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Evidences of Christianity by William Paley

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Martial wrote a few years before the younger Pliny: and, as his manner
was, made the suffering of the Christians the subject of his ridicule.

In matutina nuper spectatus arena
Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis,
Si patiens fortisque tibi durusque videtur,
Abderitanae pectora plebis habes;
Nam cum dicatur, tunica praesente molesta,
Ure* manum: plus est dicere, Non facio.

*Forsan "thure manum."

Nothing, however, could show the notoriety of the fact with more
certainty than this does. Martial's testimony, as well indeed as
Pliny's, goes also to another point, viz, that the deaths of these men
were martyrdom in the strictest sense, that is to say, were so
voluntary, that it was in their power, at the time of pronouncing the
sentence, to have averted the execution, by consenting to join in
heathen sacrifices.

The constancy, and by consequence the sufferings, of the Christians of
this period, is also referred to by Epictetus, who imputes their
intrepidity to madness, or to a kind of fashion or habit; and about
fifty years afterwards, by Marcus Aurelius, who ascribes it to
obstinacy. "Is it possible (Epictetus asks) that a man may arrive at
this temper, and become indifferent to those things from madness or from
habit, as the Galileans?" "Let this preparation of the mind (to die)
arise from its own judgment, and not from obstinacy like the
Christians." (Epict. I. iv. C. 7.) (Marc. Aur. Med. 1. xi. c. 3.)





CHAPTER III.

There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be original
witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed there lives in labours,
dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the
accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief
of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives,
to new rules of conduct.

Of the primitive condition of Christianity, a distant only and general
view can be acquired from heathen writers. It is in our own books that
the detail and interior of the transaction must be sought for. And this
is nothing different from what might be expected. Who would write a
history of Christianity, but a Christian? Who was likely to record the
travels, sufferings, labours, or successes of the apostles, but one of
their own number, or of their followers? Now these books come up in
their accounts to the full extent of the proposition which we maintain.
We have four histories of Jesus Christ. We have a history taking up the
narrative from his death, and carrying on an account of the propagation
of the religion, and of some of the most eminent persons engaged in it,
for a space of nearly thirty years. We have, what some may think still
more original, a collection of letters, written by certain principal
agents in the business upon the business, and in the midst of their
concern and connection with it. And we have these writings severally
attesting the point which we contend for, viz. the sufferings of the
witnesses of the history, and attesting it in every variety of form in
which it can be conceived to appear: directly and indirectly, expressly
and incidentally, by assertion, recital, and allusion, by narratives of
facts, and by arguments and discourses built upon these facts, either
referring to them, or necessarily presupposing them.

I remark this variety, because, in examining ancient records, or indeed
any species of testimony, it is, in my opinion, of the greatest
importance to attend to the information or grounds of argument which are
casually and undesignedly disclosed; forasmuch as this species of proof
is, of all others, the least liable to be corrupted by fraud or
misrepresentation.

I may be allowed therefore, in the inquiry which is now before us, to
suggest some conclusions of this sort, as preparatory to more direct
testimony.

1. Our books relate, that Jesus Christ, the founder of the religion,
was, in consequence of his undertaking, put to death, as a malefactor,
at Jerusalem. This point at least will be granted, because it is no more
than what Tacitus has recorded. They then proceed to tell us that the
religion was, notwithstanding, set forth at this same city of Jerusalem,
propagated thence throughout Judea, and afterwards preached in other
parts of the Roman Empire. These points also are fully confirmed by
Tacitus, who informs us that the religion, after a short check, broke
out again in the country where it took its rise; that it not only spread
throughout Judea, but had reached Rome, and that it had there great
multitudes of converts: and all this within thirty years after its
commencement. Now these facts afford a strong inference in behalf of the
proposition which we maintain. What could the disciples of Christ expect
for themselves when they saw their master put to death? Could they hope
to escape the dangers in which he had perished? If they had persecuted
me, they will also persecute you, was the warning of common sense. With
this example before their eyes, they could not be without a full sense
of the peril of their future enterprise.


2. Secondly, all the histories agree in representing Christ as
foretelling the persecution of his followers:--
"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and
ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." (Matt. xxiv. 9.)

"When affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately
they are offended." (Mark iv. 17. See also chap. x. 30.)

"They shall lay hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to
the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers
for my name's sake:--and ye shall be betrayed both by parents and
brethren, and kinsfolks and friends, and some of you shall they cause to
be put to death." (Luke xxi. 12--16. See also chap. xi. 49.)

"The time cometh, that he that killed you will think that he doeth God
service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not
known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when
the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them." (John
xvi. 4. See also chap. xv. 20; xvi. 33.)

