The four Gospels are brief, biographical sketches, records of a few of
the works and teachings of our Lord.
It may be supposed that those disciples of Christ that were able to
write, like Matthew and John, would keep journals while they followed
their master, witnessing his works and listening to his teachings.
These journals would, after the {372} crucifixion and ascension,
naturally be read in private and in public. They would be copied and
distributed in the various branches of the church and form texts for
discourses, and thus be augmented with such incidents or sayings
which were still retained in the memories of those who had been eye
witnesses. In this way several versions of the doings and sayings of
our Lord began to circulate, some, no doubt, contradicting others,
until the necessity became universally felt to have some authentic
record, showing exactly what was reliable of the many circulating
reports, and what was not reliable. And the result is the four gospels
according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
At what precise time these gospels were completed in their present form
is a question not yet settled between the various critics. That they,
in their present form, were issued by the apostles, whose names they
bear, seems irreconcilable with some facts. There are, for instance,
words and phrases found, which could hardly have had any significance
until some time after the time of the apostles. The word "kephas"
(John i, 43) does not occur in classical Hebrew, but is used by later
Talmudistic writers signifying something hard, a rock. "Petra" (Matt.
xvi, 18) meaning a "rock," has a strong Latin color, while the Hebrew
for "rock" is "zur." And the expression "to take up the cross," or "to
bear the cross," is all the more remarkable, as in the Hebrew there was
at that time no word equivalent to "cross," which is of Latin origin.
Even later Jewish writers found it difficult to adequately express
the idea of a cross, and hence used the word _zelem_, which, however,
signifies an image, and the translations of the New Testament, both
into Hebrew and Arabic, have found no better way out of the difficulty
than to adopt the Chaldaic _zeliba_, gallows. Of this a modern form,
_zelab_, is made to represent the idea "cross." From these and many
other circumstances, we seem justified in the conclusion that the four
gospels have been subjected to foreign influences, which have modified
their form in various ways. But that they are based upon and contain
the "memoirs" of our Lord, as published by the apostles, by mouth and
pen, need not be doubted. The testimony of antiquity is conclusive on
this point.