by Jean Meslier
Our God-Christ-cultists or our Christ-God-cultists blame and condemn the pagans for attributing Divinity to mortal men and worshiping them as Gods after their death. They are certainly right to criticize and condemn them for that. But in doing so, those Pagans were doing no more than what our Christ-cultists themselves currently do, when they attribute Divinity to their Christ, who was truly only a man like any other; such that, if our God-Christ-cultists blame and condemn the pagans for worshiping mortals as Gods, then they should also judge themselves, since they’ve fallen into the same error as those Pagans, and they worship as their God a man who was mortal, and who was indeed so mortal that he died shamefully on a cross, after being sentenced to death. It would do nothing to help the case of our Christ-cultists, to say here that there is a big difference between their Jesus Christ and the Gods of the Pagans, on the pretext that their Christ would, as they say, be a true God and a true man at once, since the Deity would be incarnated in him, by means of which the divine nature, find itself connected and united hypostatically, as they put it, with human nature, these two natures would have made Jesus Christ a true God and a true man, which never occurred, as they say, in the supposed Gods of the ancient Pagans, it was clearly a mistake and folly to worship them as Gods, since they were only weak humans, and mortal like anyone else.
But it is easy to show the weakness and vanity of this response, and this supposed difference between the two, since on the one hand, would it not have been just as easy for the Pagans as for the Christians to say that the Deity, or the Divine nature, were truly embodied in those men whom they worshiped as Gods, and that it was truly incarnated in their Saturn, in their Jupiter, in their Mars, in their Apollo, in their Mercury, in their Bacchus, in their Aesculapius, and in all the rest of the Gods they worshiped? Similarly, that the Deity was truly incarnate in their Juno, in their Diana, in their Pallas, in their Minerva, in their Ceres, in their Venus, and all the other goddesses they worshiped? It would certainly have been just as easy for them to say this of their Gods and their Goddesses, as for the Christians to say it of their Jesus Christ. On the other hand, if the Deity truly did wish to become incarnate and unite hypostatically, as our God-Christ-cultists say, with their human nature, in their Jesus Christ, how do they know that this same Divinity didn’t also wish to take flesh and be hypostatically united with human nature in those great men and marvelous women who, by their virtues, their fine qualities, and their fine deeds, have excelled beyond the common man, and who were thus worshiped as gods and goddesses? Certainly, the Deity might just as easily have been embodied in the pagan gods as in the Christians’ Christ. And if our God-Christ-cultists refuse to believe that the Deity could ever be incarnated in these great figures, then how can they expect us to believe that it was incarnated in their Christ? What argument, and what proof do they have? None but that their faith and blind belief, which is, as I’ve said, a principle of errors, illusions, and imposture, and which affected the Pagans, like them, which clearly shows that they on the same footing in this regard, that they are both in error, each as much as the other.
But what is even more ridiculous in Christianity than in Paganism, is that the Pagans have usually attributed Divinity only to their great men and great personalities, such as Emperors, to Kings, to impressive Princes, or those who excelled in certain virtues, in fine and rare perfections, people who, for example, invented the sciences and the arts, who performed some important service to the public, or who performed certain great and generous deeds; but our Christ-cultists, to whom do they ascribe Divinity? To a nobody, who had neither talent, intelligence, knowledge, or skill, who was quite despised by everyone. To whom do they ascribe it? Shall I say it? Yes, I’ll say it, they ascribe it to a fool, a madman, a miserable fanatic, and a miserable rogue.
