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* * * * *
THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.,
Editor of "The Expositor."
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
NEW YORK
51 EAST TENTH STREET
(NEAR BROADWAY).
1891.
BY
G. T. STOKES, D.D.
NEW YORK:
A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON,
51 EAST TENTH STREET
(NEAR BROADWAY).
1891.
THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.
EDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.
_Crown 8vo, cloth._
FIRST SERIES, 1887-88.
Colossians.
By A. MACLAREN, D.D.
St. Mark.
By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh.
Genesis.
By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.
1 Samuel.
By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.
2 Samuel.
By the same Author.
Hebrews.
By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.
SECOND SERIES, 1888-89.
Galatians.
By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.
The Pastoral Epistles.
By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.
Isaiah I.--XXXIX.
By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. I.
The Book of Revelation.
By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.
1 Corinthians.
By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.
The Epistles of St. John.
By Rt. Rev. W. ALEXANDER, D.D.
THIRD SERIES, 1889-90.
Judges and Ruth.
By Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A.
Jeremiah.
By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.
Isaiah XL.-LXVI.
By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. II.
St. Matthew.
By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.
Exodus.
By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh.
St. Luke.
By Rev. H. BURTON, B.A.
FOURTH SERIES, 1890-91.
Ecclesiastes.
By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.
St. James and St. Jude.
By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.
Proverbs.
By Rev. R. F. HORTON, M.A.
Leviticus.
By Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.
The Gospel of St. John.
By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.
The Acts of the Apostles.
By Rev. Prof. G. T. STOKES, D.D.
NEW YORK: A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON.
THE
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
BY THE REV.
G. T. STOKES, D.D.,
PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN,
AND VICAR OF ALL SAINTS', BLACKROCK.
NEW YORK:
A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON,
51 EAST TENTH STREET
(NEAR BROADWAY).
1891.
PREFACE.
This volume contains an exposition of the Acts of the Apostles down
to, but not including, the conversion of St. Paul and the baptism of
Cornelius. There is a natural division at that point. Prior to these
events, the inspired narrative is engaged with what the late Bishop
Lightfoot of Durham called great "representative facts," prophetical
or typical of the future developments of the Church, whether among
Jews or Gentiles;[1] while the subsequent course of the history deals
almost entirely with missionary work among the heathen and the labours
of St. Paul.[2]
[1] See the treatise on the Christian Ministry in his
_Philippians_, p. 186.
[2] Dr. Goulburn, in his _Acts of the Deacons_, suggested this
view of the Acts of the Apostles nearly thirty years ago.
We are dependent for the story of these earliest days of the Church's
life upon the Acts of the Apostles. I have endeavoured, however, to
illustrate the narrative by copious references to ancient documents,
some of which may appear of dubious value and authority, such as the
_Acts of the Saints_ and the writings of the mediæval Greek
hagiologist, Simeon Metaphrastes, who lived in the tenth century.[3]
The latter writer has been hitherto regarded as more famous for his
imagination than for his historical accuracy. This age of ours is a
noted one, however, for clearing characters previously regarded as
very doubtful, and Simeon Metaphrastes has come in for his own share
of this process of rehabilitation. The distinguished writer just
referred to, Dr. Lightfoot, as we have shown in a note on p. 218, has
proved that Metaphrastes embodied in his works valuable early records,
dating back to the second century, which in critical hands can shed
much light upon primitive Christian history.[4] In fact, students of
Holy Scripture and of early Christianity are learning every day to
look more and more to ancient Greek, Syriac, and Armenian writers, and
to the libraries of the Eastern Churches, for fresh light on these
important subjects. It is only natural we should do so. Writers like
Simeon Metaphrastes and Photius, the student Patriarch of
Constantinople, lived a thousand years nearer the apostolic times than
we do. They flourished in an age of the highest civilization, when
precious literary works, in hundreds and thousands, which are no
longer known amongst us, lay all around them and at their command.
These men and their friends gathered them up and extracted them, and
common sense alone teaches that a critical study of their writings
will reveal to us somewhat of the treasures they possessed. The
libraries of the East again form a great field for investigation.
During the last fifty years we have paid some little attention to
them, which has been amply rewarded. The recovery of the complete
works of Hippolytus and of Clement of Rome, the discovery of the
_Teaching of the Apostles_ and of the _Diatessaron_ of Tatian, are
only specimens of what we may yet hope to exhume from the dust of
ages.
[3] For an account of Simeon Metaphrastes the English reader
should consult Dr. Schaff's valuable _Encyclopædia of Historical
Theology_.
[4] See Professor Ramsay on "The Tale of Saint Abercius" in the
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. iii., p. 338, for a full
account of this new source of early Church history which his
travels and excavations have brought to our notice.
The testimony, too, borne by these finds has been of the greatest
importance. The _Diatessaron_ alone has formed the most triumphant
reply to the argument against the Gospels, specially against St.
John's Gospel, formulated some years ago by the author of
_Supernatural Religion_. And the process of discovery is still going
on. I have said something in the notes to the final lecture of the
present volume concerning the latest discovery of this kind which
throws some light upon the composition of the Acts. I refer to the
lost _Apology_ of Aristides, which has just been brought to light. Let
me very briefly tell its story and show its bearing on the age and
date of the Acts. Eusebius, the historian of the fourth century,
mentions in his _Chronicle_, under the year 124, the two earliest
apologies written in defence of Christianity; one by Quadratus, a
hearer of the Apostles, the other by Aristides, a philosopher of
Athens. Now this year 124 was about twenty years after St. John's
death. These apologies have hitherto been best known by this
historian's notice, though Eusebius says they were widely circulated
in his time. The _Apology_ or defence of Aristides has often been
sought for. In the seventeenth century it was said to have been extant
in a monastery near Athens,[5] but no Western had ever seen it in a
complete shape in modern times. Two years ago, however, Professor J.
Rendel Harris, M.A., of Cambridge and of Haverford College,
Pennsylvania, discovered it in a Syriac version in the library of the
convent of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai, whence he has published it
with an English translation in a new series of _Texts and Studies in
Biblical and Patristic Literature_, the first number of which has
appeared at Cambridge within the last few weeks.[6]
[5] Ceillier, _Hist. des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques_, i., 403.
[6] Mr. Harris's discovery is not the first find of this ancient
apologist in modern times. The Armenian Mechitarites of Venice
published what they called two sermons of Aristides in 1878; which
Cardinal Pitra, the learned librarian of the Vatican, reprinted in
1883, in his _Analecta Sacra_, t. iv., pp. x, xi, 6-11, 282-86.
One of these sermons was a fragment of the _Apology_ of Aristides,
which the Mechitarites scarcely at first recognised as such. M.
Rénan, in his _Origines de Christianisme_, vol. vi., p. vi (Paris,
1879), scoffed at this fragment, declaring that, from the
technical theological terms, such as Theotokos, therein used, it
was evidently posterior to the fourth century. Doulcet, in the
_Revue des Questions Historiques_ for October 1880, pp. 601-12,
made an effective reply with the materials at hand at the time;
but Mr. Harris's publication of the complete work triumphantly
demonstrates that M. Rénan's objections were worthless (see
Harris, pp. 2, 3, 27). It is another proof that Christians have
everything to hope and nothing to fear from such discoveries of
early documents. Mr. Harris's preface is specially interesting,
because it shows that we have had the _Apology_ of Aristides all
the time, though we knew it not, as it was worked in the
quasi-oriental tale of Barlaam and Joasaph printed among the works
of St. John of Damascus.
I need not go farther into the story of the recovery of this document,
which raises high our expectations of others still more interesting.
