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<p> 24 page printout, pages 89 to 111 of 322
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CHAPTER III</p>
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<p>
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<span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIAN</span> "SCRIPTITRE" FORGERIES</p>
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<p> "Nothing stands in need of Lying but a LIE."</p>
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<p> To such an extent are the origins of the Christian Religion
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wrapped in obscurity, due to the labyrinthine confusions and
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contradictions and forgeries of its early records, that it is quite
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impossible to extricate, with any degree of confidence, a thread of
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historic truth from the tangle.</p>
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<p> The 27 New Testament booklets, attributed to eight individual
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"Apostolic" writers, and culled from some 200 admitted forgeries
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called Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, constitute the presient
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"Canonical" or acceptedly inspired compendium of the primitive
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history of Christianity. The only available method to extract from
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them approximately just judgments as to the risie and progress of
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the new system of beliefs, must be by a series of tentative
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assumptions of reletive truth of sundry details of the narratives.
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By relative truth of any tentatively assumed "fact," I mean such
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"fact" with relation always to its contradictory, -- one or the
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other must necessarily be false -- while both may be -- and
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probably are. For, as virtually every alleged "fact" recorded in
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Gospels, Acts and Epistles is off-set by a contradictory recital,
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rendering one or the other untrue, neather can be assumed with
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assurance; the actuality of either, and of all, is thus made
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doubtful, and is subject to total rejection as our study of the
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booklets develops.</p>
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<p> On such provisional assumption that sundry of the things
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recorded possibly may have happened as in one manner or the other
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related, we are able to reach several obvious conclusions as to the
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order and approximate times of those dubiously-assumed happenings.
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In view, however, of what we have seen, and shall soon more
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abundantly see, of the shifty and fraudulent methods of
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ecclesiatitical "history"-writing and propaganda, we may be
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prepared for some rude upsettings of our inherited traditions of
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Christian fact and faith.</p>
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<p> The central character of the Christian faith, Jesus, to assume
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him as a historical personage, was a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>, as were, by tradition,
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his disciples and entourage. As is, of course, well known:
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"Christianity took its rise in <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judaism</span>; its Founder and His
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disciples were orthodox <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s, and the latter maintained their
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<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish practices, at least for a time, after the day of Pentecost.
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The <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s themselves looked upon the followers of Christ as a mere
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Israelitish sect, ... 'the sect of the Nazarenes' (Acts xxiv, 15),"
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-- the believers in the Promised Messiah. (CE. iii, 713.) In this
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they were grievously deceived and disappointed, as, too the world
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knows; "Christ's humble and obscure life, ending in the ignominious
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death on the cross, was the very opposite of what the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s expected
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of their Christ." (CE. i, 620.)</p>
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<p> Jesus was a native of Galilee, "his own country" (Mt. ii, 23;
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xiii, 54-55), or of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judaea</span>, "his own country" (.John iv, 43-44). He
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was born "in the days of Herod the King" (Mt. ii, 1), about 6 B.C.,
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or "when Cyrenius was governor of Syria" (Luke ii, 1-7), about 7
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A.D., or some 13 years later. (CE. viii, 377; EB. i, 307-8.) The
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destructive contradictions as to his lineage and parentage, and </p>
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<p> Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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89
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.
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FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
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</p>
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<p>other essential particulars, are reserved for opportune notice.
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Jesus became a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish sectarian religious teacher of the zealot
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reformer type; so zealous that his own family thought him insane
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and sent out to apprehend him (Mark iii, 31); many of the people
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said of him, "He hath a devil, and is mad" (John x, 20); his own
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disciples, seeing his raid into the Temple after the money-changers, shook their heads and muttered the proverb: "The zeal of
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thine house hath eaten me up" (John ii, 17).</p>
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<p> His ministry, of about one year, according to the first three
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Gospels, of some three yeurs according to the fourth, was, by his
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own repeated assertion, limited exclusively to his own <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish
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people: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
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Israel" (Mt. xv, 24; ef. Acts iii, 25-26; xiii, 46; Rom. xv, 8);
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and he straitly enjoined on his Twelve Aposties: "Go not into the
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way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye
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not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt.
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X, 5-6); to the woman of Canaan who pleaded with him to have mercy
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on her daughter, "grievously vexed with a devil," he retorted: "It
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is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to dogs" (Mt.
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xv, 22-28; vii, 6). His own announcement, and his command to the
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Twelve, was "Preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Mt.
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x, 7), -- the exclusively Hebraic Kingdom of the Baptist (Mt. iii,
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2), as of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish Messianic apocrypha which we have noticed.
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Jesus lived at the height of the "age of apocryphal literature,"
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and in due time got into it, voluminously.</p>
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<p> Before his death, time and again he made and repeated the
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assurance -- the most positive and iterated of all the sayings
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attributed to him -- of the immediate end of the world, and of his
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quick triumphant return to establish the Kingdom of God in the new
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earth and reign on the reestablished throne of David forever. Time
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and again he said and repeated: "Verily I say unto you, There be
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some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see
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the Son of man coming in his Kingdom" (Mt. xvi, 28; Mk. ix, I; Lk.
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ix, 27); "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be
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done" Mk. xiii, 30). -- So quickly would this "second coming" be,
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that when the Twelve were sent out on their first preaching tour in
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little Palestine, their Master assured them: "Ye shall not have
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gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come" (Mt. x,
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23). Caiaphag, the high priert before whom Jesus was led after his
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capture in the Garden, solemnly conjured him "By the living God"
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for the truth; and Jesus replied: "Nevertheless I say unto you,
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Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man ... coming in the clouds of
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heaven." (Mt. xxvi, 63, 64; Mk. xiv, 61, 62.) Some people are
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expecting him yet. Of course, there were, could be, none but <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s
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in heaven, or in this new Kingdom of Heaven on the new earth:
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"Salvation is of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s." (John iv, 22.) It was 144000 <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s, the
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"scaled" saints, who alone constituted the original <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish "Kingdom
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of God" (Rev. vii).</p>
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<p> With these explicit data we arrive at the first obvious and
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positive conclusion: With the expectation of a quick and sudden end
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of the world and of all things human, no books were written on the
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subject in that generation or, for a little leeway, the next or so,
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after the death of the expected returning King. The scant, number
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of credulous <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s who accepted this preachment as "Gospel truth" </p>
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<p> Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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90
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.
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FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
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</p>
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<p>and lived in this expectation, were nourished with neighborhood
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gossip and oral traditions of the "good news," and needed and had
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no written books of inspired record of these things. Thus many
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years passed. Only as the dread consummation was delayed, and the
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hope deferred sickened the hearts of the expectant <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s and they
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waned in faith, and as aecused by Paul and Barnabas, "put it from
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you," did the defeated propagandists of the "Faith that failed at
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the Cross," give the shoulder to the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s and "turn to the
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Gentiles" (Acts xiii, 46), and begin to expand the failing new
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<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish faith among the superstitious <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagans</span> of the countries round
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about. But this was still by the spoken word; on all the
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supposititious "missionary tours" the Word was spread by word of
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mouth written gospel books were not yet. When at last, the "coming"
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being still unrealized -- these books began to be written, we can
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accurately determine something of the order of their writing, and
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finally, though negatively, the approximate times when they were
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written, by ascertaining when they were not yet written.</p>
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<p> We have seen that for a century and more the only "Scriptures"
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used by the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish propagandists of the Christ were the Greek
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Septuagint translations of the old hebrew sacred writings, "the Law
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and the Prophets" (CE. v, 702; i, 635); supplemented by sundry
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<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish apocrypha and the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> Sibylline Oracles; these were the
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only "authorities" appealed to by the early "Fathers" for the
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propaganda of the new faith. Indubitably, if the wonderful
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"histories" of their Christ and the inspired pretended writings of
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his first, Apostles, forming noew the New Testament, had then
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existed, even in scraps of writing, they would have been the most
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precious and potent documents of propaganda, would have been
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snatched at and quoted and appealed to with infinate zeal and
|
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ardor, as they have been through the centuries since. But, for some
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150 years, as we shall see, little or nothing besides Old Testament
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|
and <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> Oracles were known or quoted. As said by the great
|
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critic, Solomon Reinach, "With the exception of Papias, who speaks
|
|
of a narrative by Mark, and a collection of sayings of Jesus, no
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Christian writer of the first half of the second century (i.e., up
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to 150 A.D.) quotes the Gospels or their reputed authors."
|
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(Reinach, Orpheus, p. 218.) So, patently, as yet no "Gospels" and
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but few if any "Epistles" of our "canon" had as yet been written.
|
|
Again, we read the 23 booklets from and including Acts to
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Revelation: there is not a solitary referance to a word of
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quotation from, any of our four Gospels; scarce a trace of the
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wonderful career and miracles of Jesus the Christ; not a word of
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his "gospel" or teachings mentioned or quoted. These Epistles,
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indeed, "preach Christ Crucified" (from oral tradition), as the
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basis of the propagandists' own "gospel." But the written "Gospel
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of Jesus Christ" (his life and words and deeds), was unknown:
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indeed, jealous of the so-called Petrine preaching which "perverts
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the gospel of Christ" as preached by him, the soi-disant Apostle
|
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Paul fulminates: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
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any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let,
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him be accursed" (Gal. i, 7, 8); -- so early did priestly
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intolerance and priestly curses on opponents come into holy vogue.
