The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine

[_Maksutov]

It appears, from the account of the 37th chapter, that the army of
Nebuchadnezzar, which is called the army of the Chaldeans, had
besieged Jerusalem some time, and on their hearing that the army of
Pharaoh, of Egypt, was marching against them they raised the siege
and retreated for a time. It may here be proper to mention, in order to
understand this confused history, that Nebuchadnezzar had besieged
and taken Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim, the predecessor of
Zedekiah; and that it was Nebuchadnezzar who had made Zedekiah
king,or rather viceroy; and that this second siege, of which the book of
Jeremiah treats, was in consequence of the revolt of Zedekiah
against Nebuchadnezzar. This will in some measure account for the
suspicion that affixes to Jeremiah of being a traitor and in the
interest of Nebuchadnezzar; whom Jeremiah calls, in the 43d chapter,
ver. 10, the servant of God.

The 11th verse of this chapter (the 37th), says, "And it came to
pass, that, when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from
Jerusalem, for fear of Pharoah's army, that Jeremiah went forth out of
Jerusalem, to go (as this account states) into the land of Benjamin,
to separate himself thence in the midst of the people, and when he
was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose
name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he
took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the
Chaldeans. Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the
Chaldeans." Jeremiah being thus stopped and accused, was, after
being examined, committed to prison on suspicion of being a traitor,
where he remained, as is stated in the last verse of this chapter.

But the next chapter gives an account of the imprisonment of
Jeremiah which has no connection with this account, but ascribes his
imprisonment to another circumstance, and for which we must go back
to the 21st chapter. It is there stated, ver. 1, that Zedekiah sent
Pashur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the
priest, to Jeremiah to inquire of him concerning Nebuchadnezzar,
whose army was then before Jerusalem; and Jeremiah said unto them,
ver. 8 and 9, "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I set before you the way of
life, and the way of death; he that abideth in this city shall die
by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that
goeth out and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall
live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey."

This interview and conference breaks off abruptly at the end of
the 10th verse of the 21st chapter; and such is the disorder of this
book that we have to pass over sixteen chapters, upon various
subjects, in order to come at the continuation and event of this
conference, and this brings us to the first verse of the 38th chapter,
as I have just mentioned.

The 38th chapter opens with saying, "Then Shepatiah, the son of
Mattan; Gedaliah, the son of Pashur; and Jucal, the son of
Shelemiah; and Pashur, the son of Malchiah (here are more persons
mentioned than in the 21st chapter), heard the words that Jeremiah
had spoken unto all the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord, He that
remaineth in this city, shall die by the sword, by the famine, and
by the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall
live, for he shall have his life for prey, and shall live;" (which are
the words of the conference), therefore, (they say to Zedekiah), "We
beseech thee, let us put this man to death, for thus he weakeneth
the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of
all the people in speaking such words unto them; for this man
seeketh not the welfare of the people, but the hurt." And at the 6th
verse it is said, "Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the
dungeon of Malchiah."

These two accounts are different and contradictory. The one
ascribes his imprisonment to his attempt to escape out of the city:
the other to his preaching and prophesying in the city; the one to his
being seized by the guard at the gate; the other to his being
accused before Zedekiah, by the conferees.*

*I observed two chapters, 16th and 17th, in the first book of
Samuel, that contradict each other with respect to David, and the
manner he became acquainted with Saul; as the 37th and 38th
chapters of the book of Jeremiah contradict each other with respect to
the cause of Jeremiah's imprisonment.

In the 16th chapter of Samuel, it is said, that an evil spirit
of God troubled Saul, and that his servants advised him (as a
remedy) "to seek out a man who was a cunning player upon the harp."
And Saul said, [verse 17,] Provide me now a man that can play well,
and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said,
Behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in
playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in
matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore
Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, "Send me David thy son."
And [verse 21,] David came to Saul, and stood before him, and he
loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And when the evil
spirit from God was upon Saul [ver. 23] that David took an harp, and
played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well."
But the next chapter [17] gives an account, all different to this,
of the manner that Saul and David became acquainted. Here it is
ascribed to David's encounter with Goliah, when David was sent by
his father to carry provision to his brethren in the camp. In the 55th
verse of this chapter it is said, "And when Saul saw David go forth
against the Philistine [Goliah], he said unto Abner, the captain of
the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy
soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Enquire thou
whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from the slaughter
of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with
the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose
son art thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy
servant Jesse the Bethlehemite." These two accounts belie each
other, because each of them supposes Saul and David not to have
known each other before. This book, the Bible is too ridiculous even
for criticism.