The _Apology_ of Quadratus would be even more important, as it bore
direct testimony to the miracles of our Lord. The brief extract from
it which Eusebius gives in his _History_, book iv., chap. 3, proves
how precious would be the complete work. "The deeds of our Saviour,
says Quadratus, were always before you, for they were true; those that
were healed, those that were raised from the dead, who were seen, not
only when healed and when raised, but were always present. They
remained for a long time, not only whilst the Saviour was sojourning
with us, but likewise when He had been removed. So that some of them
have also survived to our own times."
In the _Apology_ of Quadratus we should obtain a picture of the
popular theology of the Church during that dark period which elapsed
between the days of Clement of Rome and Ignatius, and those of Justin
Martyr. The _Apology_ of Aristides which has been found reveals
something indeed in the same direction, but is more occupied with an
attack upon paganism than in a statement of the Christian faith. Here,
however, consists its bearing on the Acts of the Apostles, not
directly, but by way of contrast. Let me explain what I mean. In
lecture xvii., when treating of the story of Simon Magus, I have shown
how the simple narrative of the Acts concerning that man became
elaborated in the second century till it formed at last a regular
romance; whence I conclude that if the Acts had been written in the
second century the story of Simon Magus would not be the simple matter
we read in St. Luke's narrative. Now our argument for the date of the
Acts derived from the _Apology_ of Aristides is of much the same kind.
This document shows us what the tone and substance of second century
addresses to the pagans were. It is the earliest of a series of
apologies extending over the whole of that century. The _Apology_ of
Aristides, the numerous writings of Justin Martyr, specially the
_Oratio_ and the _Cohortatio ad Græcos_ attributed to him, the
_Oration_ of Tatian addressed to the Greeks, the _Apologeticus_ and
the treatise _Ad Nationes_ of Tertullian, the _Epistle to Diognetus_,
the writings of Athenagoras, all deal with the same topics, the
theories and absurdities of Greek philosophy, the immoral character of
the pagan deities, and the purity of Christian doctrine and
practice.[7] If the Acts of the Apostles had been composed in the
second century, the address of St. Paul to the Athenians would have
been very different from what it is, and must necessarily have
partaken of those characteristics which we find common to all the
numerous treatises addressed to the heathen world of that date. If the
Acts were written in the second century, why does not the writer put
arguments into St. Paul's mouth like those which were current among
the Christian apologists of that time? The philosophical argument of
Aristides, which is followed by Justin Martyr[8] and the later
apologists, when contrasted with the simplicity of St. Paul, is a
conclusive proof of the early date of the composition of the Acts.[9]
But this is not the only argument of this kind which modern research
furnishes. Aristides shows us what the character of Christian
controversy with the pagans was in the generation succeeding the
Apostles. We can draw the same conclusion when we examine Christian
controversy as carried on against the Jews of the same period.
[7] The apologists of the second century will be found in a
collected shape in Otto's _Corpus Apologetarum_, in nine vols.
(Jena, 1842-72). Most of those mentioned above will be found in an
English shape in Clarke's Ante-Nicene Library. See also Harnack in
_Texte und Untersuchungen_, bd. i., hft. i. (Leipzig, 1882).
[8] St. Jerome, in _Ep._ 70, addressed to Magnus, a Roman
rhetorician, expressly says that Justin Martyr imitated Aristides.
The _Cohortatio ad Græcos_ attributed to him is much liker the
treatise of Aristides than Justin's admitted first and second
apologies.
[9] Overbeck, Zeller, and Schwegler fix the composition of the
Acts between 110 and 130, the very date of the _Apology_ of
Aristides. See Zeller's _Acts of the Apostles_, p. 71 (London:
Williams & Norgate, 1875).
We have a number of treatises directed against the Jews by Christian
writers of the second century: the _Dialogue_ of Justin Martyr with
Trypho the Jew, of Jason and Papiscus, and the treatise of Tertullian
directed _Ad Judæos_. When compared with one another we find that the
staple arguments of these writings are much the same.[10] They were
evidently framed upon the model of St. Stephen's address at Jerusalem,
of St. Paul at Antioch in Pisidia, and of the Epistle to the
Galatians. They deal with the transitory and temporary character of
the Jewish law, they enter very largely into the fulfilment of Old
Testament prophecy, and they notice Jewish objections. The second
century works are, however, elaborate treatises, dealing with a great
controversy in a manner which experience had showed to be far the most
effective and telling. The Jewish controversy in the Acts, whether in
the mouth of St. Peter, St. Stephen, or St. Paul, is treated in a much
simpler way. The speakers think, speak, write, like men who are making
their first essays in controversy, and have no experience of others to
guide them. Had the Acts been written in the second century, the
writer must have composed the addresses to the Jews as well as those
to the Gentiles after the model of the age when he was writing. The
more carefully, however, we examine and contrast these two
controversies, as conducted in the Acts and in the writings of the
second century respectively, the more thoroughly shall we be convinced
of the apostolic date of St. Luke's narrative, of its genuine
character, and of its historic worth.
[10] For an account of the Jewish controversy in the second
century see Gebhardt and Harnack's _Texte_, bd. i., hft. 3
(Leipzig, 1883), where Harnack seeks to critically restore the
substance of the dialogue between Jason and Papiscus. An article
on "Apologists" in the _Dictionary of Christian Biography_, vol.
i., pp. 140-47, and another on "Theophilus" (13) in the same work,
vol. iv., p. 1009, should be consulted.
I have written this book from my own standpoint as a decided
Churchman, but I hope that I have said nothing which can really hurt
the feelings of any one who thinks otherwise, or which may tend to
widen those differences between Christians which are such a terrible
hindrance to the cause of true religion and its progress in the world.
I have tried to use the Revised Version consistently throughout my
expositions, but I fear that my attempt has been but vain. In my
formal quotations I think I have succeeded. But then, in commenting
upon Scripture, a writer constantly refers to and quotes passages
without formal reference. Here is where I must have failed. The
Authorized Version is so bound up with all our earliest thoughts and
associations that its language unconsciously colours all our ideas and
expressions. Any one who at present makes such an attempt as I have
done will find illustrated in himself the phenomena which we behold in
writings of the fifth and sixth centuries. St. Jerome published a
Revised Version of the Latin translation of the Scripture about the
year 400 A.D. For hundreds of years afterwards Latin writers are found
using indiscriminately the old Latin and the new Latin translations.
St. Patrick's _Confession_, for instance, was composed about the
middle of the fifth century. Quotations from both versions of the New
Testament are found in that document, affording a conclusive
indication of its date; just as the mixture of the Revised and
Authorized Versions will form a prominent feature in theological works
composed towards the close of the nineteenth century.
I have to acknowledge the kind assistance of the Rev. H. W. Burgess,
LL.D., who has patiently read all my proofs, and called my attention
to many a solecism or mistake which might have otherwise disfigured my
pages; and of Mr. W. Etienne Phelps, B.A., deputy keeper of Primate
Marsh's Library, who has compiled the index.
GEORGE T. STOKES.
ALL SAINTS' VICARAGE, BLACKROCK,
_May 27th, 1891_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
ACTS i. 1, 2.
PAGE
Title--Apocryphal Acts--Paul and Thecla--Evidence of
Tertullian--His Chronological Position--Modern
Analogies--Muratorian Fragment and Bobbio--Epistle from
Lyons--Pothinus an Apostolic Man--Marcion and St.
Luke--Defects of German Criticism--Growth of New Testament
Canon--Newly-discovered Second Century Documents--
Scillitan Martyrs--Primitive Christians and Biblical
Criticism--Advantages of Uncertainty on Theology--
Theological Accuracy of St. Luke 1-22
CHAPTER II.
THE CONVERSATIONS OF THE GREAT FORTY DAYS.
ACTS i. 6-9.