Yes, my dear friends, that’s the sort of person your Priests and Doctors attribute the Divinity; that’s the sort of person they make you worship God as your divine Savior and Redeemer, a man who couldn’t save himself from the shameful ordeal of the cross. For this Jesus Christ, whom they make you worship as a God who became human, was not, even according to the portrait given of him in the Gospels and by his disciples, anything but a wretched fanatic and a miserable rogue, who was attached to and hung on a cross, and who could, for that reason alone, be called cursed of God and men, according to what’s written in their own books, that cursed of God is he who is hung on a cross, maledictus a Deo est qui pendet in ligno[494]. I don’t need to prove that he was a vile and contemptible man in the world, for, setting aside his own words that he didn’t even have a place to lay his head[495], you know he came into the world in a stable, that he was born to poor parents, that he was always poor, that he was only a carpenter’s son and that, after he began to appear publicly and gaining a reputation, that he was taken for a madman, a fool, a demoniac, and a seducer, that he was always despised, mocked, persecuted, whipped, and that he was ultimately hung on a cross, where he ended his days in misery: maledictus a Deo qui pendet in ligno. Thus, none can deny that his earthly existence was miserable and unhappy, so that, to prove that he really was nothing but a fool, a madman, a miserable fanatic, and a wretched rogue, all it takes to prove and show this is to demonstrate that he really was a fool, a madman, a fanatic, which I will prove clearly by these three things.
33. CONCERNING THE ESSENCE AND PERSON OF JESUS.
Firstly, by the way he was judged by the word. 2) By his own thoughts and words. 3) By his actions and how he behaved. As for the way the world judged him, it’s shown clearly in the Gospels themselves, that he wasn’t considered as anything but a man, as I’ve just said. In the Gospel of Saint Luke, we read that the first time he tried preaching in his town of Nazareth, where he had been fed and raised[496], the crowd was no enraged at his words that they drove him out of their town and took him to a high cliff, with the intention of throwing him over the edge. Another time, while he was insulting the Scribes and Pharisees, and even the Doctors of the Law, speaking many curses at them, one of them was led to tell him: “Master, do you not see that, by so speaking, you are insulting us?” But as he continued saying his insulting criticisms and outrageous curses, they were obliged to reprimand him more severely and to completely shut his mouth, as it says in this Gospel: Coeperunt Pharisoei et legisperiti graviter insistere et os ejus opprimere de multis, Luke 11:53. He was speaking with the Jews on another occasion, and as these Jews saw that he was only speaking nonsense and being rude, they became upset and said: “Are we not right to say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon in you?” And, as he persisted in speaking nonsense, as it says in the Gospel according to St. John, they told him a second time, “Now we know that you are insane, or that you have a demon in you: we know that Abraham is dead and that all the prophets are dead, and that you say,” they told him: That if anyone obeys your word, he will never die.” And when he persisted in speaking nonsense, they said, again: “What? You are not yet 50 years old but you have seen Abraham, who is so long gone?” Finally, realizing that they would get nothing but nonsense from him, they gathered rocks to stone him, and he was forced to leave and to hide from them.
One day, when he told the Jews that he would give them his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, and that if they didn't eat his flesh or drink his blood, they wouldn’t have life in them[497], they found his words so hard and so absurd that they were quite scandalized, and asked each other: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat, and his blood to drink?” Many of his disciples couldn’t endure the hardness and absurdity of such a discourse; they separated from him and abandoned him, judging by this speech that he was insane. Another time, when he harangued them again, as was his custom, with vain speeches, those who heard him talking judged him in various ways[498], some saying that he was a good man, others said that he was riling the masses; but most of them thought him crazy and a madman, saying: “He’s possessed by a demon, he’s out of his mind, why are you listening to him?[499]: dicebant multi demoniu
m habet et insanit, quid eum auditis? Even his brothers didn’t believe in him, they thought him insane. We see a clear testimony of this in the Gospel according to Mark[500], for there it is clearly stated that, one day when he had entered a house, lots of people had gathered, until there was no more room[501] for them, and that his relatives, having been notified, they came to take him away, saying he was out of his mind. Exierunt sui tenere eum dicebant enim quoniam in furorem versus est. And it seems likely that he did seem that way, when he was led before King Herod, for this King, having a strong desire to see him, was at first, it’s said, excited to see him coming in, anticipating a display of some miracle or other, but having asked him a few questions, and seeing that he made no reply[502], he was filled with contempt instead, and sent him back, in a mocking fashion, dressing him in a white robe; finally, it was only by derision of his person that the Jews mocked him and his imaginary kingdom, when they derisively set on him a crown of thorns and a reed in his hands as his scepter, and when they bowed to him, saying[503]: “we salute you, King of the Jews”. On which the Apostle St. Paul says expressly that no worldly prince knew his supposed wisdom and that, if they had known it, they would never have crucified him. Si enim, he said, cognovissent, numquam Dominum gloriae crucifixissent. 1 Cor. 2:8. All these testimonies clearly show that he was truly seen in the world as nothing but a fool, a madman, and a fanatic.
