Albert Einstein on Jesus
Interviewer: To what extent are you influenced by [the teachings of Jesus]?
Einstein: As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.
Interviewer: You accept the historical existence of Jesus?
Einstein: Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus.
Interviewer: Ludwig Lewisohn, in one of his recent books, claims that many of the sayings of Jesus paraphrase the sayings of other prophets.
Einstein: No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful. Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as he.
(From interview with G.S. Viereck)
First of all, it’s good to see you back on the blogosphere (or anywhere), Gene. You’ve been away too long.
Secondly, thanks for the quote. I wish we had more of a commentary on how Einstein understood Jesus within his Jewish context.
Thank you, James. I had some major family commitments in the past few months and was feeling sort of burned out in general, both physically and spiritually (this seems to have been going around and not just with me). Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things soon.
“I wish we had more of a commentary on how Einstein understood Jesus within his Jewish context.”
I think he simply viewed him as an amazing Jewish luminary that has truly changed the world, a man on a very different plane, a person whose words and actions breathed new life into those he touched not only in his time but also in the time to come, and not some “clergyman” who merely peddled religion and philosophical ideas. BTW, I have added a bit more content to my original quotes of Einstein about Jesus.
Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as he.
There’s probably a reason for that.
No one can doubt Albert Einstein’s great genius in physics.
But in Judaism…
* his parents espoused anti-religious views, specfically with a disdain for Judaism
* therefore, to maximize his discomfort with his religion and religious identity, they sent their son to be the lone Jew at a Catholic school during an era when anti-Semitism in Germany was not quite as taboo as it is today
* his closest encounter with Rabbinical writings was having a math tutor named Max Talmud whom his parents hired for him specifically in the context of their program of anti-religious indoctrination of young Albert
No one can doubt Einstein had a perspective on Jesus. But to label his perspective on anything as representative of the “Jewish” perspective…now that’s hardly an act of genius!
For more, see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607298,00.html.
To shed a bit more light on the truthfulness of Gene’s assessment of Einstein as some sort of Christian witness, note what Einstein himself wrote about the matter in a letter dated March 24, 1954:
“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly” (from Albert Einstein the Human Side, Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, eds., Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981, p. 43).
For more, see http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html.
That last thing that needs to be said on this topic is the unfortunate footnote of the moral consequences for Einstein and those around him of the cruel religious path his parents established for him:
* Einstein had a child with a woman to whom he was not married
* He later married her, but then abandoned her
* While still married to the mother of his children, Einstein carried on an affair with a woman who was his first cousin on his mother’s side and his second cousin on his father’s
* He was estranged from his own children
Anonymous (a.k.a. Kip)…
You are just jealous of Einstein’s intellect!
In the same Time Magazine article:
“Despite his parents’ secularism, or perhaps because of it, Einstein rather suddenly developed a passionate zeal for Judaism. “He was so fervent in his feelings that, on his own, he observed Jewish religious strictures in every detail,” his sister recalled. He ate no pork, kept kosher and obeyed the strictures of the Sabbath. He even composed his own hymns, which he sang to himself as he walked home from school.”
So, Einstein was by no means an ignoramus when it came to Judaism, in spite of his upbringing by secular Jews (which is more than you can claim being born to Gentile parents and being a former “Christian”). While it is true that later on in his life Einstein had little interest in institutional Judaism and believed in an “impersonal” G-d (but he was certainly no atheist), those facts could not prevent this intellectual powerhouse from seeing the majesty that is to be found in Jesus the Messiah (Yeshua) .
“unfortunate footnote of the moral consequences for Einstein”
You mean to say that there are no religious Jews who fall short?
Gene,
There are a minority of religious Jews who suffer the sort of family problems that are so characteristic of what goes on in the secular world. But the religious world doesn’t uphold these aberations as examples of what we stand for nor as spokesmen for our beliefs.
You do. You’ve announted a nigh-incestuous denier of the Almighty as spokesman for the Jewish people. You’ve used Einstein to demonstrate that it’s Jewish to believe in Jesus, when in fact Einstein didn’t speak for or religiously agree with Jewry, and when even Einstein himself didn’t believe in Jesus or believe that Jews believe in Jesus.
