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diff --git a/39288.txt b/39288.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8225974 --- /dev/null +++ b/39288.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6347 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Making of the New Testament, by Benjamin W. Bacon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Making of the New Testament + +Author: Benjamin W. Bacon + +Release Date: March 28, 2012 [EBook #39288] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Hazel Batey and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT + + + THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE + + Editors of THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE + + Rt. Hon. H. A. L. Fisher, M.A., F.B.A. + Prof. Gilbert Murray, Litt.D., LL.D., F.B.A. + Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., LL.D. + + + _For list of volumes in the Library see end of book._ + + THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT + + _By_ BENJAMIN W. BACON D.D. + + PROFESSOR OF NEW CRITICISM AND EXEGESIS IN YALE UNIVERSITY + + [Illustration] + + THORNTON BUTTERWORTH LIMITED 15 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.2 + +_First Impression September 1912 - All Rights Reserved_ + +MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PART I + + CANONIZATION AND CRITICISM + + CHAP. PAGE + + I INSPIRATION AND CANONIZATION 7 + + II THE REACTION TO CRITICISM 33 + + + PART II + + THE LITERATURE OF THE APOSTLE + + III PAUL AS MISSIONARY AND DEFENDER OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE 56 + + IV PAUL AS PRISONER AND CHURCH FATHER 83 + + V PSEUDO-APOSTOLIC EPISTLES 104 + + + PART III + + THE LITERATURE OF CATECHIST AND PROPHET + + VI THE MATTHAEAN TRADITION OF THE PRECEPTS OF JESUS 128 + + VII THE PETRINE TRADITION. EVANGELIC STORY 154 + + VIII THE JOHANNINE TRADITION. PROPHECY 185 + + + PART IV + + THE LITERATURE OF THE THEOLOGIAN + + IX THE SPIRITUAL GOSPEL AND EPISTLES 206 + + X EPILOGUES AND CONCLUSIONS 233 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 + + INDEX 255 + + + + +THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT + +PART I + + +CANONIZATION AND CRITICISM + +CHAPTER I + +INSPIRATION AND CANONIZATION + + +The New Testament presents the paradox of a literature born of protest +against the tyranny of a canon, yet ultimately canonized itself through +an increasing demand for external authority. This paradox is full of +significance. We must examine it more closely. + +The work of Jesus was a consistent effort to set religion free from the +deadening system of the scribes. He was conscious of a direct, divine +authority. The broken lights of former inspiration are lost in the full +dawn of God's presence to His soul. + +So with Paul. The key to Paul's thought is his revolt against legalism. +It had been part of his servitude to persecute the sect which claimed to +know another Way besides the "way"[1] of the scribes. These Christians +signalized their faith by the rite of baptism, and gloried in the sense +of endowment with "the Spirit." Saul was profoundly conscious of the +yoke; only he had not drammed that his own deliverance could come from +such a quarter. But contact with victims of the type of Stephen, men +"filled with the Spirit," conscious of the very "power from God" for +lack of which his soul was fainting, could not but have some effect. It +came suddenly, overwhelmingly. The real issue, as Saul saw it, both +before and after his conversion, was Law _versus_ Grace. In seeking +"justification" by favour of Jesus these Christians were opening a new +and living way to acceptance with God. Traitorous and apostate as the +attempt must seem while the way of the Law still gave promise of +success, to souls sinking like Saul's deeper and deeper into the +despairing consciousness of "the weakness of the flesh" forgiveness in +the name of Jesus might prove to be light and life from God. The +despised sect of 'sinners' whom he had been persecuting expressed the +essence of their faith in the doctrine that the gift of the Spirit of +Jesus had made them sons and heirs of God. If the converted Paul in turn +is uplifted--"energized," as he terms it--even beyond his +fellow-Christians, by the sense of present inspiration, it is no more +than we should expect. + + Footnote 1: _Tarik_, i. e. "way," is still the Arabic term for a + sect, and the Rabbinic term for legal requirement is _halacha_, i. + e. "walk." + +Paul's conversion to the new faith--or at least his persistent +satisfaction in it--will be inexplicable unless we appreciate the logic +of his recognition in it of an inherent opposition to the growing +demands of legalism. Jesus had, in truth, led a revolt against mere +book-religion. His chief opponents were the scribes, the devotees and +exponents of a sacred scripture, the Law. "Law" and "Prophets," the one +prescribing the conditions of the expected transcendental Kingdom, the +other illustrating their application and guaranteeing their promise, +constituted the canon of the synagogue. Judaism had become a religion of +written authority. Jesus set over against this a direct relation to the +living Father in heaven, ever presently revealed to the filial spirit. +The Sermon on the Mount makes the doing of this Father's will something +quite other than servitude to written precepts interpreted by official +authority and imposed under penalty. It is to be self-discipline in the +Father's spirit of disinterested goodness, as revealed in everyday +experience. + +Even the reward of this self-discipline, the Kingdom, Jesus did not +conceive quite as the scribes. To them obedience in this world procured +a "share in the world to come." To Him the reward was more a matter of +being than of getting. The Kingdom was an heir-apparency; and, +therefore, present as well as future. It was "within" and "among" men as +well as before them. They should seek to "be sons and daughters of the +Highest," taking for granted that all other good things would be +"added." So Jesus made religion live again. It became spiritual, inward, +personal, actual. + +After John the Baptist's ministry to what we should call the +'unchurched' masses, Jesus took up their cause. He became the "friend" +and champion of the "little ones," the "publicans and sinners," the +mixed 'people of the land' in populous, half-heathen, Galilee. The +burdens imposed by the scribes in the name of 'Scripture' were accepted +with alacrity by the typical Pharisee unaffected by Pauline misgivings +of 'moral inability.' To "fulfil all righteousness" was to the Pharisee +untainted by Hellenism a pride and delight. To the "lost sheep of +Israel" whom Jesus addressed, remote from temple and synagogue, this +"righteousness" had proved (equally as to Paul, though on very different +grounds) "a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear." +Jesus "had compassion on the multitude." To them he "spoke with +authority"; and yet "not as the scribes" but as "a prophet." When +challenged by the scribes for his authority he referred to "the baptism +of John," and asked whether John's commission was "from heaven, or of +men." They admitted that John was "a prophet." Those who give utterance +after this manner to the simple, sincere conviction of the soul, voicing +its instinctive aspiration toward "the things that be of God," are +conscious that they speak not of themselves. + +Jesus, it is true, was no iconoclast. He took pains to make clear that +if he superseded what they of old time had taught as righteousness, it +was in the interest of a higher, a "righteousness of God." If he +disregarded fasts and sabbaths, it was to put substance for form, end +for means. "Judgment, mercy, and good faith" should count more than +tithes from "mint and anise and cummin." He echoed what John the Baptist +had taught of repentance and forgiveness. Hope should no longer be based +on birth, or prerogative, or ritual form, but on the mercy of a God who +demands that we forgive if we would be forgiven. Such had been, however, +the message not of John only, but of all the prophets before him: "I +will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Jesus taught this higher, inward, +righteousness; but not merely as John had done. John had said: Repent, +for the wrath of God is at hand. Jesus said: Repent, for the forgiveness +of God is open. The Father's heart yearns over the wayward sons. Jesus +preached the nearness of the Kingdom as "glad tidings to the poor"; and +among these "poor" were included even aliens who put "faith" in the God +of Abraham. + +The new Way started from the same Scripture as that of the scribes, but +it tended in an opposite direction. Theirs had been gradually developing +in definiteness and authority since the time of Ezra; yes, since Josiah +had made formal covenant, after the discovery of "the book of the Law" +in the temple, pledging himself and his people to obedience. As with +many ancient peoples, the codification of the ancient law had been +followed by its canonization, and as the national life had waned the +religious significance of the Law had increased. It was now declared to +express the complete will of God, for an ideal people of God, in a +renovated universe, whose centre was to be a new and glorified +Jerusalem. The Exile interrupted for a time the process of formal +development; but in the ecclesiastical reconstruction which followed in +Ezra's time "the book of the Law" had become all the more supreme; the +scribe took the place of the civil officer, the synagogue became local +sanctuary and court-house in one, the nation became a church, Israel +became 'the people of the book.' + +Legal requirement calls for the incentive of reward. We need not wonder, +then, that the canon of the Law was soon supplemented by that of the +writings of the Prophets, historical and hortatory. The former were +considered to interpret the Law by showing its application in practice, +the latter were valued for their predictive element. Law and Prophets +were supplemented by Psalms, and elements from the later literature +having application to the religious system. The most influential were +the "apocalypses," or "revelations" of the transcendental Kingdom and of +the conditions and mode of its coming. Scripture had thus become an +embodiment of Israel's religion. It set forth the national law, civil, +criminal, or religious; and the national hope, the Kingdom of God. Its +custodian and interpreter was the 'scribe,' lawyer and cleric in one. +The scribe held "the key of knowledge"; to him it was given to 'bind and +loose,' 'open and shut.' Any preacher who presumed to prescribe a +righteousness apart from 'the yoke of the Law,' or to promise +forgiveness of sins on other authority, must reckon with the scribes. He +would be regarded as seeking to 'take the Kingdom by violence.' + +Jesus' martyrdom was effected through the priests, the temple +authorities; but at the instigation of the scribes and Pharisees. His +adherents were soon after driven out from orthodox Judaism and subjected +to persecution. This persecution, however, soon found its natural +leadership, not among the Sadducean temple-priesthood, but among the +devotees of the Law. It was "in the synagogues." From having been +quasi-political it became distinctly religious. This persecution by the +Pharisees is on the whole less surprising than the fact that so many of +the Jewish believers should have continued to regard themselves as +consistent Pharisees, and even been so regarded by their fellow-Jews. In +reality Jewish Christians as a rule could see no incompatibility between +average synagogue religion and their acceptance of Jesus as the man +supernaturally attested in the resurrection as destined to return +bringing the glory of the Kingdom. Jesus' idea of 'righteousness' did +not seem to them irreconcilable with the legalism of the scribes; still +less had they felt the subtle difference between his promise "Ye shall +be sons and daughters of the Highest" and the apocalyptic dreams which +they shared with their fellow-Jews. Saul the persecutor and Paul the +apostle were more logical. In Gal. ii. 15-21 we have Paul's own +statement of the essential issue as it still appeared to his clear mind. +Average synagogue religion still left room for a more fatherly relation +of God to the individual, in spite of the gradual encroachment of the +legalistic system of the scribes. Men not sensitive to inconsistency +could find room within the synagogue for the 'paternal theism' of Jesus, +even if this must more and more be placed under the head of +'uncovenanted mercies.' To Paul, however, the dilemma is absolute. One +must trust either to "law" or "grace." Partial reliance on the one is to +just that extent negation of faith in the other. The system of written +precept permits no exception, tolerates no divided allegiance. If the +canon of written law be the God-given condition of the messianic +promise, then no man can aspire to share in the hope of Israel who does +not submit unreservedly to its yoke. Conversely, faith is not faith if +one seek to supplement it by the merit of "works of law." + +From this point of view the Jew who seeks forgiveness of sins by baptism +"into the name of Jesus" must be considered an apostate from the Law. He +acknowledges thereby that he is following another Way, a way of "grace," +a short-cut, as it were, to a share in Israel's messianic inheritance by +the "favour" of a pretended Messiah. The same Paul who after his +conversion maintains (Gal. ii. 21) that to seek "justification" through +the Law makes the grace of God of none effect, must conversely have held +before conversion that to seek it by "grace" of Jesus made the Law of +none effect. Even at the time of writing the axiom still held: No +resistance to the yoke of the Law, no persecution (Gal. v. 11). + +It is true, then, that the legalistic system of prescription and reward +had developed--could develop--only at the expense of the less +mechanical, more fatherly, religion of a Hosea or an Isaiah. Even +scribes had admitted that the law of love was "much more than all whole +burnt-offering and sacrifice." And the movement of the Baptist and of +Jesus had really been of the nature of a reaction toward this older, +simpler faith. The sudden revolt in Paul's own mind against the scribal +system might not have occurred in the mind of a Pharisee unfamiliar with +Greek ideas. But to some extent Paul's experience of the conflict of +flesh and spirit, a 'moral inability' to meet the Law's demands _was_ a +typical Christian experience, as Paul felt it to be. To him it became +the basis of an independent gospel. To him the Cross and the Spirit +imparted from the risen Messiah were tokens from God that the +dispensation of Law is ended and a dispensation of Grace and Son ship +begun. Without this Pauline gospel _about_ Jesus Christianity could +never have become more than a sect of reformed Judaism. + +The teaching and martyrdom of Jesus had thus served to bring out a deep +and real antithesis. Only, men who had not passed like Paul from the +extreme of trust in legalism to a corresponding extremity of despair +might be pardoned for some insensibility to this inconsistency. We can +appreciate that James and Peter might honestly hold themselves still +under obligation of the written law, even while we admit Paul's logic +that any man who had once "sought to be justified in Christ" could not +turn back in any degree to legal observance without being +"self-condemned." + +Christianity may be said to have attained self-consciousness as a new +religion in the great argument directed by Paul along the lines of his +own gospel against Peter and the older apostles. Its victory as a +universal religion of 'grace' over the limitations of Judaism was due to +the common doctrine of 'the Spirit.' This was the one point of +agreement, the one hope of ultimate concord among the contending +parties. All were agreed that endowment with 'the Spirit' marks the +Christian. It was in truth the great inheritance from Jesus shared by +all in common. And Peter and James admitted that to deny that +uncircumcized Gentiles had received the Spirit was to "contend against +God." + +After Paul's death ecclesiastical development took mostly the road of +the synagogue. The sense of the presence and authority of 'the Spirit' +grew weaker, the authority of the letter stronger. From the outset even +the Pauline churches, in ritual, order, observance, had followed +instinctively this pattern. All continued, as a matter of course, to use +the synagogue's sacred writings. Paul himself, spite of his protest +against "the letter," could make no headway against his opponents, save +by argument from 'Scripture.' He had found in it anticipations and +predictions of his own Christian faith; but by an exegesis often only +little less forced and fantastic than that of the rabbinic schools in +which he had been trained. This was a necessity of the times. The +reasoning, fallacious as it seems to-day, had appealed to and +strengthened Paul's own faith, and was probably effective with others, +even if the faith really rested on other grounds than the reasoning by +which it was defended. The results of this biblicism were not all +salutary. The claims of written authority were loosened rather than +broken. Paul himself had found room enough within these defences for the +religion of the Spirit; but a generation was coming with less of the +sense of present inspiration. Dependence on past authority would be +increased in this new generation in direct proportion to its sense of +the superior 'inspiration' of the generation which had gone before. Paul +is unhampered by even "the scriptures of the prophets" because in his +view these take all their authority and meaning from "the Lord, the +Spirit." Hence "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Only +the remembered "word of the Lord" has authority for Paul beyond his own, +even when he thinks that he also has the Spirit. With that exception +past revelation is for Paul subordinate to present. But Paul's immediate +disciple, the author of Hebrews, is already on a lower plane. This +writer looks back to a threefold source of authority: God had spoken in +former ages "by the prophets" and to the present "by a Son," but he +looks also to an apostolic authority higher than his own: The word "was +confirmed unto us by them that heard, God also bearing witness with +them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts +of the Holy Ghost." Similarly the author of the Pastoral Epistles +(90-100?) holds the "pattern of sound words" heard from Paul as a +"sacred deposit," which is "guarded," rather than revealed, "by the Holy +Spirit." The "sound words" in question are defined to be "the words of +our Lord Jesus Christ." These, taken together with "the doctrine which +is according to godliness," fix the standard of orthodoxy. To "Jude" +(100-110?) the faith is something "once for all delivered to the +saints." His message is: "Remember, beloved, the words spoken before by +the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." Authority increases, the sense +of the revealing Spirit decreases. + +It is long before the sense of present inspiration, both in word and +work is lost; still longer before the recorded precepts of Jesus, the +exhortations and directions of apostles, the visions of "prophets," come +to take their place alongside the Bible of the synagogue as "writings of +the new covenant." Melito of Sardis (_c._ 170) is the first to use this +expression, and even in his case it does not bear the sense of a canon +with definite limits. Tertullian (200-210) is the first to place a +definite "New Testament" over against the Old. We must glance at some of +the intermediate steps to appreciate this gradual process of +canonization. + +At first there is no other 'Scripture' than the synagogue's. Clement of +Rome (95) still uses only the Law and the Prophets (including certain +apocrypha now lost) as his Bible. He refers to the precepts of Jesus +(quoted as in Acts XX. 35 from oral tradition), with the same sense as +Paul of their paramount authority, and bids the Corinthians whom he +addresses give heed to what the blessed Apostle Paul had written to them +"in the beginning of the gospel service," to warn them against +factiousness. Nor has Clement yet lost the sense of direct inspiration; +for he attaches to his own epistle, written in behalf of the church at +Rome, the same superhuman authority claimed in Acts XV. 28 for the +letter sent by the church at Jerusalem. If the Corinthians disregard the +"words spoken by God through us" they will "incur no slight +transgression and danger," for these warnings of a sister church are +uttered in the name and by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Still, Clement +does not dream of comparing his authority, even when he writes as agent +of the church, with that of "the oracles of the teaching of God," the +"sacred Scriptures," the "Scriptures which are true, which were given +through the Holy Ghost, wherein is written nothing unrighteous or +counterfeit." He does not even rank his own authority with that of "the +good apostles, Peter and Paul." + +Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, transported to Rome for martyrdom in +110-117, employs a brief stay among the churches of Asia to exhort them +to resist the encroachments of heresy by consolidation of church +organization, discipline, strict obedience to the bishop. Ignatius, too, +still feels the afflatus. His message, he declares with emphasis, was +revealed to him, together with the occasion for it, directly from +heaven. It was "the voice of God and not only of a man" when he cried +out among the Philadelphians: "Give heed to the bishop, and the +presbytery and deacons." Yet Ignatius cannot enjoin the Romans as Peter +and Paul did. They were "apostles." He is "a convict." His inspiration, +however undoubted, is of a lower order. + +Hermas, a 'prophet' of the same Roman church as Clement, though a +generation later, is still so conscious of the superhuman character of +his "Visions," "Parables," and "Mandates" that he gives them out for +circulation as inspired messages of the Spirit; and this not for Rome +alone. Clement, then apparently still living, and "the one to whom this +duty is committed," is to send them "to foreign cities." In point of +fact the _Shepherd_ of Hermas long held a place for many churches as +part of the New Testament canon. Yet less than a generation after +Hermas, the claim to exercise the gift of prophecy in the church was +looked upon as dangerous if not heretical. + +In the nature of the case it was really impossible that the original +sense of endowment with "the Spirit" should survive. Not only did the +rapidly growing reverence for the apostles and the Lord open a chasm +separating "the word of wisdom and the word of power" given to that age, +from the slighter contemporary claims of miracle and revelation; the +very growth and wide dissemination of the gospel message made +standardization imperative. Before the middle of the second century +Gnostic schism had swept nearly half the church into the vortex of +speculative heresy. Marcion at Rome (_c._ 140) carried Pauline +anti-legalism to the extreme of an entire rejection of the Old +Testament. Judaism and all its works and ways were to be repudiated. The +very God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was declared other than, and +ignorant of, the "heavenly Father" of Jesus. Against such vagaries there +must be some historic standard. Even Marcion himself looked to the past, +however recent, as the source of light, and since some written standard +must be found, it was he, the heretic, who gave to Christianity its +first canon of Christian writings. The Marcionite churches did away with +the public reading of the Law and the Prophets, and could only put in +their place "Gospel" and "Apostle." Not that Epistles, Gospels, and even +'Revelations' were not also in use among the orthodox; but they are not +yet referred to as 'Scripture.' Even gospels are treated merely as aids +to the memory in transmitting the teaching of the Lord. This teaching +itself is but the authoritative interpretation of Law and Prophets, and +is in turn interpreted by the writings of the apostles. + +Marcion's 'Gospel' consisted of our Luke, expurgated according to his +own ideas. His 'Apostle' contained the Epistles of Paul minus the +Pastoral Epistles and a series of passages cancelled out from the rest +as Jewish interpolations. This was the first Christian Bible distinct +from 'the Scriptures' of the synagogue. + +Indirectly the growth of Gnostic heresy contributed still more to the +increasing authority of apostolic and quasi-apostolic writings. One of +its earliest and most obnoxious forms was called 'Doketism,' from its +exaggeration of Paulinism into a complete repudiation of the historic +Jesus, whose earthly career was stigmatized as mere 'phantasm' +(_dokesis_). Doketism is known to us not only through description by +orthodox opponents, but by a few writings of its own. It is the type of +heresy antagonized in the Johannine Epistles (_c._ 100) and in those of +Ignatius (110-117). Now Ignatius, as we have seen, relied mainly on +church organization and discipline. The Pastoral Epistles (90-100), +while they emphasize also "the form of healthful words, even the words +of our Lord Jesus" take, on the whole, a similar direction. But 1st +John, which relies far less than the Pastoral Epistles or Ignatius on +mere church organization, is also driven back upon the life and teaching +of Jesus as the historic standard. It _does_, therefore, make formal +appeal to the sacred tradition in both its elements, but with a +difference characteristic of the Pauline spirit. The redeeming life and +death of Jesus are viewed as a manifestation of "the life, even the +eternal life (of the Logos) which was with the Father and was manifested +unto us" (the historic body of believers). Again Jesus' one "new +commandment," the law of love, is the epitome of all righteousness. + +In his doctrine of Scripture as in many other respects the Johannine +writer shows a breadth and catholicity of mind which almost anticipates +the development of later ages. His task was in fact the adjustment of +the developed Pauline gospel to a type of Christianity more nearly akin +to synagogue tradition. This type had grown up under the name of Peter. +On the question of the standard of written authority 'John'[2] leaves +room for the freedom of the Spirit so splendidly set forth in the +teaching and example of Jesus and Paul, while he resists the erratic +licence of "those that would lead you astray." The result is a doctrine +of historic authority in general, and of that of the Scriptures in +particular, sharply differentiated from the Jewish, and deserving in +every respect to be treated as the basis of the Christian. In a great +chapter of his Gospel (John v.), wherein Jesus debates with the scribes +the question of His own authority, the dialogue closes with a +denunciation of them because they search the Scriptures with the idea +that in them they have eternal life, that is, they treat them as a code +of precepts, obedience to which will be thus rewarded. On the contrary, +says Jesus, the Scriptures only "bear witness" to the life that is +present in Himself as the incarnate, eternal, Word; "but ye will not +come unto me that ye might have life." + + Footnote 2: In using traditional names and titles such as "Luke," + "John," "Matthew," "James," no assumption is made as to + authenticity. The designation is employed for convenience + irrespective of its critical accuracy or inaccuracy. + +In seeking the life behind the literature as the real revelation, the +Johannine writer makes the essential distinction between Jewish and +Christian doctrine. He stands between Paul, whose peculiar view was +based on an exceptional personal experience, and the modern +investigator, who can but treat all literary monuments and records of +religious movements objectively, as data for the history and psychology +of religion. If the student be devoutly minded the Scriptures will be to +him, too, however conditioned by the idiosyncrasies of temporal +environment and individual character, manifestations of "the life, even +the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." + +But the Johannine writer was far deeper and more 'spiritual'[3] than the +trend of his age. Ignatius' friend and contemporary, Polycarp, "the +father of the Christians" of Asia, in his Epistle to the Philippians +(110-117) urges avoidance of the false teachers who "pervert the sayings +of the Lord to their own lusts, denying the (bodily) resurrection and +judgment." But he has no better remedy than to "turn (probably in a +somewhat mechanical way) to the tradition handed down from the +beginning" and to study "the Epistles of Paul." The former process is in +full application in Polycarp's later colleague, Papias of Hierapolis +(_c._ 145?), who publishes a little volume entitled _Interpretation of +the Sayings of the Lord_. It is based on carefully authenticated +traditions of the 'apostles and elders,' especially a certain +contemporary "Elder John" who speaks for the Jerusalem succession. +According to Papias our two Greek Gospels of Matthew and Mark represent +two apostolic sources, the one an Aramaic compilation of the Precepts of +Jesus by Matthew, the other anecdotes of his "sayings and doings" +collated from the preaching of Peter. + + Footnote 3: The Fourth Gospel is thus characterized by Clement of + Alexandria, meaning that it had a deep symbolic sense. + +Grateful as we must be for Papias' efforts to authenticate evangelic +tradition, since they are corroborated in their main results by all +other ancient tradition as well as by critical study of the documents, +it is noticeable how they stand in line with the tendencies of the age. +Eusebius (325) characterizes the reign of Trajan (98-117) as a period +when many undertook to disseminate in writing "the divine Gospels." One +of our own evangelists, whose work must probably be referred to the +beginning of this period, but is not mentioned by 'the Elder,' alludes +to the same phenomenon. The apostles were gone. Hence to Luke[4] the +question of "order" was a perplexity, as the Elder observes that it had +already been to Mark. Soon after Luke and Papias comes Basilides with +his _Exegetics_, probably based on Luke (120?), and Marcion (140), both +engaged from their own point of view with the current questions of +Jesus' teaching and ministry. + + Footnote 4: See Footnote 3 above. + +Thus, at the beginning of the second century, the elements necessary to +the formation of a New Testament canon were all at hand. They included +the tradition of the teaching and work of Jesus, the letters of apostles +and church leaders revered as given by authority of the Spirit and the +visions and revelations of 'prophets.' Not only the elements were +present, the irresistible pressure of the times was certain to force +them into crystallization. The wonder is not that the canon should have +been formed, but that it should have been delayed so long. + +For there were also resistant factors. Phrygia, the scene of Paul's +first great missionary conquests, the immemorial home of religious +enthusiasm, became the seat, about the middle of the second century, of +a movement of protest against the church policy of consolidation and +standardization. Montanus arose to maintain the persistence in the +church of the gift of prophecy, tracing the succession in both the male +and female line back to Silas the companion of Paul and the prophesying +daughters of Philip the Evangelist. The 'Phrygians,' as they were +called, naturally made much of the writings current in Asia Minor, +especially the book of 'prophecy' attributed to 'John.' Theoretically +indeed the church was unwilling to acknowledge the disappearance of this +gift. To Hermas (130-140) and the _Teaching of the Twelve_ (120-130) it +is still a "sin against the Spirit" to interrupt or oppose a prophet +during his ecstatic utterance. On the other hand, the _Teaching_ +reiterates the apostolic warnings to "try the spirits," with +prohibitions of specific excesses of the order. Moreover by the time of +Montanus and the 'Phrygians' theoretical recognition of revelation +through the prophets was rapidly giving way before the practical dangers +inseparable from 'revelations' of this enthusiastic character, of which +any member of the church, man or woman, ignorant or learned, lay or +cleric, might be the recipient. The strict regulative control imposed by +both Paul and John[5] upon this type of spiritual gift (1st Thess. v. 20 +f.; 1st Cor. xii. 3; xv. 29 f. 32; _cf._ 1st John iv. 1) was found +to be doubly necessary in face of the disintegrating tendencies of the +post-apostolic age, and after long debate and much protest the movement +of Montanus was at last decreed heretical at Rome, though Irenaeus (186) +interceded for it, and Tertullian (210) became a convert. + + Footnote 5: See Footnote 3 above. + +The history of this movement in the formative period of the New +Testament canon explains why the "revelations of the prophets" obtained +but scant recognition as compared with the "word of the Lord" and the +"commandment of the apostles." Last of the three, in order of rank (1st +Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11), last also to be codified in written form, we +need not be surprised that our present New Testament retains but a +single one of the once current books of 'prophecy.' For a time the +_Shepherd_ of Hermas and the _Apocalypse of Peter_ rivalled the claims +to canonicity of our own Revelation of John, but were soon dropped. Our +own Apocalypse has suffered more opposition than any other New Testament +writing, being still excluded from the canon in some branches of the +church. Its precarious place at the end of the canon which we moderns +have inherited from Athanasius (_ob._ 373) was due, in fact, far less to +its author's vigorous assertions of authority as an inspired "prophet" +(i. 1-3; xxii. 6-9, 18 f.) than to the claims to apostolicity put +forward in the preface and appendix. For until the third century no one +drammed of understanding the "John" of Rev. i. 4, 9 and xxii. 8 +otherwise than as the Apostle. Eusebius accordingly (325) is uncertain +only as to whether the book should be classed in his first group of +"accepted" writings, along with the Gospels and Pauline Epistles, or in +the third as "spurious." If written by "some other John than the +Apostle" he would not even honour it with a place in his second group of +"disputed" books, along with Hebrews, James, Jude, and 2nd Peter. + +Thus at the end of the second century, while there was still much +dispute (destined indeed to continue for centuries) as to the _limits_ +of the New Testament canon, there had in fact come to be a real +canonical New Testament set over against the Old, as of equal, or even +greater authority. The "word of the Lord," the "commandment of the +apostles," and at last even the "revelations of the prophets," had +successively ceased as living realities, and become crystallized into +written form. They had been codified and canonized. The church had +travelled the beaten track of the synagogue, and all the more rapidly +from the example set before it. None of the early canons (_i. e._ lists +of writings permitted to be read in the churches) coincides exactly, it +is true, with the New Testament current among ourselves. The list of +Athanasius is the first to give just our books. The Roman list of the +Muratorian fragment (185-200) omits Hebrews, James and 2nd Peter, and +gives at least a partial sanction to the _Apocalypse of Peter_. The +lists of Origen (_ob._ 251) and Eusebius (325) vary as respects both +inclusion and exclusion. All early authorities express a doubtful +judgment regarding the outer fringe of minor writings such as James, +Jude, 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd John. Even those of larger content, such as +Hebrews and Revelation, if their apostolicity was questioned, remained +subjects of dispute. But already by A.D. 200 the time had long since +passed when any of the thirteen epistles bearing the name of Paul could +be deemed open to question. Marcion's exclusion of the three Pastorals +had been forgotten. Dispute of the four-gospel canon could still be +tolerated; but not for long. Irenaeus (186) has no patience with "those +wretched men" who cannot see that in the nature of the case there should +be neither more nor less than this number. But he explicitly refers to +those who disputed "that aspect of the gospel which is called John's." +There were, in fact, opponents of Montanism at Rome, who under the lead +of Gaius had denied the authenticity of all the writings attributed to +John, including the Gospel itself. But even those of the orthodox who +were willing enough to reject Revelation, with its now unfashionable +eschatology, agreed that Gaius' attack upon the fourth Gospel was too +radical. The small body who continued for a few generations to resist +the inclusion of any of the Johannine writings in the canon remained +without influence, and were ultimately forgotten. The 'catholic'[6] +church had repudiated heresy, standardized the faith, and confined its +recognized historic expression to a 'canon' of New Testament Scripture. + + Footnote 6: Catholic is here used in its etymological sense of + "general" or universal. We shall have occasion to apply the term in + a more limited sense hereafter. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE REACTION TO CRITICISM + + +The consolidated 'catholic' church of the third century might seem, so +far as its doctrine of Scripture was concerned, to have retraced its +steps to a standpoint corresponding completely to that of the synagogue. +Only, the paradox still held that the very writings canonized were those +supremely adapted to evoke a spirit of resistance to the despotism of +either priest or scribe. The Protestant Reformation was a revolt against +the former, and it is noticeable how large a part was played by the New +Testament doctrine of the 'Spirit' in this struggle of spiritual +democracy against hierocratic tyranny. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians +became Luther's Palladium. + +But the post-Reformation dogmatists took fright at their own freedom. +The prediction of the Romanists that repudiation of traditional +authority in its ecclesiastical embodiment would result in internecine +schism and conflict seemed on the point of being realized. The +theological system-makers, like their predecessors of the post-apostolic +age, could see no way out but to throw all their weight on a past +inspiration assumed to be without error. The canonical books were +declared to furnish an infallible rule of faith and practice. + +It was in the sincere desire to meet the requirements of this theory +that the science of criticism grew up. In the earlier days it did not +venture for the most part beyond what is known as 'textual' criticism. +For a doctrine of inerrancy is manifestly unserviceable until errors of +transmission have been eliminated. Textual criticism set itself to this +task, asking the question: As between the various readings found in +different New Testament manuscripts, which is original? Unfortunately, +to meet the logical requirement the critic, if not backed like those of +Rome by a papal guarantee, must himself be infallible. The inevitable +result of this attempt, begun in the sincerest spirit of apologetics, +was to prove that an infallible text is hopelessly unattainable. Textual +criticism is indispensable; but as the servant of apologetics it is +foredoomed to failure. + +The variation of the manuscripts was not the only obstacle to biblical +infallibility. To say nothing of differences of interpretation there was +the question of the canon. Either the decision of the 'catholic' church +must be accepted as infallible, or scholarship must undertake a +'criticism of the canon' to defend the current list of "inspired" books. +A 'higher' criticism became necessary if only to vindicate the church's +choice on historical grounds. Roman Catholics like Simon, whose +_Critical History_ of the Biblical books appeared in 1689-1695, could +reopen the question with impunity. Those who based their authority on +the infallibility of Scripture alone could not meet the challenge +otherwise than as Michaelis did in his _Introduction to the Divine +Writings of the New Testament_ (1750-1780). Michaelis undertook a +historical inquiry into the circumstances of origin of each of the +canonical books, with the object of proving each to be in reality what +tradition declared. The twenty-seven commonly accepted were supposed to +have been either written by apostles, or at least so super-intended and +guaranteed by them, as to cover all with the aegis of an infallibility +not conceded to the post-apostolic age. Scholarship in the harness of +apologetics again found its task impracticable. Michaelis himself +confessed it "difficult" to prove authenticity in cases like that of the +Epistle of Jude. Conceive the task as the scientific vindication of a +verdict rendered centuries before on unknown grounds, but now deprived +of official authority, and it becomes inevitably hopeless. Can it be +expected that doctors will not disagree on the authenticity or +pseudonymity of 2nd Peter, who always have disagreed on this and similar +questions, and have just admitted failure to agree in the matter of +text? + +For half a century criticism seemed lost in the slough of mere +controversy over the (assumed) infallible text, and the (assumed) +infallible canon. Apologists fought merely on the defensive, +endeavouring to prove that men whose fallibility was admitted had +nevertheless pronounced an infallible verdict on the most difficult +subjects of literary and historical inquiry. Critics had an easy task in +showing that the church's theory of inspiration and canonicity was +incorrect; but made no progress toward a constructive explanation of the +religious, or even the historical, significance of the literature. Real +progress was made only when criticism left off the attempt either to +establish or disestablish a 'received' text, or an 'authorized' canon, +and became simply an instrument in the hand of the historian, as he +seeks to trace to their origins the ideas the church enshrined in her +literature because she found them effective in her growth. + +For the great awakening in which New Testament criticism 'found itself' +as a genuine and indispensable branch of the history of religion, we are +largely indebted to the eminent church historian, Ferdinand Christian +Baur (_ob._ 1860). Baur gathered up the fragmentary results of a +generation of mere negation, a war of independence against the tyranny +of dogmatic tradition, and sought to place the New Testament writings in +their true setting of primitive church history. His particular views +have been superseded. Subsequent study has disproved many of his +inferences, and brought from friend and foe far-reaching modifications +to his general theory. But, consciously or not, Baur, in making +criticism the hand-maid of history, was working in the interest of that +constructive, Christian, doctrine of inspired Scripture which an ancient +and nameless teacher of the church had described as "witness" to the +Life, "even the eternal life, which was with the Father," and is in man, +and has been manifested in the origin and historical development of our +religion. + +The Reformation had been a revolt against the despotism of the priest; +this was a revolt against the despotism of the scribe. + +Baur gave scant--too scant--consideration to early tradition, making his +results unduly negative. None of the New Testament books are dated; few +besides the Pauline Epistles embody even an author's name; and these +few, 1st and 2nd Peter, James, Jude and Revelation, were (1st Peter +alone excepted) just those which even the canon-makers had classified as +doubtful, or spurious. Not even a Calvin would support the authenticity +of 2nd Peter, a Luther had denied the value of James and Revelation. It +had been an easy task for 'criticism of the canon' to show that those +who determined its content had not been actuated by considerations of +pure science. Those books secured admission which were most widely +current as ancient and trustworthy, and whose orthodoxy met the +standards of the time. Those were disputed, or rejected, which were less +widely current, or unorthodox, or could establish no direct relation to +an apostle. It was proper for the critic, once his aim had become not +apologetic but historical, to drop once for all the question whether the +canon-makers' selection--made not for scientific, but for religious +purposes--is good, bad or indifferent. The time had come for him to +apply the available evidence to his own scientific question: What +relation do these several writings bear to the development of +Christianity? It remained to be seen whether he could offer constructive +evidence more convincing than tradition. + +The latest date to which an undated, or disputed, writing can be +assigned is that when the marks of its employment by others, or +influence upon them, become undeniable. This is termed the 'external' +evidence. The earliest date, conversely, is that to which we are brought +down by references in the book itself to antecedent and current events, +and writings, or by undeniable marks of their influence. This is termed +the 'internal' evidence. Counting tradition as part of the external +evidence, modern scientific criticism is able to fix within a few +decades the origin of all the New Testament writings, without incurring +opposition even from the apologist. No scholar now dreams of adopting +any other method of proof, whatever his doctrinal proclivities. The +overwhelming majority are agreed that the period covered, from the +earliest Pauline Epistles to the latest brief fulminations against +Gnostic Doketism and denial of 'resurrection and judgment,' is included +in the century from A.D. 50 to 150. + +Baur's conception of the course of events in this momentous century has +been described as a theory of historical progress by fusion of opposites +in a higher unity. The Hegelian scheme of thesis, antithesis and +synthesis had in fact some justification in the recognized phenomena of +the development of Christianity. It had sprung from Judaism, overcoming +the particularism of that still nationalistic faith by the sense of its +mission to the world at large. The conflict acknowledged in all the +sources and most vividly reflected in the great Epistles of Paul to the +Galatians, Corinthians and Romans, a conflict between those who +conceived Christianity as a universal religion, and those who looked +upon it as only a reformed, spiritualized and perfected Judaism, was the +characteristic phenomenon of the first or apostolic age. It was the +struggle of the infant faith against its swaddling bands. The critical +historian is compelled to estimate all later, anonymous, accounts of +this development in the light of the confessedly earlier, and +indubitably authentic records, the four great Epistles of Paul; for +these simply reflect the actual conditions, and are not affected by the +later disposition to idealize the story. Thesis and antithesis were +therefore really in evidence at the beginnings. + +Equal unanimity prevailed as to the close of the period in question. In +A.D. 150 to 200, Christianity was solidifying into the 'catholic' +church, rejecting extremes of doctrine on both sides, formulating its +'rule of faith,' determining its canon, centralizing administrative +control. It had thrown off as heretical upon the extreme left Marcion +and the Gnostics, who either repudiated the Jewish scriptures +altogether, or interpreted them with more than Pauline freedom. On the +extreme right it had renounced the unprogressive Ebionites of Palestine, +still unreconciled to Paul, and insistent on submission to the Law for +Jew and Gentile, as the condition of a 'share in the world to come.' +What could be imagined as to the course of events in the intervening +century of obscurity? Must it not have witnessed a progressive +divergence of the extremes of Paulinists and Judaizers, coincidently +with a rapprochement of the moderates from the side of Peter and that of +Paul respectively? Baur's outline seemed thus to describe adequately the +main course of events. He relied upon internal evidence to determine the +dates of the disputed writings and their relation to it. But 'criticism +of the canon' in Baur's own, and in the preceding generation, had come +to include among the writings of doubtful date and authenticity not only +those disputed in antiquity, and the anonymous narrative books, but also +1st Peter and the minor Epistles of Paul. Nothing strictly apostolic was +left save the four great Epistles of Paul. + +The theory of Baur and the Tuebingen school (for so his followers came to +be designated) was broadly conceived and ably advocated. In two vital +respects it has had permanent influence. (1) Criticism, as already +noted, has ceased to be mere debate about text and canon, and concerns +itself to-day primarily with the history of Christian ideas as embodied +in its primitive literature. Its problem is to relate the New Testament +writings, together with all other cognate material, to the history of +the developing religion from its earliest traceable form in the greater +Pauline Epistles to where it emerges into the full light of day toward +the close of the second century. (2) Again, Baur's outline of the +process through which the nascent faith attained to full +self-consciousness as a world-religion required correction rather than +disproof. It was a grievous mistake to identify Peter, James, and John +with those whom Paul bitterly denounces as Judaizing "false brethren," +"super extra apostles," "ministers of Satan." It was a perversion of +internal evidence to reject as post-Pauline the Epistles of the later +period such as Philippians and Colossians, on the ground that Paul +himself did not live to participate in the second crisis, the defence of +his doctrine against perversion on the side of mystical, Hellenistic +theosophy. The great Epistles written under the name of Paul from the +period of his captivity are innocent of reference to the developed +Gnostic systems of the second century. They antagonize only an incipient +tendency in this direction. + +But while the transition of A.D. 50-150 was both deeper and more complex +than Baur conceived, the transfer of the gospel during that century from +Jewish to Gentile soil is really the great outstanding fact, against +which as a background the literature must be read; and the initial stage +of the process is marked by the controversy of Paul with the Galilean +apostles. What we must call, in distinction from Paulinism, 'apostolic' +Christianity is well represented in the Book of Acts. Paul's writings +show that he felt himself and his churches to represent an independent +type of Christianity in all respects equal to the 'apostolic,' the +problem being unification of the two. Now it is axiomatic that the +investigator must proceed from the relatively known and determinable to +the unknown and disputable. Accordingly it is in reality from the +Epistolary literature of the church, in particular the greater Pauline +Epistles, that he must take his start. As a source for our understanding +of the development of the life of the church the Literature of the +Apostle, directly participant in the conflicts and issues of the times, +even if in its later elements of doubtful or pseudonymous authorship, +takes precedence as a whole over the Literature of the Catechist, with +its later and more or less idealized narration, exemplified in the Book +of Acts. + +Modern criticism acknowledges, then, its indebtedness to the Tuebingen +school for a clearer definition of both its task and method, by +concentrating attention upon the contrast between the Petrine and the +Pauline conception of 'the gospel.' Still it must be admitted that most +of the inferences first drawn have since been overthrown. In their +chronological scheme of the New Testament writings the Tuebingen critics +under-estimated the force of the external evidences (including early +tradition) and misinterpreted the internal. New discovery and more +careful study of literary relations have inverted Baur's views as to +dates of the Johannine writings. Four of these (the Gospel and three +Epistles) are anonymous. Baur's date for these has been forced back by +no less than half a century. The fifth (Revelation) bears the name of +John, but was hotly disputed as pseudonymous in the second century, and +even by its supporters was dated so late as "the end of the reign of +Domitian" (95). The Tuebingen school placed Revelation thirty years +earlier, and attributed it to the Apostle. Modern criticism emphatically +reverts to the ancient date, and regards the book as pseudonymous, or as +written by "some other John." + +Again the relative dates of the Synoptic writings (Matthew, Mark, +Luke-Acts) were inverted by the Tuebingen critics, primarily through +wrong application of their theory of doctrinal development; secondarily, +and as a consequence, through misinterpretation of the intricate +literary relationships. Present-day criticism considers it established +that Mark is the oldest of the three, taken up by each of the other two. +There is almost equal unanimity in regarding the discourse material +common to Matthew and Luke and variously combined by each with Mark, as +independently drawn by them from the book of the "Precepts of the Lord," +reported by Papias to have been compiled by Matthew "in the Hebrew (_i. +e._ Aramaic) tongue." Tuebingen gospel criticism is thus almost entirely +set aside, in favour of the so-called 'Two-document' theory. + +So with the Pauline Epistles of the second period. Doubt still clings to +Ephesians. It had been treated by some as pseudo-Pauline even before the +time of Baur; but Baur's own followers soon receded from his extreme +application of his theory to the internal evidence of Philippians, +Colossians and Philemon. It became evident that Paul's "gospel" +included something more than the mere antithesis of Law and Grace. He +had other opponents than the Judaizers, and had to defend his doctrine +against perversion by Grecizing mystics as well as against opposition by +Pharisaic legalists. + +Two generations of research and controversy have greatly advanced the +cause of constructive criticism. Hand in hand with a more accurate +dating of the literature, secured through more impartial judgment of +both the external and internal evidence, there has gone a reconstruction +of our conception of the course of events. The tendencies in the early +church were not two only, but four; corresponding, perhaps, to those +rebuked by Paul at Corinth, which called themselves by the names +respectively of Peter, of Paul, of Apollos and of Christ. It seems +probable from the bitterness with which in 2nd Cor. x. 7 Paul denounces +the man who says, "I am of Christ," that this party-cry was employed in +the sense of following the example of Jesus as respects obedience to the +Law (for even Paul acknowledged that Christ had been "made a minister of +the circumcision for the truth of God"). If so, the Corinthian +"Christ-party" may be identified with those "ministers of the +circumcision" who denied both the apostleship and the gospel of Paul. At +all events those "of Cephas" were relatively harmless. They may be +identified with the so-called 'weak' of Romans, for whose scruples on +the score of 'pollutions of idols' Paul demands such consideration both +at Corinth and at Rome. His own adherents both at Corinth (those 'of +Paul') and at Rome (the 'strong') are to follow his example not merely +in recognizing that: "No idol is anything in the world," that "there is +nothing unclean of itself," and that "all things are lawful." It is to +be followed also in recognizing the limitations of this liberty. Limits +are imposed among other things by the scruples of others, so that Paul +himself becomes "as under the Law" when among Jews, though "as without +the Law" among the Gentiles. The "weak" are to be resisted only when the +admission of themselves or their claims would lead to "doubtful +disputations," or to a rebuilding of walls of separation that had been +torn down through faith in Christ. Galatians sounds the battle-cry of +endangered liberty. Corinthians (and Romans in still higher degree) +shows the magnanimity of the victor. + +Whether it be possible to identify those "of Apollos" at Corinth with +the beginnings of that Hellenistic perversion of the Pauline gospel into +a mystical theosophy which afterwards passed into Gnosticism may be left +an open question. At least we have come to see that the conditions of +the church's growth were far more complex than Baur imagined. In +particular it is necessary to distinguish four different attitudes on +the single question of the obligation of the Law. There were (1) +Judaizers who insisted on complete submission to the Law as the +condition of salvation, for both Jews and Gentiles; (2) imitators of +Cephas, who considered believers of Jewish birth to be "under the Law," +but asked of Gentiles only such consideration for it as the special +conditions seemed to require; (3) Paulinists, who held that neither Jews +nor Gentiles are under the law, yet felt that consideration should be +shown for the scrupulous when asked not as of right, but as of charity; +(4) radicals, who recognized no limits to their freedom save the one new +commandment. + +But while conflict first broke out over the mere concrete question of +Gentile liberty, the real distinction of Paul's gospel from that of the +older apostles was far deeper. The question as Tuebingen critics +conceived it concerned primarily the _extent_ of the gospel message,--to +how large a circle was it offered? Modern criticism has come to see that +the difference was in higher degree a difference of _quality_. Paul's +whole message of redemption through the cross and resurrection started +from other premises than those of the Galilean apostles, and was +conceived in other terms. For this reason it leads over to a new +Christology. In short, the transition of Christianity from its Jewish to +its Gentile form is not a mere enlargement of its field by the abolition +of particularistic barriers. The background we must study for the +understanding of it is not so much mere contemporary history as the +contemporary history _of religion_. The development from the Petrine +gospel broadly characteristic of the Synoptic writings, through the +Pauline Epistles to that of the Johannine writings, is a transition from +Hebrew to Hellenistic conceptions of what redemption is, and how it is +effected. Modern criticism expresses the contrast in its distinction of +the gospel _of_ Jesus from the gospel _about_ Jesus. + +In the case of both Paul and his predecessors in the faith there is a +common starting-point. It was the doctrine that God had raised Jesus +from the dead and exalted Him as Christ and Lord to the throne of glory. +Its proofs were the ecstatic phenomena of the Spirit, those strange +manifestations of 'prophecy,' 'tongues,' and the like in the Christian +assembly. The inference from this resurrection faith for an apostle of +the Galilean group was that he must "teach all men everywhere to observe +all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded." Jesus had been raised up in +Israel as the Prophet like unto Moses; His apostle must repeat the +remembered word of commandment and the word of promise. He will have an +authority derived from the manifestations of signs and wonders. These +had accompanied Jesus' own career, and now, by grace of His endowment of +His disciples with the Spirit, they will be repeated by their hands. +The 'apostolic' gospel is thus primarily historical. The Pauline gospel +centres at the other pole of religious conviction. It is primarily +psychological. For Paul the immediate effect of the revelation of God's +Son "in" him is an irresistible impulse to relate his own soul's +experience. The gospel he preaches is not so much what Jesus did or said +while on earth, as what God has done, and is still doing, through the +"life-giving Spirit" which emanates from the risen Lord. Signs and +wonders are tokens of the Spirit, but are of less value, and must vanish +before the "abiding" ethical gifts. Both the Pauline and the Petrine +gospel start from the common confession of "Jesus as Lord"; but the +Christology of the Synoptic literature is an Apotheosis doctrine, +falling back on the historical Jesus. That of the Epistles is a doctrine +of Incarnation, appealing to the eternal manifestation of God in man. +For the former, Jesus was "a prophet mighty in deed and word," raised up +by God in accordance with the promise of Deut. xviii. 18, to turn Israel +to repentance. Having fulfilled this mission in rejection and martyrdom +Jesus had been exalted to God's "right hand" and "made both Lord and +Christ." He there awaits the subjection of all His enemies. In the +Pauline gospel the story of Jesus is a drama of the supernal regions, +wherein His earthly career as prophet, leader, teacher, sinks to the +level of the merest episode. As pre-existent spirit, Jesus had been +from the beginning of the creation "in the form of God." As the period +of its consummation drew near He took upon Him human form, descended +through suffering and death to the lowest depths of the underworld, and +by divine power had reascended above all the heavens with their ranks of +angelic hierarchies. Whether Paul himself so conceived it or not, the +Gentile world had no other moulds of thought wherein to formulate such a +Christology than the current myths of Redeemer-gods. The value of the +individual _soul_ had at last been discovered, and men resorted to the +ancient personifications of the forces of nature as deliverers of this +new-found _soul_ from its weakness and mortality. The influential +religions of the time were those of personal redemption by mystic union +with a dying and resurrected "Saviour-god," an Osiris, an Adonis, an +Attis, a Mithra. Religions of this type were everywhere displacing the +old national faiths. The Gentile could not think of "the Christ" +primarily as a Son of David who restores the kingdom to Israel, shatters +the Gentiles like a potter's vessel and rules them with a rod of iron. +If he employed this Old Testament language at all, it had for him a +purely symbolical sense. The whole conception was spiritualized. The +"enemies" overcome were the spiritual foes of humanity, sin and death; +"redemption" was not the deliverance of Israel out of the hand of all +their enemies, that (together with all afar off that call upon the name +of this merciful God) they may "serve Him in holiness and righteousness +all their days." It was the rescue of the sons of Adam out of the +bondage to evil Powers incurred through inheritance of Adam's sinful +flesh. This had been the tendency already of Jewish apocalypse. The +starting-point of Paul's own conceptions was not Israel's bondage in +Egypt, but a conception already tinged, like the late book of Jewish +philosophy called the Wisdom of Solomon, with the Stoic conception of +'flesh' as prison-house of 'spirit,' already inflamed, like the +contemporary Jewish apocalypses of Esdras and Baruch, with lurid visions +of a universe rescued by superhuman power from a thraldom of demonic +rule. Paul's preaching was made real by his own experience. For if ever +there was an evangelist whose message was his own experience, Paul was +such. And Paul's experience was not so much that of a Palestinian Jew, +as that of a Hellenist, one whose whole idea of 'redemption' has been +unconsciously universalized, individualized, and spiritualized, by +contact with Greek and Hellenistic thought. Paul and the Galilean +apostles were not far apart in their expectations of the future. Both +stood gazing up into heaven. But for his authority Paul inevitably +looked inwards, the Galilean apostles looked backwards. + +It is hopeless at the present stage of acquaintance with the history of +religion, particularly the spread of the various 'mysteries' and +religions of personal redemption in the early empire, to deny this +contrast between the gospel of Paul and the gospel of "the apostles and +elders at Jerusalem." It is shortsighted to overlook its significance in +the transition of the faith. Whereas the Jewish-Christian had as its +principal background the national history, more or less +transcendentalized in the forms of apocalypse, Paul's had as its +principal background the speculative mythology of the Hellenistic world, +more or less adapted to the forms of Judaism. Only ignorance of the +function of mythology, especially as then employed to express the +aspiration of the soul for purity, life and fellowship with God, can +make these mythologically framed religious ideas seem an inappropriate +vehicle to convey Paul's sense of the significance of Jesus' message and +life of "Son ship." They were at least the best expression those times +and that environment could afford of the greater Kingdom God had +proclaimed in the resurrection of the Christ, and was bringing to pass +through the outpouring of His Spirit. + +Modern criticism must therefore recognize that the beginnings of our +religion were not a mere enlargement of Judaism by abolition of the +barriers of the Law, but a fusion of the two great streams of religious +thought distinctive of the Jewish and the Hellenistic world in a higher +unity. Alexander's hoped-for "marriage of Europe and Asia" was +consummated at last in the field of religion itself. Denationalized +Judaism contributed the social ideal: the messianic hope of a world-wide +Kingdom of God. It is the worthy contribution of a highly ethical +national religion. Hellenism contributed the individual ideal: personal +redemption in mystic union with the life of God. It is a concept derived +from the Greek's newly-awakened consciousness of a personality agonizing +for deliverance out of the bondage of the material and transitory, alien +and degrading to its proper life. The critic who has become a historian +of ideas will find his study of the literature of the apostolic and +post-apostolic age here widening out into a prospect of unsuspected +largeness and significance. He will see as the two great divisions of +his subject, (1) the gospel _of_ Jesus, represented, as we are told, in +the first beginnings of literary development by an Aramaic compilation +of the Precepts of the Lord by the Apostle Matthew, circulating possibly +even before the great Pauline Epistles among the Palestinian churches; +(2) the gospel _about_ Jesus, represented in the Pauline Epistles, and +these based on their author's personal experience. It is a gospel of +God's action "in Christ, reconciling the world." It interprets the +personality of Jesus and his experience of the cross and resurrection +as manifestations of the divine idea. The interpretation employs +Hellenistically coloured forms of thought, and is forced to vindicate +itself first against subjection to legalism, afterwards against +perversion into an unethical, superstitious theosophy. But surely the +doctrine _about_ Jesus, interpreting the significance of His person and +work as the culmination of redemption through the indwelling of God in +men and among men belongs as much to the essence of Christianity as the +gospel of love and faith proclaimed _by_ Jesus. + +Besides these two principal types of gospel and their subordinate +combinations the critical historian may see ultimately emerging a type +of 'spiritual' gospel, growing upon Gentile soil, in fact, receiving its +first literary expression in the early years of the second century at +the very headquarters of the Pauline mission-field. This third type aims +to be comprehensive of the other two. It is essentially a gospel about +Jesus, though it takes the form for its main literary expression of a +gospel preached by Jesus. The fourth evangelist is the true successor of +Paul, though the conditions of the age compel him to go beyond the +literary form of the Epistle and to construct a Gospel wherein both +factors of the sacred tradition shall appear, the words and works, the +Precepts and the Saving Ministry of Jesus. But it is in no mechanical or +slavish sense that the fourth evangelist appeals to this supreme +authority. He lifts the whole message above the level of mere baptized +legalism, even while he guards it against the unbridled licence of +Gnostic theosophy, applying to this purpose his doctrine of the +Incarnate Logos. His basis is psychology as well as history. It is the +Life which is the light of men, that life whose source is God, and which +permeates and redeems His creation; even "the eternal Life which was +with the Father and was manifested to us." + +In the critical grouping of our New Testament writings the Gospel and +Epistles of John can occupy, then, no lesser place than that of the +keystone of the arch. + +To sum up: the Literature of the Apostle owed its early development and +long continuance among the Pauline churches of Asia Minor and Greece, to +the impetus and example of Paul's apostolic authority. The Literature of +the Teacher and Prophet, growing up around Jerusalem and its daughter +churches at Antioch and Rome, came slowly to surpass in influence the +"commandment of the apostles," as the church became more and more +exclusively dependent upon it for the "teaching of the Lord." It was the +function of the great "theologian" of Ephesus (as he came early to be +called), linking the authority of both, to furnish the fundamental basis +for the catholic faith. + + + + +PART II + +THE LITERATURE OF THE APOSTLE + + +CHAPTER III + +PAUL AS MISSIONARY AND DEFENDER OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE + + +Most vital of all passages for historical appreciation of the great +period of Paul's missionary activity and its literature is the +retrospect over his career as apostle to the Gentiles and defender of a +gospel "without the yoke of the Law" in Gal. i.-ii. Especially must the +contrast be observed between this and the very different account in Acts +ix.-xvi. + +Galatians aims to counteract the encroachments of certain Judaizing +interlopers upon Paul's field, and seems to have been written from +Corinth, shortly after his arrival there (_c._ 50) on the Second +Missionary Journey (Acts xv. 36--xviii. 22). We take "the churches of +Galatia" to be those founded by Paul in company with Barnabas on the +First Missionary Journey (Acts xiii.-xiv.), and revisited with Silas +after a division of the recently evangelized territory whereby Cyprus +had been left to Barnabas and Mark (Acts xv. 36--xvi. 5; _cf._ Gal. iv. +13). + +The retrospect is in two parts: (1) a proof of the divine origin of +Paul's apostleship and gospel by the independence of his conversion and +missionary career; (2) an account of his defence of his "gospel of +uncircumcision" on the two occasions when it had been threatened. +Visiting Jerusalem for the second time some fifteen years[7] after his +conversion, he secured from its "pillars," James, Peter, and John, an +unqualified, though "private," endorsement. At Antioch subsequently he +overcame renewed opposition by public exposure of the inconsistency of +Peter, who had been won over by the reactionaries. + + Footnote 7: Or perhaps thirteen. Gal. ii. 1 may reckon from the + conversion (31-33). In both periods (Gal. i. 18, and ii. 1) both + termini are counted. + +Acts reverses Paul's point of view, making his career in the period of +unobstructed evangelization one of labour for Jews alone, in complete +dependence on the Twelve. It practically excludes the period of +opposition by a determination of the Gentile status in an 'Apostolic +Council.' Paul is represented as simply acquiescing in this decision. + +As described by Paul, the whole earlier period of fifteen years had been +occupied by missionary effort for _Gentiles_, first at Damascus, +afterwards "in the regions of Syria and Cilicia." It was interrupted +only by a journey "to Arabia," and later, three years after his +conversion, by a two-weeks' private visit to Peter in Jerusalem. In this +period must fall most of the journeys and adventures of 2nd Cor. xi. +23-33. It was practically without contact with Judaea. His "gospel" was +what God alone had taught him through an inward manifestation of the +risen Jesus. + +As described by Luke[8] the whole period was spent in the evangelization +of Greek-speaking _Jews_, principally at Jerusalem. This was Paul's +chosen field, worked under direction of "the apostles." Only against his +will[9] was he driven for refuge to Tarsus, whence Barnabas, who had +first introduced him to the apostles, brought him to Antioch. There was +no Gentile mission until Barnabas and he were by that church made its +'apostles.' This mission was on express direction of "the Spirit" (Acts +ix. 19-30; xi. 25 f.; xiii. 1-3; _cf._ xxii. 10-21). Paul's +apostleship to the Gentiles begins, then, according to Luke, with the +First Missionary Journey, when in company with (and at first in +subordination to) Barnabas he evangelizes Cyprus and southern Galatia. +The two are agents of Antioch, with "letters of commendation" from "the +apostles and elders in Jerusalem" (Acts xv. 23-26). Paul is not an +apostle of Christ in the same sense as the Twelve (_cf._ Acts i. 21 +f.). He is a providential "vessel of the Spirit," ordained "by men and +through men." His gospel is Peter's unaltered (_cf._ Acts xxvi. 16-23). + + Footnote 8: We apply the name to the writer of Luke-Acts without + prejudice to the question of authorship. + + Footnote 9: Acts xxii. 10-21 is not quite consistent with xxvi. + 15-18; but the general sense is clear. + +There is even wider disparity regarding the period of opposition. Luke +slightly postpones its beginning and very greatly antedates its +suppression. Moreover, he makes Paul accept a solution which his letters +emphatically repudiate. + +According to Acts there was no opposition before the First Missionary +Journey, for the excellent reason that there had been no Gentile +propaganda.[10] There was no opposition after the Council called to +consider it (Acts xv.), for the conclusive reason that "the apostles and +elders" left nothing to dispute about. As soon as the objections were +raised the church in Antioch laid the question before these authorities, +sending Paul and Barnabas to testify. On their witness to the grace of +God among the Gentiles, Peter (explicitly claiming for himself (!) this +special apostleship, Acts xv. 7) proposes unconditional acknowledgment +of Gentile liberty, referring to the precedent of Cornelius. In this +there was general acquiescence. In fact the matter had really been +decided before (Acts xi. 1-18). The only wholly new point was that +raised by James in behalf of "the Jews among the Gentiles" (Acts xv. 21; +_cf._ xxi. 21). For their sake it is held "necessary" to limit Gentile +freedom on four points. They must abstain from three prohibited meats, +and from fornication, for these convey the "pollution of idols." The +"necessity" lies in the fact that _liberty from the Law is not conceded +to Jews_. They will be (involuntarily) defiled if they eat with their +Gentile brethren unprotected. "Fornication" is added because (in the +words of an ancient Jewish Christian) it "differs from all other sins in +that it defiles not only the sinner, but those also _who eat or +associate with him_." Paul and Barnabas, according to Luke, gladly +accepted these "decrees," and Paul distributed them "for to keep" among +his converts in Galatia (!). _Peter_ is the apostle to the Gentiles. +Antioch and Jerusalem decide the question of their status. The terms of +fellowship are those of _James_ and Peter. + + Footnote 10: Cornelius' case (Acts x.-xi. 18) is exceptional, and no + propaganda follows. The reading "Greeks" in Acts xi. 20, though + required by the sense and therefore adopted by the English + translators, is not supported by the textual evidence. Luke has here + corrected his source to suit his theory, just as in x. 1--xi. 18 he + passes by the true significance of the story, which really deals + with the question of _eating_ with Gentiles (xi. 3, 7 f.). + +Paul has no mention of either Council or 'decrees.' His terms of +fellowship positively exclude both. He falls back upon the private +Conference, and lays bare a story of agonizing struggle to make +effective its recognition of the equality and independence of Gentile +Christianity. The struggle is a result of his resistance to emissaries +"from James" at Antioch, who had brought over all the Jewish element in +that mixed church, including Peter and "even Barnabas" to terms of +fellowship acceptable to the Pillars. After the collision at Antioch +Paul leaves the "regions of Syria and Cilicia," and transfers the scene +of his missionary efforts to the Greek world between the Taurus range +and the Adriatic. For the next ten years we see him on the one side +conducting an independent mission, proclaiming the doctrine of the Cross +as inaugurating a new era, wherein law has been done away, and Jew and +Gentile have "access in one Spirit unto the Father." On the other he is +defending this gospel of 'grace' against unscrupulous Jewish-Christian +traducers, and labouring to reconcile differences between his own +followers and those of 'the circumcision' who are not actively hostile, +but only have taken 'offence.' Throughout the period, until the arrest +in Jerusalem which ends his career as an evangelist, Paul stands alone +as champion of unrestricted Gentile liberty and equality. He cannot +admit terms of fellowship which imply a continuance of the legal +dispensation. Jewish Christians may keep circumcision and the customs if +they wish; but may not hold or recommend them as conferring the +slightest advantage in God's sight. He will not admit the doctrine of +salvation by faith _with_ works of law. Jew as well as Gentile must have +"died to the Law." There is no "justification" except "by faith _apart_ +from works of law."[11] + + Footnote 11: The assertion has recently been made in very high + quarters on the basis of 1st Cor. vii. 18 that Paul also took the + "apostolic" view that the Christian of Jewish birth remains under + obligation to keep the law. One would think Paul had not added verse + 19! + +Unless we distinctly apprehend the deep difference, almost casually +brought out by this question of the (converted) Jew among Gentiles and +his obligation to eat with his Gentile brother, a difference between +'apostolic' Christianity as Luke gives it, and the 'gospel' of Paul, we +can have no adequate appreciation of the great Epistles produced during +this period of conflict. The basis of Luke's pleasing picture of peace +and concord is a fundamentally different conception of the relation of +Law and Grace. Paul and Luke both hold that the Mosaic commandments are +not binding on _Gentiles_. The point of difference--and Paul's own +account of his Conference with the Pillars goes to show that Luke's idea +is also theirs; else why need there be a division of 'spheres of +influence'?--is Paul's doctrine that the believing Jew _as well as the +Gentile_ is "dead to the Law." And this doctrine was never accepted +south of the Taurus range. + +Agreement and union were sure to come, if only by the rapid +disappearance from the church after 70 A.D. of the element of the +circumcised, and the progressive realization in 'Syria and Cilicia' of +the impracticability of the Jerusalem-Antioch plan of requiring Gentiles +to make their tables innocuous to the legalist. If only the +participation of Paul and Barnabas be excluded from the story of Acts +xv. (or better, restored to its proper sequence after Acts xi. 30) we +have every reason to accept Luke's account of an Apostolic Council held +at Jerusalem not long after "Peter came to Antioch" to settle between +the churches of northern and southern Syria the knotty question of the +Christian Jew's eating or not eating with Gentiles. It is almost certain +that Syria did adopt this modus vivendi for "the brethren which are of +the Gentiles _in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia_" (Acts xv. 23); for we can +trace its gradual obsolescence there. In Revelation (a book of +Palestinian origin republished at Ephesus _c._ 95; _cf._ Rev. ii. 14, +20, 24) in the _Teaching of the Twelve_ (125), and in the 'Western' text +of Acts xv. (150?) there is a progressive scaling down of the 'burden.' +Gentiles are at last asked to do almost nothing more than Paul had +demanded on moral grounds without recognition of the validity of +"distinctions of meats." In A.D. 120 the 'burden' is: "Concerning meats, +keep what thou art able; however, abstain at all events from things +offered to idols, for it is the food of dead gods." + +But to take Luke's account of how peace was restored, with its +implication that the Pauline gospel as developed in Greek Christendom +between the Taurus range and the Adriatic was nothing more than a branch +from the parent stock of the 'apostolic' church in "Syria and Cilicia," +would be like viewing the history of the United States from the +standpoint of a British imperialist of a period of Anglo-Saxon reunion +in A.D. 2000, who should omit entirely the American War of Independence, +holding that Washington and Franklin after bearing testimony before +Parliament accepted for the colonies a plan of settlement prepared by a +Liberal Government which reduced to a minimum the obnoxious requirements +of the Tories. + +The history of this period of the development of the independent +'gospel' of Paul and of his independent churches is so vital, and so +confused by generations of well-meaning 'harmonizers,' that we must take +time to contrast once more Luke's theory of the process of reunion with +Paul's. + +_In Acts Paul takes precisely the view of Peter and James._ He is +himself 'under the Law.' He does _not_ disregard it even among Gentiles. +On the contrary, he sets an example of scrupulous legality to the Jews +among the Gentiles, himself 'walking orderly, keeping the Law.' The +statement that he "teaches them to forsake Moses, telling them not to +circumcise their children, nor to obey the customs" is a calumny (!) +which he takes public occasion to disprove (Acts xxi. 20-26). Before the +Sanhedrin he emphatically declares himself a consistent Pharisee (Acts +xxiii. 1, 6); before Felix and Festus, blameless by the standard of Law +and Prophets (xxiv. 14-16; xxv. 8); before Agrippa, a strict Pharisee in +his conduct hitherto (xxvi. 5, 22 f.). Titus, whose circumcision Paul +strenuously resisted, is never mentioned in Acts. Conversely Timothy (a +Jew only on his mother's side) Paul "took and circumcised" immediately +after the Jerusalem Council "because of the Jews that were in those +parts" (Galatia!). His visit with Barnabas to Jerusalem is not +occasioned by opposition to Gentile missions, though it falls between +Barnabas' mission from Jerusalem to investigate the alarming reports of +Gentile conversions at Antioch, and the First Missionary Journey on +which the two take with them Mark, who had accompanied them from +Jerusalem. No; according to Luke Gentile missions did not yet +exist[12](!). This visit (that of the Conference, Gal. ii. 1-10) was +merely to convey a gift from the Antioch church to that of Jerusalem +because of the famine "about that time" (it occurred in 46-47). +Conversely the great 'offering of the Gentiles' made at the risk of +Paul's life in company with delegates from each province of his field, +as a proffer of peace, the enterprise which occupies so large a place in +his effort and his letters of this period (1st Cor. xvi. 1-6; 2nd Cor. +8-9; Rom. xv. 15, 16, 25-32), has in Acts no relation to the +controversy--for the demonstration of Paul's exemplary legalism in the +temple is merely incidental. The gift Paul brought was "alms to my +nation" (!) (Acts xxiv. 17). The reader asks in vain what necessitates +this dangerous journey. The only motives assigned are a Nazarite vow +assumed in Cenchreae (xviii. 18; xxi. 24), and regard for the Jewish +feasts (xx. 16). + + Footnote 12: On the reading "Greeks" in Acts xi. 20 see Footnote 10 + above., p. 59. + +The background of history against which the modern reader must place the +great letters of Paul of the first period, is manifestly something quite +different from the mere unsifted story of Acts. Their real origin is in +a profound difference in Paul's idea of 'the gospel' and the necessity +of defending the independence of it and of the Gentile churches founded +on it. The difference originates in Paul's own religious experience. It +found its first expression in his antithesis of Law and Grace, his +doctrine that the cross marks the abolition of the economy of Law. + +Both in Galatians and everywhere else Paul treats on equal terms with +the representatives of the "apostleship of the circumcision." He +denounces Peter and "the rest of the Jews," including "even Barnabas," +at Antioch, after they have withdrawn from Gentile fellowship in order +to preserve their legal 'cleanness,' and the point of the denunciation +is that this is inconsistent with _their_ (implied) abandonment of the +Law as a means of salvation when they "sought to be justified by faith +in Christ." This makes their conduct not only inconsistent but cowardly +and "hypocritical." + +Here is something far deeper than a mere question of policy. Paul's +attitude shows that from the beginning he has really been preaching "a +different gospel." A gospel _about_ Christ in which the central fact is +the cross as the token of the abolition of a dispensation of Law wherein +Jew and Gentile alike were in a servile relation to God, under angelic +(or demonic) "stewards and governors," and the inauguration of a +dispensation of Grace, wherein all who have 'faith' and receive in +baptism the gift of 'the Spirit,' are thereby adopted to be God's sons. +Beside this cosmic drama of the cross and resurrection wherein God +reveals his redemptive purpose for the world, the mere inculcation of +the easy yoke of Jesus as a new Law, simplifying and supplementing the +old by restoring the doctrine of forgiveness for the repentant believer +(_cf._ Matt. xxviii. 20; Acts x. 42 f.; xiii. 39; xxvi. 22 f.) seems +only half a gospel. + +Paul can never surrender the independence of his God-given message, nor +the liberty wherewith Christ has made all believers free in abolishing +the economy of law and making them "sons" by the Spirit. And yet he is +even more determined to achieve peace and reunion than the apostles 'of +the circumcision'; only he has a different plan. Paul and his churches +fall back upon the Jerusalem Conference, not upon the 'Apostolic +Council.' The Conference is their Magna Carta. Its recognition of +Paul's independent gospel and apostleship as no less divine than Peter's +is their guarantee of liberty and equality; its request for brotherly +aid is their promise of fraternity. + +Approaches were made on both sides. It is true the ill-advised attempt +of the Judaizers to secure unity by a renewal of their propaganda of the +Law, seducing the Greek churches from their loyalty to Paul and his +gospel, provoked from him only such thunderbolts as Galatians, with its +defence of "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," or 2nd Cor. +x. 1 to xiii. 10, with its denunciation of the "ministers of Satan." +Peace through surrender was not to Paul's mind. But the sincere attempt +of the followers of Peter to find a _modus vivendi_, even if they did +not venture to claim liberty from the Law for themselves, found Paul +prepared to go more than half-way. His epistles are not more remarkable +for their strenuous defence of the liberty of Son ship, than for their +insistence on the obligation of brotherly love. His churches must be not +only morally pure for their own sakes, but must avoid offences to the +more scrupulous. Even that which Christian liberty allows must be +sacrificed to the scruples of the 'weak,' if only it be not "unto +doubtful disputations," or demanded as of right. From 1st Thessalonians +(Corinth, A.D. 50), where, in the absence of all Judaizing opposition +Paul merely exhibits his simple gospel of the resurrection and judgment +to come, unaffected by questions of Law and Grace, on through Galatians +with its sublime polemic for the liberty of sons, to the Corinthian +correspondence, with its insistence on the duty of consideration and +forbearance, its stronger note of love, its revelation of the +widespread, strenuous exertions of Paul to promote his great 'offering,' +down to Romans, where the 'offering of the Gentiles' is ready to be made +(Rom. xv. 16-33), and Paul is sedulously preparing to enter a great new +field already partially occupied, by presenting a full and superlatively +conciliatory statement of his entire 'gospel' (i. 15-17), there is +steady progress toward the "peace" and "acceptance" which he hopes to +find in Jerusalem. The later Epistles, with their different phase of +conflict, the very attitude of 'apostolic' Christianity toward Paul, as +exhibited in Acts, make it incredible that substantial unity was not in +fact secured.