91. Even the poetic conception of the painter can only furnish his own ideal, and that of
one special mood. Speaking as one who has no claim to knowledge of art, only one
picture of Christ ever really impressed me. It was that of an 'Ecce Homo,' by Carlo Dolci,
in the Pitti Gallery at Florence. For an account of the early pictorial representations,
comp. Gieseler. Kirchengesch. i. pp. 85, 86.
92. Of these there are, alas! only too many. The reader interested in the matter will find a
good summary in Keim, i. 2, pp. 460 -463. One of the few noteworthy remarks recorded is
this description of Christ, in the spurious Epistle of Lentulus, 'Who was never seen to
laugh, but often to we ep.'
Book II
FROM THE MANGER IN BETHLEHEM TO THE BAPTISM IN JORDAN
Chapter 11
IN THE FIFTEENTH YEAR OF TIBERIUS CAESAR AND UNDER THE
PONTIFICATE OF ANNAS AND CAIAPHAS
A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
(St. Matthew 3:1 -12; St. Mark 1:2-8; St. Luke 3:1-18.)
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon
the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a
narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affo rds
presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that
what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the
Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, a proclama tion, a rite,
and a ministry as startling as that of Elijah had been. In many respects, indeed, the two
messengers and their times bore singular likeness. It was to a society secure, prosperous,
and luxurious, yet in imminent danger of perishing from hidde n, festering disease; and to
a religious community which presented the appearance of hopeless perversion, and yet
contained the germs of a possible regeneration, that both Elijah and John the Baptist
came. Both suddenly appeared to threaten terrible judgme nt, but also to open unthought-
of possibilities of good. And, as if to deepen still more the impression of this contrast,
both appeared in a manner unexpected, and even antithetic to the habits of their
contemporaries. John came suddenly out of the wilderness of Judæa, as Elijah from the
wilds of Gilead; John bore the same strange ascetic appearance as his predecessor; the
message of John was the counterpart of that of Elijah; his baptism that of Elijah's novel
rite on Mount Carmel. And, as if to make complete the parallelism, with all of memory
and hope which it awakened, even the more minute details surrounding the life of Elijah
found their counterpart in that of John. Yet history never repeats itself. It fulfils in its