MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

MODERN JUDAISM.

LECTURES DELIVERED BY

SOLOMON SCHINDLER,

OF THE TEMPLE ADATH ISRAEL, IN BOSTON.

JESEitfj an Entrotmction ftg MINOT J. SAVAGE.

Boston:

S. E. CASSINO AND COMPANY. 1886.

COPYRIGHT, 1886, Bv S. E. CASSINO AND COMPANY.

ELECTROTYPED BY C. J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON.

Stack Annex

fHg Belofart HENRIETTE SCHINDLER,

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED IN THANKFULNESS,

BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

"WHAT epoch would you choose to have lived in ? " a lady once asked the late Chauncey Wright. "The most modern," was his reply. Amen, say I, unless I could come to life again in a hundred or a thousand years. For the present most certainly is the most cheering and inspiring age of the world's history so far. The world is not old, worn out, and hastening to decay. Politically, industrially, and religiously, we are seeing the first rays of the dawn of humanity's long day. The real " Golden Age " is ahead of us, not in the past. The twilight has been very long ; and, while the mists and shadows have hung over the earth, people have easily imagined faces of hate and terror looking down on them out of the sky, and have found it hard to recognize friends in the uncertain movements of those about them. But now that the sun is up, the sky is seen to smile, and the supposed enemies of the darkness are found to be friends.

One of the most striking indications of this religious advance is the coming together at last

viii . Preface.

of the Christian and the Jew. According to the narrow "orthodox" interpretation of these words this coming together may seem to be brought about by the Christian's ceasing to be a Christian, and the Jew's ceasing to be a Jew. But if so, it is only because those terms have been so interpreted as to be too small for the growing religious life of man. If either " Chris- tian" or "Jew" is so defined as to make it less than "man," then it is time for both of them to be outgrown.

And it is curious and instructive to note the genesis of the old hate as well as the genesis of the new friendship. The Jews, at the time of their captivity in Babylon, borrowed the story of Eden and the Fall of Man from an old Turanian epic. And this, together with their own tradi- tions, which they came to regard as the infallible Word of God, became the instrument of their bondage, and the means of their isolation from the common life of humanity. This same book also, supplemented by another Scripture, and interpreted in the light of that other, became also the mental prison-house of Christendom. And this isolation in both cases bred spiritual pride and hate.

But now, after long centuries of enmity, at least some Christians and some Jews have grown brave enough to question their tradi- tions. They dare to be hospitable to new

Preface. ix

ideas, to think that even the religious world may become wiser, and that maturity may know more than childhood. So, as they look into each other's faces, they are becoming conscious that religious hate was born of religious igno- rance and conceit, and that a truer knowledge of God means a broader love for man.

Thus when Jew and Christian cease fighting over what neither of them knows, they find themselves on the common ground of human need, human labor, and human hope. And here God meets them as the common Father and Helper.

This volume of lectures by a Jew, delivered to an audience more than half of which was Christian, and treating frankly and freshly a theme of equal interest to both, is both prophecy and fulfilment of the broader religious life of the time. As such I hail it. My standing here to introduce my friend to a larger audience than that which first greeted him does not mean that I am ready to agree with everything he says. It means a much better thing than that — the grand and hopeful fact that the world at last is willing to hear an earnest man without waiting to find out whether it agrees with him or not. We are coming to have faith in truth at last ; and this is much better than believing that our faith is true. Having got rid of the conceit that we already have all the truth that God intended for

x Preface.

the world, there is some hope now of our really finding all the truth we need. I welcome this book because I believe that it is at least honest in its search. And since the truth-seeker is the only God-seeker, I feel sure that they who seek shall find the Father.

But now my simple task is done. An archi- tect once said to me, many years ago, "Columns that support nothing, but are set up only to look at, are bad taste in architecture. Have only what is of use ; then ornament that as much as you please." I have often thought of this as applying in general to all literary style. And particularly have I thought of it when called on to write a preface to % book. This book needs no columns of mine to support it. It will be able to stand on its own foundations. And I should regard it as specially bad taste in me to set up too long a row of pillars in front of it. My only ambition has been to set up a few very modest posts to mark the path that leads to the doorway, and thus to indicate my be- lief that it will be worth the reader's while to enter in.

M. J. SAVAGE.

FEB. 18, 1886.

CONTENTS.

PACK

INTRODUCTORY i

"Two THOUSAND YEARS AGO" 15

" THE CARPENTER'S SON " 32

JUDAISM THE MOTHER, CHRISTIANITY THE DAUGHTER . 50

A GENUINE MESSIAH 66

THE SPANISH INQUISITION 83

DAVID RUBENI AND SOLOMON MOLCHO 101

THE KABBALAH 118

SABBATAI Zwi 134

CONCLUSION 152

THE PITTSBURG CONFERENCE: ITS CAUSES .... 170

THE PITTSBURG CONFERENCE: ITS WORK 186

MODERN JUDAISM 206

THE SINAITIC REVELATION 224

MOSES 239

PROPAGATION OF RELIGION 256

CHURCHES AND THEIR RELATION TO MORALS .... 276

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS.

i.

INTRODUCTORY.

DEAS are as mortal as men, who are their exponents : their origin and life are similar to that of any human being : they are lim- ited, as is mankind, by time and space. Ideas are first conceived by the human mind, and pass a period of embryonic existence before they become strong enough to bear the light and the changing temperature of the world. Then they pass a term of childhood, during which they are subject to all kinds of diseases, and the weak among them die fast, like infants in a crowded city. Those only which are en- dowed with sufficient vitality survive ; they grow up to manhood, fight their battles, and not sel- dom conquer the world. After their mission is fulfilled and their vitality exhausted, they enter into a period of decrepit old age. Though they are now of little, if any, usefulness, they still command the respect and the reverence of the

2 Messianic Expectations.

world on account of their age and their former renown. But every day brings them nearer to the grave, until their last hour strikes ; and after a few last convulsions they pass away, sometimes as unnoticed as they appeared upon the stage of life.

Before, however, their contemporaries are ready to bury them, a dispute frequently arises as to the reality of their death. Some can hardly believe that an idea which has lived and worked among them for such a length of time, which has performed such great and marvellous deeds, and which has commanded their rever- ence during all their lifetime, has indeed passed away. They cling to it with filial love and. de- votion, and deceive themselves with the hope that the departed idea is only asleep for a while, or in a trance from which it will surely awaken after a few hours. Others, who have always been depending on the departed idea for their sustenance, are fearing the loss of their support, and are unwilling to give up their privileges. They too claim that death has not yet occurred ; that they still observe some tokens of life ; and they too are opposed to a speedy interment. On the other hand, the health officers, reason and common sense, insist upon the necessity of the burial. They claim that the process of dis- solution will infect the neighborhood with the germs of disease. Thus the defunct idea is

finally buried, in spite of all remonstrances ; and posterity either passes by its grave indiffer* ently or places a wreath of evergreen upon it, as the case may be.

As there O9cur cases of death among men every day which, though unnoticed by the mul-. titude, cast their gloom over the circles in which the departed had moved, thus ideas are dying away in and with almost every generation, the death of which affects only those who stood in near relationship to them. And thus have we, the Israelites of the present generation, been the witnesses of the death of an idea which was conceived more than two thousand years ago by our nation, which passed its childhood, manhood, and old age under its protection, and which has now expired after a long and marvellous career, never to be revived again.

The idea to which I refer is no other than the hope of our nation in the advent of a per- sonal Messiah who would collect the scattered remnants of Israel under one banner, re-estab- lish them in Palestine, rebuild Jerusalem in its former glory, and make Zion the capital not only of the Holy Land, but that of the whole world.

In the following lectures I shall give the eulogy of this idea, and trace its history from its very conception to the hour of its death. May it suffice, however, at present, if I ex-

4 Messianic Expectations.

plain the reasons first why I selected such a topic, and then why I maintain that the idea of the advent of a Messiah has died of late; is stone dead now, and ought to be buried by the side of similar defunct ideas, in spite of all op- position which may be raised against its final interment.

Although our nation is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, on earth ; although it has lived on every continent, in every zone, in every climate ; although we have a history, a litera- ture of our own, excelled by no other ; it has been our misfortune that we have never been understood by our neighbors. At best, we have been looked at with distrust ; and though we have always thrown in our lot with our fellow- citizens in happiness and adversity, though we have been born and raised among them for generations, we have always been denounced by them as a foreign element, as a sect, the aspira- tions and hopes of which differed widely from those of the majority. This misunderstanding, this distrust, has not been removed even in our time and in this our country. You meet with it wherever you turn in political, social, mercan- tile, life. One of the reasons why we were and are distrusted is, as it appears to me, that we were and are still supposed to consider our country as only a temporary domicile, or, in other words, that we are suspected of indif-

Introductory. 5

ference toward our country and its inhabitants. We are said to yearn for a return to the land of our forefathers, and to be impatiently awaiting the time when a Messiah shall appear among us, and not only restore our political indepen- dence, but make us the masters of the world. If this were the case, if these were indeed our hopes and aspirations, I must say that our neighbors would be perfectly justified in dis- trusting us ; for I agree with them that a man cannot have two countries at the same time, that he can be attached with sincerity to only one country. The man will never be a good American citizen who always dreams of a re- turn to the country from which he came, and who delights only in the customs and usages of the fatherland.

But in this regard our neighbors were and are entirely mistaken. Not one of us cares to leave this country except on a visit ; not one of us harbors in his heart any love for Palestine, un- less it is that esteem in which classical ground is held by every man of culture : there is not one among us who expects the advent of a Messiah.

I always took it for granted that, with the ex- ception of the ignorant, our fellow-citizens were aware of the fact that modern Judaism has long since discarded the hope in the advent of a Mes- siah, and that the modern Israelite is with all

6 Messianic Expectations.

his heart and soul a citizen of the country in which he lives, and where he is granted human rights ; but how great has been my surprise when in conversation with persons of high cul- ture, of eminent scholarship, and of rare intel- ligence, I have found that they still believe us yearning for Palestine and praying for the ad- vent of a Messiah, that they still think it a distinguishing feature between Jews and Chris- tians that we believe the Messiah will come, and they that he has come. Open the geographi- cal text-books which your children use at school, and you will find therein, in cold print, the statement that the Jews are a sect which is ex- pecting a Messiah, who, as the Christians claim, has already come ; and thousands of children memorize this erroneous statement year after year, and hear it repeated Sunday after Sunday at church ; and we do absolutely nothing to contradict it and to rectify the error. It is therefore time, high time, that we make an at- tempt to enlighten our fellow-citizens in regard to our hopes ; that we show to them the tomb in which the Messianic expectations of our na- tion are buried.

But although the misunderstanding may be partly laid before our door, inasmuch as we may have neglected to notify the Christian world promptly of the demise of the Messianic idea, we shall find that our Christian friends are not

Introductory. 7

entirely faultless ; for they have never shown any readiness to accept our information : they have reasons for not believing in the death of that idea, and they remonstrate against its in- terment. The same people who distrust our patriotism on the ground that we are expecting a Messiah and wishing to return to Palestine, — these same people are shocked and horrified when we tell them that we do not any longer expect a Messiah, and have not the faintest desire for a political restoration of our people. Now why ? Because such intelligence strikes at the root of their own religious belief. The whole structure of their religion rests upon the belief of the Jewish nation in the advent of a Messiah. As long as this idea has been strong and vigorous among us, their building has stood firm ; but from the moment the idea expired, from the moment its fallacy was demonstrated, their structure could not be saved from its downfall. They are actually placed between the two horns of a dilemma, and do not know which to choose. They do not know at present whether they should prefer us to be indifferent citizens or to be indifferent to Messianic expec- tations. For this very reason, it becomes doubly our duty to spread that intelligence as far as our circles reach, and to show to the Gentile world that Messianic expectations are not essential to Judaism ; that Judaism can

8 Messianic Expectations.

exist without them ; that the Jewish mission is not chained to Palestine, but embraces the whole world ; that, metaphorically speaking, Israel itself is the Messiah whom God has destined to enlighten the nations of the earth.

In the course of my subsequent lectures, I shall therefore show that the Messianic idea had originally a political, and by no means a reli- gious or spiritual, tendency ; that it never ap- peared as a manifestation of a healthy condi- tion of the body politic of the Jewish people, but rather as a mental disease, as a mania, as an epidemic, which would break out at times of great national calamity. I shall show that these epidemics repeatedly occurred with greater or less force up to the eighteenth cen- tury. I shall show how the Messiah, originally political, was transformed by degrees into a divine messenger, directly descending from heaven, who should re-assemble, in a miraculous manner, the Israelites from all the corners of the earth, bring them to Palestine, raise the dead, judge the whole world, past and present, punish the wicked and reward the faithful, and establish a universal government and a uni- versal religion. I shall show how the Messi- anic fancy finally pined away when the new era shed its full light upon its absurdities, until it died out entirely.

Introductory. 9

The word Messiah itself deserves a close scrutiny. The Hebrew word mashach means to spread an oily or greasy substance over a per- son or an article ; but right from the start it implied a sacred ceremony. Jacob poured oil upon the stone upon which he had rested and enjoyed that wonderful dream. Moses is or- dered to prepare oil for the special purpose of anointing his brother Aaron as high priest, and also to anoint the different articles of fur- niture which were to be used in the tabernacle, in order to give him and them a certain sanctity in the eyes of the people. The narrative and command are given in such a matter-of-fact way that there cannot be the least doubt that, among ancient nations, especially those with whom the Israelites had come in contact, there must have been in use a similar ceremony of installing the highest officials, kings or priests, into their ex- alted position. Why oil was poured over their heads, in what connection oil stood with the dignity of the office, what the meaning of the custom was originally, when and where it origi- nated, is more than I can tell ; and, I think, more than anybody else can tell. The fact, however, remains that the ceremony of pouring oil upon the head of a person meant to conse- crate him for a high political position. The Mosaic constitution had provided for a hierar- chical government. The high priest alone was,

io Messianic Expectations.

therefore, to be anointed. After the decline of the primitive priesthood, we find that Samuel anointed Saul, and afterward David, as kings over Israel ; and that from that time it became necessary for a king to be anointed in order to be acknowledged by the people as their legiti- mate sovereign. Mashiach, or the anointed, is, therefore, synonymous with the word king. Whenever in political language that word has been made use of, it had no other meaning, and could have had no other, than that of legitimate king. None, however, of all the so-called Mes- siahs who have appeared in the course of his- tory, has undergone or has found it necessary to undergo the ceremony of having oil poured over his head ; which evidently shows that the origi- nal meaning having been forgotten or obliter- ated by that time, the word mashiach, or, in the Latin version, messias, denoted simply a king, but not a divine messenger.

The illustrious reign of David, and the inde- pendence which the united kingdom of Israel enjoyed during his government, appeared in the next centuries the more glorious the more the weakness and dependence of Israel were then felt. At a time when royalty was hereditary, and people not seldom waged war to install an infant upon a throne for no other cause than that it was the lineal descendant of a king, it was quite natural that when for the first time the hope of

Introductory. 1 1

a regeneration of the Israelitish kingdom was expressed, a Messiah, or king, was expected, who, descending from David, should also be heir to his courage, power, and success, and should bring back the glory of the past.

All Messianic expectations centred, there- fore, in the requirement of a lineal descent of the Messiah from the house of David. None of them, however, has ever proved his descent ; and to-day such a proof has become entirely impossible, as all traces have been lost.

The absurdity of upholding the hope in the advent of a Messiah in our time or any future time, will furthermore appear in a still more glar- ing light if we take away its theoretical fanciful garment, and translate it into practical reality.

Supposing a person should appear among us who should be equipped with all the necessary testimonials of his divine mission, even of his lineal descent from David, if this could improve his title ; supposing he should by some means gather the Israelites from all parts of the world and settle them again in Palestine, — would this enhance our happiness ? Supposing, even, he should find for us room and employment in the new country, supposing all impossibilities should be made possible by him, let me ask the one question, What kind of a government do you think the Messiah would establish ? The re- publican form would be entirely out of ques-

12 Messianic Expectations.

tion. Just imagine a Messiah elected for a term of one, four, or seven years ; just imagine a Messiah passing through the ordeal of a politi- cal campaign in which not only his own record, but that of his ancestors upward to David, should be exposed and laid bare to ridicule ! No, those who expect a Messiah must give up forever the hope that he would establish a re- publican government. Would it be a constitu- tional monarchy ? Equally absurd. Imagine a Messiah quarrelling with his parliament, and the latter refusing to vote the necessary appro- priations ! The only imaginable form of govern- ment under a Messiah would be despotism. Under his rule there would be no free thought, no free speech, and surely no free press. No opinion differing from that of the Messiah either in politics or religion would be tolerated, and should we call this happiness ? Would this condition of slavery be the ne plus ultra of our hopes and aspirations ? For this state of men- tal stagnation should we be supposed to pray ? Absurd, thrice absurd.

At the time when the Jews were crowded into the Ghetto ; at the time when our ancestors were denied the most fundamental of all human rights, namely, the right to live ; at the time when they were chased from country to coun- try, and had to purchase at heavy expense the privilege of breathing the foul air of their se-

Introductory. 1 3

eluded quarters ; at the time when ignorance ruled supreme among them, and still more among their oppressors ; at such a time all fanciful hopes and fantastic expectations were permissible, and no picture of Messianic hap- piness could be overdrawn. Did they care what kind of government a Messiah would institute ? Did they care for liberty of speech and freedom of the press ? They would have kissed the feet of the most selfish despot, pro- vided he would have granted them recognition, and placed them on an equal footing with their fellow citizens.

But we, the children of the nineteenth, cen- tury ; we, the free citizens of a free republican country ; we, the graduates of the best schools the world has seen ; we, whose hands have learned to fold and cast a ballot, we do care under what kind of government we are placed ; we do love the privileges of a republic, and would not for the world change it for any other form ; we do value free thought, free speech, and free press, as the highest attainments of humanity ; and we shall never renounce them. How could we, therefore, be expected to yearn after Messianic despotism ; how could we be suspected of infidelity to a country which grants us these boons, and of favoring Palestine, where all these glorious privileges would have no room ?

14 Messianic Expectations.

The hope in the advent of a Messiah and in the restoration of Israel is surely dead. It has died out in the heart of every intelligent Ameri- can Israelite. As with the increase of knowl- edge the horizon of the human mind has been widened, as the universe has grown larger for us than it ever was for bygone generations, as God even has grown infinitely larger, mightier, and holier than ever, thus our hopes have grown in proportion. They have lost their national char- acter, and have become universal. We have given up all those fanciful notions of a political restoration of Israel through the instrumentality of a" Messiah, and have adopted in their place the hope that all humanity will sometime reach by steady evolution a degree of happiness far beyond the present, and far beyond description ; a state in which the evils still adhering to man- kind will be removed, and its virtues increased and developed. United, and hand in hand with all our human brethren, we shall strive to ad- vance toward this goal ; and if there must be a distinction between us, let it be that of a gener- ous competition as to who shall reach the mark first.

II.

"TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO."

PON what does the earth rest? This question greatly agitated the minds of people before the time of Newton and Copernicus. The answer was that it rests upon the back of an enormous elephant. But the inquisitiveness of human nature could not be set at rest so easily. Another question was raised : Upon what does the elephant rest ? Answer : The elephant stands on top of an immense turtle. Yet this answer even did not give the desired satisfaction. The new question turned up : Upon what does the turtle rest ? Instead of answering this time, the scientist of that age grumblingly complained in rather strong language that one fool would be likely to ask more questions than ten wise men could answer ; and thus the conundrum was never solved.

