This may be easily tested by examining a number of [pg 514] newspaper accounts of any exciting event, which are derived from reporters entirely independent of each other. One witnesses one thing, and one another; and it is often difficult to weave the whole into a perfectly consistent narrative. No one can doubt that the morning of the Resurrection must have been one in the last degree exciting to the disciples of our Lord. They were not mere reporters, but persons profoundly interested in the various occurrences. It would therefore have been inconsistent with the historical truth of their position, if their narratives had presented us with no variations.
It is certain that several women accompanied our Lord on His last journey to Jerusalem. What was more likely than that they would visit the sepulchre at different times, and with different purposes? Can any one doubt that their excitement must have been great? What conceivable difference can it make to the great fact of the Resurrection, that one account mentions two Marys as going to the sepulchre; that the second adds to these Salome; that the third mentions several women; and that the fourth mentions Mary Magdalene alone? There might have been, as far as anything which appears in the narratives is concerned, several different visits; or the same person may have returned more than once. Or what is the use of urging that there is an apparent variation of about an hour between the different accounts, as to the precise time when these visits were made? Do variations of this description, which are found in accounts derived from eye-witnesses of Louis XVI's flight from Paris, in the smallest degree invalidate the fact? Or what conceivable difference does it make that one narrative represents the women as seeing one angel, and another two; and that one describes the appearance as taking place [pg 515] inside, and another outside the sepulchre? It is quite possible that all these accounts may be true, and that these occurrences took place on different occasions. If they were true, nothing was more unlikely than that the women could have given an orderly narrative of them. Variations must occur in all reports of events when the witnesses see only a portion of them. The great facts before us are plain and evident; and unless they are falsehoods, there could be no possibility of mistake respecting them. Different bodies of women found the sepulchre empty. Some of them affirmed that they had seen Jesus risen from the dead, and that He sent a message by them to His disciples. Peter and John visited the sepulchre, and found it empty. Later in the same day, Peter affirmed that Jesus Christ appeared to him; on which day also two other disciples affirmed that they had seen Him on a journey, at first without recognizing Him, but that they did so afterwards. On the evening of the same day, these two disciples, ten of the Apostles, with other persons in company, saw Him in a body, and were permitted to test the reality of His Resurrection by handling His Person, and by seeing Him eat. About such facts there could be no mistake. Most of them were well known and accepted when St. Paul wrote his Epistles, when the means of testing their truth was ample. We know on the same authority that the whole apostolic body asserted that they had seen the Lord, and that as many as five hundred other persons made a similar assertion. These are the chief facts, and a number of minor variations such as those above referred to cannot affect their credibility.
It has been objected that the author of St. Matthew's Gospel was ignorant of some of these appearances. On what ground is the objection made? On the fact [pg 516] that he has not mentioned them? Does a writer always report all he knows, especially when his writing is intended for the use of those who firmly believe the fact already? Nothing can exceed the fragmentary character of this portion of his narrative. If this Gospel was composed at the late period assigned to it by those against whom I am reasoning, namely, a.d. 90, it is incredible that these were the only facts known to the writer, at least thirty years after St. Paul wrote his Epistles. The charge of ignorance might be sustained with far greater plausibility if it were admitted that St. Matthew was the author of this Gospel, because it might have been expected that he would mention the first occasion on which his Master had appeared to him rather than the third. But his authorship is denied, and the publication of the Gospel assigned to the last ten years of the century, when it was impossible that the author, whoever he may have been, could be ignorant that it was alleged that our Lord had appeared on other occasions besides those mentioned by him.
I will now consider the threefold account of the great appearance on the morning of Easter-day. One of them is contained in the supplement to St. Mark's Gospel; the other two are those in Luke and John. Let us first carefully observe the mode in which they are narrated in the supplement.
Its author seems to have entertained a stronger view of the indisposition of the disciples to believe the truth of the Resurrection than the other two narratives appear to warrant. He first notices the appearance to Mary Magdalene on the morning of that day, and says that the disciples refused to credit her report. Next, he tells us of the appearance to the two disciples as they went into the country; and states that on their return they told it to the remainder, “Neither believed [pg 517]they them.” “Afterward,” he adds, “he appeared to the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not those who had seen him after he was risen.” It is evident that the author of the supplement entertained a strong view of the incredulity of the disciples when their companions reported to them the fact of the Resurrection.
Let us now examine how the facts stand in Luke's narrative. It opens with a detailed account of the journey into the country of Cleopas and his companion, and of our Lord's appearance to them. Our Lord addresses them in the following words: “O fools and slow of heart,” (Ω ἀνόητοι, καὶ Βραδεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ) “to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” After their recognition of Jesus, they are described as immediately returning to Jerusalem, “and find the eleven gathered together and those that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon.” “And they” (i.e. Cleopas and his companion) “told what things were done on the way, and how he was known unto them in the breaking of bread.” The narrative then proceeds: “And as they thus spake,” (i.e. Cleopas and his companion) “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace be unto you.” It then informs us that they were terrified and supposed that the appearance was that of a spirit. On this our Lord reasons with them: “Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.” The writer then adds: “And when they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, [pg 518] and of an honey-comb, and he took it and did eat before them.” The author then proceeds with his narrative: “These are the words that I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things might be fulfilled that are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.” And he adds: “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.”
The following is the account given of the same meeting in St. John's Gospel. After having given a full description of the appearance to Mary Magdalene, he thus describes our Lord's appearance on the evening of Easter-day: “Then the first day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
The difference between the supplement of Mark's Gospel and the narratives of Luke and John is very remarkable. Are the variations such as would be found in different reports of a set of fictions, or are they such as distinguish brief but inexact reports of actual occurrences? This is a very important question.
First: the three accounts bear the clearest indications of being independent. It is incredible that any one of the three writers having before him one or both of the other two accounts should have composed his own as it now stands.
Secondly: the author of the supplement uses very strong language in describing the unbelief of the disciples. [pg 519] He says that when they told it to the others, they did not believe their report. St. Luke, on the other hand, informs us that as soon as Cleopas and his companion entered the room where on their return they found the Apostles and others assembled together, they were received with the exclamation: “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon.”