maase
Maase
also supposed
Mar mar
Story of Jeschu.
Tola,"
or
30),
also find the title
History of Jeschu (K.
or
ha-Notzri"
Toldoth
"Sepher
the Generations of Jeschu; also
of
Jeschu the Nazarene. Jeschu,"
History, Tradition,
It is also called
Jeschu
"Toldoth
B.C. ?
in the
Jeschu,"
also
or
meet with
The History
of the
Hanged (K. 9, 13); also The History of Jeschu and Queen Helena and of the Apostles (K. 15), or
of
simply History of Jeschu and the Apostles (K. 172). One MS. begins This is the Book of the Condemna "
:
tion of Jeschu ben
the
title
"
The History
Huldreich
88).
Pandera"
s
Toldoth Jeschua
(K. 10);
printed text, ha-Notzri,"
Jeschu and Cristos
another bears
Son 1 (K. 33, 64, after the main title,
him and
of
his
continues with the names
Jesus (in Hebrew translitera
[sic]
tion).
The Name
As
to the
Hebrew equivalent
for the
name
Jesus,
we
find that the Toldoth recensions amply confirm the form given in the Talmud with which we have already dealt in fact, the longer form Jeschua is found in only ;
three
MSS.,
2
while the
still
longer form
Jehoshua
appears only once, in Wagenseil. 1
"
Meaning, presumably,
Son,"
History of Joseph Pandera and his is given as the legitimate
for in this recension J. Pandera
husband of Miriam. 2 But even in these MSS. this form does not appear through out, or more frequently than Jeschu or Jesus (in Hebrew trans literation
from the
?
German).
THE TOLDOTH JESCHU.
257
But before we go any further we must present our readers with some one of the numerous recensions of the Toldoth, so that they may form some idea of the general nature of
the material.
As the Wagenseil
and Huldreich versions are
fairly well known, at anyand the curious, we will take the recension preserved in the Strassburg MS., which is
rate
to
scholars
of special interest
not only because
it is
probably the
Hebrew in
original underlying the type of text preserved Bischoffs Yiddish Toldoth, but also because it
preserves
many Aramaic
traces,
and so connects
itself
with the earliest forms of the Toldoth literature, and finally because part of it is identical with Martini s thirteenth century text.
17
A JEWISH LIFE OF
XIV. The
1.
THE beginning
was Miriam
His mother
of the birth of Jeschu.
She had a betrothed
[a daughter] of Israel.
of the royal race of the
was
JESUS.
House
He was
Jochanan.
David, whose
of
learned
law
the
in
name and
Near the door of her house, feared heaven greatly. a dwelt handsome just opposite, [fellow]; Joseph ben Pandera cast his eye upon her. It was at night, on the eve
drunken he crossed over
But she thought
her.
of the Sabbath,
to her door
when
and entered in to
in her heart that
was her
it
Jochanan; she hid her face and was ashamed. ... He embraced her but she said to
betrothed
;
him
:
Touch me
not, for I
am
in
my
separation.
He
took no heed thereat, nor regarded her words, but per She conceived by him. sisted. .
.
.
At midnight came her betrothed Rabbi Jochanan. She said to him What meaneth this ? Never hath it :
been thy custom, since thou wast betrothed in a night to come to me.
He
answered her and said:
It is
to
me, twice
but once
I
come
to thee this night.
She said
to
thee I was in
him
my
:
Thou
earnest to me,
separation, yet heeded
and st
I said to
thou not, but
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. did st thy
and wentest
will
259
When
forth.
he heard
this, forthwith he perceived that Joseph ben Pandera had cast an eye upon her and done the deed. He left
in the morning he arose and went Simeon ben Shetach.
her
He
him
said to
with
this night
Know
:
my
Thou hast already
.
.
.
;
my
I
went
come once
separation,
heard such words from her, I
left
He
answered
said
witness
When
I
her and [went forth]. :
Who
came
?
her house and
He
:
I
and thou gavest no
Rabbi Simeon ben Shetach said to him
mind
and
to me,
ear to me, [didst] thy will and wentest forth.
into thy
me
in to her after
before I touched her she said
this night
was in
said to thee I
then what hath befallen
betrothed.
men
the manner of
Rabbi
to
;
Ben Pandera,
:
is
he dwelleth near
a libertine.
him
to
for
understand that thou hast no
I
:
I thing, therefore keep silence he have come once, then can he not fail to come a second time; act wisely; at that time set
for
this
counsel thee,
;
if
witnesses against him.
Some time Miriam Jochanan
was :
the
after
with
She
is
child.
rumour went abroad that Then said her betrothed
not with child by
me
;
shall I abide
my shame every day from the people ? and went to Babylon. After some [time
here and hear
He
arose
she bore] a son, and they called his name Joshua after his mother s brother but when his corrupt birth was ;
made
public they called
him Jeschu.
His mother gave him to a teacher, so that he might How the become wise in the Halacha, and learned in the Torah jeTctifwaf 2.
and the Talmud.
Now
it
was
the
custom
of
the made
Public
-
260
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
teachers of the law that no disciple and no boy should
pass on his
and
way by them without his head being covered from reverence
his eyes cast to the ground,
of the
pupils towards their teachers.
One day
that rogue passed by, and all the wise were
seated together at the door of the synagogue
that
is,
they called the school-house synagogue that rogue then passed by the Kabbis, head on high and with uncovered pate, saluting no one, nay, rather, in shameless ;
fashion showing irreverence to his teacher.
After he had passed by them, one of them began and said He is a bastard (mamzer). The second :
began and
said
:
He
in her separation
(mamzer len ha-niddah).
Another day the Rabbis stopped then began them.
woman
a bastard and son of a
is
one
that
Thereupon one
of
to
in tractate Nezikin
speak
He who
:
said to
him
giveth forth a
is
the teacher and
is
wiser,
who the
Moses or Jethro
of the prophets
and head
disciple
worldly wisdom, as rulers 1
of
it is
:
Who twain
not Moses, father ?
And
the Torah,
.
Israel like unto Moses.
.
written
.
:
yet taught he Moses Set thou over them
thousands, and rulers of hundreds.
The fourth Talmud
"
order,
criminal law. 2
alien,
Decisions or rules of law.
?
him: And from hence
of
no prophet in
Withal Jethro was an
?
it
of the wise
moreover, beareth witness forth there ariseth
Was
?
Hast
of the
to the wise ones
Who
:
Halacha
in the presence of his teacher, is guilty of death
That one answered and said
;
Halachoth 2 before
them began and
thou then not learned
l
Damages,"
But
if
dealing with civil and
A JEWISH LIFE OF
261
JEStTS.
ye say that Jethro is greater than Moses, then would there be an end to the greatness of Moses. When the wise heard this, they said As he is so :
let us enquire after him. They sent to mother, [saying] thus: Tell us, pray, who is the
very shameless, his
father of this boy
?
She answered and said: that he
bastard
a
is
.
.
but they say of him, of a woman in her
.,
and son
separation.
Then began Eabbi Simeon ben Shetach: is it
thirty years since
came
to
me
;
To-day Kabbi Jochanan her betrothed he said to
at that time
me That and
that
:
hath befallen me.
He
related
all
that
told above,
is
.
.
.
how Eabbi
Simeon answered Kabbi Jochanan, and how when she was with child, he [R J.] for great shame went to Babylon and did not return; but this Miriam gave birth to this Jeschu, and no death penalty awaits her, for she hath not
ben Pandera
When
done this
own
of her
laid in wait for her
.
.
.
will, for
Joseph
the whole day.
she heard from Eabbi Simeon that no death
Thus
penalty awaited her, she also began and said:
was the story
;
and she confessed.
But when
it
went
abroad concerning Jeschu, that he was called a bastard and son of a woman in her separation, he went away
and
fled to
3.
Now
Jerusalem. 1 the rule of
woman who was
all
Israel
called Helene.
sanctuary a foundation-stone pretation: 1
B.
s
Galilee.
God founded
it
was
in the
And
there was in the
and
and
this
is
this is the
hand
its
of a The Robbing
inter
stone
on
recension states that this enquiry took place at Tiberias in
262
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
which Jacob poured oil and on it were written the 1 Shem, and whosoever learned it, could do
letters of the
But
whatsoever he would.
might learn them and therewith world, they took measures that no one
Israel
of
disciples
destroy the
should do
as the wise feared that the
so.
Brazen dogs were bound to two iron pillars at the entrance of the place of burnt offerings, 2 and whosoever entered in and learned these letters
went forth
again, the dogs bayed at
as soon as he
him
;
if
he then
looked at them, the letters vanished from his memory. This Jeschu came, learned them, wrote them on
parchment, cut into his hip and laid the parchment with the letters therein so that the cutting of his flesh did
not hurt him
then he restored the skin to
its
When
he went forth the brazen dogs bayed at place. letters vanished from his memory. He him, and the
went home, cut open
his llesh with his knife, took out
the writing, learned the letters, went and gathered to gether three hundred and ten of the young men of Israel.
Jeschu claims to
be"Messiah
and works
4.
T I
am
He
said to ,
,
a bastard desire
lordship
in
them ,
Behold then these who say
:
and son
power
.
of a
woman
for themselves
Israel.
But
see
ye,
,
of ,
me
.
in her separation
and seek all
;
to exercise
the
prophets
1 Des erklarten Gottesnamens" But Shem ha-mephoresch K. would perhaps be better rendered by the "ineffable name," that is, the name which ought not to be pronounced, the name of which only the consonants Y. H. V. H. are given, which are not pronouncible, but only indicate the pronunciation as known to the initiated. I use Shem throughout for the longer form Shem ha-mephoresch. Or rather, the door by which the burnt offerings were brought "
:
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS.
263
prophesied concerning the Messiah of God, and I am the Messiah. Isaiah prophesied concerning me Behold the :
virgin shall conceive, bear a son,
Emanuel.
Moreover,
concerning
me and
said to
me
:
mother
my
prophesied
:
;
spake
Thou
He
gotten thee.
my
begat
David prophesied The Eternal [Y. H. V. H.]
:
me
day have I be without male congress with son
;
this
me a bastard He further yet they Why do the heathen rage, etc., the kings call
!
His anointed.
in the country rise up, etc., against
am
shall be called
forefather
my
art
and he
I
the Messiah, and they, so to rise up against me, are
children of whores, for so
it is
written in the Scripture
For they are the children of whores. 1 The young men answered him
If
:
:
thou art the
Messiah, show unto us a sign. He answered them What sign do ye require that I should do for you ?
:
Forthwith they brought unto him a lame man, who had never yet stood upon his feet. He pronounced In over him the letters, and he stood upon his feet. the same hour they all said This is the Messiah.
made
obeisance to
him and
:
He
gave them another
sign.
a leper; he pronounced over
was healed.
There joined themselves to him apostates
from the children
When
They brought to him him the letters, and he
of his people.
the wise saw that so very
many
believed on Jeschu and
him, they seized him and brought him before Queen Helene, in whose hand the land of Israel was. They said
to
man
her: This
uses sorcery and seduces the
world.
Jeschu answered to her as follows 1
A.V.
"
:
children of
:
Already of old
whoredoms."
264
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
prophesied concerning me: And there of the stem of Isai (Jesse), he. Of him saith the Scripture Blessed is
the prophets
come forth a rod out
shall
and the
I am man who walketh
She said saith
them
to
:
:
not in the counsel of the ungodly. Is this truly in your law, what he
?
They answered
It
:
is
in our law
been said concerning him, for thee.
him
but
hath not
it
said therein
:
And
put the evil away from the midst But the Messiah for whom we hope, with
that prophet of
it is
;
[etc.],
are [other] signs, and
it
is
said of
him
smite the earth with the rod of his mouth.
:
He
shall
With
this
bastard these signs are not present. Jesus said Lady, I am he, and I raise the dead. :
In the same hour the queen was affrightened and said
:
That
is
Apostates
Jeschu
s
a great sign.
still
joined themselves to him, were with
him, and there arose a great schism in Israel. The wise assembled 5. Jeschu went to Upper Galilee.
^ge ^ ner went
before the queen and said to her: he practiseth sorcery and leadeth men astray Lady, therewith.
Therefore sent she forth horsemen concerning him, and they came upon him as he was seducing the people of Upper Galilee and saying to them: I am the Son of God, who hath been promised in your law. The horsemen rose up to take him away, but the people
Upper Galilee suffered it not and began to fight. Jeschu said unto them: Fight not, have trust in the power of my Father in heaven.
of
The people uttered
of
Galilee
the letters of
made
the
birds out of clay
;
he
Shem, and the birds flew
265
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. At
away. him.
He
same
the
them
said to
hour
fell
down
before
Bring unto me a millstone. They he spake the letters, set it
:
rolled it to the sea-shore
upon the surface
they
as one sits in a boat,
;
the
of
sat
sea,
went and
floated
himself
thereon,
on the water.
They who had been sent, saw it and wondered and Jeschu said to the horsemen Go to your lady, tell her what ye have seen Thereupon the wind raised him ;
:
!
from the water and carried him onto the dry land. The horsemen came and told the queen all these the queen was affrighted, was greatly amazed, sent and gathered together the elders of Israel and things
;
spake unto them Ye say he is a sorcerer, nevertheless every day he doeth great wonders. :
l They answered her Surely his tricks should not Send messengers, that they may bring trouble thee :
!
him
hither,
and
his
shame
shall be
At the same hour
she
Then the wise men
of Israel
made
plain.
messengers, and his wicked company also joined itself onto him, and they came with him before the queen.
Juda
sent
him
took a
man by name
into the
Holy of Holies, Shem, which were engraved on the foundation-stone, wrote them on a Ischariota, brought
where he learned the
letters of the
small [piece of] parchment, cut open his hip, spake the Shem, so that it did not hurt, as Jeschu had done before.
As soon
as Jeschu with his
company had returned
and she sent for the wise men, Jeschu and began spake: For dogs encompassed me. And to the queen,
i"Sachen."
The Magic j u das.
266
DID JESUS LIVE 100
me
concerning them.
As soon
he [David] said
as the wise
men
:
B.C.
?
Tremble not before
entered and Juda Ischariota
with them, they brought forward their pleas against Of me it hath him, until he said to the queen been said I will ascend to heaven. Further it is :
:
If He take me, Sela He raised his hands unto the wings of an eagle and flew, and the people were amazed because of him How is he able to fly
written
:
!
like
:
twixt heaven and earth
!
Then spake the wise men
Do
thou also utter the letters and
Forthwith he did marvelled
:
How
so, flew in
can they
Juda Ischariota
of Israel to
the
:
ascend after him.
air,
and the people
fly like eagles
!
1
Ischariota acted cleverly, flew in the
air,
but neither
could overpower the other, so as to make him fall by means of the Shem, because the Shem was equally with
both of them.
When Jada
recourse to a low trick
was made unclean and
;
perceived this he had
he befouled Jeschu, so that he fell to
the earth, and with
him
also Juda. It is because of this that they wail
Jeschu
is 1
con-
on their night, 2 and
because of the thing which Juda did to him. At the same hour they seized him and said
Helene: Let him be put to death!
3 .
.
.
Let him
to tell
Text uncertain. Weihnachten = Weinennachten, comments K. Christmas. But if this word-play were intended, then the original of such a in German, and the Hebrew gloss in this recension was composed would be a translation from the German and not from Aramaic. 1
2
But
as the
Hebrew
text existed already in the thirteenth century,
not seem probable. 3 Evidently a lacuna occurs here in the If he be the Son of God." adds this does
"
:
text.
The
text of Martini
267
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. who smote
us
So they covered his head with a
him.
garment and smote him with
a pomegranate
As
staff.
he did not know, it was clear that the Shem had aban doned him, and he was now fast taken in their hands. He began and spake to his companions before the 1
queen
:
Of
me
was
it
said
against the evil doers
And
proud waters. rocks
make they
When tates,
of
:
Who
But
?
will rise
them he
of
them he
said
up
for
said
:
me The
Stronger than
:
their countenance.
the queen heard this she reproved the apos
and said
to the wise
men
of Israel
:
He
is
in your
hand. 6.
They departed from the queen and brought him
to Jeschu
the synagogue of Tiberias and bound him to the pillars of the ark. Then there gathered together the band of
simpletons and dupes, desired to deliver
but they could not do ing between them.
When Give
who
him out so,
believed on his words and of the
hand
of the elders
and there arose great
he saw that he had no power to escape, he said
me some
copper vessel.
;
fight
:
They gave him vinegar in a He began and spake with a loud voice water.
:
me David prophesied and said When I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink. On his head they set a crown of thorns. The apos Of
tates
:
lamented
sore,
and there was fighting between
them, brother with brother, father with son wise
men brought
;
but the
the apostates low.
In another recension it is said that seventy elders with seventy staves of different woods smite him, and he is asked to say by whom and with what kind of staff he has been smitten, but he can tell neither the name of the smiter nor the wood of the staff. 1
is
Disciples,
BIB JESUS LIVE 100
268
He
B.C. ?
began and spake Of me he prophesied and said back I gave to the smiters, etc. Further of these
My
:
:
the Scripture saith Draw hither, sons of the sorceress. And of me hath been said But we held him, etc. And of me he said The Messiah shall be cut off and he is not. :
:
:
When
the apostates heard this, they began to stone
them with
stones,
and there was great hatred among
them. The Betrayal of Jeschu.
Then were the elders afraid, and the apostates bore him off from them, and his three hundred and ten disciples
brought him to the city of Antioch, where he
year Passover [sic]
came
Now
the rest-day of Passover.
till
sojourned
fell
in that
on the Sabbath, and he and his sons on the rest-day of Passover,
to Jerusalem,
on the Friday, he riding on an ass and saying to his disciples Of me it was said Eejoice greatly, that
is
:
:
of Zion, etc.
Daughter In the same hour they all cried aloud, bowed them selves before him, and he with his three hundred and ten disciples went into the sanctuary.
Then came one
of
Gardener], and said the rogue ? They said
is,
:
answered
:
He
is
the school-house. us.
He
ten
disciples,
1
That
:
in the sanctuary, said to
They
answered them
ments, that
ye come
who was called Gaisa [that Do you want to the wise men Where is he to be found ? He
them,
:
We,
him
that :
is
to say, in
Show him unto
his three
hundred and
have already sworn by the command but if will not say of him who he is
we
in the morning, give
;
me
the greeting, 1 and I
is the customary form of greeting (probably the kiss of used among the followers of Jeschu, as we learn from B. s peace)
recension.
269
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. will go
and make an obeisance before him, and before
whom
I
did
make
obeisance, he
And
the rogue.
is
they
so.
The
Jeschu gathered together, went and were come from
disciples of
gave their fellows the greeting, for they all
of
places to pray on the
Mount
of Olives
on the Feast
Unleavened Bread.
Then the wise men went
into the sanctuary, where
who had come from
those were
also the rogue
with them,
among them.
left
the
rest
of
Antioch, and there was
Thereupon Gaisa entered the company, made an
Whereupon the him and seized him. it, What is thy name ? He answered Proofs from 7. They said to him Scn )ture Mathai. They said to him Whence hast thou a proof from the Scripture ? When He answered them obeisance
men saw
wise
Jeschu.
the rogue
before
arose against
:
:
l
:
:
(mathai) shall I come and see the face of
him
said to
perish
:
When (mathai)
God
and
shall he die
?
They
his
name
?
Further they said to him What is thy name ? He answered said to him Whence hast Naki. They :
:
:
thou a proof from the Scripture ? He answered with hands and a clean heart. said to pure (nald) They :
He remaineth not unpunished. Further they said to him What is thy name ? He answered Boni. They said Whence hast thou a
him
:
:
:
:
proof from the Scripture ? He answered son (beni) is Israel. They said Of thee :
:
Behold, I will slay
Further
they
it
first-born
was
said
:
thy first-born son. said:
answered: Netzer. proof
My
What
They
from the Scripture
said: ?
He
is
thy
Whence
He
name? hast
thou a
answered them
:
A
-
DID JESUS LIVE 100
270 branch said to like
(netzer) shall spring
him
:
Thou
an abominable branch
more, as he gave himself Jesclm
is "
CabbageStalk.
up out
art cast forth
B.C. ?
of his roots. They from thy sepulchre,
And
(netzer).
many
thus
still
names. 1
Forthwith they seized him, and his disciples could n t deliver him. When he saw himself brought to death he began and spake: Verily hath David prophesied of me and said: For Thy sake are we smitten every day. And of you said Isaiah Your :
hands are before
full of blood.
God
:
And
They slew
of
you
said the prophet
Thy prophets
with
the
sword.
The apostates began to lament and could not deliver him. At the same hour was he put to death. And it was on Friday on the rest-day of Passover and When they would hang him on a tree Sabbath. it
of
the
(Holz),
was with him the Shem. 2
brake, for there
But when the simpletons saw that the trees brake under him, 3 they supposed that this was because of his great godliness, until they brought
For while he was yet
alive he
him
knew
a cabbage-stalk.
the custom of the
they would hang him, he
Israelites,
that
death, the
manner
of his
knew
being put to death,
they would hang him on a
tree.
At
that
his
and that time he
brought it to pass by means of the Shem, that no tree should bear him but over the cabbage-stalk he did ;
not utter the pronounced name, for 1
it is
not tree but
Compare with the above the Talmud passage quoted The Disciples and Followers of Jesus on "
chapter
in the in
the
Talmud."
2 3
This is in contradiction with c. 7. Another recension tells us that they tried every tree (there
being seventy kinds).
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. and so
green-stuff,
l
there
years
special
[in
271 in
are]
Jerusalem cabbages with more than a hundred pounds [of seed] unto this day.
When they had let him hang until the time noon prayer, 2 they took him down from the so it is written His body shall not remain :
of after tree, for all
night
upon the tree, etc. They buried him ... on Sunday, and the apostates of his people wept over his grave. 8.
Some
young men of Israel passed by them. The Body is them in the Aramaic tongue Why do the Grave,
of the to
They spake
:
the foolish ones sit by the grave
?
Let us look
foolish ones said in their heart, that
men] would
him in the
see
saying
:
He whom
The
they [the young
grave, but they found
Thereupon the foolish ones sent
!
to
they put to death
him
not.
Queen Helene, was a Messiah,
and very many wonders did he show while living, but now after his death they buried him, but he is not in the grave, for he it
is
written
:
already ascended to heaven, and
is
For
He
taketh me, Sela
!
Thus did he
prophesy concerning himself. said What have ye answered her We have put They him to death, for that was the judgment concerning
She sent to the wise
done with him
men and
?
:
:
him.
She said
them
ye have already put him to death, what have ye done then ? They answered her We have buried him. Forthwith they sought him in to
:
If
:
the grave and found 1
Text
defective.
him
not.
K. supplies the lacuna with the words in
brackets, but this is by no means a satisfactory conjecture, as shall see from the reading preserved by Kaymund Martini. 2 About three o clock.
we
272
DID JESUS LIVE 100
Thereupon she said to them where is he therefore
buried him
;
B.C.
In
:
?
this
grave
ye
?
Then were the wise men affrightened and wist not to answer her, for a certain one had taken him from the grave, borne him to his garden, and stopped what
the water which flowed into his garden; then digged he in the sand and buried him, and let the water flow
again over his grave. The
Procla11
Queen
f
^
The queen said If ye show me not Jeschu, I will vou no peace and no escape. They answered her Give us an appointed time and terms. :
ive
:
When
she had granted them an appointed time,
all
remained lamenting in fasting and prayer, and the apostates found occasion to say Ye have slain Israel
:
God
anointed!
s
And all Israel was in great men and all the land of Israel
anguish, and the wise hurried from place to
place because of the great fear. forth an elder from them, whose
Then went
was Kabbi Tanchuma garden in the
When :
fields.
this
and this
Wherefore lamentest thou
and
;
?
He answered
because of that rogue
already the queen granted, and ;
name
he went forth lamenting in a
the owner of the garden saw him, he said to
him
found
;
lo,
is it
we
who
is
:
For
not to be
the appointed time which are all in lamentation and
fasting.
As soon as he heard his words, that all Israel is as them who mourn, and that the rogues say He is gone :
up into heaven, the owner of the garden said shall joy
in Israel, for I
To-day have stolen
of the apostates, so that
they should
and gladness reign
him away because
:
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. not
him
take
and
have
the
273
opportunity
for
all
time. 1
Forthwith they went to Jerusalem, told them the The Body good tidings, and all the Israelites followed the owner of
is
the garden, bound cords to his [Jeschu s] feet, and dragged him round in the streets of Jerusalem, till they brought him to the queen and said There is he who is :
ascended to heaven
!
They departed from her
in joy,
and she mocked the
apostates and praised the wise men. 9. His disciples fled and scattered themselves in the The
Disciples
kingdom three of them [went] to Mount Ararat, three ma ke strife Israel of them to Armenia, three to Koine, the others to other ;
-
places,
and misled the peoples, but everywhere where
God sent his judgment upon them, and they were slain. But many among the apostates of our people went there was strife between them and astray after him they took refuge,
;
2
prayers and
much
money. Everywhere where the apostates caught sight
of the
the
Israelites,
.
.
confusion
.
of
3
loss of
Israelites they said to the
Israelites
God s anointed Ye are children
Israelites
false
!
But the
of death,
:
Ye have
slain
answered them
:
because ye have believed on a
prophet Nevertheless they went not forth from the community of Israel, and there was strife and contention among !
them, so that Israel had no peace. 1
B.
s
recension reads
"
:
And
thereafter
make
trouble for the
Israelites."
2
This word in the text
3
B. s recension reads
is "
:
which went into the hands
uncertain.
And
they
made Israel lose much money,
of non- Jews."
18
in
DIB JESUS LIVE 100
274
When
men
the wise
of Israel
saw
B.C. ?
this they said
[It
:
now] thirty years since that rogue was put to death, [and] till now we have no peace with these misguided is
ones, of
and
our
hath befallen us because
this
written
sins, for it is
wrath with their not-God l
;
:
of the
number
They have moved me
to
me
to
they have provoked
that is the Christians, anger with their vanities, etc. 2 who are not [? naught] with a base people will I pro voke them that is, the Ishmaelites. 3 ;
;
;
The wise Sabbath
.
.
.
How
long shall the apostates profane and feasts, and slay one another? Let
said
:
us rather seek for a
wise
man who may
take these
It is now erring ones out of the community of Israel. thirty years that we have admonished them, but they
have not returned to God, because they have taken it into their heads that Jeschu is the Messiah, and so may
How
Elijahu
they go to destruction and peace be with us. 10. The wise men agreed on a man whose
from
Israel.
Elijahu,
name was
and he was very learned in the Scripture, and him We have agreed, that we will
they said to
.
:
.
.
pray for thee, that thou shalt be counted as a good Israelite in the other world. Go, and do good for
and remove the apostates from
Israel,
go to destruction
us, that
they
may
!
4 Elijahu went to the Sanhedrin at Tiberias, to Antioch, and made proclamation throughout the whole land of
Israel
1
not 2
:
A.V
Whoso "
:
believeth on Jeschu, let
They have moved me
K. adds in a note Who worship a That is, the Mohammedans. "
4
This seems to be a gloss.
join himself
with that which
God."
:
->
to jealousy
him
not-God."
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS.
me
to
Then
!
them
said he to
who
(apostle) of Jeschu,
show you a marvel,
sent
am
I
:
me
to
275
the messenger
you, and I
will
as Jeschu did.
They brought unto him a leper, and he laid his hand upon him, so that he was healed. They brought unto him a lame man, he uttered the Shem, laid his hand on him, and he was healed and stood upon his feet. they fell down before him and said: Truly thou art the messenger of Jeschu, for thou hast shown us marvels as he did.
Forthwith
He
said to
and saith
At
Jeschu sendeth you his greeting with my Father in heaven at His right :
am He shall
I
:
hand, until
David
them
take vengeance on the Jews,
on
said: Sit thou
my
same hour they
the
all
as
right hand, etc. lamented and added foolish
ness to their foolishness.
them
Elijahu said to
me
ever will be with himself from the
:
Jeschu saith to you
in the other world, let of Israel
community
and
:
Whoso
him remove join himself
my Father in heaven hath already and from henceforth requireth not their them rejected not to them; for
service, for so said
and
feasts
my
But Jeschu let
He
through Isaiah
saith to you
:
light
to
it
He
And
His world.
Eesurrection, for
for
God hateth it, but it God gave
for
he
keep yet is
risen
Passover which the
for
on the Feast
it
from
Feast of Weeks, Ascension, for on ;
will follow me,
keepeth the Sunday, for on
Israelites solemnize,
heaven
Your new-moons
Whosoever
him profane the Sabbath,
instead of
:
soul hateth, etc.
New
Year, Finding
Great Fast Day [Day
of
his grave it
he
is
of the
for
;
the
ascended to
of the Cross
;
for the
Atonement], the Feast of the
The
Corn-
276
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
Chanuka
Feast
Circumcision: Calendse
for
[New
[the
of
Lights],
Year].
The foreskin is naught, circumcision is naught whosoever will circumcise himself, let him be circum cised; whosoever will not circumcise himself, let him
;
Moreover, whatsoever God created
be not circumcised. in the world,
from the smallest gnat
elephant, pour forth its blood
to the mightiest
upon the ground and eat
As the green grass have I given If of one them all. compel you to go a mile, go you with him twain if a Jew smite you on the left side turn to him the right also if a Jew revile you, endure it,
for so it is written
:
;
;
it
and return
it
not again, as Jeschu endured
it;
in
meekness he showed himself, therewith he showed you also meekness as he practised it, that ye might endure
At the last judgment all that any should do to you. Jeschu will punish them, but do ye have hope according Seek ye the Lord, to your meekness, for so it is written :
ye meek from Israel
all
of the earth, etc.
Until he separated them
But Elijahu who gave them these
laws, the not-good
ones, did it for the welfare of Israel,
and the Christians
call
him
Paul.
After he had introduced these laws
and commandments, the erring ones separated them selves from Israel, and the strife ceased. The Heresy
of
A
long time after the Persian power arose then a Christian departed from them, made a mock of them, 11.
;
just as the heretics
had laughed
at the wise
men
[of
Israel].
He when
said to
Paul was in error in his scripture you Circumcise yourselves not for
them
he said to
:
:
Jeschu was circumcised.
Further hath Jeschu said:
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. I
am
277
not come to destroy even one jot from the law of fulfil all his words. And that is your
Moses, but to
shame, which Paul laid upon you, when cumcise yourselves not.
But Nestorius for
them
said to
:
said
lie
:
Cir
Circumcise yourselves,
Jeschu was circumcised.
Further said Nestorius
Ye
:
heretics
!
Ye say Jeschu
God, though he was born of a woman. Only the Holy Spirit rested on him as on the prophets.
is
Nestorius
who began to argue with the women he said to them I
persuaded their
Christians, will enact
:
;
that no Christian take two wives.
But
Nestorius became detestable in their eyes, there arose a strife between them, in so much that no as
Christian would pray to the abomination of Nestorius, or the followers of Nestorius to the abomination of the Christians.
Then Nestorius went the
name
of
Babylon to another place, which was Chazaza, and all fled before him, to
because Nestorius was a violent man.
The women
said to
him
:
What
requirest thou of us
?
He answered them I require only that ye receive from me the bread-and-wine offering. Now it was the custom of the woman of Chazaza, :
that they carried large keys in their hands.
He
gave one of them the offering
;
she cast
it
to the
Whereupon the women cast the keys in their hands upon him smote him, so that he died, and there was for long strife between them.
ground.
;
12.
Now
Shimeon
the chief of the Sanhedrin, his
and
was
name was
he called Kepha ? Kepha why Because he stood on the stone on which Kzekiel had
Sbimeon
DID JESUS LIVE 100
278
B.C. ?
1 prophesied at the river Kebar, and on that stone it was that Shimeon heard a voice from heaven. 2 When the
Christians heard that Shimeon
who heard
Kepha was one
of those
heaven, and that stores
a voice from
of
wisdom were in him, they envied the Israelites, that so God brought it into great a man was found in Israel, mind to to Jerusalem on the Feast of ... Shimeon s go .
.
Tabernacles.
And
.
there were gathered together
all
the
3 bishops and the great ancient of the Christians. They came to Shimeon Kepha to the Mount of Olives on the
Feast of Willow-twigs. 4 When they saw his wisdom, that [there was] not one in Israel like unto him, ... to turn him to the religion of the Christians,
day
of the great
and they constrained him, saying
:
If
thou dost not
profess our religion, we will put thee to death, and not leave even one remaining in Israel to go into the
sanctuary.
When
the
Israelites
perceived
him: Humour them, act according shall neither sin nor guilt be
on
this,
they besought
to thy
wisdom; so
thee.
Thereupon when he perceived the hard fate for Israel, he betook himself to the Christians, and said to them
:
On
this
condition do
religion, that
I
become a convert
to
your ye put no Jew to death, that ye smite
1
This is transliterated in the A.V. as Chebar, presumably This Babylonian stream, near following the Septuagint Chobar. which Ezekiel had his prophetic visions, is now identified with one of the canals (Bab. ndrdti) of Babylonia, Hilprecht having twice found mention of a certain ndru called Kabaru. "
Chebar,"
in
2
Ency. Bib.") lit., daughter of a "
Bath-Jcol,
(See art.,
"
voice,"
that
is,
a
"
small
voice,"
an inner voice. 3
Presumably the pope.
4
The
sixth, or rather seventh,
day
of the Feast
of,. Tabernacles.
A JEWISH LIFE OF JESUS. him not and
suffer
him
to
go in and
279 out in
the
sanctuary.
The ancient and the Christians accepted and
He made
these his conditions.
all
his
words
a condition with
them, that they would build him a lofty tower; he would go into it, would eat no flesh, nor aught save
bread arid water, letting down a box by a cord, for them to supply him with only bread and water, and he
would remain
in the tower until his death.
All this he did with respect to God, that he might not be stained and sullied by them, and that he might not mix with them but to the Christians he spake in their sense as though he would mourn for Jeschu, and ;
eat no flesh or aught else, but bread and water only.
him
a tower, and he dwelt therein; he
sullied himself not
with eating, and prayed not to the
built
They Cross.
Afterwards he composed in the Jotzroth and Zulthoth Kalir. 2 Israel,
1
tower
Keroboth, The
in his name, like Eliezer ben
He sent and gathered together the elders of and handed over to their care all that he had
found in his mind, and charged them that they should teach it to the leaders in prayer 3 and use it for prayers, so that they
might make mention
of
him
for good.
4
to Babylon to Eabbi They, moreover, sent it 5 Nathan, the Prince of the Exile, and they showed it 1
2
900 3 4
Various kinds of synagogue poetry.
A
famous synagogue
poet,
whose
probable
date
is
about
A.D.
Vorbetern = precentors.
That
is,
the book of prayers.
be meant for K. Nathan ha-Babli, who came from Babylonia in the days of R. Shimeon ben Gamaliel II., and 6
Can
this
Scrip-
280
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
to the heads of the schools, to the Sanhedrin,
said
:
It is good,
prayer
and they taught and they used
it
of all Israel,
soever would mention
to the leaders in
prayers.
Who
Shimeon
in his
it for
name
the
of
and they
chanting did so. May his memory endure to the life of the other world. him But God in his mercy .
as a good defender.
Amen
!
Sela
.
.
!
in Palestine? The recension of the Sayings of the Fathers attributed to Kabbi Nathan, included in the Pirke Aboth tractate of the Talmud, is probably to be attributed to him. He settled
belonged to the fourth generation of Tanaim, that nourished about 160-220 A.D.
is
to eay,
he
TKACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS.
XV.
IN the chapter on The Earliest External Evidence as to the Talmud Jesus Stories," we ceased our enquiries "
with Tertullian at the end
now
will
We
second century. resume our researches with the special object of
seeing whether any
of
of the
the scattered notices of
Toldoth as from stories
-
Jew
versus Christian polemics which we have been able to collect, may be referred to the Toldoth as distinguished from the Talmud stories. Doubtless when the attention of scholars is
more generally turned
some further out-of-the-way scraps
of
the subject,
to
information
may
be added, but the following is as complete as we have been able to make it in the present state of affairs. We will first of all repeat the passage we have already
quoted from Tertullian, for
its last
sentence shows that
every probability the "gardener" and "cabbage" elements were in existence in his day, and these in
in
dubitably form part of the Toldoth from the Talmud tradition.
Writing about 197-198
A.D.,
as
distinguished
the Bishop of Garth-
De Spect.," age thus rhetorically addresses the Jews This is s son, xxx.) your carpenter your harlot s son your Sabbath-breaker, your Samaritan, your demon("
"
:
;
possessed
!
This
is
He whom
ye bought from Judas
;
Tertullian.
282
DID JESUS LIVE 100
He who was
struck with reed and
B.C. ?
dishonoured
fists,
spittle, and given a draught of gall and vinegar This He whom His disciples have stolen away secretly,
with
that
!
it
He
be said
may
has risen, or the gardener
abstracted that his lettuces might not be the crowds of
When
I
visitors."
mentioned
damaged by
l
this passage to a learned
Jewish
friend, he remarked that probably the Toldoth legend-
makers had woven
Church Father.
their story out of this sentence of the
is, however, most highly improbable that the detailed Toldoth story could be based upon
It
the scornful concluding sentence of Tertullian, for surely the Jews were not students nor even readers of the Fathers. Does he
It
refer
age
seems far more probable that the Bishop of Carthreferring to some well-known Jewish story
is
his
familiar to all
by the gardener
;
readers.
but
why ?
The body was removed Of course, says Tertullian, was being trampled
to save his cabbages, for his garden
out
of
all
Now
one
see
existence
by the
crowds who came to
!
of
the earliest Toldoth recensions
known
to
us from outside sources (Hrabanus Maurus) speaks of 2 the body being originally buried in a garden, and
1
The most
recent translator
Cruttwell (C. T.),
"
A
Literary History of Early Christianity (London 1893), ii. 582 renders the last sentence freely as: "Or if you prefer it, whom the gardener put away lest his herbs should be crushed by the "
;
No explanation, however, is given, as, indeed, is feet." invariably the case with all translators and commentators. 2 It is to be noticed that the only evangelist who speaks of the of a gardener, is the sepulchre being in a garden, and consequently
press of
41 mystic writer of the fourth Gospel (John xix.
