Mill: If not Jesus, then who?

Wednesday, January 20, 2016
    Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349
Meditation:
    And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
    —Matthew 7:28-29 (ESV)
Quotation:
    It is of no use to say that Christ as exhibited in the Gospels is not historical and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the tradition of his followers... Who among his disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee; as certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort; still less the early Christian writers in whom nothing is more evident than that the good which was in them was all derived, as they always professed that it was derived, from the higher source.
    ... John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), Three Essays on Religion, New York: Henry Holt, 1874, p. 253-254 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:28-29; 13:54; 28:18; Mark 1:22; 6:2; Luke 4:22,32; 19:47-48; 21:12-15; John 7:15,46; 21:24-25; Heb. 4:12-13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I hear You speaking to me in Scripture. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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