Subject-Matter Revealed in the Acts--Our Lord's
Post-Resurrection Appearances--Apostolic Curiosity--
Messianic Idea among Jews--Books of Enoch and of
Jubilees--Evidence for Inspiration of New Testament--
Christianity a Practical Religion--Contrast with
Paganism--Mithraism--Spiritual Blessing of Christ's
Reticence concerning the Future--Antinomies in
Scripture--Bad Effects of Human Curiosity--At
Thessalonica--In the Middle Ages--In Last and Present
Centuries--Irvingism--Holy Ghost alone the Source of
Spiritual Power 23-42
CHAPTER III.
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST, AND ITS LESSONS.
ACTS i. 9.
Position of Doctrine of Ascension in Epistles--And in
Apostolic Teaching--Curious and Foolish Questions about
it--_The Unseen Universe_--Fitness of the Doctrine--And
Necessity if the Church was to rise out of Judaism into
Christianity--Illustrations, London and the Papacy--Rénan's
Theory--The Ascension Glorified Human Nature--Paganism
Degraded It--Gladiatorial Shows and Story of the Monk
Telemachus--Tacitus and Slavery--Cato the Censor and the
Treatment of Slaves--The Ascension and Darwinism 43-60
CHAPTER IV.
THE ELECTION OF MATTHIAS.
ACTS i. 24-26.
Expectation Days--Principle of Divine Delay--Christian
Seasons and Judaism--Pentecost and Sinai--Continuity of
the Divine Purposes--Christian Chronology--Tatian's
_Oration_--The Apostles and the Upper Room--Narratives
of Epiphanius and Cyril of Jerusalem--Christianity
Supra-local--Last Notice of the Blessed Virgin--Doctrine
of the Assumption--Self-restraint of Scriptural Writers--
Choice of New Apostle--St. Peter's Proposition--His
Character--_Privilegium Petri_--Reasons for the Election--
The Christian Ministry and the Resurrection--C. Leslie's
_Short and Easy Method_--History of St. Matthias--
Apocryphal Gospels--Papias on Fate of Judas Iscariot 61-81
CHAPTER V.
THE PENTECOSTAL BLESSING.
ACTS ii. 1-4.
Origin and History of Pentecost--Gnosticism and Antinomianism--
Modern Aspect of Ancient Heresies--Ancient Union and
Modern Divisions of Christendom--Jeremy Taylor's Prayer--
The Fiery Tongues--Protest against Persecution and Penal
Laws in Religion--Ussher and Baxter, Mistakes of--
Death-Scene of Queen Caroline--Importance of Corporate
Aspect of Christianity--Clergy and Laity in Apostolic
Church--Gift of Tongues and Irvingism--Modern Theories
about Pentecost--Hypnotism--Greek and Latin not Universal
Languages in Apostolic Times--Ramsay's _Geography of Asia
Minor_ 82-106
CHAPTER VI.
ST. PETER'S FIRST SERMON.
ACTS ii. 14.
Reports of Ancient Sermons, how Derived--Use of
Shorthand among Ancients--St. Peter's Auditory--Celts
of Britain at Crucifixion--Jews in Arabia--Homerite
Martyrs--St. Peter's Conduct at Pentecost an Evidence
for the Resurrection--Contrast with his Action at
Antioch--St. Peter's Universal Conceptions and
Language--A Protest against Ebionism and Unitarianism--
St. Peter and Christ's Descent into Hades--
Apollinarianism and the True Doctrine of Our Lord's
Humanity--David's Sepulchre and Christ's Resurrection--
Jewish Traditions 107-126
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRSTFRUITS OF PENTECOST.
ACTS ii. 37-39.
Contrast between Our Lord's Preaching and that of His
Apostles--Proof of Extraordinary Work of the Spirit--
Evidence of Tacitus--Spiritual Power a Different Thing
from Religious Knowledge--Character of St. Peter's
Teaching--Repentance--Modern Antinomianism--Williams,
Baxter, Stillingfleet, Wesley--St. Peter and Baptism--
Baptism in the _Didache_--Story of that Manual and its
Discovery--The Baptismal Formula--Immersion--Infant
Baptism--St. Peter and the Power of the Keys 127-147
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST RECORDED MIRACLE AND FIRST PERSECUTION.
ACTS iii. 1-6.
The Acts a Mirror of Church History--Pause after
Pentecost, Reason of--Need of Pastoral Work--Relapses
in Mission Field--The Corinthian Case--Rest and
Spiritual Growth--Evils of Excitement--Contrast
of Christianity with the Montanists and Cynics--
True Religion not, however, Purely Contemplative--
Circumstances of First Miracle--Which was Typical
of Church's Future Work--Among the Poor and Sick--
Story of St. Crispin--St. Chrysostom's Sermons--
First Franciscans Contrasted with Early Methodists--
Medical Missions--Place of Miracle--Solomon's Porch--St.
Peter's Address Model for Preachers--Shows Divinity of
Christ--Exalts Christ--Is Bold and Prudent withal 148-172
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIRST PERSECUTION.
ACTS iv. 1-3, 5-7.
St. Peter's Teaching in Solomon's Porch and the Captain of
the Temple--The Romans and Jewish Law--Discovery of Temple
Tablet--The Sadducees and the Work of Opposition--Sadduceism
and Modern Theories--Sceptics and Religious Intolerance--
Pliny and the Martyrs--Trial of the Apostles--Constitution
of the Sanhedrin--Sadduceism and the Priesthood--St.
Peter's Defence and Christ's Promise--Afford no
Support to Unprepared Teaching in Ordinary Life--St.
Peter and the Power of Christ's Name--The Sanhedrin and
Miracles--The Jews and Magic--Reverence towards the Name
of God--Early Symbolism and Christ's Name--Salvation
through Christ and the Wider Hope 173-192
CHAPTER X.
THE COMMUNITY OF GOODS.
ACTS iv. 32-35.
The Holy Scriptures and the Errors of their Heroes--
Controversy between St. Jerome and St. Augustine--A
Mistaken View of Christ's Second Advent the Source of
Community of Goods--Communism and the Essenes--And
Anabaptists--And Plymouthism--Source of Poverty in
Jerusalem Church--Warning to Missionary Churches--
Apostolic Constitutions--And Primitive Missions--Fayûm
Documents--Evils of Indiscriminate Almsgiving--True
Christian Charity--Post Office Savings Banks--Jerusalem
Communism and Modern Legislation and Ideals--A Warning
and yet a Noble Conception--Connection of Enthusiasm
and Spiritual Power 193-210
CHAPTER XI.
HONESTY AND PRETENCE IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
ACTS iv. 36, 37; v. 1-6.
Hebrews and Hellenists in the Synagogue and in the
Church--Original Christians were Hebrews--Introduction
of Hellenists--Who became the Bridge whereby Christianity
was Communicated to the World--Barnabas and Greek
Culture--A Native of Cyprus--His Personal Appearance--And
History according to Simeon Metaphrastes--Personal
Character--Story of Ananias--His Sin and Punishment--
Proved that Christianity had a Stern as well as a
Loving Side--Dr. Vaughan's Application of this Incident 211-228
CHAPTER XII.
GAMALIEL AND HIS PRUDENT ADVICE.
ACTS v. 38-40.
The Apostles again Brought before Sanhedrin--Because of
St. Peter's Miracles--Note on the Miraculous Effects
of St. Peter's Shadow and Hypnotism--St. Peter and
Angelic Deliverances--Jortin's Theory--The Incarnation
Rendered the Age a Special Time--The Sadducees and
Materialism--Gamaliel a Pharisee--Effect of a Spiritual
Creed on the Character--His Address--Cases of Judas
and Theudas--Modern Illustrations--Gamaliel's Family
History--Gamaliel in the _Clementine Recognitions_ and
in Greek Christian Tradition--Gamaliel and Nicodemus
in the _Bibliotheca_ of Photius--Gamaliel and the
Spirit of Toleration--St. Augustine and Cornelius à
Lapide--Conduct of the Apostles 229-245
CHAPTER XIII.
