The Two Tests: The Supernatural Claims of Christianity Tried By Two Of Its Own Rules Part 7

1. A sound came from heaven as of a mighty rus.h.i.+ng wind, and filled the house where they were sitting.

2. Cloven tongues, like tongues of fire, sat on each of them.

3. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Joel, the son of Pethuel, would probably be surprised at Peter's appropriation of his prophecy. No doubt it is applicable to any general religious awakening or excitement in any land or at any time. But Joel is referring to some invasion, or threatened invasion, of Judea, and to a deliverance accompanied with a religious revival and thanksgiving. The exact circ.u.mstances in which he wrote, if known, would make his obscure allusions clear. The incidents, however, of the mighty rus.h.i.+ng wind and the cloven fiery tongues receive no support from his prophecy.

(w.) _The calling of the Gentiles_ (Amos ix. 11, 12; Acts xv. 13-16).

Amos' prophecy has been falsified by the event. The Jews, who were no more to be pulled out of the land the Lord had given them, were pulled out of it eighteen centuries ago, and so remain. The disingenuous way in which James applies to the conversion of the Gentiles what is clearly a reference to a return from captivity is very striking.

CHAPTER V. THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF JESUS

1. The resurrection of Jesus is the keystone of Christian faith, the central stay on which the structure rests. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that G.o.d raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." What a glorious hope for all mankind would lie in such a fact as that one, a fellow-man, had been killed because of his supernatural claims; had lain for a time in the grave, and on the third day, as predicted by himself, had risen from the dead! So marvellous an instance of nature-controlling power might well be held to establish, in the most conclusive manner, the validity of the claims of the person resuscitated; it would show that G.o.d was with him in an especial manner, that his words were true, that his promises would not fail.

2. What, then, are the evidences of this so glorious an event?

(a.) The four gospels agree in narrating that, while Jesus hung lifeless on the cross, a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, himself a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate and obtained permission to take charge of the body; that he laid it in his own new tomb, hewn out of a rock; that certain women saw where the body was laid, and that a great stone was rolled to the door of the tomb.

(b.) Matthew alone avers that, with Pilate's consent, the chief priests and Pharisees had the stone sealed, and a watch (of Roman soldiers) set.

(c.) Thus the tomb remained from the evening of the day of the crucifixion over the next day, the Jewish sabbath.

(d.) But early on the morning of the following day, the first day of the week, Jesus arose from the dead. Of this event--so entirely the reverse of all human experience, but of the last importance to each mortal man if it happened--the witnesses, of whose personal character among their neighbours for veracity and general trustworthiness nothing is known, thus present themselves:--

Matthew and John, eye-witnesses of the risen Jesus:

Mark, companion of Peter, an eye-witness:

Luke, companion of Paul, who had intercourse with eyewitnesses, and who himself professes to narrate the testimony of eye-witnesses (Luke i. 2):

And what they aver is a.n.a.lysed and compared in the following paragraphs:--

3. _The empty tomb_.--All four agree that in the morning (at dawn, at sun rising, very early, when it was yet dark) of the first day of the week the tomb was found empty by those who went to visit it.

4. _Visitors to the tomb_.--Matthew mentions "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary;" Mark, "Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome;" Luke, "Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other Galilean women," and afterwards, on the report of the women, Peter; John, "Mary Magdalene" only, and afterwards, on her report, himself (John) and Simon Peter, Mary Magdalene returning after them.

5. _Appearances at the tomb_.--(a.) The great earthquake and the awful appearance of the angel to the watch--"countenance like lightning, raiment white as snow;" and the effect on the startled soldiers, who swooned away "as dead men," as also the subsequent report of the watch and their acceptance of a bribe (large money) from the chief priests to publish a falsehood and confess that they--Roman soldiers--had slept at their post, are mentioned by Matthew alone. Matthew does not name his informant, whether it was a chief priest or one of the soldiers who betrayed his own and his comrades' infamy.

(b.) The stone securing the tomb was rolled away. So all four affirm.