;
xx. 15).
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS. that, too, a
garden
over to a certain
We, that
full of cabbages,
Jew
283
and being handed
to guard.
therefore, conclude with very great confidence
this
deposit of
story, whatever
it
the Toldoth
goes back
to
the
was, which so roused the wrath
of
Tertullian.
Moreover, in his polemic against the Jews, the Bishop of
Carthage declares
Adv.
("
Judaeos," c. ix.,
Jesus is Stoned.
last para.)
that not even do they deny that Jesus performed wonders
ye used to say that it was not on account of the works that ye stoned him, but because he did them on the Sabbath."
of healing, "inasmuch as
some tradition
Is Tertullian here referring to
Jews
of
John
v.
of the
which he had heard, or only looking back to And if the latter, had 17, 18, and x. 31, 33 ?
the writer of the fourth Gospel in mind some tradition of stoning, which he thus worked into his mystic narra tive
The Talmud Lud
?
stories
know
of a tradition of
stoning, and they were presumably in existence in Tertullian s time. But did the writer of the fourth
know
Gospel also to
push
or so
?
know
this
of
such a tradition
element back to the end
;
and are we thus
of the first
century Like the Talmud, the Toldoth recensions also
of a stoning, or a stoning
and hanging, or
of a
hanging alone, but never of a crucifixion. In the Clementine Eecognitions (i. 42), of which the The Clemen
form lying before us is generally ascribed to the third century, but which contain far older material, we read
:
them, watching the place with care, when could not they prevent His rising again, said that He
"
For some
of
was a magician, others pretended that His body was stolen
away."
-
284 If
Pagan Writers
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
the works of any Pagan writers could have helped
us in this matter,
it
others the books
was
to be expected
that
of
all
Porphyry, Hierocles and Julian against the Christians would have furnished us with of
some valuable information, but unfortunately only a few fragments of these polemical treatises have been pre served, and these in spite of the closest scrutiny, can ,
show us only that
these philosophers regarded the Jesus as being due to his magical wonder-doings powers, or rather to the fact of his being a Magus, all
of
like
many
others in
antiquity.
Such miracles did
not prove the contention of the Christians that Jesus was God, for similar wonders, equally well authenticated, and in a more recent case better authenticated according to Hierocles, had been
by Porphyry.
done
others.
Porphyry (233-? 305 A.D.) wrote fifteen books "Against the Christians," and no less than thirty champions of the Faith,
we
are told, attempted to refute
theless only a few fragments of
him
;
never
what must have been
a very drastic criticism have been preserved to us
;*
for
not only the original, but also every one of the thirty
have disappeared, and this is strange, for it be supposed that at least some of these thirty must have been thought by the Fathers to have dis refutations, to
is
posed of the Syrian
Hebrew, and
it
s
contentions.
Porphyry knew
might therefore be expected that he was
acquainted with any tradition of the Jews hostile to Christian claims. It is true that a modern writer asserts 1
that the disciple of Plotinus gives
See Georgiades (A.),
Hop<}>vpiov
(Leipzig
;
trtp}
1891).
the
name
rwv Kara Xpianav&v airofnraa^drwv TOV
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS. Pandera as
"
Panzerius,"
285
have not been able
but, so far, I
1 to verify this unreferenced statement.
Hieroeles, successively governor of Palmyra, Bithynia
Hierocles.
and Alexandria, and also a philosopher, in 305 A.D., wrote a criticism on the claims of the Christians in two "
books, called
more
A Truthful Address to the
briefly
He
Truth-lover."
"The
Christians,"
or
seems to have
based himself for the most part on the previous works of Celsus and Porphyry, but introduced a new subject
controversy by opposing the wonderful works of Apollonius of Tyana to the claims of the Christians
of
to exclusive right in miracles as proof of the divinity of
their
To
Master.
this
Eusebius
pertinent criticism
immediately replied in a treatise
still
extant.
2
Julian the Emperor (360-363 A.D.), somewhere about 362-363, wrote seven books "Against the Christians" ;
a
number
Church writers
of
most famous
replied, the
being Cyril of Alexandria, who wrote (somewhere between
429 and 441
A.D.)
an enormous work
of eighteen books,
apparently, however, dealing with only three books of Julian s indictment. Unfortunately only fragments of 3 Cyril s treatise have been preserved to us.
1
Massey
(G.),
"The
Natural
The most convenient
Genesis"
(London
;
1883),
ii.
489.
Eusebii Pamphili Gaisford, contra Hieroclem (London ; 1852), see Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher Reformer of the First Century A.D." (London -
text is
"
by
my
"
"
;
1901), pp. 32
ff.
Neumann (0. J.),
Imp. Librorum contra Christianos This is the third fasciculus of a Scriptorum Grt^corum qui Christianam improposed series, pugnaverunt Rcligionem," but the first and second parts, presum ably containing the fragments of Celsus, Porphyry and Hierocles, have not yet seen the light. For the information of book -lovers I may mention that I have in my possession a rare work of Thomas :}
See
"
Juliani
"
quae supersunt
(Leipzig "
;
1880).
Julian the
286
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? no part
It is
The"Chrest"
of
our present task to enquire into the but there is one passage which
of Julian,
arguments
contains a strange phrase bearing on the question of the
confusion of Chrestos and Christos to which
already writes "
an
referred in
:
At any
What
does Julian
John
christ
The Acts of
"
But
who
.
.
.
God, but only the good John ventured to assert this."
mean by John
distinguishing ?
Did the
?
Does he
"
John from
refer to
John
original even read
"
the
"
?
to return to our
said
is
is
the chrest
an illuminate
as
Pionius.
Iwarn;?)
xp>?0"ro9
the rest as
Matthew nor Mark
rate neither Paul nor
dared to say that Jesus (6
we have
Julian thus
earlier chapter.
"
"
traces
;
the Acts of Pionius,
have been martyred in 250 A.D., and whose Acta was certainly read by
to
the original of
Eusebius at the beginning of the fourth century, state that the
Jews
and that
it
after the
crucifixion."
all
"
Taylor,
1
say that Christ practised necromancy,
was by
But that he what
"
its
power that he was brought
rose again, in the physical sense,
the Jews have ever denied, and
The Arguments
of the
to life
is
just
we can only
Emperor Julian
against the
1809), which a slip from a catalogue gummed inside the cover states to have been privately printed by Mr
(London
Christians,"
;
"
who
destroyed, for fear of prosecution, the entire impression with the exception of 5 or 6 copies. For one of these it adds, he in vain offered 100." What truth there may copies,"
Meredith,
"
be in this statement I do not know, for
I also possess a
copy of a
Porphyry and the Emperor Julian against the Christians" (London; 1830), also plainly the work of Thomas Taylor, but without his name on the title-page, and this was not withdrawn from circulation.
book called
1
"Arguments
of Celsus,
See Bollandist Collection, under Feb.
1 (c.
iii.).
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS.
287
suppose that the redactor of the Acts has here mis understood the general charge of the Jews and Pagans that Jesus learned magic in Egypt.
Thus the converted philosopher Arnobius, who wrote his treatise somewhere about Against the Nations 303-313 A.D., tells us (i. 43), that the commonest
Arnobius.
"
"
argument against the claims of the Christians con He was a Magus he did all these cerning Jesus was things (sc. miracida) by secret arts; from the shrines "
:
;
he
the Egyptians
of
the names
stole
of
l might and hidden disciplines." This, as we have already seen, was one
elements of the Talmud stories
;
of the
magic was brought out
of
of
main
the Toldoth, however,
they retain the strange fashion in
though
angels
which the
Egypt, have converted the
shrines of Egypt into the sanctuary of the
Temple
at
Jerusalem.
We
next come
308-373
(c.
to a curious passage in
A.D.),
which
us that
tells
Ephrem Syrus
"
the anti-christ
serpent shall be born of a Danite mother
who
father,
like
glide mate."
The
and a Latin
and with unlawful love shall
stealthily
a slippery snake
to
the
embraces
of his
3 "
Latin
refer to the
1
2
"
says Krauss
father,"
Koman
Hildebrand (G.
"
F.),
"
soldier
(p. 216),
seems
Panthera spoken
Arnobii Adv. Nationes
of
to
by
"
(Halle
;
1844),
p. 67. 2 Gf. Gen. adder in the
3
"
xlix. 17.
"
Dan
shall be a serpent
by the way, an
path."
Ephrem Syrus in Genesim," ,vol. i. p. 192 D. of (Rome 1737). See also Bousset
edition of Benedict
the Vatican
(W.), "Der Antichrist in der Uberlieferting des Judenthums, des neuen Testa ments und der alten Kirche (Gottingen 1895), pp. 79 and 92. ;
"
;
Ephrem Syrus>
288
BIB JESUS LIVE 100 and the
Celsus,
B.C.
?
seems
rest of the sentence
to represent
the stealthy proceedings of Pandera in the Toldoth. 1
In his Letter to Heliodorus, which was written in A.D., Jerome seems to have had in memory the
Jerome.
374
passage of Tertullian for
already quoted,
workman and
("
De
of a harlot
;
which we have
Spect.")
he writes
He
"
:
He
that son of a
is
who
it is
.
.
fled into
.
Egypt; He the clothed with a scarlet robe; He the crowned with thorns; He a Magus demon-possessed,
and a Samaritan
"
2
!
Further, in his Letter writes
"
:
at Koine
I
.
.
alogies of
Titus
to
Jerome
9),
(iii.
heard formerly concerning the Hebrews .
.
.
.
that they bring into question the gene
Christ."
Krauss
thinks that this refers
(p. 4.)
which the
to a distinct altercation, or a set synod, in
"
question of the Genealogies, that
is,
the
"
Generationes
(Toldoth) of Jesus, were brought into question the question of a synod I cannot follow him. 3
About the same date (375
Epiphanius
A.D.)
stating in the genealogy of Jesus
we
find
("Hser.,"
but in
;
Epiphanius
Ixxvii. 7), that
Joseph was the son of a certain Jacob whose surname was Panther, an extraordinary declaration which we will treat at greater length later on when we come to speak a
of
more striking statement
still
Bishop of
of the
Constantia.
But, as I have already stated in Mary Stories," I cannot discover the 1
tlie "
chapter on
Roman
Panthera, but neither in there anything to denote his nationality.
there 2
is
a
"
soldier
"
Migne,
"
Patrol.
Hieronymi Opera
Cursus Complet.
Omnia"
(Paris
;
Lat.,"
Moreover,
I
i.
cannot verify his quotation.
i.
"
in Celsus
32 or in
torn xxi.,
1845), torn.
xiv. 11. 3
The Talmud
"
soldier
col.
"
S.
354
;
i.
69
;
is
Eusebii Epistola
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS. That
289
commentator John Chrysostom,
prolific
in the John
fragments which have survived of his Homilies on the Psalms, written somewhere towards the close of the fourth century, remarks (Ps. if you ask them (the Jews), Christ
viii.
no. 3.
"
c.
v.)
:
And
Why
did ye crucify the they reply, Because he was a deceiver and a
?
sorcerer."
But the Jews would never have admitted the ques tion in this form, for the very simple reason that they
consistently denied that Jesus
was the
Whether
Christ.
they would have admitted even that they had "
fied
is
him,
reference
"
1 Theodoret, H.
the
S., iii.
11
"
as a confirma
the passage of Tertullian
to
quoted above, but
From
cruci
to be doubted.
Oehler gives tory
"
I
cannot verify
"
Disputatio
we have
this.
cum Herbano
Judseo,"
attri-
Gregontius.
buted to Gregontius, Bishop of Taphar in Arabia, who flourished in the second half of the fifth century, we also learn that the
Jews declared that Jesus had been
2 put to death because he was a magician.
John century,
De
("
Damascus, in the
of
in
Fid.
giving
Orthod.,"
first half
of the
eighth John the genealogy of Mary, tells us iv. 14) that Joachim was the father
Mary, Bar Panther the father of Joachim, and Levi the father of Bar Panther, and, therefore, presum As also in the case of Epiably Panther himself. of
phanius,
John does not breathe a word
of
Panther
(Pandera) being the invention of an enemy, but simply records the name as a genuine piece of accepted history. 1
2
385-453 "
A.D.
Bibliotheque des P6res de Margarin de la
quoted by Bullet,
Bigue,"
op. sub. dt. t p. 95.
19
t.
i.,
as
of
290
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
It is also very plain that the famous Damascene does not copy from Epiphanius, but draws from some other totally different tradition.
So
far it
Syrus,
must be confessed that
we have
not, since the
met with any
indications
end
if
which
clearly to distinguish Toldoth stuff dition,
we except Ephrem
of the second century,
but with the ninth century
would
enable
us
from Talmud tra
we come
to
undeni
able proofs of the existence of highly-developed forms of
Toldoth as contrasted with Talmud data. Agobard.
De Judaicis Superstitionibus," Agobard, writing somewhere about 820-830 Lyons, Bishop the makes A.D., following highly interesting statement For in the teachings of their elders they (the Jews) In
"
his
of
:
"
read: That Jesus was a youth held in esteem
them,
who had
for his teacher
he had very many the
name Cephas,
hardness
and
among
John the Baptist
;
that
one of whom he gave Petra (Rock), because of the
disciples, to
that
is
dulness
understanding; that when the people were waiting for him on the feast-day, some of the youths of his company ran to meet him, of
his
crying unto him out of honour and respect, Hosanna, that at last having been accused on son of David ;
many
lying charges, he
was
decree of Tiberius, because
whom
cast into prison
by the
he had made his (T.
he had promised the birth
s)
a daughter (to male child without [contact with] a man) conceive of a stone; that for this cause also he was hanged on a
stake
as
an abominable sorcerer
;
smitten on the head with a rock and in
of
whereon being this
way
slain,
by a canal, and handed over to a certain Jew to guard by night, however, he was he
was
buried
;
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS.
291
away by a sudden overflowing of the canal, and though he was sought for twelve moons by the order of Pilate, he could never be found that then
carried
;
made
Pilate
them
:
It
is
the following
legal
manifest, said he, that
proclamation
he has
unto
risen, as he
who for envy was put to death by you, and neither in the grave nor in any other place is he
promised, he
this
found; for
worship him
cause,
and he who
;
therefore,
I
decree
will not do so, let
that
ye
him know
that his lot will be in hell (in inferno). "
Now
these things their elders have so garbled,
all
and they themselves read them over and over again with such foolish stubbornness, that by such fictions the whole truth of the virtue and passion of Christ is
made
Him law
though worship should not be shown as truly God, but is paid Him only because of the as
void,
of
l
Pilate."
The above
is
manifestly a very rough report of some Written
it is impossible to say whether the Bishop of Lyons, who knew no Hebrew or Aramaic, has reported quite correctly what he had heard of the
Toldoth recension
who
Jews,
in
numbers, and
of
his
;
day had flocked to Lyons in great he was a strenuous and bitter
whom
opponent, writing no less than four treatises against them. As we shall see later on, however, he could not
have been very far out as to some of the main features of his report. The most important point is that twice tells us that the Jews such Agobard "read"
stories
;
Toldoth Jeschu had, therefore, been committed
to writing at least prior to the early years of the ninth 1
I
from the very poor Latin from Patr. Lat.," civ. p. 87.
translate
Krauss
"
(p. 5)
of the text printed
by
292
DID JESUS LIVE 100 So much
century.
is
certain
this they existed in written
means Hiabanus
B.C. ?
how much earlier than form we have so far no
;
of deciding.
Almost about the same
date,
moreover, we
find
Hrabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, acquainted with a totally different form of Toldoth. Judaeos,"
written about 847
A.D.
In his book, Contra (K. 7), he tells us: "
They (the Jews) blaspheme because we believe on him whom the Law of God saith was hanged on a tree "
and [they declare] that on and cursed by God, the protest and by direction of his teacher Joshua .
.
.
ben Perachiah), he was taken down from the and cast into a grave in a garden full of cabbages,
J.
(i.e.,
tree,
made impure own tongue Ussum Hamizri,
that their land should not be
so
him
in
their
means
in
Latin,
call
they
which
Egyptian Destroyer). he had been taken down .
taken out
of the
.
.
.
.
;
^Egyptius (the they say that after from the tree, he was again Dissipator
.
And
grave by their forebears, and was
dragged by a rope through the whole city, and thus cast ., confessing that he was a godless one, and .
.
the son of a godless [fellow], that other
whom
is of
some Gentile or
by whom
call
Pandera, they say they the mother of the Lord was seduced, and thence he
whom we As
believe on,
to the original
l born."
from which
this passage is taken,
p. 97) tells us that it was first the learned Father Pierre Franqois by 2 It was attributed Chifflet, of the Company of Jesus.
Bullet (op.
sub.
cit.,
printed at Dijon
1
Krauss
word 2
(p. 13) gives
to his
There
is
"
Tela Ignea
no copy
the text as taken from Wagenseil Satanse,"
of this
work
p. 52.
in the British
Museum.
s
Fore
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS. by him
293
Kaban Maur, Archbishop of Mainz, who was subsequently identified by a number of scholars with to
Amolon, who succeeded Agobard in the see
we must suppose
840,
that
of
Lyons.
Agobard died
If this identification is correct, as
Hrabanus wrote
in
his treatise
But the type of Toldoth quoted differs so from that of Agobard, that it is taken by entirely Krauss (p. 13) to represent a German form as dis at Lyons.
tinguished from Agobard s recension, which he calls In any case the name of the Archbishop romanische."
"
argues that he probably had some acquaintance with Hebrew, and therefore that perhaps he is drawing from a written source is
at best
it is,
;
however, very evident that he
summarizing very roughly.
The otherwise unknown Ussum ha-Mizri
is
a puzzle
;
(?
neither Krauss
or Ussus (p.
= Jeschu)
Ussum
13) nor Bischoff
can make anything out of it as it stands. I would, however, suggest that whatever the original of
(ibid., n.)
Ussum may have been, if it meant may have to do with some play on
Dissipator,"
the meaning of and that the name means (the Destroyer),
Balaam "
simply
the Egyptian destroyer of the
however, of interest to notice that text (pp. 20, 24, 26) the "the
we
"
because
Egyptian,"
name "he
of
the
is,
Huldreich
in
Pandera
did
It
people."
is
s
given as
work
of
the
Egyptians."
As
to the
eleventh "Jesus"),
Mary
story which Suidas, in the tenth or
reproduces
century,
and
to
to our enquiry, I
which Krauss
his
Lexicon
Toldoth nature.
(ibid.,
n.)
(s.v.
(p. 4) refers as apposite
have carefully gone through
agree with Bischoff of a
in
that
it
it,
and
contains nothing
Suidas.
ha-
294
DID JESUS LIVE 100
We
Peter
next come to the
B.C.
?
"
Dialogues of Petrus Alphonlived in the early years of the "
sus (or Alphonsi), who twelfth century. Peter before his conversion had been called
Moses
Christians,
in the Dialogues
;
between the Jews and
therefore, the dramatis persona: appear as
Moses and Peter.
Moses declares that the Jews contend that Jesus was a magician and the son of a harlot, and that he led the whole nation into error."
"
He
"
was a
he repeats, and by magic art Israel into error and over and above "
magician,"
led the sons of
;
he proclaimed himself the Son of God." To Peter s objection, How could Jesus have learned
this
to
magic enough
lepers, lame, deaf,
have turned water into wine, healed dumb, and blind, and beyond all this
have brought the dead to
to
men
learned
"Our
declare
life
that
?
Moses
he
learned
replies
:
in
it
*
Egypt."
With regard to this "The
first
apostate
Peter,
that
2
Kohler and Gottheil
is
known
write:
have written
to
against the Jewish creed was Moses Sephardi, known by the name of Petrus Alfonsi (physician to Alfonso VI.), 1 The portion of the Dialogues bearing on our enquiry will be found in the Abbe M. Bullet s Histoire de 1 Etablissement du Christianisme tiree des seuls Auteurs juifs et payens (Paris Bullet gives his reference as Bibliotheque des 1764), pp. 99 ff. P6res de Lyon," vol. xxi. There is also a German translation of "
"
"
"
;
"
;
Bullet s work,
:
Gesch. der Griindung des Christenthums, by P. J. Bullet, in the French edition, gives a 1830). paraphrase of Wagenseil s Toldoth text (pp. 75-84), a brief resume of Huldreich s (pp. 85 86), the Latin text (pp. 89-92) and a trans "
Weckers (Mainz
lation of
the
Eaymund
and translation In their article
text 2
;
"
Martini (des Martins) (pp. 86-89), and the
of "
Agobard
(pp. 96, 97).
Apostasy and Apostates from Judaism
Jewish Encyclopaedia
"
(New York
;
1902).
"
in
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS.
295
baptised in 1106, and author of the well-known collec He wrote a tion of fables, Disciplina Clericalis.
work
against
entitled,
Dialogi
Mohammedan
and
Jewish
doctrines,
Impise Judaeorum et This book, Confutantur.
in
Quibus
Saracenorum
Opiniones however, seems to have had little influence." The importance of our quotations is that ~
.
.
.,
Peter Raymund .
,-,
Alphonsi was a Jew of Spam it is true that we gain very little from Peter, but a fellow-countryman of his, ;
any rate, one who was familiar with Spanish Jewry, Raymund Martini, has more to tell us. Raymund was
or, at
born at Sobriat in 1236, and died in 1286.
He
sat
on
the Inquisitorial Commission at Barcelona, and was very Raymund was a energetic against the Jews in Spain.
Dominican, and is regarded as the first Christian of his time to study Oriental languages. His great work against the Jews was called of Faith/
1
In
Poignard Pugio Fidei," or the under the heading Fabula de Christi "
"
"
it,
Miraculis Judaica, id est
2
we
Maligna,"
quotation, of which, however, there is translation, for with a
few variants
of
find a lengthy
no need to give a no particular im
portance it is verbally identical with chapters 3-5 of the Strassbourg MS. Toldoth, a translation of which
we have
already given.
It is thus
proved beyond a doubt that this portion
the contents of the Strass. least to the 1
This was
edition
by
J.
MS. goes back,
More-
middle of the thirteenth century.
first
edited
by
J. P.
de Voisin (Paris
editions are in the British
;
Mansacci (Paris 1651)
Museum
;
;
of
verbally, at
1642)
;
second
copies of neither of these the last edition is by J. B. ;
Carpzov (Leipzig ; 1687). 2 Carpzov s edition, pars ii. cap. viii. sponding to foil. 290, 291 of orig. edition.
vi.,
pp. 362-364, corre
Martini.
296
DID JESUS LIVE 100
over,
appears probable that the written Toldoth from E. Martini translated may have contained
it
which
1
chapters
and 2
mouth
of
the Strass. MS., otherwise there
of
would be no point the
B.C. ?
for the reader in the
Jesus,
"Behold,
phrase put into the wise say I am a
"
bastard
!
That the
original otherwise contained
translator gives us
Oxford MSS. version,
is
more than the
highly improbable, for one of the
agrees
substantially
with
Eaymund s
and therefore probably derives from the same
original.
The Cabbage-
After
hands
the phrase of the queen,
"
!
Raymundus
at once
the cabbage-stalk incident (of
ing
jumps c.
7 of
Ho
"
is
in
your
hanging on MS.), concern
to the S.
which, his authority tells him, that this
is
by no
means wonderful, for every year there grows in the House of the Sanctuary one cabbage so large that a "
hundred pounds of seed come from different from Krauss emendation of
This
it."
the
is
defective
passage in the Strass. MS. In Martini the miraculous cabbage-stalk has its genesis in the mysteries of the Sanctuary, and is not merely the outcome of the fertile soil
of
Martini here brings the
Jerusalem.
an abrupt end. This Toldoth extract
to Luther.
of
Martini
was
"fabula"
copied
by
Porchettus (Salvagus, or de Salvaticis), a Carthusian monk of Genoa, who flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and a good Oriental scholar, in his work against the Jews, entitled Victoria," which was "
printed in 1520 1
"
1 ;
from this Luther made a translation
Victoria Porcheti adversus impios
Justiniani (Paris
;
1520).
Hebrseos,"
ed.
by R.
P.
A.
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS.
German
into
under
the
"
heading,
Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Finally we come to the very "
The
Touchstone
Christi."
297
Vom
Schem
1
interesting passage in Schemtob ibn S ha P rufc
Schemtob ibn Sehaprut, who
"
of
flourished at the end of the fourteenth century.
-
This
work has never been printed as a whole, but Krauss 2 points the Hebrew text of our passage (pp. 146, 147), and appends a German translation
(pp. 148, 149).
This
passage runs as follows Behold, ye find with them (the Jews) many writ ings which give account of them (the wonders and :
"
signs of Jesus)
;
for instance the
composed as a History that
it
of
document which was
Jeschu ha-Notzri, and [states]
took place in the time of Queen Helene
;
further,
document which was composed as a History Jeschu ben Pander a in Aramaic, which purports that was in the time of Tiberius Caesar. in the
"
In the
open
the
first
flesh
document of
the copy of the
placed
it is
it
written that Jeschu cut History
hip, without
his
of
it
hurting him,
Shem ha-Meporesch
therein,
drew the skin together over it, so that it healed after wards he took the copy out again from under the skin ;
and did signs and wonders. He spake to the young men of Israel Would ye have a sign from me ? Bring me a lame man I will heal him. Forthwith they :
;
brought unto him the lame man, who had never yet stood upon his feet he uttered the letters over him, ;
passed 1
2
his
(Jena
From
;
hand over him, and he was made whole.
1583
ed.), vol.
iii. ff.
109, 110. MS. in the
Jewish Theological another copy in the Orient. Dept. of the British Museum, Add. 26964.
Seminary
pp. 180, 181 at Breslau
;
of
the
there
is also,
I find,
of
298
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Further he said
:
I
am Son
of
God
;
I raise the
dead.
Immediately Queen Helene sent trusty messengers to him she sent and they saw that he raised the dead. ;
They came, told it unto her, and she was affrightened. She said to the wise men That is a great sign. And she gave the Jews who strove with him a reproof, and :
they departed from her ashamed and disgraced. "Further [it is written] that the people of Galilee
made
birds of clay; he uttered the
Shem
over them,
and they flew into the air. At the same hour they fell down on their faces and cast themselves down before him.
he said to them: Bring me a great mill They brought it unto him, and he launched it
"Further
stone.
on the sea
;
sat himself thereon,
and made
it
float
on
the water like an eggshell. He sat thereon, a wind bore him along on the surface of the water, and all the people were greatly amazed. Further he said before the queen "
:
I
ascend hence
He
spread forth his hands my and raised himself in the air twixt heaven and earth.
Father in heaven
to
!
queen was affrightened, and the whole people wondered greatly. Further [it is written] that at the end he was to be
The "
he therefore laid a spell upon all the trees of they might not bear his hanged When, then, he was hanged on the tree, it
crucified
;
the world, so that body.
broke under him, and in like fashion
under him and received him History of
"
And
came
in the second
document
Pilate, the governor,
all
trees broke
not. it
is
written
:
There
Eabbi Joshua ben Perachiah,
Marinus, the great ancient of the Jews, R. Juda Ganiba,
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS.
299
R.
Jochanan ben Mut ana, and Jeschu ben Pandera
to
Tiberias
them I
am Son
of
Tiberius
before
What
:
is
God
I
;
He
Csesar.
your business
He
?
wound and
said to
(T.)
( J.) said to
I heal,
and
them
:
any man woman who if
whisper over him, and he lives and a has not borne a child, I make her conceive without a die, I
;
He
husband. you.
I
make
it
that she conceive.
;
:
On
who has not
have a daughter
They
He
her brought before us.
steward
them
(T.) said to
he brought her.
yet seen a
said to
man
;
him: Have
gave commandment to his
They
[?]
and she became pregnant. "And when the condemnation claimed, and the time came
that will I test
whispered over her of
Jeschu was pro and he saw
to crucify him,
the cross about the fourth hour of the day, he spake of magic, flew away and sat himself upon Mount
words
Carmel.
R.
Perachiah
He
:
Juda the gardener said to R. Joshua ben go after him and bring him back.
I will
answered
:
Go, utter and pronounce the
his Lord, that is the
Schem ha-Mephoresch.
and flew
When
after him.
name
of
He went
he would seize him, Jeschu
spake words of magic, went into the cave of Elias, and shut the door. Juda the gardener came and said to the cave: Open, for I
am God s
Thereupon Jeschu made seized
him by the hem
R. Joshua and the
messenger. It openedhimself into a bird R. Juda ;
of his
companions."
It is very evident that the
quoted by Schemtob
Raymuridus Martini. wording that
is
garment and came before
is
Hebrew form
of
Toldoth Value
identical with that quoted
It is a shortened form,
by
but the
frequently identical. The only variant is to the mill-stone miracle that a
Schemtob adds
l^e
of
300
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
wind arose and bore him over the water "
crucified
where Martini has
"
"
he also has
;
It is also re
hanged."
markable that Schemtob practically begins and ends in his narrative where Martini does. Did he, then, copy from Martini
This
?
is
hardly to be believed.
If not,
the Hebrew original which lay before those two scholars must have been a shortened form of
then the copies
Toldoth.
of
What
connection this form of Toldoth
may
have had with that known to Hrabanus Maurus we cannot
tell, for the incidents do not in any way overlap, and there are no names to help us out. With regard to the Aramaic form of Toldoth quoted
by Schemtob,
it is
sion used by the
probable that
Jews
at Lyons,
it
be the recen
may
some
contents of
of the
which had come to Agobard by hearsay.
we cannot be
But
of this
Agobard reports a form of Toldoth which speaks of stoning and hanging on a certain, for
Schemtob speaks of crucifixion as, how we have found him altering "hanging" into crucifixion where we can check him by Martini, so here we must suppose that crucifixion is a gloss, and stake, while
;
ever,
"
"
"
"
the original spoke only of Aramaic
This Aramaic form
"
hanging."
compared with the few tattered fragments of an Aramaic Toldoth, re covered from the Geniza (or lumber room for worn1 out or imperfect MSS.) of the Old Synagogue at Cairo,
may
also be
"
"
which have the distinction 1
of being the oldest
Maimonides describes the Geniza
Law which
as follows
"
:
A
Toldoth
Codex
of the
rendered ritually illegal is to be put into an earthen vessel and buried by the side of sages, and this is
decayed or
constitutes its Geniza
"
("
burg s
"
Hebrew
is
Hilchoth Sepher
Torah,"
x. 3).
See Gins-
Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Bible,"
p. 156, n.
TRACES OF EARLY TOLDOTH FORMS. MS. known out
little
301
From them, however, we can make
to us.
that will help us, except that they introduce
Joshua ben Perachiah, and also the miracle of making a certain virgin pregnant without contact with a man.
As is
this
takes place before a certain
not named,
it
must be supposed that
"emperor"
it
who
refers to the
It is further to be noticed that the
Tiberius legend.
have been dragged round in the Tiberias; upon which we might speculate that this form of Toldoth arose in the famous Kabbinic
body
of Jesus is said to
streets
of
circles of Tiberias
and that the name
of the school
sug emperor, just as the Lud stories brought Akiba into personal relationship with Mary. And here we may bring our enquiry into the nature
gested the
name
of the earlier
of the
Toldoth forms to a conclusion
that some day in
;
it
may
be
the near future
the industry of be able to throw some further light on
scholarship may the subject, but at present cisely
how
it is
impossible to say pre
these different forms developed.
XVL THE
YEAES
100
B.C.
DATE IN THE
TOLDOTH. Value of the d
THE question which now
our Equiry.
growth
of legend in
enquiry
?
arises is
:
Can
this
tangled
any way help us in our present The answer to this question is If the :
Talmud Jesus stories
are amazing in their contradictions
on such a fundamental point as the time when Jesus lived, the Toldoth legends are even more astonishingly self-contradictory
;
yet, strange to say, the nature
the increased contradictions of the latter
is
of
such as
make us hesitate before we instantly reject the Ben Perachiah element as utterly unworthy of even
to
momentary Impossibility
accurately the
E VO
^D
t
f
4.? the !? roldoth. v
A
consideration.
glance at the
meagre external evidence as
to
the
existence of early Toldoth stuff as distinguished from Talmud Jesus matter shows us how impossible it is to
any distinct moments in the evolution of this for from the time rank growth of Jewish folk-lore trace
;
of Tertullian till the
when we
for the first
of the ninth century,
beginning time meet with traces of two
absolutely contradictory Toldoth recensions, one placing Jesus in the days of Joshua ben Perachiah, and the
other associating
him with Tiberius and
have hardly anything to guide
us, for
Pilate,
we
not even the fact
THE 100 that the
B.C.
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
Ben Pandera legend had spread
so
303
far
and
wide that we find two Church Fathers compelled to insert the name in the genealogies of Jesus and Mary can help us in this connection. It is evident, therefore, that
the main
moments
stands in the
it
any attempt
to trace
in the evolution of the Toldoth as
and recensions
varieties
many
of its
a if, indeed, these all spring from almost written is a matter form, entirely single original of internal evidence, if not of pure subjectivity. More first
written form,
over,
we have not
with a Toldoth Jeschu only
to deal
but we have also before us a kind or
Acts
or
Apostle-history
of
first
any attempt
therefore,
Maase Apostolim,
Apostles,
heresy-history (Nestorius), which
formed part of the
of
may
or
and
may
also
written form of Toldoth to
make
a
not have ;
arid,
the date of this
first
written Toldoth depend on data drawn from what have all is
the appearance of being supplements or appendices
open to grave objections. But, whatever the first written form
Jeschu older
have been,
may oral
oral sources
sources. ?
certainty, for
form is
of the
it
of
Toldoth
must have depended upon
What was
the nature of those
Here again we cannot answer with any we do not know what the first written
Toldoth contained.
All
we
definitely
know
that at the end of the second century Tertullian
is
acquainted with an element which we find in the Tol doth and nowhere else. When, then, Krauss (p. 3) says that the whole content of the Toldoth was known "
"
to Tertullian, by this he can only mean that the points mentioned by the Bishop of Carthage are found in the Toldoth generally, and also, it may be remarked,
Genesis of the
304
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
more
in
or less the
same
order.
But even
so, it
must
be confessed that the indications are for the most
and we can draw no
part exceedingly vague,
satis
factory conclusions from them. It
must be remembered that we are trying
to
get
at the earliest Jewish sources of Toldoth stuff, for it
quite evident that the later, perhaps even,
the
earlier,
written
forms
of
Toldoth
it
may
drew
is
be,
from
Christian sources as well. The Oldest
Were they then, were these Jewish sources ? the It is Jesus stories ? true that some Talmud simply of the Toldoth recensions, in some details, seem to draw What,
from them, but they generally treat these elements with such great freedom, that we cannot believe they depended upon them as the only source directly
;
on the contrary, there is much in the Toldoth of a similar nature and yet entirely absent from the Talmud.
Krauss theory recensions
know
l 242) is that, seeing the Toldoth Jesus only as Ben Pandera, and never
(p.
Ben
Stada, they, therefore, look back to that sagacircle known to Celsus, that is to a body of living oral as
which was gradually introduced into the Talmud and part worked up into the written tradition, part of
Toldoth.
This of course applies only to the oldest whatever that may have been,
deposit of the Toldoth,
and
it is
very probable that such
may have been
the
case. "
Krauss argument (pp. 238-242), that the principal source of the Toldoth is the lost Hebrew History of Josippon (not Flavius as the main source Josephus), whom, he says, the Jews regarded of the events of the period of the Second Temple, appears to me in any case we can no longer get to be somewhat problematical "
1
;
at Josippon, for his History
is
unfortunately
lost.
THE 100
B.C.
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
The question that next
arises
is
What
:
305
elements The
Oldest
Toldoth can be attributed to this oldest deposit l^mtnts. This is an exceedingly difficult of Jewish oral tradition ? of the
question to answer.
As
Mamzer element
concerned,
interest in for
the Ben Pandera or we have no further
far as
as far as our present enquiry is concerned,
it
we hold
is
that this element arose out of
the con
when
troversy concerning the virgin-birth dogma, and ever precisely this may have been first debated, clearly a
late
comparatively
was
it
even
development
in
Christian tradition.
Are
any elements in
there, however,
oral tradition older than the so,
is
Mamzer-legend
Ben Perachiah date one
the
latter is the
of
And
?
them
if
This
?
our enquiry, and we will, to the exclusion of any other
whole crux
therefore, deal with it
chaos of
this
of
elements which might be held to be of very early date. We have already examined the Talmud Ben Pera
Can the Toldoth recensions throw any
chiah story.
further light on the question
At chaos
first
to
?
would appear that they only add A New Datesight confusion. Many give the Joshua ben the Toldoth" it
Perachiah (or Simeon ben Shetach) date, some give the Christian canonical date, and some confound the two.
But the main
connection
is
for it occurs in
a
certain
of
almost
Queen
sovereignty of
all
interest of
the Toldoth in
this
the most frequent date-indication,
that
all recensions, is
Helene,
in
whose
Jewry, and before
Jesus takes place.
This
the mention of
hand
whom
is
the
the trial
name never appears
in the
Talmud Jesus stories, nor, for a matter of that, do the names of Herod, or Pilate, or John the Baptist (or any 20
306
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.?
other that confirm the Christian canonical date)
the
;
only date-indications in the Talmud are, as we have seen before, on the one hand the mention of Joshua ben
Perachiah and Jannai in connection with Jesus, and on the other the Akiba
Even Herod
Mary
story.
the few forms of the Toldoth which follow the
or Pilate date cannot escape
from Joshua ben
Perachiah, for instance, the Aramaic form referred to by
Agobard and Schemtob, while even the 1 recension, which in some things seems
Talmud Lud
late
Huldreich
to
adopt the
tradition (though there is no
mention
of
Ben
Stada), and works in more Christian elements than any of the other forms, states that Jesus went to the It is true that school of Joshua ben Perachiah.
Bischoff s Judaeo-German version introduces
name
21) the
(
and associates him with Queen Helene,
of Pilate,
brings in the twelve Apostles (who are other wise unknown to Jewish tradition), in addition to the
as also
it
and
three hundred
unknown while B. pupil of The Jungle
to
S.,
twenty; but these glosses are which B. otherwise seems to follow,
itself categorically declares
that Jesus
was a
Joshua ben Perachiah.
