The credit due to the testimony of witnesses depends upon,
FIRSTLY, their honesty;
SECONDLY, their ability;
THIRDLY, their number and the consistency of their testimony;
FOURTHLY, the conformity of their testimony with experience; and
FIFTHLY, the coincidence of their testimony with collateral circumstances.
Let the evangelists be tried by theses tests.
§30 And first, as to their honesty.
Here they are entitled to the benefit of the general course of human experience, that men ordinarily speak the truth, when they have no prevailing motive or inducement to the contrary. This presumption, to which we have before alluded, is applied in courts of justice, even to witnesses whose integrity is not wholly free from suspicion; MUCH MORE, is it applicable to the evangelists whose testimony went against all their worldly interests.
The great truths which the apostles declared were that Christ and risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements but in the face of the “most appalling” terrors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world.
The laws of every country were against the teaching of his disciples.
The interests and passions of ALL the rulers and great men in the world were against them.
The fashion of the world was against them.
(E.G. The “Hate Crime Laws” which are being effected all around the globe in our day 2010 GA) Propagating this new faith, even in the most “inoffensive” and “peaceful” manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, REJOICING. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. ((The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. ))
They had “every possible motive” to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most “melancholy” and “terrific” frequency. [[It was therefore IMPOSSIBLE that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus ACTUALLY RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew and other fact.
If it were “morally” possible for them to have been deceived in this matter, EVERY HUMAN MOTIVE OPERATED to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so “gross a falsehood” after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, ALL THE EVILS WHICH MAN COULD INFLICT FROM WITHOUT, but to endure also the PANGS OF INWARD AND CONSCIOUS GUILT; with NO HOPE of future peace, NO TESTIMONY of a good conscience, NO EXPECTATION of honor or esteem among men, NO HOPE of happiness in this life or in the world to come.
Simon Greenleaf
Dane Professor of Law
Harvard University
1783-1853
FIRSTLY, their honesty;
SECONDLY, their ability;
THIRDLY, their number and the consistency of their testimony;
FOURTHLY, the conformity of their testimony with experience; and
FIFTHLY, the coincidence of their testimony with collateral circumstances.
Let the evangelists be tried by theses tests.
§30 And first, as to their honesty.
Here they are entitled to the benefit of the general course of human experience, that men ordinarily speak the truth, when they have no prevailing motive or inducement to the contrary. This presumption, to which we have before alluded, is applied in courts of justice, even to witnesses whose integrity is not wholly free from suspicion; MUCH MORE, is it applicable to the evangelists whose testimony went against all their worldly interests.
The great truths which the apostles declared were that Christ and risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements but in the face of the “most appalling” terrors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world.
The laws of every country were against the teaching of his disciples.
The interests and passions of ALL the rulers and great men in the world were against them.
The fashion of the world was against them.
(E.G. The “Hate Crime Laws” which are being effected all around the globe in our day 2010 GA) Propagating this new faith, even in the most “inoffensive” and “peaceful” manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, REJOICING. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. ((The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. ))
They had “every possible motive” to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most “melancholy” and “terrific” frequency. [[It was therefore IMPOSSIBLE that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus ACTUALLY RISEN FROM THE DEAD, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew and other fact.
If it were “morally” possible for them to have been deceived in this matter, EVERY HUMAN MOTIVE OPERATED to lead them to discover and avow their error. To have persisted in so “gross a falsehood” after it was known to them, was not only to encounter, for life, ALL THE EVILS WHICH MAN COULD INFLICT FROM WITHOUT, but to endure also the PANGS OF INWARD AND CONSCIOUS GUILT; with NO HOPE of future peace, NO TESTIMONY of a good conscience, NO EXPECTATION of honor or esteem among men, NO HOPE of happiness in this life or in the world to come.
Simon Greenleaf
Dane Professor of Law
Harvard University
1783-1853