This was one object of the angel's visit. Jesus rose from the dead, but the angel's a.s.sistance was necessary to open the tomb.

(c.) Matthew a.s.serts that the angel sat on the stone, outside the tomb.

Mark, that he appeared as a young man sitting within the tomb, on the right side, clothed in a long, white garment. Luke has "two men" in glittering garments, who made themselves manifest as the perplexed women were gazing at the empty tomb. John states that Mary Magdalene, on her _second_ visit, saw two angels, one sitting at the head the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. When, according to Luke, Peter visited the tomb, or according to John, when Mary Magdalene in the first instance, and then Peter and John, on hearing her report, went there, no such marvellous angelic being was manifest. The appearance was to perplexed and timid women. Wherein did they differ from other weak women, that their testimony received at second hand should be held trustworthy? Supposing, for instance, that it had been the young man with the linen garment about his naked body (Mark xiv. 51, 52), seated within the tomb, would not their excited imaginations have transformed him into a messenger from heaven?

6. _Announcements of the angels at the tomb_.--(a.) Matthew's dread angel announced to the women that Jesus had risen from the dead, directed them to go at once and inform his disciples that "he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him." Trembling and joyful they ran away at once to bring "his disciples word."

(6.) Mark's white-clad young man made the same announcement of Jesus preceding his disciples to Galilee; but instead of obeying the angel's direction as to informing the disciples, "they went out quickly and fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed, neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid."

(c.) Luke's two bright-clad men announced that Jesus was risen, as he had told them while yet in Galilee. "They remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest." There is no mention here of Jesus going before his disciples into Galilee.

(d.) John's two angels asked Mary Magdalene, "Woman, why weepest thou?"

She replied, "Because they have taken away my lord, and I know not where they have laid him." Here, _wholly ignorant that he was alive_, stood beside the tomb one of the very women to whom Matthew, Mark, and Luke's angels announced that Jesus was risen from the dead. If Matthew's account be true, both he and John were present when the women told the disciples that Jesus was risen, and gave them the direction to go to Galilee; and yet John narrates this circ.u.mstance, one quite at variance with Matthew's angel's announcement to the women.

7. _Effect on the disciples of the first announcement of the resurrection_.--(a.) Matthew states that "then" (on the report of the women) "the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them."

(b.) Mark xvi. 1-8, and xvi. 9-20, seem to contain two different accounts of the resurrection. It is difficult to reconcile them. Verses 9-20, not being found in the most ancient ma.n.u.scripts, are held by many to be spurious. But their general agreement with Luke's narrative is in favour of these verses being of the same age, or emanating from the same set of believers. Let verses 1-8, then, for the present purpose, be distinguished as Mark's first narrative, and verses 9-20 as Mark's second narrative.

Mark's first narrative, as already shown, agrees with Matthew as to the terms of the angel's announcement, but seems to imply that the terror-struck women did not deliver the angel's message to the disciples.

Mark's second narrative states that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, who went and told the disciples; "and they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not." No departure for Galilee is mentioned.

(c.) Luke affirms that the announcement to the disciples was by the whole of the women; "and their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not." Peter alone was moved to run to the sepulchre, where he found the empty tomb and the cast-off grave-clothes, and "departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pa.s.s." The whole of Luke's statement is quite inconsistent with Matthew's a.s.sertion that the disciples went away to Galilee to find Jesus there.

(d.) John states that when Mary Magdalene first reported that the tomb was empty, Peter and himself ran to the sepulchre, that he outran Peter, that he looked in and saw the linen clothes lying, that Peter when he came up went in, that then he (John) went in also, and that when he saw the cast-off grave-clothes he saw and believed: "for as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise from the dead." If so then Matthew xvi. 21; xvii. 22, 23; Mark viii. 31; ix. 31; Luke ix. 22, must all be erroneous. The burden of these pa.s.sages is, that while in Galilee Jesus informed his disciples that he would be killed, and rise again on the third day. The very chief priests, too, in setting the watch (Matthew xxvii. 63), did so because of this well-known a.s.sertion of Jesus.

