MODERNISM AND TRADITIONAL CHRISTIANITY. 



57 



nort h of Galilee. A conference with His disciples at Ciesarea 

 Philippi led to a visit to the capital in order to proclaim Him 

 there as the promised Messiah. 



As they approached Jerusalem His disciples were afraid at 

 the risks they were running, but Jesus calmed their fears l>y 

 promising that they should soon be set on twelve thrones 

 judging the twelve tribes of Israel. In His entry into 

 Jerusalem He exhibited His first manifestation of authority by 

 cleansing the Temple courts, an act of violence in which, M. Loisy 

 continues, He was doubtless assisted by His disciples. For some 

 days after He preached daily about the Coming Kingdom, foiling 

 with great dexterity the traps set for Him by the authorities. 

 " But/' says Loisy, " the situation could end only in a miracle 

 or a catastrophe, and the catastrophe happened."* 



Jesus was arrested after a brief struggle between the 

 satellites of the High Priest and His disciples, and the latter, 

 without waiting to see the end, fled northward to their homes. 



When brought before Pilate, Jesus probably answered " Yes " 

 to the question whether He claimed to be a King. " But," adds 

 Loisy, " the Johannine phrase, ' My kingdom is not of this 

 world/ could never have been uttered by the Christ of history." 

 This confession led naturally to His execution. "After which," 

 Loisy continues, " we may imagine that the soldiers detached the 

 body from the cross before evening, and placed it in some 

 common ditch, into which it was customary to throw the 

 remains of the executed. The conditions of burial were such 

 that after the lapse of a few hours it would have been im- 

 possible to recognize the Carcase of the Saviour, even if it were 

 sought for."f 



The disciples, however, had been too profoundly stirred, 

 Loisy says, to accept defeat. None of them, he asserts, had 

 seen Jesus die, and, although they knew he was dead, they 

 hardly believed it. Besides, they were fellow countrymen, 

 Loisy continues, of those who had asked whether Jesus was not 

 Elijah, or even John Baptist come to live again. What 

 more natural, Loisy asks, than that Peter while fishing one day 

 on the Lake should see the Master ? " The impulse once 

 given," Loisy adds, " this belief grew by the very need which it 

 had to strengthen itself." Christ "appeared to the eleven." 

 So it was their faith brought them back to Jerusalem and 

 Christianity was born. 



* Ibid., p. 218. 

 t Ibid., p. 223. 



