ss of my supposed panic.

For suppose it to be established that Gentile Christianity was a totally
different thing from the Nazarenism of Jesus and his immediate
disciples; suppose it to be demonstrable that, as early as the sixth
decade of our era at least, there were violent divergencies of opinion
among the followers of Jesus; suppose it to be hardly doubtful that the
Gospels and the Acts took their present shapes under the influence of
those divergencies; suppose that their authors, and those through whose
hands they passed, had notions of historical veracity not more eccentric
than those which Josephus occasionally displays: surely the chances that
the Gospels are altogether trustworthy records of the teachings of Jesus
become very slender. And, since the whole of the case of the other side
is based on the supposition that they are accurate records (especially
of speeches, about which ancient historians are so curiously loose), I
really do venture to submit that this part of my argument bears very
seriously on the main issue; and, as ratiocination, is sound to the
core.

Again, when I passed by the topic of the speeches of Jesus on the Cross,
it appears that I could have had no other motive than the dictates of my
native evasiveness. An ecclesiastical dignitary may have respectable
reasons for declining a fencing match "in sight of Gethsemane and
Calvary"; but an ecclesiastical "Infidel"! Never. It is obviously
impossible that, in the belief that "the greater includes the less," I,
having declared the Gospel evidence in general, as to the sayings of
Jesus, to be of questionable value, thought it needless to select for
illustration of my views, those particular instances which were likely
to be most offensive to persons of another way of thinking. But any
supposition that may have been entertained that the old familiar tones
of the ecclesiastical war-drum will tempt me to engage in such needless
discussion had better be renounced. I shall do nothing of the kind. Let
it suffice that I ask my readers to turn to the twenty-third chapter of
Luke (revised version), verse thirty-four, and he will find in the
margin

Some ancient authorities omit: And Jesus said, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do."

So that, even as late as the fourth century, there were ancient
authorities, indeed some of the most ancient and weightiest, who either
did not know of this utterance, so often quoted as charac