might as well deny that such a man ever existed as
question their authenticity. The First Epistle to the Corinthians, which
is the longest and most dogmatic of the earlier ones, cannot have been
written after the year 58. In a considerable number of chronological
tables to which I have referred, the earliest date is the year 52, and
the latest 58.

To the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, which is undoubtedly the
earliest of all, the earliest date assigned is 47, and the latest 53.

Now it is ever to be remembered that in each of these--the First to the
Thessalonians and the First to the Corinthians--we have enunciations of
the great crowning supernatural event of Scripture--the Resurrection of
Christ and our Resurrection as depending upon it, which are unsurpassed
in the rest of Scripture.

So that in the first Christian writing which has come down to us, we
have the great fact of Supernatural Religion, which carries with it all
the rest.

The fullest enunciation of the evidences of the Resurrection is in a
writing whose date cannot be later than 58, and runs thus:--

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by
which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He
rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And that He
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that [196:1] He was
seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain unto this present [twenty-five years after the event]
but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of James, then of
all the Apostles, and last of all He was seen of me also." (1 Cor.
xv. 1.)

If the reader compares this with the accounts in any one of the Four,
he will find that it gives the fullest list of our Lord's appearances
which has come down to us, and this, be it remembered, forming part of
the most categorical declaration of what the Gospel is, to be found in
the New Testament. [196:1]

A man, then, writes in A.D. 57 or earlier, that another, Who had died in
A.D. 32 had been seen by a number of persons, and among these, by 500
persons at once, of whom the greater part were alive