|
|
Therefore the conclusion is inevitable that when those 23 Acts and
|
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Epistles were written, none of the four "Gospel" biographies of
|
|
Jesus the Christ had yet seen the light. "Written Gospels are
|
|
neither mentioned nor implied in the NT epistles, nor in that, of </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
91
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Clemens Romanus, nor, probably, in that of Barnabas, nor in the
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Didache. luke (i, 1-4) implies that 'many gospels' were current"
|
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(EB. ii, 1809), at the time that Gospel was written.</p>
|
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<p> The Acts and Epistles, therefore, with Revelation, were
|
|
written before any of the Gospel biographies. If these Christ-histories had existed, how eagerly would they have been seized upon
|
|
to garnish and glorify the preachment of the early propagandists of
|
|
the Faith that failed at the Cross, -- and would have perished
|
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wholly but. for the allbelieving <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> Gentiles, who, when they
|
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heard it, "were glad, and glorified the word of the lord" (Acts
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xiii, 48), as orally delivered.</p>
|
|
<p> "THE AGE OF APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE"</p>
|
|
<p> As the long years passed and one generation of disappointed
|
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"Messiah" <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s was gathered unto its fathers and was followed by
|
|
another, the believers in the promised "second coming" for the
|
|
establishment of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish Kingdom grew restles, and made
|
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pertinent complaint, "Saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
|
|
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
|
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from the beginning of the creation" (2 Peter ii, 4), -- and as they
|
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yet continue. Dubbing these reasonable but disturbing inquirers
|
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"scoffers," the crafty Peter tried in typical priestly form to
|
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squirm out of the embarrassing situation created by the positive
|
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promises of the Christ and the inspired preachments of himself and
|
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his apostolic confreres, by the shifty rejoinder: "But, beloved
|
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["scoffers"], be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is
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with the Lord as a thousand yearn, and a thousand years as one day"
|
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(2 Peter ii, 8) -- which doesn't mean anything for an honest
|
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answer; and time and again they cajole the impatient eredtilous:
|
|
"Ye have need of patience; ... for yet a little while, and he that
|
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shall come, will come." (Heb. x, 36, 37; cf. 1 Thess. iv, l6-18; 2
|
|
Thess. iii, 5; James v, 7, 8; et passim.) But he isn't come yet,
|
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these 2000 years.</p>
|
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<p> It was at this critical juncture, to revive and stimulate the
|
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jaded hope of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish believers and to spread the propaganda
|
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amongst the all-believing Pagaiis, that the written Christ-tales
|
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began to be worked up by the Christian propagandists. Before their
|
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admiring eyes they had for models the "whole literature" of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish
|
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apocryphal or forged writings, plus the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> Oracles: with immense
|
|
zeal and industry they set about to imitate the example before
|
|
them, and to reforge these <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish and heathen forgeries to more
|
|
definite Chriiitian uses, and to forge anew another whole
|
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literature of distinctively Christian forgeries and fabulous
|
|
histories of the Christ. "In this form of propaganda the Christians
|
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proved themselves to be apt pupils of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s. So common, indeed,
|
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had become in early Christian times, the invention of such oracles
|
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that Celsus terms Christians Sibyllistai, believers in sibyls, or
|
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sibyl-mongerrs" (EB. i, 246), that is, peddlers of Christian
|
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forgeries in <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> form (Ib. p. 261). How great was this pious
|
|
fabrication we can only judge from the two hundred, more or less,
|
|
of false histories, gospels, epistles and revelations which have
|
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survived, entire or fragmentary, or by title only, through the long
|
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intervening centuries of faith, and of which 27 are yet cherished
|
|
as of Divine inspiration.</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
92
|
|
.
|
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FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
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</p>
|
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<p> "THE IDEA OF INSPIRATION"</p>
|
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<p> Before sketching the welter of these lying works of Christian
|
|
hands and childish minds, we may define, by high priestly
|
|
authority, the status of the problem of divine inspiration, and
|
|
just how the notion of "canonicity" or official inspiration, came
|
|
to be, now attributed to, now withdrawn from, this heterogeneous
|
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mass or mess of pious scribblings, and finally clung to only 27 of
|
|
yet asserted sanctity. These admissions are very illuminating.</p>
|
|
<p> We have aeen that the Hebrew Old Testament itself "reveals no
|
|
formal notion of inspiration," though, we are assured, "the later
|
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<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s must have possessed the idea" (CE. iii, 269); -- thus only an
|
|
idea or notion somehow acquired, but not through divine
|
|
illumination, for as we read, of all the mass of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish holy
|
|
forgeries "each of them has at one tune or another been treated as
|
|
canonical" or divinely inspired. (EB. i, 250.) Whether the
|
|
Christian notion or idea as to the divine inspiration of their own
|
|
new forgeries was of any better quality may now appear.</p>
|
|
<p> The New Testament and the inspired Apostles are silent on the
|
|
subject and left the matter to serious doubts and disputations for
|
|
many centuries: "There are no indications in the New Testament ...
|
|
of a definite new Canon bequeathed by the Apostles to the Church,
|
|
or of a strong self-witness to Divine inspiration," admits the CE,.
|
|
(iii, 274); that is, there is nothing in the 27 booklets which
|
|
would lead to the suspicion of their "inspiration" or truth. There
|
|
was then no Church for them to bequeath to, nor was the Canon
|
|
settled, as we shall see: "It was not until about the middle of the
|
|
second century -- [when we shall see the books were really written]
|
|
-- that under the rubric of Scripture the New Testament writings
|
|
were assimilated to the Old. ... But it should be remembered that
|
|
the inspired character of the New Testament in a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span> dogma,
|
|
and must therefore in some way have been revealed to, and taught
|
|
by, Apostles"! (Ib. p. 275.) This is a strikingly queer bit of
|
|
clerical dialectic, and leaves the question of the "some way" of
|
|
revelation to the Apostles and of their transmission of the "dogma"
|
|
to posterity, in a nebulously unsatisfying state.</p>
|
|
<p> Further, the dubious and disputed status of the sacred
|
|
writings through centuries, and the ultimate settlement of the
|
|
controversies by the 'ipse dixit' of a numerical majority of the
|
|
Council of Trent, in 1546, -- after the Reformation had forced the
|
|
issue, is thus admitted: "The idea of a complete and clear-cut
|
|
canon of the New Testament existing from the beginning, that is,
|
|
from Apostolic times, has no foundation in history. The cannon of
|
|
the New Testament, like that of the Old, is the result of a
|
|
development, of a process at once stimulated by disputes with
|
|
doubters, both within and without the Church, and retarded by
|
|
certain obscurities and natural hesitations, and which did not
|
|
reach its final term until the dogmatic defination of the
|
|
Tridentine Council. ... And this want of a organized distribution,
|
|
secondarily to the absence of an early fixation of the Canonm, left
|
|
room for variations and doubts which lasted far into the
|
|
centuries." (CE., iii, 274.) The 'modus operandi' of the Holy
|
|
Council in ultimately "canonizing" Jerome's old Vulgate Version,
|
|
and its motive for doing so, are thus exposed by the keen pen of
|
|
the author of the Rise and Fall:</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
93
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> "When the Council of Trant resolved to pronounce sentence on
|
|
the Cannon of Scripture, the opinion which prevented, after some
|
|
debate, was to declare the Latin Vulgate authentic and 'almost'
|
|
infallible; and this sentence, which was guarded by formidable
|
|
anathemas, secured all the books of the Old and New Testament which
|
|
composed that ancient version. ... When the merit of that version
|
|
was discussed, the majority of the theologians urged, with
|
|
confidence and success, that it was absoutely necessary to receive
|
|
the Vulgate as authentic and inspired, unless they wished to
|
|
abandon the victory to the Lutherans, and the honors of the Church
|
|
to the <span class="PERSON" title="PERSON">Grammarians</span>." (Gibbon, A Vindication, v, 2; Istoria del
|
|
consiglio Tridentino, L. ii, p. 147.) A number of these books were
|
|
bitterly disputed and their authenticity and inspiration denied by
|
|
the leading Reformers, Luther, Grotius, Calvin, etc., and excluded
|
|
from their official lists, until finally the Reformed Church
|
|
followed the example of the Church hopeless of reform and swallowed
|
|
the canon whole, as we have it today, -- minus, of course, the
|
|
'Tobit,' 'Judith,' and like inspired buffooneries of the True
|
|
Bible.</p>
|
|
<p> Such books and the vicissitudes of their authority are thus
|
|
described: "Like the Old Testament, the New has its deutero-canonical [i.e. doubted] books and portions of books, their
|
|
canonicity having formally been a subject of some controversy in
|
|
the Church. These are, for entire books: the Epistle to the
|
|
Hebrews, that od James, the Second and Third of John, Jude, and
|
|
Apocalypse; giving seven in all as the number of the N.T. contested
|
|
books. The formerly disputed passages are three: the closing
|
|
section of St. Mark's Gospel, xvi, 9-20, about the apparitions of
|
|
Christ after the resurrection; the verses in Luke about the bloody
|
|
sweat of Jesus, xxii, 43, 44; the Pericope Adulterae, or narrative
|
|
of the woman taken in adultery, St. John, vii, 53 to viii, 11.
|
|
Since the Council of Trent it is not permitted for a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span> to
|
|
question the inspiration of these passages." (CE. iii, 274.)
