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http://www.archive.org/details/historicaljesustOOcarp
The
Historical Jesus
and the
Theological Christ
BY
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER
M.A., D.LITT., D,D., D.THEOL.
BOSTON
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
1912
^^^^r**^*
FEB 1 4 1967
S5?5/ry OF To^^^
PREFACE.
Rudolf Eucken.
My sincerest thanks are due to the Rev. J. Edwin
Odgers, D.D., for his kindness in reading through the
J. E. C.
Conclusion 229
1
(i)
of religion.
(ii)
accuracy.
His main thesis is cognate with that of Mr. J. M.
Robertson in his volumes on Christianity and
Mythology (1900) and Pagan Christs (1903),
29
'
THE CHRIST MYTH '
3
c
34 THE HISTORICAL JESUS
will cast it out like salt which has lost its savour,
(iii)
1 Mark i. I, '
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.'
42 THE HISTORICAI JESUS
1 The Earliest Sources for the Life of Jesus (19 lo), p. 27.
PRESENTED AS THE MESSIAH 43
designated '
the Saviour {a-coTrjp) of the whole
the '
Sayings of the Fathers ' who both pre-
D
50 THE HISTORICAL JESUS
'
HIS ' IDEALISM 59
(i)
'
for all the sins sinned in this realm of Zeus One
TYPES OF HEAVENLY RULE 63
once more sever the wicked from the just, but only
for three days of pain. For the mountains and
the hills would melt, and the fiery stream would
overspread the earth. To the righteous it would
be like a bath of milk ; the guilty would find it a
purifying flame. With a mighty onset the powers
of good would overwhelm their antagonists
THE PERSIAN HOPE 65
may Uve, and the earth shall cast forth the shades,
And there I saw One who had a head of days, and his head
was white like wool, and with him was another being whose
countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face
was full of And I
graciousness, like one of the holy angels
asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the
hidden things concerning that Son of Man, who he was and
whence he was, and why he went with the Head of Days ?
And he answered and said unto me This is the Son of Man
'
(ii)
We hear of '
the judgment ' and the resurrection
'
';
of '
the kingdom prepared for the righteous from
the foundation of the world '
; of '
the beginning
of travail '^
; of the parousia^ of the Son of Man.
His whole teaching is cast into this frame in the
quenchless flame.
To this appeal Jesus responds. Alone, it would
seem, among the Baptist's hearers, he must carry
forth the same message, ^ but with a different
by '
immediately.' It reaches its climax in the
announcement attributed to Jesus {Matt. x. 23)
'^
Matt. xxvi. 29; Luke xxii. 18-30.
(iii)
(iv)
dom must'
be preached in the capital. Pharisee
and Sadducee had gone out to the Jordan to hear
The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with
his angels ; and then shall he render unto every man according
to his deeds. Verily I say unto you, There be some of them
that stand here which shall in no wise taste of death, till they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
(V)
G
98 JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
far less with those attributes which all Christians believe him
to have possessed.' Guardian, May 13, 1910. Prof. Burkitt,
(vi)
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,'- that
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God2 ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we
that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught
identification of '
the Lord '
with '
the Spirit,' for
twenty years or so later the great Apostle was still
Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of Man also confess before the angels of God.
iCp. The First Three Gospels, 4th ed. 1909, pp. 383, 390.
I08 JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
NOTE
Among many recent discussions, beside that
of Schweitzer already cited, the attention of
1905;
The Life of Christ in Recent Research, by Prof.
Sanday, 1907 ;
(i)
(ii)
*
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee ' {Ps, ii. 7). When the high-priest will
1 1 Cor. XV. 47. Paul does not actually use the title '
Son
of ]Man,' but his allusion to Ps. viii. in i Cor. xv. 27 shows that
he was well acquainted with it.
128 THE THEOLOGICAL CHRIST
Eph. i. 3), and to the Creator {Rom. i. 25), I cannot think that
THE DIVINE KING I3I
(iii)
Epiphanes, *
god manifest.' On the Rosetta stone
nated *
god manifest ' at Ephesus, and the
*
common saviour of human life.' The exalted
language of the cities of Asia Minor concerning
the Emperor Augustus has been already quoted.^
Was it surprising that a tale should be early
circulated describing a prodigy before his birth,
1 Ante, p. 46.
THE DIVINE KING 135
(iv)
'
In the beginning was the Word and the Word;
ended, *
These things are written that ye may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that, believing, ye may have Ufe in
^
his name.'
mind is '
Son of God,' and the real function of
divine.
