Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-12-09
WAS JESUS A JEW ny RACE?
Strange Theory of an American Pro-
fessor-''Born at Nazareth"
(London Express.)

| was the remarkable question raised
by Prof. Paul Haupt of the Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, in a
paper read at the International Con-
gress on the History Of Religions at
| Oxford.
Briefly stated, Prof. Haupt's theory
Is that Jesus was a Galilean, that He
| was born at Nazareth, and not IL
Bethlehem, and that the Galileans
were not Jews by race, but had been
forced to become Jews by religion.
"The founders of Christianity were
Galileans," he said. Jesus first dis
ciples, Peter and his brother, Andrew,
as well as the two sons of Zebidee,
James and John, were Galilean fish
ermen.
Canon Cheyne has remarked In
his Encyclopaedia Biblica' that Prof.
Percy Gardiner has we'll said, Accord
ing to all historical probability,
Jesus Of Nazareth was born at Naza-
reth.'"
THE tradition that Jesus was a
descendant of David and was born at
Bethlehem, was not original" con-
tinued Prof. Haupt. The Census re-
ferred to in the second chapter of the
third Gospel took place in the year
Z A. D., that is at least II years after
the Nativity. There was no imperial
assessment till Judea had been made
an imperial province, nor would the
people have been assessed at their
ancestral homes, as is suggested in
the words And all went to be taxed.
every one into his own city
Moreover, Mary would not have
been required to accompany Joseph.
Jesus Himself referred to the belief
that the Messiah was to be a son of
David as an opinion of the Pharisees.
THE later tradition which endea-
vored to harmonic the life of Jesus
with the alleged Messianic prophecies
in the Old Testament was a conces-
sion to Jewish expectations or pre-
judices."
Prof. Haupt then proceeded on a
long chronological argument purport-
ing to show that the population of
Galilee was not Jewish, but Aryan.
He pointed out that in the post-exile
introduction to the poetic glorifica-
tion of the ideal King in the ninth
chapter of the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah, Galilee was called the district
"of the nations" in other words, of
the GentileS.
He stated that by historical evil
dence all the Jews in Galilee were re-
moved in 164 B. c..
But in 103 B. c." continued Prof.
I1aupt, "the eldest son and successor
of the great Maccabean conqueror,
John Hyrcanus Aristobulus, the first
king Of the Jews. whose coronation
was glorifed in the second Psalm,
Judaised Galilee. He forced the in
habitants to accept circumcision and
the Mosaic law.
"Since the time the Galileans were
Jews by religion, but not Jew by race
The Jews looked down on them, and
the dialect of the Galileans betrayed
their non-Jewish extraction.
Prof. Haupt concluded thus that it
was by no means certain that Jesus
and the Galilean fishermen, who were
invited by Him to become fishers of
men, were Jews by race. They may
have been, not Semites, by Aryans.
A vigorous discussion followed
Prof. Haupts paper.
George Calderon wanted to know
on what system the anthropology of
Prof. HaApts paper was based. What
did he mean by Aryan and Semitic?
There was no such thing as an Aryan
race.
Jesus was a Jew by religion and
nationality" he continued "The
Jews had incorporated a number of
races in the course of their history,
and nobody who has examined them
anthropologically can maintain that
they are Of one type"
Prof. Haupt replied that he would
not discuss any racial questions, ad-
ding: Il will simply ask, in reply.
whether negro, who becomes a
member of the Church of England,
thereby becomes an Anglo-Saxon?"
DR.. Whitehouse said that. as Jesus
was acclaimed to be the Messiah, how
was it possible that He was not of
Jewish descent?
DR.. Haupt replied that If Jesus had
not come from a family of Nazareth,
then the Jews would not have had
such a poor opinion Of Nazareth,
which they showed when they said:
Can any good come out of Naza-
reth?"
DR.. Barkett observed that every
body had a mixed ancestry, and that
three generations of particular
domination were sufficient to instill
all prejudices and traditions OF race
into anybody.
Dr. Caster said that If there had
been any taint Of proselyte's blood
in Jesus there would have been no
hesitation on the part of the Jews in
repudiating the claim Of Jesus to be
Of royal descent. They made all
sorts Of accusations against Him at
the time Of the crucifiXion, but none
that he was Of foreign descent.
Prof. Haupt said that he left 1t to
the faith and common sense of his
y 10 Iro
sions from his scientific theories.