An

                       Examination of the Testimony

                                  of the

                            Four Evangelists,

                  by the Rules of Evidence Administered

                                    in

                            Courts of Justice.

                  With an Account of the Trial of Jesus.

                        By Simon Greenleaf, LL.D.

               Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University

                              Second Edition

                   Revised and Corrected by the Author.

                                 London:

             A. Maxwell & Son, 32, Bell Yard, Lincoln’s Inn;

                       W. Smith, 113, Fleet Street;

            Hodges & Smith, Dublin; T. & J. Clark, Edinburgh.

                                   1847

CONTENTS

Contents And Synopsis Of The Harmony.
Advertisement To This Edition.
An Examination, Etc.
Harmony Of The Gospels.
   Part I. Events Connected With The Birth And Childhood Of Jesus.
   Part II. Announcement And Introduction Of Our Lord’s Public Ministry.
   Part III. Our Lord’s First Passover, And The Subsequent Transactions
   Until The Second.
   Part IV. Our Lord’s Second Passover, And The Subsequent Transactions
   Until The Third.
   Part V. From Our Lord’s Third Passover, Until His Final Departure From
   Galilee, At The Festival Of Tabernacles.
   Part VI. The Festival Of Tabernacles And The Subsequent Transactions,
   Until Our Lord’s Arrival At Bethany, Six Days Before The Fourth
   Passover.
   Part VII. Our Lord’s Public Entry Into Jerusalem, And The Subsequent
   Transactions Before The Fourth Passover.
   Part VIII. The Fourth Passover; Our Lord’s Passion; And The
   Accompanying Events Until The End Of The Jewish Sabbath.
   Part IX. Our Lord’s Resurrection, His Subsequent Appearances, And His
   Ascension.
Note On The Resurrection.
An Account Of The Trial Of Jesus.
The Jewish Account Of The Trial Of Jesus. By Mr. Salvador.
The Trial Of Jesus Before Caiaphas And Pilate.
   Preface.
   Analysis Of The Chapter Of Mr. Salvador, Entitled “The Administration
   Of Justice” Among The Jews.
   Trial Of Jesus.
Footnotes

ADVERTISEMENT.

In introducing to the notice of the British Public, Mr. Professor
GREENLEAF’S Harmony of the Four Gospels, the publishers have much
satisfaction in announcing, that it has become a Standard Work in the
United States of America: and its intrinsic value has induced them to make
it known, in the hope of promoting its circulation, in this country.

The spirit of infidelity is far more restless and active on the other side
of the Atlantic, than, happily, it has been in our highly-favoured land:
and, in consequence, it has called forth some of the most able and
powerful minds to correct and subdue it. Among these advocates of Divine
Revelation, the profound lawyer, Professor Greenleaf, holds a most
honourable and distinguished place; and his work may justly be regarded as
combining sound and practical knowledge with well-directed zeal and piety.
Its character has been very fairly appreciated in two leading North
American journals, from which the following extracts are made, as
indicative of its contents, and also of the high estimation in which its
learned author is deservedly held in his own country.

    EXTRACT OF A NOTICE OF PROFESSOR GREENLEAF ON THE FOUR GOSPELS,
    OCTOBER 24, 1846, IN “THE NEW YORK OBSERVER.”

    The Author is a lawyer, very learned in his profession, acute,
    critical and used to raising and meeting practical doubts. Author
    of a treatise on the law of evidence, which has already become a
    classic in the hands of the profession which he adorns, and
    teaches in one of the Law Seminaries which do honour to our
    country in the eyes of Europe, he brings rare qualifications for
    the task he assumes. That he should, with the understanding and
    from the heart, accept the Gospel as the truth, avow it as his
    Hope, and seek to discharge a duty to his fellow-men by laying
    before them the grounds on which he founds this acceptance and
    this hope, are cheering circumstances to the Christian, and
    present strong appeals to the indifferent.

    To his profession, to the lawyers of the country, however, this
    work makes a strong appeal. They are a very secular profession.
    Their business is almost wholly conversant with material
    interests. Their time is absorbed in controversies, of passion, or
    of interest. Acute, critical, and disputatious, they apparently
    present a field unpropitious for the acceptance of a religion,
    spiritual, disinterested, and insisting on perfect holiness.
    Still, they necessarily need to know and must enforce the rules of
    finding truth and justice; the principles for ascertaining truth
    and dispensing justice are the great subjects of all their
    discussions, so far as they are discussions of any general
    principle. From this cause it is, that this profession has
    numbered among its members, in every age, Christians of great
    eminence, and in our own day and country, we cannot turn to the
    eminent men of this profession in any large community, without the
    satisfaction of finding our Faith embraced by those whose habits
    of practical as well as speculative investigation render them
    evidently the best able to appreciate its claims and to detect any
    imperfections in its proof.

    So we trust it always may be; and we are assured that the best
    models of the mode of investigating matters of legal controversy
    as the proof of facts, are writings on the evidences. Paley’s
    treatise and that of Chalmers, on the oral testimony in favour of
    Christ’s mission, Paley’s examination of the writings of the
    apostle Paul, are, we are assured, the best models extant for
    forming the habit of examining oral and documentary evidence.
    These are subjects on which it is of vital importance, in a
    secular view, that a lawyer’s habits should be right: in a
    spiritual view the importance is unspeakable. Mr. Greenleaf has
    doubtless felt this truth, and has also felt that his position
    would give to his labours some authority with his brethren and
    with the public. He has given himself honourably to the labour,
    and spread its results before the world.

    It is long since Infidelity has found its advocates among the
    truly learned. Among the guesses and speculations of a small
    portion of unsanctified medical men, she still finds now and then
    a champion. Historians and philosophers have long since discussed
    her pretensions. And now from the Jurists and Lawyers, the
    practical masters of this kind of investigation, works are
    appearing, whereby not only an earnest reception of the Gospel is
    manifested, but the mode and means of action and of credit by
    which all human affairs are governed.

    We lose in respect to our own investigations on this subject by
    its very sacredness. We have an idle dread, that it is not open to
    free investigation: to severe practical tests. We need to be
    invited, to be pressed to examine this subject freely. Dr.
    Chalmers in one department of this inquiry has led the way. Mr.
    Greenleaf in another has also presented an example. And it will
    not be competent, after these men have thus investigated and
    taught the rules and laws of investigation, for any man who is not
    willing to arrogate superior claims to learning and ability, to
    turn aside superciliously from an examination of the Gospels.

    Such are our views of this work, which we commend to all: to the
    legal profession, from the character of its topics and the rank of
    its author: to men desirous of knowledge, in every rank in life,
    because of its presenting this subject under such a treatment as
    every-day practical questions are treated with. It does not touch
    the intrinsic evidences of the Gospel: those which to the believer
    are, after all, the highest proofs. But it is to be remembered,
    that these are proofs which are not satisfactory until an
    examination of the outward evidences has led men to the
    conviction, that the Gospels cannot be false.

    FROM THE “NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.”

    _Professor Greenleaf on the Gospels, and Strauss’ __“__Life of
    Jesus.__”_—Of course we place the titles of these two books
    together only by way of contrast. They relate, it is true, to the
    same general subject; but it is hard to conceive of two works more
    unlike in their scope, character, and purpose. The object of the
    one is to prove, and of the other to disprove, the Christian
    religion. The one is the production of an able and profound
    lawyer, a man who has grown grey in the halls of justice and the
    schools of jurisprudence,—a writer of the highest authority on
    legal subjects, whose life has been spent in weighing testimony
    and sifting evidence, and whose published opinions on the rules of
    evidence are received as authoritative in all the English and
    American tribunals,—for fourteen years the highly respected
    colleague of the late Mr. Justice Story, and now the honoured head
    of the most distinguished and prosperous school of English law in
    the world. The other is the work of a German professor and
    speculatist, also profoundly learned in his way,—an ingenious and
    erring framer of theories of the most striking character, almost
    unheard of till his brain either conceived them or gave them
    currency, though relating to topics with which men have been
    familiar for eighteen centuries,—a subtle controversialist, whose
    work, as he himself avows, is deeply tinged with the most strongly
    marked peculiarities of the philosophy and theology of his
    countrymen. We presume the most ardent admirer of Dr. Strauss will
    not object to our characterising the two works as excellent
    specimens, the one of clear and shrewd English common sense, the
    other of German erudition, laborious diligence, and fertility in
    original speculation. And if the subject of inquiry were one that
    involved his own temporal and immediate interests, and it were
    necessary to determine which of these two writers would give the
    wiser and safer counsel, or the more trustworthy opinion, we
    suppose the same person would agree with us in making the choice.

On the publishers announcing to Professor Greenleaf their wish to
introduce his Harmony to the notice of the British Public, he with equal
promptitude and kindness communicated to them some important additions to
his Introduction, and also numerous valuable notes, more particularly
adapted to the use of Theological Students. These are now printed for the
first time: and at the suggestion of a very eminent and learned clergyman
of the Established Church, the publishers have added in an Appendix an
accurate and elegant translation of the late learned French Advocate, A.
M. J. J. Dupin’s Refutation of the eminent Jewish writer, Joseph
Salvador’s “Trial and Condemnation of Jesus,” executed by the late
distinguished American Lawyer and Statesman, JOHN PICKERING, LL.D.,
Counsellor at Law, and President of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences (sometime Secretary to the American Embassy in this country); who
has most truly characterised M. Dupin’s examination of Salvador, as being
“conducted with an ability, learning, animation, and interest, that leave
nothing to be desired.”

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

GENTLEMEN,

The subject of the following work I hope will not be deemed so foreign to
our professional pursuits, as to render it improper for me to dedicate it,
as I now respectfully do, to you. If a close examination of the evidences
of Christianity may be expected of one class of men more than another, it
would seem incumbent on us, who make the law of evidence one of our
peculiar studies. Our profession leads us to explore the mazes of
falsehood, to detect its artifices, to pierce its thickest veils, to
follow and expose its sophistries, to compare the statements of different
witnesses with severity, to discover truth and separate it from error. Our
fellow-men are well aware of this; and probably they act upon this
knowledge more generally, and with a more profound repose, than we are in
the habit of considering. The influence, too, of the legal profession upon
the community is unquestionably great; conversant, as it daily is, with
all classes and grades of men, in their domestic and social relations, and
in all the affairs of life, from the cradle to the grave. This influence
we are constantly exerting for good or ill; and hence, to refuse to
acquaint ourselves with the evidences of the Christian religion, or to act
as though, having fully examined, we lightly esteemed them, is to assume
an appalling amount of responsibility.

The things related by the Evangelists are certainly of the most momentous
character, affecting the principles of our conduct here, and our happiness
for ever. The religion of Jesus Christ aims at nothing less than the utter
overthrow of all other systems of religion in the world; denouncing them
as inadequate to the wants of man, false in their foundations, and
dangerous in their tendency. It not only solicits the grave attention of
all, to whom its doctrines are presented, but it demands their cordial
belief, as a matter of vital concernment. These are no ordinary claims;
and it seems hardly possible for a rational being to regard them with even
a subdued interest; much less to treat them with mere indifference and
contempt. If not true, they are little else than the pretensions of a bold
imposture, which, not satisfied with having already enslaved millions of
the human race, seeks to continue its encroachments upon human liberty,
until all nations shall be subjugated under its iron rule. But if they are
well founded and just, they can be no less than the high requirements of
Heaven, addressed by the voice of God to the reason and understanding of
man, concerning things deeply affecting his relations to his sovereign,
and essential to the formation of his character and of course to his
destiny, both for this life and for the life to come. Such was the
estimate taken of religion, even the religion of pagan Rome, by one of the
greatest lawyers of antiquity, when he argued that it was either nothing
at all, or was everything. _Aut undique religionem tolle, aut usquequaque
conserva._(1)

With this view of the importance of the subject, and in the hope that the
present work may in some degree aid or at least incite others to a more
successful pursuit of this interesting study, it is submitted to your kind
regard, by

Your obedient servant,
SIMON GREENLEAF.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
DANE HALL, _May 1, 1846_.

