Ernest Renan - The Life of Jesus

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THE

LIFE

OF

JESUS

BY

ERNEST RENAN

INTRODUCTION BY

JOHN HAYNES HOLMES

[Transcriber's note: Introduction by John Haynes Holmes not included
in this etext due to copyright restrictions.]

MODERN LIBRARY
NEW YORK

INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1927, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.

_Random House_ IS THE PUBLISHER OF

THE MODERN LIBRARY

BENNETT A. CERF * DONALD S. KLOPPER * ROBERT K. HAAS

Manufactured in the United States of America

Printed by Parkway Printing Company * Bound by H. Wolff

TO THE PURE SOUL OF

MY SISTER HENRIETTE

_Who Died at Byblus on the 24th of September, 1861_

Dost thou recall, from the bosom of God where thou reposest, those
long days at Ghazir, in which, alone with thee, I wrote these pages,
inspired by the places we had visited together? Silent at my side,
thou didst read and copy each sheet as soon as I had written it,
whilst the sea, the villages, the ravines, and the mountains, were
spread at our feet. When the overwhelming light had given place to the
innumerable army of stars, thy shrewd and subtle questions, thy
discreet doubts, led me back to the sublime object of our common
thoughts. One day thou didst tell me that thou wouldst love this
book--first, because it had been composed with thee, and also because
it pleased thee. Though at times thou didst fear for it the narrow
judgments of the frivolous, yet wert thou ever persuaded that all
truly religious souls would ultimately take pleasure in it. In the
midst of these sweet meditations, the Angel of Death struck us both
with his wing: the sleep of fever seized us at the same time--I awoke
alone!... Thou sleepest now in the land of Adonis, near the holy
Byblus and the sacred stream where the women of the ancient mysteries
came to mingle their tears. Reveal to me, O good genius, to me whom
thou lovedst, those truths which conquer death, deprive it of terror,
and make it almost beloved.

PREFACE

In presenting an English version of the celebrated work of M. Renan,
the translator is aware of the difficulty of adequately rendering a
work so admirable for its style and beauty of composition. It is not
an easy task to reproduce the terseness and eloquence which
characterize the original. Whatever its success in these respects may
be, no pains have been spared to give the author's meaning. The
translation has been revised by highly competent persons; but although
great care has been taken in this respect, it is possible that a few
errors may still have escaped notice.

The great problem of the present age is to preserve the religious
spirit, whilst getting rid of the superstitions and absurdities that
deform it, and which are alike opposed to science and common sense.
The works of Mr. F.W. Newman and of Bishop Colenso, and the "Essays
and Reviews," are rendering great service in this direction. The work
of M. Renan will contribute to this object; and, if its utility may be
measured by the storm which it has created amongst the _obscurantists_
in France, and the heartiness with which they have condemned it, its
merits in this respect must be very great. It needs only to be added,
that whilst warmly sympathizing with the earnest spirit which pervades
the book, the translator by no means wishes to be identified with all
the opinions therein expressed.

_December 8, 1863._

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction, by John Haynes Holmes 15

Introduction, in Which the Sources of This History Are Principally
Treated 25

CHAPTER I

Place of Jesus in the History of the World 67

CHAPTER II

Infancy and Youth of Jesus--His First Impressions 81

CHAPTER III

Education of Jesus 89

CHAPTER IV

The Order of Thought Which Surrounded the Development
of Jesus 99

CHAPTER V

The First Saying of Jesus--His Ideas of a Divine Father
and of a Pure Religion--First Disciples 119

CHAPTER VI

John the Baptist--Visit of Jesus to John, and His Abode in
the Desert of Judea--Adoption of the Baptism of John 135

CHAPTER VII

Development of the Ideas of Jesus Respecting the Kingdom
of God 148

CHAPTER VIII

Jesus at Capernaum 160

CHAPTER IX

The Disciples of Jesus 173

CHAPTER X

The Preachings on the Lake 184

CHAPTER XI

The Kingdom of God Conceived as the Inheritance of the
Poor 194

CHAPTER XII

Embassy from John in Prison to Jesus--Death of John--Relations
of His School with That of Jesus 206