PRIMITIVE DISSENSIONS AND APOSTOLIC PRECAUTIONS.
ACTS vi. 1-4.
The Election of the Seven a Crisis in Church History--Date
of St. Stephen's Martyrdom--Occasion of it--Primal
Relation of Judaism to Christianity--Not Mutually
Exclusive--Illustrated by those of First Methodists
to Church of England--Tyranny and Deposition of
Pilate--Multiplication of Christians led to Murmuring
and thence to Choice of Seven--Showing Benefits and
Drawbacks of Prosperity--Imperfections of Apostolic
Church--Fallacy of Roman _à priori_ Argument for
Infallibility--Reciprocal Influence of Church and
World--Various Meanings of Term "World"--Murmuring
arose from Racial and Linguistic Differences--Hebrews
and Hellenists--Modern Analogies--Diversity of Functions
in Church--Serving of Tables Differs from Ministry of
Word--Which Demands Study, Meditation, and Prayer--
Weakness of Modern Pulpit Accounted for--Election
of Deacons and Number--The Diaconate and Cardinalate 246-267
CHAPTER XIV.
ST. STEPHEN AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
ACTS vi. 5, 6; 8-11.
The Seven were Scriptural--Origin of Diaconate--Bishop
Lightfoot's View--Influence of the Synagogue upon the
Church--Illustrated by Marcionites--And by Pilgrim
Fathers in New England--Constitution of Synagogues--
Jewish Almoners or Deacons--Evidence to Diaconate of
Apostolic Fathers--Of Pliny--Of Irenæus--Connection
of Community of Goods with the Eucharist--Poor Law
among Jews--And Christians--Testimony of Lucian--
Christianity Viewed from the Outside--Difference
between Ancient and Modern Office--Life-long
Diaconate in Ancient Celtic Church--St. Patrick's
Father--Election of Deacons in the Synagogues--
Imposition of Hands and Ordination--Names of Deacons
and Nicolas of Antioch--St. Stephen and the Charge
of Blasphemy--Every True Teacher must expect
Misrepresentation 268-292
CHAPTER XV.
ST. STEPHEN'S DEFENCE AND THE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION.
ACTS vi. 12-14; vii. 1, 2.
Derivation and Meaning of Name "Stephen"--Libertine
Assailants of St. Stephen--United with Cilicians--St.
Paul and the Sanhedrin--Selden on Sanhedrin--Use of
Shorthand among the Ancients--The _Acts_ of the
Martyrs and Investigations of M. le Blant--Effective
Character of Stephen's _Apology_--Analysis of
it--Naturally Irritating to Jewish Officialism--Charity
towards Persecutors--Reverence towards the Past--A
Good Thing, but may be Pressed too far--Lessons for
our Age--Science and Religion--Mistakes in the Martyr's
Speech--Natural--Useful, too, as Testifying to Honesty
of Report--And Teaching True Doctrine of Inspiration--Dr.
Vaughan on St. Stephen's Mistakes--St. Stephen and
Freedom of Church Worship--Christian Universalism not
Inconsistent with Sacred and Consecrated Buildings 293-321
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM.
Testimony of Church of Lyons to St. Stephen's Martyrdom--
Earliest Celtic Martyrdoms and Celtic Assemblies--
Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day--Christmas Season
and Three Classes of Martyrs--Dies Natalis and the
Liturgies--Immediate Cause of St. Stephen's Death--
Locality of the Martyrdom--Newly-discovered
Church of St. Stephen--Survey of Western Palestine--
Jewish Stonings--St. Stephen died under Forms
of Law--Christianity and Human Law--Testimony of St.
Clement's Epistle--St. Stephen and Prayer to Jesus
Christ--Doctrine of Book of Common Prayer--St.
Stephen's Funeral--Early Christian View of
Resurrection--Story told by John Malalas--Persecution
and Church Extension 322-345
CHAPTER XVII.
SIMON MAGUS AND THE CONVERSION OF SAMARIA.
Prominence of Hellenists in the Church's Earliest
Days--Apostles and Deacons Contrasted--Source of St.
Luke's Knowledge of Early Church History--St. Philip
at Cæsarea--Exact Locality where Philip taught in
Samaria--Our Lord's Ministry in Samaria a Failure--
Why?--Because the Spirit was not yet given--Presence of
the Holy Ghost the Condition of Permanent Blessing--St.
Philip and Simon Magus--Story of Simon as told by
Justin Martyr--Evidence for Early Date of the Acts--
Justin and Simon's Statue--Simon a Sorcerer--Jews and
Sorcery--Jewish Gnosticism--Fayûm Manuscripts and
Magic--Contrast between Philip's Miracles and
Simon's Magic--Need of Miracles at Outset of
Christianity--Philip's Doctrine Concerning
the Kingdom of God--What it involved--Church's
Prosperity Dependent entirely upon Christ--Threefold
Result of Philip's Teaching--John Keble on Christian Joy 346-368
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE APOSTLES AND CONFIRMATION.
Apostolic Mission to Samaria--Development of
Church--Position of St. Peter--False Decretals--
Confirmation, Origin of--New Testament is not an
Exhaustive Manual of Rites and Ceremonies--Tertullian
on Standing at Prayer--Conservative Character of
Church Ritual--Illustrated by Cases of Dean Hook,
J. H. Newman, Tate and Brady, and the Plymouth
Brethren--Apostolic Example Perpetuated in Second
Century Practice--And in Case of Confirmation--Calvin
on its Apostolic Origin 369-384
CHAPTER XIX.
ST. PETER AND SIMON MAGUS.
ACTS viii. 18, 19.
Change in Confirmation at Reformation--Yet the Rite
remained Essentially the Same as of Old--Importance
of Tertullian's Testimony for its Primitive Origin--
Cyprian's and Augustine's View--Relation of Cyprian
to Tertullian--Imposition of Hands United with Prayer
in Ancient and Modern Church--Utility and Blessings
of the Rite--Improvement which might be made in its
Administration--Conduct of Simon Magus--He was
Intellectually Convinced but Spiritually Unconverted--
Application of his Example to Foreign Missions--Late
Controversy Concerning Educational Missions--Simon's
Conduct and Simony--Definition of Simony--Sin not
Confined to Established Churches--Takes Subtle Shapes
in Every Community--St. Peter's Exhortation to Simon
Magus--Corrects a Modern Error 385-397
CHAPTER XX.
EVANGELISTIC WORK IN THE PHILISTINE'S LAND.
ACTS viii. 26-8; ix. 32.
Those Passages Typical of Evangelistic Efforts and
Qualifications for Success in them--St. Philip
Contrasted with St. Peter--Need of Education for
Mission Field--Christian Missionaries of Early Centuries
Partook of Highest Culture--Pantænus--Origen--Clement--
These Texts show Importance of Clear Conception in
Theology--Clear Views need not be Narrow Views--Distinction
between St. Philip's Guidance and that of St. Peter--Reasons
for Angelic Interference--Archbishop Trench on John v.
4.--Apostolic Labours all tended Westward--Philip's
Mission towards Gaza--Obstinate Paganism of Gaza--
Proved by Survey of Palestine--Ethiopian Eunuch--Candace
and her Kingdom--St. Philip's Doctrines--Abyssinian
Traditions--Revised Version and the Eunuch's Confession--
Creed of Apostolic Church--Witness of Aristides'
_Apology_ 398-419
INDEX 421-424
CHAPTER I.
_THE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES._
"The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that
Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which He
was received up, after that He had given commandment through the
Holy Ghost unto the apostles whom He had chosen."--ACTS i. 1, 2.
These words constitute the very brief preface which the writer thought
sufficient for the earliest ecclesiastical history ever produced in
the Church of God. Let us imitate him in his brevity and conciseness,
and without further delay enter upon the consideration of a book which
raises vital questions and involves all-important issues.
