The Mistakes of Jesus | Page 4

date. It is heartening to feel that we can appropriate the superlative
principles of all time instead of worshipping a deified personality who
was limited to the best that men of his own generation could conceive.
This examination of the life and character of Jesus will be based upon
the accounts in the New Testament. Each passage will be construed as
appears to the writer to have been originally intended. The reader may
substitute his own interpretation, but should in no instance pass lightly
over a situation as immaterial. Every word or action of Jesus is an
important link in the chain of his divinity, or of his exalted position as a
moral guide. Each argument should be met by acceptance or rejection,
never with indifference. No reader of the following pages should ever
say, "What difference does it make?" Everything concerning Jesus is of
vast consequence in determining whether he is or is not a divine Savior,
or a perfect guide.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Chron. xxi.

ANTIQUATED THEOLOGY
The first event in the life of Jesus, the gospel story of his birth, is now
considered unauthentic by many scholars and some theologians. The
birth of a virgin, the visitation of an angel, the star in the East are
phenomena contrary to natural laws and rest on insufficient authority
for acceptance as credible. The probabilities are against exceptions in

the laws of the universe.
The Virgin Birth
The original evidence for the virgin birth is found only in the gospels of
Matthew and Luke, two unknown historians, and both these evangelists
implicitly deny their own tale when they trace the descent of Jesus from
David through Joseph.[1] The slaughter of the children by Herod, in
fear of Jesus as a rival, probably never took place. Mark, Luke and
John do not mention it; Josephus, who dwelt on the crimes of Herod,
knew nothing of this massacre. According to Luke, Mary and Joseph
took Jesus to Jerusalem openly soon after the supposed decree.[2]
There is dispute as to whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem or Nazareth,
and the date of his birth has been placed anywhere from 4 B.C. to 7
A.D. Matthew says that Jesus was born "in the days of Herod", while
Luke says it was "When Cyrenius was governor of Syria." Herod died
in 4 B.C., while Cyrenius did not become governor of Syria until 7
A.D.
The romantic story of the Christ-child is not corroborated by the
historians of the time and is in opposition to the theory of evolution by
natural processes. And yet it is still one of the main sources of Jesus'
fame, being repeated at Christmas-tide in the churches, thus connecting
Jesus with God in a superhuman manner.
The consensus of scholarship is in practical agreement that the theory
of the virgin birth as a link between Jesus and God is a mistake; but
whose mistake was it? Jesus never referred to his miraculous birth. If
he was merely a man and never heard of the rumor about his
conception, he was not to blame for the spread of this misleading story
throughout Christendom.
While Jesus did not refer to his divine paternity in a physical sense, he
did endeavor to convince his hearers that he was more directly
connected with God than other men. "I and my Father are one."[3] "No
man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal

him."[4]
Jesus thus proclaimed himself identical with the Lord God of the Old
Testament who called himself Jehovah. This is entirely in keeping with
the whole Christian theory, for the raison d'être of Jesus derived from
the act of God soon after the creation. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which God had commanded
them not to touch, and for this disobedience, this fall of man from grace,
God cursed mankind. Jesus came to earth to save man from the wrath
of Almighty God.
But this claim of Jesus to oneness with God renders him liable to
censure for the acts of Jehovah which represented a standard of ethics
inferior to that preached by the Son of God. According to the scriptures,
which anyone may freely search, God advised or countenanced
deception[5]; stealing[6], selfishness[7], conquest by force[8],
indiscriminate slaughter[9], murder[10], cannibalism[11], killing of
witches[12], slavery[13], capital punishment for rebellious sons or for
seeking false gods[14], sacrifices of animals[15] and other acts
representing the concepts of primitive men.[16]
While Jesus could read[17] and was familiar with the scriptures, it is
possible that he was not acquainted with the system of dictatorship
formerly employed by his Father. Occasionally Jesus denounced the
ethics of "them of old time", but he always