Whenever we turn to historical research, we are in a similar quandary. We lack a basis which could safely carry our argument. We brag a great deal about historical knowledge

1 6 Messianic Expectations.

and historical facts ; but whenever we are called upon to bring them to light we find that our knowledge is very limited ; that there are com- paratively few real historical facts; and that our so-called history, with all our argumentation on top of it, floats, like that gigantic turtle, upon nothing.

Ancient history especially has mixed up a few grains of truth with such a bulk of fiction that it is now well nigh impossible to sift the wheat from the chaff. Some few scraps of statements made by some writer as the facts appeared to him individually, — for the most part not even corroborated by a contemporary, — have been handed down to us and palmed off on us as history. But even if we were ready and willing to accept the statements of a Herodotus, a Tacitus, a Livy, or a Josephus, as plain and absolute truth, with our best intentions we could not supply another deficiency ; namely, that by the slow and laborious process of copy- ing and recopying the manuscript by hand, in course of time so much of the original must have been changed, so many interpolations and additions must have been added to it, that if the original writer should be confronted to-day with his works, he would probably deny his authorship. And, after all, how did these writers know ? History was never written at the time when the facts occurred. The current

" Two Thousand Years Ago." 17

of the present is so swift and rapid, the multi- tude of facts taking place at every moment is so overwhelming, that the quickest camera could not take a correct negative of them. It is fur- thermore impossible for men to be both actors and spectators ; we cannot be at the same time upon the stage and in front of it. History, therefore, has always been written by posterity. Now you will acknowledge that it would be a difficult task to-day to write a correct history of, let me say, the life of George Washington, although we are in possession of the archives containing all the official documents written or signed by him ; although we have the files of the newspapers published at his time at our dis- posal, and many other advantages which the historian of former ages never had at his com- mand. Tacitus, for example, had never seen Germany or Judea ; still he wrote extensively about these countries. All his information was obtained from soldiers who had been there ; and he took their yarns for facts : and we too have become accustomed to take them for facts. And this very Tacitus lived and wrote at a time when the Romans stood at the summit of civili- zation, and poets and writers were growing up among them like mushrooms.

In regard to Jewish history, and subsequently to that of the origin of Christianity, the entan- glement is not less bewildering, although past

1 8 Messianic Expectations.

generations have attempted to solve the diffi- culty and to find a desirable historical basis by cutting the Gordian knot in a somewhat pecu- liar way. They picked out a certain number of literary works relating their own history and that of their nearest neighbors, and attributed them to a divine authorship. They claimed that God himself had dictated, word for word, both the Old and the New Testament. From such divine statements there was of course no appeal. God, who knows the past as well as the future, could not err; he stood above all human criticism : and it was a long time before the Bible was submitted to a close historical scrutiny. For centuries, it has been a heresy, almost a crime, to doubt one iota of this sacred literature; to doubt that Moses wrote all the books attributed to him ; to doubt that the Psalms were all written by David, or the Eccle- siastes by Solomon ; to ask in what way and by what means the first correct copy of the ora- tions of the prophets was obtained, or to con- sider these speeches as pertaining to their time only, or to the immediate future ; and so on ad infinitum. For the so-called believer there was and is no appeal from the letter of scripture.

In my research after the origin of the Mes- sianic idea, I shall, therefore, not argue with the believers. Modern Judaism does not be- lieve blindly : it reasons. Although I take a

" Two Thousand Years Ago." 19

just pride in the grand literature which our na- tion has brought forth and accumulated ; al- though I maintain that all literature is inspired ; that no man can write one single sentence un- less he is divinely inspired ; the books of the Bible are to me, as they are to every intelligent man to-day, products of human, and not of divine, authorship.

All the imperfections which adhere to human productions adhere also to the Bible. The men named as the authors of the different books were not their authors in reality. The real authors lived and wrote much later than the facts occurred which they describe. They col- lected their knowledge from tradition and hear- say ; but though they wrote in good faith, and according to their best understanding, without the least desire to impose, their views must have been limited. Neither can they be held responsible for the changes in the text made by copyists and revisers during the hundreds of years which elapsed between them and the first authentic edition which is in the possession of our time. I shall, therefore, touch them but slightly ; and I wish it understood, from the start, that the renowned eleventh chapter of Isaiah is nothing more to me than a beautiful picture, painted in Eastern colors, of that time of peace which the orator hoped humanity would sooner or later reach. If we were to

2O Messianic Expectations.

picture that time to-day, we should probably give it a different coloring and a less pictur- esque perspective ; but we should surely omit the fourteenth verse as in contradiction to the letter and the spirit of the whole previous ora- tion, and as unbecoming to a true lover of peace.* With no other or better material at hand than scripture offers, I am, however, com- pelled to rest some of my arguments upon the turtle, and to let the turtle float wherever it pleases you.

The first traces of a hope in the advent of such a person as a Messiah are to be found not earlier than in the time shortly before, during, and shortly after, the Babylonian exile. The calamities which had befallen, first the house of Israel, and then the house of Judah, had so discouraged the Israelites that they despaired of their own ability to help themselves; and therefore they hoped for a miraculous interfe- rence of God in their behalf.

They yearned for the independence of the time of David, of which tradition must have brought to them the most glorious reports. A descendant of David was, therefore, to appear and win for them again the respect of their

* Isaiah n : 14. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west. Together shall they spoil the children of the east; upon Edom and Moab shall they lay their hands ; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

" Two Thousand Years Ago," 21

neighbors, and make their voice heard again in the council of the nations.

There is nothing whatever that is unnatural or absurd in such a hope. Up to the last two decades, the Germans too were "hoping for a restoration of the German Empire to its former mediaeval glory. Hundreds of beautiful myths and legends predicted the return of the Kaiser Frederick I., or, as he was popularly nicknamed, Friedrich Barbarossa, "der Rothbart," who, as the legend ran, had never died, but was sleep- ing in the caves of the Kyffhauser Mountain. With him a large army of valiant knights was said to be concealed in the subterranean abode, who would, at the proper season, awake and break forth under his leadership to liberate Germany and to restore its union. It was told that, after every lapse of a hundred years, the old emperor, whose beard had grown all around the marble table upon which his head was rest- ing, would call a shepherd to his cave, and ask him whether the ravens were still flying around the mountain-top ; and that upon his affirming the fact, he would sadly exclaim,

" Und wenn die schwarzen Raben

Noch fliegen immer dar, So muss ich nochmals schlafen Verzaubert hundert Jahr."

One of the first and signal deeds with which Barbarossa was expected to astonish the world

22 Messianic Expectations.

was to wage a successful war against France. What should you think of it if, a thousand years hence, a historian should prove by these myths that the Germans had been expecting a Messiah, and that he actually appeared in the year 1862, but was called, not Barbarossa, but Bismarck ?

The scraps of literature which we possess relating to the time before and after the Baby- lonian exile, and which seem to speak of a Messiah, are of about the same character and the same value as the legends of Barbarossa. They express the hope of a down-trodden nation in a restoration to former glory.

However, after the second Commonwealth had been firmly established, though by far different means than expected, after the second temple had been built, the Jews enjoyed a period of unprecedented prosperity. The yoke of the Persian Empire rested lightly upon them. They paid a small tribute ; and as long as they paid it promptly, they remained unmolested. All Messianic expectations were therefore for- gotten.

During this long season of prosperity, the original Mosaic doctrine maintaining the belief in one God came to full bloom ; and idolatry, formerly flourishing among them, died away entirely. The laws collected and compiled by Ezra, and firmly planted by Nehemiah, fitted

" Two Thousand Years Ago." 23

admirably to their condition. They were ex- cellent laws, such as no other nation could boast of. The belief consequently grew up that they were of divine origin ; and that as long as the nation should strictly adhere to them, it would be successful and prosperous ; but that the slightest deviation from them would again bring the wrath of God upon the people, and that they should be exiled> as their ancestors had been before.

When the Persian Empire fell a prey to Alexander the Great, the condition of the Jews was not materially changed. It was of little importance to them to whom they paid their taxes, whether to the Persians, Egyptians, or Syrians. The closer intercourse with the Greeks tended in the beginning rather to broaden their own philosophy, and the Greeks, who had been accustomed to call all other nations barbarians, were, in their turn, greatly astonished to find such just laws, such deep phil- osophy, such high culture, in a nation of which they had scarcely heard before.

But by degrees some of the Jevtish youth became attracted by Greek culture and customs. At that time the cultured classes of the Greeks were by no means gross idolaters. Socrates had not died in vain, nor had Plato and Aris- totle lived in vain. The practices of Greek idolatry were at that period a mere conse-

24 Messianic Expectations. «

quence of indolence. Idolatry had become too absurd for the educated classes to attempt to wean the rest of the people from it. Their philosophers claimed that the lower classes were in need of some superstition, and advised to let well enough alone. When Hellenism and Judaism finally clashed against each other, the forcible introduction of Greek idols into Palestine was more a matter of policy with Antiochus than of sincerity. Though a few young men sided with the Greeks, the mass of the Jewish people were sincere in their attach- ment to God. By no means would they suffer the least idolatrous rite to be practised in their country ; and the few who had been influenced by the Greeks, and had adopted with their cus- toms also the indolence and indifference of that age towards religion, were decidedly in the minority. While the Hasmonean wars may appear as a religious warfare, well-informed historians claim that they were a political con- test. Antiochus wished to form one large and well-cemented empire of all the small nations which were tributary to him, that he might be able to withstand the power of the Roman Republic, which, since the fall of Carthage and Corinth, had already spread its threatening shadows in an eastern direction. He thought it good policy to tie Judea to his domain by the bonds of the same superstition, as all relig-

" Two Thousand Years Ago" 25

ion was called by the philosophers of that age. But his policy was a mistaken one. Just here the Jews drew the line. He would have found them willing to pay any tribute whatsoever and to render military service ; but they would not permit their religious autonomy to be touched. They flew to arms, and under the leadership of the noble Hasmonean family, a contest raging for several generations followed, which was carried on with changing luck on both sides. At the close of these wars, they found to their greatest surprise that they had gained more than they had ever expected. They had originally fought for home rule only : now they found themselves independent, their country enlarged, with a king, — a descendant not of David but of the Hasmonean house, — at their head. They did not know how to account for their good luck.

The people who had taken up arms for their God and their religion, and who had been called Chasidium, the pious, to distinguish them from the frivolous Hellenistic element, now split into two factions on account of it.

The greater part believed that their success was the result of their obedience to the laws of God ; that God had, in fact, interfered in their behalf ; and that therefore their mission was plain and self-evident. They must enforce the law most rigorously, and refrain from all inter-

26 Messianic Expectations.

course with other nations, especially with the Greek. They were called Pharisees, Perushim, interpreters of the law ; but they were consci- entious, and by no means hypocrites. The other class had seen more of the world. It was composed of all those who not only had been the leaders in previous battles, but who had obtained as statesmen, by shrewd political wire-pulling, more than their swords could ever have won for them. They knew the secret of their success. Their good luck had been the result of Roman influence. That great and in- satiable republic had stretched its hand nearer and nearer towards its prey. Divide and rule had been its motto. It had taken up quite dis- interestedly, as it then appeared, the Jewish cause, as well as that of the other tributaries of which the Syrian kingdom was composed, and had assumed the r61e of a protector over them. Little did these small nations dream at that time that after the fall of Syria and Egypt their turn would come to be annexed to the Roman Empire.

The Sadducees, as they were called, who had been prominent in all the political manoeu- vrings, knew, therefore, too well that rigor and a blind belief in the help of God would not do ; that they must yield to a compromise ; or, in other words, that they must not totally ignore the present. This split in the formerly com-

" Two Thousand Years Ago" 27

pact party accelerated, though it did not cause, the doom of the Jewish nation.

Indeed, their dream of independence and the lustre of the Hasmonean dynasty were of a short duration only. Judea became a Roman province before the inhabitants became aware of it ; and, while the Roman senate left to them some shadow of self-government, it had already fastened the shackles to the victim. When the Jews came to themselves, they found themselves tied, hand and foot, in the power of an almighty foe. Their condition, indeed, was then most pitiable. Their independence was crushed, their king a mere puppet in the hands of the Roman Caesars, their high priest without authority, their laws set at nought by the whims of the Roman proconsul. Roman le- gions fattened at the public expense : rapacious Roman procurators drained the resources of the land by heavy taxation.

Jerusalem had then three separate courts, which rivalled one another in luxury. There was the high priest and his household, and with him all the temple functionaries, who were sup- ported in grand style by the reverence of the people and from fear that God would withdraw his protection from them unless every tax which was due to the temple were scrupulously paid. Next came the royal household, the dignity of which was to be upheld at a heavy expense.

28 Messianic Expectations.

Finally, there was the Roman governor, who knew perfectly well how to make a public office pay, and who imitated the extravagance of Rome. No wonder that times were hard for the tax- payer ; no wonder that the peaceful real-estate owner grew riotous ; no wonder that the burden became unbearable, and that the nation despaired of itself. At this period of national calamity, at the time when the days of the Jewish com- monwealth were already numbered, the hope broke forth with new vigor that, as human efforts were of no avail, God himself would, must, interfere and set matters aright. The first commonwealth had fallen on account of the sins of their forefathers ; but this time they were innocent : they had strictly obeyed the law ; and God, if he were just, was in honor bound to come to their rescue. Neither was there any cause to doubt the ability of God to save them. Had he not returned the captives to the land of their forefathers ? Had he not assisted their very parents and grandparents in their struggle against the power of Syria ? There was not the least doubt in their minds that the present time was only a time of trial, and that God would soon rectify matters. During the Hasmonean era, the prophetical books had become quite popular. They were now read and re-read with eagerness, and were naturally interpreted to fit the present needs

" Two Thousand Years Ago" 29

and hopes. The idea spread that, as the de- scendants of the Hasmonean house had not the courage to oppose the greed of rapacious Rome, they had forfeited their right to the throne ; and that a scion of the house of David would therefore be sent by God, who should drive the Romans out of the country, and bring back the former independence and glory.

The maltreated, overtaxed farmer, the unem- ployed artisan, the bankrupt merchant, the de- moralized soldier, the aristocrat who had to bend his head before the haughty Roman magistrate, — they all drank eagerly the hope of the advent of a Messiah, and awaited impatiently the favor- able moment when, sword in hand, they could shake off the yoke of the oppressor ; and they had not the least doubt that, at that auspicious moment, God would send the right man to lead them to success.

But there were also people who were not half so sanguine as their more zealous neighbors. They knew that a revolt against Rome would be useless. Rome could only take of him who owned property ; and it was only for the im- provement of the condition of the property- holder that war was to be undertaken. They sought, therefore, safety in a change of the whole social system. Nihilistic and communis- tic tendencies began to develop. These classes too were expecting the man who should have

30 Messianic Expectations,

the power of establishing an ideal society after their heart ; and who would, according to the peculiar language which they used, save the world.

The hope in the advent of a king duly anointed for his office, who would improve the state of affairs, grew stronger and mightier every day the more unbearable the national misery grew. It was again the natural growth of the unhealthy condition of the time ; and the sicker the national body grew, the wider spread and the .more intense grew the mania.

The Roman authorities on their part wished for nothing better than that a crisis should be reached as soon as possible ; and they rather stimulated a revolt of the people, in order to obtain a pretext for crushing the nation at once. They, too, were wishing that the Messiah, with whose appearance they were threatened day by day, would come. They had nothing to lose, and all to win. And thus day by day added to the fuel, which, if fired by an over-zealous or uncautious hand would spread its conflagration over the land.

In vain did the cautious among the people raise their voice of warning ; they could not undo what generations had prepared. Such was the condition of the time shortly before the destruction of the second temple ; and the first flash of lightning which appeared and disap-

" Two Thousand Years Ago" 3*

peared in the political sky of the second com- monwealth, the appearance of Jesus of Naza- reth, predicted the coming hurricane which swept the Jewish nation, politically, from the face of the earth.

III.

"THE CARPENTER'S SON."

f T is not without some hesitation nor without jf some embarrassment that I open the dis-

T cussion of the life and mission of a man who, though he sprang from Jewish parent- age, and is said to have lived the life of a con- scientious Jew, has been placed between our race and the rest of civilized humanity as a barrier to exclude us from a more intimate intercourse with our fellow-men ; whose very name still alienates from us to-day the affection of our fellow-citizens, though almost nineteen centuries have passed since its bearer walked the ground of Palestine. Neither must I lose sight of the veneration in which he is held by our Christian friends, many of whom love in him the ideal of a magnanimous, high-minded, and noble man ; while millions of others still confide in him in life and in death, and adore and worship him as a God. It is, therefore, not more than simple courtesy on our part if we respect their feelings, as we wish our own re- spected, and if we discuss our subject with as

" The Carpenters Son" 33

much careful delicacy and tenderness as we can possibly grant to a historical research, which is intended not to obtain notoriety, but to instruct ; to weed out existing prejudices, and to establish a better understanding between us. I beg you, therefore, to distinguish well between the ideal' Jesus, who has been a creation of Christianity, and the historical Jesus of Nazareth as he lived and died.

You can imagine at any time, if you so choose, a human body in such giantlike proportions that its head should reach the zenith while its feet should touch the nadir. In the very same way, you may imagine all the qualities of the human soul raised to their highest degree of perfection. We Israelites are accustomed to attribute these qualities of the spirit in their highest perfection to an invisible God ; to the One God who has created the universe, and supports and governs it in wisdom and love ; while our Christian friends have become accustomed to affix these very same attributes to a human form, to that of Jesus of Nazareth. Herein we differ ; and, therefore, I shall have nothing to say concern- ing the ideal structure which has been built up during the last nineteen centuries, which is in the process of building yet, and which will not be finished before humanity has reached the highest round on the ladder of civilization.

I beg also to differ historically in two other

34 Messianic Expectations.

points with oar Christian friends ; and I hope they will not consider my utterances as disre- spectful. I maintain that Jesus was not the founder of Christianity ; that he never planned it nor laid its foundation ; but that his personal- ity has been brought into the Church, and used as its corner-stone. I claim, furthermore, that there are no historical sources whatsoever from which we could derive authentic information concerning his life, his deeds, and his death. This point is of such grave importance that I must dwell on it, with your permission, a minute or two before I proceed one step further.

There are only three sources from which it has become customary te quote in regard to Jesus of Nazareth. The first and foremost of them is the New Testament. Again I must caution my hearers that I do not believe in a divine authorship of any book whatsoever, be it called the Old or the New Testament, and that I shall always refrain from arguing a historical point with a so-called believer. If one wishes to believe that Homer was divinely inspired, and that the Iliad and Odyssey were dictated to him by God himself, and that therefore these books must be true, word for word, I shall not object. Let him believe, then, that Cyclops Polyphemus had but one eye in his forehead, and that Ulysses blinded him ; let him believe that the hero visited Hades, and conversed with his former

" The Carpenter's Son" 35

friends ; let him believe whatever he pleases. But when we come to discuss historical facts, we must be unhampered by belief. Bibliogra- phers have long since proved that the Four Gospels, which, after all, contradict one another in important points, were written more than a century later than the death of Jesus ; not by eye-witnesses, but by people who collected their material from tradition, and who had already a principle, a theory, to affirm by their story. I' do not question at all their veracity or sincerity; but they lacked for their narrative the authentic material, and could not help being biassed in their judgment. These literary products lose still more in the eye of the critic by the fact that the original text has been tampered with since. Only of late, a scrap of parchment has been discovered which contains a passage from one of the Gospels. Scientists place its age as far back as the third and fourth century. In it an important passage, relating to the promised return of Jesus, is entirely omitted ; which would prove, if it proves anything, that still later than the fourth century interpolations, if we shall not call them falsifications, of the original text, must have taken place. A jury which finds the tes- timony of a witness unreliable in one point generally throws out his testimony entirely ; and so does the historian. To him the Gospels are of little historical value.

