_The Church of Jerusalem._
Competent critics hold that Luke has based the Acts on earlier records.
Certainly the picture of the early Church at Jerusalem is very Essenic.
The disciples had all things in common. They lived in groups of houses,
with a central house of assembly, like the Therapeuts. They had two
main rites, baptism and the breaking of bread. They had for officers,
deacons, presbyters, ephemereuts. Wine and flesh meat were forbidden,
if we may judge the parent from the daughter. For the Roman Christians
before the advent of St. Paul forbade wine and flesh meat, and the
Roman Church was the eldest daughter of the Church at Jerusalem. Also
we see from the Apocalypse that the saints of the New Jerusalem were
"virgins."
Thus history flashes a light, transient but vivid, on the rising
religion at three distinct periods.
1. When Christ by the Sea of Tiberias preached the memorable λόγια,
and said, "Be eunuchs, sell all worldly goods. Blessed are the poor!"
2. When James started the vegetarian water-drinking celibates of the
Church of Jerusalem.
3. When Irenæus attacked the vegetarian water-drinking celibates of the
Church of Jerusalem which had migrated to Pella (A.D. 180).
Now, these three flashes of light seem to me to dispel much, notably
all disquisitions which seek to combine the Essene Christ and the
anti-Essene Christ. Renan holds that the Church of Jerusalem were
Pharisees. If so, why had they Essene rites, A.D. 34 and A.D. 181? He
admits that these rites were borrowed from the Mendaites, or Disciples
of John, and that there is the closest analogy between the rise of
Christianity and the rise of "other ascetic religions, Buddhism for
example." ("Les Apôtres," pp. 78-90.) He admits that the accounts
in the Acts of Peter's bold preachings in the temple, are not to be
reconciled with passages about "closed doors for few of the Jews." What
has chiefly led to misapprehensions is not so much the dishonesty of
writers like "Luke," as the fiction of the Essenes themselves that they
were orthodox Jews. They were most particular about circumcision. They
had a Sanhedrim of Justice, and so had the early Christians. The Church
of Jerusalem had its "chief priest," as we see from the First Epistle
of Clement to the Corinthians. "The daily sacrifices are not offered
everywhere, nor the peace-offerings, nor the sacrifices appointed for
sins and transgressions, but only at Jerusalem, nor in any place there,
but only at the altar before the temple." (Ch. xviii.)
This chief priest must not be confused with the Jewish one. He has
been established by God through Christ. (Ch. xix. 7.) It is also
stated that Christ has laid down what "offerings and service" must be
performed. (Ch. xviii. 14.) This gives a significance to the passages
in Revelations describing the temple of the mystic Jerusalem, which
would of course be modelled on the "temple" familiar to the white-robed
virgin saints of the material New Jerusalem, the "angel" taking the
"golden censer" and filling it with the fire of the altar, the "lamps,"
the "candlesticks," the "golden altar," the "incense." The ground near
Jerusalem is perforated with caverns. This temple, probably, was some
secret crypt like a chapel in the catacombs. Keim points out that the
command given in chap. xi. verse 2 of the Revelations to leave out
the court of the bloody sacrifices in the ideal temple of the New
Jerusalem, is an additional piece of evidence in favour of the Essenism
of the early Church.
This is what Hegesippus, the earliest Christian historian, says about
James, described in the Protevangelion as the "chief apostle and first
Christian bishop."
"He was consecrated from his mother's womb. He drank neither wine nor
strong drink, neither ate he any living thing. A razor never went upon
his head. He anointed not himself with oil, nor did he use a bath. He
alone was allowed to enter into the holies. For he did not wear woollen
garments, but linen. And he alone entered the sanctuary and was found
upon his knees praying for the forgiveness of the people, so that his
knees became hard like a camel's through his constant bending and
supplication before God, and asking for forgiveness for the people."
(Eusebius, "Hist. Eccl." ii. 33.)
This passage seems to settle the question whether the early Christians
were Essenes or Pharisees. Here we have the chief apostle depicted as
an Essene of Essenes. He rejects wine and flesh meat. And the "temple"
of the Essenes was plainly not the Jewish temple. The temple guards
would have made short work of any one rash enough to attempt to enter
the Holy of Holies.
Epiphanius adds the two sons of Zebedee to the list of the ascetics,
and also announces that James, the chief apostle, entered the Holy of
Holies once a year. He gives another detail, that the Christian bishop
wore the bactreum or metal plate of the high priest. (Epiph. Hær.
lxxviii. 13, 14.)
Clement of Alexandria gives a similar account of St. Matthew:--
"It is far better to be happy than to have a demon dwelling in us. And
happiness is found in the practice of virtue. Accordingly, the Apostle
Matthew partook of seeds, and nuts, and vegetables without flesh."
(Pædag. ii. 1.)
The Clementine "Homilies" give a far more authentic picture of the
Church of Jerusalem than the Acts. In them St. Peter thus describes
himself:--
"The Prophet of the Truth who appeared on earth taught us that the
Maker and God of all gave two kingdoms to two (beings), good and evil,
granting to the evil the sovereignty over the present world.... Those
men who choose the present have power to be rich, to revel in luxury,
to indulge in pleasures, and to do whatever they can; for they will
possess none of the future goods. But those who have determined to
accept the blessings of the future reign have no right to regard as
their own the things that are here, since they belong to a foreign
king, with the exception only of water and bread and those things
procured with sweat to maintain life (for it is not lawful to commit
suicide); and also only one garment, for they are not permitted to go
naked." (Clem. Hom. xv. 7.)
