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From Locke to Reitzenstein: the Historical Investigation of the Origins of Christianity*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Luigi Salvatorelli
Affiliation:
Turin, Italy

Extract

The historical investigation of the origins of Christianity began with the English deists, who, being philosophers and not professional historians, were for that very reason able to give the first forward impulse to the historical study of Jesus and of primitive Christianity. No purely historical interest could have induced Christian Europe to apply criticism to its sacred books, the facts of salvation, and the divine person of the Saviour. A new and philosophic conception of religion was required, directly opposed to the older view, if any serious effort was to be made to find in the writings of the New Testament and in the earliest Christian history the evidence for critically tested historical statements, and if these writings were to be read and the history studied from any other point of view than that of traditional dogmatism, Protestant or Catholic.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1929

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References

1 In volume VII of Locke's Complete Works, 1823 ff.

2 In volume VI of the same edition.

3 The comparative method for the miracles was used by Hume also in his Essay on Miracles, No. 10 in the Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding, 1748, later entitled, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding.

4 These statements of Voltaire's occur in many passing allusions, frequently repeated. Besides his articles, ‘Christianisme,’ ‘Messie,’ ‘Miracles,’ in the Dictionnaire philosophique, mention may be made of his Catéchisme de l'honnête homme; Examen de Milord Bolingbroke; Dieu et les hommes, (chapters 31–38); and especially Histoire de l'établissement du christianisme (1777), which is a compendium of Voltaire's opinions on this subject.

5 On Reimarus and his works, see Strauss, Hermann Samuel Reimarus und seine Schutzschrift für die vernünftigen Verehrer Gottes (1862), in vol. V of his Gesammelte Schriften, pp. 229–409.

6 The fragment, ‘Ueber die Auferstehung,’ is the fifth of those published under the general title: ‘Ein Mehreres aus den Papieren des Ungenannten, die Offenbarung betreffend,’ in Zur Geschichte und Literatur. Aus den Schätzen der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel. Vierter Beitrag, 1777Google Scholar (vol. XII of Sämtliche Schriften, edited by Lachmann, 3rd edition revised by Müncker). ‘Von dem Zwecke Jesu und seiner Jünger. Noch ein Fragment des Wolfenbüttelschen Ungenannten’ was published separately in 1778 (vol. XIII of Sämtliche Schriften).

7 Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung, pp. 23 ff., a new edition (1913) of Von Reimarus zu Wrede (1906). This work is fundamental for the history of writings on the life of Jesus, and will be referred to henceforth as ‘Schweitzer.’

8 This observation is made by Schweitzer, who exemplifies it (p. 26) by the attitude of Semler.

9 English deism did not completely deny revelation, at least it did not in the phase represented by Locke and Toland, and Locke admitted the concept of inspiration to a certain degree. But by making revelation equivalent to ‘lex naturae,’ the transcendentalist assumption was nullified, and in fact deistic criticism and interpretation wholly neglected it. When Voltaire speaks freely, he treats the dogma of revelation as not even deserving to be refuted.

10 The first and second volumes were completed by the Nouvelles observations sur le texte et les versions du Nouveau Testament, 1695.

11 The Turrettini were originally from Lucca.

12 Both the Biblische Hermeneutik and the Glaubenslehre of Baumgarten were published posthumously by Bertram and Semler.

13 Some of his Opuscula philologica critica (1764) and Opuscula theologica (1773) are of interest here, but more especially his Institutio interpretis Novi Testamenti (1761).

14 See his Einleitung in die göttlichen Schriften des Neuen Bundes (1750; 4th ed., 1788).

15 He declares, however, that inspiration is not indispensable for Christianity. See Einleitung, 4th ed., §§ 13–15 (vol. I, pp. 73–101).

16 The two works of Semler that are most important for us are his Apparatus ad liberalem Novi Testamenti interpretationem (1767) and especially his Abhandlung von der freien Untersuchung des Kanons (1771–1776).

17 Das Leben Jesu als Grundlage einer reinen Geschichte des Urchristenthums, 1828, two volumes, the second containing a German translation of the synopsis of the four gospels.

18 The idea of an historical theology was entirely foreign to Schleiermacher, as is shown by his Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums (1810; 2nd ed., 1830), where theology is treated as a body of ideas belonging to different branches of learning, put together for the practical purpose of the guidance of the church.

19 Published posthumously in 1845 from lectures of 1829, 1831, 1832.

20 A course of lectures of 1832, published posthumously in 1864. Since Schleiermacher did not read his lectures from a fully worked-out manuscript, these posthumous publications cannot be considered accurate in all particulars, but the general lines are certainly to be trusted. For his Leben Jesu, however, we have the author's own notes.

21 In Schleiermacher's mind the important thing is to understand the miracles morally. What he says of the miracle at Cana is typical: “We cannot comprehend it in its physical aspect, but if Christ was able to produce such an effect, we must understand his action as a moral fact and we can present no objection” (p. 222).

