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AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE.

(To the Editor of the Eveniiig Star.)

Sib, —The Press of the present day is the true instructor of the people, it appeals to them argumentum ad judicium. I value too highly the privilege of using your columns than to offend or ridicule the sentiments or even the prejudices of others. I respect the religious opinions of all sincere men, but I value still more the love of truth. I would not, were it even in my power, pull down any of the existing faiths ; I would not destroy any.,, of the past or present discovered MSS or copies of the Bible, or the Koran, or the book of Mormou or others. I would have them carefully kept, and exhibited to each succeeding generations, showing the superstitious writings their forefathers believed, as the inspired revelations of the Creator to man. It is the bigot who burns and destroys his fellow-man, and pulls down his creeds and altar; it is he who inveighs against doubt—the lever, the main spring of thought which, together with acquired knowledge, conducts to wisdom. Every doubt is, an aspiration to almighty power, for that illumination which calls into activity the highest faculties of man. I have endeavored to consider the authenticity of the Scriptures in a becoming spirit of reverence and to discuss the apparent internal discrepancies in a calm and dispassionate manner. When we consider the times in which they were written, it is not surprising that the enthusiastic, superstitious admirers and biographers should have considered Jesus more than a man, and looked upon him as ope of the noblest of the race and speak of him as I do, with all respect and | regard. If, as the holiest, the best, and .- the wisest men appear to think, the scriptures are unimpeachable, is tit not better to reform, correct and purge them, than to let them remain in their present uncertain condition. It is for this purpose that I present for consideration the contradictions and difficulties that present themselves to my mind upon reading the soriptures, not that they are necessarily incapable of explanation, but that they should be explained. I therefore ■ resume the subject by observing that at 30 years old, according to Matthew, Christ was baptised by John, in Jordan, who knew him well) but the fourth Gospel says he knew him not. God is invisible. John i 18, Exodus xxxiii 20, " Yet John saw him in the form of a. dove," and although God is everywhere, yet he spoke at that time from Heaven, saying, " This is my beloved son," but John did not believe it, for according to Matthew xi he sent to enquire, of Jesus if he was really the Christ. The prophecies taken from the 40ih chapter of Isaiah, Ist to sth verses, are brought in as prophetical of the baptism of Jesus by John, bu,t

they have really no appareut relationship to it whatever. The temptation by jthe devil, and the fast of 40 days in the wilderness involves strange contradictions. John says, in the i 33 that the next day two disciples followed him, but at the 43 verse he says that Jgsus would go forth into Galilee, and there commanded Phillip to follow him. In the ii 1 a . marriage in Cana is said to have taken place, and that Jesus, his mother, and disciples were there? -Can we btlieve that Jesus was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and tempted by the devil, and at tbe same time feasting at the marriage of Cana of Gallilee. If Jesus fasted 83 God, the statement that he hungered must be untrue. Is it credible that the Devil could tempt God, and that be should carry him to the top of a high mountain, and then to the pinacle of a temple P An actual devil must be God-created or the co-eternal rival of God—the Ist, income patible with his almighty goodness, the 2nd, with his almighty power. But ia it credible that he could tempt divine power?—the maker and possessor of the entire universe—by offering that which already belonged to him? How can the uncertainty as to the names of Lebbeus, Thaddeus or Judas be reconciled; here we have a difference as to the names of the Apostles. See Matthew xx, 3, Mark Jtii, 18; the first calls the 12th "deciple ' Etfbbeus, the second calls him Thaddaus ; then see the further difficulty, Luke vi, 16, confirmed by John xix, 22, where there is a disciple spoken of as Judas not Iscariot. Further consider the contradiction as to the calling of Peter. According to Matthew and the four gospels there seems to be three separate and distinct calls, and all contradictory.; all these differences require/reconciliation. The Gospels being inspired no word must be considered useless or unimportant which the Holy Ghost has made use of. I come now to consider the credibility of the miracles. Modern science has relegated all such to fraud, forgery, or conjuring. All countries abound in miracles. The Christian miracles, I presume, where intended to convince (he Jews, but that after having fed 5000 with five loaves and two fishes, his own disciples should ignore his power to perform a similar miracle for 4000 people seems to be startling. If, how-