CONTENTS AND SYNOPSIS OF THE HARMONY.

_The figures in the first column refer to the corresponding Sections in_
NEWCOME’S HARMONY. _Those in the second column to the Sections in this
Work._

Sect.   Sect.   Contents.           Matt.      Mark      Luke      John
                Part I.
                EVENTS CONNECTED
                WITH THE BIRTH
                AND CHILDHOOD OF
                OUR LORD.
                TIME: _About
                thirteen and a
                half years._
1       1       Preface to Luke’s                        1, 1-4
                Gospel.
3       2       An Angel appears                         1, 5-25
                to Zacharias.
                _Jerusalem._
4       3       An Angel appears                         1,
                to Mary.                                 26-38
                _Nazareth._
5       4       Mary visits                              1,
                Elizabeth.                               39-56
                _Juttah._
6       5       Birth of John the                        1,
                Baptist.                                 57-80
                _Juttah._
7, 8    6       An Angel appears    1,
                to Joseph.          18-25
                _Nazareth._
8       7       The Birth of                             2, 1-7
                Jesus.
                _Bethlehem._
10      8       An Angel appears                         2, 8-20
                to the Shepherds.
                _Near Bethlehem._
11,     9       The circumcision                         2,
12              of Jesus, and his                        21-38
                presentation in
                the Temple.
                _Bethlehem._
                _Jerusalem._
13      10      The Magi.                                2, 1-12
                _Jerusalem._
                _Bethlehem._
13      11      The flight into     2,                   2,
                Egypt. Herod’s      13-23                39-40
                cruelty. The
                return.
                _Bethlehem._
                _Nazareth._
14      12      At twelve years                          2,
                of age Jesus goes                        41-52
                to the Passover.
                _Jerusalem._
9       13      The Genealogies.    1, 1-17              3,
                                                         28-38

                Part II.
                ANNOUNCEMENT AND
                INTRODUCTION OF
                OUR LORD’S PUBLIC
                MINISTRY.
                TIME: _About one
                year._
15      14      The Ministry of     3, 1-12    1, 1-8    3, 1-18
                John the Baptist.
                The Desert. _The
                Jordan._
16      15      The Baptism of      3,         1, 9-11   3,
                Jesus. _The         13-17                21-23
                Jordan._
17      16      The Temptation.     4, 1-11    1, 12,    4, 1-13
                _Desert of                     13
                Judea._
2       17      Preface to John’s                                  1, 1-18
                Gospel.
18      18      Testimony of John                                  1,
                the Baptist to                                     19-34
                Jesus. _Bethany
                beyond Jordan._
18      19      Jesus gains                                        1,
                Disciples. _The                                    35-52
                Jordan._
                _Galilee?_
19      20      The Marriage at                                    2, 1-12
                Cana of Galilee.

                Part III.

                OUR LORD’S FIRST
                PASSOVER, AND THE
                SUBSEQUENT
                TRANSACTIONS
                UNTIL THE SECOND.
                TIME: _One year._

20      21      At the Passover                                    2,
                Jesus drives the                                   13-25
                Traders out of
                the Temple.
                _Jerusalem._
21      22      Our Lord’s                                         3, 1-21
                discourse with
                Nicodemus.
                _Jerusalem._
22      23      Jesus remains in                                   3,
                Judea and                                          22-36
                baptizes. Further
                testimony of John
                the Baptist.
23      24      Jesus departs       4, 12.     1, 14.    4, 14.    4, 1-3
                into Galilee        14, 3-5    6,        3, 19,
                after John’s                   17-20     20.
                imprisonment
23      25      Our Lord’s                                         4, 4-42
                discourse with
                the Samaritan
                woman. Many of
                the Samaritans
                believe on him.
                _Shechem_ or
                _Neapolis_.
24      26      Jesus teaches       4, 17      1, 14.    4, 14,    4,
                publicly in                    15        15        43-45
                Galilee.
24      27      Jesus again at                                     4,
                Cana, where he                                     46-54
                heals the son of
                a nobleman lying
                ill at Capernaum.
                _Cana of
                Galilee._
25      28      Jesus at            4,                   4,
                Nazareth; he is     13-16                16-31
                there rejected,
                and fixes his
                abode at
                Capernaum.
26      29      The call of Simon   4,         1,        5, 1-11
                Peter and Andrew,   18-22      16-20
                and of James and
                John, with the
                miraculous
                draught of
                fishes. _Near
                Capernaum._
27      30      The healing of a               1,        4,
                Demoniac in the                21-28     31-37
                Synagogue.
                _Capernaum_
28      31      The healing of      8,         1,        4,
                Peter’s wife’s      14-17      29-34     38-41
                mother, and many
                others.
                _Capernaum._
28      32      Jesus with his      4,         1,        4,
                Disciples goes      23-25      35-39     42-44
                from Capernaum
                throughout
                Galilee.
29      33      The healing of a    8, 2-4     1,        5,
                Leper. _Galilee._              40-45     12-16
30      34      The healing of a    9, 2-8     2, 1-12   5,
                Paralytic.                               17-26
                _Capernaum._
31      35      The call of         9, 9       2, 13,    5, 27,
                Matthew.                       14
                _Capernaum._

                Part IV.

                OUR LORD’S SECOND
                PASSOVER, AND THE
                SUBSEQUENT
                TRANSACTIONS
                UNTIL THE THIRD.

                TIME: _One year._

32      36      The Pool of                                        5, 1-47
                Bethesda; the
                healing of the
                infirm man; and
                our Lord’s
                subsequent
                discourse.
                _Jerusalem._
33      37      The Disciples       12, 1-8    2,        6, 1-5
                pluck ears of                  23-28
                grain on the
                Sabbath. _On the
                way to Galilee?_
34      38      The healing of      12,        3, 1-6    6, 6-11
                the withered hand   9-14
                on the Sabbath.
                _Galilee._
34      39      Jesus arrives at    12,        3, 7-12
                the Sea of          15-21
                Tiberias, and is
                followed by
                multitudes. _Lake
                of Galilee._
35      40      Jesus withdraws     10,        3,        6,
                to the Mountain,    2-4,       13-19     12-19
                and chooses the
                Twelve; the
                multitudes follow
                him. _Near
                Capernaum._
36      41      The Sermon on the   5,1,-8,1             6,
                Mount. _Near                             20-49
                Capernaum._
37      42      The healing of      8, 5-13              7, 1-10
                the Centurion’s
                servant.
                _Capernaum._
38      43      The raising of                           7,
                the Widow’s son.                         11-17
                _Nain._
39      44      John the Baptist    11, 2-19             7,
                in prison sends                          18-35
                Disciples to
                Jesus. _Galilee._
                _Capernaum?_
40      45      Reflections of      11,
                Jesus on            20-30
                appealing to his
                mighty Works.
                _Capernaum._
41      46      While sitting at                         7,
                meat with a                              36-50
                Pharisee, Jesus
                is anointed by a
                woman who had
                been a sinner.
                _Capernaum?_
42      47      Jesus, with the                          8, 1-3
                Twelve, makes a
                second circuit in
                Galilee.
42      48      The healing of a    12,        3,        11, 14,
                Demoniac. The       22-37      19-30     15,
                Scribes and                              17-23
                Pharisee
                blaspheme.
                _Galilee._
43,     49      The Scribes and     12,                  11, 16,
44              Pharisees seek a    38-45                24-36
                sign. Our Lord’s
                reflections.
                _Galilee._
45      50      The true            12,        3,        8,
                Disciples of        46-50      31-35     19-21
                Christ his
                nearest
                relatives.
                _Galilee._
46      51      At a Pharisee’s                          11,
                table, Jesus                             37-54
                denounces woes
                against the
                Pharisees and
                others.
                _Galilee._
47      52      Jesus discourses                         12,
                to his Disciples                         1-59
                and the
                multitude.
                _Galilee._
48      53      The slaughter of                         13, 1-9
                certain
                Galileans.
                Parable of the
                barren Fig-tree.
                _Galilee._
49      54      Parable of the      13, 1-23   4, 1-25   8, 4-18
                Sower. _Lake of
                Galilee._ _Near
                Capernaum?_
49      55      Parable of the      13,        4,
                Tares. Other        24-53      26-34
                Parables. _Near
                Capernaum?_
50      56      Jesus directs to    8, 18-27   4,        8,
                cross the Lake.                35-41     22-25,
                Incidents. The                           9,
                tempest stilled.                         57-62
                _Lake of
                Galilee._
51      57      The two Demoniacs   8,         5, 1-21   8,
                of Gadara. _S. E.   28-34,               26-40
                coast of the Lake   9, 1
                of Galilee._
52      58      Levi’s Feast.       9, 10-17   2,        5,
                _Capernaum._                   15-22     29-39
52      59      The raising of      9, 18-26   5,        8,
                Jairus’s                       22-43     41-56
                daughter. The
                woman with a
                bloody flux.
                _Capernaum._
53,     60      Two blind men       9, 27-34
54              healed, and a
                dumb spirit cast
                out. _Capernaum?_
55      61      Jesus again at      13,        6, 1-6
                Nazareth, and       54-58
                again rejected.
56,     62      A third circuit     9,         6, 6-13   9, 1-6
57,             in Galilee. The     35-38,
58,             Twelve instructed   10, 1,
59              and sent forth.     5-42,
                _Galilee._          11, 1
60,     63      Herod holds Jesus   14, 1,     6,        9, 7-9
61              to be John the      2, 6-12    14-16,
                Baptist, whom he               21-29
                had just before
                beheaded.
                _Galilee?_
                _Perea._
62,     64      The Twelve          14,        6,        9,        6, 1-14
63              return, and Jesus   13-21      30-44     10-17
                retires with them
                across the Lake.
                Five thousand are
                fed. _Capernaum._
                _N. E. coast of
                the Lake of
                Galilee._
64      65      Jesus walks upon    14,        6,                  6,
                the water. _Lake    22-36      45-56               15-21
                of Galilee._
                _Gennesareth._
65,     66      Our Lord’s                                         6,
83              discourse to the                                   22-71,
                multitude in the                                   7, 1
                Synagogue at
                Capernaum. Many
                Disciples turn
                back. Peter’s
                profession of
                faith.
                _Capernaum._

                Part V.

                FROM OUR LORD’S
                THIRD PASSOVER
                UNTIL HIS FINAL
                DEPARTURE FROM
                GALILEE AT THE
                FESTIVAL OF
                TABERNACLES.

                TIME: _Six
                months._

66      67      Our Lord            15, 1-20   7, 1-23
                justifies his
                disciples for
                eating with
                unwashen hands.
                Pharisaic
                Traditions.
                _Capernaum._
67      68      The daughter of a   15,        7,
                Syrophenician       21-28      24-30
                woman is healed.
                _Region of Tyre
                and Sidon._
68,     69      A deaf and dumb     15,        7,
69              man healed; also    29-38      31-37,
                many others. Four              8, 1-9
                thousand are fed.
                _The Decapolis._
69,     70      The Pharisees and   15, 39,    8,
70              Sadducees again     16, 1-4    10-12
                require a sign.
                (See § 49.) _Near
                Magdala._
71      71      The Disciples       16, 4-12   8,
                cautioned against              13-21
                the leaven of the
                Pharisees, etc.
                _N. E. coast of
                the Lake of
                Galilee._
72      72      A blind man                    8,
                healed.                        22-26
                _Bethsaida._
                (_Julias_).
73      73      Peter and the       16,        8,        9,
                rest again          13-20      27-30     18-21
                profess their
                faith in Christ.
                (See § 66.)
                _Region of
                Cesarea
                Philippi._
74      74      Our Lord            16,        8,        9,
                foretells his own   21-28      31-38,    22-27
                death and                      9, 1
                resurrection, and
                the trials of his
                followers.
                _Region of
                Cesarea
                Philippi._
75      76      The                 17,        9, 2-13   9,
                Transfiguration.    1-13,                28-36
                Our Lord’s
                subsequent
                discourse with
                the three
                Disciples.
                _Region of
                Cesarea
                Philippi._
76      76      The healing of a    17,        9,        9,
                Demoniac, whom      14-21      14-29     37-43
                the Disciples
                could not heal.
                _Region of
                Cesarea
                Philippi._
77      77      Jesus again         17, 22,    9,        9,
                foretells his own   2          30-32     43-45
                death and
                resurrection (See
                § 74.) _Galilee._
78      78      The tribute-money   17,        9, 33
                miraculously        24-27
                provided.
                _Capernaum._
79      79      The Disciples       18, 1-35   9,        9,
                contend who                    33-50     46-50
                should be
                greatest. Jesus
                exhorts to
                humility,
                forbearance, and
                brotherly love.
                _Capernaum._
80      80      The Seventy                              10,
                instructed and                           1-16
                sent out.
                _Capernaum._
81,     81      Jesus goes up the                        9,        7, 2-10
95              Festival of                              51-56
                Tabernacles. His
                final departure
                from Galilee.
                Incidents in
                Samaria.
95,     82      Ten Lepers                               17,
96              cleansed.                                11-19
                _Samaria._

                Part VI.