But we are not yet out of the jungle, for although in most MSS. Helene is mentioned without any further qualification than a statement
saying that she was queen MSS. of the de Rossi type she
which
of the is
is
equivalent to
Jews, in one or said to be
"
two
wife of
"
say, she is identified with Helena the mother, not the wife, of Constantine the
Constantino
Great. 1
that
!
to
Nevertheless in this same Toldoth form
In which Jesus
Great
is
is
(e.g.
in
condemned and executed under Herod the
THE 100 V.)
we
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
B.C.
307
find that these things took place in the time of
Tiberius and
husband
Herod
is still
while the teacher of Miriam
II.,
given as Simeon ben Shetach, and
are further told that the land had been left in the
s
we
hand
Babylon, that is seventy years before the destruction of the Temple (so also the Leipzig MS.). of
"
Helene,
after Nebucadnezzar,
of
King
"
Here it all
is
a magnificent tangle to unravel.
mean
The Toldoth give us a new
?
What
can
date-indica
but while giving it with one hand, they immedi As far as the ately snatch it away with the other.
tion,
Christian elements are concerned,
stand how
easy to under that in course of time the confused tradition it is
Jews could not stand against the persistent and ever growing more consistent and uniform Christian
of the
tradition, and how that gradually some of the later Toldoth scribes were so influenced by it, that they
accepted
it
and wove
it
into their legendary patchwork,
though in so doing they involved themselves in the greatest contradiction with their predecessors, and could never succeed entirely in erasing Perachiah data.
all
trace of the
Ben
have most greatly puzzled Queen those innovating scribes was the mention of Queen Helene; in fact, so hopelessly confused were some of
What, however, seems
them
that, as
we have
affirming that Helene
to
seen, they
had no hesitation in
was the wife
of
Constantino;
even a so transparent fiction as this insensate ana chronism, with a Nebuchadnezzar thrown in, could not spoil all,
their
may
literary digestion, unless
perhaps be the means
complicated part
of the tangle
and
this,
of unravelling the it
was a
jest
after
most
and known
Helene.
308
DID JESUS LIVE 100
one by every Jewish schoolboy.
to be
probable that there
some
B.C. ?
of those wild
may
It is
more than
humour behind
be a grim
anachronisms, and that
it is
a waste
expend our marks of exclamation on the energy of the stupidity legend-weavers. For if we have to take seriously such manifest of
to
contradictions in one and the
an
be
same sentence, to
compliment
egregious
it
characterize
would such
statements as simply betraying a total lack of any sense if of history they were seriously meant they can be ;
classed only with the productions of a lunatic asylum,
and the general irresponsibility of mediaeval legendmaking would have to blush for its incompetency before the magnificent and gorgeous spectacle of such transcendental irrationality. s
Theory.
Un-
^
It is true that
Helena was the subject of a prolific Middle Ages, principally because
legend-activity in the of the
"
finding of the cross
"
saga.
But why Krauss
should solemnly take this as his point of departure, and endeavour to show that the Helene element of the
Toldoth was begotten of the Helena legends, is some what of a matter of surprise; for it is very evident that
if
in one of
the
"
Toldoth recensions there the
cross,"
this
it
is
Constantino
reference to
"
"
type of the finding of
was added either by some or by some humorist to cap
incident
utterly ignorant scribe,
the joke, for
wife of
could not have been that any intelligent
could have been so foolish as to have seriously im ported the figure of Saint Helena, whose faith in
Jew
Jesus not only never wavered but was of the most transcendent type, out of the Christian legends, and have converted her, of all people in the world, into the
THE 100
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
B.C.
309
queen before whom the trial of Jesus took place, and who finally hands him over to the Jews to do with him as they would.
The Helene element
not a subsidiary matter of no The Helene 1 special importance in the Toldoth, it is not even of only old secondary consideration; far from it, it is one of the is
"
main elements
whole
of the
ancient element in the Toldoth, of
this
whom
queen, before
If
story. it is
is
any
precisely the figure
the most dramatic and
whole story take
critical incidents of the
there
place.
It
is
impossible not to believe that there was the mention of some queen in the oldest deposit of the Toldothsaga,
her in
and it
difficult
believe
to
was anything
else
that
the
name given
than Helene.
The writer
of the Toldoth recension printed by seems to have had no doubt who however, Wagenseil, this Helene was, for after telling us that Jesus was
oieina.
born in the 671st year of the fourth millennium (ab orbe condito) that is 93 B.C., 1 in the reign of King Jannai who was also called Alexander, he goes on to
Queen Helene was the wife of the beforementioned Jannai, who held the sovereignty after the
say that this
"
She is called by another name a had son and Oieina, King Munbasus, otherwise called
death of her husband.
Hyrcanus."
say the writer seems to have no doubt who this Helen Helene was, because the last sentence presents us with "
"
I
a
new
difficulty.
It
is
of Jannai, 1
but
Hyrcanus II. was the Monobaz II. was the son, not
true that
eldest son of Jannai, but
of Helene,
See Krauss, pp. 182, 273,
of Bischoff s Judaeo-Gerraan
Queen
n. 3,
who
Toldoth
is
of
Adiabene, a small
also suggests that the
a mistake for 3760.
3670
of
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
310
province of Mesopotamia, on the Tigris, who became a Jewish proselyte somewhere about 30 A.D., and spent some fourteen years (c. 46-60 A.D.) in Palestine, at
Jerusalem and Lydda (Lud), under a Nazarite vow, 1 It is also consorting with the Eabbis of Hillel s school. true that Helen of Adiabene and her sons had endeared
themselves to the Jews by devotion to the Torah and rich gifts to the Temple but that it could ever have ;
been seriously imagined that the sovereignty of the land of Palestine could have been in this Helen s hand, as is usually stated in the Toldoth when the Toldoth Helene is Is
"
baz
Monoa Gloss
?
mentioned,
is
unthinkable.
How, then, can we possibly explain such contradictory j data coming in one and the same sentence? Is it ,
another jest of the same nature as the one to which
we
have already referred ? In this case it does not seem If not, can Monobaz be a gloss inserted by some later scribe, for this absurdity can hardly be set to be so.
down to the account of the Toldoth redactor himself, who in every other respect is so precise concerning the not then be that this scribe, being like the redactor puzzled as to the name Helene, for he
date
?
May
knows that
it
this
was not the
of Jannai, desired to
historical
name
add his own mite
of the wife
of information
?
He
is an ignorant man, yet he knows of Helen of Adia bene and her son Monobaz he accordingly flings this ;
to
in
show
his
reading,
without stopping to think
whether the dates coincide or
not.
Perhaps, however,
See art. Helene, Konigin," (2nd imp. Hamburger Real-Encyclopiidie des Judentums Adiabene in the new Jewish Neustrelitz ; 1896), and also art. 1
in
"
Josephus,
Antiqq.,"
s
"
"
Encyclopaedia"
"
xx. 2. 1-3.
"
(New York
;
1901).
"
"
THE 100
B.C.
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
311
not to be blamed, for the great commen tator Kaschi himself, in the twelfth century, took
after all he
Monobaz
is
for a
another Monobaz
But
there by any chance
?
Oleina-Helene was neither the mother
this
if
Was
Hasmonaean. 1
who
Constantine nor the Adiabene Helen,
of
else could
she have been for the Jews but the wife of Jannai
The only queen
of the
land was Jannai
s
the chapter on
"The
Jesus,"
was
who died most
in
wife Salome, who, as
at the age of
we have
Talmud 100 Years
B.C.
?
the
all
seen in
Story of
Jews from 78-69 B.C., 2 and seventy-two. This Salome is said
sister of
Simeon ben Shetach, who
Toldoth recensions
of the
whose hand was
sole ruler of the
have been the
to
Jews
is
in
given as the teacher of
the wronged husband of Miriam. Unfortunately, the historical Greek
name
this
of
queen is Alexandra (presumably after her husband s Greek name Alexander), and not Helena or Helene. It is, however, to be noticed that both in Greek and Latin the
name Salome
3 given as Salina.
is
Now we
have already seen that name-play was a frequent device not only so, but it had for of the Talmud story-tellers ;
centuries been a favourite occupation of the scribes of
the Old Covenant documents, and for a matter of that a
peculiarity
of
Semitic genius
the
generally.
The
we have
seen,
oldest deposit of the Toldoth belongs, as to the 1
same sea
of oral tradition as that
from which
See Krauss, p. 274, n. 5. lla. According to Schurer Krauss, however, gives Jannai s reign Jewish Encyclopedia (art. as 103-76 B.C. (p. 182), and the new "Baba Bathra,"
2
;
"
"
Alexandra") says that Salome died in 67 B.C. 3 See for references Schiirer s History of the Jewish
"
"
(Edinburgh
;
1897), Div.
i.
vol.
i.
n. p. 308,
People"
Helene-
312
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Talmud
the
Can we,
derived.
then, have in Helene
a name-transformation of this nature Helene-
Salina helps us somewhat, for it Helena (Oleina, Hilani, etc.), and
is
help us
But
interchangeable.
logically
there
?
l
not so far from
is
s
and h are philo-
in
connection
this
a well-known instance of name-play which will still
known
It is well
further.
to all students
Christian origins that a certain Helen (Gk. Helene,
of
Lat. Helena)
was fabled
whom
have been a harlot
to
Simon Magus took about with him Simon himself said that his Helen was the Sophia, but that is another ;
Now
story.
Simon legends
in the
this
Helene
is
also
Greek Selene, the while in the Moon," Simonian myth Simon (Shimeon, Shemesh) himself
called
in
"
corresponds with the Hser.,"
i.)
"
Sun."
and elsewhere we
Thus
in Augustine
find Selene
("
De
and not Helene,
while in the Clementine Eecognitions (ii. 14), preserved to us only in the Latin translation of Eufinus, we find the
name
of the
passage of the
syzygy of Simon, who in the parallel
Greek Clementine Homilies
called Helena, given as
that Helene
is
Luna.
From
a play on Selene
or controversial purposes, for
instance before us
we can
this
either
(ii.
23)
is
we deduce
for
mystical
with the Ben Pandera
readily see
how
that in those
of feverish theological polemics, a
mystic teaching days could easily be turned into a personal scandalous legend for controversial purposes.
The Simon Magus Legend.
If,
then, Selene could be transformed into
Helene for
Salome s full Jewish name was Shalom Zion for Hebrew and Aramaic transformations of this queen s name, see Derenbourg ( J.), Essai sur 1 Histoire et la Geographic de la Palestine, d apres les 1
;
"
Thalmuds." etc.
(Paris
;
1867), p. 102, n.
THE 100
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
B.C.
313
some such purposes, why could not Salina (Salome) be so transformed for purposes of a somewhat similar nature ?
Whether
or not this suggestion of ours
may
in
any way
be helped by the fact that the air-battle between Jesus and Judas in the Toldoth has also its exact parallel in
Simon Magus
in
a secondary question.
As
to
Helene-Salome
had
a
the contest between Simon Peter and the Simonian legends,
the
is
coincidence
quaint brother Simon
that
(b. Shetach), I hardly dare mention it, not that legends are the most insatiate of prostitutes, and will unite with anything that takes
were
it
their fancy. It
in
is
vain
ask
to
precisely such a
why
name-
change should have been made or why if Salome was converted into Helene the names of Joshua ben ;
Simeon
Perachiah and
ben Shetach were not also
changed. Consistency and precise reasons are not to be expected in the arbitrary development of folk-tale.
The
least
that
us in
involves
can be said less
is
difficulties
that our
hypothesis
than
Helen
the
of
Constantino and the Helen of Monobaz conjectures while if our supposition should be thought to hold
;
good,
it
would point of
to the fact that the
Toldoth tradition
preponderance Ben Perachiah date.
But
it
may be
said,
granted
is
overwhelming on the side of the
that this hypothesis
would explain the otherwise inexplicable statement that the rule of the land was in the hand of Helene, it
why this Helene is represented as being so wavering, now believing in Jeschu, now on the side of the wise men of Jewry, and, above all, why she speaks does not explain
to the doctors of the
Law, as one not only unlearned in
Pros and Cons
314
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
their scriptures, but as apparently being a non- Jewess. "
Is
this
Law
written in your
"
she asks, whereas
?
Salome was regarded as the champion and a most devout Jewess.
But the dispute
is
teachers and one
of the Pharisees
between the learned, between the dares to expound Halachoth
who
without their permission the first part of this objection can, therefore, have no great weight, for the queen, even ;
learned in the Law, could not have appeared to be so in the presence of the wise men of Jewry. The second if
is far more difficult to meet, and can only be met on the supposition that the Salome date is correct and that she did favour Jesus for if
part of this objection
;
she did
so, as a historic fact,
it
would be natural
for
the later llabbis to seek to excuse their favourite queen,
whose reign they placed the "golden age" of Pharisaism, and to represent her part in the proceed ings as that of one unacquainted with the Law and in
in
;
order to do this with safety to
it
would be natural for them
change her name from Salome to Helene.
supposition possibly contain
some hint
Can
this
at the reason
which we previously said it was vain to ask ? But this, the convinced believer in the Christian
for
canonical tradition will say, is a magnificent begging of the whole question, a speculating on the impossible.
Even
so, it is as
generations
of
well to argue both sides, for that
many
Jews have believed unquestioningly
this
Joshua ben Perachiah date
the
Talmud and Toldoth;
it
is
is
in
evident from both
therefore legitimate
try and explain the developments of tradition on their own premisses, among which the Jannai date is
to
most
conspicuous.
Indeed,
if
we
step
outside
the
THE 100 fantastic
B.C.
circle of
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
the legends
315
themselves, and seek
information on this point from serious students of history, we are confronted with the categorical state
ment
of
Spanish history-writer Abraham about 1100 A.D. writes as follows
the
ben
Daud, who "The Jewish history- writers say that Joshua ben The Perachiah was the teacher of Jeschu ha-Notzri, according :
which the
to
latter lived in the
days
of
King Jannai
Date
;
the history-writers of the other nations, however, say that he was born in the days of Herod and was hanged in
the
days
of
his
son Archelaus.
difference, a difference of
more than 110
Ibn Daud evidently calculates
This
a great
is 1
years."
this difference
from
the beginning of the reign of Jannai, but the exact
number of years is of no consequence. Abraham makes a general declaration of the difference between the statements of Jewish and Christian writers
;
that
is
to say, he gives us the general impression he has on the matter. It is true that already in the ninth century
we meet with
a Toldoth form which introduces John
the Baptist, Tiberius and Pilate, but evidently, in the
opinion of Abraham ben Daud, the Jewish tradition was the 100 years B.C. date. On the whole, therefore, we are inclined to the The Date opinion that the amazing contradictions of the various
Toldoth recensions as to
more
easily explained
their
date-indications,
are Toldoth-
on the supposition that the Ben
Perachiah tradition was the only date-factor of the older Toldoth writers, and hence the contradictions were a later development, as Jewish tradition 1
53.
weakened before
Neubauer, "Medieval Jewish Chronicles" (Oxford See Krauss, pp. 183, 273, n. 3.
;
1887), p.
writers.
316
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
the persistent strength of the Christian canonical In any case, we think that we have found tradition. a simpler solution
of
the
Helene
puzzle
than
the
theory of Krauss, who would trace its source to the Christian legends of St Helena. It is true that in the bitterest days of persecution some of the Jews argued that there were two persons of the
name
Jesus mentioned in the Talmud
of
Krauss points out is
two The Ben Date
is
prob6
Sliest
273, n. 4), this
(p.
the argument that
is
as
;
but as
unproved
as
Ben Stada and Ben Pandera were
different people.
If t then,
Ben
we
are correct in our impression that the
Perachiah date was an
intergal
part
of
the
seems more probable that in this the Toldoth did not copy from the Talmud, oldest deposit of the Toldoth,
it
but that this element came into both the Talmud and
Toldoth from a floating mass of oral tradition from which both drew. In this connection also it is of interest to note that the Karaites,
opposed to
all
who were
absolutely
Rabbinic authority, and utterly rejected
the Talmudic tradition, nevertheless retained the
Pandera Stada.
tradition,
Not only
though they knew nothing so,
but Toldoth circulated
of
Ben Ben
among
them, for in Codex de Kossi 96 we have a distinctly Karaite Toldoth. 1
There are many other points
of interest
connected
with the Toldoth legends, but they do not immediately concern us in our present enquiry as, however, we ;
have presented the reader with a translation of one of the Toldoth recensions, we might subjoin a few very brief remarks on one or two of its most salient features. 1
See Krauss, pp. 15, 31, 200
ff.
THE 100 It
is
to be
B.C.
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
remarked that Miriam the mother
317 is
in The Exonera-
nearly every form of Toldoth exonerated from any Miriam, The bastardy conscious breaking of her marriage vows. of Jeschu was the result of a trick played upon her.
Can we
assign
any motive
for this
?
Can
that the original framers of this legend
was no handing on
it
possibly be
knew
that
it
but the popularization of Indeed, not only is Mary
of history,
a doctrinal controversy
?
excused from any conscious breaking of the Law, but from several forms of the Toldoth we glean that she
was regarded
as a
woman
of distinction.
Not only
is
she said to have been the sister of a certain Joshua,
who
presumably to be identified with Joshua ben Perachiah, but she is also said to have been related to is
Queen Helene, that is, if our argument holds good, to Queen Salome, whose brother was Simeon ben Shetach. Here we have the close relationship of Jesus to the most distinguished Rabbis of the time. It is further to be remarked that Jesus
is throughout Did Jesus always represented as a learned man, and so generally tiTeT
This might seem at first sight to be accounted for by the fact that much space is given in the Toldoth to the proof from scripture." But in my are his disciples.
"
opinion these Messianic disputations seem to be due to later developments, and to be part and parcel of doctrinal polemics between
Jews and Judseo- Christians
;
have never been able to believe that historically Jesus himself could have made any claim to be the for I
the power of the great teacher, round whose transcendent person all these marvellous tradi
Messiah.
If
and disputes have grown up, is rightly held to have been the power of a Master of Wisdom, not to speak of
tions
318
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
more transcendent claims put forward on his behalf, it can hardly be believed that he would have claimed to be what he could have foreseen would never
still
then
whom
be admitted by those to
the Messianic tradition
True, he may very well have taught a chiefly belonged. more universal view of Messianism, but that he should
have claimed to have been the Messiah of prophecy, in any sense in which the Jews could have understood the without that prophecy turning out to be a bitter mockery, can hardly be believed of a wise and merciful
idea,
Jesus
Teacher.
Nazareth has in no sense been a
of
Messiah to the Jews
and
;
it is
hardly in keeping with
God preached by him,
the idea of the Good
to talk of the
Jews having been punished for their rejection of Jesus. Not to speak of Deity, those who are truly wise, even as the average
man
can imagine wisdom, must have
foreseen the rejection before the sending of the messenger. then, Jesus
Surely,
Messiah
"
would not have
to those to
whom
which men would make
said,
"I
am
the
he knew he, or rather that
of his efforts,
would never be a
help, but a scourge not that he would have had it so, but because of the forces which already existed in ;
human
nature and which were destined to focus them
selves in
Jew and
Gentile for some high purpose of the
Divine economy. If we can hold such a view without giving dire offence to the better feeling in both Jew and Chris tian,
then the
Messianic controversy can
have had
nothing to do with the original teaching of Jesus self.
It
was not because
of this facility of
that Jesus was held to be a learned legend.
Kather was
it
him
quotation
man by Jewish
that such legend
was
itself
THE 100
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
B.C.
based on ancient tradition learned in their
Not only his
ting
that he was
among them
lore.
but the Jews had no
so,
319
of
power
wonder-doing.
difficulty in
admit- The Shem.
Their earliest tra
have been that the knowledge dition, however, seems whereby these deeds were done was learned in Egypt. to
would then naturally have it that if this gnosis was learned in Egypt, it must have been the words acquiring of certain words of power," and if belief
Popular
"
"
"
In the developed Toldoth, however, we find that the Egypt element has retired well into the then
"names."
words
"
power appear as the Shem ha-Mephoresh or Holy Name, and the Shrines of background, while the
Egypt The
"
of
as the Sanctuary at Jerusalem.
brick-bat
"
"
which Jesus
is
jestingly accused of Mystic
worshipping in the Talmud, appears in the Toldoth "
as the
"
foundation-stone
prototype
in the
Holy
the Egyptian
mystery-tradition, that
the
of Holies,
both being probably some
of
symbol
"corner
of
stone"
mystic writing on which was to be key," As we have already suggested, inscribed in the heart." the
"
or
"
the
"
heart
"
was
"
to be
"
circumcised
hence the cut
the flesh and the rest of the folk-legend.
ting of
This
mystic stone was in the Holy of Holies, beyond the
which were guarded by appropriate wardens, a
pillars,
symbolism familiar enough and its predecessors.
Much might subject, but it
length their
;
to the student of
Masonry
be written on this most fascinating would extend our essay to a too great
enough here to say that, in protection of interests, the Mishnaic Kabbis considered the
it is
own
utterer of the
Shem
as a blasphemer,
and the punish-
320
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
ment
of
such blasphemy was decided upon as death. 1
The Shem element, therefore, could thus subsequently be made to work in most conveniently with the Toldoth patchwork, for it supplied an additional reason for the putting to death of Jesus.
YHWH.
In spiritual mysticism the knowing of names meant while in material simply the possession of powers ;
magic
it
was believed that the possession
spoken name gave It is
the
man
somewhat interesting
of the actual
the power of the
to see
how
"
name."
the Jews gradually
worked these ideas into
their system of monotheistic and how the exclusiveness, mystery of the Shem haMephoresh, or "distinctive name," YHWH, was de
among them. As to how this name was origin pronounced we have now no authentic information.
veloped ally
But
"
was
Temple the Name ... At the beginning of the however, the use of the Name was
in the early period of the Second
still
in
common
Hellenistic era,
use.
the Temple,
reserved for
.
obliged to use the appellative The KvoluMystery,
.
.
elsewhere they
were
name Adonai (Lord)." a name once in common
Thus the pronunciation of use gradually became more and more mysterious, and
we
at the beginning of the Christian era
writing
may ears
("Life
of
11):
find
Philo
four letters 2
"The
be mentioned or heard only by holy
men whose
and tongues are purified by wisdom, and by no
other in any place
While Josephus, gives the current "
Moses,"
iii.
whatsoever."
at
the end of the
myth Moses besought God
of
the
first
century,
name-giving as follows
to impart to
1
vii. "Mislma, Sanhedrin,"
-
The Tetragrammatou
him the know-
5 (55b).
YHWH.
:
THE 100 ledge of His
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
B.C.
name and
might be able
its
invoke
to
pronunciation, so
Him by name
321
that he
at the sacred
whereupon God communicated His name, hitherto unknown to any man and it would be a sin for me to
acts,
;
mention
it."
In course of time the pronunciation of the Name even by the Temple priests fell into disuse, and the
manner
of its pronunciation at length
became a secret
"
entrusted only to the Kasherim (worthy ones), or the
Zena im (Essenes = the humble or chaste ones ), but withheld from the frivolous, the Hellenists (Peruzim) and even the former were taught it only once every ;
seven years, and then only after due purification and Woe unto you, ye Pharisees, who sanctification. .
.
.
pronounce the Holy purification
!
Name
each morning without due whereupon the
said the Hemerobaptists
;
Woe upon you who Pharisees sarcastically replied Name with the an Holy pronounce organ of the body, while your body itself is unholy However, it appears from Ta anit 19a and Ab. Zarah 18a, that the Essene :
!
saints
made use
of the
Name
in their invocations and
miraculous cures, which was afterwards declared to be a grievous sin
(*
Sanh./ "
Wisdom,
xiv. 21).
x.
i.
;
compare, also
Book
of
l
Now as in all probability Jesus was an Essene, and The Shem the Essene saints seem in his days to have used the Shem without
let or
hindrance,
we can only conclude
that the Toldoth accusation of an illegitimate use of the
Shem by Jesus must proceed at earliest from the days when the Rabbis were more and more jealously guarding (or
even creating) their rights and privileges, that 1
See Kohler
B art.
"
Adonai
"
in
"
Jewish
is to
Encyclopaedia."
21
DID JESUS LIVE 100
322 say,
?
It follows, therefore, that
from Mishnaic times.
Shem without
used the
the Essene saints
if
B.C.
or
let
hindrance, Jesus could not historically have been accused
on this count, and therefore the general charge of magic learned in Egypt must be held to have been "
"
And
the older form of accusation.
that can be said
all
is
that
it
with regard to
this,
originated in the fact that
Jesus had been to Egypt, the only probable historical element in the whole matter. The Fight
The magical
in
Jeschu
is
fight
in
the air between Judas and
paralleled not only in the Simonian legends,
where the dramatis personce are Simon Magus and Simon Peter, but also in the Jerusalem Targum, or Aramaic translation of the Torah and its accompanying Midrashim, where we are told that when Phinehas decided to slay Balaam, the latter on seeing his pursuer "resorted
the
is
and flew up in the
to witchcraft
Phinehas made use
of the
Holy Name, and slew him with the sword. 1
head,"
air,
seized
but
him by
We
have already seen that in the Talmud Balaam
one
of the
too in
synonyms of Jesus is it, then, that here the Targum Balaam stands for Jesus, and that ;
both Targum and Toldoth depend on a common source of oral tradition, or was the Targum haggada the origin of this particular
The Hanging Cabbaestalk.
Another point Jesus
is
Toldoth element
?
of great interest in the
never said to have been
Toldoth
crucified.
is
that
He
is
stoned or hanged, or first stoned and then hanged, or hanged in the stoning place. What, further, is the
meaning 1
"
of
Targum
Kohler s
"
art.
the Yer.,"
hanging on a miraculous to
Balaam
Num. "
in
"
xxxi. 8
Jewish
;
see also
"cabbage-
Sanh.,"
Encyclopaedia."
106b.
See
THE 100
B.C.
DATE IN THE TOLDOTH.
323
perhaps almost impossible to conjecture any explanation, but I cannot get rid of the impres sion that there may have originally been some mystical stalk
"
It
?
is
perhaps connected with the the tree that grows from the mustard
tradition behind
"
it,
tree
"
of
life,"
connected also with the Eridu, the
"
Hidden Abode
dark stalk of the
"
God
Chaldaean creation-tablet found
the
library of
but this
of course,
With regard it is
of
Wisdom, the
in
of
Temple
Kuta, dating from the fourth millennium
is,
seed,"
which grew in
B.C.
1 ;
pure conjecture.
to the casting of the
to be noticed that in
body into a
some forms
of
"
canal,"
the Toldoth
Can
this canal is given as a public place for refuse.
then possibly be that Jesus was stoned, and his body hanged on a stake as a warning, according to the legal
it
regulations of the Torah, and that then the body cast out into the
common
dust-heap of the city
?
was
Who
can conjecture with any historic probability in such a chaos of legendary fantasy ?
We
will now turn our attention to Epiphanius, and he what has to say concerning the earliest Christians, and to the riddle he sets us to solve by a hitherto
absolutely unintelligible statement concerning the date of Jesus. 1
See the
"
Temples
of the
Orient"
(London
;
1902), p. 85.
The
"Canal,
XVII.
ON THE TEACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
The Origin of the Name Christian.
IT
Christian! was very certain that the name , ,, .,, a title given by the early followers of Jesus to ,
,
n
t
themselves.
Indeed,
Christian
of
"
"
is
we
writers of
find it still
the
first
unused by a
half
of
series
the second
century at a time when it was employed, though per haps not invariably in its subsequently restricted sense,
by Pliny the Younger in 112 A.D., by Tacitus 116117 A.D., and by Suetonius in 120 A.D. These Christian writers were content to designate the early communities of their co-believers "elect,"
"saints,"
faithful,"
Even
"
:
that
"they
brethren," believed,"
they that are in Christ," and of the way." l "
disciples,"
that are in the Use in the
"called,"
"
"
Its
by such expressions as
"
they
"
Lord,"
in the
New
Covenant writings which subse
quently became canonical, we meet with the designa tion only three times, and always in a connection which it was a name given from without, and not as yet adopted from within. The redactor of the Acts (xi. 29) believed c. 130-150 A.D.- that "the
suggests that
"
disciples 1
were
See Schmiedel
paedia
Biblica."
first called
s article
"
Christiani
"
Christian,
Name
"
at Antioch, at of,"
in the
"
Encyclo
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
325
the time of the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in that city, that
is,
as he supposed, at the time of the founding
of the first Gentile
church there.
In the same document
the curious remark attributed to translated in the A.V. as
is
me
which
"
:
also
meet with
Herod Agrippa, which
Almost thou persuadest
but the imperfect original of untranslateable where it is to be remarked
be a
to
we
(xxvi. 28)
Christian,"
1
is
;
that although Agrippa was not a pure Jew,
it is
hardly supposed he would have used such a term. While in the earlier pseudepigraph I. Peter (iv. 16)
to be
we
read:
"But
if
man
[any
him not be ashamed, but
let
In
I.
Peter,
suffer] as a Christianus, let
him give glory
to
God
not clear what precise meaning in this name to should be given the words but of in the A.V. this behalf not the is gloss certainly in
this
name,"
it is
"
"
;
"
"
The followers
satisfactory.
hitherto been
"
ashamed
"
of
Jesus had apparently "
of being called
"
Christiani
;
the meaning can hardly be that the condemned
for
should give thanks because he suffers as a Christian in the later honourable sense of the term, but rather sug gests
some such idea
Messianists,"
Roman
We
accused of being and therefore revolutionaries against the
"
as:
authority, but in reality
are
it
is
we who
are the
true observers of the moral law; our revolution
morals and not in
politics,
thanks to God as His
His
Anointed,"
In any case Messiah" 1
who
it is
"
and therefore
Anointed
"
or the
"
let
is
in
us give
followers of
are unjustly accused.
evident that the
was not given
title
"
those of the A Pagan
to the followers of Jesus by
See Westcott and Hort s Introduction (Cambridge and London
1881), p. 100.
;
DID JESUS LIVE 100
326
B.C.
?
the Jews, for this would have been to admit what they so
concerning the founder of the therefore, highly probable that the
strenuously denied
new faith. It is, name Christiani was Messianists of
first
all kinds,
by the followers
of
used by the Pagans to signify and was only finally adopted
Jesus in their public dealings with
the Pagans, presumably
where we
Date of ngin
first
in apologetic literature,
from about the
find it of frequent occurrence
second quarter of the second century. As for the time when the Pagan term
" "
Christiani
presumed that it came into use with the ever more and more desperate attempts of the Jews
arose, it is to be
to
shake
quently
off
to
the
the
dated
generally
Eoman
yoke, that
downfall
of
70
but
A.D.,
the date of origin of
its
year
An
which
some
is of
is
Jewish
opinion that
A.D.,
that
is
presumably the
of Titus.
answer to
found from a
this
most obscure question can only be
critical
examination
" "
which
use cannot with any assurance
be placed earlier than 79 first
Jerusalem,
Schmiedel
authorities give as 68 A.D.
to say, subse
is
Christian
persecutions
but even
;
of so,
the history of
we
are
still left
without any certainty. After a searching examination of the confused data, and a brilliant criticism of the position of Momrnsen, Sybel, Neumann and Ramsay, Schmiedel can arrive at no positive con On the question as to the clusion, and finally writes
conservative
"
:
date at which Christianity
com
ourselves
pletely at a loss.
certain, that
had come about before the time The Notzrim.
began to be recognized
first
we must confess Only this much is
as a distinct religion,
But
if
the Jews did not
it
of Pliny s governorship."
know
the followers of Jesus
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. as Christian!, by
what name did they know them
the Jews the Christians, general term
The writer a
Jew
of the
Minim
when not
or heretics,
of the Acts is
aware
accuse Paul of being
Nazarenes "
327
"
To
?
classed under the
were and are Notzrim. of this
when he makes
a ringleader of the sect
"
that
(A.V.)
and that
is,
of the
of the
"haeresis
was the general designation of the Christians by the Jews is testified to by Tertullian 1 at the end of the second century, and by Jerome at the end of the fourth. 2 While Justin (c. 145-150 A.D.) Nazorsei
;
this
us that the Jews in their synagogues publicly
tells
cursed the
"
Epiphanius
375
A.D.) says curse was directed against the Nazoraei." Jerome, on the contrary, will have it that the curse was
that
Christians,"
this
(c.
"
3 pronounced against the Minsei whereas, as we have frequently remarked before, Minim is not to be taken ;
Minim is a general term for not in a bad but even in a good sense, and heretics, only Notzrim would therefore come under the term but not as identical with Notzrim.
be identical with
it.
It is therefore of interest to try to discover, possible, the
out
why
among
it
the
of this
meaning was that Jesus
if
term Notzrim, and is
it
be
to find
generally distinguished
Jews from others
of
the same
name
as
Jeschu ha-Notzri. 1
2 3
"
Adv.
Marc.,"
48.
Hier., in Jes. ch. v. 18
Epist. ad
f.
;
xlix. 7
;
lii. 5.
There is to-day among the Jews throughout all the synagogues of the East a heresy which is called [the heresy] of the Minoei, and is even until this day "
Hieron.,
cursed
"
August."
:
by the Pharisees these Minaeans are commonly called But Nazoraans, and they believe in Christ, the Son of God. while they will be both Jews and Christians, they are neither Jews nor Christians." ;
.
.
.
328 The^Meaning
DID JESUS LIVE
The accepted Christian said,
B.C.
tradition, it
?
need hardly be
that Jesus Nazorseus means simply Jesus of
is
Nazareth, his place of origin.
known
10()
to
scholars
all
that
It
very
is,
however, well
great
difficulties
presented by the contradictory statements of the accounts, and that so far no generally accepted ground of reconciliation between the rival are
canonical
claims of the traditional Nazareth and the prophetically necessitated Bethlehem has been found.
There
is,
however, one hypothesis whereby much of may be relieved, and which is therefore
the pressure
deserving of our closest attention. In the first place it is to be noticed that even in the canonical account preserved the very interesting trace that Nazareth was regarded by some as the native country there
still
is
"
"
not town, of Jesus and in the second it has been argued, not only that Nazareth (or, perhaps, lately more correctly Nazara) was not a town or village, but (Trar/o/?),
;
a district or country, but, further, most probably this district Bethlehem-
was
Galilee.
1
It is therefore suggested that perhaps in the earliest
the evangelical tradition the term BethlehemNazareth that is, Bethlehem of (or in) Galilee was
form
of
found, and that this being misunderstood, especially by Gentile converts, in course of time some said that
born at Bethlehem, others at Nazareth. thus find in the more developed forms of the
Jesus was
We
woven
round Bethlehem, others round Nazareth, and scriptural authority was tradition
some
incidents
sought to authenticate either view. 1
See Cheyne s
"
article,
Nazareth,"
elaborates the theory first mooted
in the
"
Enc. Bib.,
"
which
by the great Jewish authority Grtitz.
329
BRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
May
be that the whole idea of
not, however,
it
Bethlehem owed
to the
its origin
"proof
from scrip
l Bethlehem was necessitated by prophecy must have been the place of birth, for in those days, history did not fit with prophecy it had to go to the "
ture it if
"
"
?
;
Although, then, the prophecy-fulfilling writer of the first gospel could not have dreamed of giving up the wall.
prophetical Bethlehem, nevertheless he inconsistently supports the presumably simple historical Nazareth
He by further prophecy when saying (ii. 23) came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall "
tradition
:
be called a Nazareiie
(Nazorseus)."
This passage, as
is
well known, has given rise to endless discussion, for no such prophecy is to be found in the Old Testament.
Some that
commentators,
earlier it
it is true,
refers to the prophetical
"
should arise out of Jesse (Isaiah
shoot xi.
1)
were
of
opinion
"
(netzer) ;
which
and that
this
was the explanation put forward by Jewish Christians of the early centuries may be seen from the Talmud It must, how passage concerning the five disciples. a so far-fetched derivation of that ever, be confessed
the
name appears
little
short of fantastic to the modern
2 mind, and quite beneath the dignity of Scripture. The whole of this apparently hopeless tangle, how-
1
"Micah,"
be
2
v.
"
:
But
tliou,
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee there shall forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel."
little
come
2 Krauss (pp. 253-255) suggests the derivation of Nazareth from a word meaning "splinter" or "chip," and in this, apparently, would find a reason for the use of the term Jeachu ha-Notzri
among the Cheyne
being a play on the word carpenter. Joseph ( 9) in Enc. Bib." "
Jews,
s art.
"
it
"
"
See also
Nazareth: Galilee.
330
DID JESUS LIVE 100
ever, begins to unravel itself
if
B.C.
?
we can be persuaded
the simple historical fact was that Jesus was a
that
Galilean
whether so-called because he was actually
;
born in Galilee, or because the chief scene
of his public
ministry was among that very mixed population, and 1 many of his earliest followers were Galileans, here matters
Galileans,
2
We
little.
that
sources
the
and
know
Christians
further from
were
originally
said that Julian the
it is
363
A.D.) desired to have
his
own
them
several called
Emperor (360and in
so called again,
writings he invariably refers to
them under
this designation.
The
Galileans.
Does, then, the general term Notzrim used by the Jews mean simply Galileans, and did Jeschu
for the Christians
The "
Nazoraeans
or Chris-
ha-Notzri originally signify simply Jesus of Galilee ? In any case we see that, according to the writer of T-. i the Acts, the Christians of Paul s time were called
/**
Nazoraei (Notzrim) by the Jews, and
emphatic
followers of Jesus were so designated. "
paedic
Panarium,"
all heresies,
that
in
is,
we have
also the
Epiphanius that the earliest
declaration of
In his encyclo
which he most vigorously attacks every form of religious belief, or
even philosophy, but what he held to be the true teaching of Christianity, the Bishop of Constantia (the ancient Salamis) in Cyprus heads the concluding para1
See Acts
i.
11 and
Ixxx.), moreover,
ii.
Justin Martyr
7.
("Dial.
c.
Tryph.,"
knows
of a pre-Christian sect called Galileans, scholars identify with the followers of the
which, however, most Zealot Judas the Galilean,
who
led a revolt in 6 or 7 A.D.
the Epictetus, who died about 117 A.D., calls iv. 7); Mani, in the third Christians Galileans Dissertatt.," "Bib. century, calls the general Christians Galileans (Fabricius, 2
For
instance,
("
Greec.,"
were
v.
first
285)
;
called
Suidas
"
(s.v.
