It seems unnecessary to guess with Zahn that "Arikia" should be read
instead of "Arkadia," or to assume that Hermas was a native of Arcadia,
or had a book of travels in his hands, or that he was thinking of Hermes
or the Hermetic writings. The literary tradition connecting Arcadia with
shepherds and with pastoral poetry was in itself enough, as Vergil's
"Eclogues" may suggest. It is admitted that Hermas was a literary man
even if "a man of the people," and what more natural place for a
shepherd to appear, if it was to be upon a mountain, than a mountain in
Arcadia? Shepherds have suggested Arcadia from the time of Vergil to
that of Sir Philip Sydney, and Vergil, in breaking away from the Sicily
of Theocritus, was quite probably following a tradition already
established at Rome.
An historian of Roman religion, W. Warde Fowler, says of Christianity as
preached by Paul that "the plant, though grown in a soil which had borne
other crops, was wholly new in structure and vital principle. I say this
deliberately, after spending so many years on the study of the religion
of the Romans, and making myself acquainted in some measure with the
religions of other peoples. The love of Christ is the entirely new power
that has come into the world; not merely as a new type of morality, but
as 'a Divine influence transfiguring human nature in a universal love.'
The passion of St. Paul's appeal lies in the consecration of every
detail of it by reference to the life and death of the Master."[257]
257: "The Religious Experience of the Roman People," 1911, pp. 466,
467.
The gospel which conquered the Roman Empire was no syncretic product
growing from Græco-Roman soil, no _mélange_ of oriental religions and
Greek philosophy, no cunningly devised fable or myth for the myth-loving
Greeks. No explanation of the character of Pauline Christianity, or of
its victory over its rivals in the ancient world, can ignore the
statements of Paul himself: "When the fulness of time was come, God sent
forth his Son; he revealed his Son in me, that I might preach him among
the Gentiles" (Gal. iv. 4; i. 16).
II. CHRISTIANITY AND MODERN RELIGIONS
The relation of Christianity to modern religions is a matter of
practical rather than theoretical interest. After the brilliant
victories of the early missionary age, the activity of the church in
spreading the gospel among the non-Christian peoples was for many
centuries remitted, and it is only practically within the last one
hundred years that the Christian Faith has been brought into actual
contact, through the work of its missionaries, with the non-Christian
religions.
Through its missionary propaganda Christianity has shown its genuineness
and its devotion to the commands of its Founder; and so far as it has
proved its ability to meet the religious needs and quicken the religious
and intellectual life of diverse nationalities, it has supplied a
practical demonstration of its divine origin and authority. The
missionaries have supplied the church with a pattern of apostolic zeal,
and have kept burning the fire of a passionate love and devotion for
their Master. A British statesman has said that the unselfish
imperialism of its missionary propaganda has been the crowning glory of
the Anglo-Saxon race.
While the unceasing struggle of Christianity against worldliness, greed,
indifference and unbelief still continues, it may be said that
Christianity has to-day no rival as a claimant to be the universal
religion. It alone can stand the white light of modern science, and it
alone can stand the test of those moral ideals which have been largely
created by itself. It is absolutely certain that none of the present
ethnic religions can compete with Christianity in its contest for world
supremacy.
The great danger to Christianity to-day, from the side of other
religions, is not that of persecution or the hostility of the state. The
danger lies in the temptation to compromise. Let Christianity, it is
said, lay aside its assumption of divine and exclusive authority and of
infinite superiority to all other religions, and let it make in its
ethics some concessions to the weakness of human nature, and the path to
world-conquest will be open.
Never was the temptation to compromise, with Judaism on the one hand and
heathenism on the other, stronger than it was in the early ages of the
Christian Church. If Christianity had compromised in the time of Jesus
and Paul, persecution would have ceased and the scandal of the cross
would have been removed. If early Christianity had compromised with
heathenism, and had not waged unrelenting warfare upon idolatry, it
could have escaped the united hostility of the state and of the other
religions and philosophies; on the other hand, if Christianity had come
to terms with Judaism or Paganism, while it might perhaps be known
historically as an obscure Jewish sect, or as a ripple upon the wave of
oriental religious influence upon the Græco-Roman world, it would never
have been the mighty spiritual power that it has been in human society.
It is a mistake to-day to think that for Christianity the way of
conquest is the way of compromise, and that Christianity can become a
world religion, superseding all others, by laying aside its distinctive
features and its exalted and exclusive claims. It would, indeed, be a
mistake to import our doctrinal systems in all their controversial
details into the heathen world, and the mystical oriental mind may
easily clothe Christianity, itself an oriental religion, in new and more
beautiful forms; but it would be, if possible, a greater mistake to
attempt to substitute ethics or natural religion for doctrinal
Christianity.
The rock of Islam will not yield to the preaching of a merely human and
prophetic Jesus; nor will the preaching of the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of man--the same message which the Swamis and Babists, with
a more pantheistic content to their message, preach in England and
America--be effective to overthrow the hoary superstitions of India and
the caste system with its hold upon every fibre of human nature.
A prominent educator and leader of thought has recently complained that
Christianity as usually preached in foreign lands is unsuitable to the
oriental mind. On the other hand, he chides the members of his own
religious communion because they, "with magnificent ideals, with
glorious concepts, with the truth of Christ in all its purity and
simplicity, sit in smug content offering the world of missions, in the
hour of its hunger, only the dry bones of criticism of those who
already serve."[258] But every practical movement, enlisting great masses
of men and demanding tremendous sacrifice for its accomplishment, must
have a rational basis. A humanitarian impulse is not sufficient to carry
through to a conclusion so vast and world-embracing a plan as is
contemplated by Christian Missions. The impulse however strong and noble
will evaporate, unless based upon and fed by a theory of what the
Christian religion is, of what it offers to men, of man's need of it,
and of the obligation of Christians to carry it to the non-Christian
nations. The history of missions has shown that no mere feeling of
benevolence or desire to better social and economic conditions, but the
command of Christ, love for Christ and gratitude to Christ has led the
army of missionaries to endure separation, hardship, persecution and
death.
258: Dr. Charles W. Eliot as reported in the press.
Lowell has said that every new edition of an Elizabethan dramatist "is
but the putting of another witness into the box to prove the
inaccessibility of Shakespeare's standpoint as poet and artist." Every
comparison of Christianity with other religions, ancient and modern,
brings its own superiority into stronger relief. In Jesus Christ and in
Him alone have been fulfilled the great religious ideas of the race. In
Him as prophet God's word is perfectly spoken, and He is the example
who leads in the way of His own precepts. In Him are fulfilled the ideas
of sacrifice and priesthood; He is the great High Priest, separate from
sinners in His holiness, but near them in His compassion and mercy. He
has put away sin and put away sacrifice by the offering of Himself once
for all, and has destroyed the whole sacrificial system of Jews and
Gentiles. He is the fulfillment of the idea of incarnation, of God
coming to man and of the Most High visiting the children of men, for
their rescue from all danger and the supply of all their needs.
In other religious and philosophical systems there have been golden
maxims for the conduct of life, wonderful insights into truth and
visions of beauty, and evidences of the reaching out of the human soul
after God; but Christianity is the only religion of which the
enlightened reason and conscience of the world can say that it is from
heaven and not from men. In no other religion has there been a long
period of centuries of preparation in the religious education of a
people to be the recipients and the messengers, in the fullness of time,
of the final revelation. In no other religion is there found a teaching
so profound, and yet so simple and self-evidencing, upon the great
themes of human interest, God, Immortality and Duty. From no other has
gone forth an influence so beneficent and transforming in human
history. In no other has there been a Calvary and an Easter Day, the
great historic facts upon which the hopes of the world rest, and in no
other has the undiscovered country been transformed into "the Father's
house."
VI
The Christian Faith and Biblical Criticism
We are living at a time when territory formerly deemed sacred is being
traversed by hosts of forbidding aspect under the banners of natural
science, of philosophy, and of the psychology and history of religion.
The greatest foe of all, it has been thought by some, has arisen within
the household of faith in the form of Biblical Criticism.
An eloquent American preacher, Dr. Richard S. Storrs, has said that when
Luther translated the Bible into the vernacular, "the peasant's roof was
lifted to a level with the stars." Into every home whose inmates could
read there came, with the Bible in their own tongue, the message of
divine love and redemption. With the freedom to read the Bible came also
the freedom to study the Bible, to judge by its standard the doctrines
and usages of the church, to compare Scripture with Scripture, and even
to bring Scripture itself with its credentials before the bar of reason.
Whatever the extremes into which criticism may have run in an age in
which the Cartesian principle of doubt is applied to every received
opinion, the rights of Biblical Criticism must be conceded as a legacy
of the Reformation.
About the works of Homer, of Plato, of Dante and of Shakespeare there
has gathered a mass of material in the way of commentary and discussion,
but it is safe to say that in recent years the literary output in all of
these departments of study taken together is small in comparison with
that which centres around the Bible. The Biblical critic has helped to
attract to the Bible the intellectual interest of our age, as well as to
make it the storm-centre of theological controversy. He has made it a
principal object of scholarly as well as devotional interest, has thrown
a flood of light upon its pages from history, archæology, philology and
comparative religion, and has challenged the devout Bible reader to a
more intelligent, minute and painstaking examination of the fundamental
documents of his faith.
The specialization of the age has assigned the Old Testament and the New
Testament to different departments of study, and the problems of each
must be independently investigated. It is evident, though, that the
fortunes of the Old Testament and the New are closely bound up together.