                THE FESTIVAL OF
                THE TABERNACLES
                AND THE
                SUBSEQUENT
                TRANSACTIONS
                UNTIL OUR LORD’S
                ARRIVAL AT
                BETHANY, SIX DAYS
                BEFORE THE FOURTH
                PASSOVER.

                TIME: _Six months
                less one week._

81      83      Jesus at the                                       7,
                Festival of                                        11-53,
                Tabernacles. His                                   8, 1
                public teaching.
                _Jerusalem._
82      84      The woman taken                                    8, 2-11
                in Adultery.
                _Jerusalem._
83      85      Further public                                     8,
                teaching of our                                    12-59
                Lord. He reproves
                the unbelieving
                Jews, and escapes
                from their hands.
                _Jerusalem._
86      86      A lawyer                                 10,
                instructed. Love                         25-37
                to our neighbour
                defined. Parable
                of the Good
                Samaritan. _Near
                Jerusalem._
99      87      Jesus in the                             10,
                house of Martha                          38-42
                and Mary.
                _Bethany._
87      88      The Disciples                            11,
                again taught how                         1-13
                to pray. _Near
                Jerusalem._
85      89      The Seventy                              10,
                return.                                  17-24
                _Jerusalem?_
84      90      A man born blind                                   9,
                is healed on the                                   1-41,
                Sabbath. Our                                       10,
                Lord’s subsequent                                  1-21
                discourses.
                _Jerusalem._
100,    91      Jesus in                                           10,
101             Jerusalem at the                                   22-42
                Festival of
                Dedication. He
                retires beyond
                Jordan.
                _Jerusalem._
                _Bethany beyond
                Jordan._
102     92      The raising of                                     11,
                Lazarus.                                           1-46
                _Bethany._
102     93      The counsel of                                     11,
                Caiaphas against                                   47-54
                Jesus. He retires
                from Jerusalem.
                _Jerusalem._
                _Ephraim._
103,    94      Jesus beyond        19, 1. 2   10, 1     13,
88              Jordan is                                10-21
                followed by
                multitudes. The
                healing of the
                infirm woman on
                the Sabbath.
                _Valley of
                Jordan._ _Perea._
89      95      Our Lord goes                            13,
                teaching and                             22-35
                journeying
                towards
                Jerusalem. He is
                warned against
                Herod. _Perea._
90      96      Our Lord dines                           14,
                with a chief                             1-24
                Pharisee on the
                Sabbath.
                Incidents.
                _Perea._
91      97      What is required                         14,
                of true                                  25-35
                Disciples.
                _Perea._
92      98      Parables of the                          15,
                Lost Sheep, etc.                         1-32
                Parable of the
                Prodigal Son.
                _Perea._
93      99      Parable of the                           16,
                Unjust Steward.                          1-13
                _Perea._
93      100     The Pharisees                            16,
                reproved. Parable                        14-31
                of the Rich Man
                and Lazarus.
                _Perea._
94      101     Jesus inculcates                         17,
                forbearance,                             1-10
                faith, humility.
                _Perea._
97      102     Christ’s coming                          17,
                will be sudden.                          20-37
                _Perea._
98      103     Parables. The                            18,
                importunate                              1-14
                Widow. The
                Pharisee and
                Publican.
                _Perea._
103     104     Precepts            19, 3-12   10,
                respecting                     2-12
                divorce. _Perea._
104     105     Jesus receives      19,        10,       18,
                and blesses         13-15      13-16     15-17
                little Children.
                _Perea._
105     106     The rich Young      19,        10,       18,
                Man. Parable of     16-30,     17-31     18-30
                the Labourers in    20, 1-16
                the Vineyard.
                _Perea._
106     107     Jesus a third       20,        10,       18,
                time foretells      17-19      32-34     31-34
                his Death and
                Resurrection.
                (See § 74, § 77.)
                _Perea._
107     108     James and John      20,        10,
                prefer their        20-28      35-45
                ambitious
                request. _Perea._
108     109     The healing of      20,        10,       18,
                two blind men       29-34      46-52     35-43,
                near Jericho.                            19, 1
109     110     The visit to                             19,
                Zaccheus. Parable                        2-28
                of the ten Minae.
                _Jericho._
110     111     Jesus arrives at                                   11,
                Bethany six days                                   55-57,
                before the                                         12,
                Passover.                                          1.9-11

                Part VII.

                OUR LORD’S PUBLIC
                ENTRY INTO
                JERUSALEM, AND
                THE SUBSEQUENT
                TRANSACTIONS
                BEFORE THE FOURTH
                PASSOVER.

                TIME: _Five
                days._

111     112     Our Lord’s public   21,        11,       19,       12,
                Entry into          1-11,      1-11      29-44     12-19
                Jerusalem.          14-17
                _Bethany._
112     113     The barren          21, 12.    11,       19,
                Fig-tree. The       13, 18.    12-19     45-48,
                cleansing of the    19                   21,
                Temple. _Bethany,                        37.38
                Jerusalem._
113     114     The barren          21,        11, 20.
                Fig-tree withers    20-22      2
                away. _Between
                Bethany and
                Jerusalem._
114     115     Christ’s            21,        11,       20, 1-8
                authority           23-32      27-33
                questioned.
                Parable of the
                Two Sons.
                _Jerusalem._
114     116     Parable of the      21,        12,       20,
                wicked              33-46      1-12      9-19
                husbandmen.
                _Jerusalem._
114     117     Parable of the      22, 1-14
                Marriage of the
                King’s Son.
                _Jerusalem._
115     118     Insidious           22,        12,       20,
                question of the     15-22      13-17     20-26
                Pharisees:
                Tribute to Cæsar.
                _Jerusalem._
115     119     Insidious           22,        12,       20,
                question of the     23-33      18-27     27-40
                Sadducees: The
                Resurrection.
                _Jerusalem._
115     120     A lawyer            22,        12,
                questions Jesus.    34-40      28-34
                The two great
                Commandments.
                _Jerusalem._
115     121     How is Christ the   22,        12,       20,
                son of David?       41-46      35-37     41-44
                _Jerusalem._
116     122     Warnings against    23, 1-12   12,       20,
                the evil example               38.39     45.46
                of the Scribes
                and Pharisees.
                _Jerusalem._
116     123     Woes against the    23,        12, 40    20, 47
                Scribes and         13-39
                Pharisees.
                Lamentation over
                Jerusalem.
                _Jerusalem._
117     124     The Widow’s mite.              12,       21, 1-4
                _Jerusalem._                   41-44
111     125     Certain Greeks                                     12,
                desire to see                                      20-36
                Jesus.
                _Jerusalem._
111     126     Reflections upon                                   12,
                the unbelief of                                    37-50
                the Jews.
                _Jerusalem._
118     127     Jesus, on taking    24, 1-14   13,       21,
                leave of the                   1-13      5-19
                Temple, foretells
                its destruction
                and the
                persecution of
                his Disciples.
                _Jerusalem. Mount
                of Olives._
118     128     The signs of        24,        13,       21,
                Christ’s coming     15-42      14-37     20-36
                to destroy
                Jerusalem, and
                put an end to the
                Jewish State and
                Dispensation.
                _Mount of
                Olives._
118     129     Transition to       24,
                Christ’s final      43-51,
                coming at the Day   25, 1-30
                of Judgment.
                Exhortation to
                watchfulness.
                Parables: The ten
                Virgins. The five
                Talents. _Mount
                of Olives._
119     130     Scenes of the       25,
                Judgment Day.       31-46
                _Mount of
                Olives._
120     131     The Rulers          26, 1-16   14,       22, 1-6   12, 2-8
                conspire. The                  1-11
                supper at
                Bethany.
                Treachery of
                Judas.
                _Jerusalem._
                _Bethany._
121     132     Preparation for     26,        14,       22,
                the Passover.       17-19      12-16     7-13
                _Bethany._
                _Jerusalem._

                Part VIII.

                THE FOURTH
                PASSOVER; OUR
                LORD’S PASSION;
                AND THE
                ACCOMPANYING
                EVENTS UNTIL THE
                END OF THE JEWISH
                SABBATH.

                TIME: _Two days._

122     133     The Passover        26, 20     14, 17    22,
                Meal. Contention                         14-18,
                among the Twelve.                        24-30
                _Jerusalem._
123     134     Jesus washes the                                   13,
                feet of his                                        1-20
                disciples.
                _Jerusalem,_
124     136     Jesus point out     26,        14,       22,       13,
                the Traitor.        21-25      18-21     21-23     21-35
                Judas withdraws.
                _Jerusalem._
125     136     Jesus foretells     26,        14,       22,       13,
                the fall of         31-35      27-31     31-38     36-38
                Peter, and the
                dispersion of the
                Twelve.
                _Jerusalem._
126,    137     The Lord’s          26,        14,       22,
128             Supper.             26-29      22-25     19.20
                _Jerusalem._
127,    138     Jesus comforts                                     14,
129             his Disciples.                                     1-31
                The Holy Spirit
                promised.
                _Jerusalem._
129     139     Christ the true                                    15,
                Vine. His                                          1-27
                Disciples hated
                by the world.
                _Jerusalem._
129     140     Persecution                                        16,
                foretold. Further                                  1-33
                promise of the
                Holy Spirit.
                Prayer in the
                name of Christ.
                _Jerusalem._
130     141     Christ’s last                                      17,
                prayer with his                                    1-26
                disciples.
                _Jerusalem._
131     142     The agony in        26, 30,    14, 26,   22,       18, 1
                Gethsemane.         36-46      32-42     39-46
                _Mount of
                Olives._
132     143     Jesus betrayed,     26,        14,       22,       18,
                and made            47-56      43-52     47-53     2-12
                prisoner. _Mount
                of Olives._
133,    144     Jesus before        26,        14,       22,       18,
134             Caiaphas. Peter     47-56      53.54,    54-62     13-18,
                thrice denies                  66-72               25-27
                him. _Jerusalem._
134     145     Jesus before        26,        14,       22,       18,
                Caiaphas and the    59-68      55-65     63-71     19-24
                Sanhedrim. He
                declares himself
                to be the Christ;
                is condemned and
                mocked.
                _Jerusalem._
135     146     The Sanhedrim       27, 1.     15, 1-5   23,       18,
                lead Jesus away     2, 11-14             1-5,      28-38
                to Pilate.                               23,
                _Jerusalem._                             6-12
136     147     Jesus before                             23,
                Herod.                                   6-12
                _Jerusalem._
138     148     Pilate seeks to     27,        15,       23,       18, 39.
                release Jesus.      15-26      6-15      13-25     40
                The Jews demand
                Barabbas.
                _Jerusalem._
138     149     Pilate delivers     27,        15,                 19, 1-3
                up Jesus to         26-30      15-19
                death. He is
                scourged and
                mocked.
                _Jerusalem._
138     150     Pilate again                                       19,
                seeks to release                                   4-16
                Jesus.
                _Jerusalem._
139     151     Judas repents and   27, 3-10
                hangs himself.
                _Jerusalem._
138,    152     Jesus is led away   27,        15,       23,       19,
140             to be crucified.    31-34      20-23     26-33     16.17
                _Jerusalem._
141     153     The Crucifixion.    27,        15,       23,       19,
                _Jerusalem._        35-38      24-28     33.34     18-24
141     154     The Jews mock at    27,        15,       23,       19,
                Jesus on the        39-44      29-32,    35-37,    25-27
                Cross. He                      15,       39-43
                commends his                   33-37
                mother to John.
                _Jerusalem._
141     155     Darkness            27,                  23,       19,
                prevails. Christ    45-50                44-46     28-30
                expires on the
                cross.
                _Jerusalem._
142,    156     The vail of the     27,        15,       23, 45,
144             Temple rent, and    51-56      38-41     47-49
                graves opened.
                Judgment of the
                Centurion. The
                Women at the
                Cross.
                _Jerusalem._
142     157     The taking down     27,        15,       23,       19,
                from the Cross.     57-61      42-47     50-56     31-42
                The burial.
                _Jerusalem._
143     158     The Watch at the    27,
                Sepulchre.          62-66
                _Jerusalem._

                Part IX.