|
|
Besides the forgery of the above and other books as a whole, we
|
|
shall see many other instances of "interpolated" or forged passages
|
|
in the Christian books.</p>
|
|
<p> "THE LYING PEN OF THE SCRIBES"</p>
|
|
<p> Speaking of the doubtful historicity of the celebrated AEsop
|
|
of the famous Fables which go under his name, a critic well states
|
|
a valid test of historicity: "We may well doubt, however, whether
|
|
he (AEsop) ever existed; we have the most varied accounts of him,
|
|
many of which are on their face pure inventions; and the fables
|
|
which passed under his name were certainly not written until long
|
|
after the period in which he is supposed to have lived." (NIE. i,
|
|
191.) We may have occasion to apply this test to the personality of
|
|
Jesus of <span class="GPE" title="GPE">Nazareth</span> and sundry apostolic personages; in any event it
|
|
is peculiarly applicable to the numerous Christian stories and
|
|
fables treating of them, which on their face are pure inventions,
|
|
and which were admittedly forged in the names of Jesus; himself and
|
|
of all of his Apostles and of many of the shining lights of the new
|
|
Christian faith, just as we have seen was done in the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish
|
|
forgerier; in the names of the Old Testament notables from Adam on
|
|
down the catalogue.</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
94
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> Leaving for the moment aside the 27 presently accepted
|
|
booklets of the N.T., and admitting the many Christian forgeries of
|
|
Christ-fables, CE. thus apologetically explains: "The genuine
|
|
Gospels are silent about long stretches of the life of our Lord,
|
|
the Blessed Virgin, and St. Joseph. This reserve of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Evangelists</span>
|
|
did not satisfy the pardonable curiosity of many Christians eager
|
|
for details. ... Enterprising spirits responded to this natural
|
|
craving by pretended gospels full of romantic fables, and fantastic
|
|
and striking details; their fabrications were eagerly read and
|
|
accepted as true by common folk who were devoid of any critical
|
|
faculty and who were predisposed to believe what so luxuriously fed
|
|
their pious curiosity. Both <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span>s and Gnostics were concerned
|
|
in writing these fictions. The former had no motive other than that
|
|
of a PIOUS FRAUD." (CE. i, 606.) The motive above admitted for
|
|
feeding with pious frauds the "natural craving" of the ignorant and
|
|
superstitiouts Christians for marvel-mongering by the Church, is
|
|
confirmed by a distinguished historign: "A vast and ever-increasing
|
|
crowd of converts from paganism, who had become such from worldly
|
|
considerations, and still hankered after wonders like those in
|
|
which their forefathers had from time immemorial believed, lent a
|
|
ready ear to assertions which, to more hesitating or better-instructed minds, would have seemed to carry imposture on their
|
|
very face." (Draper, The Intellectaal Development of Europe, i,
|
|
309.)</p>
|
|
<p> This being thus frankly confessed, our clerical writer
|
|
describes the general character of these pious frauds: "The
|
|
Christian apocryphal writings in general imitate the books of the
|
|
N.T.) and therefore, with a few exceptions, fall under the
|
|
description of Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses." (CE. i,
|
|
606.) Further apologizing for these Christian forgeries, and giving
|
|
a smear of clerical whitewash to the forgers, it is speciously
|
|
pleaded, that "the term apocryphal in connection with special
|
|
gospels must be understood as bearing no more unfavorable an import
|
|
than uncanonical." They were forgeries pure and simple; and their
|
|
pious value is urged, that "the apocryphal Gospels help us to
|
|
understand the religious conditions of the second and third
|
|
centuries," -- as indeed they do, in a light very damaging to any
|
|
suspicion of truthfulness, common honesty, or anything above the
|
|
most mediocre intelligence of the pious Fathers and Faithful who
|
|
put these gross fabrications into circulation in the name and for
|
|
the sake of Christ. Their pious plea is: "Amor Christi est cui
|
|
satisfecimus." (Ib. p. 606.) Of these pious frauds it adds: "The
|
|
quasi-evangelistic compositions concerning Christ ... are all of
|
|
Orthodox origin." (Ib. p. 607.)</p>
|
|
<p> "<span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIAN</span> EVIDENCES" -- FORGED</p>
|
|
<p> When the new Faith went forth to conquer the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> world for
|
|
Christ, the pious Greek Fathers and priests of the Propaganda soon
|
|
felt the need of something of more up-to-date effectiveness than
|
|
Old Testament text and Sibylline Oracles, they needed something
|
|
concrete out of the New Dispensation to "show" to the superstitious
|
|
<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagans</span> to win them to the Christ and his Church: something
|
|
tangible, visible; compellingly authentic proofs. Like arms of
|
|
proof for the holy warfare, the invincible weapons of truth -- "the
|
|
whole armour of God" -- they forged outright for the conquest of
|
|
the unbeliever. What more convincing and compelling proofs of Jesus</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
95
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>the Christ, his holy Apostles, and their wondrous works of over a
|
|
century ago, than the following authentic and autograph documents
|
|
and records, held before doubting eyes:</p>
|
|
<p> A "GOSPEL" WRITTEN BY JESUS CHRIST'S OWN HAND;</p>
|
|
<p> LETTERS AND PORTRAITS OF JESUS CHRIST AND HIS PERSONAL
|
|
CORRESPONDENCE;</p>
|
|
<p> LETTERS WRITTEN BY HIS VIRGIN MOTHER;</p>
|
|
<p> PILATE'S <span class="ORG" title="ORG">OFFICIAL</span> REPORT TO THE EMPEROR OF THE TRIAL AND
|
|
CRUCIFICTION OF JESUS, WITH PILATE'S CONFESSION OF FAITH;</p>
|
|
<p> THE REPLY OF TIBERIUS, AND THE TRIAL OF PILATE;</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<span class="ORG" title="ORG">OFFICIAL</span> DOCUMENTS OF THE ROMAN SENATE ABOUT JESUS,</p>
|
|
<p> GOSPELS, EPISTLES, ACTS, BY EVERY ONE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES;</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<span class="ORG" title="ORG">OFFICIAL</span> DOCUMENTS; OF CHURCH LAW AND GOVERNMENT, WRITTEN IN
|
|
GREEK, BY THE APOSTLES;</p>
|
|
<p> RECORDS OF THE EARLIEST "POPES" AND "APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION;</p>
|
|
<p> SCORES OF OTHER PIOUS FORGED DOCUMENTS TO BE RELATED BELOW.</p>
|
|
<p> Armed with lying credentials and "proofs" of the fictitious
|
|
persons and performances for which credence must be won among the
|
|
credulous pagans, the priests and Vicars of God propagated their
|
|
stupendous "LIES to the glory of God" and the exaltation of the
|
|
Church. We shall catelogue these crude forgeries somewhat more
|
|
fully, and look into some of the more notorious.</p>
|
|
<p> FORGED GOSPELS, ACTS, EPISTLES</p>
|
|
<p> Half a hundred of false and forged Apostolic "Gospels of Jesus
|
|
Christ," together with more numerous orher "Scripture" forgeries,
|
|
was the output, so far as known now, of the lying pens of the pious
|
|
Christians of the first two centuries of the Christian "Age of
|
|
Apocryphal Literature"; all going to swell the "very large number
|
|
of apocryphal writings of distinctly Christian origin which were
|
|
produced from the second century onward, to satisfy an unhealthy
|
|
craving for the occult and marvelous or to embellish the stories of
|
|
the saints." (NIE., i, 746.) These N.T. apocryplia include
|
|
"numerous works purporting to have been written by apostles or
|
|
their associates, but not able to secure a general or permanent
|
|
recognition. These may be classified thus: (a) Gospels; (b) Acts of
|
|
Apostles; (c) Epistles; (d) Apocalypses; (e) Didactic Works; (f)
|
|
Hymns. (Ib. p. 748.) "The name Gospel," says CE. (vi, 656), "as
|
|
indicating a written account of Christ's words and deeds, has been,
|
|
and still is, applied to a large number of narratives of Christ's
|
|
life, which circulated both before and after the composition of our
|
|
Third Gospel (cf. Luke i, 1-4). The titles of some fifty such works
|
|
have come down to us. ... It is only, however, in connection with
|
|
some twenty of these 'Gospels' that some information has been
|
|
preserved. ... Most of them, as far as can be made out, are late </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
96
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>productions, the apocryphal character of which is generally
|
|
admitted by contemporary [i.e., present day] scholars." Naming
|
|
first as Nos. 1-4 "The Canonical Gospels," now falsely labelled
|
|
with the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the twenty best
|
|
known ones are listed as follows; viz: The Gospels according to the
|
|
Hebrews; of Peter; According to the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Egyptians</span>; of Matthias; of
|
|
Philip; of Thomas; the Proto-Evangelium of James, Gospel of
|
|
Nicodemus (Acta Pilati); of the Twelve Apostles; of Basilides; of
|
|
Valentius; of Marcion; of Eve; of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judas</span>; the Writing Genna Marias;
|
|
the Gospel Teleioseos. (CE. vi, 656.)</p>
|
|
<p> Individual Gospels were forged in the names of each of the
|
|
Twelve Apostles, severally, and a joint fabrication under the name
|
|
of "The Gospel of the Twelve," was put into the mouths of the
|
|
twelve Apostles, using the first person to give the ear-marks of
|
|
authenticity to their forged utterances; and separately, "Almost
|
|
every one of the Apostles had a Gospel fathered upon him by one
|
|
early sect or another." (EB. i, 259.) Several seem to have been
|
|
fathered upon Matthew besides the one that wrongly heads the list
|
|
of the "canonical Four," such as the Gospel of Matthias, Traditions
|
|
of Matthias, also a supposed and probably non-existent writing in
|
|
Hebrew hypothesized as the basic document of the Four; probably,
|
|
also the so-called Logia, a papyrus scrap of one sheet discovered
|
|
at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and containing alleged sayings of Jesus
|
|
which in part correspond with, in part radically differ from the
|
|
sayings attributed to him in the Four. He was also made responsible
|
|
for a so-called Gospel of St. Matthew, dating from the 4th or 5th
|
|
century, which "purports to have been written by Matthew and
|
|
translated by St. Jerome." (CE.. i, 608,)</p>
|
|
<p> This authority also lists the famous Protevangetium Jacobi, or
|
|
Infancy Gospel of James, the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, that of
|
|
Gamaliel, the Gospel according to the Hebrews, also According to
|
|
the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Egyptians</span>; of the Nazarenes; Gospels of St. Peter, of St.