The same principles of criticism are likely to be applied to both, and
whether we begin with naturalism or supernaturalism in the Old Testament
we shall probably end with it in the New Testament. In both Testaments
Babylonian influence may be traced, and the twelve apostles may follow
the twelve patriarchs into the limbo of myth. If no supernatural process
of redemption, in the way of history, prophecy or revelation, can be
discovered in the Old Testament, it is unlikely that any will be
discovered at all. The Fourth Gospel as well as the Pentateuch has been
analyzed into documents, and the same great historical transposition is
seen in both Testaments; Jewish monotheism is said to have begun with
Amos instead of with Abraham, and Christianity in its distinctive
features with Paul instead of with Jesus.
The present state of discussion in the Old Testament field indicates, to
one not a specialist in this department, that positions which have been
regarded as assured are not yet settled beyond question. The literary
analysis is ingenious and plausible, but, as is shown in Orr's "Problem
of the Old Testament," the argument is balanced. To offset the literary
analysis and the rearrangement of the history in accordance with an
evolutionary scheme, there are certain considerations from history,
archæology, and common reason. No such analysis has been ventured in the
case of modern documents that are confessedly composite, and in the case
of Homer, the nearest classical parallel, there is the same uncertainty
in the results.
Purely literary considerations, as Ramsay has remarked, yield before
other more objective and historical data, and the literary theories are
adjusted to meet the new situation.[259] The temporary popularity in the
New Testament field of the Baur-Tübingen theories, based on Hegelian
principles of development, and then their general abandonment, suggest
the need of caution before we accept any concensus of criticism, based
upon literary and philosophical grounds alone, as the last word upon the
subject. Our special concern in this lecture is with the problems of the
New Testament, and we may consider briefly, I. The Pauline Epistles, II.
The Acts, III. The Synoptic Problem, and IV. The Johannine Problem.
259: "Luke the Physician," p. 262.
I. THE PAULINE EPISTLES
It is frequently said that the figure of the Apostle Paul stands out
against the background of history in bolder relief and with individual
features more strongly marked than does any other character in
antiquity. Not only has his public career been narrated by one who was
apparently his friend and companion in labours, but he has left a large
collection of letters, full of profound teaching upon religion and
ethics, and abounding in autobiographic details and in intimate
revelations of character.
The school of Baur recognized as genuine only the four central epistles,
Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Galatians, making in bulk about
three-fifths of the writings, exclusive of Hebrews, which have been
assigned to Paul. The tendency of criticism since the time of Baur has
been steadily in the direction of the acceptance of other epistles as
Pauline. Colossians, Philippians and I Thessalonians have now been added
to the list of the generally accepted writings, and it is only the
fringe of Paul's writings that can be said to be still in dispute. Of
these "anti-legomena," 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians and the Pastorals, it
is noticeable that two of them are rejected largely on the ground that
they resemble so closely in ideas and vocabulary the admittedly Pauline
letters of I Thessalonians and Colossians, while a Pauline nucleus is
often acknowledged in the Pastorals by those who do not assign the
epistles as a whole to Paul.
Students of Ephesians, moreover, are coming to hear in it more and more
clearly, if we mistake not, the voice of the Apostle and the expression
of his mature Christian experience, and of that doctrine of the church
in which Royce sees the essence of Paulinism. A. C. Headlam says that it
is the careful study of a book that will often solve the question of its
origin, and remarks: "To me Ephesians is Pauline through and through,
and more even than Romans represents the deepest thought of the
Apostle."[260] The important fact is that, when all the disputed epistles
are excluded, the progress of criticism has placed beyond reasonable
doubt the great body of the Apostle's teaching and the bulk of his
writings. The practical question now at issue, as Ramsay has observed,
is not, "What did Paul write?" but "What did Paul teach?"[261]
260: "St. Paul and Christianity," 1913, p. viii.
261: _Contemporary Review_, August, 1913, p. 198.
In Paul's acknowledged writings we have a solid basis in fact from which
to estimate the Gospel narratives and the Acts. The epistles of Paul
carry us back into the circle of the earlier apostles and of the
Jerusalem church, and throw light upon various events and aspects of the
life, character, words, death, and resurrection of Christ.
II. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
The book of Acts, while secondary in interest to the Gospels, occupies a
central place in New Testament criticism. It is the bridge between the
Ascension and the time thirty years later when Nero persecuted "a great
multitude called Christians at Rome." It covers the period in which
doctrinal evolution took place. Through its authorship it bridges the
gap between the Gospels and the Pauline church among the Gentiles.
The course of the history in the early chapters of Acts is so different
from that which the imagination of a later age would have pictured, that
it bears upon its face the marks of early origin and of trustworthiness.
To a later writer, without contact with the actors, and writing after
the destruction of the Temple and the final breach of the Christians
with the Jews and the assured success of the Gentile mission, it would
seem exceedingly improbable (1) that the apostolic company should have
continued to worship in the Temple; (2) that they should at first have
found favour with the people; and (3) that they should have remained in
Jerusalem with no apparent intention of leaving until scattered by
persecution; and perhaps (4) that the Sadducees should have been the
first to start the persecution. The recorded history, improbable to a
later age, bears upon its face the stamp of truth. The imagination of a
post-Pauline writer would have given us, we may be sure, a very
different picture of church history. It would scarcely have conceived of
the primitive Christology of Peter's speeches, the use of the term,
"child," or "servant" of God (παῖς [pais]) in place of the Pauline term,
"Son of God" (υἱός [huios]), yet with the same attitude, shared by
Christians of earlier and later time, of adoration, worship and love.
The presumption in favour of credibility is strengthened by the author's
full and detailed treatment of persons and places. "A man who would
venture to introduce ninety-five persons and a hundred and three places
into a history of his own times must have been pretty sure of his
ground. The majority of these persons were still living when he wrote;
into every one of these places his volume shortly penetrated.... The
correctness of his geography upholds the truth of his history."[262]
262: Arthur Wright: "Some New Testament Problems," pp. 88, 89.
A great many of the statements of the Acts can be checked by comparison
with Paul's epistles, as has been shown by Paley's "Horæ Paulinæ," and
more recently, for the first part of the Acts, by Harnack. In case of
apparent conflict, it has been said, "we are confronted by the task of
reconciling the differences between two first-century documents, each of
which has, admittedly, very powerful claims."[263] More than half of the
Acts is taken up with the labours of the Apostle Paul, and yet the Acts
does not mention or show knowledge of his epistles. This fact, used by
some to throw doubt upon the genuineness of the epistles, may be an
indication of the early date of the Acts, and of so close a relationship
between the author and the Apostle that the evidence of letters would be
unnecessary.
263: Dawson Walker: "The Gift of Tongues," 1906, p. 181.
Important alike in its bearing upon the questions of credibility and
authorship, is the evidence of the so-called "we-sections." A _prima
facie_ case is made out that the author of the Acts was an eye-witness
of some of the scenes it records, and a companion in travel of the
Apostle Paul. This evidence has of late been greatly strengthened by
linguistic investigation. While critical attempts are still made to
divide the Acts into documents, the "we-sections" (xvi. 10-17; xx. 5-15;
xxi. 1-18; xxvii. 1-xxviii. 16), as Sir J. Hawkins says, show an
"immense balance of internal and linguistic evidence in favour of the
view that the original writer of these sections was the same person as
the main author of the Acts and of the Third Gospel."[264]
264: "Horæ Synopticæ," 2d ed., 1909, p. 188.
No living writers have done more to stimulate interest in the book of
Acts than have Sir W. M. Ramsay and Harnack, and the writings of both
have materially strengthened the case alike for its Lukan authorship,
and, in the main, for its historical accuracy. Ramsay, starting, as he
says, from the standpoint of the Tübingen school, "with the confident
assumption that the book was fabricated in the middle of the second
century, and studying it to see what light it could throw on the state
of society in Asia Minor, was gradually driven to the conclusion that it
must have been written in the first century and with admirable
knowledge."[265]
265: "Pauline Studies," p. 199.
Harnack's defense, in his four monographs,[266] of the Lukan authorship,
integrity, historical reliability (where the supernatural is not in
question) and early date of the Acts is the most outstanding and
significant achievement of the age in New Testament criticism. Harnack's
work has been so thorough and convincing that it may be said to have
carried the theological world by storm. At least his powerful argument
for Lukan authorship does not appear to have been successfully met. The
attempt to turn its flank by asserting that the Paul of Acts, in making
a vow, shaving his head and entering into the Temple, was not the
defender of Gentile liberty who wrote Galatians, and so that the author
of the Acts was not the companion of Paul, is met by Harnack in the
fourth of his monographs. Paul, he declares, not only was a Jew, but
remained so, whether consistently or not. Harnack thinks that Paul
shrank back from taking the last logical step,[267] but that in this the
author of the Acts represents the relation of Paul to Judaism precisely
as do his letters.[268] Stanton well remarks that the difficulty of
accounting for alleged discrepancies between the Acts and the Epistles
is equal or greater on the supposition that the author wrote 100 A. D.,
or later, than if the author was the companion of Paul.[269] The very
fact, for example, that Luke says that Paul worshipped in the Temple is
an indication that we have here no conception of a later age to which
such an act would have seemed unnatural.
266: "Beiträge zur Einl. in das N. T.": I. "Lukas der Arzt," 1906;
II. "Sprüche und Reden Jesu," 1907; III. "Die Apostelgeschichte,"
1908; IV. "Neue Untersuchungen zur Apostelgeschichte und zur
Abfassungszeit des Synoptischen Evangelien," 1911. For convenience
these will be alluded to as I, II, III, and IV, in connection with
the English translation.
267: IV, p. 35; "Date of the Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels," p. 49.
268: _Ibid._, p. 62; E. T., p. 88.
