THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, NOVEMBER 29, E. M. 300 (1900.)
Did Christ Really Live?
BY CHARLES WATTS.
______
*"
the language is purely similar to those ascribed to theca- [Freethinker
.
Christian; that the introduction of reer of Christ. There is a strikinv i
I propose now to give some reas- Christ’s name entirely interrupts allusion in Justin’s Apology bea
n “ --------- m ~
ons for regarding the story of the narrative; and that, although ing on the ......larity of Christian
" °" M° ra'S'
Christ, as recorded in the New Chrysostom and Pbotios both refer and Pagan beliefs Justin vri n .
Darwin gave morality a purely
Testament, as «..historical. It is to Josephus, they never allude to in the middle of "the second ce o
natural basis. He found that mor­
not my intention to dispute that a the disputed passage
tury save —
man by the name of Jesus lived
Dean Milman says: “It is inter-
“When w. say that the Logos ality was a part of man’s life, not
down from
two thousand years ago. Josephus pointed with many additional who is the first birth of God was’ an
h" ornament
a- brought
,
refers to more than one person of clauses” (Miiman’s Gibbon, vol. ii., produced without sexual unioi’i and n
‘ g’’ acCOrdin8 ‘°
-
ulhexuai
union,
and
Darwin,
make
the foundation of
the same name who lived about p. 285). Bishop W’arburton calls
that time. My contention is that the passage “a rank forgery” [Di­ that Jesus Christ our teacher, was morals:
j. Man ¡ , a 8ociable animaL
there is no historical evidence that vine Legation of Moses, book ii., Cruclieil and died, and rose again,
the Christ (which really means Sec. 6J. Rev. Dr. Giles also con­ and ascended into heaven, we pro- loves society; he feels sympathy,
2. Man has power of memory
the annointed) who is professed to demns it as a forgery [Hebrew and pound nothing d.fferent from what
be believed in by Christians ever Christian Records, vol. ii., p. t$2]. you (the 1 agaus) believe regarding which makes him reflect ou his ac-
their <=o*>«quence8; he
existed. Remembering the period Dean Farrar says: “The single J u ° d t e ' i - y° U e°tee,n “ 80,18 ° ' tions
L ... ,
.
can
upon himself as a separate
in which he is said to have lived, passage in which he [Josephus]
I this be true, there can be no self; he can judge himself.
the many remarkable deeds it is alludes to him [Christ] is interpo­
3. He has a capacity for lan-
alleged he performed, and the num­ lated, if not wholly spurious” doubt as to the unhistoncal char-
acter of the story of Christ. When guage. Ideas fly from brain to
erous historians who wrote about [Life of Christ, vol. i.. p. 46]. Dr.
that time, it is certainly extraord­ Epersheim says: “The expressious we read in the New’ Testament of a brain by means of words. Men
inary, upon the supposition that he attributed to Josephus must have virgin birth—that is, a child being learn to know each other, to warn,
born without a human father; of to praise, to preach.
existed, that no secular writer of been altered, and in some parts in­
4. Man has the ability to form
the first century even alludes to terpolated, by later writer” [Dic­ the devil taking Jesus up to a high
mountain
and
showing
him
all
the
the Jesus called Christ. One of tionary of Ecclesiastical History
his habits. Habit is a guarantee of
kingdoms of the world; of his hav­
character. Habit is the secret of
the principal Christian contribu­ and Biography,article “Josephus”].
ing a meal of fish and honeycomb, right conduct. Right conduct is
tors to the recently published vol­ Gibbon says that this passage “was
and then being carried up into not goodness in a momentary rush,
ume, “The Ancient Faith in Mod­ inserted into the text of Josephus
heaven; of his being “horn of a a spasm, a jerk, but it is a steady
ern Light”, in deploring the lack of between the time of Origen and
evidence as to the inception of the that of Eusebius,” and may furn­ woman,” and yet, like Melchisedec, habit of mind which gives a man a
“without mother”; of people being
Christian faith,'thus writes:—
ish an example of no vulgar forg­ possessed of devils; of the dead be­ moral purpose and makes him up­
right and true to the line of duty.
“It is a singular fact that Secu­ ery [Chap, xvi., footnote]. And
ing restored to life after the body —[Agnostic Journal.
lar history, which relates the ad­ De Quincy, in his essay on the
had become decomposed—I say,
vance of the Christian faith, gives Essenes, emphatically says that
when we read stories like these, we
the very scantiest account of its “this passage has long been given
D etestable N onsense.
know that we are in the region of
origin—gives indeed, no account at up as a forgery by all the men not
fable and romance, and not upon
all. It seems as though the men lunatic” (Works, vol. ix.).
l he great English writer and
the solid ground of historical facts.
who might have rendered this in­
The passage in Tacitus in which 1 rue, Jesus is represented as being scholar, Ruskin, was once appealed
estimable service were smitten with Christ is mentioned is to be found of real flesh and blood; but the to for a contribution to pay off a
mental blindness; the whole Chris­ in the Annals, not in the History. idea of his rising from the grave, debt contracted in the building of
tian movement was to them so There is no proof that the passage' after being deprived of all natural a new chapel. And here is what
small, so weak, so entirely unim­ was ever referred to until the fif- power, and appearing in a room he said in reply;
portant, that it never occurred to teenth century.