CHAPTER XIII

First Attempts on Jerusalem 213

CHAPTER XIV

Intercourse of Jesus with the Pagans and the Samaritans 227

CHAPTER XV

Commencement of the Legends Concerning Jesus--His Own
Idea of His Supernatural Character 235

CHAPTER XVI

Miracles 248

CHAPTER XVII

Definitive Form of the Ideas of Jesus Respecting the Kingdom
of God 259

CHAPTER XVIII

Institutions of Jesus 273

CHAPTER XIX

Increasing Progression of Enthusiasm and of Exaltation 285

CHAPTER XX

Opposition to Jesus 295

CHAPTER XXI

Last Journey of Jesus to Jerusalem 305

CHAPTER XXII

Machinations of the Enemies of Jesus 319

CHAPTER XXIII

Last Week of Jesus 329

CHAPTER XXIV

Arrest and Trial of Jesus 344

CHAPTER XXV

Death of Jesus 360

CHAPTER XXVI

Jesus in the Tomb 370

CHAPTER XXVII

Fate of the Enemies of Jesus 376

CHAPTER XXVIII

Essential Character of the Work of Jesus 381

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION,

In Which the Sources of This History Are Principally Treated

A history of the "Origin of Christianity" ought to embrace all the
obscure, and, if one might so speak, subterranean periods which extend
from the first beginnings of this religion up to the moment when its
existence became a public fact, notorious and evident to the eyes of
all. Such a history would consist of four books. The first, which I
now present to the public, treats of the particular fact which has
served as the starting-point of the new religion, and is entirely
filled by the sublime person of the Founder. The second would treat of
the apostles and their immediate disciples, or rather, of the
revolutions which religious thought underwent in the first two
generations of Christianity. I would close this about the year 100, at
the time when the last friends of Jesus were dead, and when all the
books of the New Testament were fixed almost in the forms in which we
now read them. The third would exhibit the state of Christianity under
the Antonines. We should see it develop itself slowly, and sustain an
almost permanent war against the empire, which had just reached the
highest degree of administrative perfection, and, governed by
philosophers, combated in the new-born sect a secret and theocratic
society which obstinately denied and incessantly undermined it. This
book would cover the entire period of the second century. Lastly, the
fourth book would show the decisive progress which Christianity made
from the time of the Syrian emperors. We should see the learned
system of the Antonines crumble, the decadence of the ancient
civilization become irrevocable, Christianity profit from its ruin,
Syria conquer the whole West, and Jesus, in company with the gods and
the deified sages of Asia, take possession of a society for which
philosophy and a purely civil government no longer sufficed. It was
then that the religious ideas of the races grouped around the
Mediterranean became profoundly modified; that the Eastern religions
everywhere took precedence; that the Christian Church, having become
very numerous, totally forgot its dreams of a millennium, broke its
last ties with Judaism, and entered completely into the Greek and
Roman world. The contests and the literary labors of the third
century, which were carried on without concealment, would be described
only in their general features. I would relate still more briefly the
persecutions at the commencement of the fourth century, the last
effort of the empire to return to its former principles, which denied
to religious association any place in the State. Lastly, I would only
foreshadow the change of policy which, under Constantine, reversed the
position, and made of the most free and spontaneous religious movement
an official worship, subject to the State, and persecutor in its turn.

I know not whether I shall have sufficient life and strength to
complete a plan so vast. I shall be satisfied if, after having written
the _Life of Jesus_, I am permitted to relate, as I understand it, the
history of the apostles, the state of the Christian conscience during
the weeks which followed the death of Jesus, the formation of the
cycle of legends concerning the resurrection, the first acts of the
Church of Jerusalem, the life of Saint Paul, the crisis of the time of
Nero, the appearance of the Apocalypse, the fall of Jerusalem, the
foundation of the Hebrew-Christian sects of Batanea, the compilation
of the Gospels, and the rise of the great schools of Asia Minor
originated by John. Everything pales by the side of that marvellous
first century. By a peculiarity rare in history, we see much better
what passed in the Christian world from the year 50 to the year 75,
than from the year 100 to the year 150.

