CONYBEARE on "The HISTORICAL CHRIST." 165
CONYBEARE ON 'THE HISTORICAL CHRIST." BY WILLIAM BENJAMIN SMITH. INASMUCH as Conybeare's "searching- criticism," so far at least as it touches my work (and it would be officious as well as im- pertinent for me to mingle in his fray with others), concerns itself mainly with details, rarely considering the case on its general merits, the order of the following comments would seem to be prescribed by the order of strictures presented in his book. The Historical Christ. 1. Conybeare holds that if Jesus never lived, neither did Solon, nor Epimenides, nor Pythagoras, nor especially Apollonius of Tyana. By what token? The argument is not presented clearly. One can- not infer from the Greek worthies to Jesus, unless there be close parallelism ; that there is really any such, who will seriously affirm ? By far the strongest example, on which Conybeare seems to rest his case, is that of the Tyanean. But is it a parallel? Certainly and absolutely. No. How much romance may lie in Philostratus's so-called ''Life of Apollonius," we need not here discuss, nor the numerous apparent echoes of the Gospels, but all efforts to show that Apollonius is a parallel to Jesus are idle, now as in the days of Hierocles. Let us consider some specimens. Page 6 of The Historical Christ bewilders greatly. One won- ders where to find such data,—certainly not in Philostratus. Exag- geration marks nearly every sentence. E.g., "He had a god Pro- teus for his father." But Philostratus says, "his father bore the same name" (Apollonius), adding that a "phantom of an Egyptian demon came to his mother while pregnant," whom she undismayed asked what she would bear, and who replied, "Me." She asked, "But who are you"? and he answered "Proteus." That is all, and is interpreted by Philostratus as presaging the versatility of his hero.
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