I am not entitled to argue from these passages, that Christ actually did
foretell these events, and that they did accordingly come to pass;
because that would be at once to assume the truth of the religion: but I
am entitled to contend that one side or other of the following
disjunction is true; either that the Evangelists have delivered what
Christ really spoke, and that the event corresponded with the
prediction; or that they put the prediction into Christ's mouth, because
at the time of writing the history, the event had turned out so to be:
for, the only two remaining suppositions appear in the highest degree
incredible; which are, either that Christ filled the minds of his
followers with fears and apprehensions, without any reason or authority
for what he said, and contrary to the truth of the case; or that,
although Christ had never foretold any such thing, and the event would
have contradicted him if he had, yet historians who lived in the age
when the event was known, falsely, as well as officiously, ascribed
these words to him.

3. Thirdly, these books abound with exhortations to patience, and with
topics of comfort under distress.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us." (Rom. viii. 35-37.)

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed,
but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body;--knowing
that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you---For which cause we faint not; but, though
our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, 10, 14, 16,
17.)

"Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the
Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold,
we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job,
and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of
tender mercy." (James v. 10, 11.)

"Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were
illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions partly whilst ye
were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly
whilst ye became companions of them that were so used; for ye had
compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your
goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an
enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which
hath great recompense of reward; for ye have need of patience, that,
after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." (Heb.
x. 32-36.)

"So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, for your
patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye
endure. Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that
ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom for which ye also suffer." (2
Thess. i. 4, 5.)

"We rejoice in hope of the glory of God; and not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and
patience experience, and experience hope." (Rom. v. 3, 4.)

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to
try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice,
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings.--Wherefore let them
that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their
souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." (1 Pet. iv. 12,
13, 19.)

What could all these texts mean, if there was nothing in the
circumstances of the times which required patience,--which called for
the exercise of constancy and resolution? Or will it be pretended, that
these exhortations (which, let it be observed, come not from one author,
but from many) were put in merely to induce a belief in after-ages, that
the Christians were exposed to dangers which they were not exposed to,
or underwent sufferings which they did not undergo? If these books
belong to the age to which they lay claim, and in which age, whether
genuine or spurious, they certainly did appear, this supposition cannot
be maintained for a moment; because I think it impossible to believe
that passages, which must be deemed not only unintelligible, but false,
by the persons into whose hands the books upon their publication were to
come, should nevertheless be inserted, for the purpose of producing an
effect upon remote generations. In forgeries which do not appear till
many ages after that to which they pretend to belong, it is possible
that some contrivance of that sort may take place; but in no others can
it be attempted.





CHAPTER IV.

There is satisfactory evidence that many professing to be original
witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours,
dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the
accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief
of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives,
to new rules of conduct.

The account of the treatment of the religion, and of the exertions of
its first preachers, as stated in our Scriptures (not in a professed
history of persecutions, or in the connected manner in which I am about
to recite it, but dispersedly and occasionally, in the course of a mixed
general history, which circumstance, alone negatives the supposition of
any fraudulent design), is the following: "That the Founder of
Christianity, from the commencement of his ministry to the time of his
violent death, employed himself wholly in publishing the institution in
Judea and Galilee; that, in order to assist him in this purpose, he made
choice, out of the number of his followers, of twelve persons, who might
accompany him as he travelled from place to place; that, except a short
absence upon a journey in which he sent them two by two to announce his
mission, and one of a few days, when they went before him to Jerusalem,
these persons were steadily and constantly attending upon him; that they
were with him at Jerusalem when he was apprehended and put to death; and
that they were commissioned by him, when his own ministry was concluded,
to publish his Gospel, and collect disciples to it from all countries of
the world." The account then proceeds to state, "that a few days after
his departure, these persons, with some of his relations, and some who
had regularly frequented their society, assembled at Jerusalem; that,
considering the office of preaching the religion as now devolved upon
them, and one of their number having deserted the cause, and, repenting
of his perfidy, having destroyed himself, they proceeded to elect
another into his place, and that they were careful to make their
election out of the number of those who had accompanied their master
from the first to the last, in order, as they alleged, that he might be
a witness, together with themselves, of the principal facts which they
were about to produce and relate concerning him; ( Acts i. 12, 22.) that
they began their work at Jerusalem by publicly asserting that this
Jesus, whom the rulers and inhabitants of that place had so lately
crucified, was, in truth, the person in whom all their prophecies and
long expectations terminated; that he had been sent amongst them by God;
and that he was appointed by God the future judge of the human species;
that all who were solicitous to secure to themselves happiness after
death, ought to receive him as such, and to make profession of their
belief, by being baptised in his name." (Acts xi.)

