About the Work
The Age of Reason is a philosophical and theological treatise by Thomas Paine, written during the turbulent period of the French Revolution. The work is presented in two principal parts, with the first part composed near the close of 1793, a time when revolutionary France had beheaded its king and turned its wrath against established religion. Paine wrote the work in part to oppose atheism, having it translated into French “to stay the progress of atheism,” a move that endangered his life. The book was subsequently translated and circulated in France, with an early French publication suppressed so effectively that no copy from that year survives.
The work is a comprehensive examination and critique of organized Christianity, the Bible, and established church doctrine, while simultaneously presenting Paine’s own deistic philosophy—a belief in God based on reason and the evidence of nature rather than revelation, scripture, or ecclesiastical authority. The book engages in detailed textual analysis of both the Old and New Testaments, questioning their authorship, internal consistency, and moral content. It also presents a positive theology grounded in the observation of the natural world, scientific principles, and the conviction that the Creation itself constitutes the only true revelation from God.
The editor’s introduction, written by Moncure Daniel Conway, provides substantial historical context for the work’s composition, including details of Paine’s arrest on December 28, 1793, by order of the Committees of Public Safety and Surety General, and the circumstances surrounding the work’s translation and early circulation. Conway’s research involved comparing French and English versions of the text sentence by sentence, establishing relationships between different translations and recovering passages that had been dropped from certain editions.
Context
The work emerged from one of the most volatile periods in European history. Revolutionary France had executed its king, and the political climate had turned violently against both monarchy and established religion. Paine had previously pleaded for the life of Louis Capet—”Kill the king but spare the man”—and now found himself pleading for a more rational approach to religious belief, urging his contemporaries to disbelieve in the “King of kings” without confusing that idol with the Father of Mankind.
Paine completed the first part of the work near the close of 1793, only to be arrested in the early morning hours of December 28 by order of the Committees of Public Safety and Surety General. The work was translated into French by Francois Lanthenas in early 1793 and sent to Couthon, a member of the revolutionary government, who seemed offended by it. This early French publication was suppressed so completely that no copy from that period survives. The political danger was real: Lanthenas barely escaped when the Girondins were accused, and Danton persuaded Paine not to appear in the Convention.
The context of religious persecution and political terror shaped the work’s composition. Paine was opposing atheism at considerable personal risk, writing during a period of fury against the priesthood. The work thus occupies a distinctive position: it criticizes organized Christianity while defending belief in God, attacking the Bible while affirming natural religion, and challenging church authority while upholding moral truth and scientific inquiry.
Structure of the Book
The Age of Reason is organized into two principal parts, each containing a series of chapters that build a cumulative argument. The first part opens with the author’s profession of faith, establishing his deistic convictions, and proceeds through an examination of missions and revelations, the character and history of Jesus Christ, the bases of Christianity, and a detailed examination of those bases. It then moves to a discussion of true theology, followed by examinations of the Old and New Testaments, and concludes with chapters on true revelation, the nature of God, Christian theology versus true theology, the effects of Christianity on education, a comparison of Christianity with the religious ideas inspired by nature, the system of the universe, the advantages of many worlds in each solar system, the application of these ideas to the Christian system, and the means employed throughout history to deceive peoples.
The second part focuses on detailed examinations of the Old Testament and the New Testament, followed by a conclusion. The Old Testament examination addresses the authorship and credibility of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophetic books. The New Testament examination addresses the genealogies, authorship of the Gospels, the resurrection narratives, and the epistles of Paul.
The work’s structure reflects its dual purpose: to dismantle the claims of revealed religion through textual and historical criticism, and to construct a positive theology based on reason, nature, and scientific observation. The first part establishes the philosophical framework, while the second part applies that framework to detailed scriptural analysis.
Detailed Section-by-Section Summary
The Political and Personal Genesis of The Age of Reason
The editor, Moncure Daniel Conway, opens by situating the work in the volatile political context of 1793. Revolutionary France had beheaded its king, and its wrath turned against the “King of kings.” Thomas Paine had pleaded for Louis Capet—”Kill the king but spare the man”—and now pleaded that the people disbelieve in the King of kings without confusing that idol with the Father of Mankind. Conway quotes Paine’s own Preface to Part II, where Paine describes finishing Part I near the close of 1793, only to be arrested “about three in the morning” on December 28 by order of the Committees of Public Safety and Surety General. Conway emphasizes Paine’s phrase “in the state it has since appeared,” noting that on August 5, 1794, Francois Lanthenas wrote that he had translated the work in early 1793 and sent it to Couthon, who seemed offended. This early French publication was suppressed so effectively that no copy from 1793 survives. Conway explains that Paine had the work translated into French “to stay the progress of atheism,” endangering his life “by opposing atheism.” The time indicated by Lanthenas was late March 1793, amid fury against the priesthood, and Conway suggests Couthon’s offense endangered both Paine and Lanthenas. On May 31, Lanthenas barely escaped when the Girondins were accused, and Danton persuaded Paine not to appear in the Convention. Conway compared the French and English versions sentence by sentence, proving the 1794 translation to Merlin de Thionville was the same as that sent to Couthon in 1793, which recovered several interesting sentences, including a dropped tribute to Jesus: “trop peu imite, trop oublie, trop meconnu” (too little imitated, too forgotten, too unrecognized).