269: "The Gospels as Historical Documents," Pt. II, 1909, p. 242.
In his "Date of the Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels" (IV), Harnack
reverses his former opinion and strongly defends a date for the Acts
within the lifetime of Paul and before the end of his trial at Rome.
Reviewing his former arguments for a later date, he finds them
inconclusive, and thinks that the earlier date is required by the abrupt
close of the Acts. Minor considerations favouring an early date are (1)
the titles for Christ in the early chapters, and for Christians, and the
description of the Jews as "the people of God"; (2) the fact that the
Jews are the persecutors and not the persecuted; (3) the absence of any
indication of the use of Paul's letters such as would be expected in a
later writer; (4) the use of the "first day of the week," instead of the
"Lord's Day," and of the names of Jewish feasts, in which Luke stands
with Paul against later writers. And (5) even the prediction, Acts xx.
25, which looks primarily to Jerusalem, not Rome, would not have been
written, if the second imprisonment be accepted, after its apparent
falsification by I Timothy i. 3 and 2 Timothy i. 18. H. Koch develops
these arguments independently,[270] and it can no longer be said that the
early dating of the Acts is "a pre-critical theory which rests on
sentimental or subjective grounds."[271]
270: "Die Abfassungszeit des lukanischen Geschichtswerkes," 1911.
271: J. Moffatt: "Historical New Testament," p. 414, note 4. It is
noticeable that Moffatt now favours the Lukan authorship, "put
practically beyond doubt by the exhaustive researches of Hawkins and
Harnack" ("Introduction to New Testament," p. 295), while advocating
a date later than Josephus' "Antiquities" (pp. 29 f.).
Why should the author follow so carefully the fortunes of the Apostle on
his voyage to Rome, and describe so fully the initial stages of his
trial, and yet leave the reader in doubt concerning its outcome?
Commentators have been puzzled by the seemingly inordinate space which
Luke devotes to the details of the voyage and shipwreck. Sometimes it is
said that the voyage marks the final rejection of the Jewish people; or
in the description is seen a literary device intended to intensify the
suspense of the reader; or allegorical interpretations are resorted to
by those who think that Luke would not thus descend from the level of
the philosophical historian to that of the novelist.
In the minute description of the voyage and shipwreck, Koch sees
evidence that the writer's experiences as Paul's companion on the
voyage were still fresh in his mind. The details would scarcely have
been remembered and recorded so vividly after twenty-five years. Even if
a journal had been kept, it is still strange that the minutiæ of the
story should have been retained in the perspective of the finished
history. "The author still stands under the fresh impression of the
wonderful divine guidance through which Paul, in spite of all dangers
and hindrances, reached his long sought goal." "What interest would a
reader of later times have in details such as that on an Alexandrian
ship precisely two hundred and seventy-six men were found?" In the
seventh or eighth decade more important contemporary events would have
stood in the foreground of interest.[272] A striking parallelism has been
observed between the Third Gospel and the Acts, while, supposing Paul's
death to have occurred, it is urged that Luke has missed "the
finest--the most essential--point of the whole comparison, the death of
Paul."[273]
272: H. Koch: "Die Abfassungszeit des lukanischen Geschichtswerkes,"
pp. 61, 62.
273: D. Walker: "The Gift of Tongues," p. 228.
The assumed intention of the author to write a third treatise does not
help the matter much. It is absurd, Ramsay admits, to relate the earlier
stages of the trial at great length, "and wholly omit the final result
which gives them intelligibility and purpose"; but his conclusion is
that "it therefore follows that a sequel was contemplated by the
author," a sequel which the "first" (prôtos) of Acts i. 1 implies, if
Luke "wrote as correct Greek as Paul wrote."[274] But the intention of
writing a sequel does not explain the failure to mention the outcome of
the trial. Luke would have no motive like the writer of a continued
story for keeping the reader in suspense, and the simple addition of the
words "until his release or acquittal" would have relieved the suspense,
and given "intelligibility and purpose" to the detailed description of
the earlier stages of the trial. The account of the Ascension is not
omitted from Luke's Gospel although given in greater detail in the Acts.
There is nothing un-philosophical in the abrupt ending of a history
which brings the record down to the date of writing.
274: "Paul the Traveller," pp. 307-309. The use of "first" (πρῶτos
[prôtos]) is not decisive, for it is used where there are but two
objects in the comparison in Acts xii. 10 (and see vii. 12), Hebrews
ix. 8 and 15, Apoc. xx. 5, and even I Corinthians xv. 47.
The leading argument against an early date for the Acts is drawn from
the possible use by Luke of the writings of Josephus, and the crux of
the question is in the words put into the mouth of Gamaliel (Acts v. 36,
37). The coincidence of the names of Theudas and Judas of Galilee (Acts
v. 36, 37; Antiq. xx. v. 1 and 2) is striking and, if the two men named
Theudas be identified and Josephus is correct, Luke is guilty of an
anachronism in putting an allusion to him into the mouth of Gamaliel;
for the Theudas of Josephus falls in the time of Fadus who was
procurator under Claudius, about 45 A. D. The following points deserve
to be noticed:
(1) Luke had from Paul, whether or not Paul was present at the meeting
of the Sanhedrin, the best means of knowing what Gamaliel, his teacher
and the spokesman of the Pharisaic party, actually said. (2) The
assumption that Luke was quoting Josephus is in itself very difficult
when we compare the passages. Luke speaks of about four hundred under
Theudas while Josephus mentions a great part of the people; Luke speaks
of Judas while Josephus speaks of the sons of Judas. To quote thus
loosely from his assumed authority and then to commit the further
blunder of making Gamaliel allude to an event which occurred at least a
dozen years later is, while possible, strangely out of keeping with
Luke's proved care and accuracy in most of his historical allusions. The
difficulty is acknowledged by those who make Luke dependent on Josephus.
Why did Luke diverge from a correct narrative if he had one before him?
Writers who affirm (Holtzmann) and those who deny (Schürer) the
dependence on Josephus practically agree that if Luke had read Josephus
he had forgotten him. (3) In the narrative of the death of Herod (Acts
xii. 20 f.; Antiq. xix. viii. 2), where the two authors most obviously
come together, both are plainly describing the same event, and yet seem
to be quite independent both in the use of words and in the details of
the description. (4) The cumulative evidence of an early date for Luke
weighs heavily in the scale against the hypothesis of dependence upon
the "Antiquities" written about 93 or 94 A. D.
The question of date cannot be said to be absolutely settled, but the
tendency of criticism as illustrated by Harnack is to the acceptance of
an early date, as well as to that of the Lukan authorship of the entire
book. It is difficult to see how Harnack, with his present defense of a
date before Paul's release from prison, can consistently maintain his
skepticism where the supernatural events recorded in the Acts are
concerned. It is idle to say that his "revolution in chronology" has no
effect upon the question of reliability. It is an established principle
of historical method that the nearer a tradition is to the event it
professes to describe, the more likely it is to be trustworthy. The
resources of Harnack's learning have been used in support of the
reliability of Luke in his geographical and chronological
references,[275] and his treatment of persons and reports of their
speeches.[276] He has shown that Luke was in touch with the leaders of
the Jerusalem church, and that his statements are abundantly confirmed
by the writings of Paul. If Luke wrote within the lifetime of Paul, the
Acts was published while the main actors were still living, and, by
inference, it recorded events as Peter and Barnabas and Apollos and
Philip and Mark thought that they happened. If further, as Harnack
argues, it was written during Paul's imprisonment there seems no room
for doubt that it was written under the eye and with the full
endorsement of its principal actor, and that we have thus the implicit
guarantee not only of Luke but of Paul also for the accuracy of its
record.
275: III, p. 97; "Acts of the Apostles," p. 112.
276: _Ibid._, pp. 101 ff.; E. T., pp. 117 ff.
III. THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM
It has been said that the two most important questions for religion are
those of the rational foundations of theism and of the trustworthiness
of the Four Gospels.[277] The Gospel records have always been regarded as
the citadel of the Christian Faith. Not only do they contain the record
of works of power and words of grace, and of a transcendent Personality,
but they have always been considered to have been themselves
supernatural in origin and character. They have been regarded as "a
house not made with hands" (Robertson Nicoll), "a miracle of the Holy
Ghost" (Stier), "the heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the living Word."
The criticism of the past century, in its quest for the historical
Jesus, has taken a very different attitude towards the Evangelical
records. By many critics they have been regarded as a patchwork of
traditions, a work of pious but credulous men, whose idealization and
exaggeration, in the supposed interest of faith, it is necessary to
discount in order to reach the bed-rock of historical fact.
277: Dr. Francis L. Patton, in an address.
The literary relation of the Synoptic Gospels to one another has
furnished to the New Testament student a problem of great intricacy and
singular fascination. Its importance for our present purpose is in its
bearing upon the trustworthiness of our canonical Gospels. The school of
Baur, under the influence of the Hegelian dialectic, saw in Matthew, the
Jewish Gospel, the thesis; in Luke, the Gentile Gospel, the antithesis;
and lastly in Mark, the neutral Gospel, the synthesis or last term of
the development. Criticism since the time of Baur has, with much
unanimity, seen in Mark not the latest but the first of the Gospels, and
has made Matthew and Luke dependent upon Mark.