Now when a plain man comes to the consideration of this book one
question naturally strikes him at once: How do I know who wrote this
book, or when it was written? What evidence or guarantee have I for
its authentic character? To these questions we shall apply ourselves
in the present chapter.
The title of the book as given in our Bibles does not offer us much
help. The title varies in different manuscripts and in different
ancient authors. Some writers of the second century who touched upon
apostolic times call it by the name our Bibles retain, The Acts of the
Apostles; others call it The Acts of the Holy Apostles, or at times
simply The Acts. This title of "Acts" was indeed a very common one,
in the second and third centuries, for a vast variety of writings
purporting to tell the story of apostolic lives, as an abundance of
extant apocryphal documents amply proves. The Acts of Paul and Thecla,
the Acts of St. Thomas, of St. Peter, and of St. John, were
imitations, doubtless, of the well-known name by which our canonical
book was then called. Imitation is universally acknowledged to be the
sincerest form of flattery, and the imitation of the title and form of
our book is an evidence of its superior claim and authority. One of
the oldest of these apocryphal Acts is a document celebrated in
Christian antiquity as the Acts of Paul and Thecla. We know all about
its origin. It was forged about the year 180 or 200 by a presbyter of
Asia Minor who was an enthusiastic admirer of the Apostle St. Paul.
But when we take up the narrative and read it, with its absurd legends
and its manifold touches and realistic scenes drawn from the
persecutions of the second century, and well known to every student of
the original records of those times, we can at a glance see what the
canonical Acts of the Apostles would have been had the composition
been postponed to the end of the second century. The Acts of Paul and
Thecla are useful, then, as illustrating, by way of contrast in title
and in substance, the genuine Acts of the New Testament which they
imitated.[11]
[11] See a copious account of this strange second-century forgery
in Dr. Gwynne's article on Thecla in the fourth volume of the
_Dictionary of Christian Biography_. Dr. Salmon, in his
_Introduction to the N.T._, chap. xix., gives a most interesting
description of the apocrypha Acts of the Apostles, which even the
unlearned can enjoy.
But then, some one might say, how do we know that the genuine Acts of
the Apostles existed prior to the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the
time of Tertullian, who first mentions these apocryphal Acts, and
tells us of their forged origin? The answer to that query is easy
enough. Yet it will require a somewhat copious statement in order to
exhibit its full force, its convincing power.
Tertullian is a writer who connects the age of apostolic men, as we
may call the men who knew the Apostles--Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement of
Rome, and such like--with the third century. Tertullian was born about
the middle of the second century, and he lived till the third century
was well advanced. He was one of those persons whose chronological
position enables them to transmit historical facts and details from
one critical point to another. Let me illustrate what I mean by a
modern example. Every unprejudiced thinker will acknowledge that the
Rev. John Wesley was a man who exercised an extraordinary religious
influence. He not only originated a vast community of world-wide
extent, which calls itself after his name, but he also imparted a
tremendous impetus to spiritual life and work in the Church of
England. After the departure of Mr. Wesley from this life his mantle
fell upon a certain number of his leading followers, men like Adam
Clarke, the commentator; Jabez Bunting, the organizer of modern
Wesleyanism; Thomas Coke, Robert Newton, and Richard Watson, the
author of the _Institutes of Theology_. Several of these men lived far
into this century, and there are at the present day thousands still
alive who recollect some of them, while there are many still alive who
can recollect all of them. Now let us draw a parallel with all
reverence, and yet with perfect fairness. John Wesley began his life
at the beginning of the eighteenth century as our Lord began His
human life at the beginning of the first century. John Wesley's
immediate disciples perpetuated their lives till the middle of the
present century. Our Lord's apostles and immediate followers
perpetuated their lives in some cases till well into the second
century. At the close of the nineteenth century there are hundreds, to
say the least, who remember Adam Clarke and Thomas Coke, who in turn
were personally acquainted with John Wesley. In the last quarter of
the second century there must have been many still alive--apostolic
men, I have called them--whose youthful memories could bear them back
to the days when the Apostle St. John, and men like St. Mark, and St.
Luke, and St. Ignatius, still testified what they had personally seen
and heard and known. Why, the simple fact is this, that in the year
1950 there will be still living numerous persons who will be able to
say that they have personally known many individuals who were the
friends and acquaintances of John Wesley's immediate disciples. Four
long lives of ninety years, the one overlapping the other, will easily
cover three centuries of time.
Let us dwell a little more on this point, for it bears very directly
on Tertullian's witness, not only to the canon of the New Testament,
but also to the whole round of Christian doctrine. It is simply
wonderful what vast tracts of time can be covered by human memory even
at the present day, when that faculty has lost so much of its power
for want of exercise, owing to the printing-press. I can give a
striking instance from my own knowledge. There is at present an
acquaintance of mine living in this city of Dublin where I write. He
is hale and hearty, and able still to take the keenest interest in the
affairs of religion and of politics. He is about ninety-five years of
age, and he has told me within the last twelve months that he
remembers quite well a grand-aunt of his born in the reign of Queen
Anne, who used to tell him all the incidents connected with the
earliest visits of John and Charles Wesley to Ireland about 1745. If
Tertullian's experience was anything like my own, he may quite easily
have known persons at Rome or elsewhere who had heard the tale of St.
Paul's preaching, labour, and miracles from the very men whom the
Apostle had converted at Antioch, Damascus, and Rome. I can give a
more striking instance still, which any reader can verify for himself.
Mr. S. C. Hall was a writer known far and wide for the last seventy
years. About the middle of this century Mr. Hall was at the height of
his popularity, though he only passed to the unseen world within the
last year or so. In the year 1842 he, in union with his accomplished
and well-known wife, composed a beautifully-illustrated work,
published in three volumes, called _Picturesque Ireland_, which now
finds an honoured place in many of our libraries. In the second volume
of that work Mr. Hall mentions the following curious fact bearing on
our argument. He states that he was then (in 1842) staying at the
house of a gentleman, Sir T. Macnaghten, whose father had commanded at
the siege of Derry in 1689, one hundred and fifty-three years before.
Yet vast as the distance of time was, the explanation which he offered
was easy enough. The Macnaghten Clan was summoned to assist in the
celebrated siege of Derry. They refused to march unless headed by
their chief, who was then a boy of seven. The child was placed on a
horse and duly headed his clan, who would follow him alone. That child
married when a very old man, and his eldest son attained to an
equally patriarchal age, carrying with him the traditions of Jacobite
times down to the reign of Queen Victoria. I could give many other
similar instances, illustrating my contention that vivid and accurate
traditions of the past can be transmitted over vast spaces of time,
and that through persons who come into living contact with one
another.[12]
[12] The Irish people are very Oriental in the tenacity with which
they retain ancient traditions, transmitting them intact to
posterity. Abundant instances have proved this, the traditions
having been perpetuated in some cases for five hundred years or
more. The following case has come under the writer's notice in his
own neighbourhood. There is near Dublin a village called Finglas,
celebrated for its ancient Abbey. A cross stood there which had
been venerated from the earliest times. When Cromwell's soldiers
were advancing to attack Dublin about the year 1648, their
iconoclastic fame reached the inhabitants of Finglas, who took the
ancient cross and buried it in one of the glebe fields. Some one
hundred and sixty years later a vicar of Finglas of antiquarian
tastes heard traditions of this event. He learned from an
extremely old man that his grandfather when a boy had been present
at the burial of the cross, and had shown him the spot where it
was concealed. The vicar made excavations, and duly found the
cross, which he re-erected some time about 1810, in a spot where
it is still to be seen. This instance will show how two long lives
could cover the space between St. Paul's middle age and
Tertullian's mature years. See _Fingal and its Churches_, by Rev.