The True Meaning of Prophecy and the Nature of Revelation
The argument turns to the original meaning of “prophesying,” which was musical or poetic performance, not predicting the future. This is supported by biblical accounts of prophesying with pipes, tabrets, horns, harps, psalteries, and cymbals, and the story of Saul joining a company of prophets who were musicians and poets. Saul “prophesied badly,” and an “evil spirit from God” came upon him, which strips the word of religious meaning. Deborah and Barak are called prophets for composing a song, and David for being a musician and reputed author of the Psalms; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not called prophets. The “greater and lesser prophets” are thus “greater and lesser poets.” The author concludes that all commentaries and devotional respect based on this mistaken meaning are worthless, and that the Word of God cannot exist in written human language due to changing word meanings, translation errors, and copyist mistakes. The passage then attacks the New Testament. Jesus Christ did not write a system himself; the four gospels are “detached anecdotes,” covering only about eighteen months of his preaching. He was a carpenter’s son, probably uneducated, and his concealment before arrest contradicts his reputed divinity. The doctrine of redemption is a “quibble” on the word “death,” since the sentence on Adam was death, not crucifixion. The church’s system of pardons and purgatory derives from a “pecuniary” idea of justice, where one can pay another’s debt, which is not moral justice. True revelation is the Creation itself, which speaks a universal language. God is a first cause, discovered by reason. The 19th Psalm and parts of Job are “true deistical compositions.” Christian theology is “a species of atheism,” replacing God with a redeemer. True theology is natural philosophy, studying God’s works. Scientific principles, like those of the triangle and lever, are eternal and immutable, discovered, not invented, by man.
The Plurality of Worlds
Paine argues that had the matter of the six worlds been blended into one solitary globe, either no revolutionary motion would exist or insufficient motion to give humanity scientific knowledge, from which all mechanical arts derive. The Creator made nothing in vain and organized the universe most advantageously for man’s benefit. Each world’s inhabitants behold the revolutionary motions of other planets; all planets revolve in sight of each other, presenting the same “universal school of science” to all. The system of worlds next to us exhibits the same principles to its inhabitants, and so throughout immensity of space. Our ideas of the Creator’s almightiness, wisdom, and beneficence enlarge as we contemplate the universe’s extent. The “solitary idea of a solitary world” gives place to “the cheerful idea of a society of worlds.”
Application to the Christian System
The Christian system forms itself upon the idea of only one world, no greater than twenty-five thousand miles—an extent a man walking three miles per hour for twelve hours daily could circle in less than two years. Paine asks how the “solitary and strange conceit” arose that the Almighty, with millions of worlds dependent on his protection, should quit care of all the rest to die in our world because one man and one woman ate an apple. He asks whether every world had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a redeemer—in which case the Son of God would travel from world to world in endless succession of death. Rejecting the evidence of God’s works in creation has produced “wild and whimsical systems of faith.” Many religions may be morally good, but only one can be true, consistent with God’s works. The Christian system is contradicted by every evidence the heavens afford. Paine suggests some preachers may have believed a “pious fraud” could produce good, but fraud once established begets “a calamitous necessity of going on.” First preachers combined Christianity with Jesus’s morality, thinking it better than heathen mythology; the fraud continued through generations until lost in belief of its truth, encouraged by those making a livelihood preaching it. The church’s centuries-long persecution of science suggests it had record or tradition the system was originally a pious fraud.
The Means Employed to Deceive Peoples: Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy
Paine identifies three principal means of imposition: Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy. The first two are incompatible with true religion; the third ought always to be suspected. Regarding Mystery, everything we behold is in one sense a mystery—our existence, the vegetable world, how an acorn becomes an oak. But the fact, distinct from operating cause, is not a mystery because we see it. We know as much as necessary; what we cannot perform, the Creator performs for us. Mystery cannot apply to moral truth; God is a God of moral truth, not mystery. “Mystery is the antagonist of truth”—a fog of human invention obscuring truth. Religion, being belief in God and practice of moral truth, cannot connect with mystery. Belief in God arises out of necessity; moral truth is acting toward each other as God acts benignly toward all. We serve God by contributing to the happiness of the living creation, not by retiring into recluse life. Religion must be level to understanding of all; man learns religion by reflection, not as trade secrets. When men set up systems repugnant to human comprehension, they invented the word “mystery” as a bar to inquiry.
As mystery bewilders the mind, Miracle puzzles the senses—”the one was the lingo, the other the legerdemain.” Everything may be called a miracle; the elephant is no greater miracle than a mite, a mountain than an atom. To almighty power, making a million worlds is no more difficult than making one. A miracle is a miracle compared to our power, not compared to the power performing it. Mankind conceived laws by which nature acts; a miracle supposedly contradicts those laws. But unless we know the whole extent of nature’s laws, we cannot judge whether anything wonderful is beyond or contrary to natural power. A man ascending miles high would seem miraculous without knowledge of lighter-than-air gases and balloons; extracting sparks from the human body or moving iron without visible agent would seem miraculous without knowledge of electricity and magnetism; restoring drowned persons to life would seem miraculous without knowing animation can be suspended without extinction. There are also sleight-of-hand performances, mechanical and optical deceptions—including an exhibition in Paris of ghosts or spectres. Since we know not the extent of nature or art, there is no criterion to determine what a miracle is; mankind is subject to continual imposition. Nothing is more inconsistent than supposing the Almighty would use means called miracles that subject the performer to suspicion of imposture, the relator to suspicion of lying, and the doctrine to suspicion of fabulous invention. Miracle is the most inconsistent mode of evidence: it implies lameness in the doctrine preached, degrades the Almighty into “a show-man, playing tricks,” and belief depends not on the miracle but on the reporter’s credit. If Paine claimed a hand appeared in the air and wrote his book, nobody would believe him—not even if it were fact. A real miracle would face the same fate as falsehood. The question arises: “Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie?” We have never seen nature go out of her course but have reason to believe millions of lies told; therefore it is millions to one the reporter of a miracle tells a lie. The story of Jonah and the whale borders on marvellous; it would approach miracle if Jonah had swallowed the whale.
