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Evidences of Christianity by William Paley

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Now it ought to be observed that the argument which is built upon these
examples extends both to the authenticity of the books, and to the
truth of the narrative; for it is improbable that the forger of a
history in the name of another should have inserted such passages into
it: and it is improbable, also, that the persons whose names the books
hear should have fabricated such passages; or even have allowed them a
place in their work, if they had not believed them to express the truth.

The following observation, therefore, of Dr. Lardner, the most candid of
all advocates, and the most cautious of all inquirers, seems to be well
founded:--"Christians are induced to believe the writers of the Gospel
by observing the evidences of piety and probity that appear in their
writings, in which there is no deceit, or artifice, or cunning, or
design." "No remarks," as Dr. Beattie hath properly said, "are thrown in
to anticipate objections; nothing of that caution which never fails to
distinguish the testimony of those who are conscious of imposture; no
endeavour to reconcile the reader's mind to what may be extraordinary in
the narrative."

I beg leave to cite also another author, (Duchal, pp. 97, 98.) who has
well expressed the reflection which the examples now brought forward
were intended to suggest. "It doth not appear that ever it came into the
mind of these writers to consider how this or the other action would
appear to mankind, or what objections might be raised upon them. But
without at all attending to this, they lay the facts before you, at no
pains to think whether they would appear credible or not. If the reader
will not believe their testimony, there is no help for it: they tell
the truth and attend to nothing else. Surely this looks like sincerity,
and that they published nothing to the world but that they believed
themselves."

As no improper supplement to this chapter, I crave a place here for
observing the extreme naturalness of some of the things related in the
New Testament.

Mark ix. 23. "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are
possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child
cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine
unbelief." This struggle in the father's heart, between solicitude for
the preservation of his child, and a kind of involuntary distrust of
Christ's power to heal him, is here expressed with an air of reality
which could hardly be counterfeited.

Again (Matt. xxi. 9), the eagerness of the people to introduce Christ
into Jerusalem, and their demand, a short time afterwards, of his
crucifixion, when he did not turn out what they expected him to be, so
far from affording matter of objection, represents popular favour in
exact agreement with nature and with experience, as the flux and reflux
of a wave.

The rulers and Pharisees rejecting Christ, whilst many of the common
people received him, was the effect which, in the then state of Jewish
prejudices, I should have expected. And the reason with which they who
rejected Christ's mission kept themselves in countenance, and with which
also they answered the arguments of those who favoured it, is precisely
the reason which such men usually give:--"Have any of the Scribes or
Pharisees believed on him?" (John vii. 48.)

In our Lord's conversation at the well (John iv. 29), Christ had
surprised the Samaritan woman with an allusion to a single particular in
her domestic situation, "Thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou
now hast is not thy husband." The woman, soon after this, ran back to
the city, and called out to her neighbours, "Come, see a man which told
me all things that ever I did." This exaggeration appears to me very
natural; especially in the hurried state of spirits into which the woman
may be supposed to have been thrown.

The lawyer's subtilty in running a distinction upon the word neighbour,
in the precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," was no less
natural than our Saviour's answer was decisive and satisfactory. (Luke
x. 20.) The lawyer of the New Testament, it must be observed, was a
Jewish divine.

The behaviour of Gallio (Acts xviii. 12-17), and of Festus (xxv. 18,
19), have been observed upon already.

The consistency of Saint Paul's character throughout the whole of his
history (viz. the warmth and activity of his zeal, first against, and
then for, Christianity) carries with it very much of the appearance of
truth.

There are also some properties, as they may be called, observable in the
Gospels; that is, circumstances separately suiting with the situation,
character, and intention of their respective authors.

Saint Matthew, who was an inhabitant of Galilee, and did not join
Christ's society until some time after Christ had come into Galilee to
preach, has given us very little of his history prior to that period.
Saint John, who had been converted before, and who wrote to supply
omissions in the other Gospels, relates some remarkable particulars
which had taken place before Christ left Judea, to go into Galilee.
(Hartley's Observations, vol. ii. p. 103.)

Saint Matthew (xv. 1) has recorded the cavil of the Pharisees against
the disciples of Jesus, for eating "with unclean hands." Saint Mark has
also (vii. 1) recorded the same transaction (taken probably from Saint
Matthew), but with this addition: "For the Pharisees, and all the Jews,
except they wash their hands often, eat not, holding the tradition of
the elders: and when they come from the market, except they wash, they
eat not: and many other things there be which they have received to
hold, as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables."
Now Saint Matthew was not only a Jew himself, but it is evident, from
the whole structure of his Gospel, especially from his numerous
references to the Old Testament, that he wrote for Jewish readers. The
above explanation, therefore, in him, would have been unnatural, as not
being wanted by the readers whom he addressed. But in Mark, who,
whatever use he might make of Matthew's Gospel, intended his own
narrative for a general circulation, and who himself travelled to
distant countries in the service of the religion, it was properly added.





