(a.) The descent of the Holy Spirit, like a dove, and the voice from
heaven, at his baptism. (b.) The transfiguration, and the voice then
heard; also the voice from heaven, mentioned in John xii 28-31. (c.) The
testimony of the devils. (d.) The forty days' fast, the temptation by
Satan, and the subsequent ministration of angels. (e) The earthquake and
rending of the veil of the temple at the crucifixion.
(a.) _The occurrences at the baptism_ (Matt. iii.; Mark i. 1-11; Luke
iii. 21, 22; John i. 29-34).
FIRST TEST.--"_In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word
be established_."
In the fourth gospel the account given is expressly stated to be the
record of John the Baptist. It does not appear from whom the particulars
in the other three gospels were derived.
With the exception of the angel-visit to Zacharias, at his birth,
and the dove and voice at the baptism of Jesus, there is nothing
supernatural in connection with John. He is represented as a
plain-spoken, downright enthusiast, held in esteem by king and people,
and as appropriating to himself the prophecy of Isaiah--"A voice of one
crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, making straight
in the desert a highway for our God." He lived a rude life in the
desert, practised fasting and purifying, and baptized his followers. By
his outspokenness he incurred the enmity of Herodias, the wife of Herod,
who obtained his head as a reward for the pleasure given to her husband
by her daughter's dancing. In comparing then his record, as found in
John, with the statements of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, one most marked
divergence appears. The latter assert that, on Jesus coming to be
baptized, the Baptist objected, saying, "I have need to be baptized of
thee, comest thou to me:" thus implying a knowledge on John's part that
Jesus was the Christ. Whereas the former pointedly states, on John's
own authority that _he did not know_ Jesus as the Messiah until the
supernatural appearance of the dove occurred. "_I knew him not_, but he
that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me," &c.. If the
account in the fourth gospel then is true, Matthew's account on this
point must be false, and the angel-appearance to Zacharias, and John's
gladsome leap in his mother's womb on Mary's salutation of Elizabeth,
are discredited. Cousin Elizabeth addressed Mary as "the mother of my
Lord;" and had this been so, would not John have been brought up in the
belief that Jesus was "the Lord," whose advent he was to prepare? Again,
the "record" of John the Baptist in the fourth gospel does not confirm
or corroborate the "voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased," at the baptism, mentioned in the other gospels. John
would surely have heard these wondrous words, and could not well have
forgotten them.
SECOND TEST.---_The claim of the New Testament to represent the Jewish
Jehovah_.
1. A point to be specially noticed is John's declaration, that he who
sent him to baptize with water had charged him that the Messiah would be
made manifest by the spirit of God descending from heaven like a dove,
and alighting and remaining on him. John affirms that he bare record
that Jesus was the Son of God, because in his case this condition was
fulfilled. Now, who sent John to baptize with water? Is there anything
in the Old Testament scriptures to give baptism with water place as an
ordinance of the being therein upheld as divine, and whom both John the
Baptist and Jesus claimed to represent? Not one word! Who, then, sent
John to baptize with water? Did he receive his directions from angels
in dreams or otherwise? Some of the lustrations in connection with the
heathen temples were, however, very similar to the ordinance of baptism
since practised among Christians.
2. The spirit of the Eternal in a bodily shape like a dove! is that an
Old Testament prediction, an Old Testament belief? Let the following
passages reply:--Isaiah xl. 25, "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall
I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold
who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number,"
&c. Deut. iv. 15-17,--"Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for
ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you
in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest ye corrupt yourselves, and
make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness
of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the
likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air," &c. Here then, at
the very outset, are John the Baptist and Jesus represented as connected
with a marvellous event, utterly abhorrent to the Old Testament deity,
whose will and purpose they claimed to be fulfilling!
But though the conception of the deity appearing in the shape of any
bird or beast was wholly foreign to the Old Testament writers, it was
one quite familiar to the heathen world. In the _Iliad_, for instance,
the god Sleep, like the shrill bird of night, alighting, perched on
the loftiest fir on Mount Ida, to aid the amorous design of Juno on
mightiest Jove; Apollo and Pallas were seated on a lofty beech, like
two vultures, to watch the duel between Ajax and Hector. The Egyptian
deities had each their appropriate symbol-beast, bird, or reptile. A
dove, as an emblem of meekness and peace, was no doubt deemed by the
gospel compilers the most fitting of what they wished to convey as the
mission of Jesus; but the conception being heathen, and not Jewish,
it discredits the claim of Christianity, that the New Testament is a
continuation and fulfilment of the Old.
