Chapter II: The Jesus of the Gospels (4)

[150] One should compare the description given by Hommel of the climate of Babylonia (op. cit., 186) with the picture of the natural occurrences which, according to Gunkel, gave occasion for the myth of the birth of Marduk, and the threatening of the child by the "Winter Dragon," Tiâmat. "Before spring descends to the earth from heaven, winter has had its grim (!) rule upon the earth. Men pine away (in the country of the two rivers!) beneath its sway, and look up to heaven wondering if deliverance will not come. The myth consoles them with the story that the God of spring who will overthrow winter has already been born. The God of winter who knows for what he is destined is his enemy, and would be very pleased if he could devour him. And winter at present ruling is much stronger than the weak child. But his endeavour to get rid of his enemy comes to nought. Do you then want to know why he is so grim? He knows that he has only a short time. His might is already broken although we may be yet unaware of it. The year has already changed to spring. The child grows up in heaven; the days become longer, the light of the sun stronger. As soon as he is grown up he descends and overthrows his old enemy. 'Only trust in God without despair, spring must come'" ("Schöpfung und Chaos," 389 sq.).

[151] Dupuis has already pointed this out, op. cit., 152.

[152] Macrobius, "Saturnal.," i. 18, i. 34-35.

[153] "Adversus Nationes," v. 6 and 13.

[154] Cf. Simrock, "Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie," 4th ed., 1874, 201 and 225.

[155] Op. cit., 138. The transfixing of the victim with the holy lance, as we meet it in John xix. 34, appears to be a very old sacrificial custom, which is found among the most different races. For example, both among the Scythian tribes in Albania in the worship of Astarte (Strabo) and in Salamis, on the island of Cyprus, in that of Moloch (Eusebius, "Praep. Evang.," iv. 16). "The lance thrust," says Ghillany, with reference to the Saviour's death, "was not given with the object of testing whether the sufferer was still alive, but was in order to correspond with the old method of sacrificing. The legs were not broken because the victim could not be mutilated. In the evening the corpse had to be taken down, just as Joshua only allowed the kings sacrificed to the sun to remain until evening upon the cross" (op. cit., 558).

[156] Frazer, op. cit., 345 sq. F. Kauffmann, "Balder Mythus u. Sage nach ihren dichterischen u. religiösen Elementen untersucht," 1902, 266 sq.

[157] Rigv. v. 1, v. 2, iii. 1, vii. 12, i. 96, &c.

[158] Hillebrand, "Vedische Mythologie," 1891-1902, ii. 38 sq.

[159] According to early Christian writers, such as Justin and Origen, Jesus also came into the world in a cave, and Jerome complains (Epist. lviii.) that in his time the heathens celebrated the feast of the birth of Tammuz at Bethlehem in the same cave in which Jesus was born.

[160] I. 72, 2; v. 11, 6; v. 2, 1; iii. 1, 14; i. 65, 1; x. 46, 2.

[161] III. 1, 7; iii. 9, 7; v. 1, 1; v. 2, 1, and 2; iii. 7, 2; x. 4, 2, and 3.

[162] Cf. Volney, "Die Ruinen," 1791 (Reclam), note 83 to chap. xiii. This is the reason why the infant Christ was represented in early Christian pictures lying in his mother's lap or in a cradle between an Ox and an Ass.

[163] Jeremias, "Babylonisches im Neuen Testament," 35, note 1. Cf. Dupuis, op. cit., 111 sqq.

[164] Dupuis, op. cit., 143 sq.

[165] Cf. also Winckler, "Die babylonische Geisteskultur Wissenschaft u. Bildung," 1907. Jeremias, "Babylonisches im N.T.," 62 sqq. The astral references of the Christ myth are very beautifully shown in the "Thomakapelle" at Karlsruhe, where the Master has depicted in costly profusion and unconscious insight the chief points of the Gospel "history" in connection with the signs of the Zodiac and the stars--the riddle of the Christ story and its solution! As is well known, the theological faculty in Heidelburg conferred an "honorary doctorate of theology" upon the Master.

[166] "Le Lalita Vistara, traduit du sanscrit en français," i. 76 sqq.

[167] Further in R. Seydel, "Die Buddhalegende u. das Leben Jesu," 2nd ed., 1897, and in his "Das Evangelium von Jesus in seinem Verhältnis zur Buddhasage u. Buddhalegende," 1882. Also Van den Bergh van Eysinga, "Indische Einflüsse auf evang. Erzählungen," 2nd ed., 1909. Cf. also O. Pfleiderer, "Das Christusbild," 23 sqq.

[168] "Urchristentum," i. 411 sq.

[169] Robertson, "Christianity and Mythology," 1900, 129-302.

[170] Op. cit., 25 sqq., 239-244; cf., on the other hand, Paul W. Schmidt, "Die Geschichte Jesu erläutert," 1904, 16.

[171] Cf. also Seydel, "Evangelium von Jesus," 305 sqq.; "Buddha-Legende," 46 sqq. Also Émile Burnouf, "La Science des Religions," 4th ed., 1885, 105.

[172] R. Kessler, "Realenz. f. prot. Theol. u. Kirche," xii. 163.

[173] Foucaux, "Le Lalita Vistara," i. 40.

[174] Hippolytus, op. cit., 9, 10; Epiphanius, op. cit., 30, 53.

[175] Cf. Pfleiderer, "Christusbild," 14 sq.

[176] Cf. also Max Müller, "Natural Religion"; Bergaigne, "La religion védique d'après les hymnes du Rigveda," 1878-83; Holtzmann, "Agni nach den Vorstellungen des Mahâbhârata," 1878.

[177] Rgv. iii. 1, 9, 10.

[178] Id. ii. 23; i. 7; xcv. 2, 5; x. 2, 7; viii. 29, 3.

[179] Id. iii. 5, 10; i. 148, 1. Cf. also Adalb. Kuhn, "Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertrankes," 2nd ed., 1886-9. In Mazdeism also the light is indissolubly connected with the air, passing as this does as its bearer. Cf. F. Cumont, "Textes et monuments," i. 228, ii. 87 sq., and his "Mystères de Mithra."

[180] Il., xi. 20; cf. Movers, op. cit., 242 sq.

[181] Cf. John x. 3, 7, 9.

[182] O. Gruppe, "Griech. Mythologie," 1900, ii. 1328, note 10.

