quoted by Tertullian: there is good reason to think that it was made even much earlier than this. Now these Versions furnish a most important external or historical evidence for the antiquity and genuineness of the New Testament, since it must necessarily have existed previously to the making of them; and a book which was so early and so universally read throughout the East in the Syriac, and throughout Europe and Africa in the Latin, must be able to lay a wellfounded and indisputable claim to a high antiquity; while the correspondence of these Versions with the existing copies of the original attests the genuineness, if not the authenticity, of the latter. SECTION IV. INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE GENUINENESS OF THE BIBLICAL BOOKS. 1. PROFESSOR HUG has introduced the discussion of the internal evidence for the genuineness of the historical books of the New Testament in the following manner: "Should any one, without knowing any thing further of them, anywhere unexpectedly find them, and being thus furnished with them, open them with the necessary scrutiny, what opinion would such a man form of their origin, age, and composers, solely from their internal state?" From the answer which the learned and acute writer has given to this inquiry, the following particulars are abridged: (1) A person into whose possession the books of the New Testament should thus come, would say that they were written in Greek; yet in none of the proper dialects of that language, but with a variation of expression and construction, which is so frequently approximated to the Hebrew, in the use of words and in grammatical connexion, that he would account the authors to have been Jews who spoke the Greek language. This exactly accords with the representation of the case, as it is made out by the Christian writers. the Christians say of these books, namely, that they were written by native Jews of plebeian origin and rank, without any literary education, who were, either as eye-witnesses, or by means of eye-witnesses, informed of the events which they have described. (3) The perfect description of the age and country-of the municipal regulations and manners-of the history and geography-and of the circumstances under which the events narrated in the New Testament occurred, is such as could have been given by none but contemporary writers. (4) The incidental agreement subsisting between these writings and the ascertained events and circumstances of the times, is, of all others, perhaps, the most convincing evidence that they were penned at the time and in the places to which they are ascribed. Thus were the Jews circumstanced, as the New Testament implies. with reference to foreign nations and regulations which crept into their system, and gave to their national condition a bias which it first had under Herod the Great, but never afterwards.— (a) The invidious question of the census contains in it all the re-awakened prejudices of the Jews, and exhibits their disposition towards the Romans as it really was (Josephus, Wars, b. ii., c. 12). The precept of reconciliation in Matt. v. 25, was enjoined in every item with a view to the Roman law de injuriis, according to which the complainant, with his own hand, dragged the accused before the judge, without magisterial summons, in jus rapit, yet, according to which, on the road, an agreement, transactio, remains open to him; but should not this be accomplished, the mulct assuredly awaits him, which if he does not discharge, he continues in prison until its liquidation. (b) When our Lord is in conversation or company with publicans, the Roman system of farming and its oppressions are every where displayed. When he drives with scourges the money-brokers from the temple, we perceive the consequence of the Roman dominion, and the influence of foreign manners, which allowed the money-changers to place their usurious tables by the statues of the (2) These books also contain so little of science and the historic art, that they manifestly are the essays of uneducated men, who, with the excep-gods, even in the most holy places.* We also tion of a certain acquaintance with the Jewish writings, lay no pretensions to information and literature. The narration itself is so constituted, that it represents them, notwithstanding its brevity, as having the demeanour of persons engaged in traffic; it depicts their situation and motion from place to place, the parts which the spectators bore, their expressions, their actions, and their appearance. This also is precisely what observe, in the conduct of our Saviour upon the occasion referred to, the extent of the Roman toleration. This permitted no encroachments in the temples and religions of other nations; and therefore a private Jew, unmolested, maintained the honour of HIS temple, from which, in Rome, no laws could have screened him. Horace, Epist. lib. i., ep. 1. (c) The parable in Matt. xviii. 