1. The resurrection of Jesus is the keystone of Christian faith, the
central stay on which the structure rests. "If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." What a glorious hope for all
mankind would lie in such a fact as that one, a fellow-man, had been
killed because of his supernatural claims; had lain for a time in the
grave, and on the third day, as predicted by himself, had risen from the
dead! So marvellous an instance of nature-controlling power might well
be held to establish, in the most conclusive manner, the validity of the
claims of the person resuscitated; it would show that God was with him
in an especial manner, that his words were true, that his promises would
not fail.
2. What, then, are the evidences of this so glorious an event?
(a.) The four gospels agree in narrating that, while Jesus hung lifeless
on the cross, a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, himself a disciple of
Jesus, went to Pilate and obtained permission to take charge of the
body; that he laid it in his own new tomb, hewn out of a rock; that
certain women saw where the body was laid, and that a great stone was
rolled to the door of the tomb.
(b.) Matthew alone avers that, with Pilate's consent, the chief priests
and Pharisees had the stone sealed, and a watch (of Roman soldiers) set.
(c.) Thus the tomb remained from the evening of the day of the
crucifixion over the next day, the Jewish sabbath.
(d.) But early on the morning of the following day, the first day of the
week, Jesus arose from the dead. Of this event--so entirely the reverse
of all human experience, but of the last importance to each mortal man
if it happened--the witnesses, of whose personal character among their
neighbours for veracity and general trustworthiness nothing is known,
thus present themselves:--
Matthew and John, eye-witnesses of the risen Jesus:
Mark, companion of Peter, an eye-witness:
Luke, companion of Paul, who had intercourse with eyewitnesses, and who
himself professes to narrate the testimony of eye-witnesses (Luke i. 2):
And what they aver is analysed and compared in the following
paragraphs:--
3. _The empty tomb_.--All four agree that in the morning (at dawn, at
sun rising, very early, when it was yet dark) of the first day of the
week the tomb was found empty by those who went to visit it.
4. _Visitors to the tomb_.--Matthew mentions "Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary;" Mark, "Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and
Salome;" Luke, "Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and
other Galilean women," and afterwards, on the report of the women,
Peter; John, "Mary Magdalene" only, and afterwards, on her report,
himself (John) and Simon Peter, Mary Magdalene returning after them.
5. _Appearances at the tomb_.--(a.) The great earthquake and the awful
appearance of the angel to the watch--"countenance like lightning,
raiment white as snow;" and the effect on the startled soldiers, who
swooned away "as dead men," as also the subsequent report of the watch
and their acceptance of a bribe (large money) from the chief priests to
publish a falsehood and confess that they--Roman soldiers--had slept at
their post, are mentioned by Matthew alone. Matthew does not name his
informant, whether it was a chief priest or one of the soldiers who
betrayed his own and his comrades' infamy.
(b.) The stone securing the tomb was rolled away. So all four affirm.
This was one object of the angel's visit. Jesus rose from the dead, but
the angel's assistance was necessary to open the tomb.
(c.) Matthew asserts that the angel sat on the stone, outside the tomb.
Mark, that he appeared as a young man sitting within the tomb, on the
right side, clothed in a long, white garment. Luke has "two men" in
glittering garments, who made themselves manifest as the perplexed women
were gazing at the empty tomb. John states that Mary Magdalene, on her
_second_ visit, saw two angels, one sitting at the head the other at the
feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. When, according to Luke, Peter
visited the tomb, or according to John, when Mary Magdalene in the first
instance, and then Peter and John, on hearing her report, went there, no
such marvellous angelic being was manifest. The appearance was to
perplexed and timid women. Wherein did they differ from other weak
women, that their testimony received at second hand should be held
trustworthy? Supposing, for instance, that it had been the young man
with the linen garment about his naked body (Mark xiv. 51, 52), seated
within the tomb, would not their excited imaginations have transformed
him into a messenger from heaven?
6. _Announcements of the angels at the tomb_.--(a.) Matthew's dread
angel announced to the women that Jesus had risen from the dead,
directed them to go at once and inform his disciples that "he goeth
before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him." Trembling and joyful
they ran away at once to bring "his disciples word."
(6.) Mark's white-clad young man made the same announcement of Jesus
preceding his disciples to Galilee; but instead of obeying the angel's
direction as to informing the disciples, "they went out quickly and fled
from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed, neither said they
anything to any man, for they were afraid."
(c.) Luke's two bright-clad men announced that Jesus was risen, as he
had told them while yet in Galilee. "They remembered his words, and
returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things to the eleven
and to all the rest." There is no mention here of Jesus going before his
disciples into Galilee.
(d.) John's two angels asked Mary Magdalene, "Woman, why weepest thou?"
She replied, "Because they have taken away my lord, and I know not where
they have laid him." Here, _wholly ignorant that he was alive_, stood
beside the tomb one of the very women to whom Matthew, Mark, and Luke's
angels announced that Jesus was risen from the dead. If Matthew's
account be true, both he and John were present when the women told the
disciples that Jesus was risen, and gave them the direction to go to
Galilee; and yet John narrates this circumstance, one quite at variance
with Matthew's angel's announcement to the women.
7. _Effect on the disciples of the first announcement of the
resurrection_.--(a.) Matthew states that "then" (on the report of the
women) "the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain
where Jesus had appointed them."
(b.) Mark xvi. 1-8, and xvi. 9-20, seem to contain two different
accounts of the resurrection. It is difficult to reconcile them. Verses
9-20, not being found in the most ancient manuscripts, are held by many
to be spurious. But their general agreement with Luke's narrative is in
favour of these verses being of the same age, or emanating from the
same set of believers. Let verses 1-8, then, for the present purpose,
be distinguished as Mark's first narrative, and verses 9-20 as Mark's
second narrative.
Mark's first narrative, as already shown, agrees with Matthew as to
the terms of the angel's announcement, but seems to imply that
the terror-struck women did not deliver the angel's message to the
disciples.
Mark's second narrative states that Jesus first appeared to Mary
Magdalene, who went and told the disciples; "and they, when they had
heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not." No
departure for Galilee is mentioned.
(c.) Luke affirms that the announcement to the disciples was by the
whole of the women; "and their words seemed to them as idle tales, and
they believed them not." Peter alone was moved to run to the sepulchre,
where he found the empty tomb and the cast-off grave-clothes, and
"departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass." The
whole of Luke's statement is quite inconsistent with Matthew's assertion
that the disciples went away to Galilee to find Jesus there.
