SOME OTHER WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
[Illustration: (drop cap L) Ancient engraving of man reading scroll]
Let us now look at the rest of the books which make up the New
Testament. In the days when Paul preached at Athens, the old capital
of Greece, much of the ancient splendour and power of the Greek people
had passed away, for the Romans had conquered their country, and they
were no longer a free nation.
Yet, although the Greeks had been forced to yield to Rome, their
conquerors knew that the Grecian scholars and artists were far better
educated and more highly gifted than themselves, and Greek statues and
writings had therefore become the fashion throughout the Roman Empire.
Indeed, many of the Greek sculptors and authors are remembered and
admired to this day. Homer, the greatest Greek poet, who lived about a
thousand years B.C., is still world famous.
Homer's best-known poem[1] is about a terrible war which took place
between the Greeks and the Trojans. Its words are noble, and its
descriptions very clever, but although all must admire the beauty of
the lines, the poem produces a dismal and depressing effect.
The picture it gives of the old heathen religion is terrible, for Homer
described the 'gods' and 'goddesses' in whom he believed as being far
more cruel and unjust than the worst men and women of his time.
According to his ideas, Jupiter, Diana, Apollo, Mars, and the rest came
down to earth and took part in the battle.
In vain did the great hero, Hector, fight his bravest; in vain did he
sacrifice himself, and strive to make up for the wrong-doing of his
brother; he failed utterly, for Homer tells us that he was hated by
some of the 'gods' for no fault of his own, and so they doomed him to
destruction, and guided the hand of the man who slew him. How little
those clever Greeks had been able to discover of the mercy and justice
of God!
But although the men of this great nation knew nothing of our wise and
loving Heavenly Father, He knew and loved them every one, and as we
have seen, He called a Greek Christian author to help Him in the
wonderful work of writing the Bible.
In addition to the story of our Saviour's life this Greek author, St.
Luke, also wrote a book about a war--a war that was to become
world-wide--the war against sin and the Devil, and the name of this
second book is the '_Acts of the Apostles_.'
In all this wonderful Bible of ours there is no Book more wonderful
than the 'Book of the Acts.' Have you ever stopped to think what a
terrible gap there would be in the history of God's dealings with the
world had the 'Acts' never been written?
The Apostle Paul's life would be almost a blank. Stephen's victorious
death would be all unknown to us. Above all, the story of our
Saviour's ascension into Heaven, and the marvellous fulfilment of His
promises in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, would have been
left untold.
The Book of the Acts stands alone.
There are four Gospels--written from four different points of view, but
of the four writers, Luke, the Greek, was the only one who wrote a
sequel and showed the results which our Saviour's Life, and Death, and
Resurrection produced at once in the world.
The marvellous accuracy of St. Luke and his keen observation become
every year more striking as fresh discoveries in the lands of which he
wrote show how true he is in the tiniest detail; while his modesty is
equally remarkable, for only by carefully noticing when he says 'we'
and when 'they' can we discover when he shared St. Paul's dangers and
trials.
[Illustration: VERY ANCIENT FRAGMENT OF A PAPYRUS ROLL, WITH PORTIONS
OF THREE PSALMS WRITTEN IN GREEK]
'_Only Luke is with me_' (2 Timothy iv. 11) wrote the Apostle from his
Roman prison. The beloved physician was faithful to his great leader
to the last.
How did Luke write, and what did his two books look like when he had
finished them? He wrote on papyrus--that is, on reed paper, using an
ink like black paint, and a reed pen.
As far as we know no portions of the Bible-books of this date are left
in the world, but in the beginning of the year 1911 a large number of
very ancient fragments of Bible-books were discovered in Upper Egypt,
and with these was part of a translation of Luke's Book of the
Acts--just shreds and tatters of fragile papyrus paper, the remains of
what is up till now the oldest copy of the New Testament in the world.
Amongst the ancient manuscripts kept in the British Museum are old old
copies of Homer's War poems, and here also are stored the precious
fragments of the chronicles of that other great Greek writer--St. Luke.
Homer's book belongs to the forgotten past, for the heathen religion of
Greece is to-day as though it had never been.
But the writings of St. Luke are as full of blessing and power as ever,
and the war he wrote about grows more wonderful every day. For Christ,
the Son of God, came down from Heaven not to fight _against_ men as the
false gods of the old Greeks were supposed to have done, but to fight
and conquer _for_ men, to lift up the fallen, and to win for the
victors a crown of deathless glory.
The Apostle Peter, in contrast to St. Luke, was only a fisherman when
the Lord bade him leave his boat and his nets to preach and teach the
Gospel.
His ideas were very limited when Jesus Christ first came into his life,
and he knew little or nothing of the various branches of knowledge
which had become a second nature to the Greek scholar; but the
fisherman was to receive his education in a very different fashion from
Luke, for his teacher was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
How impossible it would have seemed to Peter, in the days when he
washed his nets by the Lake of Galilee, that his writings should ever
form a part of the Scriptures--God's Book, which he had learned from
his childhood to love and reverence!
