The Book of John
John, like Mark and Luke, is not much of a prophecy-monger. He speaks of the ass, and the casting lots for Jesus’s clothes, and some other trifles, of which I have already spoken.
John makes Jesus to say, 5:46, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me.” The book of the Acts, in speaking of Jesus, says, 3:22, “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.”
This passage is in Deuteronomy, 18:15. They apply it as a prophecy of Jesus. What impositions! The person spoken of in Deuteronomy, and also in Numbers where the same person is spoken of, is Joshua, the minister of Moses, and his immediate successor, and just such another Robespierrean character as Moses is represented to have been. The case, as related in those books, is as follows:—
Moses was grown old and near to his end; and in order to prevent confusion after his death, for the Israelites had no settled system of government, it was thought best to nominate a successor to Moses while he was yet living. This was done, as we are told, in the following manner:
Numbers 27:12, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron, thy brother, was gathered.” Verse 15, “And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight. And thou shalt put some of thine honor upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.” Verse 22, “And Moses did as the Lord commanded him: and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation, and he laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.”
I have nothing to do, in this place, with the truth or the conjuration here practised, of raising up a successor to Moses like unto himself. The passage sufficiently proves it is Joshua and that it is an imposition in John to make the case into a prophecy of Jesus. But the prophecy-mongers were so inspired with falsehood that they never speak truth.
I pass on to the last passage in these fables of the Evangelists, called a prophecy of Jesus Christ.
John having spoken of Jesus expiring on the cross between two thieves, says, 14:32: “Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first (meaning one of the thieves) and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs (verse 36), for these things were done that the Scriptures should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.”
The passage here referred to is in Exodus, and has no more to do with Jesus than the ass he rode upon to Jerusalem; nor yet so much, if a roasted jackass, like a roasted he-goat, might be eaten at a Jewish passover. It might be some consolation to an ass to know, that though his bones might be picked they would not be broken. I go to state the case.
The book of Exodus, in instituting the Jewish passover, in which they were to eat a he-lamb or a he-goat, says, 12:5: “Your lamb be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.”
The book after stating some ceremonies to be used in killing and dressing it (for it was to be roasted, not boiled) says, verse 43: “And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no stranger eat thereof; but every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof, a foreigner and hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall ye brake a bone thereof.”
We here see that the case as it stands in Exodus is a ceremony and not a prophecy, and totally unconnected with Jesus’s bones, or any part of him.
John having thus filled up the measure of apostolic fable, concludes his book with something that beats all fable; for he says in the last verse: “And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written everyone I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
This is what in vulgar life is called a “thumper”—that is, not only a lie, but a lie beyond the line of possibility; besides which, it is an absurdity, for if they should be written in the world, the world would contain them. Here ends the examination of passages called prophecies.