The Authority of Testimony and the Examination of the Pentateuch
Paine argues that only Euclid’s Elements of Geometry among ancient books authoritatively claims universal consent, because it is self-evident demonstration independent of authorship, time, place, or circumstance. The books ascribed to Moses, Joshua, and Samuel are books of testimony testifying things “naturally incredible”; belief rests on authorship certainty and credit given to testimony. If authorship is disproved, authority collapses—forged or anonymous testimony cannot exist, especially for miracles like talking with God face-to-face or the sun and moon standing still. Works of genius (Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero) retain merit even anonymous; nobody believes Homer’s Trojan story literally. But disbelieving Bible matters leaves Moses an “imposter.” Ancient historians from Herodotus to Tacitus are credited only where probable; otherwise one must believe Tacitus’s miracles of Vespasian curing a lame and blind man, and Josephus’s miracle of the Pamphilian sea opening for Alexander—equally authenticated as Bible miracles yet disbelieved. Paine proceeds to examine the Pentateuch, intending to show these books spurious, not written by Moses, nor in his time, but several hundred years later by “ignorant and stupid pretenders.” He confines evidence to the books themselves, meeting advocates “on their own ground.”
Grammatical evidence shows that Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers use third person throughout (“the Lord said unto Moses”). Numbers xii.3 has Moses called “very meek”—if self-written, he was vain and arrogant; either way, the books fail. Deuteronomy is dramatical: the writer introduces Moses speaking, then resumes, four times. The writer closes with Moses’s death, burial in Moab, age 110, and that no man knows his sepulchre “unto this day”—impossible for Moses to state. The anonymous writer contradicts himself about who buried Moses; he never explains his source for Moses’s speeches. The fourth commandment in Deuteronomy differs from Exodus’s version (Exodus cites creation; Deuteronomy cites the exodus from Egypt). Deuteronomy contains laws absent elsewhere, including the brutal law (xxi.18-21) authorizing parents to stone stubborn children—Paine notes priests favor Deuteronomy because it preaches tithes (xxv.4, “thou shalt not muzzle the ox”).
Historical and chronological evidence further discredits Mosaic authorship. Genesis xiv.14 says Abraham pursued captors “unto Dan.” But Dan was originally Laish, seized by the Danites after Samson’s death (Judges xviii.27-29), 331 years after Moses’s death (B.C. 1451) per historical arrangement. Paine analogizes to New York (formerly New Amsterdam, renamed 1664) and Havre Marat (formerly Havre-de-Grace, renamed 1793). The chronological arrangement in Judges places the event 20 years after Joshua’s death, but both exclude Moses. Genesis xxxvi.31 mentions kings reigning in Edom “before there reigned any king over the children of Israel”—impossible before Saul’s time, implying at least two kings (David’s era). This passage appears word-for-word in 1 Chronicles i.43, written after the monarchy; thus Genesis is taken from Chronicles, probably not older than Homer or Æsop.
Paine calls Moses’s character “the most horrid that can be imagined”—a religious war-maker. He cites Numbers xxxi.13-18: Moses’s order to kill male children and women who had known men, keeping virgin girls “for yourselves”—32,000 women-children consigned to debauchery. He calls this butchering boys, massacring mothers, debauching daughters, and asks mothers and daughters to imagine their feelings; religion that tortures social ties is false. The chapter details plunder division with “the Lord’s tribute”—priestly hypocrisy. The Bible is “a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy,” ascribing man’s wickedness to God’s orders. Further evidence: Exodus xvi.35 says Israelites ate manna until they came to the borders of Canaan—beyond Moses’s lifetime (he died in the wilderness); Joshua v.12 records manna ceasing after crossing Jordan. Deuteronomy iii.11 mentions Og’s iron bedstead at Rabbath of the children of Ammon, nine cubits by four (16 feet 4 inches by 7 feet 4 inches)—but Rabbah was not taken until four hundred years after Moses’s death (2 Sam. xii.26, Joab against Rabbah).
The Book of Joshua and Its Impossibilities
Paine proceeds to Joshua: Joshua was Moses’s successor, a military man, chief 25 years (B.C. 1451-1426). The book is written in third person; Joshua vi.27 says “his fame was noised throughout all the country”—absurd for self-description. Joshua xxiv.31 says Israel served the Lord “all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over-lived Joshua”—impossible for Joshua to write after his death. Joshua x.14, about the sun standing still on Gibeon and moon in Ajalon, implies centuries of time after the event. A footnote calls the tale self-detecting fable, noting no nation knows of it, questioning why the moon needed to stand still in daytime, comparing it to Deborah and Barak’s song and Mahomet’s figurative declaration; Joshua should have commanded the earth to stand still.
Joshua’s Authorship Refuted
The book of Joshua cannot have been written by the man whose name it bears. The repeated phrase “unto this day” (as in Joshua viii. 28-29, x. 27, and xv. 63) reveals a writer living long after the events described, not a contemporary conqueror. The mention of the Jebusites dwelling with Judah at Jerusalem “unto this day” (xv. 63) is a particular clue, setting up a later comparison with the book of Judges.
