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Philosophers on Jesus
What benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as judgment for their crime. Or, the people of Samos for burning Pythagoras? In one moment their country was covered with sand. Or the Jews by murdering their wise king? … After that their kingdom was abolished. God rightly avenged these men…The wise king … lived on in the teachings he enacted.
Mara Bar-
[Jesus was] born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery; that after being driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child, who having hired himself out as a servant in Egypt on account of his poverty, and having there acquired some miraculous powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves, returned to his own country, highly elated on account of them, and by means of these proclaimed himself a God.
Celsus (1st century AD) Greek philosopher
The True Word, quoted by Origen in Contra Celsum 1.28 www.earlychristianwritings.com › Other Christian Text Sources › Celsus
How can we admit that the divine became an embryo, and that after its birth, it was wrapped up in swaddling clothes, covered with blood, bile, and even worse things?
Porphyry of Tyre (c. 233–c. 309 CE) Neoplatonist philosopher
Quoted by Pierre Hadot, Plotinus or the Simplicity of Vision, trans. Michael Chase (Chicago: Chicago University Press 1998), p. 23.
Neither Paul nor Matthew nor Luke nor Mark ventured to call Jesus God. But the worthy John, since he perceived that a great number of people in many of the towns of Greece and Italy had already been infected by this disease, and because he heard, I suppose, that even the tombs of Peter and Paul were being worshipped – secretly, it is true, but still he did hear this, – he, I say, was the first to venture to call Jesus God.
Julian the Apostate (331/332-
Without doubt murder and crucifixion were inflicted upon his body. The pronoun (hu) since it a appeared at the end of the words ‘murdered him’ ‘qataluhu’, or crucified him is a pointing letter to the spirit (huwiyya) of Jesus. So in this exists the evidence he who suffered death and crucifixion was not the spirit (huwiyya) of Jesus.
Abu Ya'qub Ishaq al-
Kitab Ithbat al-
For he preferred to suffer, rather than that the human race should be lost; as if he were to say to the Father: "Since you do not desire the reconciliation of the world to take place in any other way, in this respect, I sthat you desirest my death; let your will, therefore, be done, that is, let my death take place, so that the world may be reconciled to you." ... So the Father desired the death of the Son, because he was not willing that the world should be saved in any other way.
Anselm (1033-
But the doctrine in which you believe, and which is the foundation of your faith, cannot be accepted by the reason, and nature affords no ground for it, nor have the prophets ever expressed it. Nor can even the miraculous stretch as far as this, as I shall explain with full proofs in the right time and place, that the Creator of Heaven and earth resorted to the womb of a certain Jewess and grew there for nine months and was born as an infant, and afterwards grew up and was betrayed into the hands of his enemies who sentenced him to death and executed him, and that afterwards, as you say, he came to life and returned to his original place. The mind of a Jew, or any other person, cannot tolerate this; and you speak your words entirely in vain, for this is the root of our controversy.
Moses Nachmanides (1194-
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2509/inot_ieveryone_loves_raymond.aspx#.Ux5Z5hfitdg
Jesus the Nazarene … impelled people to believe that he was a prophet sent by God to clarify perplexities in the Torah, and that he was the Messiah that was predicted by each and every seer. He interpreted the Torah and its precepts in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment, to the abolition of all its commandments and to the violation of its prohibitions. The sages, of blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him.
Moses Maimonides (1135-
I would think of nothing else hereafter, but of the bitter Passions of our Blessed Saviour, and of my Exit out of this miserable World. … 'tis God only that is the
Judge of the Secrets of our Hearts.
Sir Thomas More (1478-
(From A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceeding Upon Impeachments for High Treason, etc (London, 1719) http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/more/moretrialreport.html
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God and Saviour of the world; who was conceived by the power and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and took flesh of the Virgin Mary…fulfilled the whole counsel of God, performing all his sacred offices and anointing on earth, accomplished the whole work of the redemption and restitution of man to a state superior to the angels … and reconciled and established all things according to the eternal will of the Father.
Francis Bacon (1561-
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_works_of_Francis_Bacon_Lord_Chancell.html?id=jj01AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y
The unum necessarium, only article of faith, which the Scripture maketh simply necessary to salvation is this, that JESUS IS THE CHRIST … the king, which God had before promised by the prophets of the Old Testament, to send into the world, to reign (over the Jews and over such of other nations as should believe in him), under Himself eternally; and to give them that eternal life, which was lost by the sin of Adam.
Thomas Hobbes (1566-
It should be noted that what is known by natural reason—that he is all-
René Descartes (1596-
http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfs/descartes1619_3.pdf
Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride, and before whom we
humble ourselves without despair.