The plan followed in this history has prevented the introduction into
the text of long critical dissertations upon controverted points. A
continuous system of notes enables the reader to verify from the
authorities all the statements of the text. These notes are strictly
limited to quotations from the primary sources; that is to say, the
original passages upon which each assertion or conjecture rests. I
know that for persons little accustomed to studies of this kind many
other explanations would have been necessary. But it is not my
practice to do over again what has been already done well. To cite
only books written in French, those who will consult the following
excellent writings[1] will there find explained a number of points
upon which I have been obliged to be very brief:

_Etudes Critiques sur l'Evangile de saint Matthieu_, par M.
Albert Reville, pasteur de l'eglise Wallonne de
Rotterdam.[2]

_Histoire de la Theologie Chretienne au Siecle Apostolique_,
par M. Reuss, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie et au
Seminaire Protestant de Strasbourg.[3]

_Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs pendant les Deux
Siecles Anterieurs a l'Ere Chretienne_, par M. Michel
Nicolas, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie Protestante de
Montauban.[4]

_Vie de Jesus_, par le Dr. Strauss; traduite par M. Littre,
Membre de l'Institut.[5]

_Revue de Theologie et de Philosophie Chretienne_, publiee
sous la direction de M. Colani, de 1850 a 1857.--_Nouvelle
Revue de Theologie_, faisant suite a la precedente depuis
1858.[6]

[Footnote 1: While this work was in the press, a book has appeared
which I do not hesitate to add to this list, although I have not read
it with the attention it deserves--_Les Evangiles_, par M. Gustave
d'Eichthal. Premiere Partie: _Examen Critique et Comparatif des Trois
Premiers Evangiles_. Paris, Hachette, 1863.]

[Footnote 2: Leyde, Noothoven van Goor, 1862. Paris, Cherbuliez. A
work crowned by the Society of The Hague for the defence of the
Christian religion.]

[Footnote 3: Strasbourg, Treuttel and Wurtz. 2nd edition. 1860. Paris,
Cherbuliez.]

[Footnote 4: Paris, Michel Levy freres, 1860.]

[Footnote 5: Paris, Ladrange. 2nd edition, 1856.]

[Footnote 6: Strasbourg, Treuttel and Wurtz. Paris, Cherbuliez.]

The criticism of the details of the Gospel texts especially, has been
done by Strauss in a manner which leaves little to be desired.
Although Strauss may be mistaken in his theory of the compilation of
the Gospels;[1] and although his book has, in my opinion, the fault of
taking up the theological ground too much, and the historical ground
too little,[2] it will be necessary, in order to understand the
motives which have guided me amidst a crowd of minutiae, to study the
always judicious, though sometimes rather subtle argument, of the
book, so well translated by my learned friend, M. Littre.

[Footnote 1: The great results obtained on this point have only been
acquired since the first edition of Strauss's work. The learned critic
has, besides, done justice to them with much candor in his after
editions.]

[Footnote 2: It is scarcely necessary to repeat that not a word in
Strauss's work justifies the strange and absurd calumny by which it
has been attempted to bring into disrepute with superficial persons, a
work so agreeable, accurate, thoughtful, and conscientious, though
spoiled in its general parts by an exclusive system. Not only has
Strauss never denied the existence of Jesus, but each page of his book
implies this existence. The truth is, Strauss supposes the individual
character of Jesus less distinct for us than it perhaps is in
reality.]

I do not believe I have neglected any source of information as to
ancient evidences. Without speaking of a crowd of other scattered
data, there remain, respecting Jesus, and the time in which he lived,
five great collections of writings--1st, The Gospels, and the
writings of the New Testament in general; 2d, The compositions called
the "Apocrypha of the Old Testament;" 3d, The works of Philo; 4th,
Those of Josephus; 5th, The Talmud. The writings of Philo have the
priceless advantage of showing us the thoughts which, in the time of
Jesus, fermented in minds occupied with great religious questions.
Philo lived, it is true, in quite a different province of Judaism to
Jesus, but, like him, he was very free from the littlenesses which
reigned at Jerusalem; Philo is truly the elder brother of Jesus. He
was sixty-two years old when the Prophet of Nazareth was at the height
of his activity, and he survived him at least ten years. What a pity
that the chances of life did not conduct him into Galilee! What would
he not have taught us!