(h) The transfiguration, &c. (Matt. xvii. 1-13; Mark ix, 243; Luke ix.
28-36). Jesus took Peter and James and John along with him into a high
mountain apart to pray. While praying he was transfigured before them;
his face shone as the sun; his raiment glistened; Moses and Elias
appeared in glory talking with him, and spoke of the decease which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem; Peter and the others were heavy with
sleep, but when awake they saw his glory and the two that were with him;
Peter, in bewilderment, suggested that three tabernacles be made, one
for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elias; a bright cloud overshadowed
them, and a voice out of the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased." On this the disciples fell on their faces in
fear, and when they revived they saw no one except Jesus himself. He
charged them to conceal what they had seen until after his resurrection.
_John_ makes no mention of the transfiguration; but in chapter xii
28-30, when Jesus is at Jerusalem "exhorting the people, and praying,
Father, glorify thy name; then came there a voice from heaven, saying,
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people,
there-tore, that stood by and heard it said that it thundered, others
said, An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came
not because of me, but for your sakes."
Peter, 2nd epistle i. 17,--"For he received from God the Father honour
and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which
came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount."
The idea is an old one that because light of intense brilliancy dazzles
the human eye it is therefore the dwelling-place and the raiment of the
inhabitants of heaven, pictured thus as a refulgent abode with refulgent
beings. "Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment" (Psalm civ.
2); "At length do thou come, we pray, with a cloud thy shining shoulders
veiled, O Augur Apollo!" (Horace i. 2, 31,) are instances. Glory and
dazzling light meant the same thing. Now, light is known to be one of
the forms in which force manifests itself, convertible into the other
force-forms, and the other force-forms, convertible into it. Still, the
account of the transfiguration, if the evidence on which it rests
were at all trustworthy, would be a very important credential to the
supernatural pretensions of Jesus, under the claim that such special
manifestations of a Power beyond and supreme over Nature were made so as
best to suit the comprehension of those for whom they were intended, and
as showing that Jesus could so command the force-forms of Nature as to
irradiate his person at will. What, then, is the evidence? The persons
who witnessed the occurrence were Peter, James, and John, and while
it lasted they were in a state of bewilderment, and part of the time
asleep. Jesus commanded them to conceal what they had seen until after
his resurrection. Matthew, therefore, could not have heard of it at
the time it happened, and he does not state from whom he received the
particulars he narrates. Perhaps from the forward Peter, who, in his
epistle quoted above, confirms the account. For, strange to say, John,
the other eye-witness, has not one word in support of the supernatural
appearance on the mount of transfiguration. Of three eyewitnesses there
is only the testimony of one, Peter; and although John, one of the
others, has written an account of the life of Jesus, he passes by this
striking event in silence. So the evidence fails. Can it, then, have
been a dream of Peter, when with Jesus, James, and John in some lonely
mountain in Galilee?
But though John does not mention the marvellous transfiguration, and
the voice from heaven then heard, he does narrate a somewhat similar
occurrence, in broad day, at Jerusalem. But Matthew, who would have been
present, does not confirm John's statement. What, then, is to be said?
What faith can righteously rest on such testimony?
(c.) _The testimonies of the devils_ (Matt. viii. 29; xxxi. 32; Mark i.
24; i. 34; iii 11, 12; v. 7; Luke iv. 34; iv. 41; viii. 28).
(1.) Devils, who came out of many, cried out that Jesus was Christ, the
Son of God; but he rebuked them and suffered them not to speak, because
they knew him. (2.) Some expressed fear of his power thus, "Let us
alone, what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to
destroy us? to torment us before the time? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God." (3.) The following remarkable event is recorded: A man
with an unclean spirit, untamable, who had burst asunder his chains and
fetters, and was always, night and day, in the mountains and among the
tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones, saw Jesus afar off, ran
and worshipped him, exclaiming, "What have I to do with thee, Jesus,
the Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me
not." Jesus asked him, "What is thy name?" and he replied, "My name is
Legion, for we are many." Jesus cast out the legion, and, at their own
request, gave c them permission to enter a herd of two thousand swine
feeding close by, with the result that they all ran violently down a
steep place into the sea, and were choked. What became of the devils is
not mentioned.
