We must keep steadily in view that what we have to account for is not a mere story of a resurrection propagated by a crazed fanatic, but the erection of the Christian Church on its basis. It is a plain fact that Jesus appeared no more in public, and that His earthly [pg 470] history ends with His crucifixion. What became of Him? It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this question.
Let us take the first supposition that He recovered from a swoon, but died shortly afterwards from exhaustion. This theory involves the necessity that some one or more of His followers should have seen Him alive and dying of exhaustion. Was it possible, I ask, for the most deluded fanaticism to mistake such a condition for a resurrection from the dead? Was this a basis on which to revive the hopes of the disciples, and to re-construct the Church? Would any amount of enthusiastic credulity mistake such a person for the Messiah of the future? If He died shortly afterwards, what became of His Messiahship? Did His other followers pay Him no visits during His illness? Did they see Him die, or attend His burial? Surely such positions do not require serious argument.
But let us suppose that He recovered, lived in retirement and only received the secret visits of a few followers, and that out of this the story of the Resurrection grew. How grew? I again ask. Such growths require considerable periods of time, and these, history utterly refuses to grant. Would it be possible, I ask, for any deluded follower to mistake such facts for a resurrection from the dead? Could Jesus himself have so mistaken it? or, however well the secret might be kept, would a Messiah, living in privacy, out of the sight of friends and foes, be a possible Messiah, who could impart a new life to the Church? In such a case it is impossible to exonerate the persons concerned from fraud, even the Great Teacher himself. Are we to suppose that He himself actually mistook His recovery from a swoon for a resurrection, and justified His followers in publishing a report of it? Why then did [pg 471] He not appear in public and assert His Messianic claims? But could His followers have persuaded themselves that a man who must have shown distinct indications of slow recovery, and who never ventured to appear again in public, was raised again from the dead to continue His Messianic work? If this is the true account of the matter, it was not a delusion but an imposture. If we suppose that a few friends only visited Him, what did His other disciples say about the matter? Did the few, with the concurrence of their Master, propagate the belief that He was gone into heaven, knowing that He was still on earth? Be these things as they may (and those who have started the idea should solve it), if the real basis of the story of the Resurrection be a recovery from a swoon and a subsequent life of privacy, Jesus must have shared the common fate of humanity and died. This must have been known to those with whom He lived; it must have been known to those who visited Him. His death must have dispelled their delusions. Henceforth the propagation of their story must have been due to wilful fraud—a fraud for which it is impossible to assign a motive, and which it is not the modern practice to charge on the first propagators of Christianity.
The remaining supposition, that Jesus, after having been seen by one or two of His followers alive and slowly recovering, was conveyed away to some distant place, where they saw Him no more, and that out of this grew the story of His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, is not only in itself intrinsically incredible, but it offends against every one of the principles which I have established. I need not, therefore, discuss it further.
The existence of the Church is a fact. It is professedly based on another fact, namely, the Resurrection [pg 472] of Christ. If this be true, it fully accounts for the existence, origin, and growth of the Church. No other theory can account for it. The Resurrection is a fact, or a delusion. If it is not a fact, two suppositions respecting its origin are alone possible. These have been proved, on the strongest historical evidence, to be impossible. It follows, therefore, that the only remaining alternative is the true one: that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Its attestation is stronger than that of any other fact in history.
Chapter XXI. The Historical Value Of The Gospels As Deduced From Previous Considerations.
I have proved in the preceding chapters that one of the miracles recorded in the Gospels is substantiated by the highest form of historical testimony, on evidence quite independent of their contents. I have adopted this course because unbelievers affirm that the miraculous narratives contained in them are alone sufficient to prove them to be unhistorical. It has therefore become necessary to prove the truth of the greatest miracle which they narrate, without any reference to their assertions. Christianity unquestionably existed before the Gospels were written, and the all-important fact on which it rests can be substantiated without their aid, on data which are conceded by our opponents. Its truth or falsehood therefore does not rest on any mere question as to what was their actual date, or who were their authors. Still they are the only records of the life of Jesus Christ that the Church possesses. The question therefore as to whether they are true in all their chief outlines, is one of such importance as to render a few observations on this subject indispensable.
There can be no doubt that no one would have ever thought of denying their general authenticity, except on account of the miraculous narratives they contain. This has made them the battle-field of Christianity, [pg 474] because it has been supposed that if their historical character can be shaken, Christianity would be disproved as resting on no other basis. For this purpose every variation in them, even the smallest, has been noted, and these variations have been magnified into contradictions. There is no weapon which criticism has not employed for the purpose of impugning their veracity. But the real ground of offence is the miraculous narrative. As, however, I have proved that the most important miracle recorded in them can be established on grounds quite independent of their testimony, we can now approach their consideration with this great antecedent difficulty removed. If the Resurrection of Jesus is an actual occurrence, the other miraculous events recorded in them no longer stand in the way of their acceptance as genuine histories. This one miracle is sufficient to carry all the rest; not, of course, that it proves that they occurred, but it gets rid of the entire à priori difficulty with which their acceptance is attended. Nay, further, if Christ rose from the dead, it is more probable than not, that this was not the only miracle connected with Him: or, in other words, if the authors of the Gospels attributed to Him no other miraculous action, it would rather afford a presumption against them as credible historians. It follows therefore, that although the proof of the Resurrection does not by itself establish the reality of the other miracles recorded as having been performed by Him, it renders them so far probable, that the same amount of evidence, which is sufficient to establish the ordinary facts of history, is sufficient to establish the general truth of the events recorded in the Gospels. I do not mean to affirm that some miracle may not have been incorrectly attributed to Christ in the traditions of the Church, from which the narratives in the Gospels have been [pg 475] derived, in the same manner as some inaccurate reports of facts have obtained admission into ordinary histories. But as these latter do not affect the general credibility of history, so errors of this description would not affect the general credibility of the Gospel narratives. All that I claim for them is that they should be both alike tried by the historical canons of criticism applicable to the same species of documents. Let me state once for all the position that I occupy. I am not called upon to prove that no error can have crept into their accounts; that events are all arranged in their true order of sequence; that variations do not exist in them which with our present knowledge of the details, it is difficult to reconcile, or even that the Evangelists themselves may not have misconceived their true order, or grouped them in one that was the result of religious considerations. The determination of such questions may affect our views as to the nature of the inspiration under which we suppose the Gospels to have been written, but it is one wholly foreign to an historical discussion. The question which I have to consider is, not the extent of the inspiration of their authors; but whether they do or do not contain genuine history; and if they do, to what class of historical writings they belong, and to estimate their testimony accordingly.