for the sake of others, that they might recognize him as the Christ.

Matthew gives us yet another view of the case, and tells us that when Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, not to hear John but simply to be baptized by him, John recognized him as the Messiah at once, and distinctly refused to. go with him into the river. "I have need," he said, "to be baptized by you with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But why should you come to me to be bathed in these waters?" Then Jesus answered, "Suffer it to be so! Think not of me as the Messiah now, for I must submit to your baptism as a commandment of God." Upon this John yielded. We have no hesitation in absolutely rejecting this story. John did not know Jesus; and even if he had known him, inasmuch as he was not yet the Christ, he could not possibly have recognized him as such; and indeed, as a matter of fact, he did not do so afterwards. Nor was Jesus at all a man after the heart of John. And again, the very next verses contradict the story; for in them we read that the Spirit came down upon Jesus after his baptism, thus making him the Messiah then; and that John heard a divine voice at the same time proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, though, according to the preceding verses, he would not have required any such testimony. We might further ask whether the prophet of the wilderness still needed the baptism of the Spirit, and how he could go on with his work after this scene just as he had done before. Finally, the objection already urged holds good in this case also: the inventors of the story overlooked the fact that in making Jesus wish for baptism, not from any need that he himself experienced but from a sense of its fitness, as though it were a form which he must respect, a so-called religious duty, they were sacrificing his integrity and independence. For to take part in any religious ceremony, simply because it is the proper thing to do, without having any feeling, or attaching any significance to it ourselves, may be quite in the spirit of the Jewish Christianity which invented the story, but is certainly condemned by the spirit of pure Christianity. Jesus is the last man from whom we should expect such formality and legalism.

2

In still earlier times the baptism of Jesus had been turned to account by tradition in another manner, and with a weightier

1 Matthew xi. 2.
Compare Luke i. 15.

2 Matthew iii. 16, 17.

purpose. It was made into an event of supreme significance, the occasion upon which Jesus received the office of Messiah. Thus Mark informs us that Jesus, on coming up out of the river (Luke adds that he was praying), saw the heavens open, and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, come down upon him, while the voice of God cried through the open heavens, "Thou art my beloved Son! In thee I am well pleased!" The meaning is obvious; namely, that at this moment God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power,2 bestowed on him the needful gifts, and exalted him to the rank of Messiah (Anointed); at this moment, therefore, Jesus received his call, and first felt that he was the Messiah.

The origin of the story is easy to explain. The Holy Spirit, as the life-giving power of God, was compared, in the metaphorical language of the Jews, to a dove, according to the expression in the first account of the creation, "The Spirit of God brooded over the waters." Thus "the voice of the dove" in the Song of Solomon was taken to mean the voice of the Holy Spirit. Hence the descent of a dove upon Jesus. But this merely explains the form of the vision. As to its substance, inasmuch as the Christians, who were anointed like the Christ with the Holy Spirit,5 were supposed to receive this spirit at their baptism, it seemed natural to think that Jesus had also received it when he underwent this ceremony. And nothing seemed more probable than that he, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, should have received his call in a vision. Perhaps we should add that apparently many of the Jews expected that the Christ, though already born and existing somewhere on earth, would remain unknown to every one, would not even know what he was himself, until Elijah came to anoint him and to make him known to all men. Then, again, to the early Christians the following reasoning would be conclusive: Before his baptism Jesus had never manifested, and cannot therefore have ever had, any superhuman gifts. After his baptism he began his public career, and soon appeared as the Christ. Something must have happened, then, at the moment of his baptism, to change him from an ordinary man into the Messiah. Or, looking at the thing from another point of view, John had consecrated him as a subject of the kingdom of God; but he

1 Luke iii. 21.

4 Song of Solomon ii. 12.

2 Acts x. 38.

5 1 John ii. 20, 27.

6 Isaiah vi.; Jeremiah i.; Ezekiel i.

8 Genesis i. 2.

7 Compare John vii. 27.

came up out of the water as its king. How could this be, had not God chosen the very moment when John was baptizing Jesus to fulfil that prophetic assurance that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon the Messiah? And this explanation also solved the problem presented by his entirely unique personality, his grandeur and exaltation above all men.2

