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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1900)
Conservative * CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS. The religious system of Christianity 'centers around the person of Jesus Christ. But the opinions among Chris tians respecting that personality are numerous and widely different. The Catholic churches , both Greek and Roman , as also the majority of Protest ant sects , regard Jesus Christ as God , the second person of the divine Trinity , of which all three persons are equal , coexistent , and coeternal. This form of belief is manifestly founded entirely upon the authority of supposed divine revelation , and has no support from hu man reason or from human experience. Other Christian sects regard Jesus as a divinely-inspired man , the son of God in a peculiar sense a belief equally im possible to define ; others , again , con sider him a mere man , exceptionally wise and good , and therefore a worthy example for the whole human race to follow. The prevalence of so many and so contradictory conceptions of the same character proves the lack of authentic knowledge in the premises , and recent discoveries have tended to negative the authority of Jesus as a spiritual leader , through the unavoidable suspicion , fast growing to a certainty , that no such being ever existed This argument is founded principally upon the undeniable fact that there is no mention of Jesus in contemporary literature , either Jewish or Pagan. Authentic history is abso lutely silent as to such a personality. The only record of his supposed life on earth is found in the Gospels of the New Testament , in certain epistles as cribed to Paul , in certain statements by the earliest "Fathers" of the Christian church , in certain legends contained in the miscellaneous portions of the Jewish Talmud , and in a very few allusions by Pagan writers. But not one of these sources is contemporary with the career of Jeus. The earliest trace is to be found in epistles written more than half a century after the beginning of the Christian era , and asserted to be by Paul , who never saw Jesus , and knew nothing about him except by hearsay the Pagan references are still later , and were made by men who were entirely ignorant of the actual circumstances the Gospels were not composed until the latter part of the second century ; the Synoptic Gospels are evidently compila tions from unknown writings , and the Fourth Gospel , a still later work , differs widely from the others , and betrays a distinct purpose in its composition The celebrated passage in Josephns which was long considered the ohie : evidence in the case , is not a subject for discussion , as it is now acknowledged by all competent authorities to be an interpolation. Is the New Testament Inspired ? Christians are taught to believe that the Gospels of the New Testament are a complete work , inspired by God , and containing a full account of the life and ministry of Jesus. But the fact is that the books now regarded as canonical were chosen out of a mass of npoch- ryphal writings , the choice depending upon the decision of a committee of men in nowise especially gifted with prescience for the task. The rejected works contain many legends of the in fancy and youth of Jesus , in all of which he is shown to be endowed with superhuman power over the laws of nature , which power he displayed in a benevolent or malevolent spirit , accord ing to his own views of the merits of the case. The only mention of him in Jew ish records consists in a collection of legends manifestly built up in contra diction and in derision of the Christian claim of divinity for the founder of the new religion. Some of these legends are trivial , others malicious , others in decent. They describe Jesus as a mis chievous imp in childhood and a dan gerous rowdy as a man ; their falsity is as obvious as the occasion of their exis tence , and they belong , like the legends of which they are the caricature , to a much later period than the supposed lifetime of Jesus. Christians are taught that the four Gospels were written by the four dis ciples ; Matthew , Mark , Luke , and John , whereas , those compositions were not known to the early Christians until nearly two hundred years after the sup posed events which they record. If these disciples ever really existed they certainly were not alive at that time , and there is no proof that they left any writings. There is a tradition that Matthew wrote a book entitled "Oracles of Our Lord , " but if such a work ever existed it was not the Gospel called by his name. Matthew's writings are said to have been translated into Greek , but the Goupel bears evidence of original Greek authorship , and is not a translation at all. There is evidence that all the Gospels were borrowed from an earlier source , but whether that source was history or romance , and whether the author or the later compilers dressed up foreign and ancient materials in local and contem porary attire , cannot be known. The earliest "Fathers" of the Chris tian church do not mention nor allude to any one of the Gospels , but they do quote from some other work or works in language similar to , and in substance sometimes agreeing with , sometimes differing from , the canonical Gospels. Varying Opinions of Early Sects. It is a fact well known to Biblical critics that the early Christians were di vided into various sects and parties , holding widely different opinions re specting the value of the New Testament writings. Some rejected the so-called Pauline compositions altogether ; others rejected the Gospels entirely or in part ; others regarded the whole work as spur ious. Maroion , the Gnostic Ascetic , whose collection is the earliest known , accepted ten of the Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Luke , and these only after being revised by himself. It was a frequent complaint that the Christians altered their sacred texts to suit their convenience , and one of the most prominent leaders of one of the most powerful sects declared that the Gospels were made up out of vague rumors and borrowed legends. Recent discoveries seem to confirm the suggestion that nascent Christianity took its rise from the ferment of Orien tal and Grecian ideas then beginning to be mingled with Jewish beliefs , through the rapidly increasing intercourse be tween the far East and the shores of the Mediterranean , the intellectual impulse of which movement centered at Alex andria and spread as far as Rome. It is a favorite assertion of orthodox divines and teachers that Christ came when the world was sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance and sin ; humanity had reached the extreme of degradation ; no help was to be found from any source ; the whole creation was groan ing and travailing together. But this is not a true picture of that remote time. The world was no worse then than it was before and has been ever since. Then , as now , ignorance bred violence ; luxury bred vice ; knowledge ameliorated manners , and virtue spread happiness and peace. It is true , however , that the religious systems of Greece and Rome were in a state of decay. The wisest among the people had ceased to believe in the oracles and worship the gods , and the masses instinctively recognized the in difference of their superiors , and lost confidence in what they had been taught , while unable , through ignorance to solace themselves with the consola tions of the learned. Like everything else in this world , religious systems have their period of birth , growth , de cay and death , and Greece and Rome were now awaiting a final change. The Jewish religion also had become formal and lifeless , and added to spirit ual apathy were the discontent and dis couragement of a conquered race. Their hope lay in the promise of a Messiah , who should deliver them from the detested Roman yoke and restore the nation to more than its former splendor. Elizabeth E. Evans , In "The Christ Myth. " The quarterly circular of information issued by the University of Chicago announces a new course in political science , called the "History of Political Theory , " to bo given by Dr. O. E. Merriam - riam , formerly of Columbia University , New York. The course will trace the development of the theory of politics from the classical period down to the French revolution.
