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Evidences of Christianity by William Paley

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1. Celsus, or the Jew whom he personates, uses these words:--"I could
say many things concerning the affairs of Jesus, and those, too,
different from those written by the disciples of Jesus; but I purposely
omit them." (Lardner, Jewish and Heathen Test. vol. ii. p. 274.) Upon
this passage it has been rightly observed, that it is not easy to
believe, that if Celsus could have contradicted the disciples upon good
evidence in any material point, he would have omitted to do so, and that
the assertion is, what Origen calls it, a mere oratorical flourish.

It is sufficient, however, to prove that, in the time of Celsus, there
were books well known, and allowed to be written by the disciples of
Jesus, which books contained a history of him. By the term disciples,
Celsus does not mean the followers of Jesus in general; for them he
calls Christians, or believers, or the like; but those who had been
taught by Jesus himself, i.e. his apostles and companions.

2. In another passage, Celsus accuses the Christians of altering the
Gospel. (Lardner, Jewish and Heathen Test. Vol. ii. p. 275.) The
accusation refers to some variations in the readings of particular
passages: for Celsus goes on to object, that when they are pressed hard,
and one reading has been confuted, they disown that, and fly to another.
We cannot perceive from Origen, that Celsus specified any particular
instances, and without such specification the charge is of no value. But
the true conclusion to be drawn from it is, that there were in the hands
of the Christians histories which were even then of some standing: for
various readings and corruptions do not take place in recent
productions.

The former quotation, the reader will remember, proves that these books
were composed by the disciples of Jesus, strictly so called; the present
quotation shows, that though objections were taken by the adversaries of
the religion to the integrity of these books, none were made to their
genuineness.

3. In a third passage, the Jew whom Celsus introduces shuts up an
argument in this manner:--"these things then we have alleged to you out
of your own writings, not needing any other weapons." (Lardner, vol. ii.
p. 276.) It is manifest that this boast proceeds upon the supposition
that the books over which the writer affects to triumph possessed an
authority by which Christians confessed themselves to be bound.

4. That the books to which Celsus refers were no other than our present
Gospels, is made out by his allusions to various passages still found in
these Gospels. Celsus takes notice of the genealogies, which fixes two
of these Gospels; of the precepts, Resist not him that injures you, and
if a man strike thee on the one cheek, offer to him the other also; of
the woes denounced by Christ; of his predictions; of his saying, That it
is impossible to serve two masters; ( Lardner, vol. ii. pp. 276-277.) Of
the purple robe, the crown of thorns, and the reed in his hand; of the
blood that flowed from the body of Jesus upon the cross, which
circumstance is recorded by John alone; and (what is instar omnium for
the purpose for which we produce it) of the difference in the accounts
given of the resurrection by the evangelists, some mentioning two angels
at the sepulchre, ethers only one. (Lardner, vol. ii. pp. 280, 281, &
283.)

It is extremely material to remark, that Celsus not only perpetually
referred to the accounts of Christ contained in the four Gospels, but
that he referred to no other accounts; that he founded none of his
objections to Christianity upon any thing delivered in spurious Gospels.
(The particulars, of which the above are only a few, are well collected
by Mr. Bryant, p. 140.)

II. What Celsus was in the second century, Porphyry became in the third.
His work, which was a large and formal treatise against the Christian
religion, is not extant. We must be content, therefore, to gather his
objections from Christian writers, who have noticed in order to answer
them; and enough remains of this species of information to prove
completely, that Porphyry's animadversions were directed against the
contents of our present Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles;
Porphyry considering that to overthrow them was to overthrow the
religion. Thus he objects to the repetition of a generation in Saint
Matthew's genealogy; to Matthew's call; to the quotation of a text from
Isaiah, which is found in a psalm ascribed to Asaph; to the calling of
the lake of Tiberius a sea; to the expression of Saint Matthew, "the
abomination of desolation;" to the variation in Matthew and Mark upon
the text, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness," Matthew citing it
from Isaias, Mark from the Prophets; to John's application of the term
"Word;" to Christ's change of intention about going up to the feast of
Tabernacles (John vii. 8); to the judgment denounced by Saint Peter upon
Ananias and Sapphira, which he calls an "imprecation of death." (Jewish
and Heathen Test. Vol. iii. p. 166, et seq.)

