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
Chap. VI.--See that no one lead thee astray from this way of the
teaching, because apart from God doth he teach thee. For if thou
art able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, thou shalt be perfect;
but if thou art not able, what thou art able that do. And concerning
food, what thou art able, bear; but of that offered to idols, beware
exceedingly; for it is a worship of dead Gods.
[It will be observed that while there is a very marked transition after
ch. vi, a division may be held to begin after ch. v. In this connection
may be noted an interesting fact, brought out by the Rev. A. Gordon
in his examination of the Didachê. Nicephoros of Constantinople
(fl. 750-820) knew of a certain Teaching of the Apostles, which he
mentioned as containing 200 lines. Nicephoros also speaks of the
combined lengths of the two Epistles of Clement as amounting to
2,600 lines. Now, in the Jerusalem MS., which is closely written,
the Clementine Epistles occupy only 1,200 lines, which would give
for the Didachê, in the same writing, on the proportions mentioned
by Nicephoros, only 92 lines, whereas it occupies 203. Mr. Gordon
simply noted the fact as a difficulty. If however he had followed
up his own observation that the Didachê shows a division after the
fifth chapter, he would have found that the proportion of the first
five sections to the rest is nearly as 86 to 203; while with ch. vi
we should have a still closer approximation--88 to 203. We have here,
then, a virtual proof that Nicephoros had before him only these first
five or six chapters, and that the subsequent additions were not to be
found in all copies of the Teaching. The inference from the internal
evidence is thus remarkably confirmed. The original Teaching, once
more, was a purely Jewish document, without even a mention of Jesus.
It will be noted further that, while the first six chapters contain
no suggestion of anything beyond simple monotheism and general ethics,
and the sixth chapter ends with a warning against eating food offered
to idols, the seventh suddenly plunges into a prescription of baptism,
which introduces the formula of "the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit," and minutely provides for the manner of the ceremony. But the
eighth chapter evidently connects directly with the sixth, a direction
as to fasting following on the warning in that section against eating
meat offered to idols. It is thus perfectly clear that the entire
Trinitarian section on baptism is an interpolation. In the eighth
chapter, again, we have an interpolation of the words "as the Lord
commanded in his gospel." In C.M. (415 sq.) are set forth the weighty
reasons for concluding that the Lord's prayer, which is lacking in
Mark, and different in Luke, was a Jewish formula long before the
Christian era.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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