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gEORGE W. îfORT HRTTp 



THE, ,,,. 



CANON OF THE llÊlè SmP]TDKËS 



EXAMINED IN THE IiaHT OF HISTORY. 

By Peof. I^'' GAUSSEN, 

OF GENEVA, SWITZEKLAKD, 
AUTHOB OF " THEOPNEUSTY," "bIKTH-DAT OF CREATION," ETC., ETC. 

TRANSLATED FROU THE FRENCH, AND ABBTDGED 

By EDWARD N. KIRK, D. D. 



" Sicnti Dens solus de se idonens est testis in suo sermone, ita etiam non ante 
fidem repeiiet eermo in hominnm cordibos gnam interiore spiritus testimonio ob- 
signetux." — Calvin's Ihstix. 1, 7, 4. ' 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRA'CT SOCIETY, 

28 COKNHELL, BOSTOX. 




.G\^ 



<\ 



Entered accordtag to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by the 

Ahebican Tbaci Sooœit, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 



BIVBRSIS2, OAUBBIDOE : 

8XEBE0TYPBD AN» PEIKTEB BT 

HENRY O. HOUGHTON. 




125380 



TBANSLATOE'S PEEFACE. 



The question examined in this work is, WTiat hoohs or 
documents have a right to le placed in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures "^ In other words, What constitutes our Bible? It 
was intended by the learned author as a sequel to the " The- 
opneusty," published more than twenty years since. In the 
original, the work consists of two volumes, octavo ; but, for 
the purpose of bringing it within a more moderate price, 
and thus gaining for it a wider circulation among all classes 
of readers, we have preferred to make some abridgment of 
it and condense the two volumes into one. 

The argument in support of the claims of our Scriptures 
is presented by the author in a twofold form, called by him, 
The Method of Science, and Ihe Method of Faith. The 
former of these -is the one most commonly employed in the 
works which discuss this subject, showing the authenticity 
of the several books of our Scriptures, and their right — and 
theirs only — to a place in the Sacred Canon. The other, 
which is addressed to those who already receive them as 
divine, appeals to God's guardian care of his Word, since the 
formation of the Canon, and the power of his grace working 
through it upon the hearts of men, as his own recognition of 
its genuineness and confirmation of its claims upon our faith. 



îv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 

We have judged it best, for the reasons above stated, to give 
in the présent volume the former part only. 

It should be remembered, however, that important as the 
historical evidence on this subject is, it is nevertheless not 
that upon which the vast majority of believers accept the 
sacred volume as the Word of God. The latter rests on 
whiàt is termed the Internal Evidence, or the self-witnessing 
of the Scriptures. It is the response which they compel 
from the soul of the reader himself to their truths and pre- 
cepts. They axe felt to be divine, — a vital force in him who 
receives them, " quick and powerful, sharper than a two- 
edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and 
spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart." 

Our eloquent author, in the preface to his second volume, 
exhibits the value of this internal evidence with great force 
and beauty, showing that even science itself will fail of prop- 
erly moving the heart, if there be not added to it this self- 
witnessing of the Word under the teachings of the Holy 
Spirit. Our space will permit us to cite but a few para- 
graphs. 

" Our faith requires a support altogether more sure than 
that based on mere historical evidence. This is attested by 
the experience of pious men in every age, and earnestly 
expressed in the most accredited of our confessions of faith. 
They say, ' We know these books to be canonical, and the 
very sure rule of our faith, not so much by the common * 
agreement of the Church, as by the testimony of the Holy 
Spirit.' (Conf. des Eglises Franc., Art. IV.) 

" In speaking thus, they did not pretend that this testimony 
to the Scriptures, given by the Holy Spirit in the heart of 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. ^ 

every Christian truly converted by them, would apply di- 
rectly and equally to every book, chapter, and sentence la 
them. They meant merely, that for every Christian truly 
converted, the Bible is seen by the soul to be a miraculous 
book, a living and eflScacious word, penetrating even to the 
dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and revealing to 
man the very secrets of his own heart ; softening, persuading, 
subduing him with incomparable power. Certainly, never book 
spake like this book ! It ' hath told me all that ever I did.' 
* "Whence knowest thou me. Lord ? Surely, thou art the 
Son of God, thou art the king of Israel ! ' From that time 
the soul can not be mistaken. For it, this book, in whole or 
in part, is certainly from above. The seals of God Almighty 
are upon it. Now this ' witness of the Spirit,' of which our 
fathers spake, which has been more or less recognized by 
every Christian when he has read his Bible with a living 
heart, — this testimony can at first be heard by him nowhere 
but in a page of the Scriptures ; and that page has sufficed 
to shed an incomparable glory over the whole book. And 
as to the divine authenticity of each of its parts, the Chris- 
tian reader has legitimate reasons, for remaining convinced 
that the inspiration of those passages in which the Holy 
Spirit does speak to him, guarantees the remainder, and 
that he can, moreover, rest in this matter upon the common 
agreement of the churches and on the faithfulness of God ; 
because a principle of his "faith authorizes him to recognize, 
in this common agreement, a work of divine .wisdom. He 
will then consider the whole book as inspired, long before 
each of its parts may have been able by itself to prove its 
divine origin to him. Is it not thus that the naturalist pro- 
ceeds, when he examines with the solar microscope, in a 
1* 



vi TEANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 

living fish, a spot of the size of a pin's point, and there con- 
templates fourteen streams of blood flowing constantly night 
and day in two opposite directions, and accomplishing with 
astonishing beauty the double prodigy of circulation ; is it 
not thus, we say, that it suffices him to have had this specta- 
cle under his eyes, to conclude from it very legitimately 
that this powerful mystery of the blood and the life is 
equally accomplished in the whole body ? " 

While the Scriptures thus address themselves to our faith 
by their self-evidencing power, we are no less assured of 
their divine character, as preserved by Grod's unceasing care, 
uncorrupted and complete, from age to age. This, as we 
have already intimated, is forcibly presented in our author's 
argument in the second form, a summary of which is thus 
given in his own glowing and eloquent language : — " Faith 
contemplates that continued and manifestly divine action 
which, for twenty-three centuries, has employed the almost 
ever-rebellious people of the Jews to preserve the Canon 
of the Old Testament iree from all mixture. He who has 
kept it twenty-three hundred years, faith says, can not fail 
to keep to the end, by Christian people, the Canon of the 
New Testament. He of whom it is said that, after his as- 
cension to heaven, he was stiU with his disciples, aiding them 
and confirming their testimony by signs and wonders (Mark 
xvi. 20), is not dead! No, it is he who lives; — and 
has promised (Matt, xxviii. 20) to be with them to the end 
of the world ;__that is, not with their persons, but with their 
testimony, and especially their books. He has not failed to 
keep his promise, in defending his Church against the gates - 
of hell. He will not permit these gates, then, to prevail 
against the sacred books, which gave it birth and preserve its 



TEAlîSLATOR'S PREFACE. vii 

life. Faith says to herself, How shall the elect he saved, 
if they do not believe ? How shall they believe, if the truth 
be not preached ? How shall the truth be preached, if the 
books which contain it are not given ? How shall they be 
given, if they are not preserved ? God, then, in promising 
that his Church shall never perish, promises, also, that his 
"Word shall never fail. Heaven and earth shall sooner 
perish ! 

" Such are the thoughts, and such the confidence of faith, 
concerning the Canon." 

The reader should be notified in advance, that several 
of the technical terms employed by the author are consid- 
ered too serviceable to be relinquished, and they will need 
no other explanation than this : Theopneusty means Inspira- 
tion ; Canonicity, the right to a place in the Bible ; Aposto- 
licity, the fact that an apostle wrote the book ; Paulinity, the 
fact that Paul wrote it; Anagnosis, the public reading of 
the Scriptures; Homologomens, uncontested books; Anti- 
legomens, contested books. 



PEEFACE. 



X 



" God, who at sundiy times and in divers manners spake in time past unto 
the fathers by the prophets, 

" Hath in these last days spoken unto ns by his Son, -whom he hath ap- 
pointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

" Who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his 
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had 
by himself purged onr sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
high." — HEB.i. 1-3. . 

If I Venture to publish a book on this subject, it is be- 
cause I have acquired the threefold persuasion of its present 
importance, its adaptedness to the understanding of every 
class of readers, and the abundance of evidence to establish 
their convictions. 

It is obscure only in the distance ; and if some regard it 
as beset with difficulties and uncertainty, it is because they 
have not studied it aright. Before my own closer examina- 
tion of it, I was not aware how full of light it is. I have, 
therefore, believed it my duty, in view of the numerous 
attacks recently made upon it, to discuss it at length. My 
reference at first was to the wants of the students in our 
Theological Seminary. Afterward, I concluded to bring the 
whole subject within the comprehension of all the members 
of our churches. 

To this end, I have endeavored, in constructing this work, 
to make my meaning obvious to every serious reader, and I 
have desired that all" the unlearned who may have had their 
faith disturbed by these attacks of modem skepticism, might 
find it confirmed By reading these pages. 



PEEFACE. ix 

The proper treatment of such a subject requires a frequent 
introduction of the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers^ 
which I have translated, and at the same time furnished 
what information concerning them I deemed necessary to an 
understanding of my argument. 

This work' I intend as a sequel to the volume on the In- 
spiration of the Scriptures. That, indeed, remained incom- 
plete until accompanied by a Treatise on the Canon ; because, 
after having proved that the Scriptures are inspired, the 
most convinced reader might still object that he needed to 
have it proved that Daniel, Esther, the Canticles, or any 
other particular book of the Old Testament, was a portion 
of this inspired book ; that the epistle of Jude, that of James, 
the second of Peter, the second and third of John, or any 
other book included in our New Testament, were legiti- 
mately there, and that the Apocryphal books were justly 
excluded from it. 

. So long as these inquiries are not definitely resolved, and 
we have only vague and unsatisfactory answers to them, the 
privilege of having an inspired ^hle, is deprived of much of 
its value ; we lack confidence in using it, a discouraging 
cloud of uncertainty floats between our heavens and the 
earth ; and, while holding in our hands what we call the 
Script dres, we yet walk with an infirm step. 

It is the object of this work, with God's help, to show 
the Oanonicitt of the twenty-two books of the Old Testa- 
ment, and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament ; 
that is, their exclusive right to hold a place in the sacred 
collection of the divine oracles. 

The Church (Eph. ii. 20) is "founded upon the apostles 
and prophets," ^ who preached to it the gospel, " Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, in whom all 
the building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy 
temple." It is, then, on the foundation of Jesus Christ and 
his apostles, or messengers, that the Church, by a constant use 
^ Not (he prophets, but prophets, or inspired men. 



X PREFACE. 

of the Holy Scriptures of both Testaments, has found, from 
the beginning, and still finds, from age to age and from day 
to day, her life, her fullness, her power, and her beauty. 

Having shown, in a previous work, the divine inspiration 
of all these books, I shall now attempt to prove the integ- 
rity and authenticity, that is, the divine certainty, of both 
volumes. 

And as the proofs which show the canonicity of the books 
of the New Testament equally establish that of the Old, I 
shall commence with the former. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK FIRST. 

Page 

CANONICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 17 



O 



CHAPTER I. 
GENERAL HISTORT OF THE ÎTEW TESTAMENT CANON... 17 

Section 

I. Definition 17 

n. The Notion of a Canon of the New Testa- 
ment TRACED to the DaYS OF THE ApOSTLES 18 

III. The Church has, from the Beginning, consid- 

ered THE Collection of the Scriptures as 
A Harmonious and Complete Whole- • • • • • 23 

IV. First Formation of the Canon 24 

V. Oral Preaching must precede it - 28 

VI. Historical Division of the Canon into Three 
Distinct Parts, First, Second, and Second- 
First 29 

Vn. This Threefold Division required bt the 

MOST Authentic Monuments 30 

Three Ante-Nicene Catalogues 31 

Catalogue of the Peshito 32 

l^Origen's Catalogue ^ » 36 

^^^Aisebius^s Catalogue 42 

Vin. Of the Council of Nice and its Results 52 

The Council made no Decree on the Canon 53 

All Differences in Regard to the Contested Books ceased 

after this Council • : 56 

IX. The Eleven Authentic Catalogues of the 

Fourth Century 57 

X. The Nine Catalogues of the Fourth Cen- 
tury GIVEN BY THÉ FATHERS 58 



12 ,CONTENTS. 

Bection ^*S° 

Three of ihem omit only the Apocalypse' 58 

Cyril ' • 58 

Gregory Nazianzen 60 

PMlastrius -■ ^^ 

All the Six other Catalogues of the Fourth Century 

conformed to that of our Churches • 64 

Aihanasitis • 64 

Anonymous • ; 67 

Epiphanius • 68 

Jerome 70 

Rufinus 73 

Augustine •. 75 

XI. Other Catalogues pretending to be of the 
Fourth Centurt, and conformed to our 

Canon, are Apocryphal or Forged 76 

The Catalogue of Innocent I. 77 

The Catalogue ofDamasus 79 

The Catalogue of Amphilochius - 80 

XII. The Two Catalogues of the Fourth Cen- 
tury GIVEN BY Councils 81 

Character of their Testimony- • . • 81 

The Council of Laodicea 83 

'TAe Council of Carthage .' 90 

XIII. Recapitulation of the Testimonies of the 

Fourth Century • 92 

XIV. Common Prejudices which the First Review 

OF these Facts should dissipate 93 

XV. Conclusion from all these Testimonies 100 



CHAPTER, n. 

OF THE FIRST CANON" ....: 102 

I. The Perfect and Constant Unanimity df the 

Churches • • . •' 102 

n. The New Testament in its Twenty-two Ho» 

MOLOGOMENOUS BoOKS INCOMPARABLY SUPE- 
RIOR TO ALL THE BoOKS OF ANTIQUITY, IN 

THE Evidence of its Authenticity 106 



c CONTENTS. 13 

SecBon Page 

III. Three Causes WHICH secured this Unanimitt 115 

The Long Career of the Apostles 115 

The Immense Number of the Churches at the Time 

of the Apostles' Death 123 

The Anagnosis • 131 

IV. The Various Monuments of the Canon 145 

Four Kinds of Monuments • . — 145 

The Field of Investigation 146 

The Actors and Witnesses 148 

V. Testimony) of the Fathers of the Second 

Half of the Second Century 156 

The United I'estimonies of Irenœus, Clement, and 

Tertullian • 156 

Seven Characteristics of their Testimony 160 

Tertullian • 163 

Clement of Alexandria •••..• 166 

. . Irenœus • • • ? 172 

Other Cotemporary Fathers — • • 186 

Conclusion from all these Testimonies 188 

VI. The Fragment called Muratori's 1.94 

Vn. Testimony of the Fathers of the First Half 

OF THE Second Century 200 

Justin Martyr • 200 

Objections to his Testimony 215 

Other Historical Monuments 217 

Vni. Testimony op the Infidel Pagans in the Sec- 
ond Century 220 

Their Writings- ■- 220 

Testimony of Celsus • • • 221 

Force of this Testimony • 225 

IX. Testimony of the Heretics in the First 

Half of the Second Century. 227 

The Character of this Testimony 227 

Marcion •-••• • • • • • 231 

Tatian 239 

Valentinus and the Valentinians 241 

Heracleon and Ptolemy 244 

Basilides and his Son Isidore 246 

X. Testimony of the Apostolical Fathers 248 



14 CONTENTS. 

Section ïag» 

Their Limited Numier and Value 248 

Epistle to Diognetus 254 

The Encyclical Epistle of the Church of Smyrna •-• • 256 

The Epistle of Polyearp • 258 

Ignatius, his Martyrdom and Letters • • • 263 

Epistle of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians 267 

Conclusion from the Testimony of the Apostolical Fa- ' 

thers 288 

XI. The Last Books of the New Testament attest 

THE Existence of a Canon already begun 289 

CHAPTER m. 

OF THE SECOND-FmST CANON 293 

I. The Apocalypse 294 

Its First Reception 294 

Its Date 297 

The Apocalypse in the First Century •> 301 

Witnesses of the First Half of the Second Century • • 302 

Witnesses of the Second Half of the Same Century • 306 

Witnesses of the First Half of the Third Century • • . 308 

Witnesses of the Second Half of the Third Century > 314 

Witnesses of the Fourth Century 315 

Witnesses of the Fifth Century • 319 

n. The Epistle to the Hebrews 320 

Its Character and History w . . . 320 

Testimony of the East in the Fourth Century 322 

Testimony of the East in the Third Century 324 

Testimony of the East in the Second Century 326 

Testimony of the East in the First Century 328 

Western Testimonies 33O 

Review of these Testimonies' 333 

Paulinity of this Epistle 335 

Objections '• 342 

CHAPTER IV. 

OF THE SECOND CANON 347 

1 General Facts 347 



CONTENTS. 15 

Section Page 

n. The Epistle of James 350 

Its Importance' • • • • .350 

Its Immediate Admission among those to wTiom it was 

first addressed 352 

Its Date '" 353 

Cause of the Hesitation of some Churches 354 

Witnesses 355 

Its Excellence 358 

Which James was the Author 359 

in. The Second Epistle of Peter 365 

The Study it claims 365 

The Letter claims to he Peter's 366 

The Majestic Character of the Epistle 367 

Why its Acceptance was delayed 370 

Its Style 370 

lU History 372 

The Definitive Agreement of all the Christian Churches 

was late 373 

The Successive Acceptance was gradual 374 

The Assent was, in one Part of the Church, immedi- 
ate 380 

IV. The Two Shokter Epistles of John 384 

V. The Epistle of Jude 387 

The Author of this Epistle 387 

Its Date •' 388 

Objections against this Epistle 391 

Alleged Quotations from Apocryphal Books 392 

Testimonies of the Second Century 403 

Testimonies of the Third Century 405 

Testimonies of the Fourth Century 406 

TL General Considerations on the Antilegomens 407 

CHAPTER V. 

HISTORY OF THE CANON SINCE THE FOUETH CEN- 

TUET , 422 

The Unanimity ofaU the Churches •.. 422 

The Exceptional Freedom accompanying the Forma- 
tion and Maintenance of the Canon 426 



16 CONTENTS. 

Page 
The Independence of the Church towards the Schools 429 

Genuineness of the Text 434 

The Books alleged to be lost • 437 



BOOK SECOND. 

CANONICITT' OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 442 

CHAPTER I. 
THE TESTIMONY OF THE JEWS....'. 442 

CHAPTER n. 
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST 445 

CHAPTER HI. 
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES 448 

CHAPTER IV. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING FACTS 449 

CHAPTER V. 

OF THE APOCRYPHAL BOOKS. 452 

History of the Apocrypha before the Council of Trent 452 

Reasons against the Decree of Trent 455 

Unanimous Testimony of the Churches against the 

Decree of Trent 457 

CHAPTER VI. 
CONCLUSION.... 460 



EOOK FIEST. 
CANONICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 



CHAPTER FIRST. ' 

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTA- 
MENT CANON. 



SECTION I. 

DEFINITION. 



The term Canon, as employed in this sense, is traced back 
to a remote antiquity. Iii Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the 
words rt^p. KOLWT], KOLwa, Kovwv, canna, having the same origin, 
signify literally a reed, a straight rod, a cane, a measure, a 
rule; and more especially, Kavwv, in a metaphorical sense, 
signifies every straight and. perfect rule. In the proper sense 
of this word, the terms cane and cannon, in the Middle Ages, 
were applied to tubes intended to regulate, or render right 
or straight, the direction of projectiles thrown by the explo- 
sion of powder.^ Paul thus says to the Galatians, (Gal. vi. 
1 6,) " As many as walk according to this, rule, (Kavû)v,y peace 
be on them." And to the Philippians, (Phil. iii. 16,) "Let 
us walk by the same rule," (Kavwv.) 

Even in the times of the apostles, the old grammarians 

1 The application of this word to an instrument of war commenced in 
Italy. It was there called cannone, or grande canna. 
2* 



18 THE CANOlî. 

of Alexandria made use of the same term to designate model 
authors, making r«/es in literature ; so that the ecclesiastical 
writers early employed it to mean sometimes Christian doc 
trine, the rule of our life ; sometimes, the divine book, the 
only rule of our faith; sometimes, in fine, the catcdogue of 
the sacred books composing this rule. This became at length 
its almost exclusive religious meaning.* 



SECTION n. 

THE NOTION OF À CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TKACED 
TO THE DAYS OP THE APOSTLES. 

Before" even consulting the ecclesiastical historians on 
this subject, we may already comprehend, from the nature 
of things, that the idea of a divine collection of the writ- 
ings of the New Testament, must have early sprung up in 
all the communities of those who believed in Christ. Is ifr 
not evident that it must have originated as soon as these 
churches saw the men, "apostles and prophets,"* who an- 
nounced to them the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down 
from heaven,' beginning to write to them apostolical let- 
ters, or transmit to them the history of the Saviour's life 
and teachings ? 

In fact, they were entirely prepared for it by having in 
their hands the Old Testament. This collection, already 

1 It should, however, be remarked, to avoid all mistake in examining the 
■writings of the Fathers, that while they had a distinct and definite cata- 
logue of books, which they regarded as inspired, and as distinguished from 
the apocryphal or uninspired, but which were allowed to be read in 
churches, yet they did not at first agree in their use of the term canon. 
From a varied application of it to lists of clergymen, and even of church 
furniture, it came in the fourth century to be applied, as now, to the cata- 
logue of Scriptures. But then it will be found that some time elapsed 
before Jerome's use of the term canonical, as being coextensive with inspired 
was generally adopted. — Tr. 

2 Eph. ii. 20. 8 1 Pet i. 12. 



NOTION OF A CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 19 

formed for- so. many ages, and of the divinity of whicli there 
was never but one opinion among the Jews, as Josephus 
informs us;^ this collection, venerated by the people of 
God in every age, venerated by the Apostles, who called 
it the oracles of God;^ venerated by the Son of God him- 
self, who called it ike Law, your Law, the Scripture, the 
Scriptures ; venerated by the Christian churches, who read 
it in all their assemblies; this collection, we say, must 
necessarily have led all their company to the notion of an. 
analogous collection of the sacred books of the New Testa- 
ment. 

Waff not the idea of a canon of the scriptures the charac- 
teristic trait of the people of God for fifteen hundred years ? 
Had it not always appeared to them from the beginning of 
their national existence, the very reason of their existence, 
and the indispensable means of its continuance? Yet, at 
the same time, this notion born in the desert with the Israel- 
itish church, and always maintained by that church, had 
never been that of a code completed by one hand, or in one 
generation, or received in its fullness once for all. On the 
contrary, it was that of a collection commencing with the 
fiye books of Moses, and destined to grow from age to age ; 
continued by the addition of new books, during eleven cen- 
turies, as God raised up new prophets, and not ceasing to 
accumulate its treasures to the days of Malachi, when the 
spirit of prophecy became silent for four centuries. It was 
then very natural that the church, at the coming of the 
Messiah, should look for new additions, since the ancient 
spirit of prophecy had just been restored to her, and since 
new men of God, " apostles and prophets," more miraculously 
endowed than the ancients, had just been raised up. We 
may go farther ; it was even impossible that she should not 
expect it. Was not the epoch of Christ's advent much more 
important and solemn than that of his annunciation ; were 

1 Reply to Apion, Book I. chap. 2. 

2 Kom. iii. 2; Heb. v. 12; 1 Pet. iv. U. 



20 THE CANON. 

not the revelations more striking ; the objects more divine; 
the promises richer ; the prophets more powerful; the signs 
more marvelous ? 

Nor should we forget that the church has already begun 
in the synagogue and, for the first fifteen years of Chris- 
tianity, contains no other than Jewish members. All her 
preachers and her first converts are Jews. At the last 
voyage Paul made to meet the converts in Jerusalem, the 
members of that church, mother of all the others, contained 
already many thousands, (Acts xxi. 20, •jroo-ai ju.v/3ia8eç.) In 
all the cities of the Gentiles the apostles began their labors 
among the children of Israel. And there they " constantly 
held in their hands the canon of the scriptures, and always 
repeated the words of Jesus, " Search the Scriptures," 
(John V. 39.) Always they "expounded and testified. the 
kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both 
out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets," (Acts 
xxviii. 23.) " Saying none other things than those which 
the prophets and Moses did say should come," (Acts xxvi. 
22.) And even although they did not directly quote from 
the sacred books, when preaching to pagan audiences, yet 
they were very careful to do it as soon as these had been 
brought to believe. We may select, as an instance, the 
salutation of Paul in closing his epistle to the Romans: 
" Now to him that is of power to estabUsh you according to 
my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to 
the revelation of the mystery which is now made manifest 
by the Sckiptures of the Prophets, according to the com- 
mandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations, 
for the obedience of faith. To God only wise, be glory through 
Jesus Christ, for ever. Amen." 

So then if, on the one hand, thé notion of a canon of the 

scriptures was, as it were, incarnated in the people of God, 

if it was with them inseparable from the notion of the church ; 
on the other hand, the thought of incorporating the not less 
sacred books of the New Testament with those oflhe Old, 



NOTION OF A CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 21 

as they were written successively, was with them equally 
inseparable from their notion of the scriptures. 

The history of primitive Christianity strongly confirms 
this view of the notion of the sacred canon then prevalent 
in the church. vSo far from being introduced at a later 
period, as has been asserted by some, we find it constantly, 
from the beginning, both in the church and in its enemies. 

The evidence of this we shall produce at length, content- 
ing ourselves here with a few quotations. Peter, in closing 
his career, in his Second Epistle, speaking of "all the epis- 
tles of Paul," calls them " the scriptures," comparing or 
classing them with "the other scriptures."^ 

From the beginning, the writings of the apostles were 
successively gathered into one collection, which was re- 
spected by the primitive Christians equally with the Old 
Testament, which they read in their religious meetings, and 
which, after Peter's example, they called the Scriptures ; or 
after the example of the Fathers the Booh, (ja Bc^Ata,) 
the New Testament^ the Divine Instrument,^ the Sacred Di- 
gest,* the Divine Oracles; or again, the Evangelists and the 
Apostles ; ^ after the example of Jesus Christ, who had called 
the Old Testament " the Law and the Prophets" They then 
early adopted the custom of calling it the Canon, or the Ride, 

1 2 Pet. iii. 16. This testimony, whatever objections any may have to 
the canonicity of this Epistle, shows indisputably the antiquity of the usage 
which ranks the books of the New Testament with the Scriptures; for we 
shall hereafter establish the antiquity of this Epistle, even independently of 
its canonicity. 

2 See Lardner, vol. viii. p. 197. See, also, vol. ii. p. 529. Paul having 
given the name of Old Testament to the Book of Moses and the Prophets, 
it was altogether natural that tJiey should give to the book of the Evan- 
gelists and Apostles the name of New Testament, and that they should 
call intestamented, or hôiad^Koxyç, (Euseb. H. E. vi. 25,) the books admit- 
ted into the canon. 

8 Textullian adv. Marcion, Lib. v. cap. 13. 

4 Ibid. Lib. iv. cap. 13. 

6 Clement of Alexandria, Strom, vii. pp. 706, 757. Ignatius, Ep. to the 
Philad. chap. v. Epis, to Diognet, chap. xi. Justin Martyr, Great Apol. 
chap. 67. Tertullian, de Graec. Script, chap. 36. Apol. chap. 39. Hippo- 
litus the Martyr, on Antichrist, chap. 58. 



22 THE CANON. 

and whatever constituted a portion of this infallible code, <7a- 

nonieal Boohs. 

Irenceus, bora in Greece A. D. 120 or 140, and martyred 
in A. D. 202, speaking of the Scriptures as divine, calls them 
the Rvle, or thé Canon of Truth (/cavova t^s aKiqBe.ta.<i)?- Ter- 

tulUan, in the same century, opposing Yalentinus to Marcion, 

both deep in the Gnostic heresy, toward A. D. 138, says of 
the former, that he at least appears to make use of a Complete 
Instrument, meaning the collection of the books of the Ne^'r 
Testament then accepted by the church.^ Clement of Alex 
andria, in the same century, speaking of a quotation taken 
from an apocryphal book, is indignant that any one should 
follow anything but " the true evangelical canon ; " and Ori- 
gen, born A. D. 183, careful, as Eusebius ^ remarks, to follow 
the ecclesiastical canon, tov eKKX-rja-iaoTLKov ^fivXamov Kavova, 
" declares that he knows only^the four Gospels, which alone, 
he adds, are admitted without contradiction in the universal 

church spread abroad under the whole heavens." The same 

Origen, when giving us his catalogue of canonical Scriptures, 
calls them at h/SiaÔTJKai ypa<f>aL, the intestamented Scrip- 
tures,* that is, the books inserted in the New Testament. 
Athanasiusyjn his Festal Epistle,^*speaks of three kinds of 

books : the canonical, (which are those of our present Prot- 
estant Bible) ; the ecclesiastical, which were permitted to be 
read in the Christian meetings ; and the apocryphal. And 
when, at à later period, the Council of Laodicea, A. d. 364, 
decreed that no other book than " the canonical Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments " should be read in the churches, 
far from originating the distinction l^etween canonical and un- 
canonical books, this decree was but a sanctioning of the dis- 
tinction long before adopted by the universal church. 

1 Adv. Hsereses, Book iii. chap. 11; Book iv. chaps. 35, 69. 
- Tertullian De Pnescript. Hœretic. chaps. 30-38. 
8 Ecc. Hist. Book vi. chap. 25. 
« Ibid. 

6 Chap, xxxix. vol. ii. p. 961, Benedict, edit, rà KavovtÇôfieva k<û 
rrapaôoMvTa maTev&évra te êeîa elvai Bij3^a. 



SCRIPTURES A HARaiONIOUS AND COMPLETE WHOLE. 23 

Jerome sAsQ frequently speaks of the canon of Scripture. 
He says, for instance, " Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit, the 
Pastor, . . . are not in the canon. The church permits the 
books of Judith, Tobit, and the Maccabees to be read, but she 
does not receive them as a part of the canonical Scriptures. 
The books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus may be read for 
the edification of the people, but not as authority for estab- 
lishing doctrine." -"^ 

Such is the origin of the notion of the canon, and such is 

its meaning. * 



SECTION ni. 

THK CHURCH HAS, FROM THE BEGINNING, CONSIDERED THE 
COLLECTION QF THE SCRIPTURES AS A HARMONIOUS AND 
COMPLETE WHOLE. 

Although the books of the New Testament were given 
successively to the primitive church, yet she always regarded, 
from the beginning, the collection, as she received its portions 

respectively, a complete whole, having God for its author, and 
destined throughout to reveal Jesus Christ ; just as ancient 
Israel had regarded the collection of books forming the Old 
Testament, received, in the same manner, in successive por- 
tions, as a single harmonious unit, having the same God for 
its author, and destined, throughout all its parts, to reveal to 
her the counsel of God for the redemption of his elect. 

To give here but one or twcf examples, taken from the 
first century of the church or the beginning of the second; 
let any one read how, in his beautiful " Epistle to Diognetus,"^ 
the author, who styles himself one of the disciples of the 

1 See, alsOj Lardner, vol. x. pp. 41, 43, 52. 

2 The learned Galland (Bibl. Yeteram Patrum, 1. c.) believes it to have 
been written before the year 70. See, also, Hefele (Prolegom, p. 79, Patr. 
Apost.;, -who (as Bohl, Opusc. Patrum Sel.,) beUeved it to be cotemporary 
with the days of the apostles. 



24 THE CANON» 

apostles,* presents the Law and the Prophets, the Evangelist^ 
and the Apostles, as acting together to bring into the church 
grace and joy. He says,^ " Thus the fear of the Law is 
proclaimed, and the grace of the Pbophexs is comprehended 
and the faith of the Gospels is founded, and the instruction 
of the Apostles is preserved, and the grace of the church 
leaps for joy." Ignatius also, about A. d. 107, in one of 
his epistles, said to the Philadelphians, (chap, v.) "Your 
prayer will secure my completeness in God. . . . Giving me 
refuge in the Ggspei., as in the flesh of Jesus, and in the 
Apostles, as in the presbytery of the church. And cling 
also to the Prophets, because they have themselves an- 
nounced the gospel, hoped in Christ, looked for his coming 
in the unity of Jesus Christ, and found their salvation in 
him by faith.» 8 

The canon of the New Testament being then the collec- 
tion of the books written at various times, and in different 
places, during the latter half of the apostolical century, by 
eight inspired authors, must have been completed gradually ; 
and have become complete toward the end of the first cen- 
tury, or the beginning of the second. 



SECTION IV. 

FIKST FORMATION OF THE CANON. 

DuEiNG the first fifteen years after our Saviour's death, 
the church was begotten, nourished, and strengthened by the 

1 Chap. xi. See, also, his chap. xii. 'A-noaroXuv yBvo/iEvoc fta^r^ç. 

2 Chap. xi. eha (j>ôj3oç NOMOY 'çôeraL, Kaî IIPO^HTQN xàpi^ ytvaoKe- 
rat, Kaî ETAPrEAIÛN mariç lapverai, Kaî AIIOSTGAQN Trapââoaiç 
ipvTuâaaeTaL, Kaî èKKXjjaiaç Xâpiç aKiprq,. 

8 Upoaàvyùv tù EYArFEAIÛ ùç aapKÎ 'Irjaov, Kaî TOI2 AHOSTO- 
AOU. àç TcpeolivTEpta èKKkjaiaç' Kal rouf IIPO$HTAS, &c. Yet this 
epistle is one of those which Cureton has left out of his Syriac edition. 



FIRST FORMATION OF THE CANON. 25 

merely oral preaching of the truth, and by the Scriptures of 
the Old Testament, explained either by themselves or by the 
teachings of the apostles and evangelists ; " God bearing them 
witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers mira- 
cles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." 
Heb. ii. 4. 2 Pet. i. 21. And when the apostles and 
evangelists were preaching the "Word to the churches " with 
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," (1 Pet. i. 12,) they 
always appealed, as their Master had done, to the already 
completed canon of the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment. They .required men to study these continually; they 
declared them " able to make the man of God perfect," "wise 
unto salvation," " thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 
2 Tim. iii. 15, 17. 

It was but fifteen, years after the ascension of the Saviour, 
that the ancient canon of "the Oracles of God," closed for 
four hundred years, was reopened to receive the first Scrip- 
tures of the New Testament ; I mean the two epistles to 
the Thessalonians. This I say, because there are the most 
satisfactory reasons for believing that none of the gospels 
preceded them. Thus, for two or three years, the canon of 
the New Testament consisted of only these two epistles, 
which Paul, assisted by Silas and Timothy, wrote to the 
young church in Thessalonica, A. D. 48. It is therefore 
very probable that it was because of their commencing the 
new canon of the Oracles of God, that the apostle, from the 
beginning, insisted so strongly upon their divine authority. 
" I charge you by the Lord " to keep them, study them, read 
them " unto all the holy brethren." 1 Thess. v. 27. He 
adjures them solemnly by the invocation of that dreadful 
name, to cause this first Scripture to be made known to all 
Christendom. And he addresses this epistle to a church to 
whom the gospel " came not in word only, but also in power, 
and in the Holy Ghost." 1 Thess. i. 5. And he was careful 
to remind them that the word, which he had brought to them 
was the word of God. He renders thanks that they received 

3 



26 THE CANON. 

it, "no< as the word of man, hut, as it reaUy is, the Word of 
God." 

It was, then, during the sixteen or seventeen years between 
the production of these first two books (a. d. 48,) and the 
death of Paul, (a. d. 64 or 65,) that almost all the other 
writings of the New Testament were produced ; at least the 
twenty booh which compose what we shall presently denomi- 
nate the first canon, that is, the four gospels, the Acts of 
the Apostles, the first thirteen epistles of Paul, the first of 
Peter, and the first of John. But it was later, and even 
toward the latter years of the first century, that" the seven 
other books of the New Testament were published, except- 
ing perhaps the epistle of James, which may have been 
written about a. d. 61 ; because, according to Josephus, this 
martyr must have been stoned during thç troubles preceding 
the destruction of Jerusalem ; that is, immediately after the 
death of -Festus, the governor, and while they were awaiting 
the arrival of Albinus in Judea.^ 

Thus the entire canon of the New Testament was begun 
and completed during this last half of the first century. It 
was then that the church, already formed, and not ceasing to 
expand, had already reached the extremities of the known 
world, through the incomparable lalsors of Paul, Peter, John, 
Thomas, and the other apostles, as also of many other labor- 
ers, whose names, unknown to us, are written in heaven. 
It must then be remembered that the primitive church, dur- 
ing its militant and victorious march across this first century 
of its existence, saw its canon of the New Testament formed 
in its hands, as a bouquet is formed in the hands of a lady 
who is passing through a garden, with its owner accompany- 
ing her. As she advances, he presents her one flower after 
another, until the whole collection is made. And as the bou- 
quet ah-eady exists and is admired while yet incomplete, and 
as soon as she has gathered the first flowers, so the New 
Testament canon was in the hand of the church from the 
1 Antiq. xx. chap. 8. 



FIRST FORMATION OF THE CANON. 27 

time when the first inspired books were placed in its hands. 
Was it not also thus that, under the Old Testament, in the 
Bays of David, and a thousand years before the apostles, 
the Jewish church already had her sacred canon, consisting 
of six or eight books, calling it the laav, divine and perfect 
law,^ although two thirds of the Old Testament were yet 
wanting? "It is a lamp to my feet," she already exclaimed, 
"it restores my soul; I meditate therein all the day." Was 
it not so, likewise, five hundred years before David, with the 
church in the wilderness,^ in the days of Moses, with her 
sacred canon consisting of five books, when she exclaimed, 
" Happy art thou, O Israel ! who is hke unto thee ? for it 
(the law) is not a vain thing for you, it is your life ?" ^ 

The church is responsible for the books which God gives 
her, and not for those he may intrust to a future generation. 
In every age she has received from him those which she 
needed ; and, in every age, too, she has had reason to say 
with David, " The law of the Lord is perfect." * 

" How well it is for the confirmation of our faith, that, instead 
of being given all at once, by the foundez- of our religion, con- 
taining his acts and his revelations, the New Testament was 
given by him in a succession of twenty-seven writings, and 
in the course of more than one half century, by eight difier- 
ent authors, separated from each other by great distances 
and by very dissimilar circumstances ; some learned, others 
unlearned ; some in Judea, others in Rome ; some within ten 
or fifteen years of the Master's death, others even fifty-five 
years after it ; some having been strangers to him person- 
ally — one, indeed, his most furious persecutor, — and others 
his most devoted and assiduous friends. It results from this, 
that the harmony of their accounts of his origin, life, char- 
acter, and doctrines ; their uniform agreement in presenting 

1 Ps. xix. cxix.; John x. 34; xii. 34- 

2 Acts vii. 38. 

8 Deut. xxxiii. 29 ; xxxiL 47. 
4 Ps. xix. 8. 



28 . THE CANON. 

subjects the most transcendental as well as duties till then 
unknown ; in a word, the marvelous and profound unity of 
their instructions ; — all these appear at once more manifest 
and more sublime. 

Is it surprising that this book, which charms all nations, 
even the most savage ; which everj where responds to their 
wants and adapts itself, from age to age, to every degree of 
civilization, should every where elevate their characters, 
produce always effects which no other instruction has ever 
secured, changing the affections, subduing thé wills, giving 
birth to all the hei'oisms, and civilizing in a few years the 
most barbarous nations ; as we see it in the very beginning, 
overthrowing, among the most cultivated people of the world, 
idolatries whose origin was lost in the night of time, and re- 
newing the face of the earth ? 



SECTION V. 

ORAI- PKEACHING MUST PRECEDE BY SEVERAI. TEARS WRIT- 
TEN PREACHING, OR THE GIFT OF THE NEW SCRIPTURES. 

It was proper that the apostles should preach with the 
living voice several years before commencing the formation 
of the New Testament ; for it was necessary before continuing 
by new inspired writings the Sacred Book, interrupted by an 
interval' of four hundred years, that they should have living 
churches widely scattered, to whom their treasure might be 
committed. It was then necessary that a people of God, in- 
telligent and faithful, should have been already collected 
both among the Gentiles and the Jews. It was necessary 
especially for two reasons : first, to settle solidly the convic- 
tion that the religion of Jesus Christ, so far from being in 
opposition to that of Moses and the prophets, on the contrary, 
is founded on them; then, that wherever and whenever the 
divine epistles with which the New Testament was to com- 



HISTORICAL DIVISION OF THE CANON. 29 

mence, should appear, there should be a people ready to 
receive, preserve, and transmit them. It was necessary that 
there should be men truly converted, united in churches, to 
whom these letters could be addressed, who should succes- 
sively receive these new Scriptures, and who should become 
the vouchers for their authenticity, whether by reading them 
every Sabbath or every Sunday in their holy assemblies (as 
Justin Martyr, represents •') ; or by preserving the very 
originals in their oratories, (as Tertullian affirms.^) Thus 
the holy tradition of the written Word was to be transmitted 
safely from age to age, to all the churches of God. 



SECTION VI. 

HISTORICAI, DIVISION OF THE CANON INTO THREE DISTINCT 
PABTS. 

We shall call the first canon (or first rule) the col- 
lection of the twenty books above enumerated; because, 
the first distributed during the lifetime of the apostles and 
by their own direction, they were immediately received by 
all Christendom, eastern and western, without having, from 
the beginning, and for eighteen centuries, their divine au- 
thority ever called in question by the Christian churches. 
This first canon of the undisputed books forms by itself 
eight ninths of the New Testament, if we count by verses, 
having 7059 out of 7959.. 

We shall call the second canon the collection of the five 
brief later epistles of James,^ Peter, Jude, and John, be- 
cause written, a short time before the deaths of the^e men of 
God, and distributed after their deaths in a distracted period, 
their authors could not be appealed to to confirm them; so 

1 1st Apol. 67. 

2 See Canon, chap. ii. sec. iii. 

8 We will explain hereafter in what sense this epistle is called later rela- 
tively to thé churches of the Circumcision. 

3» 



80 THE CANON. 

that, not being written and directed like the first thirteen of 
Paul to particular persons or churches who were charged ^o 
preserve and circulate them, these five short letters were not 
received immediately by the whole church, though by the 
majority of the churches, (rots ttoXXoîsj toÎs TrAetoToiç, says 
Eusebius) ; ^ another part of these churches having hesir 
tated a longer or shorter time to receive them as divine, 
until at length a universal acceptance of them took place 
after the decision of the first general council. This sec- 
ond canon, measured by the number of its verses is only 
the thirty-sixth part of the New Testament, or 222 to 
7959. 

Finally we shall call the second-first canon the' collec- 
tion of two books (Hebrews and Revelation) which could be 
ranked absolutely in neither of the other classes. They can 
not be placed in the second, because they were both recognized 
universally and without dissent during the first two centuries 
of the church, and because Eusebius places them, for this 
reason, among the books which he calls homologomens, or un- 
disputed. Nor could we place them in the first canon, be- 
cause they were afterwards contested for a time, the one 
principally in the West, the other in the East. These facts 
will be more exactly considered hereafter. 



SECTION VII. 

THIS THKEEFOXD DIVISION OF THE CANON REQUIRED BY 
THE MOST AUTHENTIC MONUMENTS OF THE CHURCH. 

If we divide the canon into these three distinct parts, it 
is not in order to attribute the less certainty of their divine 
origin to some than to others ; for, although their certainty - 
is not the same in a purely historical point of view, we shall 
hereafter show that our fiiith in the authority of all is founded 

1 Canon, chap. i. sec. 7. 



THREEFOLD DIVISION OF THE CANON. 31 

upon the same solid bases. But we cordially adopt this three- 
fold division of our sacred books, both to conform to the facts 
of ecclesiastical history, and to proceed with more method in 
the demonstration of their canonicity. 

Three Ante-Nicene Catalogues. 

Besides the numerous testimonies drawn from the fathers, 
to authorize this tinple distinction, we have three ancient cat- 
alogues of the Scriptui'es, which, without being entirely 
identical, equally lead us to adopt it. They are all anterior 
to the famous council held in Nice. The first belongs to the 
period of John's death, at the end of the first century ; the 
second belongs to the commencement of the third century ; 
the last to the beginning of the fourth century. The first is 
furnished us by the ancient Syriac version of the New 
Testament, called the Peshito.^ The second is given us 
twice by Origen ; first directly, in a homily on Joshua,^ 
and then indirectly in the quotations which Eusebius has 
made from his Commentaries on Matthew, John, and the 
Epistle to the Hebrews.^ The third is furnished by Euse- 
bius himself, in A. D. 324, in the third book of his Ecclesias- 
tical History. 

These are the only catalogues anterior to the council of 
Nice, and worthy of confidence, which have come down to us ; 
for we do not here speak of either the catalogue introduced 
in the apocryphal book of the Apostolical Canons, nor of 
the anonymous Roman Catalogue discovered in 1738, by 
Muratori, in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, and therefore 
bearing his name.* It is a fragment greatly mutilated, the 
date and author of which are absolutely unknown. The be- 
ginning and the end are lost ; and the Latin is exceedingly 

1 Slu^'ki^S' i' fi- ^fi Simple, or literal. 

2 Horn. 8, Op. xii. p. 410 ; Latin version of Eufinus. 
8 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. Lib. vi. chap. 25. 

4 Muratori, Antiq. Italic», Vol. iii. p. S54. 



82 • THE CANOÎT. 

barbarous and incorrect. This document, in a word, which 
indeed gives us almost precisely the same canon as the Pe- 
shito, is in too disordered a condition to serve for an author- 
ity in determining the doubtful historical points of the canon ; 
but, as it may still be very useful in establishing the authen- 
ticity of our Scriptures, we shall resume the consideration 
of it with special care, in our second chapter.^ 

Catalogue of the PesMto? 

The Peshito version of the New Testament is the most 
ancient, the most celebrated, the most respected of all. It 
was not known in Europe until the mission of Moses of Mar- 
din, deputed in 1552 by the patriarch of the Maronites to 
Pope Julius III. Michaelis, who, in accordance with many 
of the most eminent philologists, attributes it to- the first 
century, or, at latest, to the second, declares -it to be the best 
version known to him, whether in regard to its freedom, ele- 
gance, or fidelity as a translation. All who have studied it 
admire the good sense and intelligence of its authors, their 
independence, and accuracy. And, as to its antiquity, every 
one will understand that the Aramean people must have had 
the Scriptures in their oAvn language, at an early day ; they 
were, in fact, the first to receive the gospel;, and their churches 
abounded, not only in Syria, but also on the banks of the Eu- 
phrates and Tigris, in Adiabene, Orsoëne, Edessa, Nisibis, 
and 'Carrae when their literature had become fully devel- 
oped. 

The Scriptures of the New Testament must, therefore, have 
been translated very early in the midst of them in the very 
language spoken by the primitive churches and by Jesus 

1 See Canon, chap. ii. sec. vi. 

2 See Murdock, Translation. New Haven. Adler, N". T. Vers. Syr. Co- 
penh. 1789. Hug. Introd. 62. Wiseman, Horœ Sj-riacœ, Rome', 1828. 
Wichelhaus, De N. T. Vers. Sj'riaca Peshito, Halle, 1850. W. Cureton, 
Remains of a very ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, Lou- 
don, 1858. 



CATALOGUE OF THE PESHITO. 33 

Christ.^ Thus we find toward the fii'st half of the second 
century, in the history of Eusebius, an interesting trace of 
the usage already established in those countries, of reading 
and quoting the Syriac Scriptures of the New Testament. 
In speaking of the celebrated Hegesippus, who was the 
earliest ecclesiastical historian, Eusebius, to show that this 
author was unquestionably a Jewish Christian, remarks that 
he takes his quotations either from the Hebrew or the Syriac 
version. Now this Hegesippus, whose works are lost, and 
who had written, in five books, the History of the Church, 
under the title of Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, 
was, says Eusebius,'^ very near the days of the apostles, for 
he lived under Adrian, (from a. d. 117 to 138,) and also 
under Anicet, (from a. d. 157 to 168). It is for this reason 
Jerome, in his " Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers," places 
him before Justin Martyr, born A. d. 103, and executed 
A. D. 167. These facts then give us the evidence of the 
high antiquity of the Peshito version. 

But, more than this, we have additional testimony to its 
remote origin. Universal opinion has always assigned it 
that ; and even to our day the Syrian Christians regard the 
Peshito as the original of the New Testament. They be- 
lieve this, because their language was that of the apostles 
and primitive Christians of Jerusalem, whose churches, as 
soon as they were formed, divided themselves into Hellenists 
and Hebrews, or Arameans (Acts vi. 1) ; that, also, of the 
greater part «f the churches founded among the Oriental 
Jews, especially in Babylon and Orsoëne, where the Syriac 
Old Testament had existed for ages. We know that, accord- 
ing to the testimony of all the Fathers, it was in Aramean that 
Matthew first wrote his Gospel ; but it is more probable that 
he issued an edition of his book in Greek, and another in 
Aramean at the same time. It appears, at least, that, from 
the days of the apostles, wherever either of the three Ara- 

1 Hist. Eccl. Lib. iv. chap. 22. 

2 lb. Lib. ii. chap. 23. 



34 THE CANON. 

mean dialects ^ was spoken, translations of the several books 
of the New Testament were in use. 

Edessa, where the Aramean literature had a remarkable 
prevalence for a long period, and where the. Apostle Thad- 
deus ^ preached the Christian faith with so great success, is 
often referred to as the place where the Peshito version nas 
mâde.^ It had become, from the second century, the site of 
an important Christian school; it was called "the Holy- 
City," because of its unwavering zeal for the Christian faith ; 
and even Eusebius said, as early as A. D. 324, that from the 
days of Thaddeus's successful labors unto his time, " the en- 
tire city of the Edessans had continued to show themselves 
attached to the name s>ï Christ." Its antiquity, too, is 
manifest from its being employed by all the different sects 
into which the Syrian Christians were divided. The Nesto- 
rians, the Jacobites, the Romanists, all equally agree to use 
it in their respective worships ; although there were, as AVise- 
maij declares; as many as twelve different versions of the Old 
Testament, and three versions or revisions of the New Tes- 
tament. Yet none of them has ever supplanted the Peshito 
for liturgical purposes. It must therefore have been in uni- 
versal use long befoi'e the origin of these different sects. 

Now this ancient vei'sion already contained our canon 
complete, with the single exception of the Revelation and 
the four shorter and later Epistles of Jude, Peter, and 
John. Such, then, at the beginning of the second century, or 
rather at the end of the first, was the canon of the Syriac 
churches. We find, this day, the Peshito version in two 
forms of manuscript : the one in ancient Syriac characters ; 
the other, (of Indian origin,) in Nestorian characters ; but 
all of them contain the same canon.* 

There are here two important facts to be noticed : — 

1 Michaëlis informs us that they differed from each other only in the 
pronunciation. Lib. ii. chap. 23. 

2 Hist. Eccl. Lib. ii. chap. 1. 

8 Adler, N. T. Vers. Syr. etc. p. 42. 
* Adler, N. T. Vers. Syr. p. 3. 



CATALOGUE OF THE PESHITO. 85 

1. The absence of any non-canonical book ; altliough they 
had begun in the East, from the second century, to publish 
a great many, under false apostolical titles. 

2. The order uniformly assigned to the sacred books. It 
is always that found in the best and oldest Greek manu- 
scripts ; first, the four evangelists in their invariable order, 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John ; then the Acts ; then the 
catholic epistles; and the fourteen epistles of Paul, always 
in the same order as we now have, from Romans to He- 
brews.^ 

It is readily seen why the two smaller epistles of John, 
written so late and so far from Babylonia, were not yet re- 
ceived there ; and, as to the Apocalypse, as we shall hereafter 
see, it could not yet make a part of the canon, not having 
appeared at Ephesus, on the coast of the ^gean Sea, until the 
end of the first century or beginning of the second ; that is, 
after the Peshito, or, at least, but shortly before this version 
was made in the East. John had not his visions in Patmps 
until near the close of Domitian's reign, as Irenaeus clearly 
shows ; ^ so that his book could not have appeared before the 
last four years of the first century. And, what clearly 
proves that the Apocalypse was not in the Peshito, only 
because it was issued after it, is, that the Syrian churches, 
so far from rejecting it when it appeared, on the contrary, 
quoted from it as a divine book. Also Dr. Thiersch, who 
gives the Peshito a later date than the Apocalypse, is per- 
suaded that the former originally contained the latter. " We 
have no doubt of it," he says, " from the researches of Hug ; 
otherwise, where did Ephraim obtain his Syriac Apoca- 

1 This refers to the Greek Testament. For, in the Latin translations 
anterior to Jerome, who restored the texts of the West to the original Greek 
type, they had inverted the order of the four Gospels, (as may be seen in 
the ancient MS. entitled that of Beza, or Cambridge.) Jerome, in his 
preface, exhibits to Pope Damasus how greatly they had corrupted, even in 
his day, the Latin copies of the Gospel. See Berger de Xivrey, Etudes sur 
le Texte de N". T. Paris, 1856. 

2 Adv. Hseres. Lib. iii. chap. 30 ; Euseb. Hist. Lib. iii. chap. 18. 



36 THE CANON. 

lypse ? " ^ It must be remarked, moreover, that, if this 
version did not yet contain the Apocalypse, it did contain 
the. epistle to the Hebi-ews and that of James ; since these 
two letters, because late, and almost posthumous, were yet 
both given before the death of Paul ; and also since they 
were more properly accepted by the Syriac than by the 
Gentile churches, having been more directly addressed to 
them. 

It may then be concluded, from these facts, that the oldest 
catalogue of New Testament books which has reached us — 
this monument, so near the apostles' days as to have been 
cotemporary with John — this first catalogue authorizes us 
already to divide, as we have done, in a historical point oi 
view, the scriptural canon into three distinct parts: 1. The 
twenty books always and universally -received by every por- 
tion of the church. 2. Two other books not doubted among 
the Aramean Christians in Palestine, Syria, Adiabene, Me- 
sopotamia, or Orsoëne. 3. Five other books, whose right to 
rank among the oracles of God was not yet established in 
the beginning of the second century. 

OrigerCs Catalogue. 

And now, if, from the opening of the second century, we 
pass to the beginning of the third, an epoch so remai'kable in 
the history of the church for the great thinkers who were 
then simultaneously raised up iii the most distant countries 
of the empire : TertiiMan in Africa, Ireneetis in Gaul, Hip' 
•polytus in Arabia and at Rome, Clement, who closed" his 
career in Africa when Origen was there just commencing 
his ; and, soon afterwards, Gregory in the kingdom of Pon- 
tus, and Oyprian in Carthage; if, I say, we pass to this 
remarkable period, we shall receive, from the hands of the 
great Origen, a second catalogue. 

1 Versuch zur Verstellung des hist Standpuncts fur die Crit der N. 
T. Schriften, chap. vi. 



ORIGEN'S CATALOGUE. 37 

But, before opening it, it may be useful to consider how 
valuable in this matter is his testimony, from the character 
the piety, the learning, and the immense labors of this 
extrajordinary man. Origen, notwithstanding some errors 
into which his piety was betrayed by his genius, is one of 
the greatest lights of ancient Christianity, by reason of hia 
astonishing erudition, his skill in the sacred tongues, his re- 
spect for the Scriptures, his indefatigable ardor in studying 
them, the clearness of his expositions; as also the constant 
purity of his life, his faithful confession of Jesus Christ, and 
his holy firmness under persecution. If his dogmatic opin- 
ions on certain points have little worth, his testimony is of 
the highest value to us in the matter before us. His labors 
were,, in fact, herculean. No other man has done so much to 
collect, compare, explain, and circulate the Scriptures. Born 
A. D. 185, he was made a martyr at sixty-eight years of age, 
A.D. 253. From his eighteenth year, he was distinguished 
for learning ; he instructed the catechumens in Alexandria ; 
and, soon after, was invited, young as he was, to take the 
pulpit of his master, the famous Clement of Alexandria. So 
popular were his public catechizings, that the most illustrious 
pagans attended them ; and the emperor Alexander, 'pagan 
as he was, and his mother Mamaea, desirous of enjoying this 
privilege, when in Syria, sent a military escort to bring him 
to them at Antioch. He had visited the church in Rome 
when he was twenty-eight years old; and it was after his 
return to Alexandria that he undertook his vast labors on the 
Scriptures. He was compelled to leave Egypt a. d. 233, 
taking refuge first in Cesarea of Palestine, and then in Ces- 
area of Cappadocia. Eusebius says,^ - " So great was his 
desire to understand the Scriptures, that he procured the most 
authentic copies in the possession of the Jews, as well as the 
best editions of the Septuagint, or Greek version of the Old 
Testament, that of Aquila, those of Symmachus and The- 
odotion. He undertook to write a commentary on the whole 

1 Hist Eccl. Lib. vi. chap. 23. 
4 



38 . THE CANON". 

Bible." Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Jerome tell us : ■^ " He 
has commented on the whole Bible." Eusebius continues: 
" Seven sbbrt-hand writers were at his side constantly while 
he was dictating. They were relieved at regular intervals ; 
and, at the same time, an equal number of copyists, as well 
as' several young girls, well practised in calligraphy, were at 
work, perfecting the books. The expenses of all this, and 
of his support, were provided by a friend who had been 
converted under his labors ; so that he was free to be wholly 
given with an amazing zeal to the study of the divine ora- 
cles, and the publishing of his commentaries." 

The abundance of his labors on the Scriptures seems 
to be superhuman ; and it is not without reason that anti- 
quity called him, " The man with entrails of hrass," and 
" The man of diamond" (j(aXKévT€pos, Adamantius.) Also, 
although already in the time of Eusebius, that is, only a 
century after him, a large portion of his works had been 
lost, and although many others have disappeared since the 
time of Eusebius, the collection made by Huet;^ of his 
remaining exegetical works, makes two volumes folio, while 
his complete works published by Delarue,^ consist of four 
volumes. Without speaking of his famous Jlexapla, or of 
his immense labors on all the books of the Old Testament, 
we may give an idea of what he has done for the New, by 
quoting from Eusebius,* and Cave,^ the list of merely his 
exegetical works, his Scholia, (or collections of short notes,) 
his volumes,' (or extended commentaries,) and his homilies, 
(or more popular treatises,) of which we have knowledge. 

On the Grospel of John, thirty-two volumes of commentary, 
composed between A. D. -222 and 237, with many homilies, 
of which only two remain. 



1 Epiph. HiBreSjChap- 64; Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. chap. 23. 

2 Bouen, 1668, ^vith a Latin translation. ' 
8 Paris, 1759. 

* Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. chap. 25. 

6 Hist. litt. Script. Eccl. p. 118. (Basle, 1741.) 



ORIGEN'S CATALOGUE. 39 

On Matthew, twenty-five books of commentary, Ai D. 244, 
besides scholia and many homilies. 

On Luke, five volumes, besides thirty-nine homilies pre- 
served by Jerome, in Latin. 

On the Acts, homilies. 

On Romans, twenty volumes of commentaries, part of 
which Rufinus has preserved to us in his Latin version. 

On 1st Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians, many 
books of commentaries. 

On Galatians, five volumes, besides treatises and scholia. 

On 1st Thessalonians and Titus, exegetical works, pre- 
served in part to us by Jerome and Pamphylus. 

On Hebrews, commentaries, homilies, and exegeses. 

On Revelation, an exposition of which he himself speaks 
in his treatise on Matthew, but of which we have no other 
trace. 

It was necessary to enter into these details to show, by the 
labors of merely one man, what was already, only one hun- 
dred and twenty years after the death of John, the ardent 
djesire of the churches to study the Scriptures of the New 
Testament ; it was necessary to give an idea of the immen- 
sity of the researches made already, one hundred and three 
years before the council of Nice, by this great man, in refer- 
ence to the sacred books ; all this was necessary to justify the 
importance we attach to his testimony in regard to the canon 
historically considered. 

Now 'the writings of Origen twice give us the catalogue 
of those books which were regarded in his time as canonical ; 
first, by him directly, in the Eighth Homily on Joshua,^ 
(preserved to us in Rufinus's Latin version), and then, in- 
directly, in the quotations of Eusebius, a hundred years after 
him.^ 

1 Origen, Op. xii. p. 410 (Berlin, 1831). Version of Rufinus. Doubts are 
entertained of the accuracy of his translation of Origen. See, on this ver- 
sion, Canon, chap. iv. sec. iii. 

2 Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. chap. 25. 



40 THE CANON. 

Here* is the catalogue, given to us casually by him in his 
commentary on the book of Joshua. It will be perceived 
that he describes our entire canon, without the omission or 
addition of a single book. 

Alluding to the trumpets blown at the fall of Jericho, he 
says, " When our Lord Jesus Christ came, whom Joshua 
or Jesus the Son of Nun prefigured, he sent out his apos- 
tles as priests, bearing the trumpets of the magnificent and 
celestial doctrine of grace. ' First comes Matthew, who, in 
his Gospel, sounds. the sacerdotal clarion. Then Mark, then 
I/uke, then John, sounds each his own trumpet ; then Peter 
after them blows the two trumpets of his epistles. Then 
James, as well as Jiide. Then, notwithstanding his first 
blasts, John sounds others in his epistles and Apocalypse, as 
also LnJce, when he describes the Acts of the Apostles. Fi- 
nally comes in his turn he who said (1 Cor. iv. 9), ' I think 
that God hath set forth us the apostles last ; ' and when he 
sounds like thunder his fourteen epistles, the walls of Jericho 
fall from their very foundations, — all the defenses and weap- 
ons of idolatry's war, and all the dogmas of philosophy." . 

This first catalogue of Origen contains then, as we see, all 
the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, without one 
exception ; but his testimony still in no wise contradicts "the 
historical distinction we have made between the several books 
of the canon. All these books, we have said with Eusebius, 
were received by the majority (TrXctbrois) ; all, we here see, 
were received by Origen ; the twenty books of the first canon 
had never been contested by the Church, at that time, as 
they have never been since ; nor do the two books of our 
second-first canon appear to have been doubted in the early 
part of the century, at the beginning of Origen's literary 
career ; but they were soon going to be, the one in the East, 
the other in the West. And we shall see in the second 
form in which the catalogue has been preserved to us by 
Origen, that, if he himself admitted the second epistle of 
Peter, and the two shorter epistles of John, these two books 



OEIGEN'S CATALOGUE. 41 

were still, for some of his cotemporaries," a matter of hes- 
itation. 

Here is the second form, as we receive it fi*om Eusebius, 
who, in his sixth book of Eccl. Hist. chap. xxv. assures us 
he took it from the writings of this Father, to wit : from his 
first book on Matthew, his fifth book of exegesis on John, 
and one of his homilies on Hebrews. 

He says, " Odgen, faithful to the ecclesiastical canon, at- 
tests that there are but four gospels, in saying, •' See what 
I have learned from tradition regarding the four evangelists, 
who also are the only authors universally acknowledged 
without contradiction in the whole church of God.' Then, 
after having spoken of these four evangelists, he takes- care, 
while showing his own firm attachment as- before, to the 
canonicity of the other books of the New Testament, to 
distinguish the first epistle of Peter as incontestable {ofioXo- 
yovfihrqv,) from the second, about which others, he says, 
have doubts ; ^ and he is equally careful to say of the two 
shorter epistles of John, that 'all do not regard them as 
genuine.' " As to the Apocalypse, it was still in his time 
universally received; and he alludes to no contradiction, 
when speaking of it. As to the epistle to the Hebrews, he 
indicates no doubt about its canonicity, only he remarks that 
" many, on account of its elegant style, question not (notice 
that) its canonicity, but «its PauUniti/." He expresses no 
opinion himself on that, and he is careful to add, that " if 
any church attributes it to Paul, they must honor it for 
that ; for it is not in vain, or a light thing, that the men 
of ancient times have handed it down to us as Paul's pro- 
duction." 

"We may then conclude from this second catalogue of 
Origen, as from the first, that our historical division of the 
canon is legitimate ; and_we see yet again at the beginning 
of the third century, 

1. That this great teacher received our entire canon. 
1 See Canon, chap. iv. sec. iii. 



42 THE CANON". 

2. That then all the churches had continued; to admit, 
without any contradiction, as thej have evef since done, the 
twenty books of the first canon. 

3. That they equally acknowledged the two books of our 
second-first canon. 

4. That some persons doubted the canonicity of Peter's 
second epistle, and John's two smaller epistles. 

5. But that Origen, according to Eusebius, speaks of no 
opposition in his day to the epistles of James and Jude 
Nor, indeed, does he there speak of his own acceptance of 
these divine epistles ; but this is an evident oversight of 
Eusebius, since Origen more than fifteen times in his works 
alludes to the epistle of Jude, and calls it a divine Scrip- 
ture.^ 

6. Finally, if many were led, in his day, by the beauty of 
the style of the Hebrews, to doubt Paul's authorship, yet that 
involved no doubt about its canonicity, 

MuseMus^s Catalogue. 

The " Ecclesiastical History " of Eusebius, in which we 
find before the Nicean Council, at the commencement of the 
fourth century, our third catalogue of the New Testament, 
being so indispensable to us in the study of the canon, we 
■would first fix our attention on the-works of this author. 

He was justly called " the father of ecclesiastical history ; " 
for he was not merely the earliest, but also the only historian of 
the primitive church. Hegesippus, a hundred years before, 
had not known by any thing but " partial accounts " (jxeptKas 
StTjy^o-ct?),'^ to relate the more or less uncertain traditions, of 
the apostolical times;' whilst Eusebius, collecting all the 
documents of the preceding ages, and consulting innumer- 

1 See Canon, chap. iv. sec. 5. 

2 It is the expression Eusebius employs. H. E. Lib. i. chap. 1. 

8 We may judge of his inaccuracy by the Improbable or impossible stories 
which Eusebius has quoted; e. g. that of the life and death of James. See 
Hist. Eccl. Lib. ii. chap. 23 ; and Scaliger Animad. Euseb. p. 178. 



EUSEBroS'S CATALOGUE. 43 

able manuscripts, had undertaken to exhibit, in ten books, 
the successive labors, sufferings, and triumphs of the church, 
from the days of Jesus Christ to the fall of Licinius, a. d. 
324. He adopted the rule, at the same time, of passing in 
review aU the writings of the Fathers, now lost to us. Also 
Valesius (Henri de Valois), in the preface to his beautiful 
edition of "the ecclesiastical histories,^ remarks that "none 
of the succeeding historians of the church attempted to re- 
trace this ground ; but every one beginning where he ended, 
left him the entire glory of his work." 

The ten books of Eusebius will then ever remain the 
great repertory where science must seek for almost all she 
can learn about the first three centuries; and the- student of 
criticism or antiquity must constantly keep Eusebius before 
him, if he would refpi* to the sources, or speak pertinently 
of the early history of the canon. K his book had perished 
with so many others, the science of Christian antiquities, 
ah-eady so meager, would have been reduced to the most 
extreme penury ; for it is a very remai'kable fact, to which 
we shall again advert, that we have so few authentic docu- 
ments relating to the first half of the second century, and 
the age of the apostles. When we have set aside, as we 
should do, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apostolical Consti- 
tutions, and /the pretended epistles of Barnabas, Ignatius, 
and Clemenr,'^ what remains?. Only the five or six brief 
authentic letters of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, with 
the accounts of their martyrdoms, and the beautiful anony- 
mous letter to Diognetus. 

We have many other works of Eusebius written before 
his Ecclesiastical History. They are his " Evangelical 
Preparation," in fifteen books, written A. D. 315 ; his 
"Evangelical Demonstration," in twenty books (only ten 
remain), written about the same time; his precious " Chron- 

1 Eusebii, Socratîs, etc. 3 vol. fol.; Moguntiae, 1672, Pref. de Vita Eus. 
p. 9. 

2 See Patrum Apostol. Opera Josephi Hefele Proleg. Tubingse. 



44 THE CANON". 

icle," of which the text is lost, but an Armenian ti'anslation 
of it has been found ; his " Apology of Origen ; " his " Life 
(or panegyric) of Constantine ; " his " History of the Mar- 
tyrs of Palestine ; " and many commentaries on the Scrip- 
tures. But his great work will ever be his Ecclesiastical 
History. 

None was better qualified for this important work than 
this learned bishop. Born about A. D. 270 ; bishop from A. t>. 
315 of Syrian Cesarea, where his leai-ned friend Pamphy- 
lus, Origen's successor, had taught and suffered martyrdom, 
Eusebius was at once a man of letters and a courtier, highly 
esteemed by the emperor Constantine, who often invited 
him to his imperial table, and honored him with his letter's. 
He therefore had access to the archives of the State, as he 
had to the rich libraries established by Pamphylus in Çesa-~ 
rea, and at Jerusalem by Bishop Alexander. All these 
books, lost to our learned men, are known to them only by 
the fragments which Eusebius has quoted. The important 
works of Aristion, Quadratus, Aristides, Hegesippus, Papias, 
Meliton, Apollinarius, had all passed through his hands, so 
that, in forming his judgments on the Scriptures, he had 
advantages which we do not possess. 

Eusebius, moreover, by his brilliant talents, as well as 
by his rank, exerted a great influence over the church. He 
was even offered the Patriarchate of Antioch, which he had 
the wisdom to refuse ; and, in the famous Council of Nice, 
we see him at the right of the emperor's golden throne, and 
in the highest seat. We have in fact many of. the emperor's 
letters to him. We quote from one connected with our sub- 
ject.^ " My dear brother, I trust to your prudence the care 
of having copied on precious parchments, and as you may 
iind best adapted for the use of the church, and for the 
divine public readings {irapa t^s twv O^lwv àvayvwcrfxdTwv 
eina-Kevrj?), fifty copies (o-a)/ià.T.ta) of the divine Scriptures. 
(t<3j/ ^eiW SrrjXa^T] ypa^wv). You will employ for this pur- 
1 Vita Constantini, Lib. iv. chaps. 35, 36. 



EUSEBIUS'S CATALOGUE. 45 

pose the amanuenses and others most skillful in their art ; 
and, to expedite the work, we have written in our clemency 
letters to the State Treasurer, and two public conveyances 
have been placed at your disposal." 

It would be a precious treasure if Providence had pre- 
served fi'om time to time for the church, one of these old 
manuscripts, more ancient than ours, like those recently 
found in Nineveh and Egypt. 

There is, then, nothing lacking in the testimony of this 
witness of the third and fourth centuries ; but, before inter- 
rogating him, we must not forget that, in other respects, his 
judgment and his character are not always worthy of the 
same confidence as his erudition. 

As to the latter, every critic, even his most severe detractor, 
fully concedes all we can claim.-"- Jerome calls him ^ " a 
most learned man." But he immediately adds, "I have 
not said catholic, but most learned." " Whom could you 
find," hé says again, " more prudent, .more learned, more 
eloquent than Eusebiiis, that admirer of Origen ? " ' Anti- 
pater of Bozra says, " We grant him science, but deny his 
theological skill." ^ Scaliger says : " If we call him learned 
who has read much, we can not refuse that honor to Eusebius. 
But if, to obtain it, it is requisite to unite judgment with 
reading, reserve this title for some one else." Antipater 
says, " That he was a man of great erudition, and that 
nothing in the oldest authors escaped his notice, is what I 
cheerfully accord to him ; for, by the imperial favor, he was 
able to gather documents from every country." 

It is important then, that, in giving all credit to the learn- 
ing of Eusebius,^ we should grant less to his judgment and 

1 Valesius, Vet. Testimonia; (H. de Valois,) at the beginning of his 
Eusebius. 

2 Lib. ii. adv. Eufinum. 

3 Ep. 65. ad Eammachium et Oceanum. < 
* Book i. against the Apol: of Origen, made by Eusebius. 

6 We shall have to complain of him hereafter in reference to his treat- 
ment of Jude and Bevelation. 



46 THE CANOX. 

his religious character. He had, during, the imperial perse- 
cutions, led men to doubt his fidelity. The times were 
diflScult ; the philosophy of the last part of the third century 
had obscured his faith with that of many others, and pre- 
pared followers for the impieties of Arius, who, born in the 
same year with Eusebius, (a. d. 270,) had spread his poison 
from A. D. 312, and immediately found an army of accom- 
plices in the bishops of his day. Among these was Euse- 
bius. He publicly espoused the cause of Arius against the 
Bishop of Alexandria, and afterwards became one of the 
persecutors of Athanasius. Also, when, at the council of 
Tyre, (a. d. 335,) the Bishop Potamon, who had lost one 
■^ of his eyes for the sake of the gospel, saw him sitting among 
the judges against this eminent servant of God, he could 
not suppress his indignation. " Is it then for you, Eusebius," 
he cried out with tears, " to sit in this place to condemn the 
innocent Athanasius ? Who can bear the sight ? Tell me, 
were we not both cast into prison by persecution? How, 
then, came you out safe and sound, whilst I lost an eye for 
maintaining the truth, if it is not that you have sacrificed to 
idols, or have promised to do it ? " 

The doctrinal statements of Eusebius, it is true, changed 
greatly after the council of Nice ; but the times had 
changed. " There were doubts about his sincerity," says 
the historian Socrates.'^ Thus was he named the double- 
tongued man (SiyXùHra-ov) ; for he had not ceased even then 
to show himself the friend of the Arians and the enemy of 
the orthodox. Nevertheless, and whatever may have been 
his real character before God, his book will always have an 
inestimable value for the history of the canon. We even 
think that his prejudices against certain doctrines, and the 
philosophical and latitudinarian tendency of his mind, by 
inclining him to look mainly at the human side of the ques- 
tion, may, perhaps, render him a more valuable witness in 
an investigation of this kind ; as has been said of Josephus 
1 Hist. Eccl. Lib. i. chap. 23. 



EUSEBIUS'S CATALOGUE. 47 

and Gibbon in regard to the accomplishment of the proph- 
ecies. 

Now Eusebius, in the twenty-fifth chapter of the third 
book of his history, gives us, with great precision, an exposi- 
tion of the views of the ancient ecclesiastical writers in 
regard to the canon. To express it more precisely, he 
divides the Scriptures of the New Testament into books 
recognized and books contested. But, as this invaluable 
chapter is the starting point of almost all the works on the 
canon, we must fix with definiteness,. before going farther, 
the meaning which Eusebius attaches respectively to these 
two expressions. From the etymology and common use of 
the words, we might suppose that by the recognized books, 
(ô/xoA,oyouftci/ot) Eusebius meant only the Scriptures recog- 
^nizéd without dispute in any part of the churches of God ; 
and that by the contested, (dvriAeyofté'ot) he meant only the 
books not acknowledged. Yet this is not his meaning ; for, 
with him, these distinctive terms relate only to the greater 
or less universal extent of the acceptance of these sacred 
books by the church. 

Thus, then, in the rnouth of Eusebius, the homologomens 
are " the Scriptures universally, absolutely, and constantly 
^ recognized from the beginning as divine by all the churches 
and all ecclesiastical writers." Thus you hear him giving 
them, in the same chapters, the titles of books ratified or 
sanctioned {icvpoyréov), books catholic or universal (KaooXiKo), 
books iniestainented, or inserted in the collection of the New 
Testament (èvBiâôrjKa), books uncontroverteCt (àvafjujuXéicra), 
books uncontradicted (dvavripp^a). 

And,-OT. the other hand, the contested or aniilegomens, far 
from being, in the language of Eusebius, books not recog- 
nized, (as mere etymology would indicate,) designate books 
which, although recognized by the majority of the people and 
ecclesiastical writers, were not universally received, or re- 
ceived with some reservation and hesitation. Now, those 
books which Eusebius places among the recognized, " because 



48 THE CANON. 

the ancient doctors and the ancient churches had constantly 
regarded them as divine," are not only the twenty books of 
which our first canon is composed, but also the two books 
which constitute our second-first canon ; so that the class of 
the recognized would contain thirty-five thirty-sixths of the 
New Testament. It is certainly worth while to search here 
for the, literal meanings of the expressions used by Euse- 
bius. This is the title of his chapter : ^^ Of the recognized di- 
vine Scriptwes and of those which are not;" and he begins 
by saying, " It will be proper that at this point we should re- 
capitulate the Scriptures of the New Testament which we 
have already made known. Now, we must rank in the first 
. class the holy group of the four Gospels, which are followed 
by the Scripture of the Acts of the Apostles. After this 
Scripture, we must insert in the catalogue the Epistles of 
Paul ; then that of Joh?i, which is called the first ; and we 
must equally ratify also the Epistle of Peter. With these 
books must be ranked, if you will, the Apocalypse of John, on 
which we will" take occasion to give our views. Such are 
then the. books which belong to the recognized." 

In the second place, the Scriptures which Eusebius places 
among the antilegomens are the five small epistles, the sec- 
ond of Peter, those of James and Jude, and the two last of 
John. " These contested Scriptures," he says, " which are 
yet recognized by the great number of the people and the 
majority of ecclesiastical writers, and publicly read with the 
other catholic epistles in the majority of the churches,^ are 
exposed to some contradictions, and less cited by the an- 
cient authors." 

Outside of these twenty-seven books of the New Testa- 
ment, and even of the contested books, Eusebius places the 
works which must be rejected, and which he calls {y66a) or 
illegitimate. But at the same time he seems to have divided 
this third class into two. others : that of the illegitimate which 

1 Lib. ii. chap. 23. He says these last -nrords of the seven catholic epistles, 
with special reference.to James and Jade. 



EUSEBIUS'S CATALOG DE. 49 

may be harmless, or even edifying, but which are improperly 
attributed to Apostles or their companions, such as the Acts 
of Paul, the Shepherd of Ilermas, the Revelation of Peter, 
the Epistle of Barnabas, the Apostolical Constitutions ; — ■ 
and that of the heretical and injurious illegitimate, which 
he calls absurd and impious, such as the Gospels of Peter, 
of Thomas, of Matthias, ' or the Acts of Andrew, of John, 
and the other apostles. 

" We see," says Doctor Thiersch,^ " by this subtle distinc- 
tion Vhich Eusebius establishes, which we could have deduced 
from neither the etymology of the terms nor the nature of 
the subject, how clear and positive the judgment of the 
church and the judgment of Eusebius then were on the 
proper limits of the canon ; — limits which afterward be- 
came laws of the church." 

If Eusebius included the epistle to the Hebrews among 
the books certainly and incontestably recognized, although he 
knew it to be the object of some doubts originating at Rome 
and' dating only from the days of Caius or the first half of 
the third century, it was because he had seen it constantly 
admitted from the days of the apostles in all the Greek and 
Oriental churches. He took care to suggest " that whUe the 
fourteen epistles of Paul are manifest and certain, it would 
not be fair to overlook the fact that certain persons have 
rejected ^the epistle to the Hebrews because the Church of 
the Romans had denied that Paul was its author." ^ These 
certain persons were evidently Greeks ; but neither their 
opinion, nor even that of the Church of Rome had really 
any weight with the churches of Greece and of Asia ; and 

/ jthe learned Eusebius none the less declares that he regarda 

'. ^this epistle as ma^fest and certain. 
* And as to the Apocalypse, we may at first be astonished 
that he does not place it among the contested books, since 

1 Versuch zur Verstellung des hist. Standpuncts fiir die Critic der N". T. 
Schr. 

2 Hist. Eccl. Lib. iii. chap. 3. 

5 



50 THE CANON". 

he speaks of it as divine in the View of some and false in 
the view of others. But as the divine origin of the Apoc- 
alypse had never been denied in the East, until Dionysius 
of Alexandria, in the middle of the third century, violently 
maintained that it was the work of a common priest named 
John, and consequently an illegitimate book, the dispute 
being still at its hight while Eusebius was composing his 
history) he could not, before the discussion had become 
calm, rank the Apocalypse in the class of contested books, 
since all were equally decided, but from opposite motives, to 
exclude it from this class ; some to place it decidedly among 
the divine books, others, among those which are apocryphal. 

The Apocalypse was regarded as divine to the middle of 
the third century ; but then the party spirit of the philo- 
sophical theologians of Alexandria in their opposition to the 
ancient millenarian doctrine, dared for the first time to deny 
the authority of this book. This hostility caused the Greek 
teachers to suspend their judgment. Nor did Eusebius re- 
main impartial in this strife, but he npne the less presented 
the historical state of the question with a fidelity worthy of 
respect. 

If, then, we are asked why Eusebius placed the epistle to 
the Hebrews and the Apocalypse in the canon of the uncon- 
tested Scriptures, we should reply by recapitulating what we 
have just said, which is : — ° 

1. Because these two books have from the beginning, 
and fop-two centuries, been recognized as divine by all the 
churches of the East and of the "West. 

2. Because from that time one of these books, the epistle 
to the Hebrews, has never ceased to be received in the 
Oriental churches, and the other, the Apocalypse, in the 
Occidental churches. 

3. Because, when, at a later period and for a brief season, 
objections were raised in the East against the Apocalypse, 
and in the "West against the Hebrews, they were never able 
to invoke against either of these two books the least testl- 



EUSEBroS'S CATALOGUE. 51 

mony of antiquity, and could oppose to them only the diffi- 
çulties'^of doctrine and of style which are urged by the critics 
of our day. 

We shall hereafter enter into a more precise consideration 
of these contested books, wishing heje only to describe the 
catalogue of Eusebius. 

In taking, then, our point of departure with so many others, 
from this historian, in establishing the divine canonicity of 
the entire New Testament, and in thus placing ourselves with 
this learned bishop in the year A. D. 324, five months before 
the council of Nice, we may say that we have chosen the 
precise moment of all history, in which the objections against 
these two books were at the culminating point. "We could 
not then give a more exact statement of these objections 
than under this form, since our triple division of the canon 
surpasses in rigor even that_of Eusebius ; and that instead 
of placing with him the Hebrews and the Apocalypse in the 
rank of the uncontested books we assign them a separate 
position, as not having been really uncontested, in the abso- 
lute sense of Eusebius, until the middle of the third century. 
If you go upward from Eusebius, you see the objections 
diminishing; and if you descend from him you see them 
diminishing ■ still more rapidly. The great Origen, before 
him, received, as we have said, our entire canon, and knew 
no hesitation among his cotemporaries excepting in regard 
to one eighty-ninth part of the New Testament ; that is, 
Peter's second epistle and the last two of John. The great 
Athanasius, only twenty-six years younger than he, also re- 
ceived our entire canon, and said in terminating the catalogue 
of it ^ : -r- " These books are the fountain of salvation. Let 
no one then add to, or retrench from them any thing." And 
the famous council of Laodicea,^ only thirty-nine years after 

1 In his Festal Epistle xxxix. Tom. ii. p. 961, edit. Bened. 

2 It represented tlie different countries of Asia, and it was approved by 
the fourth CEcumenical Council of Constantinople (in Trullo), bj' the fourth 
of Clialcedon, and by the Imperial Law of Justinian. The Code of the Uni- 
versal Church itself places it in A. d. 364. 



52 THE CANON. 

that of Nice, admitted already, and without exception, into 
its catalogues, as we shall presently see, all the five smaller, 
and later epistles which make our second canon. 

It is then, fully demonstrated that our division of the 
twenty-seven books of the New Testament into three his- 
torically distinct canons, meets the most severe requirements 
of sacred criticism, and that it represents very exactly the 
history of the several hooks of Scripture ; — twenty books 
universally and constantly recognized without any contradic- 
tion, from the origin of the New Testament ; then, two other 
books constantly and universally recognized also from the 
beginning to the middle of the third century, when they 
began to raise in one part of the church, and for one hun- 
dred and fifty years divers objections, not historical, but 
critical, to their canonicity ; then, five brief epistles, recog- 
nized by the majority, still contested, however, in a part of 
the church, until the council of Nice.^ 



SECTION vm. 

OF THE COUNCIL OF NICE AND ITS RESULTS. 

The œcumenical council of Nice is unquestionably one of 
the most august assemblies which the pageantry of human 
history presents to us. The world itself had never witnessed ' 
any thing comparable to it. The three hundred and eighteen 
bishops out of every country who composed it, and the elders 
and deacons assembled with them, were among the most 
learned and holy in the church of God. Hbsius, bishop of 
Cordova, an old man venerated by all, who had already pre- 
sided over other synods, and whose name was the first en- 
rolled in this; Ettstathius,' hiaho^ of Antioch, who opened 
the council with an address ; Alexander, that pious bishop 
of Alexandria, who first combated Arius, and who took with 
1 See Canon, chap. i. sec. xii. 



THE COUNCIL MADE NO DECREE ON THE CANON. 53 

him to Nice the famous Athanasius, then a young deacon of 
Alexandria, twenty-nine years old ; James, bishop of Nisibis 
in Mesopotamia ; Alexander, bishop of Byzantium ; Mar- 
cellus, bishop of Ancyra ; MacaHus, bishop of Jerusalem 
Oecilian, bishop of Carthage. There were seen there even 
bishops from Persia, from Scythia, and the country of the 
Goths, a« well as a great number of the glorious confessors of 
Jesus Christ who had suffered imprisonment and torture in 
thé previous persecutions ; three bishops named Nicholas ; 
Spyridion, bishop of Cyprus, an aged man honored of all ; 
Paphnutius, whose right eye had been taken out, and his left 
leg mutilated with a hot iron ; Paul, of Neocesarea on the 
Euphrates, who was maimed in both hands, Licinius having 
ordered them to be burned. And besides these and so many 
other faithful men, the council contained a great many at- 
tached to the party of Arius, yet illustrious by their talents 
and their science, such as the two JSrisehiuses, Maris of 
Chalcedon, Pavlinus of Tyre, Menophanius of Ephesus, 
Xiucius, a Sarmatian bishop, and many others. The as- 
sembly was opened in the imperial palace, on the 22d 
day of May, a. d. 325, and continued to the 25th of 
August. 

The Council made no Decree on the Canon. 

The canon of the New Testament is often spoken of as 
if the first general council, convoked by Constantine to put 
an end to the divisions then troubling the church, had 
enacted some decree on the sacred catalogue of the Scrip- 
tures. Nothing is less true. 

We see then, it is true, as Eusebius^ writes, "in this 
convocation of the oecumenical world, an assembly in which 
were gathered, from all the churches of Asia, Africa, and 
Europe, the most eminent spirits of the ministry of God on 

1 Eusebius, Life of Constant. Lib. iii. chap. 6. Socrates, Hist. Ecc. Lib. i. 
cbap. 8. 



54 THE CANON. 

earth." It is true, there were then taken resolutions con- 
cerning the disputes which were agitating the Christian 
world of the Orient and the Occident ; and that frequent 
reference was made there to the Holy Scriptures, as to a 
book common to the churches universal ; but there was 
never a question raised about any difference in regard to the 
canon. Not a document which has reached us from that 
council contains a word of such discussion. 

In the midst of that august assembly an elevated throne 
was erected, and on that throne was laid th^ sacred volume 
of the gospels,^ to signify, as was done in all the early 
general councils,^ that the Scriptures are the supreme rule in 
all controversies. And the great Constantine, in his address 
to the assembled fathers,* reminded them that they had " the 
doctrine of the Holy Spirit written ; " and " that the books of 
the evangelists and of the apostles, and the oracles of the 
prophets teach us clearly and certainly (cra^œç) what we must 
believe concerning the things of God, so that all differences 
must be determined by reference to the divinely inspired 
words " (Ik twv ôeo-m'ev^wv Xoyoiv). In fine, the council, in 
accordance with its " Formula of Faith " (fia6i^ixaTo<s), attested 
that it founded its doctrines solely on the divine Scriptures 
(9€L(jiv ypa<}i(Sv), when, in its preamble proposed by Eusebius, 
it said, " As we learned in the Holy Scriptures, this is. our 
creed : I believe in one only God, the Father Almighty," etc. 
But, we repeat, amid all these professions, the council never 
manifested the slightest thought of forming a decree on the 
sacred catalogue of the New Testament. 

It is true that many Romanist theologians, Bellarmine,* 

1 Le Sueur, Hist, de I'Egl. et de I'Emp. torn. ii. p. 454; torn. iv. 
pp. 275, 375; torn. vi. p. 220. lîvevuaTOç t^v ôtâaaKaTûuv àvàypairroi 
ÈxovTaç. 

2 This fact is affirmed of the council of Chalcedon and of many others. 
Yet I have not been able to find in Eusebius, any more than in Socrates, 
Sozomen, or Theodoret, the passage from which the historians have taken it 
in regard to the Council of Nice. 

8 See Theodoret, Histor. Ecclesiast. Lib. i. chap. 7. 
4 De Verbo Dei, Lib. i. chap. 10. 



THE COTINCIL MADE NO DECREE ON THE CANON. 55 

Baronius,^ Catharinus,'^ Binius,^ incessantly aiming at estab- 
lishing the authority of human tribunals in matters of faith, 
and committed to the cause of the apocryphal books, have 
ventured some hazardous remarks on this point. In spite of 
the silence of antiquity, and regardless of all the monuments 
of the council of Nice which remain to us, they have pre- 
tended to find in one word of Jerome, the evidence that the 
council passed a decree on the canon. Jerome, in fact, 
earnestly importuned by certain persons to prepare a com- 
mentary' on the book of Judith (the canonicity of which 
he firmly rejected), said, " But because the Synod of Nice 
is said to have reckoned this book in the number of the 
sacred Scriptures, I have yielded to your demand." ^ But it 
is easy to demonstrate the fallacy of this conclusion from his 
language. In fact — 

1. No ancient ecclesiastical author ever appealed to the 
council of Nice on the scriptural canon. • 

2. Not a word is found on this pretended decree in thé 
acts of the council. 

3. Jerome is himself very explicit against the use of the 
book of Judith ; and even in this preface from which the 
pretended argument is taken, he is careful to say that "the 
Hebrews put Judith among the books whose authority is of 
no weight in determining religious controversies." ^ And in 
his Prologus Galeatus he says, " This book is not in the 
canon." And in his commentary on the books of Solomon, 
"The church, it is true, reads it, but does not receive it 
among the canonical Scriptures." ^ 

4. The Roman doctors are so fuUy convinced of Jerome's 

^ Annals, torn. iii. sec. 137. 

2 In Cajetan. 

8 Notes on the Council of Laodicea. 

* It is in the preface to the book, " Sed qniahunc libram Synodus Nîcœna; 
in numéro S. Scripturarum legitur computasse," etc. 

s Cujus auctoritas ad roboranda ilia quae in contentionem veniunt miaos 
idoneajudicetur. 

6 Sed eum inter canonicas Scriptnras non recipit. 



56 THE CANON". 

opinion on this point, that they decline his testimony when 
they are defending the apocryphal books. 

5. Jerome, in the alleged passage, does not mean that the 
council approved the book of Judith ; but simply " that cer- 
tain persons had so pretended (legitur)." Possibly some 
bishop at Nice had made a quotation from the book ; but 
that would not show that the council had recognized it to 
be canonical, much less, had made a decree on this subject. 

6. If the council of Nice had approved this history of 
Judith as canonical, how could that of Laodicea, held forty 
years afterward, and recognized by the general council of 
Chalcedon, have excluded it from the canon ? * How could 
Eusebius and Athanasius, — both present and both powerful in 
the council of Nice ; how could Epiphanius, who expressed 
such respect for this assembly ; and how could Hilarius, who 
suffered exile in defense of its decrees, — how could all these 
four have equally excluded it ? And how, again, could the 
great Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Amphilochius, all three 
nearer the time of the council than Jerome, have equally 
omitted it in their catalogue of the sacred books ? 



AU Differences in Regard to the. Contested Boohs ceased in 
all the Ghristian Churches after this Council. 

"Whatever may have been (by the special providence of 
Grod, as we shall hereafter show), the reserve of the councils 
in regard to the canon, — a reserve unconscious, and so 
much the more to be admired, — it is none the less true, that, 
from the time of the Nicean assembly, there was an imme- 
diate and marked change in the dispositions of those Avho 
had before manifested some uncertainty about this or that 
of the contested books. Hesitations immediately began to 
disappear, until, at last, the whole body of the Christian; 
church reached that admirable unanimity which they have 
now manifested for fifteen hundred years among every tribe, 



ELEVEN CATALOGUES OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 57 

people, language, and nation. The council,- without doubt, 
contributed powerfully, though indirectly, to this important 
result; because, by bringing together for three months, in 
intimate intercourse, the most illustrious and learned rep- 
resentatives of Christianity, opportunity was furnished for 
exchanging their views and comparing their respective 
manuscripts, and thus removing all unfounded prejudices, 
and recognizing- their universal agreement. 

It will, then, be proper to confii-m these results by cita- 
tions; but only to the fourth century, since from that time 
to the present, the testimonies are too continuous and abun- 
dant to be cited or counted. 



SECTION rx. 

THE ELEVEN ATJTHEKTIC CATALOGUES OP THE FOURTH 
CENTUKY. 

The fathers and the councils of the fourth century have 
left us not less than eleven catalogues of the sacred books, 
without counting that of Eusebius. 

All these, without exception, are unanimous in recogniz- 
ing as canonical, not only the twenty books constituting 
our -first canon, but also the Epistle to the Hebrews and all 
the five books which Eusebius calls contested, and which 
we have denominated the Second Canon. You will there- 
fore hear, from the time of the Nicean Council, only one 
opinion throughout the world in regard to either the two 
canons, or the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

Of these eleven authentic catalogues of the fourth century, 
nine are found in the writings of the fathers, and two in the 
decrees of councils. "We shall, therefore, pass both classes 
in review in the following sections. 



î>8 THE CANON". 



SECTION X. 

THE NINE CATALOGUES OP THE FOTJRTH CENTUBT GIVEN 
BY THE FATHERS. 

Three of them omit only the Apocalyse. 

Op these nine catalogues, there are three — those of Cyril,. 
Gregory the theologian, and Philastrius — who, in agreeing, 
folly on every other point with the canon of our churches, 
either do not name the Apocalypse, or, with Amphilochius, 
state that some still doubted its canonicity. Hug, in his. 
Introduction, says, "Notwithstanding the unanimous opin-. 
ion of the churches after the council of Nice, the discus- 
sions in opposition to the Millenarians, had been in some 
places too vivid, and in all too recent, for this book to have 
regained fully its place." 

CxEiL. — The first of these three catalogues is that of 
Cyril, whom the Greek Church places* at the head of hei 
saints, and who was" elected patriarch of Jerusalem only 
twenty-four years after the council of Nice. He died 
A. D. 386. Before being promoted to that important post, 
he had successfully discharged the functions of catechist- 
pastor, even in Jerusalem.^ His works consist almost ex- 
clusively of his eighteen Catechisms (or oral instructions), 
addressed to catechumens on the principal points of Chris- 
tian doctrine ; and of five catechisms called " Mystagogic," ^ 
addressed to communicants on the two sacraments of the 
church. He says, " They were prepared in the simplest 
manner, to be understood of all." His term is improvised 
(oxeSia^eîo-at). Now, his catalogue is found in his fourth 
Catechism, under this title, " Of the divine Scriptures" * 

1 We learn that he was still catechizing in A. D. 347. See his sixth Cate- 
chism, or (Cave, Hist. Litt. torn. j. p. 211) . 

2 Published in Latin, at Paris, in 1564; in Latin and Greek, in 1720. 
8 Chap. 33, et seq., ed. Bened. Venice, 1763. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 59 

He remarks, " See, then, what the inspired Scriptures of 
the Old and of the New Testament teach us ; for there is 
in both the one only and the same God, who, in advance, 
announced in the Old the Christ of the New. Learn, then, 
from the church, with a docile spirit, what are the books 
of the Old and the New; and read me nothing from the 
Apocrypha. . . . Read the divine Scripture.*, the twenty-two 
books of the Old Testament;^ . . . but have nothing in 
common with the Apocrypha. Apply thyself earnestly 
only to those books which we also read and recognize in 
the chni'ch. They were certainly more enlightened and 
discreet than thou, the apostles and ancient bishops, those 
rulers of the church who have transmitted them to us. Thou, 
then, child of the church, do not put a false stamp on its 
ordinances (ju.^ irapa^dpaTre toiis 6e(rfJiovç.y' 

Thus much he says for the twenty-two books of the Old 
Testament. 

" And as to the New Testament, all gospels besides the 
four are false and pernicious. The Manicheans,^ also, have 
written a Gospel according to Thomas^ which, under the 
perfume of an evangelical surname, brings death to the souls 
of the simple. But receive also, the Acts of the twelve 
apostles, and also the seven ■ catholic epistles of James, 
Peter, John,- and Jude ; and, finally, as a" seal put on all the 
disciples, the fourteen epistles of Paul. But let all the 
other books slide out into a second rank. And as to all 
the books.not read nor recognized,* neither read nor acknow- 
ledge them for any thing that concerns thyself." 

1 The Jews had the fancy of reducing the thirty-nine books to twenty- 
two, to correspond to their alphabet. They therefore made one book of 
the twelve minor Prophets, one book of Kuth and Judges, one of Ezra and 
Nehemiah, one of Jeremiah and Lamentations, one of the two books of 
Samuel, one of the. two Kings, and one of the two Chronicles. 

2 End of the third century. 

8 They were not speaking here of Thomas, cotemporary with Jesus Christ, 
but of one Thomas, an immediate disciple of Manes (Cave, Hist. Litt. torn. 
i. p. 141). 

* We employ these two terms, because the Greek ùvayivùaKerai includes 
both. 



60 THE CANOU. 

We see here, therefore, and shall again see it in the other 
catalogues, that they then considered two> sorts of books as 
outside of the canonical Scinptures : those which, without being 
canonical, might be read in the churches, being placed in a 
second rank, and accordingly caWeà ecclesiastical books ; the 
others, which were not admitted even into this second rank, 
to be read in the churches, and which they denominated 
apocryphal hooks. 

Cyril then, although conforming in every other point to 
the canon of our churches^ had not yet admitted the Apoca- 
lypse to the place it occupied in the preceding centuries 5 
but, with Eusebius, he gave it a secondary place, for he 
quotes it very clearly three times in his Catechism xv. chap- 
ters 12, 13, 17. 

Gregory Nazianzen. The second catalogue is that of 
the celebrated Gregory of Nazianzum, born, as Cave thinks, 
at the time of the first œcumenical council, and promoted to 
the patriarchate of Constantinople about the time of the 
second, fifty-six years later. He died eight years afterwards, 
A. D. 389, aged 64 years.^ 

This great man, son of the bishop of Nazianzum, by 
whom he was ordained to the ministry, had finished his brill- 
iant academic career in the schools of Cesarea, Alexandria, 
and Athens. He was already administering the diocese of 
Nazianzum during the old age of his father ; and early made 
himself known by his fidelity as much as by the eminence of 
his gifts, when the council of Antioch commissioned him to 
repair to Constantinople in A. D. 378, to combat Arianism 
and raise the standard of God's truth. It was an arduous, 
task; his life was more than once put in danger. The 
Arians had been possessors of all the temples for forty 
years, and their audacity was great ; but Gregory had the 
happiness to bring a large number, in a short time, to the 

1 Fabricius differs from Cave in his dates; fixing his hirth at 300 and 
death at 391. Bib. Graec. viii. 384. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 61 

profession of the truth. He assembled them at the house of 
one of his kindred, in an independent ■ oratory, afterwards 
called the church of the Anastasis (or the Resurrection), 
" because the resurrection of the national church of Con- 
stantinople from the dead was there witnessed." An earnest 
multitude always attended his powerful preaching, until at 
length the Emperor Theodosius declared himself liis pro- 
tector, raised him to the patriarchate of Constantinople, 
with the unanimous assent of one hundred and fifty bishops 
convoked in an œcumenical council for this purpose. Yet, 
at the close of this assembly, the arrival of the Egyptian 
bishops at Constantinople having raised violent opposition to 
this election, Gregory, for the peace of the church, resigned 
his office, and went to finish his career in Cappadocia, in 
devotion, labor, and retirement. 

A man of piety, an elegant poet, a preacher full of majesty, 
he was above aâl respected in his age as an unrivaled theolo- 
gian. They accordingly gave him the surname, " Theo- 
logus." " Before the Lord and before the churches of God," 
says Rufinus,^ " to raise one's self in any point against the 
teachings of Gregory, was to be a heretic." His writings 
have almost all come down to us. They consist of sermons, 
poetry, and letters. 

Now his Catalogue, which is the sole theme of one of his 
songs,*^ is entitled : " Of the legitimate (yn^cricov) hoohs of the 
inspired Scripture. After a very exact enumeration of the 
books of the Old Testament (in his first nineteen verses), 
come these two distichs : 

A/3;^atas fiey èOrjKa Sua) koX cikoctl ^l^Xovs, 
Toîs Ej3pato)V ypdfjbfJMcnv àvriôérov?, 

MttT^atos jxev eypa<pei/ 'E/SpaioK oavpLara XptoToS, 

MapKos S* 'IraXtio, AovkS.<s *A)(cuia.8i. 

IISo-i S' 'loidwrjs K^pv^ fiiyas, ovpavoi^OLTijs . . . 

1 Prolog, in lib. Greg. 

2 It is the xxxiii. opp. torn. li. p. 439. Colon. 1680. 



62 THE CAKON. 

" I have given the twenty-two books of the Old Testament 
corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Then 
Matthew wrote for the Hebrews the marvelous things of 
Christ, Mark for Italy, Luke for Greece, but John for all ; 
t — he, tliis great herald-at-arms who has entered the heavens. 
Then the Acts of the Apostles, and the fourteen letters of 
Paul, and the seven Catholic Epistles ; one of James, two 
of Peter, and three of John ; that of Jude being the seventh. 
Thou hast them all ; and if any other is proposed to thee, it 
is not in the number of the legitimate (^ovk èv yvrjcrioLs)" 

"We see, then, the canon of Gregory is already complete, 
with the single exception of the Apocalypse. And yet this 
father (in his twenty-fourth verse) clearly enough refers to 
the apostle John as the author of this book, when he names 
him "the great herald who has entered the heavens." 
Thus too Andreas, bishop of Cesarea, who commented on 
the Apocalypse toward the close of the fifth century, de- 
clares that Gregory the divine regarded the Apocalypse as a 
sacred book and worthy of faith.^ And we read in Lardner * 
two passages in which this same Gregory refers to the 
Apocalypse of John. Once he says : " As John teaches 
me by the Apocalypse" COs 'Iwawi^s SiSda-Ket fj-e 8ià t^s 
*AiroKaXvi}/é(û's)' And again, when he cites this eighth verse 
of the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse : Kal 6 wv, koL 6 ^v, 
. Kat, 6 èp)(Ofi€vo<s, o TLavTOKpœrwp. 

However it may be, we are disposed rather to believe that, 
with Cyril and Eusebius, Gregory Nazianzen, at this epoch, 
did not yet place this holy book in the rank of the canonical 
books, properly so called, and gave it only a second rank 
among the ecclesiastical books in the public reading in the 
churches." 

1 Bibl. Pat. Max. v. 590. Constat namque beatos illos viros, . . . Gre- 
gorium theologum, Cyrillum Alexandrinum, etc. . . . divinum fideque 
dignurn non une loco tradere. 

2 Tom. iv. p. 28T. 

8 We find, among the -works of the same father, another catalogue which 
Bome attribute to Amphilochius, and of which we shall speak hereafter. 
Canon, chap. i. «ec. xi. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 63 

- Philastrius. The third catalogue is that of Philastrius, 
a friend of Ambrose, and bishop of Brescia. He flourished 
about A. D. 380. He had traveled much to promote the 
truth,, and had valiantly combated against Arianism. Au- 
gustine mentions his meeting him at the house of Ambrose.?^ 
There remains to us one of his books, "De Hseresibus," 
which is found in the fifth volume of the great Library of the 
Fathers.^ In the 40th and 41st articles of this book we find 
his Catalogue of the New Testament, as here quoted : " Ar- 
ticle 40. It has been established by the apostles and their 
successors, that nothing should be read in the churches ex- 
cept the Law and the Prophets, the Gospels, the Acts, the 
thirteen epistles of Paul, and seven others, two of Peter, 
three of John, one of Jude, and one of James. As to the 
concealed or apocryphal scriptures, although they may be 
read by the perfect for their sanctification, they should not be 
read by all, because ignorant heretics have added and cut 
out much in them at their pleasure." 

To read, then, only this 40th article, we should suppose 
that Philastrius, while accepting our first and second canons 
entirely, did not accept our second-first; but this would be a 
mistake so far as regards the epistle to the Hebrews ; for, in 
his 41st article, entitled : " Heresy of some concerning the 
Epistle to the Hebrews," he adds : 

" There are others who pretend that the letter of Paul to 
the Hebrews is not his, but from Barnabas, or Clement, 
bishop of Rome. Others, too, that Luke had written a letter 
to the Laodiceans, and because evil-minded persons have 
added some things to it, it is not read in the church ; or if 
sometimes read, yet not always. It is because he has there 
written in a beautiful style, that they have thought it .was not 
from him ; and because he calls Christ '■made of God,' (Heb. 
i* 4,) that some do not read it ; and it is with others still, in 
view of the Novatians, because he speaks as he does of 
repentance in Heb. vi. 4, et seq." 

1 At the commencement of his work " De Hseresibus." 

2 Bibl. Pat. Max. p. 711. 



64 THE CANON. 

We see, then, the catalogue of Philastrius (the third and 
last of those of the fourth century which still place the 
Apocalypse outside of the canon) ranks at the same time 
among the heretics those who deny the Pauline origin of 
this epistle. Only, as to himself, while admitting i^ to the 
canon, he is careful to indicate the three internal reasons 
why many of the Latins refused it that rank. We shall 
need to return to this subject in our third chapter. 



All the Six other Catalogues of the Fathers of the Fourth 
Century are entirely, conformed to that of our Churches. 

All the other catalogues of the fourth century, given by 
the fathers, were already identical with those which the 
church has accepted, now for fifteen hundred years. They 
are : that, 1. Of the great Athanasius, only twenty-six years 
younger than Eusebius ; 2. Of another cotemporary father, 
whose name is unknown to us ; 3. Of Epiphanius, arch- 
bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, and only fourteen or, as some 
say, four years younger than Athanasius ; 4. Of Jerome, 
secretary of Pope Daraasus, and thirty-five years younger 
than Epiphanius ; 5. Of Rufinus, priest of Aquileia, the inti- 
mate friend of Jerome before becoming his enemy, and in- 
structed like him in all the learning of the East and West 
by his sojourn in Jerusalem, from A. d. 371, and at Bome, 
from A. D. 396 ; 6. Of Augustine, the holy bishop of Hippo, 
twenty-three years younger than Jerome. 

It will be well to pass each in rapid review. . 

