JESUS CHRIST
JESUS CHRIST
surprise on liis part, in surrendering him into the hands of the Koman authorities as a popular insurrectionist. He was sentenced to deatli by crucilixion, as he had often declared to his disciples would be his fate, and suf- fered himself, with calm resignation, to be led to the place of execution between two malefactors (on their traditional names, see Thilo, Apoc7-i/p/i. i, 580 sq. ; comp. J'Jrdiif/. iiifaul. A I'uh. c. 23) ; but he arose alive on the third day from the grave which a grateful disciple had prejiareil for him, and after tarrying forty days in the midst of his disciples, during which he contldently in- trusted the prosecution of the great work into their hands, and promised them the divine help of a Paraclete (Trafia/cXjyrof), he finally, according to one of the narra- tors, soared away visibly into the sky (A.D. 29). (See Volbeding, p. 6.)
2. Sources of Information. — The only trustworthy accounts respecting Jesus are to be derived from the evangelists. (See Volbeding, p. 5.) See Gospei>s, Spu- Riois. They exhibit, it is true, many chasms (Causse, De ralionihus ob qiuis non plura quum quce extant ad J. C. vitam pcrtinentia ab Evang. Uteris sint consignuta, Franckf. 1766), but thej' wear the aspect of a true, plain, lively narrative. Only two of these derive their mate- rials from older traditions, doubtless from the apostles antl companions of Jesus; but they were all first written down a long time after the occurrences : hence it has often been asserted that the historical matter was even at that time no longer extant in an entirely pure state (since the objective and the subjective, both in views and opinions, are readily interchanged in an unscien- tilicall}' formed style) ; but that after Jesus had been so gloriousl}' proved to be the Messias, the incidents were improved into prodigies, especially througli a considera- tion of the Old-Testament prophecies (Kaiser, Eibl. Theol. i, 199 sq.). Yet in the synoptical gospels this could only be shown in the composition and connection of single transactions ; the facts themselves in the re- spective accounts agree too well in time and circum- stances, and the narrators confine themselves too evi- dently to the position of writers (-1 memoirs, to allow the supposition of a (conscious) transformation of the events or any such developments from Old-Testament prophe- cy : moreover, if truth and pious poetry had already become mingled in the verbal traditionary reports, the ej'e-witnesses Matthew and John would have known well, in a fresh narration, how to distinguish between each of these elements with regard to scenes which they had themselves passed through (for memory and imag- ination were generally more lively and vigorous among the ancients than with us) {Br. iih. J;utiiti,ii/i.<i,iii.'i, p. 248 sq. ; compare Heydenreich, Ueb. ['/r.ii/(i.<.--i//h 1/ d. myth. Aiiffassung des Histor. ini N. T. itnd im Cl(ri.<tenth. Her- born, 1831-5; see Hase, p. 9). Sooner would we sup- pose that the fertile-minded John, who wrote latest, has set before us, not the pure historical Christ, but one apprehended by faith and confounded with his own spiritual conceptions {Br. iiber Rational, p. 352). But while it is altogether ])robal)le that even he, by reason of his individuality and spiritual sympathy with Jesus, apprehended and refiected the depth and spirituality of his Master more truly than the sj-noptical evangelists, who depict rather the exterior phenomena of his char- acter, at the same time there is actually nothing con- tained in the doctrinal discourses of Jesus in John, either in substance or form, that is incompatible with the Christ of the first three evangelists (see Heydenreich, in his Zeitschr.fiir Pi-edif/ermiss. i, pt. 1 and 2) ; yet these latter represent Jesus as speaking comparatively seldom, and that in more general terms, of his exaltation, dig- nity, and relation with the Father, whereas that Christ would have explained himself much more definitely and fully upqji a point that coidd not have remained undiscussed, is of itself probable (see Hase, p. 10). Hence also, although we cannot believe that in such represen- tations we are to understand the identical words of Christ to be given (for while the retention of all these
extended discourses in the memory is improbable, on the other hand a writing of them down is repugnant to the Jewish custom), yet the actual sentiments of Jesus are certaiidv thus reported. (See further, Bauer, Bibl. Thml. N. T. ii, 278 sq. ; B. Crusius, Bibl. Theol. p. 81 ; Fleck, Otiuni thevlog. Lips. 1831 ; and generally Krum- macher, Utber den Ceist und die Form dcr evavfj. Gesch. Lpz. 1805; Eichhorn, Ts'infeV. i, 689 sq.; on the niytlii- cism of the evangelists, see Gabler, Neuest. thiol. Journ. vii, 390 ; Bertholdt, Theol. Jovrn. v, 235 scj.)