Who carried the cross upon which Jesus was crucified? Such a question
ought to be easy to answer, if the event ever occurred. There ought to be
no disagreement upon so simple a matter as this. But there is
disagreement, and quite a serious one at that. Three of the gospels
declare that Simon carried the cross, while the fourth gospel says that
_Jesus_ himself carried the cross upon which he was crucified. Now, which
is right? Is John right? If so, then Matthew, Mark and Luke are wrong. If
Simon carried it, Jesus could not have done so; and if Jesus carried it,
then Simon did not.
That there is such a discrepancy in the accounts of this alleged event
does not so much indicate that one is right and the others wrong in regard
to the carrying of the cross as that none is right. To our mind this
disagreement of the gospels is an indication that no such event as the
carrying of a cross upon which to crucify Jesus ever occurred.
Christians put forth the Bible as a work which in some way came from God;
as a book which is reliable in its statements, and correct in its
narrative of events. Now, it is patent to everyone that in the gospels
there are two distinct accounts of the carrying of the cross. How can
Christians reconcile this fact with their theory that God is the author of
the Bible?
It must be admitted by all that one mind could not have written or
inspired both of these stories, and it must also be admitted that if one
is true the other is false. What is the natural conclusion that an
unprejudiced mind would arrive at after reading the account of the
carrying of the cross for the crucifixion of Jesus in the four gospels? Is
it not that no such cross was ever carried for any such purpose?
There are too many gospels, too many stories of Jesus. It would have been
better for Christianity had all but one of these narratives been
destroyed. They contradict each other in so many essential points as to
make them totally unreliable as records of facts. It is plain that _not
one of the writers of the four gospels knew of what he was writing_.
We must in honesty say that no one knows who carried the cross on which
Jesus was crucified, and no one knows whether Jesus was crucified or not,
and no one knows whether any such person as Jesus ever lived, to be
crucified.
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Civilization has come about by going to school more than to church.
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Nature is the volume from which all of our knowledge has been translated.