23, represents a | cumstances, or those invented by themselves. The king, that is, a tetrarch, who, as far as himself and more circumstantial this picture was, and the his own affairs were concerned, was not under the more accurately it was present to their mind, so Roman law. He consequently proceeds according much the more is it demonstrated that they saw to the ancient Jewish law. But the sequel, which these very times. relates to a common man, contains an appeal to the Roman laws against the oberatos, in consequence of which the debtor who does not pay is called upon by his creditor, who instantly arrests him, and detains him in his house as a prisoner, as one delivered up to his will. The harshness of this law was indeed mitigated by a subsequent one; yet afterwards, and at this time, it had returned to its former severity, as it here appears in the parable. (4) This admixture of manners and constitutions forcibly proceeded through numberless circumstances of life. Take, for example, the circulation of coin. At one time it is Greek coin; at another, Roman; at another, ancient Jewish. But how carefully was even this managed, according to the history and the arrangement of things! The ancient imposts, which were introduced before the Roman dominion, were valued according to the Greek coinage: e. g., the taxes of the temple, the didrachma, Matt. xvii. 24, margin. The offerings were paid in these, Mark xii. 42; Luke xxi. 2. A payment which proceeded from the temple treasury was made according to the ancient national payment, by weight, Matt. xxvi. 15. But in common business, trade, wages, sale, &c., the assarius and denarius, and Roman coin were usual, Matt. x. 29; Luke xii. 6; Matt. xx. 2; Mark xiv. 5; John xii. 5, vi. 7. The more modern state taxes are likewise paid in the coin of the nation, which exercises at the time the greatest authority, Matt. xxii. 19; Mark xii. 15; Luke xx. 24. Writers who, in each little circumstance, which otherwise would pass by unnoticed, so accurately describe the period of time, must certainly have had a personal knowledge of it. (5) The epistolary writings, also, have internal marks, or, as they are called, the impression of a particular age, as well with respect to the materials as to the form. (a) As far as relates to the materials, these writings are not general treatises, without a country and a distinct object; they were called forth by occasions and circumstances compulsory on the writers, and were therefore adapted to particular situations and readers, and their individual necessities. Since these are confirmed in other documents; since the picture of the times which the authors preserve in them, as they write these memoirs, has historical truth; we easily perceive that the writers did not labour on arbitrary cir (b) But in addition to this, in the Acts of the Apostles we meet with a considerable number of undesigned data, negligently scattered here and there, which now and then relate to the persons, or are connected with other incidents, mentioned in the epistles, or promise even further instructions for their accidental elucidation. Where, then, we observe such an historical and obvious directory belonging to them, and connect these memoirs with them, we cannot but remark between them a harmony which is particularly requisite to the epistles, which, according to their own pretensions, claim a connexion with these events.* (c) If we afterwards pay attention to the local weaknesses, imperfections, and errors which are censured in Paul's epistles, for the correction of which they were designed; namely, in Crete, Corinth, Ephesus; if we pay attention to these, in the Greek and Roman authors, where some such traits are incidentally reprobated; we may often make the agreeable discovery, that our epistles have accurately treated of the errors of the age, or the local imperfections noticed in each epistle, and have sometimes delineated them strongly in satire and seriousness. (d) The system of morality, too, which is developed in the writings of Paul, Peter, and John, is. unique in its character. It is not the peculiar and mechanical virtue of the Jews; it is not the virtue of the Greeks; it is not the political and warlike virtue of the Romans; not the virtue of the porch or of the academy; not even a sophisticated and declamatory wisdom of this life. It is the virtue of Jesus Christ, as he had proposed it in the gospels. No person, scarcely, can read the morality of the epistles without concluding that those who propounded it were, as they have represented themselves, the hearers and disciples of Jesus. (e) Upon the form of these writings, that is, the arrangement and mode of treating things, the method of adducing proofs to support assertions, and the style and diction, many and interesting remarks might be offered, by way of confirming the argument. But this belongs to a higher branch *This argument has been felicitously managed by Paley, in his "Hora Paulina, or the truth of the Scripture history of St. Paul evinced by a comparison of his Epistles with the Acts of the Apostles." We may even invert the case, as he has stated it in his title. of the inquiry than that to which our readers are | indefatigable and successful labours in planting supposed to have attained, and it must therefore Christian churches, and furthering the designs of be left for their future consideration. 