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Then we catch one solitary glimpse of him (2y), and he again dis- appears utterly, until his baptism, when he is about (24) John 2, v. 3 to 10. (25) Luke 7, v. 11 to 15. (26) Ch. 26, Infancy. (27) Luke 2, v. 40 to 54. 36o A QUESTION OF MIRACLES twenty-nine or thirty years old. (28) The gospel of the Infancy fills in this hiatus somewhat, and con- firms Luke in his mention of the discussion with the doctors in the temple. But the Infancy goes beyond Luke, and tells us that Jesus went to school to Zac- cheus, and from him to a more learned teacher. This last teacher, for some reason untold, raised his hand to strike Jesus, and it is said his hand instantly with- ered, and the master presently died. Moreover, it is said in the Infancy (29) that Jesus explained to an astronomer the number of spheres, and heavenly bod- ies, their triangular, square and sextile aspect; their progressive and retrograde motions, their size, etc. He explained to a philosopher, physics and natural philosophy, the powers of the body, its bones and ar- teries, and how the soul operates on the body. The Infancy says that after the return to Nazareth, Jesus worked with Joseph, his father (30), as a car- penter; and when Joseph wanted anything longer or shorter, Jesus would stretch his hand toward it, and it instantly became the length desired ; that Joseph hav- ing spent a long time in building a throne for the king of Jerusalem, made it short two spans, and he was greatly worried; so troubled in fact, that he went to bed without his supper. In the morning Jesus took hold of one side, and Joseph the other, and pulled, and the throne straightway came to the right dimensions. (28) Mark 1, v. 9; Matt. 3, v. 13; Luke 3, v. 23. (29) Infancy, ch. 48 to 53. (30) Ch. 37 and 39. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 361 (31) Jesus, it is said, concealed his miracles and de- voted himself to the study of the law till thirty years old. The Infancy concludes in these words : "The end of the whole gospel of the Infancy, by the assistance of the Supreme God, according to what we found in the original." (31) Is not this too much for sober belief? But did Jordan roll back its waters for the Israelites to cross? (Joshua, ch. 3, V. 16.) Did the winds and waves calm down at Jesus' rebuke? Did Buddha, when a great inundation surrounded the place where he lived, cause the water to recede at his words? (V. 13, Sacred Books of the East, p. 131.) Did Buddha walk on water? (Fo Sho Hing, p. 222, sec. 1551.) Did Jesus walk on water? (Mark 6, V. 48.) CHAPTER XXXIII. The Apocryphal Gospel of Marcion Compared With Luke's Canonical. Section i. Concerning the gospel of Marcion, a ceaseless warfare has been waged for and against it, for nearly i,6oo years, and the end is not yet. Truly, who can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will wither? When Marcion and Luke were both alive, who could have told which gospel would become canoni- cal? Our first inquiry, therefore, is, who was this Marcion, and what was his gospel that has been sound- ing down all these centuries? As near as his period can be fixed, he was born at Sinope, in Pontius, on the southern shore of the Black Sea, about the year no A. D. Tertulian, his great enemy and detractor, said of him that "all things in Sinope are cold and torpid; yet nothing there is so sad as that Marcion was born there." In early life Marcion was a prosperous shipowner in Sinope. His vessels gathered wealth for him all along the coasts of Pontius. When, between the age of twenty-five and thirty, he became a convert from paganism to Christianity, at once the whole tenor of his life was changed. He became not only religious, 362 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 363 but intensely religious. The God of the Old Testa- ment seemed to him to be stern and wrathful in vis- iting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, even to the fourth generation. ( i ) Marcion turned from this vengeful God to the new dispensation of the Man of Galilee. The new wine was to burst the old bottles. (2) In short, the old Jew- ish law of vengeance was to be suspended by this new message of love and peace. Marcion soon became so filled with enthusiasm for the new religion that he wrote a gospel, and hoped to win the whole world to his standard ; and had he gained Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (3), Marcion pos- sibly might have taken the place of Luke in the ca- nonicals. Moreover, the Roman Catholic church might have waned, instead of waxing so strong and great. Such strange destinies, from little happen- ings, often await all human plans. If Marcion had abstained from speculation about the cosmogony of the universe, he might not have been led to believe in the Demiurge — or two Gods (4) : the God who created man out of matter, and (1) Exodus 20, V. 5. (2) Luke 5, v. 7. (3) Polycarp was born in Asia Minor about the year 69 A. D., and lived to the ripe age of 90. He was arrested by the Jews and burned at the stake, as an enemy of their religion. Even the heathens piled fagots around him, and the Jews refused to give up even his bones for burial. (4) Is it not true that the Bible mentions two Gods? What is the devil but a great powerful wicked creature, that can only be bound for a thousand years (Rev. 22 v. 2). In Jesus' day, there were many devils; He talked to them, and they answered back. (Luke 4, t. 33 to 35). 364 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES imposed on him a law hard to Hve up to, and that other God, more merciful, who would save him. Section 2. In writing of men, doctrines and be- liefs, in the first and second centuries, one must ex- ercise much patience and not draw the line too closely ; for the first followers of Jesus are Jews, born and reared under a code that was unjust, and filled with improbable miracles. To Matthew, Luke and John, a religion w^ithout miracles was, as they believed, no religion at all. Hence no writer or preacher of religions could ob- tain a hearing at that period or later on, unless he made frequent and repeated mention of miracles. Marcion was no exception to the rule. He wrote a gospel, and established churches, and between the years 175 and 250 A. D. his followers came near pushing the Roman church to the wall. He preached powerfully against the Demiurge — the bad God — and insisted that man must put his trust in the good God and his Son ; that faith, charity, love and good works would save the soul. The body, he said, perishes. It will never be resurrected. The soul or spirit alone survives. The Demiurge, he said, would punish the wicked in Hell. Marcion's gospel for more than two hundred years exerted a wide influence in the world. Then its power began slowly to decline, and when the sixth century arrived there w^ere only a few scattered Marcionites here and there, and another century saw them in a total eclipse. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 36s But this much may be safely said of him; that he strove to improve the old Jewish religion, and he made the first collection of New Testament gospels that was ever made. He wrote a gospel of his own, which some scholars think Luke had before him when he composed his gospel. Having said this much of Marcion and his religion, I shall now quote numerous passages from his gospel, and give the corresponding verses and chapters from Luke, that thus the reader may judge whether he borrowed from Luke, or Luke borrowed from Marcion. Marcion, chapter i, verse 2: *Tn the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Luke 3, v. i) Jesus came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. (Luke 4, v. 31.) And they were exceedingly astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power." (Luke 4, v. 32, is the same as verse 3 Mar- cion.) "And in the synagogue, there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried out with a loud voice: (Luke 4, v. 33 is word for word the same as Marcion in chapter i, v. 4) 'Let us alone; what have we to do with Jesus? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the holy one of God.' " Luke 4, v. 34, repeats this exactly. In verses 35 and 36, ch. 4, Luke has the same words as ch. I, v. 5 and 6, Marcion. Chapter 4, Luke, v. 38 and 39 are identical with ch. i, Marcion, v. 8 and 9. Chapter i, v.