I thus can’t help being disappointed in your standards of honesty.
“I thus can’t help being disappointed in your standards of honesty.”
Sorry, Mom.
Where did you find this dialogue???
Funny you mentioned being spiritually burned out, I was that way until just recently. Just got done with a major study of Rome from founding to collapse and it got me out of the funk.
Benicho….
You can find part of the dialogue in this Time Magazine article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607298,00.html
It was originally published in “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck,”The Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 26, 1929, p. 17
More complete version can be found here (among many other places): http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/einsteinonjesus.html
Interestingly, (from the above link), this is what Einstein is said to have answered when encouraged to convert to Christianity (Catholicism):
“A Catholic science student, concerned for Einstein’s soul, once wrote to Einstein, begging him to pray to Christ, the Virgin Mary, and to see a Catholic priest immediately. What follows is part of Einstein’s reply.
Einstein: If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.” (From Goldman, p. 88.)
Abert was an amazing and gracious man. Einstein was also right about the shortcomings of Quantum Mechanics and so therefore String Theory is also the incorrect approach. As an alternative to Quantum Theory there is a new theory that describes and explains the mysteries of physical reality. While not disrespecting the value of Quantum Mechanics as a tool to explain the role of quanta in our universe this theory states that there is also a classical explanation for the paradoxes such as EPR and the Wave-Particle Duality. The Theory is called the Theory of Super Relativity. This theory is a philosophical attempt to reconnect the physical universe to realism and deterministic concepts. It explains the mysterious.
Gene,
Thanks for sharing an excerpt of this interview. I had never read it before. “No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that his sayings are beautiful. Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as he.” – You don’t say! This is an amazing quote in and of itself by Einstein, regardless of context.
@mtravers
Thanks for the interesting extra background on this great man!
@ Justin Bond
You’re quite welcome! Thanks for stopping by.
In the realm of science, Einstein was renowned for providing elaborate, overpowering proofs for his theories. But in the realm of religion, which he didn’t accept as valid, he shot from the hip and didn’t worry about the proof. “No man can deny the fact that Jesus existed”? That’s a statement, but there is no proof behind it. Einstein didn’t even discuss the experiments he ran that convinced him that no man can deny Jesus’ existence. In fact, it’s an unprovable statement. And a false one at that. Many people doubt Jesus existed, and their assessment, unlike Einstein’s, is based on proof.
During the timeframe the “new testament” placed Jesus in Jerusalem, the city was crawling with historians busily documenting the affairs of the day. Yet the only primary record of Jesus’ supposed amazing miracle performances remains a Greek religious tract that only purports to record Jesus’ story as told by Jesus to Paul in Paul’s dream–Paul never claimed to have met Jesus, who lived prior to Paul, and Paul didn’t bother writing and publishing his dream, the “new testament”, until decades after having it. Proof is not on Jesus’ side.
Justin Bond made an interesting point:
“This is an amazing quote in and of itself by Einstein, regardless of context.”
It is through the reckless disregard of context that the meaning of quotations become lost, and even reversed. No earnest search for truth examines evidence “regardless of context”. Throughout the Book of Isaiah, G-d’s suffering servant is identified as the Jews (Is. 41:8, 43:1, 44:1, 44:21, 45:4, 49:3, etc.). The final verse of Is. 52 (verse 15) clearly identifies the narrator of chapter 53 as the kings of the gentiles, who had unjustly abused Israel and caused her to suffer. And yet, despite the context, missionaries insist that Isaiah 53 is the story of Jesus being abused by the Jews! Examining clippings from the Bible, “regardless of context”, is a recipe for self-deceit.
As a responsible adult, don’t you have an obligation to cite statements within their proper context in order to ensure the conclusions they actually point to are reached?
He still didnt believe in Jesus though!
“He still didnt believe in Jesus though!”
You can be a “believer” in but still not be a follower of Jesus. Even “demons believe” (James 2:19).