[183] Id., op. cit., 1307. According to the Arabian legend Father Abraham, also, who here plays the part of a saviour and redeemer, was under the name of Thare, a skilful master workman, understanding how to cut arrows from any wood, and being specially occupied with the preparation of idols (Sepp, "Das Heidentum und dessen Bedeutung für das Christentum," 1853, iii. 82).

[184] "Praep. Evang.," ix. 27.

[185] 2 Cor. viii. 9.

[186] Gruppe, op. cit., 1322, 1331.

[187] Preller, "Griech. Mythol.," 1894, 775 sq., 855.

[188] Robertson, "Christianity and Mythology," 322.

[189] Matt. iii. 17; Mark i. 11; Luke iii. 22.

[190] Phereda or Pheredet, the dove, is the Chaldaic root of the name Aphrodite, as the Goddess in the car drawn by two doves was called among the Greeks. In the whole of Nearer Asia the cult of doves was connected with that of the Mother Goddess. As is well known, the dove as a symbol of innocence or purity is also the bird of the Virgin Mary, who is often compared to one. Indeed, in the Protevangelium of James she is actually called a dove which nested in the temple, a plain reference to the dove cult of the Syrian Aphrodite or Atargatis (Astarte, Astaroth).

[191] Irenæus, i. 28.

[192] Hippolytus iv. 35. This brings to mind that, according to Persian ideas also, besides the Trinity of Heaven (Ahuramazda), Sun, Fire (Mithras), and Air (Spirit, "word," Honover, Spenta Armaiti), the earth stood as a fourth principle (Anahita, Anaitis, Tanit). This stood in the same relation to Mithras as Istar to Tammuz, Cybele to Attis, Atargatis to Adonis, Maya to Agni, Aphrodite to Hermes, Mary to Jesus, &c., becoming identical, however, usually with the "word" of God, the holy spirit (Cumont, op. cit., ii. 87 sq.).

[193] "Dialog.," 88.

[194] One cannot therefore say, as is usual, that Mark, in whom the story of the birth given in Matthew and Luke is not found, knew nothing of a supernatural birth of Christ. For the narrative of the baptism is the history of his birth, while the corresponding narrative of the other Evangelists only came into existence later, when the original sense of the story of the baptism in Mark was no longer understood.

[195] Quoted in Usener, "Religionsgesch. Untersuchungen," 1889, i. 64.

[196] Thus Mithras also was said to have been born on the bank of a river, just as Jesus received baptism in or near the Jordan. On this account "the Rock-born" was usually represented with a torch in his left and a sword or knife in his right hand (Cumont, "Myst. d. Mithra," 97). This recalls to mind the words of Jesus in Matt. x. 34: "I came not to send peace, but a sword."

[197] Cf. Wobbermin, "Religionsgesch. Studien zur Frage der Beeinflussung des Urchristentums durch das antike Mysterienwesen," 1896, 154 sqq. The Christian Church also surrounded the act of baptism with an unusual splendour of lights and candles. Not only was the House of God lit up on this occasion in a festive manner, but each individual to be baptized had to carry a burning candle. The sermons which have come down to us delivered on the feast of the Epiphany, the feast of the birth and baptism of the Saviour which in earlier days fell together(!), excel in the description of the splendour of the lights; indeed, the day of the feast itself was actually called "the day of lights" or "the lights" (phota).

[198] Rgv. x. 88, 2.

[199] Id. v. 2, 9.

[200] "Antiq.," xviii. 5, 2.

[201] "Contra Celsum," i. 47.

[202] Graetz calls it "a shameless interpolation" ("Gesch. d. Juden," 1888, iii. 278). Cf. J. Chr. K. v. Hofmann, "Die heiligen Schriften des N.T.," vii. Tl. 3, 1876, 4; Schürer, "Gesch. den jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu," i. 438, note.

[203] Cf. Sepp., op. cit., i. 168 sqq.

[204] Cf. Usener, op. cit., 62.

[205] I. 8, 9, 10, 16; cf. Matt. iv. 16.

[206] Luke i. 5 sqq.

[207] Gen. xvii. 16 sqq.

[208] Judges, xiii. 2 sqq.

[209] John v. 35.

[210] Id. iii. 30.

[211] Luke i. 26.

[212] Matt. iii. 4.

[213] 2 Kings i. 8.

[214] Matt. xi. 14.

