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

7. One of the great facts which he delivered to the Church, was that of the Resurrection of Christ. This is the great miracle of Christianity; the one to which it is expressly affirmed that the Church owes its being. The Apostle's Gospel therefore contained a detailed account of one great miracle. It is also fairly presumable that among his other facts of primary or secondary importance were accounts of supernatural occurrences in the life of Jesus.

8. The Apostle does not leave us without the means of judging respecting the amount of matter in these narratives of events in the life of Christ which he committed to the Church. He has given us (in 1 Cor. xi. 23-25) a formal account of the institution of our Lord's Supper, quite as full as that contained in either [pg 429] of our Gospels. This account he prefaces by the same words which we have already considered, as denoting the form or mode in which he received it, and delivered it to the Church: “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks He brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in My blood: this do ye as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” This account varies in words, but it is equal in minuteness, and substantially agrees with those in our present Gospels; although it more nearly approaches, while it is not precisely identical with that of Luke, who is asserted in the Acts to have been the companion of the Apostle. Judging therefore by this example, the historical details which St. Paul committed to the Church respecting the life of Jesus must have been of considerable minuteness.

8. Another fact in the life of our Lord is directly referred to in these letters, His descent from the family of David. “Who was made,” says the Apostle, “of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” These words prove that St. Paul was in possession of an account of the birth of Jesus, which in this particular point was in agreement with that in St. Matthew's and St. Luke's Gospels, and that it was known to the members of the Church at Rome, and received by them as true. He does not positively affirm that the birth was supernatural; but his language clearly implies it. It would be absurd in speaking of an ordinary [pg 430] human birth to say that the person born was descended from his ancestors, “according to the flesh.” The natural meaning of such an expression is that both the writer and those whom he was addressing were well acquainted with an account of the supernatural birth of Jesus, and accepted it as true. So far their accounts and that in the Gospels agreed in the main issue.

9. One more reference must be added: “Jesus Christ,” says the Apostle, “was made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” This passage not only proves that the Apostle and those to whom he wrote were in possession of an account of the circumcision of Christ, but also that they well knew that His ministry had been confined to the Jewish people, but with the ultimate purpose of His being manifested to the Gentiles. In these particulars it exactly corresponded with the account given in our Gospels.

10. There are also several passages in which the Apostle directly refers to our Lord's teaching, and clearly distinguishes it from his own. These references uniformly agree with that which is attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, and prove that the Apostle and the Church were in possession of details of it.

Such are the direct references to the life of Jesus in these Epistles. But there are numerous indirect references which prove that the Apostle and those to whom he wrote must have been acquainted with accounts of the life of its Founder, which went into a considerable degree of detail. I shall give a few instances:

1. His preaching of the Gospel to the Thessalonians is described as a proclamation that Jesus was the Christ or Messiah. In one of the Epistles to this [pg 431] Church he speaks of them as having been so powerfully influenced that in consequence of it “they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” and “as having become followers of him and of the Lord.” Among persons thus utterly ignorant of Christianity, as they were when he first preached to them, it would have been impossible to make an announcement of this kind, or to set forth the Messianic claims of Jesus, without laying before them a great many of the details of His human life. The expression above quoted, implies clearly that he had put his converts in possession of such an account of the life of Christ as to enable them to become “followers of the Lord.”

2. These Epistles contain many definite assertions as to the duty of imitating Christ. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ;” “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ;” “Let every one of us please his brother for his good unto edification, for even so Christ pleased not himself;” “The God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus;” “I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ;” “Ye have not so learned Christ;” “Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ.” Many other similar expressions might be cited, but these are sufficient.

First: I observe that the exhortation to put on the character of another is meaningless, unless the persons so exhorted were known to have been thoroughly acquainted with the life and actions of him whom they are urged to imitate. The same observation is true when we are deliberately recommended to make another person our example. Again, the exhortation to lay ourselves out in efforts to please others for their good to edification, on the ground that Christ pleased not himself, would be without meaning, unless the writer [pg 432] felt assured that those whom he addressed were in possession of facts in the life of Christ, which exhibited Him in the character of a sacrificer of self. So again, the exhortation to patience, after the example of Christ, is founded on the assumption that those whom the Apostle was addressing were acquainted with details which exhibited him as a model of patience. The same remark is true with respect to the entreaty addressed to the Corinthians by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. They must have been acquainted with actions of His which exhibited Him as supremely meek and gentle. These and other indirect references form an indisputable proof that the churches to whom St. Paul wrote must have been in possession of a very considerable number of details of the human life of Jesus, in which a large portion of the instruction given to those Churches consisted. This imparts to them a far higher value than if they had been direct. It is the mode universally adopted in genuine letters, where the writer, and those to whom he writes, are freely communicating to each other their inmost thoughts. When one party is firmly persuaded that the other is well acquainted with a certain set of events, they never detail them formally, but simply refer to them in passing allusions. Such allusions are the strongest possible evidence that the events in question are the common property of the writer and of those whom he is addressing.

The whole of these Epistles contain a continuous body of references to the various aspects of our Lord's divine and human character as it is depicted in the four Gospels. The references to the former are very numerous. They contain a Christianity of so advanced a character as to resemble in all its great features that which we read of in St. John's Gospel, [pg 433] and which are only distinguishable from it, if distinguishable at all, by the aid of minute criticism. I have treated this subject at length in another work in reference to its evidential value, and therefore need not discuss it here. I shall only observe that the incidental references in these Epistles to these subjects form the strongest historical proofs that St. Paul and those to whom he wrote were in possession of a sufficient number of facts respecting the life of Jesus to enable them to found on them a definite Christology; and that there must have been well known in the Churches a general outline of His human life, which must have been to their members as recent converts a subject of the profoundest interest. I fully admit that if Paul and the early Christians, while centering their highest affections on the glorified Christ, had been contented to remain in ignorance of the facts of His human life, the value of their testimony to the truth of the Resurrection would have been greatly weakened. But the supposition is not only untrue to human nature, but is contradicted by the facts of the Epistles, which it is impossible not to admit as documents of the highest historical value.