|
|
Philip, of St. Thomas, of St. Bartholomew, of St. Andrew, of
|
|
Barnabas, of Thaddeus, even notable forged Gospels of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judas</span>
|
|
Iscariot, and of Mother Eve; also the Gospel by Jesus Christ. We
|
|
have the Gospel of Nicodemus, the History of Joseph the Carpenter,
|
|
the Descent into Hades, the Desicent of Mary, the Ascents of James,
|
|
the Prophecy of Hystaspes, the Didache or Teachings of the
|
|
Apostles; the Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the
|
|
Transitum Mariae or Evangelium Joannin. This last named pious
|
|
Christian work, as described by CE. (i, 607-8) is forged in the
|
|
name of St. John the Apostle, and is "prefaced with a spurious
|
|
Letter of the Bishop of Sardis, Melito"; it records how "the
|
|
Apostles are preternaturally transported from different quarters of
|
|
the globe to the Virgin's deathbed, those who have died being
|
|
resurrected for the purpose"; a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span> who dares touch the sacred body
|
|
instantly loses both hands, which are restored through the
|
|
mediation of the Apostles. Christ, accompanied by a band of angels,
|
|
comes down to receive his mother's soul, "the Apostles bear the
|
|
body to Gethsemane and deposit it in a tomb, whence it is taken up
|
|
alive to heaven"; this being an extraordinary miracle, for the body
|
|
was dead and the soul carried to heaven from her home and the dead
|
|
body laid in the grave, where it comes to life again for the
|
|
Heaven-trip. This clumsy fable, says CE., considerably "influenced
|
|
the Fathers" (Ib. i, 608), who were notoriously ehildish-minded. A </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
97
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>very noted and notorious forgery was the Gospel of Paul and Thecla,
|
|
of which Father Tertullian relates, that this story wag fabricated
|
|
by an Elder of Asia Minor, who, when convicted of the fraud --
|
|
[this being the only known instance of such action], -- confessed
|
|
that he had perpetrated it "for the love of St. Paul." (Reinach,
|
|
Orpheus, p. 235.) The Protevangelium Jacobi was "an Apocryphal work
|
|
by a fanciful fabulist, urhampered by knowledge of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish affairs,
|
|
contposed before the end of the second century with a view to
|
|
removing the glaring contradictions between Matthew and Mark,"
|
|
regarding the birth and life of Jesus CHrist. (EB. iii, 3343.) An
|
|
"Epistle on the Martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul was at a
|
|
later period attributed to St. Linus. ... It is apoeryphal, and of
|
|
later date than the history of the Martyrdom of the two Apostles,
|
|
by some attributed to Marcellus, which is also apocryphal." (CE.
|
|
ix, 273; see Acta Apostolorum, Apoerypha, xiv.) Other noted
|
|
Fatherly fabrications were the celebrated Epistles I and II of
|
|
Clement to the Corinthians, and the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions
|
|
and Homilies, purporting to be written by the very doubtful Bishop
|
|
of Rome of that name; very voluminous, and written about 140 A.D.,
|
|
not a line of New Testament "scriptures" do they quote, but they
|
|
quote freely from the O.T. and from various <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish, Christian and
|
|
<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> works. (EB. iii, 3486.)</p>
|
|
<p> Besides the above complete "Gospel" forgeries, there are
|
|
several more, and fragments of others, which purport to contain
|
|
"sayings" attributed to Jesus which are not contained in the Four
|
|
Gospels; and which are known as Agrapha, that is, things not
|
|
written. Among these are the Logia of Oxyrhynchus above mentioned;
|
|
the Fayum gospel-fragment, a papyrus purporting to give words of
|
|
Christ to Peter at the Last Supper, "in a form which diverges
|
|
largely by omissions from any in the canonical gospels." (EB. i,
|
|
258.) These Agrapha "do not embrace the lenghy sections ascribed to
|
|
Jesus in the 'Didiscalin' and the 'Pistis Sophia'; these works also
|
|
contain some brief quotations of alleged words of Jesus; ... nor
|
|
the Sayings contained in religious romances, such as we find in the
|
|
apocryphal Gospels, the apocryphal Acts, or the Letter of Christ to
|
|
Abgar. ... In patristic citations ... Justin Martyr, Clement of
|
|
Alexandria, Origen, make fslse quotations," -- citing instances.
|
|
(CE. i, 225, 226.) In the class of Agrapha are also "words in the
|
|
Gospels not regarded as genuine, as Mt. vi, 13b; xvii, 21; Mk. xvi,
|
|
9-20; John vii, 53; viii, 2; also alleged quotations from the Old
|
|
Testament in the New Testament not found in the Old Testament."
|
|
(NIE. 1, 240.)</p>
|
|
<p> Of apocryphal Acts of Apostles we are edified by the Acts, or
|
|
Travels, (Greek, Pereodui) of Peter, (and separately) of John, of
|
|
Thomas, of Andrew, and of Paul; another Acts of Philip, Acts of
|
|
Matthew, of Bartholomew, of John, of judas Thomas. There is a whole
|
|
collection of Martyrdoms of the several Apostles. Of apocryphal
|
|
Epistles, the most famous is the Correspondence between the Abgar
|
|
of Edessa, and Jesus; between the Roman Philosopher Seneca and
|
|
Paul; apocryphal Epistles of Paul, to the Laodiceans, to the
|
|
Alexandrians, the Third Epistle to the Corinthians. Forged
|
|
Apocalypses abound, of which that of Peter, the Vision of Hermas,
|
|
the Vision of Paul, the Apocalypge of Paul, the Apocalypse of the
|
|
Virgin Mary. The didactic Preaching of Peter, the Teaching of the
|
|
Apostles, or Didache, containing warnings against <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judaism</span> and </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
98
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>polytheism, and words of Jesus to the Apostles; another set
|
|
containing a lament of Peter for his denial of Jesus, and various
|
|
ethical maxims a Syriac Preaching of Simon Cephas; a collection of
|
|
Hymns or Odes of Solomon. As if these were not enough for Christian
|
|
edification, "many heretical or Gnostic works of the same
|
|
apocryphal kind were changed into orthodox by expurgation of
|
|
objectionable matter or by rewriting, using the same outlines; thus
|
|
a series of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span> Acts was produced, written from an orthodox
|
|
standpoint." (NIE. i, 748.) A very celebrated forgery was the
|
|
Shepherd of Hermas, forged by Hermas,' supposed brother of Pius,
|
|
Bishop of Rome, about 150 A.D. See the vast catalogue (CE. i,
|
|
601-615).</p>
|
|
<p> A whole literature of Christian forgery grew up and had
|
|
immense vogue under the designation of Acts Pilati, or Acts of
|
|
Pilate. One of the most popular of these was called the Gospel of
|
|
Nicodemus, of which CE,. says: "The alleged Hebrew orignal is
|
|
attributed to Nicodemius; the title is of medieval origin. The
|
|
apocryphon gained wide credit in the Middle Ages. ... The 'Acta'
|
|
are of orthodox composition. The book aimed at gratifying the
|
|
desire for extra-evangelical details concerning oar Lord, and at
|
|
the same time, to strengthen faith in the Resurrection of Christ,
|
|
and at general edification." (i, 3.) The Descent into Hades is an
|
|
enlargement of the reputed official acts or repots of Pilate to the
|
|
Roman Emperor. Speaking of the Pilate Literature as a whole, the
|
|
<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span> Encyclopedia. in a paragraph which pointedly admits the
|
|
falsifying frauds of three luminous liars and forgers of the Faith,
|
|
Justin Martyr, the great Bishop Eusebius, and Father Tertullian,
|
|
explains that these Acta "dwell upon the part which a reresentative
|
|
[Pilate] of the Roman Empire played in the supreme events of our
|
|
Lord's life, and to shape the testimony of Pontius Pilate, even at
|
|
the cost of exaggeration and amplification -- [hear the soft-pedaling note], into a weapon of apologetic defense, making the
|
|
official bear witness to the miracles, Crucifixion, and
|
|
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. ... It is characterized by
|
|
exaggerating Pilate's weak defense of Jesus into a strong dympathy
|
|
and practical belief in his Divinity." (CE. i, 609.) Father
|
|
Tertullian, in his Apologia (xxi), relates the Report of Pilate to
|
|
the Emperor, sketching the miracles and death of Jesus Christ, and
|
|
says, "All these things Pilate announced to Tiberius Caesar."
|
|
Bishop Eusebius thus relates the fable as taken from the Apologia
|
|
of Father Tertullian: "The fame of Our Lord's remarkable
|
|
resurrection and ascension being now spread abroad, ... Pontius
|
|
Pilate transmits to Tiberius an account of the circumstances
|
|
concerning the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. ... In this
|
|
account, he also intimated that he had ascertained other miracies
|
|
respecting him, and that having now risen from the dead, he was
|
|
believed to be a God by the great mass of the people. Tiberius
|
|
referred the matter to the Senate, ... being obviously pleased with
|
|
the doctrine; but the Senate, as they had not proposed the matter,
|
|
[rejected it]. But he continued in his opinion, threatening death
|
|
to the accusers of the Chriatians; a divine providence infusing
|
|
this into his mind, that the Gospel having freer scope in its
|
|
commencement, might spread everywhere over the world." (Eusebius,
|
|
HE. II, 2.) Father Justin Martyr, in his Apologia, "appeals
|
|
confidently as a proof of them to the 'Acta' or records of Pilate,
|
|
existing in the imperial archives." Eusebius, relates spurious </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
99
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>anti-Christian Acts of Pilate composed in the fourth century, the
|
|
Acta Pilati or Gospel of Nicodemus, Anphora Pilati, Paradoseis; a
|
|
still later fabrication is the Latin Epistola Pilati ad Tiberium,
|
|
Also the Letter of Herod to Pilate and Letter of Pilate to Herod;
|
|
the Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea. The pseudo-Correspondence of
|
|
Jesus with Abgar, King of Edessa, is found in Eusebius (Hist.
|
|
Eccles., I, xiii), "who vouches that he himself translated it from
|
|
the Syriac documunis in the archives of Edessa, the metropolis, of
|
|
Eastern Syria. ... 'This,' adds Eusebius, 'happened in the year 340
|
|
of the Seleucid era, corresponding to A.D. 28-29.'" (CE. i, 609,
|
|
610.) More monumental lies to the glory of God than those of the
|
|
distinguialied Church Fathers are not "A collection of apocryphal
|
|
Acts of the Apostles was formed in the Frankish Church in the sixth
|
|
century, probably by a monk." (Ib. p. 610.) There were also "the
|
|
works accredited to Dionysius the Areopagite, who was not the
|
|
author of the works bearing his name." (lb. p. 638.)</p>
|
|
<p> Of highest importance because "these Acts are the chief source
|
|
for details of the martyrdom of the two great Apostles," as admits
|
|
the CE., special notice is made of the "<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span>" Acts of Sts.
