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
On the Mount, there is another brief dialogue, committing Peter
and the other disciples--a wholly hostile presentment. Again the
scene changes to Gethsemane, where the three selected disciples with
whom Jesus withdraws actually sleep while he utters the prayer set
down. There was thus no one to hear it. Any biographical theory which
is concerned to respect verisimilitude must here recognize something
else than narrative, and will presumably posit invention. But why
should invention take this peculiar form? If the object was to
impeach the disciples--and they certainly are impeached--is it not
an impossibly crude device to tell of their sleeping throughout the
prayer and its repetition, leaving open the retort: "You report
the words of the prayer: from whom did you get them if not from
those disciples, who must have heard them?" But if we suppose the
scene first presented dramatically, no perplexity or counter-sense
is involved. The impeachment is effectual; the episode is seen;
and no one is concerned, in presence of a drama, to ask how certain
words came to be known to have been spoken by any personage. It is
the reduction to narrative form that betrays the dramatic source. And
when we find in both Matthew and Mark, which clearly embody the same
original document, this sequence:
And again he came, and found them sleeping ... and they wist
not what to answer him [nothing has been said]. And he cometh
the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your
rest: it is enough; the hour is come: behold, the son of man is
betrayed.... Arise now ...,
the documentary crux, which the biographical school makes vainly
violent attempts to solve, is at once solved when we realize that in
the transcription two speeches have accidentally been combined. The
drama must have gone thus:--
The disciples still asleep.
Enter Jesus.
Jes. Sleep on now and take your rest. [Exit.
Enter Jesus. (Disciples still asleep.)
Jes. It is enough: the hour is come, etc.
The transcriber, missing an exit and an enter, has simply run two
speeches together; and the gospel copyists have faithfully followed
their copy, putting "they wist not what to answer him" in the wrong
place. In an original narrative the combination could not happen. In
the transcription of the copy of a play it could easily happen. We
find instances in the printing of the plays of Shakespeare and other
early dramatists.
[One antagonist of the mystery-play theory, making no attempt
to rebut the above solution, denies that it can be applied to the
midnight trial before the priests, elders, and scribes. Of this trial
M. Loisy recognizes the impossibility: pronouncing that, sans doute,
the asserted search for witnesses by night never took place. But,
says the objector [218]:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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