of the gospel Jesus is the inexplicable silence of Paul concerning
him, may be seen in their vain effort to find in a passage put in
Paul's mouth by the unknown author of the book of _Acts_, evidence
that Paul does quote the sayings of Jesus. The passage referred to is
the following: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Paul is
made to state that this was a saying of Jesus. In the first place,
this quotation is not in the epistles of Paul, but in the _Acts_, of
which Paul was not the author; in the second place, there is no such
quotation in the gospels. The position, then, that there is not a
single saying of Jesus in the gospels which is quoted by Paul in his
many epistles is unassailable, and certainly fatal to the historicity
of the gospel Jesus.

Again, from Paul himself we learn that he was a zealous Hebrew, a
Pharisee of Pharisees, studying with Gamaliel in Jerusalem, presumably
to become a rabbi. Is it possible that such a man could remain totally
ignorant of a miracle worker and teacher like Jesus, living in the
same city with him? If Jesus really raised Lazarus from the grave, and
entered Jerusalem at the head of a procession, waving branches and
shouting, "hosanna"--if he was really crucified in Jerusalem, and
ascended from one of its environs--is it possible that Paul neither
saw Jesus nor heard anything about these miracles? But if he knew all
these things about Jesus, is it possible that he could go through the
world preaching Christ without ever once referring to them? It is more
likely that when Paul was studying in Jerusalem there was no
miraculous Jesus living or teaching in any part of Judea.

If men make their gods they also make their Christs. [Footnote:
Christianity and Mythology. J. M. Robertson, to whom the author
acknowledges his indebtedness, for the difference between Paul's Jesus