Simon Greenleaf

“All that Christianity asks of men... is, that they would be consistent with themselves; that they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things; and that they would try and judge its actors and witnesses, as they try and judge other actors and witnesses in human tribunals.”

“The credit due to the testimony of witnesses depends upon, firstly, their honesty; secondly, their ability; thirdly, their number and the consistency of their testimony; fourthly, the conformity of their testimony with experience; and fifthly, the coincidence of their testimony with collateral circumstances.”

“In the absence of circumstances which generate suspicion, every witness is to be presumed credible, until the contrary is shown; the burden of impeaching his credibility lying on the objector.”

“The great truths which the apostles declared, were that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in him, could men hope for salvation.”

“A falsehood is always inconsistent with itself.”

“The proof of a conspiracy is generally circumstantial.”

“Let their testimony be sifted, as it were given in a court of justice, on the side of the adverse party, the witness being subjected to a rigorous cross-examination.”

“If they were morally honest, they were intellectually competent.”

“If the Gospels were fictions, the writers must have been consciously guilty of blasphemy.”

“Let the evangelists be tried by the same tests that other witnesses are tried by.”

“The desire of the guilty is not for truth.”