The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth TheoryRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth Theory
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Jesus Christ
Now, neither Ebionism nor Nazaræanism offers any semblance of
support for the biographical view. Some Ebionites denied the Virgin
Birth; some, presumably the Nazaræans in particular, accepted it,
the latter being described as accepting the canonical Matthew (or a
Hebrew gospel nearly equivalent) with the present opening chapters,
while the Ebionites had a Matthew without them. Of the two views,
neither testified to any impression made by a "personality." The Virgin
Birth myth is a reversion to universal folk-lore by way of enlarging
the supernaturalist claim: the Ebionite denial is either a rejection
of all purely human claim for Jesus or only supernaturalism with a
difference, inasmuch as it inferribly posits a divinization of the
Founder either at the moment of his baptism or at his anointing. His
"personality" is the one thing never heard of in the discussion, so
far as we can trace it. In one account, "the" Ebionites are said to
have alleged that Christ became so because he perfectly fulfilled
the law, and that they individually might become Christs if they
fulfilled it as perfectly. [392] Ebionites and Nazaræans between them,
on the biographical view, let slip all knowledge of the Sacred Places,
of Golgotha, of the place of the Sepulchre.
If it be asked how, on the biographical view, there came to be Jewish
Jesuists of the Ebionite type, men such as those described by Justin
Martyr and his Jewish antagonist Trypho, believing in a Jesus "anointed
by election" who thus became Christ, but adhering otherwise to Judaic
practices, [393] what is the answer? What idea, what teaching, had
Jesus left them? The notion which seems to have mainly differentiated
Ebionites from Jews was simply that Jesus had been the Messiah, and
that his Second Coming would mean the end of the world. Expectation of
the Second Coming would at once promote and be promoted by poverty,
which would thus have a special religious significance. Nazaræans,
on the other hand, were latterly marked by a general opposition to the
Pharisees. [394] But this could perfectly well be a simple development
of sectarianism. If it be claimed as a result of the teaching of Jesus,
what becomes of the other teaching as to the love of enemies? Which
species of teaching is supposed to have represented the "personality"?
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