Persons in this age have little conception of the prevalence
of literary forgeries in the early centuries of the church. Now,
when books are printed in editions of 1,000 or more, such forgeries
are nearly impossible and consequently rare. When books existed in
manuscript only, they were neither difficult nor uncommon. Books
and letters purporting to have been written by Paul, Peter, John,
and other Apostles were readily "discovered" when wanted. Of these
Apostolic forgeries Prof. John Tyndall says: "When arguments or proofs
were needed, whether on the side of the Jewish Christians or of the
Gentile Christians, a document was discovered which met the case, and
on which the name of an Apostle or of some authoritative contemporary
of the Apostles was boldly inscribed. The end being held to justify
the means, there was no lack of manufactured testimony."
Conclusion.
Of these fourteen Epistles ascribed to Paul, four, then, Romans,
First and Second Corinthians, and Galatians, are pronounced genuine;
three, Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon, are of doubtful
authenticity; while seven, Ephesians, Colossians, Second Thessalonians,
First and Second Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews, are spurious.
The genuine writings of Paul are probably the oldest Christian writings
extant. Admitting the authenticity of these four books, of course,
is not admitting the authenticity of Christianity. Paul was not a
witness of the alleged events upon which historical Christianity
rests. He was not a convert to Christianity until many years after
Christ's death. He did not see Christ (save in a vision); he did not
listen to his teachings; he did not learn from his disciples. "The
gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it" (Gal. i, 11, 12). Paul
accepted only to a small extent the religion of Christ's disciples. He
professed to derive his knowledge from supernatural sources--from
trances and visions. Regarding the value of such testimony, the
author of "Supernatural Religion" says: "No one can deny, and medical
and psychological annals prove, that many men have been subject to
visions and hallucinations which have never been seriously attributed
to supernatural causes. There is not one single valid reason removing
the ecstatic visions and trances of the Apostle Paul from this class."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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