The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-30
did JESUS REALLY LIVE?"

William Thurston Brown preached
an interesting sermon yesterday at
Unitarian hall on the subject did Je
sus Really Live, and What Bearing
Has the Question on Religion Today"
Mr.. Brown outlined the arguments
in a debate on the same subject re-
Gently held in Chicago between Rev.
a. S. .Crapsey OF Rochester. n. Y, and
Rev. NJ. NJ. Mangasarian of Chicago.
He then drew certain conclusions of
his own from their remarks. He spoke.
in part as follows:
. Did Jesus Really Live?" was the
subject of a debate recently in the
city of Chicago. The debaters were
Y. and Rev. NJ. NJ. Mangasarian of
Chicago. The purpose of this debate
was to make public the evidence COM
monty advanced in support of the
widespread belief that the Jesus of the
New Testament record was an histor-
ical character. and also the evidences
in support of the belief that Jesus was
simply a myth. The affirmative of
the question was taken by DR.. Crop
sey; the negative by Mr.. Mangasarian.
The argument of Mr.. Crapsey may
" dS loiiONS- i Hdl Jesus
was a real man and the founder of a
great religious movement known as
Christianity is a conclusion based
upon certain facts and documents and
supported by certain accepted canons
OF historical science. The question is,
have we in the gospels the consistent
story of a human life? Further, is it
antecedently probable that this great
world movement which we call Chris
tianity is the product, primarily. of
one man? Knowing this movement
its doctrines and its history-does it
practically necessitate the existence
of type of man like Jesus of Naza-
reth, in order to account for it? These
questions Mr.. Crapsey answers in the
affirmative.
Tacitus Relied Upon.
In the first place, he cites a quota
ton from the Annals of Tacitus. in
which it is stated that one Christus
suffered death under Pontius PLATE,
and that after his death his teachings
spread over the earth This is claimed
to be clear testimony by a profane
historian to the fact of Jesus death.
and therefore of his reality as an his
torical parsonage
Then, there is in the gospels
clearly outlined history, and in its
main details it corresponds with the
universal experience of men. The story
or the public career of Jesus corre-
spends i'm principle with that of al
most every reformer. Moreover, he is
a man of many moods In a word. we
have in the New Testament, saws Mr..
Crapsey, the deposit of a distinct
character and definite history of the
life of Jsesus. and we have in the world
TODAY al
which dates its beginning from the
very time in which Jesus is said to
have lived-a movement which began
IN the preaching of a crucified and
risen Christ, and which is inexplicable
except on the grounds that the Jesus
OF the gospels was an historical per-
sonage.
CredibiIity of Documents.
In presenting the arguments in
support of the belief that the Jesus of
the New Testament is a myth. Mr..
Mangasarian begins by saying that
the matter of primary concern in this
inquiry is the credibility of the docu-
ments, without which ne should have
had no knowledge of the existence. of
such man as Jesus He finds that
the manuscripts from which our gos-
pels are translated are undated and
anonymous: that they are in Greek.
whereas II is a practical certainty that
the disciples knew no other language
than their own-the Aramaic. The
leading biblical scholars of the world
agree that not one of the gospels as
we now have them was written bv the
man whose name has been assigned to
il.
Whatever may be the value of the
gospels as evidence TO the reality of
Jesus, we should expect the testimony
Of the Apostle Paul. assuming the
epistle bearing its name as genuine.
10 be of even greater value. for he is
the first man i'm the Christian move
ment who wrote anything. What are
the facts? He tells US that he lived
AT Jerusalem at time when Jesus
must have been holding the attention
Of the city, if the gospel story is true.
and yet he never met him. The only
Jesus Paul knew was one who an
peared 10 him I'm a trance or dream.
The Earlier Belief.
Among the early Christians the
belief existed that Christ was not a |
man of flesh and blood. The great &C. |
,lesiastical historian of Germany, DR.. |
Mosheim, writes: The prevalent opin- |
ION among carly Christians was that |
Christ existed in appearance only |
MS same belief existed even in apos- |
tone times. for the author of the So 1
called epistles of John complains that |
many deceivers have entered their
MIDST who confess not that Christ has /
come in the flesh
What about the quotation from ra
,itus? Literally, il is this: They Gbe
Christian secO have their denomina- I
ion Cor name) from Christus. put 10
ieath as a criminal by Pontius PLATE
turing the reign of Tiberius.' Now /
while the history of Tacitus was
Known and quoted by the ancients. the
annals were not known at all until |
he wear 14s2 and NOT nno e -