[13] We cannot, indeed, accept Luke's representation of +Paul as performing the Nazarite ceremonial in the temple in order to +prove _that he does not teach that the Law is not binding on Jews_. But +it does not follow that Paul may not have done even this to prove that +his principle of accommodation to the weak (1st Cor. ix. 19-22) left +ample room for fellowship with the Jewish Christian--except when (as +with Peter and Barnabas at Antioch) the needless scruples of the +legalist were made a pretext for "compelling the Gentiles to live as do +the Jews." + + Footnote 13: The actual outcome is seen in the reduction of the + 'burden' to the two items of abstinence from "fornication and from + things offered to idols." Paul's nicer distinctions under the latter + head (1st Cor. viii. 1-13, x. 14-23) as well as his distinction + between the ceremonial and the moral grounds for abstinence, were + disregarded. + +Had unity been attained through the simple process imagined by Luke, +obedient acquiescence of Paul and the Gentiles in the divinely inspired +verdict of "the apostles and elders in Jerusalem," Christianity would +have been an immeasurably poorer thing than it became. Indeed, it is +questionable whether a gospel of mere simplification, extension and +supplementation of the Law would ever have made permanent conquest of +the Gentile world. It is because Paul stood out on this question of +'meats' for the equal right of his independent gospel, refusing +submission until his great ten-years' work of evangelization by tongue +and pen had made Gentile Christianity a factor of at least equal +importance with Jewish, that our religion was enriched by its +Hellenistic strain. The deeper insight into the real significance of +Jesus' work and fate born of Paul's peculiar experience and his +Hellenistic apprehension of the gospel found embodiment in the +beginnings of a New Testament literature. The writings of this period +must accordingly be viewed against the background of a critical history. +Luke's account, written in the interest of "apostolic" authority, must +receive such modifications as the contemporary documents require. + +Taking up the story at the point of divergence we see Paul and Barnabas +returning to Antioch after the Conference with the Pillars, glad at +heart, and expecting now to resume the work for Gentiles without +impediment. Besides Titus, John Mark of Jerusalem, a nephew of Barnabas, +accompanied them. The Missionary Journey to Cyprus and (southern) +Galatia follows, Mark returning, however, to Jerusalem after leaving +Cyprus. + +It was probably during the absence of the missionaries that "Peter came +to Antioch" and, at first, followed the Pauline practice of disregarding +'distinctions of meats.' Later, on arrival of certain "from James" he +"drew back and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision." +While matters were at this stage Paul and Barnabas reappeared on the +scene. Paul thought it necessary to rebuke Peter "openly, before them +all." Barnabas, former head of the Antioch church, took sides with Peter +and "the rest of the Jews," doubtless determining the attitude of the +church; for Paul says nothing of prevailing upon them by his argument, +but merely turns it at once upon the Galatians themselves. Moreover, +Barnabas now takes Cyprus as his mission field, with Mark as his helper, +while Paul with a new companion, Silvanus (in Acts "Silas," a bearer of +the 'decrees' from Jerusalem), takes the northern half of the newly +evangelized territory, and through much difficulty and opposition makes +his way to the coasts of the AEgean. + +This second visit to the churches of Galatia (Acts xvi. 1-5) was +signalized by warnings against the (possible) preaching of "another +gospel" (Gal. i. 9); for Paul had reason to anticipate trouble from the +"false brethren." If Acts may be believed, it was also marked by an +extraordinary evidence of Paul's readiness to "become all things to all +men" in the interest of conciliation. He is said to have circumcised a +Galatian half-Jew named Timothy. If so, it was certainly not to prove +his respect for the legal requirement, but rather its indifference. +"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision nothing; only faith working +through love." But these generous 'accommodations' of Paul produced more +of misrepresentation than of conciliation. He had cause to regret his +liberality later (Gal. i. 10; v. 11 f.; _cf._ 1st Cor. vii. 18). + +Some unexplained obstacle (Acts xvi. 6) prevented Paul's entrance into +the Province of Asia at this time. Ephesus, his probable objective, had +perhaps already been occupied (xviii. 24-28). He turned north through +Phrygia-Galatia, hoping to find a field in Bithynia, but was again +disappointed. At Troas, the very extremity of Asia, came the +turning-point in the fortunes of the missionaries. Encouraged by a +vision they crossed into Macedonia and found fields white for the +harvest. + +The Epistles to Thessalonica address one of these Macedonian churches +from Corinth, whither the missionaries have been driven. Timothy had +been sent back from Athens when Paul's own repeated attempts to return +had been frustrated, and has just arrived with good news of the church's +perseverance in spite of a persecution stirred up by the Jews. It is +against these, apparently, not against Jewish-Christian detractors, that +Paul defends his character and message (1st Thess. ii. 1-13). There is +also an urgent warning against fornication (iv. 1-8) and exhortation to +abound in love (iv. 9-12), with correction of the natural Greek tendency +to misapprehend the Jewish eschatology and resurrection-doctrine (iv. +13--v. 1-11; _cf._ 1st Cor. xv.). The closing admonitions relate to the +direction of church meetings and discipline. + +2nd Thessalonians corrects and supplements the eschatology of 1st +Thessalonians by adding a doctrine of Antichrist, which is at all events +thoroughly Jewish and earlier than 70, when the temple was destroyed in +which it expects the manifestation of "the man of sin." It is the only +one of the Epistles of this period whose authenticity is seriously +questioned by critical scholarship. How little this affects the question +of Paul's 'gospel' may be seen by the fact that the entire contents +cover less than 3 per cent. of the earlier Epistles, while the subject +is a mere detail. + +Far more significant is it to observe the close correspondence between +the missionary preaching of Paul as here described by himself (1st +Thess. i. 9 f.) and the general apostolic message (_kerygma_) as +described by Luke (Acts x. 42 f.; xiv. 15-17; xvii. 24-31). Where +there are no Judaizers there is no reference to the dispensations of Law +and Grace and the abolition of the former in the Cross. The doctrine is +the common gospel of the Resurrection, wherein Jesus has been manifested +as the Messiah. Faith in him secures forgiveness to the repentant; all +others are doomed to perish in the judgment shown by his 'manifestation' +to be at hand (_cf._ 1st Cor. xv. 11; Rom. i. 3-5). + +Galatians was written but slightly before (or after?) the letters to +Thessalonica. Its single theme (after the retrospect) is the Adoption to +Son ship through the Spirit. Against the Judaizer's plea that to share +in the Inheritance one must be adopted (preferably by circumcision) into +the family of Abraham, or at all events pay respect to the Mosaic Law, +Paul asserts the single fact of the adoption of the Spirit. "It is +because ye are sons that God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our +hearts crying (in the ecstatic utterances of 'tongues') Abba, that is, +Father" (Gal. iv. 6). To go back to legal observances is to revert from +redemption to bondage. All Christians are indeed sons of Abraham, but +only as sharers of his trust in God. Abraham was made "heir of the +world" (Rom. iv. 13) for his faith. Circumcision and the Law came +afterwards. They were not superimposed stipulations and conditions of +the promise. On the contrary they were temporary pedagogic measures +intended to produce the consciousness of sin and (moral) death, so that +when the Heir should come men should be ready to cast themselves on the +mercy of God displayed in his vicarious death.[14] Thus the messianic +Redemption is a redemption from a system issuing in sin and death. On +the cross even the sinless Christ incurred the curse in order that +believers thus redeemed might have the Blessing of the Abrahamic promise +(Gal. iii. 1--iv. 7). + + Footnote 14: Romans enlarges the conception of the economy of Law by + making it include the Gentile law of 'conscience' (Rom. i. 18--ii. + 16). In Galatians this point is covered only by classing the + "angels" through whom the Mosaic Law was given, with the "Elements" + honoured in Gentile religion. Both are codes of "stewards and + governors." + +But this transfer from bondage to liberty, from the legal to the filial +relation, does not "make Christ a minister of sin." On the contrary, if +the delivering Spirit of Son ship has been received at all, it controls +the life for purity and love. One cannot be a son and be unfilial or +unbrotherly. The unity of the redeemed world in Christ is the unity of +loving service, not of subjection to a bygone system of rules (iv. +8--vi. 18). Thus does Galatians meet the insidious plea of the +Judaizers, and their charges against Pauline liberty. + +The church founded by Paul in Corinth (Acts xviii. 1-17) was grounded +from the beginning in this doctrine of the Cross. Paul purposely +restricted himself to it (1st Cor. i. 17-25; ii. 1-5). He had indeed a +world-view, of which we learn more in the Epistles of the Captivity, a +philosophy revealed by the Spirit as a "mystery of God." Those who +afterwards in Corinth came to call themselves followers "of Apollos" had +nothing to teach him on this score. But consideration of this Grecizing +tendency, too often issuing in a mere "philosophy and vain deceit after +the Elements of the world and not after Christ" (Col. ii. 8), must be +deferred, in favour of questions which became more immediately pressing. +For after Paul had left Corinth to make a brief visit via Ephesus to +Caesarea and Antioch, and had returned through the now pacified Galatian +churches to make Ephesus his permanent headquarters (Acts xviii. 18-23), +he received disturbing news of conditions in Corinth. Under Apollos (now +at Ephesus with Paul) an Alexandrian convert thoroughly indoctrinated +with Paul's gospel (Acts xviii. 24-28) the church had flourished, but +discussions had subsequently arisen, resulting in a letter to Paul +asking his advice on disputed points. Besides this there were moral +blemishes. First the factious strife itself, of which Paul has learnt +from newcomers from Corinth; secondly a case of unpunished incest. A +previous letter from Paul (now lost, or but partially preserved in 2nd +Cor. vi. 14--vii. 1) had required the church "to have no company with +fornicators." The church, making the application general, had pleaded +the impracticability of "going out of the world." Paul now explains: "If +any man _that is named a brother_ be a fornicator ... with such a one +no, not to eat." After further rebuke for litigiousness, and a lack of +moral tone, especially in the matter of "fornication" (ch. vi.), Paul +takes up seriatim "the things whereof ye wrote." We are chiefly +interested in the long section (viii. 1--xi. 1) on "things offered to +idols" wherein Paul instructs those who would be imitators of his +freedom, but who forget that he has always refused to assert his rights +when thereby the 'weak' were stumbled. Moreover fornication is never +among the permissible things, nor even the eating of meats offered to +idols _at the heathen banquet itself_. Such food is unobjectionable only +when it has been sold in the market, and can be eaten without 'offence.' + +The other questions related to church meetings for the "Lord's supper" +and the exercise of "spiritual gifts." They give opportunity for the +development of Paul's noble doctrine of unity through loving service +(xi. 2--xiv. 40). The doctrinal section of 1st Corinthians concludes +with a full statement of Paul's doctrine of the resurrection body +(called forth by Greek objections to the Jewish). From the items of +business at the close we learn that "the collection for the saints" has +been under way some time already "in Galatia," and that Paul hopes, +after passing through Macedonia, to join the delegation which is to +carry the money to Jerusalem (xvi. 1-6). + +As it turned out Paul actually followed the itinerary outlined in 1st +Cor. xvi. 1-6, but not until after distressing experiences. Timothy, +sent (by way of Macedonia, Acts xix. 22) as Paul's representative (iv. +17; xvi. 10 f.), was unable to restore order. The opposition to Paul's +apostolic authority, treated almost contemptuously in ix. 1-14, grew to +alarming proportions. Paul received so direct and personal an affront +(either on a hasty visit undertaken in person from Ephesus, or in the +person of Timothy) that he despatched a peremptory ultimatum, whose +effect he is anxiously waiting to hear when 2nd Corinthians opens with +Paul driven out from Ephesus, a refugee in Macedonia (_c._ 55). It is +highly probable that the disconnected section appended between 2nd Cor. +ix. 15 and the Farewell, is taken from this "grievous" letter written +"out of much affliction and anguish of heart with many tears" (2nd Cor. +ii. 1-4; vii. 8-16); for it was not only a peremptory demand for +punishment of the offender, but also a letter of forced +self-commendation. Paul cannot have written in self-commendation on more +than one occasion, and he promises not to repeat this in iii. 1 ff. We +may take 2nd Cor. x.-xiii., then, as representing the "grievous" letter. +The opposition emanates from Judaizers who say they are "of Christ," and +may therefore be identical with those of 1st Cor. i. 12. But it has +grown to proportions which for a time made Paul despair of the church's +loyalty. Titus' arrival in Macedonia with news of their restored +obedience had been an inexpressible relief (ii. 5-17; vii. 8-16). It +remains only to set his 'ministry of the new covenant' once more in +contrast with the Mosaic 'ministry of condemnation and death,' including +further elucidation of the doctrine of the resurrection body (iii. +1--vi. 10) and to urge generosity in the matter of the collection (chh. +viii.-ix.). + +The somewhat disordered, but unmistakably genuine material of 2nd +Corinthians was probably given out as a kind of residuum of Pauline +material long after our 1st Corinthians had been put in circulation, +perhaps when renewed strife had caused the church in Rome to intervene +through Clement (95), who quotes 1st Corinthians, but shows no knowledge +of 2nd Corinthians. The correspondence is not only invaluable to the +church for its paean of love as the invincible, abiding gift of the +Spirit (1st Cor. xiii.) and its sublime eulogy of the "ministry of the +new covenant," but instructive in the highest degree to the historian. +Almost every aspect of Paul's work as missionary, defender of his own +independent apostleship and gospel, guide and instructor of developing +Gentile-Christian thought, and ardent commissioner for peace with the +apostolic community in Syria, is here set forth. The best exposition of +the history is the documentary material itself, and conversely. + +Romans was written during the peaceful winter at Corinth (55-56) which +followed these weeks of tormenting anxiety in Macedonia (Acts xx. 1-3). +Paul feels that he has carried the gospel to the very shores of the +Adriatic (xv. 19). He is on the point of going to Jerusalem with his +great 'offering of the Gentiles,' and has already fixed his eye on Rome +and "Spain"! Just as before the First Missionary Journey he forestalled +opposition by frankly laying his gospel before the Pillars, so now he +lays it before the church in Rome, but most delicately and tactfully, +not as though assuming to admonish Christians already "filled with all +knowledge and able to admonish one another" (xv. 14), but "that I with +you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith" (i. 12). +Thus the Epistle is an eirenicon. For Rome was even more than Ephesus +had been, a preoccupied territory, though a metropolis of Paul's +mission-field. Most of the church are Paul's sympathizers, but there +are many of the 'weak,' who may easily be 'offended.' The letter repeats +and enlarges the argument of Galatians for the gospel of Grace, carrying +back the promise to Abraham to its antecedent in the fall of Adam, +whereby all mankind had passed under the domination of Sin and Death. +The function of the Law is again made clear as bringing men to +consciousness of this bondage, till it is done away by (mystical) death +and resurrection with Christ. In the adoption wrought by the Spirit the +whole creation even, groaning since Adam's time under 'vanity,' is +liberated in the manifestation of the sons of God. Jesus, glorified at +the right hand of God, is the firstfruits of the cosmic redemption (Rom. +i.-viii.). Such is Paul's theory of 'evolution.' It is followed by a +vindication of God in history. Rom. ix.-xi. exhibits the relation of Jew +and Gentile in the process of the redemption. Israel has for the time +being been hardened that the Gentiles may be brought in. Ultimately +their very jealousy at this result will bring them also to repentant +faith. + +Paul's sublime exposition of his view of cosmic and historic redemption +is followed (as in all the Epistles) by a practical exhortation (chh. +xii.-xiv.), the keynote of which is unity through mutual forbearance and +loving service. It repeats the Corinthian figure of the members in the +body, and the Galatian definition of the 'law of Christ.' Special +application is made to the case of the scrupulous who make distinctions +of days and of meats. Here, however (xiv. 1--xv. 13), there is no longer +need to resist a threatened yoke. Only tenderness and consideration are +urged for the over-scrupulous "brother in Christ." It was in this spirit +that Paul and his great company of delegates from the churches of the +Gentiles went up to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 4--xxi. 17). + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PAUL AS PRISONER AND CHURCH FATHER + + +The second period of Paul's literary career begins after an interval of +several years. This interval is covered indeed, so far as the great +events of the Apostle's personal story are concerned, by the last nine +chapters of Acts, but exceedingly obscure as respects the fortunes of +his mission-field and the occasion for the group of Epistles which come +to us after its close. It is barely possible that a fragment or two from +the so-called Pastoral Epistles (1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus), which +seem to be compiled long after Paul's death on the basis of some +remnants of his correspondence, may have been written shortly after the +arrest in Jerusalem and "first defence." In 2nd Tim. iv. 11-18 a journey +is referred to from Troas by way of Ephesus which coincides in many +respects with that of Acts xx. If the fragment could be taken out from +its present setting it might be possible to identify the two; for it is +clear from the forecast of Acts xx. 25, 38 that Paul never did revisit +this region. The grip of Rome upon her troublesome prisoner was not +relaxed until his martyrdom, probably some considerable time before the +"great multitude" whom Nero condemned after the conflagration of 64. +However, until analysis can dissect out with greater definiteness the +genuine elements of the Pastoral Epistles, they cannot be used to throw +light upon the later period of Paul's career. A historical background +has indeed been created to meet their requirements--a release of Paul, +resumption of missionary activities on the coasts of the AEgean, renewed +imprisonment in Rome and ultimate martyrdom. But this has absolutely no +warrant outside the Pastorals themselves, and is both inconsistent with +Acts and open to criticism intrinsically. The story thus created of a +release, _second_ visitation of the Greek churches, and _second_ +imprisonment must, therefore, be regarded as fictitious, and the +Pastoral Epistles in their present form as products of the post-Pauline +age. + +It is our task to trace the development among the Greek churches of +Christianity conceived as a "revelation of God in Christ," alongside of +its development in the 'apostolic' church, until the period of +'catholic' unity and the completed canon. Upon this development the +story of Paul's personal fortunes in Acts throws but little light. We +merely see that his great peace-making visit to Jerusalem was suddenly +interrupted by his arrest in the temple, while engaged in an act of +worship undoubtedly intended by him to demonstrate his willingness in +the interest of unity to "become as under the Law to them that are under +the Law." After this his great delegation from the Gentile churches must +have scattered to their homes. Paul remained a prisoner for two years in +Caesarea, and after an adventurous journey covering the ensuing autumn +and winter (59-60), spent two more years in less rigid confinement at +Rome. We need no hint from his request in 2nd Tim. iv. 13 for "books and +parchments" to infer that the years of forced seclusion in Caesarea were +marked by study and meditation; but narrative and inference together +convey but little of what we mainly desire to know: the course of +religious development in the Pauline churches, as a background for the +literature. + +On the other hand recent research into religious conditions in the early +Empire has removed the principal objections to the authenticity of +Philippians, Philemon, Colossians, and even Ephesians. We are far from +being compelled to come down to the time of the great Gnostic systems of +the second century to find a historical situation appropriate to this +group of letters purporting to be written by Paul from his captivity. +Indeed they exhibit on any theory of their origin a characteristic and +legitimate development of the Pauline gospel of Son ship by the Spirit +of Adoption abolishing the dispensation of Law. It is a development +almost inevitable in a conception of 'the gospel' formed on Greek ideas +of Redemption, if we place in opposition to it a certain baser type of +superstitious, mongrel Judaism, revealed in the Epistles themselves, +repeatedly referred to in Acts, and now known to us by a mass of +extraneous documentary material. + +The new disturbers of the churches' peace revealed in the Epistles of +the Captivity are still of Jewish origin and tendency; but at least in +the region of Colossae (in the Lycus Valley, adjacent to southern +Galatia) the issue is no longer that between Law and Grace, but concerns +the nature and extent of the Redemption. The trouble still comes from a +superstitious exaltation of the Mosaic revelation; but those whom Paul +here opposes do not "use the Law lawfully," frankly insisting on its +permanent obligation as the will of God for all sons, unaffected by the +Cross. It is now admitted to be an "ordinance of angels"; but the +observance of it is inculcated because man's redemption can only come +through conciliation of these higher beings. Mystical union with +superhuman Powers is to be promoted by its observances. This +superstition is neither purely Jewish, nor purely Greek. It is +composite--Hellenistic. Judaism is imitated in the superstitious +reverence for the Law; but the conception of Redemption leaves behind +every thought of national particularism and is openly individualistic. +The redemption sought is that of the individual soul from the +limitations of humanity, and doubtless the name of Jesus played an +important role in the emancipation, as in the exorcisms of the sons of +Sceva (Acts xix. 13 f.); only it was not "above every name." + +But even Jewish apocalypses such as _Enoch_ and _Baruch_ with all their +superstitious angelology and demonology manage somehow to cling to the +ancient Jewish faith in the primacy of man, and Paul in like manner +upholds against the theosophists the doctrine of the believer's Son ship +and joint-heirship with Christ. In fact the Adoption, Redemption and +Inheritance accorded in the gift of the Spirit are to his mind gifts so +great and exalted as to make it a "gratuitous self-humiliation" to pay +homage, in Mosaic or other ceremonial, to "angels," "principalities," or +"powers." In Christ we already have a foothold in the heavenly regions. +We were foreordained in his person to be "heirs" "before the foundation +of the world." His resurrection and ascension "to the right hand of God" +participated in by us through "the Spirit" was a "triumph" over the +'Elements' and 'Rulers.' They should be beneath the Christian's feet in +feeling, as they soon will be in reality. + +This exalted doctrine of Christ's Son ship as compared with the mere +temporary authority of "angels and principalities and powers," secures +to the Epistles of the Captivity their well-deserved title of +"Christological"; for they lay the foundation for all later doctrines of +the Logos or Word. It is well to realize, however, that the doctrine is +in origin and meaning simply a vindication of the divine dignity of +manhood. + +An idea of outward conditions at the time of writing may be gained from +the two Epistles of the group most universally admitted to be genuine, +Philemon and Philippians. Both are written from captivity, almost +certainly in Rome, because the writer is expecting, if released, to +revisit the AEgean coasts, which was not Paul's expectation in Caesarea. +But there is a wide difference between the two as respects the +circumstances presupposed. The tone of Philemon is hopeful, sprightly, +even jocose. Paul is in company with a group of "fellow-workers" which +significantly includes "Mark," as well as two companions of the voyage +to Rome, "Aristarchus" of Thessalonica, and "Luke" (Acts xxvii. 2). +Epaphras, his "fellow-prisoner," appears in Colossians as the founder of +that church and a teacher in the adjacent towns of Hierapolis and +Laodicea. He has brought to Paul either of his own knowledge or by +report from others, disturbing news of the inroads of the heresy. +Onesimus, whose case occasions the letter to Philemon, is an escaped +slave of this friend and convert of Paul. The apostle is sending back +the slave with the request that he be forgiven and manumitted. The +interrelation of the persons mentioned in Philemon and Colossians shows +that the occasion is the same. Tychicus (_cf._ Acts xx. 3) the bearer of +Colossians (Col. iv. 7) accompanies Onesimus. Ephesians (if authentic) +belongs to the same group, being also carried by Tychicus (Eph. vi. 21). +It was certainly _not_ intended for Ephesus, but for some church or +churches not directly known to Paul (i. 15; iii. 2). It bears much the +same relation to Colossians as Romans to Galatians. In spite of copious +evidences of its use reaching back even to Clement of Rome (95) the +genuineness of Ephesians is more seriously questioned than that of any +other Pauline letter save the Pastorals. In the present writer's +judgment this suspicion is unfounded, but the question of Pauline, +semi-Pauline or deutero-Pauline is immaterial to the general +development. + +Philippians is of later date than Philemon and its companions. Paul has +been in circumstances of dire physical distress, and is comforting his +correspondents in view of an immediately impending decision of his case +(ii. 23). The issue will be life or death, and Paul has no earthly (but +only super-earthly) reasons for hoping the verdict may not be adverse. +He is still expecting, if released, to revisit the AEgean coast (ii. 24); +but it is only smiling through his tears when he tells the Philippians +that their need of him is so great that he is confident he will be +spared to them (Phil. 1. 12-30). Knowing that this journey was never +made, we can but infer that the fate so near at hand in Phil. ii. 17 +came actually to pass. Paul's blood was "poured out a libation," as +tradition of extreme antiquity credibly reports, and it can hardly have +been after a release, return to Greece and second arrest. The passage in +2nd Tim iv. 5-8 which repeats the figure of the libation (Phil. ii. 17), +treating it no longer as doubtful, but a tragic certainty, will have +been penned (if authentic) but a few weeks at most after Philippians, +and immediately before the end. If Philemon-Colossians-Ephesians be +dated in 62, Philippians, with the possible fragments in 2nd Timothy, +may be dated a few months later. + +Conditions at Philippi appear only in a favourable light from this +latest authentic epistle. Paul can thank God upon every remembrance of +these loyal and liberal Macedonian friends. In Rome, however, he is +still affected by Judaizing opposition, though his attitude toward it +(in Rome at least) shows the significant difference from Galatians that +he can now be thankful that Christ is preached even thus (Phil. i. +15-18). Moreover there is a difference in the type of legalism +represented; for while in his warning to the Philippians of the possible +coming of the heretics Paul is moved to recall his own renunciation of +legalistic righteousness, the terms of opprobrium applied to the +disturbers imply an immorality and assimilation to heathenism (Phil. +iii. 2 19; _cf._ Rom. xvi. 17-20) which could not justly be said to +characterize the legalism of the synagogue. + +The doctrinal elements of Philippians consist of two passages: (1) the +denunciation of the "concision" (a term applied to the heathenized +renegade Jew) ending with a reminder of the high enthronement of our +spiritual Redeemer (iii. 1-21); (2) the definition of the "mind," or +"disposition," of Christ exhibited in his self-abnegating incarnation, +obedient suffering, and supreme exaltation (ii. 5-11). Both passages are +characteristic of Paul's gospel in general, which is always, as against +that of the Judaizers, the gospel of a drama, or spectacle, witnessed; +not a gospel of teachings heard. It is a gospel _about_ Jesus, not of +precepts inculcated _by_ Jesus, a drama of redemption for all mankind +out of servitude into Son ship, wherein the cross is central. Both +passages are also characteristic, as we shall see, of the later period +of Paul's literary activity; for even in Philippians, the dominant +doctrinal motive is the Redemption to which Paul is looking forward, and +this is now conceived even more strongly than in the earlier letters in +terms of personal religion. He anticipates "departing to be with Christ" +(i. 23) rather than awaiting Him on earth (1st Thess. iv. 17). The +"goal" toward which the Christian "presses on" is personal immortality +through mystic union with Christ in the life of God (iii. 10-14). This +too is a real doctrine of the Kingdom of God; but its starting-point is +humanity's triumph over its enemies 'sin' and 'death,' not Israel's +triumph over its oppressors. Still more in the Colossian group does it +become apparent how the 'far-off, divine event' is a unity of mankind +through the Spirit corresponding to the Stoic figure of the members and +the body rather than the 'Kingdom of David.' + +Again the opponents in Phil. iii. 2, 18 f. are not mere Pharisaic +legalists, unable to see that Law and Grace are mutually exclusive +systems, and nullifying the significance of the Cross by perpetuating +the system it was intended to abolish. If we may explain the difference +by Colossians, they are Jews of heathenish tendencies, pretended +adherents of the gospel, who nullify its significance by perpetuating +regard for the Law; only the servility deplored is not servility toward +God, but toward "angels" (Col. ii. 18). + +To appreciate the enlargement which has come to Christianity beyond its +merely 'apostolic' form through the independent development of the Greek +churches in this second period we must realize that Paul's 'gospel of +the uncircumcision' differed in respect to promise as well as law. The +coming Kingdom which he preached was something more than "the kingdom of +our father David" extended from Jerusalem. What it really was becomes +fully apparent only in the 'Christological Epistles.' But we must study +the opposition to appreciate how differently the idea of Redemption had +developed on Greek soil. + +That aspect of Judaism which was most conspicuous to the outsider in +Paul's day was not the legalism of the scribes and the Palestinian +synagogue, perpetually embalmed in the Talmud and orthodox rabbinism of +to-day. It was the superstition and magic which excite the contempt of +satirists like Horace, Juvenal, and Martial, and call forth descriptions +like that of the letter of Hadrian to Servianus, characterizing the +Samaritans, Jews _and Christians_ dwelling in Egypt as "all astrologers, +haruspices, and quacksalvers." It is this type of Jew who is most widely +known in the contemporary Hellenistic world; whose spells and +incantations, framed in Old Testament language, are perpetuated in the +leaden incantation rolls and magic papyri of the Berlin collection; +whose portrait is painted in the Simon Magus of Acts viii. 14-24, the +Elymas the sorcerer of Acts xiii. 6-12, the "strolling Jews, exorcists," +and the "seven sons of Sceva" of Acts xix. 13-20. A Christian writer +early in the second century is so impressed with this characteristic of +contemporary Judaism that he even distinguishes as the third type of +religion, besides idolatry and Christianity, "the Jews, who fancy that +they alone know God, but do not, worshipping angels and archangels, the +moon and the month," and seeks to prove his case by citing the Old +Testament festal system. Indeed this idea of Judaism is the predominant +one among the second-century apologists. Jewish "superstition" is a +notorious fact of the time. The transcendentalizing of Jewish theology +after the Persian period had led inevitably to an elaborate angelology +and demonology. When as part of this process a more and more +supernatural character was attributed to the Law it could but have a +two-fold effect. The learned and orthodox would treat it soberly as a +revelation of the divine will. This is the legalistic development we see +in the Talmud and the Palestinian synagogue. The ignorant and +superstitious, especially in the Greek-speaking world, would use it as a +book of magic. This is what we see among many Jewish sects, particularly +in Samaria, Egypt and among the Greek-speaking Jews. The tendency was +marked even in Galilee. Jesus Himself stigmatizes the morbid craving of +His countrymen for miracles as the mark of an "adulterous" generation, +because the power invoked was not divine, but always angelic, or even +demonic. Paul alludes to the same trait (1st Cor. i. 22). But while +there is a singular absence both from the Pauline and the Johannine +writings of any reference to exorcism, the typical miracle of Synoptic +story, it has been justly remarked that no element of Paul's thought +has been so little affected by that of Jesus as his angelology and +demonology. Paul's world-view, like that of the apocalypses of his time, +is a perfect phantasmagoria of angels and demons, "gods many and lords +many." His conception of the redemption conflict is not a wrestling +against flesh and blood, but against "world-rulers of this (lower region +of) darkness," against "archangels," "elements," "principalities," +"powers." The one thing which takes away all harmful influence from this +credulity (if we must apply an unfairly modern judgment to an ancient +writer) is his doctrine of the Son ship and Lordship of Jesus, with whom +the redeemed are "joint-heirs" of the entire creation and thus superior +to angels. In this respect Paul has imbibed the mind of Christ. Jesus' +remedy for superstition is not scientific but religious. It does not +deny the popularly assumed relation to "spirits" good or evil, but +affirms a direct relation to the Infinite Spirit, which reduces all +angels and demons to insignificance save as "ministers." Paul's +world-view starts with the creation of man to be lord and heir of the +world (Gal. iv. 1; 1st Cor. iii. 22; _cf._ Gen. i. 28). The "purpose of +God, which he purposed in Christ Jesus, before the creation, unto a +dispensation of the fulness of the ages" is "to our glory." It would be +frustrated if the "Second Adam" did not become the Heir, in whom the +redeemed creation would find the goal of its long expectancy. Paul has a +cosmology as well as "Enoch." He could not be a worthy follower of +Jesus--he could not even be a loyal "son of the Law" without holding to +the accepted doctrine of the Inheritance intended for Messiah and his +obedient people. It did not make him less firm in this conviction when +as a Christian he thought of Jesus as the Messiah, and of Jew and +Gentile united in his kingdom; only the starting-point is not the +subjection of the sons of Abraham under Gentiles, but the subjection of +the sons of Adam under "world-rulers of this darkness." When he combines +Ps. viii. and Ps. cx. in his depiction of the reign of Christ in 1st +Cor. xv. 24-27, it is a sure indication of its scope as Paul understood +it. He included in the lordship over creation, and the subjection of all +"enemies" which the exalted Christ is awaiting "at the right hand of +God," the subjection of "angels, and principalities, and powers and +every name that is named, whether of beings in heaven, or on earth, or +under the earth." Paul pursues, then, the method of the apocalyptic +writers in making his doctrine of Redemption and the Kingdom +transcendental. By making it cosmic he undermines its Jewish +particularism. He avoids the superstition by holding firmly to Jesus' +doctrine of Son ship by _moral_ affinity with God. + +In the Christological Epistles accordingly it is apparent that the +Pauline churches are learning to think of the coming Kingdom in a widely +different way from the 'apostolic.' The Greek doctrine of mystic union, +not the rabbinic of a "share in the world to come," is the basis. In due +time we shall see how difficult the process of reconciliation became +between Greek and Semitic thought in this field also. For the present we +can only note how in the great theme of the Unity of the Spirit in Eph. +iv. 1--vi. 9 it is not the 'apostolic' ideal of a restoration of the +kingdom to Israel according to the oath sworn to Abraham (Luke i. 68-75; +_cf._ Acts i. 6) that dominates, but an enlargement of the figure of the +body and members, a figure commonly employed by Stoic writers, to apply +to the unity of the church in Corinthians and Romans. In the Epistles of +the Captivity the doctrine of the Kingdom is a social organism permeated +and vitalized by Christ's spirit of service. Personal immortality is +union with the life of God. + +In view of the notoriety of Ephesus as the very centre of the trade in +magic (so much so that spells and incantations were technically known as +"Ephesian letters") and of what Acts tells us of the enormous +destruction there of "books of magic" effected by Paul's preaching, it +is not surprising that Asia and Phrygia should appear a few years after +Paul's departure as the hot-bed of a "philosophy and vain deceit, after +the tradition of men, after the 'elements' of the world, and not after +Christ." Acts xx. 29 makes Paul predict the heresy. + +Such was especially the case at Colossae, a little town long after +notorious for its superstition, where Epaphras, now Paul's +fellow-prisoner, had founded the church. Epaphras himself at the time of +Paul's writing was in great anxiety both for this church and for the +adjoining churches at Hierapolis and Laodicea. Colossians is written to +meet this danger, and was sent by the same bearers as the note to +Philemon. It was to be exchanged, after being read at Colossae, for +another epistle sent simultaneously to Laodicea. Whether our Ephesians +is this companion letter or only a deutero-Pauline production framed on +the basis of some genuine letter written on this occasion, is a disputed +point among critics. In Marcion's canon our Ephesians was called +"Laodiceans," and in our own oldest textual authorities it has no +address. We may assume that Ephesians is really the companion letter, +whose original address was for some reason cancelled;[15] or that it is +but partially from Paul's own hand. Neither view will materially alter +our conception of his teaching, or the special application of it to the +circumstances of the churches of the Lycus Valley. The important thing +to observe is that whereas the application in Colossians is specific, in +Ephesians it is systematic and general. Colossians wages a direct +polemic against those who are making believers the spoil of mere +'Elements' by introducing distinctions of "meats _and drinks_" (a step +beyond Mosaism), with observance of "feast days, new moons and +sabbaths." In Ephesians we have, either altogether at first hand, or to +a greater or less extent at second, a general, affirmative presentation +of Paul's doctrine of Lordship in Christ. It has only incidental +allusion to being "deceived with empty words" (v. 6), and a warning not +to be "children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of +doctrine, by the sleight of men in craftiness, after the wiles of error" +(iv. 14). + + Footnote 15: Harnack very ingeniously suggests as a reason the ill + repute later incurred by Laodicea (_cf._ Rev. iii. 15 f.); + comparing the chiselling out from inscriptions of the names of + unpopular kings. + +Colossians and Ephesians develop, accordingly, that (cosmological) +wisdom of God conveyed to Paul by the Spirit of Christ in a "mystery," +at which he had only hinted in 1st Cor. ii. 1-16. Paul's _gnosis_, or +insight, concerns the purpose of God in creation, hidden even from the +(angelic) "world-rulers," who are coming to nought. The Spirit of +Christ, who as the divine Wisdom had been the agent of creation, is +given to Christian apostles and prophets. It affords them in the +revelation of this "mystery" a philosophy both of creation and +redemption which puts to shame mere speculative reasoning. The +Inheritance--the things God prepared for those that love Him--consists +(as an apocalyptic writer had said) of "things which eye had not seen, +nor ear heard, nor had entered into the heart of man to conceive." Paul +had purposely refrained from unfolding this revealed cosmology and +philosophy of history to the Corinthians, in order to avoid just the +evils which the teaching of Apollos had apparently precipitated at the +time when 1st Corinthians was written. Still, we can gain from this very +epistle (1st Cor. viii. 6; xv. 24-28) a partial conception of his +doctrine of Christ as the beginning and end of the creation, the Wisdom +of God by whom and for whom as Heir, all things were created. From +Romans i.-viii. and ix.