Sacred Texts Judaism Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
A Rabbi's Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, by Joseph Krauskopf, [1901], at sacred-texts.com
Paul—The Founder and Spreader of Christology
OF all the countless millions who have professed themselves followers of Jesus, Early Nazarenes truest followers of their Master.the truest was that little band of Nazarenes that survived the martyrdom of its Master. Never, in all the eighteen centuries that have since passed by, existed a Christian community that patterned its life as faithfully after that which its Master lived, or moulded its beliefs as truly after those which he believed and taught, as did that little community at Jerusalem.
Doctrines that have since become the very foundation-stones of the creeds of some of the Christian sects, were then unknown. That little band knew nothing of a Trinity, of an Immaculate Conception, of Original Sin, of Vicarious Atonement, of Salvation by Faith, of Eternal Damnation, nothing of religious rites and ceremonies and observances differing from those of their Jewish brethren. It had added but another Jewish
sect to the many already existing in its day. To the Essenes and Sadducees and Pharisees it had added the Nazarenes, and the difference between its religious beliefs and those of any of the other three sects was not even as great as that which existed between the Sadducees and Pharisees, or between the Pharisees and the Essenes.
The members of this little band would have indignantly hurled back the accusation of having founded a new religion. Nothing was further from their mind than a separation from Judaism, nothing was less thought of by them than their severance from God's Chosen People. They had no new dogmas and no new ritual. To Israel's Temple they betook themselves, daily, for worship and sacrifice with their fellow Israelites, as they had done during and before their Master's sojourn among them. The Jewish Sabbath and holidays they observed in the same manner and spirit in which they had always observed them. They complied with all the requirements of the Torah (the Mosaic Code) as scrupulously as the most Pharisaic in Israel.
The whole difference between them and the other Jewish sects lay in their Messiah-belief. The others expected daily the adventDiffer from other Jews only in Messiah-belief. of a political saviour, who would come, sword in hand, and deliver them from the tyrannous
rule of the Roman, cleanse their land, their Holy City, and their people, from the heathen pollutions, and re-establish their glorious kingdom at Jerusalem; these expelled daily the Second Advent of their crucified Saviour, who would reappear on earth in all His glory, cleanse the people from their transgressions, and raise them all, the quick and the dead, into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Their expectancy of the Second Advent of Jesus was a necessary conclusion from their Expected hourly Second Advent of their Master.belief in his first advent. His crucifixion, at of first, had perplexed them sorely, had led some of his most devoted followers to deny and to doubt him. They had expected a ruling Ruler, a saving Saviour, a delivering Deliverer, an emancipating Emancipator. He had come, such had been their firm belief, with the divine mission of preparing Israel for the Kingdom of Heaven, and was put to death before he had scarcely begun his work, before he had succeeded in gathering around himself more than a handful of followers, or in making his mission known and felt among the leaders of his people.
But gradually their faith in the martyred Master returned. The more they brooded over his tragic death, over his noble and unselfish aim, his pure and wise precepts, his illustrious example, the more convinced were they that he, who had lived and taught so divinely,
could not have shared the common fate of common mortals. He cannot be dead. He lives. How natural such a faith is, those of us, who have stood at the coffin, or at the grave, of some one loved but lost, know only too well. Among the many thoughts that then crowd into our minds, there is one stronger and more persistent than all, it is the thought that he, who was so good, so true, so self-sacrificing, can not be dead, nay, nay, he lives. Such was the thought that stormed their minds; and of that thought their loving hearts soon made a firm conviction. Their Master is not dead. He has been snatched up into the skies, to His Father in Heaven, to get His promised kingdom in readiness, soon to reappear in all His glory to lead His followers into the New Jerusalem in Heaven. His Second Advent might occur at any moment, and so they, His first and faithful and personal followers, held themselves in readiness amidst constant prayer and goodly deeds.
