Christ explaining the Bible
when twelve years old, a gloss upon the precocity of Moses, Samuel, and
Solomon; the increase of the loaves, a union of the manna in the
wilderness and the twenty loaves with which Elisha fed the people; water
changed into wine, a new version of the bitter waters made sweet; the
cross, a reminder of the brazen serpent; the scene in the Garden of
Gethsemane, the bloody sweat and the agony on the cross, poor copies
from the Lamentations of Jeremiah; and the two thieves, the nailed hands
and feet, the pierced side, the thirst, and the last words of Jesus, are
borrowed narratives from the sixty-ninth and twenty-second Psalms.[64]

The same mythical explanation is applied to the conception and divine
character of Jesus. By entertaining such notions of him as we find in
the gospels we display a superstition worthy of the dim days of pagan
legendry. In the world of mythology many great men had extraordinary
births, and were sons of the gods. Jesus himself spoke of his heavenly
origin, and called God his Father; besides, his title as Messiah was
"Son of God." From Matt. i. 22, it is further evident that the passage
of Isaiah vii. 14, was referred to Jesus by the early Christian church.
In conformity with this passage the belief prevailed that Jesus, as the
Messiah, should be born of a virgin by means of divine agency. It was
therefore taken for granted that what was to be actually did occur; and
thus originated a philosophical, dogmatical myth concerning the birth of
Jesus. But according to historical truth, Jesus was the offspring of an
ordinary marriage, between Joseph and Mary, which maintains at once the
dignity of Jesus and the respect due to his mother. The transfiguration
illustrates both the natural and mythical methods of interpretation. It
is a reflection of the scene which transpired on Sinai at the giving of
the law. The gospel account is an Ossianic fancy. Something merely
objective presented itself to the disciples, and this explains how an
object was perceived by several at once. They deceived themselves, when
awake, as to what they saw. That was natural, because they were all born
within the same circle of ideas, were in the same frame of mind, and in
the same situation. According to this opinion, the essential fact in the
scene on the mountain is a secret interview which Jesus had concerted,
and, with a view to which, he took with him the three most confidential
of his disciples. Paul