But it can be shown by internal evidence that the Bible is not entitled to credit as the word of God.  It can readily be proved that the first five books of the Bible, attributed to Moses, were not written by him nor in his time, but several hundred years afterwards.  Moses could not have described his own death, nor mentioned that he was buried in a valley in the land of Moab.  Similarly, the book of Joshua was not written by Joshua; it is manifest that Joshua could not write that Israel served the Lord not only in his days, but in the days of the elders that over-lived him.  The book of Judges is anonymous on the face of it.  The books of Samuel were not written by Samuel, for they relate many things that did not happen till after his death.

The history in the two books of Kings, which is little more than a history of assassinations, treachery, and war, sometimes contradicts itself; and several of the most extraordinary matters related in Kings are not mentioned in the companion books of Chronicles.  The book of Job has no internal evidence of being a Hebrew book; it appears to have been translated from another language into Hebrew; and it is the only book in the Bible that can be read without indignation or disgust.  It is an error to call the Psalms the Psalms of David because historical evidence shows that some of them were not written until long after the time of David.  The books of the prophets are wild, disorderly, and obscure compositions, the so-called prophecies in which do not refer to Jesus Christ, but to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at the time they were written or spoken.

I now go on to the book called the New Testament.  Had it been the object of Jesus Christ to establish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the system himself, or procured it to be written in His lifetime.  But there is no publication extant authenticated with his name.  All the books called the New Testament were written after his death.  He was a Jew by birth and profession, and he was the Son of God in like manner that every other person is; for the Creator is the Father of All.

The first four books—­Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—­are altogether anecdotal.  They relate events after they had taken place.  They tell what Jesus Christ did and said, and what others did and said to him; and in several instances they relate the same event differently.  Revelation, therefore, is out of the question with respect to these books.  The presumption, moreover, is that they are written by other persons than these whose name they bear.

The book of Acts of the Apostles belongs also to the anecdotal part.  All the rest of the New Testament, except the book of enigmas called the Revelation, are a collection of letters under the name of epistles, and the forgery of letters under the name of epistles.  One thing, however, is certain, which is that out of the matters contained in these books, together with the assistance of some old stories, the Church has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character of the person whose name it bears.  It has set up a religion of pomp and reverence in pretended imitation of a person whose life was humility and poverty.