The Jesus of History

The Jesus of History

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Title: The Jesus of History
Author: T. R. Glover
Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13335]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Contributed by Jonathon Love

THE JESUS OF HISTORY
FOREWORD
I regard it as a high privilege to be associated with this volume. Many
who know and value Mr Glover's work on The Conflict of Religions in
the Early Roman Empire must have wistfully desired to secure from his
graphic pen just such a book as is here given to the world. He possesses
the rare power of reverently handling familiar truths or facts in such
manner as to make them seem to be almost new. There are few gifts
more precious than this at a time when our familiarity with the greatest

and most sacred of all narratives is a chief hindrance to our ready
appreciation of its living power. I believe that no one will read Mr
Glover's chapters, and especially his description of the parable-teaching
given by our Lord, without a sense of having been introduced to a
whole series of fresh and fruitful thoughts. He has expanded for us,
with the force, the clearness, and the power of vivid illustration which
we have learned to expect from him, the meaning of a sentence in the
earlier volume I have alluded to, where he insists that, "Jesus of
Nazareth does stand in the centre of human history, that He has brought
God and man into a new relation, that He is the present concern of
every one of us and that there is more in Him than we have yet
accounted for."[1]
In accordance with its title, the single theme of the book is "The Jesus
of History," but the student or exponent of dogmatic theology will find
abundant material in its pages.
I commend it confidently, both to single students and to those who
nowadays, in happily increasing numbers, meet together for common
study; and I congratulate those who belong to the Student Christian
Movement upon this notable addition to the books published in
connection with their far-reaching work.
RANDALL CANTUAR LAMBETH Advent Sunday, 1916

PREFACE
This book has grown out of lectures upon the historical Jesus given in a
good many cities of India during the winter 1915-16. Recast and
developed, the lectures were taken down in shorthand in Calcutta; they
were revised in Madras; and most of them were wholly re-written,
where and when in six following months leisure was available, in
places so far apart as Colombo, Maymyo, Rangoon, Kodaikanal, Simla,
and Poona. The reader will not expect a heavy apparatus of references
to books which were generally out of reach.
Here and there are incorporated passages (rehandled) from articles that
have appeared in The Constructive Quarterly, The Nation, The
Expositor, and elsewhere.
Those who themselves have tried to draw the likeness attempted in this
book will best understand, and perhaps most readily forgive, failures
and mistakes, or even worse, in my drawing. The aim of the book, as of

the lectures, is, after all, not to achieve a final presentment of the
historical Jesus, but to suggest lines of study that will deepen our
interest in him and our love of him.
T. R. G. POONA, August 1916

THE JESUS OF HISTORY
CONTENTS


CHAPTER I
THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS Modern study of religion Historicity
of Jesus The gospels as historical sources Canons for the study of a
historical figure A caution against antiquarianism here


CHAPTER II
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH References in Gospels Utilisation of the
parables to reconstruct the domestic life Nature. The city. The talk of
the market


CHAPTER III
THE MAN AND HIS MIND Words and looks, as recorded in the
gospels Playfulness of speech Movements of feeling Habits of thought:
e.g. Quickness. Feeling for fact. Sympathy. Imagination His use of the
Old Testament


CHAPTER IV
THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES THE BACKGROUND
Hardness of the human life in those times Uncertainness as to God's
plans for the nation--specially as to His purposes for the Messiah

Uncertainty as to the immortality of the soul, and its destinies Re-action
of all this upon life THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE TEACHER To
induce people to try to re-think God To secure the re-thinking of life
from its foundations in view of the new knowledge THE TEACHER
AND THE