22 This agrees with the Glaubenslehre, where it is said that the resurrection and ascension are not integral parts of the doctrine of the person of Christ (§ 99). But what is permissible in the field of dogma and philosophy cannot be admitted in the field of history, in which it is essential to know what the resurrection and the ascension meant to the Christian consciousness. Schleiermacher, with his indifference to history, attributed to that consciousness his own dogmatic point of view.

23 K. F. Bahrdt, Ausführung des Plans und Zwecks Jesu (1784–1792). K. H. Venturini, Natürliche Geschichte des grossen Propheten von Nazareth (1800–1802). On these, see Schweitzer, chapter IV.

24 Neue Hypothese über die Evangelisten als blos menschliche Schriftsteller betrachtet (written in 1778, but published posthumously in 1784).

25 Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, Einleitung in das Neue Testament (1804 ff.; 2nd ed., 1820 ff.). Eichhorn admitted the existence of a number of documents prior to the Synoptics.

26 Commentatio qua Marci evangelium totum e Matthaei et Lucae commentariis deceptum esse monstratur (1789–1790).

27 Von den Regeln der Zusammenstimmung unserer Evangelien (1797). This is an appendix to Von Gottes Sohn, der Welt Heiland: Nach Johannis Evangelium, which had been preceded by Vom Erlöser der Menschen: Nach unsren drei ersten Evangelien (1796). For these two works, see Schweitzer, chapter III.

28 Historisch-kritischer Versuch über die Entstehung und die frühesten Schicksale der schriftlichen Evangelien (1818).

29 Kritischer Versuch über die Schriften des Lukas (1817).

30 Probabilia de evangelii et epistolarum Johannis apostoli indole et origine eruditorum iudiciis modeste subiecit Carolus Theophilus Bretschneider.

31 The views of Schleiermacher are found in the posthumous Einleitung, §§ 80–84.

32 Ueber den sogenannten Brief des Paulus an den Timotheus (1807).

33 Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in die kanonischen Bücher des Neuen Testaments (1826). DeWette, however, acknowledged that some genuine fragments were used in the Pastoral Epistles.

34 Vermutungen über die beiden Briefe an die Thessalonicher (1798).

35 Entwickelung des paulinischen Lehrbegriffes (1824).

36 In the Einleitung, and especially in his Kurze Erklärung des Ephesierbriefs (1843).

37 Königsmann, Prolusio de fontibus commentariorum sacrorum qui Lucae nomen praeferunt (1798). Schleiermacher discussed the sources of Acts in a course of lectures in 1817, the substance of which was incorporated in the posthumous publication of his Einleitung in das Neue Testament.

38 Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet, 2 vols. (1835, 1836). In reality, the second volume also was issued in 1835. The third edition (1838, 1839) was somewhat modified in favor of traditional views as to the value and use of the Fourth Gospel; but the fourth edition (1840) returned to the position of the first.

39 Strauss admits a possible connection between the ebionite gnosticism and essenism.

40 Strauss finds a possible essene influence on Jesus in his attitude toward riches and perhaps in the joining of the care of the body with that of the soul.

41 Strauss holds that even the apocalypse of the Synoptics corresponds to the actual ideas of Jesus.

42 Notice especially his disparagement of the title Son of Man, which he calls “a mere secondary character” in Daniel, which “according to the Jewish taste” became a fixed designation (4th ed., § 61, p. 493). Also his explanations of the ‘messianic secret’ (§ 62, p. 502) are somewhat superficial.

43 He published later Die Evangelienfrage in ihrem gegenwärtigen Stadium (1856).

44 We should remember that this thesis had been maintained as early as 1782 by Kopp, in 1794 by Storr, and again in 1831 by Knobel, as well as by Lachmann, on whom see the next note.

48 Three years before, Lachmann (De ordine narrationum in evangeliis synopticis) had emphasized the importance of the “ordo narrationum evangelicarum” and had shown how this points to the priority of Mark.

46 Der Urevangelist oder eine exegetisch-kritische Untersuchung des Verwandschafts-verhältnisses der drei ersten Evangelien.

47 At the utmost Weisse admits that Jesus may have felt a lessening of his own power to work prodigies. At Jerusalem he did not accomplish any miracles.

48 Einleitung, 2nd ed., I, p. 445.

49 Baur first set forth his conception in a series of separate studies: ‘Die Christuspartei in der korinthischen Gemeinde’ (1831; and a later article on the same subject, 1886); Der Gegensatz des petrinischen und paulinischen Christenthums in der ältesten Kirche; Der Apostel Paulus in Rom (1831); Die sogenannten Pastoralbriefe des Apostels Paulus untersucht (1835); etc. It is fully developed in his Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi: sein Leben und Wirken, seine Briefe und seine Lebre: ein Beitrag zu einer kritischen Geschichte des Urchristenthums (1845; 2nd ed., 1866–67), and in his Kirchengeschichte der drei ersten Jahrhunderte (1853; 3rd ed., 1863). To be considered also are the Kritische Untersuchungen über die kanonischen Evangelien (1847) and the posthumous Vorlesungen über neutestamentliche Theologie (1864; 2nd ed., 1892).