-xi. we can easily see that as Second Adam the +Messiah was to Paul the key to the world's development and to human +history; for since the triumph of Satan in Eden the whole creation had +waited, groaning, for the advent of the sons. Galatians makes it no less +clear that he thought of the Cross as the epoch-making event, which +marks the transition from the period of the control of the world by +secondary agencies, to the rule of the Son. This "mystery" is simply +brought out and developed now in the Epistles of the Captivity. The +effort and prayer is that the readers may "have the eyes of their heart +enlightened," obtain something of Paul's own insight into the riches of +the inheritance they are to share with Christ, something of Paul's +experience of the power of God in raising Christ from the dead and +setting Him on the throne of glory. If they but realize what Son ship +and heirship with Christ implies--if they but take in the fact that by +the resurrection Spirit within them they have already in a sense shared +in this deliverance and this exaltation, they will be forearmed against +all the vain deceits of theosophy. It is in fact this resurrection +Spirit which brings about the unity of the world as a single organism. +It extends from the uppermost height to the nethermost abyss. And +because it is the Spirit of Jesus, it fills all it touches with the +disposition to loving service. It affords a new ethics and a new +politics whose keynote is the law of love in imitation of God and +Christ. All social relations are recreated by it, beginning with family +and church. Hence we must think of our redemption as like Israel's from +the bondage and darkness of Egypt. The principalities and powers of this +world, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the super-terrestrial regions, +are vainly endeavouring to hold back the people of God, in "this +darkness." We have only to wait like Israel at the Passover "with our +loins girt, and our feet shod." The Deliverer will soon appear from +heaven, clad in armour of salvation, as in the ancient passover songs, +cleaving the darkness with his sword of light, and leading forth the +captives. + +In these themes, variously interwoven in Ephesians and Colossians, it is +difficult to say whether it is the note of unity or the note of freedom +which predominates. Certainly we can recognize the same great apostle of +liberty who in the epistles of the earlier period had proved the power +and value of his religious insight by seizing upon the doctrine of Son +ship as the essential heart of the gospel. It is the same genius +consciously taught of God who had demanded and obtained recognition on +equal terms for his gospel of Grace and Son ship, a gospel given by +revelation of God's Son "in" him, who now demands that the gift of the +Spirit to Jew and Gentile be recognized as calling for reconstruction of +the doctrine of the coming Kingdom. "He that ascended is the same also +that descended to the lowest depths that he might fill all things." And +he poured out the "gifts" in order that they might make one organism of +the new social order, a new creation animated and vitalized by Jesus' +spirit of loving service. + +For just as in all the great earlier epistles the note of longing for +peace and unity in love rings ever stronger and clearer above the +strife, so in the later epistles, the note of triumph in liberty has a +deep under-chord of thanksgiving for reconciliation achieved. The great +paean of reverent adoration for the glory of God's grace in Eph. i. 3-14, +is a thanksgiving for the union of Jew and Gentile in one common +redemption. The retrospect of the work of God in ii. 11-21 is the +proclamation of "peace to him that was far off and peace to him that was +nigh." It is described as the building of Jew and Gentile into one +living temple, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ +Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone. The exhortation to the unity +of the Spirit in iv. 1--vi. 9 rests upon an exultant application of the +figure of the "one new man" in whose body all are members, that would be +inconceivable if at the time of writing the church which had received +the gifts from the ascended Lord was not indeed one body, but two bodies +standing apart in mutual distrust and jealousy. + +In fact we may say not of Ephesians only, but of Colossians likewise, +and indeed of all the group: Their keynote is not so much the conquest +of all things by Christ as "the reconciliation of all things in Christ, +whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens" (Col. i. 20). +It is not unreasonable to infer from such undertones as these that the +prayer was answered in which Paul when he set out from Corinth had +besought the Roman church by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of +the Spirit to strive together with him, that his ministration which he +had for Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints, that so his coming +to them in Rome through the will of God might be in joy, and that +together with them he might find rest. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PSEUDO-APOSTOLIC EPISTLES + + +We cannot wonder that an epoch of the church's history which followed +upon the martyrdom in rapid succession of all its remaining great +leaders, should at first be poor in literary products. James the Lord's +brother was stoned to death by a mob in Jerusalem in the year 61-2. His +namesake, brother of John, had been beheaded early in 44 by Herod +Agrippa I. Among the "others" who, as Josephus informs us, perished +along with James in 61, we may, perhaps, reckon John, who stands beside +him in Paul's list of the Pillars. This John, son of Zebedee, brother of +the other James, is reckoned a martyr in the same sense as his brother +in the earliest gospels. The brothers are assured that they shall drink +the same cup of suffering as the Lord, though they may not claim in +return pre-eminent seats in glory (Mark x. 39 f.). John did not suffer +with his brother James in 44, because he is present at the conference in +46-7 (Gal. ii. 9); but one of the traditions of the Jerusalem elders +reported by Papias declared that he was "killed by the Jews" in +fulfilment of the Lord's prediction, and this early tradition must be +accepted in spite of its conflict with one which gradually superseded it +after John came to be regarded as author of Revelation and the Fourth +Gospel. The statement that he was killed "together with James his +brother" may be due merely to the (not infrequent) confusion of the two +Jameses. + +Paul's decapitation in Rome occurred not more than a year or two later, +and was followed there in 64, according to very ancient and trustworthy +tradition, by the martyrdom of Peter. The death of all the principal +leaders explains why the Jerusalem church when it reassembled after the +overthrow of city and temple in the year 70, put forward no more +prominent candidates for the leadership than a certain Symeon, son of +Clopas, one of the group of 'relatives of the Lord' who are traceable +"until the time of Trajan," and a certain unknown Thebuthis. Symeon, +according to Eusebius, who takes his account from Hegesippus (165), was +the representative of "those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord +that were still living, together with the Lord's relatives." Thebuthis +is said to have sprung from one of the heretical Jewish sects and to +have organized a schism in consequence of his disappointment. All we can +be sure of is that Jerusalem 'down to the time of Trajan' continued to +regard itself as the seat of apostolic authority and arbiter of +orthodoxy, on account of its succession of disciples and relatives of +the Lord. Among the latter the leading, if not the only, representatives +of the seed of David, when "search was made" in the persecution under +Domitian (81-95), were two _grandsons_ of Jude, the Lord's brother. Jude +himself, then, was no longer living. Luke (_c._ 100), Papias (145), and +Hegesippus (165) successively exhibit the growing authority of the +"tradition handed down," especially that of "the apostles and elders in +Jerusalem." But what Papias records of the traditions of these "elders" +does not rise above the level of Jewish midrash, and the epistles which +bear the names of James and Jude have little intrinsic value, and +enjoyed from the beginning only the most meagre acceptance. At Rome +tradition attaches to the name of Peter, but besides the bare fact of +his martyrdom "at the same time with Paul" (64-5) it has little of value +to relate. We cannot safely go beyond the tradition reported by Porphyry +that Peter fed the lambs (at Rome) for a few months before his +martyrdom, and that reported by Papias that Mark, who had been Peter's +assistant, compiled there the Gospel which bears his name, basing it +upon his recollections of Peter's preaching. Of this vitally important +work (_c._ A.D. 75) we must speak in another connection. We are +concerned at present with writings which directly reflect the +development of Christian life and doctrine in this sub-apostolic +period, especially that in the Pauline mission-field. + +Except for the appearance of the Gospel of Mark at Rome (_c._ 75) there +remains nothing to break the silence and darkness of twenty years after +the deaths of James and Peter and Paul. The writings which finally did +appear were almost inevitably anonymous or pseudepigraphic, because +apostolic authority stood so high that no other could secure +circulation. Hebrews (_c._ 85) has an epistolary attachment at the close +of its "exhortation," but either never had an address or superscription, +or else has been deprived of it. All the Synoptic writings are +anonymous, though Luke-Acts (_c._ 100) is dedicated to a literary +patron. Revelation (_c._ 95) is boldly asserted to be the work of the +Apostle John in the prefatory chapters and the epilogue (i. 2, 4, 9; +xxii. 8). But the body of the work, though of Palestinian origin, has a +totally different standpoint, and claims the authority of a prophet, not +that of an apostle. Similarly the Fourth gospel when finally published +received an appendix (ch. xxi.) which cautiously suggests the Apostle +John as its author; but the three Epistles by the same writer are +anonymous. The homily called James (90-100) has a superscription which +superficially connects it with the chief authority in Jerusalem, and the +Epistle of Jude prefixes to itself the name which stood next in the same +class. But even in antiquity they had a precarious standing, and +neither is a real letter. Finally there are the Epistles to Timothy and +Titus, purporting to be written by Paul, and a whole series of every +kind, epistles, gospel, acts, and apocalypse, written in the name of +Peter, of which only two secured final adoption into the canon. Of all +these only 1st Peter and the so-called Pastoral Epistles (1st and 2nd +Timothy and Titus) have some claim to be considered genuine; for 1st +Peter is certainly of early origin (_c._ 85), and was undisputed in +antiquity; while the Pastorals, though rejected by Marcion, and as a +whole of late date (90-110), are made up on the basis of some authentic +Pauline material. + +The post-apostolic epistles may be grouped into two classes, according +as they are predominantly occasioned (_a_) by internal dangers of heresy +and moral laxity; or (_b_) by the external peril of persecution. To the +former (_a_) must be reckoned (1) the so-called Pastoral Epistles; (2) +Jude; (3) 2nd Peter. All these concern themselves outspokenly with a +type of false doctrine which has certain more or less definite traits, +and is tending toward the Gnostic heresies of the second century, if not +yet clearly identifiable with them. But the inspired genius of Paul is +wanting. The age is not creative, but conservative. Its writers are +ecclesiastics and church teachers, not apostles and prophets. Their +distinctive note is appeal to apostolic authority. Whether the name by +which they cover their own insignificance be that of "Paul," or "Jude +the brother (son?) of James," or "Peter," they have little or no +independent message. They hark back to the "pattern of sound words" the +"deposit," "the faith once for all delivered to the saints," "the words +spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and +Saviour through your apostles," in particular the "wisdom of our beloved +brother Paul" who (in the Pastoral Epistles) had predicted the heresy, +and "in all his epistles" had spoken of the resurrection and judgment. +Second Peter, which refers in the passage just quoted (2nd Pet. iii. 2, +15 f.) to the Pauline Epistles alongside "the other Scriptures" +belongs to a very late period (_c._ 150). In fact this Epistle, now +almost universally recognized to be pseudonymous, merely reedits the +Epistle of Jude, supplying a prefix (ch. i.) and an appendix (ch. iii.) +to make special application of its denunciations to the case of the +false teachers who were "denying the (bodily) resurrection and the +judgment." Neither plagiarism nor pseudonymity were recognized offences +at the time; so that we bring no indictment against the author of 2nd +Peter, were he the Apostle or not. Still our conception of the Galilean +fisherman will be higher without this example of pulpit rhetoric than +with it. + +Of the nature of the heresies controverted in this series of writings we +must speak later. As to the region whence they originate something can +be made out already. Not indeed from 2nd Peter, which is of too late +date to be of service. True the readers addressed are assumed to be the +same as in the first epistle, in other words the Pauline mission-field +of Asia Minor (1st Pet. i. 1), and there is reason to think "Asia" was +the region first affected. "Ephesus" and "Asia" are in fact the regions +affected in 1st and 2nd Timothy (1st Tim. i. 3 f.; 2nd Tim. i. 15). +Moreover it is in this same region that we find Polycarp (110-117) +adverting to those who "pervert the sayings of the Lord to their own +lusts, and deny the resurrection and judgment." To the same region and +the same period belong the letters of "the Spirit" in Rev. i.-iii. (_c._ +95) with their denunciation of the Balaamite and Nicolaitan heretics, +and still further 1st-3rd John and the Epistles of Ignatius, which are +also polemics against a Gnostic heresy (Doketism) tending to moral +laxity. It is doubtful, however, in view of the general address (2nd +Pet. i. 1), whether the author of 2nd Peter really has a definite circle +in mind, and does not rather in iii. 1 mistakenly treat 1st Peter as a +general epistle. Denial of the resurrection and judgment was not limited +to one locality or period. Hegesippus regards it as a pre-Christian +heresy combated already by James. Equally precarious would be the +assumption that Jude, with its similar general address, was necessarily +intended for Asia Minor. The false teachers resemble those we know of +there, and the denunciation is incorporated by 2nd Peter, but 'Cainites' +and 'Balaamites' were not confined to the regions of 1st John and +Revelation, and Jude might have almost any date between 90 and 120. The +most that can be said is that before the death of Paul the last view we +obtain of his mission-field shows it exposed, especially in the region +of Ephesus, to a rising flood of superstition and false doctrine, while +documents that can be dated with some definiteness in 95-117, such as +Revelation, the Johannine and Ignatian Epistles, and the letter of +Polycarp, show a great advance of heretical teaching in the same region. +The later heresy corresponds in several respects to that combated in +the Pastorals, Jude and 2nd Peter, but becomes at last more distinctly +definable as Doketism, whose most obnoxious form comes to be denial of +the (bodily) resurrection and judgment. The three Pastoral Epistles, +Jude and 2nd Peter may, therefore, be taken as probably reflecting the +growing internal danger confronted by the churches of Asia (if not by +all the churches) in the sub-apostolic age. + +Unfortunately, literary relations sometimes interfere with historical +classification, and we are, therefore, compelled to defer treatment of +1st-3rd John and the Epistles of "the Spirit" to the churches (Rev. i. +3), which really belong to our present group (_a_) of writings against +the heresies of (proconsular) Asia. Their relation to the special canon +of Ephesus, whose writings are all ascribed to John, makes it convenient +to consider them in another connection. The reader should bear in mind, +however, that the group extends continuously down to the Epistles of +Ignatius and centres upon Ephesus, where, according to Acts xx. 29 f., +the "grievous wolves" were to enter in after Paul's departing. + +Similar considerations affect the grouping of the Epistle of James, +which almost demands a class by itself. It might be called +anti-heretical, except that its nature is the reverse of controversial, +and its author seems to have no direct contact with the false teachers. +In a remote and general way he deplores the vain talk and disputation +which go hand in hand with a relaxation of the practical Christian +virtues. On the whole it seems more correct to class James with 1st +Peter and Hebrews, particularly as it displays direct literary +dependence on the former, if not on both. + +Our second group (_b_) consists of writings not primarily concerned with +heresy. Its first and best example speaks in the name of Peter as +representative of "apostolic" Christianity at Rome. But the doctrine, +and even the phraseology and illustrations of 1st Peter are largely +borrowed from the greater Epistles of Paul, particularly Romans and +Ephesians. Nothing even remotely suggests an author who had enjoyed +personal relations with Jesus, or could relate his wonderful words and +deeds. On the contrary the doctrine is Paul's gospel minus the sting of +the abolition of the Law. In view of the known internal conditions of +the churches to which 1st Peter is addressed in Pontus, Galatia, +Cappadocia, _Asia_ and Bithynia it is remarkable how completely the +subject of heresy or false doctrine is ignored. Their adversary the +devil is not at present taking the form of a seducing serpent (2nd Cor. +xi. 3), but of a "roaring lion" openly destroying and devouring (1st +Pet. v. 8 f.), and the same sufferings the Asiatics are called upon to +endure are being inflicted upon their brethren throughout the world. A +systematic, universal "fiery persecution" is going on, which has come +almost as a surprise (iv. 12) and may compel any believer, after having +made "defence" before the magistrate of "the hope that is in him," to +"suffer as a Christian" and to "glorify God in this name." The author +exhorts to irreproachable conduct as citizens, and kindness and good +order in the brotherhood. If such blamelessness of living be combined +with patient endurance of the unjust punishment, Christians who still +must sanctify in their hearts Christ (and not the Emperor) as Lord, will +ultimately be left unharmed. + +Superior as is this noble exhortation to patient endurance of suffering +in the meekness of Christ to the controversial rhetoric of 2nd Peter, +immeasurably better as is its attestation in ancient and modern times, +even the most conservative modern critics are compelled to regard it as +at least semi-pseudonymous. It might be just possible to carry back the +conditions of persecution presupposed to the time of Nero. But if it be +Peter writing from Rome after the recent martyrdoms of James and Paul, +why is there no allusion to either? Again, we might possibly prolong the +life of Peter (against all probability) down to the beginning of the +reign of Domitian (81-95). In that case the absence of any allusion to +the great events of recent occurrence in Palestine would be almost +equally hard to explain. Moreover, with any dating the real author +remains a literary man, a Paulinist, a Grecian Jew, and the share +attributable to Peter personally becomes most shadowy. The simpler, and +(as the present writer has come to believe) the more probable view is +that 1st Peter, like the later writings which assumed the name, is +wholly pseudonymous. If, however, it appeared (as we are persuaded) some +twenty years after the Apostle's death, among those perfectly aware of +the fact, assuming no other disguise, but frankly dealing with the +existing situation, this is a kind of pseudonymity which should be +classed with literary fictions and conventions which are harmless +because (at the time) perfectly transparent. Letters written under +fictitious names were in fact a very common literary device of the age. + +At all events the Apostle appears as an old man (v. 1) writing from +"Babylon"--rightly taken by the fathers to be a cryptogram for Rome. +Salutations are conveyed from Mark, his "son" (_cf._ Philem. i. 10). The +bearer (writer?) is represented to be Silvanus (like Mark a companion of +Paul with relations to Jerusalem as well), and Silvanus is commended as +a "trustworthy" disciple. The author states it as his object to "exhort +and testify that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand." + +Ignorant as we are of its author's name it is fortunate for our study of +the times that the date of 1st Peter is fairly determinable by the +convergence of external and internal evidence. Echoes from it appear +already in Clement of Rome (95) as well as in James and Hermas. We must +think of it, then, as a hand of cordial encouragement extended by a +representative of the Petro-Pauline church at Rome, soon after the +outbreak of the persecution of Domitian (_c._ 90), to the still +independent but suffering churches of Asia Minor. If we remember that it +undertakes to endorse the doctrine of one third of contemporary +Christendom, and (in substance) offers a 'letter of commendation' to +Silvanus, it will be obvious that no name of less authority than that of +Peter could have served. As Zahn has well remarked: "The significant +thing ... is that it is Peter, the most distinguished apostle of the +circumcision (Gal. ii. 7) who bears witness to the genuineness of their +state of grace." + +We must place alongside of 1st Peter one other epistle in which the +motive of exhortation to endurance of persecution without relaxation of +the moral standard is prominent, though not exclusive, and a second, +wherein it appears only in a faint echo of "trials," which turn out, +however, as the reader proceeds, to be only "temptations," while the +real occasion of writing is plain--moral relaxation without either +heresy or persecution to excuse it. The two writings in question are the +anonymous "exhortation" handed down under the title "To the Hebrews," +and the so-called Epistle (in reality a homily) of James. Hebrews begins +as an exposition of the two psalms Paul had quoted in his reference in +1st Cor. xv. 24-28 to the exaltation of Jesus (Pss. viii. and cx.) +proving Him to be the Son, who, after temporary subordination to the +angels, has been exalted above them to the place of supreme dominion. +Christ has thus effected a greater redemption than Moses and Joshua. He +is also a "high-priest after the order of Melchizedek" according to Ps. +cx.; so that the Aaronic priesthood and ceremonial are surpassed as well +as the Mosaic legislation, by the sacrifice of Calvary and intercession +of the risen Redeemer. It is no wonder that in the period of debate +against Judaism the canon-makers gave to this anonymous sermon a title +which ranks it first in the class of subsequent controversial pamphlets +"against the Jews." Controversy, however, is subordinate in the writer's +purpose to edification. He is not unconscious of the dangers of that +superstitious 'worship of the angels,' against which Paul's Asian +epistles had been directed, but his demonstration of the superiority of +the institutions and aims of Christianity to those of Judaism has the +practical object of reinforcing the courage and "faith" of his readers +under pressure of persecution. His argument culminates in an inspiring +list of Scriptural heroes and martyrs, leading up as a climax to "Jesus +the author and perfecter of our faith." As Jesus endured, looking beyond +the shame and suffering of the cross to the joy of His reward, so should +the readers "endure their chastening." Apostacy will meet a fearful doom +in the judgment of fire. To this homily (Heb. i.-xii.) is appended a +concluding chapter (probably by the author himself) which transforms it +into a letter. The author is a church-teacher of the second generation, +as he frankly confesses himself (ii. 3); a disciple of Paul, to judge by +his use of Paul's doctrine and some of his epistles, especially Romans. +To judge by his rhetorical style and his Alexandrian ideas and mode of +thought, he is the sort of teacher Apollos will have been. Just at +present he is separated from his flock (xiii. 19). Where they are we +can only infer from xiii. 24, which conveys salutations from those in +the writer's neighbourhood who are "from Italy." He himself is probably +among the Pauline churches, for he sends news of Timothy (xiii. 23) and +hopes to come soon in company with him. Ephesus, where Apollos was at +last accounts, may possibly be the place of writing. Hebrews would seem +then to be written to Rome, long after the first "great fight of +afflictions" (the Neronian outbreak of 64) and when the danger of +"fainting under the chastening" of a second persecution (that of +Domitian _c._ 90) was imminent. Such slight indications as we have of a +literary relation between Hebrews and 1st Peter suggest the priority of +Hebrews, but the date and occasion must be nearly the same. + +"James" is also a homily exhorting to patient endurance, but there is +nothing to suggest its having ever been sent anywhere as a letter, save +the brief superscription written in imitation of 1st Pet. i. 1. "James +... to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion." Imagine the mode of +delivery! Nor is it called forth by any special emergency. There is an +allusion to false doctrine. It is the heresy (!) of "justification by +faith apart from works." But the writer is no more conscious of +contradicting Paul than is Luke in describing Paul's apostleship and +gospel. He merely impersonates the 'bishop of bishops' addressing +Christendom at large, deprecating the loquacity of the "many teachers," +and commending the 'wisdom' of a "good life" instead. There is protest +against oppression. But it is only the oppression of the poor by the +rich in the Christian brotherhood. He returns to this subject con amore. +Evidently the church of his age is characterized by worldliness both of +thought and conduct, among clergy and laity. But all colour of region or +period is wanting. Take 1st Peter, substitute the head of the Jerusalem +succession for the head of the Roman, remove the Pauline doctrine, the +traces of Jesus and his gospel of Son ship, remove the special +references to local conditions and particular emergencies, leaving only +moral generalities, and the result will be not unlike the Epistle of +James. The author has heard something of Paulinism, has read Hebrews +(Jas. ii. 21-25; v. 10), and imitated 1st Peter (Jas. i. 1, 18, 21; iv. +6 f.; v. 20). Strong arguments have even been advanced to prove that +he was not a Christian at all. He probably was, if only from his +literary connection with the above-named earlier writings, and the +influence exerted by his own on Hermas (Rome, 120-140), and perhaps +Clement (Rome, 95). But as for connection with the historic +Jesus--"Elijah" is his example of the man of prayer (v. 13-18), and +"Job" and "the prophets" his "example of suffering and patience" (v. 10 +f.). Hebrews can show more of the influence of Jesus than this (Heb. +v. 7 f., xii. 2-4). Like Hermas (who, however, does not even mention +the name of Jesus) 'James' thinks of Him simply as "the Lord of glory," +without raising the question how He came to be such. + +Apart from the superscription, whose object is only to clothe the homily +with the authority of a name revered throughout the 'catholic' church, +there is nothing to connect James with Syria rather than any other +region outside Paul's mission-field. Even Palestine might be its place +of origin if the date were late enough to account for the Greek style. +At all events it comes first to our knowledge at Rome. There is some +reason to think that Clement of Rome (A.D. 95), whose moralizing is of a +similar type, has been directly influenced by James. If so we have in +James, Clement and Hermas a series illustrative of the decline at Rome +of the Pauline gospel of conscious revelation and inspiration toward the +hum-drum levels of mere 'catholic' catechetics. + +With every allowance for differences among critics as to date and origin +of the non-controversial epistles of the sub-apostolic age, it is easy +to see that the resistless march of events is taking up and +accomplishing Paul's effort and prayer for the unity of the two branches +of the Church. One great event of this period, which for us stands out +with startling vividness upon the pages of history, is curiously without +trace or reflection in this literature. We search the New Testament in +vain for the slightest allusion (outside the writings directly or +indirectly derived from Palestine itself) to the fall of Jerusalem in +A.D. 70, and the consequent cessation of Jewish national life and temple +ceremonial. The remoteness of the writers with whom we are dealing both +in time and national interest from the affairs of Jerusalem is not the +only cause. The fate of the temple had no effect to weaken the types of +Judaism with which the church of the sub-apostolic age had to contend. +The Pharisaic legalism of the synagogue became only the stronger when +the hollow Sadducean priesthood collapsed, and temple ceremonial became +simply a ceremonial on paper, the affair no longer of priest and Levite, +but of scribe and Pharisee. So also with the denationalized Judaism of +the Dispersion, a more insidious danger for early converts from +heathenism than the stricter, legalistic type. The crushing of the +nationalistic rebellion, the temporary suppression of the war-party, the +Zealots, only strengthened and promoted Pharisaism, and the Dispersion +was scarcely affected by the losses of the war. When Jerusalem and the +temple fell, temple and city had become entirely superfluous factors to +both parties in the great strife of church versus synagogue. Hebrews +knows of a type of Judaism which is formidable by reason of the appeal +of its ordinances of angels and its sacerdotal system written in a book +of acknowledged divine authority. But the characteristic point is that +in Hebrews, as truly as in Barnabas and Justin Martyr, it is only the +prescription and not the practice which is in question. But for the fact +that the "new testament" of Heb. ix. 15 is still unwritten, its +controversy might properly be described as a battle of books. + +On the other hand the pressure of persecution without, combined with the +disappearance of creative leadership within, is visibly forcing the +independent provinces of Christendom toward organic unity under the +principle of apostolic authority. First Peter is the first and greatest +evidence of this tendency to union promoted by external pressure. +Hebrews and James follow as illustrative of the need felt for +maintaining the standards both of doctrine and of morals at their full +height. Christianity must not be thought of as on a level with Judaism, +it is the final and universal revelation. It must not be practised +half-heartedly, with "double-mindedness," nor in vain philosophizing and +professions belied by deeds. It must be obeyed as a new and royal law, +the mirror of divine perfection. + +If, then, we turn from these evidences of general conditions in church +and empire to the inward dangers revealed by the writings against +heresy, we shall see how this disruptive influence, already distinctly +apprehended in Paul's later writings, makes itself more and more +strongly felt, and in more and more definite form, with Ephesus and the +churches of Asia as its chief breeding-place. + +The Pastoral Epistles in their present form cannot be dated much before +the time when they begin to be used by Ignatius and Polycarp (110-117). +Indeed some phrases (perhaps editorial additions) seem to imply a still +later date, as when in 1st Tim. vi. 20, Timothy is warned against the +"antitheses of miscalled Gnosis," as if with direct reference to +Marcion's system of this title. Their avowed purpose is to counteract +the inroads of heresy, and the remedy applied is ecclesiastical +authority and discipline. Far more of Paul's inspired gospel of Son ship +and liberty, far more of his conception of the redemption in Christ as a +triumph over the spiritual world-rulers of this darkness, is found in +1st Peter and Hebrews than here. Nothing appears of Paul's broad +horizon, his spirit of missionary conquest, his devotion to the unity of +Jew and Gentile in their common access to the Father in one Spirit. +There is no trace of the great Pauline doctrines of the conflict of +flesh and spirit, the superseding of the dispensation of Law by the +dispensation of Grace, the Adoption, the Redemption, the Inheritance. +The attention is turned wholly to local conditions, maintenance of the +transmitted doctrine and order, resistance to the advance of "vain +talk," "Jewish fables," "foolish questionings, genealogies and strifes +about the Law," which go hand in hand with moral laxity. In short the +outlook and temper are those of the Epistle of James, while the remedy +is that of Acts and the Epistles of Ignatius. The Paul who here speaks +is not the missionary and mystic, but the shrewd ecclesiastic. There is +only too much evidence to show that in the Pauline mission-field the +remedy resorted to against the licence in thought and action which +threatened decadence and dissolution after apostolic inspiration had +died out, was the religion of authority, doctrinal and disciplinary, not +the religion of the Spirit. Ecclesiastical appointees take the place as +teachers and defenders of the faith of those who had been the inspired +apostles and prophets of its extension. + +And on the other side are the false teachers. They are of Jewish +character in their doctrine, aspiring to be "teachers of the Law" though +really ignorant of its meaning. The worst of them are actual Jews (Tit. +i. 10), which implies that some were not. Moreover the type of doctrine +is still less like the Pharisaism of the synagogue than the "philosophy +and vain deceit" rebuked by Paul at Colossae. There is similar +distinction of meats (treated in 2nd Tim. iv. 1-5 as a doctrine of +"seducing spirits and demons"), and a prohibition of wine and marriage. +There is side by side with this ascetic tendency one equally marked +toward libertinism and love of money (2nd Tim. iii. 1-9). Both phases +remind us of the "concision" of Paul's later letters. But besides the +larger development new features appear of Hellenistic rather than Jewish +type. The new doctrine of the resurrection as something "past already" +is more closely connected with the Pauline mysticism, the present union +of the believer with the life of Christ "hid in God," than with the +Jewish idea of return to earth in resuscitated flesh. The Paulinist of +the Pastorals is already foreshadowing the great conflict of Ignatius, +Justin and Irenaeus against those who "denied the resurrection," +perverting (as the fathers allege) the meaning of Paul's saying, "flesh +and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (_cf._ 2nd Pet. iii. 16). +And the Pastorals tend toward the un-Pauline doctrine soon to be +formulated in the 'catholic' church: "I believe in the resurrection of +the _flesh_." Again the false doctrine now distinctly avows itself a +form of Gnosis. "They profess that they know God, but by their works +they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good +work reprobate." And our Paulinist's remedy is the traditional doctrine, +the "pattern of sound words," the "deposit" of the Church teacher, more +especially the whole-some words, "even the words of our Lord Jesus +Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness." Thus even the +rich, if they do good, and become "rich in good works" will "lay up in +store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come." + +We have only to place these pseudo-Pauline writings side by side with +the Epistles of John and Ignatius to recognize the advance of the heresy +which soon declared itself as Gnostic Doketism, with the Jew Cerinthus +at Ephesus as its principal exponent. Moreover this steadily increasing +inward danger of the Pauline mission-field, a danger not merely sporadic +like the outbursts of persecution, but constant and increasing, is +forcing the two great branches of the Christian brotherhood together on +the basis of 'catholicity' and the 'apostolic' tradition. Between the +churches of the AEgean and that of Rome, where both parties stand on +neutral ground, there are exchanged generous and sympathetic assurances +of essential unity of doctrine in the great outbreak of persecution in +85-90. Among the Pauline churches themselves there is an irresistible +reaction against the vagaries and moral laxity of heretical teaching +toward 'apostolic' tradition and ecclesiastical authority. It appears +with almost startling vividness in the Pastoral Epistles, and meets its +answer from without, perhaps from Rome, perhaps from Syria, in the +homily dressed as an encyclical called the Epistle of James. It is not +hard to foresee what sort of Christian unity is destined to come about. +Nevertheless the creative spirit and genius of Paul was to find +expression in one more splendid product of Ephesus before the Roman +unity was to be achieved.--But before we take up the writings of the +great 'theologian' of Ephesus we must trace the growth in Syria and at +Rome of the Literature of the Church Teacher and Prophet. + + + + +PART III + +THE LITERATURE OF CATECHIST AND PROPHET + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE MATTHAEAN TRADITION OF THE PRECEPTS OF JESUS + + +As we have seen in our study of the later literature addressed to, or +emanating from, the Pauline mission-field, the church teacher and +ecclesiastic who there took up the pen after the death of Paul had +scarcely any alternative but to follow the literary model of the great +founder of Gentile Christianity. Inevitably the typical literary product +of this region became the apostolic letter, framed on the model of +Paul's, borrowing his phraseology and ideas, when not actually embodying +fragments from his pen and covering itself with his name. Homilies are +made over into "epistles." Even 'prophecy,' to obtain literary +circulation, must have prefixed epistles of "the Spirit" to the +churches; and when at last a gospel is produced, this too is +accompanied, as we shall see, by three successive layers of enclosing +'epistles.' + +At the seat of 'apostolic' Christianity it was equally inevitable that +the literary products should follow a different model. Here, from the +beginning, the standard of authority had been the commandment of Jesus. +Apostleship had meant ability to transmit his teaching, not endowment +with insight into the mystery of the divine purpose revealed in his +cross and resurrection. "The gospel" was the gospel _of_ Jesus. The +letters of Paul, if they circulated at all in Syria and Cilicia at this +early time, have had comparatively small effect on writers like Luke and +James. At Rome the case was somewhat different. Here Pauline influence +had been effectually superimposed upon an originally Jewish-Christian +stock. The Roman Gospel of Mark, accordingly, has just the +characteristics we should expect from this Petro-Pauline community. +Antioch, too, though at the disruption over the question of +table-fellowship it took the side of James, Peter, and Barnabas against +Paul, had always had a strong Gentile element. But Jerusalem, the church +of the apostles and elders, with its caliphate in the family of Jesus, +and its zeal for Jewish institutions and the Law, was the pre-eminent +seat of traditional authority. No other gospel, oral or written, could +for a moment compare in its eyes with its own cherished treasury of the +precepts of Jesus. Its own estimate of itself as conservator of +orthodoxy, and custodian of the sacred deposit, vividly reflected from +the pages of Hegesippus, was increasingly accepted by the other +churches. 'James' and 'Jude' were probably not the real names of the +writers of these 'general' or 'catholic' epistles; but they show in what +direction men looked when there was need to counteract a widespread +tendency to moral relaxation and vain disputations, or to demoralizing +heresy. + +We have also seen how inevitable was the reaction after Paul's death, +even among his own churches, toward a historic standard of authority. +Even more marked than the disposition to draw together in fraternal +sympathy under persecution, is the reliance shown by the Pastoral +Epistles on "health-giving words, even the words of our Lord Jesus +Christ" (1st Tim. vi. 3), and on a consolidated apostolic succession as +a bulwark against the disintegrating advance of heresy. In (proconsular) +Asia early in the second century there is an unmistakable and sweeping +disposition to "turn to the word handed down to us from the beginning" +(_Ep. of Polyc._, vii.) against those who were "perverting the sayings +of the Lord to their own lusts." The ancient "word of prophecy" and the +former revelations granted to apostolic seers were also turned to +account by men like Papias and the author of 2nd Peter against those who +"denied the resurrection and judgment." + +This Papias of Hierapolis, the friend and colleague of Polycarp, had +undertaken in opposition to "the false teachers, and those who have so +very much to say," to write (probably after the utter destruction of the +community of 'apostles, elders, and witnesses' at Jerusalem in 135), _an +Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord_. He based the work on authentic +tradition of the Jerusalem witnesses, two of whom (Aristion, and John +'the Elder') were still living at the time of his inquiries. In fact, +this much debated "John the Elder," clearly distinguished by Papias from +John the "disciple of the Lord," may be identified, in our judgment, +with the John mentioned by Eusebius and Epiphanius midway in the +succession of 'Elders' of the Jerusalem church between A.D. 62 and 135. +Epiphanius dates his death in 117. Papias gives us practically all the +information we have regarding the beginnings of gospel literature. He +may have known all four of our Gospels. He certainly knew Revelation and +"vouched for its trustworthiness," doubtless against the deniers of the +resurrection and judgment. He "used testimonies" from 1st John, and +probably the saying of Jesus of John xiv. 2; but he seems to have based +his _Exposition_ on two gospels only, giving what he had been able to +learn of their history from travellers who reported to him testimonies +of 'the elders.' Papias' two gospels were our Matthew and our Mark, +whose differences he reconciled by what the Jerusalem elders had +reported as to their origin. Matthew, according to these authorities +(?), represented in its Greek form a collection of the Precepts of the +Lord which had formerly been current in the original Aramaic, so that +its circulation had of course been limited to Palestine. The original +compiler had been the Apostle Matthew. Various Greek equivalents of this +compilation had taken its place where Aramaic was not current. Thus +Papias, in explicit dependence on "the Elder" so far as Mark is +concerned, but without special designation of his authority for the +statement regarding Matthew. It is even possible that his representation +that the primitive Matthew was "in the Hebrew tongue" may be due to +rumours whose real starting-point was nothing more than the _Gospel of +the Nazarenes_, a product of _c._ 110-140 which misled many later +fathers, particularly Jerome. We cannot afford, however, to slight the +general bearing of testimony borne by one such as Papias regarding the +origins of gospel composition, and particularly the two branches into +which the tradition was divided. For Papias had made diligent inquiry. +Moreover his witness does not stand alone, but has the support of still +more ancient reference (_e. g._ 1st Tim. vi. 3, Acts i. 1) and the +internal evidence of the Synoptic Gospels themselves. The motive for his +statement is apologetic. Differences between the two Gospels had been +pointed out on the score both of words and events. Papias shows that +Gospel tradition is not to be held responsible for verbal agreement +between the two parallel reports of the Lord's words. The differences +are attributable to translation. So, too, regarding events. Exact +correspondence of Mark with Matthew (or other gospels) is not to be +looked for, especially as regards the order; because Mark had not +himself been a disciple, and could not get the true order from Peter, +whose anecdotes he reproduced; for when Mark wrote Peter was no longer +living. Mark has reproduced faithfully and accurately his recollection +of "things either said or done," as related by Peter. But Peter had had +no such intention as Matthew of making a systematic compilation +(_syntagma_) of the sayings of the Lord, and had only related his +anecdotes "as occasion required." If the tradition regarding Matthew, as +well as that regarding Mark, was derived from the Elder, he, too, as +well as Papias, knew the Greek Matthew; regarding it as a "translation" +of the apostolic _Logia_, he naturally makes Matthew the standard and +accounts as above for the wide divergence of Mark as to order. + +The Jerusalem elder who thus differentiates the two great branches of +gospel tradition into Matthaean Precepts and Petrine Sayings and Doings, +is probably "the Elder John"; for this elder's "traditions" were so +copiously cited by Papias as to lead Irenaeus, and after him Eusebius, to +the unwarranted inference of personal contact. Irenaeus even identified +the Elder John with the Apostle, thus transporting not only him, but the +entire body of "Elders and disciples" from Jerusalem to Asia, a pregnant +misapprehension to which we must return later. In the meantime we must +note that this fundamental distinction between _syntagmas_ of the +Precepts, and narratives of the Sayings and Doings, carries us back as +far as it is possible to penetrate into the history of gospel +composition. The primitive work of the Apostle Matthew, was probably +done in and for Jerusalem and vicinity--certainly so if written in +Aramaic. The date, if early tradition may be believed, was "when Peter +and Paul were preaching and founding the church at Rome." Oral tradition +must have begun the process even earlier.