(d.) John states that when Mary Magdalene first reported that the tomb
was empty, Peter and himself ran to the sepulchre, that he outran Peter,
that he looked in and saw the linen clothes lying, that Peter when he
came up went in, that then he (John) went in also, and that when he saw
the cast-off grave-clothes he saw and believed: "for as yet they knew
not the Scripture that he must rise from the dead." If so then Matthew
xvi. 21; xvii. 22, 23; Mark viii. 31; ix. 31; Luke ix. 22, must all be
erroneous. The burden of these passages is, that while in Galilee Jesus
informed his disciples that he would be killed, and rise again on the
third day. The very chief priests, too, in setting the watch (Matthew
xxvii. 63), did so because of this well-known assertion of Jesus.
When, on her second visit to the tomb, Mary Magdalene saw and conversed
with Jesus himself, she "came and told the disciples that she had seen
the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her." The effect is
not mentioned. But the whole of John's statement is inconsistent with
Matthew's "departure of the eleven for Galilee," and this departure
again as inconsistent with John's statement.
8. _Appearances of the risen Jesus_.--(a.) Matthew xxviii. 9, 10. While
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were running to deliver the angel's
message to the disciples, they were met by Jesus himself, who greeted
them with an "all hail." They held him by the feet and worshipped him.
He confirmed the angel's message to his disciples, and directed them to
go to Galilee: "there shall they see me."
Mark xvi. 9-11. Jesus, when he had risen early the first day of the
week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven
devils. She informed his mourning disciples, who did not believe her.
Luke has no incident at all corresponding to this.
John xx. 14-18. Mary Magdalene remained weeping at the tomb, after Peter
and John had left, when Jesus made himself known to her. Recognising
him, she turned and called him, "Master." He said, "Touch me not, for
I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto
them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your
God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the
Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her."
Here there are several grave contradictions between Matthew and John.
1. Matthew makes the first appearance of Jesus to _the two_ Maries,
while they are hastening _from the tomb_ to carry to his disciples the
glad news of his resurrection, which they had learned from the angel;
John, while Mary Magdalene is _by herself at the tomb and is unaware_ of
his resurrection.
2. Matthew mentions that the two Maries _held him by the feet_ and
worshipped him; John, that Mary Magdalene was commanded by Jesus _not to
touch him_.
3. Matthew states that Jesus directed his disciples to go to
Galilee, where they would find him; John, that he announced to Mary, "I
ascend to my Father," &c. Not one word of a journey to Galilee.
(6.) Matthew xxviii. 16-20. "Then the eleven disciples went away into
Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they
saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,"
&c.
Matthew here narrates that on receiving the direction of the women, the
eleven went away to a mountain in Galilee fixed on before Jesus' death.
(Matthew xxvi. 32, he had said, "After I am risen again, I will go
before you into Galilee.") How or in what form they saw him there is
left untold. Most of them adored, but some doubted. The appearance,
therefore, could not have been a close one, such as was vouchsafed to
Thomas (John xx. 27), for then no one could have doubted. Belief in such
cases is not matter of choice. How Jesus vanished after his appearance
on the Galilean mount is not mentioned. Matthew was a witness of the
ascension of Jesus, if Mark and Luke's accounts be true, but he passes
by this most striking event in silence. Mark's second narrative, too, in
no way confirms the journey to Galilee. On the contrary, it states that
the parting charge of Jesus and his ascension took place after he
had appeared and spoken to the eleven as they sat at meat. Where this
occurred, and on what day, is somewhat ambiguous; but the inference
is that it was at Jerusalem, and on the day of the resurrection. Luke,
however, is quite explicit on this point. According to him on the very
day (Luke xxiv. 13, 33, 36, 50, 51) of the resurrection Jesus appeared
to the eleven at Jerusalem, gave them his parting charge, led them out
to Bethany, and was there parted from them and carried into heaven.
So far from there being any journey to Galilee, they were expressly
commanded (chap. xxiv. 49) to tarry at Jerusalem. Here Luke, the
recorder of the reports of eye-witnesses, states that the disciples
were ordered to tarry in Jerusalem on the very day when, according to
Matthew, an eye-witness, they were ordered to proceed to Galilee. And
John, the other eyewitness, one of the eleven, makes no mention of a
journey to Galilee immediately following the first announcement of the
resurrection, or of the appearance of Jesus on the mountain there,
but, on the contrary, affirms that Jesus appeared to his disciples at
Jerusalem on the evening of the day of the resurrection, and also on
that day week.
(c.) Mark xvi. 12, 13. He appeared in another form to two of them in a
country walk: they told the rest, who were still incredulous.
Luke xxiv. 13-35. Jesus that same day, i.e., the day of the
resurrection, joined two of them on their way to the village of Emmaus,
near Jerusalem; at first they did not know him, but on breaking bread
they recognised him. On this he vanished.
John does not confirm these appearances, and they are inconsistent with
Matthew's journey of the eleven to Galilee.
(d.) Mark xvi. 14-20. Then he appeared to the eleven as they sat at
meat, reproached them with their unbelief, gave them the charge to
preach the gospel; and then, after he had spoken, he was received into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
Luke xxiv. 36-53. _The same hour_ in which the two, who had recognised
Jesus in breaking of bread at Emmaus, returned to Jerusalem, and while
they were informing the "eleven and the rest" of what had happened,
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said, "Peace be unto you."
They were terrified at his appearance. He showed them his hands and his
feet, told them to handle him, and ate before them; directed them to
tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power from on high.
"And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted
from them, and carried up into heaven."
John xx. 19-23. The same day (i.e., the resurrection day), at even, when
the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews, Jesus appeared, saying, "Peace be unto you." He showed them his
hands and his side. They were glad of his appearance.
Here there is a certain amount of agreement between Mark, Luke, and
John, as to an appearance to the eleven at Jerusalem on the day of the
resurrection. But this occurrence conflicts with Matthew. If, as he
states, Jesus "went before" his disciples to Galilee, or if they set out
for Galilee on the direction delivered by the women, neither the one nor
the others could have been in Jerusalem.
The most remarkable point here, however, is that neither Matthew nor
John confirm, in any form, the "ascension" mentioned by Mark and Luke.
Eye-witnesses as they were, special missionaries to testify to men that
Jesus was alive, so wondrous an event they pass by in silence.
(e.) John xx. 24-29. On the eighth day after the previous occurrence,
he appeared among his disciples, the doors being shut as before, and was
acknowledged by Thomas, who was not present on the first occasion, as
his "Lord and his God." This is quite at variance with Mark and Luke's
statement that Jesus ascended to heaven on the day of the resurrection,
and it is unnecessary again to allude to its inconsistency with
Matthew's account.
(f.) John xxi. 1-25. Jesus' _third appearance_ to his disciples was at
the sea of Tiberias while they were fishing. Peter, Thomas, Nathanael,
James and John, and two other disciples were present. He directed Peter
how to cast his net, and ensured a large haul: he then dined with them,
and afterwards gave Peter a charge to feed his lambs and his sheep, and
returned a dubious answer about the length of John's life.