Athanasius. The testimony of this eminent man is of 
the greatest importance, on account of his rank, his attain- 
ments, and the whole history of his life. He was unquestion- 
ably the most illustrious person of this epoch, not only on ac- 
count of his fidelity, his science, his firmness and clearness of 
mind so much admired in all his works (Xéyeii/ re /cat vodv 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 65 

ÎKavov, says Sozomen^), but also because his incessant 
struggles against Arius and the powers of the age, almost 
aU favorable to the heresy of Arius, filled up fifty years of 
his life, and obliged him to wander through every part of the 
kingdom. From Alexandria he must go to Tyre, Constanti- 
nople, Kome, Belgium, and the deserts of the Thebaid. Born 
A. D. 296, as is believed, he lived more than eighty years, 
and was bishop more than half a century. We know to 
what advantage he appeared in the œcumenical assembly of 
Nice ; and how, in spite of his youth, (being not yet thirty 
years old,) he was called, only five months after the council, 
to- the -patriarchate of Alexandria. Persecuted by the two 
Eusebiuses, more than once deposed, - expelled, even con- 
demned to death, he had opportunity in his long journeys 
and exiles of knowing better than any other man the view 
of all the churches of the East and West in regard to the 
Scriptures. So that his testimony is certainly one of the 
most sure representations which we can obtain of the thought 
of the universal church in the fourth century. " His life is 
the model of the episcopate," says Sozomen ; ^ " and his doc- 
trine the law of orthodoxy." 

Now we may see already the difference, as to the firm- 
ness of his faith in aU the Scriptures, between his language 
and that of Eusebius his cotemporary, but the friend of 
Arius. 

In his Festal Epistle,^ he says : " As to us, we have for our 
salvation the divine Scriptures ; but I fear that, as Paul 
wrote to the Corinthians, a small number of the siniple 
are turned away from simplicity and from holiness by 
the wicked malice of men, and have come to reading the 
apocryphal books, - deceived by the assumed names of the 
true books. I believe then it would be useful to the church 

1 Lib. ii. chap. 17. Edit, of Valois, p. 466. 

2 Cave (Script. Eccl. torn. i. p. 191) cites Sozomen, p. 397; but we have 
not been able to find these words there. 

8 Epître Festale xxxix. torn. ii. p. 961, edit. Ben. Paris, 1698. 
6 



66 THE CANON. 

to enumerate them ; but, to do it, I must borrow the words 
of Luke, and say,^ * Forasmuch as many have taken in 
hand to set forth in order' a list of the apocryphal books, 
and to mingle them with the inspired Scriptures which is 
* most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them 
unto ' the fathers, ' which from the beginning were eye-wit- 
nesses, and ministers of the word ; it seemed 'good to me 
also,' urged by true brethren, to set in order the books held 
as canonical, and transmitted and believed to be divine books, 
that whoever may have been led into error may condemn his 
false guides." 

Then follows the list of the Old Testament. He adds, 
" But I inust not neglect to show also those of the New. 
They are, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; 
after these, the Acts of the Apostles, and the- seven catholic 
epistles, said to be of the apostles, as follows : one of James, 
and two of Peter ; then, three of John, and after that, one 
of Jude. There are, besides, fourteen of Paul, written, as to 
their order (t^ rdiei ypat^ofxevai ovtos), one to the Komans ; 
then two to the Corinthians ; then to the Galatians, Ephe- 
sians, Philippians, Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, and 
the Epistle to the Hebrews ; then also afterward, two to 
Timothy, one to Titus, and the last, to Philemon ; and finally, 
the Apocalypse of John." 

We take pleasure in giving an exact translation of these 
catalogues, notwithstanding the repetition it involves, because 
it impresses on the reader the firmness with which, from the 
beginning, the order (rafis) of the books was transmitted in 
the church, although not conformed to their chronology. This 
fact, we shall show, is not without significance in the history 
of the canon. 

Athanasius adds, " These books are the fountains of salva- 
tion, that whoever thirsts may there slake his thirst at the 
oracles which they contain ; for it is in these books alone 
that the school of piety is evangelized («/ rovrots ^wois to 
1 Luke i. 1-3, paraphrased. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 67 

T^s evtrejSaas ScSaa-KoXeîov evayyeXt^erai). Let no one add 
to or retrench from them*. ... 

" But, for greater exactness, we must necessarily add that 
besides these books there are others which are not canonized, 
it is true (ov Kavovi^ofieva ftéi/), but which have been marked 
by the fathers to be read by those who, recently come among 
us, are desirous of being instructed in the word of piety : 
the Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Sirach, and 
Esther,-*^ Judith, and Tobit, the Institutions called Apostolical, 
and the Shepherd. Those, beloved, were regarded as canon- 
ical, these as readable ; while no mention must be made of the 
apocryphal books. They are an invention of the heretics, 
who have written them to their own taste, and have affixed 
to them ancient dates, to deceive the simple." 

We then clearly perceive that the collection of Athanasiiis 
is complete, as was that of Origen, one hundred and fifty 
years before him. But there had already been established 
the custom of reckoning, outside of this collection of twenty- 
seven canonical books, two kinds of writings : first, a small 
number called ecclesiastical, or to be read in the churches ; 
and secondly, others carefully distinguished as apocryphal. 
We shall meet this distinction again in other catalogues. 

Anonymous. The second catalogue is by a cotemporary 
of Athanasius, often confounded with him. It is found in 
Greek in the collection of his works, under the name of 
" Synopsis of the Holy Scripture." ^ Its compilation is ad- 
mired: "a model of care, sagacity, and learning," say the 
Benedictines. Here it is ; — " All the Scripture of us Chris- 
tians is inspired. It is composed, not of undefined books, 
but rather of books determined and recognized as canonical. 
First are those of the Old Testament;" which he gives. 

1 The seven agociyphal chapters are added to the book of Esther after 
the tenth chapter. Having in view here only the New Testament, we shall 
not linger on this detail. 

2 Tom. ii. p. 125, edit. Bened. Paris, 1698. 



68 THE CANON. 

"Then, the determined and canonized books of the New 
Testament, the," etc., giving our catalogue, though not in the 
same order. " Such are the books of the New Testament, 
books canonized, and as it were, the first-fruits, the anchors 
and props of our faith, inasmuch as they were written by 
the very Apostles of Jesus Christ, and left in charge by them " 
(«at èicreBévra.^ 

Epiphanitts. The third catalogue, that of Epiphanius, is 
found in his " Panarium" or book against the heresies.* 

The writings of this father, born in Palestine and of 
Jewish extraction, are likewise of great weight in the his- 
tory of the canon, because of his vast literary acquirements, 
and his acknowledged skill in ecclesiastical antiquities.* He 
"was a man of five languages, pentaglossal, as Jerome ^ calls 
him, master alike of Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and 
Latin. His book against the heresies, Photius^ says, is 
richer and more useful than any before written on the same 
subject, on account of his abundant quotations from Justin 
Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and other ancient authors. 
Jerome ^ says, " His writings are read and reread by the 
learned, on account of the substance ; and by the unlearned, 
on account of their form." 

Brought up in Egypt, and converted to gnosticism before 
he had reached the age of twenty, he returned to his own coun- 
try, in order to place, himself under the direction of the cele- 
brated Hilarion, teacher of the monastic life in Palestine. 
He himself had afterwards founded the monastery of Ad, 
of which he was chief, when called to the important see of 
Salamis in Cyprus. It was particulai'ly in this maritime and 
commercial town that he acquired a precocious celebrity by 
his discourses and wi*itings, as well as his fidelity in doctrine 

1 LXXVI. p, 941, edit. Petav. Colon. 1682. 

2 Cave, torn. i. p. 232. 

8 Apol. i. adv. Eufin. p. 222; Apol. ii. p. 233. 

4 Cod. 122. 

5 De Script. Eccl. chap. 114. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 69 

and purity of life. This life was very long ; filling the 
entire century ; some say even that in a. d. 402, when he 
died, he had gone beyond the age of one hundred years.^ 
So that, born in the third century, he lived to see the fifth, 
after thirty-six years in the episcopate. We see him occu- 
pying an important post at Rome and at Constantinople, 
contending with great firmness against the evil tendencies 
of his times, especially the heresy of Arius, as well as the 
growing use of images, and the, too accredited errors of 
Qi-igen. Hence his debates with John of Jerusalem, and 
even the illustrious Chrysostom, whom he reproached for 
leniency toward error. He himself was censured for hav 
ing made too much of tradition. 

These are his words on the canon : ^ " If thou hast been 
born of the Holy Spirit and taught by the prophets and 
apostles, it must have been that, in going from the origin 
of the world to the times of Esther, thou hast read thé 
twenty-seven books of the Old Testament (reckoned by the 
Jews as twenty-two), and the four holy Gospels, and the 
fourteen epistles of the . holy apostle Paul, with the Acts 
of the Apostles, and also the catholic epistles of James, 
Peter, John, and Jude, and the Apocalypse of John, and 
also the two books of Wisdom, that of Solomon and that 
of the son of Sirach; in a word (aTrXws), all the divine 
scriptures." 

Such is the exact and complete catalogue of Epiphanius, 
as to the New Testament ; for, to avoid complication, we will 
not here touch the Old, nor speak of his error in recom- 
mending the apocryphal books Ecclesiasticus and the Wis- 
dom of Solomon. In his day they were placed in a separate 
class (as we shall see in the catalogue of Rufinus) ; they were 
called ecclesiastical ; admitted to be read in the churches, 

1 Polybius, his disciple, and companion of his last journey to Constanti- 
nople, says he told the emperor Arcadius that he had reached to one hun- 
dred and fifteen years and three months. — Cave, Hist. Litt. tom.i. p. 252. 

2 Epiph. adv. Haeres. Ixxvi. p. 941, edit. Petav. 



70 THE CANON. 

and distinguished from the apocryphal books. Epiphanius * 
says, " Beside the twenty-seven books which God gave to 
the Jews, there are also, independently of the apocrypha, 
two others which are contested by them (eu d/A^tXéfCTO)), the 
Wisdom of Sirach and that of Solomon. These two books 
are certainly useful,^ but not related to the number of those 
which may be published (or fixed and agreed upon) ; and it 
is therefore they were not put apart in the ark of the cove- 
nant." 

Jerome. The fourth catalogue is that of Jerome. 

This famous divine is, without contradiction, of all the 
fathers of the fourth century the best qualified to be heard 
on the canon of the Scriptures, not for his candor or. spiritual 
understanding of the gospel ; not for his character or his 
temper, nor even for his respect for the sacred authors, for 
his language in this respect is often very improper ; but 
for his constant clearness, his knowledge of Hebrew and 
Greek, his learning, his travels, his immense labors, and 
his long residence in Palestine, where he was constantly oc- 
cupied in making researches concerning the sacred books. 

This celebrated man, who is equally Occidental and Ori- 
ental, was raised up by God to spread great light through 
the church, by his recommending the study of the text in 
the original languages, and by thus bringing back, especially 
the Latins and Greeks, to the pure sources of the word of 
truth. He also, like Epiphanius, accomplished a long career, 
dying A. D. 420, at the age of eighty-nine years. Born in 
upper Dalmatia, he went from Aquileia to Rome to prosecute 
his studies under the eloquent Victorinus of Africa, whence 
he departed for his first journeys, passing throughout France, 
visiting everywhere the libraries, going even to Treves to 
meet Hilary, and i-eturning by Aquileia in Venice to see 
Rufinus; then going to Thrace, Asia, and even Antioch, 

1 Adv. Hseres. v. p. 19, edit. Colon. 1687. 

2 De Mensuris, p. IgO. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIYEN BY FATHERS. 71 

in order to spend four years there in the solitude of the 
desert, and there to give himself entirely to the study of 
the Holy Scriptures in their original languages. He was not 
ordained priest until he was forty-nine years old ; but already 
celebrated throughout the Empire, he went to Constantinople 
a little before the second œcumenical council held there A. d. 
381. He attended with ardor on the instructions of Gregory 
Nazianzen, until he left the city, and went, accompanied by 
Epiphanius and Paulinus, to Home, where he lived three 
yeai's, and where Bishop Damasus gave him the oflBce of his 
private secretary. In the mean time, profoundly disgusted 
with that city after the death of Damasus, he left it for ever 
A. D. 385 ; wtnt to visit Epiphanius in Cyprus ; passed from 
thence to Jerusalem, and the next year to Egypt, where he 
listened to the instructions of the illustrious Didymus ; until 
at length, returned to Palestine, he went to make his long 
and last retreat in Bethlehem. It was there that, during 
thirty-three years, were performed the greater part of his 
immense labors, and that, visited by distinguished persons 
from a,ll parts, he became the oracle of his age. 

Now Jerome has given' us under several forms his sacred 
catalogue ; and it may be said even, that the first volume 
of his works is itself a catalogue. It is called Divinam 
JEReronymi Biblioihecam ; because it contains all the books 
of the Holy Scripture, translated by Jerome from the Hebrew 
or the Greek, and preceded by important prefaces.^ It is 
divided into, three parts: the first containing the Hebrew 
canon, or the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and Hagiographa ; 
the second containing some books of the Old Testament, 
which Jerome had translated from Chaldaic or from the 
Greek of the Septuagint ; the third containing all the books 
of the New Testament, with prologues and abundant notes. 
In his prologue to the seven epistles, the author states that 
having found in the Latin manuscripts the epistle of Peter 
displaced and put before the others (by a mistaken jealousy 
1 Cave, Hist. Litt. torn. i. p. 269. 



72 THE CANON. 

for the supremacy of that apostle), he had taken care to 
replace it in its rank, « that it might be in conformity with 
the order always observed by the Greek manuscripts;" and 
he warns us, at the same time, that unfaithful translators had 
cut out from John's first epistle the passage of the three that 
bear witness in heaven. Some have denied that Jerome 
wrote this prologue. But we can not now delay to discuss 
that question. -, 

Besides this, Jerome has directly given us, and more than 
once, his catalogue : first, in his book De Viris lllustrihus^ 
written A. D. 392, and afterwards in his epistle to Paulinus,'^ 
written A. D. 397. 

These are his words in this letter : " I shall merely touch 
the New Testament. We have there • first Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John, the Lord's four-wheeled chariot, the true 
cherubim" (alluding to the vision of Ezekiel). "Then Paul 
writes to seven churches ; for the eighth, to the Hebrews, is 
placed by most of the Latins out of this number. He writes 
to Timothy and to, Titus ; he recommends to Philemon a 
fugitive slave. . . . The Acts of the Apostles appear to meet 
thé infancy of the growing church ; but when we shall have 
learned that its author was a physician, ' whose praise is in 
all the churches,' we shall alsd be assured that all his words 
are the medicine of the languishing soul. The apostles 
James, Peter, John, and Jude have published also seven 
epistles, mystical but succinct, at once short and long, short 
in words, long in sense. . . . The Apocalypse of John has 
as many mysteries as words. I have said little of it in com- 
parison with its merit. In every, word are many latent 
laeanings." 

We then see Jerome, with all the others, receiving the 
seven uncontested and contested epistles ; for him their four 
authors are all apostles ; he exalts the Apocalypse, and 
equally indicates the fourteen- epistles of Paul, contenting 

1 Cap. V. (opp. torn, iv.) 

2 Tom. iv. p. 574, edit. Bened. (Martianay), Paris, 1693. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 73 

himself with saying of the Hebrews, "the greater part of 
the Latins exclude it." But he is very far from excluding it 
himself; for he is careful to repeat many times in his writ- 
ings that he regards it as canonical, and attributes it to Paul. 
He wrote . to Dardanus,^ about A. B. 414, " It must be said 
to ours (the Latins) that this epistle to the Hebrews is not 
only received by the Oriental churches as from Paul, -but 
also by all the Greek ecclesiastics of former days, although 
many^ attribute it to Barnabas or Clement. And it must 
also be said that it is of little consequence who the author 
was, since he was an ecclesiastic, and since it is daily read 
publicly in the churches. And if the Latin usage does not 
receive it among the caponical Scriptures, and if, on the 
other hand, the Greek churches do exclude the Apocalypse 
which the Latins receive, yet, as to ourselves, we shall accept 
them both, for we fnean to follow, not the custom of the day, 
but the authority of the ancient authors." 

RuFiNus. The fifth catalogue is that of Eufinus, priest 
of Aquileia. 

For a long time the friend of Jerome, he pursued with 
him his first studies in the schools of Aquileia; traveled, 
as he did, in the East, (about a. d. 371,) visited Egypt 
also ; united himself there to Didymus ; established, like 
him, a monastery in Palestine, in which he passed twenty- 
five years ; but, having become the enemy of Epiphanius 
from zeal for the memory and doctrine of Origen, he drew 
on himself the hatred of Jerome, and returned to Italy A. D. 
397, to die in Sicily a. d. 410.» 

His catalogue, found in his " Exposition of the Apostolical 
. Symbol," •* is so remarkable for the distinctness and precision 
of its language that we shall translate the most of it. 

1 Tom. ii. p. 608, edit. Paris. 

2 Since Mr. Gaussen's word " lapliipart " would make a contradictioa* 
We venture to render it by " many." — Tr. 

8 Cave, Hist. Litt. p. 286. 

* In Cyprian's works, p. 26, edit, of Amsterd. 1691. 
7 



74 THE CANON. 

" It is the Holy Spirit, -who, in the Old Testament, inspired 
the Law and the Prophets, in the New Testament, the 
Evangelists and Apostles. Also the apostle says, 'AH 
Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for in- 
struction.' Wherefore it . seems to me suitable here to 
designate by a clear enumeration, as we have learned from 
the monuments of the fathers, what are the books of each 
Testament, (Instrument,) which, according to the tradition 
of the ancients, are regarded as inspired by the Holy Ghost, 
and transmitted to the churches of Christ. ... In the New 
Testament there are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John ; the Acts of the Apostles described by Luke ; four- 
teen epistles of the apostle Paul ; two of the apostle Peter ; 
one of James, apostle and ^brother of the Lord ; one of Jude ; 
three of John, and the Apocalypse of John. Such are the 
books which the fathers have included in the canon, and on 
which they have endeavored to lay the foundations of our 
faith 

" In the mean time it must be known that there are also 
other books which- the ancients (a majoribus) called not 
canonical, but ecclesiastical. Such are the Wisdom of Solo- 
mon, and another Wisdom, entitled of the son of Sirach, as 
well as the little book of Tobit and Judith, and the books 
of the Maccabees. In the New Testament, the little book 
called The Shepherd of Hermas, (also The*Two Ways, or 
The Judgment of Peter). As to all these books, they have 
wished them to be read in the churches, it is true ; but not 
that they should be quoted as authority to establish the faith 
(non tamen proferri ad auctoritatem ex his jidei corifirman- 
dam). As to the other scriptures, they have called them 
apocryphas, and have not permitted them to be read in the 
churches. .... 

" I have judged proper," Rufinus adds, " to mention here, 
for the instruction of those who are not in the rudiments of 
the church and of the faith, these facts which we hold from 
the fathers ; in order to show to all from what fountain of the 
word of God they should fill their cups." 



THE NINE CATALOGUES 'GITEN BY FATHERS. 75 

See then again the careful distinction already noticed, by 
Athanasius and Epiphanius, between three sorts of books: 
canonical, to the number of twenty-seven and divinely in- 
spired ; ecclesiastical, to be read in the churches for edifica- 
tion only ; and apocryphal, which are never to be read there. 

Augustine. The sixth and last catalogue of the fathers 
of the fourth century, still entirely conformed to our canon, 
is that of the subliraest and the profoundest of the ancient 
doctors, the illustrious bishop of Hippo. He is the most 
recent of the fathers that we propose to quote in this re- 
search ; for, about a hundred years younger than Eusebius, 
he belongs to the fourth and fifth, as Eusebius belonged to 
the third and fourth, centuries. 

Born of Christian parents in Numidia A. d. 355, but early 
entrapped, in spite of his mother's tears, by the sad doctrines 
and immoralities of Manicheism, he was publicly teaching 
rhetoric in Carthage when, at the age of twenty-eight years, 
leaving Africa, he went to Rome and afterwards to Milan. 
It was in this city that his relations with the illustrious Bishop 
Ambrose, who received him with great cordiality, withdrew 
him from his errors ; but it was not till A. d. 388, when he 
had reached the age of thirty-three years, that he was 
brought out of darkness into light by a manifest act of 
the divine power. The next year he returned to Africa to 
pass three years of retirement under his father's roof; after 
which he was consecrated, to the sacred ministry at the age 
of thirty-six years, to be called five years afterwards to the 
episcopal see of Hippo. He died a. d. 430, at the age of 
seventy-five years, shut up in the city of Hippo, while be- 
sieged from sea and land by the Vandals, then masters of 
Africa. This admirable man, who had never ceased, during 
his long career, to labor by powerful writings for the defense 
of the doctrines of grace and the edifying of the churches of 
God throughout the earth, was raised up not only to over- 
throw in his age the heresy of Pelagius, but to project and 



76 THE CANOÎî. 

leave after him on all the ages of the church a beneficent 
track of light. His works form a collection of eleven folio 
volumes.^ 

His " City of God," his commentaries on the Psalms, his 
sermons, his letters, his retractions, his confessions, his tracts 
on sin, and on grace, universally commend themselves by 
two features : the devotion continually manifesting itself and 
the method of argument, which should ever serve as a model 
to theologians, as it is a continued development of the word 
of God, by the word of God. He was a pillar of the house 
of God, and he remains a shining light. 

Here then is his catalogue as found in his book J' De Doc- 
trinâ Christiana," ^ one of the last of his works, begun A. D. 
397 and finished A. d. 426.^ We omit for the present what 
he says about the Old Testament, and quote only his testi- 
mony upon the New. " Here," he says, " are the books in 
which the authority of the New Testament is included (tev' 
miriatur aucioHtas). Four books of the Gospel (according 
to Matthew,. Mark, Luke, John), fourteen epistles of Paul 
the apostle (to the Romans, • to the Corinthians two, to 
the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians two, to 
the Colossians, to Timothy two, to Titus, Philemon, He- 
brews), two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude, and one 
of James, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse." 

SECTION XI. 

SOME OTHER CATALOGUES PRETENDING TO BE OF THE 
FOURTH CENTURY, AND CONFORMED TO OUR CANON, ARK 
APOCRYPHAL OR FORGED, 

Besides these nine catalogues of the fathers of the fourth 
century, there are three others that have an insufiicient title 

1 The best edition, that of the Benedictines (Paris, 1679 et seg.), was 
reprinted at Antwerp, 1700-1703, and Paris, large 8vo., 1835-1840. 

2 Lib. ii.vol. iii. part i. n. 13, p. 47, edit. Paris, 1836. 
^ Cave, Hist. Litt. torn. i. p. 290, et seq. 



THE NINE CATALOGUES GIVEN BY FATHERS. 77 

to our confidence, the one being uncertain and the- other two 
forged. 

As in our sixth section on the second century we have not 
quoted the book of the Apostolical Canons •'• because it is 
apocryphal, although they pretend to give, in the name of the 
apostles, " to all clergymen and laymen the catalogue of the 
august and holy books of the Old and the New Testament," 
and which already contained the fourteen epistles of Paul, 
and the seven apostolical epistles ; so also in this present 
chapter, we abstain from mentioning the three catalogues 
of the fourth century which are attributed respectively to 
Pope Innocent I., to Pope Damasus, and to Bishop Amphi- 
lochius, because we regard the fii'st as doubtful, and the other 
two as forged. 

So it is in the next century, with that which one ascribes 
to Gelasius, but of which not the least mention is made in 
the monuments of history before the time of Isidore the 
merchant, in the ninth century. 



The Catalogue of Innocent I. 

I 
And first. Pope Innocent I. (bishop of Rome a. d. 402) 

is presented to us as having given, about the close of the 
fourth century, a catalogue of the sacred canon. This cata- 
logue agrees entirely with ours as to the New Testament, but 
as to the Old, it was invented in order to recommend the 
apocryphas. 

We find it in a pretended epistle of Innocent to Exuperus,* 
bishop of Toulouse ; but this epistle is pronounced entirely 
spurious by William Cave,' for the following reasons : 1. The 
barbarity of the style, which could not have belonged to the 

1 To the nnmber of eighty-five. Athanasius calls it jy t^v^axti tûv ûtto 
otôAuv. At first very small, this book grew in bulk as it grew in age. See 
Patres Apost. Cotler. i. p. 453, 480, edit. Amsterd. 1724. 

2 Tom. ii. p, 1256. third Paris edit. 1671. 
8 Hist. Litt. tom. i. p. 379. 

7* 



78 THE CANON. 

age of Innocent ; 2. Its absurd applications of Scripture ; 
3. Its doctrinal errors, errors evidently anticipated; 4. Its 
verj gross anachronisms ; 5. The mention of rites not yet 
existing in the church. That, moreover, which proves the 
fraudulent character of this decree, is, that the council of 
Carthage, distrustful of its own judgment, decided to consult 
Pope Boniface, who reigned only sixteen years after Inno- 
cent. 'Wou^d the council have consulted him if a decree of 
Innocent had been issued sixteen years before ? Bishop 
Cosin ^ says that mention was never made of this letter until 
Innocent had been dead for three hundred years; and no 
mention was made of any catalogue in this epistle until a 
century after it appeared ! 

The ancient church was governed'for a long time by what 
was called " The Universal Code of the Canons ; " a code 
which was afterward confirmed by the emperor Justinian, 
and which, composed by four general and five provincial 
councils, contained two hundred and seven canons. These 
canons were there arranged- in exact order, so that the num- 
ber could be neither increased nor diminished ; and thus it 
continued until the time of Dionysius the Less, abbot of Rome, 
deceased a. d. 540. He assumed the task of translating it 
from Greek into Latin, and of making alterations favorable to 
the pretensions of the popes. He cut out, for instance, the 
eight canons of the council of Ephesus, a large part of the 
last canon of Laodicea, the last three of Constantinople, the 
last two of Chalcedony ; and he added many others ^ of which 
the Christian church knew nothing. And yet, let it be observed, 
no decretal epistle of the popes had yet appeared ; so that, 
for a hundred years, there was no mention, even in the Roman 
code, of any epistle of Innocent. It was not then until two 
hundred years after Dionysius, and three hundred after Inno- 
cent, that an abridgment of the canons (Brevarium Canonum) 
composed a. b. 689, by Cresconius, an African bishop, added 

1 On the Canon, p. 118, 130. 

2 For instance, the canons called " apostolical." 



THE CATALOGUE OF DAMASUS. 79 

to the code of Dionysius the Less the decretal epistles of six 
popes, and among the others this epistle to Exuperus. And 
even then, this pretended epistle of Innocent did not yet 
contain his pretended catalogue ; for it was not until a cen- 
tury after Cresconius, or four hundred years after Innocent, 
that Isidorus the merchant, in the year 800, made his collec- 
tion of the decretals ; " a collection," says Cosin, " which no 
honest man wOuld have consented to use, until the popes, 
Leo IV. (a. d. 850) and Nicholas I. (a. d. 860), seeing the 
powerful aid they would furnish the papal cause, published 
them as a law." ^ 

"We have entered into these details only to avoid repetition 
when we shall come to speak of the false decretals, and of 
the injurious use made of them iu the question of the apoc- 
ryphal books. 

The Catalogue of Damo^sus. 

For similar reasons we abstain from mentioning in this 
fourth century the pretended catalogue of Pope Damasus,** 
contained in a decree De explanatione fidei, which they say 
must have been passed under this pope, in a council at 
Rome (between a. d. 366 and 384). This catalogue was 
equally conformed, for the Kew Testament, to that of our 
churches, and was introduced in these terms: ^^ Nunc vera 
de scripturis divinis agendum est, quid imiversalis caiholiea 
ecelesîa teneat, et quid vitari debeat." We regard it as 
spurious, like that of Innocent ; for we now know that aU 
the decretals anterior to Pope Syricus (a. d. 384 to 398) 
must be ranked among those false decretals which no one, 
not even in the Roman camp, can any longer undertake to 
defend. 

1 See the letter of Pope Leo IV. to the English churches (Canon da Li- 
bellis, Dist. 20), and that of Nicholas L to the Gallic bishops (C si Bom. 
Dist. 19, A. D. 860)., 

2 See Creduer, Geschichte des Kanons, iv. p. 187-196. 



80 THE CANON. 



The Catalogue of AmpMlochius^ 

In fine, as to the catalogue in Greek verse, mentioned 
among the works of Gregory the theologian,^ under the title of 
"Iambi ad Seleucum," which is often attributed to Amphilo- 
chius, bishop of Iconium, about A. d. 380, to whom we have al- 
ready referred, we regard it at least as apocryphal, if not forged. 
Nothing, definite is known of its date, author, or history ; it 
abounds in errors of meter ; and there are no means of com- 
paring it with any authentic writing of Amphilochius, to prove 
its origin from him. Many, again, attribute it to Gregory 
Nazianzen, as if these iambics presented us a second poetical 
expression of his views of the canon. Whoever, then, may 
have been the author of this apocryphal catalogue, it compre- 
hends in " the true canon of the inspired scriptures " all our 
twenty-seven books of the New Testament ; but at the same 
time notifying us that others erroneously {ovk cu Xeyovres) 
reject the Epistle to the Hebrews, and that some' do not accept 
the short epistles of John and Jude, and many more reject 
the Apocalypse. After namitig, then, our twenty-seven books, 
and no others, he closes with these words : 

OvTOS àij/çvSéaros 
Kavcbv av eir] t<3v oecnrvevcrroiv Vpa(j>(ûV. 

"Let this be the true canon of the inspired scriptures." 

1 It is this Amphilochius, -who, in order to obtain from the Emperor a de- 
cree against the Arians, long refused, came before him without offering any 
homage to his son Arcadius, seated on a throne by his side. " You are 
offended, Sire, at my irreverence," he then said to the emperor, "and not 
without reason ; but what will the Father eternal, the King of kings, then 
think of those who refuse honor to his only Son, and who blaspheme his 
holy name ?" — Sozomen, Lib. vii. chap. 9. 

a Colon. 1680, torn. ii. p. 193. 



THE TWO CATALOGUES GIVEN BY COUÎfCILS. 81 



SECTION xn. 

THK TWO CATALOGUES OF THE FOURTH CENTURY . GIVEN 
BY COUNCILS. 

Character of their Testimony. 

What we have now been hearing from the lips of all the 
fathers of the fourth century who have transmitted to us 
their views of the Scriptures, is precisely what has been re- 
peated by the declarations of the councils of this century, 
which investigated the claims of the several books to a place 
in the canon. 

Only two councils of this period have expressed their 
views on the canon : that of Laodicea, and that of Carthage ; 
the one held in Asia Minor, on the river Lycus, in Phrygia, 
thirty-nine years after the œcumenical council of Nice, A. D. 
364 ; the other in Africa, thirty-three years later, having 
Bishop Aurelius for its moderator, and, as is said, Augustine 
of Hippo for assistant moderator, a. b. 397. 

We have seen from all the catalogues of this century, 
beginning with that of the Nicean council, what a remark- 
able and unconstrained unity of views concerning the canon 
of the New Testament existed among the fathers. The 
only and slight exception is found in regard to the Apoca- 
lypse, on the " part of a few ; a harmony uninterrupted, as 
from the beginning, on the twenty books of the first canon ; 
a harmony, from that time universal, on the five antilegomens 
of Eusebius, that is, the second canon ; a harmony, not less 
entire, on the Epistle to the Hebrews. We find no more 
hesitation, real or apparent, excepting in regard to the 
Apocalypse. And if we say real or apparent, it is because 
very diflèrent causes can at different times produce the one 
or the other. On the one hand, with some persons, the dis- 
pute against the Millenarians was then too recent, and the 
contest too severe, especially in the East, to allow of an 



82 THE CANON. 

immediate reception of that book on which they founded 
their doctrines. And, on the other side, even with many 
of those churches which were the most firmly convinced of 
the canonicity of the Apocalypse, this book was too mystical 
to be publicly read in their popular assemblies. At the 
same time, while these two causes produced a diversity of 
language in the church concerning the Apocalypse, this 
very diversity had now ceased, and all the churches, in 
this respect, as in every other, had become harmonious, 
and were presenting to the world but one and the same 
doctrine. 

This we shall find in the decisions of the councils of 
Laodicea and Carthage. They will but confirm the test! 
mony of the fathers. 

Before hearing them, however, we should distinctly under 
stand their object. It was evidently, not the announcing of 
a dogma for the church, but the instituting of a discipline ; 
for their language is constantly that of testimony and not 
of authority. Neither of them speaks as pretending to de- 
termine what books shall thenceforth be regarded by the 
church as divine, and which as not divine. Their sole 
object is to regulate the public reading of the scriptures, 
and therefore to state what was the opinion of cotemporaiy 
churches, and what the testimony of antiquity concerning 
the books authorized to be publicly read ; for, says the 
council of Carthage, " we have received from' the fathers 
that these are the books to be read in the church." Thus 
it will be noticed that not a word of their language resem- 
bles the proud utterances of the council of Trent, deciding 
for the universal church, as God alone can do, the canonicity 
of such and such a book, and uttering then its anathema 
(j)ost jactum Jidei confessionis fimdamentum ■^) against any 
one who should dare to diflTer from their opinion on that 
point : " Si guis lihros (istos) pro sacris et canonicis non 

1 Words of the Council of Trent, (Sess. ir.) April 8, 1546, Labbé, Concilia, 
torn. xiv. p. 746- 



THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA. 83 

susceperit, . . . anathema sit! . . . ." The de- 
cree of Carthage, like that of La,odicea, attests, then, that 
they wished to declare, not what books should be received as 
divine, but what books, already acknowledged as divine by 
the church of God, from the ti-aditions of history, should be 
PUBLICLY READ in the sacred assemblies of Asia Minor and 
of Northern Africa. 

The council of Laodicea says, " In the church there 
should be read, neither private psalms (that is, composed 
by uninspired persons), nor uncanonical books (aKaj/ovtora) ; 
but only the canonical books of the Old and New Testa- 
ments ; and these are all that should be read." ^ . . etc. 
"It has appeared to us proper," say the council of Car- 
thage, " that, except the canonical scriptures, nothing 
SHOULD BE READ in the church, under the name of di- 
vine scriptures; except that the acts of the martyrs^ may 
be read on the anniversaries of their deaths." 

Two facts characterize the catalogue of Laodicea; and 
also two that of Carthage : 

For the Old Testament, the council of Laodicea entirely 
excluded the apocryphal books ; and for the New Testa- 
ment, it did not mention the Apocalypse ; while in every 
other respect fully agreeing with the canon of our churches. 

For the Old Testament, on the contrary, the council of 
Carthage admits the apocryphal books ; and for the New 
Testament, it names the Apocalypse ; so that in the latter it 
is in perfect harmony with our canon. 

But these two 'classes of facts fully examined will show 
an entire accordance, as we shall presently demonstrate. 
Their contradiction is only in appearance. 

The Ooimcil of Laodicea. 

The council of Laodicea was convoked a. d. 364, to rep- 
resent the different countries of Asia Minor, and to promote 
1 Cave, Hist. Litt. p. 362. 2 Mansi, iii. p. 891. 



84 THE CANON".^ 

ecclesiastical discipline in their churches. Thirty-two bishops 
■were there under their metropolitan Nunechius. This date 
is furnished us by the ancient code of the canons of the 
universal church, which early admitted the canons of 
Laodicea, and which controlled all the churches to the sixth 
century. Larger than any provincial council, because it 
was composed of deputies from the whole of Asia Minor, 
the council of Laodicea was from the beginning an object 
of very great respect in all the churches ; and its decisions 
were at once regai-ded by the Latins as well as the Greeks,^ 
as making part of " the Ecclesiastical Regulations," imposed 
on all- bishops. This is fully seen in the letter of Pope Leo 
IV., about A. D. 850, to the clergy of Great Britain.** In 
fact, it is not only by the sixth œcumenical council of 
Constantinople ® that the canons of Laodicea were placed 
in " the code of the universal church," but also by_the fourth 
œcumenical council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, and by a 
decree of the emperor Justinian, A. D. 536;* so that they 
had in the churches the authority even of general councils 
and of the imperial laws which sanctioned them. The clear 
and conclusive writings of Justel ^ and Le Chassier ® may be 
consulted on these facts ; as also the learned expositions of 
Bishop Cosin, in his book on the canon.' 

Nevertheless, whatever may have been the veneration 
of the ■ancient church for the council of Laodicea, we must 
confidently expect to find the Boman leaders attempting to 



"i-Hoc concilium antlquâ nobiUtate celeberrimum, says Binius, Grœcorum 
atque Latinoruin scrijytis celebn memoriœ commendatum fecit. (Ex Baronioj 
note i. in Laod. Cone.) 

2 Canon de Libellis, Dist. 20. 

8 Quinisexta Synodus in Trullo (692); its canons sometimes objected to. 

4 Novel. 131. 

5 Prœfat. in Codic. Ecclesise Univers — Testimonia praefixa ante Codi- 
cem Dion. Exigui. 

6 Opusc. in Consult, de Controversiâ inter PapamPaulum V. et BempubL 
Venetam. 

' Art. lix.-lxiii. 



THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA. 85 

destroy its authority;^ because it absolutely excludes from, 
the canon the apocryphal books of the Old Testament can- 
onized twelve hundred years afterward, by the council of 
Trent. Their arguments on this point have been power- 
fully contested by Bishop Cosin. They say, 

1. That Dionysius the Less omitted this catalogue in his 
" Universal Code of the Canons." 

But Dionysius is well known to have made many other 
alterations and retrenchments. 

2. The Roman code,^ they say, does not contain it. 

But oiir appeal should be to the Greeks rather than the 
Latins, to the universal code much more than to the Roman 
code. For has not the latter in like manner omitted eight 
canons of the council of Ephesus, the last three of the 
council of Constantinople, and 4he last two of the council 
of Chalcedon? 

Cosin also declares that the fraud is betrayed by a 
remarkable imprudence ; for, in removing the catalogue of 
the scriptures from the 59 th canon of Laodicea, they have 
inadvertently left the preface and title, which distinctly allude 
to the books enumerated afterward in all the other editions 
of the council. Those which we receive from Mercator, 
Merlin, Crab, Surius, Du Tillier, Binius, as also those of 
Balsamon and Zonaras, all alike contain the catalogue 
omitted in the Roman code.' 

Ï It is marked as suspicious, in many editions of the councils, for exam- 
ple, in Harduin. (i. 79.) 
2 " Codex Ganonum et Decretorum Ecclesise Romanse." 
8 It must, however, be admitted that the authenticity of the catalogue as 
an integral part of the 59th canon of Laodicea has been contested more 
recently, in two opposite directions, by learned men : on the one side Spitt- 
ler (Saemmtl. Werke, 1776 and 1835, viii. 66), and Bickel on the other 
(Stud, und Krit. 1830, p. 591) ; that they have marked its absence from many 
Greek MSS. of the eleventh century, and from some of the ancient Latin 
versions; and, in fine, that Mr. Westcott, (Hist, of Canon, Cambridge, 1855,) 
having consulted the Syriac versions in the Brit. Museum, and not having 
found it there, thinks that the external proofs are rather against the authen- 
ticity of the catalogue. — Pages 500-502. 



86 THE CANON. 

3. Catharinus, to escape the decree of Laodicea, has re- 
course, on the contriary, to the supposition that the catalogue 
was originally more extended; and that, in order to remove 
the apocryphal hooks, they made the retrenchment. " Vehe- 
menier suspicor," he says,^ " I strongly suspect." 

But, by a similar process, any one can add or remove 
•whatever suits his wishes. 

4. Finally, Baronius, in his "Annals," is still more daring. 
He imagines the council of Laodicea to have preceded that 
of Nice, and the latter to have made a decree on the apoc- 
rypha ! He hopes also to overthrow the authority of. the 
former by that of the latter, which would, as an oecumenical 
council, revoke the decisions of a merely provincial council. 

But, in the first place, we have already shown '^ how this 
supposition of a decree of Nice upon the book of Judith is 
without foundation. In the second place the code of the 
universal church, in giving the canons of Laodicea, itself 
assigns to the council the date of A. d. 364. In the third 
place, all the ancient Greek and Latin collections of the 
synodal canons have always placed those of Laodicea 
after those of the council of Antioch ; and we know that 
this was held sixteen years after that of Nice. In fine, the 
Photinians are condemned in the 7th canon of Laodicea. 
Now they are not spoken of before A. D. 345 ; that is, twenty 
years after the council of Nice. 

We give here the fifty-ninth and sixtieth canons of the 
decree of Laodicea ; they are, in fact, the last two of the 
council, but are numbered 163 and 164 in the Universal 
Code, which contained 207 before the time of Dionysius the 
Less. 

"Private psalms are not to be read in the church, nor 
any uncanonical books, but only the canonical books of the 
Old and New Testaments. These are the books of the 
Old Testament to be recognized : 1. The Genesis of the 

1 De Script. Canonic. 
'■* Canon, chap. i. sec. viii. 



THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA. 87 

world ; 2. The Exodus from Egypt ; 3. Leviticus ; 4. Num- 
bers ; 5k Deuteronomy ; 6. Joshua ; 7. Judges ; 8. Ruth ; 
9. Esther; 10. Four Books of Kings; 11. Two Books of 
Chronicles ; 12. First and Second of Ezra (Ezra and Nehe- 
miah) ; 13. Book of one hundred and fifty Psalms ; 14. 
Proverbs of Solomon ; 15. Ecclesiastes ; 16. Song of Songs; 
17. Job; 18. Twelve Prophets; 19. Isaiah; 20. Jeremiah 
and Baruch, ^ Lamentations, and Epistles ; 21. Ezekiel ; 
22. Daniel. The books of the New Testament are, the four 
Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John ; the Acts 
of the Apostles ; the seven catholic epistles, namely, one of 
James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude ; fourteen 
epistles of Paul, one to the E«mans, two to the Corinthians, 
one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philip- 
pians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, one to 
the Hebrews, two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Phile- 
mon." / 

Why did the bishops in this council omit the Apocalypse, 
since this is the only imperfection in their catalogue ? 

Many will attribute this silence to their not having yet 
restored the Apocalypse to the canon ; but this explanation 
is entirely incompatible with cotemporary facts. And we 
believe it a much more satisfactory reason to assign, that the 
fathers of this council, wliile admitting the canonicity of this 
sacred book, judged it too symbolical and mystical for public 
reading in the churches. , 

In fact, we must not lose sight of the end which the 

1 It must not be imagined that the book of Baruch is here intended, but 
simply an exegetical manner of indicating more explicitly that -which, 
according to the Jewish reckoning, the twentieth book contained, which 
wc call Jeremiah and his Lamentations. It was nearly in the same terms 
that Origen already, à hundred years before, designated this same book. 
(Euseb. Hist. Ecc. Lib. vi. chap. 25.) He says, " Jeremiah with his Epistles 
and Lamentations (chap, xxx.) forms but one book." Athanasius and 
Cyril, in their designation of the book of Jeremiah, add, with the Laodicean 
Council, the indication of the twenty-ninth chapter and of that which 
relates to Baruch. Besides, we see the council has carefully numbered all 
of Jeremiah as the twentieUi book. 



88 THE CANON. 

fathers of this council had in view. Occupied with the 
single question, what books were to be read in the churches, 
they contented themselves with two declarations. By the 
first they forbade the reading of any non-canonical book ; 
by the second they ordered the reading of the twenty-two 
books of the Old Testament, and twenty-six books of the 
New. But they no where said that they did not consider 
the twenty-seventh, although they did not name it, as 
canonical ; any more than the church of England says it, 
when, on the one hand, in her Prayer-Book, (in the sixth 
of the thirty-nine articles of faith,) she ranks the Apoca- 
lypse among the canonical books, and, on the other, in the 
calendar and the preface to the same liturgy, she does not 
allow the Apocalypse to be read in public. 

Certainly, if the bishops of 'Laodicea, instead of making 
a simple decree on the readings in the temple, had pretended 
to exclude the Apocalypse from the canon, they would have 
caused a clamor of remonstrance from every quarter, so 
earnest that the sound of it would have reached our ears. 
How, indeed, could a council have set itself against the 
powerful testimony rendered by the earliest martyrs and the 
most venerable fathers of the church to the Apocalypse? 
How could they have given this solemn contradiction to the 
Justin Martyrs, the Irenaeuses, the Methodiuses, the Hippo- 
lytes, the Melitos, the Alexandi-ian Clements, the Antiochan 
Theophiluses, the Origens, and the TertuUians, without caus- 
ing remonstrances and protestations to be heard in every 
part and section of the church ? Had not Tertullian de- 
clared the rejection of this book to stand among " the her- 
esies ? " ^ 

Now, on the contrary, during all this epoch, you hear 
only one complaint from any of the illustrious admirers of 
the Apocalypse. Yet they were flourishing at the time of 
the council ; they were filling the Christian world, with their 
writings. Athanasius was still living ; Epiphanius, Basil the 
1 Against Marcion, Lib. iv 



THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA. 89 

Great, St. Ephraîm, all equally attached to the canonicity 
of this book, were still living ; ^ Jerome and Kufinus were 
then in their full vigor.'^ And, not only has none of these 
eminent men raised his voice against a decision so contrary 
to his belief, but we can not find even one writer opposed to 
the readmission of the Apocalypse, who justifies his views by . 
an appeal to the decree of Laodicea. 

But still farth<fl? : it was but thirty-three years afterward 
when the council of Carthage named the Apocalypse in its 
decree, yet no one spoke of that as contradicting the council 
of Laodicea, so much respected by the Eastern and Western 
churches. It is then merely a difference oT view concerning 
the public seiTices 'of the sanctuary which we find in the 
action of these two councils; a point on which churches 
might innocently, hold different opinions. 

There is, however, another authentic fact which proves 
that the two councils were considered at that period, as not 
at all discordant on articles of faith, but as differing only on 
points of external service in which unity was not required. 
"We allude to the action of the sixth general council of 
Constantinople;^ in the seventh century. .This great assem- 
bly, composed of two hundred and twenty-seven bishops, 
solemnly confirmed, in its second canon, the council of La- 
odicea, as well as the letters of Athanasius, Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, and Amphilochius, (which exclude the apocryphal 
books from the scriptures,) but at the same time equally 
recognized the council of Carthage. This fact appears to 
us conclusive. "We see that, to approve of both these 
assemblies at the same time, the council saw in the Car- 
thaginian decree relative to reading the scriptures in the 
church a measure entirely reconcilable with the Laodicean 
decree. It is therefore evident that both decrees had refer- 
ence, not to doctrine, but to discipline. 

1 They died twelve, fifteenj and thirty-eight years afterward. 

2 Thirty-three years of age. 

8 Quinisextum, in Triillo, 692. 
8* 



90 THE CANON. 

The Council of Carthage. 

All the histories of the council of Carthage show that it 
took place in the beginning of September, A. D. 397, during 
the consulship of Cœsarîus and Atticus. And yet it ordains, 
in its forty-seventh canon, that " The bishops shall consult on 
their resolutions the church beyond sea, as well as their 
brethren and colleagues Boniface, and other bishops of 
those countries." 

Now this Boniface, forty-third bishop of Eome, did not 
begin his reign until twenty-one years after the date of 
this decree. It is then evident, that we have here another 
instance of those fraudulent interpolations so frequently 
made by the Roman hierarchy, or the blunder of some com- 
piler who has introduced into the canon 'the decree of a 
council held perhaps a century afterward. 

Another article of the same council here comes in to con- 
firm this explanation ; it is the forty-eighth canon, which 
ordains in its turn that the bishops of the council " take 
the advices of their brethren Siricius and Simplicius," 
bishops of Rome and Milan. Now, between this Siricius 
referred to in the forty-eighth canon, and this Boniface con- 
sulted by order of the forty-seventh canon, there were at 
least three popes ; the first dying a. d. 398, a year after the 
council ; and the other beginning his reign A. D. 418. 

Whatever may be the date of this forty-seventh canon, 
it is to us a monument of the universal thought of the 
churches of this epoch. In fact, not only does it furnish 
us the same catalogue of the sacred books which are now 
universally acknowledged, but it also enumerates them aU 
exactly to the twenty-seventh in the order of our modern 
bibles. "We give it then as found in the edition of the 
councils by Labbe and Cossart (tom. ii. p. 1177).^ " Canon 
47th. It has pleased the council to decree that, besides the 

1 See also p. 106, Integer Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Africanae, Greek and 
Latin, cap. xxxiv. 



THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. 91 

canonical scriptures, nothing shall be read in the church 
under the name of divine scriptures. 

" Now these are the canonical scriptures of the Old 
Testament. . . . . 

" And as to the New Testament : four gospels ; one book 
of the Acts of the Apostles ; thirteen epistles of Paul ; with 
one of the same to the Hebrews ; two of Peter j three of 
the apostle John ; one of Jude, one of James ; ■* and one 
only of the Apocalypse of John." ^ The council adds, 
" Let this be to make known to our brother and priest 
Boniface * or other bishops of those countries the confirma- 
tion of this canon, because we have learned from the fathers 
that they are the books to be read in the church. At the 
same time permission is granted to read the sufferings of the 
martyrs on the anniversaries of their death." 

As we shall have hereafter to resume the consideration of 
the Carthaginian catalogue in reference to the apocryphal 
books, it would but embarrass us to dwell farther on it now. 
Only we would remark, before passing from it, that if this 
catalogue seems to differ from that of IJaodicea on a fact and 
a name, the disagreement is totally external and in appear- 
ance. As to the fact, the council decides that the ecclesiasti- 
cal books shall be read in worship, the reading of which had 
already been frequently permitted by the ancients, but which 
Laodicea thought it better no longer to permit. And as to 
the name, it is wrong to employ the word canonical as the 

1 Kirchhofer (p. 12) and Wordsworth (append, p. 33), professing to fol- 
low Mansi's edition {torn. iii. p. 891), have omitted the Ep. of James. But 
the Greek code of the canons of the African church (chap. 34) says, 
'IaKÔjSov àitoarbTixyv fda. Also the code of Camb. Univ. library, EE. iv. 
29, ( Westcott, Gen. Survey of the Canon, 185). Kirchhofer gives this canon 
twice in his collection, (p. 13, according to Bruns, and p. 503, after Gerhard 
Von Mœstricht, Brem. 1772). The Epistle of James is in the one, and 
wanting in the other. 

2 An old manuscript (vetustus codex), says Labbe, (Concil. ii. p. 1177); 
contains these words (sic liahet) : " that to confirm this canon the transma- 
rine church he consulted." 

8 Other editions, as that of Binius, say, et consacerdoH nostra. 



92 THE CANON". 

title of these books in a broader sense than it had had for 
four centuries ; applying it in the. sense of libH regulares, 
or books adapted to be the rule of life. Such a use of this 
word, says Cosin, was not made until after the fourth 
century, and then rarely. We shall have to show hereafter 
the thought of the council in their use of this term, by the 
fact that Augustine, present (they say) in this assembly, never 
ceased to establish an essential difference between the divine 
scriptures and the canonical books, and that never does he ap- 
peal on this question to the decisions of Carthage, as if this 
council had settled it. 

SECTION xm. 

BECAPITULATION OF ATX. THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FOUETH 
CENTUKY. 

We are now enabled to see that the voice of the universal 
church, from the times of the apostles always unanimous in 
regard to the first canon, already unanimous also from the 
days of the council of Nice in regard to the second, has 
ended by pronouncing definitely on the second-first, in the 
course of the fourth century. The temporary and later 
hesitations of the Western church in regard to the Spistle 
to the Hebrews had already almost entirely ceased, from 
the end of the century ; and the temporary and late hesita- 
tions of the Eastern church in regard to the Apocalypse also 
soon ceased, so that the canon was thenceforward univer- 
sally and for ever recognized in all the Christian churches. 



COMMON PBEJUDICES. 93 



SECTION XIV. 

COMMON PREJUDICES WHICH THE FIRST REVIEW OF THESE 
FACTS SHOULD DISSIPATE. 

It may be profitable to review these facts, and notice here 
some of the inexact notions and unfounded fears which too 
often find currency among us. The believer must guard 
against the confused echoes of history, which, by being often 
repeated, come to gain a usurped credit, and assume the 
dangerous appe*anae of a historic reality. Thus arise 
prejudices of long endurance, enfeeblement of principles, 
hurtful doubts. Let a sciolist with a pretentious air spread 
among some churches hazardous assertions and inaccurate 
declarations, and the unwary are sure to be entrapped; it 
seems to them that such or such a scholar, in his lofty retreat, 
possesses irrefragable facts, unanswerable discoveries against 
this or that scripture declaration ; thej are persuaded that no 
one dares to confront him face to face, and that prudence 
requires silence ; whilst, on the conti-ary, if you approach to 
study the matter closely, you find all these phantoms vanish, 
and these difficulties disappear. This has been witnessed 
now for two centuries, in regard to the variations. Would 
you not have imagined, a hundred years ago, that critical 
science, according to its own pretensions, had irresistible 
facts against .the scriptures, and that .their authority was 
about to be entirely overthrown? And what has come to 
pass then ? It is that, in marching straight up to these 
facts, in passing thus from half-science to a complete science, 
we have soon seen all the pretensions of the adversaries 
vanish in smoke ;v so that their eflPorts to overthrow our 
faith on that side, have in the, end only served to confirm it. 
So will it be with the canon. 



94 THE CANON. 

Di'. Thiersch says,^ " We do not hesitate to maintain, with- 
out the fear of appearing to be presumptuous, that there is 
not in all the range of historical research a field in which 
a greater mass of prejudices and misconceptions has found 
entrance, than in this ; forming a system which even now 
exerts a tyrannical influence over men of some eminence." 

Some of these false notions and injurious prejudices we 
will now examine. 

1. Many speak of the sacred collection as if it had heen 
a matter of uncertainty to Christian people for three cen- 
turies, and as if the books of the New Testament had not 
been decidedly recognized as divine before the end of the 
fourth century ; whereas it is, on the contrary, a constant fact 
that the first canon was never and no wheré^an object of un- 
certainty for the churches of God, but that all the writings 
which compose it, that is to say, the eight ninths of the New 
Testament, have been, from their first appearing and during 
all the succeeding ages, universally recognized as divine by 
all the Christian churches. 

2. Many persons speak of five antilegomens, or of the five 
brief later epistles, which we denominate the second canon, and 
which form only the thirty-sixth part of the New Testament, 
as if they had not been recognized from the apostolical times. 
This is also a misapprehension. It is true, they were not 
universally acknowledged (the cause of which we will show) ; 
but they were acknowledged from the beginning by the great 
number of the churches (rots ttoAAois) and by the largest 
number (rots irXetorots) of ecclesiastical writers. 

3. They also speak of. the second-first canon as if the two 
books composing it had not been universally recognized as 
canonical until a late period ; whereas, on the contrary, they 
began by being universally acknowledged in both the East 
and the West; and it was only later, at the beginning of 
the third century, and simply from considerations of inter- 

1 " Essay on the Canon." " Versuch zur Verstellung des historischen 
Standpunkts fur die Critik der Neu-Testamentlichen Schriften." 



COMMON PREJUDICES. 95 

nal criticism, (never from testimony,) that one of these books, 
always regarded in the East as divine, was contested for a 
time in the "^^^est, and the other of these books, always 
regarded as divine in the West, was for a time disputed in 
the East. 

4. Many speak of this hesitation of a small portion of the 
churches on the subject of the antUegomens as having been 
prolonged into the fourth century. This is, however, an 
error ; for we have found by all the catalogues of the fourth 
century, that this disagreement ceased as soon as the churches 
were assembled in the first universal council. 

5. Many, too, represent the hesitation of a part of the 
primitive churches in regard to the second canon, as a fact 
very grievous to our religious feelings. This, too, is a great 
mistake. We shall show, on the contrary, that, far from dis- 
turbing our faith, this fact rather tends to confirm it, since it 
attests to us clearly, on the one hand, the firmness, the holy 
jealousy, and the constant vigilance of the primitive Chris- 
tians, in regard to the canon.; and, on the other, the entire 
freedom with which they examined its claims, studied its 
peculiar features, and even in some cases contested its legiti- 
macy. All these facts prove to us, then, with great force, 
that if, notwithstanding this continual jealousy of the primitive 
churches, and with this perfect liberty granted them, they al- 
ways manifested such entire unanimity in receiving the 
twenty books of the first canon, it was not blindly, not with- 
out examination, not to obey human authority ; it was, on the 
contrary, only from having had before their eyes solid rea- 
sons, manifest and thoroughly convincing, which forced them 
to come to the same conclusion. That view alone can ex- 
plain an agreement so full, so prompt, so universal among 
men so vigilant, so jealous, and so free. 

Thus, then, these very doubts, entertained for a time by a 
minority of the churches in regard to the five later epistles, 
doubly aid our faith ; since, on the one hand, the existence 
of these doubts assures us that, in receiving universally the 



96 THE CANON. 

first twenty books of the New Testament, these churches had 
not been able to discover the least cause of hesitation in regard 
to them ; and, on the other, the universal cessation of these 
very doubts equally attests that they must have felt them- 
selves constrained by the most powerful reasons, when they 
all finally received, without exception, the second canon, as 
in the beginning they had received the first. 

6. Many, again, to diminish the authority of the scrip- 
tures, or to exalt that of tradition, have insisted that the 
church, during her first and most glorious years, lived long 
without a written word, having only the spoken word and tra- 
dition. That, too, is a mistake. The primitive church never 
assembled without making the reading of the Old Testament 
the most prominent pai"t of her -service ; for she always be- 
lieved that these " holy scriptures are able to make the man 
of Grod wise unto salvation," "furnished unto all good works," 
" through faith which is in Christ Jesus." After the example 
of Jesus and his apostles, she has always nourished herself 
on the written word ; and by it constantly fortified her faith 
and hope. These scriptures have never ceased to be a 
lamp to her feet. " Search them," Jesus says, " for they are 
they which testify of me." 

7. Many, too, speak of the canon as if its definitive form 
had been fixed by the councils, — the act of the church pro- 
nouncing decrees. This, too, is a mistake ; nothing indeed 
is more contrary to the real facts ; and this we must show 
now, although we must resume this point when we come to 
treat of the veritable foundation of our faith in the canon of 
the scriptures. 

No human authority interfered in this matter. It was the 
pure and simple product of the conscience, of research, of 
freedom. The churches of God, enlightened by the mutual 
testimony of their members, judged in this case only by their 
own wisdom, under the secret and powerful direction of that 
Providence which will always watch over the written word. 
The universal reception of the first canon preceded all the 



COMMOM" PREJUDICES. 97 

councils ; and these when they came together were occupied 
with every other question but that o& the canon. "We shall 
yet show with more precision, that the general councils never 
passed a decree on this subject for fourteen centuries ; as we 
have already shown that even the two provincial councils 
of'Laodicea and Carthage, too often cited, can no more be 
regarded as authority on the question before us. 

Lardner ^ has demonstrated, by long quotations from the 
fathers, that the canon of the New Testament has in no 
degree been formed by human authority. Basnage^ has 
given three chapters of his church history to this point. 
John Le Clerc ^ has said, " There has been no need of a 
council of grammarians, to declare magisterially which are 
the works of Cicero or of Virgil. So, too, the authenticity 
of the Gospels was established, and has continued without 
any decree of the rulers of the church. We may say' the 
same of the apostolical epistles, which owe all their authority, 
not to the decisions of any ecclesiastical assembly, but to the 
concordant testimony of all Christians, and tp the veiy char- 
acter of their conten4s." Augustine, too, thirteen centuries 
before Le Clerc, said, "We know the writings of the 
apostles as we know those of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Varro, 
and others ; and as we know the writings of difièrent eccle- 
siastical authors, because they have the testimony of their 
cotemporaries and of the men who lived immediately after 
them." 

Let us content ourselves with remarking here that the 
ancient fathers, in their judgments on the canon, appealed 
only to the free and uninterrupted testimony of the churches, 
at the same time making an attentive examination of the 
books proposed for their acceptance. When they give us a 

" 1 Supplement, 50-52; 2d part, torn, i.; edit. 8, torn. vi. pp. 325,381; torn, 
ii. pp. 325, 496, 529, 576; torn. viii. pp. 102, 225, 268; torn. x. pp. 193, 207, 
208. 

2 Lib. viii. chap. v. vi. vii. 
' 8 In the years 29 and 100 of his Hist. Eccl. 
9 



98 THE CAl^ON. 

catalogue, it is never as the fruit of their discoveries, nor as 
the decisions of any authority whatever; they report to us 
only the thoughts of the preceding ages ; the free testimony 
of the primitive churches ; that which they have received 
from their predecessors, hy a transmission continued from 
the days of the apostles. 

When Origen, born' 142 years before the council of Nice, 
gives us his catalogue of the canonical Scriptures (rwv ivBta- 
6-qK<j)v ypafjiwv), he appeals to no decisions of any council, but 
merely to the ancient men of the church (ot dpxatoi avSpes) 
and to tradition (ws èv irapaSocret yuaOwv). It is Eusebius 
who has preserved his words to us, and who adds, in report- 
ing his testimony on the four Gospels : " Origen preserves 
tradition and the ecclesiastical canon ; ^ and he attests that 
there are but four Gospels, alone received without any 
contradiction by aU the church of God which is under the 
heavens." 

Also Eusebius himself, when giving his opinion on the 
collection of books in the New Testament and on the dis- 
tinction between the books universally received and those 
which are contested, refers neither to any authority nor 
council, and declares that he receives the canon from eccle- 
siastical tradition (Kara t^v èKKX.r}(ruumKi]v irapéZoa-iv)? 

Thus Athanasius, born in 296, in giving his canon com- 
pletely conformed to ours, attributes it " to the transmission 
to the fathers by those who were .eye-witnesses and minis- 
ters of the Word from the beginning ; " ^ but he refers to no 
council, and gives us only what he calls books recognized as * 
authoritative, transmitted and received as divine. 

None of the authors, even of the centuries firhich followed, 
to the fourth, fifth, or sixth, ever appeals on this point to the 
decisions of any council. Thus, when Cyril, patriarch of 
Jerusalem, born twenty years after Athanasius, gives. us his 
catalogue of the theopneustic books (at ^cojrveuoroi rpa^cti), 

1 Hist. Eccl. vi. 25, 2 Hist. Eccl. iii. 25. 

8 Festal Epistle, xxxix. • 



COMMON PEEJUDICES. 99 

he refers to lio council, and appeals only "to the apostles 
and ancient bishops who presided over the churches, and 
who have transmitted them to us."^ Thus, when Augus- 
tine, at the end of the same" century, or rather at the begin- 
ning of the fifth, wrote his directions to certain persons who 
had consulted him " on the books really canonical," he ap- 
pealed only" to the testimony of the different churches of 
Christendom, and referred to no council.^ Thus when Ru- 
finus, priest in Aquileia toward the year A. d. 340, gives us 
in his turn a catalogue (also exactly conformed to ours), he 
attributes it " only to the tradition of the ancients, who had 
transmitted them to the churches of Christ as divinely in- 
spired;" and he declares that he gives it as he found it 
in the monuinents of the fathers.^ 

And when Cassiodorus, Itoman consul in the sixth cen- 
tury, gives us three catalogues of the New Testament (one 
of Jerome, one of Augustine, and one of an ancient version), 
he likewise makes no reference to any decree or any coun- 
cil.* Let lis then hear no more about councils fixing au- 
thoritatively the canon of the Scriptures. This canon is 
undoubtedly fixed ; but not by any authority of councils. 
God determined that Christians and churches, enlightened 
by the testimony of Christian generations, should form their 
own convictions on this subject, in complete freedom of judg- 
ment, in order that the authenticity of the sacred books 
might thereby be made the more manifest. 

We shall hereafter examine this important fact from 
another point of view ; but it should suffice us " here to 
learn from these testimonies how erroneous and contrary 

1 Catech. iv. 33. 

2 De Doct. Christ Lib. ii. vol. iii. part i. p. 47. Paris, 1836. (He begaa 
this book in 397, and finished it in 407.) See also Lardner, torn. x. p. 207. 

8 In Symbol. Apost. p. 26. " Quee s,ecundum majorum traditionem per 
ipsum Spiritura Sanctum inspirata creduntur et ecclesiis Christi tradita, 
competens videatur in hoc loco evident! numéro sicut ex Patrum mona- 
mentis accepimus designare." ' 

* Lardner, torn. xi. p. 303; Cassiod. De Instit. Divin. Litterar. cap. xi. 



100 ' THE CANON. 

to facts is the pretension of seeking the origin or the de- 
termination of the canon in any ecclesiastical decTee. 



SECTION XV. 

CONCLtrsiON FROM AM. THESE TESTIMONIES OF THE FIRST 
FOUR CENTURIES. 

Fkom this long review, and from the united testimony of 
all these fourteen catalogues, the inheritance of four centu- 
ries, the first to the death of John, toward the end of the 
first century ; the second to the death of Irenaeus and of 
Clement of Alexandria, toward the end of the second cen- 
tury ; the next to the approaches of the ruin of Roman pa- 
ganism, toward the end of the third century ; and the eleven 
others in the course of the fourth century, from the days of 
Eusebius to the death of Gregory Nazianzen, or even to 
the council of Carthage ; — from these fourteen catalogues, 
we say, arise three cardinal facts and three important ques- 
tions. 

First, from this permanent and universal unanimity of the 
churches in maintaining in all parts of the world the twenty 
books of the first canon, — from this striking and permanent 
fact, which no one disputes, arises this question : On what 
foundation rests this unanimity, so constant, free, astonish- 
ing, and universal ? How was it formed ? 

The reply to this will form the subject of our second 
chapter ; it will confirm our confidence in the complete au- 
thenticity of the first canon ; it will increase our respect for 
the Holy Scriptures, and our regard for their authority. 

From this first fact arises another; that, beside the twenty 
books of the first canon, the two epistles which form our 
second-first canon participated from the beginning, and to 
the middle of the third century, in this universal recognition. 
Hence this second question : Whence arose, after this epoch, 
the objections in regard to these two Scriptures ? What was 



CONCLUSION FROM THESE TESTIMONIES. • 101 

their weight ? and how was the authenticity of the second- 
first canon at length established in the presence of this later 
and temporary opposition ? 

The/ answer to this second question will be the subject of 
our third chapter. 

Finally, from the same testimonies springs a third fact, 
equally important j it is, that five short epistles, constituting 
the second canon, and containing in themselves only the 
thirty-sixth part of the New Testament, recognized by the 
greater portion of the churches, were nevertheless not ac- 
knowledged by some. This continued to the time of the coun- 
cil of Nice, twenty-five years after the third century. Hence 
arises another question, the third and last : How is it pos- 
sible that the antilegomens, if authentic, were not universally 
received from the time of the apostles' death ? How came 
they to be acknowledged afterward ? and how does this fact 
of the partial resistance they met consist with the perfect 
certainty we entertain of their authenticity, and that of the 
other books of the canon ? . 

The reply to the several phases of this question will be 
the subject of our fourth chapter. 



9* 



102 THE CANON. 



CHAPTER SECOND. 

OF THE FIRST CANON. 

We have already showed in our first chapter, — and it 
will be well to bear it in mind throughout the course of this, 
— that almost all our arguments in favor of the first canon 
apply equally, so far as the first two centuries of the church 
are concerned, to the two books of the second-first canon ; 
and that Eusebius for this reason placed them in the rank of 
the homologomens. We shall commence with the evidence, 
which is so abundant, of the primitive, constant, and universal 
unanimity of the churches in regard to these twenty books. 



SECTION I. 

THE PERFECT AND CONSTANT UNANIMITY OF THE CHURCHES. 

The simple review which we have made in our first chap- 
ter of -all the authentic catalogues furnished by the first ages 
of the church, must powerfully affect every attentive reader. 

At least fourteen catalogues have been given to us by the 
thx'ee centuries immediately succeeding the age of the apos- 
tles, — for we might add the two anonymous catalogues at- 
tributed to Amphilochius and Muratori.^ They are the 
unanimous testimony of the most learned and venerable men 

1 See Canon, (;|iap. i. sec. vii. x. xi. ; chap. ii. sec. v. vL 



UNANIMITY- OF THE CHURCHES. ^ 103 

of the East and the West. And this testimony, too, is not only 
on their part a public attestation of their personal conviction : 
it is a public declaration of the common conviction ; it is 
their unanimous recognition of a great historical fact, — a 
fact uncontested and incontestable : the agreement of all the 
churches of the world as to the first canon. " Such is," they 
say, " the voice of the ages which have gone before us, the 
voice of the churches from one end bf the earth to the other, 
since the times of the apostles ; a voice ever definite, clear, 
and unhesitating. We have all listened to all the traditions 
of ancient times, to observe if there would reach us, from 
the midst of the ancient churches, one solitary discordant 
cry, — and we have heard nothing of the kind. We have 
looked into the depths of times past to see if we could dis- 
cover any thing which would authorize the slightest doubt, 
and we have seen in all the vast horizon not even the small- 
est cloud of contradiction, — not a cloud even as large as the 
hand of a man." 

And what witnesses of the opinion of their period : Ori- 
gen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Cyril, Gregory Nazianzen, Je- 
rome, Epiphanius, Augustine ! Could there be any better 
situated, more competent, more credible? Better situated? 
They occupied the highest positions, they were scattered 
over all the known world and at great distances from each 
other ; — these on the banks of the Euphrates or the Nile, 
of the Save or the Rhone ; those on the borders of the 
African Syrtes or of the Euxine Sea. More worthy of faith ? 
They were almost all confessors or martyrs ; almost all so 
penetrated with a love for the Scriptures that they defended 
them with their lives ; all so sincere and free in their re- 
searches that they report to us without reserve all they 
know about it, and that they are prompt to inform us that 
by the side of the homologomens are five later short epistles 
which, although received by the majority, are not acknowl- 
edged by all ; whilst they declare that they have never heard 
in any church in the world the least opposition to the other 



104 THE CANOîf. 

twenty books. More competent, or better informed ? There 
never- were any such. They are all learned men ; all have 
searched the Scriptures ; all have traveled on account of the 
Word of God, in the East and the West ; tliey have seen 
Rome and Alexandria, Constantinople and Jerusalem ; they 
have met each other in councils; and they have all, concern- 
ing Christian antiquities, an amount of knowledge before 
which our modern schohirs are but children. What a wit- 
ness, for instance, at the opening of the fourth century is 
Eusebius, who, in order to write, in A. p. 324, his history of 
the beginnings of Christianity, put himself in possession of 
all ancient literature ; examined thoroughly the libraries . 
gathered in Cœsarea by Pamphilus, and in Jerusalem by 
Alexander ; read all the now lost works of Aristion, Quad- 
ratus, Aristides, Hegesippus, Papias, Tatian, Melito, — 
known to our modern scholars only through him ! And 
-what a witness, yet a century earlier than Eusebius, is Ori- 
gen, that " scholar with entrails of brass," as he has been 
called, who, from the close of the second century, conse- 
crated all the resources of his genius to the study of the 
Scriptures, and who himself was an immediate disciple of 
that Clement of Alexandria who was born only forty years 
after the death of thé Apostle John ! 

We may, then, from this imposing testimony, deduce the 
four following conclusions : — 

1. When so large a number of men, so learned, so sin- 
cere and so independent, inform us from all quarters of the 
earth, that, after having diligently studied all the history 
of the churches of God from the days of the apostles, they 
have not been able to find among them, up to the beginning 
of the third century, anything but the most perfect unanimity 
in regard ^to all the books of the first canon, then, surely, we 
must acknowledge that all antiquity no where presents us a 
single historical fact so superabundantly demonstrated as this 
constant unanimity of the churches. 

2. This very unanimity is so perfect that it excludes all 



UNANIMITY OF THE CHURCHES. 105 

possibility that any one of these homologomens could have 
obtained it, if it had not been received at first by the churches 
while the apostles were living, and with their sanction. 

3. It would likewise have been absolutely impossible 
that, after the death of the apostles, so many thousands of 
churches, then spread over all the earth, could immediately 
have consented to receive any additional book into their 
canon, even though that book had already been received 
by a great part of them with the best marks of its apostoli- 
cal authenticity, — as was afterward the case with the anti- 
legomens. One such book could never have been accepted 
by so many thousand churches in Egypt, in Asia Minor, in 
Mesopotamia, in Greece, in Spain, in Africa, in Italy and in 
Gaul, without having to pass through a long period of scru- 
ples, oppositions, and hesitations, the noise of which would 
have reached the ears of such men as Origen, Cyril, Atha- 
nasius, and Eusebius. , 

4. If such a posthumous acceptance by all the churches was 
at length consummated in regard to the antilegomens, and if 
it finally silenced all opposition, it is surely an extraordinary 
fact highly improbable before the event, and humanly inex- 
plicable except by the "abundance of the evidences of legiti- 
macy which these later books were found to possess. 

But if, shortly after the death of the apostles, any one had 
attempted to add to the primitive canon of the twenty-two ho- 
mologomens, transmitted to all the cotemporary churches by 
the apostles themselves, any new work, even if it had the 
most satisfactory titles of authenticity, and though accepted 
by a majority of the existing churches, it is -impossible to 
admit that this additional book could have been immedi- 
ately accepted by all the churches to the very ends of 
the earth. And not only is this true ; but if we should go 
still farther, and even imagine such a book, after the death 
of the apostles, to have been accepted by churches the most 
independent of each other without resistance or objection, 
without discussion or hesitation, — yea, without leaving one 



106 THE CANON. 

trace of any resistance or objection, yet it is utterly impossi- 
ble to believe that this new book would have been immedi- 
ately and universally placed in the collection of the primitive 
apostolical books, and in the same rank with them. 

And yet this must be admitted if the primitive introduc- 
tion of the twenty-two horaologomens was not anterior to the 
deaths of the apostles, and accomplished during their min- 
istry. 

It is, then, well established, by the force of historical tes- 
timony, that none of the homologomens.was introduced into 
the sacred collection after the death of the apostles. 



SECTION n. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ITS TWENTY-TWO HOMOLOGOME- 
NOUS BOOKS INCOMPARABLY SUPERIOR TO ALL THE BOOKS 
OF ANTIQUITY, IN THE EVIDENCE OF ITS AUTHENTICITY. 

Sustained, then, by the testimony of this majestic una- 
nimity, we may boldly affirm that, in all the field of ancient 
literature, there is not a single book comparable — even re- 
motely — to our first canon, as to the perfect certainty of its 
authenticity. History will never present any thing like it in 
point of literary legitimacy ; and we may fearlessly challenge 
the production of any one book among all those that are now 
most fully acknowledged by learned men to be the genuine 
productions of antiquity, which can show one tenth of the 
scientific vouchers that sustain the claims of our first canon. 
Michaelis^ has remarked: "The testimonial proof of its 
legitimacy is infinitely superior, in many particulars, to all 
that ancient literature can present us even for the woi'ks 
most abundantly attested." 

This enormous inequality may be seen in at least ten or 
eleven of its difierent features. 

1 Introd. to the New Test. vol. i. p. 24, etc. 



SUPERIOR EVIDENCE OF AUTHENTICITr. 107 

Profane works, even the most eminent, were directed only 
to individuals, by isolated authors ; or rather, most frequent- 
ly, to no one ; whereas the books of the New Testament 
were written by the apostles to the churches of their own 
day ; that is, by great public personages to gi-eat associations 
of men who knew them, who were known, by them, who 
were scattered over the earth, permanent, free, bound to 
them and each other by ties the most intimate and sacred. 
First and potent guaranty of the authenticity peculiar to the 
Scriptures of the New Testament. 

The books of antiquity, even the most authentic and cele- 
brated, however cordially welcomed by their cotemporary 
readers, have never excited an interest even remotely com- 
parable to that felt by the primitive Christians in. their 
Scriptures. "What solicitude had the readers of the former, 
after all, about being preserved from error in regard to the 
legitimacy of the books ? Their indiflference on this point 
is exhibited and measured by the lightness of their re- 
searches in respect to it. Suppose they should mistake 
the author of a book, and attribute to Tacitus or Pliny, 
Plutarch or Cicero the work of another, what would be 
the injury ? AH their efforts to be informed on the point 
of authorship accordingly amounted to nothing more than 
brief investigations. But how different it was with the 
primitive Christians, to whom were "transmitted, in the 
name of the apostles, the books in which these holy men 
had spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ! It 
was a vital question to determine, whether such an epistle or 
such a gospel was indeed the work of those apostles and 
prophets on whom the church of the living God is built as 
its foundation, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
stone. (Eph. ii. 20.) For these living oracles was not 
every one of them ready to offer his life ? And if so, was 
not the question of the origin of these books a matter of su- 
preme moment with them ? Their Christianity, their faith, 
their salvation, were all involved in it. A second and po- 



108 THE CANON. 

tent guaranty, which belongs exclusively to our sacred 
books. 

When the writings' of antiquity were issued, their cotem- 
porary readers were generally neither eye-witnesses nor com- 
petent judges of the facts which they there found reported; 
whereas, on the contrary, our sacred books made their ap- 
peals to facts which the entire church and every believer in 
the church could confirm by his own eyes. They quote liv- 
ing witnesses, actors in the scenes, ministers known for thirty 
years by all cotemporary Christians, miracles performed in 
their own day, congregations who had witnesses among them- 
selves, prophecies, tongues, healings, which continued through 
all the lives of the apostles,^ and during the generation that 
succeeded them, that is, to the commencement of the second 
century. A third guaranty, which made a^mistake in regard 
to the canon in the primitive churches impossible! 

The writings of the ancient literature now extant were 
published without the authorization of any body of men, and 
without any security for their transmission ; whereas, on the 
contrary, the books of the New Testament had for these, on 
the one hand, the churches with their bishops, and on the 
other, the college of the apostles whose protracted lives ex- 
tended to the end of the first century. Paul alone had car- 
ried the gospel from Arabia to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem 
to lUyricum, and thence to Italy, and perhaps farther west, 
(Rom. XV. 19, 21,) charged as he was with the care of all 
the churches (2 Cor. xi. 28) ; Peter was thirty years at 
the head of the evangelization of the Jews, as Paul of the 
Gentiles (Gal. ii. 8, 9) ; and John was, till the opening of 
the second century, at the heaa of the churches of Asia. 
Fourth guaranty of authenticity, which not even the least- 
contested of profane books have ever offered. 

The most celebrated works of the ancient world were read 
and reread, without doubt, eagerly, by their cotemporaries : 
but to make way afterward for other writings no less es- 
1 See Gal. iii. 2; ActSfKix. 2; ICor. xiv. 27. 



SUPERIOR EVIDENCE OF AUTHENTICITY. 109 

teemed, and then to be neglected for ages. But how totally 
different it was with the holy scriptures of the New Testa- 
ment ! They were constantly read ; incessantly copied for 
personal use ; continually studied ; the most barbarous people 
learned to read, merely that they might the better compre- 
hend them ; they were meditated night and day (Ps. i. 1-3), 
from church to church, from generation to generation ; for this 
was then, always, as in the days of David, the mark of the 
righteous man; who constantly made them the light of his 
feet and the lamp of his path. Fifth guaranty of an au- 
thenticity belonging exclusively to our canon. 

The writings of the ancients, however eminent, might, at 
the end of a fe\*' years, be lost and perish, without exciting 
any regret ; and it is thus that so great a number of the 
finest works of antiquity have for ever disappeared; and 
among them even those which were at first preserved with 
the greatest care: the Hortensius of Cicero: almost all of 
Varro; even the writings of Menander, which were gener- 
ally known by heart; those of Ennius and Pacuvius; three 
fourths of Titus Livy; the great History of Sallust; the 
greater part of Tacitus ; the books of the elder Pliny on the 
German war ; the latter part of the Fasti of Ovid ; sixty 
books of the Roman history of Dion Cassius ; twenty-five 
books of the historical libraiy of Diodorus Siculus ; and al- 
most the whole of Polybius. "Whatever may have been the 
regard of antiquity for these admirable books, still they have 
perished. But it could not be so with our sacred books ; for, 
besides the desire of every Christian to possess them, they 
were preserved for public worship in the numberless ora- 
tories scattered over the earth ; and every true minister of 
Jesus Christ, history shows us, would sooner yield his life 
than his Bible. Sixth guaranty of authenticity, which per- 
tains exclusively to the books of the canon. 

While the greater part of even the masterpieces of an- 
tiquity were translated into different languages only long 
after their production, thé books of the New Testament were 
10 



110 THE CANON. 

translated into all the languages of the East even in the 
first century: first, in Syriac, then in Arabic, Coptic, Sahi- 
dic, Armenian, Persian, later in Ethiopian ; and also in the 
Western tongues : in Latin, in Gothic, Sclavonic, Gallo-Cel- 
tic, Anglo-Saxon. We have already spoken of the Peshito, 
and of its high antiquity.^ A Latin version was made from 
the earliest days of Christianity ; it is believed that the Vê- 
tus Itala, which was used before the days of Jerome, was 
composed before the end of the first century ; and we find 

^Note by the Translator. — The Nestorians inhabiting the Koordish 
mountains and the country lying around the lake of Oroomiah have, from 
the early ages of Christianity, remained a separate and independent church. 
They speak a modern dialect of the old Syriac tongue, which was that used 
by our Saviour. One of the earliest translations of the New Testament 
•was made in that language. It is called-the Peshito. Several copies of it, 
dating back to A. d. 1200, are still carefully preserved by the Nestorians. 

The Peshito version is generallj"- admitted to have been made early ia 
the second century. Hence it omita the Apocalypse, 2d Peter, 2d and 3d 
John. 

A copy of this venerable work is now in the library of the A. B. C. F. M., 
in Boston. Dr. Justin Perkins thus relates the account of its transfer to this 
country: "This copy was. presented to Dr. Grant by Mar Shimon when that 
heroic missionary-traveller first visited the patriarch,— the first Western man 
whom he had ever seen ; it may be, the first who has penetrated the central 
portion of Koordistan since the days of Xenophon. These rare copies were 
kept by the Nestorians, swapped in a large number of cloth envelopes and 
hidden away in secret places in their ancient churches, to save them from 
the ravages of the Mohammedans. The word of the Lord was preciotis in 
those days. The patriarch was so much pleased with his missionary vis- 
itor that he presented to him this his choicest treasure. This cop3' has a 
questionable label, giving its date as A. d. 1200. The antiquarians at Ox- 
ford, to whom I showed it, thought it must be much older. I have seen no 
parchment copy among the Nestorians of .a date later than the commence- 
ment of the thirteenth century. 

" This copy contains the books usually found in the Peshito version, 
which correspond minutely with our canon, except that Revelation, 2d 
Peter, 2d and 3d John are wanting. This circumstance confirms the gen- 
uineness of the copy, as the Peshito, being one of the earliest — perhaps 
the earliest — translation made, the books latest written had perhaps not 
then been incorporated into the canon. 

" This volume is beautifully written in the ancient Syriac language, in 
tlie Estrangelo character. The parchment is deer-skin, the deer being still 
an inhabitant of Koordistan." 



SUPERIOE EVIDENCE OF- AUTHENTICITY. - lU 

TertuUian quoting it, toward the end of the second century. 
This is then a seventh guarauty of authenticity belonging 
only to the sacred canon. 

The works of ancient literature have not, like the books 
of the New Testament, provoked controversies at their very 
appearing, the noise of which, still reaching us, establishes 
indirectly, and so much the more forcibly, their authenticity. 
The New Testament, on the contrary, by the very attacks 
of its first adversaries, proves the anterior existence of its 
canons, the apostolicity of its authors, and the faith which 
the primitive Christians placed in it ; so that the first unbe- 
lievers and heretics attest to us with irresistible force, by 
their very hostility, the apostolical authenticity of our sacred 
books. In the very act of combating their doctrines they 
recognized their authors, and testified unwittingly to all 
coming ages that, before them, these books were already the 
object of the respect of the whole Christian church, and the 
code of its faith. They contested their teachings, not their 
authenticity ; rejected them as erroneous, never as spurious ; * 
while spitefully contradicting, they still regarded them as the 
•works of the apostles whose names they bear. 

"We shall treat this point at greater length hereafter, but 
must refer to it in this connection ; for this striking testimony 
of enemies, being less expected, is perhaps weightier than 
that of all the orthodox fathers. This is an eighth guar- 
anty of authenticity, which has no equivalent in the case of 
any books of ancient literature. 

The books of the ancients — even the most distinguished 
— are comparatively little quoted by the authors of subse- 
quent ages ; it is totally otherwise with our holy Scriptures. 
Cited, explained, interpreted, taught by an uninterrupted 
succession of ecclesiastical writers, they might, if we had lost 
them, be entirely recomposed, as Lardner has affirmed, fi*om 
the authors who have quoted them. The whole succession 
of the fathers is employed in reproducing them. We have 
already spoken of the prodigious labors of Origen on all the 



112 THE CANON. 

Scriptures. Irenaeus, before him, in Gaul, in the second 
century, cited abundantly all our homologomenous books. 
At the same time Clement was quoting them in Egypt; 
and as to TertuUian, in Africa, born about the middle of 
the second century, he so abundantly quotes by name all the 
sacred books of the first canon and of the second-first canon, 
that, in the words of Lardner,^-"if one should gather the* 
passages of the New Testament introduced into his writings, 
it would make a collection more extensive than that of aU 
the quotations from Cicero made by all known writers for 
two thousand years." This is then, for the ninth time, a 
special guaranty that the New Testament is authentic. 

In the mean time there is a tenth feature which alone 
would establish an immense distance between the scriptures 
of the New Testament and the other books of ancient litera- 
ture: it is, that the latter, however abundantly they may 
have been read, were read by individuals detached from 
one another ; and they thus presented no collective guaranty 
*of their legitimacy ; whilst our Scriptures were read, from 
the days of the apostles, by permanent societies which were 
organized for this very purpose; read without interruption, 
from Sunday to Sunday, and from day to day ; read in every 
country then known; read even so abundantly that many 
men knew them by heart ; read in every assembly of wor- 
shipers from the days of the apostles, as they are now 
still read, and as they will continue to be read in every 
living church until the day when the Lord shall descend 
from heaven. This tenth guaranty, perhaps more power- 
ful than all the others, must be more^ fully considered here- 
after. 

Finally, one last testimony which powerfully sustains the 
claims of the New Testament, but which is wanting to all 
the other monuments of classical antiquity, is, that the latter, 
beside their mere readers, had no continuous order of men 
seriously and jealously engaged in confirming and controlling 
1 Vol. ii. pp. 250-287. 



SUPERIOR EVIDENCE OF AUTHENTICITY. 113 

their titles, with a holy severity, in order to prevent the ad- 
mission of any doubtful books, and to exclude any book until 
its authenticity could be positively ascertained ; while, on the 
contrary, for the New Testament, we can trace the uninter- 
rupted succession of such examiners from the very days of 
the apostles. 

If we study the history of the churches minutely, we shall 
see, from the beginning, twenty-two books in their hands, re- 
ceived during the lives of the apostles, without the whisper 
of a contradiction in regard to any of them for two centuries ; 
but at the same time we shall hear them speak of five brief 
letters written to some persons or some churches, and which, 
received by the greater part (TrXetcrrois), yet did not meet the 
same reception by the churches situated at a great distance, 
which for a time hesitated to receive them. This fact shows 
at once that there was a conscientious and imtrammeled cau- 
tion exercised by individual churches in forming the canon 
for themselves. And this want of unanimity in regard to 
one thirty-sixth portion of the canon gives the more weight 
to the unanimous assent of the Christian world to the other 
portions of the New Testament. Thiersch,^ in his valuable 
work on the canon, remarks : " At the close of the first cen- 
tury, the churches, thenceforward left to themselves, and more 
jealous than ever of their sacred deposit, manifested them- 
selves fearful of innovations, controlled by a conservative 
spirit, and disposed to keep their collection as for ever com- 
pleted, until it was abundantly proved to them that this or 
that later epistle was, as commended to them by a great num- 
ber of churches, apostolic." Thus, unwilling themselves to 
decide upon its authenticity, they refused, notwithstanding 
the advice of the majority, to admit it into the sacred canon ; 
and, without rejecting it, contented themselves with declaring 
that, not having received it at the beginning of their exist- 
ence as a church, they would wait until sufiicient proofs of 

1 Chap. IV. Versuch zur Wiederherstellung des hist. Standpuncts fur 
die Kritik der N. T. Schriften. 18i5. 
10* 



114 THE CANON. 

its authenticity should be presented. It is thus that, on the 
one hand, their admirable firmness in regard to the first 
canon, and on the other their holy vigilance and jealousy 
in regard to the second, furnish the same testimony, and 
serve equally to confirm our faith. 

If there had been no resistance on the part of any of the 
churches to the later epistles, we might have suspected a too 
ready compliance on their part, and too much carelessness in 
accepting doubtful books and in the transmission of the canon. 
But, on the contrary, this control, exercised during two cen- 
turies by a certain number among them over the five epistles, 
this holy reluctance to receive them, united to their fear of 
rejecting them ; this disposition, at once prudent and respect- 
ful, at once unwilling for a time either to abandon or adopt 
them ; this long and religious reserve, sufficiently show with 
what wisdom they proceeded, with what freedom they exam- 
ined, with what mature judgnaent they finally decided the 
question. 

It is thus that all these remarkable facts combine to fur- 
nish a new force to the testimony of theh* complete unanimity 
in regard to the first canon. 

"What we have now said, therefore, may entirely answer 
all demands for proof to establish our position, and permit us 
confidently to maintain that this unanimity of the churches 
throughout the entire world, joined to all the peculiar cir- 
cumstances which accompanied them, givQs to the first canon, 
or rather the twenty-two homologomens, a certainty which 
can be equaled by nothing in the entire field of literature. 

And yet, however complete a guaranty this may furnish 
us, it will be made still more complete by the study we are 
about to make of the causes of so marvelous an agreement. 
To what human causes must we attribute this grand histori- 
cal phenomenon? This is the point we are now about to 
examine; and the research will develop new sources of 
proof for the authenticity of our canon. 

We shall first examine three other historical facts, which. 



THKEE CAUSES OF THIS UlfAîrtMITY. 115 

while characterizing the primitive church, explain to us how • 
this astonishing unanimity of all the people of God in regard 
to the first canon was so promptly secured. 



SECTION III. 

THKEE^ CAUSES PAKTICUI-AELY HATE PKOVIDENTIAI-LT SE- 
CUKED THIS UNANIMITY. 

The long Career of the Apostles, 

The first fact, which characterizes and controls the history 
of the primitive church, and which was necessary to secure this 
unanimity, is the lengthened duration of the lives of the apos- 
tles, notwithstanding their trials and the innumerable perils 
of their ministry. It becomes the more remarkable when 
we remember their position in the world: "as sheep in 
the midst of wolves ; " as they themselves said, " delivered 
unto death for Jesus' sake ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; 
cast down, but not destroyed ; accounted as sheep for the 
slaughter," they were almost all preserved by the mighty 
providence of God for a ministry of thirty, fifty, and sixty 
years. 

It has been remarked that whenever God purposed to 
produce some important and durable reformation in the 
church, he has always taken care to give a long career to 
the men destined to accomplish it ; because he wished to fur- 
nish them all the time needed for consummating and confirm- 
ing it. 

When he had driven man out of paradise, he gave each 
of the early patriarchs nearly nine centuries of life, to put 
them in a condition for preserving among their children's 
children to the twentieth generation the knowledge of their 
fall and of the promise. The son of Enoch, who had lived 
with Adam nearly two hundred and fifty years, might live 



116 THE CANON. 

also nearly six centurieg with Noah, who was to be for the 
new world a preacher " of the righteousness which is by 
faith." And, when the earth had been renewed by the del- 
uge, God purposed that Noah too should instruct the new 
generations descending from him for three hundred and fifty 
years ; and that Shem, his second son, should survive him 
seventy-five years, to the calling of Abraham, — the father 
of the faithful. Still later, when God brought his people out 
of Egypt, to give them his institutions, his laws, and nis gra- 
cious promises, he added forty years to the ripened age of 
Moses, and sixty-four to that of Joshua the son of Nun, in 
order that these two great men might have sufficient time, in 
the wilderness or in Canaan, to accustom Israel to the new 
discipline of his written word. When, in fine, at the close 
of the long career of the judges, he chose, in order to prepare 
for the régime of the prophets, to effect that revival in which 
we see " all the house of Israel lamenting after the Lord," 
(1 Sam. vii. 2,) he continued the prophet Samuel at the head 
of the nation, for more than fifty years. Then, when he in- 
troduced the régime of the kings and the temple service, hé 
gave them two prophet kings, each of whom reigned forty 
years. And when finally he determined to reconstitute the 
nation around his living Word in the Babylonian exile, he 
preserved Daniel to them for seventy years. 

And when we come to more recent times, we see also that, 
in the holy Reformation of his church by the gospel, God 
gave, on the one hand, to the churches of Germany, and, on 
the other, to those of Geneva and France, thirty years of the 
aministry of Luther, thirty years of that of Calvin, thirty- 
three of that of Farel, and forty-six of that of Beza. 

Now if this longevity was so frequently adapted to ac- 
complish in the church the great changes divinely decreed, it 
was much more requisite in the first centuiy, when the*church 
was to be formed from the Gentile races as well as the Jews, 
for giving to it for the benefit of coming ages the oracles of 
the New Testament, and thus securing to it, amid the great 



THE LONG CAREER OF THE APOSTLES. 117 

revolutions then taking place, a powerful and majestic unity. 
It was necessary that the apostles, charged with this great 
work, should enjoy a long life, -in order to watch, continu- 
ously and unitedly,.under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
over the progress of the churches, their methods of worship, 
and especially their universal reception of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. It was necessary that the churches should be duly 
exercised in the life of fai th while the apostles were yet with 
them, since they were after that to be left, until the return of 
Jesus Christ, to the sole direction of the Holy Spirit and of 
the written word. And thus it has in fact occurred. 

With the sole exception of John's l)rother, James the 
Great, (martyr under Herod Agrippa, only ten years after 
the ascension of the Saviour,) all the apostles exercised a 
very long ministry in the church. 

James the Less, the brother of the Lord and the first of the 
three pillars of the church (Gal. ii. 9), remained for twenty- 
eight years at the head of the Jewish Christian churches ; 
and yet all the other apostles survived him, — some of them 
forty years. Esteemed by the Jews, called by them "the 
Just," and so revered that the Talmud cites some miracles 
" wrought by James, the disciple of Jesus the carpenter," ^ 
and that Josephus, in recounting his martyrdom (Antiq. 
XX. 8), "declares that " the wisest of the nation deplored his 
death as one of the principal causes of the ruin of Jerusalem, 
and of God's anger against the Jews." Simeon, also one of 
our Lord's brothers, became, the historians say,^ bishop of 
Jerusalem immediately after the death of James, and lived, 
if we may credit Eusebius, to be more than a hundred yeai-s 
old, not being crucified until A. d. 107, after having fed the 
flock in Jerusalem forty-five years. Peter and Paul minis- 
tered to the Jewish and Gentile churches thirty and more 
years; for we must place their martyrdoms between the 
burning of Eome in July, a. d. 64, and the death of Nero, 

1 Calmet's Dictionary, Art. James! 

2 Eusebius, H. E. Lib. iii. chap. 2, 11, 32. 



118 THE CANON. 

June, A. D. 68. Moreover, it appears that the larger portion 
of the apostles lived still longer ; for, although it is impossi- 
ble to credit the contradictory traditions of the fathers, who 
date the death of Mark at Alexandria, A. D. 68, Timothy 
A.D. 97, Thomas and Bartholomew in India, Jude in Lybia, 
Matthew either in Ethiopia or in Parthia, yet we have the 
infallible books of the Acts and Revelation, which show us 
that all the other apostles survived Paul, Peter, and the two 
Jameses, and that John, exiled in Patmos dui'ing a persecu- 
tion which did not begin before Domitian's reign, nor end 
before A. d. 96, returned to the coast of Asia in order to com- 
plete the Revelation, and to die there. If his brother James, 
sixty years before, (a. d. 43,) had begun the list of apostolical 
martyrs, it is he himself who was to terminate the catalogue 
of their sufferings so long afterwards,^ at the beginning of the 
second century. All the traditions of antiquity agree in ac- 
cording to him an extreme old age. Jerome says ^ he could 
not walk, but was carried to the meetings of the church. He 
is said to have preached among the Parthians and Indians ; 
but what appears incontestable is, that, he lived to an ad- 
vanced age. Jerome speaks of his sepulcher in Ephesus, 
whither he had gone to join the family of Mary, our Lord's 
mother. Irenseus and Eusebius ^ aflSrm that he died in the 
third year of Trajan ; others say, A. D. 103. If we must 
believe Epiphanius (Haeres. 51), he was then ninety-four 
years old; others say still older. 

Now this fact of the protracted career of the apostles has 
great weight when we remember what relations these men 
of God constantly sustained to the churches which they had 
founded. For it gives irresistible force to the unanimous tes- 
timony of Christianity concerning the twenty-two homolog- 
omens; it explains this otherwise inexplicable unaniinity; 

1 He underwent many severe condemnations, but alone died a natural 
death. 

2 See Jerome on Galat. vi. and De Vins Illustr. cap. ix. 

8 Iren. Haeres. iii. 3 ; ii. 39, Euseb.H.E. iii.23. Chron. Euseb. See also 
Augustine, Serm. 253, chap. iv. 



THE LONG CAREER OF THE APOSTLES. 119 

it makes it not only explicable, but indispensable. When 
we remember that the apostles and all their inspired assist- 
ants exercised in the church so long and so faithful a minis- 
try during more than half a century, it becomes manifest 
how all the churches in the world came to be perfectly 
agreed in accepting the twenty-two books given to them by 
the apostles before their deaths. And, on the other hand, by 
an opposite reasoning, if we consider the astonishing fact of 
this unanimous belief by the churches of the inspiration of 
these twenty-two books, we see the necessity for the con- 
tinued presence of the apostles, and their approval of the 
introduction and use of these books in the churches. "We 
can see, also, how impossible it was that, after so long a min- 
istry, any one should, subsequent to their death, have induced 
any church to accept any new book to whose inspiration the 
apostles had not testified ; impossible that many of them in 
such circumstances should have accepted them ; still more 
impossible that they should have received all without excep- 
tion, nay, without objection ; all, too, without leaving to us 
one sign of hesitation. 

Surely (we have aheady said it, but must repeat it), there 
is not in history or in criticism an absurdity which may not be 
admitted, if we allow to this supposition the slightest degree 
of probability. Let us place ourselves for a moment in the 
circumstances of those primitive Christians, and inquire how, 
after a half-century of progress under the ministry of so many 
inspired men, we should have received, our apostles being 
dead, any new book which they had not given us in their life- 
time ; let us ask with what spirit of jealousy, on the contrary, 
we should have been armed, after their decease, to repel 
every novelty, to protest against every intrusion, to reject 
eveiy scripture which did not bear the unquestionable sanc- 
tion of those men of God. 

We shall presently show how much the history of the five 
later epistles adds to the weight of this argument. 

We see, therefore, that there exists a logical and necessary 



120 THE CANON". 

connection between these two uncontested facts: the long 
ministry of the apostles in the primitive church and the per- 
fect unanimity of this entire church on the homologomens ; 
and then another connection, still more necessary, between 
these two facts and the authenticity of all these books. 

If any one should to-day tell us that the author of a mod- 
em book had watched for forty years over all its successive 
editions' in all Europe, that at the end of that time no one 
could find among any of the booksellers of Europe the least 
doubt concerning the authenticity of the book bearing his 
name, should we not regard such unanimity as a sufficient 
and unquestionable proof of its authenticity ? And yet, how 
much more powerfully is this double guaranty given us for 
the New Testament in the long superintendertce of the authors 
and the unanimity of the publishers and guardians of these 
books ! Instead of one author, we have eight ; we have all 
the apostles, vouchers one for the other ; we have men of 
God ; we have their inspired companions, Mark, Luke, Sim- 
eon (Niger), Timothy, ApoUos, Silas, Barnabas,^ and so many 
others, who presided for half a century over the churches 
of God. And, instead of the booksellers of Europe, we have 
all the churches of Asia, and Europe, and Africa. And, in- 
stead of a single book, we have twenty, in respect to which 
the most perfect unanimity of testimony is immediate, uni- 
versal, constant, and incontestable. 

Still further : to appreciate more perfectly this double 
guaranty, of so long a superintendence and of so perfect a 
unanimity, there is one other characteristic feature of the 
primitive church which we must keep in view. That is, the 
relations so continued, so intimate, and so numerous, iVhich 
the apostles sustained to the churches, and the churches to 
one another. This feature results from all the events of 
their history, and all the traditions belonging to it. Many 
examples of it are furnished, the exactness of which we can 
not guarantee. They tell us, for instance, how the apostle 
1' Acts xiii. 1, jrpo^^rat; 2 Tim. i. 6; iTiin. iv. 14. 



THE LONG CAKEER OF TECE APOSTLES. 121 

John, in the close of his career, chose for his residence that 
great city of Ephesus, as the center of the oriental and occi- 
dental Christianity, from which he could stretch out his hand 
to the churches of the two worlds. They tell us — and these 
witnesses are both ancient and numei'ous (Caius,^ Eusebius,^ 
Jerome,^ Victorinus,"* Chrysostom,^ Theodore of Mopsuesta^) 
— that the bishops of Asia presented themselves to him 
in Ephesus, and requested that he would himself leave to 
the churches of God a gospel which should complete the 
others.'^ They tell us (TertuUian .and Jerome ^ ) how a 
priest of Ephesus had published, under the name of Paul, 
a book entitled The Acts of Paul ; and, when the apostle 
accused him of the imposture, he pleaded in his defense the 
pious intention of honoring the memory of Paul. We re- 
call these statements among so many others, only~to show 
more distinctly the vigilance with which the apostles watched 
the formation of the canon for half a century ; for we prefer 
always to pass by traditions when we have the Scriptures 
testifying on any point. The Epistles, in fact, and the Acts 
of the Apostles sufficiently inform us of the constant care of 
these men of God, and more especially of Paul, toward the 
churches' they founded. He himself declares, (2 Cor. xi. 28,) 
" The care of the churches cometh daily upon me." And 
these churches extended from Jerusalem to Blyricum, from 
Borne to Macedonia and Galatia. He visited them continu- 
ally ; for this purpose he traversed the empire ; he was ship- 
wrecked four times in this service ; in perils of water, in 
perils of robbers ; in perils of Jews and of Gentiles, in cities 

" 1 About the year . 196. In the famous canon called Muratori's, which 
many attribute to him. (Kirchhofer, Geschichte des Canons, p. 1.) 

2 H. E. iii. 24. 

8 In Math. Proœm. 

4 In Apocal. Bibl. Patr. iii. 418. 

6 Auct. Incert. Montfaucon, viii. 132. 

6 Catena in Joan, Corderii. Mill. N. T. p. 198; edit. 1723. 

' If this were admitted to be true, it would not be inconsistent with the 
theopneust}' of this fourth gospel. *" 

8 Tertullian De Baptism., 15 and 17. Jerome, Catal. Vir. 111. in Luc. 7. 
11 



122 THE CANOÎT. 

and deserts ; in perils among false brethren ; in weariness 
and painfulness, in cold and nakedness. He sent them his 
fellow-laborers ; he received from them letters and messages ; 
he inquired earnestly after their condition (1 Thess. iii. 5-8 ; 
Phil. ii. 19-29) ; he wept in the prison in Rome on hearing 
that some of his Philippian converts had gone astray ; he 
lived again if he heard that they stood fast in the Lord ; he 
had a continual conflict of prayer for each one of them, and 
even for such as had~never seen him ; he adjured them in 
the Lord's name that his letters should be read by all the 
brethren in one church, and then be sent to another ; like 
Peter, recommending that all those of Paul be read with the 
rest of the Scriptures (2 Pet. -iii. 16). He constantly in- 
quired after them with the solicitude of a mother for the 
infant she had nourished; he watched with jealousy over 
their doctrines ; was in anguish when they wandered ; — " who 
is offended, and I burn not ? " he inquires ; — he travailed in 
birth again for those who had strayed, until Christ should 
be formed in them. These statements concerning this one 
apostle ai*e so abundantly sustained by his epistles, that we 
need not indicate the particular passages in this place. 

It is then fully manifest how, under the influence of such 
a ministry, prolonged, in some cases, to fifty, sixty, and al- 
most to seventy years, it was impossible that any book should 
be fraudulently or carelessly imposed upon the churches, 
impossible that they should unanimously accept any book 
which had not received the sanction of these men of God. 
"We can equally comprehend that, after the death of the 
apostles, at the close, of so long a ministry, it was inevita- 
ble that all these very churches should be penetrated, not 
only with a religious respect for all the apostolical institutions, 
but also with a jealous distrust of all instructions which had 
not been sanctioned by them while on earth, especially of 
every book which they had not placed in the sacred canon. 
Thus it was that the last writings of tliose who survived the 
greater part of the apostles, written at the close of their 



NUMBER OF CHURCHES AT APOSTLES' DEATH. 123 

lives, were seriously distrusted, even to the time of the 
council of Nice, as we shall pres'ently show at greater 
length. But we shall also show that these five shorter books 
of the second canon were, nevertheless, received by the great 
majority, on account of the positive proofs of their authen- 
ticity which accompanied them ; and received especially by 
those churches which were the best situated to judge of them, 
since they were first directly addressed to them, and since 
they were the most interested to reject them, if they had been 
spurious. And we shall show that these very facts present 
to us an admirable guai'anty of the vigilance of the churches, 
of the freedom of their action, and of the confidence with 
which their unanimity for the twenty-two homologomens was 
formed. 

In the mean time, we have to consider two other historical 
facts still more important, which will furnish us new warrants 
of our sacred canon, and which, joined to the great fact of 
the unanimity of all the churches of the first centuries on the 
twenty-two homologomens, prove,, with an incomparable force, 
the authenticity of all these books. 

ITie Immense Number of the Ohurches at the T^me of the 
Apostles' Death. 

The great rapidity of the church's conquests before the 
death of the apostles, and her immense expansion before the 
end of the first century, is an astonishing fact, but as well 
demonstrated as it is marvelous. 