In the next chapter (the 39th) we have another instance of the
disordered state of this book; for notwithstanding the siege of the
city by Nebuchadnezzar has been the subject of several of the
preceding chapters, particularly the 37th and 38, the 39th chapter
begins as if not a word had been said upon the subject; and as if
the reader was to be informed of every particular concerning it, for
it begins with saying, verse it, "In the ninth year of Zedekiah,
king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged it,"
etc.

But the instance in the last chapter (the 52d) is still more
glaring, for though the story has been told over and over again,
this chapter still supposes the reader not to know anything of it, for
it begins by saying, ver. 1, "Zedekiah was one and twenty years old
when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem,
and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of
Libnah. (Ver. 4,) And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in
the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and
pitched against it, and built forts against it," etc.

It is not possible that any one man, and more particularly
Jeremiah, could have been the writer of this book. The errors are such
as could not have been committed by any person sitting down to
compose a work. Were I, or any other man, to write in such a
disordered manner, nobody would read what was written; and
everybody would suppose that the writer was in a state of insanity.
The only way, therefore, to account for this disorder is, that the book
is a medley of detached, unauthenticated anecdotes, put together by
some stupid book-maker, under the name of Jeremiah, because many
of them refer to him and to the circumstances of the times he lived in.

[_Maksutov]

Of the duplicity, and of the false prediction of Jeremiah, I shall
mention two instances, and then proceed to review the remainder of
the Bible.

It appears from the 38th chapter, that when Jeremiah was in
prison, Zedekiah sent for him, and at this interview, which was
private, Jeremiah pressed it strongly on Zedekiah to surrender himself
to the enemy. "If," says he (ver. 17,) "thou wilt assuredly go forth
unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live," etc.
Zedekiah was apprehensive that what passed at this conference should
be known, and he said to Jeremiah (ver. 25), "If the princes
[meaning those of Judah] hear that I have talked with thee, and they
come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou
hast said unto the king; hide it not from us, and we will not put thee
to death; and also what the king said unto thee; then thou shalt say
unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he
would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there. Then
came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them
according to all the words the king had commanded." Thus, this man
of God, as he is called, could tell a lie or very strongly
prevaricate, when he supposed it would answer his purpose; for
certainly he did not go to Zedekiah to make his supplication,
neither did he make it; he went because he was sent for, and he
employed that opportunity to advise Zedekiah to surrender himself to
Nebuchadnezzar.

In the 34th chapter is a prophecy of Jeremiah to Zedekiah, in
these words (ver. 2), "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will give this
city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it
with fire; and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely
be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the
eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to
mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of the Lord,
O Zedekiah, king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord, of thee, Thou shalt
not die by the sword, but thou shalt die in peace; and with the
burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so
shall they burn odors for thee, and they will lament thee, saying, Ah,
lord; for I have pronounced the word, saith the Lord."

Now, instead of Zedekiah beholding the eyes of the king of
Babylon, and speaking with him mouth to mouth, and dying in peace,
and with the burning of odors, as at the funeral of his fathers, (as
Jeremiah had declared the Lord himself had pronounced), the reverse,
according to the 52nd chapter, was the case; it is there said (ver.
10), "And the king of Babylon slew the son of Zedekiah before his
eyes; Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and the king of Babylon
bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison
till the day of his death." What, then, can we say of these
prophets, but that they were impostors and liars?

As for Jeremiah, he experienced none of those evils. He was
taken into favor by Nebuchadnezzar, who gave him in charge to the
captain of the guard (chap. xxxix. ver. 12), "Take him (said he) and
look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he
shall say unto thee." Jeremiah joined himself afterward to
Nebuchadnezzar, and went about prophesying for him against the
Egyptians, who had marched to the relief of Jerusalem while it was
besieged. Thus much for another of the lying prophets, and the book
that bears his name.

