RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Jesus Christ
munities of the time. Paul had known the Christian movement from its beginning; first from the outside, as one of the chief agents in its persecution, and then from the inside, as the most active leader of its propaganda. He was familiarly acquainted with the Apostles and other immediate followers of Jesus, and enjoyed repeated intercourse with them. He explicitly declares the harmony of their teaching with his, and joins with his their testimony to the great facts which he proclaimed. The complete consonance of his allusions to Jesus with what is gathered from the hints of the heathen historians is very striking. The person of Jesus fills the whole horizon of his thought, and gathers to itself all his religious emotions. That Jesus was the Messiah is the presupposition of all his speech of him, and the Messianic title has already become his proper name behind which his real personal name, Jesus, has retired. This Messiah is definitely represented as a divine being who has entered the world on a mission of mercy to sinful man, in the prosecution of which he has given himself up as a sacrifice for sin, but has risen again from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God, henceforth to rule as Lord of all. Around the two great facts, of the expiatory death of the Son of God and his rising again, Paul's whole teaching circles. Jesus Christ as crucified, Christ risen from the dead as the first fruits of those that sleep — here is Paul's whole gospel in summary.
Into the details of Christ's earthly life Paul had no occasion to enter. But he shows himself fully familiar with them, and incidentally 3. Paul conveys a vivid portrait of Christ's ^ : e personality. Of the seed of David on Life of ^e nurrlan) as the Son of God on the Jesus. divine side, he was born of a woman, under the law, and lived subject to its ordinances for his mission's sake, humbling himself even unto death, and that the death of the cross. His lowly estate is dwelt upon, and the high traits of his personal character manifested in his lowliness are lightly sketched in, justifying not merely the negative declaration that " he knew no sin," but his positive presentation as the model of all perfection. An item of his teaching is occasionally adverted to, or even quoted, always with the utmost reverence. Members of his immediate circle of followers are mentioned by name or by class — whether his brethren according to the flesh or the twelve apostles whom he appointed. The institution by him of a sacramental feast is described, and that of a companion sacrament of initiation by baptism is implied. But especially his sacrificial death on the cross is emphasized, his burial, his rising again on the third day, and his appearances to chosen witnesses, who are cited one after the other with the greatest solemnity. Such details are never communicated to Paul's readers as pieces of fresh information. They are alluded to as matters of common knowledge, and with the plainest intimation of the unquestioned recognition of them by all. Thus it is made clear not only that there underlies Paul's letters a complete portrait of Jesus and a full outline of his career, but that this portrait and this outline are the universal posses-
sion of Christians. They were doubtless as fully before his mind as such in the early years of his Christian life, in the thirties, as when he was writing his letters in the fifties and sixties. There is no indication in the way in which Paul touches on these things of a recent change of opinion regarding them or of a recent acquisition of knowledge of them. The testimony of Paul s letters, in a word, has retrospective value, and is contemporary testimony to the facts.
Paul's testimony alone provides thus an exceptionally good basis for the historical verity of Jesus' personality and career. But Paul's
4. Other testimony is far from standing alone. Epistolars. It is fully supported by the testimony of a series of other writings, similar to his own, purporting to come from the hands of early teachers of the Church, most of them from actual companions of our Lord and eye-witnesses of his majesty, and handed down to us with credible evidence of their authenticity. And it is extended by the testimony of a series of writings of a very different character; not occasional letters designed to meet particular crises or questions arising in the churches, but formal accounts of Jesus' words and acts.
Among these attention is attracted first by a great historical work, the two parts of which bear the titles of " the Gospel according to Luke " and " the Acts of the Apostles." The first contains an account of Jesus' life from his birth to his death and resurrection; or, including the opening paragraphs of the second, to his ascension. What directs attention to it first among books of its class is the uncommonly full information possessed concerning its writer and his method of historical 5. The composition. It is the work of an ed-
Gospel of ucated Greek physician, known to have Luke. enjoyed, as a companion of Paul, special opportunities of informing himself of the facts of Jesus' career. Whatever Paul himself knew of the acts and teachings of his Lord was, of course, the common property of the band of missionaries which traveled in his company, and could not fail to be the subject of much public and private discussion among them. Among Paul's other companions there could not fail to be some whose knowledge of Jesus' life, direct or derived, was considerable; an example is found, for instance, in John Mark, who had come out of the immediate circle of Jesus' first followers, although precise knowledge of the meeting of Luke and Mark as fellow companions of Paul belongs to a little later period than the composition of Luke's Gospel. In company with Paul Luke had even visited Jerusalem and had resided two years at Caesarea in touch with primitive disciples; and if the early tradition which represents him as a native of Antioch be accepted, he must be credited with facilities from the beginning of his Christian life for association with original disciples of Jesus. All that is needed to ground great confidence in his narrative as a trustworthy account of the facts it records is assurance that he had the will and capacity to make good use of his abounding opportunities for exact information.
Jesus Christ