The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine (read aloud books TXT) 📗

universe that surrounds us, and dart our contemplation into the eternity of space, filled with innumerable orbs, revolving in eternal harmony, how paltry must the tales of the Old and New Testaments, profanely called the word of God, appear to thoughtful man! The stupendous wisdom and unerring order that reign and govern throughout this wondrous whole, and call us to reflection, put to shame the Bible! The God of eternity and of all that is real is not the God of passing dreams and shadows of man’s imagination! The God of truth is not the God of fable; the belief of a God begotten and a God crucified is a God blasphemed. It is making a profane use of reason.

I shall conclude this Essay on Dreams with the two first verses of the 34th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, one of the books of the Apocrypha.

Verse 1, “The hopes of man void of understanding are vain and false! and dreams lift up fools. Whoso regardeth dreams is like him that catches at a shadow, and followeth after the wind.”

I now proceed to an examination of the passages in the Bible called prophecies of the coming of Christ, and to show there are no prophecies of any such persons; that the passages clandestinely styled prophecies are not prophecies, and that they refer to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they were written or spoken, and not to any distance of future time or person.

An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament

Quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ.

The passages called prophecies of or concerning Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, may be classed under the two following heads:⁠—

First⁠—Those referred to in the four books of the New Testament called the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Secondly⁠—Those which translators and commentators have, of their own imagination, erected into prophecies, and dubbed with that title at the head of the several chapters of the Old Testament. Of these it is scarcely worth while to waste time, ink, and paper upon; I shall, therefore, confine myself chiefly to those referred to in the aforesaid four books of the New Testament. Tf I show that these are not prophecies of the person called Jesus Christ, nor have reference to any such person, it will be perfectly needless to combat those which translators or the Church have invented, and for which they had no other authority than their own imagination.

I begin with the book called the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

In the first chapter, verse 18, it is said, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this wise: When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child by the Holy Ghost.” This is going a little too fast; because to make this verse agree with the next, it should have said no more than that she was found with child; for the next verse says, “Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make a public example, was minded to put her away privily.” Consequently Joseph had found out no more than that she was with child, and he knew it was not by himself.

Verse 20. “And while he thought on these things (that is, whether he should put her away privily, or make a public example of her) behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream (that is, Joseph dreamed that an angel appeared unto him), saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.”

Now, without entering into any discussion upon the merits or demerits of the account here given, it is proper to observe, that it has no higher authority than that of a dream; for it is impossible for a man to behold anything in a dream but that which he dreams of. I ask not, therefore, whether Joseph (if there was such a man) had such a dream or not; because, admitting he had, it proves nothing. So wonderful and irrational is the faculty of the mind in dreams, that it acts the part of all the characters its imagination creates, and what it thinks it hears from any of them is no other than what the roving rapidity of its own imagination invents. It is, therefore, nothing to me what Joseph dreamed of⁠—whether of the fidelity or infidelity of his wife; I pay no regard to my own dreams, and I should be weak indeed to put faith in the dreams of another.

The verses that follow those I have quoted are the words of the writer of the book of Matthew. “Now (says he) all this (that is, all this dreaming and pregnancy), was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord, saying,

“ ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us.’ ”

This passage is in Isaiah, 7:14, and the writer of the book of Matthew endeavors to make his readers believe that this passage is a prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. It is no such thing⁠—and I go to show it is not. But it is first necessary that I explain the occasion of these words being spoken by Isaiah; the reader will then easily perceive, that so far from their being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, they have not the least reference to such a person, or to anything that could happen in the time that Christ is said to have lived⁠—which was about seven hundred years after the time of Isaiah. The case is this:⁠—

On the death of Solomon the Jewish nation split into two monarchies; one