The theory which has for some years held the field is the so-called
"two-document" theory. According to this Matthew and Luke, usually
regarded as independent of each other, are both dependent, for much of
their narrative portion and for the framework of their history, upon
Mark, and, for the non-Markan discourse material which they have in
common, upon a collection of the sayings of Jesus, formerly designated
as "the Logia" but now usually called by the letter "Q." The importance
of the Synoptic Problem, for our present purpose, is in its historical
rather than its literary features. Assuming the priority of Mark, and
assuming that Matthew and Luke were dependent upon him alone in those
parts of their narratives which have Markan parallels, it is clear that
we must regard all deviations made by the other Synoptists from the
Markan narrative as of only secondary value. Variations from Mark, if
Mark be the sole source, whether these consist of additions, omissions
or modifications in the narrative, obviously add nothing to our
knowledge of the facts, but simply represent changes which the later
writers have made in their source from subjective reasons. It is
important, then, to ask whether, in the present state of opinion upon
the inter-Synoptic relations, there is reason to believe that Matthew
and Luke are following Mark as their sole authority for the narratives
which have Markan parallels.
There is now a quite general recognition of the fact that the literary
problem presented by the Synoptic Gospels is exceedingly intricate, and
that the "two-document" hypothesis in its simplicity has not solved all
the difficulties. It is recognized that it must be modified in one of
three directions.
(1) There may be said to be a growing appreciation of the part which
oral transmission has played in the composition of the Gospels. This is
shown for example in the volume of Oxford "Studies in the Synoptic
Problem" (1911),[278] and by the statement of Sir John Hawkins, who, in
the second edition of his "Horæ Synopticæ" (1909), expresses the strong
opinion "that at least the Second and Third Evangelists had provided
themselves with written documents as their main sources, but that they
often omitted to refer closely to them, partly because of the physical
difficulties which there must have been in consulting manuscripts, and
partly because of the oral knowledge of the life and sayings of Jesus
Christ which they had previously acquired as learners and used as
teachers, and upon which therefore it would be natural for them to fall
back very frequently."[279] It is natural to suppose, with Schmiedel,
that oral tradition continued for a considerable time after the first
documents were written.[280]
278: Compare the statement of J. V. Bartlett: "I am not convinced
that there ever was a written 'book of discourses' that has
perished" (p. 360).
279: "Horæ Synopticæ," 2d ed., p. 217.
280: Art. "Gospels," Encycl. Bib., vol. ii. col. 1846.
(2) A considerable number of scholars, finding that Mark condenses his
account of such incidents as the Baptism and Temptation of Jesus and the
discourse concerning Beelzebub, and that Matthew and Luke are parallel
in matter which they add at these points to the Markan account, have
concluded that Mark must have used Q, the assumed source of the
Matthew-Luke agreements. A moderate statement is that of Dr. Sanday: "I
do not think that Q was used by Mark regularly and systematically, as
the later Evangelists use his own narrative; but he must have known of
its existence, and reminiscences of it seem to have clung to him and
from time to time made their way into his text." [281]
281: "Studies in the Synoptic Problem," pp. xvi, xvii.
(3) Another group of scholars, basing their view on the agreement of
Matthew and Luke against Mark in matter with Markan parallels, and on
the difficulty of accounting for some omissions from Mark in the later
Evangelists (such as the omission in Luke, where it would be most
appropriate, of the story about the Syro-Phoenician woman), have framed a
theory of different recensions in Mark, one being used by Matthew, a
different one by Luke, and a final recension, whether the work of the
Evangelist himself or of an editor, representing our canonical Mark.
This theory in different forms has been advocated by Stanton in his
"Gospels as Historical Documents," Part II (1909), and more recently by
Holdsworth in his "Gospel Origins" (1913). When the two-document theory
is held in this form, the priority of Mark belongs only to the assumed
earlier editions, for whose extent and contents there is no objective
evidence except the assumed dependence, while our canonical Mark is
later than either Matthew or Luke.
There is a growing tendency to find secondary elements in Mark as well
as in Matthew or Luke. Hawkins, it will be recalled, gives a list of
passages in Mark "which may have been omitted or altered (by the other
Evangelists) as being liable to be misunderstood, or to give offense, or
to suggest difficulties."[282] Of the passages which seem (a) to limit
the power of Jesus, or (b) to be otherwise derogatory to, or unworthy of
Him, the more noteworthy of the twenty-two instances given by Hawkins
are as follows: under (a),
282: "Horæ Synopticæ," 2d ed., pp. 117 f.
1. Mark i. 32-34, "He healed many that were sick." Matthew viii. 16, "He
healed all"; cf. Luke iv. 40, "Every one of them."
3. Mark vi. 5, "He could there do no mighty work, save etc." Matthew
xiii. 58, "He did not many mighty works there because of their
unbelief."
Under (b),
2. Mark i. 12, "The Spirit driveth him forth." Matthew and Luke use
words meaning to "lead."
4. Mark iii. 21, "They said he is beside himself." This is omitted by
Matthew and Luke.
10. Mark x. 17, 18, "Good Master" and "Why callest thou me good?" appear
in Matthew xix. 16, 17 (R. V.) as "Master" and "Why askest thou me
concerning that which is good?" Luke follows Mark.
Over against these passages may be placed others where the change, if
any, and whether made unconsciously or for reasons of style or with
conscious tendency, would seem to be in the other direction.
1. In the Parable of the Vineyard, Matthew xxi. 37, "My son." Luke xx.
13, "My beloved son." Mark xii. 6, "He had yet one, a beloved son."
2. Matthew x. 42, "A cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple."
Compare Mark ix. 41, "In name because ye are of Christ."
3. Luke xxiii. 47, "Certainly this was a righteous man." Mark xv. 39,
"Truly this man was the Son of God," or "a son of God." Matthew xxvii.
54 follows Mark.
4. (According to Bousset) Mark's abbreviation of Q in iii. 27 makes it
appear that it was Jesus who bound the strong man, instead of God.[283]
283: "Kyrios Christos," p. 49.
5. Matthew xiii. 55, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" Compare Luke iv.
22, "Is not this Joseph's son?" Mark vi. 3, "Is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary?" Belief in the Virgin Birth is perhaps safeguarded by
Mark.
6. Mark x. 45, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, etc."
Here Bousset sees a dogmatic working over of Luke xxii. 27, "I am among
you as one that serves."[284] Matthew xx. 28 follows Mark.
284: "Kyrios Christos," p. 9, note 1.
So far as tendency to Christological heightening is concerned, critics
of the school of Bousset are now especially severe against Mark. It
appears that "Luke's Gospel in the Passion history has preserved a
series of primary traditions over against Mark."[285] Holdsworth finds a
number of secondary elements, mostly stylistic, in Mark where the three
Gospels have a common narrative. Among these are the vivid touches of
the second Gospel, considered to be "distinctly secondary features," the
fuller descriptions in many instances, and the use of the noun "gospel"
not found at all in Luke although the verb is used, and not found in
Matthew in its absolute sense.[286]
285: "Kyrios Christos," p. 44.
286: "Gospel Origins," pp. 118 f.
Taking, then, the present state of opinion as to the relation of our
Mark to the other Gospels, we see that while in general the "priority of
Mark" is in some sense defended, yet the relation between any given
passage in Matthew or Luke and its parallel in Mark may be variously
construed. When Matthew, for example, deviates from Mark, this
modification according to current theories may arise (1) from the first
Evangelist's fancy or his dogmatic tendency, and will in either case be
historically worthless. It may arise (2) from reliable oral tradition,
and in this case be as worthy of credence as the Markan source. It may
be derived (3) from the source Q, but may be for some reason omitted by
Mark, whose knowledge of Q is assumed. The deviation in Matthew may (4)
have been found in a proto- or deutero-Mark, but have been omitted in his
final edition. The difference in this case between Matthew and Mark is
no greater than that between two editions of the same work.
The point to be emphasized is that, in the present state of opinion upon
the Synoptic problem, the difference of one Evangelist from another does
not in itself invalidate the testimony of either. The Synoptic problem,
while primarily a literary problem, is indeed "fraught with momentous
issues which the Church, and not scientific criticism only, is concerned
to face";[287] but in the present state of the discussion, the fact that
Matthew adds to or modifies the narrative of Mark does not necessarily
place the Matthean modification upon a lower plane of credibility than
the Markan statement. The Matthean modification may be an exact copy of
an earlier edition of Mark, or may be derived from one of Mark's
sources, Q, or may be taken from that stream of oral tradition coming
from "eye-witnesses and ministers of the word," which Luke in his
preface evidently regarded as the touchstone of historical truth,
whatever his use of written sources.
287: H. L. Jackson, in "Cambridge Biblical Essays," 1909, p. 432.
Passing over the vexed question of Q, we may observe that the acceptance
of Harnack's early dating of the Acts and Luke would further complicate
the two-document theory. He agrees that Luke was written before the
Acts, and the Acts before Paul's trial at Rome was decided; further that
Mark is one of the sources of Luke, and that Mark was written at Rome.
"Tradition asserts no veto against the hypothesis that Luke, when he met
Mark in the company of Paul the prisoner, was permitted by him to peruse
a written record of the Gospel history which was essentially identical
with the Gospel of Mark given to the Church at a later time." Perhaps,
he intimates, "Luke was not yet acquainted with Mark's final revision,
which, as we can quite well imagine, Mark undertook while in Rome."[288]
The priority of Mark, under this supposition, is left hanging by a
slender thread. It is highly probable that Luke gathered the material
for his work (and a great part of it was certainly independent of Mark)
while in Palestine, and if he did not see Mark's Gospel, or a rough
draft of it, until he was in Rome, it is improbable that the Markan
document was his primary and principal source, as the two-document
theory asserts.
288: IV, p. 93; "Date of the Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels,"
p. 133.
Whatever the literary foundation of the two-document theory, it cannot
be said to have led to any very important historical results. Those who
regard the portrait of Jesus in Mark as historical see in the portrayal
of Matthew and Luke only a difference in the _nuances_ of the narrative.
