The time since the appearance of the second edition was too short
for any material alterations to be undertaken in the third edition
now appearing. However, the phraseology here and there has been
improved and many things put more strongly. Above all, the famous
passage in Tacitus and the passage 1 Cor. ii. 23 et seq. has been so
handled that its lack of significance as regards the existence of an
historical Jesus should now appear more clearly than hitherto. That
Paul in reality is not a witness for an historical Jesus and is wrongly
considered as the "foundation" of the faith in such a figure, should
be already established for every unprejudiced person as the result
of the discussion so far on the "Christ Myth." The Protestantenblatt
finds itself now compelled to the admission that the historical image
of the person of Jesus as a matter of fact "can no longer be clearly
recognised" (No. 6, 1910). How then does it fare with the new "bases"
of Schmiedel? To no refutation of the assertions which I represent has
greater significance been hitherto ascribed on the theological side
than to those supposed supports of a "really scientific life of Jesus"
(in the discussions of "the Christ Myth" this has again received the
strongest expression). And yet these bases were advanced by their
originator obviously with a view to a conception quite different from
mine, and, as I have now shown, do not affect, generally speaking, the
view represented by me regarding the rise of the supposed historical
picture of Jesus. When, above all, the "historical references to
Jesus" are supposed to be contained in them, and these, according to
the Protestantenblatt, lie "like blocks of granite" in my path--then
this is a pure illusion of the theologians.
As can be conceived, my assertion that a pre-Christian cult
of Jesus existed has found the most decisive rejection. This,
however, is for the most part only due to the fact that the
researches in this connection of the American, Smith, and the
Englishman, Robertson, were not known, and, moreover, the opinion
was held that one need not trouble about these "foreigners," who
further were not "specialists." And yet Gunkel, in his work "Zum
religionsgeschichtlichen Verständnis des Neuen Testaments," had
already sufficiently prepared that view, as one might have thought,
when, among other things, he declares "that even before Jesus there
existed in Jewish syncretistic circles a belief in the death and
resurrection of Christ." [13] Again, it can only be rejected without
more ado by such as seek the traces of the pre-Christian cult of
Jesus in well-worn places and will only allow that to be "proved"
which they have established by direct original documentary evidence
before their eyes. In this connection it is forgotten that we are
dealing with a secret cult, the existence of which we can decide upon
only by indirect means. It is forgotten also that the hypothesis of a
pre-Christian cult of Jesus, if urged upon us from another quarter,
cannot be forthwith rejected because it does not suit the current
views, and because it may be that it is impossible for the time being
to place it beyond all doubt. Where everything is so hypothetical,
uncertain, and covered with darkness, as is the case with the origins
of Christianity, every hypothesis should be welcomed and tested
which appears to be in some way or the other suitable for opening up
a new point of view and clearing away the darkness. For as Dunkmann
says in his sympathetic and genuine discussion of "The Christ Myth":
"Irregularities and even violences of combination must be borne in
science for the simple reason that our sources are too scanty and
full of contradictions. Our hypotheses will in all such cases have
something rash, bold, and surprising in them; if even they are in the
main correct, i.e., if they are irrefutable according to the method
of investigation" ("Der historische Jesus, der mythologische Jesus,
und Jesus der Christ," 1910, 55). But if that very hypothesis is
not established, yet this makes no difference in the fact that there
existed a pre-Christian Jesus Christ, at least as a complex myth, and
this quite suffices for the explanation of the Pauline Christology and
the so-called "original community" of Jerusalem. I can, accordingly,
only regard it as a misleading of the public when the other side,
after rejecting the hypothesis of a pre-Christian cult of Jesus, bear
themselves as though they had thereby taken away the foundations for
the whole body of my views regarding an historical Jesus.
Meanwhile the storm which has been raised against my book in
theological circles and in the Press, and has even led to mass
meetings of protest in the Busch Circus and in the Dom at Berlin,
shows me that I have "hit the bull's-eye" with my performance and
have in truth touched the sore point of Christianity. The way in which
the battle is being waged, the means by which my opponents attempt to
disparage the author of "The Christ Myth," or to make me ridiculous
in the eyes of the public by personal slanders, their habit of trying
to injure me by throwing doubt on my intellectual capabilities, and
to undermine my scientific honour and official position (Bornemann,
Beth)--all this can only make me more determined to continue the
work of illumination that I have begun, and only proves to me that my
"Christ Myth" cannot be so absolutely "unscientific" and so completely
a quantité négligeable as its opponents are disposed to represent it.
The means by which the "Christ Myth" is opposed to-day are exactly
the same as those which were employed against Strauss's "Leben Jesu,"
without, however, the least result being attained. I accordingly
await the further attacks of the enemy with complete coolness of
mind, confident in the fact that what is true in my book will make
its way of itself, and that a work which, like mine, has arisen from
serious motives, and has been carried through with a disregard of
personal advantages, cannot be lost but will be serviceable to the
spiritual progress of mankind. The attacks which have so far come to
my notice in pamphlets (Bornemann, v. Soden, Delbrück, Beth) and in
the Press have not had the effect of making any weaker my fundamental
convictions. On the contrary, they have only served to reveal to me
still further the weakness of the opposing position, which is much
greater than I myself had hitherto imagined. I am, however, at all
times ready and pleased--and I have shown this too by the corrections
undertaken since the first edition of this work--to give attention to
real objections and to put right possible errors. All that matters to
me is simply the fact as such. The question before us in "The Christ
Myth," as it is not unnecessary to point out here once again, is a
purely scientific one. For possible suggestions and advice in this
direction I will accordingly at all times be grateful. On the contrary,
I am left perfectly cold by personal slanders, anonymous threats, and
pious corrections, meetings of protest in which the Minister of Public
Worship takes part with obbligato trombone choirs and professions of
faith, as well as by the uproar of the multitude roused to fanaticism
in this manner by the "guardian of their souls." They are everything
except refutations.