When, on her second visit to the tomb, Mary Magdalene saw and conversed with Jesus himself, she "came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her." The effect is not mentioned. But the whole of John's statement is inconsistent with Matthew's "departure of the eleven for Galilee," and this departure again as inconsistent with John's statement.

8. _Appearances of the risen Jesus_.--(a.) Matthew xxviii. 9, 10. While Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were running to deliver the angel's message to the disciples, they were met by Jesus himself, who greeted them with an "all hail." They held him by the feet and wors.h.i.+pped him.

He confirmed the angel's message to his disciples, and directed them to go to Galilee: "there shall they see me."

Mark xvi. 9-11. Jesus, when he had risen early the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. She informed his mourning disciples, who did not believe her.

Luke has no incident at all corresponding to this.

John xx. 14-18. Mary Magdalene remained weeping at the tomb, after Peter and John had left, when Jesus made himself known to her. Recognising him, she turned and called him, "Master." He said, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my G.o.d and your G.o.d. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her."

Here there are several grave contradictions between Matthew and John.

1. Matthew makes the first appearance of Jesus to _the two_ Maries, while they are hastening _from the tomb_ to carry to his disciples the glad news of his resurrection, which they had learned from the angel; John, while Mary Magdalene is _by herself at the tomb and is unaware_ of his resurrection.

2. Matthew mentions that the two Maries _held him by the feet_ and wors.h.i.+pped him; John, that Mary Magdalene was commanded by Jesus _not to touch him_.

3. Matthew states that Jesus directed his disciples to go to

Galilee, where they would find him; John, that he announced to Mary, "I ascend to my Father," &c. Not one word of a journey to Galilee.

(6.) Matthew xxviii. 16-20. "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they wors.h.i.+pped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,"

&c.

Matthew here narrates that on receiving the direction of the women, the eleven went away to a mountain in Galilee fixed on before Jesus' death.

(Matthew xxvi. 32, he had said, "After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.") How or in what form they saw him there is left untold. Most of them adored, but some doubted. The appearance, therefore, could not have been a close one, such as was vouchsafed to Thomas (John xx. 27), for then no one could have doubted. Belief in such cases is not matter of choice. How Jesus vanished after his appearance on the Galilean mount is not mentioned. Matthew was a witness of the ascension of Jesus, if Mark and Luke's accounts be true, but he pa.s.ses by this most striking event in silence. Mark's second narrative, too, in no way confirms the journey to Galilee. On the contrary, it states that the parting charge of Jesus and his ascension took place after he had appeared and spoken to the eleven as they sat at meat. Where this occurred, and on what day, is somewhat ambiguous; but the inference is that it was at Jerusalem, and on the day of the resurrection. Luke, however, is quite explicit on this point. According to him on the very day (Luke xxiv. 13, 33, 36, 50, 51) of the resurrection Jesus appeared to the eleven at Jerusalem, gave them his parting charge, led them out to Bethany, and was there parted from them and carried into heaven.

So far from there being any journey to Galilee, they were expressly commanded (chap. xxiv. 49) to tarry at Jerusalem. Here Luke, the recorder of the reports of eye-witnesses, states that the disciples were ordered to tarry in Jerusalem on the very day when, according to Matthew, an eye-witness, they were ordered to proceed to Galilee. And John, the other eyewitness, one of the eleven, makes no mention of a journey to Galilee immediately following the first announcement of the resurrection, or of the appearance of Jesus on the mountain there, but, on the contrary, affirms that Jesus appeared to his disciples at Jerusalem on the evening of the day of the resurrection, and also on that day week.

(c.) Mark xvi. 12, 13. He appeared in another form to two of them in a country walk: they told the rest, who were still incredulous.

Luke xxiv. 13-35. Jesus that same day, i.e., the day of the resurrection, joined two of them on their way to the village of Emmaus, near Jerusalem; at first they did not know him, but on breaking bread they recognised him. On this he vanished.