A word here about the "Sepher Toldoth Jeshu," a work which orthodoxy as
usual would modernise overmuch. It is a brief sketch of Christ's life,
and, at any rate, represents the Jewish tradition of that important
event. It announces that the Saviour was hanged on a tree for sorcery.
After that there was a bitter strife between the "Nazarenes" and the
"Judeans." The former, headed by Simeon Ben Kepha, (who, "according
to his precept," abstained from all food, and only ate "the bread of
misery," and drank the "water of sorrow,") altered all the dates of the
Jewish festivals to make them fit in with events in Christ's life. This
seems to make Peter and the "Nazarenes" or Nazarites water-drinking
vegetarian ascetics.
Old Jerusalem, considered as a religious centre, quite eclipsed holy
cities like Benares or mediæval Rome, for the chief rites could only
be performed there. The Jewish Christians plainly traded with this
exceptional importance, adding a more powerful claim. For in Israel,
for at least a hundred years, there had been a strange prophetic book,
believed, even by the writer of one Christian scripture (Jude), to be
written by the patriarch Enoch. This book was believed to be genuine by
Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian. For a thousand
years it was lost to Christendom, and then Bruce brought back three
copies from Abyssinia. Archbishop Laurence translated the work in 1821.
The importance of the Book of Enoch is that it gives quite a new view
of the mission of the Messiah. From their prophets the Jews expected a
conqueror who was to come with a "bow" and the "sword of the mighty,"
and to "have dominion from the Jordan to the ends of the earth." That
he was to be a mere mortal is proved by the fact that, according to
Daniel, he was by-and-by to be "cut off." (Dan. ix. 26.) But the Son of
Man of Enoch differed from this:--
"Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven
were formed, his name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of
Spirits. A support shall he be for the righteous and the holy to lean
upon, without falling, and he shall be the light of nations.
"He shall be the hope of those whose hearts are troubled. All who dwell
on earth shall fall down and worship before him." (Enoch xlviii.)
"Behold he comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment
upon them and destroy the wicked." (Enoch ii.) This is the passage
cited by Jude.
"In those days shall the earth deliver up from her womb, and hell
deliver up from hers, that which it has received, and destruction shall
restore that which it owes. He shall select the righteous and holy from
among them." (Enoch i.)
"In those days shall the mouth of hell be opened, into which they shall
be immerged. Hell shall destroy and swallow up sinners from the face
of the elect." (Enoch liv.)
"I beheld that valley in which ... arose a strong smell of sulphur....
Through that valley rivers of fire were flowing." (Enoch lxvi. 5-8.)
"He shall select the righteous and holy from among them, for the day of
their salvation has approached." ... (Enoch l. 2.)
"I saw the habitations and couches of the saints. Then my eyes beheld
their habitations with the angels and their couches with the holy ones.
Thus shall it be with them for ever and ever." (Enoch xxxix. 4.)
"The former heaven shall depart and pass away, a new heaven shall
appear." (Enoch xcii. 17.)
These texts show where the Jews got the idea of a Son of Man coming in
the clouds of heaven and summoning the dead from their graves for a
great assize. They show where Christianity got its heaven and its hell.
The author of the "Evolution of Christianity" gives in parallel columns
a number of other passages which seem to have suggested corresponding
passages in the Christian scriptures. The defenders of conventional
orthodoxy urge that these passages and the passages I have quoted
are post-Christian interpolations. In the way of this theory stands
the fact that Enoch describes only one advent, that of a superhuman,
triumphant Messiah. He knows nothing of a suffering, crucified mortal.
That advent, according to the Jewish ideas of the time, seemed at first
blush a failure. Surely the first object of an interpolator would have
been to suit his prophecies to the double advent, and make the second
explain the failure of the first. It is to be observed, too, that
Enoch's Son of Man rules in heaven. There is no mention of Jerusalem.
It seems very plain that the Apocalypse has attempted to fuse together
the Messiah of Enoch and the Messiah of Micah, and the clumsy expedient
of a thousand years preliminary rule in Jerusalem, entailing, as it
does, two resurrections and two judgment days, is the result.
The Messiah of Enoch is plainly Craosha of the Persians, who will, one
day, summon the dead to judgment in their old material bodies, sending
the wicked to Douzakh, and the good to Behisht.
Let us see how this affects our present inquiry.
The Buddhists took over from the Brahmins:--
1. A heaven (Swarga) and a purgatory.
2. Ancestor worship (the S'raddha). The Buddhas of the Past had
offerings given to them at stated periods at their topes, for which
they were expected to perform miracles.
Nothing can be more explicit than the statements in the gospels about
the fate of the dead. Souls and bodies are to remain in the festering
grave until a trumpet shall sound. Then the body as well as the soul
will arise for an universal judgment.
But side by side with this idea soon sprang up a conflicting one, the
"Communion of Saints."
"God dwells in the bones of the martyrs," said St. Ephrem, "and by
his power and presence miracles are wrought." ("Wiseman's Lectures,"
xi. 105.) Soon the Buddhist saint worship and the Buddhist purgatory
were taken over by the Church, Alexandrian Buddhism fighting with the
dualism of Persian Buddhism.
But if there has been no judgment, how can we tell who is in purgatory,
and who are the saints? This question seems to have stirred Cardinal
Newman, and he attempted an answer in his "Dream of St. Gerontius."
Christ has a "rehearsal of judgment." This is, of course, preposterous.