But if this is how the story came into existence, it obviously rests on a system of interpretation and a set of ideas which we cannot accept. To estimate it fairly, we must remember that in those days no systematic study of the laws of the humar mind had been made, and the quickly-responsive and swiftly-kindled enthusiasm of the Oriental character fostered the illusion that God usually imparted his highest gifts suddenly. To us, however, it seems necessarily to follow from the laws of human nature that man's spiritual development must be gradual in every case, including that of Jesus, and cannot proceed by leaps or supernatural gusts of inspiration. Moreover, though the whole scene is in perfect harmony with the Israelite's conception of the universe, neither our knowledge of Nature nor our knowledge of God suffers us to conceive of the heavens opening to let the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove, and the voice of God, pass through! It is true that even Mark himself represents the whole thing as a vision; but in the mouth of the Biblical writers a vision means something very different from what we should call an illusion. It means something which really occurred, though visible only to the enlightened eye of him to whom the vision was vouchsafed. Nor can we believe that Jesus ever had visions. His mind was so clear and healthy, his temperament so firm and uniform, his self-control so complete and invincible, that we cannot conceive of his being subject to those ecstatic transports, that more or less morbid nervous exaltation, that passive submission to a vivid imagination, in which visions take their rise." Then we must observe that the voice from heaven utters words taken from two passages from the Old Testament, both of which the Christians applied to the Messiah, but which had not really the slightest connection with each other. The first, "Thou art my Son!" or, in full, as we shall presently see, "Thou art my Son, this day

1 Isaiah xi. 2.

2 See p. 41.

3 Numbers xi. 25; 1 Samuel x. 6. 10, xvi. 13, xix. 20, 23; 2 Kings ii. 9 ff. · Matthew iv. 1; Acts ii. 2-4, viii. 17, 39, et seq.

4 2 Kings vi. 17; 2 Corinthians xii. 2, 3.

5 Compare Numbers xii. 6-8; Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10.

6 Psalm ii. 7.

66

have I begotten thee! refers to the ideal of the Israelitish king; the other, My beloved in whom I am well pleased!" 1. -to the servant of God, or the consecrated Israel.2 Finally, this story of the baptism is inconsistent with the sequel of the history; for even after the baptism Jesus did not appear as the Messiah for a considerable time, nor did he remind John of what is here said to have taken place on an occasion when it would have been entirely to the purpose for him to have done so. In a word, it is perfectly easy to explain the origin of this story from the faith of the early Christians, but quite impossible to attach any historical value to it.

The first Gospel modifies the picture, and with no great dexterity. In Mark, as we have seen, the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Spirit as a dove, and the voice of God are represented as taking place in a vision. In Luke, who elsewhere converts a vision into a palpable fact, they become events perceptible to all present. In Matthew it is still a vision, but one vouchsafed to John, and not to Jesus; for the voice does not say, "Thou art," as addressing Jesus, but This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,”as addressing John concerning Jesus. We have already pointed out the inconsistency between this and the preceding verses, according to which John had already recognized Jesus as the Messiah as soon as he saw him. The whole representation is evidently confused and inverted. It might have been more reasonable to represent John as having bowed down before Jesus after the baptism and the miraculous sign that followed; and, accordingly, the "Gospel of the Hebrews" gives yet another version of the affair. "When the people were baptized, Jesus also came, and was baptized by John. And as he came up out of the water the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit in the form of a dove come down and enter into him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee am I well pleased!' And again, This day have I begotten thee!' And immediately the place about them was lightened by a great fire [a fire kindled in the Jordan, as we are told elsewhere]. And when John (who had not seen the dove or heard the voice, which were for Jesus alone) perceived the fire, he said to Jesus, 'Who art

5

1 Isaiah xlii. 1. Compare Matthew xii. 18; Luke iv. 18, 19; Acts iv. 27. 2 Compare Matthew xvii. 5 (Mark ix. 7; Luke ix. 35); 2 Peter i. 17.

8 Matthew xi. 2-6.

4 Matthew iii. 17.

Compare Isaiah Ixiv. 2.

thou, Lord?' And again a voice from heaven said to him, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!' Then John fell down on his face before him and said, 'I pray thee, Lord, do thou baptize me!' But Jesus restrained him, saying, 'Let it be, for thus must all that has been prophesied of me be fulfilled.'"

We shall not dwell upon this matter further. History does not tell us that any thing special occurred at the baptism of Jesus. The fact that John went on, as before, preaching and baptizing, and never directed his hearers to Jesus; and that his school continued its independent existence, expecting the dawn of the Messianic age, in fasting and prayer, after Jesus had begun his work, this speaks clearly enough.

We have seen the formative power of legend at work, and can well understand that when once engaged upon this subject it would not soon relinquish it. This much is certain, that however strangely the early Christians were mistaken in supposing that Jesus first received the Spirit when he had come to man's estate, and received it mechanically and at one definite moment, they were not mistaken in the main point of their faith; namely, that Jesus was a man entrusted by God with an overflowing wealth of the fairest spiritual gifts, and was truly inspired, led, and governed by God's holy spirit. What the prophets had only possessed in part was given in all its fulness to Jesus. This thought is beautifully expressed, though under a somewhat fantastic form, in another fragment of the "Gospel of the Hebrews," so often mentioned already. "And it came to pass, when the Lord had come up out of the water, that the whole fountain of the Holy Spirit came down upon him, and rested on him, saying, My Son, in all the prophets have I looked forth to thee, that thou shouldst come, and that I should find in thee my place of rest. For thou art my place of rest; thou art my firstborn Son, who rules to eternity!'"

VOL. III.