Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including some inconsistencies in hyphenation. Some changes of spelling and punctuation have been made. They are listed at the end of the text. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. [Illustration] The REAL JESUS of the FOUR GOSPELS _By_ J. B. ATWATER MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 1922 Copyrighted, 1921 J. B. ATWATER THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHO, IN AGES PAST, HAVE SUFFERED OR SHED THEIR BLOOD ON ACCOUNT OF CREEDS, DOGMAS, THEOLOGIES, INQUISITIONS OR OTHER PERVERSIONS OF THE SIMPLE, ALL-SUFFICIENT RELIGION TAUGHT BY JESUS: LOVE THE LORD, THY GOD, WITH ALL THY HEART, AND THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF. PREFACE The first part of this work is a collation of all that is said, and just what is said, in each of the four Gospels, regarding the more important incidents of Jesus' life. Every statement in the text, it is thought, is accurate, free from personal coloring or sectarian bias, and may be verified from the passages cited. After examining various lives of Jesus, harmonies of the Gospels, etc., there seemed to be need of such a work, which would furnish simply the facts, and leave the reader to form his own conclusions. Certain notes are appended in elucidation of or comment on the text, and these may be taken for what they are worth. Their underlying idea is, that the true greatness of Jesus lay in His being a human Teacher and not a Divine Redeemer, and therefore the supernatural parts of the Gospel story are not of vital importance. The King James version has been used, since that has been the Bible of English-speaking peoples up to the present century, and their conceptions of Jesus have been formed from it, and not from the revised version. The differences between the two versions are probably not material to any matter herein discussed. The second part is an attempt to point out, and comment on, the many and wide divergences that have grown up between the preachings of Jesus and the practices of His professed followers. Its object is not to criticise the short-comings of Christianity, but to bring home to the people of the United States a realization of the practical effect which these divergences have had, and are now having, on political and economic questions of high import to the present and future welfare of mankind. The REAL JESUS of the FOUR GOSPELS PART I GENEALOGY Mark and John give no genealogy of Jesus, except that He was the son of Joseph and Mary (Mark III:31; VI:3; John I:45; II:1; XIX:25), and is spoken of as the son of David (Mark X:47, 48; XI:10; John VII:42). Matthew gives a genealogy from Abraham down to Joseph (Chap. I), and Luke gives one from Joseph up to Adam (III:2, 23-28).[1]