Оглавление
Ernest Renan. Christ in Art
Origins of the Story of Christ
The Young Christ
His First Impressions
The Education of Jesus
The First Aphorisms of Jesus. His Ideas on God the Father. His First Disciples
Development of the Ideas of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God
Christ the Teacher
Jesus at Capernaum
The Disciples of Jesus
The Sermons by the Sea
The Kingdom of God Conceived as the Advent of the Poor
The Relationship of Jesus with the Pagans and the Samaritans
Christ the Messiah
Miracles
Institutions of Christ
Increasing Enthusiasm and Exaltation
Opposition to Christ
The Final Days and Death of Christ
Jesus’ Last Journey to Jerusalem
The Last Week of Jesus’ Life
The Arrest and Trial of Jesus
The Death of Jesus
At the Tomb
Christ’s Work and Legacy
Bibliography
Отрывок из книги
Piero della Francesca, Resurrection, c. 1460.
Fresco, 225 × 200 cm.
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And now finally, we will add that probably John himself had small part in this, that this change was made around him rather than by him. We are sometimes tempted to believe those precious words, coming from the apostle, were employed by his disciples in a sense very different from the primitive evangelical spirit. Indeed, certain portions of the fourth gospel have been added afterwards; such as the entire twenty-first chapter, in which the author seems to have intended to render homage to the apostle Peter after his death, and to reply to the objections which might be, or which had already been, drawn from the death of John himself (v. 21–23). Several other passages bear traces of erasures and corrections.
It is impossible, at this distance, to possess the key of all these singular problems, and many surprises would be in reserve for us, could we penetrate into the secrets of this mysterious school of Ephesus, which more than once appears to have taken delight in obscure paths. But a decisive test is this. Every person who sits down to write the life of Jesus without a rigid theory as to the relative value of the gospels, allowing himself to be guided entirely by the sentiment of the subject, will be led in a multitude of cases to prefer the narrative of John to that of the synoptic. The last months of the life of Jesus in particular are explained only by John; many features of the Passion, that are unintelligible in other sources, assume in the relation of the fourth gospel, probability and possibility. On the contrary, I dare any person to compose a consistent life of Jesus, if he makes account of the discourses which John attributes to Jesus. This style of extolling himself and demonstrating himself incessantly, this perpetual argumentation, this scenic representation without simplicity, this long moralising at the end of each miracle, these stiff and awkward discourses, the tone of which is so often false and unequal, are unendurable to a man of taste by the side of the delicious sayings of the synoptic. We have here, evidently, artificial pieces which represent the teachings of Jesus, as the dialogues of Plato renders the conversation of Socrates. They are in some way variations of a musician improvising on his own account upon a given theme. The theme may be not without some authenticity, but in the execution, the artist gives his fantasy full play. We feel the factitious procedure, the rhetoric and the gloss.
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