National Republican., 1881-07-05
JESUS A MYTH"
"LEARNED MANI AGAIN TO THE FRONT
lie Claims That the Saviour Of Mankind Never FIX.
listed, and Arrays Authorities 90 Sustain
His Assertion-Josephus, Jus.
tus, and Philo.

|
says the " Learned Man. that the thousands Of
gods and goddcsses and sons and daughters of gods
among the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Hindoos
Chinese, and all the pagans Of the earth, from the
earliest to the present time, were all myths and
had no existence except in the suporstltious
nncies of fmankind-always excepting the Jewish
Jehovah and His Incarnate Son, Jesus But why
this exception II is not easy to see, as the histories
| of these gods and the numerous incarnatons Of
their sons rests upon the same romantic authority
and are wholly without proof Aud while man
kind believed in them they were everywhere
present and often seen exercising their almighty
power; yet, as soon as this faith was withdrawn,
! they also withdrew aud winged their way to the
everlasting shades Of the myths. And this will be
| the ultimate end Of jehovah and His Son, Jesus
| 1t only requires sufficient time.
IN PRESENTING THE EVIDENCE
INN former article. that Jesus was a myth that
| lie never had any existence earth, the i'm.
portant fact was. kept steadily in view that His
name was not even mentioned by the three con
temporary Jewish historians, Josephus, Justus, and
| Philo- Iudieus To positively ascertain any fact
we must confine ourselves TO unparalleled eye.
witnesses, or at least to those who had an oppor-
| tunity to know the facts. Now Justus was born
and raised at Tiberlas, on the Lake of Galilec
which is twelve miles long by six wide, oil which
Jesus Is said to have performed some Of His most
wonderful works. II there had been any such
/ ihulii tNNu u VIII plChNltu u itiOlhlNNAoh
in the Jewish religion and attracted public attcn-
| tion even without the miraculous works ascribcd
| 10 him, or pretcnce TO these works, certainly
Jusus in his volumnous history Of all the re-
| lgious sccts, the remarkable personages, and oc-
currcnccs which tmuspired in Judea at and long
before his timo II there had been any such person
as Jesus he would have mentioned Him.
AGAIN, PHILo-JuDRus
| the philosopher was also contemporary with the
ttpap yhatI 1 tN hayn t,, Itt.Ipa
Philo was called the Plato of the Jews lie lived
and wrote at Alexandria, but was known TO have
visited Jerusalem and Rome, and was convcrSant
with all the important occurrences in adjacent
Judca Yet in his large work upon all the religious
sec,s and all the remarkable occurrences in the
history Of the Jews at and for centuries before his
| time he, too, has failed to mention even the name
of Jesus. But perhaps, Joscphus presents the
most positive negative witness He was born and
raised ut Jerusalem, and was living in that city
when Jesus is said TO have performed his mighty
works therein When Jesus rode into the city sur
rounded by n vast crowd shouting IIosannah to
the son of God!" when he cleared out the money
changers from the temple, when he was tried be-
| fore the great court and condemned, when he was
cruciicd, and above all when the rocks were
| rent, and the dead came forth and appeared unto
many, and there was darkness over the whole land
| for the space of three hours; and yet, with all
! these great and miraculous occurrences,
| JosErHus HAS NOT EVEN MENTIONED
the namo of Jesus. lie has written voluminous
history of his country, particularly Of all the -
ligious sects and all the noted pcrsonngcs and oc
curenocs, at and long before his ti,Ie and yet
these greatest and mighticst wor;s ever occurring
on earth wholly escaped us mention. In the his
! tory of all the copa.ries on earth Christianity is
challenged r. produce parallel case TO this Here
Is Juda. Snly leo miles long by 60 broad, with less
than one million inhabitants and 1t may safely be
! challenged 10 produce any country Of the same
| size with three contemporary historians as
Josephus, Justus, and Philo. Theywere also three
priests, and wrote of all the religious sects in
Judea, and the two first were warriors, fought
against the Romans, were taken Prisoners
CARRIED TO ROME ny TITUS,
aud were there pensioned by Vespasian, and
| Titus wrote their voluminous histories and lived
| to n great age. And not one of the three ever
| mentioned the name of Jesus the Christians.