Josephus, writing specially for pagans, is not so candid. His short
notices of Jesus, of John the Baptist, of Judas the Gaulonite, are dry
and colorless. We feel that he seeks to present these movements, so
profoundly Jewish in character and spirit, under a form which would be
intelligible to Greeks and Romans. I believe the passage respecting
Jesus[1] to be authentic. It is perfectly in the style of Josephus,
and if this historian has made mention of Jesus, it is thus that he
must have spoken of him. We feel only that a Christian hand has
retouched the passage, has added a few words--without which it would
almost have been blasphemous[2]--has perhaps retrenched or modified
some expressions.[3] It must be recollected that the literary fortune
of Josephus was made by the Christians, who adopted his writings as
essential documents of their sacred history. They made, probably in
the second century, an edition corrected according to Christian
ideas.[4] At all events, that which constitutes the immense interest
of Josephus on the subject which occupies us, is the clear light which
he throws upon the period. Thanks to him, Herod, Herodias, Antipas,
Philip, Annas, Caiaphas, and Pilate are personages whom we can touch
with the finger, and whom we see living before us with a striking
reality.

[Footnote 1: _Ant._, XVIII. iii. 3.]

[Footnote 2: "If it be lawful to call him a man."]

[Footnote 3: In place of [Greek: christos outos en], he certainly had
these [Greek: christos outos elegeto].--Cf. _Ant._, XX. ix. 1.]

[Footnote 4: Eusebius (_Hist. Eccl._, i. 11, and _Demonstr. Evang._,
iii. 5) cites the passage respecting Jesus as we now read it in
Josephus. Origen (_Contra Celsus_, i. 47; ii. 13) and Eusebius (_Hist.
Eccl._, ii. 23) cite another Christian interpolation, which is not
found in any of the manuscripts of Josephus which have come down to
us.]

The Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, especially the Jewish part
of the Sibylline verses, and the Book of Enoch, together with the Book
of Daniel, which is also really an Apocrypha, have a primary
importance in the history of the development of the Messianic
theories, and for the understanding of the conceptions of Jesus
respecting the kingdom of God. The Book of Enoch especially, which was
much read at the time of Jesus,[1] gives us the key to the expression
"Son of Man," and to the ideas attached to it. The ages of these
different books, thanks to the labors of Alexander, Ewald, Dillmann,
and Reuss, is now beyond doubt. Every one is agreed in placing the
compilation of the most important of them in the second and first
centuries before Jesus Christ. The date of the Book of Daniel is still
more certain. The character of the two languages in which it is
written, the use of Greek words, the clear, precise, dated
announcement of events, which reach even to the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, the incorrect descriptions of Ancient Babylonia, there
given, the general tone of the book, which in no respect recalls the
writings of the captivity, but, on the contrary, responds, by a crowd
of analogies, to the beliefs, the manners, the turn of imagination of
the time of the Seleucidae; the Apocalyptic form of the visions, the
place of the book in the Hebrew canon, out of the series of the
prophets, the omission of Daniel in the panegyrics of Chapter xlix. of
Ecclesiasticus, in which his position is all but indicated, and many
other proofs which have been deduced a hundred times, do not permit of
a doubt that the Book of Daniel was but the fruit of the great
excitement produced among the Jews by the persecution of Antiochus. It
is not in the old prophetical literature that we must class this book,
but rather at the head of Apocalyptic literature, as the first model
of a kind of composition, after which come the various Sibylline
poems, the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of John, the Ascension of
Isaiah, and the Fourth Book of Esdras.

[Footnote 1: Jude Epist. 14.]

