Excerpt from The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth: A Historic-Critical Treatise on the Last Chapters of the Gospel

This is the point the author wishes to define. On numer ous occasions he has been told that people are anxious to read what he writes on subjects in the New Testament, because they wish to learn what is said about them from the Jewish standpoint. This is a mistake. The author who now speaks to you is a Jew of the nineteenth century, whose motto is, The world is my country and love is my religion; whose people are all of God's children; and whose standpoint in philosophy, science, and criticism is as purely Objective and as free Of every prejudice or bias as long years of reading, research, and traveling make a hu man being. He wears no sectarian shackels, stands under no local bias, and obeys no mandates of any particular school. Whatever he says or has said on subjects contain ed in the New Testament, in order to be understood cor rectly, must be examined from the only standpoint of reason.

The author takes the liberty to add that he claims orig inalty for the ideas presented in this treatise. He borrows from none. All passages from the ancient rabbinical liter ature, quoted in this treatise, have been selected and trans lated from the originals by him, and for this volume, with out aid or support of any body. While Strauss, Renan, Wislicenus, and the English writers on kindred subjects Obtained their knowledge of ancient rabbinical literaturefrom some translated abstracts, compiled under various prejudicial circumstances, and in many cases teeming with errors, the author has had full access to the originals, and has made the best use of this privilege as far as his erudi tion reaches. This will explain the opinions advanced by the author contrary to some of Strauss, Renan, and the others, whose information on that age and its spirit was deficient and Often erroneous.

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