# The Apostles *Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.* --- > Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Ernest Renan, The Apostles, bahai-library.com. > ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > > THE APOSTLES > > llY > > ERNEST RENAN > > TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM G. HUTCHISON > > [ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMIT!mJ > > ATTS & CO., > 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C. > 1905 > CONTENTS > > CHAP, PAGB. > > TRA!lfSJ.ATOR'S PREFACE 5 > INTRODUCTION: CRITICISM OF THE ORIGISAL DOCV!.IENTS 13 > I. FORMATION OF THE BELIEFS RELATIXG TO THE RESUR- > RECTION OF JESUS-THE APPEARANCES AT JERUSALEM 33 > II. DEPARTURE OF THE DISCIPLES FROM JERUSALEll-THE > SECO!lfD GALILEA!'l LIFE OF JESUS > > III. RETURN OF THE APOSTLES TO JERUSALEM-END OF THE > PERIOD OF VISIO!'lS - 44 > IV. DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT-ECSTATIC AND PROPHETIC > PHE!'lOMENA - > > V. THE FIRST CHURCH OF JERUSALE!'.1 : ITS E:-ITIRF.I.Y > MONKISH CHARACTER 53 > VI. CONVERSION OF THE HELLENIST AND PROSELYTE JEWS - 6o > VII. THE CHURCH CONSIDERED AS AN AssOCL\TIO!lf OF THE > POOR - INSTITUTIO!lf OF THE DIACO!' DEACONESSES AND WIDOWS 63 > VIII. THE FIRST PERSECUTION-DEATH OF STEPHEN-DES- > TRUCTION OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF jERUSALEll 6<) > IX. FIRST MISSIONS-THE DEACON PHILIP 73 > X. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL 77 > XI. PEACE AND INTERNAL DEVELOP!.IENTS OF THE CHURCH > OF }UDlEA 84 > XI I. FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH 91 > > XIII. THE IDEA OF A GENTILE APOSTOLATE-ST. BARNABAS - 95 > XIV. HEROD AGRIPPA l.'s PERSECUTION - 98 > XV. MOVEMENTS PARALLEL WITH OR IMITATED FROM CHRIS- > TIANITY-SIMON OF GITTON 103 > XVI. GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 107 > XVII. THE STATE OF THE WORLD ABOUT THE MIDDLE o~á THE > FIRST CENTURY 114 > XVIII. THE RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION OF THE PERIOD 125 > > XIX. THE FUTURE OF MISSIONS - 130 > THE FUTURE OF MISSIONS [45]. > century, thousands of men of our own I and was forced to get up by blows from > race, living in the miraculous, believing the whip or a stab from a bayonet, howwith a blind faith in marvels which they ever little strength the loss of blood, > declare they have seen and touched .. streaming down all his limbs, still left > There is already a whole literature to him, he started dancing and crying with > demonstrate the harmony of Mormonism renewed enthusiasm : ' In truth we are > and science; what is better is that this God's, and unto him we return ! ' Some > religion, based on silly impostures, has of the children expired in the course of , > been capable of achieving prodigies of the journey. The executioners cast their , > patience and abnegation ; in another dead bodies under the feet of their > five hundred years doctors will be prov- fathers and sisters, who trod proudly > ing its divinity by the wonders of its over them, and did not give them a > foundation. Babism in Persia has been second glance. When the place of execua phenomenon important in another tion was reached, the victims were again > way. A man of mild disposition and of offered their lives for their recantation. > no pretensions, a sort of pious and One executioner took it into his head to > modest Spinoza, found himself, almost say to a father that, if he did not give > in spite of himself, raised to the rank of a way, he would cut the throats of his two > thaumaturgist of divine incarnation, and sons on his breast. These were two > became the leader of a numerous sect, little boys, the elder of whom was fourfervent and fanatical, which almost teen, and who, red with their own blood, > brought about a revolution comparable their flesh charred, coldly listened to this > with that of Islam. For his sake, colloquy; the father replied, lying down > thousands of martyrs flocked to their on the ground, that he was ready, and > death. A day unparalleled perhaps in the elder of the children, eagerly claimthe world's history was that of the great ing his right of birth, asked to be slain > massacre of the Babis at Teheran. first. At last all was finished; the night > "On that day was to be seen in the fell upon a formless heap of flesh; the > streets and bazaars of Teheran," says a heads were