CHAPTER IV.

IDENTITY OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER.

THE argument expressed by this title I apply principally to the
comparison of the first three Gospels with that of Saint John. It is
known to every reader of Scripture that the passages of Christ's history
preserved by Saint John are, except his passion and resurrection, for
the most part different from those which are delivered by the other
evangelists. And I think the ancient account of this difference to be
the true one, viz., that Saint John wrote after the rest, and to supply
what he thought omissions in their narratives, of which the principal
were our Saviour's conferences with the Jews of Jerusalem, and his
discourses to his apostles at his last supper. But what I observe in the
comparison of these several accounts is, that, although actions and
discourses are ascribed to Christ by Saint John in general different
from what are given to him by the other evangelists, yet, under this
diversity, there is a similitude of manner, which indicates that the
actions and discourses proceeded from the same person. I should have
laid little stress upon the repetition of actions substantially alike,
or of discourses containing many of the same expressions, because that
is a species of resemblance which would either belong to a true history,
or might easily be imitate in a false one. Nor do I deny that a dramatic
writer is able to sustain propriety and distinction of character through
a great variety of separate incidents and situations. But the
evangelists were not dramatic writers; nor possessed the talents of
dramatic writers; nor will it, I believe, be suspected that they studied
uniformity of character, or ever thought of any such thing in the person
who was the subject of their histories. Such uniformity, if it exist,
is on their part casual; and if there be, as I contend there is, a
perceptible resemblance of manner, in passages, and between discourses,
which are in themselves extremely distinct, and are delivered by
historians writing without any imitation of, or reference to, one
another, it affords a just presumption that these are what they profess
to be, the actions and the discourses of the same real person; that the
evangelists wrote from fact, and not from imagination.

The article in which I find this agreement most strong is in our
Saviour's mode of teaching, and in that particular property of it which
consists in his drawing of his doctrine from the occasion; or, which is
nearly the same thing, raising reflections from the objects and
incidents before him, or turning a particular discourse then passing
into an opportunity of general instruction.

It will be my business to point out this manner in the first three
evangelists; and then to inquire whether it do not appear also in several
examples of Christ's discourses preserved by Saint John.

The reader will observe in the following quotations that the Italic
letter contains the reflection; the common letter the incident or
occasion from which it springs.

Matt. xii. 47--50. "Then they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy
brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and
said unto him that told him, Who is my mother; and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold
my mother and my brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of my Father
which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

Matt. xvi. 5. "And when his disciples were come to the other side, they
had forgotten to take bread; then Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they
reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no
bread.--How is it that ye do not understand, that I speak it not to you
concerning bread, that ye shall beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not
beware of the leaven of bread, but of the DOCTRINE of the Pharisees and
of the Sadducees."

Matt. xv. 1, 2; 10, 11; 15--20. "Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples
transgress the traditions of the elders? for they wash not their hands
when they eat bread.--And he called the multitude, and said unto them,
Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man,
but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth the man.--Then
answered Peter, and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And
Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not understand
that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is
cast out into the draught? but those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man: for out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man: BUT
TO EAT WITH UNWASHEN HANDS DEFILETH NOT A MAN." Our Saviour, on
this occasion, expatiates rather more at large than usual, and his
discourse also is more divided; but the concluding sentence brings
back the whole train of thought to the incident in the first verse,
viz. the objurgatory question of the Pharisees, and renders it evident
that the whole sprang from that circumstance.

Mark x. 13, 14, 15. "And they brought young children to him, that he
should touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them:
but when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them,
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of
such is the kingdom of God: verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not
receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter
therein."

Mark i. 16, 17. "Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon
and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishers: and Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you
fishers of men."

Luke xi. 27. "And it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain
woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is
the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked: but he
said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep
it."

Luke xiii. 1--3. "There were present at that season some that told him
of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices;
and Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye, that these Galileans
were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

Luke xiv. 15. "And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard
these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in
the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great
supper, and bade many," &c. The parable is rather too long for
insertion, but affords a striking instance of Christ's manner of raising
a discourse from the occasion. Observe also in the same chapter two
other examples of advice, drawn from the circumstances of the
entertainment and the behaviour of the guests.

We will now see how this manner discovers itself in Saint John's history
of Christ.

John vi. 25. "And when they had found him on the other side of the sea,
they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them
and said, Verily I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the
miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you."

John iv. 12. "Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who gave us the
well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus
answered, and said unto her (the woman of Samaria), Whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting
life."

