Straussâ•Žs Life of Jesus

THEODORE

 

PARKER

290

STRAUSS

’

S

 

LIFE

 

OF

 

JESUS

291

same scene is repeated, and Jesus is glorifi ed on a mountain, 

in presence of the two representatives of the Jewish system, 

who were expected to appear. Moses and Elijah, the founders 

of the theocratical law, and of theocratical prophecy, appear 

as the supporters of the Messiah, who fulfi ls the law and the 

prophets, and completes the kingdom of God. God appears in 

the clouds; and acknowledges him as his son, by a quotation 

from the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets. (Ps. ii. 7; Isa. xlii. 

1; and Deut. xviii. 15. )

We will now mention only the death, and fi nal scenes of 

the life of Jesus. Mr. Strauss thinks he could not have had so 

accurate a foreknowledge of the manner of his suffering and 

death, as the evangelists would lead us to suppose. The pre-

diction was written after the event. Jesus could not defi nitely 

have foretold his resurrection from the dead, for then the dis-

ciples would have expected the event. But after the crucifi x-

ion they anoint the body, as if it was to become the “prey of 

dissolution.” When they repair to the grave, they think not of 

a resurrection; their only concern is, who shall roll away the 

stone from the mouth of the tomb? Not fi nding the body, they 

think it has been stolen. When the women mention the angels 

they had seen, it is idle talk to the disciples; when Mary Mag-

dalene, and two others, assured the disciples they had seen 

the “risen Jesus,” their “words produced no belief. It is only 

when Jesus appears in person, and upbraids them for their 

unbelief, that they assert as a fact, what they would have fore-

known if he had predicted it. A foreknowledge or prediction 

of this event was ascribed to Jesus after the result, not from 

any intention to deceive, but by a natural mistake. He thinks, 

however, that Jesus actually predicted his own second com-

ing, in the clouds of Heaven, the destruction of the Jewish 

state, and the end of the world; all of which were to take place 

before his contemporaries should pass away. Here, following 

the Wolfenbüttel Fragmentist, he says there is no prophecy in 

the whole Bible so distinct and defi nite as this, and yet it is 

found obviously and entirely false. We attempt to fi ll up the 

great gulf between this prediction and the fact, and our hope 

of success shows how easy it must have been for the author 

of these predictions to suppose, that soon after the destruc-

tion of the Jewish state, — supposed to be the central point of 

the world, — the whole earth should come to an end, and the 

Messiah appear to judge mankind.

John, who is supposed to have written later than the oth-

ers, does not mention so distinctly these predictions, because 

they had not come to fulfi lment as it was expected. Mr. Strauss 

thinks Jesus at last saw that his death was inevitable, and des-

ignated the next passover as the probable end of his life, and 

while at table with his disciples gave them the bread and wine, 

either as the symbols of his body, soon to be broken by death, 

and of his blood, soon to be shed; or as a memorial of himself. 

He considers as mythical the account of his going three times 

to pray, and repeating the same words at Gethsemane, as well 

as that of the angels’ visit, and the bloody sweat.

Many of the circumstances which, it is related, accompa-

nied the trial and crucifi xion, he sets aside as mythical addi-

tions, borrowed in part from the Old Testament. He maintains 

that the supernatural appearances at the death of Jesus; the 

sudden and miraculous darkness; the resurrection of the bod-

ies of the saints; the earthquake; and the rending of the veil, 

have all grown up in the mythical fashion. The latter is sym-

bolical of removing the wall of separation between the Gentiles 

and Jews, He thinks it quite improbable the Jews would set a 

guard over the tomb, as it is not probable they had heard of the 

promise of Jesus to rise from the dead; a promise which the 

disciples themselves did not remember, until after it was ful-

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THEODORE

 

PARKER

292

STRAUSS

’

S

 

LIFE

 

OF

 

JESUS

293

fi lled. The Jews, he thinks, in later times, pretended that Jesus 

did not rise from the dead, but that his disciples stole the body 

by night, secreted it, and then pretended he was risen; and the 

Christians, to counteract this statement, gradually formed the 

evangelical narrative, that the door of the tomb was sealed, 

and a guard set over it; but Jesus was raised, and to throw dust 

in the eyes of the people, the great national council bribed the 

soldiers to assent to a very improbable falsehood, that the dis-

ciples stole the body, while they slept. But it is not probable a 

body of seventy men would condescend to such open wicked-

ness, with the almost certain chance of detection.

He enlarges at great length, and with acuteness, and some 

“special pleading,” which is not altogether rare in the book, on 

the confusion of the statements in the four Gospels concerning 

the time, place, and circumstances of the resurrection, and the 

several appearances of Jesus, after that event, passing through 

closed doors; appearing under various forms, and, like a spirit, 

remaining with them but a short time, and then vanishing out 

of sight. But the fact of the resurrection itself, Mr. Strauss says, 

involves diffi culties, and cannot be admitted. We must, then, 

suppose, with the rationalists, either that he was not dead; or 

that the resurrection did not take place. He accepts the latter 

part of the dilemma, and thinks the disciples were mistaken, 

led astray by the fi gurative passages in the Psalms and Proph-

ets, which they erroneously referred to the Messiah. The tes-

timony of the Gospels and the book of Acts, he says, is so in-

consistent, contradictory, and imperfect, that we can place no 

dependence upon it, and that of Paul, which is consistent with 

itself, and of great weight, only assures us of his own convic-

tion, that Christ rose and appeared to men, and even to him-

self. But Christ’s appearance to Paul was entirely subjective, 

and there is no reason to believe he supposed Jesus had ap-

peared to others in an objective manner, visible to the senses. 

Mr. Strauss fancies the narratives originated in the follow-

ing manner. The disciples, thinking the Messiah must remain 

forever, thought he must have arisen; next, they had subjec-

tive visions; then, in a high state of enthusiasm, they mistook 

some unknown person for him. Afterwards, as these disciples 

related their convictions, the story was enlarged, embellished, 

and varied, until it assumed the form of the present canoni-

cal and apocryphal gospels. The ascension to heaven, which 

many have hitherto rejected as not trust-worthy, is regarded 

by Mr. Strauss as a myth, which derives its ideas from the his-

tories and predictions of the Old Testament, and Jewish tradi-

tion, and with a particular reference to the alleged translations 

of Enoch and Elijah.

The author adds a “Concluding Treatise” to his critical 

work, “For the inward germ of Christian faith is entirely in-

dependent of critical investigations; the supernatural birth of 

Christ, his miracles, his resurrection and ascension to Heaven, 

remain eternal truths, however much their reality, as histori-

cal facts, may be doubted.”* All these he supposes are realized 

not in an historical personage, but in the human race. Man-

kind have unconsciously projected out of themselves the ideal 

of a perfect man, an incarnation of God, a personifi cation of 

morality and religion. This Ideal has been placed upon Jesus, 

a man distinguished for great virtue and piety. But neither he 

nor any man ever did, or can realize the Idea; it must be real-

ized in the race. The history of the miraculous conception, says 

one of the profoundest of the Germans, represents the divine 

origin of Religion; the stories of his miracles, the independent 

power of the human soul, and the sublime doctrine of spiritual 

self-confi dence. His resurrection is the symbol of the victory 

of Truth; the omen of the triumph of the good over the evil, 

*Vol. I. p. xii.

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