New-York tribune., 1878-03-30
THURLow WEED RETRAcTs TOO MUCH

THURLOW WEED RETRACTS TOO MUCH.
THE RErERENcEs TO CHRIST, TAcrTus AND piINY
DOUBTLESS AUTHENTIc-RENAN BELIEVES THE
PASSAGE IN JosEPHUs GENUINE.
To the EdifOr of The Trtbune.
SIR: Permit ME, as one of ThurlOw Weeds
critics TO express my appreciation OF his candid letter in
Saturdays TRIBUNE. Next to being right is willing.
ness TO acknowledge oneself to DO wrong when such "a
tho fact But has not Mr. Weed oveIdone the thing
little His letter reminds of the little girl who sob
bed Ny doll Is stuffed with sawdust and the world
all hollow" Because the letter of Lentuus" proved
TO be spurious Mr. Weed will have Of Tactus or
Pny or anything else what particle Of evidence" he
asks, sis there In contempOraneous history Of His
(Chrst's) existence ."
The reference to Christ in Tactus Annalcs xv 40
of ackno wledged authenticity that Is to
say by the majority OF competent critics There Is
not one ota OF positive evidence against and the only
negative evidence Is that OF the fathers who might
have been expected quote itTertulian and Clemens
Alexapdlinus for examp,e-are silent respectngi it. II
Is an established principle OF law, confirmed by nnumcr
able decisions that every document apparently ancient
and bearing its face no evident marks OF forgery,
to be genuine and the burden Of proynk 1t to
be otherwise deyOves the opposing party Much the
same thngmay said of Plinys famous letter x 90 In
Weises edition. which appends Trajans reply, the au.
thenticity of which has been questioned by any
critic of note except the German nationalist semr aud
Senior was completely crushed by avalanche Of Ger
man scholarship. Even such pronounced sceptics as
Strauss and Renan do not question the authenticity Of
these two historical illusions to Christ.
And here is another crumb OF comfort for Mr. Weed
While believe weight of scholarship to be against
the geDuness of the passage IN Josephus Nntq xviii
33 IL Is worth considering that Renan accepts IT, lie
SAYS: believe the passage ON Jesus 10 be adtnentc
II perfectly In the style OF ana tnst histo
nan has made mention Jesus Is precisely thus that
he must nave spoken One only that Christian
hand has retouched the has added certain words
without which 1t would have been almost blasphemous
has perhaps suppressed modified certain expressions"
iYie de Jesus, introductory AS specimen Of the
phrases intcrpolated, Renan mentions lts permitted
10 cali him a man :" and be thinks that he was Christ
now stands where he called Christ was originally
written. - A.. ,.. =.
But does not Mr. Weed exaggerate the Importance Of
these references Christ In secular history There Is
one historical testimony Him which ls often over
looked and which is OF more weight than all Others com
bined That is the Christian Church. The Church
must have had origin: What was that origin Let
anyone who is disposed to question Inc existence OF
Jesus try his hand at that problem The existence OF
the Christian Cnurch throughout the Roman Enprea at
the beginning of the second century fact that can be
ccounted for only accepting true at least the main
facts narrated III the Gospel. hC'H
Netc- York, March 25, 1873.