John iv. 31. "In the mean while, his disciples prayed him, saying,
Master, eat; but he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not
of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought
him aught to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me, and to finish his work."

John ix. 1--5. "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind
from his birth: and his disciples asked him, saying, Who did sin, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be
made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him that sent me while it
is day; the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the
world, I am the light of the world."

John ix. 35--40. "Jesus heard that they had cast him (the blind man
above mentioned) out: and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost
thou believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who is he,
Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast
both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I
believe; and he worshipped him. And Jesus said. For judgment I am come
into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which
see might be made blind."

All that the reader has now to do, is to compare the series of examples
taken from Saint John with the series of examples taken from the other
evangelists, and to judge whether there be not a visible agreement of
manner between them. In the above-quoted passages, the occasion is
stated, as well as the reflection. They seem, therefore, the most proper
for the purpose of our argument. A large, however, and curious
collection has been made by different writers, (Newton on Daniel, p. 148,
note a. Jottin, Dis., p. 218. Bishop Law's Life of Christ.) of instances
in which it is extremely probable that Christ spoke in allusion to some
object, or some occasion then before him, though the mention of the
occasion, or of the object, be omitted in the history. I only observe that
these instances are common to Saint John's Gospel with the other three.

I conclude this article by remarking, that nothing of this manner is
perceptible in the speeches recorded in the Acts, or in any other but
those which are attributed to Christ, and that, in truth, it was a very
unlikely manner for a forger or fabulist to attempt; and a manner very
difficult for any writer to execute, if he had to supply all the
materials, both the incidents and the observations upon them, out of his
own head. A forger or a fabulist would have made for Christ, discourses
exhorting to virtue and dissuading from vice in general terms. It would
never have entered into the thoughts of either, to have crowded together
such a number of allusions to time, place, and other little circumstances,
as occur, for instance, in the sermon on the mount, and which nothing but
the actual presence of the objects could have suggested (See Bishop Law's
Life of Christ).

II. There appears to me to exist an affinity between the history of
Christ's placing a little child in the midst of his disciples, as
related by the first three evangelists, (Matt. xviii. 1. Mark ix. 33.
Luke ix. 46.) and the history of Christ's washing his disciples' feet,
as given by Saint John. (Chap. xiii. 3.) In the stories themselves there
is no resemblance. But the affinity which I would point out consists in
these two articles: First, that both stories denote the emulation which
prevailed amongst Christ's disciples, and his own care and desire to
correct it; the moral of both is the same. Secondly, that both stories
are specimens of the same manner of teaching, viz., by action; a mode of
emblematic instruction extremely peculiar, and, in these passages,
ascribed, we see, to our Saviour by the first three evangelists, and by
Saint John, in instances totally unlike, and without the smallest
suspicion of their borrowing from each other.

III. A singularity in Christ's language which runs through all the
evangelists, and which is found in those discourses of Saint John that
have nothing similar to them in the other Gospels, is the appellation of
"the Son of man;" and it is in all the evangelists found under the
peculiar circumstance of being applied by Christ to himself, but of
never being used of him, or towards him, by any other person. It occurs
seventeen times in Matthew's Gospel, twenty times in Mark's, twenty-one
times in Luke's and eleven times in John's, and always with this
restriction.

IV. A point of agreement in the conduct of Christ, as represented by his
different historians, is that of his withdrawing himself out of the way
whenever the behaviour of the multitude indicated a disposition to
tumult.

Matt. xiv. 22. "And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get
into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the
multitude away. And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into
a mountain apart to pray."

Luke v. 15, 16. "But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him,
and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of
their infirmities; and he withdrew himself into the wilderness and
prayed." With these quotations compare the following from Saint John:
Chap. v. 13. "And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had
conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place."

Chap. vi. 15. "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and
take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain
himself alone."

In this last instance, Saint John gives the motive of Christ's conduct,
which is left unexplained by the other evangelists, who have related the
conduct itself.

V. Another, and a more singular circumstance in Christ's ministry, was
the reserve which, for some time, and upon some occasions at least, he
used in declaring his own character, and his leaving it to be collected
from his works rather than his professions. Just reasons for this
reserve have been assigned. (See Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity.)
But it is not what one would have expected. We meet with it in Saint
Matthew's Gospel (chap. xvi. 20): "Then charged he his disciples that
they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." Again, and upon a
different occasion, in Saint Mark's (chap. iii. 11): "And unclean
spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying,
Thou art the Son of God: and he straitly charged them that they should
not make him known." Another instance similar to this last is recorded
by Saint Luke (chap. iv. 41). What we thus find in the three
evangelists, appears also in a passage of Saint John (chap. x. 24, 25):
"Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt: If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." The
occasion here was different from any of the rest; and it was indirect.
We only discover Christ's conduct through the upbraidings of his
adversaries. But all this strengthens the argument. I had rather at any
time surprise a coincidence in some oblique allusion than read it in
broad assertions.