I have been the more particular in treating of the books
ascribed to Isaiah and Jeremiah, because those two are spoken of in
the books of Kings and Chronicles, which the others are not. The
remainder of the books ascribed to the men called prophets I shall not
trouble myself much about, but take them collectively into the
observations I shall offer on the character of the men styled
prophets.

In the former part of the Age of Reason, I have said that the word
prophet was the Bible word for poet, and that the flights and
metaphors of Jewish poets have been foolishly erected into what are
now called prophecies. I am sufficiently justified in this opinion,
not only because the books called the prophecies are written in
poetical language, but because there is no word in the Bible, except
it be the word prophet, that describes what we mean by a poet. I
have also said, that the word signifies a performer upon musical
instruments, of which I have given some instances, such as that of a
company of prophets prophesying with psalteries, with tabrets, with
pipes, with harps, etc., and that Saul prophesied with them, I.
Sam., chap x., ver. 5. It appears from this passage, and from other
parts in the book of Samuel, that the word prophet was confined to
signify poetry and music; for the person who was supposed to have a
visionary insight into concealed things, was not a prophet but a seer*
(I. Sam., chap. ix., ver. 9); and it was not till after the word
seer went out of use (which most probably was when Saul banished
those he called wizards) that the profession of the seer, or the art of
seeing, became incorporated into the word prophet.

*I know not what is the Hebrew word that corresponds to the word
seer in English; but I observe it is translated into French by la
voyant, from the verb voir, to see; and which means the person who
sees, or the seer.

According to the modern meaning of the word prophet and
prophesying, it signifies foretelling events to a great distance of
time, and it became necessary to the inventors of the Gospel to give
it this latitude of meaning, in order to apply or to stretch what they
call the prophecies of the Old Testament to the times of the New;
but according to the Old Testament, the prophesying of the seer, and
afterward of the prophet, so far as the meaning of the word seer
incorporated into that of prophet, had reference only to things of the
time then passing, or very closely connected with it, such as the
event of a battle they were going to engage in, or of a journey, or of
any enterprise they were going to undertake, or of any circumstance
then pending, or of any difficulty they were then in; all of which had
immediate reference to themselves (as in the case already mentioned
of Ahaz and Isaiah with respect to the expression, "Behold a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son,") and not to any distant future time. It
was that kind of prophesying that corresponds to what we call
fortune-telling, such as casting nativities, predicting riches,
fortunate or unfortunate marriages, conjuring for lost goods, etc.;
and it is the fraud of the Christian Church, not that of the Jews, and
the ignorance and the superstition of modern, not that of ancient
times, that elevated those poetical, musical, conjuring, dreaming,
strolling gentry into the rank they have since had.

But, besides this general character of all the prophets, they
had also a particular character. They were in parties, and they
prophesied for or against, according to the party they were with, as
the poetical and political writers of the present day write in defence
of the party they associate with against the other.

[_Fence Sitter]

After the Jews were divided into two nations, that of Judah and that of Israel, each party had its prophets who were abused and accused each other of being false prophets, lying prophets imposters, etc.

[_Fence Sitter]

The prophets of the party of Judah prophesied against the prophets of the party of Israel; and those of the party of Israel against those of Judah. This party prophesying showed itself immediately on the separation under the first two rival kings, Rehoboam and Jeroboam. The prophet that cursed or prophesied against the altar that Jeroboam had built in Bethel, was of the party of Judah, where Rehoboam was king; and he was waylaid on his return home, by a prophet of the party of Israel, who said unto him (I. Kings, chap. xiii.), "Art thou the man of God that came from Judah? and he said, I am." Then the prophet of the party of Israel said to him, "I am a prophet also, as thou art (signifying of Judah), and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water: but (says the 18th verse) he lied unto him." This event, however, according to the story, is that the prophet of Judah never got back to Judah, for he was found dead on the road, by the contrivance of the prophet of Israel, who, no doubt, was called a true prophet by his own party, and the prophet of Judah a lying prophet.

