[6] 



declared one law to be sufficient for man's moral gui- 

 dance would have been included among the fabulous 

 performances afterwards attributed to him, as such a 

 declaration was destructive of all priestcraft; besides 

 which, we are told in the Babylonian Gemara to the 

 Mishna that Yahoshua, " son of Pandira and Stada," was 

 stoned to death as a wizard in the city of Ludd, or Lydia, 

 after which he was crucified on a tree on the eve of the 

 Passover, about B.C. 70, which was the punishment 

 generally inflicted on preachers of heresy and sedition. 

 Whether he had an actual existence or was but an idea, 

 it is an undisputed fact that his name has been, during 

 the past eighteen hundred years, a household word, and 

 that the whole face of European history has been moulded 

 by the various sayings and doings fabulously attributed 

 to him. 



The reason of this is as follows. The therapeut 

 monks of Alexandria, who flourished in the first and 

 second centuries of our era, in attempting to revive the 

 old mythological systems, and thus to deprive scientists 

 and philosophers of their late rapidly-increasing power, 

 were at a great disadvantage, owing to the length of time 

 that had elapsed since the wonderful feats of the gods 

 had been performed. They well understood the abso- 

 lute necessity of keeping alive in the memories of the 

 people the older miraculous events by the performance 

 of fresh wonders in their own day ; but the difficulty they 

 had to encounter was in finding suitable individuals for 

 the occasion. The Syrian Essene monk, who had in- 

 fected a great number of the lower classes of society by 

 his heretical and revolutionary teachings, which, at first 

 sight, appeared likely to be damaging to the cause of the 

 priesthood, was quickly requisitioned by these astute 

 monks for the great purpose they had in view viz., the 

 reproduction on earth of the popular god Bacchus, the 

 Greek Dionysos, and Phoenician les. They boldly 

 declared that this man was, when on earth, an incarnate 

 deity, and proceeded to attribute to him all the wonderful 

 performances that had previously been imputed to the 

 young sun-god Bacchus, such as miraculous birth from a 

 virgin, resurrection from the grave three days after death, 

 ascension to heaven, etc.; and, finally, gave him the 



