The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Religion
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Philosophy; Religion
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express command
of God, that are as shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of
moral justice as anything done by Robespierre, by Carrier, by Joseph le
Ben, in France; by the English Government in the East Indies; or by any
other assassin in modern times. Are we sure that the Creator of man
commissioned these things to be done? Are we sure that the books that
tell us so were written by His authority? To read the Bible without
horror, we must undo everything that is tender, sympathising, and
benevolent in the heart of man. Speaking for myself, if I had no other
evidence that the Bible is fabulous than the sacrifice I must make to
believe it to be true, that alone would be sufficient to determine my
choice.
But it can be shown by internal evidence that the Bible is not entitled
to credit as the word of God. It can readily be proved that the first
five books of the Bible, attributed to Moses, were not written by him
nor in his time, but several hundred years afterwards. Moses could not
have described his own death, nor mentioned that he was buried in a
valley in the land of Moab. Similarly, the book of Joshua was not
written by Joshua; it is manifest that Joshua could not write that
Israel served the Lord not only in his days, but in the days of the
elders that over-lived him. The book of Judges is anonymous on the face
of it. The books of Samuel were not written by Samuel, for they relate
many things that did not happen till after his death.
The history in the two books of Kings, which is little more than a
history of assassinations, treachery, and war, sometimes contradicts
itself; and several of the most extraordinary matters related in Kings
are not mentioned in the companion books of Chronicles. The book of Job
has no internal evidence of being a Hebrew book; it appears to have been
translated from another language into Hebrew; and it is the only book in
the Bible that can be read without indignation or disgust. It is an
error to call the Psalms the Psalms of David because historical evidence
shows that some of them were not written until long after the time of
David. The books of the prophets are wild, disorderly, and obscure
compositions, the so-called prophecies in which do not refer to Jesus
Christ, but to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they
were written or spoken.
I now go on to the book called the New Testament. Had it been the object
of Jesus Christ to establish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have
written the system himself, or procured it to be written in His
lifetime. But there is no publication extant authenticated with his
name. All the books called the New Testament were written after his
death. He was a Jew by birth and profession, and he was the Son of God
in like manner that every other person is; for the Creator is the Father
of All.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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