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

1st. That the educated Jews of the time of Jesus were a prey to the superstitions in question.

2nd. That the common class of Jews were a prey to yet grosser superstitious.

3rd. That the followers of Jesus, who were chiefly Jews of the lower classes, and the authors of the Gospels, shared in these superstitions.

The author devotes not less than fifty pages to a minute description of the superstitions of the educated classes. These are alleged to have been of so gross a nature, that the reader will get but a very imperfect conception of the point at issue, unless I give a brief sketch of some of them.

I. The Jews are affirmed to have believed in an innumerable multitude of angels, whose agency was continually displayed in the ordinary phenomena of nature. They presided over and energized in its ordinary operations, as for instance, in thunder, lightning, the winds, the seas, frost, hail, rain, mists, heat, light, &c.; heaven and earth in fact are filled with them, and they are also continually busying themselves in human affairs, of which minute details are given.

II. They are alleged to have believed in a demonology of the most phantastic description. To this I have elsewhere sufficiently alluded.

III. They are likewise affirmed to have believed that the sun, moon and stars are rational beings, and traces of this belief are distinctly affirmed to exist in the New Testament.

IV. The belief in sorcery, witchcraft and magic is affirmed to have been universal among them. To give the reader an idea of the grossness of these beliefs, to which even the educated classes are affirmed to have been a prey, I must quote the following passage:

“Amulets consisting of seals, or pieces of paper, with charms written upon them, were hung round the necks of the sick, and considered efficacious for their cure. Charms, spells and mutterings were constantly said over wounds, against unlucky meetings, to make people sleep, to heal diseases, and to avert enchantments; against mad dogs for instance, against the demon of blindness and the like, as well as formulæ for averting the evil eye, and mutterings over diseases.” Here follow several pages of unutterable absurdities. It is not too much to say, that there was hardly an occurrence in nature, and hardly an event of daily life, which was not influenced by these supernatural powers, and very frequently in a manner unspeakably grotesque. [pg 291] If such were the beliefs of educated people, urges the author (and he tells us that he has omitted the grosser forms of them), what must have been those of the lower orders, and the extent of their degraded superstition? It must be kept constantly in mind that the followers of Jesus chiefly consisted of persons taken from the lower strata of society. But the author in express words charges them with sharing in such beliefs. If they did not, the reference to them would have no bearing on the argument.

We have therefore in this portion of the work a definite issue raised for our consideration. It is no vague charge of general boundless credulity and superstition, such as is generally urged against the followers of Jesus and the authors of the Gospels. It is presented to us in a clear and definite form. I fully allow that if this charge could be substantiated, it would deprive the Evangelists of all historical credit.