s given him, and is obedient
in everything even unto death. He declares Matt. XIX. 17: [Greek: heis
estin ho agathos]. Special notice should be given to Mark XIII. 32,
(Matt. XXIV. 36). Behind the only manifested life of Jesus, later
speculation has put a life in which he wrought, not in subordination and
obedience, but in like independence and dignity with God. That goes
beyond the utterances of Jesus even in the fourth Gospel. But it is no
advance beyond these, especially in the religious view and speech of the
time, when it is announced that the relation of the Father to the Son
lies beyond time. It is not even improbable that the sayings in the
fourth Gospel referring to this, have a basis in the preaching of Jesus
himself.]

[Footnote 65: Paul knew that the designation of God as the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, was the new Evangelic confession. Origen was the
first among the Fathers (though before him Marcion) to recognise that
the decisive advance beyond the Old Testament stage of religion, was
given in the preaching of God as Father; see the exposition of the
Lord's prayer in his treatise _De oratione_. No doubt the Old Testament,
and the later Judaism knew the designation of God as Father; but it
applied it to the Jewish nation, it did not attach the evangelic meaning
to the name, and it did not allow itself in any way to be guided in its
religion by this idea.]

[Footnote 66: See the farewell discourses in John, the fundamental ideas
of which are, in my opinion, genuine, that is, proceed from Jesus.]

[Footnote 67: The historian cannot regard a miracle as a sure given
historical event: for in doing so he destroys the mode of consideration
on which all historical investigation rests. Every individual miracle
remains historically quite doubtful, and a summation of things doubtful
never leads to certainty. But should the historian, notwithstanding, be
convinced that Jesus Christ did extraordinary things, in the strict
sense miraculous things, then, from the unique impression he has
obtained of this person, he infers the possession by him of supernatural
power. This conclusion itself belongs to the province of religious
faith: though there has seldom been a strong faith which would not have
drawn it. Moreover, the healing miracles of Jesus are the only ones that
come into consideration in a strict historical examination. These
certainly cannot be eliminated from the historical accounts without
utterly destro