Paul (1 Cor. x. 20) states, "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils, and not to God," devils here being synonymous
with the idols or gods of the Gentiles. In the following four passages
in which devils are mentioned in the Old Testament (Lev. xvii. 7; Deut.
xxxii. 17; 2 Chron. xi. 15; Psalm cvi. 37), the word is used in exactly
the same sense as by Paul. "Devils," then, as indwelling unclean
spirits, madly swaying their victims, or producing lunacy, blindness,
dumbness, or other infirmities, are beings or influences quite unknown
to the Old Testament writers. Moreover, in the Old Testament the heathen
gods, though called devils, are derided as powerless. (See Elijah's
mockery of Baal, and such passages as Psalm cxxxv. 15, 18.) In the
fourth Gospel, too, there is scarcely any confirmation of the unclean
spirits. The Jews, indeed, tell Jesus that he hath a devil, and is mad,
showing a belief on their part of possession in some form; but John
does not corroborate one single instance of the devil-manifestations and
exorcisms so prominently set forth in the other Gospels. If, then, in
Jesus' time there was a notion current among the Jews that madness and
natural diseases and defects were manifestations of the so-called evil
principle, or were evil spirits or influences, whence was this most
erroneous doctrine derived? Certainly not from their own Old Testament
writings. So far, therefore, the Old Testament discredits the accounts
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the devils and their influences. It does
not recognise beings or powers acting in the way described. And John's
silence constitutes a fatal defect in the evidence in support of these
manifestations.
In the Old Testament (in such passages as Lev. xix. 31; xx. 27; Deut.
xviii. 9, 12; Isa. viii. 19) reference is made to wizards, witches,
and familiar spirits. Although the more ignorant and idol-affecting
Israelites, and the Godforsaken Saul were attracted by such pretences,
it does not appear that Moses or the prophets believed that they were
real powers. Isaiah viii. 19 implies the contrary. Moses calls them
the "abominations of those nations" whom the Lord was to drive out of
Palestine from before the children of Israel. The gift they assumed was
blasphemy against Jehovah, usurpation of the prerogative of him who
"alone doeth wondrous things;" and this being so, they were to be cut
off from among his people. But the possession of a familiar spirit with
a gift of divination, or the power of witchcraft, or the evil spirit
which put dissension between Abimelech and the Shechemites, or the
evil spirit from the Lord manifested in Saul's jealousy of David, and
occasionally succumbing to the charm of David's harp, or the lying
spirit put by the Lord in the mouths of the prophets of Ahab, differ
greatly from such evil spirits,--_personal, separate from their victims,
entering in, and coming out of them_, as the "legion" mentioned above,
or the demon-torn youth (Luke ix. 37, 42), or the devil that was dumb
(Luke xi. 14).*
* The Assyrians and Babylonians, however, among whom the
captive Jews were afterwards placed, believed that the world
teemed with malignant spirits, who were the authors of the
various diseases to which mankind are subject. The Jews of
the Talmud were imbued with the same idea.
In the Apocryphal book of Tobit, also, the evil spirit Asmodeus, who
killed the seven husbands of Raguel's daughter as they approached her,
and who was at last driven forth by the smoke of the "ashes of the
perfumes and of the heart and liver of a fish," so that he "fled into
the utmost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him," differs from
the New Testament evil spirits in that he is represented rather as
"attendant" on the maiden, than as "indwelling," but has this similarity
to them that he is mentioned as a distinct person, exercising a
malignant influence.
In a stela found at Thebes it is recorded that Barneses XII., while on
his way through Mesopotamia to collect tribute, was so enraptured with
the charms of a chieftain's daughter that he married her. Her father
afterwards came to Thebes, to beg of the king the services of a
physician to effect the cure of a younger daughter possessed by an evil
spirit. The physician sent, like Jesus' disciples (Luke ix. 40), could
not cast him out, and eleven years later the father went again to Thebes
to sue the gods of Egypt for more effectual aid. The king then gave him
the use of the ark of the god Chons, which on arriving in Mesopotamia,
after a journey of eighteen months, immediately drove forth the evil
spirit from out his victim. On this the Mesopotamian chieftain was
unwilling to part with the ark; but after retaining it three years and
nine months, being warned in a dream in which he saw the deity fly back
to Egypt in the shape of a golden hawk, he returned the ark to Egypt, in
the thirty-third year of Rameses.
The Zoroastrian conception of the prince of the "devils," Ahriman,
and his attendant powers, reminds forcibly of the taunt of the Jews
to Jesus, "He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the
devils." But how unlike this conception is to that of the impotent god
of Ekron Beelzebub, referred to in 2 Kings i.