| No case of negative testimony was ever produced
with half the weight of this. No three more nota-
| bic witnesses against any alleged event has ever
been produced on earth No possible aibi could
be stronger IN the revised New Testament the
three heavenly witnesses have been stricken out
| as n forgery. There are three that bear witness
! in heaven-the' Father, the Son, and the Holy
| Ghost" This has been wiped ont as with sponge.
| Bul these three earthly witnesses never can be
wiped out. All the rcvlsers on the earth ncvercnn
touch these witnesses. As long mankind shall
live and hooks shall be printed the names and his
tories of JoScphus, Ju5tus and Phio will live and
present their positive negative evidence that no
such II man Hs Jesus of Nazareth
| EVER LIVED IN JUDEA
| The contemporary, negative, reliable, disn.
! tercsted testimony of these three great Jewish
! historians, written at the time, is worth u whole
legion oftho interested religious romauces accord
| ing to Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John" written in
the next century, But their negative testimony Is
| not all by many, Jnscphus Is common book,
easy TO be found, and inquirers are requested to
read It carefully, in which they will sec both Jus
tus and Philo are mentioned, and they are par
ticularly requested 10 note that he often refers to
tn writing of books in his tinG i'll Julea, and that
letter. writing was very commmii In TACT, in some
parts of his work letters are spoken of ON nearly
| every page. Now suppose that such person as
Jesus of Nazareth hud existed that he was notable
even as an Agitalor. speaker or TeIormer; that lie
preached to thousands as in the sermon on the
mount and in several other places and converted
many that he healed the sick, cast out devils, and
even raised the dead, as was pretended by many
| JuGGLERS, NECROMASCERs, AND vENrRuOQulsrS
| of that day that he Travelled through that small
country engaged in this work for three years, ac-
c0mpanicd by his disciples; that he entered Jeru-
salem riding on an ass, surrounded by thousands,
| shouting his praise that he drove out the money
changers and dealers from the temple, and that lie
was finally tried bY the great sanhedrim, con.
dcmncd aud Cructed between two thieves-sup-
pose all this, leaving out the miraculous narratives
as impossible, had he lived and done this would
not some Of the governors of the several provinces,
the Judges lawyers, magistrates the numerous
priests, Schbes learned mon, and some of the
Thousands Of converts have recorded his name,
and some of his wonderful works in books aud in
letters 10 friends ut distance, for against and
that At least Of these books and these letters
| would have been found in the first century, or the
second, or succeeding centuries, when reliable
contemporary evidence was scarce as 10 cause
the forging of the paragraph In Josephus re-
lating 10 Jesus, and tho forgery Of the letter
| of King Abgarus to Jesus and HIS reply? And
yet not book letter, or even scrap, written at
| that time, naming Jesus of Nazareth, was ever
| found. Is not this negative testimony also over
| whcmng? Is not this also n complete alibi? All
the pampcrcd priests Of Chrstendom are chal.
lengcd to answer this. In short, Jesus Is said to
have lived thrty.thme years in JudeN, in the
three last years of which he performed the most
mighty wonders that tho world ever saw, and yet
he leGl no moro personal sign than the tracklcss
hull Of r phantom ship driven across the raging
| billOws Of dark aud mthOmless ocean The
truth Is that Jesus was but the phantom hero Of an
| incredible impossible, aud badly told religious
| romance, like many other sons ofgods Of hoathcn
mythology.
| The Daughters OF Israel.
Rcbeccu Lodge, No. |, Daughters of Is
rael, alta regular meeting held in their hall on
sunday jnly 3, 1881 on mOtion adopted the follow
| ing resolutions