The Historical Jesus: A Survey of PositionsRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
The Historical Jesus: A Survey of Positions
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Jesus Christ -- Historicity; Jesus Christ -- Rationalistic interpretations
If Professor Dalman cannot see that the proposition in the first
sentence is extremely disturbing to the traditional belief in its
Unitarian form, and that the second is a mere petitio principii which
cannot save the situation, other people can see it. His scholarship
gives him no "eminent domain" over logic; and it does not require a
knowledge of Aramaic to detect the weakness of his reasoning. Fifty
experts in Aramaic carry no weight for a thinking man on such a
non-linguistic issue; and he who defers to them as if they did is
but throwing away his birthright. When again Dalman writes (p. 60)
that "Peter must have appeared (Acts x, 24) from a very early date
as a preacher in the Greek language," he again raises an insoluble
problem for the traditionalists of all schools, and his scholarly
status is quite irrelevant to that.
When, yet again, he writes (p. 71) that "what is firmly established is
only the fact that Jesus spoke in Aramaic to the Jews," his mastery
of Aramaic has nothing to do with the case. He is merely taking for
granted the historicity of the main tradition; and until he faces the
problems he has ignored (having, as he may fairly claim, been occupied
with others), and repelled the criticisms which that tradition incurs,
his vote on the unconsidered issue has no more value to a rational
judgment than any other. I have seldom read a scholarly treatise more
satisfying than his within its special field, or more provocative of
astonishment at the extent to which specialism can close men's eyes
to the problems which overlap or underlie theirs.
And that is the consideration that has to be realized by those
who talk of scholarship (meaning simply what is called New
Testament scholarship) settling a historical problem which turns
upon anthropology, mythology, hierology, psychology, and literary
and historical science in general. On these sides the scholars in
question, "Wir Gelehrten vom Fach," as the German specialists call
themselves in the German manner, are not experts at all, not even
amateurs, inasmuch as they have never even realized that those other
sciences are involved. They have fallen into the rôle of the pedant,
properly so-called, who presumes to regulate life by inapplicable
knowledge. And even those who are wholly free of this presumptuous
pedantry, the sober, courteous, and sane scholars like Professor
Schmiedel, whose candour enables him to contribute a preface to
such a book as Professor W. B. Smith's Der vorchristliche Jesus,
to whose thesis he does not assent--even these, as we have seen,
can fail to realize the scope of the problem to the discussion of
which they have contributed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account