PAGE Preface to the First and Second Editions 7 Preface to the Third Edition 21 THE PRE-CHRISTIAN JESUS 29 I. The Influence of Parseeism on the Belief in a Messiah 37 II. The Hellenistic Idea of a Mediator (Philo) 46 III. Jesus as Cult-God in the Creed of Jewish Sects 51 IV. The Sufferings of the Messiah 64 V. The Birth of the Messiah. The Baptism 88 VI. The Self-Offering of the Messiah. The Supper 128 VII. Symbols of the Messiah. The Lamb and the Cross 140 THE CHRISTIAN JESUS 163 I. The Pauline Jesus 165 II. The Jesus of the Gospels 214 a. The Synoptic Jesus 214 Jesus in Secular Literature 230 b. The Objections against a Denial of the Historicity of the Synoptic Jesus 235 c. The True Character of the Synoptic Jesus 265 d. Gnosticism and the Johannine Jesus 273 THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM OF THE PRESENT 283 THE CHRIST MYTH THE PRE-CHRISTIAN JESUS "If you see a man undaunted by dangers, undisturbed by passions, happy when fortune frowns, calm in the midst of storms, will you not be filled with reverence for him? Will you not say that here is something too great and grand to be regarded as of the same nature as the trivial body in which it dwells? A divine force has descended here--a heavenly power moves a soul so wonderful, so calm, one which passes through all life as though it were of small account, and smiles at all our hopes and fears. Nothing so great can exist without the help of God, and therefore in the main it belongs to that from which it came down. Just as the rays of the sun touch the earth, but belong to that from which they are sent, so a great and holy spirit, sent here that we may have a more intimate knowledge of deity, lives indeed in our midst, but remains in contact with its source. On that it depends, thither its eyes are turned, thither its life tends: among men it dwells as a noble guest. What then is this soul? One which relies upon no goodness but its own. What is proper to man is his soul and the perfect reason in the soul: for man is a rational animal: therefore his highest good is reached when he is filled with that of which he is born."