ture and power
of Christ than the resurrection from that spiritual death, which holds in
captivity all who have not recognised their own divine sonship and have
not understood the glad tidings which Jesus brought to all mankind. Such
misunderstandings we find everywhere, as when, for instance, even a man
like Nicodemus fails to comprehend the new birth of which Jesus speaks,
and asks if a man can enter his mother's womb a second time. If this was
possible in a Scribe, how much more so with the uneducated people. In the
same way the Jews misunderstand the saying of Jesus, that the truth will
make them free, and answer that they are the seed of Abraham, and free
men, so that Jesus had to repeat that whosoever commits sin is not free,
but a slave of sin (John viii. 33). Such misunderstandings meet us
everywhere, and their influence extends much farther than we at first
suppose. Naturally the tradition also puts words into Jesus' mouth that
could only have issued out of the notions of the people, and almost
entirely conceal the depth of his own words. While the revelation of the
true divine sonship of man immediately bestows eternal life on him who
comprehends or believes in it, heals his blindness, and raises him from
spiritual death, Jesus is presented as not purposing to raise the dead
until the last day (John vi. 40). Martha makes the same mistake, when to
the words of Jesus, "Thy brother shall rise again," she answers, "I know
that he shall rise at the last day" (John xi. 24). Even some of the works
which are ascribed to Jesus are plainly derived from the same source. A
spiritual resurrection is not sufficient, it even passes for less than a
bodily, and this is the very reason for the numerous stories of the
raising of the dead. These are matters from which, even to this day,
devout Christians are loath to part, especially where the details are
given so minutely as in the raising of Lazarus. Now there is absolutely no
objection to this, if we are resolved to cling to the historical reality
of the raising of Lazarus. Only in that case the terms employed should be
exactly defined. If we give the name death to the condition which excludes
any return to life, especially when, as with Lazarus, decay had already
set in, the condition from which Lazarus returned to life cannot be called
death without a contradiction. Jesus even says that his sickness was not
fatal (John xi. 4), and that he is not dead, but merely sleeps (John xi