Evidences of Christianity by William Paley

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XIV. [p. 235.] Acts xvi. 13. "And (at Philippi) on the Sabbath we went
out of the city by a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made," or
where a proseuche, oratory, or place of prayer was allowed. The
particularity to be remarked is, the situation of the place where prayer
was wont to be made, viz. by a river-side.

Philo, describing the conduct of the Jews of Alexandria, on a certain
public occasion, relates of them, that, "early in the morning, flocking
out of the gates of the city, they go to the neighbouring shores, (for
the proseuchai were destroyed,) and, standing in a most pure place, they
lift up their voices with one accord." (Philo in Flacc. p. 382.)

Josephus gives us a decree of the city of Halicarnassus, permitting the
Jews to build oratories; a part of which decree runs thus:--"We ordain
that the Jews, who are willing, men and women, do observe the Sabbaths,
and perform sacred rites, according to the Jewish laws, and build
oratories by the sea-side." (Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 10, sect, 24.)

Tertullian, among other Jewish rites and customs, such as feasts,
sabbaths, fasts, and unleavened bread, mentions "orationes literales,"
that is, prayers by the river-side. (Tertull. ad Nat, lib. i. c. 13.)

XV. [p. 255.] Acts xxvi. 5. "After the most straitest sect of our
religion, I lived a Pharisee."

Joseph. de Bell. lib. i. c. 5, sect. 2. "The Pharisees were reckoned the
most religious of any of the Jews, and to be the most exact and skilful
in explaining the laws."

In the original, there is an agreement not only in the sense but in the
expression, it being the same Greek adjective which is rendered "strait"
in the Acts, and "exact" in Josephus.

XVI. [p. 255.] Mark vii. 3,4. "The Pharisees and all the Jews, except
they wash, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; and many other
things there be which they have received to hold."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. c. 10, sect. 6. "The Pharisees have delivered
up to the people many institutions, as received from the fathers, which
are not written in the law of Moses."

XVII. [p. 259.] Acts xxiii. 8. "For the Sadducees say, that there is no
resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess
both."

Joseph. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 8, sect. 14. "They (the Pharisees) believe
every soul to be immortal, but that the soul of the good only passes
into another body, and that the soul of the wicked is punished with
eternal punishment." On the other hand (Antiq. lib. xviii. e. 1, sect.
4), "It is the opinion of the Sadducees that souls perish with the
bodies."

XVIII. [p. 268.] Acts v. 17. "Then the high priest rose up, and all
they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and were
filled with indignation." Saint Luke here intimates that the high priest
was a Sadducee; which is a character one would not have expected to meet
with in that station. This circumstance, remarkable as it is, was not
however without examples.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. c. 10, sect. 6, 7. "John Hyreanus, high priest
of the Jews, forsook the Pharisees upon a disgust, and joined himself to
the party of the Sadducees." This high priest died one hundred and seven
years before the Christian era.

Again (Antiq. lib. xx. e. 8, sect. 1), "This Ananus the younger, who, as
we have said just now, had received the high priesthood, was fierce and
haughty in his behaviour, and, above all men, hold and daring, and,
moreover, was of the sect of the Sadducees." This high priest lived
little more than twenty years after the transaction in the Acts.

XIX. [p. 282.] Luke ix. 51. "And it came to pass, when the time was come
that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to
Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face. And they went, and
entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And
they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to
Jerusalem."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xx. c. 5, sect. 1. "It was the custom of the
Galileans, who went up to the holy city at the feasts, to travel through
the country of Samaria. As they were in their journey, some inhabitants
of the village called Ginaea, which lies on the borders of Samaria and
the great plain, falling upon them, killed a great many of them."

XX. [p. 278.] John iv. 20. "Our fathers," said the Samaritan woman,
"worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 5, sect. 1. "Commanding them to meet him
at mount Gerizzim, which is by them (the Samaritans) esteemed the most
sacred of all mountains."