This can also be clearly seen in his own thoughts and his own words; for 1)[504] his thoughts and his imagination were that he was born to save the world and to be King of the Jews[505], and to rule over them forever, he imagined[506] that he would deliver them from servitude to all nations[507], and that he would restore their kingdom in a condition that was far more prosperous than it had ever enjoyed. He imagined that he would be seen descending from Heaven with his angels, full of glory and power, in great majesty to judge, i.e., to rule all the living and the dead, whom he believed he himself would resurrect[508], and rule the whole earth in justice and truth[509]. He thought he was about to create new heavens and a new Earth where justice would reside and where he would reign forever with his Elect[510]. He imagined that he would be his apostles to reign with him, and that he would be sitting on 12 thrones, to judge[511], i.e., to govern the 12 tribes of Israel, and that he would be drinking and eating at his table, when his kingdom would be[512]. He imagined, or at least he said, that all those who have[513], for love of him, left in this world their father, mother, brother, sisters, children, houses, lands and inheritances, that he would give them a hundred times more than they abandoned for love of him[514]. He imagined that he would soon make his voice heard by all the dead[515], that he would resurrect them and bring them out of their tombs, by the Omnipotence of his voice, and that he would even prevent the death of, or secure from ever dying, all those who observed his words[516]. He imagined himself to be the great and powerful liberator who had been promised[517] to the Jews and to the city of Jerusalem in the law of Moses and all the Prophets. He thought he gave the Holy Ghost and the power of remitting all sin by the mere breath of his mouth. Insufflavit et dixit eis: accipite spiritum sanctum[518]. He thought he was a living bread, come down from Heaven to give life to men, and that those who at him would live forever; and finally, he imagined that it was in himself that God would fulfill all the great and wonderful promises He had made to this people, and that all the Elect would be eternally blessed in his name etc. He thought he was the Almighty and the Eternal Son of an Omnipotent and eternal God[519].
Are these not the thoughts and imaginations of a fanatic? Even Don Quixote, the famous fanatic and errant knight, never went so far. Did he ever rival these things? Certainly not; his imagination and his thoughts, as disordered and mistaken as they were, were never so extremely disordered. You’d have to an arch-fanatic, like the Christ of the Christians, to have such vain, ridiculous, absurd, and extravagant thoughts, as his were. If he came back in our time, or if someone like him came among us, telling and showing us that he had similar thoughts and imaginations in his mind, we would certainly regard him now as nothing other than a visionary, a madman, and a fanatic, just as he was considered in his own time.
34. HIS PREACHING AND HIS SPEECHES.
Let’s come now to his words and speeches; for they will give us an even clearer portrait of the character of his mind, which was as I’ve just described it to be. This is already evident in his first speech, delivered in the Synagogue at Nazareth. For, although it is noted in a Gospel[520] that everyone initially praised him and that all were surprised to hear the graceful words that came out of his mouth, this admiration didn’t last long, and in the very next moment they were filled with contempt and outrage, to the point of driving him out, as I mentioned, from their Synagogue and trying to throw him off a cliff. The madness evident in this discourse (along with certain other nonsense which doubtlessly shocked the Jews as well, for it’s hard to understand why the words reported here would shock them to such an extent), consisted in his attribution of the glory to himself, of showing the fulfilment of all these great and magnificent promises, which had been given in the Law, in himself, of which the Prophets had so often spoken so highly, especially the Prophet Isaiah, whose testimony he found at the opening of the book that was offered to him: for, having taken his text from the testimony of this prophet[521], which he had found, as I said, at the opening of the book, he wanted to convince the people that all these great and wonderful promises of God to their fathers would be fulfilled in him. Here, the disordered state of his imagination is clearly shown, since he so vainly imagined he could do so many amazing things which he was so utterly incapable of actually doing, which also proves that he must have also said something more offensive and insulting to the Jews, given their utter fury against him: for, if that was all he said, it seems that this speech shouldn’t have led to anything more than laughter and contempt, not anger and outrage.