Judges: An Anonymous Epitome
The book of Judges is “altogether fatherless,” with no known author. It opens with “Now after the death of Joshua” (i. 1), a parallel to Joshua’s own opening after Moses, suggesting the same unknown hand. Chapter ii is an epitome covering 306 years, from Joshua’s death (B.C. 1426) to Samson’s (B.C. 1120), and was written no earlier than David’s time. Judges i. 8 states that Judah “had fought against Jerusalem, and taken it,” proving composition after that city’s capture. Since Jerusalem was originally Jebus, the Jebusite capital, and David took it (2 Samuel v. 4; 1 Chron. xiv. 4) with no earlier capture recorded, the book must postdate David. The silence about utter destruction implies a capitulation, with the Jebusites remaining.
Ruth: An Idle Story
Ruth is “an idle, bungling story, foolishly told, nobody knows by whom, about a strolling country-girl creeping slily to bed to her cousin Boaz.” Despite its triviality, it is one of the best books in the Bible, being free from the murder and rapine that fill the others.
Samuel: Not by Samuel
The book of Samuel was not written by the prophet Samuel. The story of Saul seeking his father’s asses is told as ancient history, and the writer explains the term “seer” (1 Samuel ix. 9) as the former word for “prophet,” indicating a later author. Samuel’s death and burial (1 Samuel xxv., B.C. 1060) occur before events in the same book that extend to B.C. 1056, Saul’s death four years later. 2 Samuel begins four years after Samuel’s death and extends forty-three years beyond it.
Challenge to the Priests
Paine declares he has proven that Genesis through Judges lack authenticity, demanding that priests answer the evidence against their “blasphemous fraud.” He contrasts the cruelties of the Bible with the “pure and moral religion of deism.”
Kings and Chronicles: A History of Rascals
Kings and Chronicles are historical and anonymous, concerning the Jewish kings, “a parcel of rascals.” Kings spans B.C. 1015 (Solomon) to B.C. 588 (Zedekiah’s captivity by Nebuchadnezzar), a period of 427 years. Chronicles covers the same period by another author, though its last two verses extend to B.C. 536 and do not belong to the book. The history records seventeen kings and one queen of Judah, and nineteen kings of Israel after the nation split at Solomon’s death. It is a history of assassinations: Jehu, anointed by Elisha, murdered Ahab’s seventy children (2 Kings x.), and Menahem ripped up pregnant women of Tiphsah (2 Kings xv. 16). The “chosen people” is a lie invented by priests.
Contradictions and Omissions
The books contradict each other: 2 Kings i. 17 dates Joram of Judah’s reign to the second year of Joram of Israel, while viii. 16 says the fifth. Chronicles omits Jeroboam’s dried-up hand (1 Kings xiii.), Elijah’s fiery chariot (2 Kings ii. 11), Elisha’s curse on children (ii. 24), and the revived dead man (xiii. 21). Kings and Chronicles mention only Isaiah (and Jeremiah in Chronicles’ last chapters), ignoring thirteen other prophets listed with dates before Christ.
Genesis Manufactured
Genesis xxxvi. 31 is identical to 1 Chronicles i. 43, referring to later kings. Chronicles mentions Zedekiah (iii. 15), B.C. 588, over 860 years after Moses. Genesis is thus not as ancient as Homer (by 300+ years) and is about the age of Æsop’s Fables.
Ezra: Cutting and Shuffling
Ezra’s first three verses duplicate 2 Chronicles’ last two, showing “cutting and shuffling.” Chronicles’ last verse breaks mid-phrase with “up.” Ezra was written about B.C. 536 after the Babylonian return, and Ezra and Nehemiah were returned persons. Their lists of returned families err: Ezra’s particulars total 29,818 against a claimed 42,360 (an error of 12,542), and Nehemiah’s total 31,089 against the same claim (an error of 11,271).
Esther: A Fabulous Tale
Paine dismisses Esther as a fabulous and anonymous story of a woman offering herself as kept mistress to Ahasuerus, rival to Queen Vashti, who refused a drunken king after seven days’ drinking.
Job: A Gentile Book
Job differs from prior books, containing no treachery or murder, but meditations on life’s vicissitudes, with “willing submission and involuntary discontent.” Hebrew commentators Abenezra and Spinoza held it was not a Hebrew book but translated from another language, authored by a Gentile. The name Satan and the two convocations of “sons of God” do not correspond to Hebrew ideas.
Job’s Scientific Mind
The book of Job shows a mind cultivated in science, unlike the Jews, who were ignorant of natural philosophy. The astronomical names Pleiades, Orion, and Arcturus are Greek, not Hebrew; Jews adopted them without translation, showing no knowledge of astronomy. Jews translated Gentile literary productions into Hebrew, as Proverbs xxxi.1 cites “The word of king Lemuel,” a Gentile, not a king of Israel or Judah. Job stands unconnected to Hebrew writings and has all circumstantial evidence of being originally a Gentile book. Bible chronologists affixed Job to B.C. 1520 during Israelite bondage in Egypt, with no more authority than Paine claiming it a thousand years earlier. It is probably older than any Bible book and the only one readable without indignation. Ancient Gentiles were likely just and moral, not addicted to Jewish cruelty; their statues personified virtue and vice, not worshipped idols.
Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes
Psalms are a collection from different song-writers; Psalm 137 commemorates Babylonian captivity, over 400 years after David. Proverbs are also collected from other nations; Proverbs xxv.1 mentions men of Hezekiah copying Solomon’s proverbs 250 years after his death—Solomon is the putative father of sayings he never uttered. Ecclesiastes reflects a worn-out debauchee—Solomon, with 700 wives and 300 concubines, lived fast and died at 58. Natural philosophy and science are the true theology, teaching admiration of the Creator. Solomon’s Songs are amorous and foolish, placed after Ecclesiastes with chronology B.C. 1014, when Solomon was nineteen forming his seraglio.
Isaiah: Prose Run Mad
Isaiah is “prose run mad”—incoherent, bombastical rant. Only chapters xxxvi-xxxix form history, concerning Hezekiah. Chapters xliv-xlv compliment Cyrus, written 162 years after Isaiah’s death (B.C. 698 to B.C. 536). Isaiah vii.14 (“a virgin shall conceive”) refers to Ahaz’s sign—the child of the prophetess, not Jesus. The sequel in 2 Chronicles xxviii shows the prophecy failed: Ahaz was defeated, 120,000 slaughtered, Jerusalem plundered, 200,000 carried captive.
Jeremiah: A Suspected Traitor
Jeremiah was suspected as Nebuchadnezzar’s traitor. His potter-and-clay metaphor (ch. xviii) leaves escape clauses both ways. Chapters xxxvii and xxxviii contradict each other on his imprisonment’s cause. Chapter xxxix and lii begin as if the siege were unknown. Jeremiah advised Zedekiah to surrender, lied to the princes about his conference, and prophesied Zedekiah would die in peace—but the king’s sons were slain, his eyes put out, and he died in prison. Jeremiah joined Nebuchadnezzar, prophesying against Egypt. Paine reiterates that “prophet” was the Bible-word for poet and musical performer; the seer (chozeh, “gazer”) was distinct until Saul banished wizards.
On Prophets and Prophesying
Paine distinguishes between the modern meaning of “prophet” (foretelling distant future events) and the Old Testament meaning. The gospel writers needed to stretch the term’s meaning to apply Old Testament passages to New Testament times. In the Old Testament, prophesying by seers and prophets referred only to contemporary matters—battles, journeys, enterprises, pending circumstances, or present difficulties—not distant futures. Paine compares this to fortune-telling: casting nativities, predicting riches, marriages, conjuring for lost goods. He attributes the elevation of these “poetical, musical, conjuring, dreaming, strolling gentry” to Christian church fraud and modern ignorance, not Jewish practice.
Party Prophets
Prophets belonged to parties and prophesied for or against according to their affiliation, like modern political writers. After the Jews divided into Judah and Israel, each party’s prophets accused the other of being false prophets. This began under rival kings Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Paine recounts the story from 1 Kings xiii: a Judah-party prophet cursed Jeroboam’s altar at Bethel; on return, an Israel-party prophet claimed an angel told him to bring him back, but “he lied unto him.” The Judah prophet was found dead on the road, called a true prophet by his own party.
Elisha’s Prophesying
In 2 Kings iii, Jehoshaphat (Judah), Joram (Israel), and the king of Edom allied against Moab. Distressed for water, they consulted Elisha (a Judahmite prophet). Elisha rebuked Joram: “What have I to do with thee, get thee to the prophets of thy father and the prophets of thy mother,” but respected Jehoshaphat’s presence. Elisha called for a minstrel; when the minstrel played, “the hand of the Lord came upon him.” His prophecy—”Make this valley full of ditches”—was merely telling them to dig for water, what any countryman could say. Paine calls this “the farce of the conjurer.” Elisha also cursed forty-two children whom two she-bears devoured; Paine compares this to the Dragon of Wantley ballad.
Ezekiel and Daniel
Paine questions whether these books are genuine but believes they were written by Ezekiel and Daniel because: (1) they lack internal evidence against authorship; (2) they were written after the Babylonish captivity began; (3) their writing style matches the authors’ captive condition. As prisoners in Babylon, they wrote in concealed, metaphorical terms—dreams and visions served as “a cypher, or secret alphabet” for correspondence about recovering Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s cherubims meant the temple; “a wheel within a wheel” signified political contrivance. Commentators who try to expound these books as prophecies show “fraud or extreme folly.” Ezekiel xxix. 11 prophesies Egypt uninhabited for forty years, which never happened—therefore false.
The Book of Jonah
Paine suggests Jonah may be a Gentile book, possibly a fable satirizing Bible-prophets. Jonah is a disobedient prophet fleeing to Tarshish; Gentile mariners, worshipping one Supreme Being (not idolaters as Jews claimed), cast lots, found Jonah guilty, but tried to save him, praying not to perish for his life. Finally they cast him into the sea; a fish swallowed him. His prayer is “made-up,” taken from Psalms, indicating fabrication. After being vomited onto dry land, Jonah preaches destruction to Nineveh: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” When Ninevites reform and God spares them, Jonah is angry. The gourd episode reveals his malevolent character. The moral: prediction breeds desire for its fulfillment. The satire applies to Noah’s flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Canaanite extirpation—judgments on those “that cannot discern between their right hand and their left.” Paine compares this to Benjamin Franklin’s chapter about Abraham and the stranger.
New Testament Introduction
The New Testament, founded on Old Testament prophecies, must follow its foundation’s fate. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus likely existed—”It may be so, and what then?”—as Robinson Crusoe was suggested by Alexander Selkirk. Paine contends against “the fable of Jesus Christ,” calling the virgin birth story “blasphemously obscene”—a young woman “debauched by a ghost,” with Joseph later “rivaling the ghost.” This resembles Jupiter and Leda or Europa, showing Christian faith built on heathen mythology.