The instances here alleged serve, in some measure, to show the nature of
Porphyry's objections, and prove that Porphyry had read the Gospels with
that sort of attention which a writer would employ who regarded them as
the depositaries of the religion which he attacked. Besides these
specifications, there exists, in the writings of ancient Christians,
general evidence that the places of Scripture upon which Porphyry had
remarked were very numerous.

In some of the above-cited examples, Porphyry, speaking of Saint
Matthew, calls him your Evangelist; he also uses the term evangelists in
the plural number. What was said of Celsus is true likewise of Porphyry,
that it does not appear that he considered any history of Christ except
these as having authority with Christians.

III. A third great writer against the Christian religion was the emperor
Julian, whose work was composed about a century after that of Porphyry.

In various long extracts, transcribed from this work by Cyril and
Jerome, it appears, (Jewish and Heathen Test. vol. iv. p. 77, et seq.)
that Julian noticed by name Matthew and Luke, in the difference between
their genealogies of Christ that he objected to Matthew's application of
the prophecy, "Out of Egypt have I called my son" (ii. 15), and to that
of "A virgin shall conceive" (i. 23); that he recited sayings of Christ,
and various passages of his history, in the very words of the
evangelists; in particular, that Jesus healed lame and blind people, and
exorcised demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany; that he
alleged that none of Christ's disciples ascribed to him the creation of
the world, except John; that neither Paul, nor Matthew, nor Luke, nor
Mark, have dared to call Jesus God; that John wrote later than the other
evangelists, and at a time when a great number of men in the cities of
Greece and Italy were converted; that he alludes to the conversion of
Cornelius and of Sergius Paulus, to Peter's vision, to the circular
letter sent by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, which are all
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: by which quoting of the four
Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, and by quoting no other, Julian
shows that these were the historical books, and the only historical
books, received by Christians as of authority, and as the authentic
memoirs of Jesus Christ, of his apostles, and of the doctrines taught by
them. But Julian's testimony does something more than represent the
judgment of the Christian church in his time. It discovers also his own.
He himself expressly states the early date of these records; he calls
them by the names which they now bear. He all along supposes, he nowhere
attempts to question, their genuineness.

The argument in favour of the books of the New Testament, drawn from the
notice taken of their contents by the early writers against the
religion, is very considerable. It proves that the accounts which
Christians had then were the accounts which we have now; that our
present Scriptures were theirs. It proves, moreover, that neither Celsus
in the second, Porphyry in the third, nor Julian in the fourth century,
suspected the authenticity of these books, or ever insinuated that
Christians were mistaken in the authors to whom they ascribed them. Not
one of them expressed an opinion upon this subject different from that
which was holden by Christians. And when we consider how much it would
have availed them to have cast a doubt upon this point, if they could;
and how ready they showed themselves to be to take every advantage in
their power; and that they were all men of learning and inquiry: their
concession, or rather their suffrage, upon the subject is extremely
valuable.

In the case of Porphyry, it is made still stronger, by the consideration
that he did in fact support himself by this species of objection when he
saw any room for it, or when his acuteness could supply any pretence for
alleging it. The prophecy of Daniel he attacked upon this very ground of
spuriousness, insisting that it was written after the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, and maintains his charge of forgery by some far-fetched
indeed, but very subtle criticisms. Concerning the writings of the New
Testament, no trace of this suspicion is anywhere to be found in him.
(Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. i. p. 43. Marsh's
Translation.)





SECTION X.

Formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were published, in all which
our present sacred histories were included.

This species of evidence comes later than the rest; as it was not
natural that catalogues of any particular class of books should be put
forth until Christian writings became numerous; or until some writings
showed themselves, claiming titles which did not belong to them, and
thereby rendering it necessary to separate books of authority from
others. But, when it does appear, it is extremely satisfactory; the
catalogues, though numerous, and made in countries at a wide distance
from one another, differing very little, differing in nothing which is
material, and all containing the four Gospels. To this last article
there is no exception.