36 Messianic Expectations.

The second source is the historian Josephus, who lived at the time of Jesus, and consequently must have known of him, if the latter had, in- deed, been a distinguished person or of any prominence. Though he gave considerable space to the narrative of minor events, Josephus originally never mentioned him. The cele- brated and frequently quoted ^passage in his Antiquities (book xviii., chapter 3,) has been 'condemned by authorities, such as Nathaniel Lardner, as an interpolation ; and Origen, the great Christian writer of the third century, shows by his writings contra Celsum that he did not know of that passage, which consequently must have been inserted much later and for a purpose.* Another historian, Justus of Tibe-

* I shall briefly give the arguments of Dr. Lardner, a very learned Presbyterian clergyman, who flourished in the early part of the last century. The passage reads thus : —

" At the time lived Jesus, a wise man, if he may be called a man; for he performed many wonderful works. He was a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many Jews and Gentiles. This was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the instigation of the chief men among us, had condemned him to the cross, they who before had conceived an affection for him did not cease to adore him. For on the third day he appeared to them alive again; the divine Prophets having foretold these and many other wonderful things concerning him; and the sect of Christians, so called from him, subsists to this time."

I have italicized the parts which Dr. Lardner criticised at length, occupying several pages (London edition, vol. vi., p. 487), but which I shall abridge. They are as follows : —

" The Carpenter s Son." 37

rias, lived at the same time ; but not a word did he mention about the man who, according to the Gospels, must have created quite a stir.

1. This paragraph is not referred to by any Christian writer before Eusebius (in the fourth century), — the Greek fathers, such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen, and the Latin fathers Minucius, Felix, Cyprian, Arro- bius and Lactantius, nor by Chrysostom, a contemporary of Eusebius. These were all well acquainted with the writings of Josephus, and quote him in their works. Dr. L. says : " So extraordinary a testimony to our Saviour, in so celebrated a Jewish writer, should not have been unknown to them, if it had been in him."

2. This passage was wanting in copies of Josephus which were seen by Photius in the ninth century. The said writer in his Biblioteque had no less than three articles concerning Josephus, and never notices such an important testimony; nay, more; Photius says: " This writer (Josephus), being a preju- diced Jew, makes not even the least mention concerning _him (Christ) or the miracles done by him."

3. It interrupts the narrative ; Josephus begins the chapter with a riot that took place in Jerusalem, in which a number of Jews were killed and wounded ; then comes the paragraph above quoted, and next follows that another calamity befel the Jews. The reader will readily perceive that the paragraph which was stuck in between the first and second, or another calamity, is an interpolation ; it is out of place.

4. If Josephus was a Jew, he admitted too much; and if a Christian, he said too little about Christ. I must add only one quotation — the idea would not strike an ordinary reader. He drew over to him many Jew^ and Gentiles. That is not true of the Lord Jesus, if intended of his own personal preach- ing ; it was done indeed afterward. But this manner of speak- ing is more suitable to a writer of the second or third century than to Josephus.

Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Harper's ed., chap. 16, p. 298, in a note), says : "The passage

38 Messianic Expectations.

The third source is the Talmud; but here again we find an ominous silence concerning him. Not before the time that our ancestors were called upon to contest the religious struc- ture which began to grow up upon him as its corner-stone, and to defend themselves against cahimnious charges, is he mentioned, and then only slightly.

Besides these three sources, another argument is frequently brought into use in order to prove not only his existence, but his greatness. Be- hold, say our Christian friends, the marvellous growth of Christianity ! See how it revolution- ized the world, how it civilized the most bar- barous nations ! Could such a success have been achieved if its founder had not been a

concerning Jesus Christ which was inserted into the text of Josephus between the time of Origenand that of Eusebius may furnish an example of no vulgar forgery ; and if any doubt still remains (here he refers to several writers who have proved it a falsity), it would appear pedantic were I to copy the names of eminent theologians who have written against or rejected the said passage ; the proofs that it forms one of the numerous frauds which the Christians of the first three centuries deemed a virtue are overwhelming. The truth is, had Jesus really . been the important personage represented, Josephus would doubtless have noticed him either as a God, a prophet, or an impostor ; but as he mentions John the Baptist, and is utterly silent about Jesus, we may reasonably conclude either there was no such person, or that he was then deemed too insignifi- cant, and that Josephus never heard about the crucifixion or anything concerning him." — From an article of Jacob Norton, published in the American Israelite in April, 1864.

" The Carpenters Son" 39

man of great prominence, if he had not been able to impress his contemporaries with his mission to such an extent as was needed for the future success ? Granted, they say, that there are no authentic literary evidences to be found concerning his life and deeds ; is the mere existence of the Church not evidence enough for his greatness ? Do not facts prove more than words ?

This argument, however rational and reasona- ble it may appear, stands upon weak and tender feet. Indeed, if the plans for the Christian Church had emanated from him, if its doctrines had been promulgated by him, if its system had been suggested by him, then we could conclude from the work about its creator. But, even according to Christian sources, nobody dreamed less of such a structure than its supposed origi- nator. Christianity was not his work ; it was the product of peculiar circumstances, which all worked together in such a marvellous manner that we cannot fail to see the finger of God in its origin and development. The downfall of Hellenistic idolatry, which had been prepared by Greek philosophy long before ; the extinc- tion of the Roman Republic and the decline of the Roman Empire ; the great migration of nations, which, issuing from the north, took a southward course, and changed the geography of the world ; the death of antique civilization

40 Messianic Expectations.

in the waves of barbarism, which, like a second flood, burst upon it, and covered the whole world for a considerable length of time, — all these circumstances together produced what to-day is called Christianity. Nothing can live in this sublunary world unless it is marked for life by God Almighty. Nothing succeeds un- less God has destined it for success ; and thus has Christianity a place on this earth and a mission to fulfil as well as Judaism. And in the course of my lectures I shall with pleasure give due acknowledgment to the great work which Christianity has indeed performed.

Taking it all in all, what may we reasonably presume about Jesus of Nazareth, the so-called Messiah ? Although volumes have been written concerning his life and deeds, his whole history could be inscribed almost upon the nail of a thumb.

Jeshu, an abbreviation of Joshua, and Latin- ized into Jesus, was born of humble parentage. He was the son of Joseph, a poor carpenter, and Miriam, his wife, who were also the parents of several other children. It matters little to the historian that millions of people still ascribe to him a divine origin, and believe him the off- spring of an immaculate conception. There are many more millions of people who believe to-day the very same story, but apply it to another man, to Buddha. Not only are such

" The Carpenters Son." 41

statements unhistorical, but I dare say that the passages in tKe Gospels relating to them were never written by a Jewish author : they were the products of a Grecian pen. The Greeks believed in the intercourse of their gods with mortal women, and saw no disgrace in such an adultery. All their heroes were demi-gods. Even Alexander the Great attempted to insinu- ate that Philip was not his real father, and that he was the son of a god. Greek vanity cared little that the chastity of their women was ques- tioned whenever the customary compliment was rendered to a man by calling him the son of a god. The Greek and Roman populace would have never believed in Jesus the man, the reformer, the martyr, or the Messiah ; but it was easy for them to accept him as the son of the Jewish God, Jehovah. The Jews, on the contrary, held the chastity of their women in so high a respect that they would not permit even a god to violate it.

About his childhood and early education nothing is known. He is said to have learned the trade of his father, that of a carpenter. Grown up to the age of manhood, he joined the sect of the Essenes, which was mostly com- posed of artisans, and represented the socialistic and nihilistic element of which I have spoken in my last lecture. They despised all earthly possessions, would not hold property, lived to-

42 Messianic Expectations.

gether in small bands, sharing everything in common. They would not marry : they believed that a change for the better could be effected only by an ascetic life, and that the Messiah whom every Jew was expecting at that time would transform the whole world into one large communistic brotherhood, in which there should be neither rich nor poor, and from which all the passions adhering to mankind should be removed. He may have grown into promi- nence in the rural districts where he sojourned. He may have spoken of the change which he expected to come over the world, with such a sincerity that, as is quite natural, his friends expected him to produce the change, and may have looked at him as the Messiah. Let me state right here that the name Messiah, or, as it is in Hebrew, Mashiach, is a misnomer, if applied to him ; for he never was anointed for his mission by any authority whatsoever, real or fictitious. How can, therefore, a man be called Mashiach, the Anointed, the Christ, if he never was anointed? Even Christian sources do not claim that the act of anointment was ever performed on him.

Finally, perhaps he learned to believe in himself. A great many people do believe in themselves without being conceited. There would be no heroism if the hero did not believe in his own ability to perform the heroic deed.

" The Carpenter's Son." 43

Young men especially are apt to carry such a belief to an extreme ; and he was a young man. At the time of his death, he was not older than thirty-three years ; the most dangerous period of life, in which the young man attempts to transform his airy ideals into tangible facts.

The most critical season of the year was, at that time, the Passover Festival ; a festival celebrated in remembrance of the liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage. Every male person was bound to be present in Jerusalem during the seven days of this festival ; and the spirit of liberty ran higher then than usual. The Roman procurator found it, therefore, always necessary to be present in person in the city, in order to quell any disturbance which was likely to arise, and to nip every revolt in the bud. You will perhaps understand much better the danger which the return of every Passover Festival brought to the front, if you place yourselves for one moment in the condi- tion of that time.

Supposing our cherished Republic should have been changed into a despotic government ; supposing some other nation stronger than we should defeat us in battle, and should keep us in a state of servitude ; supposing that the indignation of the American people should watch for an opportune moment to break the chains of such a slavery ; would not the Fourth

44 Messianic Expectations.

of July then become the most critical and dan- gerous of all the days of the year ? The remem- brance of the glorious day when the heroic fathers of the country declared their indepen- dence would invite emulation. Any orator of mediocrity even could on that day stir up the people to riot and bloodshed.

The representative of the government then in power would, as a matter of course, be watchful of every movement, and have his sol- diers in readiness to quell any disturbance. He would be at his post of duty on that day from morning till night, and feel relieved only when the last hour of that dangerous day had passed and the last fire-cracker had been set off.

In a similar plight was the Roman governor during the feast of Passover. His troops were stationed with great skill at the most important posts, and the garrison of Jerusalem re-en- forced : police in uniform and detectives in disguise probably patrolled the streets, and re- ported promptly at headquarters. It may easily have happened when Jesus entered Jerusalem a few days before the festival that he was recog- nized and cheered by his rural friends : it is probable that the rumor spread among the people, which was ready for a revolt, that a Messiah had appeared, and would give the sig- nal at the opportune moment : it is more than probable that this rumor reached the Roman

" The Carpenter s Son." 45

authorities after it had been magnified to a large extent. The natural consequence was that Jesus was watched with suspicion ; that every one of his steps was carefully guarded, and that just before the festival he was taken captive. Pontius Pilatus risked a coup de main. If Jesus was the Messiah indeed, his prompt imprisonment and execution would either in- timidate the people and suppress the outbreak of a riot for some years, or it would make the people rise in arms at once, and hasten the crisis. Either way pleased the haughty Roman much better than the suspense in which he now was kept all the time.

His calculation was as correct as it was shrewd ; but he was mistaken, nevertheless. The people would have risen in revolt if the great mass had considered the Galilean the right man to liberate them. Bu .hey expected a warrior, not a man of peaceful disposition : they expected a man of arms, and not a the- orist. Neither was he an offspring of the house of David. The masses remained cold and in- different when they heard of his arrest ; and even the few friends of the unhappy Messiah deserted him in the hour of trial.

There is no evidence that he ever was tried before a Jewish tribunal, for the right of capital punishment had been usurped by the Romans long before ; and even if there had

46 Messianic Expectations.

been such a trial, he must have been acquitted, because the sympathies of his fellow-citizens would have been with him. But he was not tried or convicted by a regular Jewish court, as, on account of the holy day, there was no ses- sion. He was simply judged and convicted by the Roman authorities on the charge of con- spiring against the Roman government ; and he was executed in great haste the very next day, at a time when the assembled people witnessed the grand passover ceremonial in the tem- ple. The mode of crucifixion was a Roman mode of execution ; and the inscription Jesus Nazaraeus, Rex Judaeorum, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, which is said to have been affixed to his cross, was to show the charge which had been made against him.

Now this is a point upon which I must dwell a few moments longer. The malicious charge that the Jewish people, nineteen hundred years ago, tried, convicted, and executed an innocent man, has brought upon us indescribable misery, and bears even to-day its bitter fruit. This charge has been the cause of wholesale murder ; and for nineteen centuries has our nation been per- secuted for no other offence than that their ancestors had crucified Jesus. We were, and are still, called deicides, or, as vulgar language expresses it, Christ-killers. Absurd as it is to hold us responsible for an act committed by our

" The Carpenters Son" 47

ancestors nineteen hundred years ago, as ridicu- lous would it be for us to try to find an excuse for it. Granted that our ancestors were, in fact, the cause of his premature death, there is no excuse needed ; for as long as capital pun- ishment is not abolished, and circumstantial evidence is used to convict a criminal, or as long as political offences are punished with death, so long will cases of judicial murder never be avoided.

But the charge is as false as it is malicious. Scan the Jewish law from its beginning to its end and you will not find that such a trial as related in the Gospels could have taken place. The whole form of the proceeding as told in the Gospels is illegal according to the forms minutely described by the Jewish law. It shows again that the writers of the Gospels were not Jews, but must have been Greeks or Romans, who were ignorant of the Jewish law. And so it was ; and with this fact the whole charge collapses. The whole charge was a fab- rication of the early Church. At the time when the Gospels were written, most of the members of the Church were Gentiles ; and it was at that time already evident that the Gen- tile world, and not the limited Jewish circle, was to be the future field for the missionary efforts of the Church.

How could a missionary approach a Roman

48 Messianic Expectations.

and tell him that his people had put to death the Son of God, their Saviour ? Such a state- ment would have alienated the whole world from them ; for the Roman Empire comprised almost the whole of the known world, and every individual took a certain pride in being a Roman citizen. The Jews, on the other hand, were only a small nation. They were then liv- ing in small communities scattered over all the provinces of the Roman Empire. They were furthermore disliked on account of their rigor- ous laws, which would not allow their amalga- mation with their neighbors. They were hated at the imperial court on account of their obsti- nacy and the riotous character which they showed in frequent revolts. The charge was therefore laid before their door ; and the Roman was told that the Jews had killed his Saviour ; that the Roman authorities even had endeavored to save him from the violence of the populace, but had been unsuccessful. Such a story was pleasing to the Gentile world, and to a Roman it seemed both probable and plausi- ble. The masses, which gained by it a pretext for venting their anger on a class which they hated, did not investigate the matter any fur- ther ; and thus the unfounded and malicious charge, was handed down from generation to generation to this very day. Is it not high time that our liberal age and our enlightened

" The Carpenter s Son" 49

fellow-citizens should finally drop that malicious charge, which, even if it were not a fabrication, could not reflect upon us ? Is it not high time that bigotry and fanaticism should be silenced, and that the rising generations should be in- structed to take those legends for what they are worth? It is not the Jew who is disgraced when the epithet of deicide or Christ-killer is hurled at him : it is the one who uses it ; be- cause this very expression gives unmistakable evidence, not only of his bigotry, his intoler- ance, and of his bad breeding, but of his igno- rance ; and, not for our own sake, but for his sake, I stand here and appeal to you to spread enlightenment wherever you can in regard to such an important matter.

IV.

JUDAISM THE MOTHER, AND CHRISTIANITY THE DAUGHTER.

'HE time when Christianity was born was as peculiar and as remarkable in regard to religious matters as is perhaps our own present age. Then, as to-day, the edu- cated classes, the pioneers of civilization, were ready for a change of front. Old ideas had out- lived their usefulness, and the new ones had not yet developed far enough to take their places. The minds of the best and most con- scientious men were therefore kept in a constant tension. The old pagan gods had lost their reputation, and the world was yearning for a God who should fill the void in the human heart. Though the most magnificent temples were erected at that period, there was an utter lack of true religious sentiment, and hypocrisy ran high. The splendor of the temples and the very attractions which the priests were com- pelled to offer, were unmistakable evidence that rites and ceremonies had lost their meaning, and with it their influence upon the worshipper. At that time, the eye of the pagan world in- 5°

Mother and Daughter. 5 1

stinctively turned toward the Jews. Their the- ology was pure, their doctrines founded upon philosophy, their laws just and comprehensive, their rites elevating and soul-inspiring, their ethics unsurpassed. Their intercourse with Greeks and Romans had introduced them to the world. They had multiplied, and were to be found everywhere. There were as that time more Israelites outside of Palestine than within. Large colonies of Jews were to be found in Persia and along the whole coast of Asia Minor: they had settlements in Greece, in Spain, in Gaul, in Italy, and especially in Rome. In Egypt they were almost the masters. They were the leading statesmen : they commanded the armies : they were the magnates of com- merce and the owners of factories. In Leon- topolts they owned a temple which rivalled in beauty and elegance that of Jerusalem. In Alexandria they had a number of synagogues, the most prominent of which is reported to have been of such dimensions that the loudest voice could not be heard from end to end, and that therefore a flag was waved from an elevated stand whenever the congregation was requested to rise and to join in the Amen. But what is of still greater importance, the Pentateuch had been translated into the Greek language. The Septuaginta, as this translation was called, had become a standard work ; and all men of intelli-

52 Messianic Expectations.

gence and learning had become familiar with it. No wonder, therefore, that Gentiles in large numbers embraced Judaism. From the interior of Asia a princess came with all her family to be initiated into the Jewish religion.

It is said, and it is well said, that every man has once in his life an opportune moment when he can make his fortune, but that only very few take hold of it, while the rest let it slip from their grasp. The same holds good for nations. That very period was the time when Judaism could have conquered the world. It would be an idle play of imagination for us to conjecture what our present condition would have been if our ancestors had made proper and prompt use of their opportunity. Alas, they did not. Per- haps an all-wise Providence had destined it for good reasons that they should not. There were two obstacles which then hindered the spreading of Judaism. In the first place, its customs were too rigorous. The Gentiles, though they acknowledged the correctness of Jewish theology and the purity of its ethics, were unwilling to submit to the Abrahamitic rite, to the table laws, and to the minute pre- scriptions concerning cleanliness. Judaism, on its part, was not ready to compromise with them, because, and this was the second obstacle, it was too aristocratic. Its doctrines maintained that the Israelites were a people chosen by God ;

Mother and Daughter. 5 3

that the much admired laws were given to them for their own welfare ; and that it was obligatory for them to guard, but not to spread them. Judaism, of course, would not reject the stranger who would knock at its doors ; it would accept him cheerfully, provided he would take upon himself the whole burden of the law without any haggling ; but it would not proselyte ; it would not go and coax or force the stranger to come in. If these two obstacles could have been removed, the mastery of the world would have fallen as a consequence into the lap of Judaism.

There was one man living at that time who saw the golden apple hanging within such easy reach ; he stretched forth his arm and broke it, but, alas, not for his own nation. It was Saul of Tarsus, better known as Paul. To him owes Christianity its life.

Paul was no rabbi. He was no scholar whatsoever, nor was he versed in Jewish literature. He knew the Bible in its Greek version only ; he would misquote, in his let- ters to the Corinthians, a passage in Isaiah as occurring in the Pentateuch ; but for all his ignorance in letters, he was zealous and practical.