[16] Mark's work was done at +Rome, according to internal evidence no less than by the unanimous voice +of early tradition. It dates from "after the death of Peter" (64-5) +according to ancient tradition. According to the internal evidence it +was written certainly not long before, and probably some few years +after, the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple (70). At the time of +Papias' writing, then (_c._ 145), all four gospels were probably known, +though only Matthew and Mark were taken as authoritative because +(indirectly) apostolic. At the time of prosecution of his inquiries the +voice of (Palestinian) tradition was still "living and abiding." If, as +tenses and phraseology seem to imply, this means Aristion and the Elder +John (_ob._ 117?) it is reasonable to regard it as extending back over a +full generation. The original Matthew was even then (_c._ 100), and in +Palestine itself, a superseded book. It had three successors, if not +more, two Greek and one Aramaic, all still retaining their claim to the +name and authority of Matthew[17]; but all had been re-cast in a +narrative frame, which at least in the case of our canonical first +Gospel was borrowed from the Roman work of Mark. So far as the remaining +fragments of its rivals enable us to judge, the same is true in their +case also, though to a less extent. It is quite unmistakably true of +Luke, the gospel of Antioch, that its narrative represents the same +"memorabilia of Peter"; for so Mark's gospel came to be called. Thus the +Petrine story appears almost from the start to have gained undisputed +supremacy. But side by side with this remarkable fact as to gospel +_narrative_ is the equally notable confirmation of the other statements +of 'the Elders' regarding the Precepts. For all modern criticism +admits, that besides the material of Mark, which both Matthew and Luke +freely incorporate, omitting very little, our first and third +evangelists have embodied, in (usually) the same Greek translation but +in greatly varied order, large sections from one or more early +compilations of the Sayings of Jesus. + + Footnote 16: Some authorities of the first rank think there is + evidence of literary dependence in 1st Cor. i. 18-21 on the Saying + (Matt. xi. 25-27 = Lk. x. 21 f.). + + Footnote 17: The orthodox Aramaic _Gospel of the Nazarenes_ borrows + from Luke as well as Matthew, but speaks in the name of "Matthew." + This apostle was also regarded as author of the _Gospel according to + the Hebrews_, a heretical product of _c._ 120, current in Greek + among the Jewish Christians of Palestine (Ebionites). + +It is indispensable to a historical appreciation of the environment out +of which any gospel has arisen that we realize that no community ever +produced and permanently adopted as its "gospel" a _partial_ +presentation of the message of salvation. To its mind the writing must +have embodied, for the time at least, the message, the whole message, +and nothing but the message. Change of mind as to the essential contents +of the message would involve supplementation or alteration of the +written gospel employed. No writing of the kind would be produced with +tacit reference to some other for another aspect of the truth. + +It was not, then, the mere limitation of its language which caused the +ancient Matthaean Sayings (the so-called _Logia_) to be superseded and +disappear; nor is mere "translation" the word to describe that which +took its place. The growth of Christianity in the Greek-speaking world +not only called upon Jerusalem to pour out its treasure of evangelic +tradition in the language of the empire, but stimulated a sense of its +own increasing need. That which could once be supplied by +eye-witnesses, the testimony of Jesus' mighty works, his death and +resurrection, was now fast disappearing. And simultaneously the +appreciation of its importance was growing. It was impossible to be +blind to the conquests made by the gospel _about_ Jesus. Enclosed in it, +as part of its substance the gospel _of_ Jesus found its final +resting-place, much as the mother church itself was later taken up and +incorporated in a catholic Christendom. So it is that in the Elder's +time the church of the 'apostles, elders and witnesses' have done more +than merely supersede their Aramaic(?) _Syntagma_ of the Precepts by +"translations." They had adopted alongside of it from Rome Mark's +"Memorabilia of Peter" as to "things either said or done by the Lord." +We can see indeed from the apologetic way in which 'the Elder' speaks of +Mark's limitations (Peter is not to be held responsible for the lack of +order) that Mark's authority is still held quite secondary to Matthew's; +but the very fact that his work is given authoritative standing at all, +still more the fact that it has become the framework into which the +old-time _syntagma_ has been set, marks a great and fundamental change +of view as to what constitutes "the gospel." + +No mere _syntagma_ of the Precepts of Jesus has ever come down to us, +though the papyrus leaves of "Sayings of Jesus" discovered in 1897 at +Behneseh in Egypt by Grenfell and Hunt had something of this +character.[1] It was impossible that any community outside the most +primitive one, where personal "witnesses of the Lord" still survived +"until the times of Trajan," could be satisfied with a "gospel" which +gave only the precepts of Jesus without so much as an account of his +crucifixion and resurrection. And, strange as it may seem, the evidence +of Q (_i. e._ the coincident material in Matthew and Luke not derived +from Mark), as judged by nearly all critics, is that no narrative of the +kind was given in the early compilation of discourses from which this +element was mainly derived. After the "witnesses," apostolic and other, +had begun to disappear, a mere _syntagma_ of Jesus' sayings could not +suffice. It became inevitable that the precepts should be embodied in +the story. And yet we have at least two significant facts to corroborate +the intimations of ancient tradition that this combination was long +postponed. (18) When it is at last effected, and certainly in the +regions of southern Syria,[19] there is even there practically nothing +left of authentic _narrative_ material but the Petrine tradition as +compiled by Mark at Rome. Our Matthew, a Palestinian Jew, the only +writer of the New Testament who consistently uses the Hebrew Bible, +makes a theoretical reconstruction of the order of events in the +Galilean ministry, but otherwise he just incorporates Mark substantially +as it was. What he adds in the way of narrative is so meagre in amount, +and so manifestly inferior and apocryphal in character, as to prove the +extreme poverty of his resources of oral tradition of this type. Luke +has somewhat larger, and (as _literary_ products) better, narrative +additions than Matthew's; but the amount is still extremely meagre, and +often _historically_ of slight value. Some of it reappears in the +surviving fragments of the _Preaching of Peter_. To sum up, there is +outside of Mark _no_ considerable amount of historical material, +canonical or uncanonical, for the story of Jesus. This fact would be +hard to account for if in the regions where witnesses survived, the +first generation really took an interest in perpetuating narrative +tradition. (2) The _order_ of even such events as secured perpetuation +was already hopelessly lost at a time more remote than the writing of +our earliest gospel. This is true not only for Mark, as 'the Elder' +frankly confesses, but for Matthew, Luke and every one else. +Unchronological as Mark's order often is (and the tradition as to the +'casual anecdotes' agrees with the critical phenomena of the text), it +is vastly more historical than Matthew's reconstruction. On the other +hand Luke, while expressly undertaking to improve in this special +respect upon his predecessors, almost never ventures to depart from the +order of Mark, and when he does has never the support of Matthew, and +usually not that of real probability. In short, incorrect as they knew +the order of Mark to be, it was the best that could be had in the days +when evangelists began to go beyond the mere _syntagmas_, and to write +"gospels" as we understand them, or, in their own language, "the things +which Jesus began _both_ to do _and_ to teach" (Acts i. 1). From these +two great outstanding phenomena of gospel criticism alone it would be +apparent that the distinction dimly perceived in the tradition of the +Jerusalem elders reported by Papias, and indeed by many later writers, +is no illusion, but an important and vital fact. + + Footnote 18: It was superscribed "These are the ... words (_logoi_ + as in the Pastoral Epistles, not _logia_ as in Papias and Polycarp) + which Jesus the living Lord spoke to the disciples and Thomas." + + Footnote 19: The possibility should be left open that the Greek + Matthew was written in Egypt (cf. Matt. ii. 15), as some critics + hold. From the point of view of the church historian, however, Egypt + must really be classed as in "the regions of southern Syria." Its + relations with Jerusalem were close and constant. + +A third big, unexpected fact looms up as we round the capes of critical +analysis, subtracting from Matthew and Luke first the elements peculiar +to each, then that derived by each from Mark. It is a fact susceptible, +however, of various interpretation. To some it only proves either the +futility of criticism, or the worthlessness of ancient tradition. To us +it proves simply that the process of transition in Palestine, the home +of evangelic tradition, from the primitive _syntagma_ of Precepts, +framed on the plan of the Talmudic treatise known as _Pirke Aboth_, or +"Sayings of the Fathers," to the Greek type of narrative gospel, was a +longer and more complex one than has commonly been imagined. A cursory +statement of the results of critical efforts to reproduce the so-called +"second source" of Matthew and Luke (Mark being considered the first), +will serve to bring out the fact to which we refer, and at the same +time, we hope, to throw light upon the history of gospel development. + +The mere process of subtraction above described to obtain the element Q +offers no serious difficulties, and for those who attach value to the +tradition of 'the Elders' it is natural to anticipate that the remainder +will show traits corresponding to the description of an apostolic +_syntagma_ of sayings of the Lord translated from the Aramaic, in short +the much-desired _Logia_ of Matthew. The actual result is disappointing +to such an expectation. The widely, though perhaps somewhat +thoughtlessly accepted equivalence Q = the _Logia_ is simply false. Q is +_not_ the _Logia_. It is not a _syntagma_, nor even a consistent whole, +and as it lay before our first and third evangelists it was not (for a +considerable part at least) in Aramaic. True, Q does consist _almost_ +exclusively of discourse material, a large part of which has only +topical order, and is wholly, or mainly, destitute of narrative +connection. Also we find traces here and there of translation at some +period from the Aramaic, though not more in the Q element than in Mark. +But to those who looked for immediate confirmation of the tradition the +result has been on the whole disappointing. Some, more particularly +among English critics, have considered it to justify a falling back upon +the vaguer generalities of the once prevalent theory of oral tradition. +In reality we are simply called upon to renew the process of +discrimination. Most of the Q material has the saying-character and is +strung together with that lack of all save topical order which we look +for in a _syntagma_. But parts of it, such as the Healing of the +Centurion's servant (Matt. viii. 5-10, 13 = Luke vii. 1-10), or the +Preaching of the Baptist and Temptation Story (Matt. iii. 7-10, 12; iv. +2-11 = Luke iii. 7-9, 17; iv. 2-13), obstinately refuse to be brought +under this category. Moreover, the latter section has the unmistakable +motive of presenting Jesus _in his character and ministry_ as "the Son +of God," precisely as in Mark. It begins by introducing Jesus on the +stage at the baptism of John, after the ancient narrative outline (Acts +i. 22; x. 37 f.), and cannot be imagined as forming part of anything +else but a _narrative_ having the conclusion characteristic of our own +type of gospel. Other considerable sections of Q, such as the Question +of John's Disciples and Discourse of Jesus on those that were 'Stumbled' +in him (Matt. xi. 2-11, 16-27; Luke vii. 18-35; x. 13-22), share with +the Baptism and Temptation section not only the doctrinal motive of +commending Jesus in his person and ministry as the longed-for Son of +God, but in a number of characteristics which set them quite apart from +the general mass of precepts and parables in Q. We can here mention only +the following: (1) the coincidence in language between Matthew and Luke +is much greater in these sections of Q, often even greater than in the +sections borrowed from Mark, showing clearly the existence of a common +document written not in Aramaic, but in the Greek language. (2) This +material, unlike most of Q, has served as a source and model in many +portions of Mark. (3) It is for the most part not included in the five +great blocks into which Matthew has divided the Precepts by means of a +special concluding formula (vii. 28; xi. 1; xiii. 53; xix. 1, and xxvi. +1) but appears outside, in the form of supplements to the Markan +narrative (iii. 7--iv. 11; viii. 5-13, 18-22, xi. 2-27; xii. 38-45, +etc.). Finally (4) the Q material of this type seems to be given more +copiously by Luke than by Matthew, and with something more than mere +conjecture of his own as to its historical occasion. In fact, since it +appears that at least this element of Q was known to Mark, there is +nothing to justify exclusion from it of such material as the +Transfiguration story, though in this case it would be needful to prove +that Mark was not the source. Similarly it would be reasonable to think +of Luke's wide divergence from Mark in his story of the Passion as +occasioned by his preference for material derived from this source. +Only, since Matthew has preferred to follow Mark, we have no means of +determining whence Luke did derive his new and here often valuable +material. + +The existence, then, of an element of Q which quite fails to correspond +to what we take the Matthaean _syntagma_ to have been by no means proves +either the futility of criticism or the worthlessness of the ancient +tradition. It only shows that our synoptic evangelists were not the +first to attempt the combination of discourse with narrative, but that +Luke at least had a predecessor in the field, to whom all are more or +less indebted. Criticism and tradition together show that there are two +great streams from which all historically trustworthy material has been +derived. The one is Evangelic Story, and is mainly derived from Mark's +outline of the ministry based on the anecdotes of Peter, though some +elements come from another source, principally preserved by Luke, which +we must discuss in a later chapter devoted to the growth of Petrine +story at Rome and Antioch. The other stream, "Words of the Lord," comes +from Jerusalem, and is always associated in all its forms with the name +of Matthew. We have every reason for accepting the statement that as +early as the founding of the church in Rome (45-50) the Apostle Matthew +had begun the work of compiling the Precepts of Jesus, in a form +serviceable to the object of "teaching men to observe all things +whatsoever he had commanded." Our present Gospel of Matthew, however, is +neither this work nor a translation of it; for the only three things +told us about the apostle's work are all irreconcilable with the +characteristics of our Matthew. The compilation of "Words of the Lord" +was (1) a _syntagma_ and not, like Mark, an outline of the ministry. It +was (2) written in Aramaic; whereas our Matthew is an original Greek +composition. It was (3) by an apostle who had personal acquaintance with +Jesus; whereas our first evangelist is to the last degree dependent upon +the confessedly defective story of Mark. Still if we take our Matthew as +the last link in the long chain of development, covering perhaps half a +century, and including such by-products as the _Gospel according to the +Hebrews_ and the _Gospel of the Nazarenes_, we may obtain a welcome +light upon the environment out of which has come down the work which an +able scholar justly declared, "the most important book ever written, the +Gospel according to Matthew." + +The language in which it was written was alone sufficient to place the +Greek Matthew beyond all possible competition in the larger world from +Aramaic rivals. But its comprehensiveness and catholicity still further +helped it to the position which it soon attained as the most widely used +of all the gospels. Matthew is not only in its whole structure a +composite gospel, but shows in high degree the catholicizing tendency of +the times. Just as it frankly adopts the Roman-Petrine narrative of Mark +with slightest possible modification, so also it places in Peter's hand +with equal frankness the primacy in apostolic succession. Almost the +only additions it makes to Mark's account of the public ministry are the +story of Peter's walking on the sea (xiv. 28-33), and his payment of the +temple tribute for Christ and himself with the coin from the fish's +mouth (xvii. 24-27). The latter story introduces the chapter on the +exercise of rulership in "the church" (ch. xviii.), beginning with the +disciples' question: "Who _then_ is greatest in the kingdom?" Peter is +again in it the one salient figure (xviii. 21). An equally important +addition, connected with xviii. 17 f. is the famous committal to Peter +of the power of the keys, with the declaration making him for his +confession the 'Rock' foundation of "the church." This addition to +Mark's story of the rebuke of Peter at Caesarea Philippi, is one which +decidedly alters its bearing, and seems even to borrow the very language +of Gal. i. 16 f. in order to exalt the apostleship of Peter. In fact, +the Roman gospel and the Palestinian almost reverse the roles we should +expect Peter to play in each. Matthew alone makes Peter "the first" (x. +2), while Mark seems to take special pains to record rebukes of the +twelve and the brethren of the Lord, and especially the rebukes called +down upon themselves by Peter, or Peter and John. + +In respect to the primacy of Peter we can observe a certain difference +even among the Palestinian gospels which succeeded to the primitive +_syntagma_ of Matthew. Little, indeed, is known of the orthodox _Gospel +of the Nazarenes_, beyond its relatively late and composite character; +for it borrowed from Matthew, Mark and Luke in turn. Its list of +apostles, however, begins with "John and James the sons of Zebedee," +_then_ "Simon and Andrew," and winds up: "Thee also, Matthew, did I +call, as thou wert sitting at the seat of custom, and thou followedst +me." The anti-Pauline _Gospel according to the Hebrews_ shows its +conception of the seat of apostolic authority by giving to "James the +Just" the place of Peter as recipient of that first manifestation of the +risen Lord, which laid the foundation of the faith. Why then does the +Greek Palestinian gospel, in contrast with its rivals, lay such special +stress on the primacy of Peter? + +From the cautious and (as it were) deprecatory tone of the appendix to +John (John xxi.) in seeking to commend the "other disciple whom Jesus +loved" as worthy to be accepted as a "true witness" without detriment to +the acknowledged authority of Peter as chief under-shepherd of the +flock, we may infer that not at Rome alone, but wherever there was +question of 'apostolic' tradition, the authority of Peter was coming +rapidly to the fore. The tendency at Antioch is even more marked than at +Rome, as is manifest from Acts. If, then, it seems stronger still in a +region where we should expect the authority of James to be put forward, +this need not be taken as a specifically Roman trait. We must realize +the sharp antagonism which existed in Palestine from the time of the +Apostolic council down, between (1) the consistent legalists, who +maintained down to the period of Justin (153) and the _Clementine +Homilies and Recognitions_ (180-200), their bitter hostility to Paul and +his gospel of Gentile freedom from the Law; and (2) the 'catholic,' or +liberal, Jewish-Christians, who took the standpoint of the Pillars. It +is but one of many indications of its 'catholic' tendency that our +Matthew increases the emphasis on the apostolic authority of Peter to +the point of an actual primacy. The phenomenon must be judged in the +light of the disappearance or suppression of all evangelic story save +what came under the name of Peter, and the tendency in Acts to bring +under his name even the entire apostleship to the Gentiles. Peter is not +yet in these early writings the representative of Rome, but of +_catholicity_. The issue in Matthew is not as between Rome and some +other dominant see, but (as the reflection of the language of Gal. i. +17 f. in Matt. xvi. 17 shows) as between 'catholic' apostolic +authority and the unsafe tendencies of Pauline independence. + +Nevertheless, for all his leanings to catholicity the Greek Matthew has +not wholly succeeded in excluding materials which still reflect +Jewish-Christian hostility to Paul, or at least to the tendencies of +Pauline Christianity. Over and over again special additions are made in +Matthew to emphasize a warning against the workers of "lawlessness." The +exhortation of Jesus in Luke vi. 42-45 to effect (self-)reformation not +on the surface, nor in word, but by change of the inward root of +disposition fructifying in deeds, is altered in Matt. vii. 15-22 into a +warning against the "false prophets" who work "lawlessness," and who +must be judged by their fruits. They make the confession of Lordship +(_cf._ Rom. x. 9) but are not obedient to Jesus' commandment, and lack +good works. In particular the test of Mark ix. 38-40 is directly +reversed. The principle "Whosoever is not against us is for us" is not +to be trusted. A teacher may exercise the 'spiritual gifts' of prophecy, +exorcism, and miracles wrought in the name of Jesus, and still be a +reprobate. A similar (and most incongruous) addition is made to Mark's +parable of the Patient Husbandman (Mark iv. 26-29), in Matt. xiii. +24-30, and reiterated in a specially appended "interpretation" (xiii. +36-43). This addition likens the "workers of lawlessness" to tares sown +alongside the good seed of the word by "an enemy." A similar incongruous +attachment is made to the parable of the Marriage feast (Matt. xxii. +1-14; _cf._ Luke xiv. 15-24) to warn against the lack of the 'garment of +good works.' Finally, Matthew closes his whole series of the discourses +of Jesus with a group of three parables developed with great elaboration +and rhetorical effect, out of relatively slight suggestions as found +elsewhere. The sole theme of the series is the indispensableness of good +works in the judgment (Matt. 25; _cf._ Luke xii. 35-38; xix. 11-28, and +Mark ix. 37, 41). A similar interest appears in Matthew's insistence on +the permanent obligation of the Law (v. (16) 17-20; xix. 16-22--in +contrast with Mark x. 17-22), on respect for the temple (xvii. 24-27) +and on the Davidic descent of Jesus, with fulfilment of messianic +promise in him (chh. i.-ii.; ix. 27). He limits the activity of Jesus to +the Holy Land (xv. 22; contrast Mark vii. 24 f.), makes him in sending +forth the Twelve (x. 5 f.) specifically forbid mission work among +Samaritans or Gentiles, and while the prohibition is finally removed in +xxviii. 18-20, the apostolic seat cannot be removed, but remains as in +x. 23, among "the cities of Israel" to the end of the world. + +There is probably no more of intentional opposition to Paul or to his +gospel in all this than in James or Luke. We cannot for example regard +it as more than accidental coincidence that in the phrase "an enemy hath +done this," in the parable of the tares, we have the same epithet which +the Ebionite literature applies to Paul. But enough remains to indicate +how strongly Jewish-Christian prejudices and limitations still affected +our evangelist. With respect to date, the atmosphere is in all respects +such as characterizes the period of the nineties. + +It does not belong to our present purpose to analyze this gospel into +its constituent elements. The process can be followed in many treatises +on gospel criticism, and the results will be found summarized in +_Introductions_ to the New Testament such as the recent scholarly work +of Moffatt. We have here but to note the general character and structure +of the book as revealing the main outlines of its history and the +conditions which gave it birth. + +Matthew and Luke are alike in that both represent comparatively late +attempts to combine the ancient Matthaean _syntagma_ with the +'Memorabilia of Peter' compiled by Mark. But there is a great +difference. Luke contemplates his work with some of the motives of the +historian. He adopts the method of narrative, and therefore subordinates +his discourse material to a conception (often confused enough) of +sequence in space and time. Matthew, as the structure of his gospel, no +less than his own avowal shows, had an aim more nearly corresponding to +the ancient Palestinian type. The demand for the narrative form had +become irresistible. It controlled even his later Greek and Aramaic +rivals. But Matthew has subordinated the historical to the ethical +motive. He aims at, and has rendered, just the service which his age +demanded and for which it could look to no other region than Jerusalem, +a full compilation of the commandments and precepts of Jesus. + +The narrative framework is adopted from Mark without serious alteration, +because this work had already proved its effectiveness in convincing men +everywhere that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of God." Like Luke, +Matthew prefixes an account of Jesus' miraculous birth and childhood, +because in his time (_c._ 90) the ancient "beginning of the gospel" with +the baptism by John had given opportunity to the heresy of the +Adoptionists, represented by Cerinthus, who maintained that Jesus +_became_ the Son of God at his baptism, a merely temporary "receptacle" +of the Spirit. The prefixed chapters have no incarnation doctrine, and +no doctrine of pre-existence. They do not intend in their story of the +miraculous birth to relate the incoming of a superhuman or non-human +being into the world, else they could not take up the pedigree of Joseph +as exhibiting Jesus' title to the throne of David. Miracle attends and +signalizes the birth of that "Son of David" who is destined to become +the Son of God. Apart from the mere question of attendant prodigy the +aim of Matthew's story of the Infancy is such as should command the +respect and sympathy of every rational thinker. Against all Doketic +dualism it maintains that the Son of God is such from birth to death. +The presence of God's Spirit with him is not a mere counterpart to +demonic "possession," but is part of his nature as true man from the +beginning. + +But the doctrinal interest of Matthew scarcely goes beyond the point of +proving that Jesus is the Christ foretold by the prophets. Doctrine as +well as history is subordinate to the one great aim of teaching men to +"observe all things whatsoever Jesus commanded." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PETRINE TRADITION. EVANGELIC STORY + + +Of the extent to which the early church could do without narrative of +Jesus' earthly ministry we have extraordinary evidences in the +literature of Pauline Christianity on the one side and of Jewish +Christianity on the other. For Paul himself, as we know, the real story +of Jesus was a transcendental drama of the Incarnation, Redemption, and +Exaltation. It is probable that when at last "three years" after his +conversion he went up to Jerusalem "to get acquainted with Peter," the +story he was interested to hear had even then more to do with that +common apostolic witness of the resurrection appearances reproduced in +1st Cor. xv. 3-11, than with the sayings and doings of the ministry. As +to this Paul preserves, as we have seen, an almost unbroken silence. And +that which did not interest Paul, naturally did not interest his +churches. + +On the other hand those who could have perpetuated a full and authentic +account of the ministry were almost incredibly slow to undertake the +task; partly, no doubt, because of their vivid expectation of the +immediate end of the world, but largely also because to their mind the +data most in need of preservation were the 'life-giving words.' The +impression of Jesus' character, his person and authority was not, as +they regarded it, a thing to be gained from the historical outline of +his career. It was established by the fact of the Resurrection, by the +predictions of the prophets, which found fulfilment in the circumstances +of Jesus' birth, particular incidents here and there in his career and +fate, but most of all in his resurrection and the gifts of the Spirit +which argued his present session at the right hand of God. Once this +authority of Jesus was established the believer had only to observe his +commandments as handed down by the apostles, elders and witnesses. + +On all sides there was an indifference to such historical inquiry as the +modern man would think natural and inevitable, an indifference that must +remain altogether inexplicable to us unless we realize that until at +least the time of the fourth evangelist the main proofs of messiahship +were not looked for in Jesus' earthly career. His Christhood was thought +of as something in the future, not yet realized. Even his resurrection +and manifestation in glory "at the right hand of God," which is to both +Paul (Rom. i. 4) and his predecessors (Acts ii. 32-36) the assurance +that "God hath made him both Lord and Christ," is not yet the beginning +of his specific messianic programme. Potentially this has begun, because +Jesus has already been seated on the 'throne of glory,' "from henceforth +expecting until his enemies be made the footstool of his feet." +Practically it is not yet. The Christ is still a Christ that is to be. +His messianic rule is delayed until the subjugation of the "enemies"; +and this subjugation in turn is delayed by "the long suffering of God, +who willeth not that any should perish, but that all men should come to +repentance." Meantime a special "outpouring of the Spirit" is given in +'tongues,' 'prophecies,' 'miracle working,' and the like, in fulfilment +of scriptural promise, as a kind of coronation largess to all loyal +subjects. This outpouring of the Spirit, then, is the great proof and +assurance that the Heir has really ascended the 'throne of glory' in +spite of the continuance of "all things as they were from the foundation +of the world." These 'gifts' are "firstfruits of the Spirit," pledges of +the ultimate inheritance, proofs both to believers and unbelievers of +the complete Inheritance soon to be received. But the gifts have also a +practical aspect. They are all endowments for _service_. The Great +Repentance in Israel and among the Gentiles is not to be brought about +without the co-operation of believers. The question which at once arises +when the manifestation of the risen Christ is granted, "Lord, dost thou +at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" is therefore answered by +the assurance that the time is in God's hand alone, but that the 'gifts +of the Spirit,' soon to be imparted, are intended to enable believers to +do their part, at home and abroad, toward effecting the Great Repentance +(Acts i. 6-8).[20] + + Footnote 20: The parallel in Mark xvi. 14-18 is very instructive, + but needs the recently discovered connection between verses 14 and + 15 to complete the sense: "And they excused themselves (for their + unbelief) saying, This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under the + dominion of Satan, who by means of the unclean spirits prevents the + truth and power of God from being apprehended. On this account + reveal thy righteousness (_i. e._ justice, in the sense of Isa. lvi, + 1 _b_) even now. And Christ replied to them, The limit of years of + Satan's power is (already) fulfilled, but other terrible things are + at hand; moreover I was delivered up to death on behalf of sinners + in order that they might return unto the truth and sin no more, that + they might inherit the spiritual and incorruptible glory which is in + heaven." Then follows the mission into all the world and endowment + with the gifts. + +For a church which felt itself endowed with living and present evidences +of the messianic power of Jesus it was naturally only a second thought +(and not a very early one at that) to look back for proof to occurrences +in Jesus' life in Galilee, however notable his career as "a prophet +mighty in deed and word before God and all the people." The _present_ +gifts of his power would be (at least in demonstrative effect) "greater +works than these." With those who had the resurrection testimony of 1st +Cor. xv. 3-11, and even the recurrent experience of "visions and +revelations of the Lord," anticipatory revelations of his messiahship, +utterances, like that to Peter at Caesarea Philippi, wherein Jesus only +predicted the great work to be divinely accomplished through him, +whether by life or death, in going up to Jerusalem, intimations which +had been disregarded or disbelieved at the time, could not rank with +present knowledge, experience and insight. They would be recalled merely +as confirmatory foregleams of "the true light that now shineth," as the +two who had received the manifestation at Emmaus exclaim, "Did not our +heart burn within us while he talked to us in the way?" + +We could not indeed psychologically account for the development of the +resurrection faith after the crucifixion, if before it Jesus' life and +utterances had not been such as to make his manifestation in glory seem +to the disciples just what they _ought_ to have expected. But, +conversely, nothing is more certain than the fact that they _did not_ +expect it; and that when the belief had become established by other +means, the attitude toward the "sayings and doings" maintained by those +who had them to relate--as we know, the most successful missionary of +all felt it no handicap to be entirely without them--was one of looking +back into an obscure past for things whose pregnant significance became +appreciable only in the light of present knowledge. "These things +understood not his disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, +then remembered they that these things had been written of him, and that +they had done these things unto him." + +We are fortunate in having even one example of the "consecutive +narratives" (_diegeses_) referred to in Luke i. 1. Our Mark is a gospel +written purely and simply from this point of view, aiming only to show +how the earthly career of Jesus gave evidence that this was the Son of +God, predestined to exaltation to the right hand of power, with little +attempt, if any, to bring in the precepts of the New Law. We should +realize, however, that this is already a beginning in the process soon +to become controlling, a process of carrying back into the earthly life +of Jesus in Galilee of first this trait, then that, then all the +attributes of the glorified Lord. + +Ancient and reliable tradition informs us that this first endeavour to +tell the story of "Jesus Christ the Son of God" was composed at Rome by +John Mark, a former companion of both Peter and Paul, from data drawn +from the anecdotes casually employed by Peter in his preaching. There is +much to confirm this in the structure, the style, and the doctrinal +object and standpoint of the Gospel. + +To begin with, the date of composition cannot be far from 75. Mark is +not only presupposed by both Matthew and Luke, but in their time had +already acquired an extraordinary predominance. To judge by what +remains to us of similar products, Mark in its own field might almost be +said to reign supreme and reign alone. Such almost exclusive supremacy +could not have been attained, even by a writing commonly understood to +represent the preaching of Peter, short of a decade or more of years. On +the other hand we have the reluctant testimony of antiquity, anxious to +claim as much as possible of apostolic authority for the record, but +unwilling to commit Peter to apparent contradictions of Matthew, that it +was written after Peter's death (64-5).