                OUR LORD’S
                RESURRECTION, HIS
                SUBSEQUENT
                APPEARANCES, AND
                HIS ASCENSION.

                TIME: _Forty
                days._

144     159     The Morning of      28, 2-4    16, 1
                the Resurrection.
                _Jerusalem._
145     160     Visit of the        28, 1      16, 2-4   24, 1-3   20, 1.
                Women to the                                       2
                Sepulchre. Mary
                Magdalene
                returns.
                _Jerusalem._
145     161     Vision of Angels    28, 5-7    16, 5-7   24, 4-8
                in the Sepulchre.
                _Jerusalem._
145     162     The Women return    28, 8-10   16, 8     24,
                to the City.                             9-11
                Jesus meets them.
                _Jerusalem._
146     163     Peter and John                           24, 12    20,
                run to the                                         3-10
                Sepulchre.
                _Jerusalem._
147,    164     Our Lord is seen               16,                 20,
148             by Mary Magdalene              9-11                11-18
                at the Sepulchre.
                _Jerusalem._
149     165     Report of the       28,
                Watch.              11-15
                _Jerusalem._
150     166     Our Lord is seen               16,       24,
                of Peter. Then by              12.13     13-35
                two Disciples on
                the way to
                Emmaus.
                _Jerusalem._
                _Emmaus._
151     167     Jesus appears in               16,       24,       20,
                the midst of the               14-18     36-49     19-23
                Apostles, Thomas
                being absent.
                _Jerusalem._
152     168     Jesus appears in                                   20,
                the midst of the                                   24-29
                Apostles, Thomas
                being present.
                _Jerusalem._
153     169     The Apostles go     28, 16                         21,
                away into                                          1-24
                Galilee. Jesus
                shows himself to
                seven of them at
                the Sea of
                Tiberias.
                _Galilee._
154     170     Jesus meets the     28,
                Apostles and        16-20
                above five
                hundred Brethren
                on a Mountain in
                Galilee.
                _Galilee._
155     171     Our Lord is seen               16,       24,
                of James; then of              19.20     50-53
                all the Apostles.
                _Jerusalem._
156     172     The Ascension.                                     20,
                _Bethany._                                         30.31
157     173     Conclusion of                                      21, 25
                John’s Gospel.

Table for Finding Any Passage in the Harmony.

Matthew.

Chap.     Verse.       Sect.
i.        1-17         13
          18-25        6
ii.       1-12         10
          13-23        11
iii.      1-12         14
          13-17        15
iv.       1-11         16
          12           24
          13-16        28
          17           26
          18-22        29
          23-25        32
v.        1-48         41
vi.       1-34         41
vii.      1-29         41
viii.     1            41
          2-4          33
          5-13         42
          14-17        31
          18-27        56
          28-34        57
ix.       1            57
          2-8          34
          9            35
          10-17        58
          18-26        59
          27-34        60
          35-38        62
x.        1            62
          2-4          40
          5-42         62
xi.       1            62
          2-19         44
          20-30        45
xii.      1-8          37
          9-14         38
          15-21        39
          22-37        48
          38-45        49
          46-50        50
xiii.     1-23         54
          24-53        55
          54-58        61
xiv.      1, 2         63
          3-5          24
          6-12         63
          13-21        64
          22-36        65
xv.       1-20         67
          21-28        68
          29-38        69
          39           70
xvi.      1-4          70
          4-12         71
          13-20        73
          21-28        74
xvii.     1-13         75
          14-21        76
          22, 23       77
          24-27        78
xviii.    1-35         79
xix.      1, 2         94
          3-12         104
          13-15        105
          16-30        106
xx.       1-16         106
          17-19        107
          20-28        108
          29-34        109
xxi.      1-11         112
          12-13        113
          14-17        112
          18-19        113
          20-22        114
          28-32        115
          33-46        116
xxii.     1-14         117
          15-22        118
          23-33        119
          34-40        120
          41-46        121
xxiii.    1-12         122
          13-39        123
xxiv.     1-14         127
          15-42        128
          43-51        129
xxv.      1-30         129
          31-46        130
xxvi.     1-16         131
          17-19        132
          20           133
          21-25        135
          26-29        137
          30           142
          31-35        136
          36-46        142
          47-56        143
          57, 58       144
          59-68        145
          69-75        144
xxvii     1, 2         146
          3-10         151
          11-14        146
          15-26        148
          26-30        149
          31-34        152
          35-38        153
          39-44        154
          45-50        155
          51-56        156
          57-61        157
          62-66        158
xxviii.   1            160
          2-4          159
          5-7          161
          8-10         162
          11-15        165
          16           169
          16-20        170

Mark.

Chap.   Verse.       Sect.
i.      1-8          14
        9-11         15
        12, 13       16
        14           24
        14, 15       26
        16-20        29
        21-28        30
        29-34        31
        35-39        32
        40-45        33
ii.     1-12         34
        13, 14       35
        15-22        58
        23-28        37
iii.    1-6          38
        7-12         39
        13-19        40
        19-30        48
        31-35        50
iv.     1-25         54
        26-34        55
        35-41        56
v.      1-21         57
        22-43        59
vi.     1-6          61
        6-13         62
        14-16        63
        17-20        24
        21-29        63
        30-44        64
        45-56        65
vii.    1-23         67
        24-30        68
        31-37        69
viii    1-9          69
        10-12        70
        13-21        71
        22-26        72
        27-30        73
        31-38        74
ix.     1            74
        2-13         75
        14-29        76
        30-32        77
        33           78
        33-50        79
x.      1            94
        2-12         104
        13-16        105
        17-31        106
        32-34        107
        35-45        108
        46-52        109
xi.     1-11         112
        12-19        113
        20-26        114
        27-33        115
xii.    1-12         116
        13-17        118
        18-27        119
        28-34        120
        35-37        121
        38, 39       122
        40           123
        41-44        124
xiii.   1-13         127
        14-37        128
xiv.    1-11         131
        12-16        132
        17           133
        18-21        135
        22-25        137
        26           142
        27-31        136
        32-42        142
        43-52        143
        53, 54       144
        55-65        145
        66-72        144
xv.     1-5          146
        6-15         148
        15-19        149
        20-23        152
        24-28        153
        29-32        154
        33-37        155
        38-41        156
        42-47        157
xvi.    1            159
        2-4          160
        5-7          161
        8            162
        9-11         164
        12, 13       166
        14-18        167
        19, 20       172

Luke.

Chap.    Verse.       Sect.
i.       1-4          1
         5-25         2
         26-38        3
         39-56        4
         57-80        5
ii.      1-7          7
         8-20         8
         21-38        9
         39, 40       11
         41-52        12
iii.     1-18         14
         19-20        24
         21-23        15
         23-38        13
iv.      1-13         16
         14           24
         14, 15       26
         16-31        28
         31-37        30
         38-41        31
         42-44        32
v.       1-11         29
         12-16        33
         17-26        34
         27, 28       35
         29-39        58
vi.      1-5          37
         6-11         38
         12-19        40
         20-26        41
         27-30        41
         31           41
         32-36        41
         37-49        41
vii.     1-10         42
         11-17        43
         18-35        44
         36-50        46
viii.    1-3          47
         4-18         54
         19-21        50
         22-25        56
         26-40        57
         41-56        59
ix.      1-6          62
         7-9          63
         10-17        64
         18-21        73
         22-27        74
         28-36        75
         37-43        76
         43-45        77
         46-50        79
         51-56        81
         57-62        56
x.       1-16         80
         17-24        89
         25-37        86
         38-42        87
xi.      1-13         88
         14, 15       48
         16           49
         17-23        48
         24-28        49
         29-36        49
         37-54        51
xii.     1-59         52
xiii.    1-9          53
         10-21        94
         22-35        95
xiv.     1-24         96
         25-35        97
xv.      1-32         98
xvi.     1-13         99
         14-31        100
xvii.    1-10         101
         11-19        82
         20-37        102
xviii.   1-14         103
         15-17        105
         18-30        106
         31-34        107
         35-43        109
xix.     1            109
         2-28         110
         29-44        112
         45-18        113
xx.      1-8          115
         9-19         116
         20-26        118
         27-40        119
         41-44        121
         45-46        122
         47           123
xxi.     1-4          124
         5-19         127
         20-36        128
         37, 38       118
xxii.    1-6          131
         7-13         132
         14-18        133
         19, 20       137
         21-23        135
         24-30        133
         31-38        136
         39-46        142
         47-53        143
         54-62        144
         63-71        145
xxiii.   1-5          146
         6-12         147
         13-25        148
         26-33        152
         33-34        153
         35-37        154
         38           153
         39-43        154
         44-46        155
         45           156
         47-49        156
         50-56        157
xxiv.    1-3          160
         4-8          161
         9-11         162
         12           163
         13-35        166
         36-49        167
         50-53        172

John.

Chap.    Verse.       Sect.
i.       1-18         17
         19-34        18
         35-52        19
ii.      1-12         20
         13-25        21
iii.     1-21         22
         22-36        23
iv.      1-3          24
         4-42         25
         43-45        26
         46-54        27
v.       1-47         36
vi.      1-14         64
         15-21        65
         22-71        66
vii.     1            66
         2-10         81
         11-53        83
viii.    1            83
         2-11         84
         12-59        85
ix.      1-41         90
         1-21         90
         22-42        91
xi.      1-46         92
         47-54        93
         55-57        111
xii.     1            111
         2-8          131
         9-11         111
         12-19        112
         20-36        125
         37-50        126
xiii.    1-20         134
         21-35        135
         36-38        136
xiv.     1-31         138
xv.      1-27         139
xvi.     1-33         140
xvii.    1-26         141
xviii.   1            142
         2-12         143
         13-18        144
         19-24        145
         25-27        144
         28-38        146
         39-40        148
xix.     1-3          149
         4-16         150
         16, 17       152
         18-24        153
         25-27        154
         28-30        155
         31-42        157
xx.      1, 2         160
         3-10         163
         11-18        164
         19-23        167
         24-29        168
         30, 31       173
xxi.     1-24         169
         25           173

ADVERTISEMENT TO THIS EDITION.

The arrangement of the Gospels by Dr. Robinson was adopted in this work,
it being the latest published in the United States, and by a scholar of
the highest reputation. But by comparing his order with that of Archbishop
Newcome, as shown in contiguous columns in the Table of Contents and
Synopsis of the Harmony, it will be found that they differ only in a very
few unimportant particulars, not at all affecting the general scheme or
structure of the Harmony, or the purposes of this examination. I have,
however, in several places omitted their transposition of the verses of
the text, occurring within the limits of a section; it being more
convenient to insert them in the order in which they were written by the
Evangelists.

The preliminary Dissertation has been revised and enlarged, and some
further notes added to the text, which is printed conformably to the
common octavo edition of the American Bible Society, except in a few
places, where the article a was accidentally printed instead of _an_, in
the words _an house_, &c.