This also rests merely on John's narrative. Mark, even, the companion
of Peter, who was specially conspicuous on this occasion, in no way
confirms it. On the contrary, his second narrative implies that Jesus
ascended to heaven on the day of the resurrection.
(g.) Luke in Acts i. 1-11. Jesus showed himself alive after his passion
by many infallible proofs: was seen by his disciples forty days, and
spoke to them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He commanded
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await there the gift of the
Holy Ghost. Then, on Mount Olivet, when he had given the last charge,
while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of
their sight. As they were gazing upwards, two men in white apparel
appeared, who said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
Matthew and John, the two eye-witnesses, are silent as to the ascension
to heaven. They, whose special, divinely-conferred mission it was
to testify to the resurrection of Jesus and the following glory, to
maintain that he was alive for evermore, to declare the whole counsel
of God, make no mention of this crowning wonder. Such comparatively
trifling matters as the women holding him by the feet (Matt, xxviii. 9),
or Simon's naked condition (John xxi. 7), or the fire of coals, and fish
laid thereon and bread (John xxi. 9), were deemed worthy of record, but
the ascension to heaven they altogether ignore.
Mark and Luke, who write what they heard from others, mention the
ascension in their Gospels, and their narrative most clearly implies
that it took place on the day of the resurrection. Mark expressly states
that he was received into heaven, "then after he had spoken" to the
eleven as they sat at meat. And could any one imagine that between Luke
xxiv. 49 and xxi v. 50 there was an interval of forty days, as asserted
by the same writer in the Acts? Would the omission of all mention of
such an interval be consistent with the "perfect understanding of all
things from the very first" professed by Luke? Clearly there had been
an amplification of detail during the time that elapsed between the
compilation of the gospel by Luke and the compilation of the Acts.
Jesus, the writer in the Acts affirms, was seen by his disciples forty
days, and spoke to them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Why,
then, are none of his sayings preserved, if the short announcements (one
of which--Luke xxiv. 44-48--has already been shown to be false) at the
end of the gospels be excepted? Were the discourses of the risen Jesus
not more important, were they less impressive than those uttered in his
lifetime?
(h.) Acts ix. 1-9. As Paul was on the way to Damascus, with authority
from the high priests to the synagogues there, to arrest and to bring to
Jerusalem all who professed to believe on Jesus, a brilliant light shone
around him, whereupon he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying,
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Paul replied, "Who art thou,
Lord?" The voice answered, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest: it
is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." "And he, trembling and
astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said
unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do." On getting up he found himself blind, and was led by
the hand to Damascus. The men who were with him stood speechless. _They
heard a voice_, but they saw no man.
Acts xxii. 6-21. This passage contains an address said to have been
delivered by Paul himself, in which the foregoing wondrous event is
related, but with one important contradiction,--"They that were with me
saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of
him that spake to me."
Acts xxvi. 15-18. Paul here asserted that the voice from heaven uttered
the following:--"I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand
upon thy feet, for I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to make
thee a minister and a witness," &c. This is very different from Acts
ix., where he is directed to go into the city, and that there it
would be told him what he should do. Paul (Acts xxvi. 19-20) added,
"Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision; but showed first unto them at Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and
throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles," &c.
These are Luke's statements, in the Acts, with reference to the
appearance of Jesus to Paul. The subsequent movements of the apostle, on
the same authority, were,--
(Luke, 1.) After being cured of his blindness by the laying on of the
hands of Ananias, he preached in Damascus that Jesus was Christ.
(Luke, 2.) The Jews being desirous of killing him, he fled to Jerusalem.
The disciples at first were chary of their quondam persecutor, but,
assured by Barnabas, who took-him and brought him to the apostles, they
received him into their fellowship.
(Luke, 3.) He disputed against the Grecians (Hellenised Jews?), who went
about to-slay him. On this he was taken by the brethren to Caesarea, and
thence sent on to Tarsus.
(Luke, 4.) Persecution forced many Christian Jews to leave Judea and to
settle at Antioch. Barnabas was sent by the Church at Jerusalem to visit
them. He rejoiced at their liveliness in the faith, and then went to
Tarsus to find Paul, whom he brought back to Antioch. They were there
together a whole year. The disciples were called Christians first in
Antioch.
(Luke, 5.) Paul and Barnabas conveyed a contribution from the brethren
at Antioch to those at Jerusalem. Returning from Jerusalem they took
with them John, whose surname was Mark.
(Luke, 6.) During their ministry at Antioch the Holy Ghost said,
"Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called
them." They then started on their mission to the Gentiles.
Now, Luke was Paul's companion, his attendant on his travels, his
faithful friend in trouble (2 Tim. iv. 11), surely, then, his statements
with reference to Paul will be found to tally exactly with this
apostle's allusions to his own life and ministry; it cannot be but
that the Acts and the Epistles of Paul are in perfect harmony. Not so,
however; they are quite irreconcilable.
(Paul, 1.) In 2 Cor. xi. and xii. Paul brings forward the various
claims he possessed to be regarded as "no whit behind the very chiefest
apostles." He alludes to his arduous labours, journeys, and sufferings
for the gospel's sake. And then he comes "to visions and revelations of
the Lord." Does he mention the wondrous incident on the way to Damascus?
No! not one word, either here or elsewhere. What he does mention is a
man in Christ (evidently himself), who, about fourteen years previously,
was caught up into the third heaven--whether in the body or out of
the body, God only knew--caught up into paradise, and there heard
unspeakable words, unutterable by man. Now, here, in discoursing of
his very claim to apostleship, he is silent on what in the Acts is
so strongly put forth as his miraculous calling to that office. The
incident in which the risen Jesus announced, "I have appeared to thee
for this purpose to make thee a minister and witness," &c., is quite
ignored by Paul himself in particularising his claims to be that
minister and witness. The necessary conclusion is, that when the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians was written, the marvel related in Acts ix.,
xxii., and xxvi. had not been thought of. By comparison with Paul's
epistles this undoubted instance of invention or appropriation can be
brought home to the writer of the Acts. It shows what the compilers
of the New Testament were capable of, when a supernatural event was
required to give sanction and support to any doctrine, or practice, or
claim which they advocated. The object, in the present instance, was to
place Paul, as an apostle, on an equal footing in every respect with
the apostles who were companions of Jesus himself, and who had seen him
alive after his resurrection. If the New Testament is read in the light
which this incident affords, its various narratives become abundantly
clear. It is seen that its authoritative claims and its doctrines,
with reference to the destiny of man, so far from being based on the
supernatural events recorded, are merely what these events were devised
to establish and enforce.
