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EXAMINATION OF THE GOSPEL NARRATIVE.

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of Jesus took place; and this in an Eastern country, where movements are proverbially slow. We see the Messiah brought before the Sanhedrim at daylight the morning after the Paschal Supper; witnesses found; his examination conducted; his condemnation. We see him spat upon, buffeted, smitten, and then taken to Pilate, who listens to the accusations, interrogates the prisoner, and sends him to Herod, who also examines him; he is then scourged, mocked by the soldiers, conducted to Calvary (wherever that might be) outside Jerusalem; stripped and fastened to the gibbet, and all before 9 a.m.! According to the John writer, he was brought before Pilate at noon on the day before the Passover, and on the evening of the same day the Paschal Supper was eaten !

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We are told by the Synoptics that there was darkness over the whole earth from the sixth to the ninth hour-i.e., from 12 noon till 3 p.m.; this precludes the chance of an eclipse, which would only last about six minutes, and the Passover moon was at the full. The Petrine Gospel limits the darkness to the whole of Judæa! The Matthew Gospel adds that "the earth quaked, the rocks were rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints, which slept, arose and came out of their graves and went into the holy city and appeared to many." But if such extraordinary events had really happened, surely some persons would have been curious enough to have obtained from the resurrected saints some account of their experiences in the other world. Again, the second death of these walking miracles would have naturally caused great excitement. We should also expect to hear some accounts of these from the historians of the time; but such events are not even mentioned! And, admitting their truth, for the sake of argument, there is nothing to indicate that they occurred on account of the hanging of Jesus, any more than of the two thieves; nor to cause the Centurion to come to the conclusion that Jesus 66 was the son of God," in which statement the Matthew and Mark Gospels are again at variance. The star of Jesus having shone at his birth made it necessary that something miraculous should happen at his death. Belief in the influence of the stars over life and death, and in special portents at the death of great men, was of great antiquity, and still survives among the

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superstitious. Shakespeare says (Hamlet, scene i., act i.) :

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"When beggars die there are no comets seen;

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." Darkness, the rending of the veil of the temple, earthquakes, etc., were incidents that mythically attended the death of all heroes. At the death of the Hindu saviour, Krishna, " a black circle surrounded the moon, and the sun was darkened at noonday; the sky rained fire and ashes; flames burned dusky and livid; demons committed depredations on earth. At sunrise and sunset thousands of figures were seen skirmishing in the air; and spirits were to be seen on all sides."* At the conflict between Buddha, the Saviour of the world," and the Prince of Evil, a thousand appalling meteors fell; darkness prevailed; the earth quaked; the ocean rose; rivers flowed back; peaks of lofty mountains rolled down; a fierce storm howled around; and a host of headless spirits filled the air. When Prometheus was crucified by chains on Mount Caucasus, the whole frame of nature became convulsed-the earth quaked; thunder roared; lightning flashed; winds blew; and the sea rose. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the births and deaths of great men were announced by celestial signs. On the death of Romulus, founder of Rome, the sun was darkened for six hours. When Julius Cæsar was murdered, there was darkness for six hours. When Esculapius, "the saviour," was put to death, the sun shone dimly from the heavens, the birds were silent, and the trees bowed their heads in sorrow. When Hercules died, darkness was on the face of the earth, and thunder crashed through the earth. Zeus, "the god of gods," carried his son home, and the halls of Olympus were opened to welcome him, where he now sits, clothed in a white robe, with a crown upon his head. When Alexander the Great died similar events occurred. When Atreus, of Mycenæ, murdered his nephews, the sun, unable to endure a sight so horrible, turned his course backwards, and withdrew his light. When the Mexican crucified saviour, Quetzalcoatl, died, the sun was darkened. What has the Christian to say to these? And why is his legend to be, and the others not to be, believed?

* Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief.