[215] Cf. Nork, "Realwörterbuch," i. 451 sqq. The Baptist John in the Gospels also appears as the "forerunner," announcer, herald, and preparer of the way for Jesus, and it appears that the position of Aaron in regard to Moses, he being given the latter as a mouthpiece or herald, has helped in the invention of the Baptist's figure. A similar position is taken in the Old Testament by the "Angel of the Countenance," the messenger, mediator, ambassador, and "Beginning of the way of God," the rabbinic Metatron, whom we saw earlier was identical with Joshua (see above, p. 56 sq.). In the Syro-Phoenician and the Greek Mysteries Cadmus, Kadmilos, or Kadmiel, a form of the divine messenger and mediator Hermes, also called Iasios (Joshua), corresponded to him, his name literally meaning "he who goes before God" or prophesies of him, the announcer, herald, or forerunner of the coming God (cf. Schelling, "Die Gottheiten von Samothrake Ww.," i. 8, 358, 392 sqq.). Ezra ii. 40, 39, and Nehem. vii. 43, call Kadmiel a Levite, he being always named together with the High Priest Joshua. It is probably only another name of the latter himself, and characterises him as servant and herald of God. Now Kadmiel is the discoverer of writing and the establisher of civilisation, and in so far identical with Oannes, the Babylonian "Water-man" and Baptism-God (Movers, op. cit., 518 sqq.). Can Oannes (Johannes) the Baptist in this way have become Kadmiel, the "forerunner" and preparer of the way of Jesus, who announced his near arrival, and the God Jesus, in consequence of this, have divided into two different figures, that of Joshua-Kadmiel (Johannes) and the Messiah Jesus? In this regard it is certainly not without significance that the figure of the High Priest Joshua in Zechariah wavers between the Messiah (Zemah) and a mere forerunner of the latter. John's question to Jesus, "Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?" (Matt. xi. 3) is exactly the question which strikes the reader in reading the corresponding passage of Zechariah. Possibly the presence of the dove at the baptism in the Jordan obtains in this way a still closer explanation, for Semiramis, the Dove Goddess, is the spouse of Oannes (Ninus); John and the dove accordingly are the parents, who are present at the "birth" of the divine son. But the violent death of John at Herod's command and the head of the prophet upon the dish have prototypes in the myth of Cadmus. For the head of the latter is supposed to have been cut off by his brother and to have been buried upon a brazen shield, a cult story which plays a part especially in the Mysteries of the Cabiri Gods, to whom Cadmus belongs (cf. Creuzer, "Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker," 1820, ii. 333). According to Josephus (op. cit.) John was put to death because Herod feared political disorders from his appearance, while Matthew makes him fall a victim to Herod's revenge, the latter having been censured by John for his criminal marriage with the wife of his brother. Moreover, the prophet Elijah, who accuses Ahab of having yielded to his wife Jezebel and of having murdered Naboth (1 Kings xxi.), as well as the prophet Nathan, who reproaches David for having killed Uriah and having married his wife (2 Sam. xii., cf. also Esther v. 7, 2), are also prototypes. According to this a religious movement or sect must, in the minds of posterity, have been condensed into the figure of John the Baptist. Its followers, who closely resembled the Essenes, in view of the imminent nearness of the kingdom of heaven, exhorted men to a conversion of mind, looked upon the Messiah in the sense of Daniel essentially as the God appointed ("awakened") judge over the living and the dead, and sought by baptism to apply to the penitents the magic effects which should flow from the name of their Cult God Johannes (Oannes), the Babylonian-Mandaic Baptism and Water-God. The stern and gloomy character of this sect may have been reflected in the character sketch of the John in the Gospels, and between it and the sect of Jesus many collisions, disagreements, and conversions appear to have taken place (Matt. xi. 1 sq.; Luke vii. 18 sqq.; John i. 37). Possibly the sect of Jesus was originally only an excrescence from, and a development of, the conception which the disciples of John had of the Messiah, as is indicated by the supposed blood relationship between Jesus and John. At any rate, the adherents of the former in their belief in the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Messiah felt that their point of view was higher and more perfect as compared with that of John's disciples, who do not appear to have risen essentially above the general ideas of the Jewish Apocalyptics. According to Matthew iii. 13 Jesus came out of Galilee, the "Galilee of the Heathens," to the baptism of John. Herein the original heathenish origin of the faith of Jesus was pointed to. "The people which sat in darkness have seen a great light. To them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up" (Matt. iv. 16; cf. Smith, op. cit., 95). The opposition of the two different sects was, at any rate, so great that John's disciples needed a further instruction and a new baptism "in the name of the Lord Jesus" to receive the Holy Ghost, in order to be received into the Christian community. For example, the twelve at Ephesus, who had simply received the baptism of John, as well as the eloquent and literary Alexandrian, Apollo, who none the less proclaimed the message of salvation (ta peri tou Iesou) (Acts xviii. 24 sqq., xix. 1-7).

[216] Cf., Sepp, "Heidentum," i. 170 sq., 190 sq.; Winckler, "Die babylonische Geisteskultur," 89, 100 sq. By this reference of the Gospel story to the sun's course it appears that the activity of Jesus from his baptism in the Jordan to his death, according to the account of the Synoptics, only covered a year. It is the mythological year of the sun's course through the Watery Region in January and February until the complete exhaustion of its strength in December.

[217] Mark ix. 2-7.

[218] The horns (crescent) which he also shares with Jahwe, as the Syrian Hadah shows (Winckler, "Gesch. Israels," ii. 94), recalls to mind the Moon nature of Moses. Moses is, as regards his name, the "Water-drawer." The moon is, however, according to antique views, merely the water-star, the dispenser of the dew and rain, and the root ma (mo), which, in the name of Moses, refers to water, is also contained in the various expressions for the moon.

[219] "Contra Tryph.," xlvi.

[220] Cf. above, 112.

[221] Burnouf, op. cit., 195 sq.

[222] That in the closer description of this occurrence Old Testament ideas have had their part has already been advanced by others. Thus in the transfiguration of Jesus the transfiguration of Moses upon Sinai without doubt passed before the mind of the narrator. And just as Jesus took with him his three chief disciples on to the mount of transfiguration, so Moses took his three trusted followers, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, to partake in the vision of Jahwe (Strauss, "Leben Jesu," ii. 269 sqq.).

[223] Rgv. x. 191; cf. i. 72, 5.

[224] Id. iii. 28, vi. 11.

[225] Max Müller, "Einleitung in die vergl. Religionswissenschaft," note to p. 219.

[226] Rigv. x. 90.

[227] The Rigveda describes Purusha as a gigantic being (cf. the Eddic Ymir) who covers the earth upon all sides and stretches ten fingers beyond. The Talmud, too (Chagiga, xii. 1), ascribes to the first man Adam a gigantic size, reaching as he did with his head to heaven and with his feet to the end of the world. Indeed, according to Epiphanius ("Haeres." xix. 4), the Essenes made the size of Christ too, the "second Adam," stretch an immeasurable distance.

[228] In Hebrew Messiah means "the anointed." But Agni too as God of Sacrifices bears the name of the anointed, akta (above, p. 99). Indeed, it appears as though the Greek Christ, as a translation of Messiah, stands in relation to Agni. For the God over whom at his birth was poured milk or the holy Soma cup and sacrificial butter, bore the surname of Hari among the members of the cult. The word signified originally the brightness produced by anointing with fat and oil. It appears in the Greek Charis, an epithet of Aphrodite, and is contained in the verb chrio, to anoint, of which Christos is the participial form (cf. Cox, "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," 1903, 27, 254).

