Translation:Critique of the Gospels and a History of their Origin/First Book/Chapter 1
1.
The Testimony of the Baptist and the Finding of the Disciples.
C. 1, 19. – C. 2, 2.
The fate with which the fourth evangelist, in the historical entrance of his historical work, makes the forerunner of his Lord the center of a grouping, in which the fear and hope of the old man oppose the man who bears witness to the rising of the new, the long awaited sun of salvation, and allow himself to be pointed out by him as the giver of grace,——-.
the happy thought of beginning a work in which hatred and love contend for the Lord, murderousness constantly pursues him, and bloody hatred impotently rebounds before his majesty, with the dissonance that pervades every section of it, and in the certainty with which the Baptist rebukes the messengers of the hostile authorities, to suggest the harmony into which the most abrupt dissonances dissolve in the course of the work,——-
the description, with which the evangelist divides his first group and presents the expectation of the new in three pictures, – how he depicts the expectation first in the suspicion and in the unseen fear of the priesthood, then he lets the Baptist stand in the middle with his hand outstretched in this attitude pointing to the new, and finally, through the disciples, who feel driven to follow Jesus by the testimony of their teacher, he mediates the transition from the circle of expectation to that of fulfillment, and really opens the latter. ——- the force with which he chains the two circles together, in that his Lord is already present in the circle of expectation, but still hidden from unbelief, when the Baptist says to the emissaries of the priesthood: in the midst of you he stands, but you do not know him – in which he then, while the Baptist testifies of him before the disciples, lets him float by, already visible, but secretly and as it were in twilight——
the decisive force, finally, with which he transports the reader into the world of salvation and makes him feel at home in the circle of fulfillment, in which the Lord stands before the believing disciples in full life and heaven is open and the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of Man, so that no miracle, however great and surprising it may be and however much the whole power of heaven may be drawn down into a single earthly event, can alienate him.
– All this can seem artistic, the composition that emerged from it a work of art.
But what kind of work of art? Does it belong to that period in which the creative force is still laboriously trying out its object and in the stiff figures, in the awkward movements, in the hard groups that do not yet interpret themselves, in the figures that have not yet reached their essence? who are not yet able to bring their essence to a complete appearance and need the written strip of paper that pulls their soul out of the body and brings it to the eye, bears witness to their powerlessness – that period of the first attempts, of which the stiff, angular posture of the Baptist reminds us when we see him motionless with his head raised, that period which always gives all its figures only the same posture, so that now, when the Baptist has raised his arm and pointed to the Messiah, his disciples can also raise their arms and point to the Redeemer, and finally the Lord can also only raise his arm and point to the open sky? Or does the work belong to that later period, which already lies beyond the perfection of artistic design, and if it still wants to try its hand at design, the plastic forms, which it has in mind and where possible intends to surpass, can only drift into the fantastic and in place of the calmly moving contrasts only exaggerated, postureless contrasts? Does the uncertain posture of Jesus, who does not know where to set his foot and how far to advance, while the Baptist points to him and recites his testimony about him in full detail, point us to the obtrusive intentionality with which the evangelist persuades the Baptist three times in succession to give his testimony, finally points us to the postureless pomp, with which the sacred historian makes his Lord draw the attention of the first disciples to his power and glory, as well as the fact that the evangelist immediately opens his work of history with the most abrupt contrast between the authoritative representatives of the old and the herald of the new, between the bluntness of official Judaism and the speculative reflection of the Baptist on the context of salvation, points us to this later period of at once blurred and dislocated design?
What questions! I give you the story, the evangelist replies, exactly as it is – nothing more. From the moment when the Baptist gave his testimony before the emissaries of the authorities, I count by days, I indicate the place and hour when the Lord first met his disciples, I determine the moments when my Lord drew his disciples to himself one by one, I tell you how many days passed until the Lord arrived from this scene of his appearance in Cana, where he performed his first miracle of deed, – and you still ask to which artistic period my work, my work of history belongs?
Indeed! The question remains – only the answer will at the same time put this assertion of the evangelist in its true light. The examination of the historical entrance, which gave us reason for these questions and gave the evangelist the courage for his protesting assertion, will certainly prepare the decision.