This new religion, which promised to annihilate every 
other, and which, springing up amid the poor and the most 
despised of the people, attacked all errors, stood face to face 
against every passion of the human heart, and inade no com- 
promise with the pride of the great, the pretensions of the 
priesthood, or the prejudices of the people ; this religion, 
which, while openly undertaking the overthrow of every false 
god, however powerful its supporters, however splendid its 



124 THE CANON. 

rites, however ancient its worship ; this religion which was 
preached at first only by* the poor, and which commanded the 
human race to recognize their God in the person of a Jew- 
ish carpenter, whom his own nation had rejected and executed 
as an impostor ; this religion, which had against it .the peo- 
ple, their pi'iests, their teachers, their magistrates, and kings ; 
this religion, which required every man to take before God 
the place of a criminal, and to renounce for it his goods and 
his life ; this rehgion, always persecuted, without having 
shed for three centuries any other blood than its own, — this 
religion had, in forty years, already manifested a power 
which presaged the conquest of the human race. In forty 
years, it had spread over the earth ; like the Nile in Egypt, it 
had flowed through the world with the waters of life. The 
apostles had not yet finished their course, when missionary 
churches, devoted and numerous, were seen in every country. 

This remarkable fact has perhaps been too little noticed in 
the study of the canon. Yet it is very significant in that 
connection ; while it is abundantly proved to us by both the 
declarations of Scripture and the testimony of history. 

The Scriptures leave us no doubt on this point. Paul, 
after only seventeen years of his ministry, wrote to the Ro- 
mans (xvi. 26,) that then already the gospel was made 
known to all nations; that he himself (xv. 19) had fully 
preached it from Jerusalem, and round about, unto Illyricum ; 
yea, where Christ was not named. The voice of the messen- 
gers of the glad tidings had gone out, like the sun (Ps. xix. 5), 
to the ends of the earth (Rom. x. 18). Nor was this, in the 
mouth of Paul, a poetical exaggeration. Judge then from 
his labors what the whole college of apostles must have ac- 
compHshed. Moreover, in thus spreading the gospel over the 
earth, the apostles had only done what their Lord had both 
commanded them to do, and predicted should be accomplished. 
Jesus, in foretelling to them the destruction of Jerusalem, 
which was to take place in thirty-six years, had declared to 
them: «the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 



înJMBER OF CHURCHES AT APOSTLES' DEATH. 125 

world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end 
come" (Matt. xxiv. 14). " Go ye therefore and teach [or 
disciple] all nations" (xxviii. 19). And this command 
was so fully accomplished in a short time, that Mark, in 
writing his gospel, could already say of the apostles, 
(xvi. 20,) "And they went forth, and preached every 
where " (Travra^ov) ; and that Paul, writing to the Colos- 
sians, (about A. D. 60,) said to them, (i. 6,) " The gospel is 
come unto you, as it is in all the world ; and bringeth forth 
fruit." He even added, (verse 23,) " The gospel which ye 
have heard, was preached to every creature which is under 
heaven." And only four years after these words had been 
written, this same gospel, violently persecuted by Nero, al- 
ready counted, Tacitus says, in the city of Rome alone, " an 
immense multitude." Paul, six years before thus writing, 
was preparing to go into Spain (Rom. xv. 24) ; and we may 
even suppose that he did in fact preach there, when we hear 
Clement of Rome (chap. v. of his 1st Epist. to Corinth.) 
affirm that he went to the farthest limits of the West 
(cTTt TO ripfia t^s Sucreojs). But if the fact of this journey 
of Paul into Spain remains uncertain, this is sure, that, in 
the very year when he was preparing to visit Spain, the 
Jewish Christians assembled in the city of Jerusalem alone 
were more than fifty thousand, " a great many myriads." 
James says (Acts xxi. 20 : Troo-at /AuptaSes). And at the 
same time, so extensive had been the propagation of the 
word of God in Italy by the obscure but incessant labor of 
Christian fidelity, that, long before the appearance of any 
apostle in the country, (Rom. xv. 20; 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.) 
very many conversions had preceded the coming of Paul. 
The faith of the Romans was already famed through the 
world when he wrote them his epistle (Rom. i. 8). And 
when, three years later, he arrived for the first time in 
Italy, he already found brethren near Naples, at the port of 
Puteoli, ready to receive him ; and also at the Appii Forum, 
Beventeen leagues from Rome , and, yet neai-er, at the Three 
11* 



126 THE CA2S0N. 

Taverns. And, only six or seven years later, before the 
apostle had laid down his life for Jesus Christ, the Christians 
of that great capital, forming an immense multitude, were 
already suffering, in crowds, the most horrible persecutions at 
the hand of imperial cruelty. 

We have already remarked that, to render these impor- 
tant facts incontestable, we still have, besides the testimony 
of Scripture, that of two of the most shining names of Roman 
antiquity, both cotempoi:ary with Paul, both pagans, both pro- 
foundly prejudiced against Christianity, both consular men, 
both men of letters, but engaged in the leading events of 
their time, and writing only what they had witnessed. I 
speak of Tacitus and of the younger Pliny; the one bom 
A. D. 61, the other a. d. 64 ; the one consul A. D. 97, the 
other three years later. 

' Tacitus wrote, under the form of " annals," the history of 
his day, from the death of Augustus to that of Nero. In 
his XV.th book, having reached the eleventh year of this 
prince, that is, a. d. 64, when Paul was still preaching, he 
speaks of the terrible fire which ravaged almost the whole 
capital of the empire, and which all attributed to the malice 
of Nero. " Eleven of the fourteen sections of Rome had 
then been burned. To put a stop to the public rumors, Nero 
sought out criminals, and subjected to the most cruel tortures 
the infamous and despised wretches whom the people called 
Christians. Christ, whose name they bore, had been con- 
demned to death by Pontius Pilate under Tiberius ; which 
for the moment suppressed this execrable superstition. But 
quickly the torrent broke forth anew, not only in Judea, 
where it began, but even in Rome itself, where all the 
sewers of the universe meet and disgorge their contents. 
They began by seizing those who avowed themselves Chris- 
tians, and then, on their deposition, an immense multi- 
tude, convicted less of burning Rome than of hating man- 
kind." An immense multitude (multitudo ingens) : such is the 
language of Tacitus as to the number of the Christians that 



NUMBER OF CffUECHES AT APOSTLES' DEATH. 127 

Heme contained already even in Paul's lifetime. The in- 
credulous Gibbon says on this subject : " The most obstinate 
skepticism is compelled to i-espect the truth of this extraor- 
dinary fact, which is also confirmed to us by the exact Sueto- 
nius ; for this historian also mentions the punishments which 
Nero inflicted on the Christians." 

At the same time we also have, in regard to the multitude 
of Christians in Asia, a testimony of Pliny which is equally 
authentic and valuable. The intimate friend of Tacitus, and 
standing high in the confidence of Trajan, Pliny was the pro- 
consul of the beautiful provinces of Bithynia and Pontus, 
and he had received from his master an order to exterminate 
the Christians. But, when he had entered on this iniquitous 
work, his conscience was affrighted by the immense number 
of the victims, and he wrote the emperor a letter, which is 
still extant, (L. x. Epist. 97,) seeking to obtain some abate- 
ment from the rigor of the original orders. This remarkable 
letter should be read. It was written in the year 103, while 
John was yet living. We shall, for brevity's sake, cite only 
so much as relates to the immense number of Christians, and 
their fidelity ; for, on the shores of the Black Sea, as on the 
banks of the Tiber, to use the language attributed to Julian 
the Apostate, their persecutors saw them " arrive in swarms 
driven to martyrdom, as bees to their hive (tanquam apes ad 
alvearia, sic illi ad martyria)." 

"What, then, Sire, shall I do?" writes Pliny to Trajan. 
*' This has been my course toward those brought before me 
as Christians. I have asked them, Are you Christians ? On 
their affirmative response I have repeated the question a 
second and a third time ; meanwhile threatening them with 
death. If they persisted, I had them executed ; for, what- 
ever might be the nature of their belief, I deemed at least 
their resistance and obstinacy worthy of punishment. They 
affirm that their whole crime consists in meeting together on 
a certain day before sunrise, to sing alternately hymns to 
Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves with an oath to 



128 THE CANOF. 

commit no perjury, adultery, theft, or falsehood. After that 
they separate, to meet again without disorder at a repast of 
which they partake iu common. These statements having 
been made by them, I deemed it advisable to examine under 
torture two of their female servants, who, they said, exercised 
a certain kind of ministry among them ; but I was able to 
find nothing more than an excessive and miserable supersti- 
tion. What, then, was to be done ? For it seemed to me an 
exceedingly grave case, particularly in view of the great 
I numbers of both sexes, of every rank and age, who are either 
now exposed to death, or who wiU be (multi enim omnis aeta- 
tis, omnis ordinis, utriusqiie sexûs, etiam vocantur in pericu- 
lum et vocabuntur). Nor is it merely in the cities that the 
contagion of this superstition is spread ; it is also in the vil- 
lages, and even the rural districts (neque enim civitates tan- 
tum, sed vices etiam atque agros, superstitionis istius contagio 
pervagata est)." 

In a woi'd, this great fact whicb we point out is constantly 
produced by all the ancient apologists as an incompiarable 
event ; often eloquently, triumphantly, as it should be. Kead, 
for example, the beautiful pages of TertuUian, or those of 
ArnobiuSji^ or those of Minutius Felix.^ " We are so nu- 
merous," they said to the Romans, " that if we should leave 
your state, we should bring it to ruin." 

" We are but of yesterday," says TertuUian to the Eoman 
government,^ " and we have filled every part of your domin- 
ion (hesterni sumus et vestra omnia implevimus), your cities, 
your islands, your fortresses, your guilds, your council-cham- 
bers, your regiments, your palace, your senate, your forum. 
We leave you only your temples (sola vobis relinquimus 
templa) ! We could even make war on you without taking 
arms ; it would suffice merely to cease to live with you ; for, 
if the Christians who compose so great a multitude (tanta 

1 Adv. Gentes, Lib. ii. p. 44, Lugd. Batav. 1651. 

2 Dialog, of Octavius. 

8 Apol. Lib. ii. chap, xxxvii. 



NUMBER OF CHURCHES AT APOSTLES' DEATH. 129 

vis hominum) had abandoned you to retreat into some other 
country, it would have been the ruin of your power, and your 
solitude would have terrified you." Again he says else- 
where,^ " The Gothic peoples, the various tribes of the Moors, 
all the regions of Spain, all those of Gaul, and even those 
of Britain, yet inaccessible to the Romans, have submitted 
to Christ, as well as the Sarmatians, the Dacii, the Ger- 
mans, the Scythians, and nations yet unknown." Wherefore 
this father expresses his wonder that the empire of Jesus 
Christ should have extended itself in so short a time far- 
ther than that of Nebuchadnezzar, of Alexander, or of the 
Bomans. 

This period of the church, signalized by such prodigious 
accessions, extends to the reign of Adrian (a; d. 117—138). 
Christianity had then abundantly penetrated even to the bar- 
barians, and numerous chui-ches had been founded among the 
Egyptians, the Celts, and the Germans. "We may here cite 
the words of Irenaeus ^ against the gnostics of his day,^ ap- 
pealing to " the great number of barbarous nations " (TroAAà 
èOvT] Twv Bapj8apa)y),who, he affirms, had already been Chris- 
tianized before the appearing of the gnostic sects. Now it 
is perfectly understood that the origin of these sects is placed 
by the learned in the age of John, even before the publica- 
tion of his gospel.* 

If we credit the respectable Armenian scholar, Moses of 
Chorene,^ Christianity had penetrated among the Syrians, 
Armenians, and Persians at a very early period. In fine, we 
must read the thirty-seventh chapter of the third book of 

1 Adv. Jud. Lib. i. 

2 Haeres. iii. 402. He speaks, too, (Lib. i. chap. 2,) of the church dissem- 
inated through all the habitable world (Ka&' okric rfiç oÎKOvftévijç) and even 
to the ends of the earth {ëuç izepàruv TÎjç y^f )• 

8 The heretics of liis time, like those of our day, called their systems ilie 
Science {Fvùeriç), called themselves " the Men of Science." 

■* See Bunsen's Hippolytus, torn. i. p. 236. 

^He has left a History of Armenia. Bom, it is said, in A. d. 370, he kept 
the archives before being himself archbishop of Pakrévant. 



130 THE CANON-. 

Eusebius to form any just conception of both the prodigious 
extension of the gospel under Trajan, and the admirable 
activity of the churches to promote that end. Through 
some inflated language you will discover this great histori- 
cal fact, "that the immediate disciples of the apostles, build- 
ing on the foundation laid by these men of God, had scat- 
tered the seed of the kingdom of heaven in every part of 
the inhabited world (rà trcoTiy/Jta o-Tre/a/Aara ttjs twv ovpavtav 
ySao-tXeias àvà Traaav £ts TrAaros èirKnreipovT^'S ttjv olKovf^evrjv). 
Many of them had given away their property to labor as 
evangelists, to announce Christ to those who did not yet 
know him, and to make them acquainted with the scrip- 
tures of the divine gospels." 

It is, then, obvious that this wonderful fact gives immense 
weight to the testimony of the universal church to the ho- 
mologomens of our sacred canon. But, to seize the argument 
in all its force, we must consider in their unity the three 
great facts which we just noticed ; for we think they form by 
their triple influence a powerful three-stranded cable around 
these twent)'-two homologomens, maintaining their apostoli- 
cal authenticity and rendering it indestructible. First, the 
continuance of the personal ministry of the apostles among 
.the churches during the entire first century; next, the im-'^ 
mense number of the churches founded by them throughout 
the world during this long ministry; lastly, the constant, 
perfect, and universal unanimity of these innumerable 
churches in regard to these books, both during the lives 
of the apostles and in the succeeding age. Whoever will 
attentively regard these three facts thus together will recog- 
nize that, in respect to brilliant testimony, literary history 
offers nothing comparable to it in any age or part of the 
world. 

We here gladly introduce the words of Thiersch ^ after he 
had presented similar arguments : "I trust it has now been 

: 1 Versuch zurWiederherstellung des hist. Standpuncts fiir die Kritik der 
N. T. Schriften (1845) ; chap. vi. 



THE ÀNAGNOSIS. . 131 

shown to the opponents of the first canon how, in their sup- 
positions respecting the characteristics of the first half-cen- 
tury, they have left the domain of history to amuse them- 
selves in that of fable. They would fain suppose that in a 
time when the body of Christians and their bishops were 
certainly not a band of counterfeiters, we had men of such 
extraordinary skill (yet religious men) that they could, in a 
manner altogether incomprehensible, impose their fictions on 
all the Christians of the world, as on a stupid mass, blind 
and dumb to idiocy, and make them accept with closed eyes 
these spurious documents as apostolical scriptures, and those 
transmitted them from a believing antiquity ! To this issue 
must come this stx'ange idea that any one of the homologo- 
mens could have been a spurious book, if you bring it into 
the light of history. And we must avow that the incredulity 
in respect to the first canon, when perseveringly maintained, 
requires such a belief of things incredible and monstrous, 
that, in comparison with this complaisance, the blindest cre- 
dulity of certain Christians for certain miraculous legends is 
a mere trifle." 

But we have not yet completed our array of facts ; for 
we have one still more important to present, which gives 
a superabundant weight to our proof. We allude to the 
anagnosis (dvayvucrts), or public reading of the scrip- 
tures. 



The Anagnosis. 

The regular and constant usage of publicly reading the 
scriptures in all the Christian churches is a cardinal and 
creative fact in respect to the canon. This fact is so impor- 
tant as not only to entitle it to the first place, but we must 
see that on this usage rests the entire history of this sacred 
collection. The anagnosis is the formative cause and real 
foundation of the canon, the only explanation of its origin ; 
it alone secured its preservation ; alone caused the admirable 



132 THE CANON. 

unanimity of the churches in regard to all the homologomens 
from the beginning, and for two centuries ; alone, too, secured 
afterward the œcumenical unanimity of all the churches in 
regard to the entire canon. 

The modern opponents of our holy books, especially in 
Germany, have so well perceived the invincible force of 
this usage in establishing the authenticity of the first canon, 
that they have applied all their strength to disprove the fact 
that the New Testament Scriptures were read in the primitive 
churches, and to show that it began in the latter half of the 
second century. But these efforts have been fruitless ; the 
existence of this usage from the earliest period, and its uni- 
versahty, can be fully demonstrated. We shall see that it 
mounts up to the apostolical times ; that it belongs to the 
very genesis of the church universal ; that, at the beginning 
of the second century, in all the then ancient churches, they 
were perfectly attached to it ; and that in all those afterwards 
founded by the thousands under Trajan and Adrian, that is, 
from A..D. 98 to 138, the anagnosis commenced with and 
constituted their very existence. 

Very naturally, therefore, and in the logical course, of 
events, this usage commenced with the church itself. The 
apostles and their divine Master had already found it estab- 
lished in their national synagogues. The anagnosis had 
existed for ages in respect to Moses and the prophets ; all 
the synagogues were founded for this purpose ; it was or- 
dained, the Jewish doctors say, that wherever ten Israelites 
■were found, a synagogue should be established, and that in 
every synagogue there should be an ark containing the 
Seriptures, and that everywhere these Scriptures should be 
publicly read to the faithful every Sabbath. Now it is well 
known that in our Saviour's day the Jews were scattered 
every where, and that, as James says (Acts xv. 21), "Moses 
of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being 
read in the synagogues every Sabbath day." 

And, on the other hand, it is a historical fact that the. 



THE ANAGNOSIS. 133 

primitive church was modeled after the pattern of the syn- 
agogue.^ All the Christian churches for many years con- 
sisted entirely of converted Jews, whether in Judea, Sama- 
ria, or the Gentile cities. In receiving the gospel, aU the 
new Christians preserved the forms and habits of their wor- 
ship as practiced in the synagogue : their ministers were 
called chazan among the congregations in Aramean, or Jnsh- 
ops among the Hellenists. Each of them had three pama- 
sin or deacons. The chazan every Sabbath selected seven 
coreim or anagnosts (readers) to read the holy Scriptures. 
He stood near the reader, watching and correcting his read- 
ing. The other days of the week he had readers also, but 
not so many.^ Thus this holy usage, which had existed in 
all the synagogues as their most indispensable act, passed into 
the Christian churches formed- in the synagogue, continued 
in its likeness, and composed of converted Jews exclusively. 
These first Christians could not imagine a meeting without 
these holy readings ; and no one would have entertained the 
idea of a religious assembly without the anagnosis. It was 
thus that this institution, naturally established in all the 
assemblies of the new people of God, necessai'ily so consti- 
tuted them that it would at once be practiced in the natural 
course of things, even if there had been no requirement of 
the kind in the apostolical writings. But there was such 
requirement, as we shall show. 

The anagnosis, or scripture-reading in the Christian assem- 
blies, then, preceded the appearing of the New Testament, 
instead, as some have pretended, of having been introduced 
at a later period. They read in them the Old Testament, 
just as in the synagogues ; and this regular reading of Moses, 
the Psalms, and the Prophets was exclusively in use for the 
fifteen years which preceded the appearing of the first apos- 
tolical epistles in the innumerable churches formed by the 

1 Whately's Essay on the Kingdom of Christ. 

2 See Lightfoot, Harm., p. 479 ; Hebr. and Talmud. Studies on the Gos- 
pels, vol. xi. p. 88. Whately too. 

12 



134 THE CAKON. 

apostles, and particularly" in those which Paul had gathered, 
before a. d. 49 or 51, in Samaria, Syria, Arabia, Cyprus, 
Galatia, Lycaonia, Mysia, Pisidia, Thrace, and Macedon. 
It is, in fact, in A. d. 49 that we place (after Orosus ^ ) the 
decree of Claudius against the Jews in Rome (Acts xviii. 
2) ; and we know that it was then that Paul, with Silas and 
Timothy, wrote to the Thessalonians the two beautiful epis- 
tles which were, as it appears, the beginning of the written 
word of the New Testament.^ 

The practice of reading the Old Testament must, as al- 
ready remarked, have passed from the assemblies of the 
synagogue to the assemblies of the church, from the very 
time of the apostles and the beginning of evangelical preach- 
ing ; for, the year 70 having come, Jerusalem having been 
destroyed, the temple burned, the Jewish congregations scat- 
tered, and all the apostles dead, the spirit of the Christian 
churches (as all their history shows) had become too hostile 
to the Jews and Judaizing Christians to have admitted of 
borrowing any thing further from them, or copying from 
their institutions. 

But also, in these very assemblies of the church, the cus- 
tom of reading, besides the Scriptures of the old dispensa- 
tion, the Scriptures of the apostles and prophets of the new 
(so far as then published), was necessarily adopted by all 
the churches and believers as at once most natural and in- 
dispensable. Were not the writings of the apostles in their 

1 VII. 6. The year 3 of Claudius. Orosus derives it from Josephus. 
Others place it in 2. Suetonius (25) speaks of this decree, in the life of 
Claudius, without mentioning the date. 

2 We make no pretensions to determine here the epoch when the gospel 
of Matthew was witten; for it is veiy probable, as Lardner supposes, that 
no one of the four gospels preceded the council of Jerusalem (Acts xv.), if 
that of Mark should be placed later (Mark xvi. 20), and that of Luke shortly 
after the book of Acts appeared (a. d. 60, 61, or 62). Yet the fact related 
by Eusebius (H. E. Lib. v. chap. 10) of the gospel of Matthew having been 
written in Hebrew, which the apostle Bartholomew must have carried into 
India, would seem to place the first gospel very near the first epistles of 
Paul, or rather, even before these. 



THE ANAGNOSIS. 135 

eyes of superior authority to even the writings of the Old 
Testament ? Did not these men of God, in the time when 
they were writing them, perform miracles displaying even 
greater power than was shown by the mightiest of the old 
prophets ? Were they not themselves, as apostles and proph- 
ets, the twelve founders of the church ? (Eph. ii. 20.) And 
moreover, did not their writings (the gospel of John, for 
example, and his Apocalypse) claim to be as truly inspired 
from heaven as Isaiah or the Pentateuch? Why, then, and 
how, by what right and for what reasons, could they, whilst 
reading every Sabbath the Scriptures of the old prophets, 
leave in silence the Scriptures of the new ; . and, whilst 
hearing those of the prophets who had divinely announced 
the Son of Man, could they leave in silence those prophets 
who had heard him himself and had divinely proclaimed him, 
" God bearing them witness, both with signs and gifts of the 
Holy Spirit" (Heb. ii. 4) ? 

Can we imagine that all these congregations, after the 
death of the apostles who had founded them, would content 
themselves with reading publicly only the Old Testament, 
to be followed by merely the Xoyov, the unpremeditated dis- 
courses ^ of ministers having neither, the miraculous powers 
of the apostles nor the charisms of those who immediately 
followed them ; and all this to the utter neglect of the apos- 
tolical writings ? The thought is inadmissible. 

If, as some opponents of the canon slty, the public recog- 
nition of the books of the New Testament by having them 
read did not exist until the close of the second century, then 
two historical impossibilities must be disposed of. First, that 
a revolution could take place in the public worship of all the 
churches in the world so utterly incompatible with the con- 
servative and traditional spirit which history attributes to 
the Christians of that epoch. Second, that so great an 
event, unequaled in the records of that period, could be 
accomplished without producing any excitement, without 
1 Justin Martyr in his great Apol. chap. 67. 



136 THE CANON. 

being mentioned by any one of the fathers, even by Eusebius, 
who records so minutely the recollections of those primitive 
days, and without being mentioned by Irenasus, in whose 
youth this astonishing fact must have occurred? These 
difficulties need only to be mentioned to show the error of 
the theory in question. No one has ever been able to 
remove them. 

Thus, to him who contemplates in the light of these facts 
the primitive churches engaged in their worship, and lending 
every Sunday a respectful ear to the voice of their readers, 
nothing is more simple to imagine than the gradual forma- 
tion of the first canon; nothing is more naturally explained 
than the unanimity of all the churches in regard to it, and 
their constant preservation of it. It was all done without 
dispute and without noise, by the calm and regular process 
of the anagnosis or weekly reading. Let us merely be pres- 
ent at these meetings of the primitive period, and everything 
is explained. To arrange this matter there was no need of 
councils, of agitation, of efforts, or of decrees. The apostles 
had no occasion to issue any orders to institute this reading 
(although they did give them) : it existed before them, " of 
old time " (Acts xv. 21) ; it was practised during their lives ; 
it was continued after their death. They had, at most, only 
to sanction it by their approbation and their participation in 
it. And when they had all disappeared from the earth, the 
Christian churches had everywhere acquired such a perfect 
knowledge of their sacred canon in consequence of this con- 
tinual reading during half a century, that you would often 
have seen simple believers who knew the whole Bible by 
heart, and could correct the reader if he made a mistake in 
a single word.-^ This the historians attest. It is apparent 
that there was no need of anything else to make the canon 

1 Such, for example, in Palestine, as John- the Blind; St. Anthonj- in 
Egypt; Servulus in Kome, (Euseb. Be Martyris Palœst., cap. xiii. p. 344. 
Augustine ; De Doctr. Christ, in Prologo, torn. iii. p. 3. — Greg. Mag. Horn.: 
XV. in Evangelia, torn. iii. p. 40.) 



THE ANAGNOSIS. 137 

and publisH it ; to publish it in its purity ; to sanction it 
everywhere ; to render it irrevocable. 

"We see, then, that the reading of the Old Testament had 
never ceased, either in the synagogue or in the church; it 
was practised in the first assembling of Christians in Jerusa- 
lem ; it was always an indispensable part of the public ser- 
vice ; it afterward passed from the congregations of the Jew- 
ish Christians to those of the Gentile converts ; it followed, 
for example, the faithful of Corinth in the house of Justus 
(Acts xviii. 7), and of the synagogue of Ephesus to the 
school of Tyrannus (Acts xix. 9, 10) ; for all knew, as Paul 
had said (2 Tim. iii. 15), that by the reading of the Scrip- 
tures the man of God is reproved, instructed in righteousness, 
made wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
Jesus. And afterward, as one new epistle or a new gospel 
was given by an apostle to the churches, they hastened to 
unite with the reading of the Old Testament that of the new 
prophets, which they recognized as proceeding from the same 
divine spirit, and which they knew to contain even a greater 
degree of his influence. 

Perhaps, though we do not affirm it, the reading of these new 
books was not as frequent during the time when the churches 
still had in the midst of them either apostles possessing emi- 
nent' signs of apostleship (2 Cor. xii. 12), or men endowed 
with ffifts conferred on them for general edification through 
the laying of hands by these very apostles. At the same time 
it remains always evident that the churches, once deprived 
of the personal instruction of these men of God, and having 
no longer in their possession only the writings left by them, 
were very careful not to abandon their use to the personal 
piety of each Christian in his house, but required them to be 
publicly and solemnly read for the edification of all. 

Thus powerfully but silently was effected in the churches 

of God the successive recognition of all the books of our 

sacred canon; and, as Dr. Hug says,-^ "just as the publi- 

1 Leonard Hug, Mnleit. Stuttgard, 1, 108. 
12* 



Î38 THE CANON. 

cation of a work of profane literature was anciently made 
by its being recited before the assembled friends of the au- 
thor,^ so for the books of the New Testament, it was their 
anagnosis in the church to which they were respectively sent, 
that caused them quickly to pass into the common treasury 
of the sacred books for the whole church of God." 

At the same time, while we have showed how, by the sim- 
ple logic of facts, this anagnosis of the apostolical Scriptures 
would already by necessity have been established in the 
primitive churches, even if there had been no order of the 
apostles to that effectj yet we must bear in mind that this 
order was given by them ; and we easily believe that they 
composed their epistles and other writings with the intention 
of having them read in the religious assemblies. 

As to the apostolical requirement, we must notice with 
what remarkable solemnity it was made by Paul in that 
very epistle which was the first book of the New Testa- 
ment pubUshed (1 Thess. v. 27).'' ^^ I charge you hy the 
Lord" he writes to the Thessalonians, " that this epistle be 
read unto all the holy brethren." He adjures them by the 
Lord ; and when, toward the end of his course he wrote from 
Rome to the Colossians, he gave them the same command : 
" When this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read 
also in the church of the Laodiceans {koX ev t^ Aao8t/céa)v 
iKKXr](ria. àvayvtûo-ôy) ; and that ye likewise reatf the epistle 
(which will be sent you) from Laodicea." (Col. iv. 16.)' 
Could the chui'ches, in receiving such directions or orders, 
fail to understand that these letters of the apostles of Christ 
should stand with the other sacred writings in the public 
readings? 

It must also be remarked that the greater part of these 
books were addressed not to individuals, but to public men, 
or particular churches, or to all the church as a body. We 

1 See an example of this in Tacitus?" De Oratorib. cap. 7. 

2 Canon, Lib. i. chap. iv. 

8 T^j; èK Aaoôucsiaç, believed to be the Epistle to the Ephesians. 



THE ANAGNOSIS. 139 

might, moreover, point out, as Thiersch has done, in out 
Scriptures many allusions to the anagnosis as an existing fact 
in the worship of the times. We there see that the apostles, 
without giving any superfluous orders about doing that which 
was already in universal* usage, speak as if they expected 
their books to be publicly read in the assemblies of the church. 
It is to this usage, for instance, that allusion is made in the 
beginning of the Apocalypse, (Rev. i. 3,) " Blessed is he 
that readeth." Here the verb, Mr. Thiersch observes, is in 
the singular, as designating the anagnost, or public reader. 
And blessed are ." they that hear the words of this prophecy." 
Here the verb is plural, as designating the audience. Why, 
says Mr. Thiersch, the change from the singular number to 
the plural, if not in reference to the public reading ? The 
seven appeals in the same book (ii. 7, 11, 17, 29 ; iii. 6, 13, 
22) refer equally to this usage : " He that hath an ear, let 
him hear what the Spirit saitk to the churches" or assemblies. 
To this usage, reference fs made in those words of John's 
gospel, (xx. 31 ; xix. 35,) which show very clearly that thé 
apostle, in writing them, had before his mental eyes the pub- 
lic meeting of the saints, and the public scriptural readings. 
Now these things " are written that ye might believe." To 
this usage again those words refer in the epistle to the Colos- 
sians, (iv. 17,) addressed to Archippus, and are immediately 
connected by the copulative with the order he had just given 
for the public reading of this letter : " Likewise read the 
epistle [which will come to youj from Laodicea, and say to 
Archippus, * Take heed to the ministry which thou hast re- 
ceived in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.' " Dr. Thiersch ^ here 
remarks again : " Placed as they are, these words appear to 
be addressed to Archippus, as to the person directing the 
public readings, and to exhort him to discharge this impor- 
tant ministry faithfully. 

But what quotation of Scripture can be comparable, as a 

1 Versuoh zur Wiederherstellung des hist. Standpuncts. Die. p. 349, 
ei teq. 



140 THE CANON. 

monument of the anagnosis, to this famous passage in Peter, 
(2 Pet. iii. 16,) in which the author mentions ^' all the epis- 
tles of Paul" and complains of the abuse of them by many 
rash men. You can there behold the church in the very 
attitude of the anagnosis. It is apparent from this passage 
that, — 1. The author here addresses himself to the whole body 
of the sacred assemblies. 2. Paul had already, in his dayj 
written to those assemblies, and all his epistles then known 
were read in the midst of them ; for the author mentions 
them all, (Trao-aç,) without designating their number. 3. Paul 
had written them a sufficient time before this period, to have 
them become known through the anagnosis by all the 
churches. 4. If many members of. these churches did not 
understand the doctrines, and wrested them to their own de- 
struction, yet it was a thing already received among them, 
according to the intention of the author, that all these letters 
of Paul should be ranked among " the other Scriptures " of 
the Old Testament, (ws koI ràs Aotiràs ypa^ds,) which had 
been read for so many centuries in the public assemblies of 
the church. 

There could scarcely be conceived a testimony more posi- 
tive, if we regard this epistle merely as a document of the 
first century, and without reference to its author; for we 
show elsewhere (chap. iv. sees. 3 and 5) its priority to the 
epistle of Jude ; and Thiersch also, in citing it as we do, and 
for the same purpose, is careful to add : " And if any one 
should here deny the canonicity of Jude, what difference 
does it make, since even the most incredulous critic can be 
forced not to place this writing later than the appearing of 
the gnostic sect ; that is to say, in the second part of the 
apostolical age ? " 

Thus, then, this epistle, even for those who would refuse 
to attribute it to the apostle Peter, whose work it claims to 
be, is an irrefutable monument of the anagnosis in the first 
century of the church. 

We should, moreover, if we studied the primitive Chris- 



THE ANAGNOSIS. 141 

tians in their habits and their language, find them universally 
a people who, for a long .time, were accustomed to 'the public 
reading of the Scriptures. For instance, the frequent men- 
tion of the anagnosts, or readers^ who held rank above the 
deacons, : ^ in the East, the custom in all Christian congrega- 
tions, even the poorest, of preserving in their oratories a copy 
of the sacred books ; ^ the mention of persons, and even of 
blind men, entirely unlettered, who, like John, the martyr of 
Palestine, had learned the Scriptures by heart, simply by 
hearing them read in the churches ; * the fact of those mem- 
bers of the church who corrected the reader if he merely 
substituted one word for that in the text ; ^ those translators 
whom they took care to keep in their meetings, for such of 
the audience as did not understand the language read, — as 
in Syria for those who did not understand the Greek or 
Aramean, and in Africa for those who spoke only the Punic 
or the Latin ; ^ and, finally, the usage continued even to the 
time of TertuUian,''^ among the churches founded by the 
apostles, of respectfully preserving the original letters re- 
ceived by them from these men of God. This appears to be 
his meaning in the following words : " Go through the apos- 

1 Cypriaa Epis. 24, 33, 34, 29, 38, [others 33] ; Bingham, Antiq. vol. ii. 
p. 27. 

2 Hodie Diaconus qui eras Lector. Tertull. de Praescript. cap. 41. 
8 Scholtz prolog, to Grit. edit, of the N". T. 

4 Euseb. de Mart. Palest, cap. 13. 

5 Bingham, xii. 3, 17 ; xiii. 4, 10. We might cite still later, as a contin- 
uation of the habits thus contracted, and as an example of this earnest 
solicitude to prevent the slightest change of the sacred text, with what 
zeal Spiridion resisted Triphilus when in a discourse pronounced before the 
bishops, he, for a phrase of the gospel, substituted a term which he deemed 
more elegant, (Sozomen, Hist. XI. chap. 1.). We might cite also with Au- 
gustine, (Epist. 71 and 85,) what a commotion was made in the church of 
Africa bj' the cliange of a single word, which affected neither faith nor 
morals. The faithful demanded his reasons, and obliged their bishop to 
remove the scandal by a serious apology. We see from all these facts how 
familiar the text of the Scriptures was rendered to the Christians of the first 
centuries. 

6 Bingham, Ibid., xiii. 4, 5; iii. 13, 4. 

1 De Praescript. Hseretic. chap. 30, p. 212. 



142 THE CANON. 

tolical churches, where you find still the very pulpits of the 
apostles,^ and where you will hear read their authentic letters 
{ojpvd quas authenticœ litterœ eorum recitantur)." 
^ But what may still more fully satisfy certain persons in 
regard to the high antiquity of the anagnosis of the New 
Testament is, the testimony of Justin Martyr, only thirty-six 
years after the death of the apostle John. This distinguished 
man belonged to Palestine by his birth, to Egypt by his 
studies, to Asia Minor by his travels, and to the church of 
Italy by his long residence in Rome as head of a Christian 
school. He was converted from Pagan philosophy to the 
Christian faith, a. d. 133 ; and it was in his famous apology,^ 
presented to Antoninus Pius, (a. d. 139,) that he speaks of 
the anagnosis. His defence of primitive Christianity is the 
most ancient which has come down to us ; and that which 
renders it particularly valuable in the question before us is, 
neither its high antiquity alone, nor its eminently public, not 
to say official character, but the fact that the monuments of 
that period, whether in profane or ecclesiastical history, are 
very rare. The epoch of the deaths of the later apostles, 
as that of the coteinporary reigns of Nerva and Trajan," is 
historically very obscure,* although immediately preceded 
and followed by very brilliant periods, for both the records 
of the church and of the empire. As to the documents 
which might make us acquainted with the habits of the first 
Christians in their worship, we are reduced to ^reat poverty. 

1 Percurre ecclesias apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrœ aposto^ 
lorum suis locis prœsident (or prœsidentur). 

- 2 In chap. 67. — We refer to the greater apology, which was also the first, 
although generally printed after the other, composed twenty-four years 
later, and presented to the Koman Senate under the reign of Marcus 
Aurelius. 

8 From A. D. 96 to 117. 

4 The great number of the eminent historians of this epoch, so brilliant in 
the archives of Eorae, has not prevented this obscurity ; the greater part have 
perished ; and you can find nothing scarcely of the glorious reign of Trajan, 
but in the letters of Pliny, in the medals, and in the abridgment which we 
have of the works of Dion. - , 



THE ANAGNOSIS. 143 

Commencing with A. D. 53, when Paul describes to us what 
took place in the church of Corinth, (1 Cor. xi. xiv.) and 
going forward to A. d. 217, when Tertullian, in his turn, 
reveals to us the worship of his time, we can find only two 
other descriptions of the Christian assemblies of those remote 
days. And of these, the first is only that of a Pagan (the 
proconsul Pliny) ;^ the other that of Justin Martyr, thirty-two 
years after Pliny. 

Let it then be noticed in the testimony of Justin, that if 
he there is describing the worship of Christians in his day, 
it is not for the purpose of informing future generations, but 
simply to prove their innocence to their persecutors, and es- 
pecially to the emperor Antoninus. 

" On the day called Sunday," he says, " there is an assem- 
bly'^ of all those residing in cities and the country ; and then 
the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets 
are read as long as possible.* Then, when the reader has 
finished his part, the president (irpoeortos) delivers an exhor- 
tation to" encourage the audience in the imitation of these 
noble examples."^ 

Nothing more decisive could be had than this brief descrip- 
tion to show us the rank and the important place which " the 
reading of the apostles and prophets " already held, in the 
religious assemblies only thirty-six years after the death of 
John. 

We may here also recognise, at first glance, the perfect 
resemblance of this primitive worship to that of the syna- 
gogue ; for, in reading Justin Martyr here, we should imagine 
we were present with Paul and Barnabas in that meeting in 
Pisidia, which Luke has so well described, seventy-five years 

1 Lib. i. chap. iv. See Canon, chap. ii. sec. 2. 

2 awekevaijç yiverai. 

^ "Kal rà ànofiVTjfioveùfuiTa tûv àiroaTÔ2MV 7j rd ovy/pà/ifiaTa tûv 
.jrpo^Tùv ùvayivùaKerai ^XPK £}%wpeî. 

* àià Myov Tçv vov&eaiav KOi icpôiOiajaa) t^ç tûv kclKùxv Tovrav 
fUf^aeaç iroieÎTai. 



144 THE CANON. 

before. He says, they "went into the synagogue on the 
Sabbath-day, and sat down. And sSiev the reading of the 
law and the prophets, (or, as Justin says, * the anagnost hav- 
ing finished,') the rulers of the synagogue (the TrpoecmSTes 
of Justin) sent unto them, saying, ' Te men and brethren, if 
ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on,' 
(et eoTt Xoyos ev vfuv ■KapaKkfjo-eoi'i^ (it is the 8ià Aoyou of 
Justin)." 

Many efforts have been recently made in Germany to 
avoid the pressure of this testimony of Justin. Some have 
ti'ied to see in the phrase " memoirs of the apostles " nothing 
but apocryphal gospels ; but Hug, Winer, Biedermann, Otto, 
and others have done justice to this singular evasion. Others 
still have tried to find in it the four gospels merely, to the 
exclusion of the other books of the New Testament ; but 
Credner^ and Thiersch ^ have not found it difficult to show, 
by felicitous citations from Irenaeus, (Lib. ii. chap. 27,) and 
from the apostolical constitutions, (Lib. ii. chap. 59,) that, by 
such expressions, Justin means evidently the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments. 

Let us, then, adopt, the conclusion, that this great fact of 
the regular and public reading of the New Testament is an 
institution be^ning with the church itself; that it explains 
the perfect unanimity (otherwise inexplicable) of all the 
churches in regard to the twenty-two homologomens ; that, 
in connection with this unanimity, it would by itself be an 
irrefragable proof of the authenticity of these sacred books, 
and that it makes the intrusion of any illegitimate book into 
the sacred canon, after the death of the apostles, an impossi- 
bility, — an impossibility that such an intrusion should have 
been allowed in all the churches of the world, and peculiarly 
an impossibility that this could have been effected without 
causing innumerable remonstrances ; an impossibility, in 

1 Beitrage zur Einleit. ia die biblischen Schriften, I. (1832,) p. 60 
Credner speaks only of Irenœus. 

2 The same work os quoted above, VI. p. 350, etc. 



FOUR KDîDS OF MOÎTUMENTS. 145 

fine, that the clamor of these remonstrances, if they had taken 
place, should not have reached us. 

But we pass to the monuments of the canon ; that is to 
say, to the traces it has left in the literature of the first Chris- 
tian centuries. 



SECTION IV. 

THE VAKIOtrS MONUMENTS OF THE CANON. 

Four hinds of Monuments. 

However powerful the arguments thus far presented by 
us, we are still called on to adduce new proofs taken from the 
writers of the primitive church ; and complaints have often 
been made of the pretended insufficiency of the testimonies 
to the first canon furnished by its literature. We shall now 
produce those testimonies. 

The monuments which the canon has left us of its œcu- 
menical use and its authority are of four or five orders. 

First, thé versions of the New Testament which were early 
made in various languages, particularly in Latin and in Sy- 
riac. But we have spoken sufficiently of these in our first 
chapter. 

In the second place, the few but very conclusive writings 
of the second century. "We shall there distinguish the Chris- 
tians whose writings remain as belonging to the first or the 
second half of the century. 

Thirdly, the numerous and involuntary testimonies ren- 
dered to the New Testament by the ancient opponents of the 
truth ; that is, on the one side, the skeptics of the second 
century who attacked Christianity; and, on the other, the 
heretics who at that time tormented the church. 

Fourthly, the apostolical fathers, and even the more recent 
Scriptures of the New Testament 
13 



146 V THE CANON. 

To enter upon this review, however, with the more clear- 
ness, and to avoid superfluous citations, let us first fix the 
bounds of our field of research. 



The Field of Investigation. 

This field ought not to extend beyond the first and second 
centuries. It would be useless to go farther, since the ration- 
alists, who are the most violent against the authenticity of our 
sacred books, recognize that, from the days of Origen, or the 
beginning of the third century, everything was settled in the 
church concerning this great question. It is not until we 
come down to the celebrated Strauss,^ that we find a denial 
of the fact, that, " at the time of this father, our sacred books 
were universally received as "coming from the apostles or 
their companions." That, then, which our adversaries con- 
test is, the anterior testimonies, the voice of the first and 
second centuries. Thus, in' order to establish our proofs by 
the literature of the church, we have only to pass it in re- 
view, commencing with the closing part of the reign of Sep- 
timus Severus, about A. d. 203, and going backward to the 
close of Paul's ministry and Nero's reign, a. d. 68. It is 
between these" two terms, over the only interval about which 
our adversaries pretend not to be satisfied, that we are going 
to erect a bridge, solidly suspended by a triple chain of testi- 
monies. We set out from A. d. 203, in which the great 
Origen, after having witnessed the martyrdom of his father, 
began, at the age of eighteen years, his career of instruction 
in Alexandria; and we come to about a. d. 103, when John 
in his old age finished his course in Ephesus, or even back 
to A. D. 68, when Peter and Paul terminated their labors in 
the city of Rome, after having written, as we think, very 
shortly before, the one his second epistle, the other his letter 
to the Hebrews. In other words, we follow the track of our 
holy books from the last days of Septimus Severus to the 
1 Leben Jesu, part 1. 



THE FIELD OF DTYESTIGATION. 147 

last days of Nero. Our opponents pretend that over that 
whole interval they were lost ; we must adduce them again, 
as others have often done, under various forms. For, after 
all, the history of the church, despite the poverty of its liter- 
ature at this epoch, still furnishes us abundant material for 
constructing a continuous road over a firm and secure 
bridge. 

It must not be forgotten, in order to give these historical 
monuments their true significance and their just value, that 
the labor of studying them should always be accompanied by 
a vivid apprehension of the interior life of the church in its 
totality and its specific character. Dr. Thiersch has set forth 
among the Germans the importance of this rule, and the mis- 
takes of the men who have disregarded it. 

In the mean time, also, to bring the persons and the dates 
of this important epoch more vividly before the reader's 
mind, we deem it well to present, in a synoptical table, the 
series of the only witnesses who can be produced in this 
research. For that purpose, we place in the order of time, 
opposite the succession of the emperors : — 

1. The fathers, who have left us authentic writings in the 
first and second centuries. 

2. The heretics, who, while combating the truths of the 
holy Scripture, have rendered testimony to the sacred canon 
by their very attacks. 

3. The enemies of Christianity who, in the very act of 
assailing it, recognized our holy books as its founda- 
tion. 

4. The great persecutions which the church has under- 
gone. 

5. The apologists who have publicly defended it.^ 

1 It might have been more logical, but less clear, to leave them in the 
rank of the Fathers. 



148 



THE CANOlSr. 



3. The Actors and Witnesses of the first two Gen- 



Reigns. 



1st cent. 



Nero, A. 3). 54 to ( 



"Vespasian, A. d. 69 
to 79. 

Titus, A.». 79 to 81. 



Domitian, A. i>. 81 
to 96. 



Nerva, A. ». 96 to 
98. 



Trajan, A. d. 98 to 
100, when Taci- 
tus, Pliny, Piu- 
tarcli and Sue- 
tonius were writ- 
ing. 



Faihers whose authentic writings we have. 



1st cknt. 

James died a. d. 61 ; Paul and Peter between 
64 and 68; Jude much later; and John in 
103. 

Clement, companion of Paul, as is believed 
(Phil. ir. 3), and bisliop of Rome for nine 
years (a. d. 91 to 101, according to Euse- 
bius ; from 68 to 77, according to Jerome), 
has left a beautiful letter to the Corin- 
thians. 

Ignatius, hearer of the apostle John, bishop 
of Antioch in a. i>. 68, martyr in 107 or 
116, has left seven authentic letters, (some 
say three,) (to tlie Romans, Ephesians, and 
Poly carp,) and we have an authentic co- 
temporary account of his martyrdom. 

Letter to Diognetus. — The unknown author 
stj'les himself disciple of the apostles. It 
is very beautiful, and was probably written 
before the year 70. Others refer it to Tra- 
jan's reign. 

Polycarp, born in a,- d. 71, martyr in 166, 
having known John the apostle. He has 
left an epistle to the Philippians, and we 
have a beautiful circular letter of the 
church in Smyrna, recounting his mar- 
tyrdom to the churches of that day. 



ACTORS AND WITNESSES. 



149 



furies of the Church, heginning at the death of Paul. 



Enemies of the Church. 



ISX CENT. 

From the apostolical times, be- 
sides tfie Nicolaitans (Rev. ii. 
6), the Balaamitcs (14), the dis- 
ciples of Simon, (Acts riii. 13), 
and of Menand.er (Iren. Haeres. 
i. 21), those of Phrygellus and 
Hermogenes (2 Tim. i. 15; ii. 
17), of Hymerieus and Philetus, 
all sects, of Avhich nothing re- 
mains, the church was afflicted 
from . the days of John by two 
numerous orders of heretics, — 
the Eblonites and the Gnostics. 

The Ebionites embraced several 
Judaizing sects, who denied the 
divinity of Jesus Christ. The 

, Fathers attribute their name, 
some to Ebion, the Hebrew 
word for poor; others to the 
name of a leader now un- 
known, who, Lardner believes, 
was a disciple of Cerinthus. 

The Gnostics, or Men o{ gnosis 
(science), " falsely so called," 
(1 Tim. vi. 20,) were almost all 
Docetists or Phantasists, that 
is, affirmers of tlie mere ap- 
pearance of a Christ without 
any real existence. They said 
the revelation was imperfect, 
and they completed it by their 
phiIosophy,pretending that they 
alone possessed the true gnosis 
(science), whether by direct and 
interior intuition or by a tra- 
dition going back to the Crea- 
tion. 

Cerinthus, a Jewish philosopher, 
having studied in Egypt, went 
to Asia Minor, where he op- 
posed the divinity of Jesus 
Christ, being so far an Ebion- 
ite. According to Irenseus, 
John wrote the opening of his 
gospel to refute this error. 
13» 



Persecutions. 



ISX CENT. 

The first 
imder Nero, 
A. D. 64 to 
68. 



The second 
under Do- 
mitian, a. b. 
93 to 96. 



Apologists. 



1st cent. 



150 



THE CANON. 



Reigns 



2d cent. 

Trajan still, a. x>. 
100 to 117. 



Adrian, A. d. 117 
to 138. 



Antoninus Pius, 
A.D. 138 to 161. 



Marcus Aurelius, 
A. D. 161 to 180. 



Commodus, a. d. 
180 to 193. 



Septimus Sevems, 
from A. D. 193 to 
200. 



Fathers whose autheniic wriUngs we have. 



2d C£NT. 

Justin Martyr, born in Samaria or Sychem 
about A. ». 103, a philosopher, converted in 
133, came at the commencement of Anto- 
nlne's reign to lecture at Rome, ivhere he 
suffered martyrdom in 167 under Marcus 
Aurelius. We have two of his Apologies, 
a treatise on the Monarchy of God, a Dia- 
logue with Trypho the Jew. His other 
works, such as his Exposition of the Apoc- 
alypse, are now lost. 

Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, born A. i». 
110, converted in 150, died in 170, has left 
an Apology for Christianity, and some 
Other writings. 

Irenseus, born in Asia or Greece a.d. 120, 
came to Gaul in 177, and was martyred, it is 
said, in 202. His principal work. Against 
the Heresies, is in five books. Of all the 
early fathers one of the firmest and purest, 
he represents the opinion of the church the 
most faithfully. • 

Athenagoras, a platonic philosopher, born in 
Athens, became a Christian, established 
himself in Alexandria, addressed an Apol- 
ogy for Christianity to Marcus Aurelius 
and his son Commodus. We have also 
his treatise on the Kesurrection. 

Clement of Alexandria, a platonic philoso- 
pher converted, born about a. ». 150 and 
died in 217; wrote much (Stromata, Ex- 
hortations to the Gentiles, &c.). Jerome 
and Theodoret praise his knowledge and 
genius highly. 

Tertullian, (the oldest Latin Father), born 
in Carthage a. ». 160, was converted from 
paganism in 185. He went afterward to 
Rome ; but, dissatisfied with t!ie Roman 
clergy, he returned to Africa, where he 
embraced Montanist views on the subject 
of church government. He died about the 
year 220. Many of his works have come 
doWn to us (Apology, five books against 
Marcion, &c.). 



ACTOES AND WITNESSES. 



151 



enemies of the Church. 



2d cent. 

gnostics. 

Basilides of Alexandria, disciple 
of Menander, was one of the 
principal. Born in the first 
century and died a.». 130; he 
taught his doctrine of magic 
under Trajan and Adrian. Is- 
idorus, his son, added other 
reveries, and made a sect. 

Cerdo came from Asia Minor to 
teach in Rome a. d. 132. Hy- 
ginus, bishop of Rome, excom- 
municated him about 140. 

Marcion, born in Synope, of wliich 
his father was bishop, became 
a pupil of Basilides, taught in 
Alexandria a. d. 117, wrote 
twenty-fouir books of Commen- 
taries on the Gospels, of which 
Clement and Epiphanius have 
preserved fragments. He came 
to join Cerdo in Eome about 
140, being there at the same 
time with Valentine and Justin 
Martyr under Antoninus Pius. 

Valentine, of Egypt, came also 
to instruct in Rome under the 
bishops Hyginus and Anicet, 
(from A. D. 139 to 157,) and 
finislied his course in Cyprus. 
He fancied thirtji- QEons, or in- 
ferior deities. He had many 
followers, who originated sev- 
eral sects, as the . Colobarsa ; 
Ptolemy in 140; Heracleon; 
Tatian, who, at least, adopted 
his Œons ; Bardesanes, a Sy- 
rian who lived in Edessa, in 
172, and who closed by com- 
bating his master. He wrote 
much and ably. 

Carpocrates the Egyptian, and 
his son Epiphanes. He taught 
under Adrian a mystic and li- 
centious antinomianism. 

Tatian, born in Mesopotamia, or- 
ator and philosopher, at first 
pagan, came to Rome, and be- 



Persecuiions. 



2d cent. 

Tlie third 
under Tra- 
jan, from 
A. D. 107 to 
117 ; under 
Adrian, to 
136. 

The fourth 
under Mar- 
cus Aure- 
lius, from 
A. D. 163, 

because 
Christians 
abstained 
from the so- 
lemnities of 
his triumph. 

The fifth 
under Septi- 
mus Seve- 
rus, from 
A. D. 202, 
throughout 
the empire. 



2d cent. 

Quadratus, 
bishop of Ath- 
ens, presented 
an Apology to 
Adrian in a. ». 
131. Eusebius 
preserved a frag- 
ment of it. 

Aristides, a. d. 
175, a converted 
philosopher. 

Justin Martyr 
made two, which 
we have : one tp 
Antonine in A. d. 
139, the other to 
Marcus Aurelius 
in 163. 

Theophilus, 
bishop of Anti- 
ocli, presented 
one at the same 
time. 

Apollinarius, 
bishop of Hie- 
rapoUs, during 
the persecution 
of Marcus Aiure- 
lius in 169. 

Melito, bishop 
ofSardis, pre- 
sented one in 
172. It has per- 
ished. 

Tatian, before 
his fall, compos- 
ed a " Discourse 
against the 
Greeks." 

Athenagoras, 
an Atiienian 
philosopher, 
taught in Alex- 
andria in A. D. 
177, presented an 
Apology to Mar- 
cus Aurelius en- 
titled "Députa- 



152 



THE CANON. 



Reigns. 



fathers whose authentic writings we have. 



2d cent. 



2d cent. 



ACTORS AKD WITÎTESSES. 



153 



Enemies of the Church. 



2l> CENT. 

came a professed Christian. Af- 
ter having heard Justin Martyr, 
he for a long time gave himself 
out as his disciple, and com- 
posed a Discourse against the 
Greeks, djing in 178. But he 
had fallen into gnostic errors, 
and became in the East head 
of the Encratites. He wrote, 
besides a multitude of other 
works, a Harmony of the four 
Gospels, now lost, but extant 
m the time of Eusebius. There 
is supposed to be an apocryphal 
Latin translation of it. 

EBIONITIC-GNOSTIC SECTS. 

Theodore, a tanner of Byzan- 
tium, came A. d. 192 to Rome, 
where he was excommimicated 
by Victor in 194. He said that 
Jesus Christ was created by 
the Father, but before the cre- 
ation of the world. 

Artemon, his disciple, accused of 
removing the passage 1 John 
v. 7 from the text. 

PAGAK ADVEKSAKIES OF CHKIS- 
TIANITT. 

Celsus,-an epicurean philosopher 
under Trajan and his succes- 
sors. An ardent enemy of 
Christianity, he assailed it with 
the weapons of reason and ridi- 
cule in his Logos Alethes, of 
which we have only fragments 
in Origen's refutation. 

Lucian of Samosata, bom about 
A. D. 120, composed satirical 
dialogues, in which he at- 
tacked Christianity. He ded- 
icated his Ealse Prophet to 
Celsus. 



Persecutions. 



2d cent. 



2d cent. 

tion in favor of 
the Christians," 
and a treatise 
"On the Eesur- 
rection," which 
is also an apolo- 
gy. We have 
them stUl. 



154 



THE CAlîON. 



Reigns. 



3d cent. 

Septimus Severus, 
from A. D. 200 to 
211. 

Caracalla, a. d. 211 
to 217. 

Heliogabalus, A. i>. 
218 to 222. 

Alex. Severus, A.D. 
222 to 235. 

Maximin, a. d. 230 
to 237. 

Gordian, a.». 237 
to 244. 

Philippus, A. D. 244 
to 249. 

Decius, A. D. 249 to 
251. 



Fathers whose authentic vjridngs we have. 



1st half of 3d cent. 

Origan, born in Alexandria in a. d. 185, saw 
the martyrdom of his father in 202, took 
the place of Clement of Alexandria in hjs 
school, traveled much, accomplished im- 

- mense labors, and died in 253. 

Hippolytus, bishop, first in Arabia (as Euse- 
bius says), an intimate friend of Origen, a 
Greek theologian, distinguished historian 
and mathematician, came afterward to 
Italy about a. d. 222, and martyred be- 
tween 235 and 240. 

Julius Africanus, a Greek historian and chro- 
nologer, converted to Christiaïiity about 
A. D. 231, a friend of Origen ; he wrote Com- 
mentaries on the N. Ï. We have only 
fragments in Eusebius. 

Dionysius of Alexandria, bishop a, d, 232, 
died in 247. His numerous works are 
lost, though often cited by Eusebius. 

Caius, priest of Rome, a. d. 210. Fragments 
only in Eusebius. 

Cyprian, born in Carthage a. d. 202, bishop 
in 248, died in 258. His works, in Latin 
(sola clariora, says Jerome), form a large 
volume. 



N. B. Let us carefully notice that, if in this table we have sought to 
coordinate the dates of the heresies of the second centun', it should be re- 



We hope that this chronological table of the reigns, the 
fathers, the adversaries, and the heretics, may throw a useful 
light over the study we are about to pursue, by reducing its 
elements to the most precise terms, by showing their limited 
number, and by ai'ranging them coordinately. . We have 
omitted, in the column of the reigns, those of less than a 
year's duration ; in the column of the heresies, those which 
did not last a year, (like the Ophites, whom Hippolytus 



ACTOES AND WITNESSES. 



155 



Enemies of Hie Qiurch. 



ISX HALF OF 3d cent. 

Manes, born in Persia, founder of 
ManiuhaBism, which he partly 
borrowed from Zoroaster. They 
say he was flayed alive in Per- 
sia A. D. 271. 

Porphyry (Malchus), a neopla- 
tonic- philosopher, born in Tyre 
A. D. 233, pupil of Longinus 
and Plotinus at Athens, and 
mystical philosopher in Rome, 
where he died in 304. He com- 
posed five books against the 
Christians. Theodosius had 
them burned; but fragments 
survive in Eusebius and Je- 
rome. In the first book he 
had collected the apparent con- 
tradictions of Scripture ; in the 
fourth he attacked Moses ; in 
the thirteenth, Daniel. 

Amelius, a Tuscan, disciple of 
Plotinus from' A.». 246 to 270, 
when he went to live at Apa- 
mea. ' He was, like Porphyry, 
an enemy of Christianity. 



Persecutions. 



3d cent. 

The sixth 
persecution 
under Maxi- 
min in 235. 

The sev- 
enth under 
Decius from 
250 to 253. 

The eighth 
under Vale- 
rian, in 257. 

The ninth 
under Aure- 
lian, from 
272 to 275. 

The tenth 
in the fourth 
century, 
through the 
whole em- 
pire, from 
A. D. 303. 



3d cent. 

Ammonius 
Saccas, (or Sac- 
cophorus) apliil- 
osopher, founder 
of eclecticism, 
composed at the 
beginning of the 
century a book 
"of the Agree- 
ment of Mo.ses 
and Jesus 
Christ." Noth- 
ing of it remains. 

Tertullian 
made bis beauti- 
ful Apology in 
Latin in 202. 

Minucius Te- 
lix, an African 
orator, in a. d. 
220 composed 
(in Latin) Ms 
Apology at 
Rome in the 
form of a dia- 
logue, entitled 
Octavius. We 
have it entire. 



membered (as Cave and others complain) that their chronology is utterly 
confused. 



places in John's day,) or those who, sound in the doctrines 
of God and Christ, were only wrong in discipline,-' (as the 
Montanists,^ Quartodecimans ^) ; and, in the column of the 
fathers, on the one side, those whose books have perished, or 

1 See in Bunsen's Hippolytus, torn. i. p. 231, the thirty-two sects which 
this father counted in his day. 
.2 Or Cataphtygians, toward the year 161. 
8 In the dispute of the Passover, in second and third centuries. 



156 THE CANON. 

are found only in small fragments in Eusebius and elsewhere, 
(as Papias,* Hegesippus,** Pantaenus,* Melito,* Dionysius of 
Corinth,^ Asterius Urbanus,®) and, on the other hand, those 
whose pretended writings are recognized by the most es- 
teemed critics '' as not attributable to them. 

To render our review of all these monuments of antiquity 
more clear and impressive, we begin with the most recent ; 
and mounting upward in the order of time, we first consult 
the least ancient of the Fathers to reach those of the last 
half of the second century, from them to those of the first 
half, then to the apostolical fathers, and finally to the apos- 
tles themselves who wrote the last books of the New Tes- 
tament. 



SECTION V. 

TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 
SECOND CENTURT. 

The united testimonies of Irenœus, Clement, and Tertullian, 

If we place ourselves at the opening of the third century, 
A. D. 202, whilst the terrible persecution of Septimus Severus 
w^as bursting forth over the whole- breadth of the empire, and 
whilst the young Origen, who had just witnessed the decapi- 

1 Bishop of Hierapolis, in 118. He had heard John, [àKovarriç) Irenseus 
says, -was a friend (erojpof ) of Polycarp. He had composed five books. 
(Euseb. ii.; E. iii. 39).- 

2 The earliest church historian. He lived from A. d. 100 to 170, having 
traveled much to see the apostles and prepare his history, fragments of 
•which Eusebius and Photius have preserved. 

8 Head of the Alexandrian School, about the year 179. 
* Bishop of Sardis, about 170. 

5 Bishop of Corinth, about the same time. 

6 Bishop in Galatia, about 186. 

Î See Hefele, {^Patr. JpoBtoL Opera,) Proleg. pp. 9, 80. 



TESTIMONY OF THE SECOND CENTTTRT. 157 

tation of his father Leonidas, was beginning in Alexandria his 
long and brilliant career, we find on the scene of the world 
three great lights in high places, that have ever since that 
day been illuminating the church : Irenseus, Clement of Alex- 
andria, and Tertullian. While Origen was making those 
immense researches in biblical science, which, notwithstand- 
ing his errors, will for ever render his name dear to the 
churches of God, these three great men had been attract- 
ing the attention of all Christian people, and their writings 
were scattered into every part of the empire. Like three 
light-houses, they stood at great intervals, casting their beams 
far and wide : Irenseus beyond the Alps, in the distant me- 
tropolis of the Gauls, where Latin, Greek, and Celtic were 
spoken ; Clement in the learned Alexandria, where they spoke 
Coptic and Greek ; and Tertullian in Carthage, the metrop- 
olis of proconsular Africa, where they spoke the Latin and 
Punic tongues. Irenaeus, upwards of eighty years old, had 
for a quarter of a century been feeding the flocks of Lyons, 
and was to terminate in this very year 202 his long career 
by martyrdom : * Clement, at the age of fifty-two, was not to 
die until a.d. 217, and the great Tertullian, the oldest of the 
Latin Fathers, then in his forty-second year, but converted 
seventeen years before and priest of Carthage ten years, was 
about to exercise in Africa, as in all the Latin church of 
the "West, a long and beneficent influence. We remember 
the respect for his memory afterward expressed by the bishop 
and martyr, Cyprian, in this very Carthage. Two centuries 
later the famous Vincent of Lerins ^ said, " What Origen 
was for the Greeks, Tertullian was for us Latins, that is 
to say, incontestably the first among us (nostrorum om- 
nium facile princeps). Who 'was more learned than this 
man, and who was more exercised in things divine and 
human ? " 

It would be impossible to imagine, for the second half of 

1 Yet the fact of this martyrdom is not quite certain, 
a Edit, of Baluze (1663), p. 323. 

- 1Â 



158 THE CANON. 

the second century, three men more competent to testify 
concerning cotemporary belief in regard to the saCred Scrip- 
tures. Everything commends them to our confidence in this 
respect, — their character, their erudition, their labors, their 
travels, the esteem which they enjoyed, and all the sacrifices 
they had themselves made for the sake of the Scriptures. 
Besides, if we designate them as representatives of the sec- 
ond century in its second half, their testimony (especially 
that of Irenasus) goes back, by the circumstances of their 
lives, much farther than the cominencement of their minis- 
tries. It extends even to the times of the apostles. We 
know, in fact, the famous letter of Ireneeus to Florinus,^ in 
which he recounts his familiarity in early life with Polycarp, 
who himself, he says, had been a hearer of John, and who 
related to him his pious reminiscences, " wholly conformed 
to the Holy Scriptures,"" as he was careful to add. Besides 
this, what gives the greater weight to the testimony of these 
three men, is that their still extant writings are very copious. 
Those of Irenaeus (Grabe's edition,) form one folio volume 
of about five hundred pages ; the best edition of Tertullian 
(Venice, 1746,) is also in large folio ; and the best of Clem- 
ent- of Alexandria (Greek-Latin) in two folio volumes. 
Moreover, these three witnesses, particularly Clement and 
Tertullian, would not have been converted from the pagan- 
ism of their age to the profession of the gospel, but for the 
powerful testimony to the sacred books which they found, and 
for the common, constant, and undisputed conviction of the 
cotemporary churches which they saw. They had had be- 
fore their eyes conclusive reasons for abjuring their ancient 
errors, and for believing in the divinity of the Scriptures. 
All three, practised from their youth in scientific investiga- 
tions, had possessed every facility for determining the cer- 
tainty of these books which were to form thenceforward the 
rule of their lives. All three had visited Asia, Greece, and 
Italy ; they were in intimate relations with the men of every 
1 Hist. Eccl. i. 5; cbap. 19, 20; Lren. Adv. Hœres, Lib. iii. chap. 3. 



TE&TIMOXY OF THE SECOND CEiTTURY. 159 

country who represented the science of their times. They 
lived, also, very near the sources of information, being almost 
cotemporary with the immediate successors of the apostles ; 
so that in submitting themselves to the Scriptures already 
received as divine, and embracing this universally perse- 
cuted faith, they were in possession of all the means, as 
well as all the motives, for testing the legitimacy of the sway 
which the sacred books had obtained throughout the Christian 
churches. 

Would we now hear the voice of the second century, and 
take, as it were, its vote on the canon' of the Scriptures ? 
Let us open one of the important works of these great di- 
vines, and say if it would be possible to imagine fuller testi- 
mony, either to their personal convictions, or to the universal 
persuasion which prevailed in their day among all the church- 
es of the East and of the West. Indeed, we shall find our- 
selves^embarrassed with the very abundance of this testimony. 
It seems to us that it is to neglect, and enfeeble it even, to 
make quotations from it ; and all we can say will ever be 
wholly below the impression which every one must receive 
from a simple reading of their books. Let them be taken 
up for one day only, and they will make a deeper impression 
than all our words."' You fairly swim in the Scriptures, as 
you read their pages. You find yourself transported into the 
midst of a generation which saw things in the light of the 
New Testament. You there hear the men of that genera- 
tion appealing to our sacred books to establish a truth, as we 
appeal for a visible object to the sunlight around us. All 
their pages show them to us as constantly resting on the 
oracles of God, as on the only foundation of their faith, and 
of the faith of all ; they are ministers of this word only ; 
and if they quote it as their rule, it is because it is equally 
the rule of every one, and that to oppose it is, they say, " to 
avow yourself a heretic," " to forsake the church ; " for all 
the church ranks itself, in this matter, as one man. This 
word is for them the sovereign law which must judge every 



160 THE CANON. 

heresy, past, present, or future, as it is that yrhich will shortly 
judge the living and the dead. We do not think that 
a modern author can he found who has made in his writings 
more frequent appeals, or with such absolute deference to the 
infallible authority of this holy word. Not only the large 
volumes of these three men are entirely penetrated with 
them ; not only is it a tapestry in which the passages of Scrip- 
ture are constantly interlaced like threads of gold, strengthen- 
ing and enriching the tissue, but you feel instinctively that 
such language could have been employed only among a peo- 
ple long submissive fo the written word, and accustomed to 
bow, as one man, to its authority.^ 

But, before giving specimens of their testimony, it may be 
well to notice some general traits which characterize it. 

Seven Characiensiics of their Testimony. 

1. These fathers do not confine themselves simply to 
quotations of the twenty books of our first canon ; they speak 
very frequently of the collection itself of these books as 
forming one entire book, a New Testament, which the church 
of their day has fully accepted, which she has united to the 
sacred oracles of the old covenant, and which she calls the 
Scripture, or the Scriptures, the New Instrument, 
THE New Testament, the Lord's Scriptures, (ràs 
KvptttKOLs ypa^asj Dominican Scripturas,) the Divine 
Scriptures, (ràs ôcias ypai^aç,) the Gospel, and the 
Apostle. For these fathers hold equally all the epistles as 
forming one single book, which they call the Apostle ; 
and the four evangelists also as forming one single tetramor- 
phous Gospel, (a gospel in four forms,) to which they join 
the Acts of the Apostles. 

1 See Mr. Kirchhofer's precious coUectiou of what he deemed the most 
remarkable passages of these fathers on each of the books of the canon: 
" Quellensammlung zur Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Canons bis 
auf Hieronymus: Zurich, 1842." See passim, pp. 17 to 29. 



CHABACTEEISTICS OF THIS TESTIMONY. 161 

2. Another feature of their testimony is, that they habitually 
associate the Old and the New Testaments as a succession of 
books of the same origin and of equal authority. 

3. They invariably declare their faith in the divine and 
complete inspiration of all these Scriptures ; they rank them 
with those of the other prophets ; they distinguish them from 
every uninspired book, and from all pretended tradition which 
is not conformed to them ; they call them " the oracles of 
God," "the pillar and ground of the faith," "the rule of 
truth," "the theopneustic Scriptures," "the perfect Scrip- 
tures," " the Scriptures pronounced by the word of God and 
by his Spirit ; " and they declare of the sacred writers, that 
" they were all pneumataphores, (bearers of the Holy Spirit,) 
and all speak by one and the same Spirit of God." 

4. Moreover, they profess this perfect faith in the divine 
inspiration of all these books, in connection with the entire 
church ; they present it as the faith common to every Chris- 
tian in the world; they declare that to raise one's self 
against this œcumenical rule of the truth is, in the view of 
each of them, no longer to belong to the Christian church ; 
it is to abandon it, (exeunfes,) because there can be found iu 
no cotemporary church the least dissent from it. 

5. So calm and sure is their persuasion in this matter, so 
universally peaceful is this conviction among the Christians 
of their time, that you will never find them occupied with 
defending it. Why should they ? The point is everywhere 
firmly settled; it is in. every conscience that professes the 
truth ; it is nowhere contested in the church of the second 
century ; and you can nowhere hear against one of the 
twenty books of the canon a single one of those objections 
which are started by the biblical critics of oui* day. They 
hold them as the universal and uncontested code ; when they 
adduce a passage to establish some disputed truth, it is always 
'as when one puts a lamp in a dark place to reveal something 
that had been hidden. One may dispute with you about the 
object, but no one thinks of questioning the light ; that is the 

lé» 



162 THE CANOK 

same for every one. The Scriptures, — they are the light. 
This confidence, common to every one in the second century, 
is always taken for granted ; they never demonstrate it. If 
I am speaking of the Rhone in Geneva, do I stop to prove 
that it runs through this city, and that you will find water 
there ? Why, then, should these three doctors demonstrate 
to the men of their day that the river of Scripture runs 
through the city of God, and that you may there find abun- 
dance of the living waters of grace ? They never do it. 
In all tlieir folios, they discuss the biblical meaning of such 
and such a word, never its divinity ; they profess to be the 
interpreters of the New Testament, never its defenders. 
Why should they defend it? No one in the church had 
attacked it ; and if you will meet despisers of the Word, you 
must go out and search for them in the Roman schools of 
Cerdo, Marcion, or Yalentinus.^ 

6. Still, a sixth feature is, that in religious matters every- 
thing is decided for them, and should be for the whole church, 
as soon as it is known that the Scripture has spoken on it. 
" The Scriptures," they say, " are a perfect revelation of Chris- 
tian truth ; " " their instruction is abundant," (scripturarum 
tractatio plenissima,) " admitting neither of addition nor re- 
trenchment." "I adore," they say, "the fullness of the 
Scriptures." " Let no one," they add, " teach anything, un- 
less he can say of it, ' It is written.' " Let no one allege 
any tradition ; for them there is none which can stand against 
the declarations of the written Word. ^ 

7. Finally, they say, "It is to the Scriptures that every 
appeal must be made for explaining the Scriptures, (air' 
avTwv Trepi avrui/,) if we would arrive at the truth in a con- 
vincing manner (a-n-oSeucTiKois)." 

Let us, then, hear more minutely these three great divines 

1 Leaders of three heretical sects, bearing their respective names, taught 
in Rome during the second half of the second century. 

2 These various expressions we shall meet again, and indicate theiï 
places. _ ' 



rERTULLlAJSr. 168 

of the second century, by briefly citing them in turn. These 
quotations could be indefinitely multiplied ; our difficulty lies 
only in selecting, for they abound in all their wiitings, and 
even stronger than we quote could be found ; but we have 
selected those which put in the strongest light the six or seven 
features we have here specified. We shall commence with 
the youngest, Tertullian, priest of Carthage. 

TertuUian, 

Although the youngest of these three divines, Tertullian is 
the oldest of the Latin fathers whose writings we possess. 
Born in paganism, only about fifty years after the death- of 
John, this eminent man, whose father was a centurion in the 
African army, was instructed in pagan philosophy and juris- 
prudence. At the age of thirty-five years, he was converted, 
by witnessing the execution and the Christian constancy of 
some of the martyrs. From this time, he consecrated to the 
gospel of Christ his genius and his strength, with all the de- 
votion of a resolute heart. .The injurious treatment which 
he considered himself as receiving from the clergy of Rome 
obliged him, about A. D. 207, to take his pen against the 
corruptions of the church ; and soon he became a Montanist. 
This severe sect appears to have erred especially in its ex- 
cessive views of discipline, and in exalting the visions of its 
prophets to the rank of the Scriptures. Tertullian died 
about A. D. 220. His principal works are five books 
" Against Marcion," written (as he informs us) the fifteenth 
year of Severus, A. D. 207 ; ^ his admirable " Apology," 
about A. D. 217; his books "Against the Jews" and 
" Against the Heretics," his treatises on Shows, the Soul, 
Monogamy, the Soldier's Crown, the Cloak, the Resurrec- 
tion, etc. 

1 The dates we find in a veiy able dissertation on Tertullian, an extract 
of which is in the beginning of his " Apology" (translated by Giry: Am- 
sterdam, 1712), the fanciful dates of Pamelius and Baronius are there re- 
futed. 



164 THE CANON. 

Now TertuUian made constant use of the Scriptures ; he 
distinctly quotes each one of the twenty books of the first 
canon,^ without forgetting even the short letter to Philemon ; ^ 
and we have already showed the words of the learned Lard- 
ner ® in reference to these innumerable testimonies of Tertul- 
lian to the canon : " The citations from the New Testament 
made by this father alone are mox'e extensive and more 
abundant than those from the books of Cicero by all the 
writers of every class and age." 

Tertullian, in his book of "Prescriptions,"* exclaims, 
" How happy is this church, how happy ! She knows one 
only God, creator of all things ; a Christ Jesus, born of a 
virgin, Son of the God Creator ; and a resurrection of the 
body. She hUnds the law and the prophets with the writings 
of the evangelists and' apostles ; and it is thence she refreshes 
her faith, (legem et prophetas cum evangelicis et apostolicis 
miscet ; et inde potat fidem)." In his book on Monogamy,^ 
speaking of second marriages, and quoting a sentence of the 
New Testament (1 Cor. vii. 39), he uses, he -says, "a Latin 
version which is not very accurately conformed to the authen- 
tic Greek text in the translation of this passage, (sciamus 
plane non sic esse in Grseco authentico)." 

The expression " New Testament," for the collection of 
our holy books, was already in use in his day ; but they had 
previously called the two volumes "^the one and the other 
Instrument" and Tertullian gives his testimony to the 
antiquity of the usage, not only of having a collection of 
our Scriptures, but of uniting this new collection with the 
old. 

1 We speak here only of the first canon, without saying, with JZirchho- 
fer (p. 263, Quellensammlung : Zurich, 1842), " that he cites equally all the 
canonical books of the New Testament; " if it is not (as this author also 
observes) that we there find only three allusions more or less questionable 
to the epistle of James. 

2 Adv. Marcion, Lib. v. cap. 42. 
8 Canon, chap. ii. sec. 2. 

4 De Prasscript. Hsereditor. chap, xxxvi. 
6 Chap. xi. p. 532, of the edit, of Basle, 1515. 



TERTULLIAN. 165 

In his fourth book " Against Marcion," (chap, i.) in com- 
plaining of the heresy of this man who pretended to establish 
an opposition between the God of the law and the God of 
the gospel, he calls the law and the gosp.el " the one and the 
other Instrument, as it is now more usual to say the one and 
the other Testament," (alterum alterius Instrument!, yel, quod 
magis usui est Testamenti).^ And in his book of the '• Pi;e- 
scriptions," ^ he exclaims : " If Marcion has separated the 
New Testament from the Old, (Novum Testamentum a Vet- 
ere,) he is then later than the book which he^ divides ; for we 
can separate only what has been united." 

A dogma, according to TertuUian, ought not to be preached 
unless we can say of it, " it is written." " Woe to them who 
add or retrench anything to or from that which is written." 
"To wish to believe without the Scriptures (of the New 
Testament) is to wish to believe against them." 

In his treatise " Against Hermogenes," ^ in speaking of a 
certain doctrine, he says : " We can aflSrm nothing in regard 
to it, because the Scriptures do not explain it, (Nihil de eo 
constat, quia Scriptura non exhibet)." So, too, in his book 
*'0f the Body of Christ:"^ "They prove nothing, because 
that is not written (Non probant, quia nee scriptum est, nee, 
etc.)." 

In his essay " Against Praxeas : " ^ " Thou shalt also 
prove thy sayings, hy the Scriptures, not less clearly than we 
prove that God has made his Son of his own Word." " Let 
us refer these questions to the Scriptures of God (Revocando 
quaestiones ad Dei literas)." ® 

In refuting an error of Hermogenes,'^ he says : " Let the 

1 Observe him, in the same manner, employing many times elsewhere 
this term of " New Testament" to designate the canon. Thus, ad Prjix- 
eam, chap. xv. p. 508, edit, of Eigalt, Paris, 1634. 

2 Chap. XXX. p. 212, Paris edit. 1629. 
8 Chap. i. p. 233, Paris edit. 1664. 

4 Chap. vi. p. 312. 

6 Chap. xi. p. 505. 6 De Ânimâ, chap. ii. p. 265. 

t Adv. Hermogenem, chap. xxii. p. 241. 



166 THE CANON. 

heretics bring their doctrines to the Scriptures alone : then 
they can not stand." 

In the same book, in speaking first of all the Scriptures, 
then in opposing to -their whole body the New Testament, or 
the gospel, he exclaims, " I adore the fullness of §cripture ; 
but, besides, in the gospel, I find the same word of the Cre- 
ator as minister and judge (In Evangelio vero amplius' et 
ministrum atque arbitrum Factoris invenio sermonem.) '' 

He says again, " And as to the point in question, let the 
workshop of Hermogenes show us that it is written. But if 
it is not written, let him fear that ' woe unto you ' uttered 
against all that shall add to or take from the words of the 
book." ^ And again, in his book of the " Prescriptions," 
indignant at the rashness of the heretics whom he is refuting, 
and holding the axiom that " all faith should be founded on 
the Scriptures," he exclaims, " Well, if they will believe 
contrary to the Scriptures, let them believe without the 
Scriptures ! " '^ 

And now, if from proconsular Africa, we pass over into 
Egypt, we hear Clement of Alexandria rendering, with equal 
affluence, similar testimony. 

Olement of Ahxandria. 

This father, older than TertuUian, died only three years 
before him, about a. d. 207. In his first book, " Stromata," » 
he speaks of himself as " very near to the time of the apos- 
tles." Born in paganism, and versed in all the science of 
the Greeks, he had long been teaching their philosophy when 
he was converted in Egypt through Pantaenus, the pious and 
distinguished head of the Christian school of Alexandria. 
And when Pantœnus left that city, about a. d. 189, to carry 

1 Alluding to Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

2 Chap, xxiii. p. 210; and chap. viii. p. 205. See also Euseb. H. E.Lib. v. 
chap. 11; and Lib. vi. chap. 13. 

8 Strom. Lib. i. p. 274. 



CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 167 

the gospel to India, Clement took his master's place in that 
institution. By his philosophical science and the charm of 
his instructions, its fame was greatly raised. Many ancient 
authors^ assure us that he was horn in Athens, and that it 
was in that famous city he had acquired his learning and 
formed, his eloquence. However that may be, it had long 
been the custom to call him Alexandrinus, to distinguish him 
from the celebrated Clement of Rome, whom all the church 
had honored a hundred years before. In A. d. 202, being 
forced by the persecution of Septimus Severus to fly from 
Egypt, he went to Jerusalem, and thence to Antioch ; but he 
afterwards returned to Alexandria to resume his instructions, 
which he continued until his death, toward the end of Cara- 
calla's reign. He had an active mind, a prodigious memory, 
and great zeal for promoting the faith. Unhappily for the 
church and for himself, but to the great admiration of his 
age, he employed his genius in seeking to form an alliance 
between the religion of Jesus Christ and the pliilosophy he 
had always taught. He attempted to use his Platonism as 
an introduction to Christianity ; and it is thus that this man, 
otherwise pious, powerfully contributed to lower the faith and 
spiritual life of the Eastern churches. Never and nowhere 
was such an effort made without altering the doctrines of orig- 
inal sin, the foundation of all the teachings of Jesus Christ, 
but a foundation universally rejected by human wisdom. We 
cite this author here only as a very faithful representative of 
the views of his age in regard to the canon of the Scriptures, 
not as an interpreter of Christian truth. He received, in 
fact, the suffrages of all the ecclesiastical authors who came 
after him. Eusebius ^ says, " His writings are full of the 
most varied and useful erudition ; " " full of ei'udition and 
eloquence," Jerome ^ says, " as well on the divine Scriptures 
as on all the documents of secular literature." " What is 

1 See, among others, Epiphan. Haeres. xxxii. n. 6. 

2 He particularly speaks of the Stromata, H. E. vi. 13. 

8 The Scrip. Eccl. chap. 18 ; and Ep. ad Magnum, chap. 2. 



168 THE CANON. 

there in these writings which is not learned, and even which 
does not come as from the center of philosophy ? " 

His principal writings that have come to us, are his " Ex- 
hoi'tation to the Gentiles;" his " Pedagogue," in three books; 
his " Eich Man Saved," a treatise addressed to the rich ; espe- 
cially his " Stromata " (or Tapestries), in eight books, a collec- 
tion abounding in his Christian or philosophic thoughts. He 
attempts there to introduce his readers in some measure to 
what he calls a gnosis (or science) more profound ; and this 
work, as he himself informs us,^ must have made its appear- 
ance A. D. 192, " two hundred and twenty-two years after the 
battle of Actium," he says. It is believed also that Cassio- 
dorus ^ has presented a fragment of his " Adumbrationes " or 
Sketches on the Catholic epistles — only brief fragments of 
his " Hypotyposes " remain. It was a concise exposition of 
the contents of the New Testament.* 

Now the use made of the New Testament Scriptures, the 
quotations from them, the appeals to their infallibility as to 
the sovereign judge of controversies, and to the only source 
of all divine truth even of the mystic traditions which Clem- 
ent admitted ; in fine, the frequent expression of his confi- 
dence in their universal inspiration, all these are found in 
abundance in the writings of Clement. And it is not only 
his personal faith in the whole Bible which he expresses on 
almost every page ; it is not only his faith in each of their 
books (for he never ceases to cite them) ; it is the faith of 
the Church. You may read in the useful collection of Mr. 
Kirchhofer,* an abundant array of these quotations. In 
speaking of the Stromata this professor remarks, " Clement, 
on almost every page, quotes sentences taken from the New 
Testament, from all the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 
each of Paul's letters, the first of Peter, the first and second 

1 Strom. Lib. i. p. 339. 

2 Therefore with a Latin title. 

8 Potter's Oxford edit. 2 vol. foL 1715, is the best. 
* Quellensammluog, etc., p. 22. 



CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.. 169 

of John, that of Jude, that to the Hebrews, and the Apoca- 
lypse." Nothing of the first canon is left unquoted except 
the short epistle to Philemon. But this is a mere accident, 
due entirely to the brevity of this letter, which contains only 
twenty-five verses, and has nothing doctrinal in it. It ap- 
pears even, according to Eusebius, that it was cited in his 
Hypotyposes, now lost; and as we have just seen, it was 
mentioned by Tertullian in Africa at that very time,^ and at 
the same time also, it was so well known throughout Chris- 
tendom, that at Eome the audacious Marcion himself reck- 
oned it the ninth of Paul's epistles.^ " It is only the dimin- 
utive size of this epistle," writes Tertullian,^ " that saved it 
from the forgeries of Marcion." And Jerome,* in his eulo- 
gium upon it, tells us that if it had not been believed to be 
from Paul, "it would not have been received by all the 
churches throughout the world." 

" In his book of Hypotyposes," says Eusebius,^ " Clement 
has made very abundant expositions of all the Canonical 
Scriptures, not even excepting the antilegomens." 

Rather then than exhibit here the principal passages in 
which each one of our sacred books is mentioned by Clement, 
we think it will be more useful to show simply by some cita- 
tions in what terms this father constantly speaks of the Scrip- 
tures of the New Testament. 

In the third book of the Stromata," Clement distinguishes 
expressly the four canonical gospels from the apocryphal gos- 
pel of the Egyptians. Speaking of a strange sentence at- 
tributed to our Saviour by Cassianus the heretic, he says, 
" And first we find this passage nowhere in the four gospels 
transmitted to us, (Tra/jaSeSo/iéi/otç) ; but it is found in that 
which is called the gospel according to the Egyptians." 

1 Tertul. adv. Marcion, Lib.- v. chap. 42. See, too, Epiph. Hseres. 43, 9. 

2 Epipli. Hœres. 42, 9, p. 310, 373. 
8 Adv. Marcion, torn. v. chap. 42. 

* Comm. in Ep. ad Philem. prœm. (0pp., torn. iv. p. 442.) 
6 Hist. Ecc, Lib. vi. chap. 14. 
» Strom. Lib. iii. p. 465; edit, of Paris, 1629. 
15 



170 THE CA2S"05r. 

He always places both Testaments in the same rank, as the 
word of God. Thus in his second book of the Stromata ^ he 
says, " The man justified by faith shall live by that faith 
•which is according to the Testament and the Commandments; 
for these two testaments which are two as to name and date, 
having been given by a wise economy according to the age 
and its wants, are only one in their power (uwdfiei fi(a oucrat). 
Both the Old Testament and the New are equally bestowed 
thi-ough the Son, by one and the same God." He also calls 
the collection of the canon, the " gospel of the Apostle," 
" the Lord's writings," " the New Testament." 

In the seventh book of the Stromata,^ he compares them 
to the Virgin Mary, conceiving the Lord, while remaining 
a virgin. " Such are the Lord's Scriptures (aï KupiaKoL 
•ypa^at) ; they conceive the truth and remain virgins, by con- 
cealing the mysteries of the truth." He says, " "We have, 
for a px'inciple of doctrine the Lord himself, who leads us in 
various measures and ways from the beginning to the end 
of knowledge, whether by means of the Prophets, or the Gos- 
pel, or the blessed Apostles." He says again, "Both the 
Gospel and the Apostle bid us mortify the old man." ^ 

It is always to the Scriptures that he appeals against his 
opponents, as to an inspired book, a universal rule, the only 
rule of faith, the infallible judge of controversies. 

In his seventh book of the Stromata, he says,* "They 
•who do not follow God wherever he leads, fall from that ele- 
- vated state I have described ; now God guides by the divinely 
inspired Scriptures." And again,^ "When we have over- 
thrown them by showing their evident opposition to the 
Scriptures, you will see their leaders always doing one of 
two things : showing contempt either for the consequences of 
their own doctrines, or for the prophecy itself, or rather for 
their own hope." 
^ It is to the Scriptures, also, that Clement always appeals. 

1 Page 756, Paris edit 1629, 2 Page 757. s Page 706. 

4 Book vii. 5, 16, chap. xvi. p. 894 (or 76i). s Page 892. 



CLEMENT OP ALEXANDEIA. 171 

** "We then too, when, in regard to the Scriptures, we give a 
perfect demonstration drawn from the Scriptures themselves, 
— we then form our persuasion in a convincing manner by 
faith." 

" For those who, in order to benefit others, give themselves 
to writing or preaching the word, if it is useful to acquire 
some other kind of instruction, it is necessary to know the 
Scriptures of the Lord for the demonstration of what they 
say." ^ " The truth is found in confirming each of the things 
demonstrated according to the Scriptures, by the allegation 
of similar Scriptures." ^ 

Clement in his philosophy on Christian gnosis, as he calls 
it, admitted the existence of a certain mystical tradition which 
Christ gave to four of his apostles only concerning the hidden 
sense of Scripture, and which has been transmitted only to 
certain rabbis of the church, to pass from age to age to a 
certain number of initiated persons, whom he calls gnostics 
or scientific men. And in the mean time, in spite of this 
system of tradition, sustained by him alone, and strongly com- 
bated by both Irenaeus and TertuUian,* Clement has not 
ceased to declare that the Scriptures are the universal rule ' 
of faith as well for the gnostic, initiated in their profoundest 
meanings, as for the simple believer. " For the gnostic knows 
according to the Scripture." * 

In the seventh book of the " Stromata," he says again,** 
"They are the believers who have only tasted the Scrip- 
tures ; but they are the gnostics who have advanced still far- 
ther, and become exact gnomons of the truth ; they there 
discover hidden meanings not perceived by the vulgar." 

1 Strom. Lib. vi. sec. ii. p. 786. 

2 Strom.- Lib. vii. sec. xvi. p. S91. 

8 Irenaeus adv. Haeres. Lib. i. cap. 242, p. 101; Lib. iii. cap. 14, 15, pp. 
235, 237; Tertulllan de Prsescript., chaps. 8 and 25. The pretense that the 
apostles had not revealed the same things to all, but had taught certain 
things in secret and to a small number, he denominates a falsehood. 

* Strom. Lib. vi. sec. 11. 

6 Sec. 16, p. 891; Edit. Potter, Oxford, 1715, p. 757. Edit. Heinsins, 
Paris, 1629. 



172 THE CANON. . 

But we pass to the pious Irenseus, still nearer than Clem- 
ent or TertuUian to the times of the apostles. 



Irenceus. 

Irenaeus, born among the Greeks of Asia about A. D. 120, 
that is, only seventeen years after the death of John, and in 
the very place where this apostle finished his course, had re- 
ceived from childhood a Greek -and at the same time a Chris- 
tian education ; for he had the happiness, as he says, " when 
yet an infant," of being frequently with the martyr Polycarp 
the holy bishop of Smyrna. "This Polycarp," he says,^ 
" taught by the apostles and intimate with many of the men 
who had seen the Lord, and placed by apostles over the 
province of Asia as bishop of Smyrna, we have seen in our 
infancy, teaching all the things he had learned of the apos- 
tles." — And now see what he wrote about him stiU later in 
the interesting fragment .of his works which comes to us 
through Eusebius.*^ 

" O Florinus, these impious dogmas (of the gnostics) are 
not those taught you by them who were disciples of the apos- 
tles ; for I have seen thee, while I was yet an infant, in Asia 
Minor near Polycarp, whilst thou wert still shining at the 
imperial court and seeking to be agieeable to it. I remem- 
ber better what passed at that time than more recently ; for 
the things learned in childhood take root in the soul. I could 
describe both the place where this blessed Polycarp was sit- 
ting, and his manner of entering and of retiring, his mode 
of life, his appearance, his discourses to the people, his famil- 
iar relations with John, and with those who had seen the Lord, 
and how he used to repeat their discourses and all they had 
said to him about the Lord, his miracles and his doctrine. 
Now these things which Polycarp used to state were all in 
accordance with the Scriptures. By the goodness of God, 
I even then listened attentively to them, recording their 
1 Hœres. Lib. iii. chap. 3. a Hist Eccl. Lib. v. chaps. 19, 20. 



lEEN^US. 173. 

words, not on paper, but in my heart ; and by the grace of 
God, I can accurately run over them in my memory/' 

"We have not shrunk from dwelling on these long details, 
because they show how near to the very origin of Christian- 
ity these testimonies began to be uttered. Irenaeus even in- 
forms us that he lived in a period when you could still meet 
with men having the ckarisms or miraculous powers received 
from the imposition of the apostles' hands.-' He says, " We 
ourselves have heard in the Church many brethren who had 
prophetic gifts, and who spoke vai'ious languages by the 
Holy Spirit." 2 

We see in his books ' that he had at the same time studied 
the literature and philosophy of his times. Tertullian calls 
him " a zealous explorer of all knowledge." * He had thor- 
oughly learned the Celtic language, to become more useful 
as a preacher of the gospel, and he spoke it habitually. 
Thus, at the commencement of his book^ he excuses him- 
self for having neither the habit of writing nor the elegancies 
of language ; " because, living among the Celts, I am obliged 
to converse generally in a barbarous tongue." 

Irenaeus was then an eminent man, admired by all the 
church for his missionary zeal, as well as his wisdom and 
charity. He had first preached the gospel to the pagans ; 
and it is said to have been by the advice of Polycarp that 
he left Smyrna with Pothinus to go and preach the Word 
to the Gauls, and soon to take charge, at the peril of his life, 
of the church just formed amidst the idolatrous people of 
Lyons. In A. D. 178, when Pothinus, who was much older 
than he, (being born fifteen years before the death of John,) 
had suflPered mai'tyrdom with so many other believers of 

1 Acts viii. 17. 

2 Euseb., H. E., v. 7. See also in Iren. Hœres. Lib. v. chap. 6. 

* See his quotations from the ancient poets and philosophers, particularly 
in chap. 19 of his Book ii. 

* Or of aU doctnnes, doctrinarum omnium curiosissimus explorator. Con- 
tra Valentinianos,.cap. v. 

3 P, 3, Grabe, Oxf. 1702. 

15* 



174 THE CANON. 

Lyons, tenaeus succeeded him in his charge of bishop, and 
afterwards also in his prison ; for they decapitated him under 
Septimus Severus, some say, A. d. 197, after the bloody vic- 
tory of this Emperor at the gates of Lyons ; others say, in 
A. D. 202, at the time of the general persecution. Lrenaeus, 
A.D. 177, during the' captivity of Pothinus, had been de- 
puted by the churches of Gaul to visit the Asiatic bishops 
and the bishop of Rome (Eleutherus). He had afterward to 
reprimand the successor of the latter for his intolerance. " So 
far," he said, " as one has it in his power to do good to his 
neighbor, and refuses to do it, he must be held as a stranger 
to the love of the Lord." ^ 

All his ministry was a blessing to the Gallic churches as 
well as the general cause of truth. " He was the illumina- 
tor (^(DOT^p) of the Galatians (Gauls) of the West," says 
Theodoret. He had written commentaries and many other 
works, but almost all has perished except his work " Against 
the Heresies," written particularly against the Valentinians, 
who had penetrated in his day from Rome into Gaul, pervert- 
ing the faith of a great number, especially women. Irenaeus 
composed this great work carefully. Only brief fragments 
of the original Greek are found ; but the entire work is pre- 
served to us in a Latin translation bearing the date A.D. 
1400.2 

Let any one then take up the folio volume of Irenaeus, 
and open it at random anywhere, excepting in the first pages 
devoted to the exposition of Valentinian gnosticism and its 
impious fantasies ; (of his thirty œons, of Mother Achamoth 
or the thirtieth seon, and the substances produced by her,) • 
we venture to say that it will be rare to find a page on which 
our Scriptures are not quoted. We know no modern author 

1 Fragments of his letter to Victor, in the Works of Irenœus, p. 466, 
Grabe's edition, 1702. 

a We generally quote from Grabe's edition, large folio, Oxford, 1702, 
which is the best. Others recommend that of the Benedictines of Mas- 
Buet, Paris, folio, 1710. We have sometimes employed it 



IREN^US. 175 

who has made so constant a use of them. And the reader, 
in view of such a book, will be soon constrained to recognize 
that the Christian people of the second century were, as to 
their knowledge and their interest in the Scriptures, superior 
to the Christian people of the nineteenth. 

From the first page you will discover what is the charac- 
ter of the whole book in this respect. Already the first line 
of the preface quotes the first • epistle of Paul to Timothy : 
" Considering, that certain persons sent among you to attack 
the truth, introduce, as the Apostle says, w^ords of falsehood 
and ' endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than 
godly edifying, which is in faith,' leading the simple astray, 
falsifying the oracles of the Lord (ra Aoyta KvpCov) and per- 
verting many, (2 Tim. xi. 18,) after having led them, under a 
vain pretense of science {gnosis), ^div from Him who has crea- 
ted and arranged the universe ; as if they had something bet- 
ter or greater to show them I have thought necessaiy, 

beloved, after having read the commentaries of the followers 
of Valentinus, (as they call themselves,) to acquaint thee 
with these monstrous mysteries ; that thou mayest speak of 
them to those around thee, and that thou mayest exhort 
them to keep themselves from these depths of folly and from 
this blasphemy against Christ." 

And if from these first lines you pass to the last, you will 
still have some glimpse of the abundant, indeed I should 
say the exuberant, quotations of our Holy Books which are 
made by this bishop of the second century. Open at the 
beautiful chapter xxxvi., in which he describes the scenes 
of the last day. This chapter contains only fifty-four lines ; 
and yet he has there found room to quote at length, besides 
two books of the Old Testament, (Ex. xxxv.' 40, and Isa. 
Ixvi. 32.) twelve passages of the New. To convey some 
idea of it, I will quote the last thirty lines : ^ 

" Then, as the ministers of the Word teach us, ' they who 

1 Translating from their obscure and antique Latin, as the Greek is lost. 



176 THE CAITOF. 

shall have been counted worthy ^ to inhabit heaven shall be 
carried thither, some to taste there the delights of paradise ; 
others to partake of the glory of the celestial city. In each 
place they will see God ; but they will see him in proportion 
to their knowledge of him here ; for in this blessed abode of 
heaven there will be a proportionate degree of separation 
from God, according as they may have brought forth fruit ; 
some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty.' (Matt. xiii. 8, and 
Mark iv. 8.) And it is in view of this that the Lokd has 
SAID, ' In ray Father's house are many mansions.' (John 
xiv. 2.) All these joys in fact shall come to them from 
God, who assigns to each his appropriate residence. It is 
therefore his Word ^ has said, that the Father distributes to 
every one according as he is worthy. And that is this trz' 
clinium, this table at which are seated the guests who are to 
partake of the wedding feast (Matt. xxii. 2 ; Luke xiv. 16) ; 
for the ministers of the Word, disciples of the Apostles, tell 
us that such is the law of coordination (adordinationem) by 
which the redeemed will be ranked. They are thus ad- 
vanced by degrees, rising by the Spirit to the Son, and by 
the Son to the Father ; the Son at length yielding his work 
to the Father, as the Apostle has said (1 Cor. xv. 25, 
26) : He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his 
feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for in 
the time of this kingdom the just man shall no more know * 
on earth what it is to die. Yet, the Apostle adds, when 
he saith, all things ai'e put under him, it is manifest that he 
is excepted which did put all things under him. And when 
all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also 
himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, 
that God may be all in alL For this reason John foretold a 
first resurrection of the just (Rev. xx. 5) and an inheritance 
of a kingdom on the earth (Rev. v. 10). For this reason 

1 Or, judged worthy {KaTO^ia&évTeç). It is the very expression of Luke 
zx. 35; xxi. 36. 

2 Verbum ejus. 8 Obliviscetiir. 



lEEN-aiUS. 177 

the Prophets also, in the harmony of their revelations 
(concordantes), have predicted it ; and it is this, too, which 
THE Lord himselp teaches, when he promises tg his 
disciples the new cup which he will drink with them in his 
Father's kingdom (Matt. xxvi. 29). Thus the Apostle 
declares that the time shall come when the creature shall be 
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God (Eom. viii. 21.) In all and 
by all these revelations, one and the same God and Father 
is showed to us who formed man by his hands (qui plasma- 
vit hominem), who promised to the fathers the heritage of 
the earth, who dispenses it to them in the resurrection of 
the just, and who, fulfilling thus the promises which he has 
made to them for the kingdom of his Son, accomplishes 
finally the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor 
have entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. ii. 9). Thus, 
then, there is an only Son, who has perfectly fulfilled the 
will of the Father, and one only human race in which are 
consummated the mysteries of God, mysteries into which the 
angels desire to look (1 Pet. i. 12), although it is impossible 
for them to find out to perfection the wisdom of God by 
which is completed that creature he has formed with his • 
hands (plasma ejus), to be made conformable to the Son, 
and of the same body with him (concorporatum Filio) ; in 
ordar that his first begotten, the Word, may descend into his 
creature formed by his hands, that it may be received by 
him (capiatur ab eo), and that in its turn the creature may 
receive the Word, rise up to it, rise above the angels and be 
made in the image and likeness of God." 

Such, then, was Irenseus, and such was the canon in his 
time. All our Scriptures abound in his books — the four 
Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, the Apocalypse. 

And first, as to the four Gospels, Irenaeus quotes them 
constantly ; and what will show us how deeply, in days so 
near the time of the Apostles, the use of them, and the use 
of four exclusively, had rooted itself in the thought of the . 



178 THE CANON. 

church, it is not only that Irenaeus has written a long chap- 
ter * entitled, " Proof of there being four and only four Gos- 
pels ; " and it is not only that always regarding them as one 
indivisible whole, he has for that reason called them "fAe 
Gospel under four forms ; " he even goes so far as to seek 
for this quadruple form mystical reasons, which, while value- 
less in our eyes, none the less strongly attest the conviction 
of Irenœus, and of his age. As Olshausen says,^ in order 
tïiat Irenaeus should so express himself to the men of his 
epoch concerning the four Gospels, it must have been that 
the church then existing knew no period when she had not 
had them. Irenaeus compares the quadriform gospel (rerpa- 
fjioptfiov) to the four quarters of the globe, to the four uni- 
versal spirits, to the cherubim with four faces, etc. "The 
church is scattered over the earth ; but the pillar and ground 
of the church is the gospel and the spirit of life. It was 
then proper that it should have four pillars, promoting purity 
and quickening humanity. And hence it is manifest that the 
Word, creator of all things, who is seated on the cherubim, 
and who sustains all things, when he proposed to make himself 
known to men, chose to give us the gospel under a quadruple 
form, while at the same time it is sustained in unity by one 
only and identical Spirit.^ Now we have showed by veiy 
many and very powerful reasons, on the one hand, that there 
are not more than four, and on the other, that there are not 
less ; because they alone are true and solid (quoniam sola 
ilia vera et firma);" 

He adds, " Matters being thus, very vain and very igno- 
rant, yes, very audacious are all they who would change this 
form (îStav) of the gospel, and give it more or less than these 
four visages. And so gi-eat in respect to the gospels is this 
firmness of which we are speaking, that the heretics thera- 

1 Lib. iii. chap. 2, sec. 7. 

2 jEchtheit d. 4 Ev. sec. 272. 

8 It is the 9th chap, of Book iii. in the Massuet Bened. edit. 1710; the 
. nth, in Grabe's Oxford edit. 1702, pp. 214, 221. 



lEEN^US. 179 

selves ^ render it their testimony, and that you see every one 
of them, when he comes forth to daylight, supporting his 
positions by these very gospels." v 

And what we affirm concerning the persuasion of Irenœus 
and his age as to the four gospels, is not less true as regards 
the book of Acts. He cites it more than sixty-four times, 
and even labors in his third book to show by numerous cita- 
tions the harmony of this book of Luke with the epistles of 
Paul. 

Nor is this persuasion less in regard to the other books of 
the canon. He quotes also abundantly from them. "We 
have, for instance, counted in the index of Grabe ^ a hun- 
dred and seven quotations which Irenaeus has made from the 
first epistle to the Corinthians, eighty-eight from the epistle 
to the Romans, thirty-four from the Ephesians, twenty-nine 
from the Galatians, twenty from Colossians, eighteen from 
second Corinthians, eleven from Philippian;:, eleven from 
first Peter, ten from second Thessalonians, five from first 
Timothy, four from second Timothy, three from Titus, three 
from first John, and two from first Thessalonians. In a 
word, he quotes all the books of the Canon. He omits only 
the letter to Philemon. Are we surprised ? This brief 
epistle, treating only of a question of domestic morals, and 
having nothing dogmatic in it, had no chance of being quoted 
in a book of controversy ; and we have said elsewhere that at 
the same time TertuUian mentioned it in Africa, and that it 
was not until the audacious Marcion that any one questioned 
its authenticity.* 

This testimony of Irenaeus to the canon of the second cen- 
tury is, then, irrefragable ; but, to render it complete, we must 
still show, by a few quotations selected from the multitude in 
his book, how firm was the faith of that age in the divine 
inspiration of all these books, their sufficiency and their au- 

1 He says, the Ebionites, Marcion, Marcus, and Valentinus. 

2 P. 473. And we know Grabe has frequently omitted passages. 
s Canon, chap. 2, sec. 3. 



180 THE CANOIT. 

thority. The passages which prove it' are so numerous in 
the course of his book that we are embarrassed in selecting. 
Everywhere, with him it belongs to the Scriptures to lay the 
foundation of faith, reestablish it in overthrowing error, to 
be its sole, universal and divine rule ; and it is always, as 
Erasmus says,^ "by the garrisons of Scripture alone that 
IrenîBus attacks the squadrons of the heretics." 

"In employing '^ these proofs which are taken from the 
Scriptures, you easily overthrow, as we have showed, all these 
sentences of the heretics afterward invented." 

The collection of our Scriptures was already called the 
New Testament; and everywhere Irenseus places them in 
the same rank of authority with those of Moses and the 
prophets. 

" The precepts of perfect life," he says in the fourth book,' 
" being the same in hoth Testaments, have revealed to us the 
same God." 

In his first book, Irenaaus exposes the doctrines of Valen- 
tinus and his acolytes ; in the second, he shows their evil 
character; in the third, he refutes them by the Scriptures. 
" We have learned the plan of salvation only by those who 
have brought us the gospel. They first proclaimed it by their 
voices ; then they left us the tradition of it in the Scriptures 
by the will of God, to be after them the pillar and ground 
of the faith." 