[21] Internal evidence would in +fact bring down the date of the work in its present form a full decade +thereafter. It is true that there are many structural evidences of more +than one form of the narrative, and that the apocalyptic chapter (ch. +xiii.), which furnishes most of the evidence of date, may well belong +among the later supplements. But in the judgment of most critics this +'eschatological discourse' (almost the only connected discourse of the +Gospel) is clearly framed in real retrospect upon the overthrow of +Jerusalem and the temple, and the attendant tribulation on "those that +are in Judaea." The writer applies a general saying of Jesus known to us +from other sources about destroying and rebuilding the temple +specifically to the demolition effected by Titus (70). He warns his +readers in the same connection that "the end" is not to follow +immediately upon the great Judaean war, but only when the powers of evil +in the heavenly places, powers inhabiting sun, moon and stars, are +shaken (xiii. 21-27). The Pauline doctrine of 2nd Thess. ii. 1-12 is +adopted, but with careful avoidance of the prediction that the "man of +sin" is to appear "in the temple of God." Paul's "man of sin" is now +identified with Daniel's "abomination that maketh desolate" (Dan. xii. +11), which therefore is spoken of as "he" (masculine). "His" appearance +will prelude the great Judaean tribulation; but his standing place is +ill-defined. It is only "where he ought not." Matthew (following his +usual practice) returns more nearly to the language of Daniel. With him +the "Abomination" is again an object standing "in _a_ holy place." But +Matthew is already applying the prophecy to another tribulation still to +come. He does not see that Mark refers to the sack of Jerusalem on which +he himself looks back in his addition to the parable of the Supper +(Matt. xxii. 6 f.; _cf._ Luke xiv. 15-24), but takes Mark xiii. 14-23 +as Jesus' prediction of a great final tribulation _still to come_. + + Footnote 21: So Irenaeus (186) and (by implication) Papias. Clement + of Alexandria (210) meets the difficulty by alleging that Peter was + still alive, but gave no aid to the writer. + +Mark's crudities of language and style, his frequent latinisms, his +explanation to his readers (almost contemptuously exaggerated) of Jewish +purifications and distinctions of meats (vii. 3 f.), presupposition +of the Roman form of divorce (x. 12), explanation in Roman money of the +value of the (Greek and Oriental) "mite" (_lepton_), are well-known +confirmations of the tradition of the writing's place of origin. But +these are superficial characteristics. More important for us to note is +the fundamental conception of what constitutes "the gospel," and the +writer's attitude on questions of the relation of Jew and Gentile and +the authority of the apostles and kindred of the Lord. + +The most striking characteristic of Mark is that it aims to present the +gospel _about_ Jesus, and is relatively indifferent to the gospel _of_ +Jesus. Had the writer conceived his task after the manner of a Matthew +there is little doubt that he could have compiled catechetic discourses +of Jesus like the Sermon on the Mount or the discourse on prayer of Luke +xi. 1-13. The fact that he disregards such records of Jesus' ethical and +religious instruction does not mean that he (tacitly) refers his readers +to the Matthaean Precepts, or similar compilations, to supplement his own +deficiencies. It means a different, more Pauline, conception of what +"the gospel" is. Mark conceives its primary element to be attachment to +the _person_ of Jesus, and has already gone far toward obliterating the +primitive distinction between a Jesus whose earthly career had been "in +great humility," and the glorified Son of God. The earthly Jesus is +still, it is true, only a man endowed with the Spirit of Adoption. But +he is so completely "in" the Spirit, and so fully endowed with it, as +almost to assume the Greek figure of a demi-god treading the earth +incognito. No wonder this Gospel became the favourite of the +Adoptionists and Doketists. + +Mark does not leave his reader in the dark as to what a man must do to +inherit eternal life. The requirement does not appear until after Jesus +has taken up with the twelve the road to Calvary, because it is +distinctly _not_ a keeping of commandments, new or old. It is an +adoption of "the mind that was in Christ, who humbled himself and became +obedient unto death." In Matthew's 'improved' version of Jesus' answer +to the rich applicant for eternal life, the suppliant is told he may +obtain it by obeying the commandments, with supererogatory merit ("if +thou wouldest be perfect"), if he follows Jesus' example of +self-abnegating service. In the form and context from which Matthew +borrows (Mark x. 13-45) there is no trace of this legalism, and the +whole idea of supererogatory merit, or higher reward, is strenuously, +almost indignantly, repudiated. No man can receive the kingdom at all +who does not receive it "as a little child." Every man must be prepared +to make every sacrifice, even if he has kept all the commandments from +his youth up. Peter and the disciples who have "left all and followed" +are in respect to reward on the same level as others. Peter's plea for +the twelve is answered, "There is no man that hath left" earthly +possessions for Christ's sake that is not amply compensated even here. +He must expect persecution now, but will receive eternal life hereafter. +Only "many that are first shall be last, and last first." Even the +martyr-apostles James and John will have no superior rights in the +Kingdom. + +Such passages as the above not only reveal why Mark's gospel shows +comparative disregard of the Precepts, but also displays an attitude +toward the growing claims of apostolic authority and neo-legalism which +in contrast with Matthew and Luke is altogether refreshing. The kindred +of the Lord appear but twice (iii. 20 f., 31-35 and vi. 1-6), both +times in a wholly unfavourable light. John appears but once, and that to +receive a rebuke for intolerance. James and John appear only to be +rebuked for selfish ambition. Peter seldom otherwise than for rebuke. +All the disciples show constantly the blindness and "hardness of heart" +which is explicitly said to characterize their nation (vi. 52; vii. 18; +viii. 12, 14-21). Their self-seeking and unfaithfulness is the foil to +Jesus' self-denial and faithfulness (viii. 33; ix. 6, 18 f., 29; x. +24, 28, 32, 37, 41; xiv. 27-31, 37-41, 50, 66-72). That which in Matthew +(xvi. 16-19) has become a special divine revelation to Peter of the +messiahship, marking the foundation of the church, is in the earlier +Markan form (Mark viii. 27-33) not a revelation of the messiahship at +all. Peter's answer, "Thou are the Christ," is common knowledge. The +twelve are not supposed to be more ignorant than the demons! There is, +however, a caustic rebuke of Peter for his carnal, Jewish idea of the +implications of Christhood. A revelation of its significance almost +Doketic in character is indeed granted just after to "Peter, James and +John"; but they remain without appreciation or understanding of the +'vision,' though it exhibits Jesus in his heavenly glory in company with +the translated heroes of the Old Testament. The revelation still +remains, therefore, a sealed book until "after the resurrection." + +This exaggeration of the disciples' obtuseness is partly due, no doubt, +to apologetic motives. The evangelist has to meet the objection, If +Jesus was really the extraordinary, superhuman being represented, and +was openly proclaimed such by the evil spirits, why was nothing heard of +his claims until after the crucifixion and alleged resurrection? His +carrying back into the Galilean ministry of the glorified Being of +Paul's redemption doctrine compels him to represent the twelve as +sharing the dullness of the people who "having eyes see not, and having +ears hear not." But with all allowance for this, the Roman Gospel shows +small consideration for the apostles and kindred of the Lord. + +It shows quite as little for Jewish prerogative and Jewish law. Jesus +speaks in parables because to those "without" his preaching is to be +intentionally a 'veiled' gospel (iv. 1-34). The Inheritance will be +taken away from them and given to others (xii. 1-12). Priests and people +together were guilty of the rejection and murder of Jesus (xv. 11-15, +29-32). Forgiveness of sins is offered by Jesus on his own authority in +defiance of the scribes. Their exclusion of the publicans and sinners he +disregards, proclaims abolition of their fasts, and holds their +sabbath-keeping up to scorn (ii. 1--iii. 6). On the question of +distinctions of meats his position is the most radical possible. The +Jewish ceremonial is a "vain worship," mere "commandments of men." +Defilement cannot be contracted by what "goes into a man." Jesus' saying +about inward purity was not aimed at the mere 'hedge of the Law' (Matt. +xv. 13), nor the mere matter of ablutions (Matt. xv. 20), but was +intended to "make all meats clean" (vii. 1-23). Moses' law in some of +its enactments does not represent the real divine will, but a human +accommodation to human weakness (x. 2-9). Obedience to its highest code +does not ensure eternal life (x. 19-21). The single law of love is "much +more than all whole burnt offering and sacrifices" (xii. 28-34). When +_all_ the references to Judaism, its Law, its institutions, and its +prerogative, are of this character, when Jesus _always_ appears in +radical opposition to the Law and its exponents (xii. 38-40; xiii. 1 +f.), _never_ as their supporter in any degree, the evangelist comes +near to making it too hard for us to believe that he really was of +Jewish birth. + +On the other hand we cannot doubt the statement that he derives his +anecdotes, however indirectly, from the preaching of Peter. The prologue +(i. 1-13), indeed, makes no pretence of reporting the testimony of any +witness, but acquaints the reader with the true nature of Jesus as "the +Christ, the Son of God" by means of a mystical account of his baptism +and endowment with the Spirit of Adoption, probably resting upon that +document of Q, which we have distinguished from the Precepts. But the +ensuing story of the ministry opens at the home of Peter in Capernaum, +and continues more or less connected therewith in spite of interjected +groups of anecdotes whose connection is not chronological but topical, +such as ii. 1--iii. 6; iii. 22-30; iv. 1-34. It reaches its climax where +Jesus at Caesarea Philippi takes Peter into his confidence. Here again +the mystical Revelation or Transfiguration vision (ix. 2-10) interrupts +the connection, and shows its foreign derivation by the transcendental +sense in which it interprets the person of Jesus. Certain features +suggest its having been taken from the same source as the prologue (i. +1-13). + +The story issues in the tragedy at Jerusalem, where, as before, Peter's +figure, however unfavourable the contrast in which it is set to that of +Jesus, is still the salient one. The outline in general is identical +with that so briefly sketched in Acts x. 38-42--_except_ that the +absolutely essential point, the one thing which no gospel narrative can +possibly have lacked, the resurrection manifestation to the disciples, +and the commission to preach the gospel, is absolutely lacking! + +That Mark's gospel once contained such a conclusion is almost a +certainty. Imagine a gospel narrative without a report of the +manifestation of the risen Lord to his disciples! Imagine a church--and +that the church at _Rome_--giving out as the first, the authentic, +original, and (in intention) the only account of the origin of the +Christian faith (Mark i. 1), a narrative which _ended_ with the apostles +scattered in cowardly desertion, and Peter the most conspicuous, most +remorseful renegade of them all! He who writes in Peter's name from Rome +but shortly after, affectionately naming Mark "my son," must have had +indeed a forgiving spirit. But traces of the real sequel have not all +disappeared. Many outside allusions still remain to the turning again of +Peter and stablishing of his brethren in the resurrection faith. The +earliest is Paul's (1st Cor. xv. 5). The present Mark itself implies +that it once had such an ending; for Jesus promises to rally his flock +in Galilee after he is raised up (xiv. 28), and the women at the +sepulchre are bidden to remind the disciples of the promise, though +they fail to deliver their message. Indeed the whole Gospel looks +forward to it. To this end "the mystery of the kingdom" is given to the +chosen twelve (iii. 13 f., 31-35; iv. 10-12); for this they are +forewarned (though vainly) of the catastrophe (viii. 34--ix. 1, 30-32; +x. 32-34; xiv. 27-31). In fact the promise of a baptism of the Spirit +(i. 8) probably implies that the original sequel related not only the +appearance to Peter and (later) to the rest with the charge to preach, +but also their endowment with the gifts, perhaps as in John xx. 19-23. +What we now have is only a substitute for this original sequel, a +substitute so ill-fitting as to have provoked repeated attempts at +improvement. + +From xvi. 8 onwards, as is well known, the oldest textual authorities +have simply a blank. Later authorities give a shorter or longer +substitute for the missing Manifestation and Charge to the twelve. The +shorter follows Matthew, the longer follows Luke, with traces of +acquaintance with John. Fanciful theories to explain these textual +phenomena, such as accidental mutilation of the only copy, are +improbable, and do not explain. If conjecture be permissible it is more +likely that the original work was in two parts, after the manner of +Luke-Acts, the 'former treatise' ending with the centurion's testimony, +"Truly this man was a Son of God" (xv. 39). The second part continued +the narrative in the form of a Preaching of Peter, perhaps ending with +his coming to Rome; for the ancient literature of the church had several +narratives of this type. Its disappearance will have been due to the +superseding (perhaps the embodiment) of it by the work of Luke. When the +primitive Markan 'former treatise' was adapted for separate use as a +gospel it was quite natural that it should be supplemented (we can +hardly say "completed") by the addition of the story of the Empty +Sepulchre (xv. 40--xvi. 8), though this narrative is quite unknown to +the primitive resurrection preaching (_cf._ 1st Cor. xv. 3-11), and one +in which every character save Pilate is a complete stranger to the body +of the work. The subsequent further additions of the so-called "longer" +and "shorter" endings belong to the history of transcription after A.D. +140. + +It will be apparent from the above that the Gospel of Mark is no +exception to the rule that church-writings of this type inevitably +undergo recasting and supplementation until the advancing process of +canonization at last fixes their text with unalterable rigidity. Whether +we recognize "sources," or earlier "forms," or only earlier "editions" +of Mark, it is certain that appendices could still be attached long +after the appearance of Luke, and probable that in the early period of +its purely local currency at Rome the fund of Petrine anecdote had +received more than one adaptation of form before it was carried to +Syria and embodied substantially as we now have it in the composite +gospels of Matthew and Luke. The omission by Luke of Mark vi. 45--viii. +26 is intentional,[22] and cannot be used to prove the existence of a +shorter form; and the same is probably true of the omission of Mark ix. +38-40 by Matthew. Mark xii. 41-44, however, is probably an addition +later than Matthew's time. Neither Matthew nor Luke had a text extending +beyond xvi. 8. But signs of acquaintance with the original sequel appear +in the appendix to John (John xxi.) and in the late and composite +_Gospel of Peter_ (_c._ 140). According to the latter the twelve +remained in Jerusalem scattered and in hiding for the remaining six days +of the feast. At its close they departed, mourning and grieving, each +man to his own home. Peter and a few others, including "Levi the son of +Alpheus," resumed their fishing "on the sea." ... The fragment breaks +off at this point. The story may be conjecturally completed from 1st +Cor. xv. 5-8, with comparison of John xxi. 1-13; Luke v. 4-8; xxii. 31 +f.; xxiv. 34, 36-43. + + Footnote 22: See below. + +As we look back upon the undertaking of this humble author, named only +by tradition, one among the catechists of the great church of Paul and +Peter, writing but a few years after their death, but a few years before +1st Peter and Hebrews, one is struck by the grandeur of his aim. It is +true he was not wholly without predecessors in the field. The work +which afforded him at least the substance of his prologue, and in all +probability other considerable sections of his book, had already aimed +in a more mystical way to connect the Pauline doctrine of Christ as the +Wisdom of God with the mighty works and teachings of Jesus. Duplication +of a considerable part of Mark's story (vii. 31--viii. 26 repeats with +some variation vi. 30--vii. 30) shows that his work was one of +combination as well as creation. But outline, proportion and onward +march of the story show not only skill and care, but large-minded and +consistent adherence to the fundamental plan to tell the origin of the +Christian faith (Mark i. 1). + +Confirmation of the belief and practice of the church--it is for this +that Mark reports all he can learn of the years of obscurity in Galilee +followed by the tragedy in Jerusalem. Not only belief in Jesus as the +Son of God will be justified by the story, but the founding, +institutions, and ritual of the existing church. He manifestly adapts it +to show not only the superhuman powers and attributes of the chosen Son +of God, but the germ and type of all the church's institutions. Its +baptism of repentance and accompanying gift of the Spirit of Adoption +only repeats the experience of Jesus at the baptism of John. Endowment +with the word of wisdom and the word of power is but the counterpart of +Jesus' divine equipment with "the power of the Spirit" when he taught +and healed in Galilee. The Sending of the Twelve sets the standard for +the church's evangelists and missionaries, just as the Breaking of the +Bread in Galilee gives the model for its fraternal banquet. So for the +Judaean ministry as well. The path of martyrdom is that which all must +follow, its Passover Supper of the Lord and Vigil in Gethsemane are +models for the church's annual observance, its Passover of the Lord, its +Vigil, its Resurrection feast. The grouping of the anecdotes is not all +of Mark's doing, for we can still see in many cases how they have grown +up around the church observances, to explain and justify the rites, +rather than to form part of an outlined career. But taking the work as a +whole, and considering how far beyond that of any other church was the +opportunity at Rome, where Paul had transmitted the lofty conception of +the Son of God, and Peter the concrete tradition of his earthly life, we +cannot wonder that Mark's outline so soon became the standard account of +Jesus' earthly ministry, and ultimately the only one. + +But little space remains in which to trace the developments of gospel +story in other fields. Southern Syria and Egypt soon found it needful, +as we have seen, to adopt the work of Mark, but independently and as a +framework for the Matthaean Precepts. It cannot have been long after that +Antioch and Northern Syria followed suit. For Luke, though acquainted +with the work of 'many' predecessors gives no sure evidence of +acquaintance with Matthew. When we find such unsoftened contradictions +as those displayed between these two Greek gospels in their opening and +closing chapters, and observe, moreover, that while both indulge in +hundreds of corrections and improvements upon Mark, these are rarely +coincident and never make the assumption of interdependence necessary, +it is hard to resist the conclusion that neither evangelist was directly +acquainted with the other's work. Now no other gospel compares with +Matthew in the rapidity and extent of its circulation, while Luke +declares himself a diligent inquirer. He could not ignore the claims of +apostolic authority to which this early and wide acceptance of Matthew +were mainly due. The inference is reasonable that Luke's date was but +little later than that of Matthew. If the probability of his employment +of the _Antiquities_ of Josephus could be raised to a certainty this +would suffice to date the Gospel and Book of Acts not earlier than 96. +Internal and external evidence, as judged by most scholars, converge on +a date approximating 100. + +The North-Syrian derivation of Luke-Acts is less firmly established in +tradition than the Roman origin of Mark and the South-Syrian of Matthew. +Ancient tradition can point to nothing weightier than the statement of +Eusebius, drawn we know not whence, but independently made in the +argumenta (prefixed descriptions) of several Vulgate manuscripts that +Luke was of Antiochian birth. However, internal evidence supplies +corroboration in rather unusual degree. If the reading of some texts in +Acts xi. 28, "And as we were assembled," could be accepted, this alone +would be almost conclusive corroboration. But dubious as it is, it +furnishes support. For if an alteration of the original, it is at any +rate extremely early (_c._ 150?) and aimed to support the belief in +question.[23] Moreover the whole attitude of Luke-Acts in respect to +apostolic authority, settlement of the great question of the terms of +fellowship between Jew and Gentile, and description of the founding of +the Pauline churches, is such as to make its origin anywhere between the +Taurus range and the Adriatic most improbable; while if we place it in +Rome we shall have an insoluble problem in the relation of its extreme +emphasis on apostolic authority, and quasi-deification of Peter, to the +stalwart independence of Mark. Conversely there are many individual +traits which suggest Antioch as the place of origin. Next to Jerusalem, +the never-to-be-forgotten church of "the apostles and elders," Antioch +is the mother church of Christendom. There the name "Christian" had its +origin. There the work of converting the Gentiles was begun. The Greek +churches of Cyprus and Asia Minor are regarded as dependencies of +Antioch. Even those of the Greek peninsula are linked as well as may be +to Antioch and Jerusalem, with suppression of the story of the schism. +Antioch, not the Pauline Greek churches, is the benefactress of "the +poor saints in Jerusalem," and at the instance of Antioch, by appeal to +"the apostles and elders," the "decrees" are obtained which permanently +settle the troublesome question of the obligation of maintaining +ceremonial cleanness which still rests upon "the Jews which are among +the Gentiles." As we have seen, the settlement is as far from that of +Mark and the Pauline churches on the one side, as from the thoroughgoing +legalism of Jerusalem on the other. As late as the Pastoral Epistles +abstinence from "meats which God created to be received with +thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth" is to the Pauline +churches a "doctrine of devils and seducing spirits" taught "through the +hypocrisy of men that speak lies." Distinctions of meats belong to +Jewish superstition, because "every creature of God is good and nothing +is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving" (1st Tim. iv. +1-5). Mark, as we have seen, takes precisely this standpoint. He is +equally radical in condemning distinctions of meats as essentially "vain +worship," and a "commandment of men" (Mark vii. 1-23). In truth if we +distinguish one of Luke's _sources_ from Luke himself we shall find +exactly this doctrine taught to Peter himself by special divine +revelation in Acts x. 10-16; xi. 3-10. Only, as we have already seen (p. +59, note), this is not the application made by the Book of Acts, as it +now stands, of the material. To 'Luke' nothing could be more repugnant +than the idea of an apostle forsaking the religion of his fathers, of +which circumcision and "the customs" are an essential part. His +cancellation, in the story of Peter's revelation and the Apostle's +subsequent defence of it before the church in Jerusalem, of one of its +essential factors, viz. the right to _eat_ with Gentiles, regardless of +man-made distinctions of meats ("what _God_ hath cleansed make not +_thou_ common") is quite as significant as his restriction of even +Paul's activity to Greek-speaking _Jews_, until "the Spirit" has +expressly directed the church in Antioch, immediately after the +persecution of Agrippa I, to proceed with the propaganda. Both +alterations of the earlier form of the story are in line with a +multitude of minor indications, and furnish us, in combination with +them, the real keynote of the narrative. In Luke-Acts more clearly than +in any of the gospels the writer assumes the distinctive function of the +_historian_. He, too, would relate, like Mark, the origin of the +Christian faith, and that "from the very first." He even deduces the +pedigree of Jesus from "Adam, which was the son of God." But the object +is far more to prove the pedigree of the faith than the pedigree of +Jesus. Christianity is to be defended against the charge of being a +_nova superstitio_, a _religio illicita_. On the contrary it is the one +true and revealed religion, the perfect flower and consummation of +Judaism. Yet it is not, like Judaism, particularistic and national, but +universal; for while God at first made that nation the special +repository of his truth, it was his "determinate foreknowledge and +counsel" that they should reject and crucify their Messiah, making it +possible to "proclaim this salvation unto the Gentiles." The one thing +Luke is so anxiously concerned to prove that he wearies the reader with +constant reiteration of it, proclaims it, argues it, in season and out +of season, with his sources, against his sources, with the facts, +against the facts, is that this faith was never, never, offered to the +Gentiles except by express direction of God and after the Jews had +demonstrated to the last extremity of stiff-necked opposition that they +would have none of it. Christianity, then, and not Judaism, is the true +primitive and revealed religion, the heir of all the divine promises. + + Footnote 23: Note, also, how in Acts vi. 5 the list of + deacon-evangelists concludes "and Nicholas _a proselyte of + Antioch_." + +We can see now why Luke finds it impossible to adopt Mark's story of a +missionary journey of Jesus in "the coasts of Tyre and Sidon" and will +not even mention the name of Caesarea Philippi. His method in omitting +Mark vi. 45--viii. 26 is more radical than Matthew's, but his motive is +similar. The central theme of this portion of Mark appears in the +chapter (ch. vii.) recording Jesus' repudiation of the Jewish +distinctions of clean and unclean as "precepts of men," and departing to +heal and preach in phoenecia and Decapolis. This is the theme of Luke's +second treatise; and, as we have seen, his solution of the problem is +radically different. If he cannot admit that even Paul disregarded "the +customs" or Peter preached to Gentiles until after express and +reiterated direction of "the Spirit," we surely ought not to expect him +to admit the statement that Jesus repudiated the distinctions of +Mosaism, declared "all meats clean," and departing into the coasts of +Tyre and Sidon first healed the daughter of "a Gentile" and afterward +continued his journey "through Sidon" and "the regions of Decapolis," +repeating the symbolic miracles of opening deaf ears and blind eyes, and +feeding with loaves and fishes. Even if this supposed ministry of Jesus +among the Gentiles stood on a much stronger foundation of historical +probability than is unfortunately the case (_cf._ Rom. xv. 8), it could +not logically be admitted to the work of Luke without an abandonment of +one of his firmest convictions and a rewriting of both his treatises. + +Luke was probably not the first to divide his work into a "former +treatise" covering "both" the sayings and doings of Jesus "until the +time that he was taken up," and a second devoted to the work of the +apostles after they had received the charge to proclaim the gospel "to +the uttermost parts of the earth." "Many," as he tells us, had already +undertaken to "draw up narratives" (_diegeses_) of this kind, of which +the one Luke himself has chiefly employed, had originally, as we +concluded, a sequel like his own Book of Acts. There are even features +of the Petrine source of Acts which particularly connect it with Roman +doctrine (_e. g._ Acts x. 10-15; _cf._ Rom. xiv. 14 and Mark vii. 18 +f.) and even with the person of Mark (Acts xii. 12). Its balance +between Peter and Paul and its close with the establishment of +Christianity at Rome, are also suggestive that the greater part of +Luke's second treatise came _ultimately_ from the same source as his +first. But the division of the work into two parts: (1) the gospel among +the Jews; (2) the gospel among the Gentiles, would have followed, +independently of any such precedent, from the whole purpose and +structure of the work. Christianity is to be proved in the light of its +origin, and in spite of the hostility of the Jews among whom it arose, +and whose sacred writings it adopts, to be the original, true, revealed +religion. To prove this it must be shown that the rejection and +crucifixion of Jesus by his own people as a result of his earthly +ministry was due not to his own failure to meet the ideal of the +Scriptures in question, but to _their_ perversity and wilful blindness. +If it is important to prove in the former treatise that the opposition +of the controlling authorities among the Jews was due to this perversity +and jealousy, it is at least equally so to show that the lowly and +devout received him gladly. Hence the peculiar hospitality of Luke +toward material showing Jesus' acceptance of and by the humbler and the +outcast classes, the poor and lowly, women, Samaritans, publicans and +sinners. The idyllic scenes of his birth and childhood are cast among +men and women of this type of Old Testament piety, quietly "waiting for +the kingdom of God." During his career it is these who receive and hang +upon him. Even on Calvary _one_ of the thieves must join with this +throng of devout and penitent believers. Jesus' preaching begins with +his rejection by his own fellow-townsmen only because "no prophet is +accepted in his own country"; though before their attempt to slay him he +proves from Scripture how Elijah and Elisha had been sent unto the +Gentiles. His ministry ends with his demonstration to the disciples +after his resurrection from "Moses and all the prophets" how that "it +was needful that the Christ should suffer before entering his glory," +and that after his rejection by Israel "repentance and remission of sins +should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at +Jerusalem." + +The second treatise shows how this purpose of God to secure the +dissemination of the true faith by the disobedience and hardening of its +first custodians was accomplished, chief stress being always laid upon +the fact that it was only when the Jews "contradicted and blasphemed" +that the apostles said, "It was necessary that the word of God should +first be spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you, and judge +yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." There +is no interest taken in the subsequent fortunes of Jerusalem and Jewish +Christianity, nor even in the fate of Peter and James, after this +transition has been effected to Gentile soil. There is no interest taken +in the spread of Christianity as such, in Egypt, Ethiopia, Cyrenaica, +Cyprus, Mesopotamia; but only where the conflict rages over the +respective claim of Jew and Gentile to be the true heir of the promises, +_i. e._ the mission-field of Paul. At the individual centres the story +goes just far enough to relate how the gospel was offered to the Jews +and rejected, compelling withdrawal from the synagogue, and thereafter +it is told over again with slight variations at the next centre. The +book concludes with a repetition of the stereotyped scene at Rome +itself, in spite of the representation of the very source employed, that +an important church had long existed there before Paul's coming, ending +with a quotation of the classic passage from Isa. vi. 9 f. to prove +God's original purpose to harden the heart of Israel, so that his +"salvation might be sent unto the Gentiles." The very fate of Paul +himself has so little interest for Luke in comparison with this +demonstration of Christianity as the one original, revealed religion, +enclosed in Judaism as seeds are confined in the hardening seed-pod +until disseminated by its bursting, that he leaves it unmentioned, like +that of all other leaders of the church whose death was not directly +contributory to the process. + +Many, and vitally important to the development of Gospel Story as we +know it, as were the sources of Luke, both by his own statement (Luke i. +1) and the internal evidences of his work, he has made analysis +extremely difficult by the skilful and elaborate stylistic embroidery +with which he has overlaid the gaps and seams. Nor is this a proper +occasion for entering the field of the higher critic. Luke-Acts +represents the completed development, not the naive beginnings of this +type of the Literature of the Church Teacher. We have seen reason to +think we may have traces of the earlier "narratives" (_diegeses_) to +which Luke refers, not only in the great Roman work of Mark, but in a +part of the Q material itself. If Antioch were the place of origin of +this early source, if here too were found those archives of missionary +activity whence came the famous Diary employed in Acts xvi.-xxviii., the +contribution of this church to Gospel Story was such as to make Antioch +the appropriate centre for the great "historical" school of +interpretation of the fourth and fifth centuries. When we consider the +dominant motive of Luke and his extraordinary exaltation of 'apostolic' +authority we seem to be breathing the very atmosphere of Ignatius the +great apostle of ecclesiasticism and apostolic order, discipline and +succession. Ignatius' hatred of Doketism, too, is not without a certain +anticipation in the opening and closing chapters of Luke's Gospel, and +perhaps in the fact that the great exsection from Mark begins with the +story of the Walking on the Sea (Mark vi. 45-52). + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE JOHANNINE TRADITION. PROPHECY + + +In Paul's enumeration of the "gifts" by which the Spirit qualifies +various classes of men to build in various ways upon the structure of +the church, the class of "prophets" takes the place next after that of +"apostles," a rank even superior (as more manifestly 'spiritual') to +that of "pastors and teachers." The Book of Acts shows us as its most +conspicuous centre of "prophecy" the house of Philip the Evangelist at +Caesarea. This man had four unmarried daughters who prophesied, and in +his house Paul received a 'prophetic' warning of his fate from a certain +Agabus who had come down from Judaea. There were also prophets in Antioch +(Acts xiii. 1), though the only ones mentioned by name are this same +Agabus[24] and Silas, or Silvanus, who is also from Judaea. In the +_Teaching of the Twelve_ the 'prophet' still appears among the regular +functionaries of the church, for the most part a traveller from place +to place, and open to more or less suspicion, as is the case at Rome, +where Hermas combines reverence for the "angel" that speaks through the +true prophet, with warnings against the self-seeker. In 1st John the +"false prophets" are a serious danger, propagating Doketic heresy +wherever they go. In fact, this heresy was, as we know, the great peril +in Asia. However, Asia, if plagued by wandering false prophets, had also +become by this time a notable seat of true and authentic prophecy; for +the same Papias who shows such sympathy with Polycarp against those who +were "perverting the Sayings of the Lord to their own lusts," and had +turned, as Polycarp advised, "to the tradition handed down from the +beginning," had similar means for counteracting those who "denied the +resurrection and judgment." Among those upon whom he principally relied +as exponents of the apostolic doctrine were two of those same +prophesying daughters of Philip the Evangelist, who with their father +had migrated from Caesarea Palestina to Hierapolis, leaving, however, +one, who had married, a resident till her death at Ephesus. As late as +the time of Montanus (150-170), the "Phrygians" traced their succession +of prophets and prophetesses back to Silvanus and the daughters of +Philip. + + Footnote 24: The mention of Agabus, however, in xi. 27 f. is + hardly consistent with xiii. 1 and xxi. 10-14. It seems to be due to + the editorial recasting of xi. 22-30. + +We cannot be sure that the traditions Papias reported from these +prophetesses were derived at first hand, though it is not impossible +that Papias himself may have seen them. However it is certain that many +of his traditions of 'the Elders' had to do with eschatology, and aimed +to prove the material and concrete character of the rewards of the +kingdom; for we have several examples of these traditions, attributing +to Jesus apocryphal descriptions of the marvellous fertility of +Palestine in the coming reign of Messiah, and particularizing about the +abodes of the blessed. Moreover Eusebius blames Papias for the crude +ideas of Irenaeus and other second century fathers who held the views +called "chiliastic" (_i. e._ based on the "thousand" year reign of +Christ in Rev. xx. 2 f.). We also know that Papias defended the +"trustworthiness" of Revelation, a book which served as the great +authority of the "chiliasts" for the next fifty years in their fight +against the deniers of the resurrection. He quoted from it, in fact, the +passage above referred to; so that if reason must be sought for his +placing "John and Matthew" together at the end of his list of seven +apostles instead of in their usual place, it is probably because they +were his ultimate apostolic authorities for the "word of prophecy" and +for the "commandment of the Lord" respectively. Justin Martyr, Papias' +contemporary at Rome, though converted in Ephesus, and unquestionably +determined in his mould of thought by Asiatic Paulinism, has, like +Papias, but two _authorities_ for his gospel teaching: (1) the +commandment of the Lord represented in the Petrine and Matthaean +tradition; (2) prophecy, represented in the Christian continuation of +the Old Testament gift. This second authority, however, is not appealed +to without the support of apostolicity. Revelation is quoted as among +"our writings," like "the memorabilia of the apostles called Gospels," +but not without the additional assurance that the seer was "John, one of +the _apostles_ of Christ." + +For 'prophecy,' however acclimated elsewhere, was in its origin +distinctively a Palestinian product. Its stock in trade was Jewish +eschatology as developed in the long succession of writers of +'apocalypse' since Daniel (165 B.C.). Of the nature of this curious and +fantastic type of literature we have seen some examples in 2nd +Thessalonians and the Synoptic eschatology (Mark xiii.=Matt. xxiv.=Luke +xxi.). More can be learnt by comparing the contemporary Jewish writings +of this type known as 2nd Esdras and the Apocalypse of Baruch. Older +examples are found in the prophecies and visions purporting to come from +Enoch. For apocalypse became the successor of true prophecy in +proportion as the loss of Israel's separate national existence and the +enlargement of its horizon compelled it to make its messianic hopes +transcendental, and its notion of the Kingdom cosmic. Hence comes all +the phantasmagoria of allegorical monsters, spirits and demons, the +great conflict no longer against Assyria and Babylon, but a war of the +powers of light and darkness, heaven and hell. Yet all centres still +upon Jerusalem as the ultimate metropolis of the world, whose empires, +now given over to the leadership of Satan, will soon lie prostrate +beneath her feet. + +Some such eschatology of divine judgment and reward is an almost +necessary complement to the legalistic type of religion. If Christianity +be conceived as a system of commandments imposed by supernatural +authority it must have as a motive for obedience a system of +supernatural rewards and punishments. Not merely, then, because for +centuries the legalism of the scribes had actually had its corresponding +development of apocalypse, with visions of the great judgment and Day of +Yahweh, but because of an inherent and necessary affinity between the +two, "Judaea" continued to be the home of 'prophecy' in New Testament +times also. + +However, the one great example of this type of literature that has been +(somewhat reluctantly) permitted to retain a place in the New Testament +canon appears at first blush to be clearly and distinctively a product +of Ephesus. Of no book has early tradition so clear and definite a +pronouncement to make as of Revelation. Since the time of Paul the +Jewish ideas of resurrection provoked opposition in the Greek mind. The +Greek readily accepted immortality, but the crudity of Jewish +millenarianism, with its return of the dead from the grave for a +visible, concrete rule of Messiah in Palestine repelled him. The +representation of Acts xvii. 32 is fully borne out by the constant +effort of Paul in his Greek epistles to remove the stumbling-blocks of +this doctrine. It is no surprise, then, to find the 'prophecy' of +Revelation, and more particularly its doctrine of the thousand-year +reign of Messiah in Jerusalem, a subject of dispute at least since +Melito of Sardis (167), and probably since Papias (145). Fortunately +controversy brought out with unusual definiteness, and from the earliest +times, positive statements regarding the origin of the book. Irenaeus +(186) declared it a work of the Apostle John given him in vision "in the +end of the reign of Domitian." The same date (93), may be deduced from +statements of Epiphanius regarding the history of the church in +Thyatira. Justin Martyr (153), as we have seen, vouches for the crucial +passage (Rev. xx. 2 f.) as from "one of ourselves, John, an apostle of +the Lord." Papias (145) vouched for its orthodoxy at least, if not its +authenticity. There can be no reasonable doubt that it came to be +accepted in Asia early in the second century, in spite of opposition, as +representing the authority of the Apostle John, and as having appeared +there c. 95. In fact, there is no book of the entire New Testament whose +external attestation can compare with that of Revelation, in nearness, +clearness, definiteness, and positiveness of statement. John is as +distinctively the father of 'prophecy' in second century tradition as +Matthew of 'Dominical Precepts' and Peter of 'Narratives.' + +Moreover the book itself purports to be written from Patmos, an island +off the coast of Asia. It speaks in the name of "John" as of some very +high and exceptional authority, well known to all the seven important +churches addressed, the first of which is "Ephesus." By its references +to local names and conditions it even proves, in the judgment of all the +most eminent modern scholars, that it really did see the light for the +first time (at least for the first time in its present form) in Ephesus +not far from A.D. 95. + +One would think the case for apostolic authenticity could hardly be +stronger. And yet no book of the New Testament has had such difficulty +as this, whether in ancient or modern times, to maintain its place in +the canon. It must also be said that no book gives stronger internal +evidence of having passed through at least two highly diverse stages in +process of development to its present form. + +The theory of "another John" is indeed comparatively modern. Nobody +drammed of such a solution until Dionysius of Alexandria hesitatingly +advanced the conjecture in his controversy with Nepos the Chiliast. Even +then (_c._ 250) Dionysius (though he must have known the little work of +Papias) could think of no other John at Ephesus than the Apostle, +unless it were perhaps John Mark! It is Eusebius who joyfully helps him +out with the discovery in Papias of "John the Elder." But Eusebius +himself is candid enough to admit that Papias only quoted "traditions of +John" and "mentioned him frequently in his writings." When we read +Papias' own words, though they are cited by Eusebius for the express +purpose of proving the debatable point, it is obvious that they prove +nothing of the kind, but rather imply the contrary, viz. that John the +Elder, though a contemporary of Papias, was not accessible, but known to +him only at second hand, by report of travellers who "came his way." In +short, as we have seen, "Aristion and John the Elder" were the surviving +members of a group of 'apostles, elders and witnesses of the Lord' in +Jerusalem. If, then, one chose to attribute the 'prophecies' of Rev. +iv.-xxi. to this Elder there could be no serious objections on the score +of doctrine, for the "traditions of John" reported by Papias were not +lacking in millenarian colour. Only, it is not the 'prophecies' of Rev. +iv.-xxi. which contain the references to "John," but the enclosing +prologue and epilogue; and these concern themselves with the churches of +Asia as exclusively as the 'prophecies' with the quarrel of Jerusalem +with Rome. + +The second century is, as we have seen, unanimous in excluding from +consideration any other John in Asia save the Apostle, and if the +writer of Rev. i. and xxii. produced this impression in all contemporary +minds without exception, including even such as opposed the book and its +doctrine, it is superlatively probable that such was his intention. The +deniers of the resurrection and judgment did not point out to Polycarp, +Papias, Justin, Melito and Caius, that they were confusing two Johns, +attributing the work of a mere Elder to the Apostle. They plumply +declared the attribution to John fictitious; and since the internal +evidence from the condition of the churches and growth of heresy in chh. +i.-iii. and the imperial succession down to Domitian in chh. xiii. and +xvii. strongly corroborate the date assigned in antiquity (_c._ 93), we +have no alternative, if we admit that the Apostle John had long before +been "killed by the Jews,"[25] but to suppose that this book, like +nearly all the books of 'prophecy,' is, indeed, pseudonymous. It does +not follow that he who assumes the name of "John" in prologue and +epilogue (i. 1 f., 4, 9; xxii. 8) to tell the reader definitely who +the prophet is, was guilty of intentional misrepresentation. If anything +can be made clear by criticism it is clear that the prophecies were not +his own. They were taken from some nameless source. The "pseudonymity" +consists simply in clothing a conjecture with the appearance of +indubitable fact. + + Footnote 25: See above, p. 104. + +But why should a writer who wished to clothe with apostolic authority +the 'prophecies' he was promulgating, not assume boldly the title of +"apostle," as the author of 2nd Peter has done in adapting similarly the +Epistle of Jude? Why, if he assumes the name of the martyred Apostle +John at all, does he refrain from saying, "I John, an _apostle_, or +_disciple of the Lord_," and content himself with the humbler +designation and authority of 'prophet'? + +This question brings us face to face with the most remarkable structural +phenomena of the book, and cannot be understandingly answered until we +have considered them. + +The outstanding characteristic of Revelation is its adaptation of +literary material dealing with, and applicable to, one historical and +geographical situation, to another situation almost completely +different. The opening chapters, devoted to "John's" vision on Patmos +and the conditions and dangers of the seven Churches of Asia, employ +indeed some of the expressions of the substance of the book. The +promises of the Spirit to the churches recall the glories of the New +Jerusalem of the concluding vision of the seer. There is some reference +to local persecution at Smyrna incited by the Jews ("a synagogue of +Satan") and which is to last "ten days," and there is an isolated +reference to a martyrdom of days long gone by in the message to the +church in Pergamum (ii. 13) recalling remotely the blood and suffering +of which the body of the work is full. This we should of course expect +from an adapter of existing 'prophecies.' But the converse, _i. e._ +consideration for the historical conditions of Ephesus and its sister +churches, on the part of the body of the work, is absolutely wanting. On +the one side is the situation of the Pauline churches on the east coast +of the AEgean in A.D. 93-95. The prologue and epilogue (Rev. i.