ing his birth; in that of his Last Supper; in that of the
resurrection, which again baffles the skill of the harmonists. Here,
surely, is proof that the pens of the narrators were not guided by
Omniscience.

Concerning the miracles of the casting out of devils generally, and in
particular of the casting out of a legion of devils into a herd of two
thousand swine at Gadara, what is to be said? Are these not clearly
cases of human imagination set at work by a Jewish superstition? Is it
possible that they should have had a place in a divine narrative of the
life of the Saviour of the world? The Fourth Gospel omits them.
Orthodoxy would fain persuade itself that this was to avoid unnecessary
repetition.

Satan from the top of a mountain shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the
earth. This seems to imply belief that the earth is a plane. The
movement of the star of the Nativity seems to imply belief in the
rotation of the heavens.

About the authorship of the Fourth Gospel, and, consequently, about its
title to belief, there has been endless controversy among the learned.
But there are pretty plain indications, in the shape of the omission of
demoniac miracles and some lack of local knowledge, that it is not the
work of a Palestinian Jew. Opening with a reference to the Logos, it
strikes the key of Alexandrian philosophy. It is, indeed, rather
theological than historical, so that it has been not inaptly compared
to the Platonic, in contrast to the Xenophontic, account of Socrates,
the theology seems like that of a post-evangelical era. Martineau's
conclusion is that "the only Gospel which is composed and not merely
compiled and edited, and for which, therefore, a single writer is
responsible, has its birthday in the middle of the second century, and
is not the work of a witness at all." Historically, this Gospel is at
variance with the others in its narrative of the Last Supper. "The
incidents," says the highly orthodox Speaker's Commentary, "are
parallel with sections of the Synoptic Gospels; but there are very few
points of actual correspondence in detail between the narratives of the
Synoptists and of St. John." There appears to have been much
disputation among critics and commentators, but no room for disputation
surely would have been left concerning narratives, equally authentic
and inspired, of a momentous crisis in the life of the Saviour.

"At this point, that is to say the beginning of the Galilean minis