[_Fence Sitter]

In the third chapter of the second of Kings, a story is related of prophesying or conjuring that shows, in several particulars, the character of a prophet. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and Jehoram, king of Israel, had for a while ceased their party animosity, and entered into an alliance; and these two, together with the king of Edom, engaged in a war against the king of Moab.

[_Maksutov]

After the Jews were divided into two nations, that of Judah and
that of Israel, each party had its prophets, who abused and accused
each other of being false prophets, lying prophets, impostors, etc.

The prophets of the party of Judah prophesied against the prophets
of the party of Israel; and those of the party of Israel against those
of Judah. This party prophesying showed itself immediately on the
separation under the first two rival kings, Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
The prophet that cursed or prophesied against the altar that Jeroboam
had built in Bethel, was of the party of Judah, where Rehoboam was
king; and he was waylaid on his return home, by a prophet of the
party of Israel, who said unto him (I. Kings, chap. xiii.), "Art thou the
man of God that came from Judah? and he said, I am." Then the
prophet of the party of Israel said to him, "I am a prophet also, as
thou art (signifying of Judah), and an angel spake unto me by the
word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house,
that he may eat bread and drink water: but (says the 18th verse) he
lied unto him." This event, however, according to the story, is that the
prophet of Judah never got back to Judah, for he was found dead on
the road, by the contrivance of the prophet of Israel, who, no doubt,
was called a true prophet by his own party, and the prophet of Judah a
lying prophet.

In the third chapter of the second of Kings, a story is related of
prophesying or conjuring that shows, in several particulars, the
character of a prophet. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and Jehoram,
king of Israel, had for a while ceased their party animosity, and
entered into an alliance; and these two, together with the king of
Edom, engaged in a war against the king of Moab. After uniting and
marching their armies, the story says, they were in great distress for
water; upon which Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not here a prophet of
the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him? and one of the
servants of the king of Israel said, Here is Elisha." [Elisha was
one of the party of Judah]. "And Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, said,
The word of the Lord is with him." The story then says, that these
three kings went down to Elisha (who, as I have said, was a
Judahmite prophet) saw the king of Israel, he said unto him, "What
have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to
the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay,
for the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them
into the hands of Moab." [Meaning because of the distress they were in
for water.] Upon which Elisha said, "As the Lord of hosts liveth,
before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of
Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look towards thee, nor see
thee." Here is all the venom and vulgarity of a party prophet. We have
now to see the performance, or manner of prophesying.

Ver. 15. "Bring me, (said Elisha,) a minstrel: And it came to
pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon
him." Here is the farce of the conjurer. Now for the prophecy: "And
Elisha said, [singing most probably to the tune he was playing,]
Thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches;" which was just
telling them what every countryman could have told them, without
either fiddle or farce, that the way to get water was to dig for it.

But as every conjurer is not famous alike for the same thing, so
neither were those prophets; for though all of them, at least those
I have spoken of, were famous for lying, some of them excelled in
cursing. Elisha, whom I have just mentioned, was a chief in this
branch of prophesying; it was he that cursed the forty-two children in
the name of the Lord, whom the two she-bears came and devoured.
We are to suppose that those children were of the party of Israel; but
as those who will curse will lie, there is just as much credit to be
given to this story of Elisha's two she-bears as there is to that of
the Dragon of Wantley, of whom it is said:

"Poor children three devoured he,
That could not with him grapple;
And at one sup he ate them up,
As a man would eat an apple."

There was another description of men called prophets, that
amused themselves with dreams and visions; but whether by night or
by day we know not. These, if they were not quite harmless, were but
little mischievous. Of this class are:

Ezekiel and Daniel; and the first question upon those books, as
upon all the others, is, are they genuine? that is, were they
written by Ezekiel and Daniel?

Of this there is no proof, but so far as my own opinion goes, I am
more inclined to believe they were, than that they were not. My
reasons for this opinion are as follows: First, Because those books do
not contain internal evidence to prove they were not written by
Ezekiel and Daniel, as the books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, Samuel,
etc., prove they were not written by Moses, Joshua, Samuel, etc.