Blaise Pascal (1623-
I believe not that any man ever came to that singular height of perfection but Christ, to whom the ordinances of God that lead men to salvation were revealed, not in words or visions, but immediately: so that God manifested himself to the apostles by the mind of Christ, as formerly to Moses by means of a voice in the air. And therefore the voice of Christ may be called, like that which Moses heard, the voice of God. In this sense we may likewise say that the wisdom of God, that is, a wisdom above man’s, took man’s nature in Christ, and that Christ is the way of salvation.
Baruch Spinoza (1632-
http://www.academia.edu/2739607/Scientific_GOD_Journal#
And he that shall collect all the moral rules of the philosophers, and compare them with those contained in the New Testament, will find them to come short of the morality delivered by our Saviour, and taught by his apostles … He was sent by God: his miracles show it; and the authority of God in his precepts cannot be questioned. ... And such an one as this, out of the New Testament, I think the world never had, nor can any one say, is any-
John Locke (1632-
https://archive.org/stream/thereasonablenes00lockuoft/thereasonablenes00lockuoft_djvu.txt
And how did God express his love unto us? even by the gift of the Son of his love … that is that he would love at no less rate than death; and, from the supereminent height of glory, stooped and abased himself to the sufferance of the extremest of indignities, and sunk himself to the bottom of abjectness, to exalt our condition to the contrary extreme.
Robert Boyle (1626-
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=LqYrAQAAMAAJ&rdid=book-
Jesus Christ has revealed to men the mystery and the admirable laws of the kingdom of heaven, and the greatness of the supreme happiness which God has prepared for those who love him.
The ancient philosophers knew very little of these important truths. Jesus Christ alone has expressed them divinely well, and in a way so clear and simple that the dullest minds have understood them. His gospel has entirely changed the face of human affairs. It has brought us to know the kingdom of heaven, or that perfect republic of spirits which deserves to be called the city of God.
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-
In [Christ] we have an example of a quiet and peaceable spirit; of a becoming modesty and sobriety; just, honest, upright, sincere; and, above all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and behaviour. One who did no wrong, no injury to any man; in whose mouth was no guile; Who went about doing good, not only by his ministry, but also in curing all manner of diseases among the people. His life was a beautiful picture of human nature in its native purity and simplicity, and showed at once what excellent creatures men would be when under the influence and power of that gospel which he preached unto them.
Chubb, Thomas (1679-
If we were permitted to reason consistently in religious matters, it is clear that we all ought to become Jews, because Jesus Christ our Saviour was born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew, and that he said expressly that he was accomplishing, that he was fulfilling the Jewish religion.
Francois-
What purity, what sweetness in his manners! What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! What presence of mind, what subtilty, what truth in his replies! How great the command over his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher who could so live and so die, without weakness and without ostentation? … Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God.
Jean-
I know nobody, either in France or anywhere else, who could write and speak with more art and talent…. I defy you all-
Denis Diderot (1713–1784), French philosopher and chief editor of the Encyclopédie
Quoted by Philip Schaff in The Person of Christ: the Perfection of His Humanity Viewed as a Proof of His Divinity (London: James Nisbet and Co. 1880), p. 210. https://archive.org/stream/thepersonofchris00schauoft/thepersonofchris00schauoft_djvu.txt
Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friend. And who were the friends of Jesus, but the whole race of man, the inhabitants of every clime, throughout every age, from the creation of the world? In such repeated precepts of brotherly love, in that sublime law of charity, can I fail to discern the founder and legislator of universal society? In that great example of benevolence, in that voluntary sacrifice, can I fail to discern the truest, the most generous friend of mankind ?
Charles Bonnet (1720-
https://archive.org/details/philosophicalan00bonngoog
And the Sermon on the Mount, in particular, comprises so pure a moral doctrine of religion, which Jesus obviously had the intention of introducing among the Jews … that we can not avoid considering it as the word of God. … Beyond doubt, Christ is the founder of the first true (visible) church ; that is, that church which, purified from the folly of superstition and the madness of fanaticism, exhibits the (moral) kingdom of God upon earth as far as it can be done by men.
Immanuel Kant (1724-
In Metaphysical Works of the Celebrated Immanuel Kant trans. John Richardson (London: Simpkin and. Marshall, 1836), pp. 249-
Jesus Christ is in the noblest, and most perfect sense, the realized ideal of humanity.
Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-
https://archive.org/details/dictionaryburni00gilbgoog
Jesus of Nazareth is, in a wholly peculiar manner, attributable to no one but him, the only-
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-
https://archive.org/stream/johanngottlieb00fichuoft/johanngottlieb00fichuoft_djvu.txt
Over against commands which required a bare service of the Lord, a direct slavery, an obedience without joy, without pleasure or love ... Jesus set their precise opposite, a human urge and so a human need.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-
If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-
Christ is God known personally, Christ, therefore, is the blessed certainty that God is what the soul desires and needs him to be.