Cambridge, Massachusetts,
_March_ 1, 1847.

AN EXAMINATION, ETC.

§ 1. In examining the evidences of the Christian religion, it is essential
to the discovery of truth that we bring to the investigation a mind freed,
as far as possible, from existing prejudice and open to conviction. There
should be a readiness, on our part, to investigate with candour, to follow
the truth wherever it may lead us, and to submit, without reserve or
objection, to all the teachings of this religion, if it be found to be of
divine origin. “There is no other entrance,” says Lord Bacon, “to the
kingdom of man, which is founded in the sciences, than to the kingdom of
heaven, into which no one can enter but in the character of a little
child.”(2) The docility which true philosophy requires of her disciples is
not a spirit of servility, or the surrender of the reason and judgment to
whatsoever the teacher may inculcate; but it is a mind free from all pride
of opinion, not hostile to the truth sought for, willing to pursue the
inquiry and impartially to weigh the arguments and evidence, and to
acquiesce in the judgment of right reason. The investigation, moreover,
should be pursued with the serious earnestness which becomes the greatness
of the subject—a subject fraught with such momentous consequences to man.
It should be pursued as in the presence of God, and under the solemn
sanctions created by a lively sense of his omniscience, and of our
accountability to him for the right use of the faculties which he has
bestowed.

§ 2. In requiring this candour and simplicity of mind in those who would
investigate the truth of our religion, Christianity demands nothing more
than is readily conceded to every branch of human science. All these have
their data, and their axioms; and Christianity, too, has her first
principles, the admission of which is essential to any real progress in
knowledge. “Christianity,” says Bishop Wilson, “inscribes on the portal of
her dominions, ‘Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little
child, shall in nowise enter therein.’ Christianity does not profess to
convince the perverse and headstrong, to bring irresistible evidence to
the daring and profane, to vanquish the proud scorner, and afford
evidences from which the careless and perverse cannot possibly escape.
This might go to destroy man’s responsibility. All that Christianity
professes, is to propose such evidences as may satisfy the meek, the
tractable, the candid, the serious inquirer.”(3)

§ 3. The present design, however, is not to enter upon any general
examination of the evidences of Christianity, but to confine the inquiry
to the testimony of the Four Evangelists, bringing their narratives to the
tests to which other evidence is subjected in human tribunals. The
foundation of our religion is a basis of fact—the fact of the birth,
ministry, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
These are related by the Evangelists as having actually occurred, within
their own personal knowledge. Our religion, then, rests on the credit due
to these witnesses. Are they worthy of implicit belief, in the matters
which they relate? This is the question, in all human tribunals, in regard
to persons testifying before them; and we propose to test the veracity of
these witnesses, by the same rules and means which are there employed. The
importance of the facts testified, and their relations to the affairs of
the soul, and the life to come, can make no difference in the principles
or the mode of weighing the evidence. It is still the evidence of matters
of fact, capable of being seen and known and related, as well by one man
as by another. And if the testimony of the Evangelist, supposing it to be
relevant and material to the issue in a question of property or of
personal right, between man and man, in a court of justice, ought to be
believed and have weight; then, upon the like principles, it ought to
receive our entire credit here. But if, on the other hand, we should be
justified in rejecting it, if there testified on oath, then, supposing our
rules of evidence to be sound, we may be excused if we hesitate elsewhere
to give it credence.

§ 4. The proof that God has revealed himself to man by special and express
communications, and that Christianity constitutes that revelation, is no
part of these inquiries. This has already been shown, in the most
satisfactory manner, by others, who have written expressly upon this
subject.(4) Referring therefore to their writings for the arguments and
proofs, the fact will here be assumed as true. That man is a religious
being, is universally conceded, for it has been seen to be universally
true. He is everywhere a worshipper. In every age and country, and in
every stage, from the highest intellectual culture to the darkest
stupidity, he bows with homage to a superior Being. Be it the rude-carved
idol of his own fabrication, or the unseen divinity that stirs within him,
it is still the object of his adoration. This trait in the character of
man is so uniform, that it may safely be assumed, either as one of the
original attributes of his nature, or as necessarily resulting from the
action of one or more of those attributes.

§ 5. The object of man’s worship, whatever it be, will naturally be his
standard of perfection. He clothes it with every attribute, belonging, in
his view, to a perfect character; and this character he himself endeavours
to attain. He may not, directly and consciously, aim to acquire every
virtue of his deity, and to avoid the opposite vices; but still this will
be the inevitable consequence of sincere and constant worship. As in human
society men become assimilated, both in manners and in moral principles,
to their chosen associates, so in the worship of whatever deity men adore,
they “form to his the relish of their souls.” To suppose, then, that God
made man capable of religion, and requiring it in order to the development
of the highest part of his nature, without communicating with him, as a
father, in those revelations which alone could perfect that nature, would
be a reproach upon God, and a contradiction.(5)

§ 6. How it came to pass that man, originally taught, as we doubt not he
was, to know and to worship the true Jehovah, is found, at so early a
period of his history, a worshipper of baser objects, it is foreign to our
present purpose to inquire. But the fact is lamentably true, that he soon
became an idolater, a worshipper of moral abominations. The Scythians and
Northmen adored the impersonations of heroic valour and of bloodthirsty
and cruel revenge. The mythology of Greece and of Rome, though it
exhibited a few examples of virtue and goodness, abounded in others of
gross licentiousness and vice. The gods of Egypt were reptiles, and beasts
and birds. The religion of Central and Eastern Asia was polluted with lust
and cruelty, and smeared with blood, rioting, in deadly triumph, over all
the tender affections of the human heart and all the convictions of the
human understanding. Western and Southern Africa and Polynesia are, to
this day, the abodes of frightful idolatry, cannibalism, and cruelty; and
the aborigines of both the Americas are examples of the depths of
superstition to which the human mind may be debased. In every quarter of
the world, however, there is a striking uniformity seen, in all the
features of paganism. The ruling principle of her religion is terror, and
her deity is lewd and cruel. Whatever of purity the earlier forms of
paganism may have possessed, it is evident from history that it was of
brief duration. Every form, which history has preserved, grew rapidly and
steadily worse and more corrupt, until the entire heathen world, before
the coming of Christ, was infected with that loathsome leprosy of
pollution, described with revolting vividness by St. Paul, in the
beginning of his Epistle to the Romans.

§ 7. So general and decided was this proclivity to the worship of strange
gods, that, at the time of the deluge, only one family remained faithful
to Jehovah; and this was a family which had been favoured with his special
revelation. Indeed it is evident that nothing but a revelation from God
could raise men from the degradation of pagan idolatry, because nothing
else has ever had that effect. If man could achieve his own freedom from
this bondage, he would long since have been free. But instead of this, the
increase of light and civilization and refinement in the pagan world has
but multiplied the objects of his worship, added voluptuous refinements to
its ritual, and thus increased the number and weight of his chains. In
this respect there is no difference in their moral condition, between the
barbarous Scythian and the learned Egyptian or Roman of ancient times, nor
between the ignorant African and the polished Hindu of our own day. The
only method, which has been successfully employed to deliver man from
idolatry, is that of presenting to the eye of his soul an object of
worship perfectly holy and pure, directly opposite, in moral character, to
the gods he had formerly adored. He could not transfer to his deities a
better character than he himself possessed. He must for ever remain
enslaved to his idols, unless a new and pure object of worship were
revealed to him, with a display of superior power sufficient to overcome
his former faith and his present fears, to detach his affections from
grosser objects, and to fix them upon that which alone is worthy.(6) This
is precisely what God, as stated in the Holy Scriptures, has done. He
rescued one family from idolatry in the Old World, by the revelation of
himself to Noah; he called a distinct branch of this family to the
knowledge of himself, in the person of Abraham and his sons; He extended
this favour to a whole nation, through the ministry of Moses; but it was
through that of Jesus Christ alone that it was communicated to the whole
world. In Egypt, by the destruction of all the objects of the popular
worship, God taught the Israelites that he alone was the self-existent
Almighty. At the Red Sea, he emphatically showed them that He was the
Protector and Saviour of his people. At Sinai, he revealed himself as the
righteous Governor who required implicit obedience for men, and taught
them, by the strongly marked distinctions of the ceremonial law, that he
was a holy Being, of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that could not
look upon iniquity. The demerit of sin was inculcated by the solemn
infliction of death upon every animal, offered as a propitiatory
sacrifice. And when, by this system of instruction, he had prepared a
people to receive the perfect revelation of the character of God, of the
nature of his worship, and of the way of restoration to his image and
favour, this also was expressly revealed by the mission of his Son.(7)

§ 8. That the books of the Old Testament, as we now have them, are
genuine; that they existed in the time of our Saviour, and were commonly
received and referred to among the Jews, as the sacred books of their
religion;(8) and that the text of the Four Evangelists has been handed
down to us in the state in which it was originally written, that is,
without having been materially corrupted or falsified, either by heretics
or Christians; are facts which we are entitled to assume as true, until
the contrary is shown.

The genuineness of these writings really admits of as little doubt, and is
susceptible of as ready proof, as that of any ancient writings whatever.
The rule of municipal law on this subject is familiar, and applies with
equal force to all ancient writing, whether documentary or otherwise; and
as it comes first in order, in the prosecution of these inquiries, it may,
for the sake of mere convenience, be designated as our first rule.

    _Every document, apparently ancient, coming from the proper
    repository or custody, and bearing on its face no evident marks of
    forgery, the law presumes to be genuine, and devolves on the
    opposing party the burden of proving it to be otherwise._

§ 9. An ancient document, offered in evidence in our courts, is said to
come from the proper repository, when it is found in the place where, and
under the care of persons with whom, such writings might naturally and
reasonably be expected to be found; for it is this custody which gives
authenticity to documents found within it.(9) If they come from such a
place, and bear no evident marks of forgery, the law presumes that they
are genuine, and they are permitted to be read in evidence, unless the
opposing party is able successfully to impeach them.(10) The burden of
showing them to be false and unworthy of credit, is devolved on the party
who makes that objection. The presumption of law is the judgment of
charity. It presumes that every man is innocent until he is proven guilty;
that everything has been done fairly and legally, until it is proved to
have been otherwise; and that every document, found in its proper
repository, and not bearing marks of forgery, is genuine. Now this is
precisely the case with the Sacred Writings. They have been used in the
church from time immemorial, and thus are found in the place where alone
they ought to be looked for. They come to us, and challenge our reception
of them as genuine writings, precisely as Domesday Book, the Ancient
Statutes of Wales, or any other of the ancient documents which have
recently been published under the British Record Commission, are received.
They are found in familiar use in all the churches of Christendom, as the
sacred books to which all denominations of Christians refer, as the
standard of their faith. There is no pretence that they were engraven on
plates of gold and discovered in a cave, nor that they were brought from
heaven by angels; but they are received as the plain narratives and
writings of the men whose names they respectively bear, made public at the
time they were written; and though there are some slight discrepancies
among the copies subsequently made, there is no pretence that the
originals were anywhere corrupted. If it be objected that the originals
are lost, and that copies alone are now produced, the principles of the
municipal law here also afford a satisfactory answer. For the
multiplication of copies was a public fact, in the faithfulness of which
all the Christian community had an interest, and it is a rule of law,
that, _in matters of public and general interest, all persons must be
presumed to be conversant, on the principle that individuals are presumed
to be conversant with their own affairs_. Therefore it is that, in such
matters, the prevailing current of assertion is resorted to as evidence,
for it is to this that every member of the community is supposed to be
privy.(11) The persons, moreover, who multiplied these copies, may be
regarded, in some manner, as the agents of the Christian public, for whose
use and benefit the copies were made; and on the ground of the credit due
to such agents, and of the public nature of the facts themselves, the
copies thus made are entitled to an extraordinary degree of confidence,
and, as in the case of official registers and other public books, it is
not necessary that they should be confirmed and sanctioned by the ordinary
tests of truth.(12) If any ancient document concerning our public rights
were lost, copies which had been as universally received and acted upon as
the Four Gospels have been, would have been received in evidence in any of
our courts of justice, without the slightest hesitation. The entire text
of the Corpus Juris Civilis is received as authority in all the courts of
continental Europe, upon much weaker evidence of its genuineness; for the
integrity of the Sacred Text has been preserved by the jealousy of
opposing sects, beyond any moral possibility of corruption; while that of
the Roman Civil Law has been preserved only by tacit consent, without the
interest of any opposing school, to watch over and preserve it from
alteration.