(Paul, 2.) In Galatians he states that, "when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to
reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles"--(This
style of writing seems quite inconsistent with such an appearance of
Jesus himself as is mentioned in the Acts: Paul here uses language
descriptive of ordinary conversion, radically different from the
effect of a vision of the risen Son of God with power-conferring
commands),--"immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither
went I up to Jerusalem to them who were apostles before me (Luke, par.
2 above, expressly affirms that he did go to Jerusalem), but I went into
Arabia, and returned again to Damascus" (quite irreconcilable with Luke,
pars. 1, 2, 3, and 4, above). "Then, after three years, I went up to
Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of
the apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord's brother. Now, the things
which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not." (If he does
not lie, what can be said of Barnabas [Luke, par. 2 above] taking and
bringing him to the apostles, or of the journey [Luke, par. 5 above] of
Paul and Barnabas to convey relief to the famine-threatened brethren
who dwelt in Judea.) "Afterwards I went into the regions of Syria and
Cilicia, and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were
in Christ; but they had heard only that he who persecuted us in times
past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified
God in me." Compare this with Acts ix. 28--Luke, par. 2 above--"And
he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem;" with the
famine-relief embassy of himself and Barnabas; and, more startling
still, with the declaration in the Acts before king Agrippa,--"O king
Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed
first to them at Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the
coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles" &c.
It is quite beyond the scope of this inquiry to enter into conjectures
as to the cause of such serious discrepancies between the two
fellow-travellers, the apostle and his faithful follower. And, indeed,
all such conjectures would be "vain and unprofitable," for there are no
means now of determining the question. What stands forth clear, however,
is, that no conscience-satisfying belief, or even ordinary historical
probability, can rest where such conflict of testimony appears.
(i.) In 1 Cor. xv. 4-8, Paul thus gives in detail the appearances of
Jesus after his resurrection as these had been reported to him:--
(1.) That he was seen of Cephas. Where? Luke mentions an appearance to
Peter (chap. xxiv. 34), but gives no particulars. Mark and John agree
that the first appearance was to Mary Magdalene. No separate appearance
to Peter is mentioned by them or by Matthew.
(2. ) Then of the twelve. Where? In, the Galilean mount, according to
Matthew, or at Jerusalem, according to Luke and John?
(3.) After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;
of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen
asleep.
It is most remarkable that Matthew and John make no mention of this. Nor
Mark nor Luke either.
(4.) After that he was seen of James. No one but Paul says so.
Doubtless, however, as Peter claimed a special visit of the risen Jesus
for himself, so did James, and Paul followed their example; for,
(5.) After mentioning that Jesus was next seen of all the apostles,--he
does not mention where or when--he states,
(6.) "Last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due
time." Also 1 Cor. ix. 1, "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" How
or where he saw him he leaves untold. Comparing this, however, with 2
Cor. xii, it is probable that he refers to the time when he was caught
up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, unutterable by man. It has
already been shown that the appearance on the way to Damascus had not
been thought of when the second epistle was written, and during this
appearance Paul _did not see_ Jesus. He heard a voice, and saw a
brilliant light. But there is nothing in Paul's writings to indicate
that he ever laid claim to so dread an event in connection with himself.
9. Can the mind, then, eagerly straining to find in these accounts of
the resurrection of Jesus grounds for a sincere belief that "one has
risen from the dead;" raising no question as to the authenticity of
the gospels, but taking them as they are, and putting the fairest
construction on the words and narrative; most desirous not to abandon a
hope cherished from the lessons of youth, a hope twined with the fondest
reflections of manhood,--can the mind once aroused to doubt and inquiry,
so straining, descry aught on which to rest? Far otherwise; for how
rapidly these tales of the resurrection, and the other supernatural
occurrences claimed for Jesus, crumble away, like a long-buried corpse
exposed to light, before the touch of the simplest tests of evidence!
10. It remains to consider the resurrection of Jesus in connection with
Old Testament ideas, and with those of the surrounding Gentile nations.
11. In Genesis Adam was doomed to "return unto the ground, for out of it
wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." He
died when he had lived so many years, is the brief record of his death,
and of that of all the other primeval patriarchs, with the single
exception of Enoch, who "walked with God, and he was not, for God took
him." The writer of the Hebrews states that he was translated that he
should not see death. He is thus represented as escaping the curse of
Adam, and as made immortal, contrary to the common doom. The statement
in Genesis is so loose, however, that the exact meaning of the writer
will ever remain uncertain. The deaths of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are
referred to thus: "that they gave up the ghost, full of years, and were
gathered unto their people." They returned to the dust from whence they
came, as their fathers before them. And when Joseph died, "being 110
years old," he is not "gathered unto his people," but "embalmed and put
in a coffin in Egypt."
12. In Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the books that
immediately concern Moses, there is no mention of any future state of
existence. The precepts, the ritual, the rewards, and the punishments
all have reference to the present life. Beyond the grave is nothingness:
no hope, no fear. What a startling fact this is, and how intimately it
concerns the subject now under consideration, appears when contrasted
with the prevailing contemporary Egyptian belief. Moses led the
Israelites out of Egypt. They had been there upwards of two centuries.
He himself was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He had been
brought up as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now, the most prominent
belief of the Egyptian religion, as shown by the monuments and ritual,
was the immortality of the soul and a state of existence beyond the
grave, and it must have been vividly before the Israelites during their
sojourn in Egypt. The god Osiris became incarnate on earth, worked all
manner of good for mankind; was slain through the malignity of the evil
one, the serpent Typhon, but rose again from the dead, and was made the
'judge of souls; the disembodied spirits were weighed in his balances;
the just, after expiating their venial sins by many severe trials, in
which they were accompanied and sustained by Osiris, who had himself
passed through the same ordeal--"been tempted in all points like as
they were"--shared the bliss of the god; the reprobate were condemned
to lengthened torments, came back to earth as evil spirits, dwelt in
the bodies of unclean animals, and were ultimately to be annihilated. In
addition, also, to the symbolic idolatrous religion, by which the
deity was represented to the people in numerous phases, all probably
conceptions of natural phenomena, however incongruous most of the
manifestations now appear, there was the hidden religion of the priests
and of the initiated; and the main conception of this hidden religion
was of the one living, independent, uncreated god--_Nuk pu Nuk_, "I am
that I am." A hereditary priesthood, animal sacrifices, circumcision,
and abstinence from swine's flesh, were likewise Egyptian institutions.