R. Walsh, D.D., pp. 147-49. Dublin, 1888. St. Jerome, _De Vir.
Illust._, 53, mentions a similar case in his time. St. Jerome knew
an old man who when young had himself known one of St. Cyprian's
secretaries. St. Jerome wrote about A.D. 400, St. Cyprian died in
257; the difference exactly between Tertullian and St. Paul.
Tertullian must have had ample means, then, of ascertaining the facts
concerning the books of the New Testament from living witnesses. There
is again another point we must bear in mind, and it is this: the
distance of time with which Tertullian's investigations had to deal
was not so vast as we sometimes imagine. It was by no means so great
as the spaces we have just now referred to. We naturally think of
Tertullian as living about the year 200, and then, remembering that
our Saviour was born just two centuries before, we ask, What is the
value of a man's testimony concerning events two centuries old? But we
must bear in mind the exact point at issue. We are not enquiring at
all about events two centuries old, but we are enquiring as to
Tertullian's evidence with respect to the canonical Gospels and the
Acts; and none of these was one hundred years old when Tertullian was
born, about 150 A.D., while the Gospel of St. John may not have been
more than sixty years old, or thereabouts, at the same date. Now if we
take up the writings of Tertullian, which are very copious indeed, we
shall find that the Acts of the Apostles are quoted at least one
hundred times in them, long passages being in some cases transcribed,
and the whole book treated by him as Scripture and true history. If we
accept the ordinary view, that the Acts were written previously to St.
Paul's death, the book was only a century old at Tertullian's birth.
But we can come nearer to the apostolic times.
The Muratorian Fragment is a document which came to light by chance
one hundred and fifty years ago. It illustrates the age of the Acts,
and shows what wondrous testimonies to the New Testament scriptures we
may yet gain. Its story is a very curious and interesting one for
ourselves. St. Columbanus was an Irish missionary who, about the year
600 A.D., established a monastery at Bobbio, a retired spot in North
Italy. He gathered a library there, and imparted a literary impulse to
his followers which never left them.[13] Some Irish monk a hundred
years later than Columbanus employed his time in copying into a book
an ancient manuscript of the second century giving a list of the books
of the New Testament then received at Rome. This second-century
manuscript enumerated among these the four Gospels, the Acts of the
Apostles, and thirteen Epistles of St. Paul. Concerning the Acts of
the Apostles, the Roman writer of this document, who lived about A.D.
170, says: "The Acts of all the Apostles are written in one book. Luke
explains to the most excellent Theophilus everything which happened in
his presence, as the omission of Peter's martyrdom and of Paul's
journey into Spain manifestly proves;" a passage which clearly shows
that about the middle of the second century the Acts of the Apostles
was well known at Rome, and its authorship ascribed to St. Luke.[14]
But this is not all. We have another most interesting second-century
document, which proves that at the very same period our canonical book
was known and authoritatively quoted far away in the south of France.
It is hard to exaggerate the evidential value of the Epistle of the
Churches of Lyons and Vienne written about the year 177, and addressed
to their brethren in Asia Minor. That letter quotes the books of the
New Testament in the amplest manner, and without any formal
references, just as a modern preacher or writer would quote them,
showing how common and authoritative was their use. Leader-writers in
the _Times_ or the _Saturday Review_ often garnish their articles with
a scriptural quotation; the late Mr. John Bright, in his great popular
orations, loved to point them with an apt citation from Holy Writ; but
he never thought it necessary, nor do journalists ever think it
necessary, to prefix a formal statement of the place whence their
texts have been derived. They presume a wide knowledge and a formal
recognition of the text of the Bible. So it was in this epistle
written from Lyons and Vienne, and in it we find an exact quotation
from the Acts of the Apostles--"According as Stephen the perfect
martyr prayed, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
[13] See two articles on St. Columbanus and his library in the
_Expositor_ for June and August 1889.
[14] Dr. Salmon, in his _Introd. N.T._, pp. 48-54, describes the
Muratorian Fragment.
But this is not the whole of the argument which can be derived from
the Epistle of the Lyonnese Christians, which is given to us at full
length in the fifth book of the _Church History_ of the celebrated
historian Eusebius. Their incidental notice of the Acts involves a
vast deal when duly considered. The Epistle from Lyons implies that
the Acts were received as authoritative and genuine in the churches of
towns like Ephesus, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Miletus, where the memories
and traditions of the Apostles were still vivid and living. Then, too,
the Bishop of Lyons had suffered in this persecution. His name was
Pothinus. He was the first Bishop of the Church of Lyons, and he died
when he was more than ninety years of age, and may have been a
disciple of an apostle, or of one of the first generation of
Christians. At any rate, his memory would easily carry him back to the
days of Domitian and the times of the first century; and yet the
Church over which this first-century Christian presided accepted the
Acts of the Apostles. The testimony of Pothinus helps then to carry
back the Acts of the Apostles to the year 100 at least. But we can go
farther still, and closer to apostolic times.
The Gospel of St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are, we may say,
universally admitted to be by the same writer. The reference of the
Acts to the Gospel, the unity of style and tone of thought, all
demonstrate them to be the production of one mind. Any circumstance
therefore which proves the early existence of the Gospel equally
proves the existence of the Acts of the Apostles. Now we have proof
positive that the Gospel of St. Luke occupied an authoritative
position and was counted an apostolic and sacred writing at Rome in
the early years of the second century, say between 100 and 150,
because when Marcion, whom we might call a primitive Antinomian,
wished to compile a gospel suited to his own purposes, he took St.
Luke's Gospel, cut out whatever displeased him, and published the
remainder as the true version. The perversion and mutilation of St.
Luke's work shows that it must already have held a high position in
the Church at Rome, or else there would have been no object in
mutilating it. Marcion's treatment of St. Luke proves the use and
position the Gospel and the Acts must have occupied in days when the
converts and companions of the Apostles were still alive.[15] That is
as far as we can go back by external testimony. But then we must
remember what these facts involve--that the Gospel and the Acts
occupied authoritative positions in various parts of the world, and
specially in Rome, Gaul, Africa, and Asia Minor, in the generation
next after the Apostles. Then let us take up the Book of Acts itself,
and what does this book, known at Rome and throughout the Christian
world at that early period, tell us? It informs us that it was the
work of the writer of the Gospel, and that the writer was a companion
of the Apostle Paul throughout the portion of his career sketched in
the latter part of the book. The Christian Church has never pinned
its faith to the Lukian authorship of either the Gospel or the Acts.
The question of the authorship of these books is an open one, like
that of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Acts has been attributed to
Silas, to Timothy, to Titus; but I may say, without going into any
further details on this question, that every attempt to ascribe the
Acts to any one else save to the beloved physician has failed, and
must fail, because he was the real author, well known to the living
tradition of the Church of Rome in the early part of the second
century, as that tradition is handed down to us in the language of the
Muratorian Fragment.
[15] See Dr. Sanday's _The Gospels in the Second Century_, and Dr.
Salmon's _Introd. N.T._, pp. 204-208.
If we were writing a critical treatise, we should of course have to
enter upon the full discussion of many questions which might here be
raised. The Acts of the Apostles in its latter chapters plainly claims
to be the work of an eye-witness. In its opening words, placed at the
head of this dissertation, it claims to be the work of the author of
the Gospel. All the facts fall into a simple, natural order if we
accept the traditional testimony of the Church that the Acts and the
Gospel were both of them written before the martyrdom of St. Paul, and
were indited by the hands of St. Paul's companion St. Luke. Any other
solution is forced, unnatural, and involves inconsistencies on every
side. We may turn aside from this brief outline of the critical
question, to some more purely spiritual reflections, simply referring
those who desire more information on the questions of date and
authorship to such exhaustive works as those of Dr. Salmon's
_Introduction to the New Testament_; Dr. Westcott on the _New
Testament Canon_; Dr. Charteris on _Canonicity_, or Meyer's
_Introduction to the Acts_.