[229] The Bhagavadgîta shows that the idea of a self-sacrifice was associated with Krishna also, whom we have already learnt to recognise as a form of Agni, and that his becoming man was regarded as such a sacrifice. It (ii. 16) runs: "I am the act of sacrifice, the sacrifice of God and of man. I am the sap of the plant, the words, the sacrificial butter and fire, and at the same time the victim." And in viii. 4 Krishna says of himself: "My presence in nature is my transitory being, my presence in the Gods is Purusha (i.e., my existence as Purusha), my presence in the sacrifices is myself incorporated in this body." But Mithras too offers himself for mankind. For the bull whose death at the hands of the God takes the central position in all the representations of Mithras was originally none other than the God himself--the sun in the constellation of the Bull, at the spring equinox--the sacrifice of the bull accordingly being also a symbol of the God who gives his own life, in order by his death to bring a new, richer and better life. Mithras, too, performs this self-sacrifice, although his heart struggles against it, at the command of the God of Heaven, which is brought to him by a raven, the messenger of the God of Gods. (cf. Cumont, op. cit., 98 sqq.). And just as according to Vedic ideas Purusha was torn in pieces by the Gods and Dæmons and the world made out of his parts, so too according to Persian views the World Bull Abudad or the Bull Man Gayomart at the beginning of creation is supposed to have shed his blood for the world, to live again as Mithras (Sepp., op. cit., i. 330, ii. 6 sq.).

[230] Cumont, "Myst. de Mithra," 101.

[231] Rgv. x. 16.

[232] Id. x. 16, 6.

[233] Id. lx.; cf. also Burnouf, op. cit., 176 sqq.

[234] Op. cit., vii. 3. He is Jahwe, the King of Jeru-Salem itself (Josephus, "Ant.," x. 2), and corresponds to the Phoenician Moloch (Melech) Sidyk, who offered his only born son, Jehud, to the people as an expiation. Cf. supra, p. 77.

[235] Op. cit., xix. 13, xxxii. 29, xliv. 17, xvi. 25.

[236] Op. cit., lxv. 11.

[237] As is well known, the Germanic first man, Mannus, according to Tacitus, was a son of the hermaphrodite Thuisto.

[238] Lev. xxiv. 5-9.

[239] Jos. iv. 1 sqq.; ch. v.

[240] Thus Helios also, the Greek Sun-God, the heavenly physician and saviour, annually prepared the "Sun's Table" in nature, causing the fruit to ripen, the healing herbs to grow, and inviting mortals to the life-giving feast. "This Table of the Sun was always spread in the land of the happy and long-living Ethiopians; even the twelve Gods journeyed thither each year with Zeus for twelve days, i.e., in the last Octave of the old and new year, as though to the feast of Agape" (Sepp., op. cit., i. 275). For the rest the number twelve had throughout the whole of antiquity in connection with such ceremonial feasts a typical signification. For example, among the Athenians, whose common religious feasts were celebrated annually on the occasion of the spring sacrifices; also among the Jews at least twelve persons had to be assembled round the table of the Easter Lamb (Sepp., op. cit., ii. 313 sqq.).

[241] Ghillany, op. cit., 510 sqq.

[242] Preller, "Griech. Mythol.," 398, 850, and his "Röm. Mythol.," 275.

[243] Strabo, xi. 2; Justin, xlii. 3.

[244] Preller, "Griech. Mytholog.," 110.

[245] It is worth while to observe that the High Priest Joshua returned to Jerusalem at the head of twelve elders (Ezra ii. 2; Nehem. vii. 7. Cf. Stade, "Gesch. d. V. Israel," ii. 102).

[246] Cf. Movers, op. cit., 539 sqq.; Sepp., "Heidentum," 271, 421.

[247] Cf. Jeremias, "Babyl. im N.T.," 69-80.

[248] Rgv. vi. 54.

[249] Cf. "The Hymns to Dadhikra," iv. 38-40.

[250] Cf. Burnouf, op. cit., 196. The connection between the Fire-God and water is of extreme antiquity. As is well known, in the Edda Loki seeks to escape the pursuit of the Gods in the shape of a salmon; Hephaistos, too, after being cast forth from heaven remains concealed in the sea until Dionysus brings him out; in Rome on the 22nd of August fish from the Tiber used to be sacrificed to Vulcan, being cast living into the fire in representation of the souls of men (Preller, "Röm. Mythol.," ii. 151). It is uncertain whether or to what degree the relations of the sun to the constellation of the Fishes have influenced these images. As regards Babylon, where astrology underwent the most accurate development, this can indeed be looked upon as certain. Here Ea (Oannes), the God of Water and of Life, the father of the Redeemer God Marduk, was represented under the form of a fish. Again, it was not only to the Philistinian Dagon that fish as well as doves were sacred (above, p. 118), but also to the Syrian Atargatis, the latter having borne, as was said, the "Ichthus," or fish, and the worship of fish being connected with devotion to her (Robertson Smith, "Religion of the Semites," 174 sqq.). In Egypt Horus was the "divine fish," being represented with a fish-tail and holding a cross in the hand. But the Joshua of the Old Testament, in whom we believe we see the Israelite original of the Christian Saviour, was also called a "Son of the Fish" (Nun, Ninus, a form of Marduk, whose spouse or beloved, Semiramis, is also a Fish Divinity and is the same as Derketo (Atargatis), the Syrian Mother Goddess.) The Rabbinists called the Messiah son of Joseph (see above, p. 80 sq.), Dag (Dagon) the Fish, and made him to be born of a fish; that is, they expected his birth under the constellation of the Fishes, on which account the Jews were long accustomed to immolate a fish on expiatory feasts. Finally, the fish is also Vishnu's symbol, in whose worship baptism of water takes an important place. Again, the God is said in the form of a fish to have come to the rescue of the pious Manu, the only just man of his time, the Indian Noah, and to have steered the Ark through the flood, thus ensuring to mankind its continuation. It is not difficult to suppose that this idea as well influenced the symbols of Christianity through Mandaic (Gnostic) channels. At any rate, it cannot be admitted at all that the symbol of the fish first arose out of a mere play on letters so far as the formula "Jesous Christos Theou Huios Soter" represents in five words the expression of the quintessence of the Christian faith (cf. van den Bergh van Eysinga, "Ztschr. d. Deutchen Morgenländ. Gesellschaft B.," ix., 1906, 210 sqq.).

[251] Cf. Iamblichus, "De Symbol. Aegyptiorum," ii. 7.

[252] Gunkel, op. cit., 32. sq.; Robertson, "Pagan Christs," 135 sq.

[253] Op. cit., v. 6 sq.

[254] Rev. xxi. 23.

[255] Hatch, "The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church," Hibbert Lectures, 1888, 300.

[256] John i. 7, 12; ix. 5; xii. 36, 46.

[257] Sepp., i. 353.

[258] Burnouf, op. cit., 186 sq.