Doane, in his while the doors were shut, is utter­ “Sir: I am scornfully amused at
your appeal to me, of all the peo­
them to trace it to its source. They Bible Myths, gives seventeen reas­
ly opposed to all ideas of reality.
ple in the world the precisely least
held it to be a local folly, a pro­ ons for believing the passage to be
The
perpetual
repetition
of
the
„
,
-
4
.
1
..
icMcviMuii
01
me
likely to give you a farthing. My
vincial fanaticism, which might
interpolation.
But something Gospel
stories in Inodern tjme8
first word to all men and boys who
well be left alone with good na- even
important than this shows that the mythical «till rules
wish to hear me is, ‘Don’t get in
tured contempt” (p. 87).
should be remembered
Lu m • •
. ,
Tn 187ft
111
the C hristian mind. This is speci- debt. Starve and go to heaven
Now it appears incredible that
,.ir h 1
,
Wa9 ally “ anifest in the present revival
this historical silence should have n published
,n London underthe title of the old tradition about the fall —but don’t borrow. Try first beg­
obtained if such a person as the of Tacitus and Bracctolmi: The of Jerusalem being the signal for ging. I don’t mind if it is really
needful, stealing. But don’t buy
Christ of the Gospels actually lived. Annals Forged in the Fifteenth tU \f • i a
,
,
hings you can’t pay for.’ And of
And yet apart from the New Tea- Century/’ The object of the writer e„ and the ‘f i n T T r Z p h ” f ' X
♦ament, there is not the slightest was to show that the Annals in Jews
106 all manner of debtors, pious people
building churches they can’t pay
trustworthy evidence that he exis- which the passage refering to Christ
T
ted. This is the more strange upon appears were not written by Taci- l .
* latest form which this story for are the most detestable non­
the supposition that Jesus was tus, but were forged in the fifteenth las taken 18/ hat we a^e upon the sense to me. Can’t you preach and
equal with God. For if he were an century by the famous Poggio Brae- eve tJie rel^n °f Christ ami the pray behind the hedges—or in a
omnipotent being it is legitimate to ciolini.
: triumph of his saints. The growth sand pit—or a coal hole—first?
conclude that he would have exer-
The author says: “I give a de- ° the Chr,8t,an faith> built on an-
* 8trikin* ib
cised his power, and have given to tailed history of the forgery, from f ' T
The specific rules of morality
the world a faithful history of his corresnondence
correspondence that
that Poggio'carried lustration of orthodox
”r’nooox inconsisten-
inconsisten-i are not pronounced to he perma-
on with a familiar friend who re- y an<l credullty- A> first, poor nent and unalterable. How could
life.
8 ,er'nel1’ weavers and tanners, society advance if they were? The
It has been repeatedly urged sided in Florence” It thus
that
Josephus
(
a
.
D.
40)
and
Taci-
pears
that
there
is
no
historical
evi-
W
e Hre told’ mH''or worBhip ¡n pri- “ “ "m In Ha
8ile'“
that Joseph us ( a . d . 40) and Taci-
tno z, rv urn
<• Li .L
1
au A
vate houses; but now their sucres-
1 n ,n Its moraI ldeaH aft new
tus ( a . d . 11 ) mentioned the name dence that the earliest Secular HnrH
.. •
tastes are generated, new nassions
of Christ. As regards the former, writers of the Christian era knew wh l
m e 1,1 co8t,y structures, raised, and new modes of existence
it is now generally admitted, even anything of the existence of Jesus f
repeat the same old and of thought are laid open; but
by Christian scholars, that the “the annointed one.”
’ ,
® tftat deIude(1 their supersti- alterations such as these, slow and
Drincinal na^aae in I m w n h n A
a *u
a .
1,008 processors.
Fortunately, ^arce perceptable,cannot
” - of endanger
......
"■
steady authority
morals,
fhe sea and the dry ¡and nmv h«
occurs is
Its
_ _ _
lhe I community
is a a foreerv.
forgery.
Its internal
internal wh«n
when dealing w,«u
with the „ story
of - w j j ectlon
| Z 1 of
r"i'i"
T T h L L who
" L Ci‘an8ing place’> hut, nevertheless
evidence goes to prove It to be an Christ Is that the main feature o th ' . «
M
hy the fables of the sea and dry land are very dis-
interpolation. Dr. Lardner gives Christianity have almost an exact th s
,
i"y °f H8 gre“te8t ion®'; 7
L . lhe,cha"Be ia n0‘
un its Aiithpntimtv unJ , nir ♦ « t 1
n i* ai
,
exact thinkers of today recognize that cons,*teiit with the habitable na-
,h J ,
’ a 7 5
pa,
1 erecords of Previous the Christianity of the L w Testa- ‘«re of our globe, and each genera-
that it was never quoted by Chris- religions. Take, for instance, the ment has no h i L r i c l i
i .
" OD of m°rt«ls walks upon the
tian writers before Eusebius; that stories of Krishna and Buddha land th » » t v
foundatlon, shore neither detered nor perplexed
nu luoa. .and that its teachings are only val- with sense of insecurity -LSel
a