2. From what has been said, we arrive at the conclusion, that the books of the New Testament were written in the age to which they refer, and by the persons whose names they bear; that is, that they are genuine, and not spurious or supposititious writings. SECTION V. THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLICAL BOOKS. the gospel, in different parts of Judea, Syria, Asia | Minor, Greece, and Rome ; the whole being interspersed with relations of various discourses and miracles, developing the nature and attesting the divine origin of that religious system which was thus introduced and established by Jesus Christ. The second class of books are didactic and epistolary, consisting of letters which were addressed by Paul, Peter, James, and John (all of them apostles), to the various churches which were planted either by themselves or their fellowlabourers, and to certain individuals who were personally acquainted with the writers, and were We have now ascertained two things; the first, engaged in the same cause. But the epistles are that the books of the New Testament were written not exclusively didactic or preceptive; they conby the persons to whom they are now attributed; tain a large portion of historical matter, and, in the second, that they were published at or about connexion with the Acts of the Apostles, furnish the times to which they are now referred. These a succinct, though in many respects a particular constitute the genuineness of the sacred books, which and detailed, account of the early progress of the we may now, therefore, consider to have been esta-gospel, and of the first Christian communities. blished. But another, and an equally important, The third class comprises only the Book of Revequestion remains for determination; namely, are lation, which is of a mixed character, being partly these books authentic, or true? Do they give a didactic and hortatory, and partly historical and faithful delineation of the history and character of prophetic. It comprises, in its latter character, a Jesus Christ, and of that religious system which he | history of the Christian church, and so much of promulgated and founded? This question, it will the world as is inseparably connected with it, from be seen, is not involved in the one we have hitherto the time of Domitian, at the close of the first been considering; it requires a separate and inde- century, to the end of the world. Such is, briefly, pendent species of proof, and to this we now in- the character of the New Testament writings, and vite attention. In the prosecution of such an the subject matter which they contain. They inquiry, the following considerations naturally develope the origin, progress, and final establishpresent themselves to the mind :— ment of that system of religion which superseded the Levitical economy, annihilated the idolatry of paganism, and triumphed over the most fierce and cruel persecutions. I. Is it possible to conceive that the books composing the New Testament should ever have been received as authentic, by any number of persons, at any period of time, if they had not possessed all the necessary evidences and proofs of their having been true? 1. It is necessary, in the determination of this question, to advert to the character of those trans- | actions which form the subject of the New Testament books; for upon this, chiefly, depends the impossibility of their imposition on the world as authentic writings, if they had been but fabricated and spurious stories. The books of the New Testament, then, consist of three distinct classes. The first class consists of narratives, embracing an account of the miraculous birth-the public recognition-the active ministry-the violent deaththe extraordinary resurrection-the subsequent transactions and the ascension to heaven, of Jesus Christ; with distinct notices of the calling and commission of the apostles their conduct during the personal ministry of Christ, and also subsequent to his departure from the world-and their 2. It should be borne in mind, that every part of these writings represents the occurrences connected with the introduction and establishment of Christianity to have been of a decisively miraculous character. The Saviour's conception-his public designation to the ministry-his works of charity and mercy-his resurrection from the tomb-and his ascent to heaven, were all events and occurrences of an unparalleled character, and placed very far beyond the reach of merely human agency. They were, in fact, what they purported to be (that is, if they really took place), so many demonstrations of the divine character of their subject and author, and, as a necessary consequence, of that system of religion which he founded in the world. 3. Now, it has been already shown, that the books containing these narratives and epistles were published at or about the times in which the events spoken of occurred, and also in the same part of the world. They were appealed to as genuine and authentic documents, in common by all parties-orthodox and heretical, Christian and pagan-so early as the second century; that is, within a few years after the events which they narrate transpired. Several of them were addressed to the very persons said to have witnessed the miraculous occurrences, and to have listened to the divine discourses; who are also appealed to for the truth of the representations put forth, although they are not unfrequently reproved for their want of consistency, or their nonconformity to the requisitions of the gospel; and the avowed object of the whole of them is to demonstrate that the principal person to whom they refer, and whose religion was attested by so many and incontrovertible miracles, was the Son of God, and the Saviour of all who believe, John xx. 31. 