Ezra and Nehemiah both state that the whole congregation, exclusive of the servants and singers, numbered 42,360. Yet the sum total of each is much less than this, that of Ezra being but 29,818, and Nehemiah, 31,089.
In the number of domestic animals Ezra and Nehemiah agree. In the oblations they disagree. According to Ezra they gave 61,000 drams of gold, 5,000 pounds of silver, and 100 priests’ garments. According to Nehemiah they gave in all 41,000 drams of gold, 4,200 pounds of silver, and 597 priests’ garments.
When bibliolaters affirm that there is not one error in the Bible, refer them to this register, where in two chapters may be found two dozen errors.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS.
The more intelligent of orthodox Christians admit that the Bible as a whole is not infallible and divine, but claim that it contains a divine revelation—that a part of it is the work of God and a part the work of man. And yet they cannot separate the one from the other, cannot agree as to which is divine and which human. Concerning this claim Prof. Goldwin Smith writes:
“When we are told there are in the Old Testament scriptures both a human and a divine element, we must ask by what test the divine is to be distinguished from the human? Nobody would have thought of ‘partial inspiration’ except as an expedient to cover retreat. We but tamper with our own understanding and consciences by such attempts at once to hold on and let go; to retain the shadow of the belief when the substance has passed away. Far better it is, whatever the effort may cost, honestly to admit that the sacred books of the Hebrews, granting their superiority to the sacred books of other nations, are, like the sacred books of other nations, the works of man and not of God.”
Others admit the fallibility and human origin of the Old Testament and claim infallibility and divinity for the New Testament alone. But they cannot consistently claim infallibility and divinity for the New and not for the Old. The New Testament is based upon the Old. If the foundation be fallible the superstructure must be fallible also. Both have been declared canonical; both are bound in the same volume and labeled Holy Bible. The chief apostles declared the writings of the Old Testament to be divine, a claim they did not make for the writings of the New. Besides, the New Testament is as full of errors as the Old.
It has been shown that the Four Gospels are not genuine—that they were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is to their credit that they were not. A knowledge of the fact relieves the Apostles and their companions of a very discreditable imputation. Were four witnesses to testify in a court of justice and contradict each other as the Evangelists do, they would be prosecuted for perjury.