HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
HISTORY
OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
BY
PHILIP .SOHAFF
Christianua turn. Christiani nihU a me alienum puto
VOLUME I
APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY
AD. 1-100
WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS 1955 MICHIGAN
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNKR'S SONS
Reproduced by special arrangement
with the original publisher
PHOTOLJTHOPRINTED BY GUSHING - MALLOY. INC.
ANN ARBOR. MICHIGAN. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1955
PREFACE TO THE THIRD REVISION
THE continued demand for my Church History lays upon
me the grateful duty of keeping it abreast of the times. 1
have, therefore, submitted this and the other volumes (especi-
ally the second) to another revision and brought the literature
down to the latest date, as the reader will see by glancing at
pages 2, 35, 45, 51-53, 193, 411, 484, 569, 570, etc. The
changes have been effected by omissions and condensations,
without enlarging the size. The second volume is now passing
through the fifth edition, and the other volumes will follow
rapidly.
This is my last revision. If any further improvements
should be necessary during my life-time, I shall add them in a
separate appendix.
I feel under great obligation to the reading public which
enables me to perfect my work. The interest in Church His-
tory is steadily increasing in our theological schools and among
the rising generation of scholars, and promises good results for
the advancement of our common Christianity.
THE AUTHOR
NEW YORK, January, 1890.
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION
As I appear before the public with a new edition of my
Church History, I feel more than ever the difficulty and re-
sponsibility of a task which is well worthy to occupy the whole
time and strength of a long life, and which carries in it its own
rich reward. The true historian of Christianity is yet to come.
But short as I have fallen of my own ideal, I have done my
best, and shall rejoice if my efforts stimulate others to better
and more enduring work.
History should be written from the original sources of friend
and foe, in the spirit of truth and love, " sine ira et studio,"
* with malice towards none, with charity for all," in clear, fresh,
vigorous style, under the guidance of the twin parables of the
mustard-seed and leaven, as a book of life for instruction, cor-
rection, encouragement, as the best exposition and vindication
of Christianity. The great and good Neander, " the father of
church history " — first an Israelite without guile hoping for the
Messiah, then a Platonist longing for the realization of his
ideal of righteousness, last a Christian in head and heart —
made such a history his life-work, but before reaching the
Reformation he was interrupted by sickness, and said to his
faithful sister: "Hannchen, I am weary; let us go home;
good night 1 " And thus he fell gently asleep, like a child, to
awake in the land where all problems of history are solved.
When, after a long interruption caused by a change of pro-
fessional duties and literary labors, I returned to the favorite
studies of my youth, I felt the necessity, before continuing the
History to more recent times, of subjecting the first volume to a
thorough revision, in order to bring it up to the present state of
investigation. We live in a stirring and restless age of dis-
covery, criticism, and reconstruction. During the thirty years
which have elapsed since the publication of my separate u His-
tory of the Apostolic Church," there has been an incessant
activity in this field, not only in Germany, the great work-
Vl PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.
shop of critical research, but in all other Protestant countries.
Almost every inch of ground has been disputed and defended
with a degree of learning, acumen, and skill such as were never
spent before on the solution of historical problems.
In this process of reconstruction the first volume has been
more than doubled in size and grown into two volumes. The
first embraces Apostolic, the second post-Apostolic or ante-
Nicene Christianity. This first volume is larger than my sepa-
rate "History of the Apostolic Church," but differs irom it
in that it is chiefly devoted to the theology and literature, the
other to the mission work and spiritual life of that period. I
have studiously avoided repetition and seldom looked into the
older book. On two points I have changed my opinion — the
second Roman captivity of Paul (which I am disposed to admit
in the interest or the Pastoral Epistles), and the date of the
Apocalypse (which I now assign, with the majority of modern
critics, to the year 68 or 69 instead of 95, as before).1
1 express iny deep obligation to my friend, Dr. Ezra Abbot,
a scholar of rare learning and microscopic accuracy, for his kind
and valuable assistance in reading the proof and suggesting
many improvements.
The second volume, likewise thoroughly revised and partly
rewritten, is in the hands of the printer; the third requires
very few changes. Two new volumes, one on the History of
Mediaeval Christianity, and one on the Reformation (to the
Westphalian Treaty and the Westminster Assembly, 1648), are
in an advanced stage of preparation.
May the work in this remodelled shape find as kind and in-
dulgent readers as when it first appeared. My highest ambition
in this sceptical a^e is to strengthen the faith in the immovable
historical foundations of Christianity and its victory over the
world.
PHILIP SCHAFF.
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, New York,
October, 1882.
1 Mj " History of the Apostolic Church " (which bears a relation to my " Hin-
tory of the Christian Church,1' similar to that which Neander's •' History of the
Planting- and Tiammg of the Christian Church by the Apostles'1 bears to
his "General History of the Christian Religion and Church") appeared in
German at Mercersburg, Pa., 1851, then in a revised edition. Leipzig, 1854,
in an English translation by the late Dr. Yeomans, New York, 1853, at Edin-
burgh, 1854 (in 2 yols \ and several times since without change. Should
there be a demand for a new edition, I intend to make a number of improve-
ments, which are ready in manuscript, especially in the General Introduction,
which covers 134 pages. The first volume of my Church History (from A.D. 1
to 811) was first published in New York, 1858 (and in German at Leipzig,
1867) ; but when I began the revision, I withdrew it from Bale. The Apoetolio
Age there occupies only 140, the whole volume 535 pages.
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
ENCOURAGED by the favorable reception of my "History of the Apostolic
Church," I now offer to the public a History of the Primitive Church from
the birth of Christ to the reign of Constantino, as an independent and
complete work in itself, and at the same time as the first volume of a
general history of Christianity, which I hope, with the help of God, to
bring down to the present age.
The church of the first three centuries, or the ante-Nicene age, pos-
sesses a peculiar interest for Christians of all denominations, and has
often been separately treated, by Eusebius, Mosheim, Milman, Kaye,
Baur, Hagenbach, and other distinguished historians. It is the daughter
of Apostolic Christianity, which itself constitutes the first and by far the
most important chapter in its history, and the common mother of Catho-
licism and Protestantism, though materially differing from both. It pre-
sents a state of primitive simplicity and purity unsullied by contact with
the secular power, but with this also, the fundamental forms of heresy
and corruption, which reappear from time to time under new names and
aspects, but must serve, in the overruling providence of God, to promote
the cause of truth and righteousness. It is the heroic age of the church,
and unfolds before us the sublime spectacle of our holy religion in intel-
lectual and moral conflict with the combined superstition, policy, and
wisdom of ancient Judaism and Paganism ; yet growing in persecution,
conquering in death, and amidst the severest trials giving birth to princi-
ples and institutions which, in more matured form, still control the
greater part of Christendom.
Without the least disposition to detract from the merits of my numer-
ous predecessors, to several of whom I feel deeply indebted, I have rea-
son to hope that this new-attempt at a historical reproduction of ancient
Christianity will meet a want in our theological literature and commend
itself, both by its spirit and method, and by presenting with the author's
own labors the results of the latest German and English research, to the
Viii FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
respectful attention of the American student. Having no sectarian ends
to serve, I have confined myself to the dnty of a witness—to tell the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ; always remembering,
however, that history has a soul as well as a body, and that the ruling
ideas and general principles must be represented no less than the out-
ward facts and dates. A church history without the life of Christ glow-
ing through its pages could give us at best only the picture of a temple
stately and imposing from without, but vacant and dreary within, a
mummy in praying posture perhaps and covered with trophies, but
withered and unclean : such a history is not worth the trouble of writing
or reading. Let the dead bury their dead ; we prefer to live among the
living, and to record the immortal thoughts and deeds of Christ in and
through his people, rather than dwell upon the outer hulls, the trifling
accidents and temporary scaffolding of history, or give too much promi
nenoe to Satan and his infernal tribe, whose works Christ came to destroy.
The account of the apostolic period, which forms the divine-human
basis of the whole structure of history, or the ever-living fountain of the
unbroken stream of the church, is here necessarily short and not in-
tended to supersede my larger work, although it presents more than a
mere summary of it, and views the subject in part under new aspects.
For the history of the second period, which constitutes the body of this
volume, large use has been made of the new sources of information
recently brought to light, such as the Syriac and Armenian Ignatius, and
especially the Fhilosophoumena of Hippoly tus. The bold and searching
criticism of modern German historians as applied to the apostolic and
post-apostolic literature, though often arbitrary and untenable in its re-
sults, has nevertheless done good service by removing old prejudices,
placing many things in a new light, and conducing to a comprehensive
and organic view of the living process and gradual growth of ancient
Christianity in its distinctive character, both in its unity with, and dif-
ference from, the preceding age of the apostles and the succeeding sys-
tems of Catholicism and Protestantism.
And now I commit this work to the great Head of the church with
the prayer that, under his blessing, it may aid in promoting a correct
knowledge of his heavenly kingdom on earth, and in setting forth its
history as a book of life, a storehouse of wisdom and piety, and the
surest test of his own promise to his people: "Lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world."
P. &
SnoKAXY, Mercarrfrarg, Fennajlvftnla,
Nowrtxr 8, 1868.
CONTENTS
GENERAL INTBODUCTION
PAGE
§ 1. Nature of Church History, 1
§ 2. Branches of Church History, 6
g 3. Sources of Church History, 11
§ 4. Periods of Church History, 13
§ & Uses of Church History, 20
§ 6. Duty of the Historian, 22
§ 7. Literature of Church History, 27
FIRST PERIOD
APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY
AJD. 1-100.
CHAPTER I
PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY
% 8. Cental Podtiom of (Hiiistm^ . . 56
8 9. Judaism, 59
8 10. The Law and the Prophecy, 66
8 11. Heathenism, • • . • 71
g 12. Grecian Literature and the Roman Empire, ... 76
818. Judaism and Heathenism in Contact, 85
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER IL
JESUS CURI8T.
§ 14. Sources and Literature, • • . 90
$ 15. The Founder of Christianity, 100
$ 16. Chronology of the Life of Christ, Ill
$ 17. The Land and the People, 136
§ 18. Apocryphal Traditions, 162
§ 19. The Resurrection of Christ, ....... 172
CHAPTER III
THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
§ 30. Sources and Literature of the Apostolic Age, . . . .187
§ 21. General Character of the Apostolic Age Peter, Paul, John, . 194
§ 22. The Critical Reconstruction of the History of the Apostolic Age, 205
§ 23. Chronology of the Apostolic Age 217
CHAPTER IV
ST. PETER AND THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS
(Map of Palestine.)
§ 24. The Miracle of Pentecost and the Birthday of the Christian
Church. A D. 30, 224
§ 25. The Church of Jerusalem and the Labors of Peter, ... 245
§ 26. The Peter of History and the Peter of Fiction, .... 253
§ 27. James, the Brother of the Lord, 264
§ 28. Preparation for the Mission to the Gentiles, .... 278
CHAPTER V
8T. PAUL AND THE CONVERSION OP THE GENTILES
(Map of PauTs Journeys*)
§ 29. Sources and Literature 281
§ 30. Paul Before his Conversion, 286
§ 31. The Conversion of Paul, 296
§ 32. The Work of Paul, 316
§ 33. Paul's Missionary Labors, 328
§ 34 The Synod of Jerusalem, and the Compromise between Jewish
and Gentile Christianity, 834
§ 35. The Conservative Reaction, and the Liberal Victory— Peter and
Paul at Antioch, 858
§86. Chriitiaid ty in Rome, 860
CONTENTS ^ XI
CHAPTER VI
TUB GREAT TRIBULATION.
§ 37. The Roman Conflagration and the Neronian Persecution, • 376
§ 38. The Jewish War and the Destruction of Jerusalem, ... 390
§ 39. Effects of the Destruction of Jerusalem on the Christian Church, 403
CHAPTER VII
ST. JOHN AND THE LAST STADIUM OP THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD— THE CON-
SOLIDATION OF JEWISH AND GENTILE CHRISTIANITY.
(Map of Asia Minor.)
§ 40. The Johannean Literature, 406
§ 41. Life and Character of John, 412
§ 42. Apostolic Labors of John, 423
§ 43. Traditions Respecting John, 429
CHAPTER VIII
CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH,
§ 44. The Spiritual Power of Christianity, 432
§ 4.1. The Spiritual Gifts 436
§ 46. Christianity in Individuals, 441
§ 47. Christianity and the Family, 443
§ 48. Christianity and Slavery 444
£ 40. Christianity and Society 448
§ 50. Spiritual Condition of the Congregations— The Seven Churches
in Asia, 450
CHAPTER IX
WORSHIP IN THE APOSTOLIC AGB
§ fill. The Synagogue, • • 455
£ 52. Christian Worship, 460
§ 53. The Several Parts of Worship, 461
$ 54. Baptism, 465
% 65. The Lord's Supper, 471
g 56. Sacred Places, 475
% 57. Sacred Times— The Lord's Day, 476
xil CONTENTS
CHAPTER X
ORGANIZATION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHUBCH
g 58. Literature, 481
g 69. The Christian Ministry, and ite Relation to the Christian Com-
nmnity, . 484
§ 60. Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, 488
§ 61. Presbyters or Bishops— The Angels of the Seren Churches-
James of Jerusalem, ••• 491
g 63. Deacons and Deaconesses, . i 499
§ 63. Church Discipline, 501
§ 64. The Council at Jerusalem, 608
§ 66. The Church and the Kingdom of Christ, 606
CHAPTER XL
THEOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHUKCH
§ 66. Literature, 610
g 67. Unity of Apostolic Teaching*, ....... 611
g 68. Different Typed of Apostolic Teaching, 516
g 69. The Jewish Christian Theology — I. James and the Gospel of
Law 517
g 70. IL Peter and the Gospel of Hope, 522
g 71. The Gentile Christian Theology— Paul and the Gospel of
Faith 625
g 72. John and the Gospel of Love, 649
g 73. Heretical Perversions of the Apostolic Teaching, . • . 564
CHAPTER XII
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
g 74. Literature, 669
875. Rise of the Apostolic Literature, 570
g 76. Character of the New Testament, 678
g 77. Literature on the Gospels, 675
g 78. The Four Gospels, 579
g 79. The Synoptists, 590
g 80. Matthew, 612
g 81. Mark, 627
g 83. Luke, 648
g 88. John, 675
9 84. Critical Review of the Johannean Problem, .... 715
g85. The Acts of the Apostles, 724
CONTENTS xiii
§ 86. The Epistles, 739
g 87. The Catholic Epistles (James, Peter, John, JndeX ... 741
g 88. The Epistles of Paul, 749
g 89. The Epistles to the Thessatonians, 755
g 90. The Epistles to the Corinthians, 757
g 91. The Epistle to the Galatians, 762
g 92. The Epistle to the Romans, 764
g 93. The Epistles of the Captivity, 767
g 94 The Epistle to the Colossians, 769
g 95. The Epistle to the Ephesians, 776
g 96. Colossians and Ephesians Compared and Vindicated, . . . 782
g 97. The Epistle to the Philippians, 788
g 98. The Epistle to Philemon, 793
g 99. The Pastoral Epistles, 798
g 100. The Epistle to the Hebrews, 808
g 101. The Apocalypse, 825
§ 102. Concluding Reflections— Faith and Criticism, . ... 853
ALPHABETICAL INDEX, 865
LIST OF MAPS
THE ROMAN EMFEBB, Frontispiece.
PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF OHBHTT, 223
THE MISSIONABT JOUHNEXB OF ST. PAUL, 280
ROME, 861
ANCIENT JERUSALEM, •••••••••895
ASIA MINOR, ... 405
ADDENDA
(Fifth Edition.)
Since the third revision of this volume in 1889, the following works
deserving notice have appeared till September, 1893. (P. S.)
Page 2 . After ' ' Nirschl " add :
E. BEBNHEDI : Lekrbuch der historischen Methode. Mit Nachweis der
wichtigsten Quellen und Hdfsmittel zum Stud turn der Geschichte.
Leipzig, 1889.
EDWARD BBATKE : Wegweiser zur Quetten- und Literaturkunde der
Kirchengeschichte. Gotha, 1890 (282 pp.).
Page 35, line 9 :
H BBUOK (Mainz, 5th ed., 1890).
Page 45 :
Of the Church History of KUBTZ (who died at Marbnrg, 1890), an llth
revised edition appeared in 1891.
WILHELM MoiiiiEB (d. at Kiel, 1891) : Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte.
Freiburg, 1891. 2 vols., down to the Reformation Vol. Ill to
be added by Eawerau. Vol. I. translated by Rutherford. Lon-
don, 1892.
KABL MULLEB (Professor in Breslau) : KircJiengeschichte. Freiburg,
1892. A second volume will complete the work. An excellent
manual from the school of Ritschl-Harnack.
HABNACK'S large Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte was completed in 1890
in 3 vols. Of his Grundriss, a 2d ed. appeared in 1893 (386 pp.) ;
translated by Edwin E Mitchell, of Hartford, Conn. : Outlines of
the History of Dogma. New York, 1893.
FRIED&ICH LOOFB (Professor of Church History in Halle, of the Ritschl-
Harnack school) : Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte.
Halle, 1889 ; 3d ed., 1893.
Page 51. After "Schaff" add:
5th revision, 1889-93, 7 vols. (including vol. v., which is in press).
Page 51. After " Fisher " add :
JOHN FLBTOHBB HUBST (Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church) :
Short History of the Christian Church. New York, 1893.
ADDENDA XV
Page 61. After "Kittel" add:
FBANZ DELITZSOH (d. 1890) : Messianische Weissagungen in geschicht-
licher Folge. Leipzig, 1890. His last work. Translated by Sam.
Ives Ourtiss (of Chicago), Edinb. and New York, 1892.
Page 97 :
SAMUEL J. ANDREWS : Life of our Lord. " A new and wholly revised
edition." New York, 1891 (651 pp.). With maps and illustrations.
Maintains the quadri-paschal theory. Modest, reverent, accurate,
devoted chiefly to the chronological and topographical relations.
Page 183 add :
On the Apocryphal Traditions of Christ, comp. throughout
ALFRED KESOH : Agrapha. Aussercanonische Evangelienfragmente ge-
sammelt und untersucJU. With an appendix of HABNAOK on the
Gospel Fragment of Tajjum. Leipzig, 1889 (520 pp.). By far the
most complete and critical work on the extra-canonical sayings of
our Lord, of which he collects and examines 63 (see p. 80), in-
cluding many doubtful ones, eg., the much-discussed passage of
the Didache (I. 6) on the sweating of aloes.
Page 247 :
Abb6 CONSTANT FOUARD : Saint Peter and the First Years of Christianity.
Translated from the second French edition with the author's sanc-
tion, by George F. X. Griffith. With an Introduction by Cardinal
Gibbons. New York and London, 1892 (pp. xxvi, 422). The most
learned work in favor of the traditional Roman theory of a twenty-
five years' pontificate of Peter in Home from 42 to 67.
The apocryphal literature of Peter has received an important addition
by the discovery of fragments of the Greek Gospel and Apocalypse
of Peter in a tomb at Akkmim in Egypt. See Hamack's ed. of the
Greek text with a German translation and commentary, Berlin,
1892 (revised, 1893) ; Zahn's edition and discussion, Leipzig, 1893;
and O. von Gebhardt's facsimile ed., Leipzig, 1893; also the
English translation by J. Bendel Harris, London, 1893.
Page 284. Add to lit. on the life of Paul :
W. H. RAMSEY (Professor of Humanity in the University of Aberdeen) :
The Church in the Roman Empire before A. D. 170. With Maps and
Illustrations. London and New York, 1893 (494 pp.). An impor-
tant work, for which the author received a gold medal from Pope
Leo XIII. The first part (pp. 3-168) treats of the missionary
journeys of Paul in Asia Minor, on the ground of careful topo-
graphical exploration and with a full knowledge of Roman history
at that time. He comes to the conclusion that nearly all the books
of the New Testament can no more be forgeries of the second cen-
tury than the works of Horace and Virgil can be forgeries of the
ADDENDA.
time of Nero. He assumes a ' ' travel-document," which was written
down tinder the immediate influence of Paul, and underlies the ac-
count in The Acts of the Apostles (chs. 18-21), which he calls " an
authority of the highest character for an historian of Asia Minor "
(p. 168) . He affirms the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles, which
suit the close of the Neronian period (246 sqq.), and combats Holtz-
mann. He puts II Peter to the age of " The Shepherd of Hennas "
before 130 (p. 432). As to the First Epistle of Peter, he assumes
that it was written about 80, soon after Vespasian's resumption of the
Neronian policy (279 sqq.). If this date is correct, it would follow
either that Peter cannot have been the author, or that he must have
long outlived the Neronian persecution. The tradition that he died
a martyr in Borne is early and universal, but the exact date of his
death is uncertain.
Page 286 insert:
Of Weizsficker's Das Apostolische Zeitalter, which is chiefly devoted to
Paul, a second edition has appeared in 1892, slightly revised and
provided with an alphabetical index (770 pp.). It is the best criti-
cal history of the Apostolic age from the school of Dr. Baur, whom
Dr. Weizsficker succeeded as professor of Church history in Tu-
bingen, but gives no references to literature and other opinions.
CHAKLBS CABBOH. EVERETT : The Gospel of Paul. New York, 1893.
Page 360:
RODOLFO LANCIANI: Pagan and Christian Rome. New York, 1893
(pp. x, 374). A very important work which shows from recent ex-
plorations that Christianity entered more deeply into Roman So-
ciety in the first century than is usually supposed.
Page 401 add :
HKRBT WILLIAM WATKINS : Modem Criticism in its relation to the Fourtii
Gospel ; being the Bampton Lectures for 1890. London, 1890. Only
the external evidence, but with a history of opinions since Breit-
schneider's Probabttia.
PATON J. GLOAO : Introduction to the Johannine Writings. London, 1891
(pp. 440). Discusses the critical questions connected with the
Gospel, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse of John from a liberal
conservative standpoint.
E. ScHttBEB: On the Genuineness of the Fourth QoqpeL In the "Con-
temporary Review " for September, 1891.
Page 484:
E. LOBNIKQ : Die Gemeindeverfassung ties Urchristenthums. Halle, 1889
—OH. DB SMEDT : V organisation des egUses chrStimnes jusqu'au
milieu du & tiide. 1889.
ADDENDA.
Page 569. Add to literature :
GBBGOBY: Prolegomena to Tischendorf, Ft. IL, 1890. (Ft. HE. will
complete this work.)
SOHAFF : Companion to the Greek Testament, 4th ed. revised, 1892.
SAUION : Introduction to the New Testament, 5th ed., 1890.
HOLTZMANN i Introduction to the New Testament, 3d ed., 1892.
F. GODKT : Introduction au Nouveau Testament. Nenchatel, 1898. The
first volume contains the Introduction to the Pauline Epistles;
the second and third will contain the Introduction to the Gospels,
the Catholic Epp. and the Revelation. To be translated.
Fage 576 :
Bobinson's Harmony, revised edition, by M, B. BIDBLK (Professor in
Allegheny Theological Seminary), New York, 1885.
Fage 724:
FBOEDBIOH SPTTTA : Die Apostelgeschichte, ihre QueUen und ihr historischer
Wart. Halle, 1891 (pp. 880). It is briefly criticised by Ramsey.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
LITEEATUKE
C. SAGITTARIUS : Introductw in histonam ecclesiasticam. Jen. 1694.
F. WALCH : Grundsatze der zur K. Gesch. nothigen Vorbereitungslehren ««
Bucherkenntnisse 3d ed. Giessen, 1793.
FLUGQE : EinleUung in das Stadium u. die Liter, der K. G. Gott. 1801.
JOHN G. DOWLING : An Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical
History, attempted in an account of the progress, and a short notice of
the sources of the history of the Church. London, 1838.
MOHLEB (B. C.) : EinleUung in die K. G. 1839 («• Verm. Schriften," ed.
Dollinger, n. 261 sqq ).
KUEFOTH : Einleitung in die Dogmengeschichte. Parchim & Ludwigslust,
1839.
PHHJP SCHAFF : What is Church History? A Vindication of tJie Idea of
Historical Development. Philad. 1846.
H. B. SMITH : Nature and Worth of the Science of Church History. An-
dover, 1851.
E. P. HUMPHREY : Inaugural Address, delivered at the Danville Theol
Seminary. Cincinnati, 1854.
B. TUBNBULL : Christ in History ; or, the Central Power among Men.
Boat 1854, 2d ed. 1860.
W. G. T. SHEDD : Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Andover, Mass.,
1856.
B. D. HTTOHOOOK : The True Idea and Uses of Church History. N. York,
1856.
G. BUNSEN : Gott in der Qeschichte oder der FortschriU des Olaubens an
cine sittliche Weltordnung. Bd. L Leipz. 1857. (Erstes Bnob.
Allg. Einleit. p. 1-134.) EngL TranaL : God in History. By 8.
Winkworth. Lend. 1868. 3 vols.
A. P. STANUBY : Three Introductory Lectures on the Study of Ecdes. His-
tory. Lond. 1857. (Also incorporated in bin History of the Eastern
Church, 1861.)
2 § 1. NATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
GOUXWIN SMITH : Lectures on the Study of History, delivered in Chfordf
1859-'61. Ozf. and Lond. (repnblished in N. York) 1866.
J. GUST. DBOYSBN : Grundris* der Histonk. Leipz. 1868 ; new ed. 1882.
G. DB SMKDT (B. O.) : Introductto generalis ad historian eodesiasticam crt*
tice tractandam. Gandavi (Ghent), 1876 (533 pp.).
E. A. FBKBMAN : The Methods of Historical Study. Lond. 1886.
O. LOBENZ : Qeschichtswissenschaft. Berlin, 1886.
Jos. NiBSOHii (B. O.) : PropHdeutik der Kirchengeschichte. Mainz, 1888
(352 pp.).
On the philosophy of history in general, see the works of TTTgiyr»im (Ideen
zwr Philosophic der Oesch. der Menschheit), EBED. SOH&EGBL, HEGEL
(1840, transL by Sibree, 1870), HEBMAXN (1870), ROOHOLL (1878),
FLINT (The Philosophy of History in Europe. Edinb., 1874, etc.),
LOTZB (Mikrokosmus, Bk viith ; 4th ed 1884 ; Eng. transl. by Eliza-
beth Hamilton and E. E C. Jones, 1885, 3d ed 1888). A philosophy of
church history is a desideratum. Herder and Lotze come nearest to it
A fuller introduction, see in SOHAFF : History of the Apostolic Church;
with a General Introduction to Ch. H. (N. York, 1853), pp. 1-134.
§ 1. Nature of Church History.
HISTORY has two Bides, a divine and a human. On the part
of God, it is his revelation in the order of time (as the creation
is his revelation in the order of space), and the successive un-
folding of a plan of infinite wisdom, justice, and mercy, looking
to his glory and the eternal happiness of mankind. On the
part of man, history is the biography of the human race, and
the gradual development, both normal and abnormal, of all its
physical, intellectual, and moral forces to the final consumma-
tion at the general judgment, with its eternal rewards and
punishments. The idea of universal history presupposes the
Christian idea of the unity of God, and the unity and com-
mon destiny of men, and was unknown to ancient Greece and
Borne. A view of history which overlooks or undervalues the
divine factor starts from deism and consistently runs into athe-
ism ; while the opposite view, which overlooks the free agency of
man and his moral responsibility and guilt, is essentially f atal*
istic and pantheistic.
From the human agency we may distinguish the Satanic,
which enters as a third power into the history of the race. Ifc
§ 1. NATURE OF CHUBCH IlISTOBY. 3
the temptation of Adam in Paradise, the temptation of Christ
in the wilderness, and at every great epoch, Satan appears as
the antagonist of God, endeavoring to defeat the plan of re-
demption and the progress of Christ's kingdom, and using
weak and wicked men for his schemes, but is always defeated
in the end by the superior wisdom of God.
The central current and ultimate aim of universal history is
the KINGDOM OF GOD established by JKSUS CHRIST. This is the
grandest and most comprehensive institution in the world, as
vast as humanity and as enduring as eternity. All other insti-
tutions are made subservient to it, and in its interest the whole
world is governed. It is no after-thought of God, no subse-
quent emendation of the plan of creation, but it is the eternal
forethought, the controlling idea, the beginning, the middle,
and the end of all his ways and works. The first Adam is a
type of the second Adam ; creation looks to redemption as the
solution of its problems. Secular history, far from controlling
sacred history, is controlled by it, must directly or indirectly
subserve its ends, and can only be fully understood in the cen-
tral light of Christian truth and the plan of salvation. The
Father, who directs the history of the world, " draws to the
Son," who rules the history of the church, and the Son leads
back to the Father, that "God may be all in all." "All
things," says St. Paul, " were created through Christ and unto
Christ: and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold
together. And He is the head of the body, the Church : who
is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He may have the pre-eminence." Col. 1 : 16-18. " The Gos-
pel," says John von Mliller, summing up the final result of his
life-long studies in history, " is the fulfilment of all hopes, the
perfection of all philosophy, the interpreter of all revolutions,
the key of all seeming contradictions of the physical and moral
worlds ; it is life — it is immortality.'*
The history of the church is the rise and progress of the
kingdom of heaven upon earth, for the glory of God and the
salvation of the world. It begins with the creation of Adam,
4 § 1. NATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
and with that promise of the serpent-bruiser, which relieved
the loss of the paradise of innocence by the hope of future
redemption from the curse of sin. It comes down through the
preparatory revelations under the patriarchs, Moses, and the
prophets, to the immediate forerunner of the Saviour, who
pointed his followers to the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. But this part of its course was only
introduction. Its proper starting-point is the incarnation of
the Eternal Word, who dwelt among us and revealed his glory,
the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth ; and next to this, the miracle of the first Pentecost,
when the Church took her place as a Christian institution, filled
with the Spirit of the glorified Redeemer and entrusted with
the conversion of all nations. Jesus Christ, the God-Man and
Saviour of the world, is the author of the new creation, the soul
and the head of the church, which is his body and his bride.
In his person and work lies all the fulness of the Godhead and
of renewed humanity, the whole plan of redemption, and the
key of all history from the creation of man in the image of
God to the resurrection of the body unto everlasting life.
This is the objective conception of church history.
In the subjective sense of the word, considered as theological
science and art, church history is the faithful and life-like
description of the origin and progress of this heavenly king-
dom. It aims to reproduce in thought and to embody in lan-
guage its outward and inward development down to the present
time. It is a continuous commentary on the Lord's twin para-
bles of the mustard-seed and of the leaven. It shows at once
how Christianity spreads over the world, and how it penetrates,
transforms, and sanctifies the individual and all the depart-
ments and institutions of social life. It thus embraces not only
the external fortunes of Christendom, but more especially her
inward experience, her religious life, her mental and moral
activity, her conflicts with the ungodly world, her sorrows and
sufferings, her joys and her triumphs over sin and error. It
records the deeds of those heroes of faith " who subdued king-
§ 1. NATURE OF OHUBCH HISTORY. 5
doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge
of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens."
From Jesus Christ, since his manifestation in the flesh, an
unbroken stream of divine light and life has been and is still
flowing, and will continue to flow, in ever-growing volume,
through the waste of our fallen race ; and all that is truly great
and good and holy in the annals of church history is due, ulti-
mately, to the impulse of his spirit. He is the fly-wheel in the
world's progress. But he works upon the world through sinful
and fallible men, who, while as self-conscious and free agents
they are accountable for all their actions, must still, willing or
unwilling, serve the great purpose of God. As Christ, in the
days of his flesh, was hated, mocked, and crucified, his church
likewise is assailed and persecuted by the powers of darkness
The history of Christianity includes therefore a history of Anti-
christ. With an unending succession of works of saving power
and manifestations of divine truth and holiness, it uncovers also
a fearful mass of corruption and error. The church militant
must, from its very nature, be at perpetual warfare with the
world, the flesh, and the devil, both without and within. For
as Judas sat among the apostles, so " the man of sin " sits in
the temple of God; and as even a Peter denied the Lord,
though he afterwards wept bitterly and regained his holy office,
so do many disciples in all ages deny hifti in word and in deed.
But, on the other hand, church history shows that God is
ever stronger than Satan, and that his kingdom of light puts
the kingdom of darkness to shame. The Lion of the tribe of
Judah has bruised the head of the serpent. With the cruci-
fixion of Christ his resurrection also is repeated ever anew in
the history of his church on earth ; and there has never yet
been a day without a witness of his presence and power order-
ing all things according to his holy will. For he has received
all power in heaven and in earth for the good of his people,
and from his heavenly throne he rules even life foes. The in-
6 § 2. BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
fallible word of promise, confirmed by experience, assures us
that all corruptions, heresies, and schisms must, under the
guidance of divine wisdom and love, subserve the cause of
truth, holiness, and peace ; till, at the last judgment, Christ
shall make his enemies his footstool, and rule undisputed with
the sceptre of righteousness and peace, and his church shall
lealize her idea and destiny as " the fullness of him that filleth
all in all."
Then will history itself, in its present form, as a struggling
and changeful development, give place to perfection, and the
stream of time come to rest in the ocean of eternity, but this
rest will be the highest form of life and activity in God and for
God.
§ 2. Branches of Church History.
The kingdom of Christ, in its principle and aim, is as com-
prehensive as humanity. It is truly catholic or universal, de-
signed and adapted for all nations and ages, for all the powers
of the soul, and all classes of society. It breathes into the
mind, the heart, and the will a higher, supernatural life, and
consecrates the family, the state, science, literature, art, and
commerce to holy ends, till finally God becomes all in all.
Even the body, and the whole visible creation, which groans
for redemption from its bondage to vanity and for the glorious
liberty of the children of God, shall share in this universal
transformation ; for we look for the resurrection of the body,
and for the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. But
we must not identify the kingdom of God witli the visible
church or churches, which are only its temporary organs and
agencies, more or less inadequate, while the kingdom itself is
more comprehensive, and will last for ever.
Accordingly, church history has various departments, corre-
sponding to the different branches of secular history and of
natural life. The principal divisions are :
L The history of MISSIONS, or of the spread of Christianity
§ 2. BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY. 7
among unconverted nations, whether barbarous or civilized.
This work must continue, till "the fullness of the Gentiles
shall come in," and " Israel shall be saved." The law of the
missionary progress is expressed in the two parables of the
grain of mustard-seed which grows into a tree, and of the leaven
which gradually pervades the whole lump. The first parable
illustrates the outward expansion, the second the all-penetrating
and transforming power of Christianity. It is difficult to con-
vert a nation ; it is more difficult to train it to the high stand-
ard of the gospel ; it is most difficult to revive and reform a
dead or apostate church.
The foreign mission work has achieved three great conquests :
first, the conversion of the elect remnant of the Jews, and of
civilized Greeks and Romans, in the first three centuries ; then
the conversion of the barbarians of Northern and Western
Europe, in the middle ages ; and last, the combined efforts of
various churches and societies for the conversion of the savage
races in America, Africa, and Australia, and the semi-civilized
nations of Eastern Asia, in our own time. The whole non-
Christian world is now open to missionary labor, except the
Mohammedan, which will likewise become accessible at no dis-
tant day.
The domestic or home mission work embraces the revival of
Christian life in corrupt or neglected portions of the church in
old countries, the supply of emigrants in new countries with
the means of grace, and the labors among the semi-heathenish
populations of large cities. Here we may mention the planting
of a purer Christianity among the petrified sects in Bible Lands,
the labors of the Gustavus Adolphus Society, and the Inner
Mission of Germany, the American Home Missionary Societies
for the western states and territories, the City Mission Societies
in London, New York, and other fast-growing cities.
s II. The history of PERSECUTION by hostile powers; as by
Judaism and Heathenism in the first three centuries, and by
Mohammedanism in the middle age. This apparent repression
of the church proves a purifying process, brings out the moral
8 § 2. BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
heroism of martyrdom, and thus works in the end for the
spread and establishment of Christianity. " The blood of mar-
tyrs is the seed of the church." * There are cases, however,
where systematic and persistent persecution has crushed out the
church or reduced it to a mere shadow, as in Palestine, Egypt,
and North Africa, under the despotism of the Moslems.
Persecution, like missions, is both foreign and domestic.
Besides being assailed from without by the followers of false
religions, the church suffers also from intestine wars and vio-
lence. Witness the religious wars in France, Holland, and
England, the Thirty Years' War in Germany, all of which grew
out of the Protestant Kef ormation and the Papal Reaction ;
the crusade against the Albigenses and Waldenses, the horrors
of the Spanish Inquisition, the massacre of the Huguenots, the
dragonnades of Louis XIV., the crushing out of the Reforma-
tion in Bohemia, Belgium, and Southern Europe ; but also, on
the Protestant side, the persecution of Anabaptists, the burning
of Servetus in Geneva, the penal laws of the reign of Elizabeth
against Catholic and Puritan Dissenters, the hanging of witches
and Quakers in New England. More Christian blood has been
shed by Christians than by heathens and Mohammedans.
The persecutions of Christians by Christians f onn the satanic
chapters, the fiendish midnight scenes, in the history of the
church. But they show also the gradual progress of the truly
Christian spirit of religious toleration and freedom. Persecu-
tion exhausted ends in toleration, and toleration is a step to
freedom. The blood of patriots is the price of civil, the blood
of martyrs the price of religious liberty. The conquest is dear,
the progress slow and often interrupted, but steady and irre-
sistible. The principle of intolerance is now almost universally
disowned in the Christian world, except by ultramontane Ro-
1 A well-known saying of Tertufflan, who lived in the midst of persecutioa
A very different estimate of martyrdom IB suggested by the Arabic proverb i
"The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr."
The just estimate depends on the quality of the scholar and the quality of
the martyr, and the cause for which the one lives and the other dies.
§ 2. BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY. 0
inanism (which indirectly reasserts it in the Papal Syllabus of
1864) ; but a ruling church, allied to the state, under the influ-
ence of selfish human nature, and relying on the arm of flesh
rather than the power of truth, is always tempted to impose or
retain unjust restrictions on dissenting sects, however innocent
and useful they may have proved to be.
In the United States all Christian denominations and sects
are placed on a basis of equality before the law, and alike pro-
tected by the government in their property and right of public
worship, yet self -supporting and self-governing; and, in turn,
they strengthen the moral foundations of society by training
loyal and virtuous citizens. Freedom of religion must be recog-
nized as one of the inalienable rights of man, which lies in the
sacred domain of conscience, beyond the restraint and control
of politics, and which the government is bound to protect as
much as any other fundamental right. Freedom is liable to
abuse, and abuse may be punished. But Christianity is itself
the parent of true freedom from the bondage of sin and error,
and is the best protector and regulator of freedom.
III. The history of CHURCH GOVERNMENT and DISCIPLINE. The
church is not only an invisible communion of saints, but at the
same time a visible body, needing organs, laws, and forms, to
regulate its activity. Into this department of history fall the
various forms of church polity: the apostolic, the primitive
episcopal, the patriarchal, the papal, the consistorial, the pres-
byterial, the congregational, etc. ; and the history of the law
and discipline of the church, and her relation to the state, under
all these forms.
IV. The history of WORSHIP, or divine service, by which the
church celebrates, revives, and strengthens her fellowship with
her divine head. This falls into such subdivisions as the his-
tory of preaching, of catechisms, of liturgy, of rites and cere-
monies, and of religious art, particularly sacred poetry and
music.
The history of church government and the history of worship
are often put together under the title of Ecclesiastical Antiqui-
10 § 2. BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
ties or Archaeology, and commonly confined to the patristic age,
whence most of the catholic institutions and usages of die
church date their origin. But they may as well be extended to
the formative period of Protestantism.
V. The history of CHRISTIAN LIFE, or practical morality and
religion : the exhibition of the distinguishing virtues and vices
of different ages, of the development of Christian philanthropy,
the regeneration of domestic life, the gradual abatement and
abolition of slavery and other social evils, the mitigation and
diminution of the horrors of war, the reform of civil law and
of government, the spread of civil and religious liberty, and the
whole progress of civilization, under the influence of Chris-
tianity.
VI. The history of THEOLOGY, or of Christian learning and
literature. Each branch of theology — exegetical, doctrinal,
ethical, historical, and practical — has a history of its own.
The history of doctrines or dogmas is here the most impor-
tant, and is therefore frequently treated by itself. Its object is
to show how the mind of the church has gradually apprehended
and unfolded the divine truths of revelation, how the teachings
of scripture have been formulated and shaped into dogmas, and
grown into creeds and confessions of faith, or systems of doc-
trine stamped with public authority. This growth of the
church in the knowledge of the infallible word of God is a
constant struggle against error, misbelief, and unbelief; and
the history of heresies is an essential part of the history of
doctrines.
Every important dogma now professed by the Christian
church is the result of a severe conflict with error. The doc-
trine of the holy Trinity, for instance, was believed from the
beginning, but it required, in addition to the preparatory labors
of the ante-Nicene age, fifty years of controversy, in which the
strongest intellects were absorbed, until it was brought to the
clear expression of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The
phristological conflict was equally long and intense, until it
+SUB brought to a settlement by the council of Chalcedon. The
§ 3. SOURCES OF CHURCH HISTORY. 11
Reformation of the sixteenth century was a continual war-
fare with popery. The doctrinal symbols of the various
churches, from the Apostles' Creed down to the confessions of
Dort and Westminster, and more recent standards, embody the
results of the theological battles of the militant church.
The various departments of church history have not a merely
external and mechanical, but an organic relation to each other,
and form one living whole, and this relation the historian must
show. Each period also is entitled to a peculiar arrangement,
according to its character. The number, order, and extent of
the different divisions must be determined by their actual im-
portance at a given time.
§ 3. Sources of Church History.
The sources of church history, the data on which we rely for
our knowledge, are partly divine, partly human. For the his-
tory of the kingdom of God from the creation to the close of
the apostolic age, we have the inspired writings of the Old and
New Testaments. But after the death of the apostles we have
only human authorities, which of course cannot claim to be in-
fallible. These human sources are partly written, partly un-
written.
I. The WRITTEN sources include :
(a) Official documents of ecclesiastical and civil authorities :
acts of councils and synods, confessions of faith, liturgies,
church laws, and the official letters of popes, patriarchs, bishops,
and representative bodies.
(b) Private writings of personal actors in the history : the
works of the church fathers, heretics, and heathen authors, for
the first six centuries ; of the missionaries, scholastic and mys-
tic divines, for the middle age ; and of the reformers and their
opponents, for the sixteenth century. These documents are the
richest mines for the historian. They give history in its birth
and actual movement. But they must be carefully sifted and
weighed ; especially the controversial writings, where fact is
12 § 3. SOURCES OP CHURCH HISTORY.
generally more or less adulterated with party spirit, heretical
and orthodox.
(c) Accounts of chroniclers and historians, whether friends or
enemies, who were eye-witnesses of what they relate. The
value of these depends, of course, on the capacity and credi-
bility of the authors, to be determined by careful criticism.
Subsequent historians can be counted among the direct or im-
mediate sources only so far as they have drawn from reliable
and contemporary documents, which have either been wholly
or partially lost, like many of Eusebius' authorities for the
period before Constantine, or are inaccessible to historians gen-
erally, as are the papal regesta and other documents of the
Vatican library.
(d) Inscriptions, especially those on tombs and catacombs,
revealing the faith and hope of Christians in times of persecu-
tion. Among the ruins of Egypt and Babylonia whole libraries
have been disentombed and deciphered, containing mythologi-
cal and religious records, royal proclamations, historical, astro-
nomical, and poetical compositions, revealing an extinct civi-
lization and shedding light on some parts of Old Testament
history.
II. The UNWRITTEN sources are far less numerous: church
edifices, works of sculpture and painting, and other monuments,
religions customs and ceremonies, very important for the his-
tory of worship and ecclesiastical art, and significant of the
spirit of their age.1
The works of art are symbolical embodiments of the various
types of Christianity. The plain symbols and crude sculptures
of the catacombs correspond to the period of persecution ; the
basilicas to the Nicene age; the Byzantine churches to the
genius of the Byzantine Btate-churchism ; the Gothic cathedrals
to the Romano-Germanic Catholicism of the middle ages ; the
renaissance style to the revival of letters.
To come down to more recent times, the spirit of Romanism
« Comp. F. Piper: Kritiung to di* monumental* Iforiyfe. Gotka, 1807
§ 4. PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 13
tan be best appreciated amidst the dead and living monuments
of Rome, Italy, and Spain. Lutheranism must be studied in
Wittenberg,, Northern Germany, and Scandinavia; Calvinism
in Geneva, France, Holland, and Scotland; Anglicanism at
Oxford, Cambridge, and London ; Presbyterianism in Scotland
and the United States; Congregationalism in England and
New England. For in the mother countries of these denomi-
nations we generally find not only the largest printed and
manuscript sources, but also the architectural, sculptural, sepul-
chral, and other monumental remains, the natural associations,
oral traditions, and living representatives of the past, who,
however they may have departed from the faith of their an-
cestors, still exhibit their national genius, social condition,
habits, and customs — often in a far more instructive manner
than ponderous printed volumes.
§ 4. Periods of Church History.
The purely chronological or annalistic method, though pur*
sued by the learned Baronius and his continuators, is now gen-
erally abandoned. It breaks the natural flow of events, sepa-
rates things which belong together, and degrades history to a
mere chronicle.
The centurial plan, which prevailed from Flacius to Moa-
heim, is an improvement. It allows a much better view of the
progress and connection of things. But it still imposes on the
history a forced and mechanical arrangement ; for the salient
points or epochs very seldom coincide with the limits of our
centuries. The rise of Constantine, for example, together with
the union of church and state, dates from the year 311 ; that of
the absolute papacy, in Hildebrand, from 1049 ; the Reforma-
tion from 1517 ; the peace of Westphalia took place in 1648 ;
the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England in 1620 ;
the American emancipation in 1776 ; the French revolution in
1789 ; the revival of religious life in Germany began in 1817*
The true division must grow out of the actual course of the
14 §4. PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY
history itself, and present the different phases of its develop*
nient or stages of its life. These we call periods or ages. The
beginning of a new period is called an epoch, or a stopping and
starting point.
In regard to the number and length of periods there is,
indeed, no unanimity ; the less, on account of the various de-
nominational differences establishing different points of view,
especially since the sixteenth century. The Reformation, for
instance, has less importance for the Roman church than for
the Protestant, and almost none for the Greek ; and while the
edict of Nantes forms a resting-place in the history of French
Protestantism, and the treaty of Westphalia in that of German,
neither of these events had as much to do with English Prot-
estantism as the accession of Elizabeth, the rise of Cromwell,
the restoration of the Stuarts, and the revolution of 1688.
But, in spite of all confusion and difficulty in regard to
details, it is generally agreed to divide the history of Chris-
tianity into three principal parts — ancient, mediaeval, and mod-
ern; though there is not a like agreement as to the dividing
epochs, or points of departure and points of termination.
I. The history of ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY, from the birth of
Christ to Gregory the Great. A.D. 1-590.
This is the age of the Grseco-Latin church, or of the Chris-
tian Fathers. Its field is the countries around the Mediterra-
nean— Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Europe —
just the th eat ra of the old Roman empire and of classic heathen-
dom. This age lays the foundation, in doctrine, government,
and worship, for all the subsequent history. It is the common
progenitor of all the various confessions.
The Life of Christ and the Apostolic Church are by far the
most important sections, and require separate treatment. They
form the divine-human groundwork of the church, and inspire,
regulate, and correct all subsequent periods.
Then, at the beginning of the fourth century, the accession
of Constantino, the first Christian emperor, marks a decisive
turn ; Christianity rising from a persecuted sect to the prevail-
§ 4. PERIODS OF OHUBCH HISTOBY. 15
ing religion of the Grace-Roman empire. In the history of
doctrines, the first oeumenical council of Nicfiea, falling in the
midst of Constantine's reign, A.D. 325, has the prominence of
an epoch.
Here, then, are three periods within the first or patristic era,
which we may severally designate as the period of the Apostles,
the period of the Martyrs, and the period of the Christian
Emperors and Patriarchs.
II. MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY, from Gregory I to the Refor-
mation. A.D. 590-1517.
The middle age is variously reckoned — from Constantino,
306 or 311 ; from the fall of the West Roman empire, 476 ;
from Gregory the Great, 590 ; from Charlemagne, 800. But
it is very generally regarded as closing at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, and more precisely, at the outbreak of the
Reformation in 1517. Gregory the Great seems to us to form
the most proper ecclesiastical point of division. With him, the
author of the Anglo-Saxon mission, the last of the church
fathers, and the first of the proper popes, begins in earnest,
and with decisive success, the conversion of the barbarian
tribes, and, at the same time, the development of the absolute
papacy, and the alienation of the eastern and western churches.
This suggests the distinctive character of the middle age : the
transition of the church from Asia and Africa to Middle and
Western Europe, from the Greco-Roman nationality to that of
the Germanic, Celtic, and Slavonic races, and from the culture
of the ancient classic world to the modern civilization. The
great work of the church then was the conversion and educa-
tion of the heathen barbarians, who conquered and demolished
the Roman empire, indeed, but were themselves conquered and
transformed by its Christianity. This work was performed
mainly by the Latin church, under a firm hierarchical constitu-
tion, culminating in the bishop of Rome. The Greek church,
though she made some conquests among the Slavic tribes of
Eastern Europe, particularly in the Russian empire, since grown
BO important, was in turn sorely pressed and reduced by Mo-
16 § 4. PERIODS OF CHURCH BISTORT.
hammedanism in Asia and Africa, the very seat of primitive
Christianity, and at last in Constantinople itself ; and in doc-
trine, worship, and organization, she stopped at the position of
the oeumenical councils and the patriarchal constitution of the
fifth century.
In the middle age the development of the hierarchy occupies
the foreground, so that it may be called the church of the
Popes, as distinct from the ancient church of the Fathers, and
the modern church of the Reformers.
In the growth and decay of the Roman hierarchy three popes
stand out as representatives of as many epochs : Gregory I., or
the Great (590), marks the rise of absolute papacy; Gregory
VII., or Hildebrand (1049), its summit; and Boniface VIII.
(1294), its decline. We thus have again three periods in medi-
eval church history. We may briefly distinguish them as the
Missionary, the Papal, and the pre- or ante-Reformatory ' agec
of Catholicism.
III. MODERN CHRISTIANITY, from the Reformation of the six-
teenth century to the present time. A.D. 1517-1880.
Modern history moves chiefly among the nations of Europe,
and from the seventeenth century finds a vast new theatre in
North America. Western Christendom now splits into two
hostile parts — one remaining on the old path, the other striking
out a new one ; while the eastern church withdraws still further
from the stage of history, and presents a scene of almost undis-
turbed stagnation, except in modern Russia and Greece. Mod-
ern church history is the age of Protestantism in conflict witli
Romanism, of religious liberty and independence in conflict
with the principle of authority and tutelage, of individual and
personal Christianity against an objective and traditional church
system.
1 This new word is coined after the analogy of ante-Nioene, and in imitation
of the German vor-rtformatoruch. It is the age of the forerunners of the
Reformation, or reformers before the Reformation, as UUmann calls such
men as Wicklyffe, Hnss, Savonarola, Weanel, etc. The term presents only
cue Tiew of the period from Bonifaoe VIII. to Luther. But this is the
ease with erexy other single term we may choose.
§ 4. PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 17
Here again three different periods appear, which may be
denoted briefly by the terms, Reformation, Revolution, and
Revival
The sixteenth century, next to the apostolic age the most
fruitful and interesting period of church history, is the century
of the evangelical renovation of the Church, and the papal
counter-reform. It is the cradle of all Protestant denomina-
tions and sects, and of modern Romanism.
The seventeenth century is the period of scholastic ortho-
doxy, polemic confessionalism, and comparative stagnation.
The reformatory motion ceases on the continent, but goes on in
the mighty Puritanic struggle in England, and extends even
into the primitive forests of the American colonies. The seven-
teenth century is the most fruitful in the church history of
England, and gave rise to the various nonconformist or dissent-
ing denominations which were transplanted to North America,
and have outgrown some of the older historic churches. Then
comes, in the eighteenth century, the Pietistic and Methodistic
revival of practical religion in opposition to dead orthodoxy
and stiff formalism. In the Roman church Jesuitism prevails,
but opposed by the half -evangelical Jansenism, and the quasi-
liberal Gallicanism.
In the second half of the eighteenth century begins the vast
overturning of traditional ideas and institutions, leading to
revolution in state, and infidelity in church, especially in Roman
Catholic France and Protestant Germany. Deism in England,
atheism in France, rationalism in Germany, represent the vari-
ous degrees of the great modern apostasy from the orthodox
creeds.
The nineteenth century presents, in part, the further devel-
opment of these negative and destructive tendencies, but with
it also the revival of Christian faith and church life, and the
beginnings of a new creation by the everlasting gospel. The
revival may be dated from the third centenary of the Refor-
mation, in 1817.
In the same period North America, English and Protestant
18 § 4. PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
in its prevailing character, but presenting an asylum for all
the nations, churches, and sects of the old world, with a peace-
ful separation of the temporal and the spiritual power, comes
upon the stage like a young giant full of vigor and promise.
Thus we have, in all, nine periods of church history, as follows :
FIBST PERIOD:
The Life of Christ, and the Apostolic church.
From the Incarnation to the death of St. John. A.D.
1-100.
SECOND PERIOD:
Christianity under persecution in the Roman empire.
From the death of St. John to Constantine, the first Chris-
tian emperor. A.D. 100-311.
THIRD PERIOD:
Christianity in union with the Grseco-Roman empire, and
amidst the storms of the great migration of nations.
From Constantine the Great to Pope Gregory I. A.D.
311-590.
FOURTH PERIOD:
Christianity planted among the Teutonic, Celtic, and Sla-
vonic nations.
From Gregory I. to Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. A.D.
590-1049.
FIFTH PERIOD:
The Church under the papal hierarchy, and the scholastic
theology.
From Gregory VII. to Boniface VOL A.D. 1049-1294.
SIXTH PERIOD:
The decay of mediaeval Catholicism, and the preparatory
movements for the Reformation.
Prom Boniface VIH to Luther. A.D. 1294-1517.
§ 4. PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 19
SEVENTH PERIOD:
The evangelical Reformation, and the Roman Catholic Re-
action.
From Luther to the Treaty of Westphalia. A.D. 1517-1648.
EIGHTH PERIOD:
The age of polemic orthodoxy and exclusive confessional-
ism, with reactionary and progressive movements. '
From the Treaty of Westphalia to the French Revolution.
A.D. 1648-1790.
fJiNTH PERIOD :
The spread of infidelity, and the revival of Christianity in
Europe and America, with missionary efforts encircling
the globe.
From the French Revolution to the present time. A.D.
1790-1880.
Christianity has thus passed through many stages of its
earthly life, and yet has hardly reached the period of full man-
hood in Christ Jesus. During this long succession of centuries
it has outlived the destruction of Jerusalem, the dissolution of
the Roman empire, fierce persecutions from without, and hereti-
cal corruptions from within, the barbarian invasion, the confu-
sion of the dark ages, the papal tyranny, the shock of infidelity,
the ravages of revolution, the attacks of enemies and the errors
of friends, the rise and fall of proud kingdoms, empires, and
republics, philosophical systems, and social organizations with-
out number. And, behold, it still lives, and lives in, greater
strength and wider extent than ever ; controlling the progress
of civilization, and the destinies of the world ; marching over
the ruins of human wisdom and folly, ever forward and on-
ward ; spreading silently its heavenly blessings from generation
to generation, and from country to country, to the ends of the
earth. It can never die; it will never see the decrepitude of
old age ; but, like its divine founder, it will live in the unfading
freshness of self -renewing youth and the unbroken vigor of
20 § 6. USES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
manhood to the end of time, and will outlive time itself. Sin-
gle denominations and sects, human forms of doctrine, govern-
ment, and worship, after having served their purpose, may dis-
appear and go the way of all flesh ; but the Church Universal
of Christ, in her divine life and substance, is too strong for the
gates of hell. She will only exchange her earthly garments
for the festal dress of the Lamb's Bride, and rise from the state
of humiliation to the state of exaltation and glory. Then at
the coming of Christ she will reap the final harvest of history,
and as the church triumphant in heaven celebrate and enjoy
the eternal sabbath of holiness and peace. This will be the
endless end of history, as it was foreshadowed already at the
beginning of its course in the holy rest of God after the com-
pletion of his work of creation.
§ 5. Uses of Church History.
Church history is the most extensive, and, including the
sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, the most impor-
tant branch of theology. It is the backbone of theology or.
which it rests, and the storehouse from which it derives its
supplies. It is the best commentary of Christianity itself,
under all its aspects and in all its bearings. The fulness of the
stream is the glory of the fountain from which it flows.
Church history has, in the first place, a general interest for
every cultivated mind, as showing the moral and religious
development of our race, and the gradual execution of the
divine pjan of redemption.
It has special value for the theologian and minister of the
gospel, as the key to the present condition of Christendom and
the guide to successful labor in her cause. The present is the
fruit of the past, and the germ of the future. No work can
stand unless it grow out of the real wants of the age and strike
firm root in the soil of history. No one who tramples on the
rights of a past generation can claim the regard of its posterity.
Church history is no mere curiosity shop. Its facts are not dry
§ 5. USES OF CHURCH HISTORY 21
bones, but embody living realities, the general principles and
laws for our own guidance and action. Who studies church
history studies Christianity itself in all its phases, and human
nature under the influence of Christianity as it now is, and will
be to the end of time.
Finally, the history of the church has practical value for
every Christian, as a storehouse of warning and encouragement,
of consolation and counsel. It is the philosophy of facts, Chris-
tianity in living examples. If history in general be, as Cicero
describes it, " testis temporum, lux veritatis, et magistra vita" or,
as Diodorus calls it, " the handmaid of providence, the priestess
of truth, and the mother of wisdom," the history of the king-
dom of heaven is all these in the highest degree. Next to the
holy scriptures, which are themselves a history and depository
of divine revelation, there is no stronger proof of the continual
presence of Christ with his people, no more thorough vindica-
tion of Christianity, no richer source of spiritual wisdom and
experience, no deeper incentive to virtue and piety, than the
history of Christ's kingdom. Every age has a message from
God to man, which it is of the greatest importance for man to
understand.
The Epistle to the Hebrews describes, in stirring eloquence,
the cloud of witnesses from the Old dispensation for the en-
couragement of the Christians. Why should not the greater
cloud of apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, fathers, re-
formers, and saints of every age and tongue, since the com-
ing of Christ, be held up for the same purpose ? They were
the heroes of Christian faith and love, the living epistles of
Christ, the salt of the earth, the benefactors and glory of
our race ; and it is impossible rightly to study their thoughts
and deeds, their lives and deaths, without being elevated, edi-
fied, comforted, and encouraged to follow their holy example,
that we at last, by the grace of God, be received into their
fellowship, to spend with them a blessed eternity in the praise
and enjoyment of the same God and Saviour.
22 § 6. DUTY OF THE HISTORIAN.
§ 6. Duly of the Historian.
The first duty of the historian, which comprehends all others,
is fidelity and justice. He must reproduce the history itself
making it live again in his representation. His highest and
only aim should be, like a witness, to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and, like a judge, to do full
justice to every person and event which comes under his
review.
To be thus faithful and just he needs a threefold qualifica-
tion— scientific, artistic, and religious.
1. He must master the sources. For this purpose he must
be acquainted with such auxiliary sciences as ecclesiastical phi-
lology (especially the Greek and Latin languages, in which
most of the earliest documents are written), secular history,
geography, and chronology. Then, in making use of the
sources, he must thoroughly and impartially examine their gen-
uineness and integrity, and the credibility and capacity of the
witnesses. Thus only can he duly separate fact from fiction,
truth from error.
The number of sources for general history is so large and
increasing so rapidly, that it is, of course, impossible to read
and digest them all in a short lifetime. Every historian rests
on the shoulders of his predecessors. He must take some
things on trust even after the most conscientious search, and
avail himself of the invaluable aid of documentary collections
and digests, ample indexes, and exhaustive monographs, where
lie cannot examine all the primary sources in detail. Only he
should always carefully indicate his authorities and verify facts,
dates, and quotations. A want of accuracy is fatal to the repu-
tation of an historical work.
2. Then comes the composition. This is an art. It must not
simply recount events, but reproduce the development of the
church in living process. History is not a heap of skeletons,
but an organism filled and ruled by a reasonable soul.
§ 6. DUTY OP THE HISTORIAN. 23
One of the greatest difficulties here lies in arranging the
material. The best method is to combine judiciously the chro-
nological and topical principles of division ; presenting at once
the succession of events and the several parallel (and, indeed,
interwoven) departments of the history in due proportion.
Accordingly, we first divide the whole history into periods, not
arbitrary, but determined by the actual course of events ; and
then we present each of these periods in as many parallel sec-
tions or chapters as the material itself requires. As to the
number of the periods and chapters, and as to the arrangement
of the chapters, there are indeed conflicting opinions, and in
the application of our principle, as in our whole representation,
we can only make approaches to perfection. But the principle
itself is, nevertheless, the only true one.
The ancient classical historians, and most of the English and
French, generally present their subject in one homogeneous
composition of successive books or chapters, without rubric-al
division. This method might seem to bring out better the
jiving unity and variety of the history at every point. Yet it
really does not. Language, unlike the pencil and the chisel,
can exhibit only the succession in time, not the local concomi-
tance. And then this method, rigidly pursued, never gives a
complete view of any one subject, of doctrine, worship, or
practical life. It constantly mixes the various topics, breaking
off from one to bring up another, even by the most sudden
transitions, till the alternation is exhausted. The German
method of periodical and rubrical arrangement has great prac-
tical advantages for the student, in bringing to view the order
of subjects as well as the order of time. But it should not be
made a uniform and monotonous mechanism, as is done in the
Magdeburg Centuries and many subsequent works. For, while
history has its order, both of subject and of time, it is yet, like
all life, full of variety. The period of the Reformation requires
a very different arrangement from the middle age ; and in
modern history the rubrical division must be combined with
and made subject to a division by confessions and countries, as
24 $ 8. DUTY OF THE HI8TOBIAN.
the Roman Catholic, 'Lutheran, Reformed churches in Ger-
many, France, England, and America.
The historian should aim then to reproduce both the unity
and the variety of history, presenting the different topics in
their separate completeness, without overlooking their organic
connection. The scheme must not be arbitrarily made, and
then pedantically applied, as a Procrustean framework, to the
history; but it must be deduced from the history itself, and
varied as the facts require.
Another difficulty even greater than the arrangement of the
material consists in the combination of brevity and fulness.
A general church history should give a complete view of the
progress of Christ's kingdom in all its departments. But the
material is so vast and constantly increasing, that the utmost
condensation should be studied by a judicious selecti&n of the
salient points, which really make up the main body of history.
There is no use in writing books unless they are read. But
who has time in this busy age to weary through the forty
folios of Baronius and his continuators, or the thirteen folios of
Flacius, or the forty-five octavos of Scbroeckh ? The student
of ecclesiastical history, it is true, wants not miniature pictures
only (as in Hase's admirable compend), but full-length por-
traits. Yet much space may be gained by omitting the pro-
cesses and unessential details, which may be left to monographs
and special treatises. Brevity is a virtue in the historian, unless
it makes him obscure and enigmatic*1
o
1 The German poet, Friedrioh Rftokert, thw admiraUj enjoins the duty of
i:
"Ffcdfe
WMtUttdie
Und unt trird je mehr je l&nyer
JOftWg rit Zutammendr&nfftr:
NieU d*r out dem Sehutt d*r ZtUm
Bandar* der den Plunder tfctt*
§ 6. DUTY OP THE HISTORIAN. 2B
The historian, moreover, must make his work readable and
interesting, without violating truth. Some parts of history are
dull and wearisome ; but, upon the whole, the truth of history
is " stranger than fiction." It is God's own epos. It needs no
embellishment. It speaks for itself if told with earnestness,
vivacity, and freshness. Unfortunately, church historians, with
very few exceptions, are behind the great secular historians in
point of style, and represent the past as a dead corpse rather
than as a living and working power of abiding interest. Hence
church histories are so little read outside of professional circles.
3. Both scientific research and artistic representation must
be guided by a sound moral and religious, that is, a truly Chris-
tian spirit. The secular historian should be filled with univer-
sal human sympathy, the church historian with universal
Christian sympathy. The motto of the former is: "Homo
turn, nihil humani a me alienum puto" ; the motto of the lat-
ter : " Christianus turn, nihil Christiani a me alienum pwto"
The historian must first lay aside all prejudice and party zeal,
and proceed in the pure love of truth. Not that he must be-
come a tabula rasa. No man is able, or should attempt, to
cast off the educational influences which have made him what
he is. But the historian of the church of Christ must in every
thing be as true as possible to the objective fact, " sine ira et
studio"; do justice to every person and event; and stand in
the centre of Christianity, whence he may see all points in the
Nickt dot
Noch damU wiUkuhrtich schmuckend,
Bendern in dt* Eintlen Hulk
Legend allgcmrine FuUe;
Der geleMn AUe» Tiabe,
Und fofttM DMUergabe,
Klar ft* uMXdern mir dot
Derichnichtdn
Bagt mir nicht* ton BetuItaUn/
Denn ditwOlich tdber tiehm.
Lout Begebenhdten, Thaton,
raieh w
26 § 6. BUTT OF THE HISTORIAN.
circumference, all individual persons and events, all confession^
denominations, and sects, in their true relations to each other
and to the glorious whole. The famous threefold test of catho-
lic truth — universality of time (semper), place (ubiyue), and
number (ab omnibus) — in its literal sense, is indeed untrue and
inapplicable. Nevertheless, there is a common Christianity in
the Church, as well as a common humanity in the world, which
no Christian can disregard with impunity. Christ is the divine
harmony of all the discordant human creeds and sects. It is
the duty and the privilege of the historian to trace the image
of Christ in the various physiognomies of his disciples, and to
act as a mediator between the different sections of his king-
dom.
Then he must be in thorough sympathy with his subject, and
enthusiastically devoted thereto. As no one can interpret a
poet without poetic feeling and taste, or a philosopher without
speculative talent, so no one can rightly comprehend and ex-
hibit the history of Christianity without a Christian spirit.
An unbeliever could produce only a repulsive caricature, or at
best a lifeless statue. The higher the historian stands on Chris-
tian ground, the larger is his horizon, and the more full and
clear his view of single regions below, and of their mutual
bearings. Even error can be fairly seen only from the position
of truth. " Verum est index sui et falsi" Christianity is the
absolute truth, which, like the sun, both reveals itself and en-
lightens all that is dark. Church history, like the Bible, is its
own best interpreter. .
So far as the historian combines these three qualifications, he
fulfils his office. In this life we can, of course, only distantly
approach perfection in this or in any other branch of study.
Absolute success would require infallibility ; and this is denied
to mortal man. It is the exclusive privilege of the Divine
mind to see the end from the beginning, and to view events
from all sides and in all their bearings ; while the human mind
can only take up things consecutively and view them partially
or in fragments.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 27
The full solution of the mysteries of history is reserved for
that heavenly state, when we shall see no longer through a
glass darkly, but face to face, and shall survey the developments
of time from the heights of eternity. What St. Augustine so
aptly says of the mutual relation of the Old and New Testa-
ment, " Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus in Novo
patet" may be applied also to the relation of this world and
the world to come. The history of the church militant is
but a type and a prophecy of the triumphant kingdom of God
in heaven — a prophecy which will be perfectly understood only
in the light of its fulfilment.
§ 7. literature of Church History.
STAUDLJN : Geschichte u. Liter atur der- K. Geschichte. Harm. 1827.
J. G. DOWWNG : An Introduction to the Critical Study of Eccles. History.
London, 1838. Quoted p. 1. The work is chiefly an account of the
ecclesiastical historians, pp. 1-212.
F. C. BAUR : Die Epochen der kirchhchen Geschichtschreibung. Tub. 1852.
PHTLTP SCHAFF . Introduction to History of the Apost. Church (N. York,
1853), pp. 51-134.
ENGELHABDT : Uebersicht der kirchengeschichtlichen Literatur vom Jahre
1825-1850. In Niedner's "Zeitschrift fiir historische Theologie,"
1851.
G. UHLHOBN : Die kirchenhist. Arbeiten von 1851-1860. In Niedner's
" Zeitschrift fur histor Theologie," for 1866, Gotha, pp. 3-160. The
same : Die altere Kircltengesch. in ihren neueren Darstellungen. In
" Jahrbucher fur deutsche Theol." Vol. EL 648 sqq.
BBIEGEB'S "Zeitschrift f iir Kirchengeschichte " (begun in 1877 and pub-
lished in Gotha) contains bibliographical articles of AD. HABNACK,
MOLLEB, and others, on the latest literature.
CH. K. ADAMS : A Manual of Historical Literature. N. York, 3d ed. 1888.
Like every other science and art, church historiography has
a history of development toward its true perfection. This
history exhibits not only a continual growth of material, bnt
'also a gradual, though sometimes long interrupted, improvement
of method, from the mere collection of names and dates in
a Christian chronicle, to critical research and discrimination,
pragmatic reference to causes and motives, scientific command
28 § 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH HISTORY
of material, philosophical generalization, and artistic reproduce
tion of the actual history itself. In this progress also are
marked the various confessional and denominational phases of
Christianity, giving different points of view, and consequently
different conceptions and representations of the several periods
and divisions of Christendom ; so that the development of the
Church itself is mirrored in the development of church histori-
ography.
We can here do no more than mention the leading works
which mark the successive epochs in the growth of our science.
I. The APOSTOLIC Church.
The first works on church history are the canonical Gospels
of MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, and JOHN, the inspired biographical
memoirs of Jesus Christ, who is the theanthropic head of the
Church universal.
These are followed by LUKE'S Acts of the Apostles, which
describes the planting of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles
from Jerusalem to Rome, by the labors of the apostles, espe-
cially Peter and Paul.
IT. The GREEK Church historians.
The first post-apostolic works on church history, as indeed all
branches of theological literature, take their rise in the Greek
Church.
EusEBnrs, bishop of Cffisarea, in Palestine, and contemporary
with Constantino the Great, composed a church history in ten
books (licfc\ff<ruurriic^ i<rropia, from the incarnation of the
Logos to the year 324), by which he has won the title of the
Father of church history, or the Christian Herodotus. Though
by no means very critical and discerning, and far inferior in
literary talent and execution to the works of the great classical
historians, this ante-Nicene church history is invaluable for its
learning, moderation, and love of truth ; for it* use of sources
since totally or partially lost ; and for its interesting position of
personal observation between the last persecutions of the church
and her establishment in the Byzantine empire.
§ 7. LITEBATUEB OP CHURCH HISTOBY. 29
Eusebius was followed in similar spirit and on the same plan
by SOCRATES, SOZOMEN, and THKODORET in the fifth century, and
THEODORUS and EVAGRIUS in the sixth, each taking up the
thread of the narrative where his predecessor had dropped it,
and covering in part the same ground, from Constantino the
Great till toward the middle of the fifth century.1
Of the later Greek historians, from the seventh century to
the fifteenth, the " Scriptores Byzantini," as they are called,
NICEPHORUS CALLISTI (son of Callistus, about A.D. 1333) deserves
special regard. His Ecclesiastical History was written with the
use of the large library of the church of St. Sophia in Constan-
tinople, and dedicated to the emperor Andronicus Palaeologus
(d. 1327). It extends in eighteen books (each of which begins
with a letter of his name) from the birth of Christ to the death
of Phocas, A.D. 610, and gives in the preface a summary of five
books more, which would have brought it down to 911. He
was an industrious and eloquent, but uncritical and superstitious
writer.*
III. LATIN Church historians of the middle ages.
The Latin Church, before the Reformation, was, in church
history, as in all other theological studies, at first wholly de-
pendent on the Greek, and long content with mere translations
and extracts from Eusebius and his continuators.
The most popular of these was the Hiatoria Tripartite, com-
posed by CASSIODORUS, prime minister of Theodoric, and after-
wards abbot of a convent in Calabria (d. about A.D. 562). It is
a compilation from the histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and
1 These Greek historians have been best edited by Henri de Valois (Vale-
ana), in Greek and Latin with notes, in 8 folios, Paris, 1659-78 ; also Am-
Bterd., 1695, and, with additional notes by W. Reading, Cambridge, 1720.
Eusebius has been often separately published in several languages. *
* Nim|$4pov Ka\\l(TTov TOW Say&oW>\ov *EfCKAif<nairriKJ)f *larop(af BijBxfa i^*
Edited by the Jesuit, Fronton le Duo (Fronto-DuoaBus), Par. 1680, 2 fol.
This is the only Greek edition from the only extant MS., which belonged to
the King of Hungary, then came into the possession of the Turks, and last
into the imperial library of Vienna. But a Latin version by John Lang was
published at Basle as early M 1561.
30 § 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH HISTORY.
Theodoret, abridging and harmonizing them, and supplied—
together with the translation of Eusebius by Rufinus — the
West for several centuries with its knowledge of the fortunes
of the ancient church.
The middle age produced no general church history of conse-
quence, but a host of chronicles, and histories of particular
nations, monastic orders, eminent popes, bishops, missionaries,
saints, etc. Though rarely worth much as compositions, these
are yet of great value as material, after a careful sifting of
truth from legendary fiction.
The principal mediaeval historians are GREGORY OF TOURS
(d. 595), who wrote a church history of the Franks ; the VEN-
ERABLE BEDE (d. 735), the father of English church history ;
PAULUS DIACONUS (d. 799), the historian of the Lombards;
ADAM OF BREMEN, the chief authority for Scandinavian church
history from A.D. 788-1072 ; HAIMO (or Haymo, Aimo, a monk
of Fulda, afterwards bishop of Halberstadt, d. 853), who de-
scribed in ten books, mostly from Rufinus, the history of the
first four centuries (Histories Sacrce Epitome) ; ANASTASIUS
(about 872), the author in part of the Liber Pontijicalis, i. e.,
biographies of the Popes till Stephen VI. (who died 891);
BARTHOLOMJEUS OF LUCCA (about 1312), who composed a gen-
eral church history from Christ to A.D. 1312 ; ST. ANTONINUS
(Antonio Pierozzi), archbishop of Florence (d. 1459), the author
of the largest mediaeval work on secular and sacred history
(Summa Hixtorialia), from the creation to A.D. 1457.
Historical criticism began with the revival of letters, and
revealed itself first in the doubts of Laurentius Valla (d. 1457)
and Nicolaus of Cusa (d. 1464) concerning the genuineness of
the donation of Constantino, the Isidorian Decretals, and other
spurious documents, which are now as universally rejected as
they were once universally accepted.
IV. ROMAN CATHOLIC historians.
The Roman Catholic Church was roused by the shock of the
Reformation, in the sixteenth century, to great activity in this
§ 7. LITEBATUEB OP CHURCH HISTORY. 31
and other departments of theology, and produced some works
of immense learning and antiquarian research, but generally
characterized rather by zeal for the papacy, and against Protes-
tantism, than by the purely historical spirit. Her best his-
torians are either Italians, and ultramontane in spirit, or
Frenchmen, mostly on the side of the more liberal but less
consistent Gallicanism.
(a) Italians :
First stands the Cardinal CJSSAR BABONIUB (d. 1607), with his
Annales JSoclesiastici (Rom. 1588 sqq.), in 12 folio volumes, on
which he spent thirty years of unwearied study. They come
down only to the year 1198, but are continued by EAYNALDI
(to 1565), LADEECHI (to 1571), and THEINEB (to 1584).1
This truly colossal and monumental work is even to this day
an invaluable storehouse of information from the Vatican libra-
ry and other archives, and will always be consulted by profes-
sional scholars. It is written in dry, ever broken, unreadable
style, and contains many spurious documents. It stands wholly
on the ground of absolute papacy, and is designed as a positive
refutation of the Magdeburg Centuries, though it does not
condescend directly to notice them. It gave immense aid and
comfort to the cause of Romanism, and was often epitomized
and popularized in several languages. But it was also severely
criticized, and in part refuted, not only by such Protestants
as Casaubon, Spanheim, and Samuel Basnage, but by Roman
Catholic scholars also, especially two French Franciscans, An-
toine and Francis Pagi, who corrected the chronology.
1 We omit the inferior continuation! of the Polish Dominican, ABB. Bzo-
vics, from 1198 to 1565, in 8 vols., and of HBNR. SPOND£, bishop of Pamien,
from 1197 to 1647, 2 vols. The best of the older editions, including the con-
tinuation of Baynaldi (bat not of Laderchi) and the learned criticisms of Pagi
and his nephew, was arranged by Archbishop MANSI, in 88 folios, Lucca,
178&-'57. A hundred years later, a German scholar in Borne, Atrourani
TREnrn, prefect of the Vatican Archives, resumed the continuation in 8
Ttda., embracing the pontificate of Gregory XHI. (A.D. 1578-*84), Borne and
Paris, 1866, 8 vols. fol, and hoped to bring the history down to the pontiA-
32 § 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
Far less known and used than the Annals of Baronins ifl the
Historia Ecclesiastica of CASPAR SACHABELLI, which comet
down to A.D. 1185, and was published in Borne, 1771-1796, in
36 quarto volumes.
Invaluable contributions to historical collections and special
researches have been made by other Italian scholars, as MURA-
TORI, ZACCAGNI, ZACCARIA, MANSI, GALLANDI, PAOLO SARPI,
PALLAVIOINI (the last two on the Council of Trent), the three
ASSEMANI, and ANGELO MAT,
(b) French Catholic historians.
NATALIS (NOEL) ALEXANDER, Professor and Provincial of the
Dominican order (d. 1724), wrote his Historia Ecclesiastica
Veteris et Nova Testamenti to the year 1600 (Paris, 1676, 2d
ed. 1699 sqq. 8 vols. fol.) in the spirit of Gallicanism, with
great learning, but in dry scholastic style. Innocent XL put
it in the Index (1684). This gave rise to the corrected edi-
tions.
The abbot CLAUDE FLEURY (d. 1723), in his Ilistoire eccle-
tiastique (Par. 1691-1720, in 20 vols. quarto, down to A.D.
1414, continued by CLAUDE FABRE, a very decided Gallican, to
A.D. 1595), furnished a much more popular work, commended
by mildness of spirit and fluency of style, and as useful for
edification as for instruction. It is a minute and, upon the
whole, accurate narrative of the course of events as they oc-
curred, but without system and philosophical generalization,
and hence tedious and wearisome. When Fleury was asked
why he unnecessarily darkened his pages with so many discred-
itable facts, he properly replied that the survival and progress
of Christianity, notwithstanding the vices and crimes of its
eate of Pins VII., A.D. 1800, in 12 folios ; but he interrupted the continua-
tion, and began, in 1864, a new edition of the whole work (including Kay-
naldi and Laderchi), which ia to be completed in 45 or 50 volume*, at Bar-le-
Dno, France. Theiner was first a liberal Catholic, then an Ultramontanist,
last an Old Catholic (in correspondence with Dollinger), excluded from the
Vatican (1870), bnt pardoned by the pope, and died snddenlj, 1874. Hit
elder brother, Johann Anton, became a Protestant.
§ 7. LITERATURE OK CHURCH HISTORY. 33
professors and preachers, was the best proof of its divine
origin.1
JACQUES B^NIGNB BOSSUET, the distinguished bishop of Meaux
(d. 1704:), an advocate of Romanism on the one hand against
Protestantism, but of Gallicanism on the other against Ultra-
montanism, wrote with brilliant eloquence, and in the spirit of
the Catholic church, a universal history, in bold outlines for
popular effect." This was continued in the German language
by the Protestant Cramer, with less elegance but more thor-
oughness, and with special reference to the doctrine history of
the middle age.
SEBASTIBN LE NAIN DE TILLEMONT (d. 1698), a French noble-
man and priest, without office and devoted exclusively to study
and prayer — a pupil and friend of the Jansenists and in partial
sympathy with Gallicanism — composed a most learned and
useful history of the first six centuries (till 513), in a series of
minute biographies, with great skill and conscientiousness,
almost entirely in the words of the original authorities, from
which he carefully distinguishes his own additions. It is, as
far as it goes, the most valuable church history produced by
Roman Catholic industry and learning."
Contemporaneously with Tillemont, the Gallican, L. ELLIES
DUPIN (d. 1719), furnished a biographical and bibliographical
church history down to the seventeenth century.1 REMI CEIL-
1 A portion of Fleury'B History, from the second oecumenical Council to the
end of the fourth century (A D 381-400), was published in English at Oxford,
1843, in three volumes, on the basis of Herbert's translation (London, 1728),
carefully revised by John H. Newman, who was at that time the theological
leader of the Oxford Tractarian movement, and subsequently (1879) became
a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.
* Diecoure eur Vhutoire univeredle depui* le commencement du monde^juegu^d
r empire de Charlemagne. Paris, 1681, and other editions.
1 Memoiree pour eervir d Vhiatoire eccleeiaetigue die eix premiere n&fet , jueti-
Jtte par lee citation* dee auteure originaux. Paris, 1693-1712, 16 vols. quarto.
Reprinted at Venice, 1782 sqq. His Hietoire dee empereure, Paris, 1690-1738,
in 6 vols., gives the secular history down to emperor Anastasius.
4 Under the title : NouvdU BibUotMgue dee auteure eedeelaetfquee, nonte-
nant PMitoire de leur tie, le catalogue, la critique et la chronologic tie lewn
Park and Amsterdam, 1698-1715, 19 voU. ; 9th ed. , Par., 1698 sqq.,
34 § 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH BISTORT.
LIER (d. 1761) followed with a similar work, which has the
advantage of greater completeness and accuracy.1
The French Benedictines of the congregation of St. Maur,
in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, did immense ser-
vice to historical theology by the best critical editions of the
fathers and extensive archaeological works. We can only men-
tion the names of MABILLON, MASSUET, MONTFAUCON, D'ACHERY,
RUINART, MART^NE, DURAND. Among the Jesuits, SIRMOND
and PETAU occupy a prominent place.
The Abbe EOHRBACHER (Professor of Church History at
Nancy, d. 1856) wrote an extensive Universal History of the
Church, including that of the Old Testament, down to 1848.
It is less liberal than the great Gallican writers of the seven-
teenth century, but shows familiarity with German literature.1
(c) German Catholic historians.
The pioneer of modern German Catholic historians of note is
a poet and an ex-Protestant, Count LEOPOLD VON STOLBERG
(d. 1819). With the enthusiasm of an honest, noble, and de-
vout, but credulous convert, he began, in 1806, a very full
Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi, and brought it down in
15 volumes to the year 430. It was continued by F. KERZ
(vols. 16-45, to A.D. 1192) and J. N. BRISCHAR (vols. 45-53, to
A.D. 1245).
THEOD. KATERKAMP (d. at Minister, 1834) wrote a church
history, in the same spirit and pleasing style, down to A.D.
1153.' It remained unfinished, like the work of LOCHERER
(d. 1837), which extends to 1073.4
Bishop HEFELE'S History of the Coimctts (Coruriliengeschichte,
with the continuations of Gkrajet, Petit-Didier, to the 18th cent, and the
critique of R. Simon, 61 rois. The work was condemned by Rome for it*
free criticism of the fathers,
1 Hiftoire generate de* auteur* taark et eoeMattiqu*. Fazio, 1729-'68, In
83 Tols. 4to. New ed. begun 1858.
* Eistowt wntomdh de HgliM eatftoNque. Nancy and Paris, 1842-'49 ; 3d
ed., 1856-'61, in 89 TO!S. oct. ; 4th ed. by Chantral, 1864 sqq. A German
translation by Htf LSKAMP, BUMP and others appeared at Monster, 1860 sqq.
* Monster, 1819-'84, 5 Tola. 8ro. ' Barenabuxg, 1824 sqq., 9 Tola.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTOBY. 35
1855-'86; revised edition and continuation, 1873 sqq.) is a
most valuable contribution to the history of doctrine and disci*
pline down to the Council of Trent.1
The best compendious histories from the pens of German
Romanists are produced by Jos. ION. RITTER, Professor in Bonn
and afterward in Breslau (d. 1857) ; a JOH. ADAM MOHLER, for-
merly Professor in Tubingen, and then in Munich, the author
of the famous Symbolik (d. 1838) ; ' JOH. ALZOG (d. 1878) ; 4 H.
BRUCK (Mayence, 2d ed., 1877) ; F. X. KRAUS (Treves, 1873 ;
3d ed., 1882) ; Card. HERGENROTHER (Freiburg, 3d ed., 1886,
3 vols.) ; F. X. FUNK (Tubingen, 1886 ; 2d ed., 1890).
A. F. GFRORER (d. 1861) began his learned General Church
History as a Protestant, or rather as a Rationalist (1841-'4:6,
4 vols., till A.D. 1056), and continued it from Gregory VII. on
as a Romanist (1859-'61).
Dr. JOHN JOSEPH IGNATIUS DOLLINGER (Professor in Munich,
born 1799), the most learned historian of the Roman Church in
the nineteenth century, represents the opposite course from
popery to anti-popery. He began, but never finished, a Hand-
book of Christian Church History (Landshut, 1833, 2 vols.)
till A.D. 680, and a Manual of Church History (1836, 2d ed.,
1843, 2 vols.) to the fifteenth century, and in part to 1517.*
1 The first two volumes of the first ed. were translated by W. R Clark and
JZ N Oxenham, and published by T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871 and 1876.
' Handbuch der K Q Bonn, 3d ed., 1846 ; 6th ed , 1862, 2 vols.
1 His Kwchenge»chicUte was published from his lectures by Pius BONTFACB
GAMS. Regensburg, 1867-'68, m 3 vols. It is very unequal and lacks the
author's own finish We have from Mohler also a monograph on Athanarius
(1827), and a Pairologie (covering the first three centuries, and published
after his death, 1840).
4 Handbuch der Universal- Kir che^igesMchte. 9th ed., Mainz, 1872, 2 vols. ;
10th ed., 1882. Alzog aims tj be the Roman Catholic Hase as to brevity
and condensation. A French translation from the 5th ed. was prepared by
OOBBCHLBR and AUDLKY, 1849 (4th ed. by Abb4 Sabatier, 1874) ; an English
translation by F. J. PABIBCH and THOB. BYRNE, Cincinnati, O., 1874 sqq.,
in 8 vols. The Am. translators censure the French translators for the liber*
ties they have taken with Alzog, but they have taken similar liberties, and,
by sundry additions, made the author more Romish than he was.
* English translation by Dr. Edw. Cox, Lond. 1840-'42, in 4 vols. This com-
bines Bellinger's Handbuch and Lehrbudi as far as they supplement each other*
86 § 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
He wrote also learned works against the Keformation (Du
Reformation, 1846-'48, in 3 vols.), on Hippolytus and Cattirtus,
(1853), on the preparation for Christianity (Heidenthum und
Judenthum, 1857), Christianity and the Chwrch in the time of
its Founding (1860), The Church and the Churches (1862)>
Papal Fables of the Middle Aye (1865), The Pope and tfie
Council (under the assumed name of " Janus," 1869), etc.
During the Vatican Council in 1870 Dollinger broke with
Home, became the theological leader of the Old Catholic seces-
sion, and was excommunicated by the Archbishop of Munich
(his forfner pupil), April 17, 1871, as being guilty of "the crime
of op^n and formal heresy." He knows too much of church
history to believe in the infallibility of the pope. He solemnly
declared (March 28, 1871) that, " as a Christian, as a theologian,
as a historian, and as a citizen," he could not accept, the Vatican
decrees, because they contradict the spirit of the gospel and the
genuine tradition of the church, and, if carried out, must in-
volve church and state, the clergy and the laity, in irreconcila-
ble conflict.1
V. The PROTESTANT Church historians.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century is the mother of
church history as a science and art in the proper sense of the
term. It seemed at first to break off from the past and to de-
preciate church history, by going back directly to the Bible as
the only rule of faith and practice, and especially to look most
unfavorably on the Catholic middle age, as a progressive cor-
ruption of the apostolic doctrine and discipline. But, on the
other hand, it exalted primitive Christianity, and awakened a
new and enthusiastic interest in all the documents of the apos-
tolic church, with an energetic effort to reproduce its spirit and
institutions. It really repudiated only the later tradition in
favor of the older, taking its stand upon the primitive historical
basis of Christianity. Then again, in the course of controversy
with Rome, Protestantism found it desirable and necessary to
1 See SohaJTa Creed* of Christendom, VoL I., 195 §q. ; Yon Sohulte : Der
JMkatiMcimv* (GieMen, 1887), 109 §qq.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 87
wrest from its opponent not only the scriptural argument, but
also the historical, and to turn it as far as possible to the side of
the evangelical cause. For the Protestants could never deny
that the true Church of Christ is built on a rock, and has the
promise of indestructible permanence. Finally, the Reforma-
tion, by liberating the mind from the yoke ot a despotic ecclesi-
astical authority, gave an entirely new impulse, directly or indi-
rectly, to free investigation in every department, and produced
that historical criticism which claims to clear fact from the
*
accretions of fiction, and to bring out the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, of history. Of course this
criticism may run to the extreme of rationalism and scepticism,
which oppose the authority of the apostles and of Christ him-
self ; as it actually did for a time, especially in Germany. But
the abuse of free investigation proves nothing against the right
use of it ; and is to be regarded only as a temporary aberration,
from which all sound minds will return to a due appreciation
of history, as a truly rational unfolding of the plan of redemp-
tion, and a standing witness for the all-ruling providence of
God, and the divine character of the Christian religion.
(a) German, Swiss, and Dutch historians.
Protestant church historiography has thus far flourished
most on German soil. A patient and painstaking industry and
conscientious love of truth and justice qualify German scholars
for the mining operations of research which bring forth the
raw material for the manufacturer ; while French and English
historians know best how to utilize and popularize the material
for the general reader.
The following are the principal works :
MATTHIAS FLAGIUS (d. 1575), surnamed ILLTRICUS, a zealous
Lutheran, and an unsparing enemy of Papists, Calviniste, and
Melancthonians, heads the list of Protestant historians with his
great Ecclesiastica Historia Novi Testament^ commonly called
Centuries Magdeburgenses (Basle, 156Q-'74), covering thirteen
centuries of the Christian era in as many folio volumes. He
38 § 7. LITEKATUBE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
began the work in Magdeburg, in connection with ten other
scholars of like spirit and zeal, and in the face of innumerable
difficulties, for the purpose of exposing the corruptions and
errors of the papacy, and of proving the doctrines of the Lu-
theran Reformation orthodox by the "witnesses of the truth"
in all ages. The tone is therefore controversial throughout, and
quite as partial as that of the Annals of Baronius on the papal
side. The style is tasteless and repulsive, but the amount of
persevering labor, the immense, though ill-digested and un
wieldy mass of material, and the boldness of the criticism, are
imposing and astonishing. The "Centuries" broke the path
of free historical study, and are the first general church history
deserving of the name. They introduced also a new method.
They divide the material by centuries, and each century by a
uniform Procrustean scheme of not less than sixteen rubrics :
" de loco et propagatione ecclesiae ; de persecutione et tranquil-
litate ecclesiae ; de doctrina ; de haeresibus ; de ceremoniis ; de
politia; de schisrnatibus ; de conciliis; de vitis episcoporum ;
de haereticis ; de martyribus ; de miraculis et prodigiis ; de re-
bus Judaicis ; de aliis religionibus ; de mutationibus politicis."
This plan destroys all symmetry, and occasions wearisome dif-
f useness and repetition. Yet, in spite of its mechanical uni-
formity and stiffness, it is more scientific than the annalistic or
chronicle method, and, with material improvements and con-
siderable curtailment of rubrics, it has been followed to this day.
The Swiss, J. H. HOTTINGER (d. 1667), in his Historic, Ecde-
wwtica N. Testamenti (Zurich, 1655-'67, 9 vols. fol.), furnished
a Reformed counterpart to the Magdeburg Centuries. It is
less original and vigorous, but more sober and moderate. It
comes down to the sixteenth century, to which alone five vol-
umes are devoted.
From FRED. SPAXHEIM of Holland (d. 1649) we have a Sun*
ma Historiae Ecdesiasticae (Lugd. Bat. 1689), coming down to
the sixteenth century. It is based on a thorough and critical
knowledge of the sources, and serves at the same time as a
refutation of Baronius.
§ T LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 39
A new path was broken by GOTTFMED ARNOLD (d. 1714), in
his Impartial History of the Church and Heretics to A.D. 1688.1
He is the historian of the pietistic and mystic schooL He
made subjective piety the test of the true faith, and the perse-
cuted sects the main channel of true Christianity; while the
reigning church from Constantine down, and indeed not the
Catholic church only, but the orthodox Lutheran with it, he
represented as a progressive apostasy, a Babylon full of corrup-
tion and abomination. In this way he boldly and effectually
broke down the walls of ecclesiastical exclusiveness and bigotry ;
but at the same time, without intending or suspecting it, he
opened the way to a rationalistic and sceptical treatment of
history. While, in his zeal for impartiality and personal piety,
he endeavored to do justice to all possible heretics and sectaries,
he did great injustice to the supporters of orthodoxy and eccle-
siastical order. Arnold was also the first to use the German
language instead of the Latin in learned history ; but his style
is tasteless and insipid.
J. L. VON MOSHEIM (Chancellor of the University at Gottin-
gen, d. 1755), a moderate and impartial Lutheran, is the father
of church historiography as an art^ unless we prefer to concede
this merit to Bossuet. In skilful construction, clear, though
mechanical and monotonous arrangement, critical sagacity, prag-
matic combination, freedom from passion, almost bordering on
cool indifferentism, and in easy elegance of Latin style, he sur-
passes all his predecessors. His well-known Institutiones His-
toriae Ecdesiasticae antiquae et recentioris (Helmstadt, 1755)
follows the centurial plan of Flacius, but in simpler form, and,
as translated and supplemented by Machine, and Murdock, is
still used extensively as a text-book in England and America.'
1 Unparthetische Kirchen- und Keteerhistorie. Frankfort, 1609 sqq. 4 voU
fol.
' Bast edition : Institutes of Ecclesiastical History ancient and modern, 0f
JOHN LAWRENCE VON MOSIIEIM. A new and literal translation from the
original Latin, with copious additional Note*, original and selected. By James
Murdock, D.D. 1882 ; 5th ed , New York. 1854, 8 vote. Murdock was Pro-
fessor of Ecclesiastical History at Andover, Man. (d. 1856), and translated
40 § 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH HISTORY.
J. M. SCHROCKH (d. 1808), a pupil of Mosheim, but already
touched with the neological spirit which Semler (d. 1791) intro-
duced into the historical theology of Germany, wrote with un-
wearied industry the largest Protestant church history after the
Magdeburg Centuries. He very properly forsook the centurial
plan still followed by Mosheim, and adopted the periodic. His
Christian Church History comprises forty-five volumes, and
reaches to the end of the eighteenth century. It is written in
diffuse but clear and easy style, with reliable knowledge of
sources, and in a mild and candid spirit, and is still a rich store-
house of historical matter.1
The very learned ListtivAwnes Historiae Ecdesiasticae "PI et
N. Testamenti of the Dutch Reformed divine, H. VENEMA
(d. 1787), contain the history of the Jewish and Christian
Church down to the end of the sixteenth century (Lugd. Bat
1777-'83, in seven parts).
H. P. C. HENKE (d. 1809) is the leading representative of the
rationalistic chnrch historiography, which ignores Christ in
history. In his spirited and able Attgemeine Oeschichte der
christtichen Kirche, continued by Vater (Braunschweig, 1788-
1820, 9 vols.), the church appears not as the temple of God on
earth, but as a great infirmary and bedlam.
AUGUST NEANDER (Professor of Church History in Berlin,
d. 1850), the " father of modern church history," a child in
spirit, a giant in learning, and a saint in piety, led back the
study of history from the dry heath of rationalism to the
fresh fountain of divine life in Christ, and made it a grand
source of edification as well as instruction for readers of every
creed. His General History of the Christian, Religion and
also Mttnscher's Dogmengetehichte. Mosheim's special history of the ante-
Nioene period (1733) was translated from the Latin by Vidal (1813), and
Murdoch (1851), new ed., N. York, 1858, 2 yols.
» OhrWMu EtrchengeichiMe. Leipsig, 1768-1812, 45 rols 8ro, including
10 vols. of the History after the Beformation (the last two by Tzsehirner).
Nobody ever read Schroeckh through (except the author and the proof-reader),
and the rery name is rather abKhrtckend, bat he is as valuable for reference
M BaroniuSf and far more impartial.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 41
Church begins after the apostolic age (which he treated in a
separate work), and comes down to the Council of Basle in
1430, the continuation being interrupted by his death.1 It is
distinguished for thorough and conscientious use of the sources,
critical research, ingenious combination, tender love of truth
and justice, evangelical catholicity,- hearty piety, and by mas-
terly analysis of the doctrinal systems and the subjective Chris-
tian life of men of God in past ages. The edifying character
is not introduced from without, but naturally grows out of his
conception of church history, viewed as a continuous revelation
of Christ's presence and power in humanity, and as an illustra-
tion of the parable of the leaven which gradually pervades and
transforms the whole lump. The political and artistic sections,
and the outward machinery of history, were not congenial to
the humble, guileless simplicity of Neander. His style is mo-
notonous, involved, and diffuse, but unpretending, natural, and
warmed by a genial glow of sympathy and enthusiasm. It
illustrates his motto : Pectus est quod tkeologum faeit.
Torrey's excellent translation (Tlose translated only the first
three centuries), published in Boston, Edinburgh, and London,
in multiplied editions, has given Neander's immortal work even
a much larger circulation in England and America than it has
in Germany itself.
Besides this general history, Neander's indefatigable industry
produced also special works on the Life of Christ (1837, 4th
ed. 1845), the Apostolic Age (1832, 4th ed. 1842, translated by
J. E. Ryland, Edinburgh, 1842, and again by E. G. Robinson,
N. York, 1865), Memorials of Christian Life (1823, 3d ed.
1845, 3 vols.), the Gnostic Heresies (1818), and biographies of
representative characters, as Julian the Apostate (1812), St.
Bernard (1813, 2d ed. 1848), St. Chrysostom (1822, 3d ed.
1 ARgemeine OeschichU der christtichen Rdigion und Kirchc. Hamburg,
1825-'52, 11 parts; 3d ed. 1856, in 4 large vols., with an excellent introduction
by Dr. Ullmann. The inundation of Prof. Jotqph Torrey (of Burlington, Vtf
d. 1867) waa published in Boston in 5 vols., 12th ed., 1881, with a model Index
of 389 pages.
42 § 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH HISTORY.
1848), and Tertullian (1825, 2d ed. 1849). His History of
Christian Doctrines was published after his death by Jacobi
(1855), and translated by J. E. Kyland (Lond., 1858).1
From J. C. L. GIESELEB (Professor of Church History in
Gottingen, d. 1854), a profoundly learned, acute, calm, impar-
tial, conscientious, but cold and dry scholar, we have a Text
book of Church IHstoi^y from the birth of Christ to 1854.8 He
takes Tillemont's method of giving the history in the very
words of the sources; only he does not form the text from
them, but throws them into notes. The chief excellence of
this invaluable and indispensable work is in its very carefully
selected and critically elucidated extracts from the original
authorities down to the year 1 648 (as far as he edited the work
himself). The skeleton-like text presents, indeed, the leading
facts clearly and concisely, but does not reach the inward life
and spiritual marrow of the church of Christ. The theological
views of Gieseler hardly rise above the jejune rationalism of
Wegscheider, to whom he dedicated a portion of his history ;
and with all his attempt at impartiality he cannot altogether
conceal the negative effect of a rationalistic conception of Chris-
tianity, which acts like a chill upon the narrative of its history,
and substitutes a skeleton of dry bones for a living organism.
Neander and Gieseler matured their works in respectful and
friendly rivalry, during the same period of thirty years of slow,
but solid and steady growth. The former is perfectly sub-
jective, and reproduces the original sources in a continuous
1 1 have given a fuller account of the life and writings of Neander, my
beloved teacher, in my " Kirchenfreund " for 1851, pp. 20 sqq and 283 sqq ,
and in Aug Neander, Erinnerungen, Gotha, 1886 (76 pp ). Comp also Har-
nack's oration at the centennial of Neander s birth, Berlin, Jan 17, 1889, and
A. Wiegand, Aug. Neander, Erfurt, 1889.
8 Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschiehte. Bonn, 1824-'56 (4th ed 1844 sqq ), in 5
volumes, the last two published from his lectures after his death by Redepen-
ning. Translated into English first by Cunningham, in Philadelphia, 1846,
then by Davidson and Hull, in England, and last and best, on the basis of the
former, by Henry B. Smith, New York (Harpers), in 5 vols., 1857-1880. The
fifth and last volume of this edition was completed after Dr. Smith's death
(1877) by Prof. Stearns and Miss Mary A. Robinson, with an introductory notice
by Philip Schaft Gieseler's Dogmengetcluchte appeared separately in 1855.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 43
warm and sympathetic composition, which reflects at the same
time the author's own mind and heart; the latter is purely
objective, and speaks with the indifference of an outside spec-
tator, through the ipsissima verba of the same sources, arranged
as notes, and strung together simply by a slender thread of
narrative. The one gives the history ready-made, and full of
life and instruction ; the other furnishes the material and leaves
the reader to animate and improve it for himself. With the
one, the text is everything; with the other, the notes. But
both admirably complete each other, and exhibit together the
ripest fruit of German scholarship in general church history in
the first half of the nineteenth century.
FERDINAND CHRISTIAN BAUR (Prof, of Church History in
Tubingen, d. 1860) must be named alongside with Neander
and Gieseler in the front rank of German church historians.
He was equal to both in independent and thorough scholarship,
superior in constructive criticism and philosophical generaliza-
tion, but inferior in well-balanced judgment and solid merit.
He over-estimated theories and tendencies, and undervalued
persons and facts. He was an indefatigable investigator and
bold innovator. He completely revolutionized the history of
apostolic and post-apostolic Christianity, and resolved its rich
spiritual life of faith and love into a purely speculative process
of conflicting tendencies, which started from an antagonism of
Petrinism and Paulinism, and were ultimately reconciled in the
compromise of ancient Catholicism. He fully brought to light,
by a keen critical analysis, the profound intellectual fermenta-
tion of the primitive church, but eliminated from it the super-
natural and miraculous element ; yet as an honest and serious
sceptic he had to confess at last a psychological miracle in
the conversion of St. Paul, and to bow before the greater
miracle of the resurrection of Christ, without which the former
is an inexplicable enigma. His critical researches and specula-
tions gave a powerful stimulus to a reconsideration and modifi-
cation of the traditional views on early Christianity.
We have from his fertile pen a general History of the Chris-
44 § 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
tian Church, in five volumes (1853-1863), three of which were
published after his death and lack the originality and careful
finish of the first and second, which cover the first six cen-
turies; Lectures on Christian Doctrine History (Dogmenge-
schichte\ published by his son (1865-'67, in 3 volumes), and
a brief Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, edited by himself
(1847, 2d ed. 1858). Even more valuable are his monographs :
on St. Paul, for whom he had a profound veneration, although
he recognized only four of his Epistles as genuine (1845, 2d
ed. by E. Zeller, 1867, 2 vols., translated into English, 1875) ;
on Gnosticism, with which he had a strong spiritual affinity
(Die chrisdiche Gnosis, oder die christtiche Religionxphiloso-
phie, 1835) ; the history of the Doctrine of the Atonement
(1838, 1 vol.), and of the Trinity and Incarnation (1841-'43, in
3 vols.), and his masterly vindication of Protestantism against
Mohler's Symlolik (2d ed. 1836).1
KARL RUDOLPH HAGENBACH (Professor of Church History at
Basel, d. 1874) wrote, in the mild and impartial spirit of Ne-
ander, with poetic taste and good judgment, and in pleasing
popular style, a general History of the Christian Church, in
seven volumes (4th ed. 1868-'72),a and a History of Christian
Doctrines, in two volumes (1841, 4th ed. 1857).*
Protestant Germany is richer than any other country in
manuals and compends of church history for the use of stu-
dents. We mention ENGELHABDT (1834), NIKDNKU (Geschlchte
der christl. Kirche, 1846, and Lehrluch, 1866), HASK (llth cd.
1 Comp. Landerer's Worte der Srinnerung an Dr. Baur, 1860, the article
11 Baur und die Tubinger Sohule," in Herzog and Plitt, " TheoL Encykl ," Vol.
H , 163-184 (2d ed ), and R W. Mackay • The Tubingen School and its Ante-
eedents. London, 1863. See also Zeller, Vortrage (1865), pp. 267 sqq.
' Portions of Hagenbach's History have been translated, namely, the ZTi>-
tory of the ChurcJi in Vie ISth and Wth Centuries by Dr. John F. Ilurst
(President of Drew Theol. Seminary, Madison, N. J.), N. York, 1860, 2 vols.,
and the History of the Reformation by Miss EVELINA MOOKE (of Newark, N.
J.), Edinburgh, 1879, 2 rols. A new ed. with literature by NippM, 1885 sqq.
1 English translation by C. W. Buck, Edinburgh, 1846, revised from the
4th ed., and enlarged from Neander, Gieseler, Baur, etc., by Henry R Smith,
N. York, 1861, in 2 rols. ; 6th Germ. ed. by K. Benrath, Leipz. 1888.
§ 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH HISTORY. 45
1886), GUERIOKB (9th ed. 1866, 3 vols.), LINDNER (1848-'54),
JACOBI (1850, unfinished), FRICKE (1850), KURTZ (Lehrbueh,
10th ed. 1887, in 2 vols., the larger Handbuch, unfinished),
HASSE (edited by Kohler, 1864, in 3 small vols.), KOLLNER
(1864), EBRARD (1866, 2 vols.), ROTHE (lectures edited by WEIN-
GAKTEN, 1875, 2 vols.), H.ERZOQ (1876-'82, 3 vols.), H. SCHMID
(1881, 2 vols.). Niedner's Lehrbuch (1866) stands first for
independent and thorough scholarship, but is heavy. Base's
Compend is unsurpassed for condensation, wit, point, and artis-
tic taste, as a miniature picture.1 Herzog's Abriss keeps the
medium between voluminous fulness and enigmatic brevity, and
is written in a candid Christian spirit. Kurtz is clear, concise,
and evangelical.1 A new manual was begun by MOLLEK, 1889.
The best works on doctrine history (Dogmengeschichte) are by
MiJNSCHER, GlESELER, NEANDEB, BAUB, H.AGENBACH, TfiOMASIUS,
II. SCHMID, Nrrzscii, and HARNACK (1887).
It is impossible to do justice here to the immense service
which Protestant Germany has done to special departments of
church history. Most of the fathers, popes, schoolmen and
reformers, and the principal doctrines of Christianity have been
made the subject of minute and exhaustive historical treat-
ment. We have already mentioned the monographs of Nean-
der and Baur, and fully equal to them are such masterly and
enduring works as ROTHE'S Beginnings of the Christian Church,
ULLMANN'S Reformers before the Reformation, HASSE'S Anselm
of Canterbury, and CORNER'S History of Christology.
(b) French works.
Dr. ETIENNE L. CHASTEL (Professor of Church History in the
National Church at Geneva, d. 1886) wrote a complete Histoire
du Christianisme (Paris, 1881~'85, 5 vols.).
Dr. MERLE D'AUBIGN!: (Professor of Church History in the
independent Reformed Seminary at Geneva, d. 1872) repro-
duced in elegant and eloquent French an extensive history both
of the Lutheran and Calvinistic Reformation, with an evan-
1 In 1885 Hase began the publication of his Lecture* en Ch. Hint , 8 rolfi.
9 English translation from the 9th ed. by J. Macphenon, 1889, 8 rob.
46 § 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
gelical enthusiasm and a dramatic vivacity which secured it an
extraordinary circulation in England and America (far greater
than on the Continent), and made it the most popular work on
that important period. Its value as a history is somewhat
diminished by polemical bias and the occasional want of accu-
racy. Dr. Merle conceived the idea of the work during the
celebration of the third centenary of the German Reformation
in 1817, in the Wartburg at Eisenach, where Luther translated
the New Testament and threw his inkstand at the devil. He
labored on it till the year of his death.1
Dr. EDMUND DE PBESSENSE (pastor of a free church in Paris,
member of the National Assembly, then senator of France), an
able scholar, with evangelical Protestant convictions similar to
those of Dr. Merle, wrote a Life of Christ against Kenan, and a
History of Ancient Christianity, both of which are translated
into English.1
ERNEST KENAN, the celebrated Orientalist and member of the
French Academy, prepared from the opposite standpoint of scept-
ical criticism, and mixing history with romance, but in brilliant
and fascinating style, the Life of Christ, and the history of the
Beginnings of Christianity to the middle of the second century.1
1 Histoire de la Reformation du 16 siede. Paris, 1835 sqq , 4th ed. 1861
sqq , 5 vols Histoire de la Reformation en Europe au temps de Calvin. Paris,
1863 sqq German translation of both works, Stuttgart (Steinkopf), 1861
and 1863 sqq English translation repeatedly published in England and the
United States by the Amer Tract Society (with sundry changes), and by
Carter & Brothers The Carter ed. (N. York, 1863-1879) is in 5 vols. for the
Lutheran Reformation, and in 8 vols for the Reformation in the time of
Calvin The last three vols of the second series were translated and pub-
lished after the author's death by W. L. Cotes. By a singular mistake Dr.
Merle goes in England and America by the name of D'Aubigne, which 19
merely an assumed by-name from his Huguenot ancestors
2 Jesus Christ, ton temps, sa vie, son omire. Paris, 1866. Histoire des trois
premiers siecles de Veglise chrttienne Paris, 1858 sqq. German translation by
Fabarius (Leipzig, 1862-65), English translation by Annie Harwood. Lond.
and N. York, 1870 sqq , 4 vols Superseded by a revised ed. of the original,
Paris, 1887 sqq
1 Vie de Jesus. Paris, 1863, and in many editions in different languages.
This book created even a greater sensation than the Leben Jesu of Strauss,
but is very superficial and turns the gospel history into a novel with a self-
contradictory and impossible hero. It forma the first volume of his Histoire
da origines du ehmUanwne. The other volumes are : 2. Les A.p6tres, Paris,
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 47
*
(c) English works.
English literature is rich in works on Christian antiquity,
English church history, and other special departments, but
poor in general histories of Christianity.
The first place among English historians, perhaps, is due to
EDWARD GIBBON (d. 1794). In his monumental History of ike
Decline and fall of the JSoman Empire (finished after twenty
years' labor, at Lausanne, June 27, 1787), he notices throughout
the chief events in ecclesiastical history from the introduction
of the Christian religion to the times of the crusades and the
capture of Constantinople (1453), with an accurate knowledge
of the chief sources and the consummate skill of a master in
the art of composition, with occasional admiration for heroic
characters like Athanasius and Chrysostom, but with a keener
eye to the failings of Christians and the imperfections of the
visible church, and unfortunately without sympathy and under-
standing of the spirit of Christianity which runs like a golden
thread even through the darkest centuries. lie conceived the
idea of his magnificent work in papal Rome, among the ruins
of the Capitol, and in tracing the gradual decline and fall of
imperial Rome, which he calls "the greatest, perhaps, and most
awful scene in the history of mankind," he has involuntarily
become a witness to the gradual growth and triumph of the
religion of the cross, of which no historian of the future will
ever record a history of decline and fall, though some " lonely
traveller from New Zealand," taking his stand on " a broken
arch " of the bridge of St. Angelo, may sketch the ruins of St.
Peter's.1
1866; 3. St. Paul, 1869; 4. D Antichrist, 1873; 5. Les evang&et *t la second*
generation des Chretiens, 1877; 6. ISeglise chretienne, 1870 ; Marc-Aurele et la
fin du monde antique, 1882. The work of twenty years Renan wrote, ha
says, " without any other passion than a very keen curiosity.1'
1 Cardinal Newman, shortly before his transition from Oxford Traotarian-
ism to Romanism (in his essay on Development of Christian Doctrine, 1845),
declared " the infidel Gibbon to be the chief, perhaps the only English writer
who has any claim to be considered an ecclesiastical historian." This is cer-
tainly not true any longer Dr McDonald, in an essay, " Was Gibbon an in-
fidel * " (in the " Bibliotheoa Sacra " for July, 1868, Andorer, Mass.), tried to
48 § 7. LITERATURE OP CHURCH HISTORY.
*
JOSEPH MILNER (Vicar of Hull, d. 1797) wrote a History of
the Church of Christ for popular edification, selecting those
portions which best suited his standard of evangelical ortho-
doxy and piety. "Nothing," he says in the preface, "but
what appears to me to belong to Christ's kingdom shall be
admitted ; genuine piety is the only thing I intend to celebrate."
He may be called the English Arnold, less learned, but free
from polemics and far more readable and useful than the Ger-
man pietist. His work was corrected and continued by his
brother, Isaac MUner (d. 1820), by Thomas GrantJtam and
Dr. Stebbing.1
Dr. WADDINGTON (Dean of Durham) prepared three volumes
on the history of the Church before the Reformation (1835)
and three volumes on the Continental Reformation (1841).
Evangelical.
Canon JAMES C. ROBERTSON of Canterbury (Prof, of Church
History in King's College, d. 1882) brings his History of the
Christian Church from the Apostolic Age down to the Refor-
mation (A.D. 64-1517). The work was first published in four
octavo volumes (1854 sqq.) and then in eight duodecimo vol-
umes (Lond. 1874), and is the best, as it is the latest, general
church history written by an Episcopalian. It deserves praise
for its candor, moderation, and careful indication of authori-
ties.
From CHARLES HARDWICK (Archdeacon of Ely, d. 1859) we
have a useful manual of the Church History of the Middle Age
(1853, 3d ed. by Prof. W. StuVbs, 1872), and another on the
formation (1856, 3d ed. by W. Stulls, London, 1873). His
vindicate him against the charge of infidelity. But Gibbon waa undoubtedly
a Deist an4 deeply affected by the skepticism of Hume and Voltaire While
a student at Oxford he was converted to Romanism by reading Bossuet's
Variations of Protestantism, and afterwards passed over to infidelity, with
scarcely a ray of hope of any immortality but that of fame. See bis Auto-
biography, Gh. VIII., and his letter to Lord Sheffield of April 27, 1708, where
he says that his " only consolation " in view of death and the trials of lift
was " the presence of a friend." Beat ed. of Gibbon, by W. Smith.
1 London, 1794-1812 ; new ed. by Grantham, 1847, 4 vols,, I860, and other
•d. A German translation by Mortimer, Gnadau, 5 volt.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 49
History of the Anglican Articles of Religion (1859) is a valu-
able contribution to English church history.
Dr. TRENCH, Archbishop of Dublin, has published his Lee-
tures on Mediwval Church History (Lond. 1877), delivered be-
fore the girls of Queen's College, London. They are conceived
in a spirit of devout churchly piety and interspersed with judi-
cious reflections.
PHILIP SMITH'S History of the Christian Church during the
First Ten Centuries (1879), and during the Middle Ages (1885),
in 2 vols., is a skilful and useful manual for students.1
The most popular and successful modern church historians in
the English or any other language are Dean MILMAN of St.
Paul's, Dean STANLEY of Westminster Abbey, and Archdeacon
FARRAK of Westminster. They belong to the broad church
school of the Church of England, are familiar with Continental
learning, and adorn their chosen themes with all the charms of
elegant, eloquent, and picturesque diction. HENRY HART MIL-
VAN (d. 1868) describes, with the stately march of Gibbon and
as a counterpart of his decline and fall of Paganism, the rise
and progress of Ancient and Latin Christianity, with special
reference to its bearing on the progress of civilization.* AR-
THUR PENRHYN STANLEY (d. 1881) unrolls a picture gallery of
great men and events in the Jewish theocracy, from Abraham
to the Christian era, and in the Greek church, from Constan-
tine the Great to Peter the Great.' FREDERIC W. FARRAR (b.
1 Repnblished by Harper & Brothers, New York, 1885. The author has
transferred verbatim a large portion of his Manual from my church history,
but with proper acknowledgment. Another church history by a writer
nearer home has made even larger, but less honest use of my book.
9 The History of Christianity from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of
Paganism in the Roman Empire Lond. 1840, revised ed., Lond. and N. York
(Middleton), 1866, 8 vols. More important is his History of Latin Chris-
tianity to the Pontificate of Nicholas V. (A.D. 1455), Lond. and N. York, 1854
sqq. , in 8 vols. Milman wrote also a History of the Jews, 1829 (revised 1862,
8 vols.), and published an edition of Gibbon's Decline and FaU with useful
annotations. A complete edition of his historical works appeared, Lond.
1866-'67, in 15 vols. 8vo.
1 Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church (delivered in Oxford), Lond.
and N. York, 1862. No complete history, but a series of picturesque d*
60 § 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
1831) illuminates with classical and rabbinical learning, and
with exuberant rhetoric the Life of Christ, and of the great
Apostle of the Gentiles, and the Early Days of Christianity.1
(d) American works.
American literature is still in its early youth, but rapidly
growing in every department of knowledge. PKESCOTT, WASH-
INGTON IRVING, MOTLEY, and BANCROFT have cultivated interest-
ing portions of the history of Spain, Holland, and the United
States, and have taken rank among the classical historians in
the English language.
In ecclesiastical history the Americans have naturally so far
been mostly in the attitude of learners and translators, but with
every prospect of becoming producers. They have, as already
noticed, furnished the best translations of Mosheim, Neander,
and Gieseler.
HENRY B. SMITH (late Professor in the Union Theol. Semi-
nary, New York, d. 1877) has prepared the best Chronological
Tables of Church History, which present in parallel columns a
synopsis of the external and internal history of Christianity,
including that of America, down to 1858, with lists of Councils,
Popes, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and Moderators of
General Assemblies.1
scriptiona of the most interesting characters and scenes in the Eastern
church. Lectures on Hie History of Hie Jewish Church, Lond. and N. York,
1862-'76, in 3 vols. An independent and skilfnl adaptation of the views and
results of Ewald's QescMchte Israel's, to which Stanley pays a fine tribute in
the Prefaces to the first and third vols. His Historical Memorial* of Canter-
bury Cathedral (1855, 5th ed. 1869), and of Westminster Abbey (1867, 4th ed.
1874), are important for English church history. His Lectures on the History
of the Church of Scotland (1872) have delighted the moderate and liberal, but
displeased the orthodox Presbyterians of the land of Enoz and Walter Scott
1 Farrar's Life of Christ appeared first in London, 1874, in 2 vols , and has
up to 1879 gone through about thirty editions, including the American re-
prints. His Life and Work of St. Paul, Lond. and N. York, 1879, in 2 vols.
The Early Days of Christianity, London and New York, 1882, 2 vols ; and
Lives of the Fathers, Lond. and N Y. 1889, 2 vols
9 History of the Church of Christ in (16) Chronological Tables N. York
(Charles Scribner), 1860. Weingarten's Zeittafeln tur Etrchengeschichte, 3d
ed., 1688) are less complete, but more convenient in size.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 61
W. G. T. SHEDD (Professor in the same institution, b. 1820)
wrote from the standpoint of Calvinistic orthodoxy an eminent-
ly readable History of Christian Doctrine (N. York, 1863, 2
vols.), in clear, fresh, and vigorous English, dwelling chiefly on
theology, anthropology, and soteriology, and briefly touching
on eschatology, but entirely omitting the doctrine of the Church
and the sacraments, with the connected controversies.
PHILIP SCHAFF is the author of a special History of the Apos-
tolic Church, in English and German (N. York, 1853, etc., and
Leipzig, 1854), of a History of the Creeds of CJiristendom
(N. York, 4th ed., 1884, 3 vols., with documents original and
translated), and of a general History of the Christian Church
(N. York and Edinb., 1859-'67, in 3 vols. ; also in German,
Leipzig, 1867 ; rewritten and enlarged, N. Y. and Edinb.,
1882-'S8 ; third revision, 1889, 5 vols. ; to be continued).
GEOKGE P. FISHER (Professor in New Haven, b. 1827) has
written the best manual in the English language : History of
the Christian Church, with Maps. N. York, 1887. lie has
also published a History of the Reformation (1873) ; Begin-
nings of Christianity (1877), and Outlines of Universal His-
tory (1885), — all in a calm, amiable, and judicious spirit, and a
clear, chaste style.
Contributions to interesting chapters in the history of Prot-
estantism are numerous. Dr. E. II. GILLETT (d. 1875) wrote a
monograph on John Ilus (N. York, 1864, 2 vols.), a History
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America
(Philad. 1864, 2 vols.), and a History of Natural Theology (God
in Human Thought, N. York, 1874, 2 vols.); Dr. ABEL STE-
VENB, a History of Methodism, viewed as the great religious
revival of the eighteenth century, down to the centenary cele-
bration of 1839 (N. York, 1858-'61, 3 vols.), and a History of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States (1864-'67,
4 vols.); HENRY M. BAIKD, a History of the Rise and Progress
of the Huguenots in France (N. York, 1879, 2 vols.), and The
Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (1886, 2 vols.).
The denominational and sectarian divisions of American
52 § 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY.
Christianity seem to be unfavorable to the study and cultivation
of general church history, which requires a large-hearted catho-
lic spirit. But, on the other hand, the social and national in-
termingling of ecclesiastical organizations of every variety 8£
doctrine arid discipline, on a basis of perfect freedom and
equality before the law, widens the horizon, and facilitates
comparison and appreciation of variety in unity and unity in
variety ; while the growth and prosperity of the churches on
the principle of self-support and self-government encourages a
hopeful view of the future. America falls heir to the whole
wealth of European Christianity and civilization, and is in a
favorable position to review and reproduce in due time the
entire course of Christ's kingdom in the old world with the
faith and freedom of the new.1
(e) Finally, we must mention biblical and ecclesiastical Ency-
clopaedias which contain a large number of valuable contribu-
tions to church history from leading scholars of the age, viz. :
1. The Bible Dictionaries of WINER (Leipzig, 1820, 3d ed.
1847, 2 vols.) ; SCHENKEL (Leipzig, 1869-'75, 5 vols.) ; EIEHM
(Leipzig, 1877 sqq., illustrated) ; Knro (Edinb., 1845, third re-
vised ed. by W. L. ALEXANDER, 1862-'65, 3 vols.); WM. SMITH
(London, 1860-'64, in 3 vols., American edition much enlarged
and improved by H. HACKETT and E. ABBOT, N. York, 1870,
in 4 vols.) ; PH. SCHAFF (Philadelphia, 1880, with maps and
illustrations ; 4th ed., revised, 1887).
2. The Biblical and Historical Dictionaries of HERZOG (Real-
Encyldopadie far Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, Gotha
1854 to 1868, in 22 vols., new ed. thoroughly revised by
HERZOG, PLITT and HATTCK, Leipzig, 1877-'88, in 18 vols.);
SCHAFF-HERZOG (Religious Encyclopaedia, based on Herzog,
but condensed, supplemented, and adapted to English and
American students, edited by Philip Schaff in connection with
1 Comp. the author's Christianity in the United States of America (a report
prepared for the seventh General Conference of the Evang. Alliance, held at
Basle, Sept., 1879), printed in the Proceedings of that Conference, and his
CJurch and Btoto infaU. £, N. York, 1888.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 63
Samuel M. Jackson and D. S. Schaff, N. York and Edinburgh,
revised ed., 1887, in 3 vols., with a supplementary vol. on Living
Dvvines and Christian Workers, 1887); WETZER and WELTE
(Roman Catholic Kirchenlewicon, Freiburg i. Breisgau, 1847-
1860, in 12 vols.; second ed. newly elaborated by Cardinal
JOSEPH HERGENROTHER and Dr. FRANZ KAULEN, 1880 sqq.,
promised in 10 vols.) ; LICHTENBERGER (Encyclopedic des sciences
religwuses, Paris, 1877-'82, in 13 vols., with supplement);
McCLiNTOGK and STRONG (Cyclopcedia of Biblical, Theological,
and Ecclesiastical Literature, New York, 1867-'81, 10 vols.
and two supplementary volumes, 1885 and 1887, largely illus-
trated). The Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., completed
1889 in 25 vols.) contains also many elaborate articles on bibli-
cal and ecclesiastical topics.
3. For ancient church history down to the age of Charle-
magne: SMITH and CIIEETHAM, Dictionary of Christian An-
tiquities (London and Boston, 1875, 2 vols.) ; SMITH and WAGE,
Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doc-
trines during the first eight centuries (London and Boston,
1877-'87, 4 vols.). The articles in these two works are written
mostly by scholars of the Church of England, and are very
valuable for fulness and accuracy of information.
NOTE. — The study of church history is reviving in the Greek Church
-where it began. PHUJABET BAPHEIDOS has issued a compendious church
history under the title : 'EKKX^o-wurrwcq ioropta anb roO Kvpiov y
Xptrrrou P>*XPL T**v *a~l* W*ur \p6vwv VTTO $iXaperov Ba
TOV A. *. KCU KaftrryrjTov TTJS GfoXoyiat cV rfj *v XaXici; 0eoXoywc(7
Toftoff Trpairof. 'Ap^ata €KK\rjo- ioropia. A. D. 1-700. 9Ev
1884 (Lorentz & Keil, hbraires de S. M. I. le Sultan), 380 pp. The sec-
ond vol. embraces the mediaeval church to the fall of Constantinople,
1453, and has 459 pp. The work is dedicated to Dr. Philotheos Bryen-
nios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, the discoverer of the famous Jerusalem
Codex. Nearly all the literature quoted is German Protestant; no Eng-
lish, very few Latin, and still fewer Greek works are mentioned. Another
compend of Church History in Greek by DIOMEDKS KraiAKoe appeared
at Athens, 1881, in 2 vols.
FIRST PERIOD
THE CHURCH UNDER THE APOSTLES
FROM THE BIRTH OP CHRIST TO THE DEATH OP ST. JOHN,
A.D. 1-100
CHAPTER I
PREPARATION POR CHRISTIANITY IN THE HISTORY OP THE
JEWISH AND HEATHEN WORLD.
Literature.
J. L. VON MOSHEIH : Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity in
the first three centuries. 1753. TransL by Vidal and Murdock, vol. L
chs. 1 and 2 (pp. 9-82, of the N. York ed. 1853).
NEANDEK : Allg. Oesch. der chnstl. Religion und Kirche. Vol. Is* (1842).
Einleit. (p. 1-116).
J. P. LANOE : Das apost. Zeitalter. 1853, 1. pp. 224-318.
SOHAFP : Hist, of the Apostolic Church, pp. 137-188 (New York ed.).
LTJTTERBECK (K. C.) i Die N. Testamenthchen Lehrbegriffe, oder Unter-
suchungen uber das Zeitalter der Rehgionswende, die Vorstufen des
Christenthums und die erste OestaUung desselben. Mainz, 1852, 2 vols.
DdLLiNGEB (B. C.) : Heidenthum und Judenthum. Vorhalle zur Oeschichte
des Christenthums. Begensb. 1857. EngL transl. by N. Domett
under the title : The Gentile and the Jew in the courts of the Temple
of Christ : an Introduction to the History of Christianity. Lond. 1862,
2 vols.
OHAKLES HABDWIOK (d. 1859) : Christ and other Masters. London, 4th
ed. by Procter, 1875,
56 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
M. SCHNEOKENBUBGEB (d. 1848) : Vorlssungen fiber N. Testamentliche Skit*
geschtchte, aus (lessen Nachlass herausgegeben von Lohlein, mil Vorwori
von Hundeshagen. Frankf. a M. 1862.
A.. HAUSRATH : N. Testamenthche Zeitgeschichte. Heidelb. 1868 sqq., 2d
ed. 1873-77, 4 vols. The first vol. appeared in a third ed. 1879.
The work includes the state of Judaism and heathenism in the time
of Christ, the apostolic and the post-apostolic age to Hadrian (A.D.
117). English translation by Poynting and Guenzer, Lond 1878 sqq.
E. ScHfiBER : Lehrbuch tier N. TestamentltcJien Zeitgeschwhte. Leipz. 1874.
Revised and enlarged under the title : Gesch. des jud. Volkes im
Zettalter Chnsti. 1886, 2 vols. Engl. translation, Edinb. and N. Y.
H. SCKLLLEB : Geschichte des romischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung
des Nero. Berlin, 1872.
L. FBIEDLANDEB : Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms in der Zeit
von Augustus bis zum Ausgang der Antonme. Leipzig, 5th ed., re-
vised, 1881, 3 vols. A standard work.
GBO. P. FISHER (of Yale College, New Haven) : The Beginnings of Chris-
tianity. N. York, 1877. Chs. II.-VIL
GEBHABD UHLHOBN : The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. Transl.
by Egbert C. Smyth and C. J. H. Ropes. N. York, 1879. Book I.
chs. 1 and 2. The German original appeared in a 4th ed., 1884.
§ 8. Central Position of Christ in the History of the World.
To see clearly the relation of the Christian religion to the
preceding history of mankind, and to appreciate its vast influ-
ence upon all future ages, we must first glance at the prepara-
tion which existed in the political, moral, and religious condi-
tion of the world for the advent of our Saviour.
As religion is the deepest and holiest concern of man, the
entrance of the Christian religion into history is the most mo-
mentous of all events. It is the end of the old world and the
beginning of the new. It was a great idea of Dionysius " the
Little" to date our era from the birth of our Saviour. Jesus
Christ, the God-Man, the prophet, priest, and king of mankind,
is, in fact, the centre and turning-point not only of chronology,
but of all history, and the key to all its mysteries. Around
him, as the sun of the moral universe, revolve at their several
distances, all nations and all important events, in the religious
life of the world; and all must, directly or indirectly, con-
§ 8. CENTRAL POSITION OF CHRIST. 67
sciously or unconsciously, contribute to glorify his name and
advance his cause. The history of mankind before his birth
must be viewed as a preparation for his coming, and the his-
tory after his birth as a gradual diffusion of his spirit and
progress of his kingdom. " All things were created by him,
and for him." He is "the desire of all nations." He ap-
peared in the " fulness of time," ! when the process of prepar-
ation was finished, and the world's need of redemption fully
disclosed.
This preparation for Christianity began properly with the
very creation of man, who was made in the image of God, and
destined for communion with him through the eternal Son;
and with the promise of salvation which God gave to our first
parents as a star of hope to guide them through the darkness
of sin and error.2 Vague memories of a primitive paradise and
subsequent fall, and hopes of a future redemption, survive even
in the heathen religions.
With Abraham, about nineteen hundred years before Christ,
the religious development of humanity separates into the two
independent, and, in their compass, very unequal branches of
Judaism and heathenism. These meet and unite at last in
Christ as the common Saviour, the fulfiller of the types and
prophecies, desires and hopes of the ancient world ; while at
the same time the ungodly elements of both league in deadly
hostility against him, and thus draw forth the full revelation
of his all-conquering power of truth and love.
As Christianity is the reconciliation and union of God and
man in and through Jesus Christ, the God-Man, it must have
been preceded by a twofold process of preparation, an approach
of God to man, and an approach of man to God. In Judaism
the preparation is direct and positive, proceeding from above
downwards, and ending with the birth of the Messiah. In
heathenism it is indirect and mainly, though not entirely, nega-
tive, proceeding from below upwards, and ending with a help*
• Hark 1:15; GaL4:4. f Gen. 3:15.
68 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
less cry of mankind for redemption. There we have a special
revelation or self -communication of the only true God by word
and deed, ever growing clearer and plainer, till at last the
divine Logos appears in human nature, to raise it to commu-
nion with himself; here men, guided indeed by the general
providence of God, and lighted by the glimmer of the Logos
shining in the darkness,1 yet unaided by direct revelation, and
left to "walk in their own ways,"" "that they should seek
God, if haply they might feel after him, and find him." * In
Judaism the true religion is prepared for man; in heathen-
ism man is prepared for the true religion. There the divine
substance is begotten ; here the human forms are moulded to
receive it. The former is like the elder son in the parable,
who abode in his father's house ; the latter like the prodigal,
who squandered his portion, yet at last shuddered before the
gaping abyss of perdition, and penitently returned to the bosom
of his father's compassionate love.4 Heathenism is the starry
night, full of darkness and fear, but of mysterious presage also,
and of anxious waiting for the light of day; Judaism, the
dawn, full of the fresh hope and promise of the rising sun ;
both lose themselves in the sunlight of Christianity, and attest
its claim to be the only true and the perfect religion for man-
kind.
The heathen preparation again was partly intellectual and
literary, partly political and social. The former is represented
by the Greeks, the latter by the Romans.
Jerusalem, the holy city, Athens, the city of culture, and
Rome, the city of power, may stand for the three factors in
that preparatory history which ended in the birth of Chris-
tianity.
This process of preparation for redemption in the history of
the world, the groping of heathenism after the "unknown
God " * and inward peace, and the legal struggle and comf ort-
1 John 1:5; Bom. 1:19,20; 2.14,15.
'Acts 14: 16. » Acts 17 . 26, 27.
* Luke 15 : 11-32. • Acts 17 23.
§ 9. JUDAISM. 69
ing hope of Judaism, repeat themselves in every individual
believer ; for man is made for Christ, and " his heart is restless,
till it rests in Christ."1
§ 9. Judaism.
Literature.
I. SOURCES.
1. The CANONICAL Books of the O. and N. TESTAMENTS.
2. The Jewish APOCRYPHA. Best edition by Otto Fnd. Fntzsche: Librt
Apocryphi Vetens Testamenti Graece. Lips. 1871. German Com-
mentary by Fntzsche and Gnmm, Leipz. 1851-'60 (in the " Exeget
Handbuch zum A. T.") ; Enghsh Com. by Dr. E. C. Bissell, N. York,
1880 (vol. xxv. in SchafFs ed. of Lange's Bible-Work).
3. JOSEPHUS (a Jewish scholar, priest, and historian, patronized by Ves-
pasian and Titus, b. A.D. 37, d. about 103) : Antiqmtates Judaicae
('ApxaioAoyia 'lov&aiKrj), in 20 books, written first (but not preserved)
in Aramaic, and then reproduced in Greek, A.D 94, beginning with
the creation and coming down to the outbreak of the rebellion
against the Bomans, A.D. 66, important for the post-exilian period.
Bettum Judaicum (ncpl roO 'loudnuroC TroXc/noi;), in 7 books, written
about 75, from his own personal observation (as Jewish general in
Galilee, then as Roman captive, and Roman agent), and coming down
to the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D 70. Contra Apionem, a defence
of the Jewish nation against the calumnies of the grammarian Apion.
His Vita or Autobiography was written after A D. 100. — Editions of
Josephus by Hudson, Oxon. 1720, 2 vols. foL ; Havercamp, Amst.
1726, 2 fol. ; Oberthur, Lips. 1785, 3 vols. ; Richter, Lips. 1827, 6 vols. ;
Ihndorf, Par. 1849, 2 vols. ; Imm. Bekkei; Lips. 1855, 6 vols. The
editions of Havercamp and Dindorf are the best. English transla-
tions by Whiston and Trail!, often edited, in London, New York,
Philadelphia. German translations by Hedio, Ott, Cotta, Demme.
4. PHILO of Alexandria (d. after A.D. 40) represents the learned and philo-
sophical (Platonic) Judaism. Best ed. by Mangey, Lond. 1742, 2
fol., and Richter, Lips. 1828, 2 vols. English translation by C. D.
Yonge, London, 1854, 4 vols. (in Bonn's " Ecclesiastical Library ").
6. The TAiiMUD (T^bFi, i. e. Doctrine) represents the traditional, post-
exilian, and anti-Christian Judaism. It consists of the Mishna (njEJJD*
dcvrc'pucriff, Repetition of the Law), from the end of the second cen-
tury, and the Gemara (»*Jtt?, i. e. Perfect Doctrine, from *t?a, to
bring to an end). The latter exists in two forms, the Palestinian
1 St Augustine, Conf. 1. 1 : " Fcdsti not ad T*, et inquietum **t car nos-
trum, donee regvteoat m IV'
80 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Gemara, completed at Tiberias about A.D. 350, and the Babylonian
Gemara of the sixth century. Best eds. of the Talmud by B amber g,
Ven 1520 sqq. 12 vols. fol., and Sittenfeld, Berlin, 1862-'68, 12 vols.
fol. Latin version of the Mishna by G. Surenhusius, Amst. 1698-
1703, 6 vols. fol. ; German by J. J. Babe, Onolzbach, 1760-'63.
6. MONUMENTAL Sources : of Egypt (see the works of Champollion,
Young, Boselhm, Wilkinson, Birch, Manette, Lepsius, Bunsen,
Ebers, Brugsch, etc ) ; of Babylon and Assyria (see Botta, Layard,
George Smith, Sayce, Schroder, etc ).
7. GREEK and ROMAN authors : POLYBIUS (d B c. 125), DIODOBUS SICULUS
(contemporary of Caesar), STBABO (d. A.D. 24), TACITUS (d. about 117),
SUETONIUS (d about 130), JUSTINUS (d. after A.D. 160). Their accounts
are mostly incidental, and either simply derived from Josephus, or
full of error and prejudice, and hence of very little value.
n. HISTORIES.
(a) By Christian authors.
PRIDEAUX (Dean of Norwich, d. 1724) : The Old and New Testament Con-
nected in the History of the Jews and neighboring nations, from the
declension of the kingdoms of Israel and Jadah to the time of Christ.
Lond. 1715; llth ed. 1749, 4 vols. (and later eds.). The same m
French and German.
J. J. HESS (d. 1828) : Geschichte der Israeliten vor den Zeiten Jesu. Zur.
1766 sqq., 12 vols.
WARBURTON (Bishop of Gloucester, d. 1779) : The Divine Legation of
Moses demonstrated. 5th ed. Lond. 1766 ; 10th ed. by James NtcJiols,
Lond. 1846, 3 vols 8vo.
MTLMAN (Dean of St Paul's, d. 1868) : Histoiy of the Jews. Lond. 1829,
3 vols. ; revised ed Lond. and N. York, 1865, 3 vols.
J. C. K. HOFMANN (Prof, in Erlangen, d. 1878) : Weissagung und Erful-
lung. Nordl 1841, 2 vols.
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (d. at Princeton, 1851) : A History of the Israel-
itish Nation. Philadelphia, 1853. (Popular.)
H. EWALD (d. 1874) : GeschicUe des Volkes Israel bis Christus. Gott.
1843 sqq. 3d ed. 1864-'68, 7 vols. A work of rare genius and learn-
ing, but full of bold conjectures. Engl. transl. by Russell Martmeau
and J. E. Carpenter. Lond. 1871-'76, 5 vols. Comp. also Ewald's
Prophets, and Poetical Books of the 0. T.
E. W. HENGSTENBEBG (d. 1869) : Geschichte des Ketches Gottes unter dem
Alien Bunde. Berl. 1869-'71, 2 vols. (Posthumous publication.)
English transl., Edinburgh (T. & T. Clark), 1871-72, 2 vols. (Name
of the translator not given.)
J. H. KURTZ: Geschichte des Alien Bunde*. Berlin, 1848-'55, 2 vols.
(unfinished). Engl. transl. by Edersheim, Edinb. 1859, in 3 vols.
The same : Lehrbuch der heif. Geschichte. Kdnigsb. 6th ed. 1853 ;
also in English, bj C. F. Schdffer. Phil 1855.
§ 9. JUDAISM. 61
P. CASSEL : Israel in der Weltgeschichte. Berlin, 1865 (32 pp.).
JOSEPH LANGEN (B. C.) : Das Judenthum in Palastma zur Zeit Christi.
Freiburg i. B. 1866.
G. WKBBB and H. HOI/FZMANN: Geschichte des Volkes Israel und der
Grandung des Christenthums. Leipzig, 1867, 2 vols. (the first vol.
by Weber, the second by Holtzmann).
H. HOLTZMANN : Die Messiasidee zur Zeit Christi, in the " Jahrbucher fur
Dentsche Theologie," Gotha, 1867 (vol. xii. pp. 389-411).
F. HnziG : GeschicJite des Volkes Israel von Anbeginn bis zur Eroberung
Masada's im J. 72 nach Chr. Heidelb. 1869, 2 vols.
A. KUENEN (Prof in Leyden) : De godsdienst van Israel tot den ondergang
van den joodschen staat. Haarlem, 1870, 2 vols. Transl. into Eng-
lish : The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State, by A. H.
May. Lond. (Williams & Norgate), 1874-75, 3 vols. Bepresents
the advanced rationalism of Holland.
A. P. STANLEY (Dean of Westminster) : Lectures on the History of the
Jewish Church. Lond. and N. York, 1863-76, 3 vols. Based on Ewald.
W. WBLLHAUSEN : Geschichte Israels. Berlin, 1878, 3d ed. 1886. Transl.
by Black and Memies : Prolegomena to the History of Israel Edinb . 1885.
E. ScHtiBEB : Geschichte desjud. Volkes im ZeitaUer Christi. 1886 sq. 2 vols.
A. EDERSHEIM : Prophecy and History ^n relation to the Messiah. Lond 1885.
A. KOHLEB : Lehrbuch der bibl. Geschichte des A. T. Erlangen, 1875-'88.
C. A. BBIOGS t Messianic Prophecy. N. York and Edinb. 1886.
V. H. STANTON : The Jewish, and the Christian Messiah. Lond. 1886.
B. STADE: Gesch. des Volkes Israel. Berlin, 1888, 2 vols. BadicaL
E. BEN AN : Hist, du peuple d* Israel. Paris, 1887 sqq., 3 vols. Engl.
translation, London, 1888 sqq. Badical.
B. KITTEL : Gesch. der Hebraer. Gotha, 1888 sqq. Moderate.
(b) By Jewish authors.
J. M. JOST • GeschicJite der Israehten seit der Zeit der Maccabfter bis auf
unsere Tage. Leipz. 1820~-'28, 9 vols. By the same : Geschichte des
Judenthums und seiner Secten. 1857-^59, 3 vols.
SALVADOR : Histoire de la domination Eomaine en Judee et de la ruine de
Jerusalem. Par. 1847, 2 vols.
BAFHALL : Post-biblical History of the Jews from the close of the 0. T. about
the year 420 till tJie destruction of the second Temple in the year 70.
Lond. 1856, 2 vols.
ABRAHAM GEIOER (a liberal Babbi at Frankfort on the M.) : Das Juden-
thum und seine Geschichte. Breslau ; 2d ed. 1865-71, 3 vols. With
an appendix on Strauss and Benan. Gomes down to the 16th cen-
tury. English transl. by Maurice Mayer. N. York, 1865.
L. HERZFBLD: Geschichte des Volkes Jizrael. Nordhausen, 1847-*57, 3
vols. The same work, abridged in one vol. Leipz. 1870.
H. GBATZ (Prof, in Breslau) : Geschichte der Juden von den altesten Zeiten
fa auf die Gegenwart. Leipz. 1854-70, 11 vote, (to 1848).
62 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
" Salvation is of the Jews." ' This wonderful people, whose
fit symbol is the burning bush, was chosen by sovereign grace
to stand amidst the surrounding idolatry as the bearer of the
knowledge of the only true God, his holy law, and cheering prom-
ise, and thus to become the cradle of the Messiah. It arose with
the calling of Abraham, and the covenant of Jehovah with him
in Canaan, the land of promise ; grew to a nation in Egypt, the
land of bondage ; was delivered and organized into a theocratic
state on the basis of the law of Sinai by Moses in the wilder-
ness ; was led back into Palestine by Joshua ; became, after the
Judges, a monarchy, reaching the height of its glory in David
and Solomon ; split into two hostile kingdoms, and, in punish-
ment for internal discord and growing apostasy to idolatry, was
carried captive by heathen conquerors ; was restored after seven-
ty years' humiliation to the land of its fathers, but fell again
under the yoke of heathen foes ; yet in its deepest abasement
fulfilled its highest mission by giving birth to the Saviour of
the world. " The history of the Hebrew people,'1 says Ewald,
u is, at the foundation, the history of the true religion growing
through all the stages of progress unto its consummation;
the religion which, on its narrow national territory, advances
through all struggles to the highest victory, and at length re-
veals itself in its full glory and might, to the end that, spread-
ing abroad by its own irresistible energy, it may never vanish
away, but may become the eternal heritage and blessing of all
nations. The whole ancient world had for its object to seek
the true religion; but this people alone finds its being and
honor on earth exclusively in the true religion, and thus it
enters upon the stage of history." a
Judaism, in sharp contrast with the idolatrous nations of
antiquity, was like an oasis in a desert, clearly defined and iso-
lated ; separated and enclosed by a rigid moral and ceremonial
law. The holy land itself, though in the midst of the three
Continents of the ancient world, and surrounded by the great
1 John 4 : 22 Oomp Luke 24 * 47 ; Rom. 9 4, 5.
' Qet&icht* <fe* Volte* hrael, Vol I. p. 9 (3d ed.).
§ 9. JUDAISM. 63
nations of ancient culture, was separated from them by deserts
soutli and east, by sea on the west, and by mountain on the
north ; thus securing to the Mosaic religion freedom to unfold
itself and to fulfil its great work without disturbing influences
from abroad. But Israel carried in its bosom from the first
the large promise, that in Abraham's seed all the nations of
the earth should be blessed. Abraham, the father of the faith-
ful, Moses, the lawgiver, David, the heroic king and sacred
psalmist, Isaiah, the evangelist among the prophets, Elijah the
Tishbite, who reappeared with Moses on the Mount of Trans-
figuration to do homage to Jesus, and John the Baptist, the im-
personation of the whole Old Testament, are the most conspicu-
ous links in the golden chain of the ancient revelation.
The outward circumstances and the moral and religious con-
dition of the Jews at the birth of Christ would indeed seem at
first and on the whole to be in glaring contradiction with their
divine destiny. But, in the first place, their very degeneracy
proved the need of divine help. In the second place, the re-
demption through Christ appeared by contrast in the greater
glory, as a creative act of God. And finally, amidst the mass
of corruption, as a preventive of putrefaction, lived the succes-
sion of the true children of Abraham, longing for the salvation
of Israel, and ready to embrace Jesus of Nazareth as the prom-
ised Messiah and Saviour of the world.
Since the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey, B.C. 63 (the
year made memorable by the consulship of Cicero, the con-
spiracy of Catiline, and the birth of Caesar Augustus), the Jews
had been subject to the heathen llomans, who heartlessly gov-
erned them by the Idumean Herod and his sons, and afterwards
by procurators. Under this hated yoke their Messianic hopes
were powei fully raised, but carnally distorted. They longed
chiefly for a political deliverer, who should restore the temporal
dominion of David on a still more splendid scale; and they
were offended with the servant form of Jesus, and with his
spiritual kingdom. Their morals were outwardly far better
than those of the heathen ; but under the garb of strict obedi-
64 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ence to their law, they concealed great corruption. They are
pictured in the New Testament as a stiff-necked, ungrateful,
and impenitent race, the seed of the serpent, a generation of
vipers. Their own priest and historian, Josephus, who gen-
erally endeavored to present his countrymen to the Greeks and
Komans in the most favorable light, describes them as at that
time a debased and wicked people, well deserving their fearful
punishment in the destruction of Jerusalem.
As to religion, the Jews, especially after the Babylonish
captivity, adhered most tenaciously to the letter of the law, and
to their traditions and ceremonies, but without knowing the
spirit and power of the Scriptures. They cherished a bigoted
horror of the heathen, and were therefore despised and hated
by them as misanthropic, though by their judgment, industry,
and tact, they were able to gain wealth and consideration in all
the larger cities of the Roman empire.
After the time of the Maccabees (B.C. 150), they fell into
three mutually hostile sects or parties, which respectively repre-
sent the three tendencies of formalism, skepticism, and mysti-
cism ; all indicating the approaching dissolution of the old
religion and the dawn of the new. We may compare them to
the three prevailing schools of Greek philosophy — the Stoic,
the Epicurean, and the Platonic, and also to the three sects
of Mohammedanism — the Sunnis, who are traditionalists, the
Sheas, who adhere to the Koran, and the Sufis or mystics, who
seek true religion in " internal divine sensation."
1. The PHARISEES, the "separate,"1 were, so to speak, the
Jewish Stoics. They represented the traditional orthodoxy and
stiff formalism, the legal self-righteousness and the fanatical
bigotry of Judaism. They had most influence with the people
and the women, and controlled the public worship. They
1 From EH&. They were separated from ordinary persons and all foreign
and contaminating influences by the supposed correctness of their creed and
the superior holiness of their life. Ewald (IV. 482) : " Pharisaer bezdchnet
GEBONDBRTB odtr BEBONDERE, namUcJi I*ute die tor andern durch From-
tnigkat autff&eichnet und gldchwm mehr odcr hettigcr ali andere tan wolten.n
§ 9. JUDAISM. 65
confounded piety with theoretical orthodoxy. They overloaded
the holy Scriptures with the traditions of the elders so as to
make the Scriptures " of none effect." They analysed the Mo-
saic law to death, and substituted a labyrinth of casuistry for a
living code. "They laid heavy burdens and grievous to be
borne on men's shoulders," arid yet they themselves would " not
move them with their fingers." In the New Testament they
bear particularly the reproach of hypocrisy; with, of course,
illustrious exceptions, like Kicodemus, Gamaliel, and his disci-
ple, Paul.
2. The less numerous SADDUCEES ! were skeptical, rationalistic,
and worldly-minded, and held about the same position in Juda-
ism as the Epicureans and the followers of the New Academy
in Greek and Roman heathendom. They accepted the writ-
ten Scriptures (especially the Pentateuch), but rejected the
oral traditions, denied the resurrection of the body and the
immortality of the soul, the existence of angels and spirits, and
the doctrine of an all-ruling providence. They numbered their
followers among the rich, and had for some time possession of
the office of the high-priest. Caiaphas belonged to their party.
The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees reap-
pears among modern Jews, who are divided into the orthodox
and the liberal or rationalistic parties.
3. The ESSENES (whom we know only from Philo and Jose-
phus) were not a party, but a mystic and ascetic order or broth-
erhood, and lived mostly in monkish seclusion in villages and
in the desert Engedi on the Dead Sea.* They numbered about
1 So called either from their supposed founder, Zadoo (so Ewald, IV. 358),
orfromp-H?, "just."
1 The name is variously written ('E(f<n?w>f, 'Eowiioi, 'OertreuoO and derived
from proper names, or from the Greek, or from the Hebrew and Aramaic.
The most plausible derivations are from -pfcrh 8<r«oj, holy ; from R^att< phy-
sician (comp. the corresponding term of Philo, &«pcnrcvr4r, which, however,
means worshipper, devotee) , from aoTHj 8eer » trom the rabbinical *^n»
watchman, keeper (Ewald, formerly) ; from Ken* to be silent (Jost, Light-
foot) ; from the Syriao chart or chtisyo, pious, which is of the same root
with the Hebrew chatid, chatidim <J>e Sacy, Ewald, IV. 484, 3d ed.9 and
66 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
4,000 members. With an arbitrary, allegorical interpretation
of the Old Testament, they combined some foreign theosophic
elements, which strongly resemble the tenets of the new Pytha-
gorean and Platonic schools, but were probably derived (like
the Gnostic and Manichsean theories) from eastern religions,
especially from Parsism. They practised communion of goods,
wore white garments, rejected animal food, bloody sacrifices,
oaths, slavery, and (with few exceptions) marriage, and lived in
the utmost simplicity, hoping thereby to attain a higher degree
of holiness. They were the forerunners of Christian monas-
ticism.
The sect of the Essenes came seldom or never into contact
with Christianity under the Apostles, except in the shape of a
heresy at Colossse. But the Pharisees and Sadducees, particu-
larly the former, meet us everywhere in the Gospels as bitter
enemies of Jesus, and hostile as they are to each other, unite in
condemning him to that death of the cross, which ended in the
glorious resurrection, and became the foundation of spiritual
life to believing Gentiles as well as Jews.
§ 10. The Law, and ike Prophecy.
Degenerate and corrupt though the mass of Judaism was,
yet the Old Testament economy was the divine institution pre-
paratory to the Christian redemption, and as such received
deepest reverence from Christ and his apostles, while they
sought by terrible rebuke to lead its unworthy representatives
to repentance. It therefore could not fail of its saving effect
on those hearts which yielded to its discipline, and conscien-
tiously searched the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets.
Law and prophecy are the two great elements of the Jewish
religion, and make it a direct divine introduction to Christian!-
Hitrig). See Schfirer, N. T. Zeitgetch. pp 599 sqq., and Lightfoot's instruc-
tive Excursus on the Essenes and the Colossian heresy, in Com. on Colon.
(1875), pp. 73, 114-179. Lightfoot again refutes the exploded derivation
of Christianity from Essenio sources.
§ 10. THE LAW, AND THE PROPHECY. 67
ty, " the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the Lord ; make straight in the desert a highway
for our God."
1. The law of Moses was the clearest expression of the holy
will of God before the advent of Christ. The Decalogue is a
marvel of ancient legislation, and in its two tables enjoins the
sum and substance of all true piety and morality — supreme love
to God, and love to our neighbor. It set forth the ideal of
righteousness, and was thus fitted most effectually to awaken
the sense of man's great departure from it, the knowledge of
sin and guilt.1 It acted as a schoolmaster to lead men to
Christ * that they might be justified by faith.'
The same sense of guilt and of the need of reconciliation was
constantly kept alive by daily sacrifices, at first in the taber-
nacle and afterwards in the temple, and by the whole ceremo-
nial law, which, as a wonderful system of types and shadows,
perpetually pointed to the realities of the new covenant, espe-
pecially to the one all-sufficient atoning sacrifice of Christ on
the cross.
God in his justice requires absolute obedience and purity of
heart under promise of life and penalty of death. Yet he can-
not cruelly sport with man ; he is the truthful, faithful, and
merciful God. In the moral and ritual law, therefore, as in a
shell, is hidden the sweet kernel of a promise, that he will one
day exhibit the ideal of righteousness in living form, and give
the penitent sinner pardon for all his transgressions and the
power to fulfil the law. Without such assurance the law were
bitter irony.
As regards the law, the Jewish economy was a religion of
repentance.
2. But it was at the same time, as already hinted, the vehicle
of the divine promise of redemption, and, as such, a religion of
hope. While the Greeks and Romans put their golden age in
the past, the Jews looked for theirs in the future. Their whole
1 Rom. 8 • 20 : At& V&IMQV Myrwu &paprfa*.
* n<u8u7flry&f ti* Xpurrtr. ' Gal. 3 : 24
68 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
history, their religious, political, and social institutions and cus*
toms pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and the establish-
ment of his kingdom on earth.
Prophecy, or the gospel under the covenant of the law, is
really older than the law, which was added afterwards and
came in between the promise and its fulfilment, between sin
and redemption, between the disease and the cure.1 Prophecy
begins in paradise with the promise of the serpent-bruiser im-
mediately after the fall. It predominates in the patriarchal
age, especially in the life of Abraham, whose piety has the
corresponding character of trust and faith; and Moses, the
lawgiver, was at the same time a prophet pointing the people
to a greater successor.1 Without the comfort of the Messianic
promise, the law must have driven the earnest soul to despair.
From the time of Samuel, some eleven centuries before Christ,
prophecy, hitherto sporadic, took an organized form in a per-
manent prophetical office and order. In this form it accom-
panied the Levitical priesthood and the Davidic dynasty down
to the Babylonish captivity, survived this catastrophe, and
directed the return of the people and the rebuilding of the
temple; interpreting and applying the law, reproving abuses
in church and state, predicting the terrible judgments and the
redeeming grace of God, warning and punishing, comforting and
encouraging, with an ever plainer reference to the coming Mes-
siah, who should redeem Israel and the world from sin and misery,
and establish a kingdom of peace and righteousness on earth.
The victorious reign of David and the peaceful reign of
Solomon furnish, for Isaiah and his successors, the historical
and typical ground for a prophetic picture of a far more glori-
ous future, which, unless thus attached to living memories and
present circumstances, could not have been understood. The
subsequent catastrophe and the sufferings of the captivity
1 tripos *apffiriix&cr, came in besides, was added as an accessory arrange*
ment, Rom. 5: 20; comp. Tpoicr&i), the law was "sapexadded" to the
promise given to Abraham, Gal. 8 : 19.
• Dent 18 : 15.
§ 10. THE LAW, AND THE PROPHECY. 69
served to develop the idea of a Messiah atoning for the sins
of the people and entering through suffering into glory.
The prophetic was an extraordinary office, serving partly to
complete, partly to correct the regular, hereditary priesthood,
to prevent it from stiffening into monotonous formality, and
keep it in living flow. The prophets were, so to speak, the
Protestants of the ancient covenant, the ministers of the spirit
and of immediate communion with God, in distinction from
the ministers of the letter and of traditional and ceremonial
mediation.
The flourishing period of our canonical prophecy began with
the eighth century before Christ, some seven centuries after
Moses, when Israel was suffering under Assyrian oppression.
In this period before the captivity, Isaiah ("the salvation of
God "), who appeared in the last years of king Uzziah, about
ten years before the founding of Rome, is the leading figure;
and around him Micah, Joel, and Obadiah in the kingdom of
Judah, and Ilosea, Amos, and Jonah in the kingdom of Israel,
are grouped. Isaiah reached the highest elevation of prophecy,
and unfolds feature by feature a picture of the Messiah —
springing from the house of David, preaching the glad tidings
to the poor, healing the broken-hearted, opening the eyes to the
blind, setting at liberty the captives, offering himself as a lamb
to the slaughter, bearing the sins of the people, dying the just
for the unjust, triumphing over death and ruling as king of
peace over all nations — a picture which came to its complete
fulfilment in one person, and one only, Jesus of Nazareth. He
makes the nearest approach to the cross, and his book is the
Gospel of the Old Testament. In the period of the Babylonian
exile, Jeremiah (i. e. u the Lord casts down ") stands chief. He
is the prophet of sorrow, and yet of the new covenant of the
Spirit. In his denunciations of priests and false prophets, his
lamentations over Jerusalem, his holy grief, his bitter persecu-
tion, he resembles the mission and life of Christ. He remained
in the land of his fathers, and sang his lamentation on the ruins
of Jerusalem ; while Ezekiel warned the exiles on the river
70 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Chebar against false prophets and carnal hopes, urged them to
repentance, and depicted the new Jerusalem and the revival of
the dry bones of the people by the breath of God ; and Daniel
at the court of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon saw in the spirit
the succession of the four empires and the final triumph of the
eternal kingdom of the Son of Man. The prophets of the
restoration are Ilaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. With Malachi,
who lived to the time of Nehemiah, the Old Testament prophe-
cy ceased, and Israel was left to himself four hundred years, to
digest during this period of expectation the rich substance of
that revelation, and to prepare the birth-place for the approach-
ing redemption.
3. Immediately before the advent of the Messiah the whole
Old Testament, the law and the prophets, Moses and Isaiah
together, reappeared for a short season embodied in John the
Baptist, and then in unrivalled humility disappeared as the
red dawn in the splendor of the rising sun of the new covenant.
This remarkable man, earnestly preaching repentance in the
wilderness and laying the axe at the root of the tree, and at the
same time comforting with prophecy and pointing to the aton-
ing Lamb of God, was indeed, as the immediate forerunner of
the New Testament economy, and the personal friend of the
heavenly Bridegroom, the greatest of them that were born of
woman ; yet in his official character as the representative of the
ancient preparatory economy he stands lower than the least in
that kingdom of Christ, which is infinitely more glorious than
all its types and shadows in the past.
This is the Jewish religion, as it flowed from the fountain of
divine revelation and lived in the true Israel, the spiritual chil-
dren of Abraham, in John the Baptist, his parents and disci-
ples, in the mother of Jesus, her kindred and friends, in the
venerable Simeon, and the prophetess Anna, in Lazarus and his
pious sisters, in the apostles and the first disciples, who em*
braced Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfiller of the law and the
prophets, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and
who were the first fruits of the Christian Church.
§ 11. HEATHENISM. 71
§ 11. Heathenism.
Literature.
I. Sources.
The works of the Greek and Roman Classics from HOMEB to VIRGIL and
the age of the Antonines.
The monuments of Antiquity.
The writings of the early Christian Apologists, especially JUSTIN MARTYR :
Apologia I. and II. ; TERTULLIAN : Apologeticus ; MINUCIUS FELIX :
Octavius ; EUSEBIUS: Praeparatio Evangehca; and AUGUSTINE (d.
430) : De Civitate Dei (the first ten books).
n. Later Works.
Is. Vossius : De theologia gentih etphysiolog. Christ. Frcf 1675, 2 vols.
CREUZER (d. 1858) : Symbohk und Mythologie der alien Volker. Leipz. 3d
ed. 1837 sqq. 3 vols.
THOLUCK (d. 1877) : Das Wesen und der sitthche Einfluss des Heidenthums,
besonders unter den Gmechen und Romem, mil Hinsicht auf das Chris-
tenthum. Berlin, 1823. In Neander's Denkwurdigkeiten, vol. i. of
the 1st ed Afterwards separately printed. English translation by
Emerson in "Am. Bibl. Eepository" for 1832.
TZSCHIRNER (d. 1828) : Der Fall des Heidenthums, ed. by Niedner. Leipz.
1829, 1st vol.
O. MULLER (d 1840) : Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftl. Mythologie.
Gott. 1825. Transl. into English by /. Leitch. Lond. 1844.
HEGEL (d 1831) : Philosophic der Religion. Berl 1837, 2 vols.
STUHK : Allgem. Gesch. der Rehgionsformen der heidmschen Volker. BerL
1836, 1837, 2 vols (vol. 2d on the Hellenic Religion).
HARTUNG : Die Religion der Romer. Erl. 1836, 2 vols.
C. R NAGELSBACH. Homenwhe TJteologie. Nurnb. 1840; 2d ed. 1861.
The same : Die nach-homensche Theologie des Gnechischen Votics-
glanbens &?<? auf Alexander. Nurnb. 1857.
SEPP (R. C ) : Das Heidenthum und dessen Bedeutung fur das Christen-
thum. Regensb. 1853, 3 vols.
WUTTKE : Geschichte des Heidenthums in Deziehung auf Religion, Wissen,
Kunst, Sitthchkeit und Staatsleben. Bresl. 1852 sqq. 2 vols.
SCHELLING (d. 1854) : Einleitung in die Philosophic der Mythologie. Stuttg.
1856 ; and Philosophic der Mythologie. Stuttg. 1857.
MAURICE (d. 1872) : The Religions of the World in their Relations to Chris-
tianity. Lond. 1854 (reprinted in Boston).
TRENCH : Hulsean Lectures for 1845-'46. No. 2 : Christ the Desire of all
Nations, or the Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom (a commentary
on the star of the wise men, Matt ii). Cambr. 4th ed. 1854 (also
Philad. 1850).
L. PRBLLER : Griechische Mythologie. Berlin, 1854, 3d ed. 1875, 2 vols.
72 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
By the same ; Romische Mythologie. Berlin, 1858 ; 3d ed., by H.
JORDAN, 1881-83, 2 vols.
M. W. HEFFTEB : Griech. und Rom. Mythologie. Leipzig, 1854.
DOLLINGEB : Heidenthum und Judenthum, quoted in J 8.
C. SCHMIDT : Essat historique sur la societe civil dans le monde romam et
sur sa transformation par le christianisme. Paris, 1853.
C. G. SEIBEBT . Griechenthum und Christetithum, oder der Vorhof des
Sckonen und das Heihgthwn der Wahrheit. Barmen, 1857.
FB. FABBI : Die Entstehung des Heidenthums und die Aufgabe der Heiden-
misswn. Barmen, 1859.
W. E. GLADSTONE (the English statesman) : Studies on Homer and the
Homeric Age. Oxf. 1858, 3 vols. (vol. 11. Olympus ; or the Religion
of the Homeric Age). The same : Juventus Mundi : the Gods and
Men of the Heroic Age. 2d ed. Lond. 1870. (Embodies the results
of the larger work, with several modifications in the ethnological
and mythological portions.)
W. S. TYMSB (Prof, m Amherst Coll., Mass.) : The Theology of the Greek
Poets. Boston, 1867.
B. F. COCKER : Christianity and Greek Philosophy ; or the Relation between
Reflective Thought in Greece and the Positive Teaching of Christ and
his Apostles. N York, 1870.
EDM. SPIESS : Logos spennaticos. Parallelstellen zum N. Test, aus den
Schrtflen der alten Gnechen. Ein Deitrag zur chnstl. Apologetik und
zur vergleichenden Religionsforschung. Leipz. 1871.
G. BOISSIEB : La religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonms. Paris, 1884,
2 vols.
J. REVILLE : La religion d Rome sous les Sevdres. Paris, 1886.
Gomp. the histories of Greece by THIBLWALL, GROTE, and CURTIUS;
the histories of Borne by GIBBON, NIEBUHB, ABNOLD, MEBIVALE,
SCHWEGLEB, IHNE, DuBUY (transl. from the French by W. J. Clarke),
and MOMMSEN. RANKB'S Weltgeschichte. Th. iii. 1882. SCHIU^ER'B
Gesch. der romischen Kaiserzeit. 1882.
Heathenism is religion in its wild growth on the soil of
fallen human nature, a darkening of the original consciousness
of God, a deification of the rational and irrational creature, and
a corresponding corruption of the moral sense, giving the sanc-
tion of religion to natural and unnatural vices.1
Even the religion of Greece, which, as an artistic product of
the imagination, has been justly styled the religion of beauty,
is deformed by this moral distortion. It utterly lacks the true
conception of sin, and consequently the true conception of holi-
ness. It regards . sin, not as a perverseness of will and an
i Comp Paul's picture of heathen immorality, Rom. 1 : 19-82.
§ 11. HEATHENISM. 73
offence against the gods, but as a folly of the understanding
and an offence against men, often even proceeding from the
gods themselves ; for " Infatuation," or Moral Blindness ^Arij),
is a "daughter of Jove," and a goddess, though cast from
Olympus, and the source of all mischief upon earth. Homer
knows no devil, but he puts a devilish element into his deities.
The Greek gods, and also the Roman gods, who were copied
from the former, are mere men and women, in whom Homer
and the popular faith saw and worshipped the weaknesses and
vices of the Grecian character, as well as its virtues, in magni-
fied forms. The gods are born, but never die. They have
bodies and senses, like mortals, only in colossal proportions.
They eat and drink, though only nectar and ambrosia. They
are awake and fall asleep. They travel, but with the swiftness
of thought. They mingle in battle. They cohabit with human
beings, producing heroes or demigods. They are limited to
time and space. Though sometimes honored with the attri-
butes of omnipotence and omniscience, and called holy and just,
yet they are subject to an iron fate (Moira), fall under delusion,
and reproach each other with folly and crime. Their heavenly
happiness is disturbed by all the troubles of earthly life. Even
Zeus or Jupiter, the patriarch of the Olympian family, is
cheated by his sister and wife Hera (Juno), with whom he had
lived three hundred years in secret marriage before he pro-
claimed her his consort and queen of the gods, and is kept in
ignorance of the events before Troy. He threatens his follows
with blows and death, and makes Olympus tremble when he
shakes his locks in anger. The gentle Aphrodite or Venus
bleeds from a spear-wound on her finger. Mars is felled with
a stone by Diomedes. Neptune and Apollo have to serve for
hire and are cheated. Hephaestus limps and provokes an up-
roarious laughter. The gods are involved by their marriages
in perpetual jealousies and quarrels. They are full of envy
and wrath, hatred and lust, prompt men to crime, and provoke
each other to lying and cruelty, perjury and adultery. The
Iliad and Odyssey, the most popular poems of the Hellenic
74 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
genius, are a chronique scandaleuse of the gods. Hence Plato
banished them from his ideal Republic. Pindar, Aeschylos, and
Sophocles also rose to loftier ideas of the gods and breathed
a purer moral atmosphere; but they represented the excep-
tional creed of a few, while Homer expressed the popular be-
lief. Truly we have no cause to long with Schiller for the
return of the "gods of Greece," but would rather join the poet
in his joyful thanksgiving:
"• Einen zu bereichem vnter alien,
Mustte diese Gotterwelt vtrgcJm."
Notwithstanding this essential apostasy from truth and holi-
ness, heathenism was religion, a groping after u the unknown
God." By its superstition it betrayed the need of faith. Its
polytheism rested on a dim monotheistic background ; it sub-
jected all the gods to Jupiter, and Jupiter himself to a mysteri-
ous fate. It had at bottom the feeling of dependence on higher
powers and reverence for divine things. It preserved the
memory of a golden age and of a fall. It had the voice of
conscience, and a sense, obscure though it was, of guilt. It felt
the need of reconciliation with deity, and sought that recon-
ciliation by prayer, penance, and sacrifice. Many of its religi-
ous traditions and usages were faint echoes of the primal re-
ligion ; and its mythological dreams of the mingling of the
gods with men, of demigods, of Prometheus delivered by Her-
cules from his helpless sufferings, were unconscious prophecies
and fleshly anticipations of Christian truths.
This alone explains the great readiness with which heathens
embraced the gospel, to the shame of the Jews.1
There was a spiritual Israel scattered throughout the heathen
world, that never received the circumcision of the flesh, but the
unseen circumcision of the heart by the hand of that Spirit which
bloweth where it listeth, and is not bound to any human laws
and to ordinary means. The Old Testament furnishes several
1 Comp. Matt. 8 : 10 ; 15 : 28. Luke 7 : 0. Acts 10 : 85.
§11. HEATHENISM. 75
examples of true piety outside of the visible communion with
the Jewish church, in the persons of Melchisedec, the friend
of Abraham, the royal priest, the type of Christ; Jethro, the
priest of Midian ; Rahab, the Canaanite woman and hostess of
Joshua and Caleb ; Ruth, the Moabitess and ancestress of our
Saviour; King Hiram, the friend of David; the queen of
Sheba, who came to admire the wisdom of Solomon ; Naaman
the Syrian ; and especially Job, the sublime sufferer, who re-
joiced in the hope of his Redeemer.1
The elements of truth, morality, and piety scattered through-
out ancient heathenism, may be ascribed to three sources. In
the first place, man, even in his fallen state, retains some traces
of the divine image, a knowledge of God,2 however weak, a
moral sense or conscience,3 and a longing for union with the
Godhead, for truth and for righteousness.* In this view we
may, with Tertullian, call the beautiful and true sentences of a
Socrates, a Plato, an Aristotle, of Pindar, Sophocles, Cicero,Vir-
gil, Seneca, Plutarch, " the testimonies of a soul constitution-
ally Christian," * of a nature predestined to Christianity. Sec-
ondly, some account must be made of traditions and recollec-
tions, however faint, coming down from the general primal
revelations to Adam and Noah. But the third and most im-
portant source of the heathen anticipations of truth is the all-
ruling providence of God, who has never left himself without a
witness. Particularly must we consider, with the ancient Greek
fathers, the influence of the divine Logos before his incarnation,8
1 Even Augustine, exclusive as he was, adduces the case of Job in proof of
the assertion that the kingdom of God under the Old dispensation was not
confined to the Jews, and then adds " Dimnitu* autem provi&im fume non
dubito, ut exlvocuno sciremns, etiam per alias gentes esse potuisse, qui secun-
dwn Deumrixerunt, eiqueplacuerunt, pertinentes ad gpiritualem HieruscUem."
De Civit Dei, xvrii 47
* Rom 1 • 19, rb yvoHnbv roC freou. Corap my annotations on Lange in loc.
8 Rom. 2 14, 15 Comp Lange in loc
4 Comp Acts 17*28, 27, 28 and my remarks on the altar to the &tfa fcywwrroi
in the Hit>1f>ry of the Apott Church. § 73, p 269 sqq
6 Testimonia animae naturakter Christiana*.
* A6yos &rap*os, Arfyos cnrcp/uarticbs.
76 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
who was the tutor of mankind, the original light of reason, shin*
ing in the darkness and lighting every man, the sower scattering
in the soil of heathendom the seeds of truth, beauty, and virtue.1
The flower of paganism, with which we are concerned here,
appears in the two great nations of classic antiquity, Greece and
Rome. With the language, morality, literature, and religion
of these nations, the apostles came directly into contact, and
through the whole first age the church moves on the basis of
these nationalities. These, together with the Jews, were the
chosen nations of the ancient world, and shared the earth
among them. The Jews were chosen for things eternal, to
keep the sanctuary of the true religion. The Greeks prepared
the elements of natural culture, of science and art, for the use
of the church. The Romans developed the idea of law, and
organized the civilized world in a universal empire, ready to
serve the spiritual universality of the gospel. Both Greeks and
Romans were unconscious servants of Jesus Christ, "the un-
known God."
These three nations, by nature at bitter enmity among them-
selves, joined hands in the superscription on the cross, where
the holy name and the royal title of the Redeemer stood writ-
ten, by the command of the heathen Pilate, " in Hebrew and
Greek and Latin."1
§ 12. Grecian Literature, and the Roman Empire.
The literature of the ancient Greeks and the universal em-
pire of the Romans were, next to the Mosaic religion, the chief
agents in preparing the world for Christianity. They fur-
nished the human forms, in which the divine substance of the
gospel, thoroughly prepared in the bosom of the Jewish theoc-
racy, was moulded. They laid the natural foundation for the
supernatural edifice of the kingdom of heaven. God endowed
the Greeks and Romans with the richest natural gifts, that they
1 Comp. John 1 : 4, 5, 9, 10. ' John 19 : 20.
§ 12. GKKCIAN LITERATURE, AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 77
might reach the highest civilization possible without the aid of
Christianity, and thus both provide the instruments of human
science, art, arid law for the use of the church, and yet at the
same time show the utter impotence of these alone to bless and
save the world.
The GREEKS, few in number, like the Jews, but vastly more
important in history than the numberless hordes of the Asiatic
empires, were called to the noble task of bringing out, under a
sunny sky and with a clear mind, the idea of humanity in its
natural vigor and beauty, but also in its natural imperfection.
They developed the principles of science and art. They lib-
erated the mind from the dark powers of nature and the gloomy
broodings of the eastern mysticism. They rose to the clear
and free consciousness of manhood, boldly investigated the laws
of nature and of spirit, arid carried out the idea of beauty in all
sorts of artistic forms. In poetry, sculpture, architecture,
painting, philosophy, rhetoric, historiography, they left true
master-pieces, which are to this day admired and studied as
models of form and taste.
All these works became truly valuable and useful only in the
hands of the Christian church, to which they ultimately fell.
Greece gave the apostles the most copious and beautiful lan-
guage to express the divine truth of the Gospel, and Providence
had long before so ordered political movements as to spread that
language over the world and to make it the organ of civilization
and international intercourse, as the Latin was in the middle
ages, as the French was in the eighteenth century, and as the
English is coming to be in the nineteenth. " Greek," says Cice-
ro, " is read in almost all nations ; Latin is confined by its own
narrow boundaries." Greek schoolmasters and artists followed
the conquering legions of Rome to Gaul and Spain. The
youthful hero Alexander the Great, a Macedonian indeed by
birth, yet an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, an emulator of
Achilles, a disciple of the philosophic world-conqueror, Aris-
totle, and thus the truest Greek of his age, conceived the sub-
lime thought of making Babylon the seat of a Grecian empire
78 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of the world ; and though his empire fell to pieces at his un-
timely death, yet it had already carried Greek letters to the
borders of India, and made them a common possession of all
civilized nations. What Alexander had begun Julius Csesar
completed. Under the protection of the Eoman law the apos-
tles could travel everywhere and make themselves understood
through the Greek language in every city of the Roman domain.
The Grecian philosophy, particularly the systems of Plato
and Aristotle, formed the natural basis for scientific theology ;
Grecian eloquence, for sacred oratory ; Grecian art, for that of
the Christian church. Indeed, not a few ideas and maxims of
the classics tread on the threshold of revelation, and sound like
prophecies of Christian truth ; especially the spiritual soarings
of Plato,1 the deep, religious reflections of Plutarch,8 the some-
times almost Pauline moral precepts of Seneca.* To many of
the greatest church fathers, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alex-
andria, Origen, and in some measure even to Augustine, Greek
philosophy was a bridge to the Christian faith, a scientific
schoolmaster leading them to Christ. Nay, the whole ancient
Greek church rose on the foundation of the Greek language
and nationality, and is inexplicable without them.
Here lies the real reason why the classical literature is to this
day made the basis of liberal education throughout the Chris-
tian world. Youth are introduced to the elementary forms of
science and art, to models of clear, tasteful style, and to self-
made humanity at the summit of intellectual and artistic cul-
ture, and thus they are at the same time trained to the scientific
apprehension of the Christian religion, which appeared when
1 Compare C Aokermann, The Christian Element in Plato and the Platonic
Philosophy, 1835, transl from the German by S R. Asbnry, with an introduc-
tory note by Dr Shedd Edinburgh, 1861.
* As in his excellent treatise : De sera numinis mndicta. It ifl strange that
this philosopher, whose moral sentiments come nearest to Christianity, never
alludes to it Epiotetus and Marcus Aurelius do mention it, but only once.
1 On the relation of Paul and Seneca oomp an elaborate dissertation of
Bishop Lightfoot in his Commentary on the PhUippiant, pp. 268-331 (3d ed.
J873).
§ 12. GRECIAN LITERATURE, AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 79
the development of Greek and Roman civilization had reached
its culmination and began already to decay. The Greek and
Latin languages, as the Sanskrit and Hebrew, died in their
youth and were embalmed and preserved from decay in the
immortal works of the classics. They still furnish the best
scientific tenns for every branch of learning and art and every
new invention. The primitive records of Christianity have
been protected against the uncertainties of interpretation inci-
dent upon the constant changes of a living language.
But aside from the permanent value of the Grecian litera-
ture, the glory of its native land had, at the birth of Christ,
already irrecoverably departed. Civil liberty and independence
had been destroyed by internal discord and corruption. Phi-
losophy had run down into skepticism and refined materialism.
Art had been degraded to the service of levity and sensuality. In-
fidelity or superstition had supplanted sound religious sentiment.
Dishonesty and licentiousness reigned among high and low.
This hopeless state of things could not but impress the more
earnest and noble souls with the emptiness of all science and
art, and the utter insufficiency of this natural culture to meet
the deeper wants of the heart. It must fill them with longings
for a new religion.
The ROMANS were the practical and political nation of anti-
quity. Their calling was to carry out the idea of the state and
of civil law, and to unite the nations of the world in a colossal
empire, stretching from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, and
from the Libyan desert to the banks of the Rhine. This em-
pire embraced the most fertile and civilized countries of Asia,
Africa, and Europe, and about one hundred millions of human
beings, perhaps one-third of the whole race at the time of the
introduction of Christianity.1 To this outward extent corre-
1 Charles Merivale, in his History of the Romans under the Empire (Lond.
1856), vol. iv. p. 450 and 451, estimates the population of the Roman empire
in the age of Augustus at 85 millions, namely, 40 millions for Europe, 38
millions for Asia, and 17 millions for Africa, but he does not include Palestine.
Greswell and others raise the estimate of the whole population to 130 millions.
80 F1KST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
spends its historical significance. The history of every ancient
nation ends, says Niebuhr, as the history of every modern na-
tion begins, in that of Home. Its history has therefore a
Universal interest; it is a vast storehouse of the legacies of
antiquity. If the Greeks had, of all nations, the deepest mind,
and in literature even gave laws to their conquerors, the Ro-
mans had the strongest character, and were born to rule the
world without. This difference of course reached even into the
moral and religious life of the two nations. Was the Greek
mythology the work of artistic fantasy and a religion of poesy,
so was the lloman the work of calculation adapted to state
purposes, political and utilitarian, but at the same time solemn,
earnest, and energetic. " The Romans had no love of beauty,
like the Greeks. They held no communion with nature, like
the Germans. Their one idea was Rome — not ancient, fabu-
lous, poetical Rome, but Rome warring and conquering ; and
orbis terrarum domina. S. P. Q. R. is inscribed on almost
every page of their literature." '
The Romans from the first believed themselves called to
govern the world. They looked upon all foreigners — not as
barbarians, like the cultured Greeks, but — as enemies to be
conquered and reduced to servitude. War and triumph were
their highest conception of human glory and happiness. The
" T«, regere imperio populos, Romane, memento!"
had been their motto, in fact, long before Virgil thus gave it
form. The very name of the urbs ceterna, and the charac-
teristic legend of its founding, prophesied its future. In their
greatest straits the Romans never for a moment despaired of
the commonwealth. With vast energy, profound policy, un-
wavering consistency, and wolf-like rapacity, they pursued their
ambitious schemes, and became indeed the lords, but also, as
their greatest historian, Tacitus, says, the insatiable robbers of
the world.2
1 Hare, Guesses at Truth, p. 432 (Lond ed. 1867).
9 Raptores orbit, quo* rum orient, non accident satiaverit."
§ 12. GRECIAN LITERATURE, AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 81
Having conquered the world by the sword, they organized it
by law, before whose majesty every people had to bow, and
beautified it by the arts of peace. Philosophy, eloquence,
history, and poetry enjoyed a golden age under the setting sun
of the republic and the rising sun of the empire, and extended
their civilizing influence to the borders of barbarianism. Al-
though not creative in letters and fine arts, the Roman authors
were successful imitators of Greek philosophers, orators, his-
torians, and poets. Rome was converted by Augustus from a
city of brick huts into a city of marble palaces.1 The finest
paintings and sculptures were imported from Greece, triumphal
arches and columns were erected on public places, and the
treasures of all parts of the world were made tributary to the
pride, beauty, and luxury of the capital. The provinces caught
the spirit of improvement, populous cities sprung up, and the
magnificent temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt by the ambitious
extravagance of Herod. The rights of persons and property
were well protected. The conquered nations, though often and
justly complaining of the rapacity of provincial governors, yet,
on the whole, enjoyed greater security against domestic feuds
and foreign invasion, a larger share of social comfort, and rose
to a higher degree of secular civilization. The ends of the
empire were brought into military, commercial, and literary
communication by carefully constructed roads, the traces of
which still exist in Syria, on the Alps, on the banks of the
Rhine. The facilities and security of travel were greater in
the reign of the Caesars than in any subsequent period before
the nineteenth century. Five main lines went out from Rome
to the extremities of the empire, and were connected at seaports
with maritime routes. " We may travel," says a Roman writer,
" at all hours, and sail from east to west." Merchants brought
diamonds from the East, ambers from the shores of the Baltic,
precious metals from Spain, wild animals from Africa, works
of art from Greece, and every article of luxury, to the market
1 So the nephew of the modern Caesar transformed Paris into a city of
straight and broad streets and magnificent palaces.
82 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
on the banks of the Tiber, as they now do to the banks of the
Thames. The Apocalyptic seer, in his prophetic picture of the
downfall of the imperial mistress of the world, gives promi-
nence to her vast commerce : " And the merchants of the
earth," he says, "weep and mourn over her; for no man
buyeth their merchandise any more : merchandise of gold, and
silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple,
and silk, and scarlet ; and all thyme wood, and every vessel of
ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass,
and iron, and marble ; and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and
ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and
wheat, and cattle, and sheep ; and merchandise of horses and
chariots and slaves ; and souls of men. And the fruits that thy
soul desired are departed from thee, and all things which were
dainty and sumptuous are perished from thee, and men shall find
them no more at all." '
Heathen Rome lived a good while after this prediction, but
the causes of decay were already at work in the first century.
The immense extension and outward prosperity brought with
it a diminution of those domestic and civil virtues which at
first so highly distinguished the Romans above the Greeks.
The race of patriots and deliverers, who came from their
ploughs to the public service, and humbly returned again to
the plough or the kitchen, was extinct. Their worship of the
gods, which was the root of their virtue, had sunk to mere
form, running either into the most absurd superstitions, or
giving place to unbelief, till the very priests laughed each other
in the face when they met in the street. Not unfrequently we
find unbelief and superstition united in the same persons, ac-
cording to the maxim that all extremes touch each other. Man
must believe something, and worship either God or the devil.'
'Eev. 18: 11-14.
* " Unbelief and superstition, different hues of the name historical phe-
nomenon, went in the Roman world of that day hand in hand, and there was
no lack of individuals who in themselves combined both — who denied the
gods with Epicurus, and yet prayed and sacrificed before every shrine.11
§ 12. GRECIAN LITERATURE, AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 83
Magicians and necromancers abounded, and were liberally pat-
ronized. The ancient simplicity and contentment were ex-
changed for boundless avarice and prodigality. Morality and
chastity, so beautifully symbolized in the household ministry of
the virgin Vesta, yielded to vice and debauchery. Amusement
came to be sought in barbarous fights of beasts and gladiators,
which not rarely consumed twenty thousand human lives in a
single month. The lower classes had lost all nobler feeling,
cared for nothing but "panem et circenses" and made the
proud imperial city on the Tiber a slave of slaves. The huge
empire of Tiberius and of Nero was but a giant body without a
soul, going, with steps slow but sure, to final dissolution. Some
of the emperors were fiendish tyrants and monsters of iniquity ;
and yet they were enthroned among the gods by a vote of the
Senate, and altars and temples were erected for their worship.
This characteristic custom began with Caesar, who even during
his lifetime was honored as "Divus Julius" for his brilliant
victories, although they cost more than a million of lives slain
and another million made captives and slaves.1 The dark pic-
ture which St. Paul, in addressing the Romans, draws of the
heathenism of his day, is fully sustained by Seneca, Tacitus,
Theod Mom m sen, History of Rome, transl. by Dickson, Loud. 1867, vol iv.
p 500
1 u In the excess of their adoration, the Roman Senate desired even to place
his image in the Temple of Quirmus himself, with an inscription to him as
&F&S Avfcirroy, the invincible God. Golden chairs, gilt chariots, triumphal
robes, were piled one upon another, with laurelled fasces and laurelled
wreaths. His birthday was made a perpetual holiday, and the month Qumc-
tihfl was renamed, in honor of him, July A temple to Concord was to be
erected in commemoration of his clemency. His person was declared sacred,
and to injure him by word or deed was to be counted sacrilege The Fortune
of Caesar was introduced into the constitutional oath, and the Senate took a
solemn pledge to maintain his acts inviolate. Finally, they arrived at a con-
clusion that he was not a man at all ; no longer Cams Julius, but Divua
Julius, a God or the Son of God. A temple was to be built to Caesar as an-
other Quirinus, and Antony was to be his priest." J. A Froude, Ccuar
(1879), Ch. XXVI p. 491. The insincerity of these adulations shortly before
the senatorial conspiracy makes them all the worse. " One obsequious sen-
ator proposed that every woman in Rome should be at the disposition of
Caesar." 76W.,p492.
84 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Juvenal, Persius, and other heathen writers of that age, and
shows the absolute need of redemption. "The world," says
Seneca, in a famous passage, " is full of crimes and vices. More
are committed than can be cured by force. There is an im-
mense struggle for iniquity. Crimes are no longer hidden, but
open before the eyes. Innocence is not only rare, but no-
where."1
Thus far the negative. On the other hand, the universal
empire of Rome was a positive groundwork for the universal
empire of the gospel. It served as a crucible, in which all
contradictory and irreconcilable peculiarities of the ancient
nations and religions were dissolved into the chaos of a new
creation. The Koman legions razed the partition- walls among
the ancient nations, brought the extremes of the civilized world
together in free intercourse, and united north and south and
east and west in the bonds of a common language and culture,
of common laws and customs. Thus they evidently, though
unconsciously, opened the way for the rapid and general spread
of that religion which unites all nations in one family of God
by the spiritual bond of faith and love.
The idea of a common humanity, which underlies all the
distinctions of race, society and education, began to dawn
in the heathen mind, and found expression in the famous
line of Terentius, which was received with applause in the
theatre :
" Homo sum : Jiumani nihil a me aUenum puto."
This spirit of humanity breathes in Cicero and Virgil. Hence
the veneration paid to the poet of the ^Eneid by the fathers
and throughout the middle ages. Augustine calls him the
noblest of poets, and Dante, "the glory and light of other
poets," and " his master," who guided him through the regions
of hell and purgatory to the very gates of Paradise. It was
believed that in his fourth Eclogue he had prophesied the advent
of Christ. This interpretation is erroneous ; but " there is in
1 D* Ira, IL 8.
§ 13. JUDAISM AND HEATHENISM IN CONTACT. 85
Virgil," says an accomplished scholar,1 " a vein of thought and
sentiment more devout, more humane, more akin to the Chris-
tian, than is to be found in any other ancient poet, whether
Greek or Roman. He was a spirit prepared and waiting,
though he knew it not, for some better thing to be revealed."
The civil laws arid institutions, also, and the great adminis-
trative wisdom of Rome did much for the outward organization
of the Christian church. As the Greek church rose on the
basis of the Grecian nationality, so the Latin church rose on
that of ancient Rome, and reproduced in higher forms both its
virtues and its defects. Roman Catholicism is pagan Rome
baptized, a Christian reproduction of the universal empire
seated of old in the city of the seven hills.
§ 13. Judaism and Heathenism in Contact.
The Roman empire, though directly establishing no more
than an outward political union, still promoted indirectly a
mutual intellectual and moral approach of the hostile religions
of the Jews arid Gentiles, who were to be reconciled in one
divine brotherhood by the supernatural power of the cross of
Christ.
1. The Jews, since the Babylonish captivity, had been scat-
tered over all the world. They were as ubiquitous in the
Roman empire in the first century as they are now throughout t
Christendom. According to Josephus and Strabo, there was no
country where they did not make up a part of the population.51
1 Principal Shairp, in an article on " Virgil as a Precursor of Christianity,"
in the " Princeton Review" for Sept , 1879, pp 403-420 Comp the learned
essay of Professor Piper, m Berlin, on " Virgil ala Theologe und Prophet," in
his " Evang Kalender " for 18G2.
2 Jos , BcU, Jud , VII. c 3, § 3 : '* As the Jewish nation is widely dispersed
over all the habitable earth," etc Antiqu.^ XIV. 7, 2 : u Let no one wonder
that there was so much wealth m our temple, since all the Jews throughout
the habitable earth, and those that woiship God, nay, even those of Asia
and Europe, sent their contributions to it.11 Then, quoting from Strabo, he
eays : " These Jews are already gotten into all cities, and it is hard to find a
86 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Among the witnesses of the miracle of Pentecost were " Jewa
from every nation under heaven . . . Parthians and Medes
and Elainites, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia, in Judaea and
Oappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in
Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners
from Eome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians." '
In spite of the antipathy of the Gentiles, they had, by talent
and industry, risen to wealth, influence, and every privilege,
and had built their synagogues in all the commercial cities of
the Roman empire. Pompey brought a considerable number
of Jewish captives from Jerusalem to the capital (B.C. 63), and
settled them on the right bank of the Tiber (Trastevere). By
establishing this community he furnished, without knowing it,
the chief material for the Roman church. Julius Caesar was
the great protector of the Jews ; and they showed their grati-
tude by collecting for many nights to lament his death on the
forum where his murdered body was burnt on a funeral pile.2
He granted them the liberty of public worship, and thus
gave them a legal status as a religious society. Augustus
confirmed these privileges. Under his reign they were num-
bered already by thousands in the city. A reaction followed ;
Tiberius and Claudius expelled them from Rome; but they
soon returned, and succeeded in securing the free exercise of
their rites and customs. The frequent satirical allusions to them
prove their influence as well as the aversion and contempt in
which they were held by the Romans. Their petitions reached
the ear of Nero through his wife Poppaea, who seems to have
inclined to their faith ; and Josephus, their most distinguished
scholar, enjoyed the favor of three emperors — Vespasian, Titus,
and Dornitian. In the language of Seneca (as quoted by Augus-
tin) "the conquered Jews gave laws to their Roman conquerors."
place in the habitable earth that has not admitted this tribe of men, and is
not possessed by it ; and it haa come to pass that Egypt and Cyrene . . .
and a great number of other nations imitate their way of living, and maintain
great bodies of these Jews in a peculiar manner, and grow up to greater pros-
perity with them, and make use also of the same laws with that nation.19
1 Acts 2 : 5, 9-11. * Sue ton,, Cos., o. 84.
§ 13. JUDAISM AND HEATHENISM IN CONTACT. 87
By this dispersion of the Jews the seeds of the knowledge of
the true God and the Messianic hope were sown in the field of
the idolatrous world. The Old Testament Scriptures were
translated into Greek two centuries before Christ, and were
read and expounded in the public worship of God, which was
open to all. Every synagogue was a mission-station of mono-
theism, and furnished the apostles an admirable place and a
natural introduction for their preaching of Jesus Christ as the
f ulfiller of the law and the prophets.
Then, as the heathen religions had been hopelessly under-
mined by skeptical philosophy and popular infidelity, many
earnest Gentiles, especially multitudes of women, came over to
Judaism either wholly or in part. The thorough converts,
called " proselytes of righteousness," ' were commonly still more
bigoted and fanatical than the native Jews. The half -converts,
"proselytes of the gate"2 or "fearers of God,"3 who adopted
only the monotheism, the principal moral laws, and the Messi-
anic hopes of the Jews, without being circumcised, appear in
the New Testament as the most susceptible hearers of the gos-
pel, and formed the nucleus of many of the first Christian
churches. Of this class were the centurion of Capernaum,
Cornelius of Csesarea, Lydia of Philippi, Timothy, and many
other prominent disciples.
2. On the other hand, the Graco-Roman heathenism, through
its language, philosophy, and literature, exerted no inconsider-
able influence to soften the fanatical bigotry of the higher and
more cultivated classes of the Jews. Generally the Jews of the
dispersion, who spoke the Greek language— the " Hellenists," as
they were called — were much more liberal than the proper " He-
brews," or Palestinian Jews, who kept their mother tongue.
This is evident in the Gentile missionaries, Barnabas of Cyprus
and Paul of Tarsus, and in the whole church of Antioch, in con-
trast with that at Jerusalem. The Hellenistic form of Chris-
tianity was the natural bridge to the Gentile.
\ Ex. 20: 10; Deut 5: 14.
» Of iforcjBfir, ol *oj904u«w< ^ *rfr, *><** 10 : 8 ; 18 : 16, etc., and Joiephus.
88 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The most remarkable example of a transitional, though very
fantastic and Gnostic-like combination of Jewish and heathen
elements meets us in the educated circles of the Egyptian me-
tropolis, Alexandria, and in the system of PHILO, who was born
about B.C. 20, and lived till after A.D. 40, though he never
came in contact with Christ or the apostles. This Jewish
divine sought to harmonize the religion of Moses with the
philosophy of Plato by the help of an ingenious but arbitrary
allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament ; and from the
books of Proverbs and of Wisdom he deduced a doctrine of the
Logos so strikingly like that of John's Gospel, that many ex-
positors think it necessary to impute to the apostle an ac-
quaintance with the writings, or at least with the terminology
of Philo. But Philo's speculation is to the apostle's " Word
made flesh" as a shadow to the body, or a dream to the reality.
He leaves no room for an incarnation, but the coincidence of
his speculation with the great fact is veiy remarkable.1
The TiiKKAPKirra, or Worshippers, a mystic and ascetic sect
in Egypt, akin to the Essenes in Judsea, carried this Platonic
Judaism into practical life ; but were, of course, equally unsuc-
cessful in uniting the two religions in a vital and permanent
way. Such a union could only be effected by a new religion
revealed from Heaven.*
Quite independent of the philosophical Judaism of Alexan-
dria were the SAMARITANS, a mixed race, which also combined,
though in a different way, the elements of Jewish and Gentile
religion.' They date from the period of the exile. They held
1 The system of Philo has been very thoroughly investigated, both inde-
pendently, and in connection with John's Logos- doctrine, by Grossmann
(1829), Gfrorer (1831), Dahne (1834), Lucke, Baur, Zeller, Dorner, Uebeiweg,
Ewald, J. G. Muller (Die Messian. Erwartungen des Judfn Fhilo, Basel,
1870), Keim, Lipsins, Hausrath, Schiirer, etc. See the literature in Schurer,
N. T. Zcitgtoch , p 648.
* P. E. Lucius : Die Therapeuten und ihre SUSung in der Getclochte der
Atfaie. Strassburg, 1880.
1 A remnant of the Samaritans (about 140 souls) still live in Nablous. the
ancient Sheohem, occupy a special quarter, have a synagogue of their own,
with a very ancient copy of the Pentateuch, and celebrate annually on the
§ 13. JUDAISM AND HEATHENISM IN CONTACT. 89
to the Pentateuch, to circumcision, and to carnal Messianic
hopes ; but they had a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim,
and mortally hated the proper Jews. Among these Chris-
tianity, as would appear from the interview of Jesus with the
woman of Samaria,1 and the preaching of Philip,* found ready
access, but, as among the Essenes and Therapeutse, fell easily
into a heretical form. Simon Magus, for example, and some
other Samaritan arch-heretics, are represented by the early
Christian writers as the principal originators of Gnosticism.
3. Thus was the way for Christianity prepared on every
side, positively and negatively, directly and indirectly, in theory
and in practice, by truth and by error, by false belief and by
unbelief — those hostile brothers, which yet cannot live apart —
by Jewish religion, by Grecian culture, and by Roman con-
quest; by the vainly attempted amalgamation of Jewish and
heathen thought, by the exposed impotence of natural civiliza-
tion, philosophy, art, and political power, by the decay of the
old religions, by the universal distraction and hopeless misery
of the age, and by the yearnings of all earnest and noble souls
for the religion of salvation.
"In the fulness of the time," when the fairest flowers of
science and art had withered, and the world was on the verge
of despair, the Virgin's Son was born to heal the infirmities of
mankind. Christ entered a dying world as the author of a
new and imperishable life.
top of Mount Gerizim the Jewish Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Taberna-
cles It is the only spot on earth where the paschal sacrifice is perpetuated
according to the Mosaic prescription in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. See
Bchaff, Through Bdlo Lands (N. York and Loud. 1878), pp. 314 aqq. ; and
Hausrath, I e. I. 17 sqq.
1 John 4. »Acte8.
90 FIRST PEEIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHAPTER II.
JESUS CHRIST.
§ 14:. Sources and Literature.
A. SOURCES.
Christ himself wrote nothing, but furnished endless material for books
and songs of gratitude and praise. The living Church of the re-
deemed is his book. He founded a religion of the living spirit, not
of a written code, like the Mosaic law. (His letter to King Abgarus
of Edessa, in Euseb , Hist. Ecd , I 13, is a worthless fabrication )
Yet his words and deeds are recorded by as honest and reliable wit-
nesses as ever put pen to paper.
I Authentic Christian Sources.
(1) The four CANONICAL GOSPELS. Whatever their origin and date, they
exhibit essentially the same divine-human life and character of
Christ, which stands out in sharp contrast with the fictitious Chnst
of the Apocryphal Gospels, and cannot possibly have been invented,
least of all by illiterate Galileans. They would never have thought
of writing books without the inspiration of their Master.
(2) The ACTS OF LUKE, the APOSTOLIC EPISTLBS, and the APOCALYPSE OF
JOHN. They presuppose, independently of the written Gospels,
the main facts of the gospel-history, especially the crucifixion and
the resurrection, and abound in allusions to these facts. Four of
the Pauline Epistles (Eomans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians) are
admitted as genuine by the most extreme of liberal critics (Baur
and the Tubingen School), and from them alone a great part of the
life of Chnst might be reconstructed. (See the admissions of Keim,
Gesch. Jesu v. Naz , I. 35 sqq.)
II. The APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS are very numerous (about 50), some of
them only known by name, others in fragments, and date from the
second and later centuries. They are partly heretical (Gnostic and
Ebionite) perversions or mutilations of the real history, partly inno-
cent compositions of fancy, or religious novels intended to link to-
gether the disconnected periods of Christ's biography, to satisfy the
cariosity concerning his relations, his childhood, his last days, and
to promote the glorification of the Virgin Mary. They may be
§ 14. SOURCES AND LITERATURE. 91
divided into four classes : (1) Heretical Gospels (as the Evangelism
Cennthi, Ev. Marcionis, Ev. juaae Ischariotae, Ev. secundum He-
braeos, etc.) ; (2) Gospels of Joseph and Mary, and the birth of
Christ (Protevangehum Jacobi, Evang. Pseudo-Maihaei sive liber de
Ortu Beatae Manae et Infantia Salvatorts, Evang. de Nativitate
Mariae, Historia Josephi Fabri hgnam, etc.).; (3) Gospels of the
childhood of Jesus from the flight to Egypt till his eighth or twelfth
year (Evang. Thomae, of Gnostic origin, Evang Infantiae Arabicum,
etc.) ; (4) Gospels of the passion and the mysterious tnduum in
Hades (Evang. Nicodemi, including the Gesta or Ada Pilati and the
Descensus ad Inferos, Epistola Pilati, a report of Christ's passion to
the emperor Tibenus, Paradosis Pilati, Epistolae Herodis ad Pila-
tum and Pilati ad Herodem, Resp&nsum Tibeni ad Pilatum, Nan-otto
Josephi Arimathiensis, etc ). It is quite probable that Pilate sent an
account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus to his master in Rome
(as Justin Martyr and Tertulhan confidentially assert), but the vari-
ous documents bearing his name are obviously spurious, including
the one recently published by Geo. Sluter (The A eta Pilati, Shelby-
ville, Ind 1879), who piofesses to give a translation from the sup-
posed authentic Latin copy in the Vatican Library
These apocryphal productions have no historical, but consider-
able apologetic value , for they furnish by their contrast with the gen-
uine Gospels a very strong negative testimony to the historical truth-
fulness of the Evangelists, as a shadow presupposes the light, a
counterfeit the real coin, and a caricature the original picture They
have contributed largely to mediaeval art (e g , the ox and the ass in
the history of the nativity), and to the traditional Manology and
Mariolatry of the Greek and Roman churches, and have supplied
Mohammed with his scanty knowledge of Jesus and Mary.
See the collections of the apocryphal Gospels by FABBIOIUS ( Codex Apoo
ryphus Novi Testamenti, Hamburg, 1703, 2d ed 1719), THILO (Cod.
Apocr. N. Ti , Lips. 1832), TISCHENDORP (Evangeha Apocrypha, Lips.
1863), W. WRIGHT (Contributions to the Apocr. Lit. of the N. T.from
Syrian MSS in the British Museum, Lond 1865), B. HARRIS Cow-
PER ( The Apocryphal Gospels, translated, London, 1867), and ALEX.
WAI^EB (Engl. transl. in Roberts & Donaldson's "Ante-Nicene
Library," vol. xvi., Edinb. 1870; vol. viii. of Am. ed., N. Y. 1886).
Comp. the dissertations of TISCHENDORF : De Evang. apocr. ortgme et usu
(Hagae, 1851), and Pilati circa Christum judicio quid lucis afferatur
ex Actis Pilati (Lips. 1855). RUD. HOFMANN: Das Leben Jesu nach
den Apokryphen (Leipz. 1851), and his art , Apokryphen des N. T.9
in Herzog & Plitt, "R Encykl ," vol. i. (1877), p. 511. G. BRUNEI :
Les evangiles apocryphes, Pans, 1863. MICHEL NICOLAS: Etudes sur
les evangiles apocryphes, Paris, 1866. LIPSIUS : Die Pilatus-Acten,
Kiel, 1871 ; Die edessenische Abgar-Sage, 1880 ; GOSPELS, APOCR., in
Smith & Waoe, L 700 sqq. ; HOLTZMANN : Einl. Ms N. T., pp. 5S4-'54.
92 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
IIT. Jewish Sources.
The O. Test. Scriptures are, in type and prophecy, a preparatory history
of Christ, and become fully intelligible only in linn who came " to
fulfill the law and the prophets."
The Apocryphal and post-Christian Jewish writings give us a full view
of the outward framework of society and religion in which the life
of Christ moved, and in this way they illustrate and confirm the
Gospel accounts.
IV. The famous testimony of the Jewish historian JOSEPHUS (d. after
AD. 103) deserves special consideration. In his Antiqu Jud , 1.
xviii. cap. 3, J 3, he gives the following striking summary of the life
of Jesus :
"Now there rose about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful
to call him a man ; for he was a doer of wontleiful woiks (mtptMgvv
fpyuv iroiriT-fis), a teacher of such men as receive the truth with glad-
ness. He carried away with him many of the Jews and also many of
the Greeks. He was the Christ (6 X/JIO-TO? olros jjv). And after
Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among ns, hud con-
demned him to the cross, his first adherents did not forsake linn.
For he appeared to them alive again the third day (e f>uwj yup aurois
TpiTTjv €\u>v fifjLtpav iru\iv futif) ; the divine prophets having foretold
these and ten thousand other wonderful things (,IXX« nvpia SdvpatTia)
concerning him. And the tribe of those called Christians, after him,
is not extinct to this day."
This testimony is first quoted by Eusebms, twice, without a mis-
giving (Hist. Eccl , I. 11 ; and Demonhtr. Evany , III. 5), and was
considered genuine down to the 16th century, but has been disputed
ever since. We have added the most doubtful words in Greek.
The following are the arguments for the genuineness :
(1) The testimony is found in all the MSS. of Josephus.
But these MSS were written by Chustians, and we have none
older than from the llth century.
(2) It agrees with the style of Josephus.
(3) It is extremely improbable that Josephus, in writing a histoiy
of the Jews coming down to A.D 66, should have ignored Jesus ;
all the more since he makes favorable mention of John the Baptist
(Antiqu., XVIII. 5, 2), and of the martyrdom of James "the Brother
Jesus called the Clinst" (Antiqu , XX. 9, 1 : rbv afa\<t>ov 'IiyrroO rov
; X/uorof', 'laKco/Sot ovopa at>ra>). Both passages are generally
accepted as genuine, unless the words rov AcyopeVou Xpiorov should
be an interpolation.
Against this may be said that Josephus may have had prudential
reasons for ignoring Christianity altogether.
Arguments against the genuineness :
(1) The passage interrupts the connection.
§ 14. SOURCES AND X,ITERATt7KE. 93
But not necessarily. Josephus had jnst recorded a calamity which
befell the Jews under Pontius Pilate, in consequence of a sedition,
and he may have regarded the crucifixion of Jesus as an additional
calamity. He then goes on (g 4 and 5) to record another calamity,
the expulsion of the Jews from Home under Tiberius.
(2) It betrays a Christian, and is utterly inconsistent with the
known profession of Josephus as a Jewish priest of the sect of the
Pharisees. We would rather expect him to have represented Jesus
as an impostor, or as an enthusiast.
But it may be urged, on the other hand, that Josephus, with all
his great literary merits, is also known as a vain and utterly un-
principled man, as a renegade and sycophant who glorified and
betrayed his nation, who served as a Jewish general in the revolt
against Borne, and then, after having been taken prisoner, flattered
the Roman conquerors, by whom he was richly rewarded. History
furnishes many examples of similar inconsistencies. Remember
Pontius Pilate who regarded Christ as innocent, and yet condemned
him to death, the striking testimonies of Rousseau and Napoleon I.
to the divinity of Christ, and also the concessions of Kenan, which
contradict his position.
(3) It is strange that the testimony should not have been quoted
by such men as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, or
any other writer before Eusebius (d. 340), especially by Origen, who
expressly refers to the passages of Josephus on John the Baptist
and James (Contra Cels , I 35, 47). Even Chrysostom (d. 407), who
repeatedly mentions Josephus, seems to have been ignorant of this
testimony.
In view of these conflicting reasons, there are different opinions :
(1) The passage is entirely genuine. This old view is defended by
Hauteville, Oberthur, Bretschneider, Bohmert, "Whiston, Schoedel
(1840), Bottger (Das Zeugmss des Jos., Dresden, 1863).
(2) It is wholly interpolated by a Christian hand. Bekker (in his
ed. of Jos., 1855), Hase (1865 and 1876), Keim (IS&7), Schurer (1874).
(3) It is partly genuine, partly interpolated. Josephus probably
wrote Xpitrros ovros fX/yero (as in the passage on James), but not rji>,
and all other Christian sentences were added by a transcriber before
Eusebius, for apologetic purposes. So Paulus, Heinichen, Gieseler
(I. 2 24, p. 81, 4th Germ, ed.), Weizsacker, Benan, Farrar. In the
introduction to his Vie de Jesus (p. xii.), Benan says: " Je crois le
passage sur Jesus authentique. Jl est parfaitement dans le gout d*
Joseph, et si cet historian a fait mention de Jesus, c'est bten comme cela
qu'il a du en parler. On sent seulement qu'une main chretienne a
retouche le morceau, y a ajoute quelques mots sans lesquels il cut eti
presque blasphematoire, a peut-etre retranchc ou modifle quelques ea>
pressions"
94 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(4) It is radically changed from a Jewish calumny into its present
Christian form. Josephns originally described Jesns as a pseudo-
Messiah, a magician, and seducer of the people, who was justly cru-
cified. So Paret and Ewald (Gesch. Chrtstus', p. 183, 3d ed.).
It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Josephus must have
taken some notice of the greatest event in Jewish history (as he
certainly did of John the Baptist and of James), but that his state-
ment— whether non-committal or hostile — was skilfully enlarged or
altered by a Christian hand, and thereby deprived of its historical
value.
In other respects, the writings of Josephus contain, indirectly,
much valuable testimony to the truth of the gospel history. His
History of the Jewish War is undesignedly a sinking commentary on
the predictions of our Saviour concerning the destruction of the city
and the temple of Jerusalem ; the great distress and affliction of the
Jewish people at that time ; the famine, pestilence, and earthquake ;
the rise of false prophets and impostors, and the flight of his disci-
ples at the approach of these calamities. All these coincidences
have been traced out in full by the learned Dr. Lardner, in his
Collection of Ancient Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of
the Christian Religion, first published 1764-'67, also in vol. vi. of his
Works, ed. by Kippis, Lond. 1838.
V. Heathen testimonies are few and meagre. This fact must be ac-
counted for by the mysterious origin, the short duration and the
unworldly character of the life and work of Chnst, which was exclu-
sively devoted to the kingdom of heaven, and was enacted in a re-
tired country and among a people despised by the proud Greeks
and Romans.
The oldest heathen testimony is probably in the Syriac letter of MARA,
a philosopher, to his son Serapion, about A.D. 74, first published by
Cureton, in Spicilegium Syrtacum, Lond. 1855, and translated by
Pratten in the " Ante-Nicene Library," Edmb. vol. xxiv. (1872), 104-
114. Here Chnst is compared to Socrates and Pythagoras, and
called " the wise king of the Jews," who were justly punished for
murdering him. Ewald (/. c. p. 180) calls this testimony " very re-
markable for its simplicity and originality as well as its antiquity."
Roman authors of the 1st and 2d centuries make only brief and incidental
mention of Christ as the founder of the Christian religion, and of his
crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius. TACITUS,
Annales, 1. xv. cap. 44, notices him in connection with his account
of the conflagration at Rome and the Neronian persecution, in the
words : " Auctor nominis eju* [Chrtstiam] Chrtstus Tiberio impemtante
per procurators™, Pontium P datum supphcw affectus erat" and calls
the Christian religion an exitiabtlis superstitio. Comp. his equally
contemptuous misrepresentation of the Jews in Hist., v. o. 3-5. Other
§ 14. 8OUECE8 AND LITERATURE. 95
notices are found in SUETONIUS : Vita Claudii, c. 25 ; Vita Neronis, c.
16 ; PLTNIUS, jun. : Eptst., X. 97, 98 ; LUCIAN : De m&rte Peregr., c.
11 ; LAMPBIDIUS : Vita Atexandn Seven, c. 29, 43.
The heathen opponents of Christianity, LUCIAN, CELSUS, PORPHYRY,
JULIAN the APOSTATE, etc., presuppose the principal facts of the gos-
pel-history, even the miracles of Jesus, but they mostly derive them,
like the Jewish adversaries, from evil spirits. Comp. my book on
the Person of Christ, Appendix, and Dr. NATH. LARDNEB'S Credi*
bdity, and Collection of Testimonies.
B. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL.
The numerous Harmonies of the Gospels began already A D. 170, with
TATIAN'S TO &a Tca-a-dpav (on which Ephraem Syrus, in the fourth
century, wrote a commentary, published in Latin from an Armenian
version in the Armenian convent at Venice, 1876). The first biogra-
phies of Christ were ascetic or poetic, and partly legendary. See
Hase, Leben Jesu, \ 17-19. The critical period began with the in-
fidel and infamous attacks of Reimarus, Bahrdt, and Venturing and
the noble apologetic works of Hess, Herder, and Eeinhard. But a
still greater activity was stimulated by the Leben Jesu of Strauss, 1835,
and again by Kenan's Vie de Jesus, 1863.
J. J. HESS (Antistes at Zurich, d 1828) : Lebensgeschichte Jesu. Zurich,
1774 ; 8th ed. 1823, 3 vols Translated into Dutch and Danish. He
introduced the psychological and pragmatic treatment.
F. V. EEINHARD (d. 1812) : Versuch uber den Plan Jesu. Wittenberg,
1781 ; 5th ed. by Heubner, 1830. English translation, N. York, 1831.
Beinhard proved the originality and superiority of the plan of Christ
above all the conceptions of previous sages and benefactors of the
race.
J. G. HERDER (d. 1803) : Vom Erloser der Menschen nach unsern 3 ersten
Evang. Riga, 1796. The same : Von Gottes Sohn, der Welt Heiland,
nach Joh. Evany. Riga, 1797.
H. E. G. PAULUS (Prof, in Heidelberg, d. 1851) : Leben Jesu ah Grund-
lage einer remen Geschichte des Urchnstenthums. Heidelb. 1828, 2
vols. Represents the " vulgar " rationalism, superseded afterwards
by the speculative rationalism of Strauss.
C. ULLMANN (d. 1865) : Die Sundlosigkeit Jesu. Hamb. 1828 ; 7th ed.
1864. Eng. translation (of 7th ed.) by Sophia Taylor, Edinb. 1870.
The best work on the sinlessness of Jesus. Comp. also his essay
(against Strauss), Historisch oder Mythisch? Gotha, 1838.
KARL HASE : Das Leben Jesu. Leipz. 1829 ; 5th ed. 1865. The same :
Geschichte Jesu. Leipz. 1876.
SGHLEEERMACHEB (d. 1834) : Vorlesungen uber das Leben Jesu, herausgeg. von
Eutenik. Berlin, 1864. The lectures were delivered 1832, and pub-
lished from imperfect manuscripts. " Eine Stimme aus vergangenen
96 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Tagen." Comp. the critique of D. F. Strauss in Der Christus des
Glaubens und der Jesus der Geschichte. Berlin, 1865.
D. F. STRAUSS (d. 1874) : Das Leben Jesu krttisch bearbeitet. Tubingen,
1835-36 ; 4th ed. 1840, 2 vols. French transl. by Emde Littre,*Par.
1856 (2d ed.) ; Engl. transL by Miss Marian Evans (better known
under the assumed name George Eliot), Lond. 1846, in 3 vols., re-
publ. in N. York, 1850. The same : Das Leben Jesu fur das deut-
sche Volk bearbeitet. Leipz. 1864 ; 3d ed. 1875. In both these fa-
mous works Strauss represents the mythical theory. It has been
popularized in tne third volume of The Bible for Learners by OORT
and HOOYKAAS, Engl. transl., Boston ed. 1879.
A. NEANDER (d. 1850) : Das Leben Jesu. Hamb. 1837 ; 5th ed. 1852. A
positive refutation of Strauss. The same in English by McCUntock
and Blumenthal, N. York, 1848.
JOH. NBP. SEPP (B. C.) : Das Leben Jesu Christi. Begensb. 1843 sqq ;
2d ed. 1865, 6 vols. Much legendary matter.
JORDAN BUCHER (B. C.) : Das Leben Jesu Christi. Stuttgart, 1859.
A. EBRARD : Wtssenschcrfthche Kntik der evangeltsclien Geschicltte. Erl.
1842 ; 3d ed. 1868. Against Strauss, Bruno Bauer, etc. Condensed
English translation, Edinb. 1869.
J. P. LANGE . Das Leben Jesu. Heidelb. 1844- '47, 3 parts in 5 vols.
Engl. transl. by Marcus Dods and others, in 6 vols., Edinb. 1864.
Bich and suggestive.
J. J. VAN OOSTERZEE : Leven van Jesus. First publ. in 1846-'51, 3 vols ;
2d ed. 1863-'65. Comp. his Chmstologie, Botterdam, 1855-'61, 3
vols., which describe the Son of God before his incarnation, the Son
of God in the flesh, and the Son of God in glory. The third part is
translated into German by F. Meyering : Das Bild Christi nach dvr
Schmft, Hamburg, 1864.
CHB. FR. SCHMID : Biblisclw Theologie des N. Testaments. Ed by Weiz-
sdcker. Stuttgart, 1853 (3d ed. 1854), 2 vols. The first volume
contains the life and doctrine of Christ. The English translation
by O. H. Venables (Edinb. 1870) is an abridgment.
H. EWAU>: Geschichte Christus' und seiner Zeit. Gott. 1854; 3d ed.
1867 (vol. v. of his Hist, of Israel). Transl. into Engl. by 0. Glover,
Cambridge, 1865.
J. YOUNG : TJie Christ of History. Lond. and N. York, 1855. 5th ed , 1S68.
F. LIECHTENSTEIN : Lebensgeschichte Jesu in chronolog. UebersicJti. Erkin*
gen, 1856.
C. J. BIOGENBACH i Vorlesungen uber das Leben Jesu. Basel, 1858.
M. BAUMQARTEN : Die Geschichte Jesu fur das VerstAndniss der Gegenwart.
Braunschweig, 1859.
W. F. GBSS : Christi Person und Werk nach CJiristi Selbstzeugniss und
den Zeugnissen der Apostel Basel, 1878, in several parts. (This su>
persedes his first work on the same subject, publ. 1856.)
§ 14. SOUKCES AND LITERATURE. 97
HOBACE BUSHNELL (d. 1878) i The Character of Jesus: forbidding his
possible classification with men. N. York, 1861. (A reprint of the
tenth chapter of his work on " Nature and the Supernatural," N.
York, 1859.) It is the best and most useful product of his genius.
C. J. ELLICOTT (Bishop) : Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord Jesus
Christ, being the Hulsean Led. for 1859. 5th ed. Lond. 1869 ; republ-
in Boston, 18G2
SAMUEL J. ANDREWS : The Life of our Lord upon the earth, considered in
its historical, chronological, and geographical relations. N. York,
1863 ; 4th ed. 1879.
EBNEST RENAN : Vie de Jesus. Par. 1863, and often publ. since (13th ed.
1867) and in several translations. Strauss popularized and Frenchi-
fied. The legendary theory. Eloquent, fascinating, superficial, and
contradictory.
DANIEL SCHENKEL : Das Charakterbdd Jcsu. Wiesbaden, 1864 ; 4th ed.
revised 1873. English transl. by W. H. Furness. Boston, 1867, 2
vols. By the same : Da* Chrittusbild der Apostel und der nach-
apostoltschen Zett. Leipz. 1879. See also his art., Jesus Christus, in
Schenkers " Bibel-Lexikon," III. 257 sqq. Semi-mythical theory.
Comp the sharp critique of Strauss on the Charaderbild: Die Hal-
ben und die Ganzen Berlin, 1865.
PHILIP SCHAFP : The Person of Clirist • the Perfection of his Humanity
viewed as a Proof of his Divinity. With a Collection of Impartial
Testimonies. Boston and N. York, 1865; 12th ed., revised, New
York, 1882. The same work in German, Gotha, 1865; revised
ed., N. York (Am. Tract Soc.), 1871 ; in Dutch by Cordes, with an
introduction by J. J. van Oosterzee. Groningen, 1866 ; in French
by Prof. Sardmoux, Toulouse, 1866, and in other languages. By
the same : Die Chmstusfrage N. York and Berlin, 1871.
Ecce Homo : A Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. [By Pro!
J. K. SEELEY, of Cambridge ] Lond 1864, and several editions and
translations. It gave rise also to works on Ecce Deus, Ecce Deus
Homo, and a number of reviews and essays (one by Gladstone).
CHARLES HARDWICK (d. 1859) : Chnst and oilier Mastei*s. Lond., 4th ed ,
1875. (An extension of the work of Eeinhard; Christ compared
with the founders of the Eastern religions )
E. H. PLUMTTRE . Christ and Christendom. Boyle Lectures. Lond. 1866.
E. DE PRESSENsfe i Jesus Christ, son temps, sa vie, son ceuvre. Paris, 1866.
(Against Eenan.) The same transl. into English \yyAnme Hartoood
(Lond., 7th ed. 1879), and into German by Fabarius (Halle, 1866).
F. DEUTZSCH : Jesus und Hittel. Erlangen, 1867 ; 3rd ed. revised, 1879.
THEOD. KEIM (Prof, in Zurich, and then in Giessen, d. 1879) ; Geschichte
Jesu von Nazara. Zurich, 1867-'72, 3 vols. Also an abridgment
in one volume, 1873, 2d ed. 1875. (This 2d ed. has important addi-
tions, particularly a critical Appendix.) The large work is trans-
98 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
lated into English by Geldart and Ransom. Lond. (Williams &
Norgate), 1873-'82, 6 vols. By the same author : Der geschichtltche
Chnstus. Znnch, 3d ed. 1866. Keim attempts to reconstruct a
historical Christ from the Synoptical Gospels, especially Matthew,
but without John.
WM. HANNA . The Life of our Lord. Edinb. 1868-'69, 6 vols.
Bishop DUPANLOUP (R. C.) : Histoire de noire Sauveur Jesus Christ.
Pans, 1870.
FB. W. FABBAB (Canon of Westminster) : The Life of Christ. Lond.
and N. York, 1874, 2 vols. (in many editions, one with illustrations).
C. GEIKIB : The Life and Words of Christ. Lond. and N. York, 1878,
2 vols. (Illustrated. Several editions.)
BEBNHABD WEISS (Prof, in Berlin) : Das Leben Jesu. Berlin, 1882,
2 vols., 3d ed. 1888. English transl. Edinb. 1885, 3 vols.
AxjrBED EDEBSHEIM : The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. London
and N. Y. 1884, 2 vols. Strictly orthodox. Valuable for rabbinical
illustrations.
W. BETSCHI^G: Das Leben Jesu. Halle, 1885-'86, 2 vols. ; 2d ed. 1888.
The works of PAHLUS, STRAUSS, and KENAN (also JOSEPH SALVADOB,
a learned Jew in France, author of Jesus Christ et sa doctrine, Par.
1838) represent the various phases of rationalism and destructive
criticism, but have called forth also a copious and valuable apolo-
getic literature. See the bibliography in Hase's Leben Jesu, 5tli ed.
p. 44 sqq., and in his Geschwhte Jesu, p. 124 sqq. SCHLEIEBMACHEB,
GFBOBEB, WEISSE, EWALD, SCHENKEIJ, HASE, and KEIM occupy, in
various degrees and with many differences, a middle position. The
great Schleiermacher almost perished in the sea of scepticism, but,
like Peter, he caught the saving arm of Jesus extended to him
(Matt. 14 : 30, 31). Hase is very valuable for the bibliography and
suggestive sketches, Ewald and Keim for independent research and
careful use of Josephus and the contemporary history. Keim rejects,
Ewald accepts, the Gospel of John as authentic ; both admit the
sinless perfection of Jesus, and Keim, from his purely critical and
synoptical standpoint, goes so for as to say (vol iii 662) that Christ,
in his gigantic elevation above his own and succeeding ages, " makes
the impression of mysterious loneliness, superhuman miracle, divine
creation (den Eindruck geheimnissvoller Einsamkeit, ubermenschhchen
Wunders9 gotthcher Schopfung)" Weiss and Beyschlag mark a still
greater advance, and triumphantly defend the genuineness of John's
Gospel, but make concessions to criticism in minor details.
0. CHBONOLOGIOAL.
KEPLEB : De Jesu Christi Servatoris nostri vero anno natalicio. Frankf.
1606. De vero anno quo ceternus Dei FUius humanam naturam in
utero benedictce Virginis Marias assumpsit. Frcf. 1614.
J. A. BENGEL : Ordo Temporum. Stuttgart, 1741, and 1770.
HENB. SANOLEMENTK : De Vulgaris A era Emendation* Kbri quatuor.
§ 14. SOURCES AND LITERATURE. 99
C. IDELEB • Handbuch der Chronologic. Berlin, 1825-'26, 2 vols. By tlia
same : Lehrbuch der Chronologic, 1831.
FB. MUNTER : Der Stern der Weisen. Kopenhagen, 1827.
K. WIESELEB : Chronolog. Synopse der mer Evangehen. Hamb. 1843.
Eng. trans, by Venables, 2d ed., 1877. Supplemented by his Bei*
trage zur richtigen Wurdigung der Evangehen. Gotha, 1869.
HENBY BBOWNE : fodo Sceclorum. London, 1844. Comp. bis art. Chro-
nology, in the 3d ed. of Kitto's " Cycl of Bib. Lit."
SAM. F. JAKVIS (histonographer of the Prot. Episc. Ch. in the U. S., d.
1851) : A Chronological Introduction to the History of the Church. N.
York, 1845.
G. SEYFFABTH : Chronolog t a sacra, Untersuchungen uber das Geburtsjahr
des Herrn. Leipzig, 1846.
BUD. ANGEK : Der Stern der Weisen und das Geburtsjahr Christi. Leipz.
1847. By the same. Zur Chronologic des Lehramtes Christi. Leipz.
1848.
HENBY F. CLINTON : Fasti Romani. Oxford, 1845-'50, 2 vols.
THOMAS LEWIN : Essay on the Chronology of the New Testament. Oxford,
1854. The same : Fasti Sacri (from B.C. 70 to A.D. 70). Lond.
1865.
F. PIPER • Das Datum der Geburt Christi, in his " Evangel. Kalender "
for 1856, pp 41 sqq.
HENBI LUTTEBOTH . Le recensement de Qwrtnius en Judee. Paris, 1865
(134 pp ).
GUST. ROSCH . Zum Geburtsjahr Jesu, in the " Jahrbucher fiir Deutsche
Theol " Gotha, 1866, pp. 3-48.
CH. ED CASPABI : Chronolog tsch-Geographische Etnleitung in das Leben
J C. Hamb. 1869 (263 pp ) English translation by M. J. Evans.
Edinburgh (T Clark), 1876.
FBANCIS W. UPHAM : The Wise Men. N. York, 1869 (ch. viii., 145, on
Kepler's Discovery). Star of Our Lord, by the same author. N. Y.,
1873.
A. W. ZUMPT: Das Geburtsjahr Christi Leipz. 1869 (306pp.). He
makes much account of the double governorship of Quirinius,
Luke 2 : 2. Comp Pres. WOOLSEY in DM Sacra, April, 1870.
HEBM. SEVIN : Chrmiologie des Lebens Jesu Tubingen, 2d. ed., 1874.
FLOBIAN BIESS (Jesuit) : Das Geburtsjahr Christi. Freiburg i. Br, 1880.
PETEB SOHBOG (R. C.) : Das Todesjahr des Konigs Herodes und das Todes-
jahr Jesu Christi. Against Riess. Munchen, 1882.
FLOBIAN BIESS: Nochmals das Geburtsjahr Jesu Christi. Reply to
Schegg. Freib. im Br. 1883.
BEBNHABD MATTHIAS : Die romische Grundsteuer und das Vectigalrecht.
Erlangen, 1882.
H. LBCWTJMIBK: De censu Quiriniano et anno natimtatis Christi secundum
Lucam evangeli&tam Ihssertatio. Lausanne, 1883.
100 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 15. The Fownder of Christwmity.
When "the fulness of the time" was come, God sent forth his
only-begotten Son, " the Desire of all nations," to redeem the
world from the curse of sin, and to establish an everlasting
kingdom of truth, love, and peace for all who should believe on
his name.
In JESUS CHRIST a preparatory history both divine and hu-
man comes to its close. In him culminate all the previous
revelations of God to Jews and Gentiles ; and in him are ful-
filled the deepest desires and efforts of both Gentiles and Jews
for redemption. In his divine nature, as Logos, he is, accord-
ing to St. John, the eternal Son of the Father, and the agent
in the creation and preservation of the world, and in all those
preparatory manifestations of God, which were completed in
the incarnation. In his human nature, as Jesus of Nazareth,
he is the ripe fruit of the religious growth of humanity, with
an earthly ancestry, which St. Matthew (the evangelist of Is-
rael) traces to Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews, and St.
Luke (the evangelist of the Gentiles), to Adam, the father of
all men. In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ;
and in him also is realized the ideal of human virtue and piety.
He is the eternal Truth, and the divine Life itself, personally
joined with our nature ; he is our Lord and our God ; yet at
the same time flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. In him
is solved the problem of religion, the reconciliation and fellow-
ship of man with God ; and we must expect no clearer revela-
tion of God, nor any higher religious attainment of man, than
is already guaranteed and actualized in his person.
But as Jesus Christ thus closes all previous history, so, on
the other hand, he begins an endless future. He is the author
of a new creation, the second Adam, the father of regenerate
humanity, the head of the church, "which is his body, the
fulness of him, that filleth all in all." He is the pure fountain
of that stream of light and life, which has since flowed un-
§ 16. THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY. 101
broken through nations and ages, and will continue to flow, till
the earth shall be full of his praise, and every tongue shall
confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The
universal diffusion and absolute dominion of the spirit and life
of Christ will be also the completion of the human race, the
end of history, and the beginning of a glorious eternity.
It is the great and difficult task of the biographer of Jesus to
show how he, by external and internal development, under the
conditions of a particular people, age, and country, came to be
in fact what he was in idea and destination, and what he will
continue to be for the faith of Christendom, the God-Man and
Saviour of the world. Being divine from eternity, he could
not become God ; but as man he was subject to the laws of
human life and gradual growth. "He advanced in wisdom
and stature, and in favor with God and man." ! Though he
was the Son of God, " yet he learned obedience by the things
which he suffered ; and having been made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."1
Tiiere is no conflict between the historical Jesus of Nazareth
and the ideal Christ of faith. The full understanding of his
truly human life, by its very perfection and elevation above
all other men before and after him, will necessarily lead to an
admission of his own testimony concerning his divinity.
" Deep strike thy roots, O heavenly Vine,
Within our earthly sod '
Most human and yet most divine,
The flower of man and God ! "
JESUS CHRIST came into the world under Caesar Augustus,
the first Roman emperor, before the death of king Herod
the Great, four years before the traditional date of our Diony-
sian sera. He was born at Bethlehem of Judaea, in the royal
line of David, from Mary, " the wedded Maid and Virgin Moth-
er." The world was at peace, and the gates of Janus were
closed for only the second time in the history of Rome. There
'Luke 2. 52 « Hebr. 5:8,9.
102 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
is a poetic and moral fitness in this coincidence : it secured
a hearing for the gentle message of peace which might have
been drowned in the passions of war and the clamor of arma,
Angels from heaven proclaimed the good tidings of his birth
with songs of praise; Jewish shepherds from the neighbor-
ing fields, and heathen sages from the far east greeted the new-
born king and Saviour with the homage of believing hearts.
Heaven and earth gathered in joyful adoration around the
Christ-child, and the blessing of this event is renewed from
year to year among high and low, rich and poor, old and young,
throughout the civilized world.
The idea of a perfect childhood, sinless and holy, yet truly
human and natural, had never entered the mind of poet or his-
torian before ; and when the legendary fancy of the Apocryphal
Gospels attempted to fill out the chaste silence of the Evangel-
ists, it painted an unnatural prodigy of a child to whom wild
animals, trees, and dumb idols bowed, and who changed balls
of clay into flying birds for the amusement of his playmates.
The youth of Jesus is veiled in mystery. We know only
one, but a very significant fact. When a boy of twelve years
he astonished the doctors in the temple by his questions and
answers, without repelling them by immodesty and premature
wisdom, and filled his parents with reverence and awe by his
absorption in the things of his heavenly Father, and yet was
subject and obedient to them in all things. Here, too, there is
a clear line of distinction between the supernatural miracle of
history and the unnatural prodigy of apocryphal fiction, which
represents Jesus as returning most learned answers to perplex-
ing questions of the doctors about astronomy, medicine, physics,
metaphysics, and hyperphysics.1
The external condition and surroundings of his youth are
in sharp contrast with the amazing result of his public life.
He grew up quietly and unnoticed in a retired Galilean moun-
tain village of proverbial insignificance, and in a lowly carpen*
1 See Cowper, I e. pp. 212-214.
§ 15. THE FOUNDER OP CHRISTIANITY. 103
tor-shop, far away from the city of Jerusalem, from schools
and libraries, with no means of instruction save those which
were open to the humblest Jew — the care of godly parents, the
beauties of nature, the services of the synagogue, the secret
communion of the soul with God, and the Scriptures of the
Old Testament, which recorded in type and prophecy his own
character and mission. All attempts to derive his doctrine
from any of the existing schools and sects have utterly failed.
He never referred to the traditions of the elders except to op-
pose them. From the Pharisees and Sadducees he differed
alike, and provoked their deadly hostility. With the Essenes
he never came in contact. lie was independent of human
learning and literature, of schools and parties. He taught the
world as one who owed nothing to the world. He came down
from heaven and spoke out of the fulness of his personal inter-
course with the great Jehovah. He was no scholar, no artist,
no orator ; yet was he wiser than all sages, he spake as never
man spake, and made an impression on his age and all ages
after him such as no man ever made or can make. Hence the
natural surprise of his countrymen as expressed in the ques-
tion : " From whence hath this man these things ? " " How
knoweth this man letters, having never learned ? " *
He began his public ministry in the thirtieth year of his age,
after the Messianic inauguration by the baptism of John, and
after the Messianic probation in the wilderness — the counter-
part of the temptation of the first Adam in Paradise. That
ministry lasted only three years — and yet in these three years
is condensed the deepest meaning of the history of religion.
No great life ever passed so swiftly, so quietly, so humbly, so
far removed from the noise and commotion of the world ; and
no great life after its close excited such universal and lasting
interest. He was aware of this contrast: he predicted his
deepest humiliation even to the death on the cross, and the
subsequent irresistible attraction of this cross, which may be
»Mark6.3, 3; Matt. 13:54-56; John 7: 15.
104 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
witnessed from day to day wherever his name is known. He
who could say, u If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw
all men unto myself," l knew more of the course of history and
of the human heart than all the sages and legislators before
and after him.
He chose twelve apostles for the Jews and seventy disciples
for the Gentiles, not from among the scholars and leaders, but
from among the illiterate fishermen of Galilee. He had no
home, no earthly possessions, no friends among the mighty and
the rich. A few pious women from time to time tilled his
purse ; and this purse was in the hands of a thief and a traitor.
He associated with publicans and sinners, to raise them up to a
higher and nobler life, and began his reformation among the
lower classes, which were despised and neglected by the proud
hierarchy of the day. He never courted the favor of the great,
but incurred their hatred and persecution. He never flattered
the prejudices of the age, but rebuked sin and vice among the
high and the low, aiming his severest words at the blind leaders
of the blind, the self-righteous hypocrites who sat on Moses" seat.
He never encouraged the carnal Messianic hopes of the people,
but withdrew when they wished to make him a king, and de-
clared before the representative of the Roman empire that his
kingdom was not of this world. He announced to his disciples
his own martyrdom, and promised to them in this life only the
same baptism of blood. He went about in Palestine, often
weary of travel, but never weary of his work of love, doing
good to the souls and bodies of men, speaking words of spirit
and life, and working miracles of power and mercy.
He taught the purest doctrine, as a direct revelation of his
heavenly Father, from his own intuition and experience, and
with a power and authority which commanded unconditional
trust and obedience. He rose above the prejudices of party
and sect, above the superstitions of his age and nation. He
addressed the naked heart of man and touched the quick of
'John 12: 32.
§ 15. THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY. 105
the conscience. He announced the founding of a spiritual
kingdom which should grow from the smallest seed to a
mighty tree, and, working like leaven from within, should
gradually pervade all nations and countries. This colossal idea,
the like of which had never entered the imagination of men.
he held fast even in the darkest hour of humiliation, before the
tribunal of the Jewish high-priest and the Roman governor,
and when suspended as a malefactor on the cross; and the
truth of this idea is illustrated by every page of church history
and in every mission station on earth.
The miracles or signs which accompanied his teaching are
supernatural, but not unnatural, exhibitions of his power over
man and nature ; no violations of law. but manifestations of a
higher law, the superiority of mind over matter, the superiority
of spirit over mind, the superiority of divine grace over human
nature. They are all of the highest moral and of a profoundly
symbolical significance, prompted by pure benevolence, and in-
tended for the good of men ; in striking contrast with decep-
tive juggler works and the useless and absurd miracles of apo-
cryphal fiction. They were performed without any ostenta-
tion, with such simplicity and ease as to be called simply his
" works." They were the practical proof of his doctrine and
the natural reflex of his wonderful person. The absence of
wonderful works in such a wonderful man would be the great-
est wonder.
His doctrine and miracles were sealed by the purest and holi-
est life in private and public. He could challenge his bitter-
est opponents with the question : " Which of you convicteth me
of sin ? " well knowing that they could not point to a single
spot.
At last he completed his active obedience by the passive
obedience of suffering in cheerful resignation to the holy will
of God. Hated and persecuted by the Jewish hierarchy, be-
trayed into their hands by Judas, accused by false witnesses,
condemned by the Sanhedrin, rejected by the people, denied
by Peter, but declared innocent by the representative of the
106 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Roman law and justice, surrounded by his weeping mothei
and faithful disciples, revealing in those dark hours by word
and silence the gentleness of a lamb and the dignity of a God,
praying for his murderers, dispensing to the penitent thief a
place in paradise, committing his soul to his heavenly Father,
he died, with the exclamation : u It is finished ! " He died be-
fore he had reached the prime of manhood. The Saviour of
the world a youth ! He died the shameful death of the cross,
the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, a free self-
sacrifice of infinite love, to reconcile the world unto God. He
conquered sin and death on their own ground, and thus re-
deemed and sanctified all who are willing to accept his benefits
and to follow his example. lie instituted the Lord's Supper,
to perpetuate the memory of his death and the cleansing and
atoning power of his blood till the end of time.
The third day he rose from the grave, the conqueror of
death and hell, the prince of life and resurrection. He repeat-
edly appeared to his disciples ; he commissioned them to preach
the gospel of the resurrection to every creature ; he took pos-
session of his heavenly throne, and by the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit he established the church, which he has ever since
protected, nourished, and comforted, and with which he has
promised to abide, till he shall come again in glory to judge the
quick and the dead.
This is a meagre outline of the story which the evangelists
tell us with childlike simplicity, and yet with more general and
lasting effect than could be produced by the highest art of his-
torical composition. They modestly abstained from adding
their own impressions to the record of the words and acts of
the Master whose " glory they beheld, the glory as of the only-
begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Who would not shrink from the attempt to describe the
moral character of Jesus, or, having attempted it, be not dis-
satisfied with the result? Who can empty the ocean into a
bucket? Who (we may ask with Lavater) ucan paint the
glory of the rising sun with a charcoal?" No artist's idea]
§ 15. THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY. 107
comes up to the reality in this case, though his ideals may sur-
pass every other reality. The better and holier a man is, the
more he feels his need of pardon, and how far he fails short of
his own imperfect standard of excellence. But Jesus, with the
same nature as ours and tempted as we are, never yielded to
temptation ; never had cause for regretting any thought, word,
or action ; he never needed pardon, or conversion, or reform ;
he never fell out of harmony with his heavenly Father. His
whole life was one unbroken act of self-consecration to the
glory of God and the eternal welfare of his fellow-men. A
catalogue of virtues and graces, however complete, would give
us but a mechanical view. It is the spotless purity and sinless-
ness of Jesus as acknowledged by friend and foe ; it is the even
harmony and symmetry of all graces, of love to God and love
to man, of dignity and humility, of strength and tenderness, of
greatness and simplicity, of self-control and submission, of
active and passive virtue ; it is, in one word, the absolute per-
fection which raises his character high above the reach of all
other men and makes it an exception to a universal rule, a
moral miracle in history. It is idle to institute comparisons
with saints and sages, ancient or modern. Even the infidel
Eousseau was forced to exclaim : " If Socrates lived and died
like a sage, Jesus lived and died like a God." Here is more
than the starry heaven above us, and the moral law within
us, which filled the soul of Kant with ever-growing reverence
and awe. Here is the holy of holies of humanity, here is the
very gate of heaven.
Going so far in admitting the human perfection of Christ —
and how can the historian do otherwise ? — we are driven a step
farther, to the acknowledgment of his amazing claims, which
must either be true, or else destroy all foundation for admira-
tion and reverence in which he is universally held. It is im-
possible to construct a life of Christ without admitting its su-
pernatural and miraculous character.
The divinity of Christ, and his whole mission as Redeemer,
is an article of faith, and, as such, above logical or mathemati-
108 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
cal demonstration. The incarnation or the union of the infi-
nite divinity and finite humanity in one person is indeed the
mystery of mysteries. " What can be more glorious than God ?
What more vile than flesh ? What more wonderful than God
in the flesh ? " ' Yet aside from all dogmatizing which lies out-
Bide of the province of the historian, the divinity of Christ has
a self -evidencing power which forces itself irresistibly upon the
reflecting mind and historical inquirer ; while the denial of it
makes his person an inexplicable enigma.
It is inseparable from his own express testimony respecting
himself, as it appears in every Gospel, with but a slight differ-
ence of degree between the Synoptists and St. John. Only
ponder over it ! lie claims to be the long-promised Messiah
who fulfilled the law and the prophets, the founder and law-
giver of a new and universal kingdom, the light of the world,
the teacher of all nations and ages, from whose authority there
is no appeal, lie claims to have come into this world for the
purpose to save the world from sin — which no merely human
being can possibly do. He claims the power to forgive sins on
earth ; he frequently exercised that power, and it was for the
Bins of mankind, as he foretold, that he shed his own blood.
lie invites all men to follow him, and promises peace and life
eternal to every one that believes in him. lie claims pre-exist-
ence before Abraham and the world, divine names, attributes,
and worship. He disposes from the cross of places in Para-
dise. In directing his disciples to baptize all nations, he co-
ordinates himself with the eternal Father and the Divine Spirit,
and promises to be with them to the consummation of the world
and to come again in glory as the Judge of all men. He, the
humblest and meekest of men, makes these astounding pre-
tensions in the most easy and natural way ; he never falters,
never apologizes, never explains ; he proclaims them as self-
evident truths. We read them again and again, and never feel
any incongruity nor think of arrogance and presumption.
1 Augustine : " Deus; quid gloriosiiis? Caro; quid vUiusf Deus in carne;
quid mirabikus f "
§ 15. THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY. 109
And yet this testimony, if not time, must be downright blas-
phemy 6r madness. The former hypothesis cannot stand a
moment before the moral purity and dignity of Jesus, revealed
in his every word and work, and acknowledged by universal
consent. Self-deception in a matter so momentous, and with
an intellect in all respects so clear and so sound, is equally
out of the question. How could lie be an enthusiast or a mad-
man who never lost the even balance of his mind, who sailed
serenely over all the troubles and persecutions, as the sun above
the clouds, who always returned the wisest answer to tempting
questions, who calmly and deliberately predicted his death on
the cross, his resurrection on the third day, the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, the founding of his Church, the destruction of
Jerusalem — predictions which have been literally fulfilled ? A
character so original, so complete, so uniformly consistent, so
perfect, so human and yet so high above all human greatness,
can be neither a fraud nor a fiction. The poet, as has been
well said, would in this case be greater than the hero. It
would take more than a Jesus to invent a Jesus.
We are shut up then to the recognition of the divinity of
Christ; and reason itself must bow in silent awe before the
tremendous word : u I and the Father are one ! " and respond
with skeptical Thomas : " My Lord and my God ! "
This conclusion is confirmed by the effects of the manifesta-
tion of Jesus, which far transcend all merely human capacity
and power. The history of Christianity, with its countless
fruits of a higher and purer life of truth and love than was
ever known before or is now known outside of its influence, is a
continuous commentary on the life of Christ, and testifies on
every page to the inspiration of his holy example. His power
is felt on every Lord's Day from ten thousand pulpits, in the
palaces of kings and the huts of beggars, in universities and
colleges, in every school where the sermon on the Mount is
read, in prisons, in almshouses, in orphan asylums, as well as
in happy homes, in learned works and simple tracts in endless
succession. If this history of ours has any value at all, it is
HO FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
a new evidence that Christ is the light and life of a fallen
world.