The history goes on to relate, "that considerable numbers accepted this
proposal, and that they who did so formed amongst themselves a strict
union and society; (Acts iv. 32.) that the attention of the Jewish
government being soon drawn upon them, two of the principal persons of
the twelve, and who also had lived most intimately and constantly with
the Founder of the religion, were seized as they were discoursing to the
people in the temple; that after being kept all night in prison, they
were brought the next day before an assembly composed of the chief
persons of the Jewish magistracy and priesthood; that this assembly,
after some consultation, found nothing, at that time, better to be done
towards suppressing the growth of the sect, than to threaten their
prisoners with punishment if they persisted; that these men, after
expressing, in decent but firm language, the obligation under which they
considered themselves to be, to declare what they knew, 'to speak the
things which they had seen and heard,' returned from the council, and
reported what had passed to their companions; that this report, whilst
it apprized them of the danger of their situation and undertaking, had
no other effect upon their conduct than to produce in them a general
resolution to persevere, and an earnest prayer to God to furnish them
with assistance, and to inspire them with fortitude, proportioned to the
increasing exigency of the service." ( Acts iv.) A very short time after
this, we read "that all the twelve apostles were seized and cast into
prison; ( Acts v. 18.) that, being brought a second time before the
Jewish Sanhedrim, they were upbraided with their disobedience to the
injunction which had been laid upon them, and beaten for their
contumacy; that, being charged once more to desist, they were suffered
to depart; that however they neither quitted Jerusalem, nor ceased from
preaching, both daily in the temple, and from house to house (Acts v.
42.) and that the twelve considered themselves as so entirely and
exclusively devoted to this office, that they now transferred what may
be called the temporal affairs of the society to other hands."*

_________

* I do not know that it has ever been insinuated that the Christian
mission, in the hands of the apostles, was a scheme for making a
fortune, or for getting money. But it may nevertheless be fit to remark
upon this passage of their history, how perfectly free they appear to
have been from any pecuniary or interested views whatever. The most
tempting opportunity which occurred of making gain of their converts,
was by the custody and management of the public funds, when some of the
richer members, intending to contribute their fortunes to the common
support of the society, sold their possessions, and laid down the prices
at the apostles' feet. Yet, so insensible or undesirous were they of the
advantage which that confidence afforded, that we find they very soon
disposed of the trust, by putting it into the hands, not of nominees of
their own, but of stewards formally elected for the purpose by the
society at large.

We may add also, that this excess of generosity, which cast private
property into the public stock, was so far from being required by the
apostles, or imposed as a law of Christianity, that Peter reminds
Ananias that he had been guilty, in his behaviour, of an officious and
voluntary prevarication; "for whilst," says he, "thy estate remained
unsold, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine
own power?"
_________


Hitherto the preachers of the new religion seem to have had the common
people on their side; which is assigned as the reason why the Jewish
rulers did not, at this time, think it prudent to proceed to greater
extremities. It was not long, however, before the enemies of the
institution found means to represent it to the people as tending to
subvert their law, degrade their lawgiver, and dishonour their
temple. (Acts vi. 12.) And these insinuations were dispersed with so much
success as to induce the people to join with their superiors in the
stoning of a very active member of the new community.

The death of this man was the signal of a general persecution, the
activity of which may be judged of from one anecdote of the time:--"As
for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and
taking men and women committed them to prison." (Acts viii. 3.) This
persecution raged at Jerusalem with so much fury as to drive most of the
new converts out of the place,* except the twelve apostles. The converts
thus "scattered abroad," preached the religion wherever they came; and
their preaching was, in effect, the preaching of the twelve; for it was
so far carried on in concert and correspondence with them, that when
they heard of the success of their emissaries in a particular country,
they sent two of their number to the place, to complete and confirm the
mission.

_________

*Acts viii. I. "And they were all scattered abroad;" but the term "all"
is not, I think, to be taken strictly as denoting more than the
generality; in like manner as in Acts ix. 35: "And all that dwelt at
Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord."
_________


An event now took place, of great importance in the future history of
the religion. The persecution which had begun at Jerusalem followed the
Christians to other cities, ( Acts ix.) in which the authority of the
Jewish Sanhedrim over those of their own nation was allowed to be
exercised. A young man, who had signalized himself by his hostility to
the profession, and had procured a commission from the council at
Jerusalem to seize any converted Jews whom he might find at Damascus,
suddenly became a proselyte to the religion which he was going about to
extirpate. The new convert not only shared, on this extraordinary
change, the fate of his companions, but brought upon himself a double
measure of enmity from the party which he had left. The Jews at
Damascus, on his return to that city, watched the gates night and day,
with so much diligence, that he escaped from their hands only by being
let down in a basket by the wall. Nor did he find himself in greater
safety at Jerusalem, whither he immediately repaired. Attempts were
there also soon set on foot to destroy him; from the danger of which he
was preserved by being sent away to Cilicia, his native country.

