The controversy between Ptolemaeus and Irenaeus as to the
length of Christ's ministry.--Christ was in Jerusalem but
once after he began to preach, according to the first three
Gospels, but three times according to John.--If the
statements made in the first three are true, everything
stated in the fourth could only happen after the death of
Christ.
It will be remembered that Ptolemaeus asserted that the time of Christ's
ministry did not exceed the period of one year. This drove Irenaeus to
claim that it continued for the space of ten years, on the authority
of a tradition derived from John. The precise time when, and what,
Ptolemaeus wrote, we have no means in our day of finding out; for his
writings, like all those of the Gnostics, doubtless perished under
the destructive edict of the Emperor Constantine. We are at liberty to
conclude that he wrote before the fourth Gospel appeared, as he limits
the time to one year, which agrees in that respect with the Synoptics.
Had he had any knowledge of the fourth Gospel, he might, by adopting the
mode of reasoning on this subject used by the orthodox, have made the
time three years instead of one. It will be noted that Irenaeus, in his
controversy with Ptolemaeus, makes no mention of the fourth Gospel, but
falls back on a tradition. In a dispute with a sharp-witted adversary,
he found it safer to rely on a tradition, as evasive as the mirage of
the desert, than the authority of the fourth book of John. The reason
for this preference will be readily seen when the subject is understood.
According to Matthew, after the temptation in the wilderness, Christ
returned to Nazareth, in Galilee. He left Nazareth and came and dwelt
in Capernaum, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, as spoken by
Esaias: "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of
the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people which sat in
darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death light is sprung up. _From that time Jesus began to preach, and
to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand_." (Chapter iv. 15,
16, 17.)
Here the place where Christ commenced to preach is clearly defined; and
as the spot had been pointed out by Isaiah seven hundred years before,
there could be no mistake, unless the inspiration of the great Hebrew
prophet was at fault. Mark and Luke substantially agree with Matthew;
so, according to all three, Christ began his labors at Capernaum. The
precise time in the year we cannot tell, but it must have been shortly
after the fourteenth of March (Nisan), when the celebration of the
Passover commenced. At the following festival, as we will show, Christ
was put to death. In the meantime he had performed the greater part of
his work, which would require not much less than a year. That Christ
should go to Jerusalem to celebrate the first Passover after he began to
preach is not only probable but almost certain. Everything shows that
he did. The laws of Moses commanded every Jew to observe this feast; and
although no place is specified, all deemed it the highest religious duty
to go to Jerusalem for that purpose. On such occasions "an innumerable
multitude came hither out of the country--many beyond its limits,"
according to Josephus. Hence the great destruction of the Jewish people,
who had come up to the holy city to celebrate, when it was destroyed by
Titus. Christ could hardly fail to be present at the first celebration
after he began to preach, especially as he was accustomed to go every
year from childhood with his parents, according to Luke. If Christ
attended the first festival after he began his work, his ministry
continued for less than one year, for he went there but once after
he began to preach. The early part of his career was solely passed in
Galilee, according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. His labors were confined
to his own country, mostly in the neighborhood of the sea of Tiberias.
At length, as the time for the celebration of the Passover approached,
his thoughts were directed toward the city of David. At Caesarea Philippi
he concluded _at last_ to go to Jerusalem. "From that time forth began
Jesus to shew unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and be raised again the third day." (_Matt_. xvi. 21.) At length
he "departed from Galilee and came into the coasts of Judea beyond
Jordan." (Chap. xix. I.) "And when he was come into Jerusalem all the
city was moved, saying, _Who is this?_" (Chap. xxi. 10.) Would that
question have been asked if he had been there the year before? That
this was Christ's first visit to Jerusalem, according to the first three
Gospels, will not admit of a doubt. Here he taught and preached until he
was handed over bound into the hands of Pilate. He never after this left
the city until his immortal spirit took its flight from Calvary. The
itinary of Christ, as we have it in the first three Gospels, renders
it impossible that he made any visit to Jerusalem except the one above
mentioned. We can trace him, step by step, from the beginning to the
end of his career. He began to preach at Capernaum, and from there
he traveled all over Galilee. In the meantime he delivered his divine
Sermon on the Mount. From the Mount he returned to Capernaum. From
here he entered a ship and rebuked the sea. He next crossed over to the
country of the Gadarines. From there he recrossed the sea and went into
his own city.
Once more he travels over Galilee, preaching, and healing diseases. On
the shores of Tiberias he delivered the parable of the sower, and again
went back to his own country. While there he heard of the death of John
the Baptist; when he crossed over the sea of Tiberias, and on the east
shore fed the multitude. After events which are fully declared, he and
his disciples crossed the sea and went to the land of Gennesaret. From
there he departed unto the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He returned unto the
sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain and again fed the multitude.
From here he went unto the coast of Magdala, and from there to Caesarea
Philippi, when he made up his mind _at last_ to go to Jerusalem. In the
meantime it was not possible for him to have made a visit to the Holy
City. He had not even been in Judea. According to John, Christ did not
manifest his divine power at Capernaum, but at Cana. This was not a
great while before the feast of the Passover, for he went from Cana to
Capernaum, where he remained "_not many days_" but went to Jerusalem
to celebrate. As John and the writers of the first three Gospels
have Christ attend the first festival after he began his ministry, it
follows, according to John, that Christ at that time had just begun
to teach; while, if we believe the other three writers, he had nearly
performed his work, and came to Jerusalem to meet his death. The Gospel
of John causes Christ to make three distinct visits to Jerusalem: first,
soon after the miracle at Cana, the same mentioned by Matthew, Mark
and Luke; the second, when he attended a feast of the Jews, which Dr.