And there is no sign that his power is waning. His kingdom
is more widely spread than ever before, and has the fairest pros-
pect of final triumph in all the earth. Napoleon at St. Helena
is reported to have been struck with the reflection that millions
are now ready to die for the crucified Nazarene who founded
a spiritual empire by love, while no one would die for Alexan-
der, or Csesar, or himself, who founded temporal empires by
force. He saw in this contrast a convincing argument for the
divinity of Christ, saying : " I know men, and I tell you, Christ
was not a man. Everything about Christ astonishes me. His
spirit overwhelms and confounds me. There is no comparison
between him and any other being. He stands single and
alone."1 And Goethe, another commanding genius, of very dif-
ferent character, but equally above suspicion of partiality for
religion, looking in the last years of his life over the vast field
of history, was constrained to confess that " if ever the Divine
appeared on earth, it was in the Person of Christ," and that
" the human mind, no matter how far it may advance in every
other department, will never transcend the height and moral
culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the Gospels."
The rationalistic, mythical, and legendary attempts to explain
the life of Christ on purely human and natural grounds, and to
resolve the miraculous elements either into common events, or
into innocent fictions, split on the rock of Christ's character
and testimony. The ablest of the infidel biographers of Jesus
now profess the profoundest regard for his character, and laud
1 On the testimony of Napoleon to the divinity of Christ see the letters of
Bersier and Lutteroth appended to the twelfth ed. of my book on the Person
of Christ (1882), p 284, and pp 219 sqq. Napoleon is reported to have asked
the poet Wieland at a court-ball in Weimar, during the Congress of Erfurt,
whether he doubted that Jesus ever lived ; to which Wieland promptly and
emphatically replied in the negative, adding that with equal right a thousand
years hence men might deny the existence of Napoleon or the battle of Jena.
The emperor smiled and said, tr&s-bien ! The question was designed not to
express doubt, but to test the poet's faith. So Dr. Ease reports from the
month of Chancellor Midler, who heard the conversation. GcscJiichte Jesu, p. 9.
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Ill
him as the greatest sage and saint that ever appeared on earth.
But, by rejecting his testimony concerning his divine origin
and mission, they turn him into a liar ; and, by rejecting the
miracle of the resurrection, they make the great fact of Chris-
tianity a stream without a source, a house without a founda-
tion, an effect without a cause. Denying the physical miracles,
they expect us to believe even greater psychological miracles ;
yea, they substitute for the supernatural miracle of history an
unnatural prodigy and incredible absurdity of their imagina-
tion. They moreover refute and supersede each other. The his-
tory of error in the nineteenth century is a history of self-de-
struction. A hypothesis was scarcely matured before another
was invented and substituted, to meet the same fate in its turn ;
while the old truth and faith of Christendom remains unshaken,
and inarches on in its peaceful conquest against sin and error.
Truly, Jesus Christ, the Christ of the Gospels, the Christ of
history, the crucified and risen Christ, the divine-human Christ,
is the most real, the most certain, the most blessed of all facts.
And this fact is an ever-present and growing power which per-
vades the Church and conquers the world, and is its own best
evidence, as the sun shining in the heavens. This fact is the
only solution of the terrible mystery of sin and death, the only
inspiration to a holy life of love to God and man, the only
guide to happiness and peace. Systems of human wisdom will
come and go, kingdoms and empires will rise and fall, but for
all time to come Christ will remain " the Way, the Truth, and
the Life."
§ 16. Chronology of the Life of Ch<riat.
See the Lit. in \ 14, p. 98, especially BROWNE, WIESELEB, ZUMPT,
ANDREWS, and KEIM.
We briefly consider the chronological dates of the life of
Christ.
I. THE YEAR OF THE NATIVITY. — This must be ascertained
by historical and chronological research, since there is no cer«
112 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tain and harmonious tradition on the subject. Our Christian »ra,
which was introduced by the Roman abbot Dionysius Exiguus, in
the sixth century, and came into general use two centuries later,
during the reign of Charlemagne, puts the Nativity Dec. 25, 754
Anno Urbis, that is, after the founding of the city of Rome.1
Nearly all chronologers agree that this is wrong by at least four
years. Christ was born A.U. 750 (or B.C. 4), if not earlier.
This is evident from the following chronological hints in the
Gospels, as compared with and confirmed by Josephus and
contemporary writers, and by astronomical calculations.
THE DEATH OF HEROD.
(1) According to Matthew 2 : 1 (comp. Luke 1 : 5, 26), Christ
was born "in the days of king Herod" I. or the Great, who
died, according to Josephus, at Jericho, A.U. 750, just before
the Passover, being nearly seventy years of age, after a reign
of thirty-seven years.3 This date has been verified by the
astronomical calculation of the eclipse of the rnoon, which took
place March 13, A.U. 750, a few days before Herod's death.3
Allowing two months or more for the events between the birth
of Christ and the murder of the Innocents by Herod, the
Nativity must be put back at least to February or January, A.U.
750 (or B.C. 4), if not earlier.
Some infer from the slaughter of the male children in Beth-
lehem, " from two years old and under," 4 that Christ must have
1 The fathers distinguish between the Nativity (-yeWis, Matt 1-18) and the
Incarnation (trdpicuHns), and identify the Incarnation with the Conception or
Annunciation. Since the time of Charlemagne the two terms seem to have
been used synonymously. See Ideler, Chronol , 11 383, and Gieseler, i. 70
(4th Germ ed ).
* Jos , Antigu., xvn 8, 1 : '• Herod died . . . having reigned since he had
procured Antigonus to be slain [A u 717, or B.C. 37], thirty-four years, but since
he had been declared king by the Romans [A u 714, or B c. 40], thirty-seven "
Comp. the same statement in Left Jud., i 33, 8, and other passages
1 According to Josephus, Antiqn . xvii 0, 4 • *' And that night there was
an eclipse of the moon " It is worthy of note that Josephus mentions no
other eclipse in any of his works
4 Matt. 2 : 16 : irdrras rovs iratfas . . . tab fterovs tea) Kar«rlpa> fcar& rbf
Xptvo* fty faplfaurtv irap& rwv pdyuv.
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 118
been born two years before Herod's death ; but he counted from
the time when the star was first seen by the Magi (2 : 7), and
wished to make sure of his object. There is no good reason to
doubt the fact itself, and the flight of the holy family to Egypt,
which is inseparably connected with it. For, although the
horrible deed is ignored by Josephus, it is in keeping with
the well-known cruelty of Herod, who from jealousy murdered
Ilyrcanus, the grandfather of his favorite wife, Mariamne ; then
Mariamne herself, to whom he was passionately attached ; her two
eons, Alexander and Aristobulus, and, only five days before his
death, his oldest son, Antipater; arid who ordered all the nobles
assembled around him in his last moments to be executed after
his decease, so that at least his death might be attended by
universal mourning. For such a monster the murder of one or
two dozen infants in a little town ' was a very small matter,
which might easily have been overlooked, or, owing to its con-
nection with the Messiah, purposely ignored by the Jewish histo-
rian. But a confused remembrance of it is preserved in the anec-
dote related by Macrobius (a Roman grammarian and probably
a heathen, about A.D. 410), that Augustus, on hearing of Herod's
murder of " boys under two years " and of his own son, remarked
"that it was better to be Herod's swine than his son."8 The
cruel persecution of Herod and the flight into Egypt were a
significant sign of the experience of the early church, and a source
of comfort in every period of martyrdom.
THE STAR OF THE MAGI.
(2) Another chronological hint of Matthew, ch. 2 : 1-4, 9, which
has been verified by astronomy, is the Star of the Wise Men,
1 Tradition has here moat absurdly swelled the number of Innocents to 20,000,
as indicated on the massive column, which marks the spot of their supposed
martyrdom in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. XX M [artyres], I e.
martyrs, have become XX M [ilia], i. e. twenty thousands.
8 Macrob , Sat., iL 4 : " Augustus* cum audwet, inter pueros^ quo* in Syria
fferode*, rex Judaorum, intra bimatum [perhaps taken from Matt. 2 : 16,
Vulg. : a bimatu et infra] jwsit interfici, JUium quoque eiu* occitum, ait : me-
lius est Hcrodis poreum eue quamjihum." It is a pun on the similar sounding
8
114 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
which appeared before the death of Herod, and which would
naturally attract the attention of the astrological sages of the
East, in connection with the expectation of the advent of a great
king among the Jews. Such a belief naturally arose from Ba-
laam's prophecy of " the star that was to rise out of Jacob " (Num.
24 : 17), and from the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel,
and widely prevailed in the East since the dispersion of the Jews.1
The older interpretation of that star made it either a passing
meteor, or a strictly miraculous phenomenon, which lies beyond
astronomical calculation, and was perhaps visible to the Magi
alone. But Providence usually works through natural agencies,
and that God did so in this case is made at least very probable
by a remarkable discovery in astronomy. The great and devout
Kepler observed in the years 1603 and 1604 a conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn, which was made more rare and luminous
by the addition of Mars in the month of March, 1604. In the
autumn of the same year (Oct. 10) he observed near the planets
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars a new (fixed) star of uncommon bril-
liancy, which appeared " in triumphal pomp, like some all-power-
ful monarch on a visit to the metropolis of his realm." It was
Greek terms for sow and son (Is and vlfa). Kepler already quoted this pas-
sage in confirmation of Matthew
1 Tacitus (Hist , v. 13) and Suetonius ( Vespas , c 4) speak of a widespread
expectation of that kind at the time of the Jewish war and before (Sueto-
nius calls it a vetus et conxtans opinio), but falsely refer it to the Roman em-
perors Vespasianus and Titus In this the heathen historians followed Jose-
phus, who well knew and believed the Messianic hopes of his people (comp.
Ant , iv. 6, 5; z. 10, 4; 11, 7), and yet was not ashamed basely to betray
and pervert them, saying (Hell Jud., vi. 5, 4) : " What did the most to elevate
the Jews in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was found
also in their sacred writings, how ' about that time, one from their country
should become governor of the habitable earth ' The Jews took this predic-
tion to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were
thereby deceived in their determination. Now, this oracle certainly denoted
the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judaea." Comp.
Hauarath, N. T. Ztgeseh , I. 173 The Messianic hopes continued long after
the destruction of Jerusalem. The false Messiah, who led the rebellion under
the reign of Hadrian (A.D 185), called himself Bar-Cocheba, i. e. " Son of the
Star,9* and issued coins with a star, m allusion probably to Num. 24 . 17.
When his real character was revealed, his name was turned into Bar-Couba,
14 Bon of Falsehood."
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 115
blazing and glittering "like the most beautiful and glorious
torch ever seen when driven by a strong wind," and seemed to
him to be " an exceedingly wonderful work of God." ' His
genius perceived that this phenomenon must lead to the de-
termination of the year of Christ's birth, and by careful calcu-
lation he ascertained that a similar conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturn, with the later addition of Mars, and probably some ex-
traordinary star, took place repeatedly A.U. 747 and 748 in the
sign of the Pisces.
It is worthy of note that Jewish astrologers ascribe a special
signification to the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn
in the sign of the Pisces, and connect it with the advent of the
Messiah.1
The discovery of Kepler was almost forgotten till the nine-
teenth century, when it was independently confirmed by several
eminent astronomers, Schubert of Petersburg, Ideler and Encke
of Berlin, and Pritchard of London. It is pronounced by Pritch-
ard to be " as certain as any celestial phenomenon of ancient
1 In the beginning of his Bericht vom QeburttyaJir Christi (Opera, IV. 204),
he describes this new star in these words • " Ein ungewohnlicher, sehr heller
und sclwner Stern . . . der wie die schonste, 7ien*lichste Fackel so jemaJd
mit Angen geseJien worden, wenn tie von einem starken Wind getneben wird,
geflammet und gefunkelt, gerad neben den drey hochsten Planeten Satvrno,
Jove und Afarte " He calls this phenomenon "em uberaus grosses Wunder-
werk Gottes" A fuller description of the whole phenomenon he gives in his
work De Stella Nova (Opera, II 575 sqq and 801 sqq., ed Fnsch). Upham
(The Wise Men, N Y. 1869, p. 145) says. "Tycho de Brahe had observed
a similar wonder in the constellation Cassiopeia, on the night of the llth
of October, in the year 1572 These were not luminous bodies within our
atmosphere ; were not within, or near, the solar system ; they were in the
region of the fixed stars Each grew more and more brilliant, till it shone
like a planet. Then its lustre waned until it ceased to be visible, — the one in
March, 1574, the other in February, 1606 The light was white, then yellow,
then red, then dull, and so went out." On Temporary Stars, see Herschel'a
Astronomy^ Chap XII
9 The learned Jewish Rabbi Abarbanel, in his Commentary OD Daniel (called
Ma<jne hajeshuah, I e. " Wells of Salvation/' laa. 12-3), which was pub-
lished 1547, more than fifty years before Kepler's calculation, says that such
a conjunction took place three years before the birth of Moses (A M. 2365),
and would reappear before the birth of the Messiah, A.M. 5224 (or A o. 1463).
Ideler and Wieseler conjecture that this astrological belief existed among the
Jews already at the time of Christ.
110 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
date." It certainly makes the pilgrimage of the Magi to Jeru*
ealem and Bethlehem more intelligible. " The star of astrology
has thus become a torch of chronology " (as Ideler says), and an
argument for the truthfulness of the first Gospel.1
It is objected that Matthew seems to mean a single star (aa-Typ,
comp. ver. 9) rather than a combination of stars (acrrpov).
Hence Dr. Wieseler supplements the calculation of Kepler and
Ideler by calling to aid a single comet which appeared from
February to April, A.U. 750, according to the Chinese astronomi-
cal tables, which Pingre and Iluniboldt acknowledge as histori-
cal. But this is rather far-fetched and hardly necessary ; for
that extraordinary star described by Kepler, or Jupiter at itb
most luminous appearance, as described by Pritchard, in that
memorable conjunction, would sufficiently answer the descrip-
tion of a single star by Matthew, which must at all events not
be pressed too literally ; for the language of Scripture on the
heavenly bodies is not scientific, but phenomenal and popular.
God condescended to the astrological faith of the Magi, and
probably made also an internal revelation to them before, as
well as after the appearance of the star (comp. 2 : 12).
If we accept the result of these calculations of astronomers
we are brought to within two years of the year of the Nativity,
namely, between A.U. 748 (Kepler) and 750 (Wieseler). The
difference arises, of course, from the uncertainty of the time of
departure and the length of the journey of the Magi.
As this astronomical argument is often very carelessly and erroneously
stated, and as the works of Kepler and Ideler are not easy of access, at
least in America (I found them in the Astor Library), I maybe permitted
to state the case more at length. John Kepler wrote three treatises on
the year of Christ's birth, two in Latin (1606 and 1614), one in German
(1613), in which he discusses with remarkable learning the various pas-
1 It has been so accepted by Dean Alford and others See the note hi 6th
ed of his Com. on Matt 2 : 2 (1868), with the corrections furnished by Rev C.
Pntchard McClellan (New Test., L 402) assumes that the conjunction of
Jupiter and Saturn was premonitory and coincided with the conception of the
birth of John the Baptist, Oct. 748, and that Kepler's new star wae Messiah's
star appearing a year later.
§ 10. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHEIST. 117
sages and facts bearing on that subject. They are reprinted in Dr. Ch.
Frisch's edition of his Opera Omma (Frcf. et Erlang. 1858-'70, 8 vols.),
voL IV. pp. 175 sqq. ; 201 sqq. ; 279 sqq. His astronomical observa-
tions on the constellation which led hm^ to this investigation are fully
described in his treatises De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentami (Opera, vol.
n. 575 sqq.), and Phenomenon singulare seu Mercunus in Sole (ibid. IL
801 sqq.). Prof. Ideler, who was himself an astronomer and chronolo-
gist, in his Handbuch der mathemat. und techmscJien Chronologic (Berlin,
1826, vol. n. 400 sqq.), gives the following clear summary of Kepler's
and of his own observations :
" It is usually supposed that the star of the Magi was, if not a fiction of
the imagination, some meteor which arose accidentally, or ad hoc. "We
will belong neither to the unbelievers nor the hyper-believers (wetter zu
den Ungldubtgen noch zu den Ueberglaubigen), and regard this starry phe-
nomenon with Kepler to be real and well ascertamable by calculation,
namely, as a conjunction of the Planets Jupiter and Saturn That Matthew
speaks only of a star (darrjp), not a constellation (aorpov), need not trou-
ble us, for the two words are not unfrequently confounded. The just
named great astronomer, who was well acquainted with the astrology of
his and former times, and who used it occasionally as a means for com-
mending astronomy to the attention and respect of the laity, first con-
ceived this idea when he observed the conjunction of the two planets
mentioned at the close of the year 1603 It took place Dec. 17. In the
spring following Mars joined their company, and in autumn 1604 still
another star, one of those fixed star-like bodies (emei* jener fixstern-arti-
gen Korper) which grow to a considerable degree of brightness, and then
gradually disappear without leaving a trace behind. This star stood
near the two planets at the eastern foot of Serpentarms (Schlcmgentrager),
and appeared when last seen as a star of the first magnitude with uncom-
mon splendor. From month to month it waned in brightness, and at the
end of 1605 was withdrawn from the eyes winch at that time could not yet
be aided by good optical instruments. Kepler wrote a special work on this
Stella nova in pede Serpentarn (Prague, 1606), and there he first set forth
the view that the star of the Magi consisted in a conjunction of Saturn,
Jupiter and some other extraordinary star, the nature of which he does
not explain more fully." Ideler then goes on to report (p. 404) that
Kepler, with the imperfect tables at his disposal, discovered the same
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn A.U. 747 in June, August and Decem-
ber, in the sign of the Pisces ; in the next year, February and March,
Mars was added, and probably another extraordinary star, which must
have excited the astrologers of Chaldaea to the highest degree. They
probably saw the new star first, and then the constellation.
Dr. Munter, bishop of Seeland, in 1821 directed new attention to this
remarkable discovery, and also to the rabbinical commentary of Abarbanel
on Daniel, according to which the Jewish astrologers expected a conjuno-
118 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tion of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the sign of the Pisces before
the advent of the Messiah, and asked the astronomers to reinvestagate
this point. Since then Schubert of Petersburg (1823), Ideler and Encke
of Berlin (1826 and 1830), and more recently Pntchard of London, have
verified Kepler's calculations.
Ideler describes the result of his calculation (vol. IE. 405) thus: "I
have made the calculation with every care. . . . The results are
sufficiently remarkable. Both planets [Jupiter and Saturn] came in
conjunction for the first time A.U. 747, May 20, in the 20th degree of
Pisces. They stood then on the heaven before sunrise and were only
one degree apart. Jupiter passed Saturn to the north. In the middle
of September both came in opposition to the sun at midnight in the
south. The difference in longitude was one degree and a half. Both
were retrograde and again approached each other. On the 27th of Octo-
ber a second conjunction took place in the sixteenth degree of the Pisces,
and on the 12th of November, when Jupiter moved again eastward, a
third in the fifteenth degree of the same sign. In the last two constella-
tions also the difference in longitude was only about one degree, so that
to a weak eye both planets might appear as one star. If the Jewish
astrologers attached great expectations to a conjunction of the two upper
planets in the sign of the Pisces, this one must above all have appealed
to them as most significant."
In his shorter Lekrbuch der Ckronologie, which appeared Berlin 1831 in
one vol., pp. 424-431, Ideler gives substantially the same account some*
what abndged, but with slight changes of the figures on the basis of a
new calculation with still better tables made by the celebrated astrono-
mer Encke, who puts the first conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn A.U.
747, May 29th, the second Sept. 30th, the third Dec. 5th. See the full
table of Encke, p. 429.
We supplement this account by an extract from an article on the Star
of the Wise Men, by the Rev. Charles Pritchard, M.A , Hon. Secretary
of the Royal Astronomical Society, who made a fresh calculation of the
constellation in A u. 747, from May to December, and published the
results in Memoirs of Royal Ast. Society, vol. xxv., and in Smith's "Bible
Dictionary," p. 3108, Am. ed., where he says: "At that time [end of
Sept., B.C. 7] there can be no doubt Jupiter would present to astrono
mers, especially in so clear an atmosphere, a magnificent spectacle. It
was then at its most brilliant apparition, for it was at its nearest approach
both to the sun and to the earth. Not far from it would be seen its
duller and much less conspicuous companion, Saturn. This glorious
spectacle continued almost unaltered for several days, when the planets
again slowly separated, then came to a halt, when,. by reassuming a
direct motion, Jupiter again approached to a conjunction for the third
time with Saturn, just as the Magi may be supposed to have entered the
Holy City. And, to complete the fascination of the tale, about an hour
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF OHKIST. 119
and a half after sunset, the two planets might be seen from Jerusalem,
hanging as it were in the meridian, and suspended over Bethlehem in
the distance. These celestial phenomena thus described are, it will be
seen, beyond the reach of question, and at the first impression they
assuredly appear to fulfil the conditions of the Star of the Magi." If
Pritchard, nevertheless, rejects the identity of the constellation with the
single star of Matthew, it is because of a too literal understanding of
Matthew's language, that the star vpoqyw avrovs and COTC&I; cVaiw, which
would make it miraculous in either case.
THE FIFTEENTH YEAR OF TIBERIUS.
(3) Luke, ch. 3 : 1, 23, gives us an important and evidently
careful indication of the reigning powers at the time when
John the Baptist and Christ entered upon their public minis-
try, which, according to Levitical custom, was at the age of
thirty.1 John the Baptist began his ministry " in the fifteenth
year of the reign of Tiberius," * and Jesus, who was only about six
months younger than John (comp. Luke 1 : 5, 26), was baptized
and began to teach when he was " about thirty years of age." *
Tiberius began to reign jointly with Augustus, as " collega
imperii," A.U. 764 (or, at all events, in the beginning of 765),
and independently, Aug. 19, A.U. 767 (A.D. 14); consequently,
the fifteenth year of his reign was either A.U. 779, if we count
from the joint reign (as Luke probably did, using the more
general term ^ycpovui rather than /Aoi/ap^ia or /8a<riAeia),4 or
1 Comp Nnm 4 : 3, 35, 39, 43, 47.
9 In the new revision the passage, 3 1, 2, is thus translated : " Now in
the fifteenth year of the reign (fiycpovias) of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate
being governor (iryc/iovfvoiros) of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituroa and Trachomtis, and
Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the
word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness." The
statement must have been quite intelligible to the educated readers of that time.
8 The different interpretations of awrfcs fa ipxfa*™* &<r«i ir&v rpducorra
do not alter the result much, but the &<rct leaves a margin for a few months
more or less. Comp McClellan, I. 404.
4 He uses the same term of Pontius Pilate (^yejiovftovroj). Zumpt, I c. p.
296, says : •' Eigentlich verstanden, bezeichnet nwWa die Wurde des m&itdr*
isctien BefchWiabers und de* Regiiten uber die Provin&en. Hdtte Lucas * Au-
gustus Kaiser* (avroKpdrwp) oder avch nur L Herrtefwr' (fyx«*0 gesagt, M
wurde man an eine ZdJdung von Tiberius* Provinciatoerwaltung weniger denken
konnen."
120 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
782, if we reckon from the independent reign (as was the usual
Roman method).1
Now, if we reckon back thirty years from A.U. 779 or 782,
we come to A.U. 749 or 752 as the year of John's birth, which
preceded that of Christ about six months. The former date
(749) is undoubtedly to be preferred, and agrees with Luke's
own statement that Christ was born under Herod (1 : 5, 26).u
Dionysius probably (for we have no certainty on the subject)
calculated from the independent reign of Tiberius; but even
that would not brins* us to 754, and would involve Luke in
contradiction with Matthew and with himself.8
The other dates in Luke 3 : 1 generally agree with this result,
1 Different modes of counting were not unusual, regarding the early Bo-
man emperors, and Herod I See above, p. 112, Zumpt, / c 282 bqq , and
Andrews, p. 27. Suetonius (Tib , 23) and Tacitus (Annat , vi 51) say that
Tiberius died in the 2i]d year of his reign, meaning his sole reign , but there
are indications also of the other counting, at least m Egypt and the provinces,
where the authority of Tiberius as the active emperor was more felt than in
Rome There are coins from Antioch in Syria of the date A u 705, with the
head of Tiberius and the inscription, Kaurap. 2c &affro$ (Augustus) In
favor of the computation from the colleagueship are Ussher, Bengel, Lardner,
Greswell, Andrews, Zumpt, Wieseler, McClellan , in tavor of the computation
from the sole reign are Lightfoot, Ewald, Browne Wieseler formerly held
that Luke refers to the imprisonment, and not the beginning of the ministry, of
John, but he changed his view , see his art m Herzog's " Encykl ," xxi. 547.
3 Andrews, I c p 28, thus sums up his investigations upon this point:
"We find three solutions of the chronological difficulties which the state-
ments of Luke present 1st That the 15th year of Tiberius is to be reck-
oned from the death of Augustus, and extends from August, 781 , to August,
782. In this year the Baptist, whose labors began some time previous, was
imprisoned ; but the Lord's ministry began m 780, before this imprisonment,
and when he was about thirty years of age 2d That the 15th year is to be
reckoned from the death of Augustus, but that the statement, the Lord was
about thirty years of age, is to be taken in a large sense, and that he may
have been of any age from thirty to thirty-five when he began his labors.
8d. That the 15th year is to be reckoned from the year when Tiberius was
associated with Augustus in the empire, and is therefore the year 779. In
this case the language, 'he was about thirty,' may be strictly taken, and
the statement, ' the word of God came unto John/ may be referred to the
beginning of his ministry. "
1 Hase ( Oesch. Jesu, p. 209) strangely defends the Dionysian sera, but
sacrifices the date of Matthew, together with the whole history of the child-
hood of Jesus Against the view of Keim see Schtirer, p. 242.
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 121
but are less definite. Pontius Pilate was ten years governor of
Judaea, from A.D. 26 to 36. Herod Antipas was deposed by
Caligula, A.D. 39. Philip, his brother, died A.D. 34. Conse-
quently, Christ must have died before AD. 31, at an age of
thirty-three, if we allow three years for his public ministry.
THE CENSUS OF QUIRINIUS.
(4) The Census of Quirinius, Luke, ch. 2 : 2.1 Luke gives us
another chronological date by the incidental remark that Christ
was bom about the time of that census or enrolment, uhioh
was ordered by Csesar Augustus, and which was "the first
[enrolment] made when Quirinius (Cyrenitis) was governor
of Syria." 3 lie mentions this fact as the reason for the
journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. The journey of
Mary makes no difficulty, for (aside from the intrinsic pro-
priety of his company for protection) all women over t\velve
years of age (and slaves also) were subject in the Roman em-
pire to a head-tax, as well as men over fourteen, till the age of
1 See the literature till 1874 in Schurer, p 202, who devotes 24 pagos to
this subject The most important writers on the census of Quirinius are
Huschke (a learned jurist, in 2 treatises, 1840 and 1847), Wieseler (184.) and
1809), and Zumpt (1854 and 1809) Comp also the article " Taxing," bj Dr.
Plumptre. supplemented by Dr Wookey, in Smith's "Bible Dictionary "
(Hackett and Abbot's ed ), IV 3185, and J. B McClellan, New Test , I. 392.
8 This is the proper meaning of the original (according to the last text of
Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, who with B D omit the article y) : avrrj
&voypa<p)i irptarT) fyepcro ijyfuovtvovros rrjs 2,vpias Kvpyviov. Vulg : I I (PC de-
Bcriptio pnma facia est a praside Syria Cynno The English version, u this
taxing was first made when,M is ungrammatical, and would require irpwrov or
irpura instead of vp^rrj Luke either meant to say that there was no pievi-
ous enrolment in Judcea, or, more probably, he had in his mind a se&ma FU-
rolment made under Quinnms at his second governorship, which is notjoed by
him in Acts 5 37, and was well known to his readers. See below Quirirmis
(Kvpwios) is the proper spelling (Strabo, Josephus, Tacitus, Justin M.)—
not Quirinus, which was also a Roman name ; hence the confusion (See
Weiss, m the 6th ed. of Meyer on Luke, p 286.) His full name was Pulliu*
Bulpicius Quirinius (Tacitus, Annal., iii. 48; Suetonius, Tiber., 49 ». He
was consul A.U. 742, at the head of an army in Africa, 747, and died in Rome,
A.D. 21. Josephus speaks of him at the close of the 17th and the beginning
of the 18th book of his Archced. See a fall account of him in Zumpt, pp.
43-71.
122 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
sixty-five.1 There is some significance in the coincidence of the
birth of the King of Israel with the deepest humiliation of Israel,
and its incorporation in the great historical empire of Rome.
But the statement of Luke seems to be in direct conflict with
the fact that the governorship and census of Quirinius began
A.D. 6, i. e., ten years after the birth of Christ.8 Hence many
artificial interpretations.' But this difficulty is now, if not en-
tirely removed, at least greatly diminished by archaeological
and philological research independent of theology. It has been
proved almost to a demonstration by Bergmann, Mommsen,
and especially by Zumpt, that Quirinius was twice governor of
Syria — first, A.U. 750 to 753, or B.C. 4 to 1 (when there happens
to be a gap in our list of governors of Syria), and again, A.U
760-765 (A.D. 6-11). This double legation is based upon a
passage in Tacitus,4 and confirmed by an old monumental in-
1 Ulpian, quoted by Zumpt, Geburttynhr Christi, p. 203 sq
2 Josephus, Antuju., xvn. 13, 5 ; xvm. 1, 1. The census here referred to
is evidently the same which Luke means in Acts 5 37: "After this man
arose Judas the Galileean in the days of the enrolment.11 Josephus calls him
" Judas, a Gaulamte," because he was of Gamala in lower Gaulamtis; but in
Ant , xx 5, 2, and Bell. Jud , ii 8, 1, he calls him likewise a Galilean. In
this case, then, Luke is entirely correct, and it is extremely improbable that
a writer otherwise so well informed as Luke should have confounded two en-
rolments which were ten years apart
8 The usual solution of the difficulty is to give irp&rri the sense of ir/wr/pa,
before Quirinius was governor ; as *p&r6s TWOS is used (though not in connec-
tion with a participle) in the sense of prior to, John 1 : 15, 30 ; 15 : 18. So
Dasher, Huschke, Tholuck, Wieseler, Caspar!, Ewald. But this would have
been more naturally and clearly expressed by rplr or vpb rou irycuovcvfiv (as in
T.uke 2 21 ; 12 : 15 ; Acts 23 : 15). Paulus, Ebrard, Lange, Godet, and others
accentuate ofrHj (ipsa) and explain : The decree of the census was issued at
the time of Christ's birth, but the so-called first census itself did not take
place till the governorship of Quirinius (ten years later). Impossible on
account of ver. 3, which reports the execution of the decree, ver. 1. Browne
(p. 46) and others understand ^yc/iovt^civ in a wider sense, BO as to include an
extraordinary commission of Quirinius as legatus Casari*.
4 Annal , iii. 48, as interpreted by A. W. Zumpt in a Latin dissertation .
J)e Syria Romanorum provincia ab Ccuare Augusta ad T. Vespasianum, in
Comment. Epigraph., Berol. 1854, vol. ii. 88-125, and approved by Mommsen
in Res gesfa divi August*, 121-124. Zumpt has developed his views mote
fully in Das Oeburtsjahr Ohristi, 1860, pp. 1-90. Usaher, Sanclemente, Ideler
01. 397), and Browne (p. 46) had understood Tacitus in the same way.
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OP THE LIFE OF OHRIS1. 123
scription discovered between the Villa Hadriani and the Via
Tiburtina.1 Hence Luke might very properly call the census
about the time of Christ's birth "the first" (irpd^rrf) under
Quirinius, to distinguish it from the second and better known,
which he himself mentions in his second treatise on the his-
tory of the origin of Christianity (Acts 5 : 37). Perhaps the
experience of Quirinius as the superintendent of the first census
was the reason why he was sent to Syria a second time for the
same purpose.
There still remain, however, three difficulties not easily
solved : (a) Quirinius cannot have been governor of Syria be-
fore autumn A.TT. 750 (B.C. 4), several months after Herod's death
(which occurred in March, 750), and consequently after Christ's
birth ; for we know from coins that Quintilius Varus was gover-
nor from A.U. 748 to 750 (B.C. 6-4), and left his post after the
death of Herod.a (b) A census during the first governorship of
Quirinius is nowhere mentioned but in Luke, (c) A Syrian
governor could not well carry out a census in Judaea during the
lifetime of Herod, before it was made a Roman province (i. e.,
A.U. 759).
In reply to these objections we may say : (a) Luke did not
intend to give an exact, but only an approximate chronological
statement, and may have connected the census with the well-
1 First published at Florence, 1765, then by Sanclemente (De vulg. cerae
Emendat. Rom. 1793), and more correctly by Bergmann and Mommsen : De
inscription* Latina, ad P. Sulpicium Quirimum referenda, Berol. 1851.
Mommsen discussed it again in an appendix to Res gesta Augwti, Berol 1865,
pp. 111-126. The inscription is defective, and reads: "... PRO. CON-
SUL ASIAM. PROVINCIAM OP[TINUIT LKGATUS], Dm. AUGUBTL [I]TERUM
[i. e , again, a second time]. SYKIAM ET PH[<ENICEM ADMINIBTRAVIT, or,
OBTINUIT] The name is obliterated. Zumpt refers it to 0. Sentius Satur-
ninus (who preceded Quirimus, but is not known to have been twice governor
of Syria), Bergmann, Mommsen, and Menvale to Quirinius (as was done by
Sanclemente in 1793, and by Ideler, 1826). Nevertheless Mommsen denies
any favorable bearing of the discovery on the solution of the difficulty in
Luke, while Zumpt defends the substantial accuracy of the evangelist.
8 Josephug, Antiqu., xvii 11, 1; Tacitus, Hist., v. 9: "past mtrtem
Herodis . . . 8imo quidam regium nomen intaserat; it a QuintiUo
obtintnU Syriam punttw," etc.
124 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
known name of Qtiirmius because he completed it, although it was
begun under a previous administration, (b) Augustus ordered
several census populi between A.U. 726 and 767, partly for taxa-
tion, partly for military and statistical purposes ; * and, as a good
statesman and financier, he himself prepared a rationarium or
breviarium totius imperii, that is, a list of all the resources
of the empire, which was read, after his death, in the Senate.3
(c) Herod was only a tributary king (rex socms\ who could exer-
cise no act of sovereignty without authority from the emperor.
Judaea was subject to taxation from the time of Pompey, and it
seems not to have ceased with the accession of Herod. More-
over, towards the end of his life he lost the favor of Augustus,
who wrote him in anger that " whereas of old he had used him
as his friend, he would now use him as his subject." 8
It cannot, indeed, be proven by direct testimony of Jose-
phus or the lloman historians, that Augustus issued a decree
for a universal census, embracing all the Provinces (" that all
the world," i. e., the Roman world, " should be taxed," Luke
2 : 1), but it is in itself by no means improbable, and was neces-
sary to enable him to prepare his breviariwni totius ii
1 Three censuses, held A u 726, 748, and 767, arc mentioned on the monu-
ment of Ancyra; one in Italy, 757, by Dion Cassms; others in Gaul are
assigned to 727, 741, 767 ; Tertulhan, who was a learned lawyer, speaks of
one in Judaea under Sentius Saturnmus, A. u. 749 ; and this would be the one
which must be meant by Luke. See Gruter, Huschke, Zumpt, Plumptre, /. c.
9 Suetonius, Aug 28, 101; Tacitus, Annal , i. 11; Dio Cassius, In. 30;
Ivi. I3J. The brevianum contained, according to Tacitus: ** opes publics,
quantum tivium sociorumque in armis [which would include Herod], quot
classes, regna, provincice, tnbuta aut vectigalia* et necessitates etc largitioncs.
Qua cuncta sua manu perscnpserat Augustus^ addideratque cons&ium ooer-
cendi intra terminos imperil, tncertiim metu an per invidiam."
•Joseph. Afit. xvi. 9, § 4. Comp. Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverwaltung, I 249
4 Such a decree has been often inferred from the passages of Suetonius and
Tacitus just quoted. The silence of Josephus is not very difficult to explain,
for he does not profess to give a history of the empire, is nearly silent on the
period from A.U 750-760, and is not as impartial a historian as Luke, nor wor-
thy of more credit Gassiodorus ( Variorum, lii. 52) and Suidas (a v. , faoypa<py)
expressly assert the fact of a general census, and add several particulars which
are not derived from Luke ; e. g. Suidas says that Augustus elected twenty
commissioners of high character and sent them to all parts of the empire to
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 125
In the nature of the case, it would take several years to carry
out such a decree, and its execution in the provinces would be
modified according to national customs. Zumpt assumes that
Sentius Saturninus,1 who was sent as governor to Syria A.U. 746
(B.C. 9), and remained there till 749 (B.C. 6), began a census in
Judaea with a view to substitute a head tax in money for the for-
mer customary tribute in produce ; that his successor, Quintilius
Varus (B.C. 6-4), continued it, and that Quirinius (B.C. 4) com-
pleted the census. This would explain the confident statement
of Tertullian, which he must have derived from some good
source, that enrolments were held under Augustus by Sentius
Saturninus in Judaea.8 Another, but less probable view is that
Quirinius was sent to the East as special commissioner for the
census during the administration of his predecessor. In either
case Luke might call the census " the first " under Quirinius,
considering that he finished the census for personal taxation or
registration according to the Jewish custom of family registers,
and that afterwards he alone executed the second census for the
taxation of property according to the lloman fashion.
The problem is not quite solved ; but the establishment of
the fact that Quirinius was prominently connected with the
Eornan government in the East about the time of the Nativity,
is a considerable step towards the solution, and encourages the
hope of a still better solution in the future.8
collect statistics of population as well as of property, and to return a portion
to the national treasury Hence Huschke, Wieseler, Zumpt, Plumptre and
McClellan accept their testimony as historically correct (while Schurer derives
it simply from Luke, without being able to account for these particulars).
Wieseler quotes also John Malala, the historian of Antioch, as saying, probably
on earlier authorities, that " Augustus, in the 39th year and 10th month of his
reign [i. e. B.C. 5 or 6J, issued a decree for a general registration throughout
the empire " Julius Caesar had begun a measurement of the whole empire,
and Augustus completed it
1 Not to be confounded with L. Volusius Saturninus, who IB known, from
coins, to have been governor of Syria A u. 758 (A.D. 4).
* Adv. Marc iv. 19 . u Sed et census constat ados sub Augusta tune in Judaea
per Sentium Saturninum, apud quo* genus qus inguirere potuissent."
8 Zumpt, the classical scholar and archaeologist, concludes (p. 223) that there
is nothing in Luke's account which does not receive, from modern research.
126 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THE FORTY-SIX YEABS OF THE BCTILDINQ OF HEROD'S TEMPLE.
(5) St. John, ch. 2 : 20, furnishes us a date in the remark of
the Jews, in the first year of Christ's ministry : " Forty and six
years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in
three days ? "
We learn from Josephus that Herod began the reconstruction
of the temple in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of his reign,
i. e., A.U. 732, if we reckon from his appointment by the Romans
(714), or A.U. 735, if we reckon from the death of Antigonus
and the conquest of Jerusalem (717).1 The latter is the correct
view; otherwise Josephus would contradict himself, since, in
another passage, he dates the building from the fifteenth year
of Herod's reign.* Adding forty-six years to 735, we have the
year A.U. 781 (A.D. 27) for the first year of Christ's ministry ;
and deducting thirty and a half or thirty-one years from 781, we
come back to A.U. 750 (B.C. 4) as the year of the Nativity.
THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION.
(6) Christ was crucified under the consulate of the two Gemi-
ni (i. e., C. Rubellius Geminus and C. Fufius Geminus), who
were consuls A.U. 782 to 783 (A.D. 28 to 29). This statement is
made by Tertullian, in connection with an elaborate calculation
of the time of Christ's birth and passion from the seventy weeks
44 full historical probability7' ("voUe historische Wahrscheinlichkeit ") ; while
Schurur, the theologian, still doubts (Matt 28.17) Dr Woolsey («. v.
" ryremus," in " Smith's Bible Diet," Hackett and Abbot's ed., p 526),
decides that "something is gained." In the art. " Taxing" he says that a
registration of Judaea made under the direction of the president of Syria
by Jewish officers would not greatly differ from a similar registration made
by Herod, and need not have alarmed the Jews if carefully managed.
1 Antiqu xv. 11, i : "And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign
(JftTawcuScfcdrou TIJS 'Hpc£5ov /tariAcia; tviavrov) . . . undertook a very great work,
that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and to raise it to a most mag-
nificent altitude, as esteeming it to be the moat glorious of all his actions, aa
it really was, to bring it to perfection, and that this would be sufficient for an
everlasting memorial of him."
' BelL Jua 1. 21, 1, TfrnKoiftficctTp fret rfc lariAt/at a&rlr ft rfcr y«ft«
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 127
of Daniel.1 He may possibly have derived it from some public
record ft Rome. He erred in identifying the year of Christ's
passion with the first year of his ministry (the 15th year of
Tiberius, Luke 3 : 1). Allowing, as we must, two or three years
for his public ministry, and thirty-three years for his life, we
reach the year 750 or 749 as the year of the Nativity.
Thus we arrive from these various incidental notices of three
Evangelists, and the statement of Tertullian essentially at the
same conclusion, which contributes its share towards establishing
the credibility of the gospel history against the mythical theory.
Yet in the absence of a precise date, and in view of uncertain-
ties in calculation, there is still room for difference of opinion
between the years A.U. 747 (B.C. 7), as the earliest, and A.U. 750
(B.C. 4), as the latest, possible date for the year of Christ's birth.
The French Benedictines, Sanclemente, Munter, Wurm, Ebrard,
Jarvis, Alford, Jos. A. Alexarder, Zurnpt, Keim, decide for A.U.
747 ; Kepler (reckoning from the conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn
and Mars in that year), Lardner, Ideler, Ewald, for 748 ; Peta-
vius, Ussher, Tillemont, Browne, Angus, Robinson, Andrews,
McClellan, for 749 ; Bengel, Wieseler, Laiige, Lichtenstein, An-
ger, Greswell, Ellicott, Plumptre, Merivale, for 750.
II. THE DAY OF THE NATIVITY. — The only indication of the
season of our Saviour's birth is the fact that the Shepherds
were watching their flocks in the field at that time, Luke 2 : 8.
This fact points to any other season rather than winter, and is
therefore not favorable to the traditional date, though not conclu-
sive against it. The time of pasturing in Palestine (which has
1 Adv Jud c 8- "Huius [Tiberii] quinto decimo anno imperii paaaua eat
Christus, annoa habena quasi triginta, cum pateretur .... Qua paasio huius
exterminii intra temp&ra LXX hebdomadarum perfecta eat sub Ttberio Ccesare,
CONSULIBUB RuBELLio GEMiNO ET Fupio GEMiNO, mense Martfo, temporibua
poaches, die VIII Kalendarum Aprflium, dieprima azymorum, quo agnum occi
derunt ad veaperam, sicuti a Moysefuerat prceceptum." Lactantina (De fifort.
Person. 2 ; De Vera Sap. 10) and Augustine make the same statement (De
Oivit. Dei, I xriii. c. 54 : "Mortuu* eat Christus duobua Gemini* Conaulibw,
oetovo KolendoB Apritta "). Zumpt aasigna much weight to this tradition, pp.
268 »qq.
128 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
but two seasons, the dry and the wet, or summer and winter)
begins, according to the Talmudists, in March, and lasts till
November, when the herds are brought in from the fields, and
kept under shelter till the close of February. But this refers
chiefly to pastures in the wilderness, far away from towns and
villages,1 and admits of frequent exceptions in the close neighbor-
hood of towns, according to the character of the season. A suc-
cession of bright days in December and January is of frequent
occurrence in the East, as in Western countries. Tobler, an
experienced traveller in the Holy Land, pays that in Bethlehem
the weather about Christmas is favorable to the feeding of flocks
and often most beautiful. On the other hand strong and cold
winds often prevail in April, and explain the fire mentioned John
18:18.
No certain conclusion can be drawn from the journey of
Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and to Egypt ; nor from the
journey of the Magi. As a rule February is the best time
for travelling in Egypt, March the best in the Sinaitic Penin-
sula, April and May, and next to it autumn, the best in Pales-
tine ; but necessity knows no rule.
The ancient tradition is of no account here, as it varied down
to the fourth century. Clement of Alexandria relates that some
regarded the 25th Pachon (i. e. May 20), others the 24rth or 25th
Pharmuthi (April 19 or 20), as the day of Nativity.
(1) The traditional 25th of December is defended by Jerome,
Chrysostom, Baronius, Lamy, Ussher, Petavius, Bengel (Ideler),
Seyftarth and Jar vis. It has no historical authority beyond the
fourth century, when the Christmas festival was introduced first
in "Rome (before A.D. 360), on the basis of several Roman festi-
vals (the Saturnalia, Sigittaria, Juvenalia, Erwmalia^ or Dies
natdlis Invicti Solis\ which were held in the latter part of De-
cember in commemoration of the golden age of liberty and
equality, and in honor of the sun, who in the winter solstice is,
as it were, born anew and begins his conquering march. This
1 As in Switzerland the herds are driven to the mountain pastures in May
and brought home in August or September.
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 129
phenomenon in nature was regarded as an appropriate symbol of
the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness dispelling the long
night of sin and error. For the same reason the summer sol-
stice (June 24) was afterwards selected for the festival of John
the Baptist, as the fittest reminder of his own humble self -esti-
mate that he must decrease, while Christ must increase (John
3 : 30). Accordingly the 25th of March was chosen for the
commemoration of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, and
the 24th of September for that of the conception of Elizabeth.1
(2) The 6th of January has in its favor an older tradition (ac-
cording to Epiphanius and Cassianus), and is sustained by Euse-
bius. It was celebrated in the East from the third century as
the feast of the Epiphany, in commemoration of the Nativity
as well as of Christ's baptism, and afterwards of his manifesta-
tion to the Gentiles (represented by the Magi).
(3) Other writers have selected some day in February (Hug,
Wieseler, Ellicott), or March (Paulus, Wirier), or April (Gres-
well), or August (Lewin), or September (Lightfoot, who assumes,
on chronological grounds, that Christ was boin on the feast of
Tabernacles, as he died on the Passover and sent the Spirit on
Pentecost), or October (Keweome). Lardner puts the birth be-
tween the middle of August and the middle of November;
Browne December 8 ; Lichtensteiii in summer ; Robinson leaves
it altogether uncertain.
III. THE DURATION OF CHRIST'S LIFK. — This is now generally
confined to thirty-two or three years. The difference of one or
two years arises from the different views on the length of his
public ministry. Christ died and rose again in the full vigor
of early manhood, and so continues to live in the memory of the
church. The decline and weakness of old age is inconsistent with
his position as the Renovator and Saviour of mankind.
Irenseus, otherwise (as a disciple of Polycarp, who was a dia-
1 The latest learned advocate of the traditional date is John Brown McClel-
lan, who tries to prove that Christ was born Dec. 25, A.u. 749 (B.C. 5). See
his New Test., etc. vol. I. 390 sqq.
130 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ciple of St. John) the most trustworthy witness of apostolic tra-
ditions among the fathers, held the untenable opinion that
Christ attained to the ripe age of forty or fifty years and taught
over ten years (beginning with the thirtieth), and that 'he thus
passed through all the stages of human life, to save and sanctify
"old men" as well as " infants and children and boys and
youths." * He appeals for this view to tradition dating from
St. John,2 and supports it by an unwarranted inference from
the loose conjecture of the Jews when, surprised at the claim of
Jesus to have existed before Abraham was born, they asked
him : " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham ? " * A similar inference from another passage, where
the Jews speak of the " forty-six years " since the temple of
Herod began to be constructed, while Christ spoke of the temple
his body (John 2 : 20), is of course still less conclusive.
IV. DERATION OF CHRIST'S PUBLIC MINISTRY. — It began with
the baptism by John and ended with the crucifixion. About
the length of the intervening time there are (besides the isolated
and decidedly erroneous view of Irenaeus) three theories, allow-
ing respectively one, two, or three years and a few months, and
designated as the bipaschal, tripaschal, and quadripaschal schemes,
according to the number of Passovers. The Synoptists mention
only the last Passover during the public ministry of our Lord,
at which he was crucified, but they intimate that he was in
Jud&a more than once.4 John certainly mentions three Passo-
1 Adv. Har. II c 22, § 4-6.
* This shows conclusively how uncertain patristic traditions are as to mere
facts.
8 John 8 : 57. Irenaeus reasons that the Jews made the nearest approach
to the real age, either from mere observation or from knowledge of the pub*
lie records, and thus concludes " Christ did not therefore preach only for one
year, nor did he suffer in the twelfth month of the year ; for the period included
between the thirtieth and the fiftieth year can never be regarded as one
year, unless indeed, among their aeons [he speaks of the Gnostics] there be
such long years assigned to those who ait in their ranks with Bythos in the
Pleroma."
4 Comp. Matt 4 : 12 ; 28:87; Mark 1:14; Luke 4: 14; 10:88; 18:84.
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 131
overs, two of which (the first and the last) Christ did attend,1
and pwhaps a fourth, which he also attended.*
(1) The bipaschal scheme confines the public ministry to one
year and a few weeks or months. This was first held by the
Gnostic sect of the Yalentinians (who connected it with their
fancy about thirty aeons), and by several fathers, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, and perhaps by Origen and Augustine
(who express themselves doubtfully). The chief argument of the
fathers and those harmonists who follow them, is derived from
the prophecy of " the acceptable year of the Lord," as quoted
by Christ,' and from the typical meaning of the paschal lamb,
which must be of " one year " and without blemish.4 Far more
important is the argument drawn by some modern critics from
the silence of the synoptical Gospels concerning the other Passo-
vers.5 But this silence is not in itself conclusive, and must yield to
the positive testimony of John, which cannot be conformed to the
bipaschal scheme.8 Moreover, it is simply impossible to crowd
the events of Christ's life, the training of the Twelve, and the
development of the hostility of the Jews, into one short year.
(2) The choice therefore lies between the tripaschal and the
quadripaschal schemes. The decision depends chiefly on the
interpretation of the unnamed " feast of the Jews," John 5 : 1,
whether it was a Passover, or another feast ; and this again de-
pends much (though not exclusively) on a difference of reading
1 John 2 : 13, 23 ; 6:4; 11 : 55 ; 12 : 1 ; 13 : 1. The Passover mentioned
6 • 4 Chnst did not attend, becauce the Jews sought to kill him (7:1; comp.
6 18).
* John 5.1 if we read the article y before lopr^ ru>v 'lovtaiuy. See
below.
8 Isa 61 . 2 ; comp. Luke 4 : 14.
4 Exod. 12:5. § Keim, I. 130.
• Henry Browne who, in his Ordo Sadorwn (pp. 80 sqq.), likewise defends
the one year's ministry, in part by astronomical calculations, is constrained
to eliminate without any MSS authority rb irdaxa, from John 6 : 4, and to
make the 4opH? there mentioned to be the same as that in 7 : 2, so that
John would give the feasts of one year only, in regular chronological order,
namely, the Passover 2 : 18 in March, the Pentecost 5 1 in May, the Feast
of Tabernacles 6 : 4 ; 7 : 2 in September, the Feast of Dedication 10 : 22 in
December, the Passover of the Crucifixion in March.
132 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(the feast, or a feast).1 The parable of the barren fig-tree, which
represents the Jewish people, has been used as an argument in
favor of a three years' ministry : " Behold, these three years I
come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none." 2 The three
years are certainly significant ; but according to Jewish reckon-
ing two and a half years would be called three years. More
remote is the reference to the prophetic announcement of Daniel
9:27: " And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice
and the oblation to cease." The tripaschal theory is more easily
reconciled with the synoptical Gospels, while the quadripabchal
theory leaves more room for arranging the discourses and mira-
cles of our Lord, and has been adopted by the majority of har-
monists.*
But even if we extend the public ministry to three years, it
presents a disproportion between duration and effect without a
parallel in history and inexplicable on purely natural grounds.
In the language of an impartial historian, " the simple record
of three short jears of active life has done more to regenerate
1 The definite article before " feast" (17 lopr^), which is supported by the
Smaitic MS and adopted by Tischendorf (ed. vni ), favors the view that the
ft ust was the Passover, the great feast of the Jews. The reading without the
article, which has the weight of the more critical Vatican MS , and is pre-
ferred by Lachmann, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and by the Revision of
the E V , favors the view that it was Pentecost, or Purim, or some other sub-
ordinate feast (On the grammatical question comp Thayer's Winer, p 123,
and Moulton's Winer, p 155 ) In all other passages John gives the name ot the
feast (ri ira<rxa 2 13 , 0 : 4 ; 11 . 55 ; rj tncrivoirnyla, 7 2 , T£ tyicaivM 10 . 22) Ib
is objected that Jesus would not be likely to attend the patriotic and secular
feast of Punm, which was not a temple feast and required no journey to
Jerusalem, while he omitted the next Passover (John 6 • 4) which was of
divine appointment and much more solemn ; but the objection is not conclu-
sive, since he attended other minor festivals (John 7:2; 10 : 22) merely for
the purpose of doing good
8 Luke 13 : 6-9. Bengel, Hengstenberg, Wieseler, Weizsacker, Alford,
Wordsworth, Andrews, McClellan.
8 By Eusebius (H. E., L 10), Theodoret (in Dan. ii.), Robinson, Andrews,
MuClellan, Gardiner, and many others. On the other hand Jerome, Wieseler,
and Tischendorf hold the tripaschal theory. Jerome says (on Isaiah, oh. 29, in
Migne's ed of the Opera, IV. 330) ' ' Scriptum eat in Evangelic secundum Joan*
nem, per Ma Pascha Dominum ventite in Jerusalem, qua duos annoa efflciunt."
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 133
and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers
and all the exhortations of moralists. This has indeed been the
wellspring of whatever is best and purest in the Christian life." l
V. THE DATE OF THE LORD'S DEATH. — The day of the week
on which Christ suffered on the cross was a Friday,3 during the
week of the Passover, in the month of Nisan, which was the first
of the twelve lunar months of the Jewish year, and included the
vernal equinox. But the question is whether this Friday was
the 14th, or the 15th of Nisan, that is, the day before the feast or
the first day of the feast, which lasted a week. The Synoptical
Gospels clearly decide for the 15th, for they all say (indepen-
dently) that our Lord partook of the paschal supper on the legal
day, called the "first day of unleavened bread," ' that is on the
evening of the 14th, or rather at the beginning of the 15th (the
paschal lambs being slain " between the two evenings," i. e. be-
fore and after sunset, between 3 and 5 P.M. of the 14th). 4 John,
on the other hand, seems at first sight to point to the 14th, so
that the death of our Lord would very nearly have coincided with
the slaying of the paschal lamb.6 But the three or four passages
which look in that direction can, and, on closer examination, must
1 W E H Lecky : History of European Morals from AugustuB to Charle-
magne (1869) vol II p. 9. He adds- " Amid all the sins and failings, amid
all the priestcraft and persecution and fanaticism that have defaced the Church,
it has preserved, in the character and example of its Founder, an enduring
principle of regeneration."
8 Mark 15 : 42 ; Matt 27 C2 ; Luke 23 54 ; John 19 : 14. Friday is called
Preparation-day (vapaa *eirfi), because the meals for the Sabbath were prepaied
on the sixth day, as no fires were allowed to be kindled on the Sabbath (Ex
16 : 5).
8 Matt. 26 : 17, 20 ; Mark 14 12 ; Luke 22 . 7, 15 Comp John 18 : 39, 40.
4 Ex. 12 6; Lev. 23 • 5 ; Num 9 • 3, 5 If the phrase 4i between the two
evenings " (&1??H?n ^a ) could De taken to mean between the evening of the
14th and the evening of the 15th of Nisan, we phould have twenty-four hours for
the slaying and eating of the paschal lambs, and the whole difficulty between
John and the Synoptists would disappear We could easier conceive also the
enormous number of 270,000 lambs which, according to the statement of
Josephus, had to be sacrificed But that interpretation is excluded by the
fact that the same express«on is used in the rules about the daily evening
sacrifice (Ex 29: 39, 41 , Num. 28 • 4)
'John 18:1; 13:21); 18 28, 19:14.
134 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
be harmonized with the Synoptical statement, which admits only
of one natural interpretation.1 It seems strange, indeed, that
1 John 13 1 4t before the feast of the Passover " does not mean a day before
(which would have been so expressed, comp. 12 : 1), but a short time before,
and refers to the commencement of the 15th of Nisan. The passage, 13 : 29 :
" Buy what things we have need of for the feast/' causes no difficulty if we
remember that Jesus sat down with his disciples before the regular hour of
the Passover (13 : 1), so that there was time yet for the necessary purchases.
The passage on the contrary affords a strong argument against the supposition
that the supper described by John took place a full day before the Passover;
for then there would have been no need of such haste for purchases as the
apostles understood Christ to mean when he said to Judas, " That thou doest,
do quickly " (13 . 27) In John 18 . 28 it is said that the Jews went not into the
Prmtorium of the heathen Pilate " that they might not be defiled, but might
eat the Passover; " but this was said earJy in the morning, at about 3AM, when
the regular paschal meal was not yet finished in the city; others take the word
"Passover" here in an unusual sense so as to embrace the chagiyah (rCTOn) or
festive thank-offerings during the Passover week, especially on the fifteenth day
of Nisan (comp 2 Ohr. 30 22) , at all events it cannot apply to the paschal
supper on the evening of the fifteenth of Nisan, for the defilement would have
ceased after sunset, and could therefore have been no bar to eating the paachal
supper (Lev 15:1-18; 22 1-7) " The Preparation of the Passover," q
irapao-Kcvii rov irdtrxa, 19 . 14, is not the day preceding the Passover (Fawooer-
Eve), but, as clearly in vers 31 and 42, the Reparation day of the Passover week,
i e the Paschal Friday ; trapaa-Kfv^ being the technical term for Fnday as the
preparation day for the Sabbath, the fore- Sabbath, vpo<ra&0aTov, Mark 15 42
(comp the German Sonnabend for Saturday, Sabbath- eve, etc ). For a fuller
examination of the respective passages, see my edition of Lange on Matthew
(pp 454 sqq ), and on John (pp 406, 415, 5G2, 569). Lightfoot, Wieseler, Lich-
tenstem, Hengstenberg, Ebrard (in the third ed. of his Kntik, 1868), Lange,
Eirchner, Keil, Robinson, Andrews, Milligon, Plumptre and McClellan take
the same view; while Lucke, Bleek, DeWette, Meyer, Ewald, Stier, Bey-
achlag, Greswell, Eihcott, Farrar, Hansel and Westcott maintain that Christ
was crucified on the fourteenth of Nisan, and either assume a contradiction be-
tween John and the Synoptists (which in this case seems quite impossible), or
transfer the paschal supper of Christ to the preceding day, contrary to law and
custom. John himself clearly points to the fifteenth of Nisan as the day of the
crucifixion, when he reports that the customary release of a prisoner " at the
Passover" (lv rf rnfcrxa) was granted by Pilate on the day of crucifixion, 18 : 39,
40. The critical and cautious Dr Robinson says (Harmony, p 222): u After
repeated and calm consideration, there rests upon my own mind a clear convic-
tion, that there is nothing in the language of John, or in the attendant circum-
stances, which upon fair interpretation requires or permits us to believe, that
the beloved disciple either intended to correct, or has in fact corrected or con-
tradicted, the explicit and unquestionable testimony of Matthew, Mark and
Luke." Gomp. also among the more recent discussions Mor. Kirchner : Die
§ 16. CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 135
the Jewish priests should have matured their bloody counsel in
the solemn night of the Passover, and urged a crucifixion on a
great festival, but it agrees with the satanic wickedness of their
crime.1 Moreover it is on the other hand equally difficult to ex-
plain that they, together with the people, should have remained
about the cross till late in the afternoon of the fourteenth, when,
according to the law, they were to kill the paschal lamb and pre-
pare for the feast ; and that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arima-
thaea, with the pious women, should have buried the body of
Jesus and so incurred defilement at that solemn hour.
The view here advocated is strengthened by astronomical
calculation, which shows that in A.D. 30, the probable year of the
crucifixion, the 15th of Nisan actually fell on a Friday (April 7) ;
and this was the case only once more between the years A.D. 28
and 36, except perhaps also in 33. Consequently Christ must
have been crucified A.D. 30.*
To sum up the results, the following appear to us the most
probable dates in the earthly life of our Lord :
Birth A.U 750 (Jan ?) or 749 (Deo. ?) B.C. 4 or 5.
Baptism A.U. 780 (Jan. ?) A.D. 27.
Length of Public Ministry
(three years and three or
fourmonths) A u. 780-783 A.D. 27-30.
Crucifixion A u. 783 (15th of Nisan) A.D. 30 (April 7).
jud. Passafifeier und Jesu letetes Mahl (Gotha, 1870) ; McClellan : N. Test.
(1875), I. 473 sqq., 482 sqq ; Keil Evang. desMatt. (Leipz. 1877), pp. 513 sqq.
1 The answer to thin objection is well presented by Dr Robinson, Harmony,
p. 222, and Keil, Evang. des Matt , pp 522 sqq The Mishna prescribes that
"on Sabbaths and festival days no trial or judgment may be held ; " but on
the other hand it contains directions and regulations for the meetings and
actions of the Sanhedrin on the Sabbaths, and executions of criminals were
purposely reserved to great festivals for the sake of stronger example. In
our case, the Sanhedrin on the day after the crucifixion, which was a Sabbath
and "a great day," applied to Pilate for a watch and caused the sepulchre
to be sealed, Matt. 27 : 62 sq
* See Wieseler, Chronol Synapse, p. 446, and in Herzog, vol. XXI 550 ; and
especially the carefully prepared astronomical tables of new and full moons
by Prof. Adams, in McClellan, I. 493, who devoutly exults in the result of the
crucial test of astronomical calculation which makes the very heavens, after
the roll of centuries, bear witness to the harmony of the Gospels.
136 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 17. The Land and the People.
Literature.
L The geographical and descriptive works on the Holy Land by RELAND
(1714), ROBINSON (1838 and 1856), RITTER (1850-1855), RATJMER (4th
ed 1800), TOBLEB (several monographs from 1849 to 1869), W. M.
THOMSON (levibed ed. 1880), STANLEY (1853, 6th ed 1866), TRISTRAM
(1864), SCHAFF (1878 ; enlarged ed. 1889), GUKRIN (1869, 1875, 1880).
See TOBLER'S Bibhographia geographica Palcpstnur (Leipz 1H67),
and the supplementary lists of more recent works by PH WOLFF in
the " Jahrbucher fur deutsche Theologie," 1868 and 1872, and by
SOCIN in the " Zeitschrift des deutschen Palastma-Verems," 1878,
p. 40, etc.
II. The " Histories of New Testament Times " (Neutestamentliche ZeU-
geschtchte, a special department of histoncal theology recently intro-
duced), by SCHNECKENBUBGER (1862), HAUSRATH (1868 sqq ), and
SCHURER (1874).
See Lit. in ? 8, p. 56.
There is a wonderful harmony between the life of our Lord
as described by the Evangelists, and his geographical and his-
torical environment as known to us from contemporary writers,
and illustrated and confirmed by modern discovery and research.
This harmony contributes not a little to the credibility of the
gospel history. The more we come to understand the age and
country in which Jesus lived, the more we feel, in reading the
Gospels, that we are treading on the solid ground of real his-
tory illuminated by the highest revelation from heaven. The
poetry of the canonical Gospels, if we may so call their prose,
which in spiritual beauty excels all poetry, is not (like that of
the Apocryphal Gospels) the poetry of human fiction — "no
fable old, no mythic lore, nor dream of bards and seers ; " it is
the poetry of revealed truth, the poetry of the sublimest facts,
the poetry of the infinite wisdom and love of God which never
betore had entered the imagination of man, but which assumed
human flesh and blood in Jesus of Nazareth and solved through
his life and work the deepest problem of our existence.
The stationary character of Oriental countries and peoples
enables us to infer from their present aspect and condition what
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 137
they were two thousand years ago. And in this we are aided
by the multiplying discoveries which make even stones and
mummies eloquent witnesses of the past. Monumental evidence
appeals to the senses and overrules the critical conjectures and
combinations of unbelieving skepticism, however ingenious and
acute they may be. Who will doubt the history of the Phara-
ohs when it can be read in the pyramids and sphinxes, in the
ruins of temples and rock-tombs, in hieroglyphic inscriptions
and papyrus rolls which antedate the founding of Home and the
exodus of Moses and the Israelites ? Who will deny the bibli-
cal records of Babylon and Nineveh after these cities have risen
from the grave of centuries to tell their own story through
cuneiform inscriptions, eagle-winged lions and human-headed
bulls, ruins of temples and palaces disentombed from beneath
the earth ? We might as well erase Palestine from the map
and remove it to fairy-land, as to blot out the Old and New
Testament from history and resolve them into airy myths and
legends.1
THE L.Amx
Jesus spent his life in Palestine. It is a country of about
the size of Maryland, smaller than Switzerland, and not half as
large as Scotland,2 but favored with a healthy climate, beautiful
scenery, and great variety and fertility of soil, capable of pro-
ducing fruits of all lands from the snowy north to the tropi-
cal south ; isolated from other countries by desert, mountain
1 Well says Hausrath (Preface to 2nd ed. of voL I. p. ix) against the mythi-
cal theory : " Fur die poetinche Wdt der religiosen Sage ist innerhalb einer rein
historittdien Darstettung kein Eaum ; Hire QebMe verb! etc/ten vor einem gese/tieht-
Ucfi hetten Hintergrund . . . Wenn mr die heiiige GeschtcJite als Brucli-
stuck einer aUgemeinen Qescldchte nnchwewen vndzeigen konnen, wie die Kinder
pa^en, wenn wir dieabgerigsenen Fddfn, die rie mit der prof anen WeU verbanden,
wieder aufeufinden vermogen, dnnn ist die Meinung auzgesdiloswen, diese Ge-
schichte *ei der schone Traum eine* spateren GeacldecJite* gewesen."
9 The average length of Palestine is 150 miles, the average breadth east and
west of the Jordan to the Mediterranean, from 80 to 90 miles, the number of
gquare miles from 12,000 to 13,000. The State of Maryland has 11,124,
Switzerland 15,993, Scotland 30,G95 English square miles.
138 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and sea, yet lying in the centre of the three continents of the
eastern hemisphere and bordering on the Mediterranean high-
way of the historic nations of antiquity, and therefore provi-
dentially adapted to develop not only the particularism of Juda-
ism, but also the universalism of Christianity. From little
Phoenicia the world has derived the alphabet, from little Greece
philosophy and art, from little Palestine the best of all — the
true religion and the cosmopolitan Bible. Jesus could not have
been born at any other time than in the reign of Caesar Augus-
tus, after the Jewish religion, the Greek civilization, and the
Roman government had reached their maturity; nor in any
other land than Palestine, the classical soil of revelation, nor
among any other people than the Jews, who were predestinated
and educated for centuries to prepare the way for the coming of
the Messiah and the fulfilment of the law and the prophets. In
his infancy, a fugitive from the wrath of Herod, lie passed
through the Desert (probably by the short route along the Med-
iterranean coast) to Egypt and back again ; and often may his
mother have spoken to him of their brief sojourn in u the land of
bondage," out of which Jehovah had led his people, by the mighty
arm of Moses, across the Red Sea and through u the great and
terrible wilderness " into the land of promise. During his forty
days of fasting " in the wilderness " he was, perhaps, on Mount
Sinai communing with the spirits of Moses and Elijah, and prepar-
ing himself in the awfully eloquent silence of that region for the
personal conflict with the Tempter of the human race, and for the
new legislation of liberty from the Mount of Beatitudes.1 Thus
the three lands of the Bible, Egypt, the cradle of Israel, the Des-
ert, its school and playground, and Canaan, its final home, were
touched and consecrated by " those blessed feet which, eighteen
centuries ago, were nailed for our advantage on the bitter cross."
He travelled on his mission of love through Judaea, Samaria,
1 The tradition, which locates the Temptation on the barren and dreary
mount Quarantaxua, a few miles northwest of Jericho, is of late date. Paul
Also probably went, after his conversion, as far as Mount Smai during the
three yean of repose and preparation " in Arabia,11 GaL 1 : 17, oomp. 4 . 24.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 139
Galilee, and Peraea ; he came as far north as mount Hermon,
and once he crossed beyond the land of Israel to the Phoeni-
cian border and healed the demonized daughter of that heathen
mother to whom he said, " O woman, great is thy faith : be it
done unto thee even as thou wilt."
We can easily follow him from place to place, on foot or on
horseback, twenty or thirty miles a day, over green fields and
barren rocks, over hill and dale, among flowers and thistles, under
olive and fig-trees, pitching our tent for the night's rest, ignoring
the comforts of modern civilization, but delighting in the unfad-
ing beauties of God's nature, reminded at every step of his won-
derful dealings with his people, and singing the psalms of his
servants of old.
We may kneel at his manger in Bethlehem, the town of
Judaea where Jacob buried his beloved Rachel, and a pillar,
now a white mosque, marks her grave; where Ruth was re-
warded for her filial devotion, and children may still be seen
gleaning after the reapers in the grainfields, as she did in the
field of Boaz; where his ancestor, the poet-king, was born and
called from his father's flocks to the throne of Israel ; where
shepherds are still watching the sheep as in that solemn night
when the angelic host thrilled their hearts with the heavenly
anthem of glory to God, and peace on earth to men of his good
pleasure ; where the sages from the far East offered their sacri-
fices in the name of future generations of heathen converts ;
where Christian gratitude 1ms erected the oldest church in Chris-
tendom, the " Church of the Nativity," and inscribed on the
solid rock in the " Holy Crypt," in letters of silver, the simple but
pregnant inscription : "Hie de Virgine Maria Jexus Christus
natus est" When all the surroundings correspond with the Scrip-
ture narrative, it is of small account whether the traditional grotto
of the Nativity is the identical spot — though pointed out as such
it would seem already in the middle of the second century.1
1 W. Hepworth Dixon (The Holy Land, ch 14) ingeniously pleads for the
traditional cave, and the identity of the inn of the Nativity with the patri-
mony of Boaz and the home of David.
140 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
We accompany him in a three days' journey from Bethlehem
to Nazareth, his proper home, where he spent thirty silent
years of his life in quiet preparation for his public work, un-
known in his divine character to his neighbors and even the
members of his own household (John 7 : 5), except his saintly
parents. Nazareth is still there, a secluded, but charmingly
located mountain village, with narrow, crooked and dirty streets,
with primitive stone houses where men, donkeys and camels are
huddled together, surrounded by cactus hedges and fruitful
gardens of vines, olive, fig, and pomegranates, and favorably
distinguished from the wretched villages of modern Palestine
by comparative industry, thrift, and female beauty ; the never
failing "Virgin's Fountain," whither Jesus must often have
accompanied his mother for the daily supply of water, is still
there near the Greek Church of the Annunciation, and is the
evening rendezvous of the women and maidens, with their water-
jars gracefully poised on the head or shoulder, and a row of
silver coins adorning their forehead ; and behind the village still
rises the hill, fragrant with heather and thyme, from which he
may often have cast his eye eastward to Gilboa, where Jonathan
fell, and to the graceful, cone-like Tabor — the Righi of Pales-
tine— northward to the lofty Mount Ilermon — the Mont Blanc
of Palestine — southward to the fertile plain of Esdraelon — the
classic battle-ground of Israel — and westward to the ridge of
Carmel, the coast of Tyre and Sidon and the blue waters of the
Mediterranean sea — the future highway of his gospel of peace
to mankind. There he could feast upon the rich memories of
David and Jonathan, Elijah and Elisha, and gather images of
beauty for his lessons of wisdom. We can afford to smile at
the silly superstition which points out the kitchen of the Vir-
gin Mary beneath the Latin Church of the Annunciation, the
suspended column where she received the angel's message, the
carpenter shop of Joseph and Jesus, the synagogue in which he
preached on the acceptable year of the Lord, the stone table at
which he ate with his disciples, the Mount of Precipitation two
miles off, and the stupendous monstrosity of the removal of the
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 141
dwelling-house of Mary by angels in the air across the sea to
Loretto in Italy! These are childish fables, in striking con-
trast with the modest silence of the Gospels, and neutralized by
the rival traditions of Greek and Latin monks ; but nature in its
beauty is still the same as Jesus saw and interpreted it in his
incomparable parables, which point from nature to nature's God
and from visible symbols to eternal truths.1
Jesus was inaugurated into his public ministry by his baptism
in the fast-flowing river Jordan, which connects the Old and
New Covenant. The traditional spot, a few miles from Jericho,
is still visited by thousands of Christian pilgrims from all parts of
1 We add the vivid description of Benan ( Vie de Jesus, Ch. IL p. 25) from
personal observation : " Nazareth was a small town, situated in a fold of land
broadly open at the summit of the group of mountains which closes on the
north the plain of Esdraelon. The population is now from three to four
[probably five to six] thousand, and it cannot have changed very much. It
ia quite cold in winter and the climate is very healthy. The town, like all the
Jewish villages of the time, was a mass of dwellings built without style, and
must have presented the same poor and uninteresting appearance as the villages
in Semitic countries The houses, from all that appears, did not differ much
from those cubes of stone, without interior or exterior elegance, which now
cover the richest portion of the Lebanon, and which, in the midst of vines and
fig-trees, are nevertheless very pleasant. The environs, moreover, are charm-
ing, and no place in the world was so well adapted to dreams of absolute hap-
piness (nuf endroit du monde ne fut si bien fait pour Us rSves de Vabsolu bon-
heitr). Even in our days, Nazareth is a delightful sojourn, the only place per-
haps in Palestine where the soul feels a little relieved of the burden which
weighs upon it in the midst of this unequalled desolation. The people are
friendly and good-natured ; the gardens are fresh and green. Antonius Mar-
tyr, at the end of the sixth century, draws an enchanting picture of the fer-
tility of the environs, which he compares to paradise Some valleys on the
western side fully justify his description. The fountain about which the life
and gayety of the little town formerly centered, has been destroyed ; its broken
channels now give but a turbid water. But the beauty of the women who
gathered there at night, this beauty which was already remarked in the sixth
century, and in which was seen the gift of the Virgin Mary, has been surpris-
ingly well preserved. It is the Syrian type in all its languishing grace.
There is no doubt that Mary was there nearly every day and took her place,
with her urn upon her shoulder, in the same line with her unremembered
countrywomen. Antonius Martyr remarks that the Jewish women, elsewhere
disdainful to Christians, are here full of affability. Even at this day religious
animosities are less intense at Nazareth than elsewhere.1' Comp. also the
more elaborate description in Keim, I. 318 sqq., and Tobler's monograph oa
Nazareth, Berlin, 1868.
142 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the world at the Easter season, who repeat the spectacle of the
multitudinous baptisms of John, when the people came " from
Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the region round about the
Jordan " to confess their sins and to receive his water-baptism
of repentance.
The ruins of Jacob's well still mark the spot where Jesus sat
down weary of travel, but not of his work of mercy, and opened
to the poor woman of Samaria the well of the water 'of life and
instructed her in the true spiritual worship of God ; and the
surrounding landscape, Mount Gerizim, and Mount Ebal, the
town of Shechem, the grain-fields whitening to the harvest, all
illustrate and confirm the narrative in the fourth chapter of
John ; while the fossil remnant of the Samaritans at Nablous
(the modern Shechem) still perpetuates the memory of the pas-
chal sacrifice according to the Mosaic prescription, and their
traditional hatred of the Jews.
We proceed northward to Galilee where Jesus spent the most
popular part of his public ministry and spoke so many of his
undying words of wisdom and love to the astonished multitudes.
That province was once thickly covered with forests, cultivated
fields, plants and trees of different climes, prosperous villages
and an industrious population.1 The rejection of the Messiah
and the Moslem invasion have long since turned that paradise of
nature into a desolate wilderness, yet could not efface the holy
memories and the illustrations of the gospel history. There is the
lake with its clear blue waters, once whitened with ships sailing
from shore to shore, and the scene of a naval battle between the
Romans and the Jews, now utterly forsaken, but still abounding
in fish, and subject to sudden violent storms, such as the one which
1 Josephus no doubt greatly exaggerates when he states that there were no
less than two hundred and four towns and villages in Galilee ( Vita, c. 45,
8iajco<ruu ical rc'cnrapcs icar& r^v ToXiKaiav cioi WAcis ftai K£JUCU), and that the small-
est of those villages contained above fifteen thousand inhabitants (Sell, Jud.
III. 3, 2). This would give us a population of over three millions for that
province alone, while the present population of all Palestine and Syria
scarcely amounts to two millions, or forty persons to the square mile (accord-
ing to Badeker, Pal. and Syria, 1876, p. 86).
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 143
Jesus commanded to cease ; there are the hills from which he pro-
claimed the Sermon on the Mount, the Magna Charta of his king-
dom, and to which he often retired for prayer ; there on the
western shore is the plain of Gennesaret, which still exhibits its
natural fertility by the luxuriant growth of briers and thistles and
the bright red magnolias overtopping them ; there i£ the dirty
city of Tiberias, built by Herod Antipas, where Jewish rabbis
still scrupulously search the letter of the Scriptures without find-
ing Christ in them ; a few wretched Moslem huts called Mejdel
still indicate the birth-place of Mary Magdalene, whose peniten-
tial tears and resurrection joys are a precious legacy of Christen-
dom. And although the cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida and
Chorazim, " where most of his mighty works were done," have
utterly disappeared from the face of the earth, and their very
sites are disputed among scholars, thus verifying to the letter
the fearful prophecy of the Son of Man,1 yet the ruins of Tell
Hum and Kerazeh bear their eloquent testimony to the judg-
ment of God for neglected privileges, and the broken columns
and friezes with a pot of inanna at Tell Hum are probably the
remains of the very synagogue which the good Roman centurion
built for the people of Capernaum, and in which Christ delivered
his wonderful discourse on the bread of life from heaven.2
Csesarea Philippi, formerly and now called Banias (or Paneas,
Paneion, from the heathen sanctuary of Pan), at the foot of
Ilermon, marks the northern termination of the Holy Land and
of the travels of the Lord, and the boundary-line between the
Jews and the Gentiles ; and that Swiss-like, picturesque land-
scape, the most beautiful in Palestine, in full view of the fresh,
gushing source of the Jordan, and at the foot of the snow-crowned
1 Matt 11 : 20-34 ; Luke 10 : 18-15
1 Comp. Fr Delitzsch: Ein Tag in Capernaum, 2d ed. 1873; Purrer : Die
Ortschaften am See Gen&areth, in the " Zeitschrift des deutschen Palastina-
Vereins," 1879, pp 52 sqq. ; my article on Capernaum, ibid 1878, pp 216 sqq. ;
and in the " Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund" fox
J*fy, 1879, pp. 131 sqq., with the observations thereon by Lieut. Kitchener,
who agrees with Dr. Bohinson in locating Capernaum at Khan Minyeh, although
there are no ruins there at all to be compared with those of Tell Hum.
144 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
monarch of Syrian mountains seated on a throne of rocks, seems
to give additional force to Peter's fundamental confession and
Christ's prophecy of his Church universal built upon the im*
movable rock of his eternal divinity.
The closing scenes of the earthly life of our Lord and the be-
ginning of his heavenly life took place in Jerusalem and the
immediate neighborhood, where every spot calls to mind the
most important events that ever occurred or can occur in this
world. Jerusalem, often besieged and destroyed, and as often
rebuilt " on her own heap," is indeed no more the Jerusalem of
Herod, which lies buried many feet beneath the rubbish and
filth of centuries; even the site of Calvary is disputed, and
superstition has sadly disfigured and obscured the historic asso-
ciations.1 "Christ is not there, He is risen."1 There is no
more melancholy sight in the world than the present Jerusalem
as contrasted with its former glory, and with the teeming life
of Western cities ; and yet so many are the sacred memories
clustering around it and perfuming the very air, that even Rome
must yield the palm of interest to the city which witnessed the
crucifixion and the resurrection. The Herodian temple on
Mount Moriah, once the gathering place of pious Jews from all
the earth, and enriched with treasures of gold and silver which
excited the avarice of the conquerors, has wholly disappeared,
and " not one stone is left upon another," in literal fulfilment of
Christ's prophecy ; * but the massive foundations of Solomon's
structure around the temple area still bear the marks of the
Phoenician workmen; the "wall of wailing" is moistened with
the tears of the Jews who assemble there every Friday to mourn
1 The present mongrel population of Jerusalem — Moslems, Jews, and Chris-
tians of all denominations, though mostly Greek — scarcely exceeds 30,000,
while at the time of Christ it must have exceeded 100,000, even if we make a
large deduction from the figures of Josephus, who states that on a passover
under the governorship of Cestius Gallns 256,500 paschal lambs were slain, and
that at the destruction of the city, A.D. 70, 1,100,000 Jews perished and 97,000
were sold into slavery (including 600,000 strangers who had crowded into the
doomed city). BeH. JucL vi. 9, 3.
1 Matt. 28; 6. » Matt 24: 2; Mark 13:2; Lake 19:44.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 145
over the sins and misfortunes of their forefathers ; and if we
look down from Mount Olivet upon Mount Moriah and the
Moslem Dome of the Rock, the city even now presents one of
the most imposing as well as most profoundly affecting sights on
earth. The brook Kedron, which Jesus crossed in that solemn
night after the last Passover, and Gethsemane with its venera-
ble olive-trees and reminiscences of the agony, and Mount Olivet
from which he rose to heaven, are still there, and behind it the
remnant of Bethany, that home of peace and holy friendship
which sheltered him the last nights before the crucifixion.
Standing on that mountain with its magnificent view, or at the
turning point of the road from Jericho and Bethany, and look-
ing over Mount Moriah and the holy city, we fully understand
why the Saviour wept and exclaimed, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children to-
gether even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you deso-
late!"
Thus the Land and the Book illustrate and confirm each other.
The Book is still full of life and omnipresent in the civilized
world ; the Land is groaning under the irreformable despotism
of the " unspeakable " Turk, which acts like a blast of the Sirocco
from the desert. Palestine lies under the curse of God. It is
at best a venerable ruin " in all the imploring beauty of decay,"
yet not without hope of some future resurrection in God's own
good time. But in its very desolation it furnishes evidence for
the truth of the Bible. It is " a fifth Gospel," engraven upon rocks.1
1 Renan sums up the results of hip personal observations as director of the
scientific commission for the exploration of ancient Phoenicia in 1860 and
1801, in the following memorable confession (Vie de Jesus, Tntrod. p liii.) .
"«7"Vtt traverse dans tons les sens la province evangelique; fai Pittite Jerusalem,
Hebron et la Samarie ; presque avcune localite importante de Vhistoire de Jews
nem'a echappe. Toute cette hintoire gut, a distance, sembte flatter dans les
nuages tfun monde sans reaUte, prit ainsi un corps, une solidite gui nfeton-
nerent. V accord frappant des textes ft des tieux, la merveiUeuse harmonie de
Videal evangelique aveo le paysage qui lui servit de cadre furent pour mot comiM
une revelation. J'eus devant les yeux un cinquieme Svangtie, lacere, mats tisible
146 FIEST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THE PEOPLE.
Is there a better argument for Christianity than the Jews ?
Is there a more patent and a more stubborn fact in history than
that intense and unchangeable Semitic nationality with its
equally intense religiosky ? Is it not truly symbolized by the
bush in the desert ever burning and never consumed ? Nebu-
chadnezzar, Antiochus Epiphanes, Titus, Hadrian exerted their
despotic power for the extermination of the Jews ; Hadrian's
edict forbade circumcision and all the rites of their religion ; the
intolerance of Christian rulers treated them for ages with a sort
" of revengeful cruelty, as if every Jew were personally responsible
for the crime of the crucifixion. And, behold, the race still lives
as tenaciously as ever, unchanged and unchangeable in its na-
tional traits, an omnipresent power in Christendom. It still
produces, in its old age, remarkable men of commanding influ-
ence for good or evil in the commercial, political, and literary
world ; we need only recall such names as Spinoza, Rothschild,
Disraeli, Mendelssohn, Heine, Neander. If we read the accounts
of the historians and satirists of imperial Rome about the Jews
in their filthy quarter across the Tiber, we are struck by the
identity of that people with their descendants in the ghettos of
modern Rome, Frankfurt, and New York. Then they excited
as much as they do now the mingled contempt and wonder of
the world ; they were as remarkable then for contrasts of intel-
lectual beauty and striking ugliness, wretched poverty and prince-
ly wealth ; they liked onions and garlic, and dealt in old clothes,
broken glass, and sulphur matches, but knew how to push them-
selves from poverty and filth into wealth and influence ; they
were rigid monotheists and scrupulous legalists who would strain
out a gnat and swallow a camel ; then as now they were temper-
enc&re, et dewrmais, d travers les rectos de Matthieu et de Marc, au Ueu <Pun
Stre abstrait, qu'on dirait riawir jamais extate, je vis une admirable figure
humaine vivre, se mowwir." His familiarity with the Orient accounts for the
fact that this brilliant writer leaves much more historical foundation for the
gospel history than his predecessor Strauss, who never saw Palestine.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 147
ate, sober, industrious, well regulated and affectionate in their
domestic relations, and careful for the religious education of
their children. The majority were then, as they are now, car
nal descendants of Jacob, the Supplanter, a small minority spirit-
ual children of Abraham, the friend of God and father of the
faithful. Out of this gifted race have come, at the time of
Jesus and often since, the bitterest foes and the warmest friends
of Christianity.
Among that peculiar people Jesus spent his earthly life, a Jew
of the Jews, yet in the highest sense the Son of Man, the second
Adam, the representative Head and Kegenerator of the whole
race. For thirty years of reserve and preparation he hid his
divine glory and restrained his own desire to do good, quietly
waiting till the voice of prophecy after centuries of silence an-
nounced, in the wilderness of Judaea and on the banks of the
Jordan, the coming of the kingdom of God, and startled the
conscience of the people with the call to repent. Then for three
years he mingled freely with his countrymen. Occasionally he
met and healed Gentiles also, who were numerous in Galilee ;
he praised their faith the like of which he had not found in
Israel, and prophesied that many shall come from the east and
the west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom shall
be cast out into outer darkness.1 He conversed with a woman
of Samaria, to the surprise of his disciples, on the sublimest
theme, and rebuked the national prejudice of the Jews by hold-
ing up a good Samaritan as a model for imitation.8 It was on
the occasion of a visit from some " Greeks," shortly before the
crucifixion, that he uttered the remarkable prophecy of the uni-
versal attraction of his cross.1 But these were exceptions. His
mission, before the resurrection, was to the lost sheep of Israel.4
He associated with all ranks of Jewish society, attracting the
1 Matt 8 : 5-13 ; 15 : 21-38 ; Luke 7 : 1-9.
9 John 4 : 5-42 ; Luke 10 . 30-87.
» John 12: 20-32.
4 Matt 10:5,6; 15:14.
148 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
good and repelling the bad, rebuking vice and relieving misery,
but most of his time he spent among the middle classes who
constituted the bone and sinew of the nation, the fanners and
workingmen of Galilee, who are described to us as an industri-
ous, brave and courageous race, taking the lead in seditious poli-
tical movements, and holding out to the last moment in the
defence of Jerusalem.1 At the same time they were looked upon
by the stricter Jews of Judaea as semi-heathens and semi-bar-
barians ; hence the question, " Can any good come out of Naza-
reth," and " Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." 2 He selected
his apostles from plain, honest, unsophisticated fishermen, who
became fishers of men and teachers of future ages. In Judaea
he came in contact with the religious leaders, and it was proper
that he should close his ministry and establish his church in the
capital of the nation.
lie moved among the people as a Rabbi (my Lord) or a
Teacher, and under this name he is usually addressed.8 The
1 Josephus, Bell Jud III c 8, § 2 • " These two Gahlees, of BO great large-
ness, and encompassed with so many nations of foreigners, have been always
able to make a strong resistance on all occasions of war , for the Galileans are
inured to war from their infancy, and have been always very numerous ; nor
hath the country ever been destitute of men of courage, or wanted a numer-
ous set of them : for their soil is universally rich and fruitful, and full of the
plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites the most slothful to
take pains in its cultivation by its f ruitf ulness • accordingly it is all cultivated
by its inhabitants, and no part of it lies idle. Moreover, the cities lie here
very thick, and the very many villages there are so full of people, by the
richness of their soil, that the very least of them contained above fifteen
thousand inhabitants (?) "
» John 1 . 46 ; 7 52 ; Matt. 4 16. The Sanhednsts forgot in their blind
passion that Jonah was from Galilee After the fall of Jerusalem Tiberias
became the headquarters of Hebrew learning and the birthplace of the
Talmud
9 fapfti (from an, or with the suflf. "^, my pnnce, lord, Kvpios) sixteen
times m the N T , faP&ovl or fiappowl twice ; ftrirfowoAos (variously rendered
in the B V. teacher, doctor, and mostly matter} about foity times ; iirurrdTris
(rendered master) six times, Kt&rryri'rfl* (rendered master) once in Matt 23 • 10
(the text reo also in ver. 8, where ftifcknroAo* is the correct readmg). Other
designations of these teachers in the N. T. are yptwartis*
MurKoXoi. Josephus calls them <ro$i<rraf, ttpoypawaTcls, varptvv
the Mishna tn^ and D*ncnD, scholars, See Schurer, p. 441.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 149
Rabbis were the intellectual and moral leaders of the nation,
theologians, lawyers, and preachers, the expounders of the law,
the keepers of the conscience, the regulators of the daily life
and conduct ; they were classed with Moses and the prophets,
and claimed equal reverence. They stood higher than the
piiests who owed their position to the accident of birth, and
not to personal merit. They coveted the chief seats in the
synagogues and at feasts; they loved to be greeted in the
markets and to be called of men, " llabbi, Rabbi." Hence our
Lord's warning : " Be not ye called ' Kabbi ' : for one is your
Master, even Christ ; and all ye are brethren." * They taught
in the temple, in the synagogue, and in the school-house (Beth-
hamidrash), and introduced their pupils, sitting on the floor at
their feet, by asking and answering questions, into the intricacies
of Jewish casuistry. They accumulated those oral traditions
which were afterwards embodied in the Talmud, tliaf liuge re-
pository of Jewish wisdom and folly. They performed official
acts gratuitously.2 They derived their support from an honor-
able trade or free gifts of their pupils, or they married into rich
families. Rabbi Ilillcl warned against making gain of the
crown (of the law), but also against excess of labor, saying,
" Who is too much given to trade, will not become wise." In
the book of Jesus Son of Sirach (which was written about 200
u.c.) a trade is represented as incompatible with the vocation
of a student and teacher,8 but the prevailing sentiment at the
time of Christ favored a combination of intellectual and physi-
cal labor as beneficial to health and character. One-third of
the day should be given to study, one-third to prayer, one-
third to work. " Love manual labor," was the motto of She-
1 Matt 23 : 8 ; comp. Mark 12 : 38, 39 ; Luke 11 : 43 ; 20 : 46.
* The same, however, was the case with Greek and Roman teachers before
Vespasian, who was the first to introduce a regular salary. I was told in
Cairo that the professors of the great Mohammedan University likewise teach
gratuitously.
3 Ecclesiasticus 38 : 24-34 : " The wisdom of a learned man cometh by oppor-
tunity of leisure ; and he that hath little business shall become wise. How
can he gee wisdom that holdeth the plough," eta
150 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
maja, a teacher of Hillel. " He who does not teach his son a
trade," said Eabbi Jehuda, " is much the same as if he taught
him to be a robber." " There is no trade," says the Talmud.
" which can be dispensed with ; but happy is he who has in
his parents the example of a trade of the more excellent sort." '
Jesus himself was not only the son of a carpenter, but during
his youth he worked at that trade himself.8 When he entered
upon his public ministry the zeal for God's house claimed all
his time and strength, and his modest wants were more than
supplied by a few grateful disciples from Galilee, so that some-
thing was left for the benefit of the poor.' St. Paul learned
the trade of tentmaking, which was congenial to his native
Cilicia, and derived from it his support even as an apostle, that
he might relieve his congregations and maintain a noble inde-
pendence.4
Jesus availed himself of the usual places of public instruction
in the synagogue and the temple, but preached also out of
1 See Fr Delitzsch : Judisclies Handwerkerleben zur Zeit Jew. Erlangen,
third ed revised, 1879 He states (p 77) that more than one hundred Rabbis
who figure in the Talmud carried on a trade and were known by it, as R Oshaja
the shoemaker, R. Abba the tailor, R Juda the baker, R. Abba Josef the
architect, R Ghana the banker, R Abba Shaul the grave-digger, R Abba
Oshaja the fuller, R Abm the carpenter, etc He remarks (p 23) : " The Jews
have always been an industrious people and behind no other in impulse, ability
and inventiveness for restless activity ; agriculture and trade were their chief
occupations before the dissolution of their political independence; only in
consequence of their dispersion and the contraction of their energies have
they become a people of sharpers and peddlers and taken the place of the
old Phoenicians " But the talent and disposition for sharp bargains was in-
herited from their father Jacob, and turned the temple of God into %l a house
of merchandise " Christ charges the Pharisees with avarice which led them
to kt devour widows1 houses.11 Comp. Matt. 23:14; Mark 12:40; Luke
16:14; 20.47
9 Mark 6 : 3 Jesus is called, by his neighbors, " the carpenter" (& Wirrwv),
Matt 13 : 55 "the carpenter's son."
3 Luke 8 3 ; Matt 27 : 55 ; Mark 15 : 41 ; John 13 : 29. Among the pious
women who ministered to Jesus was also Joanna, the wife of Ghuzas, King
Herod's steward. To her may be traced the vivid circumstantial description
of the dancing scene at Herod's feast and the execution of John the Baptist,
Mark 6: 14-29.
4 Act* 18 : 3; 20 : 33-35 ; 1 Theas. 2 : 9; 2 Thess. 8 : 8; 2 Cor. 11 : 7-9.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 151
doors, on the mountain, at the sea-side, and wherever the peo-
ple assembled to hear him. "I have spoken openly to the
world ; 1 ever taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all
the Jews come together ; and in secret spake I nothing." 1 Paul
likewise taught in the synagogue wherever he had an opportu-
nity on his missionary journeys.* The familiar mode of teach-
ing was by disputation, by asking and answering questions on
knotty points of the law, by parables and sententious sayings,
which easily lodged in the memory ; the Kabbi sat on a chair,
the pupils stood or sat on the floor at his feet.8 Knowledge of
the Law of God was general among the Jews and considered
the most important possession. They remembered the com
mandments better than their own name.4 Instruction began in
early childhood in the family and was carried on in the school
and the synagogue. Timothy learned the sacred Scriptures on
the knees of his mother and grandmother.6 Josephus boasts,
at the expense of his superiors, that when only fourteen years
of age he had such an exact knowledge of the law that he was
consulted by the high priest and the first men of Jerusalem."
Schoolmasters were appointed in every town, and children were
taught to read in their sixth or seventh year, but writing was
probably a rare accomplishment.7
The synagogue was the local, the temple the national centre
of religious and social life ; the former on the weekly Sabbath
(and also on Monday and Thursday), the latter on the Passover
1 John 18 : 20. Comp Matt 4 : 23 ; 9 : 35 ; 21 • 23 ; 26 : 55 ; Mark 1 . 21,
39; 14.49; Luke2-46; 4:14-16,31,44; 13:10; 21:37.
f Acts 13 • 14-16; 16 : 13 ; 17 • 2, 3.
'Luke2-46; 5:17; Matt. 5:1; 26.55; John8:2; Acts 22:3 (" at the
feet of Gamaliel").
4 Josephus often speaks of this. C Ap. I 12 • " More than all we are con-
cerned for the education of our youth (irocJorpo^fa), »nd we consider the keep-
ing of the laws (rb ^vXarreiv TO&J yrfpovr) and the corresponding piety (r^v Kar«k
rotfrovs »apa&e5oju&>iji> cfor^iw) to he the most necessary work of life " Comp.
II 18 ; Ant. IV. 8, 12 To the same effect is the testimony of Philo, Legal,
ad Cftjum. § 16. 31, quoted by Schurer, p. 467.
6 2 Tim. 1 • 5 ; 3 : 15 ; comp Eph 6 • 4 6 Vita, % 2.
7 Schurer, p. 468 ; and Ginsburg, art. Education, in Kitto's " Cyc. of Binl
Liter.," 3d ed.
152 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and the other annual festivals. Every town had a synagogue^
large cities had many, especially Alexandria and Jerusalem.1
The worship was very simple : it consisted of prayers, singing,
the reading of sections from the Law and the Prophets in He-
brew, followed by a commentary and homily in the vernacular
Aramaic. There was a certain democratic liberty of prophesy-
ing, especially outside of Jerusalem. Any Jew of age could
read the Scripture lessons and make comments on invitation
of the ruler of the synagogue. This custom suggested to Jesus
the most natural way of opening his public ministry. When
he returned from his baptism to Nazareth, "he entered, as
his custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and
stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the roll
of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the roll and found the
place where it was written (61 : 1, 2) ' The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the
poor ; he hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.7 And he
closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down :
and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, * To-day hath this scripture
been fulfilled in your ears.' And all bare witness unto him,
and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his
mouth : and they said, Is not this Joseph's son ? " *
On the great festivals he visited from his twelfth year the
capital of the nation where the Jewish religion unfolded all its
splendor and attraction. Large caravans with trains of camels
and asses loaded with provisions and rich offerings to the tem-
ple, were set in motion from the North and the South, the
East and the West for the holy city, " the joy of the whole
earth;" and these yearly pilgrimages, singing the beautiful Pil-
Acte 6 : 9 for the freedmen and the Hellenists and proselytes from different
countries. Rabbinical writers estimate the number of synagogues in Jerusa-
lem as high as 480 (L e. 4 x 10 x 12), which seems incredible.
•Luke 4: 16-22.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 153
grim Psalms (Ps. 120 to 134), contributed immensely to the
preservation and promotion of the common faith, as the Moslem
pilgrimages to Mecca keep up the life of Islam. We may
greatly reduce the enormous figures of Josephus, who on one
single Passover reckoned the number of strangers and residents
in Jerusalem at 2,700,000 and the number of slaughtered lambs
at 256,500, but there still remains the fact of the vast extent and
solemnity of the occasion. Even now in her decay, Jerusalem
(like other Oriental cities) presents a striking picturesque appear-
ance at Easter, when Christian pilgrims from the far West min-
gle with the many-colored Arabs, Turks, Greeks, Latins, Span-
ish and Polish Jews, and crowd to suffocation the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. How much more grand and dazzling must this
cosmopolitan spectacle have been when the priests (whose num-
ber Josephus estimates at 20,000) with the broidered tunic, the
fine linen girdle, the showy turban, the high priests with the
ephod of blue and purple and scarlet, the breastplate and the
mitre, 'the Levites with their pointed caps, the Pharisees with
their broad phylacteries and fringes, the Essenes in white dresses
and with prophetic rnieri, Eoman soldiers with proud bearing,
Herodian courtiers in oriental pomposity, contrasted with beggars
and cripples in rags, when pilgrims innumerable, Jews and pro-
selytes from all parts of the empire, " Parthians and Medes and
Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cap*
padocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in
Egypt and parts of Libya about Gyrene, and sojourners from
Rome, both Jews arid proselytes, Cretans and Arabians," ' all
wearing their national costume and speaking a Babel of tongues,
surged through the streets, and pressed up to Mount Moriah,
wheie "the glorious temple rear'd her pile, far off appearing
like a mount of alabaster, topp'd with golden spires," and where
on the fourteenth day of the first month columns of sacrificial
smoke arose from tens of thousands of paschal lambs, in his-
torical commemoration of the great deliverance from the land
'Acte 2: 8-12.
154 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of bondage, and in typical prefiguration of the still greater re
demption from the slavery of sin and death.1
To the outside observer the Jews at that time were the most
religious people on earth, and in some sense this is true. Never
was a nation so ruled by the written law of God ; never did a
nation so carefully and scrupulously study its sacred books, and
pay greater reverence to its priests and teachers. The leaders
of the nation looked with horror and contempt upon the unclean,
uncircumcised Gentiles, and confirmed the people in their spirit-
ual pride and conceit. No wonder that the Romans charged
the Jews with the odium generis humani.
Yet, after all, this intense religiosity was but a shadow of true
religion. It was a praying corpse rather than a living body.
Alas ! the Christian Church in some ages and sections presents
a similar sad spectacle of the deceptive form of godliness with-
out its power. The rabbinical learning and piety bore the same
relation to the living oracles of God as sophistic scholasticism
to Scriptural theology, and Jesuitical casuistry to Christian
ethics. The Rabbis spent all their energies in "fencing" the
law so as to make it inaccessible. They analyzed it to death.
They surrounded it with so many hair-splitting distinctions and
refinements that the people could not see the forest for the trees
or the roof for the tiles, and mistook the shell for the kernel.9
Thus they made void the Word of God by the traditions of men.'
A slavish formalism and mechanical ritualism was substituted
for spiritual piety, an ostentatious sanctimoniousness for holiness
1 Comp the description of King Josiah's Passover, 2 Chr. 35 : 1-19.
8 The Rabbinical scholasticism reminds one of the admirable description of
logic in Goethe's Faust :
44 Wer witt was Lebendig's erkennen und beschreiben,
Sueht erst den Geist hinauszutreiben;
Dann hat er die Theile in seiner Hand,
Fehlt leider ! nur das geistige Band."
'Matt 15 : 2, 3, 6 ; Mark 7:3, 5, 8, 9, 13. It is significant that Christ
uses the word vapd&oarts always in a bad sense of such human doctrines and
usages as obscure and virtually set aside the sacred Scriptures. Precisely the
same charge was applied by the Reformers to the doctrines of the monks and
schoolmen of their day.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 166
Of character, scrupulous casuistry for genuine morality, the kill-
ing letter for the life-giving spirit, and the temple of God was
turned into a house of merchandise.
The profanation and perversion of the spiritual into the car-
nal, and of the inward into the outward, invaded even the holy
of holies of the religion of Israel, the Messianic promises and
hopes which run like a golden thread from the protevangeliurn
in paradise lost to the voice of John the Baptist pointing to the
Lamb of God. The idea of a spiritual Messiah who should
crush the serpent's head and redeem Israel from the bondage of
sin, was changed into the conception of a political deliverer who
should re-establish the throne of David in Jerusalem, and from
that centre rule over the Gentiles to the ends of the earth. The
Jews of that time could not separate David's Son, as they called
the Messiah, from David's sword, sceptre and crown. Even the
apostles were affected by this false notion, and hoped to secure
the chief places of honor in that great revolution ; hence they
could not understand the Master when he spoke to them of hi»
approaching passion and death.1
The state of public opinion concerning the Messianic expecta-
tions as set forth in the Gospels is fully confirmed by the pre-
ceding and contemporary Jewish literature, as the Sibylline
Books (about B.C. 140), the remarkable Book of Enoch (of uncer-
tain date, probably from B.C. 130-30), the Psalter of Solomon
(B.C. 63-48), the Assumption of Moses, Philo and Josephus, the
Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Fourth Book of Esdras.8 In all
of them the Messianic kingdom, or the kingdom of God, is re-
presented as an earthly paradise of the Jews, as a kingdom of
this world, with Jerusalem for its capital. It was this popular
idol of a pseudo-Messiah with which Satan tempted Jesus in the
wilderness, when he showed him all the kingdoms of the world ;
well knowing that if he could convert him to this carnal creed,
1 Matt. 16 : 21-23; Mark 8 : 31-33 ; Luke 9 : 22, 44, 46 ; 18 : 34 ; 24 :21 ;
John 12: 34.
* See, of older works, Schdttgen, Horn HtbraiecB et TdbnudwB, torn. II. (De
JtfsMto), of modern works, Schiirer, L c. pp. 563-599, with the literature there
quoted ; also James Dromxnond, The Jewish Meuiah, Lond. 1877.
156 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and induce him to abuse his miraculous power for selfish grati-
fication, vain ostentation, and secular ambition, he would most
effectually defeat the scheme of redemption. The same politi-
cal aspiration was a powerful lever of the rebellion against the
Roman yoke which terminated in the destruction of Jerusalem,
and it revived again in the rebellion of Bar-Cocheba only to end
in a similar disaster.
Such was the Jewish religion at the time of Christ. lie was
the only teacher in Israel who saw tlirough the hypocritical mask
to the rotten heart. None of the great Rabbis, no Ilillel, no
Shammai, no Gamaliel attempted or even conceived of a refor-
mation ; on the contrary, they heaped tradition upon tradition
and accumulated the talmudic rubbish of twelve large folios and
2947 leaves, which represents the anti-Christian petrifaction of
Judaism ; while the four Gospels have regenerated humanity
and are the life and the light of the civilized world to this day.
Jesus, while moving within the outward forms of the Je\vi&h
religion of his age, was far above it and revealed a new world
of ideas. lie, too, honored the law of God, but by unfolding
its deepest spiritual meaning and fulfilling it in precept and ex-
ample. Himself a Rabbi, he taught as one having direct author-
ity from God, and not as the scribes. How he arraigned those
hypocrites seated on Moses' seat, those blind leaders of the blind,
who lay heavy burdens on men's shoulders without touching
them with their finger ; who shut the kingdom of heaven against
men, and will not enter themselves ; who tithe the mint and
the anise and the cumin, and leave undone the weightier mat-
ters of the law, justice and mercy and faith ; who strain out the
gnat and swallow the camel ; who are like unto whited sepul-
chres which outwardly appear beautiful indeed, but inwardly
are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. But
while he thus stung the pride of the leaders, he cheered and
elevated the humble and lowly. He blessed little children, he
encouraged the poor, he invited the weary, he fed the hungry,
he healed the sick, he converted publicans and sinners, and laid
the foundation strong and deep, in God's eternal love, for a ne\v
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 157
society and a new humanity. It was one of the subliinest as
well as loveliest moments in the life of Jesus when the disciples
asked him, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?
and when he called a little child, set him in the midst of them
and said, " Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and
become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble him-
self as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my
name receiveth me.1' ' And that other moment when he thanked
his heavenly Father for revealing unto babes the things of the
kingdom which were hid from the wise, and invited all that
labor and are heavy laden to come to him for rest.'
lie knew from the beginning that he was the Messiah of God
and the King of Israel. This consciousness reached its matur-
ity at his baptism when he received the Holy Spirit without
measure.8 To this conviction he clung unwaveringly, even in
those dark hours of the apparent failure of his cause, after Judas
had betrayed him, after Peter, the confessor and rock-apostle,
had denied him, and everybody had forsaken him. He solemnly
affirmed his Messiahship before the tribunal of the Jewish high-
priest ; he assured the heathen representative of the Roman
empire that he was a king, though not of this woild, and when
hanging on the cross he assigned to the dying robber a place
in his kingdom.4 But before that time and in the days of his
greatest popularity he carefully avoided every publication and
demonstration which might have encouraged the prevailing idea
of a political Messiah and an uprising of the people, lie chose
for himself the humblest of the Messianic titles which represents
his condescension to our common lot, while at the same time it
1 Matt. 18 : 1-G ; comp. Mark 10 : 13-16 ; Luke 18 : 15-17.
9 Matt 11 : 25-30. This passage, which is found only in Matthew and (in
part) in Luke 10 : 21, 22, is equal to any passage in John. It is a genuine
echo of this word when Schiller sings :
" Was kein Verstand der Verstandigen sieht,
Das ubet in Einjalt ein kindlicb Gemuth."
* John 1 : 82-34; comp. 3 :34. « Matt. 26: 64; John 18 :37 ; Luke 23 :43.
158 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
implies his unique position as the representative head of the
human family, as the ideal, the perfect, the universal, the arche-
typal Man. He calls himself habitually " the Son of Man "
who " hath not where to lay his head," who " came not to be
ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many," who " hath power to forgive sins," who " came to seek and
to save that which was lost." * When Peter made the great con-
fession at Csesarea Philippi, Christ accepted it, but immediately
warned him of his approaching passion and death, from which
the disciple shrunk in dismay.8 And with the certain expecta-
tion of his crucifixion, but also of his triumphant resurrection on
the third day, he entered in calm and sublime fortitude on his
last journey to Jerusalem which "killeth the prophets," and
nailed him to the cross as a false Messiah and blasphemer.
But in the infinite wisdom and mercy of God the greatest
crime in history was turned into the greatest blessing to man
kind.
We must conclude then that the life and work of Christ, while
admirably adapted to the condition and wants of his age and
people, and receiving illustration and confirmation from his
environment, cannot be explained from any contemporary or
preceding intellectual or moral resources. He learned nothing
from human teachers. His wisdom was not of this world. He
needed no visions and revelations like the prophets and apostles.
He came directly from his great Father in heaven, and when
he spoke of heaven he spoke of his familiar home. He spoke
from the fullness of God dwelling in him. And his words were
verified by deeds. Example is stronger than precept. The wisest
sayings remain powerless until they are incarnate in a living per-
son. It is the life which is the light of men. In purity of doc-
trine and holiness of character combined in perfect harmony,
Jesus stands alone, unapproached and unapproachable. He
'Luke 9-58; 19 10; Matt 18:11: 20 : 17, 28 ; Mark 2 : 10, 28 ; John
1 : 51 ; 6 . 58, and many other passages. The term 6 vlbs rov &y&p<6irov occurs
about 80 times in the Gospels. On its meaning comp. my book on the Person
of Christ, pp. 83 sqq (ed of 1880).
'Matt 16:20-23; Mark 8: 30-33; Luke 9 : 21-27.
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 159
breathed a fresh life from heaven into his and all subsequent
ages. He is the author of a new moral creation.
JESUS AND Hn^KTi. — The infinite elevation of Christ above the men of
his time and nation, and his deadly conflict with the Pharisees and scribes
are so evident that it seems preposterous and absurd to draw a parallel
between him and HilM or any other Rabbi. And yet this has been done
by some modern Jewish Rabbis, as Geiger, Gra'tz, Friedlander, who boldly
affirm, without a shadow of historical proof, that Jesus was a Pharisee, a
pupil of Hillel, and indebted to him for his highest moral principles. By
this left-handed compliment they mean to depreciate his originality.
Abraham Geiger (d. 1874) says, in his Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte
(Breslau, 2d ed 1865, vol. I. p. 117) "Jesus war ein Jude, ein phansa-
ischer Jude mit gahlaischer Farbung, ein Mann der die Hofnungen der Zeit
theiUe und diese Hoffnungen in sick erfullt glaubte. Einen neuen Gedanken
sprach er keineswegs aus [ ! ], auch brack er mcht etwa die Schranken der
NationalUat . . . . Er hob mcht im Entfemtesten etwas vom Judenthum
auf; er war ein Phamsaer, der auch in den Wegen Hillels ging." This
view is repeated by Rabbi Dr M H. Friedlander, in his Geschichtsbilder
aus der Zeit der Tanaiten und Amoraer. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des
Talmuds (Briinn, 1879, p 32): "Jesus, oder Jeschu9 uar der Sohn eines
Ztmmermeisters, Namens Josef, aus Nazareth Seine Mutter hiess Miryam
oder Maria. Selbst der ak> conservatives Katholik [sic f] wie als bedeutender
Gelehrter bekannte Etnald nennt ihn ' Jesus den Sohn Josefs ' . . . . Wenn
auch Jesus' Gelehrsamkeit mcht nesig war, da die Gahlaer auf keiner
liohen Stufe der CuUur standen, so zeichnete er sich doch durch Seelenadel,
Gemuthhchkeit und Herzensgute vortheilhaft aus. Hillel I. scheint sein Vor-
bild und Mustcrbild getresen zu sein ; denn der hillehanische Grundsatz :
' Was dir nicht reclit ist, fuge deinem Nebenmenschen nicht zu,' war das
Grundpnncip seiner Lehren." Renan makes a similar assertion in his
Vie de Jesus (Chap III p 35), but with considerable qualifications:
"Par sa pauvrete humblement supportee, par la douceur de son caractere,
par Topposition qn'ilfaisait aux hypocrites et aux pretres, Hillel fut le vrai
maitre de Jesus, *W eitpermis de parler de maltre, quand il s'agit d'une si
liaute onyinahte." This companson hag been effectually disposed of by
such able scholars as Dr Dehtzsch, in his valuable pamphlet Jesus und
Hillel (Erlangen, 3d revised ed. 1879, 40 pp ) ; Ewald, V. 12-48 (Die
SchuJe Hitters und deren Gegner) ; Keim I. 268-272 ; Schurer, p. 456 ;
and Farrar, Life of Christ, II. 453-460 All these writers come to the
same conclusion of the perfect independence and onginality of Jesus.
Nevertheless it is interesting to examine the facts in the case.
Hillel and Shammai are the most distinguished among the Jewish
Rabbis. They were contemporary founders of two rival schools of rab-
binical theology (as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus of two schools of
scholastic theology) . It is strange that Josephus does not mention them,
160 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
unless he refers to them under the Hellenized names of Sameas and Pol
lion ; but these names agree better with Shemqja and Abtalion, two cele-
brated Pharisees and teachers of Hillel and Shammai; moreover he
designates Sameas as a disciple of Pollion. (See Ewald, v. 22-26 ;
Schurer, p. 455). The Talmadic tradition has obscured their history
and embellished it with many fables
Hillel I or the Great was a descendant of the royal family of David,
and born at Babylon. He removed to Jerusalem in great poverty, and
died about A.D. 10. He is said to have lived 120 years, like Moses, 40
years without learning, 40 years as a student, 40 years as a teacher. He
was the grandfather of the wise Gamaliel in whose family the presidency
of the Sanhedrin was hereditary for several generations. By his burning
zeal for knowledge, and his pure, gentle and amiable character, he at-
tained the highest renown. He is said to have understood all languages,
even the unknown tongues of mountains, hills, valleys, trees, wild and
tame beasts, ard demons. He was called "the gentle, the holy, the
scholar of Ezra." There was a proverb : " Man should be always as
meek as Hillel, and not quick-tempered as Shammai." He differed
from Rabbi Shammai by a milder interpretation of the law, but on some
points, as the mighty question whether it was right or wrong to eat an
egg laid on a Sabbath day, he took the more rigid view. A talmudic
tract is called Beza, The Egg, after this famous dispute. What a distance
from him who said : " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath : so then the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Many wise sayings, though partly obscure and of doubtful interpreta-
tion, are attributed to Hillel in the tract Pirke Aboth (which is embodied
in the Mishna and enumerates, in ch. 1, the pillars of the legal traditions
from Moses down to the destruction of Jerusalem). The following are
the best :
" Be a disciple of Aaron, peace-loving and peace-making ; love men,
and draw them to the law "
" Whoever abuses a good name (or, is ambitious of aggrandizing his
name) destroys it."
"Whoever does not increase his knowledge diminishes it."
" Separate not thyself from the congregation, and have no confidence
in thyself till the day of thy death."
" If I do not care for my soul, who will do it for me? If I care only
for my own soul, what am I ? If not now, when then ? "
" Judge not thy neighbor till thou art in his situation."
" Say not, I will repent when I have leisure, lest that leisure should
never be thine."
"The passionate man will never be a teacher."
" In the place where there is not a man, be thou a man."
Yet his haughty Pharisaism is clearly seen in this utterance : " No
Uneducated man easily avoids sin ; no common person is pious." The
§ 17. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 161
enemies of Christ in the Sanhedrin said the same (John 7 : 49) : " This
multitude that knoweth not the law are accursed." Some of his teach-
ings are of doubtful morality, e. g. his decision that, in view of a vague
expression in Deut. 24 . 1, a man might put away his wife " even if she
cooked his dinner badly." This is, however, softened down by modern
Babbis so as to mean : " if she brings discredit on his home."
Once a heathen came to Rabbi Shaminai and promised to become a
proselyte if he could teach him the whole law while he stood on one leg.
Shammai got angry and drove him away with a stick. The heathen
went with the same request to Rabbi Hillel, who never lost his temper,
received him courteously and gave him, while standing on one leg, the
following effective answer:
" Do not to thy neighbor what is disagreeable to thee. This is the
whole Law ; all the rest is commentary . go and do that." (See Delitzsch,
p. 17 ; Ewald, V. 31, comp. IV. 270)
This is the wisest word of Hillel and the chief ground of a comparison
with Jesus. But
1. It is only the negative expression of the positive precept of the gospel,
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and of the golden rule, " All
tilings whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, even so do ye
also to them " (Matt. 7 • 12 ; Luke 6 31). There is a great difference
between not doing any harm, and doing good. The former is consistent
with selfishness and every sin which does not injure our neighbor. The
Saviour, by presenting God's benevolence (Matt 7 : 11) as the guide of
duty, directs us to do to our neighbor all the good we can, and he him-
self set the highest example of self-denying love by sacrificing his life
for sinners.
2. It is disconnected from the greater law of supreme love to God,
without which true love to our neighbor is impossible. " On these two
commandments," combined and inseparable, " hang all the law and the
prophets" (Matt. 22 • 37-40).
3. Similar sayings are found long before Hillel, not only in the Penta-
teuch and the Book of Tobith (4 : 15 . 6 /ua*Zf /zijSm irotqcrgr, "Do that
to no man which thou hatest "), but substantially even among the heathen
(Confucius, Buddha, Herodotus, Isocrates, Seneca, Quintilian), but always
either in the negative form, or with reference to a particular case or
class; e. g. Isocrates, Ad Demonic, c. 4 : "Be such towards your parents
as thou shalt pray thy children shall be towards thyself; " and the same
Li JEginet. c. 23 : " That you would be such judges to me as you would
desire to obtain for yourselves." See Wetstein on Matt. 7 : 12 (Nov. Test.
I. 341 sq.). Parallels to this and other biblical maxims have been gath-
ered in considerable number from the Talmud and the classics by Light-
foot, Grotius, Wetstein, Deutsch, Spiess, Ramage ; but what are they all
compared with the Sermon on the Mount ? Moreover, si duo idem dicuni,
non eat idem. As to the rabbinical parallels, we must remember that they
162 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
were not committed to writing before the second century, and that, as
Dehtzsch says (Em Tag in Capernaum, p. 137), "not a few sayings oi
Christ, circulated by Jewish Christians, reappeared anonymously or under
false names in the Talmuds and Midrashim."
4. No amount of detached words of wisdom constitute an organic sys-
tem of ethics any more than a heap of marble blocks constitute a palace
or temple ; and the best system of ethics is unable to produce a holy
life, and is worthless without it.
We may admit without hesitation that Hillel was " the greatest and best
of all Pharisees " (Ewald), but he was far inferior to John the Baptist ; and
to compare him with Christ is sheer blindness or folly. Ewald calls such
comparison " utterly perverse " (grundverkehrt, v 48). Farrar remarks
that the distance between Hillel and Jesus is " a distance absolutely im-
measurable, and the resemblance of his teaching to that of Jesus is the
resemblance of a glow-worm to the sun " (II. 455). " The fundamental
tendencies of both," says Dehtzsch (p. 23), " are as widely apart as heaven
and earth. That of Hillel is legalistic, casuistic, and nationally con-
tracted ; that of Jesus is universally religious, moral and human. Hillel
lives and moves in the externals, Jesus in the spirit of the law." He was
not even a reformer, as Geiger and Friedlander would make him, for
what they adduce as proofs are mere trifles of interpretation, and involve
no new principle or idea.
Viewed as a mere human teacher, the absolute originality of Jesus
consists in this, " that his words have touched the hearts of all men in
all ages, and have regenerated the moral life of the world " (Farrar, IE.
454). But Jesus is far more than a Rabbi, more than a sage and saint,
more than a reformer, more than a benefactor ; he is the author of the
true religion, the prophet, priest and king, the renovator, the Saviour of
men, the founder of a spiritual kingdom as vast as the race and as long
as eternity.
§ 18. Apocryphal Traditions.
We add some notes of minor interest connected with the
history of Christ outside of the only authentic record in the
Gospels.
I. THE APOCRYPHAL SAYINGS OF OUR LORD. — The canonical Gospels
contain all that is necessary for us to know about the words and deeds
of our Lord, although many more might have been recorded (John 20 :
80 ; 21 : 25). Their early composition and reception in the church pre-
cluded the possibility of a successful rivalry of oral tradition. The extra-
biblical sayings of our Lord are mere fragments, few in number, and with
one exception rather unimportant, or simply variations of genuine words.
§ 18. APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS. 163
They have been collected by FABRICIUS, in Codex Apocr. N. T7., L
pp. 321-335 ; GBABE : Spicilegium SS. Patrum, ed. alt. I. 12 sqq., 326
sq. ; KOERNER : De sermombus Christi dypafyois (Lips. 1776) ; ROUTH,
in Rehq. Saerce, vol. I. 9-12, etc. ; RUD. HOFMANN, in Das Leben Jesu
nach den Apokryphen (Leipz. 1851, \ 75, pp. 317-334) ; BUNSEN, in Anal.
ante-Nic. I. 29 sqq. ; ANGER, in Synops. Evang (1852) ; WESTCOTT Introd.
to the Study of the Gospels, Append. C. (pp. 446 sqq. of the Boston ed. by
Hackett) ; PLUMPTRE, in Elhcott's Com. for English Readers, I. p. xxxiii. ;
J. T. DODD . Sayings ascribed to our Lord by the Fathers (1874) ; E. B.
NICHOLSON. The Gospel accwdmg to the Hebrews (Lend 1879, pp 143-162).
Comp. an essay of Ewald in his " Jahrbucher der Bibl. Wissenschaft," VI.
40 and 54 sqq , and Geschtchte Christus', p 288 We avail ourselves chiefly
of the collections of Hofmann, Westcott, Plumptre, and Nicholson.
(1) " It is more blessed to give than to receive" Quoted by Paul, Acts
20 : 35. Comp. Luke 6 30, 31 , also Clement of Rome, Ad Cor c. 2, fjfaov
didovrcf f) Au^/3<ii/oi/Tf $•, " more gladly giving than receiving " This is
unquestionably authentic, pregnant with rich meaning, and shilling out
like a lone star all the more brilliantly. It is true in the highest sense of
the love of God and Christ. The somewhat similar sentences of Aristotle,
Seneca, and Epicurus, as quoted by Plutarch (see the passages in Wet-
stein on Acts 20 : 35), savor of aristocratic pride, and are neutralized by
the opposite heathen maxim of mean selfishness . " Foolish is the giver,
happy the receiver." Shakespeare may have had the sentence in his
mind when he put into the mouth of Portia the golden words :
11 The quality of mercy IB not strained,
It dioppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath it is tw ice blessed ;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes ;
*Tis mightiest m the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown "
(2) " And on the same day Jesus saw a man working at his craft on
the Sabbath-day, and He said unto him, 10 man, ?/ thou knowest what tlwu
doest, then art thou blessed; but if thou knottiest not, then art thou accursed,
and art a transgressor of the Laic.' " An addition to Luke 6 . 4, m Codex
D. or Bezse (in the University library at Cambndge), wliich contains several
remarkable additions. See Tischendorf 's apparatus in ed. VUL Luc. 6 : 4,
and Scrivener, Introd. to Omticism of the N. T p 8. eVucarripnToy is used
John 7 : 49 (text rec ) by the Pharisees of the people who know not the law
(also Gal. 3 : 10, 13 in quotations from the O T.) ; Trapa/Scinjs roi) v^ov by
Paul (Rom. 2 : 25, 27 ; Gal. 2 18) and James (2 • 9, 11). Plumptre regards
the narrative as authentic, and remarks that " it brings out with a marvel-
lous force the distinction between the conscious transgression of a law
recognized as still binding, and the assertion of a higher law as super-
reding the lower.1' Comp. also the remarks of Hofmann, I c. p. 318.
164 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(3) "But ye seek (or, in the imperative, seek ye, frjTfirt) to increase from
little^ and (not) from greater to be less" An addition in Codex D. to Matt
20 : 28. See Tischendorf. Comp. Luke 14 : 11 ; Jolm 5 : 44. Westcott
regards this as a genuine fragment. Nicholson inserts " not," with the
Curetoman Byriac, D; all other authonties omit it. Juvenous has in-
corporated the passage in his poetic Hist. Evang. ILL 613 sqq., quoted by
Hofmann, p. 319.
(4) "Be ye trustworthy money-changers, or, proved bankers (rpanefiTai
doicipoi) ; i. e. expert in distinguishing the genuine com from the counter-
feit. Quoted by Clement of Alexandria (several times), Ongen (in Joaitn*
xix. ) , Eusebius, Epiphamus, Cyril of Alexandria, and many others. Comp.
1 Thess. 5 : 21 : "Prove all things, hold fast the good," and the parable
of the talents, Matt. 25 : 27. Dehtzsch, who with many others regards
this maxim as genuine, gives it the meaning : Exchange the less valuable
for the more valuable, esteem sacred coin higher than common coin, and
highest of all the one precious pearl of the gospel. (Em Tag in OT/JOT-
naum, p. 136 ) Kenan likewise adopts it as historical, but explains it in
an Ebionite and monastic sense as an advice of voluntary poverty. "Be
ye good bankers (soyez de bons banquiers), that is to say : Make good in-
vestments for the kingdom of God, by giving your" goods to the poor,
according to the ancient proverb (Prov. 19 • 17) : * He that hath pity
upon the poor, lendeth to the Lord' " ( Vie de Jesus, ch. XI. p. 180, 5th
Par. ed.).
[ (5) " The Son of God says, (?) 'Let ;<s resist all iniquity, and hold it in
abhorrence.' " From the Epistle of Barnabas, c. 4. This Epistle, though
incorporated in the Codex Smaiticus, is probably not a work of the apos-
tolic Barnabas. Westcott and Plumptre quote the passage from the
Latin version, which introduces the sentence with the words : sicut dicit
Filius Dei. But this seems to be a mistake for sicut decet fihos Dei, " as
becometh the sons of God." This is evident from the Greek original
(brought to light by the discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus), which reads,
o>s 7r/)f7T€t vims 3foO, and connects the words with the preceding sentence.
See the edition of Barnabce Epistula by Gebhardt and Harnack in Patr.
Apost. Op. 1. 14. For the sense comp 2 Tim. 2 . 19 : a-noarr]™ <ITTO d&KiW,
James 4 7 : amrumjTf rip Sia/3oXa>, Ps. 119 163 : dtiticiav ffit(rrj(rti.]
(6) " They who itnsh to see me, and to lay hold on my kingdom, must
receive me with affliction and suffering." From the Epistle of Barnabas,
c. 7, where the words are introduced by "Thus he [Jesus] saith,"
$9<riy. But it is doubtful whether they are meant as a quotation or
rather as a conclusion of the former remarks and a general reminiscence
of several passages. ~Comp. Matt. 16:24; 20:23; Acts 14:22: "We
must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."
(7) " He that wonders [6 3n»»/twiW, with the wonder of reverential faith]
thaU reign, and he that reigns shall be made to rest.n From the "Gospel
of the Hebrews," quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. II. 9, ? 45).
§ 18. APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS. 16ff
The Alexandrian divine quotes this and the following sentence to show,
as Plumptre finely says, " that in the teaching of Christ, as in that of
Plato, wonder is at once the beginning and the end of knowledge."
(8) "Look with wonder at the things tftat are before thee (Savpcurov ra
irapovra)." From Clement of Alexandria (Strom. II. 9, J 45.).
(9) "I came to abolish sacrifices, and unless ye cease from sacrificing, the
•wrath [of God] will not cease from you." From the Gospel of the Ebionites
(or rather Esssean Judaizers), quoted by Epiphanius (Hcer. xxx. 16).
Comp. Matt. 9 : 13, " I will have mercy and not sacrifice."
(10) "Ask great things, and the small shall be added to you : ask heavenly
things, and tliere shall be added unto you earthly things " Quoted by
Clement of Alexandria (Strom. I. 24, g 154 ; comp. IV. 6, § 34) and Origen
(de Oratione, c. 2), with slight differences Comp. Matt 6-33, of which
it is probably a free quotation from memory. Ambrose also quotes the
sentence (Ep. xxxvi. 3) : "Denique scriptum est . ' Petite magna, etparva
adjtcientur vobts. Petite ccelestia, et terrena adjicientur* "
(11) "In the tilings trJierein I find you, in them will Ijudgeyou" Quoted
by Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph c. 47), and Clement of Alexandria (Quit
dives, g 40). Somewhat different Nilus • "Such as I find thee, I will
judge thee, saith the Lord " The parallel passages in Ezekiel 7 : 3, 8 ;
18 : 30 ; 24 : 14 ; 33 : 20 are not sufficient to account for this sentence
It is probably taken from an apocryphal Gospel. See Hofmann, p. 323.
(12) " He who is nigh unto me is nigh unto t/ie fire : Jie wJio is far from
me is far from ifie kingdom" From Origen (Comm. in Jer. III. p. 778),
and Didymus of Alexandria (in Ps. 88 : 8). Comp. Luke 12 : 49. Igna-
tius (Ad Sinyrn. c 4) has a similar saying, but not as a quotation, " To
be near the sword is to be near God " (lyyvs paxaipas cyyvs 3coO).
(13) " If ye kept not that which is little, wJio will give you that which is
great? For I say unto you, he tlmt is faithful in the least is faithful also
in much " From the homily of Pseudo-Clement of Rome (ch. 8). Comp.
Luke 16 : 10-12 and Matt. 25 : 21, 23 Irenseus (II 34, 3) quotes simi-
larly, probably from memory : " Si in modico fideles non fuistis, quod
magnum est quis dabit nobis ? "
(14) " Keep the flesh pure, and tlie seal [probably baptism] w'lhout stain
that we (ye) may receive eternal life " From Pseudo-Clement, ch. 8. But as
this is connected with the former sentence by tipa wv TOVTO Xcyct, it seems
to be only an explanation ("he means this ") not a separate quotation.
See Lightfoot, St. Clement of Rome, pp. 200 and 201, and his Appendix
containing tJie newly recovered Portions, p. 384. On the sense comp.
2 Tim. 2:19; Bom. 4 : 11 ; Eph. 1:18; 4:30.
(15) Our Lord, being asked by Salome when His kingdom should
come, and the things which he had spoken be accomplished, answered,
" W7ien the lico shall be one, and the onttrurd as the inward, and the male
with tJie female, neither male nor female" From Clement of Alexandria,
as a quotation from " the Gospel according to the Egyptians " (Strom.
166 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
HI. 13, § 92), and the homily of Pseudo-Clement of Rome (ch. 12). Comp.
Matt. 22 . 30 , Gal 3 • 28 ; 1 Cor. 7 : 29. The sentence has a mystical color-
ing which is alien to the genuine Gospels, but suited the Gnostic taste.
(16) " For those tliat are infirm was I infirm, and for those tltat hunger
did 1 hunger, and for those that thirst did I thirst" From Ongen (in Matt.
xiii. 2). Comp Matt. 25 : 35, 36 ; 1 Cor. 9 . 20-22.
(17) " Never be ye joyful, except when ye have seen your brother [dwelling]
in love." Quoted from the Hebrew Gospel by Jerome (in Eph. v. 3).
(18) " Take hold, handle me, and see that I am not a bodiless demon [i. e.
spirit] " From Ignatius (Ad Smyrn. c. 3), and Jerome, who quotes it
from the Nazarene Gospel (De Viris illustr. 16). Words said to have
been spoken to Peter and the apostles after the resurrection. Comp.
Luke 24. 39; John 20. 27.
(19) "Good must needs come, but blessed is he through whom it cometh;
in like manner evil must needs come, but woe to him through whom it cometh."
From the "Clementine Homilies," xii. 29. For the second clause comp.
Matt. 18 • 7 ; Luke 17 : 1
(20) " My mystery isfw me, and for the sons of my house " From Clement
of Alexandna (Strom. V. 10, g 64), the Clementine Homilies (xix 20), and
Alexander of Alexandna (Ep. ad Alex c 5, where the words are ascribed
to the Father). Comp Isa. 24 : 16 (Sept ) ; Matt 13 . 11 , Mark 4 . 11.
(21) " If you do not make your low things high and your crooked things
straight, ye shall not enter into my kingdom." From the Ada Phdtppi in
Tischendorf s Acta Apost. Apocr. p. 90, quoted by Ewald, Gewh Chnstus,9
p. 288, who calls these words a weak echo of more excellent sayings
(22) " / will cJioose these things to myself. Very excellent are those whom
my Father that is in heaven hath given to me" From the Hebrew Gospel,
quoted by Eusebius ( Tfieoplian. iv. 13).
(23) "The Lord said, speaking of His kingdom, 'The days will come
in which vines will spring up, each having ten thousand stocks, and on each
stock ten tJtonsand brandies, and on each branch ten thousand shoots, and on
each shoot ten tlioiisand bunches, and on each bunch ten thousand qrapes, and
each grape tchen pressed shall give five-and-twenty measures of wine And
wlien am/ saint shall have laid Jiold on one bunch, another shall cry, I am a
better bunch, take me , through me bless the Lord ' Likewise also [he said],
1 that a grain of wheat bhall produce ten thousand ears of corn, and each
grain ten pounds of fine pure flour ; and so all oilier fruits and seeds and
each herb according to its proper nature. And that all animals, using for
food what is received from tlie earth, shall live in peace and concord with one
another, subject to men with all subjection.' " To this description Papias
adds : " These things are credible to those who believe. And when Judas
the traitor believed not and asked, ' How shall such products come from
the Lord ? ' the Lord said, ' They shall see who come to me in these times.' "
From the " weak-minded " Papias (quoted by Ireneeus, Adv. Hcer. V. 33,
3). Comp. Isa. 11 : 6-9.
§ 18. APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS. 167
This is a strongly figurative description of the millennium. Westcott
thinks it is based on a real discourse, but to me it sounds fabulous, and
borrowed from the Apocalypse of Baruch which has a nimilar passage
(cap. 29, first published in Monumenta Sacra et Prof ana opera CollegitDoo
torum Bibhothecw Ambrosiance, Tom I. Fasc. II. MedioL 1866, p. 80, and
then in Fritzsche's ed. of Libn Apocryphi Veteris Test. Lips. 1871, p. 666):
"Etiam terra dabitfructus suos unum in decem mittia, et in mte una erunt mille
palmites, et unus palmes faciet mille botros, et botrus unusfaciet mille acinos,
et unus acinus factet corum vim. Et qui esurierunt jucundabuntur, iterum
autem mdebunt prodigia quotidie . . . . Et erit in illo tempore, descendet
iterum desuper tJiesaurus manna, et comedent ex eo in istis annis"
Westcott quotes eleven other apocryphal sayings which are only loose
quotations or perversions of genuine words of Christ, and may therefore
be omitted Nicholson has gathered the probable or possible fragments
of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which correspond more or less
to passages in the canonical Gospels.
Mohammedan tradition has preserved in the Koran and in other writings
several striking words of Christ, which Hofmann, /. c. pp. 327-329, has
collected The following is the best :
"Jesus, the Son of Mary, said, 'He who longs to be nch is like a man
who dnnks sea-water ; tJie more he drinks the more thirsty he becomes, and
never leaves off drinking till he perishes? "
IE. PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF JESUS.-— None of the Evangelists, not even
the beloved disciple and bosom-friend of Jesus, gives us the least hint of
his countenance and stature, or of his voice, his manner, his food, his
dress, his mode of daily life In this respect our instincts of natural
affection have been wisely overruled. He who is the Saviour of all and
the perfect exemplar for all should not be identified with the particular
lineaments of one race or nationality or type of beauty. We should cling
to the Christ in spirit and in glory rather than to the Christ in the flesh
So St. Paul thought (2 Cor 5 16 , comp 1 Pet. 1 . 8). Though unseeu,
he is loved beyond all human beings.
44 1 nee Thee not, I hear Thee not,
Yet art Thou oft with me,
And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot,
As when I meet with Thee "
Jesus no doubt accommodated himself in dress and general appear-
ance to the customs of his age and people, and avoided all ostentation.
He probably passed unnoticed through busy crowds. But to the closer
observer he must have revealed a spintual beauty and an overawing
majesty in his countenance and personal bearing. This helps to explain
the readiness with which the disciples, forsaking all things, followed him
in boundless reverence and devotion. He had not the physiognomy of
168 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
a sinner. He had more than the physiognomy of a saint. He reflected
from his eyes and countenance the serene peace and celestial purity of a
sinless soul in blessed harmony with God. His presence commanded
reverence, confidence and affection.
In the absence of authentic representation, Christian art in its irrepress-
ible desire to exhibit in visible form the fairest among the children of
men, was left to its own imperfect conception of ideal beauty. The
church under persecution in the first three centuries, was averse to pic-
torial representations of Christ, and associated with him in his state of
humiliation (but not in his state of exaltation) the idea of uncomelmess,
taking too literally the prophetic description of the suffering Messiah in
the twenty-second Psalm and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. The vic-
torious church after Constantino, starting from the Messianic picture in
the forty-fifth Psalm and the Song of Solomon, saw the same Lord in
heavenly glory, "fairer than the children of men" and "altogether
lovely." Yet the difference was not so great as it is sometimes repre-
sented. 'For even the ante-Nicene fathers (especially Clement of Alexan-
dria), besides expressly distinguishing between the first appearance of
Christ in lowliness and humility, and his second appearance in glory and
majesty, did not mean to deny to the Saviour even in the days of his
flesh a higher order of spiritual beauty, " the glory of the only-begotten
of the Father full of grace and truth," which shone thiough the veil of
his humanity, and which at times, as on the mount of transfiguration,
anticipated his future glory. " Certainly," says Jerome, " a flame of fire
and starry brightness flashed from his eye, and the majesty of the God
head shone in his face."
The earliest pictures of Christ, in the Catacombs, are purely symbolic,
and represent him under the figures of the Lamb, the good Shepherd,
the Fish. The last has reference to the Greek word Ichthys, which con-
tains the initials of the words 'tyo-out Xpioror 6foC 'Yto? Scor^p, "Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Saviour." Real pictures of Christ in the early church
would have been an offence to the Jewish, and a temptation and snare to
the heathen converts.
The first formal description of the personal appearance of Christ,
which, though not authentic and certainly not older than the fourth cen-
tury, exerted great influence on the pictorial representations, is ascribed
to the heathen PUBLIUS LBNTULUS, a supposed contemporary of Pilate
and "President of the people of Jerusalem " (there was no such office), in
an apocryphal Latin letter to the Roman Senate, which was first discov-
ered in a MS. copy of the writings of Anselm of Canterbury in the twelfth
century, and published with slight variations by Fabricius, Carpzov,
Gabler, etc. It is as follows :
" In this time appeared a man, who lives till now, a man endowed with
great powers. Men call him a great prophet ; his own disciples term
Him the Son of God. His name is Jesus Christ. He restores the dead
§ 18. APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS. 169
to life, and cures the sick of all manner of diseases. This man is of
noble and well-proportioned stature, with a face full of kindness and yet
firmness, so that the beholders both love HITP and fear Him. His hair is
of the color of wine, and golden at the root ; straight, and without lustre,
but from the level of the ears curling and glossy, and divided down the
centre after the fashion of the Nazarenes [Nazantes?] His forehead is
even and smooth, his face without wrinkle or blemish, and glowing with
a delicate bloom. His countenance is frank and kind. Nose and mouth
are in no way faulty. His beard is full, of the same hazel color as his
hair, not long, but forked. His eyes are blue, and extremely brilliant.
In reproof and rebuke he is formidable; in exhortation and teaching,
gentle and amiable. He has never been seen to laugh, but oftentimes to
weep (nwnquam visits est ridere,Jlere autetn scepe). His person is tall and
erect; his hands and limbs beautiful and straight. In speaking he is
deliberate and grave, and little given to loquacity. In beauty he sur-
passes the children of men "
Another description is found in the works of the Greek theologian,
JOHN or DAMASCUS, of the 8th century (Epi*>t. ad Theoph. Imp. de vene-
randi? Imag., spurious), and a similar one in the Church History of
NICEPHOKUS (I 40), of the 14th century. They represent Christ as re-
sembling his mother, and ascribe to him a stately person though slightly
stooping, beautiful eyes, blond, long, and curly hair, pale, olive com-
plexion, long fingers, and a look expressive of nobility, wisdom, and
patience.
On the ground of these descriptions, and of the Abgar and the Vero-
nica legends, arose a vast number of pictures of Christ, which are divided
into two classes : the Salvatw pictures, with the expression of calm
serenity and dignity, without the faintest mark of grief, and the Ecce
Homo pictures of the suffering Saviour with the crown of thorns The
greatest painters and sculptors have exhausted the resouices of their
genius in representations of Christ ; but neither color nor chisel nor pen
can do more than produce a feeble reflection of the beauty and glory of
Him who is the Son of God and the Son of Man.
Among modern biographers of Christ, Dr Sepp (Rom. Cath , Das T^eben
Jew Cknsti, 1865, vol. VI 312 sqq.) defends the legend of St Veronica
of the Herodian family, and the genuineness of the picture of the suffer-
ing Saviour with the crown of thorns which he impressed on her silken
veil. He rejects the philological explanation of the legend from " the
true image " (vera *l*uv = Veronica), and denves the name from fapfviKTi
(Berenice), the Victorious. But Bishop Hefele (Art. Ckristusbilder, in
the Cath. Kirchen-Lexikon of Wetzer and Welte, II. 519-524) is inclined,
with Gnmm, to identify Veronica with the Berenice who is said to have
erected a statue to Christ at Caesarea Philippi (Euseb. VII. 18), and to
see in the Veronica legend only the Latin version of the Abgar legend of
the Greek Church. Dr. Hase (Leben Jesu, p. 79) ascribes to Christ manly
170 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
beauty, firm health, and delicate, yet not very characteristic features.
He quotes John 20 . 14 and Luke 24 : 16, where it is said that his friends
did not recognize him, but these passages refer only to the mysterious
appearances of the risen Lord. Kenan ( Vie de Jesus, ch. XXIV. p. 403)
describes him in the frivolous style of a novelist, as a doux Galdcen, of
calm and dignified attitude, as a bcmi jeune homme who made a deep im-
pression upon women, especially Mary of Magdala ; even a proud Roman
lady, the wife of Pontius Pilate, when she caught a glimpse of him from
the window (?), was enchanted, dreamed of him in the night and was
frightened at the prospect of his death. Dr Keim (I. 463) infers from
his character, as described in the Synoptical Gospels, that he was per-
haps not strikingly handsome, yet certainly noble, lovely, manly, healthy
and vigorous, looking like a prophet, commanding reverence, making
men, women, children, sick and poor people feel happy in his presence.
Canon Farrar (1. 150) adopts the view of Jerome and Augustine, and
speaks of Christ as "full of mingled majesty and tenderness in —
4 That face
How beautiful, if sorrow had not made
Sorrow more beautiful than beauty's self.' "
On artistic representations of Christ see J. B CABPZOV : De ons et
corpons J. Chrtbti forma Pbcudo-Lentuh, J. Damasceni et Ntwphon 2>ro*>o-
pographice. Heluist 1777. P. £ JABLONSKI. De vngine tmuy mum Christi
Domini. Lugd Batav 1804 W GRIMM Die 8<tye vom Urvprttuy tier Chns-
tusbilder. Berlin, 1843 Dr. LEGIS GLUCKSELIG • Chrustus-ArcJuioloyw;
Das Buck von Jesus Chnstus und semem wahren Ebenbilde. Prag, 1863.
4to. Mi's. JAMESON and Lady EASTLAKE : The History of our Jsrrd as
exemplified in Works of Art (with illustrations). Lond , 2d ed. 1865,
2 vols. COWPER : Apocr. Gospels. Lond 1867, pp. 217-226. EASE :
Leben Jesu, pp 76-80 (5th ed ) KEIM : Gesch. Jesu von Naz. I. 459-464.
FARRAK : Life of Christ. Lond. 1874, I. 148-150, 312-313 ; H. 464
ILL THE TESTIMONY OP JOSEPHUS ON JOHN THE BAPTIST. — Antig Jud.
xvin. c. 5, J 2. Whatever may be thought of the more famous passage of
Clmst which we have discussed in \ 14 (p. 92), the passage on John is
undoubtedly genuine and so accepted by most scholars. It fully and in-
dependently confirms the account of the Gospels on John's work and
martyrdom, and furnishes, indirectly, an argument in favor of the historical
character of their account of Christ, for whom he merely prepared the
way. We give it in Whiston's translation. "Now some of the Jews
thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that
very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, who was called
the Baptist ; for Herod slew him, who was a good man (aycftov m/dpo),
and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness to-
wards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism;
§ 18. APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS. 171
for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they
made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] ol
some sins [only], but for the purification of the body : supposing still
that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.
Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly
moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the
great influence John had over the people might put it into his power
and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do any
thing he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to pre-
vent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties,
by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be
too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious
temper, to Machserus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put
to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this
army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's dis-
pleasure to him."
IV. THE TESTIMONY OP MARA TO CHRIST, A.D. 74 —This extra-biblical
notice of Christ, made known first in 1865, and referred to above (J 14, p.
94) reads as follows (as translated from the Syriac by Cureton and
Pratten) :
" What are we to say, when the wise are dragged by force by hands of
tyrants, and their wisdom is deprived of its freedom by slander, and they
are plundered for their [superior] intelligence, without [the opportunity
of making] a defence 9 [They are not wholly to be pitied.] For what
benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death, seeing
that they received [as] retribution for it famine and pestilence ? Or the
people of Samos by the burning of Pythagoras, seeing that in one hour
the whole of their country was covered with sand ? Or THE JEWS [BY THE
MURDER] OF THEIR WISE KING, seeing that from that very time their king-
dom was driven away [from them] ? For with justice did God grant a
recompense to the wisdom of [all] three of them For the Athenians
died by famine ; and the people of Samos were covered by the sea with out
remedy ; and the Jews, brought to destruction and expelled from their
kingdom, are driven away into every land. [Nay] , Socrates did not die, be-
cause of Plato ; nor yet Pythagoras, because of the statue of Hera ; nor
yet THE WISE KING, BECAUSE OF THE NEW LAWS WHICH HE ENACTED."
The nationality and position of Mara are unknown. Dr Payne Smith
supposes him to have been a Persian. He wrote from prison and wished
to die, " by what kind of death concerns me not " In the beginning of
his letter Mara says : " On this account, lo, I have written for thee this
record, [touching] that which I have by careful observation discovered in
the world. For the kind of life men lead has been carefully observed by
me. I tread the path of learning, and from the study of Greek philoso-
phy have I found out all these things, although they suffered shipwreck
172 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
when the birth of life took place." The birth of life may refer to the
appearance of Christianity in the world, or to Mara's own conversion.
But there is no other indication that he was a Christian. The advice
he gives to his son is simply to "devote himself to wisdom, the fount of
all things good, the treasure that fails not."
§ 19. The Resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection of Christ from the dead is reported by the
four Gospels, taught in the Epistles, believed throughout Chris-
tendom, and celebrated on every '• Lord's Day," as an historical
fact, as the crowning miracle and divine seal of his whole work,
as the foundation of the hopes of believers, as the pledge of
their own future resurrection. It is represented in the New
Testament both as an act of the Almighty Father who raised
his Son from the dead,1 and as an act of Christ himself, who
had the power to lay down his life and to take it again/ The
ascension was the proper conclusion of the resurrection: the
risen life of our Lord, who is " the Kesurreetion and the Life,"
could not end in another death on earth, but must continue in
eternal glory in heaven. Hence St. Paul says, 4' Christ being
raised from .the dead dieth no more; death no more hath
dominion over him. For the death that he died he died unto
sin once : but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God." '
The Christian church rests on the resurrection of its Founder.
Without this fact the church could never have been born, or if
born, it would soon have died a natural death. The miracle of
the resurrection and the existence of Christianity are so closely
'Acts 2: 24, 32; Rom. 6 :4 ; 10 :9; 1 Cor. 15 : 15 ; Eph 1:20; 1 Pet. 1.21.
9 John 2:19; 10 : 17, 18. In like manner the first advent of the Lord is
represented as his own voluntary act and as a mission from the Father, John
8 : 42 tyb IK rov btov ttf\&€v teal *}««' ou5i 7&? &*" fyavrov
1 Kom. 6 . 9, 10. Neander (Leben Jesu, pp. 596 and 597 of the 6th Germ.
ed ) makes some excellent remarks on this inseparable connection between
the resurrection and the ascension, and says that the ascension would stand
fast as a supernatural fact even if Luke had not said a word about it A
temporary resurrection followed by another death could never have become
the foundation of a church,
§ 19. THE BESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 173
connected that they must stand or fall together. If Christ was
raised from the dead, then all his other miracles are sure, and
our faith is impregnable ; if he was not raised, he died in vain,
and our faith is vain. It was only his resurrection that made
his death available for our atonement, justification and salva-
tion ; without the resurrection, his death would be the grave of
our hopes ; we should be still unredeemed and under the power
of our sins. A gospel of a dead Saviour would be a contra-
diction and wretched delusion. This is the reasoning of St.
Paul, and its force is irresistible. l
The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test
question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the
Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the
greatest delusion which history records.9
Christ had predicted both his crucifixion and his resurrection,
but the former was a stumbling-block to the disciples, the latter
a mystery which they could not understand till after the event.1
They no doubt expected that he would soon establish his Mes-
sianic kingdom on earth. Hence their utter disappointment and
downheartedness after the crucifixion. The treason of one of
their own number, the triumph of the hierarchy, the fickleness
of the people, the death and burial of the beloved Master, had
in a few hours rudely blasted their Messianic hopes and exposed
them to the contempt and ridicule of their enemies. For two
days they were trembling on the brink of despair. But on the
third day, behold, the same disciples underwent a complete rev-
olution from despondency to hope, from timidity to courage,
from doubt to faith, and began to proclaim the gospel of the
1 1 Cor 15 : 13-19 ; comp Rom. 4 : 25, where Paul represents Christ' s death
and resurrection in inseparable connection, as the sum and substance of the
whole gospel.
* Ewald makes the striking remark (VI 90) that the resurrection is u the
culmination of all the miraculous events which are conceivable from the
beginning of history to its close "
-Matt 16:21-23; 17:9,22, 23; 20:17-20; Mark8:81; 9:9,10, 31,83
(" they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him ") ; Luke 9 : 22,
44, 45; 18:31-34; 24:6-8; John 2:21, 22; 3:14; 8:28; 10:17, 18;
12:32.
174 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
resurrection in the face of an unbelieving world and at the peril
of their lives. This revolution was not isolated, but general
among them ; it was not the result of an easy credulity, but
brought about in spite of doubt and hesitation;1 it was not
superficial and momentary, but radical and lasting ; it affected
not only the apostles, but the whole history of the world. It
reached even the leader of the persecution, Saul of Tarsus, one
of the clearest and strongest intellects, and converted him into
the most devoted and faithful champion of this very gospel to
the hour of his martyrdom.
This is a fact patent to every reader of the closing chapters
of the Gospels, and is freely admitted even by the most ad-
vanced skeptics.9
The question now rises whether this inner revolution in the
life of the disciples, with its incalculable effects upon the for-
tunes of mankind, can be rationally explained without a corre-
sponding outward revolution in the history of Christ ; in other
1 The devoted women went to the sepulchre on the first Christian Sabbath,
not to see it empty but to embalm the body with spices for its long rest,
Mark 16 : 1 ; Luke 23 : 56 ; and when they told the eleven what they saw,
their words seemed to them uas idle talk/' and " they disbelieved them,19
Luke 24 : 11 Gomp Matt 28 : 17 (" some doubted ") ; Mark 16 : 8 (" they
were afraid ") ; John 20 : 25.
s Dr Baur states the contrast tersely thus : "Zwischen dem Tod [Jesu] und
seiner AufersteJiung liegt ein BO tiefes undurchdringliches Dunkel, doss man
nacJi so gewaUsam zerrissenem und so wundervott wiederhergestetttem Zusammen-
hange sich gleichsam nvf einem neuen Schauplatz der Oeschichte sieht." Com-
pare his remarks at the close of this section. Dr Ewald describes the depres-
sion and sudden exaltation of the disciples more fully with his usual force
(vol. vi. 54 sqq.). I will quote also the description of Renan, at the begin-
ning of the first chapter of his work, Les Apotres : " Jesus, quoigue parlant
sans cease de resurrection, de nouveUe vie, n'avait jamais dit bien clairemenl
qtftl ressusciterait en sa chair. Les disciples, daw les premieres heures gut
suivirent sa mort, n'avaient d cet egard aucune esperance arretee. Les senti-
ments dont Us nous font la naive confidence supposent meme quails croyaient
toittfini. llspleurent et enterrent leur ami, sinon comme un mort vulgaire, du
mains comme une personne dont la perte est irreparable (Marc 16 : 10 ; Luo
24:17, 21) ; Us sont tristes et abattus ; fespoir gu'ils avaient eu de le voir
realiser le salut d1 Israel est convaincu de vanite ; on dirait des hommes qui out
perdu une grande et chere illusion. Mais Venthousiasme et V amour ne connate-
sent par les situations sans issue, lls se jouent de ^impossible, et plutdt gue
tfdbdiquer ? esperance, Us font violence d toute realite," etc.
§ 19. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 175
words, whether the professed faith of the disciples in the risen
Christ was true and real, or a hypocritical lie, or an honest self-
delusion.
There are four possible theories which have been tried again
and again, and defended with as much learning and ingenuity as
can be summoned to their aid. Historical questions are not like
mathematical problems. No argument in favor of the resurrec-
tion will avail with those critics who start with the philosophi-
cal assumption that miracles are impossible, and still less with
those who deny not only the resurrection of the body, but even
the immortality of the soul. But facts are stubborn, and if a
critical hypothesis can be proven to be psychologically and his-
torically impossible and unreasonable, the result is fatal to the
philosophy which underlies the critical hypothesis. It is not
the business of the historian to construct a history from precon-
ceived notions and to adjust it to his own liking, but to repro-
duce it from the best evidence and to let it speak for itself.
1. The HISTORICAL view, presented by the Gospels and believed
in the Christian church of every denomination and sect. The
resurrection of Christ was an actual though miraculous event,
in harmony with his previous history and character, and in ful-
filment of his own prediction. It was a re-animation of the
dead body of Jesus by a return of his soul from the spirit- world,
and a rising of body and soul from the grave to a new life,
which after repeated manifestations to believers during a short
period of forty days entered into glory by the ascension to
heaven. The object of the manifestations was not only to con-
vince the apostles personally of the resurrection, but to make
them witnesses of the resurrection and heralds of salvation to
all the world.1
Truth compels us to admit that there are serious difficulties
in harmonizing the accounts of the evangelists, and in forming a
consistent conception of the nature of Christ's resurrection-body,
hovering as it were between heaven and earth, and oscillating for
'Matt. 28:18-20; Murk 16:15,16; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21-23;
AotB 1 : 8.
176 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
forty days between a natural and a supernatural state, of a body
clothed with flesh and blood and bearing the wound-prints, and
yet so spiritual as to appear and disappear through closed doors
and to ascend visibly to heaven. But these difficulties are not
so great as those which are created by a denial of the fact itself.
The former can be measurably solved, the latter cannot. We
do not know all the details arid circumstances which might ena-
ble us to clearly trace the order of events. But among all the
variations the great central fact of the resurrection itself and its
principal features " stand out all the more sure." l The period
1 So Meyer says, who is one of the fairest as well as most careful exegetes
(Com on John, 5th Germ, ed , p 043). I will add the observations of Canon
Farrar (Life of Christ, vol II 432): "The lacuna, the compressions, the
variations, the actual differences, the subjectivity of the narrators as affected
by spintual revelations, render all harmonies at the best uncertain. Our be-
lief in the resurrection, as an historic fact, as absolutely well attested to us
by subsequent and contemporary circumstances as any other event in history,
rests on grounds far deeper, wider, more spiritual, more eternal, than can be
shaken by divergences of which we can only say that they are not necessarily
contradictions, but of which the true solution is no longer attainable Hence
the 'ten discrepancies1 which have been dwelt on sioce the days of Celsus,
have never for one hour shaken the faith of Christendom. The phenomena
presented by the narratives are exactly such as we should expect, derived as
they are from different witnesses, preserved at first in oral tradition only, and
written 1,800 years ago at a period when minute circumstantial accuracy, as
distinguished from perfect truthfulness, was little regarded. St Paul, surely
no imbecile or credulous enthusiast, vouches, both for the reality of the
appearances, and also for the fact that the vision by which he was himself
converted came, at a long interval after the rest, to him as to the ' abortive-
born* of the apostolic family (1 Cor. 15 :4-8). If the narratives of Christ's
appearance to his disciples were inventions, how came they to possess the
severe and simple character which shows no tinge of religious excitement ?
If those appearances were purely subjective, how can we account for then
sudden, rapid, and total cessation ? As Lange finely says, the great fugue of
the first Easter tidings has not come to us as a * monotonous chorale, ' and
mere boyish verbal criticism cannot understand the common feeling and har-
mony which inspire the individual vibrations of those enthusiastic and multi-
tudinous voices (vol V. 61). Pro lessor Westcott, with his usual profundity
and insight, points out the differences of puipose in the narrative of the four
Evangelists St Matthew dwells chiefly on the majesty and glory of the
Resurrection ; St. Mark, both in tne original part and in the addition (Mark
16 : 0-20), insists upon it as a iact ; St. Luke, as a spiritual necessity ; St.
John, as a toucJistone of character (Introd. 810-815).'*
§ 19. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 177
of the forty days is in the nature of the case the most myste-
rious in the life of Christ, and transcends all ordinary Christian
experience. The Christophanies resemble in some respects the
theophanies of the Old Testament, which were granted only to
few believers, yet for the general benefit. At all events the
fact of the resurrection furnishes the only key for the solution
of the psychological problem of the sudden, radical, and perma-
nent change in the mind and conduct of the disciples ; it is the
necessary link in the chain which connects their history before
and after that event. Their faith in the resurrection was too
clear, too strong, too steady, too effective to be explained in any
other way. They showed the strength and boldness of their
conviction by soon returning to Jerusalem, the post of danger,
and founding there, in the very face of the hostile Sanhedrin,
the mother-church of Christendom.
2. The THEORY OF FRAUD. The apostles stole and hid the body
of Jesus, and deceived the world.1
This infamous lie carries its refutation on its face: for if
the Roman soldiers who watched the grave at the express re-
quest of the priests and Pharisees, were asleep, they could not
see the thieves, nor would they have proclaimed thfeir military
crime ; if they, or only some of them, were awake, they would
have prevented the theft. As to the disciples, they were too
1 This theory was invented by the Jewish priests who crucified the Lord, and
knew it to be false, Matt 27 62-66 ; 28 . 12-15. The he was repeated and
believed, like many other lies, by credulous infidels, first by malignant Jews at
the time of Justin Martyr, then by Celsus, who learned it from them, but
wavered between it and the vision-theoiy, and was renewed in the eighteenth
century by Reimarus in the Wolfenbuttel Fragments Salvador, a French Jew,
has again revived and modified it by assuming (according to Hase, Geitchichte
Jesu, p 132) that Jesus was justly crucified, and was saved by the wife of
Pilate through Joseph of Arimathaea or some Galilean women ; that he retired
among the Easenes and appeared secretly to a few of his disciples (See his
Jems Christ et sa doctrine, Par. 1838 ) Strauss formerly defended the vision-
hypothesis (see below), but at the close of his life, when he exchanged hm
idealism and pantheism for materialism and atheism, he seems to have relapsed
into this disgraceful theory of fraud ; for in his Old and New Faith (1873)
he was not ashamed to call the resurrection of Christ "a world-historical
humbug." Truth or falsehood : there is no middle ground.
178 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
timid and desponding at the time to venture on such a daring act,
and too honest to cheat the world. And finally a self -invented
falsehood could not give them the courage and constancy of
faith for the proclamation of the resurrection at the peril of
their lives. The whole theory is a wicked absurdity, an insult
to the common sense and honor of mankind.
3. The SWOON-THEORY. The physical life of Jesus was not
extinct, but only exhausted, and was restored by the tender care
of his friends and disciples, or (as some absurdly add) by his
own medical skill ; and after a brief period he quietly died a
natural death.1
Josephus, Valerius Maximus, psychological and medical au-
thorities have been searched and appealed to for examples of
such apparent resurrections from a trance or asphyxy, especially
on the third day, which is supposed to be a critical turning-point
for life or putrefaction.
But besides insuperable physical difficulties — as the wounds
and loss of blood from the very heart pierced by the spear of
the Roman soldier — this theory utterly fails to account for the
moral effect. A brief sickly existence of Jesus in need of medi-
cal care, and terminating in his natural death and final burial,
without even the glory of martyrdom which attended the cruci-
fixion, far from restoring the faith of the apostles, would have
only in the end deepened their gloom and driven them to utter
despair.*
1 The Scfieintod-Hypothe** (as the Germans call it) was ably advocated by
Paulus of Heidelberg (1800), and modified by Gfrorer (1838), who afterwards
became a Roman Catholic. We are pained to add Dr. Hase (Gesch. Jesu, 1876,
p 001), who.finds it necessary, however, to call to aid a " special providence,91
to maintain some sort of consistency with his former advocacy of the miracle
of the resurrection, when he truly said (Leben Je*u, p 269, 5th ed. 1865) :
"Sonach ruht die Wahrheit der Auferstehung unersehutterUch aufdem Zeugntue,
ja aufdem Dasein der apo*toK*chen Kirehe."
* Dr. Strauss (in his second Leben Jesu, 1864, p. 298) thus strikingly and
conclusively refutes the swoon-theory : "Ein halbtodt aw dem Orabe Her*
wrgekrochener, tiech Umheraehleichender, der drztUchen Pflcge, des Verbandes,
der StArkung und Sckonung Bedurftiger, und am Ende dock dem Leiden ErUe*
gender konnU aufdie Jungcr unmogtich den Eindruck des Siegers fiber Tod und
§ 19. THE RESUKBECTION OP OHEI8T. 179
4. The VISION-THEORY. Christ rose merely in the imagina-
tion of his friends, who mistook a subjective vision or dream
for actual reality, and were thereby encouraged to proclaim their
faith in the resurrection at the risk of death. Their wish was
father to the belief, their belief was father to the fact, and the
belief, once started, spread with the power of a religious epidemic
from person to person and from place to place. The Christian
society wrought the miracle by its intense love for Christ. Ac-
cordingly the resurrection does not belong to the history of Christ
at all, but to the inner life of his disciples. It is merely the em-
bodiment of their reviving faith.
This hypothesis was invented by a heathen adversary in the
second century and soon buried out of sight, but rose to new
life in the nineteenth, and spread with epidemical rapidity among
skeptical critics in Germany, France, Holland and England.1
Grab, des Lebensfursten machen, der ihrem spatern Auftreten 2u Orunde lag.
Em solcJies Wiederaufleben Jtatte den Eindruck, den er im Leben und Tode auf
ne gemacht liatte, nur scfivxichen, densdben Jwdistens elegisch ausktingen tassen,
unmoghch abei'ihrt Trauer in Beigeisterung verwandeln, ihre Verehrungzur An*
betu/ig steigern konnen." Dr. Ease (p. 603) unjustly calls this exposure of the
absurdity of his own view, "Straussinche Tendemmalerei" Even more effective
is the refutation of the swoon-theory by Dr. Keim (Leben Jesu v. Naz III. 576) :
" Und dann das UnmoglicJiste : der arme, schwache, krankt, muJisam auf den
Fussen erhaltene, versteckte, verMeulete, sehKesslich Mnstei bende Jesus ein Gegen-
stand de* Olaubens, des IlocJigef tittles, des Triumphes seiner Anhdnger, ein aufcr-
itandener Sieger und Gottessohn ! In der That hier begtnnt die Tlieorie armsttig,
abgtsclmackt, ja verwerflich zu werden, indem tie dte Apostd ab arme Bdrogent,
oder gar mti Jesus selber als Betruger teigt. Denn vcm Seheintod hatte man
auch damaU eintn Begriff, und die Lage Jesu musste zeigen, doss hier von Avfer-
stehung nicht die Rede war; hielt man ihn dock fur auferstanden, gab er sick
seibst als aufcrsta.ndtn, so fMte das nuchterne Denken, und hutetc er sich gar,
seinen Zustand tsu verrathtn, so fehtte am Ende auch die EhrttcJikeit. Aus
alien diesen Grunden ist der Seheintod von der Neuzeit fast ausnahmslos ver-
wrfen warden."
1 The vision-hypothesis ( Visions- Hypothese) was first suggested by the hea-
then Gelsus (see Keim, III. 577), and in a more respectful form by the Jewish
philosopher Spinoza, and elaborately earned out by Strauss and Renan, with
the characteristic difference, however, that Strauss traces the resurrection
dream to the apostles in Galilee, Renan (after Gelsus) to Mary Magdalene in
Jerusalem, saying, in his Life of Jesus (almost blasphemously), that " the
passion of a hallucinated woman gave to the world a risen God I " In his
work on the Apostles, Renan enters more fully into the question and again
180 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The advocates of this hypothesis appeal first and chiefly to
the vision of St. Paul on the way to Damascus, which occurred
several years later, and is nevertheless put on a level with the
former appearances to the older apostles (1 Cor. 15 : 8) ; next to
supposed analogies in the history of religious enthusiasm and
mysticism, such as the individual visions of St. Francis ot Assisi,
the Maid of Orleans, St. Theresa (who believed that she had seen
Jesus in person with the eyes of the soul more distinctly than
she could have seen him with the eyes of the body), Swedenborg,
even Mohammed, and the collective visions of the Montanists
in Asia Minor, the Camisards in France, the spectral resurrec-
tions of the martyred Thomas a Becket of Canterbury and Savo-
narola of Florence in the excited imagination of their admirers,
and the apparitions of the Immaculate Virgin at Lourdes.1
emphasizes, in the genuine style of a French novelist, the part of the Magda-
lene. "La yloire de la resurrection (he says, p 13) appartiertt d Mane de,
MagdaUi Apres Jesus, dent Marie qui a le plus fait pour lafondation du chn&-
ttanwue. Uombre creee par lea sen* delicate de Madeleine plane encore sur le
moude . . 8a gr anile affirmation de fcmme . *77 est reswcite f ' a etc la base
de la fvi de Vhumanite " The vision-theory has also been adopted and de-
fended by Zcller, Holsten (in an able treatise on the Goxpel of Paid and
Peter, 1808), Lang, Volkmar, Reville, Scholten, Meijboom, Kuenen, Hooykaas
Comp. Keim, III 579 sqq Among English writers the anonymous author of
Supernatural Religion is itt» chief champion, and states it in these words (vol
III 526, Lond ed of 1879) " The explanation which we offer, and which
has long been adopted m various forms by able critics " [among whom, in a
foot-note he falsely quotes Ewald] " is, that doubtless Jesus was seen (&4>drj),
hut the vision was not real and objective, but illusory and subjective ; that is
to say, Jesus was not himself seen, but only a representation of Jesus within
the minds of the beholders "
On the other hand Ewald, Schenkel, Alex Schweizer, and Keim have essen-
tially modified the theory by giving the resurrection -visions an objective charac-
ter and representing them as real though purely spiritual manifestations of the
exalted Christ from heaven. Hase calls this view happily a Verhimmeiung
der Visionshypothese (Gesch Jesu, p 597) It is certainly a great improve-
ment and a more than half-way approach to the truth, but it breaks on the rock
of the empty sepulchre. It does not and cannot tell ua what became of the
body of Chnst.
1 The author of Supernatural Rdigion (III. 530), calls to aid even Luther's
vision of the devil on the Wartburg, and especially the apparition of Lord
Byron after his death to Sir Walter Scott in clear moonshine ; and he fancies
that in the first century it would have been, mistaken for reality.
§ 19. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 181
Nobody will deny that subjective fancies and impressions are
often mistaken for objective realities. But, with the exception
of the case of St. Paul — which we shall consider in its proper
place, and which turns out to be, even according to the admis-
sion of the leaders of skeptical criticism, a powerful argument
against the mythical or visionary theory — these supposed analo-
gies are entirely irrelevant; for, not to speak of other differ-
ences, they were isolated and passing phenomena which left no
mark on history ; while the faith in the resurrection of Christ
has revolutionized the whole world. It must therefore be
treated on its own merits as an altogether unique case.
(a) The first insuperable argument against the visionary na-
ture, and in favor of the objective reality, of the resurrection is
the empty tomb of Christ. If he did not rise, his body must
either have been removed, or remained in the tomb. If removed
by the disciples, they were guilty of a deliberate falsehood in
preaching the resurrection, and then the vision-hypothesis gives
way to the exploded theory of fraud. If removed by the ene-
mies, then these enemies had the best evidence against the
resurrection, and would not have failed to produce it and thus
to expose the baselessness of the vision. The same is true, of
course, if the body had remained in the tomb. The murderers
of Christ would certainly not have missed such an opportunity
to destroy the very foundation of the hated sect.
To escape this difficulty, Strauss removes the origin of the
illusion away off to Galilee, whither the disciples fled ; but this
does not help the matter, for they returned in a few weeks to
Jerusalem, where we find them all assembled on the day of
Pentecost.
This argument is fatal even to the highest form of the vision
hypothesis, which admits a spiritual manifestation of Christ
from heaven, but denies the resurrection of his body.
(b) If Christ did not really rise, then the words which he
spoke to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples of Emmaus, to doubt-
ing Thomas, to Peter on the lake of Tiberias, to all the disci-
ples on Mount Olivet, were likewise pious fictions. But who
182 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
can believe that words of such dignity and majesty, so befitting
the solemn moment of the departure to the throne of glory, as
the commandment to preach the gospel to every creature, to
baptize the nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, and the promise to be with his disciples alway to
the end of the world — a promise abundantly verified in the daily
experience of the church — could proceed from dreamy and self-
deluded enthusiasts or crazy fanatics any more than the Sermon
on the Mount or the Sacerdotal Prayer ! And who, with any
spark of historical sense, can suppose that Jesus never instituted
baptism, which has been performed in his name ever since the
day of Pentecost, and which, like the celebration of the Lord's
Supper, bears testimony to him every day as the sunlight does
to the sun !
(c) If the visions of the resurrection were the product of an
excited imagination, it is unaccountable that they should sud-
denly have ceased on the fortieth day (Acts 1 : 15), and not
have occurred to any of the disciples afterwards, with the single
exception of Paul, who expressly represents his vision of Christ
as " the last." Even on the day of Pentecost Christ did not
appear to them, but, according to his promise, " the other Para-
clete " descended upon them ; and Stephen saw Christ in heaven,
not on earth.1
(d) The chief objection to the vision-hypothesis is its intrinsic
impossibility. It makes the most exorbitant claim upon our
credulity. It requires us to believe that many persons, singly
and collectively, at different times, and in different places, from
Jerusalem to Damascus, had the same vision and dreamed the
same dream ; that the women at the open sepulchre early in the
morning, Peter and John soon afterwards, the two disciples
journeying to Emmaus on the afternoon of the resurrection day,
1 It is utterly baseless when Ewald and Renan extend these visions of Christ
for months and years. " Get grands reves melancoligues," says Renan (Les
Apotres, 84, 86), " ces entreUens sans ceue interrompus et recommences wee k
mart cheri remplfaaient let jours et lea mois .... Pr& (Tun an s'eooufa dam
eette vie suspendue entre le rid et la terre. Le charm*, loin fa dtcroltre, auy
mentait," etc. Even Keim, HL 598, protests against this Tiew.
§ 19. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 183
the assembled apostles on the evening in the absence of Thomas,
and again on the next Lord's Day in the presence of the skepti-
cal Thomas, seven apostles at the lake of Tiberias, on one occa-
sion five hundred brethren at once most of whom were still
alive when Paul reported the fact, then James, the brother of
the Lord, who formerly did not believe in him, again all the
apostles on Mount Olivet at the ascension, and at last the clear-
headed, strong-minded persecutor on the way to Damascus —
that all these men and women on these different occasions vainly
imagined they saw and heard the self-same Jesus in bodily shape
and form ; and that they were by this baseless vision raised all
at once from the deepest gloom in which the crucifixion of their
Lord had left them, to the boldest faith and strongest hope
which impelled them to proclaim the gospel of the resurrection
from Jerusalem to Rome to the end of their lives ! And this
illusion of the early disciples created the greatest revolution not
only in their own views and conduct, but among Jews and Gen-
tiles and in the subsequent history of mankind ! This illusion,
we are expected to believe by these unbelievers, gave birth to
the most real and most mighty of all facts, the Christian Church
which has lasted these eighteen hundred years and is now
spread all over the civilized world, embracing more members
than ever and exercising more moral power than all the king-
doms and all other religions combined !
The vision-hypothesis, instead of getting rid of the miracle,
only shifts it from fact to fiction ; it makes an empty delusion
more powerful than the truth, or turns all history itself at last
into a delusion. Before we can reason the resurrection of Christ
out of history we must reason the apostles and Christianity itself
out of existence. We must either admit the miracle, or frankly
confess that we stand here before an inexplicable mystery.
REMARKABLE CONCESSIONS.— The ablest advocates of the vision-theory
are driven against their wish and will to admit some unexplained objeo-
ive reality in the visions of the risen or ascended Christ.
Dr. BATTB, of Tubingen (d. 1860), the master-critic among sceptical
church historians, and the coryphens of the Tubingen school, came at
184 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
last to the conclusion (as stated in the revised edition of his Church His-
tory of the First Three Centuries, published shortly before his death,
1860) that " nothing but the miracle of the resurrection could disperse
the doubts which threatened to drive faith itself into the eternal night of
death (Nur das Wunder der Auferstehung konnte die fiwetfel zerstreuen,
trelche den Glauben telb&t in die ewige Nacht des Todes verstossen zu mussen
scluenen)" Geschichte der chnsthchen Kirche, I 39. It is true he adds that
the nature of the resurrection itself lies outside of historical investiga-
tion ("Was die Aufwstehung an sich ist, hegt ausserhalb des Kreises der
geschicht lichen Untersuchung"), but also, that " for the faith of the disciples
the resurrection of Jesus became the most solid and most irrefutable cer-
tainty In this faith only Christianity gained a firm ioothold of its his-
torical development (In diesem Glauben hat en>t das Christenthum den
festen Grund seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung gewonnen.) What history
requires as the necessary prerequisite of all that follows is not so much
the fact of the resurrection itself [9] as the faith in that fact. In what-
ever light we may consider the resurrection of Jesus, whether as an
actual objective miracle or as a subjective psychological one (ah em
objectir geschehenes Wunder, oder als em subjectiv psycltologisches), even
granting the possibility of such a miracle, no psychological analysis can
penetrate the inner spiritual process by which in the consciousness of the
disciples their unbelief at the death of Jesus was transformed into a be-
lief of his resurrection .... We must rest satisfied with this, that for
them the resurrection of Christ was a fact of their consciousness, and had
for them all the reality of an historical event." (Ibid , pp 39, 40 ) Baur's
remarkable conclusion concerning the conversion of St Paul (ibid , pp.
44, 45) we shall consider in its proper place
Dr. EWALD, of Gottingen (d. 1874), the great orientalist and historian
of Israel, antagonistic to Baur, his equal in profound scholarship and
bold, independent, often arbitrary criticism, but superior in religious
sympathy with the genius of the Bible, discusses the resurrection of
Christ in his History of the Apostolic Age (Gewh des Volkes Israel, vol VI.
52 sqq ), instead of his Life of Christ, and resolves it into a purely spirit-
ual, though long continued manifestation from heaven Nevertheless he
makes the strong statement (p. 69) that "nothing is historically more cer-
tain than that Christ rose from the dead and appeared to his own, and that
this their vision was the beginning of their new higher faith and of all
their Christian labors." " Nichte steht geschichthch fester" he says, "als
doss Chrtstus aus den Todten auferstanden den Seiniyen wiedcrerscJnrn nnd
dass dieses ihr tnedersehen der anfang ihres neuen hohem glauben* inid alles
thres chnsthchen wirkens selbst war. Es ist aber ebenso gewiss dass sic ihn
Mcht wie einen gewohnhchen menscJien oder wie einen aus dem grabe auf-
steigenden scJiatten oder gespenst wie die sage von solchen meldet, sondem
wie den eimigen Sohn Gottes, wie ein durchaus schon ubermacldiges und
ubermenschliches wesen wiedersahen und sich bei spateren zuruckennner-
§ 19. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 185
ungen nichts anderes denken konnten als doss jeder wekher ihn wieder*
eusehen gewardigt sei auch sogleich unmittelbar seine eimige gottltclw wurde
erkannt und seitdem felsenfest daran geglaubt Jiabe. Als den achlen Komg
und Sohn Gottes hatten ihn aber die Zwolfe und andre scJion im leben zu
erkennen gelernt : der unterschied ist nur der doss sie ihn jetzt auch nach
seiner rein gotthclien seite und damit auch als den uber den tod siegreiclien
erkannt zu haben sich erinnerten. Zwiscken jenem geineinen schauen des
irdischen Christus wie er ihnen sowohl bekannt war und diesem hohern tief-
erregten entzackten schauen des himmlischen ist also dock ein innerer zusam-
menhang, so dass sie ihn auch jezt in diesen ersten tagen und woclien nach
seinem tode me als den hnnmlischen Messias geschauet hatten wenn sie ihn
nicM schon oorher als den irdwhen so wohl gekannt hatten."
Dr. KEIM, of Zurich (d. at Giessen, 1879), an independent pupil of
Baur, and author of the most elaborate and valuable Life of Christ which
the liberal critical school has produced, after giving every possible advan-
tage to the mythical view of the resurrection, confesses that it is, after
all, a mere hypothesis and fails to explain the mam point. He say»
(Geschichte Jet>u von Nazara, III 600) : " Nach alien diesen Uebcrhyungw
unrd man zugestehen mussen, dais auch die neuerdinys behebt gewwdene
TJieorie nur eine Hypothese ist, wdcbe Einiges erklurt, die Hauptsache nicht
erklart, ja im Ganzeri und Orossen das geschichtlich Bezeugte schiefen und
hinfalhgen Gesichtspunkten nnterstcllt Misshngt aber gleichmasstq der
Versuch, dieubei*hrfei*te Auferstetnnujvjpschichtefestzuhalten, ime d(is Unter-
nehmm, mit Hilfe der panhnischen Visioncn eine naturliche Erklarung des
Qewhehenen aufzubauen, so bleibt fur die Geschichte zunachbt kein Weg
ubrig als dei* des Eingestdndmbses, dass die Sagenhaftigkeit der redseligen
GeschicJite und die dunkle Kurze der glaubwurdiqen Ueschichte c\ nicht
gestattet, uber die rathsdhaftcH A iwjange des Lebens Jesu, so inchhg sie
an und fur sich und in der Emimkung <inf die Weltgeschwhte gewesen
sind, ein sicheres unwnstowltche* Rcvdtat zu grben. Fur die GeRihichte,
sofern sie nur mit benanntcn evidenten Zahlen und mit Reihen grr if barer
anerkannter UrsacJien und Wirkungen rechnet, enstirl als das Tliatsach-
hche und Zwrifellose lediqhch derfeste Glanbr der Apostel, dais Jesu* atifer-
Standen, und die ungeheure Wirkunq diews Glaubens, die Chnstimuvning
der Menschheit" On p 601 he expresses the conviction that " it was
the crucified and living Christ who, not as the risen one, but rathei as
the divinely glorified one (als der u-enn nicht Aufer&tandene, so doch
melmehr himmhwh VerherrhcUe), gave visions to his disciples and re-
vealed himself to his society." In his last word on the great problem,
Keim, in view of the exhaustion and failure of the natural explanations,
comes to the conclusion, that we must either, with Dr. Baur, }»mi»l.»y
confess our ignorance, or return to the faith of the apostles who "ha\e
seen the Lord " (John 20 : 25), See the third and last edition of his
abridged Geschichte Jesu, Zurich, 1875, p. 362.
Dr. SCHENKBL, of Heidelberg, who in his Charakterbild Jesu (third ed.
186 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
1864, pp. 281 sqq.) had adopted the vision-theory in its higher form as
a purely spiritual, though real manifestation from heaven, confesses in
his latest work, Das Chnstusbild der Apostel (1879, p. 18), his inability
to solve the problem of the resurrection of Christ, and says : "Niemak
mrd es der Forschung gehngen, das Rathsel des Auferstehungsglaubens zu
ergrunden. Nichts fiber steht fester in der Geschichte ALS DIE THATSAOHB
DIESES GiiAUBEKS; auf ikm beruht die Stiff ung der christlichen Gemein*
schafl . . . Der Visionshypothese, welche die Christuserscheinungen der
Junger aits Smnestauschungen erklaren will, die in einer Steigerung des
'Gemuths- und Nervenlebens* ihre physische und darum auch psychische
Vrsache flatten, .... steht vor allem die Grundfarbe der Stimmung in den
Jungern, namentlich in Petrus, im Wege: die tiefe Tratter, das gesunkene
Selbstvertrauen, die nagende Gewissenspein, der verlome Lebensmuth. Wie
soil aus einer solchen Stimmung das verkldrte Bild des Auferstandenen
hervorgehen, mit dieser unverwustlichen Sicherheit und unzerstorbaren Freu*
digkeit, durch wekhe der Auferstehungsglaube die Christengemeinde in alien
Stwrmen und Verfolgungen aufrecht zu erhaUen vermochte?"
§ 20. APOSTOLIC AGE— SOURCES AND LITERATURE. 187
CHAPTEE III.
THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
§ 20. Sources and Literature of the Apostolic Age.
I. SOURCES.
1. THE CANONICAL BOOKS OP THE NEW TESTAMENT. — The twenty-seven
books of the New Testament are better supported than any ancient clas-
sic, both by a chain of external testimonies which reaches up almost to
the close 'of the apostolic age, and by the internal evidence of a spiritual
depth and unction which raises them far above the best productions of
the second century. The church has undoubtedly been guided by the
Holy Spirit in the selection and final determination of the Christian
canon. But this does, of course, not supersede the necessity of criticism,
nor is the evidence equally strong in the case of the seven Eusebian
Antilegomena. The Tubingen and Leyden schools recognized at first
only five books of the New Testament as authentic, namely, four Epistles
of Paul — Romans, First and Second Corinthians, and Galatians— and the
Revelation of John. But the progress of research leads more and more
to positive results, and nearly all the Epistles of Paul now find advocates
among liberal critics. (Hilgenfeld and Lipsius admit seven, adding First
Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon ; Benan concedes also Second
Thessalonians, and Colossians to be Pauline, thus swelling the number of
genuine Epistles to nine.) The chief facts and doctrines of apostolic
Christianity are sufficiently guaranteed even by those five documents,
which are admitted by the extreme left of modern criticism.
The ACTS OF THE APOSTLES give us the external, the EPISTLES the in-
ternal history of primitive Christianity. They are independent contem-
poraneous compositions and never refer to each other ; probably Luke
never read the Epistles of Paul, and Paul never read the Acts of Luke,
although he no doubt supplied much valuable information to Luke. But
indirectly they illustrate and confirm each other by a number of coinci-
dences which have great evidential value, all the more as these coinci-
dences are undesigned and incidental. Had they been composed by
post-apostolic writers, the agreement would have been more complete,,
188 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
minor disagreements would have been avoided, and the lacunro in the
Acts supplied, especially in regard to the closing labors and death of
Peter and Paul.
The ACTS bear on the face all the marks of an original, fresh, and
trustworthy narrative of contemporaneous events derived from the best
sources of information, and in great part from personal observation and
experience The authorship of Luke, the companion of Paul, is con-
ceded by a majority of the best modern scholars, even by Ewald. And
tins fact alone establishes the credibility. Kenan (in his St. Paul, ch.
1) admirably calls the Acts " a book of joy, of serene ardor Since the
Homeric poems no book has been seen full of such fresh sensations A
breeze of morning, an odor of the sea, if I dare express it so, inspiring
something joyful and strong, penetrates the whole book, and makes it an
excellent cvmpagnon de voyage, the exquisite bioviary for him who is
searching for ancient remains on the seas of the south This is the
second idyl of Christianity The Lake of Tiberias and its fishing barks
had furnished the first. Now, a more powerful bieeze, aspirations to-
ward more distant lands, draw us out into the open sea "
2. The POST- APOSTOLIC and PATRISTIC writings me lull of reminiscences
of, and references to, the apostolic books, and as dependent on* them as
the nver is upon its fountain
3. The APOCKYPHAJL and HEKETICAL literature The numerous Apocry-
phal Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses were prompted by the same motives
of curiosity and dogmatic interest as the Apocryphal Goyxtls, and have
a similar apologetic, though very little historical, value The heretical
character is, however, more strongly marked They have not yet been
sufficiently investigated Lipsms (m Smith and Wace's "Diet of Christ.
Biog." vol I. p 27) divides the Apocryphal Acts into four classes (1)
Ebiomtic , (2) Gnostic , (3) originally Catholic , (4) Catholic adaptations
or recensions of heretical documents. The last class is the most numer-
ous, rarely older than the fifth century, but mostly resting on documents
from the second and third centuries.
(a) Apocryphal Acts. Ada Petn et Pauli (of Ebionite origin, but le-
cast), Acta Pauh et Theclcp (mentioned by Tertullian at the end of the
second century, of Gnostic origin), Acta Th<mia> (Gnostic), Acta Matt/tan,
Acta Thaddwi, Martymim Bartholomew, Acta Barnabcp, Acta Andrew,
Acta Andrew et Matthur, Acta Phihppi, Acta Johanms, Acta Simonis et
Judcp, Acta Thadd&i, The Doctrine of Addai, tlie Apostle (ed. in Syriac and
English by Dr G. Phillips, London, 187<>).
(b) Apocryphal Epistles • the correspondence between Paul and Seneca
(six by Paul and eight by Seneca, mentioned by Jerome and Augustine),
the third Epistle of Paul to the Cwmt/uans, Epistola? Maria? , Eptstolce
Petri ad Jacobum
(c) Apocryphal Apocalypses : Apocalypsis Johanms, Apocalypsis Petri,
Apocalypsis Pauh (or dvapariKov IlavXov, based on the report of his rap-
§ 20. APOSTOLIC AGE— SOURCES AND LITERATURE. 189
ture into Paradise, 2 Cor. 12 2-4), Apocalypsis Tlvomce, Apoc. Slepham,
Apoc. Maricp, Apoc. Mono*, Apoc £Wrce.
Editions and Collections
FABRICIUS : Codex Apocryphus Norn, Testamenti. Hamburg, 1703, 2d
ed 1719, 1743, 3 parts in 2 vols. (vol. H.)
GBABE : Spicilegium Patrum et Hcpretworum. Oxford, 1698, ed. II. 1714.
BIRCH • Auctarium Cod Apoc. N. Ti Fdhncian. Copenh. 1804 (Fasc.
I.). Contains the pseudo- Apocalypse of John
THILO AUaApost.PetnetPauh Hahs, 1838. ActaThomcp. Lips. 1823.
TISCHENDOBF. Ada Apostolorum Apowypha. Lips. 1851.
TiRCHENDoiii'1 Apocalypses Apoci-yphce Mosis, Esdrw, Pauli, Joanms,
item Mar UP 7)ornntio Lips. 1866.
K A. Lirsius DIG apokryph. Apostel geschichten und Apostel legenden.
Leipz. 1883 sq. 2 vols.
4 JEWISH sources PHILO and JOSEPHUS, see J 14, p. 92. Josephus is
all-important for the history oi the Jewish war and the destruction of
Jerusalem, A D 70, winch marks the complete rupture ol the Christian
Church with the Jewish synagogue and temple The apociyphal Jewish,
and the Talmudic litemtuie supplies information and illustiations of the
ti Mining of the Apostlos and the toim of their teaching, and the discipline
and worship of the primitive chuich Lightloot, Schottgen, Castelli,
Delitzsch, Wunscho, Siegiried, Schiuvi, and ai<n\ others have made those
sources available for the exegete and histonan Comp heie also the
Jewish works of JOST, GRAKTZ, and GLIOEK, mentioned $ 9, p (51, and
HAMJIUHGEU'S Real-Encyclo^adte de^ Judenthums (fur Jiibel and Talmud),
in course of publication
0 HEATHEN writers. TACITUS, PLINY, SuEroNius, LITCIAN, CELSUS,
POKPHYKY, JULIAN They furnish only fragmentary, mostly incidental,
distorted and hostile information, but of consideiablo apologetic value
Comp NATH LAHDNEB (d 1708) Colled H»I of Anurnt Jcwuh and
Hrathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Clinstian Kehqion, Originally
published in 4 vols. Lond 1764-' (57, and then in the several editions of
his Works (vol. VI. 365-649, ed. Kippis).
II. HISTORIES OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
WILLIAM CAVE (Anglican, d 1713) • Lives of tJie Apostles, and tJie (wo
Evangelists, St. Mark and St Luke Lond. 1675, new ed. revised by
H. Gary, Oxford, 1840 (reprinted in New York, 1857). Comp. also
CAVE'S Primitive Christianity, 4th ed. Lond. 1862.
JOH FB. BUDDEUS (Luth., d. at Jena, 1729) : Ecclesia Apostohca. Jen.
1729.
GEOBOE BENSON (d. 1763) : History of the First Planting of the Christian
190 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Religion. Lond. 1756, 3 vola. 4to (in German by Bamberger, Halle,
1768).
J. J. HESS (d. at Zurich, 1828) : Geschichte der Apostel Jesu. Ziir. 1788 ;
4th ed. 1820.
GOTTL. JAO. PLANCK (d. in GSttingen, 1833) : Geschichte des Christen-
thums in der Penode seiner Einfuhrung in die WeU durch Jesum und
die Apostel. Gottingen, 1818, 2 vols.
*Auo. NEANDEB (d. in Berlin, 1850) : Geschichte der Pflanzung und Lei*
tung der christhchen Kirche durch die Apostel. Hamb. 1832. 2 vols.;
4th ed. revised 1847. The same in English (History of the Planting
and Training of the Chnst. Church), by J. E. Ryland, Edinb 1842,
and in Bonn's Standard Library, Lond. 1851 ; reprinted in Philad.
1844 ; revised by K G. Robinson, N. York, 1865. This book marks
an epoch and is still valuable.
F. C. ALBEBT SGHWEOLEB (d. at Tubingen, 1857) : Das nachapostolische
Zeitalter in den Hauptmomenten seiner Entwicklung. Tubingen, 1845,
1846, 2 vols. An ultra-critical attempt to transpose the apostolic
literature (with the exception of five books) into the post-apostolic
age.
*FEBD. CHRIST. BAUB (d. 1860) : Das Chnstenthum und die christhche
Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte. Tubingen, 1853, 2d revised ed.
1860 (536pp.). The third edition is a mere reprint or title edition
of the second and forms the first volume of his General Church His-
tory, edited by his son, in 5 vols. 1863. It is the last and ablest
exposition of the Tubingen reconstruction of the apostolic history
from the pen of the master of that school. See vol. I. pp. 1-174.
English translation by Allen Memies, in 2 vols. Lond. 1878 and
1879. Comp also Baur's Paul, second ed. by Ed. Zeller, 1866 and
1867, and translated by A. Menzies, 2 vols. 1873, 1875. Baur's critical
researches have compelled a thorough revision of the traditional
views on the apostolic age, and have so far been very useful, not-
withstanding their fundamental errors.
A. P. STANLEY (Dean of Westminster) : Sermons and Essays on the Apos-
tolic Age. Oxford, 1847. 3d ed. 1874.
*HEINBIOH W. J. THIEBSCH (Irvingite, died 1885 in Basle) : Die Kirche
im apostohschen Zeitalter. Francf. a. M. 1852; 3d ed. Augsburg,
1879, "improved," but very slightly. (The same in English from
the first ed. by Th. Carlyle. Lond. 1852.)
*J. P. LANGEfd. 1884) : Das apostolische Zeitalter. Braunschw. 1854. 2 vols.
*PHHJP SCHAFF : History of the Apostolic Church, first in German, Mer-
cersburg, Penns. 1851 ; 2d ed. enlarged, Leipzig, 1854 ; English
translation by Dr. E. D. Teomans, N. York, 1853, in 1 vol. ; Edinb.
1854, in 2 vols. ; several editions without change. (Dutch translation
from the second Germ. ed. by J. W. Th. Lubhnk Weddik, Tiel, 1857.)
*G. V. LBOHLBB (Prof, in Leipzig) : Das apostolische und das nacha*
§ 20. APOSTOLIC AGE — SOURCES AND LITERATURE. 191
postolische Zeitalter. 2d ed. 1857 ; 3d ed. thoroughly revised, Leip-
zig, 1885. Engl. trsl. by Miss Davidson, Edinb. 1887. Conservative.
*ALBBBCHT Rrrscm (d. in Gottingen, 1889) : Die Entsiehung der aUkaiho-
lischen Kirche. 2d ed. Bonn, 1857. The first edition was in har-
mony with the Tftbingen School ; but the second is materially im-
proved, and laid the foundation for the Bitschl School.
*HEINBICH EWALD (d.*at Gottingen, 1874) : Geschichle des Voflces Israel,
vols. VI. and VII. 2d ed. Gottingen, 1858 and 1859. Vol. VI. of
this great work contains the History of the Apostolic Age to the
destruction of Jerusalem ; vol. VLL the History of the post-Apos-
tolic Age to the reign of Hadrian. English translation of the History
of Israel by R. Martineau and J. E. Carpenter. Lond. 1869 sqq.
A trans, of vols. VI. and VII. is not intended. Ewald (the " Z7n?o-
gel von Gottingen ") pursued an independent path in opposition both
to the traditional orthodoxy and to the Tubingen school, which he
denounced as worse than heathenish. See Preface to vol. Vll.
*E. DB PBESSENB£ : Histoire des trois premiers siecles de Mglise chretienne.
Par. 1858 sqq. 4 vols. German translation by E. Fabarius (Leipz.
1862-'65) ; English translation by Annie Harwood-Holmden (Lond.
and N. York, 1870, new ed. Lond 1879). The first volume contains
the first century under the title Le siecle apostohque ; rev. ed. 1887.
*JoH. Jos ION. VON DOHLINGEB (Bom. Cath , since 1870 Old Oath.) : Chris-
tenthum und Kirche in der Zeit der Grundung. Regensburg, 1860.
2d ed 1868. The same translated into English by H. N. Oxenham.
London, 1867.
C. S. VAUGHAN : The Church of the First Days. Lond. 1864-'65. 3 vols.
Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles.
J. N. SEPP (Bom. Cath.) : Geschichte der Apostel Jesu bis zur Zerstorung
Jerusalems. Schaffhausen, 1866.
C. HOIJSTEN : Zum Evangehum des Paulus und des Petrus. Rostock,
1868 (447 pp.).
PAUIJ WILH. SCHMIDT und FRANZ v. HOLTZENDOBF : Protestanten-Bibel
Neuen Testaments. Zweite, revid. Auflage. Leipzig, 1874. A popu-
lar exegetical summary of the Tubingen views with contributions
from BRUCH, HILOENFELD, HOLSTEN, Lrpsius, PFLETDEBEB and others.
A. B. BBUCE (Professor in Glasgow) : The Training of the Twelve. Edin-
burgh, 1871, second ed. 1877.
*EBNEST RENAN (de rAcade"mie Francaise) • Histoire des origines du Chris-
tianisme. Pans, 1863 sqq. The first volume is Vie de Jesus, 1863,
noticed in J 14 (pp. 97 and 98) ; then followed II. Les Apdtres, 1866 ;
HL St. Paul, 1869; IV. L'Antechrist, 1873 ; V. Les tivangiles, 1877 ;
VL L'tiglise Chretienne, 1879 ; VH. and last volume, Marc-AurXe,
1882. The II., HX, IV., and V. volumes belong to the Apostolic
age ; the last two to the next. The work of a sceptical outsider,
of brilliant genius, eloquence, and secular learning. It increases
192 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
in value as it advances. The Life of Jesus is the most interesting
and popular, but also by far the most objectionable volume, because
it deals almost proianely with the most sacred theme.
EMELE FEBRILUE Les Ajwtret* Pans, 1875.
SoFEKNATUUAij RELIGION An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revela-
tttm Lond 1873, (seventh) " complete ed., carefully revised," 1879,
3 vols. This anonymous work is an English reproduction and reposi-
tory of the critical speculations of the Tubingen School of Banr,
{Strauss, Zeller, Schwegler, Hilgenield, Volkmai, etc It may be
called an enlargement of Schwegler's Natltnpostoltsches Zettdltei- The
first volume is mostly taken up with a philosophical discussion of
the question of miracles ; the remainder of vol I (pp 212-485)
aud vol. II contain an historical inquiry into the apostolic origin of
the canonical Gospels, with a negative result The third volume
discubses the Acts, the Epistles and the Apocalypse, and the evidence
for the Resurrection and Ascension, which are resolved into hallu-
cinations or myths Starting with the affirmation of the antecedent
incredibility of miracles, the author arrives at the conchibion of their
impossibility , and this philosophical conclusion determines the his-
torical investigation throughout Dr Schurer, in the " Theol Litera-
turzeitung" foi 1879, No 26 (p 622), denies to this work scientific
value for Germany, but gives it credit for extraordinary familiarity
with recent German literature and great industry in collecting his-
torical details Drs Lightfoot, Sanday, Ezra Abbot, and others have
exposed the defects of its scholarship, and the false premises from
winch the writer reasons The rapid sale of the work indicates the
extensive spread of skepticism and the necessity of fighting over
again, on Anglo-American ground, the theological battles of Ger-
many and Holland , it is to be hoped with more triumphant success.
*J. B LIGHTFOOT (Bishop of Durham since 1879) : A series of elaborate
articles against " Supernatural Helicncm" in the "Contemporary Re-
view " for 1875 to 1877 They should be republished in book form.
Comp. also the reply of the anonymous author in the lengthy pre-
face to the sixth edition Lightfoot's Commentaries on Pauline
Epistles contain valuable Excursuses on several historical questions
of the apostolic age, especially St. Paul and the Three, in the Com.
on the Gatotians, pp 283-355.
W. SANDAY : The Gospels in the Second Centunj. London, 1876. This is
directed against the critical part of " Supernatural Religion." The
eighth chapter on Marcion's Gnostic mutilation and reconstruc-
tion of St Luke's Gospel (pp. 204 sqq.) had previously appeared in
the " Fortnightly Review " for June, 1875, and finishes on English
soil, a controversy which had previously been fought out on German
soil, in the circle of the Tubingen School. The preposterous hypo-
thesis of the priority of Marcion's Gospel was advocated by Ritschl,
§ 20. APOSTOLIC AGE — SOURCES AND LITERATURE. 193
Baur and Schwegler, but refuted by Volkmar and Hilgenfeld, of the
same school; whereupon Baur and Eitschl honorably abandoned
their error. The anonymous author of " Supernatural Religion," in
his seventh edition, has followed their example. The Germans con-
ducted the controversy chiefly under its historic and dogmatic as-
pects ; Sanday has added the philological and textual argument with
the aid of Holtzmann's analysis of the style and vocabulary of Luke.
A. HAUSKATH (Prof, in Heidelberg) : Neutestamenthche Zeitgeschicltie.
Heidelberg, 1873 sqq. Parts II and III. (second ed. 1875) embrace
the apostolic times, Part IV. (1877) the post-apostolic times Eng-
lish translation by Poyntmq and Quenzer. Lond. 1878 sqq H.
belongs to the School 01 Tubingen
DAN. SCHENKEL (Prof, in Heidelberg) : Das Christusbild der Apostel und
der nachapostolischen Zeit Leipz. 1879. Comp. the review by H.
Holtzmarm in Hilgenfeld's "Zeitschrift fur wissensch. Theol." 1879,
p. 392.
H. OOBT and I HOOYKAAS : The Bible for Learners, translated from the
Dutch by Philip H. Wicksteed, vol. in (the New Test., by Hooy-
kaas), Book IE. pp. 463-693 of the Boston ed 1879. (In the Engl.
ed it is vol. VI.) This is a popular digest of the rationalistic Tubin-
gen and Ley den criticism under the inspiration of Dr. A. Kuenen,
Professor of Theology at Leyden It agrees substantially with the
Protestanten-Bibel noticed above.
*GBOBGE P. FISHER (Prof, in Yale College, New Haven) : The Beginnings
of Christianity. N. York, 1877 Comp also the author's former
work : Essays on the Supernatural Or tain of Christianity, with special
reference to the Theories of Renan, Strauss, and ilie Tubingen School.
New York, 1865. New ed. enlarged, 1877.
*C. WEIZSACKEB (successor of Baur m Tubingen) . Das Apostolische Zeit-
alter Freiburg, 1886 Critical and very able.
*O. PFiiETDERER (Prof, in Berlin) : Das Urchnstenthum, seine Schnften
und Lehren. Berlin, 1887. (Tubingen School.)
III. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
RUDOLPH ANGER : De temporum in Actis Apostolorum ratione. Lips. 1833
(208 pp).
HENRY BROWNE : Ordo Scpclorum. A Realise on the Chronology of the
Holy Scnptures. Lond. 1844. Pp. 95-163.
*KABL WEBSELBR : Chronologie des apostohschen Zeitalters. Gottingen,
1848 (606 pp.).
The older and special works are noticed in Wieseler, pp. 6-9.
See also the elaborate Synopsis of the dates of the Apostolic Age in
194 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Schaffer's translation of Lechler on Acts (in the Am. ed. of Lange's
Commentary) ; Henry B. Smith's Chronological Tables of Church His-
tory (1860) ; and WEINOABTBN : Zetttafeln zur K-Gesch. 3d ed. 1888.
§ 21. General Character of the ApostoUc Age.
" Der Schlaohtrnf, der St PAULI Brnst entspnragen,
Rief mcht Bern Echo auf zu tausend Straiten ?
Und welch' ein Fnedeneecho hat geklungen
Durch tausend Herzen von. JOHANNIS Saiten !
Wie viele rasche Feuer sind encglommen
Als Wiederschem von PETRI Fonkenspriihen t
Und sieht man Andre still mit Opfern kommen,
let's, weil Bie in JAKOBI Sonnl' gediehen : —
Ein Satz ist's, der in Vanationen
Vom ersten Anf ang f orttont durch JEonen."
(THOLUCK.)
EXTENT AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
The apostolic period extends from the Day of Pentecost to the
death of St. John, and covers about seventy years, from AJX 30
to 100. The field of action is Palestine, and gradually extends
over Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. The most promi-
nent centres are Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome, which repre-
sent respectively the mother churches of Jewish, Gentile, and
United Catholic Christianity. Next to them are Ephesus and
Corinth. Ephesus acquired a special importance by the resi-
dence and labors of John, which made themselves felt during
the second century through Polycarp and Irenseus. Samaria,
Damascus, Joppa, Csesarea, Tyre, Cyprus, the provinces of Asia
Minor, Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, Crete,
Patmos, Malta, Puteoli, come also into view as points where
the Christian faith was planted. Through the eunuch converted
by Philip, it reached Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians.1
As early as A.D. 58 Paul could say : " From Jerusalem and round
about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of
Christ.75 * He afterwards carried it to Home, where it had already
'Act* 8: 27. « Bom. 15 : 19.
§ 21. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 195
been known before, and possibly as far as Spain, the western
boundary of the empire.1
The nationalities reached by the gospel in the first century
were the Jews, the Greeks, and the Konians, and the languages
used were the Hebrew or Aramaic, and especially the Greek,
which was at that time the organ of civilization and of interna-
tional intercourse within the Roman empire.
The contemporary secular history includes the reigns of the
Roman Emperors from Tiberius to Nero and Domitian, who
either ignored or persecuted Christianity. We are brought
directly into contact with King Herod Agrippa I. (grandson of
Herod the Great), the murderer of the apostle, James the Elder ;
with his son King Agrippa II. (the last of the Herodian house),
who with his sister Bernice (a most corrupt woman) listened
to Paul's defense ; with two Roman governors, Felix and Fes-
tus ; with Pharisees and Sadducees ; with Stoics and Epicureans ;
with the temple and theatre at Ephesus, with the court of the
Areopagus at Athens, and with Caesar's palace in Rome.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
The author of Acts records the heroic march of Christianity
from the capital of Judaism to the capital of heathenism with
the same artless simplicity and serene faith as the Evangelists
tell the story of Jesus ; well knowing that it needs no embel-
lishment, no apology, no subjective reflections, and that it will
surely triumph by its inherent spiritual power.
The Acts and the Pauline Epistles accompany us with relia-
ble information down to the year 63. Peter and Paul are lost
out of sight in the lurid fires of the Neronian persecution which
Beemed to consume Christianity itself. We know nothing cer-
tain of that satanic spectacle from authentic sources beyond the
1 Bom. 15 : 24. Gomp. Clement of Rome, Ad Cor. o. 5, M T& rfypa, TJJ»
ft&TffMv &&cSy. This passage, however, does not necessarily mean Spain, and
Paul1 a journey to Spain stands or falls with the hypothesis of hip second
Roman captivity.
196 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
information of heathen historians.1 A few years afterwards
followed the destruction of Jerusalem, which must have made an
oveipowering impression and broken the last ties which bound
Jewish Christianity to the old theocracy. The event is indeed
brought before us in the prophecy of Christ as recorded in the
Gospels, but for the terrible fulfilment we are dependent on the
account of an unbelieving Jew, which, as the testimony of an
enemy, is all the more impressive.
The remaining thirty years of the first century are involved
in mysterious darkness, illuminated only by the writings of
John. This is a period of church history about which we know
least and would like to know most. This period is the favorite
field for ecclesiastical fables and critical conjectures. How
thankfully would the historian hail the discovery of any new
authentic documents between the martyrdom of Peter and Paul
and the death of John, and again between the death of John
and the age of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.
CAUSES OF SUCCESS.
As to the numerical strength of Christianity at the close of
the first century, we have no information whatever. Statistical
reports were unknown in those days. The estimate of half a
million among the one hundred millions or more inhabitants of
the Roman empire is probably exaggerated. The pentecostal
conversion of three thousand in one day at Jerusalem,2 and the
" immense multitude " of martyrs under Nero,8 favor a high esti-
mate. The churches in Antioch also, Ephesus, and Corinth were
strong enough to bear the strain of controversy and division into
parties.4 But the majority of congregations were no doubt small,
1 Unless we find allusions to it in the Revelation of John, 6 : 9-11 ; 17 : 6 ;
18 : 24, comp ver 20 (" ye holy apostles and prophets"). See Bleek, Vorle-
rnngen uher die Apokalypse, Berlin, 1862, p. 120.
»Acts2:41.
8 Tacitus, Anal XV. 44, speaks of a "mvlUtudo ingens" who were con-
yicted of the "odium generis humani," i. e. of Christianity (regarded as a
Jewish sect), and cruelly executed under Nero in 64.
4 Gal. 2: 1 sqq ; 1 Cor. 3 : 3 sqq.
§ 21. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 197
often a mere handful of poor people. In the country districts
paganism (as the name indicates) lingered longest, even beyond
the age of Constantine. The Christian converts belonged mostly
to the middle and lower classes of society, such as fishermen,
peasants, mechanics, traders, f reedmen, slaves. St. Paul says :
" Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble were called, but God chose the foolish things of the world,
that he might put to shame them that are wise ; and God chose
the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the
things that are strong ; and the base things of the world, and
the things that are despised, did God choose, yea, and the things
that are not, that he might bring to naught the things that are :
that no flesh should glory before God." ' And yet these poor,
illiterate churches were the recipients of the noblest gifts, and
alive to the deepest problems and highest thoughts which can
challenge the attention of an immortal mind. Christianity
built from the foundation upward. From the lower ranks come
the rising men of the future, who constantly reinforce the higher
ranks and prevent their decay.
At the time of the conversion of Constantine, in the begin-
ning of the fourth century, the number of Christians may have
reached ten or twelve millions, that is about one-tenth of the
total population of the Roman empire. Some estimate it higher.
The rapid success of Christianity under the most unfavorable
circumstances is surprising and its own best vindication. It was
achieved in the face of an indifferent or hostile world, and by
purely spiritual and moral means, without shedding a drop of
blood except that of its own innocent martyrs. Gibbon, in the
famous fifteenth chapter of his "History," attributes the rapid
spread to five causes, namely : (1) the intolerant but enlarged reli-
gious zeal of the Christians inherited from the Jews ; (2) the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul, concerning which the
ancient philosophers had but vague and dreamy ideas ; (3) the
miraculous powers attributed to the primitive church ; (4) the
1 1 Cor. 1 : 26-29.
198 FIRST PERIOD. * A.D. 1-100.
purer but austere morality of the first Christians ; (5) the unity
and discipline of the church, which gradually formed a growing
commonwealth in the heart of the empire. But every one of
these causes, properly understood, points to the superior excel-
lency and to the divine origin of the Christian religion, and this
is the chief cause, which the Deistic historian omits.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
The life of Christ is the divine-human fountain-head of the
Christian religion ; the apostolic age is the fountain-head of the
Christian church, as an organized society separate and distinct
from the Jewish synagogue. It is the age of the Holy Spirit,
the age of inspiration and legislation for all subsequent ages.
Here springs, in its original freshness and purity, the living
water of the new creation. Christianity comes down from
heaven as a supernatural fact, yet long predicted and prepared
for, and adapted to the deepest wants of human nature. Signs
and wonders and extraordinary demonstrations of the Spirit, for
the conversion of unbelieving Jews and heathens, attend its en-
trance into the world of sin. It takes up its permanent abode
with our fallen race, to transfonn it gradually, without war or
bloodshed, by a quiet, leaven-like process, into a kingdom of
truth and righteousness. Modest and humble, lowly and un-
seemly in outward appearance, but steadily conscious of its
divine origin and its eternal destiny ; without silver or gold, but
rich in supernatural gifts and powers, strong in faith, fervent
in love, and joyful in hope ; bearing in earthen vessels the im-
perifihable treasures of heaven, it presents itself upon the stage
of history as the only true, the perfect religion, for all the na-
tions of the earth. At first an insignificant and even contempti-
ble sect in the eyes of the carnal mind, hated and persecuted by
Jews and heathens, it confounds the wisdom of Greece and the
power of Rome, soon plants the standard of the cross in the
great cities of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and proves itself the
hope of the world.
In virtue of this original purity, vigor, and beauty, and the per
- § 21. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 199
manent success of primitive Christianity, the canonical authority
of the single but inexhaustible volume of its literature, and the
character of the apostles, those inspired organs of the Holy
Spirit, those untaught teachers of mankind, the apostolic age
has an incomparable interest and importance in the history of
the church. It is the immovable groundwork of the whole. It
has the same regulative force for all the subsequent develop-
ments of the church as the inspired writings of the apostles have
for the works of all later Christian authors.
Furthermore, the apostolic Christianity is preformative, and
contains the living germs of all the following periods, person-
ages, and tendencies. It holds up the highest standard of doo-
trine and discipline ; it is the inspiring genius of all true prog-
ress; it suggests to every age its peculiar problem with the
power to solve it. Christianity can never outgrow Christ, but it
grows in Christ ; theology cannot go beyond the word of God,
but it must ever progress in the understanding and application
of the word of God. The three leading apostles represent not
only the three stages of the apostolic church, but also as many
ages and types of Christianity, and yet they are all present in
every age and every type.1
THE REPRESENTATIVE APOSTLES.
PETER, PAUL, and JOHN stand out most prominently as the
chosen Three who accomplished the great work of the apostolic
age, and exerted, by their writings and example, a controlling
influence on all subsequent ages. To them correspond three
centres of influence, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Eome.
Our Lord himself had chosen Three out of the Twelve for his
most intimate companions, who alone witnessed the Transfigura-
tion and the agony in Gethsemane. They fulfilled all the expec-
tations, Peter and John by their long and successful labors,
James the Elder by drinking early the bitter cup of his Master,
1 On the typical import of apostolic Christianity compare the concluding
section of my History of the ApottoUo Church^ pp. 674 sqq.
200 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
as the proto-martyr of the Twelve.1 Since his death, A.D. 44,
James, " the brother of the Lord," seems to have succeeded him,
as one of the three " pillars " of the church of the circumcision,
although he did not belong to the apostles in the strict sense of
the term, and his influence, as the head of the church at Jeru-
salem, was more local than oecumenical.8
Paul was called last and out of the regular order, by the per-
sonal appearance of the exalted Lord from heaven, and in author-
ity and importance he was equal to any of the three pillars, but
filled a place of his own, as the independent apostle of the Gen-
tiles. He had around him a small band of co-laborers and pupils,
such as Barnabas, Silas, Titus, Timothy, Luke.
Nine of the original Twelve, including Matthias, who was
chosen in the place of Judas, labored no doubt faithfully and
effectively, in preaching the gospel throughout the Roman em-
pire and to the borders of the barbarians, but in subordinate
positions, and their labors are known to us only from vague and
uncertain traditions.8
The labors of James and Peter M-e can follow in the Acts to
the Council of Jerusalem, A.D. 50, and a little beyond ; those of
Paul to his first imprisonment in Rome, A.D. 61-63 ; John lived
to the close of the first century. As to their last labors we have
no authentic information in the New Testament, but the unani-
mous testimony of antiquity that Peter and Paul suffered mar-
tyrdom in Rome during or after the Neroiiian persecution, and
'Matt 22-23; Acts 12: 2.
9 Gal 2 : 9 James is even named before Cephas and John, and throughout
the Acts from the Council of Jerusalem, at which he presided, he appears as
the most prominent man m the churches of Palestine In the Ebionite tradi-
tion he figures as the first universal bishop or pope
3 The apocryphal tradition of the second and later centuries assigns to
Peter, Andrew, Matthew, and Bartholomew, as their field of missionary
labor, the regions north and northwest of Palestine (Syria, Galatia, Pontus,
Scythia, and the coasts of the Black Sea) ; to Thaddaeus, Thomas, and Simon
Canamtes the eastern countries (Mesopotamia, Parthia, especially Edessa and
Babylon, and even as far as India) ; to John and Philip Asia Minor (Ephesus
and Hierapohs). Comp the Acta Sanctorum; Tischendorf s Acta Apostob-
rum ApocrypJia (1851) ; and for a brief summary my History of the Apost
Church, % 97, pp. 385 aqq.
§ 21. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 201
that John died a natural death at Ephesus. The Acts breaks
off abruptly with Paul still living and working, a prisoner in
Home, "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, none for-
bidding him." A significant conclusion.
It would be difficult to find three men equally great and good,
equally endowed with genius sanctified by grace, bound together
by deep and strong love to the common Master, and laboring
for the same cause, yet so different in temper and constitution,
as Peter, Paul, and John. Peter stands out in history as the
main pillar of the primitive church, as the Hock-apostle, as the
chief of the twelve foundation-stones of the new Jerusalem;
John as the bosom-friend of the Saviour, as the son of thunder,
as the soaring eagle, as the apostle of love ; Paul as the cham-
pion of Christian freedom and progress, as the greatest mission-
ary, with " the care of all the churches " upon his heart, as the
expounder of the Christian system of doctrine, as the father of
Christian theology. Peter was a man of action, always in
haste and ready to take the lead, the first to confess Christ, and
the first to preach Christ on the day of Pentecost ; Paul a man
equally potent in word and deed ; John a man of mystic con-
templation. Peter was unlearned and altogether practical ;
Paul a scholar and thinker as well as a worker ; John a theoso-
phist and seer. Peter was sanguine, ardent, impulsive, hopeful,
kind-hearted, given to sudden changes, " consistently inconsis-
tent " (to use an Aristotelian phrase) ; Paul was choleric, ener-
getic, bold, noble, independent, uncompromising ; John some
what melancholic, introverted, reserved, burning within of love
to Christ and hatred of Antichrist. Peter's Epistles are full of
sweet grace and comfort, the result of deep humiliation and rich
experience ; those of Paul abound in severe thought and logical
argument, but rising at times to the heights of celestial eloquence,
as in the seraphic description of love and the triumphant paean
of the eighth chapter of the Eomans ; John's writings are sim-
ple, serene, profound, intuitive, sublime, inexhaustible.
We would like to know more about the personal relations of
202 FIRST PERIOD. A. IX 1-100.
these pillar-apostles, but must be satisfied with a few hints.
They labored in different fields and seldom met face to face in
their busy life. Time was too precious, their work too serious,
for sentimental enjoyments of friendship. Paul went to Jeru-
salem A.D. 40, three years after his conversion, for the express
purpose of making the personal acquaintance of Peter, and spent
two weeks with him ; he saw none of the other apostles, but only
James, the Lord's brother.1 He met the pillar-apostles at the
Conference in Jerusalem, A.D. 50, and concluded with them the
peaceful concordat concerning the division of labor, and the
question of circumcision ; the older apostles gave him and Bar-
nabas " the right hands of fellowship " in token of brotherhood
and fidelity.* Not long afterwards Paul met Peter a third
time, at Antioch, but came into open collision with him on the
great question of Christian freedom and the union of Jewish
and Gentile converts.1 The collision was merely temporary, but
significantly reveals the profound commotion and fermentation
of the apostolic age, and foreshadowed future antagonisms and
reconciliations in the church. Several years later (A.D. 57) Paul
refers the last time to Cephas, and the brethren of the Lord, for
the right to marry and to take a wife with him on his mission-
ary journeys.4 Peter, in his first Epistle to Pauline churches,
confirms them in their Pauline faith, and in his second Epistle,
his last will and testament, he affectionately commends the let-
ters of his " beloved brother Paul," adding, however, the char-
acteristic remark, which all commentators must admit to be true,
that (even beside the account of the scene in Antioch) there are in
them "some things hard to be understood." * According to tra-
1 Gal. 1 : 18, 19. The tl rf in this connection rather excludes James from
the number of the Twelve, but implies that he was an apostle in a wider
sense, and a leader of apostolic dignity and authority. Comp. the e/ pt (sed
tantum) Luke 4 : 26, 27 ; Bom. 14 : 14 ; GaL 2 : 16.
1 Acts 15 ; Gal 2 : 1-10.
•GaL 2: 11-21.
4 1 Cor. 0:5 ; comp. Matt 8: 14
' 2 Pet 8 : 15, 16, twndnrd rum. This passage, and the equally significant
remark of Peter (1 : 20) that " no prophecy of Scripture is of private inter-
pretation," or solution, have often been abused by the popes as a pretext fox
§ 21. GENERAL CHARACTER OP THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 203
dition (which varies considerably as to details), the great lead-
ers of Jewish and Gentile Christianity met at Rome, were tried
and condemned together, Paul, the Koman citizen, to the death
by the sword on the Ostian road at Tre Fontane ; Peter, the
Galilean apostle, to the more degrading death of the cross on
the hill of Janiculum. John mentions Peter frequently in his
Gospel, especially in the appendix,1 but never names Paul ; he
met him, as it seems, only once, at Jerusalem, gave him the right
hand of fellowship, became his successor in the fruitful field of
Asia Minor, and built on his foundation.
Peter was the chief actor in the first stage of apostolic Chris-
tianity and fulfilled the prophecy of his name in laying the foun-
dation of the church among the Jews and the Gentiles. In the
second stage he is overshadowed by the mighty labors of Paul ;
but after the apostolic age he stands out again most prominent
in the memory of the church. lie is chosen by the Roman
communion as its special patron saint and as the first pope. He
is always named before Paul. To him most of the churches are
dedicated. In the name of this poor fisherman of Galilee, who
had neither gold nor silver, and was crucified like a malefactor
and a slave, the triple-crowned popes deposed kings, shook em-
pires, dispensed blessings and curses on earth and in purgatory,
and even now claim the power to settle infallibly all questions
of Christian doctrine and discipline for the Catholic world.
Paul was the chief actor in the second stage of the apostolic
church, the apostle of the Gentiles, the founder of Christianity
in Asia Minor and Greece, the emancipator of the new religion
from the yoke of Judaism, the herald of evangelical freedom,
the standard-bearer of reform and progress. His controlling
influence was felt also in Rome, and is clearly seen in the genu-
withholding the Scriptures from the people and insisting on the necessity of an
authoritative interpretation. The passage refers to the prophecies of the
Old Testament, which are not the productions of the human mind, but in-
spired by the Holy Ghost (ver. 21), and cannot be properly understood except
as divinely inspired.
1 John 21 : 15-23. The last word of the Lord about Peter and John is very
mysterious.
204 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ine Epistle of Clement, who makes more account of him than
of Peter. But soon afterwards he is almost forgotten, except
by name. He is indeed associated with Peter as the founder of
the church of Rome, but in a secondary line ; his Epistle to the
Romans is little read and understood by the Romans even to
this day ; his church lies outside of the walls of the eternal city,
while St. Peter's is its chief ornament and glory. In Africa
alone he was appreciated, first by the rugged and racy Tertullian,
more fully by the profound Augustine, who passed through simi-
lar contrasts in his religious experience ; but Augustine's Pauline
doctrines of sin and grace had no effect whatever on the Eastern
church, and were practically overpowered in the Western church
by Pelagian tendencies. For a long time Paul's name was used
and abused outside of the ruling orthodoxy and hierarchy by anti-
catholic heretics and sectaries in their protest against the new
yoke of traditionalism and ceremonialism. But in the sixteenth
century he celebrated a real resurrection and inspired the evan-
gelical reformation. Then his Epistles to the Galatians and
Romans were republished, explained, and applied with trumpet
tongues by Luther and Calvin. Then his protest against Juda-
izing bigotry and legal bondage was renewed, and the rights of
Christian liberty asserted on the largest scale. Of all men in
church history, St. Augustine not excepted, Martin Luther, once
a contracted monk, then a prophet of freedom, has most affinity
in word and work with the apostle of the Gentiles, and ever since
Paul's genius has ruled the theology and religion of Protes-
tantism. As the gospel of Christ was cast out from Jerusalem
to bless the Gentiles, so Paul's Epistle to the Romans was ex-
pelled from Rome to enlighten and to emancipate Protestant
nations in the distant North and far West.
St. John, the most intimate companion of Jesus, the apostle
of love, the seer who looked back to the ante-mundane begin-
ning and forward to the post-mundane end of all things, and
who is to tarry till the coming of the Lord, kept aloof from
active part in the controversies between Jewish and Gentile
Christianity. He appears prominent in the Acts and the Epis-
§ 22. APOSTOLIC AGE— CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. 205
tie to the Galatians, as one of the pillar-apostles, but not a
word of his is reported. He was waiting in mysterious silence,
with a reserved force, for his proper time, which did not come
till Peter and Paul had finished their mission. Then, after
their departure, he revealed the hidden depths of his genius in
his marvellous writings, which represent the last and crowning
work of the apostolic church. John has never been fully fath-
omed, but it has been felt throughout all the periods of church
history that he has best understood and portrayed the Master,
and may yet speak the last word in the conflict of ages and
usher in an era of harmony and peace. Paul is the heroic cap-
tain of the church militant, John the mystic prophet of the
church triumphant.
Far above them all, throughout the apostolic age and all sub-
sequent ages, stands the one great Master from whom Peter,
Paul, and John drew their inspiration, to whom they bowed in
holy adoration, whom alone they served and glorified in life and
in death, and to whom they still point in their writings as the
perfect image of God, as the Saviour from sin and death, as the
Giver of eternal life, as the divine harmony of conflicting creeds
and schools, as the Alpha and Omega of the Christian faith.
§ 22. The Critical Reconstruction of the History of the
Apostolic Age.
"Die BoUchaft Aor' ich wohl, allein mirfehlt tier Glaube."
(Goethe )
Never before in the history of the church has the origin of Christianity,
with its original documents, been so thoroughly examined from stand-
points entirely opposite as in the present generation. It has engaged
the time and energy of many of the ablest scholars and critics. Such is
the importance and the power of that little book which " contains the
wisdom of the whole world," that it demands ever new investigation and
sets serious minds of all shades of belief and unbelief in motion, as if
their very life depended upon its acceptance or rejection. There is not
a fact or doctrine which has not been thoroughly searched. The whole
life of Christ, and the labors and writings of the apostles with their ten-
dencies, antagonisms, and reconciliations are theoretically reproduced
206 FIRST PERIOD. A. P. 1-100.
among scholars and reviewed under all possible aspects. The post*
apostolic age has by necessary connection been drawn into the process
of investigation and placed in a new light.
The great biblical scholars among \e Fathers were chiefly concerned
in drawing from the sacred records the catholic doctrines of salvation,
and the precepts for a holy life ; the Reformers and older Protestant
divines studied them afresh with special zeal for the evangelical tenets
which separated them from the Eoman church ; but all stood on the
common ground of a reverential belief in the divine inspiration and
authority of the Scriptures. The present age is preeminently historical
and critical. The Scriptures are subjected to the same process of inves-
tigation and analysis as any other literary production of antiquity, with
no other purpose than to ascertain the real facts in the case. We want
to know the precise origin, gradual growth, and final completion of
Christianity as an historical phenomenon in organic connection with con-
temporary events and currents of thought. The whole process through
which it passed from the manger in Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary,
and from the upper room in Jerusalem to the throne of the Caesars is to
be reproduced, explained and understood according to the laws of regu-
lar historical development. And in this critical process the very founda-
tions of the Christian faith have been assailed and undermined, so that
the question now is, "to be or not to be." The remark of Goethe is as
profound as it is true : " The conflict of faith and unbelief remains the
proper, the only, the deepest theme of the history of the world and man-
kind, to which all others are subordinated."
The modern critical movement began, we may say, about 1830, is still in
full progress, and is likely to continue to the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury, as the apostolic church itself extended over a period of seventy
years before it had developed its resources. It was at first confined to
Germany (Strauss, Baur, and the Tubingen School), then spread to
France (Kenan) and Holland (Scholten, Kuenen), and last to England
("Supernatural Eeligion") and America, so that the battle now ex-
tends along the whole line of Protestantism.
There are two kinds of biblical criticism, verbal and historical
TEXTUAL CBHTCISM.
The verbal or textual criticism harf for its object to restore as far as
possible the original text of the Greek Testament from the oldest and
most trustworthy sources, namely, the uncial manuscripts (especially
the Vatican and Sinaitic), the ante-Nicene versions, and the patris-
tic quotations. In this respect our age has been very successful, with
the aid of most important discoveries of ancient manuscripts. By the
invaluable labors of Lachmann, who broke the path for the correct theory
(Novum Testament. Or., 1831, large Greco-Latin edition, 1842-50, 2 vole.),
Tischendorf (8th critical ed., 1869-72, 2 vols.), Tregelles (1857, completed
§ 22. APOSTOLIC AGE— CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. 207
1879), Westcott and Hort (1881, 2 vols.), we have now in the place of
the comparatively late and corrupt textus receptus of Erasmns and his
followers (Stephens, Beza, and the Elzevirs), which is the basis of all
Protestant versions in common use, a much older and purer text, which
must henceforth be made the basis of all revised translations. After a
severe struggle between the traditional and the progressive schools there
is now in this basal department of biblical learning a remarkable degree
of harmony among critics. The new text is in fact the older text, and
the reformers are in this case the restorers. Far from unsettling the
faith in the New Testament, the results have established the substantial
integrity of the text, notwithstanding the one hundred and fifty thousand
readings which have been gradually gathered from all sources. It is a
noteworthy fact that the greatest textual critics of the nineteenth century
are believers, not indeed in a mechanical or magical inspiration, which
is untenable and not worth defending, but in the divine origin and
authority of the canonical writings, which rest on far stronger grounds
than any particular human theory of inspiration.
HISTORICAL CRITICISM:.
The historical or inner criticism (which the Germans call the " higher
criticism," hohere Kntik) deals with the origin, spirit, and aim of the New
Testament writings, their historical environments, and organic place in
the great intellectual and religious process which resulted in the triumph-
ant establishment of the catholic churoh of the second century. It
assumed two very distinct shapes under the lead of Dr. NEANDER in Ber-
lin (d. 1850), and Dr. BAUB in Tubingen (d 1860), who labored in the
mines of church history at a respectful distance from each other and
never came into personal contact. Neander and Baur were giants, equal
in genius and learning, honesty and earnestness, but widely different in
spirit. They gave a mighty impulse to historical study and left a long
line of pupils and independent followers who carry on the historico-
critical reconstruction of primitive Christianity. Their influence is felt
in France, Holland and England. Neander published the first edition
of his Apostolic Age in 1832, his Life of Jesus (against Strauss) in 1837
(the first volume of his General Church History had appeared already in
1825, revised ed. 1842) ; Baur wrote his essay on the Corinthian Parties
in 1831, his critical investigations on the canonical Gospels in 1844 and
1847, his "Paul" in 1845 (second ed. by Zeller, 1867), and his " Church
History of the First Three Centuries" in 1853 (revised 1860). His pupil
Strauss had preceded him with his first T^eben Jesu (1835), which created
a greater sensation than any of the works mentioned, surpassed only
by that of Kenan's Vie de Jesus, nearly thirty years later (1863). Benan
reproduces and popularizes Strauss and Baur for the French pub-
lic with independent learning and brilliant genius, and the author of
" Supernatural Religion " reechoes the Tubingen and Leyden speculations
208 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
fn England. On the other hand Bishop Lightfoot, the leader of conser-
vative criticism, declares that he has learnt more from the German Nean-
der than from any recent theologian ("Contemp. Review" for 1876,
p. 866). Matthew Arnold says (Literature and Dogma, Preface, p. xix.) :
" To get the facts, the data, in all matters of science, but notably in the-
ology and Biblical learning, one goes to Germany. Germany, and it is
her high honor, has searched out the facts and exhibited them. And
without knowledge of the facts, no clearness or fairness of mind can in
any study do anything ; this cannot be laid down too rigidly." But he
denies to the Germans " quickness and delicacy of perception." Some-
thing more is necessary than learning and perception to draw the right
conclusions from the facts : sound common sense and well-balanced judg-
ment. And when we deal with sacred and supernatural facts, we need
first and last a reverential spirit and that faith which is the organ of the
supernatural It is here where the two schools depart, without differ-
ence of nationality ; for faith is not a national but an individual gift.
THE Two ANTAGONISTIC SCHOOLS.
The two theories of the apostolic history, introduced by Neander and
Baur, are antagonistic in principle and aim, and united only by the moral
bond of an honest search for truth. The one is conservative and recon-
structive, the other radical and destructive. The former accepts the
canonical Gospels and Acts as honest, truthful, and credible memoirs of
the life of Christ and the labors of the apostles ; the latter rejects a great
part of their contents as unhistorical myths or legends of the post-apos-
tolic age, and on the other hand gives undue credit to wild heretical
romances of the second century. The one draws an essential line of dis-
tinction between truth as maintained by the orthodox church, and error
as held by heretical parties ; the other obliterates the lines and puts the
heresy into the inner camp of the apostolic church itself. The one pro-
ceeds on the basis of faith in God and Christ, which implies faith in the
supernatural and miraculous wherever it is well attested ; the other pro-
ceeds from disbelief in the supernatural and miraculous as a philosophical
impossibility, and tries to explain the gospel history and the apostolic
history from purely natural causes like every other history. The one has
a moral and spiritual as well as intellectual interest in the New Testa-
ment, the other a purely intellectual and critical interest. The one
approaches the historical investigation with the subjective experience of
the divine truth in the heart and conscience, and knows and feels Chris-
tianity to be a power of salvation from sin and error ; the other views it
simply as the best among the many religions which are destined to give
way at last to the sovereignty of reason and philosophy. The contro-
versy turns on the question whether there is a God in History or not ; as
the contemporaneous struggle in natural science turns on the question
whether there is a God in nature or not. Belief in a personal God
§ 22. APOSTOLIC AGE — CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. 209
almighty and omnipresent in history and in nature, implies the possibility
of supernatural and miraculous revelation. Absolute freedom from pre-
possession ( Voratissetzungslosigkett such as Strauss demanded) is abso-
lutely impossible, " ex mhilo mhil fit." There is prepossession on either
side of the controversy, the one positive, the other negative, and history
itself must decide between them. The facts must rule philosophy, not
philosophy the facts. If it can be made out that the life of Christ and the
apostolic church can be psychologically and historically explained only
by the admission of the supernatural element which they claim, while
every other explanation only increases the difficulty of the problem and
substitutes an unnatural miracle for a supernatural one, the historian has
gained the case, and it is for the philosopher to adjust his theory to
history. The duty of the historian is not to make the facts, but to dis-
cover them, and then to construct his theory wide enough to give them
all comfortable room.
THE ALLEGED ANTAGONISM IN THE APOSTOLIC CHUBCH.
Tho theory of the Tubingen school starts from the assumption of a
fundamental antagonism between Jewish or primitive Christianity repre-
sented by Peter, and Gentile or progressive Christianity represented by
Paul, and resolves all the writings of the New Testament into tendency
writings (Tendenzschr?ften)t which give us not history pure and simple,
but adjust it to a doctrinal and practical aim in the interest of one or the
other party, or of a compromise between the two.1 The Epistles of Paul
to the Galatians, Romans, First and Second Corinthians — which are
admitted to be genuine beyond any doubt, exhibit the anti-Jewish and
universal Christianity, of which Paul himself must be regarded as the
chief founder. The Apocalypse, which was composed by the apostle
John in 69, exhibits the original Jewish and contracted Christianity, in
accordance with his position as one of the " pillar "-apostles of the cir-
cumcision (Gal. 2.9), and it is the only authentic document of the older
apostles.
Baur (Gesch. der chnstl Kirche, 1 , 80 sqq.) and Renan (St. Paul, ch. x.)
go so far as to assert that this genuine John excludes Paul from the list of
the apostles (Apoc. 21 : 14, which leaves no room for more than twelve),
1 In this respect Baur differs from the standpoint of Strauss, who in his first
Lebeti Jesu (1835) had represented the gospel history as an innocent and un-
conscious myth or poem of the religious imagination of the second generation
of Christians; but in his second Lebeti Jem (1804) he somewhat modified his
view, and at last (1873) he gave up the whole problem as a bad job A ten-
dency writing implies more or less conscious fiction and falsification of his-
tory. The Tubingen critics, however, try to relieve this fictitious literature
of the odious feature by referring us to the Jewish and Christian apocryphal
literature which was passed off under honored names without giving any
special offence ou that score.
210 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and indirectly attacks him as a "false Jew" (Apoc. 2:9; 3 :9), a "false
apostle " (2 : 2), a " false prophet " (2 : 20), as " Balaam " (2 : 2, 6, 14, 15 ;
comp. Jude 11 ; 2 Pet. 2 . 15) ; just as the Clementine Homilies assail
him under the name of Simon the Magician and arch-heretic. Kenan
interprets also the whole Epistle of Jude, a brother of James, as an
attack upon Paul, issued from Jerusalem in connection with the Jewish
counter-mission organized by James, which nearly ruined the work of
Paul.
The other writings of the New Testament are post-apostolic produc-
tions and exhibit the various phases of a unionistic movement, which re-
sulted in the formation of the orthodox church of the second and third
centuries The Acts of the Apostles is a Catholic Irenicon which harmo-
nizes Jewish and Gentile Christianity by liberalizing Peter and contract-
ing or Judaizmg Paul, and concealing the difference between them ; and
though probably based on an eailier narrative of Luke, it was not put
into its present shape before the close of the first century. The canoni-
cal Gospels, whatever may have been the earlier records on which they
are based, are likewise post-apostolic, and hence untrustworthy as his-
torical narratives. The Gospel of John is a purely ideal composition of
some unknown Gnostic or mystic of profound religious genius, who dealt
with the historical Jesus us freely as Plato in his Dialogues dealt with So-
crates, and who completed with consummate literary skill this unifying
process in the age of Hadrian, certainly not before the third decade of
the second century. Baur brought it down as late as 170 ; Hilgenfeld
put it further back to 140, Keiin to 130, Renan to the age of Hadrian.
Thus the whole literature of the New Testament is represented as the
living growth of a century, as a collection of polemical and irenical tracts
of the apostolic and post-apostolic ages. Instead of contemporaneous,
reliable history we have a series of intellectual movements and literary
fictions Divine revelation gives way to subjective visions and delusions,
inspiration is replaced by development, truth by a mixture of truth and
error. The apostolic literature is put on a pa* with the controversial
literature of the Nicene age, which resulted in the Nicene orthodoxy, or
with the literature of the Reformation period, which led to the formation
of the Protestant system of doctrine.
History never repeats itself, yet the same laws and tendencies reappear
in ever-changing forms. This modern criticism is a remarkable renewal
of the views held by heretical schools in the second century. The Ebion-
ite author of the pseudo-Clementine Homilies and the Gnostic Marcion
likewise assumed an irreconcilable antagonism between Jewish and Gen-
tile Christianity, with this difference, that the former opposed Paul as
the arch-heretic and defamer of Peter, while Marcion (about 140) regarded
Paul as the only true apostle, and the older apostles as Jewish pervertera
of Christianity ; consequently he rejected the whole Old Testament and
such books of the New Testament as he considered Judaizing, retaining
§ 22. APOSTOLIC AGE — CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. 211
in his canon only a mutilated Gospel of Lnke and ten of the Pauline
Epistles (excluding the Pastoral Epistles and the Epistle to the Hebrews).
In the eyes of modern criticism these wild heretics are better historians
of the apostolic age than the author of the Acts of the Apostles.
The Gnostic heresy, with all its destructive tendency, had an important
mission as a propelling force in the ancient church and left its effects
upon patristic theology. So also this modern gnosticism must be
allowed to have done great service to biblical and historical learning by
removing old prejudices, opening new avenues of thought, bringing to
light the immense fermentation of the first century, stimulating research,
and compelling an entire scientific reconstruction of the history of the
origin of Christianity and the church. The result will be a deeper and
fuller knowledge, not to the weakening, but to the strengthening of our
faith.
BEA.CTION.
There is considerable difference among the scholars of this higher
criticism, and while some pupils of Baur (e. g. Strauss, Volkmar) have
gone even beyond his positions, others make concessions to the tradi-
tional views. A most important change took place in Baur*s own mind
as regards the conversion of Paul, which he confessed at last, shortly
before his death (1860), to be to him an insolvable psychological problem
amounting to a miracle. Ritschl, Holtzmann, Lipsms, Pfleiderer, and
especially Keuss, Weizsicker, and Keim (who are as free from ortho-
dox prejudices as the most advanced cntics) have modified and corrected
many of the extreme views of the Tubingen school Even Hilgenfeld,
with all Ins zeal for the " Fortschnttstheologie " and against the " Ruck-
schiittstheologie," admits seven instead of four Pauline Epistles as genu-
ine, assigns an earlier date to the Synoptical bospels and the Epistle to
the Hebrews (which he supposes to have been written by Apollos before
70), and says : "It cannot be denied that Baur's criticism went beyond
the bounds of moderation and inflicted too deep wounds on the faith of
the church " (Hist Kml. Emleitung in dtis If. T. 1875, p. 197). Renan
admits nine Pauline Epistles, the essential genuineness of the Acts, and
even the nairative portions of John, while he rejects the discourses as
pretentious, inflated, metaphysical, obscure, and tiresome ! (See his
last discussion of the subject in L'eglise chrettenne, ch, IV. pp. 45 sqq.)
Matthew Arnold and other critics reverse the proposition and accept the
discourses as the sublimest of all human compositions, full of " heavenly
glories " (himmhscke Herrhchketten, to use an expression of Keim, who,
however, rej'ects the fourth Gospel altogether). Schenkel (in his Chiistus*
bild der Apostel, 1879) considerably moderates the antagonism between
Petrinism and Paulinism, and confesses (Preface, p. xi.) that in the prog-
ress of his investigations he has been " forced to the conviction that the
Acts of the Apostles is a more trustworthy source of information than is
212 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
commonly allowed on the part) of the modern criticism ; that older docu-
ments worthy of credit, besides the well known We-source ( WirqueUe) are
contained in it ; and that the Paulinist who composed it has not inten-
tionally distorted the facts, but only placed them in the light in which
they appeared to him and must have appeared to him from the time
and circumstances under which he wrote. He has not, in my opinion,
artificially brought upon the stage either a Paulmized Peter, or a Petri-
nized Paul, in order to mislead his readers, but has portrayed the two
apostles just as he actually conceived of them on the basis of his in-
complete information." Keim, in his last work (Aus dem Urchristen-
tJium, 1878, a year before his death), has come to a similar conclusion,
and proves (m a critical essay on the Apostelkonvent, pp. 64-89) in oppo-
sition to Baur, Schwegler, and Zeller, yet from the same standpoint of
liberal criticism, and allowing later additions, the substantial harmony
between the Acts and the Epistle to the Galatians as regards the apos-
tolic conference and concordat of Jerusalem. Ewald always pursued his
own way and equalled Baur in bold and arbitrary criticism, but violently
opposed him and defended the Acts and the Gospel of John.
To these German voices we may add the testimony of Matthew Arnold,
one of the boldest and broadest of the broad-school divines and critic-s,
who with all his admiration for Baur represents him as an "unsafe
guide," and protests against his assumption of a bitter hatred of Paul
and the pillar-apostles as entirely inconsistent with the conceded reli-
gious greatness of Paul and with the nearness of the pillar-apostles to
Jesus ( God and the Bible, 1875, Preface, vii-xii). As to the fourth Gospel,
which is now the most burning spot of this burning controversy, the
surne author, after viewing it from without and from witlun, comes to the
conclusion that it is "no fancy-piece, but a serious and invaluable docu-
ment, full of incidents given by tradition and genuine * sayings of the
Lord' " (p. 370), and that " after the most free criticism has been fairly
and strictly applied, .... there is yet left an authentic residue compris-
ing all the profoundest, most important, and most beautiful things in the
fourth Gospel" (p. 372 sq.).
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL.
While there are signs of disintegration in the ranks of destructive
criticism, the historic truth and genuineness of the New Testament
writings have found learned and able defenders from different stand-
points, such as Neander, Ullmann, C. F. Schmid (the colleague of Baur
in Tubingen), Rothe, Dorner, Ebrard, Lechler, Lange, Thiersch, Wieselei,
Hofmann (of Erlangen), Luthardt, Christlieb, Beyschlag, Uhlhorn, Weiss,
Godet, Edm. de Pressense".
The English and American mind also has fairly begun to grapple man-
fully and successfully with these questions in such scholars as Lightfoot,
Plumptre, Westcott, Sanday, Farrar, G. P. Fisher, Ezra Abbot (on the
Authorship of the Fourth Gospel, 1880). English and American theology
§ 22. APOSTOLIC AGE— CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. 213
is not likely to be extensively demoralized by these hyper-critical specu-
lations of the Continent. It has a firmer foothold in an active church
life and the convictions and affections of the people. The German and
French mind, like the Athenian, is always bent upon telling and hearing
something new, while the Anglo-American mind cares more for what is
true, whether it be old or new. And the truth must ultimately prevail.
ST. PAUL'S TESTIMONY TO HISTORICAL CHRISTIANITY.
Fortunately even the most exacting school of modern criticism leaves
us a fixed fulcrum from which we can argue the truth of Christianity,
namely, the four Pauline Epistles to the Galatians, Romans, and Corin-
thians, which are pronounced to be unquestionably genuine and made
the Archimedean point of assault upon the other parts of the New Tes-
tament. We propose to confine ourselves to them. They are of the
utmost historical as well as doctrinal importance ; they represent the
first Christian generation, and were written between 54 and 58, that is
within a quarter of the century after the crucifixion, when the older
apostles and most of the principal eye-witnesses of the life of Christ
were still alive. The writer himself was a contemporary of Christ ; he
lived in Jerusalem at the time of the great events on which Christianity
rests ; he was intimate with the Sanhedrm and the murderers of Christ ;
he was not blinded by favorable prejudice, but was a violent persecutor,
who had every motive to justify his hostility ; and after his radical con-
version (A D. 37) he associated with the original disciples and could learn
their personal experience from their own lips (Gal. 1 : 18 ; 2 : 1-11).