Secondly, Because they were not written till after the
Babylonian captivity began, and there is good reason to believe that
not any book in the Bible was written before that period; at least
it is proveable, from the books themselves, as I have already shown,
that they were not written till after the commencement of the Jewish
monarchy.

Thirdly, Because the manner in which the books ascribed to Ezekiel
and Daniel are written agrees with the condition these men were in
at the time of writing them.

Had the numerous commentators and priests, who have foolishly
employed or wasted their time in pretending to expound and unriddle
those books, been carried into captivity, as Ezekiel and Daniel
were, it would have greatly improved their intellects in comprehending
the reason for this mode of writing, and have saved them the trouble
of racking their invention, as they have done, to no purpose; for they
would have found that themselves would be obliged to write whatever
they had to write respecting their own affairs or those of their
friends or of their country, in a concealed manner, as those men
have done.

These two books differ from all the rest for it is only these that
are filled with accounts of dreams and visions; and this difference
arose from the situation the writers were in as prisoners of war, or
prisoners of state, in a foreign country, which obliged them to convey
even the most trifling information to each other, and all their
political projects or opinions, in obscure and metaphorical terms. The
pretend to have dreamed dreams and seen visions, because it was
unsafe for them to speak facts or plain language. We ought, however
to suppose that the persons to whom they wrote understood what they
meant, and that it was not intended anybody else should. But these
busy commentators and priests have been puzzling their wits to find
out what it was not intended they should know, and with which they
have nothing to do.

Ezekiel and Daniel were carried prisoners to Babylon under the
first captivity, in the time of Jehoiakim, nine years before the
second captivity in the time of Zedekiah.

The Jews were then still numerous, and had considerable force at
Jerusalem; and as it is natural to suppose that men in the situation
of Ezekiel and Daniel would be meditating the recovery of their
country and their own deliverance, it is reasonable to suppose that
the accounts of dreams and visions with which those books are filled,
are no other than a disguised mode of correspondence, to facilitate
those objects- it served them as a cipher or secret alphabet. If
they are not thus, they are tales, reveries, and nonsense; or, at
least, a fanciful way of wearing off the wearisomeness of captivity;
but the presumption is they were the former.

[_Maksutov]

Ezekiel begins his books by speaking of a vision of cherubims
and of a wheel within a wheel, which he says he saw by the river
Chebar, in the land of his captivity. Is it not reasonable to suppose,
that by the cherubims he meant the temple at Jerusalem, where they
had figures of cherubims? and by a wheel within a wheel (which, as a
figure, has always been understood to signify political contrivance)
the project or means of recovering Jerusalem? In the latter part of
this book, he supposes himself transported to Jerusalem and into the
temple; and he refers back to the vision on the river Chebar, and says
(chapter xliii, verse 3), that this last vision was like the vision on
the river Chebar; which indicates that those pretended dreams and
visions had for their object the recovery of Jerusalem, and nothing
further.

As to the romantic interpretations and applications, wild as the
dreams and visions they undertake to explain, which commentators
and priests have made of those books, that of converting them into
things which they call prophecies, and making them bend to times and
circumstances as far remote even as the present day, it shows the
fraud or the extreme folly to which credulity or priestcraft can go.

Scarcely anything can be more absurd than to suppose that men
situated as Ezekiel and Daniel were, whose country was overrun and
in the possession of the enemy, all their friends and relations in
captivity abroad, or in slavery at home, or massacred, or in continual
danger of it; scarcely anything, I say, can be more absurd, than to
suppose that such men should find nothing to do but that of
employing their time and their thoughts about what was to happen to
other nations a thousand or two thousand years after they were dead;
at the same time, nothing is more natural than that they should
meditate the recovery of Jerusalem, and their own deliverance and
that this was the sole object of all the obscure and apparently frantic
writings contained in those books.