XXI. [p. 312.] Matt. xxvi. 3. "Then assembled together the chief
priests, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high
priest, who was called Caiaphas." That Caiaphas was high priest, and
high priest throughout the presidentship of Pontius Pilate, and
consequently at this time, appears from the following account:--He was
made high priest by Valerius Gratus, predecessor of Pontius Pilate, and
was removed from his office by Vitellius, president of Syria, after
Pilate was sent away out of the province of Judea. Josephus relates the
advancement of Caiaphas to the high priesthood in this manner: "Gratus
gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. He, having
enjoyed this honour not above a year, was succeeded by Joseph, who is
also called Caiaphas." (Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 2, sect. 2.) After this,
Gratus went away for Rome, having been eleven years in Judea; and
Pontius Pilate came thither as his successor. Of the removal of Caiaphas
from his office, Josephus likewise afterwards informs us: and connects
it with a circumstance which fixes the time to a date subsequent to the
determination of Pilate's government--"Vitellius," he tells us; "ordered
Pilate to repair to Rome: and after that, went up himself to Jerusalem,
and then gave directions concerning several matters. And having done
these things he took away the priesthood from the high priest Joseph,
who is called Caiaphas." (Antiq. lib. xvii. c. 5, sect 3.)

XXII. (Michaelis, c. xi. sect. 11.) Acts xxiii. 4. "And they that stood
by said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not,
brethren, that he was the high priest?" Now, upon inquiry into the
history of the age, it turns out that Ananias, of whom this is spoken,
was, in truth, not the high priest, though he was sitting in judgment in
that assumed capacity. The case was, that he had formerly holden the
office, and had been deposed; that the person who succeeded him had been
murdered; that another was not yet appointed to the station; and that
during the vacancy, he had, of his own authority, taken upon himself the
discharge of the office. (Joseph. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 5, sect. 2; c. 6,
sect. 2; c. 9, sect. 2.) This singular situation of the high priesthood
took place during the interval between the death of Jonathan, who was
murdered by order of Felix, and the accession of Ismael, who was
invested with the high priesthood by Agrippa; and precisely in this
interval it happened that Saint Paul was apprehended, and brought before
the Jewish council.

XXIII. [p. 323.] Matt. xxvi. 59. "Now the chief priests and elders, and
all the council, sought false witness against him."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. e. 15, sect. 3, 4. "Then might be seen the
high priests themselves with ashes on their heads and their breasts
naked."

The agreement here consists in speaking of the high priests or chief
priests (for the name in the original is the same) in the plural number,
when in strictness there was only one high priest: which may be
considered as a proof that the evangelists were habituated to the manner
of speaking then in use, because they retain it when it is neither
accurate nor just. For the sake of brevity, I have put down from
Josephus only a single example of the application of this title in the
plural number; but it is his usual style.

Ib. [p. 871.] Luke ill. 1. "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Juries, and Herod
being tetrarch of Galilee, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests,
the word of God came unto John." There is a passage in Josephus very
nearly parallel to this, and which may at least serve to vindicate the
evangelist from objection, with respect to his giving the title of high
priest specifically to two persons at the same time: "Quadratus sent two
others of the most powerful men of the Jews, as also the high priests
Jonathan and Ananias." (De Bell. lib. ix. c. 12, sect. 6.) That Annas
was a person in an eminent station, and possessed an authority
coordinate with, or next to, that of the high print properly so called,
may he inferred from Saint John's Gospel, which in the history of
Christ's crucifixion relates that "the soldiers led him away to Annas
first." (xviii.13.) And this might be noticed as an example of
undesigned coincidence in the two evangelists.

Again, [p. 870.] Acts iv. 6. Annas is called the high priest, though
Caiaphas was in the office of the high priesthood. In like manner in
Josephus, (Lib. ii. c. 20, sect. 3.) "Joseph the son of Gorion, and the
high priest Ananus, were chosen to be supreme governors of all things in
the city." Yet Ananus, though here called the high priest Ananus, was
not then in the office of the high priesthood. The truth is, there is an
indeterminateness in the use of this title in the Gospel:(Mark xiv. 53.)
sometimes it is applied exclusively to the person who held the office at
the time; sometimes to one or two more, who probably shared with him
some of the powers or functions of the office; and sometimes to such of
the priests as were eminent by their station or character; and there is
the very same indeterminateness in Josephus.

XXIV. [p. 347.] John xix. 19, 20. "And Pilate wrote a title, and put it
on the cross." That such was the custom of the Romans on these occasions
appears from passages of Suetonius and Dio Cassius: "Pattrem
familias--canibus objecit, cure hoc titulo, Impie locutus parmularius."
Suet. Domit. cap. x. And in Dio Cassius we have the following: "Having
led him through the midst of the court or assembly, with a writing
signifying the cause of his death, and afterwards crucifying him." Book
liv.

