The Gospel history and doctrinal teaching critically examined

Introduction

The Codex Siuaiticus — Selection of the canonical gospels — Selection of the Jewish canonical books — The Jewish traditional law — Origin of the Septuagint Version — Its reception in Judasa —The Sibylline Oracles — - Admissions of Eusebius — Justin's Apology — Dishonesty of Church writers — Origen on the Gospel History — Ancient Theophanies — Alterations in the text of the gospels — The Apocryphal gospels — The Judaeo-Christian gospels — Bishop Marsh's hypothesis — Examination of the fourth gospel — The dogma of Original Sin — The Talmud opposed to this dogma — The story of the Fall examined — Philo and Origen explain it allegorically ...... page 1

Chapter I

Birth of John the Baptist — The names of the angels Persian — The genealogies of Christ examined — The descent of Christ from David impossible — Contradic-

• tions in the narratives of the birth of Christ — Isaiah's prophecy examined — Jewish Messianic expectations — The early Christians were all Jews — The Messianic Star — The Massacre of the Innocents unhistorical — Christ in the Temple ......... 53

Chapter II

Date of the birth of Christ — The taxing of Joseph and Mary unhistorical — The Messianic idea among the Essenes — The baptism of Christ — Contradictions in the narrative — Examination of the chronology of the third gospel — The Temptation — The call of the apostles — Nature of the office— The power of binding and loosing explained . . . . . . .77

Chapter III

The Sermon on the Mount examined — Origin of the Beatitudes — Observance of the Mosaic Law enjoined — The doctrine of purgatory taught — Asceticism enjoined — Misquotation of the Old Testament — Origin of the Lord's Prayer — The teaching of Hillel . . . . . . .100

Chapter IV

The Essenes — Philo's account of them — Origin of the Pharisees — The Assideans — Origin of the Essenes — Their religious practices — Their exorcisms and miraculous cures— The Ebionites — Jewish expectations of the Messiah — Early Christian miracles — The Talmud on miracles . . . . .116

CONTENTS.

Chapter V

The Transfiguration — The Triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem — The Betrayal of Christ — Pontius Pilate — Caiaphas — The trial of Jesus — Contradictions in the narrative — The forged order for his crucifixion — The mocking and crucifixion of Jesus — Jewish and Roman practices at executions — The inscriptions on the cross — The prophecy of Jonah — The crucifragium unhistorical ........ page 133

Chapter VI

The darkness at the Crucifixion — The Apostles' Creed — The Jewish Scheol — Jewish ideas of the resurrection — Man a Microcosm — The burial of Jesus — Contradictions in the narrative — Pilate's letter to Tiberius — The ascension not mentioned in the original gospels — The passage in Tacitus respecting Christ — Irenseus ignores the Crucifixion— The Sibylline predictions — Cassini's astrological system — Misquotations in the gospels . . . .157

Chapter VII

Eusebius's period — Meaning of the word Evangel— The Evangelium Eternum — The doctrine of vicarious punishment — The Day of Atonement — The letter of Publius Lentulus — Forged letters from heaven — The Ebionites reformed Jews — ■ Meaning of the words Son of God — Dialogue between Peter and Paul — The Acts and Epistles contradict each other — Nature of Inspiration . .184

Chapter VIII

Augustine on Original Sin— Philo's doctrine of the Logos — The Calvinistic doctrine — Initiation adopted by the Church — Persecution of the Pagans by the Christians — Doctrinal teaching of the Egyptians and of Orpheus — Speculations of the philosophers on the origin of evil — Philo on the origin of evil — The war of the rebel angels — Ascent and descent of souls according to the ancients — Plato's division of souls ....... 207

Chapter IX

The Metempsychosis a Jewish belief- — Destiny of the soul according to the Fathers — Cardinal Bellarmine on Purgatory — Universal Redemption taught by many of the Fathers — Origin of the demons and of Satan — Augustine and Origen on the literal interpretation of Scripture — Examination of the Apocalypse — Allegorical meaning of the word Babylon — Two Messiahs expected by the Jews — Prophecies invented by the Fathers — Incorporeal nature of Christ asserted by Augustine — Origin of Mithraism — Antiquity of Christianity ...... . 229

THE

INTRODUCTION.