On the other hand, those who cannot accept the picture drawn by the
First and the Third Evangelists are equally unable to accept that given
to us by Mark. The criticism of the sources, in its usual form, has not
revealed to us a Jesus who is more historical than the Jesus of any of
the Synoptists; and it is necessary to pursue the quest in the more
problematical region of "sources of sources." In this process Mark is
found to be as little historical as the other Synoptic Gospels, or even
as the Gospel of John.
The "dissonances of the Evangelists" appear to be left practically where
they were before the present movement in Synoptic criticism began. They
remain what they always have been when one Gospel is compared with
another, and are neither softened nor made more acute by any certain
results which have been reached in the study of the Synoptic problem.
Some, no doubt, may say that the discrepancies are so great that the
Synoptic Gospels cannot be accepted as historical records; while others
will say, as does a devout commentator on the Acts, that "such is the
naturalness of Holy Scripture that it seems as though it were
indifferent about a superficial consistency. So it ever is with truth:
its harmony is often veiled and hidden; while falsehood sometimes
betrays itself, to a practised ear, by a studied and ostentatious
uniformity."[289] Others again will appeal to the writers on historical
method, such as Langlois and Seignobos: "The natural tendency is to
think that the closer the agreement is, the greater is its demonstrative
power; we ought, on the contrary, to adopt as a rule the paradox that an
agreement proves more when it is confined to a small number of
circumstances. It is at such points of coincidence between diverging
statements that we are to look for scientifically established historical
facts."[290] The inter-Synoptic differences are certainly, in general, no
greater than those which a single author allowed himself in the accounts
of the same incident, as is shown in Luke's threefold account of the
conversion of the Apostle Paul.
289: C. J. Vaughan: "The Church of the First Days," p. 547.
290: "Introduction to the Study of History," pp. 201, 202.
IV. THE JOHANNINE PROBLEM
It is scarcely surprising that the mystery which surrounds the most
mysterious Personality in history should communicate itself to the
records which tell of His life, and even to the authors of these
records. If the Synoptic problem is a "well," as Goethe said, the
problem presented by the "spiritual Gospel" usually assigned to the
Apostle John is equally fascinating and difficult. The mystery of the
Master has in part enveloped the disciple whom Jesus loved.
The questions of the authorship and the historicity of the Fourth Gospel
are closely bound together. If the Gospel is a theological romance
intended to give currency to the conceptions of the Alexandrian
philosophy, it is clear that its authorship cannot be ascribed to one of
the disciples of Jesus. On the other hand, if it was written by one of
the Apostolic band, it must certainly, whether reliable or not in its
details, contain a wealth of historical reminiscence which will enrich
our knowledge of the personality, the words and the deeds of Christ.
It is an interesting fact that a strong defense of the Apostolic
authorship of the Gospel has been made, in the present generation and in
the one which preceded it, by writers whose theological position would
incline them to an opposite conclusion.[291] The strength of the evidence
for Johannine authorship lies in the testimony which it receives from
all parts of the early church, whether divisions be made on geographical
or theological lines, and in the links of connection which bind the
witnesses to the alleged scene of John's labours and to the Apostle
himself.
291: Ezra Abbot, 1880 (see "The Fourth Gospel," by Abbot, Peabody
and Lightfoot, 1891) and James Drummond: "Character and Authorship
of the Fourth Gospel," 1904.
If it be objected that John, as a Galilean fisherman and an unlettered
man, could not have produced a work so profound in thought and so
polished in Greek composition, the objection may be compared with that
which is raised against the authorship of the plays which go under the
name of Shakespeare. Andrew Lang remarks with irony upon the surprising
belief that "a young man from a little country town, and later an actor,
could possibly possess Shakespeare's vast treasures of general
information, or Latin enough to have read the Roman classics."[292]
292: "A New Theory of Shakespeare," _Independent_, December 22, 1910,
p. 1373.
The external evidence for Johannine authorship is strong and, with the
exception of the obscure sect of the "Alogi,"[293] is uniform. It is
"sufficient," and there can be little doubt that it would be efficient
in producing general belief except for the theological interests
involved. Objections to the Apostolic authorship from the side of the
external evidence are based (1) upon supposed indications that John was
martyred with James at Jerusalem and never lived in Ephesus at all, and
(2) upon the statement of Papias, interpreted to mean that two men by
the name of John lived in Ephesus. (1) The evidence upon the first point
is confessedly late and confused. It is contained in the statements of
Georgios Hamartolos, a ninth-century writer, and in the so-called "De
Boor Fragment," purporting to contain an extract from a fifth-century
writer, Philip of Side. The former says that Nerva, "having recalled
John from the island, dismissed him to live in Ephesus. Then, being the
only survivor of the twelve disciples, and having composed the Gospel
according to him, he has been deemed worthy of martyrdom. For Papias,
the Bishop of Hierapolis, having been an eye-witness of him, says in the
second book of the 'Oracles of the Lord,' that he was slain by the Jews,
having, as is clear, with his brother James, fulfilled the prediction of
Christ concerning him, and his own confession and assent in regard to
this." He adds that the learned Origen, in his commentary on Matthew,
"affirms that John μεμαρτύρηκεν [memartyrêken] (has borne witness, or
suffered martyrdom), intimating that he had learned this from the
successors of the Apostles."[294] But Origen, in his comment on Matthew
xx. 23, says that "the king of the Romans, as tradition teaches,
condemned John, witnessing for the truth, to the island of Patmos." If
Georgios Hamartolos thus incorrectly refers to Origen as a witness to
the martyrdom of John, less weight attaches to his professed
reproduction of the statement of Papias.
293: Epiphanius: "Haer.," li.
294: See F. W. Worsley: "The Fourth Gospel and the Synoptists," 1909,
pp. 174 f.
The "De Boor Fragment" contains the statement that "Papias, in the
second book, says that John the Divine and James his brother were slain
by the Jews."[295] This supports the statement of the ninth-century
writer in regard to the second book of Papias, but the evidence, whether
for the martyrdom of John by the Jews, or for the fact that John was put
to death at the same time with his brother James, as is sometimes
inferred, is exceedingly slight. Paul (Gal. ii. 9) speaks of John at a
time usually identified with the Council at Jerusalem (Acts xv.),
although Ramsay would identify it with Acts xi. 30, thus placing it
immediately before the death of James (Acts xii. 2). The statement of
Georgios that John lived in Ephesus at the time of Nerva also negatives
this supposition. Of the slightly attested view that John was martyred
at an early date, Dr. Dawson Walker remarks: "It is difficult to think
that this latter hypothesis would have met with so great favour if it
had not been such an effective instrument in excluding St. John from any
possibility of being the writer of the Fourth Gospel."[296] The
statements that John was put to death by the Jews may possibly be an
inference from the prophecy, "The cup that I drink ye shall drink, etc."
(Mark x. 39).
295: "Texte und Untersuchungen," v. 2, p. 170.
296: "Present Day Criticism," _Expositor_, March, 1912, p. 251. For
the statement of a Syriac calendar (411 A.D.) commemorating "John
and James the Apostles at Jerusalem" as martyrs on 27th December,
see Allen and Grensted: "Introduction to the Books of the New
Testament," 1913, p. 94.
(2) A mediating theory, based upon the well-known statement of
Papias[297] in which a "presbyter" John may, with much probability, be
distinguished from the Apostle of that name, does not deny the influence
of the Apostle upon the construction of the Fourth Gospel, while its
ultimate authorship is assigned to the "presbyter" John. The hypothesis
of the two Johns rests upon the statement of Papias' fragment as
interpreted by Eusebius; but Eusebius, while suggesting that the
"presbyter" might have written the Apocalypse, indicates no doubt of the
Apostolic authorship of the Gospel and the First Epistle. The
possibility that there were two Johns, who were both in some sense
disciples of the Lord (as Papias describes the "presbyter"), who both
lived in Asia Minor, and who were both more or less concerned in the
writing of the Fourth Gospel, cannot be denied. But it is also possible
that Papias has been misinterpreted, and that, when he described the
"presbyter" John, the disciple of the Lord, he had only the Apostle John
in mind. In this case we should be freed from the necessity, involved in
the theory of authorship we are considering, of supposing that the
Apostle had a mysterious _alter ego_ of the same name, who was with him
alike in Palestine and in Asia Minor, shared in a degree his authority
and published the substance of his teaching, and so completely merged
his personality in that of the Apostle that in the Gospel record no
trace of a separate "presbyter" can be found, and there is no mention of
the name of either John.
297: Eusebius: "Hist. Eccl.," iii. 39. "What was said ... by John or
Matthew or any other of the Lord's disciples, and what Aristion and
the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say." The argument
for two Johns is based upon the fact that the name is mentioned
twice and that different tenses are used.
The First Epistle, supposed to be a sort of supplement to the Gospel, is
of importance in its bearing upon the question of authorship. As a
recent writer says: "The persistent note of authority which is
overheard, rather than heard, in the Epistles is the more impressive
because it is only implied. St. John assumes that his authority is
unquestioned and unquestionable by those Asians who are loyal to the
Christian tradition. When we compare his letters with those of his
younger contemporaries, we conclude that it was unquestionably because
he was an Apostle."[298]
298: Rev. H. J. Bardsley: "The Testimony of Ignatius and Polycarp to
the Authorship of 'St. John,'" _Journal of Theological Studies_,
Vol. XIV, No. 56, July, 1913, p. 491.