[259] Cf., for example, F. X. Kraus, "Geschichte d. christl. Kunst," i. 105.

[260] "Hist. Rom.," i. 26.

[261] Cf. Zöckler, "Das Kreuz Christi," 1875, 62 sqq.; Hochart, "Études d'histoire religieuse," 1890, chap, x., "La crucifix."

[262] Aringhi, "Roma subterranea," vi. ch. 23, "De Cervo."

[263] Cf. on the other hand Justin, "Apol.," i. 35.

[264] Esther v. 14, vii. 10.

[265] Cf. the picture of Marsyas hanging upon a tree-trunk in the collection of antiquities at Karlsruhe; also the illustrations in P. Schmidt, "Die Geschichte Jesu, erläutert," 1904.

[266] Movers, op. cit., 687; Nork, "Reallexikon," ii. 122 sq.; Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 185 sq.

[267] Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2.

[268] lxvi. 19.

[269] ix. 3, 4.

[270] Exod. xvii. 10 sqq.

[271] For particulars see Zöckler, op. cit., 7 sqq.; also Hochart, op. cit., chap, viii., "Le symbole de la croix"; G. de Mortillet, "Le signe de la croix avant le christianisme," 1866; Mourant Brock, "La croix payenne et chrétienne," 1881; Goblet d'Alviella, "La migration des symboles," 1891.

[272] Henry Petersen, "Über den Gottesdienst u. den Götterglauben des Nordens während der Heidenzeit," 1882, 39 sqq. 95 sqq.

[273] Zöckler, op. cit., 21 sqq.

[274] Winckler, "Die babyl. Geisteskultur," 82.

[275] Tertullian, "Contra Haereses," 40.

[276] Burnouf, op. cit., 240.

[277] Goblet d'Alviella, op. cit., 61. sqq. Cf. also Ludw. Müller, "Det saakaldte Hagekors Anvendelse og Betydning i Oldtiden," 1877.

[278] Op. cit., 296.

[279] One feels the words of Revelation quoted above brought to his mind: "And madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth!"

[280] "De errore profanae religionis," i. 5.

[281] Op. cit., § 48.

[282] "Apolog.," i. ch. 60.

[283] III. 12, vii. 3 sqq., ix. 4, xiv. 1, xx. 4, xxii. 4.

[284] Gal. vi. 17; Ephes. i. 13 sq.

[285] Mourant Brock, op. cit., 177 sqq., 178 sqq.

[286] So also in Tertullian when, with reference to the passage of Ezekiel above quoted (ix. 5), he describes the Greek letter Tau as "our [the Christians'] kind of cross" (nostra species crucis), not because it had the shape of the gibbet upon which Jesus is supposed to have died, but because it represented the seal or sign upon the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem ("Contra Marcionem," iii. 22). And when in the same work (iii. 18) he explains the horns of the "unicorn" (ox?) mentioned in the Blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii. 17) as the two arms of the cross, this happens only for the reason that the sign of union and uplifting and the gibbet became commingled in his fancy into the one and the same form (cf. also "Adv. Judaeos," 10, and Justin, "Dial.," 91; also Hochart, op. cit., 365-369).

[287] Zöckler, op. cit., 14 sq.

[288] Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 174 sq., 276 sqq.

[289] Cf. on the whole subject Hochart, op. cit., 359 sqq.; P. Schmidt, "Gesch. Jesu," 386-394. In spite of all his efforts Zöckler has not succeeded in proving that Jesus was nailed to a piece of wood having the form of a four-armed cross. The assertion that this form of gibbet was borrowed by the Romans from the Carthaginians, and was the usual one in late pre-Christian days, is simply a figment of the imagination. All passages usually brought forward in support of this traditional view either prove nothing, as the appeal to Luke xxiv. 39, John xx. 20 and 25, or they refer to the symbol, not to the gibbet of the cross, and consequently cannot serve to support the usual view of the matter (Zöckler, op. cit., especially 78; 431 sqq.).

[290] "Geschichte der christlichen Kunst," 174.

[291] Cf. Detzel, "Christl. Ikonographie," 1894, 392 sqq.; Hochart, op. cit., 378 sqq.

[292] Moreover, the so-called Flabellum, the fan, which in the early Christian pictures of the birth of Christ a servant holds before the child, shows the connection of the Christ Cult and that of Agni. This fan, which was in use in divine service of the Western Church as late as the fourteenth century, cannot be for the driving away of insects or for cooling purposes, as is usually considered, for this would obviously be in contradiction to the "winter" birth of the Saviour. It refers to the fanning of the divine spark in the ancient Indian fire-worship. In this sense it has been retained until the present day in the Greek and Armenian rites, in which during the Mass the fan is waved to and fro over the altar. A synopsis of all the facts and illustrations bearing on the matter are to be found in A. Malvert's "Wissenschaft und Religion," 1904.

[293] Of course the "Acts of the Apostles" is, and remains in spite of all modern attempts at vindication (Harnack), a very untrustworthy historical document, and the information it gives as to Paul's life is for the most part mere fiction. We need not go so far as Jensen, who disputes the existence at any time of an historical Paul ("Moses, Jesus, Paulus. Drei Sagenvarianten des babylonischen Gottmenschen Gilgamesch," 2 Aufl., 1909), but will nevertheless not be able to avoid the view that the description of Paul, as Bruno Bauer has already shown, represents an original, in any case very much worked over, and in the opinion of many only a copy of the original, which preceded it in the portrayal of the "chief of the apostles," Peter (cf., on the historical value of the Acts, also E. Zeller, "Die Apg. nach ihrem Inhalt und Ursprung kritisch untersucht," 1854).

[294] Cf. H. Jordan, "Jesus und die modernen Jesusbilder. Bibl. Zeit- u. Streitfragen," 1909, 36.

[295] "To create authors who have never written a letter, to forge whole series of books, to date the most recent production back into grey antiquity, to cause the well-known philosophers to utter opinions diametrically opposed to their real views, these and similar things were quite common during the last century before and the first after Christ. People cared little at that time about the author of a work, if only its contents were in harmony with the taste and needs of the age" (E. Zeller, "Vorträge u. Abhdlg.," 1865, 298 sq.). "It was at that time a favourite practice to write letters for famous men. A collection of not less than 148 letters was attributed to the tyrant Phalaris, who ruled Agrigentum in the sixth century B.C. Beyschlag has proved that they were ascribed to him in the time of Antoninus. Similarly the letters attributed to Plato, to Euripides and others, are spurious. It would have been indeed strange if this custom of the age had not gained an influence over the growing Christian literature, for such forgery would be produced most easily in the religious sphere, since it was here not a question of producing particular thoughts, but of being an organ of the common religious spirit working in the individual" (Steck, op. cit., 384 sq.; cf. also Holtzmann, "Einl. in das N.T.," 2 Aufl., 223 sqq.).