In the history of the origin of Christianity, the Talmud has hitherto
been too much neglected. I think with M. Geiger, that the true notion
of the circumstances which surrounded the development of Jesus must be
sought in this strange compilation, in which so much precious
information is mixed with the most insignificant scholasticism. The
Christian and the Jewish theology having in the main followed two
parallel ways, the history of the one cannot well be understood
without the history of the other. Innumerable important details in the
Gospels find, moreover, their commentary in the Talmud. The vast Latin
collections of Lightfoot, Schoettgen, Buxtorf, and Otho contained
already a mass of information on this point. I have imposed on myself
the task of verifying in the original all the citations which I have
admitted, without a single exception. The assistance which has been
given me for this part of my task by a learned Israelite, M. Neubauer,
well versed in Talmudic literature, has enabled me to go further, and
to clear up the most intricate parts of my subject by new researches.
The distinction of epochs is here most important, the compilation of
the Talmud extending from the year 200 to about the year 500. We have
brought to it as much discernment as is possible in the actual state
of these studies. Dates so recent will excite some fears among persons
habituated to accord value to a document only for the period in which
it was written. But such scruples would here be out of place. The
teaching of the Jews from the Asmonean epoch down to the second
century was principally oral. We must not judge of this state of
intelligence by the habits of an age of much writing. The Vedas, and
the ancient Arabian poems, have been preserved for ages from memory,
and yet these compositions present a very distinct and delicate form.
In the Talmud, on the contrary, the form has no value. Let us add that
before the _Mishnah_ of Judas the Saint, which has caused all others
to be forgotten, there were attempts at compilation, the commencement
of which is probably much earlier than is commonly supposed. The style
of the Talmud is that of loose notes; the collectors did no more
probably than classify under certain titles the enormous mass of
writings which had been accumulating in the different schools for
generations.

It remains for us to speak of the documents which, presenting
themselves as biographies of the Founder of Christianity, must
naturally hold the first place in a _Life of Jesus_. A complete
treatise upon the compilation of the Gospels would be a work of
itself. Thanks to the excellent researches of which this question has
been the object during thirty years, a problem which was formerly
judged insurmountable has obtained a solution which, though it leaves
room for many uncertainties, fully suffices for the necessities of
history. We shall have occasion to return to this in our Second Book,
the composition of the Gospels having been one of the most important
facts for the future of Christianity in the second half of the first
century. We will touch here only a single aspect of the subject, that
which is indispensable to the completeness of our narrative. Leaving
aside all which belongs to the portraiture of the apostolic times, we
will inquire only in what degree the data furnished by the Gospels may
be employed in a history formed according to rational principles.[1]

[Footnote 1: Persons who wish to read more ample explanations, may
consult, in addition to the work of M. Reville, previously cited, the
writings of Reuss and Scherer in the _Revue de Theologie_, vol. x.,
xi., xv.; new series, ii., iii., iv.; and that of Nicolas in the
_Revue Germanique_, Sept. and Dec., 1862; April and June, 1863.]

That the Gospels are in part legendary, is evident, since they are
full of miracles and of the supernatural; but legends have not all the
same value. No one doubts the principal features of the life of
Francis d'Assisi, although we meet the supernatural at every step. No
one, on the other hand, accords credit to the _Life of Apollonius of
Tyana_, because it was written long after the time of the hero, and
purely as a romance. At what time, by what hands, under what
circumstances, have the Gospels been compiled? This is the primary
question upon which depends the opinion to be formed of their
credibility.

Each of the four Gospels bears at its head the name of a personage,
known either in the apostolic history, or in the Gospel history
itself. These four personages are not strictly given us as the
authors. The formulae "according to Matthew," "according to Mark,"
"according to Luke," "according to John," do not imply that, in the
most ancient opinion, these recitals were written from beginning to
end by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,[1] they merely signify that
these were the traditions proceeding from each of these apostles, and
claiming their authority. It is clear that, if these titles are exact,
the Gospels, without ceasing to be in part legendary, are of great
value, since they enable us to go back to the half century which
followed the death of Jesus, and in two instances, even to the
eye-witnesses of his actions.

[Footnote 1: In the same manner we say, "The Gospel according to the
Hebrews," "The Gospel according to the Egyptians."]

Firstly, as to Luke, doubt is scarcely possible. The Gospel of Luke is
a regular composition, founded on anterior documents.[1] It is the
work of a man who selects, prunes, and combines. The author of this
Gospel is certainly the same as that of the Acts of the Apostles.[2]
Now, the author of the Acts is a companion of St. Paul,[3] a title
which applies to Luke exactly.[4] I know that more than one objection
may be raised against this reasoning; but one thing, at least, is
beyond doubt, namely, that the author of the third Gospel and of the
Acts was a man of the second apostolic generation, and that is
sufficient for our object. The date of this Gospel can moreover be
determined with much precision by considerations drawn from the book
itself. The twenty-first chapter of Luke, inseparable from the rest of
the work, was certainly written after the siege of Jerusalem, and but
a short time after.[5] We are here, then, upon solid ground; for we
are concerned with a work written entirely by the same hand, and of
the most perfect unity.

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