Ib. "And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin." That it was also
usual about this time in Jerusalem to set up advertisements in different
languages, is gathered from the account which Josephus gives of an
expostulatory message from Titus to the Jews when the city was almost in
his hands; in which he says, Did ye not erect pillars with inscriptions
on them, in the Greek and in our language, "Let no one pass beyond these
bounds"?

XXV. [p. 352.] Matt. xxvii. 26. "When he had scourged Jesus, he
delivered him to be crucified."

The following passages occur in Josephus:

"Being beaten, they were crucified opposite to the citadel." (P. 1247,
edit. 24 Huds.)

"Whom, having first scourged with whips, he crucified." (P. 1080, edit.
45.)

"He was burnt alive, having been first beaten." (P. 1327, edit. 43.)

To which may he added one from Livy, lib. xi. c. 5. "Pro ductique omnes,
virgisqus caesi, ac securi percussi."

A modern example may illustrate the use we make of this instance. The
preceding of a capital execution by the corporal punishment of the
sufferer is a practice unknown in England, but retained, in some
instances at least, as appears by the late execution of a regicide in
Sweden. This circumstance, therefore, in the account of an English
execution, purporting to come from an English writer, would not only
bring a suspicion upon the truth of the account, but would in a
considerable degree impeach its pretensions of having been written by
the author whose name it bore. Whereas, the same circumstance in the
account of a Swedish execution would verify the account, and support the
authenticity of the book in which it was found, or, at least, would
prove that the author, whoever he was, possessed the information and the
knowledge which he ought to possess.

XXVI. [p. 353.] John xix. 16. "And they took Jesus, and led him away;
and he bearing his cross went forth."

Plutarch, De iis qui sero puniuntur, p. 554; a Paris, 1624. "Every kind
of wickedness produces its own particular torment; just as every
malefactor, when he is brought forth to execution, carries his own
cross."

XXVII. John xix. 32. "Then came the soldiers and brake the legs of the
first, and of the other which was crucified with him."

Constantine abolished the punishment of the cross: in commending which
edict, a heathen writer notices this very circumstance of breaking the
legs: "Eo pius, ut etiam vetus veterrimumque supplicium, patibulum, et
cruribus suffringendis, primus removerit." Aur. Vict Ces. cap. xli.

XXVIII. [p. 457.] Acts iii. 1. "Now Peter and John went up together into
the temple, at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour."

Joseph. Antiq. lib xv. e. 7, sect. 8. "Twice every day, in the morning
and at the ninth hour, the priests perform their, duty at the altar."

XXIX. [p. 462.] Acts xv. 21. "For Moses of old time hath, in every city,
them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day."

Joseph. contra Ap. 1. ii. "He (Moses) gave us the law, the most
excellent of all institutions; nor did he appoint that it should be
heard once only, or twice, or often, but that, laying aside all other
works, we should meet together every week to hear it read, and gain a
perfect understanding of it."

XXX. [p. 465.] Acts xxi. 23. "We have four men which have a vow on them;
them take, and purify thyself with them that they may shave their
heads."

Joseph. de Bell. 1. xi. c. 15. "It is customary for those who have been
afflicted with some distemper, or have laboured under any other
difficulties, to make a vow thirty days before they offer sacrifices, to
abstain from wine, and shave the hair of their heads."

Ib. v. 24. "Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges
with them, that they may shave their heads."

Joseph. Antiq. 1. xix. c. 6. "He (Herod Agrippa) coming to Jerusalem,
offered up sacrifices of thanksgiving, and omitted nothing that was
prescribed by the law. For which reason he also ordered a good number of
Nazarites to be shaved." We here find that it was an act of piety
amongst the Jews to defray for those who were under the Nazaritic vow
the expenses which attended its completion; and that the phrase was,
"that they might be saved." The custom and the expression are both
remarkable, and both in close conformity with the Scripture account.

XXXI. [p. 474.] 2 Cor. xi. 24. "Of the Jews, five times received I forty
stripes save one."

Joseph. Antiq. iv. c. 8, sect. 21. "He that acts contrary hereto let him
receive forty stripes, wanting one, from the officer."

The coincidence here is singular, because the law allowed forty
stripes:--"Forty stripes he may give him and not exceed." Deut. xxv. 3.
It proves that the author of the Epistle to the Corinthians was guided
not by books, but by facts; because his statement agrees with the actual
custom, even when that custom deviated from the written law, and from
what he must have learnt by consulting the Jewish code, as set forth in
the Old Testament.