He says again,* " In opposing the sound doctrine to the 
contradictions of heretics, following only one teacher, the only 
and true God, and having his words for the rule of truth, we 
all and always say the same things on the same points." — 
And again : " If we can not find solutions for everything we 
m^et in the Scriptures, we ought to resign those questions to 
God, who also hath created us ; knowing that the Scriptures 

1 Prœf. in Irenaeum. 

2 Chap. xiv. p. 422; Grabe's edit. 1702. 

8 It is chap. xii. Bened. edit. Paris, 1710 ; it is the xxvith in that of Grabe, 
Oxford, 1702, p. 312. 
4 Lib. iv. chap. 69, Grabe, Oxford, p. 368. 



lEEN^US. 181 

are certainly perfect, because they were spoken by the Word 
of God and his Spirit." ^ 

In all the course of his five books you meet expressions 
like these : " "We prove by the Scriptures ; as we learn from 
the Scriptures ; we have proved from the Scriptures ; we 
have demonstrated by the Lord's Scriptures ; we must ex.- 
plaiu everything that lies in the Scriptures ; if they had 
known the Scriptures, they would have known ... ; 
let us return to the proof which is drawn from the Scrip- 
tures ; having for ourselves these proofs which are drawn 
from the Scriptures. — Firm, real, not imaginary, alone true, 
is the faith which we sustain ; this faith receiving from the 
Scriptures a manifest demonstration." 

He says elsewhere : " John wishing to establish a rule of 
truth in the church, has thus spoken." 

" When we have refuted them by the Scriptures," he says 
of the heretics, " they turn and question the Scriptures them- 
selves as if they erred or expressed themselves erroneously, 
or lacked authority, or had divers senses, or were insufficient 
for the discovery of truth for those who have not tradition ; 
because, they say, the truth was not given by writing, but 
by the living voice." 

At the same time, before passing further, we must notice 
those passages in which this father appeals to apostolical tra- 
dition, and from which the doctors of Rome have derived the 
sanction of their views of tradition. It is easy to see that 
Irenaeus had in view a totally diflferent matter. He never 
means by this term, as they do at Rome, an oral transmission, 
apocryphal and continued, no one knows by whom, of dogmas 
not contained in the Scriptures, or of dogmas even opposed 
to its teachings. On the contrary, with him as with all the 
other fathers, this term is employed most commonly to desig- 
nate the Scriptures. We have just quoted his words : " The 
apostles, after having preached the gospel with the living 
voice, have left us by the Divine will the tradition of it in 

1 Lib. ii. chap. 47, p. 173; Grabe, 1702. 
16 



182 THE CANON. 

the Scriptures, (Evangelium . . postea per voluntatem Dei in 
Scripturis nobis tradiderunt), to be after them the pillar and 
ground of faith." The Scriptures, — that is Irenaeus' ti*adi- 
tion, the true tradition, " given by the will of Grod to be after 
them the pillar and ground of faith." ^ - 

" This interpretation of which we speak, agrees with the 
tradition of the apostles," he says :^ " for Peter and John and 
Matthew and Paul and others have thus spoken. In fact, 
the same spirit of God which has spoken in the prophets, 
has also announced in the apostles the fullness of times and 
the approach of the kingdom of heaven." 

" The Fathers," remarks the learned Mr. Groode, in his 
Divine Rule,*^ (speaking of Irenaeus and especially of his fol- 
lowers,) " constantly employ the terms tradition and apostoli- 
cal tradition to designate the Scriptures ; and it is by a strange 
abuse that Messrs. Newman and Keble cite them to sustain 
the meaning totally different given to this expression by the 
doctors of Rome." Mr. Goode even shows that the passages 
of Athanasius alleged by these authors as favoring tradition 
in the Roman sense, say precisely the contrary, and recom- 
mend only the written Word. It may be seen by numerous 
quotations from Irenaeus, Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, 
Cyril of Alexandria, Socrates the historian, Cyprian, and 
even Jerome, that, by evangelical tradition, the Fathers 
meant the gospels, as distinct from the Acts and Epistles ; and 
by apostolical tradition, the Acts and Epistles of the apos- 
tles. 

It is very true that Irenaeus, with the other fathers, also 
sometimes uses this expression to designate a still recent 
recollection of the apostles and their teachings, which was 
preserved in those places where they had labored ; but even 
then he employs it still in a sense totally opposed to that of 
the Roman doctors. The heretics, confounded by the quo- 
tations from the Scriptures, produced the traditions of the 

1 Lib. iii. chap. 25, p. 256; Grabe, 1702. 

2 London, 1853, vol. i. p. 68. 



lEEN-^US. 183 

apostles to sanction their errors, and pretended to appeal 
from the written to the oral testimony of these men of God. 
Irenaeus, to refute them, himself urged an appeal to the still 
accessible tradition of the apostles ; that is, to the recollection 
still preserved in his time among the churches which ihey 
had founded. Nothing was more rational. If in our days, 
for example, one should affirm some historical falsehood con- 
cerning the passage of the Alps by Bonaparte, fifty or sixty 
years ago, in his campaign of Marengo ; and if the authors 
of the falsehood, rejecting the testimony of books, should ap- 
peal from it to the oral traditions gathered in those places, 
we might with Irenaeus, accept the challenge ; we might op- 
posé with confidence this source of information to their state- 
ments, and defy thepa to fi.nd in it any trustworthy support 
of those statements. But if, instead of Napoleon, the ques- 
tion was about Hannibal ; and if instead of the passage of 
the Alps by the French, it referred to that by the Cartha- 
ginians more than two thousand years ago, we should scarcely 
be so absurd as to refer to local traditions, vvhich could be of 
no value in the case. It was so with Irenasus. 

He never dreamed of a tradition perpetual, infallible, 
transmitted from generation to generation, no one knows how. 
But when the Valentiniaus, incapable of resisting his argu- 
ments, pretended to set against them the oral instruction of 
the apostles, he replied, " We know it better than you, and 
we can easily find this teaching in the churches founded by 
them." They were then only in the second century of 
Christianity; they still preserved the living remembrance 
of the succession of -bishops after the apostles ; they still 
found in many places, as Irenaeus affirms, "men endowed 
with charisms or miraculous powers received from some apos- 
tle, or even old believers who had conversed with the imme- 
diate disciples of Jesus Christ." It was then quite legitimate 
for this father to appeal to such reminiscences. He exclaims 
at the beginning of his third book,^ in complaining of the 
1 Chap. II., p. 200. Grabe, 1702. 



184 . THE CANON. 

Gnostics and their bad faith: "O dearly beloved, see the 
men with whom we have to contend! They slip away from 
all our proofs like snakes ; and will submit to neither scrip- 
ture nor tradition.- Thus in all the church, men who desire 
to know the truth, may recognize ike tradition of the apos- 
tles rendered manifest in all the world. We have only to 
count the bishops ordained by them in divers churches, and 
their successors to our day. They have never taught or 
known anything like the absurdities which these doctors de- 
liriously utter." And in the two following chapters,^ Irenaeus 
still is seeking to confound his adversaries, the Marcionites 
and Valentinians, by this very testimony which they had the 
audacity to invoke : in the first, which he entitles " Of the 
succession of bishops from the apostles ; "' and in the second, 
entitled, " Testimony of those who saw the apostles, as to 
the preaching of the truth." 

We see then that Irenaeus in the second century referred 
to a tradition, recent and traceable; (veterem traditionem 
apostolorum) but* not to one modern, apocryphal and of 
unknown origin, such as the Roman bishops invoke after 
seventeen centuries have passed away. It was with him a 
tradition human and fallible, although well informed ; not one 
self-styled divine and infallible, although very defectively in- 
formed, such as that which the Council of Trent has pretended 
to place on the level of the Scriptures,^ and even above them.* 

But further, these very recollections of the apostles still 
discoverable in local traditions, Irenaeus, however much he 
respected them, never ceased to subject to the control of the 
Holy Scripture. He never admits that any tradition, how- 
ever early it may be, can teach what the written Word does 
not teach. And in that famous letter to Florinus which we 
have already quoted,* you see that as soon as he has quoted 

1 m. & IV. p. 200, 205, Oxford edit. ir06. 

2 "Pari pietatis et reverentiaa affectu (Session 4, first decree). 
8 Ibid, second decree of April 28, 1546. 

* Canon, chap. II., sec. 5. 



IREN^US. * 185 

Polycarp's reminiscences of John, and John's remarks on 
Christ, he takes care to add that they were " all conformed 
to the Scriptures (Travra <rvfjic[>(jiva rats y/oa^aîs). So sensi- 
tive was his holy jealousy for the sovereignty of the written 
Word. 

""Having then for our rule," he says in his second book,^ 
" the very truth and the testimony of God fully revealed, we 
ought not to reject the finn and true knowledge of God by 
permitting ourselves to go and seek for other solutions of the 
questions, here and there. If we can not find the reply to all 
the difficult questions which the Scriptures suggest, . .. . we 
must commit them to God who also created us; knowing 
fully that the Scriptures are perfect, because they were 
spoken by the Word of God and by his Spirit." 

"It is thus that by using these proofs which are derived 
from the Scriptures, you easily overthrow all those false 
notions of the heretics which have been more recently im- 
agined." 

" And if any one asks,*^ Before God created the world 
what was he doing ? we will reply that is for God to answer. 
For the Scriptures teach us that this world, created perfect, 
began in time; but what God was doing before that, no 
Scripture informs us. It is then a question which belongs 
only to Grod, and which we must leave to his sovereign 
disposal." 

And to sum up all, Irenaeus declares that the Valentinians, 
in building on traditions not contained in the Scriptures, 
spin ropes of sand. " When they do this," says he, " and 
advance what is not taught by the prophets, the Lord Jesus, 
nor the apostles, pretending to know more than other Chris- 
tians, and making allegations which are not taken from that 
which is written; they but spin, as it is __ said,/ ropes from 
sand." ^ (è^ âfifJLOv tr^otvta TrAcKeiv eTrm^SeuovTes.) '^-^ 

1 Chap. 67, p. 173. Oxford edit., 1702. 

2 Lib. ii., chap. 47, p. 175. 

8 Lib. i., chap. 1, sec. 15. Oxford edit., 1702. 
16* 



186 - THE CANON. 

Other Ootemporary Fathers. 

Such then was Irenseus ; such were Clement and Tertul- 
lian ; such, the latter half of the second century in the east 
and the west, and such its canon. But if we have deemed 
it best to cite more abundantly these three illustrious fathers 
on account of the immense weight of their testimony, it is 
not that we could not find others of the same period, of whose 
writings we retain fragments or extracts in Eusebius. W 
refer to Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, converted A. d. 150 
and author of an apology still in existence ; to Athenagoras, 
an Athenian philosopher converted to Christianity, and flour- 
ishing A. D. 177 ; to Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, about A. d. 
170, and martyred in 178 ; and finally to Asterius Urbanus, 
bishop or teacher of the Galatian churches, who preached 
T^ith power in the city of Ancyra about A. d. 188. 

Dionsysius oC Corinth, Eusebius says (Hist. Eccl. IV. 
23), complains that having written some letters, "there 
were ministers of Satan who had changed them. But should 
I be astonished, since some have even ventured to falsify 
the very Scriptures of the Lord ! " It is thus he refers to 
the New Testament. 

Asterius Urbanus wrote, according to Eusebius ; ^ three 
books against the Montanists. " I hesitated for a long time 
to publish them ; not that I doubted about the duty of ren- 
dering testimony to the truth, but from the fear of appearing 
in some measure to go beyond what is written, and to decide 
something beyond the Word of the New Testament of the 
Gospel, from which nothing must be taken, to which nothing 
must be added, when one has resolved to govern his life 
by that gospel." Thus spoke this teacher in Galatia, nearly 
a century after Paul. He not only wished to govern his 
life by the word of the New Testament, but he admitted no 
other tradition of Jesus Christ and hLs apostles. 

Athenagoras, although less called by the nature of his 
1 Hist. Ecc. Lib. v. cliap. 16. Eeadiiig edit., vol. 1. 



OTHER COTEMPORARY FATHERS. 187 

writings to quote the Scriptures, presents us also himself 
many passages borrowed either from the gospels or the epis- 
tles. He says, for example, in a treatise on the resurrection 
of the dead, (pages 61, 62,) " This mortal must, according to 
the apostle, put on immortality, in order that the dead being 
restored to life by the resurrection . . . every one may 
receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
done, whether it be good or bad." 

Theophilus of Antioch is still more definite. Converted, 
it is said, in mature lite by the power of the Scriptures, A. D. 
150, he had composed, as Jerome tells us, Commentaries oa 
the four Gospels,^ books against Marcion and Hermogenes, 
and catechisms now entirely lost. But we may produce here 
numerous passages from the " Apologetic Treatise," which he 
addressed in three books to his old friend Autolycus, still a 
pagan and violently opposed to Christianity. He there fre- 
quently quotes both the gospels and Epistles, but referring to 
them in general terms, as should be done in dealings with 
pagans. We give some examples. 

See how, among others, he recommends to Autolycus ^ the 
inspiration of the Old and the New Testaments. " Now, as 
to the justice of which the law has spoken, we find analogous 
things both in the Prophets and the Evangelists ; because all 
the inspired men (Tn^ev/taTo^opous) have spoken by one only 
and the same Spirit of God." 

See too how he quotes the fifth chapter of Matthew, " Now 
THE Evangelical Voice recommends chastity still more 
forcibly when it says, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to 
lust after her, etc. And whosoever shall maiTy her that is 
divorced, committeth adultery, etc. And still further, in re- 
gard to charity, the ^angelical History says, Love your ene- 
mies, pray for them who persecute you, etc. — and as respects 
humility, the Gospel says. Let not thy right hand know," etc. 

And see, moreover, how he quotes the epistle to the Ro- 

1 Letter to Algasius (torn. iv. p. 197; Bale, 1537.) See Prœm. in Matt. 

2 Lib. iii. p. 126. 



188 THE CANON. 

mans (xiii. 7, 8) : " The Divine Wisdom (Divina Sapientia in 
the Latin version) requires us to render to all their dues ; 
tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom, honor to 
whom honor, fear to whom fear, and to owe no man anything, 
but to love them all." And the first to Timothy (ii. 2) ; 
" Besides that Our Divine Word, as to our duty to magis- 
trates, ordains even that we should pray for them, that we 
may lead a quiet and peaceable life." And in his second 
book, speaking of the body of inspired Scriptures and of 
John's gospel : ^ " Behold what the Holy Scriptures teach and 
all the pneumatophoric men (spirit-bearing) of whom was 
John who said, " In the beginning was the Word, and the 
"Word was God," etc 

Such was the second century in its latter half, and such 
the firmness of its faith in the' first canon. 

What shall we then conclude from all these testimonies so 
unanimous and so powerful which speak at once from Antioch, 
Galatia, Macedonia, Carthage, and Gaul ? 

Conclusion from all these Testimonies. 

We must first fully perceive that these quotations not only 
express the unanimous personal persuasion of all those great 
teachers, so different in their positions, characters, and nation- 
alities ; not only even the faith of the cotemporary church ; 
not only " the very great firmness " as Irenaeus terms it of 
this faith in the four gospels ; its very great firmness in re- 
gard to the book of Acts and the thirteen Pauline epistles, 
as also the two epistles of Peter and John ; but they also 
.especially show with a resistless power, the historical legiti- 
macy of this faith ; the origin, necessarily apostolical, of all 
these twenty books, and their perfect and incontestable au- 
thenticity. And this proof is so powerful, that it might, we 
think, suflSce of itself even if we had no other, either pre- 
ceding or succeeding it. 

1 Lib. ii. p. 100. 



CONCLUSION FROM ALL THESE TESTIMONIES. 189 

In fact let us go back in imagination to the epoch so near 
the time of the apostles when these fathers were living, and 
inquire how, if the unanimity of all the churches in regard 
to the twenty books had not commenced in the apostles' time, 
it would have been possible that, only fifty years after the 
death of John, a conviction so perfectly unanimous, so calm 
and so sure of itself could, in so short a period, have entirely 
pervaded Christendom. Who otherwise can explain this vast 
phenomenon ? Who can say by what other process this pei-- 
suasion could have been formed from one end of the empire 
to the other ; formed among the Latins as among the Greeks, 
among the Celts as among the Syrians ; formed in such a 
way that these books were not only everywhere received as 
inspired, but everywhere received without question, every- 
where with an acknowledgment of the same authors (although 
then without their names attached to them as now,) every- 
where with the same order of arrangement in the canon; 
everywhere four gospels, " no less, no more," says Irenaeus ; 
everywhere, Matthew first, then Mark, then Luke, then John ; 
and everywhere attributing the first and fourth to apostles, the 
second and the third to inspired men who were not apostles, 
whilst.no index designated the authors in any one of the three 
synoptical gospels ; everywhere the book of Acts attributed to 
Luke ; then everywhere the thirteeii epistles of Paul, always 
classed in the same order, which was by no means their chron- 
ological order ; everywhere the epistle fi.rst in order, that to 
the Romans, then Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philip- 
pians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon ; 
then the first epistle of Peter and the first of John ; (for, as 
we ■ have affirmed before, these twenty books have never 
changed their respective places ; ^ ) that one of these three let- 
ters which was written from Babylon having made its regular 
way among the churches of Africa or of Gaul to take its own 

1 Some have placed the Acts after the Epistles, and some others, the cath- 
olic letters before the thirteen letters of Paul; but these moreover, have 
always, with the four gospels, preserved their respective order. 



190 THE CANON. 

rank, as well as the letters sent from the prisons of Rome, 
had made their way among the Greek churches of Egypt or 
the Syriac churches of Adiabene. 

How then can any one account for this unanimity at once 
so peaceful and so firm in regard to the twenty books, unless 
by admitting the only reasonable explanation which is possi- 
ble, I mean the recognition in this universal agreement of a 
concert, commenced during the life of the apostles, and ex- 
tending without opposition under their influence into every 
part of the world where the church existed ? This results 
moreover naturally, as already remarked, from the fact that 
the apostles had presided over the innumerable churches 
founded by them for more than thirty years ; some longer 
still, and John for seventy years. Without this explanation, 
which harmonizes all the facts in the case, how can we ex- 
plain the fact that in the short space of a half century, any 
one of the twenty books of the canon had come, without any 
opposition, to be received everywhere, by all the ministers, 
by all the bishops, by all the churches ; everywhere in the 
same order in the canon ; everywhere by silent consent ; 
everywhere at least without leaving in the church one sign 
of remonstrance ? — and that also, among believers such as 
were the Christians of the second century ; among teachers, 
influential, learned, dwelling in the East and the West, vigi- 
lant, zealous, ready for martyrdom ; among men even so 
jealous of the smallest apostolical reminiscences that you see 
them at the same time holding councils and coming near sep- 
arating ^ the East from the West, for what ? for an insignifi- 
cant difierence as to the day of Easter ; the one party having 
learned from their ancestors to celebrate it, as the Jews, on 
the fourteenth day of March moon ; the others having learned 
from theirs in the West, to defer it to the following Sunday? 
— a dispute in which Victor was so vehement that Irenœus 



1 Eusebius, H. E. Lib. v. chap. 23. See what he says of Irenseus, Polyc- 
rates, Palmas, Victor, Bacchylus. 



CONCLUSIOlSr FROM ALL THESE TESTIMONIES. 191 

was obliged to exercise his pious wisdom, and many other 
bishops to sharply enjoin him to change his language.^ 

Has there ever been seen in the church a concert so sud- 
denly originating, and- so perfect in regard to a point of such 
importance as the apostolical authenticity of twenty sacred 
books ? Would it be easy in our days to deceive all Europe 
in regard to the works which she has agreed to ascribe to 
men who died only in 1800 — Lavater, De Saussure, Mallet- 
Dupan, Kant, Necker, Blair, or Klopstock ? Could any one 
make us receive without remonstrance these new books un- 
known to their cotemporaries, unknown to all the world to 
this day ? Could any make us readily receive, and without 
discussion, in literature, apocryphal works of Voltaire or 
Rousseau, dead now more than eighty years ? And yet the 
world is to-day very slightly interested in deciding the legiti- 
macy of the books ascribed to such men; whereas in the 
times of Irenaeus and Tertullian, aU the churches, all the 
Christians of the world were deeply solicitous for the sacred 
books; to them the question concerned the Word of life; 
they would willingly shed their blood to confess it or de- 
fend it. 

Nor let any one imagine that he can oppose to this in- 
comparable unanimity of the second century, concerning the 
canon, that of the Koman Church in our day on all those 
dogmas which separate it from evangelical Christianity. Do 
we not know what a noise every one of these heresies made 
in the world before it could be foisted in ? Do we not know 
that councils and popes had to agitate kingdoms by protracted 
wars before they could make them introduce first, the worship 
of images, the invocation of the dead, then the celibacy of the 
clex'gy, the subordination of bishops, the removal of the cup 
in the Lord's Supper, and transubstantiation ? And even in 
our day, do we not know that it is only after ages of fierce 
disputations that Rome has been able to proclaim her dogma 

1 Socrates, ,H. E. Lib. v. chap. 22. This controversy was not settled un- 
til thirty years later at the Council of Nice. 



192 THE CANON. 

of the immaculate conception ? ^ How different it was in the 
second century with the unanimity of the churches on the 
first canon ! You then find in all Christendom not the faint- 
est trace of a controversy "on this subject, either in the East 
or the "West ; and you know that one hundred and fifty years 
afterward, when Eusebius called the twenty-two books of 
the'first and second-first canons, homologomens, he Intended 
to say that those Scriptures, had never been anywhere dis- 
puted, while in speaking of the five shorter and later epistles, 
he called them antilegomens, to show that, while accepted by 
the majority, they were still questioned by some. But when 
he looked back to the farthest horizon of history, he could 
not find the slightest vestige of opposition to the twenty-two 
homologomens. 

We have here, then, the right to demand how this univer- 
sal agreement is to be explained, if it is not by acknowl- 
edging that these books had been already received by 
all the churches before the apostles finished their career. 
"Without this, what a prodigious influence on the one side 
and imbecility on the other would have been necessary in 
order that any one of the four gospels or the book of the 
Acts, or any one of the fifteen apostolical epistles, should 
take its present position in the canon of every church with- 
out a breath of opposition. In fact, this double miraclie of 
skill and of stupidity would far surpass in improbabili/y all 
the legends of the Middle Ages, and would require in the ad- 
versaries more credulity than the gospel proposes to believ- 
ers, to make them admit that our holy books were given by 
the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. 

To say that, from the death of John, the Christians of the 
whole world had received, as apostolical, books which the 
apostles had not given them ; had, without examination, re- 
ceived them from one end of the empire to the other, and 
caused them everywhere to be publicly read; had caused 

1 See the learned work recently published on this subject by L. Dorand, 
Brussels, 1859 



CONCLUSION FROM ALL THESE TESTIMONIES. 193 

even the apostolical churches of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, 
Philippi, Tliessalonica^ and Galatia to receive them as if they 
had been given eighty years earlier, while in reality they 
knew nothing of them through half the second century; 
— to say that all these churches had agreed to give these 
new books in the body of the canon a rank everywhere the 
same, and everywhere invariable ; to say that they were all 
deceived at once and in the same manner, in Egypt, in Gaul, 
in Greece, in Africa — all brought to the most silent sub- 
mission in regard to the same books, and even the same 
names of authors ; .... in fact this surpasses aU the limits 
of possibility. 

Surely, we must all admit, it is not thus that men deceive ; 
and it is not thus men act when they are deceived. So 
many persons engaged in the paths of falsehood do not reach 
this universal agreement in a great mass of errors, especially 
when those errors respect multiplied and specific facts, as 
that of accepting twenty-two books, attributed to five difîèr- 
ent authors. The chances of error . are diverse among a 
scattered multitude ; arid we may here apply to this unanim- 
ity what the great Tertullian said in the same century,^ when, 
speaking of it in reference to another subject, he exclaimed, 
"Is it probable that so great a number of churches, and of 
such important churches, would arrive at one single faith, if 
all were walking after a falsehood ? Among so many per- 
sons and such diverse chances the result could not be the same 
in every case ; for when you find among the great number 
one single and identical thought, it must be that which comes 
from, not an error, but a tradition." 

Let us then conclude, after hearing all these voices of the 
latter half of the second century, that we must, to be reason- 
able; simply recognize the fact, (confirmed by so many other 
considerations,) the only fact which can account for it, to vfit, 
that all the homologomenous Scriptures were already col- 
lected before the death of John, and that the Christians of 

1 De Prœscript. Hsereticor. cap. xxviii. 
17 



194 THE CANON. 

the second century held them so firmly only because their 
predecessors had received them from the apostles. 

. And let us conclude also that the testimony of the latter 
half of the second century would sufiSce of itself to establish 
the historical certainty of the first canon, that is, the incon- 
testable apostolical authenticity of all the sacred books it 
contains. 

They are the eight ninths of the New Testament; but 
since almost all these historical proofs belong (as will pres- 
ently be shown) to the two other books which Eusebius de- 
clares to have been always undisputed during the first two 
centuries of the church, it results that already our proofs 
attest, by history alone, the authenticity of the thirty-five 
thirty-sixths of the New Testament. 

At the same time we will also furnish new proofs ; for our 
monuments date back still farther and give us witnesses of 
the first half of the second century and even of the latter 
years of the first. These will give the hand to the apostoli- 
cal Fathers, who, with their own eyes, saw the ambassadors 
of the Lord ; and these Fathers in their turn will extend the 
hand to the apostles who will sometimes speak to us them- 
selves of some of the books of the New Testament. 

It will, however, be desirable, before hearing the writers 
of the first half of the second century, to examine more 
closely the very remarkable monument which we owe to the 
researches of Muratori ; for it seems to belong to the middle 
of the second century. 



SECTION VI. 

THE FRAGMENT CAI-LED MtJRATORl'S. 

More than a century ago this document was known to the 
world only through the publication^ of the celebrated anti- 
1 Antiquit. Ital. Medii Œvi; IClan, 1740. 



THE FRAGMENT CALLED MUEATOKI'S. 195 

quarian who discovered it in 1738 in a very ancient Latin 
irianuscript of the Ambrosian library in Milan. But, in 
these later days, there have appeared three independent edi- 
tions taken from the original, by Messrs. Nott,^ Wieseler,'' 
and Hertz.^ 

The manuscript itself, in uncial letters and without spaces 
between the words, presents us an extraordinary specimen of 
confusion, both by the blunders of the translator, which are 
enormous, and by those of the editor and copyist, whose 
sentences appear very frequently to be transposed and ab- 
ruptly broken off.* This state of the manuscript, as well 
as our ignorance of its precise date, of its author and even 
of the character of the entire writing (which seems to have 
been a part of an apologetic dialogue against some cotempo- 
rary heretic) ; all these things united, we have already re- 
marked, forbids our deducing from it very' exact conclusions 
in our history of the canon i but it does not hinder us from 
regarding the manuscript as a document very worthy of 
attention on account of its incontestable antiquity. 

Muratori attributes it to Caius; Bunsen to Hippolytus; 
others give it a more recent origin. These are all conjec- 
tures ; it is enough for us to know that the author calls him- 
self a cotemporary of Pius I., ninth bishop of Rome, from 
A. D. 142 to 157, and that he must have been younger than 
the heretics of the second century whose striking testimony 
we shall soon examine, for he speaks of Marcion, Valentinus, 
Basilides, and even of the Cataphrygians ; wherefore we 
shall assign him his place here. 

It is conceded that the original was in Greek ; for this 
language was then most spoken in the Church of Rome ; 
the language of Paul, of Peter, of Timothy, and of Luke ; the 

1 See Reliquiae Sacrœ of Dr. Eouth (2d edit., 1846), i. 394. 

2 See Stud, and Kritik, 1847, p. 815, and Ibid. 1856, 1st number. 
8 See Analecta ante-Nicsena of Chev. Bunsen, i., p. 137, etc. 

4 It can not be well judged of but by a personal inspection in Credner's 
exact copy, Zur Geschichte des Canons, p. 71, etc., 1847. — It will be found 
also in the Essay of M. Westcott on the Canon, p. 557; Cambridge, 1855. 



196 THE CAÎTON". 

language of Clement, and of Pius I., as of Justin Martyr, 
of Hermas, Tatian, Caius, and Hippolytus. It was the lan- 
guage of Irenœus when he wrote from Lyons, though at 
Lyons he habitually conversed in Celtic.^ It was also the 
language of the first liturgies and discourses of the Eoman 
church.* 

Now this ancient fragment, in its obscure language renders 
a very clear testimony to our first canon ; and we there find, 
as we shall show, a remarkable enumeration of our sacred 
books. Although the beginning is lost, and the book com- 
mences in the middle of a sentence, you see at once that it 
shows how the four gospels were given. " The Gospel ac- 
cording to Luke," he says, " is the third " — (these words are 
there written in red capitals) ; and the author, from this 
statement,' enters immediately into details on the person of 
Luke. " The fourth gospel," he adds (again in red ink), '' is 
that of John, one of the disciples." Then follow, on the 
person of John, new details in which are found these two 
important declarations. 

The first is that, " in the very variety of the instructions 
of each of the gospels, there is no difference as to the faith 
of believers"(nihil tamen differt credentium fidei) ; since, in 
all, by one and the same sovereign Spirit all things are de- 
clared concerning the nativity of our Lord, his passion, his 
resurrection, his interviews with his disciples, and his double 
advent ; the first now passed, in his humiliation ; the second, 
yet to come, in the glory of his regal power." The second 
declaration is that " John calls himself not only the spectator 
and hearer, but also the narrator of all the wonders of the 
Lord, since he declares the same things in his epistles (sin- 
gula etiam in epistolis suis proférât *), and since he says in 
speaking of himself: ' The things which we have seen with 

1 Irenseus, Haeres., Lib. i. Trpoot/itop, p. 3. 

2 Buusen, Hippolytus, ii. 123, (Frencli edition.) 

8 The text has profaram ; but, in these qirotations, we, with Bnnsen, 
Hertz, and Wieseler, correct the manifest errors and barbarisms of the text. 



THE FRAGMENT CALLED MUEATOEI'S. 197 

our eyes, which our ears have heard, and our hands have 
handled (palpaverunt), is that which we have written.' " 

See then already, on one side, the four gospels proclaimed 
in this fragment as forming a unity distinct and universally 
recognized as to their end, their contents and their inspira- 
tion. No distinction is made between the authority of the 
gospels of the two apostles (Matthew and John) and those 
of the two evangelists (Mark and Luke) ; they all four have 
the same authority in the church ; they are all the work of 
one and the same Spirit ; no doubt is admitted, none is men- 
tioned. And see, on the other hand, the epistles of John 
recognized equally as written by the same apostle, to give us 
the same instructions as his gospel. The fragment even 
quotes for us the first verse of the first of these epistles. 

After the Gospels come the Acts. "Now, the Acts of all 
the apostles (says the fragment), were written in one single 
book by Luke, who writes to the excellent Theophilus, re- 
counting to him the events he had witnessed, and therefore 
relating neither the martyrdom of Peter nor the voyage of 
Paul into Spain." 

Next come the thirteen epistles of Paul. The fragment 
continues, " Now the epistles of Paul, declare to those who 
wish to know, from what place and for what reasons they 
were written." 

The author here enumerates them all, but in a different 
order from the usual arrangement, and manifestly according 
to the particular motive he imagined the author of each to 
have had in writing it. " Paul addressed his letters to seven 
churches, doubling those he wrote to Corinth and Thessalo- 
nica. In the mean time, we must remember that there is but 
one church spread over the entire globe ; and therefore John 
in the Apocalypse, although writing to seven churches, ad- 
dresses all. But, besides these letters to the seven churches, 
Paul writes one to Philemon, one to Titus, and two to Tim- 
othy.» 

Let it- be noticed here that the fragment has already 
17* 



198 THE CANOIT. 

brought forwatd our first canon entire except the first epistle 
of Peter, which certainly had its place in some other part of 
this document, as we are to show ; and notice too we vaaj 
say in passing the Apocalypse, and the two lesser epistles of 
John, and even the catholic epistle of Jude equally recog- 
nized.^ 

But the fragment in its disorder now comes to speak of 
some other books, in its view, spurious. It says, " An epistle 
to the Laodiceans, is spoken of (fertur etiam), and another to 
the Alexandi'ians, invented under the name of Paul to aid 
the heresy of Marcion, and many others which can not be 
received in the Catholic church ; for it is not seemly to min- 
gle gall with honey." He adds, " The epistle of Jude, how- 
ever, (sane), and two epistles of John,^ of which we have 
spoken above are received into the number of the catholic 
epistles." 

We must carefully remark here that the fragment which 
places Jude and John among the catholic epistles, at the same 
time does not preserve their group in its usual place. This 
group should ordinarily follow either the Acts or the Epistles 
of Paul. It is universally admitted that the document in its 
present disordered condition, betrays many transpositions and 
omissions. This accounts for the fact, that the first catholic 
epistle of Peter, which was never contested anywhere, and 
which, with the first of John, makes the nucleus of the cath- 
olic epistles of which mention had just been made, is not 
named here, any more than that of James, while the first of 
John is mentioned only incidentally and out of its place. 
This omission is easily explained by the fragmentary condi- 
tion of the document, in w^hich the connection of the parts 
is so frequently interrupted. 



1 Mr. Wieseler (Stud. & Krit., 1856;, p. 98, thinks that the epistle to the 
Hebrews was there meant by the words Alia ad Alexandrines. He says 
the hearers were the Christian Jews of Alexandria. 

2 The Latin having no articles, it may be two or the two epistles. Mr. 
Sonsen alone has written in Caiholicis. 



THE FRAGMENT CALLED MUKATORI'S. 199 

In fact, at this point the pamphlet continues with this 
strange sentence on the hook of Proverhs : " And the wis- 
dom written by the friends of Solomon in honor of him." 
This phrase, which comes in so unexpectedly to every reader, 
would be absolutely unintelligible if we could not discover 
in it, as Mr. Bunsen thinks, a fragmentary allusion to thg 
epistle to the Hebrews, which, like the book of Solomon, 
must have been written by some friend of Paul, and not by 
himself. 

Finally, the document adds, " We receive only the Apoca- 
lypses of John and of Peter ; and some among us do not 
wish the latter to be read in the church." 

It is after these words that he mentions, on the one hand, 
Hermas, and on the jother, the principal heretics of the age. 
" Hermas," he says, " wrote the Shepherd in Eome in our 
day, while Pius his brother was head of the church of Eome. 
It must be read, but it can not be published to the people in 
the church, neither among the prophets, the number of which 
is complete, nor among the apostles, to the end of time. As 
to Arsinoiis or Valentinus or Mihiades, we receive absolutely 
nothing of theirs. Mention too is made of the Psalms at- 
tributed to Marcion as well as to Basilides ; and as to the 
head of the Cataphrygians of Asia .... 

There the fragment is abruptly terminated. 

As to these latter details at which we have no desire to 
pause now, we see clearly the remarkable testimony which 
this ancient document, however disordered, renders to our 
first canon. 

We now ascend to the first half of the second century. 



200 THE CANON. 



SECTION vn. 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS OF THE FIRST HAXF OF 
THE SECOND CENTURY. 

"We have during this epoch important witnesses U> pro- 
duce ; but we should remark that the chronological divisions 
of those early times were necessarily wanting in precision. 
It appears to us desirable to classify the witnesses according 
to the periods of their greatest activity. 

Justin Martyr. 

If we go back from the middle of the second- century, 
toward the end of Trajan's reign (a. d. 117) in passing over 
the long reigns of Antoninus Pius and Adrian, we come to the 
most rapid advances of the Gospel, the first general persecu- 
tions, the first apologies written to arrest them as also the 
first great gnostic sects and to the already numerous writings 
which combated them. This period, so important from its 
proximity to the beginnings of Christianity, and yet already 
so harassed by imperial violence without and heresies within, 
produces numerous Avritings now lost, letters, chronicles, 
controversial essays, and especially apologies, all written in. 
Greek. This was therefore called " the period of the Greek 
apologists." Nearly all these books have perished, and we 
know scarcely anything either of the writings or writers but 
by the accounts of Eusebius. If we look over our table of 
the Fathers (chap. ii. sec. 4,) it will be noticed that if our 
attention is confined to those born in the second century, and 
if we reserve the apostolical Slathers for a following section, 
there will remain to be studied scarcely any but Justin Mar- 
tyr. In fact, although Theophilus of Antioch was bom 
about A. D. 110, we have not been able to place him any- 
where but in the latter half of the second century, because 
he was not converted from paganism until about a. d. 150. 



JUSTIN MARTYE. 201 

And, on the other hand, we can not summon as witnesses any 
of the authors cotemporary with Justin, who are mentioned 
by Eusebius because there is none remaining ; neither that 
Hegesippus who was, after Luke, the earliest ecclesiastical 
historian ; nor that Dionysius of Corinth whose eight let- 
ters are mentioned by Eusebius (H. E. iv. 23), and by 
Jerome (De Script. lUust. cap. 27), and of which we par- 
ticularly regret to have lost that which he wrote to the 
church of the Nicomedians against the errors of Marcion, 
because it certainly would have furnished us abundant quo- 
tations from the New Testament ; nor that Quadratus, bishop 
of Athens, who by his apology, presented A. D. 131 to the 
emperor Adrian, arrested, it is said, the course of the perse- 
cution; nor that Aristides, a Christian philosopher of the 
same city, who had addressed his to the same prince five 
years before, a. d. 125 ; nor even, which is still more to be 
regretted, that Philip, (Euseb. H. E. Lib. iv. 25), bishop of 
Gortyna, who had also written against Marcion ; nor that 
Agrippa Castor, yet earlier, whom Eusebius calls very dis- 
tinguished (yvùjpifiwraTov), and who had composed, he says, 
twenty-four books on the gospel.^ The "Skillful Refutation " 
(iKavcoraTos ê\eyxos) published by him, about A, d; 132, against 
the exegetical books of Basilides, would undoubtedly have 
furnished us abundant quotations from the Scriptures of the 
New Testament.^ 

At the same time, we shall- have occasion hereafter to say 
a few more things of those authors now lost ; because the 
fragments which Eusebius has transmitted to us will remark- 
ably confirm, even in their brevity, the testimony of Justin 
Martyr, and will excite our admiration of the beautiful and 
strong chain of testimonies which, by connected links, extends 
without a break from Origen to the apostles. 

Nevertheless, if, by the loss of these literary monuments, 
Justin comes to us in this important epoch as an almost iso- 

1 Lib. iv. chap. 7, etc. ; chap. 25. 

2 "Nor many others," we may add with Eusebius {kiû uKXai Sk irHeiowf.) 



202 THE CANON. 

lated witness, it would be difficult to imagine one better 
qualified. We will not here repeat our remarks about his 
testimony on the anagnosis. His career includes the first 
sixty-seven years of the second century, and more particu- 
larly the thirty-four years between his conversion and his 
martyrdom. The son of a Greek family Kving in Samaria, 
Justin was born at Neapolis (Shechem) in the rêign of 
Trajan, in the very year of John the apostle's death (a.d. 
l03). He lived so near the apostles' days that he witnessed 
the prophetic charisms or gifts. Thirty years afterward, 
converted in Egypt from the pagan philosophy of Plato to 
the living faith of Jesus Christ, he came at the end of seven 
years to establish himself in Italy, at Rome, upon Mount 
Viminal, to teach, in a bathing-house, what he called " the 
Christian philosophy." There, about the year 144, he had 
the courage to present to the emperor, to his sons and the 
Homan senate, his first and most valuable " Apology." ^ Af- 
terward, having passed into Asia Minor, he held in the Xysta 
of Ephesus, with the most celebrated Jew of his day, that 
apologetic conference which he published under the title of 
" Dialogue with Trypho the Jew." He returned intp Italy 
to continue his public instructions ; and it was A. D. 163 that 
he published his second Apology, addressed to Marcus Aure- 
lius. At length, four years after this new act of his fidelity, 
Justin, accused to the praefect of Rome by the malicious 
Crescens, a cynical philosopher, suffered martyrdom A. D. 167, 
when Clement of Alexandria was but seventeen years old. 
. He wrote much. Eusebius, (H. E. iv. 18,) who gives us the 
titles of ten of his works, and who recommends the reading 
of them to the men of his day, adds that they had been much 
sought for even by the ancients, and that Iren?eus quoted 
them. Other writings of Justin, not mentioned by Eusebius, 
were then also in circulation among many of the brethren. 

1 It is the largest, which the old editions of Paris (1636) and of Cologne 
(1686) ordinarily print after the other. The London edition, however, 
(1722) places it before the other. » 



JUSTIN MARTYR. . 203 

Before his conversion he had been an ardent student of 
the divers systems of philosophy propagated in his day, espe- 
cially of Platonism ; but he did not cease after his conversion 
to allow to this human wisdom more weight than we think 
becoming in a minister of the holy Word. We know, too, 
that through life he preserved the costume and gait of the 
philosophers. It was a means of recommending himself to 
the attention of the Greeks, as also of avoiding the violence 
of a persecuting government. At the same time he blames 
in his writings the Christians who concealed their faith to 
save their lives ; and he himself did not hesitate to confess it 
before the governor of Rome. An oriental and a western 
man, he taught twenty-seven years in Rome, after having 
made himself personally known in the then most renowned 
churches of Africa, Europe, and Asia. He had written 
against the pagans who persecuted the church, the Jews who 
excited them to it, and the heretics who were then making a 
bold stand in Rome. He had therefore better means of in- 
formation" than any one else, and he is consequently emi- 
nently qualified to stand as the representative of the opinions 
of his age. 

Let us now admire the fullness with which the only three 
writings of this eminent man remaining to us testify to the 
Scriptures, and especially to the gospels. 

And first, as to the Scriptures in general, he openly and in 
various forms declares their moral excellence and divine in- 
spiration. We must hear him recount in his " Dialogue with 
Trypho " his own happy escape from darkness into light ! 
He had long been seeking rest for his soul and the truth of 
God in all the Grecian philosophies, when he finally met an 
old man in a solitary place, who entertained him, he says, 
" with the holy books, written by men who were friends of 
God, who had spoken by the divine Spirit (^eiw Tn/ev/xart 
AoA^o-an-eç), and who had uttered prophecies still being ful- 
filled. They alone," he adds, " have seen the truth and have 
declared it to men, fearing none, seeking not their own glory, 



204 THE CANON. 

and speaking only the things which they had seen and heard, 

being filled with the Holy Ghost And besides, they 

were very worthy of belief on account of the miracles which 
they performed ; they glorified the Grod and Father, Creator 
of all things, and the Christ his Son whom he had sent. But 
before all things," added this venerable Christian, " pray that 
the gates of light may be opened for thee ; for these things 
are not comprehended of all ; they are understood only by 
the men to whom God and his Christ give the knowledge of 
them." Justin prayed, and the gates of light were opened to 
him. " Then I found," he says, " that there was the only sure 
and profitable philosophy. It is thus and by these means that 
I am a philosopher. And I would, too, that all, entering into 
the same thoughts, had decided with me no longer to hold 
themselves aloof from the Saviour's words, for they have in 
them an inexpressible majesty ; they are sufficient to alarm 
those who turn from the right way, while a very sweet peace 
becomes the portion of those who meditate them." And still 
further, when.Trypho assures him that he is deceived, he 
replies, " I will show you, if you will listen, that we have 
not believed vain fables nor words not susceptible of dem- 
onstration (ovSè dvaTToSeiKTOts Xoyois), but words full of the 
divine Spirit, flowing with power and flourishing with grace." 
Thus he distinctly appeals to the intrinsic excellence of 
thé New Testament as a foundation of our faith in its di- 
vinity. 

Again, in this same dialogue,^ Justin, speaking to the Jews 
of those passages of Scripture which prove the divinity of our 
Saviour, says, " Attend then to these words which I am 
going to bring to you from the Holy Scriptures ; tliey need 
not to be explained, but only heard." 

Still further,^ he spfeaks of the absui'dity of those who im- 
agine themselves capable of producing something better than 
the Scriptures. 

1 Dial., edit, of Cologne, p. 2T4. 2 ibid. pp. 311, 312. 



JUSTIN MARTYR. 505 

In his " Exhortation to the Gentiles," ^ after having showed 
how little confidence is to be placed in their philosophies, so 
contradictory to each other, he describes on the contrary the 
complete harmony of the sacred writers. " For, having re- 
ceived the knowledge which comes from God, they teach it 
without dispute and without division. In fact, it is not nat- 
urally, nor by human meditation, that men can arrive at the 
knowledge of such great and divine things, but by a gift 
which then descended from on high on the holy men of 
God.» 

We perceive that it is not" to tradition, it is to divine grace, 
it is to the influence of the Holy Spirit imparted to indi- 
viduals, that Justin appeals, as the interpreter of the Scrip- 
tures. In his Dialogue ^ he exclaims, " O man, think you then 
that we ever should have found these things in the Scriptures, 
if, by the will of Him who has chosen to give them, we had 
not received the grace to understand them ?" 

And in his " Discourse to the Greeks : " " Come and suffer 
yourselves to be taught ; be as I, for I am also as you ! " 
(These are in Greek the very words of Paul to the Gala- 
tians — iv. 12.) "See what has elevated me; it is the in- 
ternal divinity of the doctrine, and the power of the Word." 
The divine Word, he exclaimed, " the Word which puts to 
flight the evil passions, the doctrine which extinguishes the 
fire in the soul." 

In the second place, we have already seen that the books 
of Justin, only thirty-seven years after the death of John, 
solemnly attested, in the name of all the cotemporary 
church, and before the emperor and the Roman senate, .he 
public use which was then made, by all the Christians in the 
world, of the apostolical Scriptures in their worshiping as- 
semblies.* This was in the year 140. Justin had heard 
them read eveiy Sunday in Rome, in Egypt, in Palestine, in 

1 Edit, of Cologne, p. 9. 2 Mem, p. 346. 

8 Apol. 1st (the large one), sec. 67 (Ed. Bened., Paris, 1742), p. 98, Co 
logne edit. 1686. 

18 



206 THE CAXOSr. 

Asia Minor, and in Greece. He says, "They read there 
the Memoirs of the Apostles, or the Gospels ; they read 
them each Sunday, in the cities and in the rural districts ; 
they read them with the books of the prophets ; and in every 
assembly where they had been read the president (6 7rpoe<r- 
Ttos) took the subject of his exhortations from them." 

These " Memoirs of the Apgstles," of which Justin Martyr 
speaks three times to the emperor Antonine in his Apology, 
could not be better indicated to a pagan sti'anger. "We should 
do the same in our day in a defense of Christianity which 
we should address to the king of Siam or the Burmese em- 
peror. But Justin took pains to add twice, that these me- 
moirs were called Gospels, and were written by the apostles. 
" At that time," he says,^ " an angel of God, sent to this vir- 
gin, announced to her this good news, saying, Behold, .thou 
shalt conceive in thy womb by the Holy Spirit, and thoa 
shalt bring forth a son, and he shall be called the Son of the 
Highest, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall 
save his people from their sins, as those have taught us ^ who 
have written memoirs on all the things which concern our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, and to which we have given faith." ' 
And agaîn, explaining afterward to the same emperor what 
the Lord's Supper is, he says, *' For the apostles, in the me- 
moirs which were composed by them, and which are catted 
Gospels,* have related to us that Jesus had thus instituted 
this ordinance; having taken bread and having rendered 
thanks, he said. Do this in remembrance of me." 

Also, in his Dialogue, Justin speaks fifteen times of the 
Memoirs of the Apostles, but he takes care to repeat ten 
times that the apostles wrote them. He goes even so far as 
to make a more precise distinction between those of the gos- 

1 Idem, p. 75, Cologne edit. 1686. 

2 He here combines the narratives of Luke i. 3, and Matt. i. 20, 21. 

* Qf oi (ozofivrifiovevaavrec irâvra rà ireplrov Sor^poç Jifubv 'ÎTjaov 
XpiOTov éôiôa^av olç èmarevaafiEv. 

* à KohiTM Eiayyéha. This is the common name of these Memoirs 
among Christians. 



JUSTIN MAETYE. 207 

pels which had for their authors apostles properly called (as 
Matthew or John), and those which (such as the two gospels 
of Xiuke and Mark) were composed by their companions. 
" In the Memoirs which I have said were written hy Ms 
apostles and by those who accompanied them, (it is written) 
that the sweat as drops (of blood) came forth from him while 
he was praying and saying, Let this cup pass from me !"* 
And this distinction which Justin established is so much more 
worthy of attention since of the many false gospels which 
were thrown upon the world in the second century, none 
pretended to be the work " of one of the companions of the 
apostles." 

Moreover, the Jew Trypho himself recognized also our gos- 
pels ; for he says to Justin, " I know (eTrtcrTa/Aac) that even 
your precepts, contained in that which is called the Gospel,^ 

are so grand and so admirable that no one can keep them. 
For I have informed myself carefully of them." ^ 

We have entered into such details only to meet the diflS^- 
culties which in Germany a zealous negative criticism has 
aimed to raise up against these testimonies of Justin. We 
shall hereafter quote them. 

In the third place, the books of Justin, although addressed, 
all three, to men hostile to Christianity, present, considering 
their limited extent, an extraordinary abundance of evangel- 
ical quotations. We count more than seventy in his Dia- 
logue, and at least fifty in his Apology. Now these quo- 
tations are evidently almost entirely taken from our three 
synoptical gospels, and relate with much detail the facts of 
our Saviour's life and death, as also the greater part of his 
moral teachings. It was his rational task in a defense of 
Christianity. He had to show to his opponents, in all the 

1 '"Ev TOÎÇ ànofiv ... « é^fu virb tûv âTTOtrroAuv avTov Kaî tûv èKeivoiç 
T^apaKoTuovdrjaâvTuv avvTSTÙx&at ... 

2 Cologne edit. 1686, p. 227. 'Tfiùv ôè Kot tu èv tû TiEyofievu Evayye- 
7U(i) napayyéÀimTa. 

8 è[idl yup i[^h]aev svtvxeIv avTOÎç. 



208 THE CANON". 

facts relating to Christ, the striking fulfillment of the ancient 
prophecies, and, in the incomparable excellence of his teach- 
ings, the divine character of a religion descended from 
heaven. This iguided him in the choice of his quotations. 
He borrows them almost exclusively, we, have said, from our 
three synoptical gospels : that of John (the spiritual gospel, 
as it has been called) entering too far into the doctrine of 
Christ's divinity to be often quoted in an apology addressed to 
pagans or Jews. Notwithstanding that, many of the expres- 
sions of Justin remind us of one who is familiar with John ; 
he even names this apostle and his apocalypse. He says to 
Trypho, " There is also among us a man named John, one of 
the apostles of Christ, who, in a revelation (an apocalypse) 
which was made to him, has prophesied that those who shall 
have believed in our Christ shall pass a thousand years in Je- 
rusalem." ^ But the principal citations of Justin are taken 
from Matthew and Luke ; they are made with freedom, and 
often at great length. Addressed to pagans and Jews, there 
was no necessity for literal exactness, if the sense. was given. 
Never, in these one hundred and twenty citations, will you find 
a single passage which borders on the legend or can be traced 
to apocryphal gospels. They are all derived from our gospels ; 
he knows only what they know ; he relates only what they re- 
late ; the infancy of Jesus according to the gospels of Matthew 
and Luke, his descent from Abraham by. Mary ; ^ the visit 
of the angel Gabriel, the accomplishment of Isaiah's proph- 
ecy (vii. 14), the vision granted Joseph to prevent his repu- 
diation of his wife, Micah's prediction about Bethlehem, the 
census, the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Cyrenius, 
the inn, the stable, the manger, the wise men, their ofiferings 
and adorations ; the name of " Saviour " given to the holy 
infant, the flight into Egypt, Jeremiah's prophecy upon the 

1 "ETrwT/i Kaï Tvap' i/fuv uvf/p tic, «3 ovofza 'ludvvrjç . . . èv àaoKaXvTpei 
■ysvofzévjf avTÛ , . . irpoE^pijTsvae. 

2 *Ef ùv, he says, Karâyet rj Mapia rb yévoç. Descent, according to 
him, by Mary. (Dial., chap. 100, 120.) 



JUSTIN MAETYK. 209 

mourning of Rachel, Archelaus, the return, the thirty 'years 
of Jesus, all the history of John the Baptist, the Elijah that 
was to come, the baptism of Jesus, his temptation in the des- 
ert,- his miracles of healing, the dance of Herodias's daughter, 
and the death of the prophet. 

Justin, too, in his Dialogue, mentions with no less detail 
the close of the Lord's career ; his triumphant arrival in 
Jerusalem, fulfilling a prophecy, his entrance into the temple, 
the institution pf the Supper, the singing of the hymn, the 
three disciples taken aside, the prayers and agony in Geth- 
semane, the bloody sweat, the arrival of Judas, the flight of 
the disciples, the silence of Jesus before Pilate, his being 
sent to Herod, the cross, the casting of lots for his garments, 
the mocking:^,^ the cry of Jesus, his last words, his burial on 
Friday evening, his resurrection on Sunday j*^ his appearing, 
his explaining the Scriptures to the apostles,^ the calumnies 
of the Jews, the commission given to the apostles, the ascen- 
sion. 

Again, the most abundant quotations of Justin embrace 
the very teachings of the Saviour. We find there, for in- 
stance, almost the entire Sermon on the Mount, his invita- 
tions to repentance, his instructions to the seventy disciples, 
his remarks on the sign of Jonah, on the worth of the soul, 
on marriage, on tribute to Caesar, on false teachers, on the 
resurrection, on ^chastity, on love to enemies, on the future 
punishment of the wicked, on the Scribes and Pharisees, on 
his divinity. " It is written in the Gospel, All things are 
given to me of my Father ; and no man knoweth the Father 
but the Son, nor the Soii but the Father and those to whom 
the Father hath revealed him." * 

In his great Apology,^ to show the admirable morality of 
the Scriptures, he quotes a large part of the Sermon on the 
Mount, "If ye love only those who love you, what do ye 
more than others, for sinners love those who love them? 

1 And also in the Apol. i. chap. 38. 2 Ibid. chap. 69. 

« Ibid. chat). 50. * Dial. p. 326, Paris, 1636. 5 Apol. i. p. 23. 
18* 



210 THE canon;. 

But I say unto you, pray for your enemies, bless those who 
persecute you . . . . " And on the duty of giving away 
our goods and doing nothing for our own glory, he adds, 
" Behold what Jesus has said : Give to them who ask of you, 
and turn not away. . . . And lay ye not up treasures on 
earth, where the moth and the rust corrupt. . . . And what 
will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul ? " 

Besides these extended quotations, we find also in Justin 
many passages reminding us of the other books of the New 
Testament. His work as an apologist did not require him 
to speak of the Acts or the epistles of Paul ; but his lan- 
guage often reveals to us incidentally that his spirit has been 
nourished by them. It is thus that with the epistle to the 
Colossians (i. 15 — 17), he calls Jesus Christ four or five 
times, the " first-born of God," the " first-begotten of all crea- 
tures," " he who was before all creatures." * It is thus that 
with the epistle to the Romans he shows that Abraham being 
yet uncircumcised, was justified by faith, because he be- 
lieved in God ; ^ and it is thus he cites his description of the 
depravity of all men, both Jew and Greek. " They are all 
gone out of the way, there is none that doeth good ; no, not 
one ; there is none that understandeth ; their throat is an 
open sepulcher," etc.^ 

It is also thus that with the epistle to the Corinthians (1 
Cor. V. 7), he says, " that Christ, our passover, has been 
slain for us ; * and thus he complains of some who say that 
there is no resurrection of the dead." It is thus that with 
the second epistle to the Thessalonians (ii. 3), he speaks of 
Christ, " who shall descend from heaven in glory when the 
man of sin (6 t^s dTrooracrtas av^ptoiroç), who speaketh strange 
and blasphemous things against the Most High shall manifest 
his audacious iniquity against us Christians." ^ 

It is thus that with the epistle to the Hebrews, in his 

1 Apol. i. 46; ii. 6. Dial, pp. 310, 311, 326. Paris, 1636. 

2 Dial, chap. 23. 8 Rom. iii. 11, 12. * Dial, p. 338. s Ibid. 



JUSTIN MAKTYK. 211 

first apology, he say3 of Christ that he is " the Son and the 
apostle of God " ("AyyeXos koL dirooToXos. This name is given 
to him only in Heb. iii. 1) ; and in his Dialogue ^ that he is 
" after the order of Melchizedek, king of Salem, and perpet- 
ual high priest of God." It is thus that with the Epistle to 
Titus (iii. 4,) and the epistle to the Romans (ii. 4), in employ- 
ing the remarkable expressions of the apostle, he speaks of 
" the goodness and loving-kindness of God, and of the depth 
of its riches (ly yap xprjaTOTT]? kol rj ^iXavOpwma tov ®eov.) ^ 
It is thus that in his Address and Exhortation to the Gentiles, 
we find reminiscences of the Acts, and the epistle to the 
Corinthians, and to the Colossians. It is thus, in a word, that 
we may discover many remarkable coincidences between Jus- 
tin and Paul, on the epistles to the Philippians and Timothy, 
as also to the Galatians and Ephesians, in their mutual quo- 
tations from the Septuagint. In a word, we may say, that with 
the exception of the catholic epistles and that to Philemon, 
there is not a book of the first canon, of which the trace can 
not be found in this ancient Father. 

At the same time, fully to appreciate the entire value of 
his testimony, we must bear in mind that of all his works 
there remain to us complete and authentic only his two Apol- 
ogies and his Dialogue, all three addressed, not to Christians, 
but to unbelievers. His other numerous writings composed 
for members of the church are almost entirely lost. These, 
undoubtedly, would have given us sL much more abundant 
and definite testimony ; for he lived many years in the same 
city with the three great leaders of the cotemporary here- 
sies,' and combated them. 

If then we were in possession of his " Treatise against 
Marcion," referred to by Eusebius,* or even the lost portion 
of his book " Of the Monarchy of God," we should cer- 
tainly have in them much more numerous quotations from 

1 Dial. Paris, 1636, p. 341. 2 ibid. p. 268. 

8 Cerdo, Marcion, and Valentinus. 

4 ffist. Ecc. chap. 37, (p. 140, Edit, of Valois, 1672.) 



212 THE CANON. 

the New Testament. Eusebius informs us that the author 
in the latter of these works proved his thesis *' by passages 
taken from the Scriptures ; " but this portion is lost. 

Two features universally distinguish his three apologetic 
treatises from his works now lost. 

They are, first, that these three works, and particularly the 
Dialogue, would naturally make many more extracts from 
the Old Testament than from the New. So that we have 
314 quotations of the one to 120 of the other. That was the 
rule, for, in analogous circumstances, we all would have done 
the same thing. If you were speaking to Jews, the Old 
Testament would be your only authority ; and you would not 
cite the New Testament except to show them that it fulfilled 
Moses and the Prophets. If you were speaking to pagans, 
it is still the Old Testament which you would employ to show 
the high antiquity of the revelation and its divine superiority 
to all the instructions of their sages concerning the origin, 
duties, and destinies of our humanity. That was the method, 
as early as ai century before Justin ; the method of Philo and 
the Jewish Alexandrian school, in their controversies with 
the pagan world ; as afterwards, that of Theophilus of An- 
tioch, of Tatian, of Tertullian, and of Clement of Alexan- 
dria. 

A second, feature which should characterize the quotations 
of Justin in his apologetical writings, is that they should be 
made under less precise designations than we employ in quot- 
ing to those who are familiar with the Scriptures. He would 
seldom name the books by their titles known to us. He 
would call the gospels Memoirs of the Apostles ; he would 
quote them from memory ; giving the sense faithfully, with- 
out confining himself to their language ; he would condense, 
combine, transpose certain sentences ; associate two passages 
sometimes as one ; and would not always quote the same pas- 
sage in the same terms twice. But after all these liberties, 
he would preserve the characteristics and the phraseology of 
the New Testament, without any admixture of foreign ele- 



JUSTIN" MARTYE. 213 

ments, any apocryphal quotation, or any trace of cotempo- 
rary legends. This is precisely what Justin has done. 

It is obvious why we have dwelt so long on the writings 
of this Father. His testimony is of so great importance 
from its antiquity, the extent and abundance of its quotations 
from the gospels, and from the perfect authenticity of the 
books which transmit it to us, that we must expect the mod- 
ern opponents of our canonical Scriptures to obscure it in 
every possible way. This they have done, especially in 
Germany. Until a recent period no one had called in ques- 
tion the clear and numerous testimonies which Justin renders 
to our synoptical gospels ; but the negative criticism of mod- 
ern Neology after studying with great care the one hundred 
and twenty clear and detailed quotations from them by this 
Father, after gathering all the expressions which differ in the 
least from the scriptural text, and after seizing all the liber- 
ties of quotation found in Justin, and exaggerating their dif- 
ficulties, has gone so far as to affirm that what he had before 
him was not our four gospels, but something else ; according 
to some, a certain primitive gospel from which our four bor- 
rowed their quadruple narrative, according to others, the 
apocryphal gospel entitled, " Of the Hebrews ; " after others 
again, a Harmony or combined Nai-rative of our Canonical 
Gospels ; arid finally, according to Mr. Credner a gospel 
" according to Peter " which, under divers forms had been 
cuiTent among the Jewish Christians. Protracted labors 
have been undergone by the learned Germans to sustain and 
to confute these strange hypotheses,^ and the study of Justin 
has thus been very thorough. We shall go no farther in this 
controversy.^ Tlie defenders of the Holy Word will always 

1 See and compare Semîsch, Denkwv,rdigTceiten Justins (Hamburg, 1848); 
Credner Beitràt/e, i. 92-267 (Halle, 1832) : Schwegler Nachapostolische Ztit- 
alter, i. 217-231. — " Wie er gar nicht die Zeit kann gekannt haben, wo 
man dieselbe (die Evangeliensammlung) nicht hatte." 

2 Semisch has treated it skillfully, p. 16 to 33. — It may be found exposed 
and demolished in Mr. Westcott's learned -work, " A General Survey of 
the Canon of the N". T." Cambridge, 1855. 



214 THE CANON. 

encounter serious objections, which, in everj age, will call for 
replies; there are others entirely temporary and local in 
their character, requiring only a temporary and local refuta- 
tion. These we regard as of this number. They have made 
a noise, but have also done too much violencel» the facts of 
history to be able to stand. How can it be maintained that 
Justin employed apocryphal gospels at the very time when 
by his side, in the same city of Rome, Valentinus the heretic 
used only our four canonical gospels, and a complete canon 
(integro instrumento), as TertuUian informs us?^ How, at 
the time when he himself declared to the emperor that the 
Gospels or " Memoirs of the Apostles," memoirs undoubtedly 
then definitely recognized, were read every Sunday in all the 
churches of the empire ? How, when they were everywhere 
so known that Trypho the Jew, as soon as Justin named them 
to him, recognized them and said he had read them?. How, 
in the time while Irenaeus, then in Lyons in the prime of life, 
was constantly speaking of " the quadriform Gospel " (re- 
Tpdfiop<f>ov evayye^Lov) as oi a complete whole in its kind and 
everywhere acknowledged with an incomparable firmness ? ^ 
How, when we remember that Irenaeus going to Lyons had 
been at Rome during Justin's long residence there, returning 
there about the year 77, only ten years after the martyrdom 
of this Father, to visit bishop Eleutherus ? How can we 
suppose too that Justin should in his two apologies have made 
use of the gospels which were not yet in existence? How 
suppose that he and Irenaeus used different gospels ? ' How 
imagine that Justin himself and his immediate disciples with 
all the churches should naean different books, in using the same 
titles? How pretend that in so short a time an immense 
revolution had taken place in the Christian world without 
being perceived ; had taken place everywhere, and yet left 

1 De Praescript. Hœreticor. cap. 38. 

2 Contr. Haeres. Lib. 3, cap. ii. Olshausen says, (Aechtheit d. 4, can. 
Evang. p. 272), " We see in all this passage how Irenaeus could never have 
known a time when he had not had the collection of the Gospels." 



OBJECTIONS TO HIS TESTIMONY. 215 

no trace of itself? How suppose that all the churches all 
over the world were silentlj brought to agree with one con- 
sent to change their Bible, so that those sacred books which 
were publicly read every Sunday in the year 140 were super- 
seded by others in 167, at the death of Justin, though stiU 
called by the same names ? Surely, nothing more pitifully 
betrays the distress of a system than such impossibilities im- 
agined to prop it up a little while. 



Ob/ections to his Testimony. 

We will then briefly notice the three principal objections 
alleged by the adversaries when they pretend that Justin, in 
his one hundred and twenty citations, had before him other 
gospels than ours.^ First, they say, Justin although he once 
mentions the apostle John,^ as the author of the Apocalypse, 
never names Matthew, Mark, or Luke even while quoting 
their respective gospels at length. But we reply that such 
a mentioning would have been out of place in such a book ; 
that none of the apologists who followed him did it ; neither 
Tatian, disciple of Justin, nor Athenagoras ; nor even Tertul- 
lian in his " Liber Apologeticus," who names them so frequent- 
ly in his other writings ; nor Theophilus of Antioch, in his 
books to Autolycus ; nor Clement of Alexandria, in his " Ex- 
hortation to the Gentiles ; " nor Cyprian, in his writing to 
Demetrian ; nor Origen, in his books against Celsus ; nor 
Lactantius ; nor Arnobius ; nor even Eusebius, in his " Evan- 
gelical Preparation." Theophilus and Clement, with Justin, 
have named only John ; and that only once. Lactantius ' 
even blames Cyprian for having quoted the Scriptures in a 
controversy with a pagan. 

1 Semisch has skillfully examined these strange theories, Denkumrdîgkeîten 
Justins (Hamb. 1848, p. 16-28). — This whole controversy is carefully ex- 
amined in Mr. "Westcott's work on the canon (Cambridge, 1855). He has 
very judiciously availed himself of the Grerman labors, (pp. 112-216.) 

a In his dialogue -with Trypho, p. 308. — Paris, folio, 1636. 

8 Instit. r. 4. 



216 THE CANON. 

In the second place, they say again, " See the extreme 
freedom with which Justin quotes the gospels ; he refers to 
them from memory ; often, if he gives the sense it is by dif- 
ferent words, abridging or combining." But the answer is 
as simple as decisive, and to give it only requires a closer 
study of this author. This has been done by Semisch and 
Credner, comparing his quotations of the New Testament 
with his quotations of Moses and the prophets. Now it is 
precisely the same freedom, both in his Apology, and in his 
Dialogue with Trypho. — You may read more than sixty- 
pages in these works, in which you shall see Justin taking 
the same liberty with the Old Testament as with the" New, 
giving passages from memory, paraphrasing them to render 
them more clear, transposing them, combining them, and ad- 
hering more to the sense than the words. And also, when 
he quotes them a second time it is with notable changes in 
the words, to apply them moi'e pointedly to his subject. If 
then he could so quote the Old Testament so well known to 
the Jewish people, why should he qiiote the Apostles and 
Evangelists differently ? 

A third objection, is that Justin quotes words of Jesus 
Christ not found in our Gospels. ." Our Lord," he writes in 
his dialogue with Trypho,^ " has said, ' On these words which 
surprise you, I will j udge you.' " ^ And on p. 253, Christ says, 
" There shall be schisms and heresies." We reply 1st, that 
neither of these sentences is found in the apocryphal gospels; 
2d, that Justin nowhere says he had read these in the " Me- 
moirs of the Apostles ; " 3d, that we must not be surprised if 
this Father, writing a very few years after the death of John 
and the unpublished recollections of the words of Christ) could 
traditionally repeat that sentence of the Lord, as Paul had 
himself repeated that which we find in the twentieth chapter 

1 Paris Ed. 1686, p. 267. English edition, chaps. 47, and 33. 

2 Some read here a paraphrase of this sentence: "Where the carcass is 
there the eagles will be gathered together." Others are alleged, they are 
doubtful. See Kirchhofer, 1842, (p. 104) QueUensammlung, etc. 



OTHER HISTOKICAL MONUMENTS. 217 

*of Acts, and yet nowhere in the gospels "The Lord Jesus 
said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." 

In a word, it is beyond doubt, that from the year 140 of 
the Christian era, Justin, in his Apology, and shortly after- 
wards, in his Dialogue, cites very abundantly our synoptical 
gospels, declaring that they were written by apostles of 
Christ, and their companions, and stating to the Roman em- 
peror that on every Sunday all the Christians in the world 
read them publicly with the writings of the Old Testament 
in their sacred assemblies, before presenting their prayers to 
God, or celebrating the supper and collecting the alms from 
the faithful. 



Other Historical Monuments of the Canon in dhis JirU half 
of the Second Century. 

Justin, moreover, is not the only witness of this epoch. 
Although he is the only one of all the Fathers whose entire 
and authentic writings have come down to us, still we find in 
!Eusebius many extracts from other writers of the same period, 
who render incidental testimony to the canon, and who, lead- 
ing us for a moment to the banks of that stream whose source 
we are seeking, permit us again to see its majestic flow, and 
thus to appreciate at a glance the high place which the col- 
lection of the sacred Scriptures then already held in the 
estimateand habits of the people of God. 

Thus, for example, in his third book, chapter 37, Eusebius 
relates that, under the reign of Trajan, at the beginning of 
the second century, in the remote days of the ministry and 
martyrdom of Ignatius, and while that Quadi-atus who " had 
received miraculous gifts with the daughters of Philip," was 
flourishing, " a large number of disciples became famous 
among the first successors of the apostles by going forth to 
spread throughout the earth the salutary seeds of the king- 
dom of heaven." « The greater part of them," he adds, 
" having, through the divine Word, their souls penetrated with 
19 



218 THE CANOTS. 

a vehement love of the (true) philosophy, obeyed the injuno- * 
tion of the Saviour, by distributing their goods to the poor ; 
then, abandoning their country and going on long journeys, 
they accomplished the work of evangelists among those who 
had never heard the word of faith ; ambitious as they were 
of announcing Christ and of transmitting the Scriptures of 
the divine Evangelists." 

You see then, these holy men of God, at the beginning 
of the second century, successors and imitators of the apos- 
tles, at the time when the apostle John himself was giving 
his testimony for Jesus Christ at Ephesus, in the province 
of Asia, and when the charlsms of the Spirit yet accompa- 
nied the preaching of the gospel; you see them traveling 
with the " Scriptures of the divine Evangelists " in their 
hands, carrying them even into barbarous countries. Tou 
see them there not only profoundly penetrated themselves 
with " the divine word," as Eusebius says, but leaving it after 
them in written documents and " ti'ansmitting it to these dis- 
tant peoples." We also learn again by Eusebius (H. E. v. 10), 
that Pantaenus, when he had penetrated India towards the 
close of the second century, found that the Gospel of Mat- 
thew had preceded his arrival there nearly a century, " hav- 
ing been left there, written in Hebrew letters by Bartholo- 
mew, one of the twelve apostles, and having brought several 
persons to a knowledge of Jesus Christ." 

By this account of Eusebius we are then once more 
brought to the very banks of the Scriptures, and can trace 
this pure and beneficent streani up to the apostolical fountain 
out of which it springs, to receive some additional tributaries, 
to move on complete, in its majestic course, bearing the liv- 
ing waters to all the people of the world. 

It is sufficiently evident that Eusebius is here speaking of 
definite and recognized gospels which have not been altered 
in their course from the beginning ; in a word, the gospels 
which in his day were revered by the whole of Christen- 
dom. 



OTHER HISTORICAL MONUMENTS. 219 

But if, in consequence of various accidents, there remain 
to us so few monuments of the Fathers of the second century 
the providence of God has preserved to us others still more 
important and more indisputable. These are left to us by 
the most violent enemies of these very Fathers. Their tes- 
timony shall then speak to us with so much the more author- 
ity, as it was involuntary and as it in our day serves the gos- 
pel despite of all the hatred which these men bore toward it. 
They little thought, — those infidels of the first two centu- 
ries — that their very attacks would avail even in the re- 
motest ages of the future to confound their imitators. They 
were, in almost every feature, counterparts of the men of this 
nineteenth century whose systems they now overthrow ; and 
it is by them that the holy convictions of the primitive church 
in regard to the canon are most powerfully attested to us 
against all the negations of the modern infidelity. 

These adversaries, in the age of Trajan, of Adrian, and of 
Antoninus Pius, were of two kinds : the one, infidels, among 
the Jews and pagans, calumniated the church from without ; 
the others, heretics among the Ebionites and the Gnostics, 
tormented it from within, by their erroneous doctrines, on 
account of which they called themselves " Gnostics," or men 
of science ; — " science falsely so called," as Paul terms it 
(1 Tim. vi. 20.) Now it must be observed that it was, as 
ordinarily" happens, in times when the gospel was making the 
greatest progress, that the enemy excited this twofold war 
of infidelity and heresy. But it was also in these very at- 
tacks so audacious and so rude that these men left after them 
in the literature of their age such precious monuments of the 
canon. Their remote attempts shall then lead us again to 
the banks of the river, even while themselves endeavoring 
only to trouble the waters with their feet, and to throw into 
them their filth ; and these very attempts shall turn, contrary 
to their expectation, to the honor of the Scriptures. Not only 
shall they serve to point out to us their course of this river 
during the whole second century, but they shall show us all 



220 THE CANON. 

the cotemporary churches standing respectfully on its banks 
defending its stream, and drinking there with delight the 
sparkling waters of eternal life. 



SECTION vm. 

TESTIMONY OF THE INFIDEL PAGANS IN THE SECOND 
CENTUET. 

Their Writings. 

The first enemies of Christianity, in order to find objec- 
tions, entered upon the study of the Scriptures, boasting of 
" thus destroying them with their own weapons ; " and it is 
by this very labor that they have furnished us, even in their 
most violent writings, a brilliant acknowledgment both of our 
collection of sacred books, and of the authority, already 
everywhere established, which it then possessed in all the 
churches. " All these things which we object to your sys- 
tem," said " The Jew " of Celsus (the opponent whom Celsus 
made to speak in his famous book against Christianity,) ^ " all 
these things we draw from your own Scriptures ; and fortified 
with these quotations, we have need of no other witness 
against you than yourselves; for you thus perish by your 
own hands." 

The writings of these ancient enemies exist no longer ; but 
many of the books composed at that time to refute them 
having come down to us, furnish us an indisputable testi- 
mony ; and under this form it may be said that the ancient 
defenders have served the modern cause of the Gospel more 
. efièctually by their quotations than by their arguments. It 
is thus that almost all the objections of Celsus are reproduced 
to us by Origen ; many of those of Amelius, by Eusebius ; 
and of those of Porphyry, by Jerome and Chrysostom. 

1 His Aôyoç ahi^ç. This book has perished; but abundant quotatioiu 
from it are found in the '' Befutation of Celsus " by Origen. 



TESTIMONY OF CELSUS. 221 

But as Amelius and Porphyry belong rather to the thbd 
century, we shall speak here only of Celsus who flourished 
in the first half of the second century, under the reign of 
Adrian, that is from A. d. 117 to a.d. 138. 



Testimony of Celsus. 

Celsus (or rather Kelsos) was an epicurean philosopher 
filled with fervent hatred of Christians. He knew how to 
employ Avith much wit and skill all the arms of logic and 
ridicule to decry their Lord, their doctrines, and their Scrip- 
tures. Origen, in his eight books " Against Celsus," ^ speaks 
of his writings, without informing us of his exact age, or 
place of residence. We -know only, that he was older than 
the famous infidel Lucian of Samosata, who lived under the 
Automnes, and who dedicated to him one of his " Dialogues." 
Mr. Kirchhofer, (Quellensammlung, etc., p. 331 : Zurich, 
1842), on the authority of a passage of Celsus speaking of 
Marcion apparently, would place him later than we should in 
the second century ; but it is merely conjecture on his part ; 
the passage does not name Marcion. (Origen against Celsus, 
Lib. ii. chap. 27, vol. i. opp.) * 

The testimony which Celsus renders to the canon of the 
gospels is of great weight from its remote age. Chrysostom, 
too, fifteen hundred years ago, already indicated to the men 
of his time this homage of an infidel to our sacred books. In 
his sixth Homily on the first epistle to the Corinthians, he 
says, " Admire how the gospel was early spread into all parts 
of the habitable world ; for Celsus, and after him Porphyry, 
who have said so much against us, are suflScient witnesses of 
the antiquity of .our holy Books." 

It is thus then that this adversary, in the beginning of the 
second century, like Voltaire and the English Deists in the 

1 The best edition is that of Spencer (Cambridge, 1658, 4to.) We ordi- 
narily quote from the complete edition of the Benedictines, four vols, folio 
1733-1759. 

19* 



222 THE CANON. 

eighteenth, gave himself to a certain study of the character 
and contents of the Scriptures, from sheer hatred to them. 
Now the way in which he speaks of our four gospels and the 
fact that he quotes no other, show with evidence, says Kirch- 
hofer, that he not- only knew them by this name, but that he 
attributed them to the disciples of Jesus, and that in his day 
they were universally used in the churches. He never makes 
an objection to their authenticity ; and it is not to be ques- 
tioned that if there had" been any reason to doubt it, however 
feeble, such a man would have seized such a weapon with 
both hands. But he does not even think of such a thing ; on 
the contrary, as we have said, he boasts in quoting them of 
" fighting Christians with their own weapons." In a word, all 
the fragments preserved by Origen render it in the highest 
degree probable that Celsus had read the collection of our 
four gospels, and that he had read no other. It is then not 
Christians only, but even pagans likewise, who attest to us 
the universal dissemination of the sacred collection of the 
gospels in the second century. 

Celsus, in order to decry the character of Jesus, produces 
with great fullness nearly all the features of his life and the 
larger portion of his words. The only collection of these 
passages in the book of Kirchhofer embraces twenty-three 
pages, and you may there discover alternatively and exclu- 
sively each one of our four gospels as well as many passages 
of Paul's epistles. And when he has quoted all the features- 
of the birth, life, miracles, sermons, sufferings, death, and res- 
urrection of our Lord, he declares that he had taken them 
" from the very writings of Jesus' disciples ; from your own 
Scriptures ; (roîs tnro riav fiaôrp-tàv rov 'Irjcrov ypatfteicnv — ck 
T(i3v vfieripfnv o-wyypa/ijuaTtov Koff a. kcu û/Aeîç (nryycypa^aTe.) " ^ 

For example, he represents Jesus as being, according to 

our Scriptures, the pretended son of a virgin, announced by 

angels, adored by Magi, fleeing into Egypt, baptized by John, 

having seen a dove descend at his baptism, etc He re- 

1 Orig. against Celsus, ii. 74-49. 



TESTIMONY OF CELSUS. 223 

proaches him with having said the following things : " It is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for 
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Behold the 
lilies of the field, the birds of the air, they sow not,- neither 
do they reap. If any one shall say to you, Christ is here, or 
Christ is there, believe him not. Many shall say to me in 
that day, Lord, Lord, have we not driven out devils in thy 
name, and in thy name done wonderful works, etc. But I 
will say to them, * Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.' " 
« O Light," he exclaims, " O Truth ! Behold him then him- 
self, your own Scriptures attest it, behold him warning us 
with his own voice that others, even though they are bad 
men, shall perform the same miracles ! " 

But moreover, Celsus, in order to decry our different gos- 
pels and set them against each other, manifestly represents 
Matthew and Luke as opposed to each other in their genealo- 
gies ; and he elsewhere refers evidently to the gospel of John 
when relating how Jesus showed his disciples the wounds of 
his hands and feet X'Orig. against Celsus, ii. 55), when speak- 
ing of the blood flowing from his side (ii. 36-59), of the 
earthquake and darkness ; when reproaching Christians for 
calling Jesus Son, and Word of God, and Christ for saying 
to his disciples, " With desire have I desired to eat this pass- 
over with you ; " (i. 70,) and again, " If they persecute you 
in one city, flee into another." " Why then," exclaims the 
• Jew of Celsus to Jesus, " Why then flee hither and thither 
with thy disciples ? Why, if a good general is never be- 
trayed by his soldiers, nor even a brigand by his miserable 
followers, why could not Jesus secure the same attachment 
on the part of his disciples ? " (ii. 12.) " Why again does 
Jesus complain in these words, ' My Father, if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me.' ? " (ii. 24.) " Why does he com- 
plain so much of the thirst which the feeblest men have often 
borne ? Why, when they give him gall and vinegar, does 
he swallow them with avidity ? Why is he ready with his 
threats, exclaiming, ' Woe to you, I say ! ' ? Why then, O 



224 THE CANON. 

Jesus, why didst thou need in thine infancy to be warned by 
an angel, and carried into Egypt to escape death ? " etc. 

In fine, Celsus designates equally all the four gospels, 
when he opposes those which (as Mark and Matthew) men- 
tion but one angel at the tomb, to those (as Luke and John) 
who mention two. He reproaches them even with having 
employed four, "for some of you Christians, like drunken 
men who stx'ike themselves with their own hands, have, from 
one primitive Scripture, three times, four times, many times " 
rewritten and reconstructed the gospel, in order to be able to 
reply to arguments by negations. (Lib. ii. 27.) 

But again Celsus has not confined his accusations to our 
four gospels ; he has gone even to Paul's epistles to find 
them. He speaks, for instance, of the prophecies which, in 
the second Thessalonians and the first Timothy, relate to the 
great apostasy of modern times. Origen says, " I think that 
in these passages he has poorly comprehended the apostolical 
word." (1 Tim. iv. 2.) 

Again, he reproaches Christians with injuring one another, 
whilst they are heiard to say, " The world is crucified to me, 
and I to the world." (Gal. vi. 14.) Origen says, (v. 64,) 
" Celsus here has been able to produce these words only as a 
recollection of the epistles of Paul." Elsewhere (vi. 12,) 
Origen says, " But I pass again to another accusation of Cel- 
sus where, badly understanding our Scriptures, he reproaches 
us with saying that what is wisdom among men is folly with ' 
God, whereas Paul simply said (1 Cor. iii. 19), "The wis- 
dom of this world is foolishness with God." And again, al- 
luding to 1 Cor. viii. 11, he reproaches Christians with their 
conduct in regard to meats sacrificed to idols. . Oi'igen says, 
(viii. 24,) "Let us 'hear these words of Celsus. See his 
dilemma, 'If these idols are nothing, what is there so terrible 
in taking part in our festivals ? And if there really are cer- 
tain demons, then they are evidently demons of God, to which 
you must render faith and homage according to the laws, and 
which you should invoke in order to make them propitious.' " 



FORCE OF THIS TESTIMONY. 225 

Origen adds, " It would be useful then to explain here the 
entire passage of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthiana 
on things sacrificed to idols." 



Force of this Testimony. 

Let us here pause thoroughly to consider all the force of 
this testimony rendered to the Canon of the Sacred Scrip- 
tures so near the death of the Apostle John. See then how 
this Voltaire of the second century crushes, without intend- 
ing it, the men of the nineteenth century who pretend to 
raise their doubts against the existence of a canon in the 
second. See him who declares their doubts absurd since he 
himself employed against the Christians their own weapons, 
their " Scriptures," " the Scriptures composed," he says, " by 
the very disciples of Jesus," those which everybody then re- 
ceived as such and on which was erected the entire edifice 
of their faith ; those the authenticity of which was called in 
question by no one among friends or foes at that time ; those 
which they read " every Sunday " in all the churches in the 
world ! Let any one read merely the scriptural quotations 
of Celsus, entirely borrowed from the " Refutation " which 
Origen made. He will be struck with the irresistible force 
of this involuntary testimony, and be tempted to say in his 
turn to the enemies of Christianity, ouSevos SXKov fidprvpo's 
^■q^ofiey. " We have, O Celsus, need of no other witness 
against you than yourself." And we have need of no other 
witnesses against your imitators of the nineteenth century 
than you yourself at the beginning of the second ! 

These quotations from Celsus, which might be so easily 
multiplied,^ will alone suffice to prove -abundantly the univer- 
sal reign of our Sacred Books in the first years of the second 
century, and thus, their promulgation much earlier ; for Cel- 
sus everywhere takes for granted that priority ; our Sacred 
Books are there considered to be as old as the Christian 
1 See Celsus himself, in the Bened. Collection, p. 71, note 1. 



226 THE CANOÎT. 

Church. Celsus has not the slightest suspicion that it can be 
otherwise ; the idea of putting in question their authority in 
the church and their universally recognized authenticity, does 
not even enter his mind ; for it could not then enter any mind, 
and therefore his hatred must have recourse to altogether 
difîèrent accusations. " Behold your Scriptures," he on the. 
contrary says to them in other terms, "you can not deny 
them, they are the very disciples of your Master who wrote 
*]Qem ; but if I admit with you their apostolical authority, I 
am going to show you their errors, contradictions, immorali- 
ties, plagiarisms from Plato, and impossibilities." We see 
then, Celsus utterly discards the whole system of attack by the 
modern infidels, against our canon ; he declares to them that 
it is destitute of all historical value, and that they must aban- 
don it. And at the same time, observe closely, it would have 
been for Celsus a more murderous weapon than any other 
against the then rising and the future Christian system if he 
could have thrown the slightest doubt on the question of the 
authenticity of their books ; for he could thus have toi-n up 
its very foundation. But this weapon could not then have 
been employed, nor did the idea of employing it ever occur 
to Porphyry, never to Amelîus, never to Julian. Arid yet, 
this thought of bringing in question the authenticity of our 
sacred books and the agreement of all the - churches of the 
world in receiving them, might have presented itself to the 
hatred of Celsus, because although the twenty-two homologo- 
mens were uncontested everywhere and from the beginning, 
yet this was not the case with the five later epistles ; for the 
question of these books was not then entirely decided, and 
the Christian teachers were still studying it in a spirit of 
mutual respect, of patience, and of peace. But you will find 
no trace of doubt as to the origin of the first canon, its au- 
thenticity, the universal confidence which it obtained, the con- 
tinual employment of it in the worship of every Christian 
assembly. Surely then, we must say, although we had only 
the True Discourse (Aoyos aXr/di^s) of. Celsus, or rather the 



THE CHARACTER OF THIS TESTIMONY. 227 

fragments preserved by Origen, still we should be obliged to 
conclude that at the opening of the second century Christians 
had possessed for a long time a sacred volume, attributed to 
the apostles by their enemies themselves, and which the whole 
church adopted as the rule of faith and practice. 

But we pass on to the heretics. Their testimony will be 
still more explicit, and so full that it will appear to surpass 
even that of the Fathers and of the enemies of the church, 
which we have just considered, for we shall there hear wit- 
nesses more ancient than Justin Martyr or Celsus. 



SECTION IX. 

TESTIMONY OP THE HERETICS IN THE FIRST HALF OP 
THE SECOND CENTURY. 

The Character of this Testimony. 

The heretics whose unanimous voice testifies at this epoch, 
are not few in number as are the cotemporary Fathers whose 
works remain to us. They are an army, a cloud of witnesses. 
The ancient authors have counted in this remote period as 
many as thirty-two heretical sects very diverse in their dog- 
mas, but very unanimous, as we shall see in attesting to us 
the existence of the canon and its authority in all the churches. 
And such is the weight of this proof that we have seen in 
our times many German defenders of the canon concentrate 
the whole force of their argument on this point.^ This tes- 
timony is involuntary, since we must trace it, as in the case 
of Celsus, to the most pernicious enemies of primitive Chris- 
tianity. "We must here again admire the manner in which 
Providence has employed such men, after seventeen hundred 
years, to reduce to powder the negations of modern criticism. 
Behold these ancient enemies, the cause of so much grief to 

1 See their " Introductions " to the study of the îfevr Testament, begin- 
ning with that of Hug, (Einleitung, Thesis i. p. 88.) 



228 THE CANOÎT. 

the early churches, now uniting their voices with those of the 
Fathers of the second century to confirm against the ration- 
alists of the nineteenth, the authenticity of our Sacred Books 
and the divine authority then attributed to them in all the 
Christian churches of the earth ! Hug remarks,^ " It is a 
thing well worthy of our serious attention, that the deposi- 
tions of the heretics, so fortuitously preserved, attest not only 
the existence of the New Testament in the second century, 
but also its anterior origin ; for these depositions relate not 
only to their times; they go very much farther back, and 
* attest that the authors of our Holy Scriptures were the 
apostles Peter, John, and Paul." To exhibit the full force 
of this proof we should give it in a much larger number of 
quotations than we can introduce here. The numerous writ- 
ings of all these heretics have perished, with those of the 
pagans coteraporary with them ; but we find the most abun- 
dant citations of them in the refutations of them by Irenaeus, 
Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus, and 
several others. 

Our faith must not be shocked at witnessing so many here- 
sies springing up .so near the times of the apestles. Heresies 
spring and flourish only in times of revival and life ; the en- 
tire history of the people of God shows us that these revolts 
were the more frequent the more pure and living the churches 
became. Paul also goes so far as to intimate that they serve 
their purpose in God's kingdom. He tells us in 1 Cor. xi. 
19, " There must be heresies ; " and he takes care to warn 
the Corinthian church that God knows too how to make 
use of that which is evil for the good of his people, because 
the very heresies which torment them purify them. He 
says, " Their word will eat as doth a canker ; " (2 Tim. ii. 17, 
18,) but they accomplish frequently also in a flock the work 
of the leech on a sick body ; they cast out some who ought 
not to be in it ; they result, .he says, in manifesting those who 
are worthy of commendation, and exercise beneficially the 
1 Emleitong, Thesis i. p. 88. 



THE CHARACTER OF THIS TESTIMONY. 229 

elect. Let us not then be astonished at the great number of 
heretics in the second century, or even in the first. Never 
did the gospel extend itself so rapidly over the earth as in 
the days of Trajan and Adrian (from A. d. 98 to A. d. 138) ; 
but never likewise did such a multitude of monstrous sects 
spring up in the church of God. 

Irenaeus, in his great work, has described at length all those 
of his time ; and the celebrated Hippolytus, thirty years after 
him, has reviewed them in his " Refutation." He enumer- 
ates thirty-two ; four belonging to the Ophites, who, already 
in John's day, mixed their own prophecies with Revelation ; 
eleven, to the different sects of gnostics abandoned in various 
ways to the vain deceptions of a philosophy which they com- 
placently styled the gnosis or the science (1 Tim. vi. 20) ; 
twelve others, to the Ebionites, Jewish sects which repelled 
the doctrines of grace and of the divinity of Jesus. Christ î 
others, mixed with ebionism and gnosticisms, and finally five 
others, who scarcely erred except on questions of discipline, 
and who were orthodox at least on the doctrine of God and 
his Christ. 

Now all. these sects have in the following ways, rendered 
striking testimony to the canon of the Scriptures : 1. The most 
of them, notwithstanding their wanderings, and the rashness 
of their exegesis, recognize the authority of our Sacred Books. 
This, for example, was the case of the powerful sect of the 
Valentinians, who alone constituted six sects of gnostics ; it 
was the case also of the disciples of Carpocrates, and of 
those of Theodotus, who belonged rather to the ebionitish 
sects. TertuUian ^ says, " Valentinus appears to have used 
a complete canon (integro instrumento) ; " and Irenseus con- 
tents himself with saying of this sect, that it had " a prefer- 
ence for the writings of John." He adds, " They seek to 
sustain their errors by apostolical and evangelical quotations, 
although they pervert them by a false interpretation and ex 
ercise bad faith in their exegesis." 

1 De Prsescript. Hsereticor. cap. 3 ; Lib. i. cap. 336. 
20 



230 THE CANOK 

2. Even those very heretics who repudiate a part of the 
canon at the same time attest it in a remarkable manner by 
the fact, that their respective sects, drawn into two opposite 
cuiTents, mutually contradict each other. The Sacred Books 
which one rejected were preferred by the other ; the ebiohites, 
considering Paul as a renegade from Judaism, condemned his 
writings and those of Luke his companion injabor, whilst, 
on the contrary, many of the anti-judaizing gnostics, Marcion 
especially, and all his followei's, condemned Matthew, Mark, 
Peter, and John, regarding them as apostles of the circum- 
cision. It is thus, that, far from being shaken in our confi- 
dence in the canon, these contradictory testimonies, taken to- 
gether, are equivalent to depositions confirming it. 

3. In fine, we must especially observe that of all the her- 
etics of the second century, even among the worst, there is 
not one who denied the authenticity of the books of the canon, 
and of the very books which they would not accept. Never, 
between them and the church, did the controversy turn upon 
the apostolicity of the twenty-two homologomens, nor on the 
credit which they had down to that time obtained in the en- 
tire church. This question was not even stated by them. In 
rejecting some of them, they rejected only their doctrine ; 
and you will never hear them insinuating that these Scrip- 
tures were not written by the -apostles and their compan- 
ions, whose names they bear. They were satisfied with 
maintaining that the instruction was not conformed to the 
intentions of Jesus Christ. If Marcion repudiated three of 
Paul's thirteen letters, it was, not because they were not 
Paul's, but, because Paul was imperfectly inspired when he 
wrote them ; and if he rejected Matthew and Peter, it was 
not that they had not written the books bearing their names, 
but. that in writing them they "Judaized," the one in his 
Epistle, and the other in his Gospel. But none of the Mar- 
cionites failed to recognize that in rejecting them he opposed 
the opinion of the church. Let this twofold avowal be well 
observed, and this double testimony to the historical authen- 



MAECION. 231 

ticity of our holy books. It is of great force, for Avith such 
hatred against the church, with such science and skill to com- 
bat her, these audacious men, if they could have discovered 
the smallest possibility of contesting these two facts, would 
certainly not have failed to employ so fatal an arm, by which, 
at one blow, if it had been truth, they could have demolished 
their adversaries, and have terminated the qukrrel for ever. 

To give the reader a better view of this proof, we shall 
pass rapidly in review the principal heresies of the' epoch, 
beginning with Marcion, and ascending thence to other sects 
still nearer to the days of the apostles.^ 



Marcion. 

The Marcionitic sects were certainly the most audacious in 
their efforts against the Scriptures ; and yet we shall see how, 
even in their negations, they render a resistless testimony 
both to the anterior existence oT the first canon, and to the 
universal authority it then had in the churches of God. 

Marcion was born in the days of John toward the close of 
the first century at.Sinope on the shores of the Euxine. His 
father, bishop of that city, having had the misfortune to dis- 
cover a serious crime of his son, was obliged to expel him 
from the church, and firmly refused to restore him. Inca' 
pable of bearing this mortification, Marcion secretly left the 
city and went to Rome.^ There, as he was a man of talent 
and energy, he soon exercised a great personal influence, and 
was accepted by the Roman clergy. He dared even aspire, 
says Epiphanius, to the first place (îr/aoeSpta), when he was 
rejected by the elders (Trpea-jSwépotç) of the church, who had 

1 We shall not here speak of the Ophites or Cerinthians, nor of the other 
heretics of the first century who are less known to us, nor of the Arians and 
Manicheans who came afterward; nor even of Theodotus, the tanner of By- 
zantium who flourished in the latter half of the second century. We shall 
confine ourselves to the first half. 

2 Epiph. HîEres. xlii. 1. See also Cave, Diet. Eccl. Hist. Bingham Orig. 
Eccl. i. p. 266. Massuet, De Gnost. Eeb. sec. 135. 



232 ' THE CANON. 

learned the cause of his flight from Sinope. Hè then threw 
himself with desperation into the party of Cerdo. This 
was a dangerous Syrian heretic, already unhappily celebrated 
in Rome as head of a powerful anti-judaizing sect. Marcion 
gave himself entirely up to his gnostic suggestions, and before 
long passed bej'ond his master in the audacity of his doc- 
trines, the grefd number of his followers and his attempts 
against the Scriptures. He expressed his negations with ex- 
treme precision, and knew how to impress his system with 
the strongly positive features of his own character. The 
attractiveness of his powerful person and the seductive au- 
dacity of his philosophy soon brought him a large number of 
disciples in Italy, Egypt, Syria, and Persia; and his sect 
became so powerful and so active that in the fourth century, 
if we may believe Epiphanius, it retained still some congx'e- 
gations and bishops. Also Irenaeus tells us (Haeres. iii. 3) that 
this bold man pretended to demand a recognition from the 
bishops of the church, and that having met Polycarp in Rome, 
he dared to approach and say to him, " Recognize me, Poly- 
carp !" "I recognize thee," replied the martyr, " as the 
first-born of Satan." 

We can no more determine than Tertullian,^ the time when 
Marcion went to fix his residence at Rome. " In what year," 
says this Father, "of the first Automnes the breath of the 
Dog- Star blew this poisonous exhalation from the Black Sea, 
I have taken no pains to inquire." But since Justin Martyr, 
in his first Apology,_(chap. 26,) written in A. D. 139, speaks 
of Marcion as " still teaching ; " and since his doctrine was 
then already widely spread, many years must have elapsed 
since he left the church. His first arrival in the Capital of 
the Empire must have long preceded the death of Adrian. 

This remark is important ; it brings us near the days of 
John. Another fact worthy of notice, was the simultaneous 

1 Adv. Marcion, i. 19. Qiioto quidem anno Antonini Maj. de Ponte suo 
exhalaverit aura canicularis, non curavi investigare ; de quo tamen constat^ 
Antonianus est hœretîcus, sub Pio impios. 



MARCION. 233 

presence in Rome of Cerdo, Marcion, Tatian, and Yalentinus, 
with Justin Martyr. It seems to confirm the testimony which 
men so contrasted rendered at the same time and in the same 
city to the existence, the use, and the authority of the first 
canon in the cotemporary church. 

TertuUian says,-*- " In separating the Law from the Gospel, 
Marcion pretended not to be an innovator, but merely ' to re- 
store the apostolical rule falsified by its adversaries.' " 

In general, the heretics of the second century, with many 
rationalists of the nineteenth, not discerning the harmony of 
the divine revelations and those intimate relations which in 
the order of grace bind together the respective doctrines of 
the Law and the Gospel, could see between these revelations 
only a desperate antagonism. Thus persuaded of their irrec- 
oncilableness they accepted certain Scriptures and rejected 
others ; and permitting themselves thus to go to contrary ex- 
tremes, they declared they could neither reconcile Peter or 
James with Paul, nor Matthew or John with Luke. Thus, 
some, particularly the ebionites, as Irenasus' says, *' Holding 
Paul to be an Apostate from the Law," rejected .him spite- 
fully ; whilst Marcion and many others, pushing the doctrines 
of Paul to the other extreme, on the contrary, held him alone 
to be a true apostle,, and admitted to their canon only his 
epistles reduced to the number of ten, and the Gospel of 
Luke. In their aversion to everything Jewish, they even 
maintained that the God of the Jews (the Demiurge or Crea- 
tor of the visible world), was very different from the God 
preached by Jesus Christ. Marcion too, like our rationalists, 
pretended to establish, not only what he called the antitheses 
(or contradictions) of the two Testaments, but also the antith- 
eses of Peter and Paul, and those of Luke and Mark, or 
Luke and John. His canon was divided into two parts which, 
Epiphanius says, he called "the Evangelicon" and "the 
Apostolicon." As to his Apostolicon, he made it up of ten 
only of Paul's epistles. He excluded of the thirteen let- 

1 A,dv. Marcion, i. 20. 
20* 



234 THE CANON. 

ters which bear Paul's name only three of the pastoral 
epistles and that to the Hebrews, for he had retained Phile- 
mon. TertuUian,* too, informs us that his arrangement of 
the epistles, no one can see why, was not that which the 
church was accustomed to use. He boasted also that he had 
reestablished the true title of the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
calling it, "^!pistle to the iModiceans." (Col. iv. 16.) And 
the same Father assures us again that he had made altera- 
tions in these letters, especially in that to the Bomans, " to 
hring away whatever he chose from the integrity of our instnt' 
ment." ^ At the same time Epiphanius,^ who brings the same 
reproach against him, and who specifies seven of these alter- 
ations, shows us that they were not important and were not 
retrenchments. There are indeed only three that have any 
authority for them. 

As to his Evangelicon, he allowed himself, as we have said, 
serious liberties. He received only one gospel, which he 
called "the Gospel of Christ," and which the church called 
« the Gospel of Marcion," or « the Gospel of the Black Sea" 
(Ponticum.) He had himself arranged and modified it, and 
it was simply (according to the unanimous testimony of Ire- 
naeus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius), "a mutilated Luke."* 
The text of this Evangelist was its thread ; but there were 
constant alterations and retrenchments, among them those of 
the prodigal son, nativity of the Saviour, and the events" of 
his death on the cross.^ " These heretics, giving themselves 
out as truer and wiser than the apostles," says Irenaeus,* " and 
pretending that the apostles had issued only a gospel imbued 

1 Adv. Marcion, v. 20. See too, Epiphan. Hseres., xlii. This places in 
Marcioa Philemon ninth, and Philippians tenth. 

2 Adv. Marcioa, v. 13. 

8 Haeres. xlii. Yet it would seem from the commentary of Origen on 
Bom. xvi. 25, that he had omitted the last two chapters. 

4 A reconstruction of Marcion's gospel may be found in Halm's " Daa 
Evang. Marcious in seiner ursprunglichen Gestalt. (Konigsberg, 1823.) 

6 Epiph. Hseres. xlii. See Kirchhofer, Quellensammlung, p. 336. 

6 Hseres. Lib. iii., chap, xii., sec. 12. 



MÂECION. 235 

with Judaism, came to cut the Scriptures in two, rejecting 
this and retrenching that, as if nothing was genuine which 
they had not subjected to their retrenchment." 

And it is well to remark again that Marcion avowed pub- 
licly that he " had removed certain passages from the original 
Scriptures of Christ." TertuUian ^ says, " Thou hast thyself 
avowed it in a certain letter, but by what authority ? Who 
art thou ? A prophet ? Then prophesy. An apostle ? Then 
preach publicly. An apostolical man ? Then think like the . 
apostles. A simple Christian ? Then believe what is given 
us. But if thou art none of these, I tell thee by good right, 
dier 

All these reproaches of the Fathers show us with what 
jealousy the text of our holy Books was then guarded. 

In the mean time, we may say in passing, it must not be 
imagined that this mutilating of which Marcion and the Mar- 
cionites were guilty, was an attempt often repeated. It was, 
on the contrary, a very rare scandal, so much horror did it 
excite ; and Marcion has remained so famous in history from 
this excess of audacity, that Origen, a century after him, re- 
viewing ^ the history of the church, could say, " I know none 
who have cut and mutilated (ixeraxapâ-iavras) the Gospel, 
except the followers of Marcion and Valentinus ; perhaps 
too, those of Lucian." And again, even as to Valentinus, 
have we not heard TertuUian assure us that that heretic em- 
ployed " a complete Instrument " ? So that it was only by 
gross perversions, and not by material alterations that he did 
violence to the Scriptures. 

Let us now pause to examine more closely the evidence 
of the testimony which, from this first quarter of the second 
century, Marcion renders to the canon. And, to that end, 
transporting ourselves to Rome in A. D. 128, only twenty-five 
years after the death of John, let us seat ourselves on the 
threshold of that fatal school of philosophy where the young 

1 De Carne Christi, cap. 2. 

2 In his treatise against Celsus, cap. ii. 27. 



236 THE CANON. 

professor of Sinope was announcing his gnosis. Or rather, 
let us go then eleven years later, when, in the same city, the 
martyr Justin, daring to address his first Apology to the Em- 
peror, the Senate and the people of Home («at ST^fua Travrl 
'PwfjuiCtûv), said to them, " How many impious persons are 
there whom none of you thinks of persecuting, and 'especially 
that Marcion of the Euxine Sea,^ who is even now engaged 
in teaching his followers to pronounce blasphemies against 
God the Creator, and even to deny him, pretending that 
there is another, superior to Him ? " Let us go, we say, to 
the door of this school where the persecutors of the Chris- 
tians abstain from interfering with him, and we shall then ob- 
tain all the proofs necessary as to the existence of the canon. 
" Had the Christian church," we have been asked, " already 
in these first years of the second century her collection of the 
holy Scriptures ? " Who can make this inquiry after having 
visited. Marcion and his school ? Who will suppose that the 
church had not her collection when this man, violently sepa- 
rated from her, had his ? Hc' who showed himself in so 
many ways outrageous toward the Scriptures, who maintained 
such revolting doctrines concerning the God Creator, the Old 
Testament, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, while calling 
himself a Christian philosopher, he, Marcion, could have had 
his canon well defined, composed of one gospel and ten epis- 
tles, whilst the Christian church who reproached him so se- 
verely for not accepting the other books, had not her canon ! 
And we shall hear modern doctors telling us in their " Intror 
ductions," that "the canon published by Marcion is the first 
of which ecclesiastical literature has left us any monument ! " 
As if the complaints of the Fathers who were indignant at 
his mutilations were not monuments of the complete canon 
of the cotemporary church, as much as of the mutilated 
canon of this heretic ! 



1 Ap. i. 26. Mcucpiava ôé nva JLovrucbv, dç KAI NTN ETI iari ôiââa- 
KUV Toiiç KEV&oyhiovç. 



MARCION. 237 

The better to appreciate this testimony, we must carefully 
observe the following considerations : — . 

1. It can be proved by numerous quotations from Tertul- 
lian and Irenaeus that Marcion was well acquainted with both 
-the collection of the four gospels and the three Pauline epis- 
tles excluded from his canon. Kirchhofer has done this in 
his " Collection of Sources." 

2. Marcion never disputed the authenticity of the nine 
books excluded from his collection. On the contrary, not 
only did he know their existence, but he knew the authority 
which they possessed in the church ; and moreover he did 
not deny or question that they should be ascribed to the au- 
thors whose names they bore. Only he pretended that they 
were tinctured with Judaism, and he " labored to depreciate 
their authors that he might secure to his mutilated gospel the 
credit of which he deprived them." Tertullian says, (Con- 
nititur ad destruendum statum eorum Evangeliorum quae pro- 
priè et sub Apostoloruin ^ nomine' eduntur, vel etiam apostoli- 
corurri ; ^ etc.) This is for us in this respect a very important 
testimony. 

3. Marcion and the Marcionites* themselves avowed that 
they were aiming to mutilate the ancient Scriptures (tot origi- 
nalia instrumenta Christi) received before them in the church. 
Irenaeus has already said to us, " The Marcionites, pretending 
to be. more sincere and wise than the apostles, aimed to mu- 
tilate the Scriptures, ejecting some portions and reducing 
others." Thus they render testimony again to the canon of 
the church both by speaking ill of it, and by mutilating it. 
We have also heaud Tertullian oppose the canon of Marcion 
to the canon of the church (auferendo quas voluit de Nostri 
Instrumenli integritate.) * 

4. We hear all his adversaries (Tertullian, Irenasus, Ori- 

1 The gospels of Matthew and John were so designated by him. 

2 He is speaking then of Mark. 
* Iren. Hœres. iii. 12. 

. * Adv. Marcion, v. 13. 