|
|
Peter and Paul, of which many MSS of "the legend" existed, the
|
|
material import of which is thus not quite honestly summarized:
|
|
"The <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s have been aroused by the news of Paul's intended visit
|
|
(to Rome), and induce Nero to forbid it. Nevertheless the Apostle
|
|
secretly enters Italy; his companion is mistaken for himself at
|
|
Puteoli and beheaded. In retribution that city is swallowed up by
|
|
the sea. Peter receives Paul at Rome with joy. The preaching of the
|
|
Apostles converts multitudes and even the Empress. Simon Magus
|
|
traduces the Christian teachers, and there is a test of strength in
|
|
miracles between that magician and the Apostles, which takes place
|
|
in the presence of Nero. Simon essays a flight to heaven but falls
|
|
in the Via Sacra and is dashed to pieces, Nevertheless, Nero is
|
|
bent on the destruction of Peter and, Paul. The latter is beheaded
|
|
on the Ostian Way, and Peter is cruciffed at his request head
|
|
downward. Before his death he relates to the people the 'Quo
|
|
Vadis?' story. Three men from the East carry off the Apostles'
|
|
bodies but are overtaken. St. Peter is buried at 'the place called
|
|
the <span class="GPE" title="GPE">Vatican</span>,' and Paul on the Ostian Way. These Acts are the chief
|
|
source for details of the martyrdom of the two great Apostles. They
|
|
are also noteworthy as emphasizing the close concord between the
|
|
Apostolic founders of the Roman Church." (CE. i, 611-12.)</p>
|
|
<p> The reader is desired to bear well in mind the foregoing
|
|
paragraph, and particularly the last two sentences, the former of
|
|
immense significance when we come to review the falsified fiction
|
|
of the foundation of the Roman Church by Peter, -- the "chief
|
|
source" of which portentous claim is confessedly founded on the
|
|
crude and fantastic "legend"' of an admittedly forged document.
|
|
Another admission of forgery by the Fathers, before introducing
|
|
them formally, may be noted:, "Such known works as the Shepherd of
|
|
Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache or Teaching of the
|
|
Twelve Apostles, and the Apostolic Canons and Constitutions, though
|
|
formally apocryphal, really belong to patristic literature" (CE. i,
|
|
601), -- that is, they are forged writings of the Fathers.</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
100
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> THE FORGFD "APOSTLES' CREED"</p>
|
|
<p> The "Apotitles' Creed," forged by the Fathers several
|
|
centuries after the Apostles, must be added to the Patristic list.
|
|
Of this famous Creed, which every Christian presumably knows by
|
|
rote and piously recites in numberless services, CE. again
|
|
confesses it spurious: "Throughout the Middle Ages it was generally
|
|
believed that the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, while still
|
|
under the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost, composed our
|
|
present Creed, each of the Apostles contributing one of the Twelve
|
|
articles. This legend dates back to the sixth century, and is
|
|
foreshadowed still earlier in a sermon attributed to St. Ambrose,
|
|
which takes notice that the Creed was 'pieced out by twelve
|
|
separate workmen.'" (CE. i, 629.) Indeed, "not a few works have
|
|
been falsely attributed to St. Ambrose." (CE. i, 387; cf. p. 406.)</p>
|
|
<p> We may smile at the peculiarly clerical way in which CE. would
|
|
"whitewash" the great Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose (e. 340-397),
|
|
from the lie direct which admittedly he told in that Sermon, --
|
|
saying that the Bishop simply "takes notice that the creed was
|
|
pieced out," etc.; the truth being that Ambrose positively affirmed
|
|
the fable as truth, and may have invented it. His poisitive words
|
|
are; "that the Twelve Apostles, as skilled artificers, assembled
|
|
together, and made a key by their common advice, that is, the
|
|
Creed; by which the darkness of the devil is disclosed, that the
|
|
light of Christ may appear." (Ambrose, Opera, tom. iii., Sermon 38,
|
|
p. 265; quoted in The New Testament Apocrypha, <span class="GPE" title="GPE">New York</span>, The Truth
|
|
Seeker Co.) -- a work which I feel impelled to commend to all who
|
|
wish to know at first hand the 25 remarkable Chureh "Gospel"
|
|
forgeries there collected.</p>
|
|
<p> THE FORGED ATHANASIAN CREED</p>
|
|
<p> In likewise the celebrated Athanasian Creed of the Church,
|
|
attributed to St. Athanasius and so held by the Church "until the
|
|
seventeenth century" (CE. ii, 34), with most evil resiilts, is now
|
|
an admitter forgery. In words of Gibbon: "St. Athanasius is not the
|
|
author of the creed; it does not appear to have existed within a
|
|
century after his death; it was composed in Latin, therefore in one
|
|
of the Western provinces. Gennadius, patriarch of <span class="GPE" title="GPE">Constitantinoble</span>,
|
|
was so much amazed by this extraordinary composition, that he
|
|
frankly pronounced it to be the work of a drunken man." (Petav.
|
|
Dogmat. Theologica, tom. ii, 1, vii, c. 8, p. 687; Gibbon, p. 598.)</p>
|
|
<p> JESUS CHRIST'S FORGED LETTERS</p>
|
|
<p> We may look for a moment at several of the most notorious of
|
|
the forgeries perpetrated for the glory of God and for imposture
|
|
upon the superstitious Christians to enhance <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> credtulity in
|
|
the tales of Christ. If the Gospel tales were true, why should God
|
|
need pious lies to give them credit? Lies and forgeries are only
|
|
needed to bolster up falsebood: "Nothing stands in need of lying
|
|
but a lie." But Jesus Christ must needs be propagated by lies; upon
|
|
lies, and what better proof of his actuality than to exhibit
|
|
letters written by him in his own handwriting? The "Little Liars of
|
|
the Lord" were equal to the forgery of the signature of their God,
|
|
-- false letters in his name, as above cited from that exhaustless </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
101
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>mine of clerical falsities, the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span> Encyclopedia, which again
|
|
describes them, and proves that they 'Were forged by their great
|
|
Bisbop of Caesaria: "The historian Eusebius records [HE. I, xii],
|
|
a legend which he himself firmly believes concerning a
|
|
correspondence that took place between Our Lord and the local
|
|
potentate (Abgar) at Edessa. Three documents relate to this
|
|
correspondence: (1) the Letter of Abgar to Our Lord; (2) Our Lord's
|
|
answer; (3) a picture of Our Lord, painted from life. This legend
|
|
enjoyed a great popularity, both in the East, and in the West,
|
|
during the Middle Ages. Our Lord's Letter was copied on parchment,
|
|
marble, and metal, and used as a talisman or an amulet." (CE. i,
|
|
42.) But it is not true, as we have seen already confessed, that
|
|
Eusebius innocently believed that these forgeries were genuine --
|
|
for they were all shamelessly forged by Eusebius himself: "who
|
|
vouches that he himself translated it from the Syriac documents in
|
|
the archives of Edessa." (CE. i, 610.) Again it is said by CE.,
|
|
that these forged letters, with the portrait, were "accepted by
|
|
Eusebius without hesitation, and used by Addision in his work on
|
|
Christian Evidences as genuine" (Ib. vi, 217).</p>
|
|
<p> It should be mentioned, first, that Abgar was not a personal
|
|
name of a King of Edessa, but was a generic title of all the rulers
|
|
of that small state: "By this title all the toparchs of Edessa were
|
|
called, just as the Roman Emperors were called Caesars, the Kings
|
|
of Egypt Pharaohs or Ptolemies, the Kings of Syria Antiochi." (ANF.
|
|
viii, 651, note.) With this first check on the forging Bishop, here
|
|
is what he said in his Church history, Book I, chapter the
|
|
thirteenth. (p. 63 seq.) Note the false fervor of the holy Bishop
|
|
to sugar-coat his circumstantial and commodious lie and fraud:
|
|
"While the Godhead of our Saviour and Lord Jesus, Christ was
|
|
proclaimed among all men by reason of the astonishing mighty-works
|
|
which He wrought, and myriads, even from countries remote from the
|
|
land of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judaea</span>, who were afflicted with sicknesses and diseases of
|
|
every kind, were coming to him in the hope of being healed, King
|
|
Abgar sent him a letter asking Him to come and heal him of his
|
|
disease. But our Saviour at the time he asked Him did not comply
|
|
with his request. Yet He deigned to give him a letter in reply. ...
