THE WAY CLEARED.
The writers, whose testimonies to the existence or use of our present
Gospels are examined by the author, are twenty-three in number. Five of
these, namely, Hegesippus, Papias, Melito, Claudius Apollinaris, and
Dionysius of Corinth are only known to us through fragments preserved as
quotations in Eusebius and others. Six others--Basilides, Valentinus,
Marcion, Ptolemaeus, Heracleon, and Celsus--are heretical or infidel
writers whom we only know through notices or scraps of their works in
the writings of the Christian Fathers who refuted them. The Epistle of
the Martyrs of Vienne and Lyons is only in part preserved in the pages
of Eusebius. The Canon of Muratori is a mutilated fragment of uncertain
date. Athenagoras and Tatian are only known through Apologies written
for the Heathen, the last of all Christian books in which to look for
definite references to canonical writings. The Epistle to Diognetus is a
small tract of uncertain date and authorship. The Clementine Homilies is
an apocryphal work of very little value in the present discussion.
These are all the writings placed by the author as subsequent to Justin
Martyr. The writers previous to Justin, of whom the author of
"Supernatural Religion" makes use, are Clement of Rome (to whom we shall
afterwards refer), the Epistle of Barnabas, the Pastor of Hermas, the
Epistles of Ignatius, and that of Polycarp.
As I desire to take the author on his own ground whenever it is possible
to do so, I shall, for argument's sake, take the author's account of the
age and authority of these documents. I shall consequently assume with
him that
"None of the epistles [of Ignatius] have any value as evidence for
an earlier period than the end of the second or beginning of the
third century [from about 190 to 210 or so], if indeed they possess
any value at all." [6:1] (Vol. i. p. 274.)
With respect to the short Epistle of Polycarp, I shall be patient of his
assumption that
"Instead of proving the existence of the epistles of Ignatius, with
which it is intimately associated, it is itself discredited in
proportion as they are shown to be inauthentic." (Vol. i. p. 274)
and so he
"assigns it to the latter half of the second century, in so far as
any genuine part of it is concerned." (P. 275)
Similarly, I shall assume that the Pastor of Hermas "may have been
written about the middle of the second century" (p. 256), and, with
respect to the Epistle of Barnabas, I shall take the latest date
mentioned by the author of "Supernatural Religion," where he writes
respecting the epistle--
"There is little or no certainty how far into the second century its
composition may not reasonably be advanced. Critics are divided upon
the point, a few are disposed to date the epistle about the end of
the first century; others at the beginning of the second century;
while a still greater number assign it to the reign of Adrian (A.D.
117-130); and others, not without reason, consider that it exhibits
marks of a still later period." (Vol. i. p. 235.)
The way, then, is so far cleared that I can confine my remarks to the
investigation of the supposed citations from the Canonical Gospels, to
be found in the works of Justin Martyr. Before beginning this, it may be
well to direct the reader's attention to the real point at issue; and
this I shall have to do continually throughout my examination. The work
is entitled "Supernatural Religion," and is an attack upon what the
author calls "Ecclesiastical Christianity," because such Christianity
sets forth the Founder of our Religion as conceived and born in a
supernatural way; as doing throughout His life supernatural acts; as
dying for a supernatural purpose; and as raised from the dead by a
miracle, which was the sign and seal of the truth of all His
supernatural claims. The attack in the book in question takes the form
of a continuous effort to show that all our four Gospels are
unauthentic, by showing, or attempting to show, that they were never
quoted before the latter part of the second century: but the real point
of attack is the supernatural in the records of Christ's Birth, Life,
Death, and Resurrection.