The Origin of Christianity and a Commentary to the Acts of the Apostles

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THE
Origin of Christianity
AND A COMMENTARY TO
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES,
BY
ISAAC M. WISE.
CINCINNATI:
BLOCH & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1868.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year
1868,
BY ISAAC M. WISE,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
United States for the Southern District of Ohio.
THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO
THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION,
By the Author.
Truth is the Redeemer of Mankind.
The Apostles of Truth and Char
ity are the Angels of the Most
High, and the High Priests of
Humanity.
P R E F A C E.
" TRUTH only, in the name of God," this
is the object of this volume. With the ut
most respect for religion itself and for the
Bible, with due reverence for Christianity,
the important factor in the history of civil
ization, and with a profound regard for the
religious feelings of all good men, the fol
lowing pages were written to contribute to
the religious literature of our age the re
sults of twenty years of individual re
search.
The four Gospels, the origin of which is
discussed in this volume, can not be taken
as the main sources for the origin of Chris
tianity. They represent it in the second
and third stages of its development. The
authors were Christians before they wrote
their books; hence Christianity preceded
them. In the form as these Gospels are
now before us, they prove that their re
spective authors were fully acquainted
with the dissentions among the Jewish
Christians on the one side and the Gentile
Christians on the other. They contain
polemics of those parties, and conciliatory
attempts; consequently they are secondary
sources for our purpose. Besides, it is next
to an impossibility to ascertain from them
the religion taught by Jesus of Nazareth
himself The Jesus represented in John's
Gospel is radically different in character,
actions, speeches and pretensions from the
Jesus of the .Synoptics; while with, those,
Luke again differs widely in essential
points from his two predecessors who are
themselves by no means a unity on the
narrative, or the speeches and parables.
A careful investigation into the Gospels
proves that not only no part of (lie narra
tive can be fully relied upon as being his
torically certain, but also no speed),parable
or sentence supposed to have been uttered
by Jesus himself will stand the test of
historical criticism. What Jesus himself
did,, suffered, opposed or taught, hence
what influence he exercised upon the origin
of Christianity, or what religious principles
be laid down for his disciples, is next to
an impossibility to ascertain. Every bio
graphy of Jesus, every life of Christ must
necessarily be considered an individual
conception footing upon uncertainties; and
the expression the religion of Christ is
simply a misnomer.
The epistles are the oldest Christian liter
ature and th,e most unquestionable sources
for the origin of Christianity. They were
known to the Gospel writers, and wore used
by them. We learn from the epistles what
the apostles taught. It is from the teach^-
iugs of the apostles that one might souier
times ascertain doctrines of Jesus. There
fore the epistles are the main sources used
by the author of this work. In the epistles
themselves there are two entirely distinct
systems of Christianity, one of which is
represented by Peter, James, John and the
other original apostles, and the other by
Paul and his followers. The history of
the development of these two systems is
in " The Acts of the Apostles." Therefore
this latter book serves as the basis to this
work. The facts have been separated from
the embellishment, and the origin of Chris
tianity, as represented by the apostles,
chronologically arranged and carefully
compared with other sources.
Among the other sources which the
author consulted, it is chiefly the Talmud
and other rabbinical scriptures. He under
took the task of translating several hun
dred talmudical passages for this work, all
rendered from the originals, and hopes to
have expounded numerous passages in the
New Testament, which are otherwise un
intelligible. He hopes still more to have
opened an entirely new avenue of research
to Christian theology and criticism. The
Talmud and other rabbinical books con
sulted by the author, contain not only the
contemporary history, archeology and litera
ture of the very time when Jesus and the
apostles lived, but also the laws and doc
trines, as well as the superstitious arid
aberrations of that age and that country.
Without the Talmud, a perfect understand
ing of original Christianity is almost im
possible, as the candid reader of this book
will undoubtedly admit, alter a careful
perusal of it.
May this humble contribution to Ameri
can literature be acceptable to the GREAT
I AM, and prove a blessing to all who long
after truth. This is the prayer of
THE AUTHOR.
CINCINNATI, May, 1868.
I N D E X.
I N T R O D U C T I O N.
CHAPTER I.
The Nascent Church at Jerusalem, 16
CHAPTER II.
The Holy Ghost, 23
CHAPTER III.
The Glossology, 50
CHAPTER IV.
The Government, of the Nascent Congrega
tion <>8
CHAPTER V.
On the Miracles, 84
CHAPTER VI.
The Persecution of the Apostles, 133
CHAPTER VII.
The Apostles' Creed, 170
CHAPTER VIII.
The Martyrdom, of Stephen, 203
CHAPTER IX.
Paul— Acher, 311
CHAPTER X.
The Creed of Paid, 351
CHAPTER XI.
The Conversion of the Gentiles, 425
CHAPTER XII.
The Voyages of Paul, 447
CHAPTER XIII.
Capture, Trial and Deportation of Paut,A76
CHAPTER XIV.
The last Days of Paul 511
ORIGIN OF
C H R I S T I A N I T Y.
INTRODUCTION.
The book next to the fourth Gospel in
the Christian canon is called, " The Acts of
the Apostles," or also, "The Acts." It
begins with a brief sketch of the resurrec
tion, post mortem communications for forty
days with the disciples, and the ascension
of Jesus, contradictory nob only to the ac
counts of the same events by Paul, John,
Mark and Matthew, but also to Luke's ac
count, notwithstanding the undisputed
fact, that the Luke oF the third Gospel was
also the author of " The Acts,"
The entire book, after those introductory
remarks, is devoted to the transactions of
the apostles and the fate of the first con
gregations, after the demise of Jesus. Its
author, as remarked already, is identical
with him who wrote the third Gospel. The
introductory verse points expressly to that
Gospel as " the former treatise" of the
author, in which the same Theophilus is
addressed. The character and style of both
works, favorite phrases and crystalized
prejudices for Romans and Samaritans, the
2
want of knowledge of the Hebrew, the
laws and customs of the Jews, and of the
geography of Palestine common to both
books, proves their origin from one author
a fact, which the church early admitted.
(Antiq. Ital. iii, 854).
The authors of the Gospels being un
known, the author of Acts can not be
pointed out with any degree of certainty.
The author of the third Gospel, in the in
troduction, states that many before him
had undertaken to write clown the Chris
tian story. This entitles us to the hypothe
sis that the Gospels according to Matthew
and Mark, and probably also apocryphal
works of this nature, were written previ
ously to Luke's, who knew them, quoted
from them, changed and added, both stories
and words. In "The Acts," however, he
refers to no predecessors in this task, and
leads us to believe he was the first writer
on this topic. This leads us to the inquiry,
from what sources did the author of " The
Acts" take the stories which he narrates?
It is certain that the author had two dif
ferent sources before him. In the history
of Paul, which occupies the largest portion
of the book, the author uses the pronoun
" we," (chapters 16, 20, 21, 27, 28) so that the
narrator suddenly includes himself in the
narrative, which is not the case in any
other portion of the book. The character
of these two sources is entirely different,
not only in style, but in the very object of
the stories. The one is full of tendency,