The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of ReasonPaine, Thomas
Religion
The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of Reason
Paine, Thomas
Philosophy and religion; Political science; Rationalism
Several of the most extraordinary matters related in one history, as
having happened during the reign of such or such of their kings, are
not to be found in the other, in relating the reign of the same king:
for example, the two first rival kings, after the death of Solomon,
were Rehoboam and Jeroboam; and in i Kings xii. and xiii. an account is
given of Jeroboam making an offering of burnt incense, and that a man,
who is there called a man of God, cried out against the altar (xiii.
2): “O altar, altar! thus saith the Lord: Behold, a child shall be born
unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer
the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s
bones shall be burned upon thee.” Verse 4: “And it came to pass, when
king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried
against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar,
saying, Lay hold on him; and his hand which he put out against him
dried up so that he could not pull it again to him.”
One would think that such an extraordinary case as this, (which is
spoken of as a judgement,) happening to the chief of one of the
parties, and that at the first moment of the separation of the
Israelites into two nations, would, if it,. had been true, have been
recorded in both histories. But though men, in later times, have
believed all that the prophets have said unto them, it does appear that
those prophets, or historians, disbelieved each other: they knew each
other too well.
A long account also is given in Kings about Elijah. It runs through
several chapters, and concludes with telling, 2 Kings ii. 11, “And it
came to pass, as they (Elijah and Elisha) still went on, and talked,
that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and
parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into
heaven.” Hum! this the author of Chronicles, miraculous as the story
is, makes no mention of, though he mentions Elijah by name; neither
does he say anything of the story related in the second chapter of the
same book of Kings, of a parcel of children calling Elisha bald head;
and that this man of God (ver. 24) “turned back, and looked upon them,
and cursed them in the name of the Lord; and there came forth two
she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” He
also passes over in silence the story told, 2 Kings xiii., that when
they were burying a man in the sepulchre where Elisha had been buried,
it happened that the dead man, as they were letting him down, (ver. 21)
“touched the bones of Elisha, and he (the dead man) revived, and stood
up on his feet.” The story does not tell us whether they buried the
man, notwithstanding he revived and stood upon his feet, or drew him up
again. Upon all these stories the writer of the Chronicles is as silent
as any writer of the present day, who did not chose to be accused of
lying, or at least of romancing, would be about stories of the same
kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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