Christiani
Nazarenes or Galileans.
")
says that the Christians
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
Concerning the Nazorseans
"
graph
of his first
volume,
"
or Christians It
("
xx. 4).
Haar.,"
somewhat
is
331
make out
to
difficult
the precise
for Epiphanius first of all paragraph again identifies the Nazoraeans and Christians, and then that which was for a short time goes on to speak of
sense
of
this
;
"
called Christianism
by the Jews, and by the Apostles
when Peter
themselves,
(quoting from Acts read, instead of
ii.
Jesus Nazoneus,
says
22),
"
"
he continues
"
:
etc."
where we should expect called
first
for
Nazoraeanism,"
Christianism,"
but was
to
Christianism at
This was the true religion, but under an improper name, for there is properly a heresy of the he promises to tell us in its Nazoraei," about which Antioch."
"
right place in the sequel.
When, however, he comes Nazoraeans not really
("
Hser.,"
know
xxix.
with these heretical
to deal
1),
he confesses that he does
exactly where
whether
to place them,
before, or contemporary with, or later than
some early
first century which he has just been attacking he says they were all of about the same date and held the same views. They do not call
schools of the end of the ;
themselves after the
name
Christus
simply Nazoraei, and, he adds, that time in like fashion called time,
however,
Jessseans
the
(lessaei).
"
Nazoraei."
Whence
this
"
or
For a short
name was
of David, or
name Jesus, which, Epiphanius Hebrew the same as the Greek healer
but
Jesus,
Christians also called themselves
whether from Jesse, the father
"
or
Christians were at
all
"
saviour,"
he
certain they were so called
is
("
derived,
from the
signifies
in
Therapeutes,"
or
says, "
not sure, but he Haer.,"
xxix. 4).
is
very
332
DID JEStTS LIVE 100
Whether or not
in this, as in
B.C.
much
?
else of his vast
heresiological undertaking, the Bishop of Constantia
is
giving us the speculations of his own pure phantasy," based on vague hearsay, as Lipsius supposes, 1 or that more credit is to be given to his confusing indications, "
as Hilgenfeld
seems to admit, 2 has not yet been definitely
decided by modern scholarship.
We
are, therefore, at
liberty to enquire for ourselves, not with
any hope
of
deciding the question, for any attempt to do so would require a huge volume even for preliminaries, but with the sole purpose of directing the reader
some points
tion of the over-zealous Value
of
Epiphanius.
s
attention to
of special interest in the confused Kefuta-
Epiphanius
is
Church Father.
a curious writer,
who
deserves more
attention than has so far been bestowed upon him, and it is somewhat a reproach to scholarship that as yet he has never been translated into any modern tongue.
He
attacks indiscriminately, and often misrepresents,
every school of thought and belief of which he has read or heard yet here and there, in spite of himself, he lets ;
drop a valuable scrap of information which none of his predecessors in heresy -hunting have handed on to us.
We should remember that this of the
hydra-headed serpents
"
"
antidote
of
error,"
to the
A.D., that
poison
as he is never
tired of calling the objects of his onslaught,
posed from 374 to 376 or 377
"
is
was com
to say, just
half a century after the initial triumph of Nicene Chris
and as
tianity,
far as
1
Lipsius (R. A.),
Epiphanius was concerned, he was
"Zur
Quellenkritik des
Epiphanies"
(Wien
;
1865), pp. 122-151. ~
"
Hilgenfeld (A.), (Leipzig
;
Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums
1884), index,
s.
vocc. Jesssei, Osseni, Nazoraei, etc.
"
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
333
determined that no mercy should be shown to any dissenter, even though his dissent may have been ab
most of Epiphanius had lived and thought at a date when Nicene Christianity was either inchoate, or even non
solutely unconscious, seeing that dissenters"
existent.
we
find
The rush of Epiphanius is so furious that him not unfrequently over-reaching himself;
he sometimes even blindly blunders into his own and disarrays their ranks. The "mistakes" of
friends
Epiphanius are accordingly psychological
sometimes
of
interest
and
directly,
of
deep
indirectly
are
value.
historical
great
always
nearly
much to interest us in what is gene- The Theraconsidered to be his Issaean blunder. Epiphanius peL rally identifies his Issaeans with the Essenes, and of this Thus there
is
there can be no doubt, for he tells the ("Haer.,"
xxix. 5), that
if
"
studious reader
"
he would know more about them,
and especially in the book which that famous Alexandrian had en he will find
titled
"
it
in the
memoirs
Concerning the
of Philo,
"
Issaei
;
after
which Epiphanius
proceeds to give the main outlines of this treatise in
such a way as to leave no doubt that he is quoting On the Contemplative from Philo s famous tractate, Life." In this treatise it is true that Philo calls the "
very interesting community which had its monasteria on the southern shore of Lake Mareotis, south of Alexandria, as well as
all their allied
communities in
Egypt and elsewhere, Therapeuts but in his opening words he distinctly informs us that he had already, ;
presumably in another tractate now 1
treated
of
tells us of them in hiw tract, Quod Oinuis Probus one of his earlier works, most probably written before
For what he
Liber,"
1
lost,
"
334 the
DID JESUS LIVE 100
"
who
Esssei
munities in
B.C.
followed the practical
and
Palestine
?
Arabia,
the
life,"
who
com
Philo
in
s
opinion did not soar to such a lofty height of philo sophic and mystic endeavour as the members of the
community near specially "
with
Alexandria
acquainted, and which
those of the Esssei
who
which
was
he
he characterized
devote themselves to the
as
life of
l
contemplation."
The Name
It
therefore, held that Epiphanius has simply read
is,
Esssei as Isssei,
Now
culty.
and that
it is
well
this explains the
known
that the
whole
diffi
name Essene
is
one of the greatest puzzles of scholarship upwards of twenty derivations have been given by ancient and ;
modern
The
writers,
greatest
and the riddle is
difficulty
still
remains unsolved.
we cannot find any term, in use in Hebrew or
that
general term, or even special Aramaic for those whom such Hellenized Jews as Philo
and Josephus
Philo calls them
call Essenes.
"
Esssei."
Pliny the Elder (|79 A.D.) speaks of them as senes," while Josephus (75-100 A.D.) gives the as
"
Esseni."
name
2
Philo, in
"
Q. 0. P.
L.,"
"Hes-
name
thinks that the
simply a (? Jewish) corruption of the Greek Osioi, the saints, while in D. V. he makes it Essaioi
is
"
C."
equivalent to Therapeuts, that (of
God).
20
A.D.,
is,
Healers, or Servants
can be regarded only as a summary from some
lost
treatise. 1
See
my"
Fragments
of a Faith
66-86, where a translation by Conybeare in 1895.
is
Forgotten"
given from the
(London
;
critical text
1900), pp.
published
2 For the most objective article on the general subject, see Conybeare s article in Hastings "Dictionary of the Bible (Edin burgh 1898). 3;
;
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
335
Mind Epiphanius, as we have already seen, follows Philo The he has but and adopts the latter derivation, why
changed
thought that the
The Bishop
Essaei into Issyei is the puzzle.
Salamis knew some Hebrew
Hebrew
Issaei
of
it,
then, because he
was the preferable
transliteration of
original,
Or
was
was
;
indeed, there was a
if,
Hebrew
claimed
these having Essseans as the first Christians, as he emphatically does Hser.," xxix. 5), he found himself in great difficulty to
original
?
it
that,
("
account for the name, as
had nothing
to
seeing that he
it
evidently, on the face of
it,
do with Jesus, or Christus, or Nazareth,
knew
its
plainly gives elsewhere
("
variant was Esseni, which he Hser.,"
that a light had seemed to have
viii.
9)
come
to
Or can it be him to illumi
?
nate the dim and puzzling records of the past, and that had suddenly occurred to the worthy Bishop: Of course Esssei is a mistake of Philo s for Jesssei, the
it
!
Or was it finally that Epiphanius an ancient tradition which declared that the
followers of Jesus
knew
of
!
from the Essenes, that Jesus himself had been an Essene, and that the Church Christians
originally derived
Father wished to safeguard the doctrinal tradition now stereotyped by the ecumenical decisions at Nicaaa,
an argument against this heretical tradition, should it ever have the hardihood to raise its head again. This supposition may seem to
by working into his
treatise
"
"
some
to cast a slur
on the bona
fides of
our stalwart
defender of orthodoxy but Epiphanius is in all things a theologian and not a historian, and the canons of ;
evidence for these two very different classes of mind are generally poles asunder. Moreover, we shall have to show that in several other instances Epiphanius has
of
336
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
for similar reasons dextrously woven into his expositions material of a very different pattern from that of the
name
Catholic tradition, and even with regard to the
The
Issaei
of
be that
may
Isssei it
we
interest, as
Apart from that the for
this,
name
Abbot
it
hides an ancient trace of deep
shall see later
however,
was not
Isssei
Nilus, the
on in another connection.
it is
by no means improbable
original with Epiphanius,
renowned
ascetic of Sinai,
who had
previously enjoyed a high reputation at Constantinople,
and retired
one
to
of the
famous monasteries
of the
and Serbal in 390, and died the Issaei and says that they were the
mysterious region of Sinai in 430, speaks of
Jewish philosophers and ascetics who were originally followers of the Kechabite Jonadab. 1 Did,
then,
Nilus get this form of the
Epiphanius, or did Epiphanius obtain source as Nilus
such
monastic
Serbal,
"Thera-
is
and others with which Epiphanius had come
into
contact
same
difficulties
must
It
tkn ~Contro- stantia versy.
also
Egypt, such a may even have place by the
first
which Epiphanius had to face. be remembered that the Bishop
was not the
first to
previously,
we
of
Con-
claim the Essene-Therapeuts Already, some
o j phjjo as foe earliest Christians.
years
name from
from the same
not improbable that among communities as those on Sinai and It
?
during his travels in name-theory had been canvassed, been a tradition necessitated in the
The
it
find Eusebius
in
his
"
fifty
Church
History boldly declaring that these Therapeuts south of Alexandria were the first Christian Church in Egypt, "
1
"
Tractatus de Monastica
Abbatis Opera quae pletus, Patrol,
"
Exercitatione," c. iii.
supersunt,"
groec.,"
in
Migne s
torn Ixxix. (Paris
;
;
S. P.
N. Nili
Patrologiae Cursus Com1860), vol. i. col. 722.
"
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
337
We asserts later was founded by Mark. have no space to trace the history of the fierce battle between Catholic and Protestant which has raged round this famous tract of Philo s because of this claim made which Photius
Church History, and the Philologus, or studious reader, as Epiphanius calls him, must be re ferred to Conybeare s magnificent and exhaustive work by the Father
of
on the subject l
what
can only repeat
I
;
Fragments already written in my the whole matter. reviewing
have
(pp. 64, 65), after
It is convincingly established against the
speculation of Griitz, Nicolas
Philo"
I
"
"
"
Pseudo-
and Lucius, that
Be Vita Conternplativa is a genuine Philonean As to its date, we are confronted with some diffi tract. "
the
"
culties
that
;
but the expert opinion
Conybeare assures us the works of Philo confirms my
"
every reperusal of feeling that the D. V. C. (op.
cit. y
p.
276).
year 30
B.C.,
ascribed
to
Now
is
of
one
of his earliest
first
quarter
of
Conybeare puts it conservatively or 23 (op. cit., p. 290).
"
*
was born about the
as Philo
the date of the treatise the
works
may
the
be roughly
first
century; the year 22
"about
"
The question, then, naturally arises At such a date can The :
the Therapeuts of Philo be identified with the earliest Dilemma. If the accepted dates ?
Christian Church at Alexandria of the origins are correct, the
cally,
No.
incorrect,
If,
on the contrary, the accepted dates are s Therapeuts were Christians," then
and Philo
"
we shall be compelled 1
answer must be emphati
to
change the values of many things.
Conybeare (F. C.), Philo about the Contemplative Life, or the Fourth Book of the Treatise concerning the Virtues," critically edited, with a Defence of its Genuineness (Oxford 1895). "
;
22
338
DIB JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
But apart from the question of date, the contents D. V. are of immense importance and interest
of the
"
C."
affording us a glimpse into those mysterious com munities in which Christians for so many centuries
as
recognized not only their forerunners, but themselves. The Therapeuts, however, were clearly not Christians in
any sense
which the term has been used by dog
in
Philo knows absolutely nothing of any sense in which the word is used
matic Christianity Christianity in to-day.
Who,
;
then, were those Christian non-Christian
Therapeuts ? The answer to this question demands, in our opinion, an entire reformulation of the
Essene
accepted history of the origins. The dilemma is one that cannot be avoided. chief of all problems
Christian origins.
It is
which confront the student
of
The Therapeuts have been recognized
throughout the centuries as identical with the earliest Christian Church of Egypt. They were known to Philo
and they must have existed long before. If the canonical dates are correct, they could not have been Christians, in the
at the very latest as early as 25 A.D.,
sense of being followers of Jesus so like the
Christians,
;
and yet they were
that the Church
Fathers re
garded them as the model of a Christian Church. We either are, therefore, confronted with this dilemma ;
Christianity
existed
dates are wrong. to
The NameEpfphamus.
before
From
this
Christ,
or
the canonical
dilemma there seems to me
be no escape.
Having, then, claimed the Essseans of Philo as early Christians, and having, as most assume, though perhaps erroneously,
changed their name to t Jessseans appa
rently to clinch the matter, Epiphanius finds himself
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
339
involved in a very great difficulty. What Philo tells us of the contemplative Essaeans or Therapeuts is so similar to
what the Christians conceived
com
their earliest
munities to have been, that the identification of the one
with the other amounted for them to a certainty. On the other hand, Epiphanius knows from Philo and other sources that there were
from not
differed
many things only the Mcene
day, but from any type
which the
and had
Christianity of his
own
their
traditions, as
in exis
still
we
shall see
on, Epiphanius knows something various heresies which still represented some
and
later
Essaei
of Christianity in canonical
Moreover, the Essaeans were
tradition.
tence,
in
of
the
"
"
The
teachings.
difficulty, therefore,
of their
which faced him
was that these Essaeans were not Christians in any Nicene sense.
Knowing, then, that Josephus, as we have seen, gives (perhaps erroneously) Esseni as a variant of Essaei, Epiphanius hit upon the idea that the Esseni were from the
different
into
Essaei,
the orthodox
and as he had converted so
Issaei,
Essaei
he changed Esseni into
and kept this form for all characteristics of the Essenes which he held to be pre-Christian or heretical. Osseni,
Even
so Epiphanius cannot straighten out the matter,
for in his Introduction "
Esseni
"
were the
("Hser.,"
viii.
9) he tells us that the
the Samaritans, this heresy the in which he uses the Josephean being only passage
form of
of the
these
name;
Esseni.
of
first
however, says nothing further moreover, be confessed
he,
It
must,
that our Cyprian Bishop
change, for he has used
is
it
great on this device of name-
in other matters.
It therefore becomes of great interest to learn
what
The
340
DID JESUS LIVE 100
Epiphanius has to Contra Ossenos
us
tell
his
of
"
"
("
xix.
Hser.,"
B.C.
?
In
Osseni.
his
1-5), he informs us
that this heresy was interwoven with the heresies of the of whom more anon Nazarsei (not Nazorsei) of the :
and
Daily Baptists
of the Pharisees,
thus classifying
The
Osseni, he tells
them among pre-Christian us, were, like these
to the tradition
sects.
other schools,
2
which had come
Jews
;
but, according
not
to him, they did
came from the regions to south-east and south of the Dead Sea, mostly
originate in Judaea itself, but
the east,
Moab and Nabathsea;
from
Arabian
origin.
Are we, then,
name Essene
origin of the
were
they
largely
of
possibly to seek for the
in old Arabic
These Osseni, moreover, Epiphanius
?
tells us,
among
other things used especially a certain scripture called the Book or Apocalypse of Elxai, which he elsewhere
have been held in high esteem by the Ebionseans and Nazorseans, and especially by the Sampsseans, who, he says, are neither Christians, nor Jews, nor Greeks, but as they are midway between
("Hser.,"
all of these,
his
et
liii.
al.)
asserts to
they are nothing.
Osseni
Christians.
It,
or
therefore, becomes
learn
what were the leading
but
to
this
Here Epiphanius makes
Christians
heretical
interesting
even
of
still
non-
importance to
ideas of this Elxai scripture,
subject
we must devote
a
separate chapter. The Nazor#i.
We
will next pass to
of the Nazoreei
("
Hser.,"
what Epiphanius has xxix. 1-9).
to tell us
After declaring that
Called Masbotheans by Hegesippus (Mazbutlia = Baptism). See Die Religion des Judentums," p. 437 n. Bousset, 2 The Pharisees, however, were not a school or a sect, but rather 1
"
the national religious party
among
the Jews.
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. in
the
days
early
the
Christians
were
all
341 called
Nazorseans, although for a short time they also bore name Jessyeans, Epiphanius enters into a very curious
the
and deeply interesting digression on the Davidic descent of Jesus, which we shall treat in detail later on, and he then proceeds to tell us that Paul himself was accused of being a Nazorsean and acknowledged the title, con moreover, that in the eyes of the Jews he was
fessing,
which Epiphanius is, of course, only repeating the words of the writer of the Acts
a heretic (Min)
(xxiv.
5,
;
in all of
12-14).
According to Epiphanius, the Nazoreeans were practically Jewish Christians, that is to say, Christians
who
still
observed the Jewish
what
Law
were as
;
he
is,
however, not
whether they took the miraculous view of his birth and worshipped him
certain
their views
as God, or regarded
him
to Jesus,
as a simple
man who became
a
It was against these Nazoraeans, that is to the Christians who remained on the ground of say,
prophet.
that the Jews in their synagogues used to pronounce the curse to which reference has
Judaism, he
tells us,
already been made, and which his contemporary Jerome assures us was directed against the Minsei (Minim).
These Nazoroeans, even in Epiphanius time, were The numerous, and were scattered throughout Coele-Syria, Decapolis, Fella, the region beyond Jordan, and extended even as far east as Mesopotamia. And in this connec tion, he declares that the sect of the Nazorseans took its rise in
and about Pella
salem, for he will have
on a prophecy siege
;
this
is,
in Peraaa after the fall of Jeru it
of Jesus,
that the disciples, in reliance had fled thither to avoid the
of course, the
Eusebian account as well,
Flight to
DID JESUS LIVE 100
342
B.C. ?
but neither of these Fathers seem to have considered says little for the courage or patriotism of the disciples that they fled nor does Epiphanius explain that
it
;
" "
the
if
why,
subsequently
70
to
the Nazorseans began only Paul was called a Nazoraean
of
heresy
A.D.,
a generation earlier. Towards the Facts of the Case.
But indeed our heresiologist is ever involving himself . . x_ in serious contradictions concerning these Nazoraei, for while on the one hand he makes them out to
differ
from the Catholic Christians only in their continued ad herence to the Jewish Law, he elsewhere says that they in
many
things hold the same views as the Cerinthians,
Ebionites, Sampsaaans and Elkesaeans, all of
whom
he
most bitterly attacks because they did not acknow ledge Jesus as God, but said that he was either simply a
man
with the Holy Spirit of God, or that the Christ was the Great Power, or Great King good man, or a
filled
;
taught the natural birth of Jesus and the doctrine of the mystic Christ, and not the later
in
brief they
historicized
dogma
finally
made
absolute by the Council
of Nicsea.
The
historical
fact
underlying
tion
seems to be simply that
name
for
many
Nazorsei
schools possessing
contradic
this
all "
"
many
was a general views differing
from that view which subsequently became orthodox. Most of them still remained more or less on the ground of
Judaism, but what
is
of
the greatest importance is those earliest
that they were the direct followers of
Nazorsei of which, according to the tradition of the Acts.
Paul was accused
of being a leader.
That the tradition
many and various)
(or rather traditions, for
of the Nazoraei differed
they were
very widely
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. from any form tion,
may
of
scripture
marches
of Christianity
be seen even in our their
known to canonical tradi own day from the complex
existent
still
343
descendants in the
Southern Babylonia, the so-called Mandaites, from whose Codex Nasarseus we have already quoted a of
few pregnant sentences but the Genzci, is a vast store house of mixed traditions of all kinds, to which, unfor ;
tunately,
we have no
space
to
our present
in
refer
undertaking.
Epiphanius, as we have seen, is greatly put to it to Nazoraan Scn P tures extricate himself from the many difficulties which have puzzled
many
far wiser heads than his own.
He
-
feels
compelled, on evidence which was doubtless far fuller in his day than it is in ours, to hold to the Nazorseans as the first Christians,
both the Old and
New
and
will
have
Testament
it
that they used
though how
(xxix. 7),
the earliest Christians could have used the
ment, when
New
Testa
was not yet in existence, he does not explain; they differed from the Catholic Christians it
only in so far that they observed the Jewish Law, the Sabbath and circumcision, the rite of the Covenant; but if so, it is strange that Epiphanius could be so so
much
of it is occupied
New
Testament, when with the Letters of Paul, who
careless as to say they used the
so strenuously withstood circumcision (or Law) which killeth." These Nazorai, Epiphanius
learned in Hebrew, and
all
tells us,
and the
"
letter
were exceedingly The Hebrew
their writings apparently
were in Hebrew (or Aramaic). But when he leaves the vague ground of the New Testament and comes "
name one Gospel which he Hebrew original of the Gospel
to documents, he can only
claims to have been the
"
Gos P el
-
344
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
according to Matthew, a book which was known to his contemporary Jerome, and a copy of which was in the
Library founded by Pamphilus at Caesarea. It is impossible here to enter into the history of the
Gospel of the whether the Hebrew
puzzling controversy concerning this or
Nazoraeans,"
to
determine
"
Aramaic) Gospel according to Matthew, which is and Jerome, and which the
(or
referred to by Epiphanius
Greek and Latin, but kept back
latter translated into
because
were not profitable to "
disclose,
Gospel according to the
translation
known
is
to
was
Hebrews,"
have
the
Nazoraean
was
different
Matthew
l ;
The
which a Greek
of
in
Hilgenfeld
the
early
holds that
Gospel (according to the Hebrews) from the Hebrew Gospel according to while Lipsius, on the contrary, maintains
that the two titles refer to one and the Ancient
from the
different
existed
the second century.
of
years
Matthew
striking divergences from canonical
its
of
criticism
same document. 2
the question introduces us to a
complicated problem of recensions, translations and retranslations, but in any case we are face to face
with such readings as positive
command,
infer a gospel-form
begat
"Joseph
Jesus,"
and the
Call me not Good/ both of which which rejected the physical virgin"
*
"
birth and the equation of Jesus with God.
It is not,
however, to be supposed that the literature of the Nazoraei, even on the ground of the New Covenant, was 1
Evangeliorum secundum Hebrseos et cet. quae Librorum Deperditorum Fragmenta (Leipzig 1884, "
Hilgenfeld (A.),
"
supersunt
2nd
;
;
pp. 15 ff., 33 ff. 2 See his article, (The Gospel of the Gospels, Apocryphal Hebrews) in Smith and Wace s Dictionary of Christian Biog ed.),
"
"
"
raphy"
(London
;
1880).
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. confined to this Gospel and the
"
Book
contrary there must have been
"
on the
;
many books used by
and
them,
of Elxai
345
of
gospels apocalypses ancient and more recent.
all
kinds,
both
Moreover, in following up the Nazonei, Epiphanius The gets involved in yet another chronological difficulty,
which he attempts to solve in the same fashion as that which he dealt with the Essene problem, namely, by
in
The Nazoraai about whom he
a distinction in names.
has been telling us, are not, he says, to be confused Sanctified or Nazirsei, a term meaning the
with the "
"
"
Consecrated
one,
"
("
and many
xxix. 5)
Hser.,"
after him,
of
;
whom Samson was
and among them John the
Baptist.
There was, he Christ ("
("
Haer.,"
Haer.,"
He
treats
Baptists, who,
;
sect
of
the Nasaraei before
these he has already described
1-3). calling them, however, Nazaraei.
xviii.
of
says, a
xxix. 6)
with
connection
these in
like the Essenes
and
allied
the
Daily
communities,
baptized or washed themselves in water every day they were Jews, and lived in the same districts as the Essenes. ;
They observed the law the appointed
feasts,
of circumcision, the
Sabbath and
and especially reverenced the
ancient patriarchs and sages of Israel, including Moses they however, rejected the canonical Pentateuch, and
;
said that the real
public circulation.
Law was They
different
from the one
in
apparently also rejected all the
prophets after Moses.
Moreover, they refused to have anything to do with the blood sacrifices of the Temple and abstained from eating flesh. They contended that the books which laid
down
the rules of these sacrifices
were inventions
later
times,
of
and that their true
DID JESUS LIVE 100
346
Adam
ancestors from
bloody rites
all
;
to
B.C. ?
Moses did not perform such
the accounts of such sacrifice in the
popular scripture were later inventions of scribes who were ignorant of the true doctrine. These Nazars, then,
were an extreme school
of those dissentient mystics
whose sayings had from about 150 B.C. crept into the books which subsequently became canonical, such "
spirit
"
as
sayings
"
;
:
The
God are Thou offering
sacrifices
and
Sacrifices
of
broken
a
not
didst
desire."
This spiritual protest against the grossness of bloodand offerings was also a characteristic of the Essenes ;
there can be
little
doubt but that there must have been
a very close connection between the ideals of these pre-
Christian schools of mystic and humanitarian Judaism
and the The
earliest Christians.
The bringing
Nazirs.
its
(and is "
of
the names Nazonei and Nazaraei
variants) into such close connection, however,
The Old Testament Nazirs were those
puzzling.
consecrated
"
to
Yahweh by
a vow, and their origin
goes back to very early times in Jewish tradition. it is to be remarked that in Numbers vi. the word
Now
nezer
vow of we do how
applied to the taking of the Nazirite
is
separation
or consecration.
1
Knowing
as
fond the Hebrews, and, for a matter of that, ancients, were as yet
name
undreamed ("
Jesus in
of 1
")
"
the Talmud, 2 and in one of the Toldoth
Bib."
Bab.
the
was
and finding as we do that the is given to one of the disciples
See Cheyne s (Robertson Smith s) article
"Enc.
2
of,
branch
netzer
all
of word-play, for philology proper
Sanhedrin,"
43a.
"
Nazarite
"
in
the
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
347
recensions to Jeschu himself, and that commentators are
agreed that this "
Nazarene
;
followers of
if
Hebrew
for
our previous argument
knowing further that some of the earliest Jesus were Galileans, and that the Jews
Galileans in general as ignorant people, not be possible that some other of the earliest all
despised it
a play on notzri, the
Galilean,
(or
holds good)
can
is
"
were Nazirs, in the later sense of the Talmud and Toldoth acknowledge that the disciples were learned men ? It is, we
disciples of Jesus
term, for the
some
of
admit, impossible at this late date to throw any certain light on this chaos of conflation of names, but it is not
have asked the question. course be doubted whether there was an The Neo
illegitimate to It
may
order
of
of
Nazarites contemporary with Jesus
;
never
theless Epiphanius distinctly tells us that the mystics
and
ascetics
whom
of
he
is
speaking, went back to
pre-Christian times, and rejected the sacrificial and priestly views of the Ezra-Nehemiah redaction of the
Torah.
They
are
thus apparently to
be
associated
who sought to revive the ancient schools of the prophets," and who did revive them in a very remarkable fashion, as we know from the apocalyptic Such men would naturally literature of the period. with those
"
have looked back to the Nazirs of old as an "from
allusions
Amos
in
(ii.
11
we
if.)
ideal, for
are led to
suppose that at one time they (the Nazirs) had an importance perhaps even an organization parallel to that of the
l
prophets."
These Nazarites
of
Amos have
the ancient Eechabites, a 1
See Cheyne
also a parallel
name which s article,
sup.
in later
cit.
with The times
348
DID JESUS LIVE 100
became synonymous with
B.C. ?
1
and the early writer us ii. Hegesippus expressly (cup. Euseb., H. 23), that "one of the priests of the Sons of Rechab, the ascetic,
"
tells
E.,"
who
son of Rechabim, prophet,"
Just, the
are mentioned by Jeremiah the
protested against the murder of James "
brother of the
the
Lord."
We
have already also seen that Nilus asserts that the Issaei derived their descent from Jonadab the Rechabite, and though
we have not space here to go we could wish, we can
into the matter as thoroughly as at
least
together,
see that all these scattered indications
hang numerous precommunities, who were closely inter
and point
Christian ascetic
woven with the The
to the existence of
origins of Christianity.
Moreover, the great mythic hero of the Nazirs was Sampson (LXX.) or Samson, a name derived from SMS 2
This at Shemesh, Chald. Samas), or the Sun. once brings us back to Epiphanius and his Sampsaeans.
(Heb.
We have
already seen that the Bishop of Constantia, in Haer./ xxix. 5), knew that speaking of the Nazirsei Samson was the great hero of these Nazirs, and yet he ("
fails
hero ("
to
entirely s
And
name.
Haer.," liii.
understand the significance of
the
this is strange, for after telling us
1-2) that the Sampsseans are to be found in
the same regions as the Essenes and Nazoraeans, and that they were also called Elkesaei, of whom we shall treat later on, he goes on to say that Sampssei means Heliaci, that is to say Solares (Children or 1
See Bennett s article
of the 2
"
Rechab,
Rechabites"
Worshippers
in Hastings
"
Diet,
Bible."
See Budde
Bible."
s
article
"
Samson
"
in
"
Hastings
Diet, of the
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. of
The
the Sun).
repeats, all use the
Book
of
Elxai,"
we should
Sampsseans, or as
and Nazoraei, he and especially the
Osseni, Ebionsei "
349
prefer to take
it,
one
of
the books they all used was this apocalypse.
They were sun-worshippers not, however, in the gross Sunsense in which Epiphanius would have us understand ;
the term, but presumably in the same sense as the Therapeuts were sun-worshippers, who, as Philo tells us, "
dawn and
twice a day, at
even, are accustomed to
as the sun rises praying for the sun the real shine, sunshine, that their minds may be filled offer
up prayers
with heavenly soul,
;
light,
and
as it sets praying that their
completely lightened of the lust of the senses and
sensations,
may withdraw
to its
own
council-chamber, there to track out
congregation and
truth."
1
Their teacher was not, as Epiphanius would have a
man
called Elxaios, but
"
kin to
it,
we
as
and those who were illumined were
shall see later on,
said to be
some Great Power,
Him and "
born
of
the
"
blessed
seed."
This reminds us forcibly of the Mind or Shepherd of Men in the Trismegistic treatises, and of much else.
This
"
Mind
of all-mastership,"
children or disciples in birth
;
in other words,
Epiphanius
tells
whom
And
"
Christs."
us that the Sampsseans and the rest "
lives for
"
;
of the
the Logos had come to
who had become
would gladly lay down their of Elxai
was the Father
moreover, those of this
any of this race race were believed to
have the power of miraculous healing. Epiphanius further informs us that the Sampsseans would not receive the prophets and apostles (presumably of
Petrine and Pauline Christianity), and 1
"
Phil,
D. V.
;
C.,
P. 893,
M. 475.
that
they
Their Mystic ]
350
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
used the term Christus with a signification at variance with that of the later Mcene belief. Epiphanius can
not understand the symbolism of these Children of the Sun, and makes a great hash of it but it seems to have ;
been simple enough. The positive and negative aspects of the Divine Logos were symbolized by the Sun (or Fire) and Water, the Light and Life.
The Christ and
his sister, or spouse,
the Holy Spirit or the Sophia were the dual Son of God, the true Man. (Wisdom),
Those who had reached the consciousness
ment with The true
spiritual
"
Body
of
Adam,"
in Paradise,
when
of their
Man, were Christs
this sexless
atone
or Anointed.
they termed the the garment which was left behind the soul descended, and which it will of the Christ
body
put on again when it returns triumphant as the Victor of all of which in this and every other connection
;
Epiphanius appears not to have had the least notion, for he can only ridicule or denounce it. The Ebionites.
We next pass on to we
~
,
.
,.,
.
,
the Ebionseans or Ebionites,
.
. ,
.
,
,
.
whom -,11
,
Epiphanius inextricably interwoven with the Nazoraeans and allied sects. The Bishop of Constantia find in
apostrophizes with great vigour a certain Ebion, whom he imagines, as did his predecessors in heresiology, to
have been the founder
of this
proceeds to confute this
widespread heresy.
He
" "
serpent
at great length
by
the very simple process of quoting from the canonical books of the New Testament, which of course the good
Father held to constitute an infallible historical record, against which there was no appeal. Epiphanius, like his patristic predecessors, has, of course, not the slightest heretics," appreciation of the position of these early and begs the whole question with that superb confidence "
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. which has ever characterized the defenders cism.
The
the followers of
of
position
351
of Catholi
these
early
was precisely that they depended upon a tradition which they claimed to be earlier than that of schools, however,
was an appeal to history, and history has so far never answered the appeal, history s voice has been drowned by the passionate rhetoric of the canonical view;
it
theologians.
"
The name Ebionsei (Heb. Ebionirn) meant simply The Poor," and did not derive from an imaginary eponymous
now
Ebion, as has been
for
years admitted by
many
Ebion
scholars of every school.
is
a
myth begotten of So much is certain
the rhetoric of patristic polemics.
but who the
were so
"
Poor
"
one
called, is
"Poor."
;
originally were, and of the
why they innumerable conundrums
with which the sphinx of the Christian origins confronts the critical (Edipus.
Already we find Paul in his Letter (ii.
10) referring
to
the
to the Galatians The Riddle of
in such a
"poor"
way
that
Hilgenfeld takes the term as a general designation of the early Christian communities and not simply the "
poor of the church of the
"
pillars
also find the writer of the third
his
"sources"
at Jerusalem. 1
We
Gospel using among
a form of the Sayings which are held "
be of a distinctly Ebionite character, that is to say, containing such unqualified declarations as "
to
Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God (Luke vi. 20), a dark saying, not only for us, but also
"
"
for the writer of the first Gospel, or his
which gives (Matt.
v. 3),
"
Logia
source," "
it
as
"
Blessed are the
where rw
1
Trvev/jLari
has
poor
all
"
Hilgenfeld,
Ketzergeschichte," p.
in
spirit
the appearance 422.
the
Name
-
DIB JESUS LIVE 100
352
we
of being a gloss, unless "
(in
loc.),
those
accept Jerome
who on account
of the
which case
"
B.C.
s
?
interpretation Spirit are
Holy
voluntarily poor might be regarded of form the as the original Saying, and hence as ad dressed to the members of an already formed com ;
munity;
in
it
the usual interpretation of the Catholic
for
Fathers, that the phrase
is
a periphrasis for
"
humble,"
would be a brusque departure from the simple wording of the rest of the Sayings of the same category.
But even
so, if
the more elaborate form
to explain
it is difficult
why
is
the original,
the writer of the third
Gospel should have dropped the qualifying rw
7n/eu /xcm,
by no means easy of translation, unless it be the rendering of some Hebrew or Aramaic idiom.
a phrase literal
on the contrary, the simple
"
is the original poor form, the idea of a community of Poor cannot be enter tained, and we must rather attribute it to some dark If,
"
saying of the Master preserved by those
imagined that
who
falsely
He was
preaching some social revolution of a Master of Wisdom could certainly
poor against rich, for not have preached that the mere fact of poverty was a virtue, and the mere fact of riches a condemnation.
In our present lack of reliable data less to speculate as to the origin of the
this
much we know,
it is,
then, use
name Ebioriite who were so
;
that later on those
were not necessarily poor, though some naked they sought the were voluntarily Poor
called
of
them
"
;
as the
Gymnosophist
of
Upper Egypt
is
Naked,"
reported to
1
The Twofold
have told Apollonius in the first century. The point, however, which has proved
of greatest
Ebionism Hypothesis.
i
See
First
my
"
the Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Keformer of
Century"
(London
;
1902), p. 100.
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
353
difficulty in all research into this puzzling question of
the Ebionaeans,
that while Irenaeus, about 180
is
knows only of one kind
who who
assert that Jesus
of Ebionites
("
Kef.," i.
was born a man as
all
A.D.,
22), those
men, and
C. Cels.," Paul on the contrary Origen towards the middle of the third century, speaks
reject
61.),
two kinds
;
v.
("
of Ebionites,
who
both those
was a man, and those who believe
of
say that Jesus
in the virgin-birth,
Eusebius at the beginning of the fourth iii. century ("H. 27). Accordingly innumerable have been put forward, and attempts made hypotheses as also does
E.,"
and subdivide the Ebionites, ever since the "Tubingen school" maintained that in them we had to divide
the remnants of original Apostolic Christianity is, however, no agreement among the authorities. of
Perhaps
them by
chronological canon, and to speak of
and as "
is
Gnostic
there
the distinctions drawn between the
all
Ebionites, the attempt to separate
"
;
l
Ebionism,"
is
a supposed
Ebionism proper the most misleading, for, "
"
invariably the case, the comparative lateness of is assumed as a firmly-established fact "
Gnosticism
Church History. But the fond pre the later Church Fathers that the Church
for all questions of
sumption of remained a pure virgin "
until the reign of
"
uncontaminated by heresy Trajan, is no longer to be maintained
"
"
in face of the testimony of Paul, our earliest witness
to the existence of the Faith.
As
I
have already stated elsewhere, 2 Gnosticism,
is
The Early Date of
1
Gnosticism,
See Fuller s article
"
Ebionism
"
in S.
and W. s
"
Diet, of Christ
Biog."
2
See
"Some
Notes on the Gnostics
"
in
"The
Nineteenth
Century"
(Nov. 1902), pp. 822-835.
23
354
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
not to be confined to the second and part of the third century it was flourishing in the first century as well
:
;
indeed, Christianity seems to have been in contact with communities of a Gnostic character from its very
Setting aside the hotly-debated point whether Jesus himself was a member of one of the
beginnings.
