A fictitious life of Jesus of wonderful beauty is Peter Rosegger's I.N.R.I. Frohe Botschaft eines armen Sünders (The Glad Tidings of a poor Sinner). Leipzig, 6th-10th thousand, 1906. 293 pp.
A feminine point of view reveals itself in C. Rauch's Jeschua ben Joseph. Deichert, 1899.
La Vie ésotérique de Jésu-Christ et les origines orientales du christianisme. Paris, 1902. 445 pp.
That Jesus was of Aryan race is argued by A. Müller, who assumes a Gaulish immigration into Galilee. Jesus ein Arier. Leipzig, 1904. 74 pp.
Did Jesus live 100 b.c.? London and Benares. Theosophical Publishing Society, 1903. 440 pp.
A scientific discussion of the “Toledoth Jeshu,” with citations from the Talmudic tradition concerning Jesus, is offered by S. Krauss, Das Leben Jesu nach jüdischen Quellen, 1902. 309 pp. According to him the Toledoth Jeshu was committed to writing in the fifth century, and he is of opinion that the Jewish legend is only a modified version of the Christian tradition.
William Wrede, born in 1859 at Bücken in Hanover, was Professor at Breslau. (He died in 1907.)
Wrede names as his real predecessors on the same lines Bruno Bauer, Volkmar, and the Dutch writer Hoekstra (“De Christologie van het canonieke Marcus-Evangelie, vergeleken met die van de beide andere synoptische Evangelien,” Theol. Tijdschrift, v., 1871).
In a certain limited degree the work of Ernest Havet (Le Christianisme et ses origines) has a claim to be classed in the same category. His scepticism refers principally to the entry into Jerusalem and the story of the passion.
Joel iii. 13, “Put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe!” In the Apocalypse of John, too, the Last Judgment is described as the heavenly harvest: “Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped” (Rev. xiv. 15 and 16).