Observing that Judaism could not and that it would not allow one letter of the law to be changed, he embraced with eagerness the

54 Messianic Expectations.

legends of the crucified Jesus, which must have reached him in an exaggerated form ; and, with- out having ever known him, he made him the corner-stone of the building which he proposed to erect. There was an old saying that the Messiah would do away with the law, as he would naturally usurp the power of issuing new orders. Paul made use of it, and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, no matter whether he had fulfilled what was expected of a Messiah or not. It was sufficient for him that a Messiah had appeared ; for this gave him a handle to change or to abolish as much of the law as he, Paul, saw fit. With one stroke of the pen, as we should say, he removed one of the obstacles : he admitted Gentiles into Judaism without the performance of the Abrahamitic rite, and allowed them to eat whatever they pleased. Denounced by his Jewish brethren as a law- breaker, and distrusted even by the personal friends of the unfortunate Galilean, who were shocked to hear the words of their master in- terpreted by a stranger in such a peculiar way, Paul sought and found his friends among Gen- tiles. Supplying a long-felt want, his career became a success in spite of all the obstacles which beset his way. He was the first mis- sionary whom the world has seen. Christian congregations grew up under the very print which his foot left upon the ground.

Mother and Daughter. 5 5

With him the Messianic idea, formerly local, took a universal turn. The Messiah now ceased to be an anointed king, expected to remove the political misery of the Jewish nation. He grew into a divine messenger, a son of God, sent from heaven to earth to save all mankind from the effect of sin. Though having been put to death, he would soon return, and hold stern judgment over the world. His friends would be royally rewarded, his enemies unmercifully punished. Thus the Messianic idea became a necessity for the Paulinian Church. Without it, it lacked all authority for the inroads made upon the law, the grandeur of which still re- mained the centre of attraction to the pagan world.

It would take years should I attempt to trace in weekly lectures the rise and growth of Chris- tianity. May it suffice that I show to you its source, and that I establish the fact that it was built by Paul from sheer necessity, upon a mis- taken interpretation of the Messianic idea, with which it stands and falls.

In the meantime, the Jews witnessed the ap- pearance of another Messiah. His name was Theudas. He shared the fate of Jesus. Fadus, the Roman governor, caught him and his band, and beheaded him. Pilate did exactly the same which Fadus did a few years later ; but nobody would claim to-day that the Jews tried and sen-

56 Messianic Expectations.

tenced Theudas : nobody would hold them responsible for his death. Theudas, however, must have gamed more notoriety than Jesus ever did at his time ; for Josephus granted him a considerable space in his history.

When finally the cup of misery was full to the brim, and no help came from outside, the people arose in arms. A short but fierce strug- gle followed. Titus and his legions stormed Jerusalem, laid the temple in ashes ; and with the destruction of Jerusalem Israel was stricken forever from the list of nations.

The seed planted by Paul had in the mean- time grown up, and kept on growing. Christi- anity spread from day to day ; and the daughter soon severed all connections with her mother. She went her own way ; for she had a mission of her own to fulfil ; a mission which neither Judaism nor Hellenism could have fulfilled with success : she had to civilize a world of barba- rians. Judaism would have failed on account of its rigor : Hellenism, on account of its self- ishness. Greek philosophy cared little for the welfare of mankind as a species : its attempts were directed toward individual happiness. But it forgot that individual happiness and national happiness stand in a mutual relation to each other, and that the one is impossible without the other. Whenever it failed to secure indi- vidual happiness, it was at a loss to account for

Mother and Daughter. 57

it, and advised to escape the miseries of life by suicide. This was its last and only remedy. Nature, however, abhors destruction : neither the Epicurean nor the Stoic schools could ever win the favor of the masses. A Greek philoso- pher would have ridiculed it as absurd to stoop down to a slave or a barbarian, in order to edu- cate him to higher and better principles. Not so Christianity. From her mother she had inher- ited the principles of freedom and equality ; the principle of one God and one human brother- hood. From her she had learned the maxim, Love thy neighbor as thyself. Equipped with these gems from her mother's treasury, adorned with the ten sparkling diamonds of the Sinaitic law, she entered upon her path. What we should call to elevate or civilize was called by her to save ; and to save the world she was bound. Let us give honor where honor is due. With unexcelled heroism, the disciple of the early Church would seek strange countries, savage nations, always carrying his life in his hands. He would fearlessly enter the cabin of barbarians, suffer their scorn, their anger, even death from their hands. He would never flinch nor shirk his duty. And such heroism over- awed the barbarian : he submitted, and bowed before the new God.

There is a steel engraving, to be found in al- most every large picture store, representing the

58 Messianic Expectations.

following scene : Two savage-looking gladiators are seen fighting in the Circus Maximus of Rome, for the amusement of the masses. One has succeeded in throwing the net over his opponent, and in forcing him to the ground. His eyes beam with passion : he craves the blood of his victim. Uplifted in his sinewy arm, he holds the trident, a fearful weapon, wherewith to deal the deadly blow ; when, lo and behold ! a disciple of the early Church fear- lessly places himself between the victor and his victim, with the cry, " Thou shalt not kill ! " I do not know whether it is the skill of the artist or the subject chosen by him which produces the effect ; but I can never pass this picture without emotion. Though the artist only imag- ined that scene, he took it, nevertheless, from life. Such scenes have occurred, not once, but a thousand times, until the brute in man was tamed, and the barbarian had learned, not only the lesson, " Thou shalt not kill," but the still greater one, " Love thy neighbor as thyself."

Christianity at the same time was accommo- dating itself to the pagan world. It did not ask for more than it could possibly get at a time. It granted indulgences, provided some of its lessons were accepted in exchange ; and thus, step by step, it went further and further, until it had subdued the world; until it had civilized Germans, Goths, Celts, Huns, Mon

Mother and Daughter. 59

gols, and all ; until princes would yield to the frown of a bishop and warriors sheathe or un- sheathe their swords at the command of the ecclesiastical head. Every unprejudiced man must acknowledge it, and I acknowledge it with pleasure, that Christianity has performed some remarkable deeds. It has abolished slavery, it has established monogamy, it has mitigated the evils of war, and by all means raised the standard of civilization.

But there is nothing obtained in this world without compensation. What is won on the one side is generally lost on the other. Chris- tianity had stooped down to the pagan world to save it, it had yielded to its whims ; but in its embraces it had lost its identity, and had become paganized in its turn. Step by step, it was dragged, let me say involuntarily, from its path. The Messiah was changed into a son of God, and the son soon unthroned the father. A mysterious trinity replaced monotheism : super- stitious idolatry raised again its head. Upon the pedestals from which the early Church had thrown the jolly crowd of Greek gods and god- desses, the later Church erected the images of their saints. A Saint Martin took the place of Mars, the god of war ; a Madonna, the place of a Minerva ; a Magdalene, the place of a Venus. The churches were again desecrated into won- der-working institutions : the Christian priest

60 Messianic Expectations.

assumed the splendor of his predecessor, and dressed in gorgeous style : the bishop of Rome became the heir of the late Pontifex Maximus. Reason was banished, and unbridled imagina- tion was permitted to run riot. Paganism, it is true, had been Christianized ; but during the process Christianity had become paganized. The world would surely have fallen back into its former barbarism, as the dreary Middle Ages indicated, if it had not been for Judaism. Yes, indeed : if it had not been for Judaism ; and this is a fact which only few seem to know. Though bleeding from many a wound, though despised and maltreated by her haughty daugh- ter, Judaism the mother still lived ; and as long as she lived, she was a living protest against the frivolous conduct of her daughter. Her rigor, which had made her lose the command over a world, had protected her, on the other hand, from the dangerous embraces of paganism. She had preserved the purity of her doctrines, and still clung to reason in preference to blind belief.

At this juncture, it appears necessary to me to say a few words about belief, now we hear so much about believers and unbelievers, or infidels. Belief is always resorted to to offset reason ; and a great many maintain that religion cannot be severed from belief. There are perhaps many Israelites who do not know

Mother and Daughter. 6 1

it, and therefore will be scared when I tell them that Judaism is not built upon belief, but that it stands upon the firm rock of reason. You will never find in Jewish literature the com- mand, "Thou shalt believe." This word was introduced into the religious vocabulary by Christianity. The mere belief in the Saviour was to save from eternal damnation. Standing upon a basis which could not withstand the pressure of reason, it was to be supported by beliefs. To believe did not mean to accept a statement as true because it could reasonably be expected to be true. No : to believe meant to accept a statement as true, although reason revolted against it. Only then the saving qualities of belief would come into play. There was, for instance, no merit in the belief in a God whose existence, though not perceivable by human senses, still stands to reason ; but the belief that three are one and one three, a doctrine against which reason revolts, such a belief was soul-saving and meritorious. Let me give you another example. To believe that the sacred Scriptures were written in the same way as all other books, which they may surpass in diction and beauty, by human writers inspired for their work, or to believe that the soul of every writer, inventor, or discoverer, stands in a certain relation to the source from which all talent and genius spring and our spirits flow,

62 Messianic Expectations.

such a belief, which stands to reason, was of no merit : it was, and is still, called unbelief. But to believe that God selected a certain man, and dictated him, word for word, an oration which he was to deliver, or a narrative which he was to write, assuming the responsible editorship himself, and using the man only as an amanu- ensis, such a belief, against which reason rea- sonably rebels, such a belief is still to-day demanded. The passage in which a Church Father says, Credo, quia absurdnm est, " I believe, because it is absurd," was by no means intended as a sarcasm : it was the only stand- point of the Church. Whatever is reasonable needs not to be believed ; it convinces ; and the great God who has granted us the heavenly light of reason can not, does not, want us to exchange it for the dim lamp of blind belief. A religion which cannot stand the test of reason cannot endure forever : belief is a weak prop only, which sooner or later must break.

Christianity, because it could never prove its premises, was forced to cling to belief. Juda- ism, on the contrary, was not and is not under such a pressure. It accepts facts which have occurred in the past as true, as long as they are not unreasonable or proven to be unhistorical by new developments ; and no merit is claimed for it nor any reward expected for it. This grants us full liberty of conscience.

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At every critical period in the development of the Christian Church, Judaism, the mother, raised her voice of warning, and this voice was not to be silenced. Neither the sword of per- secution nor the pyre and torture of the inquisi- tion, not even ridicule, could chase away the maternal ghost, which would step between the daughter and her seducer at the critical mo- ment. And thus the tide turned. Slowly but surely the daughter retraced her steps. Protes- tantism was the first step toward home. Juda- ism had so long protested against image-worship that the very best Christians began to listen, then to think : finally to join in the protest. Christian scholars secretly visited in disguise the learned men of Judah. They visited their miserable abodes, to be introduced by them to the mysteries of the Talmud, and to read with them the Bible in the original.* Here they drank in full draughts from the waters of life ; and when Luther nailed his theses to the church door of Wittenberg, his hammer sounded the death-knell to idolatry. Four hundred years of retracing her steps are not a long time in comparison with the fifteen hun- dred years during which the Church was built ; and considerable work has been done already We have arrived at that stage where the dogma of a trinity has been abandoned, and a Unitarian platform is erected in its place. Jesus of Naza-

* Reuchlin, Sebastian Munster, Egidio de Viterbo, and others.

64 Messianic Expectations.

reth, five hundred years ago the principal and foremost feature of the trinity, is now to our enlightened Unitarian friends not more than the ideal of a man ; and I doubt whether the remaining eleven hundred will be consumed be- fore he will not be more and not less than the carpenter's son. Hereditary sin, atonement through Christ, heaven and purgatory, eternal bliss and eternal damnation, all these supersti- tious doctrines have already fallen ; and the sun of reason breaks through the clouds, and sheds its bright rays to-day over a world happier and better than ever before.

Has Judaism remained unchanged during all these centuries ? In its principles, yes ; in its forms, no. The principle that there is but one God, and none besides him, and the ten com- mandments, which are the necessary conse- quence of it, have remained unchanged, and will remain unchanged forever, until the whole human race shall have adopted them. They have already adopted them in theory, but not yet in practice. But in regard to forms we have changed. Thank God, we have advanced. The Jew of to-day is no longer the Jew of nine- teen hundred years ago. We are no mummies : we are alive and wide awake to the demands of our time. We have learned a good many things : and I praise God for it that we have also forgotten a good many. The advancing

Mother ana Daughter. 65

Israelite and the advanced, or, as I shall name him more properly, the returning, Christian stand to-day almost upon the same level. There are only two slight difficulties to be overcome ; one on the part of our Unitarian friends, the other on both sides. The first is that our friends must give up the ideal embel- lishments with which Jesus of Nazareth is glo- rified, and reduce him to that place which he may have really filled. I know it : it will take some time before they shall overcome this diffi- culty ; for it is not so easy as you may think to give up ideals to which you have become attached from your earliest childhood ; nor must we forget that then they would lose their claim to the Christian name, so highly cher- ished by them. The other difficulty to be over- come by both sides is race prejudice. With the spread of intelligence, with a better under- standing between both races, and with good will on both sides, I am almost certain that in course of time this difficulty too will be removed. Mother and daughter, who even then will touch one another with the tips of their fingers only, will feel the magnetic current of love pass through their bodies. Nearer and nearer they will be drawn to each other, until at last, after a thousand years, they will be reunited in one loving embrace.

V.

A GENUINE MESSIAH.

EN and events are seldom v/eighed by us in the scales of justice. It is the successful who generally carries off the admiration and appreciation of the world ; and the popular adage says therefore correctly, Nothing succeeds like success. Success, how- ever, is a product composed of two factors ; the one of which is our own ability and ambition, the other an indescribable something, commonly called luck. The one is within ourselves, the other outside of us. We have full control over the first one, but no command whatsoever over the second. Nor are these two factors equal in value. The product success is obtained in some cases by the multiplication of great ability with a small quantity of luck ; in others, by the mul- tiplication of little ability with a great amount of luck. No success whatsoever can be reached if one of these two factors is lacking. The most talented, the most enthusiastic, will fail in his enterprise if luck does not favor him ; and the choicest luck cannot tower up to the goal of 66

A Genuine Messiah. 67

success if not supported by some intelli- gence.

But, sad as the fact is, mankind never goes behind the returns. It never takes the time to examine the factors : it looks at the product only. If a man is successful, it bows before him in admiration : if his undertaking has been unsuccessful, it turns from him with disgust ; at best with pity. A people arising to break the fetters which either a foreign nation or the party in power has tied around its limbs has always been a grand sight ; and the attention of the world has always been directed toward the place where such an uprising has occurred ; but it has always been the final success which has influ- enced the verdict. Whenever a nation has suc- ceeded in liberating itself, the preceding struggle has been called a revolution : if it has failed in its enterprise, it has been called a rebellion. In the first case, the national leaders have been worshipped as heroes, and their praises have been sung by the poets of their time ; in the other, they have been stigmatized as traitors, as ringleaders, as rebels ; and though they may have sealed their love for their country with their blood, either gloriously on the battle-field, or ignominiously upon the scaffold, not a word has been said in their favor : not a pen has been stirred to transmit their name to posterity. At best, they have been defended; at best, some

68 Messianic Expectations.

friendly hand has attempted to wipe away the stains with which their misfortune or ill luck has bespattered them.

My argument will appear with greater distinct- ness by the following comparison. Supposing the United States of America had been unsuc- cessful in their struggle against Great Britain, do you think we should look at the event as we do now ? You may rest assured that the glorious time of a hundred years ago would be branded to-day as a time of rebellion ; that the children at school would be instructed to detest the rebels, Washington and Franklin, and to glory in the patriotism of Arnold. They would not be told to memorize Longfellow's beautiful poem of the midnight ride of Paul Revere ; and " God save the Queen " would fill the place of the " Star- spangled Banner " in the singing-books of our schools. How many of us would take the trouble to examine the motives, the heroism, and the enthusiasm, of the noble men of '76 ? Few ; for we all should silently acquiesce in the verdict of the world ; or, as you may call it, in the ver- dict of history, which, after all, would have been influenced, not by the merit, but by the success of the cause.

Will humanity ever outgrow such injustice ? I have good reason to believe that the historians of the future will adopt a more just measurement of men and events ; that they will overhaul the

A Genuine Messiah. 69

whole building which history so far has erected, and that they will mete out justice unbiassed by the success with which an event had been ac- companied ; and I should advise you, my friends, whenever you go into historical research, to leave a wide margin in favor of the unsuccessful party.

I shall now acquaint you with such a party, and with a man who, if he had been successful, would have filled the world with his renown. He possessed the one factor of success, genius, talent, enthusiasm ; but, alas, he lacked the other. Luck went against him. I shall conjure up before you the spirit of a man whom nobody to-day seems to know, but who, nevertheless, at his time had made a Roman emperor tremble upon his throne ; whose very name spread terror upon Roman soil similar to that which, hundreds of years before, the name of Brennus and Hannibal had caused. Would that I could show you the last Jewish warrior in his full glory ! Would that I could sing in loud strains the praise of the last Jewish hero, who, if ever a man has deserved the title Messiah, was worthy of it ! If ever Messianic expectations have been realized, they were realized in Bar Kochba. He was, barring anointment, a Mes- siah who tallied, every inch of him, with the hopes which his nation harbored concerning such a man.

70 Messianic Expectations.

Th.e Jewish nation has been and is still blamed for rejecting Jesus of Nazareth as a Messiah. They have been called a stubborn people, who would always maltreat its benefactors and best friends. False, thrice false! The Jews were, as they are still, wide-awake, and knew well how to distinguish a chimera from a reality. While they remained indifferent to idealistic dreamers, as Jesus and Theudas may have been, they arose as one man when the person appeared who had all the qualifications of a Messiah. They placed at Bar Kochba's disposal an army of not less than half a million of well-equipped soldiers. They heeded strictly his orders. There was not the least discord in their ranks ; and during five years more than two millions of Jews sacri- ficed their lives for him and his cause. Does such devotion indicate blindness or stubborn- ness ? Alas ! Bar Kochba was not successful : his cause did not triumph. The hero was there- fore degraded to a rebel, and the last glorious struggle of our nation was stigmatized as a rebellion.

Jerusalem had fallen in the year 70 of the new era, and Judea had been made a Roman province. Years of misery followed, and the hope that finally a Messiah must appear to re- store their former independence grew stronger every day. Even the early Christians believed that the time was near when their Messiah would

A Genuine Messiah. 71

return. Sixty years had passed since ; and as the first exile had lasted only seventy years, the conclusion was near at hand that again, after seventy years, a restoration would take place.

An excellent proof that the hope in the advent of a Messiah was rooted in political and not in religious ground, that the Jews did not expect a supernatural Messiah, but simply a man who would be their leader in the struggle for liberty, is that they prepared for the emergency. They were practical enough to observe that arms, am- munition, drilled men, and especially money, must be prepared and in readiness, so that the Messiah should have the sinews of war at his command. They did by no means believe that he was to work wonders, and do the fighting all by himself. They expected in him a leader, and nothing else.

The acknowledged head of the Jewish com- munity at that time was Rabbi Akiba, whom I cannot help mentioning, as he played a princi- pal part in the tragedy of the Bar Kochbean war. His history is wonderful, and reads like a novel. Up to his fortieth year, he is said to have been ignorant of letters, unable to read or write. His occupation was that of a porter in the house of Calba Sabua, the Vanderbilt of his time. At this advanced age, he fell in love with Rachel, his master's daughter. His affec- tion was returned ; but as Rachel well knew

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that her proud father would never consent to her marriage with a porter, and elopements were not fashionable at that time, she advised him, strange to say, to study law. Akiba heeded her advice, and began at the bottom of the ladder. He entered a primary school. During the many years of his studies, Rachel is said to have faithfully preserved her love for him, although her father, hearing of it, disowned her. She is said to have lived in such misery that once she was compelled to cut off and sell the braids of her hair in order to obtain money for food. Finally Akiba, who had risen step by step, gained renown ; and, when he returned to Jerusalem accompanied by a host of disciples, and the acknowledged head of the Jewish com- munity, Calba Sabua laid aside his prejudice, and gave him his daughter for a wife ; bestow- ing upon her a rich dowry, so that from that time she could live in abundance.