|
|
Thou hast in writing the evidence of these things, which is taken
|
|
from the Book of Records which was at Edessa; for at that time the
|
|
Kingdom was still standing. In the documents, then, which were
|
|
there, in which was contained whatever was done by those of old
|
|
down to the time of Abgar, these things are also found preserved
|
|
down to the present hour. There is, however, nothing to prevent our
|
|
hearing the very letters themselves, which have been taken by us
|
|
from the archives, and are in words to this effect, translated from
|
|
Aramaic into Greek.</p>
|
|
<p> "'Copy of the letter which was written by King Abgar to Jesus,
|
|
and sent to him by the hand of Ananias -- [the Bishop was the
|
|
Ananias in this tale, and aptly named his letter-carrier], -- the
|
|
Tabularius, to Jerusalem:</p>
|
|
<p> 'Abgar the Black, sovereign of the country, to Jesus, the good
|
|
Saviour, who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem: Peace. I
|
|
have heard about Thee, and about the healing which is wrought by
|
|
Thy hands without drugs and roots. For, as it is reported, Thou
|
|
makest the blind to see, and the lame to walk; and Thou cleansest
|
|
the lepers, and Thou castest out unclean spirits and demons, and </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
102
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>Thou healest those who are tormented with lingering diseases, and
|
|
Thou raisest the dead. And when I heard all these things about
|
|
Thee, I settled in my mind one of two things: either that Thou art
|
|
God, who has come down from heaven, and doest these things; or that
|
|
Thou art the Son of God, and doest these things. On this account,
|
|
therefore, I have written to beg of Thee that Thou wouldest weary
|
|
Thyself to come to me, and heal this disease which I have. For I
|
|
have also heard that the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s murmur against Thee, and wish to do
|
|
Thee harm. But I have a city, small and beautiful, which is
|
|
sufficient for two.'</p>
|
|
<p> "Copy of those things which were written by Jesus in reply by
|
|
the hand of Ananias, the Tabularius, to Abgar, sovereign of the
|
|
country: --</p>
|
|
<p> 'Blessed is he that believeth in me, not having seen me. For
|
|
it is written concerning me, that those who see me will not believe
|
|
in me, and that those will believe who have not seen me, and will
|
|
be saved. But touching that which thou hast written to me, that I
|
|
should come to thee it is meet that I should finish here all that
|
|
for the sake of which I have been sent; and, after I have finished
|
|
it, then I shall be taken up to Him that sent me; and, when I have
|
|
been taken up, I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may
|
|
heal thy disease, and give salvation to thee and to those who are
|
|
with thee.'</p>
|
|
<p> "To these letters moreover, is appended the following, also in
|
|
the Aramaic tongue", -- here following the official record of the
|
|
visit of one "Thaddaeus the apostle, one of the Seventy," and him
|
|
wonderful works in Edessa. "These things were done in the year 340.
|
|
In order, moreover that these things may not have been translated
|
|
to no purpose word for word from the Aramaic into Greek, they are
|
|
placed in their order of time here. Here endeth the first book."
|
|
(HE. i, 13; ANF. viii, 651-653.) Bishop Eusebius is thus seen to
|
|
have been a most circumstantial liar and a well-skilled forger for
|
|
God. From this episcopal lie sprouted like toadstools a whole
|
|
literature of "various books concerning Abgar the King and
|
|
Thaddaeus the Apostle," in which are preserved to posterity a
|
|
series of five letters -- very much in the style of modern patent-medicine testimonials -- written by Abgar to Tiberius Caesar and to
|
|
neighboring potentates, endorsing Jesus and his healing powers;
|
|
with a reply from Tiberius declaring that "Pilate has officially
|
|
informed us of the miracles of Jesus.". With respect to the other
|
|
letters testimonial, it is recorded: "Abgar had not yet received
|
|
answers to these letters when he died, having reigned thirty-eight
|
|
years." (Ibid. pp. 657-741, 706.)</p>
|
|
<p> These crass episcopal forgeries were welcomed into the Church,
|
|
and for fifteen centuries have gone unrebuked by Pope or Church.
|
|
Even since the Reformation so strong was the belief in the Abgar-Jesus forgeries, that notable prelates in England including
|
|
Archbishop Cave, have "strenuously contended for their admission
|
|
into the canon scripture. ... The Reverend Jeremiah Jones observes,
|
|
that common people in England have this Epistle in their houses, in
|
|
many places, fixed in a frame, with the picture of Christ before
|
|
it; and that they generally, with much honesty and devotion, regard
|
|
it as the word of God, and the genuine Epistle of Christ." (Quoted </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
103
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>in editorial note to the Epistles, in The Lost Books of the Bible,
|
|
p. 62.) To such state of superstitious credulity does the Church
|
|
with its pious impostures prostitute the minds of its ignorant and
|
|
credulous votaries. The portrait of Jesus, referred to above, is
|
|
said, in other versions of the Letter, to have been sent by Jesus
|
|
to the King; this portrait is now displayed at both Rome and Genoa.
|
|
(NIE. i, 38.)</p>
|
|
<p> OTHER FORGERIES FOR CHRIST'S SAKE</p>
|
|
<p> The pious fancy of the Fathers forged another official Letter,
|
|
in the name of what CE. calls "a fictitious person," one Lentulus,
|
|
pretended predecessor of Pilate as governor of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Judaea</span>, to the Roman
|
|
Senate, giving a description of the personal appearance of Jesus
|
|
Christ, and closing with the words, "He is the most beautiful of
|
|
the sons of men." This letter, says CE. "was certainly apocryphal";
|
|
it was first printed in the Life of Christ, by Ludolph the
|
|
Christian; though it is thought to be traceable to the time of
|
|
Diocletian. (CE. ix, 154.) This notion of the personal beauty of
|
|
Jesus is not shared by the "tradition" of the Fathers; for Jesus
|
|
Christ is declared by Cyril of Alexandria to have been "the ugliest
|
|
of the sons of men"; a tradition also declared by Fathers Justin
|
|
Martyr and Tertullian; to offset which evil notion there was forged
|
|
"a beautiful Letter, purporting to have been written by Lentulus to
|
|
the Roman Senate." (Ib. vi, 235.) But St. Augustine, says CE.,
|
|
"mentions that in his time there was no authentic portrait of
|
|
Christ, and that the type of features was still undetermined, so
|
|
that we have absolutely no knowledge of His appearance." (De
|
|
Trinitate, lib. vii, ch. 45; CE. vi, 211, n.)</p>
|
|
<p> This, however, is contrary to the venerated Church fable and
|
|
artistic forgery current under the title of "St. Veronica's Veil,"
|
|
based on the tale in Luke (xxvii, 27) of the woman of Jerusalem who
|
|
offered to Jesus a linen cloth to wipe his face as he was carrying
|
|
his cross towards Calvary. On wiping his sweating face, the
|
|
supposed authentic likeness of the features of the Christ was
|
|
miraculously impressed upon the cloth. The lucky lady "went to
|
|
Rome, bringing with her this image of Christ, which was long
|
|
exposed to public veneration. To her are likewise traced several
|
|
other relies of the Blessed Virgin venerated in several Churches of
|
|
the West. To distinguish at Rome the oldest and best known of these
|
|
images it was called vera icon (true image), which ordinary
|
|
language soon made veronica ... By degrees popular Imagination
|
|
mistook this word for the name of a person" (CE. xv, 362), -- and,
|
|
Lo! Saint Veronica emerges from the canonizing Saint-mill of Holy
|
|
Church. Here we plainly see myth-in-the-making; and may appreciate
|
|
the moral splendor as well as crafty thriftiness of the Church of
|
|
God which thus supplies its Faithful ready-made with one of the
|
|
most cherished female Saints of the Calendar, -- a confessed myth
|
|
and forgery. His Holiness especially displayed and vouched for this
|
|
fake on March 19, 1930, when he preached his crusade against
|
|
Russia. But the Church also, in the Roman Martyrology, credits this
|
|
holy icon to Milan, so as to fool many other Faithful. (Ib. p.
|
|
363.) This mythical female Saint "has also been confounded with a
|
|
pious woman who, according to [Bishop] Gregory of Tours, brought to
|
|
the neighboring town of Bazas some drops of the blood of John the
|
|
Baptist, at whose beheading she was present," and CE. doesn't even
|
|
wink. (Ib.)</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
104
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> JOSEPHUS FORGERY TESTIFIES OF JESUS</p>
|
|
<p> So many confessed Christian forgeries in <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> and Christian
|
|
names having been wrought to testify to Jesus Christ, it was, "one
|
|
naturally expects," says CE., that a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish "writer so well
|
|
informed as Josephus" must know and tell about Jesus; "one
|
|
naturally expects, therefore, a notice about Jesus Christ in
|
|
Josephus." And with pride it pursues: "Antiquities, VIII, iii, 3,
|
|
seems to satisfy this expectation." It proceeds to quote the
|
|
passage, which differeth only as one translation naturally differs
|
|
from another, from that in the Whitson translation; so I follow CE.
|
|
In Chapter iii Josephus treats of "Sedition of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s against
|
|
Pontius Pilate"; in section 1. he relates the cause and the
|
|
suppression of the mutiny, the ensigns of the army displaying the
|
|
idolatrous Roman Eagle, brought into the Holy City; in section 2.
