eath and the composition of the Gospels. These
narratives are consequently not a representation of history, but of
morbid popular fancies. The evangelists did not intend to deceive their
readers; their picturesque sketches were only designed to clothe the
ideal in the garb of the real. "Be not so unkind," Strauss says in
effect, "as to charge these poor uneducated men with evil purposes. They
were very unsophisticated, and did not know enough to have any extended
plan of trickery. They heard wonderful stories floating about, just such
as one meets with in all countries after a prominent man has died; and,
as they had a little capacity for using the pen, they wrote them down to
the best of their ability. Their writings are curious but very
defective, since the authors were too unpractised in literary work to
perfect a master-piece. How little they dreamed of the reverence which
future generations would pay them! Poor souls, they hardly knew what
they were doing. One caught one story, and his friend another; and it is
a nice bit of mosaic which we find in their school-boy productions. No
wonder their defenders are unable to harmonize their accounts. Let any
four men who live among a legend-loving people transcribe the traditions
they hear from the lips of childhood and garrulous old age, or read in
the popular romances of the day, and it will surprise no one that they
do not agree. How can they tell the same things in the same way, since
the sources of each are so different? Nor, with only myths for warp and
woof, is it at all surprising that we have nothing more than Homeric
exaggerations when the fanciful fabric is once woven."

The introduction to the _Life of Jesus_ consists of an essay on the
historical development of the mythical theory. Having stated its present
shape and great value, it is then applied to the life of Christ in the
body of the work. This is the climax of destructive criticism.
Everything which Christ is reported by the Evangelists to have said or
done shares the natural explanations of Strauss. From his very birth to
his ascension, his life is no more remarkable than that of many others
who have taken part in the public events of their times.

Beginning with the annunciation and birth of John the Baptist, Strauss
considers the apparition to Zacharias and his consequent dumbness as
actual external circumstances, susceptible of a natural interpretation.
Zacharias had a waking vision or ecstasy. Such