[296] E. Vischer, "Die Paulusbriefe, Rel. Volksb.," 1904, 69 sq.

[297] Op. cit., ix. 3 sqq.

[298] 1 Cor. xv. 5 sqq.

[299] Cf. W. Seufert, "Der Ursprung und die Bedeutung des Apostolates in der christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte," 1887, 46, 157.

[300] An attempt is now being made to prove the contrary, citing 2 Cor. v. 16, which runs: "Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more." The passage has been most differently explained. According to Baur the "Christ after the flesh" refers to the Jewish Messiah, the expected king and earthly Saviour of the Jews from political and social distress, in whom even Paul believed at an earlier date; and the meaning of the passage quoted is that this sensuous and earthly conception of the Messiah had given place in him to the spiritual conception ("Die Christuspartei in der kor. Gemeinde Tüb. Ztschr.," 1831, 4 Heft, 90). According to Heinrici the "even though we have known" is not a positive assertion of a point of view which had once determined his judgment of Christ, but a hypothetical instance, which excludes a false point of view without asserting anything as to its actuality ("Komment," 289). According to Beyschlag the passage is to be understood as asserting that Paul had seen Jesus at Jerusalem during his life on earth. But with Paul there is no talk of a mere seeing, but rather of a knowing. Lütgert disproves all these different hypotheses with the argument that the words "after the flesh" refer not to Christ but to the verb. "The apostle no longer knows any one 'after the flesh,' and so he no longer knows Jesus thus. At an earlier stage his knowledge of Christ was 'after the flesh.' At that time he did not have the spirit of God which made him able to see in Jesus the Son of God. Paul then is not protecting himself from the Jews, who denied him a personal knowledge of Jesus, but from the Pneumatics, who denied him a pneumatic knowledge of Jesus" ("Freiheitspredigt und Schwarmgeister in Korinth," 1908, 55-58).

[301] Gal. i. 11, 12; 1 Cor. ii. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 6.

[302] Gal. i. 17-19.

[303] Gal. ii. 1 sqq.

[304] Id. i. 19.

[305] Matt. xxviii. 10; Mark xiii. 33 sqq.; John xx. 17.

[306] In the opinion of the Dutch school of theologians, whom Schläger follows in his essay, "Das Wort kürios (Herr) in Seiner Bezichung auf Gott oder Jesus Christus" ("Theol. Tijdschrift," 33, 1899, Part I.), this mention of the "Brother of the Lord" does not come from Paul; as according to Schläger, all the passages in 1 Cor., which speak of Jesus under the title "Kurios," are interpolated. "Missionary travels of Brothers of Jesus are unknown to us from any other quarter, and are also in themselves improbable" (op. cit., 46; cf. also Steck, op. cit., 272 sq.).

[307] Similarly Origen, "Contra Celsum," i. 35; cf. Smith, op. cit., 18 sq.

[308] Cf. as to this Sieffert in "Realenzyklop. f. prot. Theol. und Kirche" under "James." In Ezr. ii. 2 and 9 there is also mention of "Brothers" of the High Priest Joshua, by which only the priests subordinate to him seem to be meant; and in Justin ("Dial c. Tryph.," 106) the apostles are collectively spoken of as "Brothers of Jesus." Similarly in Rev. xii. 17, those "who keep the word of God and bear testimony to Jesus Christ" are spoken of as children of the heavenly woman and also as Brothers and Sisters of the Divine Redeemer, whom the dragon attempts to swallow up together with his mother. As Revelation owes its origin to a pre-Christian Jesus-cult, the designation of pious brothers of a community as physical brothers of Jesus seems also to have been customary in that cult, antecedent to the Pauline epistles and the Gospels.

[309] This is actually the view of the Dutch school of theologians.

[310] A. Kalthoff, "Was wissen wir von Jesus? Eine Abrechnung mit Prof. D. Bousset," 1904, 17.

[311] 1 Cor. vii. 10.

[312] Id. ix. 14.

[313] 1 Cor. xi. 23.

[314] Cf. Brandt, "Die evangel. Geschichte u. d. Ursprung d. Christentums," 1893, 296. Schläger also agrees with the Dutch school, and produces telling arguments in favour of the view that 1 Cor. xi. 23-32 is an interpolation. "In our opinion," he says, "the opening words, 'For I received of the Lord,' betray the same attempt as can be seen in vii. 10 and ix. 14--and probably the attempt of one and the same interpolator--to trace back Church institutions and regulations to the authority of the Lord, of the Kurios. In the three cases in which the latter is mentioned he is called 'the Lord,' which is a fact well worthy of consideration in view of the usual designation." Schläger also shows that verse 32 is a very appropriate conclusion to verse 22; while as they stand now the logical connection is broken in a forcible manner by the interpolation of the account of the Last Supper. Another proof of the interpolation of 23-32 is to be found, Schläger thinks, in the fact that in verse 33 as in verse 22 the Corinthians are addressed in the second person, while in verses 31 and 32 the first person plural is used (op. cit., 41 sq.). In view of these notorious facts we can hardly understand how German theologians can with such decision adhere to the authenticity of the passage, reproaching those who contest it with "faults in method." As against this view of theirs Schläger justly objects that "References to words and events from the life of Jesus are so isolated in the Pauline writings that we are entitled to and forced to raise the question as to each such reference, whether it is not the reflection of a later age, of an age which already placed confidence in the Gospel literature, that brought Jesus' authority into the text" (Schläger, op. cit., 36). And the critical theologians are convinced that the writings of the New Testament are worked over to a great extent, rectified to accord with the Church, and in many places interpolated. But when some one else brings this to publicity, and dares to doubt the authenticity of a passage, they immediately raise a great outcry, and accuse him of wilfully misrepresenting the text; as if there were even one single such passage on which the views of critics are not divergent!

