صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

the Messiah, and hold sway over Israel for ever. Mary replied in amazement that she was not married yet, but the angel set the difficulty aside by an appeal to God's omnipotence. Her child would be, in the most literal sense of the word, a son of the Most High. To confirm her faith he announced to her that her cousin Elizabeth hoped to become a mother in her old age; and when Mary in humility and gratitude had received the promise vouchsafed to her, the angel rose up again on high.

Following out the suggestion sent to her from God, Mary lost no time in paying a visit to Elizabeth. It was a distant journey to the mountains of Judah in the south, but she longed to visit and speak to her aged relative, who was in so much the same position as herself. She had no cause to repent of her resolution; for she had no sooner crossed the threshold of Zachariah's house and offered her grecting to Elizabeth, than the latter, enlightened at the very moment by God, welcomed her as blessed among women, as the mother of her Lord, and was so filled with sacred enthusiasm and religious awe that the joyous exaltation came on Mary too, and she gave vent to her ecstasy in a song of thanksgiving to God for the goodness he had shown to her, and above all for the deliverance of Israel from the heathen yoke and the fulfilment of His promises to the fathers. We can well understand that Mary prolonged her stay with her cousin to its utmost possible extent; she remained in Elizabeth's house three months, but was then obliged to leave her and go back to Nazareth.

It was not at Nazareth, however, in the house of her betrothed, that she gave birth to the child. God had ordained it otherwise. About this time, when the pro-consul Publius Sulpicius Quirinus was governor of Syria, a royal decree was issued at Rome, to the effect that a census or rating should be made of all the world; that is to say, of the whole Roman empire. It was called a registration in those days, and consisted in drawing up lists for taxation, in which every one's name, means of subsistence, and property were entered. In the kingdom of Herod, as elsewhere, this census must be made; but in this district a very peculiar mode of carrying it out was adopted. Each citizen was to go and be entered at the place whence his family was originally derived, and where the family roll was kept. As a descendant of David, therefore, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, David's native city. Mary might have stayed at Nazareth

had she chosen to do so, and Joseph might have had her registered as his betrothed; but, in spite of the difficulties so long a journey must have offered her, she accompanied him to Bethlehem. This considerably lengthened the time they spent on the way, which under ordinary circumstances would have been three days. At last they reached the place of their destination, not without much care and anxiety.

They were very unfortunate when they got there, however. If they had hoped to find a comfortable resting-place they were disappointed. The same cause that had brought them to Bethlehem had also brought a host of others, who had arrived before them, and had taken up all the available accommodation. In the caravansary, a great building open to travellers, in which they and their beasts of burden could generally spend the night for nothing, there was no more room. What was to be done? They were at their wits' end; for they had no acquaintances upon whose hospitality they could reckon, and they were too poor to hire a lodging, even if every house had not been more than full already. so at last they were compelled to go into the stable of the inn, and make the best of such accommodation as it offered.

It was high time they did so, for that very night, when all around were sunk in sleep, and Joseph and Mary were quite alone, she brought a baby-boy into the world. The young mother herself did all that was needed for her first-born child, gently and carefully wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him down in the manger that was meant to hold the cattle's food!

There lay the helpless little thing! The world gave no heed to his first cry, and no one knew that a man was born. But a heart that overflowed with a mother's pride offered up its homage to the God of mercy, and Joseph knelt by the manger and thanked the Lord from the depths of his soul that He had been with them in their need.

That same night, perhaps an hour or two later, they received an unexpected visit; but so far from disturbing them it was an unspeakably joyful surprise. Certain men, whom their humble attire seemed to mark as shepherds, respectfully and cautiously asked to be admitted. Their faces glowed with sacred enthusiasm; their eyes were lighted up with eager expectation. What could have happened to them? As soon as they entered they began to look about, and asked for the new-born babe. How did they know any thing of him? Let them tell their own story.

At the moment of the baby's birth, they were keeping watch over their flocks by night in the open country round Bethlehem. As they were sitting and lying about, talking to one another, or occupied with their own thoughts, a wonder came to pass which at first filled them with deadly terror. The darkness was suddenly dispelled by an unearthly glory, as the light that shines round the throne of God flooded all the scene. An angel stood before them, and quieted their fears. He brought good news for Israel. The Messiah was born that very night at Bethlehem. They would easily find him, a new-born child laid in a manger. The shepherds had scarcely heard the news, and had not yet recovered from their amazement, when the heavenly music of angel choirs swept through the air in sweeter tones than earth had ever heard:

Glory to God in the highest,

and peace on earth!

His will is good toward man. . . .

The ineffably sweet and glorious vision was gone, and all was still again. The shepherds were left gazing at one another; but in another moment they were hurrying to Bethlehem to assure themselves of the truth of this great news. And there they found the humble scene, just as it had been described to them! They told their tale to all who would hear it, and made known everywhere what God had announced to them about this baby. The wondrous story waked amazement far and near, and if many of those who heard it soon forgot it again, it was not so with Mary. a word was lost by her; and not only as the shepherds, rendering high praise to God, were returning to their work, but often and often in after years, she pondered in quiet rapture over that vision and that song.