The Life of Jesus Cheist is contained in four evangels (svayysXta) , or " good tidings," the earliest known manuscript of which is the Codex Sinaiticus, which belongs to the earlier part of the fourth century. This manuscript is of great importance, both on account of its antiquity and because it is in all probability one of the fifty copies of the Scriptures which Constantine ordered to be made in Byzantium in a.d. 331, under the superintendence of Eusebius. These evangels, or gospels, were originally anonymous, and even so late as the time when the Codex Sinaiticus was written their titles are simply, " After Matthew," &c. These evangels make no allusion to any supernatural help, or Divine inspiration, but show from the manner in which they unhesitatingly contradict each other that the idea of infallibility, or canonicity, such as was given in their time to the books of the Old Testament in the synagogue, was entirely foreign to the authors with respect to their own writings. The following pages, some portions of which have already appeared in print, contain the results of modem critical enquiry, combined with original investigation, into the origin and historical value of these biographical narratives.

The canonicity of our present gospels was not established till the Council of Nice in a.d. 325. Pappus, in his Synodicon to the Council, tells us how it set about choosing the gospels which it intended to adopt out of the immense number of gospels then in existence. He says : — " Having promis-

B

-i GOSPEL HISTORY.

euously put all the books that were referred to the Council for determination under the communion table in a church, they besought the Lord that the inspired writings might get upon the table while the spurious ones remained underneath, and that it happened accordingly." The gospels which Gelasius ought to burn remained, we are told, under the table, and the four inspired ones got upon it, and were declared to be canonical ! Subsequently to this Council, however, a general revision and correction of the gospels was made at Constantinople in a.d. 506, by order of the Emperor Anastasius. This extraordinary order runs as follows : —

"The illustrious Messala being consul, by order of the Emperor Anastasius, the holy gospels as having been written by idiotic evangelists, are censured and corrected." Signed Victor, Bishop of Tunis, in Africa. (See Cave, Hist. Lit., vol. I. p. 415.)

The Council of Mce was composed of the mystical number of 318 bishops, and presided over by the "pious" Constantine. Sabinus, the bishop of Heraclea, affirms, however, that " excepting Constantine himself, and Eusebius Pamphilus, they were a set of illiterate simple creatures, that understood nothing." Constantine, however, said that what was approved by these bishops could be nothing else than the will of God himself, since the Holy Spirit, residing in such great and worthy souls, unfolded to them the Divine will (Socr. Schol. Eccl. Hist. 1. I. c. 9). The mystic number 318 is explained as follows in the Epistle of Barnabas (VIII. 10-14), which was very generally held, especially by Origen and Jerome, to be canonical and genuine : —

" Understand, therefore, children, these things more fully, that Abraham, who was the first that brought in circumcision, looked forward to Jesus, circumcised, having the mystery of three letters. For the Scripture says that Abraham circumcised three hundred and eighteen men of his own house. But what, therefore, was the mystery made known to him ? Mark first the eighteen, and then the three hundred. For the n umeral letters of ten and eight are I H. And these denote Jesus. And because the cross was that by which we were to find grace, therefore he adds three hundred, the root of which

SELECTION OF THE JEWISH CANONICAL BOOKS. 3

is T (the figure of his cross). Wherefore by two letters he signified Jesus, and by the third his cross. He who has put the engrafted gift of his doctrine within us, knows that I never taught anyone a more certain truth : but I guess that ye are worthy of it."

Cotelerius has shown that many of the Fathers agreed with the author of this sublime specimen of reasoning on this subject, and it was of course recognised by those who convened the Council of Mce.

The Jewish canonical books were selected from the rest by much the same process as the gospels. The learned Jew Spinoza says in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, — " I presume to conclude, from all that precedes, that before the time of the Maccabees there was no canon of Holy Writ extant, but that the books we ha ye were selected from amongst many others by and on the authority of the Pharisees of the second temple, who also instituted the formula for the prayers used in the synagogue." The Talmud (Treatise Sabath. 1. II.) says : " The wise men wished to suppress the book of Ecclesiastes, because its words contradict each other. But, having well considered the matter, they did not do so, because the beginning and end of it are words from the Thorah (the Pentateuch). They also wished to suppress for ever Solomon's Proverbs." It is not stated why this was not done, but perhaps Meghunja, the son of Hiskias, who prevented the destruction of EzekiePs writings, preserved this work also.

