The circumstances which at this time were tending to make Judaism a proselytizing religion were also preparing it for success in its mission. The religion of the prophets was too pure to become popular. The absence of supernaturalism, the freedom from dogma, which made it in essence so superior to Christianity, rendered it fit only for the highest minds. Afterwards, when impressed on Israel in general, it was identified with a rigid ceremonialism. That such a religion, deriving no strength from formalism or from national feeling, could conquer the Gentile world, far lower than the Jewish people in religious development, was of course impossible. But just at this moment it began to receive additions from foreign sources which ultimately bridged the chasm between it and the ideas of ordinary men. The dispersion of the Jews, which completed the victory of Judaism, alloyed it with baser elements. So far as its adherents were placed in contact with idolatrous religions like the Chaldean, it was rather secured against corruption. In the Persian religion, however, which it encountered towards the close of the captivity, it found an enemy disguised as a friend. This religion, which was as anti-idolatrous as the Jewish, and which had a nominal monotheism underlying its dualism, was marked by a supernaturalism very different from the simplicity of the religion of the prophets. A large part of this supernaturalism was now transferred to Judaism. The Persian deity of evil became the Jewish Satan, with a multitude of demons under him that made man their sport and prey.[48] A hierarchy of angels was constructed, completely foreign to the prophetic belief in the immediate agency of God. But the most important doctrine at this time introduced into Judaism, whether from the Persian religion or not is a matter of dispute, was the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which soon became the chief dogma of the Jewish creed. How far it tended to suit Judaism to Gentile requirements is shown by a curious passage of the Apocrypha, which reads like a description of the doctrine of Pagan Christianity respecting purgatory and masses for the dead.[49] The more philosophical Jews afterwards formed themselves into a party to resist these innovations, but the majority of the people eagerly adopted them. With the spiritual Messianic ideal they were readily connected, as they formed the popular elements needed for proselytism, and as they tended to place religion on a personal rather than on a national basis. We find them the chief strength of Christianity, which, as the successful embodiment of the outward forces of Judaism, naturally laid aside the portions of it unfavourable, and took up the portions of it favourable, to denationalisation and expansion.
Of course these corruptions of Judaism were the result of its becoming a popular religion. No longer confined to the best part of the people, it paid the penalty of diffusion. The rigid ceremonialism, which henceforth was its leading feature, was another consequence of its success. Utterly obnoxious as such ceremonialism was to the instincts of the prophets, it was still inevitable if Judaism was to be the religion of all the Jews. As Jewish political independence faded more and more into a memory of a distant past, the people clung more tenaciously to their religion, more based their nationality upon it, and made it the object of their patriotism. This, as it continued, rendered impossible a religious union of Jew and Gentile. A religion professed by Gentiles by that fact alone would have seemed to the vast majority of Jews to be sufficiently condemned. It became steadily more apparent that, in order to convert the Gentile, Judaism had to leave the Jew.
Throughout all this period the expectation of the Messiah’s coming remained the sole consolation of the Jewish people. The expectation entered into every part of their action.[50] All Jews believed that, to obtain the Messiah, they needed to be reconciled to God, that their sins kept alive his anger, and delayed the sending of the deliverer. Many an obscure preacher probably cried in their ears, “Repent, repent, that the kingdom of heaven may come,” before John the Baptist, by synchronizing with Christ, gained a prophetic celebrity. Indeed, we may be sure that during this long time of calamity many attempts were made to realize the Messianic ideals, that many who claimed to be the Messiah appeared among the Jews, and earned oblivion by their failure. When the empire of Rome began to overshadow them with its massive and enduring power, so unlike that of their previous masters, a conviction spread through the Jews that the last days were at hand.[51] The expectation of the Messiah grew stronger, and the passionate longing of the people tended more and more to secure, as far as was possible, its own gratification. Into an age of dreams and hopes, which seethed with restlessness and discontent, Christ was born.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHRISTIANITY OF CHRIST.
It is hardly necessary to say that simply from the statements of the gospels we cannot construct an historical life of Christ. Strauss and Baur have finally determined the question of their historical value. In the first three, it is true, after making allowance for the vast growth of legend overspreading them, useful materials can still be found; but even these can be depended on only so far as probability is distinctly in their favour. The last is simply a philosophical romance, with the theology of the second century as its basis. We see the figure of Christ through a mist of legend, and its real outlines are hopelessly lost. Characters like the hero of M. Renan’s historical novel are merely the projections of imagination, coloured undisguisedly by the medium through which they are viewed. Only by study of the religion he founded can trustworthy knowledge of Christ be obtained.
But in this way, as far as general results are concerned, we can arrive at almost certain knowledge. We can be sure, for instance, that the exceptional goodness of Christ was no figment of the gospels. The new morality which Christianity introduced into the world of practice, the morality which makes inward purity a test of virtue rather than outward actions, must have been derived from him. Its origin must have been in personal influence, and Christ’s alone could have permanently stamped it on Christianity. And this, of course, renders it likely that sayings of striking moral beauty attributed to him in the gospels, such as “Love your enemies,” “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” and the perfect one not in the gospels, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” were in substance actually uttered by him, for they are in harmony with the character of exceptional goodness which he must have possessed. So far, at least, we can have a sure knowledge of Christ which entitles him to our willing reverence.
Not only is it necessary to distrust the positive evidence of the gospels, but even negatively their evidence cannot wholly be allowed. They may suppress what is true as well as assert what is false. For instance, they represent Christ as obtaining great success immediately after his entrance on his ministry. Now nothing could be more unlikely than this. He could not have been accepted as the Messiah by even a small number of disciples without a long probation previously, a period of struggle and unsuccess. In the gospels themselves the explanation of this omission is suggested, when Christ is said to have been thirty years old at the time he began to preach. At about this age, after a youth of conflict and uncertainty, he probably was first recognized as the Messiah. But naturally those who knew him only as the Messiah could not dream of a period when none regarded him as such. Hence the account in the gospels, the years of development and failure having passed out of remembrance.