These instances abundantly suffice to show that the belief held by the
Jews in the time of Jesus, as to possession by evil or unclean spirits,
or demons, or devils, was a belief gathered from the nations among whom
they were scattered after the first captivity, and that it would have
been held by Moses as an "abomination of those nations." What, then,
becomes of the testimony of the devils to the claim of Jesus? Moses and
the prophets would have held it in derision.
(d.) _The temptation in the wilderness_ (Matt. iv. 1-11; Mark i. 12, 13;
Luke iv. 1, 13).
Jesus, after his baptism, was led by the spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil. (1.) He fasted forty days and nights, and was
then hungered, when the tempter came to him requiring that, if he were
the son of God, he would turn the stones into bread. Jesus replied by
a verse from Deuteronomy,--"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (2, Luke makes this
3.) Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and setting him on a pinnacle
of the temple, said "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for
it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee and, in
their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot
against a stone." Jesus again replied by a verse from Deuteronomy, "Thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." (3, Luke makes this 2.) The devil
then took him up to the summit of a very high mountain, showed him all
the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said, "All these things
will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me," Jesus the
third time, after a "Get thee hence Satan," replied by a verse from
Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt
thou serve." On this the devil left him, and angels came and ministered
to him.
The two persons here concerned were Jesus and Satan. The testimony of
the latter illustrious personage is out of the question, partly because
he is not famed as a truthteller, partly because any intercourse between
him and the writers of the New Testament is not to be thought of. If,
then, Jesus gave the particulars to Matthew, why did the best-loved
disciple John not know of them? The details of the earlier life of
Jesus, prior to the Baptist's imprisonment, are more ample in his Gospel
than in the others; but so far from there being any mention of the
temptation, it would require much ingenuity to find a place for it in
the series of events he relates.
The most admirable lesson, however, which the tale conveys, or which may
be gathered from it, that neither for daily bread nor for vain-glory,
nor for the sake of power and riches is truth in aught to be compromised
or swerved from, may help to sustain those who go along with the present
inquiry to persevere with it to the uttermost, whatever the consequences
or whatever the conclusions it may lead to, think as they may of the
forty days' fast, the wilderness and the wild beasts, Satan and the
angels.
It will be proper here to contrast the conception of "Satan" in the New
Testament with that in the Old.
The Satan of the temptation was a being capable of transporting Jesus
from the wilderness to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and
again to a mountain summit, where, in a moment of time, he showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, the disposal of whose
dominion he arrogated to himself. Again--Matt. xii. 22, 30--Jesus refers
to Satan as the king of a demon kingdom opposed to the kingdom of God;
Mark iv. 15, as preventing the words of life from taking root in men's
hearts; Luke x. 18, as one he himself had seen fall from heaven like
lightning; Luke xiii. 16, as one who had bound a woman with infirmity
eighteen years; Luke xxii. 31, as desirous to sift Simon Peter as wheat;
Matt. xiii. 39, as the enemy who sowed the tares among the wheat; Matt
xxv. 41, as the being for whom and for whose angels everlasting fire has
been prepared; John viii. 44, as the parent of the unbelieving Jews, a
murderer, and the father of lies. In Luke xxii. 3, John xiii. 27, Satan
is referred to as entering into Judas Iscariot to tempt him to betray
Jesus.
In the apostolic writings he is mentioned--Acts v. 3--as filling the
heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost; Acts xxvi. 18, as a power
over men's minds opposed to the power of God; 1 Tim. i. 20, and 1 Cor.
v. 5, as one to whom backsliders were to be delivered over; 2 Cor. ii.
11, Eph. vi. 11, 1 Tim. iii. 7, as a wily adversary; 2 Cor. xi. 14, as
transformed into an angel of light; 1 Thess. ii. 18, as thwarting Paul's
intentions; 2 Thess. ii 9, as one whose working is "with all power, and
signs, and lying wonders;" 1 Tim. v. 15, as one to whom backsliders turn
aside; 2 Tim. ii. 26, as an ensnarer of men; Heb. ii. 14, as "him that
hath the power of death;" 1 Peter v. 8, as "your adversary the devil,"
who, "as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour;" 1 John
iii 8, as "him who sinneth from the beginning;" Rev. ii. 9, 10,
13-24, iii. 9, as possessing a seat, a synagogue, and casting the true
professors into prison; Rev. xii. 9, as "the great dragon who was cast
out (from heaven), that old serpent called the devil and Satan, who
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his
angels were cast out with him;" Rev. xii. 10, as "the constant accuser
of the brethren;" Rev. xx. 2, as being bound a thousand years.