First, then, it may strike the intelligent reader, how comes it that
we have not much fuller testimony in early Christian writers to the
Acts of the Apostles, and to all the books of the Old Testament? How
is it that the writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, Clement of Rome, do not
abound with references, not merely to the Acts, but also to the four
Gospels and to the other works of the New Testament? How is it that we
have to depend on this obscure reference and that dubious quotation?
These are questions which have often puzzled my own mind before I had
investigated, and must often have raised anxiety and thought in other
minds sincerely desirous of being rooted and grounded in the truth.
But now, after having investigated, and thought, I think I can see
solid reasons why things are as they are; clear evidences of the truth
of the Christian story in the apparent difficulties. Historic
imagination is one of the necessary requisites in such an
investigation, and historic imagination is one of the qualities in
which our German cousins, from whom most of the objections to the
canon of the New Testament have been derived, are conspicuously
deficient. They are gifted with prodigious industry, and an amazing
capacity for patient investigation. They live secluded lives, however,
and no one is a worse judge of practical life, or forms wilder
conclusions as to what men actually do in practical life, than the
academic pure and simple. A dear friend, now with God, himself a
distinguished resident of a well-known college, used often to say to
me, "Never trust the opinion of a mere college fellow or professor
upon any practical point; they know nothing about life." This dictum,
begotten of long experience, bears on our argument. German thought and
English thought offer sharp and strong contrasts on many points, and
on none more than in this direction. English students mix more in the
world, are surrounded by the atmosphere of free institutions, and
realize more vividly how men spontaneously act under the conditions of
actual existence. The German thinker evolves his men of the past and
the facts of their existence out of his own consciousness, without
submitting them to the necessary corrections which experience dictates
to his English brother; and the result is, that while we may be very
ready to accept the premises of the Germans, we should be in general
somewhat suspicious of their conclusions. Scholarship alone does not
entitle a man to pronounce on questions of history. It is only one of
the elements requisite for the solution of such problems. Knowledge of
men, experience of life, enabling a man to form a just and true mental
picture of the past and of the motives by which men are
influenced,--these are elements equally necessary. Now let us try and
throw ourselves back by an effort of historical imagination into the
age of Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement of Rome, and I think we shall
at once see that the omission of such abundant references to the New
Testament as men at times desiderate was quite natural in their case.
Let us reflect a little. The manner in which the early Christians
learned the facts and truths of Christianity was quite different from
that which now prevails. If men wish now to learn about original
Christianity they resort to the New Testament. In the age of Polycarp
they resorted to the living voice of the elders who had known the
Apostles, and had heard the truth from their lips. Thus Irenæus, who
had the four Gospels before him, tells us: "I can recall the very
place where Polycarp used to sit and teach, his manner of speech, his
mode of life, his appearance, the style of his address to the people,
his frequent references to St. John and to others who had seen our
Lord; how he used to repeat from memory the discourses which he had
heard from them concerning our Lord, His miracles, and His mode of
teaching; and how, being instructed himself by those who were
eye-witnesses of the Life of the Word, there was in all that he said a
strict agreement with the Scriptures." And it is very natural that
men, though possessed of the Gospels, should thus have delighted in
the testimony of elders like Polycarp. There is a charm in the human
voice, there is a force and power in living testimony, far superior to
any written words. Take, for instance, the account of a battle
contributed to a newspaper by the best-informed correspondent. Yet how
men will hang on the lips and follow with breathless attention the
narrative of the humblest actor in the actual contest. This one fact,
known to common experience, shows how different the circumstances of
the early Christians were as touching the canonical books from those
which now exist, or existed in the third and fourth centuries. Again,
we must remember that in the age of Polycarp there was no canon of the
New Testament as we have it.[16] There were a number of books here
and there known to have been written by the Apostles and their
immediate followers. One Church could show the Epistle written by St.
Paul to the Ephesians, another that written to the Colossians. Clement
of Rome, when writing to the Corinthians, expressly refers them to the
First Epistle to the Corinthians, which possibly was treasured by them
as their one sacred document of the new covenant; and so it was
doubtless all over the Christian world till well-nigh the close of the
second century. The New Testament was dispersed in portions, a few
leading Churches possessing perhaps all or most of the books, and a
few remote ones probably only a few detached epistles, or a solitary
gospel. A Greek document found in the National Library at Paris within
the last few years illustrates this point. The Scillitan martyrs were
a body of Africans who sealed their testimony to the faith by
suffering martyrdom in the year 180, about three years after the
sufferings of the Christians of Lyons and Vienne. North Africa, now
the chosen home of the false prophet, was then the most fruitful field
for the religion of the Crucified, yielding doctors, saints,
confessors, in multitudes. The document which has now come to light
tells the story of these north Africans and their testimony to the
truth. The details of their judicial examination are there set forth,
and in one question, proposed by the heathen magistrate, we have an
interesting glimpse of the very point upon which we are insisting, the
scattered and detached nature of the New Testament writings at that
period. The President of the Roman Court, in the course of his
examination, asks the leader of the martyrs, St. Speratus, "What are
those books in your cases?" "They are," he replied, "the epistles of
that holy man Paul." So that apparently the Scillitan Church depended
for instruction, in the closing years of the second century, upon the
Epistles of St. Paul alone.[17]
[16] The latest enquiries and discoveries confirm this view, which
may be deduced from a study of the apostolic Fathers, with which
should be compared the new second-century documents belonging to
Ephesus and Rome discussed in _Texte u. Untersuch_. of Gebhardt
and Harnack for 1888. Their titles are the tract _De Aleatoribus_,
by Pope Victor I., and the _Martyrdoms_ of Carpus and Papylus,
Companions of St. Polycarp. Pope Victor gives a long extract from
the _Shepherd of Hermas_, and calls it "Divine Scripture;" which
shows that the canon was not closed at Rome in the last fifteen
years of the second century.
[17] An interesting account of this second-century document will
be found in the _Texts_, edited by Gebhardt and Harnack, or in the
_Dict. Christ. Biog._ under "Scillitan Martyrs." Every scrap of
second century evidence is of the greatest importance for biblical
criticism.
The canon of the New Testament grew up by degrees somehow thus. While
the Apostles and their followers and the friends of their followers
lived and flourished, men naturally sought after their living
testimonies, consulting doubtless such documents as well which lay
within their reach. But when the living witnesses and their friends
had passed away, the natural instinct of the Church, guided by that
Spirit of Truth which in the darkest times has never wholly left
Christ's Spouse, led her to treasure up and dwell with greater love
upon those written documents which she had possessed from the
beginning. It is no wonder, then, that we do not find large quotations
and copious references to the canonical books in the earliest
writers--simply because it was impossible they should then have
occupied the same place in the Christian consciousness as they now do.
Rather, on the contrary, we should be inclined to say that, had they
been largely quoted and frequently referred to by Polycarp, Ignatius,
or Clement, men might naturally have derived therefrom a forcible
argument against the genuine character of the works of these primitive
Fathers, as such quotations would have been contrary to the principles
of human nature. It is very important for us to remember these facts.
They have a very clear bearing upon present-day controversies. Friends
and foes of Christianity have often thought that the truth of our
religion was bound up with the traditional view of the canon of the
New Testament, or with some special theory of inspiration; forgetting
the self-evident truth that Christianity existed at the beginning
without a canon of the New Testament, that the early Christians
depended upon personal testimony alone, and that if the Apostles and
their friends had never written a line or left a solitary document
behind them, yet that we should have abundant information concerning
the work and teaching of our Lord and His Apostles in the writings of
the successors of the Apostles, compared with and fortified by
contemporaneous pagan testimony. Men have sometimes thought and spoken
as if the New Testament descended from heaven in its present shape,
like the image that fell down from Jupiter which the Ephesians
worshipped, forgetting the true history of its upgrowth and origin.