238 THE CANON. 

gen, Epiphanius) reproach him, not with introducing new 
texts, but with ahering those existing before his day. 

5. Among the reproaches made against him, is one, not 
grave, yet important, as it shows us the great abundance of 
study already bestowed upon the collection of Scriptures for 
a long time in all the churches, and what place it had taken 
as an organic whole in the customs of the people of God. 
We have seen that Marcion,^ while preserving the thirteen 
epistles which the entire church attributed to Paul, had seen 
fit, contrary to universal usage, to change their order, and 
how this change is censured both by Tertullian in his fifth 
book against Marcion, and by Epiphanius in his forty-second 
chapter against heresies. How remarkable it is that only 
twenty-five years after the death of the disciple whom Jesus 
loved, this collection had become so familiar to all the 
churches of God, that they had already everywhere the 
habit of ranking the thirteen epistles of Paul and the four 
gospels in an invainable order ; * an order, we have else- 
where remarked, not at all according to the date of their 
compositions ! How can it be otherwise than that this ar- 
rangement of the holy Books must have prevailed universally 
and always, since Epiphanius in his reproaches ti'aces it back 
even to the days of the apostles. « Marcion," he says, 
"places in the second rank the epistle to the Philippians, 
while according to the apostle, it is in the sixth {irapà 8è 
Tw àn-oaroXfû eicrr].) He places Philemon ninth, while accord- 
ing to the apostle it is in the last ; the Thessalonians in the 
seventh, while the apostle places it in the eighth ; and as to 
the epistle to the Romans, he places it in the fourth rank, in 



1 We are speaking here only of the first canon. We will hereafter treat 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 

2 Tn the ancient Latin manuscript of Cambridge (Beza's) the four Gospels 
are ranged in this order: Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark. It seems that 
before Jerome's day that was the ancient order. Mr. Berger de Xivrey 
says, It is the only manuscript of a high antiquity which joins the Greek 
to the Latin translation. 



TATIAN. 239 

order that nothing should be left where it belonged, nothing 
should be done right." ^ 

Certainly this unanimity of the churches in universally 
ranking our holy Books in the same order, and that not chron- 
ological, in days so remote, is a very significant fact to show 
ns the place which the first canon all entire had already taken 
in the customs of the universal church. ' 

6. Finally, the indignation of all these Fathers at the at- 
tempts of Marcion against the Scriptures, and their very defi- 
nite reproaches of him on this account, attest to us with what 
sacred jealousy the text of our Scriptures was then watched 
over in the churches of God. 

But the testimony of Tatian will supplement that of Mar- 
cion. 

Tatian. 

Cave and the other ecclesiastical historians frequently com- 
plain of the uncertainty which pervades the chronology of 
all these heretics of the second century. Thus as to Tatian, 
whilst Epiphanius places him in the second year of Antoninus 
Pius, A. D. 149, the end of the long sojourn of this heretic in 
Rome, where he was engaged in founding a school of heresy, 
is placed by others twenty years later.'' For ourselves who 
are now ascending the years of the second century, we pre- 
fer, without attempting to settle the point, to place Tatian 
first after Marcion, because his history throws important light 
on that of the professor of Sinope. 

Like him he was skillful, learned, but haughty and impet- 
uous. Like him also he resided for a time in Eome ; and, 
after having seemed to belong to the church of God, violently 
broke from it and set himself in opposition to a part of the 
recognized canon ; but not against the same books. It is 
also in this respect that Tatian renders to our Scriptures a 
testimony which at once completes those of Marcion and of 

1 Hseres. xlii. p. 368. 

s Cave Scriptor. Eccles. Historia Litteraria. Vol. i. p. 75, fol. Basil. 



240 THE CAîfON. 

Justin Martyr. Born in Assyria of a pagan family, he at 
first ai'dently pursued philosophical stu'dies, until he went to 
Rome and met Justin, " that admirable man," as he himself 
styles him.^ From that moment he made profession of 
Christianity, and so attached himself to Justin that after his 
martyrdom he pretended to continue his school. But success 
soon inflated him, and Irenaeus says, "destroyed him." He 
threw himself into systems of error borrowed from the ori- 
ental philosophies ; and then returning to Mesopotamia, he 
became the head of the Encratites, — ascetics who united the 
vain imaginations of Valentinus to the repulsive theories of 
Marcion. 

We have sai^ that, in regard to the canons, Tatian com- 
pletes at once the testimony of Justin and that of Marcion. 
Of Justin, because he cites without hesitation the Scriptures 
of Paul and John, whilst the writings of the martyr now re- 
maining say little of them : — And of Marcion, because he 
attributes directly to Paul, the epistle to Titus, while Mar- 
cion, we know, rejected it. 

Besides that, in his "Address to the Greeks," Tatian 
makes evident allusions to the gospel of John and to his 
Apocalypse. And we learn also from Irenaeus,'^ as also from 
Jerome, that, to defend his heresies, he invoked the authority 
of Paul's epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians. 

But still farther, we have to cite from this pernicious man 
a literary fact still ûiore significant for the authority of the 
canon and more especially of the sacred collection of the 
four gospels. It is that, among " the great multitude of his 
works (infinita volumina)," says Jerome,* " the authors of the 
time frequently mention the important ' Harmony of the 
four Gospels,' " * which he himself calls, " The Composed of 

1 In his Address to the Greeks, p. 18, 19. 

2 Hseres. i. 28. See, too, Euseb. H. E. iv. 29. Tatian, Orat. ad Grsec. 
cap. 42, i. 35, 1819. 

8 De Scriptor. cap. 29. 

* Epiphanius speaks expressly of (he four Gospels (Hseres. xlvi. 1). 



VALENTmUS AND THE TALENTINIANS. 241 

Four (to Am Tctro-apcov)." Easebius ^ says, "it was a Col- 
lection, and a certain Combination of the Gospels." 

See then already so soon after the death of John, the collec- 
tion of the four gospels acknowledged, studied, and laboriously 
collated by a dangerous heretic who denied, among so many 
other truths of our faith, the humanity of our Saviour and 
the reality of his death ! "Without doubt Tatian had made 
some wicked retrenchments from this collection; but these 
alterations do not appear at the first reading ; and neither 
Eusebius nor Theodoret (who speaks of them) gives us to 
understand that he had introduced into it any fragment of an 
apocryphal gospel. His book, even in t^.e days of Eusebius, 
was " still used by certain persons who were not aware of the 
alterations." Epiphanius tells us expressly that it "was 
composed of the four Gospels," and that many called it " The 
Gospel according to the Hebrews." In fine, Theodoret,' 
nearly a century after Epiphanius, in telling us that Tatian 
had rejected from it the genealogy of the Saviour, and the 
passages indicating his descent from David according to the 
flesh, relates that his book was still current in his time in 
certain places. He says, "I myself found more than two 
hundred copies of it, in our churches (in Syria), -which had 
received them with respect and which used them, unconscious 
of the evil in them ; but having gathered them all, I took 
them away to replace them by the gospels of the four Evan- 
gelists." 

This testimony of Tatian has great value ; but we shall go 
yet farther back in the century^ to reach Valentinus and the 
six different sects which bore his name. 



Valentinus and the Valenttmans. 

The Valentinians, as appears from all the Fathers who 

have described them, were among the most powerful and the 

most pernicious of the gnostic sects. Valentinus, bom in 

1 H. E. iv. 29. 2 Hseres. Fab. i. 20. 

21 



242 THE CANON. 

Egypt, began his public life in teaching the Platonic philoso- 
phy; but from thence, like so many other doctors of that 
time, went to establish the seat of his labors in Eome, many 
years before Justin Martyr, on the one hand, and Marcion 
and Tatian on the Qther, commenced their labors there. As 
Yalentinus preceded these, his testimony should be placed 
nearer the days of the apostles ; for he was already known 
A. D. 120. He called himself the disciple of a friend of 
Paul ; and Irenaeus ^ states that he went to Rome during the 
episcopate of Hyginus, and that he lived there until the time 
of Anicet. He was, therefore, in that capital when Polycarp 
came there on a mission in behalf of the eastern churches, 
and he may have had Marcion among his hearers. His les- 
sons attracted a crowd ; a great number of admirers attached 
themselves to him, because he excelled in talent, and was a 
powerful speaker. " He had even aspired to the episcopate," 
TertuUian ^ says ; and it is thought that in consequence of 
his " ambitious hopes being disappointed he sepai'ated from 
the true church." In the mean time his impieties did not 
fully break out until after his retreat to the Isle of Cyprus. 
His principal disciples, Ptolemy, Leander, Heracleon, Mark, 
and others, founded many distinct sects, held a prominent 
place in their age, and were in general better known than 
Valentinus himself. It is with the exposition of these strange 
Valentinian systems that Irenaeus opens his great book of the 
Heresies. TertuUian combats them equally in his book " De 
Praescriptione Haereticorum ; " Clement, in his Stromata ; as 
also afterward Origen, Hippolytus, and others. 

Now it is a fact of the greatest importance in respect to 
the first canon, that already in these remote days, Valentinus 
and his disciples, notwithstanding their most audacious her- 
esies and their most violent hatred of the churches of God, 
openly recognized the entire collection of the Scriptures then 
received. Valentinus made War on them only through the 
oriental fantasies of his imagination and by the audacity with 
1 Hseres. iii. i, 3. 2 Contra Valent., cap. îv. : 



VALENTINUS .^ISft) THE VAT.ENTmiAJJTS. 243 

which he ventured to found on his wild interpretations tha 
most pernicious systems of error. Neither he nor his fol- 
lowers directly rejected any of the Scriptures ; he had the 
same canon of the New Testament as the cotemporary church. 
Tertullian says, " Valentinus appears to have used a com- 
plete collection ; but, by his violent interpretations of the 
words, he retrenched and added more than even Marcion did 
in a more open manner, ax in hand ; the one perverting the 
text by his interpretations, the other mutilating it." The 
fragments which the Fathers have transmitted to us of these 
writings show them using the Scriptures just as the Chris- 
tians of their epoch did. ' When he quotes the epistle to the 
Ephesians, he calls it " the Scripture ; " and, in these very 
fragments he clearly appeals to the gospels of Matthew, Luke, 
and John, to the epistles to the Romans, and Corinthians,* 
and also, though less manifestly, to the epistle to the Hebrews 
and John's first epistle. "When Irenaeus^ reproaches the 
Valentinians with having dared to entitle a certain book of 
theirs " Gospel of Truth," he says, " only a short time ago," 
and in complete disagreement with the gospels of the apos- 
tles, it was on their part only a gnostic commentary recently 
published to expose their errors, without their having ceased 
notwithstanding, to recognize with the church universal the 
four canonical gospels. 

We shall not here embarrass ourselves with their absurd 
doctrines ; we refer only to their historical testimony ; and 
this testimony appears to us so much the more significant as 
they abandoned themselves to the most crude fancies con- 
cerning their Pleroma, their thirty ^ons, their ten Decades, 
and their Female Œon or .the Mother Achamoth. We can 
see the wUd fantasies of this Christianized paganism, seriously 

1 De Prsescript. Hieret. cap. 38. Tertullian opposes the old instrument to 
the new. This term Instrumentum, Quintilian applies to the documents 
of a law suit; and in Suetonius, Instrumentum Imperii is an " Inventory or 
Table of the Empire." 

2 Adv. Hseres. iii. 11, 9. s Hseres., Lib. i. cap. 3. 



244 THE CANON. 

exposed and refuted in the great work of Irenaeus, as also in 
other Fathers. We observe here these very men, in defend- 
ing their errors, quoting almost every book of the canon, thus 
attesting without such intention, the authority of our Scrip- 
tures in all the cotenaporary church. If, for example, we 
take the fragments quoted by Irenaeus, we see them adduce 
the four gospels (while strongly preferring that of John) 
and frequently using Paul's epistles, especially those to the 
Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. « By means 
of an unfair exegesis (paBiovpyovvrcs ras è^rjyqcreLs) " says 
this Father,^ "they draw their demonstrations (àîroSet^eis) 
from the evangelical Scriptures (four gospels) and the apos- 
tolical epistles." * 

But still further, and, in spite of our desire to abridge, we 
must quote, among other Valehtinians, the leaders of two of 
their most illustrious sects, Heracleon and Ptolemy, both of 
the Western School. 



Heracleon and Ptolemy. 

These two heretical teachers must be regarded as anterior 
to Valentinus, although they have been classed generally 
among the Valentinians, from the resemblance of their errors 
to his. 

Heracleon is described by Clement of Alexandria,^ as the 
most eminent teacher (SoKifMOTaroc) of the Valentinian school ; 
but what makes him most remarkable to us, is that he was 
the earliest commentator of the New Testament in the West 
known to us. 

From the fact that his heresies were already notorious in 
Sicily in the time of Pope Alexander (a. D. 109 to 116), 
that is, from six to thirteen years after the death of John, we 
may judge of the antiquity of the commentaries of Heracleon. 
And this we know, because it was at the express request of 
the council of Sicilian bishops, that this bishop composed 
1 Haeres., Lib. i. cap. 3. 2 Stromata, I. iv. 9. 



HERACLEON AND PTOLEMY. 245 

against Heracleon a book abounding in scriptural quotations.^ 
The wrhin^gs of this heretic must then have been published, 
at farthest, no later than ten years after John's death, if not 
much earlier. 

"We can not now know exactly what books of the New 
Testament were expounded by Heracleon. But we learn 
from Origen that he had explained the whole book of John ; ^ 
and from Clement of Alexandria, that of Luke." There are 
also many fragments of his writings in the Fathers ; and 
from these we learn tliat he quoted Matthew; also many 
epistles of Paul with this formula : " The Apostle saith," 
particularly when he quotes from Eomans, Corinthians, and 
Timothy. * 

The reader must here notice how valuable are these com- 
mentaries on the New Testament of that epoch, as we shall 
presently show. What must have been the estimate of the 
Scriptures of. the New Testament by the church, when even 
heretics felt compelled to write commentaries upon thpm ! 
But still farther ; we can see in the very character of this 
commentary of Heracleon, how completely the church was 
persuaded of the plenary inspiration of our Sacred Books, 
extending to their very words. "We see this author, espe- 
cially in regard to the pastoral epistles, deeming significant 
the slightest variation in the words of the apostle.^ Surely, 
nothing better asserts the cotemporary faith in the authen- 
ticity and authority of our Scriptures than the spectacle of 
these miserable men obliged already, in order to obtain any 
credit, to quote them and to distort them as the books on 
which the faith of all the churches of God was founded. 
Would they ever have thought of doing so, unless the books 
had long had an authority fully established ? 

1 Cave, Hist. Litt. p. 47, Basle, 1741. 

2 This Father quotes him at great length, and more than forty times in 
his own commentary on John. Grabe has collected the fragments of Herac- 
leon on this gospel, Spicilegium, ii. 85-117. 

* Strom, iv. 9. 

* See him on 2 Tim. ii. 23. Clement of Alexandria; Strom, iv., 1. c 

21* 



246 THE CÂJISOS. 

Ptolemy, whom the Falters rank among the Italian as 
distinguished from the oriental gnostics is placed by Ter- 
tullian ^ before Heracleon. Irenaeus,** who attempts to refute 
him, says that he gave to the gnostic errors their most seduc- 
tive forms ; and Epiphanius describes him more completely, 
in speaking of a letter addressed to a lady among his disciples, 
named Flora. There you hear him quote the gospel of 
Matthew in favor of his heresies, and the prologue of John's 
gospel, with passages from Komans, Corinthians and Ephe- 
sians. Passages from the four gospels and the Romans, 
Corinthians, Galatians, and Colossians may also be found in 
the fragments preserved by Irenaeus.^ 

But we may ascend stillhigher; to Basilides and his son 
Isidore, to Carpocrates and the Ebionites. 

Badlides and his son Isidore. 

In our upward march through the ranks of heretics in the 
second century, it is often the most difficult task to discover 
their respective ages. Yet it appears sufficiently evident 
that Basilides preceded Cerdo and Heracleon. "He was the 
leader of a gnostic sect of the Oriental School ; and his son, 
equally famous, after him, had many disciples. 

Basilides had already become famous, in Egypt about A. D. 
112 ;* and he is said to have died about the end of Adrian's 
reign. He claimed for his teacher a companion of Peter 
(Glaucion, his interpreter). A disciple of Menander, the lat- 
ter a disciple of Simon the magician, Basilides was among 
the first gnostics like one of the enfans perdus who run 
ahead of the standard. He had- gone from Syria to Persia, 
\yhere he had circulated, as the origin of evil, the very 
errors which Manes or Manicheus afterward propagated; 

1 Adv. Valent. 4. 2 Hseres. xxxir. 

8 Adv. Hœres. i. 1, and 8; \i. 35. 

* See Cave's Lit. Hist, of the Fathers, p. 49, (edition already cited.) 
Clement of Alex. Stromat. i. 7. 



BASILroES AND HIS SON ISmORE. 247 

and subsequently returned to Egypt, to open a school. He 
sought to recommend his pernicious doctrines by an eloquence 
inflated with all the pomp of language. According to him, 
Christ did not clothe himself in our flesh, and suffered only 
in appearance. He reckoned 365 heavens whose birth he 
described ; placing Abraxas above all, a mystical power, the 
letters of whose name in Greek form the number 365, and 
which he used for magical purposes. 

Clement, TertuUian, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, who 
all speak of this pernicious man, have preserved the frag- 
ments of his works ; and Eusebius ^ relates that Agrippa 
Castor; a very skillful and celebrated writer of this epoch, 
had powerfully refuted him. 

Now, all these testimonies show us first, that Basilides was 
in the East what Heracleon had been among the Occidentals 
" the earliest known commentator of the New Testament," 
for he had, Eusebius declares, " composed twenty-four books 
of commentaries (k^yffrjriKwv) on the Gospel." Thus we 
see, near the days of John, the gospel publicly commented 
on in the East as in the West. Besides that, Clement of 
Alexandria (Strom. Lib. iii.) informs us that his followers 
sustained their doctrines of marriage by the passages in Mat- 
thew (xix. 11, 12) and 1st Corinthians (viii. 9,) and some 
other errors by Kom. vii. 7; "I had not known sin but by 
the law." Basilides too, Clement says,'^ cited in his Exe- 
getics a beautiful passage from 1st Peter, iv. 14—16 ; and we 
hear Origen ^ reproaching him with wishing to found his doc- 
trine of metempsychosis by this word of Paul to the Romans : 
" I was alive without the law once, (that is, before I was in 
this human body)." 

Thus we see again both the gospels and the epistles of 
Peter and Paul cited at the beginning of the second century 
by this enemy of God and the church. 

1 Hist. Eccl. iv. 7. 

2 Lib. iv. opp. p. 504. Paris, 1689. 

8 Ep. ad Kom. cap. 5, (opp. torn. iv. p. 549, edit. Bened.) 



248 THE CAISTON". 

We might stîll pursue this review of the earliest heretics 
and go back even as far as Cerinthus, or Menander, or Simon 
the Magician to hear new testimonies. We would cite Car- 
pocrates and his son Epiphanius older than Basilides, and 
who, in practising magic and professing metempsychosis did 
not hesitate to sustain their outrageous morals by quotations 
from Luke (xii. 52), from Matthew (v. 25), from first Timo- 
thy (vi. 20), second Timothy (i. 14), and, fi*om first John (v. 
19).^ We might adduce also the still older sect of the Ebio- 
nites, originating during the life of the apostles, and strongly 
judaizing, denying the divinity of Christ, and setting them- 
selves against Paul and Luke. Yet even they never objected 
to the authenticity of Paul's epistles, or the Acts, or the gos- 
pels of Mark, Luke, or John, although they substituted for 
Matthew's gospel a mutilated copy which they called " the 
Gfospel of the Ebionites." * But we hasten to notice those 
who are called apostolical Fathers because they had seen the 
apostles of the Lord. 



SECTION X. 

TESTIMONY OP THE APOSTOLICAI. FATHERS. 

Thdr limited Number and their Value. 

It was in the time of these Fathers that the church, sev- 
ered from its living prophets, had to commence her march 
toward the kingdom of heaven solely by the light of the 
written Word. Their testimony, as we have it, is calculated 
to give us great satisfaction, but we must not forget how few 
they were. 

1 See Irenaeus, Hœres. î. 25. Tertullian, De Praescript., cap. 25. Origen 
on Genesis, cap. 1. Kirchhofer's Quellensammlung, p. 419, 420. 

2 Eusebius, H. E. iii. 27. The reader wishing to pursue this subject far- 
ther may consult Bunsen's Hippolytus, Kirchhofer's Quellensammlung, etc. 
and the recent work of Mr. Westcott, " On the Canon," pp. 301-325. Cam- 
bridge, 1855. 



THEIR NUMBER AND VALUE. 249 

Although the name " apostolical Father," may belong to 
men who, like Ignatius and Poljcarp, while having person- 
ally known some of the apostles, yet continued to live to the 
middle of the second century, they are, we repeat, very few ; 
and their authentic books taken together, form a very small 
volume, containing epistles alone, and these very short. 
There are but eight, or as some say, twelve. Beginning 
with the earliest, they are ; one epistle of Clement, second 
bishop of Rome, to the church in Corinth ; one of Polycarp, 
bishop of Smyrna, to the church of Philippi ; one of the 
same church of Smyrna relating the martyrdom of Polycarp ; 
three of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to Polycarp, the churches 
of Ephesus and Rome ; ^ one on the martyrdom of Ignatius ; 
and finally, one to Diognetus, author and date unknown, al- 
though its authenticity is universally acknowledged.^ 

We do not add the Shepherd of Hermas, because its date, 
now known by the Fragment of Muratori,^ is too recent for 
us to give him place among the Apostolical Fathers. We 
will add yet other books which, in our days, almost all the 
learned agree to place in the rank of forged books ; the sec- 
ond letter ascribed to Clement, his pretended Homilies, and 
the pretended Epistle of Barnabas.* 

1 If we have remarked that others carry the writings of the apostolical 
Fathers to the numher of twelve rather than eight, it is that they add to 
them four other letters of Ignatius in our day very much suspected. 

2 At least, to chap. xi. (Hefele, Patrum Apostol. Opera, Tubing. 1847. 
Proleg.) 

8 Hermas, the fragment says, was brother to the Roman bishop, Pius I. 

* For rejecting this, we have the following reasons, which may be found 
at greater length, in Hefele (Patrum Apost. Proleg., p. xiv. Tubing. 1847.) 
1. We have only a part of his letter, in Latin. 2. The real Barnabas must 
have died before A. t>. 60 or 62 ; whilst it is obvious, irom the xvith chapter 
of this letter that it was written after the destruction of Jerusalem. 3. If 
this letter had been regarded as authentic by the early Christians, they 
would have placed it in the canon, because Barnabas was a prophet (Acts, 
xiii. 1.) 4. It presents such an excess of words, and so many of these im- 
proper, that we can not attribute it to the real Barnabas (the apostles, for 
example, are there called {mèp iraaav ajiapriav avofiUTepot). 5. We find 
in chapter x. ridiculous sentences and indecent details, which we can 



250 TSE CÂSON. 

Modem rationalism has made strenuous efibrts to weaken 
the testimony of these Fathers. 

It has in the first place objected the numerical considera- 
tion, or, the more frequent quotations from the Old Testament 
than from the New ; whence it would appear, they say, that 
our canon was either unknown to thera, or disi-egarded by 
them. But this fact alleged by the rationalists has no exist- 
ence. If you except Clement of Home, writing very near 
the time of Paul's martyrdom, and consequently disposed (as 
the apostles had been) to cite the Old Testament more fre- 
quently than to recall the cotemporary Scriptures, you will 
find that the apostolical Fathers have, on the contrary, made 
a very frequent use of the New Testament. And even this 
feature which is used as an objection, appears so rarely, that 
we are more frequently struck with just the contrary. You 
may find in Polycarp, for example, nearly fifty quotations of 
the New Testament for one of Moses and the prophets ; 
whilst, in the epistle to Diognetus, you shall be even shocked 
at the apparently affected avoiding of the Old Testament by 
the author.^ 

A second objection of rationalism is the want of precision 
in those passages in which the Fathers quote the New Tes- 

Btill less attribute to this prophet. 6. The real Barnabas, -who had fre- 
quently traversed Asia Minor, and sojourned in Syria, abundantly knew 
that all which is said in chapter ix. about the universal circumcision of the 
idolatrous priests and of all the Syrians was false. 7. The puerile allego- 
ries which fill the vth chapter and the six which follow it, are by a very 
diiferent man from him whose eloquence led the apostles to call him 
nW^33 "12. 8. It is impossible that the real Barnabas, who was a 
Lévite, and had been a resident of Jerusalem, had written, concerning the 
Jewish rites, the falsehoods which we find in the viith and viiith chapters. 
9. In fine, this piece betrays an anti-judaism contrary to the teachings of 
the Scriptures on circumcision (chap, ix.), on the Sabbath (chap, xv.), on 
the economy of the Old Testament which it pretends ceased, not at the 
promulgation of the gospel, but when Moses broke the tables of the law 
(chapters iv. and xiv). All this savors of the gnosticism and the foolish 
wisdom of the second century. 

1 Semisch. Justin der Martyrer, Breslau, 1840, tom. i. p. 180. Hefele^ 
Patr. Apos. Proleg. p. 77. 



THEIR NUMBER AND VALUE. 251 

tament. It says, they do not quote it either directly or cor- 
rectly ; and in almost every case of correct quotation it is 
without naming the author quoted ; which should lead us to 
believe, that these Fathers had not the same books as ours 
before them. But this second objection is no more valid than 
the first ; for the examples which we shall produce serve to 
show that, on the contrary, the language of these Fathers 
most frequently discloses authors full of our Scriptures, and 
readers already perfectly familiar with the holy Word. The 
apostolical Fathers pour out and expand the sentences of our 
holy Books in their own languages ; they introduce them 
freely and from memory without a literal exactness; they 
often blend many passages in one continuous sentence ; they 
paraphrase them, the better to adapt them to their own 
thought; and you see them persuaded that their readers 
will comprehend them by a hint, and will recognize the 
source from which they were derived. Is it not thus that the 
men of our day most familiar with the Scriptures speak when 
they are addressing others who derive their nourishment 
from the same bread ? A glance at their letters written in 
circumstances analogous to those of the apostolical Fathers 
will reveal the striking resemblance of both in this respect. 
In fact, there is a superiority on the part of the Fathers in 
this point of view; for we must remember that the only 
writings of these men of God remaining to us are pastoral 
epistles, composed, not to dogmatize, but to exhort, console, 
and relate examples of the martyrs, by which to encourage 
their brethren. 

Such were, for example, the letters of the great Calvin, 
the man of modern times who has most honored the Scrip- 
tures. Take his two hundred and seventy-two French let- 
ters, and compare. This beautiful collection, recently edited 
by Julius Bonnet, has vividly struck us by its resemblance 
to the letters of the apostolical Fathers, in its mode of quot- 
ing the New Testament. We had the first volume before us, 
in writing these lines, and while admiring it we were struck 



252 THE CANON. 

with the fact that the reformer himself quoted the New Tes- 
tament less frequently in his letters than the Fathers did in 
theirs. 

We should not hesitate even to aflSrm that the very rea- 
soning of the German rationalists from the works of Poly- 
carp, Ignatius, and Clement would legitimately show from 
Calvin's letters that there was no canon of Scriptures in the 
sixteenth century corresponding to ours. In the Latin text 
of Hefele, these eight letters occupy eighty-seven octavo 
pages ; ^ whilst Calvin's two volumes contain more than a 
thousand pages. But suppose that we had nothing of the 
great Reformer besides his French letters, certainly the fu- 
ture critics would then have a much more solid foundation 
for doubts as to the canon of Calvin, by taking any eighty- 
seven consecutive pages of these two volumes, than modei'n 
critics have for their doubts concerning the canon of the 
Fathers. Could Calvin, they might ask, have used the same 
gospels or epistles with us ? And in these gospels or epis- 
tles, did he find the same text as we have ? In fact, in his 
French letters, which are parenetic and pastoral, (as those 
of Polycàrp, Clement, or Ignatius), he does not cite the New 
Testament even as frequently as they. Undoubtedly the 
spirit of his correspondence is wholly penetrated with them ; 
but he does not quote them textually ;• it is as in their case, 
almost always from memory ; it is, more or less, by para- 
phrase ; it is by seizing their prominent feature just so far as 
it is adapted to their purposes, without regard to terms ; it is 
rarely by naming the author, and, just like the Fathers, by 
vaguely indicating its place in the Scriptures. Take for in- 
stance, his touching letter to Madame de Cany on the death 
of Madame de Normandie (tom. i. p. 295), a letter almost as 
long as that of Polycarp to the Philippians, and compare the 
two. It contains but this single passage from the New Tes- 

1 That of Clement, at most 35 pages (leaving out the notes); the three 
of Ignatius, 18; that of his martyrdom, 5; that of Polycarp, 7; that of his 
martyrdom, 11; and that to Diognetus, 11. 



THEIR NUMBER AND VALUE. 253 

tament, and with a very vague reference ; " Paul, treating of 
charity, does not forget that ' we must weep with them who 
weep.' " Take again his four admirable letters to the " Stu- 
dents of Lausanne, martyrs at Lyons," and that to " the mar- 
tyr Dimonet." In the latter (p. 367), he quotes only two 
brief passages, without mentioning either the place or author. 
In the first to the martyrs of Lyons, who had consulted him 
on points of doctrine (vows, celibacy, monastic poverty, the 
nature of the glorified body), he expressly cites a passage 
from Matthew, two from Paul, and one from the Apocalypse 
but in the second (p. 371), he quotes none of them, unless 
it be in these vague terms, " Remember this sentence that 
He who dwells in us is stronger than the world." In the 
third (p. 382), none ; although the whole letter, in its five 
pages, is so. penetrated with a heavenly unction. In the 
fourth, one single short passage j " I know in whom I have 
believed." And again, how does he quote ? It is without 
mentioning either Paul or his epistle ; and even by para- 
phrasing. "You may say with this valiant champion of 
Jesus Christ, ' I know from whom I hold my faith.' " Eea- 
son then on Calvin after the fashion of the German ration- 
alists when they speak of Clement or Ignatius. " What ! " 
you may well say, " only one quotation from the entire New 
Testament in a long letter written ^Jby the greatest reformer 
of the sixteenth century to young martyrs in, the depth of 
their dungeon! Calvin then had not our Bible ! Nor does 
anything show that, in this short phrase, he intended to quote 
Second Timothy, or at least, if he intended to, he had not 
the same Greek text as we, since we do not find in him an 
exact translation of Paul's words." But, enough. "We are 
all fully aware that this mode of quoting, so far from showing 
that the canon was not then in existence, on the contrary, 
signalizes a period when everywhere scattered, read in all 
the assemblies and familiar to the small as well as the great, 
our Scriptures were in the memory of all and recognized 
by a mei'e allusion. Why not reason on the letters of 



254 THE CANON. 

Clement, of Ignatius, or Polycarp as we all do on those of 
Calvin? 

Epistle to Diognetiis. 

The name of the apostolical personage who has furnished 
us this eloquent letter remains unknown, and all we know of 
Diognetus is, that he was a pagan of distinction. Most of 
the learned ^ ha.ve for a long time attributed this letter to 
Justin Martyr ; but, besides that this Father was too young 
to have been what the writer says he was, a hearer of the 
apostles, the manifest superiority of the style forbids us to 
ascribe it to Justin, while its doctrines, excessively anti-judaic, 
are still less his. Others, on the contrary, attribute it to 
Clemens Romanus, and others to ApoUos.^ It is, without 
doubt, older than Justin ; but it is also later than these Fa- 
thers ; and we rather think with Hefele, that the allusions 
of the viith chapter to great cotemporary persecutions and 
to a rapid increase of the church, assign him his place tow- 
ard the end of Trajan's reign (a. d. 117), or the beginning 
of Adrian's (133). 

Now, if we examine this remarkable document, we shall 
soon recognize in the author a zealous disciple of Jesus. He 
is indeed addressing a man who is a stranger to the New 
Testament, but we feel that he himself is wholly penetrated 
with its spirit, and that he is living also in the midst of a peo- 
ple who are nourished like him, with this celestial manna. 

Whilst he reminds Diognetus of the superstitious practices 
of the Jews, given up to the observance of months and days 
and seasons (irapaT-qiyqa-iv Kaipwv), you see him borrowing the 
language of Paul (Gal. iv. 10.) In the vth chapter, in which 
he is describing the life of Christians, you find paraphrases 
of the epistles to the Corinthians and Philippians.' " They 

1 Cave, Teutzel, Fabricius, etc. 

2 Lumper, De Vita Patrum, torn. i. p. 159. (See MoUer, Patrologie, 
165,) and Gallandi, (see Hefele, 79.) 

8 2 Cor. vi. 8-10; x. 3, and also Phil. iii. 18-20. 1 Cor. iv. 12. It is es- 



EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS. 255 

are in the flesh," he says, "without living in the flesh ; they 
are upon the earth, but citizens of heaven ; . . . loving all 
men, but persecuted of all ; regarded as unknown, and yet 
condemned ; put to death, and yet restored to life ; regarded 
as beggars, and yet enriching many; deprived of all and 
abounding in all ; covered with opprobrium and gloi'ified in 
their very reproaches ; calumniated and justified ; cursed and 
blessing, . . " etc. 

In the xith chapter, where he is speaking of the commun- 
ion of Christ, and of his benefits bestowed on docile souls who 
abide in "the limits traced by faith and indicated by the 
Fathers," he adds : " Then the fear of the Law is exalted, 
the grace of the Prophets is known, the faith of the Gospels 
is confirmed, the instruction" of the apostles (TrapaSocrts) is 
preserved, the grace of the gospel triumphs and bounds with 
joy (a-KifyrS.)." 

In the ixth chapter, where he explains the sending of the 
Son of God, " his goodness (xprjcrroTTjTo) (Rom. ii. 4 ; xi. 22 ; 
Titus, iii. 4,) his power and his exceeding love to men (inrep- 
fiaXXovarj? <f>iXav6pwTrCas), (Titus, iii. 4), he says, " He him- 
self took our sins, he himself delivered his own Son to be a 
ransom in our stead {Xvrpov virèp ruxtàv) the just for the un- 
just, the incorruptible for the corruptible. . . For by what 
could our sins be covered but by his justice ? In whom else 
but the only Son of God could we be justified ; we unholy 
and impious ? O sweet exchange, O inscrutable dispensation, 
O blessing surpassing all expectation, that, on the one hand, 
the iniquity of many should be swallowed up in one single 
righteous being ; and that, on the other, by the righteousness 
-of one alone, (BcKaLoavvT] Se évoç), he justifies many ungodly 
(ttoAAoiis dvofiovs SiKaiway]) ! (Rom. v. 12—21.) 

And again, in his xiith chapter, having shown that, as in 
the paradise of God so in the believer's soul " the tree of 
knowledge should never be separated from the tree of life," 

pecially in the Greek that vre must see the relations of his letter to the 
epistles which we have just indicated. 



256 THE CANON. 

he says, " there is no security nor permanence for either life 
without • science, or science without true life; and therefore 
these two trees were planted near each other." 

And he adds these remarkable words, in which he appeals 
to the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, as a modern 
pastor might do in the midst bf our churches. "It is in 
well considering the force of this union of the two trees, that 
the;- apostle reproving science (ttjv yvwa-tv) which does 
not refer to the life according to the truth of the command- 
ment, HAS SAID, ' Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edify- 
eth;'" (17 yvwa-Ls ^va-ioi, -^ 8k àyâirq oÎKoBofJieî), the author 
here employing the very terms of Paul unchanged (1 Cor. 
viii. 1.) 

See then, at the beginning of the second century, the epis- 
tle to Diognetus which directly quotes the apostle Paul and 
his epistle to the Corinthians. The author, therefore, had 
the sacred collection before his eyes, or respectfully treasured 
in his memory ; and moreover, he wrote in the midst of a 
Christian people familiar with our Scriptures ; for he does 
not trouble himself to name him whom he calls " the apostle," 
nor the name of his letter. But why should he do it ? "Was 
it not sufficient to use these four words, in order that every 
one, then as now, might recognize the epistle, and place his 
fingers on the passage ? 

We now ascend to Polycarp, and begin with his martyr- 
dom. 



The Mncyclical Epistle of the Church of Smyrna. 

"We have here certainly one of the most beautiful monu-' 
ments of ecclesiastical antiquity, as it is one of the most au- 
thentic. "We shall also find it almost complete in Eusebius' 
history.^ At the request of a church in Phrygia the church 

iLib. iv. chap. 15. The Acts of this martyr are the oldest extant; but 
as to the precise time of the event, learned men disagree. Gave and Lard- 
ner placed it in A. i>. 147; Gieseler and Neander in 167. 



EPISTLE OF THE CHURCH OF SMTRlSrA. 257 

in Smyrna wrote to all the parishes in Chi-istendom this cir- 
cular letter (èy/cu/cXios). It will be found wholly penetrated 
with the spirit of the Scriptures. Scaliger, too, in his notes 
on Eusebius, assures us that nothing in ecclesiastical history 
has so profoundly affected him. He says, " It seems to me, 
after this reading, that I am another man." Let us hear the 
first chapter. 

" In everything which has happened, the Lord has designed 
to show us a martyr according, to the gospel (xarà to evay- 
yéXiov). Who will not admire the generosity, the patience, 
the love to God of these witnesses who looked only to the 
grace of Christ and who despised torture." They saw be- 
fore them the duty to flee from the fire that shall never be 
quenched, and the eyes of their hearts were lifted on high, 
contemplating the blessings reserved for those who persevere ; 
eternal blessings, " which ear hath not heard, nor eye seen, 
neither have entered into the heart of man." 

Here then we find from the very first page, not only the 
hights of apostolical faith, but the very words of Paul ad- 
dressed to the Corinthians (1 Cor. ii. 9.) 

And again (chap, iv.) recounting the sad relapse of a 
Phrygian named Quintus, who had presented himself for 
martyrdom, and then, at sight of the lions brought to devour 
him, lost courage, the epistle makes this reflection : " We 
could not then, O our brethren, praise those who give them- 
selves up, because that is not what the Gospel teaches," an 
evident allusion to Matt. x. 23. 

The narrative presents other quotations from the sacred 
Word, which for brevity's sake, we omit ; but when the ven- 
erable bishop, appearing before the proconsul in his ninety- 
fifth year, is commanded to swear by the fortune of Caesar, 
we hear him immediately appeal to our Scriptures (Rom. 
xiii. 1 ; Tit. iii. 1). « To you I must reply," he said, " for 
we have been taught to render as is proper, honor to the 
principalities and powers ordained of God ; honor, at least, 
which does not injure us (before^God)." 

22* 



258 THE CANON. 

We should also read his last prayer, in the sdvth chapter. 
We pass on, however, to his own letter. 



Tlie Epistle of Polycarp. 

This admirable document is possessed at the same time of 
an antiquity so near the apostles, of an authenticity so per- 
fectly attested, and of so rich an abundance of quotations 
from the Scriptures, that it would suffice to refer to it alone, 
to establish with evidence the universal use of the canon in 
the first years of the second century. 

As to its antiquity, the letter itself (chap, xiii.) shows that 
it was written very near the time of the martyrdom of Igna- 
tius (a. d. 107), that is, four or five years after John's death. 
We know that Polycarp was a disciple of the apostles, that, 
as Irenaeus says,'^ " he had lived in intimate intercourse with 
the men who had seen the Lord ; " and that even, as Jerome 
says,^ it was the apostle John who placed him over the church 
of Smyrna. 

And as to its authenticity, we have the most indisputable 
guarantees ; Irenaeus, who himself a disciple of Polycarp, 
could not be deceived about the letter, and who speaks of it 
with the highest eulogiums, both in his third book against the 
Heresies (chap, iii.), and in Eusebius' History (iv. 14) ; Eu- 
sebius, who speaks of it more than once, even in faithfully 
quoting from it (chaps, ix., and xiii.) many passages which 
are still found in it ; and Jerome in his turn,' who informs us 
how highly this epistle was esteemed by the primitive Chris- 
tians, and of the use still made of it in his time by many 
churches in their public readings. 

We then touch the apostolical period, and are confirmed 
by one of the most incontestable monuments of that period. 

Now it would be difficult to find, even in our day, a writ- 
ing more saturated with the Scriptures. Its Latin translation 
does not fill seven pages in the octavo text of Hefele ; and 
1 Contra Hœres. iii. 36. 2 Catal. Scrip. Eccl. cap. 17. » Ibid. 



THE EPISTLE OF POLYCARP. 259 

yet you can count in it between forty and fifty citations from 
the New Testament. All the epistle from one end to the 
other, reveals a piety which is baptized in the holy Word, 
and which thinks in apostolical language. 

"We will give an extract from his first chapter. He opens 
in the manner of the apostles : " Polycarp and the elders 
with him, to the church of God, which sojourns in Philippi ; 
may mercy and peace from the Almighty God, and the Lord 
Jesus Christ our Saviour be multiplied unto you. I rejoice 
exceedingly with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you have 
received the example of true charity, and that you have ac- 
companied, as was proper, those who have been loaded with 
chains, worthy of the saints, diadems of the elect of God, 
and of the Lord ; and that the strong root of your faith, al- 
ready renowned for so long a time (Philip, i. 5) abides even 
to this day, and bears fruits for Jesus Christ, who has not 
refused to confront death for our sins, whom God also has 
raised, breaking the bonds of Hades (ràs tiStvas tov aSov, 
Acts, ii. 24), and in whom, although you see him not, yet 
you believe, and believing, you rejoice with an inefiable and 
glorious joy (1 Pet. i. 8), with a joy, into which a great num- 
ber among you desire to enter, knowing that you are saved 
by grace, and not by works (Eph. ii. 8, 9), but by the will 
of God, through Jesus Christ." 

Behold then the cotemporary of the last years of the 
apostles who in so short a chapter, shows that he is filled 
with their writings, which overflow on every side. It is like 
a man, whose national accent shows itself in all he says. We 
have just heard him cite at once, without effort, without even 
naming them, three or four Scriptures of the New Testament 
and show his readers that there was imprinted upon his 
memory, as on theirs, the book of Acts, the epistle of Paul 
to the Ephesians, the epistle to the Philippians, the catholic 
epistle of Peter, which he expands, together with his own 
thoughts, in a continuous strain. And if such is his first 
chapter, such are also the other thirteen. 



260 THE CANON". 

The second begins with the words of Peter ; and though 
short, it witnesses still, (especially in the Greek,) that the 
author had before his eyes, the gospels of Luke, of Matthew, 
the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles of Paul, and the first 
of Peter. " Wherefore," he says, " having the loins girded 
(Sto àva$o}crd/x.evoL ras oo-^mç vfx^v, 1 Pet. i. 13,) serve God 
with fear (Ps. ii.' 11), leaving vain babbling (r^v Kevrjv {laraL- 
oXoytav, 1 Tim. i. 6), and the wanderings of the multitude ; 
believing in him who raised our Saviour Jesus Christ from 
the dead, and gave him glory, (1 Pet. i. 21), and made him 
sit at his right hand, him to whom all things celestial and 
terrestrial are subject, to whom all that breathes renders wor- 
ship, who comes as judge of the living and of the dead (Acts, 
xvii. 31) ; and whose blood God will require of those who do 
not believe on him. Now that God who raised him from the 
dead, will raise us likewise, if we walk in his commandments, 
' and if we love that which he loves, neither returning evil for 
evil, nor blow for blow (rj XoiSoptav àvrl XoiBoptaç, 1 Pet. iii. 9), 
nor cursing for cursing ; remembering that which the Saviour 
said, when he taught (Matt. vii. 1) ; Judge not that ye be 
not judged, forgive and it shall be forgiven you (Luke vi. 37 ; 
Matt. vi. 12, 14) ; be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy. 
"With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you 
again (Matt. vii. 2) ; and blessed are the poor, and those who 
suffer persecution; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" 
(Matt. v. 3, 11.) Certainly these two chapters should alone 
suffice to characterize, as to the canon, Polycarp, and his age ; 
but we prefer to cite also the third, because it is very short, 
and this holy bishop there makes a still more direct mention 
of Paul and his writings on the occasion of the inspired let- 
ter which they had received of him fifty years before. 

Chapter IIL " I wi-ite you these words concerning jus- 
tice, my brethren ; not that I desire to arrogate to myself any 
right, but because you have invited me to write ; for neither 
can I, nor any one like me attain to the wisdom (t^ o-o«^iot, 2 
Pet. iii. 15) of the glorious and blessed Paul, who, when he 



THE EPISTLE OF POLTCAEP. 261 

was among you, taught face to face, and with so great firm- 
"ness to that generation, the word of the truth ; and who also, 
when he was absent, wrote you some letters, by which if you 
study them, you will be edified in the faith which has been 
given to you. . . ." 

The fourth chapter, upon avarice, also begins with cita- 
-tions of texts from the first epistle of Timothy (vi. 10) and 
from the epistle to the Ephesians (vi. 11) ; the fifth, with a 
citation from the epistle to the Galatians (vi. 7) and some 
very plain allusions (in the Greek), to 1 Tim. iii. 8 ; to 2 
Tim. ii. 12 ; to Philip, i. 27 ; to 1 Pet. ii. 11, and to 1 Cor. 
vi. 9, 10 ; — the sixth, with allusions to 2 Cor. v. 10, to the 
epistle to the Romans xii. 17, to the gospel of Luke vi. 38, 
and to Matthew vii. 2 ; — the seventh, with these words from 
the first epistle of John iv. 3 : " * Whoever shall not confess 
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist,' and 
whoever shall not confess the testimony of the cross," he adds, 
" is of the devil ; therefore, leaving the vanity of the multi- 
tude, and the false doctrines, let us return to that which was 
given to us in the beginning, (Jude 3,) watching unto prayer 
(1 Pet. iv. 7), and supplicating God who sees all, not to lead 
us into temptation (Matt. vi. 13), according to that which the 
Lord has said (Matt. xxvi. 41, or Mark xiv. 38) ; ' The spirit 
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' " 

The. last seven chapters present the same features. The 
eighth chapter, and the two following, quote textually without 
naming the apostle, from the first epistle of Peter (ii. 24, 22, 
17 ; iv. 16, 11, 12) ; while the eleventh chapter, on the con- 
trary, expressly, names Paul, by citing this word from the 
first of the Corinthians, " Know you not that the Saints shall 
judge the world, as Paul teaches ? And the twelfth chapter 
begins and goes on with these remarkable words, I hope you 
may be well exercised in the holt epistles. And as it 
is said in these Scriptures, be ye angry, and sin not ; let not 
the sun go down upon your wi-ath. (Eph. iv. 26.) Pray 
for all saints (Eph. vi. 18) ; pray also for kings and powers 



262 THE CANON. 

and princes (1 Tim. ii. 2,) and pray for those who hate and 
persecute you (Matt. v. 44)." 

In fact, when we have read these chapters of Polycarp, 
in which the New Testament abounds and overflows, we 
ask how it is that the skeptical critics of Germany should 
have taken so much pains to contest or' enfeeble the testi- 
mony of Justin Martyr, who came fifty-three years later, 
and how its pious critics should have taken so much pains to 
defend it. Here we see what the New Testament was in 
Asia Minor and in the Macedonian Philippi, only four years 
after the death of John, in the estimation of an immediate 
martyr-disciple of that apostle, and in the very places where 
he had resided so long. 

But we will also say on this subject one word regarding 
his thirteenth and last chapter, and we may profitably recall 
the pains which all the flocks then took to edify each other 
by exchanging the letters they had respectively received from 
the servants of God. " You have written me," Polycarp 
says, " and Ignatius has also written me, that, if any one is 
going (from Smyrna) to Syria, he would bring your letters 
thither, and if an opportunity offers, I shall embrace it either 
to take or send them. With this we have sent you your let- 
ters from Ignatius, as you request. Ton may derive much 
profit from them, for they contain lessons for faith, patience, 
and all forms of edification." 

Thus then closes the letter of this eminent servant of God ; 
and we delight in recalling these last features, because they 
show that, if thus early the churches and their bishops were 
so careful to collect the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp, 
if the Philippians had themselves asked for them as adapted 
to edify, it was with still more watchful and religious eager- 
ness that these very churches must have collected and pre- 
served for fifty years the inspired epistles of the very apos- 
tles of the Lord. Thus we learn from other monuments 
of history, that the original texts were preserved with spe- 
cial care in certain churches ; and we have already (Book 



IGNATroS, HIS MARTYRDOM AND LETTERS. 26a 

n. chap. 3), cited on this point a remarkable saying of 
Tertullian. 

We now pass to Ignatius. 



~ Ignatius, Ms Martyrdom and his Letters. 

Ignatius was a hearer of the apostle John ; and if we 
may believe Chrysostom,^ it was Peter himself who placed 
him over the church of Antioch. Eusebius,^ it is true, places 
him after Evodius. But the " Apostolical Constitutions '* 
(vii. 46) would rather indicate that these two men of God 
presided together in Antioch, one placed by Peter over the 
Jews, the other by Paul over the Gentile converts. 

However this may be, it is evident that Ignatius, condemned 
to the wild beasts by Trajan, whilst this emperor was prepar- 
ing in Antioch his first expedition against the Armenians and 
Parthians, was sent to Rome under the escort of ten soldiers, 
to undergo this humble death there. Arriving at Smyrna, 
he had then the consolation of being permitted to visit Poly- 
carp ; and finally disembarking at Ostia, he was led to Home, 
where two lions devoured him in view of the Roman people, 
in the tenth year of Trajan, a. d. 107. 

The " Acts " of this martyr, written and published by eye- 
witnesses, were edited for the first time in 1 647, by Abp. 
Usher. We find the New Testament prominent even on the 
second page. When the emperor, inflated by his victories 
over the Scythians and Dacians, saw Ignatius standing before 
his tribunal, he hastened to repeat with contempt the Chris- 
tian words of the martyr : " Thou bearest then in thyself 
Him who was crucified ? " " Yes," replied Ignatius, "Jbr it 
is written, I will dwell in them and will walk in them. (Nat • 
yeypairraL yap ' ei/ot/c^o-ft) ev avroîs koX èfiTrepiTran^crcû) ; " the very 
words in the Greek of 2 Cor. vi. 16, and not of the Ixx. in 
liCviticus xxvL 12. 

' " Yes, FOR IT IS VTKiTTEN." . . Hear then the words 
^ Hseres., in S. Igaat. Martyr, cap. 4. ^ H. £. ill. 22. 



264 THE CANON. 

wtich, already in the year 107, were uttered before the tri- 
bunal of a Roman emperor, four, years after John's death ! 
Hear the language of the most illustrious bishop of the East, 
when he was standing in his city of Antioch before the glo- 
rious conqueror of the Scythians and Dacians. Not only 
does he confess himself a Christian before the whole empire, 
at the cost of his life ; but he declares that, for Christians, 
everything is determined when they can say, " it is written." 
This is their rule ; and by these words, their faith is vindi- 
cated, their course is marked out, and any form of death is 
welcome. At the hearing of these words, Trajan replied, 
"We ordain that Ignatius, who affirms that he everywhere 
carries in himself Him that was crucified, be chained and led 
by soldiers to the great Rome, that he may there be devoured 
of beasts for the amusement of the people.*' 

We pass to his letters, all three writt«i some weeks before 
his martyrdom. 

There have been published fifteen letters of this Father, 
but the unanimous opinion of the learned has long since re- 
jected eight of them as spurious.* A dispute still exists con- 
cerning the Greek text of the other seven, because there was 
in existence an edition manifestly more extended, and sus- 
pected of containing numerous interpolations. From the 
middle of the seventeenth century to our time, many of the 
most accredited scholars, Vossius, Usher, Le Clerc, Grabe, 
Pearson (and recently Hefele), thought that the shortest was 
to be preferred. But in 1845, the oriental scholar William 
Cureton produced a very ancient Syriac version of the let- 
ters of Ignatius discovered six years before by Henry Tatiau 
in an old monastery of Upper Egypt. The manuscript be- 
longs to the sixth century, but the version was probably of a 
much earlier date. Cureton has just published a beautiful 
edition of it, in aid of which he used another Syriac manu- 
script of the letters of Ignatius found in the British Museum. 

iTwo, of the eight, were addressed to John; and one, to the Vîr^ 
Mary. 



IGNATIUS, HIS MARTTEDOM AM) LETTERS. 265 

The whole is accompanied by the Greek text and an English 
translation. Now this collection coûtains only three letters : 
the first, to the Ephesians; the second, to the Eomans; the 
third, to Polycarp ; and besides, we discover in it with satis- 
faction that those extravagant passages concerning the Epis- 
copate, which thus far have appeared to impartial readers to 
be a bungling anachronism, were really interpolations. We 
therefore make our quotations only from Cureton's edition, 
and- shall content ourselves with the remark of Mr. Bunsen,* 
that now all critics reject the old text as not authentic, " with 
the exception of some Romanists, among whom the learned 
Hefele alone deserves to be mentioned." 

These three letters of Ignatius, after the reductions re- 
quired by the Syriac text, occupy not more than ten or eleven 
pages octavo in the Latin edition of Hefele. 

The Epistle to the Ephesians, although reduced to two 
and a half pages at most, still abounds in allusions to Paul's 
Epistles. It commences in the style of the apostolical let- 
ters, and already in the Salutation you very clearly recognize 
(especially in the Greek) traces of the Epistle to îhe Ephe- 
sians (i. 4, 19 ; iii. 11, 19 j iv. 3) ; "Ignatius, to her who is 
blessed in the greatness and fullness of the Fathers, predes- 
tinated before the world, to be for ever united in a permanent 
and immutable glory, elect in the true passion, by the will 
of the Father and of Jesus Christ, our God, — to the church 
worthily blessed which is in Ephesus of Asia be abundance 
of joy in Jesus Christ and in grace." 

This style, too, frequently reproduces the very words of 
Paul (Mifirp-ai owes, Eph. v. 1, êSpaîoi rg iritrrei, Col. i. 23). 
" Being imitators of God," he says in commencing, " renewed 
by the blood of God, you have accomplished the work of the 
brotherhood ; for having learned since my departure from 
Syria that I am in chains for our common hope and our com- 
mon name, you have hastened to visit me, who hope by your 
prayers to fight against the beasts of Rome, and to obtain by 

1 Hyppolyte, torn, i., Bonsen, 4 vol. 12mo. Lond. 1852. 
23 



266 THE CANOÎT. 

martyrdom a true discipleship to Him who hath offered him- 
self for us to God in oblation and in sacrifice (tov hrlp rjfuQv 
iavTOV àveyeyKOTOS @c<a7rpo(r(j)opàv Kol ûvcriav, Epb. vi. 2.)" 

His beautiful and holy letter to Polycarp, although simi- 
larly reduced to less than two pages and a half, recalls as 
manifestly the language of the New Testament. " Be en- 
gaged in incessant prayer," he says to his friend, a frequent 
expression of Paul (1 Cor. vii. 5 ; Rom. i. 9; 1 Thes. v. 17) 
(irpo(r€V)(a2s (rxpXa^e àStaXeiirrois) ; " Be wise as the serpent 
in everything," he adds, *' and harmless as the dove (Matt. 
X. 16) ; be sober as an athlete of God ; the prize is immortal- 
ity and eternal life. Exhort my brethi*en to love their wives 
as the Lord loves the church (Eph. v. 25, 29) ; let all things 
be done for the honor of God (1 Cor. x. 31) ; please him 
who hath enrolled you for the war and from whom you re- 
ceive your wages (àpéa-Kere w arrpaTevcrôe, 2 Tim. ii. 4)." 

In his letter to the Romans, the least interpolated of the 
three, we find the same character. He says, " I write to the 
churches, and I show to all that I die willingly for God. I 
entreat you not to prevent it by an inopportune benevolence." 
" Ah, rather entreat Jesus Christ in my behalf, that by these 
instruments (the beasts of the circus) I may be found a vic- 
tim. I do not give you orders like Peter and Paul ; they 
are apostles, and I a condemned man ; they free, and I now 
a slave ; but I shall be a freeman of Jesus, if I suffer (dTre- 
Xcv^cpos *l7](rov, 1 Cor. vii. 22), and in him I shall find my- 
self free." " I am chained to ten leopards, by which I n^ean 
my troop of soldiers ; and I receive many lessons from their 
bad treatment ; but I am not by that justified (aXX oi Trapà 
TovTo 8e8iKcuoi/j.aL, 1 Cor. iv. 2, 4)." " I do not take pleasure 
in a corruptible nourishment nor in the pleasures of this life; 
I want the bread of God, which is the flesh of Christ, and 
his blood. I want his drink, which is the incorruptible love 
and life eternal ! " 

But we now pass to the oldest and most authentic monu- 
ment of apostolical antiquity, to the inestimable letter of 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS ROMANUS. 267 

Clement; and we deem it here desirable to give fuller quo- 
tations. ' - 



The Epistle of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians. 

This beautiful monument, so worthy of the apostolical age, 
shall brilliantly terminate for us the chain of historical evi- 
dences which link the days of Ignatius and Irenaeus to those 
of Paul and the other inspix'ed writers. We shall there 
abundantly discover all that could be reasonably expected of 
a pious writer of the age when the New Testament, was being 
finished ; for the author, full of recollections of the apostles, 
of their doctrine and epistles, shall reproduce their expressions 
of faith, speak in their language, cite, as they, the old Scrip- 
tures abundantly which were read every Sabbath in all the 
assemblies, shall also cite the words of Jesus Christ reported 
by Matthew, by Mark, and by Luke, but, in quoting them, 
shall not give himself any trouble to name the sacred histo- 
rians. He shall often employ, and in their strictest meaning, 
the expressions usual with Paul, shall even recall to the 
Corinthians, with a holy simplicity, the letter which they had 
received from him fifteen or sixteen years before, and shall 
declare it written by the Holy Spirit. In a word, you shall 
find him in all respects, such as became that Clement whom 
Paul, writing to Rome about the year 60, had called his " fel- 
low laborer," " whose name was written in the book of life." 
(Phil. iv. 3.) 

But when and why was this letter written ? "What is its 
authenticity, and how come we to possess it ? These ques- 
tions must' be answered now. 

The epistle was written by Clement, in the name of the 
church at Rome, to that at Corinth, which troublesome per- 
sons were then trying to excite against their pastors. 

Origen (in Joan. i. 29), Eusebius (H. E. iii. 15), Epipha- 
nius (Haer. xxxvii. 6), Jerome (Catal. xv.), and others agree 
in regarding its author indisputably to be the same Clement 



268 THE CANON. 

of whom Paul speaks in Philippians. And as the Scripture 
nowhere else names" this apostolical personage, and as Paul, 
going to Philippi (Acts xvi.) had none with him except Silas, 
Luke, and Timothy^ we must believe that he found Clement 
in this Roman colony, and that he left him there to continue 
his evangelical labors until about the year 60. But was 
Clement a Roman, as his name imports ? or was he a Jew, 
as Tillemont infers from some expressions in his letter (" our 
father Jacob," " our father Abraham," and others ?.) ^ We 
can not decide. That he was bishop of Rome, all afiirm. 
But whether he was the first after Peter, as Jerome believed, 
or the second, as Augustine believed, or the third, as Irenaeus " 
affirms, is of little consequence to us. Eusebius assures us 
that he presided nine years over the church at Rome ; but 
where shall we place these nine years ? According to all 
appearance, from a. d. 68 to 77 ; for the letter itself (cap. i.) 
attesting to its having been written shortly after a violent 
persecution, conclusively indicates that it was the persecution 
of Nero at the time of Paul's martyrdom (from A. D. 65 to 
68). That of Domitian, which followed, in A. D. 96, would 
appear much less probable for many reasons suggested by 
Grabe, Galland, Wotton, Hefele, and others. In fact, Clem- 
ent in his fifth chapter mentions the martyrdoms of Paul and 
Peter as recent ; moreover, he describes in his sixth chapter 
this same persecution as cruel in the multitude it destroyed, 
whilst that of Diocletian was distinguished rather by the high 
quality OÎ its victims; and in fine, his xl. and xli. chapters 
attest to us that the letter was written in a time when the 
Jewish worship was still celebrated, that is, necessarily before 
A. D. 70, when Titus burned Jerusalem. 

We shall not speak of the career of the martyr, nor of 
the strange miracles which the Roman breviary ^ attributes 

1 Hefele, Proleg."p. 20. 

2 Lib. iii. chap. 3, and Eusebius H. E. v. 6; 

* Of Nov. 23. It banishes him to the Crimea, casts him into the Black 
Sea with an anchor about his neck, makes the sea retire three miles before 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS EOMANUS. 269 

to Clement. No historian has mentioned them, neither Ire- 
nseus, Eusebius, nor even Jerome. 

The epistle of Clement which our Eeformers long sup- 
posed to have been irrecoverably lost, had been at first greatly 
honored for five or six centuries by all the early Fathers. 
They unanimously recommended it ; the numerous quotations 
which they made of it fully guarantee the authenticity of the 
edition we now possess ; for we still find them there, word 
for word. Polycarp often speaks as having had it in his 
hand ; Irenaeus calls it iKavwœnjv; Clemens Alexandrinus 
mentions it six times ; Origen, three times ; and Eusebius 
(H. E. iii. 16) calls it "great and admirable." Cyril of Je- 
rusalem also, quotes from it ; Epiphanius, too ; Jerome, fre- 
quently cites it and says it is " valde utilem " (Catal. Scrip. 
cxv.), adding that in his day they were accustomed in certain 
places to read it publicly. Photius (Biblioth. cod. 113), too, 
in- the ninth century. But afterward and through the whole 
period of the Middle Ages it had disappeared ; the learned 
men at the time of the revival of letters, as those of the Eefor- 
mation, often deplored its loss ; until at length, in 1628, Cy- 
rillus Lucar, the patriarch of Constantinople, having pre- 
sented to Charles I. of England the famous Alexandrine 
Manuscript of the Scriptures, the learned world had the 
agreeable siirprise of finding again, transcribed in the last 
leaves of the manuscript, this ancient treasure so long lost.* 
The University of Oxford^ printed it first in 1633; then 
Wotton (in 1718) produced at Cambridge a still more per- 
fect edition ; but that which Mr. Jacobson has since published 
with learned notes, at Oxford, in 1888 and 1840, is regarded 
as superior to all that preceded it. 

When this beautiful book appeared, many critics, such as 

his corpse, and throw his hody on the hank with his anchor, his stone altar, 
and his marble chapel. 

1 There is wanting only one leaf, entirely torn off at the end of chap. Ivii. 
through the ignorant unskillfulness of the binder. 

2 Ât least its librarian Junius. 

23* 



270 THE CANON. 

Pignon, John Le Clerc, and Mosheim, suspected its integrity ; 
but in our day all serious doubts have ceased to exist, says 
Hefele (Proleg. p. xxxiii.), and all modern scholars without 
exception are agreed in acknowledging at once the authen- 
ticity and the integrity of this ancient document. 

To show the full weight of its testimony in favor of the 
canon, no reasoning would be as efficacious as that of simply 
passing before the reader's eye a brief extract from it. Its 
fifty-nine short chapters moreover occupy only thirty-three 
and a half pages of the octavo text of Hefele. 

The frank and pious simplicity of this writing, worthy of 
the primitive days, its serious tone, its elevation and the 
apostolical purity of its doctrine,^ distinguish it from all sub- 
sequent writings. Wotton in his preface (edition of 1718), 
says, " It is the style and the method of the New Testament; 
nothing appears there which is not entirely worthy of an 
apostolical man." Grotius says,^ " It speaks of dogmas with- 
out subtilties or disguises ; it employs the terms vocation and 
electioti, called and elect, in a sense wholly Paulinian." And 
as to its mode of quoting the Scriptures, it is also that of the 
apostles ; that is, it takes almost all its quotations from the 
Old Testament. When it quotes the words of Jesus Christ 
already recorded in the first gospels, it is without naming the 
place ; when it expressly quotes from any of Paul's epistles,' 
it is as Peter had expressly done before him,^ and when in 
fine, it cites them indirectly, it is often by reproducing en- 
tire phrases, but without taking the trouble to name the place 
where they are found. It often introduces the most charac- 
teristic expressions of the apostolical writings, expressions 
become familiar to the members of the primitive church, 

1 Notwithstanding his belief in the pretended natural phenomenon of the 
phœiiix, and in spite of one or two expressions which might have been bet- 
ter considered. 

2 Epist. ad Bignonium. 

8 His first Epistle to the Corinthians. 

4 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. As we may see it everywhere in the epistles to the 
Romans, to the Corinthians, and to the Hebrews. 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS KOMANUS. 271 

and recognized by the whole world as soon as they are 
mentioned. 

It was then very natural for Clement of Rome, writing so 
soon after the death of Paul, so exactly to follow the method 
of the apostles ; and his letter would have been open to well- 
founded suspicions, if it had made at that time the same co- 
pious use of the New Testament as subsequent writers did ; 
as, for instance, Polycarp. We must remember that in the 
days of his letter, the Church of the New Testament had 
yet received only a part of its inspired Scriptures, and that 
its canon was not yet to be closed for thirty years. The 
gospel of Mark, that of John, and his two last letters and 
that of Jude did not yet exist, nor the Apocalypse. And 
even this " Epistle of the blessed Paul " of which Clement 
speaks in his Ixviith chapter, had appeared only fifteen years 
before (a. d. 53). 

But we can better judge of the character of his letter 
and of its quotations after having made a brief survey of 
it.. 

Chap. I. The Salutation. " The church of God which 
sojourns at Rome, to the church of God which sojourns at 
Corinth, to the called, the sanctified according to the wiU 
of God, by our Lord Jesus Christ ; may grace and peace 
be multiplied to you by the Almighty God through Jesus 
Christ. 

"In consequence of the sudden calamities which have as- 
sailed us, stroke after stroke, my brethren, we have not been 
able until now to attend to your requests and to this detes- 
table revolt, so impious, so contrary to all the habits of God's 
elect, which some persons have excited in the midst of you. 
These men by their folly dishonor your name, hitherto so 
beautiful and so worthy of being loved." 

Chap. H. How exemplary the Corinthians were "before 
their schism. " Who can have been among you without 
admiring your faith so stable, your hospitality so generous, 
your knowledge of the truth so perfect and so firm ? Ev- 



272 TIIE CANON. 

• 
erything was done among you without respect of persons.' 
Ye honored as is seemly the elders who are among you. . . . 

" Ye were all, as is also suitable, animated with an humble 
spirit, without vainglory, and more disposed to submit your-, 
selves than to subject others, to give than to take. Satisfied 
with the provisions of God, and carefully attentive to his 
words, ye preserved them in your hearts, and his sufferings 
were before your eyes (Gal. iii. 1.) Day and night ye were 
in a conflict of prayer (àywi/. Col. ii. 1) for the whole brother- 
hood (ctSeX^onyros, an expression peculiar to Peter. 1 Pet. 
ii. 17, V. 9), that all the elect may be saved. . . . Then ev- 
ery revolt and schism ye held in abomination ; .... ye were 
ready for every good work, (eroifxoL eh iràv epyov àyaôov," Tit. 
iii. 1.) 

Chap. irr. . Their sad condition since their divisions. -^- 
*' But from your prosperity have sprung your envy, jealousy, 
contention, bitterness, parties, persecutions, the revolt. . . ." 

Chap. IV. . From the same source have always sprung the 
greatest evils for the people of God. — " Now it was envy,, it 
was jealousy that slew Abel, persecuted Joseph, repelled 
Moses, removed Aaron, Miriam, Dathan, and Abiram. . ." 

Chaps. V. and VI. "But let us leave the ^cient ex- 
amples, and come to modern times, and considering Paul, 
Peter, and so many other athletes who have contended near 
our times ; let us take the generous examples of our genera- 
tion. 

" Is it not jealousy and envy that persecuted to death those 
who were our great pillars (Gal. ii. 9) ? Let us always keep 
in view these excellent apostles. It is envy, it is jealousy 
which made Peter, after having undergone so many trials and 
martyrdom, pass into the place of glory which was his due 
(hropeoO-q cts rov ècfieiX6fJi€yGv tottcv rJjs oo^-îjî.) It was thus, 
too, that Paul sustained the combat and carried away the 
prize of patience ; that he was seven times put in irons, 

1 He here speaks like Paul or James. Jam. ii. 1-9 ; Eph. vi. 9 ; Eom. 
iL il; Col. iii. 25 ; Acts x. 34. 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS ROMANUS. 273 

obliged to flee, stoned ; and that having become the herald 
of the word in the East and in the West, he acquired the 
noble ' renown of his faith, taught righteousness to the entire 
world, reached the extremity (to ripfia) of the "West, and 
finally underwent martyrdom in the time of the governors 
(cTTt Twv 'H.yovfiéi/o}v).^ It is thus that he left the world, and 
passed into the holy place, having been the greatest model 
of Christian perseverance. 

Chaps. VIL and VIII. The Oorinthians then must re- 
pent. — "It is to encourage you to duty, beloved, that we 
write you thus, and to encourage ourselves in it also ; for we, 
too, are in the same arena, to fight the same fight. Let our 
eyes then be fixed on the blood of Christ, and let us consider 
how precious in God's sight is this blood, which, shed for our 
salvation, conveys the grace of conversion to the whole world. 
Let us look back to all past generations, and convince our- 
selves that from generation to generation the Lord has given 
place to conversion (tottov eSwKcv ô AccrîTOT-iyç) for those who 
wished to be converted to Him. Noah preached repentance 
(iia]pv$€y fierdvoiav, 2 Pet. ii. 5) ; and all those who yielded 
to his exhortations were saved." 

Chaps. IX. X. XI. XII. JOet vs contemplate the. examples 
of the ancient Saints. — " Consider Enoch, who was proved 
righteous in his obedience, and who, having been found right- 
eous, wa^taken up ; and his death was not found (Heb. xi. 5). 
Noah, found faithful (Heb. xi. 5), preached by his ministry 
the regeneration (iraXLvyeveaiav) to the world. Abraham, who 
was called the fidend of God (Jam. ii. 23 ; Heb. xi. 8), was 
found faithful because he had obeyed the words of God. He 
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. 
(Rom. iv. 3). On account of his piety and his hospitality 
Lot was saved from Sodom's destruction. (2 Pet. ii. 6, 7.) 
Bahab the harlot, was saved on account of her faith and her 
hospitality." (Heb. xi. 31.) 

Chap. XIII. We must humble ourselves. — " Let us be 

1 Tibellinas and Sabinus, who governed during the last year of Nero. 



274 THE CANON. 

humble in spirit, my brethren, Crairavot^povqa-iufxev) ; ^ let lis 
lay aside all boasting, all pride, all wrath, and let us do that 
which is written ; for the Holy Spii'it says : Let not the wise 
man glory in his wisdom ; nor the strong man in his strength ; 
but he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord (Jer. ix. 23 ; 
2 Cor. X. 17 ; 1 Cor. i. 31) ; above all remembering the words 
of the Lord Jesus, for he said, (Luke vi. 36-38 ; Matt, vi- 
12-15), Be ye merciful, and ye shall receive mercy; forgive^ 
and ye shall be forgiven ; as ye give, it shall be given to you ; 
as ye judge, ye shall be judged ; as ye exercise goodness, it 
shall be exercised toward you (xpiyorcvecr^e) ; and with what 
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 

Chaps. XIV. and XV. We must submit to God and to 
man. — " It is then just and pious, men and brethren, to obey 
God rather than follow in pride and insubordination the au- 
thors of a detestable schism. Let us attach ourselves to 
those who with piety walk in peace" (rots fxer eva-ejSeiaç 
€Îpr]vevova-iv, an expression of Paul, Kom. xii. 18 ; 2 Con 
xiii. 11 ; 1 Thess. v. 13). 

Chap. XVI. JLet Christ's humility he our model. — " Christ 
belongs to those who are humble in spirit, not to those who 
raise themselves above the flock. He who is the scepter of 
the divine majesty, our Lord Jesus Christ, has not come in 
arrogance and pride, however powerful he is ; but in humil- 
ity. I am a worm, he says, and no man, the reproach of meu 
and despised of the people. Consider then, men and breth- 
ren, what a model is proposed to us in Him." 

Chaps. XVII. and XVIII. Let us also imitate the humility 
of the Abrahams, the Jacobs, the Moseses, the Davids. — " Let us 
be imitators of those in sheep-skins and goat-skins, who have 
gone about here and there (Heb. xi. 37), preaching the com- 
ing of Christ ; such as Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, and with them 
those who have received the testimony," (kcll toÙs fJLefj.afyrvpr]' 
/lévovs, Heb. xi. 2.) 

1 It îs Paul's favorite term (Acts xx. 19; Eph. iv. 2; Phil. ii. 3; Col. ii. 
18,33; iii. 32.) And of Peter (1 Pet. v. 5.) 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS EOMAISTDS. 27Ô 

Notice this passive expression, so common with Luke and 
with Paul, (Acts vi. 3 ; x. 22 ; xvi. 2 ; 1 Tim. v. 10 ; . Heb. 
xi. 2, 4, 5, 39). " Thus Abraham received eminently the tes- 
timony, who was called the friend of Grod, but who said in 
his humility, I am but dust and ashes. Thus Job ; thus Mo- 
ses, who was called faithful in all the house of God (Num. 
xii. 7 ; Heb. iii. 2). Thus David. . . ." 

Chap. XIX. In their example let us also seek for peace. — 
"Let us then receive instruction from -this humility and from 
this obedience which so many and such great men set before 
our eyes, to whom the Scriptures have rendered such testi- 
monies ; and let us know also how to contemplate the clem- 
ency and the long suflfering of God towards the whole crea- 
tion." 

Chap. XX. Do we not see in the government of the world 
how God is pleased with harmony and peace ? — " Let us 
consider, in the heavens, in the seasons, the stars, the earth, 
the days, the nights, how all creatures are harmoniously sub- 
missive to his sovereign will ; and let us i-emember how he is 
the friend of peace and of good order, beneficent toward all, 
but especially beneficent toward those who have taken refuge 
in his compassions by our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Chaps. XXL and XXII. Ranh yourselves then in order in 
everything lefore God. — " Consider also how near he is to 
us, for nothing within us is concealed from him, he is the 
searcher of our thoughts and of our intentions (èpevvrjrrjç yap 
èoTLV èwoiwv KoX kvdvfLyjcretùv as Heb. iv. 12.) " 

Chap. XXIII. Se humble and true, remembering always 
the coming of Christ. — " Let us therefore draw nigh to him 
with simplicity of spirit ; let us not be wavering or double- 
minded, [xr] 8n/a;;)((3/xei/ " (Siijrvxo^ a term peculiar to James 
i. 8 ; iv. 8.) 

" Far from us be the evil spoken of in this Scripture ; Wo 
to the double-minded, or the wavering (St'i/ru^os) ; them whose 
soul is in doubt ; them who say. We have heard these things 
also from the time of our father; and thus we have watched, 



276 THE CANON. 

and nothing of it has happened." Wotton says that Clement 
here combines James and Peter, (2 Pet. iii. 3, 4, in his remi- 
niscences.) " For the Scripture renders us this testimony 
thereon (cruveTnfiapTvpovcnjç /cat t^ç ypatjtrji) that the Lord will 
come quickly and will not tarry ! " (Heb. x. 37.) 

Chaps. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. God teaches us 
also continually/ the future resurrection in Nature, — Con- 
sider, beloved, how he continually shows us that there will 
be a resurrection of which he has made Jesus Christ to be 
the first fruits (ÔTrapxJ, 1 Cor. xv. 20, 23) in raising him 
from the dead. Witness the fruits of the earth ; consider 
how the plants come from their seeds. The sower went forth 
to sow (Luke viii. 5) ; and when he had cast his seeds into 
the arid and naked ground, they were decomposed ; and, from 
their very dissolution the greatness of the Sovereign Master 
revived and multiplied them." 

Chaps. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. Let us then 
attach ourselves to tike promises and approach him in sincer- 
ity. — " He who forbids us to lie, can he himself lie ? Noth- 
ing is impossible to God but to lie (Tit. i, 2 ; Hebr. vi. 18.) 
Let us then approach him in holiness of soiil, lifting up to 
him pure and spotless hands." (1 Tim. ii. 8.) 

Chap. XXXI. How shall we obtain the divine henediction, 
if -not, with Abraham, by faith"} — "Let us earnestly seek 
his blessing, and see how it is to be obtained. On what ac- 
count was our father Abraham blessed ? Was it not by faith 
that he practiced righteousness and truth ? So Isaac, in his 
confidence, knowing what was to take place, consented to be 
the victim of sacrifice. So Jacob, in his humility, expatriating 
himself on account of his brother, and going to Laban's bouse, 
there became a slave, and the twelve scepters of Israel were 
conferred on him." 

Chap. XXXII. It is not by works, but by faith that we 
are justified. — " Whoever shall contemplate these facts with 
sinceidty will recognize the magnificence of the gifts bestowed 
on him ; for from him proceeded all the priests and Lévites 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS ROMANUS. 277 

employed at the altar of God; from him, our Lord Jesus 
Christ according to. the flesh (Eom. ix. 5), from him, the kings, 
the governors, and the princes through Judah. Now all 
these faithful men received glory and greatness, not by them- 
Belves nor by their works, nor by the practice of righteous- 
ness (SiKaioTrpayias) which they might have performed (^ç 
Kareipydaav), but by his will (Rom. iii. 23 ; v. 2 ; vii. 18 ; 
ix. 11, 32; Tit. iii. 5, 7; Eph. ii. 9). And we ourselves 
also, called in Jesus Christ, by his will (Jam.i. 18; Gal. i. 
4; Eph. i. 5, 9, 11), we are not justified by ourselves, nei- 
ther by our wisdom, our understanding, our piety, or the 
works we have been able to accomplish by the piety of our 
heart ; no ; it is by faith (Rom. iv. 16 ; v. 1 : iii. 24 ; i. 16, 
17), that God Almighty, from the beginning, has justified all 
whom he has justified. To Him be the glory for ever and 
ever, Amen." 

Chap. XXXm. But ht us also neglect neither charity nor 
«;or^'5. — " What shall we do then, brethren? Shall we 
cease to apply ourselves to good works ? Shall we neglect 
charity ? May the Lord forbid that ; but grant that we may 
give ourselves with all our might to good works ! He has 
created us for that. Let us then give ourselves to works of 
righteousness ; that our glory may be sought in him, and that 
his will may be our rule." 

Chap. XXXIV. Let us live in concord and let us together 
erg to God that we mag obtain this. — " Let us then, led by 
conscience in a holy concord, and animated by the same 
spirit, ardently cry to Him as with one moutli, that we may 
become partakers of the great and glorious promises (2 Pet. 
i. 4) ; * for he says, They are the things which eye hath not 
seen, and which ear hath not heard, and which have not come 
up into the heart of man, the things prepared of God for 
those who wait on him." TheSe words will be found partly 
in Isa. Ixiv. 3, 4 ; but almost literally in 1 Cor. ii. 9. 

Chap. XXXVr Mow admirable are these blessings/ — 

• 1 The Greek words of Peter however are not identical. 
24 



â78 • THE CANON. 

"Oh, my beloved, how precious and admirable are the gifts 
of God ! Life in immortality, splendor in righteousness, truth 
in freedom, faith in confidence and self-consecration, self-con- 
trol (èyKpdreia) in holiness ! And if all these benefits are 
within our .compreheiusion, then they are not the blessings 
which yet await them who wait on him ! " 

Chap. XXXVI. J5ut it is hy Jesus Ghrist that we obtain 
every blessing'. — " Such is the way in which we have found 
our salvation, Jesus Christ, the Sovereign high-priest of our 
oblations (àpxi-epéa, Heb. iv. 15 ; viii. 1-3), the protector and 
the support of our weakness. By him we fix our eyes on 
the heights of heaven ; by him we contemplate as in a mir- 
ror his pure and sublime visage ; by him the eyes of our 
heart have been opened (■^[xmv 61 6^6aXiioi r^s KapSCa^, Eph. i. 
18) ; by him our benighted and ignorant mind (doweros koX 
ècTKOTOifxévr} Sidvoia rip-wv) bursts into his marvellous light (etc 
TO davfiaarbv avrov ^us, Kom. i. 21 ; 1 Pet. ii. 9) ; by him 
the Sovereign Master has determined that we should taste 
immortal knowledge. Being the brightness of his glory 
(aTravyaoyta rrjs fieyaXwaiuvr]? avrov, Heb. i. 3, 4), he is SO 
much superior to the angels as he has inherited a name more 
excellent than theirs (Heb. i. 7) ; for it is written ; making 
his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire, while of 
his Son he says : Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten 
thee, etc. And again, he says to him. Sit thou at my right 
hand until I have made thine enemies thy footstool (Heb. i. 
5, 13.) And who are his enemies, if not those perverse men 
among you who resist the will of Grod ?" 

Chap. XXX VIL Let us be for Jesus Ghrist as devoted 
soldiers. — " Thus, men and brethren, as soldiers of Christ (2 
Tim. ii. 3, 4), let us zealously adhere to his irreproachable 
orders. Let us consider in fact what are, -under their gen- 
erals, our warriors. "What orderj what obedience, what sub- 
mission ! All are not tribunes, nor chiliarchs, nor centu- 
rions, and each one stands in his rank, but the great can do 
nothing without the small, nor the small without the great ; 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS ROMANUS. 279 

all are commingled. Hence their occupations and their 
power." 

Chap. XXXVIII. In like manner let each one of us en* 
list under the command of Christ. — " Let each submit to his 
neighbor (vTroracra-écrdw, Eph. v. 21 ; 1 Pet. v. 5), accoi'ding 
to the order in which he has been placed by the grace of 
.Christ ; let the strong not neglect the weak, and the weak 
respect the- strong." 

Chaps. XXXIX. XL. XLL XLIL We have nothing of 
which to boast. Let us submit to the order established by God 
in the church, and let us consider what that order is. — " The 
apostles have preached the gospel to us by the commandment 
of the Lord Jesus Christ; and Jesus Christ, by the com- 
mandment of God. Having then received their command, 
full of a firm confidence by the resurrection of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and confirmed in the word of God (Trhqpof^opr}- 
Oivres, Rom. iv. 21 ; Tria-rwôévreç, 2 Tim, iii. 14, words wholly 
Paulinian), they went forth with full assui'ance (TrXrjpo^oplas, 
1 Thess. i. 5) of the Holy Spirit, announcing the good news 
of the coming of God's kingdom." " Preaching thus from 
nation to nation and from city to city, they established (Ka6[~ 
aXavov) their first fruits, having discerned them by the Spirit, 
to be bishops and deacons (supervisors and servants) of those 
who should afterward believe." 

Chap. XLIII. Moses had contentions of the same hind. — 
"And what is there surprising, if those to whom God in 
Christ committed such a work {tv Xptar^ irurrevôévrei irapà 
®eou Ijpyov TOLovTo) have established those of whom we have 
just spoken ? Do we not see that the blessed Moses, faith- 
ful servant of God in all his house (Heb. iii. 5), consigned 
to his sacred Books everything that had been commanded 
htm? (Num. xvii.) "He did so because he feared that an 
insurrection might break forth among the people of Israel in 
regard to the priesthood, and in order that the name of the 
only true God (tow oXijOlvov koX fiôvov 0eov, John xvii. 3), 
might be glorified, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen." 



280 THE CANON. 

Chap. XLIV. The apostles ordained elders, and it is then 
wickedly that any have rejected those who filled the office. — 
*' Now our apostles also knew, by our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
there would arise contentions on the subject, (or on the dig- 
nity) of the bishopric {hri tov ovo/«itos t^s hruTKOTnjS') Hav- 
ing then received a perfect foreknowledge of that, they estab- 
lished those whom we have just mentioned, and gave afterward 
this precept, (cTrtvo/f^v,) (an expression that some would trans- 
late this testamentary order), that, when they should die, other 
approved men should in turn receive their office (SiaSefovrai 
Tïjv XeiTovpyiav)" " In consequence we think that those whom 
they, or afterwards other eminent men ordained, with the 
consent of the whole church (a-wevBoKyja-daifj's Trjs èKKXrja-ùis 
•n-axTtji) and who have served the flock of Christ in humility, 
without reproach, peaceably and without mingling therewith 
base pursuits {koL d/Savawœç), having long had the testimony 
of the people ; we think that such men can not be justly 
expelled from their ofRce. It would be no small sin on our 
part." " And in the mean time we see some who adminis- 
tered well, and whom you have expelled from an office which 
they had filled honorably and without reproach." 

Chap. XLV. It belongs to the wiched to persecute and re- 
proach the righteous. — " You are contentious, my brethren, 
and you expend your ardor on things not pertaining to salva- 
tion. Bend over the Scriptures,^ the very words of the Holy 
Spirit. . . . You never see the righteous there rejected by 
the saints. They have suffiired persecution, but from the 
wicked; they have been cast into prison, but by the un- 
godly. . .» 

Chap. XLYI. Unite yourselves to the righteous. Your 
discords are pernicious. — " Why are there contentions among 
you, animosities, schisms, and wars? (James iv. 1.) Have 
we not one God and Christ ? (Eph. iv. 4, 6.) Have we 
not one Spirit of grace who is shed upon us, and one calling 
in Christ? Why should we rend the members of Christ, 
1 éy/riJTrrere. Probable allusion to 1 Pet. i. 12. (Trapa/rin/iat.) 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS EOMANUS. 281 

and forget that we are members, one of another ? (Eph. iv 
25.) Let us remember the words of our Lord ; for he said 
(Matt. xxvi. 24 ; Luke xvii. 2 ; Mark ix. 42) ; Wo to that 
man ! It were better for him never to have been born than 
to ofifend one of my elect. It were better that a millstone 
were attached to his nec^, and that he were thrown into the 
sea than to offend one of these little ones. Tour revolt has 
perverted many of them ; it has thrown many of them into 
discouragement, many into doubt, and all of us into grief; 
and yet your sedition still continues ! " 

But let us especially hear Clement in his forty-seventh 
chapter, where he says expressly to the CQrinthians that 
their present dissensions are still worse than those which had 
agitated them during the life of Paid, fifteen years before ! 

Chap. XL VII. " Take in your hands the Epistle of 
THE BLESSED APOSTLE Paul. What did he first write to. 
you at the beginning of the gospel, (1 Cor. i. 10, 11, 12; iii. 
3, 4) ? It was in fact by the Holy Spirit (eir àXrjôeLas Trz'eu/iar- 
tKws) that he addressed that letter to you in relation to him- 
self and Apollos ; because then, too, you were making divis- 
ions (Trpoo-KXtcretç). Yet that did not render you as culpable 
as you are now ; for they at least drew you towards the apos- 
tles (Paul and Cephas) to whom all the church bore witness, 
and towards a man approved of them (Apollos). But here, 
on the contrary, consider who those now are who have led 
you astray, and who have compromised the high fame of your 
brotherly love, so universally renowned to this day. It is 
shameful, my beloved, it is very shameful and very unworthy 
of life in Christ, that we hear it said that the ancient Co- 
rinthian Church,-^ so firm to this day, has, for the sake of one 
or two persons, put herself in revolt against her elders. And 
the story of this sad affair has reached not only us ; it has 
gone even to those who are strangers to us ; so that on ac- 
count of your folly the name of the Lord is blasphemed (Rom. 
ii. 24 ; 1 Tim. vi. 1), and your church placed in great peril." 

1 Founded A. d. 49. 

24* 



282 THE CANON. 

Chap. XLVni. Return to hrotherly love. — "Ah! put 
an end to such an evil state of things promptly ; throw your- 
selves at the feet of your Sovereign Lord ; implore his com- 
passion with tears, that he may reestablish us in the august 
and holy relations of our first brotherly love." 

" Is there any one faithful among you (Jam. iii. 13) ? any 
one powerful to preach the holy science, any wise, discreet 
in discourse, any one holy in his works ? Let him show him- 
self the more humble the greater he seems to be, and let him 
seek that which may profit not himself, but all. (1 Cor. x. 
33)." 

Chap. XLIX. Seeh after charity. — " Let him who has 
charity in Christ observe the precepts of Christ. Who could 
say what is this bond of the charity of God ? "Who can tell, 
how suitable it is, and to what inexpressible greatness it may 
lift us ? Charity unites us to God ; charity covers a multi- 
tude of sins (1 Pet. iv. 8 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 7) ; charity suffer- 
eth long ; charity beareth all things. Nothing vulgar in 
charity (fidvavcrov), nothing haughty. Charity has no schism ; 
charity does not revolt ; charity does everything in concord. 
All the elect of God are complete in charity ; out of charity 
nothing is accepted by him ; it is in charity that he has taken 
us to himself; and it is because of this charity toward us, 
that, according to his will, Jesus Christ our Lord has given 
his blood for us (Gal. i. 4 ; John iii. 16 ; 1 John iv. 9, 10) 
his flesh for our flesh, his soul for our souls." 

Chap. L. JLet us pray that we may obtain charity. — " You 
see, beloved, how beauliful charity is ; but who can reach it, 
but he whom God shall make worthy of it ? Let us pray 
then, imploring his mercy that we may live in love without 
human prejudices and without reproach." 

Chap. LI. Ziet the authors of your dissensions confess their 
sin. 

Chap. LII. Such a confession will he well received of 
God. 

Chap. LIII. Bememher the charity of Moses toward his 



THE EPÏSTLE OF CLEMENS ROMANUS. 283 

people. — " O mighty charity ! O perfection never surpassed : 
The servant speaks to his Lord with self-renunciation ; he 
entreats that they may be forgiven or be destroyed !...." 

Chaps. LIV. and LV. He among you tkai.kas charitywiU 
willingly undergo anything that peace may he restored. — 
" Who then among you is generous ? Who has a large 
heart ? Who, full of charity ? Let such a one say, ' Ah, 
if I am the cause of factions, discord, and schisms, I will 
banish myself, I will go wherever you wish, I will do what 
the majority require ! Only let the flock of Christ live in 
peace with its constituted elders ! ' He who will do this, be- 
loved, shall obtain glory in the Lord ; and every place shall 
receive him ; for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness 
thereof, (1 Cor. x. 26, 28 ; Ps. xxiv. 1.) See what they do, 
and see what they will do who have the life of God." 

Chap. LVL Let us warn and reprove each other. — " God. 
will take care of him who does not refuse correction. And 
we ourselves, also, my brethren, let us pray for those who 
are overtaken in a fault (Gal. vi. 1, ev nvi •kapa-KT&n.a.Ti 
{nrap)(ovT(t)v), in order that moderation and humility may be 
given them, that they may know how to yield, not to us, but 
to the will of God. 

" Let us accept, beloved, this correction, (TratSetW), at which 
no one should be offended. For thus saith the holy Word: 
The Lord chasteneth (TraiSeueî) every one whom he loveth, 
and he scourgeth every son whom he acknowledgeth. (Heb. 
xii. 6 ; Prov. iii. 12)." 

Chap. LVIL Let every author of revolt submit himself to 
the elders, lest God destroy him. — " You then who laid the 
foundations of this sedition, submit yourselves to the elders 
(wrorayi/re rots Trpea-fivrepoic, 1 Pet. v. 5), and be instructed 
in repentance, having bowed the knee of your hearts." 

Chap. LVIIL God bless all those who have invoked him. 
— "Finally, may God everywhere present, the Sovereign 
Master of spirits and the Lord of all flesh, who chose the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and who hath chosen us through him to 



284 THE CANON". 

be to him a peculiar people (etc Xaov irepiova-tov, Tit. ii. 14), 
give all who shall have invoked his holy and glorious iiame, 
faith, fear, peace, patience, sweetness, moderation, puritj, and 
wisdom, by our Great High Priest and Master, Jesus Christ, 
through whom to him be rendered glory and majesty, power 
and honor, now and for ever, Amen." 

Chap. LIX. Let the èreihren~whom we have delegated he 
sent back quickly from Corinth in peace and with joy. — "Xiet 
them return and tell us that the concord so desired is rees- 
tablished, and that we may rejoice on your account. 

" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and 
with all those who, in every place, are called of God and by 
Christ; through whom, to him belong glory, honor, power, 
majesty, and the eternal throne for ever and ever, Amen ! " 

"We see that this letter, in regard to piety, discipline, and 
doctrine, bears all the characters we should expect. As to 
discipline, Clement shows us in the church but two classes 
of oflScers (chap, xiii.) ; bishops (or elders) and deacons, 
under the only and sovereign priesthood of Jesus Christ (chap, 
xxvi.) ; " all bishops or elders being established {KaracrraOév- 
Tcs) with the consent of the entire flock" (chap, xliv.) and 
each church being exhorted " to walk in peace (vprjvevértù) 
with the constituted (ica^eo-Ta/ici/cov)." As to piety, it is also 
that of the apostolic days, which consists in " giving heed to 
the words of God, to live by Jesus Christ, and to keep his 
sufferings constantly in view." And finally, as to doctrine, 
we see ourselves led back to the purest fountains of Chris- 
tianity. None of those errors which so early drew away the 
primitive flocks, no exaltation of the priest or the church 
or the sacrament, or of Peter or Mary. Jesus Christ is all, 
the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. It is by 
grace only and through faith (chap, xxxii.) that all must be 
received, conversion and remission (chap, xxxvi.), sanctifica- 
tion and perseverance. It is to the eternal election of the 
Father that all must be referred, beginning and progress, 
assurance and glory. And yet, in the bosom of this primor- 



THE EPISTLE OF CT.E1VrF.NS EOMANUS. 285 

dial purity, we already perceive, and it was necessary, that 
it was" no more an inspired hand that held the pen, and that 
we no more find as in the New Testament an infallible pre- 
cision in every word. It is thus in chap. xxv. the author re- 
ceives as a fact of natural history, the fable of the phœnix; ^ 
surely a harmless error, but such an error as can be found in 
none of the canonical Scriptures. And so in chap. v. in 
speaking of Peter, he places the faithful in glory already 
before the return of Christ and the resurrection ; which no 
inspired book has ever done.^ It is thus too that by the side 
of the purest professions of doctrine, you will find perhaps 
one or two expressions Ipss balanced, which would seem to 
attribute to human works that which the Scriptures do not 
ascribe to them ; expressions however, which, weighed more 
carefully, may still be explained in harmony with the doc- 
trines of Scripture.^ 

We reluctantly omit, for brevity's sake, his continual quo- 
tations from the Old Testament. And yet it is his distin- 
guishing feature ; they abound there to such a degree that 
more than a hundred are found in thirty-three or thirty-four 
pages of his text. That is, three quotations for a page ; and 
even certain chapters, like the epistle to the Hebrews, pre- 
sent a constant series of them. Clement too, like the apostle 
Paul, often quotes passages by paraphrasing them to make 
the sense in which he quotes them more clear. But after 
all, the question for us is not there ; and we must, for the 
moment, omit that apostolical trait in order to consider only 
the following inquiry : — " What conclusion must we draw 
from this letter as to the canonicity of those portions of the 
New Testament which had already appeared at the epoch of 
his writing, about A. D. 68 ? " For, we do not forget that at 

1 Such as Herodotus mentions, and all antiquitj- received, (Tacit. Annal. 
vi. 23. Suetonius in Tiber. 53.) 

2 The author must mean in the completeness of their immortal glory. Tr. 
8 In regard to opposing works to vain words, he says in chap. xxx. 

Ipyoïç ôUatoifievot Kot (ifj Myoïç. And yet, so far as God is obliged to keep 
bis promises he had said in chap. v. {elç tov à^eùâftevav tôtzov ttjç ôô^ç.) 



286 THE CANON. 

this epoch the canon had already been nineteen years in a 
process of formation, to be continued in the same process for 
thirty years more, or to A. d. 98, when the Apocalypse ap- 
peared. The first epistle of Paul in fact had appeared about 
A. D. 49 ; Nero, fifteen years later, had burned Rome ^and 
slaughtered the Christians ; he was not killed until June 9th, 
A. D. 68, after having decapitated the apostle Paul; and Ti- 
tus, two years later, had burned Jerusalem (5th of August, 
70). Now we know that Clement's letter had preceded this 
great destruction. 

It is then proper that we consider more closely the testi- 
mony which this letter may render to the Holy Scriptures 
already published in the year 70. 

1. And first we see at this epoch the canon so receiyed 
among the flocks of Greece and Italy, that the first pastor 
of the great city of Rome, writing in the name of his church 
" to the very important and very ancient church of Corinth 
(t^ ^efiaLOTaTrj kol àp)(aia) " authoritatively reminds it of the 
first of the epistles which it had received from Paul fifteen 
years before (chap. Ixvii.) 

2. In the second place, it should be remarked that, if 
Clement quotes it to them, it is not as an ordinary letter ; 
that is, he himself says, as a letter " truly inspired (hr 0X17- 
deiias -TrvevfjuoLTiKSis cttc^ciAci/)." 

3. This first testimony of Clement, were it the only one, 
would attest already that at that epoch the church of Corinth 
knew the epistles of Paul to be divine. Thus we might 
already say (as had been done in 2 Pet. iii. 15) that this 
church knew all the epistles (èv iraxraLs rats cTTMrroXats) that 
Paul had written, according to the wisdom given unto him ; 
for no reason exists for giving to this first epistle of Paul to 
the Corinthians any superiority over the others ; and it is 
sufficiently clear that Clement signalizes it to them so ex- 
plicitly only because it treated of other dissensions which 
had already disturbed them fifteen years before. And if he 
mentions the first to them rather than the second, it is because 



THE EPISTLE OF CLEMENS ROMANTTS. 287 

the latter contained no reference to them. We must remem- 
ber that we have already seen Polycarp writing to the Phil- 
ippians, mentioning to them, in the same manner, of all Paul's 
epistles, only that to the Philippians. 

4. No one can question that Clement, bishop of Eome, 
writing to Home, in the name of the church of Rome, knew 
the epistle to the Romans just as well as that to the Corin- 
thians. Moreover, without naming it, Clement makes fre- 
quent allusions to it (as may be seen in our extract) particu- 
larly in chapters xxxii. xxxv. xlvii. It is thus that, without 
again naming the epistle to the Corinthians, he quotes it fi*e- 
quently, on other occasions and other subjects. We have 
above indicated many of these reminiscences, they are there 
very clearly recognized. His beautiful thirty-ninth chapter 
on charity may especially be referred to. 

5. You notice equally in this letter numerous quotations 
of the words of Jesus Christ from Matthew and Luke, with- 
out, however, the author taking any pains to indicate from 
which. That was the usage of the period. 

6. You there find also allusions sufficiently marked to many 
other letters of Paul, and to Peter's two epistles ; and you 
hear him reproducing passages from them which the cotem- 
porary churches must readily have recognized. 

7. But what is most remarkable, are the numerous and 
clear quotations from the epistle to the Hebrews. He is no 
more at the pains of intimating the source from which they 
came ; but he almost reproduces (chap, xxxvi.) the first thir- 
teen verses on the divinity of Jesus Christ ; he quotes, with 
the apostle, the examples of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Rahab, 
and those " who have announced the coming of Christ, clothed 
in goat-skins and sheep-skins (Heb. xi. 37.) In a word, the 
extracts from this epistle recur at least fifteen or sixteen 
times in his text ; and his quotations are so precise that none 
can dispute whence they are taken. They need not be re- 
peated here. 

8. It is in vain that some have made an objection to Clem- 



288 V THE CANON-. 

ent's testimony to the canon that his quotations are para* 
phrastic and not literal. We say rather that this very liberty 
of blending the sentences of the New Testament with his 
own discourse attests with what fullness the thoughts of the 
sacred books occupied the thoughts of these cotemporary 
hearers or readers ; so that a writer was sure, by a brief quo- 
tation, to call up in religious men all their recollection of the 
written word. This mode of quoting is, on the contrary, to 
us a proof of the existence of the canon and of the powerful ■ 
effects of the public readings of the Scriptui'es. If I were 
employing in my discourse before a modern audience, some 
expressions borrowed from those portions of Scripture which 
are best known in every age ; if I were speaking, for instance, 
of " Him who gives us our daily bread ; " " of the God pow- 
erful and jealous who visits the iniquities of the fathers upon 
the children ; " of the Saviour " delivered for our offences 
and bruised for our iniquities," I should abstain from men- 
tioning the books, chapters, and verses from which I took 
them, because it would be a piece of pedantry to name them. 
But we have yet more general conclusions to deduce from 
the combined testimony of all these Fathers. 

Conclusion from the Testimony of the Apostolical Fathers. 

We have just heard all these Fathers. They have come 
in turn to confirm to us the canon, each in his own way ; and 
their testimony, for the establishing of our faith, is found to 
be always conformed to the circumstances of their respective 
ages. We do not claim that the entire doctrine of the canon 
can be established on the word of each one of them ; this 
proof in its plenitude must be sought elsewhere. But what 
m^y be incontestably established by them, is, that these 
documents attest with clearness of evidence the existence of 
the first canon ; that they recall the greater part of our sa- 
cred books ; that they proclaim their inspiration ; that they 
show us with what submission they were received in all the 
churches. 



LAST BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 289 

- Yet it remains for us still to consult another monument 
very similar to Clement's, in its form and date. It differs 
fi'om it only in being inspired. We mean the testimony ren- 
dered to the canon then in formation, by the apostles them- 
selves, in some of their more recent writings. 



SECTION XI 

TESTIMONY OF THE XAST BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
TO THE EXISTENCE OF A CANON ALREADY BEGUN. 

As Clement quoted in A. D. 68 the discourses of the Lord 
Recorded in Matthew and Luke, the Epistle of Paul to the 
Corinthians, the words of many others of this apostle's letters 
and of Peter's epistle ; so Paul himself, in his first letter to 
Timothy (v. 18), appears to quote, but without naming it, 
and after the manner of the Fathers, the gospel of Luke, 
when he recalls this sentence found in that evangelfst alone 
(x. 7) ; " The laborer is worthy of his hire." 

Thus again, the same apostle seems to us clearly to have 
designated the first Scriptures of the New Testament by the 
name of " the Scriptures of the prophets " (that is, according 
to his style, the inspired Scriptures), when he speaks in Ro- 
mans xvi. 26, of the books by which " the mystery of Jesus 
Christ was then (vvv) made known to all nations.'* In fact, 
one tenth of the books of the canon was then in the hands 
of the churchy two gospels ; two letters to the Thessalonians ; 
two to the Corinthians ; the epistle to the Galatians ; proba- 
bly also that to Titus ; besides the first to Timothy, and the 
first of Peter ; and it must have been in reference to these 
Scriptures already spread through all the churches, that Paul, 
on the point of making his last visit to Jerusalem, wrote to 
the Romans, that through " the gospel and the preaching of 
Jesus Christ, the mystery, which had been kept secret since 
the world began, was now made manifest by the Scriptures 
25 



290 ' THE CANOIî. 

of the prophets (Bih ypafj>éiv ■7rpo<f>7]TiKtûv) according- to the 
commandment of the everlasting God, and that it was then 
made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." 

The meaning of the phrase " Scriptures of the prophets," 
has been said to be, the Old Testament. But, besides the 
improbability of a meaning so lifeless, Paul here declares 
that it was by these Scriptures that the mystery of Jesus 
Christ was in his day (vvv) made manifest ; and he has, more- 
over, often repeated the assertion that the apostles were 
prophets, and their writings (consequently) prophetic writ- 
ings. We think then that the most natural sense, and the 
one most conformed to the habits of the apostle, is that which 
we have given it. 

Besides, no one will contest the meaning of Petei"'s words 
in his epistle, much later than Paul's to the Bomans, which 
he wrote after " Jesus Christ had showed him that shortly he 
must put off his tabernacle." (2 Pet. i. 14.) He there rec- 
ommends all the epistles of Paul (iii. 15) and declares that 
' " they that are unlearned and unstable wrest them as they do 
the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." 
' See then already, toward the year 64, or at latest 68, thirty 
or thirty-four years only after the crucifixion of our Lord, all 
the epistles of Paul placed by an apostle in the rank of the 
other Scriptures (tàs Xowràs Ppa^as.) 

This term, " the Scriptures," occurs fifty times in the New 
Testament, and fifty times it is there exclusively applied to 
the books of one or the other Testament. It is thus that 
the canon is already proclaimed by an apostle, and solemnly 
recommended to the faithful of the first century ; it is already 
mentioned as a book holding the same rank with the Old 
Testament. 

And let it be observed, that the argument here does not 
depend upon the inspiration of Peter's epistle ; and even if 
we should regard it merely as one of the writings of the first 
century, its testimony would show us already the existence 
of the canons among the Christians in that early day, and 



LAST BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 291 

the identification made by them of the inspired Scriptures of 
the prophets of the New Testament with the inspired Scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament. 

Nor is this all. This second epistle of Peter is itself 
directly and textually cited in another still later epistle, that 
of the apostle Jude. 

Let his seventeenth verse be attentively read. "But, be- 
loved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of 
the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

And what did they say, these apostles of Jesus Christ ? 
" They told you," Jude continues, " there should be mockers 
(è/u.waÎKTai) in the last time (èoT^aro)) who should walk (tto- 
pevo/xevoL) after their own ungodly lusts (Kara ràs êavriov èinôv- 
fiCas Twv dureySeiSj')." And where then do we find one of the 
apostles of our Lord uttering these words ? Only in the 
second epistle of Peter. We there find every one of these 
expressions ; it is this Kara, ràs èmOvfjLias avrtov, after their 
own lusts ; it is this -n-opevoiievoi, and especially this remark- 
able term of mockers (è/ATraÎKrat), which is found nowhere 
else in the New Testament. 

Peter had said (iii. 3), " Knowing this first that there shall 
come in the last days scoffers (è/iTraî/cTai), walking (Tropevo/nc- 
voi) after their own lusts." 

Now this epistle of Jude is declared to be divine from the 
second century, in the East by Clement of Alexandria ; in 
the West, by TertuUian, the oldest of the Latin Fathers ; in 
the third century, by Origen and the majority of the ancient 
Fathers mentioned by Eusebius. And it should be remem- 
bered that we have found it equally in each of the eleven 
catalogues of the New Testament transmitted to us by writers 
of the fourth century. 

