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

Chapter XIII. The Alleged Credulity Of The Followers Of Jesus.

The allegation that the followers of Jesus, and the early Christians generally, were a body of intensely credulous and superstitious people, may be considered as not only the stronghold of those who impugn the historical character of the Gospels, but also as the arsenal from which they draw no small number of their weapons of attack. A credulity which knew no limits is liberally ascribed to them as showing how every miraculous narrative might have been invented. They have even been credited with a facility of inventing fictions, and then deluding themselves into the belief that they were facts which they had actually witnessed. Thus it has been asserted that it was their firm belief that the Messiah ought to have wrought miracles; that Jesus himself may not even have professed to perform them; but that the fervid imaginations of His followers invented a set of miracles, attributed them to Him, and ended with the belief that they had seen Him perform them. On the other hand, whenever these objectors are pressed by a difficulty in accounting for the origin of particular phenomena in the Gospels, they retire on the credulity of the followers of Jesus as into a kind of citadel, in which they consider themselves so strongly entrenched that they may defy every attack. There is also another important purpose which it is made to serve. It is asserted that it renders worthless the [pg 288] testimony of the followers of Jesus as to the actual occurrence of miracles.

The allegation takes two forms:

1st. That the followers of Jesus were the prey of a credulity and superstition which greatly exceeded the limits of the ordinary credulity of mankind; and that therefore the value of their historical testimony is destroyed.

2nd. That the ordinary credulity of mankind with respect to the occurrence of supernatural events is so great and widespread, as to render the invention of miraculous narratives easy, and to destroy the credit of all narratives containing them.

I propose to consider these subjects in this and the following chapter.

Nothing is easier than to charge a body of men with intense credulity and superstition. Before, however, such charges deserve to have any notice taken of them, they should be substantiated by direct proof. It is impossible to meet them if urged in a mere general form. Fortunately, the author of “Supernatural Religion” makes a number of specific and definite charges, in which he endeavours to fasten an unspeakable degree of credulity and superstition on the immediate followers of Jesus and the authors of the Gospels, and refers to authorities in support of his assertions. I will state his general position in his own words.

“We have given a most imperfect sketch of some of the opinions and superstitions prevalent at the time of Jesus, and when the books of the New Testament were written. These, as we have seen, are continued with little or no modification throughout the first centuries of our era. It must however be remembered that the few details that we have given, omitting much of the grosser particulars, are the views absolutely expressed [pg 289] by the most educated and intelligent part of the community; and that it would have required infinitely darker colours adequately to have portrayed the dense ignorance and superstition of the mass of the Jews. It is impossible to receive the report of supposed marvellous occurrences from an age and people like this, without the gravest suspicion. Miracles which spring from such a hot-bed of superstition are too natural in such a soil to be the object of surprise; and in losing their exceptional character, their claims on attention are proportionally weakened, if not altogether destroyed. Preternatural interference with the affairs of life and with the phenomena of nature was the rule in those days, not the exception, and miracles in fact had apparently lost all novelty, and through familiarity had become degraded into mere commonplace.”

“There can be no doubt that the writers of the New Testament shared in the popular superstitions of the Jews.”

Before proceeding further, I must draw the reader's attention to three affirmations in this important passage.