The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical / Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine Revelation

by C. A. Row

It is remarkable that the great majority of those against whom I am reasoning admit that the discourses in the Synoptic Gospels are fairly accurate representations of the actual utterances of Jesus, although they must have passed through a period of oral transmission. Yet it is certain that the accurate transmission of discourses by oral tradition is far more difficult than that of a report of facts through the same medium. The difficulty of preventing the intrusion of foreign elements is much greater. Slight alterations may materially affect their meaning. Yet the discourses recorded in the Synoptics bear the indelible impress of a single mind, that of Jesus Christ.[6] It follows therefore that if the traditions of the Church were able to hand down accurately the discourses of our Lord until the time when they were reduced to writing, still more easily would they transmit a correct account of His acts as narrated by His original followers. Except on account of the antecedent difficulty with which the miraculous element in the narrative is supposed to be attended, it would be absurd to accept the one and to reject the other as mere legendary invention. But having once established the fact of the Resurrection, the antecedent difficulty of the miracles is effectually disposed of, and the facts resume their place in history.

It forms no objection to the general argument that some of the Synoptics contain narratives of considerable length, which are omitted by others. It was precisely [pg 504] what was to be expected that the traditionary accounts would vary in this respect, and have incidents reported by different witnesses of our Lord's ministry incorporated into them. They abound in the Gospel of St. Luke, who distinctly states that it is a compilation.

A careful study of the Gospel of St. Matthew must lead to the conclusion that its narrative portions are derived from the same general sources as those of the other two. We find in it precisely the same verbal identities which have been already noticed as affording proof of the existence of a common source of information, and the same variations which prove that it must have passed through a period of oral transmission. Nor are the indications of autoptic testimony stronger in Matthew than in the other two Evangelists; in fact, they are less so than in Mark. The discourses in Matthew, viewed as a whole, are a far more complete collection of the sayings of our Lord, than those in Mark or Luke. It seems to have been one of the chief purposes of the author of this Gospel to make a collection of them, and to unite them by a brief narrative of events. But even in the discourses, some of the variations found in Mark and Luke possess stronger claims to be regarded as the original form of the utterances of our Lord, than the corresponding ones in Matthew. In the parts which are common to the Synoptics, they are evidently founded on one common source of information; and in this respect neither of them can put in a higher claim to originality than the other.

Such are some of the chief characteristics of these Gospels, which have the most intimate bearing on their claims to be regarded as genuine historical productions. They are accounts of the traditions of the Church respecting the life and teaching of its Founder at the time when they were composed. I have already shown, [pg 505] that if they were composed at any time between the ministry of Jesus Christ and the first twenty years of the second century, it would have been impossible to have substituted a legendary narrative for the account which was handed down in the Church. I am not concerned to prove that no inaccuracies could have crept into these traditionary accounts. The only question of the smallest importance is, are they substantially historical? On this question mere minor details, the order and arrangement of events, or even the introduction of two or three erroneous accounts, has no more bearing than it has on the general credit of other histories. Our question is, what is their value as sources of history? This must be kept perfectly distinct from the question as to the nature and extent of the inspiration of the writers.

With respect to a large number of alleged discrepancies, their whole force as objections to the historical character of the Gospels is disposed of by the simple consideration that their authors assert them to be memoirs, and not histories. No small number of others can be shown to exist only in the imagination of those who allege them. A few real difficulties will probably remain; but these no more invalidate their historical character, than similar ones which are to be found in every writer “from Herodotus to Mr. Froude.”

It must not be forgotten that a careful examination of the Gospels discloses a mass of additional evidence on this subject which is inconsistent with the idea that their narratives are a mere congeries of legendary inventions. It would be impossible to investigate it in a work like the present, or even to give an idea of its value, as shown in the intimate acquaintance of the authors with the events, ideas, customs, and general circumstances of the times. To compose such stories [pg 506] out of any materials which could have been at his hand at the beginning of the second century, supposing him to have been devoid of all personal knowledge on the subject, would defy any modern writer of fiction, even one possessed of the highest genius; not to speak of the incompetence of the ancient world in this class of literature, rendering the attempts of such writers as existed among the early Christians simply hopeless.

There are two additional points to which I must draw attention here, in the internal structure of the Gospels, as establishing their historical character.

The strongest evidence which the Gospels afford of their being historical narratives is the unquestionable fact that they contain a delineation of the greatest of all characters, Jesus Christ our Lord. This character is there depicted, even in the opinion of unbelievers of the greatest eminence, with a matchless perfection. Why will they not grapple with the question of its origin, and show how it is possible that such a character should ever have found a place in the Gospels, on any theory which they have propounded to account for their origin? It does not originate in any formal sketch or delineation. This the Evangelists have nowhere given. It is the combined result of all the facts and the discourses which they contain. The whole subject matter of the Gospels is in fact the material out of which this great character is delineated. How came it there if the Gospels consist only of a mass of mythic and legendary stories which gradually accumulated in the Church? How is it possible that a bundle of legends thus thrown together can have created the perfect character of Jesus Christ, forming, as it does, an harmonious whole? How has it come to pass that the authors of our Gospels, if they each composed their narratives from a mass of fictions which grew up [pg 507] during a period of seventy years, have each given us a delineation of the same Jesus? These are problems which have an intimate bearing on the question whether they belong to the order of historical or fictitious compositions, but with which unbelief has hitherto most prudently declined to grapple. I shall not pursue them further here, as I have discussed them fully in the work already referred to, and shown that the portraiture of Jesus Christ as delineated in our Gospels is inconsistent with any theory of their origin which has been propounded by our opponents. To this work I must refer the reader.

But there is a second character which is harmoniously delineated in the Gospels, to which I have not alluded in the work above referred to, that of Simon Peter. This character, though a subordinate one, is also a perfect delineation of its kind, instinct with historic life. It differs from that of Jesus Christ in being that of a purely human character, possessed of many of the virtues and not a few of the frailties of ordinary human nature. No student of the Gospels can rise from their perusal without a lively conception of it. If they are historical, the account of the origin of this second character of which they present us so perfect a delineation is a very simple one. It is that of a genuine man, whose actions they have correctly recorded. But if the Gospels are such as my opponents affirm them to be, I must earnestly put to them the question, How came this character there also? Each Gospel presents us with a delineation of Peter. In each the same living man is before us, in all his virtues and in all his failings. How, I ask, is it possible that the author of each Gospel has succeeded in creating a character of Simon Peter—each true to nature and each manifestly a delineation of the same person—out of a number of [pg 508] fictions, myths, and legends? Can any one affirm that the Peter of the Gospels presents us with one single trait of a character formed by legend?

But the existence of this delineation in each of the Gospels involves those with whom I am reasoning in a yet further difficulty. The New Testament contains a fifth delineation of the character of Simon Peter, professedly drawn by himself. I allude to his first Epistle. This unbelievers say is not his genuine production, though the external evidence for it is strong. In either case it will be equally available for my argument. If it was written by him, it is separated by an interval of from thirty to forty years from the Peter of the Gospels. After such a period of time we ought to find the same substantial lineaments of character, but chastened, improved, and softened by the influence of Christianity. This is precisely what we do find. The Peter of the Epistle is the Peter of the Gospels, in all the substantial elements of his character, but raised to a greater moral elevation. The Peter of the Gospels is the Peter of youthful aspirations, who has had little experience of the trials and struggles of human life. The Peter of the Epistle while continually reminding us of the Peter of the Gospels, is a deeply softened man, with many of his infirmities changed into the graces to which they are allied.