13 FEBRUARY 1971, Page 25

Sir: Hugh Trevor-Roper (23 Jan- uary), calls the Gospels 'palpable

rubbish'. What a pity that such a good historian should take such an unhistorical view!

Any fair-minded reading of the New Testament as a whole must see that many things happened against the expectation not only of Christ's Disciples, but of the Roman authorities, and of Jewish scholars and priests.

The Cross itself, the Resurrec- tion, the conversion of the dis- ciples from weak followers to fear- less missionaries were all unexpec- ted, and only gradually and reluc- tantly accepted by those who saw them happen. If these are historically untrue, as Mr Trdvor-Roper believes, how can we account for the following:

1. The persecution and trium- phant martyrdom of many early Christians — notably Stephen and James in the NT.

2. The continuation of this pro- cess through history down to our own day. Bonhoeffer, Schneider, Dibelius and many others resisted Hitler in the name of Christ: how come?

3. The implacable hatred of Christ by Paul before his conversion, and his love and sufferings for Christ after it. Does Mr Trevor-Roper really think that Paul could have loved and hated someone who never existed?

4. The tradition of the Last Supper linked to the death of Christ on the Cross is one of the concrete facts of Christ's life that Paul does write about (in 1 Corinthians).

5. Why did the teachings and peculiar worship of a small group of Jews suddenly ex- pand among Jews and Gen- tiles all over the Mediterran- ean?

The plain fact may be that Mr Trevor-Roper knows nothing about Christ, but that does not allow him to use his position as an historian to write palpable rubbish about the historical facts of the Christian Church.

There are of course many other reasons for believing the Christian Gospel. But the historical facts of Christ's influence on His contem- poraries cannot be denied. And this influence, whether one likes it or not, can only have come from someone who existed in the flesh, as a man in history.

Philip Clarke 22 Eltham Park Gardens, London sE9