ever, such unbelievers were pardoned by

the Apostles, living witness of these and greater wonders, surely the unbeliever of to-day—removed at a'distance of 1800 years—may be pardoned for endeavoring to investigate truth. The crucifixion and burial was on Friday. On Saturday night the body disappears from the tomb, yet Christ is reported to have said that after the manner of Jonah he should be three" days in the.heart of the earth. Now is there any evidence thai he remained 3 hours in the grave ? Matthew

says that the two Mary's went to the

grave first, John says it was Mary Magdelen alone. Mark says it was Mary and Salome. Luke says it was the two ' Mary's, Jobana, and several unmarried women. Mark says that Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdelen; .Luke to the two disciples going to Emtnaus; Matthew to the two Mary's near the sepulchre. The accounts of the ascension to heaven are so conflicting as to leave it uncertain ■whether it was on the day of resurrection

or five or six weeks later. The general

subject of casting out devils and their entering into swine may be susceptible of proof, but it taxes all powers to believe. ' Before lunacy had been scientifically inves ; tigated as at present, the beliefs and treatment of the insane now as then would be treated with contempt and punishment. Would devils address Jesus as the most

high God, and beg to be allowed to go?— God praying to himself " That this cup might pass," is a difficulty for the^most faithful to pass over. Equally difficult is it to imagine an angel able to assist or administer to his creator, and that when Jesus had so openly preached it should be necessary to betray him with a kiss. Outside these circumstances we have no

other source of knowledge. Thei life of the founder of Christianity is the central point of all Christian teaching, and it appears to me that we have no positively correct version of what Jesus said or did. The most early books of the New Testament were probably Paul's epistles—the first was written about the year 52, the so called Gospels were composed several years later. Implicit .reliance cannot be placed on records written more than a quarter of a century after the central figure had ranished from life's scene. Allowing, however, that the first records were authentic, there remains the painful fact that they are not now in existence. There does not exist in the whole' world a single MS'of any portion-of the old or new Testament which is an original, consequently we have only copies or translations of the original. None of these copies of the new Testament were written earlier than the forth century. ;Every one of the MS now in existence are in a state of mutilation of considerable incomI)leteness, and many of them are so hopeess delapidated as to be wholely illegible. Several contain numerous alterations and in some are the most palpable interpolations. No 4wo MSS either of the Hebrew or Greet scriptures verbally agree, while some of them are notoriously contradictory. About 400° out of the thousands that remain in the libraries of

.Europe have been colated; When the resieJ^&e shall have been compared many relied upon texts will have to be rejected. No doubt many, hundreds of MSS have perished in the wreck of time. May it not have been that some of the most precious have passed away never to be replaced ? If some of them.^ have been lost how are we to tell which are the genuine ones ? Allowing, however, that we possess the required records, and that the reporters of Jesus were careful to give his exact words without any embellishments of their own, let us . endeavour to test by internal examination

the authenticity of what Christ is

reported to hare enforced, and for which a further opportunity will be taken.—l am, &c, Sceptic.

The Canadian cricket team has been dissolved. In both a cricket and financial sense the tour has been a failure, and it has been wisely decided to give up the remaining matches. Three members of the team have set sail for Quebec, and the others start next week. Before the players left home most unfavorable opinions were expressed as to their chances of success, and the result has only been too fully borne out expectation. la stern contrast is the successful campaign of the Australian team, who have hitherto carried everything before them. Le Voltaire announces the death of Marshal Bazaine, and says his body, escorted 'by three Spanish soldiers, passed through Lymoges on'the. 12th. instant.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THS18800922.2.16.1

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3663, 22 September 1880, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,652

AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE. Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3663, 22 September 1880, Page 2

AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE. Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3663, 22 September 1880, Page 2

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