Now in these admitted documents of the best educated of the apostles
we have the clearest evidence of all the great events and truths of primi-
tive Christianity, and a satisfactory answer to the chief objections and
difficulties of modem skepticism.1
They prove
1. The leading facts in the life of Christ, his divine mission, his
birth from a woman, of the royal house of David, his holy life and ex-
ample, his betrayal, passion, and death for the sins of the world, his
resurrection on the third day, his repeated manifestations to the disci-
ples, his ascension and exaltation to the right hand of God, whence he
will return to judge mankind, the adoration of Christ as the Messiah,
the Lord and Saviour from sin, the eternal Son of God ; also the elec-
tion of the Twelve, the institution of baptism and the Lord's Supper,
the mission of the Holy Spirit, the founding of the church. Paul fre-
quently alludes to these facts, especially the crucifixion and resurrection,
not m the way of a detailed narrative, but incidentally and in connection
with doctrinal expositions and exhortations as addressed to men already
1 Comp here a valuable article of J Oswald Dykes, in the "Brit, and For.
Evang Review," Lond 1880, pp 51 sqq.
214 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
familiar with them from oral preaching and instruction. Comp. Gal
3:13; 4:4-6; 6:14; Rom. 1:3; 4:24,25; 5 :8-21; 6 :3-10; 8 :3
11,26,39; 9:5; 10:6, 7; 14:15; 15:3; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2, 12; 5:7?
6:14; 10:16; 11:23-26; 15:3-8,45-49; 2 Cor. 5:21.
2. Paul's own conversion and call to the apostleship by the personal
appearance to him of the exalted Redeemer from heaven. Gal. 1 : 1,
15, 16; 1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8.
3. The origin and rapid progress of the Christian church in all parts oi
the Roman empire, from Jerusalem to Antioch and Rome, in Judaea, in
Syria, in Asia Minor, in Macedonia and Achaia. The faith of the Roman
church, he says, was known "throughout the world," and "in every
place " there were worshippers of Jesus as their Lord. And these little
churches maintained a lively and active intercourse with each other, and
though founded by different teachers and distracted by differences of
opinion and practice, they worshipped the same divine Lord, and formed
one brotherhood of believers. Gal. 1:2, 22 ; 2:1, 11 ; Rom. 1:8;
10.18; 16:26; 1 Cor. 1:12; 8:1; 16 : 19, etc.
4. The presence of miraculous powers in the church at that time.
Paul himself wrought the signs and mighty deeds of an apostle. Rom.
15 . 18, 19 ; 1 Cor. 2:4; 9:2; 2 Cor. 12 : 12. He lays, however, no great
stress on the outer sensible miracles, and makes more account of the
inner moral miracles and the constant manifestations of the power of
the Holy Spirit in regenerating and sanctifying sinful men in an utterly
corrupt state of society. 1 Cor. chs. 12 to 14; 6 . 9-11 , GaL 5 : 16-26;
Rom. chs 6 and 8.
5. The existence of much earnest controversy in these young churches,
not indeed about the great facts on which their faith was based, and
which were fully admitted on both sides, but about doctrinal and ritual
inferences from these facts, especially the question of the continued
obligation of circumcision and the Mosaic law, and the personal question
of the apostolic authority of Paul. The Judaizers maintained the superior
claims of the older apostles and charged him with a radical departure
from the venerable religion of their fathers ; while Paul used against
them the argument that the expiatory death of Chnst and his resurrec-
tion were needless and useless if justification came from the law. Gal.
2 : 21 ; 5 : 2-4.
6. The -essential doctrinal and spiritual harmony of Paul with the
elder apostles, notwithstanding their differences of standpoint and field
of labor. Here the testimony of the Epistle to the Galatians, ch. 2 . 1-10,
which is the very bulwark of the skeptical school, bears strongly against
it. For Paul expressly states that the " pillar "-apostles* of the circum-
cision, James, Peter, and John, at the conference in Jerusalem A.D. 50,
approved the gospel he had been preaching during the preceding four-
teen years ; that they " imparted nothing " to him, gave him no new in-
struction, imposed on him no new terms, nor burden of any kind, but
§ 22. APOSTOLIC AGE — CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. 215
that, on the contrary, they recognized the grace of God in him and his
special mission to the Gentiles, and gave hi™ and Barnabas " the right
hands of feDowship " in token of their brotherhood and fidelity. He
makes a clear and sharp distinction between the apostles and " the false
brethren privily brought in, who came to spy out our liberty which we
have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage," and to
whom he would not yield, " no, not for an hour." The hardest words he
has for the Jewish apostles are epithets of honor ; he calls them " the
pillars " of the church, " the men in high repute n (ol <rrv\oi, ol boKovms,
Gal. 2 : 6, 9) ; while he considered himself in sincere humility " the least
of the apostles," because he persecuted the church of God (1 Cor. 15 : 9).
This statement of Paul makes it simply impossible and absurd to sup-
pose (with Baur, Schwegler, Zeller, and Eenan) that John should have
so contradicted and stultified himself as to attack, in the Apocalypse, the
same Paul whom he had recognized as a brother during his life, as a
false apostle and chief of the synagogue of Satan after his death. Such
a reckless and monstrous assertion turns either Paul or John into a bar.
The antinomian and antichristian heretics of the Apocalypse who pbmged
into all sorts of moral and ceremonial pollutions (Apoc. 2 : 14, 15) would
have been condemned by Paul as much as by John ; yea, he himself, in
his parting address to the Ephesian elders, had prophetically forean-
nounced and described such teachers as " grievous wolves " that would
after his departure enter in among them or rise from the midst of them,
not sparing the flock (Acts 20 : 29, 30). On the question of fornication
he was in entire harmony with the teaching of the Apocalypse (1 Cor.
3 : 15, 16 ; 6 : 15-20) ; and as to the question of eating meat offered in
sacrifice to idols (ra €i8o>Ao3vrn), though he regarded it as a thing indif-
ferent in itself, considering the vanity of idols, yet he condemned it
whenever it gave offence to the weak consciences of the more scrupulous
Jewish converts (1 Cor. 8:7-13; 10:23-33; Rom. 14:2, 21); and this
was in accord with the decree of the Apostolic Council (Acts 15 : 29).
7. Paul's collision with Peter at Antioch, Gal. 2 : 11-14, which is made
the very bulwark of the Tubingen theory, proves the very reverse. For it
was not a difference in principle and doctrine ; on the contrary, Paul ex-
pressly asserts that Peter at first freely and habitually (mark the imperfect
cnwqrrtif P, Gal. 2 12) associated with the Gentile converts as brethren in
Christ, but was intimidated by emissaries from the bigoted Jewish con-
verts in Jerusalem and acted against his better conviction which he had
entertained ever since the vision at Joppa (Acts 10 : 10-16), and which
he had so boldly confessed at the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15 : 7-11)
and carried out in Antioch. We have here the same impulsive, impres-
sible, changeable disciple, the first to confess and the first to deny his
Master, yet quickly returning to him in bitter repentance and sincere
humility. It is for this inconsistency of conduct, which Paul called by
the strong term of dissimulation or hypocrisy, that he, in his uncompro-
216 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
mising zeal for the great principle of Christian liberty, reproved him pnb
lidy bofore the church. A public wrong had to be publicly rectified.
According to the Tubingen hypothesis the hypocrisy would have been
in the very opposite conduct of Peter. The silent submission of Peter
on the occasion proves his regard for his younger colleague, and speaks
as much to his praise as his weakness to his blame. That the alienation
was only temporary and did not break up their fraternal relation is
apparent from the respectful though frank manner in which, several
years after the occurrence, they allude to each other as fellow apostles,
comp. Gal. 1:18, 19; 2:8,9; 1 Cor. 9:5; 2 Pet 3:15,16, and from
the fact that Mark and Silas were connecting links between them and
alternately served them both.1
The Epistle to the Galatians then furnishes the proper solution of the
difficulty, and essentially confirms the account of the Acts. It proves
the harmony as well as the difference between Paul and the older apos-
tles. It explodes the hypothesis that they stood related to each other
like the Marciomtes and Ebionites in the second century. These were
the descendants of the Jieretics of the apostolic age, of the "false breth-
ren insidiously brought in" (\^€u8u8eA0en irapciaraKToi, Gal. 2.4); while
the true apostles recognized and continued to recognize the same grace
of God which wrought effectually through Peter for the conversion of
the Jews, and through Paul for the conversion of the Gentiles. That the
Judaizers should have appealed to the Jewish apostles, and the anti-
nomian Gnostics to Paul, as their authority, is not more surprising than
the appeal of the modern rationalists to Luther and the Bcfoimation.
We have thus discussed at the outset, and at some length, the fundamen-
tal difference of the two standpoints from which the history of the apos-
tolic church is now viewed, and have vindicated our own geneial position
in this controversy.
It is not to be supposed that all the obscure points have already been
satisfactorily cleared up, or ever will be solved beyond the possibility
1 It is amusing- to read Kenan's account of this dispute (St. Paul, ch x ).
He sympathizes rather with Peter, whom he calls a "man profoundly kind
and upright and desiring peace above all things," though he admits him to
h.-ue beeu amiably weak and inconsistent on that as on other occasions;
while he charges Paul with stubbornness and rudeness ; but what is the most
important point, he denies the Tubingen exegesis when he says: " Modern
critics who infer from certain passages of the Epistle to the Galatians that
the rupture between Peter and Paul was absolute, put themselves in contra*
diction not only to the Acts, but to other passages of the Epistle to the Gala-
tians (1 : 18 ; 2: 2). Fervent men pass their lives disputing together without
ever falling out. We must not judge these characters after the manner of
things which take place in our day between people well-bred and susceptible
in a point of honor. This last word especially never had much significance
with the Jews ! "
§ 23. CHRONOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE, 217
of dispute. There must be some room left for faith in that God who has
levealed himself clearly enough in nature and in history to strengthen
our faith, and who is concealed enough to try our faith. Certain inter-
stellar spaces will always be vacant in the firmament of the apostolic age
that men may gaze all the more intensely at the bright stars, before
which the post-apostolic books disappear like torches. A careful study of
the ecclesiastical writers of the second and third centuries, and especially
of the numerous Apocryphal Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses, leaves on
the mind a strong impression of the immeasurable superiority of the New
Testament in purity and truthfulness, simplicity and majesty ; and this
superiority points to a special agency of the Spirit of God, without which
that book of books is an inexplicable mystery.
§ 23. Chronology oftlw Apostolic Age.
See the works quoted in § 20, pp 193, 194, especially WJESKLER Comp. also
HACKETT on Acts, pp. 22 to 80 (third ed.).
The chronology of the apostolic age is partly certain, at least
within a few years, partly conjectural: certain as to the princi-
pal events from A.D. 30 to 70, conjectural as to intervening
points and the last thirty years of the first century. The sources
are the New Testament (especially the Acts and the Pauline
Epistles), Josephus, and the Roman historians. Josephus (b. 37,
d. 103) is especially valuable here, as he wrote the Jewish his-
tory down to the destruction of Jerusalem.
The following dates are more or less certain and accepted by
most historians :
1. The founding of the Christian Church on the feast of
Pentecost in May A.D. 30. This is on the assumption that
Christ was born B.C. 4 or 5, and was crucified in April A.D. 30, at
an age of thirty-three.
2. The death of King Herod Agrippa I. A.D. 44 (according
to Josephus). This settles the date of the preceding martyr-
dom of James the elder, Peter's imprisonment and release
(Acts 12 : 2, 23).
3. The Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, A.D. 50 (Acts 15: 1
sqq. ; Gal. 2 : 1-10). This date is ascertained by reckoning back-
wards to Paul's conversion, and forward to the Csesarean cap-
218 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tivity. Paul was probably converted in 37, and "fourteen
years " elapsed from that event to the Council. But chronolo*
gists differ on the year of Paul's conversion, between 31 and 40. '
4. The dates of the Epistles to the Galatians, Corinthian^
and Romans, between 56 and 58. The date of the Epistle to
the Romans can be fixed almost to the month from its own in-
dications combined with the statements of the Acts. It was
written before the apostle had been in Rome, but when he was
on the point of departure for Jerusalem and Rome on the way
to Spain,2 after having finished his collections in Macedonia and
Achaia for the poor brethren in Judaea ; * and he sent the epis-
tle through Phebe, a deaconess of the congregation in the east-
ern port of Corinth, where he was at that time.4 These indica-
tions point clearly to the spring of the year 58, for in that year
he was taken prisoner in Jerusalem and carried to Csesarea.
5. Paul's captivity in C&sarea, A.D. 58 to 60, during the pro-
curatorship of Felix and Festus, who changed places in 60 or
61, probably in 60. This important date we can ascertain by
combination from several passages in Josephus, and Tacitus.*
It enables us at the same time, by reckoning backward, to fix
some preceding events in the life of the apostle.
6. Paul's first captivity in Rome, A.D. 61 to 63. This follows
from the former date in connection with the statement in Acts
28 : 30.
7. The Epistles of the Roman captivity, Philippians, Ephe*
sians, Colossians, and Philemon, A.D. 61-63.
1 See Hut. Apost. Ch § 63, p 285, and § 67, p 265 The allusion to the
governorship of Aretas in Damascus, 2 Cor. 11 : 32, 33, furnishes no certain
date, owing to the defects of our knowledge of that period ; but other indica-
tions combined lead to the year 37. Wieseler puts Paul's conversion in the
year 40, but this follows from his erroneous view of the journey mentioned in
Gal. 2: 1, which he identifies with Paul's fourth journey to Jerusalem in 54,
instead of his third journey to the Council four years earlier.
9 Rom. 1:13, 15, 22; 15:23-28; oomp. Acte 19:21; 20:16; 23:11;
1 Cor. 16:3.
•Rom. 15: 25-37; 1 Cor. 16:1,2; 2 Cor. chs. 8 and 9 ; Acte 24:17.
4 Bom. 16:1, 28; comp. Acts 19:22; 2 Tim, 4: 20; 1 Cor. 1:14.
1 See Wieaeler, L c., pp. 67 sqq.
§ 23. CHRONOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 219
8. The Neronian persecution, A.D. 64 (the tenth year of Nero,
according to Tacitus). The martyrdom of Paul and Peter
occurred either then, or (according to tradition) a few years
later. The question depends on the second Eoman captivity of
Paul.
9. The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70 (according
to Josephus and Tacitus).
10. The death of John after the accession of Trajan, A.D. 98
(according to general ecclesiastical tradition).
The dates of the Synoptical Gospels, the Acts, the Pastoral
Epistles, the Hebrews, and the Epistles of Peter, James, and
Jude cannot be accurately ascertained except that they were
composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, mostly between
60 and 70. The writings of John were written after that date
and towards the close of the first century, except the Apocalypse,
which some of the best scholars, from internal indications, assign
to the year 68 or 69, between the death of Nero and the de-
struction of Jerusalem.
The details are given in the following table :
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
A.D.
BORIPTUBC HIBTOBY
•VENTS IN PALESTINE.
XYENT8 Zlf THE ROMAN
EMPIRE.
A.D.
B.O 5
or 4
Birth of Christ
Death of Herod I , or the
Great (A u 750 orac 4)
ARCHELAUS in Judaea, Sa-
maria, and Idnmea, HE-
BOD ANTIPAS in Galilee
and Peraea, and PHILIP
in Anramtis, Trachomtis,
Paneas, and Batnnaea
ABCHELAUB deposed, and
Judaea made a Roman
province
AUGUSTUS Emperor of
Rome, B.C. 27-A D. 14
Q
AD. 8
His visit to the Temple at
twelve yean of age
CYBENIUB (Qnirimus), Gov-
ernor of Syria (for the
second tame) The regis-
tration, or ''taxing.111 Act*
6:87
Revolt of "Judas of Gall-
lee "
OOPOHIUS Procurator of Ju-
daea
MARCUS AMBXVTDS Procu-
rator.
9
Turnout colleague of
AnfimstuB
12
ANNIUS RUFUS Procurator
(about)
..
14
230
JTIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
A.D.
EYENTS IN PALESTINE.
EVENTS IN THE BOMAN
EMPIRE.
AU
BORTPTURE HISTORY.
27
27-4JO
30
37
40
44
45
BO
51
Christ's Baptism.
His three years' ministry.
Hit) Crucifixion, Resunec-
tion (April), and Ascen-
sion (May;
Descent of the Holy Spint
at Pentecost Birthday
of tht> Church (May).
Acts, th 2
Martyrdom of Stephen
A( ts, ch. 7.
Peter ,uul John in Sama-
ria Acts, ch 8.
Conversion of Saul. Acts,
ch 9, conip 22 and 26,
and Gal. 1 16 , 1 Cor.
15 8
Saul's escape from Damas-
cus, and first visit to
Jerusalem (after his
conversion) Gal 1 . 18
Admission of Cornelius
into the Church Acts,
chs. 10 and 11.
Persecution of the
Church in Jerusalem
Jamos the Elder, the
son of Kebedee, behead-
ed. Poter imprisoned
and delivered He
leaves Palestine Acts
12 2-23.
Paul's second visit to Je-
rusalem, w ith alms from
the chinch at Antioch
AoU 11 30
Paul is set apart as an
apostle. Acts 13 2.
Paul's first missionary
journey with B.irnnbas
and Mark, Cyprus, Pisi-
dia, Lystra, Derbe. Re-
turn to Antiocn. Acts
ch8 13 and 14
The K/nstle of James
(variously dated from 44
to <£)
The apostolic council of
Jerusalem Conflict be-
tween Jew ish and Gen-
tile Christianity Paul's
third visit to Jerusalem
with Barrabas and Ti-
tus Peaceful adjust-
ment of the question of
circumcision Acts. ch.
15 and Gal 2 1-10
Temporary collision with
Peter and Barnabas at
Antioch. Gal 2 11-14
Pan I sets out on his second
missionary journey from
Anliorh to Asia M'nor
(filicia, Lycnonm,CMla-
VALERIUS GRATTJS Procura-
tor
14
14
96
86
86
37
87
40
41
44
46
47
PONTIUS PILATE Procura-
tor fiom A D 26
CAIAPHAB high-priest from
AD. 25.
Augustus dies. TTJBERIUB
solo Emperor (14-37) . .
PILATE pent to Rome by the
Prefect of Syria .
MAR*LLUB appointed Hip-
parch
HBBOD AOBIFPA I , King of
CALIGULA Emperor (87-
41)
HEROD AORTPPA I. dies at
Philo at Borne
CLAUDIUS Emperor (41-
64)
Cusprus FADTTS Procurator
of Judaea.
TIBERIUS ALEXANDER Pro-
Conquest of Britain, 43-
61.
YzNTiDins CUMANUS Pro-
§ 23. CHBONOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 221
A D
8OBIPTUBB HIBTOBY.
BYBMTB IV PALB8TIJTB.
BT1NT8 IH THB BOM1X
BMPIBB.
A.XX
tia, Troaa) and Greece
(Phihppi, Thensalonica,
ANTOHITJB FBLIX Procura-
tor
51
5*3-58
Beroea, Athens, Cor-
inth) The Chnstiani-
zation of Europe Acts,
15 36 to 18 22
Paul at Corinth a year
ami a half Write* First
and Second Epistles to
The Tetrarchy of Trachoni-
tis given to UKBOD AGBIP-
PA II. (the last of the He-
Decree of CLAUDIUS ban-
ishing the Jews from
Home
69
54
the Thcitsalonians from
Corinth
Paul> fourth visit to Je-
rusalem (spring) Short
stay at Antuxh. En-
ters (autumn, 54) on his
third im»Rionary jour-
ney, occupying about
four year-. P.iul at
EphcRUs, 54 to 57 Acts,
oh 10
rodian family).
Revolt of the Sicarii, head-
ed by an Egyptian (Acts,
NERO Emperor (64-68). . .
64
Rft
66
67
68
on
Paul writes to the Gala-
tiaim (?) from Ephesus.
or from some part of
Greece on his journey
to Corinth (57) Acts,
ch 2U
Paul wntes First Epistle
to the Corinthians from
Ephesus, starts for
Macedonia and writes
Second Epistle to the
Corinthians from Mace-
donia
Epistle to the Romans
from Corinth, where he
spent three months
He visits (the fifth time)
Jerusalem , IB appre-
hended, brought before
Felix, and imprisoned
atC<Bsareafor two years.
Acts, 21 17 to 2(5 32
Paul appears befoie Fes-
60
61
61-63
62
tus, appeals to Caesar, is
sent to Italy (in au-
tumn) Shipwreck at
Malta Acts, chs. 27
and 28.
Ariivcs a prisoner at
Koine (in spring).
Paul writes to the Philip-
puinS) EphesuznSiColos-
xians^ Philemon^ from
his prison in Home
Mnrtyi dom of James, the
Embassy from Jerusalem to
Borne respecting the wall.
War with Boadicea in Bri-
tain
Apollonius of Tyana at
the Olympic games
Josephna at Rome
61
fi?
68
Lord1 s brother, at Jeru-
salem (according to Jo-
aephu% or h9 according
to Ilegesippus).
Paul if) supposed to have
68
64
64-67
60-70
been released. Acts, 28
30
Epistle to th* Hebrews^
written from Italy after
the release of Timothy
(ch 13 24)
Pint Epistle of Peter.
Epistle of Jude (?)
Second Epistle of Peter (?)
The Synoptical Gospel*,
and Acts
Gissius FLOBUS Procura-
tor
Befrhining of the great war
between the Romans and
Great fire at Rome (in
July) ; first imperial
persecution of the Chris-
tians (martyrdom of
Peter and Panl)
Seneca and Ltican put to
death by Nero
64
65
Jews
66
222
FIRST PEBIOD. A.D. 1-100.
A.D.
SOBIFTUBB HISTORY.
BTBBTS XV PALBSTIBB.
BYBBT8 IB THB BOMAV
BMFIBB.
A.B.
64-67
Paul visits Crete and Ma-
cedonia, and write* Ptrtt
VBBPABIAX General in Pa-
lestine
AT
aWtf
08-49
Epistle to Timothy, and
Spittle to TUus (?).»
Paul writes Second Epis-
tle to Timothy (?).
Paul's and Peter's martyr-
dom in Borne (?).
The Revelation at John (?)
QALBA BfnPMi"TT -..,--.,
OR
Destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus
OTHO and VITBLLIUB Em-
perors
VBBPASIAB Emperor
69
69
70
60-90
96
John writes his Getjxl
and Spittles (?).
John writes the Revela-
tion (?).
( Josephus released. )
Coliseum begun
Destruction of Pompeii
and Herculanenm . .
TITTJB Emperor
DOMITIAN Emperor
Persecution of Christians.
NBBTA Emperor
76
79
79
91
95
9ft
96-100
Death of John.
Death of Apollonins
TBAJAH Emperor ....
97
98
1 Those who deny a second imprisonment of Paul assign these Epistles to the period of Paul's
residence in Bphesas, A.D. 54-67, and 2 Timothy to A.D. 68 or 64.
PALESTINE
in the time of
CHRIST
224 FIRST PERIOD, A.D. 1-100.
CHAPTER IV.
ST. PETER AND THE CONVERSION OP THE JEWS
§ 24. The Miracle of Pentecost <m& the Birthday of the
Christian Church. A.D. 30.
Kol f ir \-fiff ^ij ffay vdvrtt trvt vpar os ayiov, icoi ffpfarro \a\cw ire/xus
<9Ac5<r<reus, KC&US rb Trycvpa Id/Sou &iro<t>&4yyc<rbai avroTs. — Acts 2 . 4.
"The first Pentecost lyhich the disciples celebrated after the ascension of
our Saviour, is, next to the appearance of the Son of God on earth, the most
significant event. It is the starting-point of the apostoho church and of that
new spiiitual life in humanity which proceeded from Him, and which since
has been spreading and working, and will continue to work until the whole
humanity is transformed into the image of Christ." — NKANDEK ( Geschicfite
der Pflawung und Leitung der cJiriattichen Kirche durcfi. die Apostd., I. 3, 4).
Literature.
I. SOURCES : Acts 2 : 1-47. Comp. 1 Cor. chs. 12 and 14. See Commen-
taries on the Acts by OLSHAUSEN, DE WETTE, METEB, LECHLER,
HACKETT, ALEXANDER, GLOAG, ALFORD, WORDSWORTH, PLUMPTRE,
JAOOBSON, HOWSON and SPENCE, etc., and on the Corinthians by
BILLROTH, KLING, STANLEY, HEINRICI, EDWARDS, GODET, ELLIOOTT.
II. Special treatises on the Pentecostal Miracle and the Gift of Tongues
(glossolalia) by HERDER (Die Gabe der Sprachen, Eiga, 1794)
HASE (in Winer's " Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftl. Theol." 1827),
BLEEK in "Studien und Kntiken" for 1829 and 1830), BAUR in the
"Tubinger Zeitschrift fur Theol." for 1830 and 1831, and in the
" Studien und Krit." 1838), SCHNECKENBUBGER (in his Beitrage zur
Einkitung tn das JV. T. 1832), BAUMLBIN (1834), DAV. SCHULZ (1836),
ZmsLER (1847), ZELLER (Acts of the Apostles, I. 171, of the E. trans-
lation by J. Dare), BOHM (Irvingite, Reden mit Zungen und Weis-
sagen, Berlin, 1848), ROSSTEUSOHER (Irvingite, Gabe der Sprachen im
apost. Zeitalter, Marburg, 1855), AD. HILGENFELD (Glossolahe, Leipz.
1850), MAIEB (Glossolalie des apost. ZeitaUers, 1855), WIBSELEB (in
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OP PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 225
"Stud. n. Krit." 1838 and 1860), SOHENKEL (art. Zungenreden in his
" Bibel-Lex." V. 732), VAN HBNOBI* (De gave der talen, Leiden, 1864),
PLUMPTBE (art. Gift of Tongues in Smith's " B. D." IV. 3305, Am.
ed.), DBLTTZSCH (art. Pfingsten in Riehm's "H. B. A." 1880, p.
1184) ; K. SCHMIDT (m Herzog, 2d ed., xviiM 570 sqq.).
Comp. also NBANDER (I. 1), LANOK (IL 13), EWAU> (VI. 106),
THIEBSGH (p. 65, 3d ed.), SCHAFF (191 and 469), FARBAB (St. Paul,
ch. V. vol. I. 83).
The ascension of Christ to heaven was followed ten days
afterwards by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon earth and
the birth of the Christian Church. The Pentecostal event was
the necessary result of the Passover event. It could never have
taken place without the preceding resurrection and ascension.
It was the first act of the mediatorial reign of the exalted Re-
deemer in heaven, and the beginning of an unbroken series of
manifestations in fulfilment or his promise to be with his people
" alway, even unto the end of the world." For his ascension was
only a withdrawal of his visible local presence, and the begin-
ning of his spiritual omnipresence in the church which is u his
body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." The Easter
miracle and the Pentecostal miracle are continued and verified
by the daily moral miracles of regeneration and sanctification
throughout Christendom.
We have but one authentic account of that epoch-making
event, in the second chapter of Acts, but in the parting addresses
of our Lord to his disciples the promise of the Paraclete who
should lead them into the whole truth is very prominent,1 and
the entire history of the apostolic church is illuminated and
heated by the Pentecostal tire.8
Pentecost, i. e. the fiftieth day after the Passover-Sabbath,3
1 John 14 : 16, 26 ; 15 : 26 ; 16:7. The preparatory communication of the
Spirit is related in John 20 • 22.
* Gomp. especially the classical chapters on the gifts of the Spirit, 1 Cor,
i2, 13, and 14, and Bom. 12.
1 The Greek name 4 vcrnprmrr^ (Wp«) ** used (like qwnguagerima) as a
substantive, Tob. 2 1 ; 2 Mace. 12:32; Aots2:l; 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:3, and
by Josephns, Ant. III. 10, 6, etc. It survives not only in all the Romanic lan-
guages, but also in the German Pfingsten. The English WhU- Sunday is
226 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
was a feast of joy and gladness, in the loveliest season of the
year, and attracted a very large number of visitors to Jerusalem
from foieign lands.1 It was one of the three great annual festi-
vals of the Jews in which all the males were required to appear
before the Lord. Passover was the first, and the feast of
Tabernacles the third. Pentecost lasted one day, but the for-
eign Jews, after the period of the captivity, prolonged it to
two days. It was the "feast of harvest," or "of the first
fruits," and also (according to rabbinical tradition) the anniver-
sary celebration of the Sinaitic legislation, which is supposed to
have taken place on the fiftieth day after the Exodus from the
land of bondage.'
This festival was admirably adapted for the opening event in
usually derived from the white garments of the candidates for baptism worn
on that day (hence Dominica alba) ; others connect it with wit, the gift of
wisdom from above. The Hebrew names of the festival are *TSpn an, kcpr^i
btyiffnovi the feast of Jiarvest (Ex 23 : 16), D*m53n DT, i^fya T«* i/eW, day
Of tTie first fruits (Num. 28 : 26), tlTOD 3H, lopr) €j85o/i<te«v, ayla iirrit
££&0jud5w, festival of (seven) weeks, as the harvest continued for seven weeks
(Deut 16 • 9, 10 ; Lev 23 : 15 ; Tob 2 : 1). It began directly after the Passo-
ver with the offering of the first sheaf of the barley -harvest, and ended at
Pentecost with the offering of the first two loaves from the wheat-harvest.
1 Joseph us speaks of "many tens of thousands being gathered together
about the temple" on Pentecost, Ant. xiv. 13, 4; comp xvii. 10, 2 J Bell Jud.
II 3, 1. The Passover, of course, was more numerously attended by Jewa
from Palestine ; but distant foreigners were often prevented by the dangers
of travel m the early spring. Paul twice went to Jerusalem on Pentecost,
Acts 18 • 21 ; 20 : 16. Many Passover pilgrims would naturally remain till the
second festival.
8 Hence called the feast of the joy of the Law (HTinn nnfcB). The date o*
the Sinaitic legislation is based on a comparison of Ex. 12 : 2 with 19 . 1
(oomp my Hist, of the Ap. Ch , p 192, note 5). The legislation on Pente-
cost, Deut 16 : 9-12, represents it as a feast of rejoicing, and concludes with
a reference to the bondage in Egypt and the commandments of Jehovah.
Otherwise there is no allusion m the Bible, nor in Philo nor Josephus, to the
historical significance of Pentecost But there was a Jewish custom which
Schottgen (Ear. Heb in Act 2:1) traces to apostolic times, of spending the
night before Pentecost in thanksgiving to God for the gift of the law. In the
present Jewish observance the commemoration of the Sinaitio legislation is
made prominent Some Jews '* adorn their houses with flowers and wear
wreaths on their heads, with the declared purpose of testifying their joy in the
possession of the Law."
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 227
the history of the apostolic church. It pointed typically to the
first Christian harvest, and the establishment of the new theo-
cracy in Christ ; as the sacrifice of the paschal lamb and the
exodus from Egypt foreshadowed the redemption of the world
by the crucifixion of the Lamb of God. On no other day could
the effusion of the Spirit of the exalted Redeemer produce such
rich results and become at once so widely known. We may
trace to this day not only the origin of the mother church at
Jerusalem, but also the conversion of visitors from other cities,
as Damascus, Antioch, Alexandria, and Borne, who on their re-
turn would carry the glad tidings to their distant homes. For
the strangers enumerated by Luke as witnesses of the great
event, represented nearly all the countries in which Christianity
was planted by the labors of the apostles.1
The Pentecost in the year of the Resurrection was the last
Jewish (i. e. typical) and the first Christian Pentecost. It be-
came the spiritual harvest feast of redemption from sin, and the
birthday of the visible kingdom of Christ on earth. It marks
the beginning of the dispensation of the Spirit, the third era in
the history of the revelation of the triune God. On this day
the Holy Spirit, who had hitherto wrought only sporadically
and transiently, took up his permanent abode in mankind as the
Spirit of truth and holiness, with the fulness of saving grace, to
apply that grace thenceforth to believers, and to reveal and glorify
Christ in their hearts, as Christ had revealed and glorified the
Father.
While the apostles and disciples, about one hundred and
twenty (ten times twelve) in number, no doubt mostly Galilse-
ans,a were assembled before the morning devotions of the festal
1 The list of nations, Acts 2 : 8-11, gives a bird's eye view of the Roman
empire from the East and North southward and westward as far as Borne, and
then again eastward to Arabia. Cyprus and Greece are omitted. There were
Christians in Damascus before the conversion of Paul (9:2), and a large con-
gregation at Borne long before he wrote his Epistle (Bom. 1 : 8).
' Acts 1 : 15 ; 2:7. Ten times the number of tribes of Israel. These were,
however, not all the disciples ; Paul mentions five hundred brethren to whom
the risen Lord appeared at onoe, 1 Cor. 15 : 6.
228 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
day, and were waiting in prayer for the fulfilment of the prom-
ise, the exalted Saviour sent from his heavenly throne the Holy
Spirit upon them, and founded his church upon earth. The
Sinaitic legislation was accompanied by "thunder and light-
ning, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the
trumpet exceeding loud, and all the people that was in the camp
trembled." ' The church of the new covenant was ushered into
existence with startling signs which filled the spectators with
wonder and fear. It is quite natural, as Neander remarks, that
"the greatest miracle in the inner life of mankind should have
been accompanied by extraordinary outward phenomena as sen-
sible indications of its presence." A supernatural sound resem-
bling that of a rushing mighty wind,9 came down from heaven
and filled the whole house in which they were assembled ; and
tongues like flames of fire, distributed themselves among them,
alighting for a while on each head.3 It is not said that these
phenomena were really wind and fire, they are only compared
to these elements,4 as the form which the Holy Spirit assumed
at the baptism of Christ is compared to a dove.* The tongues
of flame were gleaming, but neither burning nor consuming ;
they appeared and disappeared like electric sparks or meteoric
flashes. But these audible and visible signs were appropriate
1 Exod 19 : 16 ; comp. Hebr. 12 : 18, 19.
$ $x°* &<r*ep ^epojueVijs iryofjy fralas, dn Geto*e wie von einem dahinfahrendeii
Tuftigen Wehen (Meyer). The term ^fpo/ieVij, borne 0/1, is the same which
Peter uses of the inspiration of the prophets, 2 Pet. 1 : 21
' 8ta/jLept(ofjicwu y\u>ff<rai ward *vp6s, 2 . 3, are not parted or " cloven" tongues
(B V.)— resembling the fork-like shape of the episcopal mitre— but distributed
tongues, spreading from one to another. This is the meaning of tiawlfav in
ver. 45 ; Luke 22 : 17 ; 23 : 34 ; John 19 : 24 ; Matt 27 : 35. The distributive
idea explains the change of number in ver. 3, y\»ff<rcu — iKdBio-fv, i e., one
tongue sat on each disciple.
4 Hence fto-rep and watt. John Lightfoot : " Sonus ventus vehement^, sed
absqite vento; sic etiam lingua ignecs^ sed absque igne."
4 Luke 3 : 22 (&s ircpurrcpdv) ; Matt 3 • 10 (&<rff) ; Mark 1:10; John 1 . 32.
The Rabbinical comment on Gen. 1 : 2 makes the name comparison, that " the
Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters like a dove," and Milton sings
(Parad. Lett, i. 20) :
" With mighty wings outspread
Dove-like aat'st brooding on the vast abyis."
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 229
symbols of the purifying, enlightening, and quickening power
of the Divine Spirit, and announced a new spiritual creation.
The form of tongues referred to the glossolalia, and the apostolic
eloquence as a gift of inspiration.
" AND THEY WEBB ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT." This
is the real inward miracle, the main fact, the central idea of the
Pentecostal narrative. To the apostles it was their baptism,
confirmation, and ordination, all in one, for they received no
other.1 To them it was the great inspiration which enabled
them hereafter to be authoritative teachers of the gospel by
tongue and pen. Not that it superseded subsequent growth in
knowledge, or special revelations on particular points (as Peter
received at Joppa, and Paul on several occasions) ; but they were
endowed with such an understanding of Christ's words and plan
of salvation as they never had before. What was dark and mys-
terious became now clear and full of meaning to them. The
Spirit revealed to them the person and work of the Redeemer
in the light of his resurrection and exaltation, and took full
possession of their mind and heart. They were raised, as it
were, to the mount of transfiguration, and saw Moses and Elijah
and Jesus above them, face to face, swimming in heavenly
light. They had now but one desire to gratify, but one object
to live for, namely, to be witnesses of Christ and instruments of
the salvation of their fellow-men, that they too might become
partakers of their " inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven." *
But the communication of the Holy Spirit was not confined
to the Twelve. It extended to the brethren of the Lord, the
mother of Jesus, the pious women who had attended his minir-
try, and the whole brotherhood of a hundred and twenty eouls
who were assembled in that chamber.* They were " all " filled
with the Spirit, and all spoke with tongues ; 4 and Peter saw in
1 They were baptized with water by John ; but Christian baptism was first
administered by them on the day of Pentecost. Christ himself did not bap-
toe, John 4 : 2.
• 1 Pet. 1 : 3, 4.
• Comp. Acts 1 : 18, 14.
4 Acts 2: 3: "it (a tongue of fire) sat upon each of them."
230 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the event the promised outpouring of the Spirit upon "afl
flesh," sons and daughters, young men and old men, servants
and handmaidens.1 It is characteristic that in this spring season
of the church the women were sitting with the men, not in a
separate court as in the temple, nor divided by a partition as in
the synagogue and the decayed churches of the East to this day,
but in the same room as equal sharers in the spiritual blessings.
The beginning was a prophetic anticipation of the end, and a
manifestation of the universal priesthood and brotherhood of
believers in Christ, in whom all are one, whether Jew or Greek,
bond or free, male or female.9
This new spiritual life, illuminated, controlled, and directed
by the Holy Spirit, manifested itself first in the speaking with
tongues towards God, and then in the prophetic testimony to-
wards the people. The former consisted of rapturous prayers
and anthems of praise, the latter of sober teaching and exhorta-
tion. From the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples, like
their Master, descended to the valley below to heal the sick and
to call sinners to repentance.
The mysterious gift of tongues, or glossolalia, appears here
for the first time, but became, with other extraordinary gifts of
the Spirit, a frequent phenomenon in the apostolic churches,
especially at Corinth, and is fully described by Paul. The dis-
tribution of the flaming tongues to each of the disdiples caused
the speaking with tongues. A new experience expresses itself
always in appropriate language. The supernatural experience
of the disciples broke through the confines of ordinary speech
and burst out in ecstatic language of praise and thanksgiving to
God for the great works he did among them.1 It was the Spirit
himself who gave them utterance and played on their tongues,
as on new tuned harps, unearthly melodies of praise. The glos-
Bolalia was here, as in all cases where it is mentioned, an act of
worship and adoration, not an act of teaching and instruction,
1 Acts 2 : 3, 4, 17, 18.
*GaL8:28.
* r& pry«\f?a rov &eov. Acts 2 : 11 ; oomp. the same term Luke 1 : 69, and
the MryoXtW rto frcifc, Acte 10 : 46.
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 231
which followed afterwards in the sermon of Peter. It was the
first Te Deum of the new-born church. It expressed itself in
unusual, poetic, dithyrambic style and with a peculiar musical
intonation. It was intelligible only to those who were in sym-
pathy with the speaker ; while unbelievers scoffingly ascribed it
to madness or excess of wine. Nevertheless it served as a signifi-
cant sign to all and arrested their attention to the presence of
a supernatural power.1
So far we may say that the Pentecostal glossolalia was the
same as that in the household of Cornelius in Ceesarea after his
conversion, which may be called a Gentile Pentecost,8 as that of
the twelve disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus, where it
appears in connection with prophesying,* and as that in the
Christian congregation at Corinth.4
But at its first appearance the speaking with tongues differed
in its effect upon the hearers by coming home to them at once
m their own mother-tongues / while in Corinth it required an
interpretation to be understood. The foreign spectators, at least
a number of them, believed that the unlettered Galilseans spoke
intelligibly in the different dialects represented on the occasion.*
We must therefore suppose either that the speakers themselves
were endowed, at least temporarily, and for the particular pur-
pose of proving their divine mission, with the gift of foreign
languages not learned by them before, or that the Holy Spirit
who distributed the tongues acted also as interpreter of the
tongues, and applied the utterances of the speakers to the suscep-
tible among the hearers.
The former is the most natural interpretation of Luke's Ian*
gnage. Nevertheless I suggest the other alternative as prefer-
able, for the following reasons. 1. The temporary endow-
ment with a supernatural knowledge of foreign languages in-
» Comp. 1 Cor. 14 : 22.
'Act* 10: 40.
'Acts 19:6.
4 1 Cor. cha 12 and 14.
A Aota 2:8: f K ocrrof rg JW? 8ia\4cry 4/tdy <* f *y*w4frnfj*r. Comp. vet,
rov dtov.
232 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
volves nearly all the difficulties of a permanent endowment,
which is now generally abandoned, as going far beyond the data
of the New Testament and known facts of the early spread of
the gospel. 2. The speaking with tongues began before the
spectators arrived, that is before there was any motive for the
employment of foreign languages.1 3. The intervening agency
of the Spirit harmonizes the three accounts of Luke, and Luke
and Paul, or the Pentecostal and the Corinthian glossolalia ; the
only difference remaining is that in Corinth the interpretation
of tongues was made by men in audible speech,9 in Jerusalem
by the Holy Spirit in inward illumination and application.
4. The Holy Spirit was certainly at work among the hearers as
well as the speakers, and brought about the conversion of three
thousand on that memorable day. If he applied and made
effective the sermon of Peter, why not also the preceding dox-
ologies and benedictions ? 5. Peter makes no allusion to foreign
languages, nor does the prophecy of Joel which he quotes.
6. This view best explains the opposite effect upon the specta-
tors. They did by no means all understand the miracle, but the
mockers, like those at Corinth,' thought the disciples were out
of their right mind and talked not intelligible words in their
native dialects, but unintelligible nonsense. The speaking in a
foreign language could not have been a proof of drunkenness.
It may be objected to this view that it implies a mistake on the
part of the hearers who traced the use of their mother-tongues
directly to the speakers ; but the mistake referred not to the fact
itself, but only to the mode. It was the same Spirit who in-
spired the tongues of the speakers and the hearts of the suscep-
tible hearers, and raised both above the ordinary level of con-
sciousness.
Whichever view we take of this peculiar feature of the Pen-
tecostal glossolalia, in this diversified application to the cosmo-
politan multitude of spectators, it was a symbolical anticipation
1 Comp. yen. 4 and 6.
* 1 GOT. 14: 5, 13, 27, 28; oomp. 1 Cor. 12:10, 80.
'Comp, 1 Cor. 14:28.
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 233
and prophetic announcement of the universalness of the Chris-
tian religion, which was to be proclaimed in all the languages of
the earth and to unite all nations in one kingdom of Christ. The
humility and love of the church united what the pride and hatred
of Babel had scattered. In this sense we may say that the Pen-
tecostal harmony of tongues was the counterpart of the Baby-
lonian confusion of tongues.1
The speaking with tongues was followed by the sermon of
Peter ; the act of devotion, by an act of teaching ; the rapturous
language of the soul in converse with God, by the sober words of
ordinary self-possession for the benefit of the people.
While the assembled multitude wondered at this miracle with
widely various emotions, St. Peter, the Rock-man, appeared in
the name of all the disciples, and addressed them with remark-
able clearness and force, probably in his own vernacular Ara-
maic, which would be most familiar to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, possibly in Greek, which would be better under-
stood by the foreign visitors.8 He humbly condescended to re-
fute the charge of intoxication by reminding them of the early
hour of the day, when even drunkards are sober, and explained
from the prophecies of Joel and the sixteenth Psalm of David
the meaning of the supernatural phenomenon, as the work of
that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews had crucified, but who
was by word and deed, by his resurrection from the dead, his
exaltation to the right hand of God, and the effusion of the
Holy Ghost, accredited as the promised Messiah, according to
the express prediction of the Scripture. Then he called upon
his hearers to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, as
the founder and head of the heavenly kingdom, that even they,
though they had crucified him, the Lord and the Messiah, might
1 Grotina (in loc.} : "Pan/* Unguarum dkperrit homines, donum Knguarutn
dispcrsos in unvm popvlum coUegit." See note on Glossolalia.
9 The former is the usual view, the latter is maintained by Stanley, Plump-
ire, and Farrar. Paul addressed the excited multitude in Jerusalem in the
Hebrew tongue, whioh commanded greater silence, Acts 22 : 2. This implies
that they would not have understood him in Greek aa well, or listened aa
attentively.
234 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost,
whose wonderful workings they saw and heard in the disciples.
This was the first independent testimony of the apostles, the
first Christian sermon : simple, unadorned, but full of Scripture
truth, natural, suitable, pointed, and more effective than any
other sermon has been since, though fraught with learning and
burning with eloquence. It resulted in the conversion and bap-
tism of three thousand persons, gathered as first-fruits into the
garners of the church.
In these first-fruits of the glorified Kedeemer, and in this
founding of the new economy of Spirit and gospel, instead of
the old theocracy of letter and law, the typical meaning of the
Jewish Pentecost was gloriously fulfilled. But this birth-day
of the Christian church is in its turn only the beginning, the
type and pledge, of a still greater spiritual harvest and a univer-
sal feast of thanksgiving, when, in the full sense of the prophecy
of Joel, the Holy Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh, when
all the sons and daughters of men shall walk in his light, and
God shall be praised with new tongues of fire for the completion
of his wonderful work of redeeming love.
NOTES.
I. GLOSSOLAIJA.— The Gift of Tongues is the most difficult feature of
the Pentecostal miracle. Our only direct source of information is the
second chapter in Acts, but the gift itself is mentioned in two other pas-
sages, ch. 10 : 46 and 19 : 6, in the concluding section of Mark (of disputed
genuineness), and fully described by Paul in the 12th and 14th chapters
of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. There can be no doubt as to
the existence of that gift in the apostolic age, and if we had only either
the account of Pentecost, or only the account of Paul, we would not hesi-
tate to decide as to its nature, but the difficulty is in harmonizing the two.
(1) The terms employedfor the strange tongues are "new tongues" («aiwii
yXwrcrat, Mark 16 : 17, where Christ promises the gift), " other tongues,"
differing from ordinary tongues (frtpui y\. Acts 2 : 4, but nowhere
else), " kinds " or " diversities of tongues " (ycVi; yX»«r<r«v, 1 Cor. 12 : 28),
or simply "tongues" (yX£<r<nu, 1 Cor. 14:22), and in the singular,
''tongue" (yX£<r<ra, vers. 2, 13, 19, 27, in which passages theE. V. inserts
the interpolation " unknown tongue "). To speak in tongues is called
ct* (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19 :6; 1 Cor. 14:2, 4, 18,
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 235
14, 19, 27). Paul uses also the phrase to "pray with the tongue"
irpo<rcvxe<r$ai yXaxreri;), as equivalent to " praying and singing with the
spirit" (npoa-fvx«(f^ai and \fsa\\fiv rw wixvpan, and as distinct from
irpo<rei>xc<r%ai> and ^<iXXf iv ra> vo£9 1 Cor. 14 : 14, 15). The plural and the
term " diversities " of tongues, as well as the distinction between tongues
of "angels" and tongues of "men" (1 Cor. 13:1) point to different
manifestations (speaking, praying, singing), according to the individu-
ality, education, and mood of the speaker, but not to various foreign
languages, which are excluded by Paul's description.
The term tongue has been differently explained.
(a) Wieseler (and Van Hengel) . the organ of speech, used as a pas*
sive instrument ; speaking with the tongue alone, inarticulately, and in a
low whisper. But this does not explain the plural, nor the terms " new *
and " other" tongues ; the organ of speech remaining the same.
(b) Bleek : rare, provincial, archaic, poetic words, or glosses (whence
our " glossary "). But this technical meaning of yXdxro-at occurs only in
classical writers (as Aristotle, Plutarch, etc ) and among grammarians,
not in Hellenistic Greek, and the interpretation does not suit the singu-
lar yXoxro-a and yXoxTo-T/ XuXfu/, as yXaxrcja could only mean a single gloss.
(c) Most commentators • language or dialect (8iuX«jcros, comp. Acts
1:19; 2 6, 8; 21 40; 26:14). This is the correct view. " Tongue "
is an abridgment for " ne w tongue" (which was the original term, Mark
16 : 17). It does not necessarily mean one of the known languages of the
earth, but may mean a peculiar handling of the vernacular dialect of the
speaker, or a new spiritual language never known before, a language of
immediate inspiration in a state of ecstasy The " tongues " were indi-
vidual varieties of this language of inspiration
(2) The glossolalia in the Corinthian church, with which that at
Caesarea in Acts 10 46, and that at Ephesus, 19 . 6, are evidently identical,
we know very well from the description of Paul It occurred in the first
glow of enthusiasm after conversion and continued for some time. It
was not a speaking m foreign languages, which would have been entirely
useless in a devotional meeting of converts, but a speaking in a language
differing from all known languages, and required an interpreter to be
intelligible to foreigners. It had nothing to do with the spread of
the gospel, although it may, like other devotional acts, have become
a means of conversion to susceptible unbelievers if such were present.
It was an act of self-devotion, an act of thanksgiving, praying, and sing-
ing, within the Christian congregation, by individuals who were wholly
absorbed in communion with God, and gave utterance to their raptur-
ous feelings in broken, abrupt, rhapsodic, unintelligible words. It was
emotional rather than intellectual, the language of the excited imagina-
tion, not of cool reflection. It was the language of the spirit (fl-wOpa)
or of ecstasy, as distinct from the language of the understanding (wws).
We might almost illustrate the difference by a comparison of the style
236 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of the Apocalypse which was conceived iv wvc vpari (Apoc. 1 : 10) with
that of the Gospel of John, which was written cV VOL. The speaker
in tongues was in a state of spiritual intoxication, if we may use this
term, analogous to the poetic " frenzy " described by Shakespeare and
Goethe. His tongue was a lyre on which the divine Spirit played celes-
tial tunes. He was unconscious or only half conscious, and scarcely
knew whether he was " in the body or out of the body." No one could
understand this unpremeditated religious rhapsody unless he was in a
similar trance. To an unbelieving outsider it sounded like a barbarous
tongue, like the uncertain sound of a trumpet, like the raving of a maniac
(1 Cor. 14 : 23), or the incoherent talk of a drunken man (Acts 2 : 13, 15).
" He that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not to men, but to God; for no
one understands th ; and in the spirit he speaketh mysteries ; but ho
that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification, and encouragement, and
comfort. He that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself; but he that
prophesieth edifieth the church19 (I Cor. 14 . 2-4 , comp. 26-33).
The Corinthians evidently overrated the glossolaha, as a showy display
of divine power ; but it was more ornamental than useful, and vanished
away with the bndal season of the church It is a mark of the great
wisdom of Paul who was himself a master in the glossolaha (1 Cor 14 : 18),
that he assigned to it a subordinate and transient position, restrained its
exercise, demanded an interpretation of it, and gave the preference to
the gifts of permanent usefulness in which God displays his goodness
and love for the general benefit Speaking with tongues is good, but pro-
phesying and teaching in intelligible speech for the edification of the
congregation is better, and love to God and men in active exercise is
best of all (1 Cor. ch. 13).
We do not know how long the glossolalia, as thus described by Paul,
continued. It passed away gradually with the other extraordinary or
strictly supernatural gifts of the apostolic age. It is not mentioned in
the Pastoral, nor in the Catholic Epistles. We have but a few allu-
sions to it at the close of the second century IrenaBus (Adv. Haer. 1 v.
c. 6, 8 1) speaks of " many brethren " whom he heard in the church hav-
ing the gift of prophecy and of speaking in " diverse tongues "
irals •yX&xrrrmr), bringing the hidden things of men (ra Kpvtpia ra>p
to light and expounding the mysteries of God (ra /uxrnjpm roO 3foO). It
is not clear whether by the term " diverse," which does not elsewhere
occur, he means a speaking in foreign languages, or in diversities of
tongues altogether peculiar, like those meant by Paul. The latter
is more probable. Irenreus himself had to learn the language of GauL
Tertullian (Adv. Marc. V. 8 ; comp. De Amma, c. 9) obscurely speaks of
the spiritual gifts, including the gift of tongues, as being still manifest
among the Montanists to whom he belonged. At the time of Chrysos-
tom it had entirely disappeared ; at least he accounts for the obscurity
of the gift from our ignorance of the fact. From that time on the glos-
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 237
solatia was usually misunderstood as a miraculous and permanent gift
oi foreign languages for missionary purposes. But the whole history of
missions furnishes no clear example of such a gift for such a pur-
pose.
Analogous phenomena, of an inferior kind, and not miraculous, yet
serving as illustrations, either by approximation or as counterfeits, reap-
peared from time to time in seasons of special religious excitement, as
among the Camisards and the prophets of the Cevennes in France,
among the early Quakers and Methodists, the Mormons, the Headers
("Lasare") in Sweden in 1841 to 1843, in the Irish revivals of 1859, and
especially in the " Catholic Apostolic Church," commonly called Irving-
ites, from 1831 to 1833, and even to this day. See Ed. Irving's articles
on Gifts ofttie Holy Gttost called Supei-natural, in his "Works," vol. V.,
p. 509, etc ; Mrs. Ohphant's Life of Irving, voL II. ; the descriptions
quoted in my Hist Ap Ck J 55, p. 198 ; and from friend and foe in Stan-
ley's Com. on Corinth , p 252, 4th ed. ; also Plumptre in Smith's " Bible
Diet ," IV. 3311, Am ed. The Irvmgites who have written on the sub-
ject (Thiersch, Bohm, and Bossteuscher) make a marked distinction be-
tween the Pentecostal glossolalia in foreign languages and the Corinthian
glossolaha in devotional meetings ; and it is the latter only which they
compare to their own experience. Several years ago I witnessed this
phenomenon in an Irvmgite congregation in New York ; the words were
broken, ejaculatory and unintelligible, but uttered in abnormal, start-
ling, impressive sounds, in a state of apparent unconsciousness and rap-
ture, and without any control over the tongue, which was seized as it
were by a foreign power A friend and colleague (Dr. Briggs), who
witnessed it in 1879 in the principal Irvingite church at London, re-
ceived the same impression
(3) The Pentecostal glossolalia cannot have been essentially different
from the Corinthian it was likewise an ecstatic act of worship, of thanks-
giving and praise for the great deeds of God in Christ, a dialogue of the
soul with God. It was the purest and the highest utterance of the jubi-
lant enthusiasm of the new-born church of Christ in the possession of
the Holy Spirit. It began before the spectators arrived (comp. vers. 4
and 6), and was followed by a missionary discourse of Peter m plain,
ordinary language. Luke mentions the same gift twice again (chs. 10
and 19) evidently as an act of devotion, and not of teaching.
Nevertheless, according to the evident meaning of Luke's narrative,
the Pentecostal glossolalia differed from the Corinthian not only by its
intensity, but also by coming home to the hearers then present in their
own vernacular dialects, without the medium of a human interpreter.
Hence the term " different" tongues, which Paul does not use, nor Luke
in any other passage ; hence the astonishment of the foreigners at hearing
each his own peculiar idiom from the lips of those unlettered Galileans.
It is this heteroglotsolalia, as I may term it, which causes the chief diffi-
238 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
culty. I will give the various views which either deny, or shift, or inten-
sify, or try to explain this foreign element.
(a) The rationalistic interpretation cuts the Gordian knot by denying
the miracle, as a mistake of the narrator or of the early Christian tradi-
tion. Even Meyer surrenders the heteroglossolalia, as far as it differs
from the Corinthian glossolalia, as an unhistorical tradition which origi-
nated in a mistake, because he considers the sudden communication of
the facility of speaking foreign languages as "logically impossible, and
psychologically and morally inconceivable " (Com. on Acts 2 . 4, 4th ed.).
But Luke, the companion of Paul, must have been familiar with the
glossolalia in the apostolic churches, and in the two other passages where
he mentions it he evidently means the same phenomenon as that de-
scribed by Paul
(b) The heteroglossolalia was a mistake of the hearers (a Horwunder),
who in the state of extraordinary excitement and profound sympathy
imagined that they heard their own language from the disciples ; while
Luke simply narrates their impression without correcting it. This view
was mentioned (though not adopted) by Gregory of Nyssa, and held by
Pseudo-Cyprian, the venerable Bede, Erasmus, Schneckenburger and
others. If the pentecostal language was the Hellenistic dialect, it could,
with its composite character, its Hebraisms and Latmisms, the more
easily produce such an effect when spoken by persons stirred in the in-
most depth of their hearts and lifted out of themselves. St Xavier is
said to have made himself understood by the Hindoos without knowing
their language, and St. Bernard, St. Anthony of Padua, St Vincent
Ferrer were able, by the spiritual power of their eloquence, to kindle
the enthusiasm and sway the passions of multitudes who were ignorant
of their language. Olshausen and Baumlein call to aid the phenomena
of magnetism and somnambulism, by which people are brought into
mysterious rapport.
(c) The glossolalia was speaking in archaic, poetic glosses, with an
admixture of foreign words. This view, learnedly defended by Bleek
(1829), and adopted with modifications by Baur (1838), has already been
mentioned above (p. 233), as inconsistent with Hellenistic usage, and the
natural meaning of Luke.
(d) The mystical explanation regards the Pentecostal Gift of Tongues
in some way as a counterpart of the Confusion of Tongues, either as a
temporary restoration of the original language of Paradise, or as a pro-
phetic anticipation of the language of heaven in which all languages are
united. This theory, which is more deep than clear, turns the hetero-
glossolalia into a homoglossolalia, and puts the miracle into the lan-
guage itself and its temporary restoration or anticipation. Schelling calls
the Pentecostal miracle " Babel reversed" (das umgekehrte Babel), and
says : " Dem Ereigniss der Sprachenverunrrung lasst sich in der ganzen
Folge der religiosen Geschichte nur Eines an die Seite stellen, die momen-
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OP PENTECOST, A,D. 30. 239
tan wiederhergestellte Sprachemheit (ofuryXaxrrrtfi) am Pflngstfeste, mil dem
das Christenthum, bestimmt das game Menschengeschlecht durch die Erkennt-
ntss des Einen wahren Gottes wieder zur Einheit zu verknupfen, seinen
grossen Weg beginnt." (EtnL in d. Philos. der Mythologie, p. 109). A simi-
lar view was defended by Billroth(in his Com. on 1 Cor. ch. 14, p. 177),
who suggests that the primitive language combined elements of the differ-
ent derived languages, so that each listener heard fragments of his own.
Lange (II. 38) sees here the normal language of the inner spiritual life
which unites the redeemed, and which runs through all ages of the
church as the leaven of languages, regenerating, transforming, and con-
secrating them to sacred uses, but he assumes also, like Olshausen, a sym-
pathetic rapport between speakers and hearers. Dektzsch (I c. p. 1186)
says . " Die apostohsche Verkundigung erging damals in einer Sprache des
Geistes, welche das Gegenbild der in Babel zerschellten EINEN Menschheits-
spj'ache war und von alien ohne Unterschied der Sprachen gleichmassig ver-
standen wurde. Wie das weisse Licht alle Farben aus sich erscMiesst, so
ftel die geistgewirkte Apostelsprache we in prismatischer Brechung ver-
standlich in oiler Ohren und ergreifend in atter Herzen. Es war em Vor-
spiel der Eimgung, in welcher die von Babel datirende Verunetmgung sich
aufJieben wird. Dem Sivan-Tag des steinemen Buchslabens trat ein Swan-
Tag des lebendigmachenden Geistes entgegen. Es war der Geburtstag der
Kirche, der Geistesgemeinde im Unterschiede von der alttestamenthchen
Volksgenieinde , darum nennt Chrysostomus in einer Pfingsthomihe die
Pentekoste die Metropole der Feste " Ewald's view (VI. 116 sqq.) is like-
wise mystical, but original and expressed with his usual confidence. He
calls the glossolalia an " Auflallen und Aufjauchzen der christhchen Be-
geisterung, etn stunmsches Hervorbrechen alter der verborgenen Gefuhle und
Gedanken in ihrer vollsten UnmiUelbarkeit und GewaU." He says that on
the day of Pentecost the most unusual expressions and synonyms of dif-
ferent languages (as <ij3/3a 6 Trar^p, Gal. 4:6; Bom. 8 : 15, and pnpav <\%<if
1 Cor. 16 : 22), with reminiscences of words of Christ as resounding from
heaven, commingled in the vortex of a new language of the Spirit, and
gave utterance to the exuberant joy of the young Christianity in stam-
mering hymns of praise never heard before or since except in the weaker
manifestations of the same gift in the Corinthian and other apostolic
churches.
(e) The Pentecostal glossolalia was a permanent endowment of the
apostles with a miraculous knowledge of all those foreign languages in
which they were to preach the gospel. As they were sent to preach to
all nations, they were gifted with the tongues of all nations. This theory
was first clearly brought out by the fathers in the fourth and fifth centu-
ries, long after the gift of tongues had disappeared, and was held by
most of the older divines, though with different modifications, but is
now abandoned by nearly all Protestant commentators except Bishop
Wordsworth, who defends it with patristic quotations, Chrysostom sup*
240 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
posed that each disciple was assigned the particular language which he
needed for his evangelistic work (Horn, on Acts 2). Augustine went
much farther, saying (De Civ. Dei, XVIH. c. 49) : "Every one of them
spoke in the tongues of all nations ; thus signifying that the unity of the
catholic church would embrace all nations, and would in like manner
speak in all tongues." Some confined the number of languages to the
number of foreign nations and countries mentioned by Luke (Chrysos-
tom), others extended it to 70 or 72 (Augustine and Epiphanius), or 75,
after the number of the sons of Noah (Gen. ch. 10), or even to 120
(Pacianus), after the number of the disciples present. Baronms men-
tions these opinions in Anncd. ad ann. 34, vol. 1. 197. The feast of lan-
guages in the Koman Propaganda perpetuates this theory, but turns the
moral miracle of spiritual enthusiasm into a mechanical miracle of
acquired learning in unknown tongues. Were all the speakers to speak
at once, as on the day of Pentecost, it would be a more than Babylo-
nian confusion of tongues.
Such a stupendous miracle as is here supposed might be justified by
the far-reaching importance of that creative epoch, but it is without a
parallel and surrounded by insuperable difficulties. The theory ignores
the fact that the glossolalia began before the spectators arrived, that is,
before there was any necessity of using foreign languages. It isolates
the Pentecostal glossolalia and brings Luke into conflict with Paul and
with himself ; for in all other cases the gift of tongues appears, as already
remarked, not as a missionary agency, but as an exercise of devotion. It
implies that all the one hundred disciples present, including the women
— for a tongue as of fire " sat upon each of them " — were called to be
traveling evangelists. A miracle of that kind was superfluous (a Luxus-
wunder) ; for since the conquest of Alexander the Great the Greek lan-
guage was so generally understood throughout the Roman empire that
the apostles scarcely needed any other — unless it was Latin and their
native Aramaean — for evangelistic purposes ; and the Greek was used in
fact by all the writers of the New Testament, even by James of Jerusa-
lem, and in a way which shows that they had learnt it like other people,
by early training and practice. Moreover there is no trace of such a
miraculous knowledge, nor any such use of it after Pentecost.1 On the
1 What may be claimed for St Bernard, St. Vincent Ferrer, and 8t Francii
Xavier is not a miraculous heteroglossolalia, but an eloquence so ardent,
earnest, and intense, that the rude nations which they addressed in Latin or
Spanish imagined they heard them in their mother tongue St. Bernard
(d. 1158) fired the Germans in Latin to the second crusade, and made a
greater impression on them by his very appearance than the translation of the
tame speech by his interpreter. See Neander, D*r hcil. BernJiard, p. 888
(3d ed ). Alban Butler (Ztaf of th* Saint*, sub April 5) reports of St Vin-
cent Ferrer (died 1419) : " Spondanni and many others say, the saint was
§ 24. THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 241
contrary, we must infer that Paul did not understand the Lycaonian
dialect (Acts 14 : 11-14), and we learn from early ecclesiastical tradition
that Peter used Mark as an interpreter Icounvtvs or e/jftyjtvrfc, interpret,
according to Papias, Irenaeus, and Tertullian). God does not supersede
by miracle the learning of foreign languages and other kinds of knowl-
edge which can be attained by the ordinary use of our mental faculties
and opportunities.
(f ) It was a temporary speaking in foreign languages confined to the
day of Pentecost and passing away with the flame-like tongues. The
exception was justified by the object, namely, to attest the divine mission
of the apostles and to foreshadow the universalness of the gospel. This
view is taken by most modern commentators who accept the account of
Luke, as Olshausen (who combines with it the theory b), Baumgarten,
Thiersch, Rossteuscher, Lechler, Hackett, Gloag, Plumptre (in his Com.
on Acts), and myself (in H. Ap. Ch.), and accords best with the plain
sense of the narrative. But it likewise makes an essential distinction
between the Pentecostal and the Corinthian glossolalia, which is extremely
improbable. A temporary endowment with the knowledge of foreign
languages unknown before is as great 'if not a greater miracle than a per-
manent endowment, and was just as superfluous at that time in Jerusalem
as afterwards at Corinth ; for the missionary sermon of Peter, which was
in one language only, was intelligible to all.
(g) The Pentecostal glossolalia was essentially the same as the Corin-
thian glossolalia, namely, an act of worship, and not of teaching ; with
only a slight difference in the medium of interpretation : it was at once
internally interpreted and applied by the Holy Spirit himself to those
hearers who believed and were converted, to each in his own vernacular
dialect; while in Corinth the interpretation was made either by the
speaker in tongues, or by one endowed with the gift of interpretation.
I can find no authority for this theory, and therefore suggest it with
modesty, but it seems to me to avoid most of the difficulties of the other
theories, and it brings Luke into harmony with himself and with Paul.
It is certain that the Holy Spirit moved the hearts of the hearers as well
honored with the gift of tongues, and that, preaching in Ids own, he was
understood by men of different languages ; which is also affirmed by Lanzano,
who says, that Greeks, Germans, Sardes, Hungarians, and people of other
nations, declared they understood every word he spoke, though he preached
in Latin, or in his mother-tongue, as spoken at Valentin." This account
clearly implies that Ferrer did not understand Greek, German, and Hunga-
rian. As to Francis Xavier (d. 1552), Alban Butler says (sub Dec. 3) that the
gift of tongues was "a transient favor," and that he learned the Malabar
tongue and the Japanese <( by unwearied application ; " from which we may
infer that his impression upon the heathen was independent of the language.
Not one of these saints claimed the gift of tongues or other miraculous powers,
but only their dbdplei or later writer*.
242 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
as the tongues of the speakers on that first day of the new creation in
Christ In a natural form the Pentecostal heteroglossolalia is continued
in the preaching of the gospel in all tongues, and in more than three hun-
dred translations of the Bible.
II. FALSE INTEBPBETATIONS OF THE PENTECOSTAL IOBAGLE.
(1) The older rationalistic interpretation resolves the wind into a
thunderstorm or a hurricane surcharged with electricity, the tongues of
fire into flashes of lightning falling into the assembly, or electnc sparks
from a sultry atmosphere, and the glossolaha into a praying of each in
his own vernacular, instead of the sacred old Hebrew, or assumes that
some of the disciples knew several foreign dialects before and used them on
the occasion. So Paulus, Thiess, Schulthess, Kuinol, Schrader, Fntzsche,
substantially also Kenan, who dwells on the violence of Oriental thunder-
storms, but explains the glossolaha differently, according to analogous
phenomena of later times. This view makes the wonder of the specta-
tors and hearers at such an ordinary occurrence a miracle. It robs them
of common sense, or charges dishonesty on the narrator. It is entirely
inapplicable to the glossolaha in Corinth, which must certainly be ad-
mitted as an historical phenomenon of frequent occurrence in the apostolic
church. It is contradicted by the comparative wrrrrr/j and oxrei of the
narrative, which distinguishes the sound from ordinary wind and the
tongues of flame from ordinary fire , just as the words, " like a dove," to
which all the Gospels compare the appearance of the Holy Spirit at
Christ's baptism, indicate that no real dove is intended.
(2) The modern rationalistic or mythical theory resolves the miracle
into a subjective vision which was mistaken by the early Christians for
an objective external fact. The glossolaha of Pentecost (not that in
Corinth, which is acknowledged as historical) symbolizes the true idea
of the universalness of the gospel and the Messianic unification of lan-
guages and nationalities (ciV Auof Kvpiov KOI yXoxro-a p/a, as the Testament
of the Twelve Patriarchs expresses it). It is an imitation of the rabbin-
ical fiction (found already in Philo) that the Sinaitic legislation was
proclaimed through the bath-kol, the echo of the voice of God, to all na-
tions in the seventy languages of the world. So Zeller (Contents and
Origin of the Acts, L 203-205), who thinks that the whole pentecostal
fact, if it occurred at all, " must have been distorted beyond recognition
in our record." But his chief argument is " the impossibility and incredi-
bility of miracles," which he declares (p. 175, note) to be " an axiom " of
the historian ; thus acknowledging the negative presupposition or philo-
sophical prejudice which underlies his historical criticism. We hold, on
the contrary, that the historian must accept the facts as he finds them,
and if he cannot explain them satisfactorily from natural causes or sub-
jective illusions, he must trace them to supernatural forces. Xow the
Christian church, which is certainly a most palpable and undeniable fact,
§ 24. THE MIKACLE OF PENTECOST, A.D. 30. 243
must have originated in a certain place, at a certain time, and in a cer-
tain manner, and we can imagine no more appropriate and satisfactory
account ot its origin than that given by Luke. Baur and Zeller think it
impossible that three thousand persons should have been converted in
one day and in one place. They forget that the majority of the hearers
were no skeptics, but believers in a supernatural revelation, and needed
only to be convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah.
Ewald says against Zeller, without naming him (VI. 119) : "Nothing
can be more perverse than to deny the historical truth of the event re-
lated in Acts 2." We hold with Bothe (Vvrltsungen uber Kirchenge-
schichte I. 33) that the Pentecostal event was a real miracle ("em eigent-
hches Wunder "), which the Holy Spirit wrought on the disciples and
which endowed them with the power to perform miracles (according to
the promise, Mark 16 : 17, 18). Without these miraculous powers Chris-
tianity could not have taken hold on the world as it then stood. The
Christian church itself, with its daily experiences of regeneration and
conversion at home and in heathen lands, is the best living and omni-
present proof of its supernatural origin.
TIMB and PLACE of Pentecost. Did it occur on a Lord's Day (the
eighth after Easter), or on a Jewish Sabbath ? In a private house, or
in the temple ? We decide for the Lord's Day, and for a private house.
But opinions are much divided, and the arguments almost equally
balanced.
(1) The choice of the day in the week depends partly on the interpre-
tation of " the morrow after the (Passover) Sabbath " from which the
fiftieth day was to be counted, according to the legislative prescription
in Lev. 23 11, 15, 16 — namely, whether it was the morrow following the
first day of the Passover, i. e the 16th of Nisan, or the day after the
regular Sabbath in the Passover week ; partly on the date of Christ's
crucifixion, which took place on a Friday, namely, whether this was the
14th or 15th of Nisan. If we assume that the Friday of Christ's death
was the 14th of Nisan, then the 15th was a Sabbath, and Pentecost in
that year fell on a Sunday ; but if the Friday of the crucifixion was the
15th of Nisan (as I hold myself, see ? 16, p. 133), then Pentecost fell on
a Jewish Sabbath (so Wieseler, who fixes it on Saturday, May 27, A.D. 30),
unless we count from the end of the 16th of Nisan (as Wordsworth and
Plumptre do, who put Pentecost on a Sunday). But if we take the
"Sabbath" in Lev. 23 in the usual sense of the weekly Sabbath (as the
Sadducees and Karaites did), then the Jewish Pentecost fell always on a
Sunday. At all events the Christian church has uniformly observed
Whit-Sunday on the eighth Lord's Day after Easter, adhering in this
case, as well as in the festivals of the resurrection (Sunday) and of the
ascension (Thursday), to the old tradition as to the day of the week when
the event occurred. This view would furnish an additional reason fox
244 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the substitution of Sunday, as the day of the Lord's resurrection and the
descent of the Holy Spirit, for the Jewish Sabbath. "Wordsworth:
44 Thus the first day of the week has been consecrated to all the three
Persons of the ever-blessed and undivided Trinity ; and the blessings of
Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification are commemorated on the
Christian Sunday." Wieseler assumes, without good reason, that the
ancient church deliberately changed the day from opposition to the Jew-
ish Sabbath ; but the celebration of Pentecost together with that of the
.Resurrection seems to be as old as the Christian church and has its pre-
cedent in the example of Paul, Acts 18 : 21 ; 20 : 16.— Lightfoot (Hone
Hebr. in Ada Ap. 2:1; Opera IL 692) counts Pentecost from the 16th
of Nisan, but nevertheless puts the first Christian Pentecost on a Sun-
day by an unusual and questionable interpretation of Acts 2:1 «V ro>
<rvi/7rXi^ou<r3ut rrjv rjptpuv ri?c ncirqKoarqr, which he makes to mean " when
the day of Pentecost was fully gone" instead of " was fully c&me" But
whether Pentecost fell on a Jewish Sabbath or on a Lord's Day, the
coincidence in either case was significant.
(2) As to the place, Luke calls it simply a " house" (oixos, 2:2), which
can hardly mean the temple (not mentioned till ver. 46). It was proba-
bly the same " upper room " or chamber which he had mentioned m the
preceding chapter, as the well known usual meeting place of the disci-
ples after the ascension, TO vntpvov . . . ov yo-uv KarapivovTcs, 1 13). So
Neander, Meyer, Ewald, Wordsworth, Plumptre, Farrar, and others.
Perhaps it was the some chamber in which our Lord partook of the
Paschal Supper with them (Mark 14 . 14, 15 ; Matt. 26 : 28). Tiadition
locates both events in the " Coenaculum," a room in an irregular build-
ing called " David's Tomb/' which lies outside of Zion Gate some dis-
tance from Mt. Moriah. (See William M. Thomson, The Land and the
Book, new ed. 1880, vol. I. p. 535 sq.) But Cyril of Jerusalem ( Catech XVI.
4) states that the apartment where the Holy Spirit descended was after-
wards converted into a church. The uppermost room under the Hat
roof of Oriental houses (vntpyov, fi^?) was often used as a place of de-
votion (comp. Acts 20 : 8). But as a private house could not possibly
hold so great a multitude, we must suppose that Peter addressed the
people in the street from the roof or from the outer staircase.
Many of the older divines, as also Olshausen, Baumgarten, Wieseler,
Lange, Thiersch (and myself in first ed. of Ap. Ch., p. 194), locate the
Pentecostal scene in the temple, or rather in one of the thirty side build-
ings around it, which Josephus calls " houses " (OIKOVS) in his description
of Solomon's temple (Ant. VIII. 3, 2), or in Solomon's porch, which
remained from the first temple, and where the disciples assembled after-
wards (Acts 5 : 12, comp. 8 : 11). In favor of this view may be said, that
it better agrees with the custom of the apostles (Luke 24 : 53 ; Acts 2 : 46 ;
5 : 12, 42), with the time of the miracle (the morning hour of prayer),
and with the assembling of a large multitude of at least three thousand
§ 25. ST. PETER — CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS. 245
nearers, and also that it seems to give additional solemnity to the event
when it took place in the symbolical and typical sanctuary of the old
dispensation. But it is difficult to conceive that the hostile Jews should
have allowed the poor disciples to occupy one of those temple buildings
and not interfered with the scene. In the dispensation of the Spirit
which now began, the meanest dwelling, and the body of the humblest
Christian becomes a temple of God. Comp. John 4 : 24.
IV. EFFECTS of the Day of Pentecost. From Farrar's Life and Work
of St. Paul (L 93) : " That this first Pentecost marked an eternal moment
in the destiny of mankind, no reader of history will surely deny. Un-
doubtedly in every age since then the sons of God have, to an extent
unknown before, been taught by the Spint of God. Undoubtedly since
then, to an extent unrealized before, we may know that the Spirit of
Christ dwelleth in us. Undoubtedly we may enjoy a nearer sense of
union with God in Christ than was accorded to the saints of the Old
Dispensation, and a thankful certainty that we see the days which kings
and prophets desired to see and did not see them, and hear the truths
which they desired to hear and did not hear them. And this New Dis-
pensation began henceforth in all its fulness. It was no exclusive conse-
cration to a separated pnesthood, no isolated endowment of a narrow
apostolate It was the consecration of a whole church— its men, its
women, its children — to be all of them 'a chosen generation, a royal
pnesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people ; ' it was an endowment, of
which the full free offer was meant ultimately to be extended to all man-
kind. Each one of that hundred and twenty was not the exceptional
recipient of a blessing and witness of a revelation, but the forerunner
and representative of myriads more. And this miracle was not merely
transient, but is continuously renewed. It is not a rushing sound and
gleaming light, seen perhaps for a moment, but it is a living energy and
an unceasing inspiration. It is not a visible symbol to a gathered hand-
ful of human souls in the upper room of a Jewish house, but a vivifying
wind which shall henceforth breathe in all ages of the world's history ; a
tide of light which is rolling, and shall roll, from shore to shore until
the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
§ 25. The Church of Jerusalem and the Labors of Peter.
b cl lift-pot, xai M rabrg if irtrptf olKotiorfo'* pov r^v facAifO'fa)', iral
pov o* ftaritrx*""""" afrrijs.— Matt 16: 18.
Literature.
Genuine sources : Acts, chs. 2 to 12 ; Gal oh. 2 ; and two Epistles of
Peter.
Comp. the Commentaries on Acts, and the Petrine Epistles,
246 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Among the commentators of Peter's Epp. I mention Archbishop
LEIGHTON (in many editions, not critical, but devout and spiritual),
STEIGEB (1832, translated by Fairbairn, 1836), JOHN BBOWN (1849,
2 vols.), WIESINGER (1856 and 1862, in Olshausen's Com.), SCHOTT
(1861 and 1863), DE WETTE (3d ed. by Bruckner, 1865), HTJTHEB (in
Meyer's Com., 4th ed. 1877), FBONMULLEB (in Lange's Bibeluwfa
transl. by Mombert, 1867), ALFOKD (3d ed. 1864), JOHN LILLIB (ed.
by Schaff, 1869), DEMABEST (Oath. Epp. 1879), MASON and PLUMMEB
(inEihcott's Com., 1879), PLUMPTBE (in the " Cambridge Bible," 1879,
with a very full introduction, pp. 1-83), SALMOND (in Schaff's Pop.
Com. 1883). Comp. also the corresponding sections in the works on
the Apostolic Age mentioned in g 20, and my H. Ap. Ch. pp. 348-377.
II. Apocryphal sources: EvayyfXiov Kara iltrpov, of Ebiomte origin,
Kqpiry/jia IIcV^ov, n/Jti£«tj Ilcrpot;, 'ATrogaXv^i? IZcrpov, Htpivo'oi 11(7 pov
(Itinerarium Petri), npd£cis rvv Aylw anocrroK^v Uirpov KOI IlauXov
(Acta Petn et Pauh). See Tischendorf s Acta Apost. Apocr. 1-39,
and Hilgenfeld's Novum Testamentum extra canonem receptum (1866),
IV. 52 sqq. The Pseudo-Clementine " Homilies " are a glonfication
of Peter at the expense of Paul ; the " Becogmtions " are a Catholic
recension and modification of the " Homilies." The pseudo-Clemen-
tine literature will be noticed in the second Penod.
IU. Special works on Peter :
E. TH. MATERHOFF: Hi&torisch-Kritische Einleitung in die Petnmschen
Schriften. Hamb. 1835.
WINDISCHMANN (B. C.) : VindicHR Petrince. Batisb. 1836.
STENGLEIN (B. C.) : Ueber den 25 jahngen AufenthaU des heil Petrus in
Ram. In the " Tubinger Theol. Quartalschrift," 1840.
J. ELLENDOBF : hi Petrus in Rom und Bishof der roimschen Gememde
gewesen? Darmstadt, 1841. Transl. in the " Bibliotheca Sacra,"
Andover, 1858, No. 3. The author, a liberal B. Cath , comes to the
conclusion that Peter's presence in Borne can never be proven.
CABLO PASSAGLIA (Jesuit) : De Prcerogativis Beati Petn, Apostolorum
Prtnwpis. Batisbon, 1850.
THOMAS W. AMJBS (B. C.) : St. Peter, his Name and his Office as set forth
in Holy Scripture. London, 1852. Based upon the preceding work
of Father Passaglia.
BEBNH. WEISS : Der Petrinische Lehrbegriff. Berlin, 1855. Comp. his
Bibl Theol des N. T., 3d ed. 1880, and his essay, Die petnmsche
Frage in "Studien und Kritiken," 1865, pp. 619-657, 1866, pp. 255-
308, and 1873, pp. 539-546.
THOS. GREENWOOD : Cathedra Petri. Lond., vol. I. 1859, chs. L and IL
pp. 1-50.
PEBBONE (B. C.) : 8. Pietro in Roma. Borne, 1864.
C. HOLSTEN (of the Tubingen School) : Zum Evangelium des PauLus und
des Petrus. Bostock, 1868.
§ 25. ST. PETER — CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS. 247
E. A. LIPSIUS : Die QueUen derr rdm. Petrussage. Kiel, 1872. By the
same : Chronologic der rdm. Bisclwfe. Kiel, 1869. Lipsius exam-
ines carefully the heretical sources of the Roman Peter-legend, and
regards it as a fiction from beginning to end. A summary of his
view is given by
SAMUEL M. JACKSON: Lipsius on the Roman Peter-Legend. In the
"Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review" (N. York) for 1876,
pp. 265 sqq.
G. VOLKMAB : Die romische Papstmythe. Zurich, 1873.
A. HILGENFELD : Petrus in Rom und Johannes in Kleina&ien. In his
"Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftiiche Theol." for 1872. Also his Ein-
leitung in das N. T.t 1875, pp. 618 sqq.
W. KBAFPT : Petrus in Rom. Bonn, 1877. In the "Theol. Arbeiten des
rhein. wissenschaftL Predigervereins," 1H. 185-193.
JOH. FBIEDRICH (Old Cath.) : Zur altesten Gesch. des Primates in der
Kirche. Bonn, 1879.
WILLIAM M. TAYLOB : Peter the Apostle. N. York, 1879.
The congregation of Jerusalem became the mother church of
Jewish Christianity, and thus of all Christendom. It grew both
inwardly and outwardly under the personal direction of the
apostles, chiefly of Peter, to whom the Lord had early assigned
a peculiar prominence in the work of building his visible church
on earth. The apostles were assisted by a number of presbyters,
and seven deacons or persons appointed to care for the poor and
the sick. But the Spirit moved in the whole congregation,
bound to no particular office. The preaching of the gospel, the
working of miracles in the name of Jesus, and the attractive
power of a holy walk in faith and love, were the instruments ot
progress. The number of the Christians, or, as they at first
called themselves, disciples, believers, brethren, saints, soon rose
to five thousand. They continued steadfastly under the instruc-
tion and in the fellowship of the apostles, in the daily worship
of God and celebration of the holy Supper with their agapse or
love-feasts. They felt themselves to be one family of God,
members of one body under one head, Jesus Christ ; and this
fraternal unity expressed itself even in a voluntary community
of goods — an anticipation, as it were, of an ideal state at the
end of history, but without binding force upon any other con-
248 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
gregation. They adhered as closely to the temple worship and
the Jewish observances as the new life admitted and as long as
there was any hope of the conversion of Israel as a nation.
They went daily to the temple to teach, as their Master had
done, but held their devotional meetings in private houses.1
The addresses of Peter to the people and the Sanhedrin * are
remarkable for their natural simplicity and adaptation. They
are full of fire and vigor, yet full of wisdom and persuasion, and
always to the point. More practical and effective sermons were
never preached. They are testimonies of an eye-witness so
timid a few weeks before, and now so bold and ready at any
moment to suffer and die for the cause. They are an expansion
of his confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living
God, the Saviour. lie preached no subtle theological doctrines,
but a few great facts and truths : the crucifixion and resurrec-
tion of Jesus the Messiah, already known to his hearers for his
mighty signs and wonders, his exaltation to the right hand of
Almighty God, the descent and power of the Holy Spirit, the
fulfilment of prophecy, the approaching judgment and glorious
restitution of all things, the paramount importance of conversion
and faith in Jesus as the only name whereby we can be saved.
There breathes in them an air of serene joy and certain triumph.
We can form no clear conception of this bridal season of the
Christian church when no dust of earth soiled her shining gar-
ments, when she was wholly absorbed in the contemplation and
love of her divine Lord, when he smiled down upon her from
his throne in heaven, and added daily to the number of the
saved. It was a continued Pentecost, it was paradise restored.
"They did take their food with gladness and singleness of
heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people." '
'Act* 2:46; 3:1; 5:42.
5 Acts 2: 14 sqq.; 3:13 sqq. ; 5:29 sqq. ; 10:34 sqq ; 11:5 sqq. ; 15:
7 sqq.
3 Acts 2 : 46, 47. Renan says, with reference to this period (Les apdtra,
oh. Y.), that in no literary work does the word "joy " BO often occur as in
the New Testament, and quotes 1 Thess. 1:6; 5 : 16 ; Bom. 14 : 17; 15 : 18;
Gal. 5:22; PhiL 1 :25; 8 : 1 ; 4:4; 1 John 1:4. Many other passages
might be added.
§ 26. ST. PETER— CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS. 249
Yet even in this primitive apostolic community inward cor-
ruption early appeared, and with it also the severity of disci-
pline and self -purification, in the terrible sentence of Peter on
the hypocritical Ananias and Sapphira.
At first Christianity found favor with the people. Soon,
however, it had to encounter the same persecution as its divine
founder had undergone, but only, as before, to transform it into
a blessing and a means of growth.
The persecution was begun by the skeptical sect of the Sad
ducees, who took offence at the doctrine of the resurrection of
Christ, the centre of all the apostolic preaching.
When Stephen, one of the seven deacons of the church at
Jerusalem, a man full of faith and zeal, the forerunner of the
apostle Paul, boldly assailed the perverse and obstinate spirit of
Judaism, and declared the approaching downfall of the Mosaic
economy, the Pharisees made common cause with the Sadducees
against the gospel. Thus began the emancipation of Christian-
ity from the temple-worship of Judaism, with which it had til',
tb en remained at least outwardly connected. Stephen himself was
falsely accused of blaspheming Moses, and after a remarkable
address in his own defence, he was stoned by a mob (A.D. 37),
and thus became the worthy leader of the sacred host of martyrs,
whose blood was thenceforth to fertilize the soil of the church.
From the blood of his martyrdom soon sprang the great apostle
of the Gentiles, now his bitterest persecutor, and an eye-witness
of his heroism and of the glory of Christ in his dying face.1
The stoning of Stephen was the signal for a general persecu-
tion, and thus at the same time for the spread of Christianity
over all Palestine and the region around. And it was soon fol-
lowed by the conversion of Cornelius of Csesarea, which opened
the door for the mission to the Gentiles. In this important
event Peter likewise was the prominent actor.
1 On Stephen oomp. Thiersch : De Stephani protomartyrti oration* commen*
totio exegetka, Marb 1849 ; Banr . Paul, ch. II. ; my HitsL of the Apost.
Church, pp. 211 sqq ; and the commentaries of Meyer, Lechler, Hackett,
Wordsworth, Plumptre, Howson and Spence, on Acts, ohs, 6 and 7.
250 FIRST PERIOD A.D. I-IOO.
After some seven years of repose the church at Jerusalem
Buffered a new persecution under king Herod Agrippa (A.D. 44)
James the elder, the brother of John, was beheaded. Peter was
imprisoned and condemned to the same fate ; but he was mira-
culously liberated, and then forsook Jerusalem, leaving the
church to the care of James the "brother of the Lord."
Eusebius, Jerome, and the Eoinan Catholic historians assume
that he went at that early period to Borne, at least on a tem-
porary visit, if not for permanent residence. But the book of
Acts (12 : 17) says only : " He departed, and went into (mother
place." The indefiniteness of this expression, in connection with
a remark of PauL 1 Cor. 9 : 5, is best explained on the supposi-
tion that he had hereafter no settled home, but led the life of a
travelling missionary like most of the apostles.
THE LATER LABORS OF PETER.
Afterwards we find Peter again in Jerusalem at the apostolic
council (A.D. 50) ; l then at Antioch (51), where he came into
temporary collision with Paul ; * then upon missionary tours,
accompanied by his wife (57) ; * perhaps among the dispersed
Jews in Babylon or in Asia Minor, to whom he addressed his
epistles.4 Of a residence of Peter in Rome the New Testament
contains no trace, unless, as the church fathers and many modern
expositors think, Rome is intended by the mystic " Babylon "
mentioned in 1 Pet. 5 : 13 (as in the Apocalypse), but others
think of Babylon on the Euphrates, and still others of Babylon
on the Nile (near the present Cairo, according to the Coptic tra-
dition). The entire silence of the Acts of the Apostles, in ch.
28, respecting Peter, as well as the silence of Paul in his epistle
to the Romans, and the epistles written from Rome during his
imprisonment there, in which Peter is not once named in the
salutations, is decisive proof that he was absent from that city
during most of the time between the years 58 and 63. A casual
visit before 58 is possible, but extremely doubtful, in view of
1 A.D. 50 : Acts ch. 15. * 1 Oor. 9 : 5.
•Gal 2:11 sqq. « 1 Pet. 1:1.
§ 25. ST. PETER — CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS. 261
the fact that Paul labored independently and never built on the
foundation of others ; ' hence he would probably not have writ-
ten his epistle to the Romans at all, certainly not without some
allusion to Peter if he had been in any proper sense the founder
of the church of Rome. After the year 63 we have no data
from the New Testament, as the Acts close with that year, and
the interpretation of " Babylon " at the end of the first Epistle of
Peter is doubtful, though probably meant for Rome. The mar-
tyrdom of Peter by crucifixion was predicted by our Lord, John
21 : 18, 19, but no place is mentioned.
We conclude then that Peter's presence in Rome before 63 is
made extremely doubtful, if not impossible, by the silence of
Luke and Paul, when speaking of Rome and writing from Rome,
and that his presence after 63 can neither be proved nor dis-
proved from the New Testament, and must be decided by post-
biblical testimonies.
It is the uniform tradition of the eastern and western churches
that Peter preached the gospel in Rome, and suffered martyr-
dom there in the Neronian persecution. So say more or less
clearly, yet not without admixture of error, Clement of Rome
(who mentions the martyrdom, but not the place), at the close
of the first century ; Ignatius of Antioch (indistinctly), Diony-
sius of Corinth, Irenseus of Lyons, Caius of Rome, in the
second century; Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus,
Tertullian, in the third; Lactantius, Eusebius, Jerome, and
others, in the fourth. To these patristic testimonies may be
added the apocryphal testimonies of the pseudo-Petrine and
pseudo-Clementine fictions, which somehow connect Peter's name
with the founding of the churches of Antioch, Alexandria, Cor-
inth, and Rome. However these testimonies from various men
and countries may differ in particular circumstances, they can
only be accounted for on the supposition of some fact at the
bottom ; for they were previous to any use or abuse of this
tradition for heretical or for orthodox and hierarchical purposes.
> Bom. 15 : 80; 2 Cor. 10: 16.
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The chief error of the witnesses from Dionysius and Irenseus
onward is that Peter is associated with Paul as " founder " of
the church of Rome ; but this may be explained from the very
jwobable fact that some of the " strangers from Rome " who
witnessed the Pentecostal miracle and heard the sermon of
Peter, as also some disciples who were scattered abroad by the
persecution after the martyrdom of Stephen, carried the seed of
the gospel to Rome, and that these converts of Peter became
the real founders of the Jewish-Christian congregation in the
metropolis. Thus the indirect agency of Peter was naturally
changed into a direct agency by tradition which forgot the
names of the pupils in the glorification of the tSacher.
The time of Peter's arrival in Rome, and the length of his
residence there, cannot possibly be ascertained. The above-
mentioned silence of the Acts and of Paul's Epistles allows him
only a short period of labor there, after 63. The Roman tradi-
tion of a twenty or twenty-five years' episcopate of Peter in Rome
is unquestionably a colossal chronological mistake.1 Nor can we
fix the year of his martyrdom, except that it must have taken
place after July, 64, when the Neronian persecution broke out
(according to Tacitus). It is variously assigned to every year
between 64 and 69. We shall return to it again below, and in
connection with the martyrdom of Paul, with which it is associ-
ated in tradition.3
1 Alzog (§ 48), and other modern Roman church historians try to reconcile
the tradition with the silence of the Scripture by assuming two visits of
Peter to Rome with a great interval.
9 For particulars see my H Ap. Ch pp 302-372 The presence of Peter
in Rome was the universal belief of Christendom till the Reformation, and is
so still in the Roman Catholic communion. It was denied first in the inter-
est of orthodox Protestantism against Romanism by U Velenus (Ifi20\ M.
Flacius (1554), Blondel (1641), Salmasius (1645), and especially by Fr Span-
heim (Dt ficta Profection,* Petri in urban Romam, Lugd. B 1670) ; more
recently in the interest of historical criticism by Baur (in special essays, 1831
and 1830, and in his work on Paul, ch. IX ), K. Hase (1862. doubtful in the
10th ed. of his Kirchengesch. 1877, p. 34), Mayerhoff, De Wette, Greenwood
(1856), Lipsms (1869), Volkmar (1873), Zeller (1876) Volkmar denies even
the martyrdom of Paul, and fancies that he died quietly in a villa near Rome.
Zeller (in Hilgenfeld's " Zeitsohrift," for 1876, p. 46 sq.) was disposed to sub-
§ 26. PETER OF HISTORY AND PETER OF FICTION. 253
§ 26. THE PETER OF HISTORY AND THE PETER OF FICTION.
No character in the New Testament is brought before us in
such life-like colors, with all his virtues and faults, as that of
Peter. He was frank and transparent, and always gave him-
self as he was, without any reserve.
We may distinguish three stages in his development. In the
Gospels, the human nature of Simon appears most prominent :
the Acts unfold the divine mission of Peter in the founding of
the church, with a temporary relapse at Antioch (recorded by
Paul) ; in his Epistles we see the complete triumph of divine
grace. He was the strongest and the weakest of the Twelve.
He had all the excellences and all the defects of a sanguine
temperament. He was kind-hearted, quick, ardent, hopeful,
statute " James " for the defective name " Peter " in the testimony of Clemens
Rom., Ad Cor. c. 5, but this is now set abide by the edition of Bryemnos
from a more complete manuscript, which clearly reads Uerpov is in full. On the
other hand the presence and martyrdom of Peter in Rome is affirmed not only
by all the Roman Catholic, but also by many eminent Piotescant historians
and critics, as Bleek, Credner, Olshausen, Gieseler, Neander, Niedner, Rothe,
Thiersch, Krafft, Ewald, Plumptre, and even by Hdgenfeld, who justly re-
marks (Einleitung in das N. T. 1875 p. 624) " Man kann ein guter Protes-
tant sein, wenn man den Marty rertod des Petrus in Bomfesthalt " Kenan (in
an appendix to his D Antechrist, 551 sqq. ) likewise asserts that Peter came to
Rome, though not before 63, and was among the victims of the Neronian per-
secution in 64, whom Tacitus describes as crucibas affixi. He understands
u Babylon," 1 Pet. 5 : 18, of Rome, according to the secret style of the Chris-
tians of those days.
In February, 1872, after the downfall of the temporal power of the papacy,
ft disputation was held in Rome between Protestant ministers (Gavazzi,
Sciarelli, and Ribetto) and Roman divines (Guidi, and Canon Fabiani; on
Peter's presence in that city ; the former denying, the latter affirming it The
disputation was published in several languages, and although destitute of
critical value, it derives a sort of historical significance from the place where
it was held, within a short distance from the residence of Pius IX., the first
infallible pope. See Racconto autentico delta dwputa, etc., Roma, 1872;
Authentic Report of the Discussion held in Borne, ^February 9 and 10, 1872, be-
tween Oatholto Priests and Evangelical Ministers, concerning the Coming of
St. Peter to Pome. Translated by William Arthur, London, 1872; and
J&nuscJie Disputation wisclien KaiJidiken, und Protentanten uber die These:
War Petrus in Rom f Nach den stenographisclien Beriohten. Deutsche Ausg.
HOnster, 1872. Comp. the review of Lipsiua in the " Jahrbuohez fttr Protest.
Theologie,"1876, Heft4.
264 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
impulsive, changeable, and apt to run from one extreme to an-
other. He received from Christ the highest praise and the
severest censure. He was the first to confess him as the Messiah
of God, for which he received his new name of Peter, in pro-
phetic anticipation of his commanding position in church his*
tory ; but he was also the first to dissuade him from entering
the path of the cross to the crown, for which he brought upon
himself the rebuke, " Get thee behind me, Satan." The rock
of the church had become a rock of offence and a stumbling-
block. He protested, in presumptive modesty, when Christ
would wash his feet ; and then, suddenly changing his mind,
he wished not his feet only, but his hands and head to be
washed. He cut off the ear of Malchus in carnal zeal for his
Master ; and in a few minutes afterwards he forsook him and
fled. He solemnly promised to be faithful to Christ, though all
should forsake him ; and yet in the same night he betrayed him
thrice. He was the first to cast off the Jewish prejudices
against the unclean heathen and to fraternize with the Gentile
converts at Csesarea and at Antioch ; and he was the first to
withdraw from them in cowardly fear of the narrow-minded
Judaizers from Jerusalem, for which inconsistency he had to
submit to a humiliating rebuke of Paul.1
1 The old legend of Peter's flight from the Mamertine prison in Rome,
which seems to antedate the hierarchical glorification of Peter, would piove
that his " consistent inconsistency " overtook him once more at the close
of his life. A few days before his execution, it is said, he bribed the jailor
and escaped from prison, but when he reached a spot outside the Porta
San Sebastiano, now marked by a chapel, the Lord appeared to him with a
cross, and Peter asked in surprise: "Lord, whither goest thou (Domme quo
vadis) ? " Jesus replied : " I go to Rome to be crucified again (venio Romam
iterum crutifigi)" The disciple returned deeply humbled, and delivered him-
self to the jailor to be crucified head- down wards. The footprint of the Lord
is still shown (or was shown in 1841, when I saw it) in the little chapel called
" Domine quo vadis," and a rude fresco on the wall represents the encounter.
The legend is first alluded to by Ongen (quoting from the Tipcat HavAov or
Ilerpov, the words of the Saviour : 'Aw^c? M«*AW ffravpwbriiHu, see Opera IV. 332,
and Hilgenfeld, /. c. IV. 72), then fully told in the apocryphal Acts of Peter and
Paul, c. 82 (Tischendorf, L c. p. 36, where Peter asks, Rupee, vov iropc6p ; and
the Lord answers : lv *P4/tp &WPXOAUU ffravpa&qvai), and by Ambrose in Sermo
de baMcu nan tradendu hatretieu contra Auxentium (quoted by Lipsius, Petrtu-
§ 26. THE PETER OF HISTORY. 255
But Peter was as quick in returning to his right position as
in turning away from it. He most sincerely loved the Lord
from the start and had no rest nor peace till he found forgive-
ness. With all his weakness he was a noble, generous soul, and
of the greatest service in the church. God overruled his very
sins and inconsistencies for his humiliation and spiritual prog-
ress. And in his Epistles we find the mature result of the
work of purification, a spirit most humble, meek, gentle, tender,
loving, and lovely. Almost every word and incident in the
gospel history connected with Peter left its impress upon his
Epistles in the way of humble or thankful reminiscence and
allusion. His new name, " Rock," appears simply as a " stone "
among other living stones in the temple of God, built upon
Christ, " the chief corner-stone." * His charge to his fellow-
presbyters is the same which Christ gave to him after the resur-
rection, that they should be faithful " shepherds of the flock "
under Christ, the chief " shepherd and bishop of their souls." *
The record of his denial of Christ is as prominent in all the
four Gospels, as Paul's persecution of the church is in the Acts,
and it is most prominent — as it would seem under his own
direction — in the Gospel of his pupil and "interpreter" Mark,
which alone mentions the two cock-crows, thus doubling the guilt
of the denial,1 and which records Christ's words of censure
(" Satan "), but omits Christ's praise (" Rock ").4 Peter made as
little effort to conceal his great sin, as Paul. It served as a
thorn in his flesh, and the remembrance kept him near the
cross ; while his recovery from the fall was a standing proof of
1 1 Pet. 2 : 4-8. A striking instance of the impression of Christ's word
without a trace of boastfulnesa and assumption of authority.
• 1 Pet. 5 : 2 ; 2 : 25 ; oomp. John 21 : 15-17.
1 Mark 14 : 72. " And straightway the second time the cock crew. And
Peter called to mind the word how that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock
crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice (comp. ver. 30) ; and when he thought
thereon he wept/'
4 Comp. Mark 8 : 27-33 with Matt 16 : 13-23. The omission of the famous
passage, '• Thou art Rock," eta, can only be satisfactorily explained from the
humility of Peter. An enemy or rival might have omitted them, but Mark
was his faithful pupil, and would have mentioned them had he followed his
own impulse, or had he been a papist.
266 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the power and mercy o£ Christ and a perpetnal call to gratitude.
To the Christian Church the double story of Peter's denial and
recovery has been ever since an unfailing source of warning and
comfort. Having turned again to his Lord, who prayed for him
that his personal faith fail not, he is still strengthening the
brethren.1
As to his official position in the church, Peter stood from the
beginning at the head of the Jewish apostles, not in a partisan
sense, but in a large-hearted spirit of moderation and compre-
hension. He never was a narrow, contracted, exclusive secta-
rian. After the vision at Joppa and the conversion of Corne-
lius he promptly changed his inherited view of the necessity of
circumcision, and openly professed the change at Jerusalem,
proclaiming the broad principle " that God is no respecter of
persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh
righteousness is acceptable to him ; " and " that Jews and Gen-
tiles alike are saved only through the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ." ' He continued to be the head of the Jewish Christian
church at large, and Paul himself represents him as the first
among the three " pillar "-apostles of the circumcision.3 But
he stood mediating between James, who represented the right
wing of conservatism, and Paul, who commanded the left wing
of the apostolic army. And this is precisely the position which
Peter occupies in his Epistles, which reproduce to a great extent
the teaching of both Paul and James, and have therefore the
character of a doctrinal Irenicum ; as the Acts ar*e a historical
Irenicum, without violation of truth or fact.
THE PETER OF FICTION.
No character of the Bible, we may say, no personage in all
history, has been so much magnified, misrepresented and mis-
1 Luke 22 : 31, 32, spoken in view of the approaching denial. This is the
proper meaning of the passage which has been distorted by the Vatican
Council into an argument for papal infallibility. Such application would
logically imply also that every pope must deny Christ, and be converted in
order to strengthen the brethren.
'Acts 10:34, 35; 15:11.
»GaL 2:8, 9; oomp. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:5.
§ 26. THE PETER OF FICTION. 257
used for doctrinal and hierarchical ends as the plain fisherman
of Galilee who stands at the head of the apostolic college.
Among the women of the Bible the Virgin Mary has under-
gone a similar transformation for purposes of devotion, and
raised to the dignity of the queen of heaven. Peter as the
Vicar of Christ, and Mary as the mother of Christ, have in
this idealized shape become and are still the ruling powers in
the polity and worship of the largest branch of Christen-
dom.
In both cases the work of fiction began among the Judaizing
heretical sects of the second and third centuries, but was modi-
fied and carried forward by the Catholic, especially the Roman
church, in the third and fourth centuries.
1. The Peter of the Ebionite fiction. The historical basis is
Peter's encounter with Simon Magus in Samaria,1 Paul's rebuke
of Peter at Antioch,8 and the intense distrust and dislike of the
Judaizing party to Paul.* These three undoubted facts, together
with a singular confusion of Simon Magus with an old Sabine
deity, Semo Sanoits^ in Rome,4 furnished the material and
prompted the motive to religious tendency-novels written about
and after the middle of the second century by ingenious semi-
Gnostic Ebionites, either anonymously or under the fictitious
1 Acts 8 : 0-24 It is quite probable that in the description of the heretics
in his second Epistle, Peter had in mind Simon Magus. Plumptre (1. c p.
44) sees in the " great swelling words of vanity,'9 2 Pet 2 : 18, an allusion to
Simon's boast that he was u the Great Power of God " (Acts 8 9, 10), and in
the words " having eyes full of an adulteress," etc. 2 Pet. 2 : 12-14, an allu-
sion to Helena, the mistress of Simon, who is said to have accompanied
him.
• GaL 2 : 11-14.
1 This is clear from the Epistles of Paul, especially the Galatians and Co-
rinthians, and from the 21st oh. of Acts.
4 Justin Martyr (Apot. I. o. 26 and 56) reports that Simon Magus went to
Borne under Claudius and received divine honors there, as was shown by a
statue erected to him on an island in the Tiber. Such a statue was actually
discovered in 1574, but with the inscription Semoni SanooDeo Fidio sacrum,
[not 8imoni Deo tancto}. With reference to this supposed worship, Simon
boasts in the pseudo-Clementine Recogn. II. 9 : "Adorabor ut deui, public*
dfainb donabor fofwftut, Ha ut iimulacrum mihi ttatucnt* tanguam deum
cotont it adorent."
258 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
name of Clement of Rome, the reputed successor of Peter.1
In these productions Simon Peter appears as the great apos-
tle of truth in conflict with Simon Magus, the pseudo-apostle
of falsehood, the father of all heresies, the Samaritan pos-
sessed by a demon ; and Peter follows him step by step from
Csesarea Stratonis to Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Antioch, and Rome,
and before the tribunal of Nero, disputing with him, and
refuting his errors, until at last the impostor, in the daring
act of mocking Christ's ascension to heaven, meets a miserable
end.
In the pseudo-Clementine Homilies the name of Simon repre-
sents among other heresies also the free gospel of Paul, who is
assailed as a false apostle and hated rebel against the authority
of the Mosaic law. The same charges which the Judaizers
brought against Paul, are here brought by Peter against Simon
Magus, especially the assertion that one may be saved by grace
alone. His boasted vision of Christ by which he professed to
have been converted, is traced to a deceptive vision of the
devil. The very words of Paul against Peter at Antioch, that
he was " self -condemned *' (Gal. 2:11), are quoted as an accusa-
tion against God. In one word, Simon Magus is, in part at
least, a malignant Judaizing caricature of the apostle of the
Gentiles.
2. The Peter of the Papacy. The orthodox version of the
Peter-legend, as we find it partly in patristic notices of Irenseus,
Origen, Tertullian, and Eusebius, partly in apocryphal produc-
1 The chief of these productions are the twenty Greek pseudo-Clementine
Homilies, which are based upon the older K-fipvypa Tltrpov and other Jewish-
Christian documents. See the ed of Dressel : Clcmentu Romani qutoferun-
tur HomiluB viginti nunc prinum Integra, Gdtt 1853 (429 pages), and of De
Lagarde, Clementina, 1865. The Clementine literature has been thoroughly
investigated by Baur, Hilgenfeld, Ritsohl, Schliemann, Uhlhorn, Volkmar,
and Lipsius See a brief resume* in Baur's Kirchengesch. vol. I. 85-94. Baur
first tried to prove the identity of Simon Magus with Paul, in his essay on
the Christu9parteiin der Korinthischen Qcmeinde, Tubingen, 1831. But Simon
is a more comprehensive representative of all an ti- Jewish and Gnostic here-
sies, especially that of Marcion If he were meant to represent Paul alone, the
author would not have retained the historic features from Acts, oh. 8, which
are entirely irreconcilable with Paul's well known history.
§ 26. THE PETER OF FICTION. 259
tions,1 retains the general story of a conflict of Peter with Simon
Magus in Antioch and Rome, but extracts from it its anti-Pau-
line poison, associates Paul at the end of his life with Peter as
the joint, though secondary, founder of the Roman church, and
nonors both with the martyr's crown in the Neronian persecu-
tion on the same day (the 29th of June), and in the same year
or a year apart, but in different localities and in a different man-
ner.9 Peter was crucified like his Master (though head-down-
wards f), either on the hill of Janioulum (where the church S.
Pietro in Montorio stands), or more probably on the Vatican hill
(the scene of the Neronian circus and persecution) ; 4 Paul, being
a Roman citizen, was beheaded on the Ostian way at the Three
Fountains (Tre Fontane), outside of the city. They even walked
together a part of the Appian way to the place of execution.
Caius (or Gaius), a Roman presbyter at the close of the second
century, pointed to their monuments or trophies 5 on the Vati-
can, and in the via Ostia. The solemn burial of the remains of
Peter in the catacombs of San Sebastiano, and of Paul on the Via
Ostia, took place June 29, 258, according to the Kalendarium of
the Roman church from the time of Liberius. A hundred
1 Such as the lost Kfovyua Tltrpov Iv '?<£/*#, and the Prcedicatio Pauli (proba-
bly one book), used by Clement of Alexandria , the Synac Sermon of Peter in
Rome (in Curston's " Ancient Syriac Doc ," Lond. 1864) ; the Acta PauU, used
by Origen and Eusebius ; the Acts of Peter and Paul, of a later date, pub-
lished by Thilo and Tischendorf The last book has a conciliatory tendency,
like the canonical Acts. Gomp. Lipsms, I c pp. 47 sqq., and the fragments
collected by Hilgenfeld, / c. IV 52 sqq.
1 The month is given in the Acta Petri et Pauli at the close : 'Erc\eic6&7?<ra»'
ol Hyioi Mo£ot &ir<$0rro\ot Tltrpos jcal HauXos wvl 'lowiy K&. But different MSS.
give July second or eighth See Tischendorf, I c. p 39. According to Pru-
dentaus (Hymn. 12) the two apostles suffered on the same day, but a year
apart:
11 Uhus utrumque dies, plena tamen innovatus anno,
Vidit superba morte laureatum "
1 A bishop of the Vatican Council used this as an argument for papal abso-
lutism and infallibility, inasmuch as Peter's head supported his body, and not
the body the head I
4 Baronius, Ad ann. 69 (in Theiner's ed vol. I. 594 sq ) reconciles this differ-
ence by making the Janiculum and the Vatican one hill extending to the
Milvian bridge.
* rpoinua, Euseb. H. E. II. 25.
260 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
years later the remains of -Peter were permanently transferred
to the Basilica of St. Peter on the Vatican, those of St. Paul to
the Basilica of St. Paul (San Paolo f uori le inura) outside of
the Porta Ostiensis (now Porta San Paolo).1
The tradition of a twenty-five years' episcopate in Rome (pre-
ceded by a seven years' episcopate in Antioch) cannot be traced
beyond the fourth century (Jerome), and arose, as already re-
marked, from chronological miscalculations in connection with
the questionable statement of Justin Martyr concerning the arri-
val of Simon Magus in Rome under the reign of Claudius (41-
54). The "Catalogus Liberianus," the oldest list of popes
(supposed to have been written before 366), extends the pontifi-
cate of Peter to 25 years, 1 month, 9 days, and puts his death
on June 29, 65 (during the consulate of Nerva and Vestinus),
which would date his arrival in Rome back to A.D. 40. Euse-
bius, in his Greek Chronicle as far as it is preserved, does not
fix the number of years, but says, in his Church History, that
Peter came to Rome in the reign of Claudius to preach against
the pestilential errors of Simon Magus.* The Armenian trans-
lation of his Chronicle mentions " twenty " years ; * Jerome, in
his translation or paraphrase rather, " twenty-five " years, assum-
ing, without warrant, that Peter left Jerusalem for Antioch and
Rome in the second year of Claudius (42 ; but Acts 12 : 17
would rather point to the year 44), and died in the fourteenth
or last year of Nero (68).4 Among modern Roman Catholic
1 See Lipsius, I c. pp. 96 sqq., and his Chronology der ram. Pdpste, pp.
40sqq
1 Hist. EecL II. 14. His statement is merely an inference from Justin Mar-
tyrs story about Simon Magus, which he quotes in oh. 13. But Justin M.
says nothing about Simon Peter in that connection.
1 " Petrus apostolus, cum primum Antiochenam ecclesiamfundasset^ Romano-
rum urbemproficiscitur, ibigue evangeUum prasdicat, et cammoratur tilic antistes
ecd&tfa annis VIGINTI "
4 (7Ar.,adann 44: "Petrus . . . cum primum Antiochenam eoeMamfun-
dasset, Romam profieitcitur, ubi evangelium pradicans 25 annis ejusdtm urbis
episcopus perseverat " In DC viris illustr. cap. I , Jerome omits Antioch and
says : " 8imon Petrus . . . tccundo Olaudiiimperatoru anno, ad txpugnandum
8im0nm Magum, Bomam per git, ibique YIOINTI QUTNQUE annit Cathedram
Bacerdotalcm tenuit^ usque ad ULTIMUM annum Nsrorus, id est^ decimum quar-
§ 26. THE PETER OF FICTION. 261
historians there is no agreement as to the year of Peter's mar-
tyrdom : Baronius puts it in 69 ;' Pagi and Alban Butler in
65 ; Mohler, Gams, and Alzog indefinitely between 66 and 68.
In all these cases it must be assumed that the Neronian per-
secution was continued or renewed after 64, of which we have
no historical evidence. It must also be assumed that Peter
was conspicuously absent from his flock during most of the
time, to superintend the churches in Asia Minor and in Syria,
to preside at the Council of Jerusalem, to meet with Paul in
Antioch, to travel about with his wife, and that he made very
little impression there till 58, and even till 63, when Paul, writ-
ing to and from Koine, still entirely ignores him. Thus a
chronological error is made to overrule stubborn facts. The
famous saying that " no pope shall see the (twenty-five) years of
Peter," which had hitherto almost the force of law, has been
falsified by the thirty-two years' reign of the first infallible
pope, Pius IX., who ruled from 1846 to 1878.
NOTE. — ON THE CLAIMS OF THE PAPACY.
On this tradition and on the indisputable preeminence of Peter in the
Gospels and the Acts, especially the words of Christ to him after the
great confession (Matt. 16 18), is built the colossal fabric of the papacy
with all its amazing pretensions to be the legitimate succession of a per-
manent primacy of honor and supremacy of jurisdiction in the church of
Christ, and — since 1870 — with the additional claim of papal infallibility
in all official utterances, doctrinal or moral. The validity of this claim
requires three premises •
1. The presence of Peter in Kome This may be admitted as an his-
torical fact, and I for my part cannot believe it possible that such a rock-
firm and world-wide structure as the papacy could rest on tne sand of
mere fraud and error. It is the underlying fact which gives to fiction its
vitality, and error is dangerous in proportion to the amount of truth
which it embodies. But the fact of Peter's presence in Borne, whether of
one year or twenty-five, cannot be of such fundamental importance as the
turn. A quo ft afflxus cruci, martyrio coronatus e*t, capite ad terrain verao, et
in tubttme pedibus elecatia : asterens se indignum gui sie cruciflgtretur trt
Dominus suus."
1 Annal. ad arm. 69. Tom. I. 590, oomp. I. 272, ed. Theiner.
262 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
papacy assumes it to be : otherwise we would certainly have some allusion
to it in the New Testament. Moreover, if Peter was in Borne, so was Paul,
and shared with him on equal terms the apostolic supervision of the
Roman congregation, as is very evident from his Epistle to the Romans.
2. The transferability of Peter's preeminence on a successor. This is
derived by inference from the words of Christ : " Thou art Bock, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not
prevail against it " l This passage, recorded only by Matthew, is the
exegetical rock of Bomanism, and more frequently quoted by popes and
papists than any other passage of the Scriptures But admitting the
obvious reference ofpetra to Peter, the significance of this prophetic name
evidently refers to the peculiar mission of Peter in laying the foundation
of the church once and for all time to come. He fulfilled it on the day
of Pentecost and in the conversion of Cornelius ; and in this pioneer
work Peter can have no successor any more than St. Paul in the conver-
sion of the Gentiles, and John in the consolidation of the two branches
of the apostolic church.
3. The actual transfer of this prerogative of Peter — not upon the bishops
of Jerusalem, or Antioch, where he undoubtedly resided — but upon the
bishop of Borne, where he cannot be proven to have been from the New
Testament. Of such a transfer history knows absolutely nothing.
Clement, bishop of Borne, who first, about A D 95, makes mention of
Peter's martyrdom, and Ignatius of Antioch, who a few years later alludes
to Peter and Paul as exhorting the Bomans, have not a word to say
about the transfer. The very chronology and succession of the first
popes is uncertain.
If the claims of the papacy cannot be proven from what we know of
the historical Peter, there are, on the other hand, several undoubted
facts in the real history of Peter which bear heavily upon those claims,
namely :
1. That Peter was married, Matt. 8 : 14, took his wife with him on his
missionary tours, 1 Cor. 9 . 5, and, according to a possible interpretation
of the "coelect" (sister), mentions her in his first Epistle (5 13).
Patristic tradition ascribes to him children, or at least a daughter (Petro-
nilla). His wife is said to have suffered martyrdom in Borne before him.
What right have the popes, in view of this example, to forbid clerical
1 Some Protestant Writers press, in Matt 16 : 18, the distinction between
n^rpoj, stone, and Wrpa, rock, which disappears in the translations, but this
does not apply to the Aramaio Cepha, which was used by Christ, comp John
1 : 43 ; Gal. 2:9; 1 Cor. 1 : 12 ; 8 : 22 ; 9 5 ; 15 : 5 (and which, by the way,
has analogies not only in Semitic but also in Aryan languages, as the San-
skrit Icap-ala, the Greek *c4»-a&4, the Latin cap-ut, the German Ropf and
Qipfd). On the interpretation of the famous passage in Matthew, see my
annotation! to Lange on Matthew, pp. 293 sqq., and my H. Ap. Cft., pp.
851 sqq.
§ 26. THE PETER OF FICTION. 263
marriage ? We pass by the equally striking contrast between the poverty
of Peter, who had no silver nor gold (Acts 3 : 6) and the gorgeous display
of the triple-crowned papacy in the middle ages and down to the recent
collapse of the temporal power.
2. That in the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15 : 1-11), Peter appears
simply as the first speaker and debater, not as president and judge
(James presided), and assumes no special prerogative, least of all an
infallibility of judgment. According to the Vatican theory the whole
question of circumcision ought to have been submitted to Peter rather
than to a Council, and the decision ought to have gone out from him rather
than from " the apostles and elders, brethren " (or " the elder brethren,"
ver. 23).
3. That Peter was openly rebuked for inconsistency by a younger
apostle at Antioch (Gal. 2 : 11-14). Peter's conduct on that occasion is
irreconcilable with his infallibility as to discipline ; Paul's conduct is
irreconcilable with Peter's alleged supremacy ; and the whole scene,
though perfectly plain, is so inconvenient to Roman and Romanizing
views, that it has been variously distorted by patristic and Jesuit com-
mentators, even into a theatrical farce gotten up by the apostles for the
more effectual refutation of the Judaizers !
4. That, while the greatest of popes, from Leo I. down to Leo XTTT.
never cease to speak of their authority over all the bishops and all the
churches, Peter, in his speeches in the Acts, never does so. And his Epis-
tles, far from assuming any superiority over his " fellow-elders" and over
" the clergy " (by which he means the Christian people), breathe the
spirit of the sincerest humility and contain a prophetic warning against
the besetting sins of the papacy, filthy avance and lordly ambition
(1 Pet 5 : 1-3). Love of money and love of power are twin-sisters, and
either of them is " a root of all evil "
It is certainly very significant that the weaknesses even more than the
virtues of the natural Peter — his boldness and presumption, his dread of
the cross, his love for secular glory, his carnal zeal, his use of the sword,
his sleepiness in Gethsemane — are faithfully reproduced in the history
of the papacy ; while the addresses and epistles of the converted and in-
spired Peter contain the most emphatic protest against the hierarchical
pretensions and worldly vices of the papacy, and enjoin truly evangelical
principles— the general priesthood and royalty of believers, apostolic
poverty before the rich temple, obedience to God rather than man, yet
with proper regard for the civil authorities, honorable marriage, con-
demnation of mental reservation in Ai anias and Sapphira, and of simony
in Simon Magus, liberal appreciation of heathen piety in Cornelius, op-
position to the yoke of legal bondage, salvation in no other name but
that of Jesus Christ
864 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 27. James, the Brother of the Lord.
*H viffris x*pl* *py*r wcpd &rnv.— James 2 : 26.
SOUBCES.
I. Genuine sources: Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1 Cor. 15:7; GaL
1:19; 2:9, 12. Gomp. James "the brother of the Lord," Matt.
13:55; Mark 6:3; GaL 1:19.
The Epistle of James.
II. Post-apostolic : JOSEPHTJS : Ant. XX. 9, 1.— HEGESHTtis in Euseb.
Hist. Ecc. II. ch. 23 —JEROME: Catal. mr. ill c. 2, under "Jacobus.11
EPIPHANIUS, Hcrr. XXIX. 4 ; XXX. 16 ; LXXVHI. 13 sq.
HI. Apocryphal : Protevangehum Jacobi, ed. in Greek by Tischendorf,
in "Evangelia Apocrypha," pp. 1-49, comp. the Prolegg. pp. xii-
xxv. James is honorably mentioned in several other apocryphal
Gospels.— Epiphanms, Hcer. XXX. 16, alludes to an Ebionite and
strongly anti-Pauline book, the Ascents of James ('Av^i3/Ltoi 'Li*a>j3oi;),
descriptions of his ascension to heaven, which are lost. — The Liturgy
of James, ed. by W. Trollope, Edinb. 1848. Composed in the third
century, after the Council of Nicaea (as it contains the terms n^onvaiot
and 3fOTo<oi)i but resting on some older traditions. It was intended
for the church of Jerusalem, which is styled "the mother of all
churches." It is still used once a year on the festival of St James,
Oct. 23, in the Greek Church at Jerusalem. (See vol II. 527 sqq.)
EXEGETICAL AND DoCTRINALu
Commentaries on the Epistle of James by HERDER (1775), STORR (1784),
GEBSER (1828), SCHNECKENBURGER (1832), THEIUB (1833), KERN
(1838), DE WETTB (1849, 3d ed. by BRUCKNER, 1865), CELLERIER
(1850), WIESINOER (in Olshausen's Com., 1854), STEER (1845), HUTHKR
and BEYSCHLAO (in Meyer's Corn., 1858, 4th ed. 1882), LANGB and
VAN OOSTERZEE (in Lange's Bibelwerk, 1862, Engl. transl. enlarged by
MOMBEBT, 1867); ALFOBD, WORDSWORTH, BASSETT (1876, ascribes the
Ep. to James of Zebedee), PLUMPTBE (in the Cambridge series, 1878),
PUNCHARD (in Ellicott's Com. 1878), ERDMAHN (1882), GLOAG (1883).
WOLDEMAR G. SCHMIDT: Der Lehrgehatt des Jakobusbnefes. Leipzig,
1869.
W. BBYSCHLAG: Der Jakobusbrief ah urchristliches Geschichtsdenkmal.
In the " Stud. u. Kritiken," 1874, No. 1, pp. 105-166. See his Com.
Comp also the expositions of the doctrinal type of James in NEANDER,
SCHMID, SCHAFF, WEISS (pp. 176-194, third ed.).
HISTORICAL AND CRITIOAL.
BLOM : De rms n8€\<f><>ls et r<m ri5«Ac/),ur TOV Kvpiov. Leyden, 1839. (I
have not seen this tract, which advocates the brother-theory. Light-
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LOUD. 265
foot says of it : "Blom gives the most satisfactory statement of the
patristic authorities, and Schaff discusses the scriptural arguments
most carefully.")
SCHAFF : Jakobus Alph&i, und Jakob us der Bruder des Herrn. Berlin,
1842 (101 pages).
MILL : The Accounts of our Lord's Brethren in the New Test, vindicated.
Cambridge, 1843. (Advocates the cousin-theory of the Latin church.)
LIGHTFOOT : The Brethren of the Lord. Excursus in his Com. on Gala-
tians. Lond. 2d ed. 1866, pp. 247-282. (The ablest defence of the
step-brother-theory of the Greek Church.)
H. HOLTZMANN : Jakobus der Oerechte und seine Namensbruder, in Hilgen-
feld's "Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftL Theol." Leipz. 1880, No. 2.
Next to Peter, who was the oecumenical leader of Jewish
Christianity, stands JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD (also called
by post-apostolic writers " James the Just," and " Bishop of
Jerusalem"), as the local head of the oldest church and the
leader of the most conservative portion of Jewish Cnristianity.
He seems to have taken the place of James the son of Zebedee,
after his martyrdom, A.D. 44. He became, with Peter and John,
one of the three " pillars " of the church of the circumcision.
And after the departure of Peter from Jerusalem James pre-
sided over the mother church of Christendom until his death.
Though not one of the Twelve, he enjoyed, owing to his rela-
tionship to our Lord and his commanding piety, almost apostolic
authority, especially in Judaea and among the Jewish converts.1
On one occasion even Peter yielded to his influence or that of
his representatives, and was misled into his unchari table conduct
towards the Gentile brethren.2
James was not a believer before the resurrection of our Lord.
He was the oldest of the four " brethren " (James, Joseph, Judas,
Simon), of whom John reports with touching sadness : u Even
his brethren did not believe in him." * It was one of the early
and constant trials of our Lord in the days of his humiliation
that he was without honor among his fellow-townsmen, yea,
1 On his relation to the Twelve and to Jesus, see the first note at the end
of this section.
* Gal. 2 : Id.
'Mark6:3; Matt 13 : 55 , John? .5.
266 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
" among his own kin, and in his own house." ! James was no
doubt imbued with the temporal and carnal Messianic miscon-
ceptions of the Jews, and impatient at the delay and unworldli-
ness of his divine brother. Hence the taunting and almost dis-
respectful language : " Depart hence and go into Judaea ....
If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world." The
crucifixion could only deepen his doubt and sadness.
But a special personal appearance of the risen Lord brought
about his conversion, as also that of his brothers, who after
the resurrection appear in the company of the apostles.1 This
turning-point in his life is briefly but significantly alluded to
by Paul, who himself was converted by a personal appearance
of Christ.3 It is more fully reported in an interesting fragment
of the " Gospel according to the Hebrews " (one of the oldest
and least fabulous of the apocryphal Gospels), which shows the
sincerity and earnestness of James even before his conversion.4
He had sworn, we are here told, " that he would not eat bread
from that hour wherein the Lord had drunk the cup [of his
passion] * until he should see him rising from the dead." The
Lord appeared to him and communed with him, giving bread to
James the Just and saying : " My brother, eat thy bread, for
the Son of man is risen from them that sleep."
1 Mark 6:4; Matt. 13 : 57 ; Luke 4 : 24 ; John 4 . 44.
2 Acts 1 : 13 ; comp 1 Cor. 9 : 5.
3 1 Cor 15 7 ftrcira &4&i? 'Ia*<£/9?.
4 The fragment is preserved by Jerome, De vir. HI. cap 2. Comp. Hilgen-
feld, Nov. Test, extra can. ree. IV. 17 and 29 ; and Nicholson, The Gospel
according to the Hebrews (1879), pp. 63 sqq.
5 1 follow here with Credner and Lightf oot the reading Dominus for Domini,
corresponding to the Greek translation, which reads 6 xvpios, and with the
context, which points to the Lord's death rather than the Lord's Supper as
the starting-point of the vow. See Lightfoot, Ep to tfa Gal , p 266. If we
read "Iwra qua biherat calicem DOMINI," the author of the Gospel of the
Hebrews must have assumed either that James was one with James of
Alphaeus, or that the Lord's Supper was not confined to the twelve apostles.
Neither of these is probable. James is immediately afterwards called "the
Just" Gregory of Tours (Histor. Francorum, I. 21), relating this story,
adds, in accordance with the Greek tradition . " Hie est Jacobus Justus, quern
fratrem Domini nuncupant, pro eo quod Josephi fuerit fKus ex alia uxore pro*
genitus." See Nicholson, p. 04.
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD. 2Q7
In the Acts and in the Epistle to the Galatians, James appears
as the most conservative of the Jewish converts, at the head of
the extreme right wing ; yet recognizing Paul as the apostle of
the Gentiles, giving him the right hand of fellowship, as Paul
himself reports, and unwilling to impose upon the Gentile
Christians the yoke of circumcision. He must therefore not be
identified with the heretical Judaizers (the forerunners of the
Ebionites), who hated and opposed Paul, and made circumcision
a condition of justification and church membership. He pre-
sided at the Council of Jerusalem and proposed the compromise
which saved a split in the church. He probably prepared the
synodical letter which agrees with his style and has the same
greeting formula peculiar to him.1
He was an honest, conscientious, eminently practical, concili-
atory Jewish Christian saint, the right man in the right place
and at the right time, although contracted in his mental vision
as in his local sphere of labor.
From an incidental remark of Paul we may infer that James,
like Peter and the other brothers of the Lord, was married.51
The mission of James was evidently to stand in the breach
between the synagogue and the church, and to lead the disciples
of Moses gently to Christ. He was the only man that could do
it in that critical time of the approaching judgment of the holy
city. As long as there was any hope of a conversion of the
Jews as a nation, he prayed for it and made the transition as
easy as possibla When that hope vanished his mission was
fulfilled.
According to Josephus he was, at the instigation of the younger
Ananus, the high priest, of the sect of the Sadducees, whom he
calls " the most unmerciful of all the Jews in the execution of
judgment," stoned to death with some others, as " breakers of
the law," i. e. Christians, in the interval between the procura-
torship of Festus and that of Albinus, that is, in the year 63.
1 " Greeting," xafpeir, Acts 15 :23, and James 1 : 1, instead of the specific
Christian x<W *
fl Cor. 9:5.
268 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The Jewish historian adds that this act of injustice created
great indignation among those most devoted to the law (the
Pharisees), and that they induced Albinus and King Asrrippa
to depose Ananus (a son of the Annas mentioned in Luke 3:2;
John 18 : 13). He thus furnishes an impartial testimony to the
high standing of James even among the Jews.1
Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian historian about A.D. 170, puts
the martyrdom a few years later, shortly before the destruction
of Jerusalem (69).* He relates that James was first thrown
down from the pinnacle of the temple by the Jews and then
stoned to death. His last prayer was an echo of that of his
brother and Lord on the cross : " God, Father, forgive them ; for
they know not what they do."
The dramatic account of James by Ilegesippus " is an over-
drawn picture from the middle of the second century, colored
by Judaizing traits which may have been derived from the
"Ascents of James "and other apocryphal sources. He turns
James into a Jewish priest and Nazarite saint (comp. his advice
to Paul, Acts 21 : 23, 21), who drank no wine, ate no flesh, never
shaved, nor took a bath, and wore only linen. But the biblical
James is Pharisaic and legalistic rather than Essenic and ascetic.
In the pseudo-Clementine writings, he is raised even above
Peter as the head of the holy church of the Hebrews, as " the
lord and bishop of bishops," as "the prince of priests." Accord-
ing to tradition, mentioned by Epiphanius, James, like St. John
at Ephesus, wore the high-priestly petalon, or golden plate on
the forehead, with the inscription: "Holiness to the Lord"
(Ex. 28 : 36). And in the Liturgy of St. James, the brother of
Jesus is raised to the dignity of " the brother of the very God"
Legends gather around the memory of great
1 Josephus calls James ** the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ" (T&V
&8cX0bi' 'bprov rov Aeyo/xeVou XPKTTOV, 'IcbccejSos tro^a avrf), bat these words
are regarded by some critics (Lardner, Gredner, and others) as a Christian in-
terpolation.
* Neander, Ewald, and Kenan give the preference to the date of Josephua.
But according to the pseudo-Clementine literature James survived Peter.
1 See below, Note IL
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD. 269
men, and reveal the deep impression they made upon their
friends and followers. The character which shines through
these James-legends is that of a loyal, zealous, devout, consist-
ent Hebrew Christian, who by his personal purity and holiness
secured the reverence and affection of all around him.
But we must carefully distinguish between the Jewish-Chris-
tian, yet orthodox, overestimate of James in the Eastern church,
as we find it in the fragments of Hegesippus and in the Liturgy of
St. James, and the heretical perversion of James into an enemy
of Paul and the gospel of freedom, as he appears in apocryphal
fictions. We have here the same phenomenon as in the case of
Peter and Paul. Every leading apostle has his apocryphal
shadow and caricature both in the primitive church and in the
modern critical reconstruction of its history. The name and
authority of James was abused by the Judaizing party in under-
mining the work of Paul, notwithstanding the fraternal agree-
ment of the two at Jerusalem.1 The Ebionites in the second
century continued this malignant assault upon the memory of
Paul under cover of the honored names of James and Peter ;
while a certain class of modern critics (though usually from the
opposite ultra- or pseudo-Pauline point of view) endeavor to
prove the same antagonism from the Epistle of James (as far as
they admit it to be genuine at all),*
The Epistle in our canon, which purports to be written by
" James, a bond-servant of God and of Jesus Christ, to the twelve
tribes of the dispersion," though not generally acknowledged at
the time of Eusebius and Jerome, has strong internal evidence
of genuineness. It precisely suits the character and position of
the historical James as we know him from Paul and the Acts,
1 Gal 2 : 12. How far the unnamed messengers of James from Jerusalem,
who intimidated Peter and Barnabas at Antioch, acted under authority from
James, does not appear; but it is certain from ver. 9, as well as from the
Acts, that James recognized the peculiar divine grace and success of Paul and
Barnabas in the conversion of the Gentiles; he could therefore not without
gross inconsistency make common cause with his adversaries.
* Even Luther, in an unguarded moment (1524), called the epistle of James
an " epistle of straw," because he could not harmonize it with Paul's doctrine
of justification, by faith.
270 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and differs widely from the apocryphal James of the Ebionite
fictions.1 It hails undoubtedly from Jerusalem, the theocratic
metropolis, amid the scenery of Palestine. The Christian com-
munities appear not as churches, but as synagogues, consisting
mostly of poor people, oppressed and persecuted by the rich and
powerful Jews. There is no trace of Gentile Christians or of
any controversy between them and the Jewish Christians. The
Epistle was perhaps a companion to the original Gospel of Mat-
thew for the Hebrews, as the first Epistle of John was such a
companion to his Gospel. It is probably the oldest of the epis-
tles of the New Testament.* It represents, at all events, the
earliest and meagerest, yet an eminently practical and necessary
type of Christianity, with prophetic earnestness, proverbial sen-
tentiousness, great freshness, and in fine Greek. It is not dog-
matic but ethical. It has a strong resemblance to the addresses
of John the Baptist and the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and
also to the book of Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon.3
It never attacks the Jews directly, but still less St. Paul, at
least not his genuine doctrine. It characteristically calls the
gospel the " perfect law of liberty," 4 thus connecting it very
closely with the Mosaic dispensation, yet raising it by implica-
1 Ewald (vi. 608) remarks that it is just such a letter as we may expect
from the centre of Christianity in that period, when most Christians were
poor and oppressed by rich Jews.
2 The date of composition is as yet an unsolved problem, and critics vary
between A.D 45 and 62. Schneckenburger, Neander, Thiersch, Huther,
Hofmann, Weiss, and Beyschlag, and among English divines, Alford, Bassett
(who, however, wrongly vindicates the Epistle to James the son of Zebedee),
and Plnmptre assign it a very early date before the Council of Jerusalem (50)
and the circumcision controversy, to which there is no allusion On the
other hand Lardner, De Wette, Wiesinger, Lange, Ewald, and also those com-
mentators who see in the Epistle a polemical reference to Paul and his teach-
ing, bring it down to 62. At all events, it was written before the destruction
of Jerusalem, which would have been noticed by a later writer. The Tubin-
gen school (Baur, Schwegler, Hilgenfeld) deny its genuineness and assign it
to A.D. 80 or 90. Renan admits the genuineness of the Epistles of James and
Jude, as counter-manifestoes of Jewish Christianity against Paulimsm, find
accounts for the good Greek style by the aid of a Greek secretary.
1 See the lists of parallel passages in Plnmptre, pp. 7-9 and 33.
4 James 1:25. 6 wapaicfyas tls v&pQv rc'&fioy rbv TT}J i\*vbtplas.
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD. 271
tion far above the imperfect law of "bondage. The author has
very little to say about Christ and the deeper mysteries of re-
demption, but evidently presupposes a knowledge of the gospel
history, and reverently calls Christ " the Lord of glory," and
himself humbly his "bond-servant."1 He represents religion
throughout in its practical aspect as an exhibition of faith by
good works. He undoubtedly differs widely from Paul, yet does
not contradict, but supplements him, and fills an important place
in the Christian system of truth which comprehends all types of
genuine piety. There are multitudes of sincere, earnest, and
faithful Christian workers who never rise above the level of
James to the sublime heights of Paul or John. The Christian
church would never have given to the Epistle of James a place
in the canon if she had felt that it was irreconcilable with the
doctrine of Paul. Even the Lutheran church did not follow her
great leader in his unfavorable judgment, but still retains James
among the canonical books.
After the martyrdom of James he was succeeded by Symeon,
a son of Clopas and a cousin of Jesus (and of James). He con-
tinued to guide the church at Jerusalem till the reign of Trajan,
when he died a martyr at the great age of a hundred and twenty
years.* The next thirteen bishops of Jerusalem, who came,
however, in rapid succession, were likewise of Jewish descent.
Throughout this period the church of Jerusalem preserved its
strongly Israelitish type, but joined with it " the genuine knowl-
edge of Christ," and stood in communion with the Catholic
church, from which the Ebionites, as heretical Jewish Chris-
tians, were excluded. After the line of the fifteen circumcised
bishops had run out, and Jerusalem was a second time laid
waste under Hadrian, the mass of the Jewish Christians gradu-
ally merged in the orthodox Greek Church.
1 2 : 1 Ixrrt *V v^rriy TOW Kvplov fotav 'Iiprov XpwrroD rfr ftrffrs. In the
inscription, 1 : 1, the Lord Jesus Christ is associated with God.
' Hegesippus apud Euseb. H. E. ILL , 11, 22, 82 ; IV., 5, 22. Oomt. Apost.
VII. 46. Hegesippos assumes that Clopas, the father of 8701000, was a
brother of Joseph and an uncle of Jesus. He never calls Syxneon " brothet
of the Lord," but only James and Judo (IL 28 ; HI. 20).
272 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Norm
L JAMBS AND THE BBOTHEBS OF THE LOBD.— There are three, perhaps
four, eminent persons in the New Testament bearing the name of JAMES
(abridged from JACOB, which from patriarchal memories was a more com-
mon name among the Jews than any other except Symeon or Simon, and
Joseph or Joses) :
1. JAMES (the son) OF ZBBEDEE, the brother of John and one of the three
favorite apostles, the proto-martyr among the Twelve (beheaded A.D. 44,
see Acts 12 : 2), as his brother John was the survivor of all the apostles.
They were called the " sons of thunder."
2. JAMBS (the son) OF ALPHJZUS, who was likewise one of the Twelve,
and is mentioned in the four apostle-catalogues, Matt. 10:3; Mark
3 : 10; Luke* 61 15 ; Acts 1 : 13.
3. JAMBS THE LITTLE, Mark 15 : 40 (6 /u*po'r, not " the Less," as in the
£. V.), probably so called from his small stature (as Zacchrous, Luke 19 :
3), the son of a certain Mary and brother of Joseph, Matt. 27 : 56 (Mapm
17 rov 'Ia*a>0ot; *al 'laxr^ fjitjrrjp) ; Mark 15 : 40, 47 ; 16 : 1 ; Luke 24 : 10.
He is usually identified with James the son of Alphaeus, on the assump-
tion that his mother Mary was the wife of Clopas, mentioned John 19 :
25, and that Clopas was the same person as Alphsaus. But this identifi-
cation is at least very problematical.
4. JAMBS, simply so called, as the most distinguished after the early
death of James the Elder, or with the honorable epithet BBOTHBR OF THE
LOBD (6 ddcX^tot rov Kvpiov), and among post-apostolic writers, the JUST,
also BISHOP OF JERUSALEM. The title connects him at once with the four
brothers and the unnamed sisters of our Lord, who are repeatedly men-
tioned in the Gospels, and he as the first among them. Hence the com-
, plicated question of the nature of this relationship. Although I have
fully discussed this intricate subject nearly forty years ago (1842) m
the German essay above mentioned, and then again in my annotations to
Lange on Matthew (Am. ed. 1864, pp. 256-260), I will briefly sum up
once more the chief points with reference to the most recent discussions
(of Lightfoot and Kenan).
There are three theories on James and the brothers of Jesus. I would
call them the brother-theory, the half-brother-theory, and the cousin-
theory. Bishop Lightfoot (and Canon Farrar) calls them after their
chief advocates, the Hdmdian (an invidious designation), the Epiphanian^
and the Hieronymian theories. The first is now confined to Protestants,
the second is the Greek, the third the Roman view.
(1) The BBOTHER-theory takes the term dfcX^ot' in the usual sense, and
regards the brothers as younger children of Joseph and Mary, conse-
quently as foil brothers of Jesus in the eyes of the law and the opinion
of the people, though really only half-brothers, in view of his superna-
tant conception* This is exegetically the most natural view and favored
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD. 273
by the meaning of dbf\<f>6s (especially when used as a standing designa-
tion), the constant companionship of these brethren with Mary (John
2 : 12 ; Matt. 12 : 46 ; 13 : 55), and by the obvious meaning of Matt. 1 : 25
(OVK cytiwcTfCCi' avr^v co> s o v, COmp. 1 : 18 nplv r) avvcXStlv CLVTOVS), and Luke
2 : 7 (IT p o> r 6 TOKOS), as explained from the standpoint of the evangelists, who
used these terms in full view of the subsequent history of Mary and Jesus.
The only serious objection to it is of a doctrinal and ethical nature, viz.,
the assumed perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord and Saviour,
and the committal of her at the cross to John rather than her own sons
and daughters (John 19 : 25). If it were not for these two obstacles the
brother-theory would probably be adopted by every fair and honest
exegete. The first of these objections dates from the post-apostolic
ascetic overestimate of virginity, and cannot have been felt by Matthew
and Luke, else they would have avoided those ambiguous terms just
noticed. The second difficulty presses also on the other two theones, only
in a less degree. It must therefore be solved on other grounds, namely,
the profound spiritual sympathy and congeniality of John with Jesus and
Mary, which rose above carnal relationships, the probable cousinship of
John (based upon the proper interpretation of the same passage, John
19 : 25), and the unbelief of the real brethren at the time of the committal.
This theory was held by Tertullian (whom Jerome summarily dis-
poses of as not being a "homo ecclesise," i.e. a schismatic), defended
by Helvidius at Borne about 380 (violently attacked as a heretic by
Jerome), and by several individuals and sects opposed to the incipient
worship of the Virgin Mary ; and recently by the majority of German
Protestant exegetes since Herder, such as Stier, De Wette, Meyer,
Weiss, Ewald, Wieseler, Keim, also by Dean Alford, and Canon Farrar
(Life of Christ, I. 97 sq.). I advocated the same theory in my German
tract, but admitted afterwards in my Hist, of Ap. Ch , p. 378, that I did
not give sufficient weight to the second theory.
(2) The HAi*F-BBOTHEB-theory regards the brethren and sisters of
Jesus as children of Joseph by & former wife, consequently as no blood-
relations at all, but so designated simply as Joseph was called the father
of Jesus, by an exceptional use of the term adapted to the exceptional
fact of the miraculous incarnation. This has the dogmatic advantage of
saving the perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord and Saviour ;
it lessens the moral difficulty implied in John 19 : 25 ; and it has a strong
traditional support in the apocryphal Gospels and in the Eastern church.
It also would seem to explain more easily the patronizing tone in which
the brethren speak to our Lord in John 7 : 3, 4. But it does not so
naturally account for the constant companionship of these brethren with
Mary ; it assumes a former marriage of Joseph nowhere alluded to in
the Gospels, and makes Joseph an old man and protector rather than
husband of Mary ; and finally it is not free from suspicion of an ascetic
bias, as being the first step towards the dogma of the perpetual virginity.
274 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
To these objections may be added, with Farrar, that if the brethren
had been elder sons of Joseph, Jesus would not have been regarded as
legal heir of the throne of David (Matt 1 : 16 ; Luke 1 : 27 ; Bom. 1:3;
2 Tim. 2 : 8 ; Bev. 22 : 16).
This theory is found first in the apocryphal writings of James (the
Protevangelium Jacobi, the Ascents of James, etc.), and then among the
leading Greek fathers (Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Gregory
of Nyssa, Epiphamus, Cyril of Alexandria) ; it is embodied in the Greek,
Syrian, and Coptic services, which assign different dates to the com-
memoration of James the son of Alphaeus (Oct. 9), and of James the
Lord's brother (Oct. 23). It may therefore be called the theory of the
Eastern church. It was also held by some Latin fathers before Jerome
(Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose), and has recently been ably advocated
by Bishop Lightfoot (/. c ), followed by Dr. Plumptre (in the introduc-
tion to his Com. on the Ep. of James).
(3) The cousiN-theory regards the brethren as more distant relatives,
namely, as children of Mary, the wife of Alphseus and sister of the Vir-
gin Mary, and identifies James, the brother of the Lord, with James the
son of AlphflDus and James the Little, thus making him (as well as also
Simon and Jude) an apostle. The exceptive cf M, Gal. 1 : 19 (but I
saw only James), does not prove this, but rather excludes James from
the apostles proper (comp. d w in Gal. 2 : 16 ; Luke 4 : 26, 27).
This theory was first advanced by Jerome in 383, in a youthful polemic
tract against Helvidius, without any traditional support,1 but with the
professed dogmatic and ascetic aim to save the virginity of both Mary and
Joseph, and to reduce their marriage relation to a merely nominal and
barren connection. In his later writings, however, after his residence in
Palestine, he treats the question with less confidence (see Lightfoot, p.
253). By his authority and the still greater weight of St. Augustin, who
at first (394) wavered between the second and third theories, but afterwards
adopted that of Jerome, it became the established theory of the Latin
church and was embodied in the Western services, which acknowledge
only two saints by the name of James. But it is the least tenable of all
and must be abandoned, chiefly for the following reasons :
(a) It contradicts the natural meaning of the word " brother," when
the New Testament has the proper term for cousin (dvt^tot, Col. 4 : 10,
comp. also <rvyyc wfo Luke 2 : 44 ; 21 : 16 ; Mark 6 : 4, etc.), and the
obvious sense of the passages where the brothers and sisters of Jesus
appear as members of the holy family.
(b) It assumes that two Bisters had the same name, Mary, which is
extremely improbable.
1 The passage quoted from Papias • " Maria Uleopha «fo* Alpha* uxot\ qua
futo motor Jacobi qrisoopi et apostob," is taken from Jerome and belongs not to
the snb-apostolio Papias of Hierapolis (as has been supposed even by Mill and
Wordsworth), but to a mediaeval Papias, the writer of an Skmertfarium or
Dictionary in the llth century. See Lightfoot, p. 265 sq.
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD. 275
(c) It assumes the identity of Clopas and Alpheeus, which is equally
doubtful; for 'AX^alor is a Hebrew name (i&in)» while KA<wras, like
KAcwrar, Luke 24 : 18, is an abbreviation of the Greek KXccforarpo;, as
Antipas is contracted from Antipatros.
(d) It is absolutely irreconcilable with the fact that the brethren of
Jesus, James among them, were before the resurrection unbelievers,
John 7 : 5, and consequently none of them could have been an apostle,
as this theory assumes of two or three.
KENAN'S theory. — I notice, in conclusion, an original combination ol
the second and third theories by Benan, who discusses the question of
the brothers and cousins of Jesus in an appendix to his Les evangiles,
537-540. He assumes four Jameses, and distinguishes the son of Alph»-
us from the son of Clopas. He holds that Joseph was twice married, and
that Jesus had several older brothers and cousins as follows :
1. Children of Joseph from the first marriage, and older brothers of
Jesus :
a. JAMBS, the brother of the Lord, or Just, or Obliam. This
is the one mentioned Matt. 13 : 55 ; Mark 6:3; Gal. 1 :
19 ; 2 • 9, 12 ; 1 Cor. 15 • 7 ; Acts 12 : 17, etc. ; James 1:1;
Jude 1 • 1, and in Josephus and Hegesippus.
b. JUDE, mentioned Matt. 13 . 55 ; Mark 6 • 3 ; Jude 1:1;
Hegesippus in Eusebms' Hist. Eccl. III. 19, 20, 32. From
him were descended those two grandsons, bishops of dif-
ferent churches, who were presented to the emperor
Domitian as descendants of David and relations of Jesus.
Hegesippus in Euseb. III. 19, 20, 32.
c. Other sons and daughters unknown. Matt. 13 : 56 ; Mark
6 : 3 ; 1 Cor. 9 : 5.
2. Children of Joseph (9) from the marriage with Mary :
JESUS.
8. Children of Clopas, and cousins of Jesus, probably from the father's
side, since Clopas, according to Hegesippus, was a brother of
Joseph, and may have married also a woman by the name of
Mary (John 19: 25).
a. JAMES THE LITTLE (6 fuxpot), so called to distinguish him
from his older cousin of that name Mentioned Matt.
27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1; Luke 24:10; otherwise
unknown.
b. JOSBS, Matt. 27 : 56 ; Mark 15 : 40, 47, but erroneously (?)
numbered among the brothers of Jesus : Matt. 13 : 55 ;
Mark 6:3; otherwise unknown.
c. STMEON, the second bishop of Jerusalem (Hegesippus in
Ens. HI. 11, 22, 32 ; IV. 5, 22), also erroneously (?) put
among the brothers of Jesus by Matt. 13 : 55 ; Mark 6 : 3.
d. Perhaps other sons and daughters unknown.
276 FIEST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
II. The description of James by HBGESIPPUS (from Eusebius, JJ. E.
II. 23). " Hegesippus also, who flourished nearest the days of the apos-
tles, gives (in the fifth book of his Memorials) this most accurate account
of him:
" 'Now James, the brother of the Lord, who (as there are many of
this name) was surnamed the Just by all (£ afoX^os TOV Kvpiov 'Iii*u£or, 6
ovofjL(ur%€ls virb vtiimov dtKaios), from the Lord's time even to our own,
received the government of the church with (or from) the apostles [fura,
in conjunction with, or according to another reading, napa TW <mocrroXa>i'l
which would more clearly distinguish him from the apostles]. This
man [ovror, not this apostle] was consecrated from his mother's womb.
He drank neither wine nor strong drink, and abstained from animal
food No razor came upon his head, he never anointed himself with
oil, and never used a bath [probably the luxury of the Roman bath,
with its sudatorium, fngidawum, etc., but not excluding the usual ablu-
tions practised by all devout Jews]. He alone was allowed to enter the
sanctuary [not the holy of holies, but the court of priests]. He wore
no woolen, but linen garments only. He was in the habit of entering
the temple alone, and was often found upon his bendM knees, and inter-
ceding for the forgiveness of the people ; so that his knees became as
hard as a camel's, on account of his constant supplication and kneeling
before God. And indeed, on account of his exceeding great piety, lie
was called the Ju*>t [Zaddik] and Oblias [SUaios *cu o^X/ar, probably a
corruption of the Hebrew Ophel am, Tower of the People], which signifies
justice and the bulwark of the people (ncpioxii TOV \aov) ; as the prophets
declare concerning him Some of the seven sects of the people, men-
tioned by me above in my Memoirs, used to ask him what was the door,
[probably the estimate or doctrine] of Jesus ? and he answered that he
was the Saviour. And of these some believed that Jesus is the Christ.
But the aforesaid sects did not believe either a resurrection, or that -he
was coming to give to every one according to his works ; as many, how-
ever, as did believe, did so on account of James. And when many of
the rulers also believed, there arose a tumult among the Jews, Scribes,
and Pharisees, saying that the whole people were in danger of looking
for Jesus as the Messiah. They came therefore together, and said to
James : We entreat thee, restrain the people, who are led astray after
Jesus, as though he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all
that are coming to the feast of the Passover rightly concerning Jesus ;
for we all have confidence in thee. For we and all the people bear thee
testimony that thou art just, and art no respecter of persons. Persuade
therefore the people not to be led astray by Jesus, for we and all the
people have great confidence in thee. Stand therefore upon the pinnacle
of the temple, that thou mayest be conspicuous on high, and thy words
may be easily heard by all the people ; for all the tribes have come to-
gether on account of the Passover, with some of the Gentiles also.
§ 27. JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD. 277
The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees, therefore, placed James upon the
pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him : " O thou just man, whom
we ought all to believe, since the people are led astray after Jesus that
was crucified, declare to us what is the door of Jesus that was crucified."
And he answered with a loud voice : " Why do ye ask me respecting
Jesus the Son of Man ? He is now sitting in the heavens, on the right
hand of the great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven."
And as many were confirmed, and gloried in this testimony of James, and
said . " Hosanna to the Son of David," these same pnests and Pharisees
said to one another : " We have done badly in affording such testimony
to Jesus, but let us go up and cast him down, that they may dread to
believe in him " And they cried out • " Ho, ho, the Just himself is de-
ceived." And they fulfilled that which is written in Isaiah, "Let us
take away the Just, because he is offensive to us ; wherefore they shall
eat the fruit of their doings." [Coinp Is. 3 : 10 ]
And going up, they cast down the just man, saying to one another :
" Let us stone James the Just." And they began to stone him, as he
did not die immediately when cast down ; but turning round, he knelt
down, saying " I entreat thee, O Lord God and Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do " Thus they were stoning him, when
one of the pnests of the sons of Eechab, a son of the Rechabites, spoken
of by Jeremiah the prophet (35 : 2), cried out, saying : " Cease, what are
you doing ? The Just is praying for you " And one of them, a fuller,
beat out the brains of the Just with the club that he used to beat out
clothes. Thus he suffered martyrdom, and they buried him on the spot
where his tombstone is still remaining, by the temple He became a
faithful witness, both to the Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is the Christ.
Immediately after this, Vespasian invaded and took Judaea.' "
" Such," adds Eusebius, "is the more ample testimony of Hegesippus,
in which he fully coincides with Clement. So admirable a man indeed
was James, and so celebrated among all for his justice, that even the
wiser part of the Jews were of opinion that this was the cause of the im
mediate siege of Jerusalem, which happened to them for no other reason
than the crime against him. Josephus also has not hesitated to super-
add this testimony in his works . ' These things,' says he, ' happened to
the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of him that is
called Christ and whom the Jews had slain, notwithstanding his pre-
eminent justice.' The same writer also relates his death, in the twen-
tieth book of his Antiquities, in the following words,' " etc.
Then Eusebius gives the account of Josephus.
278 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 28. Preparation for the Mission to the Gentiles.
The planting of the church among the Gentiles is mamly the
work of Paul ; but Providence prepared the way for it by several
steps, before this apostle entered upon his sublime mission.
1. By the conversion of those half-Gentiles and bitter enemies
of the Jews, the SAMARITANS, under the preaching and baptism
of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven deacons of Jerusalem,
and under the confirming instruction of the apostles Peter and
and John. The gospel found ready entrance into Samaria, as
had been prophetically hinted by the Lord in the conversation at
Jacob's well.1 But there we meet also the first heretical perver-
sion of Christianity by Simon Magus, whose hypocrisy and at-
tempt to degrade the gift of the Holy Spirit received from Peter
a terrible rebuke. (Hence the term simony r, for sordid traffic
in church offices and dignities.) This encounter of the prince
of the apostles with the arch-heretic was regarded in the ancient
church, and fancifully represented, as typifying the relation of
ecclesiastical orthodoxy to deceptive heresy.
2. Somewhat later (between 37 and 40) occurred the conver-
sion of the noble centurion, CORNELIUS of Csesarea, a pious pro-
selyte of the gate, whom Peter, in consequence of a special
revelation, received into the communion of the Christian church
directly by baptism, without circumcision. This bold step the
apostle had to vindicate to the strict Jewish Christians in Jeru-
salem, who thought circumcision a condition of salvation, and
Judaism the only way to Christianity. Thus Peter laid the
foundation also of the Gentile-Christian church. The event
marked a revolution in Peter's mind, and his emancipation from
the narrow prejudices of Judaism.9
1 Acts, ch. 8 ; oomp John, ch 4.
* Acts, chs 10 and 11. The account which Peter gave to the brethren at
Jerusalem was not a mere repetition of the facts related in ch 10, bnt an apolo-
getic adaptation to the peculiar wants of the audience. This has been well
shown by Dean Howson in his Commentary on those two chapters (in Soh&fTi
Internal. Com. voL II.). Comp. my HisL ofAp. Ch. 217 sqq.
§ 28. PREPARATION FOR MISSION TO THE GENTILES. 279
3. Still more important was the rise, at about the same time, of
the church at AOTIOCH, the capital of Syria. This congregation,
formed under the influence of the Hellenist Barnabas of Cyprus
and Paul of Tarsus, seems to have consisted from the first of
converted heathens and Jews. It thus became the mother of
Gentile Christendom, as Jerusalem was the mother and centre
of Jewish. In Antioch, too, the name " Christian " first ap-
peared, which was soon everywhere adopted, as well denoting
the nature and mission as the followers of Christ, the divine-
human prophet, priest, and king.1
The other and older designations were disciples (of Christ the
only Master), believers (in Christ as their Saviour), brethren (as
members of the same family of the redeemed, bound together
by a love which springs not from earth and will never cease),
and saints (as those who are purified and consecrated to the
service of God and called to perfect holiness).
1 Act*, 11 : 26 ; oomp. 20 : 28, and 1 Pet. 4 : 16
§ 29. THE CONVERSION OF THE GENTILES. 281
CHAPTEE V
ST. PAUL AND THE CONVERSION OP THE GENTILES.
Xdptrt bcov cl^l B dpi, Kal y x^Pls avroC f) cis
tpurfforcpov avrutv Tr&rrtov ^/coirfcura, OVK tyv
ICor 15:10.
by ft&r/ioi' apapTuXovs oraxTai, &v irpGrr6s e2/u ^•yti.—
ITim 1 15.
"Paul's mind was naturally and perfectly adapted to take up into itself
and to develop the free, universal, and absolute principle of Christianity." —
Dr. BAUR (Paul, II. 281, English translation)
" Did St Paul's life end with his own life? . . . May we not rather be-
lieve that in a sense higher than Chrysostom ever dreamt of [when he gave
him the glorious name of ' the Heart of the world '], the pulses of that mighty
heart are still the pulses of the world's life, still beat m these later ages with
even greater force than ever ? "—Dean STANLEY (Sennow and Essays on the
Apostolic Age. p. 1G6).
§ 29. Source* and Literature on St. Paul and his Work.
I. SOURCES.
1. The authentic sources :
The EPISTLES OF PAUL, and the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, ch. 9 : 1-30 ;
and chs 13 to 28. Of the Epistles of Paul the four most important—
Galatians, Romans, two Corinthians— are universally acknowledged
as genuine even by the most exacting critics ; the Philippians, Phile-
mon, Colossians, and Ephesians are admitted by nearly all critics ;
the Pastoral Epistles, especially First Timothy, and Titus, are more
or less disputed, but even they bear the stamp of Paul's genius.
On the coincidences between the Acts and the Epistles see the
section on the Acts. Comp. also J 22, pp. 213 sqq.
2. The legendary and apocryphal sources :
AOTA PAULI ET THEOUE, edition in Greek by E. Orabe (from a Bod-
leian MS. in Spidleg. SS. PP., Oxon. 1698, torn. I. pp. 95-128 ; re-
published by Jones, i726), and by Tischendorf (from three Pans MS&
282 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
in Acta Apost. Apocrypha, Lips. 1851) ; in Syriac, with an English
version by W. Wnght (in Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, Lond.
1871) ; EngL transl. by Alex. Walker (in Clark's " Ante-Nicene Chris-
taan Library," voL XVI. 279 sqq.). Comp. C. SCHLAU : Die Acten
des Paulus und der Theda und die alters Thecla-Legende, Leipz. 1877.
The Acts of Paul and Thecla strongly advocate celibacy. They
are probably of Gnostic origin and based on some local tradition.
They were originally written, according to Tertnllian (De Bapt cap.
17, comp. Jerome, Catal. cap. 7), by a presbyter in Asia " out of
love to Paul," and in support of the heretical opinion that women
have the right to preach and to baptize after the example of Thecla ;
henoe the author was deposed. The book was afterwards purged of
its most obnoxious features and extensively used in the Catholic
church. (See the patristic quotations in Tischendorf 's Prolegomena,
p. xxiv.) Thecla is represented as a noble virgin of Iconium, in
Lycaonia, who was betrothed to Thamyris, converted by Paul in her
seventeenth year, consecrated herself to perpetual virginity, was
persecuted, carried to the stake, and thrown before wild beasts, but
miraculously delivered, and died 90 years old at Seleucia. In the
Greek church she is celebrated as the first female martyr. Paul is
described at the beginning of this book (Tischend. p. 41) as " bttle
in stature, bald-headed, bow-legged, well built (or vigorous), with
knitted eye-brows, rather long-nosed, full of grace, appearing now
as a man, and now having the face of an angel." From this descrip-
tion Kenan has borrowed in part his fancy-sketch of Paul's personal
appearance.
ACTA PAULI (Updf cic- UavXov), used by Origen and ranked by Euse-
bins with the Antilegomena (or v&a rather). They are, like the
Acta Petri (Upatfts, or Ucpio&oi ncYpov), a Gnostic reconstruction of
the canonical Acts and ascribed to the authorship of St Linus.
Preserved only in fragments.
ACTA PETRI ET PAULI. A Catholic adaptation of an Ebionite
work. The Greek and Latin text was published first in a complete
form by Thilo, Halle, 1837-'38, the Greek by Tischendorf (who
collated six MSS.) in his Acta Apost. Apoc. 1851, 1-39 ; English
transL by Walker in " Ante-Nicene Libr.," XVI. 256 sqq. This
book records the arrival of Paul in Home, his meeting with Peter
and Simon Magus, their trial before the tribunal of Nero, and the
martyrdom of Peter by crucifixion, and of Paul by decapitation. The
legend of Domine quo vadis is here recorded of Peter, and the story
of Perpetua is interwoven with the martyrdom of Paul
The pseudo-CLEMENTiNE HOMILIES, of the middle of the second
century or later, give a malignant Judaizing caricature of Paul under
the disguise of Simon Magus (in part at least), and misrepresent
him as an antinomian arch-heretic ; while Peter, the proper hero of
§ 29. CHBISTIANITT AMONG THE GENTILES. 283
this romance, is glorified as the apostle of pure, primitive Chris-
tianity.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF PAUL AND SENECA, mentioned by Jerome
(De vir. til. c. 12) and Augustin (Ep. ad Maced. 153, aL 54), and
often copied, though with many variations, edited by Fabricius, Cod.
Apocr. N. T.9 and in several editions of Seneca. It consists of eight
letters of Seneca and six of Paul. They are very poor in thought
and style, full of errors of chronology and history, and undoubtedly
a forgery. They arose from the correspondence of the moral maxims
of Seneca with those of Paul, which is more apparent than real, and
from the desire to recommend the Stoic philosopher to the esteem
of the Christians, or to recommend Christianity to the students of
Seneca and the Stoic philosophy. Paul was protected at Corinth
by Seneca's brother, Gallic (Acts 18 : 12-16), and might have become
acquainted with the philosopher who committed suicide at Borne in
65, but there is no trace of such acquaintance. Comp. AMED&B
FLEUKY : Saint-Paul et Seneque (Paris, 1853, 2 vols.); C. AUBEBTIN :
£tude critique sur les rapports suppose entre Senfyue et Saint-Paul
(Par. 1887) ; F. C. BAUR : Seneca und Paulus, 1858 and 1876 ; REUBS:
art Seneca in Herzog, vol. XIV. 273 sqq. ; LIOHTFOOT : Excursus in
Com. on Phihppians, pp 268-331 ; art. Paul and Seneca, in "West-
minster Review," Lond. 1880, pp. 309 sqq.
IE. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL.
Bishop PEABSON (d. 1686) : Annales Pauhni. Lond. 1688. In the vari*
ous editions of his works, and also separately : Annals of St. Paul,
transl. with geographical and critical notes. Cambridge, 1825.
Lord LYTTLETON (d 1773) : The Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul
3d ed. Lond. 1747. Apologetic as an argument for the truth of
Christianity from the personal experience of the author.
Archdeacon WILLIAM PALET (d. 1805): Horoz Paulinas: or The Truth
of the Scripture History of Paul evinced by a comparison of the Epis-
tles which bear his name, with the Acts of the Apostles and with one
anotfier. Lond. 1790 (and subsequent editions). Still valuable for
apologetic purposes.
J. HEMSEN . Der Apostel Paulus. Gott 1830.
CARL SCHRADER : Der Apostel Paulus. Leipz. 1830-'36 5 Parts. Ra-
tionalistic.
P. CHR. BAUR (d. 1860) : Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi. Tub. 1845,
second ed. by E. Zeller, Leipzig, 1866-'67, in 2 vols. TransL into
English by A lion Menries. Lond. (Williams & Norgate) 1873 and 75,
2 vols. This work of the great leader of the philosophico-critical
reconstruction of the Apostolic Age (we may call him the modern
Marcion) was preceded by several special treatises on the Christ-
Party in Corinth (1831), on the Pastoral Epistles (1835), on the
284 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Epistle to the Romans (1836), and a Latin programme on Stephen's
address before the Sanhedrin (1829). It marks an epoch in the
literature on Paul and opened new avenues of research. It is the
standard work of the Tubingen school of critics. '
CONYBBABB and HOWSON : The Life and Epistles of St. Paul. Lond. 1853,
2 vols., and N. York, 1854 ; 2d ed. Lond. 1856, and later editions ;
also an abridgment in one vol. A very useful and popular work,
especially on the geography of Paul's travels. Gomp. also Dean
HOWSON: Character of St. Paul (Lond. 1862; 2d ed. 1864); Scenes
from tiie Life of St. Paul (1867) ; MetapJiors of St Paul (1868) ; The
Companions of St. Paul (1871). Most of these books were repub-
lished in America.
AD. MONOD (d. 1856) : Saint Paul. Six sermons. See his Sermons,
Paris, 1860, voL II. 121-296. The same in German and English.
W. F. BESSEB : Paulus. Leipz. 1861. English tran&l. by F. Bultmann,
with Introduction by J. S. Ho a son. Lond. and N. York, 1864.
F. BUNGENEB : St. Paul, sa vie, son ceuvre et see epitres. Pans, 1865.
A. HAUSRATH : Der Apostel Paulus. Heidelb. 1865 ; 2d ed. 1872. Comp.
also his N. T.hche Zeitgeschichte, Part HI.
M. KBENKEL : Paulus, der Apostel der Heiden. Leipz. 1869.
ERNEST KENAN : Saint Paul. Pans, 1869. Transl from the French by
/. Lockwood, N. York, 1869. Very fresh and entertaining, but full
of fancies and errors.
THOMAS LEWIN (author of " Fasti Sacri ") : The Life and Epistles of St.
Paul, new ed. Lond. and N. York, 1875, 2 vols. A magnificent work
of many years' labor, with 370 illustrations.
Canon F. W. FARBAB : The Life and Work of St. Paul. Lond and N.
York, 1879, 2 vols. Learned and eloquent.
W. M. TAYLOR : Paul as a Missionary. N. York, 1881.
As biographies, the works of Conybeare and Howson, Lewin, and
Farrar are the most complete and instructive*
Also the respective sections in the Histories of the Ap. Age by
Neander, Lechler, Thiersch, Lange, Schaff (226-347 and 634-640),
PresBensg.
HL CHRONOLOGICAL.
THOMAS LEWIN : Fasti Sacri, a Key to the Chronology of the New Testament.
London, 1865. Chronological Tables from B.C. 70 to A.D. 70.
WnBSELEB : Chronologie des apostolwchen, Zeitatters. Gottingen, 1848.
IV. DOCTRINAL AND EIEOETIOAL.
L. USTEBI: Entwicklung des Paulinischen Lehrbegriffs. Zurich, 1824 j
6th ed. 1851.
§ 29. CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE GENTILES. 285
A. F. DAHNE : Entwicklung des Paulinischen Lehrbegriffs. Halle, 1835.
BAUR : Paulus. See above.
B. A. LTPSIUS : Die Pauhnische Reihtfertigungslehre. Leipz. 1853.
C. HOLSTEN : Zum Evangehum des Paulus und des Petrus. Kostock, 186a
This book, contains : 1. An essay on the Chnstusvision des Paulus
und die Genesis des pauhnischen Evangehum s, which had previously
appeared in Hilgenfeld's " Zeitschrift," 1861, but is here enlarged
by a reply to Beyschlag ; 2. Die Messiasvision des Petrus (new) ;
3. An analysis of the Epistle to the Galatians (1859) ; 4 A discussion
of the meaning of <r«//£ in Paul's system (1855). By the same : Das
Evangehum des Paulus. Part I. Berlin, 1880.
TH. SIMAB (B. C.) : Die Theologie des heil Paulus. Freiberg, 1864.
EBNESTI: Die Ethik des Ap. Paulus. Braunschweig, 1868; 3d ed.
1880.
B. SCHMIDT : Die Chnstologie des Ap. Paulus. Gott , 1870.
MATTHEW ARNOLD : St. Paul and Protestantism. Lond. 1870 ; 3d ed.
1875.
WILLIAM I. IRONS (Episcop.) : Christianity as taught by St. Paul Eight
Bampton Lectures for 1870. Oxf. and Lond. 1871 ; 2d ed. 1876.
A. SABATIEB : L'apStre Paul. Esquisse d'une histoire de sa pensee. Strasb.
and Paris, 1870.
OTTO PFLEIDEREB (Prof, in Berlin) : Der Pauhmsmus. Leipzig, 1873.
Follows Baur and Holsten in developing the doctrinal system of
Paul from his conversion. English translation by E. Peters. Lond.
1877, 2 vols. Lectures on the Influence of the Apostle Paul on the De-
velopment of Christianity (The Hibbert Lectures). Trsl. by J. Fr.
Smith. Lond. and N. Y. 1885. Also his Urchristenthum, 1887.
C. WBIZSACKEB: D. Apost. Zeitalter (1886), pp. 68-355.
FB. BETHGB : Die Paulinischen Reden der Apostelgesch. G6ttingen, 1887.
Y. COMMENTARIES.
The Commentators on Paul's Epistles (in whole or in part) are so
numerous that we can only mention some of the most important :
1. On all the Pauline Epp. : CALVIN, BEZA, Esnus (B. C.), CORN.
A LAFEDB (B. C.), GBOTIUS, WETSTBTN, BENGEL, OLSHAUSEN, DB
WETTE, MEYER, LANOB (Am. ed. enlarged), EWALD, VON HOFMANN,
BBUSS (French), ALPOBD, WORDSWORTH, SPEAKER'S Com., ELLICOTP
(Pop. Com.), SCHAPP (Pop. Com., vol. III. 1882). Compare also P.
J. GLOAO : Introduction to the Pauline Epistles. Edinburgh, 1874.
2. On single Epp. : Romans by THOLUOK (5th ed. 1856), FBITZSCHB
(3 vols. in Latin), BBIOHB, B&GKERT, PHTTJPM (3d ed. 1866, English
transl. by Banks, 1878-'79, 2 vols.), Mos. STUART, TURNER, HOME,
FORBES, JOWETT, SHBDD (1879), GODET (Uepitre aux Bomains, 1879
and 1880, 2 vols). — Corinthians by NEANDBB, OSIANDBR, HODOB, STAN-
LET, HBINRIOI, EDWARDS, GODET, ELUOOTT.— Galatians by LUTHER,
286 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
WINER, WIESELHB, HZLGEHNFELD, HOLOTEN, JOWETT, HL&DIB,
LIGHTPOOT. — Ephesicms by HAKTiKflfl, MATTHIBS, STIBB, HODGE, EADDS,
EiiDiooTT, J. L. DATCBB. — Other minor Epp. explained by BLEEK
(Col, Philemon, and Eph.), KOCH (7%e*s.), TAN HENGEL (Phil.),
EADIE (CbZ.), Eiajoorr (P&&, CW., 7%es«., Phifan.), LIGHTPOOT
(P£t/., Cb/., Philemon).— Pastoral Epp. by MATTHIES, MACK (B. C.),
BECK (ed. Lindenmeyer, 1879), HOI/TZMANN (1880), FAIBBAIBN, EUJ*
OOTT, WEISS (1886), ENOKB (1887), ROLLING (1887).
8. The Commentaries on the second part of Acts by DB WETTE,
METER, BAUMQABTEN, ALEXANDER, HAOKETT, LECHLER, GLOAG,
PLUMPTBE, JACOBSON, LUMBT, HOWSON and SPENCB.
§ 30. Paul before his Conversion.
His NATURAL OUTFIT.
We now approach the apostle of the Gentiles who decided
the victory of Christianity as a universal religion, who labored
more, both in word and deed, than all his colleagues, and who
stands out, in lonely grandeur, the most remarkable and influen-
tial character in history. His youth as well as his closing years
are involved in obscurity, save that he began a persecutor and
ended a martyr, but the midday of his life is better known than
that of any other apostle, and is replete with burning thoughts
and noble deeds that can never die, and gather strength with the
progress of the gospel from age to age and country to country.
Saul or Paul ' was of strictly Jewish parentage, but was born,
a few years after Christ,1 in the renowned Grecian commercial
1 " Paul " (Little) is merely the Hellenized or Latinized form for his Hebrew
name " Saul'9 (Desired;, and has nothing whatever to do either with his own
conversion, or with the conversion of Sergius Panlns of Cyprus. There are
many similar instances of doable names among the Jews of that time, as
Hillel and Pollio, Cephas and Peter, John and Mark, Banahbas and Justus,
Simeon and Niger, Silas and Silvanus. Paul may have received his Latin
name in early youth in Tanas, as a Roman citizen ; Pauliit being the cogno-
men of several distinguished Roman families, as the gens ^Emilia, Fabia,
Julia, Sergia. He used it in his intercourse with the Gentiles and in all his
Epistles. See Hist. ApotiL Ch., p. 220, and my annotations to Lange on
Romans 1 : 1, pp. 57 and 58.
* When Panl wrote to Philemon, A.D. 68, he was an aged man (*pc<r/96riff9
ver. 9), that is, about or above sixty. According to Hippocrates a man was
called vpwfrfais from forty-nine to fifty-six, and after that y*9*v, MMX* In a
§ 30. PAUL BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 287
and literary city of Tarsus, in the province of Cilicia, and in-
herited the rights of a Roman citizen. He received a learned
Jewish education at Jerusalem in the school of the Pharisean
Rabbi, Gamaliel, a grandson of Hillel, not remaining an entire
stranger to Greek literature, as his style, his dialectic method,
his allusions to heathen religion and philosophy, and his occa-
sional quotations from heathen poets show. Thus, a " Hebrew
of the Hebrews," * yet at the same time a native Hellenist, and
a Roman citizen, he combined in himself, so to speak, the three
great nationalities of the ancient world, and was endowed with
all the natural qualifications for a universal apostleship. He
could argue with the Pharisees as a son of Abraham, of the
tribe of Benjamin, and as a disciple of the renowned Gamaliel,
surnamed "the Glory of the Law." He could address the
Greeks in their own beautiful tongue and with the convincing
force of their logic. Clothed with the dignity and majesty of
the Roman people, he could travel safely over the whole empire
with the proud watchword : Civis Hama/nus sum.
This providential outfit for his future work made him for a
while the most dangerous enemy of Christianity, but after his
conversion its most useful promoter. The weapons of destruc-
tion were turned into weapons of construction. The engine was
reversed, and the direction changed ; but it remained the same
engine, and its power was increased under the new inspira-
tion.
friendly letter to a younger friend and pupil the expression must not be pressed.
Walter Scott speaks of himself as " an old grey man'1 at fifty-five. Panl was
still a " youth" (warloi, Acts 7 : 58) at the stoning of Stephen, which proba-
bly took place in 87 ; and although this term is likewise vaguely used, yet as
he was then already clothed with a most important mission by the Sanhedrin,
he must have been about or over thirty years of age. Philo extends the limits
of maWa* from twenty-one to twenty-eight, Xenophon to forty. Comp. Light-
foot on Philemon, v. 9 (p. 405), and Farrar, I., 13, 14.
*• Phil. 3:5. A Hebrew by descent and education, though a Hellenist or
Jew of the dispersion by birth, Acts 22 : 3. Probably his parents were Pales-
tinians. This would explain the erroneous tradition preserved by Jerome
(De vir. id o. 5), that Paul was born at Giscala in Galilee (now El-Jiah), and
after the capture of the place by the Romans emigrated with his parent* to
Tarsus. But the capture did not take place till A.D. 67.
288 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The intellectual and moral endowment of Saul was of the
highest order. The sharpest thinking was blended with the
tenderest feeling, the deepest mind with the strongest will. He
had Semitic fervor, Greek versatility, and Roman energy.
Whatever he was, he was with his whole soul. He was totua in
ittis, a man of one idea and of one purpose, first as a Jew, then
as a Christian. His nature was martial and heroic. Fear was
unknown to him — except the fear of God, which made him fear-
less of man. When yet a youth, he had risen to high eminence ;
and had he remained a Jew, he might have become a greater
Eabbi than even Hillel or Gamaliel, as he surpassed them both
in original genius and fertility of thought.
Paul was the only scholar among the apostles. He never
displays his learning, considering it of no account as compared
with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for whom he
suffered the loss of all things,1 but he could not conceal it, and
turned it to the best use after his conversion. Peter and John
had natural genius, but no scholastic education ; Paul had both,
and thus became the founder of Christian theology and philoso-
phy-
\ His EDUCATION.
i
His training was thoroughly Jewish, rooted and grounded in
the Scriptures of the Old Covenant, and those traditions- of the
elders which culminated in the Talmud.8 He knew the Hebrew
and Greek Bible almost by heart. In his argumentative epis-
tles, when addressing Jewish converts, he quotes from the Pen-
tateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, now literally, now freely,
sometimes ingeniously combining several passages or verbal re-
miniscences, or reading between the lines in a manner which
betrays the profound student and master of the hidden depths
of the word of God, and throws a flood of light on obscure
1 Gomp. the sublime passage, Phil. 8 : 8-10, and 1 Cor. 2-1,2
* Gal. 4 : 14 : " I made progress in Judaism beyond many of mine own age
in my nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my
fathers."
§ 30. PAUL BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 289
passages.1 He was quite familiar with the typical and allegori-
cal methods of interpretation ; and he occasionally and incident-
ally uses Scriptural arguments, or illustrations rather, which
strike a sober scholar as far-fetched and fanciful, though they
were quite conclusive to a Jewish reader.8 But he never bases
a truth on such an illustration without an independent argu-
ment ; he never indulges in the exegetical impositions and frivo-
lities of those " letter- worshipping Jlabbis who prided them-
selves on suspending dogmatic mountains by textual hairs."
Through the revelation of Christ, the Old Testament, instead of
losing itself in the desert of the Talmud or the labyrinth of the
Kabbala, became to him a book of life, full of types and promises
of the great facts and truths of the gospel salvation. In Abra-
ham he saw the father of the faithful, in Habakkuk a preacher
of justification by faith, in the paschal lamb a type of Christ
slain for the sins of the world, in the passage of Israel through
the Red Sea a prefigurement of Christian baptism, and in the
manna of the wilderness a type of the bread of life in the Lord's
Supper.
The Hellenic culture of Paul is a matter of dispute, denied
by some, unduly exalted by others. He no doubt acquired in
the home of his boyhood and early manhood * a knowledge of
the Greek language, for Tarsus was at that time the seat of one
of the three universities of the Roman empire, surpassing in
some respects even Athens and Alexandria, and furnished tutors
to the imperial family. His teacher, Gamaliel, was compara-
tively free from the rabbinical abhorrence and contempt of
heathen literature. After his conversion he devoted his life to
the salvation of the heathen, and lived for years at Tarsus,
1 Scripture references and allusions abound in the Galatians, Romans, and
Corinthians, but are wanting in the Thessalonians, Colossians, and Philemon,
and in his address to the heathen hearers at Athens, whom he referred to
their own poets rather than to Moses and the prophets
* As the reasoning from the singular or rather collective <r*tpva (aura) in
Gal 3:16, the allegorical interpretation of Hagar and Sarah, 4 • 22 aqq., and
the rook in the wilderness, 1 Cor. 10 . 1-4. See the commentaries.
1 Comp. GaL 1:21; Acts 9: 80; 11:25.
290 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Ephesus, Corinth, and other cities of Greece, and became a
Greek to the Greeks in order to save them. It is scarcely con-
ceivable that a man of universal human sympathies, and so wide
awake to the deepest problems of thought, as he, should have
under such circumstances taken no notice of the vast treasures
of Greek philosophy, poetry, and history. He would certainly
do what we expect every missionary to China or India to do
from love to the race which he is to benefit, and from a desire
to extend his usefulness. Paul very aptly, though only inci-
dentally, quotes three times from Greek poets, not only a pro-
verbial maxim from Menander,1 and a hexameter from Epimen-
ides,a which may have passed into common use, but also a half-
hexameter with a connecting particle, which he must have read
in the tedious astronomical poem of his countryman, Aratus
(about B.C. 270), or in the sublime hymn of Cleanthes to Jupi-
ter, in both of which the passage occurs.1 He borrows some of
1 1 Cor. 15 : 33. (f&flpovfftv #&ij xpijtrrfc 6ui\iou total.
11 Evil associations corrupt good manners/*
* Tit. 1 : 12. Kfnrrts aci ^cvoreu, Kaica b^pta, yaurrtp€S apyal.
"Cretans are liars alway, bad beasts, and indolent gluttons "
As Epimenides was himself a Cretan, this contemptuous depreciation of hia
countrymen gave rise to the syllogistic puzzle " Epimenides calls the Cre-
tans liars ; Epimemdes was a Cretan therefore Epimenides was a liar there-
fore the Cretaas were not liars therefore Epimenides wan not a liar/' etc.
b Acts 17 : 28. TOM [poetic for robrov] yap Kal y&os fofifv.
44 For we are also His (God's) offspring "
The passage occurs literally in the Phenomena of Aratus, v. 5, in the fol-
lowing connection :
. ..." We all greatly need Zeus,
For we are his offspring ; full of grace, he grants men
Tokens of favor " . . . .
The Stoic poet, Cleanthes (Hymn, in Jovcm, 5) uses the same expression in
an address to Jupiter- "Ex trov yap -yeVoj ta>ifV, and in the Golden Poem,
&t «<w yap ytvot fort fyoroiffiv We may also quote a parallel passage of Pin-
dar, Nem VL , which has been overlooked by commentators :
44 One race of men and gods, from one mother breathe we all "
It is evident, however, that all these passages were understood by their
Heathen authors in a materialistic and pantheistic sense, which would make
nature or the earth the mother of gods and men. Pan! in his masterly address
§ 30. PAUL BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 291
his favorite metaphors from the Grecian games ; he disputed
with Greek philosophers of different schools and addressed them
from the Areopagus with consummate wisdom and adaptation to
the situation ; some suppose that he alludes even to the termin-
ology of the Stoic philosophy when he speaks of the " rudiments JJ
or " elements of the world." l He handles the Greek language,
not indeed with classical purity and elegance, yet with an almost
creative vigor, transforming it into an obedient organ of new
ideas, and pressing into his service the oxymoron, the parono-
masia, the litotes, and other rhetorical figures.2 Yet all this
does by no means prove a regular study or extensive knowledge
of Greek literature, but is due in part to native genius. His
more than Attic urbanity and gentlemanly refinement which
breathe in his Epistles to Philemon and the Philippians, must
be traced to the influence of Christianity rather than his inter-
course with accomplished Greeks. His Hellenic learning seems
to have been only casual, incidental, and altogether subordinate
to his great aim. In this respect he differed widely from the
learned Josephus, who affected Attic purity of style, and from
Philo, who allowed the revealed truth of the Mosaic religion to
be controlled, obscured, and perverted by Hellenic philosophy.
Philo idealized and explained away the Old Testament by alle-
gorical impositions which he substituted for grammatical expo-
sitions ; Paul spiritualized the Old Testament and drew out its
deepest meaning. Philo's Judaism evaporated in speculative
to the Athenians, without endorsing the error, recognizes the element of
truth in pantheism, viz , the divine origin of man and the immanence of God
in the world and in humanity.
1 rk oTotxcux rov grfcr/ioi;, Gal 4 • 3, 9. So Hilgenfeld, Eirdeitung, p 223.
Thiersch assumes (p 1 12) that Paul was familiar with the Nicomachean Ethics
of Aristotle, and that his dialectics is classical rather than rabbinical ; but
this is scarcely correct. In Romans 5 : 16, 18, he uses the word to/tato/ia in
the Aristotelian sense of legal adjustment (Recliteausgleichung). See Ktli*
Nicom v. 10, and Rothe's monograph on Rom. 5 12-21. Baur compares
Paul's style with that of Thncydides.
* Farrar, I. 629 sq., counts " upwards of fifty specimens of thirty Greek rhe-
torical figures in St Paul," which certainly disprove the assertion of Renan
that Paul could never have received even elementary lessons in grammar and
rhetoric at Tarsus.
292 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
abstractions, Paul's Judaism was elevated and transformed into
Christian realities.
His ZEAL FOR JUDAIPM.
Saul was a Pharisee of the strictest sect, not indeed of the
hypocritical type, so witheringly rebuked by our Saviour, but of
the honest, truth-loving and truth-seeking sort, like that of Nico-
demus and Gamaliel. His very fanaticism in persecution arose
from the intensity of his conviction and his zeal for the religion
of his fathers. He persecuted in ignorance, and that diminished,
though it did not abolish, his guilt. He probably never saw fo
heard Jesus until he appeared to him at Damascus. He may
have been at Tarsus at the time of the crucifixion and resurrec-
tion.1 But with his Pharisaic education he regarded Jesus of
Nazareth, like his teachers, as a false Messiah, a rebel, a blas-
phemer, who was justly condemned to death. Arid he acted
according to his conviction. He took the most prominent part
in the persecution of Stephen and delighted in his death. Not
satisfied with this, he procured from the Sanhedrin, which had
the oversight of all the synagogues and disciplinary punishments
for offences against the law, full power to persecute and arrest
the scattered disciples. Thus armed, he set out for Damascus,
the capital of Syria, which numbered many synagogues, lie
was determined to exterminate the dangerous sect from the face
of the earth, for the glory of God. But the height of his oppo-
sition was the beginning of his devotion to Christianity.
1 1 Cor. 9 . 1 refers to the vision of Christ at Damascus. In 2 Cor. 5 • 16 :
" though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we
him no more,91 the particles «J *td (quamquam, even though, wenn auch) seem
to chronicle a fact, as distinct from gal t J (eUam fi, even if, selbst wenn), which
puts an hypothesis ; but the stress lies on the difference between an external,
carnal knowledge of Christ in his humility and earthly relations or a super-
ficial acquaintance from hearsay, and a spiritual, experimental knowledge of
Christ in his glory. Farrar (I. 73 sqq.), reasons that if Pan! had really known
and heard Jesus, he would have been converted at once.
§ 30. PAUL BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 293
His EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
On the subordinate questions of Paul's external condition
and relations we have no certain information. Being a Roman
citizen, he belonged to the respectable class of society, but must
have been poor ; for he depended for support on a trade which
he learned in accordance with rabbinical custom ; it was the
trade of tent-making, very common in Cilicia, and not profitable
except in large cities.1
He had a sister living at Jerusalem whose son was instrumen-
tal in saving his life.*
He was probably never married. Some suppose that he was
a widower. Jewish and rabbinical custom, the completeness of
his moral character, his ideal conception of marriage as reflect-
ing the mystical union of Christ with his church, his exhorta-
tions to conjugal, parental, and filial duties, seem to point to ex-
perimental knowledge of domestic life. But as a Christian
missionary moving from place to place, and exposed to all sorts
of hardship and persecution, he felt it his duty to abide alone.8
1 He is called a tent-maker, crmriwroirf*, Acts 18 3 Tents were mostly
made of the coarse hair of the Cilician goat (Kttiicios rpdyos, which also denotes
a coarse man), and needed by shepherds, travellers, sailors, and soldiers.
The same material was also used for mantelets, shoes, and beds. The Cili-
cian origin of this article is perpetuated in the Latin riiicium and the French
cilice, which means hair-cloth. Gamaliel is the author of the maxim that
44 learning of any kind unaccompanied by a trade ends in nothing and leads to
sin"
8 Acts 23 16.
8 In 1 Cor 9 5 (written in 57) he claims the right to lead a married life,
like Peter and the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord ; but in 1
Cor 7 • 7, 8 he gives for himself in his peculiar position the preference to
single life Clement of Alexandria, Erasmus, and others supposed that he
was married, and understood Syzyge, in Phil. 4 • 8, to be his wife. Ewald
regards him as a widower who lost his wife before his conversion (YI. 341).
So also Farrar (I. 80) who infers from 1 Cor. 7 : 8 that Paul classed himself
with widowers : " I say, therefore, to the unmarried [to widowers, for whom
there is no special Greek word] and widows, it is good for them if they abide
even as I." He lays stress on the fact that the Jews in all ages attached great
importance to marriage as a moral duty (Gen. 1 : 28), and preferred early
marriage; he also maintains (I 169) that Paul, being a member of the
Sanhedrin (as he gave his vote for the condemnation of the Christiana, Acta
294 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
He sacrificed the blessings of home and family to the advance-
ment of the kingdom of Christ.1
His " bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible "
(of no value), in the superficial judgment of the Corinthians,
who missed the rhetorical ornaments, yet could not help admit-
ting that his " letters were weighty and strong." * Some of the
greatest men have been small in size, and some of the purest
26 : 10), must have had, according to the Gemara, a family of his own. Kenan
fancies (ch VI ) that Paul contracted a more than spiritual union with sister
Lydia at Phihppi, and addressed her in Phil. 4 : 3 as his o-6(uye yrficric, that is,
as his true co-worker or partner (conjux), since it is not likely that he would
have omitted her when he mentioned, in the preceding verse, two deaconesses
otherwise unknown, Euodia and Syntyche. The word orf^yos, as a noun,
may be either masculine 01 feminine, and may either mean generally an
associate, a co-worker ("yoke-fellow" in the E V ), or be a proper name.
Several persons have been suggested, Epaphroditus, Timothy, Silas, Luke.
But Paul probably means a mau, named 2,v(uyos, and plays upon the word :
** Yokefellow by name and yoke-fellow in deed " Comp a similar parono-
masia in Philem. 10, 11 ('Oi^<nuoif, i e, IleLpful^-ixP^0^0^ «tfxp>?<rroj/, un-
profitable, profitable). See the notes of Meyer and Lange (Braune and Hackett)
on these passages
1 This sublime loneliness of Paul is well expressed in a poem, Saint Paul,
by Frederic W. H Myers (1808), from which we may be permitted to quote a
few lines :
11 Christ ! I am Christ's ' and let the name suffice you ;
Aye, for me, too, He greatly hath sufficed ,
Lo, with no winning words I would entice you ;
Paul has no honor and no friend but Christ.
11 Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter —
Yes, without stay of father or of son,
Lone on the land, and homeless on the water,
Pass I in patience till the work be done.
" Yet not in solitude, if Christ anear me
Waketh Him woikers for the great employ;
Oh, not in solitude, if souls that hear me
Catch from my joyance the surprise of joy.
" Hearts I have won of sister or of brother,
Quick on the earth or hidden in the sod ;
Lo, every heart awaiteth roe, another
Fnend in the blameless family of God."
* 2 Cor. 10 : 10 : 4 wopouo-fa rov <rc6/iaror Jur&ey^r, *al 6 Attyos Qoubt»n)n(vost
or, as Cod B. reads, ^oi/Jevrj^cK, which has the same meaning. Comp. ver.
1, where he speaks of his "lowly" personal appearance among the Corin-
thians (fc«r& tfp6ffwrw rovwrft). He was little, compared with Barnabas (Acts
14:12).
§ 30. PAUL BEFORE HIS CONVERSION. 295
souls forbidding in body. Socrates was the homeliest, and yet
the wisest of Greeks. Neander, a converted Jew, like Paul,
was short, feeble, and strikingly odd in his whole appearance,
but a rare humility, benignity, and heavenly aspiration beamed
from his face beneath his dark and bushy eyebrows. So we
may well imagine that the expression of Paul's countenance was
highly intellectual and spiritual, and that he looked " sometimes
like a man and sometimes like an angel." *
1 This is from the tradition preserved in the apocryphal Acts of Theda.
See the description quoted above, p 282. Other ancient descriptions of Paul
in the Philopatr'is of pseudo-Lucian (of the second, but more probably of the
fourth century), Malala of Antioch (sixth century), and Nicephorus (fifteenth
century), represent Paul as little in stature, bald, with a prominent aquiline
nose, gray hair and thick beard, bright grayish eyes, somewhat bent and
stooping, yet pleasant and graceful See these descriptions in Lewm's St.
Pau^ II. 412. The oldest extant portraiture of Paul, probably from the
close of the first or beginning of the second century, was found on a large
bronze medallion in the cemetery of Domitilla (one of the Flavian family),
and is preserved in the Vatican library. It presents Paul on the left and
Peter on the right Both are far from handsome, but full of character ; Paul
is the homelier of the two, with apparently diseased eyes, open mouth, bald
head and short thick beard, but thoughtful, solemn, and dignified. See a cut
in Lewin, II. 211. Chrysostom calls Paul the three-cubit man (6 rpimixvs
ivfywiroj, Serm. in Pet et Paul ) Luther imagined : "#£ Paulus war ein
armes, durres Mannlein, wie Magister Phttippus " (Melanchthon). A poetic
description by J. H Newman see m Farrar I 220, and in Plumptre on Acts,
Appendix, with another (of his own). Renan (LesApotres, pp. 169sqq ) gives,
partly from Paul's Epistles, partly from apocryphal sources, the following
striking picture of the apostle : His behavior was winning, his manners ex-
cellent, his letters reveal a man of genius and lofty aspirations, though the
style is incorrect. Never did a correspondence display rarer courtesies,
tenderer shades, more amiable modesty and reserve. Once or twice we are
wounded by his sarcasm (Gal 5 • 12 ; Phil. 3:2). But what rapture ! What
fulness of charming words ! What originality f His exterior did not correspond
to the greatness of his soul. He was ugly, short, stout, plump, of small
head, bald, pale, his face covered with a thick beard, an eagle nose, piercing
eyes, dark eyebrows. His speech, embarrassed, faulty, gave a poor idea of
his eloquence. With rare tact he turned his external defects to advantage.
The Jewish race produces types of the highest beauty and of the most com-
plete homeliness (des types de la plus grande beaute et de la plus complete
Inideur) ; but the Jewish homeliness is quite unique. The strange faces
which provoke laughter at first sight, assume when intellectually enlivened,
a peculiar expression of intense brilliancy and majesty (une sorte tfeclatpro-
fondetdtmajate).
296 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
He was afflicted with a mysterious, painful, recurrent, and
repulsive physical infirmity, which he calls a "thorn in the
flesh," and which acted as a check upon spiritual pride and
self-exultation over his abundance of revelations.1 He bore
the heavenly treasure in an earthly vessel and his strength
was made perfect in weakness.* But all the more must
we admire the moral heroism which turned weakness itself into
an element of strength, and despite pain and trouble and
persecution carried the gospel salvation triumphantly from
Damascus to Rome.
§ 31. The Conversion of Paid.
bv vtbv avrov Iv 4*o/, 7?
fr rocs &vc<nv.— Gal. 1 : 15, 16.
The conversion of Paul marks not only a turning-point in his
personal history, but also an important epoch in the history of
the apostolic church, and consequently in the history of man-
kind. It was the most fruitful event since the miracle of "Pen-
tecost, and secured the universal victory of Christianity.
The transformation of the most dangerous persecutor into the
most successful promoter of Christianity is nothing less than a
miracle of divine grace. It rests on the greater miracle of the
l2Cor 12:7-9; Gal 4:13-15. Comp also lThes8.2:18; 1 Cor 2:3;
2 Cor 1 . 8, 9 ; 4-10. Of the many conjectures only three : sick headache,
acute ophthalmia, epilepsy, seem to answer the allusions of Paul which are
dark to us at such a distance of time, while they were clear to his personal
friends. Tertullian and Jerome, according1 to an ancient tradition, favor
headache ; Lewin, Farrar, and many others, sore eyes, dating the inflamma-
tion from the dazzling light which shone around him at Damascus (Acts 9 : 3,
17, 18 ; comp. 22 : 13 ; 23 3, 5 ; Gal. 4 15) ; Ewald and Lightfoot, epilepsy,
with illustration from the life of King Alfred (Mohammed would be even
more to the point). Other conjectures of external, or spiritual trials (perse-
cution, carnal temptations, bad temper, doubt, despondency, blasphemous
suggestions of the devil, etc.) are ruled out by a strict exegesis of the two
chief passages in 2 Cor. 12 and Gal. 4, which point to a physi&tl malady. See
an Excursus on Paul's thorn in the flesh, in my Commentary on (fal 4. : 18-15
(Pop. Com. vol. IIL).
•2 Cor. 4:7; 12:9,10.
§ 81. THE CONVERSION OP PAUL. 297
resurrection of Christ. Both are inseparably connected ; with-
out the resurrection the conversion would have been impossible,
and on the other hand the conversion of such a man and with
such results is one of the strongest proofs of the resurrection.
The bold attack of Stephen — the forerunner of Paul — upon
the hard, stiff-necked Judaism which had crucified the Messiah,
provoked a determined and systematic attempt on the part of
the Sanhedrin to crucify Jesus again by destroying his church.
In this struggle for life and death Saul the Pharisee, the bravest
and strongest of the rising rabbis, was the willing and accepted
leader.
After the martyrdom of Stephen and the dispersion of the
congregation of Jerusalem, he proceeded to Damascus in pur-
suit of the fugitive disciples of Jesus, as a commissioner of
the Sanhedrin, a sort of inquisitor-general, with full authority
and determination to stamp out the Christian rebellion, and to
bring all the apostates he could find, whether they were men
or women, in chains to the holy city to be condemned by the
chief priests.
Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world, known in
the days of Abraham, and bursts upon the traveller like a vision
of paradise amidst a burning and barren wilderness of sand ; it
is watered by the never-failing rivers Abana and Pharpar
(which Naaman of old preferred to all the waters of Israel),
and embosomed in luxuriant gardens of flowers and groves of
tropical fruit trees ; hence glorified by Eastern poets as " the
Eye of the Desert."
But a far higher vision than this earthly paradise was in store
for Saul as he approached the city. A supernatural light from
heaven, brighter than the Syrian sun, suddenly flashed around
him at midday, and Jesus of Nazareth, whom he persecuted in
his humble disciples, appeared to him in his glory as the exalted
Messiah, asking him in the Hebrew tongue : " Shaftl, Shaftl,
why persecutest thon Me ? " * It was a question both of rebuke
1 Acts 9 : 4, the Hebrew form Sooto, Joofo, ifl used instead of the usual
G**ek *&>*, ren. 8, 11, 21, 24, eta
298 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and of love, and it melted his heart. He fell prostrate to the
ground. ' He saw and heard, he trembled and obeyed, he be-
lieved and rejoiced. As he rose from the earth he saw no
man. Like a helpless child, blinded by the dazzling light, he
was led to Damascus, and after three days of blindness and
fasting he was cured and baptized — not by Peter or James or
John, but — by one of the humble disciples whom he had come
to destroy. The haughty, self-righteous, intolerant, raging
Pharisee was changed into an humble, penitent, grateful, loving
servant of Jesus. He threw away self -righteousness, learning,
influence, power, prospects, and cast in his lot with a small,
despised sect at the risk of his life. If there ever was an
honest, unselfish, radical, and effective change of conviction
and conduct, it was that of Saul of Tarsus. He became, by a
creative act of the Holy Spirit, a " new creature in Christ
Jesus." '
We have three full accounts of this event in the Acts, one
from Luke, two from Paul himself, with slight variations in
detail, which only confirm the essential harmony.9 Paul also
alludes to it five or six times in his Epistles.* In all these pas-
sages he represents the change as an act brought about by a
direct intervention of Jesus, who revealed himself in his glory
from heaven, and struck conviction into his mind like lightning
at midnight. He compares it to the creative act of God when
'2 Cor 5:17; Gal. 6-15.
* Acts, chapters 9, 22, 26. These accounts are by no means mere repeti-
tions, but modifications and adaptations of the same story to the audience
under apologetic conditions, and bring out each some interesting feature
called forth by the occasion. This has been well shown by Dean Howson in
Excursus 0 on Acts, ch 26, in his and Canon Spence's Commentary on Acts.
The discrepancies of the accounts are easily reconciled They refer chiefly
to the effect upon the companions of Paul who saw the light, but not the
person of Christ, and heard a voice, but could not understand the words.
The vision was not for them any more than the appearance of the risen Lord
was for the soldiers who watched the grave. They weie probably members
of the Levitical temple guard, who were to bind and drag the Christian pris-
oners to Jerusalem.
'Gal. 1:15, 16; 1 Cor. 15:6,9; 0:1; 2 Cor. 4:6; Phil 3:6; 1 Tim
1 : 12-14.
§ 31. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 299
He commanded the light to shine out of darkness.1 He lays
great stress on the fact that he was converted and called to the
apostolate directly by Christ, without any human agency ; that
he learned his gospel of free and universal grace by revelation,
and riot from the older apostles, whom he did not even see till
three years after his call. 2
The conversion, indeed, was not a moral compulsion, but in-
cluded the responsibility of assent or dissent. God converts
nobody by force or by magic. He made man free, and acts
upon him as a moral being. Paul migJit have " disobeyed the
heavenly vision." * He might have " kicked against the goads,"
though it was " hard " (not impossible) to do so.4 These words
imply some psychological preparation, some doubt and misgiv-
ing as to his course, some moral conflict between the flesh and
the spirit, which he himself described twenty years afterwards
from personal experience, and which issues in the cry of de-
spair : " O wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death ? " 6 On his journey from Jerusalem
to Damascus, which takes a full week on foot or horseback — the
distance being about 140 miles — as he was passing, in the soli-
tude of his own thoughts, through Samaria, Galilee, and across
Mount Ilermon, he had ample time for reflection, and we may
'2 Cor 4:6.
» Gal 1 • 1, 11, 12, 15-18.
8 This is implied in his words to King: Agrippa, Acts 26 19.
1 Acts 26 14 Christ said to him aK\r)p6v crot irpbs Kfvrpct \aicri(fiv This is
a proverbial expression used by Greek writers of refractory oxen m the plough
when urged by a sharp-pointed instrument of the driver The ox may and
often does resist, but by doing so he only increases his pain. Resistance is
possible, but worse than useless
5 Rom 7 . 7-25 This remarkable section describes the psychological prog-
ress of the human heart to Christ from the heathen state of carnal security,
when am is dead because unknown, through the Jewish state of legal conflict,
when sin, roused by the stimulus of the divine command, springs into life,
and the higher and nobler nature of man strives m vain to overcome this fear-
ful monster, until at last the free grace of God in Christ gains the victory.
Some of the profoundest divines— Auguatin, Luther, Calvin— transfer this
conflict into the regenerate state ; but this is described in the eighth chapter
which ends in an exalting song of triumph.
800 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
well imagine how the shining face of the martyr Stephen, as
he stood like a holy angel before the Sanhedrin, and as in the
last moment he prayed for his murderers, was haunting him
like a ghost and warning him to stop his mad career.
Yet we must not overrate this preparation or anticipate his
riper experience in the three days that intervened between his
conversion and his baptism, and during the three years of quiet
meditation in Arabia. He was no doubt longing for truth and
for righteousness, but there was a thick veil over his mental
eye which could only be taken away by a hand from without ;
access to his heart was barred by an iron door of prejudice which
had to be broken in by Jesus himself. On his way to Damascus
he was " yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the dis-
ciples of the Lord," and thinking he was doing " God service ; ''
he was, to use his own language, " beyond measure " persecuting
the church of God and endeavoring to destroy it, " being more
exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers " than many
of his age, when " it pleased God to reveal his Son in him."
Moreover it is only in the light of faith that we see the mid-
night darkness of our sin, and it is only beneath the cross of
Christ that we feel the whole crushing weight of guilt and the
unfathomable depth of God's redeeming love. No amount of
subjective thought and reflection could have brought about that
radical change in so short a time. It was the objective appear-
ance of Jesus that effected it.
This appearance implied the resurrection and the ascension,
and this was the irresistible evidence of His Messiahship, God's
own seal of approval upon the work of Jesus. And the resur-
rection again shed a new light upon His death on the cross,
disclosing it as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, as
the means of procuring pardon and peace consistent with the
claims of divine justice. What a revelation ! That same Jesus
of Nazareth whom he hated and persecuted as a false prophet
justly crucified between two robbers, stood before Saul as the
risen, ascended, and glorified Messiah ! And instead of crush-
ing the persecutor as he deserved, He pardoned him and called
§ 31. THE CONVERSION OP PAUL. 301
him to be His witness before Jews and Gentiles I This rev-
elation was enough for an orthodox Jew waiting for the hope
of Israel to make him a Christian, and enough for a Jew of
such force of character to make him an earnest and determined
Christian. The logic of his intellect and the energy of his will
required that he should love and promote the new faith with
the same enthusiasm with which he had hated and persecuted
it ; for hatred is but inverted love, and the intensity of love and
hatred depends on the strength of affection and the ardor of
temper.
With all the suddenness and radicalness of the transformation
there is nevertheless a bond of unity between Saul the Pharisee
and Paul the Christian. It was the same person with the same
end in view, but in opposite directions. We must remember
that he was not a worldly, indifferent, cold-blooded man, but an
intensely religious man. While persecuting the church, he was
" blameless " as touching the righteousness of the law.1 He re-
sembled the rich youth who had observed the commandments,
yet lacked the one thing needful, and of whom Mark says that
Jesus "loved him." a lie was not converted from infidelity to
faith, but from a lower faith to a purer faith, from the religion
of Moses to the religion of Christ, from the theology of the law
to the theology of the gospel. How shall a sinner be justified
before the tribunal of a holy God ? That was with him the
question of questions before as well as after his conversion ; not a
scholastic question merely, but even far more a moral and re-
ligious question. For righteousness, to the Hebrew mind, is
conformity to the will of God as expressed in his revealed law,
and implies life eternal as its reward. The honest and earnest
pursuit of righteousness is the connecting link between the two
periods of Paul's life. First he labored to secure it by works of
the law, then by obedience of faith. What he had sought in
vain by his fanatical zeal for the traditions of Judaism, he
found gratuitously and at once by trust in the cross of Christ :
1 Phil 8 : 6, *ar& ftiicaiofftf myr r^r h prf/iy ytvApms tfp*/tirrof.
* Mark 10 : 21.
802 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
pardon and peace with God. By the discipline of the Mosaic
law as a tutor he was led beyond its restraints and prepared for
manhood and freedom. Through the law he died to the law
that he might live unto God. His old self, with its lusts, was
crucified with Christ, so that henceforth he lived no longer
himself, but Christ lived in him.1 He was mystically identified
with his Saviour and had no separate existence from him. The
whole of Christianity, the whole of life, was summed up to him
in the one word : Christ. He determined to know nothing save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sins, and risen again for
our justification.*
His experience of justification by faith, his free pardon and
acceptance by Christ were to him the strongest stimulus to grati-
tude and consecration. His great sin of persecution, like Peter's
denial, was overruled for his own good : the remembrance of it
kept him humble, guarded him against temptation, and intensi-
fied his zeal and devotion. " I am the least of the apostles," he
said in unfeigned humility, "that am not meet to be called
an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by
the grace of God I am what I am ; and his grace which was be-
stowed upon me was not in vain ; but I labored more abun-
dantly than they all : yet not I, but the grace of God which was
with me." * This confession contains, in epitome, the whole
meaning of his life and work.
The idea of justification by the free grace of God in Christ
through a living faith which makes Christ and his merits our
own and leads to consecration and holiness, is the central idea
of Paul's Epistles. His whole theology, doctrinal, ethical, and
practical, lies, like a germ, in his conversion ; but it was actually
developed by a sharp conflict with Judaizing teachers who con-
1 In bis address to Peter at Antioch, Gal 2 : 11-21, he gives an account of
his experience and his gospel, as contrasted with the gospel of the Judaizers.
Comp. Gal. 3 : 24; 5 : 24; 6 : 14; Rom 7 6-13 ; Col. 2 20.
* 1 Cor. 2:2; Gal 6 14; Rom. 4 :24, 25.
8 1 Cor. 15 9, 10 ; comp. Eph. 3:8. " Unto me who am less than the least
of all saints, was this grace given; " 1 Tim. 1 : 15, 16 : u to save sinners of
whom I am chief,1' etc.
§ 31. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 303
fcinued to trust in the law for righteousness and salvation, and
thus virtually frustrated the grace of God and made Christ's
death unnecessary and fruitless.
Although Paul broke radically with Judaism and opposed the
Pharisaical notion of legal righteousness at every step and with
all his might, he was far from opposing the Old Testament or
the Jewish people. Herein he shows his great wisdom and
moderation, and his infinite superiority over Marcioii and other
ultra- and pseudo-Pauline reformers. He now expounded the
Scriptures as a direct preparation for the gospel, the law as a
schoolmaster leading to Christ, Abraham as the father of the
faithful. And as to his countrymen after the flesh, he loved
them more than ever before. Filled with the amazing love of
Christ who had pardoned him, " the chief of sinners," he was
ready for the greatest possible sacrifice if thereby he might save
them. His startling language in the ninth chapter of the Ro-
mans is not rhetorical exaggeration, but the genuine expression
of that heroic self-denial and devotion which animated Moses,
and which culminated in the sacrifice of the eternal Son of God
on the cross of Calvary.1
Paul's conversion was at the same time his call to the apostle-
ship, not indeed to a place among the Twelve (for the vacancy
of Judas was filled), but to the independent apostleship of the
Gentiles.* Then followed an uninterrupted activity of more
than a quarter of a century, which for interest and for perma-
nent and ever-growing usefulness lias no parallel in the annals
of history, and affords an unanswerable proof of the sincerity of
his conversion and the truth of Christianity.*
1 Rom. 9 • 2, 3 ; oomp. Ex. 32 : 31, 32.
5 Paul never numbers himself with the Twelve. He distinguishes himself
from the apostles of the circumcision, as the apostle of the unoiroumcision,
but of equal authority with them. Gal. 2 : 7-9. We have no intimation that
the election of Matthias (Acts 1 : 26) was a mistake of the hasty Peter; it
was ratified by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit immediately following.
8 On the testimony of Paul to Christianity see above § 22, p. 213. I will
add some good remarks of Farrar, I 202: "It is impossible," he says, "to
exaggerate the importance of St. Paul's conversion as one of the evidences of
Christianity. . . . . To what does he testify respecting Jesus ? To almost
304 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ANALOGOUS CONVERSIONS.
God deals with men according to their peculiar character and
condition. As in Elijah's vision on Mount Horeb, God appears
now in the mighty rushing wind that uproots the trees, now in
the earthquake that rends the rocks, now in the consuming fire,
now in the still small voice. Some are suddenly converted, and
can remember the place and hour ; others are gradually and im-
perceptibly changed in spirit and conduct ; still others grow up
unconsciously in the Christian faith from the mother's knee and
the baptismal font. The stronger the will the more force it re-
quires to overcome the resistance, and the more thorough and
lasting is the change. Of all sudden and radical conversions
that of Saul was the most sudden and the most radical. In
several respects it stands quite alone, as the man himself and his
work. Yet there are faint analogies in history. The divines
who most sympathized with his spirit and system of doctiine,
passed through a similar experience, and were much aided by
his example and writings. Among these Augustin, Calvin, and
Luther are the most conspicuous.
St. Augustin, the son of a pious mother and a heathen father,
was led astray into error and vice and wandered for years
through the labyrinth of heresy and scepticism, but his heart
was restless and homesick after God. At last, when he attained
to the thirty-third year of his life (Sept., 386), the fermentation
every single primary important fact respecting his incarnation, life, suffer-
ings, betrayal, last supper, trial, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and
heavenly exaltation. . . The events on which the apostle relied m proof of
Christ's divinity, had taken place in the full blaze of contemporary knowledge.
He had not to deal with uncertainties of criticism or assaults on authenticity.
He could question, not ancient documents, but living men ; he could analyze,
not fragmentary records, but existing evidence. He had thousands of means
dose at hand whereby to test the reality or unreality of the Resurrection in
which, up to this time, he had so passionately and contemptuously disbelieved.
In accepting this half -crushed and wholly execrated faith he had everything
in the world to lose — he had nothing conceivable to gain ; and yet, in spite of
all— overwhelmed by a conviction he felt to be irresistible—Saul, the Phari-
see, became a witness of the resurrection, a preacher of the orou."
§ 31. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 305
of his soul culminated in a garden near Milan, far away from
his African home, when the Spirit of God, through the com-
bined agencies of the unceasing prayers of Monica, the sermons
of Ambrose, the example of St. Anthony, the study of Cicero
and Plato, of Isaiah and Paul, brought about a change not indeed
as wonderful — for no visible appearance of Christ was vouch-
safed to him — but as sincere and lasting as that of the apostle.
As he was lying in the dust of repentance and wrestling with
God in prayer for deliverance, he suddenly heard a sweet voice
as from heaven, calling out again and again : " Take and read,
take and read ! " He opened the holy book and read the exhor-
tation of Paul : " Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." It was a
voice of God ; he obeyed it, he completely changed his course
of life, and became the greatest and most useful teacher of his
age.
Of Calvin's conversion we know very little, but he himself
characterizes it as a sudden change (mbita cowversio) from papal
superstition to the evangelical faith. In this respect it resem-
bles that of Paul rather than Augustin. He was no sceptic, no
heretic, no immoral man, but as far as we know, a pious Roman-
ist until the brighter life of the Reformation burst on his mind
from the Holy Scriptures and showed him a more excellent
way. " Only one haven of salvation is left for our souls," he
says, " and that is the mercy of God in Christ. "We are saved
by grace — not by our merits, not by our works." He consulted
not with flesh and blood, and burned the bridge after him. He
renounced all prospects of a brilliant career, and exposed himself
to the danger of persecution and death. He exhorted and
strengthened the timid Protestants of France, usually closing
with the words of Paul : " If God be for us, who can be against
us ? " He prepared in Paris a flaming address on reform, which
was ordered to be burned ; he escaped from persecution in a
basket from a window, like Paul at Damascus, and wandered
for two years as a fugitive evangelist from place to place until
he found Ins sphere of labor in Geneva. With his conversion
20
306 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
was born his Pauline theology, which sprang from his brain
like Minerva from the head ot Jupiter. Paul never had a more
logical and theological commentator than John Calvin.1
But the most Paul-like man in history is the leader of the
German Reformation, who combined in almost equal proportion
depth of mind, strength of will, tenderness of heart, and a fiery
vehemence of temper, and was the most powerful herald of
evangelical freedom ; though inferior to Augustin and Calvin
(not to say Paul) in self-discipline, consistency, and symmetry
of character.* Luther's commentary on the Epistle to the Gala-
tians, though not a grammatical or logical exposition, is a fresh
reproduction and republication of the Epistle against the self-
righteousness and bondage of the papacy. Luther's first con-
version took place in his twenty -first year (1505), when, as
a student of law at Erfurt, on his return from a visit to his
parents, he was so frightened by a fearful thunder-storrn and
flashes of lightning that he exclaimed : " Help, dear St. Anna,
I will become a monk!" But that conversion, although it
has often been compared with that of the apostle, had nothing
to do with his Paulinism and Protestantism ; it made him a
pious Catholic, it induced him to flee from the world to the
retreat of a convent for the salvation of his soul. And he
became one of the most humble, obedient, and self-denying of
monks, as Paul was one of the most earnest and zealous of
Pharisees. " If ever a monk got to heaven by monkery," says
Luther, "I ought to have gotten there." But the more he
sought righteousness and peace by ascetic self-denial and penal
exercises, the more painfully he felt the weight of sin and the
1 See my History of the Creeds of Christendom, L 426 sqq.
9 This IB fully recognized by Renan, who, however, has little sympathy
either with the apostle or the reformer, and fancies that the theology of both
is antiquated. " That historical character,91 he says, " which upon the whole
bears most analogy to St Paul, is Luther. In both there is the same violence
in language, the same passion, the same energy, the same noble independence,
the same frantic attachment to a thesis embraced as the absolute truth. " St.
Paul, ch XXn. at the close. And his last note in this book is this : " The
work which resembles most in spirit the Epistle to the Galatiana it Luther's
De Captimtato Babylenica Ecctoto."
§ 81. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 307
wrath of God, although unable to mention to his confessor any
particular transgression. The discipline of the law drove him
to the brink of despair, when by the kind interposition of Stau-
pitz he was directed away from himself to the cross of Christ, as
the only source of pardon and peace, and found, by implicit
faith in His all-sufficient merits, that righteousness which he
had vainly sought in his own strength.1 This, his second con-
version, as we may call it, which occurred several years later
(1508), and gradually rather than suddenly, made him an evan-
gelical freeman in Christ and prepared him for the great con-
flict with Romanism, which began in earnest with the nailing
of the ninety-nine theses against the traffic in indulgences (1517).
The intervening years may be compared to Paul's sojourn in
Arabia and the subordinate labors preceding his first great mis-
sionary tour.
FALSE EXPLANATIONS.
Various attempts have been made by ancient heretics and
modern rationalists to explain Paul's conversion in a purely nat-
ural way, but they have utterly failed, and by their failure they
indirectly confirm the true view as given by the apostle him-
self and as held in all ages by the Christian church.9
1. THE THEORY OF FKAUD. — The heretical and malignant fac-
tion of the Judaizers was disposed to attribute Paul's conver-
sion to selfish motives, or to the influence of evil spirits.
The Ebionites spread the lie that Paul was oT heathen parents,
fell in love with the daughter of the high priest in Jerusalem,
became a proselyte and submitted to circumcision in order to
secure her, but failing in his purpose, he took revenge and
attacked the circumcision, the sabbath, and the whole Mosaic
law.'
In the pseudo-Clementine Homilies, which represent a specu-
1 For particulars of hia inner conflicts during his Erfurt period, see Koatiin's
Martin Luther (1875), I. 40 sqq and 01 sqq.
1 Comp. the section on the Resurrection of Christ, pp. 172 sqq
* Reported by Epiphanius, Ucer XXX 10 (ed. Oehler, torn. I 268 aq.).
308 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
lative form of the Judaizing heresy, Paul ia assailed under the
disguise of Simon Magus, the arch-heretic, who smuggled anti-
nomian heathenism into the church. The manifestation of
Christ was either a manifestation of his wrath, or a deliberate
lie.1
2. THE RATIONALISTIC THEORY OF THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.
— It attributes the conversion to physical causes, namely, a vio-
lent storm and the delirium of a burning Syrian fever, in which
Paul superstitiously mistook the thunder for the voice of God
and the lightning for a heavenly vision.3 But the record says
1 In the Clem. Horn., XVII , ch 19 (p 351, ed. Dressel), Simon Peter says
to Simon Magus : "If, then, our Jesus appeared to you in a vision (81* 6p<£/taros
o^&eis), made himself known to you, and conversed with you, it is as one who
is enraged with an adversary (&s bmiccipttHp &pyt(opfvos). And this is the
reason why it was through visions and dreams (8** Spa^droav ical tvinrvtw), or
through revelations that were from without (ft icol &' iiroifaAitycaj/ tfabcp
ovffwv} that He spoke to you But can any one be rendered fit for instruction
through apparitions9 (81* owrauriay) . . . And how are we to believe your
word, when you tell us that He appeared to you ? And how did He appear
to you, when you entertain opinions contrary to His teaching ? But if you have
seen and were taught by Him, and became His apostle for a single hour, pro-
claim His utterances, interpret His sayings, love His apostles, contend not
with me who companied with Him. For you stand now in direct opposition
to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation of the church (trrcpecbv ircrpov,
&*n4\iov tKKXyaias, comp Matt. 16 18). If you were not opposed to me, you
would not accuse me, and revile the truth proclaimed by me, in order that I
may not be believed when I state what I myself have heard with my own
ears from the Lord, as if I were evidently a person that was condemned and
had not stood the test [according to the true reading restored by Lagarde,
&8oje//iou JWoj, instead of IvSoKmoDiro?, 'in good repute'] But if you say
that I am * condemned' (cl KaTcyvaxr^vov /xc \cytis, comp. Gal 2 11), you
bring an accusation against God, who revealed the Christ to me, and you in-
veigh against Him who pronounced me blessed on account of the revelation
(Matt 16 : 17). But if you really wish to be a co-worker, in the cause of
truth, learn first of all from us what we have learned from Him, and, becom-
ing a disciple of the truth, become a fellow-worker with me "
The allusions to Paul's Christ vision and his collision with Peter at Antioch
are unmistakable, and form the ohief argument for Banr's identification of
Simon Magus with Paul. But it is perhaps only an incidental sneer. Simon
represents all anti-Jewish heresies, as Peter represents all truths.
f This theory was proposed by the so-called " vulgar " or deistio rationalists
(as distinct from the more recent speculative or pantheistic rationalists), and
has been revived and rhetorically embellished by Benan in Let Apdtres (ch. X. ,
pp. 175 sqq.). "Every step to Damascus," says the distinguished French
§ 31. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 809
nothing about thunderstorm and fever, and both combined could
not produce such an effect upon any sensible man, much less
upon the history of the world. Who ever heard the thunder
speak in Hebrew or in any other articulate language ? And had
not Paul and Luke eyes and ears and common sense, as well as
we, to distinguish an ordinary phenomenon of nature from a
supernatural vision ?
3. THE VISION-HYPOTHESIS resolves the conversion into a nat-
ural psychological process and into an honest self-delusion. It
is the favorite theory of modern rationalists, who scorn all other
explanations, and profess the highest respect for the intellectual
and moral purity and greatness of Paul.1 It is certainly more
Academicien, " excited in Paul bitter repentance ; the shameful task of the
hangman was intolerable to him , he felt as if he was kicking against the
goads , the fatigue of travel added to his depression ; a malignant fever sud-
denly seized him ; the blood rushed to the head , the mind was filled with a
picture of midnight darkness broken by lightning flashes , it is probable that
one of those sudden storms of Mount Hermon broke out which are unequalled
for vehemence, and to the Jew the thunder was the voice of God, the light-
ning the fire of God Certain it is that by a fearful stroke the persecutor
was thrown on the ground and deprived of his senses ; in his feverish delirium
he mistook the lightning for a heavenly vision, the voice of thunder for a
voice from heaven; inflamed eyes, the beginning of ophthalmia, aided the
delusion Vehement natures suddenly pass from one extreme to another ;
moments decide for the whole life ; dogmatism is the only thing which re-
mains. So Paul changed the object of his fanaticism ; by his boldness, his
energy, his determination he paved Christianity, which otherwise would have
died like Essenism, without leaving a trace of its memory He is the founder
of independent Protestantism He represents le chnstianisme conquerant ett
wyagewr Jesus never dreamed of such disciples ; yet it is they who wiU
keep his work alive and secure it eternity " In this work, and more fully in
his St. Paul, Kenan gives a picture of the great apostle which is as strange a
mixture of truth and error, and nearly as incoherent and fanciful, as his
romance of Jesus in the Vie de Jesus
1 So Strauss (Leben Jesu, § 138. m connection with the resurrection of
Christ), Baur (with much more seriousness and force, in his Paul, P I., ch 3)
and the whole Tubingen School, Holsten, Hilgenfeld, lapsing, Pfleiderer,
Hausrath, and the author of Supernatural Rdigion (III. 498 sqq ). Baur
at last gave up the theory as a failure (1860, see below). But Holsten re-
vived and defended it very elaborately and ingeniously in his essay on the
Ohristusvwon des Paulu*, m Hilgenfeld'a " Zeitechrif t " for 1861. W. Bey-
Bohlag (of Halle) very ably refuted it in an article : Die Bekehrung des Paulus
put betondtrcr Rucksicht auf die Erklarunffsvertucfie wn Baur und Holtten,
310 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
rational and creditable than the second hypothesis, because it
ascribes the mighty change not to outward and accidental phe-
nomena which pass away, but to internal causes. It assumes
that an intellectual and moral fermentation was going on for
some time in the mind of Paul, and resulted at last, by logical
necessity, in an ontire change of conviction and conduct, with-
out any supernatural influence, the very possibility of which is
denied as being inconsistent with the continuity of natural de-
velopment. The miracle in this case was simply the mythical
and symbolical reflection of the commanding presence of Jesus
in the thoughts of the apostle.
That Paul saw a vision, he says himself, but he meant, of
course, a real, objective, personal appearance of Christ from
heaven, which was visible to his eyes and audible to his ears,
and at the same time a revelation to his mind through the me-
dium of the senses.1 The inner spiritual manifestation 3 was
more important than the external, but both combined produced
conviction. The vision-theory turns the appearance of Chi ist
in the "Studien und Kritiken" for 1864, pp. 197-264 Then Holsten came
out with an enlarged edition of hib essay in book form, ftum Evang. des Paulus
und des Petrwt, 1868, with a long reply to Beyschlag Pfleiderer repeated the
vision-theory m his UMert Lecture* (1885).
Some English writers have also written on Paul's conversion in opposition to
this modern vision- theory, namely, R MACPIIERSON : The Resurrection of
Jesus Chnst (against Strauss), Edinb , 1867, Lect XIII , pp. 31G-,JGO , GEO.
P. FISHER . Supernatural Origin of Christianity, N York, new ed. 1877, pp.
4*59-470, comp his essay on " St. Paul " in Discussions in History and The-
ology, N Y. 1880, pp 487-511; A B BRUCE (of Glasgow) Fauljx Conver-
sion and the Pauline Gospel, in the u Presbyt Review " for Oct 1880 (againbt
Pfleiderer, whose work on Pauhmsm Bruce calls • ' an exegetical justification
and a philosophical dissipation of the Reformed interpretation of the Pauline
system of doctrine ")
1 He describes it as an ovpfoios durcurfo, Acts 26 : 19, and says that he saw
Christ, that Chnst was seen by him, 1 Cor 9 1 ; 15 • 8 So the vision of the
women at the tomb of the risen Lord is called an oVratrla ruv ayy* Aw, Luke
24 : 23. But even Peter, who was less critical than Paul, well knew how to
distinguish between an actual occurrence (an faifi&s y*v6ntvov) and a merely
subjective vision (a Spcrua), Acts 12 : 9 Objective visions are divine revela-
tions through the senses ; subjective visions ore hallucinations and deceptions.
8 Gal. 1 : 16, biroKa\fycu rbv vl'bv airroO Iv I ft of, within me, in my inmost
soul and consciousness.
§ 81. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 811
Into a purely subjective imagination, which the apostle mistook
for an objective fact.1
1 Baur was disposed to charge this confusion upon the author of the Acts
and to claim for Paul a more correct conception of the Christophany, as
being a purely inner event or u a spiritual manifestation of Christ to his
deeper self -consciousness " (Gal 1 : 16, «V Ipof) ; but this is inconsistent with
Paul's own language in 1 Cor 9:1; 15 : 8. Hols ten admits that, without a
full conviction of the objective reality of the Christophany, Paul could never
have come to the conclusion that the crucified was raised to new life by the
almighty power of God He states the case from his standpoint clearly in
these words (p. 65): "Der glance des Paulus an Jesus ate den Christus war
folge dessen, doss auch ihm Christus erscJtienen war (1 Cor 15 : 8). Diese
vision war far das bewusstsein des Paulus das schauen einer objectiv-wirklicJien,
himmlischen gestalt, die aus ihrer transcendenten unsichtbarkeit sick ihm zur
erscheinung gebracht Jiabe. Aus der wirkhclikeit dieser geschauten gestalt, in
voekher er den gekreuzigten Jesus erkannte, folgerte auch er, dass der kreuzes-
tote zu neuem leben wn der aUmacht Gottes auferweckt worden, aus der gewiss-
heit der auferweckung aber, dass dieser von den toten auferweckte der sohn
Gottes und der Messias sei Wie also an der wirklwhkeit, der auferweckung
dem Paulas die game wahrheit semes evangelium Jiangt (vgl. 1 Cor 15, 12 f.),
soistes die vision des auferwcckten, mit welcher ihm die wahrheit des mmias-
glaubens aufging, und der umschwung semes bewusstseins sick vottendete
u Diese vision war far Paulus der cingnff einer fremden transcendenten
macht in sein geistesleben Die historische kt itik aber unter der herrschaft des
gesetzes der immanenten entwiMung desmenschJichen geistes aus innerwelUichen
causalitaten muss die vision als einen immanenten, pvycfiologischen akt seines
eigenen geistes zu begreifen sucheu. Ihr liegt damit eine ihrer sckwiezigsten
aufgaben vor, eine so schwierige^ dass em meister der historischen kntik, der
zugleich so tief in das wesen des paulinischen geistes eingedrungen ist, als Baur,
nock eben erklart kat, dass 4 kerne, weder psydiologiscke, nock dialektische ana-
lyse das inner e ge7ieimnis des aktes erforsclten konne, in wdchem Qott seinen
sohn dem Pavlui entku/lte ' Und dock darf sick die kritik von dem versucJi,
dies geheimnis zu erforschen, nicht abschrecken, lassen. Denn diese vmon ist einer
der entscheidendsten punkte far evi geschichtUches begreifen des urchristcntums
In Hirer genesis ist der kcim des pauUnischen evangelium gey eben So lange der
Bchein nicht aufgehoben ist, dass die empfanqnis dieses keims al* die wirkung
einer transcendenten kraft erfolgt sei, besteht uber dem empfangenen fort und
fort der scheiti des transcendenten Und die kritik am wenigsten darfsich
damit beruhigen, dass fine trnmcendem, eine objectivitat^ wie sie wn ikren
gegnern fur diese vision gefordert wird, von der sclbstgewissheit des modernen
geistes verworfen sei. Denn diese selbstgewissheit kann ihre wahrheit nur
behaupten, solange und soweit ihre kategorieen als das gesetz der wirklickkeit
nachgewiesen sind " Dr Pfleiderer moves in the same line with Hols ten, and
eliminates the supernatural, but it is due to him to say that he admits the
purely hypothetical character of this speculative theory, and lays great stress
on the moral us well as the logical and dialectical process in Paul's mind.
"Darum war," he says (Paulinismus, p. 16;. "der Prozess der Bekekrung
812 PIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
It is incredible that a man of sound, clear, and keen mind as
that of Paul undoubtedly was, should have made such a radical
and far-reaching blunder as to confound subjective reflections
with an objective appearance of Jesus whom he persecuted, and
to ascribe solely to an act of divine mercy what he must have
known to be the result of his own thoughts, if he thought at all.
The advocates of this theory throw the appearances of the
risen Lord to the older disciples, the later visions of Peter,
Philip, and John in the Apocalypse, into the same category of
subjective illusions in the high tide of nervous excitement and
religious enthusiasm. It is plausibly maintained that Paul was
an enthusiast, fond of visions and revelations,1 and that he jus-
tifies a doubt concerning the realness of the resurrection itself
by putting all the appearances of the risen Christ on the same
level with his own, although several years elapsed between
those of Jerusalem and Galilee, and that on the way to Da
mascus.
But this, the only possible argument for the vision -hypothe-
sis, is entirely untenable. When Paul says : "Last of all, as
unto an untimely offspring, Christ appeared to me also," ho
draws a clear line of distinction between the personal appear-
ances of Christ and his own later visions, and closes the former
with the one vouchsafed to him at his conversion.3 Once, and
nichts weniger, ate eine kalte Denkoperation ; es war vidmchr der twfoittlieJie
Oekorsamsakt eines zarten Gewittsens gegen die sicft unwiderstehlicJi aufdrdn-
gende Mhere Wahrheit (daher ihm auch der Glaube eine virouco'fi i>>t), ein Akt
grossartiger Selbstverleugnung, der Hmgabe des Men MenscJien und seiner
ganzen religivsen Welt in den Tod, um fortan keinen Ruhm,jakein Leben mehr
eu hdben, alsin CJimto, dem Qekreuzigten Das istja der Crundton, den wir
aus alien Brief en des Apostels heraustdnen haren, 100 immer er sein pcrsontiehea
Verhaltniss zum Kreuz Christi sehildert ; esist nie bloss ein VerMltniss objeo-
tiver 2'heorie, sendern immer vugleich und wetentlich das der subject™ en Ver-
bundenheit des innersten Qem&ths mil dem Gekreussigten, eine mystiseJie
Oemeinschaft mit dem Kreuzestod und mit dem Auferstehungsleben Christi "
1 Gomp. 2 Cor. 12 : 2 ; Acts 18 • 9 ; 22 : 17. Some of these modern critics
suppose that he was epileptic, like Mohammed and Swedenborg, and therefore
all the more open to imaginary visions.
* 1 Cor. 15:8: f^garoy tt ir<£yr«r, birrtptl rf ^icr^ari, &<p&ii icA/ioC
Meyer justly remarks in loc. : trxarrov schUesst die Beffie tebhaf tiger Enchd-
nungen ab, undsehMet damit diesc von sp&teren vwon&rm oder tonst apoka*
§ 31. THE CONVEESION OF PAUL. 313
once only, lie claims to have seen the Lord in visible form and
to have heard his voice ; last, indeed, and out of due time, yet
as truly and really as the older apostles. The only difference is
that they saw the risen Saviour still abiding on earth, while he
saw the ascended Saviour coming down from heaven, as we may
expect him to appear to all men on the last day. It is the
greatness of that vision which leads him to dwell on his personal
un worthiness as " the least of the apostles and not worthy to be
called an apostle, because he persecuted the church of God."
He uses the realness of Christ's resurrection as the basis for his
wonderful discussion of the future resurrection of believers, which
would lose all its force if Christ had not actually been raised
from the dead.1
Moreover his conversion coincided with his call to the apos-
tleship. If the former was a delusion, the latter must also have
been a delusion. He emphasizes his direct call to the apostleship
of the Gentiles by the personal appearance of Christ without any
human intervention, in opposition to his Judaizing adversaries
who tried to undermine his authority.2
The whole assumption of a long and deep inward preparation,
both intellectual and moral, for a change, is without any evi-
dence, and cannot set aside the fact that Paul was, according to
his repeated confession, at that time violently persecuting
Christianity in its followers. His conversion can be far less
explained from antecedent causes, surrounding circumstances,
and personal motives than that of any other disciple. While
typtischen" Similarly Godet (Com sur Vepitre aux Romains, 1879, I. 17):
" Paul dot V enumeration des apparitions de Jesus ressusclte aux apotres par
eelie qui lui a ete accordee d lui-meme ; ft lui attnbue done fa meme reahte qu'd
cdLes-la, el ilia distingue ainsi (Tune maniere tranches de toutes les visions dont
ilfut pltis tard honor e, etque mentionnent le Uvre des Actes, et les epitres."
1 1 Cor 15 : 12 sqq Dean Stanley compares this discussion to the Phaedo of
Plato and the Tnsculan Disputations of Cicero, but it is far more profound
and assuring. Heathen philosophy can at best prove only the possibility and
probability, but not the certainty, of a future life Moreover the idea of
immortality has no comfort, but terror rather, except for those who believe
In Christ, who is " the Resurrection and the Life "
8 GaL 1 : 16 ; 1 Cor. 9 : 1 ; 15 :8, Acts 22 : 10, 14.
314 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the older apostles were devoted friends of Jesus, Paul was his
enemy, bent at the very time of the great change on an errand
of cruel persecution, and therefore in a state of mind most un-
likely to give birth to a vision so fatal to his present object and
his future career. How could a fanatical persecutor of Chris-
tianity, " breathing threatenings and slaughter against the dis-
ciples of the Lord,?5 stultify and contradict himself by an imagi-
native conceit which tended to the building up of that very
religion which he was laboring to destroy ! !
But supposing (with Renan) that his mind was temporarily
upset in the delirium of feverish excitement, he certainly soon
recovered health and reason, and had every opportunity to cor-
rect his error ; he was intimate with the murderers of Jesus,
who could have produced tangible evidence against the resurrec-
tion if it had never occurred ; and after a long pause of quiet
reflection he went to Jerusalem, spent a fortnight with Peter,
and could learn from him and from James, the brother of
Christ, their experience, and compare it with his own. Every-
thing in this case is against the mythical and legendary theory
which requires a change of environment and the lapse of years
for the formation of poetic fancies and fictions.
Finally, the whole life-work of Paul, from his conversion at
Damascus to his martyrdom in Rome, is the best possible argu-
ment against this hypothesis and for the realness of his conver-
sion, as an act of divine grace. " By their fruits ye shall know
them." How could such an effective change proceed from an
empty dream ? Can an illusion change the current of history ?
By joining the Christian sect Paul sacrificed everything, at last
life itself, to the service of Christ. He never wavered in his
conviction of the truth as revealed to him, and by his faith in
this revelation he has become a benediction to all ages.
The vision-hypothesis denies objective miracles, but ascribes
miracles to subjective imaginations, and makes a lie more effect
ive and beneficial than the truth.
]Acte9:2; oomp. GaL 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13
§ 31. THE CONVERSION OF PAUL. 315
All rationalistic and natural interpretations of the conversion
of Paul turn out to be irrational and unnatural ; the supernatural
interpretation of Paul himself, after all, is the most rational
and natural.
REMARKABLE CONCESSIONS.
Dr. BAUB, the master-spirit of skeptical criticism and the founder of the
" Tubingen School," felt constrained, shortly before his death (I860), to
abandon the vision-hypothesis and to admit that "no psychological or
dialectical analysis can explore the inner mystery of the act in which God
revealed his Son in Paul (keine9 weder psychotogische noch dialektische
Analyse kann das innere Geheimniss des Actes erforscJien, in welchem Gott
seinen Sohn in ihm enthulte). In the same connection he says that in
" the sudden transformation of Paul from the most violent adversary of
Christianity into its most determined herald" he could see "nothing
short of a miracle ( Wunder) ; " and adds that " this miracle appears all
the greater when we remember that in this revulsion of his conscious-
ness he broke through the barriers of Judaism and rose out of its par-
ticularism into the universahsm of Christianity." ' This frank confession
is creditable to the head and heart of the late Tubingen critic, but is
fatal to his whole anti-supernaturalistic theory of history. Sifalsus in
uno, falsus in omnibus. If we admit the miracle in one case, the door is
opened for all other miracles which rest on equally strong evidence.
The late Dr. KEIM, an independent pupil of Baur, admits at least
spiritual manifestations of the ascended Christ /row heaven, and urges in
favor of the objective reality of the Chnstophanies as reported by Paul,
1 Cor. 15 . 3 sqq , " the whole character of Paul, his sharp understanding
which was not weakened by his enthusiasm, the careful, cautious,
measured, simple form of his statement, above all the favorable total
impression of his narrative and the mighty echo of it in the unanimous,
uncontradicted faith of primitive Christendom." *
Dr. SCHENKEL, of Heidelberg, in his latest stage of development, says
that Paul, with full justice, put his Christophany on a par with the
Christophanies of the older apostles ; that all these Christophanies are
not simply the result of psychological processes, but " remain in many
respects psychologically inconceivable," and point back to the historic
background of the person of Jesus ; that Paul was not an ordinary
visionary, but carefully distinguished the Christophany at Damascus
from his later visions ; that he retained the full possession of his rational
mind even in the moments of the highest exaltation ; that his conversion
1 See Banr's Church History of the First Three Centuries, Tubingen, 3d ed.
p. 45 ; English translation by Allan Meuzies, London, 1878, voL L 47.
9 Oeschichte Jesu von Nazara. Zurich, 1872, vol. IU. 582.
816 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
was not the sudden effect of nervous excitement, but brought about by
the influence of the divine Providence which quietly prepared his soul
for the reception of Christ ; and that the appearance of Christ vouch-
safed to him was " no dream, but reality." l
Professor REUSS, of Strasburg, likewise an independent critic of the
liberal school, comes to the same conclusion as Baur, that the conver-
sion of Paul, if not an absolute miracle, is at least an unsolved psycho-
logical problem. He says : "La convention de Paul, apres tout ce qui en
a ete dit de noire temps, reste toujours, si ce njest un miracle absolu, dans le
sens traditionnel de ce mot (c'est-d-dire un evenement qui arrete ou change
molemment le cours naturel des choses, un effet sans autre cause que V inter-
vention arbitraire et immediate de Dieu), du moms un probleme psychoto-
gique aujouroThm insoluble. L 'explication dite naturelle, qu'ellefasse inter-
venir un orage ou qu'elle se retranche dans le domaine des hallucinations . . .
ne nous donne pas la clefde cette crise elle-meme, qui a decide la meta-
morphose duphansien en chretien." *
Canon Farrar says (1. 195) : "One fact remains upon any hypothesis—
and that is, that the conversion of St. Paul was in the highest sense oi
the word a miracle, and one of which the spiritual consequences have
affected every subsequent age of the history of mankind."
§32. The Work of Paul.
" He who can part from country and from kin,
And scorn delights, and tread the thorny way,
A heavenly crown, through toil and pain, to win-
He who reviled can tender love repay,
And buffeted, for bitter foes can pray —
He who, upsprmging at his Captain's call,
Fights the good fight, and when at last the day
Of fiery trial comes, can nobly fall —
Such were a saint — or more— and such the holy Paul I "
—ANON.
The conversion of Paul was a great intellectual and moral rev-
olution, yet without destroying his identity. His noble gifts
and attainments remained, but were purged of selfish motives,
inspired by a new principle, and consecrated to a divine end.
The love of Christ who saved him, was now his all-absorbing
passion, and no sacrifice was too great to manifest his gratitude
1 Da* ChristusbUd der Apoitd. Leipzig, 1879, pp. 57 sq.
• Ln tipitr*pauKntouu8. Paris, 1878, vol L p. 11.
§ 32. THE WORK OF PAUL. 817
to Him. The architect of ruin became an architect of the tem-
ple of God. The same vigor, depth and acuteness of mind, but
illuminated by the Holy Spirit ; the same strong temper and
burning zeal, but cleansed, subdued and controlled by wisdom
and moderation; the same energy and boldness, but coupled
with gentleness and meekness ; and, added to all this, as crown-
ing gifts of grace, a love and humility, a tenderness and deli-
cacy of feeling such as are rarely, if ever, found in a character
BO proud, manly and heroic. The little Epistle to Philemon
reveals a perfect Christian gentleman, a nobleman of nature,
doubly ennobled by grace. The thirteenth chapter of the first
Epistle to the Corinthians could only be conceived by a mind
that had ascended on the mystic ladder of faith to the throbbing
heart of the God of love; yet without inspiration even Paul
could not have penned that seraphic description of the virtue
which beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things, which never faileth, but will last for ever,
the greatest in the triad of celestial graces : faith, hope, love.
Saul converted became at once Paul the missionary. Being
saved himself, he made it his life-work to save others. " Straight-
way " he proclaimed Christ in the synagogues, and confounded
the Jews of Damascus, proving that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Messiah, the Son of God.1 But this was only a preparatory
testimony in the fervor of the first love. The appearance of
Christ, and the travails of his soul during the three days and
nights of prayer and fasting, when he experienced nothing less
than a spiritual death and a spiritual resurrection, had so shaken
his physical and mental frame that he felt the need of pro-
tracted repose away from the noise and turmoil of the world.