Genealogies Contradict
Matthew’s genealogy (chapter 1) and Luke’s (chapter 3) contradict each other in every particular. Matthew lists 28 generations from David to Christ through Joseph; Luke lists 43. Only David and Joseph appear in both. If Matthew speaks truth, Luke speaks falsehood, and vice versa; neither can be believed. Paine provides both lists side by side. His note calculates Matthew’s average generation at 40 years—absurd since Solomon had wives before twenty-one. “It is not even a reasonable lie.”
Authorship Doubts
No direct proof exists that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the Gospels; this proves “doubtfulness,” the opposite of belief. The disordered history, silence of one book on matters in another, and disagreements imply “productions of some unconnected individuals, many years after” the events. The immaculate conception story is absent from Mark and John, differently related in Matthew (angel to Joseph).
The Resurrection Narratives Examined
Paine argues that the crucifixion accounts in Mark, Luke, and John omit the earthquake, rending rocks, opening graves, and resurrected dead men that Matthew alone reports. If these events truly occurred and the authors were the apostles themselves, they could not have failed to record such momentous occurrences—the resurrection of saints being more significant than an earthquake, which is natural and proves nothing. Paine demands details Matthew fails to provide: the identities of the resurrected saints, who saw them, what became of them, whether they appeared clothed or naked, reclaimed property, or died again. He ridicules the story as purposeless, comparing the saints to Jonah’s gourd.
Examining the resurrection accounts, Paine notes contradictions: Matthew says Jews requested a guard from Pilate; other books mention none. The women’s visit differs—Matthew says dawn, Mark sunrise, John dark; Luke names different women, John says Mary Magdalene came alone. The angel’s position varies: outside on the stone (Matthew), inside on the right (Mark), two standing (Luke), two sitting (John). John says Christ himself spoke to Mary. Paine argues such contradictory testimony would constitute perjury in court. Matthew’s “until this day” expression proves the book was written long after the events. The guard’s story is self-contradictory: sleeping men cannot know who stole the body.
Regarding post-resurrection appearances, Matthew has the eleven going to Galilee; John and Luke place them in Jerusalem the same evening. Mark mentions no Galilean meeting. Luke’s Emmaus narrative occupies the entire day. Paine notes the writers agree only on the “skulking privacy” of these appearances. Paul alone claims five hundred saw Christ—hearsay from one who initially disbelieved. The ascension is omitted by Matthew and John, treated carelessly by Mark and Luke, who disagree on location (Jerusalem versus Bethany). Paine compares Christ’s ascension to Mahomet’s and mentions Jude’s dispute between Michael and the devil over Moses’ body.
Paine concludes the contradictions prove the writers were neither eyewitnesses nor conspiring imposters, but later authors transmitting legendary apparition stories. He asserts no New Testament existed until three hundred years after Christ, that church councils voted on which writings to include, and cites Faustus (quoted by Augustine, circa 400) denying apostolic authorship. He argues forgery was easier than for Homer or Euclid, since anyone could write such poorly-constructed narratives. He concludes with his deist profession and notes the French Revolution’s suppression of church miracles.
The Jewish Authorship of the New Testament and the Fraud of Prophecy
The author contends that the writers of the New Testament were “half Jews,” a fact betrayed by their constant references to Moses—whom he calls the “chief assassin and impostor”—and the prophets. The church has compounded this fraud by arranging the Bible and the Testament so that they seem to “reply to each other,” rummaging through prophecies, types, and signs and fitting them together like “old locks and pick-lock keys.” He dismisses the Genesis story of Eve and the serpent as foolish, noting that while the enmity between men and serpents is natural—serpents bite the heel and men strike the head—the tale has been twisted into prophecy and promise. Likewise, Isaiah’s lying imposition to Ahaz, that a virgin shall conceive as a sign of conquest, was perverted into a prophecy of Christ even though Ahaz was defeated.
The Sign of Jonah and the Failure of Typology
The author turns to Jonah and the whale, which has been made into a sign and type: Jonah is Jesus, and the whale is the grave. He cites Matthew xii. 40, where Christ claims he will be three days and three nights in the earth, yet the actual time was only about thirty-six hours—Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night, rising by sunrise Sunday. This discrepancy fits as well as the Genesis bite or Isaiah’s virgin, and, he wryly notes, “will pass in the lump of orthodox things.”
Paul’s Epistles and the Lack of Witness
The fourteen epistles of Paul fill the remainder of the Testament, but whether Paul wrote them matters little, since the writer attempts to prove doctrine by argument rather than by witness. Paul never claims to have seen the resurrection or ascension, and he openly declares he had not believed them. His Damascus experience was nothing miraculous: he escaped with his life, which many struck by lightning have not, and losing sight for three days and being unable to eat or drink is common in such conditions. His companions suffered nothing similar, led him the rest of the journey, and pretended no vision.
Paul’s Character and the Doctrine of Resurrection
The author characterizes Paul as violent and fanatical, persecuting with as much heat as he later preached. The stroke changed his thinking but not his constitution; as a Jew or a Christian, he was the same zealot. “Such men are never good moral evidences of any doctrine they preach,” the author writes, for they are always in extremes. Paul’s doctrine of bodily resurrection is meant to prove immortality, but the author finds it evidence against immortality: if he dies in this body and is raised in the same body, that is presumptive evidence he shall die again. Resurrection no more secures against repeated dying than a past ague-fit secures against another. To believe in immortality requires a more elevated idea than this “gloomy doctrine.”