Their mode of life was similar to that of the Essenes. They formed a communistic body with monastic regulations. WhateverLed life of a communistic brotherhood. they possessed they shared and enjoyed alike. They ate at a common table, and contributed to, and spent from, a common purse. Whoever joined them sold all he possessed, and contributed the proceeds to the common
fund. They were ascetic in their habits, withdrew from public affairs and from worldly pursuits, and in obedience to their Master's instructions—not to provide themselves either with money or with superfluous raiment—they surrendered themselves to voluntary poverty. What need was there for wealth, or even for forming marital unions, when the Kingdom of Heaven might dawn at any moment, and wealth lose its value, and earthly unions dissolve. Holiness and peace dwelled in their hearts, and good will and concord reigned among them. The envies and discords that wealth, station, and passions beget, the strifes and hatreds which religious and political differences arouse, obtained no foothold in their midst. Theirs was an ideal state, a Utopia that had a Somewhere, and that somewhere, for about three years, in one of the quarters of Jerusalem, and if such a mode of life be impossible for large and progressive communities, it has at least this in its favor: it enabled the first followers of Jesus to do what the later followers have never done as a body since, it enabled them not only to profess admiration for the life and deeds and doctrines of their Master, but also to live as he had bid them, and as he himself had lived.
Ideal as this mode of life was, it could not have endured much longer than it did. The
long-deferred non-appearance of their MasterWould have been doomed to dissolution. would have gradually checked their enthusiam and their piety. The vividness with which their leader was remembered would have gradually faded. The laws of nature and of society would have asserted their rights. Their disregard of worldly affairs and of worldly pursuits, their ascetic and celibate habits, their voluntary poverty, their neglect of the present for the sake of the future, would have hastened their decay. The nation's subsequent mighty struggle against Rome, which involved especially the people of Jerusalem, would either have scattered them, or their refusal to take up arms, in obedience to their Master's instruction, might have completely routed them, and with their death the life and mission of Jesus—no having found a place in the contemporaneous literature of his or of any other people—might also have passed out of the memory of man, as did the memory of the life and deeds of many of the other aspirants to the Messiahship, of many of the other claimants to the vacant throne of David.
But fortunately the Second Advent came in time to prevent the memory of the first advent to pass out of the mind of man. TheHad there not been a Second Advent. saviour appeared. He did not indeed descend from Heaven, amidst a blaze of glory, accompanied by a host of angels, as the faithful had
pictured to themselves the Second Advent of their Master. It was not even he whom they had expected. And yet one it was who, for Christianity, has been of far greater importance than was even he who came before him. One it was who, though his name was Paul, meaning the little, was in reality by far the greatest power of all who labored in the founding and spreading and up-building of the Christian Faith.
With the advent of Paul, a new character steps upon the stage of the world's history, In the person of Paul.a character that has perhaps never had its equal before or since. Little as he is, he represents more than an individual great man. He is a composite of a number of great men. He reflects, and he foreshadows the most distinguished characteristics of some of the greatest religious leaders who have preceded or succeeded him. He has of the enterprising spirit of Moses, of the fire of Isaiah, of the patience of Hillel, of the temper of Shamai, of the zeal of Savonarola, of the daring of Luther. Here is indeed a fascinating character. This kaleidoscopic greatness allures our eye. We must take a closer look at this wonderful man, who, despite his littleness, looms from out the hoary past, and from the great distance that parts him from us, in colossal dimensions, and with fascinating attractiveness.
We look for an authentic biography of him, and to our surprise and disappointment we find none. Contemporaneous literatureNo authentic biography of Paul. knows nothing of him. The first attempt at a biography is contained in the "Acts of the Apostles," one of the New Testament books, immediately following the gospels. The historical value of this book is exceedingly untrustworthy. Its date is probably half or probably as much as a century after the death of Paul. Its author is an unknown partisan whose language, style, and spirit, lead to the conjecture that he was probably a Gentile, a Roman, one who lived far away from Judea, who had an imperfect knowledge of the character, religion, and political condition of the Jews, who found it to his interest carefully to conceal Rome's frightful cruelties against the early Christians, who seldom neglected an opportunity to paint the Jew in darkest colors and to present the Roman in as beautiful a light as possible.
This in itself is enough seriously to damage the historic worth of this book, but it suffers even more from a mass of legends,Accounts of Peter and Paul in Acts of the Apostles legendary. which fairly bury out of sight, whatever historical fact it contains. The "Legends of the Apostles" would have been a more appropriate title for this book than its present name: the "Acts of the Apostles." It is a collection of myths and legends obviously
compiled to glorify the early apostles, chiefly Peter and Paul, and I shall briefly cite a few of these legends that you may convince yourselves of the historic worth of the "Acts of the Apostles."