Besides there must have been great danger threatening his life
as soon as the astounding news of his conversion became known
1 The •&«'«* of Act* 9 : 20 compels us to put this short testimony during the
few days (fintpas rtyds) whioh he spent with the disciples at Damascus, before
his departure to Arabia. About three years afterwards (or after "many
days," rjntpai foamf, were fulfilled, Acts 0 : 23), he returned to Damascus to re-
new his testimony (Gal. 1 : 17).
318 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
at Jerusalem. He therefore went to the desert of Arabia and
spent there three years,1 not in missionary labor (as Chrysostom
thought), but chiefly in prayer, meditation and the study of the
Hebrew Scriptures in the light of their fulfilment through the
person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. This retreat took the
place of the three years' preparation of the Twelve in the
school of Christ. Possibly he may have gone as far as Mount
Sinai, among the wild children of Hagar and IshmaeL* On that
pulpit of the great lawgiver of Israel, and in view of the sur-
rounding panorama of death and desolation which reflects the
terrible majesty of Jehovah, as no other spot on earth, he could
listen with Elijah to the thunder and earthquake, and the still
small voice, and could study the contrast between the killing
letter and the life-giving spirit, between the ministration of
death and the ministration of righteousness.3 The desert, like
the ocean, has its grandeur and sublimity, and leaves the medi-
tating mind alone with God and eternity.
" Paul was a unique man for a unique task." 4 His task was
twofold : practical and theoretical. He preached the gospel of
free and universal grace from Damascus to Rome, and secured
its triumph in the Roman empire, which means the civilized
world of that age. At the same time he built up the church
from within by the exposition and defence of the gospel in his
Epistles. He descended to the humblest details of ecclesiastical
administration and discipline, and mounted to the sublimes!
heights of theological speculation. Here we have only to do
with his missionary activity ; leaving his theoretical work to be
considered in another chapter.
/
1 Gal 1 : 17, 18. In the Acts (9 : 33) this journey is ignored because it be-
longed not to the public, but private and inner life of PauL
' Gomp. Gal 4 : 25, where " Arabia" means the Sinaitio Peninsula.
•2 Cor 3:6-9.
4 Thus Godet sums up his life (Romans, Introd I 59) He thinks that Paul
was neither the substitute of Judas, nor of James the son of Zebedee, but a
substitute for a converted Israel, the man who had, single-handed, to execute
the task which properly fell to his whole nation ; and hence the hour of his
call was precisely that when the blood of the two martyrs, Stephen and
James, sealed the hardening of Israel and decided ito rejection.
§ 32. THE WORK OF PAUL. 319
V
Let us first glance at his missionary spirit and policy.
His inspiring motive was love to Christ and to his fellow-men.
" The love of Christ," he says, " constraineth us ; because we
thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died : and He
died for all that they who live should no longer live unto them-
selves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again."
He regarded himself as a bondman and ambassador of Christ,
entreating men to be reconciled to God. Animated by this
spirit, he became " as a Jew to the Jews, as a Gentile to the
Gentiles, all things to all men that by all means he might save
some."
He made Antioch, the capital of Syria and the mother church
of Gentile Christendom, his point of departure for, and return
from, his missionary journeys, and at the same time he kept up
his connection with Jerusalem, the mother church of Jewish
Christendom. Although an independent apostle of Christ, lie
accepted a solemn commission from Antioch for his first great
missionary tour. He followed the current of history, commerce,
and civilization, from East to West, from Asia to Europe, from
Syria to Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and perhaps as far as Spain.1
In the larger and more influential cities, Antioch, Ephesus, Cor-
inth, Rome, he resided a considerable time. From these salient
points he sent the gospel by his pupils and fellow-laborers into
the surrounding towns and villages. But he always avoided
collision with other apostles, and sought new fields of labor
where Christ was not known before, that he might not build on
any other man's foundation. This is true independence and
missionary courtesy, which is so often, alas ! violated by mis-
sionary societies inspired by sectarian rather than Christian zeal.
1 ' ' Westward the course of empire takes its way " This famous line of
Bishop Berkeley, the philosopher, expresses a general law of history both
civil and religious Clement of Rome says that Paul came on his missionary
tour "to the extreme west" (M rb rtpua TW 8&rf»s), which means either
Rome or Spain, whither the apostle intended to go (Rom. 15 : 24, 28) Some
English historians (Ussher, Stilkngfleet, ete.) would extend Paul's travels to
Gaul and Britain, but of this there is no trace either in the New Test., or in
the early tradition. See below.
320 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
His chief mission was to the Gentiles, without excluding the
Jews, according to the message of Christ delivered through
Ananias : " Thou shalt bear my name before the Gentiles, and
kings, and the children of Israel." Considering that the Jews
had a prior claim in time to the gospel,1 and that the syna-
gogues in heathen cities were pioneer stations for Christian mis-
sions, he very naturally addressed himself first to the Jews and
proselytes, taking up the regular lessons of the Old Testament
Scriptures, and demonstrating their fulfilment in Jesus of Naza-
reth. But almost uniformly he found the half- Jews, or " prose-
lytes of the gate," more open to the gospel than his own brethren ;
they were honest and earnest seekers of the true religion, and
formed the natural bridge to the pure heathen, and the nucleus
of his congregations, which were generally composed of converts
from both religions.
In noble self-denial he earned his subsistence with his own
hands, as a tent-maker, that he might not be burthensome to
his congregations (mostly belonging to the lower classes), that
he might preserve his independence, stop the mouths of his
enemies, and testify his gratitude to the infinite mercy of the
Lord, who had called him from his headlong, fanatical career of
persecution to the office of an apostle of free grace. He never
collected money for himself, but for the poor Jewish Christians
in Palestine. Only as an exception did he receive gifts from
his converts at Philippi, who were peculiarly dear to him. Yet
he repeatedly enjoins upon the churches to care for the liberal
temporal support of their teachers who break to them the bread
of eternal life. The Saviour of the woild a carpenter! the
greatest preacher of the gospel a tent-maker !
Of the innumerable difficulties, dangers, and sufferings which
he encountered with Jews, heathens, and false brethren, we can
hardly form an adequate idea ; for the book of Acts is only a
summary record. He supplements it incidentally. "Of the
1 Bom. 1 : 16, "to the Jews first" not on the ground of a superior merit
(the Jews, as a people, were most unworthy and ungrateful), but on the ground
of God's promise and the historical order (Rom. 15 : 8).
§ 32. THE WORK OF PAUL. 821
Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Three times
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, three times I suffered
shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep ; in journey-
ings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils
from my countrymen, in perils from the heathen, in perils in
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren ; in labor and toil, in watchings often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Besides those things that are without, there is that which press-
eth upon me daily, the anxious care for all the churches. Who
is weak, and I am not weak ? Who is offended, and I burn
not ? " * Thus he wrote reluctantly to the Corinthians, in self-
vindication against his calumniators, in the year 57, before his
longest and hardest trial in the prisons of Csesarea and Rome,
and at least seven years before his martyrdom. He was
"pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not
in despair ; pursued, yet not forsaken ; smitten down, yet not
destroyed." * His whole public career was a continuous war-
fare. He represents the church militant, or "marching and
conquering Christianity." He was " unus versus mundum" in
a far higher sense than this has been said of Athanasius the
Great when confronted with the Arian heresy and the imperial
heathenism of Julian the Apostate.
Yet he was never unhappy, but full of joy and peace. He
exhorted the Philippians from his prison in Rome : " Rejoice in
the Lord alway ; again I will say, Rejoice." In all his conflicts
with foes from without and foes from within Paul was "more
than conqueror " through the grace of God which was sufficient
for him. " For I am persuaded," he writes to the Romans in
the strain of a sublime ode of triumph, " that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea-
ture shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord."1 And his dying word is an assur-
1 2 Oor. 11-34-29. « 2 Cor. 4:8, 9. » Bom. 8 : 81-89.
323 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ance of victory : " I have fought the good fight, I have finished
the course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up
for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the right-
eous judge, shall give me at that day : and not only to me, but
also to all them that have loved his appearing." *
§ 33. PauVs Missionary Labors.
The public life of Paul, from the third year after his convex
sion to his martyrdom, A.D. 40-64, embraces a quarter of a cen-
tury, three great missionary campaigns with minor expeditions,
five visits to Jerusalem, and at least four years of captivity in
Cflesarea and Rome. Some extend it to A.D. 67 or 68. It may
be divided into five or six periods, as follows :
1. A.D. 40-44. The period of preparatory labors in Syria
and his native Cilicia, partly alone, partly in connection with
Barnabas, his senior fellow-apostle among the Gentiles.
On his return from the Arabian retreat Paul began his pub-
lic ministry in earnest at Damascus, preaching Christ on the
very spot where he had been converted and called. His testi-
mony enraged the Jews, who stirred up the deputy of the king
of Arabia against him, but he was saved for future usefulness
and let down by the brethren in a basket through a window in
the wall of the ,city.3 Three years after his conversion he went
1 2 Tim. 4 : 6-8. We may add here the somewhat panegyric passage of
Clement of Rome, who apparently exalts Paul above Peter, Ep ad Corinth.
c 5 4 4 Let as set before our eyes the good Apostles. Peter, who on account
of unrighteous jealousy endured not one or two, but many toils, and thus
having borne his testimony (jtuxprvp^tras, or, suffered martyrdom), went to hia
appointed place of glory By reason of jealousy and strife Paul by his exam-
ple pointed out the price of patient endurance After having been seven
times in bonds, driven into exile, stoned, and after having preached in the
East and in the West, he won the noble reward of his faith, having taught
righteousness unto the whole world and having reached the boundary of the
West ; and when he had borne his testimony before the magistrates, he de-
parted from the world and went unto the holy place, having become the
greatest example of patient endurance.11
' Acts 9 : 23-25 ; oomp. 2 Gor. 11 : 82, 33. The window of escape is still
shown in Damascus, as is also the street called Straight, the house of Judas,
and the bouse of An on tag But these local traditions are uncertain*
§ 33. PAUL'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 323
up to Jerusalem to make the acquaintance of Peter and spent a
fortnight with him. Besides him he saw James the brother of
the Lord. Barnabas introduced him to the disciples, who at
first were afraid of him, but when they heard of his marvellous
conversion they " glorified God " that their persecutor was now
preaching the faith he had once been laboring to destroy.1 He
did not come to learn the gospel, having received it already by
revelation, nor to be confirmed or ordained, having been called
"not from men, or through man, but through Jesus Christ."
Yet his interview with Peter and James, though barely men-
tioned, must have been fraught with the deepest -interest.
Peter, kind-hearted and generous as he was, would naturally
receive him with joy and thanksgiving. lie had himself once
denied the Lord — not malignantly but from weakness — as Paul
had persecuted the disciples — ignorantly in unbelief. Both had
been mercifully pardoned, both had seen the Lord, both were
called to the highest dignity, both could say from the bottom
of the heart : " Lord thou knowest all things ; thou knowest
that I love thee." No doubt they would exchange their experi-
ences and confirm each other in their common faith.
It was probably on this visit that Paul received in a vision in
the temple the express command of the Lord to go quickly unto
the Gentiles.2 Had he stayed longer at the seat of the Sanhedrin,
he would undoubtedly have met the fate of the martyr Stephen.
He visited Jerusalem a second time during the famirte under
Claudius, in the year 44, accompanied by Barnabas, on a benev-
olent mission, bearing a collection of the Christians at Antioch
for the relief of the brethren in Judsea.* On that occasion he
probably saw none of the apostles on account of the persecution
in which James was beheaded, and Peter imprisoned.
The greater part of these four years was spent in missionary
work at Tarsus and Antioch.
1 Gal. 1 : 18-24 ; oorap. Acts 9 : 26, 27.
8 Acts 22 17-21. It is remarkable that in his prayer he confessed his sin
against u Stephen the martyr;" thus making public reparation for a public
sin in the city where it was committed.
'Acts 11: 28-30; 12:25.
324 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
2. A.D. 45-50. First missionary journey. In the year 45 Pad
entered upon the first great missionary journey, in company
with Barnabas and Mark, by the direction of the Holy Spirit
through the prophets of the congregation at Antioch. He tra-
versed the island of Cyprus and several provinces of Asia Minor.
The conversion of the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, at
Paphos; the rebuke and punishment of the Jewish sorcerer,
Elymas ; the marked success of the gospel in Pisidia, and the
bitter opposition of the unbelieving Jews ; the miraculous heal-
ing of a cripple at Lystra ; the idolatrous worship there offered
to Paul and Barnabas by the superstitious heathen, and its
sudden change into hatred against them as enemies of the gods ;
the stoning of the missionaries, their escape from death, and
their successful return to Antioch, are the leading incidents of
this tour, which is fully described in the 13th and 14th chap-
ters of the Acts.
This period closes with the important apostolic conference at
Jerusalem, A.D. 50, which will require separate consideration in
the next section.
3. From A.D. 51-54. Second missionary journey. After the
council at Jerusalem and the temporary adjustment of the dif-
ference between the Jewish and Gentile branches of the church,
Paul undertook, in the year 51, a second great journey, which
decided the Christianization of Greece. He took Silas for his
companion. Having first visited his old churches, he proceeded,
with the help of Silas and the young convert, Timothy, to estab-
lish new ones through the provinces of Phrygia and Galatia,
where, notwithstanding his bodily infirmity, he was received
with open arms like an angel of God.
From Troas, a few miles south of the Homeric Troy and the
entrance to the Hellespont, he crossed over to Greece in answer to
the Macedonian cry : " Come over and help us ! " He preached
the gospel with great success, first in Philippi, where he con-
verted the purple dealer, Lydia, and the jailor, and was im-
prisoned with Silas, but miraculously delivered and honorably
released ; then in Thessalonica, where he was persecuted by the
§ 33. PAUL'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 335
Jews, but left a flourishing church ; in Bercea, where the con*
verts showed exemplary zeal in searching the Scriptures. In
Athens, the metropolis of classical literature, he reasoned with
Stoic and Epicurean philosophers, and unveiled to them on Mars'
Hill (Areopagus), with consummate tact and wisdom, though
without much immediate sticcess, the " unknown God," to whom
the Athenians, in their superstitious anxiety to do justice to all
possible divinities, had unconsciously erected an altar, and Jesus
Christ, through whom God will judge the world in righteous-
ness.1 In Corinth, the commercial bridge between the East and
the West, a flourishing centre of wealth and culture, but also a
sink of vice and corruption, the apostle spent eighteen months,
and under almost insurmountable difficulties he built up a church,
which exhibited all the virtues and all the faults of the Grecian
character under the influence of the gospel, and which he hon-
ored with two of his most important Epistles.*
1 "Paul loft Athens," says Farrar (1. 550 sq.), " a despised and lonely man.
And yet his visit was not in vain .... He founded no church at Athens,
but there— it may be under the fostering charge of the converted Areopagite
— a church grew up In the next century it furnished to the cause of Chris-
tianity its martyr bibhops and its eloquent apologists (Publius, Quadratus,
Aristides, Athenagoras). In the third century it flourished in peace and
purity. In the fourth century it was represented at Nicrea, and the noble
rhetoric of the two great Christian friends, St. Basil and St. Gregory of
Nazianzua, was trained in its Christian schools Nor were many centuries to
elapse ere, unable to confront the pierced hands which held a wooden cross,
its myriads of deities had fled into the dimness of outworn creeds, and its
tutelary goddess, in spite of the flashing eyes which Homer had commemo-
rated, and the mighty spear which had been moulded out of the trophies of
Marathon, resigned her maiden chamber to the honour of that meek Galilsean
maiden who had lived under the roof of the carpenter at Nazareth — the virgin
mother of the Lord." Tet Athens was one of the last cities in the Roman
empire which abandoned idolatry, and it never took a prominent position in
church history. Its religion was the worship of ancient Greek genius rather
than that of Christ " II est bien moins disciple de Jesus et de saint Paul gut
de Plutargue et de Jvlien," says Renan, St. Paul, p. 208. His chapter on Paul
in Athens is very interesting.
' In Corinth Paul wrote that fearful, yet truthful description of pagan de-
pravity in Rom 1 : 18 sqq. The city was proverbially corrupt, so that
itopirbtd(optu means to practbe wTwredom, and Kopivbuurrhs a whoremonger.
The great temple of Venus on the acropolis had more than a thousand courte-
326 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
In the spring of 54 he returned by way of Ephesus, Caesarea,
and Jerusalem to Antioch.
During this period he composed the two Epistles to the
Thessalonians, which are the earliest of his literary remains ex-
cepting his missionary addresses preserved in the Acts.
4. A.D. 54-58. Third missionary tour. Towards the close
of the year 54 Paul went to Ephesus, and in this renowned
capital of proconsular Asia and of the worship of Diana, he
fixed for three years the centre of his missionary work. lie
then revisited his churches in Macedonia and Achaia, and re-
mained three months more in Corinth and the vicinity.
During this period he wrote the great doctrinal Epistles to
the Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans, which mark the height
of his activity and usefulness.
5. A.D. 58-63. The period of his two imprisonments, with the
intervening winter voyage from Csesarea to Eome. In the spring
of 58 he journeyed, for the fifth and last time, to Jerusalem, by
way of Philippi, Troas, Miletus (where he delivered his affect-
ing valedictory to the Ephesian presbyter-bishops), Tyre, and
Csesarea, to carry again to the poor brethren in Judsea a contri-
bution f rom the Christians of Greece, and by this token of grat-
itude and love to cement the two branches of the apostolic
church more firmly together.
But some fanatical Jews, who bitterly hated him as an apos-
tate and a seducer of the people, raised an uproar against him
at Pentecost ; charged him with profaning the temple, because
he had taken into it an uncircumcised Greek, Trophimus;
dragged him out of the sanctuary, lest they should defile it with
blood, and would undoubtedly have killed him had not Claudius
Lysias, the Roman tribune, who lived near by, come promptly
with his soldiers to the spot. This officer rescued Paul, out of
respect for his Roman citizenship, from the fury of the mob, set
him the next day before the Sanhedrin, and after a tumultuous
Bans devoted to the service of lost. With good reason Bengel calls a church
of God in Corinth a " tetum et ingens paradoxon (in 1 Cor. 1:2). See the
lively description of Renan, St. Paid, ch. VIIL pp. 211 sqq.
§ 33. PAUL'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 327
and fruitless session of the council, and the discovery of a plot
against his life, sent him, with a strong military guard and a
certificate of innocence, to the procurator Felix in Csesarea.
Here the apostle was confined two whole years (58-60), await-
ing his trial before the Sanhedrin, uncondeinned, occasionally
speaking before Felix, apparently treated with comparative
mildness, visited by the Christians, and in some way not known
to us promoting the kingdom of God.1
After the accession of the new and better procurator, Festus,
who is known to have succeeded Felix in the year 60, Paul, as
a Roman citizen, appealed to the tribunal of Caesar and thus
opened the way to the fulfilment of his long-cherished desire
to preach the Saviour of the world in the metropolis of the
world. Having once more testified his innocence, and spoken
for Christ in a masterly defence before Festus, King Herod
Agrippa II. (the last of the Herods), his sister Bernice, and
the most distinguished men of Csesarea, he was sent in the
autumn of the year 60 to the emperor. He had a stormy voy-
age and suffered shipwreck, which detained him over winter at
Malta. The voyage is described with singular minuteness and
nautical accuracy by Luke as an eye-witness. In the month of
March of the year 61, the apostle, with a few faithful com-
panions, reached Rome, a prisoner of Christ, and yet freer and
mightier than the emperor on the throne. It was the seventh
year of Nero's reign, when he had already shown his infamous
character by the murder of Agrippina, his mother, in the pre-
vious year, and other acts of cruelty.
In Rome Paul spent at least two years till the spring of 63.
in easy confinement, awaiting the decision of his case, and sur-
rounded by friends and fellow-laborers " in his own hired dwell-
ing." He preached the gospel to the soldiers of the imperial
1 Weiss (Bitt. Theol da N. 71, 3d ed p 202) is inclined to assign the compo-
sition of the Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians to the period of the
imprisonment at Caesarea. So also Thiersoh, Beast, Schenkel, Meyer, Zookler,
Hansrath. See Meyer Com. on Epk (5th ed. by Woldemar Schmidt, 1878, p.
18), and on the other side, Neander, Wieseler, and Lightfoot (PMtippiant, 3d
ed. 1873, p. 29), who date all the Epistles of the captivity from Borne.
328 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
body-guard, who attended him ; sent letters and messages to his
distant churches in Asia Minor and Greece ; watched over all
their spiritual affairs, and completed in bonds his apostolic
fidelity to the Lord and his church.1
In the Roman prison he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians,
Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon.
6. A.D. 63 and 64. With the second year of Paul's imprison-
ment in Rome the account of Luke breaks off, rather abruptly,
yet appropriately and grandly. Paul's arrival in Rome secured
the triumph of Christianity. In this sense it was true, "Roma
locuta est, causa finita est" And he who spoke at Rome is
not dead ; he is still " preaching (everywhere) the kingdom of
God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
with all boldness, none forbidding him." *
But what became of him after the termination of those two
years in the spring of 63 ? What was the result of the trial so
long delayed ? Was he condemned to death ? or was he re-
leased by Nero's tribunal, and thus permitted to labor for an-
other season ? This question is still unsettled among scholars.
A vague tradition says that Paul was acquitted of the charge of
the Sanhedrin, and after travelling again in the East, perhaps
also into Spain, was a second time imprisoned in Rome and
condemned to death. The assumption of a second Roman cap-
tivity relieves certain difficulties in the Pastoral Epistles ; for
they seem to require a short period of freedom between the first
and a second Roman captivity, and a visit to the East,* which is
not recorded in the Acts, but which the apostle contemplated
1 Acts 28 : 3&, 31. Oomp. the Epistles of the captivity
* Bengel remarks on Acts 28 : 31 : "Pavlua Eoma, apex etangdti, Actorwn
finis: qua LUGO* alioqui (2 Tim. 4 :ll)fficiU potutiset ad critum Fault JUT-
dueere. Hierosolymis ccepit: Bonus desintt." The abraptoMB of the doM
seems not to be accidental, for, as Lightfoot remarks (Cam. on PhiUppiaiu,
p. 8, note), there is a striking parallelism between the Acts and the Gospel of
Luke in their beginning and ending, and there could be no fitter termination
of the narrative, since it is the realization of that promise of the universal
spread of the gospel which is the starting-point of the Acts.
3 Namely, to Ephesns, 1 Tim. 1:8; 2 Tim. 4: 13, 20; to Crete, Tit 1:5
and to Nicopolis, Tit 8 : 12.
§ 33. PAUL'S MISSION ART LABORS. 329
in case of his release.1 A visit to Spain, which he intended,
is possible, though less probable.* If he was set at liberty, it
must have been before the terrible persecution in July, 64,
which would not have spared the great leader of the Cliristian
sect. It is a remarkable coincidence that just about the close
of the second year of Paul's confinement, the celebrated Jewish
historian, Josephus, then in his 27th year, came to Rome (after
a tempestuous voyage and shipwreck), and effected through the
influence of Poppsea (the wife of Nero and a half proselyte of
Judaism) the release of certain Jewish priests who had been
Bent to Rome by Felix as prisoners.* It is not impossible that
Paul may have reaped the benefit of a general release of Jewish
prisoners.
The martyrdom of Paul under Nero is established by the
unanimous testimony of antiquity. As a Roman citizen, he was
not crucified, like Peter, but put to death by the sword.4 The
scene of his martyrdom is laid by tradition about three miles
from Rome, near the Ostian way, on a green spot, formerly
called Aquce Salvice^ afterwards Tre Fontaiw, from the three
fountains which are said to have miraculously gushed forth
from the blood of the apostolic martyr. His relics were ulti-
mately removed to the basilica of San Paolo-f uori-le-Mura, built
1 Phil. 1 : 25 , 2 24 ; Philem ver 22. These passages, however, are not
conclusive, for the Apostle claims no infallibility in personal matters and
plans , he was wavering between the expectation and desire of speedy martyr*
dom and further labors for the brethren, Phil 1 20-23; 2 17. He may
have been foiled in his contemplated visit to Phihppi and Coloase.
8 Rom 15 . 24, 28. Renan denies a visit to the Orient, but thinks that the
last labors of Paul were spent in Spain or Gaul, and that he died in Rome by
the sword, A.D. 64 or later (U Antechrist, 106, 190) Dr. Plumptre (in the
Introduction to his Com. on Luke, and in an Appendix to his Com on Acts)
ingeniously conjectures some connection between Luke, Paul's companion,
and the famous poet, M Anurous Lucanus (the author of the Pliarsalia, and
a nephew of Seneca), who was a native of Gorduba (Cordova) in Spain, and
on this basis he accounts for the favorable conduct of J. Annasus Gallio
(Seneca's brother) toward Paul at Corinth, the early tradition of a friendship
between Paul and Seneca, and Paul's journey to Spain. Rather fanciful
' Jos. Vita, o. 3 Comp Plumptre, Lc.
4 Tertullian (De prater, turret, o 36) • " Homos Petru* passioni Dominica
adcsguatur, Paulus Joannix [Baptista] exitu corona tur."
830 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
by Theodosius and Yalentinian in 388, and recently recon-
structed. He lies outside of Rome, Peter inside. His memory
is celebrated, together with that of Peter, on the 29th and 30th
of June.1 As to the year of his death, the views vary from A.D.
64 to 69. The difference of the place and manner of his mar-
tyrdom suggests that he was condemned by a regular judicial
trial, either shortly before, or more probably a year or two after
the horrible wholesale massacre of Christians on the Vatican
hill, in which his Roman citizenship would not have been re-
garded. If he was released in the spring of 63, he had a year
and a half for another visit to the East and to Spain before
the outbreak of the Neronian persecution (after July, 64) ; but
tradition favors a later date. Prudentius separates the martyr-
dom of Peter from that of Paul by one year. After that
persecution the Christians were everywhere exposed to danger.8
Assuming the release of Paul and another visit to the East,
we must locate the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to
Titus between the first and second Roman captivity, and the
Second Epistle to Timothy in the second captivity. The last
was evidently written in the certain view of approaching mar-
tyrdom ; it is the affectionate farewell of the aged apostle to his
beloved Timothy, and his last will and testament to the militant
church below in the bright prospect of the unfading crown in
the church triumphant above.'
Thus ended the earthly course of this great teacher of nations,
this apostle of victorious faith, of evangelical freedom, of Chris-
tian progress. It was the heroic career of a spiritual conqueroi
of immortal souls for Christ, converting them from the service
of sin and Satan to the service of the living God, from the
1 Comp. § 26, pp. 250, 257-259.
* Ewald (VI 631) conjectures that Paul, on hearing1 of the Neronian perse-
cation, hastened back to Rome of his own accord, to bear testimony to
Chnst, and being seized there, was again brought to trial and condemned to
death, A.D. 65. Ewald assumes an intervening visit to Spain, but not to the
Bart.
1 2 Tim. 4 : 6-8. Bengal calls this Epistle tatamentum Pauli et eycnet
eantio.
§ 33. PAUL'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 331
bondage of the law to the freedom of the gospel, and leading
them to the fountain of life eternal. He labored more abun-
dantly than all the other apostles ; and yet, in sincere humility,
he considered himself "the least of the apostles," and "not
meet to be called an apostle," because he persecuted the church
of God; a few years later he confessed: " I am less than the
least of all saints," and shortly before his death : " I am the chief
of sinners." ' His humility grew as he experienced God's mercy
and ripened for heaven. Paul passed a stranger and pilgrim
through this world, hardly observed by the mighty and the wise
of his age. And yet how infinitely more noble, beneficial, and
enduring was his life and work than the dazzling march of mili-
tary conquerors, who, prompted by ambition, absorbed millions
of treasure and myriads of lives, only to die at last in a drunken
fit at Babylon, or of a broken heart on the rocks of St. Helena !
Their empires have long since crumbled into dust, but St. Paul
still remains one of the foremost benefactors of the human race,
and the pulses of his mighty heart are beating with stronger
force than ever throughout the Christian world.
NOTE ON THE SECOND ROMAN CAPTIVITY OF PAUL.
The question of a second Roman captivity of Paul is a purely histori-
cal and critical problem, and Las no doctrinal or ethical bearing, except
that it facilitates the defence of the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles.
The best scholars are still divided on the subject. Neander, Gieseler,
Bleok, Ewald, Lange, Sabatier, Godet, also Kenan (Saint Paul, p. 560,
and UAntechnst, p. 106), and nearly all English biographers and com-
mentators, as Alford, Wordsworth, Howson, Lewin, Farrar, Plnmptre,
Ellicott, Lightfoot, defend the second captivity, and thus prolong the
labors of Paul for a few years. On the other hand not only radical and
skeptical critics, as Baur, Zeller, Schenkel, Reuse, Holtzmann, and all
who reject the Pastoral Epistles (except Kenan), but also conservative
exegetes and historians, as Niedner, Thiersch, Meyer, Wieseler, Ebrard,
Otto, Beck, Pressense", deny the second captivity. I have discussed the
problem at length in my Hist, of the Apost. Church, % 87, pp. 328-347, and
again in my annotations to Lange on Romans, pp. 10-12. I will restate
15-9 (A.D. 57); Eph. 3:8 (A.D. 62); 1 Tim. 8:15 (AJD. 63
or 04?).
332 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the chief arguments in favor of a second captivity, partly in rectification
of my former opinion.
1. The main argument are the Pastoral Epistles, if genuine, as I hold
them to be, notwithstanding all the objections of the opponents from
De Wette (1826) andBaur (1835) toBenan (1873) and Holtzmann (1880).
It is, indeed, not impossible to assign them to any known period in
Paul's life before his captivity, as during his three years' sojourn in
Ephesus (54-57), or his eighteen months' sojourn in Corinth (52-53),
but it is very difficult to do so. The Epistles presuppose journeys of
the apostle not mentioned in Acts, and belong apparently to an advanced
period in his life, as well as in the history of truth and error in the apos-
tolic church.
2. The release of Timothy from a captivity in Italy, probably in Borne,
to which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (13 . 23) alludes, may
have some connection with the release of Paul, who had probably a share
in the inspiration, if not in the composition, of that remarkable production.
3. The oldest post-apostolic witness is Clement of Koine, who wrote
about 95 : "Paul .... having come to the limit of the West (eVi TO
rfjs dutrcvt eX3o>i/) and borne witness before the magistrates (pap
eVt TMV f)yovfi€V(ov9 which others translate, " having suffered martyrdom
under the rulers "), departed from the world and went to the holy place,
having furnished the sublimest model of endurance" (Ad Corinth c. 5).
Considering that Clement wrote in Rome, the most natural mterpreta-
of TC/J/ACI rrfs oVrrfoK, "the extreme west," is Spain or Britain; and as
Paul intended to carry the gospel to Spain, one would first think of that
country, which was in constant commercial intercourse with Rome, and
had produced distinguished statesmen and writers like Seneca and Lucan.
Strabo (II 1) calls the pillars of Hercules ircpara TT/S- OIKOU/UI^I , and
Vellems Paterc. calls Spain " extremus nostm orhis terminus." See Light-
foot, St Clement, p 50. But the inference is weakened by the absence
of any trace or tradition of Paul's visit to Spain.1 Still less can he have
Buffered martyrdom there, as the logical order of the words would im-
ply. And as Clement wrote to the Corinthians, he may, from their
geographical standpoint, have called the Roman capital the end of the
West At all events the passage is rhetorical (it speaks of seven im-
prisonments, €nr(iKts 6W/*a <£ope<nis), and proves nothing for further
labors in the East.*
1 A Latin inscription in Spain, which records the success of Nero in extirpa-
ting the new superstition, Grater, Inscrypt^ p. 238, is now commonly aban-
doned as spurious.
* I must here correct an error into which I have fallen with Dr. Wieseler,
in my Hist of the Ap. Ch , p. 342, by rending £*•& T& Wp/io, and interpreting
it " before the highest tribunal of the West " M is the reading of the God.
Alex (though defectively written), as I have convinced myself by an inspec-
tion of the Codex in the British Museum in 1869, in the presence of Mr.
§ 33. PAUL'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 333
4. An incomplete passage in the fragmentary Muratorian canon (about
A.D. 170) : " Sed profecttonem Pauli ab urbe ad Spamam profinscentis
..." seems to imply a journey of Paul to Spain, which Luke has
omitted ; but this is merely a conjecture, as the verb has to be supplied.
Comp., however, Westcott, The Canon of the N. Test., p. 189, and
Append. C., p. 467, and Renan, ISAntechnst, p. 106 sq.
5. Eusebius (d. 340) first clearly asserts that "there is a tradition
(Xoyof e^ft) that the apostle, after his defence, again set forth to the
ministry of his preaching, and having entered a second time the same
city [Rome], w.is perfected by his martyrdom before him [Nero]." Hist.
Eccl II. 22 (comp. ch 25). But the force of this testimony is weakened
first by its late date ; secondly, by the vague expression \ayos ty «, " it is
said," and the absence of any reference to older authorities (usually
quoted by Eusebius) ; thirdly, by his misunderstanding of 2 Tim. 4 : 16,
17, which he explains in the same connection of a deliverance from the
first imprisonment (as if aTroXoym were identical with ot^ftaAwcrta) ; and
lastly by his chronological mistake as to the time of the first imprison-
ment which, in his "Chromck" he misdates A D 58, that is, three years
before the actual arrival of Paul in Rome. On the other hand he puts
the conflagration of Rome two years too late, A.D 66, instead of 64, and
the Neroman persecution, and the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, in the
year 70.
6. Jerome (d. 419) : " Paul was dismissed by Nero that he might
preach Christ's gospel also in the regions of the West (in Occidentis
qiioyue partibus) " De Vir ill sub Paulus. This echoes the rc'ppa rijc
durrfwp of Clement. Chrysostom (d. 407), Theodoret, and other fathers
assert that Paul went to Spain (Rom. 15 : 28), but without adducing any
proof.
These post-apostolic testimonies, taken together, make it very proba-
ble, but not historically certain, that Paul was released after the spring
of 63, and enjoyed an Indian summer of missionary work before his mar-
tyrdom. The only remaining monuments, as well as the best proof, of
this concluding work are the Pastoral Epistles, if we admit them to be
genuine. To my mind the historical difficulties of the Pastoral Epistles
are an argument for rather than against their Pauline origin. For why
should a forger invent difficulties when he might so easily have fitted
his fictions in the frame of the situation known from the Acts and the
other Pauline Epistles ? The linguistic and other objections are by no
means insurmountable, and are overborne by the evidence of the Pauline
spirit which animates these last productions of his pen.
Holmes and the late Dr. Tregelles. The preposition stands at the end of line
17, fol. 159*, second col , in the IVth vol. of the Codex, and is written in
smaller letters from want of space, but by the original hand. The same read-
ing is confirmed by the newly discovered MS. of Bryennio*.
334 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 34. The Synod of * Jerusalem, and the Compromise "between
Jewish and Gentile Christia/nity.
Literature.
I. Acts, ch. 15, and Gal., oh. 2, and the Commentaries thereon.
II. Besides the general literature already noticed (in gg 20 and 29), com*
pare the following special discussions on the Conference of the
Apostles, which tend to rectify the extreme view of Baur (Paithts,
ch. V.) and Overbeck (in the fourth edition of De Wette's Com. on
Acts) on the conflict between Acts 15 and Gal. 2, or between Petnn-
ism and Paulinism, and to establish the true historic view of their
essential unity in diversity.
Bishop LIGHTPOOT : 8l. Paul and the Three, in Coin, on Galat.,
London, 1866 (second ed.), pp. 283-355. The ablest critical discus-
sion of the problem in the English language.
B. A. LTPSIUS : Apostelconvent, in Schenkel's BibeI-Le.mkon, I.
(1869), pp. 194-207. A clear and sharp statement of eight apparent
contradictions between Acts 15 and Gal. 2. He admits, however,
some elements of truth in the account of Acts, which he uses to
supplement the account of Paul Schenkel, in his Chnstusbild der
Apostel, 1879, p. 38, goes further, and says, in opposition to Over-
beck, who regards the account of Acts as a Tendenz- Roman, or
partisan fiction : " The narrative of Paul is certainly trustworthy, but
one-sided, which was unavoidable, considering his personal apologetic
aim, and passes by in silence what is foreign to that aim. The narra-
tive of Acts follows oral and written traditions which were already
influenced by later views and prejudices, and it is for this reason un-
reliable in part, yet by no means a conscious fiction."
OTTO PFLEIDEBEB : Der Pauhmsmus. Leipzig, 1873, pp. 278
sqq. and 500 sqq. He tones down the differences to innocent inac-
curacies of the Acts, and rejects the idea of " intentional invention."
C. WmzsACKBB (successor of Dr. Baur in Tubingen, but partly
dissenting from him): Das Apostekoncil in the "Jahrbiicher fur
deutsche Theologie" for 1873, pp. 191-246. And his essay on
Paulm und die Gemeinde in Konnth, ttnd., 1876, pp. 603-653. In
the last article he concludes (p. 652) that the real opponents of Paul,
in Corinth as well as in Galatia, were not the primitive apostles (as
asserted by Baur, Schwegler, etc.), but a set of fanatics who abused
the authority of Peter and the name of Christ, and imitated the
agitation of Jewish proselytizers, as described by Roman writers.
K. SCHMIDT : Der Apostel-Konvent, in Herzog and Plitt, R. K L
(1877), 575-584. Conservative.
THBOP. KEIM : Aus dent Urchnstenthum. Zurich, 1879, Der Apos
§ 34. THE SYNOD OF JERUSALEM. 335
tettconvent, pp. 64-89. (Comp. HJIAJENFELD'S review in the "Zeit-
schrift fur wissenschaftl. Theologie," 1879, pp. 100 sqq.) One of the
last efforts of the author of the Leben Jesu van Nazara. Keim goes a
step further than Weizsacker, strongly maintains the public as well
as the private character of the apostolic agreement, and admits the
circumcision of Timothy as a fact. He also entirely rejects the view
of Baur, Weizsacker, and Overbeck that the author of Acts derived
his information from the Ep. to the Galatians, and perverted it for
his irenic purpose.
F. W. FABBAB : The Life and Work of Paul (Lond., 1879), chs.
XXIL-XXIIL (I. 398-454).
WmBAiiD GRIMM: Der Apostekonvent, in the "Theol. Studien
und Eritiken " (Gotha), for 1880, pp. 405-432. A critical discussion
in the right direction. The exegetical essay of WETZEL on Gal. 2 : 14,
21, in the same periodical, pp. 433 sqq., bears in part on the same
subject.
F. GODET : Com. on the Ep. to the Romans, vol. I. (1879), pp. 37-
42, English translation. Able and sound.
KABL WIESELEB : Zur Gesch. der N. T.lichen Schrift und des Ur-
chnstenthums. Leipzig, 1880, pp. 1-53, on the Corinthian parties
and their relation to the erronsts in the Galatians and the Nicolai-
tans in the Apocalypse. Learned, acute, and conservati /e.
Comp. above J 22, pp. 213 sqq ; my Hist, of the Apost. Church,
JJ 67-70, pp. 245-260 ; and Excursus on the Controversy between
Peter and Paul, in my Com. on the Gafat. (2 : 11-14).
The question of circumcision, or of the terms of admission
of the Gentiles to the Christian church, was a burning question
of the apostolic age. It involved the wider question of the
binding authority of the Mosaic law, yea, the whole relation of
Christianity to Judaism. For circumcision was in the syna-
gogue what baptism is in the church, a divinely appointed sign
and seal of the covenant of man with God, with all its privi-
leges and responsibilities, and bound the circumcised person to
obey the whole law on pain of forfeiting the blessing promised.
Upon the decision of this question depended the peace of the
church within, and the success of the gospel without. With cir-
cumcision, as a necessary condition of church membership, Chris-
tianity would forever have been confined to the Jewish race with
a small minority of proselytes of the gate, or half -Christians ;
while the abrogation of circumcision and the declaration of the
336 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
supremacy and sufficiency of faith in Christ ensured the conver-
sion of the heathen and the catholicity of Christianity. The
progress of Paul's mission among the Gentiles forced the ques-
tion to a solution and resulted in a grand act of emancipation,
yet not without great struggle and temporary reactions.
All the Christians of the first generation were converts from
Judaism or heathenism. It could not be expected that they
should suddenly lose the influence of opposite kinds of reli-
gious training and blend at once in unity. Hence the differ-
ence between Jewish and Gentile Christianity throughout the
apostolic age, more or less visible in all departments of ecclesias-
tical life, in missions, doctrine, worship, and government. At
the head of the one division stood Peter, the apostle of the cir-
cumcision ; at the head of the other, Paul, to whom was in-
trusted the apostleship of the uncircumcision. In another form
the same difference even yet appears between the different
branches of Christendom. The Catholic church is Jewish-
Christian or Petrine in its character ; the Evangelical church is
Gentile or Pauline. And the individual members of these
bodies lean to one or the other of these leading types. Where-
ever there is life and motion in a denomination or sect, there
will be at least two tendencies of thought and action — whether
they be called old and new school, or high church and low
church, or by any other party name. In like manner there is
no free government without parties. It is only stagnant waters
that never run and overflow, and corpses that never move.
The relation between these two fundamental forms of apostolic
Christianity is in general that of authority and freedom, law and
gospel, the conservative and the progressive, the objective and
the subjective. These antithetic elements are not of necessity
mutually exclusive. They are mutually complemental, and for
perfect life they must co-exist and co-operate. But in reality
they often run to extremes, and then of course fall into irrecon-
cilable contradiction. Exclusive Jewish Christianity sinks into
Ebionism ; exclusive Gentile Christianity into Gnosticism. And
these heresies were by no means confined to the apostolic and
§ 34. THE SYNOD OF JERUSALEM. 337
post-apostolic ages ; pseudo-Petrine and pseudo-Pauline errors,
in ever- varying phases, run more or less throughout the whole
history of the church.
The Jewish converts at first very naturally adhered as closely
as possible to the sacred traditions of their fathers. They could
not believe that the religion of the Old Testament, revealed by
God himself, should pass away. They indeed regarded Jesus as
the Saviour of Gentiles as well as Jews ; but they thought Juda-
ism the necessary introduction to Christianity, circumcision and
the observance of the whole Mosaic law the sole condition of an
interest in the Messianic salvation. And, offensive as Judaism
was, rather than attractive, to the heathen, this principle would
have utterly precluded the conversion of the mass of the Gentile
world.1 The apostles themselves were at first trammelled by this
Judaistic prejudice, till taught better by the special revelation
to Peter before the conversion of Cornelius.*
But even after the baptism of the uncircumcised centurion,
and Peter's defence of it before the church of Jerusalem, the old
leaven still wrought in some Jewish Christians who had for-
merly belonged to the rigid and exclusive sect of the Pharisees.'
1 u Circumcision," says Kenan (St Paul, oh. III. p. 67), " was, for adults,
a painful ceremony, one not without danger, and disagreeable to the last
degree. It was one of the reasons which prevented the Jews from moving
freely about among other people, and set them apart as a caste by themselves,
At the baths and gymnasiums, those important parts of the ancient cities, cir-
cumcision exposed the Jew to all sorts of affronts. Every time that the at-
tention of the Greeks and Romans was directed to this subject, outbursts of
jestings followed. The Jews were very sensitive in this regard, and avenged
themselves by cruel reprisals. Several of them, in order to escape the ridi-
cule, and wishing to pass themselves off for Greeks, strove to efface the
original mark by a surgical operation of which Oelsus has preserved us the
details. As to the converts who accepted this initiation ceremony, they had
only one course to pursue, and that was to hide themselves in order to escape
sarcastic taunts. Never did a man of the world place himself in such a posi-
tion ; and this is doubtless the reason why conversions to Judaism were much
more numerous among women than among men, the former not being put, at
the very outset, to a test, in every respect repulsive and shocking. We have
many examples of Jewesses married to heathens, but not a single one of a
Jew married to a heathen woman."
•Acts, chs. 10 and 11.
•Acts 15:1, 5: ru4i r»r Art T«* oJpfo** rdr +apurcu*r mrimiMfeti.
338 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
They came from Judaea to Antioch, and taught the converts of
Paul and Barnabas : " Except ye be circumcised after the man-
ner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." They no doubt appealed to
the Pentateuch, the universal Jewish tradition, the circumcision
of Christ, and the practice of the Jewish apostles, and created a
serious disturbance. These ex-Pharisees were the same whom
Paul, in the heat of controversy, more severely calls " false
brethren insidiously or stealthily foisted in," who intruded them-
selves into the Christian brotherhood as spies and enemies of
Christian liberty. ' He clearly distinguishes them not only from
the apostles, but also from the great majority of the brethren in
Judaea who sincerely rejoiced in his conversion and glorified
God for it.a They were a small, but very active and zealous
minority, and full of intrigue. They compassed sea and land
to make one proselyte. They were baptized with water, but
not with the Holy Spirit. They were Christians in name, but
narrow-minded and narrow-hearted Jews in fact. They were
scrupulous, pedantic, slavish formalists, ritualists, and tradition-
alists of the malignant type. Circumcision of the flesh was to
them of more importance than circumcision of the heart, or at
all events an indispensable condition of salvation.1 Such men
1 Gal. 2 4 irapcitraicToi (comp wapturd^outrw in 2 Pet 2 -1) ^cv5a8cX^oi oTrt-
rcs irapcuriiAdoir (who came ID Ride ways, or crept in, sneaked in ; comp Jude
4, vap<ur&v(rcuf) KarcurKowritreu rrjv j\fvbcpiav rjpwy ty fxo/icv IP Xpurrf 'bjcroD, fra
Vay Kvra&ov\&(iovffi¥ The emissaries of these Pharisaical Judaizere are ironi-
cally called " snper-extra-apostles," uTrtp\lcu> kw6<rro\oi. 2 Cor. 11 5; 12 . 11.
For these are not the real apostles (as Baur and his followers maintained in
flat contradiction to the connection of chs 10 to 12), but identical with the
u false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of
Christ," 2 Cor. 11 : 13 Baur's monstrous misinterpretation has been com-
pletely refuted by Weizsacker (on Paul and the Congregation of Corinth, I c.
p 640), Keim, Klopper, Wieseler, and Grimm (I c. 432). Comp. also Godet,
I. e. pp 49 sq.
• Gal. 1 : 22-24.
* To what ridiculous extent some Jewish rabbis of the rigid school of Sham-
mai carried the overestimate of circumcision, may be seen from the following
deliverances quoted by Farrar (T. 401) : " So great is circumcision that but
for it the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have created the world ; for it
is said (Jer 33 25), ' But for my covenant [circumcision] I would not have
made day and night, and the ordinance of heaven and earth.' " "Abraham
was not called ' perfect9 till lie was circumcised."
§ 34. THE SYNOD OF JERUSALEM. 339
could, of course, not understand and appreciate Paul, but hated
and feared him as a dangerous radical and rebel. Envy and
jealousy mixed with their religious prejudice. They got alarmed
at the rapid progress of the gospel among the unclean Gentiles
who threatened to soil the purity of the church. They could
not close their eyes to the fact that the power was fast passing
from Jerusalem to Antioch, and from the Jews to the Gentiles,
but instead of yielding to the course of Providence, they deter-
mined to resist it in the name of order and orthodoxy, and to
keep the regulation of missionary operations and the settlement
of the terms of church membership in their own hands at Jeru-
salem, the holy centre of Christendom and the expected resi-
dence of the Messiah on his return.
Whoever has studied the twenty-third chapter of Matthew
and the pages of church history, and knows human nature, will
understand perfectly this class of extra-pious and extra-orthodox
fanatics, whose race is not dead yet and not likely to die out.
They serve, however, the good purpose of involuntarily promot-
ing the cause of evangelical liberty.
The agitation of these Judaizing partisans and zealots brought
the Christian church, twenty years after its founding, to the
brink of a split which would have seriously impeded its prog-
ress and endangered its final success.
THE CONFERENCES IN JERUSALEM.
To avert this calamity and to settle this irrepressible conflict,
the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch resolved to hold a pri-
vate and a public conference at Jerusalem. Antioch sent Paul
and Barnabas as commissioners to represent the Gentile con-
verts. Paul, fully aware of the gravity of the crisis, obeyed at
the same time an inner and higher impulse.1 He also took with
him Titus, a native Greek, as a living specimen of what the
Spirit of God could accomplish without circumcision. The con-
1 Paul mentions the subjective motive, Luke the objective oalL Both usu-
ally unite in important trusts But Baur and Lipsius make this one of the
irreconcilable contradictions I
840 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ference was held A.D. 50 or 51 (fourteen years after Paul's
conversion). It was the first and in some respects the most im-
portant council or synod held in the history of Christendom,
though differing widely from the councils of later times. It is
placed in the middle of the book of Acts as the connecting link
between the two sections of the apostolic church and the two
epochs of its missionary history.
The object of the Jerusalem consultation was twofold : first,
to settle the personal relation between the Jewish and Gentile
apostles, and to divide their field of labor ; secondly, to decide
the question of circumcision, and to define the relation between
the Jewish and Gentile Christians. On the first point (as we
learn from Paul) it effected a complete and final, on the second
point (as we learn from Luke) a partial and temporary settle-
ment. In the nature of the case the public conference in which
the whole church took part, was preceded and accompanied by
private consultations of the apostles.1
1. Apostolic JRecognition. The pillars of the Jewish Church,
James, Peter, and John " — whatever their views may have been
1 Luke reports the former and hints at the latter (comp. ver 5 and 6) ;
Paul reports the private understanding and hints at the public conference,
saying (Gal 2:2): "• I laid (apcta'pip) before *7i#njthe brethren of Jerusalem]
the gospel which I preach among the GentilesTbut privately before them who
were of repute (or, before those in authority)," i. e , the pillar-apostles of the
circumcision, James, Cephas, and John, comp. ver. 9 Dr Baur who denies
the pubht conference, mistranslates icar Mar ft rots JOKOUO-IV, "und zwar
wandte ich mich specieU (specially) an die vorzugsweise Gdtenden" so that ro7t
BoKovauf would be the same as the preceding avrols (Paul, ch V p 117. in the
English translation. I. 122). But this would have been more naturally ex-
pressed by roa KOKOVW iv aurolr, and nar* folav, as Grimm, the lexicographer of
the N. T., remarks against Baur (1. c., p 412), does not mean "specially " at
all, but privatim, seoraum, " apart," " in private," as in Mark 4 : 34, and «*T'
Ww cfcrcir, Diod. I 21.
f The order in which they are named by Paul is significant : James first, as
the bishop of Jerusalem and the most conservative, John last, as the most
liberal of the Jewish apostles. There is no irony in the term ol fcuroujrcf and
ol <rrO\ot, certainly not at the expense of the apostles who were pillars in fact
as well as in name and repute. If there is any irony in ver. 6, faoiol vorc ^<rw,
ov9<r fun ftia^fpti, it is directed against the Judaizers who overestimated the
Jewish apostles to the disparagement of Paul. Even Keim (1 c , p 74) takes
this view : " Endlich mag man aufhdren, von ironbchtr Bftterketi del Paulus
§ 34. THE SYNOD OF JERUSALEM. 341
before — were fully convinced by the logic of events in which
they recognized the hand of Providence, that Paul as well as
Barnabas by the extraordinary success of his labors had proven
himself to be divinely called to the apostolate of the Gentiles.
They took no exception and made no addition to his gospel.
On the contrary, when they saw that God who gave grace and
strength to Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision, gave
grace and strength to Paul also for the conversion of the uncir-
cumcision, they extended to him and to Barnabas the right
hand of fellowship, with the understanding that they would di-
vide as far as practicable the large field of labor, and that Paul
should manifest his brotherly love and cement the union by
aiding in the support of the poor, often persecuted and famine-
stricken brethren of Judaea. This service of charity he had
cheerfully done before, and as cheerfully and faithfully did
afterward by raising collections among his Greek congregations
and carrying the money in person to Jerusalem.1 Such is the
unequivocal testimony of the fraternal understanding among the
apostles from the mouth of Paul himself. And the letter of
the council officially recognizes this by mentioning " beloved "
Barnabas a and Paul, as " men who have hazarded their lives
for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." This double testimony
of the unity of the apostolic church is quite conclusive against
the modern invention of an irreconcilable antagonism between
Paul and Peter.'
gegenuber den Geltmden zu reden : denn wer gleich nachher den BundessMust
mit den 'S&ulen ' feierlioh und befriedigt regi&trirt, tier hat seine Abweuung
der menschUchen Autoritaten in, v 6 nicht dem Andenken der Apottel gewdmett
aondern dem notorischen Uebermuih, der judenchristlichen Parteiganger in
Qulatien."
'Gal. 2:7-10; oomp. Acts 11 : 30 ; 24:17; 1 Cor. 16:1-3; 2 Cor. 8 and
9 ; Rom. 15 : 25-27.
* Barnabas, as the older disciple, still retained precedence in the Jewish
church, < and hence ia named first A later forger would have reversed the
order.
8 Dr. Plumptre remarks against the Tubingen critics (on Acts 15 : 7) : "Of
all doctrines as to the development of the Christian church, that which sees
in Peter, James, and John the leaders of a Judaizing anti-Pauline party is,
perhaps, the most baseless and fantastic. The fact that their names were
342 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
2. As regards the question of circumcision and the status ol
the Gentile Christians, there was a sharp conflict of opinions in
open debate, under the very shadow of the inspired apostles.1
There was strong conviction and feeling on both sides, plausi-
ble arguments were urged, charges and countercharges made,
invidious inferences drawn, fatal consequences threatened. But
the Holy Spirit was also present, as he is with every meeting of
disciples who come together in the name of Christ, and over-
ruled the infirmities of human nature which will crop out in
every ecclesiastical assembly.
The circumcision of Titus, as a test case, was of course
strongly demanded by the Pharisaical legalists, but as strongly
resisted by Paul, and not enforced.* To yield here even for a
moment would have been fatal to the cause of Christian liberty,
and would have implied a wholesale circumcision of the Gentile
converts, which was impossible.
But how could Paul consistently afterwards circumcise Timo-
thy ? * The answer is that he circumcised Timothy as a Jew,
not as a Gentile, and that he did it as a voluntary act of expe-
diency, for the purpose of making Timothy more useful among
the Jews, who had a claim on him as the son of a Jewish
unscrupulously used by that party, both in their lifetime and, as the pseudo-
Clementine Homilies and Recognition* show, after their death, cannot out-
weigh their own deliberate words and acts "
1 This is very evident from the indignant tone of Paul against the Judaizers,
and from the remark in Acts 15 6 : iro\\fis «n/fT;TT)<rc«j yevoutrrjs, comp ver.
2. yfvopfvrjs ffrdvcws (factious party spirit, insurrection, Luke 23 . 19, Mark
'15 7) Kal (rrrfjffcus OUK o\lyn* Such strong terms show that Luke by no
means casts the veil of chanty over the differences in the apostolic church
2 Gal. 2 3-5 See the note below.
3 Acts 16 3 The silence of Luke concerning the non-circumcision of Titua
has been distorted by the Tubingen critics into a wilful suppression of fact,
and the mention of the circumcision of Timothy into a fiction to subserve the
catholic unification of Petrinism and Paulinism. What a designing and cal-
culating man this anonymous author of the Acts must have been, and yet not
shrewd enough to conceal his literary fraud or to make it more plausible by
adapting it to the account in the Galatians, and by mentioning the full under-
standing between the apostles themselves ! The book of Acts is no more a
full history of the church or of the apostles than the Gospels are full biogra-
phies of Christ.
§ 34. THE SYNOD OP JERUSALEM. 343
mother, and would not have allowed him to teach in a syna-
gogue without this token of membership ; while in the case of
Titus, a pure Greek, circumcision was demanded as a principle
and as a condition of justification and salvation. Paul was in-
flexible in resisting the demands of false brethren, but always
willing to accommodate himself to weak brethren, and to become
as a Jew to the Jews and as a Gentile to the Gentiles in order
to save them both.1 In genuine Christian freedom he cared
nothing for circumcision or uncircumcision as a mere rite or
external condition, and as compared with the keeping of the
commandments of God and the new creature in Christ.*
In the debate Peter, of course, as the oecumenical chief of
the Jewish apostles, although at that time no more a resident
of Jerusalem, took a leading part, and made a noble speech
which accords entirely with his previous experience and prac-
tice in the house of Cornelius, and with his subsequent endorse-
ment of Paul's doctrine.3 lie was no logician, no rabbinical
scholar, but he had admirable good sense and practical tact, and
quickly perceived the true line of progress and duty. He spoke
in a tone of personal and moral authority, but not of official pri-
macy.4 He protested against imposing upon the neck of the
1 Comp Rom. 14 and 15 ; 1 Cor 9 • 19-23 ; Acts 21 • 23-2G.
"Gal 5 6; C 15; 1 Cor. 7.19 Dr Plumptre's remarks on the last passage
are to the point "Often those who regard some ceremony as unimportant
magnify the very disregard of it into a necessary virtue The apostle care-
fully guards against that by expressing the nothingness of both circumcision
and uncircumcision (Rom. 2 . 25 ; Gal. 5*6; 6 15) The circumcision of
Timothy, and the refusal to circumcise Titus by St Paul himself, are illus-
trations at once of the application of the truth here enforced, and of the
apostle's scrupulous adherence to the principles of his own teaching To
have lefused to circumcise Timothy would have attached some value to non-
circumcision To have circumcised Titus would have attached some value to
circumcision. "
'Acts 15 7-11; comp 10-28sqq; 1 Pet 1:12; 5:12; 2 Pet 8 15,16.
The style of Peter is distinctly recognizable, as in the epithet of God, 6 xop-
ttoyv -Vrrj , Acts 15 8, comp 1 . 24 Such minute coincidences go to strengthen
the documentary trustworthiness of the Acts
4 Like the Popes who do not attend synods at Jerusalem or elsewhere and
make speeches, but expect nil doctrinal controversies to be referred to them
for their final and infallible decision.
344 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Gentile disciples the unbearable yoke of the ceremonial law,
and laid down, as clearly as Paul, the fundamental principle
that " Jews as well as Gentiles are saved only by the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ." *
After this bold speech, which created a profound silence in
the assembly, Barnabas and Paul reported, as the best practical
argument, the signal miracles which God had wrought among
the Gentiles through their instrumentality.
The last and weightiest speaker was James, the brother of
the Lord, the local head of the Jewish Christian church and
bishop of Jerusalem, who as such seems to have presided over
the council. He represented as it were the extreme right wing
of the Jewish church bordering close on the Judaizing faction.
It was through his influence chiefly no doubt that the Pharisees
were converted who created this disturbance. In a very char-
acteristic speech he endorsed the sentiments of Symeon — he
preferred to call Peter by his Jewish name — concerning the con-
version of the Gentiles as being in accordance with ancient
prophecy and divine f oreordination ; but he proposed a compro-
mise to the effect that while the Gentile disciples should not be
troubled with circumcision, they should yet be exhorted to ab-
stain from certain practices which were particularly offensive to
pious Jews, namely, from eating meat offered to idols, from
tasting blood, or food of strangled animals, and from every form
of carnal uncleanness. As to the Jewish Christians, they knew
their duty from the law, and would be expected to continue in
their time-honored habits.
The address of James differs considerably from that of Peter,
and meant restriction as well as freedom, but after all it con-
ceded the main point at issue — salvation without circumcision.
The address entirely accords in spirit and language with his
own epistle, which represents the gospel as law, though " the
perfect law of freedom," with his later conduct toward Paul in
advising him to assume the vow of the Nazarites and thus to
1 Aote 15 : 11 : ft<& rfa xdpiros rov icvplov 'Iiprov irurrcfatur ITW&TJWU, ««£' fcr
tptar itiunufai (the heathen). Goznp. Rom. 10 : 12, 18.
§ 34. THE SYNOD OF JERUSALEM. 345
contradict the prejudices of the myriads of converted Jews, and
with the Jewish Christian tradition which represents him as the
model of an ascetic saint equally revered by devout Jews and
Christians, as the " Kampart of the People " (Obliam), and the
intercessor of Israel who prayed in the temple without ceasing
for its conversion and for the aversion of the impending doom.1
He had more the spirit of an ancient prophet or of John the
Baptist than the spirit of Jesus (in whom he did not believe till
after the resurrection), but for this very reason he had most
authority over the Jewish Christians, arid could reconcile the
majority of them to the progressive spirit of Paul.
The compromise of James was adopted and embodied in the
following brief and fraternal pastoral letter to the Gentile
churches. It is the oldest literary document of the apostolic
age and bears thp macks of t}ia sftvle of James : *
" The apostfes and trie elde/wethren ' unto the brethren who
are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greeting:
Forasmuch as we have heard, that some who went out from us
have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, to whom
we gave no commandment, it seemed good unto us, having come
to be of one accord, to choose out men and send them unto
you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have haz-
arded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves also shall
tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed
good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater
burden than these necessary things : that ye abstain from meats
1 Coxnp. Aota 15 • 13-21 ; 21 : 18-25 ; James 1 : 25 ; 2:12; and the account
of Hegesippus quoted in § 27, p. 274
* The Gentile form of greeting, xaipuv, Acts 15 : 23, occurs again in James
1 : 1. bat nowhere else in the New Testament, except in the letter of the
heathen, Claudius Lysias (Acts 23 : 26) ; the usual form being %dpis jcol clrfvr).
This is likewise one of those incidental coincidences and verifications which
are beyond the ken of a forger.
* According to the oldest reading, of iir<Wo\oi icoi of *pc<rj3£rcpoi i$€\<po{,
which may also be rendered : " the apostles, amd the presbyters, brethren ; "
comp ver. 32. The omission of &8ctyaf in some MSS. may be due to the la-
ter practice, which excluded the laity from synodioal deliberations.
346 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled,
and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it
shall be well with you. Farewell." '
The decree was delivered by four special messengers, two rep-
resenting the church at Antioch, Barnabas and Paul, and two
from Jerusalem, Judas Barsabbas and Silas (or Silvanus), and
read to the Syrian and Cilician churches which were agitated
by the controversy.9 The restrictions remained in full force at
least eight years, since James reminded Paul of them on his
last visit to Jerusalem in 58.1 The Jewish Christians observed
them no doubt with few exceptions till the downfall of idolatry,4
and the Oriental church even to this day abstains from blood
and things strangled ; but the Western church never held itself
bound to this part of the decree, or soon abandoned some of its
restrictions.
Thus by moderation and mutual concession in the spirit of
peace and brotherly love a burning controversy was settled, and
a split happily avoided.
ANALYSIS OF THE DECREE.
The decree of the council was a compromise and had two as-
pects : it was emancipatory, and restrictive.
(1.) It was a decree of emancipation of the Gentile disciples
from circumcision and the bondage of the ceremonial law.
This was the chief point in dispute, and so far the decree was
1 Acts 15 • 23-29. * Acte 16 . 4
8 Acts 21 • 15 Comp. also Rev 2-14, 20 But why does Paul never refer
to this synodical decree ? Because he could take a knowledge of it for
granted, or more probably because he did not like altogether its restrictions,
which were used by the illiberal const rue tionists against him and against
Peter at Antioch (Gal 2 • 12) Weizsacker and Gnmm (1 c , p 423) admit the
historic character of some such compromise, but transfer it to a later period
(Acts 21 • 25), as a proposition made by James of a modus vivendi with Gentile
converts, and arbitrarily charge the Acts with an anachronism. But the con-
sultation must have come to a result, the result embodied in a formal action,
and the action communicated to the disturbed churches.
4 Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second century, considered the
eating of cifox&vra as bad as idolatry. Dial c. Try ph. Jud 35.
§ 34. THE SYNOD OF JERUSALEM. 347
liberal and progressive. It settled the question of princijr/k
once and forever. Paul had triumphed. Hereafter the Juda-
izing doctrine of the necessity of circumcision for salvation was
a heresy, a false gospel, or a perversion of the true gospel, and
is denounced as such by Paul in the Galatians.
(2.) The decree was restrictive and conservative on questions
of expediency and comparative indifference to the Gentile Chris-
tians. Under this aspect it was a wise and necessary measure
for the apostolic age, especially in the East, where the Jewish
element prevailed, but not intended for universal and perma-
nent use. In Western churches, as already remarked, it was
gradually abandoned, as we learn from Augustine. It imposed
upon the Gentile Christians abstinence from meat offered to
idols, from blood, and from things strangled (as fowls and other
animals caught in snares). The last two points amounted to
the same thing. These three restrictions had a good founda-
tion in the Jewish abhorrence of idolatry, and every thing
connected with it, and in the Levitical prohibition.1 Without
them the churches in Judaea would not have agreed to the
compact. But it was almost impossible to carry them out in
mixed or in purely Gentile congregations ; for it would have
compelled the Gentile Christians to give up social intercourse
with their unconverted kindred and friends, and to keep sepa-
rate slaughter-houses, like the Jews, who from fear of contami-
nation with idolatrous associations never bought meat at the
public markets. Paul takes a more liberal view of this matter
— herein no doubt dissenting somewhat from James — namely,
1 Ex 34 15; Lev 17 7 sqq. ; Deut 12 • 23 sqq The reason assigned for
the prohibition of the taste of blood is that u the life of the flesh is in the
blood," and the pouring out of blood is the means of " the atonement for the
soul " (Lev 17 11) The prohibition of blood as food was traced back to the
time of Noah, Gen. 9 : 4, and seems to have been included in the seven
" Noaohian commandments " so-called, which were imposed upon the prose-
lytes of the gate, although the Talmud nowhere specifies them very clearly.
The Moslems likewise abhor the tasting of blood. But the Greeks and Romans
regarded it as a delicacy. It waa a stretch of liberality on the part of the
Jews that pork was not included among the forbidden articles of food. Bent-
ley proposed to read in Acts 15 : 20 roprnfa (from v-rfpicof , porous)
bat without a shadow of evidence.
348 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
that the eating of meat sacrificed to idols was in itself indiffer-
ent, in view of the vanity of idols ; nevertheless he likewise com-
mands the Corinthians to abstain from such meat out of regard
for tender and weak consciences, and lays down the golden rule :
"All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient ; all
things are lawful, but all things edify not. Let no man seek
his own, but his neighbor's good." *
It seems strange to a modern reader that with these ceremonial
prohibitions should be connected the strictly moral prohibition of
fornication.9 But it must be remembered that the heathen con-
science as to sexual intercourse was exceedingly lax, and looked
upon it as a matter of indifference, like eating and drinking, and
as sinful only in case of adultery where the rights of a husband
are invaded. No heathen moralist, not even Socrates, or Plato,
or Cicero, condemned fornication absolutely. It was sanctioned
by the worship of 'Aphrodite at Corinth and Paphos, and prac-
tised to her honor by a host of harlot-priestesses ! Idolatry or
spiritual whoredom is almost inseparable from bodily pollution.
In the case of Solomon polytheism and polygamy went hand in
hand. Hence the author of the Apocalypse also closely con-
nects the eating of meat offered to idols with fornication, and
denounces them together.3 Paul had to struggle against this
laxity in the Corinthian congregation, and condemns all carnal
uncleanness as a violation and profanation of the temple of God *
In this absolute prohibition of sexual impurity we have a
striking evidence of the regenerating and sanctifying influence
of Christianity. Even the ascetic excesses of the post-apostolic
!1 Cor. 8:7-13; 10:23-88; Rom. 14:2,21; 1 Tim. 4:4.
* The word vo/Wo, without addition, must be taken in its usual flense, and
cannot mean illegitimate marriages alone, which were forbidden to the Jews,
Ex. 34 ; LOT. 18, although it may include them.
1 Apoc. 2 : 14, 20.
4 1 Cor. 6 • 13-20; oomp 5:0; 1 Thess 4 : 4, 5; Eph. 5 : 8, 5; Col. 8 : 51
What a contrast between these passages and the sentence of Mioio in Terence ,
41 Non ettftagitium, mihi crede, adulescentulum
Seortari, neque polar*"— Adelph. i. 2 21, 22. (Ed. Fleckeisen, p. 290.)
To which, however, Demea (his more virtuous married brother) replies:
" Pro JuppiUr, tu homo adiffi* me ad insaniam
Non ettftoffitiwnfacere hate adukxxntulumf"— Adelph. i. 2. 81, 82.
§ 34. THE SYNOD OP JEBUSALEM. 849
writers who denounced the second marriage as " decent adul-
tery " (eim-pen-fa /-wH^ta), and glorified celibacy as a higher and
better state than honorable wedlock, command our respect, as a
wholesome and necessary reaction against the opposite excesses
of heathen licentiousness.
So far then as the Gentile Christians were concerned the
question was settled.
The status of the Jewish Christians was no subject of con-
troversy, and hence the decree is silent about them. Tfiey were
expected to continue in their ancestral traditions and customs as
far as they were at all consistent with loyalty to Christ. They
needed no instruction as to their duty, " for," said James, in his
address to the Council, " Moses from generations of old has in
every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath." * And eight years afterwards he and his eld-
ers intimated to Paul that even he, as a Jew, was expected to
observe the ceremonial law, and that the exemption was only
meant for the Gentiles.*
But just here was a point where the decree was deficient. It
went far enough for the temporary emergency, and as far as the
Jewish church was willing to go, but not far enough for the
cause of Christian union and Christian liberty in its legitimate
development.
1 Acts 15 : 21 ; comp. 13 : 15 ; 2 Cor. 3 : 14, 15.
* Acts 21 : 20-25. Irenaaus understood the decree in this sense (Adv. Hew.
III. 12, 15 : u Hi qui circa Jacobum apostoh gentibu* quidem hbere agere per-
mitttbant; ipsi vero .... persmerabant in prwtlnis observationibus . . .
religiose agebant area dispositionem legis qua eat secundum Mosem " Pfleiderer
{I c. 284) takes a similar view on this point, which is often overlooked, and
yet most important for the proper understanding of the subsequent reaction.
He says : " Die Judenchristen betreffend wurde dabei stiUschweigend ah selbst-
verst&ndliche Voraussetzung angenommen. d<^s* bei diesen Attes beim Alien ftfeifo,
doss also aus der Qeseteetfreiheit der Heidenehnsten keinerlei Conseguenssen fur
die Abrogation des Oesetsses unter den Judenchristen zu riehen seien ; avf dieser
Voraussetzung beruhte die Beschrankung der Alteren Apostel auf die Wirksam-
kfit bei den Juden (da eine Ueberschreitung dieser Schranke ohne Verleteung
del OeseUes nidit moglich war) ; auf dieser Voraussetzung beruhte die Sendung
der Leute von Jakobus aus Jerusalem nach Antiochia und beruhte der Einfus*
dersdben auf Petru*, dessen vorhergegangenes freieres VerhaUen dadureh als
fine Autnahme von der Hegel gekenmeichnet wtrdL"
360 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
NOTES.
1. THE APOSTOLIC CONFERENCE AT JERUSALEM. — This has been one of
the chief battle-fields of modern historical criticism. The controversy
of circumcision has been fought over again in German, French, Dutch,
and English books and essays, and the result is a clearer insight both
into the difference and into the harmony of the apostolic church.
We have two accounts of the Conference, one from Paul in the second
chapter of the Galatians, and one from his faithful companion, Luke, in
the 15th chapter of Acts. For it is now almost universally admitted
that they refer to the same event. They must be combined to make up
a full history. The Epistle to the Galatians is the true key to the posi*
tion, the Archimedian KOV OTO>.
The accounts agree as to the contending parties— Jerusalem and An-
tioch — the leaders on both sides, the topic of controversy, the sharp
conflict, and the peaceful result.
But in other respects they differ considerably and supplement each
other. Paul, in a polemic vindication of his independent apostolic
authonty against his Judaizing antagonists in Galatia, a few years after
the Council (about 56), dwells chiefly on his personal understanding
with the other apostles and their recognition of his authority, but he
expressly hints also at public conferences, which could not be avoided ;
for it was a controversy between the churches, and an agreement con-
cluded by the leading apostles on both sides was of general authonty,
even if it was disregarded by a heretical party. Luke, on the other
hand, writing after the lapse of at least thirteen years (about 63) a calm
and objective history of the primitive church, gives (probably from Jeru-
salem and Antioch documents, but certainly not from Paul's Epistles)
the official action of the public assembly, with an abridgment of the pre-
ceding debates, without excluding private conferences ; on the contrary
he rather includes them ; for he reports, 15 • 5, that Paul and Barnabas
" were received by the church and the apostles and elders and declared
all things that God had done with them," before he gives an account of
the public consultation, ver. 6. In all assemblies, ecclesiastical and
political, the more important bnsinp^ i*» prepared and matured by com-
mittees in private conference for public discussion and action ; and there
is no reason why the council in Jerusalem should have made an excep-
tion. The difference of aim then explains, in part at least, the omissions
and minor variations of the two accounts, which we have endeavored to
adjust in this section.
The ultra- and pseudo-Pauline hypercriticism of the Tubingen school
in several discussions (by Baur, Schwegler, Zeller, Hilgenfeld, Volkmar,
Holsten, Overbeck, Lipsius, Hausrath, and Wittichen) has greatly ex-
aggerated these differences, and used Paul's terse polemic allusions as a
lever for the overthrow of the credibility of the Acts. But a more con-
§ 34. THE SYNOD OP JERUSALEM. 351
servative critical reaction has recently taken place, partly in the game
school (as indicated in the literature above), which tends to harmonize
the two accounts and to vindicate the essential consensus of Petrinism
and Paukmsm.
2. THE CIRCUMCISION OF TITUS. — We hold with most commentators
that Titus was not circumcised. This is the natural s$nse of the difficult
and much disputed passage, Gal. 2 : 3-5, no matter whether we take &
in ver. 4 in the explanatory sense (nempe, and that), or in the usual adver-
sative sense (autem, sed, but). In the former case the sentence is regular,
in the latter it is broken, or designedly incomplete, and implies perhaps
a slight censure of the other apostles, who may have first recommended
the circumcision of Titus as a measure of prudence and conciliation out
of regard to conservative scruples, but desisted from it on the strong re-
monstrance of Paul. If we press the rfvayKii^Tj, compelled, in ver. 3, such
an inference might easily be drawn, but there was in Paul's mind a con-
flict between the duty of frankness and the duty of courtesy to his older
colleagues. So Dr. Lightfoot accounts for the broken grammar of the
sentence, " which was wrecked on the hidden rock of the counsels of the
apostles of the circumcision "
Quite another view was taken by Tertullian (Adv. Marc., V. 3), and
recently by Kenan (ch III. p 89) and Farrar (I. 415), namely, that Titus
voluntarily submitted to circumcision for the sake of peace, either in
spite of the remonstrance of Paul, or rather with his reluctant consent.
Paul seems to say that Titus was not circumcised, but implies that he was.
This view is based on the omission of ot? oufie in ver. 5. The passage
then would have to be supplemented in this way : " But not even Titus
was compelled to be circumcised, but [he submitted to circumcision vol-
untarily] on account of the stealthily introduced false brethren, to whom
we yielded by way of submission for an hour [i.e., temporarily]." Renan
thus explains the meaning . " If Titus was circumcised, it is not because
he was forced^ but on account of the false brethren, to whom we might
yield for a moment without submitting ourselves in principle.'1 He
thinks that n-^o? &pav is opposed to the following dtapcii'p. In other
words, Paul stooped to conquer. He yielded for a moment by a stretch
of chanty or a stroke of policy, in order to save Titus from violence, or
to bring his case properly before the Council and to achieve a permanent
victory of principle. But this view is entirely inconsistent not only with
the frankness and firmness of Paul on a question of principle, with the
gravity of the crisis, with the uncompromising tone of the Epistle to the
Galatians, but also with the addresses of Peter and James, and with the
decree of the Council. If Titus was really circumcised, Paul would have
said so, and explained his relation to the fact. Moreover, the testimony
of IrensBus and Tertullian against olt ovfc must give way to the authority
of the best uncials (fcfc B A C, etc.) and versions in favor of these words.
The omission can be better explained from carelessness or dogmatic
prejudice than the insertion.
852 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 35. The Conservative JSeaction, and the Liberal Victory —
Peter <md Pawl at Antioch.
The Jerusalem compromise, like every other compromise, was
liable to a double construction, and had in it the seed of future
troubles. It was an armistice rather than a final settlement.
Principles must and will work themselves out, and the one or
the other must triumph.
A liberal construction of the spirit of the decree seemed to
demand full communion of the Jewish Christians with their
uncircumcised Gentile brethren, even at the Lord's table, in the
weekly or daily agapce, on the basis of the common saving faith
in Christ, their common Lord and Saviour. But a strict con-
struction of the letter stopped with the recognition of the gen-
eral Christian character of the Gentile converts, and guarded
against ecclesiastical amalgamation on the ground of the con-
tinued obligation of the Jewish converts to obey the ceremonial
law, including the observance of circumcision, of the Sabbath
and new moons, and the various regulations about clean and
unclean meats, which virtually forbid social intercourse with
unclean Gentiles.1
1 Without intending any censure, we may illustrate the position of the strict
oonstructiomste of the school of St. James by similar examples of conscien-
tious and scrupulous exclusiveness Roman Catholics know no church hut
their own and refuse all religions fellowship with non Catholics ; yet many of
them will admit the action of divine grace and the possibility of salvation out-
side of the limits of the papacy Some Lutherans maintain the principle :
•' Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran ministers only ; Lutheran altars for Lutheran
communicants only." Luther himself refused at Marburg the hand of fellow-
ship to Zwingli, who was certainly a Christian, and agreed with him in four*
teen out of fifteen articles of doctrine. High church Anglicans recognize no
valid ministry without episcopal ordination ; close communion Baptists admit
no valid baptism hut by immersion ; and yet the Episcopalians do not deny
the Christian character of non-Episcopalians, nor the Baptists the Christian
character of Pedo-Baptists, while they would refuse to sit with them at the
Lord's table There are psalm-singing Presbyterians who would not even
worship, and much less commune, *ith other Presbyterians who sing what
they call " uninspired" hymns. In all these cases, whether consistency or
not, a distinction is made between Christian fellowship and church fellowship.
§ 36. PETER AND PAUL AT ANTIOOH. 853
The conservative view was orthodox, and must not be ' con-
founded with the Judaizing heresy which demanded circum-
cision from the Gentiles as well as the Jews, and made it a term
of church membership and a condition of salvation. This doe-
trine had been condemned once for all by the Jerusalem agree-
ment, and was held hereafter only by the malignant pharisaical
faction of the Judaizers.
The church of Jerusalem, being composed entirely of Jewish
converts, would naturally take the conservative view ; while the
church of Antioch, where the Gentile element prevailed, would
as naturally prefer the liberal interpretation, which had the cer-
tain prospect of ultimate success. James, who perhaps never
went outside of Palestine, far from denying the Christian char-
acter of the Gentile converts, would yet keep them at a respect-
ful distance ; while Peter, with his impulsive, generous nature^
and in keeping with his more general vocation, carried out in
practice the conviction he had so boldly professed in Jerusalem,
and on a visit to Antioch, shortly after the Jerusalem Council
(A.D. 51), openly and habitually communed at table with the
Gentile brethren.1 He had already once before eaten in the
house of the uncircumcised Cornelius at Caesarea, seeing that
" God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that fear-
eth him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to him." f
With reference to all these and other forms of exolusiveness we would say in
the spirit of Paul : "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision" (viewed as a mere
sign) ** availeth anything, nor uncircumcision," neither Catholicism nor Pro-
testantism, neither Lutheranism nor Calvinism, neither Calvinism nor Arrai-
nianism, neither episcopacy nor presbytery, neither immersion nor pouring
nor sprinkling, nor any other accidental distinction of birth and outward con-
dition, but " a new creature, faith working through love, and the keeping of
the commandments of God " GaL 5:6, 6:15; 1 Cor. 7 19.
1 The imperfect oW^cx prr& rS>v dbw. Gal 2-12, indicates habit : he
used to eat with the uncircumcised Christians This is the befit proof from
the pen of Paul himself that Peter agreed with him in principle and even in
his usual practice. The eating refers, in all probability, not only to common
meals, but also to the primitive love-feasts (agapse) and the holy communion,
wher^>rotherly recognition and fellowship is consummated and sealed.
f Acts 10 : 27-29, 34, 35 ; 11:3: 4< thou wentest in to men uncinmmdsed
and didst eat with them."
364 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
But when some delegates of James ' arrived from Jerusalem
and remonstrated with him for his conduct, he timidly withdrew
from fellowship with the uncircumcised followers of Christ, and
thus virtually disowned them. He unwittingly again denied his
Lord from the fear of man, but this time in the persons of his
Gentile disciples. The inconsistency is characteristic of his im-
pulsive temper, which made him timid or bold according to the
nature of the momentary impression. It is not stated whether
these delegates simply carried out the instructions of James or
went beyond them. The former is more probable from what
we know of him, and explains more easily the conduct of Peter,
who would scarcely have been influenced by casual and unofficial
visitors. They were perhaps officers in the congregation of
Jerusalem ; at all events men of weight, not Pharisees exactly,
yet extremely conservative and cautious, and afraid of miscella-
neous company, which might endanger the purity and orthodoxy
of the venerable mother church of Christendom. They did, of
course, not demand the circumcision of the Gentile Christians,
for this would have been in direct opposition to the synodical
decree, but they no doubt reminded Peter of the understanding
of the Jerusalem compact concerning the duty of Jewish Chris-
tians, which he above all others should scrupulously keep. They
represented to him that his conduct was at least very hasty and
premature, and calculated to hinder the conversion of the Jew-
ish nation, which was still the object of their dearest hopes and
most fervent prayers. The pressure must have been veiy strong,
for even Barnabas, who had stood side by side with Paul at
Jerusalem in the defence of the rights of the Gentile Christians,
was intimidated and carried away by the example of the chief
of the apostles.
The subsequent separation of Paul from Barnabas and
Mark, which the author of Acts frankly relates, was no doubt
1 r<>4s &*-& *lojr<60ov, GaL 2 : 12, seems to imply that they were sent by
James (oomp Matt 26 : 47 ; Mark 5 : 25 ; John 3 : 2). and not simply dimples
of James or members of his congregation, which would be expressed by riris
T £ ? &T& 'Iox<6£ov. See Grimm, I c., p. 427.
§ 36. PETER AND PAUL AT ANTIOCH. 356
partly connected with this manifestation of human weak-
ness.1
The sin of Peter roused the fiery temper of Paul, and called
upon him a sharper rebuke than he had received from his
Master. A mere look of pity from Jesus was enough to call
forth bitter tears of repentance. Paul was not Jesus. He may
have been too severe in the manner of his remonstrance, but
he knew Peter better than we, and was right in the matter of
dispute, and after all more moderate than some of the great-
est and best men have been in personal controversy. Forsaken
by the prince of the apostles and by his own faithful ally in the
Gentile mission, he felt that nothing but unflinching courage
could save the sinking ship of freedom. A vital principle was
at stake, and the Christian standing of the Gentile converts must
be maintained at all hazards, now or never, if the world was to
be saved and Christianity was not to shrink into a narrow
corner as a Jewish sect. Whatever might do in Jerusalem,
where there was scarcely a heathen convert, this open affront to
brethren in Christ could not be tolerated for a moment at Anti-
och in the church which was of his own planting and full of
Hellenists and Gentiles. A public scandal must be publicly
corrected. And so Paul confronted Peter and charged him
with downright hypocrisy in the face of the whole congregation.
He exposed his misconduct by his terse reasoning, to which
Peter could make no reply.* " If thou," he said to him in sub-
stance, " who art a Jew by nationality and training, art eating
with the Gentiles in disregard of the ceremonial prohibition,
1 There are not a few examples of successful intimidations of strong and
bold men Luther was so frightened at the prospect of a split of the holy
Catholic church, in an interview with the papal legate, Carl von Miltitz, at
Altenhurg in January, 1519, that he promised to write and did write a most
humiliating letter of submission to the Pope, and a warning to the German
people against secession But the irrepressible conflict soon broke out again
at the Leipzig disputation in June, 1519.
1 Gal 2 • 14-21. We take this section to be a brief outline of Paul's address
to Peter ; but the historical narrative imperceptibly passes into doctrinal re*
flections suggested by the occasion and adapted to the case of the Galatians.
In the third chapter it naturally expands into a direct attack on the Galatians,
356 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
why art thou now, by the moral force of thy example as the
chief of the Twelve, constraining the Gentile converts to Jndaize
or to conform to the ceremonial restraints of the elementary reli-
gion ? We who are Jews by birth and not gross sinners like
the heathen, know that justification comes not from works of
the law, but from faith in Christ. It may be objected that by
seeking gratuitous justification instead of legal justification, we
make Christ a promoter of sin.1 Away with this monstrous
and blasphemous conclusion ! On the contrary, there is sin in
returning to the law for justification after we have abandoned
it for faith in Christ. I myself stand convicted of transgression
if I build up again (as thou doest now) the very law which I pulled
down (as thou didst before), and thus condemn my former con-
duct. For the law itself taught me to exchange it for Christ, to
whom it points as its end. Through the Mosaic law as a tutor
leading me beyond itself to freedom in Christ, I died to the Mosaic
law in order that I might live a new life of obedience and grati-
tude to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer
my old self that lives, but it is Christ that lives in me ; and the
new life of Christ which I now live in this body after my con-
version, I live in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God ; for
if the observance of the law of Moses or any other human work
could justify and save, there was no good cause of Christ's death ;
his atoning sacrifice on the cross was needless and fruitless."
From such a conclusion Peter's soul shrank back in horror.
He never dreamed of denying the necessity and efficacy of the
death of Christ for the remission of sins. He and Barnabas
stood between two fires on that trying occasion. As Jews they
seemed to be bound by the restrictions of the Jerusalem com-
promise on which the messengers of James insisted ; but by
trying to please the Jews they offended the Gentiles, and by
going back to Jewish exclusiveness they did violence to their
1 Paul draws, in the form of a question, a/oto conclusion of the Judafeing
opponents from correct premises of his own, and rejects the conclusion with
his usual formula of abhorrence, ^ Tfronro, as m Horn. 6 : 2.
§ 35. PETER AND PAUL AT ANTIOCH. 857
better convictions, and felt condemned by their own conscience.1
They no doubt returned to their more liberal practice.
The alienation of the apostles was merely temporary. They
were too noble and too holy to entertain resentment. Paul
makes honorable mention afterwards of Peter and Barnabas,
and also of Mark, who was a connecting link between the three.2
Peter in his Epistles endorses the teaching of the " beloved
brother Paul," and commends the wisdom of his Epistles, in
one of which his own conduct is so severely rebuked, but sig-
nificantly adds that there are some "things in them hard to
be understood, which the ignorant and unsteadf ast wrest, as they
do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." '
The scene of Antioch belongs to these things which have been
often misunderstood and perverted by prejudice and ignorance
in the interest both of heresy and orthodoxy. The memory of
it was perpetuated by the tradition which divided the church at
Antioch into two parishes with two bishops, Evodius and Igna-
tius, the one instituted by Peter, the otl^ier by Paul. Celsus,
Porphyry, and modern enemies of Christianity have used it as an
argument against the moral character and inspiration of the
apostles. The conduct of Paul left a feeling of intense bitter-
ness and resentment in the Jewish party which manifested it-
self even a hundred years later in a violent attack of the pseudo-
Clementine Homilies and Recognitions upon Paul, under the
disguise of Simon Magus. The conduct of both apostles was so
unaccountable to Catholic taste that some of the fathers substi-
tuted an unknown Cephas for Peter ; 4 while others resolved
the scene into a hypocritical farce gotten up by the apostles
themselves for dramatic effect upon the ignorant congregation.*
I Gal 2:11, Peter stood self -condemned and condemned by the Gentiles,
KaTryvvfffjLfvos 1jv, not " blame worthy," or " was to be blamed" (E. V.).
8Comp ICor 9:5,6; 15:5; Col. 4: 10; Philem. 24; 2 Tim. 4 • 11.
I 1 Pet. 5 : 12 ; 2 Pet. 3 : 15, 16.
4 So Clement of Alexandria, and other fathers, also the Jesuit Harduin.
B This monstrous perversion of Scripture was advocated even by such fathers
as Origen, Jerome, and Chrysostom It gave rise to a controversy between
Jerome and Augustm, who from a superior moral sense protested against it,
aud prevailed.
358 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The truth of history requires us to sacrifice the orthodox fie*
tion of moral perfection in the apostolic church. But we gain
more than we lose. The apostles themselves never claimed, but
expressly disowned such perfection.1 They carried the heavenly
treasure in earthen vessels, and thus brought it nearer to us. The
infirmities of holy men are frankly revealed in the Bible for our
encouragement as well as for our humiliation. The bold attack
of Paul teaches the right and duty of protest even against the
highest ecclesiastical authority, when Christian truth and prin-
ciple are endangered ; the quiet submission of Peter commends
him to our esteem for his humility and meekness in proportion
to his high standing as the chief among the pillar- apostles ; the
conduct of both explodes the Romish fiction of papal- supremacy
and infallibility ; and the whole scene typically foreshadows the
grand historical conflict between Petrine Catholicism and Paul-
ine Protestantism, which, we trust, will end at last in a grand
Johannean reconciliation.
Peter and Paul, as far as we know, never met afterwards till
they both shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus in the
capital of the world.
Th6 fearless remonstrance of Paul had probably a moderating
effect upon James and his elders, but did not alter their practice
in Jerusalem.8 Still less did it silence the extreme Judaizing
faction ; on the contrary, it enraged them. They were defeated,
but not convinced, and fought again with greater bitterness than
ever. They organized a countermission, and followed Paul in-
to almost every field of his labor, especially to Corinth and
Galatia. They were a thorn, if not the thorn, in his flesh. He
has them in view in all his Epistles except those to the Thessa-
lonians and to Philemon. We cannot understand his Epistles
in their proper historical sense without this fact. The false
apostles were perhaps those very Pharisees who caused the origi-
nal trouble, at all events men of like spirit. They boasted of
their personal acquaintance with the Lord in the days of his
'Comp. 2 Cor. 4:7; Phil 8:12; James 8: 2; Uohnl:8; 2:2.
' Comp. Acts 21 : 17-20.
§ 35. PBTBB AND PAUL AT ANTIOCH. 359
flesh, and with the primitive apostles ; hence Paul calls these
" false apostles " sarcastically " super-eminent " or " over-extra-
apostles." ' They attacked his apostolate as irregular and spu-
rious, and his gospel as radical and revolutionary. They boldly
told his Gentile converts that they must submit to circumcision
and keep the ceremonial law ; in other words, that they must be
Jews as well as Christians in order to insure salvation, or at all
events to occupy a position of pre-eminence over and above
mere proselytes of the gate in the outer court. They appealed,
without foundation, to James and Peter, and to Christ himself,
and abused their name and authority for their narrow sectarian
purposes, just as the Bible itself is made responsible for all
sorts of heresies and vagaries. They seduced many of the im-
pulsive and changeable Galatians, who had all the characteris-
tics of the Keltic race. They split the congregation in Corinth
into several parties and caused the apostle the deepest anxiety.
In Colossae, and the churches of Phrygia and Asia, legalisin
assumed the milder form of Essenic mysticism and asceticism.
In the Roman church the legalists were weak brethren rather
than false brethren, and no personal enemies of Paul, who
treats them much more mildly than the Galatian errorists.
This bigoted and most persistent Judaizing reaction was
overruled for good. It drew out from the master mind of Paul
the most complete and most profound vindication and exposition
of the doctrines of sin and grace. Without the intrigues and
machinations of these legalists and ritualists we should not have
the invaluable Epistles to the Galatians, Corinthians, and Ro-
mans. Where error abounded, truth has still more abounded.
At last the victoiy was won. The terrible persecution under
Nero, and the still more terrible destruction of Jerusalem, buried
the circumcision controversy in the Christian church. The cere-
monial law, which before Christ was " alive but not life-giving,"
1 The E V translates v*tp\iav iar6trro\oi9 2 Cor. 11:5, "the very chief eat
apostles," Plumptre better, u those apostles- extraordinary." They are identi-
cal with the $€vtav6<rTu\oit ver 13, and not with the pillar -apostles of the cir-
cumcision, Gal 2.9; see above, p. 334, note 1.
360 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and which from Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem was
u dying but not deadly," became after that destruction " dead
and deadly." ' The Judaizing heresy was indeed continued
outside of the Catholic church by the sect of the Ebionites dur-
ing the second century ; and in the church itself the spirit of
formalism and bigotry assumed new shapes by substituting
Christian rites and ceremonies for the typical shadows of the
Mosaic dispensation. But whenever and wherever this tendency
manifests itself we have the best antidote in the Epistles of
Paul.
§ 36. Christianity in Some.
L On the general, social, and moral condition of Borne tinder the Em-
perors :
LUDWIG FBIEDLANDER : Stitengeschichte Roms. Leipzig, 1862, 5th
ed. revised and enlarged, 1881, 3 vols.
BOD. LANCIANI : Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries.
Boston, 1889 (with 100 illustrations).
II. On the Jews in Borne and the allusions of Roman writers to them :
BENAN : Les Apdtres, 287-293 ; MEBTVALB : History of the Romans,
VI., 203 sqq.; FMEDLANDER: L c. III., 505 sqq.; HAUSBATH: Neu-
testamentliche Zeitgeschichte, III., 383-392 (2d ed.) ; SCHURER : Lehrbuch
der Neutestamenthchen Zeitgeschichte, pp. 624 sq., and Die Gemeinde-
verfassung der Juden in Rom in der Kaiserzeit, Leipz., 1879 ; HUIDE-
KOPEB : Judaism at Rome, 1876. Also JOHN GILL : Notices of the Jews
and their Country by the Classic Writers of Antiquity. 2d ed. Lon-
don, 1872. On Jewish Boman inscriptions see GABRUCCI (several
articles in Italian since 1862), VON ENGESTROM (in a Swedish work,
Upsala, 1876), and SCH(JREB (1879).
III. On the Christian Congregation in Borne :
The Histories of the Apostolic Age (see pp. 189 sqq.) ; the Intro-
ductions to the Commentaries on Romans (mentioned p. 281), and
a number of critical essays on the origin and composition of the
Church of Borne and the aim of the Epistle to the Bomans, by
BAUB (Ueber Zweck und Veranlassung des Rdmerbriefs, 1836 ; repro-
duced in his Paul, I., 346 sqq, Engl. transl.), BETSOHIIAG (Das
geschichtliche Problem des Romerbriefs in the " Studien nnd Kritiken1*
for 1867), HILOBNFBLD (Emleitung in das N. T., 1875, pp. 302 sqq.),
C. WEIZSACKBR (Ueber die atteste romische Christengemeinde, 1876,
and his Apost. ZeitaUer, 1886, pp. 415-467).
1 Augustin thus distinguishes three periods in the Mosaic law : 1, lex viva,
sed non vivifica; 2, 1. moribunda, ted nan morUfera; 8, 2. mortua et morttfera.
§ 86. CHRISTIANITY IN BOME.
361
W. MANGOLD : Der Rdmerbrief ttnd seine gesch. Voraussetzvngen,
Marburg, 1884. Defends the Jewish origin and character of the
Boman church (against Weizs&oker).
BUD. SEYEBLBN: Entstehung und erste Sckicksale der Christen-
gemeinde in Rom. Tubingen, 1874.
ADOLF HABNAOK : Christianity and Christians at the Court of the
Roman Emperors before the Time of Constantine. In the " Princeton
Review," N. York, 1878, pp. 239-280.
J. SPENCEB NOBTHCOTE and W. R. BBOWNLOW (R. C.) : Roma
Sotterraneat new ed., London, 1879, vol I., pp. 78-91. Based upon
Caval. DB Rossi's large Italian work under the same title (Roma,
1864-1877, in three vols. fol.). Both important for the remains ol
early Roman Christianity in the Catacombs.
FOBMBT : Ancient Rome and its Connect, with the Chr. Rel. Ixmd., 1880.
EEIM : Rom. u. das Christenthum. Berlin, 1881.
From "Bom* Sottemuifl*," by Northoote and Brownlow.
THB CITY OF BOMB.
The city of Home was to the Roman empire what Paris is to
France, what London to Great Britain: the ruling head and
362 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the beating heart. It had even a more cosmopolitan character
than these modern cities. It was the world in miniature, " orbis
in urle" Rome had conquered nearly all the nationalities of
the then civilized world, and drew its population from the East
and from the West, from the North and from the South. All
languages, religions, and customs of the conquered provinces
found a home there. Half the inhabitants spoke Greek, and
the natives complained of the preponderance of this foreign
tongue which, since Alexander's conquest, had become the lan-
guage of the Orient and of the civilized world.1 The palace of
the emperor was the chief centre of Oriental and Greek life.
Large numbers of the foreigners were freedmen, who generally
took the family name of their masters. Many of them became
very wealthy, even millionnaires. The rich freedinan was in
that age the type of the vulgar, impudent, bragging upstart.
According to Tacitus, " all things vile and shameful " were sure
to flow from all quarters of the empire into Rome as a common
sewer. But the same is true of the best elements : the richest
products of nature, the rarest treasures of art, were collected
there ; the enterprising and ambitious youths, the men of genius,
learning, and every useful craft found in Rome the widest field
and the richest reward for their talents.
With Augustus began the period of expensive building. In
his long reign of peace and prosperity he changed the city of
bricks into a city of marble. It extended in narrow and irre-
gular streets on both banks of the Tiber, covered the now deso-
late and feverish Campagna to the base of the Albanian hills,
and stretched its arms by land and by sea to the ends of the
earth. It was then (as in its ruins it is even now) the most in-
structive and interesting city in the world. Poets, orators, and
historians were lavish in the praises of the urbs cetcrna,
" qua nihilpossto viscre majut." *
1 Friedlander, L 372 sqq.
1 See some of these eulogistic descriptions in Friedlonder, I. 9, who says that
the elements which produced this overwhelming impression were " the enor-
mous, ever «li«inptig turmoil of a population from all lands, the confusing and
§ 36. CHRISTIANITY IN ROME. 363
The estimates of the population of imperial Home are guess-
work, and vary from one to four millions. But in all proba-
bility it amounted under Augustus to more than a million, and
increased rapidly under the following emperors till it received
a check by the fearful epidemic of 79, which for many days de-
manded ten thousand victims a day.1 Afterwards the city grew
again and reached the height of its splendor under Hadrian and
the Antonines.9
THE JEWS IN KOME.
The number of Jews in Rome during the apostolic age is
estimated at twenty or thirty thousand souls.' They all spoke
Hellenistic Greek with a strong Hebrew accent. They had, as
far as we know, seven synagogues and three cemeteries, with
Greek and a few Latin inscriptions, sometimes with Greek
words in Latin letters, or Latin words with Greek letters.4 They
inhabited the fourteenth region, beyond the Tiber (Trastevere),
intoxicating commotion of a truly cosmopolitan intercourse, the number and
magnificence of public parks and buildings, and the immeasurable extent of
the city *' Of the Campagna he says, p 10 • " Wo sichjeM ei~M ruinener-
faUte Einode gegen das Albanesergebirge 7nneratreckt1 uber der Ficberluft
brutet, war damals eine durcJums gesunde, uberatt angebaute, wn Lcben vovm-
melden Strassen durclischnittene Ebcne " See Strabo, v 3, 12.
1 Fnedlander, I 54 sqq , by a combination of certain data, comes to the
conclusion that Rome numbered under Augustus (A u 749) 668,600 people,
exclusive of slaves, and 70 or 80 years later from one and a half to two
millions
2 Fnedlander, 111: ^Indent halben Jakrhvndert von Vespasian bis Hadrian
trreiclite Rom semen fiocTisten Glanz, wenn auch unter den Antoninen und
spater nock vieles zu snner VerscMnervng geschehen ist "
3 By Renan, L Antecftrist, p 7; Fnedlander, I 310, 372; and Harnack,
I c , p 253 But Hausrath, I c , III 384, assumes 40,000 Jews in Rome
under Augustus, 60,000 under Tiberius We know from Josephus that 8,000
Roman Jews accompanied a deputation of King Herod to Augustus (Ant.
XVII 11, 1), and that 4,000 Jews were banished by Tiberius to the mines of
Sardinia (XVIII. 3, 5 ; comp Tacitus, Ann. II 85). But these data do not
justify a very definite calculation
4 Friedlander, III. 510 " Die InscJiriftensind uberwiegend griec7iisoh, atter-
dings zum Theil bis znr UnverntdndlicJikeit jargonartig ; daneben finden #teh
late\tiix''Jie^ aber keine hebraischen " See also Garrucci, Cimiterio in vigna
Rondanini, and the inscriptions (mostly Gieek, some Latin) copied and pub-
lished by Schiirer, Die Gcmeindcverfassung der Juden, etc , pp. 33 sqq.
364 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
at the base of the Janiculum, probably also the island of the
Tiber, and part of the left bank towards the Circus Maximus
and the Palatine hill, in the neighborhood of the present Ghetto
or Jewry. They were mostly descendants of slaves and captives
of Pornpey, Cassius, and Antony. They dealt then, as now,
in old clothing and broken ware, or rose from poverty to wealth
and prominence as bankers, physicians, astrologers, and fortune-
tellers. Not a few found their way to the court. Alityrus, a
Jewish actor, enjoyed the highest favor of Nero. Thallus, a
Samaritan and freedman of Tiberius, was able to lend a million
denarii to the Jewish king, Herod Agrippa.1 The relations be-
tween the Herods and the Julian and Claudian emperors were
very intimate.
The strange manners and institutions of the Jews, as cir-
cumcision, Sabbath observance, abstinence from pork and meat
sacrificed to the gods whom they abhorred as evil spirits, ex-
cited the mingled amazement, contempt, and ridicule of the
Roman historians and satirists. Whatever was sacred to the
heathen was profane to the Jews.* They were regarded as ene-
mies of the human race. But this, after all, was a superficial
judgment. The Jews had also their friends. Their indomita-
ble industry and persistency, their sobriety, earnestness, fidelity,
and benevolence, their strict obedience to law, their disregard
of death in war, their unshaken trust in God, their hope of a
glorious future of humanity, the simplicity and purity of their
worship, the sublimity and majesty of the idea of one omnipo-
tent, holy, and merciful God, made a deep impression upon
thoughtful and serious persons, and especially upon females (who
escaped the odium of circumcision). Hence the large number
of proselytes in Rome and elsewhere. Horace, Persius, and
Juvenal, as well as Josephus, testify that many Romans abstain-
ed from all business on the Sabbath, fasted and prayed, burned
1 Josephus, Ant. XVIII. 6, 4. Comp. Haznaok, I «., p. 254.
9 Tacitus, Hist. V. 4 : " Prof ana illie cmnia qua apud no* sacra ; rurswn
concessa apud tilos qua nobis incesta." Gomp. his whole description of the
Jews, which is a strange compound of truth and falsehood.
§ 36. CHRISTIANITY IN HOME. 365
lamps, studied the Mosaic law, and sent tribute to the temple of
Jerusalem. Even the Empress Poppsea was inclined to Juda-
ism after her own fashion, and showed great favor to Josephus,
who calls her " devout " or " God-fearing " (though she was a
cruel and shameless woman).1 Seneca, who detested the Jews
(calling them acderatissima gens), was constrained to say that
this conquered race gave laws to their conquerors.*
The Jews were twice expelled from Home under Tiberius and
Claudius, but soon returned to their transtiberine quarter, and
continued to enjoy the privileges of a religio licita, which were
granted to them by heathen emperors, but were afterwards de-
nied them by Christian popes.*
1 " Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Obho, was the fairest woman of her time, and
with the charms of beauty she combined the address of an accomplished in-
triguer. Among the dissolute women of imperial Rome she stands preemi-
nent Originally united to Rufius Crispinus, she allowed herself to be seduced
by Otho, and obtained a divorce in order to marry him. Introduced by this
new connection to the intimacy of Nero, she soon aimed at a higher elevation,
But her husband was jealous and vigilant, and she herself knew how to allure
the young emperor by alternate advances and retreat*, till, in the violence of his
passion, he put his friend out of the way by dismissing him to the government
of Lusitama Poppsea suffered Otho to depart without a sigh. She profited
by his absence to make herself more than ever indispensable to her paramour,
and aimed, with little disguise, at releasing herself from her union and sap-
planting Octavia, by divorce or even death." Merivale, Hut. of tfie Roman*,
VI. 97 Nero accidentally kicked Poppaea to death when in a state of pregnan-
cy (65), and pronounced her eulogy from the rostrum The senate decreed di-
vine honors to her Corn p. Tao Ann, XIII. 45, 46 ; XVI 6; Suet, Nero, 85.
• " Victi victoribu* leges dederunt " Quoted by Augustin (De Civit. D«",
VI. 11) from a lost work, De Superstitionibus This word received a singular
illustration a few years after Seneca's death, when Berenice, the daughter of
King Agnppa, who had heard the story of Paul's conversion at Caesarea (Acts
25 . 13, 23), became the acknowledged mistress first of Vespasianus and then
of his son Titus, and presided in the palace of the Caesars Titus promised
to marry her, but was obliged, by the pressure of public opinion, to dismiss
the incestuous adulteress. "Dimint invitus invitam.^ Sueton. Tit., o. 7;
Tacit. Hi*t., II. 81.
* The history of the Roman Ghetto (the word is derived from * j3f eumfo, to
cut down, oomp. Isa, 10 : 33 ; 14 : 12 ; 15 : 2, Jer 48 : 25, 27, etc., presents a
curious and sad chapter in the annals of the papacy. The fanatical Pope Paul
IV. (1555-'59) caused it to be walled in and shut out from all intercourse with
the Christian world, declaring in the bull Cum nimis : <% It is most absurd and
unsuitable that the Jews, whose own crime has plunged them into everlasting
slavery, under the plea that Christian magnanimity allows them, should pre-
366 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
When Paul arrived in Rome he invited the rulers of the syna*
gogues to a conference, that he might show them his good will
and give them the first offer of the gospel, but they replied to
his explanations with shrewd reservation, and affected to know
nothing of Christianity, except that it was a sect everywhere
spoken against. Their best policy was evidently to ignore it as
much as possible. Yet a large number came to hear the apostle
on an appointed day, and some believed, while the majority, as
usual, rejected his testimony.1
CHRISTIANITY IN ROME.
From this peculiar people came the first converts to a religion
which proved more than a match for the power of Rome. The
Jews were only an army of defense, the Christians an army of
conquest, though under the despised banner of the cross.
The precise origin of the church of Rome is involved in im-
penetrable mystery. We are informed of the beginnings of the
church of Jerusalem and most of the churches of Paul, but we
do not know who first preached the gospel at Rome. Chris-
tianity with its missionary enthusiasm for the conversion of the
world must have found a home in the capital of the world at a
very early day, before the apostles left Palestine. The congre-
gation at Antioch grew up from emigrant and fugitive disciples
of Jerusalem before it was consolidated and fully organized by
Barnabas and Paul.
It is not impossible, though by no means demonstrable, that
frame to dweU and mix with Christians, not bearing any mark of distinction,
and should have Christian servants, yea even buy houses.0 Sizlus V. treated
the Jews kindly on the plea that they were " the family from which Chnst
came , " but his successors Clement VIII., Clement XI , and Innocent XIII.,
forbade them all trade except that m old clothes, rags, and iron Gregory
XIII. (1572-'S5), who rejoiced over the massacre of St Bartholomew, forced
the Jews to bear a sermon every week, and on every Sabbath police agents
were sent to the Ghetto to drive men, women, and children into the church
with scourges, and to lash them if they paid no attention ! This custom was only
abolished by Pius IX., who revoked all the oppressive laws against the Jews.
For this and other interesting information about the Ghetto see Augustas J.
C Hare, Walks in Rome, 1873, 165 sqq., and a pamphlet of Dr. Philip, a
Protestant missionary among the Jews in Borne, On the QJictto, Borne, 1874.
'Acts 28: 17-29.
§ 36. CHRISTIANITY IN ROME. 367
the first tidings of the gospel were brought to Rome soon after
the birthday of the church by witnesses of the pentecostal mira-
cle in Jerusalem, among whom were " sojourners from Come,
both Jews and proselytes." ' In this case Peter, the preacher
of the pentecostal sermon, may be said to have had an indirect
agency in the founding of the church of Rome, which claims
him as the rock on which it is built, although the tradition of
his early visit (42) and twenty or twenty-five years' residence
there is a long exploded fable.8 Paul greets among the brethren
in Rome some kinsmen who had been converted before him,
i.e., before 37.* Several names in the list of Roman brethren
to whom he sends greetings are found in the Jewish cemetery
on the Appian Way among the f reedmen of the Empress Livia.
Christians from Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece must
have come to the capital for various reasons, either as visitors
or settlers.
THE EDICT OF CLAUDIUS.
The first historic trace of Christianity in Rome we have in a
notice of the heathen historian Suetonius, confirmed by Luke,
that Claudius, about A.D. 52, banished the Jews from Rome be-
cause of their insurrectionary disposition and commotion under
the instigation of " Chrestus " (misspelt for " Christus "). 4
1 Acts 2 • 10 : o/ cVft8i}/iovyrt9 'P»pa?oi, 'Iov5a?oi rt ical Tpoo^Xirrot. Sojourn-
era are strangers (comp. 17: 21, of frtftiuiovrrc* £eVot), as distinct from inhab-
itants (KaroiKouvrcs, 7 : 48 ; 9 : 22 ; Luke 13 : 4). Among the Hellenistic Jews
in Jerusalem who disputed with Stephen were Libertini, i e , emancipated
Roman Jews, descendants of those whom Pompey had earned captive to
Rome, Acts 6 : 9.
* Given up even by Roman Catholic historians in Germany, but still confi-
dently reasserted by Drs. Northcote and Brownlow, /. c. L, p 79, who naively
state that Peter went to Rome with Cornelius and the Italian band in 42.
Comp on this subject § 26, pp. 254 sqq.
8 Rom. 16 : 7, " Salute Andronicus and Juntas (or Junia), my kinsmen, and
my fellow-prisoners who . . . have been in Christ before me." If Junias is
masculine, it must be a contraction from Junianos, as Lucas from Lucanus.
But Chrysostom, Grotius, Reiche, and others take it as a female, either the
wife or Bister of Andronicus
4 Sueton., Claud., o. 25: "Judaos impubore Chretto asridu* tumuUuante*
Roma expvUt." The Romans often confounded Christut (the Anointed) and
368 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
This commotion in all probability refers to Messianic contro-
versies between Jews and Christians who were not yet clearly
distinguished at that time. The preaching of Christ, the true
King of Israel, would naturally produce a great commotion
among the Jews, as it did at Antioch, in Pisidia, in Lystra,
Thessalonica, and Beroea ; and the ignorant heathen magistrates
would as naturally infer that Christ was a political pretender
and aspirant to an earthly throne. The Jews who rejected the
true Messiah looked all the more eagerly for an imaginary
Messiah that would break the yoke of Home and restore the
theocracy of David in Jerusalem. Their carnal millennarianism
affected even some Christians, and Paul found it necessary to
warn them against rebellion and revolution. Among those ex-
pelled by the edict of Claudius were Aquila and Priscilla, the
Uhrestus (from xpi}<rrfo, useful, good), and called the Christians
Chrestiani. Compare the Frenoh form chretwn. Justin Martyr uses this
etymological error as an argument against the persecution of the Christians
for the sake of their name. Apol. I., c. 4 (I. p. 10, ed. Otto) : Xpumavol flxtu
ffonrxopotf/ifdo. rb 8i x^crr&v pio-fficr&ai 06 S/KOIOV. He knew, however, the true
origin of the name of Christ, I c. 12 : 'lyvovs X/>«rnk, ty' o5 *o2 rb Xpurriavol
iwovofjLdfabcu foxfco/iffi'. Tertullian says that the name Christu* was almost
invariably mispronounced Chrestu* by the heathen. Apol, c. 8 ; Ad Nat., I.
8. This mistake continued to be made down to the fourth century, Lactan-
tins, Inttit. Div., IV. 7, and is found also in Latin inscriptions. Kenan
derives the name CJiristianus from the Latin (like Hcrodiam, Matt. 22 : 16,
Pompgani, Ocesareani), as the derivation from the Greek would require
(Les dpotres, p. 284). Lightfoot denies this, and refers to Sof&cwfc,
(Ph&ippiaru, p. 16, note ' ) ; but Renan would regard these nouns
as Latinisms like 'Acrwrfr (Acts 20 : 4, Strabo, etc ). Antioch, where the name
originated (Acts 11 : 26), had long before been Romanized and was famous for
its love of nicknames. Renan thinks that the term originated with the
Roman authority as an appellation de police. The other two passages of the
N. T. in which it occurs, Acts 26 : 28 ; 1 Pet. 4 : 16, seem to imply contempt
and dislike, and so it is used by Tacitus and Suetonius. But what was origin-
ally meant by the heathen to be a name of derision has become the name of
the highest honor. For what can be nobler and better than to be a true
Christian, that is, a follower of Christ It is a remarkable fact that the name
" Jesuit," which was not in use till the sixteenth century, has become, by the
misconduct of the order which claimed it, a term of reproach even in Roman
Catholic countries; while the term " Christian " embraces proverbially all that
is noble, and good, and Christ-like.
§ 36. CHRISTIANITY IN BOMB.
•
hospitable friends of Paul, who were probably converted before
they met him in Corinth.1
The Jews, however, soon returned, and the Jewish Christians
also, but both under a cloud of suspicion. To this fact Tacitus
may refer when he says that the Christian superstition which
had been suppressed for a time (by the edict of Claudius) broke
out again (under Nero, who ascended the throne in 54).
PAUL'S EPISTLE.
Li the early part of Nero's reign (54-68) the Roman congre-
gation was already well known throughout Christendom, had
several meeting places and a considerable number of teachers.*
It was in view of this fact, and in prophetic anticipation of its
future importance, that Paul addressed to it from Corinth his
most important doctrinal Epistle (A.D. 58), which was to prepare
the way for his long desired personal visit On his journey to
Rome three years later he found Christians at Puteoli (the
modern Pnzzuolo at the bay of Naples), who desired him to
tarry with them seven days.* Some thirty or forty miles from
1 Acts 18:2; Rom 16 : 3. An unconverted Jew would not have taken the
apostle under his roof and into partnership. The appellation 'lovSouos often
signifies merely the nationality (comp. Gal. 2 : 13-15). The name Aquila,
i.e., Eagle, Adler, is still common among Jews, like other high sounding ani-
mal names (Leo, Leopardus, Lowe, Lowenherz, Lowenntein, etc.) The Greek
'AxvXas was a transliteration of the Latin, and is probably slightly altered in
OnkeloR, the traditional author of one of the Targums, whom the learned
Emmanuel Deutsch identifies with Aquila ('A*vAay, oi">p2 in the Talmud),
the Greek translator of the Old Testament, a convert to Judaism in the reign
of Hadrian, and supposed nephew of the emperor. Liter. Remains (N. York,
1874), pp. 337-340 The name of his wife, PrisoiUa (the diminutive form of
Prisca), " probably indicates a connection with the^wwof the Pritci, who
appear in the earliest stages of Roman history, and supplied a long aeries of
praetors and consuls " Plumptre on Acts, 18:2.
'Rom. 1:8; 16:5,14,15,19.
» Acts 28 : 13. Puteoli was, next after Ostia, the chief harbor of Western
Italy and the customary port for the Alexandrian grain ships ; hence the resi-
dence* of a large number of Jewish and other Oriental merchants and sailors.
The whole population turned out when the grain fleet from Alexandria arrived.
Sixteen pillars still remain of the mole on which 8t Paul landed. See Fried-
lander, II. 120 sq. ; IIL 511, and Howson and Spenoe on Act* 28 : 18.
370 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the city, at Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae (The Three Tav*
erne), he was met by Roman brethren anxious to see the writer
of that marvellous letter, and derived much comfort from this
token of affectionate regard.1
PAUL IN ROME.
His arrival in Rome, early in the year 61, which two years
later was probably followed by that of Peter, naturally gave a
great impulse to the growth of the congregation. He brought
with him, as he had promised, " the fulness of the blessing of
Christ." His very bonds were overruled for the progress of the
gospel, which he was left free to preach under military guard
in his own dwelling.8 He had with him during the whole or
a part of the first Roman captivity his faithful pupils and com-
panions : Luke, " the beloved physician " and historian ; Timo-
thy, the dearest of his spiritual sons ; John Mark, who had
deserted him on his first missionary tour, but joined him at
Rome and mediated between him and Peter ; one Jesus, who is
called Justus, a Jewish Christian, who remained faithful to him ;
Aristarchus, his fellow-prisoner from Thessalonica ; Tychicus
from Ephesus; Epaphras and Onesimus from Colossce; Epa-
phroditus from Philippi ; Demas, Pudens, Linus, Eubulus, and
others who are honorably mentioned in the Epistles of the
captivity.' They formed a noble band of evangelists and aided
the aged apostle in his labors at Rome and abroad. On the
other hand his enemies of the Judaizing party were stimulated
to counter-activity, and preached Christ from envy and jealousy ;
1 Ada 28 : 15. The Forum of Appius (the probable builder of the famous
road called after him) is denounced by Horace as a wretched town "filled
with sailors and scoundrel tavern-keepers." Tres Tabenue was a town of
more importance, mentioned in Cicero's letters, and probably located on the
junction of the road from Antium with the Via Appia, near the modern Cia-
terna. The distances from Borne southward are given in the Antonine Itin-
erary as follows : " to Arioia, 16 miles ; to Tres Tabenue, 17 miles ; to Appii
Forum, 10 miles."
* Phil. 1 : 12-15 ; Acts 28 : 80.
»CoL4:7-14;BplL6:31; Philem, B4;PhiL2:25-«); 4:18; oomp. also
2 Tim, 4 : 10-12.
§ 30. CHRISTIANITY IN ROME. 371
but in noble self-denial Paul rose above petty sectarianism, and
sincerely rejoiced from his lofty standpoint if only Christ was
proclaimed and his kingdom promoted. While he fearlessly
vindicated Christian freedom against Christian legalism in the
Epistle to the Galatians, he preferred even a poor contracted
Christianity to the heathenism which abounded in Rome.1
The number which were converted through these various
agencies, though disappearing in the heathen masses of the me-
tropolis, and no doubt much smaller than the twenty thousand
Jews, must have been considerable, for Tacitus speaks of a
" vast multitude " of Christians that perished in the Neronian
persecution in 64 ; and Clement, referring to the same persecu-
tion, likewise mentions a " vast multitude of the elect," who were
contemporary with Paul and Peter, and who, " through many
indignities and tortures, became a most noble example among
ourselves " (that is, the Roman Christians).*
COMPOSITION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE ROMAN CHURCH.
The composition of the church of Rome has been a matter of
much learned controversy and speculation. It no doubt was,
like most congregations outside of Palestine, of a mixed charac-
ter, with a preponderance of the Gentile over the Jewish ele-
ment, but it is impossible to estimate the numerical strength and
the precise relation which the two elements sustained to each
other.*
We have no reason to suppose that it was at once fully or-
1 Phil 1 : 15-18. Comp. Lightfoot in he.
1 Ad Cor., oh. 6 The »o\u TATJ&O* iK\ticrAy corresponds precisely to the
(< ingen* multitude " of Tacitus, Ann. XV. 44.
1 Gomp my Hist. Ap. £%., p. 296 sqq Dr Baur attempted to revolution-
ise the traditional opinion of the preponderance of the Gentile element, and
to prove that the Roman church consisted almost exclusively of Jewish con-
verts, and that the Epistle to the Romans is a defense of Pauline universalism
against Petrine particularism. He was followed by Sohwegler, Reuss, Man-
gold, Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Holsten, Holtzmann, and also to some extent by
Thiersoh and Sabatier. But he was opposed by Olshausen, Tholuck, Philippi,
De Wette, Meyer, Sohott, Hofmann, in favor of the other view. Beysohlag
proposed a compromise to the effect that the majority, in conformity with
372 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ganized and consolidated into one community. The Chris-
tians were scattered all over the immense city, and held their
devotional meetings in different localities. The Jewish and
the Gentile converts may have formed distinct communities, or
rather two sections of one Christian community.
Paul and Peter, if they met together in Rome (after 63),
would naturally, in accordance with the Jerusalem compact,
divide the field of supervision between them as far as practica-
ble, and at the same time promote union and harmony. This
may be the truth which underlies the early and general tradition
that they were the joint founders of the Koman church. No
doubt their presence and martyrdom cemented the Jewish and
Gentile sections. But the final consolidation into one organic
corporation was probably not effected till after the destruction
of Jerusalem.
This consolidation was chiefly the work of Clement, who
appears as the first presiding presbyter of the one Koman
church. lie was admirably qualified to act as mediator between
the disciples of Peter and Paul, being himself influenced by
both, though more by Paul. His Epistle to the Corinthians
combines the distinctive features of the Epistles of Paul, Peter,
and James, and has been called " a typical document, reflecting
the comprehensive principles and large sympathies which had
been impressed upon the united church of Rome." !
In the second century we see no more traces of a twofold
Paul's express statements, were Gentile Christians, but mostly ex-proselytes,
and hence shared Judaizmg convictions. This view has been approved by
Schurer and Schultz Among the latest and ablest discussions aie those of
Weizsacker and Godet, who oppose the views both of Baur and Beyschlag.
The original nucleus was no doubt Jewish, but the Gentile element soon out-
grew it, as is evident from the Epistle itself, from the last chapter of Acts,
from the Neroman persecution, and other facts. Paul had a right to regard
the Roman congregation as belonging to his own field of labor. The Judaiz-
ing tendency was not wanting, as we see from the 14th and 15th chapters,
and from allusions in the Philippians and Second Timothy, but it had not the
character of a bitter personal antagonism to Paul, as in Galatia, although in
the second century we find alto a malignant type of Bbioniim in Rome, where
all heresies congregated.
1 Lightfoot, Galat, p. 328.
§ 38. CHRISTIANITY IN ROME. 373
community. But outside of the orthodox church, the heretical
schools, both Jewish and Gentile, found likewise an early home
in this rendezvous of the world. The fable of Simon Magus in
Rome reflects this fact. Valentinus, Marcion, Praxeas, Theo-
dotus, Sabellius, and other arch-heretics taught there. In
iieathen Rome, Christian heresies and sects enjoyed a toleration
which was afterwards denied them by Christian Rome, until, in
1870, it became the capital of united Italy, against the protest
of the pope.
LANGUAGE.
The language of the Roman church at that time was the
Greek, and continued to be down to the third century. In that
language Paul wrote to Rome and from Rome ; the names of the
converts mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Romans, and
of the early bishops, are mostly Greek ; all the early literature
of the Roman church was Greek ; even the so-called Apostles'
Creed, in the form held by the church of Rome, was originally
Greek. The first Latin version of the Bible was not made for
Rome, but for the provinces, especially for North Africa. The
Greeks and Greek speaking Orientals were at that time the most
intelligent, enterprising, and energetic people among the middle
classes in Rome. " The successful tradesmen, the skilled arti-
sans, the confidential servants and retainers of noble houses —
almost all the activity and enterprise of the common people,
whether for good or for evil, were Greek." *
SOCIAL CONDITION.
The great majority of the Christians in Rome, even down to
the close of the second century, belonged to the lower ranks of
society. They were artisans, freedmen, slaves. The proud
Roman aristocracy of wealth, power, and knowledge despised
the gospel as a vulgar superstition. The contemporary writers
1 Lightf oot, I e. , p. 20. See especially the investigations of Caspari, in his
Qudltn tur G*MMe da TauftymkXt, vol. III. (1875), 267-466. According
to Friedlander, L 142, 481, Greek was the favorite language at the imperial
court, and among loven.
374 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ignored it, or mentioned it only incidentally and with evident
contempt. The Christian spirit and the old Roman spirit were
sharply and irreconcilably antagonistic, and sooner or later had
to meet in deadly conflict.
But, as in Athens and Corinth, so there were in Rome also a
few honorable exceptions.
Paul mentions his success in the praetorian guard and in the
imperial household.1
It is possible, though not probable, that Paul became passingly
acquainted with the Stoic philosopher, Annseus Seneca, the teacher
of Nero and friend of Burrus ; for he certainly knew his brother,
Annaeus Gallio, proconsul at Corinth, then at Rome, and had
probably official relations with Burrus, as prefect of the praetorian
guard, to which he was committed as prisoner ; but the story of
the conversion of Seneca, as well as his correspondence with
Paul, are no doubt pious fictions, and, if true, would be no credit
to Christianity, since Seneca, like Lord Bacon, denied his high
moral principles by his avarice and meanness.*
Pomponia Graecina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, the con-
queror of Britain, who was arraigned for " foreign superstition "
1 Phil 1 : 13 ; 4 : 22. The irpcurupioy embraces the officers as well as the
soldiers of the imperial regiments ; ol IK rrjs jca/<rapos omtas may include high
functionaries and courtiers as well as slaves and freedmen, but the latter is
more probable. The twenty names of the earlier converts mentioned in Rom.
16 coincide largely with those in the Columbaria of the imperial household on
the Appian way. Gomp. Lightfoot, Pkilipp , p 169 sqq., Pluraptre, Excursus
to his Com on Acts, and Harnack, I. c , pp 258 sq Harnack makes it appear
that the two trusty servants of the Roman church, Claudius Ephebus and
Valerius Bibo, mentioned in the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, c. 68,
belonged to the household of the emperor Claudius.
2 See above, § 29, p. 279, especially the essay of Lightfoot quoted there.
Harnack (I c., p 260) and Friedlander regard the acquaintance of Paul with
Seneca as very improbable, Plumptre as probable An epitaph from the
third century was found in Ostia which reads : D M. M. ANNEO. PAULO.
PETRO. M ANNEUS PAULUS FILIO. CABISSIMO. See De Rossi in the Bullet,
di arched christ , 1867, pp. 6 sq., and Renan, IS Antechrist, p. 12 Seneca be-
longed to the gens Annaa. But all that the inscription can be made to prove
ii. that a Christian member of the gens Ann&a in the third century bore the
name of " Paul," and called his son "Paulus Petrus," a combination familiar
to Christians, but unknown to the heathen. Comp. Fnedlander, ILL 535.
§ 36. CHRISTIANITY IN HOME. 375
about the year 57 or 58 (though pronounced innocent by her
husband), and led a life of continual sorrow till her death in 83,
was probably the first Christian lady of the Roman nobility,
the predecessor of the ascetic Paula and Eustochium, the com-
panions of Jerome.1 Claudia and Pudens, from whom Paul
sends greetings (2 Tim. 4 : 21), have, by an ingenious conjecture,
been identified with the couple of that name, who are respect-
fully mentioned by Martial in his epigrams ; but this is doubtful.2
A generation later two cousins of the Emperor Domitian (81-
96), T. Flavins Clemens, consul (in 95), and his wife, Flavia
Domitilla, were accused of " atheism," that is, of Christianity,
and condemned, the husband to death, the wife to exile (A.D.
96).1 Recent excavations in the catacomb of Domitilla, near
that of Callistus, establish the fact that an entire branch of the
Flavian family had embraced the Christian faith. Such a
change was wrought within fifty or sixty years after Christianity
had entered Rome.4
1 Her Christianity has been inferred from the vague description of Tacitus,
Ann. XIII 32. See Fnedlander III 534 ; Lightfoot, p. 21 ; Northcote and
Brownlow, I 82 sq , Harnack, p. 263. The inference is confirmed by the
discovery of the gravestone of a PomponiiLS Grcerinv* and other members of the
same family, in the very ancient crypt of Lucina, near the catacomb of St.
Callistus De Rossi conjectures that Lucina was the Christian name of Pom-
ponia Graecma But Renan doubts this, VAntech , p. 4, note 2.
1 Plumptre, I. c Martial, a Spaniard by birth, came to Rome A D. 66.
8 Sueton., Demit 15 ; Dion Cass., 67, 14 ; Boseb , H. E. III. 18
4 De Rossi, BuUett. for 1865, 1874 and 1875; Lightfoot, St. Clement of Rome,
Append , 257 sq., Harnack, 266-269.
376 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GREAT TRIBULATION. (MATT. 24 : 21.)
§ 37. The Roman Conflagration and the N*eroni<m Persecution.
"And I paw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesua. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great
wonder."— Apoc. 17 : 6.
Literature.
L TACITUS: Annales, L XV., c. 38-44.
SUETONIUS : Nero, chs. 16 and 38 (very brief).
SULPICIUS SEVERUS : Hist. Sacra, 1. II., c. 41. He gives to the Ne-
ronian persecution a more general character.
II. EBNEST BENAN : L'Antechrist. Paris, denxieme ed., 1873. Chs. VI.-
VDJ , pp. 123 sqq. Also his Hibbert Lectures, delivered in London,
1880, on Rome and Christianity.
L. FRIEDLANDER : Sittengeschichte Roms, I. 6, 27 ; HI. 529.
HERMANN SCHILLER : Geschichte der rom. Kaiserzeit unter der Regie-
rung des Nero. Berlin, 1872 (17&-179 ; 424 sqq. ; 583 sqq.).
HAUSRAIH : N. T.hche Zeitgeschichte, ILL. 392 sqq (2d ed., 1875).
THEOD. EEIM : Aus dem Urchristenthum. Zurich, 1878, pp. 171-
181. Rom u. das Chnstenthw*, 1881, pp. 132 sqq.
KARL WIBSELER : Die Christenverfolgungen der Cdsaren. 1878.
O. UHLHORN : The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. EngL
transl. by Smyth and Ropes, N. Y. 1879, pp. 241-250.
C. F. ARNOLD : Die Neron. Christenverfolgung. Leipz. 1888.
The preaching of Paul and Peter in Rome was an epoch in
the history of the church. It gave an impulse to the growth
of Christianity. Their martyrdom was even more effective in
the end: it cemented the bond of nnion between the Jewish
and Gentile converts, and consecrated the soil of the heathen
metropolis. Jerusalem crucified the Lord, Borne beheaded and
crucified his chief apostles and plunged the whole Roman church
§ 37. THE NEEONIAN PERSECUTION. 877
into a baptism of blood. "Rome became, for good and for evil,
the Jerusalem of Christendom, and the Vatican hill the Golgotha
of the West. Peter and Paul, like a new Romulus and Remus,
laid the foundation of a spiritual empire vaster and more endur-
ing than that of the Caesars. The cross was substituted for the
sword as the symbol of conquest and power.1
But the change was effected at the sacrifice of precious blood.
The Roman empire was at first, by its laws of justice, the pro-
tector of Christianity, without knowing its true character, and
came to the rescue of Paul on several critical occasions, as in
Corinth through the Proconsul Annseus Gallio, in Jerusalem
through the Captain Lysias, and in Csesarea through the Pro-
curator Festus. But now it rushed into deadly conflict with
the new religion, and opened, in the name of idolatry and pa*
triotism, a series of intermittent persecutions, which ended at
last in the triumph of the banner of the cross at the Milvian
bridge. Formerly a restraining power that kept back for a
while the outbreak of Antichrist,3 it now openly assumed the
character of Antichrist with fire and sword. *
1 Lange on Romans, p. 29 (Am. ed ) : " As the light and darkness of Juda-
ism was centralized in Jerusalem, the theocratic city of God (the holy city,
the murderer of the prophets), so was heathen Rome, the humanitarian me-
tropolis of the world, the centre of all the elements of light and darkness
prevalent in the heathen world ; and so did Christian Rome become the cen-
tre of all the elements of vital light, and of all the antichristian darkness in
the Christian church. Hence Rome, like Jerusalem, not only possesses a
unique historical significance, but is a universal picture operative through all
ages Christian Rome, especially, stands forth as a shining light of the na-
tions, which is turned into an idol of magical strength to those who are sub-
ject to its rule "
9 In 2 Thess. 2 : 6, 7, r& JCOT/XW is the Roman empire, 6 icarlx"? the em-
peror as its representative. This is the patristic interpretation to which some
of the best modern commentators have returned. Mediaeval sects and many
Protestant writers found the great apostacy in the Papacy and the restraining
power in the German empire ; while papal commentators took revenge by
fastening the charge of apostacy on the Reformation which was restrained
by the Papacy. I believe in a repeated and growing fulfilment of this and
other prophecies on the historic bads of the apostolic age and the old Roman
empire.
• It is §o represented in the Apocalypse (oh. 18-18) after the Neronian per-
secution.
378 FIBST PERIOD. A.IX 1-100.
NERO.
The first of these imperial persecutions with which the mar-
tyrdom of Peter and Paul is connected by ecclesiastical tradition,
took place in the tenth year of Nero's reign, A.D. 64, and by the
instigation of that very emperor to whom Paul, as a Roman
citizen, had appealed from the Jewish tribunal. It was, how-
ever, not a strictly religious persecution, like those under the
later emperors ; it originated in a public calamity which was wan
tonly charged upon the innocent Christians.
A greater contrast can hardly be imagined than that between
Paul, one of the purest and noblest of men, and Nero, one of
the basest and vilest of tyrants. The glorious first five years of
Nero's reign (54-59) under the wise guidance of Seneca and
Burrhus, make the other nine (59-68) only more hideous by
contrast. We read his life with mingled feelings of contempt
for his folly, and horror of his wickedness. The world was to
him a comedy and a tragedy, in which he was to be the chief
actor. He had an insane passion for popular applause; he
played on the lyre ; he sung his odes at supper ; he drove his
chariots in the circus ; he appeared as a mimic on the stage, and
compelled men of the highest rank to represent in dramas or in
tableaux the obscenest of the Greek myths. But the comedian
was surpassed by the tragedian. He heaped crime upon crime
until he became a proverbial monster of iniquit}7. The murder
of his brother (Britannicus), his mother (Agrippina), his wives
(Octavia and Poppcea), his teacher (Seneca), and many eminent
Romans, was fitly followed by his suicide in the thirty-second
year of his age. With him the family of Julius Caesar ignomini-
ously perished, and the empire became the prize of successful
soldiers and adventurers.1
1 Comp. Kenan's portraiture of Nero, /. c. ch. L He thinks that there ia
no parallel to thia monster, and calls him un esprit prodigieusement declama-
toire, une mawabe nature, hypocrite, Ugere, vaniteute; un compost incroyabk
dtfntelUgmcefauMe, demechanceteprofonde, cT egoitme atroce et sourncfo, avec
da raffinemenU inouls de siibtittti" See also the description of Mexivale, oh.
LV. (vol. VL 245 sqq ).
§ 37. THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION. 379
THE CONFLAGRATION IN ROME.
For such a demon in human shape, the murder of a crowd
of innocent Christians was pleasant sport. The occasion of the
hellish spectacle was a fearful conflagration of Rome, the most
destructive and disastrous that ever occurred in history. It
broke out in the night between the 18th and 19th of July,1
among the wooden shops in the south-eastern end of the Great
Circus, near the Palatine hill.2 Lashed by the wind, it defied
all exertions of the firemen and soldiers, and raged with unabated
fury for seven nights and six days.1 Then it burst out again in
another part, near the field of Mars, and in three days more laid
waste two other districts of the city.4
The calamity was incalculable. Only four of the fourteen
regions into which the city was divided, remained uninjured ;
three, including the whole interior city from the Circus to the
Esquiline hill, were a shapeless mass of ruins ; the remaining
1 Tacitus (Ann. XV. 41) gives the date quarto decimo [ante] Kalendas Sex-
tttes . . . quo et Senones captam urbem iiiflammaverant. Friedlander, I. 6,
wrongly makes it the 17th July. The coincidence with the day when the Ganls
had set fire to Rome (July 19, A u. 364, or 453 years before), was considered
a bad omen. It was in the tenth year of Nero's reign, t'.<5., A.D. 64 See
Clinton, Fasti Bomani, I. Ozon. 1845, pp 45, 46 ; Friedlander, I e. I. 6 ; Schil-
ler, / c. pp 173 sq ; Men vale, VI. 131, note. Eusebius, in his Chronicle, er-
roneously puts the fire in the year 66.
* For a description of the Circus Maximus see Friedlander, III. 293 sqq The
amphitheatncal rows of seats were eight stadia long, with accommodation for
150,000 persons After Nero's reconstruction the seats amounted to 250,000
under Vespasianus, and subsequent additions raised the number, in the fourth
century, to 385,000. It was surrounded by wooden buildings for shopkeepers
(among whom were many Jews), astrologers, caterers, prostitutes, and all
sorts of amusements Nero was most extravagant in his expenditure for the
circus and the theatre to gratify the people's passion for Pantm et Circenses,
to use Juvenal's words.
» u Per sex dies septemque nodes," Sueton. Nero, 38 ; "*<»<&»," Tacit Ann.
XV. 40.
4 The nine days' duration is proved by an inscription (Gruter, 61. 8). The
great fire in London in 1666 lasted only four days and swept an area of 436
acres Oomp. Lambert's Hist, of London, IL 91, quoted by Merivale. The
fire in Chicago lasted only thirty-six hours, October 8 and 9, 1871, but swept
over nearly three and one-third square miles (2,114 square acres), and destroyed
17,450 buildings, the homes of 98,500 people.
380 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
seven were more or less destroyed ; venerable temples, monn,
mental 'buildings of the royal, republican, and imperial times,
the richest creations of Greek art which had been collected for
centuries, were turned into dust and ashes ; men and beasts per-
ished in the flames, and the metropolis of the world assumed
the aspect of a graveyard with a million of mourners over the
loss of irreparable treasures.
This fearful catastrophe must have been before the mind of
St. John in the Apocalypse when he wrote his funeral dirge
of the downfall of imperial Rome (ch. 18).
The cause of the conflagration is involved in mystery. Pub-
lic rumor traced it to Ifero, W!K> wished to enjoy the lurid spec-
tacle of burning Troy, and to gratify his ambition to rebuild
Rome on a more magnificent scale, and to call it Neropolis.1
When the fire broke out he was on the seashore at Antium, his
birthplace ; he returned when the devouring element reached
his own palace, and made extraordinary efforts to stay and then
to repair the disaster by a reconstruction which continued till
after his death, not forgetting to replace his partially destroyed
temporary residence (domus transitoria) by "the golden house"
(domus aurea), as a standing wonder of architectural magnifi-
cence and extravagance.
THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS.
To divert from himself the general suspicion of incendi-
arism, and at the same time to furnish new entertainment for
his diabolical cruelty, Nero wickedly cast the blame upon the
hated Christians, who, meanwhile, especially since the public
1 Tacitus XV. 89 : " Penastrat rumor ip*o Umpore flagrantis urbit mitst
eum domwtieam sctnam el cecinisse Troianum cxdctium" Sueton. o. 38:
4 ' Qwiri offentu* deformitate vetcrum adifldorum et angustii* fltxurisque vicorum
[Nero] incendti Urban . . . Hoc inctncUum e turre Mactnatiana prospector*,
totusque 'flamma,' ut ajcbat, 'pulettritudineS tawrir fiii in Mo *uo sccenico
habtiu cbcanUnit." Bobbers and ruffians were seen to thrust blazing brands
into the buildings, and, when seized, they affirmed that they acted under
higher orders. The elder Pliny, Xiphilinns, and the author of the tragedy,
Octavia, likewise charge Nero with incendiarism. But Schiller, i a. 425 sqq.t
labors to reliere him of it
§ 37. THE NEBONIAtf PERSECUTION. 381
trial of Paul and his successful labors in Rome, had come to be
distinguished from the Jews as a genus tertium, or as the most
dangerous offshoot from that race. They were certainly de-
spisers of the Roman gods and loyal subjects of a higher king
than Caesar, and they were falsely suspected of secret crimes.
The police and people, under the influence of the panic created
by the awful calamity, were ready to believe the worst slanders,
and demanded victims. What could be expected of the igno-
rant multitude, when even such cultivated Romans as Tacitus,
Suetonius, and Pliny, stigmatized Christianity as a vulgar and
pestiferous superstition. It appeared to them even worse than
Judaism, which was at least an ancient national religion, while
Christianity was novel, detached from any particular nationality,
and aiming at universal dominion. Some Christians were
arrested, confessed their faith, and were " convicted not so much,"
says Tacitus, " of the crime of incendiarism as of hating the
human race." Their Jewish origin, their indifference to politics
and public affairs, their abhorrence of heathen customs, were
construed into an " odium generis huwiani" and this made an
attempt on their part to destroy the city sufficiently plausible to
justify a verdict of guilty. An infuriated mob does not stop to
reason, and is as apt to run mad as an individual.
Under this wanton charge of incendiarism, backed by the
equally groundless charge of misanthropy and unnatural vice,
there began a carnival of blood such as even heathen Rome never
saw before or since.1 It was the answer of the powers of hell
to the mighty preaching of the two chief apostles, which had
shaken heathenism to its centre. A " vast multitude " of Cfiris-
tians was put to death in the most shocking manner. Some
were crucified, probably in mockery of the punishment of Christ,1
1 We do &ot know the precise date of the massacre. Mosheim fixes it on
November, Renan on August, A.D. 64. Several weeks or months at all events
most have passed after the fire. If the traditional date of Peter's crucifixion
be correct, there would be an interval of nearly a year between the conflagra-
tion, July 19, 64, and his martyrdom, Jane 29th.
9 " Crucibus afflxi," says Tacitus. This would well apply to Peter, to whom
oar Lord had prophesied such a death, John 21 : 18. 19. Tertullian says :
882 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts and exposed to the
voracity of mad dogs in the arena. The eatanic tragedy reached
its climax at night in the imperial gardens on the slope of the
Vatican (which embraced, it is supposed, the present site of the
place and church of St. Peter): Christian men and women,
covered with pitch or oil or resin, and nailed to posts of pine,
were lighted and burned as torches for the amusement of the
mob ; while Nero, in fantastical dress, figured in a horse race,
and displayed his art as charioteer. Burning alive was the
ordinary punishment of incendiaries ; but only the cruel inge-
nuity of this imperial monster, under the inspiration of the
devil, could invent such a horrible system of illumination.
This is the account of the greatest heathen historian, the full-
est we have — as the best description of the destruction of Jeru-
salem is from the pen of the learned Jewish historian. Thus
enemies bear witness to the truth of Christianity. Tacitus inci-
dentally mentions in this connection the crucifixion of Christ
under Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius. With all his
haughty Roman contempt for the Christians whom he knew
only from rumor and reading, he was convinced of their inno-
cence of incendiarism, and notwithstanding his cold stoicism, he
could not suppress a feeling of pity for them because they were
sacrificed not to the public good, but to the ferocity of a wicked
tyrant.
Some historians have doubted, not indeed the truth of this
" Borne* Petru* pautoni Dominica adaquatur " (De Prescript. Hcsret , c. 36 ;
eomp. Adv. Marc., IV. 5 ; Scorpiact, 15). According to a later tradition be
was, at his own request, crucified with his head downwards, deeming himself
unworthy to be crucified as was his Lord. This is first mentioned in the Acta
PauU, c. 81, by Origen (in Enseb. H. K., III. 1) and more clearly by Jerome
(Catal. 1) ; but is doubtful, although such cruelties were occasionally prac-
tised (see Josephus, Bell. Jud, V. 11, 1). Tradition mentions also the mar-
tyrdom of Peter's wife, who was cheered by the apostle on her way to the
place of execution and exhorted to remember the Lord on the cross (M^X^O-O
TOW Kvpiov). Clement of Alexandria, Strom VII 11, quoted by Ensebins,
H. E.* III. 80. The orderly execution of Paul by the sword indicates a
regular legal process before, or more probably at least a year after, the Ne-
ronian persecution, in which hit Boman tituenship would scarcely have been
respected. See p. 825.
§ 37. THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION. 883
terrible persecution, but that the Christians, rather than the Jews,
or the Christians alone, were the sufferers. It seems difficult
to understand that the harmless and peaceful Christians, whom
the contemporary writers, Seneca, Pliny, Lucan, Persius, ignore,
while they notice the Jews, should so soon have become the
subjects of popular indignation. It is supposed that Tacitus
and Suetonius, writing some fifty years after the event, con-
founded the Christians with the Jews, who were generally ob-
noxious to the Romans, and justified the suspicion of incendiar-
ism by the escape of their transtiberine quarter from the injury
of the fire.1
But the atrocious act was too public to leave room for such a
mistake. Both Tacitus and Suetonius distinguish the two sects,
although they knew very little of either ; and the former express-
ly derives the name Christians from Christ, as the founder of the
new religion. Moreover Nero, as previously remarked, was not
averse to the Jews, and his second wife, Poppsea Sabina, a year
before the conflagration, had shown special favor to Josephus,
and loaded him with presents. Josephus speaks of the crimes of
Nero, but says not a word of any persecution of his fellow-reli-
gioniscs.8 This alone seems to be conclusive. It is not unlikely
that in this (as in all previous persecutions, and often after-
wards) the fanatical Jews, enraged by the rapid progress of
Christianity, and anxious to avert suspicion from themselves,
stirred up the people against the hated Galilseans, and that the
heathen Romans fell with double fury on these supposed half
Jews, disowned by their own strange brethren.*
1 So Gibbon (oh. XVI.), more recently Merivale, 1. c. oh. 54 (vol YL 220,
4th ed ), and Schiller, I. c., pp. 434, 585, followed by Hausrath and Stahr.
Merivale and Schiller assume that the persecution was aimed at the Jews
and Christians indiscriminately. Guizot, Mil man, Keander, Gieseler, Benan,
Lightfoot, Wieselar, and Eeim defend or assume the accuracy of Tacitus and
Suetonius
• Ant XX. 8, 2, 8.
1 So Ewald. VI. 627, and Renan, DAntechritt, pp. 159 sqq. Benan inge»
nionsly conjecture* that the " jealousy " to which Clement of Borne (Ad Cor.
6) traces the persecution, refers to the diyisiona among the Jews about the
Christian religion.
384 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THE PROBABLE EXTENT OF THE PERSECUTION.
The heathen historians, if we are to judge from their silence,
seem to confine the persecution to the city of Rome, but later
Christian writers extend it to the provinces.1 The example set
by the emperor in the capital could hardly be without influence
in the provinces, and would justify the outbreak of popular
hatred. If the Apocalypse was written under Nero, or shortly
after his death, John's exile to Patmos must be connected with
this persecution. It mentions imprisonments in Smyrna, the
martyrdom of Antipas in Pergamus, and speaks of the murder of
prophets and saints and all that have been slain on the earth.8
The Epistle to the Hebrews which was written in Italy, proba-
bly in the year 64, likewise alludes to bloody persecutions, 10 :
32-34, and to the release of Timothy from prison, 13 : 23. And
Peter, in his first Epistle, which may be assigned to the same
year, immediately after the outbreak of the persecution, and
shortly before his death, warns the Christians in Asia Minor
of a fiery trial which is to try them, and of sufferings already
endured or to be endured, not for any crime, but for the name
of " Christians/' * The name " Babylon "' for Rome is most
easily explained by the time and circumstances of composition.
Christianity, which had just reached the age of its founder,
1 Orosins (about 400), Hist , VII 7 : " Primus Rom* Christiano* supplicits
et mortibus adferit [Nero], ac per omnes promncias pari persecutione excruciari
imperamt " So also Sulpicios Severus, Cliron. II. 20. Dodwell (Dissert. Cypr.
XL, Depaucitate martyrum, Gibbon, Milman, Merivale, and Schiller (p. 438)
deny, but Ewald (VI. 627, and in his Com on the Apoc.) and Kenan (p. 183) very
decidedly affirm the extension of the persecution beyond Rome. u L1 atrotile
Gommandee par Neron" says Renan, " dut avoir des contre-coups dans let prov-
ince* et y exciter une recrudescence de persecution," C. L Roth ( Werke des
Tacitus, VI. 117) and Wieseler (Christenverfolgungen der Gdsaren, p. 11)
assume that Nero condemned and prohibited Christianity as dangerous to the
state. KiessUng and De Rossi have found in an inscription at Pompeii traces
of a bloody persecution ; but the reading is disputed, see Schiller, p. 438,
Friedlander III. 529, and Renan, p. 184.
*Ch.2:9, 10, 13; 16:6; 17-6; 18:24
• 1 Pet. 2 : 12, 19, 20; 3 : 14-18 ; 4 : 12-19.
* At the close, 1 Pet 5 : 13.
§ 37. THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION. 386
seemed annihilated in Home. With Peter and Paul the first
generation of Christians was buried. Darkness must have over-
shadowed the trembling disciples, and a despondency seized
them almost as deep as on the evening of the crucifixion, thirty-
four years before. But the morning of the resurrection was not
far distant, and the very spot of the martyrdom of St. Peter
*vas to become the site of the greatest church in Christendom
and the palatial residence of his reputed successors.1
THE APOCALYPSE ON THE NEBONIAK PERSECUTION.
None of the leading apostles remained to record the horrible
massacre, except John. He may have heard of it in Ephesus,
or he may have accompanied Peter to Eome and escaped a fear-
ful death in the Neronian gardens, if we are to credit the ancient
tradition of his miraculous preservation from being burnt alive
with his fellow- Christians in that hellish illumination on the
Vatican hill.* At all events he was himself a victim of persecu-
1 "Those who survey," Bays Gibbon (ch XVI.), uwith a curious eye the
revolutions of mankind, may observe that the gardens and circus of Nero on
the Vatican, which were polluted with the blood of the first Christians, have
been rendered still more famous by the triumph and by the abuse of the per-
secuted religion. On the same spot, a temple, which far surpasses the ancient
glories of the capital, has been since erected by the Christian pontiffs, who,
deriving their claim of universal dominion from a humble fisherman of Gali-
lee, have succeeded to the throne of the Caesars, given laws to the barbarian
conquerors of Rome, and extended their spiritual jurisdiction from the coast
of the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.17 Gomp. Renan, UAntecJir.
p. 177 • "ISorgie de Neron fut le grand bapteme de sang qui designa Rome,
comme la vffl* des martyrs, pour jouer un rtile d part dans Fhistoire du ehris-
tianisme, et en etre la seconde ville saint*. Ce fut la prise de possession de la
colline Vatican* par ces triomphateurs d*un genre inconnu jusque-la . . . Rome,
rendue responsable de tout le sang verse, devint comme Babylone une sorte de
vitte sacramenteUe et symbolique."
* Tertullian mentions it in connection with the crucifixion of Peter and
the decapitation of Paul as apparently occurring at the same time ; De
Pnsseript. H<*r., o. 86 : " Ista ouam felto eeelesia (the church of Borne)
cui totam doctrinam apostoU sanguine suo profuderunt, ubi Petru* passioni
Dominica adaquatur, ubi Paulus Joannis exitu ooronatur, ubi APOSTOLUS
JOANNES, POSTEAQUAM IN OLEUM IGNKUM DEMERBUB NIHIL PASSUB EOT, n?
INSULAM KELEGATUR." Comp. Jerome, Adv. Jovin^ 1, 26, and in Matt.
22: 28 ; and Eoseb , H. R, VL 5. Renan (p. 196) conjectures that John was
386 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tion for the name of Jesus, and depicted its horrors, as an exile
on the lonely island of Patmos in the vision of the Apocalypse.
This mysterious book — whether written between 68 and 69,
or under Domitian in 95 — was undoubtedly intended for the
church of that age as well as for future ages, and must have been
sufficiently adapted to the actual condition and surroundings of
its first readers to give them substantial aid and comfort in their
fiery trials. Owing to the nearness of events alluded to, they
must have understood it even better, for practical purposes, than
readers of later generations. John looks, indeed, forward to the
final consummation, but he sees the end in the beginning. He
takes his standpoint on the historic foundation of the old Roman
empire in which he lived, as the visions of the prophets of
Israel took their departure from the kingdom of David or the age
of the Babylonian captivity. He describes the heathen Rome
of his day as " the beast that ascended out of the abyss," as " a
beast coming out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads "
(or kings, emperors), as " the great harlot that sitteth among
many waters," as a " woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns/'
as " Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the
abominations of the earth." ' The seer must have in view the
Neronian persecution, the most cruel that ever occurred, when
Pie calls the woman seated on seven hills, " drunken with the
blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," s
and prophesied her downfall as a matter of rejoicing for the
" saints and apostles and prophets." 3
Recent commentators discover even a direct allusion to Nero,
as expressing in Hebrew letters (Neron Kesar) the mysterious
destined to shine in the illumination of the Neronian garden*, and was actu-
ally steeped in oil for the purpose, but saved by an accident or caprice.
Thiersch (Die Kirdie im apoat. Zeitalter, p. 227, third edition, 1879) likewise
accepts the tradition of Tertullian. but assumes a miraculous deliverance.
1 Rev 11:7; 13 • 1 ; 17 • 1, 8, 5. Comp. Daniel's description of the fourth
(Roman) beast, " dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly/' with "ten
horns," Dan, 7 : 7 sqq.
* Rey. 17 : 6. s 18 . 21 Comp. also 6 : 0-11.
§ 37. THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION. 387
number 666, and as being the fifth of the seven heads of the
beast which was slaughtered, but would return again from the
abyss as Antichrist. But this interpretation is uncertain, and
in no case can we attribute to John the belief that Nero would
literally rise from the dead as Antichrist. He meant only that
Nero, the persecutor of the Christian church, was (like Antio-
chus Epiphanes) the f orerunner of Antichrist, who would be
inspired by the same bloody spirit from the infernal world. In
a similar sense Home was a second Babylon, and John the Bap-
tist another Elijah.
NOTES.
I. THE ACCOUNTS OP THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION.
1. From heathen historians.
We have chiefly two accounts of the first imperial persecution, from
TACITUS, who was born about eight years before the event, and probably
survived Trajan (d. 117), and from SUETONIUS, who wrote his XII. Ccesares
a little later, about A D. 120. DION CASSIUS (born circa A D. 155), in his
History of Roine (fPo>/iac*c») 'Itrropla, preserved in fragments, and in the
abridgment of the monk Xiphilmus), from the arrival of ^Eneas to A.D
229, mentions the conflagration of Borne, but ignores the persecutions of
the Christians
The description of TACITUS is in his terse, pregnant, and graphic style,
and beyond suspicion of interpolation, but has some obscurities. We
give it in full, from AnnaL, XV. 44 :
"But not all the relief of men, nor the bounties of the emperor, nor
the propitiation of the gods, could relieve him [Nero] from the infamy
of being believed to have ordered the conflagration. Therefore, in
order to suppress the rumor, Nero falsely charged with the guilt, and
punished with the most exquisite tortures, those persons who, hated for
their crimes, were commonly called Christians (subdidit reos, et qucpsitis-
tnmispoenis affeeit, quos perflagitia invisos vulgus ' Christianas ' appellabat).
The founder of that name, Christusy had been put to death (supplicio
affectus erat) by the procurator of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, in the reign of
Tiberius ; but the pernicious superstition (exitiabihs superstttio), repressed
for a time,1 broke out again, not only through Judaea, the source of this
evil, but also through the city [of Borne], whither all things vile and
shameful flow from all quarters, and are encouraged (quo cuncia ttndique
1 This refers either to the crucifixion, or more probably to the edict of Clan-
dins, who banished the Jews and Jewish Christians from Borne. See above,
p 368.
388 • FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
atrocia aid pudenda confluunt celebranturque). Accordingly, first, those
only were arrested who confessed.1 Next, on their information, a vast
multitude (muUitudo ingens), were convicted, not so much of the crime of
incendiarism as of hatred of the human race (odio humam generis).* And
in their deaths they were made the subjects of sport ; for they were wrap-
ped in the hides of wild beasts and torn to pieces by dogs, or nailed to
crosses, or set on fire, and when day declined, were burned to serve for
nocturnal lights (in usum nocturni luminis urerentur). Nero had offered
his own gardens [on the Vatican] for this spectacle, and also exhibited a
chariot race on the occasion, now mingling in the crowd in the dress of a
charioteer, now actually holdipg the reins. Whence a feeling of com-
passion arose towards the sufferers, though justly held to be odious,
because they seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but as victims
to the ferocity of one man."
The account of SUETONIUS, Nero, c. 16, is very short and unsatisfac-
tory : "Afflicti suppb'ciis Christiani, genits hominum superstitions novoK ac
mafeficce." He does not connect the persecution with the conflagration,
but with police regulations.
JUVENAI*, the satirical poet, alludes, probably as an eye-witness, to the
persecution, like Tacitus, with mingled feelings of contempt and pity for
the Christian sufferers (Sat. I. 155) :
u Dar'st thou epeak of Tigellmus' guilt ?
Thou too shalt shine like those we saw
Stand at the stake with throat transfixed
Smoking and burning "
2. From Christians.
CLEMENT OF HOME, near the close of the first century, must refer to the
Neronian persecution when he writes of the " vast multitude of the elect "
who suffered " many indignities and tortures, being the victims of jeal-
ousy ; " and of Christian women who were made to personate " Danaides "
and " Dirces," Ad Corinth., c. 6. I have made no use of this passage in
the text. Kenan amplifies and weaves it into his graphic description of
the persecution (L'Antechrist, pp. 163 sqq , almost literally repeated in
his Hibbert Lectures). According to the legend, Dirce was bound to a
raging bull and dragged to death. The scene is represented in the famous
1 Confessed what ? Probably the Christian religion, which was already re*
garded as a sort of crime. If they confessed to be guilty of incendiarism,
they most have been either weak neophytes who could not stand the pain of
the torture, or hired scoundrels.
' This is to be understood in the active sense of the reputed enmity to man-
kind, with which Tacitus charges the Jew* also in almost the same terms
("Adoerius omnts olios hostile odium," Hist. V. 5). But Thiersoh and others
explain it of the hatred of mankind towards the Christians (oorap. Matt. 10 :
22, " Ye shall be hated of all men for my nrnme'i lake").
§ 37. THE NERONIAN PERSECUTION. 389
marble group in the mnsetun at Naples. But the Danaides can furnish
no suitable parallel to Christian martyrs, unless, as Benan suggests, Nero
had the sufferings of the Tartarus represented. Lightfoot, following
the bold emendation of Wordsworth (on Theocritus, XXVI. 1), rejects
the reading Aai/mdr r *<u A/p/cm (which is retained in all editions, includ-
ing that of Gebhardt and Harnack), and substitutes for it vtavifa r, TratdtV-
jeai, so that Clement would say : " Matrons (yvvatMs), maidens, slave-girls,
being persecuted, after suffering cruel and unholy insults, safely reached
the goal in the race of faith, and received a noble reward, feeble though
they were in body."
TEBIULMAN (d. about 220) thus alludes to the Neronian persecution,
Ad Nationes, I. ch. 7 : " This name of ours took its rise in the reign of
Augustus ; under Tiberius it was taught with all clearness and publicity ;
under Nero it was ruthlessly condemned (sub Nerone damnatio invaluit),
and you may weigh its worth and character even from the person of its
persecutor. If that prince was a pious man, then the Christians are
impious ; if he was just, if he was pure, then the Christians are unjust
and impure ; if he was not a public enemy, we are enemies of our coun-
try : what sort of men we are, our persecutor himself shows, since he of
course punished what produced hostility to himself. Now, although
every other institution which existed under Nero has been destroyed,
yet this of ours has firmly remained — righteous, it would seem, as being
unlike the author [of its persecution]."
SULPICIUS SEVEBUS, CJiron. II. 28, 29, gives a pretty full account, but
mostly from Tacitus. He and OBOSIUS (Hist. VEL 7) first clearly assert
that Nero extended the persecution to the provinces.
IE. NERO'S RETURN AS ANTICHRIST.
Nero, owing to his youth, beauty, dash, and prodigality, and the start-
ling novelty of his wickedness (Tacitus calls him " incredibilinm cupitor"
Ann. XV. 42), enjoyed a certain popularity with the vulgar democracy of
Rome. Hence, after his suicide, a rumor spread among the heathen
that he was not actually dead, but had fled to the Parthians, and would
return to Rome with an army and destroy the city. Three impostors
under his name used this belief and found support during the reigns of
Otho, Titus, and Domitian. Even thirty years later Domitian trembled
at the name of Nero. Tacit., Hist. I. 2 ; H 8, 9 ; Sueton., Ner. 57 ; Dio
Cassius, LXJY. 9 ; Schiller, /. c., p. 288.
Among the Christians the rumor assumed a form hostile to Nero.
Lactantius (De Mori. Persecut., c. 2) mentions the Sibylline saying that,
as Nero was the first persecutor, he would also be the last, and precede
the advent of Antichrist. Augustin (De Ctvit. Dei, XX. 19) mentions
that at his time two opinions were still current in the church about Nero :
some supposed that he would rise from the dead as Antichrist, others
390 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
that he was not dead, but concealed, and would live until he should be
revealed and restored to his kingdom. The former is the Christian, the
latter the heathen belief. Augustin rejects both. Sulpicius Severns
(Chron., II. 29; also mentions the belief (unde creditur) that Nero, whose
deadly wound was healed, would return at the end of the world to work
out " the mystery of lawlessness " predicted by Paul (2 Thess. 2 : 7).
Some commentators make the Apocalypse responsible for this absurd
rumor and false belief, while others hold that the writer shared it with
his heathen contemporaries. The passages adduced are ch. 17 : 8 : " The
beast was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go
into perdition " . . . " the beast was, and is not, and shall be present "
(«ii irdpco-Tat, not Kaincp cWc'?, " and yet is," as the E. V. reads with the
text, rec.) ; 17 . 11 . " And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also
an eighth, and is of the seven ; and he goeth into perdition ; " and 13 : 3 :
" And I saw one of his heads as though it had been smitten unto death ;
and his death-stroke was healed • and the whole world wondered after
the beast."
But this is said of the beast, i e., the Roman empire, which is through-
out cleaily distinguished from the seven heads, i. e , the emperors In
Daniel, too, the beast is collective. Moreover, a distinction must be
made between the death of one ruler (Nero) and the deadly wound which
thereby was inflicted on the beast or tho empire, but from which it re-
covered (under Vespasian).
§ 38. Tlie Jewish War and the Destruction of Jerusalem.
A.D. 70.
"And as He went forth out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto
Him, Master, behold, what manner of stones and what manner of buildings I
And Jesus said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There tshall not
be left here one stone upon anotfwr, which shall not be thrown down" — Mark
13 : 1, 2
Sources.
JOSEPHUS : Bell Jud., in 7 books ; and Vita, c. 4-74. The history of the
Jewish war was written by him as eye-witness about A.D 75 English
translations by W. WHTSTON, in Works of Jos., and by BOB TRAILL,
ed. by Isaac Taylor, new ed., Lond., 1862. German translations by
GFBOBEB and W. HOFFMANN, Stuttgart, 1836 ; and PABET, Stuttg.,
1855; French translations by ABNAULD D'ANDLLLY, 1667, JOACHIM
GILLET, 1756, and AbbC GLAIBB, 1846
Rabbinical traditions in DEBKNBOURG: Htstoire de la Palestine depuis
Cyrus jusqu'd Adrien. Paris, 1867 (first part of his L'Histoire et la
geographic de la Palestine cTapres Us Thalmuds et les autoes source*
rabbiniques), pp. 255-295.
§ 38. THE JEWISH WAS. 391
TACITUS : Hist., TL 4 ; V. 1-13. A mere fragment, fall of errors and in-
sults towards the vanquished Jews. The fifth book, except this
fragment, is lost. While Josephus, the Jew, is filled with admiration
for the power and greatness of Home, Tacitus, the heathen, treats
Jews and Christians with scorn and contempt, and prefers to derive
his information from hostile Egyptians and popular prejudice rather
than from the Scriptures, and Philo, and Josephus.
SULPICIUS SEVERUS : Chronicon, IL 30 (p. 84, ed. Halm). Short.
Literature.
MTLMAN : The History of the Jews, Books XIV.-XVII. (New York ed.,
vol. IL, 219 sqq.).
EWALD . Geschichte des Volkes Israel, VI. 705-753 (second ed.).
GKATZ : Geschichte der Juden, in. 336-414.
HITZIG : Geschichte des Volkes Israel, H. 594-629.
LBWIN : Tlie Siege of Jerusalem by Titus. With the Journal of a recent
Visit in the Holy City, and a general Sketch of tJie Topography of Jeru-
salem from the Earliest Times doum to the Siege London, 1863.
COUNT DE CHAHPAGNY Rome et la Judee an temps de la chute de Neron
(ans 66-72 apres Jesus- Christ), 2. eU, Pans, 1865. T. I., pp. 195-
254 ; T. II , pp. 55-200
CHARLES MERIVALE : History of the Romans under the Empire, ch. LTX.
(vol VI , 415 sqq., 4th ed , New York, 1866).
DE SAULCT : Les demiers jours de Jerusalem. Paris, 1866.
E. KENAN . UAntechrist (ch. X -XX , pp. 226-551). Paris, second ed.,
1873
EMIL SCHUREB : Lehrbuch der Neutestamenthchen Zeitgeschichte (Leipzig,
1874;, pp. 323-350. He also gives the literature.
A. HAUSRATH : Neutestamenthclie Zeitgeschichte, Part III., second ed.,
Heidelberg, 1875, pp 424 487.
ALFRED J. CHURCH . The Story of the Last Days of Jerusalem, from Jose-
phus. With illustrations. London, 1880.
There is scarcely another period in history so full of vice,
corruption, and disaster as the six years between the Neronian
persecution and the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophetic
despription of the last days by our Lord began to be fulfilled
before the generation to which he spoke had passed away, and
the day of judgment seemed to be close at hand. So the Chris-
tians believed arid had good reason to believe. Even to earned
heathen minds that period looked as dark as midnight. We
have elsewhere quoted Seneca's picture of the frightful moral
392 FIBST PEBIOD. A.D. 1-100.
depravity and decay under the reign of Nero, his pupil and
murderer. Tacitus begins his history of Rome after the death
of Nero with these words: " I proceed to a work rich in disas-
ters, full of atrocious battles, of discord and rebellion, yea, hor-
rible even in peace. Four princes [Galba, Otho, Vitellius,
Doinitian] killed by the sword ; three civil wars, several foreign
wars ; and mostly raging at the same time. Favorable events
in the East [the subjugation of the Jews], unfortunate ones in
the West. Illyria disturbed, Gaul uneasy ; Britain conquered
and soon relinquished ; the nations of Sarmatia and Suevia rising
against us ; the Parthians excited by the deception of a pseudo-
Nero. Italy also weighed down by new or oft-repeated calami-
ties ; cities swallowed up or buried in ruins ; Rome laid waste
by conflagrations, the old temples burned up, even the capitol
set on fire by citizens ; sanctuaries desecrated ; adultery rampant
in high places. The sea filled with exiles ; the rocky islands
contaminated with murder. Still more horrible the fury in the
city. Nobility, riches, places" of honor, whether declined or
occupied, counted as crimes, and virtue sure of destruction. " *
THE APPROACHING DOOM.
The most unfortunate country in that period was Palestine,
where an ancient and venerable nation brought upon itself un-
speakable suffering and destruction. The tragedy of Jerusalem
prefigures in miniature the final judgment, and in this light it
is represented in the eschatological discourses of Christ, who
foresaw the end from the beginning.
The forbearance of God with his covenant people, who had
crucified their own Saviour, reached at last its limit. As many
as could be saved in the usual way, were rescued. The mass of
the people had obstinately set themselves against all improve-
ment. James the Just, the man who was fitted, if any could
be, to reconcile the Jews to the Christian religion, had been
stoned by his hardened brethren, for whom he daily interceded
» Hut. I. a 2.
§ 38. THE JEWISH WAR. 393
In the temple ; and with him the Christian community in Jeru-
salem had lost its importance for that city. The hour of the
"great tribulation" and fearful judgment drew near. The
prophecy of the Lord approached its literal fulfilment : Jerusa-
lem was razed to the ground, the temple burned, and not one
stone was left upon another.1
Not long before the outbreak of the Jewish war, seven years
before the siege of Jerusalem (A.D. 63), a peasant by the name
of Joshua, or Jesus, appeared in the city at the Feast of Taberna-
cles, and in a tone of prophetic ecstasy cried day and night on
the street among the people : " A voice from the morning, a
voice from the evening ! A voice from the four winds ! A
voice of rain aga;nst Jerusalem and the Temple! A voice
against the bridegrooms and the brides ! A voice against the
whole people ! Woe, woe to Jerusalem ! " The magistrates, ter-
rified by this woe, had the prophet of evil taken up and scourged,
lie offered no resistance, and continued to cry his " Woe." Be-
ing brought before the procurator, Albinus, he was scourged
till his bones could be seen, but interposed not a word for him-
self; uttered no curse on his enemies; simply exclaimed at
every blow in a mournful tone : " Woe, woe to Jerusalem ! "
To the governor's question, who and whence he was, Jie answered
nothing. Finally they let him go, as a madman. But he con-
tinued for seven years and five months, till the outbreak of the
war, especially at the three great feasts, to proclaim the ap-
proaching fall of Jerusalem. During the siege he was singing
his dirge, for the last time, from the wall. Suddenly he added :
" Woe, woe also to me ! " — and a stone of the Romans hurled
at his head put an end to his prophetic lamentation.*
THE JEWISH REBELLION.
Under the last governors, Felix, Festus, Albinus, and Floras,
moral corruption and the dissolution of all social ties, but at the
same time the oppressiveness of the Roman yoke, increased every
'Matt 24:1,2; Mark 13:1; Luke 19 : 43, 44 ; 21:6.
* JOB , B. Jud , VL 5, 3 eqq.
394 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
year. After the accession of Felix, assassins, called "Sicari
ans " (from sica, a dagger), armed with daggers and purchasable
for any crime, endangering safety in city and country, roamed
over Palestine. Besides this, the party spirit among the Jews
themselves, and their hatred of their heathen oppressors, rose
to the most insolent political and religious fanaticism, and was
continually inflamed by false prophets and Messiahs, one of
whom, for example, according to Josephus, drew after him thirty
thousand men. Thus came to pass what our Lord had predicted :
" There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall
lead many astray."
At last, in the month of May, A.D. 66, under the last procu-
rator, Gessius Florus (from 65 onward), a wicked and cruel
tyrant who, as Josephus says, was placed as a hangman over
evil-doers, an organized rebellion broke out against the Romans,
but at the same time a terrible civil war also between different
parties of the revolters themselves, especially between the Zeal-
ots and the Moderates, or the Radicals and Conservatives. The
ferocious party of the Zealots had all the fire and energy which
religious and patriotic fanaticism could inspire ; they have been
justly compared with the Montagnards of the French Revolu-
tion. They gained the ascendancy in the progress of the war,
took forcible possession of the city and the temple and intro-
duced a reign of terror. They kept up the Messianic expecta-
tions of the people and hailed every step towards destruction as
a step towards deliverance. Reports of comets, meteors, and
all sorts of fearful omens and prodigies were interpreted as
signs of the coming of the Messiah and his reign over the hea-
then. The Romans recognized the Messiah in Vespasian and
Titus.
To defy Rome in that age, without a single ally, was to defy
the world in arms ; but religious fanaticism, inspired by the re-
collection of the heroic achievements of the Maccabees, blinded
the Jews against the inevitable failure of this mad and desperate
revolt
§ 38. THE JEWISH WAB.
THE ROMAN INVASION.
The emperor Nero, informed of the rebellion, sent his most
famous general, Vespasian, with a large force to Palestine
PLAN
ANCIENT JERUSALE
Bade of Yard*
Vespasian opened the campaign in the year 67 from the Syrian
port-town, Ptolemais (Acco), and against a stont resistance over-
ran Galilee with an army of sixty thousand men. But events
396 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
in Kome hindered him from completing the victory, and re-
quired him to return thither. Nero had killed himself. The
emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius followed one another iu
rapid succession. The latter was taken out of a dog's kennel in
Rome while drunk, dragged through the streets, and shamefully
put to death. Vespasian, in the year 69, was universally pro-
claimed emperor, and restored order and prosperity.
His son, Titus, who himself ten years after became emperor,
and highly distinguished himself by his mildness and philan-
thropy,1 then undertook the prosecution of the Jewish war, and
became the instrument in the hand of God of destroying the holy
city and the temple. He had an army of not less than eighty
thousand trained soldiers, and planted his camp on Mount Scopus
»ind the adjoining Mount Olivet, in full view of the city and the
temple, which from this height show to the best advantage. The
valley of the Kedron divided the besiegers from the besieged.
In April, A.D. 70, immediately after the Passover, when Jeru-
salem was filled with strangers, the siege began. The zealots re-
jected, with sneering defiance, the repeated proposals of Titus
und the prayers of Josephus, who accompanied him as interpreter
and mediator ; and they struck down every one who spoke of sur-
render. They made sorties down the valley of the Kedron and
up the mountain, and inflicted great loss on the Romans. As
the difficulties multiplied their courage increased. The cruci-
fixion of hundreds of prisoners (as many as five hundred a day)
only enraged them the more. Even the famine which began
to rage and sweep away thousands daily, and forced a woman
to roast her own child,* the cries of mothers and babes, the most
1 The people called him Amor et DeJicfa generis humani. He was born De-
cember 30, A.D. 40, and died September 13, 81. He ascended the throne 79,
ID the >ear when the towns of Here ulane urn, Stabiae, and Pompeii were de-
stroyed His reign was marked by a series of terrible calamities, among
which was a conflagration in Borne which lasted three days, and a plague
which destroyed thousands of victims daily. He made earnest efforts to
repair the injuries, and used to say, when a day passed without an act of
philanthropy, "Amiei, diem perdidi." See Suetonius, Titus.
* Josephus, YI. 3, 4, gives a full account of this horrible and most unnatu-
ral incident*
§ 38. THE JEWISH WAR. 397
pitiable scenes of misery around them, could not move the crazy
fanatics. History records no other instance of such obstinate
resistance, such desperate bravery and contempt of death. The
Jews fought, not only for civil liberty, life, and their native
land, but for that which constituted their national pride and
glory, and gave their whole history its significance— for their
religion, which, even in this state of horrible degeneracy, infused
into them an almost superhuman power of endurance.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY AND THE TEMPLE.
At last, in July, the castle of Antonia was surprised and taken
by night. This prepared the way for the destruction of the
Temple in which the tragedy culminated. The daily sacrifices
ceased July 17th, because the hands were all needed for defence.
The last and the bloodiest sacrifice at the altar of burnt offer-
ings was the slaughter of thousands of Jews who had crowded
around it.
Titus (according to Josephus) intended at first to save that
magnificent work of architecture, as a trophy of victory, and
perhaps from some superstitious fear; and when the flames
threatened to reach the Holy of Holies he forced his way
through flame and smoke, over the dead and dying, to arrest the
fire.1 But the destruction was determined by a higher decree.
His own soldiers, roused to madness by the stubborn resist-
ance, and greedy of the golden treasures, could not be restrained
trom the work of destruction. At first the halls around the
1 Josephns is, however, not quite consistent ; he says first that Titus, per-
ceiving that his endeavors to spare a foreign temple turned to the damage of
his soldiers, commanded the gates to be set on fire (VI. 4, 1) ; and then, that
on the next day he gave orders to extinguish it (§ 3, 6, and 37). Sulpicius
Severus (II. 30) makes Titus responsible for the destruction, who thought
that it would make an end both to the Jewish and the Christian religion.
This is defended by Stange, De Titi imperatoris vita, P. I., 1870, pp. 39-43,
but doubted by Schiirer, 1. c p. 346. Renan (511 sqq ), following Bernays,
Ueber die Chronik des Sulpicius Scv., 1861, p. 48, believes that Sulpiciua drew
his account from the lost portion of the Histories of Tacitus, and that Titus
neither ordered nor forbade the burning of the Temple, but left it to its fate,
with a prudent reservation of his motives. So also Thiersch, p. 224.
398 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
temple were set on fire. Then a firebrand was hurled through
the golden gate. When the flames arose the Jews raised a
hideous yell and tried to put out the fire ; while others, clinging
with a last convulsive grasp to their Messianic hopes, rested in
the declaration of a false prophet, that God in the midst of the
conflagration of the Temple would give a signal for the deliver-
ance of his people. The legions vied with each other in feed-
ing the flames, and made the unhappy people feel the full force
of their unchained rage. Soon the whole prodigious structure
was in a blaze and illuminated the skies. It was burned on the
tenth of August, A.D. 70, the same day of the year on which,
according to tradition, the first temple was destroyed by Nebu-
chadnezzar. " No one," says Josephus, " can conceive a louder,
more terrible shriek than arose from all sides during the burn-
ing of the temple. The shout of victory and the jubilee of the
legions sounded through the wailings of the people, now sur-
rounded with fire and sword, upon the mountain, and throughout
the city. The echo from all the mountains around, even to
Persea (?), increased the deafening roar. Yet the misery itself
was more terrible than this disorder. The hill on which the
temple stood was seething hot, and seemed enveloped to its base
in one sheet of flame. The blood was larger in quantity than
the fire, and those that were slain more in number than those
that slew them. The ground was nowhere visible. All was
covered with corpses ; over these heaps the soldiers pursued the
fugitives." *
The Romans planted their eagles on the shapeless ruins, over
against the eastern gate, offered their sacrifices to them, and
proclaimed Titus Imperator with the greatest acclamations of
joy. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy concerning the abomina-
tion of desolation standing in the holy place." *
Jerusalem was razed to the ground ; only three towers of the
palace of Herod — Hippicus (still standing), Phasael, and Mari-
1 B. J,V1 5,1.
* Daniel, 9 : 27 ; Matt. 24 : 15 ; oomp. Luke 21 : 20 ; Joaephua, B. Jud., VL
§ 38. THE JEWISH WAB. 399
&mne — together with a portion of the western wall, were left as
monuments of the strength of the conquered city, once the cen-
tre of the Jewish theocracy and the cradle of the Christian
Church.
Even the heathen Titus is reported to have publicly declared
that God, by a special providence, aided the Romans and drove
the Jews from their impregnable strongholds.1 Josephus, who
went through the war himself from beginning to end, at first as
governor of Galilee and general of the Jewish army, then as a
prisoner of Vespasian, finally as a companion of Titus and
mediator between the Romans and Jews, recognized in this
tragical event a divine judgment and admitted of his degener-
ate countrymen, to whom he was otherwise sincerely attached :
" I will not hesitate to say what gives me pain : I believe that,
had the Romans delayed their punishment of these villains, the
city would have been swallowed up by the earth, or overwhelmed
with a flood, or, like Sodom, consumed with fire from heaven.
For the generation which was in it was far more ungodly than
the men on whom these punishments had in former times fallen.
By their madness the whole nation came to be ruined." a
Thus, therefore, must one of the best Roman emperors exe-
cute the long threatened judgment of God, and the most learned
Jew of his time describe it, and thereby, without willing or
knowing it, bear testimony to the truth of the prophecy and the
divinity of the mission of Jesus Christ, the rejection of whom
brought all this and the subsequent misfortune upon the apos-
tate race.
The destruction of Jerusalem would be a worthy theme for
the genius of a Christian Homer. It has been called "the
most soul-stirring struggle of all ancient history." * But there
was no Jeremiah to sing the funeral dirge of the city of David
and Solomon. The Apocalypse was already written, and had
predicted that the heathen " shall tread the holy city under foot
1 B Jud., VI. 9, 1. Titus is said to have approved such passages (Jos. Vita,
65).
* B. Jud., V. 13, 6. • Merivale, I <?., p. 445.
400 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
forty and two months." * One of the master artists of modern
times, Kaulbach, has made it the subject of one of his greatest
paintings in the museum at Berlin. It represents the burning
temple : in the foreground, the high-priest burying his sword in
his breast ; around him, the scenes of heart-rending suffering ;
above, the ancient prophets beholding the fulfilment of their
oracles ; beneath them, Titus with the Roman army as the un-
conscious executor of the Divine wrath ; below, to the left,
Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew of the mediaeval legend, driven
by furies into the undying future ; and to the right the group of
Christians departing in peace from the scene of destruction, and
Jewish children imploring their protection.
THE FATE OF THE SURVIVORS, AND THE TRIUMPH IN HOME.
After a siege of five months the entire city was in the hands
of the victors. The number of the Jews slain during the siege,
including all those who had crowded into the city from the
country, is stated by Josephus at the enormous and probably
exaggerated figure of one million and one hundred thousand.
Eleven thousand perished from starvation shortly after the clobe
of the siege. Ninety-seven thousand were carried captive and
sold into slavery, or sent to the mines, or sacrificed in the gladia-
torial shows at Caesarea, Berytus, Antioch, and other cities. The
strongest and handsomest men were selected for the triumphal
procession in Rome, among them the chief defenders and leaders
of the revolt, SIMON BAK-GIORA and JOHN OF GISOHALA. f
Vespasian and Titus celebrated the dearly bought victory to-
gether (71). No expense was spared for the pageant. Crowned
with laurel, and clothed in purple garments, the two conquerors
1 Apoc. 11:2; oomp Luke, 21:24. In Don. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7, the
duration of the oppression of the Jewish people is given as seven half -years
(= 42 months).
9 B Jud VI. 9, 2-4. Milman (II. 888) sums up the scattered statement*
of Josephus, and makes out the total number of killed, from the beginning to
the close of the war, to be 1,856,460, and the total number of prisoners
101,700.
§ 38. THE JEWISH WAR. 401
rode slowly in separate chariots, Domitian on a splendid charger,
to the temple of Jupiter CapitolimiSj amid the shouts of the peo-
ple and the aristocracy. They were preceded by the soldiers in
festive attire and seven hundred Jewish captives. The images
of the gods, and the sacred furniture of the temple — the table
of show-bread, the seven-armed candlestick, the trumpets which
announced the year of jubilee, the vessel of incense, and the rolls
of the Law — were borne along in the procession and deposited in
the newly built Temple of Peace,1 except the Law and the pur-
ple veils of the holy place, which Vespasian reserved for his
palace. Simon Bar-Giora was thrown down from the Tarpeian
Ilock; John of Gischala doomed to perpetual imprisonment.
Coins were cast with the legend Judasa, ca/ptay JudcBa devicta.
But neither Vespasian nor Titus assumed the victorious epithet
Judwus / they despised a people which had lost its father-
land.
Josephus saw the pompous spectacle of the humiliation and
wholesale crucifixion of his nation, and described it without a
tear.8 The thoughtful Christian, looking at the representation
of the temple f urniture borne by captive Jews on the triumphal
arch of Titus, still standing between the Colosseum and the
Forum, is filled with awe at the fulfilment of divine prophecy.
The conquest of Palestine involved the destruction of the
Jewish commonwealth. Vespasian retained the land as his pri-
vate property or distributed it among his veterans. The people
were by the five years' war reduced to extreme poverty, and left
1 The Temple of Peace was afterwards burned under Commodns, and it is
not known what became of the Racred furniture.
1 B Jud.* VII. 5, 5-7. Josephus was richly rewarded for his treachery.
Vespasian gave him a house in Rome, an annual pension, the Roman citizen-
ship, and large possessions in Judaea. Titus and Domitian continued the
favors But his countrymen embittered his life and cursed his memory. Jost
and other Jewish historians speak of him with great contempt King Agrippa
the last of the Idumaean sovereigns, lived and died an humble and contented
vassal of Rome, in the third year of Trajan. A D 100 Hi* licentious sister,
Berenice, narrowly escaped the fate of a second Cleopatra The conquering
Titus was conquered by her sensual charms and desired to raise her to th«
Imperial throne, but the public dissatisfaction forced him to dismiss her,
"tnvitu* intritam " Suet., Tit. 7. Comp. Sohiirer, J. cT 321, 823.
402 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
without a magistrate (in the Jewish sense), without a temple,
without a country. The renewal of the revolt under the false
Messiah, Bar-Cocheba, led only to a still more complete destruc-
tion of Jerusalem and devastation of Palestine by the army of
Hadrian (132-135). But the Jews still had the law and the
prophets and the sacred traditions, to which they cling to this
day with indestructible tenacity and with the hope of a great
future. Scattered over the earth, at home everywhere and no-
where; refusing to mingle their blood with any other race,
dwelling in distinct communities, marked as a peculiar people in
every feature of the countenance, in every rite of religion;
patient, sober, and industrious ; successful in every enterprise,
prosperous in spite of oppression, ridiculed yet feared, robbed
yet wealthy, massacred yet springing up again, they have out-
lived the persecution of centuries and are likely to continue to
live to the end of time : the object of the mingled contempt,
admiration, and wonder of the world.
§ 39. Effects of the Destruction of Jerusalem on the Christian
CJiurch.
The Christians of Jerusalem, remembering the Lord's admo-
nition, forsook the doomed city in good time and fled to the
town of Pella in the Decapolis, beyond the Jordan, in the north
of Persea, where king Herod Agrippa II., before whom Paul
once stood, opened to them a safe asylum. An old tradition
says that a divine voice or angel revealed to their leaders the
duty of flight.1 There, in the midst of a population chiefly Gen-
tile, the church of the circumcision was reconstructed. Unfor-
tunately, its history is hidden from us. But it never recovered
its former importance. When Jerusalem was rebuilt as a
Christian city, its bishop was raised to the dignity of one of the
four patriarchs of the East, but it was a patriarchate of honor,
1 1n Enaehius, H JEl, III. 5 : KOTO* nra XW&r rot* afafet ftoicfpotr 8t* feroira-
Xty««* {*8a&fVra. Comp. Epiphnnros, Depond et mas o 15, and the warning
of Christ, Matt 24- 15 sq EURPDIIIB ptitn the fl ?ht to Pella before the war
or four years before the detraction of Jerusalem.
§ 39. EFFECTS OF DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 403
not of power, and sank to a mere shadow after the Mohan*
medan invasion.
The awful catastrophe of the destruction of the Jewish theoc-
racy must have produced the profoundest sensation among the
Christians, of which we now, in the absence of all particular in-
formation respecting it, can hardly form a true conception.1 It
was the greatest calamity of Judaism and a great benefit to
Christianity ; a refutation of the one, a vindication and emanci-
pation of the other. It not only gave a mighty impulse to faith,
but at the same time formed a proper epoch in the history of
the relation between the two religious bodies. It separated them
forever. It is true the apostle Paul had before now inwardly
completed this separation by the Christian universality of his
whole system of doctrine ; but outwardly he had in various ways
accommodated himself to Judaism, and had more than once
religiously visited the temple. He wished not to appear as a
revolutionist, nor to anticipate the natural course of history,
the ways of Providence.* But now the rupture was also out-
wardly consummated by the thunderbolt of divine omnipotence.
God himself destroyed the house, in which he had thus far dwelt,
in which Jesus had taught, in which the apostles had prayed ; he
rejected his peculiar people for their obstinate rejection of the
Messiah ; he demolished the whole fabric of the Mosaic theocracy,
whose system of worship was, in its very nature, associated ex-
clusively with the tabernacle at first and afterwards with the tem-
ple ; but in so doing he cut the cords which had hitherto bound,
and according to the law of organic development necessarily bound
the infant church to the outward economy of the old covenant,
and to Jerusalem as its centre. Henceforth the heathen could
no longer look upon Christianity as a mere sect of Judaism, but
must regard and treat it as a new, peculiar religion. The de-
struction of Jerusalem, therefore, marks that momentous crisis
at which the Christian church as a whole burst forth forever
from the chrysalis of Judaism, awoke to a sense of its maturity,
1 It is alluded to in the Ep of Barnabas, cap 16.
* Comp. 1 Con 7 . 18 sqq. ; Acts 21 . 26 sqq.
404 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and in government and worship at once took its independent
ftand before the world.1
This breaking away from hardened Judaism and its religious
forms, however, involved no departure from the spirit of the
Old Testament revelation. The church, on the contrary, en-
tered into the inheritance of Israel. The Christians appeared
as genuine Jews, as spiritual children of Abraham, who, follow-
ing the inward current of the Mosaic religion, had found Him,
who was the fulfilment of the law and the prophets ; the per-
fect fruit of the old covenant and the living germ of the new ;
the beginning and the principle of a new moral creation.
It now only remained to complete the consolidation of the
church in this altered state of things ; to combine the premises
in their results ; to take up the conservative tendency of Peter
and the progressive tendency of Paul, as embodied respectively
in the Jewish-Christian and the Gentile-Christian churches, and
to fuse them into a third and higher tendency in a permanent
organism ; to set forth alike the unity of the two Testaments in
diversity, and their diversity in unity ; and in this way to wind
up the history of the apostolic church.
This was the work of John, the apostle of completion.
1 Dr Richard Rothe (Die Anfdnge der Christt Kirche, p. 341 sqq ). Thiersch
(p. 225), Ewald (VII. 26), Renan (L'Anlechr., p. 545), and Lightf oot ( Gal , p.
301) ascribe the same significance to the destruction of Jerusalem. Ewald
says: "As by one great irrevocable stroke the Christian congregation was
separated from the Jewish, to which it had heretofore clung as a new, vigor-
ous offshoot to the root of the old tree and as the daughter to the mother "
He also quotes the newly discovered letter of Serapion, written about 75, as
showing the effect which the destruction of Jerusalem exerted on thoughtful
minds. See above, p. 171.
406 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHAPTER VII.
ST JOHN, AND THE LAST STADIUM OP THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD.
THE CONSOLIDATION OP JEWISH AND GENTILE CHRISTIANITY.
Kol 6 \6yos <r&/>( $y*vtro icol ^r/dyvoxrex iv Tf^iV, real
—John 1 : 14.
§ 40. TJie Johanne<m Literature.
I. SOITBCES.
1. The Gospel, Epistle*, and Revelation of JOHN. The notices of John in
the Synoptical Gospels, in the Acts, and in Gal. 2 : 9. (See th«
passages in Young's Analytical Concordance )
2. Patristic traditions. IRENJBUS: Adv. Haer. II. 22, 5 (John lived to
the age of Trajan) , III 1, 1 (John at Ephesus) ; III 3, 4 (John and
Cennthus) , V 30, 3 (John and the Apocalypse) CLEMENS ALEX :
Qms dives salvus, c 42 (John and the young robber) POLYCEATES
of Ephesus in Eus. Hist Eccl , III. 31 ; V. 24 (John, one of the pcyoAa
oroi^eta, and a ieptvs TO irf'raXov irt(f>oprjKa>s). TERTULLIAN Depraescr.
haer.j c 36 (the legend of John's martyrdom in Rome by being
steeped in oil, and his miraculous preservation). ECTSEBIUS Hist.
Eccl , III chs. 18, 23, 31 ; IV. 14 ; V. 24 (the paschal controversy).
JEROME : Ad Gal 6 • 10 (the last words of John) ; De vir. ill , c. 9.
AUGUSTTN T) act 124 in Evang. Joann. (Opera III. 1970, ed. Migne).
NICEPHOBUS GAL. • Hist. Eccl.9 TL. 42.
II APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS.
Ada JoTiannis, ed CONST. TISCHENDOBP, in his Acta Apost. Apocr., Lips.,
1851, pp. 266-276 Comp. Prolegg LXXIII. sqq , where the
patristic testimonies on the apocryphal Acts of John are collected
Acta Joanms9 unter Benutzung von C. v. Tischendor/'s Nachlass bear-
beitet von THEOD. ZAHN. Erlangen, 1880 (264 pages and clxxii. page*
of Introd.).
The " Acta " contain the irpafas roO . . . 'ludwov row dfoXoyov by
PROCHORUS, who professes to be one of the Seventy Disciples, one of
the Seven Deacons of Jerusalem (Acts 6 : 5), and a pupil of St.
John ; and fragments of the irrpt'odoc 'lomwou, " the Wanderings of
§ 40. THE JOHANNEAN LITERATURE. 407
John," by LEUCIUS CHARINUS, a friend and pnpil of John. The former
work is a religious romance, written about 400 years after the death
of John ; the latter is assigned by Zahn to an author in Asia Minor
before 160, and probably before 140 ; it uses the fourth as well as
the Synoptical Gospels, and so far has some apologetic value. See
p. cxlviii.
Max Bonnet, the French philologist, promises a new critical edi-
tion of the Acts of John. See E. Leroux's " Revue critique," 1880,
p. 449.
Apocalypsis Johannis, in TISCHENDOBF'S Apocalypses Apocryphce Mosu,
Esdrap, Fault, Johannis, item MancB Dormitio. Lips., 1866, pp.
70-94.
This pseud o-Johannean Apocalypse purports to have been writ-
ten shortly after the ascension of Christ, by St. John, on Mount
Tabor. It exists in MS. from the ninth century, and was first edited
by A. Birch, 1804.
On the legends of St. John comp. Mrs. JAMESON : Sacred and
Legendary Art, I. 157-172, fifth edition.
HI. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAII.
FRANCIS TRENCH : Life and Cliaracter of St. John the Evangelist. London,
1850.
DEAN STANLEY (d. 1881) Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age.
Oxford and London, 1847, third ed., 1874, pp. 234-281.
MAX KRENKEL . Der Apostel Johannes. Leipzig, 1871.
JAMBS M. MACDONALD . TJie Life and Writings of St. John. With Intro*
duction by Dean Howson. New York, 1877 (new ed. 1880).
WEIZSACKER : Das Apost. Zeitalter. 1886, pp. 493-559.
Comp. the biographical sketches in the works on the Apostolic Church,
mentioned J 20 (p. 189) ; and the Introductions to the Commen-
taries of LfrcKE, MEYER, LANOE, LUTHARDT, GODET, WESTCOTI
PLUMMER.
IV. DOCTRINAL,
The Johannean type of doctrine is expounded by NEANDER (in his work
on the Apost Age, 4th ed., 1847 ; E. transl. by Robinson, N. York,
1865, pp. 508-531) ; FROMMANN (Der Johannetsche Lehrbegnff, Leipz.,
1839) ; C. REINH. KOSTLIN (Der Lehrbegnff des Ev. und der Brief e
Johannis, Berlin, 1843) ; REUSS (Die johann. Thetdogie, in the Stras-
burg "BeitrSge zu den theol Wissenschaften," 1847, in La ThSologie
johannique, Paris, 1879, and in his Theology of the Apost. Age, 2d
ed 1860, translated from the third French ed. by ANNIE HARWOOD,
Lond. 1872-74, 2 vols.) ; SCHMID (in his Bibl. Theol. des N. T.,
Stuttg. 1853) ; BAUR (in Vorlesungen uberN. T. Theol. t Leipz. 1864);
408 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
HILQUNFELD (1849 and 1863) ; B. WEBSS (Der Johanneische Lehrbegrif,
Berlin, 1862, and in his BibL Theol des N. T.t 4th ed. 1884). There
are also special treatises on John's Logos-doctrine and Ghristology
by WEIZSACKEB (1862), BEXSCKLAO (1866), and others.
V. COMMENTARIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.
The Literature on the Gospel of John and its genuineness, from 1792 to
1875 (from Evanson to Luthardt), is given with unusual fulness and
accuracy by Dr. CASPAB REN& GREOORY (an American scholar), in an
appendix to his translation of LUTHABDT'S St. John, the Author of the
Fourth Gospel. Edinb. 1875, pp. 283-360. Comp. also the very
careful lists of Dr. EZBA ABBOT (down to 1869) in the article John,
Gospel of, in the Am. ed. of Smith's "Diet, of the Bible," I. 1437-
1439.
OBIOEN (d. 254) ; CHRYSOSTOM (407) ; AUGUSTIN (430) ; CYBIL OP
AUSXANDRIA (444) ; CALVIN (1564) ; LAMPE (1724, 3 vols.) ; BENGED
(Gnomon, 1752) ; LUCKE (1820, 3d ed. 18*3); OLSHAUSEX (1832, 4th
ed. by EBBABD, 1861) ; THOLUCK (1827, 7th ed 1857) ; HENGSTEN-
BEBG (1863, 2d ed. 1867 ; Eng. transl. 1865) ; LUTHARDT (1852, 2d ed.
entirely rewritten 1875 ; Eng. transl. by GREGORY, in 2 vols., and a
special volume on the Authorship of the Fourth Gospel, 1875) ;
DE WETTE-BBUCKNEB (5th ed. 1863) ; MEYER (5th and last ed. of
Meyer, 1869 ; 6th ed. by WEISS, 1880) ; EWALD (1861) ; ALFORD (6th
ed 1868 ; WOBDSWOBTH (5th ed. 1866), GODET (1865, 2 vols , 2d
ed. 1877, Eng. transl. in 3 vols. ; 3d edition, Paris, 1881, trsl. by T.
• DWIGHT, 1886) ; LANOE (as translated and enlarged by SCHAFF, N. Y.
and Edinb. 1871) ; WATKINS (in Ellicott's " N. T Com. for English
Readers," 1878) ; WEOTOOTT (in "Speaker's Commentary," 1879, and
- separately); MZLHGAN and MOULTON (in "SchafFs Popul. Com.,"
1880) ; Kism (1881) ; PLUMMBB (1881) ; THOMA (Die Genesis des Joh.-
Evangdiums, 1882) ; PAUL SGHANZ (Tubingen, 1885).
VI. SPECIAL TREATISES OK THE GENUINENESS AND CREDIBILITY OF THE
FOUBTH GOSPEL.
We have no room to give all the titles of books, or the passes in the introductions to
Commentaries, and refer to the lists of Abbot and Gregory.
a. Writers against the Genuineness :
E. EVANSON (Tlie Dissonance of the Four generally received Evan-
gelists, Gloucester, 1792). K. G. BRETSCHNEIDER (Probabiha de Ev.
et Ep. Joh. Ap. Indole et Ongine, Leips. 1820, refuted by Schott, Eich-
horn, L>\cke, and others ; retracted by the author himself in 1828).
D F. STRAUSS (in his Leben Jesu, 1835 ; withdrawn in the 3ded 1838,
but renewed in the 4th, 1840 ; and in bis Leben Jesu fur das deutache
§ 40. THE JOHANNEAN LITERATURE. 409
FoZfc, 1864) ; LUTZELBBBGBB (1840) ; BBUNO BATTEB (1840).— F. CHB.
BAUB (first in a very acute and ingenious analysis of the Gospel, in the
"Theol. Jahrbucher," of Tubingen, 1844, and again in 1847, 1848,
1853, 1855, 1859). He represents the fourth Gospel as the ripe result
of a literary development, or evolution, which proceeded, according
to the Hegelian method, from thesis to antithesis and synthesis, or
from Judaizing Petrinisin to anti-Jewish Paulinism and (pseudo-)
Johannean reconciliation. He was followed by the whole Tubingen
School; ZELLEB (1845, 1847, 1853); SOHWEGUBB (1846); HELGBNFELD
(1849, 1854, 1855, 1875) ; VOLKMAB (1870, 1876) ; SCHENKEL (1864 and
1873); HOI/TZMANN (in Schenkel's "Bibellexikon," 1871, and Ein-
leitung, 1886). — KEIM (Gesch. Jesu v. Nazara, since 1867, voL I.,
146 sqq. ; 167 sqq., and in the 3d ed. of his abridgement, 1875, p. 40) ;
HAUSBATH (1874) ; MANOOU> (in the 4th ed. of Bleek's Introd., 1886) ;
THOMA (1882). In Holland, SCHOLTEN (Leyden, 1865, and again
1871). In England, J. J. TAYIJSB (London, 1867) ; SAMUEL DAVIDSON
(in the new ed of his Introduction to the N. T., 1868, II. 323 sqq.
and 357 sqq.) ; the anonymous author of Supernatural Religion (voL
II. 251 sqq , of the 6th ed., London, 1875) ; and E. A. A. (Edwin
A Abbott, D.D., of London, in art. Gospels, "Encycl. Brit.," vol.
X , 1879, pp. 818-843).
The dates assigned to the composition of the Fourth Gospel by
these opponents vary fiom 110 to 170, but the best scholars among
them are more and more forced to retreat from 170 (Baur*s date) to
130 (Keim), or to the very beginning of the second century (110).
This is fatal to their theory ; for at that time many of the personal
friends and pupils of John must have been still living to pi event a
hteraiy fiction from being generally accepted in the church as a
genuine woik of the apostle
KEUSS (in his Theotogie johanmque, 1879, in the sixth part of his
great work, "La Bible" and in the sixth edition of his Geschichte
der heil. Schriflen JV. T., 1887, pp. 249 sqq.) leaves the question
undecided, though inclining against the Johannean authorship.
SABATTER, who had formerly defended the authenticity (in his Essai
sur les sources de la me de Jesus, 1866), follows the steps of Beuss,
and comes to a negative conclusion (in his art. Jean in Lichten-
berger's "Encycl. des Sciences Relig.," Tom. VIL, Paris, 1880, pp.
173 sqq.).
WEISSE (1836), SOHWEIZEB (1841), WEIZSACKEB (1857, 1859, 1862,
1886), HASE (in his Geschichte Jesu, 1875, while in his earlier writ-
ings he had defended the genuineness), and RENAN (1863, 1867, and
1879) admit genuine portions in the Fourth Gospel, but differ
among themselves as to the extent. Some defend the genuineness
of the discourses, but reject the miracles. Kenan, on the contrary,
favors the historical portions, but rejects the discourses of Christ, in
410 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
a special discussion in the 13th ed. of his Viede Jisus, pp. 477 sqq.
He changed his view again in his Ueglise chretienne, 1879, pp. 47
sqq. " Ce qui paratt le plus probable" he says, "cW qu'un disciple
de Papotre, depositaire deplusieurs de ses souvenirs, se crut autonse d
parler en son nom et d ecnre, mngt-cinq ou trente ana apres sa mort, c*
que ron regrettait qu'il rieut pas lui-meme fixe de son vivant" He is
disposed to ascribe the composition to the "Presbyter John"
(whose very existence is doubtful) and to Aristion, two Ephesian
disciples of John the Apostle. In characterizing the discourses in
the Gospel of John he shows his utter incapacity of appreciating
its spirit. MATTHEW ARNOLD (God and the Bible, p. 248) conjectures
that the Ephesian presbyters composed the Gospel with the aid of
materials furnished by John.
It should be remarked that Baur and his followers, and Renan,
while they reject the authenticity of the Fourth Gospel, strongly
defend the Johannean origin of the Apocalypse, as one of the certain
documents of the apostolic age. But Keim, by denying the whole
tradition of John's sojourn at Ephesus, destroys the foundation of
Baur's theory.
. The genuineness has been defended by the following writers :
Jos. PRIESTLEY (Unitarian, against Evanson, 1793) SCHLEIER-
MACHER and his school, especially LUCKE (1820 and 1840), BLEEK
(1846 and 1862), and DE WETTE (after some hesitation, 1837, 5th ed.,
by Bruckner, 1863). CREDNEII (1836) ; NEANDER (Leben Jesu, 1837) ;
THOLUCK (in GlaubtcurdtgLeit der evang. Geschichte, against Strausb,
1837) ; ANDREWS NORTON (Unitarian, in Evidences of the Genuine-
ness of the Gospels, 1837-1844, 3 vols., 2d ed. 1846, abridged ed ,
Boston, 1875);EfiRVRD (1845, against Baur; again 1861, 1868,
and 1880, in Herzog's " Encykl ") ; THIERSCH (1845, against Baur) ,
SCHNEIDER (1854) ; HENGSTENBERG (1863) ; Asnfe (1863) ; HOFSTEDE DE
GROOT (Basihdes, 1863 ; Germ, transl 1868) ; VAN OOSTERZEE (against
Scholten, Germ. ed. 1867 ; Engl. transl. by Hurst) ; TISCHENDORP
( Warm wurden unsere Evangehen verfasst ? 1865, 4th ed. 1866 ; also
translated into English, but very poorly) ; RIGGENBACH (1866, against
Volkmar) MEYER (Com , 5th ed. 1869) ; WEISS (6th ed of Meyer,
1880) ; LANGE (in his Leben Jesu, and in his Com., 3d ed. 1868, trans-
lated and enlarged by Schaff, 1871) ; SANDAT (AutJiorship and His-
torical Character of the Fourth Gospel, London, 1872) ; BEYSGHLAU
(in the "Studien und Kritiken" for 1874 and 1875); LUTHARDT
(2d ed 1875) ; LIGHTTOOT (in the " Contemporary Review," 1875-
1877, against Supernatural Religion) ; GEO. P. FISHER (Beginnings
of Christianity, 1877, ch. X., and art. The Fourth Gospel, in "The
Princeton Review " for July, 1881, pp. 51-84) ; GODET (Commentaire
sur rfivangile de Saint Jean, 2d ed. 1878; 3d ed. " completement
revue" vol. L, Introduction historique et antique, Paris, 1881, 376
§ 40. THE JOHANNEAN LITERATURE. 411
pages) ; WBSTCOTT (Introd. to the Gospels, 1862, 1875, and Com. 1879) ;
MoCiiELLAN ( The Four Gospels, 1875) ; MILLIGAN (in several articles
in the "Oontemp. Review" for 1867, 1868, 1871, and in his and
MOTOION'S Com., 1880) ; EZKA ABBOT (The Authorship of the Fourth
Gospel, Boston, 1880 ; republished in his Ontical Essays, Boston,
1888 ; conclusive on the external evidences, especially the important
testimony of Justin Martyr) ; GEOBGE SALMON (Historical Introd. to
the N. T., London, 1886 ; third ed. 1888, pp. 210 sqq.). See also A.
EL FBANKB: Das Alte Test, bei Johannes, Gottingen, 1885.
VJJLL. COMMENTARIES ON THE EPISTLES OP JOHN.
OECUMENIUS (1000) ; THEOPHYLACT (1071) ; LUTHER ; CALVIN ; BTJLMN-
GER ; LUCRE (3d ed. 1856) ; DE WETTE (1837, 5th ed. by BRUCKNER,
1863) ; NEANDER (1851, Engl transl. by Mrs. Conant, 1852) ; Dus-
TERDIECK 1852-1856, 2 vols ) ; HUTHER (in Meyer's Com., 1855, 4th
ed. 1880) ; F. D MAURICE (1857) ; EBRARD (in Olshausen's Com.,
1859, transl. by W B. Pope, Edmb. 1860) ; EWALD (1861) ; BRATJNE
(in Lange's Coin , 1865, Engl. ed. by Mombert, 1867) ; CANDLISH
(1866) ; ERICH HAUPT (1869, Engl. transl. by W. B. Pope, Edinb.,
1879) ; B. BOTHE (posthumous ed by K. Muhlhduser, 1879) ; W. B.
POPE (in SchaflTs Pop. Com., 1883) ; WESTCOTT (1883).
IX. COMMENTARIES ON THE APOCALYPSE OP JOHN.
BULLINQER (1535, 6th ed 1604) ; GROTTUS (1644) ; Jos. MEDE (Clavis
Apocalyptica, 1682) ; BOSSUET (B. C , 1689) ; VITRINGA (1719) ; BEN-
GEL (1740, 1746, and new ed. 1834) , HERDER (1779) ; EICHHORN
(1791) ; E P. ELLIOTT (Hvra> Apocalyptic*?, or, a Com. on the Apoc.,
5th ed , Lond., 1862, 4 vols.) ; LUCRE (1852) ; EWALD (1828 and
1862) ; ZULLIG (1834 and 1840) ; MOSES STUART (1845, 2 vols.} ; DE
WETTE (1848, 3d ed. 1862) ; ALFORD (3d ed. 1866) ; HENGSTENBERG
(1849 and 1861) ; EBRARD (1853) ; AUBERLEN (Der Prophet Darnel
und die Offenbarung Joliamu^ 1854 ; Engl. transl. by Ad. Saphir,
1856, 2d Germ ed. 1857) ; DUSTERDIECK (1859, 3d ed. 1877) ; BLEEK
(1820 and 1862) ; LUTHARDT (1861) ; VOLKMAR (1862) ; KIENLEN
(1870) ; LANGE (1871, Ain. ed , with large additions by CRAVEN,
1874) ; COWLES (1871) ; GEBHARDT (Der Lehrbegrtff der Apocalypse,
1873 ; Engl transl., The Doctrine of the Apocalypse, by J. Jefferson,
1878) ; KLIEPOTH (1874) ; LEE (1882) ; MILLIOAN (in Schaffs Internat.
Com., 1883, and in Lectures on the Revel, 1886) ; SPTTTA (1889). VOL-
TEE (1882) and VISOHEK (1886) deny the unity of the book. Yischer
makes it a Jewish Apocalypse worked over by a Christian, in spite
of the warning, 22 : 18, 19, which refutes this hypothesis.
412 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 41. Life <md Character of John.
" Volat avis sine meta,
(Juo nee vates necpropheta
Evolavit altvuB :
Tarn implenda quam implctu,
Numqiiam vidit tot secreta
Purus homopunus w
(Adam of St. Victor.)
THE MISSION OF JOHN.
Peter, the Jewish apostle of authority, and Paul, the Gentile
apostle of freedom, had done their work on earth before the de-
struction of Jerusalem — had done it for their age and for all
ages to come ; had done it, and by the influence of their writ-
ings are doing it still, in a manner that can never be superseded.
Both were master-builders, the one in laying the foundation,
the other in rearing the superstructure, of the church of Christ,
against which the gates of Hades can never prevail.
But there remained a most important additional work to be
done, a work of union and consolidation. This was reserved
for the apostle of love, the bosom-friend of Jesus, who had be-
come his most perfect reflection so far as any human being can
reflect the ideal of divine-human purity and holiness. John
was not a missionary or a man of action, like Peter and Paul.
He did little, so far as 'we know, for the outward spread of
Christianity, but all the more for the inner life and growth of
Christianity where it was already established. He has nothing
to say about the government, the forms, and rites of the visible
church (even the name does not occur in his Gospel and first Epis-
tle), but all the more about the spiritual substance of the church
— the vital union of believers with Christ and the brotherly
communion of believers among themselves. He is at once the
apostle, the evangelist, and the seer, of the new covenant. He
lived to the close of the first century, that he might erect on
the foundation and superstructure of the apostolic age the
majestic dome gilded by the light of the new heaven.
§ 41. LIFE AND CHARACTER OP JOHN. 413
He had to wait in silent meditation till the church was ripe
for his sublime teaching. This is intimated by the mysterious
word of our Lord to Peter with reference to John : " If I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? " l No doubt
the Lord did come in the terrible judgment of Jerusalem. John
outlived it personally, and his type of doctrine and character
will outlive the earlier stages of church history (anticipated
and typified by Peter and Paul) till the final coming of the
Lord. In that wider sense he tarries even till now, and his
writings, with their unexplored depths and heights still wait for
the proper interpreter. The best comes last. In the vision of
Elijah on Mount Iloreb, the strong wind that rent the moun-
tains and brake in pieces the rocks, and the earthquake, and
the fire preceded the still small voice of Jehovah.8 The owl
of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, begins its flight at twilight.
The storm of battle prepares the way for the feast of peace.
The great warrior of the apostolic age already sounded the key-
note of love which was to harmonize the two sections of Chris-
tendom ; and John only responded to Paul when he revealed
the inmost heart of the supreme being by the prof oundest of all
definitions : " God is love." *
JOHN IN THE GOSPELS.
John was a son (probably the younger son) of Zebedee and
Salome, and a brother of the elder James, who became the pro-
tomartyr of the apostles.4 He may have been about ten years
I John 21 22, 23. Milligan and Moulton in loc : " The point of contrast
between the words spoken respectively to Peter and John, is not that between
a violent death by martyrdom and a peaceful departure ; but that between
impetuous and struggling apostleship, ending in a violent death, and quiet,
thoughtful, meditative waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus, ending in a
peaceful transition to the heavenly repose. Neither Peter nor himself is to
the Evangelist a mere individual. Each is a type of one aspect of apostolio
working — of Christian witnessing for Jesus to the very end of time."
I 1 Kings 19 : 11, 12.
» 1 Cor., ch. 13 ; 1 John 4 : 8, 16.
4 The name John, from the Hebrew Ijnirn, or l}^, ie., Jehovah i$
yraeiow (oomp the German Gotthold), implied to his mind a prophecy of his
414 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
younger than Jesus, and as, according to the unanimous testi-
mony of antiquity, he lived till the reign of Trajan, i.e., till aftel
98, he must have attained an age of over ninety years. He
was a fisherman by trade, probably of Bethsaida in Galilee (like
Peter, Andrew, and Philip). His parents seem to have been in
comfortable circumstances. His father kept hired servants ; his
mother belonged to the noble band of women who followed Jesus
and supported him with their means, who purchased spices to
embalm him, who were the last at the cross and the first at the
open tomb. John himself was acquainted with the high priest,
and owned a house in Jerusalem or Galilee* into which he re-
ceived the mother of our Lord.1
He was a cousin of Jesus, according to the flesh, from his
mother, a sister of Mary.2 This relationship, together with the
enthusiasm of youth and the fervor of his emotional nature,
formed the basis of his intimacy with the Lord.
He had no rabbinical training, like Paul, and in the eyes of
the Jewish scholars he was, like Peter and the other Galilsean
disciples, an " unlearned and ignorant man." * But he passed
through the preparatory school of John the Baptist who summed
up his prophetic mission in the testimony to Jesus as the " Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world," a testimony
which he afterwards expanded in his own writings. It was this
testimony which led him to Jesus on the banks of the Jordaii
in that memorable interview of which, half a century af tei -
relation to Jesus, tbe incarnate Jehovah (com p. 12 : 41 with Isa. 6 : 1), and is
equivalent to " the disciple whom Jesus loved,1' J 3 : 23 ; 19 : 26 , 20 : 2 ; 21 : 7,
20. The Greek fathers call John 6 lirurr-hbios, the leaner on the bosom, or,
as we would say, the bosom-friend (of Jesus).
1 Mark 1 : 20 , 15 : 40 sq. ; Luke 8*3, John 19 : 27. Godet (I. 87) thinks
that his home was on the lake of Gennesareth, and accounts thus fcr hxs
absence in Jerusalem at Paul's first visit (Gal. 1 : 18, 19).
• According to the correct interpretation of John 19 : 25, that four women
(not three) are meant there, as Wieseler, Ewald, Meyer, Lange, and other
commentators now hold. The writer of the Fourth Gospel, from peculiar
delicacy, never mentions his own name, nor the name of his mother, nor
the name of the mother of our Lord , yet his mother was certainly at the
cross, according to the Synoptists, and he would not omit her.
* Acta 4 : 13,
§ 41. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN. 415
wards, he remembered the very hour.1 He was not only one of
the Twelve, but the chosen of the chosen Three. Peter stood
out more prominently before the public as the friend of the
Messiah ; John was known in the private circle as the friend of
Jesus.8 Peter always looked at the official character of Christ,
and asked what he and the other apostles should do ; John gazed
steadily at the person of Jesus, and was intent to learn what the
Master said. They differed as the busy Martha, anxious to
serve, and the pensive Mary, contented to learn. John alone,
with Peter and his brother James, witnessed the scene of the
transfiguration and of Gethsemane — the highest exaltation and
the deepest humiliation in the earthly life of our Lord. He
leaned on his breast at the last Supper and treasured those won-
derful farewell discourses in his heart for future use. He fol-
lowed him to the court of Caiaphas. He alone of all the disci-
ples was present at the crucifixion, and was intrusted by the
departing Saviour with the care of his mother. This was a
scene of unique delicacy and tenderness: the Mater dolorosa
and the beloved disciple gazing at the cross, the dying Son
and Lord uniting them in maternal and filial love. It furnishes
the type of those heaven-born spiritual relationships, which are
deeper and stronger than those of blood and interest. As John
was the last at the cross, so he was also, next to Mary Magda-
lene, the first of the disciples who, outrunning even Peter,
looked into the open tomb on the resurrection morning ; and he
first recognized the risen Lord when he appeared to the disci-
ples on the shore of the lake of Galilee.3
He seems to have been the youngest of the apostles, as he long
outlived them all ; he certainly was the most gifted and the
most favored. He had a religious genius of the highest order
— not indeed for planting, but for watering; not for outward
1 John 1 : 85-40. The commentators are agreed that the unnamed of the
two disciples is John. See my notes in Lange on the passage.
9 The well-known distinction made by Grotiua between ^lArfxpierof and
'John 20:4; 21: 7.
416 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
action and aggressive work, but for inward contemplation and
insight into the mystery of Christ's person and of eternal life in
him. Purity and simplicity of character, depth and ardor of
affection, and a rare faculty of spiritual perception and intuition,
were his leading traits, which became ennobled and consecrated
by divine grace.
There are no violent changes reported in John's history ; he
grew silently and imperceptibly into the communion of his Lord
and conformity to his example ; he was in this respect the anti-
pode of Paul. He heard more and saw more, but spoke less,
than the other disciples. He absorbed his deepest sayings,
which escaped the attention of others ; and although he himself
did not understand them at first, he pondered them in his heart
till the Holy Spirit illuminated them. His intimacy with Mary
must also have aided him in gaining an interior view of the mind
and heart of his Lord. He appears throughout as the beloved
disciple, in closest intimacy and in fullest sympathy with the
Lord.1
THE SON OF THUNDER AND THE BELOVED DISCIPLE.
There is an apparent contradiction between the Synoptic and
the Johannean picture of John, as there is between the Apoca-
lypse and the fourth Gospel ; but on closer inspection it is only
the twofold aspect of one and the same character. We have a
parallel in the Peter of the Gospels and the Peter of his Epis-
tles : the first youthful, impulsive, hasty, changeable, the other
matured, subdued, mellowed, refined by divine grace.
In the Gospel of Mark, John appears as a Son of Thunder
(Boanerges).* This surname, given to him and to his elder
1 For an ingenious comparison between John and Salome, John and James,
John and Andrew, John and Peter, John and Paul, see Lange's Cam on John,
pp 4-10 (Am. ed ).
* Mark 3 : 17. Boavripyts (as Laohmann, Tischendorf , and Tregelles read, in-
stead of Boawpycf), t.&, viol #x>rnjf. The word is usually derired from
C3n ^351 (as pronounced in the broad Galilean dialect). 1B£J means a noisg
crowd of men, but may have had the significance of thunder in Byriao
§ 41. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN. 417
brother by our Saviour, was undoubtedly an epithet of honor
and foreshadowed his future mission, like the name Peter given
to Simon. Thunder to the Hebrews was the voice of God.1 It
conveys the idea of ardent temper, great strength and vehem-
ence of character whether for good or for evil, according to the
motive and aim. The same thunder which terrifies does also
purify the air and fructify the earth with its accompanying
showers of rain. Fiery temper under the control of reason and
in the service of truth is as great a power of construction as the
same temper, uncontrolled and misdirected, is a power of destruc-
tion. John's burning zeal and devotion needed only discipline
and discretion to become a benediction and inspiration to the
church in all ages.
In their early history the sons of Zebedee misunderstood the
difference between the law and the gospel, when, in an outburst
of holy indignation against a Samaritan village which refused
to receive Jesus, they were ready, like Elijah of old, to call con-
suming fire from heaven.9 But when, some years afterwards,
John went to Samaria to confirm the new converts, he called
down upon them the fire of divine life and light, the gift of the
Holy Spirit* The same mistaken zeal for his Master was at the
bottom of his intolerance towards those who performed a good
work in the name of Christ, but outside of the apostolic circle.4
The desire of the two brothers, in which their mother shared,
Robinson derives it from tt\ which means tumult, alarm, and is used of the
roaring noise of thunder, Job 37 : 2 The usual Hebrew word for thunder is
D?} (Ps 77 : 19 ; 81 : 8 ; Job 26 : 14). This name completely dispels the
popular notion of John. " NtcJiti," says Hilgenf eld (Einleit., p. 893), "stimmt
tu den tynoptiiehen Evangctitn weniger als jcnes m&dchenJiafte JoTumnedritd,
<0«fe//«* untcr uns gangbar geworden irt." Gomp. Godet's remarks at the dose
of this section.
1 "The Lord thundered with a great thunder;'9 "The Lord shall send
thunder and rain.1' See Ex. 9 .23; 1 Sam. 7: 10; 12: 17, 18; Job 26: 14;
Ps. 77:18; 81:7; 104:7; Isa 29:6, etc.
* Luke 9 : 54-56. Some commentators think that this incident suggested
the giving of the name Boanerges ; but that would make it an epithet of <
•ore, which the Lord would certainly not fasten upon his beloved disciple,
* Acts 8 : 14-17.
4 Mark 9: 38-40; oomp. Luke 9 : 49, 50.
418 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
for the highest positions in the Messianic kingdom, likewise re*
veals both their strength and their weakness, a noble ambition
to be near Christ, though it be near the fire and the sword, yet
an ambition that was not free from selfishness and pride, which
deserved the rebuke of our Lord, who held up before them the
prospect of the baptism of blood.1
All this is quite consistent with the writings of John. lie
appears there by no means as a soft and sentimental, but as a
positive and decided character. He had no doubt a sweet and
lovely disposition, but at the same time a delicate sensibility,
ardent feelings, and strong convictions. These traits are by no
means incompatible. He knew no compromise, no division of
loyalty. A holy fire burned within him, though he was moved
in the deep rather than on the surface. In the Apocalypse,
the thunder rolls loud and mighty against the enemies of
Christ and his kingdom, while on the other hand there are
in the same book episodes of rest and anthems of peace and
joy, and a description of the heavenly Jerusalem, which could
have proceeded only from the beloved disciple. In the Gospel
and the Epistles of John, we feel the same power, only sub-
dued and restrained. He reports the severest as well as the
sweetest discourses of the Saviour, according as he speaks to the
enemies of the truth, or in the circle of the disciples. No
other evangelist gives us such a profound inside-view of the an-
tagonism between Christ and the Jewish hierarchy, and of the
growing intensity of that hatred which culminated in the bloody
counsel ; no apostle draws a sharper line of demarcation between
light and darkness, truth and falsehood, Christ and Antichrist,
than John. His Gospel and Epistles move in these irreconcila-
ble antagonisms. He knows no compromise between God and
Baal. With what holy horror does he speak of the traitor, and
the rising rage of the Pharisees against their Messiah ! How
severely does he, in the words of the Lord, attack the unbeliev-
ing Jews with their murderous designs, as children of the devil !
And, in his Epistles, he terms every one who dishonors his
1 Matt 20: 30-24 ; oomp. Mark 10 : 85-41.
§ 41. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN. 419
Christian profession a liar ; every one who hates his brother a
murderer ; every one who wilfully sins a child of the devil ;
and he earnestly warns against teachers who deny the mystery
of the incarnation, as Antichrists, and he forbids even to salute
them.1 The measure of his love of Christ was the measure of
his hatred of Antichrist. For hatred is inverted love. Love
and hatred are one and the same passion, only revealed in oppo-
site directions. The same sun gives light and heat to the living,
and hastens the decay of the dead.
Christian art has so far well understood the double aspect of
John by representing him with a face of womanly purity and
tenderness, but not weakness, and giving him for his symbol a
bold eagle soaring with outspread wings above the clouds.1
THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
A proper appreciation of John's character as thus set forth
removes the chief difficulty of ascribing the Apocalypse and the
fourth Gospel to one and the same writer.1 The temper is the
same in both : a noble, enthusiastic nature, capable of intense
emotions of love and hatred, but with the difference between
vigorous manhood and ripe old age, between the roar of battle
and the repose of peace. The theology is the same, including
the most characteristic features of Christology and soteriology.4
1 John 8:44; 1 John 1:6,8, 10; 2 18 sqq., 3:8, 15; 4 : 1 sqq ; 2 John
vers 10 and 11
' Jerome ( Com. ad Matth , Procem., Opera, ed. Migne, Tom viL 19) Quarta
[faues] Jonnnem evangeltstam [rignificat], qui assumptis pcnni* aquilce, etad
altiora festinans, de Verbo Dei disputat. An old epigram says of John :
u More volans aquilce verbo petit astro, Joannes "
8 The author of Supemat Retig , II 400, says " Instead of the fierce and
intolerant spirit of the Son of Thunder, we find [in the Fourth Gospel] a
spirit breathing forth nothing but gentleness and love." How superficial this
judgment is appears from our text.
4 This is well shown in Gebhardt's Doctrine of ike Apoc'ilypse^ and is sub-
stantially even acknowledged by those who deny the Johannean origin of
either the Apocalypse (the Schleiermacher School), or of the Gospel (the
Tubingen School). "K* ist nicht bhs." says Baur (in his Clmrdi History, vol.
I. p 147), " eine duuereAnlehnung an eincn vielgefeierten Namen, esfehlt auch,
420 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
By no other apostle is Christ called the Logos. The Gospel is
"the Apocalypse spiritualized," or idealized. Even the differ-
ence of style, which is startling at first sight, disappears on closer
inspection. The Greek of the Apocalypse is the most Hebra-
izing of all the books of the New Testament, as may be expected
f rorn its close affinity with Hebrew prophecy to which the classi-
cal Greek furnished no parallel, while the Greek of the fourth
Gospel is pure, and free from irregularities ; yet after all John
the Evangelist also shows the greatest familiarity with, and the
deepest insight into, the Hebrew religion, and preserves its
purest and noblest elements ; and his style has all the childlike
simplicity and sententious brevity of the Old Testament ; it is
only a Greek body inspired by a Hebrew soul.1
In accounting for the difference between the Apocalypse and
the other writings of John, we must also take into consideration
the necessary difference between prophetic composition under
direct inspiration, and historical and didactic composition, and
the intervening time of about twenty years ; the Apocalypse
being written before the destruction of Jerusalem, the fourth
Gospel towards the close of the first century, in extreme old
age, when his youth was renewed like the eagle's, as in the case
of some of the greatest poets, Homer, Sophocles, Milton, and
Goethe.
nicht an innern Beruhrungspunkten zwischen dem Evangclium und der A]x>-
kalypse, und man kann nur die tiefe Genialitdt und feint Kantt bewundern, nut
welcher der Evangelist die Elemente, wdcJ^e vom Standpunkt der Apokfdypse avf
denfreiem und ltdhern des Evangeliums hinuberleiteten, in meh aufgenommen
hat, um die Apokalypse gum Bvangelium eu vergeistigen. Nur vom StandputiLt
den Evangeliums aus Idsst rich da* VerftdUniss, in das sich der Verfimer dessel-
ben zu der Apokalypse setete, richtig begreifen." Sohwegler and Eostlin make
similar concessions See my Hist, of the Apost. Ch , p. 425.
1 In this way the opposite views of two eminent Hebrew scholars and judges
of style may be reconciled. While Renan, looking at the surface, says of the
fourth Gospel : u John's style has nothing Hebrew, nothing Jewish, nothing
Taknudio," Ewald, on the contrary, penetrating to the core, remarks : ** In its
true spirit and afflatus, no language can be more genuinely Hebrew than that
of John. " Godet agrees with Ewald when he aaya : " The dress only is Greek,
the body is Hebrew."
§ 41. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JOHN. 421
NOTES.
L THE SON OF THUNDEB AND THE APOSTLH OF LOVE.
I quote some excellent remarks on the character of John from my
friend, Dr. GODET (Com. 1. 35, English translation by Crombie and Cusin):
" How are we to explain two features of character apparently so oppo-
site ? There exist profound receptive natures which are accustomed to
shut up their impressions within themselves, and this all the more that
these impressions are keen and thrilling. But if it happens that these
persons once cease to be masters of themselves, their long-restrained
emotions then burst forth in sudden explosions, which fill the persons
around them with amazement. Does not the character of John belong
to this order ? And when Jesus gave to him and his brother the sur-
name of Boanerges, sons of thunder (Mark 3 : 17), could he have de-
scribed them better? I cannot think that, by that surname, Jesus
intended, as all the old writers have believed, to signalize the eloquence
which distinguished them. Neither can I allow that he desired by that
surname to perpetuate the recollection of their anger in one of the cases
indicated. We are led by what precedes to a more natural explanation,
and one more worthy of Jesus himself. As electricity is stored up by
degrees in the cloud until it bursts forth suddenly in the lightning and
thunderbolt, so in those two loving and passionate natures impressions
silently accumulated till the moment when the heart overflowed, and
they took an unexpected and violent flight. We love to represent St.
John to ourselves as of a gentle rather than of an energetic nature, ten-
der even to weakness. Do not his writings insist before and above all
else upon love? Were not the last sermons of the old man 'Love one
another ? ' That is true ; but we forget other features of a different
kind, during the first and last periods of his life, which reveal something
decisive, sharp, absolute, even violent in his disposition. If we take
all the facts stated into consideration, we shall recognize in him one of
those sensitive, ardent souls, worshippers of an ideal, who attach them-
selves at first sight, and without reservation, to that being who seems
to them to realize that of which they have dreamt, and whose devotion
easily becomes exclusive and intolerant. They feel themselves repelled
by everything which is not in sympathy with their enthusiasm. They
no longer understand a division of heart which they themselves know
not how to practice. All for all ! such is their motto. Where that all
is not, there is in their eyes nothing. Such affections do not subsist
without including an alloy of impure egoism. A divine work is needed,
in order that the true devotion, which constitutes the basis of such, may
shine forth at the last in all its sublimity. Such was, if we are not
deceived, the inmost history of John." Oomp. the third French ed. of
Godet's Com., I. p. 50.
422 FIRST PERIOD. A/D. 1-100.
Dr. WBSTOOTT (in his Com., p. zzxiii) : "John knew that to be with
Christ was life, to reject Christ was death ; and he did not shrink from
expressing the thought in the spirit of the old dispensation. He learned
from the Lord, as time went on, a more faithful patience, but he did not
unlearn the burning devotion which consumed him. To the last, words
of awful warning, like the thunderings about the throne, reveal the
presence of that secret fire. Every page of the Apocalypse is inspired
with the cry of the souls beneath the altar, * How long ' (Bev. 6 : 10) ; and
nowhere is error as to the person of Christ denounced more sternly than
in his Epistles (2 John 10 ; 1 John 4 : 1 ff.). " Similar passages in Stanley.
n. THE MISSION OF JOHN.
Dean STANLEY (Sermons and Essays on the Apost. Age, p. 249 sq., 3d
ed.) : " Above all, John spoke of the union of the soul with God, but it
was by no mere process of oriental contemplation, or mystic absorption ;
it was by that word which now for the first time took its proper place
in the order of the world — by LOVE. It has been reserved for St. Paul
to proclaim that the deepest principle in the heart of man was Faith ;
it was reserved for St. John to proclaim that the essential attribute
of God is Love. It had been taught by the Old Testament that • the
beginning of wisdom was the fear of God ; ' it remained to be taught by
the last apostle of the New Testament that ' the end of wisdom was the
love of God.' It had been taught of old time by Jew and by heathen,
by Greek philosophy and Eastern religion, that the Divinity was well
pleased with the sacrifices, the speculations, the tortures of man ; it was
to St John that it was left to teach in all its fulness that the one sign of
God's children is ' the love of the brethren.' And as it is Love that
pervades our whole conception of his teaching, so also it pervades our
whole conception of his character. We see him — it surely is no un-
warranted fancy — we see him declining with the declining century ;
every sense and faculty waxing feebler, but that one divinest faculty of
all burning more and more brightly ; we see it breathing through every
look and gesture ; the one animating principle of the atmosphere in
which he lives and moves ; earth and heaven, the past, the present, and
the future alike echoing to him that dying strain of his latest words,
' We love Him because He loved us.' And when at last he disappears
from our view in the last pages of the sacred volume, ecclesiastical tra-
dition still lingers in the close : and in that touching story, not the less
impressive because so familiar to us, we see the aged apostle borne in
the arms of his disciples into the Ephesian assembly, and there repeat-
ing over and over again the same saying, 'Little children, love one
another ; ' till, when asked why he said this and nothing else, he replied
in those well known words, fit indeed to be the farewell speech of the
Beloved Disciple, ' Because this is our Lord's command, and if you
fulfil this, nothing else is needed.' "
§ 42. APOSTOLIC LABORS OF JOHN. 423
§ 42. Apostolic Labors of John.
JOHN IN THE ACTS.
In the first stadium of Apostolic Christianity John figures as
one of the three pillars of the church of the circumcision, to-
gether with Peter and James the brother of the Lord ; while Paul
and Barnabas represented the Gentile church.1 This seems to
imply that at that time he had not yet risen to the full apprehen-
sion of the universalism and freedom of the gospel. But he was
the most liberal of the three, standing between James and Peter
on the one hand, and Paul on the other, and looking already to-
wards a reconciliation of Jewish and Gentile Christianity. The
Judaizers never appealed to him as they did to James, or to Peter.2
There is no trace of a Johannean party, as there is of a Cephas
party and a party of James. He stood above strife and division.
In the earlier chapters of the Acts he appears, next to Peter,
as the chief apostle of the new religion ; he heals with him the
cripple at the gate of the temple ; he was brought with him be-
fore the Sanhedrin to bear witness to Christ ; he is sent with
him by the apostles from Jerusalem to Samaria to confirm the
Christian converts by imparting to them the Holy Spirit ; he
returned with him to Jerusalem.* But Peter is always named
first and takes the lead in word and act ; John follows in mys-
terious silence and makes the impression of a reserved force
which will manifest itself at some future time. He must have
been present at the conference of the apostles in Jerusalem, A.D.
50, but he made no speech and took no active part in the great
discussion about circumcision and the terms of church member-
ship.4 All this is in entire keeping with the character of modest
and silent prominence given to him in the Gospels.
1 Gal. 2 : 9, *Ic£*«j3os, teal Ki^a* /col 'laxkvTj*, ol titcovms <rrv\oi eTxot ....
aural els rV ircptro/i^v. They are named in the order of their conservatism.
2 Gal. 2 : 12, nrif fab 'Ioffc£0ov. 1 Cor. 1 : 12, ty£ cfri Ki#a.
8Acte3:lsqq; 4:1,13, 19,20; 5:19,20,41,42; 8:14-17,25.
4 He is included among the "apostles," assembled in Jerusalem on that
occasion, Acts 15-8, 22, 23, and is expressly mentioned as one of the three
pillar-apostles by Paul in the second chapter of the Galatians, which refers
to the same conference.
424 FIRST PERIOD. A.3X 1-100.
After the year 50 he seems to have left Jerusalem. The Acts
no more mention him nor Peter. When Paul made his fifth
and last visit to the holy city (A.D. 58) he met James, but none
of the apostles.1
JOHN AT EPHESUS.
The later and most important labors of John are contained
in his writings, which we shall fully consider in another chap-
ter. They exhibit to us a history that is almost exclusively in-
ward and spiritual, but of immeasurable reach and import.
They make no allusion to the time and place of residence and
composition. But the Apocalypse implies that he stood at the
head of the churches of Asia Minor.2 This is confirmed by the
unanimous testimony of antiquity, which is above all reason-
able doubt, and assigns Ephesus to him as the residence of his
latter years.3 lie died there in extreme old age during the
reign of Trajan, which began in 98. His grave also was shown
there in the second century.
We do not know when he removed to Asia Minor, but he
1 Acts 21*18 John may have been, however, still in Palestine, perhaps in
Galilee, among the scenes of his youth. According to tradition he remained
in Jerusalem till the death of the Holy Virgin, about A D. 48
* Rev. 1 : 4, 9, 11, 20 ; chs. 2 and 3. It is very evident that only an apos-
tle could occupy such a position, and not an obscure presbyter of that name,
whose very existence is doubtful.
1 Irenseus, the disciple of Polycarp (a personal pupil of John), Adv. liar.
Ill 1, 1 ,3, 4; II. 22, 5, etc , and in his letter to Flonnus (in Eusebius, // E.
V. 20); Clemens Alex., Quis dives sal vet ur, c. 42; Apollomus and Poly crates,
&t the close of the second century, in Euseb. H. E III. 31 , V. 18, 24 , Origen,
Tertullian, Eusebius, Jerome, etc Leucius, also, the reputed author of the
Acts of John about 130, in the fragments recently published by Zahn, bears wit-
ness to the residence of John in Ephesus and Patmos, and transfers his martyr-
dom from Rome to Ephesus. Lutzelberger, Keim (Leben Jem v. Nazara^ I.
161 sq ), Holtzmann, Scholten, the author of Supernatural Religion (IT 410),
and other opponents of the Gospel of John, have dared to remove him out of
Asia Minor with negative arguments from the silence of the Acts, the Ephe-
gians, Colossians, Papias, Ignatius, and Polycarp, arguments which either
prove nothing at all, or only that John was not in Epheaus before 63. But
the old tradition has been conclusively defended not only by Ewald, Grimm,
Steitz, Riggenbach, Luthardt, Godet, Weiss, but even by Krenkel, Hilgenfeld
(ffiriietiung, pp. 395 sqq.), and Weizaaoker (498 B^.), of the Tttbingen school
§ 42. APOSTOLIC LABORS OF JOHN. 425
cannot have done BO before the year 63. For in his valedictory
address to the Ephesian elders, and in his Epistles to the Ephe-
sians and Colossians and the second to Timothy, Paul makes no
allusion to John, and speaks with the authority of a superin-
tendent of the churches of Asia Minor. It was probably the
martyrdom of Peter and Paul that induced John to take charge
of the orphan churches, exposed to serious dangers and trials.1
Ephesus, the capital of proconsular Asia, was a centre of
Grecian culture, commerce, and religion ; famous of old for the
songs of Homer, Anacreon, and Mimnermus, the philosophy of
Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander, the worship and won-
derful temple of Diana. There Paul had labored three years
(54-57) and established an influential church, a beacon-light in
the surrounding darkness of heathenism. From there he could
best commune with the numerous churches he had planted in
the provinces. There he experienced peculiar joys and trials,
and foresaw great dangers of heresies that should spring up
from within.8 All the forces of orthodox and heretical Chris-
tianity were collected there. Jerusalem was approaching its
downfall ; Rome was not yet a second Jerusalem. Ephesus, by
the labors of Paul and of John, became the chief theatre of
church history in the second half of the first and during the
greater part of the second century. Polycarp, the patriarchal
martyr, and Irenaeus, the leading theologian in the conflict with
Gnosticism, best represent the spirit of John and bear testimony
to his influence. lie alone could complete the work of Paul
and Peter, and give the church that compact unity which she
1 " The maintenance of evangelical truth," pays Godet (I. 42), " demanded
at that moment powerful aid. It is not surprising- then that John, one of the
last survivors amongst the apostles, should feel himself called upon to supply
in those countries the place of the apostle of the Gentiles, and to water, as
Apollos had formerly done in Greece, that which Paul had planted " Pres-
sense (Apost. Era, p. 424): "No city could have been better chosen as a
centre from which to watch over the churches, and follow closely the progress
of heresy. At Ephesus John was in the centre of Paul's mission field, and
not far from Greece."
* See his farewell address at Miletus, Acts 20 : 29, 80, and the Epistles to
Timothy.
426 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
needed for her self-preservation against persecution from with-
out and heresy and corruption from within.
If it were not for the writings of John the last thirty years
of the first century would be almost an entire blank. They re-
semble that mysterious period of forty days between the resur-
rection and the ascension, when the Lord hovered, as it were,
between heaven and earth, barely touching the earth beneath,
and appearing to the disciples like a spirit from the other world.
But the theology of the second and third centuries evidently
presupposes the writings of John, and starts from his Christology
rather than from Paul's anthropology and soteriology, which
were almost buried out of sight until Augustin, in Africa, re-
vived them.
JOHN AT PATHOS.
John was banished to the solitary, rocky, and barren island
of Patmos (now Patmo or Palmosa), in the ^Egean sea, south-
west of Ephesus. This rests on the testimony of the Apoca-
lypse, 1 : 9, as usually understood : " I John, your brother and
partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience
in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for (on account
of) the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." l There he
received, while " in the spirit, on the Lord's day," those wonder-
ful revelations concerning the struggles and victories of Chris-
tianity.
The fact of his banishment to Patmos is confirmed by the
unanimous testimony of antiquity.9 It is perpetuated in the
traditions of the island, which has no other significance. " John
— that is the thought of Patmos ; the island belongs to him ; it
1 Bleek understands bid of the object : John was carried (in a vision) to
Patmos/0r iht purpose of receiving- there the revelation of Christ. He derives
the whole tradition of John's banishment to Patmos from a misunderstand-
ing of this passage. So also Liioke, De Wette, Reuse, and Dusterdieok But
the traditional exegesis is confirmed by the mention of the &xty<s, /tanAffa and
fcroftoj^ in the same verse, by the natural meaning of poprvpfa, and by the
parallel passages 6 : 0 and 20 : 4, where *M( likewise indicates the occasion or
reason of suffering.
1 Irenous, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Enaebius, Jerome, eta
§ 42. APOSTOLIC LABORS OF JOHN. 427
is his sanctuary. Its stones preach of him, and in every heart
\ie lives." l
The time of the exile is uncertain, and depends upon the dis-
puted question of the date of the Apocalypse. External evidence
points to the reign of Domitian, A.D. 95 ; internal evidence to
the reign of Nero, or soon after his death, A.D. 68.
The prevailing — we may say the only distinct tradition, be-
ginning with so respectable a witness as Irenaeus about 170,
assigns the exile to the end of the reign of Domitian, who ruled
from 81 to 96.a He was the second Roman emperor who per-
secuted Christianity, and banishment was one of his favorite
modes of punishment.8 Both facts give support to this tradi-
tion. After a promising beginning he became as cruel and
bloodthirsty as Nero, and surpassed him in hypocrisy and blas-
phemous self -deification. He began his letters: "Our Lord
and God commands," and required his subjects to address him
so.4 He ordered gold and silver statues of himself to be placed
in the holiest place of the temples. When he seemed most
friendly, he was most dangerous. He spared neither senators
nor consuls when they fell under his dark suspicion, or stood in
1 Tischendorf, Reise tV* Aforgenland, II 257 sq. A grotto on a hill in the
southern part of the island is still pointed out as the place of the apocalyptic
vision, and on the summit of the mountain is the monastery of St John, with
a library of about 250 manuscripts
2 Irenaeus, Adv Hcer. , V 30 says that the Apocalypse was seen *•/>&; r$ r&ffi
TV Ao^mavoG fyxv So also Eusebius, // E III. 18, 20, 33 ; Citron, ad
ann. 14 Domitiam , and Jerome, De vir illustr., c 9. This view has pre-
vailed among commentators and historians till quite recently, and is advocated
by Hengstenberg, Lange. Ebrard (and by myself in the Hist of the Ap Ch ,
§ 101, pp 400 sqq.) It is indeed difficult to set aside the clear testimony of
Irenaeus, who, through Polycarp, was connected with the very age of John.
But we must remember that he was mistaken even on more important points
of history, as the age of Jesus, which he asserts, with an appeal to tradition,
to have been above fifty years.
•* Tacitus congratulates Agricola ( Vita Agr., c. 44) that he did not live to
see under this emperor " tot consularium ccedes, tot nobiltMimarum feminarum
exitia etfugas." Agricola, whose daughter Tacitus married, died in 03, two
years before Domitian.
4 Suetonius, Domit., o. 13 : " Dominus et Deus noster hoc fieri jubet. Uhde
institutum posthac, ut ne tcripto guidem ac sermone cujusquam appellaretur
428 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the way of his ambition. He searched for the descendants of
David and the kinsmen of Jesus, fearing their aspirations, but
found that they were poor and innocent persons.1 Many Chris-
tians suffered martyrdom under his reign, on the charge of
atheism — among them his own cousin, Flavius Clemens, of con-
sular dignity, who was put to death, and his wife Domitilla,
who was banished to the island of Pandateria, near Naples.*
In favor of the traditional date may also be urged an intrinsic
propriety that the book which closes the canon, and treats of
the last things till the final consummation, should have been
written last.
Nevertheless, the internal evidence of the Apocalypse itself,
and a comparison with the fourth Gospel, favor an earlier
date, before the destruction of Jerusalem, tand during the in-
terregnum which followed the death of Nero (68), when the
beast, that is the Roman empire, was wounded, but was soon
to be revived (by the accession of Vespasian). If there is
some foundation for the early tradition of the intended oil-
martyrdom of John at Rome, or at Ephesus, it would naturally
point to the Neronian persecution, in which Christians were
covered with inflammable material and burned as torches. The
unmistakable allusions to imperial persecutions apply much
better to Nero than to Domitian. The difference between the
Hebrew coloring and fiery vigor of the Apocalypse and the
pure Greek and calm repose of the fourth Gospel, to which
we have already alluded, are more easily explained if the
former was written some twenty years earlier. This view has
some slight support in ancient tradition,3 and has been adopted
* Hegesippus in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl , III , 19, 20. Hegesippus, however,
is silent about the banishment of John, and this silence has been used by
Bleek as an argument against the fact.