50 Das nachapostolische Zeitalter in den Hauptmomenten seiner Entwicklung (1846).

51 For the theoretical formulation of Baur's principles, see the prefaces to the 1st and 2nd editions of Das Christenthum und die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, and the monograph, Die Epochen der kirchlichen Geschichtschreibung (1852).

52 Mention should be made of Baur's studies in philosophical and religious history: Symbolik und Mythologie (1824–25); Das Manichäische Religionssystem (1831); Die christliche Gnosis, oder die christliche Religionsphilosophie (1886); Drei Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der alten Philosophie (published together in the posthumous edition of 1876).

53 Vorlesungen über die neutestamentliche Theologie (new edition), pp. 73–74.

54 Das Christenthum und die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte (3rd ed., 1863), p. 27.

55 In Paulus, part I, chapter VII (2nd ed., pp. 208 ff.), the episode of the disciples of John in Acts 19 (one of the very few documents that show the real complexity of early Christian history) is interpreted by Baur as a creation of the tendency to make Paul appear (in parallelism to Peter) as conferring the gifts of the Spirit on a special class of Christians.

56 For the ideas of Baur on Jesus, see the first edition of Das Christenthum und die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, and that of Vorlesungen über die neutestamentliche Theologie.

57 Paulus, part III, chapter VIII (2nd ed., pp. 631–632).

58 Ibid.

59 On Paul, see, besides the monograph Paulus, also the second section of Baur's work on the first three centuries and the second section of his Vorlesungen über die neutestamentliche Theologie.

60 Das Christenthum und die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte (3rd ed., p. 5); Christianity is “a general form of the religious consciousness corresponding to the spirit of the time and prepared for by the whole previous historical evolution of the nations.” (In the phrase “general form” we see the abstract philosophical concept.) There follow several pages devoted chiefly to Greek philosophy, Jewish monotheism, and essenism. Hellenistic religions and Jewish apocalyptic are ignored.

61 On Bruno Bauer see Schweitzer, chapter XI.

62 Kritik der evangelischen Geschichte des Johannes (1840).

63 Kritik der evangelischen Geschichte der Synoptiker, 3 volumes (1841–1842).

64 In his criticism of the ‘messianic secret’ Bauer anticipates Wrede.

65 Die Apostelgeschichte (1850); Kritik der paulinischen Briefe (1850–52; in three parts).

66 In his Kritik der Evangelien und Geschichte ihres Ursprungs, in four volumes (1851–52), which combines the two previous works on John and the Synoptics, reproducing them almost word for word. It is in fact called a “second edition.”

67 Christus und die Cäsaren: der Urprung des Christenthums aus dem römischen Griechenthum (1877). This was preceded by the essay, Philo, Strauss, und Renan und das Urchristenthum (1874).

68 ‘Ueber die Zeugnisse des Papias über unsere Evangelien’ in Theologische Studien und Kritiken (1832).

69 Die evangelische Geschichte. See above, pp. 290–292.

70 Holtzmann considered our Mark a shortened form of A, the discourses found in A being omitted.

71 On this subject see Holtzmann, chapter V, ‘Die synoptischen Evangelien als Geschichtsquellen.’

72 Chapter V, § 29, ‘Lebensbild Jesu nach der Quelle A’

73 Geschichte Jesu von Nazara in ihrer Verkettung mit dem Gesammtleben seines Volkes frei untersucht und ausführlich erzählt (1867–1872).

74 Das Leben Jesu für das deutsche Volk bearbeitet (1864; later in Gesammelte Schriften, vols. III and IV).

75 Geschichte Jesu nach akademischen Vorlesungen (1876; 2nd ed., 1891). This took the place of the same author's Leben Jesu, published from 1829 to 1865.

76 Das Leben Jesu: erster, untersuchender Teil (1885); zweiter, darstellender Teil (1886).

77 Das Leben Jesu, 2 vols. (1882; 4th ed., revised, 1902)Google Scholar.

78 Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, I. Die Entstehung des kirchlichen Dogmas. In the preface to the fourth edition (1909), which we have at hand, it is said that no substantial alterations have been made from the first edition.

79 These ideas were further emphasized in the famous little book, Das Wesen des Christentums (1900; sixtieth thousand, 1908).

80 Harnack held that the history of Christian dogma begins with the “hellenization” of Christianity in the post-apostolic age; against this idea, see my article in Il Conciliatore, 1915, pp. 147 ff.