So was the seventh-day rest. These and minor practices were continued
among the Israelites, and the Egyptian _Nuk pa Nuk_ became the Jewish
Jehovah; but the symbolical idolatrous worship, likening the Creator
to the creature, and the belief in the immortality of the soul, were
rejected by Moses. They have no place in his system. The former he
denounced, the latter he ignored. His conception of the unity and
omnipotence of God was intense, and he indelibly stamped this belief on
the mind of his nation, shunning the example of the priests of Egypt,
who encouraged the people in idolatrous polytheistic rites, while
the purer faith remained concealed among themselves. Contrary to the
practice of all priestcraft, ancient and modern, he did not keep
his followers in ignorance, that he himself might, by a superior
understanding, retain an exalted position in their sight, but he sought
to bring them up to the level of his own knowledge and belief. How far
many of the Egyptian practices retained by the Israelites, and some of
the more unworthy conceptions of the deity--such, for instance, as the
ever-living omnipotent God _working_ six days in creating the world,
and _resting_ the seventh; or his ordering the enemies of Israel to be
massacred, man, woman, and child; or his exacting animal sacrifices, as
if he, the source of life, could be appeased by the destruction of the
very life he had brought into being--were forced by the nation upon
Moses, rather than by Moses upon the nation, cannot now be ascertained.
Jer. vii. 22, 23, seem to indicate that the animal sacrifices, at least,
were not of Mosaic origin. But his stern prohibition of idolatry,
and his ignoring a future life, constituted the principal differences
between the Mosaic and the Egyptian systems. They were, indeed, radical
differences. Had not Moses seen in Egypt how the pretended immortality
of the soul, and the several connected doctrines and practices, in the
hands of a polished priesthood, had been used so as to keep that very
soul in this world in a state of vague fear and abject superstition:
how the terrors or expectation of the life to come had led to misery and
misdirection of the life on earth: how the dead had been cared for
to the neglect of the living? And was there any good ground for this
expectation of a future life? On the contrary, was not man, in his view,
doomed to return to the dust whence he came? Was not the pretence of
the soul being immortal an assumption of an attribute of the eternal
Jehovah? And so he taught "that the Lord he is God, in heaven above, and
in the earth beneath; there is none else. Thou shalt therefore keep his
statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it
may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou
mayest prolong thy days upon the earth which the Lord thy God giveth
thee, for ever" (Deut. iv. 39, 40). The rules of conduct were
those which, in the judgment of Moses, led to long life and earthly
prosperity; their neglect would inevitably bring disaster and woe; there
was no other reward, no other dread. And in Psalm xc, described as "a
prayer of Moses, the man of God," when he mentions that the days of our
years are threescore and ten, or if, perchance, by reason of strength,
fourscore, yet "that strength labour and sorrow," so far is he from
arriving at Paul's conclusion--"What advantageth it me if the dead
rise not? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die"--that he makes the
brevity of man's life the ground of the petition, "So-teach us to number
our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Let us be up and
doing, for our own and our brethren's sakes; there is no time to be
lost; let us strive and ponder how to pass our brief life on earth
wisely and well. The dead, moreover, were buried out of sight, and any
bodily disfigurement (Lev. xix. 28; Deut. xiv. 1) or offerings (Deut.
xxvi. 14) for them were prohibited.
13. Now, if the Jewish Jehovah thus represented by Moses be one and the
same being with "the God of Peace, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus," whose kingdom was not of this world, whose reward was
eternal life, whose followers were of all men the most miserable if
in this life only they had hope in Christ, then the Almighty in one
dispensation left his chosen people to ignore the possession of an
immortal soul and the hope of eternal life--doctrines fully known and
recognised by the Egyptians and other nations surrounding them--but
in the other revealed, little modified, as his own, these prevailing
beliefs of the heathen nations, thus making Christianity practically
little else than the Mosaic religion without the sacrifices, joined
to the Egyptian belief in the soul's immortality and a state of future
rewards and punishments, which Moses rejected; in one dispensation he
placed his service in the following of those rules of life which lead to
making the best of the good earth on which men live, without any other
reward; in the other, "he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal," and those are denounced "who mind earthly things,
for our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for our
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." A wondrous contradictory Almighty!
14. In the historical books of the Old Testament, from Joshua to Esther,
there is nothing to indicate that a belief in a future life was held by
any of the representatives of Jehovah, whether judge, king, prophet, or
priest, (a.) The aged Joshua (Josh. xxiii. 14) and the dying David
(1 Kings ii. 2) affirm that they are about "to go the way of all the
earth." They express neither hope of heaven nor fear of hell. The writer
in Judges (ii 10) states, "all that generation was gathered unto their
fathers." The kings of Israel and Judah all "slept with their fathers."
(b.) The Godforsaken Saul (1 Sam. xxviii. 7-25) went to inquire of the
witch of Endor, and asked her to bring up Samuel, who appeared (visible,
as the narrative implies, only to the witch) as an old man covered with
a mantle--that is to say, his shade had the appearance of himself in old
age, _dress and all_--and said, "Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me
up." Saul told his extremity. Samuel's wraith affirmed that the kingdom
was transferred to David, that Saul's army would be defeated by the
Philistines, and that "to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me."
The God-favoured Samuel and the God-forsaken Saul _would be together_.
Here is certainly a belief in a future life, and in the power of a witch
to bring up to earth a soul _at rest_--not in bliss or in misery, if
Samuel's "why hast thou thus disquieted me" may be so construed; but
that it was not an orthodox Jewish belief is made clear by 1 Chron. x.
13: "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the
Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for
asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it, and
inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom
to David, the son of Jesse." (c.) The wise woman of Tekoah, whom Joab
sent disguised to king David, expressed the recognised belief when she
said, "for we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground,
which cannot be gathered up again." (d.) Elijah (1 Kings xvii. 21, 22)
raised from the dead the son of the widow of Zarephath, and Elisha (2
Kings iv. 32-35) the son of the Shunammite. "Elisha went up and lay
upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his
eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the
child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm." Elijah, too, stretched
himself on the child three times, and he prayed, "O Lord my God, let
this child's soul (or life, same word as Genesis i. 30) come into him
again; and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul (or life)
of the child came into him again, and he revived." It would be hard from
these statements to determine whether Elijah and Elisha considered the
child's soul or life as merely the action of an organism, or as so much
vital force existing only _as force_ outside the body, or as a separate
conscious soul sent back to earth at their request. Most probably
neither they nor the narrator of their wonder-working had any definite
opinion on the subject. Elisha's bones, also, had such virtue that when
a dead man let down into his sepulchre (2 Kings xiii. 21) had touched
them, he revived and stood up on his feet. It is strange that the bones
could not do so much for themselves. Neither this man, however, nor the
resuscitated children, appear to have been made immortal on earth, any
more than the son of the widow of Nain, or the raised Lazarus of the New
Testament. So, wretched ones, they had to suffer death twice; and when
they were brought back to life, what did they tell their wondering
friends of the condition of the disembodied soul? The world has been
none the wiser of their revisit, (e.) The marvellous departure of Elijah
(2 Kings ii. 11) was probably told to prevent any sort of worship at his
tomb, concealed, in all likelihood, as that of Moses, doubtless at his
own desire, was.
