The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-17
THE JESUS OF HISTORT.
Concluded from yesterday.


ing to uniform tradition, based upon a state
ment of the third gospel, he was about 80
years of age at the time when he began teach
ing The same gospel states, with elaborate
precision, that the public career of John the
Baptist began in the fifteenth year of Ii
berius, or A. d. 2S. In the winter of A. d.
1896, Pontius Pilatelwas recalled from Judea,
80 that the crucifxion could not have taken
place later than in the spring of 35. Thus
we have period of about six years during
which the ministry of Jesus must have begun
and ended; and if the tradition with respect
to his age be trustworthy, we shall not be far
out of the way in supposing him to have been
born somewhere between b. G. 3 and A. ID. ).
He is everywhere alluded to in the gospels as
Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee, where lived also
his father, mother, brothers, and sis ters, and
where very likely he was born. His parents
names are said so have been Joseph aud
Mary. His own name is Hellenized form
of Joshua, a name very common among the
Jews. According to the first gospel xiii, 55),
he had four brothers-Joseph and Simon;
James, who was afterwards one of the heads
of the church at Jerusalem, and the most for
midable enemy of Paul. and Judas or Jude,
who is perhaps the author of the anti-Pauline
epistle commonly aseribed to him.
OF the early youth of Jesus, and of the
circumstances which guided his intellectual
development, we know absolutely nothing,
nor have we the data requisite for forming
any plausible hypothesis. He first appears
in history about A. d. 80 or 80, in conuec-
ton with very remarkable person whom the
third evangelist describes as his cousin, and
who seems, from his mode of life, to have
been in some way connected with or infu-
enced by the Hellenizing sect of Essenes.
Here we obtain our first clue to guide US in
forming consecutive theory of the devel-
opment of Jesus opinions. The sect
of Essences took its rise in the
time of Maccabees, about B. @. 10. Upon
the fundamental doctrines of Judaism it had
engrafted many Pythagorean notions, and was
doubtless in the time of Jesus instrumental
In spreading Greek ideas among the people
of Galilee, where Judaism was far from being
SO narrow and rigid as at Jerusalem The
Essenes attached but little Importance to the
Messianic expectations of the Pharisees, and
mingled scarcely at all in national politics
They lived for the most part strictly ascetic
life, being indeed the legitimate predecessors
OF the early Christian hermits and monks
But while pre- eminent for sanctity of life,
they heaped ridcule upon the entire sacrif-
clal service of the temple, despised the Pnari-
sees as hypocrites, and insisted upon charity
towards all men instead of the old Jewish ex-
clusiveness.
1t was once a favorite theory that both
John the Baptist and Jesus were members of
now generally abandoned. Whatever may
have been the case with John, who is said to
have lived like an anchorite in the desert,
there seems to have been but little practical
Essenlsm In Jesus, who is almost uniformly
represented as cheerful and social in de-
meanor, and against whom it was expressly
urged that he came eating and drinking,
making no pretence of puritanical holiness
Re was neither puritan, like the Essences.
q or 10 fhn
which, both John and Jesus seem to have be-
gun their careers by preaching the un-Essene
doctrine OF the speedy advent of the ''king-
dom OF heaven, by which is meant the reign
of the Messiah upon the earth Nevertheless.
though we cannot regard Jesus as actually
member of the Essenian community or sect,
we can hardly avoid the conclusion that he. as
we'll as John the Baptist, had been at some
time strongly influenced by Essenian doc
trines. The spiritualized conception of the
kingdom of heaven" proclaimed by him was
Just what would naturally and logically arise
from aremodeling of the Messianic theories
OF the Pharisees in conformity to advanced
Essenian notions. 1t seems highly proba-
BILE that some such refined conception of the
functions of the Messiah was reached by
John, who, stigmatizing the Pharisees and
Sadducees as generation of vipers," called
aloud to the people to repent of their sins. in
view OF the speedy advent of the Messiah,
and to testify to their repentance by submit
ting to the Essenian rite of baptism. There
is no positive evidence that Jesus was ever a
disciple of John; yet the account of the bap
tism, in spite of the legendary character of
its details, seems to rest upon a historical
basis; and perhaps the most plausible hypo
thesis which can be framed is, that Jesus
received baptism at Johns hands, became for
while his disciple, and acquired from him
knowledge of Essenian doctrines.
The career of John seems to have been
very brief. His stern puritanism brought
him soon into disgrace with the Government
OF Galilee. He was seized by Herod, thrown
into prison, and beheaded. After the brief
hints gwen as to the intercourse between
Jesus and John, we next hear of Jesus alone
IN the desert, whore, like Sakyamuni and
Mahomet, he may have brooded in solitude
over his great project. Yet we do not find
that he had as yet formed any distinct idea of
his own Megsahship The total neglect of
chronology by our authorities renders it i'm
possible to trace the development of his
thoughts step by step; but for some time after
Johns disaster, we find him calling on the
people to repent, in view Of the speedy ap-
proach of the Messiah, speaking with great
and commanding personal authority. bat
using no language that would Indicate
that he was striving to do more than
worthily fill the place and add to the good
work of his late master. The Sermon on the
Mount, which the first gospel inserts in this
place, was probably never spoken as a con-
tlnuous discourse; but it no doubt for the
most part contains the very words of Jesus
and represents the general spirit of his teach,
ing during this earlier portion of his career
In this is contained nearly all that has made
Christianity so powerful in the domain of