4. After this recapitulation of the character and design of the New Testament writings, brief and imperfect as it is, it may be safely left for the reader to determine, whether their reception as genuine and authentic books can be rationally accounted for upon the supposition that they were forged and false. The events which they narrate and presuppose are assumed, upon the grounds previously stated, to have been fresh in the recollection of the world, and to have been transacted so publicly that none could have been ignorant of their occurrence. Under such circumstances, we are fairly entitled to say, that the books of the New Testament could never have obtained even the slightest degree of attention. Their falsehood would have been so obvious, and their attempted imposition so impudent, that they could not have failed to excite the contempt and derision of every person under whose notice they fell. 5. But it is not necessary to the argument, that these books should have been published so near to the times in which the events occurred; it will be equally conclusive, to whatever period of time their publication may be assigned. Let it be assumed, by an objector, in spite of the evidence adduced to the contrary, that the books of the New Testament did not make their appearance till fifty, a hundred, or even five hundred years after the occurrences they narrate and refer to are stated to have happened; the difficulty in the way of supposing them, in their main and most important particulars (those upon which all the rest depend) to be untrue, will be equally great. forth, among other remarkable occurrences, that at the period referred to a man of unusual appearance and of singular manners presented himself to the notice of the public, professing to be invested with the prophetic character, and commissioned to prepare the world for another divine messenger, more eminent than himself, whom God was about to send forth upon some special mission ;-that he required all who were willing to become his disciples, not only to repent of their vicious conduct. and henceforth to live in an exemplary manner, but also to be publicly initiated into their new profession by the rite of baptism;-that not only a few persons complied with his injunctions, but that such multitudes from the metropolis and its vicinity submitted to his ritual ordinance, that it might be said, without impropriety, "all London, Westminster, and Southwark went out and were baptized of him ;"—that while he was thus employed, the prophet whom he had announced made his appearance, and, after having been publicly baptized, was proclaimed, by an audible voice from heaven, and the descent upon him of a visible symbol of the Holy Spirit, to be divinely appointed to teach the will of God, and to unfold the nature of his kingdom;—that he now entered upon his public ministry-taught doctrines the most pure and beneficent, and of the first importance to mankind-laid down a system of morals superior to any that the world had before seen, and, in order to demonstrate the divinity of his mission, wrought openly, and in the presence of multitudes-even of those who were bitterly incensed against him—the most stupendous miracles; such as, at one time feeding a multitude of five thousand persons with five loaves and two fishes, at another time satisfying the hunger of more than four thousand with seven loaves and a few small fishes; upon several occasions raising the deadcuring the lame-unstopping the ears of the deaf loosing the tongues of the dumb-opening the eyes of the blind-cleansing lepers-casting out devils—in a word, healing all manner of the most inveterate diseases, with a word or a touch; and this in the most public though unostentatious manner; that the effect of his teaching and miracles was to convert many of his countrymen, among all ranks of society, who, in their turn, and under his direction, became zealous advocates of his system, and were competent witnesses of his actions and works;-that he at length delivered himself up to his enemies, was condemned as an 6. Let us put a case. Suppose that a book impostor, and publicly put to death ;—that when he were now, for the first time, to make its appearance, expired, darkness overspread the land for the space purporting to be a narrative of extraordinary events of three hours-the rocks rent-the graves opened which had occurred in this country fifty, a hun---and many who had been previously buried came dred, or even five hundred years since ;--that it set forth from their places of sepulture, and were been notorious before the appearance of this work; and that, although the lapse of several hundred years, and the variation to which traditionary testi between the written document and the floating tradition, there would yet be a sufficient conformity to yield proof of their identity? There is, in fact, no conceivable way in which the supposed pro persons, as an authentic record of facts. And this was our postulatum.