The quest of the historical Jesus : $b a critical study of its progress from Reimarus to WredeSchweitzer, Albert
Religion
The quest of the historical Jesus : $b a critical study of its progress from Reimarus to Wrede
Schweitzer, Albert
Jesus Christ -- Biography -- History and criticism; Jesus Christ -- Historicity
In the acceptance of the “miracles” Beyschlag goes to the utmost limits
allowed by criticism; in considering the possibility of one or another of
the recorded raisings from the dead he even finds himself within the
borders of rationalist territory.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Whether Bernhard Weiss’s(146) is to be numbered with the liberal Lives of
Jesus is a question to which we may answer “Yes; but along with the faults
of these it has some others in addition.” Weiss shares with the authors of
the liberal “Lives” the assumption that Mark designed to set forth a
definite “view of the course of development of the public ministry of
Jesus,” and on the strength of that believes himself justified in giving a
very far‐reaching significance to the details offered by this Evangelist.
The arbitrariness with which he carries out this theory is quite as
unbounded as Schenkel’s, and in his fondness for the “argument from
silence” he even surpasses him. Although Mark never allows a single word
to escape him about the motives of the northern journeys, Weiss is so
clever at reading between the lines that the motives are “quite
sufficiently” clear to him. The object of these journeys was, according to
his explanation, “that the people might have an opportunity, undistracted
by the immediate impression of His words and actions, to make up their
minds in regard to the questions which they had put to Him so pressingly
and inescapably in the last days of His public ministry; they must
themselves draw their own conclusions alike from the declarations and from
the conduct of Jesus. Only by Jesus’ removing Himself for a time from
their midst could they come to a clear decision as to their attitude to
Jesus.” This modern psychologising, however, is closely combined with a
dialectic which seeks to show that there is no irreconcilable opposition
between the belief in the Son of God and Son of Man which the Church of
Christ has always confessed, and a critical investigation of the question
how far the details of His life have been accurately preserved by
tradition, and how they are to be historically interpreted. That means
that Weiss is going to cover up the difficulties and stumbling‐blocks with
the mantle of Christian charity which he has woven out of the most
plausible of the traditional sophistries. As a dialectical performance on
these lines his Life of Jesus rivals in importance any except
Schleiermacher’s. On points of detail there are many interesting
historical observations. When all is said, one can only regret that so
much knowledge and so much ability have been expended in the service of so
hopeless a cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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