I. In the writings of Origen which remain, and in some extracts
preserved by Eusebius, from works of his which are now lost, there are
enumerations of the books of Scriptures, in which the Four Gospels and
the Acts of the Apostles are distinctly and honourably specified, and in
which no books appear beside what are now received. The reader, by this
time, will easily recollect that the date of Origen's works is A.D. 230.
(Lardner, Cred. vol. iii. p. 234, et seq.; vol. viii. p. 196.)

II. Athanasias, about a century afterwards, delivered a catalogue of the
books of the New Testament in form, containing our Scriptures and no
others; of which he says, "In these alone the doctrine of Religion is
taught; let no man add to them, or take anything from them." (Lardner,
Cred. vol. ii. p. 223.)

III. About twenty years after Athanasius, Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem,
set forth a catalogue of the books of Scripture, publicly read at that
time in the church of Jerusalem, exactly the same as ours, except that
the "Revelation" is omitted. (Lardner, Cred. vol. ii. p. 270.)

IV. And fifteen years after Cyril, the council of Laodicea delivered an
authoritative catalogue of canonical Scripture, like Cyril's, the same
as ours with the omission of the "Revelation."

V. Catalogues now became frequent. Within thirty years after the last
date, that is, from the year 363 to near the conclusion of the fourth
century, we have catalogues by Epiphanius, (Lardner, Cred. vol. ii. p.
368.) by Gregory Nazianzen, by Philaster, bishop of Breseia in Italy,
(Lardner, Cred. vol. ix. p. 132 & 373.) by Amphilochius, bishop of
Iconium; all, as they are sometimes called, clean catalogues (that is,
they admit no books into the number beside what we now receive); and
all, for every purpose of historic evidence, the same as
ours. (Epiphanius omits the Acts of the Apostles. This must have been an
accidental mistake, either in him or in some copyist of his work; for
he elsewhere expressly refers to this book, and ascribes it to Luke.)

VI. Within the same period Jerome, the most learned Christian writer of
his age, delivered a catalogue of the hooks of the New Testament,
recognising every book now received, with the intimation of a doubt
concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews alone, and taking not the least
notice of any book which is not now received. (Lardner, Cred. vol. x. p.
77.)

VII. Contemporary with Jerome, who lived in Palestine, was St.
Augustine, in Africa, who published likewise a catalogue, without
joining to the Scriptures, as books of authority, any other
ecclesiastical writing whatever, and without omitting one which we at
this day acknowledge. (Lardner, Cred. vol. x. p. 213.)

VIII. And with these concurs another contemporary writer, Rufen,
presbyter of Aquileia, whose catalogue, like theirs, is perfect and
unmixed, and concludes with these remarkable words: "These are the
volumes which the fathers have included in the canon, and out of which
they would have us prove the doctrine of our faith." (Lardner, Cred.
vol. x. p. 187.)





SECTION XI.

These propositions cannot be predicated of any of those books which are
commonly called Apocryphal Books of the New Testament.

I do not know that the objection taken from apocryphal writings is at
present much relied upon by scholars. But there are many, who, hearing
that various Gospels existed in ancient times under the names of the
apostles, may have taken up a notion, that the selection of our present
Gospels from the rest was rather an arbitrary or accidental choice, than
founded in any clear and certain cause of preference. To these it may be
very useful to know the truth of the case. I observe, therefore:--

I. That, beside our Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, no Christian
history, claiming to be written by an apostle or apostolical man, is
quoted within three hundred years after the birth of Christ, by any
writer now extant or known; or, if quoted, is not quoted but with marks
of censure and rejection.

