ame Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre.
Mark says it was sun-rising, and John says it was dark. Luke says it
was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other
women, that came to the sepulchre; and John states that Mary Magdalene
came alone. So well do they agree about their first evidence! They all,
however, appear to have known most about Mary Magdalene; she was a woman
of large acquaintance, and it was not an ill conjecture that she might
be upon the stroll. [The Bishop of Llandaff, in his famous "Apology,"
censured Paine severely for this insinuation against Mary Magdalene, but
the censure really falls on our English version, which, by a
chapter-heading (Luke vii.), has unwarrantably identified her as the
sinful woman who anointed Jesus, and irrevocably branded her.--Editor.]

The book of Matthew goes on to say (ver. 2): "And behold there was a
great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and
came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it" But
the other books say nothing about any earthquake, nor about the angel
rolling back the stone, and sitting upon it and, according to their
account, there was no angel sitting there. Mark says the angel [Mark
says "a young man," and Luke "two men."--Editor.] was within the
sepulchre, sitting on the right side. Luke says there were two, and they
were both standing up; and John says they were both sitting down, one at
the head and the other at the feet.

Matthew says, that the angel that was sitting upon the stone on the
outside of the sepulchre told the two Marys that Christ was risen, and
that the women went away quickly. Mark says, that the women, upon seeing
the stone rolled away, and wondering at it, went into the sepulchre, and
that it was the angel that was sitting within on the right side, that
told them so. Luke says, it was the two angels that were Standing
up; and John says, it was Jesus Christ himself that told it to Mary
Magdalene; and that she did not go into the sepulchre, but only stooped
down and looked in.

Now, if the writers of these four books had gone into a court of justice
to prove an alibi, (for it is of the nature of an alibi that is
here attempted to be proved, namely, the absence of a dead body by
supernatural means,) and had they given their evidence in the same
contradictory manner as it is here given, they would have been in danger
of having their ears cropt for perjury,