The Quest of the Historical Jesus / A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede

rift von einem Prediger auf dem Lande. (Popular Letters about the Bible.

Plans and Aims of Jesus. In letters addressed to readers who seek the truth.) 11 vols., embracing 30

ausgezogen. (The Whole of the Discourses of J

) Bethlehem (Copenhagen), 1st ed., 1800-1802; 2nd ed., 1806. 4 vols., embracing 2700 pp. The work appeared anonymously. The description given be

ed free-lances have attacked and attempted to carry the decisive positions before the or

ative, endeavoured to grasp the inner connexion of cause and effect in the events and experiences of the life of Jesus. Since they found no such connexion indicated in the Gospels, they had to supply it for themselves. The particular form which their explanation takes-the hypothesis of a secret society of which Jesus is the tool-is, it is true, rather a sorry makeshift. Yet, in a sense, these Lives of Jesus, f

ndalous life. After various adventures, and after holding for a time a professorship at Giessen, he received under Frederick's minister Zedlitz authorisation to lecture at Halle. There he lectured to nearly nine hundred students who were attracted by his inspiring eloquence. The government upheld him, in spite of his serious failings, w

o explain religion on the ground of reason. To this period belong the "Popular Letters about the Bible,

ation of belief in miracle to true faith, in which the actual description of the life of Jesus lies embedded. And the remarks about the teaching of Jesus are not always commonplace. But the paraphernalia of

e Essenes. This Order had secret members in all ranks of society, even in the Sanhedrin. It had set itself the task of detaching the nation from its sensuous Messianic hopes and leading it to a higher knowledge of spiritual truths. It had the most widespread ramifications, extending to Babylon and to Egypt. In order to

themselves into communication with Him, explained to Him the falsity of the priests, inspired Him with a horror of the bloody sacrifices of the Temple, and made him acquainted with Socrates and Plato. This is set fo

ian gives Him two sovereign remedies-one for affe

e Order, who makes their acquaintance disguised as a shepherd, and takes part in their conversations, leads the lads deeper into the knowledge of wisdom. At twel

ople. They agree to open the eyes of the people regarding the tyranny and hypocrisy of the priests. Through Haram, a pr

f popular expectation, and to make up His mind to work by means of miracles and illusions. About this He felt the gravest scruples. He was obliged, however, to obey the Order; and His scruples were quieted by the reminder of the lofty end which was to be reached by these means. At last, when it is pointed out to Him that even Moses had followed the same plan, He submits to the necessity. The influential Order undertakes the duty of stage-mana

rther knowledge, but are not entrusted with the highest mysteries; the Chosen Ones, who in the Gospels are also spoken of as "Angels," are admitted into all wisdom. As the Apostles were only members of the Second Degree, they had not the smallest suspicion of the secret machinery which was at work

k of courage, than to believe in a miracle." The explanation which he himself prefers is that the Order had collected a great quantity of bread in a cave and this was gradually handed out to Jesus, who stood at the concealed entrance and took some every time the apostles were occupied in distributing the former supply to the multitude. The walking on the sea is to be explained by supposing that Jesus walked towards the disciples over the surface of a great floating raft; while they, not being able to see the raft, must needs suppose a miracl

and in so veiled a fashion that words and thoughts alike baffled the understandings of ordinary people, and even by more practised minds were not to be grasped without close reflection, so that we are told in John vi. 60 that 'many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?' And Jesus Himself did not deny it, but only told them that the reason of their not understanding His sayings lay in their prejudices, which made them interpret everything literally and material

one into a mountain to pray, this means that He repaired to one of these secret gatherings, but the disciples, of course, k

a way favourable to their plans. Luke guaranteed that by the aid of powerful drugs which he would give Him the Lord should be enabled to endure the utmost pain and suffering and yet resist death for a long time. Nicodemus undertook so to work matters in the Sanhedrin that the execution should follow immediately upon the sentence, and the crucified remain only a short time upon the cross.

enturion has been bribed not to allow any of His bones to be broken. Then comes Joseph of Ramath, as Bahrdt prefers to call Joseph of Arimathea, and removes the body to the cave of the Essenes, where he immediately commences measures of resuscitation. As Luke had prepared the body of the Messiah by means of strengthening medicines to resist the fearful ill-usage which He had gone thr

unced to them the resurrection of Jesus. Shortly afterwards the Lord appeared to Mary. At the sound of His voice she recognises Him. "Thereupon Jesus tells her that He is going to His Father (to heaven-in the mystic sense of the word-that is to say, to the Cho

and embracing each of them in turn, He tore Himself away from them and walked away up the mountain. "There stood those poor men, amazed-beside themselves with sorrow-and looked after Him as long

did He again intervene in active life-as on the occasion when He appeared to Paul upon the road to

reat Prophet of Nazareth" is related to Bahrdt

f his theological studies he vainly endeavoured to secure a post as Docent

f the consistories. He was reduced to earning a bare pittance by literary work, and finally in 1806 was thankful to accept a small living in Hordorf near Brunswick. He then abandoned theological writing and devoted his energies to recording the events of contemporar

tal imagination, "and, in general, by bringing His higher spiritual world into such relations with the lower sensuous world of those whom He wished to teach as was necessary to the accomplishment of His aims." "God's Messenger was morally bound to

cian woman's daughter, for example, we can still detect in the narrative a hint of the actual course of events. The mother explains the case to Jesus. After enquiring where her dwelling

les were due to a profound acquaintance with the powers of Nature and th

till allowed the guests to wait a little, as the stone vessels for purification had not yet been filled with water. When that had been done He ordered the servants to pour out some of his wine, but to tell no one whence it came. When John, as an old man, wrote his Gospel, he got all this rather

the people. Whereas the nation as a whole looked to an insurrection as the means of its deliverance, they knew that freedom could only be achieved by means of a spiritual renewal. Once Jesus and John met a band of insurg

e Order, He entered upon His office by demanding baptism from John. Just as this was taking place a thunderstorm broke, and a dove, fright

the Pharisee Zadok, who pretended to enter into the plans of Jesus and feigned admiration for Him in o

d everything "that could offend their prejudices." It was for this reason that He even forbade His disciples to preach the Gospel beyond the borders of Jewish

on, does the Rabbi pay the didrachma to the Templ

ldn't He pay it

since last Nisan, as our books show. We did no

e will certainly pay the tax. Y

t everything straight, and we shall have

o take care, in removing the hook, not to tear its mouth, that it may

was resolved that Jesus should go up to Jerusalem and there publicly proclaim Himself as the M

icture of the Messiah one of a different character, and spoke of times of severe trial which should come upon all, when H

, Joseph of Arimathea was moved by some vague premonition to hasten at once to Pontius Pilate and make request for His body. He offers the Procurator money. Pilate (sternly and emphatically): "Dost thou also mistake me? Am I, then, such an insatiable miser? Still, thou art a Jew-how could this

atch over the body. In the first four-and-twenty hours no movement of life showed itself. Then came the earthquake. In the midst of the terrible commotion a Brother, in the white robes of the Order, was making his way to the grave by a secret path. When he, illumined by a flash of lightning, suddenly appeared above the grave, and at the same moment the earth shook violently, panic seized the watch, and they fled. In the morning the Brother hears a sound from the grave: Jesus is moving. The w

ion why they happened just as they did. And if, in making Jesus subservient to the plans of a secret society, they represented Him as not acting with perfect freedom, but as showing a certain passivity, this assumption of theirs was to be brilliantly vindicated, a hundred years later, by the eschatological school, which asserts the sa

ually down to the present day, for all the fictitious "Lives" go back directly or indirectly to the type whic

g