Another mediating position, adopted by those who do not accept the full
Apostolic authorship, is found in a theory of partition, which assigns a
portion of the Gospel to the Apostle. The artistic unity of the Gospel
and the qualities of style which distinguish it from other writings
present a grave difficulty to any theory of partition. As a sort of
half-way house it will scarcely be permanently tenable. Of Spitta's
analysis, which assigns a part of the Gospel to the Apostle, it has been
objected by a critic of more radical sympathies that such an admission
places him outside the limits of scientific criticism.[299]
299: C. A. Bernoulli, in appendix to Overbeck's "Johannesevangelium,"
1911, pp. 504, 505.
The stronghold of the evidence alike for and against the Johannine
authorship is to be found in the facts of the Gospel itself. On the one
hand a powerful argument, such as that which has been developed by
Lightfoot and Westcott, can be drawn to show that the author of the
Gospel must have been a Jew, a Jew of Palestine, a disciple of Jesus,
one of the inner circle of disciples, and in fact none other than the
"beloved disciple" himself. The internal facts of the Gospel are used in
a different way by others to show that the Fourth Gospel differs so
radically in scene, in the style of its discourses, and indeed in its
entire portrait of Jesus, that it cannot be accepted as historical, or
as the work of one of the disciples.
The difference in scene between the Galilean Gospels and the Jerusalem
Gospel presents no great difficulty, but the crux of the problem is in
the difference in style and subject matter. The Jesus of the Synoptics
cannot, it is said, have spoken in the style of the discourses in John.
Before this judgment can be accepted without qualification, several
points deserve to be noticed. The difference in style is in part
accounted for by the difference in subject matter and in the character
of the audience. There are out-croppings of the Johannine style in the
Synoptics, especially where the subject of discourse is similar. The
passage, Matthew xi. 25-30, which, as we have seen, contains the
essential teachings found in John xiv., is a notable illustration. The
Jerusalem audience again was different from the Galilean audience. If it
be said that when the Jesus of the Fourth Gospel speaks in Galilee (John
vi.) He uses the same mystical style as when He speaks in Jerusalem, it
should at least be considered that the discourse in Capernaum is not
given as a sample of the usual synagogue preaching of Jesus. The scene
clearly marks a crisis in the ministry, a crisis indicated in the other
Gospels by the northern journey for retirement which immediately
followed, but made more intelligible by the supposition that the
Capernaum discourse was practically a clearer revelation to the Galilean
audience of the consciousness of Jesus and the spiritual character of
His work. When we recall that such expressions, familiar to John, as
_Logos_, Lamb of God, propitiation for sin, are never placed by John in
the mouth of Jesus, we have strong negative evidence that the discourses
of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel are not the free composition of the author
himself.
After all, the question of the style of the Fourth Gospel is not so
important as that of its contents. Does it draw an essentially different
picture of Jesus from that of the Synoptic writers, or does it help us
to fill out and to interpret the Synoptic portrait? Two considerations
of a general nature should be kept in mind. Ordinary readers of the
Gospels in all ages have seen no lack of unity in the composite portrait
of the four Gospels; and recent criticism has shown that even to the
sharp sighted modern critic the harmony is so great that one who rejects
the historical character of John's Gospel will also reject the Second
Gospel, which was written from the standpoint that Jesus is the Son of
God (so Bousset), and is to be distinguished from the Fourth Gospel in
degree (_graduel_) rather than in essence. The aim of Mark, and there is
no reason to doubt that he reaches his aim, is in fact the same as that
of John, so far as concerns his desire that his readers may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (John xx. 31).
If what the Synoptic Gospels say is true as to the words and the works
and the claims and the consciousness of Jesus, then we should expect
some such supplement as we find in John. We should expect either more or
less than we find in the Synoptic Gospels. When we read of the Divine
Voice at the baptism and the transfiguration, we ask, What did Jesus
Himself conceive His relation to God to be? The full answer is in John.
When we read, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. xviii. 20), we should expect
fuller teaching on the relation of Jesus to the disciples. This we have
in the last discourses in John. When we read in the Synoptists accounts
of the teaching and the mighty works, we turn to John for the full
description of the Teacher and Lord, and of the mighty Worker
manifesting His glory. The Synoptic Gospels tell us of the authority of
Jesus and of His office of judgment and of His founding a Church. In
John we see the ground of His authority in His relation to God and in
His mystical relation to the disciples. In the Synoptists we have the
Last Supper and general prophecies of the future and commands for the
guidance of the Church. We should expect some more intimate and personal
revelation of His relation to the disciples, such as is furnished by the
Johannine picture of the disciple whom Jesus loved, and in the words,
"Woman, behold thy son" (John xix. 26, 27); and in the intimate
discourse of John xiv.-xvi. When we read, once more, that Jesus often
retired for prayer, but in the Synoptic Gospels have the record of only
one or two of His petitions: "Remove this cup from me.... Thy will be
done" (see Luke xxii. 42 and compare xxii. 32), we expect some such
enrichment of our knowledge of the prayer-life of Jesus as is contained
in John xvii.
The historical character of the Fourth Gospel is shown alike by the
light which it throws upon the course of events in the public ministry
and by the more subtle resemblances between John and the Synoptists, so
different in emphasis and shading that John's account cannot well have
been due to Synoptic tradition, and yet so much in agreement as to give
confidence that the same course of events underlies both accounts. If we
look at the outward course of events under the guidance of writers such
as Askwith[300] or A. E. Brooks,[301] we see that John's picture of the
earliest disciples in Judea may throw light upon the narrative of the
call of the four (Mark i. 16 f.). The crisis in the ministry, indicated
rather than explained in the Markan narrative, is more intelligible in
the light of John vi. The hosannas of the Triumphal Entry into
Jerusalem, as well as the settled determination of the rulers to put
Jesus to death, can be better understood with the help of John's
statements about Lazarus (see John xii. 9-11); and the accusation of the
witnesses, "We heard him say I will destroy this temple" (Mark xiv. 58),
and the weeping of Jesus over Jerusalem (Matt, xxiii. 37) are again more
intelligible in view of the Johannine statements about the temple of His
body (John ii. 20, 21), and the accounts of His frequent visits to
Jerusalem.
300: "Historical Value of the Fourth Gospel," 1910. From the
Synoptists, he says, we do not learn of disciples of the Baptist
becoming disciples of Jesus. "But if the work of the Baptist was
what the Synoptists declare it to have been, namely, to prepare the
way for the Christ, it is hardly conceivable that this work,
faithfully carried out, could have failed of this result--to supply
disciples for Him" (p. 59).
301: "Historical Value of the Fourth Gospel," in "Cambridge Biblical
Essays." The best explanation of the silence of the Synoptists upon
the raising of Lazarus is still that given by Holdsworth, "Gospel
Origins," p. 126: "Every missionary knows that to mention the names
of converts in published accounts of their work among a people
hostile to Christianity is fraught with peril to those who are
mentioned.... The difficult question of the appearance in the Fourth
Gospel of the raising of Lazarus finds its best explanation in an
application of this rule.... Although the Synoptists record the
saying of Christ that the name of the woman who broke the bottle of
spikenard ... should be mentioned [or rather her deed] wherever the
Gospel was proclaimed, that name was never mentioned by them." Long
afterwards John mentions Mary's name.
Relationships of a more subtle kind may be found when John is compared
with the Synoptic Gospels. (1) The relation of Jesus to His mother is
the same in both. Compare Luke ii. 49, "Knew ye not that I must be in
the things of my Father"; and John ii. 4, "Woman, what have I to do
with thee?" The relation with His brethren is also the same, their right
to influence Him not being admitted. (2) The causes of opposition are
differently described, but are the same in principle. In both Mark ii.
and John v., the charges against Him are those of blasphemy and Sabbath
breaking, and in both cases are made in connection with the miracle of
healing. His defense of His action in healing on the Sabbath day is the
same in principle but different in detail. In both there is an _à
fortiori_ argument: "How much then is a man of more value than a sheep!"
(Matt. xii. 12); "If a man receive circumcision on the Sabbath ... are
ye wroth with me because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath?"
(John vii. 23). In both cases His action is defended by reference to His
unique position, in the one case in His relation to God, "My Father
worketh hitherto" (John v. 17); and in the other case in His relation to
men, "The Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark ii. 28). (3) The
relation of Jesus to various classes of people as described by John is
remarkably different in detail, but wonderfully similar in essence, when
compared with the Synoptic record. In each with entire difference of
scene and circumstance He meets with a woman that was a sinner, but the
essentials of penitence and the public expression of gratitude are
similar in both (Luke vii. 37 f.; John iv. 7 f.). No narratives could be
more independent of each other than those of the conversation with
Nicodemus in John iii., and with the rich young ruler in Mark x., yet in
both cases the attitude of Jesus towards an influential and upright and
religious man was the same. In spite of difference in language also, the
words to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again" (John iii. 7), do not differ
in their radical demands from the words addressed to the ruler, "One
thing thou lackest: go, sell whatsoever thou hast and come, follow me"
(Mark x. 21).
The comparison might be continued indefinitely, but only to show that
the picture of Jesus and of His relation to the Father, and to His
disciples, to publicans and sinners, to the Pharisees, to women, and to
the human race as Saviour and Judge, is so different in John that it
cannot be due merely to the influence of the Synoptic tradition, and yet
so identical in substance that it cannot possibly, with any regard for
literary probabilities, have been the free invention of the writer.
It is generally agreed that the writer of the Fourth Gospel took for
granted in his readers an acquaintance with the narrative or the
tradition of the Synoptic Gospels. He would not have written unless he
had some new light to throw upon the figure of Jesus, or some deeper
insight into His personality and work. The photograph and the portrait
may not perhaps agree in their mechanical measurements, but to one who
knows the subject the portrait may reproduce the original as faithfully,
and even more adequately, than does the photograph. Each is useful for
its own purpose, but both together are needed to give us the body and
the soul, the exact features and the expression, the total impression of
the personality.
