The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined

David Friedrich Strauss

C. Blanchard, 1860 - Religion - 901 pages

David Friedrich Strauss's Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet (1835) brought about a new dawn in Biblical criticism by applying the 'myth theory' to the life of Jesus. Strauss treated the Gospel narrative like any other historical work, and denied all supernatural elements in the Gospels. Das Leben Jesu created an overnight sensation and Strauss became embroiled in fierce controversy. This earliest English version of 1846 was translated by the novelist George Eliot, and was her first published book.

Contents

• DEVELOPMENT OF THE MYTHICAL: 11
• 5 Transition to more modern: 17
• Moral interpretation of Kant: 25
• The notion of the mythus in: 35
• Opposition to the mythical: 43
• The possibility of mythi in: 55
• Jesus the Son of: 64
• Definition of the evangelical: 69
• HISTORY OF THE BIRTH AND CHILD: 77
• Natural explanation of the nar: 83
• More particular circumstances: 92
• Comparison of the two genealo: 97
• Disagreement of the canonical: 107
• 619: 111
• Import of the angels message: 113
• Development of the relation: 117
• Retrospect of the genealogies: 121
• Divergencies in relation to: 123
• Natural explanation of the his: 127
• The death of the betrayer 752: 132
• Relation of Joseph to Mary: 134
• The watch at the grave of Jesus 804: 138
• Birth and earliest Events of the Life: 144
• The speculative Christology 892: 151
• Chronological relation between: 176
• Retrospect Difference between: 183
• The first Visit to the Temple and: 191
• On the external life of Jesus: 200
• Jesus: 218
• An attempt at a criticism: 248
• Relation of the supernatural: 254
• The temptation considered as: 264
• 221: 296
• Relation of the messianic plan: 320
• CHAPTER V: 327
• of Jesus with the publicans: 340
• The twelve considered individ: 348
• The Discourses of Jesus in the three: 357
• The parables: 371
• Miscellaneous instructions: 383
• Discourses of Jesus in the fourth: 394
• The modern discussions on: 413
• Jesus turns water into wine 582: 420
• The history of the transfigura: 433

Popular passages

Page 67 - The one source is, as already stated, the Messianic ideas and expectations existing according to their several forms in the Jewish mind before Jesus, and independently of him ; the other is that particular impression which was left by the personal character, actions, and fate of Jesus, and which served to modify the Messianic idea in the minds of his people. The account of the Transfiguration, for example, is derived almost exclusively from the former source ; the only amplification taken from the...‎

Page 136 - Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. 19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.‎

Page 294 - For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. 12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and...‎

Page 434 - And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves ; 16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.‎

Page 251 - And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.‎

Page 292 - I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of days... And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.‎

Page 332 - Simon, the owner of the boat, to launch out into the deep, and let down his nets for a draught. Simon, although little encouraged by the poor result of the last night's fishing, declares himself willing, and is rewarded by so extraordinary a draught, that Peter and his partners, James and John (Andrew is not here mentioned), are struck with astonishment, the former even with awe, before Jesus, as a superior being. Jesus then says to Simon, Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch т&i, and the...‎

Page 283 - And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself : whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.‎

Page 69 - When the narration is irreconcileable with the known and universal laws which govern the course of events. Now according to these laws, agreeing with all just philosophical conceptions and all credible experience, the absolute cause never disturbs the chain of secondary causes by single arbitrary acts of interposition, but rather manifests itself in the production of the aggregate of finite causalities, and of their reciprocal action.‎

Page 266 - The interests of the Jewish people being centred in the Messiah, it followed that Satan was emphatically his adversary ; and thus throughout the New Testament we find the idea of Jesus as the Messiah associated with that of Satan as the enemy of his person and cause. Christ having appeared to destroy the works of the devil (1 John iii. 8), the latter seizes every opportunity of sowing tares among the good seed (Matt, xiii. 39), and not only aims, though unsuccessfully, at obtaining the mastery over...‎

About the author

George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans on a Warwickshire farm in England, where she spent almost all of her early life. She received a modest local education and was particularly influenced by one of her teachers, an extremely religious woman whom the novelist would later use as a model for various characters. Eliot read extensively, and was particularly drawn to the romantic poets and German literature. In 1849, after the death of her father, she went to London and became assistant editor of the Westminster Review, a radical magazine. She soon began publishing sketches of country life in London magazines. At about his time Eliot began her lifelong relationship with George Henry Lewes. A married man, Lewes could not marry Eliot, but they lived together until Lewes's death. Eliot's sketches were well received, and soon after she followed with her first novel, Adam Bede (1859). She took the pen name "George Eliot" because she believed the public would take a male author more seriously. Like all of Eliot's best work, The Mill on the Floss (1860), is based in large part on her own life and her relationship with her brother. In it she begins to explore male-female relations and the way people's personalities determine their relationships with others. She returns to this theme in Silas Mariner (1861), in which she examines the changes brought about in life and personality of a miser through the love of a little girl. In 1863, Eliot published Romola. Set against the political intrigue of Florence, Italy, of the 1490's, the book chronicles the spiritual journey of a passionate young woman. Eliot's greatest achievement is almost certainly Middlemarch (1871). Here she paints her most detailed picture of English country life, and explores most deeply the frustrations of an intelligent woman with no outlet for her aspirations. This novel is now regarded as one of the major works of the Victorian era and one of the greatest works of fiction in English. Eliot's last work was Daniel Deronda. In that work, Daniel, the adopted son of an aristocratic Englishman, gradually becomes interested in Jewish culture and then discovers his own Jewish heritage. He eventually goes to live in Palestine. Because of the way in which she explored character and extended the range of subject matter to include simple country life, Eliot is now considered to be a major figure in the development of the novel. She is buried in Highgate Cemetery, North London, England, next to her common-law husband, George Henry Lewes.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined; Volume 1 of The Life of Jesus, George Eliot; Volume 1 of The Life of Jesus: Critically Examined, David Friedrich Strauss
• Author: David Friedrich Strauss
• Translated by: George Eliot
• Publisher: C. Blanchard, 1860
• Original from: Harvard University
• Digitized: Nov 30, 2006
• ISBN: 0608354260, 9780608354262
• Length: 901 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Biblical Studies / New Testament / Jesus, the Gospels & Acts