Essene communities, there
is
little
very
Paul, whose authentic Letters are the records of Christendom, was in some
with
"
Gnostic
"
It
doubt that
earliest historic
sort of contact
generally believed that the Apostle to the Gentiles was in irreconcilable con ideas.
is
with every sort of Gnosticism, because of his Gnosis falsely so called but if so, it is an phrase, flict
"
"
;
extraordinary fact that some of his Letters are filled with technical terms of the Gnosis, terms which
Gnostic tradition,
and repeated explanation in but which remain as every-day
words deprived
all
receive ample, elaborate,
of
technical context
in
Catholic
hands. Paul and the
To take one instance out before.
xv. 8 in the all
What "
puzzling
of is
one, however,
also, as of
the
its
"
:
And
one born out
last of
of
due
the graphic but meaning due time," which so many of
of
familiar sound
without further
?
question
And
last
to
t-KTpwfJLa,
as to
me
born out
accept because of
peared
many
s
famous and familiar words
he was seen
time."
"
of
knowledge, has not been noticed The Authorized Version renders I. Corinthians
which, to the writer
me
of
all,
wa-Trepel "
also."
he appeared to
And me
TM last
also."
the abortion, he appeared to
eVr/ow/xa-n,
he ap
of
to
all,
"And
me
as
last of
also."
the all
Notice
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. the
"
article,
abortion,"
Now term
of
"
as
to
the
abortion,"
not
"
as
355 to
an
l
the abortion
one
"
is
of the great
a technical and oft-repeated
systems
of the Gnosis, a
which enters into the main fabric
of
the
term
Sophia-
mythus. In the mystic cosmogony of these Gnostic circles, The the abortion was the crude matter cast out of the "
"
Pleroma or world
of perfection.
This crude and chaotic
matter was in the cosmogonical process shaped into a "aeon by the World-Christ; that is to say, was made into a world-system by the ordering or The abortion was the cosmic power of the Logos.
perfect
"
"
unshaped and unordered chaotic matter which had to be separated out, ordered and perfected, in the macrocosmic task
of the "enformation according to while this substance," again was to be completed on the side soteriological by the microcosmic process of the "
or spiritual con enformation according to gnosis As the world-soul was perfected by the sciousness.
"
World-Christ, so was the individual soul to be perfected
and redeemed by the individual Christ. Paul thus becomes comprehensible; he here speaks the language of the Gnosis, and in this instance at least it
is
falsely so
who
me
draw the deduction that the Gnosis
in
connection could not, in his opinion, have been
this "
possible to
called."
Paul
is
speaking to communities
He appeared to well-known imperfect plasm
are familiar with such language
just as it
were
to that
"
The reading has never been questioned ; but even if it were questioned, the canon that the more difficult reading is to be pre ferred to the easier" would decide for the retention of the article. 1
"
356
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
which we
call
the abortion,
familiar to all of
The Puzzle
"
he says
"
;
I use a figure
you."
we
accept the main Pauline Letters as . , the Communities, genuine, problem we have to face is this, that we are in them presented with a picture of communities which had plainly existed before Paul s propaganda, of
then,
If,
the Pauline
.
.
.
.
.
not only in Palestine but also among the Diaspora, and that at least some of these communities were familiar
Paul uses language which the communities which devoted
with Gnostic nomenclature. us
convinces
that
themselves to the cultivation of
"
the gifts of
the
"
were not originally founded by himself, but that spirit they had been long established, for he does not speak of
these
things as new, but as very familiar, not as
taught by himself, but rather as to be modified by his own more common-sense teaching. These communities
were not only familiar with Gnostic nomenclature, but also with some sort of undisciplined "prophesying";
whence did they have such things impatiently to set these facts
?
on one
It is not sufficient side, for it is just
such facts which are the fundamental data in any
attempt to solve the mystery
of Christian origins.
is, therefore, somewhat beside the point to assume must have necessarily been Gnostic Ebionism that
It
"
"
later
than
"Ebionism
Ebionism proper inform ourselves. this
"
proper," "
The main charge against the
Ebionite
especially as
it is
just
about which we should like to
Ebionites, as Hippolytus
Chriatology. "
heretics,"
denied the later doctrine of the miraculous
physical virgin-birth of Jesus.
They
lived according to
the Jewish customs, claiming that they were justified
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. the
to
"according
They further
Law."
357
declared, so
says Hippolytus, that Jesus had been so justified by it was for this cause that they his practice of the Law ;
him
called
none
for
"
the anointed (Christ) of the other
of
(?
"
could by doing the same become Christs that he (Jesus) was a man like all men."
We know still
;
for,
they
and
claimed
members
that
said,
went
also that other of the early schools
further
1 ;
prophets) had fulfilled the that they themselves
further declared
They
Law."
God and Jesus
their
of
communities had already reached this high stage of justification and illumination, as high as Paul or even Jesus himself, and that this could even be transcended a vain and empty boast, you will say, but then we
have no record
of their lives,
but only the bitter de
nunciations of the Church Fathers. the earliest form of mystic Apparently J Christology was that of "election." Thus
Justin Martyr
(c.
"
Trypho
(xlix.),
145-150
A.D.),
in his
"
Ebionite The Doctrine of Election.
we
find
Dialogue with
putting the following argument into the
Those who affirm mouth of his Jewish opponent him to have been a man, and to have been anointed by election, and then to have become a Christ (Anointed), "
:
appear to
me
to
speak more plausibly than
you,"
that
Justin, who maintains the physical virgin birth dogma, and who in the previous chapter had said to Even if I cannot demonstrate so much Trypho as this [namely, that Jesus was God incarnate in the is
"
:
Virgin 1
not
s
womb], you
admit that Jesus
is
the
they called him Jesus," Hippolytus unfortunately does us but we may perhaps get on the track of the reason in
Why tell
will at least "
;
the next chapter.
358
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Messiah (Anointed) of God, in case he can be shown to have been born as a man of men, and be proved to have been raised by election to the dignity of messiah-
For there are
ship.
who admit
race)
him The of
Hermas
to
have been a
In the
.
man
:i
Shepherd
on Election.
j us ^ nj
t jian
of
which in the part
v. 5) is distinctly
Sim."
older is
set
:
God made His Holy
created all creation, to
which pre-existed and enter and dwell in the flesh Spirit,
human body) which He
(i.e.,
(lit.
men."
Hernias," "
(
our persuasion
the Messiah, but declare
this doctrine of election or adoption
forth as follows "
is
of
of
from which we quote
"
some
.
.
that he
approved.
This
flesh,
which the Holy Spirit took up its dwell served the Spirit well in holiness and purity,
therefore, in ing,
having never in any way polluted the Spirit. There fore, because it had lived well and purely, and had laboured with
the
Spirit
and worked therewith in
every matter, conversing bravely and manfully, God chose it to be participator along with the Holy Spirit. For the flesh walked as pleased God, because it was
not polluted upon earth, having the Holy Spirit. God, therefore, took into counsel the Son and the angels in their glory, to the
end that
this flesh,
having blame
lessly served the Spirit, might furnish, as it were, a place of tabernacling (for the Spirit), and might not
seem
to
have
lost the
flesh shall receive the
reward
without stain or spot, and in
make The Heresy
of
its
This 1
For
all
it
the Holy Spirit shall
l
home."
election
Conybeare
of its service.
reward which shall be found
s
was
said
to
translation, op. sub.
be cit.,
consummated pp. Ixxxix., xc.
at
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. was the true Baptism
"
baptism,"
it
nay,
As we shall see in the next Spirit. Spirit or Wisdom was the spouse of
When
359
of the
Holy
chapter, the
Holy
the Son or Great
mystic teaching became historicized and connected with an actual physical
King.
this universal
baptism by John the Baptist it is impossible to say, but it is very certain that the of election," heresy and the claim of the early mystics that all men who "
"
"
become
lived the life of true holiness could
the
unforgiveable sin
of
was
Christs,
the subsequently
orthodox
Fathers, and that this teaching has been relentlessly crushed out by the Catholic Church wherever found 1
throughout the centuries. But indeed the question of Ebionism
is
,.
,
of a so vast Necessity ,
.
of the
Church Fathers and analyse the
Literature. "
Ebionism,"
"
Clementine
"
There seems to have been every shade of if on the one hand the Church Fathers
and
accepted the whole of the Old Testament, on the other we are informed that tell
us
that
the Ebionteans
they submitted cism,
some
but even
of
documents
its
them
much
to a
most drastic
criti
rejecting not only all the Prophets,
Like so
of the Pentateuch.
many
of
the Gnostics they had a subjective canon whereby they sorted out the inspiration of the Old Testament as pure,
mixed and
This
much
to assign a 1
is
See Conybeare (F. C.)
Election
"
and
of
certain, that
meaning
precise
Paulician Church "
evil.
only
"
we
are no longer able
the
terribly
abused
The Key
Armenia"
"
"
Elect,"
to
e.g.,
of Truth, a Manual of the (Oxford; 1898); index, s.w.
Elect regarded as
Christs,"
etc.
for
aNewDetini-
,
and complicated nature that it would require a whole tion of volume in itself to exhaust the contradictory indications Eblomsm
-
360
DID JESUS LIVE 100
term "
"
Ebionism
B.C.
?
"
;
as
it is
vague
Gnosticism," for in the latter at
nay vaguer than, any rate there must
as,
"
Ebionism proper be a mystic element, whereas with it is mostly confounded with materialistic and limited "
views, though, as The
we have
seen, erroneously. already seen that these mystic and more
We have
Samaritans.
flourished
liberal ideas
in
especially
where
districts
we
the people were of non-Jewish extraction not surprised to find that Samaria ;
are,
therefore,
also,
whose inhabitants were almost purely of non-Jewish For descent, was a hot-bed of heresies of all kinds. "
"
the Jew, then, excellence,
"Samaritan"
stood for a heretic par
and we are therefore not astonished
to find
that one of the epithets applied by the Kabbis to Jesus
was that Samaritan
of
Samaritan.
In this connection
it
interest
of
is
to
note that
Sects.
Epiphanius
("
ix.) tells
us that the four principal
Samaritans were
sects of the
Gortheni,
Haer.,"
(iii)
(i)
the Esseni,
the
(ii)
the Sebuseans, and (iv) the Dositheans.
It is very strange to find the Essenes heading the list,
for
no other writer
calls
members
the
interesting brotherhood Samaritans.
the Bishop of Constantia does that schools closely allied to
so,
them
It
may
of
this
be that
because he found
rejected all other of
the Jewish scriptures except the Pentateuch.
It
may,
however, be that as a matter of history the Essenes themselves also rejected much which subsequently became the orthodoxy of Mishnaic Rabbinism, and they
may very As to
well have had
the
many Gortheni, who "
Hegesippus
(op. Euseb.,
H.
adherents in Samaria. are also mentioned
E.,"
iv.
22),
who
by
flourished
in the latter half of the second century, Epiphanius calls
OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS.
"TRACKS
them
also Gortheoni 1
Haer./
("
i.
but
12),
("
("
12) and also Gorotheni
Ancorat.,"
tells
doret, however, says
361
us nothing about them. Theoi. 1) that they derived
Hser. Fab./
from Simon Magus, that is to say, they held the same views as did the mystics associated their doctrines
on with
"
semi-mythical founder of Christian heresy, according to the Church Fathers. As to the Sebuaeans, Epiphanius alone mentions later
"
this
tells us nothing about them except that they held certain Feasts on days which differed widely from the dates of the Jews.
them, but
With the mention .
come
of the Dositheans, however,
.
to a subject of greater
interest.
And
here
we we
The Dositheans.
Epiphanius and follow the data collected in excellent article of Salmon. 1 The Ebionite
will leave
the
"
"
Recognitions tell us that Simon Magus was a disciple of Dositheus (that is, perhaps, of the school of Dositheus), and that Dositheus (Heb. Dosthai) was the
Clementine
"
"
prophet like unto Moses whom Yahweh was to raise up. The Clementine "Homilies," on the contrary, in true legendary
style
declare
that
both
Dositheus
and
Simon were
As Jesus, co-disciples of John the Baptist. the Sun, had twelve disciples, so John, the Moon, had number
thirty disciples, the
more accurately 29|,
for
of
one
of
days in a lunation, or
them was a woman.
studied magic in Egypt, and there is a of a contest between him and Dositheus, strange legend
Simon,
it is said,
which Simon proves himself the
in
The Recognitions
victor.
also state that Dositheus
was the The
founder of the sect of the Sadducees, which means probably nothing more historically than that Dositheus, as 1
"
Dositheus,"
in
Smith and Wace s
"
Diet, of Christ.
Biography."
Import-
Dositheus.
362 was
DID JESUS LIVE 100 to be expected
B.C.
?
of a
Samaritan, rejected all the subsequently canonical books, and held to the Penta teuch alone. In any case this statement assures us that
Dositheus was considered in subsequent times a very great importance. And as this statement
man
of
was
also
made by Hippolytus
in his lost
Compendium,
the view must have case Hippolytus
I.
been very widespread. In any gave the foremost place among his
pre-Christian sects to Dositheus.
Origen (in Johann. iv.) speaks of books ascribed to Dositheus as being still current among the followers of that then ancient tradition, and
among them that Some Curious
their master
of
a
had not
popular belief
really died.
Epiphanius describes the Dositheans as observers the
Law
;
and many
of
they, however, abstained from animal food, of
them
from
sexual intercourse.
Epi Dositheus phanius finally retired to a cave and there practised such severe further adds a
story that
asceticism as to bring his
a voluntary end.
life to
exceedingly interesting variant of in a Samaritan Chronicle, where
Samaritan
high-priest
against the
new
Law which was
sect,
took
this story it
such
because of
its
from want between
this
of
severe
food.
There
in a cave, is
a
measures
use of a Book of the
said to have been falsified
and the conclusion
appears
said that the
is
(Dositheus), that Dousis was compelled to
mountain and hide himself
An
"fly"
to a
where he died
striking
of the
by Dousis
similarity
Shemtob form
Toldoth which we have quoted in the chapter on Traces of Early Toldoth Forms," where Jesus flies away to a cave on Mount Carmel.
of "
Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria,
who
died 608 A.D.
TRACKS OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS. and who appears
to
363
have studied Dosithean books, says
that Dosthes (Dositheus) exhibited particular hostility
Judah. That is to say, presumably, Dositheans particularly detested a certain Can this have anything to do with the Judas
to the Patriarch
that the
Judah.
of the Toldoth,
and did the Dositheans give the other
side? Finally, it is very curious to find that Aboulfatah, an Arab historian, who nourished in the fourteenth century, and who was personally acquainted with the
Dositheus and BtC
.
Date,
adherents of this long-lived Dosithean tradition, places Dositheus 100 years B.C. Dositheus, he tells us, was
have claimed to have been the Prophet, foretold by Moses, and also the Star, prophetically announced in Numbers. 1 Dositheus, says Aboulfatah, that is to said to
say, according to the tradition of the
day, lived in the days of
105
B.C.
Dositheans of his
John Hyrcanus. who died
2
This Dosithean tradition, therefore, appears
to
me
to be deserving of greater attention than has yet been
bestowed upon it; it is not satisfactory to dismiss it impatiently with the epithet "fabulosa" as does Juynboll,
and those who copy from him.
tradition
is
Fathers assert with one voice that Christianity sprang
Magus
The Simon Magus the Church
interwoven with the Dosithean all
;
the heresies of
from Simon Magus
;
the
Simon
legends are interwoven with the Toldoth legends
of Jesus.
Num.
Baur
startled traditionalists with the theory
There shall come a star out of Jacob." xxiv. 17 Chronicon Samaritanum, arabiee See Juynboll (T. G. J.), 1848), pp. conscriptum cui Titulus est Liber Josuoe" (Leyden 1
2
"
:
"
;
112, 114.
The ConTraditions,
364
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
that the
name Simon Magus was simply
a disguise for
Paul, but the Jewish tradition amazes us
with
the
that
Simon
suggestion fantastic fashion is a legend-glyph,
any rate
for those
who
if
still
Magus
in
further
some
not for Jesus, at
followed the earliest tradition of
the historical Jesus.
We tions
"
will
next turn our attention to some considera
Concerning the Book
of
Elxai."
XVI1L
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI.
As we have the
already seen that, according to Epiphanius, The
Essenes,
Nazorenes,
"
Book
of
a
of
thought very highly called the
Ebionites,
certain
Elxai,"
it will
and
Sampsseans
ancient document
be of interest to
enquire further into the matter. l Hilgenfeld has argued that already the apocalyptic
Church document the
scribe of that Early
"
Shepherd
of
Hernias," or as he prefers the redactor of the Apocalyptic Hernias (as distinguished from the Pastoral Hernias) was acquainted with this Book of Elxai." Whether or "
not this early writer was acquainted with the actual book the later Church Fathers had in mind is a still subjudice; but he certainly was acquainted with some portion of the enormous cycle of apocalyptic literature and the general circle of ideas with which
matter
all
the early mystic schools were more or less in touch. of the Shepherd is practically
The apocalyptic part one
innumerable permutations and combinations Sophia-mythus. It is one of the many settings
of the
of the
forth of the mystic lore
Sophia, or 1
"
"
Wisdom, "
Hilgenfeld (A.),
Introd., pp. xxix., xxx.
and love
of the
Hermae
Son
of
Pastor"
of the Christ
and the
God and His spouse (Leipzig
;
1881,
2nd
ed.),
of
Hennas
"
366
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
or sister, the
King and Queen, of In this most instructive
Spirit, of the
Holy
the Lord and the Church.
series of visions are depicted the mystic scenes of the
allegorical
play of is
drama
man s
of
Most
all time.
ancient
much
monument
simply
of
early
to be regretted that the
has not been included in the Canon
"
"
Shepherd
was too general, too
it
perhaps
it is
the mystery-
beautifully and most
the story told in this
Christendom, and
inner nature
universal
;
for
but the
historicizers.
It is also of very great interest to notice the
many
intimate points of contact between the contents of the Apocalyptic Hermas and the teaching of the early "
Shepherd looked to that
is
a
DoSent.
Men
Hermes
to
"
tractates of the mystic school
the
say,
who
the Thrice-greatest as their inspirer,
But that
literature.
Hermas
of
earliest is
deposit
of
Trismegistic
another story which has not
yet been told. Like all the other extant extra-canonical documents
Early Church, the Shepherd of Hermas" has been submitted to the most searching analysis by modern "
of the
and though its unity is still strenuously defended by some scholars, we are inclined to agree with Hilgenfeld, who detects in the present form of
criticism,
the
Hermas document
so
to
say;
(i)
Pastoral (Vis.
appendix and ii. i.
the v.
three elements, or three deposits
Apocalyptic (Vis. i.-iv.); (ii) the Sim. vii.); (iii) the Secondary, or
of the latest redactor (Sim. viii.
x.).
Hernias
cite nothing from any of the books of the 1 canonical New Testament. It is Hermas i., moreover, which is acquainted with 1
Hilgenfeld, op.
cit.,
pp. xxx., xxxi.
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI.
367
the most distinctive features of the cycle of ideas of
which we of Elxai
few fragments of the Book which can be recovered from the polemical
find traces in the
"
"
This Apocalyptic Hernias
writings of the Fathers.
is
distinctly Anti-Pauline, and therefore cannot be expected
from the Letters
to quote is
that neither
any
it
of Paul,
but what
is
remarkable
nor the Pastoral Hernias quote from
of our four canonical gospels.
If,
then,
we
are inclined to accept the statement of Date
the writer of the Muratorian Fragment (c. 170 A.D.), that Hernias was written at Eome during the bishopric of Pius (140
c.
155
A.D.), this
must be taken
to refer
who is held to be responsible for and who seems to be acquainted with
to the last redactor
Hermas
iii.,
Canon, and the Apocalyptic Hermas may be pushed back to at least the beginning of the second century. We have also to remember
books
several
of
the
not only that the Greek original even of our form of Hermas is lost, but that the Old Latin version has also
we
disappeared, and that
translation of the Latin, 1
possess
only a Greek
and therefore the original
Hermas may have contained more abundant some things
of
which
it
re-
would be
traces of
of great service to
independent students of the origins to have a more exact knowledge, but which have disappeared in trans lation
and
re translation.
In any case the original form of the Book of Elxai thus seen to be of an early date, and the general
"
"
is
ideas in 1
See
are presumably
De Gebhardt
"Patrum
Prolegg.
it
(O.)
Apostolicorum
xi. n. 2.
still
and Harnack Opera,"
earlier. "
(A.),
fascic.
iii.
A
Hermse
just
ap-
Pastor,"
(Leipzig;
in
1877),
Indications
-
368
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
preciation of the nature of its contents, therefore,
very
Christianity his
importance
great
to
the
and as Hilgenfeld,
;
admirable edition
the
of
historian in
of
is of
Early
the appendix
"
Shepherd,"
has
l
to
con
veniently brought together every passage from the
Fathers relating to this curious document of Christian antiquity, we will bring the evidence into court and discuss The Church the
"
Book
it.
In the of
first
information
place
is
we must remember
that our scanty
derived entirely from those
who have
not a single good word to say for the book or for the
what
facts
we can from
We
have painfully to extract the hurly-burly of indiscriminate
followers of its teaching.
denunciation, from a few sentences here or there torn
out of the context for polemical purposes, only such things being quoted as appeared to the heresiologists ridiculous, extravagant or detestable.
Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, writing at Rome about A.D., is bitterly incensed at the book, a copy of which,
222
he says, had been brought to the City by a certain 2 but whether Apameia in Syria
Alcibiades, a native of
;
or not Hippolytus always quotes
from the book
or from the teachings of Alcibiades,
who made
itself
use of
the authority of what he considered to be a very ancient document in support of a more lenient view of the forgiveness of sins, a question which was then strongly agitating the Church of Rome, and on which Hippolytus himself held a far stricter view, is by no
means 1
clear.
Elxai Fragmenta Collecta, Digesta, Dijudicata." Book of Elxai was presumably in Hebre\v, and original was 8ubsequently translated into Greek. 2
"
The
"
"
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI.
369
apparently on Hippolytus, all The Date scholars confidently assert that according to the book itself, it was written in the third year of Trajan, that
Basing themselves
of
l
101
is
A.D.
;
does not say
whereas, as a matter of fact, Hippolytus It is true that Hippolytus states so.
ix.
("Philos.,"
gospel of a
13) that
new
Alcibiades
declared that the
remission of sins was preached in the
third year of Trajan
;
but did Alcibiades
make such an
assertion himself, or did Hippolytus deduce this from a
passage which he elsewhere professes to quote from the
book
itself
What
?
the full text of this passage
originally
we can by no means be
may have been
certain, since in the
only surviving copy of Hippolytus
"
Eefutation"
some
words are utterly corrupt. It must be remembered that we have only the single copy of the text of the "
Philosophumena," or
"
Eefutatio
Omnium
Hteresium
"
Hippolytus, which was discovered in one of the monasteries on Mount Athos, and brought to Paris by
of
Minoides Mynas in 1842. This passage from the Book of Elxai
"
"
to a "
famous prophecy
When
of the time,
a reference The
and runs as follows
:
three years of Trajan Caesar are fulfilled, from
the time
when he subdued ...
three years have been
2
fulfilled),
angels of unrighteousness of the 1
is
the Parthian s (when
the war
North
between the
is
stirred up, 3
So
also even Hilgenfeld, op. cit., p. 233. Probably a gloss. 3 ayyiCerat, a very rare word, not found at all in Liddell and Scott, while in Sophocles Lexicon (New York 1887) the only references are to our passage and to Syniin. Prov. xv. 18. 2
;
gives the
meaning as Schneidewin translate
"to
irritate,
excite,"
Sophocles while Duncker and
"
cxardescit"
24
Three
370
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
owing to which all kingdoms of unrighteousness are 1 thrown into confusion Philos.," ix. 16). "
("
Whatever may be the exact meaning seems not illegitimate
it
"
of
Trajan
all
to
conclude that the
date originated in this
prophecy,"
third year
which, for
to the general Elxai
circle of ideas, or literature (for this
part of
"
"
we know, may have belonged
confined
of the passage,
was certainly not
one document), and originally formed no the Book, though it may have subsequently to
been appended to the original apocalyptic document, apparently came at the end of the copy known to
for it
Hippolytus, and not at the beginning, as some have carelessly supposed.
The Book
In this connection
it is of
interest to recall to
mind
Older than the Prophecy,
that Trajan began the Parthian campaign in 114
A.D.,
and that three years afterwards the fierce and bloody revolt of the Jews of Cyrene and Egypt, in which no less
was
than a million Hebrews are said to have perished, In 117 Trajan died, and in 118 suppressed.
Hadrian of the
modern
set out for Msesia (the
most northern provinces
Bulgaria), one
the Empire, to fight If this is the fact alluded to, of
against the Sarmatians. then we have a date of a similar nature to so
many
in
the prophetical and apocalyptic literature of the times and of earlier years, and we may place the terminus a quo of this particular A.D.
1
I
element
of the Elxai literature at
But are the mystic visions and christology use the latest text and critical notes of
Duncker
118
of our
(L.)
and
Refutationis Omnium S. Schneidewin (F. G.), Hippol. Hseresium quse supersunt" (Gottingen 1859), and regard the emendation given by Hilgenfeld, in his Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums (Leipzig 1884), p. 435 n. 757, as too arbitrary. "
.
.
.
;
"
"
;
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAL book to be so dated
371
For our part we consider them
?
be
far earlier.
On
the other hand, supposing that the date of the
to
third year of Trajan (101 A.D.)
gives
then,
it,
come true
is
that this
seeing
taken as Hippolytus did not "prophecy"
(unless the fact that the
Dacian Wai-
first
broke out in the third year of Trajan, Dacia being the most northern province on the other side of the Danube, be held vaguely to explain the feld acutely remarks, the
prior to this date, for
"
prophecy
who
categorically that the in 101 A.D.
It
may
Book
of Elxai
it
which
can be asserted
"
itself
was written
very well be that the fierce suppres
sion of the frantic effort to
made by the Jews
as Hilgen-
fabricates a prophecy
he knows already to be false ? l But even so I do not think that "
")
Book must have been written
regain their independence
Gyrene and Egypt, where apoca may have been a psycho
of
lyptic ideas were specially rife,
moment when
the mystic teaching of repentance could be preached with the greatest effect, even as had logical
been the case some fell
;
it
may
fifty
years before
when Jerusalem
very well have been that the Essenecircles used this opportunity or
Nazarene-Sampscean
making known the saving mysteries for the benefit of their disheartened
of their traditions
countrymen
;
but
these mysteries were not newly invented.
Who, then, was Elxai ? What does the name mean ? who The name is evidently Semitic; Hebrew, Aramaic, or EIxai Old Arabic, Elchasai, Elkessai.
it
matters not.
Hippolytus gives
it
as
Origen as Helkesai, Epiphanius as Elxai or Epiphanius further informs us ( Htfer.," xix. "
1
Op.
cit.,
p.
xxx.
<
DID JESUS LIVE 100
372 2) that the
scholars sufficient
name meant 1
accept
"
Hidden
this
Power."
Some
2
others
this,
reason for
the
B.C. ?
reject is
rejection
no
though In given.
it,
my
opinion, this scrap of information
the significance of appreciate,
dropped by Epiphanius which he was totally unable to
and which he only reproduces
the occasion of a sneer, as in so
many
to serve as
other cases
puts
us on the right track out of this labyrinth of misunder Elxai was the name of no man, even as standing.
Ebionism
Ebion, the founder of
as
imagined by the and
was no man, and were imagined heretics, and even Epiphanes
just as Colarbasus
hseresiologists,
Elxai-Sophia.
extent Simon Magus. As to the mythic Colarbasus, in
means
literally the
"
All-four/ that
to
some
Hebrew Chol-arba is,
the sacred Tetrad
which
in the system of Marcus, for instance, who in is figured as the Feminine Power, the Greatness,
or Tetractys,
the form of
woman, the Divine Sophia, was the
a
revealer of the mysteries as set forth in the apocalyptic scripture in which Mark expounded the general ideas of his tradition
;
for,
as he says, the world could not
bear the power or effulgence of the Masculine Greatness 3 or Potency, the Christ.
Epiphanes in like manner can
be equated with the "Newly Appearing One," the waxing moon," the Moon being also a glyph of the
"
4
Sophia.
Simon and Helen again are the Sun and
Moon, the Christ and the Sophia 1
See Salmon s article
tionary of Christian
"
Elkesai
Biography"
"
but of
;
in
this, later on.
Smith and Wace s
(London
;
"
Dic
1880).
2
See Hilgenfeld, op. cit., p. 230. See The Number-System of Marcus" in my Faith Forgotten (London ; 1900), pp. 358-382. 3
"
"
4
Op.
cit. t p.
234.
"
Fragments
of a
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI.
373
no rash confidence, that Elxai, the Hidden Power, was in reality one of the therefore, conclude with
I,
many names
the mystic sister
the Masculine One, the Christ. borne out by the main apocalyptic fragment the Book which has survived among the few quotations calls it) of
mysticism
And of
Sophia or Wisdom, the Holy Ghost, or spouse (the Shakti as Brfihmanical
of the
this is
made by Hippolytus and Epiphanius, and which and Sophia as
the form
of a vision of the Christ
immense
beings, reaching from earth
of
is
of
two
to highest heaven,
which the mystic dimensions are given, just as
the diagram of the Heavenly of
apocalypse
Man,
in
as portrayed in the
Marcus.
But we have not yet done with the matter, Epiphanius
in
tells
us that Elxai, who, as
for
we have seen, he
takes for a man, and a dangerous and blasphemous heretic
had a brother called lexaios
to boot,
and in another place
("Hser.,"
liii.
1),
("Haer.,"
xix. 1),
he further informs
us that the Sampsseans said they possessed another book,
which they regarded with very great reverence, namely,
Book
the brother of Elxai. Eemembering, then, that the Marcosians declared that the world was the
"
of
lexai,"
not able to bear Greatness," it is "
of lexai
lation
;
it
the effulgence
of
the
"
Masculine
legitimate to speculate that this
"
Book
was purposely kept back from general circu was a true apocryphon. It was presumably a
book containing the higher mysteries or more recondite mystic teachings of this tradition; it may even have been the book which contained what was thought to be name and teaching of the one called Jesus
the real
among men, which name,
as
Marcus
declares,
was held
be a substitute for a far more ancient and sacred
to
title.
lexai-
374
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
In brief lexai was the Christ, the King, the spouse
Jexai-Jesus.
Hidden Power,
of Elxai, the
or
Holy Ghost, or Sophia
;
He was
perhaps the concealed Divine Triad of the Holy Four of Marcus, the "Triple Man" of other systems.
In
this connection it is interesting to notice that lexai
explained by some scholars as meaning in Hebrew the Hidden Lord." Can it then be possible that there
is
"
is
some connection between the name lexai
(or Jessai)
whom Epiphanius And if so, what con
and the lessaians or Jessseans to refers, as
Hilgenfeld supposes ? syncretism is there between the general term lexai or Jexai (Hidden Lord) and the Jesus of history ? flation or
For
says Marcus,
"Jesus,"
name down here and not
only the sound the power of the
is
of the
name
;
"
he declares, is really a substitute for a very ancient name, and its power is known to the elect" alone "
Jesus,
"
Was this mystery name, then, lexai ? we have not yet done with names in
of the Christians.
But even
Sobiai- Sophia.
so
this connection.
Philos.," ix. 13) will have Hippolytus Elxai" was said to have been revealed ("
it
that the
to Elxai,
"Book
of
whom
he regards as a man, and that this handed it on to a certain
Elchasai, as he spells the name,
Now
Sobiai.
probability the
form
of
we have already seen that in every teaching of the Book was set forth in the
as
an apocalyptic vision, as revealed by Elxai or the Wisdom, and that the man Elxai is a fiction
Sophia or of
the imagination
standing, so
apocalyptic class of
also
it
begotten by patristic may be that Sobiai
personification
mind which
misunder is
also
an
by the same and materialized so
historicized
historicized
much
else that
fact I
would suggest that Sobiai
was purely mystic and is
spiritual.
In
nothing else than a
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI.
375
transformation of Sophia, for as Epiphanius himself the Book purported to be says, though with a sneer, written prophetically,
Wisdom
of
or, as it
were, by the inspiration
(Sophia).
again more names
brought forward by Marthus and Epiphanius in this connection, and he has somewhat to tell us of two sisters called Marthus and Marthana
Yet
(or
Marthma), who,
lie avers,
are
were regarded with great
reverence by the adherents of the tradition of this early
Gnosis; they were, he says, worshipped as goddesses. Our great inquisitor of heresy, however, will have it that they were actual
women
living in his
own
times.
Moreover, and in this he lets more escape him than he would have done had he understood, they were of ^ the 11
race of Elxai
Now that
it is of
Martha "
"
1
"
in
("
Haer.,
xix. 1,
and
1
li.
I).
service in this connection to
Aramaic means simply
Martha
is
Mistress
Mar also we
the feminine of
remember
Our Lady
" "
or
Lord
2
Lady are face to Can it then be possible that here face with some more scraps of the scattered cUlris ;
of the once
("
most elaborate Christos-Sophia-mythus
").
?
this is not altogether a so wild speculation as The Sophia and her Twin the general reader may suppose, for do we not find in Daughters,
Nay, J
the Syriac Hymns of the Gnostic Bardaisan (155-233 A.D.), that the Holy Spirit, the Mother, the Sophia, this connection we may pertinently ask the question C. Celsum," v. 62) are the Gnostics whose tenets Origen tells us were known to Celsus, that is to say, at least as early as 1
In
Who
:
("
and who were known as "those of Martha" 1 scholar has even suggested that Mar being in Syriac a general title of distinction, Epiphanius has mistaken the names of two bishops of unorthodox views for the names of women, and 175 2
A.D.,
One bold
so developed his romance.
DID JESUS LIVE 100
376
B.C.
?
has two daughters, whose birth the orthodox Ephraem, the most bitter opponent of the Bardesanian Gnosis, writing more than a century later, declines to explain, and who were, in the poetical nomenclature of Bardaisan, called respectively
the
Water."
elder of
l
them
"
Shame
and
Dry
"
Image
of
The Mother Sophia thus addresses the :
"
who conies after To me be a daughter,
Let her
A sister to Ephraem makes
The
"
of the
and the
their conception,
Wombs?
^
th.ee
thee."
a great to-do about the mystery of
which he says he
is
ashamed
to relate.
appears, however, to have been nothing more than thq conception of the Mother first without her Syzygy or Divine Consort,
and subsequently with Him the Abortion and of the Perfect ;
bringing forth of the "
./Eon
"
"
the fruit of the
"
impure womb law of pairing
"
"
above when the
mother disobeyed the of the Pleroma, and desired to imitate the Father over all arid create "
without a Syzygy, and the child in the spiritual
which
is
economy
set forth
with
of the
much
of
"
the
"
virgin
world process
womb," ;
all of
elaboration in several
forms of the Sophia-mythus which have come down to us In the in the quotations of the haeresiological Fathers.
microcosm or man, these daughters are presumably two
human soul, the Sophia below, or sor one tending downward she is regarded as the rowing lustful one (Prunicus), the harlot tending upward she becomes the spouse of the Christos.
aspects of the ;
"
"
;
1
See Hilgenfeld (A.),
geschichten"
"Bardesanes
der letzte
Gnostiker"
(Leipzig
;
and Lipsius (R. A.), Die apokryphen Apostel(Braunschweig 1883), i. pp. 310, 311.
1864), pp. 40, 41
"
;
;
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI. Again in the Greek Acts
of
377
Thomas, which
still
contain
many early Gnostic traces in spite of Catholic we read Come Thou Holy Dove who art mother of
redaction, "
:
.
.
.
twin young ones
Have we Are the
;
come Hidden Mother
here, then, our
"
!
Marthus and Marthana
?
"
sisters of Epiphanius, then, simply misunder stood forms of the Sophia in one of her many trans formations ? Will the dire straits into which relentless <c
criticism
historical
may have been
beautiful
a
defenders
permit us
of
believe
to
an
that
mystery-teaching behind the of the sisters Mary and
historicized story
Martha and
of Lazarus, their brother,
from the dead
who was
"
"
raised
"
after being three days in the grave ? not Lazarus raised as a "mummy," swathed in
Was
grave clothes ? tradition
of
"
:
What
Egypt
thought by many courtesan, out of
Was "
?
has this to do with the mysteryIs not the Mary of Lazarus
have been the Magdalene, the whom He had cast seven devils ? to
not the Sophia below called the shame of the dry ? harlot," the
Helen
of
Simon
"
also called the harlot
lustful
one,"
Was not the Was not even
"
"
?
the son
Jesus, according to the
Can
the
forcing
conservatism,
unyielding there
the
is
of a harlot ? Jews, be in that this vulgar material contro possibly
it
versy of things physical between Christian and Jew, 1
It is
Oehler,
i.
somewhat strange
to find Tertullian
436) referring to the
himself, mentioned in
The
"
John
("
"
xiii.
De
Corona," viii.
;
with which Jesus girt as the proper garment of
linen cloth
"
"
4, 5,
proper garment of Osiris," of course, consisted of the linen- wrappings of the mummy. Tertullian thus appears to have picked up a phrase he did not quite understand, and used it Osiris."
inappropriately.
Mary and
378 there side,
DID JESUS LIVE 100
may still
to this
"
?
Why,
?
again,
dark saying
?
had Mary the better laborious and
was the more
Has orthodox "
on either
mystic truth almost miracu
of
Martha
though
virtuous
?
be, in spite of the controversialists
some grain
lously preserved part,
B.C.
exegesis a satisfactory answer Is not its exact parallel to be
found in the mystery-parable of the prodigal and his elder brother
?
Such are a few
of the questions
which rush
in
upon
mind of a student of the ancient Christian Gnosis, and make it not illegitimate to speculate as to whether under the names Marthus and Marthana may not be the
concealed a key to unlock the under-meaning of the beautiful Gospel story of
The Merinthians.
Finally
we have
ag a var i ant o f
Mary and Martha.
seen that Epiphanius gives Marthina
Marthana.
Now
it is
remarkable that
Epiphanius also tells us of some heretics whom he calls Of the origin or meaning Merinthiani Hser.," xxix. 8). ("
of this
name he admits he knows
nothing, and can only
suggest that they are derived from a certain Merinthus, who he suggests is identical with the famous early
however, he confesses that this is a on Can it, then, be by any means his part. pure guess is a transformation Merinthiani that the name possible Gnostic Cerinthus
of
Marthiani
Merinthians.
