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

Now if the four Peters of the Gospels are fictions, how have their inventors succeeded in delineating him true to his youthful character, and true to human nature? If, on the other hand, the Peters of the Gospels and of the Epistle are all five creations of the imagination, the difficulty is increased to impossibility. How was it possible for the forger of the Epistle to have delineated a Peter who should be true to the legendary character of the Peter of the Gospels, and [pg 509] at the same time such an improved version of it as would naturally result from the trials of between thirty and forty years spent in the service and in attempts to put in practice the teaching of his Master? It follows, therefore, that the five portraitures of Simon Peter presented us in the New Testament, are so many distinctive proofs that the Gospels are historical realities, and not the mere offspring of the imaginations of their respective authors.

I am now in a position to restore the Gospels to their place in history, and to estimate the value of their testimony. The Synoptics are so many versions of the traditions, preserved in the different Churches during the first century, of that portion of the life and teaching of Jesus which formed the groundwork of Christianity. Such an account, more or less full, must have been handed down from the first origin of the Church. This account received enlargements from different narrators who had been witnesses of different events of our Lord's life and ministry; but so completely was it interwoven with the daily course of Christian life, that it is impossible that matters inconsistent with its fundamental conception can have become incorporated with it. Moreover, the whole period lay within the limits of time during which traditions are strictly historical. No community ever existed which had equal facilities for handing down accurately the events of its Founder's life, or had stronger inducements to do so. The Church was struggling for existence, and seeking to assimilate to itself the elements by which it was surrounded. This alone must have kept steadily in its memory the leading events of the life of Jesus. These, as we have seen, must also have formed the subjects in which its converts were habitually instructed. Jesus Christ, to use the expressive language of St. Paul, must have been to [pg 510] the primitive Christian community from the hour of its birth “all and in all.”

From the various direct and indirect references in St. Paul's Epistles we can form a general idea of the life and teaching of Jesus, as it must have been accepted by the Churches to which he wrote. All the outlines furnished by these Epistles may be traced in our present Gospels. If we descend to a still later period, we shall find that accounts, substantially the same, were spread over the entire Church. Even if it is true that the early Ecclesiastical writers do not cite the Gospels, it is evident that they were in possession of accounts, either written or unwritten, which were for all practical purposes the same. It follows, therefore, that as the Synoptics contain three versions of the ministry of Jesus which were handed down by the Churches of the first century, their claim to the character of historical documents substantially accurate in all their main features is unquestionable.

Nothing is more lamentable than the manner in which a number of minute verbal questions have been introduced into this great controversy. Both parties have freely indulged in it. The life of Christianity has been made to depend on whether some passage in a particular Father bears a precise verbal agreement with another passage to be found in our present Gospels. Such matters may be interesting as mere literary questions, but surely they are not worthy to be dignified by the title of historical ones. To represent the life of Christianity as depending on them, is to leave the broad basis of historical investigation, and descend to the mere technicalities of legal evidence, by which the parties who are most capable of throwing light on the case are excluded from giving evidence at all, while many minor points are debated with the utmost ardour. I desire to [pg 511] express no opinion as to whether this is right or wrong in judicial processes; but the principles of history are widely different. All evidence must be accepted for what it is worth, and for no more. The issues are great ones, and are not dependent on any mere set of barren technicalities.

Christianity is not only one of the greatest facts in history, but the greatest; and its truth or falsehood can never be dependent on whether a passage more or less in Justin Martyr is an accurate citation of another in St. Matthew's Gospel. The only questions of real importance are: Do the numerous references of the early Christian writers to the life and teaching of Jesus Christ substantially agree with the accounts of that life and teaching given in our Gospels? Do they contain any account which gives a really different version of it? If such agreement exists, although there may be minor differences, the matter is settled as an historical question. The Gospels, in all their great outlines, are virtually accurate accounts of the traditions of the primitive Church respecting the actions and the teaching of its Founder, and as such they satisfy all the conditions of history.

It is impossible that I should in this place enter on the question of the authorship or the date of the Fourth Gospel. The literature on this subject would fill a library of no mean size. I shall only refer to Mr. Sanday's able vindication of its historical character. One thing respecting it is clear. It is either the veritable work of an eye-witness of the facts which it records, or it is a consummate fiction, such as can be found nowhere else, either in the ancient or the modern world. Its author must have united a fixed determination to perpetrate a forgery on a most sacred subject, with one of the loftiest ideals of morality, and an inimitable power [pg 512] of simple description, and of inventing fictitious scenes in a manner which is in the highest degree true to human nature. If this work was really written by a person who was not a Jew, one hundred and fifty years after the events which are described in it, and a century after the destruction of Jerusalem, the accuracy of its descriptions is one of the most singular phenomena in literary history. Wherever it runs parallel with the Synoptic Gospels, it throws light on their obscurities without the smallest apparent intention of doing so. In some places it helps to correct erroneous impressions into which the reader of the Synoptic narratives might otherwise have fallen. Even in that most striking disagreement between them, respecting the Paschal character of the Last Supper, we find in the Synoptics hints which corroborate St. John's account of it. One simple alternative, and one only, lies before us; either to accept this Gospel as a history of the highest authority, or to reject it as an audacious forgery.

It now remains for me very briefly to consider the value of the testimony of the Gospels to the truth of the Resurrection.

If one thing more than another is evident respecting them, it is that they were not written for the purposes of controversy with unbelievers, but for the instruction of Christians. It is certain that the last thing which occurred to their authors was to guard their narratives against possible objections. This is made clear by every page. At the time when they were composed, the Resurrection had long been accepted by the entire body of believers, as the foundation of their faith. It was therefore not necessary for the Gospels to prove it, as it would have been if they had been composed with a direct view to unbelievers. This is a point which it is important to bear in mind in considering [pg 513] the nature of their testimony. Two of the narratives of it are entirely incidental; and it is quite clear that their authors never intended to give an exhaustive account of the facts. The other two, though giving us more details, participate largely in the same character. It is impossible to read either narrative with care and not feel that it was never intended to be a systematic account of all the facts with which the author was acquainted respecting the Resurrection.

It is objected against these narratives that they abound with variations, amounting to contradictions. The variations are unquestionable, and it will readily be conceded that it is extremely difficult to piece together all the details of the existing accounts so as to weave them into an harmonious whole. In fact they are inevitable whenever the incidents described are of exciting interest. Such must have been the character of those connected with the Resurrection.

The chief difficulty is found in the details of the morning of that important day. They are in an extremely fragmentary form, and it is quite clear that we have not all the events before us. If we had, we should then be in a position to judge what is the precise nature of the variations in the minor details. But even if contradictions could be proved to exist, how does their presence invalidate the main facts, whose truth is established by wholly independent testimony? The only way in which it can be made to do so is by mixing up questions involving particular theories of inspiration with considerations purely historical. Such discrepancies exist in connection with some of the most important facts of history in their minor details, without in the smallest degree invalidating their historical credibility.