46 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



forehead like one who is searching his memory ; then after a 

 few moments of silence : 'Jesus,' murmured he, ' Jesus of 

 Nazareth. No, I don't remember him.' " 



On the third day after his death, Jesus is said to 

 have risen from the grave, and appeared to a faith- 

 ful few of his disciples. On the fortieth day after 

 his resurrection he is said to have ascended to heaven. 

 Both these statements rest on the authority of the 

 biographies which were compiled some years after 

 his death. Jesus wrote nothing himself; therefore 

 the " brethren," as his intimate followers called one 

 another, had no other sacred books than those of the 

 Old Testament. They believed that Jesus was the 

 Messiah predicted in Daniel and some of the apocry- 

 phal writings, and they cherished certain " logia " or 

 sayings of his which formed the basis of the first 

 three Gospels. The earliest of these, that bearing 

 the name of Mark, probably took the shape in which 

 we have it (some spurious verses at the end excepted) 

 about 70 A. D. The fourth Gospel, which tradition 

 attributes to John, is generally believed to be half a 

 century later than Mark. It seems likely that the 

 importance of collecting the words of Jesus into any 

 permanent form did not occur to those who had 

 heard them, because the belief in his speedy return 

 was all-powerful among them, and their life and at- 

 titude toward everything was shaped accordingly. 



Without sacred books, priesthood, or organiza- 

 tion, these earliest disciples, whom the fate of their 

 leader had driven into hiding for a time, gathered 



