A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Religion
A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Free thought
Mark gives a very similar account of the woman coming to the tomb
and seeing the "young man," who said, "Be not affrighted; ye seek
Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified; he is risen; he is not here;
behold the place where they laid him. But go your way and tell his
disciples that he goeth before you into Galilee, there ye shall see
him, as he said unto you." (16 : 6, 7.)
The writers of the third and fourth gospels know nothing of any command
to go into Galilee; but on the contrary, Luke relates the command of
Jesus to his disciples to remain where they were until they should
receive blessings from God. "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until
ye be endued with power from on high." (24 : 49.) Here is manifestly
an entire unconsciousness of any necessity of the disciples for going
into Galilee. For, after giving this command, Luke goes on to say,
"He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted
from them, and carried up into heaven." (24 : 50, 51.)
The two gospels of Mark and Luke make no mention of any journey;
but on the contrary, the immediate ascension of Jesus precludes the
possibility of it. Matthew, who knows nothing of any ascension, gives
this very equivocal statement of the affair: "Then the eleven disciples
went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them,
and when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted." (28 :
16, 17.) But this is too vague; the point which would most interest
us to know is what they doubted and who it was that doubted. Another
equally vague expression is found in the fourth gospel, where it
is related of Peter and John that they went into the sepulcher,
"Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the
sepulcher, and they saw and believed" (20 : 8); but what they saw
and believed is not made plain, except that they saw an empty tomb,
or at least one which contained only the "linen clothes;" but what
they believed concerning this empty grave we are not informed. If
their belief maintained any correspondence with what they saw, they
believed that they had seen an empty grave. But our difficulties do
not cease; we are surprised that these early visitors of sepulchers
do not see anything of the material in which Jesus was embalmed. It
is recorded that "there came also Nicodemus which at the first came
to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about
an hundred pound weight." (John 19 : 39.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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