Preferring a Better Body and the Consciousness of Existence
As a matter of choice and hope, the author would rather have a better body and a more convenient form. Every animal excels us in something: winged insects pass more space in minutes than man in an hour, the smallest fish exceeds us in motion, the sluggish snail can ascend from a dungeon where man would perish, and a spider can launch from the top playfully. Man’s powers are limited, and his heavy frame is ill-constructed for extensive enjoyment—nothing induces us to wish Paul’s opinion true. It is “too little for the magnitude of the scene, too mean for the sublimity of the subject.” The only conceivable idea of another life is the consciousness of existence, and its continuance is immortality. Consciousness is not confined to the same form or matter, even in this life: we have not the same form, nor in any case the same matter, as twenty or thirty years ago, yet we are conscious of being the same persons. Legs and arms—almost half the human frame—are not necessary; they may be lost and consciousness remain. Were wings or other appendages substituted, consciousness would not alter. We know not how much or how little of our composition creates this consciousness; all beyond is “like the pulp of a peach, distinct and separate from the vegetative speck in the kernel.”
Thought and Immortality
Who can say by what fine action of fine matter a thought is produced in the mind? Yet a thought, once produced, is capable of becoming immortal—the only production of man with that capacity. Statues of brass and marble perish, and copies are not the same statues or workmanship, as a copy of a picture is not the same picture. But print and reprint a thought a thousand times, carve it in wood or engrave it on stone—the thought is eternally and identically the same. It has the capacity of unimpaired existence, unaffected by change of matter, essentially distinct from everything else. If the thing produced has the capacity of being immortal, it is more than a token that the power that produced it—the self-same thing as consciousness of existence—can be immortal also, independent of the matter it was first connected with, as the thought is of the printing or writing it first appeared in. The one idea is not more difficult to believe than the other, and we can see that one is true.
The Creation Demonstrates Immortality
That consciousness is not dependent on the same form or matter is demonstrated to our senses in the works of creation. A numerous part of the animal creation preaches better than Paul the belief of a life hereafter. Their little life resembles an earth and a heaven, a present and a future state—”immortality in miniature.” The most beautiful parts of creation to our eye are winged insects, which are not originally so. They acquire form and brilliancy by progressive changes, as the creeping caterpillar worm transforms into the butterfly, a living emblem of the soul’s own capacity for a higher and more glorious existence beyond its present crawling state.
Main Arguments
The central argument of The Age of Reason is that true religion consists in belief in God and the practice of moral truth, and that this religion is accessible to all through reason and the observation of nature, without the need for revelation, scripture, or ecclesiastical authority. Paine argues that the Creation itself is the only true revelation, speaking a universal language comprehensible to all people, whereas written revelations are subject to the corruption of translation, changing word meanings, and copyist errors.
Paine contends that the Bible cannot be the Word of God because it is a human production filled with contradictions, absurdities, and immoralities. He argues that the books of the Old Testament were not written by their attributed authors: Moses could not have written Deuteronomy, which records his own death and burial; Joshua could not have written the book bearing his name, which refers to events “unto this day”; and Genesis contains references to kings and places that did not exist until centuries after Moses. The Pentateuch, he argues, was written by “ignorant and stupid pretenders” several hundred years after the events they describe.
The work argues that the New Testament is equally unreliable. The four Gospels are “detached anecdotes” covering only about eighteen months of Jesus’s preaching, written by unknown individuals many years after the events. The genealogies of Matthew and Luke contradict each other in every particular, with Matthew listing twenty-eight generations from David to Christ and Luke listing forty-three. The resurrection narratives contain irreconcilable contradictions regarding the time of the women’s visit, the position of the angel, and the location of Christ’s appearances. Such contradictory testimony, Paine argues, would constitute perjury in court.
Paine argues that the doctrine of redemption is a “quibble” on the word “death,” since the sentence on Adam was death, not crucifixion. The church’s system of pardons and purgatory derives from a “pecuniary” idea of justice, where one can pay another’s debt, which is not moral justice. Christian theology, he contends, is “a species of atheism,” replacing God with a redeemer.
The work also argues that the three principal means of religious imposition are Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy. Mystery is “the antagonist of truth,” a fog of human invention obscuring truth. Miracle is the most inconsistent mode of evidence, implying lameness in the doctrine preached and degrading the Almighty into “a show-man, playing tricks.” Prophecy, in the Old Testament sense, referred to musical or poetic performance, not prediction of the future; the “greater and lesser prophets” are thus “greater and lesser poets.”
Key Concepts
True Revelation: Paine’s central positive concept is that the Creation itself constitutes the only true revelation from God. Unlike written scriptures, which are subject to translation errors and changing word meanings, the Creation speaks a universal language comprehensible to all people in all times and places. The 19th Psalm and parts of Job are identified as “true deistical compositions” because they celebrate the natural world as God’s handiwork.
True Theology: Paine equates true theology with natural philosophy—the study of God’s works through scientific inquiry. Scientific principles, such as those of the triangle and lever, are eternal and immutable, discovered rather than invented by man. The study of nature enlarges our ideas of the Creator’s almightiness, wisdom, and beneficence.
Plurality of Worlds: Paine develops the concept that the universe contains a “society of worlds,” each with its own inhabitants who behold the revolutionary motions of other planets. This plurality demonstrates the Creator’s power and beneficence, and it undermines the Christian system, which forms itself upon the idea of only one world no greater than twenty-five thousand miles in extent.
Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy: These three means of imposition are used by religious systems to deceive peoples. Mystery is a bar to inquiry, invented when men set up systems repugnant to human comprehension. Miracle puzzles the senses and subjects the performer to suspicion of imposture. Prophecy, properly understood, referred to poetic and musical performance, not prediction of future events.
Consciousness and Immortality: Paine argues that the only conceivable idea of another life is the continuance of consciousness. Consciousness is not confined to the same form or matter, as we are not the same form or matter we were twenty or thirty years ago, yet remain conscious of being the same persons. A thought, once produced, is capable of becoming immortal—the only production of man with that capacity. Print and reprint a thought a thousand times, and it remains eternally and identically the same.
Immortality in Miniature: Paine observes that a numerous part of the animal creation preaches the belief of a life hereafter. The caterpillar’s transformation into the butterfly demonstrates that living beings undergo progressive changes, acquiring form and brilliancy by stages. Their little life resembles “an earth and a heaven, a present and a future state.”
Pious Fraud: Paine suggests that some early preachers may have believed a “pious fraud” could produce good, combining Christianity with Jesus’s morality as better than heathen mythology. The fraud continued through generations until lost in belief of its truth, encouraged by those making a livelihood preaching it.
Themes
The work’s deeper themes reflect the intellectual crisis of the late eighteenth century, when traditional religious authority faced challenges from reason, science, and political revolution. Paine’s treatise embodies the Enlightenment conviction that truth must be accessible to all through universal human faculties rather than through privileged revelation or ecclesiastical mediation. The theme of universal accessibility runs throughout: religion must be level to the understanding of all, learned by reflection rather than received as trade secrets.
The relationship between scientific knowledge and religious truth forms another pervasive theme. Paine presents scientific inquiry as a form of worship, with natural philosophy teaching admiration of the Creator. The study of astronomy, in particular, enlarges our conception of divine power and beneficence. The Christian system, by contrast, is contradicted by every evidence the heavens afford, and the church’s centuries-long persecution of science suggests it had record or tradition that its system was originally a pious fraud.
The theme of moral truth versus institutional religion appears in Paine’s contrast between the “pure and moral religion of deism” and the cruelties of biblical narrative. He calls Moses’s character “the most horrid that can be imagined”—a religious war-maker who ordered the killing of male children and the keeping of virgin girls “for yourselves.” He contrasts Bible cruelties with the moral religion that teaches acting toward each other as God acts benignly toward all.
The work also explores the theme of intellectual independence, particularly in its treatment of the prophets as party members who prophesied for or against according to their affiliation, like modern political writers. This demystification of religious authority extends to Paine’s treatment of church councils that voted on which writings to include in the New Testament, and his argument that forgery was easier for biblical writers than for Homer or Euclid, since anyone could write such poorly-constructed narratives.
The Author’s Conclusions
Paine concludes that the Bible is “a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy,” ascribing man’s wickedness to God’s orders. He declares that he has proven the books from Genesis through Judges lack authenticity, and he challenges priests to answer the evidence against their “blasphemous fraud.” The Christian system, he concludes, is contradicted by every evidence the heavens afford, and the doctrine of redemption is a quibble on the word “death.”
The work concludes with Paine’s reflections on immortality and consciousness. He argues that the doctrine of bodily resurrection is evidence against immortality, since being raised in the same body is presumptive evidence of dying again. Instead, he finds the idea of immortality in the capacity of thought to be reproduced identically through print and reprint, unaffected by change of matter. The consciousness of existence is the only conceivable idea of another life, and its continuance is immortality.
Paine finds evidence for this view in the works of creation, where a numerous part of the animal creation preaches the belief of a life hereafter. The caterpillar’s transformation into the butterfly demonstrates “immortality in miniature”—the acquisition of form and brilliancy by progressive changes. The work ends with this natural image, suggesting that the same power that produces consciousness can preserve it independent of the matter with which it was first connected.
Significance
The Age of Reason occupies a significant place in the history of religious and philosophical thought, representing one of the most comprehensive attacks on revealed religion ever written by a major political figure. Its significance lies partly in its historical context: written during the French Revolution, it opposed both atheism and organized Christianity, defending belief in God while rejecting every form of ecclesiastical authority and scriptural revelation.
The work’s detailed textual criticism of the Bible anticipated later scholarly approaches to scripture, examining questions of authorship, internal consistency, and historical anachronism. Paine’s arguments about the impossibility of Moses writing Deuteronomy, which records his own death, and the contradictions between the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, remain part of critical biblical scholarship.
The work also represents a significant statement of deistic philosophy, arguing that true religion consists in belief in God and the practice of moral truth, accessible to all through reason and the observation of nature. Its positive theology, grounded in scientific inquiry and the contemplation of the natural world, offered an alternative to both revealed religion and atheism.
The work’s treatment of scientific themes, particularly the plurality of worlds and the argument that the Christian system is contradicted by the evidence of astronomy, reflects the growing influence of scientific thought on religious questions. Paine’s argument that the Creator made nothing in vain and organized the universe most advantageously for humanity’s benefit presents a vision of cosmic order that challenged traditional theological frameworks.
The book’s significance also lies in its democratic impulse: its insistence that religion must be level to the understanding of all, its rejection of mystery as a bar to inquiry, and its conviction that truth must be accessible to every person through their own reason. This democratic approach to religious questions, combined with its detailed textual criticism and its positive natural theology, makes The Age of Reason a landmark work in the history of freethought and religious criticism.