The grand synagogue which decided upon the canon of Scripture did not assemble until after the subjection of Asia to the Macedonian power. Like the Christian council, its decrees became binding on the faithful, and came to be regarded as a Sinaitic revelation, or, as it is expressed theologically, they became Halacha le Mesche mi- Sinai. Eusebius says that it was not allowed among the Jews that everyone should determine who was guided by the Divine Spirit to write the sacred books, but that only a few persons were charged with this duty, who were also divinely inspired, and that they alone determined what bocks were sacred and prophetic, and rejected those which were not. The only means, therefore, of ascertaining whether a book of the Old Testament is inspired is, that an unknown Jew, who says that he is divinely inspired, shall be able to say that it is so !

The same process, as Josephus and Eusebius inform us, was adopted with regard to the historical parts of the Old Testament, which Josephus says were not allowed to be written by anyone. " This," he says, " was reserved for the prophets, who knew by divine inspiration what was future and distant from them, and who also wrote what happened in their own time." ~No doubt it required a great deal of inspiration to assert, for instance, that Solomon employed 153,600 workmen for seven years to build the temple, which Villapandus has proved cost, according to the text, six thousand nine hundred millions of pounds sterling (6,900,000,0002.) ! Yet Herodotus, who travelled through Syria, knew nothing of Solomon's empire, though we are told (2 Chron. ix. 23, 24) that " all the kings of the earth. . . . brought' every man his present, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year." Josephus found the neglect of the temple by Alexander so unsatisfactory that he found it expedient to forge a story of his having visited Jerusalem, where he never was.

The doctors who composed the synagogue say : " Moses received the law on Sinai : it was transmitted from Moses to Joshua, from Joshua to the elders, from the elders to the prophets, and from the prophets to the members of the great synagogue." This is intended to include, not only the sacred writings, but also the oral or traditional law said to have been given to Moses on Sinai, and committed to memory by Aaron and the rulers of the congregation. The Talmud is emphatic on this subject. It says (Treatise Berachoth, 1. 1.), " Whoever shall transgress a command of the wise men is deserving of death." And that there may be no mistake as to who the wise men are, it repeats in Treatise Erobin, 1. I., " Whoever transgresses a command of the scribes (Sopherim) is deserving of death." When the great synagogue assembled these sopherim had obtained almost absolute authority in spiritual matters. The Talmud (Treatise Berachoth, 1. I.) also says that the traditional law is of equal authority with the books of Moses : "It is written, ' Jehovah said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there, and I will give thee tables of stone, and the Thorah, and the Mitzvah (commandments) which I have written that thou mayest teach them.' The 'tables' mean the Decalogue;

THE PENTATEUCH NOT WRITTEN BY MOSES. 5

the ' Thorah ' means the Pentateuch ; the ' Mitzvah ' means the Mischnali ; i which I have written ' means the prophets and hagiographers ; ' that thon ma jest teach them/ means the Gemarah (the Talmnd). Hence we conclude that all this was given to Moses on Mount Sinai." This and other passages show that the traditional law, taught by the general assemblies which were first instituted by Ezra and ]STehemiah, were invested with the same authority as the written law.

Rabbi Michel Weill says, " What is certain, what results from several traditional passages (Talmud, Meguilla, fol. 3 and 7) which have never been the subject of any serious doubt, is that the holy books were first arranged in the time of Ezra." Irenseus (1. III. c. 15), Eusebius (1. I. c. 8), Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. 1. I. c. 2), Tertullian (De habitu mulierum, 1. I. c. 3), Basil (Letter to Chilo), and others of the Fathers go much beyond this, for they hold that the books of the law had been burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, and that Ezra was really the author of these books. It is certain that the law of Moses is not once alluded to in the Old Testament till the time of Malachi, who wrote in the time of Nehemiah, and is not mentioned again until Dan. ix., a chapter which speaks of the repair of the fortifications of the temple and of Jerusalem 69 weeks, or 490 lunar years after the sentence had been issued that the Jews might return from captivity. The books which Moses wrote, according to the references to them in the Pentateuch, differ from any of the five books now ascribed to him. They are " The War against the Amalekites," which we are told (Exod. xvii. 14) that Moses wrote by God's command ; " The Book of the Agreement " (Exod. xxiv. 4, 7) ; and " The Book of the Law of God," subsequently augmented by Joshua by an account of another covenant (Josh. xxiv. 25, 26). The Book of the Agreement, which has perished, was to be esteemed imperative upon all, and even upon posterity (Deut. xxix. 14, 15), and Moses, it is said, ordered the book of this second covenant to be religiously preserved for future ages.