§ 10. These copies of the Holy Scriptures having thus been in familiar use
in the churches, from the time when the text was committed to writing;
having been watched with vigilance by so many sects, opposed to each other
in doctrine, yet all appealing to these Scriptures for the correctness of
their faith; and having in all ages, down to this day, been respected as
the authoritative source of all ecclesiastical power and government, and
submitted to, and acted under in regard to so many claims of right, on the
one hand, and so many obligations of duty, on the other; it is quite
erroneous to suppose that the Christian is bound to offer any further
proof of their genuineness or authenticity. It is for the objector to show
them spurious; for on him, by the plainest rules of law, lies the burden
of proof.(13) If it were the case of a claim to a franchise, and a copy of
an ancient deed or charter were produced in support of the title, under
parallel circumstances on which to presume its genuineness, no lawyer, it
is believed, would venture to deny either its admissibility in evidence,
or the satisfactory character of the proof. In a recent case in the House
of Lords, precisely such a document, being an old manuscript copy,
purporting to have been extracted from ancient Journals of the House,
which were lost, and to have been made by an officer whose duty it was to
prepare lists of the Peers, was held admissible in a claim of peerage.(14)

§ 11. Supposing, therefore, that it is not irrational, nor inconsistent
with sound philosophy, to believe that God has made a special and express
revelation of his character and will to man, and that the sacred books of
our religion are genuine, as we now have them; we proceed to examine and
compare the testimony of the Four Evangelists, as witnesses to the life
and doctrines of Jesus Christ; in order to determine the degree of credit,
to which, by the rules of evidence applied in human tribunals, they are
justly entitled. Our attention will naturally be first directed to the
witnesses themselves, to see who and what manner of men they were, and we
shall take them in the order of their writings; stating the prominent
traits only in their lives and characters, as they are handed down to us
by credible historians.

§ 12. MATTHEW, called also LEVI, was a Jew of Galilee, but of what city is
uncertain. He held the place of publican, or tax-gatherer, under the Roman
government, and his office seems to have consisted in collecting the taxes
within his district, as well as the duties and customs levied on goods and
persons, passing in and out of his district or province, across the lake
of Genesareth. While engaged in this business, at the office or usual
place of collection, he was required by Jesus to follow him, as one of his
disciples; a command which he immediately obeyed. Soon afterwards, he
appears to have given a great entertainment to his fellow-publicans and
friends, at which Jesus was present; intending probably both to celebrate
his own change of profession, and to give them an opportunity to profit by
the teaching of his new Master.(15) He was constituted one of the twelve
apostles, and constantly attended the person of Jesus as a faithful
follower, until the crucifixion; and after the ascension of his Master he
preached the gospel for some time, with the other apostles, in Judea, and
afterwards in Ethiopia, where he died.

He is generally allowed to have written first, of all the evangelists; but
whether in the Hebrew or the Greek language, or in both, the learned are
not agreed, nor is it material to our purpose to inquire; the genuineness
of our present Greek gospel being sustained by satisfactory evidence.(16)
The precise time when he wrote is also uncertain, the several dates given
to it among learned men, varying from A.D. 37 to A.D. 64. The earlier
date, however, is argued with greater force, from the improbability that
the Christians would be left for several years without a general and
authentic history of our Saviour’s ministry; from the evident allusions
which it contains to a state of persecution in the church at the time it
was written; from the titles of sanctity ascribed to Jerusalem, and a
higher veneration testified for the temple than is found in the other and
later evangelists; from the comparative gentleness with which Herod’s
character and conduct are dealt with, that bad prince probably being still
in power; and from the frequent mention of Pilate, as still governor of
Judea.(17)

§ 13. That Matthew was himself a native Jew, familiar with the opinions,
ceremonies, and customs of his countrymen; that he was conversant with the
Sacred Writings, and habituated to their idiom; a man of plain sense, but
of little learning, except what he derived from the Scriptures of the Old
Testament; that he wrote seriously and from conviction, and had, on most
occasions, been present, and attended closely, to the transactions which
he relates, and relates, too, without any view of applause to himself; are
facts which we may consider established by internal evidence, as strong as
the nature of the case will admit. It is deemed equally well proved, both
by internal evidence and the aid of history, that he wrote for the use of
his countrymen the Jews. Every circumstance is noticed which might
conciliate their belief, and every unnecessary expression is avoided which
might obstruct it. They looked for the Messiah, of the lineage of David,
and born in Bethlehem, in the circumstances of whose life the prophecies
should find fulfilment, a matter, in their estimation, of peculiar value;
and to all these this evangelist has directed their especial
attention.(18)

§ 14. Allusion has been already made to his employment as a collector of
taxes and customs; but the subject is too important to be passed over
without further notice. The tribute imposed by the Romans upon countries
conquered by their arms was enormous. In the time of Pompey, the sums
annually exacted from their Asiatic provinces, of which Judea was one,
amounted to about four millions and a half sterling, or about twenty-two
millions of dollars. These exactions were made in the usual forms of
direct and indirect taxation; the rate of the customs on merchandise
varying from an eighth to a fortieth part of the value of the commodity;
and the tariff including all the principal articles of the commerce of the
East, much of which, as is well known, still found its way to Italy
through Palestine, as well as by the way of Damascus and of Egypt. The
direct taxes consisted of a capitation-tax and a land-tax, assessed upon a
valuation or census, periodically taken, under the oath of the individual,
with heavy penal sanctions.(19) It is natural to suppose that these taxes
were not voluntarily paid, especially since they were imposed by the
conqueror upon a conquered people, and by a heathen, too, upon the people
of the house of Israel. The increase of taxes has generally been found to
multiply discontents, evasions and frauds on the one hand, and, on the
other, to increase vigilance, suspicion, close scrutiny, and severity of
exaction. The penal code, as revised by Theodosius, will give us some
notion of the difficulties in the way of the revenue officers, in the
earlier times of which we are speaking. These difficulties must have been
increased by the fact that, at this period, a considerable portion of the
commerce of that part of the world was carried on by the Greeks, whose
ingenuity and want of faith were proverbial. It was to such an employment
and under such circumstances, that Matthew was educated; an employment
which must have made him acquainted with the Greek language, and
extensively conversant with the public affairs and the men of business of
his time; thus entitling him to our confidence, as an experienced and
intelligent observer of events passing before him. And if the men of that
day were, as in truth they appear to have been, as much disposed as those
of the present time, to evade the payment of public taxes and duties, and
to elude, by all possible means, the vigilance of the revenue officers,
Matthew must have been familiar with a great variety of the forms of
fraud, imposture, cunning, and deception, and must have become habitually
distrustful, scrutinizing, and cautious; and, of course, much less likely
to have been deceived in regard to many of the facts in our Lord’s
ministry, extraordinary as they were, which fell under his observation.
This circumstance shows both the sincerity and the wisdom of Jesus, in
selecting him for an eye-witness of his conduct, and adds great weight to
the value of the testimony of this evangelist.

§ 15. MARK was the son of a pious sister of Barnabas, named Mary, who
dwelt at Jerusalem, and at whose home the early Christians often
assembled. His Hebrew name was John; the surname of Mark having been
adopted, as is supposed, when he left Judea to preach the gospel in
foreign countries; a practice not unusual among the Jews of that age, who
frequently, upon such occasions, assumed a name more familiar than their
own to the people whom they visited. He is supposed to have been converted
to the Christian faith by the ministry of Peter. He travelled from
Jerusalem to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, and afterwards accompanied
them elsewhere. When they landed at Perga in Pamphylia, he left them and
returned to Jerusalem; for which reason, when he afterwards would have
gone with them, Paul refused to take him. Upon this, a difference of
opinion arose between the two apostles, and they separated, Barnabas
taking Mark with him to Cyprus. Subsequently he accompanied Timothy to
Rome, at the express desire of Paul. From this city he probably went into
Asia, where he found Peter, with whom he returned to Rome, in which city
he is supposed to have written and published his Gospel. Such is the
outline of his history, as it is furnished by the New Testament.(20) The
early historians add, that after this he went into Egypt and planted a
church in Alexandria, where he died.(21)

§ 16. It is agreed that Mark wrote his Gospel for the use of Gentile
converts; an opinion deriving great force from the explanations introduced
into it, which would have been useless to a Jew;(22) and that it was
composed for those at Rome, is believed, not only from the numerous
Latinisms it contains, but from the unanimous testimony of ancient
writers, and from the internal evidence afforded by the Gospel itself.

§ 17. Some have entertained the opinion that Mark compiled his account
from that of Matthew, of which they supposed it an abridgment. But this
notion has been refuted by Koppe, and others,(23) and is now generally
regarded as untenable. For Mark frequently deviates from Matthew in the
order of time, in his arrangement of facts; and he adds many things not
related by the other evangelists; neither of which a mere epitomizer would
probably have done. He also omits several things related by Matthew, and
imperfectly describes others, especially the transactions of Christ with
the apostles after the resurrection; giving no account whatever of his
appearance in Galilee; omissions irreconcilable with any previous
knowledge of the Gospel according to Matthew. To these proofs we may add,
that in several places there are discrepancies between the accounts of
Matthew and Mark, not, indeed, irreconcilable, but sufficient to destroy
the probability that the latter copied from the former.(24) The striking
coincidences between them, in style, words, and things, in other places,
may be accounted for by considering that Peter, who is supposed to have
dictated this Gospel to Mark, was quite as intimately acquainted as
Matthew with the miracles and discourses of our Lord; which, therefore, he
would naturally recite in his preaching; and that the same things might
very naturally be related in the same manner, by men who sought not after
excellency of speech. Peter’s agency in the narrative of Mark is asserted
by all ancient writers, and is confirmed by the fact, that his humility is
conspicuous in every part of it, where anything is or might be related of
him; his weaknesses and fall being fully exposed, while things which might
redound to his honour, are either omitted or but slightly mentioned; that
scarcely any transaction of Jesus is related, at which Peter was not
present, and that all are related with that circumstantial minuteness
which belongs to the testimony of an eye-witness.(25) We may, therefore,
regard the Gospel of Mark as an original composition, written at the
dictation of Peter, and consequently as another original narrative of the
life, miracles, and doctrines of our Lord.

§ 18. LUKE, according to Eusebius, was a native of Antioch, by profession
a physician, and for a considerable period a companion of the apostle
Paul. From the casual notices of him in the Scriptures, and from the early
Christian writers, it has been collected, that his parents were Gentiles,
but that he in his youth embraced Judaism, from which he was converted to
Christianity. The first mention of him is that he was with Paul at
Troas;(26) whence he appears to have attended him to Jerusalem; continued
with him in all his troubles in Judea; and sailed with him when he was
sent a prisoner from Cæsarea to Rome, where he remained with him during
his two years’ confinement. As none of the ancient fathers have mentioned
his having suffered martyrdom, it is generally supposed that he died a
natural death.

§ 19. That he wrote his Gospel for the benefit of Gentile converts is
affirmed by the unanimous voice of Christian antiquity; and it may also be
inferred from its dedication to a Gentile. He is particularly careful to
specify various circumstances conducive to the information of strangers,
but not so to the Jews; he gives the lineage of Jesus upwards, after the
manner of the Gentiles, instead of downwards, as Matthew had done; tracing
it up to Adam, and thus showing that Jesus was the promised seed of the
woman; and he marks the eras of his birth, and of the ministry of John, by
the reigns of the Roman emperors. He also has introduced several things,
not mentioned by the other evangelists, but highly encouraging to the
Gentiles to turn to God in the hope of pardon and acceptance; of which
description are the parables of the publican and pharisee, in the temple;
the lost piece of silver; and the prodigal son; and the fact of Christ’s
visit to Zaccheus the publican, and the pardon of the penitent thief.

