________________
REDEMPTION
219
time must have caused a great scandal, which the Jewish priests did not desire (else why arrest Him at night ?). There was never any question of witnesses, who appear at once at the judgment of Christ, as predicted in Psalms xxviii, 12. Executed criminals were thrown into a common trench, so that the story of the tomb which was found empty after the Resurrection seems very improbable.... If we compare the Jewish Legal Code with the Gospel stories we come across very strange contradictions. It was strictly prohibited to hold judicial proceedings on days of religious feasts, so Jesus can never have been judged on the day of the Passover. It was also forbidden to carry arms on such days, so that the chief priests would never have sent the Temple Guard to arrest Christ, and Peter would certainly not have worn a sword."
Dr. Marle's observations embody the expression of opinion of men like Schleiermacher, Strauss, Bauer, Renan, Loisy, and others; and many of the advanced theologians of the English and the German schools are also in entire agreement with him. Under the circumstances, the conclusion is irresistible that if the New Testament writings narrate only that which occurred, really and truly, in the physical world, their authors must have been discharged from some bedlam to write such discrepant tales. We fancy, however, that these discrepancies are the outcome of a deliberate effort, rather than of a spirit of falsehood or exaggeration.
It is not possible to lay too much stress on, or to exaggerate, the importance of a symbolical interpretation of that which is opposed to the order of nature in an historical sense. The reader should endeavour to impress on his mind the fact that the ancients would never have mutilated history purposelessly and without reason. Whoever has lost sight of this fact has invariably ended by discovering the Scriptural text to be the outpouring of the immature mind of the race, whereas, in
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org