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
Seeing that even conservative critics have admitted the probable
priority of the Teaching to Barnabas, it is no straining of the
probabilities to suggest that the Two Ways section of Barnabas is
either a variant, inspired by the Teaching, on what was clearly
a very popular line of homily, [288] or an annexation of another
Jewish homily of that kind. That in the Teaching is distinctly the
better piece of work, as we should expect the official manual of
the Apostles of the High Priest to be. It is inexact to say, as does
Dr. M. R. James, [289] that the section "reappears" in Barnabas. There
are many differences, as well as many identities. The other is not a
mere copy, but an exercise on the same standard theme, with "light
and darkness" for the stronger "life and death." It is a mistake
to suppose that there was a definite "original" of "The Two Ways":
it is a standing ethical theme, evidently handled by many. [290] If,
then, the Teaching preceded Barnabas, it may already have contained,
in its purely Jewish form, the Lord's Prayer, which is so thoroughly
Jewish, and items of the Sermon on the Mount, which is certainly a
Jewish compilation. And the justified critical presumption is that
it did contain them. The onus of disproof lies on the Christian side.
We now reach our solution. The original document was in any case a
manual of teaching used among the scattered Jews and proselytes of the
Dispersion by the actual and historical Twelve Apostles either of the
High Priest before or of the Patriarch after the fall of Jerusalem. The
historic existence of that body before and after the catastrophe
is undisputed; [291] and the nature of its teaching functions can
be confidently inferred from the known currency of a Judaic ethical
teaching in the early Christian period. The demonstration of that is
supplied by an expert of the biographical school who considers the
Teaching to have been "known to Jesus and the Baptist." [292] Such a
document cannot rationally be supposed to be a compilation made by or
for Christists using the gospels: such a compilation would have given
the gospel view of Jesus. [293] The primary Teaching, including as it
probably does the Lord's Prayer, is the earlier thing: the gospels
use it. It is in fact one of the first documents of "Christianity,"
if not the first. And its titular "twelve apostles" are Jewish and
not Christian.
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