The criticism of the Gospels has thrown the figure of Jesus into strong
relief, not only against the background of His time, but against the
background of humanity in general. In its recent developments, it has
left us practically with the choice between the Christ of the four
Gospels or a shadowy figure to be found in none of them. The true
historical Jesus that criticism has brought before us is clad in the
coarse garments of Galilee, but with the glory of the only-begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth.
The searchlight of modern knowledge is the fierce light that beats upon
the throne. As nature and the human soul and the relationships of
thought and the phenomena of religion and the book of revelation are
more fully studied, the majesty and beauty of the central Figure in
history is more clearly revealed. Each age sees a new glory in Jesus
Christ. "It is one of the evidences of the moral greatness of Jesus,"
says Peabody, "that each period in Christian history, each social or
political change, has brought to view some new aspect of His character
and given Him a new claim to reverence." The modern age sees in Him and
in His Cross of love and sacrifice the guide and inspiration of its
ethical and social advance. It sees in Him and in His Cross the
solution, so far as ultimate solution may be possible, of its deepest
intellectual problems. It sees in Him not merely a Guide and a Revealer,
but a Redeemer from sin and the Giver of Eternal Life.
Bibliography of Recent Important Works
_For Chapter I_
HARNACK, A. Das Wesen des Christentums, 1900, 2d ed., 1908;
What is Christianity? 1901, 2d ed., 1910. Sprüche und Reden
Jesu, 1907; The Sayings of Jesus, 1908.
Aus Wissenschaft und Leben, 2 vols., 1911.
LOISY, A. L'Évangile et l'Église, 3d ed., 1904; The Church and
the Gospel, 1903.
BOUSSET, W. Was wissen wir von Jesus? 1904.
Kyrios Christos; Geschichte des Christusglaubens von den
Anfängen des Christentums his Irenæus, 1913.
SCHUMACHER, H. Die Selbstoffenbarung Jesu bei Mat 11, 27 (Luc
10, 22), 1912 (Freiburger Theologische Studien, Heft 6).
SCHWEITZER, A. Von Reimarus zu Wrede, 1906; The Quest of the
Historical Jesus, 1910.
DREWS, A. Die Christusmythe, 4th ed., 1911; The Christ-Myth,
3d ed., 1910.
WARFIELD, B. B. The Lord of Glory, 1907; and recent articles in
theological reviews.
THORBURN, T. J. Jesus the Christ: Historical or Mythical? 1912.
_For Chapter II_
Darwin and Modern Science. Edited by A. C. Seward, 1909.
Anniversary Volume by Various Authors.
Fifty Years of Darwinism, 1909. Anniversary Volume by Various
Authors.
WEISMANN, A. The Evolution Theory, 2 vols., 1904.
WALLACE, A. R. The World of Life, 1911. Man's Place in the
Universe, 3d ed., 1905.
MORGAN, T. H. Evolution and Adaptation, 1908.
HENDERSON, L. J. The Fitness of the Environment, 1913.
THOMSON, J. A. The Bible of Nature, 1908.
MERX, J. T. History of European Thought in the Nineteenth
Century. Vol. II, 1903.
HERBERT, S. First Principles of Evolution, 1913.
_For Chapter III_
JAMES, W. Varieties of Religious Experience, 1903. The Will to
Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, 1902.
STARBUCK, E. D. The Psychology of Religion, 1900.
AMES, E. C. The Psychology of Religious Experience, 1910.
LEUBA, J. H. A Psychological Study of Religion, 1912.
PRATT, J. B. The Psychology of Religious Belief, 1907.
STEVENS, GEORGE. The Psychology of the Christian Soul, 1911.
ROYCE, J. The Sources of Religious Insight, 1912.
BEGBIE, H. Twice-Born Men, 1909.
JASTROW, JOSEPH. The Subconscious, 1906.
COE, GEORGE A. The Religion of a Mature Mind, 1902.
HALL, G. STANLEY. Adolescence, 1904.
_For Chapter IV_
BERGSON, HENRI. L'Évolution Créatrice, 7th ed., 1911; Creative
Evolution, 1911.
LEROY, EDOUARD. The New Philosophy of Henri Bergson, 1913.
EUCKEN, RUDOLF. Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion, 3d ed., 1912;
The Truth of Religion, 2d Eng. from 3d German ed., 1913.
Können wir noch Christen sein? 1911; Can We Still Be
Christians? 1914.
JONES, W. TUDOR. An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's
Philosophy, 1912.
HERMANN, E. Eucken and Bergson: Their Significance for
Christian Thought, 1912.
GIBSON, W. R. BOYCE. Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy of Life, 3d
ed., 1912.
WARD, JAMES. The Realm of Ends, 1911.
ROYCE, JOSIAH. William James and Other Essays, 1911.
The Problem of Christianity, 2 vols., 1913.
_For Chapter V_
CLEMEN, CARL. Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des Neuen
Testaments, 1909; Primitive Christianity and Its non-Jewish
Sources, 1912.
Der Einfluss der Mysterienreligionen auf das älteste
Christentum, 1913.
REITZENSTEIN, R. Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-ägyptischen
und frühchristlichen Literatur, 1904. Die Hellenistische
Mysterienreligionen, 1910.
CUMONT, F. Les Religions Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain,
2d ed., 1909; The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, 1911.
KENNEDY, H. A. A. St. Paul and the Mystery Religions, 1913.
MEAD, G. R. S. Thrice Greatest Hermes, 3 vols., 1906.
FOWLER, W. WARDE. The Religious Experience of the Roman People,
1911.
MACKENZIE, W. D. The Final Faith, 1910.
MARETT, R. R. The Threshold of Religion, 1914.
Religionsgeschtliche Volksbücher, begun in 1904.
_For Chapter VI_
ORR, JAMES. The Problem of the Old Testament, 1906.
HARNACK, A. Beitrage zur Einleitung in das Neue Testament: I.
Lukas der Arzt, 1906 (Luke the Physician, 1907); II. Sprüche
und Reden Jesu, 1907 (The Sayings of Jesus, 1908); III. Die
Apostelgeschichte, 1908 (The Acts of the Apostles, 1909); IV.
Neue Untersuchungen zur Apostelgeschichte und zur
Abfassungszeit der Synoptischen Evangelien, 1911 (The Date of
the Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels, 1911).
RAMSAY, SIR W. M. Pauline and Other Studies in Early Church
History, 1906.
KOCH, HEINRICH. Die Abfassungszeit des lukanischen
Geschichtswerkes, 1911.
SANDAY, W. (ED.). Studies in the Synoptic Problem, 1911. The
Criticism of the Fourth Gospel, 1905.
STANTON, VINCENT H. The Gospels as Historical Documents, Part
II, The Synoptic Gospels, 1909.
HOLDSWORTH, W. W. Gospel Origins: A Study in the Synoptic
Problem, 1913.
HAWKINS, SIR JOHN C. Horæ Synopticæ, 2d ed., 1909.
MOFFATT, JAMES. An Introduction to the Literature of the New
Testament, 1911.
ALLEN, W. C. and GRENSTED, L. W. Introduction to the Books of
the New Testament, 1913.
DRUMMOND, JAMES. An Inquiry Into the Character and Authorship
of the Fourth Gospel, 1904.
BACON, BENJAMIN W. The Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate,
1910.
WORSLEY, F. W. The Fourth Gospel and the Synoptists, 1909.
SCHAEFER, ALOYS. Enileitung in das Neue Testament, 1913.