VI. In our Lord's commerce with his disciples, one very observable
particular is the difficulty which they found in understanding him when
he spoke to them of the future part of his history, especially of what
related to his passion or resurrection. This difficulty produced, as was
natural, a wish in them to ask for further explanation: from which,
however, they appear to have been sometimes kept back by the fear of
giving offence. All these circumstances are distinctly noticed by Mark
and Luke, upon the occasion of his informing them (probably for the
first time) that the Son of man should be delivered into the hands of
men. "They understood not," the evangelists tell us, "this saying, and
it was hid from them, that they perceived it not; and they feared to ask
him of that saying." Luke ix. 45; Mark ix. 32. In Saint John's Gospel we
have, on a different occasion, and in a different instance, the same
difficulty of apprehension, the same curiosity, and the same
restraint:--"A little while and ye shall not see me; and again, a little
while and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of
his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us? A
little while and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while and ye
shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said, therefore,
What is this that he saith? A little while? We cannot tell what he
saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto
them,--" &c. John xvi. 16, et seq.

VII. The meekness of Christ during his last sufferings, which is
conspicuous in the narratives of the first three evangelists, is
preserved in that of Saint John under separate examples. The answer
given by him, in Saint John, (Chap. xviii. 20, 21.) when the high priest
asked him of his disciples and his doctrine; "I spake openly to the
world: I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the
Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou
me? ask them which heard me what I have said unto them," is very much of
a piece with his reply to the armed party which seized him, as we read
it in Saint Mark's Gospel, and in Saint Luke's:(Mark xiv. 48. Luke xxii.
52.) "Are you come out as against a thief, with swords and with staves
to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me
not." In both answers we discern the same tranquillity, the same
reference to his public teaching. His mild expostulation with Pilate, on
two several occasions, as related by Saint John, (Chap. xviii. 34; xix.
11.) is delivered with the same unruffled temper as that which conducted
him through the last scene of his life, as described by his other
evangelists. His answer, in Saint John's Gospel, to the officer who
struck him with the palm of his hand, "If I have spoken evil, bear
witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" (Chap. xviii.
23.) was such an answer as might have been looked for from the person
who, as he proceeded to the place of execution, bid his companions (as
we are told by Saint Luke; Chap. xxiii. 28.) weep not for him, but for
themselves, their posterity, and their country; and who, whilst he was
suspended upon the cross, prayed for his murderers, "for they know not,"
said he, "what they do." The urgency also of his judges and his
prosecutors to extort from him a defence to the accusation, and his
unwillingness to make any (which was a peculiar circumstance), appears
in Saint John's account, as well as in that of the other
evangelists. (See John xix. 9. Matt. xxvii. 14. Luke xxiii. 9.)

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We do not know the women's names, but their voices are quite distinct. All are pregnant. But while the first woman awaits the birth of her baby with a moon-like serenity, the other two are not so lucky. One, whose previous pregnancies have failed to go to term, is experiencing a heartbreaking late miscarriage; the other is a young student whose accidental pregnancy will end in her child being put up for adoption.

Sylvia Plath's only play was never intended for the stage, being broadcast instead on BBC radio in August 1962. Less than six months later, Plath killed herself, but not before the burst of astonishing creative energy that produced her extraordinary, terrifying Ariel poems.

Anyone who knows Plath's poetry will see the connection between Three Women and Plath's subsequent poems, particularly in the way she talks about the agony of childbirth, the rush of love for this tiny alien being, and both the wonder and wounded rawness of motherhood. It is a beautiful piece, full of startling imagery that draws you in through the sheer intensity of its femaleness, and because it so precisely articulates the emotions that are often thought but seldom voiced by women - certainly not in the early 1960s - about men, motherhood and our relationship to our bodies.

It's been 20 years since there has been an attempt at a professional stage version and - in a theatre world that happily accepts the poetic offerings of Sarah Kane and Debbie Tucker Green, or the staged possibilities of The Waves, one of Plath's own inspirations for the piece, I see no reason why it shouldn't be brought to life. Sadly, it doesn't breathe here, in a production by Robert Shaw that is clearly a labour of love, but which never finds a way to give the internal a physical reality. Plath's poetry, like most babies, is more robust than it appears - and won't break if treated with a little less reverence and considerably more grit.

Instead, what we are offered is tinkling piano music, mournful mood lighting, an innocuous pale setting, as well as three perfectly good but indisputably ladylike performances that capture none of the wounded redness of Plath's poetry, and do her the disservice of making her sound bleached and somewhat prissy. It's a pity. What might have been a wonder ends up a mere curiosity.

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