For some reason not mentioned, perhaps not known, but probably connected
with the civil history of the Jews, or with some danger* which engrossed
the public attention, an intermission about this time took place in the
sufferings of the Christians. This happened, at the most, only seven or
eight, perhaps only three or four years after Christ's death, within
which period, and notwithstanding that the late persecution occupied
part of it, churches, or societies of believers, had been formed in all
Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; for we read that the churches in these
countries "had now rest and were edified, and, walking in the fear of
the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." (Acts
ix 31.) The original preachers of the religion did not remit their
labours or activity during this season of quietness; for we find one,
and he a very principal person among them, passing throughout all
quarters. We find also those who had been before expelled from Jerusalem
by the persecution which raged there, travelling as far as Poenice,
Cyprus, and Antioch; (Acts xi. 19.) and lastly, we find Jerusalem again
in the centre of the mission, the place whither the preachers returned
from their several excursions, where they reported the conduct and
effects of their ministry, where questions of public concern were
canvassed and settled, whence directions were sought, and teachers sent
forth.

_________

* Dr. Lardner (in which he is followed also by Dr. Benson) ascribes the
cessation of the persecution of the Christians to the attempt of
Caligula to set up his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem, and to the
consternation thereby excited in the minds of the Jewish people; which
consternation for a season superseded every other contest.
_________


The time of this tranquillity did not, however, continue long. Herod
Agrippa, who had lately acceded to the government of Judea, "stretched
forth his hand to vex certain of the church." (Acts xii. 1.) He began
his cruelty by beheading one of the twelve original apostles, a kinsman
and constant companion of the Founder of the religion. Perceiving that
this execution gratified the Jews, he proceeded to seize, in order to
put to death, another of the number,--and him, like the former,
associated with Christ during his life, and eminently active in the
service since his death. This man was, however, delivered from prison,
as the account states miraculously, (Acts xii. 3--17.) and made his
escape from Jerusalem.

These things are related, not in the general terms under which, in
giving the outlines of the history, we have here mentioned them, but
with the utmost particularity of names, persons, places, and
circumstances; and, what is deserving of notice, without the smallest
discoverable propensity in the historian, to magnify the fortitude, or
exaggerate the sufferings, of his party. When they fled for their lives,
he tells us. When the churches had rest, he remarks it. When the people
took their part, he does not leave it without notice. When the apostles
were carried a second time before the Sanhedrim, he is careful to
observe that they were brought without violence. When milder counsels
were suggested, he gives us the author of the advice and the speech
which contained it. When, in consequence of this advice, the rulers
contented themselves with threatening the apostles, and commanding them
to be beaten with stripes, without urging at that time the persecution
further, the historian candidly and distinctly records their
forbearance. When, therefore, in other instances, he states heavier
persecutions, or actual martyrdoms, it is reasonable to believe that he
states them because they were true, and not from any wish to aggravate,
in his account, the sufferings which Christians sustained, or to extol,
more than it deserved, their patience under them.

Our history now pursues a narrower path. Leaving the rest of the
apostles, and the original associates of Christ, engaged in the
propagation of the new faith, (and who there is not the least reason to
believe abated in their diligence or courage,) the narrative proceeds
with the separate memoirs of that eminent teacher, whose extraordinary
and sudden conversion to the religion, and corresponding change of
conduct, had before been circumstantially described. This person, in
conjunction with another, who appeared among the earlier members of
the society at Jerusalem, and amongst the immediate adherents of the
twelve apostles, (Acts iv. 36.) set out from Antioch upon the express
business of carrying the new religion through the various provinces of
the Lesser Asia. (Acts xiii. 2.) During this expedition, we find that in
almost every place to which they came, their persons were insulted, and
their lives endangered. After being expelled from Antioch in Pisidia,
they repaired to Iconium. (Acts xiii. 51.) At Iconium, an attempt was
made to stone them; at Lystra, whither they fled from Iconium, one of
them actually was stoned and drawn out of the city for dead. (Acts xiv.
19.) These two men, though not themselves original apostles, were acting
in connection and conjunction with the original apostles; for, after the
completion of their journey, being sent on a particular commission to
Jerusalem, they there related to the apostles (Acts xv. 12--26.) and
elders the events and success of their ministry, and were in return
recommended by them to the churches, "as men who had hazarded their
lives in the cause."

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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.

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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.

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