English
John, it is said, wrote against Cerinthus, a Jewish philosopher and writer, who composed a gospel wherein he insisted that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was the son of Joseph and Mary, the same as their other cliildren. Cerinthus was born about 70 years A. D. and wrote about 120 to 140 A. D. It is said that John, while in a bath, saw Cerinthus and leaped out and ran away. He claimed that Cerinthus was a heretic. Irenaeus makes this statement of the incident of the bath, but Irenaeus himself ia often carried away by his prejudices. But I have always questioned whether John, the ignorant, clumsy fisherman, was capable of such a task. Whoever was the author of the fourth gospel, he contradicts the virgin story of Matthew. (Matt. 1. 18 to 25) and (Luke 1, v. 26 to 36.) (9) John 11, V. 39. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 325 a stone which had been placed upon it, to be removed. Then Jesus prayed, and immediately thereafter he cried with a loud voice : "Lazarus, come forth!" and Laza- rus, it is said, walked out of that grave, bound hand and foot, with his grave clothes on and his face bound with a napkin. Here, now, is a world-famous transaction, and neither Matthew, nor Mark, nor Luke, all of whom are supposed by some to have been inspired, make any mention whatever of it. How is this? Is this true? or is it a bit of romance? If the raising of Lazarus ever happened, how is it that Matthew and those oth- ers knew nothing about it? It is more wonderful than anything which they tell. Is not this whole story about Lazarus on a par with that told in the Protevangelium, or book of James (ch. 24), wherein it is said that when the young chil- dren were to be slaughtered by order of Herod, Eliza- beth took her son John and fled to the mountains, and that a friendly mountain opened and received them: that Zacharias, because he would not disclose the hid- ing place of his son, was murdered on the footsteps of the temple, and that the roofs of the temple at the moment of his death howled and luere rent from top to bottom. The writer of this improbable incident, that a moun- tain opened and gave shelter to Elizabeth and her child, probably borrowed it from an old Persian myth, where, in a "v/ar of religions," a friendly mountain broke loose and slid down into the plain, thereby shel- 326 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES tering the Iranians from their victorious enemies. (lo) Tlie Persians call their mountain Mount Madofryad, which means "came to help." Section 2. John as a novelist or writer of fiction would have been a great success, but as a writer of gospel truth he is a miserable failure. Listen to his extravagance : The disciples, we are told, were assem- bled in a room, the doors being shut, for fear of the Jews; Jesus came and stood in their midst and spoke to them. (11) And, lest he wmII not be believed. John tells us that eight days later the disciples were again assembled and the doors were again shut, and Jesus came and stood in their midst and said : "Peace be unto you." (12) How could Jesus' body pass through those closed doors ? How can one solid body pass through another solid body? And it was a solid body, for Thomas thrust his hand into Jesus' side. (13) The only way that I can account for this is that John had probably read the fable, or falsehood, that Buddha could pass through a stone wall, and could walk on water as if on solid ground. (14) (10) See Whitney's Zoroaster, the great Persian; His life and teachings, etc., page 133, ch. 14. (11) John 20, V. 19. (12) John 20, V. 26. (13) John 20, V. 27. (14) Vol. II, Sacred Books of the East, p. 214 and 215, may have misled John, for there we are told that if one should desire to exercise the different Iddhis, he must fulfill all righteousness. He must not drive back ecstacy of contemplation, etc. He then could become visible or invisible; he could go without stopping at the further side of a wall, or fence, or mountain. Not only that, A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 327 It is possible that John did not believe that Jesus' mortal body could arise in the air and go up into heaven. On that point Luke is emphatic — he says Jesus w^as carried up there, but fails to tell who or what carried him up. (15) Such a story told today would not be believed. John's last words in his gospel tell us that he was at the sea of Tiberias, and one morn- ing after the crucifixion he saw Jesus standing on the shore. John had gone back to his old business, that of a fisherman, and Jesus told him to cast his net on the right side of the ship and there was a great catch of fish, and Jesus then dined with John and others. (16) A few words from Jesus about feeding his lambs and his sheep, and John closes his gospel. He has not a word to say as to what became of Jesus after that dinner, something that everyone would like to know. But it is improbable that John, the fisherman, wrote that curious fourth gospel. It may have been John the Presbyter. For about the year 180 A. D., Theophi- lus, Bishop of Antioch, speaks of a gospel of John, but he does not say that the author of that gospel was an apostle. Moreover, John, the son of Zebedee, as heretofore stated, was a Jew; and John of the fourth gospel denounced the Jews as the children of tut he could travel cross-legged through the slcy, or wallc on water, as if on solid ground, etc. (15) Luke 24, v. 51. (16) John, eh. 20. 328 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES the devil. (17) lie mentions the Jews as unbelieving. (18), and there was a division among- the Jews ( 19) ; and when Jesus walked in the temple the Jews came round about him. (20) The law of Moses is spoken of as "your" law. And when Jesus talked to the peo- ple, the Jews took up the stones to stone him. (21) Jesus walked no more openly when he learned that the Jews had taken counsel to put him to death. (22) The Jews took Jesus and bound him. {2^) Pilate told the Jews that he found no fault in Jesus. (24) And Pilate hated the Jews, and wrote, in contempt of them, that world-famous, immortal superscription, and nailed it on the cross, "J^^^s of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." (25) Now if it was John the fisherman who wrote the fourth gospel, it is remarkable, at least, that he makes no mention whatever of Jesus' ascension. (26) If John was a disciple, he seems to have known nothing about the ascension. (2y) It is possible John (17) John, ch. 8, v. 44. (18) John 9, V. 18. (19) John, ch. 10, v. 19. (20) John 10, V. 23 and 24. (21) John 10, V. 31 to 33. (22) John 11, V. 53 and 54. (23) John 18, v. 12. (24) John 18, v. 38. (25) Basilides, agnostic of Alexandria, wrote a gospel in -which he set forth that Jesus was not crucified — that it was Simon of Cyrene (Luke 23, v. 26) who bore the cross and suffered on it. (26) Ireneus, Bishop of Lyons, born 130 to 140 A. D. iu Smyrna, Asia Minor, says John's gospel was written to confute the errors and blunders of Cerinthus. But Cerinthus was not born until 70 A. D. and he did not write until about 115 A, D. John was not alive then. (27) Matt. 28, v. 16 and 17. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 329 may have been one of the doubters, for some doubted. Section 3. It must be noticed before we proceed further, that the first Jewish converts to the new faith did not cast aside the Old Testament. They had been taught that it was of divine origin. It was the holy book of their fathers and their grandfathers, and had been such for many generations. And to persuade the Jews to change their faith was as difficult as it would be now to offer a new and different gospel to the followers of the man of Galilee. Faiths are not easily changed, and there was no New Testament, as we have it at present, until about the last half of the second century. And, strange as it may now seem, Buddhist monks, or Essenes, for generations had been living on the western shores of the Dead Sea (near where John the Baptist appeared), and those Essenes became at once friendly to the neiu religion. In fact, centuries before Jesus came, Buddha had proclaimed the higher life (28), and had likewise preached the doctrine of punishment for the wicked. (28) But Buddha had probably learned of this doctrine of heaven and hell from Zoroaster, for his pupils taught it to the Persians centuries before Buddha was born.