Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Further reading
- Note on texts and translations
- Introduction
- Philosophical and theological writings
- 1 The Christianity of reason (c. 1753)
- 2 On the reality of things outside God (1763)
- 3 Spinoza only put Leibniz on the track of [his theory of] pre-established harmony (1763)
- 4 On the origin of revealed religion (1763 or 1764)
- 5 Leibniz on eternal punishment (1773)
- 6 [Editorial commentary on the ‘Fragments’ of Reimarus, 1777]
- 7 On the proof of the spirit and of power (1777)
- 8 The Testament of St John (1777)
- 9 A rejoinder (1778)
- 10 A parable (1778)
- 11 Axioms (1778)
- 12 New hypothesis on the evangelists as merely human historians (1778)
- 13 Necessary answer to a very unnecessary question of Herr Hauptpastor Goeze of Hamburg (1778)
- 14 The religion of Christ (1780)
- 15 That more than five senses are possible for human beings (c. 1780)
- 16 Ernst and Falk: dialogues for Freemasons (1778–80)
- 17 The education of the human race (1777–80)
- 18 [Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Recollections of conversations with Lessing in July and August 1780 (1785)]
- Index
- Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy
12 - New hypothesis on the evangelists as merely human historians (1778)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Further reading
- Note on texts and translations
- Introduction
- Philosophical and theological writings
- 1 The Christianity of reason (c. 1753)
- 2 On the reality of things outside God (1763)
- 3 Spinoza only put Leibniz on the track of [his theory of] pre-established harmony (1763)
- 4 On the origin of revealed religion (1763 or 1764)
- 5 Leibniz on eternal punishment (1773)
- 6 [Editorial commentary on the ‘Fragments’ of Reimarus, 1777]
- 7 On the proof of the spirit and of power (1777)
- 8 The Testament of St John (1777)
- 9 A rejoinder (1778)
- 10 A parable (1778)
- 11 Axioms (1778)
- 12 New hypothesis on the evangelists as merely human historians (1778)
- 13 Necessary answer to a very unnecessary question of Herr Hauptpastor Goeze of Hamburg (1778)
- 14 The religion of Christ (1780)
- 15 That more than five senses are possible for human beings (c. 1780)
- 16 Ernst and Falk: dialogues for Freemasons (1778–80)
- 17 The education of the human race (1777–80)
- 18 [Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Recollections of conversations with Lessing in July and August 1780 (1785)]
- Index
- Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy
Summary
Contents
Firstly, the hypothesis will be expounded in plain and simple language. Next, the critical evidence in support of it, and all that led up to it, will be presented.
After which its possible advantages in resolving various difficulties and providing more precise explanations of disputed passages of Scripture will be demonstrated, and finally submitted to closer examination.
Preface
These are the first outlines of a treatise on which I have been working for many years. It was certainly not my intention to lay it before the world until it was completely finished. But circumstances have intervened which compel me to offer a foretaste of it.
For I have been rudely compelled to explain my position on certain matters which are very closely connected with the present hypothesis. If I have erred in my hypothesis, or in the matters referred to, or in both, it will nevertheless be found that I did not go astray without a map, and that I have used throughout one and the same map which is decried as more inaccurate than careful checks and measurements are likely to confirm. – To find the right path is often pure good luck; to endeavour to find the right path is alone commendable.
Besides, since this discussion concerns only a hypothesis and I neither dispute nor deny the superior worth of the evangelists, this superior worth is entirely compatible with my hypothesis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lessing: Philosophical and Theological Writings , pp. 148 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005