in a similar manner.

This parallelism is much more

credible by faith than by reason.*

2

Acts tells us that in the council of the disciples held in Jerusalem about 42 A. D. Peter delivered an address in which he said, "A good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel." In his account of that same meeting Paul says: "James, Cephas [Peter], and John,

gave to me and. Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision [the Jews]." These two statements cannot be explained in such a manner as to bring them into harmony.3

The author of Acts, writing as if he had been a companion of Paul in his last visit to Judea, says: “And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they heard it, they said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous [observers] of the [Mosaic] law. And they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the [Mosaic] customs. What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together [to mob thee], for they will hear that thou art Do therefore this that we say to thee. We have four men which have a vow on them. Take them and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads; and all may know that

come.

those things [accusations] whereof they were informed concerning thee are nothing [that is, are false]; but thou thyself also walkest orderly and keepest the law. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple. And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on him, and went about to kill him." From this mob

Paul was rescued by the Roman soldiers.

In this story Acts informs us that the apostle advised Paul to take a solemn oath in the temple, according to a customary formula, that he did not advise his Jewish converts to neglect the Mosaic ceremonies; and that he took the oath. In his epistles he distinctly conveys the idea that he taught all his converts to consider the Mosaic law as entirely abrogated for all Christians, whether converted Jews or Gentiles. Here we see that if we believe Paul we must disbelieve Acts.

The tradition that Luke was a companion of Paul and wrote at his request is discredited by the epistles of the latter, which do not mention the third gospel, do not quote any passage in it, do not commend Luke as an author, or as a person familiar with sacred history, and by implication, reject the ascetic and communistic ideas of the gospel and of Acts. The second epistle of Timothy, a document of doubtful genuineness, though it purports to have been written in Rome by Paul, says, "Luke is with me;" and that is the only mention in the Bible of a person named Luke, except in the heading of the third gospel, and the headings of the biblical books were all added by the copyists.

The gospel of Luke is further discredited by the fact

that it is not an original work. In many passages, its author has copied not only the information and arrangement, but also the phraseology of an older book; and this copying is not limited to the sayings attributed to Jesus, but extends to other material. The plagiarized passages make up a considerable part of the third evangel, and that they were taken from an older book is proved conclusively.

5

SEC. 508. Matthew.—The gospel of Matthew, like that of Luke, is a compilation from Mark or from an older document similar to Mark, but is earlier in date than Luke, and yet is treated by the last as if it deserved no credit. The story of Jesus in the first evangel is written with a vagueness which implies that its author had no direct knowledge of the movements of Jesus, and of the circumstances under which he delivered the various sayings attributed to him.

The personal movements of Jesus from the beginning of his Messianic career until his final arrival in Jerusalem just before his crucifixion are thus stated in the gospel of Matthew. He went about all Galilee; he went into a mountain; he came down from the mountain; he entered into Capernaum; he went into the country of the Gergesenes; he came to his own city; he passed forth from thence; he departed thence; he went about all the cities and villages; he departed thence; he went into their synagogue; he withdrew himself from thence; he withdrew himself and sat by the seaside; he departed thence; he came into his own country; he taught in their synagogue; he departed thence; he went into a mountain; he went to the sea; he came to the land of Gennesaret; he went to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon; he went into a mountain near the Sea of Galilee; he came into the

coasts of Magdala; he went to Cæsarea Philippi; he went into a mountain; he visited Capernaum; he went to Judea beyond the Jordan; and by way of Jericho he went to Jerusalem.

In this list, twenty-nine movements are mentioned and on ten of these occasions Jesus went to a mountain, a plain, or the seaside, without precise statement of the place; and on six other occasions it is said that "he departed thence" without designation of the place from which or to which he went; and on one occasion after "he departed thence" his next movement was another departure “thence," without further topographical explanation. As to chronology, the gospel of Matthew is even more vague than in regard to locality. It does not specify the year of any occurrence, nor the month of any event save the last visit to Jerusalem and its incidents.

In the matter of persons the gospel of Matthew lacks precision as much as in regard to dates and places. Its miraculous cures, in their order as successively reported, include those of a leper, a palsied servant of a centurion, Peter's mother-in-law sick with a fever, a paralytic, a woman with an ulcer, a lunatic, a paralytic, a blind lunatic, a lunatic daughter of a Canaanitish woman, a lunatic, a pair of lunatics, two pairs of blind men, and on five different occasions two or more people sick or possessed by devils. We are also told that Jesus restored to life the dead daughter of "a certain ruler." In reference to all these miraculous cures, no date is given; in most instances no place is mentioned; and in only one case is a name specified, and that Peter's mother-in-law. The centurion appealed in person to Jesus for help, but his name is not recorded, nor is that of the ruler or of his daughter.

In the account of the movements of Jesus, of his miracles, and of his speeches, extending over the period of a year at least, there is no precise mention of any house in which he lodged, of any host who entertained him, or of any convert whom he made after he selected his apostles. And according to tradition, this gospel was written in the tongue of Judea, by a Jew, for the use of the Jewish people, while the words and deeds of Jesus were still familiar to many living persons who had seen and heard him, who knew the sick whom he had cured, the houses where he stopped, and the people who had been his hosts.

The last supper eaten in Jerusalem was an important event in the life of Jesus, and must have been a most impressive and solemn event to the apostles, but the gospel of Matthew does not designate the house in which it was held, by the name of its owner, by its street, by its quarter of the city, or by any mark that would enable those interested to recall it or to discover it. The destruction of the city in 70 A. D. by the Romans, and the death of the owner of the house, would not excuse the silence about particulars that must have been interesting to people still surviving, if the gospel was published about 70 A. D., as tradition says it was.

We may be sure that Jesus never spoke the words attributed to him in the closing verses of the gospel of Matthew. He did not say to his apostles, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The apostles did not consider themselves instructed to teach all nations, and they did not baptize anybody "in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." That phrase was unknown to Paul, Mark, Luke, and