Five Pebbles from the Brook | Page 4

the feast of the passover, and that
Jesus was crucified on the feast day itself, while the authors of the other
Gospels represent the first event to have taken place, on the evening of
the passover itself, and that Jesus was crucified the day after. See Matt.
Ch. xxvi. 18. Mark xiv. 12. Luke ch. xxii. 7. Now Matthew and John
must, according to the Gospels themselves, have been present with
Jesus when he drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, and at
his last supper, and when he was seized in the garden of Gethsemane;
they must therefore have known perfectly whether Jesus drove the
buyers; and sellers out of the Temple, at his first visit to Jerusalem in
their company; or at his last, and whether his last supper, and his
seizure in the garden of Gethsemane took place on the eve before this
passover their great national festival, or on the evening of the passover
itself. They could not forget the time and place of events, so affecting
and important as the last mentioned, and when we add to these
considerations, that the Gospels represent Jesus as saying, (John ch.
xiv.;26.) that they should be inspired by the Holy Spirit, which "should
bring all things to remembrance," the supposition that the real Matthew

and John could contradict each other in this manner, becomes quite
inadmissable.
In the account of the resurrection of Jesus, the most important fact of
Christianity, we also find several contradictions; for instance, the
Gospel called of Matthew says, that the first appearance of Jesus to his
disciples after his resurrection, was in Galillee, (See Matt. ch.xxxviii. 7,)
while the other evangelists assert, that his first appearance to them after
that event was at Jerusalem. See Mark ch. xvi., Luke ch. xxiv. John
ch.xx. The Gospel called of John says, that he afterwards appeared to
them in Galilee: but according to that of Luke, the disciples did not go
to Galilee to meet Jesus; for that Gospel says, that Jesus expressly
ordered his disciples to tarry at Jerusalem, where they should receive
the effusion of the Holy Ghost, and that after giving that order he was
taken up to Heaven. See Luke ch. xxiv. 49, 50, also, the first ch. of Acts.
[fn 4]
This greatly invalidates the credibility of these accounts; for as much as
that the historical testimony in attestation of supernatural events, ought,
because such events are out of the common course of nature, to be
strong and unexceptionable.
He will observe too that these writers, supposed to have been the
inspired followers of Jesus Christ, have applied many passages of the
Old Testament as prophecies of Jesus, when it is most certain, (and is at
the present day allowed by Christian Biblical Critics of the highest
standing) from examining those passages in their context in the Old
Testament, that they are not prophecies of Jesus; and that some of the
passages cited are in fact no prophecies at all, but are merely historical.
Nor is this all, these authors have cited as prophecies and proof texts,
passages which do not exist in the Old Testament. From which it seems
to follow that they must have forged those passages, or quoted them
from some Apocryphal book; which they believed to be inspired. If
they were capable of the first, they were not the honest and inspired
followers and disciples of Jesus Christ; if they were capable of the last,
they were not Jews but Gentiles, ignorant that the Jews in the time of
Jesus, acknowledged no books as inspired scripture but the books of the

Old Testament. See Appendix, A.
A reasonable and reasoning man, such as I have supposed, may ask
himself if it be possible that men filled with the Holy Ghost, and whose
minds were supernaturally opened to understand the scriptures, could
make mistakes such as these.
Lastly, he will recollect, on discovering what is about to be stated, that
the Apostles and followers of Jesus Christ were Jews, and consequently
could not be ignorant of what was notorious to the whole nation, for
instance, that the Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday evening,
and ends at sunset on Saturday evening. Nevertheless the author of the
Gospel called of Matthew makes ch. xxviii. 1. the Sabbath to end at
dawn of day on Sunday morning: while the author of that called of
John apparently reckons, ch. xx. 19. the evening of the first day of the
week as a part of the first day of the week; whereas it is in fact,
according to the law and customs of the Jews, who then and now
reckon their days from sunset to sunset, the beginning and a part of the
second day of the week. Such mistakes appear