In this sense, the mode of writing used in those two books,
being forced by necessity, and not adopted by choice, is not
irrational; but, if we are to use the books as prophecies, they are
false. In the 29th chapter of Ezekiel, speaking of Egypt, it is
said, (ver. II), "No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of
beast shall pass through it; neither shall it be inhabited for forty
years." This is what never came to pass, and consequently it is false,
as all the books I have already reviewed are. I here close this part
of the subject.

In the former part of the Age of Reason I have spoken of Jonah,
and of the story of him and the whale. A fit story for ridicule, if it
was written to be believed; or of laughter, if it was intended to
try what credulity could swallow; for if it could swallow Jonah and
the whale, it could swallow anything.

But, as is already shown in the observations on the book of Job
and of Proverbs, it is not always certain which of the books in the
Bible are originally Hebrew, or only translations from the books of
the Gentiles into Hebrew; and as the book of Jonah, so far from
treating of the affairs of the Jews, says nothing upon that subject,
but treats altogether of the Gentiles, it is more probable that it
is a book of the Gentiles than of the Jews, and that it has been
written as a fable, to expose the nonsense and satirize the vicious
and malignant character of a Bible prophet, or a predicting priest.

Jonah is represented, first, as a disobedient prophet, running
away from his mission, and taking shelter aboard a vessel of the
Gentiles, bound from Joppa to Tarshish; as if he ignorantly
supposed, by some paltry contrivance, he could hide himself where
God could not find him. The vessel is overtaken by a storm at sea, and
the mariners, all of whom are Gentiles, believing it to be a judgment,
on account of some one on board who had committed a crime, agreed
to cast lots to discover the offender, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
But, before this, they had cast all their wares and merchandise
overboard to lighten the vessel, while Jonah, like a stupid fellow,
was fast asleep in the hold.

After the lot had designated Jonah to be the offender, they
questioned him to know who and what he was? and he told them he
was a Hebrew; and the story implies that he confessed himself to be
guilty. But these Gentiles, instead of sacrificing him at once,
without pity or mercy, as a company of Bible prophets or priests would
have done by a Gentile in the same case, and as it is related Samuel
had done by Agag and Moses by the women and children, they
endeavored to save him, though at the risk of their own lives, for the
account says, "Nevertheless (that is, though Jonah was a Jew and a
foreigner, and the cause of all their misfortunes and the loss of
their cargo,) the men rowed hard to bring it (the boat) to land, but
they could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against
them." Still, they were unwilling to put the fate of the lot into
execution, and they cried (says the account) unto the Lord, saying,
(v. 14,) "We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not
perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for
thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee." Meaning, thereby, that
they did not presume to judge Jonah guilty, since that he might be
innocent; but that they considered the lot that had fallen to him as a
decree of God, or as it pleased God. The address of this prayer
shows that the Gentiles worshipped one Supreme Being, and that they
were not idolaters, as the Jews represented them to be. But the
storm still continuing and the danger increasing, they put the fate of
the lot into execution, and cast Jonah into the sea, where,
according to the story, a great fish swallowed him up whole and alive.

[_Fence Sitter]

We have now to consider Jonah securely housed from the storm in the fish's belly. Here we are told that he prayed; but the prayer is a made-up prayer, taken from various parts of the Psalms, without any connection or consistency, and adapted to the distress, but not at all to the condition that Jonah was in. It is such a prayer as a Gentile, who might know something of the Psalms, could copy out for him. This circumstance alone, were there no other, is sufficient to indicate that the whole is a made-up story. The prayer, however, is supposed to have answered the purpose, and the story goes on (taking up at the same time the can't language of a Bible prophet), saying: (chap. ii, ver. 10,) "And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land."

[_Maksutov]

We have now to consider Jonah securely housed from the storm in
the fish's belly. Here we are told that he prayed; but the prayer is a
made-up prayer, taken from various parts of the Psalms, without any
connection or consistency, and adapted to the distress, but not at all
to the condition that Jonah was in. It is such a prayer as a
Gentile, who might know something of the Psalms, could copy out for
him. This circumstance alone, were there no other, is sufficient to
indicate that the whole is a made-up story. The prayer, however, is
supposed to have answered the purpose, and the story goes on
(taking up at the same time the can't language of a Bible prophet),
saying: (chap. ii, ver. 10,) "And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land."