Index
Abbot, Ezra, 228
Absolute, the, 125, 127, 147, 162
Activism, 138, 139
Acts of the Apostles, credibility of, 206-210, 215-216;
authorship of, 209;
date of, 210-215
Adolescence and conversion, 107-110
Adonis, 166
Allen, Grant, 58
Allen and Grensted, 232
Ames, E. C., 115, 117
Arrhenius, S. A., 76
Askwith, E. H., 238
Atonement, 157-160
Augustine, 93, 94, 98-99, 110
Bacon, B. W., 35
Baldwin, J. M., 63
Bardsley, H. J., 233
Bartlett, J. V., 219
Bateson, W., 65
Baur, F. C., 203, 204, 217
Begbie, H., 96
Bergson, H., 62, 63, 69, 73, 127-137, 146, 163
Bernoulli, C. A., 234
Booth, M., 144
Bousset, W., 20, 35, 38, 40-42, 46, 48, 174-176, 184, 188, 222, 223
Brooks, A. E., 238
Brooks, Phillips, 29
Browning, R., 162
Buddhism, 170
Carlyle, T., 43, 119
Carter, J. B., 96
Cheyne, T. K., 168
Christian experience, 53, 144;
evidence of, 122-124
Christianity, essence of, 15, 26, 27, 54;
of the New Testament writers, 16-21;
primitive and Pauline, 21-26;
of Jesus and Paul, 26-34;
doctrinal, 52, 54-55, 157-158;
Eucken's relation to, 142-145;
what is vital in, 156-158;
and ancient religions, 165-193;
and modern religions, 193-197
Christology, 161, 162, 175;
of Paul, 15, 23;
of Mark, 20, 223, 236;
of Jesus, 35-44;
and ethics, 28-35
Clemen, C., 168, 170, 181, 187, 189
Clifford, W. K., 93
Coe, G. A., 90
Confucius, 167-168
Conklin, E. A., 79
Conversion, 96-99, 107-110, 123
Copernicus, 60, 85
Creed, J. M., 189
Cumont, F., 178, 180
Darwin, C., 56, 85, 129
Darwinism, see Evolution
DeBoor fragment, 231
Deissmann, A., 172, 176
Dewey, J., 127
Dobschütz, E. von, 42, 53-54, 182
Drews, A., 45, 46, 48, 50
Driesch, H. A. E., 70
Drummond, Henry, 89
Drummond, James, 228
Edwards, Jonathan, 89, 122
Eigenmann, C. H., 62
Eimer, G. H. J., 63
_Élan vital_, see Vital impulse
Eliot, C. W., 197
Emerson, R. W., 58, 89
Emperor, worship of, 172-177
Environment, fitness of, 60, 68-69
Ephesians, epistle to, 204
Epigenesis, 73-75, 81, 83
Epiphanius, 229
Ethics, of Jesus and Paul, 27-35;
Christian, 51
Eucken, R., 33, 91, 137-146, 163
Eusebius, 232
Evolution, 56;
as unfavourable to religion, 57-58;
as favourable to religion, 59-60;
and the Copernican theory, 60-61;
method of, 61-66;
meaning of, 66-82;
and design, 66-73;
and theism, 82-85;
creative, 127-136
Faith, salvation by, 102, 104
Finalism, 132-134
Fletcher, M. S., 116
Forrest, D. W., 122
Fowler, W. Warde, 192
Fox, George, 107, 118
Franckh, 170
Frazer, J. G., 46
Georgios Hamartolos, 230, 231
Goethe, 228
Gospel, the double, 25, 53-54
Grace, 159-161
Gregory, E. L., 122
Grützmacher, R. H., 171
Haeckel, E., 58, 139
Hale, E. E., 101
Hall, G. S., 107
Harnack, A. von, 18, 25, 26, 27, 37, 38, 52, 53,
188, 207-211, 215, 216, 225
Hartmann, E. von, 128
Hase, K. A., 39
Hatch, E., 183
Hawkins, Sir J. C., 208, 211, 219, 221
Headlam, A. C., 204
Headley, F. H., 83
Hegel, 146-162
Heitmüller, W., 182
Henderson, L. J., 68, 69
Herbert, S., 65
Heredity, 61
Hermas, Shepherd of, 185, 190-192
Hermes, 189-192
Hermetic literature, 185-188, 189
Höffding, H., 121
Holdsworth, W. W., 221, 223, 238
Holtzmann, H. J., 214
Hügel, Baron F. von, 73
Huxley, T. H., 67, 85
Immortality, 59, 129, 130, 141, 152-154
Incarnation, 157, 162-163
Inge, W. R., 90
Intellectualism, 140
Ishtar, 171
Jackson, H. L., 224
James, William, 89, 90, 92, 100, 102, 104,
111-114, 119-120, 122, 125, 137
Jastrow, J., 102, 111
Jesus Christ, passion, 16-20, 41-42;
resurrection, 16-18, 25, 143;
person, 20;
authority, 31-32;
character, 31, 43-44, 51;
liberal view of, 44-49, 143-144;
mythical view of, 45-47
John, Gospel of, 227-242;
authorship of, 228-229;
external evidence, 229-233;
internal evidence, 234-238;
historical value, 238-242
Josephus, 211, 213-215
Justin, 170
Kalthoff, A., 22
Kant, 146, 152
Kelvin, Lord, 76
Kennedy, H. A. A., 180, 182, 188
Kidd, B., 58, 90
Kingsley, Charles, 59
Koch, H., 211-212
Kyrios-title, 174-177
Lake, K., 25
Lamarck, 63
Lang, A., 229
Langlois and Seignobos, 227
Law, R., 107
Lemme, L., 36
LeRoy, E., 132
Leuba, J. H., 115
Lightfoot, Bishop J. B., 190, 228, 234
Lodge, Sir O., 69, 86
Loeb, J., 76
Logia, see Q
Loisy, A., 37, 73, 177
Lowell, J. R., 197
Loyalty, religion of, 156-158
Luther, 99, 110
Lyell, Sir Charles, 56
Macalister, A., 68
Mark (Gospel), priority of, 217, 223, 225;
use of Q, 220;
different editions of, 220;
secondary elements in, 221-223
Materialism, 96, 126, 163
Mead, G. R. S., 189, 190
Mechanism, 66, 68-69, 72, 83, 131
Messiah, 44, 47-48
Metempsychosis, 152-155
Missions, Christian, 193-197
Moffatt, J., 211
Mohammedanism, 144-145, 196
Morgan, C. Lloyd, 63
Morgan, T. H., 65
Mystery religions, 177-186, 189
Mysticism, 120-122
Nägeli, K. W., 63
Naturalism, 125, 136, 137, 139
Neo-Platonism, 189
Newman, Cardinal, 73
Newton, 56, 86
Nicoll, Sir W. Robertson, 216
Nietzsche, F., 128
Noyes, Alfred, 74, 80
Origen, 169, 230
Origin, of life, 75-78;
of man, 78-79
Orr, J., 202
Osborn, H. F., 62, 63
Osiris, 167
Ostwald, W., 69, 77
Overbeck, F., 234
Paley, W., 67, 207
Pampsychism, 153-155
Pantheism, 50, 84, 121, 142, 178
Papias, 231, 232, 233, 234
Patton, Francis L., 216
Paul, founder of Christianity, 21;
and the primitive apostles, 22-26;
and Jesus, 26-35;
conversion of, 98-99, 110, 227
Pauline Epistles, 203-205
Peabody, F. G., 242
Pearson, K., 76
Petersen, E., 171
Philip of Side, 230
Philo, 170, 189
Plato, 108, 169, 178
Plummer, A., 34, 36
Pluralism, 128, 146-153
Poimandres, 185-187, 189-192
Pragmatism, 119-120, 122, 127, 139, 146
Pratt, J. B., 104, 111
Preformation, 73, 80, 82
Priene inscription, 172
Psychology of religion, its founders, 89;
an aid to Christian faith, 91
Q (Quelle), 30, 218, 219, 220, 225
Ramsay, Sir W. M., 202, 205-208, 212-213, 231
Ransom, 19, 35
Rashdall, H., 159
Reinach, S., 46
Reitzenstein, R., 181, 185-191
Religion, normality of, 86, 92-96;
power of, 96-100;
and disease, 106, 107;
and sex, 107-110;
and the subconscious, 111-114;
and society, 115-119;
universal, 140;
characteristic, 140-141
Religious experience, its physchology, 92, 105;
its metaphysical implicates, 105, 106, 115, 119-122
Renan, E., 46, 58
Robertson, J. M., 47
Robinson, H. W., 123
Romanes, G. J., 59, 71, 93
Royce, J., 78, 89, 100, 103, 114, 146, 156-163
Sacraments, 180-182, 184-185
Salvation, need of, 100-102;
way of, 102-105
Sanday, W., 35, 39, 111, 220
Schäfer, Sir E. A., 77, 86
Schiller, F. C. S., 127
Schmiedel, P. W., 46, 219
Schopenhauer, 128
Schürer, E., 214
Schumacher, H., 37
Schweitzer, A., 21, 22
Selection, natural, 57, 63;
germinal, 63
Shaler, N. S., 61
Simpson, P. C., 123
Sin, 100, 102, 158-159
Smith, W. B., 46
Socrates, 43
Spiritual life, 140, 142-144
Spitta, F., 234
Stanton, V. H., 209
Starbuck, E. D., 89, 90, 97, 101, 103, 107, 112
Stevens, G., 98, 110
Stier, 217
Storrs, R. S., 200
Strauss, D. F., 45, 49
Subconscious, 111-114
Synoptic problem, 216-227
Teleology, 66-68
Theism, 50, 126, 137, 141, 147-150, 153, 155
Thomson, J. A., 70, 80
_Titanic_ disaster, 94-95
Tübingen school, see Baur
Uhlhorn, G., 97, 179
Underhill, A., 90
Variation, laws of, 62-63
Vaughan, C. J., 227
Vergil, Eclogues of, 173, 192
Virgin Birth, 170-173
Vital impulse, 60, 63, 128-129, 131, 133, 136-137
Voltaire, 86
Vries, de, 62, 63
Walker, Dawson, 207, 212, 231
Walker, H. H., 99
Wallace, A. R., 61, 67, 69, 80
Ward, James, 73, 116, 146-155, 163
Warschauer, J., 167
Weinel, H., 182
Weismann, A., 63-65, 76
Weiss, J., 50
Wendling, E., 35
Wendt, H. H., 181
Wernle, P., 24
Westcott, Bishop B. F., 162, 234
Whetham, W. C. D. and C. D., 87
Worsley, F. W., 230
Wrede, W., 20
Wright, A., 207
Wright, W. K., 100
Zahn, T., 192
Zinzendorf, Count, 97
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_W. BEATTY JENNINGS, D.D._
The Social Teachings of Christ Jesus
A Manual for Bible Classes, Christian Associations, Social Study Groups,
etc. 16mo, cloth, net 50c.
In a series of twenty studies, the teachings of Jesus are
applied to specific social sins and needs of to-day, such as
poverty, pleasure, war, the drink traffic, etc., and shown to
be the sure and only solution of the problems of society.
_ROBERT FREEMAN_
The Hour of Prayer
Helps to Devotion When Absent from Church. 12mo, cloth, net 75c.
"A volume of reverent purpose designed especially for those who
wish some form of Sunday observance, or who, by stress of
circumstances, are prevented from attending services in the
churches. To shut-ins, mothers with young children, nurses and
others who are unable to attend public worship, the book will
particularly appeal."--_Buffalo Express._
Transcribers Note: P 156 Home-land changed to homeland
P 12 The Theistic Infer enc changed to
The Theistic Inference