[315] M. Brückner's opinion also is "that the Pauline account of the scene at the Last Supper is in all probability not a purely historical one, but is a dogmatic representation of the festival." And he adds: "In any case just on account of its religious importance this scene cannot be cited to prove Paul's acquaintance with the details of Jesus' life" ("Die Entstehung der paulinischen Christologie," 1903, 44). Cf. also Robertson, "Christianity and Mythology," 388 sq.

[316] Holtzmann has, as a matter of fact, in an essay in the "Christliche Welt" (No. 7, 1910) recently attempted to prove the contrary, citing from Paul a number of moral exhortations, &c., which are in accord with Jesus' words in the Gospels. But in this argument there is a presupposition, which should surely be previously proved, that the Gospels received their corresponding content from Jesus and not, on the contrary, from Paul's epistles. It is admitted that they were in many other respects influenced by Pauline ideas. Moreover, all the moral maxims cited have their parallels in contemporary Rabbinical literature, so that they need not necessarily be referred back to an historical Jesus; also, such is their nature, that they might be advanced by any one, i.e., they are mere ethical commonplaces without any individual colouring. Thus we find the Rabbis in agreement with Rom. xiii. 8 sq. and Gal. v. 14, which Holtzmann traces back to Matt. vii. 12: "Bring not on thy neighbour that which displeases thee; this is our whole doctrine." Rom. xiii. 7 has its parallel not only in Matt. xxii. 21, but also in the Talmud, which runs: "Every one is bound to fulfil his obligations to God with the like exactness as those to men. Give to God his due; for all that thou hast is from him." Rom. xii. 21 runs in the Sanhedrin: "It is better to be persecuted than to persecute, better to be calumniated by another than to slander." So that the remark need not necessarily be based on Matt. v. 39; in fact, the last-named passage is not found at all in the standard MSS., in the Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. The phrase, "to remove mountains" (1 Cor. xiii. 2). is a general Rabbinical one for extolling the power of a teacher's diction, and so could easily be transferred to the power of faith. So also the phrase, Mark ix. 50, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another"--which Rom. xii. 18 is supposed to resemble--is a well-known Rabbinical expression. Matt. v. 39 sq., which is supposed to accord with 1 Cor. vi. 7, runs in the Talmud: "If any one desires thy donkey, give him also the saddle." Matt. vii. 1-5, on which Rom. ii. 1 and xiv. 4 are supposed to be based, equally recalls the Talmud: "Who thinks favourably of his neighbour brings it about that fair judgments are also made of him." "Let your judgment of your neighbour be completely good." "Even as one measures, with the same measure shall it also be measured unto him." Rom. xiv. 13 and 1 Cor. viii. 7-13 need not necessarily be an allusion to Jesus' tender consideration for those who are ruined by scandal, as we find in the Talmud: "It would have been better that the evil-minded had been born blind, so that they would not have brought evil into the world" (cf. also Nork, "Rabbinische Quellen und Parallelen zu neutestamentlichen Schriftstellen," 1839). And does Paul's usual phrase of greeting, "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," really contain the avowal of the "Father-God" preached by Christ? For the connection of the divine Son and bearer of salvation with the "Father-God" is a general mythological formula which occurs in all the different religions--witness the relation between Marduk and Ea, Heracles and Zeus, Mithras and Ormuzd, Balder and Odin. What then does it mean when Paul speaks of the "meekness and humility of Christ," who lived not for his own pleasure, who made no fame for himself, but was "submissive," assumed the form of a servant, and was "obedient" to the will of his "father," even to the death of the cross? All these traits are reproduced directly from the description of the suffering servant of God in Isaiah, which we know had a great part in shaping the personality of Jesus. Meekness, humility, charitableness, and obedience are the specific virtues of the pious of Paul's time. It was a matter of course for Christ also, the ideal prototype of good and pious men, to be endowed with these characteristics. Abraham was obedient when he sacrificed his son Isaac; and so was the latter to his father, being also submissive in himself bringing the wood to the altar and giving himself up willingly to the sacrificial knife. And we know what a significant rôle the story of Isaac's sacrifice has always played in the religious ideas of the Jews. Moreover, the heathen redeemer deities--Marduk, of the Mandaic Hibil Ziwâ, Mithras and Heracles--were also obedient in coming down upon earth at the bidding of their heavenly father, burst the gates of death, and gave themselves up, in the case of Mithras, even to be sacrificed; and Heracles served mankind in the position of a servant, fought with the monsters and horrors of hell, and assumed the hardest tasks at the will of others.

[317] Kalthoff, "Die Entstehung d. Christentums," 1904, 15.

[318] P. Wernle, "Die Quellen des Lebens Jesu, Religionsgesch. Volksbücher," 2 Aufl., 4.

[319] Gunkel, op. cit., 93.

[320] Gunkel also takes the view "that before Jesus there was a belief in Christ's death and resurrection current in Jewish syncretic circles (op. cit., 82). Now we have already seen (p. 57) that the term "Christ" is of very similar significance to "Jesus." So that it is not at all necessary to believe, as Gunkel asserted in the Darmstadt discussion, that Paul in speaking of "Jesus" testifies to an historical figure, because Jesus is the name of a person. "Jesus Christ" is simply a double expression for one and the same idea--that is, for the idea of the Messiah, Saviour, Physician, and Redeemer; and it is not at all improbable, as Smith supposes, that the contradictions in the conception of the Messiah in two different sects or spheres of thought found their settlement in the juxtaposition of the two names.

[321] "Not the teacher, not the miracle-worker, not the friend of the publicans and sinners, not the opponent of the Pharisees, is of importance for Paul. It is the crucified and risen Son of God alone" (Wernle, op. cit., 5).

[322] "Indeed, the historical Jesus in the sense of the Ritschlian school would have been for Paul an absurdity. The Pauline theology has to do rather with the experiences of a heavenly being, which have, and will yet have, extraordinary significance for humanity" (M. Brückner, "Die Entstehung der paulinischen Christologie," 1903, 12). Brückner also considers it settled "that Jesus' life on earth had no interest at all for Paul" (op. cit., 46). "Paul did not trouble himself about Jesus' life on earth, and what he may here and there have learnt concerning it, with few exceptions, remained indifferent to him" (42). Brückner also shows that the passages which are cited to contradict this prove nothing as to Paul's more detailed acquaintance with Jesus' life on earth (41 sqq.). He claims "to have given the historical demonstration" in his work "that the Christian religion is at bottom independent of 'uncertain historical truths'" (Preface). And in spite of this he cannot as a theologian free himself from the conception of an historical Jesus even with regard to Paul, though he is, nevertheless, not in a position to show where and to what extent the historical Jesus had a really decided influence over Paul.