* Dion Cassias in the abridgment of Xiphilinus, 67, 14.
' So the title of the Syriao translation of the Apocalypse (which, however,
is of much later date than the Peshitto, which omits the Apocalypse) : " Reve-
lotto quam Deus Joanni EvangelistcB in Patmo insula dectit, in quam a Nerone
Ccuare rdegatus fuerat." Clement of Alexandria (Quis dives salv., c. 42, and
quoted by Eusebius, III., 23) says indefinitely that John returned from Patmos
to Ephesus after the death of " the tyrant " (rov rvpdtvov rcXcvr^trorros), which
§ 43. TRADITIONS RESPECTING JOHN. 429
by the majority of modern critical historians and commenta-
tors.1
We hold, then, as the most probable view, that John was
exiled to Patmos under Nero, wrote the Apocalypse soon after
Nero's death, A.D. 68 or 69, returned to Ephesus, completed his
Gospel and Epistles several (perhaps twenty) years later, and fell
asleep in peace during the year of Trajan, after A.D. 98.
The faithful record of the historical Christ in the whole ful-
ness of his divine-human person, as the embodiment and source
of life eternal to all believers, with the accompanying epistle of
practical application, was the last message of the Beloved Disci-
ple at the threshold of the second century, at the golden sunset
of the apostolic age. The recollections of his youth, ripened by
long experience, transfigured by the Holy Spirit, and radiant
with heavenly light of truth and holiness, are the most precious
legacy of the last of the apostles to all future generations of the
church.
§ 43. Traditions Respecting John?
The memory of John sank deep into the heart of the church,
and not a few incidents more or less characteristic and probable
have been preserved by the early fathers.
Clement of Alexandria, towards the close of the second cen-
tury, represents John as a faithful and devoted pastor when, in
his old age, on a tour of visitation, he lovingly pursued one of
maj apply to Nero as well as to Domitian. Origen mentions simply a Roman
/Bocri&fffc. Tertullian's legend of the Roman oil-martyrdom of John seems to
point to Nero rather than to any other emperor, and was so understood by
Jerome (Adv. Jovin. L 26), although Tertullian does not say so, and Jerome
himself assigns the exile and the composition of the Apocalypse to the reign
of Domitian (De mr. HI , c. 9) Epiphanius (Har. LI. 33) puts the banish-
ment back to the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-53), which is evidently much too
early.
1 Neander, Gieseler, Baur, Ewald, Lucke, Bleek, De Wette, Renos, Duoter-
dieck, Weiss, Renan, Stanley, Lightfoot, Westoott.
• These traditions are reproduced in a pleasing manner by Dean Stanley, in
hU Sermon* and Buays on the Apost. Age, pp. 266-281 (3d ed.). Camp, also
my Hist. oftheAp. €%., pp. 404 sqq.
430 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
his former converts who had become a robber, and reclaimed
him to the church.
Irenaeus bears testimony to his character as "the Son of
Thunder " when he relates, as from the lips of Polycarp, that,
on meeting in a public bath at Ephesus the Gnostic heretic Ce-
rinthus,1 who denied the incarnation of our Lord, John refused
to remain under the same roof, lest it might fall down. This
reminds one of the incident recorded in Luke 9 : 49, and the
apostle's severe warning in 2 John 10 and 11. The story exem-
plifies the possibility of uniting the deepest love of truth with
the sternest denunciation of error and moral evil.3
Jerome pictures him as the disciple of love, who in his ex-
treme old age was carried to the meeting-place on the arms of
his disciples, and repeated again and again the exhortation,
" Little children, love one another," adding : " This is the
Lord's command, and if this alone be done, it is enough." This,
of all the traditions of John, is the most credible and the most
useful.
In the Greek church John bears the epithet " the theologian "
(#60X0709), for teaching most clearly the divinity of Christ (rfjv
^eonjTa rov \6yov). He is also called " the virgin " (7rap&evos\*
for his chastity and supposed celibacy. Augustiri says that the
singular chastity of John from his early youth was supposed by
some to be the ground of his intimacy with Jesus.4
The story of John and the huntsman, related by Cassian, a
1 Or Ebion, according to Epiphanius, Hcrr , zxz 25.
* Stanley mentions, as an illustration of the magnifying influence of fancy,
that Jeremy Taylor, in relating this story, adds that " immediately upon the
retreat of the apostle the bath fell down and crashed Cennthus m the ruins "
(Life of Christ, Sect, xii 2).
8«^eW usually means a virgin (Matt. 1 • 23 , Luke 1 : 27 ; Acts 21 : 9 ;
1 Cor. 7 • 25 28, 34), but is applied also to men who never touched women,
Apoc. 14:4, and in patristic writers.
4 Augustin, Tract l&LmJoh. Evang. (Opera III 1976, ed. Migne) : "Stint
guitenserint .... a Christo Joannem apostolwn propterea plus amatum quod
neque uxorem duferit, et db ineunte puentfa catti&simus vixerit " He quotes
Jerome, Contr. Jornn 1 c., but adds : " Hoc quidtm in Scripturis n*n eviden-
ter wpparet" According to Ambrosiaster, Ad 2 Cor 11 : 2, all the apostles
were married except John and Paul. Tertullian calls John Chritti spado.
§ 43. TRADITIONS RESPECTING JOHN. 431
monk of the fifth century, represents him as gently playing with
a partridge in his hand, and saying to a huntsman, who was sur-
prised at it : " Let not this brief and slight relaxation of my
mind offend thee, without which the spirit would flag from
over-exertion and not be able to respond to the call of duty
when need required." Childlike simplicity and playfulness are
often combined with true greatness of mind.
Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, at the close of the second cen-
tury, relates (according to Eusebius) that John introduced in
Asia Minor the Jewish practice of observing Easter on the 14th
of Nisan, irrespective of Sunday. This fact entered largely
into the paschal controversies of the second century, and into
the modern controversy about the genuineness of the Gospel of
John.
The same Polycrates of Ephesus describes John as wearing
the plate, or diadem of the Jewish high-priest (Ex. 28 : 36, 37 ;
39 : 30, 31). It is probably a figurative expression of priestly
holiness which John attaches to all true believers (comp. Rev.
2 : 17), but in which he excelled as the patriarch.1
From a misunderstanding of the enigmatical word of Jesus,
John 21 : 22, arose the legend that John was only asleep in his
grave, gently moving the mound as he breathed, and awaiting
the final advent of the Lord. According to another form of the
legend he died, but was immediately raised and translated to
heaven, like Elijah, to return with him as the herald of the
second advent of Christ.*
1 In Euseb //. E III. 31, 3 ; V. 24, 3 : 'Iwawrys . . . . fcs iytwfan icpcfc rt
TftraXov ir€<f>opTj/cwj irai pdpTvs ical ScftclcriraAos ouros iv EtyeVqi jreicof/iirrGU. Epi-
phanms reports (no doubt from Hegesippus) the same, with some ascetic
features, of James the brother of the Lord See Stanley's remarks, pp 276-
278, and Lightfoot on Qalat , p 345 note, and Phitipp. p. 252 «l As a figura-
tive expression,11 says Lightfoot, u or as a literal fact, the notice points to St.
John as the veteran teacher, the chief representative, of a pontifical race.
On the other hand, it is possible that this was not the sense which Polycrates
himself attached to the figure or the fact ; and if so, we have here perhaps
the earliest passage in any extant Christian writing where the sacerdotal
view of the ministry is distinctly put forward.11 But in the Didache (oh. 13)
the Christian prophets are called "high priests.9'
1 Augustin mentions the legend, but contradicts it, Trad. 224 in Eh. Joann.
432 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHAPTER VIIL
CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
SOURCES.
The teaching and example of Christ as exhibited in the Gospels, and
of the apostles in the Acts and Epistles; compared and contrasted
with the rabbinical ethics and the state of Jewish society, and with
the Greek systems of philosophy and the moral condition of the
Roman empire, as described in the writings of Seneca, Tacitus, the
Roman satirists, etc.
Literature.
I. The respective sections in the Histories of the Apost. Church by
NEANDER : I. 229-283 (Germ, ed.) ; SCHAFF : $ 109-123 (pp. 433-492) ;
LANOE: II. 495-534; WEESSACKEB: 647-698.
IL The works on the Theology of the Apostolic Age, by SOHIOD, REUSS,
BAUB, WEISS, etc.
HL The Systems of Christian Ethics by SOHLEEEBMAOHEB, ROTHE, NEAN-
DEB, SOHMTO, WUTTKB, HABLESS, MABTEN8EN, LUTHABDT, and LBOKT's
History of European Morals (1869), voL I. 357 sqq.
IV. A. THOMA (pastor in Mannheim) : Geschichte der christlichen Sitten-
lehre in der Zeit des Neuen Testamentes, Haarlem, 1879 (380 pp.). A
crowned prize-essay of the Teyler Theol. Society. The first attempt
of a separate critical history of N. T. ethics, bnt written from the
negative standpoint of the Tubingen school, and hence very unsatis-
factory. It is divided in three parts : I. The Ethics of Jesus ; II.
The Ethics of Paul ; m. The Ethics of the Congregation.
Y. Works which treat of Christian life in the post-apostolic age (CAVE,
ARNOLD, SCHMIDT, CHABTEL, PBEBBBNSE, etc.) will be noticed in
the second period.
§ 44. The Spi/riiual Power of Christianity.
Practical Christianity is the manifestation of a new life ; a
spiritual (as distinct from intellectual and moral) life ; a super*
natural (as distinct from natural) life ; it is a life of holiness and
§ 44. THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 433
peace ; a life of union and communion with God the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit ; it is eternal life> beginning with regenera-
tion and culminating in the resurrection. It lays hold of the
inmost centre of man's personality, emancipates him from the
dominion of sin, and brings him into vital union with God in
Christ ; from this centre it acts as a purifying, ennobling, and
regulating . force upon all the faculties of man — the emotions,
the will, and the intellect— and transforms even the body into
a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Christianity rises far above all other religions in the theory
and practice of virtue and piety. It sets forth the highest
standard of love to God and to man ; and this not merely as
an abstract doctrine, or an object of effort and hope, but as a
living fact in the person of Jesus Christ, whose life and example
have more power and influence than all the maxims and pre-
cepts of sages and legislators. Deeds speak louder than words.
Prwccpta docent) cyempla trahunt. The finest systems of moral
philosophy have not been able to regenerate and conquer the
world. The gospel of Christ has done it and is doing it con-
stantly. The wisest men of Greece and Rome sanctioned slav-
ery, polygamy, concubinage, oppression, revenge, infanticide ; or
they belied their purer maxims by their conduct. The ethical
standard of the Jews was much higher; yet none of their
patriarchs, kings, or prophets claimed perfection, and the Bible
honestly reports the infirmities and sins, as well as the virtues,
of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon.
But the character of Christ from the manger to the cross is
without spot or blemish ; he is above reproach or suspicion, and
acknowledged by friend and foe to be the purest as well as the
wisest being that ever appeared on earth. He is the nearest
approach which God can make to man, and which man can
make to God ; he represents the fullest imaginable and attain-
able harmony of the ideal and real, of the divine and human.
The Christian church may degenerate in the hands of sinful
men, but the doctrine and life of her founder are a never-failing
fountain of purification.
434 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The perfect life of harmony with God and devotion to the
welfare of the human race, is to pass from Christ to his follow-
ers. Christian life is an imitation of the life of Christ. From
his word and spirit, living and ruling in the church, an un-
broken stream of redeeming, sanctifying, and glorifying power
lias been flowing forth upon individuals, families, and nations
for these eighteen centuries, and will continue to flow till the
world is transformed into the kingdom of heaven, and God
becomes all in all.
One of the strongest proofs of the supernatural origin of
Christianity, is its elevation above the natural culture and moral
standard of its first professors. The most perfect doctrine and
life described by unschooled fishermen of Galilee, who "never
before had been outside of Palestine, and were scarcely able to
read and to write ! And the profoundest mysteries of the king-
dom of heaven, the incarnation, redemption, regeneration, resur-
rection, taught by the apostles to congregations of poor and
illiterate peasants, slaves and f reedrneii ! For " not many wise
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble " were called,
" but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might
put to shame them that are wise ; and God chose the weak things
of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are
strong ; and the base things of the world, and the things that
are despised, did God choose, yea, and the things that are not,
that he might bring to naught the things that are : that no flesh
should glory before God. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption : that, according as it is writ-
ten, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." *
If we compare the moral atmosphere of the apostolic churches
with the actual condition of surrounding Judaism and heathen-
ism, the contrast is as startling as that between a green oasis
with living fountains and lofty palm trees, and a barren desert
of sand and stone. Judaism in its highest judicatory committed
the crime of crimes, the crucifixion of the Saviour of the world,
'ICor. 2:26-31.
§ 44. THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 435
and hastened to its doom. Heathenism was fitly represented
by such imperial monsters as Tiberius, Caligula, Xero, and
Domitian, and exhibited a picture of hopeless corruption and
decay, as described in the darkest colors not only by St. Paul,
but by his heathen contemporary, the wisest Stoic moralist, the
teacher and victim of Nero.1
NOTES.
The rationalistic author of Supernatural Religion (vol. II. 487) makes
the following remarkable concession : " The teaching of Jesns carried
morality to the sublimest point attained, or even attainable, by human-
ity. The influence of his spiritual religion has been rendered doubly
great by the unparalleled purity and elevation of his character. Sur-
passing in his sublime simplicity and earnestness the moral grandeur of
Sakya Muni, and putting to the blush the sometimes sulked, though
generally admirable, teaching of Socrates and Plato, and the whole
round of Greek philosophers, he presented the rare spectacle of a life, so
far as we can estimate it, uniformly noble and consistent with his own
lofty principles, so that the ' imitation of Christ ' has become almost
the final word m the preaching of his religion, and must continue to be
one of the most powerful elements of its permanence."
LEOKY, likewise a rationalistic writer and historian of great ability and
fairness, makes this weighty remark in liis History of European Morals
(vol. II 9) • "It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an
ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has
inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love ; has shown itself
capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions ;
has been, not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incen-
1 Comp the well known passage of Seneca, De Ira, II 8 : Omnia sceleribus
ac vitiis plena sunt ; plus committitur, quam quod possit eocrcitione sanari.
Certatur tngenti quodam neguitice certamme • nuiiar quotidte peccandi cupidUas,
minor verecundisi cst. Expulso melion* (pguiorisque respectu, quocunque visum
est, libido se impingit; nee furtwa jam scelera sunt, prcstcr oculos eunt.
Adeoque in pubhcum inissa nequitwt e*tt et in omnium pectoribus eialwt, ut
innocentia non rara, sed nuUa sit. Numqitid enim singuli aiii pauci rupere
leyem ; un digue, velut signo dato, ad fa* nefasque miscendum coorti snnt."
Similar passages might be gathered from Thncydides, Anstophanes, Sallnst,
Horace, Juvenal, Persius, Tacitus, Suetonius. It is true that almost every
heathen vice still exists in Christian countries, but they exist in spite of the
Christian religion, while the heathen immorality was the legitimate result of
Idolatry, and was sanctioned by the example of the heathen gods, and the
apotheosis of the worst Roman emperors.
430 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tive to its practice, and has exercised so deep an influence that it may
be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life
has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disqui-
sitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists. This has,
indeed, been the wellspring of whatever is best and purest in Christian
life. Amid all the sins and failings, amid all the priestcraft and perse-
cution and fanaticism that have defaced the Church, it has preserved, in
the character and example of its Founder, an enduring principle of re-
generation."
To this we may add the testimony of the atheistic philosopher, JOHN
STUART MILL, from his essay on Theism, written shortly before his death
(1873), and published, 1874, in TJiree Essays on Religion (Am. ed , p.
253) : " Above all, the most valuable part of the effect on the character
which Christianity has produced, by holding up in a divine person a
standard of excellence and a model for imitation, is available even to the
absolute unbeliever, and can never more be lost to humanity. For it is
Christ rather than God whom Christianity has held up to believers as
the pattern of perfection for humanity. It is the God incarnate more
than the God of the Jews, or of nature, who, being idealized, has taken
so great and salutary a hold on the modern mind. And whatever else
may be taken away from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left ; a
unique figure, not more unlike all his precursors than all his followers,
even those who had the direct benefit of his personal teaching. It is of
no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical,
and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been super-
added by the tradition of his followers. The tradition of followers suf-
fices to insert any number of marvels, and may have inserted all the
miracles which he is reputed to have wrought. But who among his
disciples, or among their proselytes, was capable of inventing the say-
ings ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life and character revealed
in the Gospels ' Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee ; as certainly
not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally differ-
ent sort ; still less the early Christian writers, in whom nothing is more
evident than that the good which was in them was all derived, as they
always professed that it was derived, from the higher source."
§ 45. The Spiritual Gifts.
Comp. the Commentaries on Bom. 12 : 3-9, and 1 Cor., chs. 12-14.
The apostolic church was endowed from the day of Pente-
cost with all the needful spiritual gifts for the moral regenera-
tion of the world. They formed, as it were, her bridal garment
and her panoply against Jewish and Gentile opposition. They
§ 45. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 437
are called charisma1 or gifts of grace, as distinguished from,
though not opposed to, natural endowments. They are certain
special energies and manifestations of the Holy Spirit in be-
lievers for the common good.3 They are supernatural, there-
fore, in their origin ; but they correspond to natural virtues, and
in operation they follow all the mental and moral faculties of man,
raising them to higher activity, and consecrating them to the ser-
vice of Christ. They all rest on faith, that " gift of gifts."
The spiritual gifts may be divided into three classes : first,
intellectual gifts of knowledge, mainly theoretical in their char-
acter, and concerned primarily with doctrine and theology ;
secondly, emotional gifts of feeling, appearing chiefly in divine
worship and for immediate edification ; and thirdly, practical
gifts of will, devoted to the organization, government, and dis-
cipline of the church. They are not, however, abstractly sepa-
rate, but work together harmoniously for the common purpose
of edifying the body of Christ. In the New Testament ten
eharisms are specially mentioned ; the first four have to do
chiefly, though not exclusively, with doctrine, the next two with
worship, and the remaining four with government and practical
affairs.
1. The gift of WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE,* or of deep insight
into the nature and system of the divine word and the doctrines
of the Christian salvation.
2. The gift of TEACHING/ or of practically applying the gift
of knowledge ; the power of clearly expounding the Scriptures
for the instruction and edification of the people.
3. The gift of PROPHECY/ akin to the two preceding, but ad-
dressed rather to pious feeling than to speculative reflection,
and employing commonly the language of higher inspiration,
rather than that of logical exposition and demonstration. It is
by no means confined to the prediction of future events, but
consists in disclosing the hidden counsel of God, the deeper
sense of the Scriptures, the secret state of the heart, the abyss
» Oomp. 1 Cor. 12 : 7 ; 14 : 12.
' ffofla and yr&rts. 4 ftifeuriraAfa. *
438 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of sin, and the glory of redeeming grace. It appears parties
larly in creative periods, times of mighty revival; while the
gift of teaching suits better a quiet state of natural growth in
the church. Both act not only in the sphere of doctrine and
theology, but also in worship, and might in this view be reck-
oned also among the gifts of feeling.
4. The gift of DISCERNING SPIRITS/ serves mainly as a guide
to the third gift, by discriminating between true prophets and
false, between divine inspiration and a merely human or satanic
enthusiasm. In a wider sense it is a deep discernment in sepa-
rating truth and error, and in judging of moral and religious
character ; a holy criticism still ever necessary to the purity of
Christian doctrine and the administration of the discipline of
the church.
5. The gift of TONGUES," or of an utterance proceeding from
a state of unconscious ecstasy in the speaker, and unintelligible
to the hearer unless interpreted — thus differing from prophecy,
which requires a self-conscious though highly elevated state of
feeling, serves directly to profit the congregation, and is therefore
preferred by Paul.3 The speaking with tongues is an involun-
tary psalm-like prayer or song, uttered from a spiritual trance,
and in a peculiar language inspired by the Holy Spirit. The
soul is almost entirely passive, an instrument on which the
Spirit plays his heavenly melodies. This gift has, therefore,
properly, nothing to do with the spread of the church among
foreign peoples and in foreign languages, but is purely an act
^f worship, for the edification primarily of the speaker himself,
and indirectly, through interpretation, for the hearers. It ap-
peared, first, indeed, on the day of Pentecost, but before Peter's
address to the people, which was the proper mission-sermon ;
and we meet with it afterwards in the house of Cornelius and
in the Corinthian congregation, as a means of edification for
believers, and not, at least not directly, for unbelieving hearers,
1 &utKplff€is
1 MUVCUS or Mpats y\&r<rau Ao\cir, or simply, y\6ff<rw, sometimes y\6<r<jy
See § 24, p. 284. 8 1 Cor. 14 : 1-6".
§ 46. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 439
although it served to them as a significant sign/ arresting their
attention to the supernatural power in the church.
6. The gift of INTERPRETATION* is the supplement of the glos-
solalia, and makes that gift profitable to the congregation by
translating the prayers and songs from the language of the spirit
and of ecstasy * into that of the understanding and of sober self-
consciousness.4 The preponderance of reflection here puts this
gift as properly in the first class as in the second.
7. The gift of MINISTRY and HELP/ that is, of special qualifi-
cation primarily for the office of deacon and deaconess, or for the
regular ecclesiastical care of the poor and the sick, and, in the
wide sense, for all labors of Christian charity and philanthropy.
8. The gift of church GOVERNMENT and the CARE OF souLS,6
indispensable to all pastors and rulers of the church, above all
to the apostles and apostolic men, in proportion to the extent of
their respective fields of labor. Peter warns his co-presbyters
against the temptation to hierarchical arrogance and tyranny
over conscience, of which so many priests, bishops, patriarchs,
and popes have since been guilty ; and points them to the sub-
lime example of the great Shepherd and Archbishop, who, in
infinite love, laid down his life for the sheep.7
9. The gift of MIRACLES 8 is the power possessed by the apos-
tles and apostolic men, like Stephen, to heal all sorts of physical
maladies, to cast out demons, to raise the dead, and perform
other similar works, in virtue of an extraordinary energy or
faith, by word, prayer, and the laying on of hands in the name
of Jesus, and for his glory. These miracles were outward ere
dentials and seals of the divine mission of the apostles in a time
and among a people which required such sensible helps to faith.
But as Christianity became established in the world, it could
point to its continued moral effects as the best evidence of its
truth, and the necessity for outward physical miracles ceased.
1 Cor. 14 : 22.
1 Of the mC/io. 4 Of the voOi .
* tioKovla, forix^"*. ' *u/8ep^<rfiT, ffubernationes.
1 1 Pet. 5 . 1-4. * xdpurfM lapdrvyt ftfoo/m <n{/ic{w icol rcpcfrw*
440 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
10. Finally, the gift of LOVE, the greatest, most precious,
most useful, most needful, and most enduring of all, described
and extolled by St. Paul in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corin-
thians with the pen of an angel in the vision and enjoyment of
the God of infinite love himself.1 Love is natural kindness and
affection sanctified and raised to the spiritual sphere, or rather a
new heavenly affection created in the soul by the experience of
the saving love of God in Chiist. As faith lies at the bottom
of all charisms, so love is not properly a separate gift, but the
soul of all the gifts, guarding them from abuse for selfish and
ambitious purposes, making them available for the common
good, ruling, uniting, and completing them. It alone gives
them their true value, and without love even the speaking with
tongues of angels, and a faith which removes mountains, are
nothing before God. It holds heaven and earth in its embrace.
It " believeth all things," and when faith fails, it " hopeth all
things," and when hope fails, it " endureth all things," but it
" never fails." As love is the most needful of all the gifts on
earth, so it will also outlast all the others, and be the ornament
and joy of the saints in heaven. For love is the inmost essence,
the heart, as it were, of God, the ground of all his attributes,
and the motive of all his works. It is the beginning and the
end of creation, redemption, and sanctification — the link which
unites us with the triune God, the cardinal virtue of Chris-
tianity, the fulfilling of the law, the bond of perfectness, and
the fountain of bliss.
1 The Revision of 1881 has substituted, in 1 Cor. ch. 13, "love" (with
Tyndale, Cranmei , and Geneva Vers ) for " charity " (which came into James's
Version from the Vulgate through the Rheims Vers ) This change has given
great offence among conservative people. It may indeed involve a loss of
rhythm m that wonderful chapter, but it was necessitated by the restricted
meaning which charity has assumed in modern usage, being identical with
practical benevolence, so that Paul might seem to contradict himself in verses
3 and 8. The Saxon word love is just as strong, as musical, and as sacred as
the Latin charity, and its meaning is far more comprehensive and enduring,
embracing both God's love to man and man's love to God, and to his neighbor,
both here and hereafter.
§ 46. CHRISTIANITY IN INDIVIDUALS. 441
§ 46. Christianity in Individuals.
The transforming spiritual power of Christianity appears first
in the lives of individuals. The apostles and primitive Chris-
tians rose to a morality and piety far above that of the heroes
of heathen virtue and even that of the Jewish saints. Their
daily walk was a living union with Christ, ever seeking the
glory of God and the salvation of men. Many of the cardinal
virtues, humility, for example, and love for enemies, were un-
known before the Christian day.
Peter, Paul, and John represent the various leading forms or
types of Christian piety, as well as of theology. They were not
without defect, indeed they themselves acknowledged only one
sinless being, their Lord and Master, and they confessed their
own shortcomings ; * yet they were as nearly perfect as it is pos-
sible to be in a sinful world ; and the moral influence of their
lives and writings on all generations of the church is absolutely
immeasurable. Each exhibits the spirit and life of Christ in a
peculiar way. For the gospel does not destroy, but redeems and
sanctifies the natural talents and tempers of men. It consecrates
the fire of a Peter, the energy of a Paul, and the pensiveness of
a John to the same service of God. It most strikingly displays
its new creating power in the sudden conversion of the apostle
of the Gentiles from a most dangerous foe to a most efficient
friend of the church. Upon Paul the Spirit of God came as
an overwhelming storm ; upon John, as a gentle, refreshing
breeze. "But in all dwelt the same new, supernatural, divine
principle of life. All are living apologies for Christianity,
whose force no truth-loving heart can resist.
Notice, too, the moral effects of the gospel in the female
characters of the New Testament. Christianity raises woman
from the slavish position which she held both in Judaism and in
heathendom, to her true moral dignity and importance ; makes
>Comp. PhiL 8:12-14; 2 Cor 4-7 sqq.; 12:7; 1 Cor. 0.27; Jas. 3:2;
1 John 1 :8, 0; Gal. 2 :11 , Acts 15 .30-39 ; 23 .3 sqq.
442 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
her an heir of the same salvation with man,1 and opens to ner a
field for the noblest and loveliest virtues, without thrusting her,
after the manner of modern pseudo-philanthropic schemes of
emancipation, out of her appropriate sphere of private, domes-
tic life, and thus stripping her of her fairest ornament and
peculiar charm.
The Virgin Mary marks the turning point in the history of
the female sex. As the mother of Christ, the second Adam,
she corresponds to Eve, and is, in a spiritual sense, the mother
of all living.* In her, the " blessed among women," the whole
sex was blessed, and the curse removed which had hung over
the era of the fall. She was not, indeed, free from actual
and native sin, as is now taught, without the slightest ground
in Scripture, by the Roman church since the 8th of Decem-
ber, 1854. On the contrary, as a daughter of Adam, she
needed, like all men, redemption and sanctification through
Christ, the sole author of sinless holiness, and she herself ex-
pressly calls God her Saviour.8 But in the mother and educator
of the Saviour of the world we no doubt may and should revere,
though not worship, the model of female Christian virtue, of
purity, tenderness, simplicity, humility, perfect obedience to
God, and unreserved surrender to Christ. Next to her we have
a lovely group of female disciples and friends around the Lord :
Mary, the wife of Clopas ; Salome, the mother of James and
John ; Mary of Bethany, who sat at Jesus' feet ; her busy and
hospitable sister, Martha ; Mary of Magdala, whom the Lord
healed of a demoniacal possession ; the sinner, who washed his
feet with her tears of penitence and wiped them with her hair ;
and all the noble women, who ministered to the Son of man in
his earthly poverty with the gifts of their love,4 lingered last
around his cross,5 and were the first at his open sepulchre on the
morning of the resurrection.6
'1 Pet. 8.7; GaL3.28.
* Gen. 3 • 20. This parallel was first drawn by Ireneus, bat overdrawn and
abused by later fathers in the service of Mariolatry.
' Luke 1 : 47 Mrftofrffftrriiplm 4 Luke 8: 8; Matt 27-55; Mark 15 : 41
» John 10 : 15. ' Matt 28 : 1 ; John 20 : 1.
§ 47. CHRISTIANITY AND THE FAMILY. 443
Henceforth we find woman no longer a slave of man and
tool of lust, but the pride and joy of her husband, the fond
mother training her children to virtue and godliness, the orna-
ment and treasure of the family, the faithful sister, the zealous
servant of the congregation in every work of Christian charity,
the sister of mercy, the martyr with superhuman courage, the
guardian angel of peace, the example of purity, humility, gentle-
ness, patience, love, and fidelity unto death. Such women
were unknown before. The heathen Libanius, the enthusiastic
eulogist of old Grecian culture, pronounced an involuntary
eulog£ on Christianity when he exclaimed, as he looked at the
mother of Chrysostom : " What women the Christians have 1 "
§ 47. Christianity and the family.
H. GBEGOIRE : De I 'influence du christianisme sur la condition desfemmes.
Pans, 1821.
F. MUNTEB : Die Chnstin im heidmschen Hause vor den Zeiten Const anting
des Grossen. Kopenhagen, 1828.
JULIA KAVANAGH : Women of Christianity, Exemplary for Acts of Piety
and Chanty. Lond., 1851 ; N. York, 1866.
Thus raising the female sex to its true freedom and dignity,
Christianity transforms and sanctifies the entire family life. It
abolishes polygamy, and makes monogamy the proper form of
marriage ; it condemns concubinage with all forms of unchastity
and impurity. It presents the mutual duties of husband and
wife, and of parents and children, in their true light, and ex-
hibits marriage as a copy of the mystical union of Christ with
his bride, the church ; thus imparting to it a holy character and
a heavenly end.1
Henceforth the family, though still rooted, as before, in the
soil of nature, in the mystery of sexual love, is spiritualized-
and becomes a nursery of the purest and noblest virtues, a
miniature church, where the father, as shepherd, daily leads his
household into the pastures of the divine word, and, as priest,
1 Comp. Eph. 5 : 22-23; 6:1-9; OoL 3 : 18-25.
442 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
her an heir of the same salvation with man,1 and opens to ner a
field for the noblest and loveliest virtues, without thrusting her,
after the manner of modern pseudo-philanthropic schemes of
emancipation, out of her appropriate sphere of private, domes-
tic life, and thus stripping her of her fairest ornament and
peculiar charm.
The Virgin Mary marks the turning point in the history of
the female sex. As the mother of Christ, the second Adam,
she corresponds to Eve, and is, in a spiritual sense, the mother
of all living.* In her, the " blessed among women," the whole
sex was blessed, and the curse removed which had hung over
the era of the fall. She was not, indeed, free from actual
and native sin, as is now taught, without the slightest ground
in Scripture, by the Roman church since the 8th of Decem-
ber, 1854. On the contrary, as a daughter of Adam, she
needed, like all men, redemption and sanctification through
Christ, the sole author of sinless holiness, and she herself ex-
pressly calls God her Saviour.1 But in the mother and educator
of the Saviour of the world we no doubt may and should revere,
though not worship, the model of female Christian virtue, of
purity, tenderness, simplicity, humility, perfect obedience to
God, and unreserved surrender to Christ. Next to her we have
a lovely group of female disciples and friends around the Lord :
Mary, the wife of Clopas ; Salome, the mother of James and
John ; Mary of Bethany, who sat at Jesus' feet ; her busy and
hospitable sister, Martha ; Mary of Magdala, whom the Lord
healed of a demoniacal possession ; the sinner, who washed his
feet with her tears of penitence and wiped them with her hair ;
and all the noble women, who ministered to the Son of man in
his earthly poverty with the gifts of their love,4 lingered last
around his cross,* and were the first at his open sepulchre on the
morning of the resurrection.'
'IPet 3.7; GaL 3:28.
* Gen. 3 • 20. This parallel was first drawn by Irensnu, bat overdrawn and
abased by later fathers in the service of Mariolatry.
»Lukel:47*rlTf&f$T# fftrrnplpw. < Luke 8 : 8; Matt 27 55; Mark 15: 41
» John 19 : 15. ' Matt 28 : 1 ; John 20 : 1.
§ 47. CHRISTIANITY AND THE FAMILY. 443
Henceforth we find woman no longer a slave of man and
tool of lust, but the pride and joy of her husband, the fond
mother training her children to virtue and godliness, the orna-
ment and treasure of the family, the faithful sister, the zealous
servant of the congregation in every work of Christian charity,
the sister of mercy, the martyr with superhuman courage, the
guardian angel of peace, the example of purity, humility, gentle-
ness, patience, love, and fidelity unto death. Such women
were unknown before. The heathen Libanius, the enthusiastic
eulogist of old Grecian culture, pronounced an involuntary
eulog^ on Christianity when he exclaimed, as he looked at the
mother of Chrysostom : " What women the Christians have 1 "
§ 47. Christianity and tfie family.
H. GBEGOIEE : De T influence du christianisme sur la condition desfemmes.
Paris, 1821.
F. MUNTEB : The Chnstin im keidnischen Hause vor den Zeiten Constantin's
des Grossen. Kopenhagen, 1828.
JUUA KAVANAGH . Women of Christianity, Exemplary for Acts of Piety
and Charity. Lond., 1851 ; N. York, 1866.
Thus raising the female sex to its true freedom and dignity,
Christianity transforms and sanctifies the entire family life. It
abolishes polygamy, and makes monogamy the proper form of
marriage ; it condemns concubinage with all forms of unchastity
and impurity. It presents the mutual duties of husband and
wife, and of parents and children, in their true light, and ex-
hibits marriage as a copy of the mystical union of Christ with
his bride, the church ; thus imparting to it a holy character and
a heavenly end.1
Hen6eforth the family, though still rooted, as before, in the
soil of nature, in the mystery of sexual love, is spiritualized-
and becomes a nursery of the purest and noblest virtues, a
miniature church, where the father, as shepherd, daily leads his
household into the pastures of the divine word, and, as priest,
' Comp. Bph. 5 : 22-23; 6:1-9; OoL 3 : 18-25.
444 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
offers to the Lord the sacrifice of their common petition, inter,
cession, thanksgiving, and praise.
With the married state, the single also, as an exception to the
rule, is consecrated by the gospel to the service of the kingdom
of God ; as we see in a Paul, a Barnabas, and a John,1 and in
the history of missions and of ascetic piety. The enthusiasm
for celibacy, which spread so soon throughout the ancient church,
must be regarded as a one-sided, though natural and, upon the
whole, beneficial reaction against the rotten condition and misery
of family life among the heathen.
§ 48. Christianity and Slavery.
Literature.
H. WAIILON (Prof, of Modern History in Paris) : Histoire de Fesdavage
dans Vantiqmte, Par. 1879, 3 vols., treats very thoroughly of Slavery
in the Orient, among the Greeks and the Romans, with an Intro-
duction on modern negro slavery in the Colonies.
A.UGUSTIN COCHIN (ancien maire et conseiller municipal de la ville de
Paris) : U abolition de resclavaye, Pans, 1862, 2 vols. This work
treats not only of the modern abolition of slavery, but includes in
vol. II , p. 348-470, an able discussion of the relation of Chris-
tianity and slavery.
MOHLER (B. C., d. 1848) : Bruchstucke aus der Ge&chiclite der AufJiebung
der Sklaverei, 1834 (" Vermischte Schriften," vol II., p. 54 )
EC. WJSKBMANN : Die Sklaverei. Leiden, 1866. A crowned prize-essay.
P. ALiiABD : Les esdaves Chretiens depms les premiers temps de feghse jusqu*
d la Jin de la domination romaine en Occident. Paris, 1876 (480 pp.).
G. V. LECHLER : Sklaverei und Christenthum. Leipz. 1877-78.
PH. SCHAPP: Slavery and the Bible, in his "Christ and Christianity,"
N. York and London, 1885, pp. 184-212.
Compare the Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, es-
pecially BBAUNE, and LIGHTPOOT (in Colossians and Philemon, 1875).
the numerous American works on slavery by Channing, Parker, Hodge,
Barnes, Wilson, Cheever, Bledsoe, and others, relate to the question
of negro slavery, now providentially abolished by the civil war oi
1861-66.
» Comp. Matt. 19 : 10-12 ; 1 Cor. 7: 7 sqqi. ; Rev. 14 : 4.
§ 48. CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY. 445
To Christianity we owe the gradual extinction of slavery.
This evil has rested as a curse on all nations, and at the time
of Christ the greater part of the existing race was bound in
beastly degradation — even in civilized Greece and Rome the
slaves being more numerous than the free-born and the freed-
men. The greatest philosophers of antiquity vindicated slavery
as a natural and necessary institution ; and Aristotle declared all
barbarians to be slaves by birth, fit for nothing but obedience.
According to the Roman law, " slaves had no head in the State,
no name, no title, no register" ; they had no rights of matrimony,
and no protection against adultery ; they could be bought and
sold, or given away, as personal property : they might be tor-
tured for evidence, or even put to death, at the discretion of
their master. In the language of a distinguished writer on civil
law, the slaves in the Roman empire "were in a much worse state
than any cattle whatsoever." Cato the elder expelled his old
and sick slaves out of house and home. Hadrian, one of the
most humane of the emperors, wilfully destroyed the eye of
one of his slaves with a pencil. Roman ladies punished their
maids with sharp iron instruments for the most trifling offences,
while attending, half-naked, on their toilet. Such legal degra-
dation and cruel treatment had the worst effect upon the charac-
ter of the slaves. They arc described by the ancient writers as
mean, cowardly, abject, false, voracious, intemperate, voluptuous,
also as hard and cruel when placed over others. A proverb pre-
vailed in the Roman empire : " As many slaves, so many ene-
mies." Hence the constant danger of servile insurrections,
which more than once brought the republic to the brink of ruin,
and seemed to justify the severest measures in self-defence.
Judaism, indeed, stood on higher ground than this ; yet it
tolerated slavery, though with wise precautions against maltreat-
ment, and with the significant ordinance, that in the year of
jubilee, which prefigured the renovation of the theocracy, all
Hebrew slaves should go free.1
1 Lev 25: 10 • "Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty through-
out the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Comp. Isa 41 1 ; Luke 4 19.
446 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
This system of permanent oppression and moral degradation
the gospel opposes rather by its whole spirit than by any special
law. It nowhere recommends outward violence and revolution-
ary measures, which in those times would have been worse
than useless, but provides an internal radical cure, which first
mitigates the evil, takes away its sting, and effects at last its
entire abolition. Christianity aims, first of all, to redeem man,
without regard to rank or condition, from that worst bondage,
the curse of sin, and to give him true spiritual freedom ; it con-
firms the original unity of all men in the image of God, and
teaches the common redemption and spiritual equality of all be-
fore God in Christ ; l it insists on love as the highest duty and
virtue, which itself inwardly levels social distinctions ; and it
addresses the comfort and consolation of the gospel particularly
to all the poor, the persecuted, and the oppressed. Paul sent
back to his earthly master the fugitive slave, Onesimus, whom
he had converted to Christ and to his duty, that he might
restore his character where he had lost it ; but he expressly
charged Philemon to receive and treat the bondman hereafter
as a beloved brother in Christ, yea, as the apostle's own heart.
It is impossible to conceive of a more radical cure of the evil in
those times and within the limits of established laws and
customs. And it is impossible to find in ancient literature a
parallel to the little Epistle to Philemon for gentlemanly cour-
tesy and delicacy, as well as for tender sympathy with a poor
slave.
This Christian spirit of love, humanity, justice, and freedom,
as it pervades the whole New Testament, has also, in fact, grad-
ually abolished the institution of slavery in almost all civilized
nations, and will not rest till all the chains of sin and misery are
broken, till the personal and eternal dignity of man redeemed
by Christ is universally acknowledged, and the evangelical free-
dom and brotherhood of men are perfectly attained.
1GaL8:28; Col. 8:11.
§ 48. CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY. 447
NOTE ON THE NUMBKB AND CONDITION OF &LAYES IN GSEBGB AND ROME.
Attica numbered, according to Ctesicles, under the governorship of
Demetrius the Phalerian (309 B.C.), 400,000 slaves, 10,000 foreigners,
and only 21,000 free citizens. In Sparta the disproportion was still
greater.
As to the Roman empire, Gibbon estimates the number of slaves
under the reign of Claudius at no less than one half of the entire popu-
lation, i.e., about sixty millions (I. 52, ed. Milman, N. Y., 1850). Ac-
cording to Robertson there were twice as many slaves as free citizens,
and Blair (in his work on Roman slavery, Edinb. 1833, p. 15) estimates
over three slaves to one freeman between the conquest of Greece (146
B.C.) and the reign of Alexander Severus (A.D. 222-235). The propor-
tion was of course very different in the cities and in the rural districts.
The majority of iheplebs urbana were poor and unable to keep slaves ;
and the support of slaves in the city was much more expensive than in
the country. Marquardt assumes the proportion of slaves to freemen
in Rome to have been three to two. FriedlSnder (Sittengeschichte Rams.
I. 55, fourth ed.) thinks it impossible to make a correct general estimate,
as we do not know the number of wealthy families. But we know that
Rome A.D. 24 was thrown into consternation by the fear of a slave in-
surrection (Tacit. Ann. IV. 27). Athen»us, as quoted by Gibbon (I.
51) boldly asserts that he knew very many (trd/«roXAot) Romans who
possessed, not for use, but ostentation, ten and even twenty thousand
slaves. In a single palace at Rome, that of Pedanius Secundus, then
prefect of the city, four hundred slaves were maintained, and were all
executed for not preventing their master's murder (Tacit. Ann. XIV.
42, 43).
The legal condition of the slaves is thus described by Taylor on Ciml
Law, as quoted in Cooper's Justinian, p. 411: "Slaves were held pro
nuUis, pro mortuis, pro quadrupedibus ; nay, were in a much worse state
than any cattle whatsoever. They Jbad no head in the state, no name,
no title, or register ; they were not capable of being injured ; nor could
they take by purchase or descent ; they had no heirs, and therefore
could make no will ; they were not entitled to the rights and considera-
tions of matrimony, and therefore had no relief in case of adultery ; nor
were they proper objects of cognation or affinity, but of quasi-cognation
only ; they could be sold, transferred, or pawned, as goods or personal
estate, for goods they were, and as such they were esteemed ; they
might be tortured for evidence, punished at the discretion, of their lord,
and even put to death by his authority ; together with many other civil
incapacities which I have no room to enumerate." Gibbon (I. 48)
thinks that "against such internal enemies, whose desperate insurrec-
tions had more than once reduced the republic to the brink of destrao-
448 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tion, the most severe regulations and the most cruel treatment seemed
almost justifiable by the great law of self-preservation."
The individual treatment of slaves depended on the character of the
master. As a rule it was harsh and cruel. The bloody spectacles of the
amphitheatre stupefied the finer sensibilities even in women. Juvenal
describes a Roman mistress who ordered her female slaves to be unmer-
cifully lashed in her presence till the whippers were worn out ; Ovid
warns the ladies not to scratch the face or stick needles into the naked
arms of the servants who adorned them ; and before Hadrian a mistress
could condemn a slave to the death of crucifixion without assigning a
reason. See the references in Friedlander, I. 4C6. It is but just to re-
mark that the philosophers of the first and second century, Seneca,
Pliny, and Plutarch, entertained much milder views on this subject than
the older writers, and commend a humane treatment of the slaves ; also
that the Antonines improved their condition to some extent, and took
the oft abused jurisdiction of life and death over the slaves out of private
hands and vested it in the magistrates. But at that time Christian
principles and sentiments already freely circulated throughout the em-
pire, and exerted a silent influence even over the educated heathen.
This unconscious atmospheric influence, so to speak, is continually
exerted by Christianity over the surrounding world, which without this
would be far worse than it actually is.
§ 49. Christianity and Society.
Christianity enters with its leaven-like virtue the whole civil
and social life of a people, and leads it on the path of prog-
ress in all genuine civilization. It nowhere prescribes, indeed,
a particular form of government, and carefully abstains from
all improper interference with political and secular affairs. It
accommodates itself to monarchical and republican institutions,
and can flourish even under oppression and persecution from the
State, as the history of the first three centuries sufficiently shows.
But it teaches the true nature and aim of all government, and
the duties of rulers and subjects ; it promotes the abolition of
bad laws and institutions, and the establishment of good ; it is
in principle opposed alike to despotism and anarchy ; it tends,
under every* form of government, towards order, propriety, jus-
tice, humanity, and peace; it fills the ruler with a sense of
responsibility to the supreme king and judge, and the ruled
with the spirit of loyalty, virtue, and piety.
§ 49. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 449
Finally, the Gospel reforms the international relations by
breaking down the partition walls of prejudice and hatred among
the different nations and races. It unites in brotherly fellowship
and harmony around the same communion table even the Jews
and the Gentiles, once so bitterly separate and hostile. The
spirit of Christianity, truly catholic or universal, rises above all
national distinctions. Like the congregation at Jerusalem, the
whole apostolic church was of "one heart and of one soul." ' It
had its occasional troubles, indeed, temporary collisions between a
Peter and a Paul, between Jewish and Gentile Christians ; but
instead of wondering at these, we must admire the constant
victory of the spirit of harmony and love over the remaining
forces of the old nature and of a former state of things. The
poor Gentile Christians of Paul's churches in Greece sent their
charities to the poor Jewish Christians in Palestine, and thus
proved their gratitude for the gospel and its fellowship, which
they had received from that mother church.8 The Christians
all felt themselves to be " brethren," were constantly impressed
with their common origin and their common destiny, and con-
sidered it their sacred duty to " keep the unity of the spirit in
the bond of peace." " While the Jews, in their spiritual pride
and " odium generis humani " abhorred all Gentiles ; while the
Greeks despised all barbarians as only half men ; and while the
Romans, with all their might and policy, could bring their con-
quered nations only into a mechanical conglomeration, a giant
body without a soul ; Christianity, by purely moral means,
founded a universal spiritual empire and a communion of saints,
which stands unshaken to this day, and will spread till it em-
braces all the nations of the earth as its living members, and
reconciles all to God.
»Acts4:82.
* Gal. 2:10; 2 Cor. 9 : 13-15 ; Bom. 15 : 25-87.
« Gal. 3:28; Eph.4:&
450 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 50. S%M*itual Condition of the Congregations. — The Sewn
Churches in Asia.
We must not suppose that the high standard of holiness set
up in doctrine and example by the evangelists and apostles was
fully realized in their congregations. The dream of the spot-
less purity and perfection of the apostolic church finds no
support in the apostolic writings, except as an ideal which is
constantly held up before our vision to stimulate our ener-
gies. Ir the inspired apostles themselves disclaimed perfection,
much less can we expect it from their converts, who had just
come from the errors and corruptions of Jewish and heathen
society, and could not be transformed at once without a miracle
in violation of the ordinary laws of moral growth.
We find, in fact, that every Epistle meets some particular
difficulty and danger. No letter of Paul can be understood
without the admission of the actual imperfection of his congre-
gations. He found it necessary to warn them even against the
vulgar sins of the flesh as well as against the refined sins of the
spirit. He cheerfully and thankfully commended their virtues,
and as frankly and fearlessly condemned their errors and vices.
The same is true of the churches addressed in the Catholic
Epistles, and in the Revelation of John.1
The seven Epistles in the second and third chapters of the
Apocalypse give us a glimpse of the church in its light and
shade in the last stage of the apostolic age — primarily in Asia
Minor, but through it also in other lands. These letters are all
very much alike in their plan, and present a beautiful order,
which has been well pointed out by Bengel. They contain
(1) a command of Christ to write to the " angel " of the congre-
gation. (2) A designation of Jesus by some imposing title, which
generally refers to his majestic appearance (1 : 13 sqq.), and serves
1 The remainder of this paragraph is taken in part from my Hist, of the
Apost. Church (§ 108, pp 427 sqq.), where it is connected with the life and
labors of St John. Comp. also the monographs of Trench and Plnmptre on
the Seven Churches, and Lange'a Com. on Eev. ohs. 2 and 8.
§ 60. CONDITION OF THE CONGREGATIONS. 451
as the basis and warrant of the subsequent promises and threat-
enings. (3) The address to the angel, or the responsible head of
the congregation, be it a single bishop or the college of pastors
and teachers. The angels are, at all events, the representative^
of the people committed to their charge, and what was said to
them applies at the same time to the churches. This address,
or the epistle proper, consists always of (a) a short sketch of
the present moral condition of the congregation — both its vir-
tues and defects — with commendation or censure as the case
may be ; (b) an exhortation either to repentance or to faithful-
ness and patience, according to the prevailing character of the
church addressed; (<?) a promise to him who overcomes, to-
gether with the admonition : " He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," or the same in
the reverse order, as in the first three epistles. This latter vari-
ation divides the seven churches into two groups, one compris-
ing the first three, the other the remaining four, just as the
seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials are divided.
The ever-recurring admonition : " He that hath an ear," etc.,
consists of ten words. This is no unmeaning play, but an appli-
cation of the Old Testament system of symbolical numbers, in
which three was the symbol of the Godhead ; four of the world
or humanity ; the indivisible number seven, the sum of three
and four (as also twelve, their product), the symbol of the in-
disholuble covenant between God and man ; and ten (seven and
three), the round number, the symbol of fulness and comple-
tion.
As to their moral and religious condition, the churches and
the representatives fall, according to the Epistles, into three
classes :
1. Those which were predominantly good and py/re, viz., those
of Smyrna and Philadelphia. Hence, in the messages to these
two churches we find no exhortation to repentance in the strict
sense of the word, but only an encouragement to be steadfast,
patient, and joyful under suffering.
The church of Smyrna (a very ancient, still flourishing com-
462 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
mercial city in Ionia, beautifully located on the bay of Smyrna)
was externally poor and persecuted, and had still greater tribu-
lation in view, but is cheered with the prospect of the crown of
life. It was in the second century ruled by Polycarp, a pupil of
John, and a faithful martyr.
Philadelphia (a city built by king Attalus Philadelphus, and
named after him, now Ala-Schar), in the province of Lydia, a
rich wine region, but subject to earthquakes, was the seat of a
church likewise poor and small outwardly, but very faithful and
spiritually flourishing — a church which was to have all the tribu-
lations and hostility it met with on earth abundantly rewarded
in heaven.
2. Churches which were in a ^predominantly evil and criti-
cal condition, viz., those of Sardis and Laodicea. Here accord-
ingly we find severe censure and earnest exhortation to repent-
ance.
The church at Sardis (till the time of Croesus the flourishing
capital of the Lydian empire, but now a miserable hamlet of
shepherds) had indeed the name and outward form of Chris-
tianity, but not its inward power of faith and life. Hence it was
on the brink of spiritual death. Yet the Epistle, 3 : 4 sq., dis-
tinguishes from the corrupt mass a few souls which had kept
their walk undefiled, without, however, breaking away from the
congregation as separatists, and setting up an opposition sect
for themselves.
The church of Laodicea (a wealthy commercial city of Phry-
gia, not far from Colosse and Hierapolis, where now stands only
a desolate village by the name of Eski-Hissar) proudly fancied
itself spiritually rich and faultless, but was in truth poor and
blind and naked, and in that most dangerous state of indiffer-
ence and lukewarmness from which it is more difficult to return
to the former decision and ardor, than it was to pass at first
from the natural coldness to faith. Hence the fearful threaten-
ing : " I will spew thee out of my mouth." (Lukewarm water
produces vomiting.) Yet even the Laodiceans are not driven to
despair. The Lord, in love, knocks at their door and promises
§ 60. CONDITION OF THE CONGEEGATIONS. 453
them, on condition of thorough repentance, a part in the mar-
riage-supper of the lamb (3 : 20).
3. Churches of a mixed character, viz., those of Ephesus,
Pergamum, and Thyatira. In these cases commendation and
censure, promise and threatening are united.
Ephesus, then the metropolis of the Asian church, had with-
stood, indeed, the Gnostic errorists predicted by Paul, and
faithfully maintained the purity of the doctrine delivered to it ;
but it had lost the ardor of its first love, and it is, therefore,
earnestly exhorted to repent. It thus represents to us that state
of dead, petrified orthodoxy, into which various churches often-
times fall. Zeal for pure doctrine is, indeed, of the highest im-
portance, but worthless without living piety and active love.
The Epistle to the angel of the church of Ephesus is peculiarly
applicable to the later Greek church as a whole.
Pergamum in Mysia (the northernmost of these seven cities,
formerly the residence of the kings of Asia of the Attalian
dynasty, and renowned for its large library of 200,000 volumes
and the manufacture of parchment; hence the name charta
Pergavncna ; — now Bergamo, a village inhabited by Turks,
Greeks, and Armenians) was the seat of a church, which under
trying circumstances had shown great fidelity, but tolerated in
her bosom those who held dangerous Gnostic errors. For this
want of rigid discipline she also is called on to repent.
The church of Thyatira (a flourishing manufacturing and
commercial city in Lydia, on the site of which now stands a
considerable Turkish town called Ak-Hissar, or "the White
Castle," with nine mosques and one Greek church) was very
favorably distinguished for self-denying, active love and pa-
tience, but was likewise too indulgent towards errors which cor-
rupted Christianity with heathen principles and practices.
The last two churches, especially that of Thyatira, form thus
the exact counterpart to that of Ephesus, and are the represent-
atives of a zealous practical piety in union with theoretical lati-
tudinarianism. As doctrine always has more or less influence
on practice, this also is a dangerous state. That church alone
454 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
is truly sound and flourishing in which purity of doctrine and
purity of life, theoretical orthodoxy and practical piety are har-
moniously united and promote one another.
With good reason have theologians in all ages regarded these
seven churches of Asia Minor as a miniature of the whole
Christian church. " There is no condition, good, bad, or mixed,
of which these epistles do not present a sample, and for which
they do not give suitable and wholesome direction." Here, as
everywhere, the word of God and the history of the apostolic
church evince their applicability to all times and circumstances,
and their inexhaustible fulness of instruction, warning, and
encouragement for all states and stages of religious life.
§ 51. THE SYNAGOGUE. 455
CHAPTER IX.
WORSHIP IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE.
Literature.
HARNAOK : Der christliche Gemeindegottesdienst im apost. und aWca-
thol Zeitalter. Erlangen, 1854. The same: Prakt. Theol., I. 1877.
F. PROBST (R. 0.) : Liturgie der drei ersten Jahrhunderte. Tiib., 1870.
W. L. VOLZ : Anfange des chnstl. Gottesdienstes, in " Stud, und Krit."
1872.
H. JACOB? : Die constitutiven Factor en des apost. Gottesdienstes, in " Jahrb.
fur deutsche Theol." for 1873.
C. WEIZSAOKER : Die Versammlungen der altesten Christengemeinden, 1876 ;
and Das Apost. ZeitaUer, 1886, pp. 566 sqq.
TH. ZAHN : Gesch. des Sonntags in der alten Kirche. Hann., 1878.
SOHAFP : Hist, of the Apost. Ch., pp. 545-586.
Comp. the Lit. on Ch. X., and on the Didache, vol. EL 184.
§ 51. The Synagogue.
CAMFBO. VITRINGA (d. at Franeker, 1722) : De Synagoga Vetere libri tres.
Franeker, 1696. 2 vols. (also Weissenfels, 1726). A standard work,
full of biblical and rabbinical learning. A condensed translation by
J. L. BERNARD : The Synagogue and tlie Church. London, 1842.
0. BOBNITIUS : De Synagogis veterum Hebrworum. Vitemb., 1650. And
in UGOLINUS : Thesaurus Antiquitatum sacrarum (Venet., 1744-69),
vol. XXI. 495-539.
ANT. TH. HARTMANN : Die enge Verbindung des A. Testaments mit dem
Neuen. Hamburg, 1831 (pp. 225-376).
ZUNZ (a Jewish Rabbi) : Die gottesdiensUichen Vortrage der Juden. Ber-
lin, 1832.
The Histories of the Jews, by JOST, HERZFBLD, and MELMAN.
The Histories of N. T. Times, by HAUSRATH (I. 73 sqq. 2d ed.) and
SoHihtER (463-475, and the literature there given).
Art. "Synag.,"byGiN8BURGin "Kitto"; PLUMPTRB in "Smith" (with
additions by Hackett, IV. 3133, Am. ed.) ; LETBER in "Herzog"
(XV. 299, first ed.) ; KNEUKER in " Sohenkel " (V. 443).
456 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
As the Christian Church rests historically on the Jewish
Church, so Christian worship and the congregational organiza-
tion rest on that of the synagogue, and cannot be well under-
stood without it.
The synagogue was and is still an institution of immense con-
servative power. It was the local centre of the religious and
social life of the Jews, as the temple of Jerusalem was the cen-
tre of their national life. It was a school as well as a church,
and the nursery and guardian of all that is peculiar in this
peculiar people. It dates probably from the age of the captivity
and of Ezra.1 It was fully organized at the time of Christ and
the apostles, and used by them as a basis of their public in-
struction.3 It survived the temple, and continues to this day
unaltered in its essential features, the chief nursery and protec-
tion of the Jewish nationality and religion.8
The term " synagogue " (like our word church) signifies first
the congregation, then also the building where the congregation
meet for public worship.4 Every town, however small, had a
synagogue, or at least a place of prayer in a private house or in
the open air (usually near a river or the sea-shore, on account of
the ceremonial washings). Ten men were sufficient to consti-
tute a religious assembly. " Moses from generations of old hath
1 The Jewish tradition traces it back to the schools of the prophets, and
even to patriarchal times, by far-fetched interpretations of Gen. 25 27 ;
Judg- 5 9 ; Isa. 1 . 13, etc.
8 Comp. § 17, p 152.
8 "Beidem Untergang aVer Inttituttonen" says Dr Znnz (/ c p. 1), tlblieb
die Synagoge ah einziger Trdger ihrer Nationalitat ; dorthinfloh i/ir Glauben
undvon dortfier empfingen sie Belehrung far tiiren irdischen Wandel, Kraft zur
Awdauer in unerJiorten Leiden und Hoffnung auf erne kunftige Morgenrothe
der Freiheit Der offenUiche Qottesdienst der Synagoge ward das Panier
judischer Nationalitat, die Aegide des judfochen Glaubem."
4 ffwaywyfi, often in the Septuagint (130 times as translation of n1!?, 25 times
for in]?); in the Greek Test. (Matt. 4: 23; Mark 1 .21 ; Luke4 :15 ; 12 .11 ;
Acts 9 : 2 ; IS : 43, etc ; of a Christian congregation, James 2 • 2) ; also in
Philo and Josephns ; sometimes <ruvcry6ytor (Philo), trafl&artiov (Joeephns),
rpoffwrrtjptor (Philo), vporcvg^, house of prayer, oratory (Acts 16 • 13 and
Josephns) ; also tocAipfa. Hebrew designations :
nri
§ 61. THE SYNAGOGUE. 457
in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath." ' To erect a synagogue was considered a work
of piety and public usefulness.* In large cities, as Alexandria
and Rome, there were many ; in Jerusalem, about four hundred
for the various sects and the Hellenists fiom different countries.*
1. The building was a plain, rectangular hall of no peculiar
style of architecture, and in its inner arrangement somewhat
resembling the Tabernacle and the Temple. It had benches, the
higher ones ("the uppermost seats") for the elders and richer
members,4 a reading-desk or pulpit, and a wooden ark or closet
for the sacred rolls (called " Copheret " or Mercy Seat, also
" Aaron "). The last corresponded to the Holy of Holies in the
Tabernacle and the Temple. A sacred light was kept burning
as a symbol of the divine law, in imitation of the light in the
Temple, but there is no mention made of it in the Talmud.
Other lamps were brought in by devout worshippers at the
beginning of the Sabbath (Friday evening). Alms-boxes were
provided near the door, as in the Temple, one for the poor in
Jerusalem, another for local charities. Paul imitated the ex-
ample by collecting alms for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
There was no artistic (except vegetable) ornamentation ; for
the second commandment strictly forbids all images of the
Deity as idolatrous. In this, as in many other respects, the
Mohammedan mosque, with its severe iconoclastic simplicity, is a
second edition of the synagogue. The building was erected on
the most elevated spot of the neighborhood, and no house was
allowed to overtop it. In the absence of a commanding site, a
tall pole from the roof rendered it conspicuous.6
'Acts 15 21. 'Luke 7: 5.
3 Acts 6 9 The number of synagogues in Jerusalem is variously stated
from 394 to 480.
4 Matt 23 . 6 ; oomp James 2 2, 3. In the synagogue of Alexandria there
were seventy-one golden chairs, according to the number of members of the
Banhednn The Tp&ro*a&&pla. were near the ark, the place of honor
6 Rums of eleven or more ancient synagogues still exist in Palestine (all in
Galilee) at Tell-Hum (Capernaum), Kerazeh (Choraziu), Meiron, Irbid (Arbela),
Kflsyun, TTmra el-'Amud, Nebratein, two at Kefr-Birim, two at el-Jish (Gis-
cala). See Palest. JBbptor. Quart. Statement for July, 1878.
458 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
2. Organisation. — Every synagogue had a president,1 a num-
ber of elders (ZeJkenim) equal in rank,* a reader and interpreter,1
one or more envoys or clerks, called " messengers " (Shdiach),*
and a sexton or beadle (Chazzwri) for the humbler mechanical
services.* There were also deacons (Gabae zedaka) for the
collection of alms in money and produce. Ten or more wealthy
men at leisure, called Baitanim, represented the congregation at
every service. Each synagogue formed an independent republic,
but kept up a regular correspondence with other synagogues.
It was also a civil and religious court, and had power to excom-
municate and to scourge offenders.*
3. Worship. — It was simple, but rather long, and embraced
three elements, devotional, didactic, and ritualistic. It included
prayer, song, reading, and exposition of the Scripture, the rite
of circumcision, and ceremonial washings. The bloody sacri-
fices were confined to the temple and ceased with its destruc-
tion ; they were fulfilled in the eternal sacrifice on the cross.
The prayers and songs were chiefly taken from the Psalter,
which may be called the first liturgy and hymn book.
The opening prayer was called the SJiema or Keriaik Sterna,
and consisted of two introductory benedictions, the reading of
the Ten Commandments (afterward abandoned) and several
sections of the Pentateuch, namely, Deut. 6 : 4^-9 ; 11 : 13-21 ;
Num. 15 : 37-41. Then followed the eighteen prayers and
'The tLpxurw*y*ro* fap.^n Ca«i)f Luke 8:49; 13 : 14; Mark 5:36, 33;
Act* 18 8, 17; or &px<*v rrjt trweryw^y, Luke 8 41 ; or &px*v, Matt 9 -18.
He was simply primus inter parts ; hence, several ipxi<rinf^7ee701 appear in
one and the same synagogue, Lake 13 : 14 ; Mark 5 : 22 ; Acts 13 : 15 ; 18 : 17.
In smaller towns there was hut one.
1 After the Babylonian captivity an interpreter (Methurgcmari) was usually
employed to translate the Hebrew lesson into the Ghaldee or Greek, or other
vernacular languages.
4 fcnfcrroXoi, &yy*\oi ("I'D? $*$&). Not to be confounded with the angels
In the Apocalypse.
* fcnplnp (l*n), Luke 4 : 20.
•Matt 10:17; 23:34; Luke 12:11; 21:12; John 0:84; 16:2; Acts
22 : 19 ; 26 : 11. The CliaMan had to administer the corporal punishment.
§ 61. THE SYNAGOGUE. 469
benedictions (Berachoth). This is one of them : " Bestow peace,
happiness, blessing, grace, mercy, and compassion upon us and
upon the whole of Israel, thy people. Our Father, bless us all
unitedly with the light of thy countenance, for in the light of
thy countenance didst thou give to us, O Lord our God, the law
of life, lovingkindness, justice, blessing, compassion, life, and
peace. May it please thee to bless thy people Israel at all
times, and in every moment, with peace. Blessed art thou,
O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with peace." These
benedictions are traced in the Mishna to the one hundred
and twenty elders of the Great Synagogue. They were no
doubt of gradual growth, some dating from the Maccabean
struggles, some from the Roman ascendancy. The prayers
were offered by a reader, and the congregation responded
"Amen." This custom passed into the Christian church.1
The didactic and homiletical part of worship was based on the
Hebrew Scriptures. A lesson from the Law (called parasha)?
and one from the Prophets (haphthara) were read in the origi-
nal,* and followed by a paraphrase or commentary and homily
(midrasK) in the vernacular Aramaic or Greek. A benediction
and the " Amen " of the people closed the service.
As there was no proper priesthood outside of Jerusalem, any
Jew of age might get up to read the lessons, offer prayer, and
address the congregation. Jesus and the apostles availed them-
selves of this democratic privilege to preach the gospel, as the
fulfilment of the law and the prophets.4 The strong didactic
element which distinguished this service from all heathen forms
of worship, had the effect of familiarizing the Jews of all grades,
1 1 Cor. 14 : 16 The responsive element is the popular feature in a liturgy,
and has been wisely preserved in the Anglican Church.
* The Thorah was divided into 154 sections, and read through in three
years, afterwards in 54 sections for one year.
8 The irdyrtwts rov rfaou *o2 rvr irpofirrAv, Acts 13 : 15.
* Luke 4: 17-20; 13 54; John 18:20; Act* 13 . 5, 15, 44 ; 14:1; 17:^4,
10, 17 ; 18 : 4, 26 ; 19 • 8. Paul and Barnabas were requested by the rulers of
the synagogue at Antioch in Puddim to speak after the reading of the law and
the prophet* (Act* 13 : 15).
460 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
even down to the servant-girls, with their religion, and raising
them far above the heathen. At the same time it attracted
proselytes who longed for a purer and more spiritual worship.
The days of public service were the Sabbath, Monday, and
Thursday ; the hours of prayer the third (9 A.M.), the sixth
(noon), and the ninth (3 P.M.).1
The sexes were divided by a low wall or screen, the men on
the one side, the women on the other, as they are still in the
East (and in some parts of Europe). The people stood during
prayer with their faces turned to Jerusalem.
§ 52. Christian Worship.
Christian worship, or cultus, is the public adoration of God
in the name of Christ ; the celebration of the communion of
believers as a congregation with their heavenly Head, for the
glory of the Lord, and for the promotion and enjoyment of
spiritual life. While it aims primarily at the devotion and
edification of the church itself, it has at the same time a mis-
sionary character, and attracts the outside world. This was the
case on the Day of Pentecost when Christian worship in its
distinctive character first appeared.
As our Lord himself in his youth and manhood worshipped
in the synagogue and the temple, so did his early disciples as
long as they were tolerated. Even Paul preached Christ in the
synagogues of Damascus, Cyprus, Antioch in Pisidia, Amplii-
polis, Beroea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus. He " reasoned with
the Jews every sabbath in the synagogue," which furnished him
a pulpit and an audience.
The Jewish Christians, at least in Palestine, conformed as
closely as possible to the venerable forms of the cultus of their
fathers, which in truth were divinely ordained, and were an ex-
pressive type of the Christian worship. So far as we know,
they scrupulously observed the Sabbath, the annual Jewish
1 Gomp. Ps. 55 : 18; Dan 7-11 ; Acts 2 - 15 ; 3 • 1 ; 10 80 These hours of
devotion are respectively called Shachariih^ MinchaTi^ and ^Arabitfu
§ 63. THE SEVERAL PAETS OF WORSHIP. 461
feasts, the hours of daily prayer, and the whole Mosaic ritual,
arid celebrated, in addition to these, the Christian Sunday, the
death and the resurrection of the Lord, and the holy Supper.
But this union was gradually weakened by the stubborn opposi-
tion of the Jews, and was at last entirely broken by the destruc-
tion of the temple, except among the Ebionites and Nazarenes.
In the Gentile-Christian congregations founded by Paul, the
worship took from the beginning a more independent form.
The essential elements of the Old Testament service were trans-
ferred, indeed, but divested of their national legal character, and
transformed by the spirit of the gospel. Thus the Jewish Sab-
bath passed into the Christian Sunday; the typical Passover
and Pentecost became feasts of the death and resurrection of
Christ, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit ; the bloody
sacrifices gave place to the thankful remembrance and appro-
priation of the one, all-sufficient, and eternal sacrifice of Christ
on the cross, and to the personal offering of prayer, intercession,
and entire self -consecration to the service of the Redeemer ; on
the ruins of the temple made without hands arose the never-
ceasing worship of the omnipresent God in spirit and in truth.1
So early as the close of the apostolic period this more free
and spiritual cultus of Christianity had no doubt become well
nigh universal; yet many Jewish elements, especially in the
Eastern church, remain to this day.
§ 53. The Several Paris of Worship.
The several parts of public worship in the time of the apos-
tles were as follows :
1. The PREACHING of the gospel. This appears in the first
period mostly in the form of a missionary address to the uncon-
verted ; that is, a simple, living presentation of the main facts of
the life of Jesus, with practical exhortation to repentance and
conversion. Christ crucified and risen was the luminous centre,
whence a sanctifying light was shed on all the relations of life.
Oomp. John 2 : 19 ; 4 : 28, 24.
462 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Gushing forth from a full heart, this preaching went to the
heart ; and springing from an inward life, it kindled life — a new,
divine life — in the susceptible hearers. It was revival preach-
ing in the purest sense. Of this primitive Christian testimony
several examples from Peter and Paul are preserved in the
Acts of the Apostles.
The Epistles also may be regarded in the wider sense as ser-
mons, addressed, however, to believers, and designed to nourish
the Christian life already planted.
2. The READING of portions of the Old Testament,1 with prac-
tical exposition and application ; transferred from the Jewish
synagogue into the Christian church.* To these were added in
due time lessons from the New Testament ; that is, from the
canonical Gospels and the apostolic Epistles, most of which
were addressed to whole congregations and originally intended
for public use.* After the death of the apostles their writings
became doubly important to the church, as a substitute for their
oral instruction and exhortation, and were much more used in
worship than the Old Testament.
3. PRAYER, in its various forms of petition, intercession, and
thanksgiving. This descended likewise from Judaism, and in
fact belongs essentially even to all heathen religions ; but now
it began to be offered in childlike confidence to a reconciled
Father in the name of Jesus, and for all classes and conditions,
even for enemies and persecutors. The first Christians accom-
panied every important act of their public and private life witli
this holy rite, and Paul exhorts his readers to "pray without
ceasing." On solemn occasions they joined fasting with prayer,
as a help to devotion, though it is nowhere directly enjoined in
the New Testament.4 They prayed freely from the heart, as
they were moved by the Spirit, according to special needs and
circumstances. We have an example in the fourth chapter of
1 The Paraahioth and Haphtaroth, at they were called.
'Camp. Acts 13:15; 15:21.
* 1 Then. 5 : 27 ; Col. 4 : 16.
<Comp. Matt. 9:15; Act* 18:8; 14:28; 1 Cor. 7:5.
§ 53. THE SEVERAL PARTS OF WORSHIP. 463
Acts. There is no trace of a uniform and exclusive lituigy ; it
would be inconsistent with the" vitality and liberty of the apos-
tolic churches. At the same time the frequent use of psalms
and short forms of devotion, as the Lord's Prayer, may be in-
ferred with certainty from the Jewish custom, from the Lord's
direction respecting his model prayer,1 from the strong sense of
fellowship among the first Christians, and finally from the litur-
gical spirit of the ancient church, which could not have so gen-
erally prevailed both in the East and the West without some
apostolic and post-apostolic precedent. The oldest forms are
the eucharistic prayers of the Didache, and the petition for
rulers in the first Epistle of Clement, which contrasts most beau-
tifully with the cruel hostility of Nero and Dornitian.*
4. The SONG, a form o* prayer, in the festive dress of poetry
and the elevated language of inspiration, raising the congrega-
tion to the highest pitch of devotion, and giving it a part in the
heavenly harmonies of the saints. This passed immediately,
with the psalms of the Old Testament, those inexhaustible treas-
ures of spiritual experience, edification, and comfort, from the
temple and the synagogue into the Christian church. The
Lord himself inaugurated psalmody into the new covenant at
the institution of the holy Supper,1 and Paul expressly enjoined
the singing of " psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," as a
means of social edification.4 But to this precious inheritance
from the past, whose full value was now for the first time under-
stood in the light of the New Testament revelation, the church,
in the enthusiasm of her first love, added original, specifically
Christian psalms, hymns, doxologies, and benedictions, which
afforded the richest material for sacred poetry and music in suc-
ceeding centuries ; the song of the heavenly hosts, for example,
at the birth of the Saviour ; * the " Nunc dimittis " of Simeon ; *
the " Magnificat » of the Virgin Mary;' the " Benedictus " of
1 Matt. 6:9; Luke 11 : 1, 2. The Didache, cfc. 8, gives the Lord's Prayer
from Matthew, with a brief doxology (comp. 1 Cor. 29 : 11), and the direction
to pray it three times a day. See Sohaff on the Did.) p. 188 sq.
' Didadit, chs. 8-10; Clement, Ad Cor., chs. 59-61. See voL II. 226.
'Gomp. Matt 26:80; Mark 14: 26. 4Eph.5:19; Col. 8 : 16.
'The "Gloria," Luke 3; 14. • Luke 2; 29, f Luke 1 : 46 sqq.
464 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Zacharias ; ' the thanksgiving of Peter after his miraculous de«
liverance ; a the speaking with tongues in the apostolic churches,
which, whether song or prayer, was always in the elevated lan-
guage of enthusiasm ; the fragments of hymns scattered through
the Epistles ; 8 and the lyrical and liturgical passages, the dox-
ologies and antiphonies of the Apocalypse.4
5. CONFESSION OF FAITH. All the above-mentioned acts of
worship are also acts of faith. The first express confession of
faith is the testimony of Peter, that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God. The next is the trinitarian baptismal
formula. Out of this gradually grew the so-called Apostles'
Creed, which is also trinitarian in structure, but gives the con-
fession of Christ the central and largest place. Though not
1 Luke 1 . 68 sqq. « Acts 4 24-30 Comp Pa. 2.
»Eph. 5 14; 1 Tim 3 16; 2 Tim. 2 11-13; 1 Pet 3 10-12. The quo-
tation is introduced by Sib Ae-yc* and irurrfo 6 \oyos. The rhythmical arrange-
ment and adjustment in these passages, especially the first two, is obvious,
and Westcott and Hort have marked it in their Greek Testament as follows :
"Eycipc, 6 jra&cv&tti/,
jro2 &vd<rra IK ray ye*p£vt
*a2 &ri^at/<rf« ffoi 6 xpurnfc.
— Bph. 5 - 14.
*O* t<f>avfpu>0Tj iv trap*!,
i$lKCU<t>(hl
—1 Tim. 3 . 16.
The last passage is undoubtedly a quotation. The received reading, &c<fe, is
justly rejected by critical editors and exchanged for 5s, which refers to God or
Christ. Some manuscripts read the neuter 5, which would refer to fj.v<rr4)piov.
1 Pet 3 10-12, which reads like a psalm, is likewise metrically arranged by
Westcott and Hort. James 1:17, though probably not a quotation, is a com-
plete hexameter :
&<km &yo&b Jtol vox
Liddon (Lectures on the Divinity of Christ, p. 328) adds to the hymnological
fragments the passage Tit. 3 4-7, as "a hymn on the way of salvation,"
and several other passages which seem to me doubtful.
4Apoc. 1:6-8; 3:7, 14; 5:9,12,13; 11.15,17,19; 15:4; 19 : fr-8,
and other passages. They lack the Hebrew parallelism, but are nevertheless
poetical, and are printed in uncial type by Westcott and Hort.
§ 54. BAPTISM. 465
traceable in its present shape above the fourth century, and
found in the second and third in different longer or shorter
forms, it is in substance altogether apostolic, and exhibits an
incomparable summary of the leading facts in the revelation of
the triune God from the creation of the world to the resurrec-
tion of the body ; and that in a form intelligible to all, and
admirably suited for public worship and catechetical use. We
shall return to it more fully in the second period.
6. Finally, the administration of the SACRAMENTS, or sacred
rites instituted by Christ, by which, under appropriate symbols
and visible signs, spiritual gifts and invisible grace are repre-
sented, sealed, and applied to the worthy participators.
The two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the
antitypes of circumcision and the passover under the Old Testa-
ment, were instituted by Christ as efficacious signs, pledges, and
means of the grace of the new covenant. They are related to
each other as regeneration and sanctification, or as the beginning
and the growth of the Christian life. The other religious rites
mentioned in the New Testament, as confirmation and ordina-
tion, cannot be ranked in dignity with the sacraments, as they
are not commanded by Christ.
§ 54. Baptism.
Literature.
The commentaries on Matt. 28 : 19 ; Mark 16 : 16 ; John 3:5; Acts 2 : 38 ;
8:13,16,18,37; Bom. 6:4; Gal. 3:27; Tit. 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:21.
G. J. Vossros : De Baptismo Disputatwnes XX. Amsterdam, 1648.
W. WAMJ (Episcopalian) : The History of Infant Baptism (a very learned
work), first published in London, 1705, 2 vols., best edition by H.
Cotton, Oxford, 1836, 4 vols., and 1862, 2 vols., together with Gates
(Baptist) Reflections and WalPs Defense. A Latin translation by
Schfosser appeared, vol. L, at Bremen, 1743, and voL IL at Ham-
burg, 1753.
F. BKENOTR (B. Oath.) : GeschicMiche DarsteUung der Verrichtung der
Taufe von Christus bis aufunsere Zeiten. Bamberg, 1818.
MOSES STUABT (Oongregat.) : Mode of Christian Baptism Prescribed in the
New Testament. Andover, 1833 (reprinted 1876).
466 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
HOFUNO (Lutheran) : Das Sacrament der Taufe. Erlangen, 1846 and
1848, 2 yols.
SAMUEL MILLER (Presbyterian) : Infant Baptism Scriptural and Reason-
able ; and Baptism by Sprinkling or Affusion^ the most Suitable and
Edifying Mode. Philadelphia, 1840.
ALEX. CARSON (Baptist) : Baptism in its Mode and Subjects. London,
1844 ; 5th Amer. ed., Philadelphia, 1850.
ALEX. CAMPBELL (founder of the Church of the Disciples, who teach that
baptism by immersion is regeneration) : Christian Baptism, with its
Antecedents and Consequents. Bethany, 1848, and Cincinnati, 1876.
T. J. CONANT (Baptist) : The Meaning and Use of Baptism Philologicatty
and Historically Investigated for the American (Baptist) Bible Union.
New York, 1861.
JAMES W. DALE (Presbyterian, d. 1881) : Classic Baptism. An inquiry
wto tJte meaning of tlte word baptizo. Philadelphia, 1867. Judaic
Baptism, 1871. Johanmc Baptism, 1872 Christie and Pfttnstic
Baptism, 1874. In all, 4 vols. Against the immersion theory.
R. INGHAM (Baptist) : A Handbook on Christian Baptism, in 2 parts. Lon-
don, 1868.
D. B. FORD (Baptist) : Studies on Baptism. New York, 1879. (Against
Dale.)
G. D. ARMSTRONG (Presbyterian minister at Norfolk, Va.) : The Sacra-
ments of the New Testament, as Instituted by CJirist. New York, 1880.
(Popular.)
DEAN STANLEY : Christian Institutions. London and New York, 1881.
Chap. I.
On the. (post-apostolic) archaeology of baptism see the archaeological
works of MARTENE (De Antiques Eccles. JRitibus), GOAR (Euchologion
Grcecorum), BINGHAM, Auausn, BINTERIM, SIBGEL, MARTIGNY, and
SMITH and CHBETHAM (Diet, of Christ. Ant., I., 155 sqq.).
On the baptismal pictures in the catacombs see the works of DE Rossi,
GAKBUOCI, and SCHAFF on the Didache, pp. 36 sqq.
1. The IDEA of Baptism. It was solemnly instituted by Christ,
shortly before his ascension, to be performed in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It took the place
of circumcision as a sign and seal of church membership. It is
the outward mark of Christian discipleship, the rite of initiation
into the covenant of grace. It is the sacrament of repentance
(conversion), of remission of sins, and of regeneration by the
power of the Holy Spirit. ' In the nature of the case it is to
1 Mark 1 : 4 (0<tvri0yia pmivfar tb 64*™ ijuaprwr, said of John's baptism),
rer. 8, where John distinguishes his baptism, as a baptism by water (ffferi).
§ 64. BAPTISM. 467
be received but once. It incorporates the penitent sinner in
the visible church, and entitles him to all the privileges, and
binds him to all the duties of this communion. Where the con-
dition of repentance and faith is wanting, the blessing (as in
the case of the holy Supper, and 4ie preaching of the Word) is
turned into a curse, and what God designs as a savor of life unto
life becomes, by the unfaithfulness of man, a savor of death unto
death.
The necessity of baptism for salvation has been inferred from
John 3 : 5 and Mark 16:16; but while we are bound to God's
ordinances, God himself is free and can save whomsoever and
by whatsoever means he pleases. The church has always held
the principle that the mere want of the sacrament does not con-
demn, but only the contempt. Otherwise all unbaptized infants
that die in infancy would be lost. This horrible doctrine was
indeed inferred by St. Augustin and the Roman church, from
the supposed absolute necessity of baptism, but is in direct con-
flict with the spirit of the gospel and Christ's treatment of chil-
dren, to whom belongs the kingdom of heaven.
The first administration of this sacrament in its full Christian
sense took place on the birthday of the church, after the first
independent preaching of the apostles. The baptism of John
was more of a negative sort, and only preparatory to the bap-
tism with the Holy Spirit. In theory, Christian baptism is pre-
from the baptism of Christ, as a baptism by the Holy Spirit (mrcv/iart ayly) ;
Matt, 3 11 ; Luk^e X 16 , John 1 33 (6 fairrlfav tv wrfpari ayiy) ; Acts
2 • 38 (the first instance of Christian baptism, when Peter called on his hearers :
Mcraxo^trare, ical penrrurfrfjTW cKcurrof vfuor ly rf Mpari 'Iqtrou Xp. cfs
£ ^ c <r i y rwv tLpaprtuv v^w, *ai A4)/4«rd€ rV Swpe&x rov ayiov rwrf/tarof ) ;
8 13 ; 11 . 16; 18 8 (frurrcvor *al tfrnrrl(orro) ; Rom. 6 : 4 (0aim<r/ua cfe rfer
Mvarov) ; GaL 3 27 (€«* Xpurrby */8«rn<rfrrrre) The nerdvota was the connecting
link between the baptism of John and that of Christ The English rendering,
" repentance " (retained in the Revision of 1881), is inaccurate (after the Latin
poeniUntia). The Greek means a change of mind, rod (a transmentativn, as
Coleridge proposed to call it), »'<?., an entire reformation and transformation
of the inner life of man, with a corresponding outward change It was the
burden of the preaching of John the Baptist, and Christ himself, who began
with the enlarged exhortation . Mrrorourc «al wurrttfrrt 4r rf fffcryTcAJy, Mark
1:15.
468 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ceded by conversion, that is the human act of turning from sin
to God in repentance and faith, and followed by regeneration,
that is the divine act of forgiveness of sin and inward cleans-
ing and renewal. Yet in practice the outward sign and in-
ward state and effect do not always coincide ; in Simon Magus
we have an example of the baptism of water without that of the
Spirit, and in Cornelius an example of the communication of
the Spirit before the application of the water. In the case of
infants, conversion, as a conscious act of the will, is impossible
and unnecessary. In adults the solemn ordinance was preceded
by the preaching of the gospel, or a brief instruction in its main
facts, and then followed by more thorough inculcation of the
apostolic doctrine. Later, when great caution became necessary
in receiving proselytes, the period of catechetical instruction and
probation was considerably lengthened.
2. The usual FORM of baptism was immersion. This is in-
ferred from the original meaning of the Greek ftaTTTi&iv and
fiaTTTio-fjios ; l from the analogy of John's baptism in the Jor-
dan ; from the apostles' comparison of the sacred rite with the
miraculous passage of the Red Sea, with the escape of the ark
from the flood, with a cleansing and refreshing bath, and with
burial and resurrection ; finally, from the general custom of the
ancient church, which prevails in the East to this day.' But
1 Gomp. the German tan fen, the English dip. Grimm defines fam-ifa (the
frequentative of jSehrro) : 4 immergo, submergo ; ' Liddell and Scott * to dip in or
under the water. ,' But in the Sept and the New Test, it has also a wider
meaning. Hence Robinson defines it : ' to wash, to lave, to cleanse by wash-
ing * See below.
8 The Oriental and the orthodox Russian churches require even a threefold
immersion, in the name of the Trinity, and deny the validity of any other.
They look down upon the Pope of Rome as an un baptized heretic, and
would not recognize the single immersion of the Baptists The Longer Rus-
sian Catechism thus defines baptism • u A sacrament in which a man who
believes, having his body thrice plunged in water in the name of God, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, dies to the carnal life of sin, and is
born again of the Holy Ghost to a life spiritual and holy " Marriott (in
Smith and Cheetham, I., 161) says- "Triple immersion, that is thrice dip-
ping the head while standing in the water, was the all but universal rule
of the church in early times," and quotes in proof Tertullian, Cyril of
Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Jerome, Leo I., etc. But he admits, on page 168 sq.T
§ 54. BAPTISM. 469
sprinkling, also, or copious pouring rather, was practised at an
early day with sick and dying persons, and in all such cases
where total or partial immersion was impracticable. Some
writers suppose that this was the case even in the first bap-
tism of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost ; for Jeru-
salem was poorly supplied with water and private baths ; the
Kedron is a small creek and dry in summer; but there are
a number of pools and cisterns there. Hellenistic usage allows
to the relevant expressions sometimes the wider sense of wash-
ing, bathing, sprinkling, and ceremonial cleansing.1 Unquestion-
ably, immersion expresses the idea of baptism, as a purification
and renovation of the whole man, more completely than pour-
ing or sprinkling ; but it is not in keeping with the genius of
the gospel to limit the operation of the Holy Spirit by the quan-
tity or the quality of the water or the mode of its application.
Water is absolutely necessary to baptism, as an appropriate sym-
bol of the purifying and regenerating energy of the Holy Spi-
rit ; but whether the water be in large quantity or small, cold or
warm, fresh or salt, from river, cistern, or spring, is relatively
immaterial, and cannot affect the validity of the ordinance.
3. As to the SUBJECTS of baptism: the apostolic origin of
infant baptism is denied not only by the Baptists, but also by
many paedobaptist divines. The Baptists assert that infant
that affusion and aspersion were exceptionally also used, especially in clinical
baptism, the validity of which Cyprian defended (Ep. 76 or 69 ad Magnum).
This mode is already mentioned in the Didache (oh. 7) as valid ; see my book
on the Did., third ed., 1889, pp. 29 sqq.
1 2 Kings 5 • 14 (Sept ) ; Luke 11 38 ; Mark 7 • 4 (framrnobs irorriptw,
etc.); Heb 6 2 (fiawTUTnav *i&ax4) ; 9 10 (ttafApoa 0airr«r/*0?j). Observe
also the remarkable variation of reading in Matt 7 4 c&y ^ £awnVt»»Teu
(except they bathe themselves^ and fiarriffvrrai (tpnnkle themselves). Westcott
and Hort adopt the latter in the text, the former in the margin The Revis-
ion of 1881 reverses the order The * divers baptisms' in Heb 9 10 (in the
Revision " washings ") probably include all the ceremonial purifications of the
Jews, whether by bathing (Lev. 11 25 ; 14 : 9 ; Num. 19 : 7), or washing (Num.
19:7; Mark 7 : 8), or sprinkling (Lev. 14 : 7 ; Num. 19 : 19). In the figurative
phrase frarrlfaw to mrripari iyf?, to overwhelm, plentifully to endow with the
Holy Spirit (Matt. 3: 11; Luke3:10, Markl:8; John 1:83; Acts 1:5;
11 : 16), the idea of immersion is scarcely admissible since the Holy Spirit is
poured out. See my Hist, of the Apost. Ch., p. 569.
470 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
baptism is contrary to the idea of the sacrament itself, and,
accordingly, an unscriptural corruption. For baptism, say they,
necessarily presupposes the preaching of the gospel on the part
of the church, and repentance and faith on the part of the can-
didate for the ordinance ; and as infants can neither understand
preaching, nor repent and believe, they are not proper subjects
for baptism, which is intended only for adult converts. It is
true, the apostolic church was a missionary church, and had first
to establish a mother community, in the bosom of which alone
the grace of baptism can be improved by a Christian education.
So even under the old covenant circumcision was first performed
on the adult Abraham; and so all Christian missionaries in
heathen lands now begin with preaching, and baptizing adults.
True, the New Testament contains no express command to bap-
tize infants ; such a command would not agree with the free
spirit of the gospel. Nor was there any compulsory or general
infant baptism before the union of church and state ; Constan-
tine, the first Christian emperor, delayed his baptism till his
death-bed (as many now delay their repentance) ; and even after
Constantine there were examples of eminent teachers, as Greg-
ory Nazianzen, Augustin, Chrysostom, who were not baptized
before their conversion in early manhood, although they had
Christian mothers.
But still less does the New Testament forbid infant baptism ;
as it might be expected to do in view of the universal custom
of the Jews, to admit their children by circumcision on the
eighth day after birth into the fellowship of the old covenant.
On the contrary, we have presumptive and positive arguments
for the apostolic origin and character of infant baptism, first, in
the fact that circumcision as truly prefigured baptism, as the
passover the holy Supper ; then in the organic relation between
Christian parents and children ; in the nature of the new cove-
nant, which is even more comprehensive than the old ; in the
universal virtue of Christ, as the Redeemer of all sexes, classes,
and ages, and especially in the import of his own infancy,
which has redeemed and sanctified the infantile age ; in his ex*
§ 55. THE LORD'S SUPPER. 471
press invitation to children, whom he assures of a title to the
kingdom of heaven, and whom, therefore, he certainly would
not leave without the sign and seal of such membership; in
the words of institution, which plainly look to the Christian-
izing, not merely of individuals, but of whole nations, includ-
ing, of course, the children ; in the express declaration of Peter
at the first administration of the ordinance, that this promise of
forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Spirit was to the Jews " and
to their children ; " in the five instances in the New Testament
of the baptism of whole families, where the presence of children
in most of the cases is far more probable than the absence of
children in all; and finally, in the universal practice of the
early church, against which the isolated protest of Tertullian
proves no more, than his other eccentricities and Montanistic
peculiarities; on the contrary, his violent protest implies the
prevailing practice of infant baptism. He advised delay of
baptism as a measure of prudence, lest the baptized by sinning
again might forever forfeit the benefit of this ordinance ; but
he nowhere denies the apostolic origin or right of early baptism.
We must add, however, that infant baptism is unmeaning,
and its practice a profanation, except on the condition of Chris-
tian parentage or guardianship, and under the guarantee of a
Christian education. And it needs to be completed by an act of
personal consecration, in which the child, after due instruction
in the gospel, intelligently and freely confesses Christ, devotes
himself to his service, and is thereupon solemnly admitted tc
the full communion of the church and to the sacrament of the
holy Supper. The earliest traces of confirmation are supposed
to be found in the apostolic practice of laying on hands, or sym-
bolically imparting the Holy Spirit, after baptism.1
§ 55. The Lord?* Supper.
The commentaries on Matt 26 : 26 sqq., and the parallel passages in
Mark and Luke; 1 Cor. 10:16, 17; 11: 23 sqq.; John 6 : 47-68; 68.
1 Aoto 8 : 15 ; 19 : 6 ; Heb. 6 : 2.
472 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
D. WATEBLAND (Episcopal, d. 1740) : A Review of the Doctrine of the
Eucharist, a new edition, 1868 (Works, vols. IV. and V.).
J. DOUJNGEB : The Lehre von der Eucharistie in den drei ersten Jahrhun-
derten. Mainz, 1826. (Bom. Oath.)
EBRABD : Das Dogma vom hetl. AbendmaJil u. seine GeschicJite. Frank!
a. M., 1845, 2 vols., vol. I., pp. 1-231. (Reformed.)
J. W. NEVIN : The Mystical Presence. A Vindication of the Reformed or
Calvimstic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist. Philadelphia, 1846, pp.
199-256. (Reformed.)
KAHNIS : Die Lehre vom heil. Abendmahl. Leipz., 1851. (Lutheran )
ROBERT WLLBEKFOBCE : The Doctrine of the Holy EucJuzrist. London,
1853. (Anghcan, or rather Traotarian or Romanizing.)
L. IMM. RUCKEBT : Das Abendmahl. Sein Wesen und seine GeschicJite in
der alien Kir die. Leipz., 1856. (Rationalistic.)
E. B. PUSEY : The Doctrine of the Real Presence, as contained in the
Fathers, from St. John to the Fourth General Council. Oxford, 1855.
(Anglo-Catholic.)
PHILIP FBEEMAN : The Principles of Divine Service. London, 1855-1862,
in two parts. (Anglican, contains much historical investigation on
the subject of eucharistic worship in the ancient Catholic church )
THOS. S. L. VOGAN : The True Doctrine oftJie Eucharist. London, 1871.
(Anglican.)
JOHN HARRISON : An Answer to Dr. Pusey's Challenge respecting the Doc-
tnne of the Real Presence. London, 1871, 2 vols. (Anglican, Low
Church. Includes the doctrine of the Scripture and the first eight
cen tunes.)
Dean STANLEY : Christian Institutions, London and New York, 1881, chs.
IV., V., and VI. (He adopts the Zwinghan view, and says of the
Marburg Conference of 1529 : "Everything which could be said on
behalf of the dogmatic, coarse, literal interpretation of the institu-
tion was urged with the utmost vigor of word and gesture by the
stubborn Saxon. Everything which could be said on behalf of the
rational, refined, spiritual construction was urged with a union of
the utmost acuteness and gentleness by the sober-minded Swiss.'9)
L. GUDE (Danish Lutheran) : Den heUige Nadvere. Copenhagen, 1887,
2 vols. Exegetical and historical. Reviewed in Luthardt's " Theol.
Literaturblatt.," 1889, Nos. 14 sqq.
The sacrament of the holy Supper was instituted by Christ
under the most solemn circumstances, when he was about to
offer himself a sacrifice for the salvation of the world. It is the
feast of the thankful remembrance and appropriation of his
atoning death, and of the living nnion of believers with him, and
their communion among themselves. As the Passover kept in
§ 65. THE LORD'S SUPPEB. 473
lively remembrance the miraculous deliverance from the land of
bondage, and at the same time pointed forward to the Lamb of
God; so the eucharist represents, seals, and applies the now
accomplished redemption from sin and death until the end of
time. Here the deepest mystery of Christianity is embodied
ever anew, and the story of the cross reproduced before us.
Here the miraculous feeding of the five thousand is spiritually
perpetuated. Here Christ, who sits at the right hand of God,
and is yet truly present in his church to the end of the world,
gives his own body and blood, sacrificed for us, that is, his very
self, his life and the virtue of his atoning death, as spiritual
food, as the true bread from heaven, to all who, with due self-
examination, come hungering and thirsting to the heavenly feast.
The communion has therefore been always regarded as the in-
most sanctuary of Christian worship.
In the apostolic period the eucharist was celebrated daily in
connection with a simple meal of brotherly love (agape\ in which
the Christians, in communion with their common Redeemer,
forgot all distinctions of rank, wealth, and culture, and felt
themselves to be members of one family of God. But this
childlike exhibition of brotherly unity became more and more
difficult as the church increased, and led to all sorts of abuse3,
snch as we find rebuked in the Corinthians by Paul. The love-
feasts, therefore, which indeed were no more enjoined by law
than the community of goods at Jerusalem, were gradually
severed from the eucharist, and in the course of the second and
third centuries gradually disappeared.
The apostle requires the Christians1 to prepare themselves
for the Lord's Supper by self-examination, or earnest inquiry
whether they have repentance and faith, without which they
cannot receive the blessing from the sacrament, but rather pro-
voke judgment from God. This caution gave rise to the appro-
priate custom of holding special preparatory exercises for the
holy communion.
In the course of time this holy feast of love has become the
> 1 Cor. 11 : 28.
474 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
subject of bitter controversy, like the sacrament of baptism,
and even the Person of Christ himself. Three conflicting the-
ories— transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and spiritual pres-
ence of Christ — have been deduced from as many interpretatione
of the simple words of institution (" This is my body," etc.),
which could hardly have been misunderstood by the apostles in
the personal presence of their Lord, and in remembrance of his
warning against carnal misconception of his discourse on the
eating of his flesh.1 The eucharistic controversies in the middle
ages and during the sixteenth century are among the most unedi-
fying and barren in the history of Christianity. And yet they can-
not have been in vain. The diff erent theories represent elements
of truth which have become obscured or perverted by scholastic
subtleties, but may be purified and combined. The Lord's Sup-
per is : (1) a commemorative ordinance, a memorial of Christ's
atoning sacrifice on the cross ; (2) a feast of living union of be-
lievers with the Saviour, whereby they truly, that is spiritually
and by faith, receive Christ, with all his benefits, and are nour-
ished with his life unto life eternal ; (3) a communion of be-
lievers with one another as members of the same mystical body
of Christ ; (4) a eucharist or thankoffering of our persons and
services to Christ, who died for us that we might live for him.
Fortunately, the blessing of the holy communion does not de-
pend upon the scholastic interpretation and understanding of the
words of institution, but upon the promise of the Lord and upon
childlike faith in him. And therefore, even now, Christians of
different denominations and holding different opinions can unite
around the table of their common Lord and Saviour, and feel
one with him and in him.
1 John 6 63 ( ' It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ;
the words that I have spoken an to yon are spirit, and are life." This passage
famishes the key for the understanding of the previous discourse, whether it
refers to the Lord's Sapper, directly or indirectly, or not at all That the
tcrri in the words of institution may indicate a figurative or symbolical (as weU
as a real) relation, is now admitted by all critical ezegetes ; that it mutt be
00 understood in that connection is admitted by those who are not under the
control of a doctrinal bias. See my annotations to Lange's Com. on Matthew,
26:26, pp. 470 sqq.
§ 56. SACKED PLACES. 475
§ 56. Sacred Places.
Although, as the omnipresent Spirit, God may be worshipped
in all places of the universe, which is his temple,1 yet our finite,
sensuous nature, and the need of united devotion, require special
localities or sanctuaries consecrated to his worship. The first
Christians, after the example of the Lord, frequented the temple
at Jerusalem and the synagogues, so long as their relation to the
Mosaic economy allowed. But besides this, they assembled also
from the first in private houses, especially for the communion
and the love feast. The church itself was founded, on the day
of Pentecost, in the upper room of an humble dwelling.
The prominent members and first converts, as Mary, the
mother of John Mark in Jerusalem, Cornelius in Csesarea,
Lydia in Philippi, Jason in Thessalonica, Justus in Corinth,
Pi iscillc, in Ephesns, Philemon in Colosse, gladly opened their
houses for social worship. In larger cities, as in Rome, the
Christian community divided itself into several such assemblies
at private houses," which, however, are always addressed in the
epistles as a unit.
That the Christians in the apostolic age erected special houses
of worship is out of the question, even on account of their per-
secution by Jews and Gentiles, to say nothing of their general
poverty ; and the transition of a whole synagogue to the new
faith was no doubt very rare. As the Saviour of the world was
born in a stable, and ascended to heaven from a mountain, so
his apostles and their successors down to the third century,
preached in the streets, the markets, on mountains, in ships,
sepulchres, caves, and deserts, and in the homes of tjieir con-
veils. But how many thousands of costly churches and chapels
have since been built and are constantly being built in all parts
of the world to the honor of the crucified Eedeemer, who in
the days of his humiliation had no place of his own to rest his
head!'
1 Comp. John 4 : 24.
irar' oW, Rom. 16 . 5 ; 1 Cor. 16 : 19. ' Lake 9 . 58.
476 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 57. Soared Times— The Lvrtfs Day.
Literature.
GBOBGE HOLDEN : The Christian Sabbath. London, 1825. (See ch. V.J
W. HENGSTENBEBG : The Lord's Day. Transl. from the German by James
Martin, London, 1853. (Purely exegetical; defends the continen-
tal view, but advocates a better practical observance )
JOHN T. BAYLEB : History of the Sabbath. London, 1857. (See chs. X.-
XIII.)
JAMES AUG. HESSEY : Sunday: Its Origin, History, and Present Obliga-
tion. Bampton Lectures, preached before the University of Oxford,
London, 1860. (Defends the Dominican and moderate Anglican, as
distinct both from the Continental latitudinarian, and from the
Puritanic Sabbatarian, view of Sunday, with proofs from the church
fathers.)
JAMES GILFILLAN : The Sabbath mewed in the Light of Reason, Revelation,
and History, with Sketches of its Literature. Edinb. 1861, repub-
lished and widely circulated by the Am. Tract Society and the
"New York Sabbath Committee," New York, 1862. (The fullest
and ablest defence of the Puritan and Scotch Presbyterian theory of
the Christian Sabbath, especially in its practical aspects.)
ROBERT Cox (F. S. A.) : Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties. Edinb. 1853.
By the same : The Literature of the Sabbath Question. Edinb. 1865,
2 vols. (Historical, literary, and liberal.)
TH. ZAHN : Geschichte des Sonntags in der alten Kirche. Hannover, 1878.
There is a very large Sabbath literature in the English language, of a
popular and practical character. For the Anglo-American theory
and history of the Christian Sabbath, compare the author's essay,
The Anglo-American Sabbath, New York, 1863 (in English and Ger-
man), the publications of the New York Sabbath Committee from
1857-1886, the Sabbath Essays, ed. by Will. C. Wood, Boston (Congreg.
Publ. Soc.), 1879 ; and A. E. WAFFLE : TJie Lord's Day, Philad. 1886.
As every place, so is every day and hour alike sacred to God,
who fills all space and all time, and can be worshipped every-
where and always. But, from the necessary limitations of our
earthly life, as well as from the nature of social and public wor-
ship, springs the use of sacred seasons. The apostolic church
followed in general the Jewish usage, but purged it from super*
Btition and filled it with the spirit of faith and freedom.
1. Accordingly, the Jewish HOURS of daily prayer, particularly
§ 67. SACKED TIMES— THE LORD'S DAT, 477
in the morning and evening, were observed as a matter of habit,
besides the strictly private devotions which are bound to no time.
2. The LORD'S DAY took the place of the Jewish Sabbath as
the weekly day of public worship. The substance remained,
the form was changed. The institution of a periodical weekly
day of rest for the body and the soul is rooted in our physical
and moral nature, and is as old as man, dating, like marriage,
from paradise.1 This is implied in the profound saying of our
Lord : *4 The Sabbath is made for man."
It is incorporated in the Decalogue, the moral law, which
Christ did not come to destroy, but to fulfil, and which cannot
be robbed of one commandment without injury to all the rest.
At the same time the Jewish Sabbath was hedged around by
many national and ceremonial restrictions, which were not in-
tended to be permanent, but were gradually made so prominent
as to overshadow its great moral aim, and to make man sub-
servient to the sabbath instead of the sabbath to man. After
the exile and in the hands of the Pharisees it became a legal
bondage rather than a privilege and benediction. Christ as the
Lord of the. Sabbath opposed this mechanical ceremonialism
and restored the true spirit and benevolent aim of the institu-
1 Gen. 3 • 3. This passage is sometimes explained in a proleptic sense ;
but religious rest-days, dies fenati, are found among most ancient nations,
and recent Assyrian and Babylonian discoveries confirm the pre-Mosaic origin
of the weekly Sabbath See Sayce's revision of George Smith's Chaldean
Account of Genesis, Lond and N York, 1881, p 89 : 4t If references to the
Fall are few and obscure, there can be no doubt that the Sabbath was an
Accadian [primitive Chaldaean] institution, intimately connected with the
worship of the seven planets. The astronomical table's have shown that the
seven-day week was of Accadian origin, each day of it being dedicated to the
sun, moon, and five planets, and the word Sabbath itself, under the form of
Sabattu, was known to the Assyrians, and explained by them as ' a day of
rest for the heart.9 A calendar of Saints' days for the month of the inter-
calary Elul makes the 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days of the lunar
months, Sabbaths on which no work was allowed to be done. The Accadian
words by which the idea of Sabbath is denoted, literally mean : * a day on
which work is unlawful,* and are interpreted in the bilingual tablets as signify,
ing * a day of peace or completion of labors.' " Smith then gives the rigid in-
junctions which the calendar lays down to the king for each of these sabbaths.
Comp. also Trantactoms ofBoc.for B&l. ArchaoL, yoL V., 437.
478 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tion.1 When the slavish, superstitions, and self-righteous Sab-
batarianism of the Pharisees crept into the Galatian churches
and was made a condition of justification, Paul rebuked it as a
relapse into Judaism.*
The day was transferred from the seventh to the first day of
the week, not on the ground of a particular command, but by
the free spirit of the gospel and by the power of certain great
facts which lie at the foundation of the Christian church. It
was on that day that Christ rose from the dead ; that he appeared
to Mary, the disciples of Emmaus, and the assembled apostles ;
that he poured out his Spirit and founded the church ; * and
that he revealed to his beloved disciple the mysteries of the
future. Hence, the first day was already in the apostolic age
honorably designated as " the Lord's Day." On that day Paul
met with the disciples at Troas and preached till midnight. On
that day he ordered the Galatian and Corinthian Christians to
make, no doubt in connection with divine service, their weekly
contributions to charitable objects according to their ability. It
appears, therefore, from the Kew Testament itself, that Sunday
was observed as a day of worship, and in special commemora-
tion of the Kesurrection, whereby the work of redemption was
finished.4
The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the
1 Matt. 12 • 1 sqq , 10 sqq., and the parallel passages in Mark and Luke ;
also John 5 . 8 sqq. ; 6 • 23 ; 9 14, 16.
* Gal. 4 • 10 ; oomp Bom 14 5 , Col 2 : 16. The spirit of the pharisaical
Sabbatarianism with which Christ and St. Pan! had to deal may be inferred
from the fact that even Gamaliel. Paul's teacher, and one of the wisest and
most liberal Rabbis, let his ass die on the sabbath because he thought it a em
to unload him; and this was praised as an act of piety. Other Rabbis pro-
hibited the saving of an ass from a ditch on the sabbath, but allowed a plank
to be laid so as to give the beast a chance to save himself. One great contro-
versy between the schools of Shammai and Hillel turned around the mighty
question whether it was lawful to eat an egg which was laid on the sabbath
day, and the wise Hillel denied it ! Then it would be still more sinful to eat
a chicken that had the misfortune to be born, or to be killed, on a sabbath.
8 The day of Pentecost (whether Saturday or Sunday) is disputed, but the
church always celebrated it on a Sunday. See § 24, p. 241.
4 John 20 : 19, 26 , Acts 20 : 7; 1 Cor. 16 : 2 ; Rev. 1 : 10.
§ 57. SACRED TIMES— THE LORD'S DAY. 479
second century can only be explained by the fact that it had its
roots in apostolic practice. Such observance is the more to be
appreciated as it had no support in civil legislation before the
age of Constantine, and must have been connected with many
inconveniences, considering the lowly social condition of the
majority of Christians and their dependence upon their heathen
masters and employers. Sunday thus became, by an easy and
natural transformation, the Christian Sabbath or weekly day of
rest, at once answering the typical import of the Jewish Sab-
bath, and itself forming in turn a type of the eternal rest of the
people of God in the heavenly Canaan.1 In the gospel dispen-
sation the Sabbath is not a degradation, but an elevation, of the
week days to a higher plane, looking to the consecration of all
time and all work. It is not a legal ceremonial bondage, but
rather a precious gift of grace, a privilege, a holy rest in God
in the midst of the unrest of the world, a day of spiritual re-
freshing in communion with God and in the fellowship of the
saints, a foretaste and pledge of the never-ending Sabbath in
heaven.
The due observance of it, in which the churches of England,
Scotland, and America, to their incalculable advantage, excel the
churches of the European continent, is a wholesome school of
discipline, a means of grace for the people, a safeguard of pub-
lic morality and religion, a bulwark against infidelity, and a
source of immeasurable blessing to the church, the state, and
the family. Next to the Church and the Bible, the Lord's Day
is the chief pillar of Christian society.
Besides the Christian Sunday, the Jewish Christians observed
their ancient Sabbath also, till Jerusalem was destroyed. After
that event, the Jewish habit continued only among the Ebionites
and Nazarenes.
As Sunday was devoted to the commemoration of the Sav-
iour's resurrection, and observed as a day of thanksgiving and
joy, so, at least as early as the second century, if not sooner,
> Camp. Heb. 4 : 1-11 ; Rev. 4 : 18.
480 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Friday came to be observed as a day of repentance, with prayer
and fasting, in commemoration of the sufferings and death of
Christ.
3. ANNUAL festivals. There is no injunction for their observ-
ance, direct or indirect, in the apostolic writings, as there is no
basis for them in the Decalogue. But Christ observed them,
and two of the festivals, the Passover and Pentecost, admitted
of an easy transformation similar to that of the Jewish into the
Christian Sabbath. From some hints in the Epistles,1 viewed
in the light of the universal and uncontradicted practice of the
church in the second century, it may be inferred that the annual
celebration of the death and the resurrection of Christ, and
of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, originated in the apostolic
age. In truth, Christ crucified, risen, and living in the church,
was the one absorbing thought of the early Christians ; and as
this thought expressed itself in the weekly observance of Sun-
day, so it would also very naturally transform the two great
typical feasts of the Old Testament into the Christian Easter-
and Whit-Sunday. The Paschal controversies of the second cen-
tury related not to the fact, but to the time of the Easter festi-
val, and Polycarp of Smyrna and Anicet of Rome traced their
customs to an unimportant difference in the practice of the
apostles themselves.
Of other annual festivals, the New Testament contains not
the faintest trace. Christmas carne in during the fourth cen-
tury by a natural development of the idea of a church year,
as a sort of chronological creed of the people The festivals of
Mary, the Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs, followed gradually, as
the worship of saints spread in the Nicene and post-Nicene age,
until almost every day was turned first into a holy day and then
Into a holiday. As the saints overshadowed the Lord, the
Hunts' days overshadowed the Lord's Day.
1 1 Cor. 5 : 7, 8; 16 . 8 ; Acts 18 : 21 ; 20 . 6, 16.
g 58. LITERATURE. 481
CHAPTER X.
ORGANIZATION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
§ 58. Literature.
L SOUBCES.
The Acts represent the first, the Pastoral Epistles the second stage
of the apostolic church polity. BAUB (Die sogenannten Pastor-
albnefe des Ap. Paulus, 1835), HOLTZMANN (Ihe Pastor albriefe,
1880, pp. 190 sqq.)» and others, who deny the Pauline authorship
of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, date the organization laid
down there from the post-apostolic age, but it belongs to the period
from A.D. 60-70. The Epistles to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12 : 28)
and to the Ephesians (4 : 11), and the Apocalyptic Epistles (Rev. chs.
2 and 3) contain important hints on the church offices.
Gomp. the Didache, and the Epp. of CLEMENT and IGNATIUS.
IL GENERAL WORKS.
Gomp. in part the works quoted in ch. IX. (especially VITBINGA), and
the respective sections in the " Histories of the Apostolic Age " by
NEANDER, THIEBSCH (pp. 73, 150, 281), LBOHLEB, LANGE, and SCHAFP
(Amer. ed., pp. 495-545).
m. SEPARATE WORKS.
Episcopal and Presbyterian writers during the seventeenth century, and
more recently, have paid most attention to this chapter, generally
with a view of defending their theory of church polity.
BIGHABD HOOKER (called "the Judicious," moderate Anglican, d. 1600) :
Ecclesiastical Polity, 1594, and often since, best edition by Keble,
1836, in 4 vols. A standard work for Episcopal churchmen.
Jos. BINGHAM (Anglican, d. 1668) : Origines Ecclesiastico? ; or, The Anti-
quities of the Christian Church, first published 1710-22, in 10 vols.
8vo, and often since, Books II. -IV. Still an important work,
THOMAS CABTWRIGHT (the father of English Presbyterianism, d. 1603) :
Directory of Church Government anciently contended for, written in
1583, published by authority of the Long Parliament ir 1644.
482 TIKST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
In the controversy during the Long Parliament and the Westmin-
ster Assembly, Bishop HALL and Archbishop USSHEB were the most
learned champions of episcopacy ; while the five SMBOTYMNIANS (so
called from their famous tract Smectymnuus, 1641, in reply to Hall),
i.e., Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, jThomas Foung, Matthew
JVewcomen, and William £purstow, were the most prominent Pres-
byterians trying to " demonstrate the parity of bishops and presby-
ters in Scripture, and the antiquity of ruling elders." See also A
Vindication of the Presbyterian Government and Ministry, London,
1650, and Jus Divinum Ministeni JSvangehci, or the Dimne Eight of
the Gospel Ministry, London, 1654, both published by the Provincial
Assembly of London. These books have only historical interest.
SAMUEL MILLER (Presbyterian d. 1850) : Letters concerning the Constitu-
tion and Order of the Christian Ministry, 2d ed., Philadelphia, 1830.
JAMES P. WILSON (Presbyterian) : The Primitive Government of Christian
Churches. Philadelphia, 1833 (a learned and able work).
JOH. ADAM MOHLEB (Bom. Oath., d. 1848) : Die Einheit der Kirche, oder
das Princip des Kathohcismus, dargestettt im Geiste der Kirchenvater
der drei ersten Jahrhunderte. Tubingen, 1825 (new ed. 1844). More
important for the post apostolic age.
BIOH. BOTHB {d. 1866) : Die Anfdnge der chnsthcTien Kirche u. ihrer Ver-
fassung, vol I. Wittenb., 1837, pp. 141 sqq. A Protestant coun-
terpart of Mdhler's treatise, exceedingly able, learned, and acute,
but wrong on the question of church and state, and partly also on
the origin of the episcopate, which he traces back to the apostolic
age.
P. CHB. BAUB : Ueber den Ursprung des Episcopates in der christl. Kirche.
Tubingen, 1838. Against Bothe.
WILLIAM PALMEB (Anglo-Catholic) : A Treatise on the Church of Christ.
London, 1838, 2 vols., 3d ed., 1841. Amer. ed., with notes, by
Bishop Whittingham, New York, 1841.
W. LOHB (Luth.) : Die N. T. lichen Aemter u. ihr VerhdUniss zur Gemeinde.
Niirnb. 1848. Also : Drei Buclusr von der Kirche, 1845.
FB. DELTTZSCH (Luth.) : Vier Bucher von der Kircfo. Leipz., 1847.
J. KOSTLIN (Luth.) : Das Wesen der Kirche nach Lehre und Geschichte des
N. T., Gotha, 1854; 2d ed. 1872.
SAMUEL DAVIDSON (Independent) : The Ecclesiastical Polity of the Net*
Testament. London, 1848 ; 2d ed. 1854.
BALPH WABDLAW (Independent) : Congregational Independency, in con*
tradistinction to Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, the Church Polity
of the New Testament. London, 1848.
ALBERT BARNES (Presbyterian, d. 1870) : Organization and Government of
the Apostolic Church. Philadelphia, 1855.
OHABLBS HODGE (Presbyterian, d. 1878) and others : Essays on the Primi-
tive Church Offices, reprinted from the "Princeton Beview," N. York,
§ 68. LITERATURE. 483
1858. Also OH. HODGE: Discussions in Church Polity. Selected
from the "Princeton Review," and arranged by W. Durant. New
York, 1878.
Bishop KATE (Episc.) : Account of the External Discipline and Govern-
ment of the Church of Christ in tlte First TJiree Centuries. London,
1855.
K LECHLEB (Luth.) : Die N. Testamenthche Lehre vom heil. Amte. Stutt-
gart, 1857.
ALBBECHT BITSOHL : Die Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche, 2d ed.,
thoroughly revised, Bonn, 1857 (605 pp.). Purely historical and
critical.
JAMES BANNBBMAN (Presbyterian) : The Church of Chnst. A Treatise on
the Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline, and Government of the
Christian Church. Edinburgh, 1868, 2 vols.
JOHN J. McEiiHiNNEY (Episc.) TJie Doctrine of the Church. A Historical
Monograph. Philadelphia, 1871. It begins after the apostolic age,
but has a useful list of works on the doctrine of the Church from
A.D. 100 to 1870.
G. A. JACOB (Low Church Episc.) : Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Tes-
tament; Study for the Present Crisis in the Church of England. Lon-
don, 1871 ; 5th Amer. ed , New York (Whittaker), 1879.
J. B. LIOHTFOOT (Evangelical Broad Church Episcop., Bishop of Dur-
ham, very learned, able, and fair) • The Christian Ministry. Excur-
sus to his Commentary on Phihppians. London, 1868, 3d ed.
London, 1873, pp. 179-267 ; also separately printed in New York
(without notes), 1879.
CHARLES WORDSWORTH (High Church Episcop., Bishop of St. Andrews) :
The Outlines of the Christian Ministry. London, 1872.
HENBY COTTEBILL (Bishop of Edinburgh) : The Genesis of the Church.
Edinburgh and London, 1872.
W. BBTSOHLAO : Die christhche Gemeindeverfassung im Zeitalter des N.
Testaments (Crowned prize essay). Harlem, 1876.
C. WEIZSACKEB : Die Versammlungen der aUesten Christengemeinden. In
the " Jahrbucher fur Deutsche Theologie," Gotha, 1876, pp. 474-
530. His Apost. Zeitalter (1886), pp. 606-645.
HENBY M. DBXKBB (Congregationalist) : Congregationalism. 4th ed.
Boston, 1876.
E. MELLOB : Priesthood in the Light of the New Testament. Lond., 1876.
J. B. PATON : The Origin of the Priesthood in the Christian Church. Lon-
don, 1877.
EL WETNQABTEN : Die Umwandlung der ursprtinglichen christl. Gemeinde-
organisation zur Icatholischen Kirche, in Sybel's " Histor. Zeitsohrift "
for 1881, pp. 441-467.
EDWIN HATCH (Broad Church Episcop.) : The Organization of the Early
Christian Churches. Bampton Lectures for 1880. Oxford and
484 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Cambridge, 1881. — Discusses the post-apostolic organization (Bish-
ops, Deacons, Presbyters, Clergy and Laity, Councils, etc.). A
learned and independent work, which endeavors to show that the
development of the organization of the church was gradual ; that
the elements of which it was composed were already existing in
human society ; that the form was originally a democracy and be*
came by circumstances a monarchy ; and that the Christian church
has shown its vitality and its divinity by readjusting its form in suc-
cessive ages. German translation by AD. HABNAOK, Giessen, 1883.
ABTHUB P. STANLEY (Broad Church Episc., d. 1881) : Christian Institu-
tions, London and New York, 1881. Ch. X. on the Clergy.
CH. GORE: The Ministry of the Church, London, 1889 (Anglo-Catholic).
Articles on the Christian Ministry by SANDAY, HABNAOK, MILLIGAN,
GORE, SIMCOX, SALMON, and others, in " The Expositor," London,
1887 and 1888.
§ 59. The Christian Mi^ii<stry^ and its Relation to the Chris-
tian Community.
Christianity exists not merely as a power or principle in this
world, but also in an institutional and organized form which is
intended to preserve and protect (not to obstruct) it. Christ
established a visible church with apostles, as authorized teachers
and rulers, and with two sacred rites, baptism and the holy
communion, to be observed to the end of the world.1
At the same time he laid down no minute arrangements, but
only the simple and necessary elements of an organization,
wisely leaving the details to be shaped by the growing and
changing wants of the church in different ages and countries.
In this respect Christianity, as a dispensation of the Spirit,
differs widely from the Mosaic theocracy, as a dispensation of
the letter.
The ministerial office was instituted by the Lord before his
ascension, and solemnly inaugurated on the first Christian Pen-
tecost by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, to be the regular
organ of the kingly power of Christ on earth in founding, main-
taining, and extending the church. It appears in the New Testa-
>Comp. Matt 16 -18; 18 18; 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 22: 19;
John 20 : 21-23 ; Eph. 2 :20ff.; 4 :11 ff.
§ 59. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 485
xnent under different names, descriptive of its various functions :
— the " ministry of the word," " of the Spirit," " of righteous-
ness," "of reconciliation." It includes the preaching of the
gospel, the administration of the sacraments, and church disci-
pline or the power of the keys, the power to open aird shut the
gates of the kingdom of heaven, in other words, to declare to
the penitent the forgiveness of sins, and to the unworthy ex-
communication in the name and by the authority of Christ.
The ministers of the gospel are, in an eminent sense, servants
of God, and, as such, servants of the churches in the noble
spirit of self-denying love according to the example of Christ,
for the eternal salvation of the souls intrusted to their charge.
They are called — not exclusively, but emphatically — the light of
the world, the salt of the earth, fellow-workers with God,
stewards of the mysteries of God, ambassadors for Christ. And
this unspeakable dignity brings with it corresponding responsi-
bility. Even a Paul, contemplating the glory of an office,
which is a savor of life unto life to believers, and of death unto
death to the impenitent, exclaims: " Who is sufficient for these
things ? " ' and ascribes all his sufficiency and success to the un-
merited grace of God.
The internal call to the sacred office and the moral qualifica-
tion for it must come from the Holy Spirit,9 and be recognized
and ratified by the church through her proper organs. The
apostles were called, indeed, immediately by Christ to the work
of founding the church ; but so soon as a community of believers
arose, the congregation took an active part also in all religious
affairs. The persons thus inwardly and outwardly designated
by the voice of Christ and his church, were solemnly set apart
and inducted into their ministerial functions by the symbolical
act of ordination ; that is, by prayer and the laying on of the
hands of the apostles or their representatives, conferring or
authoritatively confirming and sealing the appropriate spiritual
gifts.1
1 2 Cor 2 16. f Acts 20 : 28.
»Aofcs0.6; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:6.
486 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Yet, high as the sacred office is in its divine origin and im-
port, it was separated by no impassable chasm from the body of
believers. The Jewish and later Catholic antithesis of clergy
and laity has no place in the apostolic age. The ministers, on
the one part, are as sinful and as dependent on redeeming grace
as the members of the congregation; and those members, on
the other, share equally with the ministers in the blessings of
the gospel, enjoy equal freedom of access to the throne of grace,
and are called to the same direct communion with Christ, the
head of the whole body. The very mission of the church is, to
reconcile all men with God, and make them true followers of
Christ. And though this glorious end can be attained only
through a long process of history, yet regeneration itself con-
tains the germ and the pledge of the final perfection. The
New Testament, looking at the principle of the new life and
the high calling of the Christian, styles all believers " brethren,"
"saints," a "spiritual temple," a "peculiar people," a "holy
and royal priesthood." It is remarkable, that Peter in particular
should present the idea of the priesthood as the destiny of all,
and apply the term clems not to the ministerial order as distinct
from the laity, but to the community; thus regarding every
Christian congregation as a spiritual tribe of Levi, a peculiar
people, holy to the Lord.1
The temporal organization of the empirical church is to be
a means (and not a hindrance, as it often is) for the actualiza-
tion of the ideal republic of God when all Christians shall be
prophets, priests, and kings, and fill all time and all space with
his praise.
NOTES.
1. Bishop LigUtfoot begins his valuable discussion on the Christian
ministry (p. 179) with this broad and liberal statement : " The kingdom
of Christ, not being a kingdom of this world, is not limited by the re-
1 1 Pet 2 5, 9; 5 -3 ; oomp. Rev. 1 : 6; 5 :10; 20 -6 The English " priest"
(the German, Priestcr) is etymologioally a harmless contraction of u presbyter "
\i e , elder), but has become a synonyme for the Latin saoerdos (itptvs, yi~),
meaning an offerer of sacrifices and a mediator between God and the people
Hilton said rather sarcastically, " presbyter is priest writ large."
§ 69. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 487
itrictions which fetter other societies, political or religions. It is in the
ullest sense free, comprehensive, universal It displays this character,
lot only in the acceptance of all comers who seek admission, irrespective
>f race or caste or sex, bnt also in the instruction and treatment of
ihose who are already its members. It has no sacred days or seasons,
10 special sanctuaries, because every time and every place alike are
loly. Above all it has no sacerdotal system. It interposes no sacri-
icial tribe or class between God and man, by whose intervention alone
3-od is reconciled and man forgiven. Each individual member holds
personal communion with the Divine Head. To Him immediately he
Is responsible, and from Him directly he obtains pardon and draws
itrength."
Bnt he immediately proceeds to qualify this statement, and says that
;his is simply the ideal view — " a holy season extending the whole year
round, a temple confined only by the limits of the habitable world, a
priesthood co-extensive with the race"— and that the Church of Christ
jan no more hold together without officers, rules, and institutions than
my other society of men. '• As appointed days and set places are indis-
pensable to her efficiency, so also the Church could not fulfil the pur-
poses for which she exists without rulers and teachers, without a minis-
try of reconciliation, in short, without an order of men who may in some
jense be designated a priesthood. In this respect the ethics of Chris-
tianity present an analogy to the politics. Here also the ideal concep-
tion and the actual realization are incommensurate and in a manner
contradictory."
2. Nearly all denominations appeal for their church polity to the New
Testament, with about equal right and equal wrong : the Romanists to
the primacy of Peter ; the Irvingites to the apostles and prophets and
evangelists, and the miraculous gifts ; the Episcopalians to the bishops,
the angels, and James of Jerusalem ; the Presbyterians to the presby-
ters and their identity with the bishops ; the Congregation alists to the
independence of the local congregations and the absence of centraliza-
tion The most that can be said is, that the apostolic age contains fruit-
ful germs for various ecclesiastical organizations subsequently developed,
but none of them can claim divine authority except for the gospel min-
istry, which is common to all. Dean Stanley asserts that no existing
church can find any pattern or platform of its government in the first
century, and thus strongly contrasts the apostolic and post-apostolic
organizations (/.c.) : " It is certain that the officers of the apostolical or
of any subsequent church, were not part of the original institution of the
Founder of our religion ; that of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon ; of
Metropolitan, Patriarch, and Pope, there is not the shadow of a trace in
the four Gospels. It is certain that they arose gradually out of the pre-
existing institutions either of the Jewish synagogue, or of the Roman
empire, or of the Greek municipalities, or under the pressure of local
488 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
emergencies. It is certain that throughout the first century, and fof
the first years of the second, that is, through the later chapters of the
Acts, the Apostolical Epistles, and the writings of Clement and Hennas.
Bishop and Presbyter were convertible terms, and that the body of men
so-called were the rulers — so far as any permanent rulers existed — of the
early church. It is certain that, as the necessities of the time demanded,
first at Jerusalem, then in Asia Minor, the elevation of one Presbyter
above the rest by the almost universal law, which even in republics
engenders a monarchial element, the word * Bishop ' gradually changed
its meaning, arid by the middle of the second century became restricted
to the chief Presbyter of the locality. It is certain that in no instance
were the apostles called * Bishops ' in any other sense than they were
equally called * Presbyters ' and ' Deacons.' It is certain that in no in-
stance before the beginning of the third century the title or function of
the Pagan or Jewish priesthood is applied to the Christian pastors
It is as sure that nothing like modern Episcopacy existed before the
close of the first century as it is that nothing like modern Presbyterian-
ism existed after the beginning of the second. That which was once
the Gordian knot of theologians has at least in this instance been untied,
not by the sword of persecution, but by the patient unravelment of
scholarship."
§ 60. Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists.
The ministry originally coincided with the apostolate ; as the
church was at first identical with the congregation of Jeru-
salem. No other officers are mentioned in the Gospels and the
first five chapters of the Acts. But when the believers began
to number thousands, the apostles could not possibly perform
all the functions of teaching, conducting worship, and adminis-
tering discipline; they were obliged to create new offices for
the ordinary wants of the congregations, while they devoted
themselves to the general supervision and the further extension
of the gospel. Thus arose gradually, out of the needs of the
Christian church, though partly at the suggestion of the exist-
ing organization of the Jewish synagogue, the various general
and congregational offices in the church. As these all have
their common root in the apostolate, so they partake also, in
different degrees, of its divine origin, authority, privileges, and
responsibilities.
§ 60. APOSTLES, PBOPH15TS, EVANGELISTS. 489
We notice first, those offices which were not limited to any
one congregation, but extended over the whole church, or at
least over a great part of it. These are apostles, prophets, and
evangelists. Paul mentions them together in this order.1 But
the prophecy was a gift and function rather than an office, and
the evangelists were temporary officers charged with a particu-
lar mission under the direction of the apostles. All three are
usually regarded as extraordinary officers and confined to the
apostolic age ; but from time to time God raises extraordinary
missionaries (as Patrick, Columba, Boniface, Ansgar), divines
(as Augustin, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Melancthon,
Calvin), and revival preachers (as Bernard, Knox, Baxter, Wes-
ley, Whitefield), who may well be called apostles, prophets,
and evangelists of their age and nation.3
1. APOSTLES. These were originally twelve in number, an-
swering to the twelve tribes of Israel. In place of the traitor,
Judas, Matthias was chosen by lot, between the ascension and
Pentecost.* After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Paul was
1 In Eph. 4 . 11, he adds " pastors and teachers." In 1 Cor 12 . 28 he
enumerates first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers; then
powers, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues. Neither
list is intended to be strictly methodical and exhaustive.
* So Calvin, Inst. IV cb 3, § 4 : " Seeundum hanc interpretationem (qua
mifii et verbis et sententics Pauh consentanea videtw) ires ittce functtones [Apos-
toli, Prophet®, Evangelista] non idea institutes in ecclesia fuerunt, ut perpetua
f&rent, sed ad id modo tempus quo erigendcB erant ecclesia, ubi nuUce ante fuer-
ant, wl certe a Mose ad Christum traducenda. Quanguam non nego guin
Apostolos postea quoque, vel saltern eorum loco Eoangelista* interdwn excttarit
Dens, ut nostro tempore factvm est." Most Protestant historians hold sub-
stantially the same view. The followers of the " Catholic Apostolic Church,"
usually called "IrvingiteB," claim to have apostles, prophets, evangelists
raised up by the Lord himself in these last days preparatory to his Advent ;
but these <k apostles" died one. by one, and their places remain vacant. See
my Hist, of the Ap. Church, pp. 516 sqq., and Creeds of Christendom, I 905
sqq. In a very substantial sense the original apostles survive in their teach*
ing, and need and can have no successors or substitutes.
3 Some commentators wrongly hold that the election of Matthias, made
before the pentecostal illumination, was a hasty and invalid act of Peter, and
that Christ alone could fill the vacancy by a direct call, which waa intended
for Paul But Paul never represents himself as belonging to the Twelve
and distinguishes himself from them as their equal See Gal., cha. 1 and 2.
490 FIEST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
added as the thirteenth by the direct call of the exalted Saviour.
He was the independent apostle of the Gentiles, and afterward
gathered several subordinate helpers around him. Besides these
there were apostolic men, like Barnabas, and James the brother
of the Lord, whose standing and influence were almost equal to
that of the proper apostles. The Twelve (excepting Matthias,
who, however, was an eye-witness of the resurrection) and Paul
were called directly by Christ, without human intervention, to
be his representatives on earth, the inspired organs of the Holy
Spirit, the founders and pillars of the whole church. Their
office was universal, and their writings are to this day the un-
erring rule of faith and practice for all Christendom. But they
never exercised their divine authority in arbitrary and despotic
style. They always paid tender regard to the rights, freedom,
and dignity of the immortal souls under their care. In every
believer, even in a poor slave like Onesimns, they recognized a
member of the same body with themselves, a partaker of their
redemption, a beloved brother in Christ. Their government of
the church was a labor of meekness and love, of self-denial and
unreserved devotion to the eternal welfare of the people. Peter,
the prince of the apostles, humbly calls himself a " fellow-pres-
byter," and raises his prophetic warning against the hierarchical
spirit which so easily takes hold of church dignitaries and alien-
ates them from the people.
2. PROPHETS. These were inspired and inspiring teachers
and preachers of the mysteries of God. They appear to have
had special influence on the choice of officers, designating the
persons who were pointed out to them by the Spirit of God in
their prayer and fasting, as peculiarly fitted for missionary labor
or any other service in the church. Of the prophets the book
of Acts names Agabus, Barnabas, Symeon, Lucius, Manaen,
and Saul of Tarsus, Judas and Silas.1 The gift of prophecy
in the wider sense dwelt in all the apostles, pre-eminently in
John, the seer of the new covenant and author of the Eevela-
tioD. It was a function rather than an office.
1 Ada 11 . 28 ; 21 : 19 ; 13 . 1 ; 15 : 82.
§ 61. PRESBYTERS OR BISHOPS. 491
3. EVANGELISTS, itinerant preachers, delegates, and fellow-
laborers of the apostles — such men as Mark, Luke, Timothy,
Titus, Silas, Epaphras, Trophimus, and Apollos.1 They may
be compared to modern missionaries. They were apostolic
commissioners for a special work. " It is the conception of a
later age which represents Timothy as bishop of Ephesus, and
Titus as bishop of Crete. St. Paul's own language implies that
the position which they held was temporary. In both cases
their term of office is drawing to a close when the apostle
writes." f
§ 61. Presbyters or Bishops. The Angels of the Seven
Churches. James of Jerusalem.
"We proceed to the officers of local congregations who were
charged with carrying forward in particular places the work
begun by the apostles and their delegates. These were of two
kinds, Presbyters or Bishops, and Deacons or Helpers. They
multiplied in proportion as Christianity extended, while the
number of the apostles diminished by death, and could, in the
nature of the case, not be filled up by witnesses of the life and
resurrection of Christ. The extraordinary officers were neces-
sary for the founding and being of the church, the ordinary
officers for its preservation and well-being.
The terms PRESBYTER (or Elder) 8 and BISHOP (or Overseer,
1 1 Tim. 1:8; 3-14; 2 Tim. 4 9, 21 ; Tit. 1 • 6 ; 8 • 18; 1 Pet 0 12.
Calvin takes the same view of the Evangelists, Inst. IV , ch. 3, §4 : " Per
EwingeU*tas eos intelligo, q\ii quum digmtate essent ApostoUs minores, offltio
tamen prarimi erant^ adeoque vices eorum gerebant. Quotes fuerunt, Lucas,
Timotlieu*, Titus, et retiqui similes: ac fvrtassis etiam septuaginta distipvli,
quos secundo db Apostolis loco Christus designavit (Luc 10.1)."
* Lightfoot, p. 197 Other Episcopal writers, accepting the later tradition
(Euseb., H E. TEL 4 ; Const. Apost , VII 46), regard Timothy and Titus
as apostolic types of diocesan bishops. So Bishop Chr. Wordsworth : A
Church History to the Council of Nicasa (1880, p 42), and the writer of the
article •• Bishop," in Smith and Oheetham (L 211).
8 The *pt<r04rffp0i correspond to the Jewish tekenim ; see above, § 01. It
was originally a term of age, and then of dignity, like Senators, Senates,
•yt/xwcr/a (comp. oar " Senate," " Aldermen9'), for the members of the govern-
492 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Superintendent)1 denote in the New Testament one and the
same office, with this difference only, that the first is borrowed
from the Synagogue, the second from the Greek communities ;
and that the one signifies the dignity, the other the duty.'
1. The identity of these officers is very evident from the fol-
lowing facts :
ing body of a municipality or state. Aged and experienced men were gener-
ally chosen for office, bat not without exceptions. Timothy was compara-
tively young when he was ordained (1 Tim. 4 • 12). The Roman Senate
consisted originally of venerable men, but after the time of Augustus the
&ta» sanatoria was reduced to twenty -five. The use of presbyter in the sense
of saeerdos, /cpctf;, priest, dates from the time of Cyprian, and became com-
mon from the fifth century onward to the Reformation. In the New Test,
there is no trace of any special sacerdotal office or caste
1 The term Maicoros occurs about a dozen times in the Septuagint for
vanous Hebrew words meaning 'k inspector," u taskmaster,'' "captain,"
* 'president" (see Trommius, Concord. Or LXX Interpr sub verbo, and also
sub tviffKorf) and Jriowoircw). It was used in Egypt of the officers of a temple,
in Greece of overseers or guardians in general, or of municipal and financial
officers. In Athens the commissioners to regulate colonies and subject states
were called Mtricovoi. The Spartans sent €irinc\rrrai in the same capacity.
The term was not only applied to permanent officers, but also to the govern-
ing body, or a committee of the governing body. The feminine lino-fcoirn is
not classical, but passed from the Sept. into the Greek Test. (Acts 1 20 ;
1 Tim 3:1) and patristic usage with the meaning the work or office of a
bUhop (inspect^ visitatw). See Lightfoot, Phdtppians^ 93 sqq., G-ebhardt and
Banmck, Pair Apost. Op. p 5 ; Hatch, /. c , 37 sqq , and Hatch, art " Priest"
in Smith and Gheetham, II. 1698 sqq
The distinction between them, as two separate orders of ministers, dates
from the second century, and is made a dogma in the Greek and Roman
churches The Council of Trent (Saw XXIII , cap. 4, and can vn dc sacra-
me/tfo ordKnis) declares bishops to be successors of the apostles, and pro-
nounces the anathema on those who affirm lt that bishops are not superior to
eriesta (presbyters).*' Yet there are Roman Catholic historians who are
learned and candid enough to admit the original identity. So Probst, Sacra-
mente, p 215; Dollinger (before his secession), Fir*t Age of the Church,
Engl transl. II. Ill ; and Krans, Real-Bncyld. der christt. Alterthumer (1880),
1. 62 Eraus says : " Anfangt werden beide Termini [Mown-of and *p*ff&&Ttpot]
vielfach mit denuelben Werthe angewendet (Act 20-17, 28; Tit 1 -5 , Clem.
ad Cor. L 42, 44, 47). Noch im zweiten JaJirh findet man die BkcTwfe auch
wpcffftfocpot genannt. nicht aber umgekefirt. Sofortfixirt rich dann der SpracJi-
gebraueh : der B. ist der Vorsteher der *apo<Kfa, tiolrnvu, aU Nachfolger der
ApOBtd; ihm untentehen Volk und Qeistlichkett ; ihm wohnt die Futte der
priesterUchen Gewalt inne." The sacerdotal idea, however, does not synchro-
nice with the elevation of the episcopate, but came in a little later.
§ 61. PRESBYTERS OR BISHOPS. 493
a. They appear always as a plurality or as a college in one
and the same congregation, even in smaller cities, as Philippi.1
&. The same officers of the church of Ephesus are alternately
called presbyters a and bishops.
c. Paul sends greetings to the " bishops " and " deacons " of
Philippi, but omits the presbyters because they were included
in the first term ; as also the plural indicates.*
d. In the Pastoral Epistles, where Paul intends to give the
qualifications for all church officers, he again mentions only
two, bishops and deacons, but uses the term presbyter after-
wards for bishop. *
Peter urges the "presbyters" to "tend the flock of God,"
and to " fulfil the office of bishops " with disinterested devotion
and without " lording it over the charge allotted to them." *
e. The interchange of terms continued in use to the close of
the first century, as is evident from the Epistle of Clement of
Rome (about 95), and the Didache, and still lingered towards
the close of the second/
1 The only apparent exceptions are 1 Tim. 8:2, Tit 1 • 7, but there the
definite article before britncoxos is generic.
2 Acts 20 . 17 (presbyters), 28 (bishops). In the English version the argu-
ment of the identity is obscured by the exceptional translation " overseers/1
instead of the usual u bishops/' The Revised Version of 1881 has mended
this defect by adopting ''elders " and " bishops" in the text, and *• presby-
ters " and ' ( overseers " in the margin. The perversion of the passage, under
the unconscious influence of a later distinction, began with Irenaeus, who snys
(Ado. Har. IIL 14, 2): "The bishops and presbyters were called together
(convocatis episeopis et prabyUris) at Miletus from Ephesus, and Hie other
neighbonng cities (et a rdtguis proxvmis civitatibus}" The last addition was
necessary to justify the plurality of bishops as distinct from presbyters. The
latter alone are mentioned, Acts 20 : 17.
8 Phil. 1.1- ifwrw rots aylot* . . . *fo i*i<ric6*ois «ol tuutarois.
« 1 Tim 3 1-13 ; 5 :17-19 ; Tit 1 :5-7.
•1 Pet 5:1, 2: *p«r0vrtpovs . . . wywcoXfi 6 <rvrvp*tr&tr*pos •
rapcfyarc r& lr fcaV iro^rior TO? 3«oD, tv ICTKOTO vvr «f . . . The last word
is omitted by » and B, Tischendorf (8th ed ), Westcott and Hort, but raprfrarc
implies the episcopal function, the oversight of the flock.
• Clem., Ad Cor. o 42 (" bishops and deacons"), c. 44 («' bishopric . . . tfhe
presbyters"). The Didache (oh. 15) knows only bishops and deacons, as local
officers, the former being identical with presbyters. Ireneus still occasionally
calls the bishops " presbyters," and uses tucxxuiont* cpixoporum and nto
cemonet pr&byterorum synonymously, but he evidently recognised the episco-
pal constitution, The higher office includes the lower, but not conversely.
494 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
With the beginning of the second century, from Ignatius
onward, the two terms are distinguished and designate two
offices ; the bishop being regarded first as the head of a congre-
gation surrounded by a council of presbyters, and afterwards as
the head of a diocese and successor of the apostles. The episco-
pate grew out of the presidency of the presbytery, or, as Bishop
Lightfoot well expresses it : " The episcopate was formed, not
out of the apostolic order by localization, but out of the presby-
teral by elevation ; and the title, which originally was common to
all, came at length to be appropriated to the chief among them." *
Nevertheless, a recollection of the original identity was pre-
served by the best biblical scholars among the fathers, such as
Jerome (who taught that the episcopate rose from the presby-
terate as a safeguard against schism), Chrysostoni, and Theo-
dore!.'
The reason why the title bishop (and not presbyter) was given
afterwards to the superior officer, may be explained from the
1 L. c. , p 194. He illustrates this usage by a paraUel instance from the
Athenian institutions. Neander has the same view of the origin of the epis-
copate. It dates, in fact, from Jerome.
8 See the patristic quotations in my Hist, of the Ap. Ch. pp 524 sq. Even
Pope Urban II. (A.D. 1091) says that the primitive church knew only two
orders, the deaconate and the presbyterate. The original identity of presby-
ter and bishop is not only insisted on by Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Con-
gregationaliste, but freely conceded also by Episcopal commentators, as Whitby,
Bloomfield, Gonybeare and Howson, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, Stanley, and
others It is also conceded by purely critical historians, as Rothe, Ritschl,
Baur (K Oeach. I. 270), and Benan (Lea tivangiUs, p. 832). Renan calls the
history of the ecclesiastical hierarchy the history of a triple abdication first
the community of believers committed their power to the presbyters, then the
corps of presbyters abdicated to the bishop, and, last, the bishops to the pope
(in the Vatican council). " La creation de Vepiacopat eat Pauvre du II* eiecle
ISabeorption de FEgliae par lea 'preabyten ' eat un fait accompli avant la fin du
premier. Dana fepitre de Clement Romoin, etc., ce rteat poa encore Fepiacopat,
feat le preabyterat qui eat en cause. On ri*y trouvepaa trace d'un ' presbyter os*
auperieur aux autrea et decant detroner lea autrea Maia Vauteur proclame
hautement gue le preabyterat, le clergc, eat anterieur an peuple.n Gomp. also
Benan's Saint Paul, 238 sq., and L'tiffliae Chretienne, ch VI. p 85 sqq. This
subject then may be regarded as finally settled among scholars At the same
time it should in all fairness be admitted that the tendency toward an epis-
copal concentration of prasbyteral power may be traced to the close of the
apostolic age.
§ 61. PRESBYTERS OB BISHOPS. 495
fact that it signified, according to monumental inscriptions re-
cently discovered, financial officers of the temples, and that the
bishops had the charge of all the funds of the churches, which
were largely charitable institutions for the support of widows
and orphans, strangers and travellers, aged and infirm people in
an age of extreme riches and extreme poverty.1
2. The w^igin of the presbytero-episcopal office is not re-
corded in the New Testament, but when it is first mentioned in
the congregation at Jerusalem, A.D. 44, it appears already as a
settled institution.* As every Jewish synagogue was ruled by
elders, it was very natural that every Jewish Christian congrega-
tion should at once adopt this form of government ; this may be
the reason why the writer of the Acts finds it unnecessary to
give an account of the origin ; while he reports the origin of
the deaconate which arose from a special emergency and had no
precise analogy in the organization of the synagogue. The
Gentile churches followed the example, choosing the already
familiar term bishop. The first thing which Paul and Barna-
bas did after preaching the gospel in Asia Minor was to organ-
ize churches by the appointment of elders.8
3. The office of the presbyter-bishops was to teach and to
rule the particular congregation committed to their charge.
They were the regular " pastors and teachers." 4 To them be-
1 See Hatch, Organiz Lect II. and IV., and his art. "Priest " in Smith and
Cheetham, II. 1700. Hatch makes large use of the inscriptions found at
Salkhad, in the Haur&n, at Thera, and elsewhere. He advances the new
theory that the bishops were originally a higher order of deacons and supremo
almoners of the sovereign congregation, while the presbyters had charge of
the discipline He admits that bishops and presbyters were equals in rank,
and their names interchangeable, but that their relations differed in different
churches during the first two centuries, and that the chief function of the
bishop originally was the care and dispopition of the charitable funds. Hence
the stress laid by Paul on the necessity of a bishop being b<t>t\dpyvpos and
QtKfavos. In the long series of ecclesiastical canon* and imperial edicts, the
bishops are represented especially in the light of trustees of church property.
' Acts 11 • 30, at the time of the famine when the church of Antiooh sent a
collection to the elders for their brethren in Jndna.
8 Acts 14 : 23 ; com p. Tit 1 . 5.
col *i*6rita\o<, Eph. 4 : 11.
496 FIRST PEEIOD. A.D. 1-100,
longed the direction of public worship, the administration of
discipline, the care of souls, and the management of church
property. They were usually chosen from the first converts,
and appointed by the apostles or their delegates, with the ap-
proval of the congregation, or by the congregation itself, which
supported them by voluntary contributions. They were solemnly
introduced into their office by the apostles or by their fellow
presbyters through prayers and the laying on of hands.1
The presbyters always formed a college or corporation, a
presbytery ; as at Jerusalem, at Ephesus, at Philippi, and at the
ordination of Timothy.1 They no doubt maintained a relation
of fraternal equality. The New Testament gives us no informa-
tion about the division of labor among them, or the nature and
term of a presidency. It is quite probable that the members of
the presbyteral college distributed the various duties of their
office among themselves according to their respective talents,
tastes, experience, and convenience. Possibly, too, the presi-
dent, whether temporary or permanent, was styled distinctively
the bishop; and from this the subsequent separation of the
episcopate from the presbyterate may easily have arisen. But
so long as the general government of the church was in the
hands of the apostles and their delegates, the bishops were
limited in their jurisdiction either to one congregation or to a
small circle of congregations.
The distinction of " teaching presbyters " or ministers proper,
and " ruling presbyters " or lay-elders, is a convenient arrange-
ment of Reformed churches, but can hardly claim apostolic
sanction, since the one passage on which it rests only speaks of
two functions in the eame office.1 Whatever may have been
the distribution and rotation of duties, Paul expressly mentions
3Actel4:23; Tit. 1:5; 1 Tim. 5:22; 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6. On the elec-
tfon, ordination and support of ministers, see my Hist. Ap. Ch. pp. 500-506.
* Acto 11:30; 14 :23 ; 15 :2,4,6, 23 ; 16 :4; 20 :17,28 ; 21 :18 ; PhiL 1 :!•
1 Tim. 4:14; Jamee5:14; 1 Pet. 5 : 1.
8 1 Tim. 5 : 17 : " Let the elders that rale well (of «o\»f wpourrArn
be counted of doable honor (fcvAijf ripiff), especially those who
labor in the word and in teaching (b A*yy ml fcftomMJjf)." Some oommen-
§ 61. PRESBYTERS OR BISHOPS. 497
ability to teach among the regular requisites for the episcopal
or presbyteral office.1
4. The ANGELS of the Seven Churches in Asia Minor must
be regarded as identical with the presbyter-bishops or local pas-
tors. They represent the presiding presbyters, or the corps of
regular officers, as the responsible messengers of God to the
congregation.1 At the death of Paul and Peter, under Nero,
the congregations were ruled by a college of elders, and if the
Apocalypse, as the majority of critical commentators now hold,
tatora emphasize jeo\£t, some refer the " double honor" to higher rank and
position, others to better remuneration, still others to both.
1 1 Tim. 3 2 . " The bishop must be .... apt to teach (ffifcucwrfr)." The
samo is implied in Tit 1 9 ; Acts 20 28 ; and Heb. 13 • 17. Lightfoot takes
the right view (p. 192) • " Though government was probably the first concep-
tion of the office, yet the work of teaching must have fallen to the presbyters
from the very first and have assumed greater prominence as time went on."
On the question of teaching and ruling elders, compare, besides other treatises,
Peter Colin Campbell TJie Ttteory of Ruling Eldership (Edmb and London,
I860), and two able articles by Dr. R D. Hitchcock and Dr B F. Hatfield (both
Presbyterians) in the ' l American Presbyterian Review " for April and October,
1868. All these writers dissent from Calvin's interpretation of 1 Tim. 5 17,
as teaching two kinds of presbyters • (1) those who both taught and ruled, and
(2) those who ruled only ; but Campbell pleads from 1 Cor. 12 28 ; Bom.
12 8 , and Acts 15 . 22, 25 for what he calls " Lay Assessors." Dr. Hitchcock
holds that the primitive presbyters were empowered and expected both to
teach and to rule Dr. Hatfield tries to prove that the Christian presbyters,
like the Jewish elders, were only to rule ; the office of teaching having been
committed to the apostles, evangelists, and other missionaries. The last was
also the view of Dr. Thornwell, of South Carolina (on Riding Elders), and is
advocated in a modified form by an Oxford scholar of great ability, Vice-Prin-
cipal Hatch (I c. Lecture III pp. 33 sqq , and art " Priest " in Smith and
Cheetham, II. 1700) He holds that the Christian presbyters, like the Jewish,
were at first cJiiefly officers of discipline, not of worship, and that the fitness
for teaching and soundness in the faith were altogether subordinate to the
moral qualities which are necessary to a governor. He also remarks (p. 1707)
that neither Clement nor Ignatius makes any mention of presbyters in connec-
tion with teaching, and that teaching was a delegated function committed to
the wiser presbyters
* Other interpretations of the apocalyptic angels : 1. Heavenly messengers,
guardian angels of the several churches Origen. Jerome, De Wette, Alford,
Bishop Lightfoot 2. Deputies or clerks of the churches, corresponding to
the shdidiai of the synagogues. Vitringa, John Lightfoot, Bengel, Winer.
S. Figurative personifications of the churches. Arethas, Salmaaius. 4*
Bishops proper. See my Hist, of flu Ap Ch. pp. 537 sqq.
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
was written before the year 70, there was too little time for a
radical change of the organization from a republican to a mon-
archical form. Even if we regard the " angels " as single per-
sons, they were evidently confined to a single church, and sub-
ject to St. John ; hence, not successors of the apostles, as the
latter diocesan bishops claim to be. The most that can be said
is that the angels were congregational, as distinct from diocesan
bishops, and mark one step from the primitive presbyters to the
Ignatian bishops, who were likewise congregational officers, but
in a monarchical sense as the heads of the presbytery, bearing a
patriarchal relation to the congregation and being eminently
responsible for its spiritual condition.1
5. The nearest approach to the idea of the ancient catholic
episcopate may be found in the unique position of James,
the Brother of the Lord. Unlike the apostles, he confined his
labors to the mother church of Jerusalem. In the Jewish
Christian traditions of the second century he appears both as
bishop and pope of the church universal.* But in fact he was
only primus inter pares. In his last visit to Jerusalem, Paul
was received by the body of the presbyters, and to them he
gave an account of his missionary labors.' Moreover, this au-
thority of James, who was not an apostle, was exceptional and
due chiefly to his close relationship with the Lord, and his
personal sanctity, which won the respect even of the uncon-
verted Jews.
The institution of episcopacy proper cannot be traced to the
apostolic age, so far as documentary evidence goes, but is very
apparent and well-nigh universal about the middle of the sec-
ond century. Its origin and growth will claim our attention
in the next period.
1 Eothe, Bunsen, Thiersch, and Bishop Lightfoot trace the institution of
episcopacy to the Gentile churches in Asia Minor, and claim for it some sanc-
tion of the surviving apostle John during the mysterious period between A.D.
70 and 100. Neander, Baur, and Ritschl opposed Rothe's theory (which cre-
ated considerable sensation in learned circles at the time). Rothe was not an
Episcopalian, but regarded episcopacy as a temporary historical necessity in
the ancient church.
'See §27, pp. 264 sqq. *A0t»21:18; comp,11.30; 12 : 17 ; and oh. 15.
§ 62. DEACONS AND DEACONESSES. 499
§ 62. Deacons <md Deaconesses.
DEACONS,' or helpers, appear first in the church of Jerusalem,
seven in number. The author of the Acts (ch. 6) gives us an
account of the origin of this office, which is mentioned before
that of the presbyters. It had a precedent in the officers of the
synagogue who had charge of the collection and distribution of
alms.* It was the first relief of the heavy burden that rested
on the shoulders of the apostles, who wished to devote them-
selves exclusively to prayer and the ministry of the word. It
was occasioned by a complaint of the Hellenistic Christians
against the Hebrew or Palestinian brethren, that their widows
were neglected in the daily distribution of food (and perhaps
money). In the exercise of a truly fraternal spirit the congrega-
tion elected seven Hellenists instead of Hebrews, if we are to
judge from their Greek names, although they were not uncom-
mon among the Jews in that age. After the popular election
they were ordained by the apostles.
The example of the mother church was followed in all other
congregations, though without particular regard to the number.
The church of Rome, however, perpetuated even the number
seven for several generations.1 In Philippi the deacons took
their rank after the presbyters, and are addressed with them in
Paul's Epistle.
The office of these deacons, according to the narrative in
Acts, was to minister at the table in the daily love-feasts and to
attend to the wants of the poor and the sick. The primitive
churches were charitable societies, taking care of the widows
f , diaconut, in later usage also 8i4w, (Uaconea (in Cyprian's works
and in synodical decrees).
* Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr. in Act. 6 : 3) says : " Trolatum erat offioium Dia-
eonatus . . in Eeclenam Evangettcam ex Judaica. Erant enim in unaguaque
Synagoga fc^oriB 'a, trei Diaeoni quibus ineubuit ista cura (paupemm)."
9 According to a letter of Cornelias, the Roman Church in 251 had forty-six
presbyters, but only seven jleaoons, Euseb., H. S, VI 43. The places were
filled by «u6-deaoons. In Constantinople, Justinian authorized the appoint-
ment of a hundred deacons.
600 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and orphans, dispensing hospitality to strangers, and relieving
the needs of the poor. The presbyters were the custodians,
the deacons the collectors and distributors, of the charitable
funds. To this work a kind of pastoral care of souls very
naturally attached itself, since poverty and sickness afford the
best occasions and the most urgent demand for edifying instruc-
tion and consolation. Hence, living faith and exemplary con-
duct were necessary qualifications for the office of deacon.1
Two of the Jerusalem deacons, Stephen and Philip, labored
also as preachers and evangelists, but in the exercise of a per-
sonal gift rather than of official duty.
In post-apostolic times, when the bishop was raised above the
presbyter and the presbyter became priest, the deacon was re-
garded as Levite, and his primary function of c$re of the poor
was lost in the function of assisting the priest in the sub-
ordinate parts of public worship and the administration of the
sacraments. The diaconate became the first of the three or-
ders of the ministry and a stepping-stone to the priesthood.
At the same time the deacon, by his intimacy with the bishop
as his agent and messenger, acquired an advantage over the
priest.
DEACONESSES,' or female helpers, had a similar charge of the
poor and sick in the female portion of the church. This office
was the more needful on account of the rigid separation of the
sexes at that day, especially among the Greeks and Orientals.
It opened to pious women and virgins, and chiefly to widows, a
most suitable field for the regular official exercise of their pe-
culiar gifts of self-denying charity and devotion to the welfare
of the church. Through it they could carry the light and com-
fort of the gospel into the most private and delicate relations of
domestic life, without at all overstepping their natural sphere.
Paul mentions Phoebe as a deaconess of the church of Cenchrese,
the port of Corinth, and it is more than probable that Prisca
(Priscilla), Mary, Tryphcena, Tryphosa, and Persis, whom he
1 Acts 6 : 3 ; 1 Tim 3 : 8 sqq.
* ^ 8nUow, afterwards also too*<W<ra, diaconissa, diacona.
§ 63. CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 501
commends for their labor in the Lord, served in the same
capacity at Rome.1
The deaconesses were usually chosen from elderly widows.
In the Eastern churches the office continued to the end of the
twelfth century.*
§ 63. Church Discipline.
Holiness, like unity and catholicity or universality, is an es-
sential mark of the Church of Christ, who is himself the one,
holy Saviour of all men ; but it has never yet been perfectly
actualized in her membership on earth, and is subject to gradual
growth with many obstructions and lapses. The church mili-
tant, as a body, like every individual Christian, has to pass
through a long process of sanctification, which cannot be com*
plete till the second coming of the Lord.
Even the apostles, far as they tower above ordinary Chris-
tians, and infallible as they are in giving all the instruction
necessary to salvation, never during their earthly life claimed
sinless perfection of character, but felt themselves oppressed
with manifold infirmities, and in constant need of forgiveness
and purification.
Still less can we expect perfect moral purity in their churches.
In fact, all the Epistles of the New Testament contain exhorta-
tions to progress in virtue and piety, warnings against unfaith-
fulness and apostasy, and reproofs respecting corrupt practices
among the believers. The old leaven of Judaism and heathen-
ism could not be purged away at once, and to many of the
blackest sins the converts were for the first time fully exposed
1 Bom. 16 : 1, where Phoebe is called ft) ttdxoros rfc 4«icXiy<rfa? TTJJ tr
Comp. 16 : 3, 6, 12. On the question whether the widows mentioned 1 Tim.
8 : 11 ; 5 : 9-15, were deaconesses, see my Hint of the Ap £%., p. 536.
1 In the Roman Church, sisterhoods for charitable work have supplanted
congregational deaconesses ; and similar institutions (without the vow of celi-
bacy) were established among the Moravians, in the Lutheran, Episcopal, and
other churches. The Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity, and tue Evangelical
Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth are worthy of special honor. See art. Deacon,
, and Deaconesses in Schaflfs Ret. Cydop., vol. L (1882), pp. 613 sqq.
602 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
after their regeneration by water and the Spirit In the churches
of Galatia many fell back from grace and from the freedom of
the gospel to the legal bondage of Judaism and the " rudiments
of the world." In the church of Corinth, Paul had to rebuke the
carnal spirit of sect, the morbid desire for wisdom, participation
in the idolatrous feasts of the heathen, the tendency to unclean-
ness, and a scandalous profanation of the holy Supper or the
love-feasts connected with it. Most of the churches of Asia
Minor, according to the Epistles of Paul and the Apocalypse,
were so infected with theoretical errors or practical abuses, as to
call for the earnest warnings and reproofs of the Holy Spirit
through the apostles.1
These facts show how needful discipline is, both for the
church herself and for the offenders. For the church it is a
process of self -purification, and the assertion of the holiness and
moral dignity which essentially belong to her. To the offender
it is at once a merited punishment and a means of repentance
and reform. For the ultimate end of the agency of Christ
and his church is the salvation of souls; and Paul styles the
severest form of church discipline the delivering of the back-
slider " to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." a
The means of discipline are of various degrees of severity ;
first, private admonition, then public correction, and, finally,
when these prove fruitless, excommunication, or temporary ex-
clusion from all the means of grace and from Christian inter-
course.* Upon sincere repentance, the fallen one is restored to
the communion of the church. The act of discipline is that of
the whole congregation in the name of Christ ; and Paul him-
self, though personally absent, excommunicated the fornicator
at Corinth with the concurrence of the congregation, and as
being in spirit united with it. In one of the only two passages
where our Lord uses the term ecclesia, he speaks of it as a court
which, like the Jewish synagogue, has authority to decide dis-
1 Oomp. § 50, p. 450. f 1 Cor. 5 : 5.
1 Gomp. Matt. 18 : 15-18 ; Tit. 3 :10 ; 1 Cor. 5:5.
§ 64. THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM. 503
pntes and to exercise discipline.1 In the synagogue, the college
of presbyters formed the local court for judicial as well as ad-
ministrative purposes, but acted in the name of the whole
congregation.
The two severest cases of discipline in the apostolic church
were the fearful punishment of Ananias and Sapphira by Peter
for falsehood and hypocrisy in the church of Jerusalem in the
days of her first love,* and the excommunication of a member
of the Corinthian congregation by Paul for adultery and incest.*
The latter case affords also an instance of restoration.4
§ 64. The Council at Jerusalem.
(Oomp. § 34, pp. 335 sqq and 346 sq.)
The most complete outward representation of the apostolic
church as a teaching and legislative body was the council con-
vened at Jerusalem in the year 50, to decide as to the authority
of the law of Moses, and adjust the difference between Jewish
and Gentile Christianity.*
We notice it here simply in its connection with the organiza-
tion of the church.
It consisted not of the apostles alone, but of apostles, elders,
and brethren. We know that Peter, Paul, John, Barnabas, and
Titus were present, perhaps all the other apostles. James — not
one of die Twelve — presided as the local bishop, and proposed
the compromise which was adopted. The transactions were
public, before the congregation ; the brethren took part in the
deliberations; there was a sharp discussion, but the spirit of
love prevailed over the pride of opinion ; the apostles passed
and framed the decree not without, but with the elders and
" with the whole church ; " and sent the circular letter not in
their own name only, but also in the name of "the brother
1 Matt. 18 • 17. The words : " Tell it to the church," cannot apply to the
church universal, as iKK\i)<ria does in Matt 16 : 18.
* Act* 5 -1-10. *1 Cor. 5:1 sqq.
<2Cor. 2:5-10. 'Acts, oh. 15, and Galatians, oh. 21
504 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
elders " or " elder brethren " to " the brethren " of the congre-
gations disturbed by the question of circumcision.1
All of which plainly proves the right of Christian people to
take part in some way in the government of the church, as they
Jo in the acts of worship. The spirit and practice of the apos-
tles favored a certain kind of popular self-government, and the
harmonious, fraternal co-operation of the different elements of
the church. It countenanced no abstract distinction of clergy
and laity. All believers are called to the prophetic, priestly,
and kingly offices in Christ. The bearers of authority and
discipline should therefore never forget that their great work is
to train the governed to freedom and independence, and by the
various spiritual offices to build them up unto the unity of faith
and knowledge, and to the perfect manhood of Christ.
The Greek and Roman churches gradually departed from the
apostolic polity and excluded not only the laity, but also the
lower clergy from all participation in the legislative councils.
The conference of Jerusalem, though not a binding precedent,
is a significant example, giving the apostolic sanction to the
synodical form of government, in which all classes of the Chris-
tian community are represented in the management of public
affairs and in settling controversies respecting faith and disci-
pline. The decree which it passed and the pastoral letter which
it sent, are the first in the long line of decrees and canons and
encyclicals which issued from ecclesiastical authorities. But it
is significant that this first decree, though adopted undoubtedly
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and wisely adapted to
the times and circumstances of the mixed churches of Jewish
and Gentile converts, was after all merely " a temporary expe-
dient for a temporary emergency," and cannot be quoted as a
precedent for infallible decrees of permanent force. The spirit
of fraternal concession and harmony which dictated the Jerusa-
lem compromise, is more important than the letter of the de-
cree itself . The kingdom of Christ is not a dispensation of law,
but of spirit and of life.
'Acta 15 .6,12,22,33.
§ 64. THE COUNCIL AT JEBUSALEM. COS
NOTES.
L There is an interesting difference of reading in Acts 15 : 23 (see the
critical editions), but it does not affect the composition of the confer-
ence, at least as fur as the elders are concerned. The textus receptus
reads: ol dirooroXoi, *ai ol irpcapircpoi, KOI ol d&c\<f>oi (tf, H, L, P,
Syr., etc.), "The apostles, and the elders, and the brethren send greet-
ing unto the brethren," etc. So the E. V., except that it omits the
article twice. The Revised V., following the better attested reading : ol
diro'crroXot, *<ii ol irpctrpvrtpoi afoA0of, renders in the text : " The apostles,
and the elders, brethren," and in the margin : " The apostles and the
elder brethren" (omitting the comma). But it may also be translated:
" The apostles, and brother-elders," considering that Peter addresses the
elders as <rvpirpc(r0vTcpos9 or " fellow-elder " (1 Pet. 5 : 1). The textns
rec. agrees better with ver. 22, and the omission of KOI ol may possibly
have arisen from a desire to conform the text to the later practice which
excluded the laity from synods, but it is strongly supported by ft*, A, B,
C, D, the Vulg. and IrensBus, and adopted by Tischendorf (ed. YHL)
and Westcott and Hort.
Bellarmin and other Roman Catholic and certain Episcopal divines
get over the fact of the participation of the elders and brethren in a
legislative council by allowing the elders and brethren simply a silent
consent So Seeker (as quoted by Bishop Jacobson, in Speaker's Com-
mentary on Acts 15 : 22) : " The apostles join the elders and brethren
with themselves . . . not to allow them equal authority, but merely to
express their concurrence." Very different is the view of Dr. Plumptre
on Acts 15 : 22 : " The latter words [' with the whole church '] are im-
portant as showing the position occupied by the laity. If they con-
curred in the latter, it must have been submitted to their approval, and
the right to approve involves the power to reject and probably to
modify." Bishop Cotterill (Genesis of the Church, p. 379) expresses the
same view. "It was manifestly," he says, "a free council, and not a
mere private meeting of some office-bearers. It was in fact much what
the Agora was in archaic times, as described in Homer : in which the
council of the nobles governed the decisions, but the people were pres-
ent and freely expressed their opinion. And it must be remembered
that the power of free speech in the councils of the church is the true
test of the character of these assemblies. Free discussion, and arbitrary
government, either by one person or by a privileged class, have been
found, in all ages and under all polities, to be incompatible with each
other. Again, not only were the multitude present, but we are expressly
told that the whole church concurred in the decision and in the action
taken upon it"
IL The authority of the Jerusalem conference as a precedent for
regular legislative councils and synods has been often overrated. On
006 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the other hand, Canon Farrar (Life and Work of St. Paul, I. 481) greatly
underrates it when he says : "It is only by an unwarrantable extension
of terms that the meeting of the church of Jerusalem can be called a
'council,' and the word connotes a totally different order of conceptions
to those that were prevalent at that early time. The so-called Council
of Jerusalem in no way resembled the General Councils of the Church,
either in its history, its constitution, or its object. It was not a conven-
tion of ordained delegates, but a meeting of the entire church of Jerusa-
lem to receive a deputation from the church of Antioch. Even Paul and
Barnabas seem to have had no vote in the decision, though the votes of
a promiscuous body could certainly not be more enlightened than theirs,
nor was their allegiance due in any way to James. The church of Jeru-
salem might out of respect be consulted, but it had no claim to
superiority, no abstract prerogative to bind its decisions on the free
church of God. The * decree ' of the * council ' was little more than the
wise recommendation of a single synod, addressed to a particular dis-
trict, and possessing only a temporary validity. It was, in fact, a local
concordat. Little or no attention has been paid by the universal church
to two of its restrictions ; a third, not many years after, was twice dis-
cussed and settled by Paul, on the same general principles, but with a
by no means identical conclusion. The concession which it made to the
Gentiles, in not insisting on the necessity of circumcision, was equally
treated as a dead letter by the Judaizing party, and cost Paul the
severest battle of his lifetime to maintain. If this circular letter is to be
regarded as a binding and final decree, and if the meeting of a single
church, not by delegates, but in the person of all its members, is to be
regarded as a council, never was the decision of a council less appealed
to, and never was a decree regarded as so entirely inoperative alike by
those who repudiated the validity of its concessions, and by those who
discussed, as though they were still an open question, no less than
three of its four restrictions."
§ 65. The Church and the Kingdom of Christ.
Thus the apostolic church appears as a free, independent, and
complete organism, a system of supernatural, divine life in a
human body. It contains in itself all the offices and energies
required for its purposes. It produces the supply of its outward
wants from its own free spirit. It is a self -supporting and self-
governing institution, within the state, bnt not of the state.
Of a union with the state, either in the way of hierarchical
supremacy or of Erastian subordination, the first three centuries
afford no trace. The apostles honor the civil authority as a
THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 507
divine institution for the protection of life and property, for
the reward of the good and the punishment of the evil-doer ;
and they enjoin, even under the reign of a Claudius and a Nero,
strict obedience to it in all civil concerns ; as, indeed, their hea-
venly Master himself submitted in temporal matters to Herod
and to Pilate, and rendered unto Caesar the things that were
Caesar's. But in their spiritual calling they allowed nothing to
be prescribed or forbidden to them by the authorities of the
state. Their principle was, to " obey God rather than men."
For this principle, for their allegiance to the King of kings,
they were always ready to suffer imprisonment, insult, persecu-
tion, and death, but never to resort to carnal weapons, or stir up
rebellion and revolution. " The weapons of our warfare," says
Paul, " are not carnal, but mighty through God." Martyrdom
is a far nobler heroism than resistance with fire and sword, and
leads with greater certainty at last to a thorough and permanent
victory.
The apostolic church, as to its membership, was not free from
impurities, the after-workings of Judaism and heathenism and
the natural man. But in virtue of an inherent authority it
exercised rigid discipline, and thus steadily asserted its dignity
and holiness. It was not perfect ; but it earnestly strove after
the perfection of manhood in Christ, and longed and hoped for
the reappearance of the Lord in glory, to the exaltation of his
people. It was as yet not actually universal, but a little flock
compared with the hostile hosts of the heathen and Jewish
world ; yet it carried in itself the principle of true catholicity,
the power and pledge of its victory over all other religions, and
its final prevalence among all nations of the earth and in all
classes of society.
Paul defines the church as the body of Jesus Christ.1 He
thus represents it as an organic living system of various mem-
bers, powers, and functions, and at the same time as the abode
of Christ and the organ of his redeeming and sanctifying influ-
1 Bom. 12. 5; 1 Cor. 6.15; 10:17; 12 27 , Bph. 1 :23; 4 .12 ; 5 23,80;
Col. 1 . 18, 24 ; 2 : 17.
608 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ence upon the world. Christ is, in one view, the ruling head,
in another the all-pervading soul, of this body. Christ with-
out the church were a head without a body, a fountain with*
out a stream, a king without subjects, a captain without soldiers,
a bridegroom without a bride. The church without Christ were
a body without soul or spirit — a lifeless corpse. The church lives
only as Christ lives and moves and works in her. At every
moment of her existence she is dependent on him, as the body
on the soul, or the branches on the vine. But on his part he
perpetually bestows upon her his heavenly gifts and supernatural
powers, continually reveals himself in her, and uses her as his
organ for the spread of his kingdom and the christianizing of
the world, till all principalities and powers shall yield free obe-
dience to him, and adore him as the eternal Prophet, Priest, and
King of the regenerate race. This work must be a gradual pro-
cess of history. The idea of a body, and of all organic life, in-
cludes that of development, of expansion and consolidation.
And hence the same Paul speaks also of the growth and edifica-
tion of the body of Christ, " till we all attain unto the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-
grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ." '
This sublime idea of the church, as developed in the First
Epistle to the Corinthians, and especially in the Epistle to the
Ephesians, when Paul was a prisoner chained to a heathen
soldier, soars high above the actual condition of the little flocks
of peasants, freedrnen, slaves, and lowly, uncultured people that
composed the apostolic congregations. It has no parallel in the
social ideals of ancient philosophers and statesmen. It can only
be traced to divine inspiration.
We must not confound this lofty conception of the church as
the body of Christ with any particular ecclesiastical organiza-
tion, which at best is only a part of the whole, and an imperfect
approach to the ideal. Nor must we identify it with the still
higher idea of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.
THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 509
A vast amount of presumption, bigotry, and intolerance has
grown out of such confusion. It is remarkable that Christ
speaks only once of the church in the organic or universal
sense.1 But he very often speaks of the kingdom, and nearly
all his parables illustrate this grand idea. The two conceptions
are closely related, yet distinct. In many passages we could not
possibly substitute the one for the other without manifest im-
propriety.9 The church is external, visible, manifold, temporal ;
the kingdom of heaven is internal, spiritual, one, and ever-
lasting. The kingdom is older and more comprehensive; it
embraces all the true children of God on earth and in heaven,
before Christ and after Christ, inside and outside of the churches
and sects. The historical church with its various ramifications
is a paedagogic institution or training-school for the kingdom of
heaven, and will pass away as to its outward form when its mis-
sion is fulfilled. The kingdom has come in Christ, is continu-
ally coming, and will finally come in its full grown strength and
beauty when the King will visibly appear in his glory.
The coming of this kingdom in and through the visible
churches, with varying conflicts and victories, is the proper
object of church history. It is a slow, but sure and steady prog-
ress, with many obstructions, delays, circuitous turns and wind-
ings, but constant manifestations of the presence of him who
sits at the helm of the ship and directs it through rain, storm,
and sunshine to the harbor of the other and better world.
1 Matt 16 18. In the other passage where he speaks of the l«KAi)<rfa, Matt.
13 17, it denotes a local congregation (a synagogue), as in very many passa-
ges of the Acts and Epistles We use the word church in two additional
tenses in which it never occurs in the New Test , because the thing did not
izist then, namely, of church buildings and of denominations (as the Roman
L1hurch, Anglican Church, Lutheran Church).
* We could not say •' Thy church come " (Matt. 6 • 9) ; " to such (children)
>elongeth the church " (Mark 10 14) ; " the church oometh not with observat-
ion " (Luke 17 • 21) ; " neither fornicators, etc ... shall inherit the church "
1 Cor 6 10) ; "the church is not eating and drinking, hut righteousness and
>eace and joy in the Holy Spirit " (Bom 15 . 17). On the other hand, it would
M» improper to call the kingdom of God " the body of Christ" or " the bride
>f the Lamb.9*
510 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHAPTER XL
THEOLOGY OP THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
§ 66. Literature.
I. Works on the Theology of the whole New Testament.
AUGUST NEANDER (d. 1850) : Geschichte der Pflanzung und Leitung def
christl. Kirche durch die Apostel. Hamburg, 1832 ; 4th ed., 1847,
2 vols. (in the second vol.) ; Engl. transl. by J. A. Ryfand, Edinb.,
1842 ; revised and corrected by E. G. Robinson, New York, 1865.
Neander and Schmid take the lead in a historical analysis of the
different types of Apostolic doctrine (James, Peter, Paul, John).
SAM. Lurz : Biblische Dogmatik, herausgeg. von R. Raetschi. Pforzheim,
1847.
CHRIST. FBEEDR. SOHMID (an independent co-laborer of Neander, d. 1852) :
Bibhsche Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Ed. by WeizsScker.
Stuttg., 1853, 2d ed. 1859. 2 vols. (The Engl. translation by G.
H. Venables, Edinb., 1870, is merely an abridgment.)
EDWARD REUSS (Prof, in Strassburg) : Histoire de la theologie chretienne
au sticks apostohque. Strassb., 1852. 3d ed., Paris, 1864. 2 vols.
English translation from the third French ed. by Annie Harwood.
London, 1872. 2 vols.
LUTTERBBOK (a liberal Bom. Oath.) : The N T lichen Lehrbegriffe, oder
Untersuchungen uber das Zeitalter der Religionswende. Mainz, 1852.
2 vols.
G. L. HAHN : Ike Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Bd. I. Leipzig, 1854.
H. MESSNBR : Die Lehre der Apostel. Leipz., 1856. Follows in the path
of Neander.
F. CHR. BAUR (d. 1860) : Vorlesungen uber neutestamentliche Theologie.
Leipz., 1864. Published after his death, by his son. Sums up the
bold critical speculations of the founder of the Tubingen School.
The most important part is the section on the system of Paul.
W. BKTSOHLAG: Die Christologie des Neuen Testaments. Berlin, 1866
(260 pages).
THOMAS DEHANBT BERNARD : Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament.
Lectures on the Bampton Foundation. London and Boston, 1867.
H. EWALD : Die Lehre der Bibel von Qott oder die Theologie des a&en
§ 67. UNITY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING. 611
und neuen Bttndes. Leipzig, 1871-76. 4 vols. (More important
for the Old Test, than for the New.)
A. IMMEB: Theologte dee neuen Testaments. Bern, 1877.
J. J. VAN OOBTEBZBB : Biblische Theol. des N. T. (translated from the
Dutch). Elberf., 1868. Engl. transl. by Prof. G. E. Day. New
Haven, 1870. Another English translation by Maurice J. Evans:
The Theology of the New Test., etc. London, 1870.
BEBNH. WEISS: Bill Theologie des Neuen Testaments. Berlin, 1868;
4th ed., 1884. EngL translation, Edinb., 1883, 2 vols.
n. Separate works on the doctrinal types of the several apostles, by
W. G. SCHMIDT, and BEYSOHLAO, on James ; by MATEBHOPP, WEISS,
and MORICH, on Peter ; by USTEKI, PFLETDEREB, HOLSTEN, LEATHES,
IRONS, on Paul ; by BIEHM, on Hebrews ; by FBOMMANN, KOSTLIN,
WEISS, LEATHES, on John — quoted in previous sections.
HL The doctrinal sections in the Histories of the Apostolic Church by
LANGE, LECHLEB, THIEBSOH, STANLEY, and SCHAFF (pp. 614-679),
besides NEANDER already mentioned. Comp. also CHABLES A.
BBIGGB : The idea, history and importance of Biblical Theology, in
the " Presbyterian Review," New York, July, 1882.
IV. For the contrast between the apostolic and the rabbinical theology,
see FEBD. WEBEB (a missionary among the Jews, d. 1879) : Sys-
tem derattsynagogalenpalastinsichen Theotogie, aus Targum, Midrasch,
und Talmud dargestellt. Nach des Verf. Tode herausgeg. von Frz.
Delitzsch und G. Schnedermann. Leipz., 1880.
§ 67. Unity of Apostolic Teaching.
Christianity is primarily not merely doctrine, but life, a new
moral creation, a saving fact, first personally embodied in Jesus
Christ, the incarnate Word, the God-man, to spread from him
und embrace gradually the whole body of the race, and bring it
into saving fellowship with God. The same is true of Chris-
tianity as it exists subjectively in single individuals. It begins
not with religious views and notions simply ; though it includes
these, at least in germ. It comes as a new life ; as regeneration,
conversion, and sanctification ; as a creative fact in experience,
taking up the whole man with all his faculties and capacities,
releasing him from the guilt and the power of sin, and recon-
ciling him with God, restoring harmony and peace to the soul,
and at last glorifying the body itself. Thus, the life of Christ
is mirrored in his people, rising gradually, through the use of
612 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the means of grace and the continued exercise of faith and love,
to its maturity in the resurrection.
But the new life necessarily contains the element of doctrine,
or knowledge of the truth. Christ calls himself " the way, the
truth, and the life." He is himself the personal revelation of
saving truth, and of the normal relation of man to God. Yet this
element of doctrine itself appears in the New Testament, not in
the form of an abstract theory, the product of speculation, a
scientific system of ideas subject to logical and mathematical
demonstration; but as the fresh, immediate utterance of the
supernatural, divine life, a life-giving power, equally practical
and theoretical, coming with divine authority to the heart, the
will, and the conscience, as well as to the mind, and irresistibly
drawing them to itself. The knowledge of God in Christ, as it
meets us here, is at the same time eternal life.1 We must not
confound truth with dogma. Truth is the divine substance,
doctrine or dogma is the human apprehension and statement of
it; truth is a living and life-giving power, dogma a logical
formula ; truth is infinite, unchanging, and eternal ; dogma
is finite, changeable, and perfectible.
The Bible, therefore, is not only, nor principally, a book for
the learned, but a book of life for every one, an epistle written
by the Holy Spirit to mankind. In the words of Christ and his
apostles there breathes the highest and holiest spiritual power,
the vivifying breath of God, piercing bone and marrow, thrilling
through the heart and conscience, and quickening the dead. The
life, the eternal life, which was f rom the beginning with the
Father, and is manifested to us, there comes upon us, as it were,
sensibly, now as the mighty tornado, now as the gentle zephyr ;
now overwhelming and casting us down in the dust of humility
and penitence, now reviving and raising us to the joy of faith
and peace ; but always bringing forth a new creature, like the
word of power, which said at the first creation, " Let there be
light 1 " Here verily is holy ground. Here is the door of eter-
nity, the true ladder to heaven, on which the angels of God are
'John 17. 3.
§ 67. U10TY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING. 613
ascending and descending in unbroken line. No number of sys-
tems of Christian faith and morals, therefore, indispensable as
they are to the scientific purposes of the church and of theology,
can ever fill the place of the Bible, whose words are spirit and
life.
When we say the New Testament is no logically arranged
system of doctrines and precepts, we are far from meaning that
it has no internal order and consistency. On the contrary, it
exhibits the most beautiful harmony, like the external crea-
tion, and like a true work of art. It is the very task of the his-
torian, and especially of the theologian, to bring this hidden liv-
ing order to view, and present it in logical and scientific forms.
For this work Paul, the only one of the apostles who received a
learned education, himself furnishes the first f niitful suggestions,
especially in his epistle to the Romans. This epistle follows a
logical arrangement even in form, and approaches as nearly to
a scientific treatise as it could consistently with the fervent,
direct, practical, popular spirit and style essential to the Holy
Scriptures and inseparable from their great mission for all
Christendom.
The substance of all the apostolic teaching is the witness of
Christ, the gospel, and the free message of that divine love and
salvation, which appeared in the person of Christ, was secured
to mankind by his work, is gradually realized in the kingdom of
God on earth, and will be completed with the second coming of
Christ in glory. This salvation also comes in dose connection
with Judaism, as the fulfilment of the law and the prophets,
the substance of all the Old Testament types and shadows. The
several doctrines entering essentially into this apostolic preach-
ing are most beautifully and simply arranged and presented in
what is called the Apostles' Creed, which, though not in its pre-
cise form, yet, as regards its matter, certainly dates from the
primitive age of Christianity. On all the leading points, the
person of Jesus as the promised Messiah, his holy life, his aton-
ing death, his triumphant resurrection and exaltation at the
right hand of God, and his second coining to judge the world,
514 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the establishment of the church as a divine institution, the com*
munion of believers, the word of God, and the sacraments of
baptism and the Lord's supper, the work of the Holy Spirit,
the necessity of repentance and conversion, of regeneration and
sanctitication, the final completion of salvation in the day of
Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlast-
ing— on all these points the apostles are perfectly unanimous, so
far as their writings have come down to us.
The apostles all drew their doctrine in common from personal
contact with the divine-human history of the crucified and risen
Saviour, and from the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, re-
vealing the person and the work of Christ in them, and opening
to them the understanding of his words and acts. This divine
enlightenment is inspiration, governing not only the composition
of the sacred writings, but also the oral instructions of their
authors ; not merely an act, but a permanent state. The apostles
lived and moved continually in the element of truth. They
spoke, wrote, and acted from the spirit of truth ; and this, not as
passive instruments, but as conscious and free organs. For the
Holy Spirit does not supersede the gifts and peculiarities of
nature, which are ordained by God ; it sanctifies them to the
service of his kingdom. Inspiration, however, is concerned only
with moral and religious truths, and the communication of what
is necessary to salvation. Incidental matters of geography, his-
tory, archaeology, and of mere personal interest, can be regarded
as directed by inspiration only so far as they really affect reli-
gious truth.
The revelation of the body of Christian truth essential to sal-
vation coincides hi extent with the received canon of the New
Testament. There is indeed constant growth and development
in the Christian church, which progresses outwardly and in-
wardly in proportion to the degree of its vitality and zeal, but
it is a progress of apprehension and appropriation by man, not
of communication or revelation by God. We may speak of a
secondary inspiration of extraordinary men whom God raises
from time to time, but their writings must be measured by the
§ 68. DIFFEBENT TYPES OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING. 615
only infallible standard, the teaching of Christ and his apostles,
Every true advance in Christian knowledge and life is condi-
tioned by a deeper descent into the mind and spirit of Christ,
who declared the wnole counsel of God and the way of salva-
tion, first in person, and then through his apostles.
The New Testament is thus but one book, the teaching of one
mind, the mind of Christ. He gave to his disciples the words
of life which the Father gave him, and inspired them with the
spirit of truth to reveal his glory to them. Herein consists the
unity and harmony of the twenty-seven writings which consti-
tute the New Testament, for all emergencies and for perpetual
use, until the written and printed word shall be superseded by
the reappearance of the personal Word, and the beatific vision
of saints in light. "
§ 68. Different Types of Apostolic Teaching.
With all this harmony, the Christian doctrine appears in the
New Testament in different forms according to the peculiar
character, education, and sphere of the several sacred writers.
The truth of the gospel, in itself infinite, can adapt itself to
every class, to every temperament, every order of talent, and
every habit of thought. Like the light of the sun, it breaks
into various colors according to the nature of the bodies on which
it falls ; like the jewel, it emits a new radiance at every turn.
Irenaeus speaks of a fourfold " Gospel." l In like manner we
may distinguish a fourfold " Apostle," * or four corresponding
types of apostolic doctrine.1 The Epistle of James corresponds
to the Gospel of Matthew ; the Epistles of Peter and his ad-
dresses in the Acts to that of Mark ; the Epistles of Paul to
the Gospel of Luke and his Acts ; and the Epistles of John
to the Gospel of the same apostle.
rrrpcC/wyxpoj'. f fcnbrrotas.
* Comp. rforos 8ifexitff, Bom. 6 : 17, and the remarks of Weiss in loo. (6th ed.
of Meyer's Om., 1881), who takes the word in specific application to the Pan*
Line doctrine of Christianity ; while others refer it to the Christian system in
general Similar terms in Plato, rfaoi irauSclas, rfoos rqs 5<fcurffaX/af , eta
516 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
This division, however, both as regards the Gospels and the
Epistles, is subordinate to a broader difference between Jewish
and Gentile Christianity, which runs through the entire history
of the apostolic period and affects even the doctrine, the polity,
the worship, and the practical life of the church. The differ-
ence rests on the great religious division of the world, before
and at the time of Christ, and continued until a native Chris-
tian race took the place of the first generation of converts. The
Jews naturally took the Christian faith into intimate association
with the divinely revealed religion of the old covenant, and
adhered as far as possible to their sacred institutions and rites ;
while the heathen converts, not having known the law of Moses,
passed at once from the state of nature to the state of grace.
The former represented the historical, traditional, conservative
principle; the latter, the principle of freedom, independence,
and progress.
Accordingly we have two classes of teachers : apostles of the
Jews or of the circumcision, and apostles of the Gentiles or of
the uncircumcision. That this distinction extends farther than
the mere missionary field, and enters into all the doctrinal views
and practical life of the parties, we see from the accounts of the
apostolic council which was held for the express purpose of ad-
justing the difference respecting the authority of the Mosaic
law.
But the opposition was only relative, though it caused colli-
sions at times, and even temporary alienation, as between Paul
and Peter at Antioch.1 As the two forms of Christianity had
a common root in the full life of Christ, the Saviour of both
Gentiles and Jews, so they gradually grew together into the
unity of the catholic church. And as Peter represents the
Jewish church, and Paul the Gentile, so John, at the close of
the apostolic age, embodies the higher union of the two.
With this difference of standpoint are connected subordinate
differences, as of temperament, style, method. James has been
distinguished as the apostle of the law or of works ; Peter, as the
1 G«L 2 : 11 aqq. See % 86, pp. 852 §qq.
§ 69. THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 617
apostle of hope ; Paul, as the apostle of faith ; and John, as
the apostle of love. To the first has been assigned the phleg-
matic (?) temperament, in its sanctified Christian state, to the
second the sanguine, to the third the choleric, and to the fourth
the melancholic ; a distribution, however, only admissible in a
very limited sense. The four gospels also present similar dif-
ferences ; the first having close affinity to the position of James,
the second to that of Peter, the third to that of Paul, and the
fourth representing in its doctrinal element the spirit of John.
If we make the difference between Jewish and Gentile Chris-
tianity the basis of classification, we may reduce the books of
the New Testament to three types of doctrine: the Jewish
Christian, the Gentile Christian, and the ideal or unionistic
Christian. The first is chiefly represented by Peter, the second
by Paul, the third by John. As to Jaines, he must be ranked
under the first type as the local head of the Jerusalem wing of
the conservative school, while Peter was the oecumenical head
of the whole church of the circumcision.1
§ 69. The Jewish Christian Theology — /. James cmd the Qos-
pel of Law.
(Comp. § 27, and the Lit given there.)
The Jewish Christian type embraces the Epistles of James,
Peter, and Jude, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and to
some extent the Revelation of John; for John is placed by
Paul among the "pillars" of the church of the circumcision,
though in his later writings he took an independent position
1 Schelling's great idea of the three ages in the history of Christianity, the
Petrine (catholic), the Pauline (protestant), and the Johannean (future), is
well known. I saw the aged philosopher shortly before his death, in a hotel
at Bagatz, Switzerland (August, 1854), and found him lying on his bed, aa
pale as a corpse, but with clear mind and brilliant eyes. When I asked him
whether he still held to that construction of church history, he emphatically
replied in the affirmative, but added that he had, on further reflection, made
room for James as the representative of the Greek church, in distinction from
the Roman or Petrine church. I mention this as an interesting modification
of his theory, not made known before, and as containing a grain of truth.
618 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
above the distinction of Jew and Gentile. In these books,
originally designed mainly, though not exclusively, for Jewish
Christian readers, Christianity is exhibited in its unity with the
Old Testament, as the fulfilment of the same. They unfold the
fundamental idea of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5 : 17),
that Christ did not come to destroy the law or the prophets,
but to " fulfil." The Gospels, especially that of Matthew, show
historically that Jesus is the Messiah, the lawgiver, the prophet,
priest, and king of Israel.
On this historical basis James and Peter build their practical
exhortations, with this difference, that the former shows chiefly
the agreement of the gospel with the law, the latter with the
prophets.
JAMES, the brother of the Lord, in keeping with his life-long
labors in Jerusalem, his speech at the Council, and the letter of the
Council — which he probably wrote himself — holds most closely
to the Mosaic religion, and represents the gospel itself as law,
yet as the "perfect law of liberty" * Herein lies the difference
as well as the unity of the two dispensations. The " law "
points to the harmony, the qualifying " perfect " and " liberty "
to the superiority of Christianity, and intimates that Judaism
was imperfect and a law of bondage, from which Christ has set
us free. Paul, on the contrary, distinguishes the gospel as free-
dom from the law, as a system of slavery ; 2 but he re-establishes
the law on the basis of freedom, and sums up the whole Chris-
tian life in the fulfilment of the law of love to God and to our
neighbor; therein meeting James from the opposite starting-
point.1
James, the Christian legalist, lays great stress on good works
which the law requires, but he demands works which are the
fruit of faith in Him, whom he, as his servant, reverently calls
" the Lord of glory," and whose words as reported by Matthew
are the basis of his exhortations.4 Such faith, moreover, is the
1 James 1 25 : cb rrfpo? r&cior rbv rfc lAcu&fpfaf. * Gal. 5 : 1 ; 2 Cor. 8 : 6
9 Oomp. Gal. 6 : 2 (the law of Christ) ; Bom. 13 : 8 sqq. ; 3 : 22 8 : 2.
< Oh. 1 . 1 ; 2 : 1 ; rV Turn? rov Kvpiov TJM** '1**™ fyurrov rijf ftrffrs.
§ 69. THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 619
result of a new birth, which he traces to "the will of God*
through the agency of " the word of truth," that is, the gospel.1
As to the relation between faith and works and their connec-
tion with justification at the tribunal of God, he seems to teach
the doctrine of justification by faith and works; while Paul
teaches the doctrine of justification by faith alone, to be followed
by good works, as the necessary evidence of faith. The two
views as thus stated are embodied in the Roman Catholic and
the evangelical Protestant confessions, and form one of the
chief topics of controversy. But the contradiction between
James and Paul is verbal rather than logical and doctrinal, and
admits of a reconciliation which lies in the inseparable connec-
tion of a living faith and good works, or of justification and
sanctification, so that they supplement and confirm each other,
the one laying the true foundation in character, the other insist-
ing on the practical manifestation. James wrote probably long
before he had seen any of Paul's Epistles, certainly with no
view to refute his doctrine or even to guard it against antino-
mian abuse; for this was quite unnecessary, as Paul did it
clearly enough himself, and it would have been quite useless for
Jewish Christian readers who were exposed to the danger of a
barren legalism, but not of a pseudo-Pauline liberalism and anti-
nomianism. They cannot, indeed, be made to say precisely the
same thing, only using one or more of the three terms, " to
justify," " faith," " works " in different senses ; but they wrote
from different standpoints and opposed different errors, and thus
presented two distinct aspects of the same truth. James says :
Faith is dead without works. Paul says : Works are dead \dth-
out faith. The one insists on a working faith, the other 011
faithful works. Both are right : James in opposition to the dead
Jewish orthodoxy, Paul in opposition to self-righteous legal-
ism. James does not demand works without faith, but works
prompted by faith ; * while Paul, on the other hand, likewise
1 Oh 1 18 • /SovAty&cts fartKhifftv ij/ias \6yta
* Ch. 2 22 . ^ whrm ffvvnpyti rois fyyots avrov icai & r&v fyyw ^ rlcrru
520 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
declares a faith worthless which is without love, though it re-
move mountains,1 and would never have attributed a justifying
power to the mere belief in the existence of God, which James
calls the trembling faith of demons.9 But James mainly looks
at the fruit, Paul at the root ; the one is concerned for the evi-
dence, the other for the principle ; the one takes the practical
and experimental view, and reasons from the effect to the cause,
the other goes deeper to the inmost springs of action, bat comes
to the same result : a holy life of love and obedience as the
necessary evidence of true faith. And this, after all, is the
ultimate standard of judgment according to Paul as well as
James.* Paul puts the solution of the difficulty in one sentence :
"faith working through love." This is the Irenicon of con-
tending apostles and contending churches.4
The Epistle of James stands at the head of the Catholic Epis-
tles, so called, and represents the first and lowest stage of
Christian knowledge. It is doctrinally very meagre, but emi-
1 1 Cor 13 : 2. • Ch, 2 : 19
8 See Rom 2-6 (Is kroUffti Itcdtrrcp jtar& rh tpya avroG) ; 2 Cor. 5 • 10 ;
Gal 6 7 ; comp Matt 12 37 ; 25 : 35 sqq The solution of the apparent
contradiction between the doctrines of justification by faith and judgment by
works lies in the character of the works as being the evidence of faith
4 GaL 5 6 Tflffris 81 frycbnp iMpyovplvr), is operative (in the middle sense,
as always in the New Test.). " These words," says Bishop Lightf oot (in foe.),
44 bridge the gulf which seems to separate the language of St Paul and St.
James. Both assert a principle of practical energy, as opposed to a barren
inactive theory " To quote from my own commentary on the passage (1882) :
41 The sentence ' faith working through love' reconciles the doctrine of Paul
with that of James; comp. 6 15 , 1 Thess 1 3 , 1 Cor ch. 13 , 1 Tim. 1 5 ;
James 2 22 Here is the basis for a final settlement of the controveisy on
the doctrine of justification. Romanism (following exclusively the language
of James) teaches justification by faith and works ; Protestantism (on the au-
thority of Paul), justification by faith alone; Paul and James combined:
justification and salvation by faith working through love. Man is justified
by faith alone, but faith remains not alone • it is the fruitful mother of
good works, which are summed up in love to God and love to men Faith and
love are as inseparable as light and heat in the sun. Christ's merits are the
objective and meritorious ground of justification ; faith (as the organ of appro-
priation) is the subjective condition ; love or good works are the necessary evi-
dence ; without love faith is dead, according to James, or no faith at all,
according to Paul. A great deal of misunderstanding in this and other theo-
logical controversies baa arisen from the different use of terms."
§ 69. THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 621
nently practical and popular. It enjoins a simple, earnest,
and devout style of piety that visits the orphans and widows,
and keeps itself unspotted from the world.1
The close connection between the Epistle of James and the
Gospel of Matthew arises naturally from their common Jewish
Christian and Palestinian origin.
NOTES.
I. JAMES and PAUL. The apparent contradiction in the doctrine of
justification appears in James 2 : 14-26, as compared with Bom. 3 : 20
sqq. ; 4 . 1 sqq. ; Gal. 2 : 16 sqq. Paul says (Horn. 3 : 28) : " Man is justi-
fied by faith apart from works of law " (TTICJTCI x^pis cpyw i/o/zov), comp.
Gal. 2 : 16 (ov diKatovrat av^ptoirof f£ epywv vopov cap pr) 8tu TrtrrTfcof XptaroG
'IijtroC), and appeals to the example of Abraham, who was justified by
faith before he was circumcised (Gen. 17 : 10). James says (2 : 24) : " By
works a man is justified, and not only by faith" («'£ fyywi/ diKatovrai
ai/3po>7roF KUL OVK €K Trio-re*)* fjiovov), and appeals to the example of the
same Abraham who showed his true faith in God by offering up his son
Isaac upon the altar (Gen. 22 : 9, 12). Luther makes the contradiction
worse by unnecessarily inserting the woid aUein (sola fide) in Bom. 3 : 28,
though not without precedent (see my note on the passage in the Am.
ed. of Lange on Romans, p. 136). The great Reformer could not recon-
cile the two apostles, and rashly called the Epistle of James an "epistle
of straw" (eine recht stroherrte Epistel, Pref. to the New Test., 1524).
Baur, from a purely critical point of view, comes to the same conclu-
sion ; he regards the Epistle of James as a direct attack upon the very heart
of the doctrine of Paul, and treats all attempts at reconciliation as vain.
( Vorks. uber neutestam. Theol , p. 277). So also Eenan and Weiffenbach.
Renan (St. Paul, ch. 10) asserts without proof that James organized a
Jewish counter-mission to undermine Paul. But in this case, James, as
a sensible and practical man, ought to have written to Gentile Christians,
not to "the twelve tribes," who needed no warning against Paul and his
doctrine. His Epistle represents simply an earlier and lower form of
Christianity ignorant of the higher, yet preparatory to it, as the preach-
ing of John the Baptist prepared the way for that of Christ. It was writ-
ten without any reference to Paul, probably before the Council of Jeru-
salem and before the circumcision controversy, in the earliest stage of
the apostolic church as it is described in the first chapters of the Actst
when the Christians were not yet clearly distinguished and finally sepa-
rated from the Jews. This view of the early origin of the Epistle is
maintained by some of the ablest historians and commentators, as
1 Ch. 1 : 27 ; oomp. 5 . 13 sqq. , and the concluding verse.
522 FIRST PEBIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Neander, Schneokenburger, Tbeile, Thiersch, Beyschlag, Alford, Bassett,
Plnmptre, Stanley. Weiss also says veiy confidently (Bibl. TheoL, 3d
ed., p. 120} : "Der Brief gehdrt der vorpauliniscken Zeit an und stehtjeden*
falls zeitlich wie inhaUhch dem ersten Brief Petri am ndchsten." He there*
fore treats both James and Peter on their own merits, without regard to
Paul's teaching. Oomp. his Einleitung in d. N. T. (1886), p. 400.
II. JAMES and MATTHEW. The correspondence has often been fully
pointed out by Theile and other commentators. James contains more
reminiscences of the words of Christ than any other Epistle, especially
from the Sermon on the Mount. Comp. James 1 : 2 with Matt. 5 . 10-12 ;
James 1 : 4 with Matt 5 : 48 ; James 1 : 17 with Matt. 7 : 11 ; James 1 . 20
with Matt. 5 : 22 ; James 1 : 22 sqq. with Matt. 7 : 21 sq ; James 1 23
with Matt. 7 : 26 ; James 2 : 13 with Matt. 6 : 14 sq. ; James 2 : 14 with
Matt. 7 : 21-23 ; James 3 : 2 with Matt. 12 : 36, 37 ; James 3 : 17, 18 with
Matt. 5:9; James 4 : 3 with Matt. 7:7; James 4 : 4 with Matt. 6 : 24 ;
James 5 : 12 with Matt. 5 : 34. According to a notice in the pseudo-
Athanasian Synopsis, James " the Bishop of Jerusalem " translated the
Gospel of Matthew from the Aramaic into the Greek. But there are also
parallelisms between James and the first Epistle of Peter, and even be-
tween James and the apocryphal books of Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom
of Solomon. See Plumptre, Com. on James, pp. 32 sq.
§ 70. II. Peter and the Gospel of Hope.
(Comp the Lit. in §§ 25 and 26 )
PETER stands between James and Paul, and forms the transi-
tion from the extreme conservatism of the one to the progres-
sive liberalism of the other. The germ of his doctrinal system
is contained in his great confession that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.1 A short creed indeed, with only
one article, but a fundamental and all-comprehensive article, the
corner-stone of the Christian church. His system, therefore,
is christological, and supplements the anthropological type of
James. His addresses in the Acts and his Epistles are full of
the fresh impressions which the personal intercourse with Christ
made upon his noble, enthusiastic, and impulsive nature. Chris-
tianity is the fulfilment of all the Messianic prophecies ; but it
is at the same time itself a prophecy of the glorious return of the
Lord. This future glorious manifestation is so certain that it is
1 Matt 16 . 1G; comp. John 6 . 68, 69.
§ 70. PETER AND THE GOSPEL OF HOPE. 623
already anticipated here in blessed joy by a lively hope which
stimulates to a holy life of preparation for the end. Hence,
Peter eminently deserves to be called " the Apostle of hope." '
I. Peter began his testimony with the announcement of the
historical facts of the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, and represents these facts as the divine seal of
his Messiahship, according to the prophets of old, who bear
witness to him that through his name every one that believes
shall receive remission of sins. The same Jesus whom God
raised from the dead and exalted to his right hand as Lord and
Saviour, will come again to judge his people and to bring in
seasons of refreshing from his presence and the a/pokatastasis
or restitution of all things to their normal and perfect state,
thus completely fulfilling the Messianic prophecies. There is
no salvation out of the Lord Jesus Christ. The condition of
this salvation is the acknowledgment of his Messiahship and
the change of rnind and conduct from the service of sin to
holiness.1
These views are so simple, primitive, and appropriate that we
cannot conceive how Peter could have preached differently and
more effectively in that early stage of Christianity. We need
not wonder at the conversion of three thousand souls in conse-
quence of his pentecostal sermon. His knowledge gradually
widened and deepened with the expansion of Christianity and
the conversion of Cornelius. A special revelation enlightened
him on the question of circumcision and brought him to the
conviction that " in every nation he that fears God and works
righteousness, is acceptable to him," and that Jews and Gentiles
are saved alike by the grace of Christ through faith, without
the unbearable yoke of the ceremonial law."
1 Weiss (p. 172) : "DieHoffnung bOdet in der Anschauung des Petnu dm
tigentttchen Mittdpunkt des Chnsterdebens Sie erscheint bei ihm in der hdcht-
ten JDnergie, wonach die gehoffte Vottendung bereit* unmtttdbar nahe geruckt
erscheint."
* See his pentecostal sermon, Acts 2 : 14 sqq. ; his addresses to the people,
8 : 12 sqq. ; before the Sanhedrin, 4 : 8 aqq. ; 5 . 29 sqq. ; to Cornelius,
10 : 84 sqq. 'Acts 10 : 85; 15 : 7-11.
624 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
II. The Epistles of Peter represent this riper stage of knowl
edge. They agree substantially with the teaching of Paul
The leading idea is the same as that presented in his addresses
in the Acts : Christ the f ulfiller of the Messianic prophecies,
and the hope of the Christian. Peter's christology is free of
all speculative elements, and simply derived from the impres-
sion of the historical and risen Jesus. lie emphasizes in the
first Epistle, as in his earlier addresses, the resurrection where-
by God "begat us again unto a lively hope, unto an inherit-
ance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that f adeth not away,
reserved in heaven," when " the chief shepherd shall be mani-
fested," and we " shall receive the crown of glory." And in the
second Epistle he points forward to " new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." * He thus connects tne
resurrection of Christ with the final consummation of which it
is the sure pledge. But, besides the resurrection, he brings out
also the atoning efficacy of the death of Christ almost as strongly
and clearly as Paul. Christ " suffered for sins once, the right-
eous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God ; " he
himself " bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, hav-
ing died unto sins, might live unto righteousness ; " he redeemed
us u with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot." * Christ is to him the only Saviour, the Lord,
the Prince of life, the Judge of the world. He assigns him a
majestic position far above all other men, and brings him into
the closest contact with the eternal Jehovah, though in subordi-
nation to him. The doctrine of the pre-existence seems to be
intimated and implied, if not expressly stated, when Christ is
spoken of as being " foreknown before the foundation of tho
world " and " manifested at the end of the time," and his Spirit
as dwelling in the prophets of old and pointing them to his
future sufferings and glory.*
'IPet 1:8-5; 5:4; 2 Pet 3. 13. * 1 Pet. 1 • 18 sqq. ; 2-24; 8:18sqq.
*1 Pet. 1:20: Xpurrov vpoiywff pivov pir ypb Kara/9oAi}? fctfo/tov,
^aycptt&fPTOf &, «c. r. A.; 1 * 11 : rb if avrois (roTs vrpo^rats) low/ia
Xpurrov TpopapTuptfuvov, K. r. A. Schmid, Lechler, Gess, and others under-
stand these passages as teaching a real pro-existence ; Beyschlag (i.e., p. 121)
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 626
HI. Peter extends the preaching, judging, and saving activity
of Christ to the realm of the departed spirits in Hades during
the mysterious triduum between the crucifixion and the resur-
rection.1 The descent into Hades is also taught by Paul (Eph.
4 : 9, 10).
IY. With this theory correspond the practical exhortations.
Subjective Christianity is represented as faith in the historical
Christ and as a lively hope in his glorious reappearance, which
should make the Christians rejoice even amidst trials and perse-
cution, after the example of their Lord and Saviour.
§ 71. The Gentile Christum Theology. P<wl and the Gospel
of Fa/tih.
(See the Lit. in § 29, pp. 280 sqq )
The Gentile Christian type of the gospel is embodied in the
writings of Paul and Luke, and in the anonymous Epistle to
the Hebrews.
The sources of Paul's theology are his discourses in the Acts
(especially the speech on the Areopagus) and his thirteen Epis-
tles, namely, the Epistles to the Thessalonians — the earliest, but
chiefly practical ; the four great Epistles to the Corinthians,
Galatians, and Romans, which are the mature result of his con-
finds in them only an ideal pre-existence in the foreknowledge of God, and
emphasizes the l*o(t\fftv in Acts 2 36. He refers the irvcDua Xpurruv to the
Holy Spirit, which was afterwards given in full measure to Christ at his bap-
tism So also Weiss (p. 161). But in this case Peter would have said r&
mt/pa &yiov, as he did 1 Pet 1 • 12 ; 2 Pet. 1 21 ; Acts 2 33, 38.
1 1 Pet 3 : 19 ; 4:6; comp Acts 2 : 27. The reference of the first passage
to a preaching of Christ through Noah at the time of the flood is artificial,
breaks the historic connection (dW&ovcr . . . frayarw^t . . (voTrotrfifl*
fycri^ari . . . Mpv^v . . . iropcv&eif ci* ovpavdy), and is set aside by ch. 4 : 6,
which explains and generalizes the statement of the former passage. Ban*
(p. 291) understands the nw^uara cV <pv\ax$ to be the fallen angels (comp.
2 Pet 2:4; Gen. 6 1), and the preaching of Christ an announcement of the
judgment. But in this case we should have to distinguish between the
Idipvffr, 1 Pet. 3 : 9, and the f uiryytAfardif in 4 • 6. The latter always means
preaching the gospel, which is a savor of life unto life to believers, and a
savor of death onto death to unbelievers.
520 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
flict with the Judaizing tendency ; the four Epistles of the cap-
tivity; and the Pastoral Epistles. These groups present as
many phases of development of his system and discuss different
questions with appropriate variations of style, but they are ani-
mated by the same spirit, and bear the marks of the same pro-
found and comprehensive genius.
Paul is the pioneer of Christian theology. He alone among
the apostles had received a learned rabbinical education and
was skilled in logical and dialectical argument. But his logic is
vitalized and set on fire. His theology springs from his heart
us well as from his brain ; it is the result of his conversion, and
all aglow with the love of Christ ; his scholasticism is warmed
and deepened by mysticism, and his mysticism is regulated and
sobered by scholasticism; the religious and moral elements,
dogmatics, and ethics, are blended into a harmonious whole.
Out of the depths of his personal experience, and in conflict
with the Judaizing contraction and the Gnostic evaporation of
the gospel he elaborated the fullest scheme of Christian doctrine
which we possess from apostolic pens. It is essentially soterio-
logical, or a system of the way of salvation. It goes far beyond
the teaching of James and Peter, and yet is only a consistent
development of the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels.1
THE CENTRAL IDEA.
Paul's personal experience embraced intense fanaticism for
Judaism, and a more intense enthusiasm for Christianity. It
was first an unavailing struggle of legalism towards human
righteousness by works of the law, and then the apprehension
1 Dr. Baur, who was formerly disposed to make Paul the founder of Chris-
tian uniyersalism. admits in his last elaboration of the Pauline system (N.
T.Uche Theol , p. 128), that "Paul only expressed to the consciousness what in
itself, in principle and actually, or by implication, was contained already in the
doctrine of Jesus (was an sich, printipiell und thatsachlich, oder impUcite schatt
in der Lehre Je*u enthaUen war) " Pressense misstates here Baur's position,
bat himself correctly calls Paul's doctrine " as a whole and in all its parts, the
logical deduction and development of the teaching of the Master " (Apost. Era,
p. 255).
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 527
of divine righteousness by faith in Christ. This dualism is re
fleeted in his theology. The idea of righteousness or conformity
to God's holy will is the connecting link between the Jewish
Saul and the Christian Paul. Law and works, was the motto of
the self-righteous pupil of Moses ; gospel and faith, the motto
of the humble disciple of Jesus. He is the emancipator of the
Christian consciousness from the oppressive bondage of legalism
and bigotry, and the champion of freedom and catholicity.
Paul's gospel is emphatically the gospel of saving faith, the
gospel of evangelical freedom, the gospel of universalism, cen-
tring in the person and work of Christ and conditioned by
union with Christ. He determined to know nothing but Christ
and him crucified ; but this included all— it is the soul of his
theology. The Christ who died is the Christ who was raised
again and ever lives as Lord and Saviour, arid was made unto
us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption.1 A dead Christ would be the grave of all our
hopes, and the gospel of a dead Saviour a wretched delusion.
" If Christ has not been raised then is our preaching vain, your
faith also is vain." a His death becomes available only through
his resurrection. Paul puts the two facts together in the com-
prehensive statement : " Christ delivered up for our trespasses,
and raised for our justification." * He is a conditional univer-
salist ; he teaches the universal need of salvation, and the divine
intention and provision for a universal salvation, but the actual
salvation of each man depends upon his faith or personal accept-
ance and appropriation of Christ. His doctrinal system, then,
turns on the great antithesis of sin and grace. Before Christ
and out of Christ is the reign of sin and death ; after Christ
and in Christ is the reign of righteousness and life.
We now proceed to an outline of the leading features of his
theology as set forth in the order of the Epistle to the Romans,
the most methodical and complete of his writings. Its central
'ICor. 1 -30; 2-2. • 1 Cor. 15-13.
8 Bom. 4 28. The first tut is retrospective, the second prospective : for the
destruction of sin and for the procurement of righteousness.
628 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
thought is.: The Gospel of Christ^ a power of God for the
tion of all men, Jew a/nd Gentile.1
I. THE UNIVERSAL NEED OF SALVATION. — It arises from the
fall of Adam and the whole human race, which was included in
him as the tree is included in the seed, so that his one act of
disobedience brought sin and death upon the whole posterity.
Paul proves the depravity of Gentiles and Jews without excep-
tion to the extent that they are absolutely unable to attain to
righteousness and to save themselves. "There is none right-
eous, no, not one." They are all under the dominion of sin and
under the sentence of condemnation.* He recognizes indeed,
even among the heathen, the remaining good elements of reason
and conscience,8 which are the connecting links for the regener-
ating work of divine grace ; but for this very reason they are
inexcusable, as they sin against better knowledge. There is a
conflict between the higher and the lower nature in man (the
wn>9, which tends to God who gave it, and the cra/of, which
tends to sin), and this conflict is stimulated and brought to a
crisis by the law of God ; but this conflict, owing to the weak-
ness of our carnal, fallen, depraved nature, ends in defeat and
despair till the renewing grace of Christ emancipates us from
the curse and bondage of sin and gives us liberty and victory.
In the seventh chapter of the Romans, Paul gives from his per-
sonal experience a most remarkable and truthful description of
the religious history of man from the natural or heathen state
of carnal security (without the law, ver. 7-9) to the Jewish state
under the law which calls out sin from its hidden recess, reveals
its true character, and awakens the sense of the wretchedness of
slavery under sin (ver. 10-25), but in this very way prepares the
way for the Christian state of freedom (ver. 24 and ch. 8).4
1 1 • 17 : ftvyams &cov cit <r*nty>fa>' irarri rf wurr*6on, *Iou8aty re [rp&ror]
*al "EAArjyi. Other pregnant passages in which Paul summarizes his dogmatics
and ethics, are Bom. 1 : 16, 17 : 3.21-26; 4:25; 11 :32; 1 Cor. 15 22; OaL
3-22; Tit 3 8-7.
9 Rom. 1 : 18 ; 3 : 20. First the depravity of the heathen, then that of the
Jews (2.1, oomp. ver. 17).
* Bom. 1 : 18-21 ; 2 : 14-16 ; oomp. Acts 17 : 28.
4 The Augustinian application of this conflict to the regenerate state, in-
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 629
II. THE DIVINE INTENTION AND PROVISION OF UNIVERSAL SAL-
VATION.— God sincerely wills (Setet,) that all men, even the great-
est of sinners, should be saved, and come to the knowledge of
truth through Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all.1 The
extent of Christ's righteousness and life is as universal as the
extent of Adam's sin and death, and its intensive power is even
greater. The first and the second Adam are perfectly parallel
by contrast in their representative character, but Christ is much
stronger and remains victor of the field, having slain sin and death,
and living for ever as the prince of life. Where sin abounds
there grace superabounds. As through the first Adam sin (as
a pervading force) entered into the world, and death through
sin, and thus death passed unto all men, inasmuch as they all
sinned (in Adam generically and potentially, and by actual trans-
gression individually) ; so much more through Christ, the second
Adam, righteousness entered into the world and life through
righteousness, and thus righteousness passed unto all men on
condition of faith by which we partake of his righteousness.8
volves the seventh chapter in contradiction with chapters 6 and 8, and oblit-
erates the distinction between the regenerate and the nnregenerate state.
Augustine understood that chapter better in his earlier years, before the
Pelagian controversy drove him to such an extreme view of total depravity as
destroys all freedom and responsibility. We see here the difference between
an inspired apostle and an enlightened theologian. The chief object of
chapter 7 is to show that the law cannot sanctify anymore than it can justify
(cb. 3), and that the legal conflict with the sinful flesh ends in total failure.
Paul always uses here vovs for the higher principle in man (including reason
and conscience) ; while in chapter 8. where he speaks of the regenerate man,
he uses ra^/Aa, which is the vovs sanctified and enlightened by the Holy
Spirit In verse 25 he indeed alludes to the regenerate state by way of antici-
pation and as an immediate answer to the preceding cry for redemption ; but
from this expression of thanks he once more points back with Spa O^F to the
previous state of bondage before he enters more fully with fya wv into the
state of freedom.
1 1 Tim. 1 : 15 ; 2 : 4, 8 ; Tit 2-11 Particularistic restrictions of "all" in
these passages are arbitrary. The same doctrine is taught 2 Pet. 3 : 9, and
John 8 • 16 ; 1 John 2 : 2. The last passage is as clear as the sun : "Christ
is the propitiation (t\oirp4f) for our sins ; and not for oura only, but ato for
UlA whole world" (ob fdm . . . &XAa icai ircpl oXou rov *<hrpov).
* Rom. 5 : 12-21 ; I Cor. 15 : 21, 22. The rdVrcs and the ol ro\\ol (which
is equivalent to infercs and opposed, not to a/ew, but to the one) in the second
clause referring to the second Adam, is as comprehensive and unlimited as in
630 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
God shut up all men in disobedience, that he might have mercy
upon all that believe.1
(1.) The PREPARATION for this salvation was the promise and the
law of the Old dispensation. The promise given to Abraham
and the patriarchs is prior to the law, and not set aside by the
law ; it contained the germ and the pledge of salvation, and Abra-
ham stands out as the father of the faithful, who was justified
by faith even before he received circumcision as a sign and
seal. The law came in besides, or between the promise and
the gospel in order to develop the disease of sin, to reveal its
true character as a transgression of the divine will, and thus
to excite the sense of the need of salvation. The law is in itself
holy and good, but cannot give life ; it commands and threat-
ens, but gives no power to fulfil ; it cannot renew the flesh, that
is, the depraved, sinful nature of man ; it can neither justify
nor sanctify, but it brings the knowledge of sin, and by its dis-
cipline it prepares men for the freedom of Christ, as a school-
master prepares children for independent manhood.9
(2.) The SALVATION itself is comprehended in the person and
work of CHRIST. It was accomplished in the fulness of the time
by the sinless life, the atoning death, and the glorious resurrection
and exaltation of Christ, the eternal Son of God, who appeared
in the likeness of the flesh of sin and as an offering for sin, and
thus procured for us pardon, peace, and reconciliation. " God
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." This
is the greatest gift of the eternal love of the Father for his
creatures. The Son of God, prompted by the same infinite love,
the first clause The English Version weakens the force of ol iroAAof, and
limite the number by omitting the article. The *o\\$ pa\\ov (Bom. 5 : 15,
17) predicated of Christ's saving grace, is not a numerical, nor a logical, bnt a
dynamic plus, indicating a higher degree of efficacy, inasmuch as Christ brought
far greater blessings than we lost in Adam.
1 Bom. 11 : 32; Gal. 3 : 22. These passages contain the briefest statement
«f the sad mystery of the fall cleared up by the blessed mystery of redemp-
tion. In the first passage the masculine is used (ro&t rrfrraf), in the second
the neater (r& *cbra), and the application is confined to believers
•Bom. oho. 3-7 ; GaL oho. 2-4 ; especially Bom. 3 .20; 5:20; GaL 8:84.
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 631
laid aside his divine glory and mode of existence, emptied himself,
exchanged the form of God for the form of a servant, humbled
himself and became obedient, even unto the death of the cross.
Though he was rich, being equal with God, yet for our sakes
he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich.
In reward for his active and passive obedience God exalted him
and gave him a name above every name, that in the name of
Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he
is Lord.1
Formerly the cross of Christ had been to the carnal Messianic
expectations and self -righteousness of Paul, as well as of other
Jews, the greatest stumbling-block, as it was the height of folly
to the worldly wisdom of the heathen mind.3 But the heav-
enly vision of the glory of Jesus at Damascus unlocked the
key for the understanding of this mystery, and it was confirmed
by the primitive apostolic tradition,3 and by his personal expe-
rience of the failure of the law and the power of the gospel to
give peace to his troubled conscience. The death of Christ
appeared to him now as the divinely appointed means for pro-
curing righteousness. It is the device of infinite wisdom and
love to reconcile the conflicting claims of justice and mercy
whereby God could justify the sinner and yet remain just him-
self.4 Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might
become righteousness of God in him. He died in the place
and for the benefit (forep, irepi) of sinners and enemies, so that
his death has a universal significance. If one died for all, they
all died.6 He offered his spotless and holy life as a ransom
I Horn. 8 • 3, 32 ; Phil 2 : 6-11 ; 2 Cor 89. On the Christology of Paul,
see the Notes at the end of this section.
* Gal 5 • 11 ; 6 12. 1 Cor 1 23.
I 1 Cor. 15:3: "I delivered unto yon first of all that which I also received,
that Christ died for our sins accordiog to the Scriptures."
4 Bom. 8-26 els T& cTi/at avrkr 5fitaioi> icol lucouovrra rlv 4x vl<rrc*s Xpurrou
Bengel calls this u summum paradoxon evangelicum."
•2 Cor. 5 : 15 : Src eft forty v&rr*r fcrAomr, &pa ol ir«£rr« fcr&oiw Mark
the aoriat The prepositions 6Wp (used of persons) and ircpf (of things, but
also of persons) express the idea of benefit, bnt often in close connection with
tbeideaof vicariousnew (orr*)- Comp. QaL 1 : 4 ; 8: 18 ; Bom. 4:25 ; 5 :6, eta
632 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
favrpov) or price (n^rf) for our sins, and thus effected our re
demption (dTioXi/rpaxw), as prisoners of war are redeemed by
the payment of an equivalent. His death, therefore, is a vi-
carious sacrifice, an atonement, an expiation or propitiation
(lhacrfjLos, iXaoTiJptoi/, sacriftcium eapiatorium) for the sins of
the whole world, and secured full and final remission (a0e<w)
and reconciliation between God and man (fcara\\(vyq). This
the Mosaic law and sacrifices could not accomplish. They could
only keep alive and deepen the sense of the necessity of an
atonement. If righteousness came by the law, Christ's death
would be needless and fruitless. His death removes not only
the guilt of sin, but it destroyed also its power and dominion.
Hence the great stress Paul laid on the preaching of the cross
(6 Xoyo? TOV aravpov), in which alone he would glory.1
This rich doctrine of the atonement which pervades the
Pauline Epistles is only a legitimate expansion of the word of
Christ that he would give his life as a ransom for sinners and
shed his blood for the remission of sins.
(3.) While Christ accomplished the salvation, the HOLY SPIEIT
appropriates it to the believer. The Spirit is the religious and
moral principle of the new life. Emanating from God, he
dwells in the Christian as a renewing, sanctifying, comforting
energy, as the higher conscience, as a divine guide and monitor.
He mediates between Christ and the church as Christ medi-
ates between God and the world ; he is the divine revealer of
Christ to the individual consciousness and the source of all
graces (xapiarpara) through which the new life manifests itself.
1 Rom 8 21-26 ; 5 : 6-10; 8 : 32 ; 1 Cor 1 • 17, 18 ; 2 : 2 ; 6 • 20; 7 • 23 ;
11 • 24 ; 15 . 3; 2 Cor 5 15, 18, 19, 21 ; Gal 1 : 4 ; 2 11 sqq. ; 3 • 13; 6: 14,
etc. Comp. Weiss, p 302 ; Pfleiderer, p. 7 ; Banr (N. T. TheoL, p 156),
Holsten and Pfleiderer (in his able introduction) regard the atoning- death of
Christ as the kernel of Paul's theology, and Holsten promises to develop the
whole system from this idea in his new work, Das Evangdium des Paulw,
of which the first part appeared in 1880. Bnt they deny the objective char-
acter of the revelation at Damascus, and resolve it into a subjective moral
struggle and a dialectical process of reflection and reasoning. Luther passed
through a similar moral conflict and reached the same conclusion, but on the
bacia of the Scriptures and with the aid of the divine Spirit.
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 633
" Christ in us " is equivalent to having the " Spirit of Christ."
It is only by the inward revelation of the Spirit that we can
call Christ our Lord and Saviour, and God our Father ; by the
Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts ; the Spirit
works in us faith and all virtues ; it is the Spirit who trans-
forms even the body of the believer into a holy temple ; those
who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God and heirs of sal-
vation ; it is by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that
we are made free from the law of sin and death and are able to
walk in newness of life. Where the Spirit of God is there is
true liberty.1
(4.) There is, then, a threefold cause of our salvation : the
Father who sends his Son, the Son who procures salvation, and
the Holy Spirit who applies it to the believer. This threefold
agency is set forth in the benediction, which comprehends all
divine blessings : " the grace (x^P^) of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love (O^OTTTI) of God, and the communion (KOWWVLO) of
the Holy Spirit." * This is Paul's practical view of the Holy
Trinity as revealed in the gospel. The grace of Christ is men-
tioned first because in it is exhibited to us the Jove of the
Father in its highest aspect as a saving power ; to the Holy
Spirit is ascribed the communion because he is the bond of
union between the Father and the Son, between Christ and the
believer, and between the believers as members of one brother-
hood of the redeemed.
To this divine trinity corresponds, we may say, the human
trinity of Christian graces : faith, hope, love.3
1 The passages in which the Holy Spirit is mentioned are very numerous,
especially in the Thessalonians, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephe-
Bians. Comp Rom. 5 5; 7 6; 8-2, 5, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 26; 1 Cor. 2.
4 sqq. ; 3 : 16 ; 6 11, 17, 19 ; 12 • 3-16 ; 2 Cor 1 12 ; 2 • 7 , GaL 4 : 6; 5 :
16, 22, 25; Bph. 1 • 17; 2 2 ; 4 23, 30 ; 5 18; 1 Theas. 1:5, 6; 4:8;
5 : 19, 23; 2 Thess 2 2, 8, 13 ; 2 Tim. 1 • 7, 14; Tit 3 • 5.
•The concluding verse in the second Epistle to the Corinthians; comp.
Eph 2 18, 22 ; 4 4-6, where God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Spirit are mentioned as distinct personalities, if we may use this
unsatisfactory yet indispensable term.
» 1 Cor. 13 . 13.
534 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
III. THE OBDEB OF SALVATION. — (1.) Salvation has its roots
in the eternal counsel of God, his FOREKNOWLEDGE (TrpayvaHw),
and his FOBEOBDINATION (Trpoopicrpos, irpo&ecrw) ; the former an
act of his omniscient intellect, the latter of his omnipotent
will. Logically, foreknowledge precedes foreordination, but
in reality both coincide and are simultaneous in the divine
mind, in which there is no before nor after.1
Paul undoubtedly teaches an eternal election by the sovereign
grace of God, that is an unconditioned and unchangeable predes-
tination of his children to holiness and salvation in and through
his Son Jesus Christ.3 He thus cuts off all human merit, and
plants the salvation upon an immovable rock. But he does
not thereby exclude human freedom and responsibility ; on the
contrary, he includes them as elements in the divine plan, and
boldly puts them together.3 Hence he exhorts and warns men
as if salvation might be gained or lost by their effort. Those
who are lost, are lost by their own unbelief. Perdition is the
righteous judgment for sin unrepented of and persisted in. It
is a strange misunderstanding to make Paul either a fatalist or a
particularist ; he is the strongest opponent of blind necessity and
of Jewish particularism, even in the ninth chapter of Romans.
But he aims at no philosophical solution of a problem which
the finite understanding of man cannot settle ; he contents
himself with asserting its divine and human aspects, the reli-
1 Rom. 8-29 " Whom he foreknew (ots irpo£yvu\ he also foreordained
(TpocSpio-ev), to be conformed to the image of his Son." The -verb irpoyivd>ffK»
occurs in the New Test five times (Rom. 8 . 29 ; 11 1,2; Acts 26 5 ; 1 Pet
1 -20), the noun vpAyvutrtf twice (Acts 2 23 , 1 Pet 1 2), always, as in clas-
sical Greek, in the sense of previous knowledge (not election) The verb
irpoopifa occurs six times, and means always to foreordain, to determine be-
fore The words &x£ya and citAe-yo^ai, lieXo^* tic\€Kr6s occur much more
frequently, mostly with reference to eternal choice or election. See note
below.
2 Eph 1 4 . " Even as he chose us in Christ (^Xt'toro foas fr afrrp) be-
fore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish
before him in love having foreordained us unto adoption as sons (irpoopltrat
4/ta* €h vlo&tffiav) through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good
pleasure of bis will."
1 PniL 2 : 12, 13. Comp. the ninth chapter of Romans with the tenth.
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 635
gions and ethical view, the absolute sovereignty of God and the
relative freedom of man, the free gift of salvation and the just
punishment for neglecting it. Christian experience includes
both truths, and we find no contradiction in praying as if all
depended on God, and in working as if all depended on man.
This is Pauline theology and practice.
Foreknowledge and f oreordination are the eternal background
of salvation: call, justification, sanctification, and glorification
mark the progressive steps in the time of execution, and of the
personal application of salvation.1
(2.) The CALL (*\?7<ri9) proceeds from God the Father through
the preaching of the gospel salvation which is sincerely offered
to all. Faith comes from preaching, preaching from preachers,
and the preachers from God who sends them.*
The human act which corresponds to the divine call is the con-
version (fterdvoia) of the sinner ; and this includes repentance
or turning away from sin, and faith or turning to Christ, under
the influence of the Holy Spirit who acts through the word.*
The Holy Spirit is the objective principle of the new life of the
Christian. Faith is the free gift of God, and at the same time
the highest act of man. It is unbounded trust in Christ, and
the organ by which we apprehend him, his very life and bene-
fits, and become as it were identified with him, or mystically
incorporated with him.4
1 Rom 8 : 30 " Whom he foreordained them he also called (^KaXeo-cv) : and
whom he called them he also justified (ttiKalaxTfv, which is also the beginning
of aanctijteatwrt) and whom he justified, them he also glonfied (*5<f{a<r€j>)."
The proleptio aonst is used for the future to indicate the absolute certainty
that God will carry out his gracious design to the glorious consummation.
2 Horn. 10 14, 15. A chain of abridged syllogisms (sortie*) by which Paul
reasons back from effect to cause till he reaches the first link in the chain.
On the K\r><n* (vocatio) see Rom. 11 • 29 , 1 Cor. 1 • 26 ; 7 20; Gal. 1 . 6;
Eph 1 : 18 , 4 : 14 ; PhiL 3 : 14, etc. The verb *oA^« is of very frequent
occurrence in the Gospels and Epistles.
' Rom 2 : 4; 2 Cor 7 : 9, 10; 2 Tim. 2 : 25.
4 Baur (p 154) distinguishes five conceptions of wiVrif (from Tff&eiy) : let,
conviction in general, a theoretical belief or assent. In this sense it does not
occur in Paul, but in James 1 • 17. 2d, conviction of the invisible and super-
natural ; 2 Cor. 5 : 7, «-f<rris as distinct from cftos. 3d, religious conviction,
536 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(3.) JUSTIFICATION (St/taJWt?) is the next step. This is a vital
doctrine in Paul's system and forms the connecting link as well
as the division line between the Jewish and the Christian period
of his life. It was with him always a burning life-question. As
a Jew he sought righteousness by works of the law, honestly
and earnestly, but in vain ; as a Christian he found it, as a free
gift of grace, by faith in Christ. Righteousness (Sucauxrwq),
as applied to man, is the normal relation of man to the holy
will of God as expressed in his revealed law, which requires
supreme love to God and love to our neighbor ; it is the moral
and religious ideal, and carries in itself the divine favor and the
highest happiness. It is the very end for which man was
made ; he is to be conformed to God who is absolutely holy and
righteous. To be god-like is the highest conception of human
perfection and bliss.
But there are two kinds of righteousness, or rather two ways
of seeking it : one of the law, and sought by works of the law ;
but this is imaginary, at best very defective, and cannot stand
before God ; and the righteousness of Christ, or the righteous-
ness of faith, which is freely communicated to the believer and
accepted by God. Justification is the act of God by which he
puts the repenting sinner in possession of the righteousness of
Christ. It is the reverse of condemnation ; it implies the remis-
sion of sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness. It is
based upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ and conditioned by
faith, as the subjective organ of apprehending and appropriating
Christ with all his benefits. We are therefore justified by grace
alone through faith alone ; yet faith remains not alone, but is
ever fruitful of good works.
The result of justification is peace (elpjwj) with God, and the
1 Cor. 2 : 5 ; 2 Cor. 1 • 24, etc. 4th, trugt in God, Bom. 4 : 17-21. 5th, trust
in Christ, or the specific Christian faith, Rom. 3 • 22 , 1 Cor 15 • 14 ; Gal 1 28,
and always where justifying faith is meant Weiss (p. 316) defines the Pauline
idea of justifying faith as " the very opposite of all the works required by the
law ; it is no human performance, but, on the contrary, an abandonment of
all work of our own, an unconditional reliance on God who justifies, or on
Christ as the Mediator of salvation." But this is only the receptive side of
faith, it has an active side as well, *f<mt is tfjtpyov/ifoi *»' £7^1. See below.
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 537
state of adoption (v/oSe<rta), and this implies also the heirsliip
(K\*)prvopia) of eternal life. " The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are children of God : and if children,
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be
foat we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him." l
The root of Paul's theory of justification is found in the
teaching of Christ: he requires from his disciples a far better
righteousness than the legal righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees, as a condition of entering the kingdom of heaven,
namely, the righteousness of God ; he holds up this righteous-
ness of God as the first object to be sought ; and teaches that it
can only be obtained by faith, which he everywhere presents as
the one and only condition of salvation on the part of man.*
(4.) SANCTIFICATION (ayiacrfios).* The divine act of justification
is inseparable from the conversion and renewal of the sinner.
It affects the will and conduct as well as the feeling. Although
gratuitous, it is not unconditional. It is of necessity the begin-
ning of sanctification, the birth into a new life which is to grow
unto full manhood. We are not justified outside of Christ, but
only in Christ by a living faith, which unites us with him in his
death unto sin and resurrection unto holiness. Faith is opera-
tive in love and must produce good works as the inevitable
proof of its existence. Without love, the greatest of Christian
graces, even the strongest faith would be but " sounding brass
or clanging cymbal." 4
1 Bom. 5:1; 8:15-17; Gal. 4:5-7. If we read in Rom 5 - 1 (with the
oldest authorities) the hortative subjunctive fyvnev, u let us have" (instead of
the indicative f^opex, " we have ")« peace is represented as a blessing which
we should grasp and fully enjoy — an exhortation well suited for Judaizing and
gloomy Christians who groan under legal bondage. On justification see the
notes below.
'Matt 5.20; 6'83; 9-22,29; 17:20; Markll:22; 16-16; Luke6:60;
18 : 10-14 ; John 8 :16, 17; 6-47, etc.
* Oomp. Bom. 6 : 19, 22; 1 Cor. 1 : 80; 1 Thess. 4 • 8, 4, 7; 2 Thess. 2 : 18.
4 1 Cor. 13: 1, 2. Luther's famous description of faith (in his Preface to
Romans), as '« a lively, busy, mighty thing that waits not for work, but is ever
working, and is as inseparable from love as light is from heat," is in the very
spirit of Paul, and a sufficient reply to the slander brought against the doctrine
of justification by faith as being antinomian in its tendency.
638 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Sanctification is not a single act, like justification, but a pro
cess. It is a continuous growth of the whole inner man in holt
ness from the moment of conversion and justification to the
reappearance of Jesus Christ in glory.1 On the part of God it
is insured, for he is faithful and will perfect the good work
which he began ; on the part of man it involves constant watch-
fulness, lest he stumble and fall. In one view it depends all on
the grace of God, in another view it depends all on the exertion
of man. There is a mysterious co-operation between the two
agencies, which is expressed in the profound paradox : " Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God
who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good
pleasure."* The believer is mystically identified with Christ
from the moment of his conversion (sealed by baptism). He
died with Christ unto sin so as to sin no more ; and he rose with
him to a new life unto God so as to live for God ; he is cruci-
fied to the world and the world to him ; he is a new creature in
Christ ; the old man of sin is dead and buried, the new man
lives in holiness and righteousness. " It is no longer I (my own
sinful self) that lives, but it is Christ that lives in me : and that
life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself up for me." * Here is the
whole doctrine of Christian life : it is Christ m us, cmd we in
1 1 Thess. 5 • 23 : " The God of peace sanctify yon wholly , and may your
spirit and soul and body he preserved entire, without blame at the coming
(rapowrla) of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is he that calleth you, who will
also do it " Comp. the 6th, 7th, and 8th chs of Romans, which treat most
fully of sanctification, also chs 12-15, and all the ethical or hortatory portions
of his other epistles.
* Phil 2 • 12, 13. The apostle emphatically uses the same verb, fapyuv and
ivcpytw, while the E. V., with its usual love for variation, renders " worketh "
and "to do " Angustin (De dono persev. 83) • " Nos ergo volumvs, ted Deu*
in nobis operatur et vdle; not ergo operamur, sed Deu* in nobi* operatur et
operari " Ver. 13 u supplies at once the stimulus to, and the corrective of the
precept in the preceding verse : ' Work, for God works with you , ' and ' The
good is not yours but God's.' " Lightfoot, in loc. Comp. also Calvin, Alford,
and Braune, in loc
1 GaL 2 : 20. This passage is obscured in the E V. by the omission of
•tetfri, " no longer," and the insertion of ( ' nevertheless.19
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 639
Christ. It consists in a vital union with Christ, the crucified
and risen Kedeemer, who is the indwelling, all-pervading, and
controlling life of the believer ; but the union is no pantheistic
confusion or absorption ; the believer continues to live as a self-
conscious and distinct personality. For the believer " to live is
Christ, and to die is gain." u Whether we live, we live unto
the Lord ; whether we die, we die unto the Lord : whether we
live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." l
In the twelfth chapter of Romans, Paul sums up his ethics
in the idea of gratitude which manifests itself in a cheerful
sacrifice of our persons and services to the God of our salva-
tion.'
(5.) GLORIFICATION (Sofafew). This is the final completion of
the work of grace in the believer and will appear at the parou-
sia of our Lord. It cannot be hindered by any power present
or future, visible or invisible, for God and Christ are stronger
than all our enemies and will enable us to come out more than
conquerors from the conflict of faith.
This lofty conviction of final victory finds most eloquent ex-
pression in the triumphal ode which closes the eighth chapter
of Romans.'
IY. THE HISTORICAL PROGRESS of the gospel of salvation
from Jews to Gentiles and back again to the Jews.4 Salvation
1 Gal 3 27; Eph 5 30; 1 Cor 1 9; 2 Cor. 1 : 3, 5; 5 17; 13-4; Col.
3 4 ; Phil 1 21 , Rom 6 4-8,14 8 ; 1 These 5 10 Comp those numer-
ous passages where Paul uses the significant phrase Iv Xpurrf, living and mov-
ing and acting in Him, as the element of our spiritual existence.
2 Hence the Heidelberg Catechism, following the order of the Ep. to the
Romans, represents Christian life, in the third and last part, under the head :
u Thankfulness "
3 Erasmus justly regarded the conclusion of Bom 8 • 31-30 as unsurpassed
for genuine eloquence " Quid unquam Cicero dixit grandihquentius f f ' It is
only equalled by the ode on love in 1 Cor. 13.
4 This is the subject of Rom. 9-11. These three chapters contain a theo-
dicy and an outline of the philosophy of church history. They are neither
the chief part of Romans (Baur), nor a mere episode or appendix (De Wette),
but an essential part of the Epistle in exposition of the concluding clause
of the theme, ch 1 17 ... 4t to the Jew first, and also to the Greek'1 (or
Gentile). Ch. 0 treats of divine sovereignty ; ch. 10 (which should begin
640 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
was first intended for and offered to the Jews, who were for
centuries prepared for it by the law and the promise, and among
whom the Saviour was born, lived, died, and rose again. But
the Jews as a nation rejected Christ and his apostles, and
hardened their hearts in unbelief. This fact filled the apostle
with unutterable sadness, and made him willing to sacrifice even
his own salvation (if it were possible) for the salvation of his
kinsmen.
But he sees light in this dark mystery. First of all, God has
a sovereign right over all his creatures and manifests both his
mercy and his righteousness in the successive stages of the his-
torical execution of his wise designs. His promise has not failed,
for it was not given to all the carnal descendants of Abraham
and Isaac, but only to the spiritual descendants, the true Israel-
ites who have the faith of Abraham, and they have been saved,
as individual Jews are saved to this day. And even in his rela-
tion to the vessels of wrath who by unbelief and ingratitude have
fitted themselves for destruction, he shows his longsuffering.
In the next place, the real cause of the rejection of the body
of the Jews is their own rejection of Christ. They sought their
own righteousness by works of the law instead of accepting the
righteousness of God by faith.
Finally, the rejection of the Jews is only temporary and inci-
dental in the great drama of history. It is overruled for the
speedier conversion of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the
full number or the organic totality of the Gentiles (not all indi-
vidual Gentiles) will lead ultimately to the conversion of Israel.
" A hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fulness of
the Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved."
With this hopeful prophecy, which seems yet far off, but
at ch. 9 : 30) treats of human responsibility ; ch. 11 of the future solution of
this great problem. They most be taken together as a unit Gh. 9 alone may
be and has been made to prove Calvinism and even extreme supralapsar ianism ;
oh. 10 Anniniamam ; and oh. 11 TJnivenalism. But Paul is neither a Calvinist
nor an Anniman nor a Univeisalist in the dogmatic sense. See the doctrinal
expositions in Lange on JRomaru, much enlarged in the translation, pp,
837-884.
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 541
which is steadily approaching fulfilment, and will be realized in
God's own time and way, the apostle closes the doctrinal part of
the Epistle to the Komans. " God has shut up all men (TOVS
•Trai/Ta?) unto disobedience that he might have mercy upon all
men. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the
knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and
his ways past tracing out! ... For of Him (e'f avrov) and
through Him (Si 'avrov), and unto Him (efe avrov) are all
things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." *
Before this glorious consummation, however, there will be a
terrible conflict with Antichrist or " the man of sin," and the
full revelation of the mystery of lawlessness now held in check.
Then the Lord will appear as the conqueror in the field, raise
the dead, judge the world, destroy the last enemy, and restore
the kingdom to the Father that God may be all in all (TO, irdvra
ev ircuriv)*
NOTES.
I. The PAULINE SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE has been more frequently ex-
plained than any other.
Among the earlier writers Neander, Usteri, and Schmid take the lead,
and are still valuable. Neander and Schmid are in full sympathy with
the spint and views of Paul. Usteri adapted them somewhat to Schleier-
macher's system, to which he adhered.
Next to them the Tubingen school, first the master, Banr (twice, in his
Paul, and in his New Test. Theology), and then his pupils, Pfleiderer and
Holsten, have done most for a critical reproduction. They rise far
above the older rationalism in an earnest and intelligent appreciation of
the sublime theology of Paul, and leave the impression that he was a
most profound, bold, acute, and consistent thinker on the highest
themes. But they ignore the supernatural element of inspiration, they
lack spiritual sympathy with the faith of the apostle, overstrain his an-
tagonism to Judaism (as did Marcion of old), and confine the authentic
sources to the four anti-Judaic Epistles to the Galatians, Romans, and
Corinthians, although recognizing in the minor Epistles the "patitin-
ische Gfrundlage" The more moderate followers of Baur, however, now
admit the genuineness of from seven to ten Pauline Epistles, leaving
only the three Pastoral Epistles and Ephesians in serious doubt.
The Paulinismus of Weiss (in the third ed. of his Bill Theol, 1881,
1 Rom. 11 : 83, 88, 80. * 2 These. 2 : 8-12; 1 Cor. 15 : 2a
642 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
pp. 194-472) is based upon a very careful philological exegesis in
detail, and is in this respect the most valuable of all attempts to repro-
duce Paul's theology. He divides it into three sections : 1st, the sys-
tem of the four great doctrinal and polemical Epistles ; 2d, the further
development of Paulinism in the Epistles of the captivity; 3d, the doc-
trine of the Pastoral Epistles. He doubts only the genuineness of the
last group, but admits a progress from the first to the second.
