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Courses of Study
Course V.THE MAKING OF CHRISTIANITYA Scientific view of the rise of Christianity will involve the tracing of itsderivation on the one hand from Judaism, and on the other hand from the otherreligious systems spread through the Roman Empire at the time of the Christianbeginnings—that is to say, in the first four centuries of our “Christian era.” It isnatural, however, to begin with the problem of the Gospels. [Needless to say,knowledge of Greek is valuable to the student, and New Testament Greek isrelatively easy. Such a work as Mr. T. D. Hall’s “
First Introduction to the GreekTestament
” (Murray, 1893) will serve a beginner well.]§ I-
a.
The study of origins is one which should be undertaken by the honest believeras zealously as by those who are more or less convinced that Christianity is nomore a supernatural growth than any other religion. On the rationalist side,either may begin a course of reading with the “English Life of Jesus,” by the lateThomas Scott, or C. C. Hennell’s “
Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity
1
”(People’s ed.; Trübner, 1870), each of which presents the results of astraightforward analysis of the Gospels, and comparison of their narratives.Against these at the outset may be set any of the ordinary works of ChristianEvidences, from Paley downwards, or an orthodox Life of Christ, such as that ofArchdeacon Farrar (Cassell, several eds.) or that of Pressensé (Eng. tr., Hodder).Those who at this stage of inquiry desire to go straight to a compendiousdiscussion of the central problem of the supernatural birth of Jesus cannot dobetter than procure the brief work of W. Soltau, “
The Birth of Jesus Christ
2
” (Eng.tr., Black, 1903), which, however, is not to be regarded as exhausting thehistorical question. On the other side may be noted the orthodox work ofProfessor William Mitchell Ramsay, “
Was Christ born at Bethlehem
3
?” (Hodder,1898), where a foregone conclusion is maintained with more learning thancritical judgment.
1
http://books.google.com/books?id=xUKsAfOtlxAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Inquiry+Concerning+the+Origin+of+Christianity 
2
http://books.google.com/books?id=l78OAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Birth+of+Jesus+Christ#PPP11,M1 
3
http://books.google.com/books?id=v0w4AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Was+Christ+born+at+Bethlehem 
The Making of Christianity
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Courses of Study
b.
A second step in analysis may be made by a study of Strauss’s “
Life of Jesus
4
”(Eng. tr. by Marian Evans [“George Eliot”]: reprint published by Sonnenschein in1 vol., 1892). This work proceeds from the point of view that the beginnings ofChristism are to be traced to the myth-making tendencies of the Jewish people,and the argument is so solidly sustained, despite its strict formality and lengthydevelopment, that Strauss must always rank as one of the great forces in therationalistic criticism of Christianity. As a study of the formation of the Gospelmyths, the great defect of his work is the limitation of the survey to the Judaicside. The “
New Life of Jesus
5
” by the same writer (Eng. tr., Williams) is to someextent a modification of the first, and is intended for the general reader.
c.
A further and much fuller view of the Judaic development up to the point atwhich Jesuism arose may be gathered from Professor Schurer’s exhaustive work,“
The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ
6
” (Eng. tr., 6 vols, T. & T. Clark’s“Foreign Theological Library”). This exhibits very carefully the state of Jewishculture; the position and tendencies of the sects, the priesthood, and the rabbis;the extent to which foreign influences had leavened Palestine at the Romanperiod; and in especial the Messianic and
 
other developments of the laterGraeco-Jewish literature, down to Philo. Edersheim’s “
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
7
” (Longmans, 2 vols.) is worth consulting; and those who read Frenchmay find fresh light in the independent study of M. Nicolas,
Des DoctrinesReligieuses des Juifs pendant les deux siècles anterieurs à lère chrétienne (1
860).Principal Drummond’s “
The Jewish Messiah: A Critical History of the Messianic Ideaamong the Jews from the Rise of the Maccabees to the Closing of the Talmud
8
”
4
http://books.google.com/books?id=yRNKAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Life+of+Jesus#PPR3,M1 
5
http://books.google.com/books?id=lsEy0vxJ3N4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=New+Life+of+Jesus(VOL II)http://books.google.com/books?id=12nEqJat_zIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=New+Life+of+Jesus(VOL II)
6
http://books.google.com/books?id=QZjOAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0U75HEAuFuVjm5A1y6&lr= (INDEX)
http://books.google.com/books?id=kmEpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0U75HEAuFuVjm5A1y6(VOL I)http://books.google.com/books?id=0WEpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0U75HEAuFuVjm5A1y6(VOL II)http://books.google.com/books?id=knqVPTkp1z8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0U75HEAuFuVjm5A1y6(VOL III)
7
http://books.google.com/books?id=7cUOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0psPzp1gZlUO6E44OTO(VOL I)http://books.google.com/books?id=n8UOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Life+and+Times+of+Jesus+the+Messiah&lr
= (VOL II)
The Making of Christianity
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Courses of Study
(Longmans, 1877) is also a competent study. In this connection the studentshould of course read the Jewish Apocrypha as well as the later Old Testamentbooks, perusing in particular Ecclesiasticus (otherwise, The Wisdom of Jesus theSon of Sirach), Esdras, and the Wisdom of Solomon. A reprint of the AuthorizedVersion of the Apocrypha, with valuable annotations and many emendations ofthe text, is given in the last edition of the “
Variorum Bible
” (Eyre & Spottiswoode),and is also published separately. The Apocalyptic “
Book of Enoch
9
” (best trans.with introd. by Professor Schodde, of Columbus Univ., Ohio, Andover, 1882) isof special value as throwing light on these developments. The works of Josephusare the groundwork of the political histories of Palestine at that period; and thoseof Philo (Bohn trans. 4 vols.) reveal in large measure the transformationsproceeding in Jewish thought.
d.
Off the strictly scientific line, but widely popular and extremely fascinating, isthe famous
Vie de Jésus
of M. Renan, translated into almost all Europeanlanguages. [It is to be noted that after the issue of the thirteenth edition M. Renanchanged his views on the Fourth Gospel, and that the subsequent editions differin this respect from the preceding.] M. Renan claims to be scientific in that he setsup a hypothesis of an actual Jesus, and tries to show that it rationalizes andexplains the Gospel narratives. His work is, however, much more successful inoverthrowing the supernaturalist view than in convincing careful readers that itgives a historical picture; and it is responsible for much of the hazy modernsentiment about Jesus.§2.
a.
The foregoing line of study has involved a certain amount of notice of thecritical problems raised by the New Testament documents as such. A usefulthough somewhat timid work on the composition of the Gospels has beenpublished by Professor Estlin Carpenter under the title, “
The First Three Gospels,their Origin and Relations
10
“(Sunday School Association, Essex Hall, London, 2nded. 1890). It gives some of the main results of the textual analysis of thedocuments. More striking is “
The Synoptic Problem
11
 ,
” by Mr. A. J. Jolley
8
http://books.google.com/books?id=n_YCAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Jewish+Messiah:+A+Critical+History+of+the+Messianic+Idea+among+the+Jews+from+the+Rise+of+the+Maccabees+to+the+Closing+of+the+Talmud#PPR3,M1 
9
http://books.google.com/books?id=NAk3AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Book+of+Enoch 
10
http://books.google.com/books?id=42kNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+First+Three+Gospels,+their+Origin+and+Relations 
11
http://books.google.com/books?id=qiwNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Synoptic+Problem+J.+Jolley&lr=
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