?
;
No
one but Epiphanius knows of these If not, and ?
Did he invent the name
there really was a circle or line of tradition bearing some such name, can it be that our famous heresy-
hunter heard wrongly, and remembered vaguely that it was some name like Cerinthus, only beginning with M.
Hinc
illce
The
lacrimce
!
question, however, which
is
of greatest import-
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI. ance for
what
discover
to
is
us,
the Christ held
concerning
were
379 views
the
who used
by those
Apocalypse of Elxai as one of their scriptures. As we have seen, the main apocalyptic element
T^i hook was
side
a vision of
the Christus xxx.
Hser.,"
("
M
separation
the
of this
T-1-1 standing side by
i
The
Christ-
igy
f
the
two great beings Book of Elxau xix. 1) and Sophia above
("Hser.,"
3, 17),
Man
the male-female Heavenly
in
the male potency was also called the Son of
;
God, the female the Holy Spirit (Hipp., In the human economy, however, apparently, according to
Epiphanius
("
"
ix. 13).
Philos.,"
" "
was
Christus
Hser.," liii.
1),
not
considered as absolutely identical with deity this was in its microcosmic sense apparently the spiritual Self in man. ;
This Self had been
Body in
of
Adam,"
the
Paradise,
first
clothed with the paradisiacal
but had put
it off
super-celestial
and
behind
left it
garment
in
left
the
"
the glorious day of the revestiture of the Conqueror, according to the so-called Pistis-Sophia "
last limit
till
"
document, or the
robe of glory
He had
of Bardaisan, 1
put
"
of the beautiful
it off
hymn
when He descended
through the spheres, clothing Himself in each in the garb of a servant," but at the last He shall resume it "
again in triumph.
Of
this Christus the Sophia, or
sister or
spouse
xix. 3).
;
He was called
But Epiphanius can
human
the Great
soul,
King
views
concerning
Haer.,"
(
find nothing in the teach
"
Jesus
own
Christ,"
later
and
is
naturally very puzzled at the unhistorical nature of their 1
See the
"
Hymn of the Robe of Glory in my Fragments," pp. my translation of Pistis-Sophia (London 1886),
406-414, and also pp. 9 ff.
"
Mani-
;<
ing of these early mystics to confirm his
orthodox
was the Many
"
;
the Christ.
380
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
universal transcendentalism. 14),
however,
Hippolytus
("
Philos.,"
ix.
us that their teaching concerning the
tells
Christ of the general Christians that is, concerning Jesus was that he was born as are all other men they ;
denied that the Christ of their mysteries had been now for the first time born of a virgin the mystery Christ ;
had again and again been had been and was being and was and born, being born, manifested, changing His births and passing from body had been born
before, nay,
to body.
Theodoret, writing in the fifth century, gives us some further confused information when treating of the Elcesaeans. 1
said that
As
this
to
He was
of the
mystery
not one
that
is
was not simply Jesus the Nazarene, There was, they Christians believed. above, and a Christ below
;
Christ, they
to say, apparently
He
the general held, a Christ
as
the former had of old indwelt
many, and had subsequently descended, that sumably, found full expression.
in
is,
pre
Theodoret imagines that this means descended into but even so he can Jesus, or had come down to earth ;
not understand the doctrine and gets hopelessly confused over what they say concerning Jesus. For sometimes, he says, they state that He is a spirit, sometimes that
He had
a virgin for mother, while in other writings they this was not so, but that he was born as other that say men ; further they teach that Jesus (or rather the Christ in Jesus) reincarnates again and again and goes into
other bodies, and at each birth appears differently. All of this, though apparently a hopeless confusion to The Twicethe ordinary mind, 1
"
De
Elcesaeis,"
quite clear to the mystic, and
is
in his
"
Hereticarum Fabularum
it is
Compendium."
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI.
381
strange that with all their marvellous industry scholars have not been able to disinter the main conceptions of
from the polemical writings
this all-illuminating idea
the Church Fathers;
the more so as
all
it is
of
clearly
stated in other early writings which have fortunately
escaped out of the general destruction, as we shall show But with regard to our present special
elsewhere.
we cannot
subject of research,
what seems
to be as
leave
without giving
it
good a proof as can be expected in
early Christian literature, that the Elxai teaching
back
to a
very early date
;
for
which we are enabled
quotations
show
Patristic polemical literature It is well
known
went
even the few scattered extract
to
this
from
very clearly.
that the Essenes and allied com- A Further
munities, even while they remained on the ground of
indication.
Judaism, were strongly opposed to the blood sacrifices and burnt offerings of the Temple. When, then, we find a quotation from the
"
Book
refers to these sacrifices,
of Elxai
"
which
distinctly
we cannot be accused
of rash
ness in concluding that this document, or at any rate part of still
it,
existed in days
kept up, that
is to
when
the Temple sacrifices were
Temple was destroyed and the only be performed in
it,
70
say, prior to
A.D.,
sacrifices,
when the
which could
ceased.
Referring to this very condemnation of the Temple blood sacrifices at Jerusalem, Epiphanius Haer.," xix. ("
3) quotes from the "
My
for this
"
Book
of Elxai
"
as follows
sons, go not to the image of the
image
is
error.
Thou
seest
fire,
:
for
ye err
;
[the
fire], lie
very near, yet is it from afar. Go not to but go rather to the voice of the water
its
says,
image;
"
!
This
is
evidently
Fire and Water -
it
an instruction not
to
visit
the
382
DID JESUS LIVE 100 at Jerusalem.
Temple
from a
tion apparently
number
is
written
sign
The reason still
Now we know
to
"ye"
quotation that
is
given in a quota writing, for the
more ancient
changed from of
B.C. ?
"he
"thou,"
says"
and the
introduced.
is
these
mystics worshipped the spiritual Sun, as the masculine potency of the Logos, the real "Fire" of the Simonian Gnosis. The ex "
"
"
pression
voice of the water
"
appears at
first
sight to
be exceedingly strange; when, however, we recollect that those Gnostics regarded Water as the source "
"
of all
"
not of course the physical element, the of the Water, but the Water of Life," the Life
things," "
"
"
image
(Sophia) being the spouse of the Light (Christos), she who was the Mother of all, the voice of the "
water
"
may
very well be taken as a mystic expression of the Holy Spirit, in brief the voice "
for the of
"
voice
"
as
conscience,"
may
be seen from
later penitential psalms, in
many
are set aside and the doctrine of
the
sacrifice of the heart inculcated.
What
"
"
voice
be than the Bath-kol, 1 the
"
truly
that
is
the
spiritual
else can this "
to these
This water, then, was the Sea of Life, and
be said concerning
sacrifices
heavenly voice
which the prophets gave ear, according mystics and later Talmudism ? Ichthus.
verses of the
which the physical
to
same
much might
by the shore of this Sea Mountain on which after the resurrection it.
It is
"
"
Jesus, the Living One, assembles His Taxis, or Order of
Twelve, and shows them the mysteries of the inner spaces, taking them within with Himself as described in
one of the treatises of the Codex Brucianus. however, for the 1
moment Lit.
suffice to
Daughter
of the
It will,
remind our readers Voice."
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI. was one
"
that the
"
fish
(ichthus)
Not only
of the Christ.
so,
of the earliest
"
We
fishes
little
(pisciculi),
born in
are
(Ichthus),
long to follow
up
symbols
but the early Christian and even at the fishes,"
little neophytes were called end of the second century Tertullian "
383
found writing according to our Fish It
water."
is
would take us too
this interesting trace,
will not be so difficult to grasp
if
:
but the idea
we quote
part of the
famous Autun sepulchral inscription, discovered in 1839, the date of which early monument is hotly disputed, the battle ranging over dates from the second to the sixth century.
"
Marriott translates this precious
the past as follows
relic of
:
Offspring of the Heavenly Ichthus (Fish), see that The Autun
a heart of holy reverence be thine,
now that from
divine
waters thou hast received, while yet among mortals, a fount of life that is to immortality. Quicken thy soul,
beloved
wealth
-
with
one,
giving
the
Wisdom
[Sophia],
honey-sweet food of the Saviour of with
a
hands."
hunger
holding
and
the
receive
Eat
the saints.
Ichthus
of
in
thy
J
There
some
longing
waters
ever-flowing
is
a curious analogy between these ideas and
of those of
which we have a few traces in the in
scriptions found on golden tablets in graves at Thurii in
what was once Magna Grsecia, and elsewhere. It is supposed that there was a sort of Orphic or Pythagorean Book
of the
Descent into tions 1
quote.
See
art.
Christian
The Passing into Hades or The Hades," from which some of these inscrip "
"
"
Dead,
These tablets were evidently placed in
"
Ichthus,"
Antiquities"
in
Smith and Cheetham s
(London
;
1875).
"
Dictionary of
384
DIB JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
the graves of ancient Orphic or Pythagorean initiates,
and on one From
"
The
Descent into
.,
them we read
of
In the mansions
"
.,
,
of
Hades, upon the left, a spring it a white cypress standing
,
,,
thou
Hades."
:
and near
find,
;
this spring thou shouldst not approach.
But there
the right] wilt thou come on another, from lake a fresh flowing water.
them
shalt thou say:
child
am
quick,
my
I,
must know
race
me
it
Memory
are watchers
:
s
To
Of Earth and starry Heaven is
of yourselves.
give
Before
[to
But
of the heavens.
With
this
ye
thirst I parch, I perish
;
drink of the water fresh flowing
to
from Memory s lake Then will they give thee to drink of the spring of the gods, and then shalt thou x reign with the rest of the heroes." !
Moreover
symbolism Christian story of
connection between
the
water"
"living
this of
wonderful
these
early
mystic schools and the beautiful gospel the woman of Samaria and the Christ, and
with the the
the of
many
gospel
fish
figures
narratives,
introduced elsewhere in
must
strike
even
the
least
observant. It is also to be noticed that the
Fish and the
important part in one rite (the five loaves
and
it is also of
simple form
of
"Inscr.
Gr.
fish
played some
of the variants of the eucharistic
and two
fishes) of early Christianity,
great interest to remember the very the covenant meal of the earliest
Essene- Christians of 1
"
"
Sicilian
whom we et
Italke,"
are treating
was bread
See also Foucart
638.
(P.),
Origine et la Nature des Mysteres d Eleusis." Extr. des Mem. de 1 Acad. des Ins. et Belles-Lettres (Paris e 1895), torn, xxxv., 2 partie, pp. 68 ff and also my articles Notes in the on the Eleusinian Mysteries Theosophical Review
"
Recherclies sur
1
"
"
;
"
;
"
(London
;
1898), vol. xxii., pp. 145
"
"
if.,
232
ff.,
312
ff.,
317
ff.
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI. and
and water, the and Sea, for they eschewed wine. The Book of Elxai," then, in one salt,
or bread
fruit
of
385 Sun
the
of its deposits at The An-
"
any rate, for it was doubtless edited and re-edited as were so many other of these early documents, apparently
went back
to as early as at least
that deposit
we
70
while even in
A.D.,
"
Christians,"
they looked to the mystic Christ as the ideal of aspiration, is of a very primitive stamp,
much
contact with
More
an earlier scripture quoted.
find
over, all that is told us of these early
that
we
learn
Elxai Traditlon
for
all their
and in
closest
concerning
the
Essenes and Therapeuts. I am, therefore, persuaded that we are here in touch with a body of ideas that for all
we know may have been
Pre-Pauline, and that
we
are
not far from discovering one of the most mysterious factors in the genesis of the great religion of the
Western world. however,
Before,
this
closing
"
as
on
chapter
we have
the
never
Elxai," seen, who, and yet always is, there is to be mentioned a scrap of information which may throw some further light on this earliest and most widespread heresy
mysterious
existed,
"
"
of
Christendom.
We
have already seen that some remnants of these The early teachings are preserved even to-day by the Mandaites, or so-called Christians of St. fore, of interest to learn that
named, were
still
Maharnmed ben (written
in
Elcasseans,"
It
is,
there
distinctly so
in existence in the tenth century.
haq en-Nedim, in his "Fihrist" 987-988 A.D.) tells us concerning the
Mogtasilah, or
numerous
John.
"
in the
Is
Baptists,
marsh
that
districts
they were then very between the Arabian 25
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
386
and the Tigris and Euphrates. Their head, he says, was called el Hasai h (Elchasai), and he was the This el Hasai h original founder of their confession. desert
had a The Schimun
Schimun. 1
disciple called
2 thinks that Schimun may be Sobiai, Hilgenfeld but in my opinion Schimun (Shimeon or Simon), if
he were ever a mortal,
Simon Magus, and
this
more
is
have been
likely to
would confirm the early date
of
Or if this is thought to be too the Elxai teaching. of Elxai, the Holy Spirit, the Schimun then precise,
may have
originally
Sun
the spiritual
Spouse the "
r
naiim.
and
Moon,
the
legend
has
epitaphs."
a n anie meaning
"
that the prophet "
rich in comfort
called the Elkoshite
the Greek
translation
3
Moreover
Elkesaios.
of
irresponsibility
we must remember
Finally
is
Sampsseans and Simonians, the Water, Helena (Selene) or Luna,
of the
of the Spirit or
deranged the
Elcesei-
had some connection with Shemesh,
("Nah.,"
of
the
i.
or the 1),
a
and
comforter,"
name given
so-called
Jerome
Nahum,
"
Seventy
Epiphanius
in as (or
us that this prophet was born at a pseudo-Epiph.) It is, further, to be in Galilee called Elkesei. 4 village tell
remembered that Cephar-naum means the village or town of Nahum, and here it was that Jesus began his Moreover ministry, and where he specially laboured.
we 1
read in the narrative of the See Chwolsohn,
"
3
ii.
See Budde s
4
Hieron., "De Vitis p. 231.
"
art.
in
"
(St. Peters
ff.
"Elkoshite"
Comm.
evangelist (Matt.
Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus
pp. 543. burg 1856), 2 Op. rit., p. 232. ;
first
Naum,"
Prophetarum,"
c.
18.
in the
"
proefat.,
Encyclopaedia Opp., vi. 535
See Hilgenfeld,
op.
Biblica."
;
Epiph.,
sup.
cit.,
CONCERNING THE BOOK OF ELXAI. ix.
1):
"And
(the Lake which the
he entered into a
of Galilee),
parallel passage
Capernaum. Talmudic and
What
ship,
and came into in
Mark
387
and passed over his (ii.
own
city"
1) gives
as
curious coincidences for a lover of
allied riddles
!
THE
XIX.
100
YEARS
B.C.
DATE
IN
EPIPHANIUS. The OverEpTphanius.
WE
have already seen that Epiphanius, t P^J the Hercules in defence
nerv zea ^
special form
of
filled
of his
with
own
Church orthodoxy,
is possessed of a magnificent confidence in his own ability to smite off every head of the many-necked hydra-serpent of heresy,
and so
to cauterise the
stumps that no head shall ever
again grow therefrom to give articulate utterance to error.
His
self-confidence, however, is so overweening,
that he at times becomes quite reckless so much so that he has bequeathed to posterity a mass of interest ;
which would
ing evidence
otherwise
have
entirely disappeared, and which enables the independent thinker to raise a
ance
number
for
the
of questions of the greatest
unprejudiced
historian
of
import
Christian
beginnings. Epiphanius Jannai Date,
Even with regard to our general subject of enquiry, we have already seen that the Bishop of Salamis has had the hardihood to work the name Panther (Pandera) into the canonical genealogy of Jesus. ever, give us
way
Does
he,
any further information which can
in
how any
explain his extraordinary behaviour in this matter
Strange to say
he does, and that,
?
too, information of an
THE 100
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
389
even more startling nature; but before we bring for in which Epiphanius Jannai Jewish the date tradition, which weaves boldly contradicts the whole of traditional Christian history,
ward the astonishing passages
into his elaborate exposition of the date of Jesus accord
we must supplement what we
ing to canonical views,
have already said about the general character of our author as a heresiologist, by quoting from the sober and moderate opinion of the greatest student of the writings of this stalwart
champion
Nicene Christianity
of
scholarship has so far produced. able article as follows "
An
l
Lipsius, in his
whom admir
on this interesting Church Father, writes
:
but
honest,
credulous
zealot for church orthodoxy,
and
narrow-minded The
and notwithstanding the
veneration in which he was held by episcopal colleagues, and still more in monastic circles, he was often found
promoting divisions, where a more moderate course would have enabled him to maintain the peace of the churches.
His violence
of
temper too often led him, an ill-
especially in the Origenistic controversies, into
considered and uncanonical line of conduct;
narrow-minded
spirit
and the
with which he was wont to deal
with controverted questions contributed in no small degree to impose more and more oppressive fetters on the scientific
[sic]
theology of his times.
.
.
.
His frequent journeys and exhaustive reading enabled him to collect a large but ill-arranged store of "
historical information,
and
this
he used with mud)
ingenuity in defending the church 1
"
Epiphanius of
Biography."
Salamis,"
in
orthodoxy of his
Smith and Wace s
"
Diet, of Christ.
Character
390
DID JESUS LIVE 100
time, and opposing every kind of
man
B.C.
?
But
heresy.
he
attached to dry literal formulas
as
a
exercised
really very small influence on dogmatic theology, and his
more distinguished by
theological polemics were
pious zeal than by impartial judgment and penetrating
He
fond of selecting single particulars, to exhibit the abominable nature of the
intelligence.
which
in
errors he his
whole
is
is
combating.
life
When
was occupied
one bears in mind that
in the Origenistic contro
versy, his refutation of the doctrine of the Alexandrian
theologian is quite astonishingly superficial, a few meagre utterances detached from their context, and in
part thoroughly misunderstood, is all that he has to give us by way of characterising the object of his detestation, and yet at the same time he boasted of
having read no
much
than 6000
less
larger number,
had written. relations to be
of
"
The accounts he
Gnostic sects
works, a
man
;
any abomination, nor did he think quietly to examine the charges made. of
s
His credulity allows the most absurd imposed upon it a heretic was capable
of
The Value
Origen
as Kufinus remarks, than the
.
.
.
gives of the
exhibit
a
at all necessary
it .
.
.
Jewish Christian and
marvellous
mixture
of
valuable traditions with misunderstandings and fancies His pious zeal to excel all heresiologues of his own.
who had gone
before him, by completing
the
list
of
him into the strangest misunderstandings, the most adventurous combinations, and arbitrary asser He often frames out of very meagre hints long tions.
heretics, led
and special narratives.
combined with which
The strangest phenomena are of criticism, and things
total absence
evidently
belonged
together
are
arbitrarily
THE 100 On
separated.
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
other
the
authorities, with slavish
in the
it
hand, he often copies his
dependence on them, and so commentators to collect
of critical
puts power a rich abundance of genuine
seemed a worthless
Such
is
391
traditions
what
from
mass."
the impartial and judicious estimate of the
own day which Lipsius, most careful study of the writings many For his of this puzzling Church Father, gives us. contemporaries the Bishop of Constantia was a most
value of Epiphanius for our years of
after
excellent and
pious defender
the Faith,
of
and
for
future generations of the Church he was a saint who went about working wonders, the recital of which out-
miracles even the marvels of the gospel-narratives.
It
no part of our task to read the shade of Epiphanius sermon on literary morality such a thing was not
is
a
;
invented in his day in theological circles. We must take him as we find him, a profoundly interesting can out psychological study, and so make what we of
(from a
his
critical
standpoint) marvellously in thus leave the
We
structive heresiological patch-work.
cult of Saint Epiphanius to those
by
it,
and proceed "
logos it
to
quote
the
as Epiphanius himself
"
had he found
champion
of
it
in
who may
be benefited
most
astonishing
would have
an earlier Father
Nicene orthodoxy and saint
called of
of
this
Roman
Catholicism. of Salamis The Kiddle of treating of the Nazoraei, the Bishop Epiphanius. enters into a long digression to prove that the state
In
ment
in
Psalm
cxxxii. 11
truth unto David of
thy body
;
"The
Lord hath sworn in
he will not turn from
will I set
upon thy throne
it,
of the fruit
is
a Messianic
"
$92
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.? fulfilled in
prophecy
the person of Jesus.
This, he says,
denied by some, but he will clearly show that it duly came to pass. He then proceeds with his argu
is
ment
;
as follows ("
Now
"
Hser.,
xxix. 3)
:
the throne and kingly seat of David
Holy Church
priestly office in
;
for the
is
the
Lord combined
the kingly and high-priestly dignities into one and the
same
and bestowed them upon His Holy Church, transferring to her the throne of David, which ceases office,
not as long as the world endues. The throne of David continued by succession up to that time namely, Christ
till
princes of
Himself
without any failure from the Judah, until it came unto Him for whom
the things that are stored up/ who is Himself the expectation of the nations. l For with the advent of the Christ, the succession of the princes from Judah, who reigned until the Christ Himself, ceased. The
were
and stopped at the time when He was born in Bethlehem of Judyea, in the days of Alexander, who was of high-priestly and royal race and after this Alexander this lot failed, from the times order
[of
succession]
failed
;
of himself
and Salina, who
is
also called Alexandra, for
the times of Herod the King and Augustus Emperor of the Eomans and this Alexander, one of the anointed ;
(or
Christs) and ruling princes placed the crown on
own 1
head.
.
.
.
his
After this a foreign king, Herod, and
These
quotations of Epiphanius refer to the Septuagint Genesis xlix. 10, which, however, the Authorized renders The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
translation of
Version
"
:
nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people Here Shiloh stands for the things stored and gathering ;
be."
"
"
"
"
up,"
for
"
expectation."
"
THE 100 those
who were no
assumed the
crown."
This passage
whole range
of
for it is the
longer
the family of David,
l
Patristic "
literature;
it
Eiddle of Epiphanius
most enigmatic
remarkable for
of
39 3
perhaps the most remarkable in the The Most
is
well be called the
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
many
might
very
Passage In
excellence,
Literature
"
par
of all his puzzles.
reasons, but
most
of all
It is
because
no Father has given more minute indications
of
the
date of Jesus, according to canonical data helped out
by
his
own most
positive assertions, than Epiphanius.
we have
Nevertheless here
the Bishop of Salamis with detailed reiteration, so that categorically asserting, there is no possibility of escape, that Jesus was born
Alexander and Salina, that is so, but he would have
in the days of
and Salome not only needs must have been ;
of
Jannai
it
that
it
so, in order that prophecy,
and most solemn nature, should be fulfilled that there should be no break in the succession of prophecy
of the
princes from the tribe of Judah, as
There
no possible
is
of
way
it
had been written. ourselves
extricating
from the crushing weight of the incongruity of this statement of Epiphanius by trying to emend the reading of the text; for not only does the whole subject 1
of
I use the
who took
his
argument demand such a statement,
most recent text
as the
hitherto unused
MS.
of
is
dated
original text than
(Leipzig 1859-1862), the valuable and ;
his edition
Mark s Library
in St.
Marcianus 125), which
much more
W. Dindorf
of
groundwork
any
1057 A.D.
at Venice
The MS.
(Codex
contains a
of those previously used for
our
MS. previously employed bearing date As Lipsius says With its help not only are we
printed editions, the oldest
1304 A.D.
"
:
enabled to correct innumerable corruptions and arbitrary altera tions of text made by later writers, but also to fill up numerous
and very considerable
lacunae."
394
DID JESUS LIVE 100
but he supports
by a number
it
B.C.
of
?
subsidiary asser
tions.
Patent Errors
It
is
Salamis line
hardly necessary to point out that the Bishop of is in error as to the continuity of the kingly
from Judah, and as
to the cessation of the kingly
and high-priestly office with Janmeus. The priestly line had no connection with Judah, and the line of kings had long ceased, before the Hasinonaean Aristobulus,
who was the
of priestly
crown
105
in
descent and not of Judah, assumed B.C.
he did not
;
succeed
to
it.
Jannseus also assumed the high-priestly office. On the death of Jannseus, Alexandra became regent, and sub sequently her sons
Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus II. combined kingly and high-
enjoyed in succession the priestly dignities.
When, moreover. Epiphanius says placed the crown on his own head, we
that Alexander are at a loss to
understand him; some MSS., however, read head, and this would mean, simply and not his own that Alexander placed the crown on the presumably, "his"
"
"
head
of
Jesus
;
that
to say, at his death the succession
is
passed to Jesus. The
Silence
mentators.
So much for
Epiphanius argument but what of his extraordinary assertion that Jesus lived in So far, apparently, no commentator the days of Jannai ? this part of
has been able to
;
make anything out
Jesuit Dionysius Petavius (Petau) of
1622)
make nothing calls
some
it.
He
of
this
The learned
in the
second edition
whose notes have been
Epiphanius (Paris added to every subsequent edition ;
it.
of
"ghastly
of this Father, anachronism,"
tries to arrive at a solution
of the sentences,
can
as he
by transposing but when he has done this, he
THE 100
B.C.
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
395
honestly confesses that he has no confidence in his confusion of attempt, for he finds precisely the same "
repeated by Epiphanius in another passage. have been able to discover no commen
history"
Indeed, so far I tator
who has grappled with
They
all
doned
leave
without remark where Petavius aban
it
in despair.
it
Even
"
and exegesis
to the criticism
this Eiddle of Epiphanius.
the valuable contributions of the Panarion," as Lipsius
1 them, added to (Ehler s edition by Albert Jahn, breathe no word on the matter while, as far as I am
calls
;
aware, Lipsius himself has not referred to the subject. Petavius honestly admits that his attempted emenda- Epiphanius on the
tion of the text
sentences
is
by a transposition
of several
of
the Canonical
perfectly illegitimate, for he has to reckon
with precisely the same statement repeated further on in the voluminous writings of the worthy Bishop.
In
the
of
treating
Epiphanius
Gospel,
Alogi,
who
enters
into
rejected
a
the fourth
long
discussion
concerning the date of Jesus ("Hser.," li. 22 ff.). Without the slightest attempt at style or clarity, he piles together a mass of assertions to show that Jesus "
was born in the forty-second year of Augustus, King of the Romans not only so, but he knows the month and "
;
the day and the hour. the
"
"
first
of
Epiphanius apparently counts Augustus, that is of Octavi[an]us, from
year the date of the murder of Julius Caesar, 44 therefore B.C.
2,
makes the date
of the birth of
when Octavian was
B.C.,
Jesus
and
fall in
consul for the thirteenth
time with Sil[v]anus. This leaves Herod, who died in B.C. 4, out in the cold, and with him the murder of the 1
In his
1861).
"Corpus
Haeresiologicum," vols
ii.,
iii.
(Berlin
;
1859-
396
DID JESUS LIVE 100
much
innocents and first
B.C.
?
which the compiler of the importance but this does not
else
Gospel thought of to bother the Bishop
seem
;
he appears to the conclusions which can be of Salamis, for
have no suspicion of drawn from his confident assertions.
This, however,
is
a very minor point.
In giving the age of Jesus at the beginning
Mystically
Numbers!
of the
ministry as thirty years, Epiphanius follows evangelical precedent, but he adds a remark that is not without "
significance
("
li.
Haer.,"
23).
It is because of
x this,"
he continues, that the former heresies which grouped themselves round Valentinus and others fell to pieces "
;
these set forth their thirty aeons in mythologic fashion, thinking that they conformed to the years of Jesus."
There are those who would be inclined very opposite
;
remark that Epiphanius,
number
"
three
to
but this need not detain
"
us,
argue the except to
after adding the further precise
for the years of the ministry, uses a
two-edged sword when he proceeds to say For it is in the thirty -third year of His advent :
"
the
flesh
conies
the
that
passion
Him who
pass, of
to
from above, but who took on behalf, in
Epiphanius
hW
Riddle
In the midst Bi sn P writes "
1
f
That
surfer
on our
2 us."
of
Salamis
these categorical a
in
most
assertions
confused
the
paragraph
is,
the time that Augustus became Emperor, for the exact
"
Cf.
to
blot out the writing
:
From
2
the Alone-begotten the impassible Logos
flesh
He might
order that
Death against
of
of is
in
Coloss.,"
ii.
number 14
ordinances that was against
of thirty years. "
:
us."
Blotting out the handwriting of
THE 100 four years, more
B.C.
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
397
from [the beginning
of] his
or less,
reign, there had been friendship between the
and
and
Jews,
contributions
of
Komans
had
troops
been
and a governor appointed, and some portion tribute paid to the Komans, until Judaea was made
sent,
of
[entirely]
rulers
subject
and became tributary to them, its from Judah, and Herod being
having ceased
[as ruler] from the Gentiles, being a proselyte, however, and Christ being born in Bethlehem of Judaea, and coming for the preaching [of the Gospel], the
appointed
anointed rulers from Judah and Aaron having ceased, after continuing until the anointed ruler Alexander
and Salina who was
Alexandra
which days the A ruler shall not prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled cease from Judah and a leader from his thighs, until he come for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation also
;
in
:
l
of the nations
We may
that
the Lord
is,
who was
born."
conveniently omit any discussion
of the
"
in Order
the various changes in the political t^FulfiTled^s between Eoman and Jew; the point that it is Written." relationship
precise
interests
dates
us
of
that Epiphanius repeats categorically
is
his puzzling statement about Jannseus
the
date of Jesus, and again
closest relation
prophecy and possible
way
and Salome and
brings
this
into
the
with what he regards as a most solemn Genesis." There is no promise in "
of
escape
from
the
conclusion
that
Epiphanius is arguing most deliberately that the kingly and high-priestly offices were transferred immediately
from Jannai
to
Jesus,
so
that
there should
be no
break in the succession. 1
Epiphanius quotes this with a different previous citation.
reading from his
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
398
This argument is historically absurd, as we have already seen we have now to consider whether there ;
was any other reason in the strangely
irrational
mind of
for this historicizing of a
dogmatic specula Epiphanius tion, which he himself immediately contradicts by going into the most minute arguments to prove that Jesus was born at a date which was 77 years later than the death of Alexander. We will preface our enquiry by a quotation
by Dr. James Drummond to the Manchester College, Oxford, in which
from a recent address students
of
Epiphanius Drummond
"
1
brought into court.
is
Justin Martyr
tells
when
us that
in Bethlehem, Joseph, not having village, lodged in a certain cave (
Dial., Ixxviii.).
his gospel
was
Christ was born
where to lodge in the to
the village
It is therefore plausibly
argued that
different
from
close
But when we
ours.
find the
statement in Origen that agreeably to the history of his (Christ s) birth in the gospel, the cave in Bethlehem
where he was born
is
pointed out
learn that Epiphanius,
the accounts in that
*
(
C. Gels.,
in endeavouring to
i.
51),
Matthew and Luke, expressly
Luke says that the
boy, as soon as he
and
harmonise affirms
was born,
was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lay in a manger and in a cave, because there was no room in the inn (
Hser./
li.
we must view
the argument quite which would that prove an absurdity, Origen and Epiphanius, cannot have any
9),
differently, for if
applied to
weight in its application to Justin. The fact seems to be that all alike rely upon a tradition that Christ was born in a cave, and assume that this 1
"
Remarks on the Art
Theological
Questions"
of
Criticism
(Manchester
;
in
1902).
its
is sufficiently
Application to
THE 100 indicated
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
by Luke
399
allusion to a manger, just as in
s
modern times the same
allusion leads to the supposition that the birth took place in a stable, the stable being text as the really as foreign to the evangelical 1 cave."
Whether Epiphanius in this was endeavouring to harmonise Matthew and Luke is somewhat beside the point, for Matthew has nothing about swaddling clothes, "
The
"
Har-
"
or inn, while
manger
Luke
forth her first-born son,
and
clothes,
room
laid
him
them
for
7) says
:
and wrapped him
She brought in swaddling
in a manger, because there
the
in
"
(ii.
inn."
What
is
clear
was no is
that
Luke with a Epiphanius was seeking to harmonise very ancient tradition which he (Epiphanius) could not "
"
afford to disregard,
and
in order to effect his
"
"
harmony roundly declaring that Luke
he has no hesitation in
2 manger was in a cave. and from other instances we
states that the
From
this
see that the
Salamis sought to dispose of ancient extraBishop canonical traditions by boldly incorporating them with canonical data, and in so doing he had not the slightest of
hesitation roundly to assert
that
data derived from
Now on See, however, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (xiv.) the third day after the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most blessed Mary went out of the cave, and, entering a stable, put her 1
"
"
"
:
child in a manger, and the ox and ass adored him." 2 The cave tradition is also preserved in the apocryphal "
"
"
Gospel
(c. xviii.), and in the Gospel of Pseudo- Matthew (c. xiii.), and in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy (c. iii). It is still an open question whether or not the originals of these Gospels may have been of an early date, in fact, whether they may not have been
of Jarnes
"
"
"
"
"
"
included canonical
among
the
Gospel.
"many"
of
They were
transformed, but some
"
the introduction to doubtless
the
edited, re-edited of their elements seem to be ancient.
third
and
imfuSr
of
400
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
ancient traditions, but not found in canonical scripture, were actually part and parcel of the orthodox evan
This was his
gelical record.
way
venient early traditions to which, in his day, a His Magnifi cent Incon sistency.
Can
wide circulation was
of disposing of incon
we must still
suppose, even
given.
then be that Epiphanius did not invent this astonishing statement as to the birth of Jesus in the
days
but that he is simply carrying out his inconvenient data into an orthodox tex weaving
of Jannseus,
plan of ture
it
?
I
have
But think
little
doubt myself that
this is the case.
of the magnificent inconsistency of the thing
mind that could
try to imagine the state of
weave together those gorgeous incongruities
who developed
heavy retribution for those
;
seriously
Truly a
!
the
"
in order
"
might be fulfilled theory of history. Epiphanius dazzled with his own exegesis of prophecy the
that is
it
;
Church was the legitimate
heiress of the royal
and high-
priestly dignities of Jewry, bequeathed to her
Himself
!
A
would work
He
brilliant idea
had come
to
by Jesus him, and he
out for the greater glory of the Church. accordingly sets out to argue the unbroken line of it
succession of the princes from Judah, in the face of history, for the
Hasmonsean
not from Judah at
all,
all
Maccabsean dynasty was since Mattathias himself was the or
son of John, a priest of the order of Joarib, and long before then the kingly line had ceased. Why, then, the Bishop of Salamis can so easily set the plainest facts of history aside in support of his theory, should
if
he hesitate to have brought down the combined to the days of Herod, for
offices
Herod made the Hasmonsean
Aristobulus III. high priest about 36 B.C., and this might have given Epiphanius a chance to argue that
THE 100
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
401
Aristobulus was really the legitimate king and priest
combined, Herod being an upstart ? Why should Epiphanius have hit on Alexander, of all people in the world, as the person to whom Jesus suc ceeded in these
combined
Alexander as a historical in his B.C.,
own
from
Eoman
True
?
it
is
combine these
person, but so did his son
whom
wrested the a
offices
fact did
Hyrcanus
that
offices
II. in
67
subsequently his brother Aristobulus II. until in 63
titles,
constituted Syria
Pompey
province, leaving Judaea, Galilee and Persea to
the restored high priest
Hyrcanus
in subordination to
the governor of the province, while he took Aristobulus
and
his children
with him to Rome.
on revolt in favour hopes
Revolt followed
Maccabsean dynasty, but the Jewish patriotism were finally put an end to
of
of the
Herod
by the elevation of the Idumsean dignity in 37
B.C.,
and Herod made
it his
to the kingly
business to wipe
out the remaining male descendants of the Hasmonsean princes, and finally succeeded in his task of extermina tion about 25
B.C.,
when he put to death
Turn the matter over
the sons of Baba.
as one will, there
seems no
escape from the conclusion that there was some other deciding factor in the
simple
fascination
that was.
mind
of
Epiphanius besides the
his
dogmatic theory, strong as It would seem that the Bishop of Salamis of
was overjoyed to find that he could kill two birds with one stone, enhance the glory of the Church, and slay an ancient foe who had greatly inconvenienced him in the past.
This ancient foe was the tradition that Jesus had
lived in the days of Jannai
;
it
was
this inconvenient
which Epiphanius thought to dispose of by into his dogmatic theory and elaborating it working 26
tradition
it
402
DID JESUS LIVE 100
in
terms.
The
B.C. ?
horrible
incongruity of his statements does not seem to have in the least disturbed historic
the self-complacency of the Church Father least of all does he seem to have had any suspicion that he was ;
handing on to posterity the very thing which he desired to slay once for
It
all.
Whence, then, did Epiphanius derive this might be argued that he got it from the
or from
some other
tradition
?
"
Essenes,"
the allied communities with
of
which he had come into contact.
But
this
of
we
cannot be sure, for we have no precise data upon which we can go. This much, however, we may say with confidence,
it
derived originally from Jewish sources, of the tradition based on the
and formed no part
Hellenized Christianity of Paul and the Evangelists. Indeed, we have already seen that this is not the only instance
in
which
has
Epiphanius
treated
Jewish
tradition with a similar subtlety of finesse.
Our great heresiologue
Epiphanius "Histories."
arguing against those
is
who
venture to assert, as indeed they must if they follow the clear statements of the Evangelists, that Mary had
He says
other children besides Jesus. that such an assertion
is
("
Ixxviii. 7)
Hser.,"
due to the ignorance
of those
who are not acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and who have not studied the Histories." The truth of the "
matter
is
that the Virgin was given to Joseph, because fell out, referring presumably to the story
the lot so
preserved in the apocryphal where. 1
"
1
"
She was not given
Gospel of James," ix. Gospel of the Nativity of
"
"
Carpenter," iv.
;
Gospel to
of
James
"
and
else
Joseph to wife in the
Gospel of Pseudo- Matthew," viii. viii. History of Joseph the
;
"
Mary,"
;
THE 100
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
403
ordinary sense, for he was a widower and of extreme old age. It was on account of the law," whatever that "
he was called her husband.
that
may mean, 11
according to the succession
Jews,"
it is
Joseph
for
from the tradition
For
of the
proved that the Virgin was not given to ordinary purpose of marriage, but in
the
order that she might be kept for the testimony of the future, that
was not
"
the dispensation of His advent in the flesh
bastard
[a]
[birth]."
goes on to say, could a
man
of
For how, Epiphanius such great age (as he
assumes Joseph to have been) have a virgin to wife, For this after he had been so many years a widower ?
Joseph was the brother of Clophas, and son of Jacob Both of these were sons of this
surnamed Panther. Panther.