Of French writers, Reuss, Pressense*, and Sabatier give the best expo-
sitions of the Pauline system, more or less in imitation of German
labors. Reuss, of Strasbnrg, who writes in German as well, is the most
independent and learned ; Pressense* is more in sympathy with Paul's
belief, but gives only a meagre summary ; Sabatier leans to the Tubin-
gen school. Reuss discusses Paul's system (in vol. II., 17-220) very
fully under these heads : righteousness ; sin ; the law ; the gospel ; God ;
the person of Christ ; the work of Christ ; typical relation of the old and
new covenant ; faith ; election ; calling and the Holy Spirit ; regenera-
tion; redemption; justification and reconciliation; church; hope and
trial ; last times ; kingdom of God. Sabatier (L'apStre Paul, pp. 249-318,
second ed., 1881) more briefly but clearly develops the Pauliue the-
ology from the Christological point of view (la personne de Christ prin-
cipe generateur de la conscience chretienne) under three heads : 1st, the
Christian principle in the psychological sphere (anthropology) ; 2d, in
the social and historical sphere (religious philosophy of history) ; 3d, in
the metaphysical sphere (theology), which culminates in the 9*oc ra
irdirra cv iravtv " Ainsi nait et grandit cet arbre magmfique de la pensee de
Paul, dont les r acmes plangent dans k sol de la conscience chretienne et dont
la cime est dans les cieux"
Renan, who professes so much sentimental admiration for the poetry
and wisdom of Jesus, " the charming Galilsean peasant," has no organ
for the theology of Paul any more than Voltaire had for the poetry of
Shakespeare. He regards him as a bold and vigorous, but uncouth
and semi-barbarous genius, full of rabbinical subtleties, useless specula-
tions, and polemical intolerance even against good old Peter at Antioch.
Several doctrines of Paul have been specially discussed by German
scholars, as TISCHENDOBF : Doctrina Pa\di apostoli de Vi Mortis Chnsti
Satisfactoria (Leipz., 1837) ; RABIOKB : T>e Oiristologia Paulina (Breslau,
1852); LIPSIUS: Die paulinische Rechtfertigwngslehre (Leipz., 1853);
EBNBSTI : Vom Ursprung der Sunde nach pauhnischem Lehrgehalt (Wolfen-
buttel, 1855) ; Die Elhik des Paulus (Braunschweig, 1868 ; 3d ed., 1881) ;
W. BETSOHLAO : Die paulim'sclie Theodicee (Berlin, 1868) ; R. SOHMTDT :
Die Christologie des Ap. Paulus (Gott., 1870) ; A. DIKTZSOH : Adam und
Christus (Bonn, 1871) ; H. LtfDEMANN : Die Anthropologie des Ap. Paulus
(Kiel, 1872) ; R. STAHBMN : Zur paulinischen EschatoJogie (1874) ; A.
SCHUMANN : Der weltgeschichtl. Enttaickelungsprocess nach dem Lehrsystem
des Ap. Paulus (Orefeld, 1876) ; KB. KttonjN : Die Lehre des Paulus to*
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 643
der Auferstehung (1877) ; H. H. WKNDT: Die Begriffe Fleisch ttnd Geist
im biblischen Sprachgebrauch (Gotha, 1878).
IL THE CHKISTOLOGT OF PAUL is closely interwoven with his spteri-
ology. In Romans and Galatians the soteriological aspect prevails, in
Philippians and Colossians the christological. His christology is very
rich, and with that of the Epistle to the Hebrews prepares the way for
the christology of John. It is even more fully developed than John's,
only less prominent in the system.
The chief passages on the person of Christ are : Bom. 1 : 3, 4 (eV
cTTTcp/zarop Aavcid Kara crupiea . . vlbs 3cov Kara irv€vpa Ayi<t>crvvTjt) ; 8 : 8
(<J 3c6f TOV lavrov viuv irtpifras tv 6fiOia>/iart trapKos dfiaprt'a?), ver. 32 (os TOV
tdt'ov vlov OVK cV^ctcraro) ; 9 : 5 (r £ 2>x> 6 Xpttrrof TO Kara <rap/co, 6 &v firl irdvrav,
dcor (vXoyrjTof tig rove atan/ar — but the punctuation and consequently the
application of the doxology — whether to God or to Christ — are dis-
puted) ; 1 Cor. 1 : 19 (6 Kvpios qpw, a very frequent designation) ; 2 Cor.
5 .' 21 (TOV fiTj yvovra &papriav) J 8:9 (f irra>\€V(rtv irXoucrto? &v^ Iva v/m?
Tfi cVriVov nro>xf^ irXovr^oi/rf ) ; PhiL 2 : 5-11 (the famous passage about
the fccVoKrtr) ; Col. 1 : 15-18 (or co-rtv eiKa>v TOV 3coO roO dopdrov nptaroroKOf
vdoys fcriVrar, ort tv avr<p (KTIO-^TJ ra irdvra . . . ra irdvra di* UVTOV KCL\ tig
avrov ZKTurrai . . . ) ; 2 : 9 (fV aura) KaroiKtt nav ri 7r\rjp(DfJM rfft ^OTTJTOS
o-w/iartieuf) ; 1 Tim. 3 : 16 (&r tyawpuZri <V crapiei . . . ) ; Tit. 2 : 13 (rov
fityd\ov 3fou /cat a-wrijpop ^coy XptoroO 'Tr/tror-, where, however, commen-
tators differ in the construction, as in Bom. 9:5).
From these and other passages the following doctrinal points may be
inferred :
1. The eternal pre-eanstence of Christ as to his divine nature. The pre-
existence generally is implied in Bom. 8 : 3, 32 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 ; Phil. 2:5;
the pre-existence before the creation is expressly asserted, Col. 1 : 15 ; the
eternity of this pre-existence is a metaphysical inference from the nature
of the case, since an existence be/are all creation must be an uncreated,
therefore a divine or eternal existence which has no beginning as well as
no end. (John carefully distinguishes between the eternal %» of the pre-
existent Logos, and the temporal rycWro of the incarnate Logos, John
1 : 1, 14 ; comp. 8 : 58.) This is not inconsistent with the designation of
Christ as " the first-born of all creation," Col. 1 : 15 ; for npvro TOKOS is
different from irpam>jert<rrof (first-created), as the Nicene fathers
already remarked, in opposition to Arius, who inferred from the passage
that Christ was the first creature of God and the creator of all other
creatures. The word first born corresponds to the Johannean /imwycw^,
only-begotten, "Both express," as Lightfoot says (Com. on Col) "the
same eternal fact ; but while /Aowyci^f states it in itself, npwroroKos places
it in relation to the universe." We may also compare the frpwroyonor,
first-begotten, which Philo applies to the Logos, as including the original
archetypal idea of the created world. " The first-born," used absolutely
(wp*r6ro*os, -nr>3u Ps. 89 : 28), became a recognized title of the Mes-
644 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Biah. Moreover, the genitive iraarjt jcrurtar is not the partitive, but the
comparative genitive : the first-born as compared with, that is, before,
every creature. So Justin Martyr (rrpo ndvruv rvv KTWIJMTUV), Meyer,
and Bp. Lightfoot, in loc. ; also Weiss, Bibl. TheoL d. N. T., p. 431 (who
refutes the opposite view of Usteri, Beuss, and Baur, and says : " Da
irdvrjs Kri<T(a? jede eimelne Oreatur bezeichnet, so kann der Genit. nur com-
parativ genommen werden, und nur besagen, doss er im Vergleich mit jedei
Oreatur der Erstgebome war"). The words immediately following, ver.
16, 17, exclude the possibility of regarding Christ himself as a creature.
Lightfoot, in his masterly Comm. (p. 212 sq.), verJ fulty explains the
term as teaching the absolute pre-existence of the Son, his priority to
and sovereignty over all creation.
The recent attempt of Dr. Beyschlag (CJinstologie des N. T., pp. 149
sqq., 242 sqq.) to resolve the pre-existent Christ of Paul and John into
an ideal principle, instead of a real personality, is an exegetical failure,
like the similar attempts of the Socinians, and is as far from the mark as
the interpretation of some of the Nicene fathers (e. g., Marcellus) who,
in order to escape the Arian argument, understood prototokos of the
incarnate Logos as the head of the new spiritual creation.
2. Christ is the mediator and the end of creation. " All things were
created in him, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and
things invisible . . . ; all things have been created through him (dt* avrov)
and unto him («$ avrov) ; and he is before all things, and in him all things
consist," Col. 1 : 15-18. The same doctrine is taught in 1 Cor. 8 : 6
("Jesus Christ, through whom are all things") ; 10 ; 9 ; 15 : 47 ; as well
as in the Ep. to the Hebrews (1:2: " through whom he also made the
worlds " or " ages"), and in John 1 : 3.
8. The divinity of Christ is clearly implied in the constant co-ordina-
tion of Christ with the Father as the author of " grace and peace," in
the salutations of the Epistles, and in such expressions as " the image
of the invisible God " (Col. 1 : 15) ; " in him dwells the fulness of the God-
head bodily" (2:9): " existing in the form of God," and " being on an
equality with God " (Phil. 2:6). In two passages he is, according to the
usual interpretation, even called "God " (3cor), but, as already remarked,
the exegetes are still divided on the reference of dco't in Bom. ° : 5 and
Tit. 2 : 13. Meyer admits that Paul, according to his christolcgy, could
call Christ " God" (as predicate, without the article, Sror, not 6 3«o* ) ;
and Weiss, in the 6th edition of Meyer on Bomans (1881), adopts the
prevailing orthodox punctuation and interpretation in ch. 9 : 5 as the
most natural, on purely exegetioal grounds (the necessity of a supple-
ment to KorA <rap*a, and the position of tv\6yrjros after 3eor) : " Christ as
concerning the flesh, who [at the same time according to his higher
nature] is over all, even God blessed for ever." Westcott and Hort are
not quite agreed on the punctuation. See their note in Greek Test.,
Introd. and Appendix, p. 109.
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 545
4. The incarnation. This is designated by the terms " God sent his
own Son (Bom. 8 : 3, comp. 32) ; Christ " emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men " (Phil. 2 : 7).
Without entering here into the Kenosis controversy (the older one
between Giessen and Tubingen, 1620-1630, and the recent one which
began with Thomasius, 1845), it is enough to say that the Kenosis, or
self-exinanition, refers not to the incarnate, but to the pre-existent Son
of God, and implies a certain kind of self-limitation or temporary sur-
render of the divine mode of existence during the state of humiliation.
This humiliation was followed by exaltation as a reward for his obe-
dience unto death (ver. 9-11) ; hence he is now " the Lord of glory "
(1 Cor. 2 : 8). To define the limits of the Kenosis, and to adjust it to
the immutability of the Godhead and the intertrinitarian process, lies
beyond the sphere of exegesis and belongs to speculative dogmatics.
5. The true, but sinless humanity of Christ. He appeared " in the
likeness of the flesh of sin" (Bom. 8:3); he is a son of David "accord-
ing to the flesh" (1 : 3), which includes the whole human nature, body,
soul, and spirit (as in John 1 : 14) ; he is called a man (aiftponror) in the
full sense of the term (1 Cor. 15 : 21 ; Bom. 5 : 15 ; Acts 17 :31). He
was " born of a woman, born under the law " (Gal. 4:4); he was
" found in fashion as a man " and became " obedient even unto death "
(Phil. 2 : 8), and he truly suffered and died, like other men. But he
"knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5 : 21). He could, of course, not be the Saviour
of sinners if he himself were a sinner and in need of salvation.
Of the events of Christ's life, Paul mentions especially and frequently
his death and resurrection, on which our salvation depends. He also
reports the institution of the Lord's Supper, which perpetuates the
memory and the blessing of the atoning sacrifice on the cross (1 Cor.
11 : 23-30). He presupposes, of course, a general knowledge of the
historical Christ, as his Epistles are all addressed to believing converts ;
but he incidentally preserves a gem of Christ's sayings not reported by
the Evangelists, which shines like a lone star on the firmament of un-
certain traditions : " It is more blessed to give than to receive " (Acts
20:35).
m. PAUL'S DOCTRINE OP PREDESTINATION. — Eternal foreknowledge of
all persons and things is necessarily included in God's omniscience, and
is uniformly taught in the Bible ; eternal foreordination or predestina-
tion is included in his almighty power and sovereignty, but must be so
conceived as to leave room for free agency and responsibility, and to
exclude God from the authorship of sin. Self-limitation is a part of
freedom even in man, and may be exercised by the sovereign God for
holy purposes and from love to his creatures ; in fact it is necessary, if
salvation is to be a moral process, and not a physical or mechanical ne-
cessity. Religion is worth nothing except as the expression of free
conviction and voluntary devotion. Paul represents sometimes the
646 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
divine sovereignty, sometimes the human responsibility, sometimes, as
in Phil. 2 : 12, 13, he combines both sides, without an attempt to solve
the insolvable problem which really lies beyond the present capacity of
the human mind. " He does not deal with speculative extremes ; and
in whatever way the question be speculatively adjusted, absolute de-
pendence and moral self-determination are both involved in the imme-
diate Christian self-consciousness," Baur, Paul, II. 249. "Practical
teaching," says Reuse (II. 532) to the same effect, " will always be con-
strained to insist upon the fact that man's salvation is a free gift of
God, and that his condemnation is only the just punishment of sin."
Comp. also Farrar, St. Paid, II. 243, 590; Weiss, p. 356 sqq. ; Bey*
achlag, Die pauhmsche Theodicee (Berlin, 1868). Weiss thus sums up
Paul's doctrine of predestination : " An sick hat Gott das absolute Recht,
die Menschen von vomherein zum Heil oder zum Verderben zu erschaffen
und durch frete MacJitwirkung diesem Ziele zuzufuhren ; aber er hat sich in
Betreff des chnsthchen Heils dieses Rechtes nur insofern bedtent, als er un-
abhangig von allem menschlichen Thun und Verdienen nach seinem unbe-
schrankten Willen bestimmt, an welche Bedmgung er seine Gnade knupfen
will Die Bedmgung, an welche er seine Erwahlung gebunden hatt ist nun
nichts anders als die Liebe zu ihm, welche er an den empfanghchen Seelen
vorliererkennt. Die Erwahlten aber werden berufen, indem Gott durch das
Evangehum in ihnen den Glauben wirkt"
There can be no doubt that Paul teaches an eternal election to eter-
nal salvation by free grace, an election which is to be actualized by faith
in Christ and a holy life of obedience. But he does not teach a decree
of reprobation or a predestination to sin and perdition (which would
indeed be a " decretum Jiombile," if verum). This is a logical invention
of supraiapsarian theologians who deem it to be the necessary counter-
part of the decree of election. But man's logic is not God's logic. A
decree of reprobation is nowhere mentioned. The term a&fci/ior, disap-
proved, worthless, reprobate, is used five times only as a description of
character (twicer of things). The ninth chapter of Romans is the Gib-
raltar of supralapsarianism, but it must be explained in connection with
chapters 10 and 11, which present the other aspects. The strongest
passage is Bom. 9 : 22, where Paul speaks of o-«vi; opyfft cari/prta/ic' va
els djrwXciav. But he significantly uses here the passive: "fitted
onto destruction," or rather (as many of the best commentators from
Ghrysostom to Weiss take it) the middle : " who fitted themselves for
destruction," and so deserved it ; while of the vessels of mercy he says
that God " before prepared " them unto glory (a-Kfvrj cXc'ovs A np
Ter. 23). He studiously avoids to say of the vessels of wrath : A
TMTC vt which would have corresponded to & nporjroi^aa'fv, and thus he
exempts God from a direct and efficient agency in sin and destruction.
When in the same chapter, ver. 17, he says of Pharaoh, that God raised
kirn up for the very purpose (tis avr6 roM c'&yf ipa ac ) that he might
§ 71. THE GENTILE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 647
show in him His power, he does not mean that God created him or
called him into existence (which would require a different verb), but,
according to the Hebrew (Ex. 9 : 16, the hiphil of "TO*), that "he caused
him to stand forth " as actor in the scene ; and when he says with refer-
ence to the same history that God " hardens whom he will" (ver. 18.
&p dc 3fXct <TK\Tjpvv€i), it must be remembered that Pharaoh had already
repeatedly hardened his own heart (Ex. 8 : 15, 32 ; 9 : 34, 35), so that
God punished him for his sin and abandoned him to its consequences.
God does not cause evil, but he bends, guides, and overrules it and
often punishes sin with sin. " Das ist der Fluch der bosen That, doss ste,
fortzeugend, immer Boses muss gebaren" (Schiller.)
In this mysterious problem of predestination Paul likewise faithfully
carnes out the teaching of his Master. For in the sublime description
of the final judgment, Christ says to the " blessed of my Father:'' " In-
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world n
(Matt. 25 . 34), but to those on the left hand he says, "Depart from me,
ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his
angels " (ver. 41). The omission of the words " of my Father," after " ye
cursed," and of the words "for you," and "from the foundation of the
world," is very significant, and implies that while the inheritance of the
kingdom is traced to the eternal favor of God, the damnation is due to
the guilt of man.
IV. The doctrine of JUSTIFICATION. This occupies a prominent space
in Paul's system, though by no means to the disparagement of his doc-
trine of sanctification, which is treated with the same fulness even in
Romans (comp. chs. 6-8 and 12-15). Luther, in conflict with Judaiz-
ing Rome, overstated the importance of justification by faith when he
called it the articulus stantts vel cadentis ecclesice. This can only be said
of Christ (comp. Matt 16 • 16 ; 1 Cor. 3 • 11 ; 1 John 4 : 2, 3). It is not
even the theme of the Epistle to the Romans, as often stated (e.g., by
Farrar, St. Paul, IL 181) ; for it is there subordinated by yap to the
broader idea of salvation (o-wnjpia), which is the theme (1 : 16, 17).
Justification by faith is the way by which salvation can be obtained.
The doctrine of justification may be thus illustrated :
rot) vopav
iftui.
row Scot)
cic 3coC
rijr
Xpiorov*
The cognate words are ducatWir, duea/apa, ftucaio*, ftcjtaio'a. The Paul-
ine idea of righteousness is derived from the Old Testament, and is in-
548 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
separable from the conception of the holy will of God and his revealed
law. But the classical usage is quite consistent with it, and illustrates
the biblical usage from a lower plane. The Greek words are derived
from dUrf, jus, right, and further back from d/ga, or Ms, two-fold, in two
parts (according to Aristotle, Eth. NIC., v. 2) ; hence they indicate a
well-proportioned relation between parts or persons where each has
his due. It may ohen apply to the relation between God and man, or
to the relation between man and man, or to both at once. To the
Greeks a righteous man was one who fulfils his obligations to God and
man. It was a Greek proverb : "In righteousness all virtue is con-
tained."
AtKCHoo-vvi) (p!TC, ^I?1?2) is an attribute of God, and a corresponding
moral condition of man, i.e , man's conformity to the will of God as
expressed in his holy law. It is therefore identical with true religion,
with piety and virtue, as required by God, and insures his favor and
blessing. The word occurs (according to Bruder's Concord ) sixty times
in all the Pauline Epistles, namely : thirty-six times in Romans, four
times in Galatians, seven times in 2 Corinthians, once in 1 Corinthians,
four times in Philippians, three times in Ephesians, three times in
2 Timothy, once in 1 Timothy, and once in Titus.
AiWo? (p"ns)? righteous (rechtbescTiaffen), is one who fulfils his duties
to God and men, and is therefore well pleasing to GoJ. It is used
seventeen times by Paul (seven times in Komans), and often elsewhere
in the New Testament.
only twice in the New Test. (Rom. 4 : 25; 5 : 18). It
justification, or the act of God by which he puts the sinner into
the possession of righteousness.
A«caia>/Aa, which is found Bom. 1 : 32 ; 2 : 26 ; 5 : 16, 18 ; 8 : 4, means a
righteous decree, or judgment. Aristotle (Eth. Nicom., v. 10) defines it as
TO (7rav6p5e>pa rov ddiKrjpaTos, the amendment of an evil deed, or a legal ad-
justment ; and this would suit the passage in Bom. 5 : 16, 18.
The verb dtcatoo (p!2f rPn"72ri) occurs twenty-seven times in Paul,
mostly in Romans, several times in the Synoptical Gospels, once in Acts,
and three times in James (2 : 21, 24, 25). It may mean, etymologically,
to make just, justiflcare (for the verbs in 6u>, derived from adjectives of the
second declension, indicate the making of what the adjective denotes, e.g.,
aiyXdw, to make clear, <£ai*p<i«, to reveal, rv^Xow, to blind) ; but in the Septua-
gint and the Greek Testament it hardly ever has this meaning (" hcec sig-
ntycatio," says Grimm, " admodum rara, nisi prorsus ditbia est"), and is
used in a forensic or judicial sense : to declare one righteous (aliquem justum
declarare, judicare). This justification of the sinner is, of course, not a
legal fiction, but perfectly true, for it is based on the real righteousness
of Christ which the sinner makes his own by faith, and must prove his
own by a life of holy obedience, or good works. For further exposi-
tions, see my annotations to Lange on Romans, pp. 74, 180, 136, 138 ;
§ 72. JOHN" AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 649
and my Com. on Gal. 2 : 16, 17. On the imputation controversies see
my essay in Lange on Romans 5 : 12, pp. 190-195. On the relation of
Paul's doctrine of justification to that of James, see ? 69, p. 521.
V. Paul's doctrine of the CHUBOH has been stated in \ 65, p. 506. But
it requires more than one book to do anything like justice to the won'
derful theology of this wonderful man.
§ 72. John and the Gospel of Love.
(See the Lit in § 40, p. 405.)
GENERAL CHARACTER.
The unity of Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian theology
meets us in the writings of John, who, in the closing decades of
the first century, summed up the final results of the preceding
struggles of the apostolic age and transmitted them to posterity.
Paul had fought out the great conflict with Judaism and secured
the recognition of the freedom and universality of the gospel
for all time to come. John disposes of this question with one
sentence : " The law was given through Moses ; grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ." l His theology marks the culmi-
nating height of divine knowledge in the apostolic age. It is im-
possible to soar higher than the eagle, which is his proper symbol.8
His views are so much identified with the words of his Lord,
to whom he stood more closely related than any other disciple,
that it is difficult to separate them ; but the prologue to his
Gospel contains his leading ideas, and his first Epistle the prac-
tical application. The theology of the Apocalypse is also es-
sentially the same, and this goes far to confirm the identity of
authorship.1
1 John 1 • 17.
9 Herein Baur agrees with Neander and Schmid. He says of the Johannean
type (lc., p. 851): "In Him erreicht die neutestamentlidie Theotogie thre
Twchste Stufe und thre vollendetste Form " This admission makes it all the
more impossible to attribute the fourth Gospel to a literary forger of the second
century See also some excellent remarks of Weiss, pp. 605 sqq , and the
concluding chapter of Reuss on Paul and John.
' For the theology of the Apocal}pse as compared with that of the Gospel
and Epistles of John, see especially Gebnardt, The Doctrine of the Apoc.,
transl. by Jefferson, Edinb., 1878.
660 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
John was not a logician, but a seer ; not a reasoner, but a mys
tic ; he does not argue, but assert ; he arrives at conclusions with
one bound, as by direct intuition. He speaks from personal ex-
perience and testifies of that which his eyes have seen and his
ears heard and his hands have handled, of the glory of the Only-
Begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.1
John's theology is marked by artless simplicity and spiritual
depth. The highest art conceals art. As in poetry, so in reli-
gion, the most natural is the most perfect. He moves in a
small circle of ideas as compared with Paul, but these ideas are
fundamental and all-comprehensive. He goes back to first prin-
ciples and sees the strong point without looking sideways or
taking note of exceptions. Christ and Antichrist, believers and
unbelievers, children of God and children of the devil, truth
and falsehood, light and darkness, love and hatred, life and
death : these are the great contrasts under which he views the
religious world. These he sets forth again and again with
majestic simplicity.
JOHN AND PAUL.
John's type of doctrine is less developed and fortified than
Paul's, but more ideal. His mind was neither so rich nor so
strong, but it soared higher and anticipated the beatific vision.
Although Paul was far superior to him as a scholar (and practi-
cal worker), yet the ancient Greek church saw in John the ideal
theologian.* John's spirit and style may be compared to a calm,
clear mountain-lake which reflects the image of the sun, moon,
and stars, while Paul resembles the mountain-torrent that rushes
over precipices and carries everything before it ; yet there are
trumpets of war in John, and anthems of peace in Paul. The
one begins from the summit, with God and the Logos, the other
from the depths of man's sin and misery ; but both meet in the
God-man who brings God down to man and lifts man up to God.
1 John 1 : 14 (J&ffoinfcic&a r»r *<$(ar afrrrf) ; 1 John 1 : 1-8.
* In the strictest sense of &«oA^yoj, as the chief champion of the eternal
deity of the Logo*: John 1 • 1 toot fa & \6yot. So in the superscription of
the Apocalypse in several cursive MSB.
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 661
John is contemplative and serene, Paul is aggressive and polemi-
cal ; but both unite in the victory of faith and the never-end-
ing dominion of love. John's theology is christological, Paul's
soteriological ; John starts from the person of Christ, Paul from
his work ; but their christology and soteriology are essentially
agreed. John's ideal is life eternal, Paul's ideal is righteous-
ness ; but both derive it from the same source, the union with
Christ, and find in this the highest happiness of man. John
represents the church triumphant, Paul the church militant of
his day and of our day, but with the full assurance of final vic-
tory even over the last enemy.
THE CENTRAL IDEA.
John's Christianity centres in the idea of love and life, which
in their last root are identical. His dogmatics are summed up
in the word : God first loved us ; his ethics in the exhortation :
Therefore let us love Him and the brethren. He is justly called
the apostle of love. Only we must not understand this word
in a sentimental, but in the highest and purest moral sense.
God's love is his self -communication to man ; man's love is a
holy self-consecration to God. We may recognize — in rising
stages of transformation — the same fiery spirit in the Son of
Thunder who called vengeance from heaven ; in the Apocalyptic
seer who poured out the vials of wrath against the enemies of
Christ; and in the beloved disciple who knew no middle ground,
but demanded undivided loyalty and whole-souled devotion to
his Master. In him the highest knowledge and the highest love
coincide : knowledge is the eye of love, love the heart of knowl-
edge ; both constitute eternal life, and eternal life is the fulnese
of happiness.1
The central truth of John and the central fact in Christianity
itself is the incarnation of the eternal Logos as the highest mani-
festation of God's love to the world. The denial of this truth
is the criterion of Antichrist.*
1 John 17 • 8; 15 11 ; 16 - 24 ; 1 John 1 :4,
* Comp. John 1 . 14; 8 . 16; 1 John 4 : 1-&
552 FIRST PERIOD. A.B. 1-100.
THE PBINOIPAL DOCTRINES.
I. The doctrine of GOD. He is spirit (irvevpa), he is light
(<£w5), he is love (ayaTrri).1 These are the briefest and yet the
prof oundest definitions which can be given of the infinite Being
of all beings. The first is put into the mouth of Christ, the
second and third are from the pen of John. The first sets forth
God's metaphysical, the second his intellectual, the third his
moral perfection ; but they are blended in one.
God is spirit, all spirit, absolute spirit (in opposition to every
materialistic conception and limitation) ; hence omnipresent, all-
pervading, and should be worshipped, whether in Jerusalem or
Gerizim or anywhere else, in spirit and in truth.
God is light, all light without a spot of darkness, and the
fountain of all light, that is of truth, purity, and holiness.
God is love ; this John repeats twice^ looking upon love as
the inmost moral essence of God, which animates, directs, and
holds together all other attributes ; it is the motive power of his
revelations or self -communications, the beginning and the end
of his ways and works, the core of his manifestation in Christ.
II. The doctrine of CHRIST'S PERSON. He is the eternal and
the incarnate Logos or Revealer of God. No man has ever yet
seen God (£eoz/, without the article, God's nature, or God as
God) ; the only-begotten Son (or God only-begotten),9 who is in
1 John 4 24 ; 1 John 1 • 6 ; 4 • 8, 16. The first definition or oracle is from
Christ's dialogue with the woman of Samaria, who could, of course, not grasp
the full meaning, but understood sufficiently its immediate practical applica-
tion to the question of dispute between the Samaritans and the Jews con-
cerning the worship on Gerizim or Jerusalem
* There is a remarkable variation of reading in John 1 • 18 between /IOPO-
•ytril* & € <f j, one who ts God only-begotten, and 6 tu>voy€rfis vi6s,ihe only-begotten
Son (A third reading . 6 povoycviis &6&, " the only-begotten God," found in
$' and 33, arose simply from a combination of the two readings, the article
being improperly transferred from the second to the first ) The two read-ngs
are of equal antiquity ; &c<fc is supported by the oldest Greek MSS., nearly all
Alexandrian or Egyptian ($* BC*L, also the Peshitto Syr.) ; vits by the oldest
versions (Itala Vulg., Caret Syr., also by the secondary uncials and all known
cursives except 33) The usual abbreviations in the uncial MS , BC for
and TC for v&, may easily be confounded. The connection
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 553
the bosom ! of the Father, he and he alone (emi/o?) declared
him and brought to light, once and forever, the hidden mystery
of his being.3
This perfect knowledge of the Father, Christ claims himself
in that remarkable passage in Matthew (11 : 27) which strik-
ingly confirms the essential harmony of the Joharmean and
Synoptical representations of Christ.
John (and he alone) calls Christ the " Logos" of God, i.e., the
embodiment of God and the organ of all his revelations.8 As
is less natural than with vl6s9 although John undoubtedly could call the
Son &€<h (not 6 &euc), and did bo in ver. 1. Movuytt^s be 6$ simply combines
the two attributes of the Logos, &eoj, ver. 1, and fiovoycrfis, ver 14. For a
learned and ingenious defence of bc6s see Hort's Dissertations (Cambridge,
1877), Westcott on St John (p. 71), and Westcott and Hort's Or Test Introd.
and Append , p. 74 Tischendorf and nearly all the German commentators
(except Wems) adopt vi<fe, and Dr. Abbot, of Cambridge, Mass , has written
two very able papers m favor of this reading, one in the Bibliotheca Sacra for
1861 , pp 840-872, and another in the 4 ' Unitarian Review " for June, 1875 The
Westminster Revision first adopted u God" in the text, but afterwards put it
on the margin Both readings are intrinsically unobjectionable, and the sense
is essentially the same. Mowyei^j does not necessarily convey the Nicene idea
of eternal generation, but simply the unique character and superiority of the
eternal and uncreated sonship of Christ over the sonship of believers which is
a gift of grace It shows his intimate relation to the Father, as the Pauline
vptrrfaoKos his sovereign relation to the world
1 Lit. " towards the bosom" (tls rlv K<to.nw), i.e., leaning on, and moving
to the bosom It expresses the union of motion and rest and the closest and
tenderest intimacy, as between mother and child, like the Gorman term
Schoosski?id, bosom-child Comp irpbs rbv bf6v in ver. 1 and Prov. 8 30, where
Wisdom (the Logos) says " I was near Him as one brought up with Him,
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him."
* With this sentence the Prologue returns to the beginning and suggests the
best reason why Christ is called Logos He is the Exegete, the Expounder,
the Interpreter of the hidden being of God " The word Qvrrfwro IB uned by
classical writers of the interpretation of divine mysteries The absence of
the object in the original is remarkable Thus the literal rendering is simply,
he made declaration (Vulg ipse enarravit) Comp Acts 15 : 14. Westcott,
in loc. See the classical parallels m Wetstem
3 John 1 1, 14 1 John 1 • 1 ; Rev. 19 13. The Logos theory of John
is the fruitful germ of the speculations of the Greek church on the mysteries
of the incarnation and the trinity. See my ed of Lange's Com. on John^
pp 51 and 55 sqq. , where also the literature is given On the latest discus-
sions see Weiss in the sixth ed. of Meyer's Com. on John (1880), pp 49 sqq.
b&yos means both ratio and oratio, reason and speech, which are insepaiably
654 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the human reason or thought is expressed in word, and as the
word is the medium of making our thoughts known to others,
so God is known to himself and to the world in and through
Christ as the personal Word. While " Logos " designates the
metaphysical and intellectual relation, the term " Son " desig-
nates the moral relation of Christ to God, as a relation of love,
and the epithet "only-begotten" or "only-born" (jjLovoyeirfs)
raises his sonsliip as entirely unique above every other sonsliip,
which is only a reflection of it. It is a blessed relation of infi-
nite knowledge and infinite love. The Logos is eternal, he is
personal, he is divine.1 He was in the beginning before crea-
tion or from eternity. He is, on the one hand, distinct from
God and in the closest communion with him (irpos rov $eo'j/) ;
on the other hand he is himself essentially divine, and there-
fore called " God " (3e6<?, but not 6
connected. " Logos," being* masculine in Greek, is better fitted as a designa-
tion of Christ than our neuter ** Word " Hence Ewald, in defiance of Ger-
man grammar, renders it " der Wort " On the apocalyptic designation
6 \6yos rov dcoO and on the christology of the Apocalypse, see Gebhardt,
I o , 94 and 333 sqq. On Philo's idea of the Logos I refer to Schurer,
Neutestam. Zeitgeschichte, pp. 648 gqq , and the works of Gfrorer, Zeller,
Frankel, etc , there quoted.
1 These three ideas are contained in the first verse of the Gospel, which has
stimulated and puzzled the profoundest minds from Origen and Augustin to
Schelhng- and Goethe Mark the unique union of transparent simplicity and
inexhaustible depth, and the symmetry of the three clauses The subject
(\6yos) and the verb (?i>) are three times repeated. " The three clauses con-
tain all that it is possible for man to realize as to the essential nature of the
Word in relation to time and mode of being and character He was (1) in tlte
beginning He was (2) wiiJi God : He was (3) God At the same time these
three clauses answer to the three great moments of the Incarnation of the
Word declared m ver 14. He who ' was God/ became flesh : He who ' was
with God,' tabernacled among us (comp 1 John 12) He who 4 was in the
beginning, ' became (m time) " Westcott (in Speaker's Com.). A similar in-
terpretation is given by Lange The personality of the Logos is denied by
Beyschlag See Notes.
9 Here we have the germ (but the germ only) of the orthodox distinction
between unity of essence and trinity of persons or hypostases , also of the
distinction between an immanent, eternal trinity, and an economical trinity
which is revealed in time (in the works of creation, redemption, and sanctifi*
cation). A Hebrew monotheist could not conceive of an eternal and inde-
pendent being of a different essence (trcpoofois) existing besides the one God.
This would be dualism.
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 656
This pre-existent Logos is the agent of the creation of all
things visible and invisible.1 He is the fulness and fountain of
life (17 £0)17, the true, immortal life, as distinct from yS/o?, the
natural, mortal life), and light (TO 0<&9, which includes intel-
lectual and moral truth, reason and conscience) to all men.
Whatever elements of truth, goodness, and beauty may be
found shining like stars and meteors in the darkness of heathen-
dom, must be traced to the Logos, the universal Life-giver and
Illuminator.
Here Paul and John meet again ; both teach the agency of
Christ in the creation, but John more clearly connects him with
all the preparatory revelations before the incarnation. This ex-
tension of the Logos revelation explains the high estimate which
some of the Greek fathers (Justin Martyr, Clement of Alex-
andria, Origen) put upon the Hellenic, especially the Pla-
tonic philosophy, as a training-school of the heathen mind for
Christ.
The Logos revealed himself to every man, but in a special
manner to his own chosen people ; and this revelation culmi-
nated in John the Baptist, who summed up in himself the
meaning of the law and the prophets, and pointed to Jesus of
Nazareth as " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world."
At last the Logos became flesh.8 He completed his revela-
1 1 • 3, with a probable allusion to Gen 1 • 8, " God said," as iv fyw refers
to bereshith, Gen 1 1. The negative repetition ou8l c», prortua mhil, not
men one thing (stronger than oftttv, ntfitt), excludes every form of dualism
(against the Gnostics), and makes the trdvra absolutely unlimited The
Sociman interpretation, which confines it to the mwal creation, is gram-
matically impossible.
9 1 : 14 : 6 \6yos ^pf tyforo, a sentence of immeasurable import, the lead-
ing idea not only of the Prologue, but of the Christian religion and of the his-
tory of mankind. It marks the close of the preparation for Christianity and
the beginning of its introduction into the human race. Bengel calls attention
to the threefold antithetic correspondence between vera. 1 and 14 :
The Logos
was (fr) in the beginning
God,
with God.
became (Jrlftro)
flesh,
and dwelt among urn.
556 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tion by uniting himself with man once and forever in all things,
except sin.1 The Hebraizing term "flesh" best expresses his
• condescension to our fallen condition and the complete reality
of his humanity as an object of sense, visible and tangible, in
strong contrast with his immaterial divinity. It includes not
only the body (<ro>/*a), but also a human soul (^v^) and a ra-
tional spirit (i/ovs, Trvevpa) ; for John ascribes them all to Christ.
To use a later terminology, the incarnation (cva-dp/c&cris, incar-
natio) is only a stronger term for the assumption of humanity
(evav&pwTnjo-t,?, Menschwerdung). The Logos became man — not
partially but totally, not apparently but really, not transiently
but permanently, not by ceasing to be divine, nor by being
changed into a man, but by an abiding, personal union with
man. He is henceforth the God man. He tabernacled on earth
as the true Shekinah, and manifested to his disciples the glory
of the only begotten which shone from the veil of his humanity.1
This is the divine-human glory in the state of humiliation as
distinct from the divine glory in his pre-existent state, and from
the final and perfect manifestation of his glory in the state of
exaltation in which his disciples shall share.3
The fourth Gospel is a commentary on the ideas of the Pro-
logue. It was written for the purpose that the readers may
believe " that Jesus is the Christ (the promised Messiah), the
Son of God (in the sense of the only begotten and eternal Son),
and that believing they may have life in his name." *
III. THE WORK OF CHRIST (Soteriology). This implies the
conquest over sin and Satan, and the procurement of eternal
life. Christ appeared without sin, to the end that he might de-
stroy the works of the devil, who was a liar and murderer from
1 Paul expresses the same idea • God sent his Son " in the likeness of the
flesh of sin/' Rom. 8 • 3 , comp. Heb 2 : 17 ; 4 : 15. See the note at the close
of the section.
* 1 : 14 : iffieiivvfffv to ^/u»>, in allusion to the indwelling of Jehovah in the
holy of holies of the tabernacle (o-mpHi) and the temple The humanity of
Christ is now the true tabernacle of God, and the believers are the spectators
of that glory. Comp Rev. 7 : 15 ; 21 : 3.
* John 17 : 5, 24 ; 1 John 3:2. « John 20 : 31.
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 667
the beginning of history, who first fell away from the truth and
then brought sin and death into mankind.1 Christ laid down
his life and shed his blood for his sheep. By this self -consecra-
tion in death he became the propitiation (tXacr/io?) for the sins
of believers and for the sins of the whole world.2 His blood
cleanses from all the guilt and contamination of sin. He is (in
the language of the Baptist) the Lamb of God that bears and
takes away the sin of the world; and (in the unconscious
prophecy of Caiaphas) he died for the people.8 He was priest
and sacrifice in one person. And he continues his priestly func-
tions, being our Advocate in Heaven and ready to forgive us
when we sin and come to him in true repentance.4
This is the negative part of Christ's work, the removal of the
obstruction which separated us from God. The positive part
consists in the revelation of the Father, and in the communica-
tion of eternal life, which includes eternal happiness. He is
himself the Life and the Light of the world. He calls himself
the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In him the true, the eternal
life, which was from the beginning with the Father, appeared
personally in human form. He came to communicate it to
men. He is the bread of life from heaven, and feeds the
believers everywhere spiritually without diminishing, as He fed
the five thousand physically with five loaves. That miracle is
1 1 John 3 • 5, 8 ; comp the words of Christ, John 8 44
f John 6 : 52-58 ; 10 • 11, 15 , 1 John 2 . 2 aurbs ikcurrfs Itnrw repl rwr
Ipapnvv i/*wv, ow *tp\ rS>* IHJL<T*F*V & rfw, **** *«* »«P* fa°» TOW itdirpou.
The universality of the atonement could not be more clearly expressed ; but
there is a difference between universal sufficiency and universal efficiency.
* 1 John 1 • 10 ; John 1 29 , 11 50 ; comp. 18 • 14.
4 1 John 2:1: tor ns &/-U&PTJI, vapdictorrov fyow vpks roy xarcpa
Xpurrbi' titKcuoy.
* 1 John 1 . 2 : 4 M tyarcp&H *al l«p<£*a/i€v ical naprvpov^w iral
Xo/ucr tpiv TV f«V *V atfmor <T« jv irp&y rbv *artpa icol tyavc/x
Comp. John 1 : 4 ; 5 : 26 ; 14 6. The passage 1 John 5 : 20 : ofafo ton? 6
taifftufa debs *ol M oicfrios, is of doubtful application. The natural connec-
tion of otrot with the immediately preceding 'IiproD Xpurrfr and the parallel
passages where Christ is called " life/7 favor the reference to Christ ; while
the words 6 taj&i'fo &c<b suit better for the Father. See Braune, Huther,
Ebrard, Haupt, Bothe, in 200.
658 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
continued in the mystical self -communication of Christ to his
people. Whosoever believes in him has eternal life, which
begins here in the new birth and will be completed in the res-
urrection of the body.1
Herein also the Apocalypse well agrees with the Gospel and
Epistles of John. Christ is represented as the victor of the
devil.8 He is the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah, but
also the suffering Lamb slain for us. The figure of the lamb,
whether it be referred to the paschal lamb, or to the lamb in
the Messianic passage of Isaiah 53 : 7, expresses the idea of
atoning sacrifice which is fully realized in the death of Christ.
He " washed " (or, according to another reading, he " loosed ")
" us from our sins by his blood ; " he redeemed men " of every
tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and made them to be
unto our God a kingdom and priests." The countless multi-
tude of the redeemed "washed their robes and made them
white (bright and shining) in the blood of the Lamb." This
implies both purification and sanctification ; white garments
being the symbols of holiness.8 Love was the motive which
prompted him to give his life for his people.4 Great stress is
laid on the resurrection, as in the Gospel, where he is called the
Resurrection and the Life. The exalted Logos-Messiah has the
keys of death and Hades.* He is a sharer in the universal
government of God ; he is the mediatorial ruler of the world,
" the Prince of the kings of the earth," " King of kings and
Lord of lords." § The apocalyptic seer likewise brings in the
1 John 6 : 47 ; and the whole mysterious discourse which explains the
spiritual meaning of the preceding miracle
»Apoc 12 1-12; 20 2. Comp. with Uohn 3 • 8 ; John 8: 44; 12.31,
13 2,27; 14-30; 16:11.
8 Apoc 1 6;5 6,9, 12, 13; 7: 14, etc Comp John 1 29 ; 17 : 19; 19: 36 ;
1 John 1 7,2:2,5.6 The apocalyptic diminutive ApWov (agnettus, lamb-
kin, pet-lamb) for i/xv<k is used to sharpen the contrast with the Lion. Paul
Gerhardt has reproduced it in his beautiful passion hymn : u Ein LAMMLEIN
geht und tragt die SchiUd "
4 Apoc. 1:5: " Unto him that loveth us," etc. , comp. John 15 : 13 ; 1 John
8:16.
' Apoc. 1 : 5, 17, 18; 2 : 8; comp John 5 21, 25 ; 6 . 39, 40 • 11 : 25.
•Apoc. 1.5; 3:21; 17:14; 19:16.
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 659
idea of life in its highest sense as a reward of faith in Christ
To those who overcome and are faithful unto death, Christ will
give " a crown of life," and a seat on his throne. He " shall
guide them unto fountains of waters of life; and God shall
wipe away every tear from their eyes." '
IV. THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Pneumatology). This
is most fully set forth in the farewell discourses of our Lord,
which are reported by John exclusively. The Spirit whom
Christ promised to send after his return to the Father, is called
the Paraclete^ i.e., the Advocate or Counsellor, Helper, who
pleads the cause of the believers, directs, supports, and com-
forts them.9 He is " another Advocate " (aXXo? irapdic\r)TO<;\
Christ himself being the first Advocate who intercedes for be-
lievers at the throne of the Father, as their eternal High priest.
The Spirit proceeds (eternally) from the Father, and was sent
by the Father and the Son on the day of Pentecost.* He reveals
» Apoc 2 • 10 , 3 : 21 , 7 • 17 , 14 : 1-5 ; 21 . 6, 7 , 22 1-5. Comp Geb-
bardt, I c , 106-128, 343-353.
9 John 14 16,26, 15 26, 16 7. Comp also Uohn 2 1, where Christ
is likewise called irapdK\^ros He is our Advocate objectively at the throne of
the Father, the Holy Spirit is our Advocate subjectively in our spiritual ex-
perience The E V renders the word in all these passages, except the last,
by "Comforter" (Consolator\ which rests on a confusion of the passive
irap4jr\7?Tos with the active iropaJcA^rap. See my notes in Lange's Com on
John, pp 440 sqq , 468 sqq
3 There is a distinction between the eternal procession (linrrfpcwris) of the
Spirit from the Father (vap& rov riarpbs iKiropetftrai, procedit, John 15 . 26),
and the temporal mission (*<>ufuf) of the Spirit from the Father and the Son
(15 26, where Christ says of the Spirit . to £y& »«/*^ «, and 14 • 26, where
he says- '6 triplet 6 irar^p tr r? fotparl pov). The Greek church to this
day strongly insists on this distinction, and teaches an eternal procession of
the Spirit from the Father alone, and a temporal mission of the Spirit by the
Father and the Son. The difference between the present IxiropetfcTai and the
future irc'/Lafw seems to favor such a distinction, but the exclusive alone (n&vov)
in regard to the procession is an addition of the Greek church as much as the
PilioqiLt is an addition of the Latin church to the original Nicene Creed. It
is doubtful whether John meant to make a metaphysical distinction between
procession and mission. But the distinction between the eternal trinity of
the divine being and the temporal trinity of the divine revelation has an exe-
getioal basis in the pre-existence of the Logos and the Spirit The trinitarian
revelation reflects the trinitarian essence ; in other words, God reveals him-
self aa he IB, as Father, Son, and Spirit We have a right to reason from the
660 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Christ to the heart and glorifies him (e^e 8o£o<7ei); he bears
witness to him (paprvpqo'ei, irepi €/AOI>) ; he calls to remembrance
and explains his teaching (v/ua? £*Sa£e£ IT din a KCU inro/Avij<r€i
v/ia? Travra h eltrov vfuv eyco) ; he leads the disciples into the
•whole truth (oS^yiycret u/ui? efe TIJV aXySeiav iraaav) ; he takes
out of the fulness of Christ and shows it to them (e/c rov epov
\aftl3dv6i ical avarfye\el vpZv). The Holy Spirit is the Medi-
ator and Intercessor between Christ and the believer, as Christ
is the Mediator between God and the world. He is the Spirit
of truth and of holiness. He convicts (eXey^6*) t^ie world, that
IB, all men who come under his influence, in respect of sin (jrepl
ria^\ of righteousness (8uccuo<rvvrj<:\ and of judgment (tepL-
; and this conviction will result either in the conversion,
or in the impenitence of the sinner. The operation of the
Spirit accompanies the preaching of the word, and is always
internal in the sphere of the heart and conscience. He is one
of the three witnesses and gives efficacy to the other two wit-
nesses of Christ on earth, the baptism (TO vSa>p\ and the atoning
death (TO al/jua) of Christ.1
V. CHRISTIAN LIFE. It begins with a new birth from above
or from the Holy Spirit. Believers are children of God who
are " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God." f It is a " new " birth compared
revelation of God to his nature, but with proper reverence and modesty ; for
who can exhaust the ocean of the Deity !
1 1 John 5 : 8. There are different interpretations of water and blood :
1st, reference to the miraculous flow of blood and water from the wounded
side of Christ, John 19 • 34 , 2d, Christ's baptism, and Christ's atoning death ;
3d, the two sacraments which he instituted as perpetual memorials. I would
adopt the last view, if it were not for ri oT/io, which nowhere designates the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and more naturally refers to the blood of
Christ shed for the remission of sins. The passage on the three heavenly
witnesses in ver. 7, formerly quoted as a proof text for the doctrine of the
trinity, is now generally given up as a mediaeval interpolation, and must be
rejected on internal as well as external grounds ; for John would never have
written: "the Fattier, the Word, and the Spirit," but either "the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit," or " God, the Word (Logos), and the Spirit "
9 John 1 13 • TtKva &tov . . . IK &fov ly*yrf)bri<Tcu'. The classical section
on the new birth is Christ's discourse with Nioodemus, oh. 8 : 1-15. The
terms ynnnfrrivtu fetter, to be born anew, qfreth, or from above, i.e., from
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 661
with the old, a birth " from God," as compared with that from
man, a birth from the Holy " Spirit," in distinction from car-
nal birth, a birth "from heaven," as opposed to earthly birth.
The life of the believer does not descend through the channels
of fallen nature, but requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel. The life of the regenerate
is free from the principle and power of sin. " Whosoever is
begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him ;
and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God." ' Over him
the devil has no power."
The new life is the life of Christ in the soul. It is eternal in-
trinsically and as to duration. Eternal life in man consists in the
knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ — a knowl-
edge which implies full sympathy and communion of love.1 It be-
gins here in faith ; hence the oft-repeated declaration that he who
believes in Christ has (e^et) eternal life.4 But it will not appear
in its full development till the time of his glorious manifestation,
heaven, oomp 3 : 31 ; 19 11 (the reference is not to a repetition, again, a
second time, mUi?, fovrepov, but to an analogous process) ; 3 . 6, 7 , ywm\^vtu
1£ uScrroj Kal Trvcvparos, of water (baptism) and spirit, ver 5 ; IK &eoG, of God,
4* rov ovpavou, from heaven, are equivalent. John himself most frequently
uses IK deoO, 1 : 13 ; 1 John 2 • 29 ; 3 9 ; 4 : 7 ; 5 1, 4, 18. He does not use
iwyew£o|Luu, to be begotten or born again (but it occurs in Justin Martyr's
quotation, Apol. I 61; also in 1 Pet 1 23, avayeywviinwoi . Stcfe \6yov
fwrrof &co£, and 1 Pet 1 : 3, iwyepHjcras was clt c'Air&a), and the noun
foaytwiifft*, regeneration, is not found at all in the Greek Test (though often
in the Greek fathers) ; but the analogous va\iyywecrla occurs once in connec-
tion with baptism, Tit. 3 5 (lower was 8t& \ovrpov tra\iyyev€<rteu Kal avaxat-
v&fftws wctfjuaro? ayiov), and once in a more comprehensive sense of the final
restitution and consummation of all things, Matt 19 18 Paul speaks of the
new creature in Christ (wri) KTiW, 2 Cor 5-17) and of the new man (tcwls
fobpwiros, Eph 4 • 24). In the Rabbinical theology regeneration meant simply
the change of the external status of a proselyte to Judaism.
1 1 John 3:9; comp. 5 : 18. But oh. 5 : 16 implies that a " brother " may
sin, though not " unto death,1' and ch 1 : 10 also excludes the idea of abso-
lute freedom from sin in the present state.
* 1 John 5 : 18 : 6 vornpbs ov% am-crat avrov.
1 John 17 • 3, words of onr Lord in the sacerdotal prayer.
* 1 John 5 12, 13 • 6 Ix*" *** ^" *X« *& MV • • C«V *X™ Mwiw.
Oomp the words of Christ, John 8 . 36 ; 5 . 24 ; 6 : 47, 54 ; and of the Bvaiv
gelist, 20 : 31.
562 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
when we shall he like him and see him even as he is.1 Faith is
the medium of communication, the bond of union with Christ.
Faith is the victory over the world, already here in principle.2
John's idea of life eternal takes the place of Paul's idea of
righteousness, but both agree in the high conception of faith as
the one indispensable condition of securing it by uniting us to
Christ, who is both righteousness and life eternal.3
The life of the Christian, moreover, is a communion with
Christ and with the Father in the Holy Spirit. Our Lord
prayed before his passion that the believers of that and all
future ages might be one with him, even as he is one with the
Father, and that they may enjoy his glory. John writes his
first Epistle for the purpose that his readers may have " fel-
lowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and
that thus their joy may be made full." 4 This fellowship is
only another word for love, and love to God is inseparable from
love to the brethren. " If God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another." " God is love ; and he that abide th in love
abideth in God and God abideth in him." Love to the brethren
is the true test of practical Christianity.* This brotherly fel-
lowship is the true essence of the Church, which is nowhere
even mentioned in John's Gospel and First Epistle.*
Love to God and to the brethren is no mere sentiment, but
an active power, and manifests itself in the keeping of God's
commandments/
1 1 John 3-2: oftapci' *ri Or favfpoM) (he, or it), SMOIOI a*r£ to^cX *ri
tydfjL&a airrbv icc&As ttrrur.
9 1 John 5 : 4 aSrij itrrlr $ witty ^ vitcfi<rcura rkv ritrfior, ^ irhrm J^M*'-
8 John uses the term 8*fca«<Hr4xij, but never tucaloHns or tiKcutt*. A striking
example of religious agreement and theological difference.
4 John 17 : 22-24 ; 1 John 1 : 8, 4.
•1 John 3. 11, 23; 4:7, 11; oomp. John 13 : 84, 35 ; 15:12,17.
1 The word iKKXyo-ia occurs in the third Epistle, but in the sense of a local
congregation. Of the external organization of the church John is silent , he
does not even report the institution of the sacraments, though he speaks of
the spiritual meaning of baptism (John 3 : 5), and indirectly of the spiritual
meaning of the Lord's Supper (6 : 53-56).
M John 2: 8, 4; 3:22, 24; 4:7, 11; 5:2,3; 2 John ver. 6 ; comp. the
Gospel, 14 : 15, 21 " If ye love me, ye will keep *ny commandments," eto.
§ 72. JOHN AND THE GOSPEL OF LOVE. 663
Here again John and Paul meet in the idea of love, as the
highest of the Christian graces which abides forever when faith
shall have passed into sight, and hope into fruition.1
NOTES.
The INOABNATION is expressed by John briefly and tersely in the phrase
" The Word became flesh " (1 : 14).
I. The meaning of ad/j£ . Apollinaris confined " flesh " to the body,
including the animal soul, and taught that the Logos occupied the place
of the rational soul or spirit (i/oOr, irvtvpa) in Christ ; that consequently
he was not a full man, but a sort of middle being between God and man,
half divine and half human, not wholly divine and wholly human. This
view was condemned as heretical by the Nicene church, but renewed
substantially by the Tubingen school, as being the doctrine of John.
According to Baur (/. c , p. 363) a«p£ tycvtro is not equivalent to artpayrros
c'ytWro, but means that the Logos assumed a human body and continued
otherwise the same. The incarnation was only an incidental phenome-
non in the unchanging personality of the Logos. Moreover the flesh
of Ghnst was not like that of other men, but almost immaterial, so as to
be able to walk on the lake (John 6 : 16 ; comp. 7 : 10, 15 ; 8 . 59 ; 10 : 39).
To this exegesis we object .
1. John expressly ascribes to Christ a soul, 10 : 11, 15, 17 ; 12 : 27 (^
^V^TI fiov TiT<ipaKTat), and a spirit, 11 : 33 ((Vffipi^ffaro ra> irvtv^ari) ;
13 : 21 ((rapajfir) rcS Tn/cufwm) ; 19 : 30 (naptbtixcv TO nvci>fj.a). It may be
said that nvfiipa is here nothing more than the animal soul, because the
same affection is attributed to both, and because it was surrendered in
death. But Christ calls himself in John frequently " the Son of man "
(1 : 52, etc.), and once " a man" (aitfpwTror, 8 : 40), which certainly must
include the more important intellectual and spiritual part as well as the
body.
2. " Flesh " is often used in the Old and New Testament for the whole
man, as in the phrase "all flesh" (natra arip£, every mortal man), or pea
erdpf (John 17 : 2 ; Rom. 3 • 20 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 29 , Gal. 2 : 16). In this pas-
sage it suited John's idea better than ai/SpwTror, because it more strongly
expresses the condescension of the Logos to the human nature in ita
present condition, with its weakness, trials, temptations, and sufferings.
He completely identified himself with our earthly lot, and became homo-
geneous with us, even to the likeness, though not the essence, of sin
(Bom. 8:3; comp. Heb. 2 : 14 ; 5 : 8, 9). "Flesh" then, when ascribed
to Christ, has the same comprehensive meaning in John as it has in
Paul (comp. also 1 Tim. 3 : 16). It is animated flesh, and the soul of
that flesh contains the spiritual as well as the physical life.
1 Rom, 13 : 7-10 ; 1 Cor. 13 : 1-18.
564 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
n. Another difficulty is presented by the verb tywro. The cham-
pions of the modern Kenosis theory (Thomasius, Gess, Ebrard, Godet,
etc.), while differing from the Apollinarian substitution of the Logos for
a rational human soul in Christ, assert that the Logos himself became
a human soul by voluntary transformation ; and so they explain e'ycWo
and the famous Pauline phrase lavrbv t KCPOXTCI', pop<pr)i> 8ov\ov Xa/3cot/
(Phil. 2 : 7). As the water was changed into wine at Cana (2:9: TO v8a>p
olvov yeyfvr)H€vov), so the Logos in infinite self-denial changed his divine
being into a human being during the state of his humiliation, and thus
led a single life, not a doable life (as the Chalcedonian theory of two
complete natures simultaneously coexisting in the same person from
the manger to the cross seems to imply). But
1. The verb ryc'itro must be understood in agreement with the parallel
passages : " he came in the flesh," 1 John 4 : 2 («V o-apKi * At/Aurora) ;
2 John 7 (tpxofjLewv tv crapiti), with this difference, that "became" indi-
cates the realness of Christ's manhood, " came " the continuance of his
godhood. Compare also Paul's expression, tyuvfpvZrj <V aaptd, 1 Tim.
3 : 16.
2. Whatever may be the objections to the Chalcedonian dyophysitism,
they cannot be removed by running the Kenosis to the extent of a self-
suspension of the Logos or an actual surrender of his essential attri-
butes; for this is a metaphysical impossibility, and inconsistent with
the unchangeableness of God and the intertrinitarian process. The
Logos did not cease to be God when he entered into the human state of
existence, nor did he cease to be man when he returned to the state of
divine glory which he had with the Father before the foundation of the
world.
III. Beyschlag (Die Chrtstologie des N. T., p. 168) denies the identity
of the Logos with Christ, and resolves the Logos into a divine principle,
instead of a person. " Der Logos ist nicht die Person Ckristi . . . sondei n
er ist das gotth&thclie Princip dieser menschhchen Person lichkeit " He
assumes a gradual unfolding of the Logos principle in the human per-
son of Christ. But the personality of the Logos is taught in vers 1-8,
and fycWo denotes a completed act. We must remember, however, that
personality in the trinity and personality of the Logos are different from
personality of man. Human speech is inadequate to express the dis-
tinction.
§ 73. Heretical Perversions of the Apostolic Teaching.
(Comp. my Hist, of the Ap. Ch., pp 649-674 )
The three types of doctrine which we have briefly unfolded,
exhibit Christianity in the whole fulness of its life ; and they
form the theme for the variations of the succeeding ages of the
§ 73. PERVERSIONS OF THE APOSTOLIC TEACHING. 565
church. Christ is the key-note, harmonizing all the discords
and resolving all the mysteries of the history of his kingdom.
But this heavenly body of apostolic truth is confronted with
the ghost of heresy ; as were the divine miracles of Moses with
the satanic juggleries of the Egyptians, and as Christ was with
demoniacal possessions. The more mightily the spirit of truth
rises, the more active becomes the spirit of falsehood. " Where
God builds a church the devil builds a chapel close by." But in
the hands of Providence all errors must redound to the unfold-
ing and the final victory of the truth. They stimulate inquiry
and compel defence. Satan himself is that " power which con-
stantly wills the bad, and works the good." Heresies in a dis-
ordered world are relatively necessary and negatively justifiable ;
though the teachers of them are, of course, not the less guilty.
" It must needs be, that scandals corne ; but woe to that man
by whom the scandal cometh." l
The heresies of the apostolic age are, respectively, the carica-
tures of the several types of the tme doctrine. Accordingly we
distinguish three fundamental forms of heresy, which reappear,
with various modifications, in almost every subsequent period.
In this respect, as in others, the apostolic period stands as the
type of the whole future ; and the exhortations and warnings of
the New Testament against false doctrine have force for every
age.
1. The JUDATZING tendency is the heretical counterpart of
Jewish Christianity. It so insists on the unity of Christianity
with Judaism, as to sink the former to the level of the latter,
and to make the gospel no more than an improvement or a per-
fected law. It regards Christ as a mere prophet, a second
Moses; and denies, or at least wholly overlooks, his divine
nature and his priestly and kingly offices. The Judaizers were
Jews in fact, and Christians only in appearance and in name.
They held circumcision and the whole moral and ceremonial
'Matt 18 7; 1 Cor 11 19 "There must be also heresies (factions)
among you, that they who are npprcned may be made manifest among you,"
Comp. Acts 20 30 ; 1 Tim. 4 1 , 2 Pet 2 1-3.
666 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
law of Moses to be still binding, and the observance of them
necessary to salvation. Of Christianity as a new, free, and uni-
versal religion, they had no conception. Hence they hated Paul,
the liberal apostle of the Gentiles, as a dangerous apostate and
revolutionist, impugned his motives, and everywhere, especially
in Galatia and Corinth, labored to undermine his authority in
the churches. The epistles of Paul, especially that to the Gala-
tians, can never be properly understood, unless their opposition
to this false Judaizing Christianity be continually kept in view.
The same heresy, more fully developed, appears in the second
century under the name of Ebionism.
2. The opposite extreme is a false Gentile Christianity, which
may be called the PAGANIZING or GNOSTIC heresy. It is as rad-
ical and revolutionary as the other is contracted and reactionary.
It violently breaks away from the past, while the Judaizing
heresies tenaciously and stubbornly cling to it as permanently
binding. It exaggerates the Pauline view of the distinction of
Christianity from Judaism, sunders Christianity from its his-
torical basis, resolves the real humanity of the Saviour into a
Doketistic illusion, and perverts the freedom of the gospel into
antinornian licentiousness. The author, or first representative
of this baptized heathenism, according to the uniform testimony
of Christian antiquity, is Simon Magus, who unquestionably
adulterated Christianity with pagan ideas and practices, and
gave himself out, in pantheistic style, for an emanation of God.1
Plain traces of this error appear in the later epistles of Paul (to
the Colossians, to Timothy, and to Titus), the second epistle of
Peter, the first two epistles of John, the epistle of Jude, and
the messages of the Apocalypse to the seven churches.
This heresy, in the second century, spread over the whole
church, east and west, in the various schools of Gnosticism.
3. As attempts had already been made, before Christ, by
Philo, by the Therapeutae and the Essenes, etc., to blend the
Jewish religion with heathen philosophy, especially that of
Pythagoras and Plato, so now, under the Christian name, there
1 Acts 8 • 10 : T) Afoopu rov dffov T) Ka\ov^yTj Mry&q.
§ 73. PERVERSIONS OF THE APOSTOLIC TEACHING. 667
appeared confused combinations of these opposite systems, form-
ing either a PAGANIZING JUDAISM, i.e., Gnostic Ebionism, or a
JUDAIZING PAGANISM, i.e.y Ebionistie Gnosticism, according as
the Jewish or the heathen element prevailed. This SYNCRETIS-
no heresy was the caricature of John's theology, which truly
reconciled Jewish and Gentile Christianity in the highest con-
ception of the person and work of Christ. The errors com-
bated in the later books of the New Testament are almost all
more or less of this mixed sort, and it is often doubtful whether
they come from Judaism or from heathenism. They were usually
shrouded in a shadowy mysticism and surrounded by the halo of
a self -made ascetic holiness, but sometimes degenerated into the
opposite extreme of antinomian licentiousness.
Whatever their differences, however, all these three funda-
mental heresies amount at last to a more or less distinct denial
of the central truth of the gospel — the incarnation of the Son
of God for the salvation of the world. They make Christ either
a mere man, or a mere superhuman phantom ; they allow, at
all events, no real and abiding union of the divine and human
in the person of the Redeemer. This is just what John gives as
the mark of antichrist, which existed even in his day in various
forms.1 It plainly undermines the foundation of the church.
For if Christ be not God-man, neither is he mediator between
God and men ; Christianity sinks back into heathenism or Juda-
ism. All turns at last on the answer to that fundamental ques-
tion : " What think ye of Christ ? " The true solution of this
question is the radical refutation of every error.
NOTES.
" It lias often been remarked that truth and error keep pace with each
other. Error is the shadow cast by truth, truth the bright side brought
out by error. Such is the relation between the heresies and the apos-
tolical teaching of the first century. The Gospels indeed, as in other
respects, so in this, rise almost entirely above the circumstances of the
time, but the Epistles are, humanly speaking, the result of the very
1 1 John 2 : 23 ; 4 : 1-3.
568 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
conflict between the good and the evil elements which existed togethet
in the bosom of the early Christian society. As they exhibit ^he princi-
ples afterward to be unfolded into all truth and goodness, so the here-
sies which they attack exhibit the principles which were afterwaid to
grow up into all the various forms of error, falsehood and wickedness.
The energy, the freshness, nay, even the preternatural power which be-
longed to the one belonged also to the other. Neither the truths in the
writings of the Apostles, nor the errors in the opinions of their oppo-
nents, can be said to exhibit the dogmatical form of any subsequent age.
It is a higher and more universal good which is aimed at in the former ;
it is a deeper and more universal principle of evil which is attacked in
the latter. Christ Himself, and no subordinate truths or speculations
concerning Him, is reflected in the one ; Antichrist, and not any of the
particular outward manifestations of error which have since appeared,
was justly regarded by the Apostles as foreshadowed in the other."
— Dean STANLEY (Apostolic Age, p. 182).
LITERATURE. — The heresies of the Apostolic Age have been thoroughly
investigated by Neander and Baur in connection with the history of
Ebionism and Gnosticism (see next vol.), and separately in the introduc-
tions to critical commentaries on the Colossians and Pastoral Epistles ;
also by Thiersch, Lipsius, Hilgenfeld. Among English writers we men-
tion BURTON : Inquiry into tJie Heresies of the Apostolic Age, in eight Ser-
mons (Bampton Lectures). Oxford, 1829. Dean STANLEY : Sermons and
Essays on the Apostolic Age, pp. 182-233, 3d ed Oxford, 1874. Bishop
LIGHTFOOT : Com. on St. Paul's Ep. to the Colossians and to Philemon, pp.
73-113 (on the Colossian heresy and its connection with Essenism).
London, 1875. Comp. also HILGENFKLD: Die Ketzergeschichte des Ur-
christenthums. Leipzig, 1884 (642 pages).
§ 74. LITERATURE. 669
CHAPTER XII.
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
§ 74. Literature.
Gomp. the Lit. on the Life of Christ, \ 14, and on the Apostolic Age,
$20.
I. The CRTTIOAL EDITIONS of the Greek Testament by LAOHMANN (1842-50,
2 vols.) ; TISOHENDORF (ed. octava critica major, 1869-72, 2 vols.,
with Prolegomena by C. R. GREGORY, Part I., Leipz., 1884) ; TRE-
GBLLES (1857-79) ; WESTCOTT and Hour (1881, with a vol. of In-
trod. and Appendix. Cambridge and New York, revised ed. 1888).
Lachmann laid the foundation ; Tischendorf and Tregelles greatly en-
larged and carefully sifted the critical apparatus ; Westcott and
Hort restored the cleanest text from the oldest attainable sources ;
all substantially agree in principle and result, and give us the an-
cient uncial instead of the mediaeval cursive text.
Two bilingual editions also deserve special mention in connection with
the recent revision of Luther's and King James's versions. OSKAR
VON GEBHABDT : Novum Testamentum Greece et Germanice, Lips.,
1881, gives the last text of Tischendorf (with the readings of Tre-
gelles, and Westcott and Hort below) and the revised translation of
Luther. His Greek text is also separately issued with an " Adno-
tatio critica," not contained in the diglott edition. The Greek-
English New Testament, containing Westcott and Horfs Greek Text and
the Revised English Version on opposite pages, with introduction by
Schaff. New York (Harper & Brothers), 1882, revised ed. 1888.
II. The historioo-critical INTRODUCTIONS, or literary HISTORIES of the
New Testament by HUG, DE WETTE, CRBDNER, GUERICKE, HORNE,
DAVIDSON, TREQELLES, GBAU, HILGBNFELD, ABERLE (B. Oath.), BLEEK
(4th ed. by MANGOLD, 1886), BEUSS (6th ed. 1887), HOI/TZMANN (2d
ed. 1886), WEISS (1886), SALMON (3d ed. 1888).
THIEBSOH : Herstellung des historischen Standpunktes fur die Kritik
der neutestamentl. Schriflen. Erlangen, 1845. (Against Baur and
the Tubingen School.) — EDWARD C. MITCHELL: Critical Handbook to
the New Test, (on Authenticity, Canon, etc.). Lond. and Andover,
1880 ; French translation, Paris, 1882.— J P. LANGE : Grundriss der
Bibelkunde. Heidelberg, 1881.— PHILIP SCHAFF : Companion to the
Greek Testament and the English Version. N. Y. and Lond , 1883,
3d ed. revised 1888.— G. D. LADD: The Doctrine of Sacred Script-
ure, N. York, 1883, 2 vols. The same, abridged, 1888.
670 FIHST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
IV. The works quoted below on the Gospels and Epistles.
V. On the CANON of the New Test., the works of KJBCHHOFEB (Queflem
sammlung, etc. Ztirich, 1844, Engl. transl. enlarged by CHABTERIB :
Canonicity, etc. Edinb., 1881); CBBDNBB (Zur Gesch. des Kanon.
Halle, 1847 ; Geschtchte des Neutest. Kanon, herausg. von Volkmar.
Berlin, 1860); GAUSSBN (Engl. transl., London, 1862; abridged
transl. by Kirk, Boston, 1862); TBEOELLBS (Canon Muratorianus.
Oxford, 1867) ; SAM. DAVIDSON (Lond., 1878, 3d ed., 1880) ; WBBT-
OOTT (Cambridge and London, 1855 ; 6th ed., 1889) ; REUSS (Histoire
du canon des S. Ecritures. Strasb., 2d ed., 1864) ; AD. HABNAOK
(Das muratonsche Fi*agment und die Entstehimg einer Sammiung
apost.-kathohscher Schriften, in Brieger's "Zeitschrift f. Kirchenge-
schichte," 1879, III., 358 sqq. ; comp. 595 sqq.) ; F. OVBBBBCK (Zur
Geschichte des Kanons. Chemnitz, 1880) ; Kfcvrms (French, 1881) ;
THBOD. ZAHN (Forschungen tur Geschichte des neutestamentl. Kanons,
Part I.-III., 1881-84; and Geschtchte des Kanons d. N. T., Leipz.,
1888 sqq., 3 vols). Oomp.* HABNAOK : Das N. T urn das Jahr. 200,
Freiburg, 1889 (against Zahn), and Zahn's reply, Leipz., 1889.
§ 75. Rise of the Apostolic Li&erabure.
Christ is the book of life to be read by all. His religion is
not an outward letter of command, like the law of Moses, but
free, quickening spirit ; not a literary production, but a moral
creation ; not a new system of theology or philosophy for the
learned, but a communication of the divine life for the redemp-
tion of the whole world. Christ is the personal Word of God,
the eternal Logos, who became flesh and dwelt upon earth as
the true Shekinah, in the veiled glory of the only begotten from
the Father, full of grace and truth. He spoke; and all the
words of his mouth were, and still are, spirit and life. The
human heart craves not a learned, letter-writing, literary Christ,
but a wonder-working, cross-bearing, atoning Redeemer, risen,
enthroned in heaven, and ruling the world ; furnishing, at the
same time, to men and angels an unending theme for medita-
tion, discourse, and praise.
So, too, the Lord chose none of his apostles, with the single
exception of Paul, from the ranks of the learned ; he did not
train them to literary authorship, nor give them, throughout his
earthly life, a single express command to labor in that way.
§ 75. RISE OF THE APOSTOLIC LITERATURE. 571
Plain fishermen of Galilee, unskilled in the wisdom of this
world, but filled with the Holy Spirit of truth and the powers
of the world to come, were commissioned to preach the glad
tidings of ^salvation to all nations in the strength and in the
name of their glorified Master, who sits on the right hand of
God the Father Almighty, and has promised to be with them
to the end of time.
The gospel, accordingly, was first propagated and the church
founded by the personal oral teaching and exhortation, the
" preaching," " testimony," " word," " tradition," of the apostles
and their disciples ; as, in fact, to this day the living word is the
indispensable or, at least, the principal means of promoting the
Christian religion. Nearly all the books of the New Testament
were written between the years 50 and 70, at least twenty years
after the resurrection of Christ, and the founding of the church ;
and the Gospel and Epistles of John still later.
As the apostles' field of labor expanded, it became too large
for their personal attention, and required epistolary correspond-
ence. The vital interests of Christianity and the wants of
coming generations demanded a faithful record of the life and
teaching of Christ by perfectly reliable witnesses. For oral
tradition, among fallible men, is liable to so many accidental
changes, that it loses in certainty and credibility as its distance
from the fountain-head increases, till at last it can no longer be
clearly distinguished from the additions and corruptions col-
lected upon it. There was great danger, too, of a wilful distor-
tion of the history and doctrine of Christianity by Judaizing
and paganizing errorists, who had already raised their heads
during the lifetime of the apostles. An authentic written rec-
ord of the words and acts of Jesus and his disciples was there-
fore absolutely indispensable, not indeed to originate the church,
but to keep it from corruption and to furnish it with a pure
standard of faith and discipline.
Hence seven and twenty books by apostles and apostolic men,
written under the special influence and direction of the Holy
Spirit These afford us a truthful picture of the history, the
672 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
faith, and the practice of primitive Christianity. " for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in rigmeousness." *
The collection of these writings into a canon, in distinction
both from apocryphal or pseudo-apostolic works, and from
orthodox yet merely human productions, was the work of the
early church ; and in performing it she was likewise guided by
the Spirit of God and by a sound sense of tnith. It was not
finished to the satisfaction of all till the end of the fourth cen-
tury, down to which time seven New Testament books (the
u Antilegomena " of Eusebius), the second Epistle of Peter, the
second and third Epistles of John, the anonymous Epistle to
the Hebrews, the Epistles of James and Jude, and in a certain
sense also the Apocalypse of John, were by some considered of
doubtful authorship or value. But the collection was no
doubt begun, on the model of the Old Testament canon, in the
first century ; a and the principal books, the Gospels, the Acts,
the thirteen Epistles of Paul, the first Epistle of Peter, and the
first of John, in a body, were in general use after the middle of
the second century, and were read, either entire or by sections,
in public worship, after the manner of the Jewish synagogue,
for the edification of the people.
The external testimony of tradition alone cannot (for the
Protestant Christian) decide the apostolic origin and canonical
character of a book ; it must be confirmed by the internal
testimony of the book itself. But this is not wanting, and the
general voice of Christendom for these eighteen hundred years
has recognized in the little volume, which we call the New
Testament, a book altogether unique in spiritual power and
influence over the mind and heart of man, and of more in-
terest and value than all the ancient and modern classics com-
bined. If ever God spoke and still speaks to man, it is in this
book.
1 2 Tim 3 * 16. It applies to " every Scripture inspired of God/' more im-
mediately to the Old Test , but a fortiori still more to the New.
9 Comp. 2 Pet. 8 . 16, where a collection of Paul's Epistles is implied.
§ 76. CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 673
§ 76. Character of ike New Testament.
In these inspired writings we have, not indeed an equivalent,
but a reliable substitute for the personal presence and the oral
instruction of Christ and his apostles. The written word differs
from the spoken only in form ; the substance is the same, and
has therefore the same authority and quickening power for us
as it had for those who heard it first. Although these books
were called forth apparently by special and accidental occasions,
and were primarily addressed to particular circles of readers
and adapted to peculiar circumstances, yet, as they present the
eternal and unchangeable truth in living forms, they suit all
circumstances and conditions. Tracts for the times, they are
tracts for all times ; intended for Jews and Greeks of the first
century, they have the same interest for Englishmen and
Americans of the nineteenth century. They are to this day
not only the sole reliable and pure fountain of primitive Chris-
tianity, but also the infallible rule of Christian faith and prac-
tice. From this fountain the church has dnmk the water of
life for more than fifty generations, and will drink it till the
end of time. In this rule she has a perpetual corrective for all
her faults, and a protective against all error.- Theological sys-
tems come and go, and draw from that treasury their larger or
smaller additions to the stock of our knowledge of the truth ;
but they can never equal that infallible word of God, which
abideth forever.
44 Our little systems have their day,
They have their day and cease to be :
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And Thou, O God, art more than they.n
The New Testament evinces its universal design in its very
style, which alone distinguishes it from all the literary produce
tions of earlier and later times. It has a Greek body, a Hebrew
soul, and a Christian spirit which rules both. The language is
the Hellenistic idiom ; that is, the Macedonian Greek as spoken
by the Jews of the dispersion in the time of Christ ; uniting, in
674 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
a regenerated Christian form, the two great antagonistic nation*
alities and religions of the ancient world. The most beautiful
language of heathendom and the venerable language of the
Hebrews are here combined, and baptized with the spirit of
Christianity, and made the picture of silver for the golden
apple of the eternal truth of the gospel. The style of the Bible
in general is singularly adapted to men of every class and grade
of culture, affording the child the simple nourishment for its
religious wants, and the profoundest thinker inexhaustible mat-
ter of study. The Bible is not simply a popular book, but a
book of all nations, and for all societies, classes, and conditions
of men. It is more than a book, it is an institution which rules
the Christian world.
The New Testament presents, in its way, the same union of
the divine and human as the person of Christ. Li this sense
also "the word became flesh, and dwells among us." As
Christ was like us in body, soul, and spirit, sin only excepted,
so the Scriptures, which " bear witness of him," are thoroughly
human (though without doctrinal and ethical error) in con-
tents and form, in the mode of their rise, their compilation,
their preservation, and transmission; yet at the same time
they are thoroughly divine both in thoughts and words, in
origin, vitality, energy, and effect, and beneath the human
servant-form of the letter, the eye of faith discerns the glory
of "the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth."
The apostolic writings are of three kinds : historical, didactic,
and prophetic. To the first class belong the Gospels and Acts ;
to the second, the Epistles ; to the third, the Revelation. They
are related to each other as regeneration, sanctification, and glori-
fication ; as foundation, house, and dome. Jesus Christ is the
beginning, the middle, and the end of all. In the Gospels he
walks in human form upon the earth, and accomplishes the
work of redemption. In the Acts and Epistles he founds the
church, and fills and guides it by his Spirit. And at last, in the
visions of the Apocalypse, he comes again in glory, and with
§ 77. LITERATURE ON THE GOSPELS. 675
his bride, the church of the saints, reigns forever upon the new
earth in the city of God.
This order corresponds with the natural progress of the Chris-
tian revelation and was universally adopted by the church, with
the exception of a difference in the arrangement of the Epistles.
The New Testament was not given in the form of a finished
volume, but the several books grew together by recognition and
use according to the law of internal fitness. Most of the ancient
Manuscripts, Versions, and Catalogues arrange the books in the
following order: Gospels, Acts, Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epis-
tles, Apocalypse.1 Some put the Pauline Epistles before the
Catholic Epistles.* Our English Bible follows the order of the
Latin Vulgate.1
§ 77. Literature on the Gospels.
I. HABMONIBS OF THE GOSPELS.
They begin with TATIAN'S Ihatessaron, A.D. 170. See lists of older works
in Fabricms, Bibl. Gr., III. 212 ; Hase, Leben Jesu, pp. 22-31 (fifth
ed.) ; Robinson, Harmony, pp. v. and vi.; Darling, Cyclopaedia
Bibhog. (I. Subjects, cols. 761-767) ; and McClintock and Strong
(Cyclop., IV. 81). We give the chief works from Griesbach to
Bushbrooke.
GRIESBACH (Synopsis, Halle, 1774, etc., 1822) ; NEWOOME (Dublin, 1778
and often ; also Andover, 1834) ; Jos. PRIESTLEY (in Greek, London,
1778 ; in English, 1780) ; Jos. WHITE (Diatessaron, Oxford, 1799,
1803) ; DB WETTB and LticKE (1818, 1842) ; RODIGER (1829, 1839) ;
GRBSWELL (Harmoma Evangehca, 1830, 5th ed. Oxford, 1856 ; Disser-
tations upon an Harmony, etc., 2d ed., Oxford, 1837, 4 vols ) ; MAOBRIDB
(Diatessaron, Oxford, 1837) ; WIESELER (Chronolog. Synopse, Hamb.,
1843); KBAFFT (d. 1845; Chronologie u. Harmonie der 4 Evang.
1 This order ia restored in the critical editions of Lachmann, Tiachendorf ,
Tregelles, Weitcott and Hort
9 The Codex Sinaiticus pate the Pauline Epistles before the Acts, and the
Hebrews between 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy.
9 This order agrees with the Muratorian Fragment, the catalogue of Euse-
biua (JZ B., III. 25), that of the Synod of Carthage (A.D. 397), and the Codex
Basiliensis. Luther took the liberty of disconnecting the Hebrews (which he
ascribed to Apollosj from the Pauline Epistles, and putting it and the Epistle
of James (which he disliked) at the end of the Catholic Epistles (except Jude>
676 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Erlangen, 1848 ; edit, by Burger) ; TIBCHENDOBF (Synopsis Evang*
Lips., 1851, 1854; 4th ed., 1878); EUD. ANOBB (Lips., 1852);
STBOUD (comprising a Synopsis and a Diatessaron, London, 1853) ;
E. ROBINSON (A Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek, according to
the text of Hahn, Boston, 1845, 1851 ; revised ed., 1862 ; in English,
1846) ; JAMBS STRONG (in English, New York, 1852 ; in Greek, 1854) ;
E. MIMPBISS (London, 1855) ; DOUGLAS (1859) ; SBVIN (Wiesbaden,
1866) ; FB. GARDINER (A Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek,
according to the text of Tischendorft with a Collation of the Textus Re-
ceptus, etc. Andover, 1876 ; also his Diatessaron, The Life of our
Lord in the Words of tJie Gospels, Andover, 1871) ; J. E GILMOBE
and LYMAN ABBOTT (The Gospel History: being a Complete Chrono-
logical Narrative of the Life of our Lord, New York, 1881) ; W. G.
EUSHBBOOKE (Synopticon : an Exposition of the Common Matter in the
Synoptic Gospels, Cambridge, 1880-81, 2 parts ; the Greek text of
Tischendorf, corrected from Westcott and Hort). The last work is
unique and superbly printed. It marks the differences of the narra-
tives by different types and color, namely, the matter common to all
Evangelists in red type, the matter common to each pair in black
spaced type or capitals, the matter peculiar to each in ordinary
black type. It furnishes the best basis for a detailed companson
and critical analysis.
II. CRITICAL DISCUSSIONS.
NATHANIEL LABDNEB (1684^1768, a dissenting minister of great learning) :
Tfie Credibility of the Gospel History. First published in 17 vols.
8vo, London, 1727-1757, and in his collected Works, ed. by A.
Kippis, London, 1788 (in 11 vols.), vols. I.-V. UL surpassed for
honest and solid learning, and still valuable.
J. G. EICHHOBN (d. 1827) : Allgem. Bibhothek der bibl. Liter., vol. V.
(1794), pp. 759 sqq. Einleitung in das N. Testament., 1804, vol. I., 2d
ed., 1820. Here he brought out his new idea of an Urevangehum.
HEBBEBT MARSH (Bishop of Peterborough, d. 1839) : An Illustration of
the Hypothesis proposed in the Dissertation on the Origin and Composi-
tion of our Three First Canonical Gospels. Cambridge, 1803. Also
his translation of J. D. Michaelis : Introduction to the New Test.j with
a Dissertation on the Origin and Composition of the Three First Gos-
pels. London, 1802. A modification of Eichhorn's hypothesis.
FB. SCHLEIEBMACHEB : Kritischer Versuch uber die Schnften des Lucas.
Berlin, 1817 (Werke I. 2, pp. 1-220); trans, by Thirl wall, Lond.,
1825. Comp. his Einleitung in das N Testament, (posthumous).
J. C. L. GIESELEB : Historisch'kritischer Versuch uber die Entstehung und
diefruhesten Schicksale der schnftlichen Evangehen. Leipz., 1818.
ANDBEWS NOBTON (a conservative Unitarian, died at Cambridge, 1853) :
8 77. LITERATURE ON THE GOSPELS. 677
The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels. Boston, 1837 ; 2d
ed., Cambridge, Mass., 1846-1848, 3 vols. Abridged ed. in 1 vol.,
Boston (Am. Unitar. Assoc.), 1867 and 1875. By the same : Inter-
nal Evidences of tlw Genuineness of the Gospels (posthumous). Boston,
1855. With special reference to Strauss.
FB. BLEEK (d. 1859) Beitrage zur Evangehen-Kntik. Berlin, 1846.
F. CHB. BAUB (d. 1860) : Kritische Untersuchungen uber die Jcanonischen
Evangelien. 1847. Comp. the first volume of his Church History
(Germ, ed., pp. 22 sqq , 148 sqq.).
ISAAC DA COSTA : The Four Witnesses • being a Harmony of the Gospels on
a New Principle. Transl. (from the Dutch) by David Scott, 1851 ;
New York ed., 1855 Against Strauss.
AD. HILGENFELD (Tubingen School) : Lie Evangelien nach ihrer Entste-
hung und geschichtl Bedeutung. Leipz , 1854. His Einleitung, 1875.
CANON WESTCOTT : Introduction to the Study of the Gospels. London and
Boston, 1860 ; 7th ed., London, 1888. Very useful.
CONST. TISCHENDOBF (d. 1874) : Wann wurden unsere Evangelien verfasst *
Leipz., 4th ed., 1866 (Engl. transl. by W L. Gage, Boston, 1868).
H. JUL. HOLTZMANN : Die synoptischen Evangelien^ ihr Ursprung und
geschichtL Charakter. Leipz , 1863. See also his art. Evangelien in
Schenkel's " Bibel-Lex ," II. 207, and two articles on the Synoptic
Question in the " Jahrbucher fur Protest. Theol.," 1878, pp. 145 sqq.
and 533 sqq.; but especially his Emleitung in das N. 7% 2d ed., 1886.
C. WEIZSACKEB (successor of Dr. Baur, but less radical) : Untersuchungen
uber die evang. Gesch., ihre Quellen, etc. Gotlia, 1864.
GUOTAVE D'EiOHTHAfc i Les fivangiles. Paris, %1863. 2 vols.
L. A. SABATXEB : Essai sur les sources de la vie de Jesus. Paris, 1866.
ANDREW JUKES : The Characteristic Differences of the Four Gospels. Lon-
don, 1867.
EDWABD A. THOMSON : 77te Four Evangelists ; with the Distinctive Charac-
teristics of their Gospels. Edinburgh, 1868.
C. A. Row : The Historical Character of the Gospels Tested by an Exami-
nation of their Contents. 186&-67. The Jesus of tJte Evangelists. Lon-
don, 1868.
KABL WIESELEB : Beitrage zur nchtigen Wurdigung der Evangelien und
der evangel. Geschichte. Gotha, 1869.
Supernatural Religion (anonymous). London, 1873, 7th ed., 1879, vol. I.,
Part n., pp. 212 sqq , and vol. EL Comp. the careful review and
refutation of this work by Bishop LIGHTPOOT in a series of articles
in the " Contemporary Review," 1875, sqq.
P. GODET : The Origin of the Four Gospels. In his " Studies on the New
Test," 1873. Engl. transl. by W. H. Lyttelton. London, 1876.
See also his Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, Introd. and Ap-
pendix, Eng. trans, from 2d French ed. Edinb., 1875.
W. SANDAT : The Gospels in the Second Century. London, 1876.
578 FIBST PEBIOD. A.D. 1-100.
BEBNHABD WEISS (Professor in Berlin) : Das Marcusevangelium und seine
synoptischen Parallelen. Berlin, 1872. Das Matthausevangelium und
seine Lucas- Parallelen erkldrt. Halle, 1876. Two very thorough criti-
cal works. Comp. also his reply to Holtzmann in the " Jahrbiicher
fur Protest. Theologie," 1878 ; and his Einleitung in' a N. T.t 1886.
D. S. GBBOOBY : Why Four Gospels ? or, the Gospels for all tJte World.
New York, 1877.
E. BENAN : Les evangiles et la seconds generation Chretienne. Paris, 1877.
GEO. P. FISHER (Professor in New Haven) : TJte Beginnings of Christi-
anity New York, 1877. Chs. VI1I.-XII. Also several articles on
the Gospels in the "Princeton Beview " for 1881.
WM. THOMSON (Archbishop of York) : The Gospels. General Introduc-
tion to Speaker's " Com. on the New Test." vol I , pp. xiii.-lxxv.
London and New York, 1878.
EDWIN A. ABBOTT (Head Master, City of London School) : Gospels, in
the ninth edition of the •' Encyclopaedia Britonnica," vol. X., pp.
789-843. Edinburgh and New York, 1879.
FRED. HUIDEKOPEB (Umtar. Theol. Seminary, Meadville, Pa.) : Indirect
Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the Gospels. New York, 2d
ed., 1879.
JOHN KENNEDY (D.D.) : The Four Gospels: their Age and AutJiorship.
Traced from the Fourth Century into the First. London ; Am. ed.,
with an introduction by Edwin W. Bice. Philadelphia, 1880 (Am.
Sunday School Union).
J. H. SCHOI/FEN : Das Paulinische Evangelium. Transl. from the Dutch
by E. B. Bedepenning. Elberfeld, 1881.
C. HOUSTEN : Die drei ur sprung lichen, noch ungeschnebenen Evangehen.
Leipzig, 1883 (79 pages). A modification of Baur's tendency-hypoth-
esis. Holsten assumes three forms of the original oral Gospel — the
Pauline, the Petrine, and the Judaistic.
Norton, Tischendorf, Wieseler, Ebrard, Da Costa, Westcott, Lightfoot,
Sanday, Kennedy, Thomson, Godet, Ezra Abbot, and Fisher are con-
servative and constructive, yet critical ; Baur, Hilgenf eld, Holtzmann,
Keim, Benan, Scholten, Davidson, and the author of "Supernatural
Beligion " are radical, but stimulating and negatively helpful, espe-
cially Baur, Keim, and Benan. Bleek, Ewald, Beuss, Meyer, and
Weiss occupy independent middle ground, but all defend the genu-
ineness of John except Beuss, who hesitates.
IIL COMMENTABTBS.
1. Ancient Works : OBIGEN (in Math., Luc., etc., fragmentary) ; CHBTBOS-
TOM (Horn, in Matth., ed. Fr. Field, 1839) ; JEROME (in Matih.; in
Luc.) ; AUGUSTIN (Qucestionum Evangeliorum libri U.) ; THEOFHTLAOT
(Comment, in 4 Evang., Or. et Lot.) ; EUTHYMIUS ZIGABENUS (Com. in 4
Evang., Or. et Lot.) ; THOMAS AQUINAS ( Catena aurea in Evang. ; Eng-
lish edition by Pnsey,Keble, and Newman. Oxford, 1841-46, 4 vols.).
§ 78. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 679
2. Since the Reformation: CALVIN (Harmonia, and Ev. Joa.t 1563;
Engl. ed., Edinb., 1846, 3 vols.) ; MALDONATUS (B. Oath., Com. in
quatuor Evany , 1615) ; PASQUIBB QUESNBL (Jansenist ; The Four Gos-
pels, French and English, several editions) ; JOHN LIQHTFOOT (Horoe
Hebraicce et Talmudicce in quatuor Evangeh&tas, and Harmonia qua-
tuor Evangehstarum turn inter se, turn cum Veten Testamento, in hia
Opera. London, 1684 • also Leipz., 1675 ; Botterdam, 1686 ; Lon-
don, 1825) ; J. MACKNIQHT (Harm, of the Four Gospels, with Para-
phrase and Notes. London, 1756; 5th ed., 1819, 2 vols.) ; GEOBGB
CAMPBELL (d. 1796; Tlie Four Gospels, uith Dissertations and Notes.
Aberdeen, 1814, 4 vols. ; Andover, 1837, 2 vols ).
3. In the nineteenth century . OLSHAUSEN (d. 1839 ; 3d ed., 1837 sqq. ;
revised and completed by Ebrard and others ; Engl. transl., Edinb.
and New York) ; DB WETTK (d. 1849 ; Exeget. Handbuch zum N. T.,
1837; 5th ed. by Bruckner and others, 1863 sqq ) ; BLEEK (d. 1859 ;
Synopt. Erklarung der 3 ersten Evang., 1862, 2 vols ) ; MEYER (d.
1874 ; 6th ed., 1876-80, Matthew by MEYER, Mark, Luke and John
revised by WEISS) ; LANGE (Am ed. enlarged, New York and Edinb.,
1864 sqq , 3 vols.) ; ALFOKD (d. 1871 ; 6th ed., 1868 ; new ed., 1877) ;
WORDSWORTH (5th ed , 1866) ; Jos. A. ALEXANDER (d. 1859 ; Mark
and Matthew, the latter unfinished) ; MCCLELLAN ( Tlie Four Gospels,
with the Chronological and Analytical Harmony. London, 1875) ; KETL
(Mattliew, Marl', Luke, and John, 1877-1881) ; MORISON (Matthew and
Mark, the latter in a third ed., 1882) ; GODET (Luke and John, French
and English), STBAOK and ZOOKLER (1888). For English readers:
SPEAKER'S Com., ELLIOOTT'S Com , SOHAFP'S Revision Com., 1882, etc.
Comp. a list of Com. on the Gospels in the English transl. of Meyer on
Matthew (Edinb., 1877, pp. xxiv.-xlui.).
§ 78. The Four Gospels.
GENERAL CHARACTER AND AIM OF THE GOSPELS.
Christianity is a cheerful religion and brings joy and peace
from heaven to earth. The New Testament opens with the
gospel, that is with the authentic record of the history of alJ
histories, the glad tidings of salvation through the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.1 The four canonical Gospels
1 The Greek word tvayyfaiov which passed into the Latin evangelium, and
through this into modern languages (French, German, Italian, etc.), means
1st, reward for good news to the messenger (in Homer) ; 3d, good news, glad
tidings ; 3d, glad tidings of Christ and his salvation (so in the New Test) ;
4th, the record of these glad tidings (so in the headings of the Gospels and
in ecclesiastical usage). The Saxon "gospel," i.e., God's spell or good spell
(from &dlian> to tell), is the nearest idiomatic equivalent for cforyf Aw.
080 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
are only variations of the same theme, a fourfold representation
of one and the same gospel, animated by the same spirit.1 They
are not full biographies/ but only memoirs or a selection oi
characteristic features of Christ's life and work as they struck
each Evangelist and best suited his purpose and, his class of
readers.' They are not photographs which give only the mo-
mentary image in a single attitude, but living pictures from
repeated sittings, and reproduce the varied expressions and
aspects of Christ's person.
The style is natural, unadorned, straightforward, and objec-
tive. Their artless and naive simplicity resembles the earliest
historic records in the Old Testament, and has its peculiar
and abiding charm for all classes of people and all degrees of
culture. The authors, in noble modosty and self-forgetf ulness,
suppress their personal views and feelings, retire in worshipful
silence before their great subject, and strive to set it forth in all
its own unaided power.
The first and fourth Gospels were composed by apostles and
eye-witnesses, Matthew and John ; the second and third, under
the influence of Peter and Paul, and by their disciples Mark
and Luke, so as to be indirectly likewise of apostolic origin and
canonical authority. Hence Mark is often called the Gospel of
Peter, and Luke the Gospel of Paul.
The common practical aim of the Evangelists is to lead the
reader to a saving faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the promised
Messiah and Redeemer of the world.4
1 IrenaBus very properly calls them rerpdpopfov rk ctoyy&toi', M irvt A
0rw€x4ue»'oj', quadnforme evangelium quod uno spiritu continetur. Adv. Hcer.
Ill 11, §8
* This is expressly disclaimed in John 20 • 30 ; comp 21 25
8 Hence Justin Martyr, in his two " Apologies" (written about 146), calls
the Gospels "Memoirs" or " Memorabilia" ('Aro/i^/xoyc^ra) of Christ or of
the Apostles, in imitation no doubt of the Memorabilia of Socrates by Xeno
phon That Justin means no other books but our canonical Gospels by these
" Memoirs/' which he says were read in public worship on Sunday, there can
be no reasonable doubt See especially Dr. Abbot's Authorship of the Fourth
Gospel, 1880.
4 John 20 : 80, 81 : ravra 8i y4yptamu era vnrrc^iyrc tri 'lyffovs farlr
vl&s TOW 0cov, *ol fra vurrtforrcs (a)jr *XW* *v r<? Wfw* ainov.
§ 78. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 581
COMMON ORIGIN.
The Gospels have their common source in the personal inter-
course of two of the writers with Christ, and in the oral tradi-
tion of the apostles and other eye-witnesses. Plain fishermen
of Galilee could not have drawn such a portrait of Jesus if he
had not sat for it. It would take more than a Jesus to invent a
Jesus. They did not create the divine original, but they faith-
fully preserved and reproduced it.
The gospel story, being constantly repeated in public preach-
ing and in private circles, assumed a fixed, stereotyped form ;
the more readily, on account of the reverence of the first dis-
ciples for every word of their divine Master. Hence the strik-
ing agreement of the first three, or synoptical Gospels, which,
in matter and form, are only variations of the same theme.
Luke used, according to his own statement, besides the oral
tradition, written documents on certain parts of the life of
Jesus, which doubtless appeared early among the first disciples.
The Gospel of Mark, the confidant of Peter, is a faithful copy
of the gospel preached and otherwise communicated by this
apostle ; with the use, perhaps, of Hebrew records which Peter
may have made from time to time under the fresh impression
of the events themselves.
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS.
But with all their similarity in matter and style, each of the
Gospels, above all the fourth, has its peculiarities, answering to
the personal character of its author, his special design, and the
circumstances of his readers. The several evangelists present
the infinite fulness of the life and person of Jesus in different
aspects and different relations to mankind ; and they complete
one another. The symbolical poesy of the church compares
them with the four rivers of Paradise, and with the four cher-
ubic representatives of the creation, assigning the man to Mat-
thew, the lion to Mark, the ox to Luke, and the eagle to John.
The apparent contradictions of these narratives, when closely
682 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
examined, sufficiently solve themselves, in all essential points^
and serve only to attest the honesty, impartiality, and credibility
of the authors. At the same time the striking combination of
resemblances and differences stimulates close observation and
minute comparison, and thus impresses the events of the life
of Christ more vividly and deeply upon the mind and heart of
the reader than a single narrative could do. The immense
labor of late years in bringing out the comparative characteris-
tics of the Gospels and in harmonizing their discrepancies has
not been in vain, and has left a stronger conviction of their
independent worth and mutual completeness.
Matthew wrote for Jews, Mark for Romans, Luke for Greeks,
John for advanced Christians ; but all are suited for Christians in
every age and nation.1 The first Gospel exhibits Jesus of Naza-
reth as the Messiah and Lawgiver of the kingdom of heaven
who challenges our obedience ; the second Gospel as the mighty
conqueror and worker of miracles who excites our astonishment ;
the third Gospel as the sympathizing Friend and Saviour of
men who commands our confidence ; the fourth Gospel as the
eternal Son of God who became flesh for our salvation and
claims our adoration and worship, that by believing in him we
may have eternal life. The presiding mind which planned
this fourfold gospel and employed the agents without a formal
agreement and in conformity to their talents, tastes, and spheres
of usefulness, is the Spirit of that Lord who is both the Son of
Man and the Son of God, the Saviour of us all.
TIME OF COMPOSITION.
As to the time of composition, external testimony and inter-
nal evidence which modern critical speculations have not been
able to invalidate, point to the seventh decade of the first cen-
1 This characterization is very old, and goes back to Gregory Nazianzen,
Carmen 83, where he enumerates the books of the New Test., and says :
Mor&ouof pi? lypotlw 'Eftpalois da4/urra Xpiarov,
Ma>Kos r 'IraAfp, Aovicai '
8* 'IflrtCwiff idipvt ftlyai,
§ 78. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 683
tnry for the Synoptic Gospels, and to the ninth decade for the
Gospel of John.
The Synoptic Gospels were certainly written before A.D. 70 ;
for they describe the destruction of Jerusalem as an event still
future, though nigh at hand, and connect it immediately with
the glorious appearing of our Lord, which it was thought might
take place within the generation then living, although no precise
date is fixed anywhere, the Lord himself declaring it to be un-
known even to him. Had the Evangelists written after that
terrible catastrophe, they would naturally have made some allu-
sion to it, or so arranged the eschatological discourses of our
Lord (Matt. 24 ; Mark 13 ; Luke 21) as to enable the reader
clearly to discriminate between the judgment of Jerusalem and
the final judgment of the world, as typically foreshadowed by
the former.1
On the other hand, a considerable number of years must have
elapsed after the resurrection. This is indicated by the fact
that several imperfect attempts at a gospel history had pre-
viously been made (Luke 1:1), and by such a phrase as :
" until this day " (Matt. 27 : 8 ; 28 : 15).
But it is quite impossible to fix the precise year of composi-
tion. The silence of the Epistles is no conclusive argument
that the Synoptists wrote after the death of James, Peter, and
Paul ; for there is the same silence in the Acts concerning the
Epistles of Paul, and in the Epistles concerning the Acts. The
apostles did not quote each other's writings : the only excep-
tion is the reference of Peter to the Epistles of Paul. In the
multiplicity of their labors the Evangelists may have been en-
gaged for several years in preparing their works until they
assumed their present shape. The composition of a life of
Christ now may well employ many years of the profoundest
study.
The Hebrew Matthew was probably composed first; then
Mark; the Greek Matthew and Luke cannot be far apart.
1 See on this subject Fisher's Beginning* of Christianity, oh. XI. . " Water
marks of Age in the New Test Histories," pp. 368 sqq., especially p. 371.
584 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
If the Acts, which suddenly break off with Paul's imprison*
nient in Rome (61-63), were written before the death of the
apostle, the third Gospel, which is referred to as "the first
treatise " (Acts 1 : 1), must have been composed before A.D. 65
or 64, perhaps, in Csesarea, where Luke had the best opportunity
to gather his material during Paul's imprisonment between 58
and 60 ; but it was probably not published till a few years after-
wards. Whether the later Synoptists knew and used the earlier
will be discussed in the next section.
John, according to the universal testimony of antiquity, which
is confirmed by internal evidence, wrote his Gospel last, after
the fall of Jerusalem and after the final separation of the Chris-
tians from the Jews. He evidently presupposes the Synoptic
Gospels (although he never refers to them), and omits the es-
chatological and many other discourses and miracles, even the
institution of the sacraments, because they were already suffi-
ciently known throughout the church. But in this case too it
is impossible to fix the year of composition. John carried his
Gospel in his heart and memory for many years and gradually
reduced it to writing in liis old age, between A.D. 80 and 100 ;
for lie lived to the close of the first century and, perhaps, saw the
dawn of the second.
CREDIBILITY.
The Gospels make upon every unsophisticated reader the im-
pression of absolute honesty. They tell the story without rhe-
torical embellishment, without any exclamation of surprise or
admiration, without note and comment. They frankly record
the weaknesses and failings of the disciples, including them-
selves, the rebukes which their Master administered to them
for their carnal misunderstandings and want of faith, their
cowardice and desertion in the most trying hour, their utter
despondency after the crucifixion, the ambitious request of John
and James, the denial of Peter, the treason of Judas. They
dwell even with circumstantial minuteness upon the great sin of
§ 78. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 685
the leader of the Twelve, especially the Gospel of Mark, who
derived his details no doubt from Peter's own lips. They con-
ceal nothing, they apologize for nothing, they exaggerate noth-
ing. Their authors are utterly unconcerned about their own
fame, and withhold their own name ; their sole object is to tell
the story of Jesus, which carries its own irresistible force and
charm to the heart of every truth-loving reader. The very dis-
crepancies in minor details increase confidence and exclude the
suspicion of collusion ; for it is a generally acknowledged princi-
ple in legal evidence that circumstantial variation in the testi-
mony of witnesses confirms their substantial agreement. There
is no historical work of ancient times which carries on its very
face such a seal of truthfulness as these Gospels.
The credibility of the canonical Gospels receives also negative
confirmation from the numerous apocryphal Gospels which by
their immeasurable inferiority and childishness prove the litter
inability of the human imagination, whether orthodox or heter-
odox, to produce such a character as the historical Jesus of
Isazareth.
Xo post-apostolic writers could have composed the canonical
Gospels, and the apostles themselves could not have composed
them without the inspiration of the spirit of Christ.
NOTES.
L The SYMBOLISM of the Gospels. This belongs to the history of
Christian poetry and art, but also to the history of exegesis, and may be
briefly mentioned here. It presents the limited recognition of the indi-
viduality of the Gospels among the fathers and throughout the middle
ages.
The symbolic attributes of the Evangelists were suggested by Eze-
kiel's vision of the four cherubim which represent the creation and
carry the throne of God (Ez. 1 : 15 sqq. ; 10 : 1 sqq. ; 11 : 22), and by the
four "living creatures" (fin, not STjpia, "beasts," with which the E. V.
confounds them) in the Apocalypse (Eev. 4 : 6-9 ; 5 : 6, 8, 11, 14 ; 6 : 1,
3,5,6,7; 7:11; 14:3; 15:7; 19:4).
(1.) The theological use. The chernbic figures which the prophet
saw in his exile on the banks of the Chebar, symbolize the divine
attributes of majesty and strength reflected in the animal creation ; and
686 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the winged bulls and lions and the eagle-headed men of Assyrian monu.
ments have a similar significance. But the cherubim were interpreted
as prophetic types of the four Gospels as early as the second century,
with some difference in the application.
Irenaeus (about 170) regards the faces of the cherubim (man, lion, ox,
eagle) as "images of the life and work of the Son of God," and assigns
the man to Matthew, and the ox to Luke, but the eagle to Mark and the
lion to John (Adv. HOST., HI. 11, 8, ed. Stieren I. 469 sq.). Afterwards
the signs of Mark and John were properly exchanged. So by Jerome (d.
419) in his Com. on Ezekiel and other passages. I quote from the Pro-
logus to his Comment, in Ev. Matthcei (Opera, vol. VII , p. 19, ed. Jfigne) :
"Hcec tgitur quatuor Evangelia multo ante pro?dicta, Ezechiehs quoque
volumen probat, in quo pmma msio ita contexitur: * Et in medio sicut stmi-
htudo quatuor animahum : et vultus eorum facies hominis, et facie* leoms,
etfacies vituh, et facies aquilce* (Ezech. 1 : 5 et 10). Pnma hominis facie*
Matthcpum significat, qui quasi de homme exorsus est scribere : ' Liber gen-
erationis Jesu Christi, JUii David, filn Abraham9 (Matth. 1). Secunda,
Marcum, in quo [al qua] vox leoms in eremo rugientis auditur: l Vox da-
mantis in deserto [al. eremo], Parate viam Domini, rectas facite semita*
ejus' (Marc. 1:3). Tertia, vituh, qua; evangelistam Lucam a Zachana
sacerdote sumpsisse imtium prcpfigurat. Quarta, Joannem evangelt stain,
qui assumptis pennis aquilce, et ad altiora festinans, de Verbo Dei dts-
putat."
Augustin (De Consens. Evang., Lib. L, c. 6, in Migne's ed. of the Opera,
torn. Ill , 1046) assigns the lion to Matthew, the man to Mark (whom he
wrongly regarded as an abbreviates of Matthew), the ox to Luke, and
the eagle to John, because " he soars as an eagle above the clouds of
human infirmity, and gazes on the light of immutable truth with most
keen and steady eyes of the heart " In another place ( Tract. XXXVI.
in Joh. Ev., c. 8, J 1) Augustin says: "The other three Evangelists
walked as it were on earth with our Lord as man (tamquam cum liamme
Domino in terra ambulabant) and said but little of his divinity. But
John, as if he found it oppressive to walk on earth, opened his treatise,
so to speak, with a peal of thunder. ... To the sublimity of this be-
ginning all the rest corresponds, and he speaks of our Lord's divinity as
no other." He calls the evangelic quaternion " the fourfold car of the
Lord, upon which he rides throughout the world and subdues the
nations to his easy yoke." Pseudo-Athanasius (Synopsis Script.) assigns
the man to Matthew, the ox to Mark, the lion to Luke. These varia-
tions in the application of the emblems reveal the defects of the anal-
ogy. The man might as well (with Lange) be assigned to Luke's Gos-
pel of humanity as the sacrificial ox. But Jerome's distribution of the
symbols prevailed and was represented in poetry by Sedulius in the
fifth century.
Among recent divines, Bishop Wordsworth, of Lincoln, who is in
§ 78. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 687
fall sympathy with the fathers and all their pious exegetical fancies,
has thus eloquently reproduced the cherubic symbolism (in his Com. on
the New Teat., vol. L, p. xli) : " The Christian church, looking at the
origin of the Four Gospels, and the attributes which God has in rich
measure been pleased to bestow upon them by his Holy Spirit, found a
prophetic picture of them in the four living cherubim, named from
aeavenly knowledge, seen by the prophet Ezekiel at the river of Ohebar.
_jike them the Gospels are four in number ; like them they are the
chariot of God, who sitteth between tJie cJterubim; like them they bear
him on a winged throne into all lands ; like them they move wherever
the Spirit guides them ; like them they are marvellously joined together,
intertwined with coincidences and differences: wing interwoven with
wing, and wheel interwoven with wheel ; like them they are full of eyes,
and sparkle with heavenly light ; like them they sweep from heaven to
earth, and from earth to heaven, and fly with lightning's speed and with
the noise of many waters. Their sound is gone out into all lands, and
their words to the end of the world." Among German divines, Dr. Lange
is the most ingenious expounder of this symbolism, but he exchanges the
symbols of Matthew and Luke. See his Leben Jesu, L, 156 sqq., and his
Bibelkunde (1881), p, 176.
(2 ) The pictorial representations of the four Evangelists, from the rude
beginnings in the catacombs and the mosaics of the basilicas at Borne
and Ravenna to modern times, have been well described by Mrs. Jameson,
Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. I., 132-175 (Boston ed., 1865). She dis-
tinguishes seven steps in the progress of Christian art 1st, the mere
fact, the four scrolls, or books of the Evangelists ; 2d, the idea, the four
rivers of salvation flowing from on high to fertilize the whole earth ;
3d, the prophetic symbol, the winged cherub of fourfold aspect ; 4th, the
CJiristian symbol, the four "beasts" (better, "living creatures") in the
Apocalypse, with or without the angel-wings ; 5th, the combination of
the emblematical animal with the human form ; 6th, the human person-
ages, each of venerable or inspired aspect, as becomes the teacher and
witness, and each attended by the scriptural emblem — no longer aii
emblem, but an attribute— marking his individual vocation and charac-
ter ; 7th, the human being only, holding his Gospel, i.e., his version of
the teaching and example of Christ.
(3.) Religious poetry gives expression to the same idea. We find it
in Juvencus and Sedulius, and in its perfection in Adam of St. Victor,
the greatest Latin poet of the middle ages (about 1172). He made the
Evangelists the subject of two musical poems : " Plausu chorus Iceta-
bundo" and " Jocundare plebs fidehs" Both are found in Gautier's edi-
tion (1858), and with a good English translation by Digby S. Wrangham
in The Liturgical Poetry of Adam of St. Victor, London, 1881, voL IL, pp.
156-169. The first has been well reproduced in English by Dr. Plumptre
(in his Com. on the Synoptists, in Ellioott's series, but with the omission
588
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of the first three stanzas). I will quote the third stanza of the first
(with Wrangham's version) :
44 Circa thema generate,
Habet quisque speciale
Styh privilegium
Quod praesignat in propheta
Forma pictus sub discreta
Vultus animalium "
14 Though one set of facts is stated,
They by each one are related
In a manner all his own :
This the prophet by four creatures,
Each of different form and features,
Pictures for us, one by one."
In the second poem the following stanzas are the best :
Formam viri dant Matthaeo,
Quia scnpsit sic de Deo,
Sicut descendit ab eo,
Quern plasmavit, homine.
Lucas bos est in tigura
Ut praemonstrat in Scnptura,
Hostiarum tan gens jura
Legis sub velamine.
Marcus, leo per desertum
Clamans, rugit in apertum :
Iter fiat Deo certum,
Mundum cor a cnmine.
Sed Johannes, ala bina
Chantatis, aquilma
Forma, fertur in dmna
Punori lumine
Ecce forma bestiahs,
Quam Scriptura prophetalis
Notat, sed materiahs
Haec est impositio
Currunt rotis, volant alls ;
Inest sensuB spiritahs ,
Bota gressus est sequalis,
Ala contemplatio
Quatuor desoribnnt iati
Quadnformes actus Christ! :
Et figurant, ut audisti,
Quisque sua formula.
Natus homo declaratur
Vitulus sacrificatur,
Leo mortem depredator,
Et ascendit aquila.
Paradisus his ngatur,
Viret, floret, fcecundatur,
His abundat, his laetatur
Quatuor fluminibus :
Matthew as the man is treated,
Since 'tis he, who hath related,
How from man, by God created,
God did, as a man, descend
Luke the ox's sen blance weurcth,
Since his Gospel first declareth,
As he thence the Law's veil teareth,
Sacrifices' aim and end
Mark, the lion, his voice upraises,
Crying out in desert places
" Cleanse your hearts from all sin's traces,
For our God a way prepare ' "
John, the eagle's feature having,
Earth on love's twain pinions leaving,
Soars aloft, God's truth perceiving
In light's puier atmosphere.
Tims the forms of brute creation
Prophets in their revelation
Use , but in their application
All their sacred lessons bring.
Mystic meaning underheth
Wheels that run, or wing that flieth
One consent the first impheth,
Contemplation means the wing.
These four writers, in portraying
Christ, his fourfold acts displaying,
Show him — thou hast heard the saying-*
Each of them distinctively :
Man— of woman generated ;
Ox— in offering dedicated ;
Lion — having death defeated ;
Eagle — mounting to the sky.
These four streams, through Eden flowing,
Moisture, verdure, still bestowing,
Make the flowers and fruit there growing
In rich plenty laugh and sing
§ 78. THE FOUR GOSPELS. 689
Pong eat Christus, hi aunt rivi,
Fona eat altus, hi proclm,
Ut saporem f ontis vivi
Mirnstrent fidelibus.
That they thus a taste transcending
Of life's fount to saints may bring.
Horum rivo debriatis
Bitu crescat cantatis,
Ut de fonte pietatis
Satiemur plenius
Horum trahat nos doctrina
Vitiorum de sentma,
Sicque ducat ad divma
Ab imo superius.
Christ the source, these streams forth
sending;
High the source, these downward trend*
At their stream inebriated,
Be our love's thust aggravated,
More completely to be sated
At a holier love's full fount !
May the doctrine they provide us
Draw us from sin's slough beside us,
And to things divine thus guide us,
As from earth we upward mount !
II. The CBBDiBiiiiTY of the Gospels would never have been denied if
it were not for the philosophical and dogmatic skepticism which desires
to get rid of the supernatural and miraculous at any price. It impresses
itself upon men of the highest culture as well as upon the unlearned
reader. The striking testimony of Rousseau is well known and need not
be repeated. I will quote only from two great writers who were by no
means biased in favor of orthodoxy. Dr. W E. CHANNING, the distin-
guished leader of American Umtarianism, says (with reference to the
Strauss and Parker skepticism) : "I know no histories to be compared
with the Gospels in marks of truth, in pregnancy of meaning, in quicken-
ing power." . . . " As to his [Christ's] biographers, they speak for them-
selves. "Never were more simple and honest ones. They show us that
none in connection with Christ would give any aid to his conception,
for they do not receive it. ... The Gospels are to me their own evi-
dence. They are the simple records of a being who could not have been
invented, and the miraculous and more common parts of his life so hang
together, are so permeated by the same spirit, are so plainly outgoings
of one and the same man, that I see not how we can admit one without
the other." See Channing's Memoir by his nephew, tenth ed., Boston,
1874, vol. IL, pp. 431, 434, 436. The testimony of GOETHE will have
with many still greater weight. He recognized in the Gospels the
highest manifestation of the Divine which ever appeared in this world,
and the summit of moral culture beyond which the human mind can
never rise, however much it may progress in any other direction. " Ich
kalte die Evangehen" he says, "fur durchaus dcht ; denn es ist in ihnen
der Abglanz einer Hoheit wirksam, die von der Person Cliristi ausging: die
ist gottlicher Art, wie nur je auf Erden das Gotthche erschienen ist." (Qe-
sprache mit Eckermann, III., 371.) Shortly before his death he said to
the same friend : " JFtr wissen gar nicht, was wir Lutheran und der Refor-
mation zu danken haben. Mag die geistige Cultur immer fortschreiten,
mogen die Naturunssenscha/ten in immer breiterer Ausdehnung und Tiefs
wachsen und der menschliche Qeist sich erweitern wie er will; uber die
590 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
JJoheit und sittliche Cttftur des Christenthums, wie es in den Evangelien
teuchtet, wird er mcht ktnauskommen." And such Gospels Strauss and
Benan would fain make us believe to be poetic notions of illiterate
Gakl&ans I This would be the most incredible miracle of alL
§ 79. The Synoptists.
(See the Lit in § 78.)
THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM.
The fourth Gospel stands by itself and differs widely from
the others in contents and style, as well as in distance of time
of composition. There can be no doubt that the author, writ-
ing towards the close of the first century, must have known the
three older ones.
But the first three Gospels present the unique phenomenon
of a most striking agreement and an equally striking disagree-
ment both in matter and style, such as is not found among any
three writers on the same subject. Hence they are called the
Synoptic or Synoptical Gospels, and the three Evangelists,
Synoptists.1 This fact makes a harmony of the Gospels possi-
ble in all essentials, and yet impossible in many minor details.
The agreement is often literal, and the disagreement often
borders on contradiction, but without invalidating the essential
harmony.
The interrelationship between Matthew, Mark, and Luke is,
perhaps, the most complicated and perplexing critical problem
in the history of literature. The problem derives great impor-
tance from its close connection with the life of Christ, and has
therefore tried to the utmost the learning, acumen, and in-
genuity of modern scholars for nearly a century. The range of
1 Synopsis (conspectus), from <rbv, together, and Jtyu, view, is applied since
Gnesbach (though used before him) to a parallel arrangement of the Gospels
BO as to exhibit a general view of the whole and to facilitate a comparison.
In some sections the fourth Gospel furnishes parallels, especially in the his-
tory of the passion and resurrection. The that three Evangelists should not
be called Synoptic (as is done by the author of Supernatural Religion, vol. I ,
218, and Dr. Davidson), but Synopt&te. The former is a Germanism (Synop.
Wear).
§ 79. THE 8YNOPTISTS. 591
hypotheses has been almost exhausted, and yet no harmonious
conclusion reached.
THE RELATIONSHIP.
The general agreement of the Synoptists consists :
1. In the harmonious delineation of the character of Christ.
The physiognomy is the same, only under three somewhat dif-
ferent aspects. All represent him as the Son of man and as the
Son of God, as the promised Messiah and Saviour, teaching the
purest doctrine, living a spotless life, performing mighty mira-
cles, suffering and dying for the sins of the world, and rising in
triumph to establish his kingdom of truth and righteousness.
Such unity in the unique character of the hero of the three
narratives has no parallel in secular or sacred histories or biog-
raphies, and is the best guarantee of the truthfulness of the
picture.
2. In the plan and arrangement of the evangelical history,
yet with striking peculiarities.
(a.) Matthew, ch. 1 and 2, and Luke, ch. 1 and 2, and 3 : 23-
38, begin with the genealogy and infancy of Christ, but with
different facts drawn from different sources. Mark opens at
once with the preaching of the Baptist ; while the fourth Evan-
gelist goes back to the eternal pre-existence of the Logos.
About the thirty years of Christ's private life and his quiet
training for the great work they are all silent, with the excep-
tion of Luke, who gives us a glimpse of his early youth in the
temple (2 : 42-52).
(J.) The preaching and baptism of John which prepared the
way for the public ministry of Christ, is related by all the
Synoptists in parallel sections : Matt. 3 : 1-12 ; Mark 1 : 1-8 ;
Luke 3 : 1-18.
(c.) Christ's baptism and temptation, the Messianic inaugura-
tion and Messianic trial : Matt. 3 : 13-17 ; 4 : 1-11 ; Mark 1 : 9-
11; ver. 12 and 13 (very brief); Luke 3:21-23; 4:1-13.
The variations here between Matthew and Luke are very slight,
as in the order of the second and third temptation. John gives
692 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the testimony of the Baptist to Christ, and alludes to his bap
tism (1 : 32-34), but differs from the Synoptists.
(d.) The public ministry of Christ in Galilee: Matt., chs
4:12-18:35; Mark 1:14-9:50; Luke 4:14-9:50. But
Matthew 14 : 22-16 : 12, and Mark 6 : 45-8 : 26, narrate a series
of events connected with the Galilsean ministry, which are want-
ing in Luke ; while Luke 9 : 51-18 : 14, has another series of
events and parables connected with the last journey to Jerusalem
which are peculiar to him.
(<?.) The journey to Jerusalem : Matt., chs. 19 : 1-20 : 34 ;
Mark 10 : 1-52 ; Luke 18 : 15-19 : 28.
(f.) The entry into Jerusalem and activity there during the
week before the last passover : Matt., chs. 21-25 ; Mark, chs.
11-13 ; Luke 19 : 29-21 : 38.
(y.) The passion, crucifixion, and resurrection in parallel sec-
tions, but with considerable minor divergences, especially in the
denial of Peter and the history of the resurrection : Matt , chs.
26-28 ; Mark, chs. 14-16 ; Luke, chs. 22-24.
The events of the last week, from the entry to the resurrec-
tion (from Palm Sunday to Easter), occupy in all the largest
space, about one-fourth of the whole narrative.
3. In the selection of the same material and in verbal co-
incidences, as in the eschatological discourses of Christ, with
an almost equal number of little differences. Thus the three
accounts of the healing of the paralytic (Matt. 9 : 1-8, and
parallel passages), the feeding of the five thousand, the trans-
figuration, almost verbally agree. Occasionally the Synoptists
concur in rare and difficult words and forms in the same con-
nection, as eTTtovcrto? (in the Lord's Prayer), the diminutive
O>T&>I/, littte ecvr (of Malchus, Matt. 26 : 51, and parallel pas-
sages), Sv<r*c{Xa>9, hard (for a rich man to enter into the king-
dom, Matt. 19 : 23, etc.). These coincidences are the more
striking since our Lord spoke usually in Aramaic; but those
words may have been Palestinian provincialisms.1
1 Holtzmann (p. 12) and others include also among the verbal coincidences
the irregular tyfoyro* (the Doric form of pass, perf., 3 pera , phir.), Matt.
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 693
The largest portion of verbal agreement, to the extent of
about seven-eighths, is found in the words of others, especially
of Christ ; and the largest portion of disagreement in the narra-
tives of the writers.1 This fact bears against the theory of
interdependence, and proves, on the one hand, the reverent
9 . 2, 5 ; Mark 2 5, 9 ; Luke 5 : 20, 23, and the double augment in &*c*a-
rctrr&r;, Matt. 12 13 ; Mark 3:5; Luke 6 10. But the former is ruled out
by the better reading fyfeproi, which IB adopted by Lachmann, TiBchendorf,
Tregelles, and Westoott and Hort, in Matt. 9 . 2, 5, and in Mark 2 . 5 More-
over, the Doric form ia not confined to the New Test., but somewhat widely
diffused ; see Moult on' s Winer, p 97, note. And as to the double augment, it
occurs also in the Sept (see Trommms' Concord , 1 , 163, sub faoKabiamini) ;
comp. also forcicarcVni *n Mark 8 25. Ebrard ( Wiss Krit , p 1054) quotes a
passage from Pseudo-Lucian (Philopatr., c 27) where &ircKar^m}<rc occurs.
1 Mr. Norton brings out this fact very fully in his Evidences of the Qenmne-
ness of the Gospels (Boston, ed of 1875, p 464 sq ). I give his results " In Mat-
thew's Gospel, the passages verbally coincident with one or both of the other
two Gospels amount to less than a sixth part of its contents ; and of this about
seven-eighths occur in the recital of the words of others, and only about one-
eighth in what, by way of distinction, I may call mere narrative, in which the
evangelist, speaking in his own person, was unrestrained m the choice of his
expressions. In Mark, the proportion of coincident passages to the whole con-
tents of the Gospel is about one-sixth, of which not one-fifth occurs in the
narrative Luke has. still less agreement of expression with the other evan-
gelists. The passages in which it is found amount only to about a tenth part
of his Gospel , and but an inconsiderable portion of it appears in the narra-
tive, in which there are few instances of its existence foi more than half a
dozen words together. In the narrative, it may be computed as less than a
twentieth part. These definite proportions are important, as showing distinctly
in how small a part of each Gospel there is any verbal coincidence with either
of the other two , and to how great a degree such coincidence is confined to
passages in which the evangelists professedly give the words of others, par-
ticularly of Jesus. — The proportions should, however, be further compared
with those which the narrative part of each Gospel bears to that in which the
words of others are professedly repeated. Matthew's narrative occupies about
one-fourth of his Gospel, Mark's about one-half, and Luke's about one-third.
It may easily be computed, therefore, that the proportion of verbal coinci-
dence found in the narrative part of each Gospel, compared with what exists
in the other part, is about in the following ratios in Matthew as one to some-
what more than two, in Mark as one to four, and in Luke as one to ten. . . .
We cannot explain this phenomenon by the supposition that the Gospels were
transcribed either one from another, or all from common documents; for, if
such transcription had been the cause, it would not have produced results so
unequal in the different portions into which the Gospels naturally divide
themselves."
694 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
loyalty of all the Synoptists to the teaching of the great Master,
but also, on the other hand, their freedom and independence of
observation and judgment in the narration of facts. Words can
be accurately reported only in one form, as they were spoken ;
while events may be correctly narrated in different words.
NUMERICAL ESTIMATES OF THE HARMONY AND VARIATION.
The extent of the coincidences and divergences admits of an
approximate calculation by sections, verses, and words. In every
case the difference of size must be kept in mind : Luke is the
largest, with 72 pages (in Westcott and Hort's Greek Testa-
ment) ; Matthew comes next, with 68 pages ; Mark last, with
42 pages. (John has 55 pages.)
1. Estimate by Sections.
Matthew has in all 78, Mark, 67, Luke, 93 sections.
Dividing the Synoptic text into 124 sections, with Dr. Heuss,1
All Evangelists have in common 47 sections.
Matthew and Mark alone have 12 "
Matthew and Luke " " 2 "
Mark and Luke " •• 6 "
Sections peculiar to Matthew 17
" " « Mark 2
« Luke 38
Another arrangement by sections has been made by Norton,
Stroud, and Westcott.' If the total contents of the Gospels be
represented by 100, the following result is obtained :
Mark has 7 peculiarities and 93 coincidences.
Matthewhas 42 " " 58
Luke has 69 " "41 "
[John has 92 " " 8 "]
1 GachiohU d*r hcU. Schrifttn N. Tett., I., p. 175 (5th ed., 1874). See also
his Htotoire Evangekque, Paris, 1876 (Nouvcau Testament^ I. par tie).
9 See Westcott, Introd. to tfu Gotpcls, p. 191, fifth ed.
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 695
If the extent of all the coincidences be represented by 100,
their proportion is :
Matthew, Mark, and Luke have 53 coincidences.
Matthew and Luke have 21 "
Matthew and Mark have 20 "
Mark and Luke have 6 "
" In St. Mark," says Westcott, " there are not more than
twenty-four verses to which no parallel exists in St. Matthew
and St. Luke, though St. Mark exhibits everywhere traits of
vivid detail which are peculiar to his narrative."
2. Estimate "by Verses.
According to the calculation of Keuss,1
Matthew contains 330 verses peculiar to him.
Mark contains 68 " « "
Luke contains 541 " " "
Matthew and Mark have from 170 to 180 verses in common, but
not found in Luke.
Matthew and Luke have from 230 to 240 verses in common, but
not found in Mark.
Mark and Luke have about 50 verses in common, but not found
in Matthew.
The total number of verses common to all three Synoptists is
only from 330 to 370. But, as the verses in the second Gospel
are generally shorter, it is impossible to make an exact mathe-
matical calculation by verses.
3. Estimate by Words.
A still more accurate test can be furnished by the number of
words. This has not yet been made as far as I know, but a
basis of calculation is furnished by Rushbrooke in his admirably
printed Synopticon (1880), where the words common to the
three Synoptists, the words common to each pair, and the words
1 Gcsch , etc., I., p. 175, followed by Archbishop Thomson in Speaker's
Com New Test.^ voL I., p. viii.
596
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
peculiar to each, are distinguished by different type and color.
The words found in all constitute the " triple tradition," and
the nearest approximation to the common Greek source from
which all have directly or indirectly drawn.
On the basis of this Synopticon the following calculations
have been made : *
A. — Number of words in
Words common to
all.
Percent of word!
. in commo i.
Matthew
18,222
2,651, or
.14^
Mark
11,158
2,651, or
.23}
Luke
19,209
2,651, or
.13}
48,589*
7,953
.16*
B. — Additional words in common.
Matthew....
Mark
Matthew. . . .
Luke
Mark
Luke
| 2,793 (or in all 5,444) j
| 2,415 (or in all 5,066) j
1 1,174 (or in all 3,825) j
Whole per cent in common
with Mark 29 +
" Matthew 48 +
" Luke 27+
" Matthew 26 +
" Luke 34 +
" Mark 20-
1 See the Literature above. Dr Edwin A. Abbott, of London, suggested the
work, and quotes a specimen (though all in black type) in his art " Gospels "
in the ' * Encycl Brit." He draws from it a conclusion favorable to the priority
of Mark, from whom, he thinks, Matthew and Luke have borrowed The
specimen is the parable of the wicked husbandmen, Matt 21 33-44 ; Luke
20 9-18; Mark 12 1-11.
a With the aid of my son (Rev. D S. S.) The method by which the esti-
mate was made deals with the root forms of the words only, and ignores all
inflexions— as, for instance, tenses of verbs and cases of nouns The result is
approximately, though not exactly, true.
8 This includes 172 words of the disputed section, Mark 16 9-20 (bracketed
by Westcott and Hort, and set apart in the English Revision). Deducting
these, the total number of words in Mark is 10,986, and the total number of
words in the three Synoptists, 48,417.
The number of words in the English Version is of course much larger, but
has no bearing upon the argument. I merely present as an item of interest
the calculation of Rev. Rufus Wendell, in the " Student's Edition of the
(Revised) New Testament " (N. Y., 1882). He gives the following results :
Whole number of words in
the Revised Version. 1881.
Matthew 28,407
Mark H,&54
Luke 25,654
John 19,007
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 697
C.— Words peculiar to Matthew 10,363, or 56 -I- per cent.
"Mark 4,540,or40+ "
« « « Luke 12,969, or 67+ "
27,872
D. — These figures give the following results :
(a.) The proportion of words peculiar to the Synoptic Gos-
pels is 28,000 out of 48,000, more than one half.
In Matthew 56 words out of every 100 are peculiar.
In Mark 40 " " " 100 "
In Luke 67 " " " 100 "
(J.) The number of coincidences common to all three is less
than the number of the divergences.
Matthew agrees with the other two Gospels in 1 word out of 7.
Mark " " " " " 1 " " 4$.
Luke " " " " " 1 " " 8.
(<?.) But, comparing the Gospels two "by two, it is evident that
Matthew and Mark have most in common, and Matthew and
Luke are most divergent.
One-half of Mark is found in Matthew.
One fourth of Luke is found in Matthew.
One-third of Mark is found in Luke.1
(d.) The general conclusion from these figures is that all three
Gospels widely diverge from the common matter, or triple tradi-
tion, Mark the least so and Luke the most (almost twice as much
as Mark). On the other hand, both Matthew and Luke are
nearer Mark than Luke and Matthew are to each other.
THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM.
Three ways open themselves for a solution of the Synoptic
problem : either the Synoptists depend on one another ; or they
1 The following lineR, representing the relative lengths of the three Gospels,
Bhow the extent of their verbal coincidence and divergence. The dots divide
the lines in half, and the marks into thirds :
Luke, ________
Mark, '-•-'
Matthew, .
598 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
all depend on older sources; or the dependence is of both
kinds. Each of these hypotheses admits again of several modi-
fications.1
A satisfactory solution of the problem must account for the
differences as well as for the coincidences. If this test be ap-
plied, the first and the third hypotheses with their various
modifications must be ruled out as unsatisfactory, and we are
shut up to the second as at least the most probable. •
THE CANONICAL GOSPELS INDEPENDENT OF ONE ANOTHER.
There is no direct evidence that any of the three Synoptists
saw and used the work of the others; nor is the agreement
of such a character that it may not be as easily and better ex-
plained from antecedent sources. The advocates of the theory
of interdependency, or the " borrowing " hypothesis/ differ
widely among themselves : some make Matthew, others Mark,
others Luke, the source of the other two or at least of one of
them ; while still others go back from the Synoptists in their
present form to a jpwfo-Mark ( Urmarkus\ or ^7Y>fr>-Mattliew
(Urmatthceus), or^>r0fo-Luke (UrluJcas), or other fictitious ante-
canonical documents; thereby confessing the insufficiency of
the borrowing hypothesis pure and simple.
There is no allusion in any of the Synoptists to the others ;
and yet Luke expressly refers to many earlier attempts to write
the gospel history. Papias, Irenaeus, and other ancient writers
assume that they wrote independently.* The first who made
Mark a copyist of Matthew is Augustin, and his view has been
completely reversed by modern research. The whole theory
degrades one or two Synoptists to the position of slavish and yet
arbitrary compilers, not to say plagiarists ; it assumes a strange
1 German scholars have convenient terms for these various hypotheses, as
Benuteung8hypothe8e("l)oiTowiiig" hypothesis), Urevangeliumshypothese, Tra-
ditionshypothese, Tendenzhypothese, Combinationshypothese^ Diegesenihtorie,
Markushypothese, Urmarkushypoihese, etc. See the Notes below
4 Used by recent English writers as a rendering for Benutzungshypothese
8 Clement of Alexandria makes no exception, for he merely states (in Euseb.
H. E., VI. 14) that those Gospels which contain the genealogies (Matthew and
Luke) were written first, Mark next, and John last.
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 699
mixture of dependence and affected originality ; it weakens the
independent value of their history ; and it does not account for
the omissions of most important matter, and for many differ-
ences in common matter. For the Synoptists often differ just
where we should most expect them to agree. "Why should
Mark be silent about the history of the infancy, the whole eer-
mon on the Mount (the Magna Charta of Christ's kingdom),
the Lord's Prayer, and important parables, if he had Mat-
thew, chs. 1 and 2, chs. 5-7, and ch. 13, before him ? Why
should he, a pupil of Peter, record the Lord's severe rebuke to
Peter (8 : 27-33), but fail to mention from Matthew (16 : 16-23)
the preceding remarkable laudation : " Thou art Rock, and
upon this rock I will build my church ? " Why should Luke
omit the greater part of the sermon on the Mount, and all
the appearances of the risen Lord in Galilee? Why should
he ignore the touching anointing scene in Bethany, and thus
neglect to aid in fulfilling the Lord's prediction that this act of
devotion should be spoken of as a memorial of Mary " where-
soever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world " (Matt.
26 : 13 ; Mark 14 : 9) ? Why should he, the pupil and companion
of Paul, fail to record the adoration of the Magi, the story of the
woman of Canaan, and the command to evangelize the Gentiles,
so clearly related by Matthew, the Evangelist of the Jews (2 : 1-
12 ; 15 : 21-28 ; 24 : 14 ; 28 : 19) ? Why should Luke and Mat
thew give different genealogies of Christ, and even different
reports of the model prayer of our Lord, Luke omitting (beside
the doxology, which is also wanting in the best MSS. of Mat-
thew) the petition, "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on
earth," and the concluding petition, " but deliver us from evil "
(or " the evil one "), and substituting " sins " for " debts," and
" Father " for " Our Father who art in heaven " ? Why should
all three Synoptists differ even in the brief and official title
on the Cross, and in the words of institution of the Lord's
Supper, where Paul, writing in 57, agrees with Luke, refer-
ring to a revelation from the Lord (1 Cor. 11 : 23) ? Had the
Synoptists seen the work of the others, they could easily have har-
600 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
monized these discrepancies and avoided the appearance of
contradiction. To suppose that they purposely varied to conceal
plagiarism is a moral impossibility. We can conceive no rea-
sonable motive of adding a third Gospel to two already known
to the writer, except on the ground of serious defects, which do
not exist (certainly not in Matthew and Luke as compared with
Mark), or on the ground of a presumption which is incon-
sistent with the modest tone and the omission of the very name
of the writers.
These difficulties are felt by the ablest advocates of the bor-
rowing hypothesis, and hence they call to aid one or several
pre-canonical Gospels which are to account for the startling dis-
crepancies and signs of independence, whether in omissions or
additions or arrangement. But these pre-canonical Gospels,
with the exception of the lost Hebrew Matthew, aie as fictitious
as the Syro-Chaldaic Urevangelium of Eichhorn, and have been
compared to the epicycles of the old astronomers, which were
invented to sustain the tottering hypothesis of cycles.
As to Luke, we have shown that he departs most from the
triple tradition, although he is supposed to have written last,
and it is now almost universally agreed that he did not use the
canonical Matthew.1 Whether he used the Hebrew Matthew
and the Greek Mark or a lost proto-Mark, is disputed, and at
least very doubtful.2 He follows a plan of his own ; he ignores
1 So Weisse, Ewald, Reuse, Ritschl, Thiersch, Phtt, Meyer, Holtzraann.
Weizsacker, Mangold, Godet, Weiss. See Meyer on Matthew, p 34 (Oth ed.),
and on Luke, p 238 (6bh ed. by Weiss, 1878) Only the Tubingen u tendency
critics " maintain the contrary, and this is almost necessary in order to
maintain the late date which they assign to Luke Had he written in the
second or even at the end of the first century, he could not possibly have
been ignorant of Matthew But his very independence proves his early date
9 For the use of Mark by Luke are Reuss, Weiss, and most of the advocates
of the Urmarkushypothese Against such use are Weizsacker, Godet, and
all those who (with Griesbach) make Mark an epitomizer of Matthew and
Luke Farrar also, in his Com. on Luke, p 9, very decidedly maintains the
independence of Luke both on Matthew and Mark u It may be regarded as
certain.*1 he says, "that among these ' attempts1 Luke did not class the Gos-
pels of St. Matthew and St. Mark. The inference that he was either unaware
of the existence of those Gospels, or made no direct use of them, suggests
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 601
a whole cycle of events in Mark from ch. 6 : 45 to ch. 8 : 26 ; he
omits in the common sections the graphic touches of Mark,
for which he has others equally graphic; and with a far
better knowledge of Greek he has yet more Hebraisms than
Mark, because he drew largely on Hebrew sources. As to Mat-
thew, he makes the impression of primitive antiquity, and his
originality and completeness have found able advocates from
Augustin down to Griesbach and Keim. And as to Mark, his
apparent abridgments, far from being the work of a copyist,
are simply rapid statements of an original writer, with many
fresh and lively details which abundantly prove his indepen-
dence. On the other hand, in several narratives he is more full
and minute than either Matthew or Luke.1 His independence
has been successfully proven by the most laborious and minute
investigations and comparisons.8 Hence many regard him as
the primitive Evangelist made use of by both Matthew and
Luke, but disagree among themselves as to whether it was the
canonical Mark or a proto-Mark.1 In either case Matthew and
itself with the utmost force when we place side by side any of the events
which they narrate in common, and mark the minute and inexplicable differ*
ences which incessantly occur even amid general similarity "
1 Compare the healing of the paralytic, ch 2 3-12, with Matt. 9 2-8 ;
the murder of John the Baptist, ch 6 14-29, with Matt 14 1-13 ; Luke
9 7-9, the healing of the demoniac boy, ch. 9 14-29, with Matt 17 14-21
and Luke 9 37-43 , also the accounts of Peter's denial.
2 1 mean especially the works of Wilke (Der Urevangelist, 1838), Holtzmann
(Die Synopt. Evang., 1863), and Weiss (Das Marcusevangchum und seine
synoptwchen ParaUelen, 1872, comp. his Matthausevangdmm^ etc., 1876).
Weiss deserves all the more a hearing as he strenuously advocates the genuine-
ness of John See notes below Dr Fisher thinks that ''the independence
of Mark as related to the other Gospels is one of the most assured and most
valuable results of recent criticism " The Beginnings of Christianity, p. 275.
Dr. Davidson m the " revised and improved edition'1 of his Introduction,
vol 1 , 551-563, still adheres to the old Tubingen position of the dependence
of Mark upon both Matthew and Luke, and ignores the works of Wilke,
Holtzmann, Weiss, Eenan, and the article of his own countryman, Abbott, in
the"Encycl. Brit"
1 Holtzmann, Mangold, E A. Abbott, and others go back to a fictitious
Urmarkus; whUe Ewald, Meyer, and Weiss make our canonical Mark the
basis of Matthew and Luke, yet with the important addition that Mark himself
used, besides the oral tradition of Peter, the lost Hebrew Matthew, or rather
602 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Luke would be guilty of plagiarism. "What should we think of
an historian of our day who would plunder another historian of
one-third or one-half of the contents of his book without a word
of acknowledgment direct or indirect ? Let us give the Evan-
gelists at least the credit of common honesty, which is the basis
of all morality.
APOSTOLIC TEACHING THE PRIMARY SOURCE OE ALL THE
SYNOPTISTS.
The only certain basis for the solution of the problem is given
to us in the preface of Luke. He mentions two sources of his
own Gospel — but not necessarily of the two other Synoptic Gos-
pels— namely, the oral tradition or deliverance of original " eye-
witnesses and ministers of the word " (apostles, evangelists, and
other primitive disciples), and a number of written " narratives,"
drawn up by "many," but evidently incomplete and fragmentary,
so as to induce him to prepare, after accurate investigation, a
regular history of "those matters which have been fulfilled
among us." Besides this important hint, we may be aided by
the well-known statements of Papias about the Hebrew Gospel
of Matthew and the Greek Mark, whom he represents as the
interpreter of Peter.
The chief and common source from which the Synoptists de-
rived their Gospels was undoubtedly the living apostolic tradi-
tion or teaching which is mentioned by Luke in the first order.
This teaching was nothing more or less than a faithful report of
the words and deeds of Christ himself by honest and intelli-
gent eye-witnesses.1 He told his disciples to preach, not to
write, the gospel, although the writing was, of course, not for-
bidden, but became necessary for the preservation of the gospel
a Greek translation of it, which was more than a mere collection of discourses
(crdrra&s TWV \oylvv) and embraced also brief narratives But if Mark had
the rich collection of our Lord's discourses before him, his meagreness in that
department is all the more difficult to account for.
1 Luke 1 • 2 . jca&£>s tap It O<T ay (handed down by the Hying word) j^"" of
Air1 ApxT/f (i. e., from the beginning of the public ministry of Christ; comp.
Acts 1-21 sq. ; John 15 : 27) ofrnforroi *oi vwrjp^rai ywfami rov \Ayov (the
same persona).
§ 79. THE SYNOPTI8TS. 603
in its purity. They had at first only " hearers ; " while the law
and the prophets had readers.1
Among the Jews and Arabs the memory was specially trained
in the accurate repetition and perpetuation of sacred words and
facts.9 The Mishna was not reduced to writing for two or three
hundred years. In the East everything is more settled and
stationary than in the West, and the traveller feels himself as
by magic transferred back to manners and habits as well as the
surroundings of apostolic and patriarchal times. The memory
is strongest where it depends most on itself and least upon
books."
The apostolic tradition or preaching was chiefly historical, a
recital of the wonderful public life of Jesus of Nazareth, and
centred in the crowning facts of the crucifixion and resurrec-
tion. This is evident from the specimens of sermons in the
Acts. The story was repeated in public and in private from
day to day and sabbath to sabbath. The apostles and primitive
evangelists adhered closely and reverently to what they saw and
heard from their divine Master, and their disciples faithfully
reproduced their testimony. "They continued steadfastly in
1 Hearers and hearing of the gospel are spoken of in many passages, as
Matt 13 14, Luke? 1; John 12 38, Acts 17 20; Kom 2 13 , 1 ThePS
2 13 , James 1 22, 23, 25. The reading (avaytvdffKciv) is mostly used of the
Old Testament Matt 12 3,5; 21 16,42, 24 15, Mark 2 25, 12 10,
2G, 13 14 , Luke 4 16 , 6 3 , 10 26 ; Acts 8 28, 30, 32 , 13 27 , 15 21,
etc , of the Epistles of Paul Eph 3 . 4; Col 4 " 16 ; 1 Thess 6 27, of the
book of Revelation Rev. 1 3 ; 5 4
2 The rabbinical rule (in S?iabb. f 15, 1) was • " Verba prcpceptons sine ulla
immutatwm, ut prolata ab iUo fuerunt. erant recitanda, ne diversa itti affln-
geretur sententia "
3 Renan, Lea Kvangile#, p 96 u La tradition vivante (£«<ra 4>w^ icol /icpowo,
Papias) etait le grand reservoir oti tons puisaient . . . Le mSme p?ienomene se
retrouve, du rente, dans presque toutes lea literatures sacrees Les Vedas wit
trarerse des socles sans etre ecrits ; un Jwmme qui se respectait devait Us savoir
par cceur Oelui qui avait besom d'un manuscrit pour reciter ces hymnes an-
tique* faisait un aveu d? ignorance ; aussi Ics copies ifen ont-elles jamais ete
estimee*. Citer de memoire la Bible, le Coran, est encore de nos jours un point
ffhonneur pour les Orientaux " Renan thinks that most of the Old Testament
quotations in the New Test are from memory. My own observations, and
those of friends residing in the East, confirm the uniformity of oral tradition
and the remarkable strength of memory among the Arabs.
604 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the apostles' teaching " (Acts 2 : 42). Reverence would forbid
them to vary from it ; and yet no single individual, not even
Peter or John, could take in the whole fulness of Christ. One
recollected this, another another part of the gospel story ; one
had a better memory for words, another for facts. These dif-
ferences, according to varying capacities and recollections, would
naturally appear, and the common tradition adapted itself, with-
out any essential alteration, to particular classes of hearers who
were first Hebrews in Palestine, then Greek Jews, proselytes,
and Gentiles.
The Gospels are nothing more than comprehensive summaries
of this apostolic preaching and teaching. Mark represents it
in its simplest and briefest form, and agrees nearest with the
preaching of Peter as far as we know it from the Acts; it
is the oldest in essence, though not necessarily in composi-
tion. Matthew and Luke contain the same tradition in its ex-
panded and more matured form, the one the Hebrew or Jewish
Christian, the other the Hellenistic and Pauline type, with a
corresponding selection of details. Mark gives a graphic account
of the main facts of the public life of Christ " beginning from
the baptism of John unto the day that he was received up," as
they would naturally be first presented to an audience (Acts
1 : 22). Matthew and Luke add the history of the infancy and
many discourses, facts, and details which would usually be pre-
sented in a fuller course of instruction.
WRITTEN DOCUMENTS.
It is very natural that parts of the tradition were reduced to
writing during the thirty years which intervened between the
events and the composition of the canonical Gospels. One
evangelist would record for his own use a sketch of the chief
events, another the sermon on the Mount, another the parables,
another the history of the crucifixion and resurrection, still
another would gather from the lips of Mary the history of the
infancy and the genealogies. Possibly some of the first hearers
noted down certain words and events under the fresh impres-
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS.
sions of the moment. The apostles were indeed unlearned, but
not illiterate men, they could read and write and had sufficient
rudimentary education for ordinary composition. These early
memoranda were numerous, but have all disappeared, they
were not intended for publication, or if published they were
superseded by the canonical Gospels. Hence there is room
here for much speculation and conjectural criticism.1 " Many?
says Luke, " have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concern*
ing those matters which have been fulfilled among us." * He
cannot mean the apocryphal Gospels which were not yet writ-
ten, nor the canonical Gospels of Matthew and Mark which
would have spared him much trouble and which he would not
have dared to supersede by an improved work of his own with-
out a word of acknowledgment, but pre-canonical records, now
lost, which emanated from " eye-witnesses and ministers of the
word," yet were so fragmentary and incomplete as to justify his
own attempt to furnish a more satisfactory and connected his-
tory. He had the best opportunity to gather such documents
in Palestine, Antioch, Greece, and Rome. Matthew, being him-
self an eye-witness, and Mark, being the companion of Peter,
had less need of previous documents, and could rely chiefly on
their own memory and the living tradition in its primitive
freshness. They may have written sketches or memoranda for
their own use long before they completed their Gospels; for such
important works cannot be prepared without long continued
labor and care. The best books grow gradually and silently
like trees.
CONCLUSION.
We conclude, then, that the Synoptists prepared their Gos-
pels independently, during the same period (say between A.D.
60 and 69), in different places, chiefly from the living teaching
1 In such conjectures Eichhorn, Marsh, Schleiermacher, Ewald, Volkmar,
Wittichen, and Renan have shown great ingenuity, and accumulated a vast
amount of doeta ignorantia.
• Luke 1 1 • *o\\o\ frcxcfpi)<ra»r (indicating the difficulty of the undertaking
and probably also the insufficiency of the execution)
606 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of Christ and the first disciples, and partly from earlier frag-
mentary documents. They bear independent testimony to the
truth of the gospel. Their agreement and disagreement are
not the result of design, but of the unity, richness, and variety of
the original story as received, understood, digested, and applied
by different minds to different conditions and classes of hearers
and readers.1
THE TRADITIONAL ORDER.
There is no good reason to doubt that the canonical arrange-
ment which is supported by the prevailing oldest tradition,
correctly represents the order of composition.8 Matthew, the
1 In this conclusion (which I stated thirty years ago in the first edition of
my Hist of the Ap. Ch.) some of the ablest investigators of the Synoptic
problem independently agree, as Lange, Ebrard ( Wuaenschaftlicfie Krihk dcr
ev Gesch., third ed , pp 1044 sqq ), Norton, Alford, Godet, Westcott, Farrar.
44 The Synoptic Gospels," says Alford (m his Proleg. to vol. I , p 11, 6th ed ),
44 contain the substance of the Apostles' testimony, collected principally from
their oial teaching current in the church, partly also from written documents
embodying portions of that teaching there is, however, no reason, from their
internal structure, to believe, but every reason to disbelieve that any one of
the three evangelists had access to either of the other two gospels in its pres-
ent form " Godet concludes his discussion (Coin on Luke, 2d ed , p 556, Am.
ed. ) with these words : " It is impossible to conceive anything more capricious
and less icverential than the part which we make the author of any one what-
ever of our Synoptic Gospels play with the history and sayings of Jesus, sup-
posing that he had before him the other two, or one of them. Such an
explanation will only be allowable when we are brought absolutely to despair
of finding any other. And even then it were better still to say, Non liquet.
For this explanation involves a moral contradiction Most of our present
critics are so well aware of this that they have recourse to middle terms."
'Irenaeus, III 1, 1; Ongen in Euseb., ff. E , VI 25; Tertulhan, and
others. Irenaeus gives this order with the approximate data: "Matthew
issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews m their own dialect, while Peter
and Paul were preaching at Rome and laying the foundations of the church.
After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand
down to us m writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the com-
panion of Paul, recorded in a book the gospel preached by him. Afterwards,
John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did him-
self publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia " Clement of
Alexandria differs by putting Mark after Matthew and Luke, and yet before
the death of Peter ; for he says (in Bus., H E , VI. 14), that when Peter pro-
claimed the gospel at Rome, Mark was requested by the hearers to reduce it
to writing, which he did, Peter neither hindering nor encouraging it. Ac-
cording to this view all the Synoptists would have written before 64.
§ 79. THE SYNOPTIST8. 607
apostle, wrote first in Aramaic and in Palestine, from his per-
sonal observation and experience with the aid of tradition;
Mark next, in Rome, faithfully reproducing Peter's preaching ;
Luke last, from tradition and sundry reliable but fragmentary
documents. But all wrote under a higher inspiration, and are
equally honest and equally trustworthy ; all wrote within the
lifetime of many of the primitive witnesses, before the first
generation of Christians had passed away, and before there was
any chance for mythical and legendary accretions. They wrote
not too late to insure faithfulness, nor too early to prevent cor-
ruption. They represent not the turbid stream of apocryphal
afterthoughts and fictions, but the pure fountain of historic truth.
The gospel story, being once fixed in this completed shape,
remained unchanged for all time to come. Nothing was lost,
nothing added. The earlier sketches or pre-canonical gospel
fragments disappeared, and the four canonical records of the
one gospel, no more nor less, sufficient for all purposes, monopo-
lized the field from which neither apocryphal caricatures nor
sceptical speculations have been able to drive them.
EXOTERIC AND ESOTERIC TRADITION.
Besides the common Galitean tradition for the people at
large which is embodied in the Synoptic Gospels, there was an
esoteric tradition of Christ's ministry in Judaea and his private
relation to the select circle of the apostles and his mysterious
relation to the Father. The bearer of this tradition was the
beloved disciple who leaned on the beating heart of his Master
and absorbed his deepest words. He treasured them up in his
memory, and at last when the church was ripe for this higher
revelation he embodied it in the fourth Gospel.
NOTHS.
The problem of the RELATIONSHIP OF THE SYNOPTISTS was first seriously
discussed bj Augustin (d. 430), in his three books De Consensu Evan-
gelistarum (Opera, Tom. HI., 1041-1230, ed. Migne). He defends the
order in our canon, first Matthew, last John, and the two apostolic dis-
ciples in the middle (in loco media constittUi tamquam Jttii amplectendi,
608 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
I., 2), but wrongly makes Mark dependent on Matthew (see below,
sub. I. 1). His view prevailed daring the middle ages and down to the
close of the eighteenth century. The verbal inspiration theory checked
critical investigation.
The problem was resumed with Protestant freedom by Storr (1786),
more elaborately by Eichhorn (1794), and Marsh (1803), and again by
Hug (a liberal Roman Catholic scholar, 1808), Schleiermacher (1817),
Gieseler (1818), De Wette (1826), Credner (1836), and others. It re-
ceived a new impulse and importance by the Leben Jesu of Strauss (1836),
and the Tubingen school, and has been carried forward by Baur (1847),
Hilgenfeld, Bleek, Reuss, Holtzmann, Ewald, Meyer, Eeim, Weiss, and
others mentioned in the Literature (p. 577). Starting in Germany, the
investigation was prosecuted also in France, Holland, England, and the
United States.
It is not easy to find a way through the labyrinth of the Synoptic
question, with all its by-ways and cross-ways, turns and windings, which
at first make the impression :
u Mir wird von alle dem so dumm,
Als ging mir em Muhlrad \m Kopf herum."
Holtzmann gives a brief history of opinions (in his able work, I>te
Synopt. Evang.) down to 1863, and Hilgenfeld (Hist. Knt. Einl. \n das
N. T.9 pp. 173-210) down to 1874. Comp. also Keuss (Gesch. der heil.
Schr.N. T.y L, §? 165-198, 6th ed., 1887), Holtzmann, Emleitung, 351
sqq., and Weiss, EmL, 473 sqq. The following classification of theories
is tolerably complete, but several overlap each other, or are combined.
L The INSPIRATION hypothesis cuts the gordian knot by tracing the
agreement of the Synoptists directly and solely to the Holy Spirit. But
this explains nothing, and makes God responsible for all the discrepan-
cies and possible inaccuracies of the Evangelists. No inspiration theory
can stand for a moment which does not leave room for the personal
agency and individual peculiarities of the sacred authors and the exer-
cise of their natural faculties in writing. Luke expressly states in the
preface his own agency in composing his Gospel and the use he made
of his means of information.
II. The INTERDEPENDENCE hypothesis, or BORROWING hypothesis
(Henutzungshypothese) holds that one or two Evangelists borrowed from
the other. This admits of as many modifications as the order in which
they may be placed.
1. Matthew, Mark, Luke. This is the traditional order defended by
Augustin, who called Mark, rather disrespectfully, a "footman and
abbreviator of Matthew" (tamquam pedisiequus et breviator Matthcri,
II., 3), Grotius, Mill, Bengel, Wetstein, Hug (1808), Hilgenfeld, Klos-
termann, Keil. Among English writers Townson and Greswell.
Many scholars besides those just mentioned hold to this order without
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 609
admitting an interdependence, and this I think is the correct view, in con-
nection with the tradition hypothesis. See below, sub V. and the text.
2. MattJiew, Luke, Mark. So first Clement of Alexandria (Ens., H. E.,
VI. 14), but, without intimating a dependence of Mark except on Peter.
Griesbach (in two Programs, 1789) renewed this order and made Mark
an extract from both Matthew and Luke. So Theile (1825), Fritzsche
(1830), Sieffert (1832), De Wette, Bleek, Anger, Strauss, Baur, Keim.
The Tubingen school utilized this order for the tendency theory (see
below). Keim puts Matthew A.D. 66, Luke, 90, Mark, 100.
Bleek is the most considerate advocate of this order (Einleitung in das
N. T., 2d ed., 1866, 91 sqq., 245 sqq ), but Mangold changed it (in the
third ed. of Bleek, 1875, pp. 388 sqq.) m favor of the priority of a proto-
Mark.
3. Mark, Matthew, Luke. The originality and priority of Mark was
first suggested by Koppe (1782) and Storr (1786 and 1794). The same
view was renewed by Lachmann (1835), elaborately earned out by Weisse
(1838, 1856 ; Hilgenfeld calls him the " Urheber der conservativen Markus-
hypothese"), and still more minutely in all details by Wilke (Der Urevan-
gelist, 1838; but he assumes numerous interpolations in the present
Mark and goes back to a proto-Mark), and by B. Weiss (Das Marcus-
evangehum, 1872). It is maintained in various ways by Hitzig (Johan-
nes Markus, 1843), Ewald (1850, but with various prior sources), Eitschl
(1851), Beuss, Thiersch, Tobler, RCville (1862), Eichthal (1863), Schen-
kel, Wittichen, Holtzmann (1863), Weizsacker (1864), Scholten (1869),
Meyer (Com. on Matt., 6th ed., 1876, p. 35), Renan (Les fivangiles, 1877,
pp. 113, but the Greek Mark was preceded by the lost Hebrew Matthew,
p. 93 sqq.). Among English writers, James Smith, of Jordan Hill (Dis-
sertat. on the Origin of the Gospels, etc., Edinb., 1853), G. P. Fisher
(Beginnings of Christianity, New York, 1877, p. 275), and E. A. Abbott (in
"Encyclop. Brit.," vol. X., 1879, art. "Gospels") adopt the same view.
The priority of Mark is now the prevailing theory among German
critics, notwithstanding the protest of Baur and Keim, who had almost
a personal animosity against the second Evangelist. One of the last
utterances of Keim was a passionate protest against the Prakonisation
des Markus (Aus dem Urchnstenthum, 1878, pp. 28-45). But the advo-
cates of this theory are divided on the question whether the canonical
Mark or a lost proto-Mark was the primitive evangelist. The one is
called the MarkushypotJiese, the other the Urmarkushypothese. We admit
the originality of Mark, but this does not necessarily imply priority of
composition. Matthew and Luke have too much original matter to be
dependent on Mark, and are far more valuable, a§ a whole, though
Mark is indispensable for particulars.
4. Mark, Luke, Matthew. Herder (1796), Volkmar (1866 and 1870).
6. Luke, Matthew, Mark. Biisching (1776), Evanson (1792).
6. Luke, Mark, Matthew. Vogel (1804), Sclmeckenburger (1882).
610 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The conflicting variety of these modifications shakes the whole bor-
rowing theory. It makes the omissions of most important sections, as
Matt., chs. 12-17; 14 : 22-16 : 12 ; and Luke, chs. 10-18 : 14, and the
discrepancies in the common sections entirely inexplicable. Bee text.
III. The hypothesis of a PRIMITIVE GOSPEL (Urevangehum) written
before those of the Synoptists and used by them as their common source,
but now lost.
1. A lost Hebrew or Syro-Chaldaic Gospel of official character, written
very early, about 35, in Palestine by the apostles as a manual for the
travelling preachers. This is the famous Urevanyehumshypothese of the
learned Professor Eichhorn (1794, 1804, 1820), adopted and modified by
Bishop Herbert Marsh (1803), Gratis (1809), and Bertholdt (who, as
Baur says, was devoted to it with " carnal self-security ").
But there is no trace of such an important Gospel, either Hebrew or
Greek. Luke knows nothing about it, although he speaks of several
attempts to write portions of the history. To carry out his hypothesis,
Eichhorn was forced to assume four altered copies or recensions of the
onginal document, and afterwards he added also Greek recensions.
Marsh, outgermanizing the German critic, increased the number of re-
censions to eight, including a Greek translation of the Hebrew original.
Thus a new recension might be invented for every new set of facts ad
infimtum. If the onginal Gospel was an apostolic composition, it needed
no alterations and would have been preserved ; or if it was so defective,
it was of small account and unfit to be used as a basis of the canonical
Gospels. Eichhorn's hypothesis is now generally abandoned, but in
modified shape it has been renewed by Ewald and others. See below.
2. The Gospel " according to the Hebrews" of which some fragments
still remain. Leasing (1784, in a book published three years after his
death), Semler (who, however, changed his view repeatedly), Weber
(1791), Paulus (1799). But this was a heretical or Ebionitic corruption
of Matthew, and the remaining fragments differ widely from the canoni-
cal Gospels.
3. The Hebrew Matthew (Urmatthaus). It is supposed in this case that
the famous Logia, which Matthew is reported by Papias to have written
in Hebrew, consisted not only of a collection of discourses of our Lord
(as Schleiermacher, Ewald, Reuss, I., 183, explained the term), but also
of his deeds: "things said and done" But in any case the Hebrew
Matthew is lost and cannot form a safe basis for conclusions. Hug and
Roberts deny that it ever existed. See next section.
4. The canonical Mark.
5. A pre-canonical proto-Mark (Urmarkus). The last two hypotheses
have already been mentioned under the second general head (II. 3).
IV. The theory of a number of fragmentary documents (the Diegesen-
tlworie\ or different recensions. It is based on the remark of Luke that
"many have taken in hand to draw up a narrative (&i?yi?crii') concerning
§ 79. THE SYNOPTISTS. 611
those matters which have been fulfilled among us " (1 : 1). Schleier-
macher (1817) assumed a large number of such written documents, or
detached narratives, and dealt very freely with the Synoptists, resting
his faith chiefly on John.
Ewald (1850) independently carried out a similar view in fierce oppo-
sition to the " beastly wildness " of the Tubingen school. He informs
us with his usual oracular self-assurance that Philip, the evangelist
(Acts, ch. 8), first wrote a historical sketch in Hebrew, and then Mat-
thew a collection of discourses (the \6yia of Papias), also in Hebrew, of
which several Greek translations were made , that Mark was the third,
Matthew the fifth, and Luke the ninth in this series of Gospels, repre-
senting the " Hohebilder, die himmlische Fvrtbewegung der Geschichte,"
which at last assumed their most perfect shape in John.
Kostlm, Wittichen, and Scholten likewise assume a number of pre-
canonical Gospels which exist only in their critical fancy.
Kenan (Les Evang , In trod., p vi.) distinguishes three sets of Gos-
pels : (1) original Gospels of the first hand, taken from the oral tradi-
tion without a previous wntten text, the Hebrew Matthew and the
Greek proto-Mark; (2) Gospels partly original and partly second-
handed : our canonical Gospels falsely attributed to Matthew, Mark,
and Luke ; (3) Gospels of the second and third hand . Marcion's and
the Apocryphal Gospels.
V. The theory of a common OBA:L TRADITION (Tradttioushypothese).
Herder (1796), Gieseler (who first fully developed it, 1818), Schulz
(1829), Credner, Lange, Ebrard (1868), Thiersch (1845, 1852), Norton,
Alford, Westcott (1860, 6th ed , 1881), Godet (1873), Keil (1877), and
others. The Gospel story by constant repetition assumed or rather had
from the beginning a uniform shape, even in minute particulars, espe-
cially in the words of Christ True, as far as it goes, but must be supple-
mented, at least in the case of Luke, by pre-canomcal, fragmentary
documents or memoranda (faijyqo-f is)- See the text.
VI. The TENDENCY hypothesis (Tendenzhypothese), or the theory of
DOCTRINAL ADAPTATION. Baur (1847) and the Tubingen school (Schwe-
gler, Ritschl, Volkmar, Hilgenfeld, Kostlm), followed in England by
Samuel Davidson (in his Introd. to the New Test , 1868, revised ed , 1882).
Ea<jh Evangelist modified the Gospel history in the mteiest of the
religious school or party to which he belonged. Matthew represents
the Jewish Christian, Luke the Pauline or Gentile Christian tendency,
Mark obliterates the difference, or prepares the way from the first to the
second. Every individual trait or characteristic feature of a Gospel is
connected with the dogmatic antithesis between Petrinism and Paulinism.
Baur regarded Matthew as relatively the most primitive and credible
Gospel, but it is itself a free reproduction of a still older Aramaic Gos-
pel "according to the Hebrews." He was followed by an Urlukas, a
purely Pauline tendency Gospel. Mark is compiled from our Matthew
612 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and the Urlukas in the interest of neutrality. Then followed the pres-
ent Luke with an ironical Catholic tendency. Banr overstrained the
difference between Petrinism and Paulinism fax beyond the limits of
historic truth, transformed the sacred writers into a set of partisans and
fighting theologians after modern fashion, set aside the fourth Gospel
as a purely ideal fiction, and put all the Gospels about seventy years too
far down (130-170), when they were already generally used in the Chris-
tian church — according to the concurrent testimonies of Justin Martyr,
Tatian, Irenseus, and Tertulhan. Volkmar went even beyond Baur in
reckless radicalism, although he qualified it in other respects, as regards
the priority of Mark, the originality of Luke (as compared with Mar-
cion), and the date of Matthew which he put back to about 110. See
a summary of his views in Hilgenf eld's Einleituny, pp. 199- 202. But
Bitschl and Hilgenfeld have considerably moderated the Tubingen ex-
travagancies. Bitschl puts Mark first, and herein Volkmar agrees.
Hilgenfeld assigns the composition of Matthew to the sixth decade of
the first century (though he thinks it was somewhat changed soon after
the destruction of Jerusalem), then followed Mark and paved the way
from Petrinism to Paulinism, and Luke wrote last before the close of
the first century. He ably maintained his theory in a five years' conflict
with the Tubingen master (1850-1855) and reasserts it in his Emleitung
(1875), So he brings us back to the traditional order. As to the time
of composition, the internal evidence strongly supports the historical
tradition that the Synoptists wrote before the destruction of Jerusalem.
§ 80. Matthew.
Critical
BKBNH. WEISS : Das Matthdusevangehum und seine Lucas-ParaUelen er-
klart. Halle, 1876. Exceedingly elaborate.
EDW. BYRON NICHOLSON : The Gospel according to the Hebrews. Its Frag-
ments translated and annotated. Lond., 1879.
Exegetical.
Commentaries on Matthew by OBIQEN, JEROME, CHBTSOSTOM, MELANGH-
THON (1523), FBTTZSCHB, DE WETTE, ALFOBD, WORDSWORTH, SCHEOG
(B. Cath., 1856-58, 3 vols.), J. A. ALEXANDER, LANGE (trsL and
enlarged by SGHAFF, N. Y., 1864, etc.), JAMES MORISON (of Glasgow,
Lond., 1870), METER (6th ed., 1876), WICHELHAUS (Halle, 1876),
KEH. (Leipz., 1877), PLUMPTRB (Lond., 1878), GARB (Cambr., 1879),
NICHOLBOK (Loud., 1881), SCHAOT (N. Y , 1882).
§ 80. MATTHEW. 613
LIFE OF MATTHEW.
MATTHEW,1 formerly called LEVI, one of the twelve apostles,
was originally a publican or taxgatherer 9 at Capernaum, and
hence well acquainted with Greek and Hebrew in bilingual
Galilee, and accustomed to keep accounts. This occupation
prepared him for writing a Gospel in topical order in both lan-
guages. In the three Synoptic lists of the apostles he is asso-
ciated with Thomas, and forms with him the fourth pair ; in
Mark and Luke he precedes Thomas, in his own Gospel he is
placed after him (perhaps from modesty).3 Hence the conject-
ure that he was a twin brother of Thomas (Didymus, i. <?.,
Twin), or associated with him in work. Thomas was an honest
and earnest doubter, of a melancholy disposition, yet fully con-
vinced at last when lie saw the risen Lord; Matthew was a
strong and resolute believer.
Of his apostolic labors we have no certain information.
Palestine, Ethiopia, Macedonia, the country of the Euphrates,
Persia, and Media are variously assigned to him as missionary
fields. He died a natural death according to the oldest tradi-
tion, while later accounts make him a martyr.4
1 Mosaics, Matt. 9 9 (according to the spelling of & B* D, adopted by
Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort), or Mar&aToj (as spelled
in the text, rec ), like Matthias and Mattathias, means Gift of Je/iovak
(•Win, n?;P?, "*?5j h— )> and corresponds to the Greek Theodore He
perhaps took this name after his call , his former name being Levi, Acufr,
Aevefs (^i? a joining), according to Mark 2 12 , Luke 5 : 27, 29. The new
name overshadowed the old, as the names of Peter and Paul replaced Simon
and Saul The identity is evident from the fact that the call of Matthew or
Levi is related by the three Synoptists in the same terms and followed by the
same discourse Nicholson (Com. on Matt 9 9) disputes the identity, as
Grotius and Sieffert did before, but on insufficient grounds. Mark calls Peter
also before 3 16 by his former name Simon (1 . 16, 29, 30, 36), and thereby
shows his historical tact
2 Hence called MO&&CUOS 6 rcA.rijtp, Matt 10 : 3. He inserts his previous
employment to intimate the power of divine grace in his conversion.
3 Matt 10 3, compared with Mark 3 • 18 ; Luke 6 15. But in the list in
Acts 1 n he is associated with Bartholomew, and Thomas with Philip.
4 Clement of Alexandria represents him as a strict Jewish Christian who
abstained from the use of flesh. This would make him one of the weak
614 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The first Gospel is his imperishable work, well worthy a long
life, yea many lives. Matthew the publican occupies as to time
the first place in the order of the Evangelists, as Mary Magda-
lene, from whom Christ expelled many demons, first proclaimed
the glad tidings of the resurrection. Not that it is on that ac-
count the best or most important — the best comes last, — but it
naturally precedes the other, as the basis precedes the super-
structure.1
In his written Gospel he still fulfils the great commission to
bring all nations to the school of Christ (28 : 19).
The scanty information of the person and life of Matthew in
connection with his Gospel suggests the following probable
inferences :
1. Matthew was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, yet comparatively
liberal, being a publican who came in frequent contact with
merchants from Damascus. This occupation was indeed dis-
reputable in the eyes of the Jews, and scarcely consistent with
the national Messianic aspirations ; but Capernaum belonged to
the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, and the Herodian family,
which, with all its subserviency to heathen Rome, was yet to a
certain extent identified with the Jewish nation.
2. He was a man of some means and good social position.
His office was lucrative, he owned a house, and gave a farewell
banquet to " a great multitude " of his old associates, at which
Jesus presided.9 It was at the same time his farewell to the
world, its wealth, its pleasures and honors. " We may conceive
brethren whom Paul (Rom 14 1 sqq ) charitably judges. But there is noth-
ing in the first Gospel to justify this tradition.
1 The priority and relative superiority of Matthew are maintained not only by
Augustm and the catholic tradition, but also by moderately liberal critics from
Gnesbach to Bleek, and even by the radical critics of the Tubingen school
(Baur, Strauss, Schwegler, Zeller, Hilgenfeld, Davidson), and especially by
Keim
8 So Luke 5 29. Mark 2 . 15 ("many publicans and sinners sat down with
Jesus and his disciples") and Matt 9 • 10 ("many publicans and sinners")
agree , but Matthew modestly omits his own name in connection with that
feast Some commentators understand "the house " to be the house of Jesus,
but Jesus had no house and gave no dinner parties. Luke says expressly that
it was the house of Levi.
§ 80. MATTHEW. 616
what a joyous banquet that was for Matthew, when he marked
the words and acts of Jesus, and stored within his memory the
scene and the conversation which he was inspired to write ac-
cording to his clerkly ability for the instruction of the church in
all after ages." ' It was on that occasion that Jesus spoke that
word which was especially applicable to Matthew and especially
offensive to the Pharisees present: "I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners." It is remarkable that the first post-
apostolic quotation from the Gospel of Matthew is this very
passage, and one similar to it (see below).
3. He was a man of decision of character and capable of
great sacrifice to his conviction. When called, while sitting in
Oriental fashion at his toll-booth, to follow Jesus, he " forsook
all, rose up, and followed Him," whom he at once recognized
and trusted as the true king of Israel.2 No one can do more
than leave his " all," no matter how much or how little this may
be ; and no one can do better than to " follow Christ."
CHARACTER AND AIM OF THE GOSPEL.
The first Gospel makes the impression of primitive antiquity.
The city of Jerusalem, the temple, the priesthood and sacrifices,
the entire religious and political fabric of Judaism are supposed
to be still standing, but with an intimation of their speedy down-
fall.3 It alone reports the words of Christ that he came not to
destroy but to fulfil the law and the prophets, and tLat he was
only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.4 Hence the
best critics put the composition several years before the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem.6
1 Carr, Com , p 6. * Luke 5 28 ; Mark 2 14 ; Matt 9 • 9.
3Ch 5 35 (u Jerusalem is the city of the great king"); 23 1 ("sit on
Moses1 seat"); 23 10 ("swear by the temple"); 16.28; 24 15 (" in the
holy place;" "let him that readeth understand"), and the whole twenty-
fourth chapter
4 5 17 ,15 24; comp 10 6.
3 Hug, Bleek, Olshaupen. Ebrard, Meyer, Keim, Lange, and most com-
mentators fix the date between 00 and 69, other writers as early as 87-45 (but
in conflict wjth ch 27 8 , 28 15) Baur's view, which brings the Greek
Matthew down to the second destruction of Jerusalem under Hadrian! 130-
616 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Matthew's Gospel was evidently written for Hebrews and
Hebrew Christians with the aim to prove that Jesus of Naza-
reth is the promised Messiah, the last and greatest prophet,
priest, and king of Israel. It presupposes a knowledge of Jewish
customs and Palestinian localities (which are explained in other
Gospels).1 It is the connecting link between the Old and the
New Covenant. It is, as has been well said,9 " the ultimatum
of Jehovah to his ancient people : Believe, or prepare to per-
ish ! Recognize Jesus as the Messiah, or await Him as your
Judge !" Hence he so often points out the fulfilment of Mes-
sianic prophecy in the evangelical history with his peculiar for-
mula : " that it might be fulfilled," or " then was fulfilled." '
In accordance with this plan, Matthew begins with the gene-
alogy of Jesus, showing him to be the son and heir of David
the king, and of Abraham the father, of the Jewish race, to
whom the promises were .given. The wise men of the East
come from a distance to adore the new-born king of the Jews.
The dark suspicion and jealousy of Herod is roused, and fore-
shadows the future persecution of the Messiah. The flight to
Egypt and the return from that land both of refuge and bond-
age are a fulfilment of the typical history of Israel. John the
134, is exploded. Even Volkmar puts it much earlier (105 to 115), Hilgen-
feld (Einleitung in das JV. T., p 497) immediately after the destruction of
Jerusalem, Keim A D 66 Dr. Samuel Davidson, in the second ed. of his
Introd to the N. T. (London, 1882, vol. I. 413-416), assigns the present Greek
Matthew with Volkmar to 105, but assumes an Aramaean original and Greek
paraphrases of the same which were written before the destruction of Jeru-
salem. He thinks that " the eschatological discourses which connect the fall
of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and the end of the world, have
been falsified by history " (?) ; that consequently Jesus did not utter them as
they are recorded, but they were revised and altered by writers who incor-
porated with them Jewish ideas and expressions (I. 403).
1 Gomp Matt 15 2 with Mark 7 3, 4 The translation of the exclama-
tion on the cross, Matt. 27 46, is intended for Greek Jewa
1 By Godet, Studies on tlie New Testament, p 23.
8 fra (or farus) Tr\r)p(*brj rb £i7&cV, or r6rc br\7ip6bri r& fabh This formula
occurs twelve times in Matthew (1 • 22 , 2 . 15, 17, 23 ; 4 • 14 ; 8 • 17 ; 12-17;
13 • 35 ; 21 4 , 26 . 56 ; 27 9, 35), six times in John, but nowhere in Luke
nor in Mark ; for Mark 15 . 28 (/col toupc&i) j? ypcutf, x. r. A.) in the text, reo,
is spurious and probably inserted from Luke 22 : 87.
§ 80. MATTHEW. 617
Baptist completes the mission of prophecy in preparing the way
for Christ. After the Messianic inauguration and trial Jesus
opens his public ministry with the Sermon on the Mount, which
is the counterpart of the Sinaitic legislation, and contains the
fundamental law of his kingdom. The key-note of this sermon
and of the whole Gospel is that Christ came to fulfil the law
and the prophets, which implies both the harmony of the two
religions and the transcendent superiority of Christianity. His
mission assumes an organized institutional form in the kingdom
of heaven which he came to establish in the world. Matthew
uses this term (rt ftaaiXefa r&v ovpav&v) no less than thirty-
two times, while the other Evangelists and Paul speak of the
"kingdom of God" (r; Pa<ri\€ia rov Seov). ~Ko other Evan-
gelist has so fully developed the idea that Christ and his king-
dom are the fulfilment of all the hopes and aspirations of Israel,
and so vividly set forth the awful solemnity of the crisis at this
turning point in its history.
But while Matthew wrote from the Jewish Christian point of
view, he is far from being Judaizing or contracted. He takes
the widest range of prophecy. He is the most national and yet
the most universal, the most retrospective and yet the most
prospective, of Evangelists. At the very cradle of the infant
Jesus he introduces the adoring Magi from the far East,
as the forerunners of a multitude of believing Gentiles who
" shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven ; " while
"the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer
darkness." The heathen centurion, and the heathen woman of
Canaan exhibit a faith the like of which Jesus did not find in
Israel. The Messiah is rejected and persecuted by his own peo-
ple in Galilee and Judaea. He upbraids Chorazin, Bethsaida,
and Capernaum, wherein his mighty works were done, because
they repented not ; He sheds tears over Jerusalem because she
would not come to Him; He pronounces his woe over the
Jewish hierarchy, and utters the fearful prophecies of the de-
struction of the theocracy. All this is most fully recorded by
618 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Matthew, and he most appropriately and sublimely concludes
\vith the command of the universal evangelization of all na-
tions, and the promise of the unbroken presence of Christ with
his people to the end of the world.1
TOPICAL ARRANGEMENT.
The mode of arrangement is clear and orderly. It is topical
rather than chronological. It far surpasses Mark and Luke in
the fulness of the discourses of Christ, while it has to be supple-
mented from them in regard to the succession of events. Mat*
thew groups together the kindred words and works with special
reference to Christ's teaching ; hence it was properly called by
Papias a collection of the Oracles of the Lord. It is emphati-
cally the didactic Gospel.
The first didactic group is the Sermon on the Mount of Beati-
tudes, which contains the legislation of the kingdom of Christ
and an invitation to the whole people to enter, holding out the
richest promises to the poor in spirit and the pure in heart
(chs. 5-7). The second group is the instruction to the disciples
in their missionary work (ch. 10). The third is the collection
of the parables on the kingdom of God, illustrating its growth,
conflict, value, and consummation (ch. 13). The fourth, the
denunciation of the Pharisees (ch. 23), and the fifth, the pro-
phecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the woi Id
(chs. 24 and 25).
Between these chief groups are inserted smaller discourses of
Christ, on his relation to John the Baptist (11 : 1-19) ; the woe
on the unrepenting cities of Galilee (11:20-24); the thanks-
giving for the revelation to those of a childlike spirit (11 : 25-
27); the invitation to the weary and heavy laden (11 : 28-30) ;
on the observance of the Sabbath and warning to the Pharisees
who were on the way to commit the unpardonable sin by tracing
his miracles to Satanic powers (ch. 12) ; the attack on the tradi-
tions of the elders and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (chs. 15
1 Gomp oh. 2 1-12; 8 : 11, 12; 11 : 21 ; 12 : 41 ; 15 : 21-28; oh. 28 and
24; 28:19,20.
§ 80. MATTHEW. 619
and 16) ; the prophecy of the founding of the church after the
great confession of Peter, with the prediction of his passion as
the way to victory (ch. 16) ; the discourse on the little children
with their lesson of simplicity and humility against the tempta-
tions of hierarchial pride ; the duty of forgiveness in the king-
dom and the parable of the unforgiving servant (ch. 18) ; the
discourse about divorce, against the Pharisees ; the blessing of
little children ; the warning against the danger of riches ; the
parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard and the nature of
the future rewards (chs. 19 and 20) ; the victorious replies of
the Lord to the tempting questions of the Pharisees and Sad-
ducees (ch. 22).
These discourses are connected with narratives of the great
miracles of Christ and the events in his life. The miracles are
likewise grouped together (as in chs. 8 and 9), or briefly summed
up (as in 4 : 23-25). The transfiguration (ch. 17) forms the
turning-point between the active and the passive life ; it was a
manifestation of heaven on earth, an anticipation of Christ's
future glory, a pledge of the resurrection, and it fortified Jesus
and his three chosen disciples for the coming crisis, which
culminated in the crucifixion and ended in the resurrection.1
PECULIAR SECTIONS.
Matthew has a number of original sections :
1 . Ten Discourses of our Lord, namely, the greater part of
the Sermon on the Mount (ch. 5-7) ; the thanksgiving for the
1 For a full analysis see the critical monograph of Weiss, and Lange's
Matth , pp. 43-46. Keim, who builds his Geschtchte Jew— the ablest and
least objectionable of the purely critical biographies of Christ -chiefly on
Matthew, praises its plan as sorgfaltig, einfach und einleucJitend, durchnchtiff
und sehr woTd durcJtgefuhrt (I 52) He divides it into two chief sections :
the entry upon the public ministry with the Buttrufand Reichspredigt (4 17 :
fob r6r* ff/>£aro 6 'It/trot)* Kripvo-fffiv, K r. A.), and the entry upon the path of
death with the Leidensruf and the Zukunftspredigt (16 21 • &*•& rrfrc 4p£oro
6 'lip*-, *• T *•)• He also finds an ingenious symmetry of numbers in the col-
location of 10 miracles, 8 [7] beatitudes, 7 woes, 4 and 3 parables, 8 tempta-
tions, etc.
620 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
revelation to babes (11 : 25-27); the touching invitation to the
heavy laden (11 : 28-30), which is equal to anything in John;
the warning against idle words (12 : 36, 37) ; the blessing pro-
nounced upon Peter and the prophecy of founding the church
(16 : 17-19) ; the greater part of the discourse on humility and
forgiveness (ch. 18) ; the rejection of the Jews (21 : 43) ; the
denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees (ch. 23) ; the descrip-
tion of the final judgment (25 : 31-46) ; the great commission
and the promise of Christ's presence to the end of time
(28 : 18-20).
2. Ten Parables : the tares ; the hidden treasure ; the pearl
of great price ; the draw-net (13 : 24-50) ; the unmerciful ser-
vant (18 : 23-35) ; the laborers in the vineyard (20 : 1-16); the
two sons (21 : 28-32) ; the marriage of the king's son (22 : 1-14) ;
the ten virgins (25 : 1-13) ; the talents (25 : 14-30).
3. Two Miracles : the cure of two blind men (9 : 27-31) ; the
stater in the fish's mouth (17 : 24-27).
4. Facts and Incidents : the adoration of the Magi ; the mas-
sacre of the innocents ; the flight into Egypt ; the return from
Egypt to Nazareth (all in ch. 2) ; the coming of the Pharisees
and Sadducees to John's baptism (3:7); Peter's attempt to
walk on the sea (14: 28-31); the payment of the temple tax
(17 : 24-27) ; the bargain of Judas, his remorse, and suicide
(26:14-16; 27:3-10); the dream of Pilate's wife (27:19);
the appearance of departed saints in Jerusalem (27 : 52) ; the
watch at the sepulchre (27 : 62-66) ; the lie of the Sanhedrin
and the bribing of the soldiers (28 : 11-15) ; the earthquake on
the resurrection morning (28 : 2, a repetition of the shock de-
scribed in 27 : 51, and connected with the rolling away of the
stone from the sepulchre).
THE STYLE.
The style of Matthew is simple, unadorned, calm, dignified,
even majestic ; less vivid and picturesque than that of Mark ;
more even and uniform than Luke's, because not dependent on
§ 80. MATTHEW. 621
written sources. He is Hebraizing, but less so than Mark, and
not so much as Luke in his first two chapters. He omits some
minor details which escaped his observation, but which Mark
heard from Peter, and which Luke learned from eye-witnesses
or found in his fragmentary documents. Among his peculiar
expressions, besides the constant use of " kingdom of heaven"
is the designation of God as "our heavenly Father," and of
Jerusalem as " the holy city " and " the city of the Great King."
In the fulness of the teaching of Christ he surpasses all except
John. Nothing can be more solemn and impressive than his
reports of those words of life and power, which will outlast
heaven and earth (24 : 34). Sentence follows sentence with
overwhelming force, like a succession of lightning flashes from
the upper world.1
PATRISTIC NOTICES OF MATTHEW.
The first Gospel was well known to the author of the
" Didache of the Apostles," who wrote between 80 and 100, and
made large use of it, especially the Sermon on the Mount.2
The next clear allusion to this Gospel is made in the Epistle
of Barnabas, who quotes two passages from the Greek Matthew,
one from ch. 22 : 14 : " Many are called, but few chosen," with
the significant formula used only of inspired writings' "It is
written." 8 This shows clearly that early in the second century,
if not before, it was an acknowledged authority in the church.
The Gospel of John also indirectly presupposes, by its numerous
omissions, the existence of all the Synoptical Gospels.
1 For particulars on the style of Matthew and the other Evangelists see my
Companion to the Study of the Greek Testament (third ed , 1888), pp. 48 sqq.
9 See my book on the Didache (N. York, third ed , 1889), pp. 61-88.
1 Ep Barn , c. 4, at the close vpoatxtaptv, ju4Tor*i &5 yiypavrat, voAAol
jcAirrof, falyoi & teXeitToi cfycb&ncv. Since the discovery of the entire Greek
text of this Epistle in the Codex Sinaiticus (1859), where it follows the Apoc-
alypse, there can be no doubt any more about the formula ytypairrai (scrip-
turn est). The other passage quoted in oh. 5 is from Matt. 9 : 13 : 06* ^A&tr
*aAcVo< tiicalovs &AA& &/*apr»Aofc. The Ep of Barnabas dates from the close
of the first or the beginning of the second century. Some place it aa early as
A.D. 70, others as late as 120. The Didache is older.
622 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THE HEBREW MATTHEW*
Next we hear of a Hebrew Matthew from Papias, bishop of
Hierapolis, " a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp." *
He collected from apostles and their disciples a variety of apos-
tolic traditions in his " Exposition of Oracles of the Lord," in
five books (hoyfov tcvpiaic&v €£177770^9). In a fragment of this
lost work preserved by Eusebius, he says distinctly that " Mat-
thew composed the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew tongue,
and everyone interpreted them as best he could." a
Unfortunately the Hebrew Matthew, if it ever existed, has
disappeared, and consequently there is much difference of opin-
ion about this famous passage, both as regards the proper mean-
ing of " oracles " (\6yui) and the truth of the whole report.
1. The " oracles " are understood by some to mean only the
discourses of our^Lord ; s by others to include also the narrative
b., H. E., III. 39: 'lacCwov /uiv ducovcrrfc, TloXvKdpirov 8c Iraipos
yryovfa Whether this " John" is the apostle or the mysterious " Presbyter
John," is a matter of dispute which will be discussed in the second volume in
the section on Papias Eusebius himself clearly distinguishes two Johns The
date of Papias must be set back several years with that of Polycarp, his
* companion," who suffered martyrdom in 155 (not 164) The Chronicon,
Paschale which represents Papias as martyred at Pergamum about the same
time, mistook JIAIITAO2 in Eusebius, //. E., IV. 15 (at the close), for nAniA2.
See Lightfoot, "Contemp Review" for August, 1875, p 381 sqq
* Eus , Hist. Eccl , III. 39 Mar&cuos plv olv 'Ejfyatti 8<a\e'/cry r& \6yta
<rv?crct£aTO (or, according to the reading of Heinichen, I 150, owrypa^aro),
r)pfj.^y€vfff 5* ourck &s %v ftwarbs ZKOUTTOS This testimony has been thoroughly
discussed by Schleiermacher (in the "Studien und Kntiken," 1832), Holtz-
mann (Synopt JS/vang , 248 sqq. ), Weizsacker ( UntersucJiungen ub d ev.
Gesch , 27 sqq.), Ewald (Jahrbucher, VI , 55 sqq ), Zahn (in f4 Stud u
Kntiken," 1866, 649 sqq ), Steitz (ibid., 1868, 63 sqq \ Keim (Oesch Jesu v
Naz , L, 56 sqq ), Meyer (Com. Evang MaWi , 6th ed. (1876), 4 sqq ), Light-
foot (in " Contemp. Review" for August, 1875, pp 896-403), and Weiss
(Das Matthausevang., 1876, 1 sqq ).
8 So Schleiermacher who first critically examined this passage (1832),
Schneokenburger (1834), Lachmann (1835), Credner, Wieseler. Ewald, Reuss,
Weizsacker, Holtzmann, Meyer (p 11). It is supposed that Matthew* e Hebrew
Gospel was similar to the lost work of Papias, with this difference that the
former was simply a collection f<rtWo{i* or owyoa^), the latter an interpreta-
tion (<{47i?<m), of the Lord'* diflcoiutea <tr«v
§ 80. MATTHEW. 623
portions.1 But in any case the Hebrew Matthew must have
been chiefly an orderly collection of discourses. This agrees best
with the natural and usual meaning of Logia, and the actual pre-
ponderance of the doctrinal element in our canonical Matthew,
as compared with our Mark. A parte potion Jit denominatio.
2. The report of a Hebrew original has been set aside-
altogether as a sheer mistake of Papias, who confounded it
with the Ebionite " Gospel according to the Hebrews," known
to us from a number of fragments.8 It is said that Papias was
a credulous and weak-minded, though pious man.* But this does
not impair his veracity or invalidate a simple historical notice.
It is also said that the universal spread of the Greek language
made a Hebrew Gospel superfluous. But the Aramaic was still
the vernacular and prevailing language in Palestine (comp.
Acts 21 : 40 ; 22 : 2) and in the countries of the Euphrates.
There is an intrinsic probability of a Hebrew Gospel for the
1 So Lucke (1833), Kern, Hug, Earless, Anger, Bleek, Baur, Hilgenfeld,
Lange, Ebrard, Thiersch, Keim, Zahn, Lightfoot, Thomson, Keil, Weiss (but the
last with a limitation to a meagre thread of narrative X The chief arguments
are 1, that all early writers, from Irenseus onward, who speak of a Hebrew
Matthew mean a regular Gospel corresponding to our Greek Matthew , 2, the
parallel passage of Papias concerning the Gospel of Mark (Eus , III. 39), where
apparently " the Lord's discourses " (\6yoi Kvptcucoi) includes actions as well as
words, r& virb rov XpicrroD t) Xex&eWa t) irpax&fWa. But it is said, somewhat dis-
paragingly, that Mark (as compared with Matthew) did not give u an orderly
arrangement of the Lord's words " (oi>x &ffir€p <nWa£tv r&v Kvpicucuv voiovficvos
\6yuv). The wider meaning of \6yta is supported by Horn. 3-1, where rk
\6yta rov &foG, with which the Jews were intrusted, includes the whole Old
Testament Scriptures ; and Hebr 5-12, u the first principles of the oracles of
God" (TO rrroixeTa TT)S ipxfc T«* ^oyttcv rov fceou). Lightfoot quotes also pas-
sages from Philo, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, and Ongen (I c , p 400 sq.).
* So Wetstem, Hug, De Wette, Bleek, Ewald, Ritschl, Holtzmann, Keim,
Dehtzsch, Keil. Some of these writers assume that the Gospel according to
the Hebrews was an Ebionite translation and recension of the Greek Matthew.
So Dehtzsch and Keil ( Com , p 23) Keim is mistaken when he asserts (I. 54)
that scarcely anybody nowadays believes in a Hebrew Matthew. The con-
trary opinion is defended by Meyer, Weiss, and others, and prevails among
English divines
8 Eusebius (III 39) calls him <r4>6tpa <rjuiitp&y rbv vow, *' very narrow-minded,'1
but on account of his millenarianism, as the context shows In another place
he calls him a man of comprehensive learning and great knowledge of the
Scriptures (III. 89 : r& wdvra /idAurra \oyi4raTOS iced TT)J ypafris
624 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-109.
early stage of Christianity. And the existence of a Hebrew
Matthew rests by no means merely on Papias. It is confirmed
by the independent testimonies of most respectable fathers, as
Irenseus,1 Pantsenus,* Origen,1 Eusebius,4 Cyril of Jerusalem,*
Epiphanius,' and Jerome.7
This Hebrew Matthew must not be identified with the Juda-
izing " Gospel according to the Hebrews," the best among the
apocryphal Gospels, of which in all thirty-three fragments re-
main. Jerome and other fathers clearly distinguish the two.
The latter was probably an adaptation of the former to the use
of the Ebionites and Nazarenes.* Truth always precedes heresy,
1 Adv. liar., III. 1, 1: 6 ^v 5^ Marbatos iw rots 'E&paiois ry i5t? ftiaXtJcry
aftrtfy ical ypoup^v ItfivcyKtv ftwryyeX/oi;, rov Tltrpov fcal IlauAov lv 'Pt^ui? eucry-
yc\t(ofjt4inov teal ^f^if \iovmtav rty tKK\rj(rtay. The chronological reference is BO
far inaccurate, as neither Peter nor Paul were personally the founders of the
church of Rome, yet it was founded through their influence and their pupils,
and consolidated by their presence and martyrdom
* He is reported by Eus , H. A7., Y. 10, to have found in India (probably in
Southern Arabia) the Gospel according to Matthew in Hebrew ('Efipatuv
Tpcfpitcun), which had been left there by Bartholomew, one of the apostles.
This testimony is certainly independent of Papias But it may be questioned
whether a Hebrew original, or a Hebrew translation, is meant.
8 In Eus , H /£ , VI 25. Origen, however, drew his report of a Hebrew Mat-
thew not from personal knowledge, but from tradition (MS Iv irapa&foet /u&uv).
4 H. E , III 24 . Marbaios fJL^v 7&p vporcpov 'E0paioiv Kijpujar, &t 1/ucAAc ical
ty* Mpovs Uvai, irarptcp y\t&rrp ypcupy vapa&ovs rb KO.T' ainbv fvayyi\iov, r5
Aciirov rfj avrov Trapowta TOVTOIS, k<p* &v ^(rrcXAcro, 8<ci rrjs ypa(pr)s farcirA^pov.
44 M , having first preached the Gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going
also to other nations, committed it to writing in his native tongue, and thus
supplied the want of his presence to them by his book."
6 Catech. 14 . Mar&. 6 ypfyas rb fi>ayyt\ioy 'Efipafot yX&ffary.
* Hasr., XXX. 3 ; comp LI. 5.
* Prmf. in Mattk ; on Matt 12 13, Dial, c Pdag., III., o 2 ; De Vir.
ttlustr., c. 2 and 3. Jerome's testimony is somewhat conflicting He re-
ceived a copy of the Hebrew M. from the Nazarenes in Beroea in Syria for
transcription (392). But afterward (415) he seems to have found out that
the supposed Hebrew Matthew in the library of Paraphilus at Crosarea was
44 the Gospel according to the Hebrews" (Evangdium juxta, or seeundum
Hebrews}, which he translated both into Greek and Latin (De mr. ill., o 2).
This would have been useless, if the Hebrew Gospel had been only the original
of the canonical Matthew. See Weiss, I e , pp. 7 sq.
8 The fragments of this Gospel ("quo utuntur Naeareni et Ebionitae,"
Jerome) were collected by Credner, Bcitrdge, I. 380 sqq ; Hilgenf eld, Not.
Tat. extra can. rec., IV., and especially by Nicholson in the work quoted
§ 80. MATTHEW. 626
as the genuine coin precedes the counterfeit, and the real por-
trait the caricature. Cureton and Tregelles maintain that the
Cnretonian Syriac fragment is virtually a translation of the
Hebrew Matthew, and antedates the Peshito version. But
Ewald has proven that it is derived from our Greek Matthew.1
Papias says that everybody " interpreted " the Hebrew Mat-
thew $s well as he could. He refers no doubt to the use of the
Gospel in public discourses before Greek hearers, not to a num-
ber of written translations of which we know nothing. The
past tense (fipfMyveva-e) moreover seems to imply that such
necessity existed no longer at the time when he wrote; in
other words, that the authentic Greek Matthew had since ap-
peared and superseded the Aramaic predecessor which was
probably less complete.* Papias accordingly is an indirect wit-
ness of the Greek Matthew in his own age ; that is, the early
part of the second century (about A.D. 130). At all events the
Greek Matthew was in public use even before that time, as is
evident from the quotations in the Didache, and the Epistle of
Barnabas (which were written before 120, probably before 100).
THE GREEK MATTHEW.
The Greek Matthew, as we have it now, is not a close trans-
lation from the Hebrew and bears the marks of an original
composition. This appears from genuine Greek words and
above. It is far superior to the other apocryphal Gospels, and was so much
like the Hebrew Matthew that many confounded it with the same, as Jerome
observes, ad Mattli. 12 13 ('• quod vocatur a plerisgue MattJuzi authenttcvm ")
and C. Pdag., Ill 2. The Tubingen view (Baur, Schwegler. Hilgenfeld)
reverses the natural order and makes this heretical gospel the Urmatth&u*
(pro to- Matthew), of which our Greet Matthew is an orthodox transformation
made as late as 130 ; but Eeim (1 , 29 sqq ), Meyer (p 19), and Weiss (pp. 8
and 9) have sufficiently refuted this hypothesis Nicholson modifies the
Tubingen theory by assuming that Matthew wrote at different times the
canonical Gospel and those portions of the Gospel according to the Hebrews*
which run parallel with it.
1 See Holtzmann, p 269, and Ewald's " Jahrbiicher," DC 69 sqq.
' So Meyer (p. 12, against Holtzmann), and Lightfoot (p. 397. against the
author of " Supern Eel."). Sohleiermacher was wrong in referring jjpp^rftMr*
to narrative additions.
626 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
phrases to which there is no parallel in Hebrew, as the truly
classical "Those wretches he will wretchedly destroy,"1 and
from the discrimination in Old Testament quotations which are
freely taken from the Septuagint in the course of the narrative,
but conformed to the Hebrew when they convey Messianic
prophecies, and are introduced by the solemn formula : " that
there might be fulfilled," or " then was fulfilled." a
If then we credit the well nigh unanimous tradition of the
ancient church concerning a prior Hebrew Matthew, we must
either ascribe the Greek Matthew to some unknown translator
who took certain liberties with the original,8 or, what seems
most probable, we must assume that Matthew himself at differ-
ent periods of his life wrote his Gospel first in Hebrew in
Palestine, and afterward in Greek.4 In doing so, he would not
literally translate his own book, but like other historians freely
reproduce and improve it. Josephus did the same with his his-
tory of the Jewish war, of which only the Greek remains. When
the Greek Matthew once was current in the church, it naturally
superseded the Hebrew, especially if it was more complete.
Objections are raised to Matthew's authorship of the first
canonical Gospel, from real or supposed inaccuracies in the
1 21 • 41 • KOKOVS Ktucus &iroAc<rci, pessimos pmime (or malos male) perdet.
The E Revision reproduces the paronomasia (which is obliterated in the
E V ) thus u He will miserably destroy those miserable men " Other plays
on words nlrpos and Wrpa, 16 18 ; &arro\oy*iv and iro\v\oyia, 6 7 , iuf>avi(-
OUO-IK Birus </>avwcri, 4' they make their faces unappearable (disfigure them), that
they may appear" 6 16; comp. 24 7. Weiss derives the originality of the
Greek Matthew from the use of the Greek Mark ; but this would not account
for these and similar passages.
3 Jerome first observed that Matthew follows not Septuaginta transla-
torum auctontatem, sed Hebraicam (De vir. ittuttr , c 3). Gredner and Bleek
brought out this important difference more fully, and Holtzmann (Die 8yn.
Emang , p 259), Ritschl, Kostlm, Keim (I., 59 sqq ), Meyer (p 9), and Weiss
(p 44) confirm it But Hilgenfeld and Keim unnecessarily see in this fact an
indication of a later editor, who exists only in their critical fancy.
* Jerome acknowledges the uncertainty of the translator, De vir. #J., c. 8 :
" Quit posted in Oraecum transtulerit [the Hebrew Matthew], non satis cer~
turn est" It has been variously traced to James, the brother of the Lord
8ynopt Fseudo-Aihan.), to a disciple of Matthew, or to another disciple.
4 So Bengel, Guerioke, Sohott, Olshausen, Thiersch.
§ 81. MARK. 627
narrative, but they are at best very trifling and easily explained
by the fact that Matthew paid most attention to the words of
Christ, and probably had a better memory for thoughts than
for facts.1
But whatever be the view we take of the precise origin of the
first canonical Gospel, it was universally received in the ancient
church as the work of Matthew. It was our Matthew who is
often, though freely, quoted by Justin Martyr as early as
A.D, 146 among the " Gospel Memoirs ; " it was one of the four
Gospels of which his pupil Tatian compiled a connected
" Diatessaron ; " and it was the only Matthew used by Irenseus
and all the fathers that follow.
§ 81. Mark.
Commentaries.
GBOBGB PETTEB (the largest Com. on M., London, 1661, 2 vols. fol.) ;
C. FB. A. FRITZSCHB (Evangehum Mara, Lips., 1830) ; A. KLOSTEB-
MANN (Das Marcusevangehum nach semem Quellenwerthe far die
evang. Gesch., Gottmgen, 1867) ; B. WEISS (Das Marcusevangehum.
und seine synopt. Parallelen, Berlin, 1872) ; MEYER (6th ed. by WEISS,
Gott., 1878) ; JOSEPH A. ALEXANDER (New York, 1858, and London,
1866) ; HARVEY GOODWIN (London, 1860) ; JOHN H GODWIN (Lon-
don, 1869) ; JAMES MOBISON (Mark's Memoir of Jesus Christ, London
and Glasgow, 1873, second ed., 1876, third ed., 1881, one of the
very best Com., learned, reverential, and sensible) ; C. F MACLEAR
(Cambridge, 1877) ; Canon COOK (London, 1878) ; EDWIN W. EICB
(Philad., 1881) ; MATTHEW B. RIDDLE (New York, 1881).
1 Meyer and Weiss regard the reports of the resurrection of the dead at the
crucifixion and the story of the watch, ch. 27-52, 62-66, as post-apostolic
legends , but the former is not more difficult than the resurrection of Lazarus,
and the latter has all the marks of intrinsic probability Meyer also gratui-
tously assumes that Matthew must be corrected from John on the date of the
crucifixion , but there is no real contradiction between the Synoptic and the
Jobannean date. See p 133. Meyer's opinion is that Matthew wrote only a
Hebrew collection of the discourses of our Lord, that an unknown hand at an
early date added the narrative portions, and another anonymous writer,
before the year 70, made the Greek translation which was universally and
justly, as far as substance is concerned, regarded as Matthew's work (pp. 14,
23). But these are all pure conjectures.
628 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
LlFE OF "M"ATETT-
The second Evangelist combines in his name, as well as in liis
mission, the Hebrew and the Roman, and is a connecting link
between Peter and Paul, but more especially a pupil and com-
panion of the former, so that his Gospel may properly be called
the Gospel of Peter. His original name was John or Johanan
(i. e., Jehovah is gracious, Gotthold), his surname was Mark (i. e.,
Mallet).1 The surname supplanted the Hebrew name in his
later life, as Peter supplanted Simon, and Paul supplanted
Saul. The change marked the transition of Christianity from
the Jews to the Gentiles. He is frequently mentioned in the
Acts and the Epistles.9
He was the son of a certain Mary who lived at Jerusalem
and offered her house, at great risk no doubt in that critical
period of persecution, to the Christian disciples for devotional
meetings. Peter repaired to that house after his deliverance
from prison (A.D. 44). This accounts for the close intimacy of
Mark with Peter ; he was probably converted through him, and
hence called his spiritual " son " (1 Pet. 5 : 13).* He may have
had a superficial acquaintance with Christ ; for he is probably
identical with that unnamed "young man" who, according to his
own report, left his " linen cloth and fled naked " from Geth-
semane in the night of betrayal (14 : 51). He would hardly
have mentioned such a trifling incident, unless it had a special
significance for him as the turning-point in his life. Lange
ingeniously conjectures that his mother owned the garden of
Gethsemane or a house close by.
Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas as their minister
on their first great missionary journey; but left
1 Marcus, and the diminutive Marcettw (Little Mallet), are well known
Roman names Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote an oration pro Marco MarceUo.
2 Acts 12 12,25; 18.5,13; 15:37; CoL 4 • 10 ; 2 Tim 4 11, Philem.
24 ; 1 Pet 5 13
* There is no good reason for taking- " son w here literally (with Credner),
when the figurative meaning so fully harmonizes with Scripture usage and
with what we otherwise certainly know of Mark's intimate relations to Peter
both from the Acts and from tradition. A daughter of Peter (Petronilla) is
mentioned by tradition, but not a son. Clement of Alexandria Bays that
" Peter and Philip begat children."
§ 81. MARK. 629
them half-way, being discouraged, it seems, by the arduous
work, and returned to his mother in Jerusalem. For this rea-
son Paul refused to take him on his next tour, while Barnabas
was willing to overlook his temporary weakness (Acts 15 : 38).
There was a " sharp contention " on that occasion between these
good men, probably in connection with the more serious col-
lision between Paul and Peter at Antioch (Gal. 2 : 11 sqq.).
Paul was moved by a stern sense of duty ; Barnabas by a kindly
feeling for his cousin.1 But the alienation was only temporary.
For about ten years afterwards (63) Paul speaks of Mark at
Rome as one of his few " fellow- workers unto the kingdom of
God," who had been " a comfort " to him in his imprisonment ;
and he commends him to the brethren in Asia Minor on his
intended visit (Col. 4 : 10, 11 ; Philem. 24). In his last Epistle
lie charges Timothy to bring Mark with him to Rome on the
ground that he was "useful to him for ministering" (2 Tim.
4 : 11). We find him again in company with Peter at " Baby-
lon," whether that be on the Euphrates, or, more probably, at
Rome (1 Pet. 5 : 13).
These are the last notices of him in the New Testament.
The tradition of the church adds two important facts, that he
wrote his Gospel in Rome as the interpreter of Peter, and that
afterwards he founded the church of Alexandria. The Coptic
patriarch claims to be his successor. The legends of his martyr-
dom in the eighth year of Nero (this date is given by Jerome)
are worthless. In 827 his relics were removed from Egypt to
Venice, which built him a magnificent five-domed cathedral on
the Place of St. Mark, near the Doge's palace, and chose him
with his symbol, the Lion, for the patron saint of the republic.
UTS RELATION TO PETER.
Though not an apostle, Mark had the best opportunity in his
mother's house and his personal connection with Peter, Paul,
Barnabas, and other prominent disciples for gathering the most
authentic information concerning the gospel history.
Col. 4 : 10.
630 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The earliest notice of his Gospel we have from Papias of
Hierapolis in the first half of the second century. He reports
among the primitive traditions which he collected, that " Mark,
having become the interpreter of Peter (ep/jbrfvevr^ Ilerpov
yevopevos), wrote down accurately (a/cpt/3o>9 eypa^frev) whatever
he remembered,1 without, however, recording in order (ra£et)
what was either said or done by Christ. For neither did he
hear the Lord, nor did he follow Him ; but afterwards, as I
said, [he followed] Peter, who adapted his instructions to the
needs [of his hearers], but not in the way of giving a connected
account of the Lord's discourses.2 So then Mark committed no
error in thus writing down such details as he remembered ; for
he made it his one forethought not to omit or to misrepresent
any details that he had heard." 8
In what sense was Mark an " interpreter" of Peter ? Not as the
translator of a written Aramaic Gospel of Peter into the Greek,
for of such an Aramaic original there is no trace, and Peter (to
judge from his Epistles) wrote better Greek ; nor as the trans-
lator of his discourses into Latin, for we know not whether he
understood that language, and it was scarcely needed even in
Rome among Jews and Orientals who spoke Greek ; 4 nor in the
wider sense, as a mere clerk or amanuensis, who wrote down
what Peter dictated ; but as the literary editor and publisher of
It is so translated by Valois, Lardner, Meyer, Weiss, Light-
foot The rendering " recorded," which is preferied by Cruse and Monson,
makes it tautological with the preceding typatyw The "he " may be referred
to Mark or to Peter, probably to the former
8 iAA* oi>x 8>cnrep trvyra^iv rwv Kvpiax&v Toto^/iei/os \6ywv (or \aytw, oracles)
3 Euseb , Hut Ecd , III 39 For a critical discussion of this important
testimony see Weiss and Morison, also Lightfoot m the " Contemp Rev ,"
vol XXVI (1875), pp. 393 sqq. There is not the slightest evidence for refer-
ring this description to a fictitious pro-canonical Mark, as is still done by
Davidson (new ed , I. 539).
4 The Latin was provincial, the Greek universal in the Roman empire.
Cicerj (Pro Arch ,10) " QrcBca leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus ; Latvia
Buis finibus, exiguis sane, continentur " The tradition that Mark wrote his
Gospel first in Latin is too late to deserve any credit Baronius defends it in
the interest of the Vulgate, and puts the composition back to the year 45
The supposed Latin autograph of Mark's Gospel at Venice is a fragment of
the Vulgate.
§ 81. MARK. 631
the oral Gospel of his spiritual father and teacher. So Mercury
was called the interpreter of the gods, because he communicated
to mortals the messages of the gods. It is quite probable,
however, that Peter sketched down some of the chief events
under the first impression, in his vernacular tongue, and that
such brief memoirs, if they existed, would naturally be made
use of by Mark.1
We learn, then, from Papias that Mark wrote his Gospel
from the personal reminiscences of Peter's discourses, which
were adapted to the immediate wants of his hearers ; that it
was not complete (especially in the didactic part, as compared
with Matthew or John), nor strictly chronological.
Clement of Alexandria informs us that the people of Rome
were so much pleased with the preaching of Peter that they
requested Mark, his attendant, to put it down in writing, which
Peter neither encouraged nor hindered. Other ancient fathers
emphasize the close intimacy of Mark with Peter, and call his
Gospel the Gospel of Peter.9
THE GOSPEL.
This tradition is confirmed by the book : it is derived from
the apostolic preaching of Peter, but is the briefest and so far the
least complete of all the Gospels, yet replete with significant
details. It reflects the sanguine and impulsive temperament,
rapid movement, and vigorous action of Peter. In this respect
its favorite particle " straightway " is exceedingly characteristic.
The break-down of Mark in Pamphylia, which provoked the
censure of Paul, has a parallel in the denial and inconsistency
of Peter ; but, like him, he soon rallied, was ready to accompany
Paul on his next mission, and persevered faithfully to the end.
1 Justin Martyr (Dial c. Tryph , c 106) actually quotes from the u Memoirs
(fcro/uve/KOveiVaTa) of Peter" the designation of the sons of Zebedee, u Boan-
erges" or " Sons of Thunder; " but he evidently refers to the written Gospel
of Mark, who alone mentions this fact, 3 17.
* See the testimonies of Jerome, Ensebiua, Ongen, Tertullian, Clement of
Alexandria, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Papias, well presented in Kirchhofer
(ed Charteris) on Canonicity, pp 141-150, and in Morison's Com., pp. rx-
xxxiv.
632 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
lie betrays, by omissions and additions, the direct influence
of Peter. He informs us that the house of Peter was "the
house of Simon and Andrew" (1:29). He begins the public
ministry of Christ with the calling of these two brothers (1 : 16),
and ends the undoubted part of the Gospel with a message to
Peter (16 : 7), and the supplement almost in the very words of
Peter.1 He tells us that Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration,
when he proposed to erect three tabernacles, " knew not what
to say " (9 : 6). He gives the most minute account of Peter's
denial, and — alone among the Evangelists — records the fact that
he warmed himself " in the light " of the fire so that he could
be distinctly seen (14 : 54), and that the cock crew twice, giving
him a second warning (14 : 72). No one would be more likely
to remember and report the fact as a stimulus to humility
and gratitude than Peter himself.
On the other hand, Mark 'omits the laudatory words of Jesus
to Peter : " Thou art Rock, and upon this rock I will build my
church ; " while yet he records the succeeding rebuke : " Get
thee behind me, Satan."* The humility of the apostle, who
himself warns so earnestly against the hierarchical abuse of the
former passage, offers the most natural explanation of this con-
spicuous omission. " It is likely," says Eusebius, " that Peter
maintained silence on these points ; hence the silence of Mark." *
CHARACTER AND AIM OF MARE.
The second Gospel was — according to the unanimous voice of
the ancient church, which is sustained by internal evidence —
written at Rome and primarily for Roman readers, probably
1 16 19 " The Lord Jesus . . . was received up into heaven, and sat
down at the right hand of God ; " comp. 1 Pet 3 . 22: " who is on the right
hand of God, having gone into heaven."
1 Ch 8 : 27-33 ; compared with Matt 16 13-33.
• Dem Evang., Ill 5, quoted by Morison, p zzzv. .In view of the facts
quoted above the reader may judge of Dr. Davidson's assertion (Introd , 1882,
vol I., 541) : " That Mark was not the writer of the canonical Gospel may be
inferred from the fact that it is not specially remarkable in particulars relative
to Peter."
§ 81. MARK. 633
before the death of Peter, at all events before the destruction of
Jerusalem.1
It is a faithful record of Peter's preaching, which Mark must
have heard again and again. It is an historical sermon on the
text of Peter when addressing the Koman soldier Cornelius:
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power : who went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."1 It
omits the history of the infancy, and rushes at once into the
public ministry of our Lord, beginning, like Peter, with the
baptism of John, and ending with the ascension. It represents
Christ in the fulness of his living energy, as the Son of God and
the mighty wonder-worker who excited amazement and carried
the people irresistibly before him as a spiritual conqueror. This
aspect would most impress the martial mind of the Romans,
who were born to conquer and to rule. The teacher is lost in
the founder of a kingdom. The heroic element prevails over
the prophetic. The victory over Satanic powers in the healing
of demoniacs is made very prominent. It is the gospel of
divine force manifested in Christ. The symbol of the lion is
not inappropriate to the Evangelist who describes Jesus as the
Lion of the tribe of Judah.8
1 Irenaeus (Adv HCBT , III 1) says "after the departure" of Peter and
Paul, * ' post horum excessum" or in the original Greek preserved by Eusebius
(// JB1, V. 8, ed Hemichen, I 224), /ICT& rfr rovruv *£o8ov. This must mean
4i after their decease/' not " after their departure from Rome " (Grabe). But
Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Epiphamus, Eusebius, Jerome, and other
fathers assign the composition to a time before the martyrdom of Peter.
Christopborson (in his Latin Version of the Church History of Eusebius,
publ. 1570, as quoted by Stieren m Iren Op , I. 423, note 4) suggested a dif-
ferent reading, /ACT& rfa ttctoo-ty, i e , after the publication of Matthew's
Hebrew Gospel, as spoken of in the preceding: sentence, and Morison (p xxv)
eeems inclined to accept this conjecture Very unlikely ; all the MSS ,
Bufinns and the Latin translator of Irenaeus read Qo&ov. See Stieren, in loc.
The conflicting statements can be easily harmonized by a distinction between
the composition before, and the publication after, the death of Peter. By
publication in those days was meant the copying and distribution of a book.
9 Acts 10 : 38. The sermon of Peter to Cornelius is the Gospel of Mark in
a nutshell.
* Lange (Cam., p. 2) : " Mark delineates Christ as, from first to last, pre-
eminently the victorious conqueror of all Satanic powers. Ho has left us a
634 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Mark gives us a Gospel of facts, while Matthew's is a Gospel
of divine oracles. He reports few discourses, but many miracles.
He unrolls the short public life of our Lord in a series of brief
life-pictures in rapid succession. He takes no time to explain
and to reveal the inside. He dwells on the outward aspect of
that wonderful personality as it struck the multitude. Com-
pared with Matthew and especially with John, he is superficial,
but not on that account incorrect or less useful and necessary.
He takes the theocratic view of Christ, like Matthew; while
Luke and John take the universal view ; but while Matthew for
his Jewish readers begins with the descent of Christ from
David the King and often directs attention to the fulfilment of
prophecy, Mark, writing for Gentiles, begins with "the Son
of God" in his independent personality.1 He rarely quotes
prophecy ; but, on the other hand, he translates for his Roman
readers Aramaic words and Jewish customs and opinions.* He
exhibits the Son of God in his mighty power and expects the
reader to submit to his authority.
Two miracles are peculiar to him, the healing of the deaf and
dumb man in Decapolis, which astonished the people " beyond
measure " and made them exclaim : " He hath done all things
well : he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak "
(7 : 31-37). The other miracle is a remarkable specimen of a
record of the manifestation of Christ's power when that great Lion seized
upon the ancient world, and of his brief but decisive victory, after which only
the ruins of the ancient world are left, which m turn furnish the materials
for the new one " Thomson (Speaker's Com, , IntrocL to Gospels, p. xxxv)
" The wonder-working Son of God sweeps over his kingdom, swiftly and
meteor-like . and men are to wonder and adore. His course is sometimes
represented as abrupt, mysterious, awful to the disciples He leaves them at
night , conceals himself from them on a journey The disciples are amazed
and afraid (10 • 24, 32). And the Evangelist means the same impression of
awe to be imparted to the reader."
1 The reading of the textus rec. vlov (rov) &«ot/ in Mark 1 1 is sustained
by &* ABDL, nearly all the cursives, and retained by Lachmann and Tregellea
in the text, by Westcott and Hort in the margin Tischendorf omitted it in his
8th ed. on the strength of his favorite {&* (in its original form), and Origea
Irenaeus has both readings The term occurs seven times in Mark, and IB es>
peoially appropriate at the beginning of his Gospel and a paxt of its very title
'8:17; 5:41; 7:1-4; 12:1«; 13:6,86.
§ 81. MARK. 635
gradual euro, the healing o£ the blind man at Bethsaida, who
upon the first touch of Christ saw the men around him walking,
but indistinctly as trees, and then after the second laying on of
hands upon his eyes "saw all things clearly" (8 : 22-26). He
omits important parables, but alone gives the interesting para-
ble of the seed growing secretly and bearing first the blade,
then the ear, then the full grain in the ear (4 : 26-29).
It is an interesting feature to which Dr. Lange first has
directed attention, that Mark lays emphasis on the periods of
pause and rest which "rhythmically intervene between the
several great victories achieved by Christ." He came out from
his obscure abode in Nazareth ; each fresh advance in his pub-
lic life is preceded by a retirement, and each retirement is fol-
lowed by a new and gi eater victory. The contrast between the
contemplative rest and the vigorous action is striking and ex-
plains the overpowering effect by revealing its secret spring in
the communion with God and with himself. Thus we have
after his baptism a retirement to the wilderness in Judaea before
he preached in Galilee (1:12); a retirement to the ship (3:7);
to the desert on the eastern shore of the lake of Galilee (6 : 31) ;
to a mountain (6 : 46) ; to the border land of Tyre and Sidon
(7 : 24) ; to Decapolis (7 : 31) ; to a high mountain (9 : 2); to
Bethany (11:1); to Gethsemane (14 : 34) ; his rest in the grave
before the resurrection ; and his withdrawal from the world and
his reappearance in the victories of the gospel preached by his
disciples. "The ascension of the Lord forms his last with-
drawal, which is to be followed by his final onset and absolute
victory." *
DOCTRINAL POSITION.
Mark has no distinct doctrinal type, but is catholic, irenic,
unsectarian, and neutral as regards the party questions within
the apostolic church. But this is not the result of calculation
1 See Lange's Analysis of Mark, Com., pp 12-14; also his BibtUcunde, pp.
185-187. Lange discovered many characteristic features of the Gospels, which
have passed without acknowledgment into many other books.
636 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
or of a tendency to obliterate and conciliate existing differences.1
Mark simply represents the primitive form of Christianity itself
before the circumcision controversy broke out which occasioned
the apostolic conference at Jerusalem twenty years after the
founding of the church. His Gospel is Petrine without being
anti-Pauline, and Pauline without being anti-Petrine. Its doc-
trinal tone is the same as that of the sermons of Peter in the
Acts. It is thoroughly practical. Its preaches Christianity, not
theology.
The same is true of the other Gospels, with this difference,
however, that Matthew has a special reference to Jewish, Luke
to Gentile readers, and that both make their selection accord-
ingly under the guidance of the Spirit and in accordance with
their peculiar charisma and aim, but without altering or color-
ing the facts. Mark stands properly between them just as Peter
stood between James and Paul.
THE STYLE.
The style of Mark is unclassical, inelegant, provincial, homely,
poor and repetitious in vocabulary, but original, fresh, and pic-
turesque, and enlivened by interesting touches and flickers.*
1 As asserted by Baur, Schwegler, Kostlin, and quite recently again by Dr.
Davidson, who says. (I. 505) u The colorless neutrality of the Gospel was an
important factor in conciliating antagonistic parties " Dr Morison (p zlvi)
well remarks against this Tubingen tendency criticism- "There is not so
much as a straw of evidence that the Gospel of Mark occupied a position of
mediation, or irenic neutrality, in relation to the other two Synoptic Gospels.
It is in the mere wantonness of a creative imagination that its penman is
depicted as warily steering his critical bark between some Scylla in St Mat-
thew' s representations and some Chary bdis in St Luke's There is no Scylla
in the representations of St Matthew. It must be invented if suspected.
There is no Chary bdis in the representations of St Luke. Neither is there
any indication in St Mark of wary steering, or of some latent aim of destina-
tion kept, like sealed orders, under look and key. There is, in all the Gospels,
perfect transparency and simplicity, 4the simplicity that is in Christ.1 "
1 Ewald characterizes Mark's style as the Schmelz derfrischcn Blume, as the
voile, reine Leben der Stoffe, Kahms as drastisch and frappant, Meyer as
malerUch anschautich. Lange speaks of the " enthusiasm and vividness of
realization which accounts for the brevity, rapidity, and somewhat dramatic
tone of the narrative, and the introduction of details which give kfe to the
scene."
§ 81. MARK. 637
He was a stranger to the arts of rhetoric and unskilled in lite*
rary composition, but an attentive listener, a close observer, and
faithful recorder of actual events. He is strongly Hebraizing,
and uses often the Hebrew cmd, but seldom the argumentative
for. He inserts a number of Latin words, though most of these
occur also in Matthew and Luke, and in the Talmud.1 He uses
the particle " forthwith " or " straightway " more frequently
than all the other Evangelists combined.8 It is his pet word,
and well expresses his haste and rapid transition from event
to event, from conquest to conquest. He quotes names and
phrases in the original Aramaic, as "Abba," "Boanerges,"
" Talitha, kum," " Corban," " Ephphathah," and " Eloi, Eloi,"
with a Greek translation.8 He is fond of the historical present,4
of the direct instead of the indirect mode of speech,* of pic-
torical participles,6 and of affectionate diminutives.7 He ob-
serves time and place of important events.8 He has a number
of peculiar expressions not found elsewhere in the New Testa-
ment.9
1 frijitros (census), Ktrrvpiw (centurio), £c'<mp (sextarius), <nreKov\dr*p (specu-
lator), and the Latinizing phrases r& IKOV^V troitiv (satisfacere, 15 15), t<rx<tr»s
*X«" (tft extremis esse), <rvfj.&ov\iov 8<8<£yai (consilium dare). Mark even uses
the Roman names of coins instead of the Greek, Kotpdmis (quadrant,
12 - 42)
2 cudlcv? or ci>bvs occurs (according to Brudei*H Concord. ) forty-one times in the
Gospel of Mark, nearly as often as in all other New Test, writings combined.
But there are pome variations in reading. Codex D omits it in several pas-
sages The English Version, by its inexcusable love of variations, obliterates
many characteristic features of the sacred writers. This very particle is
translated in no less than seven different ways straightway, immediately,
forthwith, as soon as, by and by, shortly, and anon.
3 3 17; 5.41; 7-11, 34; 14 36; 15 34.
4 1 21, 40, 44 , 2 3, 10, 17; 11 : 1; 14 43, 66.
5 4 39; 5 8, 9, 12; 6:23, 31; 9 25 ; 12 6.
* Such as ivo£X«tyait l/ijSxtya*, ircp</3Xe^/Acyos, iwon^craj, icfyaf, {ptyipiprf.
/ucyoy, tvurrpcupcls, inroffr*vd£cu.
7 As va&iov, Kopdtrtoy, Kvvdpiov, bvydrptor, IxMtiov, brdptor
8 Time • 1 : 35 ; 2:1; 4 • 35 ; 6 2 ; 11 • 11, 19 ; 15 . 25 ; 16 : 2. Place:
2 18; 5-20; 7:31; 12 41; 13 : 3 ; 14 : 68 ; 15 • 39 ; 16 : 5.
* As frypcfoir, ftXoXor, bXtKropoqwia, TVO^CVJ, ^^o/^3e?(r^ou
r, irpatrial irpeurial,
, wpoffopmfabcu, (rwbtdfriv, ri?Aatrywj, ^roX^FWK, and others,
038 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHARACTERISTIC DETAILS.
Mark inserts many delicate tints and interesting incidents of
persons and events which he mast have heard from primitive
witnesses. They are not the touches of fancy or the reflections
of an historian, but the reminiscences of the first impressions.
They occur in every chapter. He makes some little contribu-
tion to almost every narrative he has in common with Matthew
and Luke. He notices the overpowering impression of awe and
wonder, joy and delight, which the words and miracles of Jesus
and his very appearance made upon the people and the dis-
ciples ; ' the actions of the multitude as they were rushing and
thronging and pressing upon Him that He might touch and
heal them, so that there was scarcely standing room, or time to
eat.2 On one occasion his kinsmen were about forcibly to re-
move Him from the throng. He directs attention to the human
emotions and passions of our Lord, how he was stirred by pity,
wonder, grief, anger and indignation.1 He notices his attitudes,
looks and gestures,4 his sleep and hunger.6
He informs us that Jesus, "looking upon" the rich young
ruler, "loved him," and that the ruler's "countenance fell"
when he was told to sell all he had and to follow Jesus. Mark,
or Peter rather, must have watched the eye of our Lord and
read in his face the expression of special interest in that man
who notwithstanding his self -righteousness and worldliness had
some lovely qualities and was not very far from the kingdom/
1 1 : 22, 27; 2 : 12 ; 4 : 41 ; 6 • 2, 51 ; 10 • 24, 26, 32.
*8:10, 20,32; 4:1; 5:21,31; 0: 31,83.
8 6 : 84 : "he had compassion on them; " 6:6- "he marvelled because of
their unbelief" (as he marvelled also at the great faith of the heathen cen-
turion, Matt 8 • 10 ; Luke 7 8) ; 3 • 5 : " when he had looked round about
them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of tbeir heart ; " 8 12 : u he
sighed deeply in his spirit ;" 10 : 14 : "he was moved with indignation," or
" was much displeased " with the conduct of the disciples.
«1.31; 3.5,34; 5:32; 7-83,34; 8 • 12, 33 (" but he, turning about, and
seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter") ; 9 . 85 ; 10 : 23, 82 ; 11 : 11.
6 4 • 88 ; 6 : 81 ; 11 : 12.
6 10: 21, 22: 4*0Aty«f abrj W*W *M». This must be taken in its
natural meaning and not weakened into " kissed him," or u spoke kindly to
§ 81. MARK. 639
The cure of the demoniac and epileptic at the foot of the
mount of transfiguration is narrated with greater circumstan-
tiality and dramatic vividness by Mark than by the other
Synoptists. He supplies the touching conversation of Jesus
with the father of the sufferer, which drew out his weak and
struggling faith with the earnest prayer for strong and victori-
ous faith: "I believe; help Thou mine unbelief."1 We can
imagine how eagerly Peter, the confessor, caught this prayer,
and how often he repeated it in his preaching, mindful of his
own weakness and trials.
All the Synoptists relate on two distinct occasions Christ's
love for little children, but Mark alone tells us that He " took
little children into his arms, and laid his hands upon them." *
Many minor details not found in the other Gospels, however
insignificant in themselves, are yet most significant as marks of
the autopticity of the narrator (Peter). Such are the notices
that Jesus entered the house of "Simon and Andrew, with
James and John " (1 : 29) ; that the Pharisees took counsel
" with the Herodians " (3:6); that the raiment of Jesus at the
transfiguration became exceeding white as snow " so as no fuller
on earth can whiten them " (9 : 3) ; that blind Bartimaeus when
called, " casting away his garment, leaped up " (10 : 50), and
came to Jesus ; that " Peter and James and John and Andrew
asked him privately " on the Mount of Olives about the coming
events (13 : 3) ; that the five thousand sat down " in ranks, by
hundreds and fifties " (6 : 40) ; that the Simon who carried the
cross of Christ (15 : 21) was a "Cyrenian" and "the father of
Alexander and Rufus" (no doubt, two well-known disciples,
perhaps at Rome, comp. Rom. 16 : 13).
him," or "pitied him." Our Saviour, says Morison, in 1 1 "would discern in
the young man not a little that was really amiable, the result of the partial re-
ception and reflection of gracious Divine influences. There was ingenuousness,
for instance, and moral earnestness. There was restraint of the animal pas-
sions, and an aspiration of the spirit toward the things of the world to
come."
1 9 . 21-26. Comp. Matt. 17 : 14-18 ; Luke 0 : 87-42.
'9:36; 10:16; comp. with Matt 18 : 2 ; 19:13; and Luke 9 : 48 ; 18:16.
640 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
We may add, as peculiar to Mark and "bewraying" Peter,
the designation of Christ as " the carpenter " (6:3); the name
of the blind beggar at Jericho, " Bartimseus " (10 : 46) ; the
" cushion " in the boat on which Jesus slept (4 : 38) ; the " green
grass " on the hill side in spring time (4 : 39) ; the " one loaf "
in the ship (8 : 14) ; the colt " tied at the door without in the
open street" (11:4); the address to the daughter of Jairus
in her mother tongue (5 : 41) ; the bilingual " Abba, Father,"
in the prayer at Gethsemane (14 : 36 ; coinp. Rom. 8 : 15 ; Gal.
4:6).
CONCLUSION.
The natural conclusion from all these peculiarities is that
Mark's Gospel, far from being an extract from Matthew or
Luke or both, as formerly held,1 is a thoroughly independent
and original work, as has been proven by minute investigations
of critics of different schools and aims.2 It is in all its essen-
tial parts a fresh, life-like, and trustworthy record of the per-
sons and events of the gospel history from the lips of honest
old Peter and from the pen of his constant attendant and
pupil. Jerome hit it in the fourth century, and unbiassed critics
in the nineteenth century confirm it : Peter was the narrator,
Mark the writer, of the second Gospel."
Some have gone further and maintain that Mark, u the inter-
preter of Peter," simply translated a Hebrew Gospel of his
teacher;4 but tradition knows nothing of a Hebrew Peter,
1 By Angustin, Griesbach, Be Wette, Bleek, Baur, Davidson.
5 As C. H. Weisse, Wilke, Ewald, Lange, Holtzmann, Bernhard Weiss,
Westcott, Abbott, Morison. See § 79, p 609.
8 Jerome wrote to Hedibia, a pious lady in Gaul (Ep. CXX. o. 10, in Opera,
ed Migne, I 1002): " Hdbebat ergo [Paulus] Titum interpretem ; sicut et
beatus Petrus Marcum, emus evangelium Petro narranU (not dictante^J et illo
[Marco] scribente, compositwn est " This letter was written in 406 or 407,
from Bethlehem. Morison (p. xxrai) : " If we assume the patristic tradi-
tion regarding St Peter's relation to St Mark, we find the contents and text-
ure of the Gospel to be without a jar at any point, in perfect accord with the
idea."
4 So James Smith in his Dissertation on the Origin and Connection of the
Qospels, and again in the Dissertation on the Life and Writings of St. Luke,
§ 81. MARK. 641
while it speaks of a Hebrew Matthew; and a book is called
after its author, not after its translator. It is enough to say,
Peter was the preacher, Mark the reporter and editor.
The bearing of this fact upon the reliableness of the Synop
tic record of the life of Christ is self-evident. It leaves no
room for the mythical or legendary hypothesis.1
INTEGRITY OF THE GOSPEL.
The Gospel closes (16 : 9-20) with a rapid sketch of the won-
ders of the resurrection and ascension, and the continued mani-
festations of power that attend the messengers of Christ in
preaching the gospel to the whole creation. This close is upon
the whole characteristic of Mark and presents the gospel as a
divine power pervading and transforming the world, but it con-
tains some peculiar features, namely : (1) one of the three dis-
tinct narratives of Christ's ascension (ver. 19, " he was received
up into heaven ; " the other two being those of Luke 24 : 51 and
Acts 1 : 9-11), with the additional statement that he "sat down
at the right hand of God " (comp. the similar statement, 1 Pet.
3 : 22) ; (2) an emphatic declaration of the necessity of baptism
for salvation ("he that belie veth and is baptized shall be saved"),
with the negative clause that unbelief (i. e., the rejection of the
gospel offer of salvation) condemns (" he that disbelieveth shall
be condemned ") ; * (3) the fact that the apostles disbelieved
prefixed to the fourth ed. of his Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul (1880),
pp 29sqq
1 u In substance and style and treatment, the Gospel of St. Mark is essentially
a transcript from life. The course and the iasue of facts are imaged in it
with the clearest outline. If all other arguments against the mythic origin of
the Evangelic narratives were wanting, this vivid and simple record, stamped
with the most distinct impress of independence and originality,— totally un-
connected with the symbolism of the Old Dispensation, totally independent of
the deeper reasonings of the New,— would be sufficient to refute a theory
subversive of all faith in history. The details which were originally addressed
to the vigorous intelligence of Roman hearers are still pregnant with instruc-
tion for us. The teaching which 'met their wants' in the first age, finds a
corresponding field for its action now." Westcott, I c., 809 (Am. ed.).
9 Ver. 16 : 6 irurrc&ro* xal frnrrurtels <r«d4<rrro«, 6 tt &v«rr4<rar KaraKp&hrvrau
This declaration takes the place of the command to baptize, Matt 28 : 19. It
642 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the report of Mary Magdalene until the risen Lord appeared to
them personally (vers. 11-14; but John intimates the same,
20 : 8, 9, especially in regard to Thomas, ver. 25, and Matthew
mentions that some doubted, 28 : 17 ; comp. Luke 24 : 37-41) ;
(4) an authoritative promise of supernatural powers and signs
which shall accompany the believers (vers. 17, 18). Among
these is mentioned the pentecostal glossolalia under the unique
name of speaking with new tongues.1
The genuineness of this closing section is hotly contested, and
presents one of the most difficult problems of textual criticism.
The arguments are almost equally strong on both sides, but
although the section cannot be proven to be a part of the
original Gospel, it seems clear: (1) that it belongs to primi-
tive tradition (like the disputed section of the adulteress in John,
ch. 8) ; and (2) that Mark cannot have closed his Gospel with
ver. 8 (yap) without intending a more appropriate conclusion.
applies only to converted believers (& »i<rret5<ras), not to children who are in-
capable of an act of faith or unbelief, and yet are included in the cove-
nant blessing of Christian parents (comp 1 Cor 7 14) Hence it is only posi-
tive unbelief which condemns, whether with or without baptism ; while faith
saves with baptism, ordinarily, but exceptionally also without baptism. Else
we should have to condemn the penitent thief, the Quakers, and all unbaptized
infants St Augustin derived from this passage and from John 3 5 (c£ u5aro>)
the doctrine of the absolute and universal necessity of water-baptism for salva-
tion , and hence the further (logical, but not theological) inference drawn by
the great and good bishop of Hippo, with reluctant heart, that all unbaptized
infants dying in infancy are forever damned (or, at least, excluded from hea-
ven), simply on account of Adam's sin, before they were capable of committing
an actual transgression This is the doctrine of the Roman Church to this
day. Some Calvinistio divines in the seventeenth century held the same view
with regard to reprobate infants (if there be such), but allowed an indefinite
extension of the number of elect infants beyond the confines of Christendom.
Zwiugli held that all infants dying in infancy are saved Fortunately the
Saviour of mankind has condemned the dogma ?iombile of infant damnation
by his own conduct toward (unbaptized) children, and his express declaration
that to them belongs the kingdom of heaven, and that our heavenly Father
does not wish any of them to perish. Matt. 18 2-6; 19 13-15; Mark
10 : 13-16 ; Luke 18 • 15-17. In the light of these passages we must explain
John 3 5 and Mark 16 : 16, which have been so grossly misunderstood.
1 yXuxrffcus \a\fiffovcrw KOUVCMS Tischendorf retains Kaivais , Tregelles, Went*
cott and Hort put it in the margin, as it is omitted in several uncials and
ancient versions.
§ 81. HABK. 643
The result does not affect the character and credibility of the
Gospel. The section may be authentic or correct in its state-
ments, without being genuine or written by Mark. There is
nothing in it which, properly understood, does not harmonize
with apostolic teaching.
NOTE ON THB DISPUTED CLOSE OP MABK, CH. 16 : 9-20.
L Reasons against the genuineness :
1. The section is wanting altogether in the two oldest and most valu-
able uncial manuscripts, the Smaitio ($) and the Vatican (B). The
latter, it is true, after ending the Gospel with ver. 8 and the subscrip-
tion KATA MAPKON, leaves the remaining third column blank, which is
sufficient space for the twelve verses. Much account id made of this
fact by Drs. Burgon and Scrivener ; but in the same MS. I find, on ex-
amination of the fac- simile edition, blank spaces from a few lines up to
two-thirds and three-fourths of a column, at the end of Matthew, John,
Acts, 1 Pet. (fol. 200), 1 John (fol. 208), Jude (fol. 210), Bom. (fol. 227),
Eph. (fol. 262), Col. (fol. 272). In the Old Testament of B, as Dr Abbot
has first noted (m 1872), there are two blank columns at the end of
Nehemiah, and a blank column and a half at the end of Tobit. In any
case the omission indicates an objection of the copyist of B to the sec-
tion, or its absence in the earlier manuscript he used.
I add the following private note from Dr. Abbot : " In the Alexan-
drian MS. a column and a third are left blank at the end of Mark, half
a page at the end of John, and a whole page at the end of the Pauline
Epistles. (Contrast the ending of Matthew and Acts.) In the Old Testa-
ment, note especially in this MS. Leviticus, Isaiah, and the Ep. of
Jeremiah, at the end of each of which half a page or more is left blank ;
contrast Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations. There are similar blanks
at the end of Buth, 2 Samuel, and Daniel, but the last leaf of those
books ends a quaternion or quire in the MS. In the Smaitic MS. more
than two columns with the whole following page are left blank at
the end of the Pauline Epistles, though the two next leaves belong to
the same quaternion; so at the end of the Acts a column and two-
thirds with the whole of the following page ; and at the end of Barnabas
a column and a half. These examples show that the matter in ques-
tion depended largely on the whim of the copyist; and that we can
not infer with confidence that the scribe of B knew of any other ending
of the Gospel."
There is also a shorter conclusion, unquestionably spurious, which in
L and several MSS. of the ^Ethiopic version immediately follows ver. 8,
and appears also in the margin of 274, the Harclean Syriac, and the best
644 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Coptic MS. of the Gospel, while in k of the Old Latin it takes the place
of the longer ending. For details, see Westcott and Hort, IL, Append.,
pp. 30, 38, 44 sq.
2. Eusebius and Jerome state expressly that the section was wanting
in almost all the Greek copies of the Gospels. It was not in the copy
used by Victor of Antioch. There is also negative patristic evidence
against it, particularly strong in the case of Cyril of Jerusalem, Tertul-
lian, and Cyprian, who had special occasion to quote it (see Westcott
and Hort, II., Append., pp. 30-38). Jerome's statement, however, is
weakened by the fact that he seems to depend upon Eusebius, and that
he himself translated the passage in his Vulgate.
3. It is wanting in the important MS. k representing the African
text of the Old Latin version, which has a different conclusion (like that
in L), also in some of the best MSS. of the Armenian version, while in
others it follows the usual subscription. It is also wanting in an unpub-
lished Arabic version (made from the Greek) in the Vatican Library,
which is likewise noteworthy for reading or in 1 Tim. 3 : 16.
4. The way in which the section begins, and in which it refers to
Mary Magdalene, give it the air of a conclusion derived from some ex-
traneous source. It does not record the fulfilment of the promise in
ver. 7. It uses (ver. 9) irpwri; gaft&irov for the Hebraistic rfj piq TM
o-a$3aVa>z/ of 16 . 2. It has many words or phrases (e.g., nopfvnp.ni used
three times) not elsewhere found in Mark, which strengthen the impres-
sion that we are dealing with a different writer, and it lacks Mark's
usual graphic detail. But the argument from difference of style and
vocabulary has been overstrained, and can not be regarded as in itself
decisive.
II. Arguments in favor of the genuineness :
1. The section is found in most of the uncial MSS., A C D X r A 2,
in all the late uncials (in L as a secondary reading), and in all the
cursive MSS., including 1, 33, 69, etc. ; though a number of the cursives
either mark it with an asterisk or note its omission in older copies.
Hence the statements of Eusebius and Jerome seem to need some
qualification. In 22 (as Dr. Burgon has first pointed out) the liturgical
word rcXor, denoting the end of a reading lesson, is inserted after both
ver. 8 and ver. 20, while no such word is placed at the end of the other
Gospels. This shows that there were two endings of Mark in different
copies.
2. Also in most of the ancient versions, the Itala (with the exception
of " k," or the codex Bobbiensis, used by Columban), the Vulgate, the
Curetonian Syriac (last part), the Peshito, the Philoxenian, the Coptic,
the Gothic (first part), and the JEthiopic, but in several MSS. only
after the spurious shorter conclusion. Of these versions the Itala, the
Curetonian and Peshito Syriac, and the Coptic, are older than any of
our Greek codices, but the MSS. of the Coptic are not older than the
§ 81. MARK. 645
twelfth or tenth century, and may have undergone changes as well as
the Greek MSS. ; and the MSS. of the JEthiopic are all modern. The
best MSS. of the old Latin are mutilated here. The only extant frag-
ment of Mark in the Curetonian Syriac is w. 17-20, so that we cannot
tell whether vv. 9-20 immediately followed ver. 8, or appeared as they
do in cod. L. But Aphraates quotes it.