15. The authorised version gives rise to considerable misapprehension by
translating the Hebrew word "sheol" as "hell" in some places, and "the
grave" in others, (a.) The passage (Genesis xxxvii. 35) before referred
to, where Jacob says, "I will go down into the grave (sheol) unto my
son mourning," if translated, "I will go down into hell," &c, would have
conveyed to the mind of a modern Christian that Joseph was in the place
of torment. It was quite necessary here, therefore, to render the word
"the grave." Genesis xlii. 38 is, similarly treated, (b) Proverbs xxiii.
13, 14, is an example of the other rendering of the same word: "Withhold
not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he
shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his
soul from hell" (from sheol). Here nothing more is meant than that by
coercing a youth to follow the lessons of experience, he would be saved
from an early grave; but by translating sheol "hell," the notion that
"eternal woe" is to be averted by the unsparing use of the rod is
erroneously implied, (c.) The Hebrew word _kibr_ is usually employed to
designate a specific burying-place (a grave, as distinguished from _the_
grave), as in Genesis xxiii. 42; xxxv. 20, but is sometimes also used in
the same sense as sheol, as Psalm vi. 5, "In the grave (sheol) who shall
give thee thanks:" Psalm lxxxviii. 10, "Shall thy loving-kindness be
declared in the grave" (kibr)? Sheol, however, almost invariably means
more than a mere burial place: sometimes it is used in the sense of the
"power of death" (Isaiah xiv. 9), sometimes of the unfathomable abyss
of darkness, erroneously believed in those days to be under the earth
(Psalm cxxxix. 8; Amos ix. 2); but usually it implies _the state
that follows death_; and that this state was held to be one of ended
existence, non-existence, or nothingness, is as clear a conclusion as
words can convey. The reprieved Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii. 18) says, "For
the grave (sheol) cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee:
they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the
living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." So Psalm cxv. 17, "The
dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence;" and
Eccles. ix. 5, "For the living know that they shall die, but the dead
know not anything;" also ix. 10, "for there is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave (sheol), whither thou goest." Job,
too (vii. 9), "As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that
goeth down to the grave (sheol) shall come up no more." Psalm xlix. 12,
"Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts
that perish." Thus also Eccles. iii. 19, "For that which befalleth the
sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one
dieth, so dieth the other: yea, they have all one breath" (i.e, same
word as translated "spirit" in verse 21, and chap. xii. 7); "so that a
man hath no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity. (20) All go
unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. (21)
Who knoweth the spirit (or breath) of man that goeth upward, and the
spirit (or breath) of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" Is
this last verse an answer to any objection taken to what is stated
in verse 19, that man and beast have all one spirit (breath)? Again,
Eccles. xii 7, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,
and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." This passage is quite
conclusive against a separate conscious existence of the soul in any one
place set apart for its reception, or of one soul going to one place
and another to another. Man is dissolved into dust and spirit: the dust
mingles again with the earth; the spirit in like manner, as spirit,
returns to God: in other words, the life as life returns to its
source. Such seems the idea. Again, the mercy of Jehovah is shown in
consideration of the brief span of man's life, as Psalm lxxviii. 39,
"For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away
and cometh not again:" ciii. 14, "He knoweth our frame, he remembereth
that we are dust;" and Psalm lxxxvii. 5 mentions the "slain that lie in
the grave (kibr), whom thou (Jehovah) rememberest no more." How utterly
opposed are all these clear statements to the paradise of unspeakable
bliss, and the hell of unutterable woe, and the immortal soul and the
bodily resurrection of the New Testament.
16. Yet there are a few verses of the Old Testament, the principal Job
xix. 25-27; Isaiah xxvi. 19; Ezek. xxxvii. 12, 13; Daniel xii. 2, that,
as translated in the authorised version, seem to express the hope of
a bodily resurrection. All these passages are of a highly poetical
character (that of Daniel is in connection with the great Jewish prince
Michael), and if read in the light of the explicit declarations just
quoted, it will be felt that they must be open to other constructions,
and probably to other renderings than those in the present translation.
But it is no part of the present purpose to reconcile discrepancies,
apparent or real; and in any case, it is clear that even these
last-named passages do not countenance such conceptions as the heaven
and hell of the New Testament. The Christian clergy, fully alive to the
importance, for upholding the divine origin which they claim for their
creed, of making New Testament ideas a development and fulfilment of
the Old, and of showing that the deities, Mosaic and Christian, are
the same, and not contradictory, have displayed much ingenuity in
reconciling incongruities and in discovering resemblances in ways and by
reasonings that would not have occurred to ordinary truth-seeking men;
but no unbiassed inquirer can fail to perceive the utter divergence
between the Old and New Testament doctrine and practice, as regards a
future life, and how impossible it is that both sets of ideas can have
emanated from the same mind or spirit, mortal or immortal. There are
thus only three possible conclusions: (1.) The Mosaic deity is the true
God, not the Christian; (2.) the Christian deity is the true God, not
the Mosaic; but this contradicts the Christian deity himself, who says
the Mosaic deity was himself; or, (3.) neither is God, in which case
there has been no revelation, and all that is left for men is either
to assume the existence and attributes of a God who has never revealed
himself, or to disbelieve in such existence; or to acknowledge that the
question of the existence of a God is one beyond the reach of the human
faculties to determine.
17. If then the resurrection of Jesus and the New Testament declarations
as to a future life, are thus wholly opposed to Old Testament ideas, do
they present any resemblance to the belief of heathendom?
(a.) The faith and practice of the Egyptians, in connection with their
god Osiris, have already been referred to in preceding paragraph 12.