Do you suppose that a man of the stamp of Rabbi Akiba, who not only believed in the divine origin of the Bible, but even maintained that every letter in it had a secret meaning : do you suppose for a moment that such a man did not understand the meaning of the prophets in regard to a Messiah, at least as well as Chris- tian clergymen of to-day, who do not tire of quoting the Old Testament in support of their theories? If Akiba could have made one pas-

A Genuine Messiah. 73

sage, yea, even one word, of Scripture tally with the appearance of Jesus as a Messiah, he would surely and willingly have accepted him. Or do you suppose that a man of such an iron will and as practical as Rabbi Akiba must have been, would have accepted the very first adven- turer as a Messiah, that he would have sacrificed his influence, his time, his money, his life, for an impostor ? This very Akiba, a second Samuel, pointed out Bar Kochba, and intro- duced him to the people as the long-expected Messiah. This very Akiba travelled for years, visiting all Jewish colonies, levying money and men for the Messiah. From one of his trips he is said to have returned with thirty thousand disciples, probably young men whom he had enlisted for his cause.

Bar Kochba, or Bar Kosiba, which name he derived from the small town of Kosiba or Kesib, was the embodiment of all the qualities expected to appertain to a Messiah. He was of powerful, herculean build ; tall, muscular, strong. He was the model of a soldier. He would sleep on the bare ground, and share the coarse food of his soldiers. In battle he would be seen at the most dangerous points, whirling his battle-axe with undaunted courage. He was a skilful leader, who outgeneralled the most experienced soldiers of Rome. Deep as was his hatred for Rome was his love for his country. He was

74 Messianic Expectations.

modest and willing to listen ; and for all this his followers worshipped him. How he had passed his youth, where he had obtained his military knowledge, nobody knew. There he was at the time when all was prepared, ami people were only waiting for the leader; an-1 the impression which he must have made upon the people was such that, without examining his past record, all, the rich and the poor, the learned and the simple, flocked to his banner, and obeyed implicitly his commands. Within the space of one year he stormed fifty fortified places, and freed nine hundred and eighty-five towns held by the Romans ; and when the year 133 dawned, not a single Roman was to be seen in Palestine.

At first the Emperor Hadrian, occupied with other schemes, gave little attention to the re- volt; but when the most renowned legions had lost their prestige on Jewish battle-grounds ; when his best generals returned defeated by a foe unknown before ; when the Orient, observing that the Romans were not invincible, began to awaken from its slumber and to rally around the victorious Messiah, he tremblingly acknowleged the great danger that threatened the empire, and took immediate steps to suppress the rebel- lion at whatever cost. He ordered his best general, Julius Severus, the Moltke of his time, from England, where his presence had been

A Genuine Messiah. 75

needed, to proceed at once to Palestine. He gave him a large army of picked soldiers, and all the supplies he wanted. Bar Kochba, on his part, remained not idle during the two years which Severus needed to organize his forces for the task. He made an attempt to rebuild Jeru- salem and the temple. He made use of the pre- rogatives of a king, and issued coins stamped with the inscription " Cheruth Jerusalem," Freedom of Jerusalem, a few of which are still to be seen. He fortified a number of cities, and was so confident of his final success that he is reported to have uttered the almost blasphe- mous words, " O God, if it does not please thee to assist us, withhold, at least, thy aid from our enemies ; we shall then stand our own, and be victorious." Severus did not dare to meet his adversary in open battle. He adopted the same stratagem which Fabius the Cunctator had used against Hannibal. He refused to fight a battle ; but he drew a large circle of fortified camps around the whole of Palestine, from which he sent his cavalry to tire the enemy in small encounters, and to cut off supplies. Bar Kochba had no horsemen to check the ravages of the Romans ; and, in spite of all heroism, was not able to break the circle which Severus now contracted inch by inch. One Jewish fort after the other had to surrender for want of supplies ; and soon the iron band closed around the for-

76 Messianic Expectations.

tress of Betar, into which Bar Kochba had been forced with the flower of his army. Betar must have been a city of the size of Metz ; and the siege and defence of that city must have been a wonder of military skill. The two greatest gen- erals of their time exhausted their genius in moves and counter-moves. Every inch of land was contested with bravery and skill, such as had seldom been witnessed before.

The Roman general finally despaired of cap- turing the city. Epidemics had decimated his legions ; and though he had fought for a whole year before Betar, he had not gained the least advantage over his foe. He was about to raise the siege, when two Samaritan traitors showed him a secreted aqueduct which supplied the city with water. He shut the water off at once ; but even the most excruciating pains of thirst could not make the noble garrison of Betar surrender the place. Not before the Romans had found a way into the city, by enlarging the same aqueduct, was the fate of Betar and that of Judea sealed. On a Sabbath day, Severus stormed the city. Bar Kochba, a second Leoni- das, fell, sword in hand, covered with honorable wounds. He would not survive the final doom of his nation. A legend says that, when a man brought the head of Bar Kochba to Severus, and claimed that he had slain him, the latter said, " If this man has not been killed by God

A Genuine Messiah, 77

himself, the power of a mortal could never have harmed him." Another legend reports that his body, when found, was encircled by a snake, which would allow nobody to harm it.

Thus died Bar Kochba, a hero and a patriot. He would have sacrificed ten more lives upon the altar of his country, if such had been possi- ble. Although he has been almost forgotten ; although the masses have never heard of him ; although our Christian friends are not aware of it, that the Jews once accepted a Messiah, and cheerfully spilled their blood in his service, be- cause he was the type of that Messiah of which they had dreamed ; although no poet has sung his praise, Bar Kochba is no myth. His history is written in the heart-blood of the nation upon the soil of Palestine. The Talmud contains numerous passages referring to him. Even the Gospels allude to him ; * another indication of

* Mark xiii. 5-13. Take heed lest any man deceive you. For some shall come under my name, saying, I am the Messiah, and shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of war, be ye not troubled : for such things need be. For nations shall rise against nations, and kingdom against kingdom. . . . But take heed to yourselves, for they shall de- liver you up to councils and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten. . . . Now the brother shall betray the brother, etc.

The some (rfc) who was to assume the role of a Messiah, and of whom the faithful were to beware, is Bar Kochba, whose patriotism has not been without influence upon the Jew-Chris- tians. The writer of Mark, who had witnessed the Bar Kochba revolt, puts the graphic picture of it into the mouth

78 Messianic Expectations.

the time in which they were written. A Greek historian, Dion Cassius, speaks with reverence of him. There are still to be seen the coins which he had caused to be minted ; and even the minutes kept by the Roman Senate bore evidence to his greatness. When Severus re- ported to the august body his final victory over the enemy, he omitted the customary introduc- tion, " I and the army are well." Indeed, neither he nor his army was well. His victory had the semblance of a defeat. Neither did the Senate grant him the honor of a triumph.

Here we have a Messiah recognized by the people, recognized by its representative, Rabbi Akiba ; a Messiah who laid down his life upon the altar of his country ; but did Judaism make a God of him? Did it allow him to change one of its laws? Did he or his followers ever attempt to change a law, on the ground

of Jesus as a prophecy. The wars and rumors of -war and the words nations shall rise against nations are not less descrip- tive of the Bar Kochba revolt and remind us of the occurrence of that time which Dion Cassius describes as follows : <ai *&<niv, Of tlirtiv, Ktvovfilvrjs lirl ToZrif rjj$ oiicoi'plviif. The passage, for they shall deliver you up to councils (<n'i//6p<a), and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten, agrees with the statements of Justin and Eusebius, who say that Bar Kochba had punished the Jew- Christians because they would not fight against the Romans. Eusebius, in his history of the I7th year of Hadrian, says : Cochebas plurimos Christianos diversis suppliciis affecit, eo quo noluissent proficisci cum illo pugnatum contra Romanes. Compare Gratz, History of the Jews, vol. iv., note 15.

A Genuine Messiah. 79

of his Messianic authority ? Has ever a cult or a ceremony been instituted to commemorate' his life and death ? Though the Jewish nation has mourned him with bitter tears, his ill luck has made him share the fate of all unsuccessful ! It is due to modern research that the marvellous career of Bar Kochba is brought to acknowl- edgment, and his heroic patriotism duly appre- ciated.

Although Rabbi Akiba had introduced Bar Kochba as the expected Messiah, he never at- tempted to make a tool of him. The confidence of the people rested in the qualities of the Mes- siah, and the recommendation of a man who had been the interpreter of the law for so many years only strengthened it. Rabbi Akiba sur- vived the fall of Betar. It is said that he miraculously escaped before its capture, and that for some time he was the eye-witness of the sufferings through which his nation had to pass.

It has been claimed that the misery which had followed the Jewisfi nation was a punish- ment of God for their rejecting Jesus of Naza- reth as a Messiah, and that it is a proof that they must have crucified him. How can such a claim be reconciled with the justice of God ? How could our ancestors have acknowledged an unknown man, whose name was afterward used to change, if not to abolish, the law ? Did they

8o Messianic Expectations.

not show their firm belief when the man ap- peared who tallied with their expectations of a Messiah ? Had they not all cause to believe in the Messiahship of Bar Kochba, better cause than they had to believe in that of the Naza- rene ? Had Bar Kochba not led the life of a conscientious Jew ? Had he ever attempted to lead them from their inherited religion ? Had he not been successful in the first years of the revolt ? And as he showed all the qualities of a true Messiah, could they help believing in him ? Was their devotion to him and his cause of no merit in the eyes of God ? Was their heroism deserving of the cruel punish- ment which followed ? Was it not rather de- serving of reward ? The argument that the Jews must have crucified Jesus because they have been persecuted since is simply absurd. Turn it around, and you will come nearer to the truth. Our history would have run quite smoothly if ignorance had not considered it an act of piety to make it fit -with some alleged predictions ; if our oppressors and persecutors had not considered it a high distinction to serve as the instruments of punishment.

But let me return to Rabbi Akiba. He was finally imprisoned on the charge that he had been an instigator of the revolt, and he suffered martyrdom from the hands of the Romans. The agonies of Jesus of Nazareth, if the narra-

A Genuine Messiah. 81

tive of the Gospels is admitted, are less than the sufferings of Rabbi Akiba, who was flayed alive. But in the hour of death, he did not despairingly exclaim, " My God, why hast thou forsaken me? " He died with the words on his lips, " Hear, O Israel : the Lord our God is one God."

Israel has never forgotten its noble heroes nor its martyrs. It has paid them their tribute of tears, and mourns them still : but it never made saints of them : it never worshipped them : it never preserved their relics and worked miracles with them ; and this is the cause why the name of Bar Kochba has not become as familiar a household word as has the name of many another man of antiquity, who was far inferior to him in genius and patriotism.

The revolt of Bar Kochba was the last great military enterprise of our nation. After it, it ceased to be a political body ; and its future history is that of a- religious sect. We do not claim to-day to be a nation. The enlightened Israelite of to-day does not feel in the least cha- grined that he has no country of his own or a king to rule over him. We are sincere and patriotic citizens of the country in which we live. We are good Germans in Germany, good Frenchmen in France, law-abiding Englishmen in England ; and in this our glorious republic,

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which better than any other country in the world protects our liberties and our rights, we are true and faithful Americans, ready to prove it with our blood, if an emergency for such a proof should arise. We wish for no other coun- try and for no other form of government ; and all our efforts are directed toward the one great aim cherished by all true Americans, without distinction of race, color, or creed ; the aim to make our beloved country respected and hon- ored all over the world.

VI.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION.

THOUSAND years are in the eyes of God as one day, sings the Psalmist ; but in the eye of man, a millennium is quite a long time. If, therefore, I should pass over such a period in my research in silence, if I should take one great stride from the third to the thirteenth century without alluding to those centuries with at least a few words, I should be unjust to my task and at the same time lack a connecting link.

After the defeat of Bar Kochba, Israel, as I explained in my last lecture, ceased to be a nation, and became a religious sect. With this change, Messianic expectations lost their origi- nally political character and assumed a philo- sophical form. Had it not been for the young Christian church, all Messianic Expectations would in all probability have then died out. The more, however, the church insisted upon the dogma that in Jesus the Messiah had ap- peared ; the more it busied itself in digging out passages of the prophets which were to prove 83

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it ; the more it interpreted and interpolated the Scripture to suit its purpose, the more our ances- tors emphasized the doctrine that a Messiah was to come. Nor must we forget that the early church was actually for almost three hun- dred years expecting the return of their Messiah, and that thus in a natural way a similar notion was strengthened amongst the Jews. When finally Christ did not re-appear, the church changed its front. The Messiah being apparently unwilling to return to this world, his adherents went to him. Heaven with all its joys and a purgatory with all its infernal modes of torture were created. The Malchuth Shamajim, " the kingdom of heaven," originally denoting an era of universal happiness upon earth, was placed beyond the clouds, beyond the reach of the sceptic ; and the wings of imagination, thus freed from the fear of the clipping shears of reason, grew and spread to an extent unknown before. Judaism knew originally neither of a heaven nor of a purgatory. Its laws were made to deal with "one world at a time" ; and though immortality was not and is not denied by it, it shrank and still shrinks from the material- ization or the description of a future life. Though it afterward became somewhat infected with these doctrines, its healthy condition did not allow the disease to spread ; and intelli- gent Israelites have done away with such no-

The Spanish Inquisition. 85

tions as they have with Messianic expecta- tions.

The more Christianity embellished, frescoed, and decorated its heaven around the God-Mes- siah in the centre, the more clung Judaism to the belief in the advent of a secular Messiah, who should restore their nationality, take away the very opprobrium of their existence, and make them respected again in the world. But this was a mere doctrinal hope, if I am per- mitted to call it so. Like morphine, it soothed the pain, though it did not heal the wound. All kinds of chimerical ideas therefore gathered around it, as for instance, the resurrection of the dead, the stern judgment which the Messiah would hold over the world, and so on. It is a sweet consolation for the oppressed to hope against hope. Thus it afforded some consola- tion to our ancestors, when they were driven from country to country and were deprived of their human rights, to murmur : Wait till our Messiah comes ; then we shall compare accounts.

During these thousand years, here and there and now and then an adventurer would appear, who would assume the role of a Messiah, gain some renown in small circles, and then disappear. In greater favor, however, were speculations as to the time when the Messiah was to come ; and all kinds of reckoning were indulged in.

86 Messianic Expectations.

Some would count the letters of a Scriptural passage, others would endeavor to find that time by astrological calculations. Maimonides, who at his time was a rationalist of the first rank, the first philosopher after Aristotle who re-admitted reason into religious speculations : Maimonides, who at his time was as ferociously attacked by the Orthodox wing of Judaism as to-day he is enthusiastically quoted by the same party as its champion : Maimonides, to whom we owe the thirteen articles of creed, among which we find a plank inserted in favor of Messianic expectations, — this very Maimonides warns against giving such aspirations a practical turn. In a circular letter to the congregations of Yemen he proves to them that whenever these hopes had ceased to be hopes and attempts had been made to realize them, such attempts had always been followed by evil consequences.

As I do not intend to give the history of the Jews during this millennium, I shall with these few remarks dismiss that subject and turn to the topic which I have chosen for discussion, namely, " The Spanish Inquisition " ; without which my next lecture, on Solomon Molcho, would be incomprehensible.

The Inquisition in general, and the Spanish Inquisition in particular, is, as all fair-minded people concede, an indelible stain on the history of the Christian church. No matter how many

The Spanish Inquisition. 87

nohle principles the church ever championed, the terror of the Inquisition forces them all into the background ; no matter how radiant the halo is which encircles the brow of its saints, the names of Innocent III., Fernando Martinez, Torquemada, Ferdinand "and Isabella, hang over it as a darkling cloud. The Inquisition has left its autograph upon the pages of history in such traces of blood that all the waters of the ocean cannot wash them away. For two hundred years and more hecatombs of human beings were sacrificed almost daily "ad majorem Dei gloriam," unto the greater glory of God. For two hundred years and more the smoke which arose from innumerable pyres upon which human beings were burned alive darkened the sky. For two hundred years and more human beings were systematically tortured and killed, for no other reason but that they differed in opinion with their oppressors. We can hardly understand to-day how humanity could have for- gotten itself to such a degree ; it is well nigh impossible for us to understand to-day how the church, which had proclaimed itself the cham- pion of brotherly love, which had promised to extend love even to an enemy, could have so utterly failed in the execution of its principles, just when it stood at the zenith of its power. It is, therefore, worth while to look into the causes from which this phenomenal institution sprang.

88 Messianic Expectations.

It may appear quite a paradox to say that " Love " was the first cause for all the cruelties of the Inquisition. But let us be just and fair, no matter how much we have been the suffer- ers. Love was its first cause. During the twelve hundred years of its existence Christian- ity had developed in a manner which its inno- cent founders had never anticipated. Not to speak of the establishment of the trinitarian doctrine, of the changing of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week, or of the introduction of saint and relic worship, the dogma of eternal happiness and eternal punishment, or, to call it by its right name, the dogma of heaven and hell, had been worked out in the most fantastic manner. The tortures and flames of purgatory were depicted in such terrifying colors that the stoutest heart trem- bled at the mere thought of them. The church maintained that man was conceived in sin ; that therefore he was sentenced even before his birth to an everlasting abode in these infernal spheres ; that the belief in the Saviour alone could snatch him from purgatory ; and that the few drops of the baptismal water alone had the secret power to save him from the eternal fire. The rational thinker of to-day wonders that nobody at that time ever questioned how eter- nal punishment could be reconciled with the justice of God ; but, it is a fact, nobody was

The Spanish Inquisition. 89

ever struck by that idea, and for a long time even the absurd question was under earnest discussion, whether the souls of still-born chil- dren were to burn eternally or not. How firmly rooted these queer notions were, is to be seen from the fact that even Protestantism could not entirely part with them ; that Luther threw his inkstand at the devil who appeared to him ; and that even in this country witches were tried, sentenced, and burned. Even to-day only a small minority of our Christian friends, the Uni- versalists and Unitarians alone, have practically denounced the dogma of eternal punishment.

These premises granted, it was indeed an act of "Love " to save a person from eternal damna- tion, even against his will, and by means no matter how disagreeable to him. The argu- ment of the church basing itself upon this hypothesis was as sound as the hypothesis was absurd. The church would argue thus: The surgeon will inflict upon his patient momentary pain in order to save him from death ; thus it is better to bring the momentary pain of the torture or the pyre upon a heretic than to allow him to pass into the eternal flames of purgatory, from which God himself could not then save him; or, as you will use the whip to drive cattle from a burning stable in spite of their struggles, thus the blind heretic, who does not see the flames which are awaiting him for all

90 Messianic Expectations.

eternity, must be driven by force into the folds of the soul-saving church.

This motive of love may have actuated some of the inquisitors ; and, in order to be fair, let us say many of them ; for this motive is the only excuse for the horrifying cruelties com- mitted. But so much is sure ; it did not actuate all of them.