The preface to the Mischnah tells us how the traditional law was committed to memory. It says that the Jewish mysteries were revealed orally to Moses on Mount Sinai; that Moses communicated them in the same way to his brother Aaron ; that afterwards, placing himself on Aaron's right hand, he called Eleazar and Shuraar, Aaron's sons, and went over them again with them in his presence ; that afterwards he sent for the seventy elders and repeated to them what he had said to the others ; and that at length he caused the whole people (about three millions in number) to be assembled, and once more proclaimed what had been revealed to him.

The Hebrew Scriptures were unknown to the Gentile world until the Greek translation of them, known as the Septuagint, was published. As this version is used alternately with the Hebrew version by the evangelists, it is necessary to introduce here a short account of its origin and peculiarities.

About two centuries before the Christian era, foreign conquest and domestic dissensions had led to a very general dispersion of the Jews. Jewish colonisation in Egypt was favoured by the Ptolemies, and Alexandria, where this Jewish population principally resided, became the centre of an active propaganda in favour of Judaism. The genius of the religion thus became mingled with that of Greece, and this was the origin of the influence which the Greeks afterwards exercised upon Christianity. By degrees Alexandria became a sort of metropolis for the Jews of the Dispersion, and it became more so than ever when distinguished refugees fled thither in order to escape from the hated rule of the Syrians.

Onias IV., who was the son of the last high priest of the sacerdotal branch of Joshua ben Jozadok, and whose family had supported the interests of the Ptolemies against those Jews who were in favour of the Syrians, was among those who sought refuge in Egypt (Jos. Ant. XXTI. III. 1). Onias was welcomed by Philometor, who considered him to be the representative of a political party which might be of use to him. Eventually Onias and Dositheus, who also belonged to the priestly caste (Esther XL 1), and had accompanied Onias to Egypt, became the generals of Philometor (Jos. Ant. Apion, II. 5), and having placed themselves at the head of the Egyptian Jews, they repulsed the king's brother, who had taken up arms against him, and restored the throne of Egypt to Philometor, who had fled to Cyprus. The grateful king gave Onias a sort of supremacy over the Jews in Egypt, with the title of Ethnarch. This supremacy resem-

ORIGIN OF THE SEPTUAGIST VERSION. 7

bled that of the Prince of the Captivity (Eesch Galouta) at Babylon, who was ruler over the Jews of the Euphrates.

Onias, seeing the precarious condition of the Jews in Palestine, and relying on Isaiah xix. 19, " In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt/ 5 obtained from Philometor some land in the neighbourhood of Heliopolis; and the temple of Onias (Beth Chonjo) was erected in the small town of Leontopolis, on the ruins oi an ancient temple. The new temple did not resemble the temple of Jerusalem externally, for it was a species of tower built of brick, but the interior resembled it in every respect, except that a gold chandelier, suspended from the roof by a chain of the same metal, replaced the seven-branched candlestick of the older temple. The priests and Levites who had fled from Judgea conducted the sacrifices and ministrations of the new temple, which Philometor endowed with the revenues of the town of Heliopolis and its neighbourhood. Ewald fixes the date of the inauguration of the temple of Onias at 160 B.C. The whole of the surrounding district formed from this time a small sacerdotal government called Onion (Jos. Ant. XIII. 1, Bell. Jud. VII. VIII, 5).