1 Known as '
the Obscure,'
K
146 THE THEOLOGICAL CHRIST
shape and size, its height, its surface, and its legs.
free, must first have seen with the mind's eye her
imprisoned form. In laying out a city, argued
Philo, the architect does not proceed haphazard ;
(R.V., '
Comforter,' John xiv. i6, i John ii. i)
The '
word '
is thus a term of marked elasticity ;
'
tabernacle '
in Jacob {Ecclus. xxiv. 8), it was,
so to speak, embooked in Israel's law (ver. 23) :
the '
mother of God '
? And was the unborn babe
2 Similitudes, v, 5, 6.
THE FOURTH GOSPEL I59
(v)
of '
word-hunting.' They pointed to the differ-
Christian '
the inner man.' It was the principle
tion '
which produced it was no soHtary resolve,
ORIGEN 169
NOTE
The Biblical argument concerning the person
of Jesus has recently been stated with great force
by Prof. Denney, in Jesus and the Gospel, 3rd ed.,
1909. The Rev. C. F. NoUoth has endeavoured
176 THE THEOLOGICAL CHRIST
M
178 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TWO NATURES
(i)
'
The only begotten Son of God, being of one
substance with the Father, was incarnate and was
made man.' But the mode of this incarnation
of princes.'
FACTORS IN THE SETTLEMENT 183
(ii)
'
The Word was made flesh,' said the Gospel.
'
True God out of true God . . . was made man,'
said the Creed. There was certainly a difference
of language ;
perhaps there was one of interpreta-
tion. Scripture was, of course, the ultimate
authority, but there were different ways of
(iii)
'
Mother of God,'^ brought Nestorius into the field
The acts were read over, and the legates gave their
one faith !
' the conflict of parties came to a close.
It was a short-lived triumph. The Emperor
deposed both of the protagonists. Nestorius,
(iv)
N
194 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TWO NATURES
'
We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent
teach men to confess one and the same Son our Lord Jesus
Christ : the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in
Manhood ; truly God and truly Man ; of a reasonable soul
and body ; consubstantial with the Father according to the
Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Man-
hood ; in all things like unto us without sin ; begotten before
all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these
latter days for us and our salvation born of the virgin Mary
the mother of God according to the Manhood ; one and the
same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in
THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON I99
'
Long live Marcian, the new Constantine, the
new Paul, the new David !
' Long live Pulcheria,
'
The right faith is that we beUeve and confess that our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man
God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the
worlds, and man of the substance of his mother, bom
in the world ;
Who, although he be God and man, yet is he not two, but one
Christ ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into
flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God :
(V)
'
was the trial of one who could not possibly have fallen.
It
'
It is impossible for us to understand it, in the sense of
understanding how what we call temptation could affect the
Son of God. It could not have touched him at all, unless
he had been also, and no less really, Son of Man.'
'
Up to the time of his death,' we read (p. 87),
'
he lived and taught, he thought and was inspired
and was tempted, as true and proper man, under
the limitations of consciousness which alone make
possible a real human experience. Of this part
that they might not ask him any more about it,
reply, '
If he knew the day, and, wishing to conceal
it, said he was ignorant, see what blasphemy is
a He.'2
Partial reHef from this difficulty has been found
m the doctrine known by its Greek name as
kenosis or '
emptying.' Founded on the well
known words of the apostle Paul,^ it endeavours to
conceive the process by which the divine Son
(vi)
O
210 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TWO NATURES
'
The Son of God did not assume a man's person unto his own,
but a man's nature to his own Person. , . . His making and
taking to himself our flesh was but one act, so that in Christ
there is no personal subsistence but one, and that from ever-
lasting. By taking only the nature of man, he still continueth
one person, and changeth but the manner of his subsisting,
which was before in the mere glory of the Son of God, and is
now in the habit of our flesh.' This looks at first sight like
(vii)
'
The life of our Lord, so far as it was visible, was
a strictly human life ; He was, as the Creeds
teach, " very man " ; there is nothing to prevent
us from speaking of this human life of His just
as we should speak of the life of one of ourselves.'
*
But, on the other hand,' it is added, '
we no less
culminates :
'
the title Messiah included the