§ 20. That Luke was a physician, appears not only from the testimony of
Paul,(27) but from the internal marks in his Gospel, showing that he was
both an acute observer, and had given particular and even professional
attention to all our Saviour’s miracles of healing. Thus, the man whom
Matthew and Mark describe simply as a leper, Luke describes as _full_ of
leprosy;(28) he, whom they mention as having a withered hand, Luke says
had his _right_ hand withered;(29) and of the maid, of whom the others say
that Jesus took her by the hand and she arose, he adds, that _her spirit
came to her again_.(30) He alone, with professional accuracy of
observation, says that _virtue went out_ of Jesus, and healed the
sick;(31) he alone states the fact that the sleep of the disciples in
Gethsemane was _induced by extreme sorrow_; and mentions the blood-like
sweat of Jesus, as occasioned by the _intensity of his agony_; and he
alone relates the miraculous healing of Malchus’s ear.(32) That he was
also a man of a liberal education, the comparative elegance of his
writings sufficiently show.(33)

§ 21. The design of Luke’s Gospel was to supersede the defective and
inaccurate narratives then in circulation, and to deliver to Theophilus,
to whom it is addressed, a full and authentic account of the life,
doctrines, miracles, death and resurrection of our Saviour. Who Theophilus
was, the learned are not perfectly agreed; but the most probable opinion
is that of Dr. Lardner, now generally adopted, that, as Luke wrote his
Gospel in Greece, Theophilus was a man of rank in that country.(34) Either
the relations subsisting between him and Luke, or the dignity and power of
his rank, or both, induced the evangelist, who himself also “had perfect
understanding of all things from the first,” to devote the utmost care to
the drawing up of a complete and authentic narrative of these great
events. He does not affirm himself to have been an eye-witness; though his
personal knowledge of some of the transactions may well be inferred from
the “perfect understanding” which he says he possessed. Some of the
learned seem to have drawn this inference as to them all, and to have
placed him in the class of original witnesses; but this opinion, though
maintained on strong and plausible grounds, is not generally adopted. If,
then, he did not write from his own personal knowledge, the question is,
what is the legal character of his testimony?

§ 22. If it were “the result of inquiries, made under competent public
authority, concerning matters in which the public are concerned”(35) it
would possess every legal attribute of an inquisition, and, as such, would
be legally admissible in evidence, in a court of justice. To entitle such
results, however, to our full confidence, it is not necessary that they
should be obtained under a legal commission; it is sufficient if the
inquiry is gravely undertaken and pursued, by a person of competent
intelligence, sagacity and integrity. The request of a person in
authority, or a desire to serve the public, are, to all moral intents, as
sufficient a motive as a legal commission.(36) Thus, we know that when
complaint is made to the head of a department, of official misconduct or
abuse, existing in some remote quarter, nothing is more common than to
send some confidential person to the spot, to ascertain the facts and
report them to the department; and this report is confidently adopted as
the basis of its discretionary action, in the correction of the abuse, or
the removal of the offender. Indeed, the result of any grave inquiry is
equally certain to receive our confidence, though it may have been
voluntarily undertaken, if the party making it had access to the means of
complete and satisfactory information upon the subject.(37) If, therefore,
Luke’s Gospel were to be regarded only as the work of a contemporary
historian, it would be entitled to our confidence. But it is more than
this. It is the result of careful inquiry and examination, made by a
person of science, intelligence and education, concerning subjects which
he was perfectly competent to investigate, and as to many of which he was
peculiarly skilled, they being cases of the cure of maladies; subjects,
too, of which he already had the perfect knowledge of a contemporary, and
perhaps an eye-witness, but beyond doubt, familiar with the parties
concerned in the transactions, and belonging to the community in which the
events transpired, which were in the mouths of all; and the narrative,
moreover, drawn up for the especial use, and probably at the request, of a
man of distinction, whom it would not be for the interest nor safety of
the writer to deceive or mislead. Such a document certainly possesses all
the moral attributes of an inquest of office, or of any other official
investigation of facts; and as such is entitled, _in foro conscientiæ_, to
be adduced as original, competent and satisfactory evidence of the matters
it contains.

§ 23. JOHN, the last of the evangelists, was the son of Zebedee, a
fisherman of the town of Bethsaida, on the sea of Galilee. His father
appears to have been a respectable man in his calling, owning his vessel
and having hired servants.(38) His mother, too, was among those who
followed Jesus and “ministered unto him(39);” and to John himself, Jesus,
when on the cross, confided the care and support of his own mother.(40)
This disciple also seems to have been favourably known to the high priest,
and to have influence in his family; by means of which he had the
privilege of being present in his palace at the examination of his Master,
and of introducing also Peter, his friend.(41) He was the youngest of the
apostles, was eminently the object of our Lord’s regard and confidence;
was on various occasions admitted to free and intimate intercourse with
him; and is described as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”(42) Hence he was
present at several scenes, to which most of the others were not admitted.
He alone, in company with Peter and James, was present at the resurrection
of Jairus’s daughter, at the transfiguration on the mount, and at the
agony of our Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane.(43) He was the only
apostle who followed Jesus to the cross, he was the first of them at the
sepulchre, and he was present at the several appearances of our Lord after
his resurrection. These circumstances, together with his intimate
friendship with the mother of Jesus, especially qualify him to give a
circumstantial and authentic account of the life of his Master. After the
ascension of Christ, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost, John became one of the chief apostles of the circumcision,
exercising his ministry in and near Jerusalem. From ecclesiastical history
we learn that, after the death of Mary the mother of Jesus, he proceeded
to Asia Minor, where he founded and presided over seven churches, in as
many cities, but resided chiefly at Ephesus. Thence he was banished, in
Domitian’s reign, to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote his Revelation. On
the accession of Nerva he was freed from exile, and returned to Ephesus,
where he wrote his Gospel and Epistles, and died at the age of one hundred
years, about A.D. 100, in the third year of the emperor Trajan.(44)

§ 24. The learned are not agreed as to the time when the Gospel of John
was written, some dating it as early as the year 68, others as late as the
year 98; but it is generally conceded to have been written after all the
others. That it could not have been the work of some Platonic Christian of
a subsequent age, as some have without evidence asserted, is manifest from
references to it by some of the early fathers, and from the concurring
testimony of many other writers of the ancient Christian church.(45)

§ 25. That it was written either with especial reference to the Gentiles,
or at a period when very many of them had become converts to Christianity,
is inferred from the various explanations it contains, beyond the other
Gospels, which could have been necessary only to persons unacquainted with
Jewish names and customs.(46) And that it was written after all the
others, and to supply their omissions, is concluded, not only from the
uniform tradition and belief in the church, but from his studied omission
of most of the transactions noticed by the others, and from his care to
mention several incidents which they have not recorded. That their
narratives were known to him, is too evident to admit of doubt; while his
omission to repeat what they had already stated, or, where he does mention
the same things, his relating them in a brief and cursory manner, affords
incidental but strong testimony that he regarded their accounts as
faithful and true.(47)

§ 26. Such are the brief histories of the men, whose narratives we are to
examine and compare; conducting the examination and weighing the testimony
by the same rules and principles which govern our tribunals of justice in
similar cases. These tribunals are in such cases governed by the following
fundamental rule:—

    _In trials of fact, by oral testimony, the proper inquiry is not
    whether it is possible that the testimony may be false, but
    whether there is sufficient probability that it is true._

It should be observed that the subject of inquiry is matter of fact, and
not of abstract mathematical truth. The latter alone is susceptible of
that high degree of proof, usually termed demonstration, which excludes
the possibility of error, and which therefore may reasonably be required
in support of every mathematical deduction. But the proof of matters of
fact rests upon moral evidence alone; by which is meant not merely that
species of evidence which is employed in cases respecting moral conduct,
but all the evidence which we do not obtain either from our own senses,
from intuition, or from demonstration. In the ordinary affairs of life we
do not require nor expect demonstrative evidence, because it is
inconsistent with the nature of matters of fact, and to insist on its
production would be unreasonable and absurd. And it makes no difference,
whether the facts to be proved relate to this life or to the next, the
nature of the evidence required being in both cases the same. The error of
the sceptic consists in pretending or supposing that there is a difference
in the nature of the evidence, where there is no difference in the nature
of the things to be proved; and in demanding demonstrative evidence
concerning things which are not susceptible of any other than moral
evidence alone, and of which the utmost that can be said is that there is
no reasonable doubt of their truth.(48)

§ 27. In proceeding to weigh the evidence of any proposition of fact, the
previous question to be determined is, _when_ may it be said to be proved?
The answer to this question is furnished by another rule of municipal law,
which may be thus stated:—

    _A proposition of fact is proved, when its truth is established by
    competent and satisfactory evidence._

By competent evidence, is meant such as the nature of the thing to be
proved requires; and by satisfactory evidence, is meant that amount of
proof, which ordinarily satisfies an unprejudiced mind, beyond any
reasonable doubt. The circumstances which will amount to this degree of
proof can never be previously defined; the only legal test to which they
can be subjected is, their sufficiency to satisfy the mind and conscience
of a man of common prudence and discretion, and so to convince him, that
he would venture to act upon that conviction in matters of the highest
concern and importance to his own interest.(49) If, therefore, the subject
is a problem in mathematics, its truth is to be shown by the certainty of
demonstrative evidence. But if it is a question of fact in human affairs,
nothing more than moral evidence can be required, for this is the best
evidence which, from the nature of the case, is attainable. Now as the
facts, stated in Scripture History, are not of the former kind, but are
cognizable by the senses, they may be said to be proved when they are
established by that kind and degree of evidence which, as we have just
observed, would, in the affairs of human life, satisfy the mind and
conscience of a common man. When we have this degree of evidence, it is
unreasonable to require more. A juror would violate his oath, if he should
refuse to acquit or condemn a person charged with an offence, where this
measure of proof was adduced.

§ 28. Proceeding further, to inquire whether the facts related by the Four
Evangelists are proved by competent and satisfactory evidence, we are led,
first, to consider on which side lies the burden of establishing the
credibility of the witnesses. On this point the municipal law furnishes a
rule, which is of constant application in all trials by jury, and is
indeed the dictate of that charity which thinketh no evil.

    _In the absence of circumstances which generate suspicion, every
    witness is to be presumed credible, until the contrary is shown;
    the burden of impeaching his credibility lying on the
    objector._(_50_)

This rule serves to show the injustice with which the writers of the
Gospels have ever been treated by infidels; an injustice silently
acquiesced in even by Christians; in requiring the Christian
affirmatively, and by positive evidence, _aliunde_, to establish the
credibility of his witnesses above all others, before their testimony is
entitled to be considered, and in permitting the testimony of a single
profane writer, alone and uncorroborated, to outweigh that of any single
Christian. This is not the course in courts of chancery, where the
testimony of a single witness is never permitted to outweigh the oath even
of the defendant himself, interested as he is in the cause; but, on the
contrary, if the plaintiff, after having required the oath of his
adversary, cannot overthrow it by something more than the oath of one
witness, however credible, it must stand as evidence against him. But the
Christian writer seems, by the usual course of the argument, to have been
deprived of the common presumption of charity in his favour; and reversing
the ordinary rule of administering justice in human tribunals, his
testimony is unjustly presumed to be false, until it is proved to be true.
This treatment moreover, has been applied to them all in a body; and,
without due regard to the fact, that, being independent historians,
writing at different periods, they are entitled to the support of each
other: they have been treated, in the argument, almost as if the New
Testament were the entire production, at once, of a body of men,
conspiring by a joint fabrication, to impose a false religion upon the
world. It is time that this injustice should cease, that the testimony of
the evangelists should be admitted to be true, until it can be disproved
by those who would impugn it; that the silence of one sacred writer on any
point, should no more detract from his own veracity or that of the other
historians, than the like circumstance is permitted to do among profane
writers; and that the Four Evangelists should be admitted in corroboration
of each other, as readily as Josephus and Tacitus, or Polybius and
Livy.(51)

§ 29. But if the burden of establishing the credibility of the evangelists
were devolved on those who affirm the truth of their narratives, it is
still capable of a ready moral demonstration, when we consider the nature
and character of the testimony, and the essential marks of difference
between true narratives of facts and the creations of falsehood. It is
universally admitted that the credit to be given to witnesses depends
chiefly on their ability to discern and comprehend what was before them,
their opportunities for observation, the degree of accuracy with which
they are accustomed to mark passing events, and their integrity in
relating them. The rule of municipal law on this subject embraces all
these particulars, and is thus stated by a legal text-writer of the
highest repute.

