Examination of the Prophecies
Examination of the Prophecies:Author's Preface
Examination of the Prophecies:The Book of Matthew
Examination of the Prophecies:The Book of Mark
Examination of the Prophecies:The Book of Luke
Examination of the Prophecies:The Book of John
Examination of the Prophecies:The Book of Luke
by Thomas Paine
THE BOOK OF LUKE
There are no passages in
Luke called prophecies, excepting those which
relate to the passages I have already examined.
Luke speaks of Mary being espoused to Joseph, but he makes no
reference to the passage in Isaiah, as Matthew does. He speaks also of
Jesus riding into Jerusalem upon a colt, but he says nothing about a
prophecy. He speaks of John the Baptist and refers to the passages in
Isaiah, of which I have already spoken.
At chapter xiii, 31, 32, he says, "The same day there came certain of the
Pharisees, saying unto him (Jesus), Get thee out and depart hence, for
Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold
I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I
shall be perfected."
Matthew makes Herod to die while Christ was a child in Egypt, and
makes Joseph to return with the child on the news of Herod's death, who
had sought to kill him. Luke makes Herod to be living, and to seek the life
of Jesus after Jesus was thirty years of age: for he says (iii, 23), "And Jesus
began to be about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of
Joseph."
The obscurity in which the historical part of the New Testament is
involved, with respect to Herod, may afford to priests and commentators a
plea, which to some may appear plausible, but to none satisfactory, that the
Herod of which Matthew speaks, and the Herod of which Luke speaks, were
different persons.
Matthew calls Herod a king; and Luke (iii, 1) calls Herod, Tetrarch (that
is, Governor) of Galilee. But there could be no such person as a King
Herod, because the Jews and their country were then under the dominion of
the Roman Emperors who governed then by tetrarchs, or governors.
Luke ii makes Jesus to be born when Cyrenius was Governor of Syria, to
which government Judea was annexed; and according to this, Jesus was
not born in the time of Herod. Luke says nothing about Herod seeking the
life of Jesus when he was born; nor of his destroying the children under two
years old; nor of Joseph fleeing with Jesus into Egypt; nor of his returning
from thence. On the contrary, the book of Luke speaks as if the person it
calls Christ had never been out of Judea, and that Herod sought his life after
he commenced preaching, as is before stated.
I have already shown that Luke, in the book called the Acts of the
Apostles (which commentators ascribe to Luke), contradicts the account in
Matthew with respect to Judas and the thirty pieces of silver. Matthew says
that Judas returned the money, and that the high priests bought with it a
field to bury strangers in; Luke says that Judas kept the money, and bought
a field with it for himself.
As it is impossible for the wisdom of God should err, so it is impossible
those books should have been written by divine inspiration. Our belief in
God and His unerring wisdom forbids us to believe it. As for myself, I feel
religiously happy in the total disbelief of it.
There are no other passages called prophecies in Luke other than those I
have spoken of. I pass on to the book of John.
Examination of the Prophecies:The Book of John