-iii. and +xxii. 6-21) are concerned with these churches of Asia, and their +development in the faith, particularly their growth in good works, +purity from defilements of the world, and resistance to the inroads of +heretical teaching. The message of the Spirit, conveyed through "John," +is meant to encourage the members of these churches to pure living in +the face of temptations to worldliness and impurity. The epistles to the +churches, in a word, belong in the same class with the Pastorals, Jude, +and 2nd Peter, as regards their object and the situation confronted; +though they are written to enclose apocalyptic visions which deal with a +totally different situation. + +The visions, on the contrary, take not the smallest notice of +(proconsular) Asia and its problems. Their scene is Palestine, their +subject the outcome of Jerusalem's agonizing struggle against Rome. From +the moment the threshold of iv. 1 is crossed there is no consciousness +of the existence of such places as Ephesus, Smyrna and Thyatira. The +scenes are Palestinian. The great battle-field is Har-Magedon (_i. e._ +city of Megiddo, on the plain of Esdraelon, the scene of Josiah's +overthrow, 2nd Kings xxiii. 29 f.). "The city," "the great city," "the +holy city" is Jerusalem; though "spiritually (in allegory) it is called +Sodom and Egypt" (_i. e._ a place from which the saints escape to avoid +its doom). When the saints flee from the oppression of the dragon it is +to "the wilderness." When the invading hordes rush in it is from beyond +"the Euphrates." When the redeemed appear in company with the Christ it +is on Mount Zion; they constitute an army of 144,000, twelve thousand +from each of the twelve tribes. Two antagonistic powers are opposed. On +the one side is Jerusalem and its temple, now given over to the Gentiles +to be trodden under foot forty and two months, on the other is Rome, no +longer, as with Paul, a beneficent and protecting power, but the city of +the beast, Babylon the great harlot, at whose impending judgment the +Gentiles will mourn, but all the servants of God rejoice. Jerusalem +rebuilt, glorified, the metropolis of the world, seat and residence of +God and his Christ, will take the place of Rome, the seat of the beast +and the false prophet. The gates of this New Jerusalem will stand open +to receive tribute from all the Gentile nations, and will have on them +the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The foundations of the city +wall will have on them "the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." + +All this is cumulative proof that the horizon of the seer of Rev. +iv.-xx. is that of Palestine. Its expansion in the introductory Letters +of the Spirit to the Churches to include the seven churches of +(proconsular) Asia, is as limited in its way as the original. The later +writer merely adds the special province where he wishes the 'prophecy' +to circulate, with its special interests; there is no real interrelation +of the two parts. + +It is a problem of great complexity to disentangle the various strands +of this strange and fantastic work, certain as it is that we have here a +conglomerate whose materials come from various periods. Some elements, +such as ch. xi. on the fate of Jerusalem, seem to date in part from +before 70; others, such as ch. xviii. on the fate of Rome, show that +while originally composed for the circumstances of the reign of +Vespasian or Titus, the time has been extended to take in at least the +beginning of that of Domitian.[26] The author rests mainly upon the +Hebrew apocalyptic prophets, such as Ezekiel, Daniel and Enoch, but he +has not been altogether inhospitable to such originally Gentile +mythology as the doctrine of the seven spirits of God, and the conflict +of Michael and his angels with the dragon. He intimates himself that his +prophesying had not been confined to one period or one people (x. 11). +When he translates the "Hebrew" name of the angel of the abyss, +"Abaddon," into its Greek equivalent (ix. 11), or uses Hebrew numerical +equivalents for the letters of the name of a man (xiii. 18), it is not +difficult to guess that this prophecy had at least its origin in +Palestine. In fact, there is no other country where the geographical +references hold true, and no other period save that shortly after the +overthrow of Jerusalem by Titus, that affords the historical situation +here presupposed, when worshipping "the beast and his image" is demanded +of the saints by the earthly ruler (Domitian), and the overthrow of the +seven-hilled city by one of its own rulers in league with lesser powers +is looked forward to as about to avenge the sufferings inflicted on the +Jews. As regards this hope of the overthrow of Rome, we know that the +legend of Nero's prospective return at the head of hosts of Parthian +enemies to recapture his empire gained currency in Asia Minor in +Domitian's reign, and this legend is certainly developed in Rev. xiii. +and xvii. On the other hand, the author, if he ever came to Asia, did +not cease to be a Palestinian Jew. He operates exclusively (after iv. 1) +with the materials and interests of Jewish and Jewish-Christian +apocalypse. He has no interest whatever in the churches of Asia. He does +not betray by one syllable a knowledge even of their existence, to say +nothing of their dangers, their heresies, their temptations. He does +make it abundantly clear that he is a Christian prophet (x. 7-11), and +(to us) almost equally clear that he is _not_ one of the twelve +apostles whose names he sees written on the foundation-stones of the New +Jerusalem (xxi. 14). But since his prophecy, with all its heterogeneous +elements had to do with the final triumph of Messiah, and the +establishment of His kingdom, after the overthrow of the power of +Satan--since it depicted "the time of the dead to be judged, and the +time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the +saints and to them that fear thy name," it could not fail to be welcomed +by orthodox Christians in (proconsular) Asia. For the churches of Asia +were engaged at this time in a vigorous struggle against the heretical +deniers of the resurrection and judgment. Only, a mere anonymous +prophecy from Palestine could not obtain any authoritative currency in +Asia. To be accepted, even among the orthodox, some name of apostolic +weight must be attached to it, as we see in the case of the two Epistles +of Peter and those of James and Jude. The Epistles of the Spirit to the +churches are, then, as truly "letters of commendation" as though they +introduced a living prophet and not merely a written prophecy. The John +whom they present is not called an apostle for the very simple reason +that the visions themselves everywhere refer to their recipient as a +'prophet.' The author of the prologue and epilogue does not disregard +the language of his material. As we have seen, he carefully weaves its +phraseology into the 'letters.' So with his insertion of the name +"John." It occurs nowhere but in i. 1 f., 4, 9 and xxii. 8 f. All +these passages, but especially xxii. 8 f., are based upon xix. 9_b_, +10, adding nothing to the representation but the name "John" and the +location "Patmos." In fact, xxii. 6-9 reproduces xix. 9 f., for the +most part verbatim, although it is clearly insupposable that the seer of +the former passage should represent himself as offering a _second_ time +to worship the angel, and as receiving _again_ exactly the same rebuke +he had received so shortly before. He who calls himself "John" in xxii. +8 is, therefore, _not_ the prophet of xix. 10. The epilogue itself has +apparently received successive supplements, and the prologue its prefix; +but he who inserts the name John has done so with caution. He may not +have intended to leave open the ambiguity found by Dionysius and +Eusebius between the Apostle and the Elder, as a refuge in case of +accusation, but he has at least been careful not to transgress the +limits of the text he reproduces. The seer spoke of himself as a +"_prophet_" writing from the midst of great _tribulation_, about the +_kingdom_ to follow to those that _endured_. He had said that he +received "true _words of God_" from an _angel_ who declared "I am a +fellow _servant_ with thee and with thy _brethren_ that hold _the +testimony of Jesus_" (_i. e._ the confession of martyrdom). The +prologue, accordingly, describes "John" as a _servant_ of Jesus, who +received from an _angel_ the _word of God_ and _the testimony of Jesus_ +(i. 1 f.). He is a _brother_ and partaker in the _tribulation_ and +_kingdom_ and _endurance_ which are in Jesus. When he comes to Asia it +is "for the _word of God_ and _the testimony of Jesus_." The spot whence +he issues his prophetic message is not located in Ephesus, or in any +city where the residents could say, "But the Apostle John was never +among us." He resides temporarily (as a prisoner in the quarries?) in +the unfrequented island of Patmos. Thence he could be supposed to see +"in the Spirit" the condition of affairs in the churches of Asia without +inconvenient questions as to when, and how, and why. + + Footnote 26: Note the addition of an "eighth" emperor in ver. 11. + +We may think, then, of this book of 'prophecy' as brought forth in the +vicinity of Ephesus near "the end of the reign of Domitian" (95). But +only the enclosing letters to the churches, and the epilogue +guaranteeing the contents, originate here at this time. The +'prophecies,' occupied as they are exclusively with the rivalry of +Jerusalem and Rome, and the judgment to be executed for the former upon +her ruthless adversary, bear unmistakable marks of their Palestinian +origin, not only in the historical and geographic situations +presupposed, but in the "defiant" Hebraisms of the language, and the +avowed translations from "the Hebrew." They are an importation from +Palestine like "the sound words, even the words of the Lord Jesus" +referred to in the Pastorals. The churches of Asia are feeling the need +of apostolic authority against the deniers of the resurrection and the +judgment, as much as against the perverters of the Lord's words. Such +centres as the homes of the prophesying daughters of Philip at Ephesus +and Hierapolis were even more abundantly competent to supply this demand +than the other. Agabus will not have been the only Judaean prophet who +visited them, especially after the "great tribulation" which befell +"those in Judaea." There is nothing foreign to the habit of the times, +even in Christian circles, if nameless 'prophecies' from such a source +are translated, edited, and given out under cover of commendatory +epistles written in the name of "John" at a time when John had indeed +partaken both of the tribulation and of the kingdom of Jesus. They would +hardly have obtained currency had they not been attributed to an +apostle; for a denial of the apostolicity of this book has always +deprived it of authority. + +On the other hand, the actual (Palestinian) prophet has no such exalted +opinion of himself as of those whose names he sees written on the +foundation of the walls of the New Jerusalem (xxi. 14). He is not an +apostle and does not claim to be. He shows not the faintest trace of any +association with the earthly Jesus, and indeed displays a +vindictiveness toward the enemies of Israel that has more of the spirit +of the imprecatory psalms than the spirit of Jesus. He thinks of Jesus +as a king and judge bestowing heavenly rewards upon the martyrs in a +manner quite inconsistent with his rebuke of James and John (Mark x. +40). It is a far cry indeed from this to apostleship and personal +intimacy with Jesus. + +The chief value of Revelation to the student of Christian origins is +that by means of its clearly determinable date (Ephesus, 93-95) he can +place himself at a point of vantage whence to look not only around him +at the conditions of the Pauline churches as depicted in the letters, +vexed with growing Gnostic heresy and moral laxity, but also both +backward and forward. The backward glance shows Palestine emerging from +the horrors of the Jewish war, filled with bitterness against Rome, held +down under hateful tyranny and longing for vengeance upon the despot +with his "names of blasphemy" and his demands of worship for "the image +of the beast" (emperor-worship). Here Jewish apocalyptic (as in 2nd +Esdras) and Christian 'prophecy' are closely in accord. Indeed a +considerable part of the material of Rev. iv.-xxi., especially in chh. +xi.-xii. is ultimately of Jewish rather than Christian origin. What the +development of Christian 'prophecy' was in Palestine from apostolic +times until the scattering of the church of "the apostles and elders" +after the war of Bar Cocheba (135), we can only infer from the kindred +Jewish apocalypses and the chiliastic "traditions of the Elders" quoted +by Irenaeus from Papias. A forward look from our vantage point in Ephesus +_c._ A.D. 95, shows the effects of the Palestinian importation extending +down from generation to generation, first in the long chiliastic +controversy against the Doketic Gnostics, including Montanist +'prophecy'; secondly, in the growth of a claim to apostolic succession +from John. + +(1) In the chiliastic controversy for a century the chief bones of +contention are the (non-Pauline) doctrine of the resurrection of the +_flesh_ (so the Apostles' Creed and the second-century fathers), and +that of a visible reign of Christ for a thousand years in Jerusalem. The +new form of resurrection-gospel which at about this time begins to take +the place of the apostolic of 1st Cor. xv. 3-11, centering upon the +emptiness of the sepulchre and the tangibility and food-consuming +functions of Jesus' resurrection body, instead of the "manifestations" +to the apostles, is characteristic of this struggle against the Greek +disposition to spiritualize. Luke and Ignatius represent the attitude of +the orthodox, Ignatius' opponents that of those who denied that Jesus +was "in the flesh after his resurrection." Revelation, like the +"traditions of the Elders," champions the visible kingdom of Messiah in +Jerusalem. + +(2) In the effort for apostolic authority the writings which came +ultimately to represent Asian orthodoxy have all been brought under the +name and authority of the Apostle John, although for many decades after +the appearance of Revelation, Paul, and not John, remains the apostolic +authority to which appeal is made, and although the writings themselves +were originally anonymous. There was, indeed, a contributory cause for +the growth of this tradition in the accidental circumstance that a +Palestinian Elder from whom Papias derived indirect, and Polycarp in all +probability direct, traditions, bore also the name of John, and survived +until A.D. 117. Still, the main reason why this particular apostolic +name was ultimately placed over the Gospel and Epistles of Ephesian +Christendom, can only have been its previous adoption to cover the +compilation of Palestinian 'prophecies' of A.D. 95. + + + + +PART IV + +THE LITERATURE OF THE THEOLOGIAN + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE SPIRITUAL GOSPEL AND EPISTLES + + +Asia, as we have come to know it through a succession of writings dating +from Colossians-Ephesians (_c._ 62) down to Papias (145), had come to be +the chief scene of mutual reaction between 'apostolic' and Pauline +Christianity at the close of the first century. Here at Ephesus had been +the great headquarters of Paul's missionary activity. Here he had +reasoned daily in the school of one Tyrannus, a philosopher, and had +found "many adversaries." Here he had encountered the "strolling Jews, +exorcists," and had secured the destruction of an immense mass of books +of magic. Here, according to Acts, he predicted the inroads of heresy +after his "departure," and here the succeeding literature abundantly +witnesses the fulfilment of the prediction. Ephesians and Colossians +begin the series, the Pastoral Epistles (_c._ 90) continue it. Then +follow the 'letters to the churches' of Revelation (95) and the +Ignatian Epistles (110-117), not to mention those whose origin is +uncertain, such as Jude and 2nd Peter. + +The Pastorals already make it apparent that even the Pauline churches +are not exempt from the inevitable tendency of the age to fall back upon +authority. The very sublimity of Paul's consciousness of apostolic +inspiration made it the harder for the next generation to assert any for +itself. Moreover heresy was growing apace. If even the outward pressure +of persecution tended to drive the churches together in brotherly +sympathy, still more indispensable would appear the need of traditional +standards to maintain the "type of sound doctrine," "the faith once for +all delivered to the saints." Without such it would be impossible to +check the individualism of errorists who took Paul's sense of personal +inspiration and mystical insight as their model, _without_ Paul's +sobriety of critical control under the standard of "the law of Christ." +It is no surprise, then, to find even at the headquarters of Paulinism +early in the second century a sweeping tendency to react toward the +'apostolic' standards. In particular, as Gnostic exaggeration of the +Pauline mysticism led continually further toward disregard of the +dictates of common morality, and a wider divergence from the Jewish +conceptions of the world to come, it was natural that men like Polycarp +and Papias should turn to the Matthaean and Petrine tradition of the +Lord's oracles, and to the Johannine 'prophecies' regarding the +resurrection and judgment. + +Had nothing intervened between Gnostics and reactionaries the most vital +elements of Paul's gospel might well have disappeared, even at this +great headquarters of Paulinism. The Doketists, with their exaggerated +Hellenistic mysticism, were certainly not the true successors of Paul. +They showed an almost contemptuous disregard for the historic Jesus, a +one-sided aim at personal redemption, by mystic union of the individual +soul with the Christ-spirit, to the disregard of "the law of Christ," +even in some cases of common morality. Paul was characterized by a +splendid loyalty to personal purity, to the social ideal of the Kingdom, +and to the unity of the brotherhood in the spirit of reciprocal service. +On the other hand men like the author of the Pastoral Epistles, Ignatius +and Polycarp, with their almost panic-stricken resort to the authority +of the past, were not perpetuating the true spirit of the great Apostle. +Their reliance was on ecclesiastical discipline, concrete and massive +miracle in the story of Jesus, particularly on the point of the +bodily--or, as they would have said, the "fleshly"--resurrection. Their +conception of his recorded "words," made of them a fixed, superhuman +standard and rule, a "new law." Teachers of this type, much as they +desired and believed themselves to be perpetuating the "sacred deposit" +of Paul, were in reality conserving its form and missing its spirit. +Such men would gladly "turn to the tradition handed down," of the +Matthaean Sayings, and the Petrine Story. But in the former they would +not find reflections of the sense of Son ship. They would find only a +supplementary Law, a new and higher set of rules. In the story they +would not discover the Pauline view of the pre-existent divine Wisdom +tabernacling in man, producing a second Adam, as elder brother of a new +race, the children and heirs of God. They would take the mysticism of +Paul and bring it down to the level of the man in the street. Jesus +would be to them either a completely superhuman man, approximating the +heathen demi-god, a divinity incognito; or else a man so endowed with +"the whole fountain of the Spirit" as to exercise perpetually and +uninterruptedly all its miraculous functions. The story of the cross +would be hidden behind the prodigies. + +Least of all could the importation of apocalyptic prophecy do justice to +the Pauline doctrine of the 'last things.' True, Paul is himself a +'prophet,' thoroughly imbued with the fantastic Palestinian doctrines. +He, too, believes in a world-conflict, a triumph of the Messiah over +antichrist. More particularly in one of his very earliest epistles (2nd +Thessalonians) we get a glimpse into these Jewish peculiarities. But +these are always counterbalanced in Paul by a wider and soberer view, +which tends more and more to get the upper hand. His doctrine of +spiritual union with Christ, present apprehension of "the life that is +hid with Christ in God," a doctrine of Greek rather than Hebrew +parentage, prevails over the imagery of Jewish apocalypse. In the later +epistles he expects rather to "depart and be with Christ" than to be +"caught up into the air" with those that are alive and remain at the +'Coming.' So even if Paul did have occasion again and again to defend +his Jewish resurrection-doctrine against the Greek disposition to refine +it away into a mere doctrine of immortality, his remedy is not a mere +falling back into the crudities of Jewish millenarianism. Least of all +could he have sympathized with the nationalistic, and even vindictive +spirit of Rev. iv.-xxi., with its great battle of Jerusalem helped by +Messiah and the angels, against Rome helped by Satan and the Beast. +Paul's doctrine of the resurrection of the "body" by "clothing" of the +spirit with a "tabernacle" derived "from heaven," his hope of a +messianic Kingdom which is the triumph of humanity under a "second +Adam," has its apocalyptic traits. It is a victory over demonic enemies, +"spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places"; but it has the +reserve of an educated Pharisee against the cruder forms of Jewish +prophecy. It shows the mind of the cosmopolitan Roman citizen and +philosophic thinker, not merely that of the Jewish Zealot. + +How salutary if Paul himself could have lived to control the divergent +elements among his churches, to check the subjective individualism of +the Gnostics on the one hand, and the reactionary tendencies of the +orthodox on the other. His parting words to his beloved Philippians are +sadly appreciative of how needful it was for their sake that he should +"abide in the flesh" (Phil. i. 24). Yet there was one thing still more +expedient--that he should abide with them in the spirit. And that is +just what we find evidenced in the great 'spiritual' Gospel and its +accompanying Epistles from Ephesus. + +Debate still rages over a mere name, attached by tradition to these +writings that themselves bear no name. The titles prefixed by early +transcribers attribute them to "John." But they are never employed +before 175-180 in a way to even remotely suggest that they were then +regarded as written by John, or even as apostolic in any sense. And when +we trace the tradition back to its earliest form, in the Epilogue +attached to the Gospel (John xxi.) it seems to be no more than a dubious +attempt to identify that mysterious figure, the "disciple whom Jesus +loved." If, however, we postpone this question raised by the Epilogue, +the writings can at least be assigned to a definite locality (Ephesus) +and a fairly definite date (_c._ 105-110), with the general consent both +of ancient tradition and of modern criticism. This is for us the +important thing, since it enables us to understand their purpose and +bearing; whereas even those who contend that they were written by the +Apostle John can make little use of the alleged fact. For (1) the little +that is known of John from other sources is completely opposed to the +characteristics of these writings. They are characterized by a broad +universalism, and reproduce the mysticism of Paul. To attribute them to +the Pillar of Gal. ii. 9, or the Galilean fisherman of Mark i. 19 and +ix. 38, it becomes necessary to suppose that John after migrating to +Ephesus underwent a transformation so complete as to make him in reality +another man. (2) The meagre possibility that the basis of Revelation +might represent the Apostle John becomes more remote than ever. Now it +is a curious fact that critics who hold to the much-disputed tradition +that the Apostle John wrote the Gospel and Epistles, although these +writings make no such claim, and have no affinity with the known +character, show as a rule remarkable alacrity to dismiss the claims of +Revelation, which positively declares John to have been its author, and +has far stronger evidence, both internal and external, in support of the +claim, than have either the Gospel or the Epistles. We may prefer the +style and doctrine of the Gospel and Epistles, but this playing fast +and loose with the evidence can only discredit criticism of this type. +(3) The value of the demonstration of Johannine authorship would lie in +the fact that we should then have a first-hand witness to the actual +life and teaching of Jesus, immeasurably superior to the remote and +indirect tradition of the present Synoptic sources. But as a matter of +real fact those who maintain the Johannine authorship do not venture to +assert any such historical superiority. On the contrary they consider +the Synoptic tradition not only historically superior to "John," as +respects both sayings and course of events, but they are apt to +attribute to this Galilean apostle an extreme of Philonic abstraction, +so that he even prefers deliberate "fiction" to fact. Thus the reasoning +employed to defend the tradition destroys the only factor which could +give it value. + +On the other hand it is possible to disregard these secondary disputes, +which aim only to increase or diminish the authority of the writings by +asserting or denying that they were written by the Apostle John, and to +approach the interpretation of them on the basis only of what is really +known, accredited both by ancient tradition and by modern criticism. On +this basis we can safely affirm that they originated in Ephesus early in +the second century, 'spiritualizing' what we have designated 'apostolic' +teaching, while at the same time strongly reacting against Doketic and +Antinomian heresy. By such a procedure we shall be employing modern +critical methods to the highest practical advantage in the interest of +genuinely historical interpretation. + +Even those who find minute distinctions in style and point of view +between the Epistles and Gospel of John will admit that all four +documents emanate from the same period, situation, and circumstances, +and represent the same school of thought. We shall make no serious +mistake, then, if we treat them as written by the same individual, and +even as intended to accompany one another. We shall have the example of +so high an authority as Lightfoot, who considered 1st John an Epilogue +composed to accompany the Gospel in place of the present Epilogue (John +xxi.). Moreover the distinctions in the ancient treatment of 1st John +and the two smaller Epistles are all subsequent to the attribution of +the Gospel and First Epistle to the Apostle, and a consequence of it. +For 1st John and the Gospel had always been inseparable, and having no +name attached could easily be treated as the Apostle's. But 2nd and 3rd +John distinctly declare themselves written by an "Elder"; and in the +days when men still appreciated the distinction between an Elder and an +Apostle it was felt to be so serious a difficulty that 2nd and 3rd John +were put in the class of "disputed" writings. In reality 1st John and +the Gospel are just as certainly the work of an "Elder" as 2nd John and +3rd John, though no declaration to that effect is made. Moreover 1st +John and the Gospel may safely be treated as from the same author; for +such minute differences as exist in style and point of view can be fully +accounted for by the processes of revision the Gospel has demonstrably +undergone. This is more reasonable than to imagine two authors so +extraordinarily similar to one another and extraordinarily different +from everybody else. + +"The Elder" does not give his name, and it is hopeless for us to try to +guess it, though it was of course well known to his "beloved" friend +"Gaius," to whom the third letter (the outside envelope) was addressed. +We have simply three epistles, one (3rd John) personal, to the aforesaid +Gaius, who is to serve as the writer's intermediary with "the church," +because Diotrephes, its bishop, violently opposes him. Another (2nd +John) is addressed to a particular church ("the elect lady and her +children"), in all probability the church of Diotrephes and Gaius. It +may be the letter referred to in 3rd John 9. The third (1st John) is +entirely general, not even so much modified from the type of the homily +toward that of the epistle as Hebrews or James; for it has neither +superscription nor epistolary close. And yet it is, and speaks of itself +(i. 4; ii. 1, 7, 9, 12-14, etc.) as a literary product. It is not +impossible that this group of 'epistles,' one individual, one to a +particular church, one general, was composed after the plan of the +similar group addressed by Paul to churches of this same region, +Philemon, Colossians, and the more general epistle known to us as +Ephesians. They may have been intended to accompany and introduce the +Gospel written by the same author, just as the prophecies of Rev. +iv.-xxi. are introduced by the 'epistles' of Rev. i.-iii., or as +Luke-Acts is sent under enclosure to Theophilus for publication under +his patronage. At all events, be the connection with the Gospel closer +or more remote, to learn anything really reliable about the writer and +his purpose and environment we must begin with his own references to +them, first in the letter to Gaius, then in that to "the elect lady and +her children," then in his 'word of exhortation' to young and old, of +1st John. Thus we shall gain a historical approach finally to that +treatise on the manifestation of God in Christ which has won him the +title since antiquity of the 'theologian.' + +Third John shows the author to be a man of eminence in the (larger?) +church whence he writes, old enough to speak of Gaius with commendation +as one of his "children," though Gaius himself is certainly no mere +youth, and eminent enough to call Diotrephes to answer for his +misconduct. He has sent out evangelistic workers, some of whom have +recently returned and borne witness "before the church" to their +hospitable reception by Gaius. For this he thanks Gaius, and urges him +to continue the good work. The main object of the letter, however, is +to commend Demetrius, who is doubtless the bearer of this letter as well +as another written "to the church" (2nd John?). This letter, the author +fears, will never reach its destination if Diotrephes has his way. There +is very little to indicate whence the opposition of Diotrephes arises, +but what little there is (ver. 11) points to those who make claims to +"seeing" God and being "of" Him, without adequate foundation in a life +of purity and beneficence. The letter "to the church" is more explicit. + +Second John is perfectly definite in its purpose. After congratulating +the "elect lady" on those of her children (members) whom the writer has +found leading consistent Christian lives, he entreats the church to +remember the "new commandment" of Jesus, which yet is not new but the +foundation of all, the commandment of ministering love. The reason for +this urgency is that "many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even +they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh" (ver. 7). +And here we come upon a very novel and distinctive application of an +ancient datum of 'prophecy,' clearly differentiating this writer from +the author of Revelation. The Doketic heresy is explicitly identified +with "the deceiver and the antichrist." That must have been a new and +surprising turn for men accustomed to connect the antichrist idea with +the persecuting power of Rome. Satan, as we know, had been repeatedly +conceived as operating through the coercion of outward force brought +against the Messiah and his people through the Beast and the false +Prophet (Rev. xiii.). There was good authority, too, for a mystical "man +of sin" setting himself forth as God in the temple (2nd Thess. ii. 4), +or for connecting Daniel's "abomination that maketh desolate" with the +sufferings of the Jewish war and the later attempts of false prophets to +deceive the elect with lying wonders (2nd Thess. ii. 9; Mark xiii. 22; +Rev. xiii. 14). But this was a new application of the prophecy. To +declare that the heretical teachers were themselves antichrists was to +call the attention of the church back from outward opposition to inward +disloyalty as the greater peril. And the identification is not +enunciated in this general warning alone, but fully developed and +defended in two elaborate paragraphs of the 'word of exhortation' (1st +John ii. 18-29; iv. 1-6). When, therefore, we find Polycarp in his +letter (110-171) quietly adopting the idea, almost as an understood +thing, declaring "For every one who shall not confess that Jesus Christ +is come in the flesh, is antichrist" (vii. 1), it becomes almost a +certainty that he had read 1st John.[27] + + Footnote 27: Not 2nd John; for it is only in 1st John ii. 18 that + the elder speaks of "many antichrists," identifying each separate + Doketist with the apocalyptic figure. In 2nd John vii. it is the + heresy itself as a phenomenon which constitutes _the_ antichrist. + +Our elder's warning "to the church" (perhaps more particularly its +governing body) is to beware of these deceivers; not to receive them, +nor even to greet them, because they "go onward" (are 'progressives') +and do not "abide in the teaching of Christ." To abide in this +"teaching" is the church's only safeguard. + +If next we turn to the more general epistle known as 1st John the lack +of any superscription is more than counterbalanced by the writer's full +and explicit declarations regarding motive and occasion. The epistle was +certainly intended to be read before entire congregations. Of part of it +at least the author himself says that it was "written concerning them +that would lead you astray" (ii. 26). Comparison of the full +denunciation with what we know of Doketism from its own writings, such +as the so-called _Acts of John_ (_c._ 175), shows very plainly what type +of heresy is meant. Moreover we have the Epistles of Ignatius, written +to these same churches but a few years later, and the detailed +descriptions of the Doketist Cerinthus and his doctrines given by +Irenaeus, together with the explicit statement that the writings of John +were directed against this same Cerinthus. + +Yet 1st John is far more than a mere polemic. The author writes to those +"that believe on the name of the Son of God, that they may know that +they have eternal life" (v. 13). This certainly is the result of the +conscious indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus. It is not evidenced, +however, by boastful words as to illumination, insight and knowledge, +but by practical obedience to the one new commandment; for "God is love, +and he that _loveth_ (not he that hath _gnosis_) is begotten of God and +knoweth God." This inward witness of the Spirit is a gift, or (to use +our author's term) an "anointing" (_i. e._ a 'Christ'-ening), whose +essence is as much beyond the Greek's ideal of wisdom, on the one side, +as it is beyond the Jew's ideal of miraculous powers on the other. It is +a spirit of ministering love corresponding to and emanating from the +nature of God himself. This is "the teaching of Christ" in which alone +it is safe to "abide." + +But again as respects the historic tradition of the church our author is +not less emphatic. He values the record of an actual, real, and tangible +experience of this manifested life of God in man. The "progressives" may +repudiate the mere Jesus of "the flesh," in favour of one who comes by +water only (_i. e._ in the outpouring of the Spirit in baptism), and not +by the blood of the cross. For the doctrine of the cross was a special +stumbling-block to Doketists, who rejected the sacrament of the bread +and wine.[28] The actual sending of God's only-begotten Son into the +world, the real "propitiation" for our sins (so lightly denied by the +illuminati), is a vital point to the writer. The sins "of the whole +world" were atoned for in Jesus' blood actually shed on Calvary. The +church possesses, then, in this story a record of fact of infinite +significance to the world. The Doketists are playing fast and loose with +this record of the historic Jesus. They deny any value to the "flesh" in +which the aeon Christ had merely tabernacled as its "receptacle" between +the period of the baptism and the ascension--an event which they date +_before_ the death on the cross.[29] They are met here with a peremptory +challenge and declaration. The experience of contact with the earthly +Jesus which the Church cherishes as its most inestimable treasure is the +assurance, and the only assurance that we have, of real fellowship with +the Father; for "the life, the eternal life" of God in man, the +Logos--to borrow frankly the Stoic expression--is known not by mere +mystical dreams, but by the historic record of those who personally knew +the real Jesus. The manifestation of God, in short, is objective and +historical, and not merely inward and self-conscious; and that outward +and objective manifestation may be summed up in what we of the Christian +brotherhood have seen and known of Jesus. + + Footnote 28: In the _Acts of John_ the Christ spirit which had been + resident in Jesus comes to John after he has fled to a cave on the + Mount of Olives from the posse that arrested the Lord. The sweet + voice of the invisible Christ informs him there that the blinded + multitude below had tortured a mere bodily shape which they took to + be Christ, "while I stood by and laughed." In the _Gospel of Peter_ + Jesus hung upon the cross "as one who feels no pain" and was "taken + up" before the end. + + Footnote 29: See note preceding. + +It is when we approach the Fourth Gospel by way of its own author's +adaptation of his message to the conditions around him that we begin to +appreciate it historically, and in its true worth. The spirit of polemic +is still prominent in 1st John, but the Gospel shows the effect of +opposition only in the more careful statement of the evangelist's exact +meaning. It is a theological treatise, an interpretation of the doctrine +of the person of Christ, written that the readers "may believe that +Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they may have +life in his name" (xx. 31). In an age so eagerly bent on ascertaining +the historic facts regarding Jesus' life, and the true sequence of +events (Luke i. 1-4), it is insupposable that an author so strenuous to +uphold the concrete reality of the church's historic tradition should +not give real history so far as he was able. He could not afford to +depreciate it in the face of Doketic myth and fancy and contempt for a +"Christ in the flesh." The idea that such a writer could deliberately +prefer fiction to fact is most improbable; ten times more so if he was +the only surviving representative of the twelve, a Galilean disciple +even more intimate than Peter with Jesus from the outset. But real +history was no longer attainable. The author of the Fourth Gospel +reports no event which he does not take in good faith to be fact. Yet it +must be apparent from his own statement of his purpose as well as from +the very structure of the book that he does not aim to be a historian, +but an interpreter of doctrine. He aims to give not _fact_ but _truth_. +And his handling of (supposed) fact has the freedom we should expect in +a church teacher of that age, and of the school of Paul the mystic. The +seven progressive "signs" that he narrates, culminating in the raising +of Lazarus, are avowedly (xx. 31) illustrative selections from a +multitude of current tales of miracle, aiming to produce that faith in +Jesus as the Son of God which will result in "life," _i. e._ the eternal +life which consists in his indwelling (1st John v. 20). They are not +described as acts of pity, drawn from one with whom the power of God was +found present to heal. Jesus does not yield as in the Synoptics when +compassion for trusting need overcomes reluctance to increase the +importunity that interfered with his higher mission. Their prime purpose +is to "manifest the glory" of the incarnate Logos, and Jesus performs +them only when, and as, he chooses. Pity and natural affection are +almost trampled upon that this "manifestation of his glory" may be made +more effective (ii. 4; iv. 48; ix. 3; xi. 4-6, 15). As in Paul, there is +no exorcism. This most typical and characteristic miracle of Petrine +story (Mark iii. 15; Acts x. 88) has disappeared. Or rather (as in Paul) +the casting out of Satan from his dominion over the entire world has +transcended and superseded it (John xii. 31-33; _cf._ Col. ii. 15). In +John, requests for miracle, whether in faith or unbelief, always incur +rebuke (ii. 4; iv. 48; vi. 30-36; vii. 4-7; xi. 3-15). Jesus offers and +works them when "his hour" comes, whether applied for or not (v. 6-9; +vi. 6; ix. 1-7). His reserve is not due to a limitation of almighty +power; for the power is declared explicitly to be his, _in his own +right_ (v. 21; xi. 22, 25, 42). He restrains it only that faith may rest +upon conviction of the truth rather than mere wonder (ii. 23-25; iii. 2 +f.; iv. 39-42, 48; vi. 29-46; xiv. 11). He is, in short, an omniscient +(i. 47-50; ii. 25), omnipotent Being, temporarily sojourning on the +earth (iii. 13; xvi. 28). + +The dialogue interwoven with these seven signs is closely related in +subject to them. It does not aim to repeat remembered Sayings, but +follows that literary form which since Plato had been the classic model +for presenting the themes of philosophy. The subject-matter is no +longer, as in the Synoptics, the Righteousness required by God, the +Nature and Coming of the Kingdom, Duty to God and Man. It is the person +and function of the speaker himself. Instead of the parables we have +allegories: "seven 'I am's'" of Jesus, in debate with "the Jews" about +the doctrine of his own person as Son of God. + +This uniformity of topic corresponds with a complete absence of any +attempt to differentiate in style between utterances of Jesus, or the +Baptist, or the evangelist himself, in Gospel or Epistles. Had the +writer desired, it is certain that he could have collected sayings of +Jesus, and given them a form similar to those of Matthew and Luke. He +does not try. The only device he employs to suggest a distinction is an +oracular ambiguity at first misunderstood, and so requiring progressive +unfolding. The main theme is often introduced by a peculiar and solemn +"Verily, verily." + +As with the 'signs' the lingering Synoptic sense of progress and +proportion has disappeared. At the very outset John the Baptist +proclaims to his followers that his own baptism has no value in itself. +It is not "for repentance unto remission of sins." It is _only_ to make +the Christ "manifest" (i. 19-34). Christ's atonement alone will take +away the sin (i. 29), Christ's baptism alone will convey real help (i. +34). Jesus, too, proclaims himself from the outset the Christ, in the +full Pauline sense of the word (i. 45-51; iv. 26, etc.). He chooses +Judas with the express purpose of the betrayal, and forces on the +reluctant agents of his fate (vi. 70 f.; xiii. 26 f.; xviii. 4-8; +xix. 8-11). + +All this, and much more which we need not cite, makes hardly the +pretence of being history. It is frankly theology, or rather +apologetics. We have as a framework the general outline of Mark, a +Galilean and a Judaean ministry (chh. i.-xii.; xiii.-xx.), with traces of +a Perean journey (vii. 1 ff.). This scheme, however, is broken through +by another based on the Mosaic festal system, Jesus showing in each case +as he visits Jerusalem, the higher symbolism of the ceremonial (ii. 13 +ff. Passover; v. 1 ff. Pentecost; vii. 1 ff. Tabernacles; x. 22 +ff. Dedication; xii. 1 ff. Passover). There is in chh. i.