登陆注册
15401600000041

第41章 THE NEW TESTAMENT THE (8)

About three hundred and fifty years after the time that Christ is said to have lived, several writings of the kind I am speaking of were scattered in the hands of divers individuals; and as the church had begun to form itself into an hierarchy, or church government, with temporal powers, it set itself about collecting them into a code, as we now see them, called 'The New Testament.' They decided by vote, as I have before said in the former part of the Age of Reason, which of those writings, out of the collection they had made, should be the word of God, and which should not.The Robbins of the Jews had decided, by vote, upon the books of the Bible before.

As the object of the church, as is the case in all national establishments of churches, was power and revenue, and terror the means it used, it is consistent to suppose that the most miraculous and wonderful of the writings they had collected stood the best chance of being voted.And as to the authenticity of the books, the vote stands in the place of it; for it can be traced no higher.

Disputes, however, ran high among the people then calling themselves Christians, not only as to points of doctrine, but as to the authenticity of the books.In the contest between the person called St.Augustine, and Fauste, about the year 400, the latter says, "The books called the Evangelists have been composed long after the times of the apostles, by some obscure men, who, fearing that the world would not give credit to their relation of matters of which they could not be informed, have published them under the names of the apostles; and which are so full of sottishness and discordant relations, that there is neither agreement nor connection between them."And in another place, addressing himself to the advocates of those books, as being the word of God, he says, "It is thus that your predecessors have inserted in the scriptures of our Lord many things which, though they carry his name, agree not with his doctrine.This is not surprising, since that we have often proved that these things have not been written by himself, nor by his apostles, but that for the greatest part they are founded upon tales, upon vague reports, and put together by I know not what half Jews, with but little agreement between them; and which they have nevertheless published under the name of the apostles of our Lord, and have thus attributed to them their own errers and their lies.[I have taken these two extracts from Boulanger's Life of Paul, written in French; Boulanger has quoted them from the writings of Augustine against Fauste, to which he refers.

-- Author.

This Bishop Faustus is usualy styled "The Manichaeum," Augustine having entitled his book, Contra Fsustum Manichaeum Libri xxxiii., in which nearly the whole of Faustus' very able work is quoted.-- Editor.]

The reader will see by those extracts that the authenticity of the books of the New Testament was denied, and the books treated as tales, forgeries, and lies, at the time they were voted to be the word of God.But the interest of the church, with the assistance of the faggot, bore down the opposition, and at last suppressed all investigation.Miracles followed upon miracles, if we will believe them, and men were taught to say they believed whether they believed or not.But (by way of throwing in a thought) the French Revolution has excommunicated the church from the power of working miracles;she has not been able, with the assistance of all her saints, to work one miracle since the revolution began; and as she never stood in greater need than now, we may, without the aid of divination, conclude that all her former miracles are tricks and lies.[Boulanger in his life of Paul, has collected from the ecclesiastical histories, and the writings of the fathers as they are called, several matters which show the opinions that prevailed among the different sects of Christians, at the time the Testament, as we now see it, was voted to be the word of God.The following extracts are from the second chapter of that work:

The Marcionists (a Christian sect) asserted that the evangelists were filled with falsities.The Manichaeans, who formed a very numerous sect at the commencement of Christianity, rejected as false all the New Testament, and showed other writings quite different that they gave for authentic.

The Cerinthians, like the Marcionists, admitted not the Acts of the Apostles.

The Encratites and the Sevenians adopted neither the Acts, nor the Epistles of Paul.Chrysostom, in a bomily which he made upon the Acts of the Apostles, says that in his time, about the year 400, many people knew nothing either of the author or of the book.St.Irene, who lived before that time, reports that the Valentinians, like several other sects of the Christians, accused the scriptures of being filled with imperfections, errors, and contradictions.

The Ebionites, or Nazarenes, who were the first Christians, rejected all the Epistles of Paul, and regarded him as an impostor.They report, among other things, that he was originally a Pagan; that he came to Jerusalem, where he lived some time; and that having a mind to marry the daughter of the high priest, he had himself been circumcised; but that not being able to obtain her, he quarrelled with the Jews and wrote against circumcision, and against the observation of the Sabbath, and against all the legal ordinances.

