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—Let me give you a few examples of what these[Pg 191] paltry people have stuffed into their heads, what they have laid on the lips of their Master: quite a host of confessions from "beautiful souls."—
"And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city." (Mark vi. 11.)—How evangelical!...
"And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." (Mark ix. 42.)—How evangelical!...
"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it fa better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark ix. 47, 48.)—The eye is not precisely what is meant in this passage....
"Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." (Mark ix. 1.)—Well lied, lion![6] ...
"Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For ..." (A psychologist's comment. Christian morality is refuted by its "For's": its "reasons" refute,—this is Christian.) (Mark viii. 34.)
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." (Matthew vii. I, 2.)—What a strange notion of justice on the part of a "just" judge!...
"For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?" (Matthew v. 46, 47.) The principle of "Christian love": it insists upon being well paid....
"But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew vi. 15.)—Very compromising for the "Father" in question.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew vi. 33)—"All these things"—that is to say, food, clothing, all the necessities of life. To use a moderate expression, this is an error .... Shortly before this God appears as a tailor, at least in certain cases....
"Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." (Luke vi. 23.)—Impudent rabble! They dare to compare themselves with the prophets....
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." (St Paul, I Corinthians iii. 16, 17.)—One cannot have too much contempt for this sort of thing....
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" (St Paul, I Corinthians vi. 2.)—Unfortunately this is not merely the speech of a lunatic.... This appalling impostor proceeds thus: "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?"
"Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe ... not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence." (St Paul, I Corinthians i. 20 et seq.)—In order to understand this passage, which is of the highest importance as an example of the psychology of every Chandala morality, the reader should refer to my Genealogy of Morals: in this book, the contrast between a noble and a Chandala morality born of resentment and impotent revengefulness, is brought to light for the first time. St Paul was the greatest of all the apostles of revenge....
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What follows from this? That one does well to[Pg 194] put on one's gloves when reading the New Testament The proximity of so much pitch almost defiles one. We should feel just as little inclined to hobnob with "the first Christians" as with Polish Jews: not that we need explain our objections.... They simply smell bad.—In vain have I sought for a single sympathetic feature in the New Testament; there is not a trace of freedom, kindliness, open-heartedness and honesty to be found in it. Humaneness has not even made a start in this book, while cleanly instincts are entirely absent from it.... Only evil instincts are to be found in the New Testament, it shows no sign of courage, these people lack even the courage of their evil instincts. All is cowardice, all is a closing of one's eyes and self-deception. Every book becomes clean, after one has just read the New Testament: for instance, immediately after laying down St Paul, I read with particular delight that most charming and most wanton of scoffers, Petronius, of whom someone might say what Domenico Boccaccio wrote to the Duke of Parma about Csar Borgia: " tutto festo"—immortally healthy, immortally cheerful and well-constituted. ... These petty bigots err in their calculations and in the most important thing of all. They certainly attack; but everything they assail is, by that very fact alone, distinguished. He whom a "primitive Christian" attacks, is not thereby sullied.... Conversely it is an honour to be opposed by "primitive Christians." One cannot read the New Testament without feeling a preference for everything in it which is the subject of abuse—not to speak of the "wisdom of this world,"[Pg 195] which an impudent windbag tries in vain to confound "by the foolishness of preaching." Even the Pharisees and the Scribes derive advantage from such opposition: they must certainly have been worth something in order to have been hated in such a disreputable way. Hypocrisy—as if this were a reproach which the "first Christians" were at liberty to make!—After all the Scribes and Pharisees were the privileged ones; this was quite enough, the hatred of the Chandala requires no other reasons. I very much fear that the "first Christian"—as also the "last Christian" whom I may yet be able to meet,— is in his deepest instincts a rebel against everything privileged; he lives and struggles unremittingly for "equal rights"!... Regarded more closely, he has no alternative.... If one's desire be personally to represent "one of the chosen of God"—or a "temple of God," or "a judge of angels,"—then every other principle of selection, for instance that based upon a standard of honesty, intellect, manliness and pride, or upon beauty and freedom of heart, becomes the "world,"—evil in itself. Moral: every word on the lips of a "first Christian" is a lie, every action he does is an instinctive falsehood,—all his values, all his aims are pernicious; but the man he, hates, the thing he hates, has value. ... The Christian, more particularly the Christian priest, is a criterion of values—Do I require to add that in the whole of the New Testament only one figure appears which we cannot help respecting? Pilate, the Roman Governor. To take a Jewish quarrel seriously was a thing he could not get himself to do. One Jew more or less—what did it matter?... The noble[Pg 196] scorn of a Roman, in whose presence the word "truth" had been shamelessly abused, has enriched the New Testament with the only saying which is of value,—and this saying is not only the criticism, but actually the shattering of that Testament: "What is truth!"...