Thus then the epistle of Jude the apostle, already ac- 
knowledged in the second century, itself quotes the second 
epistle of Peter as a Scripture whose words the church re- 
ligiously observed, and as a Scripture of thé apostles of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. And we have just seen that in its turn 



292 THE CANON". 

this second epistle of Peter, before the year 64, quoted all 
the epistles of Paul as occupying the same rank with the 
other Scriptures (ràs Xoaràs Vpa^às). 

We believe that enough has now been said to establish 
fully in the light of history, the incomparable authenticity of 
the twenty books which form the first canon of the New Tes- 
tament, and which the churches never for i moment hesitated 
to acknowledge. ,'W'e pass then to the other seven, beginning 
with the Second-First Canon. 



THE SECOND-FIRST CANON. 293 



CHAPTER THIRD. 
OF THE SECOND-FIRST CANON. 

The majority of the proofs which, in the preceding pages, 
have established on so immovable a basis of facts the authen- 
ticity of the first twenty homologomens, testify equally in 
favor of the twenty-first and twenty«second, the epistle to 
the Hebrews, and the Apocalypse. 

« Above all, these two books have in their favor the great 
proof which pervaded all the others ; the marvelous unanim- 
ity of all the churches during the first two centuries, com- 
mencing with the apostolical period. No one can quote, we 
have affirmed, in the literary history of all the centuries, a 
single example of a legitimacy so powerfully demonstrated, 
a single example which approaches it, even remotely. 

Admitted without opposition, from their first appearing, 
whether in the East or in the West, they have the right on 
this ground to take rank in the first canon. But we have 
deemed it more convenient to class them in neither the first 
nor the second, and to reserve for them a separate place ; be- 
cause, although they never ceased to be acknowledged, the 
one in the East, and the other in the West, yet they were, 
from the third century, contested for some time, the one in 
the West, the other in the East. 

We must, however, go into detail, beginning with the Apoc- 
alypse. 

25* 



294 THE CANON. 

SECTION L 

THE APOCALYPSE. 

Its first Reception. 

Op all the New Testament books the Apocalypse is the 
most fre(|uently and powerfully attested in the monuments of 
the primitive church. There is not one more commented on 
and quoted from the time of its appearing ; and it is not with- 
out irrefragable historical reasons that Eusebius has ranked it 
among the homologomens, at the same time stating his reser- 
vations, and expressing the strong repugnance which the 
Millenarian doctrine excited from his time. 

In fact, if as Olshausen says,^ and as Kirchhofer ^ repeats, 
" there is scarcely a Scripture in the New Testament which 
has in its favor a larger and more powerful succession of his- 
torical testimonies," yet the Apocalypse is also the book 
against which, afterward, on account of its mysteries and 
prophecies, the enemies of the canon and of the theopneusty 
baye most violently arrayed themselves. It was, in the third 
and fourth centuries, its doctrine of a millennium misappre- 
hended by them that aroused their opposition ; but it is es- 
pecially on account of its incontestable claims ^to the most 
complete inspiration, that it has been so bittefl^ opposed ini 
our day, above all, in Germany. This Scripture entirely 
prophetic, that is to say, theopneustic^ will never cease to be 
opposed by the enemies of the divine inspiration of the New 
Testament. 

At the same time, we must here carefully remark the na- 
ture of the objections raised by its first detractors in the third 
and fourth centuries. When, 'after having been so long re- 

1 Authenticity of N. T. chap. x. 

2 "Kaam ein Buch des N. T. hat eine solche namhafte Beiche von His- 
TOBiscHEN Testimonibn fur sich." (Quellens. p. 296.) 



FIRST RECEPTION OF THE APOCALYPSE. 295 

ceived by all the churches, the Apocalypse began to find 
some timid opposition in the third century ; and even later, 
in the fourth century, when its adversaries became more de- 
cided and numerous, noiie of them ever imagined an attack 
upon it by historical arguments, for it was as impregnable on 
that side as the four gospels. They directed their attack 
upon its contents ; its style, which, they pretended, was not 
that of John ; and its title, in which one said the author called 
himself John, not the apostle, whereas the true John, in his 
gospel, (xxi. 24 ; xix. 25, 26, and elsewhere) and in his first 
epistle (i. 2), has fully exhibited himself as an apostle. "Who 
then gives us assurance that the John of the Revelation is 
indeed the son of Zebedee, and not rather some other un- 
known writer of the same name ? Such were in the third 
century the sole objections of the adversaries ; and when 
Eusebius, in his turn, a. d. 324, announced his, he no more 
alleged than his predecessors, Michaelis says, any historical 
consideration. He did not say, " This book was not acknowl- 
edged by the ancients ; it has been contradicted from the 
time of its publication ; it was smuggled in at such or such 
an epoch ; it was not spoken of during the life of. John ; it 
was not preserved bythe seven churches of Asia. . . ." . By 
no means ; none of these objections were then possible ; and 
none thought of advancing them, however zealous they might 
be to get rid of millenarian doctrines. This consideration 
certainly forms, in favor of its authenticity, an historical argu- 
ment of the greatest weight. 

Besides, when Eusebius seeks for writers opposed to the 
Apocalypse in Christian antiquity, he can not find one from 
the days of the apostles, down to the third centuiy. It is 
first Caius, a Roman priest, whose testimony is entirely un- 
certain ; it is bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, who admits 
the canonicity and inspiration of the book, but calls in ques 
tion its apostolicity ; it is only certain persons in Egypt, who 
pretend to attribute it to Cerinthus the heretic, as had done 
before him, outside of the church, the heretical sect of the 



296 THE CANON. 

Alogiy who, from hatred to the name Logos given to Christ, 
rejected the gospel of John as well as his Apocalypse. 

But, long before these first isolated voices were heard, the 
unanimous testimony of the churches, during the whole course 
of the preceding century, had continued to pronounce in favor 
of this book in all the countries of the East and the West ; 
a great number of eminent writers had not ceased to com- 
mend it to the esteem of the churches by commentaries and 
innumerable quotations ; Justin Martyr in Asia ; the church 
of Lyons in Gaul ; Irenaeus the martyr, in the same city, 
whither he had not removed until after having long resided 
in Asia, in the country of Ephesus whence the Apocalypse 
emanated ; Theophilus, in Syrian Antioch ; ApoHonius, in 
Italy where he too underwent martyrdom ; Melito, in Asia 
Minor; Clement of Alexandria, in Egypt; Tertullian in 
Africa. 

And yet later, even after the oppositions of Caius and 
Dionysius had been heard in Egypt and Eome, what effect 
did they produce on their age ? Certainly very little ; for 
the great voice of the churches continued at the same time 
its testimony by the mouth of their teachers and martyrs. 
Hippolytus of Aden, astronomer, theologian, and martyr. in 
Italy ; the great Origen in Asia ; Cyprian in Africa ; Yicto- 
rinus in Pettaw in Pannonia ; bishop Methodius of Tyre, also 
a martyr ; Arnobius of Numidia ; Lactantius in Gaul, that 
eloquent African who was teacher of the son of the Emperor 
Constantine. And it was not only by the most distinguished 
men that the Apocalypse was then recommended ; for the 
Novatian and Donatist schismatics ?ilso expressed the same 
respect as the orthodox teachers. 

Afterward too in the East, at the beginning of the fourth 
century, at the same time that Eusebius, as also Cyril of Je- 
rusalem and Gregory Nazianzen seemed reluctant to place 
the Apocalypse in the canon of the homologomens, the great 
. Athanasius did not hesitate ; and in other parts of the East, 
you might have heard Basil, Epiphanius, Cyril of Alexan> 



ITS DATE. 297 

dria, among the Greeks; St. Ephraim among the Syrians; 
as in the West and in Africa, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augus- 
tine, among the Latins, speak of this Scripture with the same 
reverence. 

But before passing in review these several testimonies, and 
speaking of the council of Laodicea, we may settle the date 
of its first appearance. 

Its Date. ^ 

The exact age of the Apocalypse is given by Irenaeus, of 
all the witnesses the most reliable, since of all who have 
spoken of it, none lived nearer the time and place of the 
writing of this book and of its author's death.-' 

Irenaeus, the disciple and friend of Polycarp and of Papias, 
themselves friends or disciples of John, was born at the be- 
ginning of the second century, in the environs of Ephesus or 
Smyrna, that is in the province of the seven churches of Asia 
where -John, says Polycarp,*^ was buried. His birth, there- 
fore, Could not have been far from the time of this apostle's 
death ; since he, according to Eusebius, lived to the time of 
Trajan, and according to Jerome," to the sixty-eighth year 
after our Saviour's death, that is to a. d. 102, or the fifth 
year of Trajan's reign. 

These are the words of Irenaeus.* " It is not long since 
the Apocalypse appeared ; but it is almost in our generation, 
to>yard the close of Domitian's reign." 

This declaration so clear is confirmed to us too in the same 
century -by other independent testimonies. 

Clement of Alexandria ^ attests that John returned from 

1 Grabe, Prolog, in Irenœum. 

2 Euseb. H. E. Lib. v. chap. 24; Lib. iii. chap. 23. 

8 In hia " Illustrious Men; " see Lardner's torn. x. p. 100. 

* Iren. (adv. Hseres.), Lib. iii. chap. 30. (Euseb. H. E. Lib. iii. 18). See 
(chap. 28) the same Irenaeus attributing the Apocalypse to the apostle John; 
and see again, four chapters further. See, too, Lib. iv. 50. 

e Enseb. H. E. iii. 23. 



298 THE CANON. 

Patïnos to Ephesus " after the death of the tyrant." Tertul- 
lian speaks of Domitian as " having banished Christians ; " ^ 
and of John, as " having been first east into boiling oil, and 
then sent to an island." '^ Origen, about A. D. 230, says, in 
his commentary on Matthew, that " a Roman emperor, as 
tradition reports, banished John to the isle of Patmos .... 
and that John testifies to it without naming the emperor." 
Victorinus, bishop of Pettaw and martyr in A. D. 290, often 
repeats, that it was by Domitian that John was banished to 
Patmos. Eusebius in fine (H. E. iii. 18), repeats it too at 
the beginning of the fourth century, as also the writing " De 
duodecimo apostolis" (attributed to Hippolytus), and the; 
apocryphal narration of Prdchorus in the third century; 
as also Jerome in the fourth ; Orosus in the fifth ; ' Arethua- 
and Primasius in the sixth ; and Isidore of Seville in the 
seventh. 

All Christian antiquity attests to us that John died full of 
days in the province of Asia. Epiphanius alone, if we may 
believe his present text, toward the end of the fourth century, 
had advanced the absurd idea that John must have prophe- 
sied at Patmos during the days of Claudius.® But we have 
abundant cause to suspect here an error of the copyist, since 
as Lardner says, the same Epiphanius elsewhere attributes^ 
to John more than ninety years when he returned to Patmos.* 
Could he have ascribed to him such an age in a. d. 54, when 
the Emperor Claudius died, since it would have made him 
seventy years old when he was called, and one hundred and 
thirty-nine at his death ? The Fathers place the latter a. d. 
103. 

Many authors, in Germany and America,^ in the interest 
of certain systems of interpretation of prophecy, have made 

1 Apolog. chap. V. 2 De Pr. Hseres. cap. 36. 

8 Haeres. 51, No. 33. * Lardner, torn. iv. p. 188. 

6 Dr. Tilloch; Moses Stuart: Mr. Burgh; Prof. Lee; Prof. Liicke, and 
Guericke. The learned Lardner ah-eady had victoriously refuted the argu- 
ments hy Yrhich also Sir Isaac Newton had desired, in the interest of his in- 
terpretations, to establish the Neronian date. 



ITS DATE. 299 

strenuous efforts to disembarrass themselves of all these tes- 
timonies of history, and to place the promulgation of the 
Apocalypse fifty years earlier, in the time of Nero. 
To this end they have claimed : — 

1. That the apostolical epistles were written after the 
Apocalypse. 

2. That the persecution of Nero against the Chi-istians 
after the burning of Rome, must have been heard of in Asia, 
which no historian has ever affirmed. 

3. That the penalty of banishment to the islands must 
have been already employed, as in the times of Domitian ; a 
supposition equally gratuitous. 

4. That the city of Laodicea, where the seventh church 
addressed in the apocalyptic epistles was situated, and which 
was overthrown A. D. 61, with Colosse and Hierapolis by an 
earthquake, must have been almost immediately rebuilt dur- 
ing Nero's reign ; whereas it appears from history that it 
happened half a century before the rebuilding of those cities. 

5. That the passage of Irenaeus on the date of the Apoca- 
lypse, must have been either badly conceived, or badly trans- 
lated, or erroneous. 

6. That all the other writers who. relate the same fact must 
have copied this Father, although the details of their testi- 
monies respectively attest their entii-e independence. 

■ 7. That the alleged passage of Origen should express on 
his part some doubt as to which of the Boman monarchs it 
was who exiled the apostle to Patmos; although the only 
design of Origen in this passage was, to signalize the moder- 
ation of John, who speaks of the persecution without giving 
the name of the persecutor. 

8. Finally (and this last effort is of Mr. Guericke), that 
the very passage of Irenaeus so embarrassing, would indicate 
the Emperor Nero, rather than Domitian, as the persecutor 
of John, because the woijd Ao/ACTtavoî, instead of being the 
genitive of the proper name of Domitian, would be simply 
the feminine genitive of a qualifying adjective of the word 



300 THE CANOÎS". 

àpxv'5 which follows it, and would be formed of Domitius, one 
of the proper names of Domitius Nero ; so that (instead^ of 
rendering, " towards the end of the reign of Domitian " ) we 
must read, " towards the end of the Domitian or Neronian 
reign.^^ And that, he says, for two reasons : first, because, 
if the word ^ofieriavov had been a proper name, it would 
have been preceded by the article {tov) ; and then, because 
the adjective formed from Ao/jLenavos would rather have been 
AofieruivLKos. But these pretensions are of no value ; for, 

1, the Greeks never dreamed of this extraordinary meaning ; 

2, the employment of the name Domitius all alone, to desig- 
nate Nero, was unusual ; 3, so far was the article (tow) from 
being necessary here before Ao/ncnavov, we find, in the same 
chapter of Eusebius where the passage comes, three other 
proper names without their article ; ^ 4, because, even sup- 
posing Ao/xcTtavoi) to be taken adjectively, it is against all 
reason to derive it from Domitius rather than Domitianus. 
We have the twofold proof of this in the monuments of his- 
tory, since on one side, we read in Suetonius "Domitia gens " 
(and not Domitiana) to designate the family of Domitius 
Nero ; and on the other, in Statins,*^ " Viam Domitianam 
miratus sum " (and not Dpmitianicam) to designate a Roman 
road constructed by Domitianus." 

The Apocalypse then did not appear until a. d. 96, when 
Domitian died (Sept. 18), and when John might with so many 
others have come out of captivity. 

1 Middleton, in his beautiful work on " The Doctrine of the Greek arti- 
cle applied to the Criticism and Dlustration of the New Testament," has 
shown that the rule of the double article among the Greeks does not apply 
to proper names. 

2 Sj'lvse Lib. 4, — and the third ode entitled "Via Domitiana." 

8 Moreover we may cite Cicero (Pro Fonterio, p. 4) who calls a road 
opened by the proconsul C. Domitius " Via Domitia " Cassar commonly, 
it is true, (B. C, 1. 16 and 22) calls the partisans of Domitius, " Domitiani ; " 
This termination is the Latin form attributed to men of a party. It is thus 
tliat Servius called the discourses in which Cicero profusely praises Ca»ai 
" CfesaiiansB Orationes." 



THE APOCALYPSE m THE FUIST CENTURY. 301 

The Apocalypse in the First Century. 

As it is impossible then to assign an earlier date to the 
Apocalypse than the last three years of the first century, we 
can not look for the first witnesses earlier than the beginning 
of the second century. Consequently it could not have been 
mentioned either in the epistle of Clement written thirty 
years before the Apocalypse, nor even in the Peshito version, 
also published before this holy book and during one of the 
last thirty-five years of the first century. 

The Peshito was composed to meet the wants of the nu- 
merous Christians of Jerusalem, Judea, Syria, Chaldea, and 
Adiabene, speaking the very language used by Christ, and 
who formed for a long time the great majority of the primi- 
tive church ; as in the single city of Jerusalem they were 
already, toward the middle of the first century (a. d. 54) 
many myriads (Acts xxi. 20) and as according to the testi- 
monies of history they early abounded in the countries we 
have just named. This version which, in addition to the 
whole twenty books of the first canon, embraced the epistle 
of James and the epistle to the Hebrews, both written neces- 
sarily before A. d. 64, could not contain the Apocalypse, which 
was not composed until long afterwards. But the Syrian 
church, which pushed its strong branches to the very extrem- 
ities of the East, did, however, early acknowledge it, both by 
placing it after the antique version, and adopting it as a more 
recent version. Of this we have proof; 1, in the fact that 
the Apocalypse was admitted and commented on by the most 
eminent of the Syrian teachers, the illustrious St. Ephraim, 
born in Nisibis in Mesopotamia, about A. d. 320 ; and 2, by 
the fact, that the Nestorian branch carried the Apocalypse 
even to China. It is known that the ancient monument dis- 
covered in A. D. 1629, by tfie Jesuit missionaries at Sauxuen, 
in the province of Xensi, and going back to A. d. 781, pre- 
sented two inscriptions, the one in Chinese, and the other in 
Syriac, in which the New Testament was meiitioned as con- 
20 



S02 THE CAkON. V 

taining twenty-seven books, " which attests to us sufficiently,** 
says Michaelis, " that the Apocalypse made part of it." ^ 

Mr. Thiersch ^ is persuaded of it, from the researches of 
Hug.« 

Witnesses of the First Salf of the Second Century. 

The very rare writings of this epoch, which remain, give 
thus early their testimony to the Apocalypse. 

Whoever the unknown author of the allegorical book enti- 
tled " The Shepherd," may have been, which appeared about 
the middle of the second century and which was attributed 
to a brother of Pius I.,* his writing contains allusions to the 
Apocalypse, so manifest that we might cite it as one witness 
of the existence of this book among the churches. He often 
speaks of a great tribulation. His great beast, the four colors 
of his head, the grasshoppers which come out of his mouth, 
the tower which (he says) is the woman, the chui'ch which 
has crowns of palm and white raiments, the seal or the name 
of the son of God . . . etc., — all these features oblige us 
to recognize a spirit wholly imbued with the book of John. 
But we pass on to Ignatius. 

This bishop, companion of the apostles, suffered martyrdom 
A. D. 107, that is, at most, ten years after the appearance of 
the Apocalypse. Are any traces of the Revelation of John 

1 Michaelis, vol. vi. chap, xxxiii. p.. 495; Marsh's edit. See Hug. Tntrcd. 
p. 65. (Ed. 1808). 

2 Versuch zur Herstellung des Bîst. Standpimcts, chap. vi. And Mr. Kirch- 
hofer, p. 16, in speaking of the contents of the Peshito, says : " Und (nach 
Hug's Dafiirhaltea) die Apocalypse." 

8 The opinion of Hug is founded on the passages of Ephraim quoted 
hereafter. In the mean time Sozomen (H. E. iii. 16) and Theodoret (H. E. 
iv. 29) say that Ephraim did not understand Greek, and Ephraim himself, in 
speaking of a visit made by him' to Basil, says he had need of an inter- 
preter (Eph., Opera, iii. 712. Edit, of Vossius» 1603). 

■* Rom. xvi. 14. Hefele (Patrum Apost. Opera, p. Ixxxi.) thinks he must 
adopt the opinion of the author of the Fragment of Muratori, which he at- 
tributed to the brother of Pius I., from a. n. 142 to 14T. 



VVITJSTESSES OF FIRST HALF OF SECOND CENTURY. 303 

to be found in his three authentic epistles? Tou could 
scarcely expect it in lettei-s when the books of the New Tes- 
tament are merely alluded to, and where he expressly names 
only the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians ; for he wrote them 
surrounded by the rough soldiers who were hastening him to 
Rome for his execution. And yet, we already find there 
more than one passage in which allusions to our Sacred Book 
appear. Thus, for example, in his epistle to the Romans, at 
the end, this remarkable expression of the Apocalypse, i. 9 
(cv inroiMovy i. x.), which is found nowhere else in this form 
in the New Testament.^ 

As to Polycarp, if we have only his letter to the Philip- 
pians, too brief to furnish any quotation from the Apocalypse 
of John or from his gospel, we possess, as we have seen, the 
" Narration of his martyrdom." Written by his own church 
of Smyrna immediately after the event, it is to us equivalent 
to a testimony by Polycarp himself. Now his burned body 
is there represented " as gold and silver burned in a furnace''" 
(ms ^utros Kol apyvpos èv KafiLvio irvpwp.evoi) ; quoting, to all 
appearance, the passage of Peter (1, i. 7), in which he com- 
pares suffering Christians to gold tried in the fire. But for 
the words of Peter ('Stà Trvpos 8oKt/xa^oju,évov), we find substi- 
tuted the beautiful expressions of the Apocalypse (i. 15, ws' 
€v KafLLvtû TreTTvpwfxévoi), describing " the feet of the Son of 
man." The form of the phrase seems capable of explana- 
tion only by referring it to this expression of John 

Thus too, when, at the approach of the fire which they 
were about to apply to the fagots, Polycarp offered his 
prayer, he began with these words, taken also from the 
Apocalypse in the prayer of the elders: Kupte ô ©eos o Uav- 
TOKparap. (Rev. xi. 17). 

We may cite also at this very epoch so poor in monuments, 

1 Other allusions are adduced from the epistles of Ignatius to the Tralliana 
andPhiladelphianSjhnt we prefer to limit ourselves to the luicontested epis- 
tles, found in the very recent Syrian collection of William Cureton, (Ber- 
lin, Asher & Co., 1845). 



304 THE CANON. 

Papias, bishop of Hîerapolis, near Smyrna, the cîty of Poly- 
carp, and who, Irenaeus says (v. 23) was one of the hearers 
of John and the friend (iTaîpos) of Polycarp. He mentions 
John's doctrine of the millennium in the fourth of his five 
books, which have all perished. Eusebius in his H. E. book 
iii. chapter 39, cites some fragments. But if, in the absence 
of these writings, we appeal to the testimony of antiquity, we 
find two eminent authors Avho, when well studied, leave us 
no doubt as to the use which this Father made of the Apoc 
alypse. The one is Eusebius, A. D. 324; and the other, 
Andreas, bishop of the same city in the sixth century. 

Andreas, who himself composed a commentary on the 
Apocalypse, which still exists, and who states that he had 
consulted the ancient Fathers and made copious extracts from ■ 
their writings, expressly declares, although himself an anti- 
millenarian, that Papias (as also Irenaeus, Methodius, and 
Hippolytus) had rendered testimony to the inspiration of this 
book. " As to the theopneusty of the Apocalypse," he says, 
" we regard it superfluous to employ many words to show 
that the blessed Gregory the divine, Cyril, and men still- 
more ancient, Papias, Irenaeus, Methodius, and Hippolytus, 
have testified to the claims which this book has to our confi- 
dence.^ ' 

Eusebius, in his aversion to the thousand years' reign, seeks 
to insinuate that Irenaeus and others must have derived their 
doctrine on this subject from Papias, and that the latter de- 
serves little confidence, because he was, as he says, " of a 
narrow spirit (oyttK/aos tw vovv), who had formed his system 
on an ignorance of the apostolical writings, and a misappre- 
hension of their figurative language." ^ At the same time 
the testimony of Papias possesses a high value, because his 
personal relations to John would certainly have prevented 
his attributing to this apostle a book which he had never 
written. 

The language of Eusebius is ambiguous and embarrassed. 

1 Bibl. Pat Max. v. 589, 590. 2 Easeb. H. E. Lib. iii. chap. 39. - 



WITÎÎESSES OF FIEST HALF OF SECOND CENTUEY. 305 

Sometimes lie seems to mean that, according to the expres- 
sions of Papias, a priest John, rather than the apostle John, 
might have written the Apocalypse, and that Papias might 
have derived his millenarian doctrine from him ; sometimes 
he seems to say that Papias could not have imagined his ter- 
restrial reign of a thousand years but through hi^ misappre- 
hension of the mystical language of the apostolical writings. 
But on either of these contradictocy suppositions, Papias, 
according to him, must have known and quoted the Apoca- 
lypse. 

Michaelis thinks he has proved, on the contrary, from the 
writings of Eusebius, that Papias received his millenarian 
doctrines " from oral traditions merely." But Eusebius has 
not said this ; and to reach this conclusion Michaelis was forced 
to translate the words of Eusebius (7rap€K8e|ajLC€vov and 8t>j- 
Y^a-eis) altogether differently from Valesius (H. de Valois) 
and many others before him.'^ 

We thence conclude : 1, that the very positive testimony 
of Andreas concerning Papias has much more force than thé 
hypothetical and contradictory insinuations of Eusebius ; and 
2j that Papias, according to Eusebius himself, founded his 
millenarian doctrine on the Apocalypse, —^ of the. apostle 
John badly understood, or the priest John well understood ; 
but in any case, on the Apocalypse.^ 

1 Instead of translating, " Having badly understood the apostolical Avrit- 
ings," he reads, " Having informed himself of the apostolical sayings." 

2 Eusebius having quoted [concerning the first disciples of Christ] a 
Arment of Papias in which the name of John occurred twice, and the 
second time with the title ofpinest, concluded that there probably were two 
Johns, the one an apostle, the other a priest; and that perhaps the latter 
might have ^vritten the Apocalypse. He adds that in Ephesus two sepul- 
chres of John are shown, and he thence concludes that the one may be that 
of the apostle, the other that of the priest. Eusebius would have had little 
claim to the respect of science if all his conclusions were of no more value 
than this. This very Eusebius (iii. 23) had strongly affirmed, " on the tes- 
timony of men," hè saj-s, "most worthy of confidence (Irenœus and Clem- 
ent of Alexandria) that the apostle John had lived to Trajan's reign, having 
returned to Ephesus from Fatmos after the death of the tyrant (Domi- 
tian). 

28* 



806 THE CANON. 

Witnesses of the Second Half of the same Century 

If we pass from a.d. 150 to the years which followed, 
numerous and eminent witnesses present themselves in the 
various parts of the world ; and these do not content them- 
selves with .mentioning the Apocalypse, they quote and com- 
ment upon it abundantly. 

1. First we have Justin Martyr, that philosopher become 
Christian, born in Palestine the very year, it is said, whea 
the Apocalypse appeared (a. d. 102 or 103) and who, con- 
verted A. D. 133, fell a martyr in 165. He wrote his Dia- 
logue to Ephesus, and should know better than any other 
what had passed there only thirty years before. Now observe 
his words, in his Dialogue against Trypho : " A man among 
us named John, an apostle of Jesus Christ, in an Apocalypse 
or Revelation which was made {èv airoKokvij/ei yei/ofieirsj avriS), 
has prophesied that all those who believe in our Christ shall 
live a thousand years in Jenisalem." ^ 

2. We have afterward, in A. D. 177, the " Narrative of the 
Martyrs of Lyons," made by a Christian of that city who 
escaped the carnage, and addressed by the churches of Graul 
to those . of prodbnsular Asia. Eusebius has preserved it to 
us (H. E. V. 1) ; it is stamped with the phraseology of the 
Apocalypse. We there find, for example, this remarkable 
expression (Rev. xiv. 4), to describe a true disciple of Christ : 
*' I will follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth " (aKoXovdciv 
Tw 'Apvup oTTov av vTrdyrf). And this Other so characteristic, 
on Christ (Rev. i. 5 ; iii. 14) : " To the faithful and true wit- 
ness, the firstborn from the dead " (tw ttmttw koL dXi^divû /tap- 
Tvpi, Koi TrpworoKtu rtov veKpwv.) And still this other (Rev. 
xxii. 11); in speaking of the rage of their persecutors like 
the beast (ôyjpCov), " that the Scripture might be fulfilled." 
And what Scripture ? This undoubtedly which they imme- 
diately quote, word for word : " He that is unjust, let him be 
unjust still, and he that is righteous, 4et him be righteous still." 

1 See too, Euseb. H. E. iv. 18. 



WITNESSES OF SECOIH) HALF OF SAME CENTURY. 307 

3. We have also the celehratecï Irengeus, who came shortly- 
after these martyrs, to guide the church of Lyotfs. In his 
great work " On the Heresies " written ahout A. d. 185, he 
comes frequently to the Apocalypse, and quotes it abundantly ; 
at least in thirty-one different passages ; calling it " the work 
of that John, disciple of the Lord, who leaned on his breast 
at the Supper," ^ frequently commenting on it, and appealing 
even, when explaining the number of the beast, " to all the 
miost exact old copies of this holy book (h/ •jrScrt 8è toîs 
oTTovSaiois KcCi dp^atots avTiypatfiOLs) and to the testimony of 
those who had personally seen John." 

4. We find at Sardis, in Asia Minor, about A. d. 170, Mel- 
ito, who was still governing that church when the letter from 
the Gallic churches concerning the^ martyrs of Lyons Was re- 
ceived there. He himself had written a treatise ou " The 
Apocalypse of John." ^ 

5. We have spoken of the "Fragment" of the Latin 
canon of " Muratori " which is admitted to be very ancient. 
We there find these remarkable words : " We also acknowl- 
edge the Apocalypse, etc. (Apocalypsin etiam Johannis . . . 
recipimus, quam quidam ex nostris legi in Ecclesiâ nolunt. 
Et Johannes in Apocalypsi, licet septem Ecclesiis scribat, 
tamen omnibus dicit. . • •) " 

Ânà it is important, to remark in passing, in the last words 
of this catalogue,' a usage which explains and confirms what 
we have said of the later decree of Laodicea. The Apoca- 
lypse was universally received as divine ; but " many at the 
same time, would not, on account of its obscurity, have it 
read in public assemblies." 

6. We find in Syria, at the same epoch, Theophilus, bishop 
of Antioch, who in combating the heresy of Hermogenes, 
quoted to him the Apocalypse. It was A. d. 181. (Euseb. 
H. E. Lib. iv. chap. 24). 

1 De Haer. iv. 37, 50; v. 26, 30. 

2 ILepl T^s '&.iTOK(û.. 'ludwov. Euseb. H. E. Lib. iv. chap. 26. See also 
Jerome (De vir. illustrib. 2i.) Melito had, A. d. 172, presented the Emperor 
Marcus Aurelius au " Apology for the Christian religion." 



308 . THE CANOK 

7. Ât Borne a. d. 186, Apollonius, called " The eloquent" 
hj John, and who is believed to be he whose affecting mar- 
tyrdom is described by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History 
(Lib. V. chap. xxi). It names him as having invoked testi- 
monies taken from the Apocalypse. Çîoidwov 'AttokoiX.) 

8. At the same time, we find even in Africa two of the 
most respectable witnesses of Christian antiquity ; the one 
is Clement of Alexandria, about A. D. 191. He frequently . 
quotes the Apocalypse. The other, at Carthage, is the great 
TertuUian, the earliest of the Latin Fathers, as also the most 
enlightened. More than seventy quotations from the Apoca- 
lypse are found in his writings. He declares it to be the 
work of the apostle John ; he defends it against Marcion the 
heretic (Lib. iv. chap, v.);^ who rejected it only on dogmatical 
grounds; and on this point he appeals to the important testi- 
mony of the churches of Asia, and to the succession of bish- 
ops goinff hack to John, the author of this book. 

All these great authorities cease not to quote the Apoca- 
lypse of John without mentioning the least opposition, up to 
their time, raised against.it in the church. Thus, even to the 
close of the second century and commencement of the third, 
this sacred book was universally considered as an inspired 
book of the apostle John, whether in the Greek churc^ or 
in the Latin ; in Egypt, in Palestine, in Asia Minor, in Syria, 
in Italy, Africa, or even Gaul.^ 

Witnesses of the First Half of the Third Century. 

We must descend even to the middle of the third century 
to hear the first serious opposition. It is not until then that 
some isolated detractors of the Apocalypse begin to be heard in 
the church ; and now they bring no historical reason for their 
opposition. Eusebius, notwithstanding his prejudices, has 

1 We do not speak of the heretics outside of the church. The impious 
sect of the Alogi, enemies of the term Logos applied to Jesus Christ, had re< 
jected both the gospel of John and his Apocalypse. (Michaelis, vol. vi. p. 
468, English edit.) 



FIRST HALF OF THE THIRD CENTURY. 309 

been able to find at the beginning of the century only one 
voice at Rome, that of a priest named Caius, who, m a con- 
troversy with Prochus, to repel the gi-oss errors on the mil- 
lennium, set himself against this book, attributing it to Cerin- 
thus.^ But his attacks (according to Eusebius) are not well 
established.^ Hug brings them into doubt* This Caius was 
animated with a strong hatred of the millenarian doctrine, 
of which he had conceived a revolting idea from the wholly 
carnal descriptions of it given by Cerinthus, the gnostic, whom 
John is said to have combated. But Gains, in- the words 
quoted by Eusebius (iii. 28), does not say, as pretended, that 
Cerinthus attributed his gross notions to the Apocalypse ; he 
made them, he says, " originate in certain revelations " (8i 
àTTOKoXvxJ/ewv) which he pretended " had been written by a 
great apostle," and " in prodigies which he feigned had been 
showed to him by angels." * Besides, the martyr Hippolytus 
had triumphantly refuted in many chapters of his works the 
errors of Caius ; and whatever may have been his words in 
Rome, words unknown to us, they certainly produced a very 
faint impression there, since Rome, as well as the Western 
churches, has never ceased to recognize this Scripture as an 
inspired book. 

It would appear also from some remarks of Dionysius of 
Alexandria,^ quoted by Eusebius (vii. 25), that in Egypt, a 
quarter of a century after Caius, some anonymous persons, 
before the days of Dionysius (the Alogi) might have rejected 
the Apocalypse, and might have shown the absurd boldness 
of attributing it to Cerinthus ; — absurd, I say, since there is 
not a sacred book more opposed to the peculiar opinions of 
Cerinthus than the Apocalypse, as Lardner has proved.^ 

1 HE. Lib iii. 28; Lib. vii. 25. 

2 Michaelis, Edit. Fr. torn. iv. p. 528 to 540. 
8 See his Introduction. ' 

* At' ànoKaXv^ecïv èç VKb àiroarôTiov fisyâT^ov yeypafiiiévuv, Tspcûuoyîaç 
^fùv àç ôû àyyéTMv avTÙ ÔEÔeiyfiévaç ipevôo/jiévoc. 

* Tivèç fjkv ovv Tùv npd ^(uiv, says Dionysius. 
8 Vol. ii. (4to.) p. 700. 



310 THE CANON. 

Eusebius again forty years after Caius, toward thie middle 
of the third century, mentions in Egypt the first man truly 
notable, who had raised his voice, not against the canonicity 
or the divine inspiration of the Apocalypse (for he acknowl- 
edged both), but solely against its apostolicity. It was Dio- 
nysius, bishop of Alexandria from A. d. 247 to 264, the time 
of his death; a man learned and justly respected, but of 
whose numerous works we haye now nothing but some frag- 
ments preserved in Eusebius's history.^ In the mean time, 
what is remarkable, Dionysius, to justify his prejudices 
against the Johanniiy (if the term may be allowed) of the 
Apocalypse, has not been able, as we have just seen, to allege 
a single historical argument, and was obliged to content him- 
self with saying that "some before him had rejected it, at- 
tributing it to Cerinthus." And certainly, that so learned a 
man was not able to advance a historical objection, is a fact 
which Michaelis,'' in his impartiality, declares to " have great 
weight." 

See then what are almost the sole reasons which Dionysiua 
has alleged to establish his_ position that another John, a dis- 
ciple equally inspired, wrote the Apocalypse ; for instance, 
John Mark (cousin of Barnabas), " or rather, some other 
John, living in the province of Asia ; " " for," he says, " they 
still show near Ephesus two sepulchers marked alike with 
the name of John." 

It is, in the first place, that the author of the Apocalypse 
calls himself John more than once, whereas the apostle has 
never thus named himself in either his gospel or his epistles. 
Secondly, in naming himself John, he does not call himself 
an apostle. Thirdly, there is no mention of the epistles of 
John in the Apocalypse, nor of the Apocalypse in the epis- 
tles. Fourthly, there are striking resemblances between 
the three epistles of John and his gospel, while there is 
none between these books and the Apocalypse. . Fifthly, 

1 Lib. vii. chaps. 20, 22, 25, 26; Lib. vi. 45, 46; (especially Lib. vii. 25.) 
3 Chap, xxxii., 2 vol. ; vi. p. 484. 



rmST HALF OF THE THHID CEÎfTUET. 311 

whilst the Greek of these books is very correct, that of the 
Apocalypse is not. 

Of all these objections, none has much weight except that 
■which is founded on the difference of styles. But every one 
knows how much, in this respect, the various productions of 
an author frequently differ from each other, according to the 
subject he is treating, the epochs of his writing, and other 
circumstances. Who has not made this remark in regard to 
the sacred authors of the Old and the New Testaments, ac- 
cording as they are narrating, exhorting, or predicting ? Let 
any one, for instance, compare Moses in his narratives with 
Moses in his last song (Deut. xxxii.) ; Isaiah in his historical" 
chapters (xxxvi. to xxxviii,), with Isaiâh in his prophetic 
poetry ; Paul in his epistle to the Romans with Paul in his 
epistle to Philemon. 

Thus Dionysius, after having exposed his prejudices against 
the Apocalypse, takes pains to add that ^^ as for him, he durst 
not reject it, so many brethren heing ardently attached to it." ^ 
And if he takes the pains to show that its author was John, 
a son of Zebedee, he by no means denies " its inspiration." 
"That John, whoever he may have been, author of the 
Apocalypse, had a divine revelation ; that he received from 
above a knowledge and a prophecy ; is what I do npt deny.^ . . 
And I admit with the others that he must have been a holy 
man inspijed of God " (àyiiou fifv yap etvat tivos koX ôeoirveua-- 
rov (Tvvcuyta.) 

. Thus then, we must not rank Dionysius of Alexandria 
among even the adversaries of the Apocalypse, I mean T)f its 
canonicity and its inspiration, but only of its apostolicity ; 
and even with a gi*eat deal of reserve and doubt. And if, 
after Dionysius, the doubters became for a time more numer- 
ous. and bolder, yet they never appealed to history; so that 

1 'Eyù> ôè â&enjoai /jèv ovk àv ToTift^aai/u rà ^ipTûav, iroTJxiv avrb ôià 
tmovôîjç èxàvTuv àôe?i^ùi>. 

. 2 TovTu de ÔKOKiahï^w éapaiœvai, kcù, yvûfftv slXri^vai Koi Trpo^TEÎav, 
OÙKÔvrepù. 



312 THE CAKON". 

theîr objections have no more weight with iis than if they 
were living in our day. 

Now, whilst in this first half of the third century, Eusebius 
found these isolated doubts so reservedly uttered, he saw still 
coming down from the earliest period, that long chain of wit- 
nesses ; which we have seen commencing in the days of the 
apostles, and which continued to unfold itself with great dis- 
tinctness particularly in three of the most pious, and what is 
here of chief consequence, of the most learned writers of 
Christian antiquity, all three martyrs or sons of martyrs ; the 
one in Asia, at Rome, and in Arabia ; the other in Palestine ; 
•and the third in Carthage, who fully and strongly expressed 
their veneration for'the Apocalypse. The first, Hippolytus, 
one of the most learned men of antiquity, no less celebrated 
in mathematics and astronomy than in sacred learning, was 
an intimate friend of Origen. He taught both in the East 
and the West, for after having been, as is supposed, bishop 
of Aden ^ in Arabia, he came to the Capital of the Empire, 
about A. D. 235, labored there a long time, and even, as is 
believed, underwent martyrdom there.'^ Now this great man 
was not satisfied with frequently quoting the Apocalypse as 
one of the inspired books of the apostle John. He wrote a 
commentary on it frequently quoted by the ancients,' and 
particularly devoted some chapters to a -refutation 'of the 
errors of Caius. The testimony of a man so learned and 
pious is of such importance that Michaelis attributes princi- 
pally to his influence the universal acceptance of the Apoca- 
lypse in the Christian church. In his book " on Christ and 

1 Portas Eomanus. This fact maintained by Cave (Hist. Litt. Sseculum 
Novatianum) is utterly rejected by Mr. Bunsen. (See his Hippolytus). 
But the arguments of Cave remain, and we do not think he has been re- 
futed. 

2 There was at least in his day one bishop Hippolytus who was martyred 
for the kingdom of God. There was foimd, in 1551, near the walls of Bome, 
a curious marble erected to his memory, and bearing the list of his works, 
80 greatly were they respected, (Cave, ibid). 

8 Among others," Andreas, bishop of Cesarea, A. i>. 520, and Jacob tha 
Syrian, bishop of Odessa, A. D. 651, (Michaelis, p. 479). 



FIRST HALF OF THE THIRD CENTURY. 313 

Antichrist " (in seventy brief chapters), a book still extant, 
he says, " John saw in the Island of Patmos terrible myste- 
ries. Tell me then, John, thou apostle and disciple of 
Christ, what hast thou seen of Babylon ? " 

The second witness, yet more illustrious, is Origen, in the 
first half of the third century. There is, in fact, no author- 
ity so great in antiquity, in regard to sacred criticism. At 
the end of the second century he was fifteen years old, and 
died A. D. 253. Now, this learned man, says Michaelis, "re- 
ceived, opposed as he was to the doctrine of the Millenarians, 
the Apocalypse as being in the canon of the inspired Scrip- 
tures." He entertained no doubt of its authenticity as the 
work of John the son of Zebedee. In his Commentary on 
John, he calls this apostle, on account of the Apocalypse (8ià 
T^s dTTOKoXiJi/fccos), " the apostle, evangelist, and prophet." 
He makes such frequent mention of this sacred book in his 
writings, that it would be superfluous to accumulate instances 
here. " What shall we say of John, who leaned his head on 
Jesus' bosom ? " he exclaims in one passage found in Euse- 
bius ; ^ " for, not only has he left us a gospel, declaring that 
he might write so many that the world could not contain them ; 
but he has also written the Apocalypse ^ in which he was 
ordered to seal the things which the seven thunders had re- 
vealed, and not to write them." Also the learned Doctor 
Lucke, a modern opponent of the Apocalypse, has had the 
candor to say, "It is a weighty fact against us that Origen 
often quotes this book as from the apostle John, — he who had 
made so many researches on the canon of the New Testa- 
ment, on its limits and its classifications, and who never con- 
ceals the objections raised against a book." 

The third of our witnesses at this remote epoch, is in 
Latin Africa, the cotemporary of Origen, the martyr of Car- 
thage, the learned and pious Cyprian. When he quotes the 

1 H. E. Lib. vi. chap. 25. See, also, other quotations which are remark- 
able, in Kirchhofer, 1842, p. 309. 
* 'Eypape âè koI tçv 'AiroKahnptv. 
27 



314 THE CANOîr. 

Apocalypse, it is as a work of John,^ as a book of the Holy 
Scripture,*^ as a writing inspired of God.* 



Witnesses of the Second Half of the Third Century. 

We see no new adversary of any importance appearing in 
this latter portion of the century, and we find everywhere, on 
the contrary, the Apocalypse received into the canon as an 
apostolical writing, as well by the doctors of the schismatic 
churches, Novatians, and Donatists,* as by the eminent writ- 
ers then in the universal church; I mean, by Victorinus, 
bishop of Pettaw, who sufiered martyrdom under Diocletian, 
and who had even written a commentary on the Apocalypse ; ' 
by Methodius, his cotemporary, bishop of Tyre, and also a 
martyr ; ^ by Arnobius of Numidia, the illustrious apologist 
for the Christian religion, in his commentary on the "CII. 
Psalm ; '' in fine, by the learned Lactantius, his disciple, to 
whom the emperor Constantine committed the education of 
his son, and who, it is said, died A. d. 325.^ 

Thus then, from the first appearing of the Apocalypse, has 
continued the long chain of testimonies rendered by the most 
brilliant lights of the church to its authenticity, its inspira- 
tion, its apostolicity. These testimonies were equally brill- 
iant in the East and the West ; they were proclaimed in the 
North as far as Pannonia and in Gaul, and southward in Italy, 
Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, Proconsular Africa. 
And if at the same time, some isolated voices, less approba- 
tory, hesitating, or opposed, were heard, not as to the divine 

1 De bono patient. He quotes there Rev. xix. 10. 

2 De Eleemos. He there quotes Rev. iii. 17. 
8 He quotes also, Rev. xvii. 15. 

4 Lardner, iu. 121, 565. Edit. 4to. 

«Ibid. p. 163. 

6 Ibid. p. 181, 198. 
- ' Ibid. p. 480. If, at least, his commentaries on the Psalms are not 
due to Arnobius 2d. (Cave, Hist. Litt. torn. i. p. 161.) 

8 Instit. vii. 17. Epitome, chaps. 42, 73, 74. 



WITilESSES OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 315 

origin of the book, but the authorship, these voices, none the 
less, add new weight to our argument, since they attest the 
absolute impossibility of any production by the enemies of a 
historical ground of opposition. 

Witnesses of the fourth Century. 

The voices of this fourth century, apart from the hesita- 
tions of Eusebius and the silence of Cyril, Gregory, and 
Chrysostom, were very strong, and secured the unanimous 
readoption of the Apocalypse by all the parts of the univer- 
sal church. 

Among the Latins all the great doctors of the epoch ren- 
dered it their testimony ; Ambrose, in Milan ; Jerome, iu 
Rome, and afterwards in the East ; ^ Augustine, in Proconsu- 
lar Africa, whence his writings immediately on their appear- 
ing, spread like the light ; Rufinus, in Venice, in the East, 
and in Rome.^. 

Among the Syrians, it had for a witness Ephraim, the 
most eminent of all their doctors,' although it was not found 
in their Peshito version, already made before the death of 
John. Ephraim used allthe books of the New Testament, 
as well in those works which we stillhave in Greek, as in 
those written in Syriac* He says, for instance, " John saw 
in his Apocalypse a great and wonderful book secured by 
seven seals.". And again (ii. 342) : "The day of the Lord 
is a thief." . (Rev. iii. 3 ; xvi. 15.) Now, these Syriac 
churches extended throughout the East, to Tartary and even 
to China. The famous monument discovered by the Jesuits 



1 Apocal. Johan. he said in his letter to Paulinus, has as many sacra- 
ments as words. (0pp. torn. iv. p. 576.) 

2 " Johannis epist. très." " Apocalypsis Johannis," he says. " Hsec sunt 
quae Patres inter Canonem concluserunt; ex quibus fidei nostrœ assertionea 
constare Yoluerant." Expos, in Symhol. Apostolor. p. 26 ; apud Cyprianum. 

8 See Michaelis, p. 495. Lardner, iv. 313, 4to. 
* Open Syr. ii. p. 232. 



316 THE CANON. 

at Sanxuen,^ in the province of Xensi, and dated A. d. 781, 
bore in its two inscriptions, Chinese and Syriac, a reference 
to the New Testament as containing twenty-seven books; 
which, as Michaelis observes, shows that for those churches 
the Apocalypse was a part of the New Testament. 

Among the Greeks, the most distinguished writers of this 
century equally revered it as a Scripture inspired of Grod. 
Athanasius, among others, who quoted it often, and who, in 
his "Festal Epistle," gives us absolutely the same catalogue 
with the churches of our day ; Epiphanius ; Basil the Great, 
who quotes it in his second book against Eunonius,^ and who 
is named by Arethas as recognizing its inspiration ; Cyril, 
the patriarch of Alexandria. Thus we see that Eusebius 
has not dared, in his chapter on the canon (H. E. iii. 25), to 
omit it from the list of uncontested books. He says, " We 
must still rank there (raKreov) if it seems well to you (et 
KJiaveCy) the Apocalypse of John, which, as I have said, some 
reject, and others place among the uncontested books." Eu- 
sebius, sometimes favorable, sometimes hesitating, partakes of 
the prejudice of his day against the chiliasm attributed to the' 
Apocalypse ; but he recognizes with sufficient frankness that 
the historical testimonies of the ancients are favorable to it. 

Cyril of Jerusalem appears to have hesitated like Eusebius 
on this point ; for, if he has not mentioiied the Apocalypse 
in the catalogue we find in his fourth catechism, yet he quotes 
it very clearly three times (Rev. xii. and xvii.) in his xv. 
catechism, chap. ii. 13, 27.^ And we must say as much, we 
think, of Gregory Nazianzen and of Chrysostom ; for both, 
while, as it appears, receiving the Apocalypse, have, like 
Calvin in modern times, refrained from commenting on it, and 
have but rarely quoted it, so that their opinion of it still is 
matter of dispute. 

1 And discovered again in 1830 hy the research of the Protestant bishop 
of Shanghai. North China Herald, — The Record, 31 March, 1851. 

2 Lardner, iv. 279 ; v. 13. 

« See M. Stuart on Apoc. i. 361. Elliott, Hor. Apoc. p. 32, 3d edit 



WITNESSES OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. SIT' 

In fact, as to Gregory Nazianzen, although, in the verses 
of his xxxiii. song he has not, as we have said, directly 
named the Revelation of John, yet we there perceive; in verse 
24th, this apostle quite distinctly designated as the author of 
the Apocalypse, when he calls him " the great herald who has 
traversed the heavens." K^pi;|. fieyas ovpavo^oCrq<s. More- 
over, in another of his writings which remain, Lardner says, 
Gregory twice clearly quotes the Apocalypse ; ^ and Andreas 
of Cesarea, not only indicates him as one of the Fathers who 
have acknowledged it, but he himself quotes it frequently.^ 
- And as. to Chrysostom, although he almost never quotes 
the Apocalypse, yet we find him, in the beginning of his com- 
mentary on the epistle to the Ephesians, making an evident 
allusion to it, when he names John " the blessed evangelist 
who was banished to the neighborhood of Ephesus and who 
finished his days there." And Professor- Liicke ^ shows with 
Wetstein and Schmid, many passages of the Homilies of 
Chrysostom on Matthew, in which this Father evidently bor- 
rows from the Apocalypse ; which seems, he says, to confirm 
the assertion of Suidas. " Chrysostom receives both the 
three epistles of John and his Apocalypse ; " and shows how 
little we should rely on negative arguments taken from the 
absence or infrequency of certain quotations in certain au- 
thors. 

In this same century, as we have said, two councils which 
constructed catalogues of the Holy Scriptures, have been 
placed against each other ; that of Laodicea in Phrygia, A. d. 
367, excluding the Apocalypse from the canon ; that of Car- 
thage, A.D. 397, admitting it. But we have shown in our 
first chapter (sect, xii.), that the authenticity of the decrees 
of both on this subject is seriously doubted ; and that even 

1 Once he says : '£2f 'laâvvjjç ôiôâaKSi fis ôià ttiç ^AnoKalinpeuc. A sec- 
ond time he quotes this verse: Kal à ûv, Kot 6 7p>, kol à èpxofisvoç, ô TLav- 
TOKparup. 

2 In his commentary on the Apoc, see Lardner v. 5. 
* Lucke, Einleitung, p. 337. 

27* 



318 THE CANON. 

if this authenticity be admitted, the Fathers had no inten- 
tion to determine authoritatively which are the inspired books 
of the two . Testaments ; but only to decide,' as is expressly 
declared in this decree,^ what books might be usefully read in 
the publie assemUies of the church, and what might not. ! 

Thus, while in the council of Laodicea, the divine, but 
mystic book of the Apocalypse was excepted from this num- 
ber, as our Episcopal brethren now do from the calendar and 
the preface of their liturgy, although they recognize its canon- 
icity ; the council of Carthage, on the contrary, decided to 
permit the public reading, not only of inspired and canonical 
books, but also of some other books respected for their doc- 
trine and their antiquity, which were, therefore, denominated 
ecclesiastical, and sometimes, but more rarely, regular (that 
is, a rule of practice, if not of faith), and in regard to which 
the practice of one church might differ from that of another.^ 

Thus, then, the Apocalypse, during thé first three centuries 
following its appearing in the church, — I mean, during the 
second, third, and fourth centuries, — was received as divine ; 
and although. Dionysius of Alexandria, in the third century, 
expressed some doubts about, not its canonicity, but its apos- 

iQuia a Patribus (says the Carthage decree) ista accepimus «re ^ccZesia 
LEGEND A. °Otl ov ôeî (says tliat of Laodicea) iâiuTtxovç iliaXfwilc (plebeios 
psalmos) AÉrESGAI 'EN TSl 'EKKAHSIA, ^ Pip?da ov Kavôvtara, o^Jla 
fiôva TU Kavôviara. It is the 59th canon of the council, or 63d in Codes 
Can. Eccl. TJniv. . . 

2 Cosin Hist, of Canon, A. ». 419 (Lond. 1683); Westcott, Hist.. of Canon 
of N. T. (Cambridge, 1855); Westcott, after a diligent study of the Greek 
manuscripts of the canons, of their Latin versions, and especially of the 
Syriac manuscripts preserved in the British Museum, as also the systematic 
collections of the canons, made at different times, judges (contrary to Cosin), 
that " the external proof is decidedly, against the authenticity of the cata- 
logue forming the 2d part of the 59tH canon of Laodicea." He thinks that 
" the catalogue is of oriental origin, and that some copyist borrowing the 
catalogue of CyrU of Jerusalem, has inserted it in the 59th canon after the 
first words of this decree." Prof. Spittler (according to Michaelis, p. 489) 
had already tried to show that this part of the canon of Laodicea is an im- 
posture, and it is marked as suspected in many editions of the councils, for 
example, in Harduin (pp. 292, 293). 



FIFTH CENTURY. 319 

tolîcity, althougli others afterward, especially in the East, 
from the days of Eusebius, and the evil days of Arianism, 
hesitated to accept and use it for public worship, although 
at the end of the fourth century many churches of the Greeks, 
as Jerome says,^ did not receive it with the same freedom as 
their predecessors, and as all the Western churches still do, — 
yet their objections never had a historical character, and were 
always rejected or combated by the great body of the theo- 
logians. The church could never be named that had abso- 
lutely rejected it, and never was an attack made upon it, which 
was not itself censured ; so that Augustine at the end of the 
fourth century, and beginning of the fifth, put the rejection 
of the Apocalypse among the heresies (De Hseres. cap. xxx.) 
as TertuUian had done in the second and third. (Contra 
Marcion, Lib. iv.) 

Witnesses of the Fifth Century. 

The fifth century at length saw an end of the uncertain- 
ties which had followed, in the fourth, the days of Eusebius 
and the controversy of the antimillenarians. In this time, 
when Arianism had produced so much evil in the churches, 
there were seen minds disposed to disregard the testimonies 
of antiquity, to give themselves up to rash conjectures about 
texts, with no historical basis, and supported by only dog- 
matic prejudices. It is to this tendency of his time that 
Jerome alludes, when,, speaking of the epistle to the He- 
brews and of the Apocalypse, he said (Ep. 119 ad Dardan.) 
" And yet for us, we receive both these books, thus conform- 
ing ourselves, not to the fashions of the day, but to the au- 
thority of the ancient authors." Starting, therefore, from the 
■ first half of this century, the churches at length often gave 
to the sacred book of the Apocalypse that unanimous recep- 
tion which the other books had already long enjoyed. 

1 Nee Grœcoram quidem ecclesise Apocalypsin Joannis eadem libertate 
enscipiunt, et tamen nos (earn) suscipimus . . . veterum scriptorum anctoii- 
tatem sequentes. (Epist. ad Dardanum, torn. ii. p. 608. Paris Edit.) 



320 THE CANON. 

SECTION n. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 

Its OJiaracter and History. 

The matter, the style, the arrangement, and the move- 
ment of thought of this book, stamp it with a peculiar charac- 
ter of majesty. To the depth and loftiness of the doctrines 
correspond the noble. eloquence of the discourse, the sublime 
calmness, authority, and simplicity of the language. We 
abstain here in general from drawing our arguments from 
internal criticism, and from seeking them anywhere else than 
in the testimonies of history ; but the impression produced 
in every age by the religious sublimity of its instructions is 
itself a fact of history. God, who had often spoken by his 
prophets, at length speaks to us by his own Son, the bright- 
ness of his g\oTj, the express image oï his person, and as 
superior to the angels as the Creator is to the creature. We 
must then contemplate the eternal existence of this Son of 
God and his mysterious humanity; his apostleship, and his 
eternal priesthood, his unspeakable sympathy, his all-powerful 
intercession and the fullness of his expiation ; then, also, the 
divine harmony of the two Testaments, the identical charac- 
ters of the elect in all ages, the ardent aspirations of the an- 
cient people of God in regard to Christ, the eternal safety of* 
those who belong to him, the terrible ruin of those who reject 
him ; in fine, the cloud of witnesses who attest to us the efli- 
cacy, the power, and the realities of faith. Such are the 
sublime topics of this epistle; and the whole ends with a 
final adoration rendered to that God of peace who hath 
brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, and who alone 
is able to do for us that which is well pleasing by Jesus 
Christ, to whom be glory, for ever and ever ! 



mSTORT OF EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. .321 
# 

Evidently written before the ruin of the temple,^ and, from 
all appearance, before the martyrdom of James, which took 
place A. D. 62, and to which it seems to mak.e allusion,'' this 
epistle, addressed moreover directly to Hebrew converts, and 
sent consequently either to Palestine, or more particularly to 
the church of Jerusalem, or to the Hebrews scattered in all 
the empire, forms rather a treatise than a letter. It must 
have circulated first from Jerusalem in all the oriental Is- 
raelitish congregations ; and we might reasonably expect, if 
this Scripture is authentic, that it would be especially the 
Israelitish churches of the East, the Syrian flocks, and par- 
ticularly the church of Jerusalem, which would furnish us the 
most authentic and credible information- It will be readily 
granted, on the contrary, that, if this Scripture is forged, it 
•was among the Hebrews rather than any portion of Chris- 
tendom where the most violent opposition would be made to 
its legitimacy. It would be the most impossible of all things 
that an impostor should seek and find his partisans^ his rec- 
ommendations, and his false testimonies, among the churches 
of Judea. 

Now this is precisely the historical fact (and a fact worthy 
of especial notice) that the epistle to the Hebrews was re- 
ceived as divine from the days of the apostles, and with no 
intermission, both at Jerusalem, among the Syrian Chris- 
tians, and in all the churches of the East. 

It must also be conceded that if, as it affirms, this letter 
was written in Italy, very shortly before the Neronian perse- 
cutions, it would then have been quickly known among the 
Christians in Home. Now it is equally admitted, even 
among the adversaries, that it was fully acknowledged and 
quoted in Rome by Clement the Bishop of Rome, cotem- 
porary with Paul, the most ancient and most respected of 
the apostolical Fathers. 

At the same time the churches of the "West, and more 

1 Heb. ix. 6, 7; x. 1, 2, 3, 11. 

2 Heb. xiii. 7; t^v ÉKjSaaiv t^ç àvaarpof^ç. 



322 . THE CANOK 

especially this very Church of Rome, after having first ren- 
dered to this epistle so decided testimony, began, toward the 
first half of the third century, to express doubts concerning it, 
on account of the use made of it by the Montanists and the 
Novatians.^ We believe we should accordingly leave a spe- 
cial place for the Latin Fathers in the review we are about to 
make of the testimonies of antiquity ; and we will commence 
by exhibiting the unanimity of the eastern churches on this 
subject. It will perhaps be best, in this review, to begin at 
the fourth century in the East, and go backward to the first, 
thence returning to the fourth, or fifth in the West. 

The Testimony of the East in the Fourth Century. 

And first, to what man more worthy of beUef could we 
appeal, in the fourth century, than to the very patriarch of 
the Hebrews, Cyiil of Jerusalem, one of the most learned 
men of his day, and also one of the most pious ? He was 
bom A. D. 315. Already famous at the age of thirty-four 
years, he composed his " Catechisms," among the earliest 
expositions of the Christian faith now extant. He was also 
one of the most eminent leaders of the second œcumenical 
council, held in Constantinople, A. D. 381.'* Now Cyril, 
when he gives us, at Jerusalem, in his fourth Catechism, " the 
Catalogue of the divine and inspired Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments," there reckons, besides the seven cath- 
olic epistles, the fourteen epistles of Paul ; and he declares 
that " the collection of all these books is transmitted to us by 
the apostles and the ancient bishops, the presidents of the 
Church." 

* And again, what other oriental witness was better informed 
than the learned Jerome ? When he had gone from Rome 

1 Without doubt because they perverted the 6th chapter in their favor. 
See Kirchhofer, Hist, of the Canon, pp. 240, 243, 247, 425, (Quellensamm- 
lung znr Gesch. des N". T. Can. bis auf Hieron.) Zurich, 1842. 

2 See Socrates, H. E. v. 8. 



TESTIMONY OF THE EAST IN FOURTH CENTURY. 323 

to Palestine to pursue his labors on the Scriptures, he had 
probably taken with him the Latin prejudices against the 
epistle to the Hebrews. And yet he attests that he receives 
it, as well as the Apocalypse ; and he also declares to west- 
em Christians, in the letter to Dardanus already mentioned, 
that not only is it now received as of Paul in all the churches 
of the East, but that formerly it had been received h/ all the 
ancient Greek writers, and that it was daily read in the 
assemblies of the church. " See," said he, " what it is we 
should declare among our people (that is, the Latins), at- 
though the major part attribute it to Barnabas or Clement." 
" And it is a matter of little moment to us which of them 
wrote it, since it is daily sanctioned by being read in the 
churches." " Even if the usage of the Latins does not admit 
it among the canonical Scriptures, yet we admit it." " We 
must by no. means in that follow the custom of these times 
(among the Romans) ; but rather the authority of the ancient 
authors." ^ 

Thus it is supposed that it was especially the testimony of 
Jerome, as well as that of Augustine, which was the means 
employed by God to bring back the Roman Church from the 
grave error into which she had fallen for so long a period, in 
reference to this epistle, and to restore it among her mem- 
bers to its place in the canon. 

It would still be diflScult, in this veiy century among the 
Orientals, to present a witness more worthy of our confidence 
than Athanasius, by reason of his place in the universal 
church, as well as of his science and his discernment in 
Christian antiquities. Now, this Father, with all the east- 
ern churches, received the epistle to the Hebrews. We 
have read in his " Catalogue of the Scriptures regarded as 
canonical and transmitted and believed as divine," these ex- 
press words : " Of Paul the apostle, there are fourteen epis- 
tles" (IlavXov à.Trocrrokov hrurrohù. SeKœréa-a-apes). He enu- 

1 See also liis 125th Epistle to Evagrius: "The Epistle to the Hebrews, 
which is received hy all the Greeks aad some of the Latins." 



324 THE CANON. 

merates them, and he places in the tenth rank his epistle to 
the Hebrews, before his four pastoral letters. " 

We could also still quote in this century Titus of Bozra, 
A. D. 362, the Council of Laodicea, a. d. 367, Epiphanius, 
A. D. 368; Basil the G-reat, A. d. 370, Gregory Nazianzen, 
A. D. 370, Gregory of Nyssa and Ephraim the Syrian, a. d. 
371, Diodorus of Tarsus, a. D. 378, Amphilochius of Ico- 
nium, A. D. 380, Theodore . of Mopsuesta, a. d. 394, and 
Chrysostom, a. d. 398. We learn from Epiphanius (Hœres. 
69) and from Theodoret,^ that in their time, outside of the 
church, this epistle, on account of its splendid testimony to 
the divinity of Jesus Christ, was rejected by certain antitrin- 
itarian heretics. This latter Father says, "We must not be 
surprised if these men, tainted with the Arian maladyj were 
so crazy in regard to the apostolical. Scriptures, as to wish to 
separate the epistle to the Hebrews from them, and to call 
it illegitimate (voOov). For if they dared to lift their tongue 
against our God and Saviour, what would they not dare to 
do against the most devoted and the most sublime heralds ol 
his truth?" 

But we return to the third century. 

Testimony of the East in the Third Century. 

Without pausing at Dionysius of Alexandria ^ and the 
Council of Antioch, which alike received the Bpistle to the 
Hebrews as of Paul, we could not do better for this epoch 
than to consult first Eusebius, who was distinguished already 
in the close of the century, but who rather belonged to the 
next, and the great Origan, who begins the third century, 
and who, still more learned, consecrated his strength and his 
life to the study of the Scriptures. 

In the twenty-fifth chapter of his third book, Eusebius 
does not hesitate to class in the canon of the uncontested 

1 Interpret. Ep. ad. Hebr. proem. 0pp. iii. 541. 
a Euseb. H. E. vi. 41. 



EASTERN WITNESSES IN THE THIRD CENTURY. 325 

books all the fourteen epistles of Paul, without excepting 
that to the Hebrews. "The fourteen epistles of Paul," he 
says again, in his third chapter, "are evident and sure (-Trpo- 
Sr}Xoi Kol (ra<^«s) ; but it wouH not be just to overlook the 
rejection of the epistle to the Hebrews by some, who say 
that the Roman Church disputes its Pauline origin." 

Origen, almost a century earlier, received it so fully as 
divine, that he composed homilies to expound it to the peo- 
ple. See likewise his words in a passage which Eusebius 
has preserved : " The style of the epistle to the Hebrews 
has not the character of simplicity so peculiarly belonging to 
this apostle, who calls himself a man plain of speech ; but 
the letter is more Hellenic in its structure, as every one ad- 
mits who can distinguish the difference of styles. But, on 
the other hand, that the thoughts of this epistle are admira- 
ble, and not inferior to the Scriptures universally. received as 
apostolical, is what every one who reads the apostles atten- 
tively should acknowledge with us." ^ He adds, " See then 
what would be my opinion ; it is that the thoughts are indeed 
the apostle's, but the phrase and construction belong to some 
author who remembered the apostolical instructions, or to 
some man who wrote notes on the instructions of a teachei*. 
If. then, some church holds this epistle as of Paul, let it be 
praised for it (euSoKt/tetrcu koI èm tovtcû) ; for it is not with- 
out reason (of; yap elicq) that the men of antiquity have trans- 
mitted it as Pavls. Who was, then, the author of this epistle ? 
God knows ; but the rumor has come to us (17 Se etc -^juSs 
(f)6a.cra<Ta loropia) from some persons, that Clement, he who 
became bishop of the Romans, was its author; and from 
some others, that it was Luke, who wrote the Gospel and the 
Acts." 

Such, then, was the state of minds in the East, in the third 
century, in regard to this holy epistle, if we may judge from 
Origen and Eusebius. All esteemed it to be divine, and 
almost all believed it to be from Paul. It was the opinion, 

1 H. E. vi. 25. 
28 



326 THE CANON. 

they t^ll us, of aU the men of antiquity. They had trans- 
mitted it as a book of Paul ; but some of Origan's contem- 
poraries were induced, not at all by historical reasons, but 
simply because the style is so elegant, to believe that Paul 
could not have been its immediate author, and that he may 
rather have given the thought to some^of his companions in 
labor, to Clement, for instance, or to Luke. And Origen 
gives this supposition, too, only as a " rumor " that had 
reached his ears, from " some persons," and not even as an 
opinion which he admitted. 



Testimony of the Mast in t/ie Second Century. 
Having reached the second century, we may invoke one 
of the most weighty testimonies in the person of Clement of 
Alexandria, the most learned and influential man of his day, 
teaching with extraordinary success in the most learned city 
of the East. Born only forty years after the death of John, 
he himself said he was " a neighbor by his age to the apos- 
tolical times." ^ So that when he, with Origen, supports his 
-testimony on that " of the ancients" these ancients can be no 
other than the cotemporaries of the apostles themselves. He 
carried, very imprudently without doubt, into the study of 
Christianity the pretensions and the habits of his philosophy ; 
but this very disposition, which might injure the purity of his 
faith, perhaps so much the more guarantees the independence 
of his judgment concerning the epistle to the Hebrews. 
Here are his own words as Eusebius reports them : ^ 

" The epistle to the Hebrews is the work of Paul. He 
himself wrote it in Hebrew, and Luke translated it into 
Greek.^ Hence its resemblance in style to the Acts. And 
if Paul placed at the head of it neither his name nor his title 
of Apostle, it was for a sufficient reason. He was address- 
ing persons greatly prejudiced against • him; he therefore 

1 Strom, i. 1. 2 H. E. Lib. vi. chap. 14. 

8 This supposition we shall presently refute. 



EASTERÎf^ WITNESSES IN THE SECOND CENTURY. 327 

prudently withheld his name, that they might not be prevented 
from reading it. Besides, and it is what the blessed elder ^ 
said (p fnaKapios irpecr^vrepoç), considering that our Lord, as 
apostle or envo^ from the Most High, was especially sent 
(œ7r€(TTaX.r}) to the. people of the Hebrews, and that the epis- 
tle to the Hebrews alone in the New Testament calls him 
by that name (Heb. iii. 1), it was proper that Paul should 
abstain from giving himself that title of Apostle to the He- 
hrews in his letter, whether from modesty, from reverence to 
the Lord, or because he was simply the Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles." 

This testimony of Clement of Alexandria, with that of 
Origen, is not only of great weight with him who considers 
the character of these godly men, their learning, their trav- 
els, their 'proximity to the time and place in which the epistle 
was written ; but it weighs still more when we think of their 
prejudices in regard to the style and the Hellenic elegance 
of the book. The historical evidence must have been irre- 
sistible for these two men who saw themselves compelled by 
the unanimous tradition of the Eastern churches to recognize 
that, after all, Paul was the author of the epistle. v 

Moreover, as has been said, the testimony of Clement 
being that of the church of Alexandria, founded by the very 
Mark*^ whom Peter (1 Pet. v. 13) calls " iny son," and 
whom' Paul (2 Tim. iv. 11 ; Col. iv. 10) sent for from his 
prison in Rome (because, he says, " he is profitable to me for 
the ministry "), this Mark who, it is said,' was present at the 
inartyrdom of both these apostles ; this evidence, we say, thus 
becomes the joint testimony of Mark, Peter, and Paul. 

We might also have counted among the Eastern witnesses 
during this second century, and like us speaking in the name 

1 Clement has been supposed to refer here to the pious Pantsenus, the 
Apostle of India, who was still living at Alexandria a. d. 216, where he 
had established a school, and where Clement himself was one of his pupils. 

2 Euseb. H. E. v. 10. Jerome, De Virls Illustr. xxxv. 
* Irenseos, Adv. Hasres. iii. I. 



328 ^ THE CANON. 

of the churches of Alexandria, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, 
— first Pantaenus, the celebrated missionary of the oriental 
nations and the master of Clement of Alexandria ; — then 
Ignatius g.nd Polycarp, who, without expressly quoting the 
epistle, make very clear allusions to it ; — in fine, IrenaBus 
himself, who, before establishing -himself in Gaul, A. D. 178, 
belonged by education to Asia. In fact, although this Father 
has not clearly quoted the epistle in his book on the Here- 
sies,^ he has still made mention of it, Eusebius says, and he 
quotes certain passages of it in a book of his now lost.*^ But 
we prefer to come to the very century of the apostles them- . 
selves. 

Testimony of the East in the First Century. 

In this first century, it is not in the East alone, but also 
in the West, that we find abundant proof of the admission 
already begun of this epistle into the canon of the Scrip- 
tures; ahke in Korae and in Babylon. On the one hand, 
we see it translated in the first century into Syriac, in the 
Peshito, the most ancient of the versions ; and, on the other, 
we may cite in its favor two irrefutable witnesses, both- co- 
temporaries of Paul, and both martyrs. Thus it was not 
without strong reasons that Clement of Alexandria and Ori- 
gen said that in their day the epistle had in its favor " the 
ancients" But who were the ancients for them if not the 
cotemporaries or the immediate successors of the apostles ? 
Now, these two testimonies which remain to us to quote are, 
that of Clement of Rome, who, in his letter to the Corinthi- 
ans,^ has made such frequent quotations from this epistle, as 

1 n. 55 (Heb. Ï. 3); iii. 6 (Heb. iii. 5); iv. 26 (Heb. x. 1); iv. 30, and 
V. 5 (Heb. xi. 5). 

2 H. E. Lib. iv. 26. It is in his book, " Of Divers Essays," {AiaM^euv 
ôuupôpuv); èv ç5 r^ç Trpbç 'EjSpaiovç èmaroTt^ç ... fivijfwvevet, (yrjTÛ riva 
éS (aîiT^f) irapa&éfiEvoç. 

8 Eusebius, H. E. iii^ 38. Clement ad Cor. ch. xxxvî. (Heb. 1, 3, 4, 5, 
7, 13-15; viii. 1-3); ch. xvii. (Heb. xi. 37); ch. xliii. (Heb. iii. 5); ch. 



TESTIMOînr OF- THE EAST IN THE JFIRST CENTURY. 329 

already seen in the extracts we have given from it. He evi- 
dently had it before him while writing his letter; he does 
not name the author, but he quotes entire passages from him, 
and pai-aphrases many others; and this fact, so prominent 
in his "entire letter, was already noticed by Eusebius and 
Jerome. The other witness is Simon Peter himself. 

The second epistle of Peter,' written shortly before his 
death, was addressed by him, as apostle of the circumcision, 
to the converted Hebrewrf.^ He there speaks to them (iii. 
15) of another letter which Paul had addressed to them, 
"Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the 
wisdom given unto him has written unto you ; as also in all 
his epistles." Paul, then, had written to these converted 
Hebrews ; there must then have existed somewhere a letter 
addressed by him to the Hebrews, and received as such by 
the churches of the circumcision ; for it must be noticed that 
Peter is careful to distinguish the epistles of Paul as belong- 
ing to two classes ; that which he had written to the Hebrews, 
and " his other epistles." This letter of Paul to the Hebrews 
could therefore be no other than that to which all the oriental 
churches had given this title, and which they placed in the 
rank of his thirteen other epistles. 

Thus the numerous testimonies, unanimous and continuous, 
of all the East in favor of the epistle to the Hebrews go 
back in the church to the remotest antiquity. They may be 
followed uninterruptedly and uncontradicted even to the 
middle of the fifth century ; and in that interval more than 
forty Greek Fathers may be found who received this epistle 
as from Paul. If two or three among them spoke of certain 
doubts, it was not in their own name. These doubts, origi- 
nated by others, among the Latins, and of a late date, were 
repelled by all the orientals. 

xxi. (Heb. iv. 12); ch. xxvii. (Heb. vi. 18); ch. xxiii. (fleb. x. 37); ch. 
ix. (Heb. xi. 5, 8, 31); ch. x. (Heb. xi. 8); ch. xii. (Heb. xi. 31); ch. xviii. 
(Heb. iii. 2; xi. 2, 4, 5, 3T, 39); ch. Ivi. (Heb. xii. 6). 
1 2 Pet i. 1. Compare 1 Pet. i. 1. 

28* 



330 THE CANON. 

Western Testimonies. 

It was quite otherwise among the Western churches, but 
only after the middle of the third century. At first, in- 
structed in regard to the epistle to the Hebrews, during the 
whole course of the first century, of the second, and the first 
years of the third, they were not after that as constant in 
their testimony ' as the Eastern churches ; and they even 
went so far as to be almost all misled by the influence of 
Rome, and that for a very long period. 

We have seen that at the close of the first century the 
church of Eome furnished us, in the person of Clement, 
its bishop, an irrefutable witness of the faith then professed. 
He was also the witness for the other Western churches 
during the entire course of the second century ; for we have 
seen that Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, quoted him in one of his 
writings.^ And if afterwards this vei:y author, in his book 
"Against the Heresies," avoided making any express use 
of it, it was, as is supposed, because occupying an eminent 
place in the West, he thought he ought not to furnish the 
Montanists arguments by- quoting a book which they used to 
sustain their erroi-s. So too in Africa, Tertùllian, who was 
a Montanist, had at first very explicitly quoted the epistle 
to the Hebrews in the 20th chapter of his book " De Pudi- 
citia," composed, according to Cave, about the end of the 
second century. He there quoted the epistle to the He- 
brews, and quite at length, the celebrated passage in which 
the author declares that men falling after having received 
certain illuminations can never be renewed to repentance.- 
He there attributes the epistle to Barnabas, " that nian," he 
says, "whom Paul had associated with himself; that com- 
panion of the apostles, taught by them and teaching with 
them." To these monuments of the respect which the Latin 
church still professed for this epistle during the first two 

1 "We have said, it is the di^Tdov n ôuiÀs^euv ôiaôôpuv. Euseb. H. E. 
V. 26. 



WESTERN TESTIMONIES. 331 

Centuries and the first half of the third, we may add a new, 
important testimony. It is that which has just been fur- 
nished us by the appearance of the long-lost book of Hippo- 
lytus the martyr " On the Heresies." ^ This Father, it is 
known, although coming from the East, resided a long time 
in Italy in the diocese of Eome. Now, the Oxford presses 
have recently (1851) published this book from the original, 
which had just been discovered. Just as in 1628, the unex- 
pected discovery of the epistle of Clemens Komanus changed 
the judgments of Sacred Critifeism concerning the authority 
of the epistle to the Hebrews in the Western churches dur- 
ing the first century, so now, in our day, the appearing of 
the book of Hippolytus, which quotes the epistle to the 
Hebrews as having an apostolical authority,^ extends our 
ideas of the assent given to this Scripture among the West- 
ern churches on to the middle of the third century. Hippo- 
lytus is supposed to have died about A. D. 240. 

It was at Rome, about the beginning of the third century, 
that the same priest Caius, who is supposed to have origi- 
nated the doubts about the Apocalypse, in a writing against 
the Montanists, also expressed the first doubts concerning the 
epistle to the Hebrews. From this epoch, the credit of this 
Scripture appears to have so declined among the Latins that 
Tertullian, who, before the attacks of Caius, had boldly quoted 
it, afterward referred^ to it only with a certain reserve, in 
condescension to the Latin church. This is a remark of 
Hug. The canon of Muratori, whose date is uncertain and 
which many attribute to Caius, but which certainly is after 
Marcion, does not contain the epistle to the Hebrews. And 
after Tertullian, Cyprian, in the same place, did not receive 
it ; he names seven churches to which Paul had written, and 
does not speak of the epistle to the Hebrews.^ From that 

1 Kara Tzaauv alpeaéuv éXryxoç. 

2 See Bunsen in his Hippolytus, or Critical Researches into the doctrine 
and practice of Rome under Commodus and Alex. Severus; 4 vols. Loud. 
i852,(vol. i.p.l27.) ■ 

8 Cyprian. Testim. ad Judseos, i. 20. De Exhortatione Martyr, cap. ii. , 



332 THE CATSfON. 

time the Latins everywhere took the same view, to about the 
end of the next century. 

The cause of this aberration of the Western churches, we 
have said, is not unknown. The controversy with the Mon- 
tanists first suggested it to Caius ; and when the Novatians 
renewed, fifty years afterward, the doctrine and the discipli- 
nary rigors of the Montanists, sustaining themselves by this 
book, as Jerome, Augustine, and Epiphanius inform us, 
the Latins then, desirous of combating them more advanta- 
geously, were induced to reject it. And we have already 
heard Philastrius expressly declare that the liturgical use of 
the epistle ceased in some churches, because of what it says 
of penitence (vi. 4, etc.) and on account of the Novatians ; ^ 
but he places these notions and usages among the heresies of 
certain persons. (Hseresis quorumdam de epistolâ Pauli ad 
Hebrseos). 

At the same time, we must understand, this late and tem- 
porary opposition of the Latins, so far from weakening our 
faith in the 'canonicity of this book, rather serves to confirm 
it ; because it shows us that all its detractors were never able 
to produce one historical fact to sustain their objections, not 
one contradictory tradition, not one argument of any value. 
If a book of Cicero were presented to us which the writers 
of his age had unanimously attributed to him, and which all 
those of the succeeding century had not ceased to place in 
the collection of his works, we should not find it difficult to 
ascribe it to him although we found persons, far from Rome 
and. three centuries afterward, without giving good reasons 
and without contesting the testimony of antiquity, had simply 
raised objections to the book which any one in our times is 
just as capable of raising. Testimony to historical facts may 
increase in fc^rce as it approaches the- time of the events; 
but matters of mere argument men of every age may be 
equally competent to weigh. 

1 De Hœresibus, 40. Bibl. Fatrum Max. v. p. 711. De pœnitentia au- 
tem propter Novatianos. 



REVIEW OF THESE TESTIMONIES. 333 

However it may have been with this opposition. of the 
Latins during the latter half of the third century and the 
first half of the fourtli, our epistle, which had never ceased 
to be received by all the Greeks, began again, from the mid- 
dle of this fourth century, to be acknowledged by the Latins. 
In A. D. 354, Hilary of Poitiers regarded it as of Paul ; he 
was imitated by Ambrose, bishop of Milan ; by Philastrius, 
bishop of Brescia, and many others ; so that at length Jerome 
and Augustine, more learned than their cotemporaries, en- 
lightened them on this question, appealing to historical proofs, 
to the testimony of the Orientals, and to the authority of all 
Christian antiquity. It was probably their influence that 
caused it to be received by the council of Carthage, in A. d. 
397, as written by Paul. From the fifth century, all the 
churches have unanimously received it, to our day. 

Review of these Testimonies. 

We conclude, then, from all these facts : 

1. That the canonicity of the epistle, immediately after its 
publication, was recognized in the West as in the East, at 
Rome as at Jerusalem. 

2. That the same testimony was rendered to it afterward 
without interruption in all the East, both among Syrian and 
Greek Christians. 

3. That this recognition continued among the Western 
churches through the second century and first half of the 
third. 

4. That if the Latin churches, and more especially that of 
Home, hesitated in regard to it, or even refused to receive it 
during the last half of the third century and first half of the 
fourth, they at last ranked themselves unanimously on the 
side of the primitive testimony of the universal Church, as 
of the constant and invariable testimony of the Eastern 
churches. 

5. That the Church of Rome has varied and grievously 



334 THE CANOlJr. 

erred on this important point; and that if, for 1500 years, 
she has stood firm in the faith of this truth with the East, 
she has maintained on this subject (to use the expression of 
TertuUian, Augustine, and Philastrius, against those who 
rejected some of the books of the second-first canon ^) a 
heresy of two centuries. 

6. That while this long aberration, before the epoch of the 
definite settlement of the canon, has not any importance in 
the question of its providential preservation, because the 
churches could ^ not have an entire unanimity on the whole 
canon before this epoch, yet the fact has a crushing weight 
for the pretensions of a church which calls itself the Judge 
of controversies and of the truth. 

7. That this same church, then, still errs, if. not more 
gravely at least more unreasonably, in pretending, despite 
such manifest facts, to be for all others the infallible depos- 
itary of the Scriptures, and in repeating, after Gregory VIL* 
that " no chapter of any book of the Bible should be re- 
garded as canonical without the permission of the Sovereign 
PontiS:" 

8. That what Christianity owes to the Roman Church in 
this matter, is, twice, to have made war on the canon ; twice 
to have broken the unity of the Church on this point ; — first 
in rejecting for two centuries an epistle which she herself had 
recognized for two centuries before, and which she has again 
recognized from the end of the fourth century and begin- 
ning of the fifth ; then, in persisting alone, ten centuries 
afterward, to introduce apocryphal books into the New Tes- 
tament canon, against the earnest remonstrances of all the 
rest of Christendom, which, while having them publicly read, 
had always rejected them from the canon during fifteen hun- 
dred years, both in the East and in the West. 

1 The two first apply it to the rejection of the Apocalypse, the third to 
that of the epistle to the Hebrews. 

2 The author uses the word devaient. It may mean should, ought to, were 
to. — Tb. 

- 8 See the Annals of Baronius, Year 1076. " ' 



PAULmiTY OF TmS EPISTLE. 335 

9. That the infalKbility assumed by Rome as a heritage 
of the apostle Peter should always be judged by the single 
fact that she has not preserved a Scripture which this same 
Peter had expressly recommended to her as making part of 
the sacred oracles, and which had been recommended to her 
also, shortly afterwai'd, by that Clement whom she had made 
the second, third, or fourth of her bishops.^ 

10. That so far from giving authority to our canon of the 
New Testament, the Roman Church on the contrary received 
hers from the Greek Church (at least so far as concerns the 
epistle to the Hebrews) ; and that we owe her no thanks 
that this holy book has not been lost from our Bible. 

11. In fine, that the authority of the canon, as to the New 
Testament, is not founded either on Rome, which has vari- 
ously and grievously erred, by her own admission, in regard 
to it, nor on any provincial council, nor on any particular 
church, nor upon any general council, but solely on. the. unan- 
imous consent — unforeseen, unintended, and providential — 
of the whole of Christendom on this subject alone. For 
notwithstanding the enormous divergencies on every other 
subject, we see to-day, over the whole world, all the churches, 
good and bad, maintained of God in unity on this, solitary 
point ; as we see on the other hand, for the Old Testament, 
all the ancient people of Israel and all modern . Jews equally 
abiding in the unity of faith concerning the Old Testament, 
because the oracles of God are committed to them for the 
Old, as to us for the New. But we can here barely suggest 
this point, it not coming yet fully before us 



Paulinity of cMs Epistle.^ 

The Paulinity of this epistle should be carefully distin- 
guished from its canonicity, when we are studying the his- 

1 Jerome says the 2d; Augustine says the 3d; Irenseus says the 4th. See 
Hefele, Patr. Apostolic. Opera, p. 21. Tubing. 1847. 

2 On these matters may be consulted the first volume of Moses Stuart; 



336 THE CANOlf. 

toiy of the canon. The apostolicity of a book, in fact, would 
not by itself be a reason for canonicitj; because all the 
writings, discourses, or acts of an apostle or a prophet w^ould 
be neither necessarily nor constantly inspired. The theo- 
pneusty or inspiration was a miraculous endowment (xa-puriw.), 
and the miraculous gifts were intermittent, according as the 
Spirit descended upon the men of God. A Scripture was 
then infallible and divine when the Spirit of God caused it 
to be written ; it was so only then ; and the Spirit of God 
caused it to be written when it pleased him, whether the 
writer was an apostle, as Paul or Peter, or only a prophet, 
as Luke or Mark. 

Many Fathers of the first centuries accordingly believed 
this epistle to be inspired, without ascribing it to Paul ; and 
we might mention many modern writers, otherwise worthy 
of respect, who have also believed this distinction should 
be made as to the epistle to the Hebrews. Their mistake 
lay, we think, in the fact, not in the principle. This was the 
opinion, for instance, of our two leading reformers, Luther 
and Calvin, at a time when the subject had been less studied, 
and especially when the letter of Clement had not been 
found, which, written in Rome and in the century of the 
apostles, renders so manifest a testimony to this holy Scrip- 
ture.^ Luther ascribed it to Apollos, without sustaining this 
gratuitous conjecture on any historical argument. Calvin 
himself, without attempting to frame a hypothesis, wrote in 
the preface to his Commentary, " I see not how to recognize 
Paul as its author." (Ego, ut Paulum agnoscam autdrem, 
adduci nequeo.) " Yet as to myself I receive it unhesitat- 
ingly among the apostolical epistles ; and I do not doubt 
that it is only by device of Satan that there are found per- 

the Theses of Prof. La Harpe (Toulouse, 1832) ; the Introduction of Hug, 
that of Guericke (1854), and Fr. Spanheim, De Auctore Epis, ad Hebr. 
Exerc. Heidelberg (1659). . He sustains the Paulinity. 

1 It -was only in 1628 that Cyril Lucas sent from Constantinople to th« 
king of England the ancient Alexandrian Manuscript of the Scriptures, 
in which they had the joy of finding the epistle of Clement. 



PAULINITY OF THIS EPISTLE. 337 

sons disposed to remove it from the number of the authentic 
books." Beza, too, said, in the first note of his Commentary : 
" Let the judgments of men remain free here ; only let us 
here agree that this epistle was truly dictated by the Holy 
Spirit," - 

Many of the Fathers the most fix'mly attached to the can- 
onicity of the epistle, such as Dionysius and Clement of Al- 
exandria, Euthalius, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Jerome, 
have at the same time supposed, on account of its elegance, 
that it must have been composed in Hebrew by Paul, but 
translated into Greek by Luke or Barnabas. This was only 
a conjecture ; it did not affect the canonicity directly. But 
we repel it, because, — 

1. lïbne of those who talk of this Hebrew original have 
ever mentioned the person who had seen it. 

2. The superior elegance of this epistle can be accounted 
for, and we shall presently do it. 

3. It would be a historical error to imagine, in the days 
of Paul, the Hebrew better adapted than the Greek to the 
religious wants of the entire Jewish people. The Greek 
was then universally understood even in Jerusalem ; it had 
been spoken in that city for about four hundred years ; ^ and 
the Jews " of the Dispersion," who used it in all the East, 
often knew nothing of the Hebrew. Thus we see that the 
greater part of the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem had sep- 
arate synagogues for the exercises of worship in the Greek 
language. 

4. Nothing in the epistle denotes a translation ; every- 
thing, on the contrary, bears the impress of originality.- 

6. The paranomasias, that is, the allusions founded on the 
resemblance in sense and sound, abound in it, betraying 
inevitably an original writing.^ Li particular, says Calvin, 

1 The city submitted to Alexander the Great about b. c. 332, and the 
epistle was written A. d. 64. 

2 See in Greek, Heb. ii. 7, S (Comp. with Ps. viii); v. 8, 14; vii. IS, la, 
ix. 10; X. 34; xi. 37; xiii. 14. 

29 



338 THE CANOÎî. 

*' that which is said of the nature of the ' testament,' in the 
ninth chapter, could have sprung from no other fountain than 
the Greek word." 

6. The author's commentaries on the passages quoted from 
the Old Testament conduct to the same conclusion, for they 
attest that the quotations were taken, not from the original 
Hebrew, but from the Greek Septuagint version.^ 

If many Fathers and scholars, in admitting the inspiration 
of this Scripture, would find for it some other author than 
Paul, we on the contrary can establish his authorship by 
strong arguments: 

1. Against this testimony of history nothing has been set 
but presumptions and conjectures. 

2. The expressions of this epistle concerning Timothy 
can belong, it would seem, only to Paul. He writes (xiii. 
23), " Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty ; 
with whom, if he comes shortly, I will see you." Now, Paul 
had already connected Timothy with himself in seven others 
of his letters,'^ besides writing him two. He had made him 
his companion in the journey to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 4) ; he 
often elsewhere as here calls him " his brother and compan- 
ion in labor." * He denominates him " My son," (1 Tim. i. 
2) ; whilst no other personage of the New Testament, pre- 
sents to our view, even remotely, this feature of intimacy 
with Timothy. 

3. The author of the epistle speaks of "his bonds" (x. 
34) ; and Paul was in bonds when the letter was written. 

4. The, author says to the Hebrews, " with whom, if he 
comes shortly, I will see you ; " and Paul was soon to be 
released. 



1 See X. 4, 5, compared with Ps. xl. 7; viii. 8; ix. 14, 22, compared 
with Jerem. xxxi. 31, 32, and others, quoted in Owen's learned Commen- 
tary (5th exerc.) 

2 1 Thess. i. 1; 2 Cor. i. 1; Rom. xvi. 21; 2 Thess. i. 1; PhiUp. i. 1; 
Col. i. 1. 

8 2 Cor. i. 1; PhUem. i. 1; Col. i. 1. 



PAULINITT OF TfflS EPISTLE. 339 

5. The author salutes them in the name of " the brethren 
of Italy " (xiii. 24) ; and Paul was then in Italy. 

6. The letter was written necessarily during Nero*s reign 
and Paul's life ; that is, before A. D. 65 or 68. In fact, — 

It represents the temple of Jerusalem as standing, and its 
worship as still celebrated ; 

The last war of the Bomans against the Jews as about to 
commence. He says (x. 25), " Ye see the day approach- 
ing." But that terrible day had not yet come ; 

Timothy as still living, and disposed to leave Italy that 
he might visit the Hebrews with the author of the letter. 

. The letter is quoted by Clement, the " fellow laborer of 
Paul " (Philip, iv. 3), in the epistle written by that Father 
to the Corinthians in behalf of the church of Rome. See 
the reasoning of Eusebius himself on this fact : " Clement 
in his letter to the Corinthians, introduces many thoughts 
from the epistle to the Hebrews, and employs the very ex- 
pressions of this epistle in the sentences which he copies from 
it ; indicating evidently by that that it was not a new book 
to him."i 

In fine, the letter is quoted even by the apostle Peter, who 
is said to have suffered martyrdom the same year with Paul ; 
for we have seen that in his second epistle, written to the 
same persons with the first (2 Pet. iii. 1), he reminds them 
that Paul had written them a letter ; " Even as our beloved 
brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath 
written unto you." 

7. All the weight of the historical evidence is in favor of 
the Paulinity of this letter. It is certain that, addressed 
especially to the church of Jerusalem, the mother of all the 
others, and for thirty-six years the center of Jewish Chris- 
tendom, this epistle was read, from the beginning, as from 
Paul, in all the assemblies of the East. "We have already 
seen the testimonies of the East as to its canonicity during 

1 H. E. iii. 38. Sa^eorara TTapiarriaiv on fa] vebv vnapxei to avyypamuu 



340 THE CANON. 

four centuries. Now, these very Fathers, while speaking - 
sometimes of the doubts about it which were felt among the 
Latins, not only believed Paul to be its author, but said that 
they got that belief " from the ancient bishops " who had 
preceded them. Cyril of Jerusalem, in the fourth century, 
declares that such is the tradition "from the apostles and 
ancient rulers of the churches." Jerome attests with him 
that this epistle was received by all the Greek ecclesiastical 
writers downward as of Paul (ab omnibus retro ecclesias- 
ticis graBci sermonis scriptoribus quasi Pavli Apostoli sus- 
' cipi.) Athanasius, the council of Laodicea, Basil, Epipha- 
nius, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Ephraim the 
Syrian, Chrysostom, and many others render the same tes- 
timony. Eusebius ascribes it to Paul, saying that the Ro- 
man church contests the fact, and supposing that Clement 
of Rome might have been its translator. Theodoret quotes 
Eusebius as having said that all the ancients beheved that 
Paul was its author ; he says that the Arians had begun to 
call it in question on account of the testimony it renders to 
the divinity of Jesus Christ ; but he adds that " it was read 
in the churches of the apostoUcal times." ^ Origen,^ believing 
it to be Paul's, at the same time quotes, as accounting for its 
great elegance, some suppositions, " the noise of which had 
come to him," ^ as to the part such and such an apostolical 
man had had in translating it ; but even he takes care to suggest 
that " it is not lightly (euc^) that the ancients have transmit- 
ted it as Paul's to the men of his day." And then Clemens 
Alexandrinus, in the second century, expressly declares that 
it is the work of Paul (PavAou /ièv ctvat ^ï/crt), while think- 
ing that " perhaps, written in Hebrew by the apostle, it may 
have been translated by Luke into elegant Greek." 

1 Arg. in Epist. ad Hebrœos, opp. (torn. iii. p. 341, Halle, 1768-1774.) 

2 Origen, who quotes the epistle to the Hebrews more than two hundred 
times (Kirchhofer, Quellensammlung, &c., Zurich, 1848, p. 244), very fre- 
quently repeats that it is Paul's. 

« ^ûàaaaa iaropîa. 



PAULDîITT OP THIS EPISTLE. 341 

8. Very numerous points of resemblance between this 
epistle and the other compositions of Paul equally exhibit 
him as the author. Many skillful critics have fully set these 
forth. They may be found in Spanheim, Braun, Carpso- 
vius, Lardner, MacKnight, La Harpe, Stuart, Tholuck ; and 
M. Reuss^ himself, who does not attribute this epistle to 
Paul, has had the candor to express himself thus on these 
analogies : " The resemblances which our epistle presents 
to the Pauline formula are so numerous and so striking, that 
it is not surprising so many have attributed it to Paul. They 
consist in a series of terms equally familiar to both authors, 
as well as in the very substance of the dogmatic ideas." 

We shall indicate only a few of these resemblances : — 

Explosions of feeling, expressed in very concise language 
peculiar to Paul ; . 

Elliptical expressions to be filled out from the context ; 

Abrupt transitions to subordinate topics, to return as ab- 
ruptly to the original topic ; ^ 

i Replies addressed to the thoughts of the reader and made 
to objections unexpressed ; 

A hortatory and moral conclusion of the epistle, fi'om the 
eleventh chapter, like the conclusions of other letters of 
Paul ; 

Exhortations entirely like those of Paul ; 

Judaic interpretations of Scripture found only in Paul ; 

Doctrines mentioned by no other inspired writers ; the 
mediation and intercession of the Saviour;^ the title of 
Mediator, given by Paul only to Jesus Christ ; ^ Christ offer- 
ing his sacrifice in heaven, and exercising his priesthood only 
there ; 

Frequent resemblances of style and expression between 
this epistle and the thirteen others of Paul : for instance, the 

1' Hist of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age, torn. ii. p. 550. 

2 See i. 2-4; iii. 7, 11, 14; iv. 2. 

8 Heb. iv. 15, 16; vii. 22, 25; Rom. viii. 34; Gal. iii. 19, 20. 

* Heb. vii. 22; viii. 6; ix. 15; xii. 24; 1 Tim. ii. 5. 

29* 



342 THE CAJSOH. 

frequent use of the particle re; the passage in Heb. xiii. 5, 
compared with Eom. xii. 9, where we find two nominatives 
absolute, and more than one feminine nominative absolute 
followed by a masculine participle, nominative absolute (17 
àyâinq àwroKpiTOS, aTrocruyowres . . . ) a construction found 
nowhere else in the New Testament. Also, the following 
passages ; 

Heb. ii. 4 compared with !Rom. xv. 19 ; 2 Cor. xii. 12, 
with 2 Thess. ii. 9 ; — Heb. iii. 1, with Philip, iii. 14 ; — Heb. 
V. 12, with 1 Cor. iii. 2 ; — Heb. viii. 1, with Eph. i. 21 ; — 
Heb. ix., and x. 1, with Col. ii. 17 ; — Heb. x. 33, with 1 Cor. 
iv. 9 ; — Heb. xiii. 9, with Eph. iv. 14 ; — Heb. xiii. 10, 11, 
with 1 Cor. ix. 13 ; — Heb. xiii. 20, 21, with Rom. xv. 33 ; 
xvi. 20 ; Phil. iv. 9 ; 1 Thess. v. 23 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 11. 

But what do the opponents set against all these arguments 
from criticism and history? No historical testimony; only 
presumptions and hypotheses. We must reply to them. 

Ob/ections. 

It is first objected, that the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, 
was not the apostle to the Jews and should not have written 
to them. But does he not style himself " the apostle of aU 
to gain some"? (1 Cor. ix. 19, 22.) Did he not commence 
his ministry in each city, among the Hebrews ? "Was he not 
" a Hebrew of the Hebrews " ? (Philip, iii. 5.) Did he not 
say, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, 
that they might be saved " ? (Rom. x. 1.) Had he not con- 
tinual sorrow in his heart for his kinsmen according to the 
flesh ? (Rom. ix. 2.) Had he not recently gone up to the 
capital of the Hebrews, to carry thither alms to his nation ? 
(Acts xxiv. 17 ; Rom. xv. 25.) Could he then, we should 
say on the contrary, do otherwise than write to them ? 

Paul, it is said' again, has not mentioned himself in this 
epistle, whilst at the head of each of his thirteen epistles 
he has placed his name and title of apostle. We reply ; 
that,—. 



OBJECTIONS. 343 

1. He had manifest prudential reasons, if not to conceal 
his name entirely, at least to avoid making it prominent, al- 
ready mentioned by us. 

2. This book being rather a treatise-^ than a letter, the 
author had not the same reasons for putting his name to it. 

3. The book, whoever was its author, was written by a 
man who judged it best not to put his name there. " And 
if," as Primasius, an African bishop of the sixth century, 
observes, "it was for that reason not Paul's, for the same 
reason it was not Clement's, nor Barnabas's, nor Luke's, nor 
any one's, since no one has put his name there." ^ 

4. Those Christian Hebrews to whom the letter was first 
addressed certainly knew what hand had written it. Could 
we doubt it after reading these words : " Pray for us, that I 
may be restored to you. — Know ye that our brother Tim- 
othy is set at liberty, with whom I will see you. — Salute all 
them that have the rule over you. — They of Italy salute 
you"? (Heb. xiii. 18, 19, 23, 24.) 

5. It is sufficiently evident that the epistle would not have 
been read, from the first century, in Jerusalem and the East- 
ern assemblies, if the leaders of all these churches had not 
known its author. 

6. It was proper that it should be circulated among the 
Hebrew believers, among the Judaizing Christians, and 
among the unconverted Hebrews; but it would* have been 
imprudent to place at the head of it a name which would 
have made them reject it without examination. 

7. We may remark with Mr. Wordsworth,^ that if the 
name of Paul was not placed at the beginning, yet his word 
and his signature were at the end ; for the apostolical saluta- 
tion which he was accustomed to employ was, as he himself 

1 It has the form and structure of a treatise. It is short for an essay 
and long for a letter, 303 verses; and the author in closing apologizes for 
its hrevity. 

2 Ad Hebrœos Prœfatîo. Lugdnni, 1537, p. 473. 
8 On the Canon, p. 234. Lond. 1847. 



344 THE CANOX. 

has called it, his distinctive marl; in all these letters. " The 
salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token 
in eveiy epistle ; The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ he 
with you." ^ By this he means to say, This formula, " the 
grace of Christ be with you," or its equivalent, is- the formula 
of salutation which I place at the end of all my letters." We 
know that they were all dictated to an amanuensis, except 
the epistle to the Galatians. He was satisfied with simply 
putting this mark or signature to them. It was a token, he 
himself said, by which his epistles should be known. Now, 
it should be observed that whilst this formula is found in the 
thirteen other epistles of Paul, it is not found in any of the 
letters of any other apostle written during his life, and is 
found only in writings after his death, — in- the last verse of the 
Apocalypse, in the letter of Clemens Romanus to the Corin- 
thians, and in the sermons of the Fathers, who were eager 
to adopt it from him. But this mark, invariably and exclu- 
sively attached to all his letters, is also found in- Hebrews 
(xiii. 24, 25). 

In the third place, it is objected that Paul said he had not 
learned the gospel of any man (Gal. i. 1, 11, 12 ; ii. 6-15), 
and showed himself very jealous of the independence of his 
ministry. Could he then have said, of the salvation which 
he announced, what we find in Heb. ii. 3 : "So great salva- 
tion which-^t the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and 
was confirmed unto us by them that heard him " ? We reply, 
that Paul was in the habit of employing the first person 
plural when he meant to include only his readers ; so that 
nothing can be determined by that passage, on this point. 
Thus, for instance, in the preceding verse he had said, 
" How shall we escape, if we neglect so great' salvation ? " 
Paul, in speaking of this danger, was thinking not of him- 
self, but of his readers. And it is again thus that he says, 
in Romans xiii. 12 : " Let us cast off the works of darkness." 
He had no works of darkness to cast off; and he did not 
1 2 Thess. iii. 17; 1 Cor. xvi. 21; CoL iv. 18. 



OBJECTIONS. . 345 

mean to include himself in this us, which he employed there 
as a common pronoun. As to Paul, moreover, it would also 
be true that the salvation announced by Jesus had been con- 
firmed to him by them that heard him. 

But that which is most insisted on as an objection to the 
Paulinity of this epistle is the classical purity of its lan- 
guage, the too Hellenic perfection of the composition. 

To this we reply, that it was wholly natural that the apos- 
tle, on the solemn occasion of addressing a treatise to the 
whole Hebrew people, should bestow more pains on it than on 
an epistle to a more limited class of readers. He wished to 
show his nation, in an attractive picture, the holy and majes- 
tic unity of the revelations of God in the two economies, 
the innumerable correspondences of the Old Testament with 
the New ; the beneficent light, fuU of glory, which the latter 
manifestations of the Son of God had just shed over Moses, 
the Psalms, and the Prophets. He would unfold to the He- 
brews the importance and the sublime meaning of their own 
worship when interpreted by the gospel, the divinity of the 
Messiah proclaimed in their Scriptures, his holy and humil- 
iated humanity equally predicted, his apostleship, his royal 
, priesthood, his expiatory blood and his passage into heaven ; 
in a word, the true Temple, the true Priest, the true Taber- 
nacle, the true Victim, the true Passover, the true Holy of 
hohes, as also the true faith of the true worshipers, and 
their true sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. 

2. There is no writer who has not had, among his writings, 
some one in which he desired to surpass himself by the purity 
of his language and the elevation of his style. Thus Cy- 
prian, in his letter to Donatus ; thus Tertullian, in his Apol- 
ogy ; thus Calvin, in his Essay on Clemency, or in his Letter 
to Francis I.; as elsewhere Paul himself, in his letter to 
Philemon. 

3- Is it .not known that the apostle, independently of his 
inspiration, was, by both his genius and his education, a 
perfect master of style ? Was he not bom, and had he not 



346 THE CANON. 

studied Greek literature, in the Grecian colony of Tarsus, q 
city renowned for its culture ? Do we not frequently hear 
him quote the Greek poets ? (Acts xvii. 28l ; 1 Cor. xv. 33 ; 
Tit. i. 12,) and does he not show in other parts of his writings 
what he was able to do ? If he was, as he says, " rude in 
speech " (18lu>tt]s tm Aoyw), it was in his accent and not in 
his style or thought. And if he did judge it wise to write 
the Gentiles unpolished letters, he might judge it equally 
wise to address one to aU his people in a more elegant and 
elaborate composition. 

We must, then, conclude from all-these testimonies and all 
these facts that Eusebius, in the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury, very legitimately ranked this epistle in the first canon, 
because it had been received for two centuries by all Chris- 
tendom, East and West, from its first appearing, and because 
it never afterward ceased to be received in all the Eastern 
churches. At the same time, in placing it with this Father, 
in our historical appreciation, in the rank of the homologo- 
mens and of the first canon, we have believed it should be 
assigned, with the Apocalypse, a place apart, on account of 
the late opposition which was made to it for a time by the 
Latin Church, after a century and pi half of acquiescence. 
Besides, that church, submissive to this sacred book during 
the first and the second century, then disavowing it during 
the third and fourth, has ended by placing herself also in 
this matter, for fourteen hundred years, with the universal 
Church. 

But we must now^jass tg the second canon, or antilego- 
mens, which contain but 222 verses (a thirty-sixth part of 
the New Testament) ; and we shall equally establish their 
authenticity by history, before considering them under anothei 
point of view. 