The second motive was " Fear." The church, which had built its structure upon imaginary props became timid when reason began to ex- amine the foundation. So far it had dealt with barbarians, who were unaccustomed to rea'son. The Marionite monks had clubbed Greek phi- losophers to death ; but they could not as easily kill reason. The spirit of scepticism with which an all-wise Creator has endowed man, the most beloved of all his creatures, began to move ; and these motions were felt : they shook the foundation of the church. The Inquisition all over Christendom and also in Spain was not directed against Jews as such : it was directed against Christian heretics and against that ele- ment which, formerly Jewish, had turned Chris- tian from compulsion and had now become the most troublesome and dangerous enemy from within. The church attempted to stamp out all rationalism. There was to be only one head and one will all over the world ; namely, that of an infallible Pope, who could not err, and to

The Spanish Inquisition. 91

whose decrees all humanity was to submit with- out giving them a single thought. But the spectre of Protestantism already haunted the chambers of the Vatican, and the Inquisition was resorted to in self-defence.

The Inquisition in Spain had still a third cause. In the beginning of the eighth century, the Mohammedans had entered Spain from the south and conquered it. The Christians had been driven to the northern part of the penin- sula or to France, whence they kept up a con- stant warfare with the intruders. Though the Mohammedans had firmly established them- selves on Spanish soil, and had civilized that country to a high degree, their days were num- bered. Step by step the warlike Christians regained the lost ground. One castle after an- other, one city after another, was reconquered. The Jews, who had been tolerably treated by the Mohammedans, had arisen to a high degree of culture, and formed a large part of the popu- lation. They owned real estate and factories, carried on a large commerce, and rivalled even in chivalry their fellow-citizens, of both Chris- tian and Mohammedan descent. While, how- ever, the Moors could withdraw from before the pressure of the Christians to Africa or Asia, where their co-religionists were in power, the Jews had to remain ; and their high intelli- gence, and still more their wealth, were looked

92 Messianic Expectations.

at with envy by the poor and rude victors. They wanted their money, their houses, their fields, their factories.

The father of the Inquisition was Pope Innocent III., who ascended the papal see in 1198. He suggested a court before which all heretics, that is, all who differed from him, should be tried. But though at the same time he persecuted the Jews, who had become a living protest against the paganization of Chris- tianity, the Inquisition as such had not yet occasion to deal with them. Its activity against Jews dates from a later period.

Ferdinand Martinez, a fanatic monk, was travelling through Spain on a missionary tour, preaching against all infidels in general, and against the Jews in particular. On the I5th of March, 1391, he preached in the market-place of Seville and inflamed the mob to a riot against the Jews, which, though stopped for the time by the government, was soon repeated. The Jewish quarters were stormed on the 6th of June in the same year ; almost thirty thousand Jews were killed, and their dwellings sacked. Three thousand families saved their lives by submitting to baptism. The example of Seville infected all Spain ; and riots occurred in every city, all with the same result. A part of the Jews were slaughtered ; a few, after having escaped with their bare lives, eked out a miser-

The Spanish Inquisition, 93

able subsistence in obscure villages : the larger part turned Christians. Who could blame them if under such conditions they succumbed to the pressure of temptation ? On the one side, death or the misery of the outcast for themselves and their children, on the other a life of respectability and affluence. All that was required of them- was to surfer the rite of baptism, refrain from Jewish ceremonies and customs, and adopt those of the church in their stead. The Moors, who were not so scrupulous in regard to apostasy, gave an inviting example, and before long all Spain was full of Jewish and Moorish converts. A few more years and these converts had gained back by their intelligence, industry, temperance, and en- terprise, what the mob had taken away from them. They soon formed the aristocracy, filled the highest offices in state and church ; in a word, they soon became the rulers of the country.

It may be easy to accustom one's self to the thoughtless performance of some meaningless ceremony ; but it is not as easy for one accus- tomed to reason to submit conscientiously to a creed inferior to his former one. A man may deceive others ; but he can never belie himself. There was never a Jew at that time converted to Christianity who conscientiously believed in the doctrines of his adopted religion. They

94 Messianic Expectations.

were all hypocrites, who had changed their creed for earthly considerations merely. They could not have been conscientious ; for, although many may differ from me, I still maintain that Judaism is built upon reason, and not upon belief. The Jew is a born reasoner ; he is a rationalist by his very nature ; he is scepticism personified. The Spanish converts soon proved to be the most dangerous acquisition the church could ever have made. Although they went to mass and practised all the rites which their new religion prescribed, they did not believe in its doctrines : they ridiculed them as absurd ; and infected with their sarcastic doubts their credulous friends. A riot once arose against them from an insignificant cause, which never- theless illustrates vividly the condition of affairs at that time. There had been a drought in a Spanish district, and a famine was feared. A pious fraud produced some relic in which a light could be observed ; and processions were formed to that shrine in order to ask the mediation of the saints for rain. While the credulous and superstitious populace bowed reverently before the miraculous relic, a pseudo- Christian sarcastically remarked that water would be better appreciated than the fire which the relic contained. He and his friends were mobbed.

The pseudo-Christians furthermore found a

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certain charm in secretly observing the rites of Judaism. Secrecy always spreads a charm over the most insignificant matter. The boy who at his thirteenth year was secretly taken by his father to some obscure cave, and after giving several passwords was introduced to a congre- gation of pseudo-Christians and had to take a fearful oath that he would never betray them, must have been highly impressed with the unwonted ceremonies which he was invited to perform. The fringed cloak, the phylacteries which were given to him as a sacred trust, appeared to him the very essentials of Judaism, with which he now became much more infat- uated than if all this secrecy had not been necessary. Associating with one another by means of their secret meetings, they naturally intermarried amongst themselves ; and thus not even their race was obliterated. Their high intellectual abilities and the ambition which has always been a quality of the Jewish character installed them in the highest offices even of the church. There were bishops amongst them who would read mass in the morning, and, after having withdrawn to their closet, wrap themselves in their Tallis and most fervently read the Sh'ma. On account of their position and their wealth they were distrusted and hated by the population. They were called Marranos.

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The mystery which surrounds this word has not yet been solved ; but its general meaning was the accursed ones. With their former brethren the Marranos lived in some sort of friendship. They supplied them with teachers, and kept them in constant communion with Judaism.

The Inquisition found therefore in Spain a larger field than anywhere else. In other countries only now and then an incautious heretic would venture to raise his voice ; but in Spain half the population were heretics. And heresy was to be stamped out at what- ever cost. Whosoever was suspected of being a secret adherent of Judaism was brought before the inquisitory tribunal. The torture made the victim not only confess his own guilt but also the names of his co-religionists. Who- soever was convicted of heresy was robbed of his possessions, part of which went into the King's treasury, another into the coffers of the Inquisition, a third to the spy and traitor. If a victim of the Inquisition denied his guilt, he was tortured to death : if he confessed, he was delivered to the flames.

During the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, the royal pair under whose government and for whose benefit America was discovered, an edict was issued which exiled every non-Christian,

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be he Jew or Mohammedan, from Spanish soil. Torquemada, the head of the Inquisition, is said to have wrung the consent to this edict from the timid king. An anecdote, for the truth of which I disclaim responsibility, but which appears not improbable, relates that while the edict was under discussion, Abrabanel, a wealthy and philanthropic Jew, had offered his whole enormous fortune to the king, whose greed for gold was well known, if he would refuse to issue the edict. The king seemed favorably impressed with the offer, and hesi- tated to sign the document. Torquemada at this critical moment, when the life and happi- ness of a hundred thousand human beings was trembling in the balance, forced his way into the king's cabinet. He held a crucifix in his hand, and addressed the king, in an angry tone, in the following words : "Jesus was sold once by Iscariot : now go and sell him again." The bigoted king could not withstand such a pressure ; he yielded, and signed the edict.

The misery which followed defies description. Imagine a hundred thousand households broken up, their members deprived of all means of making a living, no country in the world ready to receive them, means of transportation scarce ; while on the other hand it was not considered sinful, but rather an act of piety, to rob, mur-

98 Messianic Expectations.

der, or sell into slavery the weary wanderers. Torquemada however, who thought to crush the Marranos with this blow, also was mistaken. Thousands of Spanish Jews perished at that time ; thousands of others succeeded in reach- ing other countries ; but the majority remained. They embraced Christianity, and swelled the ranks of the Marranos. How they must have loved their new religion can easily be imagined. The Jews having been removed, the Spanish Inquisition had now to deal with the Marranos only. The task was not an easy one, and the battle was fought with skill and fanaticism on both sides. Nor were the Marranos permitted to convert their property into money and leave the country. The very suspicion that one in- tended to depart was sufficient to indict him, rob him of his property, and sentence him to grace the next auto-da-fe" with his presence. The papal court grew rich from bribes which both the Inquisition and the representatives of the Marranos offered to prevent edicts in their favor or disfavor.

This persecution was continued during more than two hundred years, until the last of the Marranos had either died in the dungeons of the Inquisition, or expired on the pyre, or made good his escape. And what was gained by this persecution ? Reason was not suppressed ; the

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very Marranos were the secret promoters of the religious revolution which was soon to take place. After many a defeat, Protestantism gained the victory. It had come to stay. But Spain, rich in itself, and still enriched by the rain of gold which America showered upon it, grew poorer every day. Her population grew up in ignorance and bigotry, and never learned how to use money properly. Her best, her most intelligent and enterprising citizens, had been driven away ; and she degenerated to her present condition. The Jews and the Mar- ranos exiled from Spain aided the rise of Eng- land and the Netherlands. In the same degree that Spanish cities declined, the cities of Hol- land and England grew in wealth and prosper- ity. The policy of the Inquisition had been a suicidal one.

The miseries through which our ancestors had to pass during these two centuries in that country made them naturally look for aid from without ; and Messianic expectations became again the order of the day. Any adventurer who would have assumed the r61e of a Messiah would have found a willing ear, support, and fol- lowers, at that time.

Two men, on occasions working together, at other times acting independently of each other, produced the greatest sensation at that period,

ioo Messianic Expectations.

and caused quite a stir among both Jews and Gentiles. It has not yet been decided whether David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho were ad- venturers, impostors, or deluded partisans ; but their history is so marvellous, so romantic, so fascinating, and at the same time so unknown to the public, that I shall, in my next lecture, give a short sketch of it.

VII. DAVID RUBENI AND SOLOMON MOLCHO.

JSCOVERIES and inventions are of such frequent occurrence in our days that noth- ing less than the discovery of a road con- necting the earth with the moon would startle us; and even then we should easily overcome the surprise and naively ask, "What next?" Whenever we are informed by the press of a new invention or discovery, no matter how far- reaching in its consequences, we take such news as a matter of course : as something that we had a right to expect of the inventor or discov- erer.

Such indifference may appear abnormal and discouraging ; but it keeps us cool and level- headed. If the reported discovery or invention does not rest upon a solid foundation of proba- bility, we dismiss it at once as a fabrication, and give it no further attention. Imagination has become subordinate to reason in our days.

A few hundred years ago such indifference did not prevail, and every new discovery addressed itself rather to human imagination

IO2 Messianic Expectations.

than to human reason. The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus set the world almost wild with astonishment and sur- prise. Not alone that a new continent was added to the world, not alone that all the former theories as to the shape of the earth were at once annihilated : the newly discovered country, with its strange plants, strange animals, and still stranger human population, showered at once such a rain of wealth upon Spain, the happy land which had been instrumental in its discovery, that the imagination of all Europeans became heated to the highest possible degree, and the most fabulous narratives of travellers found eager listeners and enthusiastic believers. Nothing seemed impossible after such a discov- ery. The city fathers of Genoa and the princes of Portugal now blamed themselves for not hav- ing listened to the plans of Columbus ; and they, as well as the rest of the European princes, were ready to invest in the most adventurous schemes, simply because they were afraid of losing another chance, and because the most in- credible stories now seemed probable.

The interior of Africa, though much better known to-day than ever before, is still shrouded in mystery ; and the exploits of the late Mahdi, the siege and capture of Khartoum, the failure of England to liberate the heroic Gordon, and what is of still greater weight, the uncertainty

David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho. 103

as to the final fate of the general, are proofs that we have still to learn a great deal about these far-off regions. Five hundred years ago these countries were still less known to the Europeans.

In the year 1524 a man arrived at Venice via Palestine and Egypt, who claimed to have come from the interior of Africa. He gave his name as David Rubeni ; he said that he was the brother of Joseph, a Jewish prince who ruled over a large kingdom, the inhabitants of which were no others than the descendants of the tribes Reuben, Gad, and Manasse. Joseph, as well as he himself, according to his genealogy, was descended in a direct line from King David. He was in possession of credentials of the Jewish government and of letters of recommendation of Portuguese residents : he also carried a silk flag upon which the ten commandments were embroidered, and he spoke no other language than a corrupt Hebrew, which the European Jews could hardly understand. He said that he was charged with a message to Pope Clem- ent VII., who had ascended the papal chair in 1523. Although he himself did not say much about his errand, his attendant gave the secret away, that King Joseph, David's brother, had an army of three hundred thousand well-drilled soldiers in readiness to fall upon the Turks and to reconquer Palestine ; but that he was in need

IO4 Messianic Expectations.

of fire-arms and ammunition ; and that therefore he had sent his brother to ask them of the Pope or of any other prince who should be willing to invest in the enterprise. He furthermore re- ported that gold and diamonds were in his country of no value whatever, as the precious metal and the costly gems were so common there that people would not pick them up, and children only played with them. David pre- tended never to have studied any Jewish book, but claimed to be a soldier by profession. He bragged that he had killed with his own hand forty men in one single encounter. The good people of Venice listened eagerly to these re- ports, and never doubted a word. David was a homely looking fellow, of small stature and swarthy complexion. He was no orator what- soever, but must have possessed a peculiar qual- ity of brazen-faced presumption. At Venice he shrewdly avoided his co-religionists and re- mained in the house of the sea-captain who had brought him from Alexandria. His attendant, however, drew attention upon him ; people called at his residence and considered it a great honor to be admitted into his presence and to aid his enterprise with money. A rich Venetian Hebrew, Mazliach or Felix by name, received from him the honorable distinction ofv acting for him in the capacity of a banker ; that is, to discount the notes which he drew on his brother

David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho. 105

Joseph. After a short rest, David proceeded to Rome. Riding a snow-white horse, and accom- panied by his attendant and an interpreter, he appeared at the gates of the Vatican, and to the surprise of all was immediately admitted to an audience before the Cardinal Giulio. A few days later the Pope himself received him, and accepted his credentials. These papers were sent to the court of Portugal for examination, and were promptly returned from there as genuine docu- ments. The Pope thereupon treated David with the honors and courtesies due to an ambassador, and consulted him almost daily in private conferences.

Pope Clement VII. was one of the best popes who ever graced the papal throne ; but he was also one of the most unfortunate. He lived at a time when all Europe was in a state of chaotic disorder. The Reformation, which had begun with Luther, had spread all over Europe and had found a stronghold in Germany. The Ger- man Emperor, Charles V., being at the same time King of Spain and ruler over the newly discovered America — a prince in whose realms, as the saying was, the sun would never set — wished to humble Italy and to press it down to a secondary position in the council of nations. This made the position of the Pope difficult. If he should oppose the Emperor's secular policy, Charles was likely to encourage Protestantism

io6 Messianic Expectations.

in retaliation for the papal resistance ; if, on the other hand, Clement should win over the Em- peror to his plans in regard to the suppression of heresy, he would be obliged to make conces- sions at the expense of the Italian prestige. Nothing short of a crusade against the Turk ... could help the Pope out of his dilemma. At a time when the most impossible seemed to be possible, when anything was believed, David's story was not at all discredited by the Pope ; for there was an opportunity for him which he could not afford to lose. An army of three hundred thousand soldiers ready to be sent against the Turks was the very thing he needed.

Palestine granted to the Jews, there remained the rest of the vast territory of the Mohammed- ans to be divided, for which purpose a crusade could easily be preached. The Pope, placing himself at the head of the undertaking, would regain the lost prestige of the Roman church, Protestantism would be forgotten amidst the din of arms, and the ambition of the Emperor would naturally be turned away from Italy into other channels. All these advantages could be obtained for a few guns, a few barrels of gun- powder, and a little toleration shown to the Jews.

If the Pope, the head of Christendom, thus treated a Jew, what could be expected of the Jews but that they should become frantic with

David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho. 107

joy ? The greater the misery which they had lately suffered in Spain, and which the Mar- ranos were still suffering there and in Portugal, the more did they cling to the hope of restora- tion held out to them, as it appears, by a shrewd adventurer. This again shows that the Messianic expectations of our ancestors were of a political and not of a religious nature. The idea that the Messiah was to remove the sins of the world is a Christian invention, and the most believing of the Jews never believed in that doctrine. Their Mashiach was expected to be a king, who should restore their political independence, and nothing else. Just at the time when their misery seemed unbearable, when their existence was threatened with total extinction, they received the welcome news that there existed a Jewish king, a descendant of David ; that this king commanded a large army ; that he was immensely rich ; that he was ready to assert his influence in their be- half ; and that he was about to reconquer Jeru- salem and to re-establish a Jewish kingdom. No matter whether the report was true or not, whether they were the dupes of an adventurer or not, such were exactly the hopes which they held in regard to a Messiah. And, after all, as long as the Pope believed in the man and treated him with courtesy never shown a Jew before, why should they not believe in him?

io8 Messianic Expectations.

Under the given conditions they were justi- fied in expecting some grain of truth in his statement, even if the bulk of his stories should be fictitious. They crowded around Rubeni, and supplied him with all the money he wanted. David played his part in a masterly manner : he kept the crowd at a respectful distance from his person, showed no signs of greed for money, and made such an impression upon the giver that he considered himself happy when his donation was accepted by David.

No practical results, however, were reached by all the secret sessions which he held with the Pope ; and the latter allowed him to depart, when a letter of invitation arrived from the court of Portugal for him.

Joao III., of Portugal, a king who ruined his country by his greed and stupidity, who knew of no higher policy than to fill his purse, no matter at whose expense, wished to introduce the Inquisition into his domain, for no other reason but that it was a well-paying institution. Portugal was then as full of Marranos as was the neighboring Spain ; and Joao looked with envy across the boundary lines at the harvest which the Inquisition yielded there. The Pope, however, notwithstanding his urgent demands, was not ready to give the necessary permit. While the Portuguese court and the Vatican were in communication, and both the court and

David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho. 109

the Marranos tried their utmost to get the Pope on their side, Joao had heard of the ap- pearance of Rubeni and of his errand. He changed his policy at once, and invited him to Lisbon, with the view of making a treaty with him. Rubeni, who apparently must have been very liberal in his promises, received from the king the assurance of his aid. Five vessels loaded with guns and ammunition were to be given to him in consideration of an amount of money and commercial advantages specified in a secret clause. During the time in which this important business was transacted, David was treated by the king like a prince ; and all the edicts against the Marranos were can- celled.

This unfortunate class of people, living in constant danger of losing life and property, tormented by the pangs of conscience, sur- rounded by bigotry, fanaticism, and superstition, had finally lost all self-control. A great many of them had become mentally so deranged that they would believe in the most absurd notions. When Rubeni appeared at the court and was received with such high distinction, thousands of Spanish Marranos escaped to Portugal ; and they all hailed him as the Messiah who would save them from their unnatural position, and restore both the Jewish nation and religion. All eyes were directed longingly at him, in the

1 10 Messianic Expectations.

expectation of the wonderful events which were to happen.

