[59]
According to De Wette, the narrator may intend to write history, but he
obviously does it in a poetic way. The first three evangelists betray a
legendary and even a mythical character. This explains the discrepancies
in their histories, and also in the discourses and doctrines of Jesus.
The miracle that took place at the baptism of Christ was a pure myth;
and the resurrection and reappearance of Christ have their existence
more in the mind than in history. With this view of the New Testament,
it is not surprising that the Old should receive even more rigorous
usage. The larger part of the Pentateuch was supposed to be taken from
two old documents, the Elohistic and Jehovistic, and was compiled
somewhere near the close of the legal period. The five books, purporting
to have been written by Moses, are the Hebrew epic, and contain no more
truth than the great epic of the Greeks. As the Iliad and Odyssey are
the production of the rhapsodists, so is the Pentateuch, with the
exception of the Decalogue, the continuous and anonymous work of the
priesthood.
Pages:
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413