[323] Movers, op. cit., 438 sqq.; Fraser, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 42, 43, 47, 60, 79 sq.

[324] Cumont, "Textes et monuments," &c., i. 240; Pfleiderer, "Urchristentum," i. 29 sqq.

[325] 1 Cor. x. 16.

[326] Pfleiderer, op. cit., 45.

[327] xi. 19 sqq.

[328] Smith, op. cit., 21 sq.

[329] Cf. Zimmern, "Zum Streit um die Christusmythe," 23.

[330] "I am the A and the O, the beginning and the end," the Revelation of John makes the Messiah say (i. 8.). Is there not at the same time in this a concealed reference to Adonis? The Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, form together the name of Adonis--Ao (Aoos) as the old Dorians called the God, whence Cilicia is also called Aoa. A son of Adonis and Aphrodite (Maia) is said ("Schol. Theocr.," 15, 100) to have been called Golgos. His name is connected with the phallic cones (Greek, golgoi), as they were erected on heights in honour of the mother divinities of Western Asia, who were themselves, probably on this account, called Golgoi and golgon anássa (Queens of the Golgoi), and is the same as the Hebraic plural Golgotha (Sepp, "Heidentum," i. 157 sq.). Finally, was the "place of skulls" an old Jebusite place of worship of Adonis under the name of Golgos, and was the cone of rock, on which statue of Venus was erected in the time of Hadrian, selected for the place of execution of the Christian Saviour because it was connected with the remembrance of the real sacrifice of a man in the rôle of Adonis (Tammuz)?

[331] Deut. xxi. 23.

[332] We notice that already in these distinctions the germs of those endless and absurd disputes concerning the "nature" of the God-man lie concealed, which later, in the first century A.D., tore Christendom into countless sects and "heresies," and which gave the occasion for the rise of the Christian dogma.

[333] Rom. i. 3.

[334] Rom. viii. 3; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Phil. ii. 7 sq.

[335] Gal. iii. 10 sqq.; Rom. iii. 9.

[336] Rom. iii. 20, iv. 15, v. 20, vii., sqq.

[337] Gal. iii. 19 sqq.

[338] Rom. vi. 9 sq.

[339] Id. v. 14.

[340] Rom. iv. 3 sqq.

[341] Rom. vi. 3 sqq.

[342] Gal. iii. 27.

[343] Cf. above, p. 137.

[344] 1 Cor. x. 16 sqq., xi. 23-27.

[345] 1 Cor. x. 3 sqq., 16-21.

[346] Cf., e.g., Pfleiderer, op. cit., 333.

[347] Cf. above, p. 49 sqq.

[348] Plato, "Symposium," c. 22.

[349] Col. ii. 9.

[350] Op. cit., 80.

[351] Cf. my work, "Plotin und der Untergang der antiken Weltanschauung," 1907.

[352] Gal. ii. 20; Rom. viii. 4, 26.

[353] Id. viii. 14 sqq.

[354] 2 Cor. iii. 17.

[355] Gal. v. 26.

[356] 1 Cor. ii. 9, 14; Rom. xii. 2.

[357] Op. cit., 86.

[358] Wrede, Id.

[359] Id.

[360] Op. cit., 94.

[361] Wrede, op. cit., 85.

[362] 1 Cor. xv. 17.

[363] Cf. as to the whole question my essay on "Paulus u. Jesus" ("Das Freie Wort" of December, 1909).

[364] It is true that other theologians think differently on this point, as, e.g., Feine in his book, "Jesus Christus und Paulus" (1902), declares that Paul had "interested himself very much in gaining a distinct and comprehensive picture of Jesus' activity and personality" (!) (229).

[365] Kalthoff has in his writings laid especial stress on this social significance of Christianity. Cf. also Steudel, "Das Christentum und die Zukunft des Protestantismus" ("Deutsche Wiedergeburt," iv., 1909, 26 sq.), and Kautsky, "Der Ursprung des Christentums," 1908.

[366] xl. 26.

[367] In the same way Vollers also, in his work on "Die Weltreligionen" (1907), seeks to explain the faith of the original Christian sects in Jesus' death and resurrection as a blend of the Adonis (Attis) and Christ faiths. He regards this as the essence of that faith, that the existing views of the Messiah and the Resurrection were transferred to one and the same person; and shows from this of what great importance it must be that this faith met a well-prepared ground, in North Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt, where it naturally spread. But he treats the Jewish Diaspora of these lands as the natural mediator of the new preaching or "message of Salvation" (Gospel), and finds a proof of his view in this, "that the sphere of the greatest density of the Diaspora almost completely coincides with those lands where the growing and rising youthful God was honoured, and that these same districts are also the places in which we meet, only a generation after Jesus' death, the most numerous, flourishing, and fruitful communities of the new form of belief." It is the Eastern Mediterranean or Levantine horse-shoe shaped line which stretches from Ephesus and Bithynia through Anatolia to Tarsus and Antioch, thence through Syria and Palestine by way of the cult-centres Bubastes and Sais to Alexandria. Almost directly in the middle of these lands lies Aphaka, where was the chief sanctuary of the "Lord" Adonis, and a little south of this spot lies the country where the Saviour of the Gospels was born (op. cit., 152).

[368] Cf. O. Pfleiderer, "Die Entstehung des Christentums," 1905, 109 sqq.

[369] Luke xxiv. 33, xlix. 52; Acts i. 4, 8, 12 sqq.

[370] "Religionsgesch. Erklärung d. N.T.," 261. Cf. also Joel iii. 1 and Isa. xxviii. 11, and the Buddhist account of the first sermon of Buddha: "Gods and men streamed up to him, and all listened breathlessly to the words of the teacher. Each of the countless listeners believed that the wise man looked at him and spoke to him in his own language; though it was the dialect of Magadha which he spoke." Seydel, "Evangelium von Jesus," 248; "Buddha-Legende," 92 sq.