But it may be said that no serious critic denies the genuineness of the
four great Pauline Epistles--Galatians, First and Second Corinthians,
and Romans--and that in three out of these four Paul lays claim to the
power of working miracles.[26] Must we suppose, therefore, that the
Apostle to the Gentiles has stated that which is false? But to how much
does this so-called claim amount? It may mean much or little. Paul
nowhere tells us what he did in this direction; and in his sore need to
justify his assumption of apostleship against the sneers of his enemies,
it is hardly likely that, if he had any very striking cases to bring
forward, he would have neglected evidence so well calculated to put them
to shame. And, without the slightest impeachment of Paul's veracity, we
must further remember that his strongly-marked mental characteristics,
displayed in unmistakable fashion in these Epistles, are anything but
those which would justify us in regarding him as a critical witness
respecting matters of fact, or as a trustworthy interpreter of their
significance. When a man testifies to a miracle, he not only states a
fact, but he adds an interpretation of the fact. We may admit his
evidence as to the former, and yet think his opinion as to the latter
worthless. If Eginhard's calm and objective narrative of the historical
events of his time is no guarantee for the soundness of his judgment
where the supernatural is concerned, the heated rhetoric of the Apostle
of the Gentiles, his absolute confidence in the "inner light," and the
extraordinary conceptions of the nature and requirements of logical
proof which he betrays, in page after page of his Epistles, afford still
less security.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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