HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 15, 9 August 1873, Page 14

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abb 6J. E. Dakbas. (Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tablet.)

Chapter II —Preparation for the Gospel.— § I. Vision of Zaohary. 1. Zaohabt, Fathbb o* St. John the Baptist. — The Angel Gabbiel at the Altab of Pek*umes. " Thkbe was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth. And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame. And they had no Bon, for that Elizabeth was barren ; and they both were well advanced in years. And it came to pass when he executed the prieetly function in the order of his course before God. According to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord. And all the multitude of the people was praying without at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zachary seeing him was troubled, and fear fell upon him ; but the angel said to him : Fear net, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard 5 and thy wife Elizabeth hall bear thee a son, and thou Bhalt call his name John. And thou halt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity.

For he shall be great before the Lord : and shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghoßt even from his mother's womb. And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias ; that be may turn the hearts of the father* unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.' And Zachary said to the angel : * Whereby shall I know this ? for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.' And the angel answering said to him : *I am Gabriel who stand before God ; and am sent to speak to thee, and to bring these good tidings And behold thou shalfc be dumb, and Bhalt not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to pass ; because thou hast not believed my words, which stall be fulfilled in their time. And the people was waiting for Zachary ; and they wondered that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out he could not speak to them, and they understood that he had seen a vision ia the temple. And he made signs to them, and remained dumb. And jit came to pass, after the days of Ins office were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days Elizabeth his wife conceived, and hid herself five months, saying : « Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the Says wherem He hath had regard to take away my reproach amonsf men.' " (1) ° 2. extbinsic peoofs op thb authenticity ox thb gospeti Nabbativh. t- This page opens the evangelical narrative. If; is drawn from the' "" first chapter of St. Luke, which chapter, along with the second, all the Rationulists agree in ranking among the legendary interpretations added to the original recital by the credulity of subsequent ages (2). A miracle, at the outset of tile history of Jesus Christ ! The Rationalists cannot bring themselves to admit it. It is then in the name of natural order, immutable in its laws, as science has revealed them that the power is denied to God of manifesting His oracles to a Jewish priest, and of speaking to him by the ministry of an angel ! Unfortunatelj for the disciples of Strauss, the miracle this time prevails over them on all sides. To escape that of the vision of Zachary, they precipitate themselves into a whole series of prodigies. The first page of St. Luke, according to you, is an apocryphal addition. Be it so. Then it is the pen of forgery that has written on the cradle of John the Baptist this sentence : " The multitude will rejoice on the day of his nativity." Yet if this prophecy is the work of an impostor, why nas it been realised ? Why is it that each year the day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist is celebrated over the entire world ? Are there many persons, think you, in the world at present who know or oelebrate the birthday of Alexander or C»sar ? Yet these latter made & sufficiently illustrious figure in history. And behold, over the cradle of an obscure child of Aaron, an impostor, a forger predicts that the world will never lose the memory of so glorious a nativity ! This prophecy—incredible, absurd, if viewed in tbe light of an his. toric probability — is nevertheless accomplished to the very letter. After eighteen hundred and seventy years the world persists in celebrating the birth of John the Baptist. In two thousand years to come, if the universe be destined to reach that age, it will be the same* and you will find that quite natural. A legend ! nothing is easier to imagine ; but to introduce it into the evangelical text, more obstacles »re to be met with than the Bationalists seemo to think. St. Luke in the four verses which form the prologue to his Gospel, and the mthenticity of which has never been called in question by any known sxegetist, gives notice that he resumes the historic recital of the [ncarnation from the begiiming(3), and that he will pursue it according to the chronological order(4). Such are the two features which tie points out beforehand as being exclusively characteristic of bis work. Now, the two first chapters of St. Lube— that is to say, the birth of John the Baptist and the history of the first years of Jesus Dhrist— beiug suppressed, in what would the Gospel of St. Luke be iistinguished from that of St. Mark, since it commences like the latter with the baptism of the Jordan ?(5). How would he justify the intention previously implied of resuming the recital from the begin-ning—-that is to say, further back^even than St. Matthew, who starts only from the Annunciation ? St. Luke could not-have understood his own meaning, then, when he was tracing, with his inspired pen, the prologue of his Gospel? And here is a second miracle which the Rationalists will have to submit to in compensation for that of the vision of Zachary, which shocks them so much. They will explain how an evangelist, who did not understand his own meaning, has been able to subjugate the fate of the universe. This is not all. This impostor, this falsifier, who, in the second or third century, is said to have interpolated the legend of St. John the Baptist, must needs have been a true thaumaturgus-in order to succeed. His greatest miracle would have consisted in rendering himself invisible. In effect, no one saw him, no one suspected him, in the whole series of Chri&U'Sn history ; he escaped all researches. Origen, in the year 200, had not seen him ; and to escape the notice of Origen, more than ordinary skill was necessary. But, above all, in the year 150, Celsus, the pagan, the enemy of the Gospels, did not see him. To elude his gaze, so full of hatred, would require finesse almost approaching to a miracle. Now, Celsus, the philosopher, cites the first chapter of St. Luke, and he takes occasion to endeavor to tarnish the immaculate name of Mary (6). Where, then, make place for your invisible forger in an historical period so scrupulously guarded ? Tertullian, Irenseus, prior to Origen, did not know him. St. Papias, whose precious testimony Eusebius notes with so much care, had not the least suspicion of his existence. Keep, then, along with your other myths, these miraculous apocrypha. The first page of St. Luke could not have been invented aa an after stroke by a posthumous forger.

(I) Luc. i. 6—25; (2) Vie de Jesus, introd., pag. Hi; (3) Luo. 1, 3; (4) Ibid; (5) Marc 1 ; (6) Origen, Contra Celsum, lib, i. cap. xxxix.