Part 1 (1/2)

The Life of Jesus of Nazareth

by Rush Rhees

Preface

The aiospels to discern s inimitably portray It is avowedly a study rather than a story, and as a coospels it seeks to answer some of the questions which are raised by a sympathetic consideration of those narratives These answers are offered in an unargumentative way, even where the questions are still in debate a scholars This method has been adopted because technical discussion would be of interest to but few of those whom the book hopes to serve On some of the questions a non-committal attitude is taken in the belief that for the understanding of the life of Jesus it is of little ioes Less attention has been given to questions of geography and archaeology than to those which have athe point of view adopted The church has inherited a rich treasure of doctrine concerning its Lord, the result of patient study and, frequently, of heated controversy It is custoospels with this interpretation of Christ as a prees With the apostles and evangelists, however, the recognition of the divine nature of Jesus was a conclusion from their acquaintance with him The Man of Nazareth was for thearded hie of hiressed in the natural way froospels, particularly the first three, are marvels of siarded Jesus as the Man fro they were dominated by the influence of a personal Lord rather than by the force of an accepted doctrine It is with no lack of reverence for the importance and truth of the divinity of Christ that this book essays to bring the Man Jesus before the ospels The incarnation h a huh a series of propositions which formulate truth (Heb i 1-4) Theinfluence for Christian life and thought is personal discipleshi+p to that Revealer who is able to-day as of old to exhibit in his hunition of God manifest in the flesh

An Appendix is added to furnish references to the wide literature of the subject for the aid of those ish to study it more extensively and technically; also to discuss some questions of detail which could not be considered in the text This appendix will indicate the extent of ation to Professor Ernest D Burton, of the University of Chicago, for generous help and permission to use material found in his ”Notes on the Life of Jesus;” to Professor Shailer Mathews, also of Chicago, for very valuable criticisue, Professor Charles Rufus Brown, for most serviceable assistance; and to the editors of this series for helpful suggestions and criticis of the book An un the writing of these pages, and has given constant inspiration,criticisical Institution, April, 1900

Part I

Preparatory

I

The Historical Situation

1 When Tacitus, the Roe the Christians with the burning of Rome, he has patience for no inated with a Jeho had been put to death in Judea during the reign of Tiberius This province was small and despised, and Tacitus could account for the influence of the sect which sprang thence only by the fact that all that was infamous and aborasp the nature and power of theaccusation, yet it enificance of him who did ”not strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street,” whose influence, nevertheless, orking as leaven throughout the empire

2 Palestine was not under immediate Ro near the close of the long reign during which, owing to his skill in securing Ro people His claim was that of an adventurer who had power to succeed, even as his ht and left, lest one of the ht than he should rise to dispute with hidom was divided into three parts, and Ro none of his sons to take his royal title Herod's successors ruled with a measure of independence, however, and followed h none of them had his ability The best of them was Philip, who had the territory farthest from Jerusalem, and least related to Jewish life He ruled over Iturea and Trachonitis, the country to the north and east of the Sea of Galilee, having his capital at Caesarea Philippi, a city built and named by him on the site of an older town near the sources of the Jordan He also rebuilt the city of Bethsaida, at the point where the Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee, calling it Julias, after the daughter of Augustus Philip enters the story of the life of Jesus only as the ruler of these towns and the intervening region, and as husband of Salo far from Jerusalem and the Jewish people, he abandoned even the show of Judaism which characterized his father, and lived as a frank heathen in his heathen capital

3 The other tho inherited Herod's dominion were brothers, Archelaus and Antipas, sons of Malthace, one of Herod'sby Herod, with Judea, Sadom; but the emperor allowed him only the territory, with the title ethnarch Antipas was named a tetrarch by Herod, and his territory was Galilee and the land east of the Jordan to the southward of the Sea of Galilee, called Perea Antipas was the Herod under whose sway Jesus lived in Galilee, and who executed John the Baptist He was a man of passionate te Jews to govern, he held, as his father had done, to a show of Judaisan as Philip He, too, loved building, and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee was built by hiross disregard of cohteousness appear in his relations with John the Baptist and with Herodias, his paramour Jesus described him well as ”that fox” (Luke xiii 32), for he was sly, and worked often by indirection While his father had energy and ability which command a sort of admiration, Antipas was not only bad but weak

4 Both Philip and Antipas reigned until after the death of Jesus, Philip dying in AD 34, and Antipas being deposed several years later, probably in 39 Archelaus had abeen accused by the Jews of unbearable barbarity and tyranny,--a charge in which Antipas and Philip joined The territory of Archelaus was then rade, ruled by a procurator appointed froate (propraetor) the procurator was an officer for the administration of the revenues; in provinces of the rank of Judea he was, however, the representative of the e coal procedure, as well as supervising the collection of the customs and taxes Very little is known of the procurators appointed after the deposition of Archelaus, until Tiberius sent Pontius Pilate in AD 26 He held office until he was deposed in 36 Josephus gives several exaard of Jewish prejudice, and of his extreentle and judicial in coovernment; yet the fear of trial at Roive Jesus over to be crucified, was thoroughly characteristic; in fact, his downfall resulted froainst him by certain Sa