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-
The unique impression of Jesus upon mankind – whose name is not so much written as ploughed into the history of the world – is proof of the subtle virtue of this infusion … Thus is he, as I think, the only soul in history who has appreciated the worth of a man.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-
Who among his disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee; as certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort … The Prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no belief in his inspiration [is] in the very first rank of the men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre-
John Stuart Mill (1806-
I accept with unhesitating conviction and belief the doctrine of the being of one personal God, the Creator and Governor of the world, and of one Lord Jesus Christ, in whom “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”; and I have found nothing whatever in the literature of modern infidelity which, to my mind, casts even the slightest doubt upon that belief.
Francis Bowen (1811-
Imitation, the imitation of Christ, is really the point from which the human race shrinks. The main difficulty lies here: here is where it is really decided whether or not one is willing to accept Christianity. If there is emphasis on this point, the stronger the emphasis the fewer the Christians.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-
http://sorenkierkegaard.org/judge-
The history of peoples teaches us the necessity of union with Christ.... Nowhere does He express more clearly the necessity of union with Himself than in the beautiful parable of the vine and the branches, in which He calls Himself the vine and us the branches. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, and so, Christ says, without me you can do nothing. ..... Our hearts, reason, history, the word of Christ, therefore, tell us loudly and convincingly that union with Him is absolutely essential, that without Him we cannot fulfil our goal, that without Him we would be rejected by God, that only He can redeem us.
Karl Marx (1818-
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-
The word 'Christianity' is already a misunderstanding -
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-
In the innermost traits of his being Jesus is more transparent and familiar to us than any hero of the world's history.
Rudolf Eucken (1846-
https://archive.org/details/cu31924028949372
Christ said "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" and when asked "who is thy neighbour? went on to the parable of the Good Samaritan. If you wish to understand this parable as it was understood by his hearers, you should substitute "Germans and Japanese" for Samaritan. I fear my modern day Christians would resent such a substitution, because it would compel them to realize how far they have departed from the teachings of the founder of their religion.
Bertrand Russell (1872-
From my youth onwards I have found in Jesus my great brother. That Christianity has regarded and does regard him as God and Savior has always appeared to me a fact of the highest importance which, for his sake and my own, I must endeavor to understand . . . I am more than ever certain that a great place belongs to him in Israel's history of faith and that this place cannot be described by any of the usual categories.
Martin Buber (1878-
It wasn't the morality of the Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism, but the belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. In an age when Roman senators vied to see who could get the most blood of a steer on their togas -
Ernst Bloch (1885-
He founded no organization, but enjoined only private prayer. .... the characteristics of intuitive realization, nondogmatic toleration, insistence on non-
Saevepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) Indian philosopher
President of India (1962-
The Lord’s prayer] is the most extraordinary prayer ever written. No one ever composed a prayer like it. But remember the Christian religion does not consist in saying a lot of prayers, in fact we are commanded just the opposite. If you and I are to live religious lives it must not just be that we talk a lot about religion, but that in some way our lives are different.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-
What really begins with the appearance of Jesus Christ is not a new epoch of secular history, called "Christian," but the beginning of an end. The Christian times are Christian only in so far as they are the last time. … The "meaning" of the history of this world is fulfilled against itself because the story of salvation, as embodied in Jesus Christ, redeems and dismantles, as it were, the hopeless history of the world.
Karl Löwith (1897-
If Christ has been the only manifestation of the Word, supposing such a uniqueness of manifestation to be possible, the effect of his birth would have been the instantaneous reduction of the universe to ashes.
Frithjof Schuon (1907-
It was during one of these recitations [of George Herbert's Love Bade me Welcome] that ..... Christ himself came down and took possession of me. In my arguments about the insolubility of the problem of God I had never foreseen the possibility of that, of a real contact, person to person, here below, between a human being and God. I had vaguely heard tell of things of this kind, but I had never believed in them. .... Moreover, in this sudden possession of me by Christ, neither my senses nor my imagination had any part; I only felt in the midst of my suffering the presence of a love, like that which one can read in the smile on a beloved face.
Simone Weil (1909-
http://payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/07/02/the-
There is in Jesus Christ some weakness, some vulnerability, some powerlessness, but there you see that the powerlessness, of course, is also a sign of the almighty.
Jacques Derrida (1930-
From a Roundtable Discussion with Derrida in Augustine and Postmodernism ed. John D Caputo and Michael J Scanlon
(Bloomington : Indiana University Press 2005), p.41.
http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780253111081
God, in the person of Christ, is present among us. It is from the life of Christ that we can understand the true nature of God's goodness. Christians believe that, in undergoing crucifixion, Christ took the sufferings of the world on himself -
Roger Scruton (1944-
Some time ago I had a debate with a professor at the University of California, Irvine, on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. He had written his doctoral dissertation on the subject and was thoroughly familiar with the evidence. He could not deny the facts of Jesus’s honorable burial, his empty tomb, his post-
William Lane Craig (1949-