81 Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889) had first written Die Entstehung der katholischen Kirche (1850) in substantial agreement with the Tübingen school, but in the second edition of the work (1857) he definitely detached himself from them, denying the sharp contrast between Paul and the Apostles which was the basis of Baur's view, and representing the Catholic Church not as a fusion of Jewish Christianity and gentile Christianity, but as a developed form of the latter. Ritschl regards the historical study of primitive Christianity as culminating in the theological elaboration of the doctrine of revelation. His classic book on theology is Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung.

82 In a note (Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed., I, p. 106) Harnack says that the combintion in Paul of a strong sacramental and mystical tendency (thus admitting this tendency) with his doctrine of spirituality and liberty was in his time a natural combination for which it is not necessary to seek particular causes, and that the conceptions, symbols, and sacraments in which this combination took concrete form do not constitute a real problem. Thus he summarily dismisses modern researches into the history of religion, with no use of their results, as if the diffused character of certain spiritual ideas and attitudes were a sufficient reason for treating them as negligible.

83 Harnack denies the Greek character of the Logos. This may be so, but in a sense very different from that which he has in mind.

84 Harnack's attitude may appear somewhat different in Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (1902; 3rd ed., 1915), where at the outset he recognizes (3rd ed., p. 2) that the christianization of the ancient world signifies “the completion and objectivization of Graeco-oriental syncretism,” and in chapter III studies this syncretism, a convergence of Hellenism and orientalism, as a condition essential for the propagation of Christianity. But apart from the fact that he gives only a general characterization of this syncretism, without defining its elements of myth, mystery, and realism, it is to be observed that he is dealing here only with the propagation, not with the formation, of Christianity.

86 In the Nuova Antologia for April 1 and 16, and May 16,1901; afterward collected with additional notes in Nuove pagine sul cristianesimo antico (1902).

86 This was also accepted by Baldassare Labanca (1829–1913) in Il cristianesimo primitivo (1886).

87 Mention should also be made of Chiappelli's study, Le idee millenarie dei cristiani nel loro svolgimento storico (1887; republished in Nuove pagine; see note 85) in which he emphasizes the faith in the parousia, found in all early Christianity including Paul.

88 After his Synoptische Evangelien, a work not large in bulk but for substance and power equal to several volumes, Holtzmann's two principal works are his Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung (1885; 3rd ed., 1892) and his Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Theologie (2 vols., 1897; 2nd ed., 1911)Google Scholar. The former summarizes admirably a century of criticism; on the latter see below.

89 Mention should be made here of Harnack's Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius (3 vols., 1893–1904), and still more of his Beiträge zur Einleitung ins Neue Testament: I. Lukas der Arzt (1905); II. Sprüche und Reden Jesu (1907); III. Die Apostelgeschichte (1908). He dates the writings of Luke at about the year 62, and thus would put Mark and the Logia very early.

90 Vie de Jésus, 1863 (13th ed., revised, 1867); Les Apôtres, 1866; Saint Paul, 1869; L'Antechrist, 1873; Les Évangiles, 1877; L'Église chrétienne, 1879; Marc-Aurèle et la fin du monde antique, 1882. The Index général, in a separate volume, appeared in 1883.

91 In this connection see especially the first pages of the preface to L'Antechrist.

92 In the Vie de Jésus, Renan maintains, if not the textual authenticity of the Gospel according to Saint John, at least its origin in the school of the apostle in Asia Minor. In L'Antechrist and in L'Église chrétienne he accepts the hypothesis of authorship by John the presbyter, although he is represented as the pupil of the apostle.

93 In comparing Acts with Paul's epistles, in the preface to Les Apôtres, Renan says that the latter are to be preferred; but he afterwards admits that Paul may have altered the facts somewhat (Les Apôtres, pp. 209–210; Saint Paul, p. 326). The episodes of the Ethiopian eunuch and the centurion Cornelius are regarded as substantially true history.

94 Some doubt is admitted as to Colossians, but this is not maintained at the end. Ephesians is said to be a circular letter composed by Paul's secretaries under his direction.

95 Renan speaks also — not without some inconsistencies — of the presence in the mind of Jesus at the same time of a social-apocalyptic and a spiritual conception of the kingdom.

96 Quoted from an edition earlier than the thirteenth.

97 His son, Jean Réville (1854–1908), who died only two years after the father, published several studies of the Fourth Gospel (see, especially, Le quatrième Évangile, 1901), concluding decisively against its genuineness. He wrote also Les origines de l'Eucharistie (1908).

98 A. Hilgenfeld, Die jüdische Apokalyptik in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung (1857); R. H. Charles, A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, in Israel, in Judaism, and in Christianity (1899); P. Volz, Jüdische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba (1903).

99 Jésus Christ et les croyances messianiques de son temps (1864).

100 Jesus Nazarenus und die erste christliche Zeit (1882).

101 1874; 4th ed., 1907 ff.

