Theologians have naturally claimed that the words addressed to Jesus by the Jews, "We were not born of fornication," were a sneer, and prove their knowledge that Joseph was not the father of Jesus. The Jewish tradition that Jesus was the son of a young Roman named Panthera might seem fortified by the alleged rudeness of Jesus to his mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" and his apparent refusal to see her and his brethren when they asked to see him (Mark iii, 31–35). It is also said that the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him. But such texts are mainly messianic and mean that Jesus did not derive his wisdom from earthly parentage, but as one begotten "not of the will of man, but of God." In the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. i) the only wives mentioned are those about whom some irregularity was traditional-Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary, and it is possible that in the post-resurrectional era it had become important to accept and magnify the alleged illegitimacy.

It is not improbable that the superstition about illegitimacy, as under some conditions a sign of a hero's heavenly origin, may have had some foundation in the facts of heredity. In times when love or even passion had little connection with any marriage, and none with royal marriages, the offspring of an amour might naturally manifest more force of character than the legitimate, and the inherited sensual impulses, often displayed in noble energies, might prove of enormous importance in breaking down an old oppression continued by an automatic legitimacy of suc

cession.

The phrase," entire fountain of the Holy Spirit," is Zoroastrian: in the Avesta the Holy Spirit is Anâhita; her influence is always described as a fountain descending on the saints or heroes to whom she gives strength.

THE RESURRECTION MYTH

379

The narrative of the Annunciation and Nativity is inserted in the New Testament with simplicity, and without any fraudulent effort to harmonize it with the earlier biography. Mary says to Jesus, "Thy father and I have sought thee;" she makes the usual sacrifice in the Temple for purification; and despite the offerings to the infant of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, it is said his brothers did not believe in him. The story has become to us a Christmas carol which testifies, however, to the exaltation of popular faith and hope when it was believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, and that he would speedily reappear in resplendent power to bring peace on earth and joy to all mankind. My own belief is that it was written out as a play, with borrowings from old Buddhist plays, and was acted in the villages. And all this brings me testimony that there actually was at that period a great original orator who so uplifted and charmed the best minds around him- probably not many that they could not bear the thought of his death; and that one of these, the Magdalene, reporting that she had seen him after his supposed death, though, as Luke says, the disciples regarded her story as idle talk, nevertheless gave rise to dramas of martyrdom and resurrection. Out of the womb of one Mary Jesus was born, out of the heart of another Mary he was born again. As she sat alone beside the sepulchre, she heard a voice saying, "Why weepest thou?" "Because they have taken away my master and I know not where they have laid him!" "Mary!" "Rabboni- my master!"

Mary does not speak as if she supposed Jesus had died, and it cannot now be determined whether the Jesus she saw "while it was yet dark" was living or a vision.

Had the loving lady — the most calumniated that ever lived-foreseen what was to come, the vision, if such

it was, could not have occurred. Mary's heart would have said, "Rest, my beloved! Sleep on till a purer age can raise thee for a higher, not a lower, career, -for a loving, not cursing, career! The earth is dark without thee, but thou must not rise to incarnate the authority of cruel gods, and crown the power of cruel men, and trace thy steps through history in blood of hearts most like thine own!" But Mary saw not that; her love was not that of the penitent of Christian fiction, but that of the pure human lover of a great lover; and if Jesus is ever released by the angel Imagination from his tomb of pious and moral mediocrity, there will come forth with him grand epics and romances, among these that of the Lady of Maudleyn Castle, whose wealth helped to support her Beloved when from being rich he had become poor.

An intelligent American fellow-traveller said to me, "Don't feel distressed at not visiting Palestine. My wife there and I came all the way from Boston, chiefly to visit the places associated with Jesus; and both of us came away, feeling rather sorry we had gone. It is difficult to explain our disillusion, but it was partly the vulgarization by showmen of everything sacred, and the sectarian monuments, splendid memorials of intolerance, continually exciting disgust, instead of the sweet and happy emotions we had expected."

I easily recognized in this Boston gentleman an oldfashioned intellectual Socinian, whose ideal was a Jesus not too far, nor yet too near. My early Methodist training in the South had continued through all vicissitudes, as an increasing love for my teachers, for those who helped me at a pinch, whether they were ancient or modern. There are in my "Sacred Anthology" some selections from Buddha, - such as his "Excellencies," and

some from Saadi, which I ceased to read to my congregation as Lessons, because they brought those men before me so vividly that the strain on my feeling was too great. The ideas I gradually formed of Jesus as a man, and my interpretations as given above, of what he really thought and felt (so far as there were any data before me) awakened in me a great love for him. Out there on our ship, in the Suez Canal, in the darkness, it was as if he sat on the deck beside me, and said softly, "I was lonely in life because the age was frantic about religion, and everybody was trying to make me out some kind of a priest or prophet or messiah; only one or two men loved me for my real human self, but there were some affectionate ladies, with one of whom, Mary of Magdala, my relations were tender and intimate. Mary of Bethany anointed me at the table as if I were a king, but what I prized were her tears and kisses. She, too, had a heart, and loved me."

"And the tears," I said, "were they not then simply penitential?"

"Not at all."

Then I repeated the words preserved from the suppressed Gospel: "The disciples say, 'Where wilt thou that we prepare for the passover to eat?' Jesus answered, 'Have I desired to eat this flesh, the passover, with you?" "

Through the darkness came the words: "Nothing sacrificial could I tolerate, nor could I participate in a memorial feast based upon the wild and guilty superstition of an angel killing one in every Egyptian home, and passing over the homes of Israelites. My little circle of friends had been accustomed to the feast, long become merry, and I invited them to a wine-supper where we enjoyed ourselves. It was quite a simple affair."

CHAPTER XVIII

ADDENDA 1905, 1906.

HE Oxford scholars engaged in the Exploration of Egypt, principally Dr. Bernard Grenfell of Queen's College, and Dr. Arthur Hunt of Lincoln College, were rewarded in 1897 by the discovery on the site of Oxyrhynchus, one of the chief cities of ancient Egypt, of a page from a book containing some Sayings ascribed to Jesus. In 1903 their search was renewed with even greater success. These gentlemen have edited the papyri in a pamphlet of 45 pages, published for the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1904, with facsimiles of the inscriptions and English translations. From these I cite certain passages that impress me as presenting in a reflected way, though sometimes refracted, genuine utterances of Jesus. In reading the New Testament and these writings from the early centuries of our era it is important to remember that classical Greek had been a good deal modified. The word basileia, kingdom, for instance, had become very elastic and represented any kind of sway, so that the Cromwellians were not far wrong when they prayed, "Thy Commonwealth come!"

One of these sayings is:

Jesus said, Thou hearest with one ear, but the other thou hast closed.

Still more striking is the following:

Jesus said, Wherever there are two, they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone, I say, I am