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
Returning to the subject of "the magician Simon" in his Dialogue with
Trypho, [265] Justin there repeats that the Samaritans call him "God
above all power, and authority, and might." Remembering that the Jewish
Shema, "the Name," is the ordinary appellative for Yahweh, we note
possibilities of syncretism as to which we can only speculate. The
fact that the Jews actually called their God in general by a word
meaning "Name" and also equating with the commonest Semitic name for
the Sun-God, while in their sacred books they professedly transmuted
the sacred name (altering the consonants) to Adonai = Lord ("plural
of majesty"), the name of the Syrian God Adonis, is a circumstance
that has never been much considered by hierologists. It suggests
that the Samaritan Sem also may have been "known" by other names;
and the certain fact of the special commemoration of Joshua among the
Samaritan Judaists gives another ground for speculation. The words
of Jesus to the Samaritan woman in the fourth gospel, "Ye worship
ye know not what," seem to signify that from the Alexandrian-Jewish
standpoint Samaritans worshipped a name only.
What does emerge clearly is that Samaria played a considerable part
in the beginnings of Christism. In a curious passage of the fourth
gospel (viii, 48) the Jews say to Jesus, "Say we not well that thou
art a Samaritan, and hast a daimon?": and he answers with a denial
that he has a daimon, but makes no answer on the other charge. The
fact that Matthew makes the Founder expressly forbid his disciples
to enter any city of the Samaritans, while an interpolator of Luke
[266] introduces the story of the good Samaritan to counteract the
doctrine, tells that there was a sunderance between Samaritan and
Judaizing Christists just as there was between the Judaizers and the
Gentilizers in general. From Samaria, then, came part of the impulse
to the whole Gentilizing movement; and the Samaritan Justin shows
the anti-Judaic animus clearly enough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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