The critical theories that have been advanced in abundance of late
years would have troubled a second-century Christian very little. If
the Johannine authorship of the fourth Gospel were denied, or the
Pauline authorship of Colossians or Ephesians questioned; what does it
matter? would have been his reply. These documents may have been
forgeries, but there are plenty of other documents which tell the same
story, and I have myself known many men who have suffered and died
because they had embraced the truths, from the lips of the Apostles
themselves, which they have taught me. The simple fact is, that if all
the books of the New Testament were proved impudent forgeries except
the Epistle to the Romans, the two Epistles to the Corinthians, and
the Galatians, which every person admits, we should have ample and
convincing statements of Christian truth and doctrine. The devout
Christian may, then, make his mind easy, certain that no efforts and
no advances in the field of biblical criticism are likely to ruffle
even a feather of the faith once delivered to the saints.
But then, some one may come forward and say, is not this a very
uncomfortable position for us? Would it not have been much more easy
and consoling for Christians to have had the whole canon of Scripture
infallibly decided by Divine authority once for all, so as to save all
doubts and disputations on the whole subject? Would it not have been
better had the Acts of the Apostles expressly named St. Luke as its
author, and appended ample proofs that its statement was true? This
objection is a very natural one, and springs up at times in every
mind; and yet it is merely part and parcel of the larger objection,
Why has Revelation been left a matter of doubt and disputation in any
respect? Nay, it is part of a still wider and vaster question, Why has
truth in any department, scientific, philosophical, ethical, or
historical, been left a matter of debate? Why has it not shone forth
by its own inherent light and compelled the universal consent of
admiring mankind? Why has not the great fundamental truth of all, the
existence and nature of God, been made so clear that an atheist could
not possibly exist? A century and a-half ago Bishop Butler, in his
immortal _Analogy_, disposed of this objection, which still crops up
afresh in every generation as if that work had never been written.[18]
God has placed us here in a state of probation, and neither in
temporal nor in spiritual matters is the evidence for what is true,
and right, and wise so clear and overwhelming that no room is left
for mistake or error. As it is in every other department of life, so
is it especially with reference to the canon of Scripture. It would
doubtless be very convenient for us if the whole question were settled
authoritatively and no doubts possible, but would it be good for us?
would it be wholesome for our spiritual life? I trow not. We have,
indeed, a living and speaking example of the blessings of uncertainty
in the state of the Roman Catholic Church, which has tried to better
the Divine method of training mankind, and banish all uncertainty.
That communion undertakes to settle infallibly all questions of
theology, and to leave nothing in doubt; and with what result? The
vast body of the laity take no interest whatsoever in theological
questions. They regard theology as outside their sphere, and belonging
to the clergy exclusively. The clergy in turn believe that the Pope,
in his office of infallible and universal pastor and teacher, has
alone the right and authority to settle doctrines, and they leave it
to him. They have made a solitude, and that they call peace, and the
pretence alone of an authority which undertakes to release man from
doubt and the need of investigation has paralysed theological inquiry
among Roman Catholics.
[18] See Butler's _Analogy_, Part II., chap. vi.
The same results on a vastly larger scale must have happened
throughout the Christian world had God made His revelation so clear
that no doubt could arise concerning it. Man is a lazy animal by
nature, and that laziness would at once have been developed by the
very abundance of the light vouchsafed. Religion would have been laid
aside as a thing settled once for all. All interest would have been
lost in it, and human attention would have been concentrated on those
purely mundane matters where uncertainty arises, and therefore
imperiously demands the mind's thought and care. The blessings of
uncertainty would offer a very wide topic for meditation. The man of
vast wealth whose bread is certain can never know the childlike faith
whereby the poor man waits upon his God and receives from Him day by
day his daily dole. The uncertainties of life hide from us much future
sorrow, teach us to walk by faith, not by sight, and lead us to depend
completely on the loving guidance of that Fatherly Hand which does all
things well. The uncertainties of life develop the spiritual life of
the soul. The doubts and questions which arise about religion bring
their own blessings with them too. They develop the intellectual life
of the spirit. They prevent religion becoming a matter of
superstition, they offer opportunities for the exercise of the graces
of honesty, courage, humility, and love; and thus form an important
element in that Divine training by which man is fitted here below for
the beatific vision which awaits him hereafter. Human nature ever
craves with longing desire to walk by sight. The Divine method
evermore prescribes, on the contrary, that man must for the present
walk by faith. Very wisely indeed, and with truest spiritual instinct,
the poet of the _Christian Year_ has sung, in words applicable to life
and to theology alike:--
"There are who, darkling and alone,
Would wish the weary night were gone,
Though dawning morn should only show
The secret of their unknown woe:
Who pray for sharpest throbs of pain
To ease them of doubt's galling chain:
'Only disperse the cloud,' they cry,
'And if our fate be death, give light and let us die.'
"Unwise I deem them, Lord, unmeet
To profit by Thy chastenings sweet,
For Thou wouldst have us linger still
Upon the verge of good or ill,
That on Thy guiding hand unseen
Our undivided hearts may lean,
And this our frail and foundering bark
Glide in the narrow wake of Thy belovèd ark."[19]
[19] J. Keble, "The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany."
The thoughts with which we have hitherto dealt connect themselves with
the opening words of the text with which we have begun this chapter,
"The former treatise I made, O Theophilus." There are two other points
in this passage which are worthy of devout attention. The writer of
the Acts took a thoroughly historical view of our Lord's life after
the resurrection as well as before that event. He considered that our
Lord's person, no matter how it may have been modified by His death
and resurrection, was still as real after these events as in the days
when He ministered and wrought miracles in Galilee and Jerusalem. His
whole life was continuous, from the day of the birth in Bethlehem
"until the day He was taken up."
Then again St. Luke recognises the dual personality of our Lord. As we
shall afterwards have frequently to notice, St. Luke realized His
Divine character. In the opening verses of this book he recognises His
complete and perfect humanity--"After that He had given commandment
through the Holy Ghost unto the Apostles." There was an ancient heresy
about the nature of our Lord's person, which denied the perfection of
our Lord's humanity, teaching that His Divinity took the place of the
human spirit in Christ. Such teaching deprives us of much comfort and
instruction which the Christian can draw from a meditation upon the
true doctrine as taught here by St. Luke. Jesus Christ was God as
well as man, but it was through the manhood He revealed the life and
nature of God. He was perfect Man in all respects, with body, soul,
and spirit complete; and in the actions of His manhood, in the
exercise of all its various activities, He required the assistance and
support of the Holy Ghost just as really as we ourselves do. He
taught, gave commandments, worked miracles through the Holy Ghost. The
humanity of the Eternal Son required the assistance of the Divine
Spirit. Christ sought that Divine aid in prolonged communion with His
Father and His God, and then went forth to work His miracles and give
His commandments. Prayer and the gift of the Spirit and the works and
marvels of Christ were closely connected together, even before the
open descent of the Spirit and the wonders of Pentecost. There was a
covenant blessing and a covenant outpouring of the Spirit peculiar to
Christianity which was not vouchsafed till Christ had ascended. But
the Divine Spirit had been given in a measure long before Christ came.
It was through the Spirit that every blessing and every gift came to
patriarchs, prophets, warriors, teachers, and workers of every kind
under the Jewish dispensation. The Spirit of God came upon Bezaleel
and Aholiab, qualifying them to work cunningly for the honour and
glory of Jehovah when a tabernacle was to be reared. The Spirit of God
came upon Samson, and roused his natural courage when Israel was to be
delivered. The Spirit of God could rest even upon a Saul, and convert
him for a time into a changed character. And just as really the Holy
Ghost rested upon the human nature of Jesus Christ, guiding Him in the
utterance of those commandments, the outcome and development of which
we trace in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.