Note 62 — Chapter II

Footnote 62:

(return)

We can gather with certainty from the Gospels that Jesus did not enter on his work with the announcement: Believe in me for I am the Messiah. On the contrary, he connected his work with the baptising movement of John, but carried that movement further, and thereby made the Baptist his forerunner (Mark I. 15: πεπληρωται 'ο καιρος και ηγγικεν 'η βασιλεια του θεου, μετανοειτε και πιστευετε εν τω ευαγγελιω). He was in no hurry to urge anything that went beyond that message, but gradually prepared, and cautiously required of his followers an advance beyond it. The goal to which he led them was to believe in him as Messiah without putting the usual political construction on the Messianic ideal.