5 There were two sorts of Roman taxes in Judea: direct, which were collected by salaried officials; and custohest bidder The direct taxes consisted of a land tax and a poll tax, in the collection of which the procurator made use of the local Jewish courts; the customs consisted of various duties assessed on exports, and they were gathered by representatives of ht to collect these dues The chiefs as well as their underlings are called publicans in our New Testah the naatherers, sreat, were everywhere despised and execrated, because, in addition to their subserviency to a hated government, they had a reputation, usually deserved, for all sorts of extortion Because of this evil repute they were co the people, so that the frequent coupling of publicans and sinners in the gospels probably rested on fact as much as on prejudice

6 In Samaria and Judea soldiers were under the command of the procurator; they took orders froarrison of Jerusalem consisted of one Roman cohort--from five to six hundred men--which was reinforced at the time of the principal feasts These and the other forces at the disposal of the procurator were probably recruited fro the Samaritans The centurion of Capernaum (Matt viii 5; Luke vii 2-5) was an officer in the aranized his army on the Ro with the imperial forces

7 The administration of justice in Samaria and Judea was theoretically in the hands of the procurator; practically, however, it was left with the Jewish courts, either the local councils or the great sanhedrin at Jerusalem This last body consisted of seventy-one ”elders” Its president was the high-priest, and its ree from the most prominent representatives of the priestly aristocracy The scribes, however, had a controlling influence because of the reverence in which the multitude held them The sanhedrin of Jerusalem had jurisdiction only within the province of Judea, where it tried all kinds of offences; its judgment was final, except in capital cases, when it had to yield to the procurator, who alone could sentence to death It had great influence also in Galilee, and aard all Jews had for the holy city It was, in fact, a sort of Jewish senate, which took cognizance of everything that seemed to affect the Jewish interests In Galilee and Perea, Antipas held in his hands the judicial as well as the military and financial adion had become chiefly a for the Jews Since the days of the priest-princes who ruled in Jerusalem after the return from the exile, they had constituted the Jewish aristocracy, and held most of the wealth of the people It was to their interest to maintain the ritual and the traditional custoenuine interest in religion, however, they had little This secular priestly party was called the Sadducees, probably froy the Sadducees had was for the ative They were opposed to the ht of the scribes, and naturally produced soical position; but the s

9 The leaders of the popular thought, on the other hand, were chiefly noted for their religious zeal and theological acurowth of that spirit which in the Maccabean time had risked all to defend the sanctity of the teht of God's people to worshi+p hi to his law They were known as Pharisees, because, as the name (”separated”) indicates, they insisted on the separation of the people of God from all the defilements and snares of the heathen life round about them The Pharisees constituted a fraternity devoted to the scrupulous observance of law and tradition in all the concerns of daily life They were specialists in religion, and were the ideal representatives of Judais characteristic was reverence for the law; their religion was the religion of a book By punctilious obedience of the law ain a record of merit which should stand to his credit and secure his rehen God should finally judge the world Because life furnished many situations not dealt with in the written law, there was need of its authoritative interpretation, in order that ignorance ress These interpretations constituted an oral lahich practically superseded the written code, and they were handed down froeneration as ”the traditions of the fathers” The existence of this oral law made necessary a company of scribes and lawyers whose business it was to know the traditions and transmit them to their pupils

These scribes were the teachers of Israel, the leaders of the Pharisees, and the hly revered class in the co was intensely earnest, but in the time of Jesus the earnest spirit had died out in zealous formalism This was the inevitable result of their virtual substitution of the written law for the living God Their excessive reverence had banished God from practical relation to the daily life They held that he had declared his will once for all in the law His name was scrupulously revered, his worshi+p was cultivated with ment was anticipated with dread; but he himself, like an Oriental monarch, was kept far from common life in an isolation suitable to his awful holiness By a natural consequence conscience gave place to scrupulous regard for tradition in the religion of the scribes The chief question with theht? but, What say the elders? The soul's sensitiveness of response to God's will and God's truth was lost in a maze of traditions which awoke no spontaneous Amen in the moral nature, consequently there was frequent substitution of reputation for character

The Pharisees could enious application of the principle of dedication of property to God (Mark vii 8-13), and thus under the guise of scrupulous regard for law discovered ways for legal disregard of law Their theory of religion gave abundant roothened its prayers, while neglecting judgment, mercy, and the love of God

10 Yet the earnest and true develop the Pharisees The early hope of Israel was almost exclusively national In the later books of the Old Testaed sense of the importance of the individual, the doctrine of a personal resurrection to share the blessings of the Messiah's kingdoan to appear It had its clear development and definite adoption as part of the faith of Judais with this increased ee developels and spirits

Towards both of these doctrines the Sadducees took a reactionary position