-- Author.[Much abridged from the Exam.Crit.de la Vie de St.Paul, by N.A.Boulanger, 1770.-- Editor.]

When we consider the lapse of more than three hundred years intervening between the time that Christ is said to have lived and the time the New Testament was formed into a book, we must see, even without the assistance of historical evidence, the exceeding uncertainty there is of its authenticity.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 29岁变动理论

    29岁变动理论

    29岁,我的生活被贴上了无数的标签,今日重复昨天,明日复制今天,未来的一年、十年,通过自己的昨天和别人的今天一眼望穿,我的生活需要一次突围。
  • 荏苒时光物是人非

    荏苒时光物是人非

    世上有一件最无能为力的事情,那就是,你不知道你到底做错了什么,然而身边的人却一个地个离去。你还来不及挽留,他们早已消失在你的世界,无影无踪。经流年,梦回曲水边,看烟花绽出月圆,然而时光荏苒,早已物是人非!
  • 梨花落:绝代有佳人

    梨花落:绝代有佳人

    谢氏一桩简单的杀人案,在弄权之下被断成了通敌案,后演变成谋逆案,有着三百年历史的谢氏大族一朝覆灭。侥幸逃脱的谢氏兄妹二人,躲过明枪暗箭,步履艰难的替谢家沉冤昭雪,却发现这背后还有更不为人知的隐情,究竟谁才是导致谢家覆灭的真凶?那一年,梨花盛开的洁白,年仅六岁的谢蕴身穿丧服,在数着梨花凋落踌躇伤感之时,被一声声嘶吼惊住,接着便传来了浓烈的血腥味,白裙被染成了红色,梨花也被染成了红色······
  • 给你一首歌你会想起谁

    给你一首歌你会想起谁

    她的父母死因蹊跷,从此她与哥哥相依为命,扭曲的真相,不完整的爱,他的出现是福是祸?他说他叫陈明辉,他叫她黄妍,相隔12年的光阴是否能用爱补全?-------------------------------------------------------------第一次开坑写文,如有雷同,纯属巧合。不喜勿喷
  • 八极武馆

    八极武馆

    看获得奇遇的秦连城,如何将家传武馆发扬光大。
  • 重生千金复仇记

    重生千金复仇记

    前世,她的妈妈被冤屈自尽,她同时遭到爸爸和继母的陷害,青梅竹马的未婚夫被继妹勾引,重生归来,她不再是受人欺凌的柔弱千金,所有利用她,欠了她的人,她都不会放过,守护妈妈,蹬掉小三,灭掉小白花,绝不成为圣母公主,努力打造属于自己的王国,而她,会成为女王。
  • 迷之召唤

    迷之召唤

    “哪个职业牛逼点呢?”某骚年支着下巴看着系统职业选择轮盘。“选择超时!系统随机分配职业!”“靠啊!召唤师?”“这是什么玩意?召唤宠物?”骚年目瞪口呆地看着眼前一具破败不堪的小骷髅。“系统!我日你仙人板!”“轰隆!”系统神雷从天而降!……一个没有属性,一个游戏挂掉现实也会重伤的杯具召唤师因此横空出世,踏上了充满荆棘的强者之路!求收藏,求推荐票!求收藏,求推荐票!求收藏,求推荐票!重要的事情说三遍!
  • 一骑封神

    一骑封神

    封神之后。申公豹:我不服,我有能力,知道吗?派我塞北海!通天教主:我不服,我出场太少,还没打个痛快!杨戬:我不服,我的功劳大,最后给天庭看门!哪吒:我不服,为什么不多安排我出战!还要听从李靖!姜子牙:我才最不服,就我没封神!一次封神的重新演绎,一次史上的最大脑洞,一次异界创世激战全纪录。对命运不屈之人,就在《一骑封神》。再给所有人一次选择的机会!!
  • 人造死神

    人造死神

    一个可笑的阴谋,一个人的痴心妄想,破坏了整个家园,造就了一个逆天而行的实验体,来找他复仇,来斩尽生命的枷锁,成就主宰之威!
  • 南明北望

    南明北望

    1644年崇祯儿子逃出了北京,历史又将会如何?北清南明对峙又将会由谁笑到最后?中国资本主义的萌芽能否最终长成参天大树?现代宅男穿越附身崇祯第三子,给你一个不一样的17世纪的中国。