-iv. a +'teaching of baptisms' and of endowment with the Spirit corresponding +roughly to Mark i. 1-45. There is in ch. v. a teaching of the authority +of Jesus against Moses and the Law, corresponding to Mark ii. 1--iii. 6. +There is a teaching of the 'breaking of bread' corresponding to Mark vi. +30--viii. 26 in John vi., though this last has been related not merely to +the brotherhood banquet ('love-feast') as in Mark, but anticipates and +takes the place of the teaching as to the Eucharist (_cf._ John vi. +52-59 with John xiii.). There is a Commission of the Twelve like Matt. +x. 16-42, though placed (with Luke xxii. 35-38) as a second sending on +the night of betrayal (xiii. 31--xviii. 26). There is dependence on +Petrine Story, and to some extent on Matthaean Sayings. In particular +John xii. 1-7 combines the data of Mark xiv. 3-9 with those of Luke vii. +36-50; x. 38-42 in a curious compound, making it certain that the +evangelist employed these two--and Matthew as well, if xii. 8 be +genuine (it is not found in the ancient Syriac). Yet our Synoptic +Gospels are not the only sources, and the material borrowed is handled +with sovereign superiority. In short, as even the church fathers +recognized, this Gospel is of a new type. It does aim to "supplement" +the others, as they recognized; but not as one narrative may piece out +and complete another. Rather as the unseen and spiritual supplements the +external and visible. This Gospel uses the established forms of +miracle-story and saying; but it transforms the one into symbol, the +other into dialogue and allegory. Then by use of this material +(supplemented from unknown, perhaps oral, sources) it constructs a +series of interpretations of the person and work of the God-man. + +Of one peculiarly distinctive feature we have still to speak. Where the +reader has special need of an interpreter to attest and interpret a +specially vital fact, such as the scenes of the night of the betrayal, +or the reality of Jesus' propitiatory death (denied by the Doketists), +or the beginning of the resurrection faith, Peter's testimony is +supplemented and transcended by that of a hitherto unknown figure, who +anticipates all that Peter only slowly attains. This is the mysterious, +unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" (xiii. 23 ff.; xviii. 15 f.; +xix. 25-37; xx. 1-10; _cf._ Gal. xx. 20), a Paul present in the spirit, +to see things with the eye of spiritual insight. There is no +transfiguration-scene and no prayer of Gethsemane in this +Gospel--Transfiguration is needless where the glory shines uninterrupted +through the whole career. Prayer itself is impossible where oneness with +the God-head makes difference of thought or purpose inconceivable. Hence +the prayers of Jesus are often only "for the sake of those that stand +by" (xi. 41 f.). The same is true of the Voice from heaven at the +scene which takes the place of Transfiguration and Gethsemane in one +(xii. 27-33). Jesus will not ask for deliverance from that hour, because +he had sought it from the beginning. His prayer is "Father, glorify thy +name." The Voice, which some take to be an angel speaking to him (_cf._ +Luke ix. 35; xxii. 43) is for the sake of the bystanders. The Voice at +his baptism likewise is not addressed to him (the incarnate Logos does +not need a revelation of his own identity) but to the Baptist. + +So again and again Synoptic scenes are retouched and new scenes are +added in a way to present a consistent picture of the "tabernacling" of +the pre-existent Son of God in human flesh. As we review the whole, and +ask ourselves, What is the occasion of this strange new presentation of +the evangelic message? we begin to realize how indispensable is the key +which the evangelist has himself hung before the door. Many and complex +are the problems which confront us as we move through this heaped-up +tangle of anecdote, dialogue, and allegory. There is room for the +keenest scrutiny of criticism to determine, if possible, when, and how, +and from what sources these meditations were put together. But nothing +that critical insight, analysis, and comparison can furnish avails so +much to throw real light upon the work as what the evangelist himself +has done, by setting forth in a prologue (i. 1-18) the fundamental +principles of his conception. + +In a word evangelic tradition as it had hitherto found currency still +lacked the fundamental thing in the Christology of Paul--the Incarnation +doctrine. Paul conceived the story of Jesus as a supernal drama, +beginning and ending in heaven at God's right hand. Even Matthew and +Luke, carrying back the adoption to Son ship from the baptism to the +birth of Jesus, had not essentially changed the pre-Pauline point of +view. Still there was no pre-existence. Jesus was not yet shown as the +Wisdom of God, through whom all things were created, the "heavenly man," +the second Adam, taking upon him the form of a servant, humbling himself +and becoming obedient unto death, rich, and for our sakes becoming poor. +He was still, even in Mark, just the prophet mighty in deed and word, +raised up by God from among his brethren, and for his obedience exalted +to the messianic throne of glory. How _could_ this satisfy churches +trained in the doctrine of Paul? We should almost rather marvel that the +Synoptic narratives ever found lodgment at all, where Paul had preached +from the beginning a doctrine of the eternal Christ. + +And the transformation is not one whit more radical than we ought to +anticipate. The Transfiguration story had been a halting attempt to +embody Pauline doctrine in Petrine story. But apart from the obvious +hold afforded to mere Doketism, how inadequate to Paul's conception of +the "Man from heaven"! The Fourth evangelist depicts the person of Jesus +consistently and throughout, despite his meagre and refractory material, +along the lines of Pauline Christology. There is no concession to +Doketism, for in spite of all, and designedly (iv. 6; xix. 28, 34), +Jesus is still no phantasm, but true man among men. There is no +hesitation to override, where needful, on vital points the great and +growing authority of 'apostolic' tradition. Tacitly, but +uncompromisingly, Petrine tradition is set aside. The "disciple whom +Jesus loved" sees the matter otherwise. In particular, apocalyptic +eschatology is firmly repressed in favour of a doctrine of eternal life +in the Spirit. The second Coming is not to be a manifestation "to the +world." It will be an inward indwelling of God and Christ in the heart +of the believer (xiv. 22 f.).[30] The place of future reward is not a +glorified Palestine and transfigured, rebuilt Jerusalem. The disciple, +like Paul, will "depart to be with Christ." The Father's house is wider +than the Holy Land. It has "many mansions," and the servant must be +content to know that his Master will receive him where he dwells himself +(xiv. 1-3; xvii. 24). + + Footnote 30: Some few passages inconsistent with this are found in + the body of the Gospel. Like that of the appendix (xxi. 22) they are + later modifications of a doctrine too Hellenic for the majority. + +To realize what it meant to produce the 'spiritual' Gospel that comes to +us from Ephesus shortly after the close of the first century we must +place ourselves side by side with men who had learnt the gospel of Paul +_about_ Jesus, the drama of the eternal, pre-existent, "heavenly Man," +incarnate, triumphant through the cross over the Prince of this world +and powers of darkness. We must realize how they found it needful to +impregnate the 'apostolic' material of Petrine and Matthaean tradition +with this deeper significance, preserving the concrete, historic fact, +and the real manhood, and yet supplementing the disproportionately +external story with a wealth of transcendental meaning. The spirit of +Paul was, indeed, not dead. Neither Gnostic heresy could dissipate it, +nor reactionary Christianized legalism absorb it. It had been reborn in +splendid authority and power. In due time it would prove itself the very +mould of 'catholic' doctrine. The Fourth gospel, as its Prologue +forewarns, is an application to the story of Jesus as tradition reported +it of the Pauline incarnation doctrine formulated under the Stoic Logos +theory. It represents a study in the psychology of religion applied to +the person of Christ. Poor as Paul himself in knowledge of the outward +Jesus, unfamiliar with really historical words and deeds, its doctrine +_about_ Jesus became, nevertheless, like that of the great Apostle to +the Gentiles, the truest exposition of 'the heart of Christ.' + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EPILOGUES AND CONCLUSIONS + + +Few of the great writings cherished and transmitted by the early church +have escaped the natural tendency to attachments at beginning and end. +In the later period such attachments took the form of prefixed +_argumenta_, _i. e._ prefatory descriptions of author and contents, and +affixed _subscriptions_, devoted to a similar purpose. These, like the +titles, were clearly distinguished from the text itself, and in modern +editions are usually not printed, though examples of 'subscriptions' may +be seen in the King James version after the Pauline Epistles. Before the +time when canonization had made such a process seem sacrilege they were +attached to the text itself, with greater or less attempt to weld the +parts together. We need not add to what has been already said as to +certain superscriptions of the later epistolary literature, such as +James and Jude, where the relation to the text impresses us as closer +than is sometimes admitted; nor need we delay with the preamble to +Revelation (Rev. i. 1-3). That which has been added at the close, in +cases where real evidence exists of such later supplementation, is of +special significance to our study, inasmuch as it tends to throw light +where light is most required. For that is an obscure period, early in +the second century, when not only the churches themselves were drawing +together toward catholic unity under the double pressure of inward and +outward peril, but were bringing with them their treasured writings, +sometimes a collection of Epistles, sometimes a Gospel, or a book of +Prophecy, sometimes, as in the groups of writings attributed to John and +Peter, a full canon of Gospel, Epistles and Apocalypse, followed but +little later by 'Acts' as well. + +The most ancient list of books authorized to be publicly read that we +possess is that of the church of Rome _c._ 185, called after its +discoverer the Canon of Muratori. From this fragment, mutilated at +beginning and end, we learn that Paul's letters to the churches were +arranged in a group of seven[31] of which Romans stood last. It is +probably due to its position at the end that Romans has been +supplemented by the addition of Pauline fragments, which did not appear +in some early editions of the text. The letter proper ends with ch. xv. +though xvi. 21-23 probably followed, perhaps concluding with ver. 24, +which some texts insert after ver. 19. Ver. 25-27 is another fragment +omitted in some texts. + + Footnote 31: The personal letters formed a separate group. Two + letters to the same church (1st Cor., 2nd Cor.) were counted as one. + Marcion (140) counted ten in all, and had a different order. + +We have seen above (p. 200) how Revelation has received conclusion after +conclusion, so that the relation of personalities has become almost +unintelligible. We have very meagre textual material for Revelation, and +can scarcely judge whether any of the process represented in Rev. xxii. +6-21 belongs to the period of transmission, after the publication of the +book in its present form. Until the discovery of new textual evidence +the phenomena in Revelation must be treated by principles of the higher +criticism, as pertaining to its history before publication. At all +events we know that the attribution to "John" (ver. 8 f.) was current +as early as Justin's _Apology_ (153). + +The longer and shorter supplements to Mark belong again to the field of +textual criticism. The manuscripts and early translations carry us back +to a time when neither ending was known; though only to leave us +wondering how the necessity arose for composing them--a question of the +higher criticism. Mark xvi. 9-20 shows acquaintance with Luke, and +probably with John xx. It is noteworthy, however, in view of the +author's attempt to cover the resurrection appearances of these two +gospels, that he betrays no sign of acquaintance with John. xxi. In this +case of the Roman gospel, however, textual evidence enables us to trace +something of the history of supplementation. The so-called 'Shorter' +ending provides a close for the incomplete story, resembling Matthew, +while the 'Longer' is drawn from Luke and John. i.-xx. Subsequent +employments show that the 'Longer' ending had been attached (perhaps at +Rome) not later than _c._ 150. It is the first evidence we have of +combination of the Fourth gospel with the Synoptics; for even Justin, +though _affected_ by John, does not _use_ it as he uses Matthew, Mark +and Luke. Parity among the four is not traceable earlier than Tatian +(_c._ 175), the father of gospel 'harmonies.' The 'Shorter' ending, if +not the Longer as well, would seem to have been added in Egypt. The +supplements to Mark have this at least of singular interest, that they +show the progress of a process whose beginnings we traced back to +Palestine itself in the church of the 'apostles, elders and witnesses of +the Lord,' where "the Elder" in the tradition reported by Papias is +already offering explanations of the disagreements of Matthew and Mark +with a view to their concurrent circulation. + +After the addition of Mark to Matthew it was comparatively easy to take +in Luke-Acts as a third, and to form composites out of the three such as +the _Gospel of Peter_ (North Syria _c._ 130) and the _Gospel of the +Nazarenes_ (Coele-Syria _c._ 140). Justin at Rome (_c._ 153) is still +such a three-gospel man, though affected by the Fourth; whereas his +predecessor Hermas (125-140) seems to rest on Mark alone, though perhaps +acquainted with Matthew. The step was a harder one which aimed to take +in the Fourth gospel. Tatian at Rome (_c._ 175) and Theophilus at +Antioch (181) are the agents of its accomplishment; and, as we have +seen, it was not effected without a determined opposition, led at Rome +by the presbyter Gaius, and answered by Irenaeus (_c._ 186) and +Hippolytus (_c._ 215). Such opposition from the side of advocates of +Petrine apostolicity is anticipated in the most significant and +important of all the epilogues, the so-called Appendix or Epilogue to +the Fourth gospel (John xxi.). + +Just when, or where, this supplement was added is one of the most +difficult problems of the higher criticism. On the side of external +evidence we have the fact that it shows no effect in Mark xvi. 9-21, +where John xx. is employed, and that there is a great change about A.D. +170 in the treatment of this Gospel and its related Epistles, those who +use them before this time showing no disposition to treat them as having +high apostolic authority. On the side of internal evidence there are +such data as the use of the second-century name for the Sea of Galilee +("Sea of Tiberias," xxi. 1), and references to the martyrdom of Peter at +Rome (xxi. 18 f.) and to legends of John as the 'witness' who should +survive until the Coming (xxi. 23). Whether these data suggest an origin +at Ephesus, or at Rome, and at just what date, are problems for +technical research. That which is of chief interest for us is the motive +and function of this supplement to the Ephesian Gospel, and the light it +throws upon conditions in the church at large. + +It is quite apparent that John xxi. forms a subsequent attachment after +the formal conclusion of the Gospel proper in xx. 30 f. For, apart +from differences in style and doctrinal standpoint, it makes a complete +new departure along the lines of Mark's story of Galilean resurrection +manifestations; whereas the Gospel follows the Lukan type, and brings +everything to a close without removal from Jerusalem. The message to the +disciples by the women at the sepulchre is here given by Jesus in person +as in Matt. xxviii. 10, and is actually delivered as in Luke xxiv. 10 +f. It is followed by the promised manifestation to the disciples with +the overcoming of their incredulity, and by the great Commission, +accompanied by the Gift of the Spirit. The story has thus been brought +to a formal conclusion, the invariable and necessary conclusion of all +evangelic narratives. The author's recapitulation of the nature and +contents of his book and assurance in direct address to the reader of +his purpose in writing ("that _ye_ may believe") follows appropriately +as a winding up of the whole. It is not conceivable that the same +writer should resume immediately after this, at an earlier point in the +narrative, where the disciples are still scattered in Galilee, +unconscious of their vocation and commission. For in spite of the +endeavour of the supplementer in ver. 14 to make this out "the third[32] +time that Jesus was manifested" they have manifestly returned to their +original means of livelihood unawakened to the resurrection faith. +Moreover the story culminates with a restoration of Peter to favour, +with unmistakable reference to his humiliating failure to live up to the +promise (xiii. 36-38), "Lord, why cannot I follow thee even now? I will +lay down my life for thee" (_cf._ xxi. 15-19). If it had been the +evangelist's intention to tell this he would have told it before the +Commission in xx. 19-23. In short, we have here two widely variant forms +of the tradition of the rallying of the disciples from their unbelief by +the risen Christ and commissioning of them to their task. The two +commissions, one a general commission of all "the twelve," like Matt. +xviii. 18, the other a special commission of Peter like Matt. xvi. 19, +are attached one after the other, with the curious infelicity that the +restoration of Peter from his defection, together with his installation +as chief under-shepherd of the flock, comes _after_ the commission in +which he has already appeared with the rest, restored to full faith and +favour, and gifted with the inspiration and authority of the Spirit. + + Footnote 32: A miscount for "fourth," unless we disregard xx. 11-18, + or else (with Wellhausen) consider xx. 24-29 an insertion later than + the Epilogue. + +It is true that the function of "tending the flock of God" (_cf._ 1st +Pet. v. 2) committed to Peter in xxi. 15-19 is a more special one than +the apostolate conferred on all in xx. 21-23; but the Epilogue has +previously (xxi. 1-14) given to Peter a special and commanding part in +the apostolate (extension of the gospel to the world). No one will +question that in such a writer as the Fourth evangelist (and if anything +still more the writer of the Epilogue) narratives of miracle are +intended to have a symbolical sense. Nor will it be denied that the +miraculous draft of fishes, which in Luke v. 1-11 attends the original +vocation of "Simon,"[33] is here applied to the work the twelve are to +accomplish in the now opening future as "fishers of men." The +particularization of the number of the fishes, and the statement that +the peril of the rending of the net (_cf._ Luke v. 6) was happily +avoided, are, of course, also intended to convey a symbolical sense, +which Jerome makes still easier to grasp by informing us that 153 was +taken by naturalists of the time to be the full number of all species of +fish. John xxi. 1-14 is therefore a primitive story of the appearance +of Jesus after his resurrection "to Peter and them that were with him," +in Galilee (not in Jerusalem as in John i.-xx. and Luke), having a +relation to Luke v. 1-11, and probably also to Matt. xiv. 28-33 (_cf._ +John xxi. 7). It is also nearly akin to the fragment at the end of the +_Gospel of Peter_. It symbolizes the work of the apostolic mission under +the figure of the fishing of men (_cf._ Mark i. 17; Matt. xiii. 47-50), +and gives to Peter the leading part. In fact Peter not only comes to the +Lord in advance of all the rest, and alone maintains with him something +like the intimate relations of the past, but performs after his private +interview with Jesus the gigantic feat of bringing unaided to land the +entire miraculous catch. The great and various multitude, which all +working in common had enclosed in the net, but had not been able to lift +into the boat, Peter, at Jesus' word, brought safely home. The writer +who so employs the already conventionalized symbols of ecclesiastical +imagery, surely had no mean idea of the apostleship of Peter. In at +least as high degree as the author of Acts he conceives of Peter as +commissioned in a special sense to be the great director and leader of +all missionary activity, to Gentiles as well as Jews (Acts xv. 7), and +to have been the saviour of the unity of the church in the hour of its +threatened disruption. When in addition he is invested by Jesus with the +insignia and office of chief under-shepherd of the flock of God, the +stain of his threefold denial wiped out by a threefold opportunity to +prove his special love by special service, and the ignominy of his +previous failure to "follow" (xiii. 36-38) atoned for by the promise +that in old age he shall have opportunity to follow Jesus in martyrdom +(xxi. 18 f.), there remains nothing that the most exacting friend of +'catholic' apostolicity could demand in the way of tribute to its great +representative. + + Footnote 33: The addition in ver. 10_a_ and the plural "they" in + ver. 11, are mere editorial adaptations of the story to Mark i. + 16-20. + +And yet the main object of the Epilogue has not yet been touched. It was +not written, we may be sure, merely to glorify Peter; though it is, of +course, insupposable that the Gospel in its primitive form simply left +Peter in the attitude of a renegade after xviii. 27, to reappear quite +as if nothing had happened in xx. 1 ff.[34] It pays its tribute to +Peter as chief witness to the resurrection, chief apostle, chief saviour +of the unity of the church, chief under-shepherd of the flock of God, in +the interest of that catholic apostolic unity which all churchmen were +so earnestly labouring to achieve in the writer's time, and for which +the name of Peter was increasingly significant. But the chief object of +the Epilogue is something else. It was written primarily to commend and +find room for another authority, the authority of the Gospel to which +it is appended, and which repeatedly sets over against Peter a +mysterious unnamed figure, who always sees when Peter is blind, believes +when Peter is unbelieving, is faithful when Peter and all the rest have +fled in cowardly desertion. The object of the Epilogue is to find room +alongside the growing and salutary authority of Peter for the authority +and message of "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Its purpose appears in +its conclusion, "This (the disciple whom Jesus loved) is the disciple +which beareth witness of these things, and wrote these things, and we +(the church which cherishes and gives forth this 'spiritual' Gospel) +know that his witness is true." + + Footnote 34: We must conclude that _both_ these data from Synoptic + tradition, the denial (xiii. 36-38; xviii. 15-18, 25-27) _and_ the + restoration (ch. xxi.) are supplements to the original form of the + Gospel. + +The writer does not explicitly say that he means the Apostle John +(reputed in Ephesus the author of Revelation); for such direct +identification might well endanger his own object. But he makes it clear +in two ways that John is really intended, as, indeed, subsequent writers +immediately infer.[35] (1) "The sons of Zebedee" are introduced for the +first time in the entire work in xxi. 2, among the group who are present +with Peter. An easy process of elimination,[36] then, leaves open to +identification as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (ver. 7) only John, or +else one of the two unnamed "other disciples," who could hardly be +reckoned among Jesus' closest intimates. + + Footnote 35: The _Muratorianum_ bases its legendary account of the + writing of the Fourth gospel by "John" with the endorsement of "his + fellow-disciples and bishops" on John xxi. 24. + + Footnote 36: The early death of James the son of Zebedee (Acts xii. + 1) excludes him from consideration. + +(2) The scene of the prediction of Peter's martyrdom (xxi. 18 f.) is +followed immediately (ver. 20-23) by a reference to traditions which we +know to have been current before the close of the first century +regarding the martyrdom of the two sons of Zebedee, in particular +regarding John. Peter in xxi. 21 raises the question as to the _fate_ of +"the disciple whom Jesus loved" (literally, "and as to this man, +what?"). The pregnant command of Jesus to Peter, "Follow me," is clearly +intended to have reference to martyrdom (_cf._ xiii. 36 f.), and it is +obeyed by "the disciple whom Jesus loved" as well as Peter. Peter's +inquiry and the Lord's reply had given rise "among the brethren" to the +belief that this disciple would "tarry" till the Coming. Now it is of +John, son of Zebedee, and only of him, that we have a curious +vacillation of ancient tradition between belief in his martyrdom in the +same sense as his brother James (Mark x. 39), and a belief (probably +based on Mark ix. 1) that he would tarry as an abiding witness until the +Coming ('white martyrdom'). The writer of the Epilogue has manifestly +these traditions about the fate of John in mind. He would have his +readers understand that the enigmatic prophecy of Jesus neither +promised the permanent survival of John, nor his violent death, but was +at least capable of an interpretation which set John alongside of Peter, +not as a rival of his leadership, or directive control, but simply as a +witness ('martyr') to the truth. Peter is willingly granted the office +of 'ruling elder' in the church, if only "the disciple whom Jesus loved" +may have the function of the prophet and teacher 'in the Spirit,' the +man of faith and insight, whose function it is to interpret 'the mind of +Christ.' + +Few things could be more significant of the conditions of Christian life +and thought in the earlier years of the second century than this +Epilogue, appended to the 'spiritual' Gospel to commend it to general +acceptance in the church. It is not vitally important whether the +cautiously suggested identification of the Beloved Disciple with John, +the son of Zebedee, be correct or not. It is important to a historical +appreciation of the great literary contribution of the churches of Paul +to the 'catholic' Christianity of the second century, that we realize +what Petrine catholicity had then come to mean, and how the Pauline +spiritual gospel came half-way to meet it. On this point a study of the +epilogues is rewarding, but especially of the great Epilogue to the +Gospel of John. + +We have reached the period for our own concluding words. The process of +combination and canonization of the New Testament writings, which +followed upon the consolidation of the churches in the second century +falls outside our province. We have sought only to give some insight +into the origins, considering the Making of the New Testament to apply +rather to the creations of the formative period, when conscious +inspiration was still in its full glow, than to the period of collection +into an official canon. As we look back over the two leading types of +Christian thought, Pauline and 'Apostolic,' the Greek-Christian gospel +_about_ Jesus, and the Jewish-Christian gospel _of_ Jesus, the gospel of +the Spirit and the gospel of authority, we cannot fail to realize how +deep and broad and ancient are the two great currents of religious +thought and life that here are mingling, contending, coming to new +expression and clearer definition. Each has its various subdivisions and +modifications, Pauline Christianity in the Greek world has its problems +of resistance to Hellenistic perversion on the one side, to reaction +toward Jewish external authority on the other. Apostolic Christianity +whether in its more conservative form at Jerusalem, or in broader +assimilation to Pauline doctrine at Antioch and Rome, has also its +divergent streams, its more primitive and its more developed stages. The +literature, as we slowly come to appreciate it against the background of +the times, more and more reveals itself as an index to the life. Not to +the mere idiosyncrasies of individuals, but to the great Gulf-stream of +the human instinct for social Righteousness and for individual +Redemption, as it sweeps onward in its mighty tide. + +The literature of the New Testament must be understood historically if +understood at all. It must be understood as the product, we might almost +say the precipitate, of the greatest period in the history of religion. +It represents the meeting and mutual adjustment of two fundamental and +complementary conceptions of religion. The antithesis is not merely that +between the particularism of the Jew and the universalism of the +Gentile. It is an antithesis of the social ideal of Law and Prophets +against the individual ideal of personal redemption through union with +the divine Spirit, which lay at the heart of all vital Hellenistic +religious thought in this period of the Empire. Christianity as we know +it, the religion of humanity as it has come to be, the ultimate +world-religion as we believe it destined to become, is a resultant of +these two factors, Semitic and Aryan, the social and the individual +ideal. Its canonized literature represents the combination. On the one +side the social ideal is predominant. It perpetuates the gospel _of_ +Jesus in the form of Matthaean and Petrine tradition, supplemented by +apocalypse, which tradition attaches conjecturally to the name of John. +The goal it seeks is the Kingdom of God, righteousness and peace on +earth as in heaven. On the other side the individual ideal predominates. +It perpetuates the gospel _about_ Jesus in the form of the Pauline and +Johannine doctrine of his person, regarded as the norm and type of +spiritual life. The goal it seeks is personal immortality by moral +fellowship with God. Its faith is Son ship, by participation in the +divine nature, without limitation in time, without loss of individual +identity. Both types of gospel are justified in claiming to emanate from +Jesus of Nazareth; but neither without the other can claim to fully +represent the significance of his spirit and life. + +The unity of the New Testament is a unity in diversity. Just because it +presents so widely divergent conceptions of what the gospel is, it gives +promise of perennial fecundity. Studied not after the manner of the +scribes, who think that in their book of precept and prophecy they have +a passport to rewards in a magical world to come, but studied as a +"manifestation of the life, even the eternal life" of the Spirit of God +in man, it will continue to reproduce the spirit and mind of Christ. +Studied as a reflection at various times and in divers manners of that +redemptive Wisdom of God, which "in every generation entering into holy +souls makes men to be prophets and friends of God" (Sap. vii. 27), and +which the Greeks, considering it, unfortunately, in its intellectual +rather than its moral aspect, call the Logos of God, it will prove, as +in so many generations past it has proved, an "incorruptible seed," a +"word of good tidings preached unto" the world, a "word of the Lord that +abideth for ever." + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +1. General Introductions to N.T. Literature. + + MOFFATT, JAS. _"Internat. Theol. Library" Series._ Scribner's, 1911. + Standard, comprehensive, progressive. Best compendium of the subject + in English. A book for experts. 671 pp., 8vo. + + JUeLICHER, A. Engl. transl, by D. A. Ward, from 4th German ed. + London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1903. The most serviceable of modern + German Introductions, based on the standard work of the "liberal" + school, by H. J. Holtzmann. 650 pp., large 8vo. + + ZAHN, THEO. Engl. transl. from 3rd German ed., by M. W. Jacobus. + Scribner's, 1909. Standard "conservative" work. Immense scholarship + in the harness of apologetics. Total, 1750 pp., in 3 vols., large + 8vo. + + BACON, B. W. _"New Test. Handbook" Series._ Macmillan 1900. Similar + to Moffatt's in standpoint, but without the survey of the + literature. For readers less technically advanced. 300 pp., small + 8vo. + + PEAKE, A. S. N.Y., Scribner's, 1910. 250 pp., 12mo. An excellent + primer of the subject, generally conservative. + + +2. Critical Treatments of Pauline Literature. + + SHAW, R. D. _The Pauline Epistles, Introductory and Expository + Studies_, 2nd ed. T. & T. Clarke, 1904. 518 pp., large 8vo. Sober + and cautious. For general readers. + + RAMSAY, W. M. _Pauline and other Studies in Early Christian + History._ Hodder & Stoughton, 1906. 425 pp., large 8vo. _The Cities + of St. Paul_ (1907, 468 pp.) is by the same author, an eminent + geographer and archaeologist ardently enlisted against German + criticism. Interesting but diffuse. + + PFLEIDERER, O. _Paulinism._ Engl. transl. by E. Peters. 2nd ed. + 1891. Williams & Norgate. 2 vols. 8vo. Total, 580 pp., 8vo. Still a + standard exposition of Paul's system of thought. A book for experts. + + BAUR, F. C. _Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ, his Life and Work, + Epistles and Doctrine._ Engl. transl. of Zeller's (2nd), German ed., + by A. Menzies. Williams & Norgate, 1876. Two vols. 8vo (375 + 350 + pp.). An epoch-making book, the starting-point of modern criticism. + + SCHWEITZER, A. This able, though one-sided, critic has issued + already (1912) the conclusion to his study of modern Lives of Christ + (see below, _The Quest of the Historical Jesus_) under the title + _Geschichte der Paulinischen Forschung_. It may be expected that + this comprehensive survey and searching criticism of the literature + of Pauline study will soon be made accessible to the English reader. + + WREDE, W. _Paul._ Engl. transl. by E. Lummis. P. Green, London, + 1907. 190 pp., 12mo. A brief, brilliant, popular sketch, radical, + suggestive. Needs the balance of more cautious criticism. + + WEISS, J. _Paul and Jesus._ Engl. transl. by H. J. Chaytor. London + and New York, Harper & Bros., 1909. 130 pp., 12mo. An effective + answer to Wrede's view of Paul as the real creator of Christianity, + by a progressive and able critic. + + Lives of Paul by Cone, Clemen (German) and others are abundant in + recent years. See the _Encyclopaedias_ and _Dictionaries of the + Bible_, s.v. "Paul." + + +3. Critical Treatments of the Synoptic Gospels and Acts. + + STANTON, V. H. _The Gospels as Historical Documents_, Parts I and + II. Cambridge University Press, 1903-1909. 297 + 400 pp., 8vo. A + standard survey of Gospel criticism from a conservative standpoint, + the work of a scholar for scholars. + + CONE, O. _Gospel Criticism and Historical Christianity._ Putnam's, + N.Y., 1891. 375 pp., small 8vo. Liberal, semi-popular. + + BURKITT, F. C. _The Earliest Sources for the Life of Jesus._ + Houghton & Mifflin, Boston and New York, 1910. 130 pp., 12mo. Simple + and popular. Burkitt is a leading progressive scholar. + + +4. The Johannine Writings. + + DRUMMOND, JAS. _Character and Authorship of the Fourth Gospel._ + Scribner's, N.Y., 1904. 544 pp., 8vo. The ablest recent defence of + the traditional authorship. Scholarly discussion of the literary + history. + + BACON, B. W. _The Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate._ Moffat, + Yard & Co., N.Y., 1910. 556 pp., 8vo. A similar discussion of the + evidences reaching the reverse conclusion. + + SCOTT, E. F. _The Fourth Gospel, its Purpose and Theology._ T. & T. + Clarke, Edinburgh, 1906. 386 pp., 8vo. Admirable in temper, lucid in + style, semi-popular. + + SCHMIEDEL, P. W. _The Johannine Writings._ Engl. transl., by M. A. + Canney. London, A. & C. Black, 1903. 295 pp., 12mo. Brief, popular, + radical, by one of the ablest of N.T. critics. + + +General. + + REUSS, E. _History of the N.T._ Engl. transl. from 5th German ed., + by E. L. Houghton. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1884. 649 pp. 2 + vols. large 8vo. A standard treasury of scholarly information. + + WERNLE, P. _The Beginnings of Christianity._ Engl. transl., by G. A. + Bienemann. London, Williams & Norgate, 1904. 388 + 404 pp., 8vo. 2 + vols. Able, scholarly, advanced. + + PFLEIDERER, O. _Christian Origins._ Engl. transl., by D. Huebsch. + New York, B. W. Huebsch, 1906. 295 pp., 12mo. Popular lectures + showing something of the views of the modern school of critics known + as _religionsgeschichtlich_. Pfleiderer's critical opinions are + fully expressed in his _Primitive Christianity_ (Engl. transl., by + W. Montgomery, in four vols., 8vo. Putnams, 1909). + + MUZZEY, D. S. _The Rise of the N.T._ New York, Macmillan, 1900. 156 + pp., 12mo. An excellent primer for beginners. + + WREDE, W. _The Origin of the N.T._ Engl. transl. by J. S. Hill. + Harper & Bros., London & New York, 1909. 151 pp., 12mo. An admirable + primer by a brilliant leader of advanced criticism. + + VON SODEN. _The History of Early Christian Literature. Writings of + the N.T._ Engl. transl., by J. R. Wilkinson. Williams & Norgate, + 1906. 476 pp., 12mo. A book for beginners by a great N.T. scholar of + liberal views. A closely connected field is covered by various + _Histories of the Apostolic Age_, of which the most recent and + important are those of Weizsaecker (Engl. transl., 1895) and + McGiffert (1897). Less technical and more orthodox are those of + Vernon-Bartlett (1899) and J. H. Ropes (1906). _Critical Lives of + Christ_ present the results of critical study of the Gospels. A + survey of this field of research, keenly analytical and severely + critical, is given by A. Schweitzer in _The Quest of the Historical + Jesus_ (Engl. transl. by W. Montgomery. A. & C. Black, 1910. 416 + pp., 8vo). Schweitzer writes with great scholarship and power, but + decided polemic interest as a "consistent eschatologist." + + + + +INDEX + + + Abomination, 161, 218 + + Acts, 57 ff., 64 ff., 174 ff. + + Agabus, 185, 202 + + Allegory (in John), 224 + + Angelology and demonology, 95 + + Antichrist, 217 f. + + Anti-legalism (of Mark), 166 + + Antinomian heresy, 149, 214 + + Antioch, 71, 175 ff., 183 f. + + Apocalypses, 29, 51, 87, 188, 197 + + Apostolic Christianity, 42, 126, 129, 246 + + Apostolic Commission, 238 f. + + Apostolic Council, 60, 63, 67 + + Apotheosis doctrine, 49 + + Appendix to John, 107, 147, 211, 236 ff. + + Asia, Churches of, 197 ff. + + Athanasius, 29 f. + + + Babylon (= Rome), 115, 196 + + Baptist (in John), 225 + + Bar Cocheba, 204 + + _Baruch, Apocalypse of_ 188 + + Baur, F. C., 37 ff. + + Beloved disciple, the, 227, 243 ff. + + + Caesarea, 85 + + Calvin, 37 + + Canonization of the Law, 12 + + Cerinthus, 219 + + Chiliasts, 187 + + Christological Epistles, 97 + + Christ-party, 45 + + Clement of Rome, 19 f., 79, 115, 119 + + Clement of Alexandria, 25 + + _Clementine Homilies and Recognitions_, 148 + + Colossians, 98 + + Corinthian Epistles, 76 ff. + + + Decrees of Jerusalem, 60 + + Diary of Acts, 183 + + Dionysius of Alexandria, 191 + + Disputed books, 30 + + Doketism, 21, 110, 126, 153, 163, 184, 186, 214, 217, 219 + + + Elder (of 2nd and 3rd John), 215 + + Elements, 76, 99 + + Ephesians, 98 + + Ephesus, 76, 97, 111 f., 191, 201, 211 + + Epiphanius, 131 + + Epistles (Major), 43 + + Epistles of the Captivity, 42, 85, 100 + + Eschatological discourse, 161 + + Esdras (Apocalypse of), 188 + + External evidence, 38 + + + False brethren, 41 + + Feasts (in John), 226 + + Fornication, 60, 77 + + + Gaius (3rd John), 215 f. + + Gaius of Rome, 31, 237 + + Galatians, 56, 74 + + Gentile liberty, 61 ff. + + Gnosticism, 40, 108, 207 f. + + _Gospel according to the Hebrews_, 135, 145 + + _Gospel of the Nazarenes_, 132, 145 ff., 236 + + + Harnack, 98 + + Hebrews, 107, 116 ff. + + Hebrews, Apostolic authority in, 18 + + Hebrews, Canonical standing of, 31 + + Hegesippus, 105 f., 111 + + Hellenistic religion, 247 + + Hermas, 21, 28, 119 f., 237 + + + Ignatius, 20 f., 23, 111, 124, 126, 208 + + Incarnation Doctrine, 49, 154, 229, 231 + + Infancy of Jesus (in Matthew and Luke), 152 + + Internal evidence, 38 + + Irenaeus, 81, 133, 219 + + + James, 104 ff., 107, 112 f., 130 + + Jerusalem Conference, 67, 71 + + Jerusalem succession, 105 f., 119 + + John, the Apostle, a martyr, 104, 194, 243 + + John, Gospel of, 25, 31, 43, 54, 206 ff. + + John, Revelation of, 30, 43, 63, 107, 131, 187, 189 ff., 235 + + John, Epistles of, 43, 111, 126, 211 ff. + + John, _Acts of_, 219 f. + + John, the Elder, 26, 131, 133, 236 + + Josephus (used by Luke), 174 + + Judaism _v._ Hellenism, 52 f. + + Judaizers, 68 + + Jude, 19, 80, 107, 130 + + Justin Martyr, 187, 190, 235 f. + + + Kindred of the Lord, 164 f. + + + Laodiceans, 98 + + Law _v._ grace, 8, 14, 66, 74, 81, 123 + + _Logia_, 136, 141 + + Logos-doctrine, 55, 221, 232 + + Lordship (of Christ), 96 + + Luke, 27, 139, 173 f. + + Luke, his omissions from Mark, 178 f. + + Luke, his purpose in writing, 180 f. + + Luther, 37 + + + Magic, 93 ff. + + Marcion, 22 ff., 40 + + Mark, 129, 134, 159 ff. + + Mark, Duplication in, 172 + + Mark, Endings of, 168 ff., 235 f. + + Matthew, 131 ff., 187 + + Melito of Sardis, 19, 190 + + Michaelis, 35 + + Missionary Journey, First, 58 f. + + Missionary Journey, Second, 72 + + Moffatt, Jas., 151 + + Montanus, 28 f. + + Muratorian Fragment, 30, 234 + + + Nepos, the Chiliast, 191 + + + Offering for the poor, 69 + + + Palestine, Origin of Revelations, 195 ff. + + Papias, 26, 105 f., 130 f., 186 f., 190, 208 + + Parables (in Matthew), 149 f. + + Passover, 101, 173 + + Pastoral Epistles, 19, 31, 83, 108, 111, 123 + + Patmos, 191, 200 f. + + Paul, Original Apostle of Asia, 205 + + Paul, his religious experience, 16 + + Paul, martyrdom, 105 + + Pauline _v._ Petrine gospel, 49 + + Paulinism of Mark, 162 + + Persecution, 13, 122 + + Peter (the Apostle), 24, 26, 106, 133, 146 + + Peter, _Apocalypse of_, 29 f. + + Peter, Commission of, 240 f. + + Peter, Epistles of, 41, 108 f., 112 ff. + + Peter, _Gospel of_, 171, 221, 236 + + Peter, _Preaching of_, 139 + + Pharisaic Judaism, 121 + + Philemon, 88 + + Philip, Daughters of, 185 f. + + Philippians, 89 ff. + + Phrygian heresy, 28 + + _Pirke Aboth_, 141 + + Polycarp, 26, 110, 130, 186, 218 + + Porphyry, 106 + + Post-Reformation dogma, 33 f. + + Precepts (of Jesus), 137 + + Prologue (of John), 231 + + Prophecy, 188 f., 209 + + + Q-material, 141 ff. + + + Reconciliation with God, 103 + + Redeemer-gods, 50 + + Redemption doctrines, 86, 93 + + Reformation, 37 + + Repentance (the Great), 156 f. + + Resurrection-doctrine, 73, 78, 125, 155, 158, 204, 210 + + Revelation (_See_ John, Revelation of) + + Romans, 75, 80 ff. + + Rome, 120, 129 + + + Satan, Dominion of, 157 + + Scripture, Use in Paul, 17 + + Scripture, Use in John, 25 + + Second Coming, 230 + + Sermon on Mount, 9 + + Signs in Fourth gospel, 223 + + Simon, Richard, 35 + + Spirit, Doctrine of the, 17, 67, 101 156, 220 + + Subscriptions, 233 + + Superstitious Judaism, 93 f. + + Symeon, son of Clopas, 105 + + Synoptic writings, 44, 107 + + Synoptic writings in John, 228 + + Syria and Cilicia, 61, 129 + + + _Teaching of the Twelve_, 28, 63, 185 + + Tertullian, 19, 29 + + Thessalonian Epistles, 73 + + Timothy (_See_ Pastoral Epistles), 78 + + Titus (_See_ Pastoral Epistles) + + Transfiguration, 165, 167, 228, 230 + + Tuebingen School, 43 ff. + + + Unity of the Church, 70, 103, 120 + + Unity of the N.T., 248 + + + Way (= sect), 8 + + Weak (party of the), 45 + + Wisdom of God, 99, 209, 229 + + Wisdom of Solomon (Sap.), 51 + + Words of Jesus, 19, 129 f., 144 f. + + + Zahn, 115 + + + + +_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London and Bungay._ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of the New Testament, by +Benjamin W. 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