Now ,
.
i
it
to
is
.
Lpiphamus
T
,.
be observed in the ,i
distinctly
P
from the tradition of the
first ,
Jews,"
place
.
that
that The "Succession
.
to a certain
refers
"
succession
is
to
say,
apparently a tradition handed on from generation to generation to his own time, and afterwards he asserts that this tradition proves that Mary was legally married to Joseph, in order that there might be no charge of bastardy with regard to the miraculously-
born Jesus. this state,
Whereas we know on the contrary that
was what the Jewish Pandera but the very opposite.
tradition did not
The Bishop
of Salamis
is
arguing against the accusation of bastardy, and meets the charge with his usual boldness by invoking as wit nesses on his side the very sources which make most directly against his assertion.
escape from
Nor can there be any
immediately afterwards he dextrously inserts Panther (Pandera) into the genealogy of this, for
f rom
the
404
DID JESUS LIVE 100
Jesus on the father
s side
and here
;
B.C. ?
it is
interesting to
have been very old, 1 say some eighty years, and that Joseph was son of Panther, Panther is to be placed about 100 B.C. observe that, as Joseph
The Children
is
said to
Epiphanius, then, beyond all question knows of the Jewish traditions concerning Jesus; he knows of the name Ben Pandera and also of the Mamzer legends.
But
this is not all, for, in arguing for the
virginity of
Mary, he goes on to
tell us,
perpetual
that Joseph
by his first wife, four sons and two daughters, and the former were the brethren mentioned in the Gospels. The eldest son was called had
children
six
"
"
Jacob, otherwise Oblias
means
Nazir),
commonly
He was
Lord."
(sic),
the
first
who was
called
a Nazorsean (he
the
"
brother of the
Christian bishop.
This son
Joseph begat when he was forty years of age, and after him were born Jose, Simeon and Judas, and two 2 daughters Maria and Salome. James.
If Joseph had been a widower so many years before he married the Virgin as to make Epiphanius exclaim
over their number,
we must suppose
hood dated from about his
fiftieth
that his year,
widow
and
that
perhaps he was eighty when he entered on his second purely legal nuptials. This would make Jacob some forty years old at the time of the birth of Jesus accord
ing to the
common
reckoning
(B.C. 4),
and one hundred
where Joseph is called Carpenter," and a pious old man (iv., et passim), and where he is said to have been 111 years old when he died (v.). 2 The History of Joseph the Carpenter" gives these names as Judas, Justus, James and Simon, and the daughters as Assia and Lydia (ii.) and Assia is further mentioned as apparently the elder 1
"
Cf.
"
History of Joseph the
widower
"
"
(ii.),
"
;
of the daughters (xx.).
"
THE 100
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
405
and seven years old when he was martyred by Jewish 1 zealots in about 63 A.D., a somewhat advanced age, even
for
a
rigid
But
ascetic.
it
is
unnecessary
seriously to follow Epiphanius in his wild assertions in
the interests of an ever-developing dogmatism.
The point that
,
statement
the
is
his bold The Names
most deeply in of the names
interests us
question
.
,
supposed step-brothers and step-sisters Joseph, Simeon and Judas are all
.
or
of Jesus.
,
these
of the Sisters O f Jesus,
Jacob,
common enough
Jewish names, and so are Miriam and Salome. But Epiphanius seems to be up to his tricks again and to have worked the names of Mary and Salome into the family of Joseph, just as he has worked Pandera into the genealogy of Jesus. For while we can find some data in the canonical records which conjecture some reason Jacob, Joseph (Jose), lt
brethren of the
Simeon and Judas,
Lord,"
his introduction of the
may
enable us to
Epiphanius bringing forward
for
there
names
is
as
names
of
nothing to warrant
Maria and Salome.
of
Salome and Mk.," xv. 40) as a woman only mentioned Mk.," xvi. 1) present at the crucifixion, and afterwards is known else as a visitor to the sepulchre. Nothing
Salome
is
("
("
"
though there are many conjectures, of which the principal is that she was a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In support of this view may be cited of
her,
a reading of the Peshitta version of Jos. xix. 25 (vf. also the Jerus. Syr. lectionary), and a presumptive unlikeli
hood, on account of the similarity of names, that Mary the wife of Clopas was a sister of the mother of Jesus." 2 1
See Cone s
2
See Moss
art.
"
art.
James
"
in
"Salome"
"
Enc. in
Bib."
Hastings
"Dictionary
of
the
406
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Gospel of James (xix.), however, Salome is the name of the midwife who delivered Mary while in
In the
"
"
;
the "Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
"
there are two midwives,
Zelomi and Salome (evidently a double). The Gospel of Pseudo- Matthew also contains the (xlii.) following "
"
"
interesting
passage
:
Now when
feast with his sons, James,
Simeon, and
his
Joseph came to a
and
Joseph,
Judah, and
two daughters, Jesus and Mary,
his
mother, met them, together with her sister Mary the daughter of Cleophas, whom the Lord God gave to
Cleophas her father and
Anna
her mother because they had offered to the Lord Mary the mother of Jesus."
One might almost fancy that
a twin of Epiphanius
had
had a hand in the redaction.
Qn
Salome and
the other
hand we have seen that
in the Jewish
legends, based on earlier tradition, Miriam the mother is said to have been related to Helene (Salome), and
we know of
that Simeon (ben Shetach) was the brother Can it then be that here again
Salome (Alexandra).
If so, it is influenced by Jewish tradition ? would be a strong confirmation of our hypothesis with regard to the Helene puzzle, for here in Epiphanius we
Epiphanius
find that the Epiphanius a jew.
name Salome appears
undisguised.
not only certain that Epiphanius was acquainted with such main factors of Jewish tradition with regard to Jesus as the by-name Ben Pandera and It
thus
is
the 100 years
B.C. date,
but
it
also appears probable
Nor is that he was acquainted with the other details. this surprising, for not only did Epiphanius know some 1 Hebrew, but he
1
Though not
as
learning was much
also
much
spoke Aramaic or Syriac. as he
had the
celebrated,"
His he was said to have
credit of knowing. "
says Lipsius
;
More"
THE 100 over, he
was a Jew by
Law
faithful to the
was born
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
birth,
till
and
407
remained
his parents
the day of their death. 1
in Palestine at Eleutheropolis,
verted in early youth to Christianity.
He
and was con
The exact date
unknown, but may be conjecturally After spending some years placed about 315 A.D. of monks the Egypt, Epiphanius, who was still among
of his
birth
is
only a youth of twenty, returned home, and founded a monastery near Besanduke, over which he presided until elected to the
367
He
A. D.
see
Constantia in Cyprus in
of
thus spent no less than fifteen years of his
boyhood and thirty-two years (335-367) of his manhood in Palestine, with which indeed he was closely con nected
till
the end of his long
life
in 403.
in
favour
of
his
being The Living acquainted with the Jewish traditions concerning Jesus, and we may be confident that the sources of these very therefore,
Everything,
is
curious scraps of information, dropped in the course of his indiscriminate
and indiscreet polemic, are the same
from which the Talmud compilers and Toldoth the living oral tradition of Jewry. writers drew
as those
But before
finally leaving this
very interesting but
Church orthodoxy, we must bring impolitic champion forward another passage from Epiphanius, which, though of
having no immediate bearing on our subject, greatest possible
importance
is
of the
for the critical study of
Christian origins.
Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and which Rufinus satirised him with the remark that he thought it his duty as an evangelist to speak evil
spoken four languages, also
a
little
of Origen, 1
Latin,
among
for
all nations in all
"
Photius,
Bibliothcca,"
tongues."
cod. cxxiv.
Art. sup.
cit.
DID JESUS LIVE 100
408
B.C. ?
We
have already stated that all the editions of the Panarion prior to that of Dindorf were based on MSS. "
"
which had been greatly bowdlerized and
"emended."
The very early Codex Marcianus 125, however, has enabled us to correct much of this emendation and The following to supply many very important lacunae. "
"
is
one of the censured passages Hser.," li. 22). The Saviour was born in the forty-second year of ("
The Birthday of the Christ.
Augustus, King of the Eomans, in the consulship
of
the same Octavi[an]us Augustus (for the thirteenth
time) and of
calendar as
it
according the Eomans. For
Sil[v]anus,
among
follows:
When
these
to it
the is
consular
recorded in
were consuls
(I
mean
Octavi[an]us for the thirteenth time and Sil[v]anus), Christ was born on the sixth day of January after thir teen days of the winter solstice and of the increase of the light and day. This day [of the solstice] the Greeks, I mean the Idolaters, celebrate on the twenty-fifth day
December, a feast called Saturnalia among the Komans, Kronia among the Egyptians, and Kikellia 1 among the Alexandrians. For on the twenty- fifth day of
of
December the
division takes place
which
and the day begins to lengthen its increase, and there are thirteen days
is
the solstice,
light, receiving
of it
up
an
to the sixth
January, until the day of the birth of Christ (a thirtieth of an hour being added to each day), as the wise Ephraim among the Syrians bore witness by this
day
of
inspired passage (logos} in his commentaries, where he The advent of our Lord Jesus Christ was thus says :
Epiphanius presumably means that it was called Kronia by by the Romans, and Kikellia by the Egyptians, or, at any rate, by the Alexandrians. 1
the Greeks, Saturnalia
THE 100 appointed his
:
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
B.C.
[first] his
birth according to the flesh, then
perfect incarnation
among men, which
a distance
Epiphany, at
increase of the light
thirteen days from the needs must have been that
Lord Jesus Christ Himself
this should be a figure of our
and
of
His twelve
of the thirteen "
who made up
disciples,
days
called
is
of
for it
;
409
number
the
of the increase of the light.
How many other things in
the past and present sup- The Cruci fixion
and
port and bear witness to this proposition, I mean the Resurrection M y ster y Rite birth of Christ Indeed, the leaders of the idol-cults, !
with wiles to deceive the idol-worshippers who believe in them, in many places keep highest festival on filled
this
same night
are in error
Epiphany, so that they whose hopes not seek the truth. For instance, at
of
may
Alexandria, in the Koreion that
is
*
as
it is
called
an immense
to say, the Precinct of the Virgin
temple they have kept all-night chanting to their idol,
vigil
;
after
with songs and music, vigil is over, at cock
when the
crow, they descend with lights into an underground crypt, and carry up a wooden image lying naked on a litter,
with the seal of a cross made in gold on
head, and on either
hand two other similar
on both knees two others,
made
all five seals
its fore
seals,
and
being similarly
And
they carry round the image itself, circumambulating seven times the innermost temple, to the
in gold.
accompaniment
and hymns, and down again under
of pipes, tabors
with merry-making they carry it And if they are asked the meaning of this
ground.
That is the temple of Kore. This can hardly be the temple of Persephone, as Dindorf (iii. 729) suggests, but is rather the temple of Isis, who in one of the treatises of the Trismegistic literature jf? 1
cabled the
World -Maiden,
-
410
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
To-day at this hour mystery, they answer and say the Maiden (Kore), that is, the Virgin, gave birth to the :
aeon.
In the city of Petra also the metropolis of Arabia which is called Edom in the Scriptures the same is "
the Virgin in the
done, and they sing the praises of
Arab tongue, calling her in Arabic Chaamou, that is, Maiden (Kore), and the Virgin, and him who is born from her Dusares, that
Alone-begotten (monogenes) of This also takes place in the city of Elousa
the Lord. 1
[?
is,
on the same night just as at Petra and at
Eleusis]
Alexandria." "Plagiarism
K tion."
Here again Epiphanius,
prove a dogmatic point
to
and display
his learning, lets a
escape him.
We
have read
many
most important
fact
speculative opinions "
on the symbolic rite of crucifixion and the resurrec tion from the dead," but have never seen this striking "
"
passage of Epiphanius quoted in this connection. Here we have a definite statement that one of the most wide
spread mystic festivals of the ancients was connected with a rite of "resurrection," and that in Egypt the
one
who was
from the
"
raised from
the
underworld or Hades,
dead,"
and returned
was sealed with
five
mystic crosses on forehead, hands and knees (? feet). This symbolic rite represented a macrocosmic mystery, Epiphanius tells us but was there not also an analogous ;
microcosmic mystery ? And if so, must it not have been familiar to all those mystic schools and com munities, Essene,
which are 1
The only Elousa
Aquitaine,
Therapeut,
Hermetic and Gnostic,
so inextricably interwoven with nascent ChrisI
can
discover
was a small place
in
THE 100
Do we
?
tianity
to the mystic
from one
of
DATE IN EPIPHANIUS.
;
"
their esoteric
regenerate in
we not
all
further
the
among
do we not also possess long quotations writings
which
the
finds
analogies with this central mystery
closest
411
not meet with innumerable references
again-rising from the dead
"
Gnostic circles
B.C.
man Do
of
the mystery-rites of antiquity? the ritual of a very early
possess
mystery-drama, or form of initiation, in the things done closely resembled that of
Christian
which
"
"
the passion
the crucifixion
1
?
We
need hardly direct the attention of the observant Farewell to reader to the aplomb with which Epiphanius categori- E P i P banius cally asserts that the exact record of the birth of Jesus
was
to be
found in the
official
Eoman
Fasti
;
this
may
be well paralleled by the like assertion of Justin that the trial of Jesus was to be found in the official Acts of
The wish was father
Pilate.
there
an end
is
of
it.
to the thought, and But may there not be some
further reason for Epiphanius
making so much of this Epiphany ? Can it be that the similarity between it and his own Gentile name, Epiphanius, may have nattered the vanity of our pious but credulous heresio-
logue
Who
?
knows
?
Distracting, therefore, as the Bishop of Salamis
is for
the student of history, he occasionally lets fall a scrap of information which is of greater value than anything we can procure from other and more sober sources.
And "
so
in concluding
blunders
forgive 1
See
"
him
my
"
198-206, and
of his,
our review of some of those
we thank him
for his over-zeal,
and
his total lack of historical honesty.
Fragments of a Faith "
The Acts
of
John,"
"
Forgotten,"
pp.
426-444.
The
Naaseni,"
pp.
-
412 Was
As we have frequently
Jesus in
P t(?30 B
c.T
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Gospels, or
referred to the Apocryphal
as Epiphanius prefers to call be them, might opportune to append in this place a curious passage from the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. "
Histories,"
it
The form
in
which we now have
course very late, but
this
is
Gospel
of
frequently works up ancient
it
matter.
In the middle portion of
this
fesses to give a detailed story of
Holy Family during
their three years sojourn in Egypt,
ch. xxv. reads as follows "Thence
apocryphon, which pro what happened to the
:
they went down
seen Pharaoh, they staid
Memphis, and having and three years in Egypt to
;
the Lord Jesus wrought very
many
miracles in Egypt,
which are not found written either in the Gospel
of the
Infancy or in the Perfect Gospel." Now the last of the Pharaohs was Cleopatra, whose There is just the tragic death occurred in B.C. 30. faintest
possibility
that
this
taken from some ancient source
detail ;
may have been
but on the face of
it,
seems to be the story-telling of some imaginative monk, following out his normal association of ideas
it
(Egypt-Pharaoh), the na ive adornment of a tale. If, however, as some think, this Gospel came from Coptic circles, then the possibilities of our first hypo thesis would be slightly increased, for dwellers in Egypt
might be supposed transforming
it
to
hand on
out of
all
local tradition,
recognition.
even while
But who can
recognize with any certainty the flotsam and jetsam from the shipwreck of history that may have come into the hands of late legend-makers
?
XX
AFTERWOKD.
WE
have now reached the end of our enquiry, and look A back upon our labours with mingled feelings of thank fulness that they are temporarily ended,
and
of regret
that the nature of the subject throughout has been such that,
even with the best will in the world, we cannot
have avoided giving offence to many who will never trouble themselves to reflect that an excavator in religious
antiquity cannot justly
be held
sponsible for the nature of the objects
to
But apart from
the debris of the buried past.
somewhat a thankless task
to find oneself
add to the already enormous mass which confront the student of Christian
to
be
re
he unearths from
of
this, it is
compelled difficulties
origins, rather
than to help in diminishing them. For we can hardly hope that any but the few will be optimistic enough to have confidence that the very increasing of the difficulties is
the surest
way
some more potent means
of
of
hastening the day
when
removing them will be
devised.
As we
said at the outset,
most Christians, whether
they be unlearned or learned, will not hesitate for one to answer the amazing question: Did Jesus We shall, therelive 100 B.C. ? with an indignant No.
instant
Retrospect,
414
BID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
have accomplished as much as we can reasonably hope for, if an impartial consideration of the evidence fore,
should persuade the reader that some cause has been the asking of such a question should not as
shown why
condemned on
a matter of course be impatiently
sight
as the fantastic conceit of a disordered mind.
A Legitimate Criticism.
For, in the the question contrary,
we hope to have shown that our own devising, but that, on the
first place,
is
not of
it arises
as a legitimate subject of criticism
out of an impartial enquiry into what appears to be one most persistent elements of Jewish tradition con
of the
cerning Jesus. We do not come forward with some wild theory of our own maliciously to vex the souls of those who naturally hold loyally to the thing they have we grown used to in Christian canonical tradition ;
simply point to the existence, and what we consider we have shown to be the persistence, of an entirely contra dictory tradition held tenaciously for the
of
fellow-countrymen
temerity to
presume
many centuries by
We
Jesus.
to decide offhand
ancient oppositions, but simply
show
have not the
between those
that they exist,
and venture to think that they require further investi gation.
A
The argument with regard
Question
100 B c date -
Scholarship.
-
of
Jesus
is,
to the persistency of the
of course, primarily addressed
Jewish scholars, and is put forward in the hope of drawing attention to Krauss treatment of the subject,
to
which cannot be held
to be flattering to the pride of
Krauss has practically aban without a struggle he categorically re
Israel in its traditions.
doned the
field
;
jects the Jannai date, and tacitly accepts throughout his essay the entire validity of the Christian tradition of
AFTERWORD. the Pilate date, and in this he
is
415
supported, as far as I
can discover, by the vast majority
who
scholars
As opposed
to
Krauss,
who throughout
argument keeps the inconvenient
much
date as
modern Jewish
of
treat of Christian beginnings.
his whole
factor of the Jannai
we have en Talmud passages
as possible out of the way,
deavoured to show that an analysis of and the Toldoth forms produces the impression that the date element goes back to the floating mass of tradition from which both Talmud and Toldoth drew,
100
B.C.
and reveals
which
this date as a persistent obsession
even the most glaring contradictions of both Talmud and Toldoth could never oust from its secure asylum in the national consciousness of Jewry.
Moreover, our enquiry into a number of problems connected with Christian origins seems to point to a field of investigation
rather than tion
of
which appears
weaken the
Israel s reminiscences,
that should
likely to strengthen
possibility of a
make Jewish
new
considera
from a point
of
view
scholars hesitate before they
entirely abandon without a struggle what appears to be one of the fundamentals of their Jesus tradition,
although they of the
may
in courtesy very well regret
thought-images in
which part
some
of this tradition
has been clothed.
Nor can Jewish scholarship very wisely ignore the problem now that Krauss has brought it again pro-
Its Import1
Jewish
A et ics. minently into the arena of apologetics, in the train of polg his motley assembly of sources for his Life of Jesus "
"
It is true that Krauss according to Jewish tradition. has placed the Jannai date well in the background as
one of the most disreputable figures in the procession
;
416 but
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
can hardly be expected that the majority of Jewish scholars will agree with Krauss without a it
further thoroughgoing enquiry, and be content to keep
permanently in the background a factor of tradition which seems beyond all others to be the natural For there can be no doubt that if, leader of the band.
from a thoroughgoing investigation of the subject, it could be shown that the Jannai date threw light on obscure problems, the whole subject of Jewish apologetics would be enormously facilitated, and Jewish
many
would assume an importance
tradition
for the study of
Christian origins that would concentrate the attention of the greatest thinkers of the
the
Talmud and
If,
twentieth century upon
its allied literature.
on the contrary, Jewish scholars find themselves
compelled to abandon their tradition in this respect, what hope can they have that the treasure which "
"
the Israelites have guarded with their lives for so centuries, will in other respects
be
many
regarded by the
thinking world as worthy of very serious attention ? They may rather expect to be for ever confronted with the retort The Bona Talmud.
J n the
:
Ex uno
disce
omnes
Talmud we have a
!
collection of Jewish tradi-
tions compiled after the rise of Christianity, compiled
during the very centuries when the fighting its
new
way strenuously the General Faith of the Western world the record of the national the people amongst to birth
;
whom
Faith was most
to the position of
life,
;
becoming we have
herein
of the hopes
and
especially Christianity
came
what greater test of the reliability and bona Talmud could there be, therefore, than the
fides of the
tradition
fears of
which
it
contains concerning Jesus
?
If,
AFTERWORD.
417
then, Jewish scholarship should find itself
com
pelled to abandon so prominent a feature of this tradition as the Jannai date, and to accept the Christian
canonical tradition in this respect,
how
to see
it is difficult
Talmud can be considered anything but a it most
the
blind guide on the subject which of all others in
profoundly interests the Western world. If, on the contrary, as some of my Jewish friends A the Life
contend, detail
by the
Line of
of Jesus, as set forth in elaborate
later
Evangelists,
came
as a complete
the contemporary Eabbis, who possessed surprise but the most meagre traditions of their ancient nothing to
vague reminiscences, such
colleague
a long time ago, perhaps
happened
that
as
it
all
when Jannai was
was some heresy or other started by a Jeschu who had learned wonder-doings and other things
king, that there
and who was put to death for misleading the then the Jews would seem to possess a largely
in Egypt,
people
extended ground of
rejection
of
apology and justification for the consider, even when
what they already
they accept the Christian canonical date, to be for the
most part a pseudo-historical setting
of
what was
largely a dogmatic development. It is
true that
canonical
that most of the for as the
even when accepting the Christian The Method Jewish apologist can still argue
date, the
Talmud Jesus
stories
may
be accounted
"
"
historicizing
or
" "
legendarizing
of
later
doctrinal controversies, which similar
"
"
historicizing
of
may be set over against a doctrinal formulas and dogmas
in the Christian tradition; such, he
the
common method
and no one regarded
of the religious it
might argue, was
mind
of the time,
as a falsification of history
27
;
it
418
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
was understood
method by all haggadacompilers, religious controversialists and writers for edification they wrote with strong religious emotion, and as a legitimate
;
emotion gave them consent saving and living ideas, not the dead facts of an uncertain past, were their main this
;
It is true that this method has long passed interest. out of fashion, and that to-day it is the exact antipodes of the scientific precision of fact we demand in all such
matters in the twentieth century but it seems only to remember in that just endeavouring to appreciate the value of the evidence on either side, we have no ;
right to
condemn one
side
more than the other
for its
unhistorical forms, seeing that for the most part both
used essentially similar methods for supporting their contentions, the actual facts of history being frequently set on
one side or transformed the instant any doctrinal
point became endangered by them. TheJannai
All this can be fairly argued with regard to many points which have arisen in our enquiry but we must ;
confess that the Jannai date in this way.
which If
is
There
somewhat
we
are
told
is
is
very
difficult to
explain
a something peculiar about
it
fascinating.
that Jesus lived in
Nebuchadnezzar, we
are not so astonished
the days ;
of
for experi
ence in contemporary apocalyptic and pseudepigraphic literature teaches us that Nebuchadnezzar is clearly a substitute for
some other name.
If
even we are told
that Akiba, one of the most famous of anti-Christian controversialists, at the beginning of the second century
on Mary to witness to the illegitimacy of we can understand that this is a pure device of Jesus, haggadic polemical rhetoric, but when we are told that A.D.
calls
AFTERWORD. Jeschu was the disciple
of
lived in the days of Jannai,
419
Joshua ben Perachiah and
and
find this date
element
cropping up again and again in many guises in Jewish tradition, we fail to find a satisfactory explanation in either of the above canons of exegesis. It all
seems so senseless, so useless ,
,
what purpose could truth,
of
energies on
is
?
if it -,-
?
was untrue, ., ,, was the
making But
Its
Apparent
Senselessness.
If it
polemics, and bend
their
all
in the
it
their
all
their tradition consistent, even as
the Christians devoted
uniform
possibly serve
did not the Eabbis invariably put
why
forefront
;
., ,
.,
it
all theirs to
this is just
making what we do not
their story find
;
there
not a single word on the Christian side to show that
the Eabbis ever argued that the Christian tradition was one hundred years out no early writer, no Church ;
Father
(if
we except Epiphanius, who only
directly), breathes a word of such a of the
fundamental historicity
Whatever we learn
does so in
indictment
of the Christian tradition.
the controversy from the Chris to show that the Eabbis spent all seems
tian side, it all their energies
terrific
of
on combatting dogmas
such as the virgin-
It birth, the divinity of Jesus, the Messiah claim, etc. is true that Celsus categorically accuses the Christians of
continually
altering
dogmatic considerations
the
Gospel history to
but
is
;
it
credible
suit
the
that
Eabbis could have had so potent a weapon in their hands as an ancient and authentic tradition that Jesus lived 100
and yet have refrained from using
B.C.,
every occasion
it
on
?
It might, of
course, be
argued that this was not The Seeming
the controversy then necessary in the first century was simply with the Pauline view, in which there was a ;
Silence of the Rabbis.
DID JESUS LIVE 100
420
minimum
B.C. ?
and a maximum
of history
Jewish legalism, and the whole attention
it
was the
of opposition to
which engaged
latter
of the Kabbis.
might be said to say, a combat
It
that the contest in that century was, so
as far as popular not of haggadoth but of halaclwtJi were there simply collec Christianity was concerned, tions of sayings and such mystical forms of doctrine as \
those with which Paul was familiar and in which history
played hardly any part. But even so, when later on the Jesus liaggadoth began to take ever more and more
and the present Gospel narratives came why, if the Eabbis had in their hands a
definite shape to
birth,
tradition
reliable
years
B.C.,
of
the
existence
did they not employ
of controversy
it
of
as their
Jesus
100
main weapon
?
All the evidence seems to point to the fact that they did not generally do so, and, therefore, we are inclined to conclude that
they could not have had any general and yet, on the other tradition
confidence in their
hand,
it
persisted
;
among them, and
did form an in
convenient weapon of attack, as Epiphanius indirectly witnesses.
It
is,
of course, a
common
experience to find
main point a great popular controversy obscured, and every
what appears in
to the
modern mind
to be the
of possible subordinate consideration taking precedence this is common to the imbecility of human nature. it ;
But
it is
mind
just possible that in this special instance the
of antiquity, in considering that the energies at
of more importance than the forms in which were clothed, was nearer the truth than ourselves they when we make history and external facts the more im
work were
portant things, and subordinate
the
consideration of
AFTERWORD. the
forces
behind
the
421
phenomena
to
a
secondary
position.
However
this
may
the consciousness
haunts The
be, it is a fact that ever
the historian and gives
of
it
no peace,
that the most careful research cannot discover a scrap of external evidence in
the
first
century that witnesses
to the existence of Jesus, much less to the stupendously marvellous physical doings which the Gospel writers relate of him.
On
the contrary,
it is
almost impossible to believe even
that these detailed and circumstantial narratives
when shorn
of
"
every
miraculous
"
element to suit the
preconceptions of extreme rationalists could have been evolved entirely from the inner consciousness of Christian scribism
;
and,
if
there be any element in the
whole narrative which bears on genuineness,
my
it is
opinion, takes
its
face the
precisely the Pilate
date.
stamp
of
This, in
precedence far and away over all if it be not true, I cannot
other date indications, and
imagine any really satisfactory explanation for what otherwise must apparently have been inevitably shown
clumsy invention, for, as I have said before, the Rabbis could have instantly replied: There was no
to be a
such
trial
The
under Pontius Pilate
!
Pilate story seems to have been in existence in
written form not long after 70 A.D. This, of course, can not be proved, for what can we prove concerning the Gospel narratives in the first century ? But the whole
phenomena of Gospel compilation seem to point to its existence somewhere about 75 A.D. If, then, this de duction holds good, we are compelled to think that, with barely forty years between the last year of Pilate s
Strength
Christian ^
422
DID JESUS LIVE 100
procuratorship and largely on the side
A
On
Suggested
the "Common
wno
this
the
date,
holds to 100 the
of
genesis
probabilities
are
of its genuineness.
the other hand, 1 have heard
Document/
B.C. ?
B.C.
as the
Gospel
it
suggested by one date, that the
correct
which
story,
criticism
is
endeavouring to recover in the form of the common to be traced to the sketch of an ideal life "
document," is
which was intended
for purposes of propaganda,
and
which could be further explained to those who were ready for more definite instructions in the true nature To a certain extent it was of the Christ mystery. based on some of the traditions of the actual historic doings of Jesus, but the historical details were often transformed by the light of the mystery-teaching, and much was added in changed form concerning the drama
mystery allegories and parables and actual mystery-doings were woven into it, with what
of
the
Christ
appears
now
;
to be a
consummate
art
which has
for ages the intellect of the world, but
baffled
which at the
time was regarded by the writer as a modest effort at simplifying the spiritual truths of the inner life, by putting them forward in the form of what we should
now
call a
was
one
"
historical
of
the
romance,"
natural
but which in his day
methods
of
haggada and
apocalyptic.
The
Pilate
When
Date from a
New
Point
of View.
it
was further questioned: But why did the
who put
together this marvellous story place it at a date which you say was not the real date of Jesus ?
writer
the explanation suggested was somewhat as follows.
The evangelical writer put the story at a date between himself and what we consider the actual historical date,
most probably because he desired
to avoid contro-
AFTERWORD. versy and criticism
423
he did not desire that the public,
;
and especially those inimical
to
own
his
tradition,
should be put on the track of the actual date, so that the memory of one who was regarded in the tradition beloved Teacher, par
the
school as
his
of
excellence,
should escape being bandied about in the arena of vulgar curiosity and violent theological controversy.
Although his affection induced him to weave many sayings and perhaps some doings of the Master into his work, he especially did not wish to have it mistaken for the actual historical account of the life of the real Jeschu. This was the main reason
;
but the Pilate date was
also determined by the fact that there seems to have been some Jewish semi-prophet who created a little
disturbance in a very small way, and who was in conse quence brought before Pilate on a charge of sedition.
The writer may have thus also taken some few facts from this incident and woven it into the main story ;
but he never had the slightest idea that anyone would take the story in any sense except that in which he intended
A
it.
made
further suggestion has also been
name Pontius
came most
Pilate
this connection in those
that the
readily to
days of name-play, for
hand it
bore a
My
W.
Leadbeater, in treating of the most ancient form
the creed-formula and
of
Pontius
*
Pilate,"
"Instead 1
of
writes
"
Significance
the words
"
Suffered under
:
IIONTIOYIIIAATOY,
Leadbeater (C. W.),
(London
;
"
The
n.d.
?
Christian
1898),2p. 45,
Pontius
in Name-
close resemblance to a mystical term which played an important part in the mystery teaching. colleague C.
"
Pilate
Creed,
the its
earliest Origin and
"
a
424
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
Greek
manuscripts which the clairvoyant investi have gators yet been able to find all read IIONTOYHIAHTOY. Now the interchange of A and is by
H
no means unfrequent in various Greek the only real alteration here
which changes is
a
Koman
TroVro?,
proper
TriXrjTos, states
densified "
ing
sea,"
name."
VTTO
mentioned
is
still
in the higher
;
and only
cross of physical
described as of this
Suggestion
then the taking
;
under Pontius
suffering astral sea
This
matter."
matter,
physical
was
TTOVTOS
compressed or
"
thickened
evr)
to
sea,"
"
suffer
however,
but to an earlier
the first step the assumption of the vesture of matter
the incarnation
Review
"
"
the descent of the Soul, for
in
though
regard
meant a
the sea of
i.e.,
on
later
with
and,
that the term
does not refer to stage
,
Logos under the
of the
I,
which
sea, into TTOVTIOS,
meaning
The writer further says that substituted for
dialects, so that
the insertion of the
is
of
"
human
principles only;
Pilate,
or descent into the
after that the crucifixion
matter, in
dead and buried
form,
then the
which
He
is
on the
graphically
"
(p. 47).
we are told, are possible to him that and we may add also to him that disbut the question here is not so much one of as of probability that is to say, can a mind
All things, believeth,
believeth
;
possibility
;
which endeavours
to
put on one side all preconception and
means whereby the suggested have been arrived at, and tries to
prejudice for or against the
explanation is stated to judge of the matter solely on the ground of a hypo thesis to explain the puzzling facts of objective research, entertain this suggestion as one that
improbable
?
is
not inherently
AFTERWORD. It is true that TnA^ro? in
Greek
425 is
used by Aristotle
in the opposite sense to elastic, with the general
ing
which
that
of
"
may "
returning to
means is
its
shape
;
mean
be pressed close without while pilatus in Latin also
close-pressed, thick, dense (dcnsus, pi essus)."
It
further the fact that the early mystical communities
have much to say of
"
"
"
water,"
sea,"
ocean,"
in the
sense or as the symbol of
subtle matter. It might, be held that these considerations therefore, give some But, even so, colouring of probability to the suggestion. it
can only remain as a speculation, and cannot emerge
into
the
until
domain
objective
of
generally legitimized hypothesis, research into the nomenclature and
thought-atmosphere
of
the early mystic schools con
main secret of Christian dogmatics almost entirely hidden in the mysteries of the inner
vinces us that the is
At
experience.
present this latter view
is
repugnant to
most minds engaged on the study of Christian origins, but that it is a very legitimate view I am myself becoming more and more convinced with every added year of study bestowed on the beginnings and earliest
environment of Christianity.
And in this connection I would venture to say that The Making the actual objective physical history of Jesus himself is one thing
;
the continued inner presence of the Master
whose love and wisdom and power were in the new dispensation Jesus,
is
first
made
externally
another matter.
manifest
The former
is
through
mainly
a
question of pure objective history, though psychologically it becomes complicated with mysterious influences with
which our present very limited knowledge science
is
of psychic not competent to deal, while the latter is a
426
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
question of subjective activity, of vision and spiritual of an energising from within, a divine
experiences,
leaven working in the hearts and minds of disciples of every class of society and range of ability, the actual inner history of which no purely objective research can ever reveal.
From
emerged in course of time a and dogma that gradually shaped itself into ever more and more rigid uniformity a sameness view
this there
all of
of history
;
which we cannot discover in the days when the leaven was most actively working. In earlier times this later view
special
one
best
let us call it
a
of
number
;
was
at
in the earliest days
it
Nicene Christianity nay,
would have been probably unrecognizable as the view of any circle or group of immediate disciples of the Master. The "Secret Sermon on the Mountain."
And set
the
in
this
the
forth "
Son
of
connection
will be
it
of
interest
to
mystic tradition of the true nature of and of the Virgin Birth as pre
God
"
"
"
served to us in those very instructive documents gene Hermetic, but which may be more dis rally known as tinctly characterized as the Trismegistic literature.
It is
impossible here to set forth the reasons which have con
vinced
me
structive
"
that the oldest deposit of this exceedingly in Alexandrian scripture must be referred to "
at least the first century A.D. treatise as large as,
and
if
;
to do so
would require
a
not larger than, the present essay,
have hopes only to perfect my researches in the subject in the next twelve months or so, and then to I
present the reader with a
ing treatises of the
new
translation of the exist
and fragments and with an extensive review
whole matter.
Meantime let us turn our attention
AFTERWORD.
427
most striking passage in the tractate entitled The Secret Sermon on the Mountain," which further purports, "
to a
according to its superscription, to be an instruction of Hermes the Thrice-greatest to his Son Tat on the
"
A
Mountain.
Sermon on Rebirth and Con
Secret
cerning the Promise of
Silence."
The phrase on the mountain in the title is to be remarked and compared with the phrase the passing mountain seems This 1. o er the mountain of "
"
"
"
"
"
be symbolical of the grades of initiation in these inner schools the external rites may also have been to
;
performed frequently on a mountain or hill on which in our modern sense (or, to speak the monastery or monasteries more correctly, the collection of "
"
"
"
chambers
for
meditation)
may have been
situated.
passing over (perd/Bcio-is) the mountain was ap parently a grade of instruction, or one of the lower "
The
"
the sermon
to
grades prior
substance
the
mountain,"
"
passage up the
mountain
which
of
Perhaps the phrase
present treatise. the
or instruction
mountain,"
"
on the
given in our may be rendered is
and the term
"
on the
refer to the top of the mountain.
"
may
this connection I
In
need hardly refer the student to the in the mountain of the term "
frequent occurrence Gnostic Bruce and
two
Books
"
Askew
Codices (containing the
and the
"
Pistis Sophia In these later presentations of fundamentally the same "
of
leou,"
etc.,
").
teachings adapted to more popular beliefs, the mountain Mount of Galilee," and on it all the great is called the "
initiations
also in
and
many
rites are
performed.
The term occurs
other places, and frequently in the extra-
canonical and apocryphal sayings.
428 The
"Son
"
Virgin Birth -"
DID JESUS LIVE 100
Our sermon
of
is
B.C. ?
in the form of a dialogue
pupil and master, and the
between
two paragraphs rim
first
as
follows: "
On
TAT. In thy discourse
Generation, father, thou
spak st in riddles most unclear, conversing on divinity and when thou saidst no man could e er be saved before ;
meaning thou
rebirth, thy
became thy
mount/
didst hide.
Further,
upon the
suppliant,
when
I
passing o er the
after thou hadst conversed with me,
and when
I
longed to learn the lesson on rebirth (for this beyond all other things was just the thing I knew not), thou saidst that thou wouldst give
it
me
when thou
become a stranger to the world. ready and made the thought in world-illusion.
that
fall
short
And now do in me with what
Wherefore
me
thou
the tradition of rebirth, setting in the secret way. I
know
womb man
[such is
is
born], "
TAT.
What
father
?
forth in speech or
is
to birth, or of
Mind
conceived by
womb from
in
what what
Silence
out which
Man
seed."
the sower, father
For
?
I
am
alto
Will
God, my child." is he that is begotten, For I have no share of that essence in one
And
It is the of
begot will be another
HERMES. All
of
what kind
which doth transcend the
"
it
loss."
HERMES.
"TAT.
comes
and the True Good the
gether at a "
Wisdom
the matter and the
me
fill
Thrice-greatest one, from out
not,
matter and what
"HERMES.