On the Pentecost succeeding the crucifixion of Jesus, "cloven tongues, like as fire," Illustration of legendary account of Peter.suddenly descended from heaven upon the apostles, and, instantly, they began to speak and preach to a multitude of their Jewish brethren from foreign countries, in different foreign tongues, and with the help of this miracle, and through the convincing argument of Peter, they added about three thousand souls to their ranks. To a man forty years old, who had been lame from his birth, and who had to be carried about, Peter said: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk," and instantly the man was cured of his lameness, "and entered with them into the Temple, walking and leaping and praising God." Using this miraculous cure as a text, Peter delivered a forcible sermon on it, to the Jews gathered in the Temple for worship, upbraided them for their murder of Jesus, exhorted them to acknowledge Him as their Messiah, and this miracle and sermon added about five thousand men to their number. Peter rebuked Ananias and his wife Sapphira for their hypocrisy, and they fell down dead before him; which miracle
increased the numbers of the followers of the new faith by many more. So great was this miracle-working power of Peter that the people brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that the shadow of Peter passing by might fall upon some of them, and these, as well as many others that came from abroad, were healed by him; even the dead were restored by him to life. Peter was imprisoned, and an angel appeared, broke his chains and set him free. It is thus, and through yet other miracles, that the greatness and glory of Peter was made manifest.
Paul is introduced to the reader about three years after the death of Jesus, and, in his first appearance, is represented as one ofIllustration of legendary account of Paul. the most blood-thirsty persecutors of the Nazarenes—although it is historically established that at that time the Nazarenes and the other Jewish seas lived and worshipped side by side, and in peace, with no other difference between them, except that of the Messiah-belief. While on his way to Damascus to persecute the Nazarenes, "suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Instead of a persecutor
he entered the city of Damascus as a converted follower of Jesus, cast his lot with the Nazarenes, and to the amazement of all the Jews "straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God."
Somewhat later, while he and Barnabas were at Lystra, they encountered a cripple that had been lame from his birth, to him Paul spake: "Stand upright on thy feet!" And he leaped and walked. When the people saw this they exclaimed: "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," and they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker, and with difficulty restrained the people from bringing sacrifices to them. In Lydia, Paul and Silas met a maiden possessed with a spirit of divination, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. Paul commanded the spirit to come out of her, which command was obeyed. The masters, deprived of a profitable source of income, had them publicly flogged, cast into prison, their feet fastened in the stocks, and special watch placed over them. At midnight, in answer to their songs of praise, "suddenly there was a great earthquake," . . . "immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's hands were loosed: "The jailer fell down before them, and said: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Whereupon the jailer and all his house were baptized, and in the morning the magistrates themselves "besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city."
These few illustrations must suffice to convince us of the legendary nature of the book on the "Acts of the Apostles" in which theBetter results obtained from study of Epistles of Paul. life and deeds of Paul are supposed to be sketched. It is evident, that if truth we want, and not legend, we must look elsewhere, and, fortunately for us, we have not far to go to find what we need. There have been preserved, in the New Testament, a number of Epistles, which Paul addressed to different cities, where he had organized Christian congregations, or where he desired to do so, and these Epistles, fragmentary though they be, are of priceless value. In them the occurrences are, with but the slightest exception, natural and real. They afford us not only an intelligent insight into the rise and growth of the new religion, but they also enable us to disentangle, in the "Acts of the Apostles," the historical from the mythical, and together they furnish an outline to a fairly satisfactory biography of Paul.
He was born at Tarsus, a Greek town in Asia Minor, under Roman rule, of Jewish parents. The influences of three powerful
nationalities worked upon him, even from Psychological pen-picture of Paul.his cradle. He describes his appearance and his speech as unattractive. In stature he was small. Physically, he was weak, and yet he possessed an indomitable willpower, and an amazing energy. He was a frequent victim of ill-health, subject to occasional trances, and to spells of strange maladies, of which he speaks as the thorn in his flesh. He was restless, irritable, passionate, ascetic, celibate, ambitious, zealous for the cause espoused. His appearance and temperament offer a fairly reliable psychological pen-picture of the religious enthusiast, of the speculative mystic, of the fearless propagandist, of the man who believes himself entrusted from on high with a special mission, and goes forth into the world to discharge his divinely-commissioned duty—lovingly and peacefully, when unobstructed, but with all the bitterness of the fanatic, when opposed.