102 1888; 2nd ed., 1891. A third edition of the first part, under the title Die messianisch-apokalyptischen Hoffnungen des Judentums, was issued in 1903.

103 Consisting of only 67 pages. A second edition, much enlarged and somewhat more qualified in statement, was issued in 1900.

104 Der Menschensohn: ein Beitrag zur neutestamentlichen Theologie. In 1898 Lietzmann returned to the subject in another study, Zur Menschensohnfrage.

105 Die Worte Jesu, mit Berücksichtigung des nachkanonischen jüdischen Schrifttums und der aramäischen Sprache, I. Einleitung und wichtige Begriffe (1898).

106 For the polemic against Dalman, see especially Wellhausen's Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien, pp. 39 ff., and Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, VI (1899), pp. 187 ff.

107 First ed., 1894; 7th ed., 1914.

108 Das Evangelium Marci übersetzt und erklärt (1903); Das Evangelium Matthaei (1904); Das Evangelium Lucae (1904); Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien (1905; 2nd ed., 1911).

109 Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien; zugleich ein Beitrag zum Verständnis des Markusevangeliums.

110 1901.

111 It may be recalled that in the first edition (1906) the title was Von Reimarus zu Wrede. Here we are using the edition of 1913. Chapter 21, ‘Die Lösung der konsequenten Eschatologie,’ is devoted to the positive exposition of the author's thought.

112 Mark 12, 35–37, where Jesus questions the scribes regarding the Messiah, the son of David, is interpreted by Schweitzer (who here rejects the more common opinion of liberal Protestant critics) as not a negation by Jesus of the Davidic origin of the Messiah. He further holds that Jesus was called ‘son of David’ without any messianic significance being involved in the use of the term.

113 Die Anthropologie des Apostels Paulus und ihre Stellung innerhalb seiner Heilslehre.

114 Die paulinische Angelologie und Dämonologie.

115 Die Wirkungen des heiligen Geistes nach der populären Anschauung der apostolischen Zeit und nach der Lehre des Apostels Paulus (1888; 3rd ed., 1909).

116 Die Eschatologie des Paulus in ihren Zusammenhängen mit dem Gesamtbegriff des Paulinismus.

117 Die paulinischen Vorstellungen von Auferstehung und Gericht und ihre Beziehung zu jüdischer Apokalyptik.

118 Taufe und Abendmahl bei Paulus: Darstellung und religionsgeschichtliche Beleuchtung (1903).

119 In Namen Jesu: eine sprach- und religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum Neuen Testament, speziell zur altchristlichen Taufe (1903).

120 Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen: das Weihnachtsfest (1889).

121 Abraxas (1891); Nekyia (1893).

122 Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit: eine religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung über Gen 1 und Ap Joh 12.

123 Second edition, without change, 1910.

124 Later, however, Brückner discussed briefly in its relation to Christianity the myth of the ‘god dying and rising again’ of the mysteries, in Der sterbende und auferstehende Gottheiland in den orientalischen Religionen und ihr Verhältnis zum Christentum (1908).

125 One of the principal documents for this myth is a writing of the gnostic (Christian) sect of the Naassenes, preserved by Hippolytus, of which the primitive pagan nucleus had already been determined by Reitzenstein, Zwei religionsgeschichtliche Fragen (1901).

126 Eine Mithrasliturgie (1903). This was a study of some of the most important doctrines of the mysteries, particularly that of the soul ascending through the heavens. Dieterich laid stress on the Greek element at the expense of the oriental.

127 Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra (2 vols., 1896, 1900)Google Scholar; Les mystères de Mithra (1899; 3rd ed., 1913).

128 More recently Cumont has published a number of studies, both general and special, to illustrate religious conditions in the oriental-hellenistic-roman world. We may mention particularly his Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans (1912).

129 This was a lecture given in Strasburg in 1909, amplified in publication by the addition of a great number of notes and excursus. The book went through successive enlargements (2nd ed., 1920; 3rd ed., 1927).

130 In the introduction Bousset acknowledges as predecessors Kessler, for his studies in Mandaeanism and Manichaeism and for his memoir, Ueber Gnosis und altbabylonische Religion (1882); Brandt, for his studies in Mandaeanism; Anz, Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus (1897); and Gruppe, for what he says briefly in § 310 of his Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte (1906), especially on pp. 1619, 1622.

131 A similar attempt was made at about the same time by H. Gressmann, in Der Ursprung der israelitisch-jüdischen Eschatologie (1905), in which he asserted the popular, mystic-apocalyptic, oriental element in Hebrew prophecy.

132 Die religiösen Bewegungen innerhalb des Judentums im Zeitalter Jesu (1905).

133 Not so new, however, as Friedländer seems to have thought. Critical theology in Germany had repeatedly called attention to the importance of the ‘am ha-arez for the propaganda of Jesus. Compare especially what is said above (pp. 317–318) about Johannes Weiss.