I have not advanced this assertion without inquiry; and I doubt not but
that the passages cited by Mr. Jones and Dr. Lardner, under the several
titles which the apocryphal books bear; or a reference to the places
where they are mentioned as collected in a very accurate table,
published in the year 1773, by the Rev. J. Atkinson, will make out the
truth of the proposition to the satisfaction of every fair and competent
judgment. If there be any book which may seem to form an exception to
the observation, it is a Hebrew Gospel, which was circulated under the
various titles of, the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gospel of
the Nazarenes, of the Ebionites, sometimes called of the Twelve, by some
ascribed to St Matthew. This Gospel is once, and only once, cited by
Clemeus Alexandrinus, who lived, the reader will remember, in the latter
part of the second century, and which same Clement quotes one or other
of our four Gospels in almost every page of his work. It is also twice
mentioned by Origen, A.D. 230; and both times with marks of diminution
and discredit. And this is the ground upon which the exception stands.
But what is still more material to observe is, that this Gospel, in the
main, agreed with our present Gospel of Saint Matthew. (In applying to
this Gospel what Jerome in the latter end of the fourth century has
mentioned of a Hebrew Gospel, I think it probable that we sometimes
confound it with a Hebrew copy of St. Matthew's Gospel, whether an
original or version, which was then extant.)

Now if, with this account of the apocryphal Gospels, we compare what we
have read concerning the canonical Scriptures in the preceding sections;
or even recollect that general but well-founded assertion of Dr.
Lardner, "That in the remaining works of Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria, and Tertullian, who all lived in the first two centuries,
there are more and larger quotations of the small volume of the New
Testament than of all the works of Cicero, by writers of all characters,
for several ages;" (Lardner, Cred. vol. xii. p. 53.) and if to this we
add that, notwithstanding the loss of many works of the primitive times
of Christianity, we have, within the above-mentioned period, the remains
of Christian writers who lived in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt,
the part of Africa that used the Latin tongue, in Crete, Greece, Italy,
and Gaul, in all which remains references are found to our evangelists;
I apprehend that we shall perceive a clear and broad line of division
between those writings and all others pretending to similar authority.

II. But beside certain histories which assumed the names of apostles,
and which were forgeries properly so called, there were some other
Christian writings, in the whole or in part of an historical nature,
which, though not forgeries, are denominated apocryphal, as being of
uncertain or of no authority.

Of this second class of writings, I have found only two which are
noticed by any author of the first three centuries without express terms
of condemnation: and these are, the one a book entitled the Preaching of
Peter, quoted repeatedly by Clemens Alexandrinus, A.D. 196; the other a
book entitled the Revelation of Peter, upon which the above-mentioned
Clemens Alexandrinus is said by Eusebius to have written notes; and
which is twice cited in a work still extant, ascribed to the same
author.

I conceive, therefore, that the proposition we have before advanced,
even after it hath been subjected to every exception of every kind that
can be alleged, separates, by a wide interval, our historical Scriptures
from all other writings which profess to give an account of the same
subject.

We may be permitted however to add,--

1. That there is no evidence that any spurious or apocryphal books
whatever existed in the first century of the Christian era, in which
century all our historical books are proved to have been extant. "There
are no quotations of any such books in the apostolical fathers, by whom
I mean Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, whose
writings reach from about the year of our Lord 70 to the year 108 (and
some of whom have quoted each and every one of our historical
Scriptures): I say this," adds Dr. Lardner, "because I think it has been
proved." (Lardner, Cred. vol. xii. p. 158.)

2. These apocryphal writings were not read in the churches of
Christians;

3. Were not admitted into their volume;

4. Do not appear in their catalogues;

5. Were not noticed by their adversaries;

6. Were not alleged by different parties, as of authority in their
controversies;

7. Were not the subjects, amongst them, of commentaries, versions,
collections, expositions.

Finally; beside the silence of three centuries, or evidence within that
time of their rejection, they were, with a consent nearly universal,
reprobated by Christian writers of succeeding ages.

Although it be made out by these observations that the books in question
never obtained any degree of credit and notoriety which can place them
in competition with our Scriptures; yet it appears from the writings of
the fourth century, that many such existed in that century, and in the
century preceding it. It may be difficult at this distance of time to
account for their origin.

