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There were "two men in shining gar- ments" (30) at the sepulcher; but no angels were there. I know nothing concerning the angels which Matthew says descended from heaven and rolled away the stone from that tomb. (31) Question. But Luke, you yourself say "that cer- (29) Ch. 28. V. 2. (30) Luke 24, v. 4. (31) Matt. 28, V. 2. 3i8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES tain women there sazv a lisioii of angels, which said Jesus was ahve." (32) How about that? Answer. Well, there was a tradition floating about that ]\lary Magdalen saw certain strange objects, which she took to be angels. {2)2)) Question. I\Ir. Luke, please state whether you ever saw Jesus in the flesh, and if so, when and where you saw him. Answer. I never claimed to have seen him. "Many" had undertaken to set forth the things be- lieved among us, and "delivered unto us by eye-wit- nesses," and so I set forth my understanding of the matter. (34) Question. Then, Luke, you do not claim that the things about which you wrote were witnessed by you ? Answer. No, sir, I did not witness them; and I never claim.ed that I did. I simply set forth the early belief of the followers of Jesus. Question. It was the belief, then, w^as it, that after the sepulcher was found empty, Jesus could and did walk about the country, that he had flesh and bones, and an appetite and did eat? (35) Answer. That certainly was the belief when I wrote. (32) Luke 24, v. 23. (33) Marcion wrote a Gospel about the time of Luke and he says that there were "two men in white clothes" at the sepulcher. Some say that Luke copied largely from INIareion. We will see about that further along. (34) Luke 1, v. 1 to 3. (35) Luke 24, v. 29 to 43. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 319 Question. Do you, Luke, claim that 3^ou were in- spired when you wrote your Gospel? Answer. I never claimed inspiration, I wrote down simply the things believed by Jesus' followers, in my day and time. (36) Question. Luke, you say that they eat and drink in heaven. (37) How is that? Answer. How could they live if they did not eat? Question. Your heaven, then, is something like this present world? Answer: Except that the wicked are in hell. (38) Question. You say the righteous "eat and drink in heaven;" now will not the wicked in hell perish unless they also "eat and drink?" Answer: I never thought of that. (39) Question : Luke, you say (40) that there was dark- ness over all the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour at the time of the crucifixion. Is that true? Answer. Yes, that is true. Question. Now. Luke, that is false; absolutely false ; for the Passover and crucifixion were at the full of the moon; and it is impossible for an eclipse of the sun at the full of the moon. The laws of the universe here flatly contradict you. An eclipse of the sun can (36) Luke 1, v. 1. (37) Luke 22, v. 30. (38) Luke 16, v. 23. (39) The Natchez Indians in Mississippi, answered that question much better than Luke. The good Indians, they said, would feast on green corn and venison and fish, and have plenty of blankets; the bad Indians would live, they said, on stinking fish, old croco- dile legs, and have no blankets at all. (40) Ch. 23, V. 44 to 45. 320 A QUESTION OF iMlRACLES o}ily occur at uczv moon. To produce an eclipse of the sun, the sun, moon and earth must be in a straight hue. The moon must be interposed between the sun and earth. Echpses of the sun must always come from the west. Now, Luke, what do you say to that? Answer. Well, I am not an astronomer and did rHDt know of such things when I wrote. Question, But, don't you see, Luke, that the sun could only be darkened by an eclipse? and there was no eclipse at the full moon, and the Passover and cruci- fixion were at the full of the moon ? Answer. I wrote down only what people believed. Question. Luke, in chapter 24, v. 33 to 51, you mention the meeting of Jesus and the eleven in Jerusa- lem; and his ascension at Bethany; but Matthew says (41) Jesus appointed Galilee as the place to meet his disciples, and that they met him there. How is it that you and Matthew disagree ? You both cannot be right. Answer, Bethany was the place of the ascension; not Galilee. Question, But, Luke, you are contradicted by Mark, also. He says (42) that Galilee was the ap- pointed place to meet Jesus' disciples. What have you to say about that ? Answer, I was told that the ascension was from Bethany. Question, How soon after the crucifixion do you place the ascension of Jesus? (41) Ch, 28, V. 7 to 10. (42) Ch. 16, V. 7. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 321 Answer. Within two or three days following the resurrection. Question. Where do you say Jesus' ascension took place ? Answer. It took place in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. Question. Luke, did you write that work called "Acts of the Apostles?" Answer. I am credited with it. Question. In your gospel you have Jesus ascend within a day or so after the crucifixion; but in "The Acts" (43) he was, so you say, seen alive thereafter by the apostles "forty days." Please explain your con- tradictions made by yourself of yourself. Answer. The Acts were written some years later and the tradition had changed. Question. But which is right : did Jesus ascend from Bethany, as you say in your Gospel, in a day or so after the crucifixion ; or was it forty days thereafter ? (44) Answer. I cannot tell. Question. You say (45) "the moon will be turned into blood." Don't you know that that is all nonsense? Answer. Well, that is what people believed in my day. (43) Ch. 1, V. 3. (44) Matthew and Mark send the disciples to Galilee, sixty-five or seventy miles distant from Jerusalem. Luke contradicts them flatly and says the ascension took place in Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem. See Matt. 28, v. 16; Mark 16, v. 7; Luke, per contra, ch. 24, v. 50 and 51. (45) Acts 2, V. 20. 322 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES Question. And you wrote it down? Answer. Yes, that was what the people beheved. Question. You say (46) Jesus "was taken up and a cloud received him out of sight." Please state how you know that. Answer. It was the belief of the Apostles ; I did not see it. Question. But, Luke, how is it that no one of those Apostles utters a word about this ascension which you mention ? Answer. I cannot answer that. I do not know. (46) Acts 1, V. 9 and 10. CHAPTER XXVIII John and His Curious Gospel. Section i. Some writers are so extravagant in their statements that we are led unwillingly to utterly discredit their whole story. The author of the fourth Gospel is of this class. In his very first chapter he makes the extraordinary statement that Jesus made this world ( i ) and that God begat him. (2) He misled Paul into making the same wild, foolish statement (3) ; and many others since that day have followed John's false light. Moreover, John tells us that Jesus said: "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." (4) Now, if it was John of Galilee, the fisherman of Nazareth, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the fourth canonical, he ought, being a Jew, to have known that Genesis says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That statement is easy to believe, but when John tells us that a Nazarene boy, "who was subject to his parents," (5) and worked (1) John 1, V. 10. (2) John 1, V. 14. (3) Hebrews 1, v. 2. (4) John 14, V. 9. (5) Luke 2, v. 51. 323 324 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES at the carpenters bench, made the world, we stoutly dispute it. Is it any wonder that the Jews asked: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and are not his broth- ers and sisters here with us?" (6) Jesus' reply, "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country" was sensible and consoling. He did not reply : "I made the world," and we may well ask : if Jesus made this world, who made all the millions and millions of worlds around us? (7) Another very improbable story, told by John, is that Jesus turned or made some water instantly into wine of such fine flavor that the governor of the feast was highly pleased w^ith it. (8) Still another world-wide story told by John is that Jesus raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days — so long, in fact, that Martha, his sister, said : "By this time. Lord, he stinketh." (9) Jesus approached the cave, or grave, and ordered (6) Mark 6, v. 3. (7) John 6, V. 42. (8) John 2.