|
|
he tells of the action of Pilate in bringing "a current of water to
|
|
Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred money," thus again arousing
|
|
a clash with the fanatics; "there were great numbers of them slain
|
|
by this means." Passing for the moment the notorious section 3,
|
|
Josephus the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span> begins section 4: "About the same time, also,
|
|
another sad calamity put the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s in disorder," which he proceeds
|
|
to relate, ending the long chapter. Note that these section numbers
|
|
were not put in by Josephus, but are modern editor's devices to
|
|
facilitate citation, like the chapters and verses in the Bible. And
|
|
now for the much-debated section, sandwiched, in a whole chapter on
|
|
"Seditions of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s," between the accounts of two massacres of
|
|
his countrymen and "another sad calamity"; and thus we read -- note
|
|
the parentheses of CE. (viii, 376): --</p>
|
|
<p> "About this time," quotes CE., "appeared Jesus, a wise man (if
|
|
indeed it is right to call Him a man; for He was a worker of
|
|
astonishing deeds, a teacher of such men an receive the truth with
|
|
joy), and He drew to Himself many <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s (and many also of the
|
|
Greeks. This was the Christ). And when Pilate, at the denunciation
|
|
of those that are foremost among us, had condemned Him to the
|
|
cross, those who had first loved Him did not abandon Him. (For He
|
|
appeared to them alive on the third day, the holy prophets having
|
|
foretold this and countless other marvels about Him.) The tribe of
|
|
Christians named after Him did not cease to this day." (see. 3.)</p>
|
|
<p> About this time, also "another sad calamity [?] put the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s
|
|
into disorder," (sec. 4). continues Josephus. CE. devotes over
|
|
three long columns to the task of trying to prove that this section
|
|
3, or at least "the portions not in parentheses," -- is genuine,
|
|
and was written, sometime before his death in 94 A.D., by the
|
|
<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish Pharisee, Josephus. "A testimony so important," well says
|
|
CE., "could not escape the critics," -- and it has not. We cannot
|
|
follow the lengthy and labored arguments; the simple reading or the
|
|
section, in its bizarre context, and a moment's reflection, condemn
|
|
it as a pious Christian forgery. If the Pharisee Josephus wrote
|
|
that paragraph, he must have believed that Jesus was the Prophesied
|
|
Messiah of his people -- "This was the Christ." Josephus is made to
|
|
aver, he must then needs have been of "the tribe of Christians
|
|
named after Him." But whatever Josephus may have said about Jesus
|
|
is, indeed, not "a testimony so important" -- when we remember what
|
|
he did aver that he saw with his own eyes; the pillar of salt into
|
|
which Mrs. Lot was turned; and Eleazar the magician drawing the </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
105
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>devil by a ring and Solomonic incantations, through the nose of one
|
|
possessed, before <span class="PERSON" title="PERSON">Vespasian</span> and all his army. If Josephus had
|
|
written that he knew Jesus the Christ personally, and had
|
|
personally seen him ascend into heaven through the roof of the room
|
|
in Jerusalem (Mk. xvi, 19, 20), or from the open countryside by
|
|
Bethany (Lk. xxiv, 50, 51), or "on the mount called Olivet" (Acts
|
|
i, 9, 12), -- we should remember that pillar of salt and that
|
|
devil-doctor, and smile.</p>
|
|
<p> But, when and how did this famous passage get into The
|
|
Antiquities of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s? it, is pertinent to ask. The first mention
|
|
ever made of this passage, and its text, are in the Church History
|
|
of that "very dishonest writer," Bishop Eusebius, in the fourth
|
|
century, -- he who forged the Letters between Abgar and Jesus,
|
|
falsely declaring that he had found the original documents in the
|
|
official archives, whence he had copied and translated them into
|
|
his Ecclesiastical History. CE. admits, and I have the Contra
|
|
Celsum here before me, -- that "the above cited passage was not
|
|
known to Origen and the earlier patristic writers," -- though they
|
|
copied from Josephus the forged tale of the Letter of Aristeas
|
|
about the translating of the Septuagint; and "its very place in the
|
|
Josephan text is uncertain, since Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., II, vi)
|
|
must have found it before the notices concerning Pilate, while it
|
|
now stands after them" (HE. I, ii, p. 63); and it makes the curious
|
|
argument, which implies a confession: "But the spuriousness of the
|
|
disputed Josephan passage does not imply the historian's ignorance
|
|
of the facts connected with Jesus Christ"! For a wonder, that "a
|
|
writer so well informed as Josephus" should not, perhaps, know by
|
|
hearsay, sixty years after Jesus Christ, some of the remarkable
|
|
things circulated about him in current country-side gossip -- (if,
|
|
indeed, it were then current). But the fact is, that with the
|
|
exception of this one incongruous forged passage, section 3, the
|
|
wonder-mongering Josephus makes not the slightest mention of his
|
|
wonder-working fellow-countryman, Jesus the Christ, -- though some
|
|
score of other Joshuas, or Jesuses, are recorded by him, nor does
|
|
he mention any of his transcendent wonders, But, as CE. and I were
|
|
saying, none of the Fathers, before Eusebius (about 324), knew or
|
|
could find a word in the works of Josephus, of this momentous
|
|
"testimony to Jesus," over a century after Origen. That it did not
|
|
exist in the time of Origen is explicit by his own words; he cites
|
|
the supposed references by Josephus to John the Baptist and to
|
|
James, and expressly says that Josephus ought to have spoken of
|
|
Jesus instead of James; though Origen does not correctly describe
|
|
the reference to James; and the James passage, if not that also
|
|
about John, has a suspicious savor of interpolation.</p>
|
|
<p> For a clear understanding of this, I will quote the passage of
|
|
Origen in his work against Celsus; it completely refutes the claim
|
|
that Josephus wrote the disputed and forged section 3. Origen says:</p>
|
|
<p> "I would like to say to Celsus, who represents the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>
|
|
accepting John somehow as a Baptist, who baptized Jesus, that the
|
|
existence of John the Baptist, baptizing for the remission of sins,
|
|
is related by one who lived no great time after John and Jesus. For
|
|
in the 18th book of his Antiquities of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s, Josephus bears
|
|
witness to John as having been a Baptist, and as promising
|
|
purification to those who underwent the rite. Now this writer, </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
106
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>although not believing in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking after the
|
|
cause of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple
|
|
[said that it was 'to avenge James the Just'], whereas he ought to
|
|
have said that the conspiracy against Jesus was the cause of these
|
|
calamities befalling the people, since they put to death Christ,
|
|
who was a prophet, says nevertheless -- being, although against his
|
|
will, not far from the truth -- that these disasters happened to
|
|
the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s as a punishment for the death of James the Just, who was
|
|
a brother of Jesus (called Christ), -- the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s having put him to
|
|
death, although he was a man most distinguished for his justice."
|
|
(Origen, Contra Celsum, I, xlvii; ANF. iv, 416.)</p>
|
|
<p> Josephus is thus quoted as bearing witness to John the
|
|
Baptist, not as the Heaven-sent "forerunner" of the Christ, but
|
|
simply as a <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish religious teacher and baptizer on his own
|
|
account; and not a word by Josephus about the Christ, in whom it is
|
|
admitted that he did not believe as such, nor even mentions as the
|
|
most illustrious of those baptized by John, to the wondrous
|
|
accompaniment of a voice from Heaven and the Holy Ghost in dove-like descent upon his head as he came up from the water. But
|
|
Origen, in his effort to get some Christian testimony from him,
|
|
misquotes Josephus and makes him say that John was baptizing "for
|
|
the remission of sins," whereas Josephus expressly says that the
|
|
efficacy of John's baptism was not for remission of sin but for the
|
|
purification of the body, as any washing would be. To vindicate
|
|
Josephus against Origen, the former's words are quoted. Josephus
|
|
recounts the defeat of Herod by Aretas, king of Arabia Petrea; and
|
|
goes on to say: --</p>
|
|
<p> "Now some of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s thought that the destruction of
|
|
Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a
|
|
punishment of what he did against John, that was called the
|
|
Baptist; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded
|
|
the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness toward
|
|
one another, and piety toward God, and so to come to baptism;
|
|
for that the washing would be acceptable to him, if they made
|
|
use of it, not in order to the putting away of some sins, but
|
|
for the purification of the body: supposing still that the
|
|
soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now,
|
|
when many others came in crowds about him, for they were
|
|
greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the
|
|
great influence John had over the people might put it into his
|
|
power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed
|
|
ready to do anything he should advise,) thought it best, by
|
|
putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause,
|
|
and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who
|
|
might make him repent of it when it should be too late.
|
|
Accordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious
|
|
temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was
|
|
there put to death." (Josephus, Antiq. <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s, Bk. XVIII, v, 2.)</p>
|
|
<p> Beginning in section 4. of the same Book, and at length in
|
|
various chapters, Josephus goes into details regarding Salome; but
|
|
never a word of the famous dance-act and of the head of John the
|
|
Baptist being brought in on a charger to gratify her murderous
|
|
whim: the historical reason for the murder of John was political,
|
|
not amorous or jealous, as related by Gospel-truth.</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
107
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> Father Origen again falls into error in citing Josephus, this
|
|
time in the dubious passage where Josephus, who does not believe in
|
|
the Christ, yet gives him that title in speaking of the death of
|
|
James. With typical clerical bent Father Origen imputes the fall of
|
|
Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple to the sin of the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s
|
|
in crucifying the Christ; and says that Josephus, in seeking the
|
|
cause of the disasters which befell the Holy City and people,
|
|
attributes them to the killing of the Christ's brother. The Holy
|
|
City and temple were destroyed in 70 A.D., which was well after the
|
|
time of the supposititious James, as his demise is recorded in the
|
|
suspected passage of Josephus. He related the death of Festus,
|
|
which was in 62 A.D., the appointment by Nero of Albinus as his
|
|
successor, and the murder of James at the instigation of the high
|
|
priest Ananus, before Albinus can arrive. this sentence is to be
|
|
read in the text of Josephus:</p>
|
|
<p> "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road;
|
|
so he (Ananus) assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought
|
|
before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose
|
|
name was James, and some others; and when he had formulated an
|
|
accusation against them all breakers of the law, he delivered
|
|
them to be stoned." (Jos., Antiq. <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s, Bk. XX, ix, i.)</p>
|
|
<p> Bishop Eusebius cannot pass over this chance to turn another
|
|
<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish testimony for his Christ; he says that "The wiser part of
|
|
the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s were of the opinion that this -- (the killing of James) --
|
|
was the cause of the immediate siege of Jerusalem ... Josephus also
|
|
has not hesitated to superadd his testimony in his works. "These
|
|
things,' he says, 'happened to the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s to avenge James the Just,
|
|
who was the brother of him that is called Christ, and whom the <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s
|
|
had slain, notwithstanding his preeminent justice.'" (Euseb. Hist.
|
|
Eccles. Bk. II, ch. 23.)</p>
|
|
<p> The reader may judge of the integrity of these pretended
|
|
<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish testimonies to the Baptist and to the brother of the Christ,
|
|
both suspicious per se, and both falsely cited by Father Origen,
|
|
who in all this could not find the famous section 3, first found a
|
|
century later by Bishop Eusebius; and which Origen makes it
|
|
positive Josephus had not written and could not have written. Is it
|
|
a violent suspicion, and uncharitable, to suggest that the holy
|
|
Bishop who forged the Letter of his Christ, and lied about finding
|
|
it in the Edessa archives, really "found," in the sense of
|
|
invented, or forged, the Josephus passages first heard of in his
|
|
Church History?</p>
|
|
<p> But Bishop Eusebius, with a sort of "stop thief" forethought,
|
|
himself imputes forgery to those who would question or discredit
|
|
his own pious inventions, while with unctuous fervor pretended
|
|
truth he appeals to the wonderful "testimonies of Josephus," which
|
|
he has just fabricated. After quoting and misquoting Josephus with
|
|
respect to John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, he thur solemnly
|
|
couches for their false witness: "When such testimony as this is
|
|
transmitted to us by an historian who sprung from the Hebrews
|
|
themselves, both respecting John the Baptist and our Savior, what
|
|
subterfuge can be left, to prevent those from being convicted
|
|
destitute of all shame, who have forged the acts against them?"