134 Synagoge und Kirche in ihren Anfängen (1908).

135 Von Nazareth nach Golgotha: Untersuchungen über die weltgeschichtlichen Zusammenhänge des Urchristentums (1909); Von Jerusalem nach Rom: weitere Untersuchungen, etc. (1910).

136 A little later Maurenbrecher showed some tendency to accept the radical denial of the historical existence of Jesus.

137 Jona: eine Untersuchung zur vergleichenden Religionsgeschichte (1907).

138 Ichthys. Vol. I: Das Fischsymbol in frühchristlicher Zeit (1910); vol. II (text), vol. III (plates): Der heilige Fisch in den antiken Religionen und im Christentum (1922).

139 Das Abendmahl: eine Untersuchung über die Anfänge der christlichen Religion (1911).

140 Die urchristliche Ueberlieferung von Johannes dem Täufer (1911).

141 In this, Dibelius was developing the ideas of Baldensperger, Der Prolog des vierten Evangeliums (1898), who in turn had had predecessors at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Dibelius, however, did not accept Baldensperger's theory that the Johannine christology was influenced by this rivalry with the Baptist's followers.

142 A purely literary development of this, however, and one which has led to no definite result, consists of the hypotheses as to a multiplicity of documents and revisions, proposed by Eduard Schwartz, ‘Aporien im vierten Evangelium’ (Göttingische Nachrichten, 1907–08), and Wellhausen, Das Evangelium Johannis (1908). Details may be found in the second edition of Loisy's Quatrième Évangile (1921) and in Goguel's Introduction au Nouveau Testament, vol. II.

143 Die Reichsgotteshoffnung in den ältesten christlichen Dokumenten und bei Jesus (1903).

144 Yet the interest was fairly strong; consider the theory of justification.

145 Paulus: der Mensch und sein Werk; die Anfänge des Christentums, der Kirche und des Dogmas (1904).

146 Paulus. Vol. I, Untersuchung; vol. II, Darstellung (1904).

147 L’apôtre Paul et Jésus Christ (1904).

148 Paulus: eine kultur- und religionsgeschichtliche Skizze (1911; 2nd ed., entirely rewritten, 1925). I have used the second edition.

149 Die Anfänge unserer Religion (1901; 2nd ed., 1904).

150 For Jesus, see the work of the same author analyzed above (p. 336).

151 Jesus im Glauben des Urchristentums (1910), a lecture.

152 The volume entitled Jésus et la tradition évangélique (1910) is taken from the long introduction of this work.

153 For the history of the controversy to which this book gave rise within the Catholic Church, Loisy's further publication, Autour d'un petit livre (1903), must be kept in mind. It is itself useful also in defining Loisy's positions on exegesis and history.

154 Reitzenstein replied (‘Religionsgeschichte und Eschatologie,’ in Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1912, pp. 1–28): “It is a mistake to say that Judaism had a negative attitude toward gnosticism.” In this he found fault with Schweitzer for having too narrow an idea of eschatology, which as a matter of fact was not lacking in gnosticism. He rejected the ‘autochthonous’ explanation of the eschatological sacraments, pointed out the unreasonableness of Schweitzer's separation between language and idea, and made it clear that the theory of the ‘religionsgeschichtliche Schule’ did not deny the fact of individual religious personalities.

155 On this compare G. A. van den Bergh van Eysinga, Die holländische radikale Kritik des Neuen Testaments (1912, translated from the Dutch; English translation, Radical Views about the New Testament, 1912).

156 De Bergrede en andere synoptische Fragmenten (1878).

157 Especially ‘Quaestiones paulinae,’ in Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1882 ff.

158 ‘Das Problem der Entstehung des Christentums,’ in Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, 1913, pp. 423–515.

159 Das Urchristentum. The first part was published in 1913, the second and final part (completed by R. Knopf, so far as possible from other works of Weiss) in 1917. We use here only the part prepared by Weiss himself.

160 As a matter of fact, it was not a question of mechanical application or borrowing. Theological objections to the theories of the ‘religionsgeschichtliche Schule’ are often based on an inability to understand them in their vital concreteness.

161 Christos, Kyrios: Geschichte des Christusglaubens von den Anfängen des Christentums bis Irenaeus (1913; 2nd ed., posthumous, 1921)Google Scholar.

162 Jesus der Herr: Nachträge und Auseinandersetzungen zu Kyrios Christos (1916).

163 Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu Judentum und Christentum (1907; 2nd ed., 1912).

164 Agnostos Theos: Untersuchungen zur Formengeschichte religiöser Rede (1913).

165 He attributes to Luke the original compilation of Acts, but thinks that our text represents a radical revision. Loisy has accepted this theory (Les Actes des Apôtres, 1920) and has extended it to the Gospel of Luke (L'Évangile de Luc, 1924).