Of this mighty and malignant being, is there any trace in the Old
Testament? Is the existence of such a person, such a power, continuously
and successfully working against God, consonant with Old Testament
belief? Isaiah (xlv. 5-7) boldly and decisively replies in the negative:
"I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.... I
form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil; I the
Lord do all these things." Who or what, then, is the Satan of the Old
Testament?
The translation of the Authorised Version, as it renders the same Hebrew
word "Satan" in one place and "adversary" in others, tends to mislead.
But the following portions of Psalm cix. will show how the word was
employed:--
Verse 6--"Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan (an adversary)
stand at his right hand." Verse 20--"Let this be the reward of my
adversaries (my Satans)." Verse 29--"Let mine adversaries (my Satans)
be clothed with shame."
The Old Testament Satan, therefore, is _not a particular person at all,
but a character which would apply to any one acting in opposition to
another_. Let this view be tested by the following instances:--
Numbers xxii. 22--"And God's anger was kindled because he (Balaam) went,
and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary (a Satan)
against him." _Here the Satan is the angel of the Lord_. 2 Sam. xxiv.
1--"And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and
he provoked David to number Israel." 1 Chron. xxi. 1--"And Satan
(an adversary) stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number
Israel."
These two passages, on comparison, _show that Jehovah himself was the
Satan_ of David in this instance.
Job i. 6-12; ii. 1-8.--On the day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the Lord, Satan (the adversary) came also among them.
The Lord asked whence he came. Satan (the adversary) replied, "From
going to and fro on the earth." Then followed a discussion with
reference to Job's piety. Satan (the adversary) suggested that Job's
service of God was not for nought; that if the Lord took away his wealth
he would curse. The Lord replied, "Behold, all that he hath is in thy
power; only on himself put not forth thine hand." Soon Job lost his
cattle, his servants, his children. He resignedly said, "The Lord gave
and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord." On a second
similar occasion Satan (the adversary) suggested that if Job's person
were touched he would "curse thee (the Lord) to thy face." The Lord
said, "Behold, he is in thy hand, but spare his life." Satan (the
adversary) smote Job with sore boils from head to foot. But he said,
"Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive
evil?"
Here Job's adversary came into the presence of the Lord, among the
sons of God, and discussed Job's case with Jehovah himself. Is the
conception, then, that he was a messenger of the Lord, walking up
and down through the earth, contemplating its inhabitants; that his
observation had shown him--if men then were like what they are now--that
calamities were not borne with patience, that penury and complaints,
losses and curses, went together; so that, when asked his opinion about
the well-to-do Job, he would not give him credit for being different to
his fellows? In this way he became his Satan or adversary. This appears
to be what the writer would convey. But how unlike the "roaring lion" of
the New Testament.
It will be noticed how strictly the power of Job's adversary is limited
to what Jehovah specifically permitted. So much so, that when the
calamities actually fell on Job he described them as from the Lord.
In no way whatever does the Satan here mentioned act in opposition to
Jehovah.
Zech. iii. 1, 2--"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord, and Satan (the adversary) standing at his
right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan (the adversary),
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem,
rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was
clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel."
The conception here may be this: Joshua, with the filthy garments
(figurative of the sins of Judah borne by the high priest, their
representative), standing before the angel of the Lord, was resisted by
"the adversary," or angel of divine justice. But the latter had to give
way before the restoration of the divine favour. Or, more probably, "the
adversary" may have been one of those who opposed the work of rebuilding
Jerusalem, as mentioned in the Book of Ezra.
All these considerations show conclusively that in the Old Testament
conception of the Almighty there is _no room for_ such a being as the
arch-fiend of the New.
(e) _The supernatural appearances at the crucifixion_ (Matt, xxvii.
51-53; Mark xv. 38; Luke xxiii. 44, 45).
(1.) The veil of the temple rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
(2.) The earthquake and rending of the rocks.
(3.) Darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour. (4.) The opening of
the graves and the rising of the bodies of the saints after his
resurrection, who went into the holy city, and appeared to many.
_John_ makes no mention of these marvels, but (xix. 25-27)states that he
himself was present at the crucifixion of Jesus, along with Mary, Jesus'
mother, and three other women, close to the cross (not afar off, as
Matthew, Mark, and Luke assert of the women), and yet he fails to
confirm the other Gospels as to the earthquake and darkening of the sun.
The rending of the veil of the temple, the opening of the graves, and
the appearance of the risen saints would all have been known to him
also, if they had occurred.
Such prodigies as these are not confined to the Gospels,--"In the most
high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber
in the Roman streets," &c.