GENERAL FACTS. 347 



CHAPTER FOURTH. 
OF THE SECOND CANON, 

OR 

THE riVE ANTILEGOMENS. 



SECTION I. 

GENERAL FACTS. 



If the twenty Scriptures of the first canon, as soon as they 
appeared, were received as divine by all the churches of 
Christendom, and if the two books of which the second-first 
is composed were at first universally admitted, it was not so 
with the five later brief epistles of James, Peter, John, and 
Jude. Accepted, Eusebius says, " by the majority,'^ they 
were not by all, because, sent to the Christian people near 
the time when their authors were about to die, and moreover 
directed generally to thé whole Church, they had not the 
same advantages for securing a universal reception as the 
greater part of the other apostolical writings. They lacked 
for that purpose both the personal influence and presence of 
the sacred authors, and the immediate testimony of the men 
or churches to whom all the non-catholic epistles were writ- 
ten at first. Consequently, we see that they must have been 
more slowly admitted by the remoter churches. Whilst a 
majority received these five epistles, from the very beginning, 
as making part of the Holy Scripture, there were many 
others, for two centuries and a half, who remained in sus- 
pense concerning the divine authority of one or another of 



348 THE CANON". 

them ; and it was not until the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury, about A. D. 325, that we see these hesitations ceasing in 
all parts of the East and the West. Thus their universal 
and absolute adoption into the sacred canon was naturally 
delayed ; but this very delay, while attesting at once the lib- 
erty and the holy jealousy of the primitive churches in re- 
gard to the canon, should only serve, as we shall preseiitly 
show, to render our confidence in the amicable and final re- 
sult more complete. 

Origen, as Eusebius relates (H. E. vi. 25), said, of-the 
last two epistles of John, that " it is not all Christians that 
receive them as authentic " (ou iravrcs ^acrt yvrjo-Lovs eTvai 
ravras) ; and of the second of Peter, " they hold it in doubt " 
(d/JW^ijSoXXeTat) . 

Eusebius, too (H. E. iii. 25), at the beginning of the fourth 
century, said, " The epistles of James and Jude, and Peter's 
second, and the last two of John, are contested " (din-iXeyo- 
fiévat) ; " while at the same time they are received by the 
great majority." He said too, "Although contested, yet 
they are recognized by the greater part of ecclesiastical men." 

And as to the two epistles of James and Jude, he had 
said, "It is well known that these also are publicly read 
with the rest of the Scriptures." We have already showed 
that all the eleven catalogues which remain from the fourth 
century contain also the seven catholic epistles ; that of 
Athanasius ; that of the anonymous cotemporary of Athana- 
sius, inscribed among his works ; that of Epiphanius ; those 
of Jerome, Rufinus, Augustine, the councils of Laodicea and 
Carthage ; those of Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen, 
Amphilochius, and Philaster. 

If from the earliest times the seven epistles have been 
called catholic, it is because they were addressed to the whole 
body of Christians, rather than to any particular church or 
person. It is also, perhaps, because this name, reserved first 
for the first epistles of John and Peter, as books catholicly 
accepted, might afterwards have been extended to the five 



GENERAL FACTS. 349 

later epistles, when their divine authority had been gener- 
ally admitted. But whatever may have been the meaning 
or the occasion of this term, its employment to designate the 
seven epistles not of Paul is certainly of a high antiquity. 
Not only do we meet it in Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Je- 
rome, in the fourth century, but in Eusebius at the end of 
the third, or rather beginning of the fourth, in Dionysius of 
Alexandria before Eusebius, in the middle of the third, and 
in Origen before Dionysius. 

The order in which, from the earliest times, the various 
books of the New Testament were respectively arranged, we 
have frequently said, was constantly that of our modern 
Bibles, except that the group of the seven catholic '^ epistles 
preceded the fourteen epistles of Paul. But then, too, both 
sets in each category were, relatively to each other, in the 
same order as in our Bible. As to the seven catholic epis- 
tles, the oldest collections of the Greeks, as well as our mod- 
ern Bibles, have always placed them thus : first that of James, 
then the two of Peter, then the three of John, and then that 
of Jude» This is declared to be the genuine order by Je- 
rome, who informs us also that in his day the Latins, by an 
indiscreet zeal for Peter, ranked his epistles before that of 
James ; "but by God's help," he says,^ " I have reestab- 
lished them in the order wisely followed by the Greeks." 
This order related to their importance and size. Paul, in 
his epistle to the Galatians (ii. 9), speaks of James, Cephas, 
and John, who are regarded as pillars ; and it is also in the 
same order (James, Peter, and John) that their epistles have 
been ranked. 

1 Already so called in the time of Eusebius, Cyril, and Athanasius (H. E. 
vi. 14). Athan. Epist. Eestal. Cone, de Laod. 59. Cyril, Catech. iv. 

2 Frol. in Epist. Canon. Non idem ordo apud Graecos qui intégré sapi- 
unt ef fidem rectam sectantur, epistolarum septem quœ canonicae nuncu- 
pantur, qui in Latinis codicibus invenitur. Quod quia Petrus primus est 
in numéro apostolorum, primœ sint etiam ejus epistolae in ordine caetera- 
rnm. Sed has proprio ordini, Deo nos juvante, reddidimus. Est enim 
prima earum una, Jacobi, Petri duse, Johannis très, et Judse una. 

30 



350 THE CANON. 

It will, be proper in tWs review, in which we propose to 
establish their authenticity, to commence with James. 



SECTiqN n. 

THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 

Its Importance. 

This letter, judging only from its author, is the first of the 
catholic epistles, and James commences it with these words : 
" James, a servant of God and of the (Lord Jesus Christ, to 
the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting." 

It must have been clothed, among the primitive churches, 
and especially among the Christians of Jewish origin, with a 
•special importance, from the eminent place occupied by its 
author among all the apostles, among all the bishops, among 
all the eye-witnesses of Christ's resurrection, among all the 
martyrs. 

We say, among all the apostles. Not only was James one 
of the Lord's brothers, with Joses, Jude, and Simon (Gal. i. 
19 ; Mark vi. 3), that is to say, either half-brother or cousin- 
■german, being, according to some, the son of his mother by 
Alpheus, or, according to others, his cousin-german, the son of 
that Mary, sister of his mother, who remained so faithfully be- 
fore the cross and the sepulchre (Matt. xxii. 56 ; xxviii* 1) j 
but, moreover, he was so considerable among all the apostles 
(Gal. i. 19) that Peter, when he dissimulated at Antioch, 
" feared certain that came from James," (Gal. ii. 12) and 
that in leaving the prison in Jerusalem, he hastened ioi say, 
distinguishing him from all the others, " Gro, show these 
things to James, and to the brethren " (Acts xii. 17). Paul 
himself named him the first of the three pillars of the prim- 
itive church (Gal. ii. 9). 

Eminent, we have said, among all the bishops. He pre- 
sided for twenty-seven years over that church of Jerusalem 



EPISTLE OF JAMES. 351 

whicli was the center and bearth-stone, the model and the 
mother of all the others ; he there, by his great influence, 
secured the decision of the first council ; he was then the 
object of the attentions of Paul, Peter, and the apostles who, 
twenty years after our Lord had ascended, still assembled 
with all the elders in his house (Acts xv. 13 ; xxi. 13). For 
more than a quarter of a century he there enjoyed, as Jose- 
phus informs us, the respect of the Jews, who surnaméd him 
the Just, and who were indignant at his cruel death,-^ regard- 
ing it as one cause of their final destruction. 

Eminent, too, among the eye-witnesses of the resurrection 
of Jesîts, James was honored (1 Cor. xv. 7) by a special ap- 
parition of the Lord, as Mary his mother had been on the 
way to thé sepulcher, and Cleopas ^ his father on the way to 
Ëmmaus. 

Eminent, too, among all the martyrs, James was the first 
among the authors of the New Testament, and the second of 
the apostles, to lay down his life for Christ. His colleague 
James the Great, the brother of John, had been decapitated 
by the order of Herod Agrippa, only ten years after the 
ascension of the Lord ; but our James, " the Lord's brother," 
was stoned by order of Ananias the high-priest and the coun- 
cil of the Jews, sixteen or seventeen years afterward, whilst 
they were awaiting the arrival of Albinus, the successor of 
Festus, at Jerusalem." 

Jude, also, at the head of his epistle, has showed his belief 
that he could in no way better recommend himself to the 
respect of the churches than by simply styling himself 
"Jude, servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James," so 
great was the celebrity of this holy apostle among all the 
people of God, and proBably that of his epistle also. And 

1 Antiq. Lib. xx. chap. 8. Etisebius, H. E. Lib. ii. chap. i. 

2 This name is, however, not the same as Alpheus. And, as we shall yet 
show, it remains very doubtful whether James was not the Lord's cousin, 
rather than own brother. 

8 Albinus had already arrived Oct. À. d. 61, at the feast of Tabernacles 
(Josephu3,-Jewish Wars, Lib. vi. 31). 



S52 THE CANON. 

it is, too, for that reason, as Theodoret thinks,^ that Paul 
himself made allusion to James, bishop of the Hebrews, and 
to his martyrdom, when writing to the Hebrews : " Remem- 
ber them which have the rule over you, who have spoken 
unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering 
the end of their conversation " (xiii. 7). 

The epistle of James having, then, for its author so consid- 
erable a person, — one of the " three pillars," a brother of 
Jude, a brother of Jesus Christ, an aged bishop, possessed 
of an immense influence among Christians, and even hon- 
ored by all the Jewish people ; an apostle, in fine, who, it 
is said, had been the only one who never left Jerusalem, 
and who had for a quarter-century governed ^ this mother 
church, which contained already at least fifty or sixty thou- 
sand Jews, ^ — : the epistle of James, addressed by such a 
man, to those " twelve Jewish tribes scattered • abroad," who 
came annually to the feasts at Jerusalem, — this epistle, we 
say, must have met a ready reception among all the He- 
brew Christians of Palestine and the East; and they in 
their turn must have spread it throughout the countries into 
which they were dispersed. 

JRs immédiate Admission among ail that portion of the Church 
to which it was at first addressed. 

We see that the eastern church has, from the first, received 
this Scripture as authentic, and that the earliest Fathers have 
used it. In particular we may abundantly prove that it was 
immediately admitted and continually revered as a book of 
God by all the Israelitish Christians. 

"We find the most decisive proof of this fact in the trans- 
lation of this epistle by the Syrians from the first century, in 

1 Comment, on Hebr. xiii. 7. 

2 We say "governed," without pretending to decide anything as to the 
form of administration which the churches in so large a city had then 
adopted. 

8 Acts xxi. 20 (maai fivpiâôeç). 



DATE OF THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 353 

their famous Peshito, a version, we have heretofore said, im- 
puted to the apostolical age, which was made so early (at 
Odessa in Mesopotamia) that the two last letters of John, 
the second of Peter, and that of Jude, with the Apocalypse,^ 
came too late to be inserted in it. 

Now, this immediate admission of the epistle of James by 
such churches presents us an argument of the greatest weight 
in its favor, since we can not imagine better judges of its au- 
thenticity th^n those very Christians among whom James 
had labored for twenty-seven years, and to whom he had 
directly addressed it. 

This Scripture, then, was received as inspired in the very 
age of its author, in the very places where he had so long 
preached, and by the very men who were the best qualified 
to appreciate his character, his divine mission, and the au- 
thenticity of his letter. 

Yet Eusebius places it among the books that some contest. 
Karchhofer ^ says, " The doubt probably arose from the uncer- 
tainty as to which of the Jameses wrote it, for we can never 
invoke against it any historical testimony." 

Its Date. 

We can not doubt that the epistle was written about the 
end of Jaioes's life ; for when we study it at the point of 
view of its date, we recognize numerous signs of^an epoch 
comparatively late. The abundant dispersion of the Israel- 
itish Christians, their organization already become complete 
and their degeneracy already far advanced, their forgetful- 
ness of the characteristics of justifying faith, the influence of 
their wealth, the care the apostle found it necessary to exer- 
cise in reminding them of the place of works in the order 
of gi'ace, the high authority he had then acquired in the 

1 Hug, however, we have before said, thinks the Apocalypse was inserted 
aften^ards, and for a time in the Peshito. 

2 Geschichte des N. T. Canons, &c., p. 258. Zurich, 1842. 

30» 



354 THE CANON". 

churches of the Jews, the long experience which his lan- 
guage indicates, • — all these features united conduct us to the 
adoption of a date for this epistle already far posterior to the 
first formation of the Christian churches. 



Cause of the Hesitation of some Churches. 

If, on the one hand, the epistle was immediately and uni- 
versally admitted by these " twelve tribes scattered abroad,'* 
that is, by all the Jewish-Christians of Palestine, Mesopota- 
mia, Egypt, and Asia Minor, to whom James had addressed 
it, as also by the Gentile churches in more intimate relations 
with the Christian synagogues, and by the earliest Fathers, we 
can easily understand, on the other hand, why some few were 
slow to receive it, and why the testimonies in its favor, during 
the first and second centuries, were comparatively limited. 

In fact, not only were 'they further removed from this man 
of God who never left the city of Jerusalem until his mar- 
tyrdom, and who had, it seems, received as his special charge 
for twenty-seven years, the constant superintendence of this 
mother church, but especially many of them lost, by the mis- 
fortunes of the Jews, the facilities they would otherwise have 
enjoyed, of taking immediate and satisfactory cognizance of 
the claims of this book to their acceptance. Scarcely had 
James written it, when already all the Hebrew believers were 
plunged into the troubles of war, flight, and persecution. All 
the Jewish churches were about to perish ; and we know 
how profound from that period was their unpopularity, and 
what ever-growing prejudices the Gentile Christians con- 
ceived toward the Jewish Christians. 

The letter was written, fropa all. appearances, about a. d. 
61, the epoch of the martyrdom of James and the arrival of 
Albinus in Judea.* The oppression of the Jews under this 

^ Others place it in 64; but, according to Josephns, it would be on 
the 15th of Tisri, 62, that that governor caused the famous Jesus to be 
scourged. (Jew. Wars, vi. 13.) 



WITNESSES. 355 

■wicked man, and soon after under his successor Florus, com- 
menced almost immediately, for Josephus dates the destruc- 
tion of the Jews from A. D. 62.^ Albinus then having 
learned, he says, that Florus was appointed to replace him, 
emptied the prisons of Jerusalem and filled the whole coun- 
try with trouble. Florus, in the spring of A. d. 64, came as a 
hangman rather than a governor, and his iniquities immedi- 
ately surpassed all belief. The following year was that of all 
those threatening prodigies which Tacitus and Josephus de- 
scribe as the precursors of a frightful ruin. The 15th of the 
following May, Florus, seated on his tribunal in Jerusalem, 
sent his soldiers to cut the throats of 3 61 3. persons in the High 
Market ; and on the 4th of October, Cestius Gallus, encamp- 
ing with a Boman army before this guilty city, planted there 
" the abomination of desolation in the holy place, where it 
should not be ; " and that was the sign announced by Jesus 
Christ and by Daniel, that all Christians, by thousands, 
"should flee to the mountains."^ 

It can be seen, then, that in consequence of these extraor- 
dinary storms, which followed so closely the appearing of the 
epistle, and which put an end to the existence of the Jewish 
churches, the Gentiles, among whom these churches were so 
soon in such discredit, must have been more slow to receive 
it, notwithstanding its many claims to their confidence. And 
it can be seen also that the direct testimonies of the authors 
of this epoch among the Latins, and even among the Greeks, 
*must have been comparatively less numerous. 



Witnesses. 

At the same time, it must not be imagined that the Gen- 
tile Christian witnesses have been few or unimportant. We 
may introduce some of high value. 

1 'E| eKEcvov fiaXiara tov Kaipov . . . irpooKOTn-ôvrav èrrî rd ;teZpov. 
(Antiq. Jud. xx. 8.) 

2 Jew. Wars, Lib. ii. 19; Matt. xxiv. 16; Marfcxiii. i; Luke xxi. 21 j 
Dan. xi. 31; xii. 11. 



356 THE CANON. 

And first, we find in Rome, in the first century even, this 
epistle quoted by frequent allusions of Clement, especially in 
his ii., X., xvii., xxiii., xxx., xxxi., xxxiii., xxxviii., xlvi., xlix. 
chapters. "We find it, too, quoted in the " Shepherd of Her- 
mas," by seven allusions which Lardner regards as a sufficient 
proof of the knowledge of it by the author, whoever he was.^ 
Also, four times in Irenaeus,^ and also in TertuUian.' The 
quotations produced from Clement of Alexandria are not so 
certain; but those of Athanasius in all letters frequently 
name the apostle James,* quoting his very words. 

The epistle was regarded as authentic and divine by all 
who ascribed it to James, the son of Alpheus. But_ those of 
the ancients who, believing it not to have been written by 
James the apostle, but James the Just, brother of Jesus 
Christ, made two different persons of these two Jameses, en- 
tertained some doubt, not about its authenticity, but its canon- 
icity, because they supposed that the author, however eminent, 
was not an apostle. 

The doubts, however, ceased at the be^nning of the fourth 
century, and the greater part of the churches were unani- 
mous in inserting it in the canon. We have seen it also 
admitted into all the eleven catalogues of the same period. 

Origen esteemed it to be divine, as many quotations may 
show, for instance, in his commentary on the epistle to the 
Bomans, his commentary on John,^ his commentary on Ps. 
XXX., and his eighth homily on Joshua (which we have only 
in a Latin translation).' And if Eusebius, in his quotations 

1 Especially, Mandat, ii., vs.., xi., xii. 5, 6, -nrhere the author quotes James 
iv. 7, 12; Sim. v. 4; viii. 6. 

2 Especially, Haeres., Lib. iv. cap. 16, § 2. 
8 De Orat. c. viii. Adv. Jud. 2. 

4 Among others, ad Scrap., ep. i. Contra Arian. or. 3. 

6 Tom. xix. 0pp., torn. iv. p. 306, ôç èv ry ^Epo/iévjj 'Ioku/îow èmaroTt^ 
àvéyvufiev. — Neudecker translates ^spofiêv^ by " universally recognized." 
Others, " put in circulation." See in Ep. Eom. Liv. iv. 0pp. torn. iv. 535. 

6 0pp. xii. 412: "Petrus duabus epistolarum personat tubis Jacobum 
qnoque et Judam." 



. WITNESSES. 357 

of the opinions of Origen concerning tlie Scriptures, appears 
to represent him as being silent about the epistle of James, 
we ought not to draw from that any unfavorable conclusion ; 
for the same author (H. E. vi. 25), speaking of the opinions 
of Origen on the canon, abstained from saying anything on 
the epistle of Jude, although Origen has quoted it more than 
fifteen times, and with commendation. 

Eusebius, as we have seen, placed it in the same rank 
with the writings " still contested, although recognized, he 
said, by the great number." (H. E. iii. 25.) 

Amphilochius even, in speaking of the hesitations of some 
in regard to the five later short epistles, excepts the epistle of 
James; "received," he says, "by even those who doubted 
the four others." 

It is useless to cite the testimonies of the following centu- 
ries, for the canon from that time was definitely fixed. 

Many authors have remarked that the first epistle of Peter, 
which was written later than that of James, contains more 
than ten passages ^ of morals and of doctrine, which, by their 
striking resemblance to the passages of the latter, bear to it 
a silent testimony. "The Holy Spirit could in no better 
way," they say, " attest its divinity, than by so promptly and 
constantly adopting and incorporating its .language in an 
epistle so promptly and so constantly, admitted by the entire 
Christian world." ■ 

There has been too much reference to the unhappy sug- 
gestion of Martin Luther in 1522, concerning this epistle of 
James, arising from his mistaken apprehension of its opposing 
the' doctrine of justification by faith. But, besides the subse- 
quent retraction of this imprudent remark ^ by this eminent 

1 For instance, Jam. iv. 2, and 1 Pet. v. 5, quoted by Clement of Borne 
(ch. XX.) also Jam. i. 5, and 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4, quoted by the same Father 
(ch. xxxiii.) 

2 In all his editions of the Bible posterior to 1526. See Gerhard, Theo- 
logia, locus de Script. Sacra, § 279. (Frankfort, 1657.) Seckendorf, Com- 
ment, de Lutheranismo. (Frankfort, 1692.) Carlovius, Biblia illustrata, 
(Frankfort, 1676, fol.) Tom. ii. p. 1393. 



358 THE CANON. 

servant of God, it must not be forgotten that at the epoch 
when he made it innumerable frauds were discovered on all 
sides, in almost every uninspired monument of Christian an- 
tiquity: false titles, false Scriptures, false writings of the 
Fathers, false legends of the Breviary, false decretals of the 
Popes. They were in his day just emerging from this chaos, 
and even in the Roman Church men were at length opening 
their eyes to many of these hes. Still it was not easy to dis- 
tinguish in every case the real monuments from the false, to 
recognize the true principles of sacred criticism, or to consult 
its instruments, of which many were yet undiscovered.^ 
Critical knowledge was then confined to the assertions of 
Eusebius, and it was not yet known how to estimate them. 
There could be no assurance, then, that the Church of Rome, 
already so strongly tempted to insert the Apocrypha in the 
depository of the Old Testament, (committed to the Jews 
alone), had not equally laid its hands upon the New, to in- 
troduce into it also uninspired books ; for it was not then suffi- 
ciently understood that the Providence of God had engaged 
itself never to permit any church, good or bad, to be guilty 
of this unfaithfulness. 



Its Excellence. 

If it were within the scope of our plan to notice the beau- 
ties and spiritual grandeur of the bboks, while establishing 
their canonicity by historical proofs, we should call attention 
to the original character, the depth, and pathos of this holy 
letter ; its perfect adaptation to the wants of the primitive 
church, as it went among the Israelitish people converted to 
the gospel ; the elevation of its thoughts, the loftiness and 
noble simplicity of its style. Above all, its incomparable 
superiority would be manifested by contrasting it with the 

1 For example, the epistle of Clement of Bome, which renders an im 
portant testimony to the epistle to the Hebrews and to the epistle of James 
and which was discovered only in 1628. 



WHICH JAMES WAS THE AUTHOR 359 

uninspired writings of those early agfes. Whilst the latter 
present so much that is petty, whimsical, and eccentric, here 
there is nothing of the kind; everything is sober, sage, 
grave, lofty. And this negative proof assumes great force ; 
it manifests at once the influence of the Holy Spirit with the 
same vividness as the distinction between the apocryphal and 
the canonical gospels. 

Which James was the AzUhor of it ? 

If many ancient, and especially many modern writers have 
appeared to attach great importance to the solution of this 
question, " Was this James the apostle ? " all agree in recog- 
nizing him as the hroiher of Jesus Christ ; as having presided 
twenly-seven years over the church in Jerusalem ; as having . 
held the chief place among the apostles, of whom he was one 
of the three pillars, and^the first of the three"; as having been 
that James, in a word, so frequently mentioned by Luke in 
the Acts,^ and by Paul in the Epistles.^ But this is not 
the question, "Was the author of this epistle one of the 
Twelve ? " That is strongly contested. Was he James the 
Less, son, some say, of Alpheus and " Mary of Cleopas," the 
aunt of Jesus Christ, or as others say, of Alpheus and that 
Mary, mother of James and Joses, who remained standing 
near the cross ? ' Or again, was it a third James, unknown 

1 See Acts ix. 26-30; xii. 17; xv. 13-20; xxi. 18-25. 

2 See Gal. i. 17-19; ii. 2-6, 9; ii. 12; 1 Cor- ix, 5; xv. 7. 

8 For instance, according to Kirchhofer (p. 258), who appears to believe 
him the son of Alpheus and Mary the mother of Jesus, by a second mar- 
riage, and to identify her with the Mary of whom we are speaking (the 
' mother of James and Joses). We read in the gospel of John (xix. 25) that 
the blessed mother of Jesus had a sister named " Mary of Cleopas; " and 
we learn that these two Marys, on the terrible day of the crucifixion, were 
together by the cross with a third Mary, named " Magdalene." Here, then, 
is the question. Where are these (three) Marys in the parallel accounts of 
the crucifixion in the evangelists? Where is the blessed mother of the 
Saviour? Have the three other evangelists forgotten her? That appears 
inadmissible. We are told (Matt, xxvii. 55), that there were " many women 
there beholding afar ofi^, among whom were Man'y Magdalene, Mary the 



360 THE CANON. 

to the readers of the New Testament before the twelfth chap- 
ter of the Acts ? In other words, was he called " brother of 
the Lord " (Gral. t 19), only as a cousm-german, or half- 
brother ? Was he really one of the twelve, or could he have 
been an apostle only by the grace of the Holy Spirit, by his 
high .qualities and controlling influence ? Notwithstanding 
many, whether to attack or defend the canonicity of the epis- 
tle, have attached so much importance to this question of the 
apostleship of its author, jet we think this view erroneous. 
And when the rationalists of our day, to weaken the inspira- 
tion of the Scriptures, labor to show that neither the James 
of whom we are speaking, nor the Jude, his brother, author 
of the epistle bearing his name, nor the John of the brief 
epistles, nor John of the Apocalypse, nor the author of the 
epistle to the Hebrews, nor even the Matthew of the first 
gospel, was of the number of the twelve apostles, we think 

mother of James (the son of Alpheus, Matt. x. 3), andqfJoset, and tlie mother 
of Zebedee's children," Salome. (Mark xv. 40.) Can we Relieve that the 
first three evangelists have neglected to name the Saviour's mother in this 
scene of Calvary? Should we not rather believe that this Mary, mother 
of James the Less, Joses, and Jude (brother of James, Acts i. 13; Jude i.), 
was this same mother of Jesus so often mentioned in the gospels, accompa- 
nied by brothers of Jesus (James and Joses, Jude and Simon, Mark vi. 3; 
Matt. xii. 46; xxvii. 55; Luke viii. 19), and whom we see even on the day 
of the ascension (when she was about sixty years old), accompanied by the 
brothers of Jesus, in the upper chamber of Jerusalem? (Acts i. 13.) We 
think the Bible always honors the condition of a moÛier in Israel, at least 
as much as that of a virgin. It is written (Matt. i. 18), " When Mary was 
espoused to Joseph, before they came together (Ttpïv tj avvEk&EÎv airoîiç) 
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." And Joseph " knew her not 
till she had (ëuç oi) brought forth herfrst-iorn son" (25.) 

Tn every age she has been called " Blessed; " but it must also be ob- 
served that the Holy Spirit, so far from wishing to exalt the Son of man 
by the exaltation of his mother, on the contrary has been pleased to reveal 
to us all the humiliations of his birth; and that in giving us his genealogy 
he has taken care to name but four of his mothers in all his parentage 
during forty-two generations. And these four .women, look at them: first 
the incestuous Tamar; the impure Bahab; then Ruth the Moabitess; 
lastly -that unfortunate B£;thsheba, who was the wife of Uriah. The Holy 
Spirit teaches us to speak of Mary only with honor; but, from the birth of 
her first-bmyi, and in the whole course of the New Testament, it never calls 
her the Virgin, as human traditions do with such ardor. 



WHICH JAMES WAS, THE AUTHOR. 361 

that their assertions, ill-grounded as facts, have little worth 
as arguments. 

In fact, inspiration was by no means confined to the apos- 
tles. Many others than the twelve received miraculous gifts, 
among them that of theopneusty. A writing was canonical, 
not because it was apostolical, but because it was inspired. 
The gospel of Luke, that of Mark, and the book of Acts had, 
as inspired Scriptures, the same authority as the gospels of 
Matthew or John ; God has chosen according to his good 
pleasure, among the twelve and outside of the twelve, the 
men whom he would make the prophets of the New Testa- 
ment, just as he chose from divers stations the Solomons, the 
Amoses, the Joels, or the Nehemiahs to write the first portion 
of the sacred oracles. It was sufficient for the divine au- 
thority of a book that it was inspired ; and it was sufficient 
evidence of its inspiration, that it was recognized as ca- 
nonical, that it was recommended as such to the primitive 
churches by the apostles of the Lord, and that it was re- 
ceived by them. This was accomplished under the direction 
of that Providence of the Lord which has caused the suc- 
cessive introduction of all our sacred books into the collec- 
tion of his New Testament, as it had done for the Old, and 
, which has inade the entire Christendom of the East and the 
West unanimous on this single point for fifteen centuries. 
This is the fact confirmed by the history of the canon, and 
which we shall hereafter examine. 

In the mean time, without wishing to enter too far into this 
question of the apostolicity of James, to which we attach 
only a secondary importance, we believe it can be made 
probable and almost certain that the author of our epistle is 
no other than James the son of Alpheus, as, among the 
Fathers, thought Chrysostom, Athanasius, Jerome^ Amphi- 
lochius, Augustine, Theodoret, Theophylact, and the authors 
of the Chronicle of Alexandria.^ Therefoi*e, 

1. It is without sufficient reason that, to deny the apostle- 

1 So have thought in our day Hug, De Wette, Guerike, and Benss^ 
31 



362 THE CANOÎT. 

ship of James, it is alleged that the title of apostle is not 
inserted at the head of the epistle ; for John has not placed 
it at the commencement of his letters, nor Jude, nor even 
Paul in the third of his ; * and yet all the three were apos- 
tles. 

2. After the death of James the Great (whom Herod 
Agrippa slew A. D. 44), the Scriptures have always spoken 
of only one other James, brother of the Lord, a man emi- 
nent in the Church. We musl, then, believe there remained 
only one remarkable person of this name. Where, then, 
would James the Less be, if this eminent James were not 
he? 

3. The Lord had four brothers, among whom are counted 
a Jude and a. James, besides Joses and Simon (Matt. xiii. 
55; Mark vi. 3). Now, Jude calls himself "brother of 
James " (Jude i.), and James is called " brother of the 
Lord." (Gal. i. 19.) It will then naturally be asked if they 
are not the same persons. 

4. This is not all. Many of the " Lord's brothers " (1 Cor. 
ix. 5) were counted among the twelve ; among his brothers, 

' a James, a Joses, and a Jude ; among the twelve, a James, 
son of Alpheus, and a Jude, brother of James,^ both of 
whom were either his own brothers, his half-brothers, or his 
cousins.^ Must we not thence conclude that the James, au- 
thor of the epistle and " brother of the Lord " (Gal. i. 19), 
as well as the Jude, his brother, author of another epistle 

Winer and Neander are undecided. Origen, Eusebius, Hilary, Ambrose 
Epiphanius, and Gregory of Nyssa held, it is said, the other opinion. Of 
such a question the Fathers are savants, but neither witnesses nor judges 
Their authority is not above that of the modems. 

1 First and Second Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, and Hebrews. 

2 Otherwise called Lebbèus or Thaddeus. (Acts i. 13; John xiv. 22; 
Luke vi. 16. 

8 Many very properly object that it would be contrary to the usage of 
the. Greeks to apply to cousins the expression " brother " {àôe^ôç). They 
add that Paul and Luke himself, when they speak of cousins, use either 
the terms àveipiôç or avyyev^ç. (Luke i. 36, 58; Col. iv. 10; Bom. ix. 5; 
xvi. 7, 11, 21.) 



WHICH JAMES WAS THE AUTHOE. 363 

were for tbe same reason both called "brothers of the Lord," 
and both counted among the apostles ? 

5. It would be very difficult to believe that the James of 
the Acts, of the' epistle to the Corinthians, and of the epistle 
to the Galatians, if he had not been an apostle, could have 
possessed such high authority among the apostles, whether in 
the council of Jerusalem,* in his house when the elders and 
apostles were convened (Acts xxi. 18), in the estimation 
of Peter (Acts xii. 17 ; Gal. ii. 12), or m that of Paul.^ 
"Tell these things to James and to the brethren," Peter 
said ; and it was even from fear of the brethren sent hy James 
that this apostle afterward dissembled in Antioch. " James, 
Cephas, and John, who are pillars," said Paul. "I saw 
none of the apostles in Jerusalem, save James, the Lord's 
brother." 

6. It would be equally difficult, if he were not the apostle, 
son of Alpheus, to believe that the book of Acts, in its 12th 
chapter, would have introduced him abruptly on the apostol- 
ical arena as the person thenceforward most prominent and 
influential in the churchy without having said one word about 
his person or his conversion, and without any mention of him 
in any other part of the New Testament. 

7. It is difficult to persuade ourselves that Luke, at the 
very moment of recounting the death of James the Elder, 
whilst his readers must be supposed not to have known, after 
him, any other James than the Less, should immediately, in 
this same 12th chapter, speak of a third James of whom the 
Scriptures to that time had never spoken, and without inti- 
mating that he was not then speaking of the only James 
whom his readers might be supposed to know. 

8. But it would be equally difficult to believe that Paul 
should distinctly and positively caU him an apostle (Gal. i. 
19) if he had not been one. When, " after three years I 

1 Acts XV. 19, ôib kyà Kpiva. What would not the Koman doctors say 
if Peter had held snch language ? 

2 1 Gor. ix. 5; Gal. i. 19; ii. 9, 12. 



364: THE CANON". 

went up to Jerusalem to see Peter. Other of the apostlea 
saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." 

In vain should we do violence to this verse by translating 
it thus : " I saw no other of the apostles, but I saw James ; " 
for no example can be produced where eî /t^ after trepov ovk 
is confined to mean only hut. And moreover, in this passage 
the whole design of Paul was to show that for a long time 
after his conversion he had Tiot seefi an apostle. James, the 
Lord's brother, was then an apostle. 

9. "When the same Paul said to the Corinthians (ix. 5), 
" Have we not the power to lead about a sister, a wife, as 
well as other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord and Ce- 
phas?" it is sufficiently clear that- he is far from wishing to 
except the Lord's brothers from the number of the apostles. 
On the contrary, he places them in the rank with Cephas. 
" As well as other apostles " means here " even the brothers 
of the Lord and Cephas." 

10; Otherwise there must have been in the evangelical 
history two Joseses, three Judes, and four Jameses, which is 
difficult to believe. Two named Joses : the one a brother of 
the Lord, the other his cousin or his half-brother. Three 
Judes : the one, Iscariot, another, brother of Jesus Chi-ist 
(Matt. xiii. 55), the third, apostle, and son of an unknown 
James ; for we must from thence necessarily understand the 
expression 'lovSas 'la/ctoySou (Luke vi. 16 ; Acts i. 13 ; John 
xiv. 22), in the sense of Jude the son of James. And I say, 
too, four Jameses : the first, son of Zebedee ; the second, son 
of Alpheus, and cousin or half-brother of the Lord ; the 
third, his own brother, author of the epistle ; and the fourth, 
a James unknown, father of Jude the apostle. 

We must then at last conclude that, if it is not necessary 
to establish the apostolicity of this epistle in order to prove- 
its canonicity, Ave have still the strongest reasons, for admit- 
ting that its author was an apostle, whilst those of a contrary 
opinion are at least unable to prove that he was not. 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 365 

» 

SECTION m. 

SKCOND EPISTLE OP PETEK. 

The Study it claims. 

This Scripture here calls more than any other for an at- 
tentive study of its characteristics and its history ; for in spite 
of the doctrinal beauty and the wholly apostolical majesty 
which distinguish it, it is, of the five contested epistles, that 
which the modern opponents of the canon have the most 
abundantly attacked, not only on account of its lack of his- 
torical proofs, but especially of its striking homage to the 
epistles of Paul, both as to their authenticity and their inspi- 
ration. 

Moreover, it must be conceded that men of science in 
every age have taken part for and against it. Against it, 
because it is, of the five antilegomens, that which presents 
in its favor the most limited number of Patristic testimonies 
during the first two Christian centuries ; and for it, because 
at the same time it is, of the five antilegomens, that whose 
internal characteristics the most invincibly attest its apostol- 
ical authenticity. Also, when we determine to reject it, 
there is, in the strange suppositions we are obliged to admit, 
"a moral impossibility," as M. Louis Bonnet has so well 
said in his " Commentary on the New Testament " ; ^ " im- 
possibility," he a'dds, " which, in every unprejudiced judge, 
forces a conviction so vivid, so firm, that we do not hesitate 
to affirm that, among the books of the New Testament, at 
anytime contested, there is not one the authenticity of which 
is as certain as the second epistle of Peter." 

The most distinguished German critics ^ have lately come 
to the same conclusion ; and we have quite recently seen 

1 New Testament, in his Introduction, torn, ii., Geneva, 1852, p. 701. 

2 Besides Guericke, Isagogik (1854); Dietlein, Der 2 Petri, 1851, pp. 1- 
74; Thiersch, (1852), Versammlung, etc. 

31* 



866 THE CANON. 

again the learned Guericke, who in his " Beitrage '' (p. 175) 
had at first expressed its doubts on this authenticity, after- 
ward nobly and frequently retracting these doubts in his 
"Introduction" of 1854.1 

The Letter claims to he Petei's. 

We must first remark that the «author declares himself 
to be " Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus 
Christ" just as the author of the first epistle calls himself 
" Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ." He repeats this asser- 
tion from one end to the other, directly, indirectly, and in 
every form. He professes also to write to the same classes 
of persons (2 Pet. iii. 1) to whom the first epistle had been 
addressed, that is, " to the elect from among the Jews scat- 
tered" (è/cXe/cToîs irapcTTiSiy/iots SiaoTropSs), as strangers in the 
various provinces of Asia Minor. He says : " This second 
epistle, beloved, I now write unto you;" and he assures 
them that he had been an eye-witness of the transfiguration 
of the Lord on the holy mountain, '* when there cajne such a 
voice to him from the excellent glory ; This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." Moreover, he says, it is 
now the time of his departure ; the moment is come for him 
"to put off this tabernacle" (i. 13); and this, "the Lord 
has showed " him (14) ; this same Jesus who, shortly after 
his own resurrection, had indicated to him what kind of death 
his should be. (John xxi. 14, 19.) He then " thinks it meet 
in both to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance." 
He foresees that his letter will be universally read, and in 
the expectation of his approaching death, he " will endeavor 
that they may be able after his decease to have these things 
always in remembrance, that they may know them and be 
established in the present truth." (2 Pet. i. 15, 12.) At the 
same time, he commends to them " all the epistles of Paul, 

8 p. 483. " Der ich biemit wiederholt retractire." See his Gesammt* 
geschicte dcF N. T. oder Neutestamentliche Isagogik, p. 472. 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 367 

his beloved brother," whicb were already all written, even 
including the epistle to the Hebrews (iii. 15, 16), although 
Paul was not yet deceased ; for the two apostles were des- 
tined to die the same year, and under the same persecution. 
Paul, he says, had written to them, " according to the wisdom 
given him ; " and whoever should wrest his words, would 
do it to his " own destruction." In a word, we here see the 
author addressing his brethren with all the elevation of an 
apostle who knew himself about to give up his life for his 
master, and to appear before him. They must then, he says, 
" account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation ; " 
they must by their prayers hasten the coming of the day of 
God, when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and. the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; " they must, 
" according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." (iii. 13.) 

The majestic Character of ike Epistle strongly confirms this 
Testimony. 

That this Scripture is in fact the work of an inspired apos- 
tle is powerfully attested by its entire character, the majesty 
of its thoughts, the purity of its doctrines, their profound 
harmony with the whole body of divine instructions. From 
the beginning to the end, the epistle exhibits one of the 
Twelve at the close of his conflicts ; it breathes throughout 
the apostolical spirit : authority in the language ; sober gran- 
deur in the images ; sustained, but tender and serious fervor 
in the warnings ; calm elevation, vigorous and sometimes 
sublime in its denunciations of the ftiture. The day of 
Christ approaches, though it be delayed ; let men then flee 
the corruption which is in the world through lust ; let holiness 
of life be all their care ; let the Church hold herself, by " all 
holy conversation and godliness," ready to escape the final 
destruction of the world by fire ! What fijllness, and yet 
what terrible precision, in his description of the final confia- 



368 THE CANON. 

gration ! The earth and the heavens wrapped in flanies, thé 
elements melted with fervent heat, that new heavens and a 
new earth, the abode of righteousness, may spring out of this 
universal ruin ! And it is thus powerfully he at last conducts 
us to his solemn conclusion : " Seeing then, that all these 
things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye 
to be in all holy conversation and godliness ! Te therefore, 
beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware . . . and 
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ." " In omnibus epistolas partibus," Calvin says, 
" spiritus Christi majestas se exerit." ^ (In every part of 
the epistle, the majesty of the spirit of Christ is manifested.) 

It should then be understood that, in order to put in ques- 
tion the authenticity of this letter, as many have done,, not 
only must the lie be given to all the historical traditions 
which have transmitted it to us as Peter's, but there must 
also be found, either in the epistle itself or in historical mon- 
uments, sufficient reasons for admitting the following bold 
suppositions : — 

It must first be imagined that a Scripture so grave, so pro- 
foundly conformed to the analogy of faith, and so entirely 
superior in every one of its features to all the uninspired 
productions of the same and the following ages, should be 
the work, we say not of an ordinary and obscure man, but 
of an odious impostor, capable of accumulating falsehood on 
falsehood, and of carrying blasphemy even to the point of giv- 
ing himself out as the author also of the first letter which the 
Holy Spirit had already dictated to the apostle Peter, — 
even to fabricating the counterfeit of a second letter, and 
^ving it out as divine to the churches of God. It must 
be admitted that the author having composed false prophe- 
jîies, and a new Balaam, a new Ananias lying to the Holy 
Ghost, had presented them as received from on high, and all 
this whilst exhorting men to holiness of life, and reminding 
them with rare unction of the terrible judgments of God 
1 Argamentam Epistolse, torn. vii. p. 243, Serlin, 1834. 



SECOND EPISTLE OE PETEE. 369 

against all the ancient false prophets, of his terrible future 
judgments against false teachers ! (2 Pet. ii. 3) — " whose 
judgment," he exclaims, "now of a long time lingereth not, 
and their damnation slumbereth not ! " Tet further, he went 
on even to speak of his approaching end, of which, he says, 
Christ himself had warned him ; and this thought did not 
awaken his conscience. He has seen with his own eyes the 
transfiguration of Christ, he looks for his speedy return with- 
out fear, and he dares to pronounce these dreadful words : 
" We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we 
made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ!" 

But still further î for we should have to acknowledge that 
such a man must at the same time have been so superior to 
all the impostors who would afterwards dare to ^ve to the 
church forged writings, that whilst they always betrayed 
themselves by the confusion of their ideas, the poverty of 
their matter, and the servility of their borrowings from the 
inspired writings, as also by the misfortune of certain details 
and by manifest errors, nothing of the kind appears in this 
letter ; everything here is grand, true, holy, serious, harmo- 
nious ; and it is after eighteen hundred years of scrutiny that 
we can say, it contains nothing not in accordance with facts 
and with the Scriptures. 

You even meet there, in the third chapter, on an impor- 
tant and novel subject, sublime instructions, which, at the 
same time, are still entirely conformed to the harmony of 
faith. We should, then,"have to suppose that the miserable 
wretch, capable of such a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, 
must have been able to compose an epistle which, by its 
unity, its unction, and all its excellences, shows itself superior 
to all the uninspired writings of the same age (the opponents 
concede it), as much as the Alps rise above our hills in Ge- 
neva. And when we speak thus, we are comparing it not 
only with the apocryphal or forged writings of Barnabas and 
of Hennas, and the false epistles of Ignatius, but even with 



370., THE CANON. 

those of a Polycarp and a Clement. For we have been able 
to detect errors of doctrine or fact even in these holy produc- 
tions ; in the second epistle of Peter, nothing of the kind. 

Finally, we must admit even more ; we must recognize 
that this impostor has more completely grasped the design 
and the real meaning of the first epistle of Peter than any. 
of the ancient Fathers; for when you compare it attentively, 
with the last, as Michaelis has said, you will find their agree- 
ment to be such that if Peter had not himself written the one 
and the other, you would be obliged to attribute to the im- 
pious fabricator of the second an understanding of the first 
which no one of the ancient Fathers themselves appears to 
have attained. 

In a word, good sense, history, logic, and conscience revolt 
equally against the supposition which would make the second 
epistle the work of an impostor. 

Why its Acceptance was delayed. 

It will certainly be asked, how it came to pass that this 
second letter, so holy and so majestic, was at first received by 
only a part of the churches, and that the others hesitated, 
some a longer time than others, to introduce it into the col- 
lection of the inspired books of the New Testament ? This 
delay, we reply, was attributable to two causes, one internal, 
the other external ; the internal relating to its style, as indi- 
cated by Jerome ; the external is furnished us by history. 
"We shall now speak of the former. 

Its Style. 

Jerome himself, regarding the epistle as canonical, informs 
us * that the greater part of those who in the early ages de- 
nied that Peter was its author did so on account of the want 
of resemblance between its style and that of the apostle in 
1 Catal. .Script. Eccles., cap. i. 



THE STYLE OF PETEE'S SECOND EPISTLE. 371 

the first epistle ; (a plerisque ejus esse negatur, propter styli 
cum priore dissonantiam). And even, in the hundred and 
twentieth of his letters, this Father, for this reason, ventures 
the suggestion that Peter employed different interpreters to 
translate the two epistles into Greek ; (ex quo intelligimus, 
pro necessitate rerum, diversis eum usum interpretibus). 
But this objection, which had also struck Calvin ^ in the six- 
teenth century, and which was reproduced by Saumaise in 
the seventeenth,' as many others have done in our day, has 
however little value. In the first place, a serious examina- 
tion of the two epistles destroys it, by showing that it is not 
even founded in fact, as may be seen in Guericke's Introduc- 
tion, (1854). The two letters, carefully compared, disclose 
in fact more conformities than differences. And besides, we 
may say in general that nothing is more arbitrary or more 
uncertain than such arguments founded on style ; because 
the productions of the same author may, in this respect, ac- 
cording to circumstances and subjects, greatly differ at one 
time from those of another. 

It is very true that Peter, in his second chapter, while 
predicting to the churches the surreptitious intrusion of false 
teachers who should deny the Redeemer, and who, " with 
feigned words make merchandise of souls, privily bringing in 
damnable heresies, by whom the way of truth shall be evil 
spoken of" (ii. 1-3), then rises above his ordinary style, and 
gives scope to his indignation in the energetic and figurative 
language of the ancient prophets. But this would surely be 
no legitimate objection against the authenticity of the book ; 
and what makes this readily apparent is, that it applies, after 
all, only to the second chapter, and that you might, with the 
same reason, pretend that the author of this passage is not 

1 " I admire the divine majesty of the spirit of Christ in eveiy part of 
this epistle," he said. But, while recognizing its apostolicity, he adopted 
the idea of Jerome, " that it came from Peter," hut that one of his disciples 
•was employed by him to write it. N. T. Comm. torn, vii- 243. Berlin, 
1834. 

2 The opinion of Saumaise is mentioned in Wetstein, ii. 698. 



372 THE CANON". 

the author of the first chapter, nor of the third ; for it can 
be maintained that, except in this passage, the style of both 
epistles is the same. 

Its History. 

We have said, there is another reason altogether historical, 
which explains why only a part of the churches at first 
received this second letter. It is, the circumstances of the 
apostle and the Jewish Christians of Asia at the time it was 
written to them. When Peter wrote it from Rome to the 
Jewish Christians of the Dispersion, he was, he himself says, 
on the point of laying aside his earthly tabernacle and being 
sacrificed for Christ, as Christ himself had predicted to him. 
It was A. D. 65, so that this Scripture did not reach those 
Christians until Peter, already a martyr, was no longer Jiving 
to give by his presence the same authority to this as to the 
first epistle ; and when Paul also was no longer here below 
to support with his testimony the Scripture of his " beloved 
brother " (2 Pet. iii. 15). The two apostles had just given 
their lives for Jesus Christ, with the multitude of Christians 
immolated at Rome. It was the 19th of July, A. d. 64, that 
witnessed the burning of that .city by Nero, immediately 
after which commenced that frightful persecution which Taci- 
tus has so vividly described in the fifteenth book of his '-' An- 
nals." He says, " At first, all who avowed themselves Chris- 
tians were seized ; and then (on their deposition), an im- 
mense multitude was arrested, who were convicted less of 
having burned Rome than of hating the human race. They 
were enveloped in the skins of beasts, that the dogs might 
devour them ; they were attached to crosses ; their bodies 
were coated with resin,' and then set on fire to illuminate the 
night as living torches. Nero had given up his own gardens 
for the spectacle." (Ann., Lib. xv.) It was during those 
days of desolation that Paul and Peter disappeared from the 
militant Church, and the last epistle of the latter, written so 



SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. 373 

short a time before his decease (2 Pet. i. 14), went forth from 
Kome to seek the Israelitish flocks in the East. But in what 
condition did it find them ? In trouble and flight. Already, 
on the 14th of May, a. d. 66, Florus, who for two years had 
been reducing this people to utter despair, had begun, by the 
massacre of the High Market, that frightful and final war in 
which Jerusalem was to fall. The Jewish flocks had all fled 
to the mountains. Threatened, pursued, wandering, they 
had carried with them their Holy Scriptures, their Peshito 
version, which already contained, besides the Gospels and 
Acts, the epistle of James (written before A. d. 62), the first 
of John, the first of Peter, and all the epistles of Paul, in- 
cluding even that to the Hebrews, but which could not yet, 
of course, contain either the Apocalypse, written thirty years 
later, or the epistle of Jude, or the two short epistles of John, 
or even the second of Peter. Scarcely had the latter arrived 
in the East from Eome, than the news of the bloody death 
of these two apostles quickly followed it .there ; and we may 
conceive that, during those stormy days, the flocks could not 
give to mutual communications on this important subject 
a sufiicient time to secure unanimity of views. From that 
period, we should expect three facts : First, the adoption of 
this second epistle would be immediate in some churches, 
especially among the Jewish Christians of the Dispersion ; 
secondly, its successive admission by the other churches 
would be gradual; and thirdly, its definitive acceptance 
throughout Christendom would be late. All these occurred, 
as we are now to show, beginning with the last-stated fact. 



The Definitive Agreement of all the Christian Churches was 

late. 

And first, we have before showed that the acceptance of 

this epistle was as late as the council of Nice, A. d. 325. It 

was at this -epoch, and without any public deliberation on the 

subject, or any decree, that by a fi-ee effect of the fraternal 

32 



374 THE CANON. 

intercourse of so many eminent men, this Scripture passed, 
by a tacit but universal consent, into the canon of all the 
churches, East and West. All these divergences in regard 
to the antilegomens ceased throughout the churches after this 
council. All the seven or twelve" authentic catalogues of the 
fourth century that have reached us, equally contain it : that 
of Athanasius, Epiphanius, Jerome, Rufinus, Augustine, that 
of the forty-four bishops assembled at Carthage, that of 
Cyril, that of the council of Laodicea and of the bishops of 
all Asia Minor, that of Gregory Nazianzen, that of Amphi- 
lochius, that of Philistratus of Brescia. And we might 
equally have mentioned in this same century the celebrated 
Ephraim the Syrian who quoted this second epistle of Peter 
in his Syriac writings and in his Greek writings,^ as also 
Didymus of Alexandria, his cotempprary, who, in his chief 
■work, " De Trinitate," recovered in 1769, signalizes it as one 
of the catholic epistles, and expressly attributes it to Peter. 

The Successive Acceptance was gradual. 

In the second place, that the acceptance of this epistle by 
one church after another was gradual, is what all the monu- 
ments of antiquity prior to the council of Nice equally show. 
You shall hear, for instance, in a. b. 324, that is, only a year 
before the council was held, Eusebius, in the third book of 
his History (chap, xxv.), relating to us the opinion of the 
ancient pastors of the Church (rciiv iraXai Trp&r^vripwv), and 
placing, as they do, this epistle among *' the antilegomens, 
which, while doubted by many, were at the same time recog- 
nized by the majority (yveapi/to)!/ ^ ovv ofjLws toîs ttoXXols) ; 
recognized by the greater part of ecclesiastical authors (o/ius 
8è Trdpà TrAetoTots twv èKKXrja-uumKQv yiyvwo'Ko/iéi'as)." 

Again elsewhere, in the third chapter of the same book, 
he says, " As to Peter, a Scripture, that which is called his 
First, is universally received {avtufioXoyrfraC). Also the an- 

1 See Guericke, Gesammtgeschichte des N". T. p. 477. Leipsic, 1854. 



GBADUAL ACCEPTANCE OF THIS EPISTLE. ' 375 

cient teachers or pastors (ol TroXat irpeo-jSurepot) frequently 
wrote it in their writings as an uncontested Scripture (as 
àvaiJicf>iXéKT(ù . . . KaTaKé^pt^raL), But as to that book of his 
which is given as the Second, on the one side (jJi-eu), we have 
not received (rmpeiXqcfiafjitv), that it should be definitely in- 
serted in the New Testament (èvSuiôeKov ; literally, iniesta- 
mented) ; and on the other hand at the same time (o/iws Se), 
as it has appeared io ike greater number (ttoXAoîs) to be use- 
ful, it has been the object of the same afifection as the then 
Scriptures Ç/ierà rlàv aKX.wv èoTrouSacr^iy ypa^wv)" 

Valesius (Henry of Valois),^ translated : " Studiose lec- 
tita est una cum reliquis Sacrse Scripturae libris." It has 
been carefully and habitually read with the other, books of 
the Holy Scripture. 

And as to those doubts of some persons which are men- 
tioned by Eusebius, Calvin says,'' " They should not divert 
us from using this epistle, for Eusebius does not tell us who 
they were that doubted; we therefore owe them no more 
deference than is due to unknown persons ; while Eusebius 
adds, that it was everywhere received without controversy." 

The progressive assent to this epistle before the council of 
Nice had been slow, in the opinion of Eusebius. As to him- 
self, this Father received it, and the majority of the churches 
were equally earnest (ècnrovSdcrôri) to have it read publicly 
with the other Scriptures ; but we can not yet conclude from 
all these facts, Eusebius says, that it was decidedly " intesta- 
mented." This took place in the year succeeding. 

The great Athanasius, already so celebrated at this very 
epoch, received it without hesitation. "We find it frequently 
quoted in his writings : in his first Dialogue on the Trinity ; 
in his second discourse against the Arians ; in his thirty-ninth 
epistle ; in his synopsis of the Holy Scriptures. " The sec- 
ond epistle of Peter the apostle," he says, " was so called by 
him who wrote it ; for Peter, to instruct the scattered Jewish 

1 Edit. (1659) of Hist. Ecc. of Euseb. Socrates, Sozomen, &c. 

2 In his Argumentum Epistolœ, -written in 1551. 



376 THE CANON. 

converts, addressed this letter to them : and it is that which 
Peter said (o eXeyev o Ilér/sos) : " Whereby are given unto 
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye 
might be partakers of the divine nature." (2 Pet. i. 4.) 

And if we go back a century before Athanasius, even to 
"the learned and godly Origen, in the first half of the third 
century, we find abundant confirmation of the same fact, 
and in a manner yet more significant. This eminent man, 
born A. D. 185, and so profoundly versed in the religious lit 
erature of the first and second centuries, received this epistle 
and quoted it frequently as a portion of our Holy Scriptures, 
and as a second letter of the apostle. He names it without 
any restriction, and he even quotes many of its most noted 
passages, both in his Greek works still extant, and in the 
Latin translations of others, as may be seen in his Greek 
Commentary on Matthew,^ and twice in his Greek dialogue 
" On true Faith," ^ as also in the Latin version of his book 
" Concerning Principles " (-Trept âp)(wv),^ that of his Com- 
mentaries on iElomans,* that of his eighth homily on Joshua, 
Leviticus,^ Numbers, and Exodus. 

And if we carefully distinguish here between the Greek 
and Latin quotations, it is because some have affirmed that 
the latter are less worthy of confidence, on account of the 
liberties taken by Rufinus the translator. But Rufinus has 
done this only in certain writings where he wished to conceal 

1 0pp., torn. ii. 55; torn. i. 323; ii. 164, 38; Kirchhofer, p. 281. 

■-2 He there distinctly alludes to this epistle in saying, 'Attô te tçç irpÛT^ç 
èvcaToTàjç. 

s Origen, Dial. 0pp. ii. 274; i. 821, where quoting 2 Pet. iii. 15, he says, 
" It is -written elsewhere by Peter the apostle. He says, ' According to the 
wisdom given to our brother Paul.' And again, quoting 2 Pet. ii. 19, 
' For one is in bondage to him of whom he is overcome.' " 

4 0pp. torn. iv. 631. Edit. Bened. 1733-1759. De la Rue. And Peter 
in his letter says (2 Pet. i. 2), " Grace and peace be multiplied unto you 
through the knowledge of God." (Et Petrus in epistolâ sua dicit, Gratia 
vobis et pax multiplicatur in'cognitione Dei.) 

6 Horn. viii. in Levit (0pp. ii. p. 200,) where he quotes 2 Pet. i. 4, " "Wo 
are made partakers of the divine nature." 



GRADUAL ACCEPTANCE OF THIS EPISTtE. 377 

some mystic errors of Origan, and in which there is no ques- 
tion about the second epistle of Peter. Moreover, Origen, 
jn the passages here indicated, is not satisfied with naming 
this letter as of Peter ; he quotes from important sentences 
word for word, as may be seen in our notes : " It is written," 
he says, " by Peter the apostle : " " according to the wisdom 
given to iny brother Paul, (Kara rrpf arocftiav, ^lycrtV, ttjv SeSo/ié- 
vrjv T(à à^ekcfità fiov TIav\<a)" Again, he says, "It is wntten 
(quoting 2 Pet. ii. 19, Horn, xii.) that every one is subject 
to him of whom he is overcome." " And Peter says, in his 
letter, ' Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the 
knowledge of God.'" "And Peter says again, 'You are 
made partakers of the divine nature.'" "And the Scrip- 
ture somewhere says, *A dumb beast, speaking with the 
voice of a man, reproved the madness of the prophet.' " 
(Horn, xiii.) 

It has been very unreasonably objected that, in quoting 
the Greek of Peter's first epistle, Origen simply calls it the 
catholic epistle, as if he admitted only one. This difficulty is 
reduced to nothing when we see that, in another place, (Com. 
on Kom. i. 8,) he uses the same expression to designate the 
second epistle of Peter: (Et Petrus in epistolâ sua dicil^ 
« Gratia," &c. 2 Pet. i. 2). 

This great teacher had then found, in his incessant study 
of Christian antiquity, sufficient reasons for receiving fully 
this second epistle of Peter, although Origen says elsewhere 
(at least if Eusebius, in H. E. vi. 25, is to be relied on), that 
this letter, accepted by himself, was contested by others. It 
is in an exposition of the gospel of John, now lost, that 
Origen, according to Eusebius, says, " Peter has left us one 
single epistle which is universally acknowledged (o/ioAoyov- 
fxévrjv) ; . but we admit a second, for it is contested (loTto Se 
KoX Bevrépav, àfufyiPdXXcTai yap)." 

Thus, then, of all the united testimonies of Origen, even 
including this last, — which however, does not appear en- 
tirely to harmonize with the nine or ten other quotations of 
32* 



378 THE CANON. 

this Father, — from all the testimonies united we must again 
conclude that, according to Origen, the general acceptance of- 
the second epistle of Peter was gradual. • 

And no one should be surprised at our hesitation in ac- 
cepting this quotation from Eusebius; for this author has 
already betrayed, in this very chapter, a grave want of either 
exactitude or impartiality in regard to the epistle of Jude. 
In fact, whilst he pretends to be giving there an account of 
the opinions of Origen upon the canon, he has, notwithstand 
ing the very numerous and obvious testimonies of Origen tc 
Jude, given us the canon of this Father without mentioning 
the epistle of Jude. 

We may again confirm these conclusions drawn from 
Origen by another testimony equally important, of the same 
century, that of Firmilian. In fact, if, in Africa, Cyprian, 
at least in his works now extant, has made no use of the sec- 
ond epistle of Peter (no more than Tertullian before him), 
we see, by a letter written to this holy bishop by the cele- 
brated Firmilian, that in the same period our epistle was 
quoted by this learned man, then bishop of Cesarea in Cap- 
padocia, and very influential in Asia. He flourished A. d. 
231. A great friend of Origen, who went to visit him even 
in his distant diocese, and who received in turn his visit in 
Judea, he wrote thus to Cyprian afterward : ^ " The blessed 
apostles, Peter and Paul, have, in their episdes, expressed 
their horror at the heretics (in epistolis suis execrati sunt), 
and warned us to avoid them." We cannot doubt that, by 
these expressions, Firmilian had in view our second epistle, 
since the first says .not one word about heretics, while the 
other employs an entire chapter in denouncing against them 
the fearful judgments of God. The acceptance of the epis- 
tle, we repeat, was slow, though real and progressive. 

And now, if we pass from the third century to the second, 
and even the first, we find again the same fact confirmed in 
the few monuments of this epoch. We must not here speak 
1 Among the Epis, of Cyprian, the 75th. 



GRADUAL ACCEPTANCE OF THIS EPISTLE. 379 

of the catalogue of Muratori either one way or the other, 
because, as we have seen, the part of the manuscript which 
must have spoken of Peter, is wanting in the Fragment. 
But "we find, in the second century, Irenasus,^ who twice 
quoted the eighth verse of the third chapter. Peter, it is 
true, is not there named, but the Father there gives his own 
words : " A day with the Lord is as a thousand years (57 yap 
rjnipa Kvpiov ws fi. enj)" And that which proves it to be a 
quotation is, that Justin Martyr, before him, when quoting 
these very words, gave them in his day as borrowed from 
the Scriptures. " 'îiwritiafi.ev" iie says, " koL to etpiy/yicfov." 
" "We know also that it has been said, A day is with the 
Lord as a thousand years." ^ Moreover, we may see again 
in the same century, by an important fact, how much the 
second epistle of Peter was at that time distributed and re- 
spected, since Clemens Alexandrinus had written an expo- 
sition of it. This fact we obtain from Ensebius and Photius ; 
from Eusebius, who declares to us that Clement, in his Hy- 
potyposes, now lost, had made "abridged expositions (èm- 
reTfjLrj/xévas hvqyqaevs) ^ of all the testamented Scripture ; " 
and from Photius,* too, who mentions also the commentary 
of Clement on " the epistles of the divine Paul, and on the 
catholic epistles (tov Ôeiov JlavXov tc3v iTrtoroXcav, koL tSv 
KaOoXiKmv)." Now,' it is well known that Eusebius and Pho- 
tius both placed the second epistle of Peter among those they 
called the "catholic epistles." Guericke^ says, "And as 
to what is pretended, that Cassiodorus represented Clement as 
having commented only on the first of Peter, it shows that 
they have not examined the words of that author." 

Moreover, in this same second century, we might, with 
Lardner, quote again Athenagoras, who twice appears to 

1 Adv. Hseres. Lib. v. chap. 23 and 28. 

2 Dial, cum Tiyph. p. 308. Lond. 1772, fol. 

8 H, E. vi. 24. De Valois translated " compendiosam enarrationem." 
4 Mup«>,3t/3Aov, (Biblioth.) Cod>109. Edit. Bekker, p. 89. 
6 Last edit. p. 476. (Gesammtgeschiclite des N. T. oder Neuestament- 
liche Isagogik. Leipsic, 1854.) 



380 THE CANON. 

allude to certain w.ords of our epîstle ; and Guericke (Introd. 
1854), who also quotes a Father prior to Irenaeus, Theophi- 
lus, bishop of Antioch, with whom we find agaiii two passages 
quite clear relating to 2 Pet. i. 10, and i. 19. Besides, in 
the first century there are numerous unmistakable allusions 
among the apostolical Fathers, especially Clemens Romanus, 
from which we have already made a long extract. Many, 
too, are quoted by Hermas in his " Shepherd," and by Bar- 
nabas ; but we have thus far abstained irom referring to these 
two books. Guericke says, " These very manifest quotations 
of the apostolical Fathers which we have signalized, may be 
contested ; but no impartial person can fail to recognize in 
them clear allusions to his second epistle." ^ 

Yet we must admit that, "with decided enemies, these quo- 
tations have little force, because Peter is not expressly named 
in them, and because they have been determined to see in 
them only accidental resemblances of thought and language. 
Moreover, it should be understood that before the book was 
decidedly intestamented (as Eusebius says), even they who 
received it abstained from quoting it to others, or quoted it 
quite reservedly. We prefer, then, to appeal to a testimony 
more significant; and concluding again that the progress 
of the book was gradual among the body of the churches, 
although real, we pass to our third point. 

From the Appearing of the Booh, the Assent was, in one part 
of the Church, immediate. 

In the third place, it is equally evident, from monuments 
of the first century, that the adoption of the epistles of Peter 
by a great part of the primitive churches, and especially by 
the Jewish flocks scattered abroad, was immediate. This 
important fact might be inferred already from^ the unanimity 
so easily established among the Christian churches as soon as 

1 Ibid. p. 472. Doeh jedem Unbefangenen unverkennbare Anspielun- 
gen. See also DietIein,Der 2 Brief Petri. Berlin, 1851, p. 1-71. 



IMMEDIATELY KECEIVED BY MANY CHURCHES. 381 

their principal leaders, assembled from every part of the an- 
cient world, had met each other at Nice in their first general 
council. How could they then have decided-with such entire 
unanimity and positiveness if they had not seen, in the mon- 
uments of the primitive Church, testimonies which have not 
survived to our day ? How, above all, could the learned 
Origen, so jealous for the Scriptures, so near the apostolical 
times, so versed in the knowledge of antiquities, have a cen- 
tury before placed this letter in his canon, if he had not had 
sufBcient proofs, and if he had not been able to follow its 
track up to the beginnings of Christianity? 

Yet this proof, which is, after all, only strongly presump- 
tive, might still appear insufficient to the opponents of the 
epistle. We have another which ia unanswerable ; it is the 
testimony of Jude. 

Although it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to give the 
Scriptures to the Church at a period sufficiently late to have 
them directly in the care of a Christian people already organ- 
ized, that is, to numerous flocks already completely gathered 
by the preaching of the apostles ; and although, moreover, 
the greater part of the later epistles may have been written 
very near the moment when their authors disappeared by 
martyrdom, — yet the same vSpirit meanwhile provided that 
these sacred writers should have time to be confirmed by 
each other through mutual testimonies constantly accumulat- 
ing. Thus, as Paul rendered testimony to Luke, Luke to 
Paul, John to the first three evangelists, -Paul to Peter and 
James, and Peter himself to " all the epistles of Paul " 
(5 Pet; iii. 16) ; so, too, the apostle Jude, " servant of Jesus 
Christ, and brother of James," in his catholic epistles, writ- 
ten after the two letters of Peter (as may be seen by many 
signs, and as we shall presently show), quotes words evi- 
dently from the second epistle of Peter, declaring they were 
^spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ" 
(vs. 17, 18), and the Church ought to remember them. 
Xiet-us then attentively examine both this quotation from 



382 THE CANON. 

the passage from Peter and the testimony which Jude ren- 
ders to it. 

See first the quotation in Jude, on which we have already 
commented. " But beloved, remember ye the words spoken 
before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

And what words. are they? Jude informs us: "They 
told you there should be mockers in the last times, who 
should walk after their own ungodly lusts." And where did 
they say it ? Evidently, in the second epistle of Peter, and 
nowhere else. 

In the Greek New Testament, we find them word for 
word, in the third chapter, verse third, of the second of Pe- 
ter, who, from the beginning of his. letter, called himself 
Simon Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. We find them 
there, and only there. Thus Jude quoted this letter of Pe- 
ter as a Scripture already known of the churches of many 
year ; for he said " remember." 

And he quoted it as apostolical, for he said to them, " Re- 
member the words spoken before of the apostles of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

Examine attentively the very words which Peter had 
written (2 Pet. iii. 3) : " Knowing this first, that there 
shall come in the last time scoffers, walking after their own 
lusts (oTt IXeuo-ovrat hr la^rov twv rjfieptàv *EMIIAIKTAI 
Kara ras î8uis avrwj/ eiriovfiias Tropevofievoi).'* Compare also 
now, word for word, the language of Peter with that of Jude : 
" The apostles told you that in the last time (ey i<rxdT<a 
Xpôv(o) ; " that is as Peter's èir ecrxarov twv -qixepQv. " There 
shall be scofferè {hovrai èinraînTai) ; that is as Peter's cXev- 
arovrai efXTratKrau Walking, {iropcvofievoi is as Peter's tto- 
pevo/xei/oi) ; according to their ungodly lusts (xarà ras iavrcàv 
iiriovfiias tSv àcre/8etûv) ; that is as Peter's kara ràç îSuxs 

And it should be remarked again that the most important 
word of Jude, that of èfuraiKTai, is found nowhere else in the 
Scripture but in this single passage of the second epistle of 
Peter: 



IMMEDIATELY EECEH^D BY MAEY CHURCHES. 383 

Let us add that, to render again a more ample homage to 
the epistle of Peter, Jude, in his brief letter, which contains 
only twenty-five verses, appears to quote Peter again in ten 
other passages (2 Pet. i. 2 ; ii. 1, 4, 6, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18) ; 
and that, besides, he renders testimony in his fourth verse to 
the fulfillment of the prophecy of Peter in the verses at the 
beginning of his second chapter ; for the one speaks of future 
heresies near at hand, whilst the other, writing much later, 
speaks of them as being already before his eyes. 

This testimony of Jude in favor of Peter has, it appears 
to US, an irresistible force in establishing the high antiquity 
of the use of this epistle by the first Christians, as of an 
apostolical writing. Jude, in fact, quotes it to them as a 
■took written in a former time, and which he invites them 
to remember. And we must not forget, moreover, that the 
proof here drawn from this remarkable testimony depends 
in no degree on its inspiration, since it would still be suffi- 
cient to our argument, even if Jude, instead of being an 
apostle, had been simply a writer of the same age, whose 
words we now possess. It is enough that his epistle be rec- 
ognized as authentic and cotemporary. Now, that it is both, 
is what the opponents themselves of the second epistle of 
Peter are obliged to admit ; for we shall presently show by 
the most ancient of the Latin Fathers (Tertullian), and by 
those of the Greek Fathers who have most weight in these 
matters (Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and others), that 
Jude's epistle, which seems to have .been written after the 
death of all the apostles except John, was already received 
rom the second century by the Eastern and the Western 
Churches. The second epistle of Peter must, then, have 
been received still earlier ; and the numerous resemblances 
which these two Scriptures present could not originate a 
prejudice against that of Peter,^as soon as it is established 
that Peter's was the first written, and that Jude has quoted 
from it; 

It is apparent, therefore, that with a great part of the 



384 THE CANON. 

churches, especially those of the circumcision, the admission 
of the second epistle of Peter was immediate. Afterwards 
gradual and progressive with the other churches, it became 
at length universal from the first half of the fourth century. 
"We pass to John's epistles. 



SECTION m. 

THE TWO SHORTER EPISTLES OF JOHN. 

These two epistles contain altogether only twenty-eight 
verses; but although their divine authority is abundantly 
asserted by the most respectable testimonies of Christian an- 
tiquity, they were held by many, for a time, in doubt. Euse- 
bius (H. E. iii. 25) has classed them, as we have said, in the 
number of " contested books, although recognized, at the 
same time, by the great majority (tôîç ttoAXois)." He would 
seem to doubt whether to attribute them to John the evange- 
list or some other author of the same name. He quotes, 
too, (vi. 25) a passage fi'om Oragen, now lost, in which this 
Father, while himself recognizing these two epistles, spoke 
thus of them : " John, besides his gospel, wrote the Apoca- 
lypse ... ; and he has left an epistle of a very few lines 
(oTtxcov). And to these let us add still a second and a third 
epistle, although all are not agreed to call these legitimate 
(ou 'jrdvres (}>a(n yvTjcrtovç eXvai rauras)." " Both," he adds,* 
" do not contain a hundred stichoi" (or very short lines). 

It is easy to render a satisfactory reason for the delay of 
many in receiving these two latter epistles into* the collection 
of the canon. They were addressed to individuals ; they 
were singularly brief, and the author there mentions himself 
only as the elder (6 irpea-fivrepos, the elder par excellence), 
"We shall return to this subject. 

1 TT^v o^K slat aTÎxci>v àft^ôrepcu éKarôv. 



THE TWO SHORTER EPISTLES OF JOHN. 385 

« 
On the other hand, these two epistles are, in their style 

and their thoughts, so manifestly the products of the same 
mind as the first of John, that they can be attributed to no 
other author. The first and the last two render mutual tes- 
timony to each other by the numerous resemblances which 
critics have taken pains to notice, and which we may study 
with them,^ as well as by other correspondences; entirely 
worthy of notice, between these two short letters and those 
of James and Peter.^ 

Moreover, it might be inquired, why would a false John 
have forged them ? What object can any one imagine any 
impostor -to have had in fabricating these two letters, so 
familiar, yet at the same time so full of interest as showing 
the intimate relations existing between the apostle and the 
churches ? They both advance no other than John's doc- 
trines ; they recommend no man nor party in the Church ; 
they do not even remotely suggest the smallest of the errors 
which cotemporary heretics were then sowing with full 
hands ; they breathe only the holy unction and tender char- 
ity of John J they are simple and modest likewise ; in a word, 
they bear all the most natural characteristics of genuineness 
and truth. 

Also these two epistles, notwithstanding their familiar 
character and their extreme brevity, are sustained by the 
best testimonials of authenticity. 

First in the East, from the second century, that of Clem- 
ens Alexandrinus, to whom so much credit is given in sacred 
criticism. He received them both as Scriptures divinely 
inspired, written by the apostle John ; ^ and he has even writ- 
ten commentaries on them.* Then, in the West, from the 
same century, the testimony of the canon, by many attrib- 



1 Guericke, p. 497. 

2 See Wordsworth on the Canon. Lend. p. 283 to 286. 

8 Strom, ii. p. 389, ed. Sylb. Euseb. H. E. iii. 14. Adumhrat. p. 101, 
'edit. Venet. 

* Guericke, Gesammtgesch. des N. T. pp. 474, 495. 
33 



386 THE CO^ON. 

uted to Caius, a Rontan priest, and published first by the 
Canon Muratori. Having before quoted from the first epis- 
tle of John, he now adds : " The epistle of Jude and the two 
bearing the name of John are universally received." (Epis- 
tola sane Judas, et superscripti Joannis duae, in catholica ha- 
bentur.) These epistles have, moreover, in the East and the 
"West, the sufirage of Irenaeus. Although the first containa 
but thirteen verses, we find it quoted twice by this Father. 
It is well understood what weight his testimony in regard to 
John derives from his education in Asia with Polycarp, and 
his long residence in the places where John dwelt to the end 
of his life. Now, in his first book (chap. xvi. ai't. 3), he 
quotes fully the eleventh verse of the second epistle : " John, 
the disciple of the Lord," he says, " extends even to such 
men the condemnation, forbidding us to say to them ' God 
speed ; for he that biddeth them God speed, is partaker of 
their evil deeds.' " And farther on, in his third book (chap, 
xviii.) : " And his disciple John, in the letter of which I have 
just spoken, has told us to shun them, when he said, ' For 
many deceivers,' " etc., quoting fully the seventh and eighth 
verses of the second epistle. 

We might also name, from the beginning of the third cen- 
tury, Origen, who recognized both epistles as canonical, in 
his 7th homily, already quoted, on Joshua, and comparing 
them to the priests who carried the trumpet after the son of 
Nun. He says, " Peter sounds two clarions in his epistles ; 
James also, and Jude ; then John adds also his blast in his 
epistles and his Apocalypse."^ 

We might also name, in this same third century, Diony- 
sius of Alexandria, who, in a passage also quoted by Euse- 
bius (vii. 25), cites them as authentic and as ascribed to John, 
" although John there withholds his name, designating him- 
self in each only under the title of elder (àXKà âvcDvvfuos 5 
TIp€s^VT€po<s yéypa-TTTai)." 

1 Addît nihilominus atque et Joannes tuba canere per epistolas saas et 
Apocaljpsin. 



THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 387 

Then we might add to all these testimonies those of Alex- 
ander Alexandrinus, Athanasius, Epiphanius, Gregory Naziaa- 
zen, Philastrias, Jerome, Rufinus, Cjril of Jerusalem, and 
Augustine ; the council of Laodicea, the council of Carthage, 
and soon the entire Christian world. 



SECTION V. 

THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 

The canonicity of the epistle of Jude is powerfully at- 
tested ; and we have reason to wonder that so short a scrip- 
ture, which contains only a little chapter of twenty-five 
verses, has been so frequently quoted by the early Fathers. 
— The principal of them will be noticed hereafter. 

The author of the Epistle. 

Antiquity is unanimous in recognizing the apostle Jude, 
(Luke vi. 16), Jude the brother, ialf-brother, or cousin of 
Jesus Christ ; and the brother also of that James the Less 
(Ô fUKpos), who was son of Alpheus, and whose relationship 
with the Son of Man has already been discussed by us. 
No voice among the ancients has ever attributed this let- 
ter to any other Jude than the apostle : that is wholly 
a modern pretension. Tertullian,^ Origen,^ Athanasius 
(Epist. Festal.), Epiphanus (Hseres. xxvi.), Jerome,' 
and others, unanimously give the title of apostle to its 
author. 

This Jude, brother of James, who is called Jude of James 
by Luke (vi. 16; Acts i. 13), Thaddeus by Maiki Zehbeus 

1 De Ciilta feminar.. Lib. i., cap. iv. - 

2 Com. in Ep. ad Rom., Lib. iii., torn. iv. p. 510. (Ed. Paris, 1733.) 
8 Com. on Tit. i. — Ep. 2 ad. Paulin. 



388 THE CANON. 

by Matthew, and who is mentioned only once in the Gospels 
(John xiv. 22), was married, if we may believe Eusebius, 
as were the other " brothers of the Lord," (1. Cor. ix. 5) ; 
and his two grandsons, established in Palestine, were obliged 
at the end of a. d. 95, to appear before the Emperor Domi- 
tian, who intended to destroy them on account of their con- 
nection with Christ. Yet this prince, seeing in them only ' 
ordinary men, sent them home with contempt. They were 
afterward greatly honored in the church, both as relatives of 
Jesus Christ, as nephews of James and Simeon, and as wit- 
nesses of the truth ; and they lived until after the death of 
their uncle Simeon, who had been made bishop of Jerusalem 
in the place of James. Eusebius says (H. E. iii. 11 ; iv. 22), 
"the relations and disciples of the Lord took part in this 
election, and made it unanimous." 

Notwithstanding all the testimonies of antiquity on this sub- 
ject, we have seen in our day th^same authors who, in order 
to diminish the authority of James' epistle, have labored to 
awaken doubts as to its apoStolicity, make the same eflTorts to 
deny also that of Jude's epistle. This opinion, which is wholly 
modern, appears to us, as we have said in regard to James, to 
have no importance as an argument, as to the canonicity of this 
book. Were it established even, which modern criticism has 
not the means to do, that our Jude was not one of the twelve 
apostles (Luke vi. 16), it would not in the least affect the im- 
portant questions concerning his epistle. 

Its date. 

The second epistle of Peter, especially its second chapter, 
presenting the most striking resemblance to that of Jude 
in its ideas, and even its expressions, it is important jto deter- 
mine which borrows from the other. Now, it appears cleai 
to us that it is Jude. Michaelis agrees with us, and says,^ 

1 Tom. vi. p. 387. French edit. 



THE DATE OF JTQDE'S EPISTLE. 889 

" It is certain that relatively to this letter, that of Peter is 
the origiaal." The following reasons show that fact. 

1. Peter had written his second letter just before his death 
in A. D. 64 or 65 ; whereas Jude survived the martyrdom^ 
of Paul and Peter, as well as those of the two Jameses. 
Luke, in fact, relates the death of James the Greater (Acts 
xii. 2) ; and Josephus the historian, that of James the Less, 
(Antiq. xx. 8) ; but neither of them has mentioned the death 
of Jude, which antiquity places later. 

2. Jude in employing the words of Peter, expands them, 
because a writer quoting is naturally more prolix than his 
original. See for instance, Jude 9, and 2 Pet. ii. 11 ; Jude 
14, 15, and 2 Pet. ii. 9. > 

3. Jude in speaking of the " Scoffers " who walked in his 
time " after their ungodly lusts," is not satisfied with textuaUy 
quoting the sentence of Peter, including this remarkable 
term e/^TraiKrat found nowhere else in the New Testament ; 
but he is also careful to declare that he is quoting "the 
words which were spoken before of the apostles of our 
Lord Jesus Christ," (17). He, then, is the quoter, and Peter 
is quoted from. 

4. When Peter wrote this sentence, he used the form of 
prediction, employing the future tense. He said, " There 
shall he false teachers among you," (2 Pet. ii. 1) ; " many 
shaUfoUow them ; " " there shall come scoffers," (iii. 3.) — But 
what does Jude, on the contrary ? Speaking long afterwards, 
and seeing with his eyes the total accomplishment of this 
prophecy of Peter, he quotes it as realized in his time, and- 
uses in speaking of it, not as did Peter, the future, but the 
present tense and the past. He says, " there are certain men 
crept in unawares who were 'before of old ordained to this 
condemnation," (4) ; and (verse 17) : " But, beloved, re- 
member ye the words which were spoken before of the 
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you 
there should be mockers in the last time;" and (verse 19) : 
" These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having 

33* 



390 THE CANON. 

not the Spirit." The one foretold the evil, and the other saw 
it with his eyes ; the one preceded, the other followed. 

5. When Jude is pleased at the beginning of his letter to 
entitle himself " Jude the brother of James" it is evidently 
to recommend himself by association with not a living, but 
a deceased person, with a martyr whose memory was re- 
vered by all the churches of Christ, and whose name was 
dear even to the other Jews, who recorded his martyrdom, 
Josephus ^ says, as one cause of their ruin. The churches 
for thirty years had admired his fidelity in the ministry at 
Jerusalem. It is then sufficiently evident that Jude wrote 
his letter after the martyrdom of his brother James. 

6. We may remark that, in classing the epistles of the 
New Testament, the churches were pleased to range their 
authors in the order of the dates of their writings, although 
at the same time the respective books of each of these authors 
were placed in the order of their importance rather than of 
their dates. 

Thus Paul, who began so early by writing his letter to the 
Thessalonians, is placed first.^ After him comes James who 
died A. D. 62 ; then Peter and his two letters, the latter of 
which was not written until near his death, toward A. D. 65 ; 
then John, whose letters follow those of Peter ; then Jude, 
because he wrote last of all ; then • finally the Apocalypse, 
because it was given after all the epistles, at the end of the 
first century or beginning of the second. By this mark then, 
Jude is posterior to Peter. 

7. Also Neander thinks that the expressions which this 
apostle employs in verses 17 and 18, indicate a very late 
epoch, the end of the apostolical age the time when all the 

1 Antiq. xx. 8, and Euseb. H. E. xxiii. xxîv. 

2 The three manuscripts .with uncial letters A. B. C. and the greater 
part of the manuscripts with minuscular letters, place the catholic Epistles 
in the first rank. " Epistolse catholicœ magno veterum testium consensu, 
eo exhibentur ordine quo Jacobus primus est, alter Petrus, Johannes ter- 
tius, quarto Judas." — Tischendorf Proleg. of the Greek N. T. of 1849. 



OBJECTIONS AGAINST THIS EPISTLE. 391 

apostles of Jesus except John, had ceased to live. Juda 
says, " Remember ye the words which were spoken before 
of the apostles, how that they told you," etc. 

Objections against this Epistle. 

It has sometimes been objected that the ancient Peshito 
version, which yet contains both the epistle of James and 
that to the Hebrews, does not contain that of Jude. But the 
Peshito version, composed as we have before said in the latter 
half of the first century or the very first part of the second, 
could contain neither the epistle of Jude, written (Neander 
says) at the end of the apostolic age, nor the Apocalypse 
of John, otherwise so generally recognized on its first ap- 
pearance. The Peshito is said to be the only Syriac version 
in which the epistle of Jude is not found, but that it is found 
in those which were published later, some of which are very 
ancient.^ Be that as it may, Ephraim, the illustrious father 
of the Syrian church in the fourth century, quotes it as ca- 
nonical, and ascribes it to Jude. 

It is again objected that the address of the epistle, while 
naming the author, does not call him an apostle. But Jude 
had no more reason for giving himself that title at the com- 
mencement of his letter, than Paul in beginning his letters to 
the Philippians, Philemon, the Hebrews, or the Thessaloni- 
ans, where he calls himself simply, " Paul, a servant of Jesus 
Christ." He had even less reason ; for, in calling himself 
Jude brother of James, he made himself immediately known 
to all the churches as that Jude whom the Gospel of Luke 
(vi. 16) had already designated to all the churches by this 
same name of "Jude (brother) of James," ('louSas 'laKujSov). 



1 We have not been able to examine them for ourselves. — See the Syr- 
iac version edited by Edw. Pococke, (Vers, et Notae ad 4 Epist. Syriacas, 
Petri 2, Johann. 2 et 3, Judse unam. Leiden, 1670.) — M. Eenss (Gesch. der 
Heil. Schr. 429) thinks that the four catholic epistles published by Pococke 
belong to the Fhiloxenian version. 



392 THE CANOlSr. 

Was it not fully evident that this title was sufficient, espe- 
cially in a time when all the Jews, as well as the Christians, 
still entertained such respect for the memory of that " pillar " 
of the church, for his long ministry, for his eminent holiness, 
for his illustrious martyrdom ? Jude, servant of Jhsus Christ 
and brother of James ; what more was needed? A procla- 
mation to the French people in 1820, signed Jerome Bona- 
parte, brother of Napoleon, would it have left any doubt as to 
the quality of its author, because it did not add his title of 
King of Westphalia ? James, bishop of Jerusalem and brother 
of Jude, was no less known to all the Christians of the year 
100, than Napoleon to all the Europeans of the year 1820. 

It is again objected that thé epistle makes top many 
drafts on Peter's second epistle, for an inspired work. But, 
as to the more or less abundant quotations, we might show by 
examples taken from either Testament, that it has often been 
the way of the Holy Spirit to lead an author to repeat the 
ideas that were uttered by one who preceded him, giving it 
some new term or application. 

At the same time, there is an objection upon which more 
stress has been laid than either of these. We will therefore, 
while not regarding it ourselves as any more worthy of at- 
tention, yet give it a more extended examination. 

AUeged quotations from apocryphal books. 

The objection is, that Jude has twice alluded to events of 
which the Bible does not speak, and which he could have 
learned only from apocryphal books ; the first time (in verse 
9) where he speaks of " Michael the archangel contending 
with the devil about the body of Moses," and the second (in 
verses 14 and 15) where he quotes a prophecy of " Enoch, 
the seventh from Adam." These quotations, it has been 
said, make the epistle fallible, and consequently show it to 
be uncanonical. 

We here mention only these two passages, saying nothing 



ALLEGED QUOTATIONS FKOM APOCRYPHAL BOOKS. 393 

of the sixth and seventh verses, where some find an allusion 
to the fable of the angels defiling themselves with the daugh- 
ters of men. This strange pretension can be maintained only 
by applying to the angels of the sixth verse the pronoun tov- 
Tois, (" themselves,") of the seventh verse which so manifestly 
relates to Sodom and Gomorrah, the names of which in 
Greek (immediately preceding the pronoun) are plural 
neuters, (Matt. x. 15). 

"Whatever may be said of this passage, some insist on the 
other two ; deeming with Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus, 
that Jude evidently quoted, in the first passage, from a Jew- 
ish apocryphal book, known by these Fathers unde^ the title 
of " The Ascension or Assumption of Moses, ÇAvd^aa-is or 
*AvtxXr]\{fc<5 Mwvcrews) ; " and for the second passage from an- 
other apocryphal book, equally known to these Fathers as 
" The book of Enoch." Michaelis says,^ " Could we admit as 
canonical a Scripture which contains apocryphal ifarra- 
tives?" "Because in it," said Jerome before him, "he 
brings testimony from the book of Enoch, which is apocry- 
phal, he is rejected by most." (Et quia de libro Enoch, qui 
apocryphus est, in eâ assumit testimonium, a plerisque rejici- 
tur.) Neither Joshua nor Moses, it is said, have ever spoken 
of the two facts advanced by Jude ; these facts therefore 
must be fabricated, and the epistle must be a merely human 
production. 

But this objection, we reply, absolutely lacks foundation ; 
for it is made to rest on six suppositions not less erroneous 
than arbitrary. 

It is assumed, in the first place, that an inspired man can 
not make a statement of a past event without having heard 
it from tradition or read it in a book. That is to say, the 
sacred historians of the New Testament are merely compil- 
ers or memorialists ; and Jude, in order to speak to us of a 
contention of Satan and the Archangel, or of the prophecy of 
Enoch, must of necessity have copied from some human 
1 Tom. vi. 404, 412, French, edit. 



394 THE CANON. 

book. As if all the succession of Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testament did not exhibit the sacred authors relat- 
ing both past and future events, the knowledge of which 
could have been derived from God alone! It is forgotten 
that the apostles profess to be miraculous men, led by the 
Holy Spirit, and assisted by Je?us Christ, who was " work- 
ing with them and confirming the word with signs follow- 
ing.» 

We will ask, for instance, in what apocryphal book Moses 
had read the creation of the heavens and the earth ; in what 
book, that of the light, of the continents, of the sun and stars, 
of the plants and animals, and of man coming from the dust 
of the ground and made in God's image ? In what book 
again, the words of God to Satan after our apostasy, or the 
genealogy of the elect race, from Adam to Noah, with all 
their names for 2000 years ? In what book, the successive 
scenes of the deluge during those twelve months in which 
Noah sailed above the abysses ; everything on earth having 
perished, both men and beasts ? In what apocryphal book 
did the holy author of the Book of Kings find what passed 
in the private chamber of the royal palace at Bethel, be- 
tween a foreign prince and his wife when, their child being 
sick, she was disguised to go to Shiloh (1 Kings xiv. 1-4) ; 
or again, in the chambers of the palace of Jezreel, between a 
foreign queen and her husband, when she secretly promised 
to secure the vineyard of Naboth for him ? (xxi. 4-7). In 
what book did the author of the book of Job learn the scenes 
of that day when Satan came to present himself before the 
liOrd among the sons of God, and to ask permission to smite 
that just man in his flesh and his bones ? (i. 6-12 ; ii. 1-7). 
And in what other book had Isaiah found the name of King 
Cyrus and all his career, two hundred years before this king 
was born ? (xliv. 28 ; xlv. 1-7 ; xlvi. 8-11). 

But again, to leave the Old Testament, where these exam- 
ples abound, and come to the New, how did Matthew, speak- 
ing of a time, then elapsed fifty years, learn the dream sent 



ALLEGED QUOTATIONS FROM APOCRYPHAL BOOKS. 395 

upon the Magi on the night of their flight and return to the 
East ? (Matt. ii. 12, 13.) How did he learn of the three temp- 
tations of the Lord, the action of the Holy Spirit leading him 
to the desert, the words of Jesus to Satan, and the approach of 
the angels who ministered to Jesus ? (Matt. iv. 1—1 1). How 
did he learn of the solitary prayers pronounced by Jesus in 
that night in Gethsemane, when, far apart from his sleeping 
disciples, he was on his hands and knees in agony prostrate 
on the ground ? (xxvi. 36-44). How did he learn that an 
angel, on the morning of the resurrection, before the arrival 
of the women, had rolled away the stone and was seated on 
it ? (xxviii. 2, 3). How did he learn of the secret transac- 
tion of the priests and soldiers? (11-11). 

We should have the same kind of questions to propose 
concerning Mark, and even more pressing. We should ask 
how, not- being an' apostle and not having been personally a 
witness of the facts which he relates, he could be even more 
abundant and precise in the details than any other evangel- 
ist ? Where did he find all those minute circumstances 
which he alone gives, he who wrote so late ^ and as far from 
the place as the time ? How happens it that he seems to 
have the very events before his eye, with an interest, a fresh- 
ness of memory, a coloring that aneye-witness could not have 
attained, unless he were an extraordinary man ? We refer 
the reader to passages of this kind in Mark i. 20, 29, 33, 
35, 37, 45 ; ii. 2 ; iii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 17, 20, 21 ; iv. 13, 
23, 24, 26, 29, 34, 36, 38; v. 29, 30, 32, 40, 41, 42; vi. 
13, 38, 40, 50, 52, 54, 56 ; vii. 2-4, 8, 13, 22, 24, 26-29, 
34, 36, 38; yiii. 7, 10, 14, 19, 22, 26; ix. 20, 21-25, 33, 35, 
37-49 ; X. 46-52 ; xi. 13, 16, 18, 20 ; xii. 34, 41 ; xiii. 3, 
37 ; xiv. 40, 44, 51, 52, 58, 59, 68 ; xv. 7, 8, 21, 28, 29, 41, 
44 ; xvi. 1, 3, 7, 8-11, 14, 19. In what document, moreover, 
did he learn that after the ascension of the Lord he had gone 
to sit on the right hand of God ? (xvi. 19). Who taught 

1 As Lardner has showed, and as many passages, like Mark xvi. 20, 
show. 



396 THE CAîirON. 

him this, and all the rest? Was it the apostle Peter, as 
some have said ? Then, who told Peter ? 

And as to Luke, who was likewise not an apostle, could it 
have been from Paul, as has been said, that he received the 
knowledge of so many facts related by him alone ? from 
Paul, who had no more than himself, been a witness of the 
Saviour's life, and who had not joined himself to Luke until 
the twentieth year of his ministry (Acts xvi. 10) ; that is, at 
least, fifty-eight years after the events of the nativity so 
minutely related by the latter. In what document then did 
Luke (or Paul, if you will) find the two prophecies in poe- 
try which Elizabeth uttered more than sixty years before 
" in the hill country," in her humble dwelling, and which 
no other evangelist has related to us ? In what doc- 
ument, the discourses of the angel to Zachariah, of the 
archangel to Mary, of Simeon in the temple, of the celes- 
tial hosts of Bethlehem ? And this unknown document, — 
who took the pains to write it, and keep it secret so long 
during -^the childhood of Jesus for thirty- five years of his 
obscure residence at Nazareth, and for the twenty-five ear- 
lier years of Paul's ministry? Who guarantees to us the 
exactness of the words Avhich Luke puts into the mouth of 
these holy personages and these angels ? Who guarantees 
it to us, if not the God of the Scriptures, if not Jesus 
Christ, " the God of the holy prophets," as John calls him, 
(Rev. xxii. 6) ; Jesus Christ, who inspired those of the 
New Testament as well as those of the Old, and who had 
said to the Jewish people : " Behold, I send unto you 
prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; and some of them ye 
shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in 
your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city," 
(Matt, xxiii. 34) ; Jesus Christ, who, in the language of 
Mark (xvi. 20) worked with them ? And if it be asked in 
what document again Luke learned of either this invincible 
angel who came from heaven to Jesus to strengthen him, 
and who appeared to him only, or this angel of the Lord, 



ALLEGED QUOTATIONS FROM APOCHRYPHAL BOOKS. 397 

also invisible, . who came to smite Herod Agrippa, in the 
year 44, while seated on his throne before the people of 
Cesarea ; ^ if it be inquired who saw this angel, or in what 
document Luke met the account of him, ... we must 
reply: the same document which informed Peter of the 
secret agreement of Ananias and Sapphira ; or Agabus of 
the future famine of the reign of Claudius (Acts v. 3 ; xi. 
38) ; or John of the original state of the eternal Word and 
his presence with God before the world existed ; or Paul of 
the future coming of the great apostasy and the man of sin ; 
or the author of the Apocalypse of the most remote future 
of the church and the world ; as also Jude of the dispute of 
the archangel and the prophecy of Enoch. Rudolph Stier 
has well remarked on the epistle of Jude, that " the two 
passages objected to are explained by the apocalyptic con- 
tents of the epistle." 

It is then sufficiently manifest that nothing could be more 
antiscriptural and illogical than to oppose the canonicity of 
a book for the sole reason that it recounts facts which the 
author could learn only from God. It would be at once to 
renounce that inspiration which the Bible claims, and to use 
a question as a fact. If this book calls itself canonical, it calls 
itself inspired ; and to deny its canonicity from the fact alone 
that it contains revelations is to say in other terms : this book 
is not canonical, because it is not canonical. 

This first supposition is then inadmissible ; and from this 
point of view the objection drawn from it is seen to be value- 
less. But it rests upon many other hypotheses no less gra- 
tuitous, and no less erroneous.' Here is the second. 

2. It is assumed that an inspired author can not cite a fact 
mentioned in some human book without by so doing guaran- 
teeing the entire book. This position is absurd. The books 
of the New Testament relate many facts narrated in the 
books of Maccabees, without pretending to render testimony 
in their favor. Paul cites verses from Menander, Aratus, and 

1 Acts xii. 23. Josephus, Antiq. Jud. xix. 7. 
34 



398 THE CANON. 

Epimenides, (1 Cor. xv. 33 ; Acts xvii. 28 ; Tit. i. 12,) with- 
out supposing that he was giving those pagan writers any 
moral sanction. And the same . apostle, in the second epistle 
to Timothy, (iii. 8,) without pretending to guarantee thereby 
the Chaldaic paraphrases, speaks of the magicians Jannes and 
Jambres, whose names, omitted by Moses, but preserved in 
the histories or traditions of the country, were found already 
in Pliny,^ only forty years after Paul, and are still read in the 
Targum of Jonathan in his paragraphs of the first and sev- 
enth chapters of Exodus.^ Should we therefore admit for 
a moment that the book of " The Ascension of Moses " and 
the pretended " Book of Enoch " had already mentioned be- 
fore Jude the two facts of which this apostle speaks, it would 
not thence result either that he had borrowed those facts 
from them, or especially that in relating them he had pre- 
tended to give the least moral sanction to these two rhapso- 
dies.' 

Those, even of the Fathers, who believed these books to 
be anterior to Jude, were very far from regarding them as 
on this account worthy of confidence in all their parts. 
Origen said, that the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, 
had known what to take and what to reject in such writ- 
ings. 

The objection, then, lacks foundation in this respect. But 
that is not all ; for it supposes, again, that the apostle, or the 
Jew who gave himself out as Jude, admits the apocryphal 
books as canonical. Now that is what the Jews never did, as 
we shall show when we come to speak of the apocryphas of 
-the Old Testament. 

1 Lib. XXX. chap. 1. He names only Jannes and Jotape. See Winer, 
R. W. art. Jambres. 

2 And on Numb. xxii. 22, (Calmet, art. Jannes). This scholar places 
Jonathan under Herod the Great; but Carpzov and Prideaux think that 
the author of this book is much more recent. See Keil, Einleitung ins 
A. T. pp. 191, 192. 

B Froleg. of two homilies on Sol. Song. " Quid assumendum ex illis 
esset Scripturis, quidve refutandum." 



ALLEGED QUOTATIONS FROM APOCHRYPHAL BOOKS. 399 

The objection supposes, again, that Jude, the brother of 
James, (or, if you choose, some Jew giving himself out to 
the churches as Jude,) would propose to the faith of the 
Jewish Christians a Greek book, touching the mysteries of 
a past cotemporary with Moses, or even Enoch. Surely 
he who adopts such an hypothesis must know little of the 
estimate in which the Greek writers were held by the Jews 
of that period, and particularly what Josephus says on this 
point. The entire first and second chapters of his book 
against Apion are designed to show that of aU writers the 
Greeks are the least worthy in regard to matters of antiq- 
uity. Now the two apocryphal books which they would 
have us regard as the authorities from which Jude drew 
what he said of Enoch and Moses were Greek, and were 
unknown to the Jews. Not an author whose works now 
remain has ever spoken of them.^ 

But, again, what is yet more strange in the objection is, 
that it supposes that Jude (or the Jew who gave himself out 
as Jude) should have publicly expressed his confidence in 
two such miserable productions as the pretended " Book of 
Enoch " and the " Anabasis of Moses," to impose quota- 
tions from them on the faith of the Christian churches. 

As to the "Anabasis of Moses," it was a Greek book 
known to the ancient Fathers, but now entirely lost, and 
of no value. 

But the " Book of Enoch," another writing equally known 
to the ancient Fathers,^ (and for a time, also, lost in the 
Greek text,) is one of the most miserable relics of apoc- 
ryphal antiquity. Only small fragments had remained to 
us, preserved by George Syncellus (a Byzantian author of 
the eighth century **), when the celebrated traveller Bruce, 
at the end of the last century, brought back from Abyssinia 

1 Prof. Lawrence believes the Book of Enoch to have been written by a 
Jew, but gives no proof of it. See Liicke, Einleit. in die Offenb. p. 11. 

2 Clemens Alexandrinus especially (Adumbrat. in Ep. Jud.); Origen, 
(Ilspt àpxûv,) Lib. iii. 2; and Didymus, (Enarrat. in Ep. Jud.). 

* In his Chronogr. Scaliger first made it known. 



400 THE CANON. 

three copies which he had found translated into the Ethio- 
pian dialect.^ 

Sylvester de Sacy says : " This work is not worth the 
trouble to translate. ^ . . . Such entire confusion of ideas 
pervades it, that the editor has considered himself obliged to 
transpose entire paragraphs and chapters ; ® and yet that cor- 
rects nothing. He was not obliged to make sense where 
there is none, and should not have changed their places." 
He adds : " There are found there absurd repetitions, a fas 
tidious monotony, shocking anachronisms, a striking inco- 
herence ; without speaking of a ridiculous system of astron- 
omy, which implies in the author, even at the period when 
the book appeared, the grossest ignorance. In one word, 
it is difficult to find any thing more ridiculous and tedious 
than this book of Enoch ; — a singular book, full of fables 
and fictions. If the brow is sometimes bent in reading it, 
the temptation to smile is more frequent ; and one is aston- 
ished that such a book could have had any credit in antiquity. 
This impression, which will be shared by all who may have 
the courage to read the entire book, might give rise to the 
inquiry whether additions made to thB original text since its 
reception by the primitive church have not rendered it still 
more absurd than it was at first." 

Such, then, is the book from which, some have ventured 
to say, the epistle of Jude has drawn its quotations ! 

But still farther, the whole objection falls to the ground 
inasmuch as it wholly rests upon a sixth supposition, still 
more vain : upon the pretended anterior existence of these 
two books to Jude's epistle ; whereas this priority has for its 
support only the opinions of some ancient Fathers, frequently 

i One of the three is in the National Library of Paris. 

2 Prof. Lawrence gave a translation of it in England, (Oxford, 1821, 
8vo.) and Mr. Sylvester de Sacy gave an account of this book in two 
articles of the Journal des Savants, (Sept. and Oct. 1822, Paris, imp. roy.). 
It is in that we find his judgment. 

8 For instance, six verses of chap. xc. in "the xcii.; chaps. Ix. and Ixx. 
rejected at the end of the volume, on account of the gross anachronisms it 
contains; the xx. is placed between xvi. and xvii. 



ALLEGED QUOTATIONS FEOM APOCHRTPHAL BOOKS. 401 

deceived in regard to false books ; and whereas we have, on 
the contrary, the strongest reasons for regarding both these 
writings as not only posterior to the epistle of Jude, but fab- 
ricated for the express purpose of fraudulently corresponding 
to the words of Jude. 

We know with what a flood of false writings, styling 
themselves apostolical or prophetical, the church was inun- 
dated in the early centuries. Awkward productions, all those 
false books were imagined by an infidel zeal among the de- 
generated Christians of Egypt and Asia to correspond to 
certain indications of the sacred writers in their gospels or 
epistles, and to represent certain books which were supposed 
to have been made or quoted by them. 

Thus, for instance, because Paul, in his first epistle to the 
Corinthians, (v. 9,) had appeared to mention a prior letter 
which he had written to them, they have not failed to com- 
pose one, designed to pass for the lost epistle, but abundantly 
betrayed in its very falsehood.^ 

Because Paul recommends to the Colossians (iv. 16) to 
read the epistle from Laodicea, and which appears to have 
been no other than that to the Ephesians, (written at the 
same time, and designed rather as a circidar letter for the 
churches of Asia,) they have not failed to compose one 
addressed to the Laodiceans, known in the days of Jerome, 
and of which he said, " But all the world rejects it." (Sed 
ab omnibus exploditur.^) Because Paul, in his second 
letter to- Timothy, (iii. 8,) gives the names of Jannes and 
of Jambres to the magicians who opposed Moses, they have 
not failed to construct a book entitled " Jannes and Jambres," 
— a book mentioned by Origen," and placed in the rank of 
the apocryphas by pope Gelasius.^ 

1 Olshausen, Auth. of the N. T., chap. iv. 

2 In Catal. Erasmus calls it a letter " quse nihil habet Pauli praster voo. 
nias aliqaot ex caeteris ejus epistolis mendicatas." 

8 Tract, xxxv. in Matt. 

* Whose decree, however, is itself regarded as spurious by bishops Cosin 
(on the Canon, 123, 130)*and Pearson (Vind. Ignat. I. cap. iv.). 
34* 



402 THE CANON. 

Because Paul said to the Galatians (v. 6j vi. 15) : "Neither 
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
creature," they have not failed to propose an " Apocalypse of 
Moses," from which George Syncellus says Paul copied thi3 
passage.^ Because Paul said to the Corinthians, -' Eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard," etc., (1 Cor. ii. 9,) they have not 
failed to make also an " Apocalypse of Elijah," from which 
it was pretended by the heretics of Jerome's ^ time that Paul 
had borrowed his passage. Origen * said, " These words ar 
found only in the secret books of Elijah." It was, then, ir 
this same profane and lying spirit of the Greeks that, about 
the same time, some persons had written the following works : 
" The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs," of which Ori- 
gen* speaks, and of which Grabe (his editor) thinks that 
Tertullian also spoke ; ^ " The Ascension of Isaiah," which 
Professor Laiwrence, in 1819, published in Ethiopie with 
« The Book of Enoch ;" «The Acts of Peter and Paul, of 
Andrew, John, and the other Apostles ; " " The Apocalypse 
of Peter ; " " The Apocalypse of Paul ; " " The Apocalypse 
of Thomas ; " « The Preaching of Peter j " « The ApostoKcal 
Constitutions;" "The Gospel of Peter or of Matthias;" 
"The Homilies of Clement;" « The Doctrine of the Apos- 
tles," etc« 

It was, we said, in the same spirit, and it was nearly at the 
same time, that both these works were written, " The Ascen- 
sion of Moses" and the "Book of Enoch," or, at least, its 
second chapter, composed merely of the short sentences 
quoted by Jude. 