    _The credit due to the testimony of witnesses depends upon,
    firstly, their honesty; secondly, their ability; thirdly, their
    number and the consistency of their testimony; fourthly, the
    conformity of their testimony with experience; and fifthly, the
    coincidence of their testimony with collateral circumstances._(52)

Let the evangelists be tried by these tests.

§ 30. And _first_, as to their _honesty_. Here they are entitled to the
benefit of the general course of human experience, that men ordinarily
speak the truth, when they have no prevailing motive or inducement to the
contrary. This presumption, to which we have before alluded, is applied in
courts of justice, even to witnesses whose integrity is not wholly free
from suspicion; much more is it applicable to the evangelists, whose
testimony went against all their worldly interests. The great truths which
the apostles declared, were, that Christ had risen from the dead, and that
only through repentance from sin, and faith in him, could men hope for
salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not
only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most
appalling terrors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master
had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public
tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole
world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of his
disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in
the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.
Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful
manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings,
bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments and cruel deaths.
Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they
endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a
miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased
vigour and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an
example of the like heroic constancy, patience and unblenching courage.
They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their
faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they
asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the
most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that
they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had
not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact
as certainly as they knew any other fact.(53) If it were morally possible
for them to have been deceived in this matter, every human motive operated
to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so
gross a falsehood, after it was known to them, was not only to encounter,
for life, all the evils which man could inflict, from without, but to
endure also the pangs of inward and conscious guilt, with no hope of
future peace, no testimony of a good conscience, no expectation of honour
or esteem among men, no hope of happiness in this life, or in the world to
come.

§ 31. Such conduct in the apostles would moreover have been utterly
irreconcilable with the fact, that they possessed the ordinary
constitution of our common nature. Yet their lives do show them to have
been men like all others of our race; swayed by the same motives, animated
by the same hopes, affected by the same joys, subdued by the same sorrows,
agitated by the same fears, and subject to the same passions, temptations
and infirmities, as ourselves. And their writings show them to have been
men of vigorous understandings. If then their testimony was not true,
there was no possible motive for its fabrication.

§ 32. It would also have been irreconcilable with the fact that they were
good men. But it is impossible to read their writings, and not feel that
we are conversing with men eminently holy, and of tender consciences, with
men acting under an abiding sense of the presence and omniscience of God,
and of their accountability to him, living in his fear, and walking in his
ways. Now, though, in a single instance, a good man may fall, when under
strong temptations, yet he is not found persisting, for years, in
deliberate falsehood, asserted with the most solemn appeals to God,
without the slightest temptation or motive, and against all the opposing
interests which reign in the human breast. If, on the contrary, they are
supposed to have been bad men, it is incredible that such men should have
chosen this form of imposture; enjoining, as it does, unfeigned
repentance, the utter forsaking and abhorrence of all falsehood and of
every other sin, the practice of daily self-denial, self-abasement and
self-sacrifice, the crucifixion of the flesh with all its earthly
appetites and desires, indifference to the honours, and hearty contempt of
the vanities of the world; and inculcating perfect purity of heart and
life, and intercourse of the soul with heaven. It is incredible, that bad
men should invent falsehoods, to promote the religion of the God of truth.
The supposition is suicidal. If they did believe in a future state of
retribution, a heaven and a hell hereafter, they took the most certain
course, if false witnesses, to secure the latter for their portion. And
if, still being bad men, they did not believe in future punishment, how
came they to invent falsehoods, the direct and certain tendency of which
was to destroy all their prospects of worldly honour and happiness, and to
ensure their misery in this life? From these absurdities there is no
escape, but in the perfect conviction and admission that they were good
men, testifying to that which they had carefully observed and considered,
and well knew to be true.(54)

§ 33. In the _second_ place, as to their _ability_. The text writer before
cited observes, that the ability of a witness to speak the truth, depends
on the opportunities which he has had for observing the fact, the accuracy
of his powers of discerning, and the faithfulness of his memory in
retaining the facts, once observed and known.(55) Of the latter trait, in
these witnesses, we of course know nothing; nor have we any traditionary
information in regard to the accuracy of their powers of discerning. But
we may well suppose that in these respects they were like the generality
of their countrymen, until the contrary is shown by an objector. It is
always to be presumed that men are honest, and of sound mind, and of the
average and ordinary degree of intelligence. This is not the judgment of
mere charity; it is also the uniform presumption of the law of the land; a
presumption which is always allowed freely and fully to operate, until the
fact is shown to be otherwise, by the party who denies the applicability
of this presumption to the particular case in question. Whenever an
objection is raised in opposition to the ordinary presumptions of law, or
to the ordinary experience of mankind, the burden of proof is devolved on
the objector, by the common and ordinary rules of evidence, and of
practice in courts. No lawyer is permitted to argue in disparagement of
the intelligence or integrity of a witness, against whom the case itself
afforded no particle of testimony. This is sufficient for our purpose, in
regard to these witnesses. But more than this is evident, from the
minuteness of their narratives, and from their history. Matthew was
trained, by his calling, to habits of severe investigation and suspicious
scrutiny; and Luke’s profession demanded an exactness of observation
equally close and searching. The other two evangelists, it has been well
remarked, were as much too unlearned to forge the story of their Master’s
life, as these were too learned and acute to be deceived by imposture.

§ 34. In the _third_ place, as to their _number_ and the _consistency_ of
their testimony. The character of their narratives is like that of all
other true witnesses, containing, as Dr. Paley observes, substantial
truth, under circumstantial variety. There is enough of discrepancy to
show that there could have been no previous concert among them; and at the
same time such substantial agreement as to show that they all were
independent narrators of the same great transaction, as the events
actually occurred. That they conspired to impose falsehood upon the world
is, moreover, utterly inconsistent with the supposition that they were
honest men; a fact, to the proofs of which we have already adverted. But
if they were bad men, still the idea of any conspiracy among them is
negatived, not only by the discrepancies alluded to, but by many other
circumstances which will be mentioned hereafter; from all which, it is
manifest that if they concerted a false story, they sought its
accomplishment by a mode quite the opposite to that which all others are
found to pursue, to attain the same end. On this point the profound remark
of an eminent writer is to our purpose; that “in a number of concurrent
testimonies, where there has been no previous concert, there is a
probability distinct from that which may be termed the sum of the
probabilities resulting from the testimonies of the witnesses, a
probability which would remain, even though the witnesses were of such a
character as to merit no faith at all. This probability arises from the
concurrence itself. That such a concurrence should spring from chance, is
as one to infinite; that is, in other words, morally impossible. If
therefore concert be excluded, there remains no cause but the reality of
the fact.”(56)

§ 35. The discrepancies between the narratives of the several evangelists,
when carefully examined, will not be found sufficient to invalidate their
testimony. Many seeming contradictions will prove, upon closer scrutiny,
to be in substantial agreement; and it may be confidently asserted that
there are none that will not yield, under fair and just criticism. If
these different accounts of the same transactions were in strict verbal
conformity with each other, the argument against their credibility would
be much stronger. All that is asked for these witnesses is, that their
testimony may be regarded as we regard the testimony of men in the
ordinary affairs of life. This they are justly entitled to; and this no
honourable adversary can refuse. We might, indeed, take higher ground than
this, and confidently claim for them the severest scrutiny; but our
present purpose is merely to try their veracity by the ordinary tests of
truth, admitted in human tribunals.

§ 36. If the evidence of the evangelists is to be rejected because of a
few discrepancies among them, we shall be obliged to discard that of many
of the contemporaneous histories on which we are accustomed to rely. Dr.
Paley has noticed the contradiction between Lord Clarendon and Burnett and
others in regard to Lord Strafford’s execution; the former stating that he
was condemned to be hanged, which was done on the same day; and the latter
all relating that on a Saturday he was sentenced to the block, and was
beheaded on the following Monday. Another striking instance of discrepancy
has since occurred, in the narratives of the different members of the
royal family of France, of their flight from Paris to Varennes, in 1792.
These narratives, ten in number, and by eye-witnesses and personal actors
in the transactions they relate, contradict each other, some on trivial
and some on more essential points, but in every case in a wonderful and
inexplicable manner.(57) Yet these contradictions do not, in the general
public estimation, detract from the integrity of the narrators, nor from
the credibility of their relations. In the points in which they agree, and
which constitute the great body of their narratives, their testimony is of
course not doubted; where they differ, we reconcile them as well as we
may; and where this cannot be done at all, we follow that light which
seems to us the clearest. Upon the principles of the sceptic, we should be
bound utterly to disbelieve them all. On the contrary, we apply to such
cases the rules which, in daily experience, our judges instruct juries to
apply, in weighing and reconciling the testimony of different witnesses;
and which the courts themselves observe, in comparing and reconciling
different and sometimes discordant reports of the same decisions. This
remark applies especially to some alleged discrepancies in the reports
which the several evangelists have given of the same discourses of our
Lord.(58)

§ 37. In the _fourth_ place, as to the _conformity of their testimony with
experience_. The title of the evangelists to full credit for veracity
would be readily conceded by the objector, if the facts they relate were
such as ordinarily occur in human experience. But they also relate events
which were miraculous, or out of the ordinary course of human experience,
and on this circumstance an argument is founded against their credibility.
Miracles, say the objectors, are impossible; and therefore the evangelists
were either deceivers or deceived; and in either case their narratives are
unworthy of belief. Spinosa’s argument against the possibility of
miracles, was founded on the broad and bold assumption that all things are
governed by immutable laws, or fixed modes of motion and relation, termed
the laws of nature, by which God himself is of necessity bound. This
erroneous assumption is the tortoise, on which stands the elephant that
upholds his system of atheism. He does not inform us who made these
immutable laws, nor whence they derive their binding force and
irresistible operation. The argument supposes that the creator of all
things first made a code of laws, and then put it out of his own power to
change them. The scheme of Mr. Hume is but another form of the same error.
He deduces the existence of such immutable laws from the uniform course of
human experience. This, he affirms, is our only guide in reasoning
concerning matters of fact; and whatever is contrary to human experience,
he pronounces incredible.(59) Without stopping to examine the correctness
of this doctrine, as a fundamental principle in the law of evidence, it is
sufficient in this place to remark, that is contains this fallacy; it
excludes all knowledge derived by inference or deduction from facts,
confining us to what we derive from experience alone, and thus depriving
us of any knowledge, or even rational belief, of the existence or
character of God. Nay more, it goes to prove that successive generations
of men can make no advancement in knowledge, but each must begin _de
novo_, and be limited to the results of its own experience. But if we may
infer, from what we see and know, that there is a Supreme Being, by whom
this world was created, we may certainly, and with equal reason, believe
him capable of works which _we_ have never yet known him to perform. We
may fairly conclude that the power which was originally put forth to
create the world is still constantly and without ceasing exerted to
sustain it; and that the experienced connexion between cause and effect is
but the uniform and constantly active operation of the finger of God.
Whether this uniformity of operation extends to things beyond the limits
of our observation, is a point we cannot certainly know. Its existence in
all things that ordinarily concern us may be supposed to be ordained as
conducive to our happiness; and if the belief in a revelation of peace and
mercy from God is conducive to the happiness of man, it is not irrational
to suppose that he would depart from his ordinary course of action, in
order to give it such attestations as should tend to secure that belief.
“A miracle is improbable, when we can perceive no sufficient cause, in
reference to his creatures, why the Deity should vary his modes of