It has been well said that the ancient Egyptians, in their vivid
anticipations of the life to come, lived rather in the next world than
on the banks of the Nile. The bodily resurrection also had a place in
their system. The belief in the deathlessness of souls has been a marked
characteristic of all the Turanian races, whether represented, as
many hold, by the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Lydians of aid, or by the
Chinese, Mongols, and Finns of the present day. The Etruscan sepulchral
paintings represent the disembodied souls on their way to the land of
spirits. Some are calm and resigned, with rods in their hands: some
full of horror and dismay: attendant spirits, good and evil, contend for
their possession; the good spirits are coloured red, the evil spirits
black; the heads of the latter are wreathed with serpents, and they bear
in their hands a hammer or mallet, which is sometimes raised as in the
act of striking the woe-begone soul on the knee vainly imploring mercy,
(b.) In the Zend-a-Vesta,--the ancient Persian Scriptures,--a narrow
passage, called "the bridge of the gatherer," is said to be extended
over the middle of hell, where the souls of the dead are assembled on
the day after the third night from their decease. The wicked fall into
the gulf beneath, the gloomy kingdom of Ahriman, and are doomed to feed
upon poisoned food. The good, sustained by benign angels and spirits and
the prayers of surviving friends, cross over in safety, and are greeted
on the other side by the archangel, as having passed from mortality to
immortality. Thence they rise to paradise, where Ormuzd and his six holy
ones sit on golden thrones, and at once join in the conflict against
Ahriman and the powers of darkness. At the last day they will share the
glory of the triumph of Ormuzd, when Ahriman and his angels, finally
routed and overcome, will be driven into their native darkness, and
virtue, harmony, and bliss will evermore prevail in the universe. The
resurrection of the body is also contained in the Zend-a-Vesta, and it
likewise forms part of the creed of the Magi. (c.) Of the sects into
which the Jews were divided after the return from the captivity in
Babylon, the writer of the Acts states: "For the Sadducees say that
there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees
confess both:" and Josephus writes concerning the latter, "They believe
that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth
there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived
virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained
in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to
revive, and live again." Elsewhere he shows that these beliefs were
traditional merely: "What I would now explain is this, that the
Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by
succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of
Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say
that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory, which are
in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the
traditions of our fore-fathers."
18. The belief of classical antiquity as to the condition of souls after
death, is beautifully summed up by Horace in the Ode (i. 10) to Mercury,
date about b.c. 24; "Grateful alike to the gods supernal and infernal,
it is thine to place pious souls in blissful abodes, and to coerce
the airy crowd with thy golden wand." Homer, indeed, whose poems are
certainly prior to the eighth century b.c., has no Elysian fields in the
land of spirits; all is indeterminate, gloomy, uncomfortable. The shade
of Achilles says:
"Talk not of ruling in this dolorous gloom,
Nor think vain words (he cried) can ease my doom;
Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead."
But, whether from contact with the East and Egypt or otherwise, more
definite conceptions of the abode of disembodied spirits were afterwards
formed, which have found best expression in Virgil's AEneid, written
about B.C. 20. There
"The gates of hell are open night and day,
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way;"
just as in the sermon on the mount,--"Wide is the gate, and broad is
the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat."
At a certain point hell is thus divided:
"The right to Pluto's golden palace guides;
The left to that unhappy region tends
Which to the depths of Tartarus descends."
So in the New Testament, the sheep (the saved) are on the right, the
goats (the lost) on the left hand of the Son of man sitting on the
throne of his glory.
The region to the left is thus described:
"These are the realms of unrelenting fate,
And awful Rhadamanthus rules the state;
He hears and judges each committed crime,
Inquires into the manner, place, and time:
The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal
(Loth to confess, unable to conceal)
From the first moment of his vital breath
To his last hour of unrepenting death.
Straight o'er the guilty wretch the Fury shakes
The sounding whip, and brandishes her snakes,
And the pale sinner, with her sisters, takes.
All these within the dungeon's depth remain,
Despairing pardon, and expecting pain."
Far other the region to the right:
"These holy rites performed, they took their way
Where long-extended fields of pleasure lay;
The verdant fields with those of heaven may vie,
With ether vested and a purple sky,
The blissful seats of happy souls below,
Stars of their own, and their own suns they know."
19. Plutarch (about a.d. 90), referring to the tradition of the
mysterious disappearance of Romulus and the suspicions of regicide
aroused against the patricians, wrote,--"While things were in this
disorder, a senator, we are told, of great distinction, and famed for
sanctity of manners, Julius Proculus by name, who came from Alba with
Romulus, and had been his faithful friend, went into the Forum, and
declared, upon the most solemn oaths, before all the people, that as
he was travelling on the road, Romulus met him in a form more noble and
august than ever, and clad in bright and dazzling armour. Astonished at
the sight, he said to him, 'For what misbehaviour of ours, O king, or by
what accident, have you so untimely left us to labour under the heaviest
calumnies, and the whole city to sink under inexpressible sorrow?'
To which he answered, 'It pleased the gods, my good Proculus, that we
should dwell with men for a time; and after having founded a city which
will be the most powerful and glorious in the world, _return to heaven,
from whence we came_. Farewell, then, and go, tell the Romans that by
the exercise of temperance and fortitude they shall attain the highest
pitch of human greatness; and I, the god Quirinus, will ever be
propitious to you.' This, by the character and oath of the relater,
gained credit with the Romans, who were caught with the enthusiasm, as
if they had been actually inspired; and far from contradicting what they
had heard, bade adieu to all their suspicions of the nobility, united in
the deifying of Quirinus, and addressed their devotions to him. This is
very like the Grecian fables concerning Aristeas, the Proconnesian, and
Cleoraedes, the Astypalesian. For Aristeas, as they tell us, expired
in a fuller's shop; and when his friends came to take away the body, it
could not be found. Soon after, some persons coming in from a journey,
said they met Aristeas travelling towards Croton. As for Cleomedes,
their account of him is that he was a man of gigantic size and strength;
but behaving in a foolish and frantic manner, he was guilty of many acts
of violence. At last he went into a school, where he struck the pillar
that supported the roof with his fist, and broke it asunder, so that
the roof fell in and destroyed the children. Pursued for this, he took
refuge in a great chest, and having shut the lid upon him, he held it
down so fast that many men together could not force it open; when they
had cut the chest in pieces, they could not find him either dead or
alive. Struck with this strange affair, they sent to consult the oracle
at Delphi, and had from the priestess this answer:--
"'The race of heroes ends in Cleomedes.' It is likewise said, that the
body of Alcmena was lost as they were carrying it to the grave, and
a stone was seen lying on the bier in its stead. Many such improbable
tales are told by writers who wanted to deify beings naturally mortal."
20. Dio Cassius relates that Livia, about a.d. 14, gave a large reward
to Numericus Atticus, a senator, who affirmed that he had seen her
husband, the Emperor Augustus, ascending to heaven in the same manner as
Romulus had been seen by Proeulus.
21. It is thus clearly manifest that the beliefs of the Gentile nations
of antiquity with reference to a future life, are similar to the New
Testament ideas; in fact, the same beliefs under different guises.