XXXII. [p. 490.] Luke iii. 12. "Then came also publicans to be
baptized." From this quotation, as well as from the history of Levi or
Matthew (Luke v. 29), and of Zaccheus (Luke xix. 2), it appears that the
publicans or tax-gatherers were, frequently at least, if not always,
Jews: which, as the country was then under a Roman government, and the
taxes were paid to the Romans, was a circumstance not to be expected.
That it was the truth, however, of the case appears from a short passage
of Josephus.

De Bell. lib. ii. c. 14, sect. 45. "But Florus not restraining these
practices by his authority, the chief men of the Jews, among whom was
John the publican, not knowing well what course to take, wait upon
Florus and give him eight talents of silver to stop the building."

XXXIII. [p. 496.] Acts xxii. 25. "And as they bound him with thongs,
Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to
scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?"

"Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum; scelus verberari." Cic. in Verr.

"Caedebatur virgis, in medio foro Messanae, civis Romanus, Judices: cum
interea nullus gemitus, nulla vox alia, istius miseri inter dolorem
crepitumque plagarum audiebatur, nisi haec, Civis Romanus sum."

XXXIV. [p. 513] Acts xxii. 27. "Then the chief captain came, and said
unto him (Paul), Tell me, Art thou a Roman? He said Yea." The
circumstance to be here noticed is, that a Jew was a Roman citizen.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 10, sect. 13. "Lucius Lentulna, the consul,
declared, I have dismissed from the service the Jewish Roman citizens,
who observe the rites of the Jewish religion at Ephesus."

Ib. ver. 28. "And the chief captain answered, with a great sum obtained
I this freedom."

Dio Cassius, lib. lx. "This privilege, which had been bought formerly at
a great price, became so cheap, that it was commonly said a man might be
made a Roman citizen for a few pieces of broken glass."

XXXV. [p. 521.] Acts xxviii. 16. "And when we came to Rome the centurion
delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was
suffered to dwell by himself, with a soldier that kept him."

With which join vet. 20. "For the hope of Israel, I am bound with this
chain."

"Quemadmedum cadem catean et custodiam et militem copulat; sic ista,
quae tam dissimilia sunt, pariter incedunt." Seneca, Ep. v.

"Proconsul estimare solet, utrum in carcerera recipienda sit persona, an
militi tradenda." Ulpian. l. i. sect. De Custod. et Exhib. Reor.

In the confinement of Agrippa by the order of Tiberius, Antonia managed
that the centurion who presided over the guards, and the soldier to whom
Agrippa was to be bound, might be men of mild character. (Joseph. Antiq.
lib. xviii. c. 7, sect. 5.) After the accession of Caligula, Agrippa
also, like Paul, was suffered to dwell, yet as a prisoner, in his own
house.

XXXVI. [p. 531.] Acts xxvii. 1. "And when it was determined that we
should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul, and certain other
prisoners, unto one named Julius." Since not only Paul, but certain
other prisoners were sent by the same ship into Italy, the text must be
considered as carrying with it an intimation that the sending of persons
from Judea to be tried at Rome was an ordinary practice. That in truth
it was so, is made out by a variety of examples which the writings of
Josephus furnish: and, amongst others, by the following, which comes
near both to the time and the subject of the instance in the Acts.
"Felix, for some slight offence, bound and sent to Rome several priests
of his acquaintance, and very good and honest men, to answer for
themselves to Caesar." Joseph. in Vit. sect. 3.

XXXVII. [p. 539.] Acts xi. 27. "And in these days came prophets from
Jerusalem unto Antioch; and there stood up one of them, named Agabus,
and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth
throughout all the world (or all the country); which came to pass in the
days of Claudius Caesar."

Joseph. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 4, sect. 2. "In their time (i. e. about the
fifth or sixth year of Claudius) a great dearth happened in Judea."

XXXVIII. [p. 555.] Acts xviii. 1, 2. "Because that Claudius had
commanded all Jews to depart from Rome."

Suet. Gland. c. xxv. "Judeos, impulsero Chresto assidue tumultuantes,
Roma expulit."

XXXIX. [p. 664.] Acts v. 37. "After this man, rose up Judas of Galilee,
in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him."

Joseph. de Bell. 1. vii. "He (viz. the person who in another place is
called, by Josephus, Judas the Galilean, or Judas of Galilee) persuaded
not a few to enrol themselves when Cyrenius the censor was sent into
Judea."