Philometor, struck by seeing so many distinguished refugees from Palestine voluntarily exiling themselves from their country, began to interest himself in them. Aristobulus, a Jewish philosopher, who had studied Greek philosophy, and who belonged to the Peripatetic school, held many conversations with the king respecting Judaism, and at length Philometor ordered him to translate the Pentateuch. An old Jewish tradition says that the Pentateuch was translated into Greek by five wise men. There is no doubt that the translation was made by more than one person. Aristobulus was one of the translators, and Lysimachus, the son of Ptolemy, of Jerusalem, who translated the Book of Esther for Philometor, was another. Whatever tbp number of the translators may have been, it is certain tha* they went to the island of Pharos, near Alexandria, in order to complete their work in retirement.

Aristobulus wrote a species of preface, or dedication to the king, which was intended to prevent misconceptions relative to certain biblical expressions respecting God. Certain passages which might have given offence to the king if translated literally, have been altered. Thus, out of regard to the king's ancestor Lagos, who gave his name to the dynasty of Lagides, the literal translation of the Hebrew word Arnebet, the Greek equivalent of which is the word Xaycbs (a hare), was abandoned in order to avoid classing that quadruped among the unclean animals ! The name of Jehovah was altered into " The Lord " in order to avoid writing the word Jehovah in Greek letters. This practice has been followed by the writers of the New Testament, so that Christ is made to speak of God in the words of the Septuagint version. The quotations from the Old Testament in the gospels are almost always in the words of this version, which the orthodox Jews had the greatest horror of, and from which it is impossible that Christ can have quoted. Another alteration was an addition to the ages of the patriarchs, which made the creation of the world to have taken place in 5390 B.C. instead of 4121 B.C. as our version has it. Both these dates, however, differ from that which is assigned to this event by Josephus, who fixes it at 5688 B.C., which he must have taken from the Temple copy of the Scriptures which Titus made him a present of soon after the fall of Jerusalem, and which he had had in his possession twenty-eight years when he published his " Antiquities of the Jews." Another remarkable alteration is, that the east wind mentioned in Exod. xiv. 21 as dividing the waters of the Red Sea, has been altered into the south wind, iv avs^w voicp.

The Egyptian Jews were so much pleased with the interest the king took in their religion, and with the opportunity which the Septuagint translation afforded of making it known among the Greeks, that the day on which the Greek version of the Pentateuch was presented to the king was kept as a festival, and the anniversary was commemorated by a pilgrimage to the island of Pharos. This anniversary soon became a popular festival, which commenced with prayers and hymns, and terminated with eating and drinking in booths or in the open air, and eventually the whole population of Alexandria used to take part in this national festival of the Egyptian Jews. Those Jews who remained in Palestine, however, looked upon the translation of the sacred idiom into another language, in which it was impossible to express its meaning, as a profanation, and they kept this same anniversary as a day of national mourning. The 8th of December, therefore, became a day of national

CONVERSION OF CONST ANTINE. 9

rejoicing in Egypt, and a day of fasting and of mourning in Judsea.

The name Septuagint has been given to this version of the Scriptures owing to a legend, which says that the curiosity of Ptolemy Philadelphus had been excited by his librarian, Demetrius of Phalera, who presented the books of Moses to him as being worthy of a place in his royal library, and of the honour of being translated. The king is said to have sent two ambassadors, Aristeas and Andreas, at his instigation to Eleazar, who was then high priest at Jerusalem, with rich presents, and with instructions to obtain from him some learned men who understood both Latin and Greek. The king, it is said, was so anxious to gain his point, that he bought at his own expense, and set at liberty, all the Jewish slaves whom his father Ptolemy I. had captured. Eleazar, overwhelmed with these proofs of goodwill, chose seventy-two men of the greatest learning among the Jews, six out of each tribe, and sent them to Alexandria. These seventy-two men completed the translation of the Pentateuch-ill seventy-two days, and read it in the presence of the king and their fellow-countrymen. It was also said that each of them was shut up in a cell that they might not communicate with each other, and yet that in spite of this their version was perfectly identical, and that all present were compelled to recognise this translation as the result of Divine inspiration !