So, also, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, his subsequent
appearances, and his ascension to heaven, are not without parallels in
preceding and contemporary fame. The alleged appearances of Jesus to
Mary Magdalene, Peter, James, Paul, and the others, rest on no evidence
intrinsically stronger than the appearance of Romulus to Julius
Proeulus, or of Augustus to Numericus Atticus. The fact of Livia paying
money to one who reported that he had seen Augustus ascend to heaven
shows how deeply this idea was rooted in Roman belief. All, therefore,
who were swayed by the current Roman traditions would have seen nothing
incredible in Jesus and his claims. These exactly corresponded to what
they had been taught from childhood. They had merely to transfer to
Jesus marvels similar to those which had formed their early faith. The
rise of Christianity to be the dominant-religion of the Roman empire
is often referred to as a proof of its divine origin and guidance; but
uniting, as it did, the discipline, organisation, earnestness,
moral authoritative-ness, and exclusive claim to the favour of God
(transferring to believers of every race, but to believers alone, that
divine favour which was previously the peculiar possession of the seed
of Abraham),--all derived from the synagogue,--uniting these with the
ancient fundamental beliefs, under another name, of the various Gentile
nations, it is not difficult to discern the causes of its triumph, in an
age unaccustomed to weigh evidence, and at a time when _ancient forms_
were losing their hold on the faith and allegiance of the masses. Even
in modern religious revivals, the most common manifestations are of
convictions which had lost their hold on the mind, or which had become
practically powerless to stir under regular ministrations, springing
up into renewed vigour and intensity in some novel guise, or through a
description of preaching or service out of the common.
22. And this belief in a life beyond the grave, and pretended knowledge
of its conditions--under one form or other one of the most ancient and
widespread conceptions of the human race--what has it led to? Inhumanity
in time past, inhumanity now; bloodshed and misery, dark delusion,
degrading superstition, priestly pretence, persecution and intolerance,
creed exclusiveness and bigoted zeal, misdirected fervour and visionary
hopes--all the offspring of this conviction--fill the records of
mankind.
23. Among barbarous races the vivid realisation of the spiritual
world has led to such sad misguidance of the life on earth as the
following;--(a.) The custom, prevalent both in ancient and modern times,
of sacrificing wives, friends, and slaves at funerals to supply the
wants of the deceased in the land of spirits, or to accompany him
thither, (b.) Men killing their relations "out of love," as soon as they
showed signs of decrepitude, under the belief that in the next world the
spirits will be vigorous or otherwise, corresponding to the state of
the body at time of death, (c.) Incitement to bloodshed and war by the
belief that the enemies a man killed in this world, or those of whose
skulls or scalps he obtained possession, would serve him as slaves in
the next; or by the more manly conviction that a warring life on earth
and a glorious death in battle were the best preparations for the future
state, (d.) The practice, still carried on to a frightful extent among
some of the African races, of killing men to serve as messengers to
their departed kindred in the other world, (e.) The various gloomy
and degrading delusions through the arts of spirit-mediums, sorcerers,
witches, or other pretenders to intercourse with or control over the
spirit-world.
24. Among nations more advanced, the union of assurance of a blissful
or woeful immortality, with adherence or non-adherence to any particular
banner, sect, or creed, has led--(a.) To bloody religious wars, such as
those waged for the spread of Islam, the Mohammedan believing that if he
fell in battle he would immediately possess a paradise of every sensual
delight; or such as the Crusades, where the red cross was held to be the
symbol of sure salvation. (6.) To those inhuman persecutions where
men, in the name of religion and in the interest of their own souls,
condemned their fellow-men to the dungeon, the stake, the gibbet, and
the sword, butchers and butchered both believing that they were doing
"God service." Where the sufferers in such cases were sacrificed solely
to the intolerance of their adversaries, and themselves wished for
no more than freedom of thought--sad their lot! But impartial inquiry
reveals that, in most instances, the persecuted would have dealt the
same measure to their persecutors, if the conditions of power had been
reversed, all alike holding that those whose belief was, in their eyes
heretical had no right to share either the chequered happiness of this
life or the bliss of the world to come. Heirs of salvation on one side,
heirs of damnation on the other.
25. The belief that the immortal soul, while on earth, is enchained or
imprisoned in a corrupt body, and that the more the body is attenuated
and exhausted the purer, the soul will be, and the more fitted for
the contemplation of divine things, has led men and women to separate
themselves from their kind, to pass unnatural lives in penitential
exercises and mortifications, either in solitude or among communities
apart from the world. Abstinence from marriage has been a condition
common to almost all these devotees, so that for the sake of the soul,
fondly believed to be immortal, they forbear the enjoyment of the only
means for the continuance of human life--viz., that of living over again
in children and descendants. Myriads of lives have been utterly wasted
and perverted by this form of the delusion, their folly receiving,
for the most part, the countenance, support, and reverence of blinded
contemporaries.
26. The ideas handed down from past ages, and still widely prevalent,
that there are certain orders of men who have the keys of heaven and
hell, who possess such favour or influence with the invisible powers as
to be able to ensure a happy or a wretched immortality, or even to
alter the condition of the soul after death; or, in other quarters,
that certain orders of men are the divinely appointed teachers of that
doctrine or belief, on the correct acceptance or appreciation of which
the state of the future life depends; or, among others, that apart from
any particular clerical order there is a saving doctrine or belief, and
that on its correct reception or understanding, or otherwise, eternal
bliss or woe will result;--to what do such ideas tend? They are not new
or peculiar to Christianity. The worshippers under the ancient Persian
religion are thus exhorted:--"To obtain the acceptation of this guide
to salvation (the priest), you must faithfully pay him tithes of all you
possess, of your goods, of your lands, and of your money. If the priest
be satisfied your soul will escape hell tortures; you will secure
praise in this world and happiness in the next. For the priests are the
teachers of religion; they know all things and deliver all men." This
is explicit and straightforward, and contrasts favourably with the more
guarded phrase in which modern clergy advocate similar claims, or claims
founded on the same idea, _that their ministration, in one way or other,
is connected with the future lot of their hearers_. The "remedy of the
soul" under one form of Christianity, the "advancement of the cause of
Christ," who will repay deeds done in his service with the riches
of "grace and glory", under another, are and have been the two ruling
motives by which the offerings of the faithful flow into the coffers of
the clergy, for the establishment, whether by states or individuals, of
orders of men claiming titles of reverence from, moral control over, and
direction and limitation of the knowledge and professed belief of their
fellows, all under the prevailing idea "of a life to come," to happiness
in which their ministrations and counsel are believed to be safe
guides. Thus, unsparing generosity, steadfast devotion, self-sacrificing
enthusiasm, intellectual power, love of kind, and others of the highest
and best human traits, instead of being turned towards remedying the
evils and inequalities of the life on earth, and of improving it to
the utmost, have been utterly perverted and wasted on orders of men and
ecclesiastical establishments, and observances and doctrines, all
more or less connected with a future state, the fond hope of misguided
mortals.
27. Such and so great, then, in brief, are among the more prominent
evils that have arisen out of the ancient and widespread belief in a
"life to come," of which the resurrection of Jesus, and the connected
doctrines and practices, constitute one important development; to
which the religion of Moses was antagonistic, not, as Christians claim,
antecedent, but which, under one form or other, has exercised a powerful
sway under almost all, if not all, the other ancient religions.