166 Die Geisteskultur von Tarsus im augusteischen Zeitalter mit Berücksichtigung der paulinischen Schriften (1913).

167 On these attempts see the first volume of Goguel's Introduction cited above (p. 335, note 142).

168 To this school belong the works of M. Albertz, Die synoptischen Streitgespräche (1922), ‘Zur Formengeschichte der Auferstehungsberichte’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1922)Google Scholar. A continuation and in part a correction of this last study is L. Brun, Die Auferstehung Christi in der urchristlichen Ueberlieferung (1925). For critical discussion of the school, see E. Fascher, Die formgeschichtliche Methode (1924); M. Goguel, ‘Une nouvelle école de critique évangélique: la “form- und traditionsgeschichtliche Schule’” (Revue de l'histoire des religions, 1926, pp. 114–160); L. Köhler, Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Neuen Testaments (1927). All three of these writers undertake to show that this method is inadequate from the point of view of historical criticism.

169 See page 23 of his L'Évangile de Luc (1924), where he gives a bibliography of his own works on this subject.

170 ΕϒΧΑΡΙΣΤΗΡΙΟΝ: Studien zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments Hermann Gunkel dargebracht (1923), II, pp. 50 ff.

171 ‘Die Göttin Psyche in der hellenistischen und frühchristlichen Literatur’ (Sitzungsberichte, Heidelberg Academy, 1917); ‘Das Mandäische Buch des Hernn der Grösse und die Evangelienüberlieferung’ (ibid., 1919); Das iranische Erlösungsmysterium (1921); ‘Iranischer Erlösungsglaube’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1921, pp. 1 ff.); ‘Gedanken zur Entwicklung des Erlosungsglaubens’ (Historische Zeitschrift, 1922, pp. 1 ff.; an attempt to give a synthetic exposition); Studien zum antiken Synkretismus aus Iran und Griechenland (1926; in collaboration with H. G. Schaeder); Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen (3rd ed., 1927); ‘Zur Mandäerfrage’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1927, pp. 39 ff.).

172 Das Johannesbuch der Mandäer (1915); Mandäische Liturgien (Abhandlungen, Göttingen Academy, 1920); Ginza (Quellen der Religionsgeschichte, 1925, published by the Göttingen Academy).

173 For a comprehensive review of these documents see Alfaric, P., Les écritures manichéennes (2 vols., 1920)Google Scholar.

174 A keen and impartial criticism of all Reitzenstein's publications through 1921 is given by Gressmann, ‘Das religionsgeschichtliche Problem des Ursprungs der hellenistischen Erlösungsreligion’ (Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 1922, pp. 154 ff.).

176 A Catholic scholar, Lagrange, Père M.-J., in ‘La gnose mandéenne et la tradition évangélique’ (Revue Biblique, 1927, pp. 321 ff.)Google Scholar, accepts the Palestinian origin of Mandaeanism and its possible chronological priority to the ministry of Jesus, although later he would consider it as dependent on Christianity, not vice versa, and does not even admit its connection with John the Baptist. Opinions against this view and against the Western origin of Mandaeanism have been expressed by E. Peterson,’ Bemerkungen zur mandäischen Literatur,’ and F. Büchsel, ‘Mandäer und Johannesjünger’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1926, pp. 236 ff.; 1927, pp. 219 ff.). Both Reitzenstein in the article cited, ‘Zur Mandäerfrage,’ and Lidzbarski,’ Mandäische Fragen’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1927, pp. 70 ff.), have replied to Peterson.

176 R. Bultmann, ‘Die Bedeutung der neuerschlossenen mandäischen und manichäischen Quellen für das Verständnis des Johannesevangeliums’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1925, pp. 100 ff.); ‘Der religionsgeschichtliche Hintergrund des Prologs zum Johannesevangelium’ (Gunkel Festschrift, 1923, II, pp. 1 ff.); Walter Bauer, Das Johannesevangelium, 2nd ed., 1925 (in Lietzmann's Handbuch zum Neuen Testament). Lagrange's study mentioned above is largely a refutation of Bultmann and Bauer.

177 See the commentary on Revelation by E. Lohmeyer (1926) in Lietzmann's Handbuch.

178 H. G. Schaeder, Der ‘Mensch’ im Prolog des Vierten Evangeliums, pp. 306 ff. fin collaboration with Reitzenstein), thinks it possible to reconstruct a Mandaean prototype of the prologue of John, in which Enosh was mentioned. He accepts the theory of an Aramaic original of the Fourth Gospel.

179 Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen und das Alte Testament (1924).

