The Age of Reason · Chapter
An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament explained
Paine systematically examines passages from the New Testament, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, that claim to be prophecies of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament.
What happens
Paine systematically examines passages from the New Testament, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, that claim to be prophecies of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament. He argues that these passages are misapplied, often taken out of context, and do not genuinely refer to Jesus. He critiques the credibility of dreams, the invention of devil possession, and the absurdity of treating mundane details as divine prophecy. Paine concludes that the Gospel accounts are fables and falsehoods, not revealed religion.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Biblical Inerrancy
Paine demonstrates contradictions and false quotations in the New Testament, undermining claims of divine authorship.
Reason vs. Revelation
Paine urges readers to trust their own reason over fables and dreams presented as revelation.
Critique of Organized Religion
He exposes the New Testament as an invention of the Christian church, not divine truth.
Characters to notice
- Thomas Paine
Author and critic, systematically deconstructing New Testament prophecies.
- Matthew
Gospel writer whose passages are examined and found to be false or misapplied.
- Jesus Christ
Central figure of the New Testament, whose claimed prophecies are scrutinized.
- Isaiah
Old Testament prophet whose words are quoted by Matthew but shown to be misused.
- David
Referenced in relation to Psalm 22 and the supposed prophecy about Judas.
- Judas
Mentioned in the context of a false prophecy from David about his betrayal.
Key passages
“The creation, which no human hand can counterfeit or falsify, and not in the written or printed book which, as Matthew has shown, can be altered or falsified by ignorance or design, is now making its way among us”
The natural world, which cannot be forged, is a more reliable source of truth than the Bible, which has been corrupted.
Paine contrasts the integrity of creation with the corruptibility of scripture.
“This affair of people being possessed with devils, and of casting them out, was the fable of the day when the books of the New Testament were written. It had not existence at any other time.”
The concept of demon possession was a contemporary myth, not a historical reality.
Paine dismisses New Testament accounts of exorcism as fictional.
“To make a monody into a prophecy is an absurdity.”
Turning a lament for a dead friend into a prediction about Jesus is ridiculous.
Paine criticizes Matthew's misuse of Isaiah 53.
“It is an injury to our own faculties, and to our ideas of his greatness, to imagine it would be about an old coat, or an old pair of breeches, or about anything which the common accidents of life, or the quarrels that attend it, exhibit every day.”
It demeans God to think he would prophesy about trivial matters like dividing clothing.
Paine ridicules the prophecy about casting lots for Jesus' garments.
“Since, then, there is no such prophecy, but a pretended prophecy of an old coat, the proper deduction is, there were no such things, and that the book of Matthew is fable and falsehood.”
Because the only prophecy offered is about a coat, the events described (like the earthquake and resurrection of saints) are fabrications.
Paine concludes that Matthew's Gospel is not historically reliable.