† 8. In this view, of the case, the question at issue between the Christian and the unbeliever is brought into a very limited compass. The fact of the bare existence of the New Testament books, and of the religious system which they seen alive in the city;-that his body, after hang- | narrative was true, the events recorded must have ing for some hours upon the cross, was taken down, and laid in a new sepulchre, which was carefully sealed, and surrounded by a guard of soldiers, placed there by the persons most deter-mony is liable, might induce some discrepancies minately opposed to his pretensions, and who, in fact, had put him to death;-that on the third morning, however, he left the sepulchre, unknown to the guard, rejoined his disciples, associated with them for the space of forty days, and then, induction could obtain credit with any number of their presence, ascended into heaven;-that shortly after this occurrence, his disciples, who were assembled in a large room, agreeably to his instructions, were suddenly endued with the power of speaking various languages with ease and fluency, to the great astonishment of a multitude of strangers who listened to their discourses;-that from this time their characters underwent a most re-develope, is obviously certain and indisputable: markable change, their timidity and fear giving place to invincible courage and fortitude ;-that they boldly, and in face of the most imminent danger, proclaimed the extraordinary occurrences of their master's life, and laboured indefatigably to induce their countrymen and others, who had witnessed his actions and listened to his discourses, to receive him as the Messiah, and rely upon him as the Saviour;-that their labours were so successful that in one day, and in the very place where their divine Master had frequently taught and wrought miracles, three thousand persons were convinced of the truth of their testimony, and embraced the new religion; and that within the space of a few years many of the neighbouring states became proselytes to the faith, and submitted themselves to its requirements;—and that these men, after having undergone the most fiery trials, and submitted to the most cruel and protracted sufferings, yielded themselves up to violent deaths, to attest, not be it observed the sincerity of their opinions, but the truth of their statements, in regard to matters of fact. 7. Now, we ask, if a work containing a narrative so unusual and so extraordinary as this, stating the events recorded to have happened in the places where it was published and read, and pointing to certain existing observances,* as having been originally prescribed to commemorate some of these very events, while the whole was a gross fabrication, having had no existence but in the mind of its author or authors, can it be conceived possible, that it should, by any device, be imposed upon the world, and obtain the credit of an authentic history? Would not the common sense of mankind lead them to argue, that if the As the religious observance of the first day of the week, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper. the sole question, therefore, is, how these books started into existence, and what are their pretensions to be received as divine? The Christian assigns to them an origin, not only perfectly reasonable and consistent in themselves, but which is also supported as we have already seen, and as we shall presently see more fully-by the concurrent testimony of antiquity, in a regular and unbroken series, from the time at which they were introduced down to the present day. The unbeliever rejects these evidences, which in every other case are held to be sufficient and conclusive, and calls upon us to assign to them some unknown and inconceivable origin, which cannot be done without involving a monstrous tissue of absurdities, and unhinging all historical evidence. Whose conduct is the more reasonable, or worthy of a rational creature? Let the reader determine for himself. II. Is it possible to assign to the writers of the New Testament any adequate motive for their undertaking, on the supposition that it does not contain an authentic statement of facts? 1. It may be conceived that this inquiry is superfluous, after it has been shown, that whatever the motives of the New Testament penmen might have been, it would have been impossible to have procured any credit for their writings had they not been supported by adequate proofs of their authenticity. And so, in truth, it is, except in as far as it furnishes an additional argument for demonstrating the unreasonableness and irrationality For the authenticity of the books of the New Testament, a much stronger case, even upon this ground, might be made out, could we enter into detail. The impossibility of their forgery, however, has been sufficiently shown, though the argument is capable of confirmation by many additional considerations. Upon this topic, Faber's Difficulties of Infidelity may be read with advantage. |