CNT-10 NO RECORD OF APOSTLES’ DEATH.

NO RECORD OF APOSTLES’ DEATH.

One thing is remarkable; though each of the four Gos­pels devotes whole chapters to the minutest narration of all the particulars pertaining to the death of our Savior, there is not, in the whole of them, a single account or hint of the time or manner of the death of any of the apostles, with the exception of James, the brother of John. Acts 12:20. Thus, for example, the book of Matthew does not tell us what became of Matthew, nor of any other apostle; nor does the book of John tell us what be­came of John. The Epistles of Paul do not inform us what became of Paul; nor do the Epistles of Peter contain any intimation concerning the time and circumstances of his death. The writings of John present him as a witness of Christ’s life, and ministry, and sufferings; as banished to the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Christ; and as looking with fatherly love on his younger brethren, and having no greater joy than that his children walk in the truth. But they say nothing whatever of the close of his life, or the circumstances of his death.

Peter, in his first Epistle, written evidently in his old age, describes himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, as one of those who “were eye-witnesses of his majesty, when we were with him in the holy mount” (2Pe 1:10; 2Pe 1:18); as a “witness of the sufferings of Christ;” and as “an elder” and one who must shortly put off this taber­nacle, or die. But the Scripture gives us no record what­ever of the time or circumstances of his death. And there is no reasonable way to account for these facts, but to admit that the apostles were living when these books were written, and that after they died no one presumed to add to the writings they had left. In his second Epistle, Peter speaks of the writings of their beloved brother Paul, as among “the other Script­ures,” and as containing things “hard to be understood” (2Pe 3:16); and as no unauthorized manuscript would have been admitted to such companionship, these books must have been identified and authenticated before they could be received. This reference then leads us back still further to the writings of Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, whose numerous epistles give us frequent hints concerning his life and his ministry. To the Corinthians Paul wrote that Christ who died and rose “was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.” 1Co 15:6. In the Epistle to the Philippians he declares, “My bonds for Christ are manifest, in all the palace and in all other places;” and he expresses his intention to send Timothy to them, “presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me”Php 1:13; Php 2:22. In his Epistle to Philemon he represents himself as “Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” Phm 1:9. And in his second Epistle to Timothy, he speaks of having al­ready stood once in the presence of the emperor to whom he had appealed, saying, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gen­tiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”2Ti 4:16-17.

Here the Scriptures leave him; forsaken by Demas, hindered by Alexander the coppersmith; deserted in the hour of trial by brethren who feared the wrath of the imperial persecutor, and the fury of the fierce lions; yet saying, “I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; hence­forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing.” 2Ti 4:6-8. This is the last glimpse which we catch of Paul in the pages of the New Testament. For the rest, we must de­pend on other sources of information. Infidels complain that Deuteronomy is a forgery, because some other writer, perhaps Joshua, added a few lines at the end telling of Moses’ death. But the writer of the Acts of the Apostles leaves Paul alive, and no man dared to add a line to tell us when or how he died. The book closes thus: “And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the king­dom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man for­bidding him.” Now, if this book had been written after the martyrdom of the apostle Paul, it would most cer­tainly have contained an account of that event; but not one word does it say on that subject. It traces the apostle Paul, from the stoning of Stephen, which he sanctioned, and the persecution of Christians, in which he engaged, to his conversion, and on through his ministry, giving an account of journeyings, labors, mobs, imprisonments, and scourgings; telling how he endured stoning, shipwreck, and trials of various kinds, until it leaves him a prisoner who has appealed to Caesar, chained to a soldier in his hired house at Rome, teaching the gospel of the kingdom of God unhindered. He must have been living when that was written, and if so the book of Acts, as well as Paul’s Epistles, must have been written within about thirty years of the time when our Savior died; and as the first sentence in the book of Acts refers to a “former treatise” by the same author, namely the Gospel by Luke, that book must have been written at a still earlier date. The apostle Paul says, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching. For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his hire.”1Ti 5:17-18—Revised Version. Now we read in the Law of Moses, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn” (Deu 25:4); but we only find the rest of this quotation in the Gos­pel by Luke, who records that when our Lord sent forth his apostles he said, “Into whatsover house ye enter ... in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire”Luk 10:5; Luk 10:7.

Here we see that Paul, in his first Epistle to Timothy, written about AD 65, quotes the words of Jesus as re­corded in the Gospel written by Luke, joined with a pas­sage from the book of Deuteronomy, apparently calling both “the Scripture” and attributing authority to both; which seems to show that before the year AD 65, Luke’s Gospel was classed among the Scriptures, as it is today.

And, moreover, Luke was not the first one who wrote an account of our Savior’s life and ministry. For he commences his gospel with the statement that “many” had already “taken in hand to set forth in order a decla­ration of those things which were most surely believed” among Christians. Hence it appears that, within twenty-two years of the time of the crucifixion, there were “many” writers who had undertaken to record the great facts concerning the life and ministry of our Savior. Most, if not all, of these unauthorized records to which Luke refers have perished; but we still retain those which were written by apostolic authority, and which were re­ceived and endorsed by the church from the earliest ages.