# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1864_S242
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

242 The Life of Jesus by Ernst Renan.

many of his faults were probably also concealed thereby," p. 462.
Concerning the miracles of Jesus, Renan says: "We wish without hesitation
to grant that in the life of Jesus, actions occur to a considerable extent
in which we now see traits of deceit or blunders," p. 293. Renan
defames Jesus as proud, p. 297, deceitful, 338, violent, imperious,
embittered, 339; ascribes to him "seemingly absurd actions, an
overwrought state," 339, "seeds of real fanaticism," 346, "shallow
argumentation," 361, "superficial logic," 362, "imprudent words," 369.
"His consciousness had, through no fault of his own but through the fault
of men, lost something of its original clarity. Driven to despair and to
extremes, he lost his self-control," 374. The raising of Lazarus Renan
declares to be a fraud, 375—7. "At times one might have believed his mind
had suffered," 338.

To make these blasphemies all the more effective, Renan takes pains to
praise Jesus at times, whereby he adds mockery to the disgrace. Much as if
one were to say of someone: He is indeed a swindler, but nevertheless a
very upright man. Thus he defames Jesus: "He loved marks of honor, for
they served his purpose and confirmed his title as Son of David," 387;
and at the same time praises him as "free from selfishness," 110. Or, in
order to defame Jesus all the more effectively, he excuses him only in
appearance. "He himself held himself to be the Son of God and not the Son
of David. .... Only public opinion on this point forced itself upon him
in a measure. He submitted to the assumption of a title without which he
could not hope for success. In the end he seems to have taken pleasure in
it, for he performed with grace and dignity the miracles which people
credited to him under this name," p. 269.

What Renan thinks of Jesus he states, p. 273: "He holds himself to be
more than an ordinary man, but at an infinite distance from God. He is
the Son of God; but all men are so, or can become so in varying degree."
Renan defames Jesus and John the Baptist as "young enthusiasts," 154,
calls Jesus a "somber sage," 333, a "handsome young man," 413, and closes
his book with the ambiguous praise "that among the sons of men none is
greater than Jesus," 463. This seeming praise does not, however, keep
Renan from the blasphemy that Jesus was very ignorant: "His knowledge did
not extend beyond Judaism," 92. "The general state of the world was
unknown to him," 95. "Of the Roman power he had a very indistinct
notion," 95. "The charming impossibilities of which his parables are
full, when he brings forward kings and rulers, prove that he had no other
conception of aristocratic circles than that of a young village boy who
views the world through the prism of his simplicity," 96. "Jesus differed
in no way from his countrymen," 97.