3. In all the existing Greek and Syriac lectionaries or evangeliaries
and synaxaries, as far as examined, which contain the Scripture reading
lessons for the churches. Dr. Burgoa lays great stress on their testi-
mony (ch. X.), but he overrates their antiquity. The lection-systems
cannot be traced beyond the middle of the fourth century when great
liturgical changes took place. At that time the disputed verses were
widely circulated and eagerly seized as a suitable resurrection and
ascension lesson.
4. Irenseus of Lyons, in the second half of the second century,
long before Eusebius, expressly quotes verse 19 as a part of the Gospel
of Mark (Adv. Hcer., III. 10, 6). The still earlier testimony of Justin
Martyr (ApoL, I. 45) is doubtful (The quotation of vers. 17 and 18 in
lib. viii., c. 1 of the Apostolic Constitutions is wrongly ascribed to Hip-
poly tus.) Marinus, Macarius Magnes (or at least the heathen writer
whom he cites), Didymus, Chrysostom (??), Epiphamua, Nestorms, the
apocryphal Gesta Pilati, Ambrose, Augustin, and other later fathers
quote from the section.
5. A strong intrinsic argument is derived from the fact that Mark
cannot intentionally have concluded his Gospel with the words ctyojSoiWo
yap (16 : 8). He must either have himself written the last verses or
some other conclusion, which was accidently lost before the book was
multiplied by transcription ; or he was unexpectedly prevented from
finishing his book, and the conclusion was supplied by a friendly hand
from oral tradition or some written source.
In view of these facts the critics and exegetes are very much dividea
The passage is defended as genuine by Simon, Mill, Bengel, Storr,
Matthsei, Hug, Schleiermacher, De Wette, Bleek, Olshausen, Lange,
Ebrard, Hilgenfeld, Broadus ("Bapt. Quarterly," Philad., 1869), Bur-
gon (1871), Scrivener, Wordsworth, McOlellan, Cook, Morison (1882).
It is rejected or questioned by the critical editors, Gnesbach, Lachmann,
Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort (though retained by
all in the text with or without brackets), and by such critics and com-
mentators as Fritzsche, Credner, Eeuss, Wieseler, Holtzmann, Eeim,
Scholten, Klostermann, Ewald, Meyer, Weiss, Norton, Davidson. Some
of these opponents, however, while denying the composition of the sec-
tion by Mark, regard the contents as a part of the apostolic tradition.
Michelsen surrenders only vers. 9-14, and saves vers. 15-20. Ewald and
Holtzmann conjecture the original conclusion from vers. 9, 10, and 16-
20 ; Volkmar invents one from elements of all the Synoptists.
046 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
III. Solutions of the problem. All mere conjectures; certainty is
impossible in this case.
1. Mark himself added the section in a later edition, issued perhaps
in Alexandria, having been interrupted in Borne just as he came to
16 : 8, either by Peter's imprisonment and martyrdom, or by sickness, or
some accident. Incomplete copies got into circulation before he was
able to finish the book. So Michaelis, Hug, and others.
2 The original conclusion of Mark was lost by some accident, most
probably from the original autograph (where it may have occupied a
separate leaf), and the present paragraph was substituted by an anony-
mous editor or collector in the second century. So Griesbach, Schult-
hess, David Schulz.
3. Luke wrote the section. So Hitzig (Johannes Marcus, p. 187).
4. Godet (in his Com. on Luke, p. 8 and p. 513, Engl. transl.) modi-
fies this hypothesis by assuming that a third hand supplied the close,
partly from Luke's Gospel, which had appeared in the mean time, and
partly (vers. 17 and 18) from another source. He supposes that Mark
was interrupted by the unexpected outbreak of the Neroman persecu-
tion in 64 and precipitously fled from the capital, leaving his unfinished
Gospel behind, which was afterward completed when Luke's Gospel
appeared. In this way Godet accounts for the fact that up to Maik
16 : 8 Luke had no influence on Mark, while such influence is apparent
in the concluding section.
5. It was the end of one of the lost Gospel fragments used by Luke
(1 : 1), and appended to Mark's by the last redactor. EwalJ.
6. The section is from the pen of Mark, but was purposely omitted by
some scribe in the third century from hierarchical prejudice, because it
represents the apostles in an unfavorable light after the resurrection, so
that the Lord "upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of
heart" (ver. 14). Lange (Leben Jesu, I. 166). Unlikely.
7. The passage is genuine, but was omitted in some valuable copy
by a misunderstanding of the word rAor, which often is found after
ver 8 in cursives. So Burgon. "According to the Western order,"
he says (in the "Quarterly Review" for Oct., 1881), "S. Mark occu-
pies tJie last place. From the earliest period it had been customary to
write T€\OS (THE END) after the 8th verse of his last chapter, in token
that there a famous ecclesiastical lection comes to a close. Let the last
leaf of one very ancient archetypal copy have begun at ver. 9, and let
that last leaf have perished ;— and all is plain. A faithful copyist will
have ended the Gospel perforce— as B and & have done — at S. Mark
16 : 8." But this liturgical mark is not old enough to explain the
omission in &, B, and the MSS. of Eusebius and Jerome ; and a reading
lesson would close as abruptly with yap as the Gospel itself.
8. The passage cannot claim any apostolic authority ; but it is doubt-
less founded on some tradition of the apostolic age. Its authorship and
§ 81. MARK. 647
precise date must remain unknown, bnt it is apparently older than the
time when the canonical Gospels were generally received ; for although
it has points of contact with them all, it contains no attempt to harmo-
nize their various representations of the course of events. So Dr. Hort
(II., Appendix, 51). A similar view was held by Dean Alford.
For full information we refer to the critical apparatus of Tischendorf
and Tregelles, to the monograph of Weiss on Mark (Das Marcusevang.,
pp. 512-515), and especially to the exhaustive discussion of Westoott
and Hort in the second volume (Append., pp. 29-51). The most elabor-
ate vindication of the genuineness is by Dean Burgon : The Last Twelve
Verses of the Gospel according to S. Mark Vindicated against Recent Critical
Objections and Established (Oxford and Lond , 1871, 334 pages), a very
learned book, but marred by its over-confident tone and unreasonable
hostility to the oldest uncial MSS. (& and B) and the most meritorious
textual critics (Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles). For other able de-
fences see Dr. Scrivener (Introd to the Criticism of the New Test., 3d ed.,
1883, pp. 583-590), Dr. Monson (Com. <m Alaik, pp. 446 and 463 sqq.),
and Canon Cook (in Speaker's Com. on Mark, pp. 301-308).
Lachmann gives the disputed section, according to his principle to fur-
nish the text as found in the fourth century, but did not consider it
genuine (see his article in "Studien und Kritiken" for 1830, p. 843).
Tischendorf and Tregelles set the twelve verses apart. ALford incloses
tliem in single brackets, Westcott and Hort in double brackets, as an
eirly interpolation ; the Revised Version of 1881 retains them with a
marginal note, and with a space between vers. 8 and 9. Dean Burgon
(" Quarterly Rev." for Oct , 1881) holds this note of the Revision (which
simply states an acknowledged fact) to be " the gravest blot of all," and
triumphantly refers the critical editors and Revisionists to his " sepa-
rate treatise extending over 300 pages, which for the best of reasons has
never yet been answered," and in which he has "demonstrated," as
he assures us, that the last twelve verses in Mark are "as trustworthy as
any other verses which can be named " The infallible organ in the
Vatican seems to have a formidable rival in Chichester, but they are in
irreconcilable conflict on the true reading of the angelic anthem (Luke
2 : 14) • the Pope chanting with the Vulgate the genitive (fv8o«iar, boncp
voluntatis\ the Dean, in the same article, denouncing this as a " grievous
perversion of the truth of Scripture," and holding the evidence for
the nominative (eu&oK/a) to be " absolutely decisive," as if the combined
testimony of &* A B D, Irenaeus, Origen (lat.), Jerome, all the Latin
MSS., and the Latin Gloria in Excelsis were of no account, as compared
with his judgment or preference.
648 MUST PEEIOD. A.D. 1-100.
§ 82. LuTce.
"Lucas, Evangelii et medicina muncra panden* ;
Artibus hinc, illinc religion*, valet :
UtHis ille labor ^ per quern vixere tot cegri ;
Utilwr, per quern tot didicere monl "
Critical and Biographical.
SCHLEIEBMAOHEB : Ueber die Schriften des Lukas. Berlin, 1817. Reprinted
in the second vol. of his Sammtliche Werke, Berlin, 1836 (pp. 1-220).
Translated by Bishop THIKLWALL, London, 1825.
JAMBS SMITH (of Jordanhill, d. 1867) : Dissertation on the Life and Writ-
ings of St. Luke, prefixed to his Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul
(1848), 4th ed., revised by Walter E. Smith, London, 1880 (pp. 293).
A most important monograph, especially for the historical accuracy
and credibility of the Acts, by an expert in navigation and an able
scholar.
E. RENAN : Les fivangiles. Paris, 1877. Ch. XIX., pp. 435-448.
TH KEIM : Aus dem Urchmstenthum. Ztlrich, 1878, Josephus im N. T.,
pp. 1-27. An unsuccessful attempt to prove that Luke used
Josephus in his chronological statement, 3 : 1, 2. Keim assumes
that the third Gospel was written after the " Jewish war " of Jose-
phus (about 75-78), and possibly after his " Antiquities " (A D. 94),
though in his Geschichte Jesu (I. 71) he assigns the composition of
Luke to A.D. 90.
SCHOLTEN: Das Paulimsche Evangehum, transl. from the Dutch by
Redepenning. Elberf., 1881.
The Ancient Testimonies on the Genuineness of Luke, see in CHABTEBIS
(Kirchhofer) : Canonicity, Edinb., 1880, pp. 154-166.
On the relation of Luke to Marcion, see especially VOLKMAB : Das Evan-
gehum Marcions, Leipz., 1852, and SANDAY : The Gospels in the Sec-
ond Century, London, 1876 (and his article in the "Fortnightly
Review " for June, 1875).
Exegetical
Commentaries by OBIQEN (in Jerome's Latin translation, with a few
Greek fragments), EUBBBIUS (fragments), CYBIL OF ALEXANDBIA
(Syriac Version with translation, ed. by Dean Smith, Oxf., 1858
and 1859), EUTHTMIUS ZIGABBNUS, THBOPHYLACT. — Modern Com. :
BOBNEMANN (Scholia in Luc. Ev., 1830), DE WETTE (Mark and Luke,
8d ed., 1846), METER (Mark and Luke, 6th ed., revised by B. WEISS,
1878), JAMES THOMSON (Edinb., 1851, 3 vols.), J. J. VAN OOSTEBZEE (in
Lange, 3d ed., 1867, Engl. ed. by Schaff and Starbuck, N. Y., 1866),
FB. GODET (one of the very best, 2d French ed., 1870, Engl. transl.
§ 82. LUKE. 649
by Shatters and Cnsin, Edinb., 1875, 2 role., reprinted in N. T ,
1881), Bishop W. B. JONBS (in Speaker's Cam., Lond. and N. Y.,
1878), E. H. PLUMPTBB (in Bp. Ellicott's Com. for English Readers,
Lond., 1879), FBHDEBIOK W. FABBAB (Cambridge, 1880), MATTHEW
B. KIDDLE (1882).
LIFE OF LUKE.
As Mark is inseparably associated with Peter, so is Luke with
Paul. There was, in both cases, a foreordained correspondence
and congeniality between the apostle and the historian or co-
laborer. We find such holy and useful friendships in the great
formative epochs of the church, notably so in the time of the
Reformation, between Luther and Melanchthon, Zwingli and
Oecolampadius, Calvin and Beza, Cranmer, Latimer and Rid-
ley ; and at a later period between the two "Wesleys and "White-
field. Mark, the Hebrew Roman " interpreter " of the Galilsean
fisherman, gave us the shortest, freshest, but least elegant and
literary of the Gospels ; Luke, the educated Greek, " the beloved
physician," and faithful companion of Saul of Tarsus, composed
the longest and most literary Gospel, and connected it with the
great events in secular history under the reigns of Augustus
and his successors. If the former was called the Gospel of
Peter by the ancients, the latter, in a less direct sense, may be
called the Gospel of Paul, for its agreement in spirit with the
teaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles. In their accounts of
the institution of the Lord's Supper there is even a verbal agree-
ment which points to the same source of information. No
doubt there was frequent conference between the two, but no
allusion is made to each other's writings, which tends to prove
that they were composed independently during the same period,
or not far apart.1
Luke nowhere mentions his name in the two books which are
1 Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome erroneously supposed that Paul meant the
written Gospel of Luke when he speaks of " my gospel,1' Rom 2 . 16 ; 16 25 ;
2 Tim 2 • 8. The word gospel is not used in the New Test, in the sense of a
written record, except in the titles which are of post-apostolic date ; and the
preface of Luke is inconsistent with the idea that he composed his work under
the direction of any one man,
660 FIRST PERIOD. A.D, 1-100.
by the unanimous consent of antiquity ascribed to him, and beai
all the marks of the same authorship ; but he is modestly con-
cealed under the " we " of a great portion of the Acts, which is
but a continuation of the third Gospel.1 He is honorably and
affectionately mentioned three times by Paul during his im-
prisonment, as " the beloved physician " (Col. 4 : 14), as one of
his "fellow-laborers" (Philem. 24), and as the most faithful
friend who remained with him when friend after friend had
deserted him (2 Tim. 4 : 11). His medical profession, although
carried on frequently by superior slaves, implies some degree
of education and accounts for the accuracy of his medical terms
and description of diseases.8 It gave him access to many fami-
lies of social position, especially in the East, where physicians
are rare. It made him all the more useful to Paul in the in-
firmities of his flesh and his exhausting labors.1
He was a Gentile by birth,4 though he may have become a
proselyte of the gate. His nationality and antecedents are un-
known. He was probably a Syrian of Antioch, and one of the
earliest converts in that mother church of Gentile Christianity.'
This conjecture is confirmed by the fact that he gives us much
1 The name Aovira*, Lucas, is abridged from Aowaj'tfs, Lueanus or Lucilhii
(as Apollos from Apollonms, Silas from Silvanus) It is not to be confounded
with Lucius^ Acts 13 • 1 ; Rom 16 21. The name was not common, but con-
tractions m as were frequent in the names of slaves, as Lobeck observes Dr.
Pluraptre (in his Com ) ingeniously conjectures that Luke was from the region
of Lucania in Southern Italy, and called after the famous poet, M Annaeus
Lueanus, as his freedman. In this way he accounts for Luke's familiarity
with Italian localities (Acts 28 : 13-15), the favor of the uncle of Lucanus,
J Annaeus Gallio, shown to Paul (18 14-17), the tradition of the friendship
between Paul and Seneca (a brother of Gallio), and the intended journey of
Paul to Spain (Rom. 15 28), where Seneca and Lucanus were born (at Cor-
duba) But the chionology is against this hypothesis Lucanus was born
A.D. 39, when Luke must have been already about thirty years of age, as he
cannot have been much younger than Paul
* Jerome (Bp ad Paulinum) says of Luke " Fuit medicus, etpariter omnia
terba Mtus anima languenth aunt medicine"
»Comp. Gal 4 13; 2 Cor. 1 9; 4 : 10, 12, 16; 12 7.
4 He is distinguished from u those of the circumcision," Col. 4 : 14 ; oomp 11
* Eusebius, III. 4 • Aovica; T& filv 7«Voj &v v£»v tof 'ArT-ioge/a*, r^v Ivurrfifjnjr
Si iarp6sj « r A. Jerome, DC vir ill , 7 : " Lucas mediciu Antiocfienttis . .
testator apostoti, Pardi, et omnh peregrination^ ejus come*.
§ 82. LUKE. 661
information about the church in Antioch (Acts 11 : 19-30 ;
13 : 1-3 ; 15 : 1-3, 22-35), that he traces the origin of the name
"Christians" to that city (11 : 19), and that in enumerating the
seven deacons of Jerusalem he informs us of the Antiochian
origin of Nicolas (6 : 5), without mentioning the nationality of
any of the others.1
We meet Luke first as a companion of Paul at Troas, when,
after the Macedonian call, " Come over and help us," he was
about to carry the gospel to Greece on his second great mission-
ary tour. For from that important epoch Luke uses the first
personal pronoun in the plural: "When he [Paul] had seen
the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia,
concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel unto
them " (Acts 16 : 10). He accompanied him to Philippi and
seems to have remained there after the departure of Paul and
Silas for Corinth (A.D. 51), in charge of the infant church ; for
the " we " is suddenly replaced by " they " (17 : 1). Seven years
later (A.D. 53) he joined the apostle again, when he passed through
Philippi on his last journey to Jerusalem, stopping a week at
Troas (Acts 20 : 5, 6) ; for from that moment Luke resumes the
"we" of the narrative. He was with Paul or near him at
Jerusalem and two years at Caesarea, accompanied him on his
perilous voyage to Home, of which he gives a most accurate
account, and remained with him to the end of his first Roman
captivity, with which he closes his record (A.D. 63). He may,
however, have been temporarily absent on mission work during
the four years of Paul's imprisonment. Whether he accom-
panied him on his intended visit to Spain and to the East, after
the year 63, we do not know. The last allusion to him is the
word of Paul when on the point of martyrdom : " Only Luke is
with me "(2 Tim. 4:11).
The Bible leaves Luke at the height of his usefulness in the
1 James Smith (I.e., p. 4) illustrates the argumentative hearing of this notice
by the fact that of eight accounts of the Russian campaign of 1812, three by
French, three by English, and two by Scotch authors (Scott and Alison), the
last two only make mention of the Scotch extraction of the Russian General
Barclay de Tolly.
652 FIRST PERIOD, A.D. 1-100.
best company, with Paul preaching the gospel in the metropo-
lis of the world.
Post-apostolic tradition, always far below the healthy and
certain tone of the New Testament, mostly vague and often
contradictory, never reliable, adds that he lived to the age of
eighty-four, labored in several countries, was a painter of por-
traits of Jesus, of the Virgin, and the apostles, and that he was
crucified on an olive-tree at Etea in Greece. His real or sup-
posed remains, together with those of Andrew the apostle, were
transferred from Patrge in Achaia to the Church of the Apostles
in Constantinople.1
The symbolic poetry of the Church assigns to him the sacri-
ficial ox ; but the symbol of man is more appropriate ; for his
Gospel is par excellence the Gospel of the Son of Man.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
According to his own confession in the preface, Luke was no
eye-witness of the gospel history,* but derived his information
from oral reports of primitive disciples, and from numerous
fragmentary documents then already in circulation. He wrote
the Gospel from what he had heard and read, the Acts from
what he had seen and heard. He traced the origin of Chris-
tianity " accurately from the beginning."
His opportunities were the very best. He visited the princi-
pal apostolic churches between Jerusalem and Rome, and came
in personal contact with the founders and leaders. He met
Peter, Mark, and Barnabas at Antioch, James and his elders at
Jerusalem (on Paul's last visit), Philip and his daughters at
Csesarea, the early converts in Greece and Rome ; and he en-
joyed, besides, the benefit of all the information which Paul
himself had received by revelation or collected from personal
intercourse with his fellow-apostles and other primitive disciples.
Jerome, De vir. ££., 7 " Sepultus est Constantinopoli, ad quam urbem
vfocrimo Constantii anno ossa ejus cum rettquiis Andrea apostoli translata
tunt."
- Hence the ancient tradition that he was one of the Seventy Disciples, or
one of the two disciples of Emmaua, cannot be true.
§ 82. LUKE. 663
The sources for the history of the infancy were Jewish-Chris-
tian and Aramaean (hence the strongly Hebraizing coloring oi
the first two chapters); his information of the activity of
Christ in Samaria was probably derived from Philip, who
labored there as an evangelist and afterwards in Csesarea. But
a man of Luke's historic instinct and conscientiousness would
be led to visit also in person the localities in Galilee which
are immortalized by the ministry of Christ. From Jerusalem
or Cfflsarea he could reach them all in three or four days.
The question whether Luke also used one or both of the other
Synoptic Gospels has already been discussed in a previous sec-
tion. It is improbable that he included them among his evi-
dently fragmentary sources alluded to in the preface. It is
certain that he had no knowledge of our Greek Matthew ; on
the use of a lost Hebrew Matthew and of Mark the opinion
of good scholars is divided, but the resemblance with Mark,
though very striking in some sections,1 is not of such a charac-
ter that it cannot as well, and even better, be explained from
prior oral tradition or autoptical memoirs, especially if we con-
sider that the resemblances are neutralized by unaccountable
differences and omissions. The matter is not helped by a refer-
ence to a proto-Mark, either Hebrew or Greek, of which we
know nothing.
Luke has a great deal of original and most valuable matter,
which proves his independence and the variety of his sources.
He adds much to our knowledge of the Saviour, and surpasses
Matthew and Mark in fulness, accuracy, and chronological order
— three points which, with all modesty, he claims to have aimed
at in his preface.9 Sometimes he gives special fitness and
> AB the account of the staling of the tempest, Lake 8 : 22-25, compared
with Mark 4 : 35-41 ; and the parable of the wicked husbandmen, Luke 20 : 9-
19, compared with Mark 12 : 1-12.
8 1 : 3 : rafftv—ucpifas—Kobttrit. Says Godet : " Matthew groups together
doctrinal teachings in the form of great discourses ; he ia a preacher. Mark
narrates events as they occur to his mind ; he is a chronicler. Luke repro-
duces the external and internal development of events; he is the historian,
properly so called."
664 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
beauty to a word of Christ by inserting it in its proper place
in the narrative, and connecting it with a particular occasion.
But there are some exceptions, where Matthew is fuller, and
where Mark is more chronological. Considering the fact that
about thirty years had elapsed since the occurrence of the events,
we need not wonder that some facts and words were dislocated,
and that Luke, with all his honest zeal, did not always succeed
in giving the original order.
The peculiar sections of Luke are in keeping with the rest.
They have not the most remote affinity with apocryphal mar-
vels and fables, nor even with the orthodox traditions and
legends of the post-apostolic age, but are in full harmony with
the picture of Christ as it shines from the other Gospels and
from the Epistles. His accuracy has been put to the severest
test, especially in the Acts, where he frequently alludes to
secular rulers and events ; but while a few chronological diffi-
culties, as that of the census of Quirinius, are not yet satisfac-
torily removed, he has upon the whole, even in minute particu-
lars, been proven to be a faithful, reliable, and well informed
historian.
He is the proper father of Christian church history, and a
model well worthy of imitation for his study of the sources, his
conscientious accuracy, his modesty and his lofty aim to in-
struct and confirm in the truth.
DEDICATION AND OBJECT.
The third Gospel, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, is dedi-
cated to a certain Theophilus (i.e., Friend of God), a man of
social distinction, perhaps in the service of the government, as
appears from his title " honorable " or " most noble." 1 He was
1 Luke 1 4 KpdnaTf e<6<pi\t In Acts 1 1 the epithet ia omitted. Bcngel
infers from this omission that when Lake wrote the Acts he was on more
famihar terms with Theophilus The same title is applied to Governors Felix
and Festus, Acts 23 26; 24 . 3; 26 . 25. The A. V. vanes between " most
excellent '' and " most noble; " the R. V. uniformly renders " most excellent,**
which is apt to be applied to moral character rather than social position
" Honorable" or "most noble91 would be preferable Occasionally, however,
the term is used also towards a personal friend (see passages in Wetstein).
§ 82. LUKE. 655
either a convert or at least a catechumen in preparation for
church membership, and willing to become sponsor and patron
of these books. The custom of dedicating books to princes and
rich friends of literature was formerly very frequent, and has
not died out yet. As to his race and residence we can only
conjecture that Theophilus was a Greek of Antioch, where
Luke, himself probably an Antiochean, may have previously
known him either as his freedman or physician. The pseudo-
Clementine Recognitions mention a certain nobleman of that
name at Antioch who was converted by Peter and changed his
palace into a church and residence of the apostle.1
The object of Luke was to confirm Theophilus and through
him all his readers in the faith in which he had already been
orally instructed, and to lead him to the conviction of the irre-
fragable certainty of the facts on which Christianity rests.*
Luke wrote for Gentile Christians, especially Greeks, as Mat-
thew wrote for Jews, Mark for Romans, John for advanced
believers without distinction of nationality. lie briefly explains
for Gentile readers the position of Palestinian towns, as Naza-
reth, Capernaum, Arirnathaea, and the distance of Mount Olivet
and Emmaus from Jerusalem.* He does not, like Matthew,
look back to the past and point out the fulfilment of ancient
prophecy with a view to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the
promised Messiah, but takes a universal view of Christ as the
Saviour of all men and fulfiller of the aspirations of every
human heart. He brings him in contact with the events of
secular history in the vast empire of Augustus, and with the
whole human race by tracing his ancestry back to Adam.
These features would suit Gentile readers generally, Romans
as well as Greeks. But the long residence of Luke in Greece,
and the ancient tradition that he labored and died there, give
1 For other conjectures on Theophilus, which locate him at Alexandria or at
Borne or somewhere in Greece, see the Bible Diets, of Winer and Smith sttb
Theophilus. Some have fancied that he was merely an ideal name for every
right-minded reader of the Gospel, as a lover of truth.
* 1 : 4 'tva faryvus vepl u>v fcan)x4&i)* T
» 1 : 26 ; 4 : 81 ; 23 : 61 ; 24 : 13 (Acte 1 : 12).
656 FIRST PERIOD. A,D. 1-100.
strength to the view that he had before his mind chiefly readers
of that country. According to Jerome the Gospel was written
(completed) in Achaia and Boeotia. The whole book is un-
doubtedly admirably suited to Greek taste. It at once capti-
vates the refined Hellenic ear by a historic prologue of classic
construction, resembling the prologues of Herodotus and Thucy-
dides. It is not without interest to compare them.
LUKB begins : "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw up
a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among
us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word : it seemed good to me also, hav-
ing traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto
thee in order, most noble Theophilus ; that thou mightest know the cer-
tainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed."
HERODOTUS: " These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus,
which he publishes, in order to preserve from oblivion the remembrance
of former deeds of men, and to secure a just tribute of glory to the
great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the barbarians; and
withal to put on record what were their grounds of feud."
THUOTDIDES : " Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war
in which the Peloponnesians and the Athenians fought against one
another. He began to write when they first took up arms, believing
that it would be great and memorable above any previous war. For he
argued that both States were then at the full height of their military
power, and he saw the rest of the Hellenes either siding or intending to
side with one or other of them. No movement ever stirred Hellas more
deeply than this ; it was shared by many of the barbarians, and might
be said even to affect the world at large." (Jowett's translation.)
These prefaces excel alike in brevity, taste, and tact, but with
this characteristic difference: the Evangelist modestly with-
holds his name and writes in the pure interest of truth a record
of the gospel of peace for the spiritual welfare of all men;
while the great pagan historians are inspired by love of glory,
and aim to immortalize the destructive wars and feuds of Greeks
and barbarians.
CONTENTS OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE.
After a historiographic preface, Luke gives us first a history
of the birth and infancy of John the Baptist and Jesus, from
Hebrew sources, with an incident from the boyhood of the
§ 82. LUKE. 657
Saviour (chs. 1 and 2). Then he unfolds the history of the
public ministry in chronological order from the baptism in the
Jordan to the resurrection and ascension. We need only point
out those facts and discourses which are not found in the other
Gospels and which complete the Synoptic history at the begin-
ning, middle, and end of the life of our Lord.1
Luke supplies the following sections :
I. In the history of the INFANCY of John and Christ :
The appearance of the angel of the Lord to Zacharias
in the temple announcing the birth of John, 1 : 5-25.
The annunciation of the birth of Christ to the Virgin
Mary, 1 : 26-38.
The visit of the Virgin Mary to Elizabeth ; the salu-
tation of Elizabeth, 1 : 39-45.
The Magnificat of the Virgin Mary, 1 : 46-56.
The birth of John the Baptist, 1 : 57-66.
The Benedictus of Zacharias, 1 : 67-80.
The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, 2 : 1-7.
The appearance of the angels to the shepherds of
Bethlehem, and the " Gloria in excelsis," 2 : 8-20.
The circumcision of Jesus, and his presentation in the
Temple, 2 : 21-38.
The visit of Jesus in his twelfth year to the passover
in Jerusalem, and his conversation with the Jewish
doctors in the Temple, 2 : 41-52.
To this must be added the genealogy of Christ from
Abraham up to Adam ; while Matthew begins, in
the inverse order, with Abraham, and presents in
the parallel section several differences which show
their mutual independence, Luke 3 : 23-38 ; comp.
Matt. 1 : 1-17.
II. In the PUBLIC LIFE of our Lord a whole group of impor-
tant events, discourses, and incidents which occurred
1 For a full analysis of contents see Van Oosterzee, Com., 8-10; Westcott,
Introd. to the <?., 370-372 (Am ed ); McClellan, Com. on N. T., L 425-438;
Farrar, Com., 31-36; Lange, BibeUcunde, 187-193.
658 FIRST PEKIOD. A.D. 1-100.
at different periods, but mostly on a circuitous journey
from Capernaum to Jerusalem through Samaria and
Persea (9 : 51-18 : 14). This section includes—
1. The following miracles and incidents:
The miraculous draught of fishes, 5 : 4-11.
The raising of the widow's son at Nain, 7 : 11-18.
The pardoning of the sinful woman who wept
at the feet of Jesus, 7 : 36-50.
The support of Christ by devout women who
are named, 8 : 2, 3.
The rebuke of the Sons of Thunder in a Sa-
maritan village, 9 : 51-56.
The Mission and Instruction of the Seventy,
10 : 1-6.
Entertainment at the house of Martha and
Mary ; the one thing needful, 10 : 38-42.
The woman who exclaimed: "Blessed is the
womb that bare thee," 11 : 27.
The man with the dropsy, 14 : 1-6.
The ten lepers, 17 : 11-19.
The visit to Zacchaeus, 19 : 1-10.
The tears of Jesus over Jerusalem, 19 : 41-44.
The sifting of Peter, 22 : 31, 32.
The healing of Malchus, 22 : 50, 51.
2. Original Parable*:
The two Debtors, 7 : 41-43.
The good Samaritan, 10 : 25-37.
The importunate Friend, 11 : 5-8.
The rich Fool, 12 : 16-21.
The barren Fig-tree, 13 : 6-9.
The lost Drachma, 15 : 8-10.
The prodigal Son, 15 : 11-32.
The unjust Steward, 16 : 1-13.
Dives and Lazarus, 16 : 19-31.
The importunate Widow, and the unjust Judge,
18 : 1-8.
§ 82. LUKE. 659
The Pharisee and the Publican, 18 : 10-14.
The ten Pounds, 19 : 11-28 (not to be identified
with the Parable of the Talents in Matt
25 : 14-30).
IIL In the history of the CRUCIFIXION and RESURRECTION :
The lament of the women on the way to the cross,
23 : 27-30.
The prayer of Christ for his murderers, 23 : 34.
His conversation with the penitent malefactor and
promise of a place in paradise, 23 : 39-43.
The appearance of the risen Lord to the two Disciples
on the way to Emmaus, 24 : 13-25 ; briefly men-
tioned also in the disputed conclusion of Mark,
16 : 12, 13.
The account of the ascension, 24 : 50-53 ; comp. Mark
16 : 19, 20 ; and Acts 1 : 3-12.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF LUKE.
The third Gospel is the Gospel of free salvation to all men.1
This corresponds to the two cardinal points in the doctrinal sys-
tem of Paul : gratuitousness and universalness of salvation.
1. It is eminently the Gospel of free sal/cation by grace
through faith. Its motto is: Christ came to save sinners.
" Saviour " and " salvation r are the most prominent ideas.*
Mary, anticipating the birth of her Son, rejoices in God her
" Saviour " (1 : 47) ; and an angel announces to the shepherds of
1 Lange (Leben Jew, I 258) gives as the theme of Luke : "the revelation
of divine mercy , " Godet (Com.) • u the manifestation of divine philanthropy "
(Tit. 3.4), McGlellan (I. 436) " salvation of sinners, by God's grace, through
faith in Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; " Farrar (p 17) : " who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil " (Acts 10 38,
better suited for Mark) ; Van Oosterzee : u as Paul led the people of the Lord
out of the bondage of the law into the enjoyment of gospel liberty, so did
Luke raise sacred history from the standpoint of the Israehtish nationality
to the higher and holier ground of universal humanity."
9 The term <rwH?p occurs, 1 • 47 ; 2 : 11 ; John 4 • 42, and often in the Aoto
and the Epistles of Paul, but neither in Matthew nor Mark ; <r«n?f>fa occurs,
Luke 1 : 69, 77 ; 19 9 ; John 4 : 22, and repeatedly in the Acts and the Epis-
tles; wiVw, Luke 2 : 30 ; 8 : 6 ; Acts 23 : 28 ; Eph. 6 : 17 ; Tit. 2 : 11.
660 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Bethlehem " good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the
people " (2 : 10), namely, the birth of Jesus as the " Saviour " of
men (not only as the Christ of the Jews). He is throughout
represented as the merciful friend of sinners, as the healer of the
sick, as the comforter of the broken-hearted, as the shepherd of
the lost sheep. The parables peculiar to Luke — of the prodigal
son, of the lost piece of money, of the publican in the temple,
of the good Samaritan — exhibit this great truth which Paul so
fully sets forth in his Epistles. The parable of the Pharisee
and the publican plucks up self -righteousness by the root, and
is the foundation of the doctrine of justification by faith. The
paralytic and the woman that was a sinner received pardon by
faith alone. Luke alone relates the prayer of Christ on the
cross for his murderers, and the promise of paradise to the peni-
tent robber, and he ends with a picture of the ascending Saviour
lifting up his hands and blessing his disciples.
The other Evangelists do not neglect this aspect of Christ ;
nothing can be more sweet and comforting than his invitation
to sinners in the eleventh chapter of Matthew, or his farewell
to the disciples in John ; but Luke dwells on it with peculiar
delight. He is the painter of CHBISTUS SALVATOR and CHRISTUS
CONSOLATOR.
2. It is the Gospel of universal salvation. It is emphatically
the Gospel for the Gentiles. Hence the genealogy of Christ is
traced back not only to Abraham (as in Matthew), but to Adam,
the son of God and the father of all men (3 : 38). Christ is the
second Adam from heaven, the representative Head of redeemed
humanity — an idea further developed by Paul. The infant
Saviour is greeted by Simeon as a " Light for revelation to the
Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel " (2 : 32). The Bap-
tist, in applying the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the voice in
the wilderness (ch. 40), adds the words (from Isa. 52 : 10) : " All
flesh shall see the salvation of God " (3:6). Luke alone records
the mission of the Seventy Disciples who represent the Gentile
nations, as the Twelve represent the twelve tribes of Israel. He
alone mentions the mission of Elijah to the heathen widow in
§ 82. LUKE. 661
Sarepta, and the cleansing of Naaman the Syrian by Elisha
(4 : 26, 27). He contrasts the gratitude of the leprous Samari-
tan with the ingratitude of the nine Jewish lepers (17 : 12-18).
He selects discourses and parables, which exhibit God's mercy
to Samaritans and Gentiles.1 Yet there is no contradiction, for
some of the strongest passages which exhibit Christ's mercy to
the Gentiles and humble the Jewish pride are found in Mat-
thew, the Jewish Evangelist.2 The assertion that the third
Gospel is a glorification of the Gentile (Pauline) apostolate, and
a covert attack on the Twelve, especially Peter, is a pure fiction
of modern hypercriticism.
3. It is the Gospel of the genuine and full humanity of Christ*
It gives us the key-note for the construction of a real history of
Jesus from infancy to boyhood and manhood. Luke represents
him as the purest and fairest among the children of men, \*ho
became like unto us in all tilings except sin and error. He fol-
lows him through the stages of his growth. He alone tells us
that the child Jesus " grew and waxed strong," not only physi-
cally, but also in " wisdom " (2 : 40) ; he alone reports the re-
markable scene \r\ the temple, informing us that Jesus, when
twelve years old, sat as a learner " in the midst of the doctors,
both hearing them and asking questions ; " and that, even after
that time, He " advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor
with God and men" (2:46, 52). All the Synoptists nan-ate
the temptation in the wilderness, and Mark adds horror to the
scene by the remark that Christ was " with the wild beasts ''
(1 : 12, perk r&v Hhripiwv) ; but Luke has the peculiar notice
that the devil departed from Jesus only "for a season." He
alone mentions the tears of Jesus over Jerusalem, and "the
bloody sweat" and the strengthening angel in the agony of
Gethsemane. As he brings out the gradual growth of Jesus,
and the progress of the gospel from Nazareth to Capernaum,
'4 25-27; 9 52-56; 10 33; 15 11 sqq. ; 17:19; 18:10; 19 5.
2 See § 80, p. 617
J Longe (Bibelkunde, p. 187) calls it "das Evangdium des Menschensohnex,
d&r Uumamldt Cluitti, dcr YerlJhirung aUer HumanitCti."
662 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
from Capernaum to Jerusalem, so afterwards, in the Acts, he
traces the growth of the church from Jerusalem to Antioch,
from Antioch to Ephesus and Corinth, from Greece to Home.
Ifis is the Gospel of historical development. To him we are in-
debted for nearly all the hints that link the gospel facts with
the contemporary history of the world.
4. It is the Gospel of unw&rsal humanity. It breathes the
genuine spirit of charity, liberty, equality, which emanate from
the Saviour of mankind, but are so often counterfeited by his
great antagonist, the devil. It touches the tenderest chords of
human sympathy. It delights in recording Christ's love and
compassion for the sick, the lowly, the despised, even the harlot
and the prodigal. It mentions the beatitudes pronounced on
the poor and the hungry, his invitation to the maimed, the halt,
and the blind, his prayer on the cross for pardon of the wicked
murderers, his promise to the dying robber. It rebukes the
spirit of bigotry and intolerance of the Jews against Samaritans,
in the parable of the good Samaritan. It reminds the Sons of
Thunder when they were about to call fire from heaven upon a
Samaritan village that He came not to destroy but to save. It
tells us that " he who is not against Christ is for Christ," no
matter what sectcirian or unsectarian name he may bear.
5. It is the Gospel for woman. It weaves the purest types
of womanhood into the gospel story: Elizabeth, who saluted
the Saviour before his birth; the Yirgiri, whom all genera-
tions call blessed; the aged prophetess Anna, who departed
not from the temple; Martha, the busy, hospitable house-
keeper, with her quiet, contemplative sister Mary of Bethany ;
and that noble band of female disciples who ministered of
their substance to the temporal wants of the Son of God and
his apostles.
It reveals the tender compassion of Christ for all the suffering
daughters of Eve : the widow at Nain mourning at the bier of
her only son ; for the fallen sinner who bathed his feet with her
tears ; for the poor sick woman, who had wasted all her living
upon physicians, and whom he addressed as " Daughter ; " and
§ 82. LUKE. 663
for the "daughters of Jerusalem " who followed him weeping to
Calvary. If anywhere we may behold the divine humanity of
Christ and the perfect union of purity and love, dignity and
tender compassion, it is in the conduct of Jesus towards women
and children. "The scribes and Pharisees gathered up their
robes in the streets and synagogues lest they should touch a
woman, and held it a crime to look on an unveiled woman in
public ; our Lord suffered a woman to minister to him out of
whom he had cast seven devils."
6. It is the Gospel for children, and all who are of a childlike
spirit. It sheds a sacred halo and celestial charm over infancy,
as perpetuating the paradise of innocence in a sinful world. It
alone relates the birth and growth of John, the particulars of
the birth of Christ, his circumcision and presentation in the
temple, his obedience to parents, his growth from infancy to
boyhood, from boyhood to manhood. The first two chapters
will always be the favorite chapters for children and all who
delight to gather around the manger of Bethlehem and to re-
joice with shepherds on the field and angels in heaven.
7. It is the Gospel of poetry.1 We mean the poetry of religion,
the poetry of worship, the poetry of prayer and thanksgiving,
a poetry resting not on fiction, but on facts and eternal truth.
In such poetry there is more truth than in every-day prose. The
whole book is full of dramatic vivacity and interest. It begins
and ends with thanksgiving and praise. The first two chapters
are overflowing with festive joy and gladness ; they are a para-
dise of fragrant flowers, and the air is resonant with the sweet
melodies of Hebrew psalmody and Christian hymnody. The
Salute of Elizabeth (" Ave Maria"), the "Magnificat" of Mary,
the " Benedictus " of Zacharias, the " Gloria in Excelsis" of the
Angels, the "Nunc Dimittis" of Simeon, sound from genera-
1 Farrar (p. 28) calls Lake " the first Christian hymnologist" (better hym-
niat), and quotes the lines from Keble •
41 Thou hast an ear for angel songs,
A breath the gospel trump to fill,
And taught by thee the Church prolong!
Her hymns of high thanksgiving still1*
684 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
tion to generation in every tongue, and are a perpetual inspira
tion for new hymns of praise to the glory of Christ.
No wonder that the third Gospel has been pronounced, from
a purely literary and humanitarian standpoint, to be the most
beautiful book ever written.1
THE STYLE.
Luke is the best Greek writer among the Evangelists.* His
style shows his general culture. It is free from solecisms, rich
in vocabulary, rhythmical in construction. But as a careful and
conscientious historian he varies considerably with the subject
and according to the nature of his documents.
Matthew begins characteristically with " Book of generation "
or "Genealogy" O/]8Xo9 ycvetrew), which looks back to the
Hebrew Sepker toledoth (comp. Gen. 5:1; 2:4); Mark with
" Beginning of the gospel " (apxft r°v cwyyeXiiw), which
introduces the reader at once to the scene of present action;
Luke with a historiographic prologue of classical ring, and un-
surpassed for brevity, modesty, and dignity. But when he
enters upon the history of the infancy, which he derived no
doubt from Aramaic traditions or documents, his language has
1 This is the judgment of Renan, which is worth preserving in fulL
'• UtivangUe de Luc? he says (in Les fivangfles, p 282 and 288), * 4 cat le plus
litteraire des evangiles. Tout y revele un esprit large et doux, sage, modere,
sobre et raisonnaUe dans Virrationnel Set exagerations, ses invraisemblances,
sea inconsequences tiennent d la nature mime de la parabde et en font le charme.
Afatt/iieu arrondit les contours un pen sees de Marc. Luc fait bien plus ; il ecrit,
il mo ntre une vraw entente de la composition. Son livre est un beau recit bien
suivi, d la f ois Twbravqut et 7iettenique,joi$nant V emotion du drame d la serenite
de Pidytte Tout y rit, tout y pleure, tout y chante; partout des larmes et des
cantiques ; c'e*t Vhymne du peuple nouvcau, L'HOSAJNNA des petits et des humbles
introduits dans le royaume de Dieu. Un espj'it de sainte enfance, dejoie, defer-
vcur, le sentiment evangelique dans son onginalite premiere repandent sur toute
la legende une teinte d>une incomparable douceur. On ne futjamais mains sec-
taire Pas un reproche, pas un mot dur pour le vieux peupte exclu ; son exclu-
sion ne le punit-eUe pas assez * (Test le plus beau Uwre qu'il y ait. Leplaisir
que Vauteur dut avoir d Vecrire ne serajamais suffisamment compris."
9 Jerome, who had a great genius for language, says, Eput. ad Dam , 20
(145) . " Lucas qui inter omnes evangelistas Greed sermonis erudititsimus fuit,
quippe et medicus, et qui EvangeUum Gratis seripserit." In another passage
he says that Lake's " sermo scscularem redofet eloquentiam."
§ 82. LUKE. 665
ft stronger Hebrew coloring than any other portion of the New
Testament. The songs of Zacharias, Elizabeth, Mary, and
Simeon, and the anthem of the angelic host, are the last of
Hebrew psalms as well as the first of Christian hymns. They
can be literally translated back into the Hebrew, without losing
their beauty.1 The same variation in style characterizes the
Acts ; the first part is Hebrew Greek, the second genuine Greek,
His vocabulary considerably exceeds that of the other Evan-
gelists : he has about 180 terms which occur in his Gospel alone
and nowhere else in the New Testament ; while Matthew has
only about 70, Mark 44, and John 50 peculiar words. Luke's
Gospel has 55, the Acts 135 aTraf Xeyo/xero, and among them
many verbal compounds and rare technical terms.
The medical training and practice of Luke, "the beloved
physician," familiarized him with medical terms, which appear
quite naturally, without any ostentation of professional knowl-
edge, in his descriptions of diseases and miracles of healing, and
they agree with the vocabulary of ancient medical writers. Thus
lie speaks of the " great fever " of Peter's mother-in-law, with
reference to the distinction made between great and small fevers
(according to Galen) ; a and of "fevers and dysentery," of which
the father of Publius at Melita was healed (as Hippocrates uses
fever in the plural).3
1 See the Version of DehtzBoh in his Hebrew New Testament, published by
the Brit and For. Bible Society.
8 4 38 $r (rvvfxoptrrj truptrf jtrycky. owcxo/tcVi} is likewise a medical term.
8 Acts 28 : 8 wvperois Ktd twrcrrtplv ffwnxfa™** Other instances of medi-
cal knowledge are found in Luke 8 46; 22 . 44; Acts 3 7; 9 18; 10 . 9,
10. Dr. Plumptre even traces several expressions of Paul, such as "healthy
doctrine" (1 Tim 1 .10; 6 3), u gangrene" or "cancer" (2 Tim. 2 : 17),
the conscience " seared," or rather "cauterized" (1 Tim. 4 2), and the
recommendation of a little wine for the stomach's sake (1 Tiin 5 : 23), to the
influence of "the beloved physician/9 who administered to him in his peculiar
physical infirmities Bather fanciful Bev W K. Hobart, of Trinity College,
Dublin, published a work (1882) on The Medical Language of St. Luke, in
which he furnished the proof from internal evidence that the Gospel of Luke
and the Acts of the Apostles were written by the same person, and that the
writer was a medical man. He has compared over four hundred peculiar
words and phrases of these books with the use of the same words in Hippo-
orates, AreUeus, Dioscondes, and Galen.
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
He was equally familiar with navigation, not indeed as a pro-
fessional seaman, but as an experienced traveller and accurate
observer. He uses no less than seventeen nautical terms with
perfect accuracy.1 His description of the Voyage and Ship-
wreck of Paul in the last two chapters of Acts, as explained and
confirmed by a scholarly seaman, furnishes an irrefragable argu-
ment for the ability and credibility of the author of that book.*
Luke is fond of words of joy and gladness.' He often men-
tions the Holy Spirit, and he is the only writer who gives us an
account of the pentecostal miracle.4 Minor peculiarities are the
use of the more correct \(fivr) of the lake of Galilee for &d\a<r<ra9
vofjii/eos and vofjuoSiSdcr/caXos for ypa^arev^, TO eiprinevov in quota-
tions for pq&ev, vvv for apri, ktrtrkpa for o^rLa, the frequency of
attraction of the relative pronoun and participial construction.
There is a striking resemblance between the style of Luke
and Paul, which corresponds to their spiritual sympathy and
long intimacy.* They agree in the report of the institution of
1 Among these are seven compounds of nAla, describing the motion and
management of a ship, as follows . 7r\lo>, to sail, Luke 8 23 ; Acts 21.3;
27 : 6, 24. &iroirXc«, to sail from, Acts 13 . 4 ; 14 26 ; 20 : 15 ; 27 1 tyaSv
v\0€o> (from &pMs, slow), to sail slowly, Acts 27 : 7. 3toir\«i>, to sail through
(not " over," as in the A. V.), Acts 27 5. *mrA&», to sail away, Acts 15 39 ;
18 : 18 ; 20 • 6. /rarairAca, to arrive, Luke 8 26. fcroirAlu, to sail under the
lee, Acts 27 4, 7 iropairAlw, to sail by, Acts 20 • 16 Add to these the fol-
lowing nautical terms : fodyotuu, to get under way, to put to sea, Acts 27 4.
tutTcp&u, to sail over, Acts 21 2 Sio^po/xeu, to be driven to and fro, Acts
27 • 27 IruttAAoy, to run the ship ashore, Acts 27 • 41. cu&vSpoftc'w, to make
a straight course, Acts 16 . 11 ; 21 1. iropaX^yojuai (middle), to sail by, Acts
27 : 8, 13. frrorplxw (aor. 2, forcftpopoiO, to run under the lee, Acts 27 16
<t><pofjuu (pass ), to be driven, Acts 27 : 15, 17. Also, 6c/9oAV tauoviro, Acts
27 : 18, and tKov<pi(ov rb r\o»bv, 27 : 38, which are technical terms for lightening
the ship by throwing cargo overboard.
9 See James Smith, 1 c., and SchafTs Companion to the Or. Test , pp.
67-61.
» As xop<£, Luke 1 : 14 ; 2 : 10; 8 : 13; 10 : 17 ; 15 : 7, 10 ; 24 : 41, 51.
4 wC/ia tyiov or mi/pa alone, 1 : 15, 34, 35, 41, 67 ; 2 : 25, 26, 27 ; 3 • 16, 22 ,
4 1, 14, 18 ; 12 10, 12; and still more frequently in the Acts, which is the
Gospel of the Holy Spirit.
1 See Holtzmann, Syn. Evang., pp. 816-324, copied in part (without ac-
knowledgment) by Davidson, Introd., I. 437 sqq. Holtzmann enumerates
about two hundred expressions or phrases common to Luke and Paul, and
more or less foreign to the other writers of the New Testament
§ 82. LUKE.
667
the Lord's Supper, which is the oldest we have (from A.D. 57) ;
both substitute : " This cup is the new covenant in My blood,"'
for " This is My blood of the (new) covenant," and add : " This
do in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22 : 19, 20; 1 Cor. 11 : 24,
25). They are equally fond of words which characterize the
freedom and universal destination of the gospel salvation.1
They have many terms in common which occur nowhere else in
the New Testament.2 And they often meet in thought and ex-
pression in a way that shows both the close intimacy and the
mutual independence of the two writers.8
» ir/crm,
, &KCUO?, irvevfjM Hytov, yvwrit,
icvplov.
As
fievoy, &m\aiJ.0dvfffbai, fa-cAi-f^ct?, foroA.oycta'&ai, irfW^ftv, tK$t<£>K€iv,
S tearapyetv, KtvSvvfVfiv, Kvpicveiv, -jravairA/a, irapttocuro?,
€tv, u<rrtp7)pa, xapffccr&cu, tyaApts, and others, also the particles &AA'
el /cat, ci ji<T«» TI'S <dv The word /ctJptos as a substitute for Jesus occurs
fourteen times m Luke and often in the Epistles, but only once in the Synop-
tists <the closing verses of Mark, 16 19, 30)
8 Take the following specimens of striking parallelism (quoted by floltz-
mann, 322)
LUKE.
6:48: twicer ffcp&ior itri rijv ir^rpar.
8:15.
AAAa o-wo-cu.
10 8* fottrrc ra irapart^ficva vn.lv.
10 ' 20 TO. bv6na.Ta VJULWV i
10 . 21 . atrAepv^at ravra aw* vwfav not orv^e-
TWV cat avcffoAvi^ac airra
11 : 41 ' irarra ica0ap«L vfuv
11:49. airooTeAw cic avrovc irpo^ijras ical
PAUL.
ICor 3:10: «w
Col 1 . 10, 11 : Kopwofapovvre*: jcol
ci? iratrav inrotiovtfv.
2 Cor 10 8 c&iMcev tig owco«o/xtjv KCU owe
et? xadfiupcaif 13 10.
1 Cor 10.27: vav rb
Phil 4.3: w^ rd forf/iara Jr fii/3A<p $
1 Cor 1 . 19 : avoAa TTJV <ro$tai' TUP
xal TTjf trvfcorti' TMP awerwy d0rri}<na. 27. r«
fnapa TOW <cdor/yiov ^feA^aro 6 0eo? tva xarai-
<rxun? T°"? tro^ow?.
Tit 1 15 irdvra piv Kadapa. rols <ca0apot$.
1 ThesB. 2 15. TWV «at TOV m/ptov dvorrci-
12.35. «"<TT«a<rav
yttfvai
18:1: ociy
ai
irp<xr«vx«<r0at
90:16:
20:88:
ydp «vnf
21 : 24 : «ai 'Icpovo'aA^fA larat irarwpcyi) vvb
*atpOi
Eph b . 14 . OT^T« ovv rcpi^hxraftcvoi T"
ixr$vv v^Stv iv aAi}0ctf .
2 Thess 1 . 11 etc & KOI vpo<revx^|tc0a vay-
rore Col 4 12: natnore ayvvi^otitvos virip
v|M0v ^ raTf irpoaevx«i«. Comp. 1 Them. 5:1,
7, Horn 1.10.
Rom 9.14; 11.11; Gel 3:21.
Rom. 14 . 7, 8. &y re -ydp ^wfter, ry
gwpcv. Comp 2 Cor. 5 15.
Rom. 11 . 25 . OTI rwp*xrt? r<ji *I<rpaijA ytf)«
oC rb irAi)pa»fM
668 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
GENUINENESS.1
The genuineness of Luke is above reasonable doubt. The
character of the Gospel agrees perfectly with what we might
expect from the author as far as we know him from the Acts
and the Epistles. No other writer answers the description.
The external evidence is not so old and clear as that in favor
of Matthew and Mark. Papias makes no mention of Luke. Per-
haps he thought it unnecessary, because Luke himself in the pre-
face gives an account of the origin and aim of his book. The
allusions in Barnabas, Clement of Rome, and Ilermas are vague
and uncertain. But other testimonies are sufficient for the pur-
pose. Irenseus in Gaul says : " Luke, the companion of Paul,
committed to writing the gospel preached by the latter." The
Muratori fragment which contains the Italian traditions of the
canon, mentions the Gospel of "Luke, the physician, whom
Paul had associated with himself as one zealous for righteous-
ness, to be his companion, who had not seen the Lord in the
flesh, but having carried his inquiries as far back as possible,
began his history with the birth of John." Justin Martyr
makes several quotations from Luke, though he does not name
him.1 This brings us up to the year 140 or 130. The Gospel
is found in all ancient manuscripts and translations.
The heretical testimony of Marcion from tlie year 140 is like-
wise conclusive. It was always supposed that his Gospel, the
only one he recognized, was a mutilation of Luke, and this view
is now confirmed and finally established by the investigations
and concessions of the very school which for a short time had
endeavored to reverse the order by making Marcion's caricature
the original of Luke.1 The pseudo-Clementine Homilies and
1 See the ancient testimonies in Charteris's Kirchhofer, I c , 154 sqq.
* Freely admitted by Zeller, Davidson (I. 444), and others of that school.
8 Even the author of " Supernatural Religion" was forced at last to surren-
der to the arguments of Dr. Sanday, in 1875, after the question had already
been settled years before in Germany by Hilgenfeld (1850) and Volkmar (1852).
Davidson also (Introd., new ed., I. 446) admits- u There is no doubt that
Marcion had the Gospel of Luke, which he adapted to his own ideas by arbi-
§ 82. LUKE.
Recognitions quote from Luke. Basilides and Valentinus and
their followers used all the four Gospels, and are reported to
have quoted Luke 1 : 35 for their purpose.
Celsus must have had Luke in view when he referred to the
genealogy of Christ as being traced to Adam.
CREDIBILITY.
The credibility of Luke has been assailed on the ground that
he shaped the history by his motive and aim to harmonize the
Petrine and Pauline, or the Jewish-Christian and the Gentile-
Christian parties of the church. But the same critics contradict
themselves by discovering, on the other hand, strongly Judaizing
and even Ebionitic elements in Luke, and thus make it an inco-
herent mosaic or clumsy patchwork of moderate Paulinism and
Ebionism, or they arbitrarily assume different revisions through
which it passed without being unified in plan.
Against this misrepresentation we have to say : (1) An irenic
spirit, such as we may freely admit in the writings of Luke, does
not imply an alteration or invention of facts. On the contrary,
it is simply an unsectarian, catholic spirit which aims at the
truth and nothing but the truth, and which is the first duty and
virtue of an historian. (2) Luke certainly did not invent those
marvellous parables and discourses which have been twisted into
subserviency to the tendency hypothesis ; else Luke would have
had a creative genius of the highest order, equal to that of Jesus
himself, while he modestly professes to be simply a faithful
collector of actual facts. (3) Paul himself did not invent his
type of doctrine, but received it, according to his own solemn
asseveration, by revelation from Jesus Christ, who called him to
the apostleship of the Gentiles. (4) It is now generally ad-
mitted that the Tubingen hypothesis of the difference between
the two types and parties in the apostolic church is greatly over-
strained and set aside by Paul's own testimony in the Galatians,
which is as irenic and conciliatory to the pillar-apostles as it is
trary treatment. He lived before Justin, about A.D. 140, and is the earliest
writer from whom we learn the existence of the Gospel"
670 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
uncompromisingly polemic against the " false " brethren, or the
heretical Judaizers. (5) Some of the strongest anti-Jewish and
pro-Gentile testimonies of Christ are found in Matthew and
omitted by Luke/
The accuracy of Luke has already been spoken of, and has
been well vindicated by Godet against Kenan in several minor
details. "While remaining quite independent of the other
three, the Gospel of Luke is confirmed and supported by them
all."
TIME OF COMPOSITION.
There are strong indications that the third Gospel was com-
posed (not published) between 58 and 63, before the close of
Paul's Roman captivity. No doubt it took several years to
collect and digest the material ; and the book was probably not
published, i.e., copied and distributed, till after the death of Paul,
at the same time with the Acts, which forms the second part
and is dedicated to the same patron. In this way the conflict-
ing accounts of Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus may be
harmonized.8
1 Davidson still adheres to this exploded Tubingen view in his new edition
(1.467): "Luke wished to bring Judaism [sic!] and Paulinism together m
the sphere of comprehensive Christianity, where the former would merge into
the latter In conformity with this purpose, he describes the irreconcilable
opposition between Jesus and his opponents." As if Matthew and Mark and
John did not precisely the same thing. He even repeats the absurd fiction of
Baur, which was refuted long ago, not only by Godet, but even in part at least
by Zeller, Holtzmann, and Keim, that Lnke had " the obvious tendency to
depreciate the twelve, in comparison with the seventy " (p 409). Baur de-
rived the chief proof of ap alleged hostility of Luke to Peter from his omission
of the famous passage, 4t Thou art Rock ," but Mark omits it likewise; and
Luke, on the other hand, ifl the only Evangelist who records the word of
Christ to Peter, ch. 22 82, on which the Romanists base the dogma of papal
infallibility
9 The critics differ widely as to the date of composition (1) For a date prior
to A D. 70 are all the older divines, also Lange, Ebrard, Guericke, van Ooster-
aee, Godet (60-67), Thiersoh (58-40), Alford (58), Riddle (60). (2) For a date
between 70 and 90: De Wette, Bleek Reuss Holtzmann, Glider, Meyer,
Weiss (70-80), Keim, Abbott (80-90). (8) For A D. 100 and later • Hilgenfeld
and Volkmar (100), Zeller and Davidson (100-110). The date of Baur, A.D
140, is perfectly wild and made impossible by the clear testimonies of Justin
§ 82. LUKE. 671
1. Luke had the best leisure for literary composition during
the four years of Paul's imprisonment at Ceesarea and Rome.
In Csesarea he was within easy reach of the surviving eye-
witnesses and classical spots of the gospel history, and we cannot
biippose that he neglected the opportunity.
2. The Gospel was written before the book of Acts, which
expressly refers to it as the first treatise inscribed to the same
Theophilus (1 : 1). As the Acts come down to the second year
of Paul's captivity in Eome, they cannot have been finished
before A.D. 63 ; but as they abruptly break off without any men-
tion of Paul's release or martyrdom, it seems quite probable
that they were concluded before the fate of the apostle was de-
cided one way or the other, unless the writer was, like Mark,
prevented by some event, perhaps the Neronian persecution,
from giving his book the natural conclusion. In its present
shape it excites in the reader the greatest curiosity, which could
have been gratified with a few words, either that the apostle
bealed his testimony with his blood, or that he entered upon
new missionary tours East and West until at last he finished his
course after a second captivity in Rome. I may add that the
entire absence of any allusion in the Acts to any of Paul's Epis-
tles can be easily explained by the assumption of a nearly con-
temporaneous composition, while it seems almost unaccountable
if we assume an interval of ten or twenty years.
3. Luke's ignorance of Matthew and probably also of Mark
points likewise to an early date of composition. A careful in-
vestigator, like Luke, writing after the year 70, could hardly
have overlooked, among his many written sources, such an im-
portant document as Matthew which the best critics put before
A.D. 70.
4. Clement of Alexandria has preserved a tradition that the
Gospels containing the genealogies, i.e., Matthew and Luke,
were written first Irenseus, it is true, puts the third Gospel
Martyr and Maroion. Henoe he was unwilling to retract in toto his former
view about the priority of Marcion's Gospel, though he felt obliged to do it in
part (Ittrchenfftieh., 1. 75 and 78).
672 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
after Matthew and Mark and after the death of Peter and Paul,
that is, after 64 (though certainly not after 70). If the Synoptic
Gospels were written nearly simultaneously, we can easily ac-
count for these differences in the tradition. Ireneeus was no
better informed on dates than Clement, and was evidently mis-
taken about the age of Christ and the date of the Apocalypse.
But he may have had in view the time of publication, which
must not be confounded with the date of composition. Many
books nowadays are withheld from the market for some reason
months or years after they have passed through the hands of
the printer.
The objections raised against such an early date are not well
founded.1
The prior existence of a number of fragmentary Gospels im-
plied in 1 : 1 need not surprise us ; for such a story as that of
Jesus of Nazareth must have set many pens in motion at a very
early time. " Though the art of writing had not existed," says
Lange, " it would have been invented for such a theme."
1 Dr. Abbott, of London (in "Enc. Brit ," X 813, of the ninth ed., 1879),
discovers no less than ten reasons for the later date of Luke, eight of them
in the preface alone "(1) the pro-existence and implied failure of many
4 attempts ' to set forth continuous narratives of the things ' surely believed , '
(2) the mention of ' tradition* of the eye-witnesses and ministers of the word
as past, not as present (irap&o<roi>, 1:2); (3) the dedication of the Gospel to
a man of rank (fictitious or otherwise), who is supposed to have been * cate-
chized ' in Christian truth ; (4) the attempt at literary style and at improve-
ment of the * usus ecclesiasticus ' of the common tradition ; (5) the composi-
tion of something like a commencement of a Christian hymnology ; (6) the
development of the genealogy and the higher tone of the narrative of the
incarnation; (7) the insertion of many passages mentioning our Lord as
6 icvpios, not in address, but in narrative; (8) the distinction, more sharply
drawn, between the fall of Jerusalem and the final coming ; (9) the detailed
prediction of the fall of Jerusalem, implying reminiscences of its fulfilment ;
(10) the very great development of the manifestations of Jesus after the resur-
rection The inference from all this evidence would be that Luke was not
written till about A.D 80 at earliest. If it could be further demonstrated that
Luke used any Apocryphal book (Judith, for example), and if it could be shown
that the book in question was written after a certain date (Renan suggests
A.D. 80 for the date of the book of Judith), it might be necessary to place
Lake much later ; but no such demonstration has been hitherto produced "
Bat moat of these arguments are set aside by the 4/ur in 1 : 2, which includes
§ 82. LUKE. 673
Of more weight is the objection that Lnke seems to have
shaped the eschatological prophecies of Christ so as to suit the
fulfilment by bringing in the besieging (Koman) army, and by
interposing u the times of the Gentiles " between the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem and the end of the world (19 : 43, 44; 21: 20-
24). This would put the composition after the destruction of
Jerusalem, say between 70 and 80, if not later.1 But such an
intentional change of the words of our Lord is inconsistent with
the unquestionable honesty of the historian and his reverence
for the words of the Divine teacher.2 Moreover, it is not borne
out by the facts. For the other Synoptists likewise speak of
wars and the abomination of desolation in the holy place, which
refers to the Jewish wars and the Koman eagles (Matt. 24 : 15 ;
Mark 13 : 14). Luke makes the Lord say : " Jerusalem shall be
trodden down by the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled" (21:24). But Matthew does the same when he
the writer among those who heard the gospel story from the eye-witnesses of
the life of Christ. It is also evident from the Acts that the writer, who is
identical with the third Evangelist, was an intimate companion of Paul, and
hence belonged to the first generation of disciples, which includes all the
converts of the apostles from the day of Pentecost down to the destruction of
Jerusalem.
1 Keim (I 70) thus eloquently magnifies this little difference : u Anders ok
dan Matthasus steJti diesem SchriftsteUer [Lnkas] das WirkUchkttisbttd der Ka-
tastrqphe der lieiligen Stadt in seiner ganzen schrecKKehen Orosse vor der Seele,
dte langwie-rige und kunstwlle Bdagerung des Feindes, die Heere, die befestigten
Lager, der Ring der Absperrung, die tausend Bedr&ngnisse, die Bhttarbeit des
Schwerts, die Oefangenfuhrung des VoUcs, der Tempel, die Stadt dem Boden
gleich, AUes unter dem ernsten Oesichtspunkt fines JStrafgencJites Gottes fur
die Ermordung des Gesandten. Ja uber die Catastrophe Mnavs, die dusserste
Perspective des ersten EvangeKsten, dehnt sich dem neuen Qeschichtschreiber
eine neue unbestimmbar grosse Periode der Trummerlage Jerusalem* unter dem
ehernen Tritt der Heiden und heidnischer Weteeiten, innerhalb deren er selber
tehreibt. Unter sokhen Umstanden hat die grosse Zukunftsrede Jesu bei aUer
torgfalt, die wesentlieAen ZHge,6ogar die Wiederkunft in dtoem 'QesMecht* stu
halttn, die mannigfaltigsten Aenderungen erlitten.n The same argument is
urged more soberly by Holtzmann (Syn. Zhang., 406 sq.), and even by GO der
(in Henog, IX. 19) and Weiss (in Meyer, 6th ed., p. 348), but they assume
that Luke wrote only a few years after Matthew.
• u It is psychologically impossible," says Oodet (p. 548), "that Lake should
have indulged in manipulating at pleasure the sayings of that Being on whom
his faith was fixed, whom he regarded as the Son of God. "
674 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
reports that Christ predicted and commanded the preaching of
the gospel of the kingdom in all parts of the world before the
end can come (Matt. 24:14; 28:19; comp. Mark 16:15).
And even Paul said, almost in the same words as Luke, twelve
years before the destruction of Jerusalem : " Blindness is hap-
pened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in "
(Eom. 11 : 25). Must we therefore put the composition of
Romans after A.D. 70? On the other hand, Luke reports as
clearly as Matthew and Mark the words of Christ, that " this
generation shall not pass away till all things" (the preceding
prophecies) u shall be fulfilled " (21 : 32). Why did he not omit
this passage if he intended to interpose a larger space of time
between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the
world ?
The eschatological discourses of our Lord, then, are essentially
the same in all the Synoptists, and present the same difficulties,
which can only be removed by assuming : (1) that they refer
both to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world,
two analogous events, the former being typical of the latter ;
(2) that the two events, widely distant in time, are represented
in close proximity of space after the manner of prophetic vision
in a panoramic picture. We must also remember that the pre-
cise date of the end of the world was expressly disclaimed even
by the Son of God in the days of his humiliation (Matt. 24 : 36 ;
Mark 13 : 32), and is consequently beyond the reach of human
knowledge and calculation. The only difference is that Luke
more clearly distinguishes the two events by dividing the pro-
phetical discourses and assigning them to different occasions
(17 : 20-37 and 21 : 5-33) ; and here, as in other cases, he is
probably more exact and in harmony with several hints of our
Lord that a considerable interval must elapse between the catas-
trophe of Jerusalem and the final catastrophe of the world.
PLACE OF COMPOSITION.
The third Gospel gives no hint as to the place of composition.
Ancient tradition is uncertain, and modern critics are divided
§ 83. JOHN. 675
between Greece,1 Alexandria,* Ephesus,' Ceesarea/ Home.* It
was probably written in sections during the longer residence of
the author at Philippi, Csesarea, and Rome, but we cannot tell
where it was completed and published.6
§ 83. John.
See Literature on John, § 40, pp. 405 sqq. ; Life and Character of John,
§§ 41-43, pp. 411 Bqq. ; Theology of John, § 72, pp. 549 sqq.
The best comes last. The fourth Gospel is the Gospel of
Gospels, the holy of holies in the New Testament. The favorite
disciple and bosom friend of Christ, the protector of his mother,
the survivor of the apostolic age was pre-eminently qualified by
nature and grace to give to the church the inside view of that
most wonderful person that ever walked on earth. In his early
youth lie had absorbed the deepest words of his Master, and
treasured them in a faithful heart ; in extreme old age, yet with
the fire and vigor of manhood, he reproduced them under the
influence of the Holy Spirit who dwelt in him and led him, as
well as the other disciples, into u the whole truth."
His Gospel is the golden sunset of the age of inspiration, and
sheds its lustre into the second and all succeeding centuries of
the church. It was written at Ephesus when Jerusalem lay in
ruins, when the church had finally separated from the syna-
gogue, when " the Jews " and the Christians were two distinct
races, when Jewish and Gentile believers- had melted into a
homogeneous Christian community, a little band in a hostile
1 Jerome • Achaia and Boeotia ; Hilgenfeld (in 1858) • Achaia or Macedonia ;
Godet (m his first ed.) Corinth, in the house of Gums (Rom. 16 . 23), hut
more indefinitely in the second ed. Achaia
* The Peshito, which gives the title • " Gospel of Luke the Evangelist, which
he published and preached in Greek in Alexandria the Great.1'
Kostlin and Overbeck, also Hilgenfeld in 1875 (Einleit., p. 612).
4 Michaelis, Kuinol, Sohott, Thiersoh, and others.
1 Hug, Ewald, Zeller, Holtzraann, Keim, Davidson.
• Weiss, in the sixth ed. of Meyer (p. 244) " Wo das Evang. ge&chritben Hi,
unbdcannt."
676 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
world, yet strong in faith, full of hope and joy, and certain of
victory.
For a satisfactory discussion of the difficult problems involved
in this Gospel and its striking contrast with the Synoptic Gos-
pels, we must keep in view the fact that Christ communed wit!'
the apostles after as well as before his visible departure, and
spoke to them through that " other Advocate " whom he sent to
them from the Father, and who brought to remembrance all
things he had said unto them.1 Here lies the guarantee of the
truthfulness of a picture which no human artist could have
drawn without divine inspiration. Under any other view the
fourth Gospel, and indeed the whole New Testament, becomes
the strangest enigma in the history of literature and incapable
of any rational solution.
JOHN AND THE SYNOPTISTS.
If John wrote long after the Synoptists, we could, of course,
not expect from him a repetition of the story already so well
told by three independent witnesses. But what is surprising is
the fact that, coming last, he should produce the most original
of all the Gospels.
The transition from Matthew to Mark, and from Mark to
Luke is easy and natural; but in passing from any of the
Synoptists to the fourth Gospel we breathe a different atmos-
phere, and feel as if we were suddenly translated from a fertile
valley to the height of a mountain with a boundless vision over
new scenes of beauty and grandeur. We look in vain for a
genealogy of Jesus, for an account of his birth, for the sermons
of the Baptist, for the history of the temptation in the wilder-
ness, the baptism in the Jordan, and the transfiguration on the
Mount, for a list of the Twelve, for the miraculous cures of
demoniacs. John says nothing of the institution of the church
and the sacraments ; though he is full of the mystical union and
communion which is the essence of the church, and presents the
spiritual meaning of baptism and the Lord's Supper (ch. 3 and 6).
1 John 14 : 26; 16 : 18. Comp. Matt 10 : 10, 20; Luke 12 : 12; Act* 4 : 8.
§ 83. JOHN. 677
He omits the ascension, though it is promised through Mary
Magdalene (20 : 17). He has not a word of the Sermon on the
Mount, and the Lord's Prayer, none of the inimitable parables
about the kingdom of heaven, none of those telling answers
to the entangling questions of the Pharisees. He omits the
prophecies of the downfall of Jerusalem and the end of the
world, and most of those proverbial, moral sentences and maxims
of surpassing wisdom which are strung together by the Synop-
tists like so many sparkling diamonds.
But in the place of these Synoptical records John gives us an
abundance of new matter of equal, if not greater, interest and
importance. Right at the threshold we are startled, as by a
peal of thunder from the depths of eternity : " In the beginning
was the Word." And as we proceed we hear about the creation
of the world, the shining of the true light in darkness, the pre-
paratory revelations, the incarnation of the Logos, the testi-
mony of the Baptist to the Lamb of God. We listen with in-
creasing wonder to those mysterious discourses about the new
birth of the Spirit, the water of life, the bread of life from
heaven, about the relation of the eternal and only-begotten
Son to the Father, to the world, and to believers, the mission of
the Holy Spirit, the promise of the many mansions in heaven,
the farewell to the disciples, and at last that sacerdotal prayer
which brings us nearest to the throne and the beating heart of
God. John alone reports the interviews with Nicodemus, the
woman of Samaria, and the Greek foreigners. He records six
miracles not mentioned by the Synoptists, and among them the
two greatest — the changing of water into wine and the raising
of Lazarus from the grave. And where he meets the Synop-
tists, as in the feeding of the five thousand, he adds the mys-
terious discourse on the spiritual feeding of believers by the
bread of life which has been going on ever since. He makes
the nearest approach to his predecessors in the closing chapters
on the betrayal, the denial of Peter, the trial before the eccle-
siastical and civil tribunals, the crucifixion and resurrection, but
even here he is more exact and circumstantial, and adds inter-
678 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
esting details which bear the unmistakable marks of personal
observation.
He fills out the ministry of Christ in Judaea, among the
hierarchy and the people of Jerusalem, and extends it over
three years ; while the Synoptists seem to confine it to one year
and dwell chiefly on his labors among the peasantry of Galilee
But on close inspection John leaves ample room for the Gali
laean, and the Synoptists for the Judaean ministry. None of the
Gospels is a complete biography. John expressly disclaims this
(20 : 31). Matthew implies repeated visits to the holy city when
he makes Christ exclaim : " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how
often would I have gathered thy children together " (23 : 37 ;
comp. 27 : 57). On the other hand John records several mira-
cles in Cana, evidently only as typical examples of many (2 : 1
sqq. ; 4 : 47 sqq. ; 6 : 1 sqq.). But in Jerusalem the great con-
flict between light and darkness, belief and unbelief, was most
fully developed and matured to the final crisis ; and this it was
one of his chief objects to describe.
The differences between John and the Synoptists are many
and great, but there are no contradictions.
THE OCCASION.
Irenseus, who, as a native of Asia Minor and a spiritual
grand-pupil of John, is entitled to special consideration, says :
" Afterward" [i.e., after Matthew, Mark, and Luke] u John,
the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon his breast,
did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in
Asia."1 In another place he makes the rise of the Gnostic
heresy the prompting occasion of the composition.8
A carious tradition, which probably contains a grain of truth,
traces the composition to a request of John's fellow-disciples
and elders of Ephesus. " Fast with me," said John, according
to the Muratorian fragment (170), " for three days' from this
time" [when the request was made], "and whatever shall be
revealed to each of us " [concerning my composing the Gospel],
1 Adv. Hcsr., III., cap. 1, § 2. • Ibid., IIL 11, 1.
§ 83. JOHN. 679
"let us relate it to one another. On the same night it was re-
vealed to Andrew, one of the apostles, that John should relate
all things in his own name, aided by the revision of all.1 . . .
What wonder is it then that John brings forward every detail
with so much emphasis, even in his Epistles, saying of himself,
What we have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and
our hands have handled, these things have we written unto you.
For so he professes that he was not only an eye-witness, but
also a hearer, and moreover a writer of all the wonderful works
of the Lord in their historical order." *
The mention of Andrew in this fragment is remarkable, for
he was associated with John as a pupil of the Baptist and as the
first called to the school of Christ (John 1 : 35-40). He was
also prominent in other ways and stood next to the beloved
three, or even next to his brother Peter in the catalogues of the
apostles.'
Victorinus of Pettau (d. about 304), in the Scholia on the
Apocalypse, says that John wrote the Gospel after the Apoca-
lypse, in consequence of the spread of the Gnostic heresy and
at the request of " all the bishops from the neighboring prov-
inces." *
Jerome, on the basis of a similar tradition, reports that John,
being constrained by his brethren to write, consented to do so if
all joined in a fast and prayer to God, and after this fast, being
saturated with revelation (revdatione saturatus\ he indited the
heaven-sent preface : " In the beginning was the Word." *
1 " Ut recognoscentibus omnibus, Joannes suo nomine euneta deseriberet "
* "8kenim non solum vtiorem, sed et auditorem, sed it scriptorem omnium
mirabttum Domini per ordinem profltetur." See the Latin text as published
by Tregelles, also in Charteris, lc., p. 3, and the translation of Westcott, His-
tory of the Canon, p. 187.
1 Matt. 10 : 2 ; Luke 6 • 14; Mark 3 : 16 ; 13 : 3 ; Johnl : 41 ; 12 . 22 ; Acts
1:13.
4 Quoted by Westoott and Hilgenf eld. I will add the original from Migne,
Patrol , V. 333 t4 Cum enim e**ent Valentinus et Cerinthus, et Ebion, et ca>ter\
aeJtota satana diffutti per oroem, convenerunt ad ilium de flnitimis provinc&t
amnes episcopi, et campulerunt eum, ut et ipse testimoittum contcriberet."
» Preface to Cam. in Matt.
680 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Possibly those fellow-disciples and pupils who prompted John
to write his Gospel, were the same who afterward added their
testimony to the genuineness of the book, speaking in the
plural (" we know that his witness is true," 21 : 24), one of
them acting as scribe ("/suppose," ver. 25).
The outward occasion does not exclude, of course, the inward
prompting by the Holy Spirit, which is in fact implied in this
tradition, but it shows how far the ancient church was from
such a mechanical theory of inspiration as ignores or denies the
human and natural factors in the composition of the apostolic
writings. The preface of Luke proves the same.
THE OBJECT.
The fourth Gospel does not aim at a complete biography of
Christ, but distinctly declares that Jesus wrought " many other
signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in
this book" (20 : 30 ; comp. 21 : 25).
The author plainly states his object, to which all other ob-
jects must be subordinate as merely incidental, namely, to lead
his readers to the faith " that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God; and that • believing they may have life in his name"
(20 : 31). This includes three points : (1) the Messiahship of
Jesus, which was of prime importance to the Jews, and was the
sole or at least the chief aim of Matthew, the Jewish Evan-
gelist ; (2) the Divine Sonship of Jesus, which was the point
to be gained with the Gentiles, and which Luke, the Gentile
Evangelist, had also in view ; (3) the practical benefit of such
faith, to gain true, spiritual, eternal life in Him and through
Him who is the personal embodiment and source of eternal
life.
To this historico-didactic object all others which have been
mentioned must be subordinated. The book is neither polemic
and apologetic, nor supplementary, nor irenic, except incident-
ally and unintentionally, as it serves all these purposes. The
writer wrote in full view of the condition and needs of the
church at the close of the first century, and shaped his record
§ 83. JOHN. 681
accordingly, taking for granted a general knowledge of the older
Gospels, and refuting indirectly, by the statement of facts and
truths, the errors of the day. Hence there is some measure of
truth in those theories which have made an incidental aim the
chief or only aim of the book.
1. The anti-heretical theory was started by Irenaeus. Being
himself absorbed in the controversy with Gnosticism and find-
ing the strongest weapons in John, he thought that John's
motive was to root out the error of Cerinthus and of the Nico-
laitans by showing that " there is one God who made all things
by his word ; and not, as they say, one who made the world,
and another, the Father of the Lord." ! Jerome adds the oppo-
site error of Ebionisrn, Ewald that of the disciples of the Bap-
tist.
No doubt the fourth Gospel, by the positive statement of the
truth, is the most effective refutation of Gnostic dualism and
doketism, which began to raise its head in Asia Minor toward
the close of the first century. It shows the harmony of the
ideal Christ of faith and the real Christ of history, which the
ancient and modern schools of Gnosticism are unable to unite in
one individual. But it is not on this account a polemical trea-
tise, and it even had by its profound speculation a special attrac-
tion for Gnostics and philosophical rationalists, from Basilides
down to Baur. The ancient Gnostics made the first use of it
and quoted freely from the prologue, e.g., the passage: "The
true light, which enlighteneth every man, was coming into the
world "(1:9).'
The polemical aim is more apparent in the first Epistle of
John, which directly warns against the anti-Christian errors
then threatening the church, and may be called a doctrinal and
practical postscript to the Gospel.
2. The supplementary theory. Clement of Alexandria (about
200) states, on the authority of " presbyters of an earlier genera-
tion," that John, at the request of his friends and the prompt-
ing of the divine Spirit, added a spiritual Gospel to the older
1 Adv. Hear., III. 11, 1. f Basffldes in Hippolytus, Kef. HOST., VII. 28.
682 FIEST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
bodily Gospels which set forth the outward facts.1 The dis-
tinction is ingenious. John is more spiritual and ideal than the
Synoptists, and he represents as it were the esoteric tradition as
distinct from the exoteric tradition of the church, Eusebius re-
cords also as a current opinion that John intended to supply an
account of the earlier period of Christ's ministry which was
omitted by the other Evangelists.* John is undoubtedly a most
welcome supplementer both in matter and spirit, and furnishes
in part the key for the full understanding of the Synoptists,
yet he repeats many important events, especially in the closing
chapters, and his Gospel is as complete as any.*
3. The Irenic tendency-theory is a modern Tubingen inven-
tion. It is assumed that the fourth Gospel is purely speculative
or theological, the last and crowning literary production which
completed the process of unifying Jewish and Gentile Chris-
tianity and melting them into the one Catholic church of the
second century.
No doubt it is an Irenicon of the church in the highest and
best sense of the term, and a prophecy of the church of the
future, when all discords of Christendom past and present will
be harmonized in the perfect union of Christians with Christ,
which is the last object of his sacerdotal prayer. But it is not
an Irenicon at the expense of truth and facts.
1 In Eusebms, // E. , VI. 14 (quoting from the Hypotypoaes) rbr 'l
fin rk a>a>/LcaT/tf& & rots (vayy(\tots $c$^\a>rcu trporpairfyra
[i &, either well known friends, or distinguished \ notable
&€o<popT]blyTa, TrvevfjLaTticbv voiijffai cvayyf\iov 0 rig en had a similar
view, namely, that John alone among the Evangelists clearly teaches the
divinity of Christ. Tom. 1 6 in Joan (Opp , IV. 6;.
2 H E , III. 24. Jerome repeats this view and connects it with the anti-
heretical aim, De vir tUustr., c 9, comp Com in Matt Proem Theodore
of MopRuestia thought that John intended to supplement the Synoptists chiefly
by the discourses on the divinity of Christ. See Fritzsohe's ed. of fragments
of his Commentaries on the New Test., Turici, p. 19 sq. (quoted by Hilgen-
feld, Kinleitung, p. 696).
3 Godet expresses the same view (I. 862) : " Cette intention de completer lei
recite anterieurs, soft au point de vue hwtorique, comme Va, pente Eusebe, soit
tow un rapport plus spiritual, comme Va declare Clement <T Alexandrie, est done
parfaitement fondee en fait ; nous la conttatonB eomme un but leoondairc et,
pour mieux dire^ comme moyen $ervant au but principal."
§ 83. JOHN. 683
In carrying out their hypothesis the Tubingen critics have re-
sorted to the wildest fictions. It is said that the author depre-
ciated the Mosaic dispensation and displayed jealousy of Peter.
How in the world could this promote peace ? It would rather
have defeated the object. But there is no shadow of proof for
such an assertion. While the author opposes the unbelieving
Jews, he shows the highest reverence for the Old Testament,
and derives salvation from the Jews. Instead of showing
jealousy of Peter, he introduces his new name at the first inter-
view with Jesus (1 : 42), reports his great confession even more
fully than Matthew (6 : 68, 69), puts him at the head of the list
of the apostles (21 : 2), and gives him his due prominence
throughout down to the last interview when the risen Lord
committed to him the feeding of his sheep (21 : 15-19). This
misrepresentation is of a piece with the other Tubingen myth
adopted by Renan, that the real John in the Apocalypse pur-
sues a polemical aim against Paul and deliberately excludes him
from the rank of the twelve Apostles. And yet Paul himself,
in the acknowledged Epistle to the Galatians, represents John
as one of the three pillar-apostles who recognized his peculiar
gift for the apostolate of the Gentiles and extended to him the
right hand of fellowship.
ANALYSIS.
The object of John determined the selection and arrange-
ment of the material. His plan is more clear and systematic
than that of the Synoptists. It brings out the growing conflict
between belief and unbelief, between light and darkness, and
leads step by step to the great crisis of the cross, and to the
concluding exclamation of Thomas, " My Lord and my God."
In the following analysis the sections peculiar to John are
marked by a star.
*L THE PROLOGUE. The theme of the Gospel : the Logos,
the eternal Eevealer of God :
(1.) In relation to God, 1 : 1, 2.
(2.) In relation to the world. General revelation, 1 : 3-5.
684 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(3.) In relation to John the Baptist and the Jewa
Particular revelation, 1 : 6-13.
(4.) The incarnation of the Logos, and its effect
upon the disciples, 1 : 14-18.
IL THE PUBLIC MANIFESTATION OF THE INCARNATE LOGOS IN
ACTIVE WORD AND WORK, 1 : 19 to 12 : 50.
*(1.) The preparatory testimony of John the Bap-
tist pointing to Jesus as the promised and
expected Messiah, and as the Lamb of God
that bearetli the sin of the world, 1 : 19-37.
*(2.) The gathering of the first disciples, 1 : 38-51.
*(3.) The first sign : the changing of water into wine
at Cana in Galilee, 2 : 1-11. First sojourn
in Capernaum, 2 : 12. First Passover and
journey to Jerusalem during the public
ministry, 2 : 13.
*(4.) The reformatory cleansing of the Temple,
2:14r-22. (Recorded also by the Synop-
tists, but at the close of the public minis-
try.) Labors among the Jews in Jerusalem,
2 : 23-25.
*(5.) Conversation with Nicodemus, representing the
timid disciples, the higher classes among the
Jews. Regeneration the condition of en-
tering into the kingdom of God, 3 : 1-15.
The love of God in the sending of his Son
to save the world, 3 : 16-21. (Jerusalem.)
*(6.) Labors of Jesus in Judaea. The testimony of
John the Baptist : He must increase, but I
must decrease, 3 : 22-36. (Departure of
Jesus into Galilee after John's imprison-
ment, 4 : 1-3 ; comp. Matt. 4 : 12 ; Mark
1:14; Luke 4: 14.)
*(7.) Labors in Samaria on the journey from Judaea
to Galilee. The woman of Samaria ; Jacob's
well; the water of life ; the worship of God
§ 83. JOHN. 686
the Spirit in spirit and in truth ; the fields
ripening for the harvest, 4 : 1-42.
Jesus teaches publicly in Galilee, 4 : 43-
45 (comp. Matt. 4 : 17 ; Mark 1 : 14, 15 ;
Luke 4 : 14, 15).
*(8.) Jesus again visits Cana in Galilee and heals a
nobleman's son at Capernaum, 4 : 46-54.
*(9.) Second journey to Jerusalem at a feast (the
second Passover ?). The healing of the in-
firm man at the pool of Bethesda on the
Sabbath, 5 : 1-18. Beginning of the hos-
tility of the Jews. Discourse of Christ on
his relation to the Father, and his authority
to judge the world, 5 : 19-47.
(10.) The feeding of the five thousand, 6 : 1-14.
The stilling of the tempest, 6 : 15-21.
* The mysterious discourse in Capernaum
on the bread of life ; the sifting of the dis-
ciples ; the confession of Peter : " To whom
shall we go," etc. ; the hinting at the trea-
son of Judas, 6 : 22-71.
*(11.) Third visit to Jerusalem, at the feast of the Ta-
bernacles. The hasty request of the brethren
of Jesus who did not believe on him. His
discourse in the Temple with opposite effect.
Rising hostility of the Jews, and vain ef-
forts of the hierarchy to seize him as a false
teacher misleading the people, 7 : 1-52.
[*(12m.) The woman taken in adultery and pardoned
by Jesus, 7: 53 to 8: 11. Jerusalem. Prob-
ably an interpolation from oral tradition,
authentic and true, but not from the pen
of John. Also found at the end, and at
Luke 21.]
*(12b.) Discourse on the light of the world. The
children of God and the children of the
686 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
devil. Attempts to stone Jesus, 8 : 12-
59.
*(13.) The healing of the man born blind, on a Sab-
bath, and his testimony before the Phari-
sees, 9 : 1-41.
*(14.) The parable of the good shepherd, 10 : 1-21.
Speech at the feast of Dedication in Solo-
mon's porch, 10 : 22-39. Departure to the
country beyond the Jordan, 10 : 40-42.
*(15.) The resurrection of Lazarus at Bethany, and
its effect upon hastening the crisis. The
counsel of Caiaphas. Jesus retires from
Jerusalem to Ephraim, 11 : 1-57.
(16.) The anointing by Mary in Bethany, 12 : 1-8.
The counsel of the chief priests, 12 : 9-11.
(17.) The entry into Jerusalem, 12 : 12-19. (Comp.
Matt. 21 : 1-17 ; Mark 11 : 1-11 ; Luke
19 : 29-44.)
*(18.) Visit of the Greeks. Discourse of Jesus on
the grain of wheat which must die to bear
fruit ; the voice from heaven ; the attraction
of the cross; the opposite effect; reflec-
tion of the Evangelist; summary of the
speeches of Jesus, 12 : 20-50.
HI. THE PRIVATE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST IN THE CIRCLE
OF HIS DISCIPLES. During the fourth and last Pass-
over week. Jerusalem, 13 : 1 to 17 : 26.
*(1.) Jesus washes the feet of the disciples before
the Passover meal, 13 : 1-20.
(2.) He announces the traitor, 13 : 21-27. The de-
parture of Judas, 13 : 27-30.
*(3.) The new commandment of love, 13 : 31-35.
(Here is the best place for the institution of
the Lord's Supper, omitted by John, but
reported by all the Synoptists and by Paul.)
(4.) Prophecy of Peter's denial, 13 : 36-38.
§ 83. JOHN. 687
*(5.) The farewell discourses to the disciples; the
promise of the Paraclete, and of Christ's
return, 14 : 1 to 16 : 33.
*(4.) The Sacerdotal Prayer, 17 : 1-26.
IV. THE GLORIFICATION OF CHKIST IN THE CRUCIFIXION AND
RESURRECTION, 18 : 1 to 20 : 31.
(1.) The passage over the Kedron, and the betrayal,
18 : 1-11.
(2.) Jesus before the high priests, Annas and Caia-
phas, 18 : 12-14, 19-24.
(3.) Peter's denial, 18 : 15-18, 25-27.
(4.) Jesus before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate,
18 : 28 to 19 : 16. Original in part (19 : 4-16).
(5.) The crucifixion, 19 : 17-37.
(6.) The burial of Jesus. 19 : 38-42.
(7.) The resurrection. Mary Magdalene, Peter and
John visit the empty tomb, 20 : 1-10.
(8.) Christ appears to Mary Magdalene, 20 : 11-18.
*(9.) Christ appears to the apostles, except Thomas,
on the evening of the resurrection day,
20 : 19-23.
*(10.) Christ appears to the apostles, including
Thomas, on the following Lord's Day,
20 : 26-29.
*(11.) Object of the Gospel, 20 : 30, 31.
*V. THE APPENDIX AND EPILOGUE, 21 : 1-25.
(1.) Christ appears to seven disciples on the lake of
Galilee. The third manifestation to the
disciples, 21 : 1-14.
(2.) The dialogue with Simon Peter : " Lovest thou
Me?" "Feed My sheep." "Follow Me,"
21 : 15-19.
(3.) The mysterious word about the beloved disci-
ple, 21 : 21-23.
(4.) The attestation of the authorship of the Gospel
by the pupils of John, 21 : 24, 25.
688 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
CHARACJTERISTIOS OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
The Gospel of John is the most original, the most important,
the most influential book in all literature. The great Origen
called it the crown of the Gospels, as the Gospels are the crown
of all sacred writings.1 It is pre-eminently the spiritual and
ideal, though at the same time a most real Gospel, the truest
transcript of the original. It lifts the veil from the holy of
holies and reveals the glory of the Only Begotten from the
Father, full of grace and truth. It unites in harmony the deepest
knowledge and the purest love of Christ. We hear as it were
his beating heart ; we lay our hands in his wound-prints and ex-
claim with doubting Thomas : " My Lord and my God." Xo
book is so plain and yet so deep, so natural and yet so full of
mystery. It is simple as a child and sublime as a seraph, gentle
as a lamb and bold as an eagle, deep as the sea and high as the
heavens.
It has been praised as " the unique, tender, genuine Gospel,"
"written by the hand of an angel," as "the heart of Christ,"
as " God's love-letter to the world," or " Christ's love-letter to
the church." It has exerted an irresistible charm on many of
the strongest and noblest minds in Christendom, as Origen in
Egypt, Chrysostom in Asia, Augustin in Africa, the German
Luther, the French Calvin, the poetic Herder, the critical
Schleiermacher, and a multitude of less famous writers of all
schools and shades of thought. Even many of those who doubt
or deny the apostolic authorship cannot help admiring its more
than earthly beauties.1
IV. 6 : roXprrrtov roiwv clirc?y tnrapxfa $* tratrvy •ypcup&r clvai rft
cuayy&ua, r&v 5* cvayycA/w fcrapxV rb itarA 'Iwawrjv.
9 DeWette says that the discourses of Christ in John shine with more than
earthly brilliancy (tie stralden in mehr als irdischem Brillantfeuer, Exeg Hand-
budi, I 3, p. 7). Holtzmann • " The fundamental ideas of the fourth Gospel
lie far beyond the horizon of the church in the second century, and indeed of
the whole Christian church down to the present day" (in Schenkel's '* Bibel-
Lexik ," II 234) Baur and Keim (I. 133) give the Gospel the highest praise
M a philosophy of religion, but deny it* historical value.
§ 83. JOHN. 689
But there are other sceptics who find the Johannean dis-
courses monotonous, tedious, nebulous, unmeaning, hard, and
feel as much offended by them as the original hearers.1
Let us point out the chief characteristics of this book which
distinguish it from the Synoptical Gospels.
1. The fourth Gospel is the Gospel of the INCARNATION, that
is, of the perfect union of the divine and human in the person of
Jesus of Nazareth, who for this very reason is the Saviour of the
world and the fountain of eternal life. "The Word became
flesh." This is the theoretical theme. The writer begins with
the eternal pre-existence of the Logos, and ends with the adora-
tion of his incarnate divinity ii^the exclamation of the sceptical
Thomas : " My Lord and my God ! " Luke's preface is historio-
graphic and simply points to his sources of information ; John's
prologue is metaphysical and dogmatic, and sounds the keynote
of the subsequent history. The Synoptists begin with the man
Jesus and rise up to the recognition of his Messiahship and
divine Sonship; John descends from the pre-existent Son of
God through the preparatory revelations to his incarnation and
crucifixion till he resumes the glory which he had before the
world began. The former give us the history of a divine man,
1 Renan and John Stuart MiU have confessed a strong antipathy to these
discourses Kenan's last judgment on the Gospel of John (in ISeglise chrct.,
1879, p 51) is as follows " On Va trap admire. 11 a de la ckaleur, parfois une
sorte de sublimite, mats qudque chose d'enfle, de faux, tfobsur. La naivete
manque tout d fait. L'auteur ne raconte pas ; il demontre Rien de plus
tatigant que sea longs recite de miracles tt que ces discussions, roulant sur des
malentenduS) oil les adversaires de Jesus jouent k r6le dj idiots Combien tl ce
pathos verbeux nous preferons le doux ttyle, tout hebreu encore, du Discours sur
la montagne, et cette limpidite de narration qui fait le charme des evangeliste*
pnmitifs ! Geux-ci n'ont pas besoin de repeter sans eesse que ce qu'ils racontent
est vrai. Leur sincerite, inconsciente de ^objection, rta pas cette soif febrile tfaU
testations repetees qui montre que Mncredulite, le doute, ont dejd commence.
Au ton legerement excite de ce nouveau narrateur, on dirait quJU a peur de
n'&tre pas cru, et qu'tt cherche d surprendre la religion de son lecteur par des
affirmations pleines tfempkase " John Stuart Mill (Three Essays on Religion,
p 253) irreverently calls the discourses in John " poor stuff," imported from
Philo and the Alexandrian Platonists, and imagines that a multitude of
Oriental Gnostics might have manufactured such a book. But why did they
not do it?
690 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the latter the history of a human God. Not that he identifies
him with the Godhead (o #609) ; on the contrary, he clearly dis-
tinguishes the Son and the Father and makes him inferior in
dignity (" the Father is greater than I ") ; but he declares that
the Son is " God " (^€09), that is, of divine essence or nature.
And yet there is no contradiction here between the Evan-
gelists except for those who deem a union of the Divine and
human in one person an impossibility. The Christian Church
has always felt that the Synoptic and the Johannean Christ are
one and the same, only represented from different points of
view. And in this judgment the greatest scholars and keenest
critics, from Origen down to the present time, have concurred.
For, on the one hand, John's Christ is just as real and truly
human as that of the Synoptists. He calls himself the Son of
man and " a man " (8 : 40) ; lie " groaned in the spirit " (11 : 33),
lie "wept" at the grave of a friend (11 : 35), and his "soul"
was " troubled " in the prospect of the dark hour of crucifixion
<12 : 27) and the crime of the traitor (13 : 1). The Evangelist
attests with solemn emphasis from what he saw with his own
eyes that Jesus truly suffered and died (19 : 33-35).1
The Synoptic Christ, on the other hand, is as truly elevated
above ordinary mortals as the Johannean. It is true, he does
not in so many words declare his pre-existence as in John (1:1;
6 : 62 ; 8 : 58 ; 17 : 5, 24), but it is implied, or follows as a legiti-
mate consequence. He is conceived without sin, a descendant
of David, and yet the Lord of David (Matt. 22 : 41) ; he claims
authority to forgive sins, for which he is accused of blasphemy by
the Jews (quite consistently from their standpoint of unbelief) ;
he gives his life a ransom for the redemption of the world ; he
will come in his glory and judge all nations ; yea, in the very
Sermon on the Mount, which all schools of Rationalists accept
1 Notwithstanding snob passages Dr Davidson asserts (II 278) : (4 In uniting
the only- begotten Son of God with the historical Jesus, the evangelist implies
the absence of fall humanity The personality consists essentially of the
Logos, the flesh being only a temporary thing. Body, soul, and spirit do not
oelong to Jesus Christ , he is the Logos inoarnate for a time, who soon returns
to the original state of onenem with the Father."
§ 83. JOHN. 691
as his genuine teaching, He declares himself to be the judge of
the world (Matt. 7 : 21-23 ; comp. 25 : 31-46), and in the bap-
tismal formula He associates himself and the Holy Spirit with
the eternal Father, as the connecting link between the two,
thus assuming a place on the very throne of the Deity (28 : 19).
It is impossible to rise higher. Hence Matthew, the Jewish
Evangelist, does not hesitate to apply to Him the name Im-
manuel, that is, " God with us " (1 : 23). Mark gives us the
Gospel of Peter, the first who confessed that Jesus is not only
" the Christ " in his official character, but also " the Son of the
living God." This is far more than a son ; it designates his
unique personal relation to God and forms the eternal basis of
his historical Messiahship (Matt. 16 : 16 ; comp. 26 : 63). The
two titles are distinct, and the high priest's charge of blasphemy
(26 : 65) could only apply to the latter. A false Messiah would
be an impostor, not a blasphemer. We could not substitute the
Messiah for the Son in the baptismal formula. Peter, Mark,
and Matthew were brought up in the most orthodox mono-
theism, with an instinctive horror of the least approach to
idolatry, and yet they looked up to their Master with feelings
of adoration. And, as for Luke, he delights in representing
Jesus throughout as the sinless Saviour of sinners, and is in full
sympathy with the theology of his elder brother Paul, who cer-
tainly taught the pre-existence and divine nature of Christ
several years before the Gospels were written or published
(Rom. 1 : 3, 4 ; 9 : 5 ; 2 Cor. 8:9; Col. 1 : 15-17 ; Phil. 2 : 6-11).
2. It is the Gospel of LOVE. Its practical motto is : " God is
love." In the incarnation of the eternal Word, in the historic
mission of his Son, God has given the greatest possible proof of
his love to mankind. In the fourth Gospel alone we read that
precious sentence which contains the very essence of Chris-
tianity : " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have eternal life" (3 : 16). It is the Gospel of the Good Shep-
herd who laid down his life for the sheep (10 : 11) ; the Gospel
of the new commandment : " Love one another " (13 : 34). And
692 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
this was the last exhortation of the aged disciple " whom Jesna
loved."
But for this very reason that Christ is the greatest gift
of God to the world, unbelief is the greatest sin and blackest
ingratitude, which carries in it its own condemnation. The
guilt of unbelief, the contrast between faith and unbelief is
nowhere set forth in such strong light as in the fourth Gospel.
It is a consuming fire to all enemies of Christ.
3. It is the Gospel of MYSTIC SYMBOLISM/ The eight mira-
cles it records are significant " signs " (<n?/u6ta) which symbolize
the character and mission of Christ, and manifest his glory.
They are simply his " works " (epya), the natural manifestations
of his marvellous person performed with the same ease as men
perform their ordinary works. The turning of water into wine
illustrates his transforming power, and fitly introduces his pub-
lic ministry ; the miraculous feeding of the five thousand set
him forth as the Bread of life for the spiritual nourishment oi
countless believers ; the healing of the man born blind, as the
Light of the world ; the raising of Lazarus, as the Resurrection
and the Life. The miraculous draught of fishes shows the dis-
ciples to be fishers of men, and insures the abundant results of
Christian labor to the end of time. The serpent in the wilder-
ness prefigured the cross. The Baptist points to him as the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. lie
represents himself under the significant figures of the Door, the
good Shepherd, the Vine; and these figures have inspired
Christian art and poetry, and guided the meditations of the
church ever since.
The whole Old Testament is a type and prophecy of the New.
" The law was given by Moses ; grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ " (1 : 17). Herein lies the vast superiority of Christianity,
and yet the great importance of Judaism as an essential part in
the scheme of redemption. Clearly and strongly as John brings
out the opposition to the unbelieving Jews, he is yet far from
going to the Gnostic extreme of rejecting or depreciating the
1 Lange, Weotoott, Milligan and Moulton dwell at length on this feature.
§ 83. JOHN. 693
Old Testament; on the contrary "salvation comes from the
Jews " (says Christ to the Samaritan woman, 4 : 22) ; and turn-
ing the Scripture argument against the scribes and Pharisees who
searched the letter of the Scriptures, but ignored the spirit,
Christ confronts them with the authority of Moses on whom
they fixed their hope. " If ye believed Moses, ye would believe
me ; for he wrote of me. But ye believe not his writings, how
shall ye believe my words ? " (5 : 46). John sees Christ every-
where in those ancient Scriptures which cannot be broken. He
unfolds the true Messianic idea in conflict with the carnal per-
version of it among the Jews under the guidance of the hier
archy.
THE JOHANNEAN AND SYNOPTIC DISCOURSES OF CHRIST.
4. John gives prominence to the transcendent DISCOURSES
about the person of Christ and his relation to the Father, to the
world, and the disciples. His words are testimonies, revealing
the inner glory of his person ; they are spirit and they are life.
Matthew's Gospel is likewise didactic ; but there is a marked
difference between the contents and style of the Synoptic and
the Johannean discourses of Jesus. The former discuss the
nature of the Messianic kingdom, the fulfilment of the law, the
duty of holy obedience, and are popular, practical, brief, pointed,
sententious, parabolic, and proverbial ; the latter touch the deep-
est mysteries of theology and Christology, are metaphysical,
lengthy, liable to carnal misunderstanding, and scarcely discern-
ible from John's own style in the prologue and the first Epistle,
and from that used by the Baptist. The transition is almost
imperceptible in 3 : 16 and 3 : 31.
Here we reach the chief difficulty in the Johannean problem.
Here is the strong point of sceptical criticism. We must freely
admit at the outset that John so reproduced the words of his
Master as to mould them unconsciously into his own type of
thought and expression. He revolved them again and again in
his heart, they were his daily food, and the burden of his teach-
694 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ing to the churches from Sunday to Sunday; yet he had to
translate, to condense, to expand, and to apply them ; and in
this process it was unavoidable that his own reflections should
more or less mingle with his recollections. With all the tenacity
of his memory it was impossible that at such a great interval o£
time (fifty or sixty years after the events) he should be able to
record literally every discourse just as it was spoken; and he
makes no such claim, but intimates that he selects and sum*
marizes.
This is the natural view of the case, and the same concession
is now made by all the champions of the Johannean authorship
who do not hold to a magical inspiration theory and turn the
sacred writers into unthinking machines, contrary to their own
express statements, as in the Preface of Luke. But we deny
that this concession involves any sacrifice of the truth of his-
tory or of any lineament from the physiognomy of Christ.
The difficulty here presented is usually overstated by the critics,
and becomes less and less, the higher we rise in our estima-
tion of Christ, and the closer we examine the differences in
their proper connection. The following reflections will aid the
student :
(1) In the first place we must remember the marvellous
heighth and depth and breadth of Christ's intellect as it appears
in the Synoptists as well as in John. lie commanded the whole
domain of religious and moral truth ; he spake as never man
spake, and the people were astonished at his teaching (Matt.
7:28,29; Mark 1:22; 6:2; Luke 4:32; John 7:46). He
addressed not only his own generation, but through it all ages
and classes of men. No wonder that his hearers often mis*
understood him. The Synoptists give examples of such mis*
understanding as well as John (comp. Mark 8 : 16). But who
will set limits to his power and psedagogic wisdom in the matter
and form of his teaching ? Must he not necessarily have varied
his style when he addressed the common people in Galilee, as
in the Synoptists, and the educated, proud, hierarchy of Jeru-
salem, as in John ? Or when he spoke on the mountain, invit
§ 83. JOHN. 695
ing the multitude to tlie Messianic Kingdom at the opening of
his ministry, and when he took farewell from his disciples in
the chamber, in view of the great sacrifice ? Socrates appears
very different in Xenophon and in Plato, yet we can see him in
both. But here is a far greater than Socrates.1
(2) John's mind, at a period when it was most pliable and
plastic, had been so conformed to the mind of Christ that hid
own thoughts and words faithfully reflected the teaching of his
Master. If there ever was spiritual sympathy and congeniality
between two minds, it was between Jesus and the disciple whom
he loved and whom he intrusted with the care of his mother.
John stood nearer to his Lord than any Christian or any of the
Synoptists. " Why should not John have been formed upon
the model of Jesus rather than the Jesus of his Gospel be the
reflected image of himself ? Surely it may be left to all candid
minds to say whether, to adopt only the lowest supposition, the
creative intellect of Jesus was not far more likely to mould His
disciple to a conformity with itself, than the receptive spirit of
the disciple to give birth by its own efforts to that conception
of a Redeemer which so infinitely surpasses the loftiest image of
man's own creation." *
(3) John reproduced the discourses from the fulness of the
spirit of Christ that dwelt in him, and therefore without any
departure from the ideas. The whole gospel history assumes
that Christ did not finish, but only began his work while on
earth, that he carries it on in heaven through his chosen organs,
1 Hase (Geschichte Jesu, p 61) makes some striking remarks on this paral-
lel • 4* Der Sokrates des Xenoplwn ist ein anderer als der des Plato, jeder hat
diejenige Seite aufgefasst, die ihm die ndohste und Kebste war; erst ays beidet.
Darstellungen erkennen wir den rechten Sokrates. Xeriophons </nsc?iatdich<,
EinfaMeit trdgt das votte Oeprdge der Wahrheit dessen, was er erz&hlt. Dei*
noch dieser Sokrates, der sich im engen Kreise sittlioher und politiscker Vorstel*
lungen herumdreht, ist nicht der game Sokrates, der toeiseste in Qrieehenland,
der die grosse Revolution in den Qeistem seines VoUcs hervorgerufen hat. Dage-
gen der platonische Sokrates stch weit mehr zum Sehdpfer der neuen Period*
griechischer Phtiosophie eignet und darnach aussieht, ah habe er die Weisheit
torn Himmd zur Erde gcbracht, der attische Logos."
9 Milligan and Moulton, in their excellent Commentary on John, Introd..
p xxxiU.
696 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
to whom he promised mouth and wisdom (Luke 21 : 15 ; Matt
10 : 19) and his constant presence (Matt. 19 : 20 ; 28 : 20). The
disciples became more and more convinced of the superhuman
character of Christ by the irresistible logic of fact and thought.
His earthly life appeared to them as a transient state of humilia-
tion which was preceded by a pre-existent state of glory with
the Father, as it was followed by a permanent state of glory
after the resurrection and ascension to heaven. He withheld
from them " many things " because they could not bear them
before his glorification (John 16 : 12). "What I do," he said
to Peter, "thou knowest not now, but thou shalt come to know
hereafter " (13 : 7). Some of his deepest sayings, which they
had at first misunderstood, were illuminated by the resurrection
(2 : 22 ; 12 : 16), and then by the outpouring of the Spirit, who
took things out of the fulness of Christ and declared them to the
disciples (16 : 13, 14). Hence the farewell discourses are BO full
of the promises of the Spirit of truth who would glorify Christ
in their hearts. Under such guidance we may be perfectly sure
of the substantial faithfulness of John's record.
(4) Beneath the surface of the similarity there is a consider-
able difference between the language of Christ and the language
of his disciple. John never attributes to Christ the designation
Logos, which he uses so prominently in the Prologue and the
first Epistle. This is very significant, and shows his conscien-
tious care. He distinguished his own theology from the teach-
ing of his Master, no matter whether he borrowed the term
Logos from Philo (which cannot be proven), or coined it him-
self from his reflections on Old Testament distinctions between
the hidden and the revealed God and Christ's own testimonies
concerning his relation to the Father. The first Epistle of John
is an echo of his Gospel, but with original matter of his own
and polemical references to the anti-Christian errors of his day.
" The phrases of the Gospel," says Westcott, " have a definite
historic connection : they belong to circumstances which explain
them. The phrases in the Epistle are in part generalizations,
and in part interpretations of the earlier language in view of
§ 83. JOHN. 697
Christ's completed work and of the experience of the Christian
church."
As to the speeches of the Baptist, in the fourth Gospel, they
keep, as the same writer remarks, strictly within the limits sug-
gested by the Old Testament. " What he says spontaneously
of Christ is summed up in the two figures of the * Lamb ' and
the ' Bridegroom,' which together give a comprehensive view of
the suffering and joy, the redemptive and the completive work
of Messiah under prophetic imagery. Both figures appear again
in the Apocalypse ; but it is very significant that they do not
occur in the Lord's teaching in the fourth Gospel or in St. John's
Epistles."
(5) There are not wanting striking resemblances in thought
and style between the discourses in John and in the Synoptists,
especially Matthew, which are sufficient to refute the assertion
that the two types of teaching are irreconcilable.1 The Synop-
tists were not quite unfamiliar with the other type of teaching.
They occasionally rise to the spiritual height of John and record
briefer sayings of Jesus which could be inserted without a dis-
cord in his Gospel. Take the prayer of thanksgiving and the
touching invitation to all that labor and are heavy laden, in
Matt. 11 : 25-30. The sublime declaration recorded by Luke
(10:22) and Matthew (11:27): "No one knoweth the Son,
save the Father ; neither doth any know the Father, save the
Son, and he to whomsoe\ er the Son willeth to reveal him," is
thoroughly Christ-like according to John's conception, and is the
basis of his own declaration in the prologue : " No man hath seen
God at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him " (1 : 18). Jesus makes no
higher claim in John than he does in Matthew when he pro-
claims: "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven
and on earth " (28 : 19). In almost the same words Jesus says
in John (17 : 2) : " Thou hast given him power over all flesh."
On the other hand, John gives us not a few specimens of
1 " &' J&U0," says Kenan, "parlait comme le veut Matihieu, H riapu parbr
wmme 1$ veut Jean."
698
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
those short, pithy maxims of oriental wisdom which characterize
the Synoptic discourses.1
1 John 1 . 26, 43 ; 2 : 19 ; 4 : 44; 6 : 20, 35, 37 ; 12: 13, 25, 27 ; 13 : 16, 20;
20 19, 23. See the list* in Godet, I. 197 eq , and Weatcott, p hcxxii sq. The
following: are the principal parallel passages .
John 2. 19. Jeaua answered and aaid unto
them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it np
8 18 . He that belleveth on him is not judged :
he that beheveth not hath been judged already.
4.44: For Jesus himself testified, that a
prophet hath no honor in his own country.
6:8: Jesus saith unto him, Arise, take up
thy bed, and walk
6.20 It is I, be not afraid.
6 : 85 . He that cometh to me shall not hun-
ger, and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.
6 . 87 : All that which the Father giveth me
shall come unto me , and him that cometh unto
me I will in no wine oast out
6 46 : Not that any man hath seen the Fa-
ther, save he which is from God, he hath seen
Che Father Cf 1.18. No man hath seen God
at any time , the only begotten Son, who is m
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
IS : 8 For the poor ye have always with yon ,
but me ye have not always.
18 : 26. He that loveth his life loseth it; and
he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal
19:27: Now is my soul troubled; and what
•hall I say ? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour.
18:8: Jesus knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands. . . .
18 : 16. Verily, verily I say unto you, A ser-
vant is not greater than his lord.
18 : 20 : He that recciveth whomsoever I send
receiveth me ; and he that reoeiveth me receiv-
eth him that sent me.
14 . 18: I will not leave you desolate ; I come
unto you Of . v 23. We will . . . make our
abode with him.
16 : 21 : But all these things will they do onto
yon for my name's take.
17:2. Even as thou gavent him authority
over all flesh.
20 : 23: Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are
forgiven onto them.
Matt. 26.61: This man said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God. and to build it in
three days. Cf. Mark 14 : 68 , 16 : 29.
Mark 16. 16 He thafe beheveth and is bap-
tized shall be saved , but he that disbelieveih
shall be condemned
Matt. 16 67. But Jesus said unto them, A
prophet is not without honor, save in his own
country, and in his own house Cf Mark 6.4,
Lake 4 : 24.
Matt. 9 6* Arise, and take up thy bed, and
go unto thy house Cf Mark 2. 9, Luke 6 21.
Matt 14 : 27 It is I, be not afraid Cf . Mark
6.60.
Matt 6 6 , Luke 6 • 21 : Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness . for they
shall be filled.
Matt 11 . 88, 29: Come unto me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, . . and ye shall
find rert unto your souls
Matt 11 27. And no one knoweth the Son,
Rave tho Father, neither doth any know the
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son willeth to reveal him.
Matt 26 ' 11 For ye have the poor always
with you, but me ye have not always. Cf.
Mark 14 7
Matt 10*89. He that findeth his life shall
lose it , and he that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it Cf 1C 25, Mark 8 86, Luko
9.24, 17 a3.
Matt 26 88 • Then saith he unto them, My
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.
Cf. Mark 14 . 84.
Matt 11 27. All things have been delivered
unto me of my Father
Matt 10 24 . A disciple is not above his mart-
tor, nor a servant above his lord. Cf Luke
6:40
Matt 10 : 40 : He that reoeiveth you receiveth
me, and he that reoeiveth me receiveth him
that sent me.
Matt 28*20: I am with yon al way, even unto
the end of the world.
Matt 10:22. And ye shall be hated of aU
men for my name's sake.
;att 28:18: All authority hath bean givem
unto me in heaven and on earth.
Matt. 18 : 18 : What things soever ye shall
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
§ 83. JOHN.
Tiro STYLE OP THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.
The style of the fourth Gospel differs widely from the eccle-
siastical writers of the second century, and belongs to the apos-
tolic age. It lias none of the technical theological terms of
post-apostolic controversies, no allusions to the state of the
church, its government and worship, but moves in the atmos-
phere of the first Christian generation ; yet differs widely from
the style of the Synoptists and is altogether unique in the his-
tory of secular and religious literature, a fit expression of the
genius of John : clear and deep, simple as a child, and mature
as a saint, sad and yet serene, and basking in the sunshine of
eternal life and love. The fourth Gospel is pure Greek io
vocabulary and grammar, but thoroughly Hebrew in temper and
spirit, even more so than any other book, and can be almost
literally translated into Hebrew without losing its force or
beauty. It has the childlike simplicity, the artlessness, the
imaginativeness, the directness, the circumstantiality, and the
rhythmical parallelism which characterize the writings of the
Old Testament. The sentences are short and weighty, co-ordi-
nated, not subordinated. The construction is exceedingly sim-
ple: no involved periods, no connecting links, no logical argu-
mentation, but a succession of self-evident truths declared as
from immediate intuition. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry
is very apparent in such double sentences as : " Peace I leave
with you ; my peace I give unto you ; " "A servant is not greater
than his lord; neither one that is sent greater than he that sent
him;" "All things were made by him, and without him was
not anything made that hath been made." Examples of anti-
thetic parallelism are also frequent : " The light shineth in the
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not;5' uHe was
in the world, and the world knew him not;" "He confessed,
and denied not ; " "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish."
The author has a limited vocabulary, but loves emphatic
repetition, and his very monotony is solemn and impressive.
700 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
He uses certain key-words of the profoundest import, as "Word,
life, light, truth, love, glory, testimony, name, sign, work, to
know, to behold, to believe. These are not abstract concep-
tions but concrete realities. He views the world under com-
prehensive contrasts, as life and death, light and darkness, truth
and falsehood, love and hatred, God and the devil, and (in the
first Epistle) Christ and Antichrist.
He avoids the optative, and all argumentative particles, but
uses very frequently the simple particles icai, $e, ovv, iva. His
most characteristic particle in the narrative portions is " there-
fore " (o5i/), which is with him not syllogistic (like apa and its
compounds), but indicative simply of continuation and retrospect
(like " so " and " then " or the German " nun "), yet with the
idea that nothing happens without a cause ; while the particle
41 in order that " (iva) indicates that nothing happens without a
purpose. He avoids the relative pronoun and prefers the con-
necting " and " with the repetition of the noun, as " In the be-
ginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. ... In him was life, and the life was the light
rf men." The " and " sometimes takes the place of " but," as
* The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness compre-
hended it not" (1:5).
We look in vain for such important words as church, gospel,
repentance (/Lterai/ota), but the substance is there in different
forms. He does not even use the noun " faith " (-Trunks), which
frequently occurs in the Synoptists and in Paul, but he uses the
verb "to believe" (Trurrevew) ninety-eight times, about twice as
often as all three Synoptists together.
He applies the significant term Logos (ratio and oratio) to
Christ as the Revealer and the Interpreter of God (1 : 18), but
only in the Prologue, and such figurative designations as " the
Light of the world," " the Bread of life," " the Good Shepherd,"
"the Vine," "the Way," "the Truth," and "the Life." He
alone uses the double " Verily " in the discourses of the Saviour.
He calls the Holy Spirit the " Paraclete " or " Advocate " of be-
lievers, who pleads their cause here on earth, as Christ pleads it
§ 83. JOHN. 701
on the throne in heaven. There breathes through this book an
air of calmness and serenity, of peace and repose, that seems to
come from the eternal mansions of heaven.1
Is such a style compatible with the hypothesis of a post- and
pseudo-apostolic fiction ? We have a large number of fictitious
Gospels, but they differ as much from the fourth canonical Gos-
pel as midnight darkness from noonday brightness.
AUTHORSHIP.
For nearly eighteen centuries the Christian church of all de-
nominations has enjoyed the fourth Gospel without a shadow of
doubt that it was the work of John the Apostle. But in the
nineteenth century the citadel was assailed with increasing force,
and the conflict between the besiegers and defenders is still
raging among scholars of the highest ability. It is a question
of life and death between constructive and destructive criticism.
The vindication of the fourth Gospel as a genuine product of
John, the beloved disciple, is the death-blow of the mythical
and legendary reconstruction and destruction of the life of
Christ and the apostolic history. The ultimate result cannot be
doubtful. The opponents have been forced gradually to retreat
from the year 170 to the very beginning of the second cen-
tury, as the time when the fourth Gospel was already known
and used in the church, that is to the lifetime of many pupils
and friends of John and other eye-witnesses of the life of
Christ.2
I. The EXTERNAL PROOF of the Johannean authorship is as
strong, yea stronger than that of the genuineness of any classical
writer of antiquity, and goes up to the very beginning of the
1 For further particulars of John's style see my Companion to the Study of
the Grsek Test , pp 66-75, where the opinions of Kenan, Ewald, Luthardt,
Keim, Godet, Westcott, Hase, and Weiss are given on the subject
• See the literary notices on p 405 sqq To the able vindications of the genu-
ineness of John there mentioned must now be added the masterly discussion of
Dr Weiss in his Lebtn Jesu (vol. L, 1882, pp. 84-124), which has just come to
hand.
702 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
second century, within hailing distance of the living John. It
includes catholic writers, heretics, and heathen enemies. There
is but one dissenting voice, hardly audible, that of the insignifi-
cant sect of the Alogi who opposed the Johanriean doctrine of
the Logos (hence their name, with the double meaning of unrea-
sonable, and anti-Logos heretics) and absurdly ascribed both the
Gospel of John and the Apocalypse to his enemy, the Gnostic
Cerinthus.1 Let us briefly sum up the chief testimonies.
1. Catholic testimonies. We begin at the fourth century and
gradually rise up to the age of John. All the ancient Greek
manuscripts of the New Testament, including the Sinaitic and
the Vatican, which date from the age of Constantine and are
based upon older copies of the second century, and all the
ancient versions, including the Syriac and old Latin from the
third and second centuries, contain without exception the Gos-
pel of John, though the Peshito omits his second and third
Epistles and the Apocalypse. These manuscripts and versions
represent the universal voice of the churches.
Then we have the admitted individual testimonies of all the
Greek and Latin fathers up to the middle of the second century,
without a dissenting voice or doubt : Jerome (d. 419) and Euse-
bius (d. 340), who had the whole ante-Nicene literature before
them ; Origen in Egypt (d. 254), the greatest scholar of his age
and a commentator on John ; Tertullian of North Africa (about
200), a Catholic in doctrine, a Montanist in discipline, and a
zealous advocate of the dispensation of the Paraclete announced
by John ; Clement of Alexandria (about 190), a cultivated phi-
losopher who had travelled in Greece, Italy, Syria, and Palestine,
seeking religious instruction everywhere ; Irenaeus, a native of
Asia Minor and from 178 bishop of Lyons, a pupil of Polycarp
and a grand-pupil of John himself, who derived his chief ammu-
nition against the Gnostic heresy from the fourth Gospel, and
represents the four canonical Gospels — no more and no less — as
universally accepted by the churches of his time ; Theophilus
of Antioch (180), who expressly quotes from the fourth Gospel
1 Recently renewed in part by Benan (1879). See below.
§ 83. JOHN. 703
under the name of John ; ! the Muratorian Canon (170), which
reports the occasion of the composition of John's Gospel by
urgent request of his friends and disciples; Tatian of Syria
(155-170), who in his "Address to the Greeks" repeatedly
quotes the fourth Gospel, though without naming the author,
and who began his " Diatessaroii " — once widely spread in the
church notwithstanding the somewhat Gnostic leanings of the
author, and commented on by Ephraem of Syria — with the pro-
logue of John.8 From him we have but one step to his teacher,
Justin Martyr, a native of Palestine (103-166), and a bold and
noble-minded defender of the faith in the reigns of Hadrian
and the Antonines. In his two Apologies and his Dialogue
with Trypho the Jew, he often quotes freely from the four
Gospels under the name of Apostolic " Memoirs " or " Memora-
bilia of the Apostles," which were read at his time in public
worship.' He made most use of Matthew, but once at least he
quotes a passage on regeneration * from Christ's dialogue with
1 His quotation is considered the earliest by name ; but Irenaeus, who wrote
between 177 and 192, represents an older tradition, and proves to his satisfac-
tion that there must be just four Gospels to answer the four cherubim in
Ezekiel's vision. Adv. HOST , III. 1, 1 ; 11, 8 , V 36, 2.
* The Commentary of Ephraem Syrus on the Diatessaron (375) has recently
been discovered and published from an Armenian translation, at Venice, in
1876. Cornp. Zahn, Tatian's Diatessaron, Erlangen, 1881, and Harnack, Die
Ueberlieferung der griecMschen Apotogeten des zwti ten Jafirh., Leipzig, 1882,
pp. 213 sqq
3 The use of the Gospel of John by Justin Martyr was doubted by Baur and
most of his followers, but is admitted by Hilgenfeld and Keim. It was again
denied by the anonymous author of " Supernatural Religion," and by Edwin
A Abbott (in the art Gospels, uEnc. Brit," voL X 821), and again conclu-
sively proven by Sanday m England, and Ezra Abbot in America.
4 The quotation is not literal but from memory, like most of his quotations :
Justin, Apol, I. 61: "For Christ abio said, John 8-8, 4: "Jesus answered and said to
Except v* be bom again [A^ytm^, «>mp him IWicodemns], Verily, verily, I my unto
1 Pet. 8. S3], ye shall in no wise entei [tta-A^Tt, thee, Except a man be born anew [or from
but oomp the same wonl In John 8 . 5 and 7] above, yewr^ aw****-], he cannot Me [tow,
into the kingdom of heaven [the phrase of
Matthew]. Now that it is itnporanble for those
*ho have once been born to re-enter the wombs
of thone that bare them in manifest to all *
ver 6, enter info] the kingdom of Qod. Nice-
demus saith nnto him. How can a man be born
when he is old? can he enter a second time
into his mother's womb and be born ? "
Much account has been made by the Tubingen critics of the alight differ-
ences in the quotation (dwytwii&irrf for ytynfry awto?, curcA&cii' for ftci? and
r»y ofyarvj' fox far. rov toov) to disprove the connection, or, as this is
704 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Nicodemus which is recorded only by John. Several other allu-
sions of Justin to John are unmistakable, and his whole doctrine
of the pre-existent Logos who sowed precious seeds of truth
among Jews and Gentiles before his incarnation, is unquestion-
ably derived from John. To reverse the case is to derive the
sunlight from the moon, or the fountain from one of its streams.
But we can go still farther back. The scanty writings of the
Apostolic Fathers, so called, have very few allusions to the New
Testament, and breathe the atmosphere of the primitive oral tra-
dition. The author of the "Didache" was well acquainted with
Matthew. The first Epistle of Clement has strong affinity with
Paul. The shorter Epistles of Ignatius show the influence of
John's Ohristology.1 Polycarp (d. A.D. 155 in extreme old age), a
personal pupil of John, used the First Epistle of John, and thus
furnishes an indirect testimony to the Gospel, since both these
books must stand or fall together.3 The same is true of Papias
(died about 150), who studied with Polycarp, and probably wap
likewise a hearer of John, lie "used testimonies from the
impossible, to prove the dependence of John on Justin! But Dr. Abbot, a
most accurate and conscientious scholar, who moreover as a Unitarian cannot
be charged with an orthodox bias, has produced many parallel cases of free
quotations of the same passage not only from patristic writers, but even from
modern divines, including no less than nine quotations of the passage by
Jeremy Taylor, only two of which are alike. I think he has conclusively
proven his case for every reasonable mind. See his invaluable monograph on
TJie Authorship of the Fourth Qospd, pp. 28 sqq. and 91 sqq Comp also
Weiss, Leben Jeau, I 83, who sees in Justin Martyr not only ' ' an unquestion-
able allusion to the Nicodemus story of the fouith Gospel," but other isolated
reminiscences
1 Gomp such expressions as " I desire bread of God, which is the flesh of
Jesus Christ . . and I desire as drink His blood, which is love imperishable,1'
Ad Horn , ch 7, with John 6 47 sqq , " living water," Ad Rom., 7, with John
4 : 10, 11 ; u being Himself the Door of the Father," Ad Pkdad., 9, with John
10:9; [the Spirit] " knows whence it corneth and whither it goeth," Ad
Philad , 7, with John 381 quoted from the text of Zahn See the able art.
of Lightfoot in "Contemp Rev.1' for February, 1875, and his £ Ignatius, 1885.
2 Polyc , Ad Phil , ch 7 " Every one that doth not confess that Jesus
Christ hath come in the flesh is Antichrist , and whosoever doth not confess
the mystery of the cross is of the devil " Gomp 1 John 4.3. On the testi-
mony of Polycarp see Lightfoot in the "Contemp Rev" for May. 1875
Westoott, p xxx, says u A testimony to one" (the Gospel or the first Ep.)
" ifl necessarily by inference a testimony to the other,"
§ 83. JOHN. 706
former Epistle of John." l In enumerating the apostles whose
living words he collected in his youth, he places John out of his
regular order of precedence, along with Matthew, his fellow-
Evangelist, and "Andrew, Peter, and Philip" in the same order
as John (1 : 40-43) ; from which it has also been inferred that
he knew the fourth Gospel. There is some reason to suppose
that the disputed section on the woman taken in adultery was
recorded by him in illustration of John 8 : 15 ; for, according to
Eusebius, he mentioned a similar story in his lost work.2 These
facts combined, make it at least extremely probable that Papias
was familiar with John.8 The joint testimony of Poly carp and
Papias represents the school o± John in the very field of his
later labors, and the succession was continued through Poly-
crates at Ephesus, through Melito at Sardis, through Claudius
Apollinaris at Ilieropolis, and Pothinus and Irenseus in Southern
Gaul. It is simply incredible that a spurious Gospel should
have been smuggled into the churches under the name of their
revered spiritual father and grandfather.
Finally, the concluding verbe of the appendix, ch. 21 : 24, is a
still older testimony of a number of personal friends and pupils
1 According to Eusebius, III. 39. See Lightfoot in the ll Contemp. Rev."
for August and October, 1875.
9 Eusebius, H. E., Ill 39, closes his account of Papias with the notice :
u He has likewise set forth another narrative [in his Exposition of the Lord's
Oracles] concerning a woman who was maliciously accused before the Lord
touching many sins, which is contained in the Gospel according to the
Hebrews "
8 In a tradition too late (ninth century) to be of any critical weight, Papiag
is even made the amanuensis of John in the preparation of his Gospel A
Vatican Codex (of Queen Christina of Sweden) has this marginal gloss :
"Evangdvum Johannis manifestation et datum est ecclestts ab Johanne adhuc in
corpore constitute; sicut Papias, nomine Iheropolitanu* discipulus Johannis
carus, in exotericis [exegetid*], id est in extreme, quinque Itbris retulit [refer-
ring no doubt to the five books of Aoylwv Kvpicucw Qirrfmts]. Descripsit wro
evangettum dtctante Johanne recte " This was hailed as a direct testimony of
Papias for John by Prof. Aberle (Rom Cath ) in the " Tubing. Quartalschrift,"
1864, No. 1, but set aside by Hilgenfeld versus Aberle, in his u Zeitschrift,"
1865, pp. 77 sqq., and Hase, I c , p 35. If Eusebius had found this notice in
the work of Papias, he would have probably mentioned it in connection with
his testimonies on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. But see Westcott,
Canon, 5th ed , p. 77, note 1.
706 FIRSO: PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of John, perhaps the very persona who, according to ancient
tradition, urged him to write the Gospel. The book probably
closed with the sentence: "This is the disciple who beareth
witness of these things, and wrote these things." To this the
elders add their attestation in the plural : " And we know that
his witness is true." A literary fiction would not have been
benefited by an anonymous postscript. The words as they stand
are either a false testimony of the pseudo-John, or the true
testimony of the friends of the real John who first received his
book and published it before or after his death.
The voice of the whole Catholic church, so far as it is heard
on the subject at all, is in favor of the authorship of John.
There is not a shadow of proof to the contrary opinion except
one, and that is purely negative and inconclusive. Baur to the
very last laid the greatest stress on the entangled paschal contro-
versy of the second century as a proof that John could not have
written the fourth Gospel because he was quoted as an authority
for the celebration of the Lord's Supper on the 14th of Nisan ;
while the fourth Gospel, in flat contradiction to the Synop-
tists, puts the crucifixion on that day (instead of the 15th), and
represents Christ as the true paschal lamb slain at the very time
when the typical Jewish passover was slain. But, in the first
place, some of the ablest scholars know how to reconcile John
with the Synoptic date of the crucifixion on the 15th of Nisan ;
and, secondly, there is no evidence at all that the apostle John
celebrated Easter with the Quartodecimans on the 14th of Nisan
in commemoration of the day of the Lord's Supper. The con-
troversy was between conforming the celebration of the Christian
Passover to the day of the month, that is to Jewish chronology,
or to the day of the week on which Christ died. The former
would have made Easter, more conveniently, a fixed festival like
the Jewish Passover, the latter or Roman practice made it a mova-
ble feast, and this practice triumphed at the Council of Nicsea.1
1 See SohftrerVi Latin dissertation De controvcrtii* paschaKbus^ etc., Leips.,
1869, and the German translation in the " Zeitsohrift fur hiat TheoL" for
1870, VP- 182-281
§ 83. JOHN. 707
2. Heretical testimonies. They are all the more important
in view of their dissent from Catholic doctrine. It is remarkable
that the heretics seem to have used and commented on the
fourth Gospel even before the Catholic writers. The Clementine
Homilies, besides several allusions, very clearly quote from the
story of the man born blind, John 9 : 2, 3.1 The Gnostics of
the second century, especially the Valentinians and Basilidians,
made abundant use of the fourth Gospel, which alternately
offended them by its historical realism, and attracted them by
its idealism and mysticism. Heracleon, a pupil of Valentinus,
wrote a commentary on it, of which Origen has preserved large
extracts; Valentinus himself (according to Tertullian) tried
cither to explain it away, or he put his own meaning into it.
Basilides, who flourished about A.D. 125, quoted from the Gos-
pel of John such passages as the " true light, which enlighteneth
every man, was coming into the world " (1 : 9), and " my hour
is not yet come " (2 : 4).1
These heretical testimonies are almost decisive by themselves.
The Gnostics would rather have rejected the fourth Gospel
altogether, as Marciori actually did, from doctrinal objection.
They certainly would not have received it from the Catholic
church, as little as the church would have received it from the
Gnostics. The concurrent reception of the Gospel by both at
so early a date is conclusive evidence of its genuineness. " The
Gnostics of that date," says Dr. Abbot,3 " received it because
they could not help it. They would not have admitted the
authority of a book which could be reconciled with their doc-
trines only by the most forced interpretation, if they could have
destroyed its authority by denying its genuineness. Its genuine-
ness could then be easily ascertained. Ephesus was one of the
1 In the last portion of tbe book, discovered and first published by Dressel
(XIX 22). This discovery has induced Hilgenfeld to retract his former denial
of the quotations in the earlier books, EinleU. in d N. T , p 48 sq., note.
8 See the Philosophumenti of Hippolytus, VII. 22, 27 ; Hofstede de Groot,
Batttidts, trans from the Dutch, Leipz., 1808 ; Hort, Basibdes, in Smith and
Wace, I 271 ; Abbot, U., 85 sqq.
» £.*., p. 89.
708 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
principal cities of the Eastern world, the centre of extensive
commerce, the metropolis of Asia Minor. Hundreds, if not
thousands, of people were living who had known the apostle
John. The question whether he, the beloved disciple, had com-
mitted to writing his recollections of his Master's life and teach-
ing, was one of the greatest interest. The fact of the reception
of the fourth Gospel as his work at so early a date, by parties so
violently opposed to each other, proves that the evidence of its
genuineness was decisive. This argument is further confirmed
by the use of the Gospel by the opposing parties in the later
Montanistic controversy, and in the disputes about the time of
celebrating Easter."
3. Heathen testimony. Celsus, in his book against Chris-
tianity, which was written about A.D. 178 (according to Keim,
who reconstructed it from the fragments preserved in the re-
futation of Origen), derives his matter for attack from the four
Gospels, though he does not name their authors, and he refers
to several details which are peculiar to John, as, among others,
the blood which flowed from the body of Jesus at his crucifixion
(John 19 : 34), and the fact that Christ "after his death arose
and showed the marks of his punishment, and how his hands
had been pierced " (20 : 25, 27). '
The radical assertion of Baur that no distinct trace of the fourth
Gospel can be found before the last quarter of the second cen-
tury has utterly broken down, and his own best pupils have
been forced to make one concession after another as the succes-
sive discoveries of the many Gnostic quotations in the Philoso-
phumena, the last book of the pseudo-Clementine Homilies, the
Syrian Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron, revealed the stub-
born fact of the use and abuse of the Gospel before the middle
and up to the very beginning of the second century, that is, to a
time when it was simply impossible to mistake a pseudo-apos-
tolic fiction for a genuine production of the patriarch of the
apostolic age.
1 See Keim, Cekuf Wahres Wort, 1878, pp. 228-230, besides the older Investi-
gations of Lardner, Norton, Tholuck, and the recent one of Dr. Abbot, I c. , 58 eq.
§ 83. JOHN. 709
II. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. This is even still stronger, and
leaves at last no alternative but truth or fraud.
1. To begin with the style of the fourth Gospel, we have
already seen that it is altogether unique and without a_parallel
in post-apostolic literature, betraying a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
impregnated with the genius of the Old Testament, in mode of
thought and expression, in imagery and symbolism, in the sym-
metrical structure of sentences, in the simplicity and circum-
stantiality of narration ; yet familiar with pure Greek, from long
residence among Greeks. This is just what we should expect
from John at Ephesus. Though not a rabbinical scholar, like
Paul, he was acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures and not
dependent on the Septuagint. He has in all fourteen quota-
tions from the Old Testament.1 Four of these agree with the
Hebrew and the Septuagint; three agree with the Hebrew
against tlie Septuagint (6:45; 13:18; 19:37), the rest are
neutral, either agreeing with both or differing from both, or
being free adaptations rather than citations ; but none of them
agrees with the Septuagint against the Hebrew.2
Among the post-apostolic writers there is no converted Jew,
unless it be Hegesippus ; nolle who could read the Hebrew and
write Hebraistic Greek. After the destruction of Jerusalem
the church finally separated from the synagogue and both as-
sumed an attitude of uncompromising hostility.
2. The author was a Jew of Palestine. He gives, incidentally
and without effort, unmistakable evidence of minute familiarity
with the Holy Land and its inhabitants before the destruction of
Jerusalem. He is at home in the localities of the holy city and
the neighborhood. He describes Bethesda as " a pool by the
sheep gate, having five porches " (5 : 2), Siloam as " a pool which
is by interpretation Sent " (9 : 7), Solomon's porch as being
" in the Temple " (10 : 23), the brook Kedron " where was a gar-
den " (18 : 1) ; he knows the location of the prsetorium (18 : 28),
'Johnl-23; 2-17; 6 31,45; 7-38; 10:34; 12:14,38,40; 18:18;
15 25; 19 24,36,37.
* See the careful analysis of the passages by Westcott, Intr., pp. ziii sqq.
710 FIRST PEIUOD. A.D. 1-100.
the meaning of Gabbatha (19 : 13), and Golgotha (19 : 17), the
distance of Bethany from Jerusalem "about fifteen furlongs
off" (11:18), and he distinguishes it from Bethany beyond
Jordan (1 : 28). He gives the date when the Herodian recon-
struction of the temple began (2 : 19). He is equally familiar
with other parts of Palestine and makes no mistakes such as are
so often made by foreigners. He locates Caria in Galilee (2:1;
4 : 26 ; 21 : 2), to distinguish it from another Cana ; Aenon
" near to Salim," where there are " many waters " (3 : 23) ;
Sychar in Samaria near " Jacob's well," and in view of Mount
Gerizim (4 : 5). He knows the extent of the Lake of Tiberias
(6 : 19) ; he describes Bethsaida as " the city of Andrew and
Peter" (1 : 44), as distinct from Bethsaida Julias on the eastern
bank of the Jordan ; he represents Nazareth as a place of pro-
verbial insignificance (1 : 46).
He is well acquainted with the confused politico-ecclesiastical
Messianic ideas and expectations of the Jews (1 : 19-28, 45-49 ;
4 : 25 ; 6 : 14, 15 ; 7 : 26 ; 12 : 34, and other passages) ; with the
hostility between Jews and Samaritans (4 : 9, 20, 22 ; 8 : 48) ;
with Jewish usages and observances, as baptism (1 : 25 ; 3 : 22,
23 ; 4 : 2), purification (2:6; 3 : 38, etc.), ceremonial pollution
(18 : 28), feasts (2 : 13, 23 ; 5:1; 7 : 37, etc.), circumcision,
and the Sabbath (7 : 22, 23). He is also acquainted with
the marriage and burial rites (2 : 1-10 ; 11 : 17-44), with the
character of the Pharisees and their influence in the Sanhedrin,
the relationship between Annas and Caiaphas. The objection
of Bretschneider that he represents the office of the high-priest
as an annual office arose from a misunderstanding of the phrase
"that year" (11:49, 51; 18:13), by which he means that
'memorable year in which Christ died for the sins of the people.
3. The author was an eye-witness of most of the events nar-
rated. This appears from his life-like familiarity with the act-
ing persons, the Baptist, Peter, Andrew, Philip, Nathanael,
Thomas, Judas Iscariot, Pilate, Caiaphas, Annas, Nicodemus,
Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene, the woman of Samaria,
the man born blind ; and from the minute traits and vivid de-
§ 83. JOHN. 711
tails which betray autopticity. He incidentally notices what
the Synoptists omit, that the traitor was " the sori of Simon "
(6 : 71 ; 12:4; 13: 2, 26), that Thomas was called " Didymus "
(11 : 16 ; 20 : 24 ; 21 : 2) ; while, on the other hand, he calls the
Baptist simply "John" (he himself being the other John),
without adding to it the distinctive title as the Synoptists do
more than a dozen times to distinguish him from the son of
Zebedee.1 He indicates the days and hours of certain events,2
and the exact or approximate number of persons and objects
mentioned.1 He was privy to the thoughts of the disciples on
certain occasions, their ignorance and misunderstanding of the
words of the Master,4 and even to the motives and feelings of
the Lord.6
No literary artist could have invented the conversation of
Christ with Nicodemus on the mystery of spiritual regeneration
(ch. 3), or the conversation with the woman of Samaria (ch. 4),
or the characteristic details of the catechization of the man born
blind, which brings out so naturally the proud and heartless
bigotry of the Jewish hierarchy and the rough, outspoken hon-
esty and common sense of the blind man and his parents
(9 : 13-34). The scene at Jacob's well, described in the fourth
chapter, presents a most graphic, and yet unartificial picture of
nature and human life as it still remains, though in decay, at
the foot of Gerizim and Ebal : there is the well of Jacob in a
1 ** JoTianties als der Brzahlende, in mnem Selbatbewussttein^ bedarf fur den
anderen Johannes des Beinamens ntcht, ifim Iwgt die VerwecMung ganz fer?t "
Hase, Geschichte Je»u, p 48 The former belief of the venerable historian of
Jena in the full Johannean authorship of the fourth Gospel was unfortunately
shaken in his conflict with the Ttibingen giant, but he declares the objections
of Baur after all inconclusive, and seeks an escape from the dilemma by the
untenable compromise that the oral teaching of John a few years after his
death was committed to writing and somewhat mystified by an able pupil.
44 Die Botsoliaft hort er ut>oM, allein ihmfeldt der Olaube "
8 1 • 29, 35, 39, 43; 2 1 ; 4 0, 40, 43, 52 , 6 22; 7 : 14, 87 ; 11 • 6, 17,
89; 12 1,12; 13 30,18 2ft , 19 31,30 1,19,26,21-4.
8 1-35, 2:6; 4- Ifl; rt 9, 10 19, 19 23,39, 21:8, 11.
4 2 17,22,4-27,6 60,12 10,13 22,28,20 9,21:12
5 2 24, 25 , 4 1-3 ; 5 - 6; C 6, 13; 7 1,11 33, 38 ; 13 : 1, 8, 11, 21 ;
16. 19; 18-4; 19-28.
712 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
fertile, well-watered valley, there the Samaritan sanctuary on
the top of Mount Gerizim, there the waving grain-fields ripen-
ing for the harvest ; we are confronted with the historic antag-
onism of Jews and Samaritans which survives in the Nablus
of to-day ; there we see the genuine humanity of Jesus, as he
sat down " wearied with his journey," though not weary of his
work, his elevation above the rabbinical prejudice of conversing
with a woman, his superhuman knowledge and dignity ; there
is the curiosity and quick- wittedness of the Samaritan Magda-
lene ; and how natural is the transition from the water of Jacob's
well to the water of life, and from the hot dispute of the place
of worship to the highest conception of God as an omnipresent
spirit, and his true worship in spirit and in truth.1
4. The writer represents himself expressly as an eye-witness
of the life of Christ. He differs from the Synoptists, who never
use the first person nor mix their subjective feelings with the
narrative. " We beheld his glory," he says, in the name of all
the apostles and primitive disciples, in stating the general im-
pression made upon them by the incarnate Logos dwelling.*
And in the parallel passage of the first Epistle, which is an in-
separable companion of the fourth Gospel, he asserts with solemn
emphasis his personal knowledge of the incarnate Word of life
whom he heard with his ears and saw with his eyes and handled
1 " How often has this fourth chapter been read since by Christian pilgrims
on the very spot where the Saviour rested, with the irresistible impression
that every word is true and adapted to the time and place, yet applicable to
all times and places. Jacob's well is now in rains and no more us°d, but the
living spring of water which the Saviour first opened there to a poor, sinful,
"yet penitent woman is as deep and fresh as ever, and will quench the thirst of
souls to the end of time." So I wrote in 1871 for the English edition of
Lange's Com on John* p. 151. Six years afterward I fully realized my
anticipations, when with a company of friends £ sat down on Jacob's well and
read the fourth chapter of John as I never read it before Palestine, even in
"the imploring beauty of decay,1* is indeed a "fifth Gospel" which sheds
more light on the four than many a commentary brimful of learning and
critical conjectures.
8 1 ll.l&taffdfjLcda rV t6£av. -tocEo/uu is richer than 6pdv, and means to
behold or contemplate with admiration and delight The plural adds force to
the statement, as in 21 : 24 ; 1 John 1 : 1 ; 2 Pet. 1 : 16.
§ 83. JOHN. 713
with his hands (1 John 1 : 1-3). This assertion is general, and
covers the whole public life of our Lord. But he makes it also
in particular a case of special interest for the realness of Christ's
humanity ; in recording the flow of blood and water from the
wounded side, he adds emphatically : " He that hath seen hath
borne witness, and his witness is true : and he knoweth that he
saith things that are true, that ye also may believe" (19 : 35).
Here we are driven to the alternative : either the writer was a
true witness of what he relates, or he was a false witness who
wrote down a deliberate lie.
5. Finally, the writer intimates that he is one of the Twelve,
that he is one of the favorite three, that he is not Peter, nor
James, that he is none other than the beloved John who leaned
on the Master's bosom. He never names himself, nor his brother
James, nor his mother Salome, but he has a very modest, deli-
cate, and altogether unique way of indirect self-designation.
He stands behind his Gospel like a mysterious figure with a
thin veil over his face without ever lifting the veil. He leaves
the reader to infer the name by combination. He is undoubtedly
that unnamed disciple who, with Andrew, was led to Jesus by
the testimony of the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan (1 : 35-
40), the disciple who at the last Supper " was reclining at the
table in Jesus' bosom " (13 : 23-25), that " other disciple " who,
with Peter, followed Jesus into the court of the high-priest
(18 : 15, 16), who stood by the cross and was intrusted by the
dying Lord with the care of His mother (19 : 26, 27), and that
" other disciple whom Jesus loved," who went with Peter to the
empty sepulchre on the resurrection morning and was convinced
of the great fact by the sight of the grave-cloths, and the head-
cover rolled up in a place by itself (20 : 2-8). All these narra-
tives are interwoven with autobiographic details. He calls
himself " the disciple whom Jesus loved," not from vanity (as
has been most strangely asserted by some critics), but in blessed
and thankful remembrance of the infinite mercy of his divine
Master who thus fulfilled the prophecy of his name Johanan,
i.e., Jehovah is gracious. In that peculiar love of his all-beloved
714 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Lord was summed up for him the whole significance of his
life.
With this mode of self -designation corresponds the designa-
tion of members of his family : his mother is probably meant
by the unnamed " sister of the mother" of Jesus, who stood by
the cross (John 19 : 25), for Salome was there, according to the
Synoptists, and John would hardly omit this fact ; and in the
list of the disciples to whom Jesus appeared at the Lake of
Galilee, " the sons of Zebedee " are put last (21 : 2j, when yet in
all the Synoptic lists of the apostles they are, with Peter and
Andrew, placed at the head of the Twelve. This difference can
only be explained from motives of delicacy and modesty.
What a contrast the author presents to those pseudonymous
literary forgers of the second and third centuries, who un-
scrupulously put their writings into the mouth of the apostles
or other honored names to lend them a fictitious charm and
authority ; and yet who cannot conceal the fraud which leaks
out on every page.
CONCLUSION.
A review of this array of testimonies, external and internal,
drives us to the irresistible conclusion that the fourth Gospel is
the work of John, the apostle. This view is clear, self-con-
sistent, and in full harmony with the character of the book and
the whole history of the apostolic age ; while the hypothesis of
a literary fiction and pious fraud is contradictory, absurd, and
self -condemned. No writer in the second century could have
produced such a marvellous book, which towers high above all
the books of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and Tertullian and
Clement and Origen, or any other father or schoolman or re-
former. No writer in the first century could have written it
but an apostle, and no apostle but John, and John himself could
not have written it without divine inspiration.
§ 84. REVIEW OF THE JOHANNEAN PBOBLEIT. 716
§ 84. C^icdl Review of the Johannean Problem.
See the Liter, in \ 40, pp. 408 sqq., and the history of the controversy by
HOI/TZMANN, in Bunsen's Bibelwerk, VIII. 56 sqq. ; KEUSS, Gesch. der
heil. Sckri/ten N. T's (6th ed.), I. 248 sqq. ; GODBT, Com. (3d ed.),
I. 32 sqq ; HOLTZMANN, Emleitung (2d ed.), 423 sqq. ; WEISS, JStn-
leitung (1886), 609 sqq.
The importance of the subject justifies a special section on the
opposition to the fourth Gospel, after we have presented our
own view on the subject with constant reference to the recent
objections.
THE PROBLEM STATED.
The Johannean problem is the burning question of modern
criticism on the soil of the New Testament. It arises from the
difference between John and the Synoptists on the one hand,
and the difference between the fourth Gospel and the Apoca-
lypse on the other.
I. The Synoptic aspect of the problem includes the differ-
ences between the first three Evangelists and the fourth concern-
ing the theatre and length of Christ's ministry, the picture of
Christ, the nature and extent of his discourses, and a number of
minor details. It admits the following possibilities :
(1.) Both the Synoptists and John are historical, and repre-
sent only different aspects of the same person and work of
Christ, supplementing and confirming each other in every essen-
tial point. This is the faith of the Church and the conviction
of nearly all conservative critics and commentators.
(2.) The fourth Gospel is the work of John, and, owing to
his intimacy with Christ, it is more accurate and reliable than
the Synoptists, who contain some legendary embellishments and
even errors, derived from oral tradition, and must be rectified
by John. This is the view of Schleiermacher, Liicke, Bleek,
Ewald, Meyer, Weiss, and a considerable number of liberal
critics and exegetes who yet accept the substance of the whole
716 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
gospel history as true, and Christ as the Lord and Saviour of
the race. The difference between these scholars and the church
tradition is not fundamental, and admits of adjustment.
(3.) The Synoptists represent (in the main) the Christ of his-
tory, the fourth Gospel the ideal Christ of faith and fiction. So
Baur and the Tubingen school (Schwegler, Zeller, Kostlin,
Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Holtzmann, Hausrath, Schenkel, Man-
gold, Keim, Thoma), with their followers and sympathizers in
France (Nicolas, d'Eichthal, Kenan, Seville, Sabatier), Holland
(Scholten and the Leyden school), and England (the anonymous
author of " Supernatural Keligion," Sam. Davidson, Edwin A.
Abbott). But these critics eliminate the miraculous even from
the Synoptic Christ, at least as far as possible, and approach the
fourth hypothesis.
(4.) The Synoptic and Johannean Gospels are alike fictitious,
and resolve themselves into myths and legends or pious frauds.
This is the position of the extreme left wing of modern criti-
cism represented chiefly by Strauss. It is the legitimate result
of the denial of the supernatural and miraculous, which is as
inseparable from the Synoptic as it is from the Johannean
Christ ; but it is also subversive of all history and cannot be
seriously maintained in the face of overwhelming facts and
results. Hence there has been a considerable reaction among
the radical critics in favor of a more historical position. Keim's
"History of Jesus of Nazara" is a very great advance upon
Strauss's "Leben Jesu," though equally critical and more
learned, and meets the orthodox view half way on the ground
of the Synoptic tradition, as represented in the Gospel of Mat-
thew, which he dates back to A.D. 66.
II. The Apocalyptic aspect of the Johannean problem belongs
properly to the consideration of the Apocalypse, but it has of
late been inseparably interwoven with the Gospel question. It
admits likewise of four distinct views :
(1.) The fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse are both from the
pen of the apostle John, but separated by the nature of the sub-
ject, the condition of the writer, and an interval of at least
§ 84. REVIEW OF THE JOHANNEAtf PROBLEM. 717
twenty or thirty years, to account for the striking differences of
temper and style. When he met Paul at Jerusalem, A.D. 50, he
was one of the three " pillar-apostles ?1 of Jewish Christianity
(Gal. 2 : 9), but probably less than forty years of age, remarkably
silent with his reserved force, and sufficiently in sympathy with
Paul to give him the right hand of fellowship ; when he wrote
the Apocalypse, between A.D. 68 and 70, he was not yet sixty,
and when he wrote the Gospel he was over eighty years of age.
Moreover, the differences between the two books are more than
counterbalanced by an underlying harmony. This has been
acknowledged even by the head of the Tubingen critics, who
calls the fourth Gospel an Apocalypse spiritualized or a trans'
figuration of the Apocalypse.1
(2.) John wrote the Gospel, but not the Apocalypse. Many
critics of the moderate school are disposed to surrender the
Apocalypse and to assign it to the somewhat doubtful and mys-
terious " Presbyter John," a contemporary of the Apostle John.
So Schleiermacher, Lucke, Bleek, Neander, Ewald, Dusterdieck,
etc. If we are to choose between the two books, the Gospel has
no doubt stronger claims upon our acceptance.
(3.) John wrote the Apocalypse, but for this very reason he
cannot have written the fourth Gospel. So Baur, Renan, David-
son, Abbott, and nearly all the radical critics (except Keim).
(4.) The fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse are both spurious
and tile work of the Gnostic Oerinthus (as the Alogi held), or of
some anonymous forger. This view is so preposterous and un-
sound that no critic of any reputation for learning and judgment
dares to defend it.
There is a correspondence between the four possible attitudes
on both aspects of the Johannean question, and the parties
advocating them.
The result of the conflict will be the substantial triumph of
the faith of the church which accepts, on new grounds of evi-
dence, all the four Gospels as genuine and historical, and the
Apocalypse and the f ourth Gospel as the works of John,
i See p. 419 §q.f and my Companion to the On* T*tammt, pp. 76 «qq.
718 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THB ASSAULTS ON THB FOURTH GOSPEL.
Criticism has completely shifted its attitude on both parts of
the problem. The change is very remarkable. When the first
serious assault was made upon the genuineness of the fourth
Gospel by the learned General Superintendent Bretschneider
(in 1820), he was met with such overwhelming opposition, not
only from evangelical divines like Olshausen and Tholuck, but
also from Schleiermacher, Liicke, Credner, and Schott, that he
honestly confessed his defeat a few years afterward (1824: and
1828).1 And when Dr. Strauss, in his Leben Jesu (1835), re-
newed the denial, a host of old and new defenders arose with
such powerful arguments that he himself (as he confessed in the
third edition of 1838) was shaken in his doubt, especially by the
weight and candor of Neander, although he felt compelled, in
self-defence, to reaffirm his doubt as essential to the mythical
hypothesis (in the fourth edition, 1840, and afterward in his
popular Leben Je&u, 1864:).
But in the meantime his teacher, Dr. Baur, the coryphaeus
of the Tubingen school, was preparing his heavy ammunition,
and led the second, the boldest, the most vigorous and effective
assault upon the Johannean fort (since 1844).9 He was fol-
lowed in the main question, though with considerable modifica-
tions in detail, by a number of able and acute critics in Ger-
many and other countries. He represented the fourth Gospel
as a purely ideal work which grew out of the Gnostic, Monta-
1 Before him Edward Evanaon, an ex-clergyman of the Church of England,
bad attacked John and aU other Gospels except Luke, in TJie D ssonance of the
Four generally received Evangelists, 1792. He was refuted by the Unitarian,
Dr Priestley, who came to the conclusion that the Gospel of John ' ' bears
more internal and unequivocal marks of being written by an eye-witness than
any other writings whatever, sacred or profane " See his Letters to a Young
Man ( Works, vol XX 430)
8 Ueber die Composition und den Charnkter desjoh Evangeliums, an essay in
the " Theol Jahrbiicher " of Zeller, Tiibingen, 1844 , again in his Knt Unter-
tuchungen uber die kanon. Evang , Tub , 1847, and in his Kirchengesch , 1853
(vol. L, pp. 146 sqq., 166 sqq , third ed ). Godet (I. 17) calls the first disser-
tation of Baur justly '* one of the most ingenious and brilliant compositions
which theological science ever produced."
§ 84. BEVIEW OF THE JOHANNEAN PROBLEM. 719
nistic, and paschal controversies after the middle of the second
century, and adjusted the various elements of the Catholic faith
with consummate skill and art. It was not intended to be
a history, but a system of theology in the garb of history.
This " tendency " hypothesis was virtually a death-blow to the
mythical theory of Strauss, which excludes conscious design.
The third great assault inspired by Baur, yet with independ-
ent learning and judgment, was made by Dr. Keim (in his
Geschichte Jesu von Nazara, 1867). He went beyond Baur in
one point : he denied the whole tradition of John's sojourn in
Ephesus as a mistake of Irenseus ; he thus removed even the
foundation for the defence of the Apocalypse as a Johannean
production, and neutralized the force of the Tubingen assault
derived from that book. On the other hand, he approached the
traditional view by tracing the composition back from 170
(Baur) to the reign of Trajan, i.e., to within a few years after
the death of the apostle. In his denial of the Ephesus tradition
he met with little favor,1 but strong opposition from the Tubin-
gen critics, who see the fatal bearing of this denial upon the
genuineness of the Apocalypse.' The effect of Keim's move-
ment therefore tended rather to divide and demoralize the be-
sieging force.
Nevertheless the effect of these persistent attacks was so
great that three eminent scholars, Hase of Jena (1876), Reuss
of Strassbiirg, and Sabatier of Paris (1879), deserted from the
camp of the defenders to the army of the besiegers. Kenan,
too, who had in the thirteenth edition of his Vie de Jesus (1867)
defended the fourth Gospel at least in part, has now (since 1879,
in his Ilfiglise chretienne) given it up entirely.*
1 From Wittichen and Scholten.
* Especially from Hilgenfeld. The tradition of the Ephesian sojourn of
John is one of the strongest and most constant in the ancient church, and
goes back to Polycrates, Irenseus, Polycarp, and Papias, the very pupils and
grandpupils of John, who could not possibly be mistaken on such a simple
fact as this.
' Dr Weiss (Leben Je*u, I. 106) accords to Dr. Baur the merit of having
penetrated deeper into the peculiar character of the fourth Gospel and done
more for the promotion of its understanding than the mechanical old exegesis,
720 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THE DEFENCE OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
The incisive criticism of Baur and his school compelled a
thorough reinvestigation of the whole problem, and in this way
has been of very great service to the cause of truth. We owe to
it the ablest defences of the Johannean authorship of the fourth
Gospel and the precious history which it represents. Promi-
nent among these defenders against the latest attacks were
Bleek, Lange, Ebrard, Thiersch, Schneider, Tischendorf, Rig-
genbach, Ewald, Steitz, Aberle, Meyer, Luthardt, Wieseler,
Beyschlag, Weiss, among the Germans; Godet, Pressense,
Asti£, among the French ; Niermeyer, Van Oosterzee, Hof stede
de Groot, among the Dutch ; Alf ord, Milligan, Lightf oot, West-
cott, Sanday, Plummer, among the English ; Fisher, and Abbot
among the Americans.1
It is significant that the school of negative criticism had
produced no learned commentary on John. All the recent
commentators on the fourth Gospel (Liicke, Ewald, Lange,
llengstenberg, Luthardt, Meyer, Weiss, Alford, Wordsworth,
Godet, Westcott, Milligan, Moulton, Plummer, etc.) favor its
genuineness.
which had no conception of the difference and looked only for dicta probantia ;
but he justly adds that Baur' 8 criticism is "sicklied all over with the pale
cast11 of modern philosophical construction (wnfa Bla^modernerphiLotoph-
iacher Construction angehrankeU). We are prepared to say the same of Dr.
Keim, a proud, but noble and earnest spirit who died of overwork in elabo-
rating his History of Jesus of Nazara. The most scholarly, high-toned, and
singularly able argument in the English language against the Johannean
authorship of the fourth Gospel is the article "Gospels" in the "Encycl.
Brit.," 9th ed., vol. 3L 818-843 (1870), from the pen of Dr. Edwin A. Abbott,
head-master of the City of London School.
1 Without detracting from the merits of the many worthy champions of the
cause of truth, I venture to give the palm to Dr. Godet, of Neuoh&tel, in the
introductory volume to his third and thoroughly revised Commentary on John
(Introduction JMonque et critique, Paris, 1881, 376 pages), and to Dr. Weiss,
of Berlin, in his very able Leben, J<HH, Berlin, 1882, vol. I. 84-198. In Eng-
land the battle has been fought chiefly by Bishop Lightfoot, Canon Westcott,
Prof Milligan, and Dr Sanday. In America, Dr. Ezra Abbot (1880) is equal
to any of them in the accurate and effective presentation of the historical argu-
ment for the Johannean authorship of the fourth Gospel. His treatise has
been reprinted in his Critical JBuay$, Boston, 1888 (pp. 9-107).
§ 84. REVIEW OF THE JOHAIOTEAN PROBLEM. 721
THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE ANTI-JOHAJSTNEAN THEORY.
The prevailing theory of the negative critics is this : They
accept the Synoptic Gospels, with the exception of the miracles,
as genuine history, bnt for this very reason they reject John ;
and they accept the Apocalypse as the genuine work of the
apostle John, who is represented by the Synoptists as a Son of
Thunder, and by Paul (Gal. 2) as one of the three pillars of
conservative Jewish Christianity, but for this very reason they
deny that he can have written the Gospel, which in style and
spirit differs so widely from the Apocalypse. For this position
they appeal to the fact that the Synoptists and the Apocalypse
are equally well, and even better supported by internal and ex-
ternal evidence, and represent a tradition which is at least
twenty years older.
But what then becomes of the fourth Gospel ? It is incredi-
ble that the real John should have falsified the history of his
Master; consequently the Gospel which bears his name is a
post-apostolic fiction, a religious poem, or a romance on the
theme of the incarnate Logos. It is the Gospel of Christian
Gnosticism, strongly influenced by the Alexandrian philosophy
of Philo. Yet it is no fraud any more than other literary
fictions. The unknown author dealt with the historical Jesus
of the Synoptists, as Plato dealt with Socrates, making him
simply the base for his own sublime speculations, and putting
speeches into his mouth which he never uttered.
Who was that Christian Plato ? No critic can tell, or even
conjecture, except Renan, who revived, as possible at least, the
absurd view of the Alogi, that the Gnostic heretic, Cerinthus,
the enemy of John, wrote the fourth Gospel ! ' Such a conjec-
1 " Tout est possible," Bays Renan (L^gUse chret., p. 54), u d ees Spoqu* ttnt-
breuses ; et, si V tfglise, en venerant le guatriem* faangile eomme Vceuvre de Jean,
est dupe de celui qtfdle regarde comme vn de ses plus dangereux ennemu, cela
ritst pas en somme plus etrange que tant dTautres malentendus qui com/potent la
frame de Vhistoire retigieuse de Vhumartite Ce qu'il yade sur, Jest que Pau-
teur est d la fats leper* et Vadversnire du gnosticism*, Tennemi de ceuas gut lois-
saient fevaparer dans un dooetismt nuageux ?humaniti rteUe de Jlsu* et le
722 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ture requires an extraordinary stretch of imagination and an
amazing amount of credulity. The more sober among the critics
suppose that the author was a highly gifted Ephesian disciple of
John, who freely reproduced and modified his oral teaching
after he was removed by death. But how could his name be
utterly unknown, when the names of Folycarp and Fapias and
other disciples of John, far less important, have come down to
us ? " The great unknown " is a mystery indeed. Some critics,
half in sympathy with Tubingen, are willing to admit that John
himself wrote a part of the book, either the historic narratives
or the discourses, but neither of these compromises will do:
the book is a unit, and is either wholly genuine or wholly a
fiction.
Nor are the negative critics agreed as to the time of compo-
sition. Under tne increasing pressure of argument and evidence
they have been forced to retreat, step by step, from the last
quarter of the second century to the first, even within a few
years of John's death, and within the lifetime of hundreds of
his hearers, when it was impossible for a pseudo-Johannean
book to pass into general currency without the discovery of the
fraud. Dr. Baur and Schwegler assigned the composition to A.D.
170 or 160 ; Volkmar to 155 ; Zeller to 150 ; Scholten to 140 ;
Hilgenfeld to about 130 ; Renan to about 125 ; Schenkel to 120
or 115 ; until Keim (in 1867) went up as high as 110 or even
100, but having reached such an early date, he felt compelled
(1875) ' in self-defence to advance again to 130, and this not-
withstanding the conceded testimonies of Justin Martyr and the
early Gnostics. These vacillations of criticism reveal the im-
possibility of locating the Gospel in the second century.
If we surrender the fourth Gospel, what shall we gain in its
place ? Fiction for fact, stone for bread, a Gnostic dream for
the most glorious truth.
wmpUee de eeux qui le rdeguaient dan* r abstract ion divine." He thinks it
more probable, however (p. 47), that two Ephesian disciples of John (John
the Presbyter and Aristion) wrote the Gospel twenty or thirty yean after hie
ith.
1 In the last edition of hia abridged GachMite Je$u.
§ 84. REVIEW OF THE JOHANNEAN PROBLEM. 723
Fortunately the whole anti-Johannean hypothesis breaks
down at every point. It suffers shipwreck on innumerable de-
tails which do not fit at all into the supposed dogmatic scheme,
but rest on hard facts of historical recollections.1
And instead of removing any difficulties it creates greater
difficulties in their place. There are certain contradictions which
no ingenuity can solve. If " the great unknown " was the creative
artist of his ideal Christ, and the inventor of those sublime
discourses, the like of which were never heard before or since,
he must have been a mightier genius than Dante or Shake-
speare, yea greater than his own hero, that is greater than the
greatest: this is a psychological impossibility and a logical
absurdity. Moreover, if he was not John and yet wanted to be
known as John, he was a deceiver and a liar : 2 this is a moral
impossibility. The case of Plato is very different, and his rela-
tion to Socrates is generally understood. The Synoptic Gospels
are anonymous, but do not deceive the reader. Luke and the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews honestly make themselves
known as mere disciples of the apostles. The real parallel would
be the apocryphal Gospels and the pseudo-Clementine produc-
tions, where the fraud is unmistakable, but the contents are so
far below the fourth Gospel that a comparison is out of the
question. Literary fictions were not uncommon in the ancient
church, but men had common sense and moral sense then as
well as now to distinguish between fact and fiction, truth and lie.
It is simply incredible that the ancient church should have been
duped into a unanimous acceptance of such an important book
as the work of the beloved disciple almost from the very date
of his death, and that the whole Christian church, Greek, Latin,
1 As Weiss (I. 109) admirably expresses it • " Ueberdll im Eknzelnen, wit in
der Oesammtgestaltung den Lebens Jeau stosscn wir auf das harte Getttein
gMchichtlicher Erinnerung, welches dem kritwchen Auflosungsptoztts, der es in
ideeUe Bildungen verwandeln twH, unuberwindUchen Widerstand leistet "
* 4* Als die Dichtung eine* Tiatbgnosttichen Philosophen aus dem eweiten Jahr-
hundert tot « [the fourth Gospel] ein tr&gertoches Irrlicht. ja in WnJirheit eine
groue Luge," Weiss, I. 124. Renan admits the alternative, only in milder
terms : •* II y a Id un petit artifice littfraire, du genre de cew qu'affeetionne
Platan," La, p. 52.
724 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Protestant, including an innumerable army of scholars, should
have been under a radical delusion for eighteen hundred years,
mistaking a Gnostic dream for the genuine history of the
Saviour of mankind, and drinking the water of life from the
muddy source of fraud.1
In the meantime the fourth Gospel continues and will con-
tinue to shine, like the sun in heaven, its own best evidence, and
will shine all the brighter when the clouds, great and small, shall
have passed away.
§ 85. The Acts of the Apostles.
Gomp § 82.
1. Critical Treatises.
M. SGHNBGKENBUBGER : Zweck der Apostelgeschichte. Bern, 1841.
SOHWANBBOE : Quetten der Ap. Gesch. Darmstadt, 1847.
ED. ^^T^T.TCT^ : Contents and Origin of the Acts of the Apostles. Stuttg.,
1854 ; trsL by Jos. Dare, 1875-76, London, 2 vols.
LEKEBUSOH : Composition u. Entstehung der Ap. Gesch. Gotha, 1854.
RLOSTEKMANN : Vindicice Lucance. Gottingen, 1866.
ABTHUB KONIG (R. G.) : Die Aechtheit der Ap. Gesch. Breslau, 1867.
J. B. OKBTBL : Paulus in der Ap. Gesch. Der histor. Char, dieser Schrift,
etc. HaUe, 1868.
J. B. LIGHTPOOT : Illustrations of the Acts from recent Discoveries, in the
"Contemporary Beview" for May, 1878, pp. 28S-296.
DEAN HOWSON : Bohlen Lectures on the Evidential Value of the Acts of the
Apostles, delivered in Philadelphia, 1880. London and New York,
1880.
FBDEDR. ZIMMBB : Galaterbrief und Apostelgeschichte. Hildbnrghausen,
1882.
Gomp. also, in part, J. H. SOHOI/TEN : Das Paulinische Evangelium, trsl.
from the Dutch by Redepenning9 Elberf., 1881. A critical essay on
the writings of Lnke (pp. 254 sqq.).
1 This absurdity IB strikingly characterized in the lines of the Swabian poet,
Gustav Schwab, which he gave me when I was a student at Tubingen shortly
after the appearance of Strauss' s Leben Jesu :
44 Hat dieses Buck, das ew'ge Wahrheit itt,
Sin liigcnhaftcr Gnostiker geschrieben,
Bo hot seit tavsend Jahren Jesus Christ
Den Tevfel durch Beelzebub vertrieben."
§ 86. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 725
2. Commentaries on Acts.
By OHBTBOSTOM; JHBOMB; CALVIN; OLSHATOBN ; DB WBTTB (4th ed., re-
vised bj^Overbeck, 1870) ; MEYBB (4th ed., 1870; 5th ed., revised by
Wendt, 1880) ; BAUMGABTEN (in 2 parts, 1862, Engl. transl. in 3
vols., Edinburgh, 1856) ; Jos. A. AuntAinwni ; H. B. HAOKBTT (2d
ed., 1858 ; 3d ed., 1877) ; EWAU> (1872) ; LBOHLEB-GBBOK (in
Lange's Bibelwerk, transl. by Schatfer, N. Y., 1866) ; F. O. COOK
(Lond., 1866) ; ALFOBD ; WOBDSWOBTH ; GLOAG ; PLUMPTBB (in
Ellicott's Com.); JAOOBSON (in the "Speaker's Com.," 1880);
LUMBT (in the "Cambridge Bible for Schools," 1880) ; HOWBON and
SPBNOB (in SchaflTs "Popul. Com.," 1880; revised for "Revision
Com.," N. Y., 1882); K SCHMIDT (Die Apostelgesch. unter dem
Hauptgesichtspunkt ihrer Gfaubwurdigkeit kritisch exegetisch bearbeitet.
Erlangen, 1882, 2 vols.) ; NOSGEN (Leipz. 1882), BETHGB (1887).
THE ACTS AND THE THIRD GOSPEL.
The book of Acts, though placed by the ancient ecclesiastical
division not in the " Gospel," but in the " Apostle," is a direct
continuation of the third Gospel, by the same author, and ad-
dressed to the same Theophilus, probably a Christian convert
of distinguished social position. In the former he reports what
he heard and read, in the latter what he heard and saw. The
one records the life and work of Christ, the other the work of
the Holy Spirit, who is recognized at every step. The word
Spirit, or Holy Spirit, occurs more frequently in the Acts than
in any other book of the New Testament. It might properly
be called "the Gospel of the Holy Spirit."
The universal testimony of the ancient church traces the two
books to the same author. This is confirmed by internal evi-
dence of identity of style, continuity of narrative, and corre-
spondence of plan. About fifty words not found elsewhere in
the New Testament are common to both books.1
1 See the conclusive proof in Zeller, pp. 414-452 (EngL transl. by Dare, vol.
IL 218-254). Holtemann (%/i Evang., p. 375) : " Ab ausgemadU darf man
heuteutage wofd annehmen, doss der Verfasser far Apostelgeschichte und des
tdritten EvangeUum* ein und diesdbe Person rind." Benan speaks in the same
confident tone (Let Apotres, pp. x. and xi.^ : " Une chose hor* de doute, Jest
que ks Aete* ont eut le mime auteur que le troisieme tvangile et *ont une contin-
uation d* Get toangib. . . . La parfaite rcssemNance du style et da idee*
726 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
OBJECT AND CONTENTS.
The Acts is a cheerful and encouraging book, like the third
Gospel ; it is full of missionary zeal and hope ; it records pro-
gress after progress, conquest after conquest, and turns even
persecution and martyrdom into an occasion of joy and thanks-
giving. It is the first church history. It begins in Jerusalem
and ends in Rome. An additional chapter would probably have
recorded the terrible persecution of Nero and the heroic mar-
tyrdom of Paul and Peter. But this would have made the
book a tragedy ; instead of that it ends as cheerfully and tri-
umphantly as it begins.
It represents the origin and progress of Christianity from the
capital of Judaism to the capital of heathenism. It is a history
of the planting of the church among the Jews by Peter, and
among the Gentiles by Paul. Its therne is expressed in the
promise of the risen Christ to his disciples (1:8): " Ye shall
receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you (ch. 2) :
and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem (chs. 3-7), and
in all Judaea and Samaria (chs. 8-12), and unto the uttermost
part of the earth " (chs. 13-28). The Gospel of Luke, which is
the Pauline Gospel, laid the foundation by showing how salva-
tion, coming from the Jews and opposed by the Jews, was in'
tended for all men, Samaritans and Gentiles. The Acts exhib-
its the progress of the church from and among the Jews to the
Gentiles by the ministry of Peter, then of Stephen, then of
Philip in Samaria, then of Peter again in the conversion of
Cornelius, and at last by the labors of Paul and his companions.1
fournitsent d cet egard d'abondantes demonstrations. . . . Les deux Hires
reunisfont un ensemble absolument du mSme style, presentant les mSmes locutions
favorites et la mSme far on de citer Vecriture" Scholten dissents from tbia
view and vainly tries to show that while both books originated in the school
of Paul, the third evangelist elevates Paoliniflm above Jewish Christianity,
and the author of Acts recommends Paul to the Jewish-Christian party. The
Gospel is polemical, the Acts apologetic. Das PauUnische Evangelium, etc , *
transl from the Dutch by Redepenning, Elberf , 1881, p. 815.
1 The history of the Reformation furnishes a parallel ; namely, the further
progress of Christianity from Rome (the Christian Jerusalem) to Wittenberg,
§ 86. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 737
The Acts begins with the ascension of Christ, or his accession
to his throne, and the founding of his kingdom by the outpour-
ing of the Holy Spirit ; it closes with the joyful preaching of
the Apostle of the Gentiles in the capital of the then known
world.
The objective representation of the progress of the church is
the chief aim of the work, and the subjective and biographical
features are altogether subordinate. Before Peter, the hero of
the first or Jewish-Christian division, and Paul, the hero of the
second or Gentile-Christian part, the other apostles retire and
are only once named, except John, the elder James, Stephen,
and James, the brother of the Lord. Even the lives of the
pillar-apostles appear in the history only so far as they are con-
nected with the missionary work. Tn this view the long-
received title of the book, added by some other hand than the
author's, is not altogether correct, though in keeping with
ancient usage (as in the apocryphal literature, which includes
" Acts of Pilate,1' " Acts of Peter and Paul," " Acts of Philip,"
etc.). More than three-fifths of it are devoted to Paul, and
especially to his later labors and journeys, in which the author
could speak from personal knowledge. The book is simply a
selection of biographical memoirs of Peter and Paul connected
with the planting of Christianity or the beginnings of the
church (Origines EccUsia).
SOURCES.
Luke, the faithful pupil and companion of Paul, was emi-
nently fitted to produce the history of the primitive church.
For the first part he had the aid not only of oral tradition, but
also of Palestinian documents, as he had in preparing his Gos-
pel. Hence the Hebrew coloring in the earlier chapters of Acts ;
while afterward he writes as pure Greek, as m the classical
prologue 'of his Gospel. Most of the events in the second part
came under his personal observation. Hence he often speaks
Geneva. Oxford and Edinburgh, through the labors of Luther, Calvin, Cran*
mar and Knoz.
738 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
in the plural number, modestly including himself.1 The "we*
sections begin ch. 16 : 10, when Paul started from Troas to
Macedonia (A.D. 51) ; they break off when he leaves Fhilippi
for Corinth (17 : 1) ; they are resumed (20 : 5, 6) when he visits
Macedonia again seven years later (58), and then continue to
the dose of the narrative (A.D. 63). Luke probably remained
several years at Fhilippi, engaged in missionary labors, until
Paul's return. He was in the company of Paul, including the
interruptions, at least twelve years. He was again with Paul
in his last captivity, shortly before his martyrdom, his most
faithful and devoted companion (2 Tim. 4 : 11).
TIME OF COMPOSITION.
Luke probably began the book of Acts or a preliminary diary
during his missionary journeys with Paul in Greece, especially
in Philippi, where he seems to have tarried several years ; he
continued it in Csesarea, where he had the best opportunity to
gather reliable information of the earlier history, from Jerusa-
lem, and such living witnesses as Cornelius and his friends,
from Philip and his daughters, who resided in Csesarea ; and
he finished it soon after Paul's first imprisonment in Home,
before the terrible persecution in the summer of 64, which he
could hardly have left unnoticed.
We look in vain for any allusion to this persecution and the
martyrdom of Paul or Peter, or to any of their Epistles, or to
the destruction of Jerusalem, or to the later organization of the
church, or the superiority of the bishop over the presbyter
(Comp. 20 : 17, 28), or the Gnostic heresies, except by way of
prophetic warning (20 : 30). This silence in a historical work
1 Ewald, in his Commentary on Acts (1872), pp. 35 sqq , infers from the use
of the little word we aad its connection with the other portions that the whole
work ifl from one and the same author, who is none other than Luke of Anti-
ooh, the " beloved " friend and colaborer of Paul. Benan says (Le* ap6tre$,
p. ziy.) : " Je peniite d eroire gue le dernier rSdaoteur ties Actes est bun le du-
ciple de Paid qui dit ' now* aux dArnun chapitret," but he puts the composi-
tion down to A. P. 71 or 72 (p. zx.), and in his IM fhangiU*, oh. xix., pp. 489
•qq., still later, to the age of Domitian,
§ 85. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 726
like this seems inexplicable on the assumption that the book
was written after A.D. 70, or even after 64. But if we place
the composition before the martyrdom of Paul, then the last
verse is after all an appropriate conclusion of a missionary his-
tory of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. For the bold
and free testimony of the Apostle of the Gentiles in the very
heart of the civilized world was the sign and pledge of victory.
THE ACTS AND THE GOSPELS.
The Acts is the connecting link between the Gospels and
Epistles. It presupposes and confirms the leading events in the
life of Christ, on which the church is built. The fact of the
resurrection, whereof the apostles were witnesses, sends a thrill
of joy and an air of victory through the whole book. God
raised Jesus from the dead and mightily proclaimed him to be
the Messiah, the prince of life and a Saviour in Israel ; this is
the burden of the sermons of Peter, who shortly before had
denied his Master. He boldly bears witness to it before the
people, in his pentecostal sermon, before the Sanhedrin, and
before Cornelius. Paul likewise, in his addresses at Antioch in
Pisidia, at Thessalonica, on the Areopagus before the Athenian
philosophers, and at Csesarea before Festus and Agrippa, em-
phasizes the resurrection without which his own conversion
never could have taken place.
THE ACTS AND THE EPISTLES.
The Acts gives us the external history of the apostolic church ;
the Epistles present the internal life of the same. Both mutu-
ally supplement and confirm each other by a series of coinci-
dences in all essential points. These coincidences are all the
more conclusive as they are undesigned and accompanied by
slight discrepancies iu minor details. Archdeacon Paley made
them the subject of a discussion in his HOTCB PauMnce,1 which
will retain its place among classical monographs alongside of
1 First publiahed in 1790, and often ainoe. See also the list of parallel pas*
gagea in Dr. Plumptre's Com. an Acts, pp. z. and xi
730
FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
James Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul. Argu-
ments such as are furnished in these two books are sufficient to
silence most of the critical objections against the credibility of
Acts for readers of sound common sense and unbiased judg-
ment. There is not the slightest trace that Luke had read
any of the thirteen Epistles of Paul, nor that Paul had read a
line of Acts. The writings were contemporaneous and inde-
pendent, yet animated by the same spirit, Jjiike omits, it is
true, Paul's journey to Arabia, his collision with Peter at
Antioch, and many of his trials and persecutions ; but he did
not aim at a full biography. The following are a few exam-
ples of these conspicuously undesigned coincidences in the
chronological order :
PAUL'S CONVERSION.
Gomp. Acts chs 9 ; 22 and 26 ;
three accounts which differ only in
minor details.
Gal. 1 : 15-17 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 8 ;
1 Tim. 1 : 13-16.
PAUL'S PEBSBOUTION AND ESCAPE AT DAMASCUS.
Acts 9 : 23-25. The Jews took
counsel together to kill him . . .
bnt his disciples took him by
night, and let him down through
the wall, lowering him in a basket.
2 Cor. 11 : 32, 33. In Damascus
the governor tinder Aretas the
king guarded the city of the Da-
mascenes, in order to take me;
and through a window was I let
down in a basket by the wall, and
escaped his hands.
PAUL'S VISITS TO JERUSALEM.
9 : 26, 27. And when he was
oome to Jerusalem . . . Barnabas
took him, and brought him to the
apostles.
15:2. They appointed that Paul
and Barnabas, and certain other of
them, should go up to Jerusalem
unto the apostles and elders [to
the apostolic conference to settle
the question about circumcision].
Gal. 1:18. Then after three
years [counting from his conver-
sion] I went up to Jerusalem to
visit Cephas, and tarried with him
fifteen days.
Gal. 2 : 1. Then after the space
of fourteen years I went up again
to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking
Titus also with me. And I went up
by revelation. [This inner motive
does, of course, not exclude the
church appointment mentioned by
Luke.]
§ 86. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 731
PAUL LEFT AT ATHENS ALONB.
17 : 16. Now while Paul waited
for them [Silas and Timothy] at
Athena,
Oomp. ver. 7.
PAUL WOBKINQ AT HIS TRADE.
1 These. 8:1. We thought it
good to be left behind at Athens
alone; and sent Timothy, etc.
18 : 3. And because he [Aqnila]
was of the same trade, he abode
with them, and they wrought ; for
by their trade they were tent mak-
ers. Oomp. 20 : 84.
1 Thess. 2:9. Ye remember,
brethren, onr labor and travail:
working night and day, that we
might not bnrden any of yon.
Oomp. 1 Cor. 4 : 11, 12.
PAUL'S Two VISITS TO CORINTH.
18:1; 20:2. | 1 Cor. 2 : 1; 4:19; 16:5.
WORK OF APOLLOS AT CORINTH.
18:27,28. | 1 Cor. 1 :12; 3 :6.
PAUL BECOMING A JEW TO THE JEWS.
16:8; 18:18; 21:23-26. | 1 Cor. 9:20.
BAPTISM OF CRISFUB AND GAITJS.
18:8. | 1 Cor. 1:14-17.
COLLECTION FOB THB POOR BRETHREN.
18:23. | 1 Cor. 16:1.
PAUL'S LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.
20:6; 24:17. | Bom. 15 : 25, 26.
His DESIRE TO VISIT ROME.
19:21 | Rom. 1:13; 15:23.
PAUL AN AMBASSADOR IN BONDS.
28 : 16-20. | Eph. 6 : 19, 20.
THE ACTS AND SECULAR HISTORY.
The Acts brings Christianity in contact with the surrounding
world and makes many allusions to various places, secular per-
sons and events, though only incidentally and as far as its
object required it These allusions are — with a single excep-
tion, that of Theudas — in full harmony with the history of the
732 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
age as known from Josephus and heathen writers, and establish
Luke's claim to be considered a well-informed, honest, and
credible historian. Bishop Lightfoot asserts that no ancient
work affords so many tests of veracity, because no other has
such numerous points of contact in all directions with contem-
porary history, politics, and typography, whether Jewish or
Greek or Eoman. The description of persons introduced in
the Acts, such as Gamaliel, Herod, AgrippaJ., Bernice, Felix,
Festus, Gallio, agrees as far as it goes entirely with what we
know from contemporary sources. The allusions to countries,
cities, islands, in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy are with-
out exception correct and reveal an experienced traveller. We
mention the chief points, some of which are crucial tests.
1. The rebellion of Theudas, 5 : 36, alluded to in the speech
of Gamaliel, which was delivered about A.D. 33. Here is, ap-
parently, a conflict with Josephus, who places this event in the
reign of Claudius, and under the procuratorship of Cuspius
Fadus, A.D. 44, ten or twelve years after Gamaliel's speech.1
But he mentions no less than three insurrections which took
place shortly after the death of Herod the Great, one under
the lead of Judas (who may have been Theudas or Thaddseus,
the two names being interchangeable, comp. Matt. 10 : 3 ; Luke
6 : 16), and he adds that besides these there were many high-
way robbers and murderers who pretended to the name of king.*
At all events, we should hesitate to charge Luke with an anachro-
nism. He was as well informed as Josephus, and more credible.
This is the only case of a conflict between the two, except the
case of the census in Luke 2 : 2, and here the discovery of a
double governorship of Quirinius has brought the chronological
difficulty within the reach of solution.1
2. The rebellion of Judas of Galilee, mentioned in the same
speech, 5 : 37, as having occurred in the days of the enrolment
(the census of Quirinius), is confirmed by Josephus.4 The in-
1 Ant. XX. 5, g 1. * Ant. XVII 10. ' See above, p. 122.
4 Ant. XVIIL 1 ; XX. 5, § 2 ; War, H 8, § 1. In the first passage JOB*
phuB calls Jttdai a Gaulonite (£.&, from the country eobt of Galilee), bat in
§ 85. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 733
surrection of this Judas was the most vigorous attempt to throw
off the Eoman yoke before the great war.
3. Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, 8 : 27. Strabo men-
tions a queen of Mero6 in Ethiopia, under that name, which
was probably, like Pharaoh, a dynastic title.1
4. The famine under Claudius, 11 : 28. This reign (A.D. 41-
54) was disturbed by frequent famines, one of which, according
to Josephus, severely affected Judaea and Syria, and caused great
distress in Jerusalem, under the procuratorship of Cuspiua
Fadus, A.D. 45.*
5. The death of King Herod Agrippa I. (grandson of Herod
the Great), 12 : 20-23. Josephus says nothing about the pre-
ceding persecution of the church, but reports in substantial
agreement with Luke that the king died of a loathsome disease
in the seventh year of his reign (A.D. 44), five days after he had
received, at the theatre of Csesarea, divine honors, being hailed,
in heathen fashion, as a god by his courtiers.*
6. The proconsular (as distinct from the propraetorian) status
of Cyprus, under Sergius Paulus, 13 : 7 (<rvv rc3 avSinrdrp
2epyUp IXavXtp). Here Luke was for a long time considered
inaccurate, even by Grotius, but has been strikingly confirmed
by modern research. When Augustus assumed the supreme
power (B.C. 27), he divided the government of the provinces
with the Senate, and called the ruler of the imperatorial prov-
inces, which needed direct military control under the emperor
as commander of the legions, proprcetor (avrurrpdrviyos) or
the ruler of a senatorial province, proconsul
Formerly these terms had signified that the
holder of the office had previously been praetor (crrpanyyd? or
ipye/ttoi/) or consul (faraTos)\ now they signified the adminis-
trative heads of the provinces. But this subdivision underwent
frequent changes, so that only a well-informed person could tell
the other passage he is described as a Galilean. He may have been a native
of Gaulonitis and a resident of Galilee.
1 Strabo, XVII., p 830 ; oomp. Pliny IV. 85; Dion Cass., LFV. 5.
1 Josephus, Ant. XX. 5 ; oomp, Tacitus, Ann. XIL 48 ; Sueton , Claud. 28.
« Ant. XVHI. 8.
734 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the distinction at any time. Cyprus was in the original distri-
bution (B.C. 27) assigned to the emperor,1 but since B.C. 22, and
at the time of Paul's visit under Claudius, it was a senatorial
province ;' and hence Sergius Paulus is rightly called proconsul.
Coins have been found from the reign of Claudius which con-
firm this statement." Yea, tho very name of (Sergius) Paulus
has been discovered by General di Cesnola at Soli (which, next
to Salarnis, was the most important city of the island), in a
mutilated inscription, which reads : " in the proconsulship of
Paulus." 4 Under Hadrian the island was governed by a pro-
praetor ; under Severus, again by a proconsul.
7. The proconsular status of Achaia under Gallio, ch. 18 : 12
(ra\\uovos av^virdrov ovro? 7% 'A^aia?). Achaia, which in-
cluded the whole of Greece lying south of Macedonia, was
originally a senatorial province, then an imperatorial province
under Tiberius, and again a senatorial province under Claudius.*
In the year 53-54, when Paul was at Corinth, M. Annseus
Novatus Gallio, the brother of the philosopher L. Annseus Sen-
eca, was proconsul of Achaia, and popularly esteemed for his
mild temper as " dulcis Gallio"
8. Paul and Barnabas mistaken for Zeus and Hermes in
Lycaonia, 14 : 11. According to the myth described by Ovid/
the gods Jupiter and Mercury (Zeus and Hermes) had appeared
1 Strata, XIV., at the close. 9 Dio Cassias, LIII. 12.
8 Akerman, Numismatic Illustrations, pp. 89-42.
4 TON EH! • IIATAOT • [ANe]TIIATOT. See Louis Palma di Cesnola's
Cyprus : Jts Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples, New York, 1878, p 424 sq
He says • " The Proconsul Paulus may be the Sergiua Paulus of the Acts of
the Apostles (ch 13), as instances of the suppression of one or two names are
not rare " Bishop Lightfoot (ki Cent Review " for 1876, p. 290 sq.) satisfac-
torily accounts for the omission of Sergius, and identifies also the name
Sergiub Paulus from the elder Pliny, who mentions him twice as a Latin
author in the first book of his Natural History, and as his chief authority for
the facts in the second and eighteenth books, two of these facts being espe-
cially connected with Cyprus The Consul L Sergius Paulus, whom Galen
the physician met at Rome A D 151, and whom he mentions repeatedly, first
under his full name and then simply as Paulus, may have been a descendant
of the convert of the apostle
» Tacitus, Ann. L 76 ; Sueton , Claudius, c. 25. ' Jfttom., VIEL 625-791
§ 85. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 735
to the Lycaonians in the likeness of men, and been received by
Baucis and Philemon, to whom they left tokens of that favor.
The place where they had dwelt was visited by devout pilgrims
and adorned with votive offerings. How natural, therefore,
was it for these idolaters, astonished by the miracle, to mistake
the eloquent Paul for Hermes, and Barnabas who may have
been of a more imposing figure, for Zeus.
9. The colonial dignity of the city of Philippi, in Macedonia,
16 : 12 (" a Roman colony," icoX&vui ; comp. ver. 21, " being
Romans "). Augustus had sent a colony to the famous battle-
field where Brutus and the Republic expired, and conferred on
the place new importance and the privileges of Italian or Ro-
man citizenship (jus Italicum).1
10. " Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira," 16 : 14.
Thyatira (now Akhissar), in the valley of Lycus in Asia Minor,
was famous for its dying works, especially for purple or crimson.*
11. The upolitarchs" of Thessalonica, 17:6, 8.3 This was
a very rare title for magistrates, and might easily be confounded
with the more usual designation "poliarchs" But Luke's ac-
curacy has been confirmed by an inscription still legible on an
archway in Thessalonica, giving the names of seven "poli-
tarchs " who governed before the visit of Paul.4
12. The description of Athens, the Areopagus, the schools of
philosophy, the idle curiosity and inquisitiveness of tho Athe-
nians (mentioned also by Demosthenes), the altar of an un-
1 Dion Cass., LI. 4 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. IV. 11.
* Strata, XIII. 4, § 14. Inscriptions found in the place attest the ex-
istence of a guild of purple-dealers, with which Lydia was probably con-
nected.
8 TOUT roXmtpxas, i.e., rob* ftpx0*"" ™" «A*™S prctfectoB civitatis, the
rulers of the city. Gnram says : ' ' Uritotiv* Greeds erat, vo\tapxos.n
4 The Thessalonian inscription in Greek letters is given by Boeckh, Leake,
and Howaon (in Conybeare and Howson's Life and Letters of St. Paul, oh. IX.,
large Lend, ed., I. 860). Three of the names are identical with those of
Paul's friends in that region— Sopater of Beroa (Acts 20 : 4), Gains of Mace-
donia (19 : 29), and Secundns of Thessalonioa (20 : 4). I will only give the
first line:
nOAEITAPXOTNTON 2H3inATPOT TOT KAEQ.
736 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
known God, and the quotation from Aratus or Cleanthes, in
ch. 17, are fully borne out by classical authorities.1
13. The account of Ephesus in the nineteenth chapter has been
verified as minutely accurate by the remarkable discoveries of
John T. Wood, made between 1863 and 1874, with the aid of
the English Government. The excessive worship of Diana,
" the great goddess of Artemis," the temple- warden, the theatre
(capable of holding twenty-five thousand people) often used for
public assemblies, the distinct officers of the city, the Roman
proconsul (av&\nraTo$\ the recorder or " town-clerk " (jpa^/jLa-
rev?), and the Asiarchs (Aa-utp^ai) or presidents of the games
and the religious ceremonials, have all reappeared in ruins and
on inscriptions, which may now be studied in the British Mu-
seum. " With these facts in view," says Lightf oot, " we are
justified in saying that ancient literature has preserved no pic-
ture of the Ephesus of imperial times — the Ephesus which has
been unearthed by the sagacity and perseverance of Mr. Wood
— comparable for its life-like truthfulness to the narrative of
St. Paul's sojourn there in the Acts." *
14. The voyage and shipwreck of Paul in ch. 27. This
chapter contains more information about ancient navigation
than any work of Greek or Roman literature, and betrays the
minute accuracy of an intelligent eye-witness, who, though not
a professional seaman, was very familiar with nautical terms
from close observation. He uses no less than sixteen technical
terms, some of them rare, to describe the motion and manage-
ment of a ship, and all of them most appropriately ; and he is
strictly correct in the description of the localities at Crete, Sal-
1 See the commentaries on Acts 17 : 16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 28. The singular
&c£ in ver. 23 creates some difficulty ; for Pansanias (L 1-4) mentions 4t altars
to unknown gods" which were set np in the harbor and streets of Athens ; and
Diogenes Laertins (Bpimen., c 3) speaks of *' altars without name " in many
parts of Athens. It is supposed that Paul meant one of these altars, or that
he ingeniously adapted the polytheistic inscription to his argument. In the
dialogue PhUopatris* which is erroneously ascribed to Luoian, one of the
speakers swears " by the unknown god of Athens "
9 See Wood : Discoveries at Ephews, and Lightfoot's article above quoted,
p. 295. Lightf oot aided £fr. Wood in explaining the inscriptions.
§ 86. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 737
mone, Fair Havens, Cauda, Lasea and Phoenix (two small places
recently identified), and Melita (Malta), as well as the motions
and effects of the tempestuous northeast wind called Euraquilo
(A. V. Euroclydon) in the Mediterranean. All this has been
thoroughly tested by an expert seaman and scholar, James
Smith, of Scotland, who has published the results of his ex-
amination in the classical monograph already mentioned.1
Monumental and scientific evidence outweighs critical conjee*
tures, and is an irresistible vindication of the historical accuracy
and credibility of Luke.
THE ACTS AN IBENICUM.
But some critics have charged the Acts with an intentional
falsification of history in the interest of peace between the
Petrine and Pauline sections of the church. The work is said
to be a Catholic Irenicum, based probably on a narrative of
Luke, but not completed before the close of the first century,
for the purpose of harmonizing the Jewish and Gentile sections
of the church by conforming the two leading apostles, i.e.y by
raising Peter to the Pauline and lowering Paul to the Petrine
plane, and thus making both subservient to a compromise be-
tween Judaizing bigotry and Gentile freedom.'
The chief arguments on which this hypothesis is based are
the suppression of the collision between Paul and Peter at
Antioch, and the friendly relation into which Paul is brought
to James, especially at the last interview. The fifteenth
chapter of Acts is supposed to be in irreconcilable conflict with
the second chapter of the Galatians. But a reaction has taken
1 Oomp. 8 82, p. 666, and my Companion to the Greek Test., p. 61.
1 This view was first broached by Banr (1836, 1838, and 1845), then carried
out by Schneckenburger (1841), more folly by ZeUer (1854), and by Hilgen-
feld (1873, and in his Einleitung, 1875). Benan also presents substantially
the same view, though somewhat modified ' 'Le* Acte* " (Le* Apdtre*, p. xxii )
44 *ont une hietoire dogmatique, arrange* pour appuyer let doctrine* orthodoaxs
du temp* ou ineulquer le* idfa He
thinks, it could not be otherwise, an we know the history of religions only from
the reports of believers; " U »'y a gue le tceptigue gui eeriw VhUMre ad nar*
random."
738 FIE3T PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
place in the Tubingen school, and it is admitted now by some
of the ablest critics that the antagonism between Faulinism
and Petrinism has been greatly exaggerated by Baur, and that
Acts is a far more trustworthy account than he was willing to
admit. The Epistle to the Galatians itself is the best vindica-
tion of the Acts, for it expressly speaks of a cordial agreement
between Paul and the Jewish pillar-apostles. As to the omis-
sion of the collision between Peter and Paul at Antioch, it was
merely a passing incident, perhaps unknown to Luke, or omitted
because it had no bearing on the course of events recorded by
him. On the other hand, he mentions the " sharp contention "
between Paul and Barnabas, because it resulted in a division of
the missionary work, Paul and Silas going to Syria and Cilicia,
Barnabas and Mark sailing away to Cyprus (15 : 39-41). Of
this Paul says nothing, because it had no bearing on his argu-
ment with the Galatians. Paul's conciliatory course toward
James and the Jews, as represented in the Acts, is confirmed
by his own Epistles, in which he says that he became a Jew to
the Jews, as well as a Gentile to the Gentiles, in order to gain
them both, and expresses his readiness to make the greatest
possible sacrifice for the salvation of his brethren after the flesh
(1 Cor. 9 : 20 ; Rom. 9 : 3).
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE ACTS.
The book of Acts is, indeed, like every impartial history, an
Irenicum, but a truthful Irenicum, conceived in the very spirit
of the Conference at Jerusalem and the concordat concluded by
the leading apostles, according to Paul's own testimony in the
polemical Epistle to the Galatians. The principle of selection
required, of course, the omission of a large number of facts and
incidents. But the selection was made with fairness and jus-
tice to all sides. The impartiality and truthfulness of Luke is
very manifest in his honest record of the imperfections of the
apostolic church. He does not conceal the hypocrisy and mean
selfishness of Ananias and Sapphira, which threatened to poison
Christianity in its cradle (5 : 1 sqq.) ; he informs us that the in-
§ 86. THE EPISTLES. 739
Btitution of the diaconate arose from a complaint of the Grecian
Jews against their Hebrew brethren for neglecting their widows
in the daily ministration (6 : 1 sqq.) ; he represents Paul and
Barnabas as "men of like passions'5 with other men (14 : 15),
and gives us some specimens of weak human nature in Mark
when he became discouraged by the hardship of missionary life
and returned to his mother in Jerusalem (13 : 13), and in Paul and
Barnabas when they fell out for a season on account of this very
Mark, who was a cousin of Barnabas (15 : 39) ; nor does he pass
in silence the outburst of Paul's violent temper when in righte-
ous indignation he called the high-priest a " whited wall " (23 :
3) ; and he speaks of serious controversies and compromises even
among the apostles under the guidance of the Holy Spirit — all
for our humiliation and warning as well as comfort and encour-
agement.
Examine and compare the secular historians from Herodotus
to Macaulay, and the church historians from Eusebius to Nean-
der, and Luke need not fear a comparison. No history of thirty
years has ever been written so truthf ul and impartial, so impor-
tant and interesting, so healthy in tone and hopeful in spirit, so
aggressive and yet so genial, so cheering and inspiring, so re-
plete with lessons of wisdom and encouragement for work in
spreading the gospel of truth and peace, and yet withal so sim-
ple and modest, as the Acts of the Apostles. It is the best as
well as the first manual of church history.
§ 86. The Epistles.
The sermons of Stephen and the apostles in Acts (except-
ing the farewell of Paul to the Ephesian Elders) are mission-
ary addresses to outsiders, with a view to convert them to
the Christian faith. The Epistles are addressed to baptized
converts, and aim to strengthen them in their faith, and, by
brotherly instruction, exhortation, rebuke, and consolation, to
build up the church in all Christian graces on the historical
foundation of the teaching and example of Christ. The
740 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
prophets of the Old Testament delivered divine oracles to the
people ; the apostles of the New Testament wrote letters to the
brethren, who shared with them the same faith and hope as
members of Christ.
The readers are supposed to be already " in Christ,'9 saved
and sanctified "in Christ," and holding all their social and
domestic relations and discharging their duties "in Christ."
They are " grown together " * with Christ, sharing in his death,
burial, and resurrection, and destined to reign and rule with
him in glory forever. On the basis of this new relation, con-
stituted by a creative act of divine grace, and sealed by bap-
tism, they are warned against every sin and exhorted to every
virtue. Every departure from their profession and calling im-
plies double guilt and double danger of final ruin.
Occasions and calls for correspondence were abundant, and
increased with the spread of Christianity over the Roman em-
pire. The apostles could not be omnipresent, and had to send
messengers and letters to distant churches. They probably
wrote many more letters than we possess, although we have
good reason to suppose that the most important and perma-
nently valuable are preserved. A former letter of Paul to the
Corinthians is implied in 1 Cor. 5 :*9 : " I wrote to you in my
epistle ; " a and traces of further correspondence are found in
1 Cor. 16 : 3 ; 2 Cor. 10 : 9 ; Eph. 3 : 3. The letter " from
Laodicea," referred to in Col. 4 : 16, is probably the encyclical
Epistle to the Ephesians.
The Epistles of the New Testament are without a parallel in
ancient literature, and yield in importance only to the Gospels,
which stand higher, as Christ himself rises above the apostles.
They are pastoral letters to congregations or individuals, begin-
ning with an inscription and salutation, consisting of doctrinal
expositions and practical exhortations and consolations, and con-
1 cnWirro*, Rom. 6:5; not "planted together" (as in the A. V. and the
Vulgate) ; the word being derived from f 60, to cause to grow, not from
fvrtiw, to plant.
1 The so-called Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul and his answer, preserved
in Armenian, are spurious and worthless.
§ 87. THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES. 741
eluding with personal intelligence, greetings, and benediction.
They presuppose throughout the Gospel history, and often
allude to the death and resurrection of Christ as the foundation
of the church and the Christian hope. They were composed
amidst incessant missionary labors and cares, under trial and
persecution, some of them from prison, and yet they abound in
joy and thanksgiving. They were mostly called forth by special
emergencies, yet they suit all occasions. Tracts for the times,
they are tracts for all times. Children of the fleeting moment,
they contain truths of infinite moment. They compress more
ideas in fewer words than any other writings, human or divine,
excepting the Gospels. They discuss the highest themes which
can challenge an immortal mind — God, Christ, and the Spirit,
sin and redemption, incarnation, atonement, regeneration, re-
pentance, faith and good works, holy living and dying, the con-
version of the world, the general judgment, eternal glory and
bliss. And all this before humble little societies of poor, un-
cultured artisans, freedmen and slaves ! And yet they are of
more real and general value to the church than all the systems
of theology from Origen to Schleiermacher — yea, than all the
confessions of faith. For eighteen hundred years they have
nourished the faith of Christendom, and will continue to do so
to the end of time. This is the best evidence of their divine
inspiration.
The Epistles are divided into two groups, Catholic and Paul-
ine. The first is more general ; the second bears the strong
imprint of the intense personality of the Apostle of the Gen-
tiles.
§ 87. The CathoUc JSpisOes.
I. STOBB: De Catholicarum Epp. Occasions et Constho. Tub. 1789.
ST^UDLJN : De Fontibus Epp. Cath. Gott. 1790. J. D. SCHULZE :
Der schriflstellensche Charakter und Worth des Petrus, Jacobus und
Judas. Leipz. 1802. Der schrtftsteUer. Ch. des Johannes. 1803.
H. Commentaries on all the Catholic Epistles by QOBPFEBT (1780),
SCHLBGKL (1783), CABPZOV (1790), AUGUSTS (1801), GBASHOP (1830),
JAOHMANN (1838), SUMMER (1840), DE WKTTE (3d ed. by BBtro
742 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
1865), MBYBB (the Oath. Epp.by HUTHEB, DtfsTERDiECK, BEYSCHLAG),
LANGB (Eng. transl. with additions by MOMBERT, 1872), JOHN T.
DEMABEST (N. York, 1879) ; also the relevant parts in the " SPEAK-
EB'S Com.," in EiiUOOTT's Com., the Cambridge Bible for Schools (ed.
by Dean PEBOWHE), and in the International Revision Com (ed. by
SCHAFF), etc. P. I. GLOAQ: Introduction to the Catholic Epp.>
Edinb., 1887.
The seven Epistles of James, 1st and 2<1 Peter, 1st, 2d, and 3d
John, and Jude usually follow in the old manuscripts the Acts
of the Apostles, and precede the Pauline Epistles, perhaps as
being the works of the older apostles, and representing, in part
at least, the Jewish type of Christianity. They are of a more
general character, and addressed not to individuals or single
congregations, as those of Paul, but to a larger number of Chris-
tians scattered through a district or over the world. Hence
they are called, from the time of Origen and Eusebius, CATHOLIC.
This does not mean in this connection anti-heretical (still less, of
course, Greek Catholic or Roman Catholic), but encyclical or
circular. The designation, however, is not strictly correct, and
applies only to five of them. The second and third Epistles of
John are addressed to individuals. On the other hand the
Epistle to the Hebrews is encyclical, and ought to be numbered
with the Catholic Epistles, but is usually appended to those of
Paul. The Epistle to the Ephesians is likewise intended for
more than one congregation. The first Christian document of
an encyclical character is the pastoral letter of the apostolic Con-
ference at Jerusalem (A.D. 50) to the Gentile brethren in Syria
and Cilicia (Acts 15 : 23-29).1
The Catholic Epistles are distinct from the Pauline by their
more general contents and the absence of personal and local
references. They represent different, though essentially har-
monious, types of doctrine and Christian life. The individu-
ality of James, Peter, and John stand out very prominently
in these brief remains of their correspondence. They do not
enter into theological discussions like those of Paul, the learned
1 Hence Origen call* it an
§ 87. THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES. 743
Rabbi, and give simpler statements of truth, but protest against
the rising ascetic and Antinomian errors, as Paul does in the
Colossians and Pastoral Epistles. Each has a distinct character
and purpose, and none could well be spared from the New Tes-
tament without marring the beauty and completeness of the
whole.
The time of composition cannot be fixed with certainty, but
is probably as follows : James before A.D. 50 ; 1st Peter (probably
also 2d Peter and Jude) before A.D. 67 ; John between A.D. 80
and 100.
Only two of these Epistles, the 1st of Peter and the 1st
of John, belong to the Eusebian Hotnologumena^ which were
universally accepted by the ancient church as inspired and can-
onical. About the other five there was more or less doubt as to
their origin down to the close of the fourth century, when all
controversy on the extent of the canon went to sleep till the
time of the Reformation. Yet they bear the general imprint
of the apostolic age, and the absence of stronger traditional
evidence is due in part to their small size and limited use.
JAMES.
Comp. on the lit, biography, and doctrine of James, §§ 27 and 60.
The Epistle of JAMES the Brother of the Lord was written,
no doubt, from Jerusalem, the metropolis of the ancient theo-
cracy and Jewish Christianity, where the author labored and
died a martyr at the head of the mother church of Christen-
dom and as the last connecting link between the old and the
new dispensation. It is addressed to the Jews and Jewish
Christians of the dispersion before the final doom in the
year 70.
It strongly resembles the Gospel of Matthew, and echoes the
Sermon oh the Mount in the fresh, vigorous, pithy, proverbial,
and sententious style of oriental wisdom. It exhorts the read-
ers to good works of feith, warns them against dead orthodoxy,
covetousness, pridera&A world! iness, and comforts them in view
of present and f utw» 'trials and persecutions. It is eminently
744 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
practical and free from subtle theological questions. It preaches
a religion of good works which commends itself to the approval
of God and all good men. It represents the primary stage of
Christian doctrine. It takes no notice of the circumcision con-
troversy, the Jerusalem compromise, and the later conflicts of
the apostolic age. Its doctrine of justification is no protest
against that of Paul, but prior to it, and presents the subject
from a less developed, yet eminently practical aspect, and against
the error of a barren monotheism rather than Pharisaical legal-
ism, which Paul had in view. It is probably the oldest of the
New Testament books, meagre in doctrine, but rich in comfort
and lessons of holy living based on faith in Jesus Christ, " the
Lord of glory." It contains more reminiscences of the words
of Christ than any other epistle.1 Its leading idea is " the per-
fect law of freedom," or the law of love revealed in Christ.
Luther's harsh, unjust, and unwise judgment of this Epistle
has been condemned by his own church, and reveals a defect in
his conception of the doctrine of justification which was the
natural result of his radical war with the Romish error.
PETER.
See on the lit , biography, Mid theology of Peter, §§ 25, 26, and 70.
The FIRST Epistle of PETER, dated from Babylon,9 belongs to
the later life of the apostle, when his ardent natural temper was
1 Renss (Gesch. d heiL Sehriflen JV. Testaments, 5th ed , I. 138): " T/tat-
sache ist, doss die Ep. Jacobi fur sick dUein mehr wortliche Reminiscewen aus
den Reden Jesu enthaU als aUe ubrigen apost ScJiriften zusammen . . .
Insofern dieselben offenbar nicht aus sehrifUicJten Quellen geflossen sind, mogen
tie mit das Jidhere Alter des Briefs verburgen " Beyschlag (m the new ed.
of Huther in Meyer, 1881) and Erdmann (1881), the most recent commenta-
tors of James, agree with Schneokenbnrger, Neander, and Thiersch in assign-
ing the Epistle to the earliest date of Christian literature, against the Tubingen
school, which makes it a polemical treatise against Paul Reuse occupies a
middle position. The undeveloped state of Christian doctrine, the use of
ovrayaryfi for a Christian assembly (2 : 2), the want of a clear distinction be-
tween Jews and Jewish Christians, who are addressed as " the twelve tribes,"
and the expectation of the approaching parousia (5 : 8), concur as signs of the
high antiquity.
* Commentators are divided on the meaning of Babylon, 5 : 13, whether it
be the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, t'.e., heathen Borne, as a persecuting
§ 87. THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES. 745
deeply humbled, softened, and sanctified by the work of grace.
It was written to churches in several provinces of Asia Minor,
composed of Jewish and Gentile Christians together, and planted
mainly by Paul and his fellow-laborers ; and was sent by the
hands of Silvanus, a former companion of Paul. It consists of
precious consolations, and exhortations to a holy walk after the
example of Christ, to joyful hope of the heavenly inheritance, to
patience under the persecutions already raging or impending.
It gives us the fruit of a rich spiritual experience, and is
altogether worthy of Peter and his mission to tend the flock of
God under Christ, the chief shepherd of souls.1
It attests also the essential agreement of Peter with the doc-
trine of the Gentile apostle, in which the readers had been before
instructed (5 : 12). This accords with the principle of Peter
professed at the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15 : 11) that we
are saved without the yoke of the law, "through the grace of
the Tx>rd Jesus." His doctrinal system, however, precedes that
power (the fathers, Roman Catholic divines, also Thiersch, Banr, Renan), or
Babylon on the Euphrates, or Babylon in Egypt (old Cairo). The question is
connected with Peter's presence in Rome, which has been discussed in § 26.
On the date of composition commentators are likewise divided, as they differ
in their views on the relation of Peter's Epistle to Romans, Ephesians, and
James, and on the character of the persecution alluded to in the Epistle.
Weiss, who denies that Peter used the Epistles of Paul, dates it back as far as
64 ; the Tubingen critics bring it down to the age of Trajan (Volkmar even
to 140 1 ), but most critics assign it to the time between 63 and 67. Renan to 63,
shortly before the Neronian persecution. For once I agree with him. See
Huther (in the Meyer series), 4th ed , pp. 30 sqq. ; Weiss, Die Petrinische
Frage (1865) ; Renan, L* Antechrist, p. vi and 110; and, on the part of the
Tubingen school, Pfleiderer, Paulmfonus, pp 417 sqq ; Hilgenfeld, Eirileitung,
pp 625 sqq.; Holtzmann, Emleitung, pp. 514 sqq l2d ed ).
1 " This excellent Epistle, "says Archbishop Leighton, whose Practical Com-
jnentary upon the First Epistle General of St Peter is still unsurpassed for
spirituality and unction, " is a brief and yet very cleai summary both of the
consolations and instructions needful for the encouragement and direction of
a Christian- in his journey to heaven, elevating his thoughts and desires to that
happiness, and strengthening him against all opposition in the way, both that
of corruption within and temptations and afflictions from without/' Bengel :
" Mirabilis est gnmtas et alaeritas Petrini sermoniSj lectorem suavissime re-
tinens." Alford : "There is no Epistle in the sacred canon, the language and
spirit of which come more directly home to the personal trials and wants and
weaknesses of the Christian life,"
746 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of Paul and is independent of it, standing between James and
Paul. Peculiar to him is the doctrine of the descent of Christ
into Hades (3 : 18 ; 4: : 6 ; coinp. Acts 2 : 32), which contains
the important truth of the universal intent of the atonement
Christ died for all men, for those who lived before as well as
after his coming, and he revealed himself to the spirits iij the
realm of Hades. Peter also warns against hierarchical ambi-
tion in prophetic anticipation of the abuse of his name and his
primacy among the apostles.
The SECOND Epistle of PETER is addressed, shortly before the
author's death, as a sort of last will and testament, to the same
churches as the first. It contains a renewed assurance of his
agreement with his " beloved brother Paul," to whose Epistles
he respectfully refers, yet with the significant remark (true in
itself, yet often abused by Romanists) that there are in them
44 some things hard to be understood " (3 : 15, 16). As Peter
himself receives in one of these Epistles (Gal. 2 : 11) a sharp
rebuke for his inconsistency at Antioch (which may be included
in the hard things), this affectionate allusion proves how
thoroughly the Spirit of Christ had, through experience, trained
him to humility, meekness, and self-denial. The Epistle exhorts
the readers to diligence, virtue, temperance, patience, godliness,
brotherly love, and brotherly kindness ; refers to the Transfigu-
ration on the Mount, where the author witnessed the majesty of
Christ, and to the prophetic word inspired by the Holy Spirit ;
warns .against antinomian errors ; corrects a mistake concerning
the second coming ; exhorts them to prepare for the day of the
Lord by holy living, looking for new heavens and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness; and closes with the words:
" Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory both now and forever."
The second Epistle is reckoned by Easebius among the seven
Antilegomena, and its Petrine authorship is doubted or denied,
in whole or in part, by many eminent divines,1 but defended by
1 BrannuB, Calvin, Grotto, Neander, De Wette, Hutber, and all the Tftbin-
ffen critics.
§ 87. THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES. 747
competent critics.1 The chief objections are : the want of early
attestation, the reference to a collection of the Pauline Epistles,
the polemic against Gnostic errors, some peculiarities of style,
and especially the apparent dependence of the second chapter
on the Epistle of Jude.
On the other hand, the Epistle, at least the first and third chap-
ters, contains nothing which Peter might not have written, and
the allusion to the scene of transfiguration admits only the alter-
native : either Peter, or a forger. It seems morally impossible
that a forger should have produced a letter so full of spiritual
beauty and unction, and expressly denouncing all cunning fab-
rications. It may have been enlarged by the editor after Peter's
death. But the whole breathes an apostolic spirit, and could
not well be spared from the New Testament. It is a worthy
valedictory of the aged apostle awaiting his martyrdom, and
with its still valid warnings against internal dangers from false
Christianity, it forms a suitable complement to the first Epistle,
which comforts the Christians amidst external dangers from
heathen and Jewish persecutors.
JUDE.
The Epistle of JUDE, a " brother of James " (the Just),1 10
very short, an<J strongly resembles the second chapter of the
second Epistle of Peter, but differs from it by an allusion to the
remarkable apocryphal book of Enoch and the legend of the
dispute of Michael with the devil about the body of Moses. It
seems to be addressed to the same churches and directed against
the same Gnostic heretics. It is a solemn warning against the
antinomian and licentious tendencies which revealed themselves
between A.D. 60 and 70. Origen remarks that it is " of few
1 Weiss, Thiersch, FronmQUer, Alford, and especially Fr. Spitta in his Der
Zwite Brief de» Pctrua und der Brief da Judo* (Halle, 1885, 544 pages).
4 Clement of Alexandria, Ongen (in Greek), and Epiphamus distinguish him
from the Apostles. He is mentioned with James as one of the brothers of
Jesus, Matt. 18 : 55; Mark 6 : 3. Goxnp. on this whole question the discus-
»onin§27.
748 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
lines, but rich in words of heavenly wisdom." The style is
fresh and vigorous.
The Epistle of Jude belongs likewise to the Eusebian Anti-
legoinena, and has signs of post-apostolic origin, yet may have
been written by Jude, who was not one of the Twelve, though
closely connected with apostolic circles. A forger would hardly
have written under the name of a " brother of James " rather
than a brother of Christ or an apostle.
The time and place of composition are unknown. The Tubin-
gen critics put it down to the reign of Trajan ; Renan, on the
contrary, as far back as 54, wrongly supposing it to have been
intended, together with the Epistle of James, as a counter-
manifesto against Paul's doctrine of free grace. But Paul con-
demned antinomianism as severely as James and Jude (comp.
Horn. 6, and in fact all his Epistles). It is safest to say, with
Bleek, that it was written shortly before the destruction of
Jerusalem, which is not alluded to (cornp. vers. 14, 15).
THE EPISTLES OF JOHN.
Comp §§ 40-43, 83 and 84.
The FIRST Epistle of JOHN betrays throughout, in thought
and style, the author of the fourth Gospel. It is a postscript to
it, or a practical application of the lessons of the life of Christ
to the wants of the church at the close of the first century. It
is a circular letter of the venerable apostle to his beloved chil-
dren in Asia Minor, exhorting them to a holy life of faith and
love in Christ, and earnestly warning them against the Gnostic
" antichrists," already existing or to come, who deny the mys-
tery of the incarnation, sunder religion from morality, and run
into Antinomian practices.
The SECOND and THIRD Epistles of JOHN are, like the Epistle
of Paul to Philemon, short private letters, one to a Christian
woman by the name of Cyria, the other to one Gaius, probably an
officer of a congregation in Asia Minor. They belong to the seven
Antilegomena^ and have been ascribed by some to the " Presby
ter John," a contemporary of the apostle, though of disputed
§ 88. THE EPISTLES OF PAUL. 749
existence. But the second Epistle resembles the first, almost to
verbal repetition,1 and such repetition well agrees with the fami-
liar tradition of Jerome concerning the apostle of love, ever ex-
horting the congregation, in his advanced age, to love one another.
The difference of opinion in the ancient church respecting them
may have risen partly from their private nature and their brevity,
and partly from the fact that the author styles himself, some-
what remarkably, the " elder," the " presbyter." This term,
however, is probably to be taken, not in the official sense, but
in the original, signifying age and dignity ; for at that time
John was in fact a venerable father in Christ, and must have
been revered and loved as a patriarch among his " little chil-
dren."
§ 88. The Epistles of Paul.
IlavAor TeyJ/tcwr /i£y«rros vvoypafj.fj.6s (Clement of Borne.)
Comp §§ 29-36 and 71.
GENERAL CHARACTER.
Paul was the greatest worker among the apostles, not only as
a missionary, but also as a writer, lie "labored more than
all." And we may well include in this " all " the whole body
of theologians who came after him ; for where shall we find an
equal wealth of the profoundest thoughts on the highest themes
as in Paul ? We have from him thirteen Epistles ; how many
more were lost, we cannot even conjecture. The four most im-
portant of them are admitted to be genuine even by the most
exacting and sceptical critics. They are so stamped with the
individuality of Paul, and so replete with tokens of his age and
surroundings, that no sane man can mistake the authorship.
We might as well doubt the genuineness of Luther's work on
the Babylonian captivity, or his small catechism. The heretic
Marcion, in the first half of the second century, accepted ten,
excluding only the three Pastoral Epistles which did not suit
his notions.
1 Comp. 2 John 4-7 with 1 John 2 : 7, 8 ; 4 , 2, 8.
750 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The Pauline Epistles are pastoral addresses to congregations of
his own founding (except that of Koine, and probably also that
of Colossae, which were founded by his pupils), or to individuals
(Timothy, Titus, Philemon). Several of them hail from prison,
but breathe the same spirit of faith, hope, and joy as the others,
and the last ends with a shout of victory. They proceeded
from profound agitation, and yet are calm and serene. They
were occasioned by the trials, dangers, and errors incident to
every new congregation, and the care and anxiety of the apostle
for their spiritual welfare. He had led them from the darkness
of heathen idolatry and Jewish bigotry to the light of Christian
truth and freedom, and raised them from the slime of depravity
to the pure height of saving grace and holy living. He had no
family ties, and threw the whole strength of his affections into
his converts, whom he loved as tenderly as a mother can love
her offspring.1 This love to his spiritual children was inspired
by his love to Christ, as his love to Christ was the response to
Christ's love for him. Nor was his love confined to the
brethren : he was ready to make the greatest sacrifice for his
unbelieving and persecuting fellow-Jews, as Christ himself
sacrificed his life for his enemies.
His Epistles touch on every important truth and duty of the
Christian religion, and illuminate them from the heights of
knowledge and experience, without pretending to exhaust them.
They furnish the best material for a system of dogmatics and
ethics. Paul looks back to the remotest beginning before the
creation, and looks out into the farthest future beyond death
and the resurrection. He writes with the authority of a com-
missioned apostle and inspired teacher, yet, on questions of ex-
pediency, he distinguishes between the command of the Lord
and Ms private judgment. He seems to have written rapidly
and under great pressure, without correcting his first draft. If
'As he writes himself to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2 7) "We were
gentle in the midst of you, as when a nurse cherisheth her own children.1*
And to the ungrateful and unsteady Galatians he writes (4 9) : "My little
children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you."
§ 88. THE EPISTLES OF PAUL. 761
we find, with Peter, in his letters, " some things hard to be
understood," even in this nineteenth century, we must remem-
ber that Paul himself bowed in reverence before the boundless
ocean of God's truth, and humbly professed to know only in
part, and to see through a mirror darkly. All knowledge in
this world " ends in mystery." ' Our best systems of theology
are but dim reflections of the sunlight of revelation. Infinite
truths transcend our finite minds, and cannot be compressed
into the pigeon-holes of logical formulas. But every good com-
mentary adds to the understanding and strengthens the estimate
of the paramount value of these Epistles.
THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.
Paul's Epistles were written within a period of about twelve
years, between A.D. 52 or 53 and 64 or 67, when he stood at
the height of his power and influence. None was composed
before the Council of Jerusalem. From the date of his conver-
sion to his second missionary journey (A.D. 37 to 52) we have
no documents of his pen. The chronology of his letters can be
better ascertained than that of the Gospels or Catholic Epistles,
by combining internal indications with the Acts and contem-
porary events, such as the dates of the proconsulship of G-allio
in Achaia, and the procuratorship of Felix and Festus in Judaea.
As to the Romans, we can determine the place, the year, and
the season of composition : he sends greetings from persons in
Corinth (16 : 23), commends Phoebe, a deaconess of Kenchrese,
the port of Corinth, and the bearer of the letter (16 : 1) ; he
had not yet been in Rome (1 : 13), but hoped to get there after
another visit to Jerusalem, on which he was about to enter,
with collections from Macedonia and Achaia for the poor
brethren in Judaea (15:22-29; comp. 2 Cor. 8:1-3); and
from Acts we learn that on his last visit to Achaia he abode
three months in Corinth, and returned to Syria between the
Passover and Pentecost (Acts 20 : 3, 6, 16). This was his fifth
1 " Das ist das Endc for PMosopkU; su wissen, doss wir glauben mu«s*n."—
(Geibel.)
752 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and last journey to Jerusalem, where he was taken prisoner and
sent to Felix in Caesarea, two years before he was followed by
Festus. All these indications lead us to the spring of A.D. 58.
The chronological order is this : Thessalonians were written
first, A.D. 52 or 53 ; then Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans,
between 56 and 58 ; then the Epistles of the captivity : Colos-
sians, Ephesians, Philemon, Philippians, between 61 and 63;
last, the Pastoral Epistles, but their date is uncertain, except
that the second Epistle to Timothy is his farewell letter on the
eve of his martyrdom.
It is instructive to study the Epistles in their chronological
order with the aid of the Acts, and so to accompany the apostle
in his missionary career from Damascus to Rome, and to trace
the growth of his doctrinal system from the documentary truths
in Thessalonians to the height of maturity in Romans ; then
through the ramifications of particular topics in Colossians,
Ephesians, Philippians, and the farewell counsels in the Pas-
toral Epistles.
DOCTRINAL ARRANGEMENT.
More important than the chronological order is the topical
order, according to the prevailing object and central idea. This
gives us the following groups :
1. ANTHROPOLOGICAL and SOTERIOLOGICAL : Galatians and Ro-
mans.
2. ETHICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL : First and Second Corinthi-
ans.
3. CHRISTOLOGICAL : Colossians and Philippians.
4. ECCLESIOLOGICAL : Ephesians (in part also Corinthians).
5. ESCHATOLOGICAL : Thessalonians.
6. PASTORAL : Timothy and Titus.
7. SOCIAL and PERSONAL : Philemon.
THE STYLE.
u The style is the man." This applies with peculiar force to
Paul. His style has been called " the most personal that ever
§ 88. THE EPISTLES OP PAUL. 753
existed." ! It fitly represents the force and fire of his mind and
the tender affections of his heart. He disclaims classical ele-
gance and calls himself " rude in speech," though by no means
" in knowledge." He carried the heavenly treasure in earthen
vessels. But the defects are more than made up by excellences.
In his very weakness the strength of Christ was perfected. We
are not lost in the admiration of the mere form, but are kept
mindful of the paramount importance of the contents and the
hidden depths of truth which lie behind the words and defy the
power of expression.
Paul's style is manly, bold, heroic, aggressive, and warlike ;
yet at times tender, delicate, gentle, and winning. It is in-
volved, irregular, and rugged, but always forcible and expres-
sive, and not seldom rises to more than poetic beauty, as in the
triumphant paean at the end of the eighth chapter of Romans,
and in the ode on love (1 Cor. 13). His intense earnestness and
overflowing fulness of ideas break through the ordinary rules of
grammar. His logic is set on fire. He abounds in skilful argu-
ments, bold antitheses, impetuous assaults, abrupt transitions,
sudden turns, zigzag flashes, startling questions and exclama-
tions. He is dialectical and argumentative; he likes logical
particles, paradoxical phrases, and plays on words. He reasons
from Scripture, from premises, from conclusions ; he drives the
opponent to the wall without mercy and reduces him ad dbsur-
dnm, but without ever indulging in personalities. He is fami-
liar with the sharp weapons of ridicule, irony, and sarcasm, but
holds them in check and uses them rarely. He varies the argu-
ment by touching appeals to the heart and bursts of seraphic elo-
quence. He is never dry or dull, and never wastes words ; he
is brief, terse, and hits the nail on the head. His terseness
makes him at times obscure, as is the case with the somewhat
similar "style of Thucydides, Tacitus, and Tertullian. His words
are as many warriors marching on to victory and peace ; they
are like a mountain torrent rushing in foaming rapids over pre-
1 By Ren an, who, notwithstanding his fastidious French taste and antipathy
to Paul's theology, oannot help admiring his lofty genius.
754 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
cipices, and then calmly flowing over green meadows, or like a
thunderstorm ending in a refreshing shower and bright sun-
shine.
Paul created the vocabulary of scientific theology and put a
profounder meaning into religious and moral terms than they
ever had before. We cannot speak of sin, flesh, grace, mercy,
peace, redemption, atonement, justification, glorification, church,
faith, love, without bearing testimony to the ineffaceable effect
which that greatest of Jewish rabbis and Christian teachers has
bad upon the language of Christendom.
NOTES.
OHRTSOSTOM justly compares the Epistles of Paid to metals more pre-
cious than gold and to unfailing fountains which flow the more abun-
dantly the more we drink, of them.
BEZA. : " When I more closely consider the whole genius and character
of Paul's style, I must confess that I have found no such sublimity of
speaking in Plato himself ... no exquisiteness of vehemence in Demos-
thenes equal to his."
EWALD begins his Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (Gottingen,
1857) with these striking and truthful remarks: "Considering these
Epistles for themselves only, and apart from the general significance of
' the great Apostle of the Gentiles, we must still admit that, in the whole
history of all centuries and of all nations, there is no other set of writ-
ings of similar extent, which, as creations of the fugitive moment, have
proceeded from such severe troubles of the age, and such profound pains
and sufferings of the author himself, and yet contain such an amount of
healthfulness, serenity, and vigor of immortal genius, and touch with
such clearness and certainty on the very highest truths of human aspira-
tion and action. . . . The smallest as well as the greatest of these
Epistles seem to have proceeded from the fleeting moments of this
earthly life only to enchain all eternity ; they were born of anxiety and
bitterness of human strife, to set forth in brighter lustre and with higher
certainty their superhuman grace and beauty. The divine assurance and
firmness of the old prophets of Israel, the all-transcending glory and
immediate spiritual presence of the Eternal King and Lord, who had
just ascended to heaven, and all the art and culture of a ripe and wonder-
fully excited age, seem to have joined, as it were, in bringing forth the
new creation of these Epistles of the times which were destined to last
for all times. "
On the style of Paul, see my Companion, etc., pp. 62 sqq. To the
testimonies there given I add the judgment of Ruuss (Oeschichte far fl.
§ 89. THE EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS. 765
Schr. 2T. T7., I. 67) : « Still more [than the method] is the style of all
these Epistles the true expression of the personality of the author. The
defect of classical correctness and rhetorical finish is more than com-
pensated by the riches of language and the fulness of expression. The
condensation of construction demands not reading simply, but studying.
Broken sentences, ellipses, parentheses, leaps in the argumentation,
allegories, rhetorical figures express inimitably all the moods of a wide-
awake and cultured mind, all the affections of a rich and deep heart, and
betray everywhere a pen at once bold, and yet too slow for the thought.
Antitheses, climaxes, exclamations, questions keep up the attention, and
touching effusions win the heart of the reader."
§ 89. The Epistles to the Thessdhnicuns.
Thessalonica,1 a large and wealthy commercial city of Mace-
donia, the capita] of " Macedonia secunda," the seat of a Roman
proconsul and quaestor, and inhabited by many Jews, was visited
by Paul on his second missionary tour, A.D. 52 or 53, and in a
few weeks he succeeded, amid much persecution, in founding a
flourishing church composed chiefly of Gentiles. From this cen-
tre Christianity spread throughout the neighborhood, and dur-
ing the middle ages Thessalonica was, till its capture by the
Turks (A.D. 1430), a bulwark of the Byzantine empire and
Oriental Christendom, and largely instrumental in the conver-
sion of the Slavonians and Bulgarians ; hence it received the
designation of u the Orthodox City." It numbered many learned
archbishops, and still has more remains of ecclesiastical antiquity
than any other city in Greece, although its cathedral is turned
into a mosque.
To this church Paul, as its spiritual father, full of affection
for his inexperienced children, wrote in familiar conversational
style two letters from Corinth, during his first sojourn in that
city, to comfort them in their trials and to correct certain mis-
apprehensions of his preaching concerning the glorious return
of Christ, and the preceding development of " the man of sin "
or Antichrist, and " the mystery of lawlessness," then already
at work, but checked by a restraining power. The hope of the
1 Strabo calls it etovotoirficf 10. Its present name is Saloniohi.
756 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
near advent had degenerated into an enthusiastic adventism
which demoralized the every-day life. He now taught them
that the Lord will not come so soon as they expected, that it
was not a matter of mathematical calculation, and that in no
case should the expectation check industry and zeal, but rather
stimulate them. Hence his exhortations to a sober, orderly,
diligent, and prayerful life.
It is remarkable that the first Epistles of Paul should treat of
the last topic in the theological system and anticipate the end
at the beginning. But the hope of Christ's speedy coming was,
before the destruction of Jerusalem, the greatest source of con-
solation to the infant church arnid trial and persecution, and the
church at Thessalonica was severely tried in its infancy, and
Paul driven away. It is also remarkable that to a young church
in Greece rather than to that in Rome should have first been
revealed the beginning of that mystery of anti-Christian lawless-
ness which was then still restrained, but was to break out in its
full force in Rome.1
The objections of Baur to the genuineness of these Epistles,
especially the second, are futile in the judgment of the best
critics.2
1 The difficult passage, 2 These 2 1-12, must be explained in connection
with the prophecies of Daniel (the fourth empire) and the Apocalypse See
the commentaries of Lunemann, Lange (Riggenbach, translated by Lilhe),
Elhcott, Jowett, Marcus Dods, and the Excursus of Farrar on the Man of Sin
(St. Paul, II. 583-587) Many modern exegetes adopt the patristic interpreta-
tion that "the restraining power" (rb Karlxov) is the Roman empire, "the
restramer" (6 Kartxav) the then reigning emperor (Claudius), and " the man of
sin " his successor, Nero But the last is very doubtful. The whole passage
must have a prophetic sweep far beyond the time of the old Roman empire.
There are " many antichrists" and many restraining forces and persons in the
successive ages, and the end is yet apparently afar off. u Obviously, whatever
the words signify, they must mean something which has existed from Paul's day
to our own, something which, during that whole period, has had the effect of
restraining wickedness." (Dods, in Schaff s Com on the N. T , III 535 )
9 Grimm, Lunemann, Reuss, Lipsius, and others have refuted the argu-
ments of Baur. The first Epistle is conceded to be genuine also by Hilgenfeld,
who declares (Einleit , p 246) "7/i dem ganzen Brief erkennt man die
Sprache des Paulus Es ist kein Grand wrhanden, dentelben dem Paulvs
abzusprechen. Nicht so bedeuteam, we andere Brief e, ist dersdbe dues Paultu
§ 90. THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS. 757
THE THEOBETIOAII THEME : The parousia of Christ. THE PRACTICE
THEME : Christian hope in the midst of persecution.
LEADING THOUGHTS : This is the will of God, even your sanctification
(1 Thess. 4 : 3). Sorrow not as the rest who have no hope (4 : 13). The
Lord will descend from heaven, and so shall we ever be with the Lord
(4 16, 17). The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night (5 : 2).
Let us watch and be sober (5 : 6). Put on the breastplate of faith and
love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation (5 : 8). Rejoice always ;
pray without ceasing , m everything give thanks (5 : 16). Prove all
things ; hold fast that which is good ; abstain from every form of evil
(5 : 21, 22). The Lord will come to be glorified in his saints (2 Thess.
1 : 10). But the falling away must come first, and the man of sin be re-
vealed, the son of perdition (2 : 3, 4). The mystery of lawlessness doth
already work, but is restrained for the time (2.7). Stand fast and hold
the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of
ours (2 : 15). If any will not work, neither let him eat (3 : 10). Be not
weary in well-doing (3 13). The God of peace sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without
blame at the coming (e'i/ ry napovaia) of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 These.
5 : 23).
§ 90. The, Epistles to the Corinthians.
Corinth was the metropolis of Achaia, on the bridge of two
seas, an emporium of trade between the East and the West —
wealthy, luxurious, art-loving, devoted to the worship of Aphro-
dite. Here Paul established the most important church in
Greece, and labored, first eighteen months, then three months,
with, perhaps, a short visit between (2 Cor. 12:14; 13:1).
The church presented all the lights and shades of the Greek
nationality under the influence of the Gospel. It was rich in
" all utterance and all knowledge," " coming behind in no gift,"
but troubled by the spirit of sect and party, infected with a
kefneswegs unwurdiq. melmehr ein Uebenswurdiges Derikmal vdterUeher Fur-
sorge des Apostels far eine junge Cfhristengemeindc " But the second Ep to
the Thess.' Hilgenfeld assigns to the age of Trajan, as a sort of Pauline
Apocalypse ; thus reversing the view of Baur, who regarded the First Ep. as
an imitation of the second GrotiuR and EwaM put the Second Ep likewise
firRt (especially on account of 1 Thess. 1 7, 8, which seems to imply that the
congregation had alieady become famous throughout Greece), but they re-
garded both as genuine.
758 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
morbid desire for worldly wisdom and brilliant eloquence, with
scepticism and moral levity — nay, to some extent polluted with
gross vices, so that even the Lord's table and love feasts were
desecrated by excesses, and that the apostle, in his absence,
found himself compelled to excommunicate a particularly offen-
sive member who disgraced the Christian profession.1 It was
distracted by Judaizers and other troublers, who abused the
names of Cephas, James, Apollos, and even of Christ (as extra-
Christians), for sectarian ends.2 A number of questions of
morality and casuistry arose in that lively, speculative, and ex-
citable community, which the apostle had to answer from a
distance before his second (or third) and last visit.
Hence, these Epistles abound in variety of topics, and show
the extraordinary versatility of the mind of the writer, and his
practical wisdom in dealing with delicate and complicated
questions and unscrupulous opponents. For every aberration
he has a word of severe censure, for every danger a word of
warning, for every weakness a word of cheer and sympathy,
for every returning offender a word of pardon and encourage-
ment. The Epistles lack the unity of design which characterizes
Galatians and Eomans. They are ethical, ecclesiastical, pas-
toral, and personal, rather than dogmatic and theological, al-
though some most important doctrines, as that on the resurrec-
tion, are treated more fully than elsewhere.
I. THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS was composed in
Ephesus shortly before Paul's departure for Greece, in the spring
1 Such scandals would be almost incredible in a Christian church if the
apostle did not tell us so As to theoase of incest, 1 Cor 5 . 1 sqq , we should
remember that Corinth was the most licentious city in all Greece, and that in
the splendid temple of her patron-goddess on the Acropolis there were kept
more than a thousand sacred female slaves (Ifp6$ov\oi) for the pleasure of
strangers. Kopivbla K6pn was the name for a courtesan Chastity was there-
fore one of the most difficult virtues to practice there ; and hence the apostle's
advice of a radical cure by absolute abstinence under the peculiar circumstances
of the time
8 The question of the Corinthian parties (with special reference to the Christ
party) I have discussed at length in my Hist of the Ap. Church, pp 285-291.
Banr's essay on this subject (1881) was the opening chapter in the develop-
ment of the Tubingen theory.
§ 90. THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS. 759
of A.D. 57.1 It had been preceded by another one, now lost
(5 : 9). It was an answer to perplexing questions concerning
various disputes and evils which disturbed the peace and spotted
the purity of the congregation. The apostle contrasts the foolish
wisdom of the gospel with the wise folly of human philosophy ;
rebukes sectarianism ; unfolds the spiritual unity and harmo-
nious variety of the church of Christ, her offices and gifts of
grace, chief among which is love ; warns against carnal impurity
as a violation of the temple of God ; gives advice concerning
marriage and celibacy without binding the conscience (having
" no commandment of the Lord," 7 : 25) ; discusses the question
of meat sacrificed to idols, on which Jewish and Gentile Chris-
tians, scrupulous and liberal brethren, were divided ; enjoins
the temporal support of the ministry as a Christian duty of
gratitude for greater spiritual mercies received ; guards against
improprieties of dress; explains the design and corrects the
abuses of the Lord's Supper ; and gives the fullest exposition
of the doctrine of the resurrection on the basis of the resurrec-
tion of Christ and his personal manifestations to the disciples,
and last, to himself at his conversion. Dean Stanley says of
this Epistle that it " gives a clearer insight than any other por-
tion of the New Testament into the institutions, feelings, and
opinions of the church of the earlier period of the apostolic age.
It is in every sense the earliest chapter of the history of the
Christian church." The last, however, is not quite correct.
The Corinthian chapter was preceded by the Jerusalem and
Antioch chapters.
LEADING THOUGHTS : Is Christ divided ? Was Panl crucified for yon
(1 : 13) ? It was God's pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching
[not through foolish preaching] to save them that believe (1 : 21). We
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto Gentiles
foolishness, but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the wisdom of God (1 : 24). I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus, and him crucified (2 : 2). The
natural man reoeiveth not the things of the Spirit of God (2 : 14). Other
foundation can no man lay than tnat which is laid, which is Jesus
1 Oomp. 1 Cor. 16 • 5t 8 ; 5 : 7, 8 ; Acts 19 : 10, 21 ; 20 : 81.
760 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Christ (3 : 11). Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroy the temple of God,
him shall God destroy (3 : 16, 17). Let a man so account of ourselves
as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God (4 : 1).
The kingdom of God is not in word, bnt in power (4 : 20). Purge out
the old leaven (5 : 7). All things are lawful for me ; but not all things
are expedient (6 : 12). Know ye not that your bodies are members of
Christ (6 : 15)? Flee fornication (6 : 18). Glorify God in your body
(6 : 20). Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing ; but
the keeping of the commandments of God (7 : 19). Let each man abide
in that calling wherein he was called (7 : 20). Ye were bought with a
price ; become not bondservants of men (7 : 23). Take heed lest this
liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak (8:9). If meat
[or wine] maketh my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh [and drink
no wine] for evermore, that I make not my brother to stumble (8 . 13).
They who proclaim the gospel shall live of the gospel (9 : 14). Woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel (9 : 16). I am become all
things to all men, that I may by all means save some (9 : 22). Let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (10 : 12). All things
are lawful, but all things are not expedient. Let no man seek his own,
but each his neighbor's good (10 . 23). Whosoever shall eat the bread
or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of
the body and the blood of the Lord . . . He that eateth and drmketh
eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself if he discern (discriminate)
not the body (11 : 27-29) There are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit (12 : 4). Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the
greatest of these is love (13 : 13). Follow after love (14 . 1). Let all
things be done iinto edifying (14 . 26). By the grace of God I am what I
am (15 . 9). If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet
in your sins (15 . 17). As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be
made alive (15 : 22). God shall be all in all (15 : 28). If there is a natural
body, there is also a spiritual body (15 : 44). This corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (15 54). Be ye
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (15 58).
