JEWISH CREDULITY.
Another argument which the author of "Supernatural Religion" uses to
discredit miracles, is the superstition of the Jews, especially in our
Lord's time, and their readiness to believe any miraculous story. He
seems to suppose that this superstition reached its extreme point in the
age in which Christ lived, which he calls "the age of miracles." He also
assumes that it was an age of strong religious feeling and excitement.
He says:--
"During the whole life of Christ, and the early propagation of the
religion, it must be borne in mind that they took place in an age,
and among a people, which superstition had made so familiar with
what were supposed to be preternatural events, that wonders awakened
no emotion, or were speedily superseded by some new demand on the
ever ready belief." (Vol. i. p. 98.)
He proceeds to devote above twenty pages to instances of the
superstition and credulity of the Jews about the time of Christ. The
contents of these pages would be amusing if they did not reveal such
deep mental degradation in a race which Christians regard as sacred,
because of God's dealings with their fathers.
Most readers, however, of these pages on the Demonology and Angelology
of the Jews will, I think, be affected by them in a totally different
way, and will draw a very different inference, from what the writer
intends. The thoughtful reader will ask, "How could the Evangelical
narratives be the outcome of such a hotbed of superstition as the author
describes that time to have been?" It is quite impossible, it is
incredible that the same natural cause, _i.e._ the prevalence of
superstition, should have produced about the same time the Book of Enoch
and the Gospel according to St. Matthew. And this is the more remarkable
from the fact that the Gospels are in no sense more Sadducean than the
Book of Enoch. The being and agency of good and evil spirits is as fully
recognized in the inspired writings as in the Apocryphal, but with what
a difference! I append in a note a part of the author's reproduction of
the Book of Enoch, that the reader may see how necessary it is, on all
principles of common sense, to look for some very different explanation
of the origin of the Evangelical narratives than that given by the
author of "Supernatural Religion." [168:1]
In the Evangelical narratives I need hardly say the angels are simply
messengers, as their name imports, and absolutely nothing more. When one
describes himself it is in the words, "I am Gabriel that stand in the
presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these
glad tidings."
On the credulity of the Jews in our Lord's time, I repeat the author's
remarks:--
"During the whole life of Christ, and the early propagation of the
religion, it must be borne in mind that they took place in an age,
and among a people, which superstition had made so familiar with
what were supposed to be preternatural events, that wonders awakened
no emotion, or were speedily superseded by some new demand on the
ever-ready belief." (Vol. i. p. 98.)
Now, if the records of our Lord's life in the Gospels are not a tissue
of falsehoods from beginning to end, this account of things is
absolutely untrue. The miracles of Jesus awakened the greatest
astonishment, betokening a time as unfamiliar with the actual
performance of such things as our own.
For instance, after the first casting out of a devil recorded in St.
Mark, it is said.--
"They were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among
themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?
For with authority commandeth He even the unclean spirits, and they
do obey Him." (Mark i. 29.)
In the next chapter, after the account of the healing of the sick of the
palsy, it is said:--
"They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on
this fashion." (ii. 12.)
Again (St. Luke v. 26), after the casting out of a devil: "They were all
amazed." Again, Luke ix. 43 (also after the casting out of a devil),
"They were all amazed at the mighty power of God." [170:1]
From the account in St. John, the miracle of the opening of the eyes of
the man born blind seems to have excited unbounded astonishment:--
"Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes
of one that was born blind." "Can a devil open the eyes of the
blind?" (John ix. 32, x. 21.)
But more than this. If there be any truth whatsoever in the Gospel
narrative, the disciples themselves, instead of exhibiting anything
approaching to the credulity with which the author of "Supernatural
Religion" taxes the contemporaries of Christ, exhibited rather a spirit
of unbelief. If they had transmitted to us "cunningly devised fables,"
they never would have recorded such instances of their own slowness of
belief as is evinced by their conduct respecting the feeding of the four
thousand following upon the feeding of the five thousand, when they ask
the same question in the face of the same difficulty respecting the
supply of food.
Above all, their slowness of belief in the Resurrection of Christ after
their Master's direct assertion that He would rise again, is directly
opposed to the idea suggested by the author of "Supernatural Religion,"
that they were ready to believe anything which seemed to favour His
pretensions.
Now, it may be alleged that these instances of the slowness of belief on
the part of our Lord's immediate followers, and the conduct of the
multitudes who expressed such wonder at His miracles, are contrary to
one another, but, they are not; for the astonishment of the multitudes
did not arise from credulity in the least, but was the expression of
that state of mind which must exist (no matter how carefully it is
concealed), when some unlooked-for occurrence, totally inexplicable on
any natural principles, presents itself. I cite it to show how utterly
unfamiliar that age was with even the pretence of the exhibition of
miraculous powers. If there be any substratum of truth whatsoever in the
accounts of the slowness of belief on the part of the Apostles, it is a
proof that our Lord's most familiar friends were anything but the
superstitious persons which certain writers assume them to have been.