Of the extent of his education it is difficult to tell. Opportunities he had, and the veryHis education Græco-Judaic. best. According to Strabo, the schools of Tarsus, at the time of Paul, were equal to those of Alexandria and Athens; according to his own statement, he studied at Jerusalem under the illustrious Rabban Gamaliel, the honored and peace-loving President of the Sanhedrin. The style and the reasoning displayed in the Epistles, incline one to the
belief that he acquired more of what was faulty, in both systems of education, than of what constituted their chief merits. His reasoning is generally obscure and frequently illogical. His style is argumentative, yet he seldom convinces. He is not often the ethical teacher, but he is the theologian always, and sometimes the dogmatist. In censuring the Galatians for forsaking his doctrines for those of a rival apostle, he says that if any man preach any other gospel than that which he preached, even if an angel from heaven should preach to them otherwise than he had preached, let that one be accursed.
From the Jewish school he adopted the controversial and casuistical method of reasoning; and from the Grecian school he borrowed the absurdest notions of Philonic Gnosticism, its mystical amalgamation of Greek philosophy with Jewish theosophy, its allegorical interpretations of the Divine Reason as the "Logos," the "Eternal Word," the "Legate of the Most High," the "High Priest," "Eternal Bread from Heaven," "Guide to God," "Substitute for God," "Image of God," "Second God," "Creator of the Worlds," "Mediator between God and Man," "Intercessor," "Son of God." These titles, which were merely the poetic Grecian mode of expressing mental concepts in allegorical form, his prosaic Jewish mind transferred
upon Jesus, enveloped him with a maze of mystical doctrines, and both of these, the titles and the doctrines, have since become almost hopelessly interwoven with Christianity.
What the immediate cause may have been that led to his connection with the Nazarenes Joins Nazarene sect.cannot now be discerned. Contact with the pious Nazarenes and their pure life may have fascinated a temperament like his. Their affectionate devotion to their martyred Master, their hourly expectation of His Second Advent, may have afforded abundant fuel for the Philonic-Gnostic flame that burned within. The Master, of whom this faithful band spoke so enthusiastically, and with such affection, the Master, who manifested such divine wisdom, could be none other than the incarnation of the Divine Reason, the "Logos," of which the Jewish philosopher Philo had taught and written, and from which it was but a step to the "Guide to God," the "Substitute for God," the "Image of God," the "Second God," the "Intercessor," the "Son of God." Here was the Grecian poetry translated into Hebrew prose. The allegorical concepts of Athens and Alexandria and Tarsus had turned into flesh and blood in Jerusalem. Here was a new theology. Here was a working theology. Here was a world-conquering theology. Here was a theology
that contained the elements to satisfy Jew and Gentile, to reconcile Oriental with Occidental thought and belief. The Judaic Jesus must become the World's Christ; Jew and Gentile must unite in Christ; Paul, the Jew, the Grecian-born, the Roman citizen, must become the Apostle to the Gentiles.
It was a bold thought and bolder yet was his resolve. That moment in which Paul, the Jew, resolved to be the "Apostle to the Gentiles"A decisive moment in history of civilization. was one of the most eventful in the history of civilization. What the prophets of Israel had long dreamed and hoped took living form in that moment. What millions of Jews had professed for centuries, this one man proposed to execute single-handed. He would open the way for the realization of the prophets dream of a federation of all people into a brotherhood, under the Fatherhood of God, and under the sway of universal peace and good-will. He would spread his new theology to the ends of the vast Roman empire, and preach it, till it received the homage of every tongue and knee. In that moment the Nazarenes ceased to be a sect, and Judaism a tribal religion. In that moment a cosmopolitan religion was born. In that moment the ethical teachings of Judaism crossed the border of their birthplace, under the spiritual leadership of Jesus, the Jew, in the guise of a mystical Christ. In that moment
a spiritual alliance was formed between Jew and Gentile that has endured to this day. That moment opened a new epoch in the world's history.
Bold as was the thought and resolve, bolder still was its execution. Paul dared what no Determines to become the Apostle to the Gentiles.other dared before, and what but very few have dared since. To succeed he could have no obstacles to obstruct success. If the Gentile world was to accept his new theology, he had to present it to them in an acceptable form. Jewish ceremonies, rites and observances he unfalteringly cast aside. He swept away every barrier between Jew and Gentile. Where the fate of his world-conquering theology was concerned, the authority, with which centuries of observance had vested these rites and ceremonies, could have no weight. Had not the prophets taught that God looks to deed, not to form, and that a pure heart and devout mind are more acceptable than sacrifice? Seeing that the prophets were with him, what had he to fear in resolving to inaugurate what the prophets of Israel had advocated before him?
