The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-09-14
POPULAR APoLoGETIcs.
Adapted from the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev.
James Watcher.
60. The Myth Hypothesis of David
Strauss (Concluded).
But What Saws History?

After the death OF Christ the JEWISH
rabbis fought against the young Chris
tian Church with all their might.
They opposed her doctrine at every
turn and they cast suspicion upon
the Christians as "apostateS and
Epicureans." Even after the destruc-
ton of Jerusalem they founded new
rabbinical schools at Jamnia, Lydia,
CaeSarea, ETC., which showed hatred
and hostility against the Christians.
The most of these rabbits were con-
temporaries of Christ. Just think un-
der the very eyes of enemies so filled
with hatred the Apostles are said to
have invented the miracles of Christ,
like the multiplication of bread, the
healing of the man born blind, the
raising of Lazarus! The rabbis would
have cried: Its a lie! We know
Lazarus; he was never dead. We
know the man born blind; he cannot
see to this day. We were never fed in
the desert
For the rabbis it was question
of their very existence, a fight to the
death, the bitterness of which is
plainly shown in the Acts of the
Apostles and by their slogan: Thus
shalt thou answer the Epicureans
(Christians)," and as appears also in
the Dialogue of Justin Martyr with
the Jew Tryphon. (Cf Knabenbauer
S. j., Evang. sec. Joann, p. %, and
Jast. Geschichte des Judentums-His-
tory of Judaism-2d part 16, %.
37-42)
1t was a fight all over the world.
The Jews were spread over the whole
world, and everywhere they opposed
Christianity. st. Paul, who, as even
rationalists admit, wrote his letters
between 40 and 20 and plainly teaches
the divinity of Christ, found this
Jewish opposition.
And in the face of these facts,
Strauss wants to make us believe that
these stormy times were an ideal
fools paradise where people told and
believed fables and myths and even
died for these myths and fables!
Indeed, the stones of the Jews would
soon have destroyed this myth house
of cards and the Roman sword would
soon have trimmed the wings of this
inventive imagination.
If Christ had not been God and if
the truth of His miracles would not
have been beyond all doubt, the
Apostles could never have made a
God of Christ. You could just as soon
make the French believe in our days
that Bismarck came from heaven and
was a demigod.
These Christ myths are only airy
flights in which the imagination may
save itself, but sound human reason
will break it's neck.
In spite of this, even in our days,
some liberal rationalists will speak
of the scientific thoroughness" with
which Strauss did away with the old
faith. With the same scientific
thoroughness" we dare to prove that
Napoleon | is a mythical person and
only the heather fable of the sun god
Apollo in modern form. (Cf. Kaiser,
Der Sozialdemokrat hat das Wort
The Social Democrat Has the Floor
p. 12l)
The Napoleon Myth.
Gentlemen! Every educated man
knows that the history of Napoleon l
is no real historical fact, but only a
beautiful myth, the modern version
of the old Greek fable of the sun god
Apollo Already the name shows the
similarity: Napoleon-ApollO! Ma
Doleon's mother was Laetitia; evil
IDENTIFY different form of Latona, the
mother of Apollo. Laetitia means
gladness, cheerful aspect How we'll
chosen for the sun god! Lucian, the
light giver, was the brother of Ma
poleon. Evidently a personifcation
of the principal attitude OF the sun.
Napoleon began his triumphal march
in the South and East-Italy and
Egypt; his lucky star paled in the
North-the ice fields of Russia, and
set in the West-he died on St
Helena. We have here the plain per
sonification of the annual triumphal
northern march of the sun from the
Tropic of Capricorn to the Tropic OF
Cancer: also of the daily march oil
the sun from east to west. Napoleon
was surrounded by twelve Cor how
many?) marshals, which evidently
are the twelve Signs of the Zodiac
through which the sun moves every
year.
Apollo was the god of pestilence
who sent his deadly arrows to the
earth. Which is plainly reproduced
in the Napoleonic myth, that he shed
so much blood on numerous battle
fields. Even the picture of Napoleon
confirms our Interpretation. The oldest
pictures of, Napoleon show an antique
head of Apollo of classic beauty and
regularity, his brow crowned with the
beloved laurel of Apollo.
You see, gentlemen, in all essential
features the two myths agree This
striking likeness cannot be mere
accident The lively and fertile
imagination of the French nation has
evidently during the turmoil of the
Revolution transformed the old myth
into that of national hero, and the
uncritical contemporaries and their
posterity have accepted this imagin
airy hero as a reality. Gentlemen, il
is real triumph of modern historical
4.