Perhaps the most probable explication is, that they were in general
composed with a design of making a profit by the sale. Whatever treated
of the subject would find purchasers. It was an advantage taken of the
pious curiosity of unlearned Christians. With a view to the same
purpose, there were many of them adapted to the particular opinions of
particular sects, which would naturally promote their circulation
amongst the favourers of those opinions. After all, they were probably
much more obscure than we imagine. Except the Gospel according to the
Hebrews, there is none of which we hear more than the Gospel of the
Egyptians; yet there is good reason to believe that Clement, a presbyter
of Alexandria in Egypt, A.D. 184, and a man of almost universal
reading, had never seen it. (Jones, vol. i. p. 243.) A Gospel according
to Peter was another of the most ancient books of this kind; yet
Serapion, bishop of Antioch, A.D. 200, had not read it, when he heard of
such a book being in the hands of the Christians of Rhossus in Cillcia;
and speaks of obtaining a sight of this Gospel from some sectaries who
used it. (Lardner, Cred. vol. ii. p. 557.) Even of the Gospel of the
Hebrews, which confessedly stands at the head of the catalogue, Jerome,
at the end of the fourth century, was glad to procure a copy by the
favour of the Nazarenes of Berea. Nothing of this sort ever happened, or
could have happened, concerning our Gospels.

One thing is observable of all the apocryphal Christian writings, viz.
that they proceed upon the same fundamental history of Christ and his
apostles as that which is disclosed in our Scriptures. The mission of
Christ, his power of working miracles, his communication of that power
to the apostles, his passion, death, and resurrection, are assumed or
asserted by every one of them. The names under which some of them came
forth are the names of men of eminence in our histories. What these
books give are not contradictions, but unauthorised additions. The
principal facts are supposed, the principal agents the same; which shows
that these points were too much fixed to be altered or disputed.

If there be any book of this description which appears to have imposed
upon some considerable number of learned Christians, it is the Sibylline
oracles; but when we reflect upon the circumstances which facilitated
that imposture, we shall cease to wonder either at the attempt or its
success. It was at that time universally understood that such a
prophetic writing existed. Its contents were kept secret. This situation
afforded to some one a hint, as well as an opportunity, to give out a
writing under this name, favourable to the already established
persuasion of Christians, and which writing, by the aid and
recommendation of these circumstances, would in some degree, it is
probable, be received. Of the ancient forgery we know but little; what
is now produced could not, in my opinion, have imposed upon any one. It
is nothing else than the Gospel history woven into verse; perhaps was at
first rather a fiction than a forgery; an exercise of ingenuity, more
than an attempt to deceive.





CHAPTER X.

RECAPITULATION.

The reader will now be pleased to recollect, that the two points which
form the subject of our present discussion are, first, that the Founder
of Christianity, his associates, and immediate followers, passed their
lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings; secondly, that they did so in
attestation of the miraculous history recorded in our Scriptures, and
solely in consequence of their belief of the truth of that history.

The argument, by which these two propositions have been maintained by
us, stands thus:

No historical fact, I apprehend, is more certain, than that the original
propagators of Christianity voluntarily subjected themselves to lives of
fatigue, danger, and suffering, in the prosecution of their undertaking.
The nature of the undertaking; the character of the persons employed in
it; the opposition of their tenets to the fixed opinions and
expectations of the country in which they first advanced them; their
undissembled condemnation of the religion of all other countries; their
total want of power, authority, or force--render it in the highest
degree probable that this must have been the case. The probability is
increased by what we know of the fate of the Founder of the institution,
who was put to death for his attempt; and by what we also know of the
cruel treatment of the converts to the institution, within thirty years
after its commencement: both which points are attested by heathen
writers, and, being once admitted, leave it very incredible that the
primitive emissaries of the religion, who exercised their ministry,
first, amongst the people who had destroyed their Master, and,
afterwards, amongst those who persecuted their converts, should
themselves escape with impunity, or pursue their purpose in ease and
safety. This probability, thus sustained by foreign testimony, is
advanced, I think, to historical certainty, by the evidence of our own
books; by the accounts of a writer who was the companion of the persons
whose sufferings he relates; by the letters of the persons themselves by
predictions of persecutions ascribed to the Founder of the religion,
which predictions would not have been inserted in his history, much less
have been studiously dwelt upon, if they had not accorded with the
event, and which, even if falsely ascribed to him, could only have been
so ascribed, because the event suggested them; lastly, by incessant
exhortations to fortitude and patience, and by an earnestness,
repetition, and urgency upon the subject, which were unlikely to have
appeared if there had not been, at the time, some extraordinary call for
the exercise of these virtues.

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