But there are other reasons which equally show us in this 

1 P. 27. Edit of Paris, fol. 1652. 

2 Calmet's Diet art. Apocalypse. 
8 Homil. ultim. in Matt, xxvii. 9. 
4 In Jos. i. Homil. 15. 

6 Spicilegium, i. 133- 

6 The arranged catalogue of all these false writings is found in the two 
works of John Albert Fabricius, entitled, the one, Codex Pseudopigraphus 
Vet Test., the other, Codex Apocryph. Nov. Test. 



TESTIMONIES OF THE SECOND • CENTURY. 403 

book, or, at least, in its second chapter, a pious fraud, imag- 
ined to correspond with Jude. 

First, its extreme incoherence and its evident indications 
of very numerous interpolations ; so that all the critics who 
have studied it, and even Professor Lawrence, (who, having 
edited it, must naturally speak in its favor,) are obliged to 
declare it " written at different times and by divers persons." 

Again, the place awkwardly given to the passage of Jude 
in this book of one hundred and five chapters. This pas- 
sage, we have said, alone constitutes the matter of the second 
chapter, which clearly enough determines its later origin and 
its intention. 

Thirdly, the prophecy of the seventy shepherds,^ in which 
the author alludes to the chiefs of the Jewish nation down to 
Herod the Great. The book can not, then, be older than this 
dynasty, but it may be more recent. And since it afterwards 
manifestly received also numerous interpolations, these must 
be still more recent, and the second chapter must be regard- 
ed as posterior to Jude. 

Fourthly, divers passages which, according to Sylvester de 
Sacy, betray "a Christian hand," particularly in the nine- 
teenth and last section (chapter xcii.). Tertullian also tells 
us that the cotemporaiy Jews rejected this book because it 
speaks too much in favor of Jesus Christ.^ 

Finally, by the comparison of a great number of passages 
we may assure ourselves that the inventor knew the doctrine 
of the Holy Trinity.» . 

Testimonies of the Second Century. 

The epistle of Jude is abundantly recommended to us by 
the most respectable testimonies of Christian antiquity. 

1 In chapters Ixxxviii. Ixxxix. xc. (Journal des Savants, p. 549.) 

2 See Calmet's Dictionary, art. Enoch. 

8 See particularly chap, xlviii. vers. 2, 3, 5. ( Journ. des Savants, Sept. 
Ï822, p. 551.) 



404 THE CANON. 

Althongh it contains only twenty-five verses, and was not 
•written until the end of the first century or beginning of the 
second, yet from this very century you see it already fre- 
quently quoted both in the East and West. 

It is not only by manifest allusions to its text that it is 
quoted, such as Kirchhofer* notices, as well as Lardner, in 
Hennas (Vis. iv. 3), in Clemens Eomanus (1 Cor. xi.), in 
Polycarp (ad Phil. ii. and iii.), in the salutation which pre- 
cedes the narrative of Polycarp's death, in Theophilus of 
Antioch, and in Irenaeus.^ It is also quoted especially, in the 
most precise manner, by the two Fathers whose testimony 
in sacred criticism is sought first of all, — in the East, Clem- 
ens 'Alexandrinus, in the West, Tertullian. It is also quoted 
by the Canon Muratori. 

Clemens Alexandrinus, in mentioning the mere name of 
Jude, quotes entirely verses 5, 6, 11, in his "Pedagogue" 
(lib. iii. cap. 8), and abridges the intermediate verses (7, 8, 9, 
10). He also introduces verses 22 and 23 in the sixth book 
of his. "Stromata" (§ 3), and the first verse in his "Adumbra- 
tiones"^ on the catholic epistles. 

Tertullian, in his book " De Cultu Fœminarum " (i. 3), 
says, " And there has happened what Enoch has testified to 
according to the apostle Jude." (Et accidit quod Enoch 
apud Judam apostolum testimonium possidet.) Now this 
quotation, made by the earliest of the Latin Fathers, is of 
great importance ; for it is well worthy of remark that our 
epistle had already, notwithstanding its extreme brevity and 
its comparatively late date, reached the distant churches of 
Western Africa, so as to be there generally known and pub- 
licly quoted as a Scripture of the apostle Jude. 

The Canon Muratori, as we have already seen, contains 
these words : " The epistle of Jude, and two epistles bear- 
ing the name of John, are universally received." (Epistola 

1 Quellensammlung zur Geschichte des N. T. Canons. Znrich, 1842. 

2 Hœres. Lib. iv. cap. Ixx. p. 371. Oxon. 1702. 

8 Supposed to be a translation of Clement by Cassiodorus. 



TESTIMONIES OF THE THJRD CENTURY. 405 

sane Judae et superscripti Johannis duse in catholica haben-i 
tur.) 

The whole value of these testimonies will be compre- 
hended when we remember what we have already said of 
James, the brother of Jude, and of Simeon, his other brother, 
who succeeded him, and did not undergo martyrdom until 
A. D. 107. If the epistle of Jude was so well known by the 
Fathers of this second century, both in the East and the ex- 
treme West, it must have circulated already from church to 
church during the life of Simeon. How, in fact, could a 
letter bearing the name of Jude, brother of James, have 
gained such credit, if it had not had the assent of this 
apostle and of Simeon, and if it had not been really a 
writing of their brother ? 

We remember what Hegesippus, a Jewish historian of the 
second century,^ has related of the grandsons of Jude. This 
holy family, consecrated for three generations to the public 
service of the primitive church in the Central East, may 
suffice to confirm the testimony of Jude. 

Testimonies of the Third Century. 

The third century likewise renders a full homage to this 
epistle in the writings of the most learned of its doctors. 
Origen quotes it very frequently ; he calls it a " divine Scrip- 
-ture," and its author "an apostle;" he quotes the eighth and 
ninth verses in his epistles ; the sixth verse at least once in 
his fourth homily on Ezekiel, and three times in his com- 
mentary on Matthew, and again in his commentary on 
John and the epistle to the Romans ; the first verse in his 
commentary on Matthew. In his seventh homily on Joshua 
he says, "Peter represents James and Jude in the two 
trumpets of his epistles." ^ (Petrus duabus epistolarum sua- 
rum personat tubis Jacobum quoque et Judam.) 

1 Quoted by Eusebius, H. E. iii. 19, 20. 

2 Translated, as we have said, by RuSnus, and remaining now in Latin 
only. 



406 THE CANON. 

t 

In his commentaiy on Matthew ^ he says, " Jude has writ- 
ten an epistle, of a few verses it is true (eXiyocrnxov /xéc), but 
full of powerful words of celestial grace (èppwfiévtav Xoytov)." 

And in the third book of his commentary on the epistle 
to the Romans, in quoting Jude's sixth verse, he styles the 
epistle a " divine Scripture." (Et nisi hac lege tenerentur, 
nunquam de eis diceret scriptura divina.) 

It is to be lamented that Eusebius, after so many and such 
striking testimonies of Origen, should have given us the cat- 
alogue of this Father in his sixth book (H. E. chap. 25) with- 
out making any mention of the epistle of Jude. This courtly 
bishop, whose history has in other respects so much value for 
science, must be read with a certain reserve on some points. 
Lax as he sometimes was in regard to doctrine, he was equally 
so in his appreciation of the Scriptures. 

We find again, in this same third century, the sixth verse 
also quoted, in sense, if not in words, by Famphilus of Bei- 
rut, in his apology for Origen.*^ 

We also find verses 14, 15, quoted by Cyprian, or rather 
by some one of his cotemporaries, in an Essay on Novatian,' 
found in his works. 

Testimonies of the Fourth GerUury. 

The testimonies of the fourth century are remarkably abiin- 
dant, both in the East and the West. 

In the East, Athanasius, in his Festal Epistle and his Sy- 
nopsis Sacr» Scripturae; Ephraim of Syria, in his Commentary 
on the third chapter of Genesis and in his Essay on Impu- 
dicity, in which he quotes one epistle entire ; * Cyril of Jeru- 
salem, in his Catechism ; Chrysostom, in his Discourse on 
the Fake Prophets ; Epiphaniiis, in his book Against Her- 

1 0pp. torn. iii. 463. Edit. Delarae, Paris, 1733. Huet, torn. i. p. 233. 

2 0pp. torn. iv. p. 23. 

8 Quod lapsis spes veniae non sit deneganda. Edit, of St. Maur, Paris, 
1725, p. 17. 
* 0pp. Graec. torn. iii. p. 62. See Eichliorn (iv. p. 441). 



CONSroERATIONS ON THE ANTILEGOMENS. 407 

esies ; Gregory Nazianzen ; ■ Didymus of Alexandria ; the 
false Dipnysius the Areopagite ; and the council of Laodicea 
(in its sixtieth Canon). In the West, Lucifer of Cagliari, 
Philastrius of Brescia, Ambrose of MUan, Jerome (in more 
than twelve of his works), and, in fine, the very council of 
Carthage, which is said to have been held under the eyes of 
Augustine in a. d. 397. 

Eusebius places it in the rank of the antilegomens, but 
adding twice that the epistle was received by the majority^ 
and that it was read publicly with the other epistles in the 
greater part of the churches.^ It must be noticed that he i& 
the first of the Fathers who speaks to us of doubts enter- 
tained concerning this epistle ; and we have just seen on this 
point, in regard to Origen, his unjust partiality. These doubts 
of which he speaks had no historical foundation ; and we after- 
wards learn, by Didymus and Jerome, that they were to be 
traced to the pretended apocryphal quotations of Jude con- 
cerning Moses and Enoch. 



SECTION VI. 

GENERAL CONSIDEBATIONS ON THE ANTILEGOMENS. 

It must, again, be remembered that if we divide the New 
Testament into thirty-six equal portions, all that we are going 
to say of the second canon has reference to only one of these 
thirty-six parts. And it must not be forgotten that another 
feict characterizes that slow and silent labor of examination by 
which a secret Providence finally conducted all the churches. 
Eastern and Western, to this marvelous unity which they 
have exhibited for fifteen hundred years past. • It is that 
during this long and conscientious labor, if there were more 
or less of the churches and respectable teachers who, sus- 
pending their judgment, still retained doubts on such or such 
1 H. E. iu. 25; vi. 13, 14; ii. 33. 



408 THE CANOKT. 

of the five shorter epistles, at the same time these very epis- 
tles had never ceased to be regarded as canonical by a part, 
generally the largest part, of the Christian churches. 

It must, again, be remarked that, in the primitive chm'ches, 
it was never with the books of the second canon as with the 
apocryphal books of the Old Testament. The canonicity of 
the five shorter epistles was at first, it is true, contested in 
several places ; but it was never absolutely rejected ; while it 
was altogether otherwise with the apocryphal books. 

Instead of being an object of doubt, the latter were every- 
where resolutely rejected from the inspired collection, al- 
though they were often respected as " Ecclesiastical Books," 
that is to say, were classed, as by some in our day, among 
the writings useful for reading in certain assemblies of the 
church. But to say that any one of our short epistles was an 
object of doubt was the same as saying that they expected 
some day these researches would terminate satisfactorily, and 
the doubts would be removed. Now we know that, in fact, 
these hesitations ceased, and that the five epistles, contested 
for a time, were finally accepted everywhere. 

In another part of our argument we hope to show how the 
churches, although so greatly divided among themselves on 
every other subject, were prevented from being divided on 
that of the Apocrypha ; and how a Divine Providence has 
there visibly interposed his omnipotent hand. 

But that which, above all, should be noticed here, and 
•which should strongly confirm our confidence in the final 
results of this long, conscientious research is, that it has al- 
ways been pursued under the guidance of perfect indepen- 
dence and mutual support. This fact is very extraordinary ; 
if stamps an imposing character on the sacred volume ; and 
we shall have to examine it more closely elsewhere from a 
more elevated point of view. Certainly, when we consider 
that the examination made by the early Christians in rela 
tion to the second canon was continued for two hundred and 
fifty years, and that it was at the same time always conducted 



CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ÂNTILEGOMENS. 409 

in perfect freedom, each divine having been able to continue 
his investigations and to publish frankly his doubts in regard 
to any book of the second canon, without leading to any re- 
criminations of each other on this point of such importance ; 
when we- see these long and free researches at length pro- 
duce the unanimous agreement which all the Christian 
churches have manifested now for fifteen hundred years, — 
\then we receive a powerful impression of the secret and sov- 
ereign action which has guided all this sacred affair. But 
we must, for the moment, abstain from indulging in this train 
of thought, as we have now before us only the powerful his- 
torical testimony rendered by a harmony so free to the canon 
of the Scriptures. 

How admirable is it that in the very period of such eccle- 
siastical violence, everywhere fruitlessly exercised to secure 
unity on eveiy other point, we can find nowhere an act of 
authority in regard to this ; no collective pressure of bishops; 
no governmental prescriptions ; no decrees of councils, to im- 
pose on the faithful such or such book, or to make them 
accept in advance of personal conviction the completed vol- 
ume of the Scriptures. 

It was, then, in this way that Christians throughout the 
world, being gradually satisfied, added to their canon, one 
after the other, those of the brief later epistles about which 
Bome churches had hesitated. 

We have already given some reasons for the delay of some 
early Christians in receiving into their collection the short 
later epistles, and more particularly those of John and Jude ; 
but others may be indicated. For example, we must con- 
sider that, if the epistles of Paul, addressed first to certain 
persons or certain churches, were from this fact alone re- 
ceived from the first moment (the originals being still pre- 
served in the apostolical churches, until the days of Tertul- 
lian^), it could not be so with the three short epistles of John 

1 De PrsBScriptione Hœretîcor. chap. 36. " thou who wouldst more seri- 
ously exercise thy curiosity in the matter of thy salvation" (he wrote, a.d. 
35 



410 THE CANON. 

and Jude, which, not having been sent directly to any par- 
ticular church, had not, in order to secure such reception, 
either the authority of a living writer, or the testimony of a 
depositary designated by him. 

In the second place, it was necessary to wait, during this 
long labor, until the churches, according to their very differ- 
ent circumstances, should also exercise different judgments. 
Some, better situated than others for a prompt solution of the 
question, would receive the first canon entirely ; others, more 
remote, had to suspend their judgment while waiting for new 
light ; others again, hindered by certain objections which they 
had not then the means to remove, were to entertain these 
doubts and have time to examine them. We understand, for 
instance, that the Syriac-speaking churches must have re- 
ceived the epistle of James A. d. 62 ; whereas their respect- 
ful attachment to their admirable Peshito would dispose 
them hesitatingly to accept any thing not found in that. 
It is thus that one church arrived at conviction after an- 
other church, and that all were to be conducted by this la- 
bor, patient and sure, at last to receive the entire canon. 

It is important again to remark, that it. was not even de- 
sirable that the five later epistles (we say, almost posthu- 
mous) should obtain a very prompt assent. 

If the twenty sacred books of the first canon, recommended 
by the presence and ministry of the apostles, were immedi- 
ately received, it was, on the contrary, suitable, as to the five 
epistles, that each teacher and each church, before giving 
them a place in the canon, should attentively examine their 
origin, and inform themselves thoroughly concerning all their 
claims, to guard with the greatest care against confounding 
the Scriptures of God with so many spurious books, which 

207), "go through the apostolical churches, where the very pulpits of the 
apostles are yet occupied, and where their authentic letters, still read in 
public, make their voices, as it were, to be heard, and their persons to be 
Been. Art thou near Achaia, thou hast Corinth. Art thou not far from 
Macedonia, thou hast Philippi and Thessalonica. "Wouldst thou go into 
Asia, thou hast Ephèsus; and if Italy is near, thou hast Rome," etc. 



CONSroERATIONS ON THE ANTILEGOMENS. 411 

were then so abundantly circulated under feigned names. It 
■was necessary, amidst this confusion, that, in order to judge, 
the most entire certainty of their authenticity should be 
reached. It was also necessary that such a laborious ex- 
amination, which, for a part of the churches, required much 
time and patience, should bé made everywhere, without 
eagerness, without precipitation, without human influence, 
and in perfect liberty. 

Thus, then, these very doubts in regard to the antilego- 
mens, with which some churches began, so far from disturb- 
ing our faith, should only confiim it. In fact, they give us 
first the assurance that not only the first collection of our 
Scriptures, but each book, separately, with which it was to 
be increased, has passed, before being admitted, through a 
jealous scrutiny, — a scrutiny by the whole church, free and 
holily severe, without any kind of constraint to force an ac- 
ceptance of it. Secondly, these very doubts of some church- 
es in regard to the second canon, if we compare them with 
the immediate unanimity of their reception of the first, also 
give us three precious assurances on both canons. 

And first, as to the twenty sacred books of the first canon, 
these very hesitations show us that no reason whatever for 
doubting presented itself to any of the primitive churches in 
the course of the first three centuries. 

And as to the second canon, these very hesitations of some 
churches attest to us that those who, at the same time, better 
informed did not hesitate, had found sufiicient reasons for 
receiving the five shorter epistles at their very first pub- 
lication. 

Again, these very hesitations attest to us that, when all 
the churches, at first doubting, ended by agreeing with those 
who, better situated, had never doubted, it was necessary, in 
order to lay aside their repugnances, to have before their 
eyes the most convincing proofs. Thus they were led by 
the patient and sure action of Divine Providence to this 
striking agreement which we find now existing for fifteen 



412 THE CANON. 

centuries, the admirable result of their researches and theii 
freedom. 

It is to this holy distrust on the part of the primitive 
churches, to their jealousies and continual researches, that 
we are indebted for another precious fact, attested by his- 
tory; to wit, that "the church never received any book 
into the canon, the illegitimacy of which it had afterward to 
acknowledge." I speak of the New Testament, the collec- 
tion of which was committed to us, not of the Oîd Testa- 
ment, of which the Jews were the sole depositaries (Rom. 
iii. 2) ; for we agree, that, in regard to the latter, the priests 
of Rome at a later day permitted themselves many liberties, 
though without important consequences; — a later day, we say^ 
because it was not until the sixteenth century of Christian- 
ity ; — and with no important consequences, at least for the 
doctrine of the canon, since we know with Athanasius, and 
repeat with the whole Eastern church,* that " the Christian 
church of the New Testament receives from the Hebrew 
church of the Old Testament the sacred books of that Tes- 
tament, because it is to the Jews, as Paul says (Rom. iii. 2), 
that are committed the oracles of God.'* 

When we say that " the ancient church has never received 
into its canon any book the illegitimacy of which was after- 
ward proved," some persons, perhaps, may refer to the kind 
of assent given in some churches during the second, third, and 
fourth centuries, both to certain authentic writings not canon- 
ical, such as the letter of Clemens Romanus to the Corin- 
thians, and even to the apocryphal books or forged books 
(v66a), such as the "Shepherd of Hermas" and the 
"Apocalypse of Peter." 

But it would be without foundation if one should represent 
the partial and occasional employment by certain churches 
of these books in the public readings as a recognition of their 
canonicity. On the contrary, this fact, examined closely and 

1 These words are in the " Great Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox 
Church, approved by the Holy Synod." Moscow, 1839. 



CONSroERATIONS ON THE ANTILEGQMENS. 413 

compared with the gerfferal customs of the church at this 
epoch, so far from compromising the true canon, serves only 
to confirm it, as Thiersch has well shown in his " Essay on 
the Determination of a Historical Point of Departure for the 
Criticism of the Writings of the. New Testament." ^ 

" At the end of the first century," he says, " the church, 
thenceforth deprived of the presence of the apostles, and 
penetrated with a spirit, sometimes extreme, of jealousy for 
them, redoubled her attachment to the Scriptures of the first 
canon, and assumed the character of eminent conservatism, 
which would resist any form of innovation. The use of their 
first canon was already consecrated and unassailable. About 
A. D. 130, the generation which had personally known the 
apostles began to disappear ; a few saints, such as Papias, 
set themselves to gather the last traditions of the Lord's dis- 
ciples, to preserve them from oblivion ; but it was only under 
Antoninus Pius, about the middle of the second century, that 
the beginnings of an ecclesiastical science were first seen. 
Toward the end of that century, in Jhe days of Clemens AI- 
exandrinus and Irenaeus, a search was made for the very rare 
and very brief writings composed since the appearing of the 
New Testament. Irenaeus invoked against the gnostics of 
his day the letter (ÎKavùyrdTrjv) of Clemens Eomanus to the 
Corinthians, that of Polycarp to the Philippians, and the 
Shepherd of Hermas ; for, to fill up this great void of lit- 
erature and history, the pious Father appears to have pos- 
sessed no other remains of the earliest Christian antiquity 
than these three authors, and, perhaps, the letters of Igna- 
tius besides. Yet these feeble remains then appeared so 
much the more precious as they were so scanty; so that, 
if God had not prevented, it would have come to pass then 
that extravagant admirers of antiquity would have attributed 

to them more than their intrinsic value. But this was not 

ft 

1 Versucli zur Wiederherstellung des historischen Standpnncts fiir die 
Critik des N. T. (p. 365 and following, the beginning of his sixth chap- 
ter.) 

35» 



414 THE CANON. 

the case wifli Irenaeus. On the coifh-arj, he shows himself 
very prudent in that direction ; and of all the early Fathers 
he is the most conformed to the Scriptures, as he is at the 
same time the most faithful representative of the true tradi- 
tion of the primitive churches. Whilst he was combating 
the heresies of his day in Gaul, his cotemporary, Clement, 
who, in Alexandria of Egypt, attempted to mix an impure 
stoical and mystic Platonism with Christianity, was, on the 
contrary, the one of all the Fathers who was the farthest 
removed from the spirit of the apostles, as also from that 
of genuine tradition ; and it was likewise he who most up- 
held the apocryphas of his day. It is he who first mentions 
the ' Epistle of Barnabas,' who also quotes the * Apocalypse 
of Pefer,' the ' Preaching of Peter,' and who even, to 
refute the heretics quoting the 'Gospel of the Egyptians,* 
goes so far as to seek a plausible meaning in the mystical 
imaginations of this book ! 

" And yet again, even with Clement of Alexandria, the 
canon remains intact ; and you there find clearly expressed 
the difierence which the chprch made between the divine 
Scriptures and all the other books. Even when he refers in 
a literary point of view to the ' Gospel of the Egyptians,' 
he well knows how to distinguish it from the four canon- 
ical Gospels. 

" To the very end of the second century, the anagnosis of 
a book gave it a sanction, and constituted it in the eyes of the 
church a theopneustic Scripture ; for at that time only the 
books recognized as divine and canonical received the honor 
of being publicly read. But after that epoch it was ho 
longer the case. From that time the church became very 
much extended, and worship having taken new develop- 
ments, the notion of the 'Mystery' was then introduced, in 
imitation of the Mysteries of the Gentiles ; and just as pen-r 
itents and catechumens\\zâ. been carefully distinguished from 
Û\Q faithful Bjxà the consecrated, so they came to distinguish 
also various degrees in the use of the Scriptures and that 



CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ANTILEGOMENS. 415 

of other books which were read in public. Around the. 
primitive canon came thus to place themselves in a first 
rank the books of the second canon which the churches 
dared not yet entirely assimilate to the first ; then, around 
them, some other writings which were regarded as edifying 
and respectable, but which, although admitted to the anagno- 
sis (dvayiyvfi)crKo/i.ei/a), and although by that SeSiy/xocrieu/ieva,, 
as Eusebius expresses it, that is, 'rendered popular and 
brought into general use,' yet were not intestamented (evSia- 
Ôt^ko). From that time, then, the public reading being no 
longer a test of canonicity, there was formed a new class of 
books, called ' ecclesiastical,' which had not been used in for- 
mer worship, and which came to take rank after the books 
called canonical. The ' Shepherd of Hermas ' was read to 
the catechumens in many churches, and even some other 
works of an inferior rank ; but no one thought by that to 
touch the canon of the primitive books, and the notion of 
the bounds of the canon remained complete and universal, 
as you may be assured by reading Origen, Eusebius, and the 
various authors we have named. 

" Another kind of public readings, made on a certain day 
of the year, was introduced also from the second century in 
Bome churches for the celebration of the anniversaries of the 
martyrs (■^fiépai yevéôXiat) ; for the account of their death 
was read at that time over their tomb. This gave origin to 
the term legends (written to be read). The first example 
of this we see. in the epistle of the church of Smyrna on the 
death of Polycarp. ('ETrioToXT; eyKUKXios, cap. xviii.) It was 
again, by an analogous usage, that at Corinth, after two or three 
centuries, on the anniversary of Clement's writing his letter 
to the church in that city, it was read anew. And, moreover, 
by reason of its antiquity and of its author's name, this letter 
approached nearer than any other writing not in the canon 
to the authority ascribed to the second canon ; so that Euse- 
bius (vi. 12) teaches us that in many churches, and at Ces- 
area, among others (kuO* T7/i.Ss), it was for a long time ad- 



416 THE CAITOIf. 

mitted to a public reading (SeSrifioa-Levfiémjv). But there was, 
yet a wide difference between this usage and the recognition 
of a writing as intestamented. Also Eusebius, in his famous 
Chapter XXY. (Lib. iii.), has been careful not to place it, 
we do not say in the rank of the first canon, but even in that 
of the second, nor even in the rank of the apocryphal or 
spurious books (kv toî<s voOois). If he calls, it * non-contested ' 
(homologomen), it is evidently in the sense, not of its canon- 
icity, but of its authenticity. He esteemed it very highly, 
calling it ' a majestic and admirable epistle,' but not making 
it a canonical book." 

It is found, indeed, placed at the end of the fourth volume 
(or the New Testament), in the famous Alexandrine manu- 
script given by Cyril Lucar to Charles I., king of England. 
But this fact has iïo value in reference to the canon ; since 
we also find, in this very manuscript, at the end of this epis- 
tle, the second pretended one of Clement, an epistle of. Atha- 
nasius to Marcellinus, the apocryphal psalms attributed to 
Solomon, and fourteen hymns, of which the eleventh is in 
honor of the Virgin Mary (t^s ^eoro/cou). 

" There was still another (îevelopment of the readings of 
the church yet later ; but only in the fourth century. We 
allude to the ' Homilies.' Justin Martyr in his first apology 
(chap. Ixvii.) states that in the meetings of the church 
in his day, 'after the reader (of the Scriptures) had 
finished (Travara/xéyov tov dvaytvwcTKovTOs), the president (6 
îrpocoTcas) delivered a discourse of exhortation.' But we do 
not learn that in the second or third century any of these 
discourses (Xoywv) were circulated by writing. Origen's 
homilies are the earliest we now have. It is true, they 
gradually came to read iiTsome churches those of some of 
the most eminent writers. Jerome mentions the Syriac 
sermons of Ephraim.^ He tells us he had acquired such 
renown (ad tantam venit claritudinem), that his discourses, 
ajîer the reading of the Scriptures, were publicly recited. 
1 De Viris Blostrib. cap. cv. 



CONSroERATIONS ON THE ANTU.EGOMENS. 417 

We know, also, that the same honor was afterward rendered to 
those of Gregory, Chrysostom, and Augustine. But these re- 
citations, as we see, took place only after the reading of the 
Scriptures (post lectionem Scripturarum). They could dis- 
place preaching from the pulpit, but the word of God, never. 

" Finally, there might be, here and there, as we may 
gather from some very isolated facts, when the limits of 
the canon had been very solidly fixed, a bishop who sufiered 
in his church, after the reading of the Scriptures, that of 
some apocryphal or spurious book, if that book appeared to 
him orthodox in its faith and pure in its morals. An exam- 
ple of this kind is quoted from Eusebius (vi. 12), which some 
persons would abuse, but which nevertheless serves rather 
to confirm the doctrine of the canon. It was a pretended 
* Gospel of Peter,' which some members xif a church in 
Rhosus (in Cilicia) desired to use, not as a canonical Scrip- 
ture, but as an edifying book. Serapion, then bishop, states 
that having come among them ignorant of the book, because 
he believed it conformed to the faith, he said to them : If that 
alone causes your dispute, let it be read. ' But now,' he writes 
to them, ' according to what I have heard, and considering that 
it was used in favor of the Docetae, I have read it ; and hav- 
, ing found, with much that is in conformity with the holy doc- 
trine of the Saviour, instructions which are erroneous, I have 
placed them before you, hoping to come to you.' He then 
gave them an extract, with a refutation of its falsehoods 
(à.irà^éyx<iiv tcl if/evSZ'S cv ainw eîprjixéva). He adds, ' As to 
us, brethren, we receive Peter and the other apostles as 
Christ himself ; but as to the writings falsely given to us in 
their name (rot 8'. èvofiœn airwv j/^euSeTriypa^a), we reject 
them, we persons of expérience (efiireipoL), knowing well 
that we have not received such from our predecessors (on 
TOL Toiavra ov TrapeXdjiofjiev),' " 

It is, then, in this way that the very accidental imprudence 
of Serapion serves to show us the ordinary vigilance of the 
pastors of the second and third centuries, and that the excep- 



418 THE CA]N^ON". 

tion, in this case, as it often happens, serves only to confirm 
the rule, as Thiersch has remarked. 

There exist, as we said, among the seven catholic epistles, 
affinities and mutual connections ; each one of them being a 
witness of the authenticity of some of the others. We will 
give some examples. 

1. A modern author, Dr. "Wordsworth, in his eleventh dis- 
course on the canon,^ remarks that there is an interesting con- 
nection between the first epistle of Peter and the second of 
John. The epistle of Peter, addressed from Babylon to the 
elect Jews scattered in Asia Minor, ends with the salutation, 
" The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, 
saluteth you, and so doth Mark." The epistle of John, on 
the other hand, addressed by " The elder unto the elect lady 
and her children," ends with this : " The children of thy elect 
sister salute thee." 

It has frequently been questioned whether " the elect sis- 
ter " and " the elect lady " are two persons, as most moderns 
have thought, or two churches, as most of the ancients 
thought, and as Michaelis believes (who regards Kvpia as an 
ellipsis for KvpCa eKKX-qaLo, an expression which, among the 
ancient Greeks, and especially at Athens, designated the 
regular assembly of the people, and which, with John, 
would designate the church regularly assembled every 
Lord's day). 

In fact, the first epistle of John, according to the tradition 
of the ancients,'^ should have been addressed to the Parthians, 
among whom (as Philo and Josephus^ state) there was an 
immense multitude of Jews. And thus, in the same manner 
as Peter would have written his first epistle to the Christian 
Jews scattered throughout Asia, John would have addressed 

1 London, 1848, p. 277. 

2 Estius, in Ep. 1 Joh. Prasfat. p.' 201 (Ronen, 1709): Veterum traditio 
est ad Parthos scriptam esse Johannis Epistolam. Hunc titulum ei tribuout 
Hyginus Papa ... et ipse Angustinus. (Quest. Evang. ii. 39.) 

8 Philon, Legation to Cains, 36; Josephus, Antiq. xxiii. 12. 



CONSroERATIOïTS ON THE ANTILEGOMENS. 419 

his first epistle to the Christian Jews scattered in Babylon 
and the other Parthian provinces. 

Now Clemens' Alexandrinus, in a book of which we have 
only a Latin translation,^ would also have said "that the 
second epistle of John is addressed to the Parthians ; " but the 
Latin translator, having taken irapOtovs for irapOivovs, trans- 
lated : Secunda Johannis epistola, quae ad virgines inscripta 
... ; while there is riot a single word about virgins there. 
And the same Clement says elsewhere that "this second 
letter of John is written to a certain elect Babylonian," and 
thinks, with Jerome, that the word elect there designates, not 
an elect person, but an elect church. 

Thus, then, the apostle of the Circumcision would address 
from Babylon his first letter to the Jews of the Asiatic Dis- 
persion, a province assigned to John, and close it with this 
salutation : " Tour co-elect sister, she who is at Babylon, 
salutes, you, as does also Mark, my son ; " and on his part, 
John, the apostle of the provinces of Asia,^ would address 
his, " To the elect church (the Kvpia èKk^Kry), and to her 
children, whom he loves in the truth," and then close it in his 
turn with this salutation : " The children of thy co-elect sis- 
ter salute thee, thee, their elect sister. who art at Babylon;" 
that is, " thee, who dost inhabit in such great numbers this 
queen city whence came the Dispersion of Asia." 

It must be remembered here that there was a threefold 
dispersion of the Jews, as Luke describes it, on the day of 
Pentecost (Acts ii. 8) : 1. " Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and 
the dwellers in Mesopotamia ; " that was the dispersion sub- 
jected to the Parthians, with Babylon for the metropolis. 
2. Those who inhabit " Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and 
Asia (Minor), Phrygia and Pamphylia ; " that was the dis- 
persion of Asia. 3. " Egypt and the parts of Lybia about 
Cyrene ; " that was the dispersion of Africa. Thus these 

1 Adumbrat. pp. 10, 11. 

2 The reader must remember that Asia was the ancient name of the 
western part of Asia Minor. — Tr. 



420 THE CANON. 

three dispersions, whom Peter addressed on the day of Pen- 
tecostj-and who formed his spiritual province, must have been, 
each of them, the object of his apostolical care ;• that of Baby- 
lon, by the visit which he made them in person ; that of Asia, 
by the letter which he wrote them from Babylon ; that of 
Africa, by the messenger whom he sent to them, his son 
Mark, first bishop of Alexandria.* 

These first relations between the catholic epistles, although 
established upon a questionable interpretation, have appeared 
to us worthy of our attention. But we have others also. 

2. Peter, writing his first letter after that of James, ren- 
ders him an indirect, but significant, testimony, in adopting 
and incorporating many of its traits, as we have seen. 

3. Jude, whose letter followed not only that of James, but 
even the second of Peter, commends himself, from the be- 
ginning, as the brother of James who was known to the 
churches by his ministry, his epistle, and his martyrdom. 
(A.D. 62.) 

4. The same Jude abundantly adopts, as we have said, the 
language of the second epistle of Peter ; as Peter, in his first, 
had adopted that of James. 

5. Jude goes even so far as to declare that he quotes one 
of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ (yer. 17), when he 
repeats in express terms a prophecy of the second epistle of 
Peter. 

6. Peter, in his turn, in his second epistle, strongly com- 
mends «all the epistles of Paul," "his beloved brother," 
placing them in the rank of «the other Scriptures," and 
denouncing eternal perdition on him "Who " wrests " them. 

7. The same Peter, in his second letter, appeals to the 
first (iii. 1). 

8. John binds and corroborates the fourfold testimony of 
his gospel and of his three epistles by recalling, in a most 
striking manner, the same thoughts and expressions. 

9. As John, in the fourth gospel, attests the authenticity 

1 Jerome, Gatal. Script. Eccles. viii. 



CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ANTILEGOMENS. 421 

of the three ^)thers by the very pains he has taken to be 
silent about almost every event already related in them, so 
we may say, that, in his three epistles, this same apostle has 
attested the authenticity of the epistles of Peter and Paul, 
by the silence he keeps on the important doctrines already 
so abundantly set forth by these two great apostles. In ex- 
patiating only on the precepts of Christian love, John shows 
us silently the entire approbation he gave to their teachings. 
This is a reflection of Dr. Wordsworth.'^ 

1 On the Canon (London, 1848), p. 285. 



422 THE CAHOlir. 



CHAPTER FIFTH. 

HISTORY OF THE CANON SINCE THE BE- 
GINNING OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 



Tiie Unanimity of aU the Churches. 

Among the astonishing and permanent facts revealing to 
us the hand of God the most wonderful is the marvelous, uni- 
versal, immovable unanimity with which all the churches of 
the world for the fourteen or fifteen last centuries continue to 
present to us one and the same Greek Testament, — its four 
gospels, its twenty-one epistles, its Apocalypse, and its book 
of Acts, — without the difference of a word, since none of the 
churches has ever founded a school on the otherwise insig- 
nificant question of the variations. 

No doubt there have been seen in every age, and in our 
day more than ever, teachers giving themselves the utmost 
latitude of belief about our sacred books, calling their au- 
thority in question, imagining a thousand theories as to their 
history, doubting one book, rejecting another, and even going 
so far as to deny the divine inspiration of the entire canon. 
But these have always been isolated men, and. individual 
instances of rashness. 

Never, since the epoch in which the canon was definitively 
closed and adopted in all the churches, more than fourteen 
centuries ago, under the free labor of minds and the unseen 
control of Providence, has any general council, any synod, 
any particular church, Arian or trinitarian, Romanist or re- 
formed, free or national, been known to profess, in its decrees 
or its catechisms, a rejection of one book of the New Testa- 



THE UNANIMITY OF ALL THE CHURCHES. 423 

ment, or express publicly its doubts concerning one of them. 
And this was true in the age of Alaric as in the time of the 
Reformation, or as in our modern times ; in Europe as in the 
East or as in the United States; at Rome as in Germany 
even, where so many audacious systems are constantly pro- 
duced, and where the incredulity of the schools so often over- 
leaps all bounds. 

Such is, then, under the action of Providence, this admi- 
rable, I may say this divine, unanimity of Christendom on 
the twenty-seven books of its sacred code. It is a perma- 
nent unanimity, universal, unalterable, and not less firm than 
that of the Jews for their canon. Il/ is even a unanimity 
still more astonishing ; since that which we wonder at in this 
family of Israel which has always kept its sacred oracles free 
from every mixture through thirty-four centuries, this very 
marvel we have here to admire in all the families of the 
nations, which equally preserve the New Testament in the 
midst of their most ardent disputes and their profoundest 
divisions ; which preserve it in the most uncultivated church- 
es, notwithstanding their ignorance ; in the most idolatrous, 
notwithstanding their traditions ; as in the most rationalistic, 
notwithstanding their infidel literature and all the wander- 
ings of their teachers. It is a unanimity, we may say, the 
more striking that it is only on this one point. 

Look for a single doctrine on which they have all been 
united for fourteen- centuries, or are now united ; it can not 
be found. Look again, on the other hand, for a point more 
important and fundamental, and, at the same time, more del- 
icate and open to contention than this; it is not to be found. 
And yet never has it been possible for the levity of the hu- 
man mind, the rashness of learning, the violence of party- 
spirit, or the malice of Satan, to set men against each othei 
on this single doctrine, — the doctrine most important of all, 
we said, and the most delicate ; the most fundamental, and the 
most liable to be disputed ! 

Search the whole earth, search from age to age, for one 



424 THE CANON. 

churcli in which this discord, so easy to create, so probable, 
is to be found. It does not exist. 

So evident is it that a concealed but almighty hand has 
been here interposed, and that the Head of the church watch- 
es in silence over the new Oracles as he has watched over 
the old, preserving them from age to age against the folly of 
men, because he has promised to preserve the churcH for 
ever against "the gates of hell." 

In this work God is pleased not to appear, but under his 
unobserved guidance to leave the churches to act in a con- 
stant feelings of their freedom ; and that not only without any 
sensible pressure of his hand, but also without intervention 
of human authorities ever interrupting the exercise of that 
freedom, as we shall presently show. And it is thus he 
has led their common free-will by his Holy Spirit to this 
marvelous result, so that from so many human wills we all 
should receive, during so many ages, only one and the same 
Scripture of the New Testament. 

But if we must study and admire this miracle of the divine 
wisdom watching over the sacred deposit, should it astonish 
us who have seen it for thirty-three centuries at work main- 
taining the people of Israel unmixed and imperishable among 
the nations ; us who have seen it through the same long ages 
maintaining in the hearts of that same people, notwithstand- 
ing all their revolts, one immovable purpose in regard to the 
Old Testament ? Should it astonish us if this same hand, 
ever invisible and powerful, has been able also to make all 
the Christian churches of the world, notwithstanding their 
dissensions and their unfaithfulness, incorruptible depositaries 
of his new oracles ? 

Gobat, the missionary, has indeed found in unexplored 
retreats of Abyssinia some Ethiopian manuscripts, and Dr. 
Grant found some Syriac manuscripts in the high mountains 
of Kurdistan, among those interesting Nestorians whom he 
discovered there, living so many centuries cut off from all the 
other parts of the Christian world. But these can not be 



THE UNANffllTY OF ALL THE CHURCHES. 425 

opposed to this universal testimony of the churches. Dr. 
Grant says, " The Apocalypse and two or three of the shoi-t 
epistles " (not named by him) " still were unknown by these 
isolated Christians, who did not reject them, but who knew 
nothing of them, until recently, when they hastened with the 
other Syriac churches to adopt the universal canon." 

Let this important fact be attentively noticed, as it is so 
manifestly ordered by Providence to furnish, after so many 
ages, a striking testimony to the canon. 

All the churches of Christendom have but one sacred text, 
— the Greek New Testament, with its twenty-seven books, 
as you find them alike with the bishops in Moscow, the 
pastors in Geneva, the Propaganda in Rome, or the pow- 
erful Bible Society in London ! " To them were committed 
the oracles of God." 

In whatever age, then, or in whatever place I might have 
arrived on this earth, from the remote days when the canon 
was entirely formed by the conscientious labors of Chris- 
tians without the intervention of any human authority, I 
should everywhere and ever have received the same Scrip- 
ture ; in the days of Theodosius as in those of Bonaparte ; 
among the Romanists as among the Protestants ; in the East- 
ern churches as in the Western, during the thousand years 
of their mutual contests. I might have asked the Nestorians 
of Asia fourteen hundred years ago, or the council of Ephe- 
sus who destroyed their books ; I might have applied, three 
centuries later, to the three hundred and fifty Greek bishops 
who declared at Nice that the worship of images is " holy, 
just, and useful," as to the three hundred Latin bishops who, 
seven years afterward, condemned it in Frankfort ; and so 
everywhere; and so now, if I would procure a Greek New 
Testament, pure and complete, I ask indifferently for the 
edition of the Catholic Scholz or that of the Protestant 
Tischendorf. Everywhere the twenty-seven Scriptures 
complete! Everywhere this preserved book of God as 
he has given it ! Everywhere the churches infallibly but 
36* 



426 TÎIE CASTOR-. 

freely led 'to unity by an invisible power ; everywhere their 
unconscious obedience leading them to preserve the sacred 
collection of the books. We now notice 

The Exceptional Freedom which always accompanied the 
Formation and Maintenance of the Oanon. 

Nothing was more improbable in anticipation, yet nothing 
is more certain in history, than the entirely pecuhar and ex 
ceptional freedom of conscience exercised in the first forma- 
tion, the subsequent completion, and the perfect and constant 
preservation of the canon of the New Testament. 

Whence but from God came this surprising and complete 
absence of all external pressure while this threefold labor 
was silently pursued in the church, everywhere leading to 
the same result ? How can we explain it without this influ- 
ence from above, that every exercise of authority, every 
synodical decree, every intervention of the civil powers, 
was continually suspended in regard to the most impor- 
tant, and, at the same time, the most delicate of questions ? 

We have already noticed this exti-aordinary fact ; but it is 
so unique in the history of the church, that it deserves our 
more serious attention, as showing irresistibly the divine in- 
tervention in forming and preserving the canon. For how, 
without the action of the Holy Spirit, would you explain the 
fact that during so many ages, and in all the churches of 
Christendom, such freedom was allowed to every conscience 
on the very question on which we should have expected the 
least ; on the doctrine from which all others spring ; on the 
very act of determining the unchangeable code, the judge 
of controversies, the doctrine of doctrines ? How could there 
have been so much freedom on this single point at a time 
when there was so little on all others ; when decrees were 
multiplied on points of least importance ; when all the 
churches. East and West, jealous, often extravagantly so, 
of the purity of doctrine, exacted of one another public 



FREEDOM OF ITS FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE. 427 

professions, explanations, adhesions, or retractions in regard 
to every other point of the creed ; when they were hurling 
anathemas at each other for the most trifling errors ; when, 
for instance, Victor, bishop of Rome, excommunicated the 
whole Eastern church, because they would celebrate Easter 
on the fourteenth day of the moon in March, instead of the 
Sunday that followed ; at a period when eighty councils were 
held in one century against the Pelagians, the Nestorians, the 
Eutychians, the Acephalites ? 

It is a wonderful and manifestly providential fact, that, on 
this point alone, there can be found nowhere in the docu- 
ments of history any account of public constraint, any col- 
lective action of councils, any prescription of emperors, — 
although from the fourth century they meddled with every- 
thing else in the church, — in a word, not an act of human 
authority which was intended to impose on the churches the 
acceptance of a sacred code, or to force any individual con- 
science to admit into the canon a single one of the twenty- 
seven books now constituting the New Testament. 

Thus the sacred volume was noiselessly formed, pure, har- 
monious, and complete; like the crystal which tranquilly 
sinks to the bottom of the vase from the skillfully combined 
substances which the chemist has prepared. How is it that 
each molecule, obeying silently, no longer simply the law of 
gravitation, but other inexplicable forces, takes each its place 
in turn with mathematical precision in this brilliant and mys- 
teiious unit ? The philosopher will point you to the laws of 
nature, and to the Creator who sustains them from age to 
age. Just so the Christian, whom you ask to explain the 
continuous deposit, book by book, in the universal church, 
until the whole volume is complete, will point you to the free 
action of the church, and, at the same time, to the invisible 
power of her watchful Redeemer, guiding the process from 
age to age. 

He will tell you to admire the scrutiny of the second canon 
by the primitive Christians during nearly three centuries, — 



428 THE CANON. 

a scrutiny always continued in perfect independence by each 
inquirer, and with the frequent expression of personal doubts ; , 
and yet the crystal once formed has continued Unchanged for 
fifteen centuries. This is to us a seal of the divine hand, 
and an expression of the divine approbation. 

When the entire Christian church, convoked at the call of 
the Roman emperors, was assembled at Nice, a. d. 325, and 
in Constantinople, A. D. 381, the four gospels were placed on a 
golden throne in the middle of the hall, to express the sover- 
eignty of the holy Word. At that time the first canon of the 
homologomens was tacitiy recognized by all the Fathers ; but 
there was much variety of opinion in regard to thé second and 
the second-first canons. No one complained of the difîèrcnce 
of views ; and this important question was held in suspense. 
From that time, as we have shown, almost universally, and 
with no decree or controversy in the councils, the churches 
came to the same view in regard to them. And although 
subsequent councils diflTered as to the books that might be 
read in the churches publicly, their object, as they declare, 
was simply to settle a question of discipline, — to regulate the 
services of the sanctuary, but not to determine dogmatically 
the number of the books God had inspired. This, we have 
said, is proved, not only by the fact that these two catalogues 
were not identical, and yet no one complained of it at Car- 
thage, but also that, long after the two councils, the ministers 
continued to exercise on this subject entire freedom, without 
being considered as bound by these decrees of the two coun- 
cils, and without ever appealing to them in attacking or de- 
fending these books. 

And to this it must be added, that this unanimity is totally 
contrasted with the movement- of mind on every other point, 
whether of doctrine, discipline, or government. Men began 
with different views as to the second canon, but ended with 
entire harmony. On all other points they began together, 
and have diverged incessantly and indefinitely. By a con- 
vergeiMie, gentle, cahn, silent, and daily growing more cer- 



ASTONISHESTG INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHUKCH. 429 

tain, they have come to a unanimity on this single point, — ■ 
a unanimity universal, immovable, and .humanly inexplica- 
ble, in which they rest to-day, however differing on other 
points. 

And during all that period while the church for two cen- 
turies and a half was yet hesitating in regard to the antilego- 
mens, she never, for an instant, admitted one spurious book 
into the canon. God permitted the church thus to test the 
-genuine books before admitting them, but never to admit 
spurious books. 

The Astonishing Independence of the Church toward the 
Schools, in Regard to the Canon. 

For eighteen centuries men of learning have been attack- 
ing the canon. But we witness only their impotence in all 
these efforts, however eloquent, however learned they may 
have been, however numerous their adherents, however au- 
dacious their contradictions, however violent their onsets. 

Witness, in the first century, the assault of the Judaizers 
and the Ebionites. In vain did they arise in such formidable 
numbers against all the epistles of Paul ; in vain did they 
reject the two books of Luke. It was. amid the confusion of 
this fierce opposition that we behold the entire church peace- 
fylly, but firmly, determining, and determining once for all, 
the first canon of the New Testament, consisting- of twenty 
books, or rather the sacred collection of the twenty-two ho- 
mologomens. 

Witness, again, in the second century, the great noise 
which the various gnostic sects were then making around 
the churcii.- Yet more formidable and far more audacious 
than the Ebionites, they pretended to combat our canon in 
the name of science and philosophy. They established lec- 
tures in the remotest parts of the empire, and especially in 
the .capital under the Antonines, under Commodus, under the 
two Severusjes, who aU granted them unrestricted freedom. 



430 THE CANON. 

They drew after them the ardent youth, full of enthusiasm 
for their eloquence and their impudence; they held their 
schools especially in Alexandria and Rome, then the two 
centers of science : Basilides, Isidorus, Carpocrates, in Alex- 
andria; Cerdo, Marcion, Valentinus, Theodotus, in Some. 
They afflicted alike the Eastern and the "Western churches, 
respecting no book of the canon, here rejecting one, and 
there another, distorting their meaning, corrupting their 
text, and associating spurious writings with them. But what 
came out of all this ? Nothing ; for the God of the Bible 
was its guardian. He did not destroy the freedom of man ; 
he brought no violent opposition to these false prophets. To 
the final honor of his Word, he left them an open arena ; he 
took nothing from them but their influence. And while the 
faithful men of the second and third centuries were strongly 
protesting against them, while Ireuaeus, Clement, Tertiillian, 
Origen, Hippolytus, were exposing their heresies by learned 
writings, they were mutually undermining one another, and 
their mutual contradictions were suicidal ; so that, notwith^ 
standing the great noise they had made, their schools exer- 
cised, after all, very little direct influence on the <:hurches. 
They unhappily led multitudes of young men astray in the 
paths of skepticism and death ; but they did not hinder the 
movements of the Holy Spirit among the flocks. And if 
they agitated the surface, they yet left at the bottom of the 
sacred vase the holy Word of God producing its blessed 
«fleets, and the opinion of the church on the canon peace- 
fully forming itself. 

Thus, notwithstanding this great tumult of the second and 
third centuries, not only may we 'see the truth of the first 
canon being confirmed, and settling on its present basis, but 
we also see at that time the acknowledgment of the five later 
epistles quietly forming itself in all the churches, and the 
genuine books separating- themselves from the spurious. 
This acknowledgment and this discrimination were con- 
eummated after the first quarter of the fourth century ; as 



ASTONISHING INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHURCH. 431 

we see the silver and gold in the furnace separate them- 
selves from the confused mass of inferior metals. 

But witness, still further, a thousand years later, what was 
passing in Europe at the troubled period of the Reformation. 
At that time the friends of letters and of truth, legitimately 
led to skeptical thoughts by so many new discoveries which 
unmasked the traditions venerated for ages, so many false 
books, so many lying legends, false decretals, and false texts, 
— then, I say, the friends of truth regarded themselves called 
on to question even the rights of certain sacred books to re- 
tain their places in the New Testament. Had they not seen 
themselves compelled by divine authority to cast out of the 
temple of the Old Testament the apocryphal books ? Was 
it not, then, natural for them to believe that they were called 
upon equally to pass in review the very books of the New 
Testament also ? Certainly the moment was full of perils ; 
sacred criticism might easily be led astray, and the cause of 
the canon might be gravely compromised. But what took 
place then ? So far from this, it came forth from this new 
tumult of minds better established, and, notwithstanding this 
very rash labor of criticism, not one solitary church can be 
found which either rejected one book of the New Testament, 
or added one to it. 

But what were all these trials to which the ancient schools 
had subjected our Scriptures during the first, second, third, 
fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries compared with those which 
were reserved to be employed by the most learned of mod- 
ern theologians ? "We speak of the most illustrious univer- 
sities of Protestant Europe, and especially of learned and 
laborious Germany, during the last half of the eighteenth 
and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. We might well 
have said that the old war of the gnostics was rekindled. 
The Cerdos, the Marcions, the Basilides, had risen from the 
dead ; the revolt of criticism, for a time, seemed universal, 
and one might have believed that the larger portion of our 
Bible was to perish before the new researches of science. The 



432 THE CANON. 

young men of the schools were swept away by the mighty 
current ; the least incredulous professors shrugged their 
shoulders when they witnessed our naïve confidence in the 
whole old text ; and you might hear it constantly repeated 
that it was all over with our canon. 

But to give a more exact view of this war we need to ex- 
amine in detail, as presented, for instance, in the " Tables of 
Hertwig," published in 1849,^ the literature of the Introduc- 
tions to the New Testament. We have there the whole sue-, 
cessive list for a century. What, then, have they taught as 
to the canon, all these guides, these " introducers " of the 
youth of Germany to this sacred study, from the time of the 
appeal of David Michaelis to the University of Go.ttingen, in 
1751, down to our day? AH, without exception, have at- 
tacked the canon, with, however, no other agreement. among 
themselves. 

Thus, for more than a century, have some of the most 
learned men of the world labored to displace some of the sacred 
books by bold denials, fantastic hypotheses, arbitrary systems, 
abundance of doubts, contemptuous accusations against par- 
ticular books, against their authenticity, their harmony, their 
infallibility, their wisdom, yes, their veracity! And what 
has been the result of all the labor of these learned men ? 
Our Ne^^ Testament comes forth from this conflict better 
confirmed than ever in all our churches, even in Germany 
itself. And at the very time when German universities 
were denying the divinity of the Scriptures, God was prov- 
ing it by their mighty effects in transforming the most de- 
based of the nations. The period of the most violent attack on 
the Scriptures has been the very period of their rapid ex- 
tension by new translations into new sections of the earth. 
The age of rationalism has been most wonderfully the age of 
missions. The age of attacking the Bible was the very age 
of Bible societies. 

1 Literatur der Einleitungswissenschaft. Tabellen zur Einleitang inB 
N. T. Berlin, 1849. 



ASTONISHING INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHURCH. 433 

It is, moreover, a point well worthy of our attention that 
the universal adoption of the second canon took place at 
a time when the contents of its books were directly opposed 
to the prejudices and inclinations of the churches, whilst the 
books they rejected at the same time accorded with those in- 
clinations and prejudices. 

The beginning of the fourth century was distinguished by 
an excessive fondness for the marvelous ; innumerable ac- 
counts of silly miracles ; a prevailing disposition to look for 
allegories, to spiritualize texts and facts to the most foolish 
extremes ; by very exaggerated notions of the holiness of the 
saints, and very false notions of their merits; a growing 
tendency to exalt the priests, and especially the bishops ; an 
almost idolatrous admiration of the martyrs ; excessive con- 
fidence in the virtue of the sacraments, especially baptism ; 
and various other errors of doctrine, sentiment, and practice. 

Now, of these false notions not one word is to be found in 
all the five epistles then universally admitted to be canoni- 
cal ; but an abundance of these notions is in almost all the 
ecclesiastical books at that day universally rejected from the 
canon. In the five epistles, not a legend is to be found, noth- 
ing puerile, not a word on the virtues of Mary, or her mira- 
cles, or even her person ; not one word on salvation by bap- 
tism, on the privileges of bishops, or the superiority of one 
to another, except the rebuke of Diotrephes for claiming pre- 
eminence ; no exaltation of the angels. And while the doc- 
trine of the millennium contained in the Apocalypse was so 
strongly opposed in the East, and the Novatian doctrine sup- 
posed to be favored by the epistle to the Hebrews was op- 
posed in the "West, not a church refused to admit both these 
books into the canon. 

And all this firm, unanimous, quiet acceptance took place 
at a time when the dangerous practice existed of reading the 
uninspired books in public worship. Jerome^ informs us 
that it was only from the fourth century that these books 

^ Prsef. in Libr. Salomon. 0pp. torn. i. p. 938. 
37 



434 THE CANON. 

were thus read, "not to establish doctrines, but merely to 
edify." And Augustine ^ says, that Judith, Wisdom, and 
Ecclesiasticus were read, not by the clergy, but by inferior of- 
ficers, and from lower seats than those from which the canon- 
ical books were read. 

And yet, if this dangerous practice did introduce into the 
Latin church these apocryphal books on account of their false 
teachings, yet it is remarkable that similar errors in the writ- 
ings of the Fathers never led to the introduction of apocryphal 
books into the New Testament canon of that church. Why 
were the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the epistle 
of Barnabas, so promptly, universally, and firmly rejected 
from the canon ? Let us own in .this the hand of God j for 
surely this mysterious work of formtug the canon unani- 
mously in all parts of the church, executed at such a period, 
amid so many errors, prejudices, and so much controversy, 
could not come from the mind of man alone. Everywhere 
we see the church accepting reverently as divine the books 
unfavorable to the inclinations of her members, and every- 
where rejecting those which were the most flattering to their 
pride, and most favorable to the heresies to which they were 
inclined. 

Genuineness of the Text. 

But a vital question meets us here : have we the genuine, 
original text? If we have not, the preservation of the 
names of the books is of no' importance. 

For the last two centuries this question has been examined 
by men of critical science with herculean industry. Walton 
commenced this work in England, by the preparation of his 
Polyglott in 1657, followed by bishop FeU's Greek Testa- 
ment in 1675, that of Mill in 1*707, and of Bentley in 1716. 
The task was undertaken to find all the manuscripts of the 
Greek Testament concealed in the libraries of Europe, and 

1 De Prœdest. Sanctor. Lib. i. cap. av. Cosin, Histi of Canon, p. 106 
(old Eng. edit.). 



GENUINENESS OF THE TEXT, 435 

to compare them together. The effort startled the world. It 
was feared that it would result in diminishing men's confi- 
dence in the Scriptures. The Germans followed the Eng- 
lish, and surpassed them in the vastness of their researches.^ 
"We know that Griesbach alone in 1786 had compared 335 
Greek manuscripts of the gospel, and Scholz, five years 
later, 674, besides 200 of the Acts, 256 of the epistles of 
Paul, 93 of the Apocalypse, and still others of the catholic 
epistles. In our " Theopneusty " we have said : " When it is 
remembered that the New Testament has been copied in 
every Christian country and in every variety of circum- 
stances, during a succession of fourteen hundred years ; .that 
it^has passed through three centuries of pagan persecutions, 
in which men convicted of possessing it were thrown to 
wild beasts ; that in the second, third, and fourth centuries, 
false books were multiplied in every direction ; in the eighth, 
ninth, and tenth, false legends and false histories were made ; 
in the tenth and eleventh, so few could read, even among the 
prinjees ; in the twelfth and thirteenth, the use of the Scrip- 
tures in the vernacular was punished with death, and to pro- 
mote error the writings of the Fathers and decrees of coun- 
cils were altered ; when it is remembered that the learned, 
not contented with the public and private libraries of the West, 
went to search even the convents of Mount Athos, of Asiatic 
Turkey, and of Egypt ; . . . then it may be understood how 
at the beginning of these researches the friends of the sacred 
Word were alarmed for the integrity of our Scriptures." 
But what, in fact, has been the result ? 

It is, that, on the contrary, by this gigantic labor, in which 
so many distinguished men have spent their lives, a new 
proof, striking and unexpected, has been furnished the world, 
of the Providence which watches over the oracles of God, 

1 The labors of Bengel, Wetstein, Griesbach, Scholx, Matthai, Tittmann, 
Lachmann, and Tischendorf, are well known, as also the recent labors of 
the learned Tregelles (Account of the Printed Texts of the Greek New Tes- 
tament. London, 18^). 



436 THE CANON. 

throughout every age. The text has been found purer and 
better attested than the most pious men dared to believe. 
From this mass of thirteen or fifteen hundred Greek manu- 
scripts, sought out in all the libraries of Europe and Asia, 
carefully compared together, word for word, letter by letter, by 
modern criticism, and compared also with all the ancient ver- 
sions, Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Sahidic, Coptic, Ethiopie, Ara- 
bic, Sclavonic, Gothic, and Persian, as with all the quotations 
from the New Testament by the Fathers in their innumerable 
writings, — from this mass, we say, and from this gigantic la- 
bor, the enemies, astonished and confounded, have seen sacred 
criticism return covered with the dust of a thousand libraries, 
but unable after all to presentthe world any thing more than 
a trivial and valueless result ; trivial, we say, with them ; 
but we will say with the friends of the Bible immense in its 
nothingness, and mighty in its very insignificance. 

In fact, all the hopes of the enemies of religion from this 
quarter are confounded ; and as Michaelis remarks : ^ " They 
have ceased now to hope for any thing from those critical re- 
searches which they so earnestly recommended at first." 

And such, henceforth, has been the complete preservation 
of our Scriptures, that, to this hour, and everywhere, you 
shall see aU the Christian sects, however opposed to each 
other, give us the same Greek New Testament, without even 
Having founded one single school on the variations. In fact, 
all, Jesuits, ministers, popes, cardinals, pastors, or archi- 
mandrites ; at Rome as at Geneva, at Moscow as at Cam- 
bridge or Berlin, use the same manuscripts, quote the same 
editions, and produce the same texts, Griesbach and Scholz, 
Lachmann, Tregelles, and Tischendorf. 

We have presented, in the Theopneusty, tables intended to 
give every reader a simple idea of these results of sacred 
criticism. The eye must see them, however, to comprehend 
them. 

"We have there shown, for example, that, in the epistle to 
1 Tom. ii. pp. 266, 467, 469. 



THE BOOKS ALLEGED TO BE LOST. 437 

the Romans (the largest and most important of the epistles), 
all the corrections which Griesbach could make, affecting the 
meaning in the slightest degree, in four hundred and thirty- 
three verses of this Scripture, after examining one hundred 
and forty manuscripts, were jive, and they small and insig- 
nificant ; and now the subsequent researches of Tittmann and 
Lachmann have reduced these five to two ; (Schok, more re- 
cently, reduced them to one). The first (Itom. vii. 6) em- 
braces the difference between the letters e and o. Instead 
of "that being dead in which we were held," Griesbach 
reads, " we being dead," etc. The second, in the eleventh 
chapter, retrenches the part which is parallel to the sixth 
verse. The third (xvi. 5) substitutes Achaia for Asia. 

In a word, in the 7959 verses of the New Testament there 
are but ten or twelve in which aU the corrections proposed by 
Griesbach and so many others, at the end of their immense 
researches, have any importance. And eight of these cor- 
rections pertain to either single words or single letters. 

Such, therefore, has been the astonishing preservation of 
our sacred text through such a series of ages ; such is the 
testimony of the manuscripts; and it is thus that science, 
which has collected them, has brought to our view a magnifi- 
cent monument of Providence ever actively watching over 
the Scriptures. 

We have, then, the strongest possible evidence of the gen- 
uineness of our text. 

There remains but one other question in regard to the 
New Testament canon. It has been declared, that, if the 
books we possess are inspired, the present canon of the New 
Testament is incomplete, because we have not in it all the 
originally inspired books. This point we now proceed to ex- 
amine. 

The Boohs alleged to he lost. 

Have we a complete canon ; or have any inspired books 
of the New Testament been lost ? 
37* 



438 THE CAÎTON. 

It has been affirmed that there was an epistle to the Laodi- 
ceans written by Paul. 

No Father ever saw this pretended epistle, and there was 
never a question whether it should be put into the canon. In 
Jerome's trial, about a. d. 400, there was one shown, it is 
said, which was universally " rejected," ^ and which, an im- 
postor had imagined, corresponded to the description Paul 
gave of a letter to the Laodiceans, in his letter to the Colos- 
sians (iv. 16). Calvin remarks: "Now that is too gross a 
deception that any one should dare, under so stupid and fool- 
ish a pretense, exhibit a letter so contrary to the mind of 
Paul." ^ But besides, not only does no Father pretend to 
have seen the true epistle of Paul, but he himself does not 
pretend to have written one ; "And they," Calvin says, " are 
doubly deceived who think Paul wrote that to the Laodi- 
ceans." 

' Paul, in that passage alluded to, contents himself with rec- 
ommending to the Colossians to have the epistle (r^v e/c 
Aao8cK€cas), coming from Laodicea, read by them ; that is, as 
Calvin says, "an epistle sent from Laodicea to Paul, and 
which he had judged it well to have the Colossians read;", 
or, according to others, an epistle of Paul which was to pass 
from Laodicea to Colosse. And what epistle ? Undoubted- 
ly that which he had written to the Ephesians at the same 
time, and which, as it is not directed " to the elders and dea- 
cons " of that city, was rather, as many think, a circular let- 
ter. 

But another is spoken of. Many have imagined, accord- 
ing to certain equivocal words of Paul to the Corinthians 
(1 Cor. V. 9), that this apostle, before his two canonical epistles, 
had written them another, which was " unfortunately lost," 
or which, at least, not having been designed to be a part of 
the sacred oracles, was never inserted in the canon. That 
letter, we reply, was not lost, for it never had an existence. 

1 In Catal. "ab omnibus exploditnr." 

2 Com. on Col. torn. iv. p. 107. Paris, 1855. 



THE BOOKS ALLEGED TO BE LOST. 439 

It is true that here again a more modern impostor, taking 
occasion from these words of. Paul, has attempted to fabri- 
cate one of which we shall say nothing, because it has never 
obtained the least credit, and the anachronisna,s it contains 
betray its spurious character. Moreover, no Father has 
professed ever to have seen this pretended epistle of Paul 
which is asserted to have been *' lost." 

The fact is, Paul's very simple language has been entirely 
misapprehended. " I wrote unto you in an epistle not to 
company with fornicators." He does not say, as some trans- 
lators have inaccurately rendered it : " I have written to you 
in a letter^* but in the letter (eypa\J/a vfuv èv ry hnxTTohrj), that 
is to say, in this letter ; for that is the meaning of the definite 
article with the Greeks, when it is substituted for the demon- 
strative pronoun \} anfl it is thus that all the translators have 
understood this very expression in the four other passages 
of the New Testament where it occurs : — 

Bom. xvi. 22 : " I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle." It 
is : " who wrote ike epistle" 

Col. iv. 16 : "And when this is read among you." It is : 
" And when Û,e letter^ 

1 Thess. V. 27 : "I charge you by the Lord that this 
epistle be read unto all the holy brethren." It is : " That 
the episde be read." 

2 Thess. iii. 14: "And if any man obey not our word by 
this epistle, note that man." It is : "2^ the epistle." 

" I then have written io you," or I wrote (typais/a) ." in this 
letter," says the apostle, " not to company with fornicators." 
"We perceive that the apostle is not opposing that which he 
is writing to-day to that which he had written in a previous 
letter ; one tense of a verb to another ; ypa^w to eypa^a ; but 
it is the aorist eypa\}/a in both successive members of the 
phrase, which are in no wise adversative to each other ; the 
f econd being only a development of the first, and the aorist 
of this verb being freely employed elsewhere in the present 

1 See the beantifal work of bishop Middleton on the article. 



440 THE CANON. 

time.^ Paul then reminds the Corinthians that on the occa- 
sion of the scandal of which he has here spoken to them for the 
first timej he has just been exhorting them in this very epis- 
tle (eight verses before) to have no fellowship with men 
who, professing to be Christians, were living in immoral 
pi*aclices. " We everywhere hear of you practicing an im- 
purity that is not even named among the heathen ! And yet 
you are puffed up! And you have not rather been in 
mourning, that he who has committed such a crime might be 
cut off from among you ! But I . . . in the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, you and my spirit being assembled to- 
gether with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, have ad- 
judged such a man to be delivered to Satan. Take then the 
wicked man from the midst of you. . . ." 
• Then, four verses afterward, and without leaving the sub- 
ject, he adds: " I write to you in this letter that you do not 
company with fornicators. . . . Now, I write to you that you 
company not with any one calling himself a brother," etc. 

Such is the natural sense of the passage without any ques- 
tion about a former letter, or a " lost epistle." 

Do we mean to say by this, that Paul, having the care of 
all the churches daily upon him, wrote, either to the brethren 
or the churches, only fourteen letters during a ministry of 
thirty years ? Certainly not ; but Calvin ^ says : " The Lord 
by his providence has consecrated to a perpetual remem- 
brance those which he, knew to be necessary to his church. 
And it is not by an accident that they are so few ; but by an 
admirable design of God, the body of the Scripture has been 
composed such as we see it." 

"We see that even the really inspired words of apostles and 
prophets, those, even, of the Lord conversing with Moses on 
the mount or in the desert, and of the Son of God speaking to 
his dearest servants in the most momentous hours of his minis- 

1 lypa^a is often applied hy the apostle to that inrhich he has just heen 
Trtiting. See.l Cor. is. 13; Philem. 19, 21; 2 Cor. ii. 3 ; Gal. vi. 11; 1 John 
ii.l4. 

3 Comm. on Eph. iii. 3. 



THE BOOKS ALLEGED TO BE LOST. 441 

try (Luke xxiy. 27 ; Matt. xvii. 3), have not been preserved 
to us. But is it a loss for the church ? We believe not, 
since God has not chosen to give them to her. We must be- 
lieve that the number to be preserved would be limited, for 
otherwise " the world itself could not contain the books that 
should be written " (John xxi. 25), and the gospels were 
necessarily very brief. All the acorns which fall do not sur- 
vive to produce oaks ; but enough remain to fulfill the pur- 
poses of God. His holy Word is also a seed ; he has scatter- 
ed it by measure, and given us what we need. 

Yet again, it must not be imagined, either, that all the 
words or writings of an Isaiah or a Daniel, of a Peter or a 
Paul, during a ministry of thirty years, or sixty years, or 
even, as Daniel's, of ninety years, were from morning to night 
under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. We believe this 
point was fully established in our Theopneusty. These 
prophets and apostles were inspired at certain definite times 
for specific purposes determined by God ; but, at other times 
and for other objects, they were not so. In the dispute of Paul 
with Barnabas, God has not guaranteed to us all the apostle's 
words, nor all his parchments left with Carpus (2 Tim. iv. 
13). That which is guaranteed is, the Holy Scripture, " all 
Scripture given by inspiration of God" (TrSo-a ypa^^ &e6- 
irvevaros). But beyond this, theopneusty spoken or written 
was, with these men of God, like their other charisms or 
"gifts," without doubt,' an intermittent grace. They were 
generally, as the' humble believer of to-day is, illuminated 
and preserved from on high;. but they no more spoke as 
"led by the Holy Spirit," and their language, always worthy 
of the most respectful attention, at the same time was not 
infallible. 

There is nothing of the books lost which God wished to 
give by his prophets ; nothing of the canon of the Scriptures. 
Heaven and earth shall pass, but not a jot of the holy Word 
can pass away. (Matt. v. 18.) 



BOOK SECOND. 

CANONICITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 



We considered the question of the. New Testament first, 
because much of the evidence in favor of the Old Testament 
canon is derived from it. 

CHAPTER FIRST. 
THE TESTIMONY OF THE JEWS. 

Thebb is in the history of Israel a fact not less wonderful 
than that of the preservation of their race for more than 
three thousand years in the midst of other nations like one 
family, unmixed and imperishable. That fact is the perfect 
and constant conservation of their canon for thirty-three and 
a half centuries. 

We behold among this incomparable people from the days 
of Moses to the present time, notwithstanding all their wan- 
derings and terrible sufferings, a constant unanimity in recog- 
nizing, without variation, the sacred collection of the Scrip- 
tures while it was being formed, and the whole volume since it 
was completed thirty-three hundred years ago. This canon, 
which our Bibles divide into thirty-nine books, but the Jews 
into twenty-two, in order to correspond with their twenty-two 
letters, as the Fathers did after them,^ this volume, we say, 

-1 Cj^l of Jerusalem, Athanasios, John Damascenus, Jerome, Gregory 
Nazianzen, Epiphanius, etc. " Qaomodo viginti duo elementa sunt per 
quae scribimus Hebraïcë omne qnod loquimnr, ita viginti duo volumina 
Bupputantur." Jerome, Prolog. Galeatus (torn. i. p. 318. Bened. Paris, 
1693). 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE JEWS. 443 

-finished four hundred years before Jesus Christ was bom, has 
never ceased from that time to be read in all their synagogues 
throughout the earth as the " book of God." The nation of 
Israel, before their final dispersion, was already scattered into 
every known country. James, speaking of the Gentiles, says : 
*' Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him." 
(Acts XV. 21.) Josephus says : " There is not a Grecian city 
and scarcely a barbarian city in which the rest of the Sab- 
bath is not observed through the iniluence of the Jews." * 

Now, that all the Israelites received the same canon of 
the Scriptures with the most perfect unanimity is a fact 
abundantly testified by the Jews of the apostles' time : Philo 
in Egypt, Josephus in Egypt and at Rome. And it is, more- 
over, another fact universally admitted, that, very long before 
the apostolical period, the Old Testament, both in Hebrew 
and in Greek, existed with its twenty-two books as we now 
possess them. 

The testimony of Josephus is worthy of notice here, for 
this historian was only thirty years old at the death of Paul. 
He says to Apion : " Nothing can be better attested than the 
writings authorized among us. In fact, they could not be 
subject to any discord (jJLrjre twos èv toÎs ypa^o/u.o'ois èvovarrjs 
Sta^wvias) ; for only that which the prophets wrote ages ago 
is approved among us, taught as they were by the very in- 
spiration of God." " "We then avoid having among us, as the 
Greeks have, a great number of books which are discordant 
and opposed to each other 5 we have only twenty-two, which 
contain all that has passed among us, .and which may reason- 
ably be believed. Five are of Moses." " The prophets after 
Moses wrote thirteen .other books ^ describing what occurred 
after the death of Artaxerxes, ... ; while the four other 



^ Against Apion, Lib. ii. chap. ix. 

2 Namely, 1, Joshna; 2, Judges (including Ruth); 3, Samuel; 4, Kings; 
6, Chronicles; 6, Ezra (including Nehemiah); 7,E8ther; 8, Job; 9, Isaiah; 
10, Jeremiah and Lamentations; 11, Ezekiel; 12, Daniel; 13, the twelya 
minor prophets. 



444 THE CAIJON. 

books ^ contain hymns for the praise of God and precepts to- 
regulate our conduct." " They also wrote what has taken 
place, from Artaxerxes to our day ; but because there was 
not the exact succession of prophets .as before, these have 
not been received with the same faith as the former." 

" Now, it appears from thé facts how far we have believed 
in our own Scriptures ; for, although already so many ages 
have passed, no one has ever dared either to remove, or add, 
or transpose any thing. And it is for all the Jews as a thought 
born with them from the first generation, to call them ' the 
teaching of God,' to abide in them, and, if necessary, to die 
with joy to maintain them." 

We see clearly, therefore, by this testimony, that, to the 
days of Josephus, the entire Bible was composed of the 
same twenty-two books as for the modern Jews, or of our 
thirty-nine books ; that, of whatever sect a Jew might be, 
however far he might go astray, he never betrayed the 
least dissent as to 'the sacred canon ; that the books of the 
Bible, as well the most familiar as the most historical, Ruth, 
Esther, or Nehemiah, as well as the songs of David or the 
visions of Isaiah, were in their eyes equally written by the 
esïict succession of the prophets, and under divine inspiration, 
and were equally called the decrees and doctrines of God ; 
that, in fine, this common conviction was always so inherent 
in their existence as a Jewish people, that it could be said to 
be " born with them (otÎ/^^vtov) from their first generation," 
and they were always ready to die for it. 

And what Josephus s^id eighteen centuries ago, we may 
say now of the Jews, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem. 

1 Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Solomon's Song.- 



THE TESTIMOîîT OF JESUS CHRIST. 445 



CHAPTER SECOND. 
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST. 

"We here invoke the testimony of the "Amen, the faithful 
and true Witness." "What did the Immanuel, "the God of 
the holy prophets " (Rev. xxii. 6), think of the Old Testa- 
ment, and how did he treat it ? 

Never did he put its integrity or legitimacy in douht ; 
never did he manifest the least hesitation in regard to the di- 
vine authenticity of any of the twenty-two books of which it 
is composed ; he has quoted from all or almost all of them 
with his own lips. Who then can discern the spirit of the 
prophets, if not he whose eternal Spirit quickened them all ? 
(1 Pet. i. 11.) Who shall better tell us if such or such a 
book is from God or from man ? " Chief, shepherd of the 
sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant," he has come 
to dwell among men ; but who shall discern more correctly 
than he the voice of his own messengers from that of stran- 
gers and robbers ? (John x. 5, 8.) 

Now, we have heard him preaching these Scriptures him- 
self; we have seen him take from the hand of the Jews in 
their synagogues the sacred scroll or volume as they extend- 
ed it to him, opening it, and exclaiming before them all, " In 
the volume of the Book it is written of me!" We have 
heard him exclaim at their festival : " Search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life." (John v. 39.) 
We have, indeed, seen him go from one end to the other, 
explaining it: "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 
expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning him- 
self;" (Luke xxivi 27, 44.) Did he ever reproach the Jews 



446 THE CANON. 

for having altered the Scriptures ? Never. He reproached 
them for constantly resisting the Scriptures, never for alter- 
ing them. They were left to commit every crime but that. 
They rejected God, committed abominations with their in- 
famous gods, and made their children pass through the fire ; 
but never were they guilty of the crime so easily committed, 
of changing the Scriptures and introducing into them false 
books. ' 

All the course of Christ as Son of man attests thus that no 
human teacher ever thought more respectfully of the sacred 
volume than he. Whichever of its twenty-two books he 
quotes, it is always for him God who speaks. This book is 
the rule of his life ; it is to this entire book that he conforms 
his holy humanity, and would have us conform ours, to be 
saved. The least word of this book possesses in his view an 
authority more permanent than the heavens and the earth. 
When he seeks to convince the Sadducees and Pharisees, now 
he proves the resurrection to them by one single word from 
Exodus ; * now the true doctrine of marriage, by a single 
word from Genesis ; ^ now his own divinity, by a single word 
from the Psalm "ex., or another from the eighty-second; and 
again, before uttering it, he interrupts himself to exclaim : 
" And the Scriptures can not be broken ! " ' When he begins 
his ministry he already knows the Scriptures without having 
studied them.* When he contends with Satan, he three 
times strikes him with " the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
Word of God." He says to Satan three times : " It is writ- 
ten." Finishing his ministry on the cross, he again repeats 
the twenty-second Psalm ; and when he resumes it after the 
resurrection, for some days, he still is engaged in explaining 
the Scriptures,^ " beginning at Moses and all the prophets and 
the Psalms." In a word, he quotes, as from God, Genesis," 

1 Ex. iii. 6; Matt. xxii. 32. i^ Matt. xix. 4; Gen. i. 27. 

8 Matt. xxii. 43,- John x. 27, 35. * John vii. 15. 

^ Luke xxiv. 27. " Matt. xix. 4. 



THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST. 447 

Exodus,^ Leviticus,^ Numbers,^ Deuteronomy,^ Samuel,^ 
Kings,' Jonah,' Daniel,^ Isaiah,^ Hosea," Jeremiah,^ 
Psalms viii., xxii., xxxv., xxxi., xli., Ixix., Ixxxiî., xci., 
ex., cxviii.,^^ and he quoted them, saying : Have you not read 
th^è words of David, speaking by the Holy Spirit ? Have 
you not read what God spake by the mouth of David ? 

We see, then, how our Lord regarded the canon of the Old 
Testament. This was his science on this point, his sacred 
criticism : to receive all the Holy Scriptures of the Jews ; to 
call them all in their detail, as in a body, the Law ; ^' and to 
declare, " It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one 
tittle of the law to fail." " 

1 Matt. xxii. 32, 37. « Matt, v. 22, 43. I » Matt. v. 33. 

* Mark xii. 29; Luke x. 7, 27; Jolin viii. 5, 7. 

6 Matt. xii. 3; Mark ii. 25; Luke vi. 24. 

6 Matt. xii. 42; Luke xi. 31. 7 Matt. xii. 40. 

8 Matt. xxiv. 15; Mark xiii. 14. » Matt. kiii. 14; xr. 7, 8; xxi. 5. 
M Matt. ix. 13. u Matt. xxi. 13; Luke xix. 46. 

12 Matt. xxi. 16; John xix. 24; xv. 25; Luke xxiii. 46; John xiii. 18; 
John XV. 25; x. 34; Matt. iv. 6; Matt. xxii. 44; xxi. 42. 
IS John X. 34; xii. 34; Som. ii. 14. 
14 Luke xyi. 17; Matt. v. 18. 



448 THE CANON. 



CHAPTER THIRD. 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES. 

These men of Grod, charged with the announcement to the 
■world of his eternal truth by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to 
bind and to loose, to discern spirits, and to become themselves 
apostles and prophets (Eph. ii. 20), " the twelve foundations 
of the universal church," these holy men have not ceased to 
regard the twenty-two books of the Old Testament as consti- 
tuting a single whole, a complete unit, holy and perfect, 
which they call " the Scripture," " Word of God," the " oracles 
of God " (Acts vii. 38 ; Bom. iii. 2), and of which they say : 
" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God " ( 2 Tim. iii. 
16 ; 1 Pet. i. 11 ; Acts iii. 21 ; Luke i. 70) ; all the proph- 
ets who wrote it had in them the- Spirit of Christ ; all the 
Old Testament is a written prophecy (Trpo^iyreta ypa<jf»^s) ; 
" God himself has spoken by the mouth of his prophets since 
the world began." 



CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FOREGOING FACTS. 449 



CHAPTER FOURTH. 

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FROM THE FORE- 
GOING FACTS. 

Whoever ranks himself as a disciple of Christ must re- 
ceive his testimony on the canon, as on every other subject. 
But we go farther than this. Not only must we, as Chris- 
tians, receive the Old Testapaent just as it was when our 
Lord approved of it, but we should also see with admiration 
the hand of Gk)d in the preservation of the ancient canon. 

"Whence came this marvelous concert of an entire race, 
otherwise so constantly in rebellion against God, this unani- 
mous agreement of this people for three thousand years, in 
receiving and maintaining, with undeviating firmness, one 
only and the same canon of Scriptures?. Certainly it comes 
from God alone. But, at the same time, under this action 
from above, there must also have been a common thought, 
an established principle among this people in regard to the 
canon, a principle furnishing security to all, small and great, 
learned and unlearned, to th^e great Sanhedrim solemnly re- 
porting to its king the oracle of Micah,^ and the humble 
synagogue, to the poor Jews of the dispersion in Macedo- 
nia, daily searching with care the Scriptures of their canon 
(to Kaô* rjixipav avaKptvovres Toiç ypa^ds), to see if Paul's doc- 
trine was conformed to their teaching ; ^ to the pious Jewish 
mother, married to a Greek of Asia Minor, who early trained 
her little son ' in the knowledge of the true God, teaching 
him daily from the Holy Book. 

Now, what was this common source of assurance to all the 

1 Matt. ii. 6. 2 Acts xvii. 11. s ^^rô Ppsipovç. 2 Tim. iii. 15. 



450 THE CANON. 

people of every grade of intelligence ? It was not science, 
but faith in a doctrine, faith in God, faith in the "Word itself. 

No one can doubt that the faith of the Jewish race in their 
religion was as rational as th.e faith men now have in modern 
science. But it was not founded in a knowledge of the his- 
tory of the canon, such as we have concerning our New Tes- 
tament catfon. The canon of the Old Testament had no 
history. The Hebrews, in the time of Christ, possessing no 
literary monuments besides the Scriptures itself, could no 
demonstrate the authenticity of their sacred books by docu 
ments outside of the book itself, as we can that of the New 
Testament Their holy books came jfrom too remote an an- 
tiquity to present a cotemporary literature, or even a litera- 
ture of ages subsequent, of any real weight. The writings 
of the old Greeks quoted by Josephus were too recent to 
have any importance as testimony ; while those of the Egyp- 
tians, Assyrians, and Persians had no religious relations with 
the sacred literature of the Hebrews. They had, then, as a 
test of the Old Testament, only the Old Testament itself. 
Now, who could say, in the days of Josephus and of the 
apostles, any more than we ^ can, by what human means 
Moses provided for the preservation of his books after they 
were placed in the holy ark (Deut. xxxi. 26) ? By the 
priests? Josephus seems to think it was;* but who can 
affirm it? What prophet wrote the closing scenes of the 
Pentateuch, describing the death of Moses, his burial, the 
long mourning that followed it, and making this declaration.: 
" And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto 
Moses ?"^ Joshua, do you say ? That might be ; but who 
knows ? Who wrote Job ? In a word, no one knows which 
of the prophets put the last hand to the twenty-two books 
of the Old Testament to give them to the church for all 
future time. There are, many conjectures ; but who 
knows ? , 

And if you do not know the authors of all these Scrip- 
1 Against Apion, Lib. i. chap. 2. ^ Deut. xxxir. 10. 



COÎTCLUSIONS FROM THE FOIŒGOING FACTS. 451 

tures, it is entirely sufficient to be able to say, with Jesua 
Christ, that they were prophets. 

All the elements of science for the canon of the Old Testa- 
ment, then, are wanting. Yet the faith of the Jewish church 
was more solidly founded than on the basis of science. It 
was founded on the declarations of God, his character and 
his acts. They knew that he had given them these Scrip- 
tures, and had preserved them, because he is faithful. 'And 
if you had lived in the days of Jesus Christ, a faithful Israel- 
ite, you would have believed with all the Jews, and with 
Christ, in the canon of the Scriptures. And if you had 
doubted the canon, Jesus would have said to you as to the 
- Sadducees : " Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not 
the Scriptures of God?" (Mark xii. 24.) 

Our faith in the Old Testament, as we have seen, is 
founded on the testimony of him who is above Moses and 
all the prophets, and on the testimony of his inspired apos- 
tles, in addition to all that sustained the faith of the ancient 
Jews in these sacred oracles. Paul, an apostle of Jesus 
Christ, explains to us the mystery of the preservation of 
that canon. He tells that God gave it in trust to the Jews 
(^èirioTevdrjaav to, A.oyta tov ®€ov). And the whole of their 
miraculous history is but a suitable accompaniment of so 
sacred a charge, and was an indispensable means of securing 
to the world the preservation of these sacred documents. 

We have now one other great division of our subject to 
consider, — the answer to the inquiry, Have we admitted all 
the inspired books to the canon of the Old Testament? In 
other words, Are the apocryphal books a part of the Old 
Testament? 



452 THE CANON. 



CHAPTER FIFTH. 
THE APOCRYPHAL BOOKS. 



Exstory of the Apocrypha hefore the Council of Trent, 

The universal church of the second, third, and fourth cen- 
turies had never ceased to receive the Old Testament as the 
Jews had it, always distinguishing very scrupulously the 
apocryphal from the canonical books, when God raised up 
in the Latin church a great luminary in the person of Je- 
rome. This illustrious teacher, bom a. d. 331, was to be for 
eleven centuries, down to the council of Trent, their teacher 
and guide in the study of the Scriptures. He had, in fact, 
more than any one else, led them to the pure sources of the 
biblical Word, and had first translated for them the Old Tes- 
tament from the original Hebrew ; ^ giving them thus that 
famous version called the Vulgate, afterwards pronounced by 
them canonical in every part. Jerome enjoyed such credit 
in the church of Rome, that, in its Breviary, it thanks God 
" for having raised up in his church this blessed and very illus- 
trious teacher to explain the Scriptures," and to this day they 
repeat in every one of their churches throughout the world, 
every 30th of September, that they thank God for the bless- 
ed Jerome raised up to expound the Scriptures.* 

And it was also in the same spirit, that, even to the time - 
of the council of Trent, the church of Rome, yet in the six- 
teenth century, had not ceased to give Jerome's prefaces to 

1 All their previous versions had been translations of the Greek Septaa- 
gint. 

2 Breviar. Eom. Sept. xxx. p. 822, ed. Paris, 1840. 



EAELT HISTORT OF THE APOCRYPHA. 453 

every edition of the Bible it published ; and that even, a 
very short time after the council, these prefaces all declared 
that all Christians ought carefully to distinguish between the 
canonical and the apocryphal books. "We may mention, 
for instance, that of Birckman at Antwerp in 1526, and 
others. 

But what do we behold in the council of Trent ? Every 
thing is so changed, as to Jerome, in the church of Rome, 
that if this Father could declare in the fourth century that 
he rejected the Story of Susanna, and the Song of the 
Three Hebrew Children, and that he regarded the History of 
Bel and the Dragon as a fable ; ^ and if, nevertheless, as the 
Breviary says, he was, for eleven centuries, not only " one of 
the greatest teachers" (doctor maximus), but even one of the 
saints in paradise to whom prayer should be addressed, — yet 
the anathema was pronounced, on the .15th of April, 1546, in 
that council, against every one who should speak of the elev- 
en apocryphal books as he had spoken. 

And how do they get over this embarrassing fact ? See 
how. The famous bishop Catharinus says, " This Father 
was not giving his own view, so much as that of the Jews." 
Whoever reads Jerome can see the weakness of this defense.^ 
The Jesuit Gretser says, " He varies his statements about the 
number of the books, and is not consistent." He is very con- 
sistent. And thus we may quote at length their evasions. 

Of the sixteen scriptures which Jerome rejected as apoc- 
ryphal, and which we also reject, Rome admits eleven aa 
divine. 

T^ej are first these seven : Tobias, Judith, 1 and 2 Mac- 
cabees, "Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch ; then three 
Greek fragments, added to the canonical Hebrew text of 
Daniel, Song of the Three Hebrew Young Men, History of 

1 PraBfat in Danielem. 

2 Herbst, the Catholic writer (Einleit. ins A. T.), abandons the attempt 
to reconcile the views of Jerome vrith the Roman unity of faith, and limits 
bimself to representing them as the opinions of an individaal. 



454 THE CAiîOir. 

Susanna, History of Bel; then, finally, seven Greek chapters 
added to Esther. 

After the catalogue of the holy books increased by these 
eleven apocryphal books, the council adds this curse : " And 
if any one shall not receive as sacred and canonical these 
entire books with all their parts, as they are found in the an- 
cient Latin Vulgate, let him be anathema." 

"When the forty-five bishops and five cardinals, all, or 
nearly all, Italians, and pensioned by the pope,, assembled 
at Trent, on the 8th of April, 1546, dared to enact such a 
decree, which, for the first time, put the apocryphal books in 
the rank of the Scriptures of God, they not only gave the lie 
to the. only true depositaries of his divine oracles, "they 
imagined at their pleasure," says bishop Cosin, in his beauti- 
ful work on the canon,^ " a new article of faith, of which the 
other portions of Christendom, and even their own church, 
had never even heard; and they caused in the universal 
church a schism more profound than the malice of men had 
ever produced." 

They went so far as to cut off from heaven all who, with 
Jesus Christ and his apostles, with the ancient Fathers, with 
even the author of their own version of the Bible, the Vul- 
gate, with all the present Oriental church, older than theirs, 
refused to attribute to the apocryphal books equal authority 
with the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets. So that their 
canon is no longer that of the church of Israel, nor that of 
Jesus Christ, nor that of the universal primitive church, nor 
that of the Oriental church, nor that even of the ancient 
Latin church for fifteen hundred years. It is thB canon of 
the Jesuits, or the new canon of the council of Trent. 

And it was thus that God, by a terrible judgment abandon- 
ing to their own counsels men whose pretensions had become 

1 Scholastical History of the Canon. 4to. London, 1672 and 1683. See his 
articles 165 to 175, 177 to 179. Most of the following testimonies are taken 
from this work. See also History of the Council of Trent, by Fra Paolo 
Sarpi, Lib. ii. art. 37, 47, 48, 56. Lond. edit 1736, p. 220-241; or p. 143 
of edit, of 1676. 



EEASOKTS AGAINST THE DECREE OF TEEHT. 455 

SO extravagant as to call themselves the sole interpreters of 
his eternal Word, permitted that they alone, of all the Chris- 
tian sects, should by a solemn decree intrude eleven human 
books into the sacred oracles. And that nineteen hundred 
years after the epoch when every prophet of the Old Testa- 
ment church had disappeared from the midst of Israel ! 

But still farther : This act appears, if possible, yet more 
strange, when we consider the profane levity with which 
the decree was consummated. It was a surprise, a coup 
éCétat in the church of Rome ; much resembling that which 
in our days determined the new doctrine about Mary. Per- 
haps it should be said that the dogma of 1546 was decided 
in the council of Trent with even a greater contempt of the 
church and its rights than is charged against Pius IX., throw- 
ing from the Vatican, on what he calls " the universal church," 
his doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. We do not here 
speak of tile intrigues which for a long time misled the coun- 
cil, and which finally moulded and mastered it. We speak 
only of the nature of those sessions from which the decree 
emanated.^ 

Reasons against the Decree of Trent. 

Not only had the council no sufficient reasons for this de- 
cision, but the most powerful considerations existed to deter 
them from it. We can but name them, without enlarging. 

1. Whereas all the books of the Old Testament are writ- 
f^ ten in Hebrew,^ the apocryphal books are in Greek. 

1 The author here gives a fair and impressive view of the character of 
the council, which is to be found abundantly stated elsewhere. "We there- 
fore omit it here. — Tr. 

2 Or, at least, in Aramean. Jerome says he translated Tobias and Ju- 
dith from the Chaldee, and had seen 1 Mace, in Hebrew. The preface of 
Ecclesiasticus also gives this book as translated from the Hebrew. (See 
Einleitung of the Cathol. profes. Welte Freid, 1844.) Yet Hengstenbnrg 
(Beitrâge, i. 292) believes that the Greek text is the original. Jahn (Introd. 
ii. 902, 922) expresses the same opinion as to Tobias and Judith. 



456 THE CANON. 

2. In the drama of Susanna there are plays upon words 
which depend entirely for their point on their being Greek 
(verses 55, 58). 

3. These books were all written after the spirit of proph- 
ecy had ceased in Israel. 

4. Many scholars, as Moldenhauer, have given very strong 
reasons for maintaining that Tobias, and the 4th of £sdras, if 
not Wisdom, are posterior to the Christian era.^ 

5. None of their authors pretend directly to be inspired, 
except that of the book of Wisdom, which, in ascribing itself 
to Solomon, betrays its fraud by quoting from Isaiah and 
Jeremiah, and by representing its cotemporaries as already 
subdued by their enemies (ix. 7, 8 ; xv. 14 ; compare 1 Kings 
iv. 20-25). 

6. So far from pretending to be inspired, many of them 
declare they are not. See the prologue of Ecclesiasticus ; 
1 Maccabees iv. 46 ; ix. 27 ; 2 Mace. ii. 23 ; xv. 38. 

7. No portion of the apocrypha is quoted by Christ or his 
apostles. 

8. Neither Philo nor Josephus quotes them ; while, on the 
contrary, the testimony of Josephus, quoted by Eusebius and 
by us, is very decided in fixing the books that are inspired, 
and asserting the merely human character of the other Jewish 
books. 

9. The apocrypha contains many fables, contrary to his- 
torical truth, and to the Holy Scriptures. See Bel and the 
Dragon, the histories of Tobias, etc. ; . . . compare 2 Mace, 
i. 18, with Esdras iii. 2, 3, and 2 Mace. ii. 5, 8, with Jerem. 
iii. 16. 

10. The First and Second Maccabees contradict each other. 
Antiochus Epiphanes dies in Babylon (1 Mace. vi. 16) ; he is 
decapitated in Persia in the temple of Nanna (2 Mace. i. 14, 
16) ; then he dies in a strange land in the mountains'(ix. 28). 
The second book is evidently very inferior to the other. 

11. These same books frequently recommend immoral 

1 Horiie,Introd. ii. 326. 



UNANIMOtrS TESTIMONT AGAINST THE DECREE. 457 

practices. This can be seen abundantly in Des Marets*8 
preface to the French Bible. 



Unanimous Testimony of the Churches against the Decree 
of the Council. 

Bishop Cosin ^ remarks : '^ After having made a thorough 
examination of all the views of the church in every age and 
country in regard to the canon of the Old Testament, I con- 
clude that the voice of every age and of every portion of the 
people of God has been raised against the decree of the Tri- 
dentine council." 

[The author passes in review, in Palestine and Syria, 
Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Jerome, and John Dasmascenus, 
thence through Asia Minor, Egypt, Africa, Greece, Italy, 
Spain, France, Germany, Holland, and England, declaring 
that all these witnesses, of whom a large number are among 
the saints canonized by Rome, however far they have fol- 
lowed in other points the errors of their times, are unanimous 
in distinguishing the apocrypha from the oracles of God, or 
in wholly repudiating them.] 

Even Francis Ximenes, cardinal, archbishop of Toledo, 
grand inquisitor, the famous John Pic, Erasmus, and even 
Cajetau, all of the very century of the council of Trent, 
high in the estimation of the Roman church, held our views 
of the apocrypha. 

It is, then, well established that when the church of Rome, 
on the 13th of April, 1546, in its universal council of fifty 
persons, under the influence of Catharinus and his faction, 
eagerly framed a new additional canon of the Holy Scriptures, 
^uniting with it the body of traditions, as no less infallible 
than "the oracles of the living God," she committed this 
double fault in opposition to the testimony of the universal 
church in every age, and did it, by her own avowal, in order 

1 Hist. Schol. of the Canon. See also Gerhard, De Scriptnrâ Sacra, § 
75-98; and Keerl, Die apocrypha des A. T. (Leips. 1852), § 18. 
39 



458 THE CANOTT. 

to establish the dogmas which the famous bull of Pius IV. 
was going to add to the ancient confession of faith, in regard 
to the supremacy of the church of Rome, transubstantiation, 
withholding the cup, invocation of the saints, relics, images, 
and indulgences. The council says : " Let all, then, fully 
understand in what order and by what method this synod 
will proceed after having thus laid the fotjkdation of the 
confession of faith, as also wliat testimonies and what de- 
fences it is going particularly to employ in proving the doc- 
trines and reforming the practices of the church." 

How remarkable, then, is the contrast ! It would have been 
our anticipation, had we known that both the Jewish and 
the Christian churches were to apostatize or greatly decline 
from the spirit of piety, that each would have corrupted its 
own branch of the Scriptures. But just the reverse of this t^ 
has taken place ! And let us see under what circumstances. 

The Israelites sunk down into great ignorance and indif- 
ference to their religious interests during their subjection to 
foreign powers, and especially their exile and the utter 
breaking up of their social and ecclesiastical state. And yet 
this people who had so rebelled against God, who could cru- 
cify the Lord of glory, and who, for eighteen hundred years, 
could reject his New Testament, have never been willing to 
introduce a single apocryphal book into the Old Testament, 
although it may treat of their national history and flatter 
their national pride. 

But in the sixteenth century, a large and powerful section 
of the Christian church has taken the book intrusted to the 
Jewish church by the hand of God, sanctioned by the testi- 
mony of the Son of God, and the holy apostles, and dared 
to introduce into it eleven books written by uninspired men ! 

We must here closely contemplate this double fact and 
double contrast. Whilst the church of the pope has dared 
thus to treat the Old Testament, yet never has this sect, 
powerful as it is, nor any other Christian sect, been able to 
add a single apocryphal hooh to the New Testament. God has 



UNANIMOUS TESTIM©NY AGAINST THE DECREE. 459 

never permitted them to do it. " Thus far shalt thou come, 
but no further ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." 
God himself is the guardian of his holy "Word. 

Contemplate, then, disciple of Jesus Christ, these two de- 
positaries of thy sacred books, and see with what power this 
twofold testimony of their contrasts and their resemblances is 
here presented, — equally rebellious, equally indocile as to 
the trust not committed to them, but equally docile and faith- 
ful in regard to the trust committed to each respectively, 
faithful, the one for twenty-three hundred years, since the 
completion of the Old Testament, the other for fourteen hun- 
dred years, since the entire canon of the New Testament has 
been definitely received in all the churches of Christendom. 

Let the case, then, be fully understood ; neither ignorance, 
error, nor profane temerity in any one branch of the Christian 
church in regard to the Old Testanaent can in any way affect 
the inviolability of a canon which never was committed to 
them. If I had deposited my last will and testament under 
the most legal forms with a notary duly selected, could my 
heirs after me put in question the integrity or validity of the 
act, because, after long years, one of them had chosen to in- 
sert notable additions to the authentic copy in the notary's 
hands, and because he claimed that he was bound to regard 
neither the primitive text, its consistency, its depositary, nor 
the laws ? Would this action affect the other heirs ? "What 
do they care for it? This insane and wicked fantasy would 
in no degree change the paternal testament. 

In like manner the attempt made at Trent in 1546, so far 
from diminishing the marvelous fact of the inviolability of 
the Old Testament, has served only to show it more promi- 
nently. For, we have said, the very unfaithfulness of Chris- 
tians and that of the Jews, in regard to the trust not com- 
mitted to them, only sets forth the more strikingly their 
fidelity in segard to the other books, and reveals to us the 
hand of God the more clearly. 



460 THE CA^N. 



CHAPTER SIXTH. 
CONCLUSION. 

"We have, then, shown that the canon of the Old and New- 
Testaments as we now have them constitutes the Word of 
God, the revelation from heaven, the supreme rule of faith 
and practice. 

It has also appeared manifest that the very preservation 
of them can be explained, not by natural causes, but alone by 
the secret and continual intervention of the divine power. 

This preservation we have shown to be truly a miracle ; 
divine power working against the natural tendencies of the 
human heart ; a fact as miraculous as the preservation of the 
Jewish race itself for so many centuries, having no country, 
no national or even ecclesiastical bonds of union. "We regard, 
then, the inviolability of the canon, like inspiration, to be a 
doctrine of our faith. ' , 

"What striking facts, what powerful proofs have now passed 
before our eyes, all strongly demonstrating this silent and 
sovereign employment of the churches by God for the sure 
maintaining of his two Testaments ! 

And surely, if the gates of hell cannot prevail against the 
church, they cannot prevail against that "Word on which the 
church is founded. What, in fact, should we be, and what 
would the church be, if God had not guaranteed his sacred 
volume against all alteration. 

Moreover, all the more modern history of the canon agrees 
exactly with the first ways of God in regard to his written 
"Word ; it is a harmonious and uninterrupted continuation of 
the miracle of thirty-three centuries in the preservation of 



CONCLUSION. 461 

the Old Testament. Has he who intrusted the ancient oracles 
to one people for a hundred generations, for eighteen centu- 
ries committed the new oracles, much more important, and 
given for the whole human race, to the care of no one ? By 
no means. And we may say that the miracle of the church- 
es, guardians of the new canon, is so completely a continua- 
tion of the miracle of the Jewish guardianship of the Old 
Testament, that the prodigy even presents a growing pro- 
gression of harmony and beauty. In seeing it accomplished 
by the constant fidelity of the Jews, a fidelity which began 
before the Trojan war, and which has not ceased to this day, 
we might well conclude that, if it pleased God to give long 
afterward another series of sacred oracles to the Gentiles, 
he would choose from the midst of them other depositaries 
evidently charged with preserving this treasure even to 
the great day of Jesus Christ. And how much should our 
faith be strengthened by the fact that this second prodigy is 
accomplished with even more magnificence than the first ! 

Press the Bible, then, to your hearts. Christians of every 
rank and every age, your whole Bible. You have it from 
God. 

Receive all it contains with the same affection, the same 
submission; the twenty-seven books which the Christian 
church gives you, as the twenty-two which you get from the 
Jews.^ You hold the former from the Christian churches, 
you hold the latter from the Jews ; but you get them from 
God, by their inspiration, and by their preservation. Say 
this often to yourself; there is a blessing in it. They can not 
be read with profit unless they are read with reverence ; they 
can not' be read with reverence, if they are not read with a 
full conviction of their authenticity and their inspiration. It 
is by this Word, thus heard as descended from above, that 
you will obtain from God repentance, peace, adoption, joy, 
holiness, life eternal. 

But to that end, Christian brethren, you must know your 

1 Divided, we repeat, by us into thirfy-nine books. 
89 * 



462 THE CANON. 

piivilege ; you must not only make a bold profession of it, 
but also avail yourselves of it with God and before all men ; 
you must, supported on the doctrine of the canon, employ 
your sacred books with the same confidence that Christ and 
his apostles exercised toward the Old Testament; you must 
say with Christ, " It is written." 

The same canon is clearly demonstrated to you ; the seals 
of the living God are attached to it. Never forget it. 

It is, unquestionably, within the heart that Grod attests 
the Scriptures for his elect with the incomparable seals of 
his Spirit ; but you have seen, likewise, very clearly that God 
even seals them externally with his own seal, by means of 
the marvelous testimony of all the generations of the Jew- 
ish people and of all the generations of Christians in the 
earth. 

Remember, therefore. Christian brethren, the miracle of the 
Scriptures, and of their divine preservation ; hold your eyes 
open to these signs of God, and ever keep yourselves from 
that guilty want of understanding and that fatal inattention 
with which Jesus reproached his disciples when they had 
forgotten the miracle of tfie bread : " Do ye not yet under- 
stand, neither remember ? Have ye the heart yet hardened ? 
Having eyes, see ye not ? " 

And why did they forget this miracle of the loaves ? Alas ! 
for the same reason that makes us too often forget the mira- 
cle of the Scriptures, and which should, on the contrary, 
render it more striking. Because the sign, really so full of 
grandeur, was, like that of the Scriptures now for thirty-four 
centuries, noiseless, without display, and calm, by natural 
means, the people being seated on the grass, and the apos- 
tles carrying the baskets from group to group. But surely 
it was" not accidental that those five barley-loaves and those 
two fishes nourished five thousand men ! And surely, too, 
it is not an accident that the sacred volume has been kept for 
thirtyrfour centuries, and that all the depositaries have uni- 
versally and constantly been rendering the same testimony 



CONCLUSION. 463 

in order to enlighten, with the same light, all the elect of 
God ! Certainly the same cause accounts for both ! 

Christians, forget not the^ miracle of the bread ! Never 
forget that of the Scriptures ! 

Ministers of our churches, pastors of our learned congre- 
gations, and you humble evangelists, you, too, missionaries in 
Africa and Asia, go boldly to the most learned as to the most 
humble of your hearers ; go with this book of God, fearing 
not that they will ask you for the history of its canon, and 
without being troubled that the Old Testament has none. 
You know as much of it as Daniel, the prophet, as 
much as Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles. You know even 
more, since you possess the experience of many centuries, 
during which God has not ceased to keep his oracles entirely 
pure by the hands of the Jews. Go, then, boldly, as the 
prophet went to the synagogues of Babylon, or the apostle 
to those of Lycaonia ; for you have the same evidence to show 
to establish the inviolableness of the sacred volume ; and 
all that they could say, you can still say. " Behold the oracles 
of God committed to his people, — oracles so preserved as 
that one fragment of a letter has never perished ; the 
Jews never swerved from their fidelity ; they never betrayed 
this sacred trust ; not a book has ever perished from the 
sacred volume ; their testimony never varies, notwithstand- 
ing their misfortunes and their crimes ; never have they 
been reproached for altering the Scriptures." 

'" Now to him that is of power to establish you according 
to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since 
the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the 
Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment 
of the evei-lasting God, made known to all nations for the 
obedience of faith : to God only wise, be glory through 
Jesus Christ for ever. Amen." 

THE END. 



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