Robertson and other learned writers claim was the Passover; and a third,
when he went to witness the feast of the Tabernacle. _Now, if the first
three Gospels are true, then everything stated in the fourth as the
works of Christ must have been performed after his death!_ Every day,
from the time he set out from Capernaum to teach, to his first and last
entrance into Jerusalem, is accounted for in the first three Gospels.
This second visit was not without a special significance.
So strong was the proof in the last half of the second century that John
had never been to the western coast of the Mediterranean, that Irenaeus
and others of that century dare not assert that the fourth Gospel
was written by him in Asia Minor. On this point the great criminal is
silent. But, in the Gospel itself, there is an evident effort made to
have it appear that it was written before the fall of Jerusalem. Even
the learned Basnage and Lampe were betrayed into this belief, and so
were others. Lardner fixes the date in the year 68, Owen 69, and the
learned Michaelis in 70. That such men should have fallen into this
belief is truly wonderful, for its fallacy is apparent at first view.
This Gospel, as none dispute, was written in reply to the Gnostics, and
as none of that sect, as will be shown, was known to be in existence
until the second century, it at once disposes of the question.
Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Mills, Fabricius and Bishop Tomline, with
others, saw the dilemma, and fixed the date of the Gospel at a later
period--some at 97, and others at 98.
That part of this Gospel by which Dr. Lardner and others were misled is
as follows: "_Now there is at Jerusalem_, by the sheep-market, a pool
which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches."
From the language here used, they conclude that Jerusalem was standing
when the Gospel was written, as the present is used instead of the past
tense. Few things troubled the Catholics of the second century more than
to find a convenient date for John's Gospel. If it was written before
the fall of Jerusalem, where there was a sheep market having five
porches still standing, it was too early, by many years, for Corinthus
and other leading Gnostics. If its date were fixed at the end of the
century when John was in Asia Minor, Catholics were met with proof that
John never was there. The story of the angel, and the man who had an
infirmity for eight-and-thirty years, was a clumsy invention to make way
for the deception as to the early date of the Gospel. If there was in
fact such a pool as represented, whose medical properties were dependent
upon the visitation of an angel, and which had properties to cure all
diseases, it was the only one of the kind, or anything like it, ever
known to man; its fame would have spread far and wide, and Jewish
historians, who delight to dwell upon anything which belongs to their
country, would have emphasized a phenomenon like the pool of Bethesda,
as proof of divine favor shown to their nation. It excites the anger of
commentators, and Doddridge among the rest, that Josephus has failed to
notice it; and among the extraordinary motives assigned for his
silence is a fear that he "_would disgust his pagan readers_"! The same
commentator says: "It is probable that the miracle was not wrought
for any length of time, and perhaps ceased on this occasion. This may
account for the surprising silence of Josephus in a story which made
so much for the honor of his nation. He himself was not born when it
happened, and, though he might have heard the report of it, he would,
_perhaps (in the modern way), oppose speculation and hypothesis to
fact_." Jenks, another commentator, says: "It is true the Jewish
historians, who are not sparing in praise of Jerusalem, do none of them
mention this pool, for which, perhaps, this is the reason: that it was
taken as a presage of the approach of the Messiah, and, _therefore, they
who denied him to be come industriously concealed such an indication
of his coming_." No one has ever pretended to have found this pool,
although pious travelers have found every other spot consecrated by the
life and death of Christ. Helena, the mother of Constantine, as early
as A. D. 326, made a pilgrimage to the Holy City to discover the places
made sacred by scenes in the life of the Saviour; and when human
energy and skill failed, she called to her assistance the aid of the
miraculous. But the powers that enabled her to find the true cross,
after a waste in the earth of over three hundred years, and detect the
place of the Lord's sepulcher, and other sacred spots which Infidel
hatred vainly attempted to obliterate, failed to discover the place
where the angel of mercy found ground to rest her feet when she
descended from heaven, loaded with blessings for the blind, halt and
withered.
It is admitted by all writers, and especially Michaelis (vol. iii.
part I, p. 280), that the Gospel of John was written in answer to the
Gnostics, and especially Corinthus, who lived in the last years of the
first century. It was possible to spin out the life of John to the
end of the century, and thus bring him near the time when Corinthus
flourished; but it is fatal to the claim, set up by Irenaeus and others,
that John was the author of the fourth Gospel, that the quarrels which
grew out of the writings of Corinthus failed to attract notice until
some time about the middle of the second century. You may look in vain
among all the writings of the Fathers and others of the first century to
find the name of Corinthus or any of his writings, although we can trace
Gnosticism, in its primitive stages, as early as the first years in the
second. Still, it assumed but little importance in its contests with
Christianity until some time after the year A. D. 117. Buck says that
"_Many persons were infected with the Gnostic heresy in the first
century; though the sect did not render itself conspicuous, either for
numbers or reputation, before the reign of Adrian, when some writers
erroneously date its rise_? There was no call or demand for the fourth
Gospel until Christians and Gnostics commenced their quarrels, which was
long after John's death, even admitting that he lived to be a hundred
years old. There was no help in the emergency which then arose, but to
antedate the fourth Gospel, to confound the time when Cerinthus wrote
with the time when the spread of his doctrines created discussion among
Christians."