(3) The process of fraternising by means of sharing the same food and drink, after the Hebrew-Arabian manner, is interpreted as the "miracle of transubstantiation." (4) "Resurrection" which was intended to mean the entrance to the "true life," in the sense of being intellectually "born again," becomes an historical contingency, supposed to take place at some moment after death; (5) The teaching of the Son of man as the "Son of God,"--that is to say, the life-relationship between man and God,--becomes the "second person of the Trinity," and thus the filial relationship of every man--even the lowest--to God, is _done away with_; (6) Salvation through faith (that is to say, that there is no other way to this filial relationship to God, save through the _practice of life_ taught by Christ) becomes transformed into the belief that there is a miraculous way of _atoning_ for all _sin_; though not through our own endeavours, but by means of Christ: For all these purposes, "Christ on the Cross" had to be interpreted afresh. The _death_ itself would certainly not be the principal feature of the event ... it was only another sign pointing to the way in which one should behave towards the authorities and the laws of the world--_that one was not to defend oneself--this was the exemplary life._ 171. Concerning the psychology of _Paul._--The important fact is Christ's death. This remains to be _explained ..._. That there may be truth or error in an explanation never entered these people's heads: one day a sublime possibility strikes them, "His death _might_ mean so and so" --and it forthwith _becomes_ so and so. An hypothesis is proved by the sublime _ardour_ it lends to its discoverer.... "The proof of strength": _i.e.,_ a thought is demonstrated by its _effects_ ("by their fruits," as the Bible ingenuously says); that which fires enthusiasm must be _true,_--what one loses one's blood for must be _true--_ In every department of this world of thought, the sudden feeling of power which an idea imparts to him who is responsible for it, is placed to the _credit_ of that idea:--and as there seems no other way of honouring an idea than by calling it true, the first epithet it is honoured with is the word _true._ ... How could it have any effect otherwise? It was imagined by some power: if that power were not real, it could not be the cause of anything.... The thought is then understood as _inspired_: the effect it causes has something of the violent nature of a demoniacal influence-- A thought which a decadent like Paul could not resist and to which he completely yields, is thus "proved" _true_!!! All these holy epileptics and visionaries did not possess a thousandth part of the honesty in self-criticism with which a philologist, nowadays, reads a text, or tests the truth of an historical event.... Beside us, such people were moral cretins. 172.