4 Quotes & Sayings By Simon Greenleaf

Simon G. Greenleaf was born in 1787 in Concord, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1810. He then returned to Concord to practice law under the tutelage of his father, Benjamin Greenleaf, who was a prominent lawyer in the area Read more

Simon Greenleaf was also a founding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and was known for his legal opinions, which were well-respected throughout the country. He died in 1852 in Boston at the age of 77 years.

1
The evidence which we have of the great facts of the Bible history belongs to this class, that is, it is moral evidence; sufficient to satisfy any rational mind, by carrying it to the highest degree of moral certainty. If such evidence well justify the taking away of human life or liberty, in the one case, surely it ought to be deemed sufficient to determine our faith in the other. Simon Greenleaf
2
But the Christian writer seems, by the usual course of the argument, to have been deprived of the common presumption of charity in his favor; and reversing the ordinary rule of administering justice in human tribunals, his testimony is unjustly presumed to be false, until it is proved to be true..{independent historians} have been treated, in the argument, almost as if the New Testament were the entire production, at once, of a body of men, conspiring by a joint fabrication, to impose a false religion upon the world. Simon Greenleaf
3
The learned are not agreed as to the time when the Gospel of John was written; some dating it as early as the year 68, others as late as the year 98; but it is generally conceded to have been written after all the others. Simon Greenleaf