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Page 61
*The life and doctrines of Jesus, and his followers, are contained in
the pieces composing the volume called the New Testament. The
genuineness of the books, i. e., whether they were written by those
to whom they are ascribed, must be judged of, from the external
testimony concerning them, and from internal marks in the books
themselves; for the miraculous acts therein, and therein only,
contained and related, cannot prove the truth and authenticity of
the books, because the authority and credibility of the books
themselves must be firmly established, before the miracles related
in them can reasonably be admitted as real facts.
Now, the external evidence in favour of these books, is the
testimony of those men called �the fathers;� and as the value of
testimony depends upon the character of the witnesses, it would be
proper, first, to state as much as, can be learned of these men. As
time will not permit me to adduce all that might be said upon this
subject, I shall here only take upon me to assert, that they were
most credulous, superstitious, and weak men, and, what is worse,
made no scruple of falsifying, to support and favour what they
called �the cause of truth;� for they were writers of apocryphal
books, attributing them to the apostles, and, moreover, great
miracle-mongers, who vamped up stories of prodigies to delude
their followers, and which they themselves knew to be false. I say,
I take upon me to assert this; and to confirm and establish this
accusation, I refer the reader to Dr. Middleton�s �Free Enquiry,� a
learned Christian, who, therefore, had no interest to misrepresent
this matter; and he will there find these accusations amply verified,
and traits of character proved upon them. By no means favourable
to the credibility of their testimony.
The first of these Fathers whose testimony is usually adduced to
prove the authenticity of the Gospels, is Papias, a Disciple of John.
The character given of him by Eusebius is, that �he was a
superstitious, and credulous man.� And this is easily proved by
recording some of the stories, concerning Jesus, and his followers,
written by this Papias in a book extant in the time of Eusebius. One
of these stories is mentioned by Irenoeus, who says, that Papias
had it from John; who, according to Papias, said, that Jesus said,
that--� The days shall come, in which there shall be vines, which
shall severally have ten thousand branches; and every one of these
branches shall have ten thousand lesser branches; and every one of
these branches shall have ten thousand twigs; and every one of
these twigs shall have ten thousand clusters of grapes; and every
one of these grapes being pressed shall yield two hundred and
seventy-five gallons of wine. And when a man shall take hold of
any of these sacred bunches, another bunch shall cry out �I am a
better bunch, take me, and bless the Lord by me!� There�s a
Munchausen for you, reader! Well! this Papias is the first witness
who lived after Matthew, who has spoken of his Gospel. He lived
about the year 116 after Jesus. And what does he say of it? Why
this. �Matthew composed a writing of the Oracles (meaning
without doubt the Doctrines of the Gospel,) in the Hebrew
Language, and every one interpreted them as he was able.� So far
as this Testimony goes it is positive evidence, that the only Gospel
of Matthew extant in 116, was extant in Hebrew; and there was
then no translation, of it, for �every one interpreted as he was
able.� The present gospel called of Matthew was then not written
by him, for it is in Greek. And that it has not at all the air of being
a translation is asserted by most of the learned. As it stands then, it
was not written by Matthew: and that it cannot be a translation of
Matthew�s Hebrew, is not only plain from the circumstance of its
style, and other marks understood by Biblical Critics, but can also
be proved by another story related by this same Papias concerning
the manner of the death of Judas. �His body, and head (says
Papias) became so swollen, that at length he could not get through
a street in Jerusalem, where two chariots might pass abreast, and
having fallen to the ground, he--burst asunder.
Now though this ridiculous story is undoubtedly false, yet it is not
credible that Papias, who had so great a reverence for the Apostles
as to collect and gather all �their sayings,� would so flatly by his
story of the death of Judas contradict the story of Matthew, if the
Hebrew Gospel of Matthew contained that part of the Greek
Gospel of Matthew which relates the manner of Judas� Death.
Justin Martyr lived after Papias, in the middle of the second
century; and though he relates many circumstances agreeing in the
main with those recorded in the Gospels, and appears to quote
sayings of Jesus from some book or books; yet it is substantially
acknowledged by Dr. Marsh, the learned annotator on Michaelis�s
Introduction, that these quotations are so unlike the words, and
circumstances in the received Evangelists to which they appear to
correspond, that one of two things must be true; either, that Justin,
who lived 140 years after Jesus, had never seen any of the present
Gospels; or else, that they were in his time in a very different state
from what they now are.
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