|
|
(Eusebius, HE. I, xi.) The Bishop justly pronounces his own </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
108
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>condemnation. This, says Gibbon, "is an example of no vulgar
|
|
forgery." (Chap. xvi.) In view of the convicting circumstances, and
|
|
of his notoriously bad record, it, is not uncharitable to impute
|
|
this Josephus forgery to Bishop Eusebius.</p>
|
|
<p> THE OWL-ANGEL FORGERY</p>
|
|
<p> Another story of <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> superstition related by Josephus, and
|
|
twisted by the Christian invention of Bishop Eusebius and the
|
|
sacred writers of Acts into inspired "history" and truth of God, is
|
|
the celebrated angel-owl passage relating to the tragic death of
|
|
the King, Herod Agrippa. Josephus tells that Herod went to Caesarea
|
|
to attend a celebration in honor of Caesar; that as Herod entered
|
|
the stadium, clad in a robe of silver tissue, the rays of the sun
|
|
shone upon it resplendently, making him look like a supernatural
|
|
being; whereupon the crowd cried out hailing him as more than
|
|
mortal, as a god; but his mortality was quickly made evident by his
|
|
sudden illness and death. It may be explained that the word "angel"
|
|
(Greek, angelos) means simply "messenger" or herald. Thus proceeds
|
|
Josephus:</p>
|
|
<p> "But" he [Herod] presently afterward looked up, he saw an
|
|
owl sitting upon a certain rope over his head, and immediately
|
|
understood that this bird was a messenger [Gr. angelos] of
|
|
ill-tidings." Herod was shortly seized with "severe pains in
|
|
his belly," and died after five days of suffering." (Jos.
|
|
Antiq. <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>s, XIX, viii, 2.)</p>
|
|
<p> This was too <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span>ish and prosaic for the pious Christian
|
|
fancy of Bishop Eusebius; so while he was forging the "Jesus
|
|
passage," he proceeded to give Christian embellishment for
|
|
edification to the "owl" story, with its use of the word "angelos."
|
|
So he quotes in full the narration of Josephus, under the chapter
|
|
heading "Herod Agrippa persecuting the Apostles, immediately
|
|
experienced divine Judgment." he first relates the "martyrdom of
|
|
James" by Herod, and the imprisonment of Peter, as recorded in
|
|
Acts, and proceeds: "The consequences, however, of the king's
|
|
attempts against the apostles, were not long deferred, but the
|
|
avenging minister of divine justice soon overtook him. ... As it is
|
|
also recorded in the book of Acts, he proceeded to Caesarea, and
|
|
there on a noted festival, being clad in a splendid and royal
|
|
dress, he harangued the people. ... The whole people applauding him
|
|
for his harangue, as it were the voice of a god, and not of a man,
|
|
the Scriptures relate, 'that the angel of the Lord immediately
|
|
smote him and being consumed by worms, he gave up the ghost.' It is
|
|
wonderful to observe, likewise, in this singular event, the
|
|
coincidence of the history given by Josephus, with that of the
|
|
sacred Scriptures. In this he [Josephus] plainly adds his testimony
|
|
to the truth, in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities, where he
|
|
relates the miracles in the following words: [here quoting Josephus
|
|
in full, until he reaches the owl-story, when he thus falsifies]:
|
|
-- 'After a little While, raising himself, he saw an angel
|
|
[angelos] hanging over his head upon a rope,, and this he knew
|
|
immediately to be an omen of evil'! Thus far Josephus: in which
|
|
statement, as in others, I can but admire his agreement with the
|
|
divine Scriptures"! (Eusebius, HE. II, x.) An angel hanging on a
|
|
rope over one's head might well have been taken by a superstitious </p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
109
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>person as ominous of something -- maybe of a hung angel. This pious
|
|
story, with the owl piously metamorphosed into an angel, was
|
|
apparently cribbed from Josephus also by the writer of Acts, or
|
|
maybe "interpolated" into it by the fanciful Bishop. There we find
|
|
this <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span>-<span class="NORP" title="NORP">Jew</span>ish anecdote retold by divine inspiration thus
|
|
embellished over Josephus and Eusebius: "And immediately the angel
|
|
of the Lord [Gr. angelos Kurioul smote him, because he gave not God
|
|
the glory: and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost"! (Acts
|
|
xii, 20-23.) Note the almost identical words, except for the
|
|
progressive embellishments: Josephus' owl thus became first an
|
|
angel of evil omen, then the avenging minister of the wrath of God,
|
|
aided by devouring worms to give true Christian zest and spite to
|
|
the simple <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Pagan</span> superstition. Herod probably died from acute
|
|
indigestion caused by the excesses of the festivities, or from an
|
|
attack of peritonitis or appendicitis. Profane history of the event
|
|
does not chronicle the devouring, avenging worms of God.</p>
|
|
<p> The forgery of pious documents of every imaginable character
|
|
was among the most constant and zealous activities of the holy
|
|
propagandists of the Christian Faith, from the beginning to the
|
|
critical era when forgeries were no longer possible or profitable.
|
|
A fitting close to this review is the following omnibus confession
|
|
-- the Churches cheating each other by forgeries:</p>
|
|
<p> "Indeed, in later times, we hear of recovered autographs
|
|
of Apostolic writings in the controversies about the Apostolic
|
|
origin of some Churches or about claims for metropolitan
|
|
dignity. So the autograph of the Gospel of St. Matthew was
|
|
said to have been found in Cyprus. ... Eusebius (Hist. Eccles.
|
|
vii, 19) relates that in his time the seat of St. James was as
|
|
yet extant in Jerusalem. Of old pictures of Apostles, see
|
|
Eusebius, ibid, vii, 18. Whether or not even the oldest of
|
|
these statements are historically true remains still a mooted
|
|
question. We regard it as useless to record what may be found
|
|
on these topirg in the vast amount of matter that makes up the
|
|
apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and other legendary
|
|
documents." (CE. 635.)</p>
|
|
<p> Among some of these not already mentioned are found "The
|
|
Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Canons of Pseudo-Hippolytus,
|
|
The <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Egyptian</span> Church Ordinance." (CE. i, 636.) Also: "In the last
|
|
years of the fifth century a famous document attributed to Popes
|
|
Gelasius and Hormisdas adds ... a list of books disapproved, the
|
|
works of heretics, and forged Scriptural documents." (CE. vi, 4.)
|
|
A glance at the Index-volume of CE. reveals the numerous forged
|
|
works attributed to many of the Fathers of the early Church, listed
|
|
under the word Pseudo, or false, which word is to be understood as
|
|
prefixed to each of the following names: Pseudo-Alquin, Ambrosius,
|
|
Antoninus, Areopagite, Athanasius, Augustine, Barnabas,
|
|
Callisthenes, Chrysostom, Clement, Epiphanius, Gelasius, Gregory,
|
|
Nazianzen, Hegesippus, Hippolytus, Ignatius, Isidore, Jonathan,
|
|
Justin, Matthew, Prochorus, Tertullian, Zaeharius. The pious
|
|
ignorant "Christians, who for the most part are untrained and
|
|
illiterate persons," as shown in the Octavius of Minucius Felix (V,
|
|
xi), and the whole Church, were gulled by these frauds for a
|
|
thousand years.</p>
|
|
<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
110
|
|
.
|
|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> Before looking into the forgery of the New Testament Books, we
|
|
shall first draw, from their own words, cameo pen-sketches of those
|
|
great men of God and of Holy Church, who under the fond name of
|
|
Fathers, but with the minds and devious ways of little children,
|
|
forged the sacred documents of the Faith, and by their pious labors
|
|
of fraud and forgery founded what is credulously called the Church
|
|
of Christ and the Most Holy Christian Faith.</p>
|
|
<p> FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p> Abbreviations used for most often used sources:</p>
|
|
<p> The libraries of the Union Theological Seminary and of
|
|
<span class="GPE" title="GPE">Columbia</span> University, in <span class="GPE" title="GPE">New York City</span>, were the places of the finds
|
|
here recorded. Cited so often, space will be saved for more
|
|
valuable uses by citing by their initials, -- which will become
|
|
very familiar -- my chief ecclesiastical authorities, towit:</p>
|
|
<p> The Ante-Nicene Fathers, cited as ANF.; A Collection of the
|
|
extant Writings of all the Founders of Christianity down to the
|
|
Council of Nicaea, or Nice, in 325 A.D. American Reprint, eight
|
|
volumes. The Christian Literature Publishing Co., <span class="GPE" title="GPE">Buffalo</span>, N.Y.,
|
|
1885. [xxx]</p>
|
|
<p> The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, cited as N&PNF.; First and
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Second Series; many volumes; same publishers.</p>
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<p> The <span class="NORP" title="NORP">Catholic</span> Encyclopedia, cited as CE.; fifteen volumes and
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|
index, published under the Imprimatur of Archbishop Farley; New
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|
York, Robert Appleton Co., 1907-9.</p>
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|
<p> The Encyclopedia Biblica, cited as EB., four volumes; Adam &
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|
Charles Black, London, 1899; American Reprint, The Macmillan Co.,
|
|
New York, 1914.</p>
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<p> Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.</p>
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<p> The UNITED STATES of America
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must again become
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The Free Market-Place of Ideas.</p>
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<p> The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
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|
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
|
|
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
|
|
us, we need to give them back to America.</p>
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|
<p> **** ****
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|
You are reading
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|
FORGERY IN <span class="NORP" title="NORP">CHRISTIANITY</span>
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by
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Joseph Wheliss
|
|
1930</p>
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<p> Bank of Wisdom
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|
111
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</p>
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</div>
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