Upon the first day in the week let each one of you lay by him in store,
as he may prosper (16 • 2). Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you
like men, be strong. Let all that ye do be done in love (16 : 13, 14.).
II. THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS was written in
the summer or autumn of the same year, 57, from some place
in Macedonia, shortly before the author's intended personal
visit to the metropolis of Achaia.1 It evidently proceeded
1 2 Cor 7 5 ; 8 : 1 ; 9 . 2. Some ancient MSS date the second Epistle
from PhilippL
§ 90. TIIE EPISTLES TO THE COIUNTHIANS. 761
from profound agitation, and opens to us very freely the per-
sonal character and feelings, the official trials and joys, the
noble pride and deep humility, the holy earnestness and fervent
love, of the apostle. It gives us the deepest insight into his
heart, and is almost an autobiography. He had, in the mean-
time, heard fuller news, through Titus, of the state of the
church, the effects produced by his first Epistle, and the in-
trigues of the emissaries of the Judaizing party, who followed
him everywhere and tried to undermine his work. This un-
christian opposition compelled him, in self-defence, to speak of
his ministry and his personal experience with overpowering
eloquence. He also urges again upon the congregation the
duty of charitable collections for the poor. The Epistle is a
mine of pastoral wisdom.
LEADING THOUGHTS : As the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even
so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ (1 : 5). As ye are par-
takers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the comfort (1:7). Not that
we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy (1 : 24).
Who is sufficient for these things (2 : 16) ? Ye are our epistle, written
in our hearts, known and read of all men (3 . 2). Not that we are suffi-
cient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (3 : 5). The letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life (3 6). The Lord is the Spirit . and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (3 . 17). We preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for
Jesus' sake (4 5). We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from our-
selves (4 : 7). Our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh
for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (4 • 17).
We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we
have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the
heavens (5 1). We walk by faith, not by sight (5 . 7). We must all be
made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ (5 : 10). The love of
Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that one died for all,
therefore all died (5:14). And he died for all, that they who live
should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes
died and -rose again (5 . 15). If any man is in Christ, he is a new crea-
ture : the old things are passed away ; behold, they are become new
(b : 17). God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us
the word of reconciliation (5 : 19). We beseech you on behalf of Christ,
be ye reconciled to God (5 : 20). Him who knew no sin he made to be
762 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
sin in our behalf ; that we might become the righteousness of God in
him (5 : 21). Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers (6 : 14). I am
filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all onr affliction (7 : 4). Godly
sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death (7 : 10). Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye
through his poverty might become rich (8 : 9). He that soweth spar-
ingly shall reap also sparingly ; and he that soweth bountifully shall
reap also bountifully (9 : 6). God loveth a cheerful giver (9 : 7). He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (10 : 17). Not he that com-
mendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (10 : 18).
My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my power is made perfect in weak-
ness (12 : 9). We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth
(13 : 8). The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all (13 : 14).
§ 91. The Epistle to ike Galatians.
Comp the introduction to my Com. on Gal. (1882).
Galatians and Romans discuss the doctrines of sin and redemp-
tion, and the relation of the law and the gospel. They teach
salvation by free grace and justification by faith, Christian uni-
versalism in opposition to Jewish particularism, evangelical free-
dom versus legalistic bondage. But Galatians is a rapid sketch
and the child of deep emotion, Romans an elaborate treatise and
the mature product of calm reflexion. The former Epistle is
polemical against foreign intruders and seducers, the latter is
irenical and composed in a serene frame of mind. The one
rushes along like a mountain torrent and foaming cataract, the
other flows like a majestic river through a boundless prairie ;
and yet it is the same river, like the Nile at the Rapids and
below Cairo, or the Rhine in the Grisons and the lowlands of
Germany and Holland, or the St. Lawrence at Niagara Falls
and below Montreal and Quebec where it majestically branches
out into the ocean.
It is a remarkable fact that the two races represented by the
readers of these Epistles — the Celtic and the Latin — have far
departed from the doctrines taught in them and exchanged the
gospel freedom for legal bondage ; thus repeating the apostasy
§ 91. THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 763
of the sanguine, generous, impressible, mercurial, fickle-minded
Galatians. The Pauline gospel was for centuries ignored, mis-
understood, and (in spite of St. Augustin) cast out at last by
Rome, as Christianity itself was cast out by Jerusalem of old.
But the overruling wisdom of God made the rule of the papacy
a training-school of the Teutonic races of the North and West
for freedom ; as it had turned the unbelief of the Jews to the
conversion of the Gentiles. Those Epistles, more than any
book of the New Testament, inspired the Reformation of the
sixteenth century, and are to this day the Gibraltar of evan-
gelical Protestantism. Luther, under a secondary inspiration,
reproduced Galatians in his war against the " Babylonian cap-
tivity of the church;" the battle for Christian freedom was
won once more, and its fruits are enjoyed by nations of which
neither Paul nor Luther ever heard.
The Epistle to the GALATIANS (Gauls, originally from the
borders of the Rhine and Moselle, who had migrated to Asia
Minor) was written after Paul's second visit to them, either
during his long residence in Ephesus (A.D. 54-57), or shortly
afterwards on his second journey to Corinth, possibly from
Corinth, certainly before the Epistle to the Romans. It was
occasioned by the machinations of the Judaizing teachers who
undermined his apostolic authority and misled his converts into
an apostasy from the gospel of free grace to a false gospel of
legal bondage, requiring circumcision as a condition of justifica-
tion and full membership of the church. It is an " Apologia
pro vita sua," a personal and doctrinal self -vindication. He de-
fends his independent apostleship (1 : 1 to 2 : 14), and his teach-
ing (2 : 15 to 4 : 31), and closes with exhortations to hold fast to
Christian freedom without abusing it, and to show the fruits of
faith by holy living (chs. 5 and 6).
The Epistle reveals, in clear, strong colors, both the difference
and the harmony among the Jewish and Gentile apostles — a dif-
ference ignored by the old orthodoxy, which sees only the har-
mony, and exaggerated by modern scepticism, which sees only
the difference. It anticipates, in grand fundamental outlines,
764 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
a conflict which is renewed from time to time in the history oi
different churches, and, on the largest scale, in the conflict be-
tween Petrine Romanism and Pauline Protestantism. The
temporary collision of the two leading apostles in Antioch ia
typical of the battle of the Reformation.
At the same time Galatians is an Irenicon and sounds the
key-note of a final adjustment of all doctrinal and ritualistic
controversies. " In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love "
(5 : 6). " And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon
them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God " (6 : 16).
CENTBAII IDEA : Evangelical freedom.
KEY- WORDS : For freedom Christ set ns free : stand fast therefore, and
be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage (5 .1). A man is not justi-
fied by works of the law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ (2 . 16)
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live but
Christ liveth in me (2 . 20). Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law, having become a curse for us (3 • 13) Ye were called for freedom,
only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love
be servants one to another (5 . 13;. Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh (5 : 16).
§ 92. The Epistle to the Romans.
On the church in Rome, see § 36 (pp. 360 sqq ) ; on the theology of the Ep.
to the Rom , § 71 (pp. 525 sqq ).
A few weeks before his fifth and last journey to Jerusalem,
Paul sent, as a forerunner of his intended personal visit, a letter
to the Christians in the capital of the world, which was intended
by Providence to become the Jerusalem of Christendom. Fore-
seeing its future importance, the apostle chose for his theme :
The gospel the power of God unto salvation to every believer,
the Jew first, and also the Gentile (1 : 16, 17). Writing to the
philosophical Greeks, he contrasts the wisdom of God with the
wisdom of man. To the world-ruling Eomans he represents
Christianity as the power of God which by spiritual weapons
will conquer even conquering Koine. Such a bold idea must
§ 92. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 765
have struck a Roman statesman as the wild dream of a vision-
ary or madman, but it was fulfilled in the ultimate conversion
of the empire after three centuries of persecution, and is still in
the process of ever-growing fulfilment.
In the exposition of his theme the apostle shows : (1) that all
men are in need of salvation, being under the power of sin and
exposed to the judgment of the righteous God, the Gentiles not
only (1 : 18-32), but also the Jews, who are still more guilty,
having sinned against the written law and extraordinary privi-
leges (2 : 1 to 3 : 20) ; (2) that salvation is accomplished by Jesus
Christ, his atoning death and triumphant resurrection, freely
offered to all on the sole condition of faith, and applied in the
successive acts of justification, sanctificatiori, and glorification
(3:21 to end of chapter 8) ; (3) that salvation was offered first
to the Jews, and, being rejected by them in unbelief, passed on
to the Gentiles, but will return again to the Jews after the ful-
ness of the Gentiles shall have come in (chs. 9-11) ; (4) that we
should show our gratitude for so great a salvation by surrender-
ing ourselves to the service of God, which is true freedom (chs,
12 to 1C).
The salutations in the last chapter, the remarkable variations
of the manuscripts in 15 : 33 ; 16 : 20, 24, 27, and the omission
of the words "in Borne," 1 : 7, 15, & Codex G, are best ex-
plained by the conjecture that copies of the letter were also sent
to Ephesus (where Aquila and Priscilla were at that time, 1 Cor.
16 : 19, and again, some years afterwards, 2 Tim. 4 : 19), and
perhaps to other churches with appropriate conclusions, all of
which are preserved in the present form.1
This letter stands justly at the head of the Pauline Epistles.
1 On the textual variations, see Westcott and Hort, Appendix, pp. 110-114.
Reuss, Ewald, Farrar suppose that ch 16 (or 16 3-20) was addressed to
Ephesus . Renan conjectures that an editor has combined foui copies of the
same encyclical letter of Paul, each addressed to a different church and having-
a different ending Both these views are preferable to Baur's rejection of the
last two chapters as spurious; though they are fuU of the Pauline spirit.
Hilgenfeld (Einleit., p 333) and Pfleiderer (Paulinismus, p. 314) maintain,
against Baur, the genuineness of chs 15 and 16. On the names in ch 16 see
the instructive discussion of Lightfoot in his Com. on PhUippians^ pp 172-176.
786 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
It is more comprehensive and systematic than the others, and
admirably adapted to the mistress of the world, which was to
become also the mistress of Western Christendom. It is the
most remarkable production of the most remarkable man. It
is his heart. It contains his theology, theoretical and practical,
for which he lived and died. It gives the clearest and fullest
exposition of the doctrines of sin and grace and the best possi-
ble solution of the universal dominion of sin and death in tho
universal redemption by the second Adam. Without this re-
demption the fall is indeed the darkest enigma and irreconcil-
able with the idea of divine justice and goodness. Paul rever-
ently lifts the veil from the mysteries of eternal foreknowledge
and foreordination and God's gracious designs in the winding
course of history which will end at last in the triumph of his
wisdom and mercy and the greatest good to mankind. Luther
calls Romans " the chief book of the Kew Testament and the
purest Gospel," Coleridge : " the profoundest book in existence,"1
Meyer: "the greatest and richest of all the apostolic works,"
Godet (best of all): "the cathedral of the Christian faith."
THEME : Christianity the power of free and universal salvation, on con-
dition of faith.
LEADING THOUGHTS : Thef are all under sin (3 : 9). Through the law
cometh the knowledge of sin (3 . 20) Man is justified by faith apart
from works of the law (3 : 28). Being justified by faith we have (fyo/if v,
or, let us have, c^/ici/) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
(5 : 1) As through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned (5 . 12) :
[so through one man righteousness entered into the world, and life
through righteousness, and so life passed unto all men on condition
that they believe in Christ and by faith become partakers of his righteous-
ness]. Where sin abounded, grace did abound much more exceedingly:
that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteous-
ness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (5 : 20, 21). Beckon
yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus
(6 : 11). There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
(8 : 1) To them that love God all things work together for good (8 : 28).
Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image
of his Son . . . and whom he foreordained them he also called : and
whom he called, them he also justified : and whom he justified, them ha
§ 93. THE EPISTLES OF THE CAPTIVITY. 767
also glorified (8 : 29, 30). If God is for us, who is against us (8 : 31) ?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (8 . 35) ? Hardening in
part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ;
and so all Israel shall be saved (11 : 25). God hath shut up all unto
disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all (11 : 32). Of Him, and
through Him, and unto Him are all things (11 : 36). Present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reason-
able service (12 ; 1).
§ 93. The Epistles of the Captivity.
During his confinement in Rome, from A.D. 61 to 63, while
waiting the issue of his trial on the charge of being " a mover
of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and
a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes '' (Acts 24 : 5), the aged
apostle composed four Epistles, to the COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS,
PHILEMON, and PIIILIPPIANS. He thus turned the prison into a
pulpit, sent Inspiration and comfort to his distant congregations,
and rendered a greater service to future ages than he could have
done by active labor. II e gloried in being a " prisoner of Christ."
He experienced the blessedness of persecution for righteousness'
sake (Matt. 5 : 10), and " the peace of God which passeth all
understanding" (Phil. 4: : 7). He often refers to his bonds, and
the coupling chain or hand-cuff (aXuo-is) by which, according
to Roman custom, he was with his right wrist fettered day and
night to a soldier ; one relieving the other and being in turn
chained to the apostle, so that his imprisonment became a means
for the spread of the gospel " throughout the whole prsetorian
guard." * He had the privilege of living in his own hired
lodging (probably in the neighborhood of the praetorian camp,
outside of the walls, to the northeast of Rome), and of free
intercourse with his companions and distant congregations.
Paul does not mention the place of his captivity, which ex-
tended through four years and a half (two at Caesarea, two at
Rome, and six months spent on the stormy voyage and at Malta).
1 Phil. 1 : 7, 13, 14, 17 ; Eph. 3 . 1 ("the prisoner of Christ Jama in behalf
of you Gentiles"); 4 : 1 ("the prisoner in the Lord") ; Col. 4 :3, 18 (u re-
member my bonds") ; Philem. ven. 10, 18 ; oomp. AoU 28 : 17, 80.
768 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
The traditional view dates the four Epistles from the Roman
captivity, and there is no good reason to depart from it. Several
modern critics assign one or more to C&esarea, where he cannot
be supposed to have been idle, and where he was nearer to his
congregations in Asia Minor.1 But in Csesarea Paul looked
forward to Home and to Spain ; while in the Epistles of the
captivity he expresses the hope of soon visiting Colossse and
Philippi. In Rome he had the best opportunity of correspond-
ence with his distant friends, and enjoyed a degree of freedom
which may have been denied him in Csesarea. In Philippians he
sends greetings from converts in u Caesar's household " (4 : 22),
which naturally points to Rome; and the circumstances and
surroundings of the other Epistles are very much alike.
Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon were composed about
the same time and sent by the same messengers (Tychicus and
Onesimus) to Asia Minor, probably toward the close of the Ro-
man captivity, for in Philemon, ver. 22, he engaged a lodging
in Colossae in the prospect of a speedy release and visit to the
East.
Philippians we place last in the order of composition, or, at
all events, in the second year of the Roman captivity ; for some
time must have elapsed after Paul's arrival in Rome before the
gospel could spread " throughout the whole praetorian guard "
(Phil. 1 : 13), and before the Philippians, at a distance of seven
hundred miles from Rome (a full month's journey in those
days), could receive news from him and send him contributions
through Epaphroditus, besides other communications which
seem to have preceded the Epistle.3
On the other hand, the priority of the composition of Philip-
pians has been recently urged on purely internal evidence,
namely, its doctrinal affinity with the preceding anti-Judaic
Epistles ; while Colossians and Ephesians presuppose the rise of
1 Bo Bottger, Thiersoh, Reuse, Meyer, Weiss. Thiersch dates even Second
Timothy from C&sarea, but denies the second Roman captivity.
9 This is the prevailing view among critics I have discussed the order in
the History of Hie Apost. Ch. (1853), pp. 822 sqq.
§ 94. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 769
the Gnostic heresy and thus form the connecting link between
them and the Pastoral Epistles, in which the same heresy ap-
pears in a more matured form.1 But Ephesians has likewise
striking affinities in thought and language with Komans in the
doctrine of justification (comp. Eph. 2 : 8), and with Komans
(ch. 12) and First Corinthians (12 and 14) in the doctrine of
the church. As to the heresy, Paul had predicted its rise in
Asia Minor several years before in his farewell to the Ephesian
elders. And, finally, the grateful and joyful tone of Philip-
pians falls in most naturally with the lofty and glorious concep*
tion of the church of Christ as presented in Ephesians.
§ 94. The Epistle to the Colossiam.
THE CHURCHES IN PHRYGIA.
The cities of Colossse, Laodicea, and Ilierapolis are mentioned
together as seats of Christian churches in the closing chapter of
Colossians, and the Epistle may be considered as being addressed
to all, for the apostle directs that it be read also in the churches
of the Laodiceans (4 : 13-16). They were situated within a few
miles of each other in the valley of the Lycus (a tributary of
the Mseander) in Phrygia on the borders of Lydia, and belonged,
under the Roman rule, to the proconsular province of Asia
Minor.
Laodicea was the most important of the three, and enjoyed
metropolitan rank; she was destroyed by a disastrous earth-
quake A.D. 61 or 65, but rebuilt from her own resources without
the customary aid from Home.2 The church of Laodicea is the
last of the seven churches addressed in the Apocalypse (3 : 14-
1 So Lightfoot (p. 31), followed by Farrar (IL 417). Bwald likewise pats
Philippians before Colossians, but denies the genuineness of Ephesians. Bleek
regards the data as insufficient to decide the chronological order. See hi&
JSinleitung. p. 461, and his posthumous Lectures an Colossians, Philemon^
and Ephesian*, published 1865, p. 7.
* The earthquake took place, according to Tacitus (Ann., XTV. 27), in the
seventh, according to Eusebius (Chron , Ol 210, 4), in the tenth year of Nero's
reign, and extended also to Hierapolis and Coloswe,
770 FIEST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
22), and is described as rich and proud and lukewarm. It har-
bored in the middle of the fourth century (after 344) a council
which passed an important act on the canon, forbidding the
public reading of any but uthe canonical books of the New
and Old Testaments " (the list of these books is a later addition),
a prohibition which was confirmed and adopted by later coun-
cils in the East and the West
llierapolis was a famous watering-place, surrounded by beau-
tiful scenery,1 and the birthplace of the lame slave Epictetus,
who, with Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, ranks among the first
heathen moralists, and so closely resembles the lofty maxims of
the New Testament that some writers have assumed, though
without historic foundation, a passing acquaintance between
him and Paul or his pupil Epaphras of Colossce.2 The church
of Hierapolis figures in the post-apostolic age as the bishopric
of Papias (a friend of Polycarp) and Apollinaris.
Colossae,9 once likewise famous, was at the time of Paul the
smallest of the three neighboring cities, and lias almost disap-
1 la a Greek inscription, published by Boeckh and quoted by Lightfoot,
Hierapolis is thus apostrophized •
" Hail, fairest soil m all broad Asia's realm ;
Htkd golden city, nymph divine, bedeck'd
With flowing nlla, thy jewels "
* Epictetus ('ErfirTTjrof), a slave and then a freedman of Epaphroditus (who
was himself a freedman of Nero), was considerably younger than Paul, and
taught first at Rome, and, after the expulsion of the philosophers by Domitian,
at Nicopolis in Epirus, where his discourses (Enchiridion) were taken down by
Arrian. For, like Socrates, he himself wrote nothing A meeting with Paul
or Epaphras would " solve more than one riddle," aa Lightfoot says. But he
shows no trace of a knowledge of Christianity any more than Seneca, whose
correspondence with Paul is spurious, though both lived at Rome under Nero.
Marcus Aurelius, a century later, persecuted the Christians and alludes to
them only once in his Meditations (XE 3), where he traces their heroic zeal
for martyrdom to sheer obstinacy. The self-reliant, stoic morality of these
philosophers, sublime as it is, would have hindered rather than facilitated
their acceptance of Christianity, which is based on repentance and humility.
1 Ko\offaai<t GoloMce, is the correct reading of the oldest MSS. against the
later Kotaunrai, Colasscs Herodotus calls it *6\u AtrpUi), and Xenophon c6&ai/uf»
•M) fjitydXij. In the middle ages it was called X»vcu. There are few remains
of it left two miles north of the pfreaent town of Chonos, which is in
by Christians and Turks.
§ 94. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 771
peared from the earth; while magnificent rains of temples,
theatres, baths, aqueducts, gymnasia, and sepulchres still testify
to the former wealth and prosperity of Laodicea and Hierapolis.
The church of Colossce was the least important of the churches
to which Paul addressed an Epistle, and it is scarcely mentioned
in post-apostolic times ; but it gave rise to a heresy which shook
the church in the second century, and this Epistle furnished the
best remedy against it.
There was a large Jewish population in Phrygia, since Anti-
ochus the Great had despotically transplanted two thousand
Jewish families from Babylonia and Mesopotamia to that region.
It thus became, in connection with the sensuous and mystic ten-
dency of the Phrygian character, a nursery of religious syncret-
ism and various forms of fanaticism.
PAUL AND THE COLOSSIANS.
Paul passed twice through Phrygia, on his second and third
missionary tours,1 but probably not through the valley of the
Lycus. Luke does not say that he established churches there,
and Paul himself seems to include the Colossiaiis and Laodi
ceans among those who had not seen his face in the flesh.3 He
names Epaphras, of Colossse, his "dear fellow-servant" and
"fellow-prisoner," as the teacher and faithful minister of the
Christians in that place.3 But during his long residence in
Ephesus (A.D. 54r-57) and from his imprisonment he exercised a
general supervision over all the churches in Asia. After his
death they passed under the care of John, and in the second
century they figure prominently in the Gnostic, Paschal, Chili-
astic, and Montanistic controversies.
Paul heard of the condition of the church at Colossse through
Epaphras, his pupil, and Onesimus, a runaway slave. He sent
1 Acts 16 : 6 (iV */wyf«" «* TaXariK^ X&pur) ; 18 23.
1 Col. 2:1; oomp 1 • 4, 8, 9 , and Lightfoot, Com , pp 23 sqq and 288.
1 Ool 1:7; 4 • 12 ; oorap Philem., ver. 23. Hilgenfeld (p. 663) thinks that
Paul founded those churches, and uses this as an argument against the genu-
ineness of the Epistle which implies the contrary. But how easily could a
forger have avoided such an apparent contradiction.
772 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
through Tychicus (4:7) a letter to the church, which was also
intended for the Laodiceans (4 : 16) ; at the same time he sent
through Onesimus a private letter of commendation to his mas-
ter, Philemon, a member of the church of Colossse. He also
directed the Colossians to procure and read " the letter from
Laodicea," which is most probably the evangelical Epistle to the
Ephesians which was likewise transmitted through Tychicus.'
He had special reasons for writing to the Colossians and to
Philemon, and a general reason for writing to all the churches
in the region of Ephesus ; and he took advantage of the mission
of Tychicus to secure both ends. In this way the three Epistles
are closely connected in time and aim. They would mutually
explain and confirm one another.
THE COLOSSIAN HERESY.
The special reason which prompted Paul to write to the Colos-
sians was the rise of a new heresy among them which soon
afterward swelled into a mighty and dangerous movement in the
ancient church, as rationalism has done in modern times. It dif-
fered from the Judaizing heresy which he opposed in Galatians
and Corinthians, as Essenism differed from Phariseeism, or as
legalism differs from mysticism. The Colossian heresy was an
Essenic and ascetic type of Gnosticism ; it derived its ritualistic
and practical elements from Judaism, its speculative elements
from heathenism; it retained circumcision, the observance of
Sabbaths and new moons, and the distinction of meats and
drinks; but it mixed with it elements of oriental mysticism
and theosophy, the heathen notion of an evil principle, the
worship of subordinate spirits, and an ascetic struggle for
emancipation from the dominion of matter. It taught an an-
tagonism between God and matter and interposed between them
a series of angelic mediators as objects of worship. It thus
contained the essential features of Gnosticism, but in its in*
1 OoL 4 : 16 : r^r fc Aooftuccfat fra *al 6pe?f Aw/wrf. An abridged expres-
sion for "the letter left at Laodioea which you will procure thence." So
Bleek and laghtf oot, in loco.
§ 94. THE EPISTLE TO THE OOLOSSIANS. 773
cipient and rudiinental form, or a Christian Essenism in its
transition to Gnosticism. In its ascetic tendency it resembles
that of the weak brethren in the Roman congregation (Kom.
14 : 5, 6, 21). Cerinthus, in the age of John, represents a more
developed stage and forms the link between the Colossian heresy
and the post-apostolic Gnosticism.1
THE REFUTATION.
Paul refutes this false philosophy calmly and respectfully by
the true doctrine of the Person of Christ, as the one Mediator
between God and men, in whom dwells all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. And he meets the false asceticism based
upon the dualistic principle with the doctrine of the purifica-
tion of the heart by faith and love as the effectual cure of all
moral evil.
THE GNOSTIC AND THE PAULINE PLEKOMA.
" Pleroma " or " fulness " is an important term in Colossians
and Ephesians.* Paul uses it in common with the Gnostics,
1 On the Colossian heresy I refer chiefly to Neander (I. 319 sqq.), the
lectures of Bleek (pp. 11-19), and the valuable Excursus of Lightfoot, Com.,
pp 73-113, who agrees with Neander and Bleek, but is more full. Lightfoot
refutes the view of Hilgenfeld (Der Gnosticwmus u das N. Test , in the u Zeit-
gchnft fur wissensch. Theol ," vol XIII 233 sqq ), who maintains that the
Ep opposes two different heresies, pure Gnosticism (2 8-10) and pure Judaism
(2 : 16-23). Comp his Einleitung, pp. 665 sqq The two passages are con-
nected by T£ 0Toixc& rov mfcr/iou (vers 8 and 20), and the later history of
Gnosticism shows, in a more developed form, the same strange mixture of
Judaizing and paganizing elements. See the chapter on Gnosticism in the
second volume.
2 The word wA^pw/ua, from irX^pow, to fill, to complete, occurs eighteen times
in the New Test , thirteen times in the Epistles of Paul (see Bruder). It
designates the result of the action implied in the verb, t 6 , complement, com-
pleteness, plenitude, perfection , and, in a wider sense (as in John 1 • 16 ;
Col. 1 : 19 ; ? . 9), fulness, abundance. Like other substantives ending in
— jua, it has an active sense the filling substance, that which fills (id quod
implet, or id quo res impletur). So it is often used by the classics, eg.,
wA^xw/xa irrfAca?, the population of a city ; in the Septuagint, for the Hebrew
feibb, abundance, e.g , r& TA^pw/ua TJ?S 7$*, or r& **4p"ft* *$* &a&£r<n?:?, that
which fills the earth, or the sea; and in the New Test, eg., Mark 6 • 43
v*w<£/iara); 8 . 20 (<nrvpl*»r »*.)• The passive sense is rare : that
774 MUST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and this has been made an argument for the post-apostolic
origin of the two Epistles. He did, of course, not borrow it
from the Gnostics ; for he employs it repeatedly in his other
Epistles with slight variations. It must have had a fixed theo-
logical meaning, as it is not explained. It cannot be traced to
Philo, who, however, uses "Logos" in a somewhat similar sense
for the plenitude of Divine powers.
Paul speaks of " the pleroma of the earth," i.e., all that fills
the earth or is contained in it (1 Cor. 10 : 26, 28, in a quotation
from Ps. 24 : 1) ; " the pleroma," i.e.y the fulfilment or accom-
plishment, " of the law," which is love (Bom. 13 : 10 ') ; " the
pleroma," i.e., the fulness or abundance, " of the blessing of
Christ" (Rom. 15:29); "the pleroma," or full measure, uof
the time " (Gal. 4:4; comp. Eph. 1 : 10 ; Mark 1 : 15 ; Luke
21 : 24) ; " the pleroma of the Gentiles," meaning their full
number, or whole body, but not necessarily all individuals
(Rom. 11 : 25) ; " the pleroma of the Godhead," i.e., the fulness
or plenitude of all Divine attributes and energies (Col. 1 : 19 ;
2:9);" the pleroma of Christ," which is the church as the body
of Christ (Eph. 1 : 23 ; comp. 3 : 19 ; 4 : 13).
In the Gnostic systems, especially that of Valentinus, " plero-
ma " signifies the intellectual and spiritual world, including all
Divine powers or aeons, in opposition to the "kenoma," i.e.j
the void, the emptiness, the material world. The distinction
was based on the dualistic principle of an eternal antagonism
between spirit and matter, which led the more earnest Gnos-
tics to an extravagant asceticism, the frivolous ones to wild
antinomianisrn. They included in the pleroma a succession of
emanations from the Divine abyss, which form the links be-
tween the infinite and the finite; and they lowered the dignity
of Christ by making him simply the highest of those interme-
diate ceons. The burden of the Gnostic speculation was always
which is filled (id quod fmpletur or impletum 0sf)< the filled receptacle. Comp,
Grimm and Robinson sub verbo, and especially Fritzsohe, Ad Bom. II. 468
sqq., and Lightfoot. Colo**. 323 aqq.
1 In this passage it is equivalent to *Mp«ffis, legi* obtenatfo.
§ 94. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 775
the question : Whence is the world ? and whence is evil ? It
sought the solution in a dualism between mind and matter, the
pleroma and the kenoma ; but this is no solution at all.
In opposition to this error, Paul teaches, on a thoroughly
monotheistic basis, that Christ is " the image of the invisible
God " (eiicu>v rov Seov rov aopdrov, 1:15; comp. 2 Cor. 4 : 4
— an expression often used by Philo as a description of the
Logos, and of the personified Wisdom, in Wisd. 7 : 26) ; that
he is the preexistent and incarnate pleroma or plenitude of
Divine powers and attributes ; that in him the whole fulness
of the Godhead, that is, of the Divine nature itself,1 dwells
bodily-wise or corporeally (crw/iaTiKw), as \he soul dwells in
the human body ; and that he is the one universal and all-
sufficient Mediator, thiough whom the whole universe of things,
visible and invisible, were made, in whom all things hold to-
gether (or cohere, o-vveo-rrj/cev), and through whom the Father
is pleased to reconcile all things to himself.
The Christology of Colossians approaches very closely to the
Christology of John ; for he represents Christ as the incarnate
" Logos" or Revealer of God, who dwelt among us "full
(irXypw) of grace and truth," and out of whose Divine " ful-
ness" (Ae rov 7rXi7pa>/iaT09 avrov) we all have received grace
for grace (John 1 : 1, 14, 16). Paul and John fully agree in
teaching the eternal preexistence of Christ, and his agency in
the creation and preservation of the world (Col. 1 : 15-17 ; John
1 : 3). According to Paul, lie is " the first-lorn or forst-legot-
ten" of all creation (Trpoiroro/eo? Trao^ teriaew, Col. 1 : 15,
distinct from TrpwrS/criffros, first-created), i.e., prior and supe-
rior to the whole created world, or eternal ; according to John
He is " the only-begotten Son " of the Father (6 povayei"}* vw>*
John 1:14, 18; comp. 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9), before and
above all created children of God. The former term denotes
1 2 • 9 rl *A4Hua rijs bctrrrrot , deita*, Deity, not &t «*np-os, divinitas, divinity.
Bengel remarks : " Non modo divina virtutes, ted ip»a divina natural So
also Lightfoot.
f Or, according to the other reading, which is equally well supported,
, one who IB only-begotten God.
776 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Christ's unique relation to the world, the latter his unique rela-
tion to the Father.
The Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Colossians will
be discussed in the next section in connection with the Epistle
to the Ephesians.
THEME : Christ all in aH The trne gnosis and the false gnosis. True
and false asceticism.
LEADING THOUGHTS: Christ is the image of the invisible God, the
first-begotten of all creation (1 : 15).— In Christ are hidden all the treas-
ures of wisdom and knowledge (2 : 3). — In him dwelleth all the fulness
(TO TrXqpw/ia) of tne Godhead bodily (2 : 9). — If ye were raised together
with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on
the right hand of God (3 . 1). — When Christ, who is our life, shall be
manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory (3 : 4). —
Christ is all, and in all (3 : 11). — Above all things put on love, which is
the bond of perfectness (3 : 14). — Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (3 : 17).
§ 95. The Jfynsfie to ike Ephesians.
CONTENTS.
When Paul took leave of the Ephesian Elders at Miletus, in
the spring of the year 58, he earnestly and affectionately ex-
horted them, in view of threatening disturbances from within,
to take heed unto themselves and to feed " the church of the
Lord, which he acquired with his own blood." *
This strikes the key-note of the Epistle to the Ephesians. It
is a doctrinal and practical exposition of the idea of the church,
as the house of God (2 : 20-22), the spotless bride of Christ
(5 : 25-27), the mystical body of Christ (4 : 12-16), " the fulness
1 Acts 20 : 28. Some of the beat authorities ($, B, Vnlg. , etc. ) read ' ( church
of God" So also Westcott and Hort, and the English Revision; but the
American Committee prefers, with Tisohendorf , the reading rov icvplov, which
is supported by A, C*, D, E, etc , and suits better in this connection. Paul
often speaks of " the church of God," but nowhere of " the blood of God "
Possibly, as Dr Hort suggests, vlov may have dropped out in a very early copy
after rov folov. See a full discussion by Dr Abbot, in "Bibl. Sacra" for
1876, pp. 313 sqq (for icvplov), and by Westcott and Hort, Greek Tett., IL,
Notes, pp. 98 sqq. (for frfoS).
§ 95. THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 777
of Him that filleth all in all" (1 : 23). The pleroma of the
Godhead resides in Christ corporeally ; so the pleroma of Christ,
the plenitude of his graces and energies, resides in the church, as
his body. Christ's fulness is God's fulness ; the church's ful-
ness is Christ's fulness. God is reflected in Christ, Christ is
reflected in the church.
This is an ideal conception, a celestial vision, as it were, of
the church in its future state of perfection. Paul himself repre-
sents the present church militant as a gradual growth unto the
complete stature of Christ's fulness (4 : 13-16). We look in
vain for an actual church which is free from spot or wrinkle
or blemish (5 : 27). Even the apostolic church was full of de-
fects, as we may learn from every Epistle of the New Testa-
ment. The church consists of individual Christians, and cannot
be complete till they are complete The body grows and matures
with its several members. " It is not yet made manifest what
we shall be "(1 John 3:2).
Nevertheless, Paul's church is not a speculation or fiction,
like Plato's Republic or Sir Thomas More's Utopia. It is a
reality in Christ, who is absolutely holy, and is spiritually and
dynamically present in his church always, as the soul is present
in the members of the body. And it sets before us the high
standard and aim to be kept constantly in view ; as Christ ex-
horts every one individually to be perfect, even as our heavenly
Father is perfect (Matt. 5 : 48).
With this conception of the church is closely connected Paul's
profound and most fruitful idea of the family. He calls the re-
lation of Christ to his church a great mystery (5 : 32), and rep-
resents it as the archetype of the marriage relation, whereby
one man and one woman become one flesh. He therefore bases
the family on new and holy ground, and makes it a miniature
of the church, or the household of God. Accordingly, husbands
are to love their wives even as Christ loved the church, his
bride, and gave himself up for her ; wives are to obey their
husbands as the church is subject to Christ, the head ; parents
are to love their children as Christ and the church love the in-
778 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
dividual Christians ; children are to love their parents as indi-
vidual Christians are to love Christ and the church. The full
and general realization of this domestic ideal would be heaven
on earth. But how few families come up to this standard.1
EPHESIANS AND THE WRITINGS OF JOHN.
Paul emphasizes the person of Christ in Colossians, the per-
son and agency of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians. For the Holy
Spirit carries on the work of Christ in the church. Christians
are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of re-
demption (1:13; 4 : 30). The spirit of wisdom and revelation
imparts the knowledge of Christ (1:17; 3:16). Christians
should be filled with the Spirit (5 : 18), take the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the Spirit at all
seasons (6 : 17, 18).
The pneumatolo^y of Ephesians resembles that of John, as
the christology of Colossians resembles the chribtology of John.
It is the Spirit who takes out of the " fulness " of Christ, and
shows it to the believer, who glorifies the Son and guides into
the truth (John 14 : 17 ; 15 : 26 ; 16 : 13-15, etc.). Great promi-
nence is given to the Spirit also in Romans, Galatiaris, Corin-
thians, and the Acts of the Apostles.
John does not speak of the church and its outward organiza-
tion (except in the Apocalypse), but he brings Christ in as clobe
and vital a contact with the individual disciples as Paul witli
the whole body. Both teach the unity of the church as a
fact, and as an aim to be realized more and more by the effort
of Christians, and both put the centre of unity in the Holy
Spirit.
1 For a fine analysis of the Epistle, I refer to Bratme's Com. in the Lange
Scries (translated by Dr. Riddle) He adopt* a twofold, Stier and Alford a
threefold (trinitarian) division. See also Dr. Riddle's clear analysis in SohafFs
Popular Com, on the New Tent , HI. (1882), p. 355. I Doctrinal Part, chs. 1-3
The church, the mystical body of Christ, chosen, redeemed, and united in
Christ II. Practical Part chn. 4-6 Therefore, let all the members of the
church walk in unity, in love, in newness of life, in the armor of God. But
we should remember that the Epistle is not strictly systematic, and the doc-
trinal expositions and practical exhortations interlace each other.
§ 96. THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 779
ENCYCLICAL INTENT.
Ephesians was intended not only for the church at Ephesus,
the metropolis of Asia Minor, but for all the leading churches
of that district. Hence the omission of the words " in Ephe-
sus" (1 : 1) in some of the oldest and best MSS.1 Hence, also,
the absence of personal and local intelligence. The encyclical
destination may be inferred also from the reference in Col. 4 : 16
to the Epistle to the church of Laodicea, which the Colossiane
were to procure and to read, and which is probably identical
with our canonical Epistle to the Ephesians." a
CHARACTER AND VALUE OF THE EPISTLE.
Ephesians is the most churchly book of the New Testament.
But it presupposes Colossians, the most Christly of Paul's Epis-
tles. Its churchliriess is rooted and grounded in Christliness, and
has no sense whatever if separated from this root. A church with-
out Christ would be, at best, a praying corpse (and there are such
churches). Paul was at once the highest of high churchmen,
the most evangelical of evangelicals, and the broadest of the
broad, because most comprehensive in his grasp and furthest
removed from all pedantry and bigotry of sect or party.
Ephesians is, in some respects, the most profound and diffi-
1 $v 'EtyfVrp ia omitted in the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS Marcion retained
the Epistle under the title " To the Laodicenes," as Tertulhan reports. Dr
Hort says- " Tranacnptional evidence strongly supports the testimony ot
documents against tv 'E^cr?.1' The arguments of Meyer and of Woldemar
Schmidt (in the fifth ed of Meyer on Ephesfan*) in favor of the words are
not conclusive.
1 This was already the view of Marcion in the second century. Meyer,
however, in loc., insists that another letter is meant, which was lost, like one
to the Corinthians The apocryphal Ep to the Laodioeans (in Fabnciua,
Cod. Apocr. N. T , I 873 sqq.), consisting of twenty verses, is a mere fabrica-
tion from the other Epistles of Paul. It was forbidden by the Second Council
of Nica» (787).
8 But the very reverse of churchy. Nothing can be further removed from
the genius of Paul than that narrow, mechanical, and pedantic tiAurc/un«&
which sticks to the shell of outward forms and ceremonies, and mistakes them
for the kernel within,
780 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
cult (though not the most important) of his Epistles. It certainly
is the most spiritual and devout, composed in an exalted and
transcendent state of mind, where theology rises into worship,
and meditation into oration. It is the Epistle of the Ileaven-
lies (T& eirovpdvia), a solemn liturgy, an ode to Christ and his
spotless bride, the Song of Songs in the New Testament. The
aged apostle soared high above all earthly things to the invis
ible and eternal realities in heaven. From his gloomy confine-
ment he ascended for a season to the mount of transfiguration.
The prisoner of Christ, chained to a heathen soldier, was trans-
formed into a conqueror, clad in the panoply of God, and sing-
ing a paean of victory.
The style has a corresponding rhythmical flow and overflow,
and sounds at times like the swell of a majestic organ.1 It is
very involved and presents unusual combinations, but this is
owing to the pressure and grandeur of ideas ; besides, we must
remember that it was written in Greek, which admits of long
periods and parentheses. In ch. 1 : 3-14 we have one sentence
with no less than seven relative clauses, which rise like a thick
cloud of incense higher and higher to the very throne of God.1
1 Oh 5 . 14 may be a part of a primitive hymn after the type of Hebrew
parallelism i
44 Awake thou that sleepest,
Arise thou from the dead •
And Christ will Rhine upon thee "
2 In literal English translation such a si ntence is unquestionably heavy and
cumbrous Unsympathetic cntics, like De Wette, Baur, Re nan, Holtzmann,
characterize the style of Ephesians as verbose, diffuse, overloaded, monoto-
nous, and repetitious But Grotms, a first-class classical scholar, describes it
(in his Preface) as " rerum subhmitatem adaquan* verbis subhniumbm quam
utta 7idbu.it unquam lingua humana." Earless asserts that not a single word
in the Epistle is superfluous, and has proved it in his very able commentary
Alford (III 25) remarks 4< As the wonderful effect of the Spirit of inspira-
tion on the mind of man is nowhere in Scripture more evident than in this
Epistle, so, to discern those things of the Spirit, is the spiritual mind here
more than anywhere required " He contrasts, under this view, the commen-
taries of DeWette and Stier, putting rather too high an estimate on the latter
Maurice (Unity of tlie N T , p. 535) • " Every one must be conscious of an
overflowing fulness in the style of this Epistle, as if the apostle's mind could
not contain the thoughts that were at work in him, as if each one that he
uttered had a luminous train before it and behind it, from which it could not
§ 95. THE EPISTLE TO THE EPIIESIANS. 781
Luther reckoned Ephesians among "the best and noblest
books of the New Testament." Witsius characterized it as a
divine Epistle glowing with the flame of Christian love and the
splendor of holy light. Braune says : " The exalted significance
of the Epistle for all time lies in its fundamental idea: the
church of Jesus Christ a creation of the Father through the
Son in the Holy Spirit, decreed from eternity, destined for
eternity ; it is the ethical cosmos ; the family of God gathered
in the world and in history and still further to be gathered, the
object of his nurture and care in time and in eternity."
These are Continental judgments. English divines are
equally strong in praise of this Epistle. Coleridge calls it " the
sublimest composition of man ;" Alford : "the greatest and most
heavenly work of one whose very imagination is peopled with
things in the heavens ; " Farrar : " the Epistle of the Ascension,
the most sublime, the most profound, and the most advanced
and final utterance of that mystery of the gospel which it was
given to St. Paul for the first time to proclaim in all its fulness
to the Gentile world."
THEME : The church of Christ, the family of God, the fulness of Christ.
LEADING THOUGHTS : God chose us in Christ before the foundation of
the world that we should be holy and without blemish before him in
love (1:4). In him we have our redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (1 : 7).
He purposed to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens,
and the things upon the earth (1 . 10). God gave him to be head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all (1 : 23). God, being rich in mercy, quickened us
together with Christ and raised us up with him, and made us to sit
with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus (2 : 4-6). By grace
have ye been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is
the gift of God : not of works, that no man should glory (2 : 8, 9).
disengage itself." Bishop Ellicott says that the difficulties of the first chap-
ter are " so great and BO deep that the most exact language and the most
discriminating analysis are too poor and too weak to convey the force or con-
nection of expressions so august, and thoughts BO unspeakably profound.*9
Dr. Riddle • " It is the greatness of the Epistle which makes it so difficult ;
the thought seems to struggle with the words, which seem insufficient to
convey the transcendent idea.'9
782 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Christ is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the mid-
dle wall of partition (2 : 14). Ye are no more strangers and sojourn-
era, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone (2 : 19, 20;. Unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach
unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (3 : 8). That Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith ; to the end that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the
love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all
the fulness of God (3 : 17-19). Give diligence to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace (4.3). There is one body, and one Spirit,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over
all, and through all, and in all (4 6). He gave some to be apostles ; and
some, prophets ; and some, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of
the saints (4 . 11, 12). Speak the truth in love (4 : 15). Put on the new
man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness
of truth (4 : 24). Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children,
and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for
as, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell (5 : 1, 2).
Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord (5 : 22).
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself up for it (5 : 25). This mystery is great ; but I speak in
regard of Christ and of the church (5 : 32). Children, obey your parents
in the Lord (6 : 1). Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil (6 : 11).
§ 96. Colossians and Ephesians Compared and Vindicated.
COMPARISON.
The Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians were written
about the same time and transmitted through the same mes-
senger, Tychicus. They are as closely related to each other as
the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Romans. They handle
the same theme, Christ and his church; as Galatians and
Romans discuss the same doctrines of salvation by free grace
and justification by faith.
But Colossians, like Galatians, arose from a specific emer-
gency, and is brief, terse, polemical; while Ephesians, like
Romans, is expanded, calm, irenical. Colossians is directed
§ 96. COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS COMPARED. 788
against the incipient Gnostic (paganizing) heresy, as Galatians
is directed against the Judaizing heresy. The former is anti-
Essenic and anti-ascetic, the latter is anti-Pharisaic and anti-
legalistic ; the one deals with a speculative expansion and
fantastic evaporation, the latter, with a bigoted contraction, of
Christianity; yet both these tendencies, like all extremes, have
points of contact and admit of strange amalgamations ; and in
fact the Colossian and Galatian erroristp united in their cere-
monial observance of circumcision and the Sabbath. Ephesians,
like Romans, is an independent exposition of the positive truth,
of which the heresy opposed in the other Epistles is a perversion
or caricature.
Again, Colossians and Ephesians differ from each other in
the modification and application of their common theme : Colos-
sians is christological and represents Christ as the true pleroma
or plenitude of the Godhead, the totality of divine attributes
and powers; Ephesians is ecclesiological and exhibits the ideal
church as the body of Christ, as the reflected pleroma of Christ,
" the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." Christology natur-
ally precedes ecclesiology in the order of the system, as Christ
precedes the church ; and Colossians preceded Ephesians most
probably also in the order of composition, as the outline pre-
cedes the full picture ; but they were not far apart, and arose
from the same train of meditation.1
This relationship of resemblance and contrast can be satisfac-
torily explained only on the assumption of the same authorship,
the same time of composition, and the same group of churches
1 Lardner, Credner, Mayerhoff, Hofmann, and Reuse reverse the order on
the ground of Col 4 . 16, which refers to " the Epistle from Laodicea," as-
suming that this is the encyclical Epistle to the Ephesians. But Paul may
have done that by anticipation On the other hand, the icol ujuets (that ye also
as well as those to whom I have just written) in Eph 6 • 21, as compared with
CoL 4 • 7, justifies the opposite conclusion (as Earless shows, Com , p lix).
Reuss thinks that in writing two letters on the same topic the second is apt
to be the shorter. But the reverse is more frequent, as a second edition of a
book is usually larger than the first DeWette, Baur, Hilgenfeld, and HoltE-
roann regard Ephesians as an enlaiged recasting ( Umarbeitung and Ueberar-
Mtung) of Colossians by a pupil of Paul.
784 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
endangered by the same heretical modes of thought. With
Paul as the author of both everything is clear ; without that
assumption everything is dark and uncertain. "Non est cuius-
vis hommis" says Erasmus, " PauUnum pectus effingere / tonat,
meras flammas loquitur Paulus" '
AUTHORSHIP.
The genuineness of the two cognate Epistles has recently
been doubted and denied, but the negative critics are by no
means agreed ; some surrender Ephesians but retain Colossians,
others reverse the case ; while Baur, always bolder and more
consistent than his predecessors, rejects both.7
1 Annot ad Col 4 16
2 DeWette first attacked Ephesians as a verbose expansion (wortreiche Er-
weiterung) of the genuine Colossi an s by a pupil of Paul See his Introd to th*
New Test (1826, Gth ed by Meaner and Luneraann, 1860, pp. 313 sqq , and es-
pecially his Com on Eph , 184 J and 1847) He based his doubts chiefly on the
apparent dependence of Ephesians on Colossians, and could not appreciate the
originality and depth of Ephesians. Mayerhoff first attacked Colossians (1838)
as a post -Pauline abridgment of Ephesians which he regarded as genuine Baur
attacked both (1845), as his pupil Schwegler did (1846), and assigned them to
an anti- Gnostic writer of the later Pauline school He was followed by Hilgen-
feld (1870, 187J, and 1873) Hit/ig proposed a middle view (1870), that a
genuine Epistle of Paul to the Colossians was enlarged and adapted by the
same author who wrote Ephesians, and this view was elaborately earned out
by Holtzmann with an attempt to reconstruct the Pauline onginal (Kritik dfr
Epheser- und Koloftserbnefe, Leipzig, 1872) But the assumption of another
Epistle of Paul to the Colossians is a pure critical fiction History knows only
of one such Epistle Pfleiderer (1873, Paifhnwnws, p 370 sq and 434) substan-
tially agrees with Holtzmann, but assumes two different authors for the two
Epistles He regards Ephesians as an advance from old Pauhnism to the
Johannean theology Renan and Ewald admit Colossians to be genuine, but
surrender Ephesians, assigning it. however, to an earlier date than the
Tubingen critics (Ewald to A D 75 or 80). On the other hand, the genuine-
ness of both Epistles has been ably defended by Bleek, Meyer, Woldemar
Schmidt, Braune, Weiss, Alford, Farrar. Bishop Lightfoot, in his Com. on
Col , promises to take the question of genuineness up m the Com. on Ephes ,
which, however, has not yet appeared Dr Samuel Davidson, in the revised
edition of his Introduction to the Study of the New Test. (1882, vol II. 176
sqq and 205 sqq >, reproduces the objections of the Tubingen critics, and
adds some new ones which are not very creditable to his judgment, eg.,
Paul could not warn the Ephesians to steal no more (4 • 28), and not to be
drank (5 • 18), because "the Christians of Asia Minor had no tendency to
drunken excesses, but rather to ascetic abstinence from wine ; and the advice
§ 96. COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS COMPARED. 785
They must stand or fall together. But they will stand. They
represent, indeed, an advanced state of christological and eccle-
siological knowledge in the apostolic age, but they have their
roots in the older Epistles of Paul, and are brimful of his spirit.
They were called forth by a new phase of error, and brought
out new statements of truth with new words and phrases adapted
to the case. They contain nothing that Paul could not have
written consistently with his older Epistles, and there is no
known pupil of Paul who could have forged such highly intel-
lectual and spiritual letters in his name and equalled, if not
out-Pauled Paul.1 The external testimonies are unanimous in
favor of the Pauline authorship, and go as far back as Justin
Martyr, Polycarp, Ignatius, and the heretical Marcion (about
140), who included both Epistles in his mutilated canon.2
The difficulties which have been urged against their Pauline
origin, especially of Ephesians, are as follows :
1. The striking resemblance of the two Epistles, and the ap-
parent repetitiousness and dependence of Ephesians on Colos-
sians, which seem to be unworthy of such an original thinker as
Paul.1 But this resemblance, which is more striking in the
practical than in the doctrinal part, is not the resemblance be-
tween an author and an imitator, but of two compositions of
given to Timothy might perhaps have been more suitable ' Drink a little
wine ' " (p 213). But what then becomes of the Epistle to the Corinthians
who tolerated an incestuous person in their midst and disgraced the love feasts
by intemperance? What of the Epistle to the Romans, which contains a
similar warning against drunkenness (13 13) ? And what co ^ld induce a
pseudo-Paul to slander the church at Ephesus, if it was exceptionally pure ?
1 Farrar (II 602) • " We might well be amazed if the first hundred years
after the death of Christ produced a totally unknown writer who, assuming
the name of Paul, treats the mystery which it was given him to reveal with a
masterly power which the apostle himself rarely equalled, and most certainly
never surpassed. Let any one study the remains of the Apostolic Fathers, and
he may well be surprised at the facility with which writers of the Tubingen
school, and their successors, assume the existence of Pauls who lived unheard
of and died unknown, though they were intellectually and spiritually the
equals, if not the superiors, of St Paul himself 1 "
2 See the quotations in Charteris's Canomcity* pp 237 sqq and 247 sqq.
8 This is DeWette's chief argument See his table of parallel passages in
Einleitung, § 1460 (pp 313-318 of the sixth ed.).
786 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the same author, written about the same time on two closely
connected topics ; and it is accompanied by an equally marked
variety in thought and language.
2. The absence of personal and local references in Ephesians.
This is, as already remarked, sufficiently explained by the ency-
clical character of that Epistle.
3. A number of peculiar words not found elsewhere in the
Pauline Epistles.1 But they are admirably adapted to the new
ideas, and must be expected from a mind so rich as Paul's.
Every Epistle contains some hapaxlegomena. The only thing
which is somewhat startling is that an apostle should speak of
" holy apostles and prophets" (Eph. 3 : 5), but the term "holy"
(Hyioi) is applied in the New Testament to all Christians, as
being consecrated to God (ayiacpevoi, John 17 : 17), and not iu
the later ecclesiastical sense of a spiritual nobility. It implies
no contradiction to Eph. 3 : 8, where the author calls himself
" the least of all saints" (comp. 1 Cor. 15 : 9, "I am the least of
the apostles").
4. The only argument of any weight is the alleged post-
Pauline rise of the Gnostic heresy, which is undoubtedly
opposed in Colossians (not in Ephesians, at least not directly).
But why should this heresy not have arisen in the apostolic age
«is well as the Judaizing heresy which sprung up before A.D. 50,
and followed Paul everywhere ? The tares spring up almost
simultaneously with the wheat. Error is the shadow of truth.
Simon Magus, the contemporary of Peter, and the Gnostic
Cerinthus, the contemporary of John, are certainly historic
persons. Paul speaks (1 Cor. 8 : 1) of a "gnosis which puffeth
1 Such as alffxooXoyta (Col 3 : 8), ArraxairX^a, (1 • 24), c^mmm&i (1 • 20),
cfttAotyipirfffa (2 : 23), v&avoKayia (2 - 4) ; T* toovpdvta (Eph 1 : 3, 20 ; 2 . 8;
5 : 10; 6 12), T* wrvuariKdE (8 • 12), JCOTUOJC^TO/KS (8 • 12), ToXinrofjctAof <ro<J>fa
(3 : 10). Even the word fytrts (Col 1 • 14 and Eph 1 7) for *dp*<ni (Eom.
3 : 25) has been counted among the strange terms, os if Paul had not known
before of the remission of sina Holtzmann has most carefully elaborated the
philological argument But the veteran Reuss (I. 112) treats it as futile, and
even Davidson must admit 'II 210) that " the sentiments (of Ephesians) are
generally Pauline, as well as the diction/* though he adds that " both betray
marks of another writer.91
§ 96. COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS COMPARED. 787
up," and warned the Ephesian elders, as early as 58, of the
rising of disturbing errorists from their own midst ; and the
Apocalypse, which the Tubingen critics assign to the year 68,
certainly opposes the antinomian type of Gnosticism, the error
of the Nicolaitans (2 : 6, 15, 20), which the early Fathers de-
rived from one of the first seven deacons of Jerusalem. All
the elements of Gnosticism — Ebionism, Platonism, Philoism,
syncretism, asceticism, antinomianisrn — were extant before
Christ, arid it needed only a spark of Christian truth to set the
inflammable material on fire. The universal sentiment of the
Fathers, as far as we can trace it up to Irenaeus, Justin Martyr,
and Polycarp found the origin of Gnosticism in the apostolic
age, and called Simon Magus its father or grandfather.
Against their testimony, the isolated passage of Hegesippus,
so often quoted by the negative critics,1 has not the weight of a
feather. This credulous, inaccurate, and narrow-minded Jewish
Christian writer said, according to Eusebius, that the church en-
joyed profound peace, and was " a pure and uncorrnpted vir-
gin," governed by brothers and relations of Jesus, until the age
of Tiajan, when, after the death of the apostles, "the knowl-
edge falsely so called" (i/refSoiz/u/io? yvaxTi,?, comp. 1 Tim. 6 : 20),
openly raised its head.2 But he speaks of the church in Pales-
tine, not in Asia Minor; and he was certainly mistaken in this
dream of an age of absolute purity and peace. The Tubin-
gen school itself maintains the very opposite view. Every
* Baur, Sohwegler, and Hilgenfeld (Einlcit , 652 sq ).
9 Eus , //. E , III 32 u The same author [Hegesippus], relating the events
of the times, also says that 'the chuich continued until then as a pure and
uncorrupt virgin (irapb&os Kc&apk ical o&c{0&opoj fycvw ^ eKK\ij<rfa) ; whilst if
.there were any at nil that attempted to pervert the sound doctrine of the
Having gospel, they were yet skulking in darkness (ly i5^\y TOU mc6Tct) , but
when the sicred choir of the apostles became extinct, and the generation of
those that had been privileged to hear their inspired wisdom had passed away,
then also arose the combination of godless error through the fraud of false
teachers These also, as there was none of the apostles left, henceforth
attempted, without shame (yu^vy \onrfo flfy ry itf^aXg), to preach their falsely
•o-cailed gnosis against the gospel of truth ' Such is the statement of Hege-
Bippus " Comp the notes on the passage by Heiniohen in his ed. of Eusetx,
Tome III., pp 100-103.
788 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Epistle, as well as the Acts, bears testimony to the profound
agitations, parties, and evils of the church, including Jeru-
salem, where the first great theological controversy was fought
out by the apostles themselves. But Hegesippus corrects him
self, and makes a distinction between the secret working and
the open and shameless manifestation of heresy. The former
began, he intimates, in the apostolic age; the latter showed
itself afterward.1 Gnosticism, like modern Rationalism," had
a growth of a hundred years before it came to full maturity.
A post-apostolic writer would have dealt very differently with
the fully developed systems of Basilides, Yalentinus, and Mar-
cion. And yet the two short Epistles to the Colossians and
Ephesians strike at the roots of this error, and teach the posi-
tive truth with an originality, vigor, and depth that makes
them more valuable, even as a refutation, than the five books
of Irenaeus against Gnosticism, and the ten books of the Phil-
osophumena of Hippolytus; and this patent fact is the best
proof of their apostolic origin.
§ 97. TJie Epistle to the Philippians.
THE CHURCH AT PHILIPPI.
Philippi was a city of Macedonia, founded by and called after
Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, in a fertile region,
with contiguous gold and silver mines, on the banks of a
small river and the highway between Asia and Europe, ten
miles from the seacoast. It acquired immortal fame by the
battle between Brutus and Mark Antony (B.C. 42), in which the
1 The same Hegesippus, in Bus , IV 22, places the rise of the heresies in
the Palestinian church immediately after the death of James, and traces some
of them hack to Simon Magus He was evidently familiar with the Pastoral
Epistles, and borrowed from them the terms tytvtidwuos yvwais, 4r€po8t&(<r*a\ot1
* The critical school of Rationalism began in Germany with Semler of Halle
(1725-1791), in the middle of the eighteenth century, and culminated in the
Tubingen School of our own age.
§ 97. THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 789
Eoman republic died and the empire was born. After that
event it had the rpnk of a Koman military colony, with the high-
sounding title, " Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis." ! Hence
its mixed population, the Greeks, of course, prevailing, next the
Eoman colonists arid magistrates, and last a limited number of
Jews, who had a place of prayer on the riverside. It was visited
by Paul, in company with Silas, Timothy, and Luke, on his second
missionary tour, in the year 52, and became the seat of the first
Christian congregation on the classical soil of Greece. Lydia,
the purple dealer of Thyatira and a half proselyte to Judaism, a
native slave-girl with a divining spirit, which was used by her
masters as a means of gain among the superstitious heathen,
and a Eoman jailer, were the first converts, and fitly represent
the three nationalities (Jew, Greek, and Eoman) and the classes
of society which were especially benefited by Christianity. " In
the history of the gospel at Philippi, as in the history of the
church at large, is reflected the great maxim of Christianity,
the central truth of the apostle's teaching, that here is c neither
Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female,
but all are one in Christ Jesus." " a Here, also, are the first re-
corded instances of whole households (of Lydia and the jailer)
being baptized and gathered into the church, of which the
family is the chief nursery. The congregation was fully organ-
ized, with bishops (presbyters) and deacons at the head (Phil.
1:1).
Here the apostle was severely persecuted and marvellously
delivered. Here he had his most loyal and devoted converts,
who were his " joy and crown." For them he felt the strongest
personal attachment ; from them alone he would receive contri-
butions for his support. In the autumn of the year 57, after
1 Augustus conferred upon Philippi the special privilege of the "jus Itali-
cum," which made it a miniature likeness of the Roman people, with " prae-
tors " and " lictors," and the other titles of the Roman magistrates. Under this
character the city appears in the narrative of the Acts (16 12 sqq ), where
4 'the pride and privilege of Roman citizenship confront us at every turn."
See Lightfoot, pp. 50 sqq , Braune, and Liunby.
sLightfoot, &c.,p. 53.
790 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
five years' absence, he paid a second visit to Philippi, having in
the meantime kept up constant intercourse with the congrega-
tion through living messengers; and on his last journey to
Jerusalem, in the spring of the following year, he stopped at
Philippi to keep the paschal feast with his beloved brethren.
They had liberally contributed out of their poverty to the relief
of the churches in Judaea. When they heard of his arrival at
Rome, they again sent him timely assistance through Epaphro-
ditus, who also offered his personal services to the prisoner of
the Lord, at the sacrifice of his health and almost his life. It
was through this faithful fellow- worker that Paul sent his letter
of thanks to the Philippians, hoping, after his release, to visit
them in person once more.
THE EPISTLE.
The Epistle reflects, in familiar ease, his relations to this be*
loved flock, which rested on the love of Christ. It is not sys-
tematic, not polemic, nor apologetic, but personal and autobio-
graphic, resembling in this respect the First Epistle to the
Thesbalonians, and to some extent, also, the Second Epistle to
the Corinthians. It is the free outflow of tender love and
gratitude, and full of joy and cheerfulness in the 'face of life
and death. It is like his midnight hymn of praise in the dun-
geon of Philippi. " Rejoice in the Lord alway ; again 1 will
say, Rejoice ?1 (4 : 4).1 This is the key-note of the letter.2 It
proves that a healthy Christian faith, far from depressing and
saddening the heart, makes truly happy and contented even in
prison. It is an important contribution to our knowledge of
'* combines a parting benediction with an exhortation to cheerful-
ness. It is neither 4 farewell1 alone, nor k rejoice* alone" (Lightfoot)
9 Bengel " Smnma Epwtofa Gautf(n, yaitdete." Farrar (II. 423) " If any
one compare the spirit of the best-knotvn classic writers in their adversity
with that which was habitual to the far deeper wrongs and far deadlier suffer-
ings of St. Paul— if he will compare the Epistle to the Philippians with the
• Tnstia ' of Ovid, the letters of Cicero from exile, or the treatise which
Seneca dedicated to Polybms from his banishment in Corsica— he may see, if
he will, the difference which Christianity has made in the happiness of
§ 97. THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. 791
the character of the apostle. In acknowledging the gift of the
Philippians, he gracefully and delicately mingles manly inde-
pendence and gratitude. He had no doctrinal error, nor prac-
tical vice to rebuke, as in Galatians and Corinthians.
The only discordant tone is the warning against " the dogs of
the concision" (KararofjLij, 3 : 2), as he sarcastically calls the cham-
pions of circumcision (ireptro/Aq), who everywhere sowed tares
in his wheat fields, and at that very time tried to check his use-
fulness in Home by substituting the righteousness of the law
for the righteousness of faith. But he guards the readers with
equal earnestness against the opposite extreme of antinomian
license (3 : 12-21). In opposition to the spirit of peisonal and
social rivalry and contention which manifested itself among the
Philippians, Paul reminds them of the self-denying example of
Christ, who was the highest of all, and yet became the lowliest
of all by divesting himself of his divine majesty and humbling
himself, even to the death on the cross, and who, in reward for
his obedience, was exalted above every name (2 : 1-11).
This is the most important doctrinal passage of the letter,
and contains (together with 2 Cor. 8 : 9) the fruitful germ of the
speculations on the nature and extent of the kenosis, which
figures so prominently in the history of christology.1 It is a
striking example of the apparently accidental occasion of some
of the deepest utterances of the apostle. "With passages full of
elegant negligence (1 : 29), like Plato's dialogues and Cicero's
letters, it has passages of wonderful eloquence, and proceeds
from outward relations and special circumstances to wide-reach-
ing thoughts and grand conceptions." *
The objections against the genuineness raised by a few hyper-
critics are not worthy of a serious refutation."
1 The kenosis controversy between the Lutherans of Giessen and Tubingen
in the early part of the seventeenth century, and the more extensive kenoeig
literature in the nineteenth century (Thomasius, Liebner, Gess, Godet, etc ).
* Dr. Braune, in Lange's Com , p. 4.
8 The arguments of Baur and Sohwegler have been set aside by Liinemann
(1847), Bruckner (1848), Resch (1850), Hilgenfeld (1871), and Reuss(1875);
those of Holsten (1875 and 1876) by P W Schmidt, Ncutestam. Hyperkritik^
1880. Comp. Holzmunn in Hilgenfeld's " Zeitschrift fur wins. TheoL," 1881,
792 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
THE LATER HISTORY.
The subsequent history of the church at Philippi is rathei
disappointing, like that of the other apostolic churches in the
East. It appears again in the letters of Ignatius, who passed
through the place on his way to his martyrdom in Rome, and
was kindly entertained and escorted by the brethren, and in the
Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, who expressed his joy
that " the sturdy root of their faith, famous from the earliest
days, still survives and bears fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ,"
and alludes to the labors of " the blessed and glorious Paul ''
among them. Tertullian appeals to the Philippian church as
still maintaining the apostle's doctrine and reading his Epistle
publicly. The name of its bishop is mentioned here and there
in the records of councils, but that is all. During the middle
ages the city was turned into a wretched village, and the
bishopric into a mere shadow. At present there is not even a
village on the site, but only a caravansary, a mile or more from
the ruins, which consist of a theatre, broken marble columns,
two lofty gateways, and a portion of the city wall.1 " Of the
church which stood foremost among all the apostolic communi-
ties in faith and love, it may literally be said that not one stone
stands upon another. Its whole career is a signal monument of
the inscrutable counsels of God. Born into the world with the
brightest promise, the church of Philippi has lived without a
history and perished without a memorial." *
But in Paul's Epistle that noble little band of Christians still
lives and blesses the church in distant countries.
1 Dr. H B Hackett, who visited the spot, corrects the false statement of
Meyer and other commentators that there is still a village (Felibah, or Filibid-
jek, as Farrar says) on the former site. See his translation of Braune on
PhU , p. 6.
2 Lightfoot, p. 64 But almost the same sad tale may be told of the
churches of Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, under the withering rule of the
Mohammedan Turks. Even Ephesus, where both Paul and John labored so
successfully, is little more than a heap of ruins.
§ 98. THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 793
THEME : Theological : The self-humiliation (KIWIS) of Christ for our
balvation (2 : 5-11). Practical : Christian cheerfulness.
LEADING THOUGHTS : He who began a good work in you will perfect
it (1 : 6). If only Christ is preached, I rejoice (1 : 13). To me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain (1 . 21). Have this mind in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus : who emptied himself, etc. (2 : 5 sqq.). God work-
eth in you both to will and to work (2 : 13). Rejoice in the Lord alway ;
again I will say, Rejoice (3 : 1 ; 4 : 1). I count all things to be loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ (3 : 8). I press on toward the
goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (3 : 14).
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatso-
ever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and
if there be any praise, think on these things (4 : 8). The peace of God
passeth all understanding (4:7).
§ 98. The Epistle to Philemon.
Of the many private letters of introduction and recommenda-
tion which Paul must have written during his long life, only
one is left to us, very brief but very weighty. It is addressed
to Philemon, a zealous Christian at Colossse, a convert of Paul
and apparently a layman, who lent his house for the religious
meetings of the brethren.1 The name recalls the touching
mythological legend of the faithful old couple, Philemon and
Baucis, who, in the same province of Phrygia, entertained gods
unawares and were rewarded for their simple hospitality and con-
jugal love. The letter was written and transmitted at the same
time as that to the Colossians. It may be regarded as a per*
sonal postscript to it.
It was a letter of recommendation of Onesimus (i.e., Profit-
able),8 a slave of Philemon, who had run away from his master
on account of some offence (probably theft, a very common sin
1 A worthless tradition makes him bishop of Coloss® and a martyr in the
Neronian persecution. So Onesimus and almost every important man in the
apostoho church was turned into a bishop and martyr. On the names in the
Epistle, see Lightfoot's Com. on Col. and Philem , pp 372 sqq.
* Hence the good-humored play on the meaning of the word, ver. 11,
ftx/npro't etixwrror, u unprofitable to thee, but now profitable to thee and to
me ;" and the play on the name, ver. 20, foraf/upr, " let me have comfort in
thee."
794 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
of slaves),1 fell in with Panl at Borne, of whom he may have
heard in the weekly meetings at Colossae, or through Epaphras,
his fellow-townsman, was converted by him to the Christian
faith, and now desired to return, as a penitent, in company with
Tychicus, the bearer of the Epistle to the Colossians (Col. 4 : 9).
PAUL AND SLAVERY.
The Epistle is purely personal, yet most significant. Paul
omits his official title, and substitutes the touching designation,
"a prisoner of Christ Jesus," thereby going directly to the
heart of his friend. The letter introduces us into a Christian
household, consisting of father (Philemon), mother (Apphia),
son (Archippus, who was at the same time a " fellow-soldier," a
Christian minister), and a slave (Onesimus). It shows the effect
of Christianity upon society at a crucial point, where heathenism
was utterly helpless. It touches on the institution of slavery,
which lay like an incubus upon the whole heathen world and was
interwoven with the whole structure of domestic and public life.
The effect of Christianity upon this gigantic social evil is
that of a peaceful and gradual cure from within, by teaching
the common origin and equality of men, their common redemp-
tion and Christian brotherhood, by emancipating them from
slavery unto spiritual freedom, equality, and brotherhood in
Christ, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond
nor free, neither male nor female, but all are one moral person
(Gal. 3 : 28). This principle and the corresponding practice
wrought first an amelioration, and ultimately the abolition of
slavery. The process was very slow and retarded by the counter-
acting influence of the love of gain and power, and all the sinful
passions of men ; but it was sure and is now almost complete
throughout the Christian world ; while paganism and Moham-
medanism regard slavery as a normal state of society, and hence
JVer 18 seems to describe the actual offence, though the case is stated
hypothetical!?, c2 Mri . . &f>ti\*t (a mild word for frAc^, stole). The apos-
tle would not wound the feelings of the slave, nor imtate the master, and
offers himself to discharge the debt.
§ 98. THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 796
do not even make an attempt to remove it. It was the only wise
way for the apostles to follow in dealing with the subject. A
proclamation of emancipation from them would have been a
mere brutum fulmen^ or, if effectual, would have resulted in a
bloody revolution of society in which Christianity itself would
have been buried.
Paul accordingly sent back Onesimus to his rightful master, yet
under a new character, no more a contemptible thief and runaway,
but a regenerate man and a "beloved brother," with the touching
request that Philemon might receive him as kindly as he would
the apostle himself, yea as his own heart (vers. 16, 17). Such ad-
vice took the sting out of slavery ; the form remained, the thing
itself was gone. What a contrast ! In the eyes of the heathen
philosophers (even Aristotle) Onesimus, like every other slave,
was but a live chattel ; in the eyes of Paul a redeemed child of
God and heir of eternal life, which is far better than freedom.1
The New Testament is silent about the effect of the letter.
We cannot doubt that Philemon forgave Onesimus and treated
him with Christian kindness. In all probability he went beyond
the letter of the request and complied with its spirit, which
hints at emancipation. Tradition relates that Onesimus received
his freedom and became bishop of Bercea in Macedonia ; some-
times he is confounded with his namesake, a bishop of Ephesus
in the second century, or made a missionary in Spain and a
martyr in Rome, or at Puteoli.3
1 " The Gospel," says Lightfoot (p 389), ** never directly attacks slavery ac
an institution the apostles never command the liberation of slaves as an
absolute duty. It is a remarkable fact that St Paul in this Epistle stops
short of any positive injunction. The word * emancipation ' seems to be trem-
bling OD his lips, and yet he does not. once utter it He charges Philemon
to take the runaway slave Onesimus into his confidence again , to receive him
with all affection ; to regard him no more as a slave, but as a brother , to
treat him with the same consideration, the same love, which he entertains foi
the apostle himself to whom he owes everything. In fact he tells him to do
very much more than emancipate his slave, but this one thing he does not
directly enjoin St Paul's treatment of this individual case is an apt illns.
tration of the attitude of Christianity toward slavery in general."
a For these conflicting legends, see the Aota Sanctorum -&?&, XVL Febr.,
II 857 sqq.
796 FIEST PERIOD. A.D* 1-100.
PAUL AND PHILEMON.
The Epistle is at the same time an invaluable contribution to
our knowledge of Paul. It reveals him to us as a perfect
Christian gentleman. It is a model of courtesy, delicacy, and
tenderness of feeling. Shut up in a prison, the aged apostle
had a heart full of love and sympathy for a poor runaway slave,
made him a freeman in Christ Jesus, and recommended him as
if he were his own self.
PAUL AND PLINY.
Grotius and other commentators * quote the famous letter of
Pliny the Consul to his friend Sabinianus in behalf of a run-
away slave. It is very creditable to Pliny, who was born in the
year when Paul arrived as a prisoner in Rome, and shows that
the natural feelings of kindness and generosity could not be
extinguished even by that inhuman institution. Pliny was a
Roman gentleman of high culture and noble instincts, although
he ignorantly despised Christianity and persecuted its innocent
professors while Proconsul in Asia. The letters present strik-
ing points of resemblance : in both, a fugitive slave, guilty, but
reformed, and desirous to return to duty ; in both, a polite,
delicate, and earnest plea for pardon and restoration, dictated
by sentiments of disinterested kindness. But they differ as
Christian charity differs from natural philanthropy, as a Chris-
tian gentleman differs from a heathen gentleman. The one
could appeal only to the amiable temper and pride of his friend,
the other to the love of Christ and the sense of duty and grati-
tude ; the one was concerned for the temporal comfort of his
client, the other even more for his eternal welfare; the one
could at best remand him to his former condition as a slave, the
other raised him to the high dignity of a Christian brother, sit-
ting with his master at the same communion table of a com-
mon Lord and Saviour. " For polished speech the Roman
1 As Haokett (in Lange), Lightfoot, Luinby, and othen.
§ 98. THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 797
may bear the palm, but for nobleness of tone and warmth of
heart he falls far short of the imprisoned apostle."
The Epistle was poorly understood in the ancient church when
slavery ruled supreme in the Roman empire. A strong prejudice
prevailed against it in the fourth century, as if it were wholly
unworthy of an apostle. Jerome, Chrysostom, and other com-
mentators, who themselves had no clear idea of its ultimate social
bearing, apologized to their readers that Paul, instead of teach-
ing metaphysical dogmas and enforcing ecclesiastical discipline,
should take so much interest in a poor runaway slave.1 But since
the Reformation full justice has been done to it. Erasmus says:
" Cicero never wrote with greater elegance." Luther and Calvin
speak of it in high terms, especially Luther, who fully appre-
ciated its noble, Christ-like sentiments. Bengel : " mire da-relos"
Ewald : " Nowhere can the sensibility and warmth of a tender
friendship blend more beautifully with the loftier feeling of a
commanding spirit than in this letter, at once so brief, and yet
so surpassingly full and significant." Meyer: "A precious
relic of a great character, and, viewed merely as a specimen of
Attic elegance and urbanity, it takes rank among the epistolary
masterpieces of antiquity." Baur rejects it with trifling argu-
ments as post-apostolic, but confesses that it " makes an agree-
able impression by its attractive form," and breathes " the
noblest Christian spirit." * Iloltzmann calls it "a model of tact,
refinement, and amiability." Reuss : " a model of tact and hu-
manity, and an expression of a fine appreciation of Christian
duty and genial, amiable humor." Renan, with his keen eye on
the literary and aesthetic merits or defects, praises it as " a verit-
1 Bee Lightfoot, p 383, and the Speaker's Com, New Test., III. 829.
« "Es wird tiier," he says (Paulus, II 88, second ed ), "«n Chrutenthum
die schone Idee aufgefasst, doss die durch dasselbe mit einander Verbundenen
in einer wahren Wesensgemeinschaft mit einander stehen^ so da*8 der Eine in
dem Andcren sein eigenes Selbst erkennt, stch mit ihm vottig Bins weiss und finer
fur alle Ewigkeit dauernden Vereinigung angehort " Hilgenfeld admits the
genuineness, saying (p 331) : " Der game Brief tragt das Oeprage der ein-
fachen Wahrheit an sich und verraUi auch in den Wortspielen, vers. 11, 20, die
Schrdbart des Paulus."
798 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
able little chef-d?cewvre of the art of letter-writing/' And Light-
foot, while estimating still higher its moral significance on the
question of slavery, remarks of its literary excellency : " As an
expression of simple dignity, of refined courtesy, of large sym-
pathy, of warm personal affection, the Epistle to Philemon
stands unrivalled. And its pre-eminence is the more remark-
able because in style it is exceptionally loose. It owes nothing
to the graces of rhetoric ; its effect is due solely to the spirit of
the writer."
§ 99. The Pastoral EpisOes.
Comp § 33, pp 327-329.
CONTENTS.
The three Pastoral Epistles, two to Timothy and one to Titus,
form a group by themselves, and represent the last stage of the
apostle's life and labors, with his parting counsels to his beloved
disciples and fellow-workers. They show us the transition of
the apostolic church from primitive simplicity to a more definite
system of doctrine and form of government. This is just what
we might expect from the probable time of their composition
after the first Roman captivity of Paul, and before the compo-
sition of the Apocalypse.
They are addressed not to congregations, but to individuals,
and hence more personal and confidential in their character.
This fact helps us to understand many peculiarities. Timothy,
the son of a heathen father and a Jewish mother, and Titus, a
converted Greek, were among the dearest of Paul's pupils.1
They were, at the same time, his delegates and commissionei-s
on special occasions, and appear under this official character in
the Epistles, which, for this reason, bear the name " Pastoral."
The Epistles contain Paul's pastoral theology and his theory of
church government. They give directions for founding, train-
ing, and governing churches, and for the proper treatment of
1 For biographical details, see the Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries.
§ 99. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 799
individual members, old and young, widows and virgins, back*
sliders and heretics. They are rich in practical wisdom and
full of encouragement, as every pastor knows.
The Second Epistle to Timothy is more personal in its con-
tents than the other two, and has the additional importance of
concluding the autobiography of Paul. It is his last will and
testament to all future ministers and soldiers of Christ
THE PAULINE AUTHORSHIP.
There never was a serious doubt as to the Pauline authorship
of these Epistles till the nineteenth century, except among a
few Gnostics in the second century. They were always reck-
oned among the Homologumena, as distinct from the seven
Antilegomena, or disputed books of the New Testament. As
far as external evidence is concerned, they stand on as firm a
foundation as any other Epistle. They are quoted as canonical
by Eusebius, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Irenaeus.
Reminiscences from them, in some cases with verbal agreement,
are found in several of the Apostolic Fathers. They are included
in the ancient MSS. and Versions, and in the list of the Mura-
torian canon. Marcion (about 140), it is true, excluded them
from his canon of ten Pauline Epistles, but he excluded also the
Gospels (except a mutilated Luke), the Catholic Epistles, and
the Apocalypse.1
But there are certain internal difficulties which have induced
a number of modern critics to assign them all, or at least First
Timothy, to a post-Pauline or pseudo-Pauline writer, who either
changed and adapted Pauline originals to a later state of the
1 See the testimonies in Kirchhofer's Quetten*ammlung, as translated and en-
larged by Charter!*, Canonicity, 205-268. Eenan admits the retemblanoe
between the First Epistle of Clemens Romanus (o. 44) and Second Timothy
(e.g. , in the use of the word b&ura for death), bnt assumes that both borrowed
from a common source, the favorite language of the church of Rome, and
also that the forger of the Pastoral Epistles probably made use of some an-
th«mtic letters of Paul. Ltiglbe ehret., p. 95 • " Qudques pottage* de eet trots
ipitre§ tont tfattleur* ti hiaux. qu'on pent te demander ri I* fauttatre n'atatt
pat entre to mains quelquet billet* autfontiquu de Paul"
800 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
church, or fabricated the whole in the interest of Catholic or-
thodoxy. In either case, the writer is credited with the best
intentions, and must not be judged according to the modern
standard of literary honesty and literary property. Doctrinally,
the Pastoral Epistles are made the connecting link between
genuine Paulinisrn and the Johannean Logos-philosophy ; eccle-
siastically, the link between primitive Presbyterianism and
Catholic Episcopacy ; in both respects, a necessary element in
the formation process of the orthodox Catholic church of the
second century.
The objections against the Pauline authorship deserve serious
consideration, and are as follows: (1) The impossibility of lo-
cating these Epistles in the recorded life of Paul ; (2) the Gnos-
tic heresy opposed ; (3) the ecclesiastical organization implied ;
(4) the peculiarities of style and temper. If they are not genu-
ine, Second Timothy must be the oldest, as it is least liable to
these objections, and First Timothy and Titus are supposed to
represent a later development.1
THE TIME OF COMPOSITION.
The chronology of the Pastoral Epistles is uncertain, and has
been made an objection to their genuineness. It is closely con-
nected with the hypothesis of a second Roman captivity, which
we have discussed in another place.
The Second Epistle to Timothy, whether genuine or not,
hails from a Roman prison, and appears to be the last of Paul's
Epistles ; for he was then hourly expecting the close of his fight
of faith, and the crown of righteousness from his Lord and
Master (2 Tim. 4 : 7, 8). Those who deny the second imprison-
ment, and yet accept Second Timothy as Pauline, make it the
last of the first imprisonment.
1 Baur and Hilgenfeld (Eirddt., p. 764) bring them down to 150 (after Mar-
cion, 140), and date them from Rome. Bat this is impossible, and rests on a
false exegesis. Pfleiderer, of the same Tubingen school, puts Second Timothy
in the age of Trajan, the other two m the age of Hadrian. He, moreover,
regards the passages 2 Tim 1 15-18 and 4 9-21 as fragments of a genuine
Epistle of Paul. Gomp. also Holtzmann, p. 271.
§ 99. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 801
As to First Timothy and Titus, it is evident from their con-
tents that they were written while Paul was free, and after he
had made some journeys, which are not recorded in the Acts.
Here lies the difficulty. Two ways are open :
1. The two Epistles were written in 56 and 57. Paul may,
during his three years' sojourn in Ephesus, A.D. 54-57 (see Acts
19 : 8-10 ; 20 : 31), easily have made a second journey to Mace-
donia, leaving Ephesus in charge of Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3);
and also crossed over to the island of Crete, where he left Titus
behind to take care of the churches (Tit. 1 : 5). Considering
the incompleteness of the record of Acts, and the probable allu-
sions in 2 Cor. 2 : 1 ; 12 : 13, 14, 21 ; 13 : 1, to a second visit to
Corinth, not mentioned in the Acts, these two journeys are
within the reach of possibility.1 But such an early date leaves
the other difficulties unexplained.
2. The tradition of the second Roman captivity, which can
be raised at least to a high degree of probability, removes the
difficulty by giving us room for new journeys and labors of
Paul between his release in the spring of 63 and the Neronian
persecution in July, 64 (according to Tacitus), or three or four
years later (according to Eusebius and Jerome), as well as for
the development of the Gnostic heresy and the ecclesiastical
organization of the church which is implied in these Epistles.
Hence, most writers who hold to the genuineness place First
Timothy and Titus between the first and second Koman cap-
tivities.9
Paul certainly intended to make a journey from Rome to
Spain (Rom. 15 : 24), and also one to the East (Philein. 22 ;
Phil. 1 : 25, 26 ; 2 : 24), and he had ample time to carry out his
intention even before the Neronian persecution, if we insist
upon confining this to the date of Tacitus.*
1 So Sohrader, Wieseler, Reythmayr, formerly also Reuse (in bis Gesch., etc ,
6th ed., 1875, but withdrawn in his French Com. on the Pauline Epp., 1878).
* So Theophylact, Oecumenius, Ussher, Pearson, Tillemont, Neander, Bleek,
Buffet, Lange, Farrar, Plumptre, Lightfoot, eta
3 A release of Panl from the first Roman captivity and a visit to Spain is
also asserted by snob oritioa as Ewald and Renan.
802 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Those who press the chronological difficulty should jiot for-
get that a forger could have very easily fitted the Epistles into
the narrative of the Acts, and was not likely to invent a series
of journeys, circumstances, and incidents, such as the bringing
of the cloak, the books, and the parchments which Paul, in the
hurry of travel, had left at Troas (2 Tim. 4 : 13).
THE GNOSTIO HERESY.
The Pastoral Epistles, like Colossians, oppose the Gnostic
heresy (yvoHri? yfrevScovvfios, 1 Tim. 6 : 20) which arose in Asia
Minor during his first Roman captivity, and appears more fully
developed in Cerinthus, the contemporary of John. This was
acknowledged by the early Fathers, Irenaeus and Tertullian, who
used these very Epistles as Pauline testimonies against the
Gnosticism of their day.
The question arises, which of the many types of this many-
sided error is opposed ? Evidently the Juda'izing type, which
resembled that at ColosssD, but was more advanced and malig-
nant, and hence is more sternly denounced. The heretics were
of "the circumcision" (Tit. 1 : 10) ; they are called "teachers
of the law " (vojio$i8d(r/ca\oi, 1 Tim. 1 : 7, the very reverse of
antinomians), "given to Jewish fables" (lov&cutcct pv&oi, Tit.
1 : 14), and " disputes connected with the law " (pa^ai i>o/u/tat,
Tit. 3 : 9), and fond of foolish and ignorant questionings (2 Tim.
2 : 23). They were, moreover, extravagant ascetics, like the
Essenes, forbidding to marry and abstaining from meat (1 Tim.
4:3, 8 ; Tit. 1 : 14, 15). They denied the resurrection and
" overthrew the faith of some" (2 Tim. 2 : 18).
Baur turned these heretics into anti-Jewish and antinomicm
Gnostics of the school of Marcion (about 140), and then, by
consequence, put the Epistles down to the middle of the second
century. He finds in the " genealogies" (1 Tim. 1:4; Tit. 3 : 9)
the emanations of the Gnostic aeons, and in the " antitheses "
(1 Tim. 6 : 20), or anti-evangelical assertions of the heretical
teachers, an allusion to Marcion's " antitheses " (antilogies), by
§ 99. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 803
which he set forth the supposed contradictions between the Old
and New Testaments.1 But this is a radical misinterpretation,
and the more recent opponents of the genuineness are forced to
admit the Judaizing character of those errorists ; they identify
them with Cerinthus, the Ophites, and Saturninus, who pre-
ceded Marcion by several decades.2
As to the origin of the Gnostic heresy, which the Tubingen
hchool would put down to the age of Hadrian, we have already
Been that, like its counterpart, the Ebionite heresy, it dates from
the apostolic age, according to the united testimony of the later
Pauline Epistles, the Epistles of Peter, John, and Jude, the
Apocalypse, and the patristic tradition.*
ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION.
The Pastoral Epistles seem to presuppose a more fully devel-
oped ecclesiastical organization than the other Pauline Epistles,
and to belong to an age of transition from apostolic simplicity,
or Christo-democracy — if we may use such a term — to the epis-
copal hierarchy of the second century. The church, in propor-
tion as it lost, after the destruction of Jerusalem, its faith in
the speedy advent of Christ, began to settle down in this world,
and to make preparations for a permanent home by a fixed
creed and a compact organization, which gave it unity and
strength against heathen persecution and heretical corruption.
This organization, at once simple and elastic, was episcopacy,
with its subordinate offices of the presbyterate and deacoriate,
and charitable institutions for widows and orphans. Such an
organization we have, it is said, in the Pastoral Epistles, which
1 The ftrnftfovif rfc ^vtwdpov yv&rcvs (" oppositions" in the E V and
Revision) are .understood by the best exegetes to mean simply the doctrinal
theses which the heretics opposed to the Found doctrine (comp 2 Tim. 2 . 23 ;
Tit 1 • 9). So DeWette, Mattbies, and Wiesinger Hofmann and Huthet
identify them with KwQwlai and \oyona\lai (1 Tim 5 : 4) Holtzmann (p.
131) likewise rejects Baur's interpretation.
* Holtzmann, I c , p 127; also Lipsius, Schenkel, Pfleiderer,
* See above, § 96, pp. 786 sqq.
804 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
were written in the name of Paul, to give the weight of his
authority to the incipient hierarchy.1
But, on closer inspection, there is a very marked difference
between the ecclesiastical constitution of the Pastoral Epistles
and that of the second century. There is not a word said about
the divine origin of episcopacy ; not a trace of a congregational
episcopate, such as we find in the Ignatian epistles, still less of
a diocesan episcopate of the time of Irenseus and Tertullian.
Bishops and presbyters are still identical as they are in the
Acts (20 : 17, 28), and in the undoubtedly genuine Epistle to
the Philippians (1 : 1). Even Timothy and Titus appear simply
as delegates of the apostle for a specific mission.3 The qualifi-
cations and functions required of the bishop are aptness to
teach and a blameless character ; and their authority is made to
depend upon their moral character rather than their office.
They are supposed to be married, and to set a good example in
governing their own household. The ordination which Timothy
received (1 Tim. 4 : 14 ; 5 : 22) need not differ from the ordina-
tion of deacons and elders mentioned in the early part of the Acts
1 Such is the ingenious reasoning of Baur and Renan (L'Egl chrit , pp. 85
and 94 sqq ) Gomp the discussion of details by Holtzmann, I c., ch. XI ,
pp. 190 sqq.
8 1 Tiin 1 : 3 ; 3 : 14 ; 2 Tim. 4 9, 21 ; Tit 1 : 5 ; 8 : 12. See above, $ 61,
pp 491 sqq The fact is acknowledged by impartial episcopal writers as Dean
Alford, Bishop Lightfoot, Dean Stanley, and Dean Plumptre (in SchafTs Com.
N. T., Ill 552) I will quote from Canon Farrar (8t Paul. II 417) "If
the Pastoral Epistles contained a clear defence of the Episcopal system of the
second century, this alone would be sufficient to prove their spunousness ; but
the total absence of anything resembling it is one of the strongest proofs that
they belong to the apostolic age. Bishop and presbyter are still synonymous,
as they are throughout the New Testament . . . Timothy and Titus ex-
ercise functions which would be now called episcopal ; but they are not called
* bishops ' Their functions were temporary, and they simply act as authori-
tative delegates of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Nor is there any trace of
exalted pretensions in the overseers whom they appoint The qualifications
required of them are almost exclusively moral." Gomp also some good re-
marks of Prof Wace, in the Speaker's Com on the New Test , III 764, where
it IB justly said that the church polity in the Pastoral Epistles represents an
intermediate stage between the Presbyterian episcopacy of the earlier apos-
tolic period and the poet-apostolic episcopacy.
§ 99. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 805
(6:6; 8 : 17 ; comp. 14 : 23 ; 19 : 6). " Few features/' says Dr.
Plumptre, himself an Episcopalian, " are more striking in these
Epistles than the absence of any high hierarchical system." The
Apocalypse, which these very critics so confidently assign to
the year 68, shows a nearer approach to episcopal unity in the
w angels" of the seven churches. But even from the "angels"
of the Apocalypse there was a long way to the Ignatian and
pseudo-Clementine bishops, who are set up as living oracles and
hierarchical idols.
THE STYLE.
The language of the Pastoral Epistles shows an unusual
number of un-Pauline words and phrases, especially rare com-
pounds, some of them nowhere found in the whole New Testa-
ment, or even in Greek literature.1
But, in the first place, the number of words peculiar to each
one of the three epistles is much greater than the number of
peculiar words common to all three ; consequently, if the argu-
ment proves anything, it leads to the conclusion of three differ-
ent authors, which the assailants will not admit, in view of the
general unity of the Epistles. In the next place, every one of
Paul's Epistles has a number of peculiar words, even the little
Epistle of Philemon.3 The most characteristic words were re-
1 This philological argument was begun by Schleiermacher, but confined to
First Timothy, and was earned out, with reference to all three Epistles, by
Holtzmann, Ic , ch VI , pp 84-118 I will give his results The Pastoral
Epistles have, in all, 897 words. Of these there are 16U Hapadegomena not
found in the New Testament, namely
(a) 74 m First Timothy, such as iyabofpy€iv, i-y^e/a, iJij^nyj, iitywrotoor^,
iTtpo*AcurKa*€iv, frecHT^fia, KarcurroX^ itXcy/ia, wopicr/icis, f&apyvpia,
(ft) 46 in Second Timothy, e g., ly*rh, *&Afir,
vpayparefa, <t>t\6&€os.
(c) 28 m Titus, e.g , alptriic6s, bcardywrrot, tybopla, tyeu5fa, KaAo&i5<£<nca\oi,
fMTouo\4yos, irp€<rj8imv, <wHjpioj, QtX&yaboi, <t>l\avtpos (*a\irycv*ffla, Tit 3 : 5,
occurs also Matt 19 28, but in a different sense).
(d)2l common to two or three Past Epp., eg , tid&o\os (as adjective),
•Farrar (II. 611) affirms that there are no less than 111 peculiar terms
in Romans, 180 in Corinthians, 67 in Galatians, 54 in Philippians, 6 in Phil-
806 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
quired by the nature of the new topics handled and the heresy
combated, such as "knowledge falsely so called" (^rei/
<yv&cw, 1 Tim. 6 : 20) ; " healthful doctrine" (vyuiivovaa
ica\Ca, I Tim. 1 : 10); "Jewish myths" (Tit. 1 : 14); "genealo-
gies " (Tit. 3:9);" profane babblings " (2 Tim. 2 : 16). Paul's
mind was uncommonly fertile and capable of adapting itself to
varying conditions, and had to create in some measure the
Christian idiom. The Tubingen critics profess the highest ad-
miration for his genius, and yet would contract his vocabu-
lary to a very small compass. Finally, the peculiarities of style
are counterbalanced by stronger resemblances and unmistakable
evidences of Pauline authorship. " There are flashes of the
deepest feeling, outbursts of the most intense expression. There
is rhythmic movement and excellent majesty in the doxologies,
and the ideal of a Christian pastor drawn not only with an un-
faltering hand, but with a beauty, fulness, and simplicity which
a thousand years of subsequent experience have enabled no one
to equal, much less to surpass." l
On the other hand, we may well ask the opponents to give a
good reason why a forger should have chosen so many new
words when he might have so easily confined himself to the
vocabulary of the other Epistles of Paul ; why he should have
added •* mercy " to the salutation instead of the usual form ;
why he should have called Paul " the chief of sinners " (1 Tim.
1 : 15), and affected a tone of humility rather than a tone of
high apostolic authority ?
OTHER OBJECTIONS.
The Epistles have been charged with want of logical connec-
tion, with abruptness, monotony, and repetitiousness, unworthy
of such an original thinker and writer as Paul. But this fea-
ture is only the easy, familiar, we may say careless, style which
eraon. Luke's peculiar vocabulary is especially rich , he uses, as Holtzmann
observes (p 06), 34 words in common with the Pastoral Epistles, and has, be*
sides, 82 words not £ onnd in Paul*
1 Farrar, II 611.
§ 99. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 807
forms the charm as well as the defect of personal correspond-
ence. Moreover, every great author varies more or less at dif-
ferent periods of life, and under different conditions and moods.
It would be a more serious objection if the theology of these
Epistles could be made to appear in conflict with that of his
acknowledged works.1 But, this is not the case. It is said that
greater stress is laid on sound doctrine and good works. But
in Galatians, Paul condemns most solemnly every departure from
the genuine gospel (1 : 8, 9), and in all his Epistles he enjoins
holiness as the indispensable evidence of faith ; while salvation
is just as clearly traced to divine grace alone, in the Pastoral
Epistles (1 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 3 : 5), as in Romans.
In conclusion, while we cannot be blind to certain difficulties,
and may not be able, from want of knowledge of the precise
situation of the writer, satisfactorily to explain them, \\ e must
insist that the prevailing evidence is in f a\ or of the genuineness
of these Epistles. They agree with Paul's doctrinal system ;
they are illuminated with flashes of his genius ; they bear the
marks of his intense personality ; they contain rare gems of
inspired truth, and most wholesome admonition and advice,
which makes them to-day far more valuable than any number
of works on pastoral theology and church government. There
are not a few passages in them which, for doctrine or practice,
are equal to the best he ever wrote, and are deeply lodged in
the experience and affection of Christendom.8
And what could be a more fitting, as well as more sublime
and beautiful, finale of such a hero of faith than the last words
of his last Epistle, written in the very face of martyrdom : " I
1 Pfleiderer (Proteatanten-Bibd. p 834) says ll Die kirchUche Lehrricktung
for Hirtenbnefe i*t eine von der cdtpaulinisehen sehr weit verschiedene. Von den
eigentfiumlieh pauUnitchen, Lehren uber G&ete vnd Ewngelium, uber Werke
und Olauben finden sich in unseren, Brief en nur abgeblatste Reste, die fast wte
fettotehende uberliefc*te Formeln Tdingen, wdhrend das Glaubensbewuuteeiti
rin anderes geworden w£." In this harsh and unjust judgment the fact IB
overlooked that the three Epistles are pastoral and not doctrinal Epistles.
3 Such passages as 1 Tim 1 15, 17; 3 • 1, 4-6, 8; 8 2, 1C; 4 1,4,7,10,
15 ; 5 : 8, 17, 18, 22 ; 0 : 6, 9-12 ; 2 Tim. 1 : 6 ; 2 : 11, 12, 19, 22 , 3 • 12, 16,
17 ; 4 : 2, 6-8; Tit. 1 : 7, 15 ; 2: 11 , 3 ; 5, 6.
808 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
am already being offered, and the time of my departure is
come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give to me at that day : and not only to ine, but also to all
them that have loved his appearing."
NOTE.
Schleiermacher led the way, in 1807, with his attack on 1 Timothy,
urging very keenly historical, philological, and other objections, but
assuming 2 Timothy and Titus to be the genuine originals from which
the first was compiled. DeWette followed in his Introduction. Baur
left both behind and rejected all, in his epoch-making treatise, Die
sogenannten Pastor albriefe, 1835. He was followed by Schwegler (1846),
Hilgenfeld (1875), Mangold, Schenkel, Hausrath, Pfleiderer (both in his
Paulinismus and in his Commentary in the Protestanten-Bibel, 1874),
Holtzmann ; also by Ewald, Kenan (L'Egltse chrttienne, pp. 85 sqq ), and
Sam. Davidson (Introd., revised ed , II. 21 sqq ). The most elaborate
book against the genuineness is Holtzmann's Die Pastor albriefe kntiscli
find exeg behandelt, Leipzig, 1880 (504 pp.) ; comp. his Einleitung (1886).
Beuss (Les epitres Pauhmennes, 1878, II. 243 sq , 307 sq., and Gesck.
des N. T, 1887, p. 257 sqq.) rejects 1 Timothy and Titus, but admits 2
Timothy, assigning it to the first Roman captivity. He thinks that 2 Tim-
othy would never have been doubted except for its suspicious compan-
ionship. Some of the opponents, as Pfleiderer and Benan, feel forced to
admit some scraps of genuine Pauline Epistles or notes, and thus they
break the foice of the opposition. The three Epistles must stand or fall
together, either as wholly Pauline, or as wholly pseudo-Pauline
The genuineness has been ably vindicated by Guericke, Thiersch,
Huther, Wiesinger, Otto, Wieseler, Van Oosterzee, Lange, Herzog, von
Hofmann, Beck, Alford, Gloag, Fairbairn (Past. Ep., 1874), Farrar (St.
Paul, II. 607 sqq.), Wace (in the Speaker's Com. New Test., III., 1881,
749 sqq ), Plumptre (in SchaflTs Com. on the New Test., in., 1882, pp.
550 sqq.), Rolling (Der erste Br. a. Tim. 1882), Salmon (1885), and
Weiss (1886).
§ 100. The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Commentaries on Hebrews by CHBTSOSTOM (d. 407, e'p/Aijm'a, in 34 Hom-
ilies publ. after his death by an Antioch. presbyter, Constantinus) ;
THEODOBET (d. 457) ; (EOUMBNIUS (10th cent.) ; THEOPHYIIACT (llth
cent.) ; THOMAS AQUINAS (d. 1274) ; ERASMUS (d. 1536, Annotations in
N. T., with his Greek Test., 1516 and often, and Paraphrasis in N.
T., 1522 and often) ; Card. OAJKEANUS (Epistolce Pauli, etc., 1531) ;
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 809
CALVIN (d. 1564, Com. in omnes P. Ep. atque etiam in ]%>. ad He*
brctos, 1539 and often, also HaUe, 1831) ; BBZA (d. 1605, transL and
notes, 1557 and often ; had much influence on King James' Version) ;
HYPERIUS (at Marburg, d. 1564) ; DAV. PAREUS (d. 1615, Com. in Ep.
ad Hebr.) ; COBN. A LAFIDB (Jesuit, d. 1637, Cam. in omnes Pauli
Epp., 1627 and often) ; GUIL. ESTIUS (B. C. Prof, at Douai, 1614,
etc); JAO. CAFPB&LUB (Sedan, 1624); LUD. CAPPEI*LUS (Geneva,
1632) ; GBOTIUS (d. 1645, Arminian, a great classical and general
scholar) ; JOH. GERHARD (d. 1637) ; JOHN OWEN (the great Puritan
divine, d. 1683, Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews, London,
1668-80, in 4 vols. fol., Lat. transl., Amsterd , 1700 [new Engl. ed.
in 7 vols., in his Works, Lond., 1826, 21 vols. ; Edmb. ed. of Works
by W. H. Goold, 1850-55 ; 24 vols., Philad. reprint, 1869], "a work
of gigantic strength as well as gigantic size," as Chalmers called it,
and containing a whole system of Puritan theology) ; JAG. PETBCB
(Non-conformist, d. 1726) ; STKES (d. 1756) ; CABPZOV (d. 1803,
Exercitat., etc., 1750) ; J. D. MIOHAEMS (2d ed., 1780-86, 2 vols.) ;
BosENMuuasR (1793) ; STORR (d. 1805 ; Tub., 1789) ; BOHMB (Lips.,
1825) ; Mos. STUART (Andover, 1827, 2 vols., 4th ed., abridged and
revised by Bobbins, 1860) ; KUHNOI, (1831) ; FRIEDRICH BLEEK (Prof,
in Bonn., d. 1859 ; the large Com. iu 3 vols., Berlin, 1836-40, an
exegetical masterpiece, most learned, critical, candid, judicious, and
reverential, though free ; his Lectures on Hebrews were ed., after his
death, by Windrath, 1868) ; THOLUCK (Hamburg, 1836, dedicated to
Bunsen, 3d ed , 1850, transl. by James Hamilton, Edinb., 1852) ;
STIER (1842) ; DEWETTE (1847, 2d ed ) , EBRARD (1850, in Olshau-
sen's Com , vol. v. ; Engl. transl., Edinb., 1853) ; TURNER (new ed..
N. Y., 1855) ; SAMPSON (ed by Dabney, N. Y., 1856) ; LUNEMANN (in
Meyer's Com., 1857, 4th ed., 1878) ; DEUTZSCH (1857, transl. by TH. L.
KINOSBURY, Edinb., 1868, 2 vols.) ; JOHN BROWN (Edinb , 1862, 2 vols.) ;
BEUSS (in French, 1862) ; LINDSAY (Edmb., 1867, 2 vols ) ; Mora
(in Lange's Com., translated and enlarged by Kendrick, 1868) ; BD>
LEY (1868) ; KURTZ (1869) ; EWALD (1870) ; HOFMANN (1873) ; BIESEN-
THAL (1878) ; BLOOMFIELD ; ALFORD ; WORDSWORTH ; W. KAY (in the
Speaker's Com. N. T, vol. iv., 1882); MOULTON (in Ellicott's Com.
for Engl Readers) ; A. B. DAVIDSON (of the New College, Edinburgh.
1882) ; ANGUS (1883) ; SAM. T. LOWRIE (1884) ; WEISS (1888).
U. The doctrinal system of the Ep. has been most fully expounded
by BIEHM (d. 1888 in Halle) : Der Lehrbegriff des Hebrderbrtefs,
Basel und Ludwigsburg, 1858-59, 2 vols. ; new ed., 1867, in 1 vol.
(899 pages). Comp. the expositions of NEANDER, MESSNER, BAUR,
BEUSS, and WEISS. On the use of the O. T., see THOLUOK : Das A.
T. im N., Hamb., 3d ed., 1849 ; on the Ghristology of the Epistle,
BEYSOHLAO : Christologie des N. T. (1866), 176 sqq. ; on the Melchise-
dek priesthood, AUBHRLBN, in " Studien und Kritiken " for 1857, pp.
810 FIRST PEKIOD. A.D. 1-100.
453 sqq. PFLBIDBRBR, in his Paulinismus (pp. 324-366), treats of
Hebrews, together with Oolossians and the Epistle of Barnabas, OH
representing Paulinism under the influence of Alexandrraism.
in. On the introductory questions, comp. NORTON in the " Christian Ex-
aminer " (Boston), 1827-29 ; OLSHAUSEN : De auctore Ep. ad Hebrcro*
(in Opnsr. tJieol., 1834) ; WrESELBB : Untersuchung uber den Hebr>ier-
brief y Kiel, 1861 ; J. H. THATKB : Authorship and Canonidty of the Ep.
to tlie Hebrews, in the " Bibhotheoa Sacra," Andover, 1867 ; ZAHN,
in Herzog's "Encykl.," vol. v. (1879), pp. 656-671; and articles
in "Bible Dictionaries," and in "Encycl. Brit," 9th ed., vol. xi.,
602 sqq.
The anonymous Epistle " to the Hebrews," like the Book of
Job, belongs to the order of Melchizedek, combining priestly
unction and royal dignity, but being " without father, without
mother, without pedigree, having neither beginning of days nor
end of life " (7 : 1-3). Obscure in its origin, it is clear and
deep in ita knowledge of Christ. Hailing from the second
generation of Christians (2 : 3), it is full of pentecostal inspira-
tion. Traceable to no apostle, it teaches, exhorts, and warns
with apostolic authority and power. Though not of Paul's pen,
it has, somehow, the impress of his genius and influence, and is
altogether worthy to occupy a place in the canon, after his
Epistles, or between them and the Catholic Epistles. Pauline
in spirit, it is catholic or encyclical in its aim.1
CONTENTS.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is not an ordinary letter. It has,
indeed, the direct personal appeals, closing messages, and salu-
tations of a letter ; but it is more, it is a homily, or rather a
theological discourse, aiming to strengthen the readers in their
Christian faith, and to protect them against the danger of apos-
tasy from Christianity. It is a profound argument for the
superiority of Christ over the angels, over Moses, and over the
Levitical priesthood, and for the finality of the second covenant.
It unfolds far more fully than any other book the great idea of
the eternal priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, offered once and
1 Bee notes at the end of the section.
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 811
forever for the redemption of the world, as distinct from th«
national and transient character of the Mosaic priesthood and
the ever-repeated sacrifices of the Tabernacle and the Temple.
The author draws his arguments from the Old Testament itself,
showing that, by its whole character and express declarations,
it is a preparatory dispensation for the gospel salvation, a sig-
nificant type and prophecy of Christianity, and hence destined
to pass away like a transient shadow of the abiding substance.
He implies that the Mosaic ceconomy was still existing, with its
priests and daily sacrifices, but in process of decay, and looks
forward to the fearful judgment which a few years afterward
destroyed the Temple forever.1 He interweaves pathetic ad-
monitions and precious consolations with doctrinal expositions,
and every exhortation leads him to a new exposition. Paul
puts the hortatory part usually at the end.
The author undoubtedly belonged to the Pauline school,
which emphasized the great distinction between the Old and
the New Covenant ; while yet fully acknowledging the divine
origin and pcedagogic use of the former. Bat he brings out
the superiority of Christ's priesthood and sacrifice to the Mosaic
priesthood and sacrifice ; while Paul dwells mainly on the dis-
tinction between the law and the gospel. He lays chief stress
on faith, but he presents it in its general aspect as trust in God,
in its prospective reference to the future and invisible, and
in its connection with hope and perseverance under suffering ;
while Paul describes faith, in its specific evangelical character,
as a hearty trust in Christ and his atoning merits, and in its
justifying effect, in opposition to legalistic reliance on works.
Faith is defined, or at least described, as " assurance (UTTOOTCWW)
of things hoped for, a conviction (^Xey^o?) of things not seen "
(11 : 1). This applies to the Old Testament as well as the New,
1 9 : 9, "while as the first tabernacle is yet standing" (rfc *y>4njf
1xovo"ns <rrcW); vera. 6, uthe priests go in continually91 (tbrlatnr, not
went in, as in the B V.); 8 : 4 ; 18 : 10 ; 6 : 8; 8 : 13 , 10 : 25, 27; 12 : 27.
Those who assign the composition to a time after the destruction of Jeru-
salem, deprive the present tenses of their natural import and proper effect.
812 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
and hence appropriately opens the catalogue of patriarchs and
prophets, who encourage Christian believers in their conflict ;
but they are to look still more to Jesus as " the author and
perfecter of our faith " (12 : 2), who is, after all, the unchanging
object of our faith, u the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever" (13:8).
The Epistle is eminently Christological. It resembles in this
respect Colossians and Philippians, and forms a stepping-stone
to the Christology of John. From the sublime description
of the exaltation and majesty of Christ in ch. 1 : 1-4 (comp.
Col. 1 : 15-20), there is only one step to the prologue of the
fourth Gospel. The exposition of the high priesthood of Christ
reminds one of the sacerdotal prayer (John 17).
The use of proof-texts from the Old Testament seems at
times contrary to the obvious historical import of the passage,
but is always ingenious, and was, no doubt, convincing to Jew-
ish readers. The writer does not distinguish between typical
and direct prophecies. lie recognizes the typical, or rather
antitypical, character of the Tabernacle and its services, as re-
flecting the archetype seen by Moses in the mount, but all the
Messianic prophecies are explained as direct (1 : 5-14 ; 2 : 11-
13 ; 10 : 5-10). lie betrays throughout a high order of Greek
culture, profound knowledge of the Greek Scriptures, and the
symbolical import of the Mosaic worship.1 He was also familiar
with the Alexandrian theosophy of Philo,a but he never intro-
duces foreign ideas into the Scriptures, as Philo did by his
1 The charge of partial ignorance of the Jewish ritual is unfounded, and
can therefore not be made an argument either for or against the Pauline
authorship. In the genuine text of 10 : 11, the high priest is not mentioned,
but the priest (leptvs), and in 7 : 27 the high priest is not asserted to offer
daily sacrifice, but to need daily repentance. The altar of incense is placed
in the holy of holies, 9 • 4 ; but this seems to have been a current opinion,
which is also mentioned in the Apocalypse of Baruch See Harnaok in
41 Studien und Krftiken" for 1876, p. 573, and W. R, Smith in " Enc Brit ,"
xi., 606.
' See Carpzov, Sacra E&ercitatione* in Ep. ad Heb. ex Ph&one Alex (Helm-
Btadii, 1750) ; Riehm, I.e., pp. 9 sqq. ; Hilgenfeld, Einltit., p. 384 ; and Pflei-
derer, Paidinismus.
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 813
allegorical interpretation. His exhortations and warnings go
to the quick of the moral sensibility ; and yet his tone is also
cheering and encouraging. He had the charisma of exhortation
and consolation in the highest degree.1 Altogether, he was a
man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and gifted with a tongue
of fire.
THE STYLE.
Hebrews is written in purer Greek than any book of the New
Testament, except those portions of Luke where he is indepen-
dent of prior documents. The Epistle begins, like the third
Gospel, with a rich and elegant period of classic construction.
The description of the heroes of faith in the eleventh chapter
is one of the most eloquent and sublime in the entire history of
religious literature. He often reasons a minori ad majus (el
. . . Trocrp pa\\ov). He uses a number of rare and choice
terms which occur nowhere else in the New Testament.*
As compared with the undoubted Epistles of Paul, the style
of Hebrews is less fiery and forcible, but smoother, more cor-
rect, rhetorical, rhythmical, and free from anacolutha and sole-
cisms. There is not that rush and vehemence which bursts
through ordinary rules, but a calm and regular flow of speech.
The sentences are skilfully constructed and well rounded. Paul
is bent exclusively on the thought ; the author of Hebrews evi-
dently paid great attention to the form. Though not strictly
classical, his style is as pure as the Hellenistic dialect and the
close affinity with the Septuagint permit.
All these considerations exclude the idea of a translation
from a supposed Hebrew original.
THE READERS.
The Epistle is addressed to the Hebrew Christians, that is,
according to the usual distinction between Hebrews and Hel-
lenists (Acts 6:1; 9 : 27), to the converted Jews in Palestine,
1 The Epistle is called a \6yo* *qM«\4*«»f, 13 : 22; oomp. 12 : 5 ; 6 : ia
* See note IL at the close.
814 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
chiefly to those in Jerusalem. To them it is especially adapted
They lived in sight of the Temple, and were exposed to the
persecution of the hierarchy and the temptation of apostasy.
This has been the prevailing view from the time of Chrysostom
to Bleek.1 The objection that the Epistle quotes the Old Tes-
tament uniformly after the Septuagint is not conclusive, since
the Septnagint was undoubtedly used in Palestine alongside
with the Hebrew original.
Other views more or less improbable need only be men-
tioned : (1) All the Christian Jews as distinct from the Gen-
tiles ; 9 (2) the Jews of Jerusalem alone ; " (3) the Jews of Alex-
andria ; 4 (4) the Jews of Antioch ; * (5) the Jews of Rome ; '
(6) some community of the dispersion in the East (but not
Jerusalem).7
OCCASION AND AIM.
The Epistle was prompted by the desire to strengthen and
comfort the readers in their trials and persecutions (10 : 32-39 ;
ch. 11 and 12), but especially to warn them against the danger
of apostasy to Judaism (2 : 2, 3 ; 3:6, 14 ; 4 : 1, 14 ; 6 : 1-8 ;
10 : 23, 26-31). And this could be done best by showing the
infinite superiority of Christianity, and the awful guilt of
neglecting so great a salvation.
Strange that but thirty years after the resurrection and the
1 So also DeWette, Tholack, Thiersch, Delitzsch, Lunemann, Riehm, Moll
(in Lange's Com.), Langen, Weiss
* So (Ecumenius, Lightfoot, Lange ; also Grimm (tub verbo) : " Omnes de
Judais aive aramaice rive grace toquentibus Chri*tvini"
'Ebrard. Moulton, on the contrary, thinks that some other church iu
Palestine is addressed, and that Jerusalem is excluded by ch 2 3.
4 Wieseler (who adds an unlikely reference to the temple of Onias in Leon-
topolis), Credner, Banr, Hilgenfeld, Kosthn, Reuss, Buosen, Gonybeare and
Howson, and Plumptre.
5 Von Hofmann.
' Wetetein, Alford, HolUmann, Kurtz, Zahn ; also Benan, who thinks
(D Antichrist, p 211) that the Ep was written by Barnabas in Epheans, and
Addressed to the church in Borne ; hence it was first known in Borne.
' A. B Davidson (Ep. to th* Hcbr., 1882, p. 18).
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBBEWS. 816
pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, there should have been such a
danger of apostasy in the very mother church of Christendom.
And yet not strange, if we realize the condition of things be-
tween 60 and 70. The Christians in Jerusalem were the most
conservative of all believers, and adhered as closely as possible
to the traditions of their fathers. They were contented with
the elementary doctrines, and needed to be pressed on " unto
perfection " (5 : 12 ; 6 : 1-4). The Epistle of James represents
their doctrinal stand-point The strange advice which he gave
to his brother Paul, on his last visit, reflects their timidity and
narrowness. Although numbered by "myriads," they made
no attempt in that critical moment to rescue the great apostle
from the hands of the fanatical Jews ; they were " all zealous
for the law," and afraid of the radicalism of Paul on hearing
that he was teaching the Jews of the Dispersion " to forsake
Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, neither to
walk after the customs" (Acts 21 : 20, 21).
They hoped against hope for the conversion of their people.
When that hope vanished more and more, when some of their
teachers had suffered martyrdom (13 : 7), when James, their re-
vered leader, was stoned by the Jews (62), and when the patriotic
movement for the deliverance of Palestine from the hated yoke
of the heathen Romans rose higher and higher, till it burst out
at last in open rebellion (66), it was very natural that those timid
Christians should feel strongly tempted to apostatize from the
poor, persecuted sect to the national religion, which they at heart
still believed to be the best part of Christianity. The solemn
services of the Temple, the ritual pomp and splendor of the
Aaronic priesthood, the daily sacrifices, and all the sacred asso-
ciations of the past had still a great charm for them, and
allured them to their embrace. The danger was very strong,
and the warning of the Epistle fearfully solemn.
Similar dangers have occurred again and again in critical
periods of history.
818 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
TIME AND PLACE OP COMPOSITION.
The Epistle hails and sends greetings from some place in
Italy, at a time when Timothy, Paul's disciple, was set at lib-
erty, and the writer was on the point of paying, with Timothy,
a visit to his readers (13 : 23, 24). The passage, " Eemember
them that are in bonds, as bound with them " (13 : 3), does not
necessarily imply that he himself was in prison, indeed verse 23
seems to imply his freedom. These notices naturally suggest
the close of Paul's first Roman imprisonment, in the spring of
the year 63, or soon after ; for Timothy and Luke were with
'him there, and the writer himself evidently belonged to the
circle of his friends and fellow-workers.
There is further internal evidence that the letter was written
before the destruction of Jerusalem (70), before the outbreak of
the Jewish war (66), before the Neronian persecution (in July,
64:), and before Paul's martyrdom. None of these important
events are even alluded to;1 on the contrary, as already re-
marked, the Temple was still standing, with its daily sacrifices
regularly going on, and the doom of the theocracy was still
in the future, though "nigh unto a curse," "becoming old
and ready to vanish away ; " it was " shaken " and about to
be removed; the day of the fearful judgment was drawing
nigh.'
The place of composition was either Home or some place in
1 Zahn refers 10 : 32-34 to the Neronian persecution; but this is excluded
by 12 : 4, " Ye have not jet resisted unto blood " (/i^xyu ot/toroj). Harnack
finds also traces of the Domitian persecution. Still more unlikely.
'Lardner, Thiersch, Lindsay, Bullock (in Smith's B. Diet., Am ed.t II.,
1028), and others, assign the Epistle to A.D. 63 , DeWette, Moll, and Lange
to between 62 and 66 (between the death of James and the outbreak of the
Jewish war) ; Ebrard to 62 , Wieseler (ChronoL des Ap. Zeitatten, p. 519) to
July, 64 ; Stuart and Tholnok to about 64 ; Weiss to 65 (u bald nach der Mitie
der tech&igcr Jahre") ; Hilgenfeld to between 64 and 66 ; Davidson (Introd.,
revised ed., I 222) to 66 ; Ewald to 67 ; Kenan and Kay to 65. On the other
hand, Zahn gives as the date A.D. 80, Holtzmann and Harnack about 90, Yolk-
mar and Keim, 116-118. These late dates are simply impossible, not only
for intrinsic reasons and the allusion to Timothy, but also because Clement of
Rome, who wrote about 95, shows a perfect familiarity with Hebrews.
§ 100. TJIE EPISTLE TO THB HEBREWS. 817
Southern Italy, if we assume that the writer had already started
on his journey to the East.1 Others assign it to Alexandria, or
Antioch, or Ephesus.*
AUTHOESHIP.
This is still a matter of dispute, and will probably never be
decided with absolute certainty. The obscurity of its origin is
the reason why the Epistle to the Hebrews was ranked among
the seven AntUegomena of the ante-N icene church. The con-
troversy ceased after the adoption of the traditional canon in
397, but revived again at the time of the Eeformation. The
different theories may be arranged under three heads : (1) sole
authorship of Paul ; (2) sole authorship of one of his pupils ;
(3) joint authorship of Paul and one of his pupils. Among the
pupils again the views are subdivided between Luke, Barnabas,
Clement of Rome, Silvanus, and Apollos.8
1. The PAULINE AUTHORSHIP was the prevailing opinion of
the church from the fourth century to the eighteenth, with the
exception of the Reformers, and was once almost an article of
1 The inference of the place from ol &*•& TT)V 'Iro\/a*, 13 • 24, is uncertain,
since in the epistolary style it may imply that the writer was at that time
out of Italy, or in Italy (which would be more distinctly expressed by iv
'IroAf? or ol l£). The brethren may have been fugitives from Italy (so Bleek).
But the latter view seems more natural, and is defended by Theodoret, who
knew Greek as his mother tongue Tholuck and Ebrard quote the phrases
ol frrb r??s and ol farb friAibron?;, travellers by land and sea, and from Poly-
bins, ol fab TTJS 'A\ctav$pfias jSoa-iActf, the Alexandrian kings. Still more to
the point is Pseudo-Ignatius Ad Her 8, quoted by Zahn (see his ed. of Ign.,
p. 270, 12) : iunrdfovrai crt . . . . vfarts ol iaro •lAlmip Iv xpurrp, 5rcr *ol
* The Sinaitic MS. and C have the subscription " to the Hebrew*," A adds
" from Rome,*1 K " from Italy " Sam. Davidson dates it from Alexandria,
Benan from Ephesus, where he thinks Barnabas was at that time with some
fugitive Italians,- while Timothy was imprisoned perhaps at Corinth (LJ Anti-
christ. p. 210).
8 For the patristic testimonies, I refer to the collection in Charteris, Canon-
ictiy, pp. 272-288 , for a candid and exhaustive discussion of the whole ques-
tion, to Bleek's large Com., L, 82-272 ; also to Alford's Com , voL iv., Part
t, pp. 1-82
818 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
faith, but has now very few defenders among scholars.1 It
rests on the following arguments :
(a) The unanimous tradition of the Eastern church, to which
the letter was in all probability directed ; yet with the impor-
tant qualification which weakens the force of this testimony,
that there was a widely prevailing perception of a difference of
style, and consequent supposition of a Hebrew original, of which
there is no historic basis whatever. Clement of Alexandria
ascribed the Greek composition to Luke.* Origen observes the
greater purity of the Greek style,* and mentions Luke and Cle-
ment, besides Paul, as possible authors, but confesses his own
ignorance.4
(ft) The mention of Timothy and the reference to a release
from captivity (13 : 23) point to Paul. Not necessarily, but only
to the circle of Paul. The alleged reference to Paul's own captiv-
ity in 10 : 34 rests on a false reading (8e<rfuw /LMW, E. V., " in my
bonds," instead of the one now generally adopted, rofc Seoyiwu?,
" those that were in bonds "). Nor does the request, ch. 13 : 18,
19, imply that the writer was a prisoner at the time of compo-
sition ; for v. 23 rather points to his freedom, as he expected
shortly to see his readers in company with Timothy.
(c) The agreement of the Epistle with Paul's system of doc-
trine, the tone of apostolic authority, and the depth and unction
which raises the Epistle to a par with his genuine writings.
But all that can be said in praise of this wonderful Epistle at
1 Von Hofmann (of Eciangen) la almost the only one in Germany , Bishop
Wordsworth and Dr. Kay in England. Among the older defenders of the
Pauline aathozahip we mention Owen (1668), HOI (1707), Carpzor (1750),
Bengal (1753), Sykes (1755), Andr. Cramer (1757), Storr (1789), and especially
the learned and acute fioman Catholic scholar, Hug, in his Einbttung.
9 Dr. Biesenthal has, by a ^translation of the Ep. into Hebrew, endeavored
to prove this theory in " Da* Tro9t*chreiben da Ap. Pavlu* an die Hebrter,*
Leips., 1878. Bat, of coarse, this is no argument any more than DeliUsoh'c
Hebrew translation of the entire New Testament. Such happy phrases as
*oA9p*«f a* ««\vrf6n* (1 : 1) and Ipofer a>* *V Infer r*r fcro«*r (5 :8J
cannot be renrodnoed in Hebrew at all
* *wp*tai rift JU{f»f JAXsjisMHfrs, Ap. Qnseb. JT. JK, VL 35L
• rlr it 6 Tfdtfw TV AnrrsAfo r*
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 819
best proves only its inspiration and canonicity, which must be
extended beyond the circle of the apostles so as to embrace the
writings of Luke, Mark, James, and Jude.
2. The NON-PAULINE AUTHORSHIP is supported by the follow-
ing arguments :
(a) The Western tradition, both Roman and North African,
down to the time of Augustin, is decidedly against the Pauline
authorship. This has all the more weight from the fact that
the earliest traces of the Epistle to the Hebrews are found in
the Roman church, where it was known before the close of the
first century. Clement of Rome makes very extensive use of
it, but nowhere under the name of Paul. The Muratorian
Canon enumerates only thirteen Epistles of Paul and omits
Hebrews. So does Gaius, a Roman presbyter, at the beginning
of the third century. Tertullian ascribed the Epistle to Barna-
bas. According to the testimony of Eusebius, the Roman
church did not regard the Epistle as Pauline at his day (he died
340). Philastrius of Brescia (d. about 387) mentions that some
denied the Pauline authorship, because the passage 6 : 4-6
favored the heresy and excessive disciplinary rigor of the Nova-
tians, but he himself believed it to be Paul's, and so did
Ambrose of Milan. Jerome (d. 419) can be quoted on both
sides. He wavered in his own view, but expressly says : " The
Latin custom (Latina consuetudo) does not receive it among the
canonical Scriptures;" and in another place : "All the Greeks
receive the Epistle to the Hebrews, and some Latins (ft non-
nulli latinorum)" Augustin, a profound divine, but neither
linguist nor critic, likewise wavered, but leaned strongly toward
the Pauline origin. The prevailing opinion in the West
ascribed only thirteen Epistles to Paul. The Synod of Hippo
(393) and the third Synod of Carthage (397), under the com-
manding influence of Augustin, marked a transition of opinion
in favor of fourteen.1 This opinion prevailed until Erasmus and
the Reformers revived the doubts of the early Fathers. The
Council of Trent sanctioned it.
1 " PauU ApoMU eptotota frotefoi, tf«*fcm ad Hebron una."
820 FIRST PEKIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(b) The absence of the customary name and salutation. Thii
has been explained from modesty, as Paul was sent to the Gen-
tiles rather than the Jews (Pantsenus), or from prudence and
the desire to secure a better hearing from Jews who were
strongly prejudiced against Paul (Clement of Alexandria).
Very unsatisfactory and set aside by the authoritative tone of
the Epistle.
(c) In ch. 2:3 the writer expressly distinguishes himself
from the apostles, and reckons himself with the second genera-
tion of Christians, to whom the word of the Lord was "con-
firmed by them that heard " it at the first from the Lord. Paul,
on the contrary, puts himself on a par with the other apostles,
and derives his doctrine directly from Christ, without any
human intervention (Gal. 1 : 1, 12, 15, 16). This passage alone
is conclusive, and decided Luther, Calvin, and Beza against the
Pauline authorship.1
(d) The difference, not in the substance, but in the form and
method of teaching and arguing.9
(e) The difference of style (which has already been discussed).
This argument does not rest on the number of peculiar words,
for such are found in every book of the New Testament, but
in the superior purity, correctness, and rhetorical finish of
style.
(f) The difference in the quotations from the Old Testa-
ment. The author of Hebrews follows uniformly the Septua-
gint, even with its departures from the Hebrew ; while Paul is
more independent, and often corrects the Septuagint from the
Hebrew. Bleek has also discovered the important fact that the
1 Calvin : "Scriptor unum se ex apostdlorum discipulis profltetur, quod est a
Paulina eonsuetudine longe aUenum." And on 2 : 3, " Hit focus indicia eft,
epistolam a Paulo nonfuisse compositam," etc.
* As Calvin expresses it • u Ipsa doeendi ratio et stilus alium guam Paulum
esse satis testantur. " On this point, see especially Riehm's valuable Lehrbegriff,
etc , and the respective sections in the works on the N. T. Theology ; also
Kurtz's Com., pp. 24 sqq. The parallelisms which Dr Kay sets against this
argument in ths Speaker's Com., pp. 14 sqq , only prove what nobody denies,
the essential agreement of Hebrews with the Pauline Epistles.
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 821
former used the text of Codex Alexandrinus, the latter the text
of Codex Vaticanus.1 It is incredible that Paul, writing to the
church of Jerusalem, should not have made use of his Hebrew
and rabbinical learning in quoting the Scriptures.
3 CONJECTURES concerning the probable author. Four Paul-
ine disciples and co-workers have been proposed, either as sole
or as joint authors with Paul, three with some support in
tradition — Barnabas, Luke, and Clement — one without any —
Apollos. Silvanus also has a few advocates.2
(a) Barnabas.' He has in his favor the tradition of the
African church (at least Tertullian), his Levitical training, his
intimacy with Paul, his close relation to the church in Jeru-
salem, and his almost apostolic authority. As the uto? irapa-
/cXrjcrew (Acts 4 : 36), he may have written the Xo709 irapaic\q-
crecD? (Heb. 13 : 22). But in this case he cannot be the author
of the Epistle which goes by his name, and which, although
belonging to the Pauline and strongly anti-Judaizing tendency,
is yet far inferior to Hebrews in spirit and wisdom. Moreover,
Barnabas was a primitive disciple, and cannot be included in
the second generation (2 : 3).
(b) Luke.4 He answers the description of 2 : 3, writes pure
Greek, and has many affinities in style.6 But against him is
1 See the proof in Bleek, vol. I. 838-375 Conveniently ignored in the
Speaker's Com., jf 13.
2 Of the other friends of Paul, Timothy is excluded by the reference to him
in ch. 13 23. Mark, Demas, Titus, Tychicus, Epaphroditns, Epaphras,
Aristarchus, Aquila, Jesus Justus have never been brought forward as candi-
dates Silvan us, or Silas, is favorably mentioned by Bohme, Mynster, and
Biehm (890 sqq ), on account of his prominent position, Acts 15 22, 27. 34,
40; 16:10; 1 Pet 5 12
» Tertullian, Ullmann, Wieaeler, Thiersch, Ritschl, Renan, Zahn, W R.
Smith (in the " Enc Brit ") likewise leans to the Barnabas hypothesis.
4 Clement of Alexandria (who, however, regarded Luke only, and wrongly,
as translator), Calvin, Grotius. Orell, Ehrard, Delitzsch, Dollinger. Ebrard
supposes that Luke wrote the Epistle at the request and in the name of Paul,
who suggested the general plan and leading ideas This is the most plausible
form of the Luke hypothesis, but does not account for the doctrinal differ,
ences.
6 This linguistic argument has been overdone by Delitzsoh and weakened by
fanciful or far-fetched analogies. See the strictures of Liinemann, pp. 24-81.
822 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the fact that the author of Hebrews was, no doubt, a native
Jew, while Luke was a Gentile (Col. 4 : 11, 14). This objection,
however, ceases in a measure if Luke wrote in the name and
under the instruction of Paul.
(c) Clemens Eomanus.1 He makes thorough use of Hebrews
and interweaves passages from the Epistle with his own ideas,
but evidently as an imitator, far inferior in originality and
force.
(d) Apollos.* A happy guess of the genius of Luther, sug-
gested by the description given of Apollos in the Acts (18 : 24-
28), and by Paul (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4-6,22; 4:6; 16:12;
Tit. 3:13). Apollos was a Jew of Alexandria, mighty in the
Scriptures, fervent in spirit, eloquent in speech, powerfully
confuting the Jews, a friend of Paul, and independently work-
ing with him in the same cause at Ephesus, Corinth, Crete.
So far everything seems to fit. But this hypothesis has not
a shadow of support in tradition, which could hardly have
omitted Apollos in silence among the three or four probable
authors. Clement names him once,1 but not as the author of
the Epistle which he so freely uses. Nor is there any trace
of his ever having been in Rome, and having stood in so close
a relationship to the Hebrew Christians in Palestine.
The learned discussion of modern divines has led to no cer-
tain and unanimous conclusion, but is, nevertheless, very valu-
able, and sheds light in different directions. The following
points may be regarded as made certain, or at least in the
highest degree probable : the author of Hebrews was a Jew by
1 Mentioned as a subjective conjecture by Origen (KA^/iif* 6 yev6pwos Arf-
<r*oTof 'ParpaiW typatyc ?V fourroA^r) alongside with Luke. Renewed by
Erasmus and Bispmg
9 Luther, Osiander, Norton, Semler, Bleek, Tholuck, Credner, Reuse,
Bnnsen, Hilgenfeld, Lange, Moll, Kendrick, Alford, Lunemann, Kurtz,
Samuel Davidson, A B. Davidson. The Apollos hypothesis has been the
most popular until, within the last few years, Renan, Zahn, and W. Robertson
Smith have turned the current again in favor of the Barnabas hypothesis.
Riehm, after a full and judicious discussion, wavers between Apollos and
Silvanua, but ends with Ongen's modest confession of ignorance (p. 894>
*Ep. ad Cor., c. 47.
§ 100. THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 823
birth ; a Hellenist, not a Palestinian ; thoroughly at home in
the Greek Scriptures (less so, if at all, in the Hebrew original) ;
familiar with the Alexandrian Jewish theology (less so, if at all,
with the rabbinical learning of Palestine) ; a pupil of the apos-
tles (not himself an apostle) ; an independent disciple and co-
worker of Paul ; a friend of Timothy ; in close relation with
the Hebrew Christians of Palestine, and, when he wrote, on the
point of visiting them ; an inspired man of apostolic insight,
power, and authority, and hence worthy of a position in the
canon as " the great unknown."
Beyond these marks we cannot go with safety. The writer
purposely withholds his name. The arguments for Barnabas,
Luke, and Apollos, as well as the objections against them, are
equally strong, and we have no data to decide between them,
not to mention other less known workers of the apostolic age.
We must still confess with Origen that God only knows the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrewa
NOTES.
L — The POSITION of Hebrews in the New Testament. In the old
Greek MSS. (£, B, C, D) the Epistle to the Hebrews stands before the
Pastoral Epistles, as being an acknowledged letter of Paul. This order
has, perhaps, a chronological value, and is followed in the critical edi-
tions (Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort), although
Westcott and Hort regard the Pastoral Epistles as Pauline, and the Ep.
to the Hebrews as un-Pauline. See their Gr. Test, vol. II., 321.
Bat in the Latin and English Bibles, Hebrews stands more appro-
priately at the close of the Pauline Epistles, and immediately precedes
the Catholic Epistles.
Luther, who had some doctrinal objections to Hebrews and James,
took the liberty of putting them after the Epistles of Peter and John,
and making them the last Epistles except Jude. He misunderstood
Heb. 6 : 4-6 ; 10 : 26, 27 ; 12 : 17, as excluding the possibility of a second
repentance and pardon after baptism, and called these passages " hard
knots9' that run counter to all the Gospels and Epistles of Paul ; but,
apart from this, he declared Hebrews to be "an Epistle of exquisite
beauty, discussing from Scripture, with masterly skill and thorough-
ness, the priesthood of Christ, and interpreting on this point the Old
Testament with prreat richness and acuteness."
The English Revisers retained, without any documentary evidence,
824 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
the traditional title, " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews."
This gives sanction to a particular theory, and is properly objected to
by the American Revisers. The Pauline authorship is, to say the least,
an open question, and should have been left open by the Revisers. The
ancient authorities entitle the letter simply, Upos 'E/tywW, and even
this was probably added by the hand of an early transcriber. Still less
is the subscription " Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy "
to be relied on as original, and was probably a mere inference from the
contents (13: 23, 24).
II. — The HAPAXLEGOMENA of the Epistle. aywaXdyijror, without
pedigree (said of Melchizedek), 7 : 3. u^rwp, motherless, 7 : 3. airdrop,
fatherless, 7:3. dnauyavna, effulgence (said of Christ in relation to
God), 1 : 2. alaZrjTrjpiov, sense, 5 : 14. aKpoSiviov, spoils, 7 : 4. tvntpl<r*
rurof (from (v and n-cpuo-r^/n, to place round), a difficult word of un-
certain interpretation, easily besetting, closely clinging to (E. R. on
the margin : admired by many), 12 : 1. jcptruof, quick to discern, 4 : 12.
TI fuXXovo-a oiKovpivrj the future world, 2 : 5. /ufo-irci^, to interpose
one's self, to mediate, 6 : 17. firrpioiraQw, to have compassion on, to
bear gently with, 5 : 2 (said of Christ), op^^a, oath, 7 : 20, 21, 28.
to provoke, 3 : 16. fra/>oirucpa0>to?, provocation, 3 . 8, 15.
, by divers portions, 1 : 1. 7roXvrpdira>f, in divers manners, 1 : 1.
s, forerunner, 6 : 20 (of Christ). awtvi^iprvpcl^ to bear witness
With, 2 : 4. rpaxr)\ifcu>9 to Open, 4 : 13 (rcrpa^i/XKr/ieVa, laid open).
v/roorracTiff, substance (or person), 1:3 (of God) ; confidence, 3 : 14 ;
assurance, 11 : 1. This word, however, occurs also in 2 Cor. 11 : 17, in
the sense of confidence. xaPOKTW> express image (Christ, the very image
of the essence of God), 1 : 3.
On the other hand, the Ep. to the Hebrews has a number of rare
words in common with Paul which are not elsewhere found in the New
Testament or the Septuagint, as aiftw (12 : 13 ; 1 Tim. 2 : 9), A
(13 : 7 ; Acts 17 : 23), dvworaKTos (2 : 8 ; 1 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 1 : 6, 10),
e<M (4 : 6, 11 ; Rom. 11 : 30, 32 ; Eph. 2 : 2 ; Col 3 : 5), n7niX™m t (11 : 25 ;
1 Tiin. 6 : 17), dfrXupyvpos (13 : 5 ; 1 Tim. 3 : 3), Muu>s (2:1; Rom. 3 : 8),
•W/iyfc (4:12; 1 Cor. 16:9; Philem. 6), < </mrraf (7 : 27 ; 10:10; Rom.
6:10; 1 Cor. 15:6), KO^KC* (9:11; Tit. 2 : 12), JU/II/T^ (6:12; 1 Cor.
4:16, etc.), M/IIMI (11:12; Rom. 4:19; Col. 3:5), fyiyopni (11:16; 1
Tim. 3 : 1 ; 6 : 10), irnpaicoj} (2:2; Rom. 5 : 10 ; 2 Cor. 10 : 6), riwofapia
(6 : 11 ; 10 : 22 ; Col. 2 : 2 ; 1 Thess. 1:5), <t»x°( «& (13 : 2 ; Rom. 12 : 13).
On the linguistic peculiarities of Hebrews, see Bleek, I. 315-338 ;
Lunemann, Com., pp. 12 and 24 sqq. (4th ed., 1878) ; Davidson, Introd.,
L 209 sqq. (revised ed., 1882) ; and the Speaker's Cam. N. T.t IV. 7-16.
§ 101. THE APOCALIPSB. 826
§ 101. The Apocalypse.
On the lit. and life of John, see JJ 40 and 41 (pp. 406 sqq.) ; on the
authorship of the Apoc. and the time of composition, g 37 (pp. 385-
390) ; \ 41 (pp 416-422) ; and J 84 (pp. 716 sq.).
1. MODERN CRITICAL works of GERMAN and FRENCH scholars on the
Apocalypse : LUOKE ( Voltstandige Etnleitung, etc., 2d ed., 1862 ;
1,074 pages of introductory matter, critical and historical ; compare
with it the review of BLEEK in the " Studien and Kritiken " for 1854
and 1855) ; DEWETTB (Com., 1848, with a remarkable preface, 3d
ed. by Moeller, 1862) ; BLEEK (Posthumous Lectures, ed. by Hoss-
bach, 1862) ; EWALD (Die Johann. Schriften, vol. II , 1862 ; besides
his older Latin Com., 1828) ; DUSTEBDIECK (in Meyer's Com., 3d ed.,
1877) ; RENAN (V Antechmst, 1873) ; BEUSS (1878). A, SABATEER, in
Lichtenberger's " Encyclop6die," I. 396-407. E. VISOHER: Die
Offenb. Joh. eine Jud. Apok. in christl. Bearbeitung, Leipz., 1886.
F. SPITTA : Die Offenb. Joh. untersucht, Halle, 1889.
2. For DOCTRINAL and PRACTICAL exposition, the Commentaries of HENG-
STENBERG (1849, spoiled by false prophecies and arbitrary fancies) ;
AUBERLEN (on Daniel and Revelation, 2d ed., 1854) ; GAUSSEN (Daniel
leprophete, 1850) ; EBRARD (in Olshausen's Com., 1853) ; LUTHARDT
(1861) ; J. C. K. HOFMANN (1844 and 1862) ; J. L. FULLER (follows
Hof mann, 1874) ; LANGE (1871, Am. ed. enlarged by Craven, 1874) ;
GEBHARDT (Lehrbegriff der Apok , 1873) ; KLTEFOTH (1874). Comp.
also BOUGEMONT : La Revelation de St. Jean exphquant Phistoire (1866).
GODET : Essay upon the Apoc., in his Studies on the N. T., translated
from the French by W. H. Lyttleton, London, 1876, 294-398.
3. ENGLISH Com. : E. H. ELLIOTT (d. 1875, Horce Apoc., 5th ed., 1862, 4
vols.) ; WORDSWORTH (4th ed, 1866) ; ALPORD (3d ed., 1866) ; C. J.
VAUGHAN (3d ed., 1870, practical) ; WILLIAM LF.K (Archdeacon in
Dublin, in the " Speaker's " Com. N. T., vol. iv., 1881, pp 405-844) ;
E. HUNTINGPORD (Lond., 1882) ; MILLIGAN (1883 and 1886 the best).—
TRENCH : The Epistles to the Seven Churches (2d ed., 1861), and PLUMP-
TRE : Expos, of the Epp. to the Seven Ch. (Lond. and N. Y.,1877).
4. AMERICAN Com. by MOSES STUART (1845, 2 vols., new ed., 1864, with
an Excursus on the Number of the Beast, II. 452); COWLES
(1871).
5. Of OLDER Commentaries, the most important and valuable are the
following:
(a) Greek: ANDREAS of C&sarea in Cappadocia (5th cent. ; the first con-
tinuous Com. on the Apoc., publ. 1596, also in the works of Chry-
sostom ; see Liioke, p. 983) ; ARETHAS of Oses. in Cappad. (not of
the 6th cent., as stated by Luoke, p. 990, and others, but of the
10th, according to Otto, and Harnack, in AUchristl. Liter., 1882, pp.
826 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
36 sqq. ; his wo^ir 0^0X^17, ed by J. A. Cramer, in his Catena
Grate. Pair, in N. T., Oxon., 1840, vol. VIII. ; and in the works ol
Oecumemufl) ; OBOUICENIUB (10th cent., see Liioke, p. 991).
(b) Rom. Caih. : LUD. AB ALOASAB (a Jesuit, 1614) ; CORNELIUS A LAPIDH
(1662) ; BOSSUBT (1690, and in Oeuvres, voL HL, 1819) ; Bispnva
(1876).
(o) Protestant: Jos. MBDB (Clams Apocalypfaa, Cambr., 1632; Engl.
transl. by More, 1643 ; a new transl. by B. B. Cooper, Lond., 1833) ;
HUGO GBOTIUS (first, 1644) ; VrnoNQA (1705, 1719, 1721) ; BENGEI*
(1740) ; Bishop THOMAS NEWTON (in Dissertations on the Prophecies,
3 vols., 1758).
This list is a small selection. The literature on the Apocalypse, espe-
cially in English, is immense, bnt mostly impository rather than ex-
pository, and hence worthless or even mischievous, because confound-
ing and misleading. Darling's list of English works on the Apocalypse
contains nearly fifty-four columns (I., 1732-1786).
GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE APOCALYPSE.
"The Revelation" of John, or rather "of Jesus Christ "
through John,1 appropriately closes the New Testament. It is
the one and only prophetic book, but based upon the discourses
of our Lord on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the
world, and his second advent (Matt. ch. 24). It has one face
turned back to the prophecies of old, the other gazing into the
future. It combines the beginning and the end in Him who is
" the Alpha and the Omega." It reminds one of the mysterious
sphinx keeping ceaseless watch, with staring eyes, at the base
of the Great Pyramid. " As many words as many mysteries,"
says Jerome; "Nobody knows what is in it," adds Luther.*
No book has been more misunderstood and abused ; none calls
for greater modesty and reserve in interpretation.3
'Iifirov Xpurrov, 1:1. The oldest inscription in God. & &
twayov. Later MSS. add rod ityiov and rov btoXtyou, etc.
* *' Tot verbay tot mysteria." — " Niemand writ*, was darinnen *tM" Zwin»
fli would take no doctrinal proof -text from Revelation.
1 The amount of nonsense, false chronology, and prophecy which has been
put into the Apocalypse is amazing, and explains the sarcastic saying of the
Calvinistic, yet vehemently anti- Puritanic preacher, Robert South (8crm.
XXIII. , vol. 1 , 877, Philad. ed , 1844), that "the book called the Revelation,
the more it is studied, the less it ia understood, as generally either finding a
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 827
The opening and closing chapters are as clear and dazzling
as sunlight, and furnish spiritual nourishment and encourage-
ment to the plainest Christian ; but the intervening visions are,
to most readers, as dark as midnight, yet with many stars and
the full moon illuminating the darkness. The Epistles to the
Seven Churches, the description of the heavenly Jerusalem,
and the anthems and doxologies * which are interspersed through
the mysterious visions, and glister like brilliant jewels on a
canopy of richest black, are among the most beautiful, sub-
lime, edifying, and inspiring portions of the Bible, and they
ought to guard us against a hasty judgment of those chapters
which we may be unable to understand. The Old Testament
prophets were not clearly understood until the fulfilment cast
its light upon them, and yet they served a most useful purpose
as books of warning, comfort, and hope for the coming Messiah.
The Revelation will be fully revealed when the new heavens
and the new earth appear — not before.2
" A prophet " (says the sceptical DeWette in his Commen-
tary on Revelation, which was his last work) "is essentially
an inspired man, an interpreter of God, who announces the
Word of God to men in accordance with, and within the limits
of, the divine truth already revealed through Moses in the Old
Testament, through Christ in the New (the a7ro/ed\vtyis p,v<r-
rriplovy Rom. 16 : 25. Prophecy rests on faith in a continuous
providence of God ruling over the whole world, and with pecu-
liar efficacy over Israel and the congregation of Christ, accord-
ing to the moral laws revealed through Moses and Christ, espe-
cially the laws of retribution. According to the secular view,
mail cracked, or making him BO " The remark is sometimes falsely attributed
to Calvin, but he had great respect for the book, and quotes it freely for
doctrinal purposes, though he modestly or wisely abstained from writing a
commentary on it.
'Cha 4.11; 5:8-14; 7-12-17; 11 15; 14:13; 15-8; 19:1,2,6,7.
* Herder : " How many passages in the prophets are obscure in their pri-
mary historical references, and yet these passages, containing divine truth,
doctrine, and consolation, are manna for all hearts and all ages. Should it
not be so with the book which is an abstract of almost all prophets and
apostles?"
828 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
all changes *n human affairs proceed partly from man's powei
and prudence, partly from accident and the hidden stubbornness
of fate ; but according to the prophetic view, everything happens
through the agency of God and in harmony with his counsels
of eternal and unchangeable justice, and man is the maker of
his own fortunes by obeying or resisting the will of God." l
The prophecy of the Bible meets the natural desire to know the
future, and this desire is most intense in great critical periods
that are pregnant with fears and hopes. But it widely differs
from the oracles of the heathen, and the conjectures of far-
seeing men. It rests on revelation, not on human sagacity and
guesses ; it gives certainty, not mere probability ; it is general,
not specific; it does not gratify curiosity, but is intended to
edify and improve. The prophets are not merely revealers of
secrets, but also preachers of repentance, revivalists, comforters,
rebuking sin, strengthening faith, encouraging hope.
The Apocalypse is in the New Testament what the Book of
Daniel is in the Old, and differs from it as the New Testament
differs from the Old. Both are prophetic utterances of the will
of God concerning the future of his kingdom on earth. Both
are books of the church militant, and engage heaven and
earth, divine, human, and satanic powers, in a conflict for
life and death. They march on as " a terrible army with ban-
ners." They reverberate with thunderings and reflect the light-
ning flashes from the throne. But while Daniel looks to the
first advent of the Messiah as the heir of the preceding world-
monarchies, John looks to the second advent of Christ and the
new heavens and the new earth. He gathers up all the former
prophecies and sends them enriched to the future. He assures
us of the final fulfilment of the prophecy of the serpent-bruiser,
which was given to our first parents immediately after the fall
as a guiding star of hope in the dark night of sin. He blends
the glories of creation and redemption in the finale of the new
Jerusalem from heaven.
1 Zur Einfat. in die Offenb. Joh., p. 1. The translation is condensed.
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 829
The Apocalypse, as to its style of composition, is written in
prose, like Daniel, but belongs to prophetic poetry, which ia
peculiar to the Bible and takes there the place of the epic
poetry of the Greeks ; God himself being the hero, as it were,
who rules over the destinies of man. It is an inspired work of
art, and requires for its understanding a poetic imagination,
which is seldom found among commentators and critics; but
the imagination must be under the restraint of sober judgment,
or it is apt to run into fantastic comments which themselves
need a commentary. The apocalyptic vision is the last and
most complete form of the prophetic poetry of the Bible. The
strong resemblance between the Eevelation and Daniel, Ezekiel
and Zechariah is admitted, and without them it cannot be
understood.
But we may compare it also, as to its poetic form and arrange-
ment, with the book of Job. Both present a conflict on earth,
controlled by invisible powers in heaven. In Job it is the
struggle of an individual servant of God with Satan, the arch-
slanderer and persecutor of man, who, with the permission of
God, uses temporal losses, bodily sufferings, mental anguish,
harassing doubt, domestic affliction, false and unfeeling friends
to secure his ruin. In the Apocalypse it is the conflict of
Christ and his church with the anti-Christian world. In both
the scene begins in heaven ; in both the war ends in victory ;
but in Job long life and temporal prosperity of the individual
sufferer is the price, in the Apocalypse redeemed humanity in
the new heavens and the new earth. Both are arranged in
three parts : a prologue, the battle with successive encounters,
and an epilogue. In both the invisible power presiding over
the action is the divine counsel of wisdom and mercy, in the
place of the dark impersonal fate of the Greek drama.1
1 Prof. Godot compare* the Apocalypse with the Song of Songs, viewed as
a dramatic poem, and calls it "the Canticle of the New Testament," as the
Song of Songs is " the Apocalypse of the Old." Bat I cannot see the aptness
of this comparison. Eichhorn treated the Apocalypse as a regular drama with
A prologue, three acts, and an epilogue.
830 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
A comparison between the Apocalypse and the pseudo-apoca-
lyptic Jewish and Christian literature — the Fourth Book of
Esdras, the Book of Enoch, the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, the Apocalypse of Baruch, the Sibylline Oracles,
etc.— opens a wide field on which we cannot enter without pass-
ing far beyond the limits of this work. We may only say that
the relation is the same as that between the canonical Gospels
and the apocryphal pseudo-Gospels, between real history and
the dreamland of fable, between the truth of God and the fic-
tion of man.1
The theme of the Apocalypse is : "I come quickly," and the
proper attitude of the church toward it is the holy longing of
a bride for her spouse, as expressed in the response (22 : 20) :
"Amen: come, Lord Jesus." It gives us the assurance that
Christ is coming in every great event, and rules and overrules
all things for the ultimate triumph of his kingdom ; that the
state of the church on earth is one of continual conflict with
hostile powers, but that she is continually gaining victories and
will at last completely and finally triumph over all her foes and
enjoy unspeakable bliss in communion with her Lord. From
the concluding chapters Christian poetry has drawn rich inspira-
tion, and the choicest hymns on the heavenly home of the
saints are echoes of John's description of the new Jerusalem.
The whole atmosphere of the book is bracing, and makes one
feel fearless and hopeful in the face of the devil and the beasts
from the abyss. The Gospels lay the foundation in faith, the
Acts and Epistles build upon it a holy life ; the Apocalypse is
the book of hope to the struggling Christian and the militant
church, and insures final victory and rest. This has been its
mission ; this will be its mission till the Lord come in his own
good time.*
1 See Lucke, pp. 66-845 ; Lange, pp. 6 eqq. ; ffilgenfeld, Die judische Apo-
Jafj0>tifc(1857); Schurer, N. TUche ZcitffciMchte (1874), pp. 511-563.
' Oodet (p 297) : " The Apocalypse is the precious vessel in which the treas-
ure of Christian hope has been deposited for all ages of the church, but es-
pecially for the church under the crow.'* Dr. Chambers (p. 15) : " The scope
of this mjratenons book is not to convince unbelievers, nor to illustrate the
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 831
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.
The Apocalypse consists of a Prologue, the Revelation proper,
and an Epilogue. We may compare this arrangement to that
of the Fourth Gospel, where ch. 1 : 1-18 forms the Prologue,
ch. 21 the Epilogue, and the intervening chapters contain the
evangelical history from the gathering of the disciples to the
Resurrection.
I. The Prologue and the Epistles to the Seven Churches,
chs. 1-3. The introductory notice ; John's salutation and dedi-
cation to the Seven Churches in Asia ; the vision of Christ in
his glory, and the Seven Churches; the Seven Epistles ad-
dressed to them and through them to the whole church, in its
various states.1
II. The Revelation proper or the Prophetic Vision of the
Church of the Future, 4 : 1 to 22 : 5. It consists chiefly of
seven Visions, which are again subdivided according to a sym-
metrical plan in which the numbers seven, three, four, and
twelve are used with symbolic significance. There are inter-
vening scenes of rest and triumph. Sometimes the vision goes
back to the beginning and takes a new departure.
(1) The Prelude in heaven, chs. 4 and 5. (a) The appear
ance of the throne of God (ch. 4). (I) The appearance of the
Lamb who takes and opens the sealed book (ch. 5).
(2) The vision of the seven seals, with two episodes between
the sixth and seventh seals, 6 : 1 to 8 : 1.
(3) The vision of the seven trumpets of vengeance, 8 : 2 to
11 : 19.
(4) The vision of the woman (the church) and her three ene-
divine prescience, nor to minuter to men's prurient desire to peer into the
future, but to edify the disciples of Christ in every age by unfolding the
nature and character of earth's conflicts, by preparing them for trial as not
a strange thing, by consoling them with the prospect of victory, by assuring
them of God's sovereign control over all persons and things, and by pointing
them to the ultimate issue when they shall pass through the gates of pearl
never more to go out"
1 Comp. §50, pp. 4DO-454.
832 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
inies, 12 : 1 to 13 : 18. The three enemies are the dragon
(12 : 3-17), the beast from the sea (12 : 18 to 13 : 10), and the
beast from the earth, or the false prophet (13 : 11-18).
(5) The group of visions in ch. 14: (a) the vision of the
Lamb on Mount Zion (vers. 1-5); (&) of the three angels of
judgment (vers. 6-11), followed by an episode (12, 13) ; (c) the
vision of the harvest and the vintage of the earth (vers. 14-20).
(6) The vision of the seven vials of wrath, 15 : 1 to 16 : 21.
(7) The vision of the final triumph, 17 : 1 to 22 : 5 : (a) the
fall of Babylon (17 : 1 to 19 : 10) ; (J) the overthrow of Satan
(19 : 11 to 20 : 10), with the millennial reign intervening (20 : 1-
6); (c) the universal judgment (20 : 11-15) ; (d) the new hea*
vens and the new earth, and the glories of the heavenly Jerusa
lem (21 : 1 to 22 : 5).
III. The Epilogue, 22 : 6-21. The divine attestation, threats,
and promises.
AUTHORSHIP AND CANONICITY.
The question of authorship has already been discussed in con-
nection with John's Gospel. The Apocalypse professes to be
the work of John, who assumes a commanding position over the
churches of Asia. History knows only one such character, the
Apostle and Evangelist, and to him it is ascribed by the earliest
and most trustworthy witnesses, going back to the lifetime of
many friends and pupils of the author. It is one of the best
authenticated books of the New Testiment.1
And yet, owing to its enigmatical obscurity, it is the most
disputed of the seven Antilegwnena / and this internal diffi-
culty has suggested the hypothesis of the authorship of " Pres-
byter John," whose very existence is doubtful (being based on
a somewhat obscure passage of Papias), and who at all events
could not occupy a rival position of superintendency over
the churches in Asia during the lifetime of the great John.
The Apocalypse was a stumbling-block to the spiritualism of
1 See the testimonies in Charterfe, Canonicity, pp. 386-857 ; also Lttoke (pp.
419-887), Alford (iv. 198-229), Lee (pp. 405-442), and other commentators.
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 833
the Alexandrian fathers, and to the realism of the ^Reformers
(at least Luther and Zwingli;, and to not a few of eminent
modern divines ; and yet it has attracted again and again the
most intense curiosity and engaged the most patient study of
devout scholars ; while humble Christians of every age are
cheered by its heroic tone and magnificent close in their pilgrim-
age to the heavenly Jerusalem. Rejected by many as un-
apostolic and uncanonical, and assigned to a mythical Presbyter
John, it is now recognized by the severest school of critics as
an undoubted production of the historical Apostle John.1
If so, it challenges for this reason alone our profound rever-
ence. For who was better fitted to be the historian of the past
and the seer of the future than the bosom friend of our Lord
and Saviour? Able scholars, rationalistic as well as ortho-
dox, have by thorough and patient investigation discovered
or fully confirmed its poetic beauty and grandeur, the consum-
mate art in its plan and execution. They have indeed not
been able to clear up all the mysteries of this book, but have
strengthened rather than weakened its claim to the position
which it has ever occupied in the canon of the New Testament.
It is true, the sceptical critics who so confidently vindicate
the apostolic origin of the Apocalypse, derive from this very
fact their strongest weapon against the apostolic origin of the
fourth Gospel. But the differences of language and spirit which
have been urged are by no means irreconcilable, and are over-
ruled by stronger resemblances in the theology and christology
and even in the style of the two books. A proper estimate of
John's character enables us to see that he was not only able,
but eminently fitted to write both ; especially if we take into
consideration the intervening distance of twenty or thirty years,
the difference of the subject (prospective prophecy in one, and
retrospective history in the other), and the difference of the
state of mind, now borne along in ecstacy (&> wpev/iari) from
vision to vision and recording what the Spirit dictated, now
1 This i§ the almost unanimous opinion of the Tubingen critics and their
qjmpathizen on the Continent and in England.
834 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
calmly collecting his reminiscences in full, clear self -conscious
neBs((h pot).1
THB TIME OF COMPOSITION.
The traditional date of composition at the end of Domitian's
reign (95 or 96) rests on the clear and weighty testimony of
Irenffius, is confirmed by Eusebius and Jerome, and has still its
learned defenders,* bnt the internal evidence strongly favors an
earlier date between the death of Nero (June 9, 68) and the
destruction of Jerusalem (August 10, 70).' This helps us at the
same time more easily to explain the difference between the
fiery energy of the Apocalypse and the calm repose of the fourth
Gospel, which was composed in extreme old age. The Apoca-
lypse forms the natural transition from the Synoptic Gospels
to the fourth Gospel. The condition of the Seven Churches was
indeed different from that which existed a few years before
when Paul wrote to the Ephesians ; but the movement in the
apostolic age was very rapid. Six or seven years intervened to
account for the changes. The Epistle to the Hebrews implies
a similar spiritual decline among its readers in 63 or 64. Great
revivals of religion are very apt to be quickly followed by a re-
action of worldliness or indifference.
1 Comp. Rer. 1 : 10 ; 1 Cor. 14 : 15. See, besides the references mentioned
at the head of the section, the testimony of Dr. Weiss, who, in his Leben
Je*u (18&5), L 97-101, ably discusses the differences between the two books,
and comes to the conclusion that they are both from the same Apostle John.
" Tes " (he says, with reference to a significant concession of Dr. Baur), " the
fourth Gospel is * the spiritualized Apocalypse,' but not because an intellec-
tual hero of the second century followed the seer of the Apocalypse, but be-
cause the Son of Thunder of the Apocalypse had been matured and trans-
figured by the Spirit and the divine guidance into a mystic, and the flames of
his youth had burnt down into the gl'*w of a holy love.**
9 The great majority of older commentators, and among the recent ones
Elliott, Alford, Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Lange, Hofmann, Godet, Lee, Milligan,
and Warfield (in SchaTs " Encyol." III. 2035). I myself formerly advocated
the later date, in the Hi*, erf the Ap. Church (1858), pp. 418 sqq.
"The early date is advocated or accepted by Neander. Liicke, Bleek, Bwald,
DeWette, Banr, Hilgenfeld, Reuse, Dusterdieck, Re nan, Anb6, Stuart, David-
son, Cowles, Bishop Lightfoot, Westcott, Holtzmann, Weiss ; and among earlier
writers by Alcasar, Grotius, Hammond, Abauxit, and John LSghtfoot
§ 10 i. THE APOCALYPSE. 835
The arguments for the early date are the following :
1. Jerusalem was still standing, and the seer was directed to
mjasnre the Temple and the altar (11 : 1), but the destruction is
predicted as approaching. The Gentiles " shall tread (irar^aov-
<rw} the holy city under foot forty and two months " (11:2;
comp. Luke 21 : 24), and the " dead bodies shall lie in the street
of tho great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,
where also their Lord was crucified " (ver. 8). The existence
of the twelve tribes seems also to be assumed in ch. 7 : 4-8.
The advocates of the traditional date understand these passages
in a figurative sense. But the allusion to the crucifixion com-
pels us to think of the historical Jerusalem.
2. The book was written not long after the death of the fifth
Roman emperor, that is, Nero, when the empire had received
a deadly wound (comp. 13 : 3, 12, 14). This is the natural
interpretation of ch. 17 : 10, where it is stated that the seven
heads of the scarlet-colored beast, i.e., heathen Rome, " are
seven kings ; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet
come, and when he cometh, he must continue a little while."
The first five emperors were Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Clau-
dius, and .Nero, with whom the gens J'ulia ingloriously perished.
Next came Galba, a mere usurper (seventy-three years old), who
ruled but a short time, from June, 68, to January, 69, and was
followed by two other usurpers, Otho and Vitellius, till Vespa-
sian, in 70, restored the empire after an interregnum of two
years, and left the completion of the conquest of the Jews and
the destruction of Jerusalem to his son Titus.1 Vespasian may
therefore be regarded as the sixth head, the three rebels not
being counted; and thus the composition of the Apocalypse
would fall in the spring (perhaps Easter) of the year 70. This
is confirmed by 13 : 3, 12, 14, where the deadly wound of the
beast is represented as being already healed.1 But if the usurpers
1 Suetonius, Vespan. o. 1 : " RebcMone trium prlndpum et eaede inoertum
diu et quasi vagum imperium tuscepit firmavitque tandem gent Flaw* "
11 So Bleek (p. 121), Lttoke (in the second ed.), Bohmer, Wete, Diis erdieok
(Introd pp. 55 aqq. and Coin, on 13 : 3, and 17 : 7-14).
836 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
are counted, Galba is the sixth head, and the Revelation wai
written in 68. In either case Julius Ceesar must be excluded
from the series of emperors (contrary to Josephus).
Several critics refer the seventh head to Nero, and ascribe to
the seer the silly expectation of the return of Nero as Anti-
christ.1 In this way they understand the passage 17 : 11 : " The
beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth and is
of the seven." But John makes a clear distinction between
the heads of the beast, of whom Nero was one, and the beast
itself, which is the Roman empire. I consider it simply impos-
sible that John could have shared in the heathen delusion of
Nero redivivus, which would deprive him of all credit as an in-
spired prophet. He may have regarded Nero as a fit type and
forerunner of Antichrist, but only in the figurative sense in
which Babylon of old was the type of heathen Rome.
3. The early date is best suited for the nature and object of
the Apocalypse, and facilitates its historical understanding.
Christ pointed in his eschatological discourses to the destruction
of Jerusalem and the preceding tribulation as the great crisis
in the history of the theocracy and the type of the judgment
of the world. And there never was a more alarming state of
society. The horrors of the French Revolution were confined
to one country, but the tribulation of the six years preceding
the destruction of Jerusalem extended over the whole Roman
empire and embraced wars and rebellions, frequent and unusual
conflagrations, earthquakes and famines and plagues, and all
sorts of public calamities and miseries untold. It seemed, indeed,
that the world, shaken to its very centre, was coming to a close,
and every Christian must have felt that the prophecies of
Christ were being fulfilled before his eyes.*
It was at this unique juncture in the history of mankind that
1 Bo Ewald, Renss. Banr, eta See below, p. 846.
'Comp. oh vi., pp. 376-402, and especially the most graphic description of
those terrible years by Benan, in L> Antichrist , oh xiv , pp. 830-889, which I
would like to transcribe if space permitted. His facts are well supported by
heathen and Jewish testimonies, especially Tacitus, Suetonius, Strabo, Pliny,
Josephus, etc.
§ 101. THE APOCALrPSB. 837
St. John, with the consuming fire in Home and the infernal spec-
tacle of the Neronian persecution behind him, the terrors of the
Jewish war and the Eoman interregnum around him, and the
catastrophe of Jerusalem and the Jewish theocracy before him,
received those wonderful visions of the impending conflicts and
final triumphs of the Christian church. His was truly a book of
the times and for the times, and administered to the persecuted
brethren the one but allsufficient consolation : Maran atha !
Mar an atha !
INTERPRETATION.
The different interpretations are reduced by English writers
to three systems according as the fulfilment of the prophecy is
found in the past, present, or future.1
1. The PRETERIST system applies the Revelation to the de-
struction of Jerusalem and heathen Rome. So among Roman
Catholics: Alcasar (1614), Bossuet (1690). Among Protes-
tants : Hugo Grotius (1644), Hammond (1653), Clericus (1698),
Wetstein (1752), Abauzit, Herder, Eichhorn, Ewald, Lucke,
Bleek, DeWette, Reuss, Renan, F. D. Maurice, Samuel David-
son, Moses Stuart, Cowles, Desprez, etc. Some a refer it chiefly
to the overthrow of the Jewish theocracy, others chiefly to the
conflict with the Roman empire, still others to both.
But there is a radical difference between those Preterists who
1 See Alf ord, Com iv. , 245 sqq , Elliott, 4tb vol. ; Sam. Davidson, Introd.
to the N T., first ed. III. 619, revised ed , vol. II. 297, and Lee, Com p 488.
Davidson adds a fourth class of "extreme,1' as distinguished from simple
" Futurists," who refer the entire book, including ohs. 2 and 3, to the last
times Lee substitutes with Lucke the term " Historical " for u Continuous,"
but Historical applies better to the first class called " Preterists." Lee adds
(491), as a fourth system, the k4 Spiritual system/' and names Augustin (his
" City of God," as the first philosophy of history), J C K. von Hofmann,
Hengstenberg, Auberlen, Ebrard as its chief defenders. It is the same with
what Auberlen calls the reichsgeschtchtkdie Ausltgung.
* So Herder, in his suggestive book MAP AN ABA, das Budi von der Zukunft
des Herrn, den N. Testament* Siegel, Riga, 1779. He was preceded in the
anfi- Jewish explication by Abauzit of Geneva (1730), who assigned the book
to the reign of Nero, and Wetstein (1752), and followed by Hartwig (1780) and
ZflUig. The last, in a learned work on the Apocalypse (Stuttgart, 1884,
2 vols., 1840), refers it exclusively to the Jewish state.
838 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
acknowledge a real prophecy and permanent truth in the
and the rationalistic Preterists who regard it as a dream of a
visionary which was falsified by events, inasmuch as Jerusalem,
instead of becoming the habitation of saints, remained a heap of
ruins, while Rome, after the overthrow of heathenism, became
the metropolis of Latin Christendom. This view rests on a
literal misunderstanding of Ji nisalem.
2. The CONTINUOUS (or HISTORICAL) system: The Apoca-
lypse is a prophetic compend of church history and covers all
Christian centuries to the final consummation. It speaks of
things past, present, and future ; some of its prophecies are ful-
filled, some are now being fulfilled, and others await fulfilment
in the yet unknown future. Here belong the great majority of
orthodox Protestant commentators and polemics who apply the
beast and the mystic Babylon and the mother of harlots drunken
with the blood of saints to the church of Rome, either exclusively
or chiefly. But they differ widely among themselves in chro-
nology and the application of details. Luther, Bullinger, Col-
lado, Pareus, Brightman, Mede, Robert Fleming, Whiston,
Vitringa, Bengel, Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Faber, Wood-
house, Elliott, Birks, Gaussen, Auberlen, Hengstenberg, Alf ord,
Wordsworth, Lee.
3. The FUTURIST system: The events of the Apocalypse
from ch. 4 to the close lie beyond the second advent of Christ.
This scheme usually adopts a literal interpretation of Israel,
the Temple, and the numbers (the 3J times, 42 months, 1260
days, 3J years). So Ribera (a Jesuit, 1592), Lacunza (another
Jesuit, who wrote under the name of Ben-Ezra " On the coming
of Messiah in glory and majesty," and taught the premillennial
advent, the literal restoration of the ancient Zion, and the
future apostasy of the clergy of the Roman church to the camp
of Antichrist), S. R. Maitland, De Burgh, Todd, Isaac Wil-
liams, W. Kelly.
Another important division of historical interpreters is into
PosT-MiLLENNARiANs and PRE-MiLLENNARiANs, according as the
millennium predicted in ch. 20 is regarded as past or future.
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 839
Augustin committed the radical error of dating the millennium
from the time of the Apocalypse or the beginning of the
Christian era (although the seer mentioned it near the end of
his book), and his view had great influence ; hence the wide ex-
pectation of the end of the world at the close of the first mil-
lennium of the Christian church. Other post-millennarian
interpreters date the millennium from the triumph of Chris-
tianity over paganism in Rome at the accession of Constantine
the Great (311) ; still others (as Hengstenberg) from the conver-
sion of the Germanic nations or the age of Charlemagne. All
these calculations are refuted by events. The millennium of
the Apocatypse must lie in the future, and is still an article of
hope.
The grammatical and historical interpretation of the Apoca-
lypse, as well as of any other book, is the only safe foundation
for all legitimate spiritual and practical application. Much has
been done in this direction by the learned commentators of
recent times. We must explain it from the standpoint of the
author and in view of his surroundings. He wrote out of his
time and for his time of things which must shortly come to
pass (1 : 1, 3 ; 22 : 20), and he wished to be read and understood
by his contemporaries (1 : 3). Otherwise he would have written
in vain, and the solemn warning at the close (22 : 18, 19) would
be unintelligible. In some respects they could understand him
better than we ; for they were fellow-sufferers of the fiery per-
secutions and witnesses of the fearful judgments described.
Undoubtedly he had in view primarily the overthrow of Jeru-
salem and heathen Rome, the two great foes of Christianity at
that time. He could not possibly ignore that great conflict.
But his vision was not confined to these momentous events.
It extends even to the remotest future when death and Hades
shall be no more, and a new heaven and a new earth shall ap-
pear. And although the fulfilment is predicted as being near
at hand, he puts a millennium and a short intervening conflict
before the final overthrow of Satan, the beast, and the false
prophet. We have an analogy in the prophecy of the Old
840 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Testament and the eschatalogical discourses of our Lord, which
furnish the key for the understanding of the Apocalypse. He
describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the general judg-
ment in close proximity, as if they were one continuous event.
He sees the end from the beginning. The first catastrophe is
painted with colors borrowed from the last, and the last appears
as a repetition of the first on a grand and universal scale. It
is the manner of prophetic vision to bring distant events into
close proximity, as in a panorama. To God a thousand years
are as one day. Every true prophecy, moreover, admits of an
expanding fulfilment. History ever repeats itself, though never
in the same way. There is nothing old under the sun, and, in
another sense, there is nothing new under the sun.
In the historical interpretation of details we must guard
against arbitrary and fanciful schemes, and mathematical calcu-
lations, which minister to idle curiosity, belittle the book, and
create distrust in sober minds. The Apocalypse is not a pro-
phetical manual of church history and chronology in the sense
of a prediction of particular persons, dates, and events. This
would have made it useless to the first readers, and would make it
useless now to the great mass of Christians. It gives under sym-
bolic figures and for popular edification an outline of the general
prmciples of divine government and the leading forces in the
conflict between Christ's kingdom and his foes, which is still
going on under ever-varying forms. In this way it teaches,
like all the prophetic utterances of the Gospels and Epistles, les-
sons of warning and encouragement to every age. We must
distinguish between the spiritual coming of Christ and his per-
sonal arrival or parousia,. The former is progressive, the lat-
ter instantaneous. The coming began with his ascension to
heaven (comp. Matt. 26 : 64 : " Henceforth ye shall see the Son
of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the
clouds of heaven"), and goes on in unbroken succession of
judgments and blessings (for "the history of the world is a
judgment of the world ") ; hence the alternation of action and
repose, of scenes of terror and scenes of joy, of battles and vie-
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 841
tories. The arrival of the Bridegroom is still in the unknown
future, and may be accelerated or delayed by the free action of
the church, but it is as certain as the first advent of Christ
The hope of the church will not be disappointed, for it rests on
the promise of Him who is called " the Amen, the faithful and
true witness " (3 : 14).
NOTES.
THE NUMBEB 666.
The historical understanding of the Apocalypse turns, according to
its own statement, chiefly on the solution of the numerical riddle in the
thirteenth chapter, which has tried the wits of commentators from the
time of Irenzeus in the second century to the present day, and is still
under dispute. The history of its solution is a history of the interpre-
tation of the whole book. Hence I present here a summary of the most
important views. First some preliminary remarks.
1. The tert, Apoc 13 18 . " Heie is wisdom : he that hath under-
standing, let him count the number of the beast ; for it is the number
of a man (u/jcfyur yap di/3pa>7rou cVnV), and the number is six hundred
and sixty-six " (xf r', or c'^axucrtot c^xovra t£).
This is the correct reading in the Greek text (supported by Codd. &,
A, B (2), P (2), Origen, Primasms, and Versions), and is adopted by the
best editors. Irenseus (Adv H&r. v. 30, quoted also in full by Tischen-
dorf in his edition VIII. critica major) found it " in all the most ap-
proved and ancient copies " (ei/ iraai rois tririvdaimg KH\ rip^mW ai>rry/ja-
<£ots), and " attested by those who had themselves seen John face to
face." There was, however, in his day, a very remarkable variation,
sustained by Cod. C, and " some " copies, known to, but not approved
by, Irenseus, namely, 616 (x*r', i.e , efciKoo-ioc fo'fca *£). In the Anglo-
American revision this reading is noted in the margin.
2. " The number of a man " may mean either the number of an indi-
vidual, or of a corporate person, or a human number (Henschenzahl), i.e.,
a number according to ordinary human reckoning (so Bleek, who com*
pares ptrpov av^pvnov, " the measure of a man," 21 : 17, and Isa. 8 : 1).
Just because the number may be counted in the customary way, the
writer could expect the reader to find it out. He made the solution
difficult indeed, but not impossible. Dr. Lee (p. 687) deems it not in-
consistent with a proper view of inspiration that John himself did not
know the meaning of the number. But how could ho then ask his less
knowing readers to count the number ?
3. The mystic use of numbers (the rabbinical Ghematria, yfu/ufrpm) was
familiar to the Jews in Babylon, and passed from them to the Greeks in
842 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Asia. It occurs in the Cabbala, in the Sibylline Books (I. 324-331), in
the Epistle of Barnabas, and was very common also among the Gnostic
sects (eg., the Abrasax or Abraxas, which signified the nnbegotten
Father, and the three hundred and sixty-five heavens, corresponding to
the number of days in the year).1 It arose from the employment of the
letters of the Hebrew and Greek alphabets for the designation of num-
bers. The Hebrew Aleph counts 1, Beth 2, etc., Yodh 10 ; but Kaph (the
eleventh letter) counts 20, Resh (the twentieth letter) 200, etc. The
Greek letters, with the addition of an acute accent (as r.', £'), have the
same numerical value in their order down to Sigma, which counts 200 ;
except that r' (si) is used for 6, and 9' (an antiquated letter Koppa be-
tween TT and i>) for 90. The Hebrew alphabet ends with Tav = 400, the
Greek with Omega = 800. To express thousands an accent is put be-
neath the letter, as at = 1,000 ; ,ft = 2,000; ,i, = 10,000.
4. On this fact most interpretations of the Apocalyptic puzzle are
based. It is urged by Bleek, DeWette, Wieseler, and others, that the
number 666 must be deciphered from the Greek alphabet, since the
book was written in Greek and for Greek readers, and uses the Greek
letters Alpha, and Omega repeatedly as a designation of Christ, the Be-
ginning and the End (1:8; 21 : 6 ; 22 : 13). On the other hand, Ewalcl
and Kenan, and all who favor the Nero hypothesis, appeal against this
argument to the strongly Hebraistic spirit and coloring of the Apoca-
lypse and the familiarity of its Jewish Christian readers with the Hebrew
alphabet. The writer, moreover, may have preferred this for the pur-
pose of partial concealment ; just as he substituted Babylon for Home
(comp. 1 Pet. 5 : 13). But after all, the former view is much more natu-
ral John wrote to churches of Asia Minor, chiefly gathered from Gen-
tile converts who knew no Hebrew. Had he addressed Christians in
Palestine, the case might be different.
5. The number 666 (three sixes) must, in itself, be a significant
number, if we keep in view the symbolism of numbers which runs
through the whole Apocalypse. It is remarkable that the numerical
value of the name Jesus is 888 (three eights), and exceeds the
trinity of the sacred number (777) as much as the number of the beast
falls below it.8
6. The " beast" coming out of the sea and having seven heads and ten
horns (ch. 13 : 1-10) is the anti-Christian world-power at war with the
church of Christ. It is, as in Daniel, an apt image of the brutal nature
of the pagan state. It is, when in conflict with the church, the secular
' a = 1, 0 = 2, P = 100, a -= 1, J = 60, a = 1, i = 200; total, 365 A vast
number of engraved stones, called ** Abraxas-gems," are still extant. The
origin of Abraxas is usually ascribed to Baailides or his followers
M = 10 + ^8 + <r==200 + o = 70-hi/ = 4()0+<r = 200; total h<roi»r = 888,
Comp. Barnabas, Ep. c. 9 ; and the Sibylline Books, I 824-831.
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 843
or political Antichrist ; while " the false prophet," who works signs and
deceives the worshippers of the beast (16 13; 19:20; 20:10), is the
intellectual and spiritual Antichrist, in close alliance with the former,
his high-priest and minister of cultus, so to say, and represents the
idolatrous religion which animates and supports the secular imperial-
ism. In wider application, the false prophet may be taken as the per-
sonification of all false doctrine and heresy by which the world is led
astray. For as there are " many Antichrists," so there are also many
false prophets. The name " Antichrist," however, never occurs m the
Apocalypse, but only in the Epistles of John (five times), and there in
the plural, in the sense of " false prophets " or heretical teachers, who
deny that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (1 John 4 : 1-3). Paul
designates the Antichrist as " the man of sin/' " the son of perdition
who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that
is worshipped ; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself
forth as God " (2 Thess. 2 : 3, 4). But he seems to look upon the Roman
empire as a restraining power which, for a time at least, prevented the
full outbreak of the " mystery of lawlessness," then already at work
(ver. 6-8). He thus wrote a year or two before the accession of Nero,
and sixteen years or more before the composition of the Apocalypse.
The beast must refer to heathen Borne and the seven heads to seven
emperors. This is evident from the allusion to the " seven mountains,"
that is, the seven-hilled city (itrbs septicollis) on which the woman sits,
17 : 9. But not a few commentators give it a wider meaning, and under-
stand by the heads as many world-monarchies, including those of Dan*
iel, before Christ, and extending to the last times. So Auberlen, Gans-
sen, Hengstenberg, Yon Hofmann, Godet, and many English divines.
7. The numerous interpretations of the mystic number of the beast may
be reduced to three classes •
(a) The figures 666 represent the letters composing the name of a
historical power, or of a single man, in conflict with Christ and his
church. Here belong the explanations : Latinus, Csesar- Augustus,
Nero, and other Roman emperors down to Diocletian. Even such names
as Julian the Apostate, Genseric, Mohammed (Maometis), Luther (Mar-
tmus Lauterus), Joannes Calvinus, Beza Antitheos, Louis XIV., Na-
poleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Reich stadt (called " King of Rome "),
Napoleon HL, have been discovered in the three sixes by a strange
kind of imposition.1
1 These pious absurdities are surpassed by the rationalistic absurdity of
Volkmar, who (in his Com. on the Apoc.< 1862, p. 197) carries the imaginary
hostility of John to Paul so far as to refer " the fake prophet" (16 13 ;
19 • 20) to the Apostle of the Gentiles, because he taught (Bom. 13) that every
soul should be subject to the then reigning Nero (t e. , the beast) 1 Even Hil-
penfeld (Einleit. p 436) and Samuel Davidson (I. 291), while agreeing with
Volkmar in the Nero-hypothesis, protest against such impious nonsense.
844 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
(b) The number is chronological, and designates the duration of the life
of the beast, whether it be heathenism, or Mohammedanism, or popery.
(c) The number is symbolical of Antichrist and the anti-Christian
power.
We now proceed to the principal interpretations.
LATINUS OB THB ROMAN EMPIRE.
LATETNOS (AarcTpor for Aarli/or, Latinus), i.e., the Latin or Roman em*
pire. This is the numerical value of 666 in Greek : A = 30 + a =
l + T = 300 + € = 5 + i = 10 + i/ = 50 + o = 70 + cr=:2()0:= total 666.
The Greek form Aar* IMS is no valid objection ; for € i often represents
the Latin long 1, as in 'AiropciJ'or, nuuXeii/or, Hairttpos, 2<//3cii/of, 4>ai>a-rel-
vos. J. E. Clarke shows that fj Aarti/j) /3aatXf t'a, " the Latin empire," like-
wise gives the number 666. !
This interpretation is the oldest we know of, and is already mentioned
by Irenaeua, the first among the Fathers who investigated the problem,
and who, as a pupil of Polycarp in Smyrna (d. 155), the personal friend
of John, deserves special consideration as a witness of traditions from
the school of the beloved disciple He mentions three interpretations,
all based on the Greek alphabet, namely EvavZas (which is of no ac-
count), AaT€ivos (which he deems possible), and TV irav, i e , Titus (which
he, upon the whole, prefers), but he abstains from a positive decision,
for the reason that the Holy Scripture does not clearly proclaim the
name of the beast or Antichrist *
The interpretation Latinus is the only sensible one among the three,
and adopted by Hippolytus, Bellarmin, Eichhorn, Bleek, DeWette,
Ebrard, Dusterdieck, Alford, Wordsworth, Lee, and others.
Latinus was the name of a king of Latium, but not of any Roman
emperor Hence it must here be taken in a generic sense, and applied
to the whole heathen Roman empire.
Here the Roman Catholic divines stop.3 But many Protestant com-
1 See Lee, Com. p 687. Adam Clarke regarded this unanswerable
9 Adv. liar., v. 30, §§ 3 and 4 Josephus, from prudential regard to his
patrons, the Flavian emperors, withheld the interpretation of the fourth
beast and the stone cut out of the mountain in Daniel's vision. Ant x 10,
§ 4 On which Havercamp remarks " Nor is this to be wondered at that he
would not now meddle with things future , for he had no mind to provoke the
Romans by speaking of the destruction of that city, which they called the
eternal city "
3 If they go further, they discover the anti Christian beast in the mediaeval
German (the so-called u Holy Roman11) empire in conflict with the papacy, in
the Napoleonic imperialism, the Russian Czariam, the modern German empire
(the anti-papal Cuttur-Kampf), in fact in c\ery secular power which is hostile
to the interests of the Roman hierarchy and will "not go to CanosBa." This
would be the very reverae of the old Protestant interpretation,
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 845
mentators apply it also, in a secondary sense, to the Latin or papal
church as far as it repeated in its persecuting spirit the sins of heathen
Borne. The second beast which is described, ch. 13 : 11-17, as coming
out of the earth, and having two horns like unto a lamb, and speaking as
a dragon, and exercising all the authority of the first beast in his sight,
is referred to the papacy. The false prophet receives a similar applica-
tion. So Luther, Vitringa, Bengel, Auberlen, Hengstenberg, Ebrard,
and many English divines.
Dean Alford advocates this double application in his Commen-
tary. " This name," he says, " describes the common character of the
rulers of the former Pagan Boman Empire — ' Latim sunt qui nunc
regnant? Iren. : and, which Irenaeus could not foresee, unites under
itself the character of the later Papal Boman Empire also, as revived
and kept up by the agency of its false prophet, the priesthood. The
Latin Empire, the Latin Church, Latin Christianity, have ever been its
commonly current appellations : its language, civil and ecclesiastical,
has ever been Latin . its public services, in defiance of the most obvi-
ous requisite for public worship, have ever been throughout the world
conducted in Latin ; there is no one word which could so completely
describe its character, and at the same time unite the ancient and
modern attributes of the two beasts, as this. Short of saying abso-
lutely that this was the word in St. John's mind, I have the strongest
persuasion that no other can be found approaching so near to a com-
plete solution." Bishop Wordsworth gives the same anti-papal inter-
pretation to the beast, and indulges in a variety of pious and far-
fetched fancies. See his Com. on ch. 13 : 18, and his special work on
the Apocalypse.
NEBO.
The Apocalypse is a Christian counterblast against the Neronian per-
secution, and Nero is represented as the beast of the abyss who will
return as Antichrist. The number 6C6 signifies the very name of this
imperial monster in Hebrew letters, "iCg IV"13, NBBON EJLSAR, as fol-
lows : D (n) = 50, n (r) = 200, n (o) = 6, ^ (n) = 50, p (k) = 100, o (s) = 60,
^ (r) = 200; in all 666. The Neronian coins of Asia bear the inscrip-
tion : Nfpwi' Kaurap. But the omission of the n (which would add 10
to 666) from ^O^p = Kal<rap, has been explained by Ewald (Johanneisclie
Sclmften, II. 263) from the Syriac in which it is omitted, and this view
is confirmed by the testimony of inscriptions of Palmyra from the third
century; see Benan (L* Anteckrtst, p. 415).
The coincidence, therefore, must be admitted, and is at any rate
most remarkable, since Nero was the first, as well as the most wicked,
of all imperial persecutors of Christianity, and eminently worthy of
being characterized as the beast from the abyss, and being regarded as
the type and forerunner of Antichrist
846 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
This interpretation, moreover, has the advantage of giving the num-
ber of a man or a particular person (which is not the case with Lateinos),
and affords a satisfactory explanation of the vamans lectio 616 ; for this
number precisely corresponds to the Latin form, NERO GBSAB, and was
probably substituted by a Latin copyist, who in his calculation dropped
the final Nun (=50), from Neron (666 less 60=616).
The series of Roman emperors (excluding Julius Caesar), according to
this explanation, is counted thus : Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Clau-
dius, Nero, Galba. This makes Nero (who died June 9, 68) the fifth,
and Galba the sixth, and seems to fit precisely the passage ch. 17 : 10 :
" Five [of the seven heads of the beast] are fallen, the one [Galba] is,
the other [the seventh] is not yet come ; and when he cometh he must
continue a little while." This leads to the conclusion that the Apoca-
lypse was written during the short reign of Galba, between June 9, 68,
and January 15, 69. It is further inferred from ver. 11 (" the beast that
was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven ; and he
goeth into perdition "), that, in the opinion of the seer and in agreement
with a popular rumor, Nero, one of the seven emperors, would return as
the eighth in the character of Antichrist, but shortly perish.
This plausible solution of the enigma was almost simultaneously and
independently discovered, between 1831 and 1837, by several German
scholars, each claiming the credit of originality, viz. : C. F. A Fritzsche
(in the "Annalen der gesammten theol. Liter," I. 3, Leipzig, 1831);
F. Benary(in the " Zeitschriffe fur specul. Theol.," Berlin, 1836), F.
Hitzig (in Ostern und Pfinysten, Heidelb , 1837) ; E. Reuss (in the
"Hallesche Allg. Lit.-Zeitung " for Sept , 1837) ; and Ewald, who claims
to have made the discovery before 1831, but did not publish it till 1862.
It has been adopted by Baur, Zeller, Hilgenfeld, Yolk mar, Hausratb,
Krenkel, Gebhardt, Renan, Aub6, Reville, Sabatier, Sam. Davidson
(I. 291) ; and among American commentators by Stuart and Cowles. It
is just now the most popular interpretation, and regarded by its cham-
pions as absolutely conclusive.
But, as already stated in the text, there are serious objections to the
Nero-hypotbesis .
(1) The language and readers of the Apocalypse suggest a Greek
rather than a Hebrew explanation of the numerical riddle.
(2) The seer clearly distinguishes the beast, as a collective name for
the Roman empire (so usod also by Daniel), from the seven heads, i.e.,
kings (j3a<ri\f Is ) or emperors. Nero is one of the five heads who ruled
before the date of the Apocalypse. He was " slain " (committed suicide),
and the empire fell into anarchy for two years, until Vespasian restored
it, and so the death-stroke was healed (13 : 3). The three emperors be-
tween Nero and Vespasian (Galba, Otho, and Vitellius) were usurpers, and
represent an interregnum and the deadly wound of the beast. This at
least is a more worthy interpretation and consistent with the actual facts.
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 847
It should be noticed, however, that Josephns, Ant. AVlll. 2, 3 ; 6,
10, very distinctly includes Julius Caesar among the emperors, and
calls Augustus the second, Tiberius the third, Caius Caligula the fourth
Roman emperor. Suetonius begins his Lives of the Twelve Ccesars
with Julius and ends with Domitian, including the lives of Galba,
Otho, and Vitelhus. This fact tends at all events to weaken the founda-
tion of the Nero-hypothesis.
(3) It is difficult to conceive of a reasonable motive for concealing the
detested name of Nero after his death. For this reason Cowles makes
Nero the sixth emperor (by beginning the series with Julius Csesar) and
assigns the composition to his persecuting reign. But this does not ex-
plain the wound of the beast and the statement that " it was and is not"
(4) A radical error, such as the belief in the absurd heathen fable of
the return of Nero, is altogether incompatible with the lofty character
and profound wisdom of the Apocalypse, and would destroy all confi-
dence in its prophecy. If John, as these writers maintain, composed it
in 68, he lived long enough to be undeceived, and would have corrected
the fatal blunder or withheld the book from circulation.
(5) It seems incredible that such an easy solution of the problem
should have remained unknown for eighteen centuries and been reserved
for the wits of half a dozen rival rationalists in Germany. Truth is truth,
and must be thankfully accepted from any quarter and at any time ; yet
as the Apocalypse was written for the benefit of contemporaries of Nero,
one should think that such a solution would not altogether have escaped
them. IrensBUs makes no mention of it.
THE EMPEROR OF HOME.
C^SAR BOM*:, from tan Wp. So Ewald formerly (in his first com-
mentary, published in 1828). But this gives the number 616, which is
rejected by the best critics in favor of 666. In his later work, Ewald
adopts the Nero-hypothesis (Die Johanneischen Schnften, Bd. II., 1862,
p. 202 sq.).
CALIGULA.
From Tdlos Kaltrap. But this counts likewise 616.
Trrus.
The Greek Tclrav. Irenseus considers this the most probable in-
terpretation, because the word is composed of six letters, and belongs
to a royal tyrant. If we omit the final v (n), we get the other reading
(616). The objection is that Titus, the destroyer of Jerusalem, was one
of the best emperors, and not a persecutor of Christians.
VESPASIAN, Trrus, AMD DOMITIAN.
Wetstein refers the letters to TITUS FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS, father and
sons (Titus and Domitian). He thinks that John used both numbers,
848 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
616 in the first, 666 in the second edition of his book. " Eleganter" he
says in his notes, "et apposite Joannes Titum Flavium Vespasianum pat-
rem et JUios hoc nomine designed . . . Convemt secundo nomen Tctru*
prcpnormm tpsorum Trrus. jKes tpsa etiam convenit. Titanes fuerunt 3* o-
/zci^oi, tales etiam Vespasiani." Nov. Test., II., p. 806 ; comp. his critical
note on p. 805.
DIOCLETIAN.
DIOCLETIAN, Emperor, in Boman characters, DIOCLES AUGUSTUS, count-
ing only some of the letters, namely : DIo CLes aVg Vst Vs J Diocle-
tian was the last of the persecuting emperors (d. 313). So Bossuet To
his worthless guess the Huguenots opposed the name of the " grand
monarch " and persecutor of Protestants, Louis XIV., which yields the
same result (LVDo VICVs).
THE ROMAN EMPERORS FROM AUGUSTUS TO VESPASIAN.
Marcker (in the " Studien und Kritiken " for 1868, p. 699) has found
out that the mitial letters of the first ten Roman emperors from Oc-
tavianus (Augustus) to Titus, including the three usurpers Galba, Otho,
and Vitellius, yield the numerical value of 666. Dusterdieck (p. 467)
calls this " cine frappante Spieleiw."
GESAR AUGUSTUS.
KauraprrtpcHrrnv (for — f, suited to the neuter Zrjp'iov), i.e., the "Caesar
Augustan " beast 2 The official designation of the Roman emperors was
Kuto-a/j 2f lao-Tos (CESAR AUGUSTUS), in which their blasphemous apoth-
eosis culminates In support of it may be quoted " the names of blas-
phemy on the heads of the beast," 13 : 1.
This is the conjecture proposed by Dr. Wieseler in his book : Znr
GeschicJUe der Neutest. Schrtft und des Urchnstenthums, 1880, p. 169.
It is certainly ingenious and more consistent with the character of tho
Apocalypse than the Nero-hypothesis. It substantially agrees with the
interpretation Latemos. But the substitution of a final v for <r is an
objection, though not more serious than the omission of the yodh from
THB CHRONOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS. — THE DURATION OP ANTICHRIST.
The number 666 signifies the duration of the beast or anti-Christian
world power, and the false prophet associated with the beast.
(1) The duration of HEATHENISM. But heathen Rome, which perse-
cuted the church, was christianized after the conversion of Constantino,
1 D •= 500 4- T = 1 -i C = 100 + L = 50 + V = 5 + V = 5 = 666.
- The numerical value of KaurafHrt&Mrrov is = 20 + I + 10 4- 200 + 1 -t- 100
+ 300 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 70 + 50, in all 666.
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 849
A.D. 311. The other forms and subsequent history of heathenism lie
outside of the apocalyptic vision.
(2) MOHAMMEDANISM. Pope Innocent in., when rousing Western
Europe to a new crusade, declared the Saracens to be the beast, and
Mohammed the false prophet whose power would last six hundred and
Bixty-six years. See his bull of 1213, in which he summoned the fourth
Lateran Council, m Hardouin, Cmic., Tom. VII. 3. But six hundred
and sixty -six years have passed since the Hegira (622), and even since
tne fourth Lateran Council (1215) ; yet Islam still sits on the throne in
Constantinople, and rules over one hundred and sixty million of con-
sciences.
(3). The anti-Christian PAPACY. This interpretation was suggested by
mediaeval sects hostile to Home, and was matured by orthodox Protes-
tant divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under the fresh
impression of the fearful persecutions which were directly instigated
or approved by the papacy, and which surpass in cruelty and extent the
persecutions of heathen Borne. It is asserted that the terrible Duke of
Alva alone put more Protestants to death in the Netherlands within a
few years than all the heathen emperors from Nero to Diocletian ; and
that the victims of the Spanish Inquisition (105,000 persons in eighteen
years under Torquemada's administration) outnumber the ancient mar-
tyrs. It became almost a Protestant article of faith that the mystical
Babylon, the mother of harlots, riding on the beast, the woman drunken
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus
(Apoc. 17 : 5 sqq ), is none other than the pseudo- Christian and anti-
Christian church of Borne, and this view is still widely prevalent, espe-
cially in Great Britain and North America.
Luther struck the key-note of this anti-popery exegesis. He had at
first a very low opinion of the Apocalypse, and would not recognize it
as apostolio or prophetic (1522), but afterward he utilized it for po-
lemic purposes (in a preface to his edition of the N. T. of 1530). He
dated the one thousand years (20 7) with Augustin from the composi-
tion of the book, and the six hundred and sixty-six years from Gregory
VII , as the supposed founder of the papacy, and understood Gog and
Magog to mean the unspeakable Turks and the Jews. As Gregoiy VII.
was elected pope 1073, the anti-Christian era ought to have come to
an end A.D. 1739 ; but that year passed off without any change in the
history of the papacy.
Luther was followed by Chytrseus (1563), Selnecker (1567), Hoe v.
Honegg (1610 and 1640), and other Lutheran commentators. Calvin
and Beza wisely abstained from prophetic exposition, but other Beformed
divines carried out the anti-popery scheme with much learning, as Bib-
hander (1549* and 1559), Bullinger (1557), David Pareus (1618), Joseph
Mede (the founder of the ingenious syntem of synchronism, in his Cfavis
Apocalyptica, 1627), Coccejus (1696), Vitringa (a very learned and use-
850 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
ful commentator, 1705, 3d ed. 1721), and Job. Albrecht Bengei (in liia
Gnomon, his OrdoTemporum, 1741, and especially his Erklarte Offenbar*
ung Johannts, 1740, new ed. 1834). This truly great and good man
elaborated a learned scheme of chronological interpretation, and fixed
the end of the anti-Christian (papal) reign at the year 1836, and many
pious people among his admirers in Wurtembnrg were in anxious ex-
pectation of the millennium during that year. But it passed away with-
out any serious change, and this failure, according to Bengel's own cor-
rect prediction, indicates a serious error in his scheme. Later writers
have again and again predicted the fall of the papacy and the beginning
of the millennium, advancing the date as times progress ; but the years
1848 and 1870 have passed away, and the Pope still lives, enjoying a
green old age, with the additional honor of infallibility, which the
Fathers never heard of, which even St. Peter never claimed, and St.
Paul effectually disputed at Antioch. All mathematical calculations
about the second advent are doomed to disappointment, and those who
want to know more than our blessed Lord knew in the days of his flesh
deserve to be disappointed. " It is not for you to know times or sea-
sons, which the Father hath set within his own authority " (Acts 1 : 7).
This settles the question.
MYSTICAL AND SYMBOLICAL INTERPRETATIONS.
The number is neither alphabetical nor chronological, but the mysti-
cal or symbolical name of Antichrist, who is yet to come. Here we
meet again with different views.
Primasius, the African commentator of the Apocalypse (a pupil of
Augnstin), mentions two names as giving the general characteristics of
Antichrist : 'Ain-r/tior and dpvovn*, the former honori contrarius, the other
from appe'o/i<u, to deny, by which the Antichrist is justly described,
" utpote per duos paries arationis, nominis scilicet et verbi, et personce
qualitas et operis insinuatur avperitas." Utterly worthless. See Lucke,
p. 997. Znllig finds in the figure the name of Bileam. Not much better
is Hengstenberg's explanation : Adonikam, i.e , " The Lord arises," a
good name for Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:4)! He bases it on Ezra 2 : 13 :
'•The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six." Ezra gives a
list of the children of Israel who returned from the captivity under
ZerubbabeL What this has to do with Antichrist is difficult to see.
Von Hofinann and Fiiller think that the number implies the personal
name of Antichrist.
Another view is this : the number is symbolical, like all other num-
bers in the Apocalypse, and signifies the anti- Christian world-power in
all its successive forms from heathen Borne down to the end. Hence it
admits of many applications, as there are "many Antichrists." The
frtynber six is the number of human work and toil (six days of the
week), as seven is the number of divine rest Or, six is the half of
§ 101. THE APOCALYPSE. 861
twelve — the number of the church — and indicates the divided condition
of the temporal power. Three sixes signify worldliness (worldly glory,
worldly wisdom, worldly civilization) at the height of power, which with
all vaunted strength is but weakness and folly, and falls short of the
divine perfection symbolized by the numbers seven and twelve. Such
or similar views were suggested by Herder, Auberlen, Rosch, Hengsten-
berg, Burger, Maurice, Wordsworth, Vaughan, Carpenter, etc.
THE MESSIAH OP SATAN.
To the class of mystical interpretation belongs the recent view of
Professor Godet, of Neuchatel, which deserves special mention. This
eminent commentator sees in 666 the emblematic name of THE MESSIAH
OP SATAN in opposition to the divine Messiah. The number was origi-
nally represented by the three letters x£ «•'. The first and the last let-
ters are an abridgment of the name of Christ, and have the value of 606
(^ = 600 + r = 6) ; the middle £ is, in virtue of its form and of the sibi-
lant sound, the emblem of Satan, and as a cipher has the value of 60.
Satan is called in the Apocalypse the old serpent in allusion to the history
of the temptation (Gen. 3). This explanation was first suggested by
Heumann and Herder, and is made by Godet the basis of an original
theory, namely, that Antichrist or the man of sin will be a Jew who will
set up a carnal Israel in opposition to the true Messiah, and worship
the prince of this world in order to gain universal empire.1 Cvrruptio
optimi pessima. Kenan says : " Nothing can equal in wickedness the
wickedness of Jews : at the same time the best of men have been Jews ;
you may say of this race whatever good or evil you please, without dan-
ger of overstepping the truth." In blasphemy, as well as in adoration,
the Jew is the foremost of mankind. Only an apostate can blaspheme
with all his heart. Our Gentile Voltaires are but lambs as compared
with Jews in reviling Christ and his church. None but Israel could
give birth to Judas, none but apostate Israel can give birth to Anti-
christ. Israel answers precisely to the description of the apocalyptic
beaat, which was and is not and shall be (17 . 11), which was wounded to
ckatJiy and is to bo miraculously 7tealed, in order to play, as the eighth
head, the part of Antichrist. Godet refers to the rising power of the
Jews in wealth, politics, and literature, and especially their command
of the anti-Christian press in Christian countries, as indications of the
approach of the fulfilment of this prophecy.
Godet holds to the late date of the Apocalypse under Domitian, and
rejects the application nf the seven heads of the beast to Roman
emperors. He applies thvin, like Auberlen, Hengstenberg, and others,
to as many empires, before and after Christ, but brings in, as a new fea-
ture, the Herodian dynasty, which was subject to the Roman power.
1 In the essay above quoted, p. 388, and in the article Revelation in John*
son's u Cyclopedia," III 1606 sqq.
852 FIBST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
According to his view, the first head is ancient Egypt trying to
destroy Israel in its cradle ; the second is the Assyro-Babylonian empire
which destroyed the kingdom of the ten tribes, and then Jerusalem ;
the third is the Persian empire, which held restored Israel under its
authority ; the fourth is the Greek monarchy under Antiochus Epiphanes
(the little horn of Daniel, ch. 8, the Antichrist of the Old Testament),
who attempted to suppress the worship of God in Israel, and to substi-
tute that of Zeus ; the fifth is the Jewish state under the Herods and
the pontificates of Annas and Oaiaphas, who crucified the Saviour and
then tried to destroy his church ; the sixth is the Roman empire, which
is supposed to embrace all political power in Europe to this day ; the
seventh head is that power of short duration which shall destroy the
whole political system of Europe, and prepare it for the arrival of
Antichrist from the bosom of infidel Judaism. In this way Godet
harmonizes the Apocalypse with the teaching of Paul concerning the
restraining effect of the Koman empire, which will be overthrown in
order to give way to the full sway of Antichrist. The eighth head is
Israel restored, with a carnal Messiah at its head, who will preach the
worship of humanity and overthrow Borne, the old enemy of the Jews
(Apoc. 18), but be overthrown in turn by Christ (ch 19 and 2 These.
2 : 8). Then follows the millennium, the sabbath of humanity on earth
after its long week of work, not necessarily a visible reign of Christ,
but a reign by his Spirit. At the end of this period, Satan, who as yet
is only bound, shall try once more to destroy the work of God, but shall
only prepare his final defeat, and give the signal for the universal judg-
ment (ch. 20). The terrestrial state founded on the day of creation now
gives place to the new heavens and the new earth (ch. 21), in which
God shall be all in all. Anticipating the sight of this admirable spec-
tacle, John prostrates himself and invites all the faithful to cry with the
Spirit and the spouse, "Lord, come— come soon" (ch 22). What a
vast drama ! What a magnificent conclusion to the Scriptures opening
with Genesis ! The first creation made ma1! free ; the second shall
make him holy, and then the work of God is accomplished.
CONCLUSION.
A very ingenious interpretation, with much valuable truth, but not
the last word yet on this mysterious book, and very doubtful in its
solution of the numerical riddle. The primary meaning of the beast, as
already remarked, is heathen Borne, as represented by that monster
tyrant and persecutor, Nero, the very incarnation of satanic wickedness.
The oldest interpretation (Lateinos), known already to a grand-pupil of
St. John, is also the best, and it is all the more plausible because the
other interpretations which give us the alphabetical value of 666,
namely, Nero and Ccesar Augustus, likewise point to the same Boman
§ 102. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS, 853
power which kept np a bloody crusade of three hundred years against
Christianity. But the political beast, and its intellectual ally, the
false prophet, appear again and again in history, and make war upon
the church and the truth of Christ, within and without the circle of the
old Roman empire. Many more wonders of exegetical ability and his-
torical learning will yet be performed before the mysteries of Revelation
are solved, if they ever will be solved before the final fulfilment. In
the meantime, the book will continue to accomplish its practical mission
of comfort and encouragement to every Christian in the conflict of faith
for the crown of life.
§ 102. Concluding Reflections. Faith and Criticism.
There is no necessary conflict between faith and criticism
any more than between revelation and reason or between faith
and philosophy. God is the author of both, and he cannot
contradict himself. There is an uncritical faith and a faithless
criticism, as there is a genuine philosophy and a philosophy
falsely so called ; but this is no argument either against faith or
criticism ; for the best gifts are liable to abuse and perversion ;
and the noblest works of art may be caricatured. The apostle
of faith directs us to " prove all things," and to " hold fast that
which is good." We believe in order to understand, and true
faith is the mother of knowledge. A z*ational faith in Chris-
tianity, as the best and final religion which God gave to man-
kind, owes it to itself to examine the foundation on which it
rests ; and it is urged by an irresistible impulse to vindicate the
truth against every form of error. Christianity needs no
apology. Conscious of its supernatural strength, it can boldly
meet every foe and convert him into an ally.
Looking back upon the history of the apostolic age, it appears
to us as a vast battle-field of opposite tendencies and schools.
Every inch of ground is disputed and has to be reconquered ;
every fact, as well as every doctrine of revelation, is called
in question ; every hypothesis is tried ; all the resources of
learning, acumen, and ingenuity are arrayed against the citadel
of the Christian faith. The citadel is impregnable, and victory
is certain, but not to those who ignorantly or superciliously
864 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
underrate the strength of the besieging army. In the sixteenth
century the contest was between Koman Catholicism and Evan-
gelical Protestantism; in the nineteenth century the question
is Christianity or infidelity. Then both parties believed in the
inspiration of the New Testament and the extent of the canon,
differing only in the interpretation ; now inspiration is denied,
and the apostolicity of all but four or five books is assailed.
Then the Word of God, with or without tradition, was the final
arbiter of religious controversies ; now human reason is the ulti-
mate tribunal.
We live in an age of discovery, invention, research, and
doubt. Scepticism is well nigh omnipresent in the thinking
world. It impregnates the atmosphere. We can no more ig-
nore it than the ancient Fathers could ignore the Gnostic specu-
lations of their day. Nothing is taken for granted ; nothing
believed on mere authority ; everything must be supported by
adequate proof, everything explained in its natural growth from
the seed to the fruit. Roman Catholics believe in an infallible
oracle in the Vatican ; but whatever the oracle may decree,
the earth moves and will continue to move around the sun.
Protestants, having safely crossed the Red Sea, cannot go back
to the flesh-pots of the land of bondage, but must look forward
to the land of promise. In the night, says a proverb, all cattle
are black, bnt the daylight reveals the different colors.
Why did Christ not write the New Testament, as Mohammed
wrote the Koran ? Writing was not beneath his dignity ; he
did write once in the sand, though we know not what. God
himself wrote the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone.
But Moses broke them to pieces when he saw that the people of
Israel worshipped the golden calf before the thunders from Sinai
had ceased to reverberate in their ears. They might have
turned those tables into idols. God buried the great law-giver
out of sight and out of the reach of idolatry. The gospel was
still less intended to be a dumb idol than the. law. It is not a
killing letter but a lifegiving spirit. It is the spirit that quick-
eneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words of Christ
§ 102. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 866
" are spirit and are life." A book written by his own unerring
hand, unless protected by a perpetual miracle, would have been
subject to the same changes and corruptions in the hands of
fallible transcribers and printers as the books of his disciples,
and the original autograph would have perished with the brittle
papyrus. Nor would it have escaped the unmerciful assaults of
sceptical and infidel critics, and misinterpretations of commen-
tators and preachers. He himself was crucified by the hierarchy
of his own people, whom he came to save. What better fate
could have awaited his book ? Of course, it would have risen
from the dead, in spite of the doubts and conjectures and false-
hoods of unbelieving men ; but the same is true of the writings
of the apostles, though thousands of copies have been burned
by heathens and false Christians. Thomas might put his hand
into the wound-prints of his risen Lord ; but " Blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed."
We must believe in the Holy Spirit who lives and moves in
the Church and is the invisible power behind the written and
printed word.
The form in which the authentic records of Christianity have
come down to us, with their variations and difficulties, is a
constant stimulus to study and research and calls into exercise
all the intellectual and moral faculties of men. Every one must
strive after the best understanding of the truth with a faithful
use of his opportunities and privileges, which are multiplying
with every generation.
The New Testament is a revelation of spiritual and eternal
truth to faith, and faith is the work of the Holy Spirit, though
rooted in the deepest wants and aspirations of man. It has to
fight its way through an unbelieving world, and the conflict waxes
hotter and hotter as the victory comes nearer. ( For the last half
century the apostolic writings have been passing through the
purgatory of the most scorching criticism to which a book can
be subjected. The opposition is itself a powerful testimony to
their vitality and importance^
There are two kinds of scepticism: one represented by
866 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
Thomas, honest, earnest, seeking and at last finding the truth;
the other represented by Sadducees and Pontius Pilate, super-
ficial, worldly, frivolous, indifferent to truth and ending in de-
spair. With the latter " even the gods reason in vain." When
it takes the trouble to assail the Bible, it deals in sneers and
ridicule which admit of no serious answer. The roots of infi-
delity lie in the heart and will rather than in the reason and in-
tellect, and wilful opposition to the truth is deaf to any argu-
ment. But honest, truth-loving scepticism always deserves re-
gard and sympathy and demands a patient investigation of the
real or imaginary difficulties which are involved in the pro-
blem of the origin of Christianity.} It may be more useful
to the church than an unthinking and unreasoning orthodoxy.
\()ne of the ablest and purest sceptical critics of the century
(DeWette) made the sad, but honorable confession :
44 1 lived in times of doubt and strife,
When childlike faith was forced to yield ;
I struggled to the end of life,
Alas ! I did not gain the field."
But he did gain the field, after all, at last ; for a few months
before his death he wrote and published this significant sen-
tence : " I know that in no other name can salvation be found,
than in the name of Jesus Christ the Crucified, and there is
nothing higher for mankind than the divine humanity (Gott-
vwnschfieit) realized in him, and the kingdom of God planted by
him." Blessed are those that seek the truth, for they shall find it.
The critical and historical rationalism which was born and
matured in this century in the land of Luther, and has spread in
Switzerland, France, Holland, England, Scotland, and America,
surpasses in depth and breadth of learning, as well as in earnest-
ness of spirit, all older forms of infidelity and heresy. It is riot
superficial and frivolous, as the rationalism of the eighteenth
century ; it is not indifferent to truth, but intensely interested in
ascertaining the real facts, and tracing the origin and develop-
ment of Christianity, as a great historical phenomenon But it
§ 102. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 857
arrogantly claims to be the criticism par excellence, as the Gnos-
ticism of the ancient church pretended to have the monopoly of
knowledge. There is a historical, conservative, and constructive
criticism, as well as an unhistorical, radical, and destructive criti-
cism ; and the former must win the fight as sure as God's truth
will outlast all error. So there is a believing and Christian
Gnosticism as well as an unbelieving/and anti- (or pseudo-) Chris-
tian Gnosticism]
The negative criticism of the present generation has concen-
trated its forces upon the life of Christ and the apostolic age,
and spent an astonishing amount of patient research upon the
minutest details of its history. And its labors have not been in
vain ; on the contrary, it has done a vast amount of good, as
well as evil. Its strength lies in the investigation of the human
and literary aspect of the Bible ; its weakness in the ignoring
of its divine and spiritual character. It forms thus the very
antipode of the older orthodoxy, which so overstrained the the-
ory of inspiration as to reduce the human agency to the mechan-
ism of the pen. We must look at both aspects. The Bible is
the Word of God and the word of holy men of old. It is a
revelation of man, as well as of God. It reveals man in all his
phases of development — innocence, fall, redemption— in all the
varieties of character, from heavenly purity to satanic wicked-
ness, with all his virtues and vices, in all his states of experience,
und is an ever-flowing bpring of inspiration to the poet, the artist,
the historian, and divine. It reflects and perpetuates the mystery
of the incarnation. It is the word of him who proclaimed him-
self the Son of Man, as well as the JSon of God. " Men spake
from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" Here all is di-
vine and all is human,
No doubt the New Testament is the result of a gradual growth
and conflict of different forces, which were included in the orig-
inal idea of Christianity and were drawn out as it passed from
Christ to his disciples, from the Jews to the Gentiles, from Je-
rusalem to Antioch and Rome, and as it matured in the mind of
tlje leading apostles. No doubt the Gospels and Epistles were
868 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
written by certain men, at a certain time, in a certain place,
under certain surroundings, and for definite ends ; and all these
questions are legitimate objects of inquiry and eminently deserv-
ing of ever-renewed investigation. Many obscure points have
been cleared up, thanks, in part, to these very critics, who in-
tended to destroy, and helped to build up.
The literary history of the apostolic age, like its missionary
progress, was guided by a special providence. Christ only fin-
ished a part of his work while on earth. He pointed his disci-
ples to greater works, which they would accomplish in his name
and by his power, after his resurrection. He promised them
his unbroken presence, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, who,
as the other Advocate, should lead them into the whole truth and
open to them the understanding of all his words. The Acts of
the Apostles are a history of the Holy Spirit, or of the post-
resurrection work of Christ in establishing his kingdom on earth.
Filled with that Spirit, the apostles and evangelists went forth in-
to a hostile world and converted it to Christ by their living word,
and they continue their conquering march by their written word.
Unbelieving criticism • sees only the outside surface of the
greatest movement in history, and is blind to the spiritual forces
working from within or ref use§ to acknowledge them as truly
divine. In like manner, the materialistic and atheistic scientists of
the age conceive of nature's laws without a lawgiver ; of a creature
without a creator ; and stop with the effect, without rising to the
cause, which alone affords a rational explanation of the effect.
And here we touch upon the deepest spring of all forms of
rationalism, and upon the gulf which inseparably divides it from
supernaturalism. It is the opposition to the supernatural and the
miraculous. It denies God in nature and God in history, and,
in its ultimate consequences, it denies the very existence of God.
Deism and atheism have no place for a miracle ; but belief in
the existence of an Almighty Maker of all things visible and in-
visible, as the ultimate and allsufficient cause of all phenomena
in nature and in history, implies the possibility of miracle at any
time ; not, indeed, as a violation of his own laws, but as a man-
§ 102. CONCLUDING BEFLECTIONS. 859
ifestation of his lawgiving and creative power over and above
(not against) the regular order of events. The reality of the
miracle, in any particular case, then, becomes a matter of his-
torical investigation. It cannot be disposed of by a simple de-
nial from it priori philosophical prejudice ; but must be fairly
examined, and, if sufficiently corroborated by external and in-
ternal evidence, it must be admitted.
Now, the miracles of Christ cannot be separated from his
person and his teachings. His words are as marvellous as
his deeds ; both form a harmonious whole, and they stand or
fall together. His person is the great miracle, and his miracles
are simply his natural works. He is as much elevated above
other men as his words and deeds are above ordinary words
and deeds. He is separated from all mortals by his absolute
freedom from sin. Ho, himself, claims superhuman origin and
supernatural powers ; and to deny them is to make hirn a liar and
impostor. It is impossible to maintain his human perfection,
which all respectable rationalists admit and even emphasize, and
yet to refuse his testimony concerning himself. The Christ of
Strauss and of Eenan is the most contradictory of all characters ;
the most incredible of all enigmas. There is no possible scien-
tific mediation between a purely humanitarian conception of
Christ, no matter how high he may be raised in the scale of be-
ings, and the faith in Christ as the Son of God, whom Chris-
tendom has adored from the beginning and still adores as the
Lord and Saviour of the world.
Nor can we eliminate the supernatural element from the
Apostolic Church without destroying its very life and resolving
it into a gigantic illusion. What becomes of Paul if we deny
his conversion, and how shall we account for his conversion
without the Resurrection and Ascension? The greatest of
modern sceptics paused at the problem, and felt almost forced
to admit an actual miracle, as the only rational solution of that
conversion. The Holy Spirit was the inspiring and propelling
power of the apostolic age, and made the fishers of Galilee
fishers of men.
860 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
( A Christian, who has experienced the power of the gospel in
his heart, can have no difficulty with the supernatural. He is
as sure of the regenerating and converting agency of the Spirit
of God and the saving efficacy of Christ as he is of his own
natural existence, lie has tasted the medicine and ' has been
healed. He may say with the man who was born blind and
made to see : " One thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind,
now I see." This is a short creed ; but stronger than any argu-
ment. The fortress of personal experience is impregnable ; the
logic of stubborn facts is more cogent than the logic of reason.
Every genuine conversion from sin to holiness is a psychological
miracle, as much so as the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
The secret or open hostility to the supernatural is the moving
spring of infidel criticism. We may freely admit that certain
difficulties about the time and place of composition and other
minor details of the Gospels and Epistles are not, and perhaps
never can be, satisfactorily solved ; but it is, nevertheless, true
that they are far better authenticated by internal and external
evidence than any books of the great Greek and Roman clas-
sics, or of Philo and Josephus, which are accepted by scholars
without a doubt. As early as the middle of the second century,
that is, fifty years after the death of the Apostle John, when
yet many of his personal pupils and friends must have been
living, the four Canonical Gospels, no more and no less, were
recognized and read in public worship as sacred books, in the
churches of Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, Italy, and Gaul ; and
such universal acceptance and authority in the face of Jewish
and heathen hostility and heretical perversion can only be ex-
plained on the ground that they were known and used long
before. Some of them, Matthew and John, were quoted and
used in the first quarter of the second century by Orthodox and
Gnostic writers. Every new discovery, as the last book of the
pseudo-" Clementine Homilies," the " Philosophumena " of
Hippolytus, the " Diatessaron " of Tatian, and every deeper in-
vestigation of the " Gospel Memoirs " of Justin Martyr, and the
" Gospel " of Marcion in its relation to Luke, have strengthened
§ 102. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 861
the cause of historical and conservative criticism and inflicted
bleeding wounds on destructive criticism. If quotations from
the end of the first and the beginning of the second century are
very rare, we must remember that we have only a handful of
literary documents from that period, and that the second gener-
ation of Christians was not a race of scholars and scribes and
critics, but of humble, illiterate confessors and martyrs, who
still breathed the bracing air of the living teaching, and personal
reminiscences of the apostles and evangelists.
But the Synoptical Gospels bear the strongest internal marks
of having been composed before the destruction of Jerusalem
(A.D. 70), which is therein prophesied by Christ as a future
event and as the sign of the fast approaching judgment of the
world, in a manner that is consistent only with such early com-
position. The Epistle to the Hebrews, likewise, was written
when the Temple was still standing, and sacrifices were offered
from day to day. Yet, as this early date is not conceded by all,
we will leave the Epistle out of view. The Apocalypse of John
is very confidently assigned to the year 68 or 69 by Baur,
Rer.an, and others, who would put the Gospels down to a much
later date. They also concede the Pauline authorship of the great
anti-Judaic Epistles to the Galatians, .Romans, and Corinthians,
and make them the very basis of their assaults upon the minor
Pauline Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles, on the ground of
exaggerated or purely imaginary differences. Those Epistles of
Paul were written twelve or fourteen years before the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem. This brings us within less than thirty years
of the resurrection of Christ and the birthday of the church.
Now, if we confine ourselves to these five books, which the
most exacting and rigorous criticism admits to be apostolic —
the four Pauline Epistles and the Apocalypse— they alone are
sufficient to establish the foundation of historical faith; for
they confirm by direct statement or allusion every important
fact and doctrine in the gospel history, without referring to the
written Gospels. The memory and personal experience of the
writers — Paul and John — goes back to the vision of Damascus,
862 FIRST PERIOD. A.D. 1-100.
to the scenes of the Resurrection and Crucifixion, and the first
call of the disciples on the banks of the Jordan and the shores
of the Lake of Galilee, (f Criticism must first reason Paul and
John out of history, or deny that they ever wrote a line, before
it can expect sensible men to surrender a single chapter of the
Gospels.)
Strong as the external evidence is, the internal evidence of
the truth and credibility of the apostolic writings is still
stronger, and may be felt to this day by the unlearned as well
as the scholar. They widely differ in style and spirit from all
post-apostolic productions, and occupy a conspicuous isolation
even among the best of books. This position they have occupied
for eighteen centuries among the most civilized nations of the
globe ; and from this position they are not likely to be deposed.
We must interpret persons and events not only by themselves,
but also in the light of subsequent history. " By their fruits ye
shall know them." Christianity can stand this test better than
any other religion, and better than any system of philosophy.
Taking our position at the close of the apostolic age, and
looking back to its fountain-head and forward to succeeding
generations, we cannot but be amazed at the magnitude of tlio
effects produced by the brief public ministry of Jesus of Naza-
reth, which sends its blessings through centuries as an unbroken
and ever-expanding river of life. There is absolutely nothing
like it in the annals of the race. The Roman empire em-
braced, at the birth of Christ, over one hundred millions of
men, conquered by force, and, after having persecuted his reli-
gion for three hundred years, it died away without the possi-
bility of a resurrection. The Christian church now numbers
four hundred millions, conquered by the love of Christ, and is
constantly increasing. The first century is the life and light of
history and the turning point of the ages. If ever God revealed
himself to man, if ever heaven appeared on earth, it was in
the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. He is, beyond any
shadow of doubt, and by the reluctant consent of sceptics and
infidels, the wisest of the wise, the purest of the pure, and the
§ 102. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 863
mightiest of the mighty. His Cross has become the tree of
life to all nations ; his teaching is still the highest standard of
religious truth ; his example the unsurpassed ideal of holiness ;
the Gospels and Epistles of his Galilean disciples are still the
book of books, more powerful than all the classics of human
wisdom and genius. I Is o book has attracted so much attention,
provoked so much opposition, outlived so many persecutions,
called forth so much reverence and gratitude, inspired so many
noble thoughts and deeds, administered so much comfort and
peace from the cradle to the grave to all classes and conditions
of men. It is more than a book ; it is an institution, an all-per-
vading omnipresent force, a converting, sanctifying, transform-
ing agency ; it rules from the pulpit and the chair ; it presides
at the family altar ; it is the sacred ark of every household, the
written conscience of every Christian man, the pillar of cloud
by day, the pillar of light by night in the pilgrimage of life.
Mankind is bad enough, and human life dark enough with it ;
but how much worse and how much darker would they be
without it? Christianity might live without the letter of the
New Testament, but not without the facts and truths which it
records and teaches. Were it possible to bamsh them from the
world, the sun of our civilization would be extinguished, and
mankind left to midnight darkness, with the dreary prospect of
a dreamless and endless Nirvana.)
{"But no power on earth or in hell can extinguish that sun.
There it shines on the horizon, the king of day, obscured at
times by clouds great or small, but breaking through again and
again, and shedding light and life from east to west, until the
darkest corners of the globe shall be illuminated. The past is
secure ; God will take care of the future.^
MAGNA KBT VKKITAS ET
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
ACITAIA, 734
Acts of the Apostles, 187, 195, 724;
contents, 720 ; sources, 727; date,
727 ; relation to the Gospels, 729 ,
to the Epistles, 729 , to secular his-
tory, 731 ; ciitical questions respect-
ing, 737
Adam of Bremen, 30
Agape, 473
Alogi, 717
Alzog, 35
Anastasius, 30
Andiew, the Apostle, 200
Angels of the Apocalyp.se, 497
Antichrist, 841 , interpretations, his-
torical, 844; chronological, 848;
mystical and symbolical, 830
Antioch, church of, 279, 319
Antoninus, 30
Apocalypse of St John, 385, 419, 427,
825 , general character, 826 , anal-
ysis, 831 ; authorship, 832 , date,
834 ; interpretation, 838 , the num-
ber of the beast, 841
Apocryphal Gospels, 90
Apocryphal Acts and Epistles, 188
Apollos, 758
Apostles' Creed, 434
Apostles, representative, 199-205 ; the
office, 489
Apostolic age, character of, 194 ; criti-
cal reconstruction of, 205, chro-
nology of, 217
Apostolic church, alleged parties in
the, 209 ; spiritual condition of, 450
Apostolic Council at Jerusalem, 335,
850 ; letter of, 345
Apostolic theology, ita unity, 611 5
types of, 515
Aratus, 290
Areopagus, Paul's sermon on the, 325
Aristotle, 75, 78
Arnold, Gottfried, 39
Athens, Paul at, 325
Atonement, Paul's idea of, 530
Augustm, quoted respecting John, 430 ;
respecting the symbolism of theGos
pels, 580
BAIRD, H M , 51
Baptism, 465 , idea, 466 ; form, 468 ;
subjects, 409 ; of infants, 469
Bar-Cocheba, 403
Barnabas, 323
Baronms, 30
Basnage, 31
Baur, F C , 43, 208
Beda Venerabilis, 30
Berosa, 325
Bethlehem, 139
Beza, quoted on Paul's Epistles, 754
Bishops, 491 ; identical with Presby.
ters, 492 , origin and office, 495
Bossuet, 33
Brothers of the Lord, 272-275
C^ESAREA PHILIPPI, 143
Caesarea Stratoms, 327
Calhstus, 29
Cassiodorus 29
Cerinthus, 430, 717
Chansms, 437
Charity, 440
866
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
Clement of Rome on Paul's captivity
and martyrdom, 332
Christ Jesus, see Jesus Christ
Christian life, 432 ; John's doctrine of,
560
Christian name, origin of, 279
Christianity, preparation for, 56 ;
spread of, 196; reasons for rapid
spread, 197 ; affected by destruction
of Jerusalem, 403 ; spiritual power
of, 432 , in individuals, 441 ; in the
family, 443, extinguished slavery,
445 , in society, 448
Christians, designations of, 279
Christology of Paul, 543, 775 ; of Pe-
ter, 524 , of John, 552
Christ party at Connth, 758
Church, general idea of, 506; its re-
lation to the State, 506 ; Paul's
view of, 507
Church history, nature of, 2 ; defini-
tion, 3 ; branches of, 6 , sources of,
11 ; ages and periods of, 13 , uses
of, 20 ; method of, 22
Circumcision, question of, 335, 337
Cleanthes, 290
Clement of Alexandria upon John,
429
Clement of Rome upon Paul's martyr-
dom, 332
Colossae, and the church of, 770
Colossian heresy, 772
Colossians, Epistle to the, 769 ; com-
pared with Ephesians, 782-788
Communion, the Holy, see Lord's Sup-
per
Confession of faith, 464
Conversion, in general, 535 ; of Paul,
cases analogous to, 304
Corinth, parties in the congregation
of, 758
Corinthians, First Epistle to the, 758 ;
Second Epistle, 760
Cornelius, 278
Council of Jerusalem, 339, 503
Critical schools, 208
Criticism, textual, 206; historical,
207 ; relation to faith, 853
DEACONS, Deaconesses, 499 ; in post-
apostolic times, 500
Development of the church, 4
Discipline of the church, 501
Doctrines, history of, 10
Dolhnger, 35
Domitian, 427
Dorner, I. A , 45
Dupin, 33
EASTKR, 480
EbioDism, 567
Ebionite fiction concerning Peter, 257
Ebrard, 45
Elders, 491 ; teaching and ruling, 496
Election taught by Paul, 534
Election of church officers, 485, 495
Engelhardt, 44
Ephesians, Epistle of Paul to the, 776 ;
compared with Colossians, 782-788 ;
Epistle to the, in the Apocalypse,
453
Ephesus, Paul at, 326 ; ruins of, 736
Epictetus, 770
Episcopacy, nearest approach to, in
New Testament, 498
Epistles, in general, 739; the Catho-
lic, 741 ; the Pauline, 749 (in general,
749 ; chronology, 751 ; doctrinal ar-
rangement, 752 ; Epistles of the
Captivity, 767)
Evagrms, 29
Evangelists, 491
Ewald, quoted on Paul's Epistles, 754
F \BRE, 32
Faith and criticism, 853
Faith and works in James1 theology,
519
Family, influence of Christianity upo*
the, 443
Farrar, F. W., 49, 245
Felix, 327
Festivals, 480
Festus, 327
Fisher, G P., 51
Flacius, 37
Fleury, 33
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
867
Floras, Gessins, 394
Fncke, 45
Foreknowledge and foreordination,
Paul's doctrine of, 534
GALATIA, churches of, 324, 763
Galntians, Epistles to the, 762
Gahlce, Sea of, 143
Gentile Chmtianity, 209 ; theology of,
52.~>
Gfrurer, 35
Gibbon, 47
Gieseler, 42
Gifts, spiritual, 436
Gillett 51
Glorification Paul's doctime of, 539
Glossolaha, 230, 234
Gnosticism and Gnostics, 210, 566
Godet, quoted on John, 421
Gospels, ht( rature on the, 575, general
character and aim, 579 , common
origin, 581 , individual characteris-
tics, 581 ; dates, 582 , credibility,
584, 589 , symbolism, 585 , synop-
tic, see Synoptists
Greek culture and literature in its re-
lation to Christianity, 76
Gregory of Tours, 30
Guencke, 45
II \GKNIUCTI, 44
Hardvvick, 48
lla^c, 44
Hasse, 45
Haymo 30
Heathenism, 71, 85; character of the
gods of, 73, fragments of truth in, 74
Hebrews, Epistle to the, 808; con-
tents, 810 , style, 813 ; occasion and
aim, 814 , time aud place of com-
position, 816 , authorship, 817-823,
its position in the New Testament,
82<t , its hapaxlegomena, 824
Hefele, 34
Hellenists, 87
Henke, 40
Heresy and apostolio teaching, 564
Hergenrother, 35
Herod the Great, 112
Herod Agnppa I., 250
Herod Agnppa II , 327
Herzog, 45, 52
Hierapohs, and the church of, 770
Hillel, 159
Holy Spirit, descent of, 227 , Paul's
doctrine of, 5J2 , John's doctrine of,
559
Hottinger, 38
Hymns in early Christian worship, 463
IDELEU on the date of Christ's birth,
117
Immeision, 468
Incarnation, John's doctrine of, 563
Interdependency- theory of the Synop-
tists, 608
Inspiration- theory of the Synoptists,
608
I Irenseus, quoted from respecting John,
I 430; respecting the symbolism of
I the Gospels, 586
Irvmgite view of the apostolic offices,
489
JAMES the Elder, the son of Zebedee,
199
James the Just, the brother of the
Lord, 265, conversion, 2(>0, rela-
tion to Paul, 2(57, 521 ; death, 267 ;
Epistle, 269, 74 > , doc'rmal system,
209, 517 , descuption of, 276 , speech
in the Apostolic Council, 344
James the Less (or Little}, the son of
Alpheus, 272
Jerusalem, 144, 152, congregation of,
247, destruction of, 391, J,98, Ro-
man triumph, 400 ; Council of, 339,
503
Jesus Christ, Josephus1 testimony to,
92 , person of, 100 , position in his-
tory, 100; outline of the life, 101-
106 ; moral character, 106; divinity,
107 , year of buth of, 1 11-127 ; year
of beginning to preach, 119; year
of crucifixion, 126, 133 ; day of birth
of, 127-129 ; length of life of, 129;
868
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
length of public ministry, 130; coun-
try of, 137-145 ; people of,"146; the
Messiah, 157; and Hillel, 159 ; apo-
cryphal sayings of, 162; personal
appearance of, 167 ; Mara's testi-
mony to, 171 ; resurrection of, 172-
186 , skeptical testimonies to, 435 :
discourses in the Synoptics and the
Fourth Gospel compared, 693
Jewish Christianity, 209; Christian
theology, 517
Jewish religion, 64 , influence of, 67 ;
war, 393
Jews, their political condition at the
time of Christ, 85 ; their religious
condition, 87, 154
John the Apostle and Evangelist, 199,
412 ; his early life, 413 , education,
414 ; character and position in the
apostolic church, 416, 423 , writ-
ings, 418; apostolic labors, 423 ; life
at Ephesus, 424, death, 424, 429,
banishment to Patmos, 426 , tradi-
tions respecting, 429 , epithets of,
430, doctrinal system, 549, writings,
Apocalypse, 419, 427 , Gospel, 419,
675 (relation to Synoptists, 676 ; oc-
casion for, 678; object, 680 , analy-
sis of, 683 ; characteristics, 688 ,
discourses of Chiist in, compared
with those in the Synoptics, 693
style, 699 , proofs of the Johannean
authorship, 701 , refutation of erro-
neous views respecting, 721) ; Epis-
tles, 748
John the Baptist, the representative
of the law and the prophets, 70
John of Gischala, 400, 401
Josephns, testimony concerning Jesus,
92 ; testimony concerning John i,he
Baptist, 1 70 ; on the destruction of
Jerusalem, 399; rewarded by the
Romans, 401
Judaism, 62
Judaizers, 565, 567
Jude, Epistle of, 747
Justification by faith, Paul's doctrine
of, 636
KATERKAMP, 34
Kepler, 115, 116
Kingdom of Christ, 506
Kollner, 45
Kraus, 35
Kurtz, 35
LADERCHI, 31
Laodicea, church of, 452, 769
Laurentius Valla, 30
Laying on of hands, 496
Law of Moses, 66
Lecky, testimony to Christ, 435
Lindner, 45
Logos in John's theology, 552
Lord's Day, the substitute for the Sab-
bath, 477; the first day of the week,
478 , its universal obseivance, 478 ;
kept by Jewish Christians alongside
of the Sabbath, 478
Lord's Supper, 471 , daily celebrated,
473 ; preparation for, 473 , theories
respecting, 474 ; true idea of, 474
Luke, life of, 649; Gospel of, 652,
contents, 656 ; characteristic fea-
tures, 659; style, 664 , genuineness,
668, credibility, 6G9; date, 670
Lydia (person), 735
MAGDEBURG centuries, 37
Magi, star and visit of, 113
Mara's testimony to Christ, 171
Mark, life of, 628; Gospel of, 631 ;
character and aim, 632; doctrinal
position, 635; style, 636; charao
teristic details, 638 ; integrity, 641 ;
disputed close, 643-647
Matthew, 613 ; Gospel of, 614 ; char-
acter and aim, 615 , topical arrange-
ment, 618; original sections, 619;
style, 620 ; critical and literary ques-
tions respecting, 621-627
Merle d'Aubign6, 45
Messianic expectations, 155, 394
Mill, John Stuart, testimony to Christ,
436
Mil man, 40
Milner, 48
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
869
Ministerial office, 484 ; its functions,
485; qualifications for, 485 ; Bishop
Lightfoot upon, 486 ; appeal to the
New Testament concerning, 487
Miracles, gift of, 439
Mohler, 35
Mosheim, 39
NATALIB, Alexander, 32
Nazareth, 140
Neander, 40
Nero, 378, 389; persecution of the
Christians under, 380, 387 ; its ex-
tent, 384 ; in the Apocalypse, 385,
845
New Testament, literature on the,
569 ; use of the, 570 , determination
of the canon of the, 572 ; character
of the, 57J ; kind of writing in the,
574
Nicephorus Calhsti, 29
Nicolaus of Cusa, 30
Niedner, 44
OLD TESTAMENT, revelation of, 66
Ordination, 496
PALESTINE, size of, 137
Papacy, claims of, 261
Papal theory of Peter, 258-263
Pastoral Epistles, 798 ; authorship,
799 ; date, 800 ; oppose Gnostic
heresy, 802, what ecclesiastical
organization they presuppose, 803 ,
their style, 805 , objections to, 806
Patmos, 426
Paul, 199 , testimony to historical
Christianity, 213; name, origin, aud
education, 286 , classical culture
and use of Greek, 289-291; Phari-
seeism, 292 ; personal and family
relations, 293 ; personal appearance,
282, 294 ; conversion, 296 , experi-
mental theology, 300 ; changed life,
303, his conversion falsely explained,
307 , concessions of critics respect-
ing his conversion, 315, preparation
for his apostolic labors, 316; mis-
sionary spirit, sphere of labor, and
policy, 319 ; first journey to Jeru-
salem, 322 ; second journey to Jeru-
salem, 323 ; first missionary tour,
324 ; third journey to Jerusalem and
conference with the apostles in pub-
lic council, 324, 339, collision with
Peter and Barnabas at Antioch, sec-
ond missionary tour, 324 , founds
the congregations m Phrygia and
Galatia, in Phihppi, in Thessalo-
mca, and in Bercea, 324 , preaches
at Athens, 325 , labors at Corinth,
325; writes to the ThessalonianR,
326, 755 ; fourth journey to Jerusa-
lem and Antioch, 326 , third mission-
ary tour, 326 , labors three years
at Ephesus, 326; writes to the
Galatians, 762 , and to the Corin-
thians, 757 (first, 758 , second, 760>;
and Romans, 326, 764, revisits
Macedonia and Achaia, 326 ; fifth
and last journey to Jerusalem, 326 ;
farewell address at Miletus, and
his arrest at Jerusalem, 326 , his
defence before the Sanhedrm, 327 ,
his captivity at Caesarea, 327; be-
fore Felix, 327 , before Festus and
Agrippa, 327; journey to Rome,
327 : captivity at Rome, 327, 370 ;
writes to the Colossians, 769 ; to
the Ephesians, 778; to the Phihp-
pians, 790, and to Philemon, 328,
793; hypothesis of the second im-
prisonment, 328, 331; the Pastoral
Epistles, 328 , martyrdom, S29 ;
moral chaiacter, 330 ; the unity of
his life, 301 ; btyle of writing, 753 ;
doctrinal system, 525-549 (Chiistol-
ogy, 543 ; predestination, 545 ; jus-
tification, 547) ; Epistles in general,
749 , chronology, 731 , doctrinal ar-
rangement, 752 , style, 753
Paulus Diaconus, 30
Pella, Christian flight to, 402
Pentecost, birthday of the chtrch,
225; celebration of, 226; rational-
istio explanation of, 242; date and
place of, 243
870
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
Pergamum, church of, 453
Persecution, 249, 250 ; of Nero, 880,
428 , of Domitian, 427
Peter, 190 , his sermon on the day of
Pentecost, 248 , activity, 249 ; con-
firms the Saniar tans, 278 ; baptizes
Cornelius, 278 ; is imprisoned under
Herod Agnppa, but miraculously
dehveied and leaves Jerusalem, 250,
attends the Apostolic Council, 250,
343 , his collision with Paul at An-
tioch, 250 ; personal character, 253 ,
general position m church history,
253 ; and in tradition, 250 ; later
labors, 250 , Epistles, 5*24 ; first
Epistle, 744; second Epistle, 740,
residence in Rome, 251 ; martyr-
dom, 252 , doctrinal pystem, 522 ,
reUtion to Catholicism, 258-263
Pharisees, 04
Philadelphia, church of, 451
Philemon, Epislle to, 752, 793
Philippi, and the congregation of,
788, 792
Phihppians, Epistle of Paul to the,
790
Philo, 88
Phrygia, churches in, 709
Plato and Platonism, 74, 75, 78
Pleroma, Gnostic and Pauline, 773
Phny and Paul, 796
Polycrates' story of John, 431
Prayer, 462 , Jewish hours of, 476
Preaching, 401
Predestination, 534, 545
Presbyters, 491
Pressenso, de, 46
Priesthood, universal, 486
Primacy of Peter, 201
Primitive-Gospel theory, 610
Prophets and prophecy of the Old Tes-
tament, 68 ; of the New Testament,
490
Proselytes, 87
Protestant church historians, 36
Publius Lentulus, letter about Jesus,
168
Puteoli, 369.— QuirmiuB, 121
RABBIS and their sayings, 140
Raynaldi, 31
Re nan, 46
Resurrection of Christ, four theories
of, 175-186 (historical, 175 ; fraud,
177; swoon, 178, vision, 179-180)
Revelation of John, see Apocalypse
Ritter, 35
Robe it son, Canon, 48
Rohrbacher, 34
Roman Catholic chinch historians, 30
Romans, Ep.stlc of Paul to the, 764
Rome, its umveisal dominion, a prepa-
ration for Christianity, 79, decline
in morals, 82, churrh at, 371; its
language, 373 , and social condition,
373, conflagration in, 377; triumph
in, over destruction of Jerusalem,
400
Rothe, 45
SACIIATIRLLI, 32
Sacraments, 405
Sarred places, 475
Sacred times, 476
Sadducees, 65
Samaritans, 88, 278
Sanctification, Paul's doctrine of, 637
Sardis, church of, 452
Sarpi. Paolo, 32
Saul, see Paul
Schaff, 51
Scheiikel, 130
Schmid, 45
Schr^ckh, 40
Scriptores Byzantini, 29
Scriptures, the reading of, 463
Sergms Paulus, 324 ; 733
Sermon in apostolic times. 461
Seven churches of Asia Minor, spirit-
ual condition of, 450
Shedd, W. G T., 61
Sicarians, 394
Silas, 324
Simon Bar-Giora, 400, 401
Simon Magus, 257, 566
Singing in early Christian worship,
463
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
871
Slavery, 445 ; extent in Greece and
Rome, 447 ; Paul and, 794
Smith, Henry B , 50 ; Philip, 49
Smyrna, church of, 451
Socrates, the historian, 29
Socrates, the philosopher, 75
Sotenology, of Peter, 024 , of Paul,
529
Sozomenus, 29
Spanheim, 38
Spiritual gifts, 436
Stanley, A P., 49, 422
Stephen, the first martyr, 249
Stevens, Abel, 51
Stolbeig, von, 34
Strauss, 179
Sunday, 477
Super natural Religion, testimony to
Christ, 435
Supper of the Lord, see Lord's Supper
Synagogue, building and worship, 151,
456
Syncretism, 567
Synoptists, .090 , relationship, 591-598,
607-012 , independence, 598 , com-
mon source, 002 ; order, 006 , rela-
tion to John, 676
TACITUS on the Neroman persecution,
387
Temple in Jerusalem, destruction of,
897
Tendency-hypothesis respecting the
Synoptibts, 611
Themer, 31
Theodoret, 29
Theodorus, 29
Therapeutae, 88
Thessalonica, 7o5
Thessalomans, Epistles of Paul to the,
755
Theudas, 733
Thyatira, chinch of, 453
Tillemonr, 33
Timothy, 321 , Epi&tles to, 798
litus. Emperor, «J90
Tongues, gilt of, bee Glossolalia
Trench, 49
Troas, 324
ULLMANN, 45
VENEMA. 40
Vespasian, 395
WADDINGTON, 48
\Void<* worth. Bishop, on the symbol
ism of the Gospels, 586
Worship, in the synagogue, 456 j
among Christians, 460
ZEALOTS, 394
1 27 344
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