n
alone to pass judgment upon the origin, the transmission, and the
authenticity of these texts, just as the reconstruction of the text lies
solely with the philologist. For this he need not even be a Christian,
merely an historian. Whatever may be the judgment of the historical
inquirer, we must learn to be content with what they leave us. In this,
too, the half is often better than the whole. Quite sufficient remains,
even when the critical historian assures us that the Gospels as we possess
them were neither written by Christ nor the apostles, but contain the
traditions of the oldest Christian communities, and that the manuscripts
in which they have reached us were not written till the fifth or at the
earliest the fourth century. We may deal with these materials as with all
other historical materials from that period; and we do so rather as
independent historians than as Christians.

The view that the four Gospels were miraculously revealed to their
authors, miraculously written, miraculously copied and finally printed, is
a view no doubt deserving of respect, but it leaves the contents of the
Gospels untouched. The difference between the historical and the
conventional interpretation of the Gospels comes out most clearly in the
doctrine of eternal life. What Jesus understands by the eternal life that
he has brought to mankind, is as clear as the sun. He repeats it again and
again. Eternal life consists in knowing that men have their Father and
their true being in the only true God, and that as sons of this same
Father, they are of like nature with God and Christ (John xvii. 3).

This is the fundamental truth of Christianity, and it holds good not only
for the contemporaries of Jesus, but for all times. Those who see in this
view an overestimate of human nature, need only ask themselves what man
could be, if he were not a partaker of the divine nature. This excludes
the difference between human and divine nature as little as the difference
between the physical father and the physical son. Even in this case we
speak figuratively, for how could we speak otherwise of what is
supersensual? The repetition of stories among the people, narrating how
Jesus raised one or another to life, to eternal life, very soon led among
women and children to the misunderstanding that this referred only to a
resurrection from bodily death. Nay, this raising passed with them, as it
still does with many, for a stronger proof of the divine na