XL. [p. 942.] Acts xxi. 38. "Art not thou that Egyptian which, before
these days, madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four
thousand men that were murderers?"

Joseph. de Bell. 1. ii. c. 13, sect. 5. "But the Egyptian false prophet
brought a yet heavier disaster upon the Jews; for this impostor, coming
into the country, and gaining the reputation of a prophet, gathered
together thirty thousand men, who were deceived by him. Having brought
them round out of the wilderness, up to the mount of Olives, he intended
from thence to make his attack upon Jerusalem; but Felix, coming
suddenly upon him with the Roman soldiers, prevented the attack.--A
great number, or (as it should rather be rendered) the greatest part, of
those that were with him were either slain or taken prisoners."

In these two passages, the designation of this impostor, an "Egyptian,"
without the proper name, "the wilderness ;" his escape, though his
followers were destroyed; the time of the transaction, in the
presidentship of Felix, which could not be any long time before the
words in Luke are supposed to have been spoken; are circumstances of
close correspondency. There is one, and only one, point of disagreement,
and that is, in the number of his followers, which in the Acts are
called four thousand, and by Josephus thirty thousand: but, beside that
the names of numbers, more than any other words, are liable to the
errors of transcribers, we are in the present instance under the less
concern to reconcile the evangelist with Josephus, as Josephus is not,
in this point, consistent with himself. For whereas, in the passage here
quoted, he calls the number thirty thousand, and tells us that the
greatest part, or a great number (according as his words are rendered)
of those that were with him were destroyed; in his Antiquities he
represents four hundred to have been killed upon this occasion, and two
hundred taken prisoners:(Lib. xx. c. 7, sect. 6.) which certainly was
not the "greatest part," nor "a great part," nor "a great number," out
of thirty thousand. It is probable, also, that Lysias and Josephus spoke
of the expedition in its different stages: Lysias, of those who followed
the Egyptian out of Jerusalem; Josephus, of all who were collected about
him afterwards, from different quarters.

XLI. (Lardner's Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii p. 21.) Acts
xvii. 22. "Then Paul stood in the midst of Marshill, and said, Ye men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious; for, as
I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this
inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship,
him declare I unto you."

Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about the year 210, in his history of
Epimenides, who is supposed to have flourished nearly six hundred years
before Christ, relates of him the following story: that, being invited
to Athens for the purpose, he delivered the city from a pestilence in
this manner;--"Taking several sheep, some black, others white, he had
them up to the Areopagus, and then let them go where they would, and
gave orders to those who followed them, wherever any of them should lie
down, to sacrifice it to the god to whom it belonged; and so the plague
ceased.--Hence," says the historian, "it has come to pass, that to this
present time may be found in the boroughs of the Athenians ANONYMOUS
altars: a memorial of the expiation then made." (In Epimenide, l. i.
segm. 110.) These altars, it may be presumed, were called anonymous
because there was not the name of any particular deity inscribed upon
them.

Pausanias, who wrote before the end of the second century, in his
description of Athens, having mentioned an altar of Jupiter Olympius,
adds, "And nigh unto it is an altar of unknown gods." (Paus. l. v. p.
412.) And in another place, he speaks "of altars of gods called
unknown." (Paus. l. i. p. 4.)

Philostratus, who wrote in the beginning of the third century; records
it as an observation of Apollonius Tyanseus, "That it was wise to speak
well of all the gods, especially at Athens, where altars of unknown
demons were erected." (Philos. Apoll. Tyan. l. vi. c. 3.)

The author of the dialogue Philoparis by many supposed to have been
Lucian, who wrote about the year 170, by others some anonymous Heathen
writer of the fourth century, makes Critias swear by the unknown god of
Athens; and, near time end of the dialogue, has these words, "But let us
find out the unknown god at Athens, and, stretching our hands to heaven,
offer to him our praises and thanksgivings." (Lucian. in Philop. tom.
ii. Graev. pp. 767, 780.)

This is a very curious and a very important coincidence. It appears
beyond controversy, that altars with this inscription were existing at
Athens at the time when Saint Paul is alleged to have been there. It
seems also (which is very worthy of observation) that this inscription
was peculiar to the Athenians. There is no evidence that there were
altars inscribed "to the unknown god" in any other country. Supposing
the history of Saint Paul to have been a fable, how is it possible that
such a writer as the author of the Acts of the Apostles was should hit
upon a circumstance so extraordinary, and introduce it by an allusion so
suitable to Saint Paul's office and character?

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