me about the final events
of the history of Jesus on the authority of Paul (1 Corinthians xv. 5-8)
I must pause. Did he think it, at any subsequent time, worth while "To
confer with flesh and blood," or, in modern phrase, to re-examine the
facts for himself? or was he ready to accept anything that fitted in
with his preconceived ideas? Does he mean, when he speaks of all the
appearances of Jesus after the crucifixion as if they were of the same
kind, that they were all visions, like the manifestation to himself?
And, finally, how is this account to be reconciled with those in the
first and third gospels--which, as we have seen, disagree with one
another?

Until these questions are satisfactorily answered, I am afraid that, so
far as I am concerned, Paul's testimony cannot be seriously regarded,
except as it may afford evidence of the state of traditional opinion at
the time at which he wrote, say between 55 and 60 A.D.; that is, more
than twenty years after the event; a period much more than sufficient
for the development of any amount of mythology about matters of which
nothing was really known. A few years later, among the contemporaries
and neighbours of the Jews, and, if the most probable interpretation of
the Apocalypse can be trusted, among the followers of Jesus also, it was
fully believed, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, that the
Emperor Nero was not really dead, but that he was hidden away somewhere
in the East, and would speedily come again at the head of a great army,
to be revenged upon his enemies.[45]

Thus, I conceive that I have shown cause for the opinion that Dr. Wace's
challenge touching the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, and the
Passion was more valorous than discreet. After all this discussion, I am
still at the agnostic point. Tell me, first, what Jesus can be proved to
have been, said, and done, and I will say whether I believe him, or in
him,[46] or not. As Dr. Wace admits that I have dissipated his lingering
shade of unbelief about the bedevilment of the Gadarene pigs, he might
have done something to help mine. Instead of that, he manifests a total
want of conception of the nature of the obstacles which impede the
conversion of his "infidels."

The truth I believe to be, that the difficulties in the way of arriving
at a sure conclusion as to these matters, from the Sermon on the Mount,
the Lord's Prayer, or any other data offered by the Synoptic gospels
(and _a fortior