"He saw and believed," but we are not told what he believed. He did not certainly believe in the resurrection of Jesus. "For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again." This passage is plainly legendary. It belongs to a later age when the dogma began to control the minds of Christians; for it is true that the early Christians did not insist so much upon the evidence of miracles as they did upon the prophecies. It must have been written long after that time, for it is not the "scriptures" they needed to know to be informed concerning his resurrection, but the plain language of Jesus which he had with special effort, and in an open manner uttered in their ears but a few days before. It was wholly needless for them to know the scriptures in order to recollect these prophetic predictions. Regard these statements as we may, they are certainly unhistorical. For if Jesus so frequently spoke of his death and subsequent resurrection, then it is certain that they would have remembered his words, and if they had not cherished them with faith, yet when they had heard from the women of the empty grave, they would without doubt, have recalled his predictions, and claimed their fulfillment. But they do no such thing. They said of the women's story what was probably true, that "their words seemed to them as idle tales, and [therefore] they believed them not." The Evidence of Paul on the Resurrection of Jesus. He gives his testimony in this form: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James, then by all the Apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." (1 Cor. 15 : 4-8.) In this statement Paul does not pretend to have witnessed the event himself, but preaches it as a doctrine which he had "received." He speaks of it as a tradition, "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." This language betrays the influence of the dogma of a later date; for the writer in speaking of the five hundred by whom Jesus was said to have been seen says, "of whom the greater part remain unto this present [day] but some are fallen asleep." "Unto this present" [day] shows that the writer is making his record long after the event. Paul wrote probably about twenty-five years after the date of the events he records. And the writers of the gospels also wrote at a late date. Matthew says, "And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." (28 : 15.)