A young man of noble family of the class of the Marranos, a youth of rare beauty, of poetical genius, and of a commanding power of speech, became so highly impressed with the appearance of Rubeni, and the hopes con- nected with him, that he made himself unknow- ingly a tool in the hands of the adventurer. Diego Pirez, born in the year 1501, was about twenty-four years of age when Rubeni arrived in Portugal. Born among the Marranos, he had received an excellent education. He spoke several languages fluently, and was not ignorant in Hebrew literature. He held the office of a clerk at the royal court of justice, and stood in great favor with the government. Nothing else was known of him before ; but no sooner did Rubeni appear than Diego Pirez had all kinds of dreams and visions in regard to the advent of a Messiah and the future of the Marranos. He approached the adventurer in order to find out directly of him whether his plans would correspond with his visions. Rubeni, as usual, remained cold, and did not betray his plans. Pirez thought he should win his confidence by his open return to Judaism ; an act which was punishable with death. He performed the Abrahamitic rite on himself ; and the loss of blood which followed caused a dangerous fever,

David Rubeni and Solomon MolcJw. 1 1 1

during which Pirez had again frightful visions, all relating to the appearance of a Messiah who was to save the Marranos. He even thought he heard the voice of an angel, who appointed him for that mission. . From that time he changed his name, and called himself Solomon Molcho, which is about the same as King Solo- mon. Having thrown aside the mask of Chris- tianity, he could no longer remain at home. He escaped and fled to Palestine. The young enthusiastic Marrano who had had the courage to return openly to Judaism created quite a stir in the Orient. He gave himself out at first as an ambassador of David Rubeni, but later as the Messiah himself ; and his dreams in which he foresaw his early death, and that he should be sacrificed as a burnt offering to God, were the constant themes of his lectures, which were listened to by thousands of. people, and afterwards (in 1529) printed in Salonica. The substance of his addresses was always the same, namely, that at the end of the year 5300 of the world, or 1540 of the new era, the Messiah would appear ; that Rome would be destroyed, and Jerusalem rebuilt. His fame spread, and all kinds of fantastic hopes were connected with his name.

In the meantime, King Joao III. again changed his policy. Without giving any cause, he notified Rubeni to quit Portugal within two

112 Messianic Expectations.

months, and began to urge the papal court to establish an inquisitory tribunal in his king- dom against the Marranos. Clement hesitated. He could not arrive at conclusions, partly because he abhorred the crimes committed by the Inquisition, and partly because the sus- pense was valuable to him, as both parties appearing before him did not come with empty hands.

About this time, Solomon Molcho arrived in Ancona with the intention of going to Rome to convert the Pope to Judaism, even at the risk of his life. In Rome he secluded himself for thirty days, fasting and praying, and again had visions. He foresaw that a great flood would submerge Rome, and that Lisbon would be destroyed by an earthquake. Of these visions he spoke in the synagogues of Rome every Sab- bath ; and it seems that the Pope himself began to believe in him. The fact remains that Clem- ent VII. not only received him frequently in audience, but protected him against his enemies. The flood which he had predicted and the earth- quake of Lisbon occurred in fact ; and the Pope no longer doubted his divine mission. It is said that once the Pope saved Molcho's life, when the Inquisition had taken hold of him and had sentenced him to be burnt in public, by substituting another criminal for him, and secretly aiding him in his escape.

David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho. 1 1 3

In 1531, we find Molcho in Venice again in company with Rubeni, who dealt with the city council as he had formerly dealt with the Pope and King Joao III. All of a sudden both men conceived the adventurous idea of travelling to Regensburg, where the Emperor had called a diet, in order to convert him to Judaism. Charles granted them a few audiences, but soon imprisoned them and took them to Mantua, where both were tried on charges of heresy brought against them. Diego Pirez was sen. tenced to death upon the pyre. At the last moment a messenger sent by the Emperor offered him his life if he would repent and return to the church. Molcho answered that he was pleased to offer his life to God as a martyr ; that he repented one act only ; namely, to have believed in his own Messiahship. He died without a murmur. Rubeni, who could not be sentenced as a heretic, was taken to Spain, and died in the dungeons of the Inquisi- tion, after the torture had made him confess the names of a number of Marranos,' who were burned in consequence. The hopes, however, which had been linked to his name and that of Solomon Molcho did not die out for some time. Not before the year 1540 had passed away with- out a Messiah making his appearance were these hopes relinquished.

Although only a comparatively short time has

H4 Messianic Expectations.

elapsed since: although the art of printing must have facilitated the establishment of facts : although the printed sermons of Solomon Molcho and a diary of Rubeni are still extant, the queer career and still queerer actions of these two adventurers are still clouded in mys- tery. Their connections with the Pope, with the King of Portugal, with the patricians o* Venice, with the Emperor of Germany, are his- torical facts ; and still nothing definite is known about their transactions with these influential persons. Their history, fabulous and romantic as it may appear, contains, however, a few points which bear unmistakable evidence to the correctness of the propositions which my lectures on Messianic expectations are to ad- vocate.

First, — The Jewish conception of a Messiah, as long as such hopes were indulged in, has always been the same ; namely, that of a man who would restore the national existence. The theories of hereditary sin, of eternal damnation, of redemption through the Messiah, have always been rejected as absurd by the Jews, even at the time of the Inquisition, when the wildest confusion of ideas was prevalent on account of the Marranos, who had inhaled the doctrines of both Christianity and Judaism.

Second, — Messianic expectations, at the time of Rubeni and Molcho, show already the traces

David Rubeni and Solomon MolcJio. \ 1 5

/ of old age. They had already lost their strength

and their fervor. Hopes were indulged in, but no practical steps were taken to realize them. These hopes, even, would have vanished had they not been kept alive by the persecution from which our ancestors were suffering at the time. If Messianic expectations had not been on the decline, they would have borne better fruit at that peculiar historical period than the fantastic exploits of Rubeni and Molcho. The whole excitement did not last longer than about eight years, and was confined to Spain and Italy only ; and, after all, it affected the Christians more than the Jews. A pope, a king, and the aristocracy of a renowned city seem to have been the dupes of two Jewish adventurers, while the Jews only lost a small sum of money.

Third, — It appears to me that the Messianic character which was attributed to both men was an invention of their friends, a blind to cover the true inwardness of their mission. It seems to me that they were nothing but the secret agents of the Marranos to work at the courts of Rome, Lisbon, and Regensburg in their favor ; and that when both had lost their lives in their dangerous mission, legend took hold of them, and surrounded them with a wreath of marvel- lous deeds. It seems that they worked con- scientiously for their cause, and not for private

1 1 6 Messianic Expectations.

gain. There is no trace to be found that they lived extravagantly, or that they amassed money. They drew their necessary expenses, which were little ; and the rest of the money intrusted to them was consumed in bribing the corrupt courtiers whose influence was needed and could not be obtained otherwise.

These points evidently prove that Messianic expectations must have been the temporary hope of a merely political character, which had practically died out with the occasion which had produced them ; namely, with the loss of the Jewish nationality. They furthermore prove that these expectations never took the form of a doctrine, and never supported the structure of Judaism. They were fanciful decorations on the outside of the building, but were never essen- tial to our religion.

Another cause which perpetuated their life for some time was the Kabbalah, a disease which was caused by the unhealthy atmosphere in which Judaism was compelled to live, a cancer which had slowly but steadily spread over its whole body, and almost caused its death. At the very time when all Europe shook off the torpor of the Middle Ages, and began to inhale the morning breeze of the new day, Judaism was stretched on the sick-bed with that disease ; and if we have not yet gained a more respected position in the communities in which we live, it

David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho. 117

is due to the delay in our advancement caused by that sickness.

As the Kabbalah has also produced a would- be Messiah, the last one of repute, I shall intro- duce his history by a lecture on the Kabbalah, its origin, growth, and evil consequences.

VIII. THE KABBALAH.

'HERE has never been an individual or a nation which has been altogether original in its thoughts or actions. We call the productions of an author original in so far as the same subject has never been treated before with the same strength and in the same words ; but if you enter upon a close scrutiny, you will find that the greater part of them is the reflex of ideas current at the time of the writer, and that even the few for which origi- nality is claimed are the product of a combina- tion of inherited sentiment, study, and special accidental impressions. The secret of the success of an able writer and speaker is not to be found in his originality, but in just the opposite ; in that he gives expression to the ideas of his readers or hearers.

We constantly give and take. No matter how secluded a person lives, his thoughts will be influenced by his surroundings : no matter how deeply a nation is sunk in barbar- ism, it cannot withstand the influence of civ- 118

The Kabbalah. 119

ilization brought upon it by other nations with which it happens to come in contact.

There is perhaps no nation on earth which has come in contact with a greater number of others, and has stood in a closer relation to them, than the Jewish nation. It has mingled with Egyptians and Phoenicians, with Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, with the Greeks and the Romans, and with all the modern nations. Its record dates from the time when the Pyramids were built, and can be traced through all ages to this very day. It is therefore no wonder at all that its originality was affected by its sur- roundings, that it has worked into its system the popular notions of all the peoples which I have enumerated, and that it was influenced by the current ideas and philosophies of the different ages. It is an undeniable fact that though we have given, we have also received ; that though we have influenced others, we have been influenced by them in turn. It is a grave mistake on the part of our friends to think that Judaism has remained intact and unchanged from the time of its origin until now, and that the Israelites of to-day hold the same views as did their great-grandparents two thousand years ago. A great many ideas, good ones as well as bad ones, have found their way into Judaism, which were by no means essential to its spirit. After they had

1 20 Messianic Expectations.

been absorbed, they hardened within its system, and the historian of our days, who examines the phenomenon, wonders now how such a strange matter could have ever grown so deeply and firmly into the living wood that it is almost impossible to remove it without harming the tree itself.

The religion of the Babylonians and that of the Persians exerted their influence upon Juda- ism, as well as the Egyptian cults, which stood godfather at its cradle. By degrees the theo- ries held by the Parsees of God and the world crept into Judaism ; and the loom of time worked them into the Jewish tissue. From the time of the intercourse with these nations we find that a belief in the existence of super- natural beings, in angels of light and darkness, springs up in our religion ; that it develops, and that by the side of the commandment, "Thou shalt not make any representation of any being, be it in heaven or on earth," the most fanciful descriptions of the heavenly regions are indulged in. At the very time when the Baby- lonian Talmud was near its completion, a mystical book appeared, the Sefer Jezirah, the book of Creation, in which not only the different classes of angels are named and their daily duties minutely recorded, but in which the writer does not shrink from describing the throne of God, and from capping the climax by

The Kabbalah. 121

giving a measurement of his limbs. The length of his beard, for instance, is given at ten thou- sand five hundred Persian miles. Such notions were surely not Jewish, but still they were held by our ancestors. There is not one philosophi- cal system known which has not left some traces in the structure of Judaism ; and while at times the rational system of Aristotle pre- dominated, there were times when mysticism ruled supreme.

Maimonides, the exponent of the twelfth cen- tury, the greatest philosopher of his time, had returned to the Aristotelian system, and at- tempted to interpret the Bible in a rational manner. He was the outspoken enemy of mys- ticism ; he denied the existence of miracles, and endeavored to explain the Mosaic laws and rites from a scientific point of view. This rational- ism created a storm of indignation in orthodox circles, which broke forth with still greater vio- lence after his death. It raged for two hundred years, and became finally the cause of a reaction, of a return to mysticism, and of the origin of the Kabbalah.

The burning question of those days was. ex- actly the same one which is debated to-day, namely, the divine origin of the Bible. Starting from the belief that God himself was its author, the question arose how its discrepancies could be accounted for. How could a divine author

1 22 Messianic Expectations.

admit into his book passages like that of Lot and his daughters, that of Judah and Thamar, and others ? What was the use of a legislation which in course of time had become imprac- ticable ? There remained only two courses : either to say that the Bible was the work of human authorship, or to find a key by which it could be read in a different way. Maimonides would have chosen the first way, had he lived longer. The second way seemed to most the best ; and, as necessity is the mother of inven- tion, the key was produced. A secret meaning was attributed to every word of the Bible, which could be obtained by changing the letters and substituting such others for them as would rep- resent the same numerical value. It must be understood that every Hebrew letter represents a number. The first ten letters of the alphabet stand for the numbers from one to ten ; the next ten stand for the tenths ; and so on. Each word has, therefore, a numerical value. Sup- posing, now, that the letters of a word would give the number 120; the Kabbalist could sub- stitute any other word for it, provided its letters would also count up 120. This system opened the door to an unbounded mysticism. The rationalism of Maimonides was silenced at once : the Bible now became, in the hands of a clever Kabbalist, the proof of everything, no matter how absurd ; and an entirely new reli-

The Kabbalah. 123

gious system began building upon this hypoth- esis.

The world, imperfect as it is, was said not to have been created by God, the Perfect, the Infi- nite, who was called in the language of the Kabbalah the " En Sof ; " but that between this world and the Supreme Being there were ten circles, or " Sefiroth," of which God, the En Sof, formed the centre. The substance of the first circle which had emanated from God was similar to him, but not exactly like him : the second was the effusion of the first, similar, but not like it : the third of the second, and so on, each Sefirah growing farther from perfec- tion. The visible world was the effusion of the last circle ; and by means of these circles, which were flowing into one another like the colors of a rainbow, man stood in connection with God, and God with man. The En Sof was infinite ; but the Sefiroth were finite. The En Sof had no bodily form ; but the Sefiroth had a spiritual and bodily form, and through their medium God could appear in a visible form, and reveal himself to man.

The human soul was a citizen of this higher world, and stood in direct connection with the Sefiroth. It could, therefore, exert an influence upon them, and through them upon the highest divinity. A noble soul could force the En Sof to send his blessings through the channels oi

124 Messianic Expectations.

the Sefiroth upon this world; while a wicked soul could hinder the divine activity. Good actions would facilitate, ignoble actions inter- rupt, the divine effusions. Every rite and every ceremony was of mystical importance : they were the instruments to influence the divinity. The prescribed daily prayers were positively effective provided they were directed to the proper Sen rah. All prayers were to be ad- dressed to them, and not directly to the En Sof. The formula of the prayer was alone of impor- tance, not its meaning and sense. By means of the prayer the Kabbalist could work miracles.

All souls were said to have been created from the beginning as the residents of the Sefiroth. Every soul was preordained to a union with a body, and for a life in this world. In this earthly career it was to prove that in spite of its union with a body, it could preserve its celestial purity. If a soul was successful in this life, it ascended forever into the higher spheres ; but if it succumbed to earthly temptations, it had to return again and again to this world until finally it had passed its earthly life in perfect purity. Most of the souls, however, were forgetful of their heavenly origin ; and thus it happened that most of the souls on earth were old ones who had lived there before. New ones were rarely sent to the world, because, as the number of souls on earth was limited, no new soul could

The Kabbalah. 125

be started until an old one had returned forever to a higher sphere. The Kabbalist could tell at sight whether a person was a new soul or an old one. Not until all souls had passed their earthly existence, and had returned to their heavenly abode, would the end of days be reached, when all souls and all the Sefiroth would again be absorbed and drawn in by the En Sof. The soul of the Messiah would be the last one to appear ; and his advent could, there- fore, be accelerated or retarded by the goodness or depravity of mankind. In all these fanciful doctrines we can easily discern, not only the traces of Persian mysticism, of Buddhism, and of Mohammedanism, but also the prevailing Christian theories ; as, for instance, the power of prayer when directed to a mediator who stood between God and man, and the pos- sibility of an incarnation by means of the Sefiroth. All these doctrines were secretly transmitted from teacher to pupil. A Rabbi Isaac, called " the blind," Rabbi Asriel, and Rabbi Jehuda ben Jakar, and Nachmanides, the most inveterate antagonist of Maimonides, are named as the first teachers of the new science.

This science, however, could not at first gain a firm foothold ; for it lacked authority. People would ask, How do the Kabbalists know all these things ? How do they know that their

1 26 Messianic Expectations.

key is the right one ? But this deficiency also was soon to be supplied.

Rabbi Mose ben Shem Tob de Leon, born at Lyons in 1250, was a man of inventive genius. He eked out a miserable life by copying books. He was a spendthrift, and always pinched for money, at the same time unscrupulous as to the means of getting it. He had learned a little of everything, but had never acquired thorough- ness in any study. He had studied the Kabba- lah too ; that is, the few doctrines which then were taught. When he found that an appetite for this study was springing up amongst his con- temporaries, he wrote several treatises on that subject. He failed, however, to win glory or money from the literary productions which ap- peared under his own name. The idea once struck him that a Kabbalistic book which should appear under the name of a recognized author- ity might have a ready sale. As author for such a book, he selected Simon ben Jochai, a rabbi of great renown, who had lived in Palestine in the second century, and of whose ascetic life a number of legends had survived. He was said to have lived for nineteen years as a hermit in u cave, to have fasted six days in a week out of the seven, and to have received direct revelations from God. The teachings of this rabbi, if writ- ten in the Chaldean language, the language of the Talmud, would not be doubted. Mose de

The Kabbalah. 127

Leon went to work, and one day he surprised his friends with a copy from a manuscript which, as he said, had been discovered by Nachmanides in the grave of Simon ben Jochai. He had sent it to his son, but a storm had carried it to Spain, and from there into his (Mose's) posses- sion.

The book was entitled the " Sohar," which means splendor, and was divided into sev- eral chapters, having no connection with one another. It was filled with the most fantastic and absurd narratives. Angels and devils, Par- adise and Gehenna, played a prominent part therein. The souls were traced through all their wanderings ; and their mystic* relations to the Sefiroth and the En Sof were considerably dwelt upon. All this knowledge of the spirit- ual world had been obtained by revelation. Simon ben Jochai, the alleged author of the book, had learned these secrets from God him- self. God himself had instructed him how to use the key to the Bible, and how to read it correctly. By means of his ascetic life, he had penetrated Sefirah after Sefirah, until he had been in direct communication with the En Sof.

The Messiah was not ignored ; he was to appear in the beginning of the fourteenth cen- tury, and by this statement the clever counter- feiter betrayed himself. He ceased to be the anointed king who was to restore the political

128 Messianic Expectations.

status quo ante ; and he became in the Sohar a mystical being, the incarnation of the En Sof, the exact image of the Messiah taught by Chris- tianity. And still such theories were called Jewish. The demand for the book increased ; but Mose de Leon did not reap the fruits of his labor. He died. The original manuscript was now demanded by the influential men of that time, but could not be found. Mose's widow insisted upon it that her husband had written the whole book himself. The Sohar became, nevertheless, an authority. Its origin from Simon ben Jochai was never questioned. Soon the new revelation overgrew Talmud and Bible, and the night of mysticism lulled the Jews into a magnetic slumber.

We may well ask how it was possible that the common sense for which the Israelites have ever been noted could have become so thor- oughly suppressed as to let them accept such an aberration of the mind ; a book which bears the traces of fraud right on its face.

