The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth Theory — John Shaqi
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
Many Saviour names have been the centres of cults, in the ancient
world as in the modern. There were extensive and long-lived worships
of Herakles, Dionysos, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, in addition to the
age-long cults of the "Supreme" Gods. Is it claimed that there "must"
have been a historical Herakles, or Dionysos, or Adonis? If so, is
it further contended that there must have been a historical Jehovah,
a Jove, a Cybelê, a Juno, a Venus? If the Father-Gods and Mother-Gods
could be evolved by protracted mythopoeia, why not the Son-Gods?
It is perfectly true, as was urged by the late Sir Alfred Lyall,
that in India and elsewhere distinguished men may to this day be
deified; that ancestor-worship played a great part in God-making;
and that tribal Gods are in many cases probably evolved from
distinguished chiefs. But such cases really defeat the inference
drawn from them. Such God-making can in no instance be shown ever
to have set up what can reasonably be termed a world-religion. The
world-religions are the product of a far more protracted and complex
causation. They grow from far further-reaching roots. Above all,
they have never grown up without the services either of a numerous
priesthood or of Sacred Books, or of both.
Is it then contended that a Sacred Book must represent the originative
teaching of a real person and his disciples? It may or may not;
but what does not at all follow is that the personality deified or
extolled in the Sacred Book was real. Mohammed was a real person:
he made no claim to deity: he acclaimed an established God. The names
of Zoroaster and Buddha were probably not those of real persons: the
first figures as a cult-building priest; the second as a Teacher,
enshrined from the first in a luxuriant myth, whence his practical
deification. In both cases the specific centre of the religion is
the Book or Books; and it is beyond question that in both cases many
hands wrought on these. To say that only a primary personality of
abnormal greatness could have inspired the writing of the books is
really equivalent to saying that there must have been a historical
Jehovah to account for the Old Testament, and a historical Allah to
account for the Koran. Let it be freely granted that the writers of
Sacred Books were in many cases remarkable personalities. That is a
totally different proposition from the one we are considering.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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