Reserve of the Evangelists did not satisfy the pardonable
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2025 11:20 am
We may have occasion to apply this test to the personality of Jesus of Nazareth and sundry apostolic personages; in any event it is peculiarly applicable to the numerous Christian stories and fables treating of them, which on their face are pure inventions, and which were admittedly forged in the names of Jesus; himself and of all of his Apostles and of many of the shining lights of the new Christian faith, just as we have seen was done in the Jewish forgeries; in the names of the Old Testament notables from Adam on down the catalogue. {94} Leaving for the moment aside the 27 presently accepted booklets of the N.T., and admitting the many Christian forgeries of Christ-fables, CE.
Thus apologetically explains: “
The genuine Gospels are silent about long stretches of the life of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and St. Joseph. This curiosity of many Christians eager for details. ... Enterprising spirits responded to this natural whatsapp number database craving by pretended gospels full of romantic fables, and fantastic and striking details; their fabrications were eagerly read and accepted as true by common folk who were devoid of any critical faculty and who were predisposed to believe what so luxuriously fed their pious curiosity. Both Catholics and Gnostics were concerned in writing these fictions. The former had no motive other than that of a PIOUS FRAUD.”
The motive above admitted for feeding
with pPdistinguished historian: “A vast and ever-increasing crowd of converts from paganism, who had become such from worldly considerations, and still hankered after wonders like those in which their forefathers had from time immemorial believed, lent a ready ear to assertions which, to more hesitating or better-instructed minds, would have seemed to carry imposture on their very face.” (Draper, The Intellectual Development of Europe, i, 309.) This being thus frankly confessed, our clerical writer describes the general character of these pious frauds: “The Christian apocryphal writings in general imitate the books of the N.T.
Thus apologetically explains: “
The genuine Gospels are silent about long stretches of the life of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and St. Joseph. This curiosity of many Christians eager for details. ... Enterprising spirits responded to this natural whatsapp number database craving by pretended gospels full of romantic fables, and fantastic and striking details; their fabrications were eagerly read and accepted as true by common folk who were devoid of any critical faculty and who were predisposed to believe what so luxuriously fed their pious curiosity. Both Catholics and Gnostics were concerned in writing these fictions. The former had no motive other than that of a PIOUS FRAUD.”
The motive above admitted for feeding
with pPdistinguished historian: “A vast and ever-increasing crowd of converts from paganism, who had become such from worldly considerations, and still hankered after wonders like those in which their forefathers had from time immemorial believed, lent a ready ear to assertions which, to more hesitating or better-instructed minds, would have seemed to carry imposture on their very face.” (Draper, The Intellectual Development of Europe, i, 309.) This being thus frankly confessed, our clerical writer describes the general character of these pious frauds: “The Christian apocryphal writings in general imitate the books of the N.T.