Well, it is the most impossible which is gener- ally sure to happen. Our imagination is quicker reached than our reason. Mysticism always has had a secret charm over mankind ; and even to-day, in our enlightened age, there are thou- sands who, in spite of all exposures, believe in Spiritualism, in clairvoyance, and other mystic absurdities. At that time there were added

The Kabbalah. 129

some other reasons, of still greater force. First of all, the proud spirit of our ancestors had been broken by constant persecution. A man whose life and property are constantly endan- gered loses naturally the force of reason, and grows superstitious. Soldiers, sailors, and high- way robbers, are as a rule the most supersti- tious people on earth. The law which com- pelled our ancestors to wear a peculiarly shaped hat, or a yellow spot on their outside garment, and thus had made them a constant target for ridicule, had destroyed their self-respect, and had made them low-spirited and dull. Further- more, their neighbors were as superstitious as they were. The spirit of mysticism at that time held the whole world under its sway. The Crusades had opened the eyes of the western barbarians to a civilization in the east of which they had never had a conception. Whatever they saw of adroit mechanism in Constantinople or eastern cities they took for the secret work of evil spirits. For instance, they could not understand why some people looked up to the stars and made charts of the night sky. They believed that astronomers received information from the stars in regard to the future of man. Astronomy was changed into astrology, in which even men like Wallen- stein believed. Geometry, not known before in western Europe, puzzled the uncultured barba-

130 Messianic Expectations.

rian ; and he thought a secret power was at- tached to the triangles, squares, and circles, of the mathematician. The medical art, w^iich was not known in western countries, but had its seat in the east, remained a conundrum to the Crusaders. Every botanist and every phy- sician seemed to them to be in secret communi- cation with superhuman forces. The belief spread that it was possible to change base metals into gold ; and the cradle of our chem- istry was alchemy. All these absurdities were, however, the fertilizers which stimulated the barren ground, and brought forth all our mod- ern sciences ; but the scientist of that age had to work and to experiment in secrecy. The church felt instinctively the danger which would arise for it from these studies, and stig- matized science as the black art, as the machi- nation of evil spirits. It persecuted and ostra- cized as sorcerers and enchanters all those who would indulge in such studies, and compelled them thus to carry on their researches in secret, in the darkness of the night, which aroused still more the superstition of the populace.

It is, therefore, not at all surprising that the same symptoms made themselves visible on the Jewish body, as it suffered from the same sick- ness ; the difference was that these absurdities were worked out in a peculiar Jewish manner by our ancestors. Numerous commentaries on

The Kabbalah. \ 3 1

the Sohar were produced ; all the secret arts, as necromancy, astrology, and alchemy, were drawn into the Kabbalah ; and an abundance of impostors arose, who claimed to be in posses- sion of King Solomon's ring, and to possess power over the spiritual world. These imposi- tions would have done little harm had not the study of the Kabbalah overtowered finally the study of Talmud and Bible, destroyed reason, changed the whole religious system, created and introduced new ceremonies, which were palmed off as truly Jewish ; so that finally Judaism could no longer be identified in the form in which it then appeared.

Our present orthodoxy is the last remnant of the Kabbalistic age. What our orthodox brethren defend as Judaism is Kabbalism. Many of the prescribed prayers, the number of which was not to be abrogated, are of Kab- balistic origin : most of the ceremonies still in use among them were produced in the age of the Kabbalah. The New Year's day and the day of Atonement, formerly days of joy, re- ceived a gloomy character, which still prevails. The Kaddish prayer, which reform has not yet been strong enough to abolish, but which it has at least modernized and rationalized, is a relic of that age, and was supposed to hold a mystic power over the souls of the departed members of the family. The words of the Kaddish prayer,

132 Messianic Expectations.

which in their simple form contain a glorifica- tion of God, were supposed to contain an en- tirely different meaning when read with the key of which the Kabbalist was the owner. The burial rites, with all their superstitious practices, still in use among our orthodox breth- ren, are an offshoot from the Kabbalah. Even I remember the time when Kabbalistic amulets were still in use and were placed over the cradle of a new-born child to prevent evil spir- its from harming it. And all these supersti- tious rites were and are still called Judaism !

The Kabbalah clung by necessity to Messi- anic expectations ; but the most fantastic and absurd hopes were connected with his appear- ance ; and if there are still Jews living who conscientiously believe in the coming of a Messiah, they believe in the Kabbalistic Mes- siah, and not in the Messiah originally expected at the time of their political depression.

It is now about one hundred years since the reform movement began (with Moses Men- delssohn) ; and its blows were directed first of all against the Kabbalah. From the time that Israel was relieved of that incubus, it began to live again and to reconquer its lost position in the world. All the present difficulties which we experience in the strained relations between orthodoxy and reform are due to the rapidity of our progress during the last hundred years.

The Kabbalah. 133

We had overslept ourselves, and had to make up for lost time. Our present reform does not intend to harm Judaism, for it loves it ; but it is compelled to blast the last remnants of Kab- balism, which by the ignorant masses are taken for Judaism.

The Kabbalah has produced a Messiah such as could be expected of it ; a man who did more harm to Judaism than any previous Messiah. He was as great an impostor as the Kabbalah was an imposture ; and still, men like Baruch Spinoza, the greatest philosopher of his age, did not know what to make of him.

Sabbatai Zwi, the last Jewish Messiah on record, filled for the last time the hearts of his contemporaries with the delusive hopes of national restoration, and afterwards alienated thousands of his followers from their religion. His activity falls in the middle of the seven- teenth century ; and, although his history gives evidence that he was a mixture of fraud, mys- ticism, and self-delusion, it is as romantic as that of any of his predecessors, and gives a true picture of the Kabbalistic swindle by which his time was imposed upon.

IX.

SABBATAI ZWI.

'HE struggle between darkness and light, as witnessed at the dawn of every day, is a sight well worth seeing. It seems as if two giants were wrestling with each other for the supremacy over the world. While the eastern horizon assumes a pale roseate hue, deep darkness still hovers above the western sky ; and it appears as if armies of clouds were despatched from there toward the east to sup- press the rising light. Then a mixture of light and darkness spreads for some time over the world, in which all objects take on the most fanciful appearance. Finally, the clouds recoil from before the arrows which the rising sun sends from his radiant chariot against them, objects become discernible in their true form, and the world hails the victorious day.

The seventeenth century is in more than one respect comparable to that struggle between darkness and light as experienced in nature at the dawn of every day. The night of the Mid- dle Ages begins to withdraw from before the '34

Sabbatai Zwi. 135

light of the new era, but not without a struggle. That peculiar mixture of light and darkness which we call twilight was then hovering over the intellectual world. In its dim light, all facts appeared distorted, though their true forms could already be distinguished. The press, the influence of which was then already felt, was yet in its infancy. It was fed with nourishment that had grown stale by the time it reached it. A statement, fallacious or untrue, because it could not be rectified at once, grew more harm- ful when spread by the press than it would ever have been before. Journalism, that branch of the press which to-day is called the press, had scarcely seen the light of the world : it existed in an embryonic form, lacking both hands and feet — telegraphs and railroads. While the names of Descartes and Spinoza, of Kepler, Galileo, and Copernicus appeared as the messengers of the new day on the one side of the horizon, the deep night of mysticism was still beclouding the world ; and both Jews and Gentiles were still held in a deep slumber by its magnetic influence.

In one of my previous lectures, I have already stated that Christianity in its earlier days had been expecting the return of Jesus ; and that this notion had been the cause of similar Mes- sianic expectations among the Jews. These hopes, long forgotten among Christians, were

136 Messianic Expectations.

all at once called into life again in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Thirty Years' War, then raging in Germany, the rise of Prot- estantism, the inroads which the Turks were making upon Siebenbiirgen, the discoveries which were so surprising to the unintelligent ; all these causes combined revived these old, long-forgotten hopes. The Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, all at once believed that the world would come to an end, and that Christ would re-appear at that auspicious mo- ment. From some obsolete prophecies it was figured out that the fearful catastrophe was to occur in the year 1666.

The Jews were soon infected with the same mania ; and the Kabbalists now discovered that the passage in the Sohar which had predicted the appearance of the Messiah in the beginning of the thirteenth century had been misinter- preted, and that the proper time for his appear- ance was about the same as that of their Chris- tian neighbors, namely, the year 1648. Then their Messiah would come, riding upon a lion, reconquer Palestine in a miraculous manner and without arms, and establish the Kingdom of Heaven. By that time, the Kabbalists said, the last lot of souls would have arrived on this sublunary world, and with it the soul of the Messiah; and' every thing would then be in readi- ness for the absorption by the En Sof.

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From that time dates the pernicious custom, which is still prevalent among the Jews of Poland and Russia, of marrying off their chil- dren at the early ages of from ten to fourteen years. It was introduced in order to exhaust the quicker the supply of unborn souls, and thus to accelerate the arrival of the Messiah. In Smyrna eight hundred such juvenile couples were once married on one day. When Rabbi Manasse stood before Oliver Cromwell and pleaded the cause of his brethren, asking per? mission for them to immigrate into England and to settle upon her soil, one of his arguments was that, after all, their sojourn would be of a short duration, as the time was near at hand when their Messiah would appear. This shows that even practical men of the stamp of Rabbi Manasse were infected with the craze and dared to speak of it as a matter of course to the Pro- tector of England, who in turn received this reference to the current and popular belief in the same spirit in which it was given.

During the war between the Turks and the city of Venice, the commercial relations of that city had become so unsafe that large English and Dutch firms removed from there and estab- lished branch offices in Smyrna. Mordachai Zwi, a Jew of Spanish descent, who had re- moved to the same place from the southern part of Greece, opened a commission business there

138 Messianic Expectations.

representing the interest of several English houses. His strict honesty and his clever man- agement -won for him the confidence of the firms for which he acted, and made him a rich man. On the Qth of the month Ab, the memo- rial day of the destruction of Jerusalem, in the year 1626, a boy was born to him, whom he called Sabbatai. The child grew up to be a handsome young man, who, both by his comeli- ness and by his intellectual qualities, gained the sympathies of all. He was a remarkable boy. He would withdraw into solitudes where he could give full swing to his imagination. He never mingled with his fellows, nor would he ever join in their games. For a short time he studied Bible and Talmud ; but soon he left these studies and was initiated into the myste- ries of the Kabbalah. The ascetic life which was demanded of a Kabbalist suited him ex- tremely. He would pray and fast and meditate and bathe at nights with such a promptness and minuteness that before he had reached his twentieth year he had already become the master of a small circle of disciples. He had, however, one peculiarity which distinguished him from other Kabbalists and surrounded him at the same time with a still brighter halo of holiness. He was totally indifferent to the other sex. Although he had married, according to Kabbalistic usage, at an early age, and his

Sabbatai Zwi. 139

wife was very pretty, he never lived with her as man and wife ; so that she asked for a divorce, to which he raised no objection. With the same coldness he afterwards treated his second wife. His father worshipped him, and ascribed his success in business to the influence which his son was able to exert upon the En Sof. This made Sabbatai conceited ; and as a Mes- siah was expected about that time by all, it oc- curred to him that he and no other was that distinguished personage. On his twenty-second birthday, in the year 1648, he made himself known to a select circle of friends and disciples as the long-expected Messiah, by pronouncing the four-lettered name of God as it is written. The Kabbalah had predicted that the Messiah alone would dare to pronounce this name in the same manner as it was pronounced before by the high priest. When the rabbies of Smyrna heard of it, they grew indignant ; and their col- lege, the Beth-Din, excommunicated him and his followers. The fact was that they loved to dream and to talk about Kabbalistic nonsense, to hope and to pray for a Messiah, but were not ready to face the creations of their own imagi- nation when they appeared before them in broad daylight. After a quarrel which lasted for sev- eral years, he and his disciples were exiled from Smyrna.

The prompt action of the rabbinical college

140 Messianic Expectations.

Ought to have nipped all his Messianic aspira- tions in the bud ; but it had just the opposite effect : it stiffened his backbone. The concep- tion of a suffering Messiah, borne and tenderly nourished by Christianity, had crept by that time into Jewish thought : he considered his persecu- tion to be an essential part of his Messianic mis- sion ; and being well supplied with funds by his father, he scorned the interdict of the rabbini- cal synod of Smyrna; and his illusions grew with every new day.

It is not exactly known where he stopped and what he did during the next fifteen years. A few traits only have survived. On his travels he once met a wandering preacher who at the same time was a copyist of note. His name was Abraham Jachini. From him he received a piece of old parchment, upon which the follow- ing inscription could be seen, in old-fashioned Hebrew characters : " I, Abraham, was impris- oned in a cave for forty years, when I heard a .voice saying, In the year 5386 of the world (that is, 1626) a son shall be born whose name shall be Sabbatai. He shall humble the dragon : he is the true Messiah : and he shall wage war without arms."

It is not known whether this piece of pen- manship had been made to order, or whether Jachini, who had heard of Sabbatai's assump- tion, had written it for the sake of mystifying

Sabbatai Zwi. 141

the mystifier. Sabbatai accepted the document as genuine, preserved it, and proved by it his mis- sion. In the year 1653 we find him in Salonica surrounded by a host of admirers. Here he prepared a peculiar farce. He celebrated his wedding with a scroll of the law such as you can see in any Jewish synagogue. On this oc- casion he proclaimed himself as the Messiah, — and, mark me well, as the son of the En Sof, — who by order of his father was to marry the law, the daughter of heaven. This scene, car- ried out with theatrical pomp, so enraged the sober part of the Jewish population of Salonica that he was driven ignominiously from that place.

He then travelled through Greece ; but the congregations, which had heard of his ex- communication and his vagaries, would not allow him to stay with them. Strange as it may appear, all these difficulties tended to in- crease his presumption and to raise his cour- age. From there he went to Egypt. In the capital, Cairo, there lived at that time a wealthy Israelite. He held the highest office in the land ; for he had leased the revenues and taxes of all Egypt. Raphael Joseph Chelibi was as charitable as he was rich, and as credulous and superstitious in matters of religion as he was shrewd in business affairs. Fifty Kabbalists were supported by him year

142 Messianic Expectations.

in and year out ; and whosoever was in want appealed to him. He was the Rothschild of his time. While he was transacting an im- mense business, he fasted and prayed and chastised himself with a lash made of wire, all for the sake of hastening the advent of the Messiah by his ascetic life. Sabbatai initiated him into his secrets, and made a faithful friend of him. In 1663 he went to Jerusalem ; as it seems without any reason, and for no purpose whatsoever. As the year 1666 was approach- ing, he probably believed that his presence might be needed in the Holy City at that event- ful time, and that perhaps some miracle would occur in his behalf upon the sacred soil of Pales- tine. But though he observed the most rigor- ous asceticism, though he bathed in the Jordan river, and visited the graves of the patriarchs, no miracle occurred. His circle of admirers even did not widen to any extent ; when all of a sudden an accident happened which made him famous at once. An oppressive tax had been imposed by the Pasha upon the Jews of Palestine, which they were unable to pay. They were threatened with extermination if the money should not be paid at the appointed time. Sabbatai offered his services as a mes- senger to the charitable Raphael Joseph in Cairo. His embassy, as could be expected, was crowned with success ; for the charitable

Sabbatai Zwi. 143

gentleman subscribed the amount which was needed ; which, however, was attributed to the influence of Sabbatai, the Messiah, upon Ra- phael. But he obtained even another oppor- tunity to prove his Messiahship.

In far-off Poland a whole Jewish colony had been butchered years before by the Cossacks. One little girl only had been saved, by accident. She had been found the next day by a benevo- lent person half starved and almost frozen to death, who gave her up to the sisters of a neigh- boring nunnery. Here she grew up to be a maiden of rare beauty ; and though she had been instructed in the tenets of the Christian religion, she still remained, so she said, a Jewess at heart. One night this girl was found by some Israelites almost naked on their burial place. She claimed that the spirit of her father had taken her in the stillness of the night and carried her through the air from the cloister to this place. He had told her that she was to become the bride of the Messiah. To the astonished Jewish women she even showed the finger-marks which her father's spirit had left on her body. The Jews, being afraid to get into trouble for her sake, did not investigate the matter, but sent her to Amster- dam, where, she said, she had a brother. She remained for a few years in Amsterdam ; then went to Frankfort-on-the-Main, and later to

144 Messianic Expectations.

Livorno, always claiming that she was to be .the bride of the Messiah. She did not, however, lead such a life as would be becoming to such a distinguished person ; for in all these cities she bore an ill name. Whenever the inconsistency of her behaviour was shown to her, she would say that because she was to become the wife of the Messiah her irregularities had been allowed to her by divine revelation. The story of her adventures had reached Cairo ; and Sabbatai at once corroborated her story, claiming that he had been waiting for her appearance as she had for his. He sent for her, and in the hduse of the generous Raphael their nuptials were con- summated in gorgeous style. This marriage made him at once a Messiah, and he justified his queer action by referring to the prophet Hosea, who likewise had been ordered by God to marry a lewd, woman. His fame spread, and his glory was still increased by an addition of a few satellites who were pleased to shine by his side. A Kabbalist called Nathan Ghazati assumed the role of the prophet Elijah, who was to be the forerunner of the Messiah, and two other Kabbalists, Sabbatai Raphael and Mathatias Bloch, travelled for him, preached in his name, and proclaimed him as the true Messiah. About this time Sabbatai began to bring system into his enterprise. He kept a regular court, in which Sarah figured as queen. He withdrew

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himself from the gaze of the populace, and appeared only on high festive occasions in public. He employed a private secretary, who sent official documents in the name of the Messiah to all Jewish congregations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He now returned to his native city, entered it triumphantly ; and on the New Year's day, 1665, he proclaimed him- self publicly in the synagogue of Smyrna by the sound of the Shofar as the long-expected Messiah. The enthusiasm soon developed into a craze. Men, women, and children began to prophesy : miracles occurred every day and all over the country, and the mania spread like wild- fire. In Holland, England, Germany, and Poland, wherever a Jew lived, whom the glad tidings of the appearance of the Messiah reached, the wildest hopes arose : business was neglected ; estates sold out ; and delegates loaded with money were despatched to the court of the Messiah. The greater the number of these legations grew, the greater appeared the dignity of the Messiah ; and as every delegate could truthfully report the conflux of people, and the magnificence of the court, and as these reports of unbiassed eye-witnesses could not be doubted, the mania spread wider and wider, and the Messianic fever grew more intense. A banker in Amsterdam who had uttered some irreverent remarks about the Messiah suddenly fell down

146 Messianic Expectations.

dead, and the belief of the credulous crowd in the miraculous and far-reaching power of the Messiah could never be shaken after this acci- dent. In England bets were made for and against him, and the betting stood one hundred to ten in his favor. Heinrich Oldenburg, a German scholar of great renown, did not know what to make of it, and predicted a great change in all public affairs. Even Spinoza, the Pantheist, acknowledged the possibility that the Divinity might again have chosen Israel as the bearer of the moral law. Christians began to doubt their own religion. If Sabbatai was the true Messiah, as he then appeared to be, what was Jesus of Nazareth ? Many Christians turned Jews in order to be on the safe side in 1666.

There was only one man at that time who remained sober in the general delusion. Rabbi Jacob Sasportas of Hamburg raised his voice of warning, which, however, was drowned in the frantic turmoil of that peculiar time.

If Sabbatai had been a man of some sense, if he had possessed some character and some power of will, he could have made something out of the feverish enthusiasm which then had taken hold of everybody ; but he was no man of ability or of genius, he was a self-conceited im- postor. He did nothing ; he lived in dulcejubilo from day to day, waiting for a miracle. He

Sabbatai Zwi. 147

divided the world among his followers. To one of his friends he gave Poland, to another Ger- many, and Raphael Joseph Chelibi received Egypt for his share. So firm was the belief of his deluded followers in him that they would not sell their shares for enormous sums of money, which, in fact, were offered to them. He pre- tended to know the souls which inhabited their bodies. One of his friends was the soul of King Solomon, another that of King Joas. He furthermore changed the Jewish holidays ; he made the ninth of Ab, his birthday, a day of rejoicing, and did away with the day of Atone- ment. He gave himself out finally as the incar- nation of the En Sof ; that is, in plain words, he said he was God himself.

The swindle had now lasted long enough in Smyrna ; and the Sultan, or rather his vizier, Achmed Kopriti, thought it high time to see to it. Sabbatai was summoned to appear before the Sultan, in Constantinople. At the beginning of the year 1666, he set sail for that city. After a stormy voyage, he landed near the Golden Horn, and was immediately