hung in bundles on the stake > narrator, who has first-hand knowledge,1 of justice, and the dogs of the suburbs > "a spectacle which it does not seem that slunk in troops to the spot." > the population can ever forget. When This happened in 1852. The sect of > conversation, even to-day, turns on the Mazdak, under Chosroes Nushirvan, was > matter, one can judge of the admiration stifled i_na similar bath of blood. Absomingled with horror, which the multi- lute devotion is for simple natures the > tude experienced, and which the lapse of most exquisite of delights and a sort of > years has not diminished. Women and necessity. In the affair of the Babis, > children were to be seen advancing people who scarce belonged to the sect > between the ranks of executioners, their were seen coming forward to make self• > flesh slashed all over the body, with accusation, that they might be added to > flaming matches thrust in the wounds. the victims. It is so sweet to man to suffer > The victims were dragged along by ropes, for something, that in many cases the > and forced to walk with blows of the bait of martyrdom suffices to cause belief. > whip. Women and children advanced, A disciple, who was the comrade in > singing a verse, which says : 'In truth suffering of the Bab, hanging by his side > we come from God, and unto him we on the ramparts of Tabriz and awaiting > return !' Their voices swelled loud death, had but one word in his mouth : > above the profound stillness of the "Are you satisfied with me, master?" > crowd. When one of the victims fell Persons who regard as miraculous or > chimerical what in history transcends > 'J. A. de Gobineau: Les Religions et /esPhilo- the calculations of ordinary common > n.,M.1~,dan.r l'.d,ie Cmtrale, p. 304 et seq. sense must n.u.li S'll<:.\\fa.<:.ts > inexplicable, > (45] THE FUTURE OF ,JflSSIONS 135 > > , The fundamental condition of criticism respects our betters. It is not thus at > ' is ability to understand the diverse con- epochs and in countries where each is > ditions of the human spirit. Absolute whole-heartedly of his own communion, > faith is for us an utterly alien pheno- his own race, his own political school ; > menon. Outside the positive sciences, and that is why all the great religious > which are of a certitude in some measure creations have taken place in societies, > material, every opinion is in our eyes the prevailing spirit of which was more > only an approximation, implying both or less analogous to that of the East. > an element of truth and an element of Up till now, in fact, absolute faith has > error. The element of error may be alone succeeded in imposing itself upon > small as you will ; it is never reduced to others. A good servant-maid of Lyons, > zero when we are dealing with moral Blandina, who went to her death for her > things, implicating a question of art, faith seventeen hundred years ago, a > language, literary form, and personalities. brutal tribal chief, Clovis, who saw good, > Such is not the manner of seeing of nearly fourteen centuries ago, to embrace > narrow and stubborn minds-of Orientals, Catholicism, still make the law for us. > for instance. The eye of such people is Who has not paused, in passing through > not like ours ; it is the enamel eye of the our modernised ancient towns, at the foot > figures in mosaics, dull and fixed. They of the gigantic monuments of the faith > • can see but one thing at once, and that of old ? All about them has been > thing obsesses them, takes hold of them; rebuilt ; there is no longer a vestige of > they are no longer free, then, to believe the habitations of a former day ; the > oi; not to believe ; there is no longer cathedral has remained, a little defaced, > room in them for a reflective after-thought. maybe, so high as man's hand can reach, > For an opinion thus embraced men go but deeply rooted in the soil. Mole sua > to their death. The martyr is in religion stat I Its huge bulk is its justification. > what the party man is in politics. There It has withstood the deluge which has > have not been many very intelligent swept away all about it ; not one of the > martyrs. The confessors of the time of men of olden time, returning to visit the > Diocletian must have been, after the places where he lived, would find his > peace of the Church, worrying and abode; alone the raven which has built > dictatorial persons. Nobody is very its nest in the heights of the sacred fane > tolerant who believes that he is quite has never seen the hammer raised upon > right, and that the others are quite its dwelling. Strange enactment! Those > wrong. worthy martyrs, those rude converts, > The great religious conflagrations, those extortionate builders of churches, > being the consequence of a very rigid wield over us an eternal sway. We are > manner of seeing things, have thus Christians, because it pleased them to be > become enigmas for a century like ours, so. As in politics it is only the barbaric > in which the rigour of convictions has foundations that endure, in religion it is > been weakened. Among us the sincere • only the spontaneous, and, if I may dare > man is constantly modifying his opinions to say so, the fanatical affirmations, that > -in the first place, because the world are contagious. The fact is that religions > changes; in the second place, because are entirely popular creations. Their > the observer changes also. We believe success does not depend on the more or > in several things at once. We love less sound proofs that they furnish of > justice and truth; for them we would their divinity; their success is in ratio > venture our lives; but we do not admit with what they speak to the heart of the > that justice and truth are the monopoly people. > of any one sect or party. We are good Are we from this to conclude that > Frenchmen ; but we confess that the religion is destined to dwindle little by > Germans, the English, are in many little, and finally to disaQQe.atli.k.e. ~Q,~~\-n > THE FUTURE OF MISSIONS 1 > [45] > errors about magic and sorcery and man would be transcendently religjous, > spirits? Assuredly not. Religion is not plunged in an eternal adoration, passing ; > a popular error; it is a great instinctive from ecstasy to ecstasy, being born, > truth, perceived by the people, expressed living, and dying in a torrent of rapturous > by the people. All the creeds which delight. Egoism, in fact, which denotes > serve to give a form to religious feeling the measure of the inferiority of beings, > are defective, and it is their fate to be decreases in proportion as the animal is > cast aside one after the other. But noth- left behind. A perfect being would be > ing can be falser than the dream of no longer egoistic ; he would be abso• > certain persons, who, seeking to conceive lutely religious. Progress, then, will > a perfect humanity, conceive it lacking have as its effect the augmentation of > religion. It is the reverse which must religion, not its destruction or diminution. > be said. China, which presents an But it is time to return to the three > inferior humanity, has scarce any reli- missionaries, Paul, Barnabas, and John > > gion. On the contrary, let us suppose a ; Mark, whom we have left at the moment > planet inhabited by a humanity whose ' of their leaving Antioch by the gate > intellectual, moral, and physical power I which leads to Seleucia. In my third > is double that of earthly humanity ; that i Book I shall attempt to follow the track > humanity would be at least twice as of those messengers of good tidings over > religious as ours. I say "at least," for it sea and land, in calm and tempest, • > is probable that the augmentation of the through good and evil days. I am > religious faculties would proceed in more impatient to tell again that unparalleled > rapid progression than the augmentation epic, to depict those roads stretching > of the intellectual capacity, and would infinitely through Asia and Europe, > not be in simple, direct proportion. Let along which they sowed the seed of the > us suppose a humanity ten times stronger Gospel, those waves over which they > than ours ; that humanity would be in- fared so often under conditions so > finitely more religious. It is even prob- diverse. The great Christian Odyssey is > able that, at that pitch of sublimity, about to begin. Already the apostolic > untrammelled by all material cares and bark has shaken forth her sails; the wind > all egoism, invested with perfect discri- is blowing, and aspires for nought save > mination and divinely subtle taste, seeing to bear upon its wings the words of > the baseness and vacuity of all that is Jesus. > not truth and goodness and beauty, > > — *The Apostles (Used by permission of the curator)*