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.

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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.

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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]

These two lines of ancestry are the same from Abraham down to David. There they diverge into two separate lines. Matthew has the next in descent Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, former wife of Uriah, the Hittite (1 Chron. III:5). Luke has, in place of Solomon, his fullblood brother Nathan (1 Chron. III:5).[2]

From this point down, there is little agreement between the two lines of descent.

Even as to the father of Joseph, Matthew has Jacob, while Luke says his name was Heli. They agree as to Joseph's grandfather—Matthan or Matthat—but, as to his great grandfather, Matthew has Eleazar, while Luke has Levi.

As to Matthew's line of descent from Solomon, most of his names will be found in I Chron. Chap. III, although there are several differences. Where Luke obtained his names of Nathan's descendants, does not appear.[3]

CONCEPTION

Matthew and Luke state that Jesus was conceived of Mary, when a virgin, by the Holy Ghost (Matt. Chap. I, Luke Chap. I).

Mark and John are silent on the subject, except as they speak of Jesus as being the son of Joseph and Mary (Mark III:31; VI:3; John I:45; II:1; XIX:25).

Matthew says that Joseph, after he was "espoused" to Mary and was her "husband", but before they "came together", discovered that she was with child and was "minded to put her away privily." But an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him that his "wife" was with child by the Holy Ghost,[4] and would bring forth a son, and that he should call His name Jesus. Matthew adds that this was in fulfillment of an Old Testament prophesy, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah VII:14).[5]

Luke gives the name of the angel, to-wit: Gabriel,[6] but he appears to Mary instead of to Joseph. He also appeared before Mary's conception, instead of after, as in Matthew.[7] Apparently Mary, while "espoused" to Joseph, was not yet his "wife", since she asks the angel how she shall conceive, "seeing that I know not a man?" (Luke I:34).[8] It would also seem that the appearance of the angel was not in a dream, since his conversation with Mary is related as any ordinary conversation between two natural persons.[9]

PRE-NATAL INCIDENTS

Luke gives (Chap. I) a quite lengthy account of the conception of John the Baptist, which is very similar to the story of the conception of Samson in the Old Testament (Judges Chap. XIII). He also tells of a three months' visit of Mary to Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist and Mary's cousin (Luke I:36), and of Elisabeth's recognition of Mary as the mother of "My Lord" (Luke I:43).[10] While Mary treated the announcement of