The Jesus of the Evangelists: His Historical Character Vindicated; or, an Examination of the Internal Evidence for our Lord's Divine Mission, with reference to Modern Controversy. By the Rev. C. A. Row, M. A. [pp. 586-612]

(312 L~OW'8 JC8?(S of ~I~c EQ'~fl~6~8~. [OCTOBER,
~~bieh COiB})05C the Gospels ~~ere m0any, tlie in ytl~ie stories
~~ere nun~erous. And they o~ved their existence to the spoiltaneous po~ers of tl~e niind,`` actilig not in obedience to rcason but to impulse." They had tlie niost diflicult problems
to solve. Lacli mythic story consisted of a small fi~agiuent of
a cl~aracter. Each inytliologist went on creating flctioi~s independently of all the others. And these inventions, plodneed
in the maniier described, united together, resulted in the pro
duetion of tite glorious portrait`rliieh we ilave presented to us
in the Evangelical Gospels. Now, if this is propounded (`15 an
account of the ori gill of tlie portraiture, it is sufficiently refuted
when it is sl~own that tl~at portraiture is a unity. It is selfevident that "a complicated unity could never be evolved" by
means of a successioii of sucl~ creations as these. If, tl~eref~~re,
~ve exi)lain the variations in tlie Gospel by some other method
than that which ~Ir. ~o'v adopts, and refuse to adiiiit with
liim that many persons were the autl~ors of them the argu
ment a~ainst tlie mythic theory founded on tlie complicated
nuity of the portrait nrc still has force.
~Nrith these comments on the chapter which treats of the
essential lillity of tlie l~ortraiturc of the Evangelical Jesus, we
must brii~g our review of tilis able and lilteresting bool~ to a
close Of son~e of its chapters we have only been able to give
ille titles. It has been our desire to enable our readers to
form some idea of both tlie compass and the thorongl~ness of
the autl~or's argument. ~Vc should rejoice to see an American
reprilit of tilO work. It cannot have a wide circulatioii without doing much toward settling the contl'over~y to which it
relates.