Constantine, who presided over the Council of Mce, and who is called the first Christian emperor, never became a Christian until the remembrance of his crimes drove him to embrace a faith which promised to save him from the consequences of them on his death-bed. The rest of his life was a strange mixture of Paganism and Christianity, in which the former predominated. When he completed the building of Constantinople (a.d. 344), which he says (Cod. Th. 1. XIII. tit. 5) that a divine revelation impelled him to build, he had its horoscope drawn by the astrologer Yalens on the eighth day of the festival of its dedication, which took place on the 11th of May (Adren.). He worshipped Apollo, or the Sun-god, whose altars were covered with his votive offerings. The people were brought to believe that the emperor beheld the visible image of Apollo with his own eyes. He published two edicts in the same year, the first of which enjoined the observance of the Dies Solis, or Day of the Sun [Sun -day] (Ad. Theodos. 1. II. tit. viii. leg. 1 ; Cod. Justinian, 1. III. tit. xii. leg. 3), to which his Pagan subjects can have had no objection, while the second directed the regular consultation of aruspices (Cod. Theodos. 1. XYI. tit. 10). Tertullian (Apol. c. 21) says that the Christians in his time used to assemble in the morning on the day of the sun for religious purposes out of hatred to the Jews, who used to meet on the Sabbath ; and that the Christians were forbidden to abstain from work on that day that they might not imitate the Jews. One of Constantine's medals, which was struck in a.d. 315, bears the inscription, Solis Invicto Comiti, " To the Invincible Companion of the Sun." Another medal has his bust on one side and the god Anubis on the other. He always retained the title and prerogative of Pontiff, which gave him absolute jurisdiction in matters relating to the Pagan religion. Many of the medals give him the title of God, with which the monogram of Christ (which is also that of Jupiter Ammon) was associated. The title, ensigns, and prerogatives of Sovereign Pontiff were accepted without hesitation by seven Christian emperors, and Paganism was tolerated from Constantine down to Gratian, who was the first of the emperors who refused the title and dress of Pontifex Maximus as inconsistent with being a Christian.

Constantine murdered his eldest son, Crispus, in the same year that he presided over the Council of Nice. He had previously murdered his wife's father, Maximian, his sister Anastia's husband, Bassanius, and Licinianus, his nephew by his sister Constantia. He had also drowned his unoffending wife, Fausta, in a bath of boiling water, besides murdering his friend Sopater, and Licinius, his sister Constantia's husband. Eusebius (Life of Constantine, 1. III. c. 73) says that a coin was struck to perpetuate the memory of this holy personage, " whereon was engraven the e~Bigy of this blessed man, with a scarf bound round his head, on one side, and on the other he was represented sitting and driving in a chariot, and a hand reached down from heaven to take him up " ! The real reason why he inclined to and ultimately adopted Christianity is to be found in Zosimus and Sozomen, who say that he applied to his faithful friend Sopater, a Pagan priest, whom he afterwards murdered, to free him from the consequences of his crimes. Sopater,

THE SIBYLLINE ORACLES. 11

however, refused to administer spiritual consolation, saying that the purity of the gods admitted of no compromise with crimes like his, and Constantine then turned to the Christian bishops, "who promised him that by repentance and baptism they would cleanse him from all sin," and he was at length baptized during his last illness.

Niebuhr (Hist. Rome, vol. Y. p. 359) says of Constantine : " The religion which he had in his head must have been a strange compound* indeed. The man who had on his coins the inscription Sol invictus, who worshipped pagan divinities, consulted the haruspices, indulged in a number of pagan superstitions, and, on the other hand, built churches, shut up pagan temples, and interfered with the Council of Nictea, must have been a repulsive phenomenon, and was certainly not a Christian. He did not allow himself to be baptized till the last moments of his life, and those who praise him for this do not know what they are doing. He was a superstitious man, and mixed up his Christian religion with all sorts of absurd superstitions and opinions. When, therefore, certain Oriental writers wish to call him laairoaroXos, they do not know what they are saying, and to speak of him as a saint is a profanation of the word."

In Constantine 's Oration to the Clergy (c. 18) we find the following extraordinary statement of what was to him the truest evidence of the Christian religion : —

" Here we must needs mention a certain testimony of Christ's divinity, fetched from those who were aliens and strangers to the faith. For those who contumeliously detract from him, if they will give evidence to their own testimonies, may sufficiently understand thereby that he is both God and the Son of God. For the Erythraean Sibyl, who lived in the sixth age after the Flood, being a priestess of Apollo, did yet, by the power of Divine inspiration, prophesy of future matters that were to come to pass concerning God, and by the first letters, which are an acrostic, declared the history of Jesus."