The Life of Jesus Critically Examined

...creative religious spirit, which displays its treasures of ideal truth in this legendary and mythical poetry for the benefit of its originators and the wider world. Nor should it be left unnoticed that Strauss himself had already indicated, in a few cases, this more profound explanation of myths by means of the religious idea. At the close of his interpretation of the story of the Transfiguration (§ 107), for instance, he says we may see from this example very plainly how the natural system of explanation, by insisting on the historical certainty of the narratives, lets go of their ideal truth, sacrificing the content to the form of the story. In contrast, the mythical interpretation, by resigning the historical material body of such narratives, really rescues and preserves their idea, their soul, and spirit.

He might, however, have unfolded the idea of the Transfiguration with greater definiteness and fullness if he had not merely alluded to the dogmatic discussion of Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:7 and following, but had recognized it as the real theme of the gospel story and had interpreted the latter accordingly. In the same way, in the case of the story of the birth of Jesus (Luke 1 and 2), Strauss laid great emphasis on the analogies and figures of the Old Testament, which, after all, could only contribute as secondary motives in the formation of this birth-story. Its real origin is to be sought in the Pauline Messianic idea of “the Son of God, according to the spirit of holiness” (Romans 1:4; 1 Corinthians 15:45 and following), a fact Strauss overlooked. This defect becomes really surprising when he explains the miracles of the Fourth Gospel, which, in complete independence of any suggestion from the Old Testament, are entirely based upon the dogmatic ideas of Alexandrian theology A school of philosophy/theology that sought to reconcile Greek philosophy with Jewish scripture. and simply supply their...