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The "Apocalypse," or "Revelation," tells us (xi. 8) that the Christian Saviour was crucified in Egypt, which is an admission of the zodiacal origin of the "crossifixion," or "crucifixion," and shows us where the story came from. The crossing of the sun over the equator while in the sign of the Ram (Aries)—i.e., March—and the Passover were both derived from Egypt. John," the Evangelist," describes the hair of his God as "like wool," which signifies the Ram-sun. His account of the crucifixion says that it occurred in a garden-i.e., it was the autumn crossing, or equinox, the emblem of which was a fruit garden or vineyard. The mother of the Saviour is with him at the garden crossifixion, but not in the Calvary, or vernal equinoxial one, because Virgo was August, which came next to the autumnal equinox. He was the "Just One" at the September crucifixion, because he was in the sign of Libra, the Balance. That libidinous song called "Solomon's Song' frequently mentions the "garden" (iv. 12-16; vi. 2 ; viii. 13); the whole Song is to the summer sun (ii. 10-13), and is most absurdly supposed by Protestants to allude to the Church, and by Catholics to the Virgin. Mitchell tells us that "at the autumnal equinox, when the celestial sign Virgo (Eve) is setting heliacally, she seems to be followed by the constellation Bootes (Adam, or a personification of solar heat), and, by seeming to hold out to him a branch with beautiful fruit upon it, was said to tempt or seduce Adam, whom she appears to draw after her; and when the two sink below the western horizon they are said to fall, and to resign the heavens to the dominion of the serpent and other wintry signs-i.e., cold and darkness (figuratively, evil). While the man and woman are retiring from the summer garden of fruits and flowers, the sign Perseus is seen rising in the east, and, with his flaming sword, is said to drive the happy pair from the reign of summer. As Virgo sinks first in the west, she is said to be first in transgression."*

But if Jesus was to be successfully “run as a Messiah, a prophecy or prophecies must be found to fit the circumstances; so the Hebrew Scriptures were searched with this object, the result of which will be seen in the next chapter.

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AN example of how a text of the O. T. can be used to accommodate it to a doctrine may be found in the Epistle to the Hebrews (x. 5): "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not; but a body hast thou prepared." Now, the original from which this is taken is in Psalm xl. 6, where the reading is: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened." But the writer was searching for a text to square with the sacrificial theory he was enunciating; as the latter part of the quotation did not square properly, he simply altered it. The following bogus prophecies are produced here as being connected with events said to have taken place at the gibbeting of Jesus by the Roman Government. Not a single one of these will be found to have a genuine reference to the events to which the second-century writers have connected them. They are all to be found in the "Luke" Gospel except one, which is from the champion forger of Gospels, the writer of "Matthew ":

LUKE XVIII. 32, 33: "For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, spitefully treated, and spitted on. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death."

"And when he had scourged be crucified" (literally gibbeted). 30: "And they spit upon him,

MATTHEW XXVII. 26: Jesus, he delivered him to 29: "And mocked him." and......smote him on the head."

Now, there is nothing whatever in the so-called Prophets concerning Jesus and these reputed events, though we are told that "all must be fulfilled which was spoken by the

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prophets." We are referred to Isaiah liii. 5, which says: "And with his stripes we are healed"; and 1. 6: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheek to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” This is part of a lament by Isaiah regarding the captivity, bidding Jerusalem to awake; that she had drunk at the hands of the Lord the cup of his fury, but that her sons would no more drink it again; and telling Zion to put on her strength: "Put on thy garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean (lii. i.). Not a word of this relates to Jesus.

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LUKE XX. 37: "And he was reckoned among the transgressors." This is suggested by Isaiah liii. 12: "And he [Israel] was numbered with the transgressors." So Jesus is hung between two thieves. To fulfil verse 7, he is made at his trial to "hold his peace" and "answer nothing." To fulfil verse 9, "a rich man from Arimathea" is introduced, who placed the body "in his own new tomb." To fulfil verse 12, Jesus is made to say: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." It is scarcely necessary to repeat that this chapter contains no predictions whatever concerning Jesus.

PSALM XXII. is made to do duty as prophetic of Jesus. To fulfil verse 16 the Roman Government is represented as suspending its usual custom of gibbeting with ropes; he is therefore nailed, for "they pierced my hands and my feet." Death in the ordinary way would not have fulfilled the "prophecy"! Verses 7 and 8 suggested the "mocking."

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MATTHEW XXVII. 39-43: "And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying......He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him." Psalm xxii. says: "All that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out their lip, they shake their head, saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him." To fulfil verse 18, they parted his garments among them, casting lots. An amusing error is fallen into by the writer of "John" regarding this bit of Hebrew poetry. It was a custom with the Jews, obtained from the ancient Akkadians through the Babylonians, in writing poetry to repeat the same thing on the same line, but in a different mode of expression, thus: "Then shall

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