Jonah then received a second mission to Nineveh, with which he
sets out; and we have now to consider him as a preacher. The
distress he is represented to have suffered, the remembrance of his
own disobedience as the cause of it, and the miraculous escape he is
supposed to have had, were sufficient, one would conceive, to have
impressed him with sympathy and benevolence in the execution of his
mission; but, instead of this, he enters the city with denunciation
and malediction in his mouth, crying: (chap. iii. ver. 4,) "Yet
forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

We have now to consider this supposed missionary in the last act
of his mission; and here it is that the malevolent spirit of a
Bible-prophet, or of a predicting priest, appears in all that
blackness of character that men ascribe to the being they call the
devil.

Having published his predictions, he withdrew, says the story,
to the east side of the city. But for what? not to contemplate, in
retirement, the mercy of his Creator to himself or to others, but to
wait, with malignant impatience, the destruction of Nineveh. It came
to pass, however, as the story relates that the Ninevites reformed,
and that God, according to the Bible phrase, repented him of the
evil he had said he would do unto them, and did it not. This, saith
the first verse of the last chapter, "displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry." His obdurate heart would rather that all
Nineveh should be destroyed, and every soul, young and old, perish
in its ruins, than that his prediction should not be fulfilled. To
expose the character of a prophet still more, a gourd is made to
grow up in the night, that promised him an agreeable shelter from
the heat of the sun, in the place to which he had retired, and the
next morning it dies.

Here the rage of the prophet becomes excessive, and he is ready to
destroy himself. "It is better, said he, for me to die than to
live." This brings on a supposed expostulation between the Almighty
and the prophet, in which the former says, "Doest thou well to be
angry for the gourd? And Jonah said, I do well to be angry even unto
death; Then, said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which
thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a
night, and perished in a night; and should not I spare Nineveh, that
great city, in which are more than sixscore thousand persons that
cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?"
Here is both the winding up of the satire and the moral of the
fable. As a satire, it strikes against the character of all the
Bible prophets, and against all the indiscriminate judgments upon
men, women, and children, with which this lying book, the Bible, is
crowded; such as Noah's flood, the destruction of the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah, the extirpation of the Canaanites, even to the
sucking infants, and women with child, because the same reflection,
that there are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left hand, meaning young
children, applies to all their cases. It satirizes also the supposed
partiality of the Creator for one nation more than for another.

As a moral, it preaches against the malevolent spirit of
prediction; for as certainly as a man predicts ill, he becomes
inclined to wish it. The pride of having his judgment right hardens
his heart, till at last he beholds with satisfaction, or sees with
disappointment, the accomplishment or the failure of his
predictions. This book ends with the same kind of strong and
well-directed point against prophets, prophecies, and indiscriminate
judgment, as the chapter that Benjamin Franklin made for the Bible,
about Abraham and the stranger, ends against the intolerant spirit
of religious persecution. Thus much for the book of Jonah.

[_Maksutov]

Of the poetical parts of the Bible, that are called prophecies,
I have spoken in the former part of the Age of Reason, and already
in this, where I have said that the word prophet is the Bible word for
poet, and that the flights and metaphors of those poets, many of
which have become obscure by the lapse of time and the change of
circumstances, have been ridiculously erected into things called
prophecies, and applied to purposes the writers never thought of.
When a priest quotes any of those passages, he unriddles it agreeably
to his own views, and imposes that explanation upon his congregation
as the meaning of the writer. The whore of Babylon has been the
common whore of all the priests, and each has accused the other of
keeping the strumpet; so well do they agree in their explanations.

There now remain only a few books, which they call books of the
lesser prophets, and as I have already shown that the greater are
impostors, it would be cowardice to disturb the repose of the little
ones. Let them sleep, then, in the arms of their nurses, the
priests, and both be forgotten together.

I have now gone through the Bible, as a man would go through a
wood with an axe on his shoulder, and fell trees. Here they lie; and
the priests, if they can, may replant them. They may, perhaps, stick
them in the ground, but they will never make them grow. I pass on to
the books of the New Testament.