He was not the man to delay long after once determining upon a line of action. Forth he went as the Apostle to the Gentiles upon his missionary work. With the rigorous Jewish ceremonial removed, with a Philonic-Gnostic doctrine,—which, in its main outlines, was
familiar to the Gentile world and to the Jews who dwelled among them,—and with the proselytizing carried on with exceptional zeal and energy, he gained many converts to his new belief.
He met with strong opposition from Jew and Gentile, and also from a source from which, perhaps, he had least expected it, fromOpposed by the Nazarenes. those very Nazarenes for whom he had forsaken his former sect, and on whose support he had perhaps counted most. They understood neither him nor his doctrine; neither did he seem to understand them. They knew not what he meant by a "Son of God," by an "Intercessor," by a "Mediator," by a "Second God," and by some of his other novel doctrines. They had been in personal contact with Jesus, had listened to his teachings, knew his aim, knew him to have been human, they had heard him proclaim as the first commandment the great Jewish monotheistic doctrine: "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah is our God, Jehovah is One," and they could not recognize their Master in this novel attire of a Grecian Christ. They knew not what Paul meant by titling himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles," to preach Christ to the heathen nations. Their Master had come of the Jews, and had labored among the Jews, and for the Jews only. Jesus himself had declared: "I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel," and he himself had bid his disciples: "Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." They were horrified at Paul's doing away with the ceremonials and rites of the Law. Had not their own Master declared that he had not come to abrogate the Law or the prophets, and that whosoever would break even one of the least commandments, and should teach men so, shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven? Their Master had opposed the ceremonial excesses, narrow interpretations, unreasonable deductions, but not the Mosaic Laws. They themselves had remained scrupulously faithful to every detail of The Law; Peter had even found it necessary publicly to defend himself against a suspicion of having violated some of the forms and rites. They worshipped and sacrificed in the Temple as before, and observed all the ceremonies and rites and festivals as Jesus himself had done. And who was he, they asked, who arrogated to himself the right of abrogating the Law of Moses? Who appointed him to the Apostleship? Who dared rise and speak in the name of Jesus, and as his messenger and interpreter, while those still lived, who had walked and talked and counselled with him?
The feud between them and Paul grew bitter. He was publicly censured by them at a conference in Jerusalem. Peter broke withBitter feud ensues. him. Barnabas deserted him. James sent missionaries to follow upon his track, and to undo his errors. The charges and countercharges between them reveal little of the forgiving and peaceful spirit which their Master had taught. They, who were not yet fully converted themselves, were quarreling about the mode of converting others. Paul castigated them in very severe language. He insisted upon his right to the apostleship, and to the rightfulness of his work among the Gentiles. His was one of those spirits that thrives best under opposition. His work prospered best when to the "thorn in the flesh" that worried him within, there was added the thorn from without.
He turned his back upon the Nazarene community, and forth he went among the Gentiles, and pursued his mission with a zeal, with a heroism, with a self-sacrifice, that is as amazing as it is eventful in the history of Christianity. When he suddenly disappears from the scenes of history, after about thirty years of missionary labor, Christianity had taken root in Asia and in Europe. In the very strongholds of Paganism, in Antioch, in Athens, and in Rome, in Cyprus, in Ephesus, and in Corinth, in Cilicia, in Phrygia, and in
[paragraph continues] Macedonia, and in yet other cities and other provinces, he had organized little Christian communities, that were destined soon to grow to such power and number as to crowd out almost every other form of belief. Despite the opposition of the Nazarenes, the Grecian-Gnostic Christ had conquered the Galilean Jesus. Christianity was established, in the name of a Jew, and by a Jew.