I got
a stranger to the
up the things thou saidst would give
me
"
shalt have
senses.
God, God
of all, out of all
s
The one that
son
"
?
powers
composed."
is
429
AFTERWORD. "
Thou
TAT.
"
HERMES. This
when He
me
tellest
speak as father unto willeth
my
race,
it,
a riddle, father, and dost not
son."
its
never taught
child, is
memory
restored by
is
but
;
l God."
Much more might be quoted in which the master endeavours to make the mystery clearer to the under standing of his pupil, but for the present purpose it is 4 the following pregnant
only necessary to add from sentences :
"
TAT. Tell
me
Who
this too.
the author of re
is
birth?" "
HERMES. The Son
God, the One Man, by God
of
s
will."
In the second paragraph of Tat s opening words the The "Supterm "suppliant is to be specially remarked and taken World," "
"
in close connection
with the treatise of Philo
Contemplative Life," which, as Conybeare probably formed the fourth book of Pliilo rather
or
"
apology,
of this
title
"
Philo
pliant
work was tells
God and taken The phrase, the
to
other
"
Legatione."
"
The
when thou also
is
may
s
2
the
most
great work,
The
alternative "
"
By
Him."
one who has
sup fled to
3
shalt have
to
On
tells us,
Suppliants."
means
us he
refuge with
world"
things
De
"
become a stranger
be remarked, and
among
be compared with the new-found
Jesus saith, except ye fast to the world, ye nowise find the kingdom of God." 4 The idea "
Saying
:
shall in 1
For
text, see
"
Parthey
(G.),
Hermetis Trismegisti Poemander
(Berlin; 1854), pp. 114, 115. 2 Philo about the Contemplative
"
"
3 4
"
De
See
edited
Sac. Ab. et "
i.
C.,"
AOFIA IH2OT
by Grenfell (B.
:
P.)
Life"
(Oxford
;
1895).
186, 33.
Sayings of Our
and Hunt (A.
S.)
Lord,"
discovered
(London
;
and
1897), p. 10.
430 is
of
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
a common-place in the extant treatises and fragments Gnostic literature, and is, of course, found frequently
documents
in the canonical
Again in the phrase, things
that
short
fall
uvaTrXrjpwTov),
we have
of general Christianity.
and now do thou
"
in
me"
up the
fill
^crre/o^ara
(ret
the familiar technical terms of
the christianized Gnosis (Pleroma and Hysterema, the
Plenitude or Fullness and the Insufficiency or Empti ness), but not yet apparently systematized as in the Basilidean and Valentinian schools. The
The
"Mind."
leaves
treatise
l
on one side
all
questions
of
cosmogenesis and at once proceeds to deal with spiritual It will anthropogenesis or the spiritual birth of man.
be remembered by students
of these theosophical
Man, the inner spiritual Son follows in The Shepherd treatise
that the birth of is "
given as
But the All-Father, Mind, being
Man
is
Son
of
The
God.
further
to
Hermes
Life
co-equal with
the Son of the Great
of
God,
"
"
brought forth a
sermons
Mind
of
12)
(
:
and Light,
Man
Himself."
the universe,
He
is
the
christianizing Gnostic schools loved
elaborate
these
ineffable
processes,
but
content to put forward a far more simple statement, and gives the whole answer to the neophyte s "
"
is
question in a
brief
sentence or two.
It is true the
pupil cannot as yet understand the words, nevertheless the whole process of rebirth or regeneration is given in
the two opening answers of Hermes in 2, and this is the same in man s small universe of rebirth process as the
birth of
cosmically the
the spiritual
third
member
Man of the
the Regenerator, trinity
God
the
Creator, God the Preserver, and God the Regenerator, See especially Hippolytus,
"
Pliilosophumena," iv.
29
ff.
AFTERWORD. who
are all
from different points
at
of
The Preserver apparently evolves the substance
view.
the
of
One God looked
431
Creator
the
universe,
according to the necessary laws,
seemingly fashions
it
and the Kegenerator
is
breaking through the spheres, freeing the
of as
thought once more and restoring it to its primal source. The whole secret of rebirth is Wisdom, which
spirit
conceived by of this
Mind
in contemplative Silence
contemplation
Will of God so to speak turns on will of man to know God.
But the neophyte
Good
the True
is
itself
understanding understand it in what we
may
The and becomes the
He
call,
the object
;
or God.
represented as
is
of this great truth.
is
still
still
without The
"Mind"
desires to
in spite of the con
terms, his natural mind, the mind of the he has not in him, he declares, any portion of that Mind which transcends this physical consciousness, sensible world in its proper or, perhaps, better, the fusion of
senses
;
"
"
philosophical meaning.
thing different from God.
To him If
God
Man must
be some
brings forth a Son,
then there must be two Gods, and the unity is destroyed. To which doubt the master mysteriously replies All "
:
in
all,
out of
different
all powers composed." So far from being from God, Man is all in all, out of all powers,
endowed with
we
think
we
all
are,
powers not, of course, the little man but the Great Man we really are in
our Selves, nay rather in our Self, which is One. This truth, says Hermes, is not taught by ordinary The means, not argued out and demonstrated by the senses, or
by physical processes. It is a memory that God awakes in the soul. It must be self-perceived. This "
race
(yeW),
my
child, is
never
taught."
What
is
the
of of the Logos,
432
DID JESUS LIVE 100
am
I
term
of the strange
meaning
Let
previously missed?
which, as far as
"
race,"
and commentators have
translators
all
aware,
B.C. ?
me
to
refer
again
Philo
s
treatise. "
But
as for the race of
1
devotees,"
he says,
"
who
are
taught ever more and more to see, let them strive for the intuition of That-which-is let them transcend the ;
men
sun which
[and gaze upon the Light nor ever leave rank 2 which leads to this beyond], Now they who betake themselves perfect blessedness. to
perceive
divine] service, [do
[the
so]
not because of any
custom, or some one s advice or appeal, but carried
by heavenly
And
love."
Now
"
again
found in
:
many
away
3
men
this race (ye^o?) of of
parts
the
inhabited
is
world,
to be
both
Grecian and non-Grecian world, sharing in the perfect Good."
This
4
then, seems to be the race of the Logos,
"
race,"
even as was the
The Mind and
"
race of
higher mind active The manner of
memory, is given
Hermes in
Elxai,"
or those
who have
the
in them. this
in the
rebirth,
of
this
restoring
opening paragraph
of
3,
of
where
describes one of the results of contemplation,
which the consciousness
the spiritual it is seen.
"
"
vehicle
;
is,
so to speak, transferred to
but even here
This state of consciousness trance
istic state of
;
the master has
it is
is
not taught,
not a mediuin-
still
full contact
with the physical world, but the centre or focus of his consciousness
is,
so to speak, transferred to the higher
spiritual part of his nature. 1
3
Or the P. 891
"
therapeutic ;
M.
473, 10.
-
Order, space or plane.
4
P.
race."
892
;
M. 474,
35.
s
AFTERWORD. Yet
is
the pupil
433
confused, for he
still
still
sees the
is
not the
lower man, the master goes on to explain, bring about this inner change of consciousness,
who can
physical body of his master before him.
It
it is
the
higher Man who does so. Even the belief of the pupil that he actually sees the physical body of his master as a
continuous thing
a
is
sense-illusion, for
every Accordingly, with
particle of it is in perpetual change.
Hermes lays down the great doctrine of the really True, the One Keality, as opposed to the perpetual 6,
How can This be per of manifested things. ? he asks. with mortal ceived eyes Hereupon Tat loses courage, and begins to think that the thing is too high for him, and that he has no higher change
mind.
But Hermes warmly
doubt,
and proceeds
"
senses
"
to
sets aside
explain
of his pupil are
logical
problem
me
be
"
to
substances
selves
or
;
it is
a
then
"
or
"
the
spiritual
The psycho
what
in
fashion.
seems to
The
soul
have no direction in them
forces
the will of
why
matter.
stated
scientific
perfectly
"
such an impious
clouded and blinded by the
brutish or irrational things of is
Virtue and
man
that can turn
them upwards
downwards, so that they become manifest as virtues These virtues or vices are simply the tenden
or vices.
cies of the distinct
parts
or
forces, of the soul,
reason, irrational
Indeed,
substantial
it is
if
out of
the real
if
or
component
ruled by the
its control.
mind,"
humanity
individual and
not
sympathizing with
rational
"
eternal idea of true
yet
things,
the
"
man,"
in us
separate,
;
that
it is, as it
is
the The Root
were,
sharing with
all,
showing forth in every manifestation some special aspect, one yet many, the 28 all,
yet
of
434
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C. ?
true source of fellowship and communion, the mystery of all "
mysteries,
man and humanity
which prevents us
rightly/
if
we
if
we
one, the that
are about to do a thing not
will but follow its loving guidance,
finally the only way by which recognize our eternal sonship.
The
in
and
we can know God and
But we have already gone
Christ.
far beyond what was immediate purpose, namely, the show the mystic and truly philosophic view of
necessary for our ing forth of
the nature of the birth of
"
the Christ
"
in the hearts of
men, which was held by pious and thinking minds in at least the first century of our era. In it we have in
my
opinion a setting forth of the mystery which can
man s intelligence, but which on the contrary was, I most firmly believe, the central truth insisted on by the great Master of Christendom Himself.
shock no
Those who, in spite of the evidence which is coming to light on all hands from a thoroughgoing analysis of tradition, still hold desperately to the gross materialism
the popular dogma of the physical virgin birth, must do so at peril of destroying the whole comfort derivable from the Life of Jesus. For if, as it is claimed by
of
was born miraculously without what example can He possibly be for men born in
theology, Jesus Christ sin,
sin
?
for
There can be no miracle
alone
"
can
imitation
"
imitate
on these premisses The true ;
miracle.
he who wins his way through human nature, sinful human nature, towards the Divine and unless I am grievously mistaken and read quite
Conqueror
is
;
wrongly the records it is
of the
world
s
greatest Teachers, of a Christ
in this precisely that the triumph
consists.
AFTERWORD. In the Foreword
435 would The Ground
of this essay I said that I
endeavour to show how even Jew and Christian could
tion Between learn to understand and respect each other even on the i? w and
Christian.
I
ground of religion and the Christian
meant
of course the
of to-day.
I
Jew
of to-day
believe that
in
the
central fact above referred to, the basic truth not only of Christianity
great
but also
religion,
of
Judaism and
men may meet
all
of
every other true
together in
fellowship and concord.
Doubtless I have put forward the matter in a very crude and imperfect fashion; I have probably used erroneous expressions and terms, have unwillingly hurt those tress,
to I
my
whom
I
have not the faintest wish to
dis
have misrepresented the position of others owing ignorance of what they really think and feel but ;
have endeavoured
to be just
and accurate, and have
been guided by a profound sympathy for humanity, with all, whatever creed they may for the central fact of our general experience profess a fellow-feeling ;
is
that
we
are all in the
battling for light.
And
same ignorance, struggling and I fear this ignorance will
be removed from our midst unless
never
we co-operate together,
and speak with utter frankness man to man, without fear
of
endangering our several vested interests, be
they material, or psychic, or mental, or spiritual. In conclusion, therefore, if it be not thought imperti- A Humble
nent for so obscure an individual to do
so,
I
would
courteously ask the learned of the Jews for a thorough going explanation of their traditions of Jesus with reference to the date question and to preChristian mystic and heretical schools of every kind; and the learned of the Christians for a reconsideration special
436
DID JESUS LIVE 100
of the history of their origins
B.C. ?
by the light
of
such
facts,
for instance, as the patristically
acknowledged striking between the practices of the Therapeut Essene communities and the earliest Christian assemblies, the similarity
puzzling
phenomena
of the
Paul found, using the long-established
"
practice,
"
Churches
gifts of
of
God
the Spirit
"
"
as
and the members
which
some which
of
he addresses in language which shows them as familiar with the most technical terms of the Gnosis, and the widespread pre-Christian rites of resurrection, and if not of crucifixion at any rate of stigmatization, as admitted by Epiphanius, and thereafter for a reinvestigation of the canonical date in connection therewith,
and with the now well-known
making
literature, of
facts of the
manner
of
apocalyptic and pseudepigraphic prior to and contemporary with the writing
of haggadic,
our present canonical Gospels.
For
my own
part, I feel at present
somewhat with
out an absolutely authoritative negative to the very and Did Jesus live 100 B.C. ? strange question "
"
:
doubtless shall continue
to feel so until all sides of
the question have been again rigorously scrutinized by the ever finer critical equipment which the twentieth
century must inevitably develop, and in the light of the great toleration which the ever-growing humanism our day is extending to the most intractable questions
of
of theology.
ADDITIONAL NOTES. P. 47. With regard to the chronology of the Christian era and the influence of the Coesar cult on Christian dogmatics, a field of
immense interest and importance has recently been opened up by the researches of Alexander Del Mar, in his painstaking study, The Worship of Augustus Ctesar, derived from a Study of Coins, "
Monuments, Calendars,
and Astronomical and Astrological New Chronology and Survey of (New York 1900). In his Preface (pp. .ZEras
Cycles, the whole establishing a
History and viii, ix),
Del
Religion"
Mar
will be
"It
writes
;
:
shown upon ample evidences that
after the sub
mission of the Oriental provinces and consolidation of the empire, Augustus Csesar set himself up for that Son of God whose advent, according to Indian chronology, synchronized with the reappear
ance of the Oriental Messiah
;
the date being A.U. 691 (B.C. 63),
that this claim and assump the alleged year of Augustus birth tion appears in the literature of his age, was engraved upon his monuments and stamped upon his coins that it was universally ;
;
admitted and accepted throughout the Eoman Empire as valid and legitimate, both according to Indian and Roman chronology, that his actual worship as such astrology, prophesy and tradition ;
Son
God
was enjoined and enforced by the laws of the empire, accepted by the priesthood and practised by the people and that both de jure and de facto it constituted the fundamental article of the Roman imperial and ecclesiastical con of
Divus Filius
;
stitution."
In an exceedingly interesting article, The Time of the World," The Indian Review of January 1903, Del Mar writes "
in
"
"
:
"
I.
we
If
Higgins
.
.
.
accept the epoch of the zodions fixed by Godfrey Alexander the Great altered such epoch to the ex
tent of twenty-eight or thirty years, in order to bring the beginning
438
DID JESUS LIVE 100 B.C.?
of Pisces to the year of his Apotheosis. Higgins epoch of Pisces B.C. 360. The Apotheosis of Alexander took place in the
is
Libyan Temple of Jupiter Ammon, December 25th, B.C. 322. In that temple he found Aries regnant he left it with Pisces triumphant. He was afterwards known as Ichthys, the Fish, the Great Isskander, etc., titles that are connected with the zodion ;
Pisces. "
II. Julius Cpesar altered
the Olympiads from five to four years
and
their starting-point from a year equivalent to B.C. 884 to one equal to B.C. 776, an initial difference of 108 years. "III. Augustus Csesar altered the epochs of the Ludi Sseculares
each,
.
.
.
to the extent of seventy-eight years. This changed the year of the Foundation of Borne from the equivalent of B.C. 816 to B.C. 738,
and had a variable influence on other important dates. "IV. Some time before the seventeenth century the Latin Sacred College restored fifteen years to the Koman calendar. All the years were inserted into that portion of the calendar which preceded the Christian era it had the effect to remove the year of ;
Rome backward to changed the Anno Augusti.
the foundation of It also "
To
recapitulate,
B.C. 753,
where
Alexander altered the zodions
it
now stands.
Julius Csesar,
;
Augustus, the Ludi Srcculares and year of Rome Pope Gregory VI. or XIII. (?) the Augustan era and Gregory XIII., the New Year Day and some other festivals, perhaps also the Year of the Nativity. the Olympiads
;
;
;
"The
net result of these various alterations shows a present between Oriental and Western chronologies of sixty-
difference
three years ; that is, astronomical event. .
when both .
are
computed from any
certain
.
Had the calendar, as arranged by Augustus, remained un altered to the present day, his Apotheosis would have answered to our A.D. 0, or the year before A.D. 1 ; but owing to the fifteen "
years shifting already alluded date of B.C. 15. ... "The
to,
his Apotheosis
now
bears the
introduction of the Christian era as a measure of time
resulted in throwing all ancient dates into confusion. This was due to several circumstances. I. It was not an era, like the year of the world, or like Scaliger s astronomical era, which ante-dated all historical epochs, and ran on continuously from its own year to
an endless succession of years. On the contrary, the Christian era and as no allowance is made is used both backward and forward in it for a year between A.D. 1 and B.C. 1, it makes a difference of ;
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
439
one year as between itself and every era more ancient than itself. II. As it took its starting-point from the Roman era, more especi ally the ^Era Augusti, it embraced all the chronological alterations which that era embraced. III. In correcting vitiated dates, the
same number
of years
have to be added to
As
IV.
fusion.
This
dates.
before stated,
was
it
is
A.D.
dates
which
a source of endless con
itself
altered to the extent of
Its use, therefore, involves three classes of errors,
fifteen years. viz.,
must be deducted from
B.C.
the ancient alterations as between the Olympiads and the year the single year between A.D. 1 and B.C. 1 ; and the ;
Rome
of
fifteen-year alteration of the Middle What exact bearing all this may
Ages."
have on our question I have not as yet been able to discover, but that Del Mar s researches must be taken into account in any thoroughgoing investigation of Christian chronology I am fully persuaded.
A curious subject of speculation
P. 154.
Mam/er
in connection with the
opened up by the criticism of the artificial genealogy prefixed to the first Gospel (Matt. i. 1-17), "with the singular stress laid upon Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, the converted sinners and heathens, as mothers of the elect one (compare Gen. R. Hor. lOb Nazir 23b Meg 14b) "as Kohler puts it in his ii. article, Christianity in its Relation to Judaism," in the Jewish stories is
;
;
;
"
"
Von
Encyclopaedia."
Soden, in his article,
"
Genealogies of
Jesus,"
Encyclopaedia Biblica (in the just published fourth volume), referring to the only three women mentioned in the Rabbinic scholars also interested themselves in genealogies, says in
the
"
"
"
:
these
women.
Theol.,
341.
On Tamar and Ruth compare Weber, Rahab they transformed and traced
Altsynag.
into an inn-keeper (Jos.,
her eight prophets (Lightfoot, u. Talm., 40). She was an object of interest also to the early Christians, as Heb. xi. 31 and * James ii. 25 show. Perhaps they interpreted harlot allegoriAntt.,
v.
i.
Hor. Heb.,
27),
180
Menschen,
;
to
N. T.
*
cally as
heathen.
"
Compare
this
our Talmud
with
"
Deborah the
landlady"
The curious student of human nature may also refer to the use made of these genealogical details by Guy de Maupassant in his short .story, Nos Anglais,"
and the
"inn"
of
stories.
"
in the collection entitled Toine (Paris ; 1903). P. 301. Jewish friend has just communicated to
A me an oral form of Toldoth which differs in some particulars from any other form with which I am acquainted. My correspondent says that it comes from ancient Poland, and was included among the Jewish wives tales," but he cannot trace its origin further. The "old
440 name name
DID JESUS LIVE 100
B.C.
?
Jochanan and of the seducer Joseph, the Jeschu, as in other forms ; then follows the accusation of bastardy, and the robbing of the Shem, and the of the betrothed is
of the
boy
is
doing of wonders thereby.
and fearing
"
But the
spirit of the
Eabbis was dis
should be enticed by the magical powers of Jeschu, R. Meir volunteered to profane his own powers and so bring about the fall of Jeschu." He accordingly does so in
tressed,
the
way
lest Israel
familiar to us in the other Toldoth forms.
"
When
the
women-reapers saw that the magician had fallen, they pelted him with cabbages until he died. But the Romans had already be lieved that Jeschu was a superhuman being, and when they heard of his death, they wished to exterminate all the Jews. R. Meir, in order to appease the anger of the Romans, and save his people from destruction, again made use of his extraordinary divine
Lo I fly powers, and again mounted into the air, exclaiming higher than Jeschu flew, as a sign that he hath sent me to institute And this he did with great wisdom, so that the your festivals. :
Jewish
festivals
!
first and be spent more Sunday the next day after the R. Meir was the pupil of Akiba, and does not
should always come
happily.
Thus he
Sabbath,"
etc.
instituted
appear in any other form of Toldoth.
PKINTED BY NEILL AND
CO., LTD.,
EDINBURGH.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
FRAGMENTS OF A FAITH FORGOTTEN Some
short Sketches among the Gnostics, mainly of the First Centuries a Contribution to the Study of Christian Origins based on the most Recently Discovered Materials.
Two
Outlines of the Background of the Gnosis
Introduction.
I.
;
Literature and
Sources of Gnosticism.
The GnosiS according: to
its FOBS. Polemical Writings of the Church Fathers
II.
Gnostic Fragments recovered from the ;
the Gnosis in the Uncanonical Acts.
The Gnosis according: to
III.
Translation
;
Greek Original its Friends. the Askew, Bruce, and Akhmim Codices.
Classified Bibliographies are
appended.
Works
in Coptic
630, xxviii. pp. large octavo. Cloth. 10/6 net.
SOME PRESS NOTICES. "
Mr Mead
has done his work in a scholarly and painstaking
fashion."
The Guardian.
The ordinary student
of Christian evidences, if he confines his reading to the Fathers, learns nothing of these opinions [the so-called Gnostic heresies ] except by way of refutation and angry "
condemnation. In Mr Mead s pages, however, they are treated with impartiality and candour. .... These remarks will suffice to show the unique character of this volume, and to indicate that students may find here matter of great service to the rational interpretation of Christian thought." Bradford Observer.
The book, Mr Mead explains, is not intended primarily for the student, but for the general reader, and it certainly should not be neglected by anyone who is interested in the history of early Christian thought." The Scotsman. "
"The work is one of great labour and learning, and deserves study as a sympathetic estimate of a rather severely-judged class of heretics." Glasgow Herald.
Written in a clear and elegant style The bibliographies in the volume are of world wide range, and will be most valuable to students of theosophy." Asiatic Quarterly. "
Mr Mead
"
writes with precision and clearness on subjects usually associated with bewildering and mystifications. Even the long-suffering general reader could go through this volume with pleasure. That is a great deal to say of a book on such a subject." Light. 1
technicalities
large
work
will certainly be read not only with the greatest interest in the select but by that much larger circle of those longing to learn all about Truth. as an extraordinarily clear exposition of the Gnosis of the Saints May and the Sages of philosophic Christianity." The Roman Herald. "This
striking
circle of the cultured,
.... "
be
Mr Mead
Hymn
summed up
does us another piece of service by including a complete copy of the Gnostic .... and a handy epitome of the Pistit Sophia is another item for will be grateful." The Literary Guide.
of the Robe of Glory
which the student
The author has naturally the interest of a theosophist in Gnosticism, and approaches the sub ject accordingly from a point of view different from our own. But while his pointof view emerges in the course of the volume, this does not affect the value of his work for those who do not share his special standpoint Mr Mead has at any rate rendered us an excellent service, and we shall look forward with pleasure to his future studies." The Primitive Methodist Quarterly. "
The writing of the present work has been a congenial task to Mr Mead, and he has brought to bear, lovingly and zealously, upon the portraiture of the figure of Christ and of early Christianity all the knowledge which a deep study of Oriental religions from their emotional side could fur nish. The book is published by the Theosophical Publishing Society, and bears, of course, the marks of its associations but it may be stated at the outset that there is very little of what is commonly regarded as the Theosophic method apparent in the work, which is the product of a In his endeavour to realise the object scholarly though, withal, very devotional spirit which he has set himself, Mr Mead has traversed a wide field In fine, we have in his volume a bird s-eye view of the whole field of early Gnosticism written for the general reader in a style and method requiring no knowledge of the ancient tongues." The Mimixt. "
;
We are glad to see that the Theosophists .... are settling down to the study of religion. .... Though we do not appreciate their fundamental philosophy, so far as we understand it, we think they may do good work if they produce books like this of Mr Mead comprehensive, "
and scholarly though evidently biassed Headers not familiar with the learned will find here an account of its varying phases and of the influences to produce it. The chapters entitled Some Rough Outlines of the Background of the Gnosis are well written, and they tend to focus the philosophic and religious movement of the ancient world There is a very excellent bibliography." The Spectator. interesting,
German works on Gnosticism which helped
"
Mr Mead, whose
short sketches
among
translation of the Pistis Sophia was a welcome boon, gives us here some the Gnostics, mainly of the first two centuries. Most readers, unless they
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, LONDON AND
BENARES.
WORKS BY THE SAM E AUTHOR. them too long, and Mr Mead s enthusiasm for the Forgotten Faith of The cow in the meadow, knee-deep in clover, often Gnosticism will remind them of the proverb looks over the hedge and longs for the common. .... Justice was not done to the Gnostics by their opponents, and we cannot wonder. Moderns like Harnack, however, have tried to make amends, and Mr Mead has done his best. We commend this book to all who are tired of Christianity, and who want something deeper than the Lord s Prayer, more sublime than Paul s hymn to Love, and more practical than the Sermon on the Mount." The Christian World. are Theosophists, will thiiik
:
L opera, cui 1 autoi e da modestamenti il nome di Brevi studi, e invero il frutto di dotte e pazientissime ricerche, di vasta e profunda erudizione d interesse grande per il soggetto fc che tratta ed e accessibile anche a chi non sia uno studioso di religione comparata od un teologo, per la maniera abile e piacevole con cui il sogetto 6 trattato. L autore stesso spiega perche voile cosi 1 opera sua con queste parole poiche io stimo tal sogetto di profundo II libro, che vide la luce proprio interesse umano e nou di mera importanza accademica. "
;
:
alba del nuovo secolo, risponde ad un bisogno del memento o, meglio, risponde ad un bisogno che sempre si e fatto e si fara sentire, ma che mai forse come uell epocha presente ebbe fra noi tanta intensita." La Nuova Parola. all
German
Translation.
FRAGMENTE EINES VERSCHOLLENEN GLAUBENS. Ulrich.
This
is
Berlin C. A. Schwetschke und Sohn. the Firtt Attempt that has been made to bring
Ins Deutsche ubersetzt von A. von
:
together All the Existing Sources of
Information on the Earliest Christian Philosophers.
Tyana
of
Apollonius
THE PHILOSOPHER-REFORMER OF THE FIRST CENTURY
:
A.D.
Record of his Life, with some account of the War of Opinion A concerning him, and an Introduction on the Religious Associations and Brotherhoods of the of Indian Influence Times and the possible Thought on Greece. critical
Study of the only existing
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. The Religious Associations and Communities of the First Century, iii. iv. The Apollonius of Early Opinion, v. Texts, Translations and Literature, vii. Early Life. viii. The Travels of Apollonius. ix. The vi. The Biographer of Apollonius. of x. The Gymnosophists of Upper Egypt. and the Retreats Shrines of the Temples Religion, xii. Apollonius the Prophet and Wonder xi. Apollonius and the Rulers of the Empire, worker, xiii. His Mode of Life. xiv. Himself and his Circle, xv. From his Sayings and Sermons, xvi. From his Letters, xvii. The Writings of Apollonius. xviii. Bibliographical Notes. Introductory, India and Greece, i.
li.
1GO pp. large 8vo.
Cloth.
SOME PRESS Mr Mead s work is careful, scholarly, spiritual ideals of life which are far greater f ul to English readers." Bradford Observer. "
"With
much
that
Mr Mead
and than
3.
Gd. net.
OPINIONS. critical, yet deeply all the creeds
says about Apollonius
we
sympathetic with those Will be found very use-
are entirely disposed to
agree."
Spectator.
Mr Mead s
based upon a careful study of the literature of the sympathetic monograph Writes with moderation, and has rendered good service by examining Apollonius subject from a fresh point of view." Manchester Guardian. It is a We give a specially cordial welcome to Mr G. R. S. Mead s Apollonius of Tyana. book which all well-instructed spiritualists will be able to appreciate and understand." Light. A charming and enlightening little work, full of knowledge, bright with sympathy, and masterly in style." The Coining Day. It is not only interesting, it is fair, and to a great degree scholarly, although it is slight and popular in conception. The spiritand tone are admirable. .Mr Mead neither flouts what he thinks He uses his authorities with care and mistaken nor states uncritically what he believes judgment, and gives exact references. Some good suggestions are made in the book."--,tt0fl0tlff* of and this misunderstanding, Mr Mead has heroically jungle "Through fable, controversy, set himself to cut his way to the man as he was. Practically he regards him as a theosophist of orders and commissioned to regenerate who had been initiated into loftier first the the century, the cults at many of the larger sanctuaries. The author has studied the original authorities and o work his It of als the of course, impossible to say whether his carefully, predecessors. is, attempt to get back to the real Apollonius has been successful. In most respects his account is At any rate, impartial students will plausible, and quite possibly may represent the facts "
is
"
.
.
.
.
"
"
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
LONDON AND BENARES.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. be grateful for his sympathetic vindication of Apollonius from the too frequent charge that he was nothing better than a charlatan. He thinks that Apollonius must surely have visited some of the Christian societies, and have met with Paul, if not earlier, at least at Rome in 66. It seems to us very problematical that he should have taken any interest in the Christians, though the probability would be much enhanced if Mr Mead s view of primitive Christianity could be The Primitive Methodist Quarterly Review. substantiated." "Students of the religious history of the earlier centuries of the Christian era are already in debted to Mr Mead for his elucidations of more than one obscure document of that remote age. His account of Apollonius of Tyana will be all the more welcome because, treating its subject without theological or denominational prepossessions, it reveals the ancient philosopher in a new Mr Mead gives a readable and well-studied light, which may very Avell be also a true one account of him, reviewing what little remains known of his life, and inquiring, without contro versy, what must have been the character of one who had so real an influence on the religious life The book is ricli in suggestions of the actualities of the religious life of the of his time ancient world when Christianity was still in its infancy. It is well worthy of the attention of all who are interested in the subject." The Scotsman. This little book is an attempt to tell us all that is definitely known of one of the most extra It is done in the main with absolute impartiality, and with ordinary figures in history considerable learning. It is not a satisfactory book, but it is useful and interesting, and, in default of anything better, it may be recommended." Saturday Review. "The task Mr Mead has set himself is to recover from Philostratus highly romantic narrative the few facts which can be really known, and to present to the public a plain and simple story which shall accord with the plain and simple life of the humble Tyanean and he has achieved no little success. His book is thoroughly readable, the manner of writing most attractive, and Mr Mead s last work is a thoroughly scholarly one, and his enthusiasm evidently sincere lie has contributed a very valuable page to philosophical history." Chatham and Rochester "
;
Observer.
Mr Mead s works are always worth reading. They are characterised by clearness, sanity, and moderation they are scholarly, and are always conceived in a profoundly religious spirit. The bibliographies are excellent. With Mr Mead s workmanship we have only one fault to find. In order to give elevation to the utterances of his hero, he not only affects poetical expressions which is permissible and poetical inversions of speech which are not permissible but he Mr Mead is master of an excellent prose indulges in a whole page of irregular blank verse Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. style, and Pegasus is a sorry back when Pegasus goes lame." "This well-written volume affords a critical study of the only existing record of the life of His principles, his mode of teaching, his travels in the east and in Apollonius of Tyana the south and west, his mode of life, his sayings, letters, and writings and bibliographical notes, are all set forth in a clear and interesting style." Asiatic Quarterly Review. Verfasser will auf Grund der philostratischen Biographic ein Bild vom Leben und Wirkeu des Apollonius geben. Es fehlt ihm dazu nich an besonnenen Urteil, eben so wenig an der Verf. halt sich auch, obwohl notigen Belesenheit in der einschlagigen Litteratur olfenbar selbst Theologe, freivon der theologischen Voreingenommenheit, die bei der Beurteilung des Appollonius so fruh und so lange Unheil gestiftet hat." Wochenschrift fur klassisc.he "
;
"
Philologie.
THE GOSPELS AND THE GOSPEL A STUDY IN THE MOST RECENT RESULTS OF THE LOWER AND THE HIGHER CRITICISM SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. Preamble
A
Glimpse at the History of the Evolution of Biblical Criticism The and the Lower Criticism" The Nature of the Tradition of the Traces in the Existing Documents An Exam Gospel Autographs Autobiographical ination of the Earliest Outer Evidence The Present Position of the Synoptical Problem The Credibility of the Synoptists The Johannine Problem Summary of the Evidence from all Sources The Life Side of Christianity The Gospel of the Living Christ. 200 pp. Large octavo. Cloth, 4s. 6d. net. "Word
of
"
God"
SOME PRESS NOTICES. and interesting account of the history of the development of Biblical criticism .... a thoughtful and learned, yet readable book, which well deserves the attention of readers interested in its subject." The Scotsman. Mr Mead begins with a sketch of the recent progress of Biblical criticism. The tone is not altogether what one would wish the Conservatives were, after all, lighting for what they held to be very precious but it is substantially true." Spectator. Mr Mead describes his book as a study in the most recent results of the higher aud the "A
clear, intelligent,
"
"
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, LONDON AND
BENAHES.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. lower criticism. The description is incomplete rather than inadequate, for the study is made from a neo-Gnostic point of view, and under neo-Gnostic prepossessions ..... Mr Mead has shown, in previous volumes, how the fascinating glamour of their writings has attracted him, and, though they are mainly represented by imperfect but suggestive fragments, he has done his best to reconstruct them and to revive, where possible, their lingering vitality. His work, on these lines, has met with due appreciation ..... He regards Gnosticism as a suppressed religion which may yet result in an all-embracing creed, which will combine and focus the scattered rays now dispersed abroad among divergent faiths." Sheffield Daily Telegraph. In his modest preamble the author describes himself as neither scientist nor theologian, but as a friendly spectator, who, as a devoted lover of both science and religion, has no partisan interest to serve, and, as a believer in the blessings of that true tolerance which permits perfect liberty in all matters of opinion and belief, has no desire to dictate to others what their decision should be ou any one of the many controversial points touched upon. Further on he strongly advises the disturbed reader, who fears to plunge deeper into the free waters of criticism, to leave the matter alone, and content himself with the creeds and cults of the churches. We, therefore, cannot complain if in the sequel he puts forth conclusions widely different from those generally held, even in this advanced age, by the average thoughtful student. He claims to treat the subject without fear or favour, and, while disclaiming the ultra-rationalism of the extreme school of criticism, he nevertheless feels himself compelled largely to accept the proofs brought forward of the unhistorical nature of much in the Gospel narratives, and also the main positions in all subjects of Gospel criticism which do not involve a mystical or practical religious element." As a theosophist, lie seems to have a peculiar affection, on mystical grounds, for the fourth Gospel, which, however, he sees fit to class with Hermes Trismei<istus. It would be far too elaborate a task to attempt to deal with the details of his argument here. Its results claim to be based on Nestle s deservedly popular work. Anyone who wishes to see Nestle theosophically interpreted may well read Mr Mead s lucid and interesting pages for himself. .... There are many other points we should criticise if we had space. But there are many points, on the other hand, which call for hearty commendation ; not least, Mr Mead s crusade "
against
book-worship."
The Guardian.
work
consists of various chapters which have appeared from time to time in a Review devoted to the study of religion from an entirely independent point of view, and perused by a class of readers belonging to many Churches of Christendom, to schools or sects of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Zoroastrianism, and others who follow no religion. The author considers that the controversies which have been waged under the term of the Higher Criticism have almost exclusively been that of progressive knowledge of physical facts (natural, historical, and literary) and the conservatism of theological traditional views, and never, at any time, between Science and Religion in their true meaning." Asiatic Quarterly Review. "This
"
O
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apx^f rov
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K.
G. R.
S.
TJJS xpHTTiaviKiis 0tAofJo0ias e|o^co$ SifiaKTiKriv
Mead
.... OK.
Mead
Kopvfpaicav ffKairavewv TTJS fptvurjriKris ravrrjs epyaffias Kal irav o, Kpivo) i8iaov(rris irpoffox^s #|toj/ E/j.irvt6/j.evos virb ffis vyiovs Taurrjs 6 K. Mead o yt eTeA.eo ej/ effx&TMS Oav/JLaffiov epyov." Erevna. tTi e cfs rH)?
.....
PISTIS SOPHIA:
A
Gnostic Gospel.
(With Extracts from the Books of the Saviour appended.) Originally translated from Greek into Coptic, and now for the first time Englished from Schwartze s Latin Version of the only known Coptic MS., and checked by Amelineau s French version. With an Introduction and Bibliography. 394, xliv. pp. large octavo.
Cloth.
Vs.
6d. net.
SOME PRESS
OPINIONS.
The Pistis Sophia has long been recognised as one of the most important Gnostic documents we possess, and Mr Mead deserves the gratitude of students of Church History and of the History of Christian Thought, for his admirable translation and edition of this curious Glasgow Herald. Gospel." "
*
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, LONDON AND
BENARES.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. i{ Mr Mead has done a service to other than Theosophists by his This curious work has not till lately translation of the Pistis Sophia. He has prefixed a received the attention which it deserves short Introduction, which includes an excellent bibliography. Thus, the English reader is now in a position to judge for himself of the scientific value of the only Gnostic treatise of any considerable length which
has come "
down
From
trating the Record.
to
us."
Guardian.
s point of view the work is of value as illus philosophico-mystical tendencies of the second century."
a scholar
Mr Mead deserves thanks for putting in an English dress this curious document from the early ages of Christian philosophy." Manchester Guardian. "
THE THEOSOPHY OF THE GREEKS. ORPHEUS. With three Charts and Bibliography.
Price
Octavo.
:
cloth,
4s. 6d. net.
PLOTINUS. With Bibliography.
Price
Octavo.
:
cloth, Is. net.
THE THEOSOPHY OF THE VEDAS. THE UPANISHADS: Half Octavo.
Paper, 6d.
;
2 Volumes.
cloth, Is. 6d. each net.
VOLUME
I.
Contains a Translation
of the Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mnndaka, and Mandukya Upanishads, with a General Preamble, Arguments, and Notes by G. R. S. Mead and J. C. Chattopadhyaya (Roy
Choudhuri).
VOLUME Contains a Translation
of
II.
the Taittirlya,
Aitareya,
and
Shvetashvatara
Upanishads, with Arguments and Notes.
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
LONDON AND BENARES.
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