WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence cover

The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence

Chapter 83: 72
Open in WeRead

About This Book

A skeptical, systematic critique argues that the Christ of the New Testament is a constructed myth rather than a reliably attested historical person. It assesses the silence of contemporary writers, the anonymous and late character of the gospels, and the contradictions within infancy narratives, ministry accounts, crucifixion, and resurrection reports. The author evaluates the moral portrait and teachings attributed to the figure and traces parallels with older pagan religions and divinities as possible sources of the myth. The conclusion asserts that supernatural claims lack sufficient historical support and that veneration rests on literary and theological fabrication rather than firm documentary evidence.

72

What was the medium of communication through which the will of Heaven was revealed to the participants in this drama?

Matthew: A dream (i, 20; ii, 12, 13, 19, 22).

Luke: An angel (i, 11, 26; ii, 9).

In Matthew every message respecting the child Jesus is communicated by means of a dream; in Luke every announcement is made through the agency of an angel. Yet, after all, these Evangelists differ only in terms; for Luke’s angels are created out of the same stuff that Matthew’s dreams are made of, and the world is fast coming to a realization of the fact that this whole theological structure, founded on sleepers’ dreams and angels’ tales, is but “The baseless fabric of a vision.”