Now we approach the consideration of a phase of the subject where
theology and law meet and blend. It has been sought to ridicule the
contention that Jesus should have been heard on the charge of being the
Son of God, in the sense that He was God Himself, because such a claim
was not only ridiculous and frivolous as a plea, but because it was
blasphemous upon its face; as being opposed, by bare assertion, to the
most fundamental and sacred precept of the Mosaic Code and of the
teachings of the Prophets: that God was purely and wholly spiritual;
that He was not only incorporeal but invisible, indivisible, and
incomprehensible. The advocates of this theory declare that Jesus
asserted, in the face of this primary belief of the Hebrews, a plurality
of gods of which He was a member, and that this assertion destroyed the
very cornerstone of Judaism, founded in the teaching of the celebrated
passage: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." They further
declare that when Jesus presented Himself in the flesh, and declared
that He was God, He insulted both the intelligence and religious
consciousness of His judges by a complete anthropomorphism; and that
when He did this, He was not entitled to be heard.
One of the most radical of this class is Rabbi Wise who, in "The
Martyrdom of Jesus," says: "Had Jesus maintained before a Jewish court
to be the Son of God, in the trinitarian sense of the terms, viz., that
He was part, person, or incarnation of the Deity, He must have said it
in terms to be understood to that effect, as ambiguous words amount to
nothing. But if even clearly understood, the court could only have found
Him insane, but not guilty of any crime." This is strong language,
indeed, and deserves serious consideration. It means nothing less than
that Jesus, upon His confession of equality and identity with God,
should have been committed as a lunatic, and not tried as a criminal.
And the real meaning of this too extreme view is that the claims of
Jesus, being a man in the flesh, to membership in a plurality of gods
was such an outrageous and unheard-of thing that it amounted to
insanity; and that an insane person was not one to be listened to, but
to be committed and protected. The purpose of the distinguished Hebrew
theologian was to show by the absurdity of the thing that Jesus was
never tried before a Hebrew court; that He never claimed to be the Son
of God, and that the Evangelical narratives are simply false. The same
writer thus continues in the same connection: "Mark reports furthermore,
that Jesus did not simply affirm the high priest's question but added:
'And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven.' Jesus cannot have said these words. Our
reasons are: they are not true; none of the judges and witnesses present
ever did see him either sitting on the right hand of power or coming in
the clouds of heaven. These words could have originated only after the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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