Talk:Charles Guignebert

Concerning the objection of Jesus' opponents in John 7:40-42, "But can the Christ come out of Galilee?" Guignebert writes, "The fact that the writer of the gospel does not refute the objection be declaring that Jesus WAS born at Bethlehem and descended from David, proves that he did not think either of these things to be true." When the soldier reported pierced Jesus' side during the crucifixion, Guignebert suggests, "The Fourth Gospel alone, with a symbolic purpose in mind, has described the soldier's spear piercing the side of the Crucified, whence there flow both the Eucharistic blood and the baptismal water."

Concerning the recording of the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "it is obvious that nobody took notes, and that it would have been impossible to remember from merely hearing them the 107 verses of the discourse of Matthew, or even the 30 verses of that of Luke."

About the miracles reported in the gospels, he says, "Finally, it is upon the validity of the gospel evidence that our judgment depends, on the historicity of the facts which they offer as miraculous, not upon their true nature. Unfortunately, there is little hope of this validity being much greater in the case of the miraculous events than in that of the others, and the most superficial examination of the texts proves, in fact, that it is not. We discover, for instance, that each of the Synoptists relates impressive miracles which are not mentioned by the others, so that each has taken just what suited him from tradition or legend."

With regard to the apocalyptic notion of Jesus as the "Son of Man" in Daniel 7, he says, "If we consider the verses of Daniel and their context by themselves,the supposition that their author intended to refer to the Messiah seems very improbable. In all the rest of the book there is no further mention of the Messiah supposed to be indicated by them, and it is difficult to explain the introduction of such a personage if he was to play no further part of the author's scheme. On the other hand, it is hard to see why Daniel's 'son of man' should not mean simply 'a man,' as the expression does elsewhere; why the passage should not signify an apparition in the form of a human being..."

With regard to Jesus' anguished cry from the cross ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"), Guignebert says, "It is useless to point out that the anguished breathing of the sufferer from the first moment of crucifixion renders the utterance of a loud cry after several hours quite improbable, because with the Evangelists we are outside the sphere of historical reality."

He concludes his study on the non-optimistic note, "The Last Things which Jesus expected did not happen. The Kingdom which he announced did not appear and the prophet died on the cross instead of contemplating the expected Miracle from the hill of Zion. He must then have been mistaken ... Jesus' dream ... ended in failure."

Guignebert's book, though dated, is still of considerable interest to those interested in the historical Jesus.