Religion: Jesus: A Myth

Few scholars will deny that Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was the “leading literary critic of the north of Europe” in the last quarter of the 19th Century. The sage of Copenhagen had a brilliant pen. It squirmed prolifically. In bold, lucid strokes it told of Henrik Ibsen, Anatole France, Willian Shakespeare. Once it launched out into four stupendous volumes; the Main Streams in Literature of the Nineteenth Century appeared. Mr Brandes annoyed some, inspired others, informed all.

Now the critic, philosopher, aesthete is 84. His octogenarian pen has finished probably its last great squirm. With critical prods it investigated the life and times of Jesus Christ, as set forth in the New Testament. Last year the book, Jesus: A Myth, appeared in the Danish, and in a German translation. Europe talked excitedly Last week, in the U. S., Albert & Charles Boni published an English translation by Edwin Björk man.

Mr. Brandes is convinced that Jesus never really existed, that the New Testament has contradicted and garbled the facts of history. However, he believes that Christ will continue to be worshiped for thousands of years, just as Isis an Apollo were. He writes: “For thousands of years, Apollo, the god of light and purity, was adored in innumerable temples. He had hosts of priests and priestesses, and he guided the destinies of men through his oracles. To this very day his name remains honored. But he never existed; no one believes it in this, the 20th Century.

“On the other hand, the fact that he never existed detracts no more from his significance than from that of Achilles, Ulysses, Hamlet and Faust. We know a great deal more about Ophelia and Margaretta than we know about Mary and Martha in the New Testament. Yet real existence can no more be ascribed to the latter than to the former. Divine figures can never be affected by having lived their true and only lives in the minds of men.”

Critic Brandes maintains that the Sermon on the Mount was taken from pre-Christian records, and is nothing more than an official proclamation to the Jews of the Roman Empire made by a Jewish high priest. “The Lord’s Prayer,” he says, “is now generally recognized as no product of the New Testament, but as a compilation of Old Testament models.”

Concerning the reliability of the Gospel writers, Mr. Brandes is skeptical:”It may be noted in general that they had no interest in his toric facts. The fact that their topography is as poor as their chronology shows that the evangel ists possessed no real knowledge of local conditions.”

He flays the story of the Twelve Apostles as “a palpable piece of mythology.” There is a glimmer of the malicious smile of Anatole France in Critic Brandes’s story:

“The need has been felt of surrounding the Deity with a considerable court — 12 Apostles and 70 Disciples, but no one ever became quite sure of the names. . . . Among the Apostles we find two named Judas, one of them being the brother of James, and the other one the future betrayer. The confusion is so great that it becomes impossible to accept these narratives as historic documents.* The origin of the number of twelve remains obscure.

“The legend concerned with one of these Apostles [Judas Iscariot] has caused great mischief. That it ever gained credence does not speak well for men’s acumen. . . . There is no exaggeration in saying that this legend, which sets a devil up against the figure of light for the sake of an effective background, has caused hundreds of thousands of human beings to be tortured and murdered.

“Not only is Judas more superfluous than a fifth wheel on a cart, but he is an absurdity, explicable only as a manifestation of the hatred felt by Gentile Christianity against the Jewish Christians during the second century.”

Other scholars, who had labored long to establish the historicity of Jesus Christ and the Twelve Apostles, read Georg Brandes’s book avidly, scoffed at the old-age gesture of a literary critic.

*According to St. Matthew, the twelve Apostles were: Simon (called Peter), Andrew (his brother), James (son of Zebedee), John (his brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (the publican), James (son of Alphens), Lebbeus (surnamed Thaddeus), Simon (the Canaanite), Judas Iscariot (the betrayer). St. Mark lists the same twelve, but Luke names Judas (brother of James) in place of Lebbeus (surnamed Thaddeus).