It is much to be regretted that a compromise between the Nazarenes and Paul Regrettable that compromise was not effected.could not have been effected, that the former could not have been persuaded to surrender their fondness for ceremonialism, and their spirit of exclusiveness, and the latter, his mythical and mystical Christology. Had they but compromised their differences, they might have labored together, and in unison, and converted, not only Gentiles, but also the Jews. They would, in time, have given up hoping for the Second Advent of their Master. They would have concentrated their attention upon the pure ethical precepts which he had taught, would have recognized in them the pure Judaism of old, and their pure life, aided by Paul's zeal, would have cemented the different Jewish sects into a close brotherhood, and prevented the breach which Paul's Christology introduced. Such a compromise would not have interfered with Paul's success among the Gentiles. It was
not as much his mystical and mythical Grecian Christ that conquered the Gentiles, as it was the preaching of the pure-hearted and noble-minded Judaic Jesus. It was not so much the Gnostic theosophy, as it was the ethics of Judaism, that found a ready echo in Gentile hearts, especially in those days of corruption, of tyrannous rule by madmen and monsters like Caligula and Nero, under whom the Roman empire groaned, and at which time many, even of the most cultured classes, had sought refuge in Judaism, despite its rigorous and forbidding initiation ceremonialism. If Judaism could attract converts, even with an uninviting ceremonialism, how much more, and how much easier, could it have won Gentile followers with such ceremonialism removed, and with a man like Paul to preach the ethics of Moses and of the Prophets and Rabbis, and to illustrate the possibilities of such ethics by holding up to the world the noble life of the Galilean Rabbi.
Such a compromise might have brought the prophets’ dream of One God over all, One Brotherhood of all, peace and good willCompromise would have meant realization of Prophets’ dream. among all, nearer realization than it is to-day, and Paul might have ranked as one of the greatest of the great men of Israel.
Such a compromise would have spared Christianity those mystical and mythical doctrines of a Trinity, of a Virgin-born and
[paragraph continues] Holy Ghost-conceived God, of a Suffering Would have prevented infusion of Christology in religion of the Master.and Resurrected Son of God, of a Vicarious Atonement, of Original Sin, Eternal Damnation, Salvation by Faith, and yet other doctrines, that have been to Christianity what the "thorn in the flesh" was to their inventor Paul, that have plunged the Christian Church, for centuries, into profitless theological speculations, that have led to painful dismemberments, and often to the settlement of mooted theological points with the aid of fire and sword and rack, that have retarded the world's progress for centuries, that have frozen the life-giving, life-sustaining stream of religion, which had poured forth from the warm heart of Jesus, into a deadening dogmatic theology, that even to-day perplex and vex Christianity sorely, and array reason and science and philosophy against it.
Perhaps it was not to have been. A mind like Paul's, to be true to itself, could not have Jewish philosopher partly responsible for Christology.acted otherwise than it did. Moreover, it was Philo, the Jewish philosopher, who flourished at that time, who was much to blame. He it was who had sought to reconcile Semitic theology and Asiatic mysticism with Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, and, by his allegorizing and Hellenizing the Jewish Scriptures, had greatly confused the religious thought of the Grecian Jews.
With all Paul's faults, with all the injuries
his Christology has wrought, we have moreYet grateful for Paul's spread of Judaic Jesus. reason to be grateful to him than we have cause for censure. As Jews, we are indebted to him for spreading the ethics of Judaism among a Gentile world, for doing for the cause of Israel what never was done by Jew before or since, for showing us how, by the removal of obsolete, meaningless and repellant ceremonies, rites, and observances, Judaism, pure and simple, might be made a world-conquering religion. As members of civilized society, we owe him unstinted praise for coming to the rescue of Gentile peoples, at a time when they most needed his aid, and for showing countless successors the way in which light, cheer, and comfort, faith, hope, and charity, may be introduced in a benighted and a cruel world.
And each of us may draw from Paul's epoch-making life and deeds the inspiration of independent thought and courageous daring,A new Paul needed to unite Jew and Gentile. fearless of the consequences that may ensue. Each of us may draw from the results of his labors the hope that the compromise, that could not be effected eighteen centuries ago, may yet be brought about. The spirit of our age greatly favors such a compromise. What the Christian world needs is another Jew, to complete the Trinity of Jewish Reformers, one who shall combine within himself the moral and religious purity of
[paragraph continues] Jesus, and the zeal and energy of Paul. He will be the long-expected Messiah. His coming will constitute the Second Advent of the Nazarene Master. The time for his coming is drawing nigh. Obsolete forms and meaningless rites are crumbling away. Offensive doctrines are disappearing. The Judaic Jesus is slowly regaining his lost ground. The Ethics of Judaism are gradually supplanting the Gnosticism of Paul. When the Jew shall have completely cast away his obstructive exclusiveness and ceremonialism, and the Christian his Christology, Jew and Gentile will be one.