Yet with God all things are possible.
Not only did the Apostle Peter write a part of the Bible, but that
short book known as the 'First Epistle of Peter,' is one of the most
frequently mentioned by all the earliest Christian writers--those
authors and teachers who had seen the Apostles, and had heard from
their lips the story of the Saviour's life on earth. Thus it is that
Peter's contribution to our Bible has become one of the strongest
witnesses to the truth of the words written down in the Gospels. There
is no possibility of a mistake; the man who wrote this Epistle could
have been none other than the Apostle Peter who had been with the Lord
from the beginning of His public work.
And it is very beautiful to trace throughout Peter's writings the
echoes of the great facts which he had seen, and which to the end of
his days formed the background of all his thoughts.
Christ had given him his name 'Peter' or 'Cephas,' that is, a rock or
stone, and so he wrote of his Master as the great Corner-stone of God's
spiritual house, in which each one of Christ's people are living
stones, (1 Peter ii. 5-7.)
The Saviour had once told Peter that he must forgive his brother
although he was wronged by him on seventy-times seven occasions, and in
Peter's Epistle we read, '_Above all things have fervent charity among
yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins_.' (1 Peter
iv. 8.) 'Charity' should have been translated 'love.'
Then the Lord had warned Peter that Satan had desired to have him, and
he--remembering that solemn fact in his own life--tried to put his
readers on their guard against the great enemy, '_because your
adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour._' (1 Peter v. 8.)
Most touching of all are the words he wrote: '_For what glory is it,
if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently?
But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this
is acceptable with God ... because Christ also suffered for us, leaving
us an example._' (1 Peter ii. 20, 21.) The man who had seen the Lord
Jesus Christ suffer patiently could never forget.
'_Feed the flock of God which is among you.... And when the Chief
Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory._' (1 Peter v.
2, 4.) His Master's last command by the Lake of Galilee to feed His
flock was so deeply impressed on Peter's mind that it coloured all his
thoughts to the last day of his life. (John xxi.)
This Epistle of St. Peter was written, we believe, to comfort God's
people under the heavy trial of Paul's second imprisonment. Cruelty
and persecution were doing their worst, but God was above all.
'_Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to
try you ... but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's
sufferings._' (1 Peter iv. 12, 13.)
Two short, but very beautiful, epistles are believed to have been
written by two of the Lord's brethren, St. James and St. Jude.
Eusebius, the first Christian historian--born 260 A.D., died 340--tells
us that James was a Nazarite. This means that he had taken the old
Jewish vow of special purity; he ate no meat, drank no wine, and wore
nothing but white linen garments. This vow is often mentioned in the
Old Testament. James had not believed that Jesus Christ was the
Saviour of the world until after His Resurrection, when the Lord
appeared to him. '_After that, He was seen of James._' (1 Corinthians
xv. 7.)
This set his doubts at rest for ever, and St. James too was called to
write a part of God's Book.
Of St. Jude, author of the Epistle of that name, scarcely anything is
known, but from Matthew xiii. 55 and Mark vi. 3 we learn that he was
one of the Lord's brethren, and, like his brother, James, did not
believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah until after the Resurrection.
This Jude must not be confused with the Apostle Jude.
These writers of the New Testament as they took their reed pens in
their hands, and spread out their rolls of whitey-brown papyrus-paper,
were not like Moses. True, they knew that the Holy Spirit was bidding
them write, but that their written words should ever be used by God to
form a part of the Bible would have seemed impossible to them all.
[Illustration: PART OF AN ANCIENT COPTIC TOMBSTONE--IN BRITISH MUSEUM]
The last and by far the latest writer of God's Book was St. John, the
beloved disciple.
Long after most of the other Apostles were dead, he still lived on,
speaking and writing of his Master, and to the Apostle John the Lord
Jesus Christ entrusted the record of many of His most beautiful and
comforting words, and of the deepest and most spiritual teaching in the
whole Bible.
Three of the shortest and yet most beautiful Books of the Bible are the
three epistles which bear John's name. They are supposed to have been
written from Ephesus, in John's latter days, and every sentence in them
seems to breathe forth the peace, love, and wisdom of a very old man
who has lived close to Christ for many years. It may well be then that
these calm and loving letters were the last of all the Bible words to
be written.
Now the 'Revelation,' though placed at the end of our Bible, was not
the last Book to be written.
It was probably composed whilst Nero, the wicked Emperor, was torturing
and burning the followers of Christ. St. John's heart must have been
ready to break with distress, but the Holy Spirit comforted him, and
lifted his thoughts right up to Heaven, showing him in a vision the end
of all these things.
Among the fragments of the oldest Bibles in the world recently
discovered, the Book of Revelation takes a prominent place. Some of
these were probably written about the year 150 A.D. Let us remember
when we look on the faded pages lying in the British Museum that when
their discoloured lines were fresh and clean, men were still living who
had seen the early martyrs die.
[1] The Iliad.