Not

Such is the well-known story of the birth of Jesus, one of the sweetest and most deeply significant of all the legends in the Bible. That it is a legend, without even the smallest historical foundation, we must, of course, admit; or if we have any doubt on the subject, a moment's consideration will remove it.

All that was said of the appearance of Gabriel to Zachariah is equally applicable to the present case. Indeed, the dithiculties here are still greater. For not only in Mary's song, which is imitated from Hannah's, does the Jewish Messianic 2 1 Samuel iii. 1-10, and vol. i. p. 436.

1 See pp. 46, 47.

2

expectation reappear, but also in the words of the angel himself, who foretells to Mary that her son shall sit upon the throne of David his ancestor, and rule over Israel. Now of course, if a messenger from heaven had really come to bring a divine revelation to Mary, the result must have confirmed his predictions; and since Jesus never fulfilled these expectations it is obvious that the revelation was never made. Both the promise and the song of praise owe their origin to the obstinate belief of the Jewish-Christians, retained even after the death of Jesus, that he would come again from heaven, would expel the Romans, establish an earthly kingdom, and, in short, realize their dreams of national triumph.1

We must add that the representation given by Matthew is irreconcilable with that of Luke. The message of Gabriel to Mary, her visit to Elizabeth, and the joyous congratulations of the latter would have dispensed with the necessity of an angel's appearing to Joseph in a dream to remove his scruples as to consummating his marriage. This journey to the mountains of Judah, then, can find no place in the Gospel of Matthew, nor indeed can it be fitted into the historical framework of the life of Jesus; for when he and John afterwards met, as men, they were entire strangers to each other, and this could not have been the case if their mothers had been near relatives, and had been so well acquainted from the very first with the future of their sons and the position in which they would stand to each other. But above all we must note, that according to the first Gospel Joseph and Mary lived at Bethlehem, according to the third at Nazareth. From the belief which they both accepted as an article of faith that the Christ must be born at Bethlehem, Matthew simply concluded that Joseph and Mary lived there; whereas Luke (or his authority) was too well aware of the uniformity of the tradition that they had always lived at Nazareth to accept this explanation, and therefore hit upon another, after much reflection. He brings them up to the city of David on a very special occasion and for a very short period. Hardly have they got there when Jesus is born,2 and within six weeks they are on their way home again.3

This special occasion was the census. But here again we are met by overwhelming difficulties. In itself, the Evangelist's account of the manner in which the census was carried out is entirely incredible. Only fancy the indescribable confu

1 Acts i. 6, and elsewhere.

8 Luke ii. 39.

2 Luke ii. 6.
4 Luke ii. 1-5.

sion that would have arisen if every one, through the length and breadth of the land of the Jews, had left his abode to go and enrol himself in the city or village from which his family originally came, even supposing that he knew where it was. The census under David was conducted after a very different fashion. But it is still more important to note that the Evangelist falls into the most extraordinary mistakes throughout. In the first place history is silent as to a census of the whole (Roman) world ever having been made at all. In the next place, though Quirinus certainly did make such a register in Judæa and Samaria, it did not extend to Galilee; so that Joseph's household was not affected by it. Besides it did not take place till ten years after the death of Herod, when his son Archelaus was deposed by the Emperor, and the dis tricts of Judæa and Samaria were thrown into a Roman province. Under the reign of Herod nothing of the kind took place, nor was there any occasion for it. Finally, at the time of the birth of Jesus the governor of Syria was not Quirinus, but Quintus Sentius Saturninus. You will easily see that, if the occasion of the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem rests upon a tissue of confusions and mistakes, the whole story falls to the ground.

One more remark, which would be enough in itself to justify us in absolutely rejecting the whole account of the birth of Jesus. Every other passage of the New Testament which bears upon the question, the sequel of the life of Jesus, the whole contents of the Gospels, in a word, all accessible sources of information without exception, are in direct contradiction with it. We have already seen that Nazareth is called the birthplace of Jesus, both by himself and every one else, and that two distinct pedigrees were drawn up on the supposition that Joseph was his father. So, too, in the stories of the presentation in the temple and of the child Jesus at Jerusalem, Joseph is called his father. Jesus is repeatedly described as the son of the carpenter, or the son of Joseph, without the least indication that the expression is not strictly in accordance with fact. The Apostle Paul expresses himself in the same sense. Neither the Gospel of Mark, which in this respect at least abides most faithfully by the old apostolic tradition, nor that of John, says a word about Bethlehem or the miraculous birth. The congregation of Jerusalem to

4

8

1 2 Samuel xxiv. 1-9, and vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 26. 2 See pp. 36, 39. 8 Luke ii. 27. Luke ii. 41-48. 6 Matthew xiii. 55. Luke iv. 22; John i. 46, vi. 42; see, however, Luke iii. 23.

« السابقةمتابعة »