Our Christ-cultists must not claim to say at this point that their Christ has done enough to show the effects of the fulfillment of the words he read by the Prophet, with the surprising miracles he performed, miraculously healing all sorts of diseases and infirmities. For, aside from the fact that I’ve already shown quite clearly how vain and false these supposed miracles are, even if they were true, they would be nothing in comparison with what he should have done, or with what should have occurred, to truly show the fulfillment of what this Prophet said. For this prophet (in the place Jesus Christ read, on the occasion I’ve just mentioned) predicted nothing less than the deliverance, the happiness, the glory, and the felicity of an entire people, and not only the deliverance of a few demoniacs or the healing of a few individual and dubious illnesses, which deliverance of the whole people would come, according to what the same Prophet said, by a powerful Prince, who would take the government of the empire on his shoulders, who, for his fine and amazing qualities, would be called[522] admirable, the counselor, the mighty God, the Father of the age to come, the Prince of Peace, who would be seated on the Throne of David, who would rule forever in his Kingdom, who would establish and strengthen it in justice and truth, to last forever, where there would be no end to peace, which is certainly far from having been realized at the time of Jesus Christ, or at any other time. To say that this prophecy would be fulfilled spiritually in Jesus Christ, as our Christ-cultists claim, is a pure illusion, since this supposed spiritual fulfillment can only be imaginary, and it would be as easy to attribute it to anyone as to Jesus Christ, and thus, it is blindness and self-delusion to say that Jesus Christ had, by his supposed miracles, given sufficient indications of the effects of the fulfillment of the prophecy he read on this first occasion, which I just mentioned.
Let's pass on to his other speeches and his predictions, which are certainly the most unique and remarkable of their kind. This is how he began to preach: “Repent,” he said to the masses, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh. Believe this good news,” he said, and he traveled through the whole province of Galilee, preachin
g this good news of the supposedly soon arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven in the towns and villages, and since to this day nobody has yet heard anything like the coming of this supposed Kingdom, this is a clear proof that this Kingdom was only an imaginary one, and that you’d have to have to be wrong in the head, or be completely mad to run from one end to the other, as he did, preaching the soon arrival of such a Kingdom. But let us see how he proceeded, in his other preaching, his praise for and descriptions of this fine so-called Kingdom, to reveal its greatness and excellence and to produce a high idea of and respect for it. This is how he explained it to the masses. “The Kingdom of Heaven,” he told them[523], is like a man who planted good seed in his field, but while the men are asleep, his enemy has come, who planted tares among the good seed. The Kingdom of Heaven,” he told them[524], “is like a treasure, hidden in a field; a man, having found the treasure, hides it again, and he is so joyous at having found it, that he sells all he has and buys this field. The Kingdom of Heaven,” he told them[525], is like a merchant, who seeks fine pearls, and who, having found one of great price, sells all he has and buys this pearl. The Kingdom of Heaven,” he told them[526], “is like a net, which has been cast in the sea and contains all sorts of fish; when it’s full, the fishers have drawn it in and pile the good fish together in the ships and throw the bad ones overboard.” “The Kingdom of Heaven”, he told them[527], “is like a mustard seed, which a man has planted in his field, no seed,” he said, “is as small as it; but,” he said, “when it grows, it becomes the largest of all plants, and becomes like a tree, where the birds of the sky come to rest on the branches. The Kingdom of Heaven, he also told them, is like yeast, which a woman has taken and put into three measures of flour, until the whole was raised[528]. Finally, he always preached to and taught the masses in parables, and he only spoke to them in parables, as it says expressly in the Gospels[529].