180 Die Geburt des Kindes: Geschichte einer religiösen Idee (1924).

181 A reaction against the excessive antiquity attributed to Jewish eschatology — eschatology and mystery being combined in the myth of the Redeemer — is marked by a short essay by G. Hölscher, Der Ursprung der jüdischen Eschatologie (1925), and by a treatise of A. Freiherr von Gall, Bασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ: eine religionsgeschichtliche Studie zur vorchristlichen Eschatologie (1926), which contains a wealth of material. Both these writers find the beginning of the eschatology in Second Isaiah, but while Hölscher considers it an ‘Eigenbesitz’ of Isaiah, Freiherr von Gall rightly admits a profound and continuous Iranian influence. He also accepts Reitzenstein's theory of a Zarathustrian Jewish gnosticism.

182 These two volumes, with an earlier one, Gesù (1913; 2nd ed., 1926)Google Scholar, form a ‘History of Christian Origins.’ In Gesû il Nazoreo (1927), a biographical portrait in a series called Maestri dell’ Azione, Omodeo has taken up again the conclusions reached in the first of these volumes and modified them so as to bring them into a more definite relation to the history of religion (connection of Jesus with John the Baptist; a Nazarene community).

183 An extensive rabbinical commentary on the New Testament is Strack, H. L. and Billerbeck, P., Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (5 vols., 19221928)Google Scholar. We may mention also the collections made by Fiebig, particularly Jesu Bergpredigt: rabbinische Texte (1926).

184 There is perhaps a slight tendency in this direction in Moore, although he keeps very strictly to the subject in hand. On the other hand Marmorstein, A., ‘Iranische und jüdische Religion’ (Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1927, pp. 231ff.)Google Scholar, goes much too far, when, from statements similar to those of Moore as to the supposed divine intermediaries in rabbinical literature, he does not hesitate to deny entirely any substantial Iranian influence on Judaism — an influence which Moore fully recognizes.

185 Der Sohn Gottes: eine Untersuchung über den Charakter und die Tendenz des Johannesevangeliums (1916).

186 Pneuma Hagion: der Ursprung des Geistesbegriffs der synoptischen Evangelien aus der griechischen Mystik (1922).

187 The Greek character of the hellenistic mysteries is emphasized also by U. Fracassini, Il misticismo greco e il cristianesimo (1922), which deals primarily with the difference between the two.

188 Four essays on orphism, of which the most important for us is the first, ‘L'origine orfica della cristologia paolina.’

189 See especially Zagreus: Studi sul orfismo (1920).

190 L'essenza del cristianesimo (1922); Gesù il Cristo (1926); San Paolo (1925), these last two in the series ‘Profili’ of Formiggini; Saggi sul cristianesimo primitivo (1923). It is well to bear in mind that in these last years Buonaiuti's studies on primitive Christianity have been from the point of view of the philosophy of religion rather than from that of purely historical research.

191 Die Entstehung der christlichen Theologie und des kirchlichen Dogmas (1927), six lectures, in which Harnack again declares war against the ‘religionsgeschichtliche Schule,’ and again emphasizes the lateness of the influence of hellenistic mystery religions on Christianity.

192 ‘Der Kirchenbegriff des Paulus in seinem Verhältnis zu der Urgemeinde’ (1921); Urchristentum und Religionsgeschichte (1924); Reformation und Urchristentum (1924). The first two are published also in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kirchengeschichte, II, pp. 1 ff. To the second essay Reitzenstein has replied in Studien zum antiken Synkretismus, pp. 174 ff. The third title is a short address.

193 On these points, compare the second edition (1915) of his Paulus. On the negative side, on the whole, are K. Deissner, Paulus und die Mystik seiner Zeit (2nd ed., 1921), and P. Feine, Theologie des Neuen Testaments (4th ed., 1922), the latter representing conservative Protestant theology.

194 Jesus (1926), in the series Die Unsterblichen.

195 Vol. 1, Die Evangelien (1921; 4th ed., 1924); vol. II, Die Entwicklung des Judentums und Jesus von Nazareth (1921; 4th ed., 1925); vol. III, Die Apostelgeschichte und die Anfänge des Christentums (1923).

196 This is said on page 393 of volume III, but later (p. 397) he declares, in manifest contradiction, that the term ‘soter’ for Christ made its way slowly into Christianity, and became habitual only in the second century.

197 ‘Conservatism’ that is to say, in historiography, not in religious views, or, at least primarily, in literary criticism.

198 Couchoud's book stimulated Goguel to make a new and thorough study of the controversy over the historical existence of Jesus (Jésus de Nazareth, mythe ou histoire? 1925) and to a new and well-considered refutation of the mythological theory.

199 Das Markusevangelium als Zeugnis gegen die Geschichtlichkeit Jesu (1921).

200 Der Sternhimmel in der Dichtung und Religion der alten Völker und des Christentums (1923).

201 Die Entstehung des Christentums aus dem Gnostizismus (1924).

202 For this interpretation of the heresy of the Minim, of whom we learn from rabbinical sources, Drews depends upon Friedländer, who discusses it at great length in his Religiöse Bewegungen. Previously the Minim had usually been identified with the Jewish Christians.