An Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity by Charles Christian Hennell

Author:Charles Christian Hennell [An Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: T. Allman
Published: 1840-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

The answer of Jesus is remarkable, for it does not pledge him to the instant recovery of the blind man's sight: it merely dismisses him with an undefined promise. It seems likely that the man did go away, was lost sight of in the crowd, and that the relators of the story soon amplified it with the addition, "immediately he received his sight." But it might be asked, Did any body see him afterwards? had he his sight then, and how was it known that he had been blind? These questions were fully provided for in the edition of the story published about twenty-five or thirty years later, viz., in John, ch. ix. Here, although it is admitted that the man did not immediately receive his sight, (for we are told that the man only saw after he had been to the pool of Siloam) the account is rendered, on the whole, more marvelous by a cross-examination of the man and his parents by the Pharisees. That John refers to the same transaction may be gathered from these parts: verse 1, "And as Jesus passed by" ver. 7, the pool of Siloam implies that it was near Jerusalem. ver. 8, "The neighbors said, Is not this he that sat and begged—which all agrees with Mark. Ver. 6, "He anointed his eyes with clay," contradicts Mark, but it agrees with Matthew xx. 34, "He touched their eyes," plainly a parallel passage to that in Mark, although Matthew has made two blind men, for the speeches and circumstances coincide almost literally. Luke has inserted Mark's account with little variation, except that he makes the affair happen as Jesus went unto Jericho, instead of going from it; and he adds, that "all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God."

Now, the whole account in Mark has nothing miraculous, except the clause contradicted by John, that the man immediately received his sight. Admit John's account of the cross-examination by the Pharisees to be true, and the affair is difficult to explain, except by supposing a real miracle or a contrived imposture. But all the dialogue added by John is no more than what might occur to a man of moderate invention, zealous to answer objections, and, as he himself declares, to make the church believe, xx. 31. And under this view all difficulty vanishes.

The two Matthew relates, ix. 27, another story of the cure of two blind men, after that of Jairus' daughter. Now, as Mark says nothing of these blind men after relating the same story of Jairus' daughter, and as parts of Matthew's two stories coincide with each other exactly, ("And as Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us;"—xx. 30, "And behold two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David") it seems most likely that Matthew here also relates the same story two different ways.

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