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
According to the first account the companions of Paul "stood
speechless" (9 : 7); in the third they "all fall to the earth." (26 :
14.) Then again, in the first account it is said that the men "stood
speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one." In the second it
is stated that "they that were with me saw indeed the light, but they
heard not the voice." These contradictions do not seem to clothe the
vision of Paul with the acceptable form of harmony.
It will be observed that even in this vision Paul is not described
as seeing Jesus. He sees a light and falls to the ground, and when
he rises he is blind. "And they led him by the hand and brought him
to Damascus. And he was three days without sight." (9 : 8.)
In the continuation of this account Paul has another vision: "And it
came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I
prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me,
Make haste and get thee out of Jerusalem." (22 : 17, 18.)
In connection with these visions and revelations it is highly
significant that Paul never claims to have seen Jesus in the flesh, and
he never speaks of the resurrection as material, but as spiritual. "It
is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Cor. 15 :
44.) "Who shall change our vile bodies that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body," (Phil. 3 : 21.) Evidently there is no claim
for seeing Jesus in the body made by Paul in any of his writings. He
preaches the doctrine of the resurrection, but this doctrine he, as
a Pharisee, believed before he became a Christian. Paul claims that
in a vision he saw Jesus. Luke says that this was also the manner in
which Mary Magdalene and the other women saw Jesus. "And when they
found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a
vision of angels, which said that he was alive." (24 : 2, 3.)
This gives force to the claim of Paul, that his seeing or vision of
Jesus was of the same class as the visions of all the others who had
seen him.
Thus, after a careful examination of the writings attributed to the
immediate followers of Jesus, we find that not one of them says, "I
saw Jesus rise from the grave;" or "I saw Jesus in the flesh after his
resurrection." In legendary style it is frequently repeated that he
"appeared" first to this and then to that one, but there is not the
slightest evidence that any one saw him. And in this connection it
is worthy of remark that Jesus did not appear to any persons except
his friends. This gives better occasion for suspicion that the story
is mythical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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