and the Gospels and the Acts afterwards, will see
how the Christ myth grew from vagueness to precision under the shaping
imagination of the Church of the first century after the age of the
Apostles.

It is a significant fact that the appearances of Jesus after his
Resurrection were all made to the faithful, and his ascension took place
before them, without a single impartial person being allowed to witness
an event of which it was of the utmost importance for the world to have
positive assurance.

When we turn to the Gospels and the Acts, five documents whose
authorship is absolutely unknown, we find the most contradictory
accounts of what happened after the Resurrection. It may safely be
affirmed that five such witnesses would damn any case in a legal court
where the laws of evidence are respected.

These witnesses cannot even agree as to whether the risen Jesus was a
man or a ghost. Now he comes through a closed door, and anon he eats
broiled fish and honeycomb; now he vanishes, after walking and talking
with his disciples, and anon he allows the sceptical Thomas to examine
the wounds of his crucifixion as a proof that he was not a spirit, but
solid flesh and blood.

According to Matthew's account, Jesus first appeared to the women--as
is very probable! Mark says his first appearance was to Mary Magdalene
alone; Luke says it was two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

His subsequent appearances are recorded with the same harmony. While
Matthew makes him appear but once, Mark makes him appear three times--to
the women, to the two disciples going to Emmaus, and to the eleven
apostles. Luke makes him appear but twice, and John four times--to Mary
Magdalene alone, to the disciples in a room without Thomas, to the same
again with Thomas, and to the same once more at Tiberias. John is the
only one who tells the pretty story about Thomas, and John of course
is the only one who mentions the spear-thrust in Christ's side at the
crucifixion, because he wanted a hole for Thomas to put his hand into,
and the other evangelists had no need of such a provision. Matthew and
Mark relate that the disciples were told by an angel to go to Galilee,
while Luke keeps them in the Holy City, and Acts declares that Jesus
expressly "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem."

The ascension itself, which involved the last appearance of Jesus, as
well as his disappearance, is not related by Matthew, nor is it related