STILL ASCENDING THE STREAM.
The evidence thus far has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that at the
writing of Justin’s First Apology, the Canonical Gospels were read
with the Prophets in city and country, on “the day called Sunday,” as
authentic Memoirs of our Lord. Assuming the date[1] of this Apology to
have been A.D. 138 or 139, the time was a little over one hundred years
from the Crucifixion, and less than eighty years from the death of Mark
and Luke, and all the Apostles other than John, and only forty years from
his death. How long were these periods as they affect the argument from
the universal reception of the Gospels in Justin’s time, and from the
universal tradition in their favor which accompanied such reception? The
writer has within two days (in April, 1881) met with three persons who
saw Lafayette on his visit to New England in 1824. One of them distinctly
remembers the sentiment[2] which Lafayette gave at Concord, and another
shook hands with him. There were hundreds of Revolutionary soldiers
present, some of whom the General recognized and called by name, although
he had not seen their faces for more than forty years. This was in 1824.
Whittier’s poem describes one of these soldiers, as he now remembers him,
at the time of Monroe’s tour in 1817, _sixty-four years ago_:
“Once a soldier, blame him not,
That the Quaker he forgot,
When to think of battles won,
And the red coats on the run,
Laughed aloud Friend Morrison.”
And throughout the country there are thousands now living[A] who well
knew men who were in active life during the War of the Revolution. In the
_Granite Monthly_ for December, 1880, was published the Diary of Rev.
Timothy Walker of Concord, for the year 1780, and there were earlier
Diaries kept by him which have been preserved by his descendants. The
Diary of Matthew Patten of Bedford, from 1750 to 1790, is in the custody
of Charles H. Woodbury, Esq., of New York. The Congregational church at
Concord, of which Timothy Walker was the first pastor, November, 1880,
celebrated its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. There are several
towns in New Hampshire, as Londonderry, Dover, Exeter and Portsmouth,
that were settled earlier than Concord; and some of them as early as
1623. The landing of the Pilgrims was _two hundred and sixty years ago_.
It seems but as yesterday. A century from the Crucifixion was no longer
than a century now; and as an event, to be remembered, the Crucifixion
was as much greater than the Landing of the Pilgrims as the glory of
the noonday sun is above that of the feeblest star in the most distant
heavens. The time that has elapsed since Timothy Walker wrote Diaries
which are now in existence is as long as from the Crucifixion to Justin’s
Apology; more than thirty years longer than from the martyrdom of Peter
and Paul to Justin’s Apology; and sixty years longer than from John’s
death to Justin’s Apology. The churches in Justin’s time were not dealing
with writings from a dim and misty past, or of limited or infrequent
use. None were as ancient as Walker’s Diary; the last had not seen half
its years; they were in all the churches, and read every Sabbath day.
The argument which proves that there was no substitution between 140
and 180 is as much more forcible to prove that there was no substitution
between the years 100 and 140, or between the years 60 and 100, as those
times were nearer the great events which the Gospels recorded. If, for
example, there were accepted Memoirs of our Lord in the churches in
the year 100, from the presumed _continuance_ of a state of things the
existence of which has been proved,[3] it should be _presumed_ that they
remained in the churches till Justin’s time, there being no evidence to
the contrary. And so there would be the same (or greater) difficulties
in the way of displacement and substitution, between the year 100 and
the year 140, as between the year 140 and the year 180. Justin and his
contemporaries had from their own recollection,[4] or from others,
whether parents, teachers, presbyters or bishops, as great facilities for
knowing what Memoirs were accepted in the churches forty years before,
as had Irenæus and his contemporaries in respect to the period of forty
years before one hundred and eighty. And there was a succession and
continued life in the churches from 100 to 140, the same as from 140 to
180. This reasoning is applicable to Clement and his contemporaries, and
shows that Memoirs which were in the churches in the year 100 could not
have displaced accepted and generally received Memoirs of any previous
period. We know from the Epistle of Clement, as clearly as from Justin’s
Apology, how Christians loved and adored their Divine Lord and Master,
and how strongly attached they must have been to any Memoirs of him,
which they accepted as authentic. And the testimony of Pliny is, that
Christians in his day were accustomed to meet before daybreak and sing a
responsive hymn to Christ as God. It is utterly incredible that accepted
Memoirs of Christ, thus worshipped, should have been thrown aside by
presbyters or bishops, and hundreds of churches, throughout the Roman
Empire, without a shock that would have left unmistakable evidences
of it in history. There being an entire absence of any evidence of
displacement and substitution, it is _morally certain there was none_.
John’s Gospel, however, stands upon a different footing, since it came
in not to displace, but to supplement. John lived to the close of the
first century. _Who dared_ to forge a spurious Gospel in his name, so
soon after his death that it had obtained such a footing in the churches,
at the end of forty years, as to be quoted as his production? _Who_,
during that period, was _capable_ of composing it? And how were hundreds
of presbyters or bishops, and churches, from Syria to Gaul, persuaded to
receive a spurious Gospel, as the genuine work of the beloved disciple
who was in life within the personal[4] recollections of many? It is a
fact to be emphasized, that neither this Gospel, nor the others, can
be assailed on historical or traditional grounds. _There is but one
history or tradition_ concerning them. The objections to them are either
negative or speculative, mere assumptions, not supported by any history
or tradition.
The first _use_ of the four Gospels of which there is any history, is in
statements of facts found to be recorded in them, and in quotations of
teachings of Christ, corresponding with them. The first _description_ of
them after Papias, is that of “Memoirs” of Christ, “drawn up” by Apostles
and companions of Apostles. The first mention of them _by the names of
the writers_, ascribes their authorship to the men whose names they now
bear. There is no history or tradition of a time when the first Gospel
was ascribed to any but Matthew, or the second to any but Mark, or the
fourth to any but John[5], or the third, with Acts, to any but Luke. The
standing objection that none of them is mentioned _by name_ till the time
of Theophilus, and Irenæus, and the writer of the Muratori Canon, is not
of the slightest consequence as opposing evidence. For, if these Gospels
were not mentioned by name, neither were any[6] others; and surely we are
not expected to believe that there were _no originals_, from which the
many quotations, from Clement of Rome, in the year 97, down, were taken.
This objection proves too much. For it proves, if it proves anything,
that there were _no_ Gospels or writings to answer to the quotations,
which, under the circumstances, is a palpable absurdity. Besides, it
is not true in respect to the First and Second Gospels, for Papias,
certainly as early as the middle of the second century, and probably
before the year 140, gave the _names_ of Matthew and Mark respectively,
as their authors, the latter being “the interpreter of Peter.”
[1] Judge Waite controverts the generally received opinion of the date
of Justin’s First Apology. Verissimus became Cæsar in 139, but he is not
addressed as Cæsar, but as “philosopher.” In reply to this, Mr. Waite
says, that the same is true of the Second Apology, “which is admitted
by all to have been written after 139.” In the first place, there is
considerable uncertainty which of the Apologies was first written, and
some critics maintain that what is called the Second was a preface to
the First, and others still that it was a continuation of the First.
(See introductory notice to Vol. II. of the A. N. C. L.) In the second
place, the address to Urbicus in the so-called Second Apology, was
not by _Justin_. He only gives it as the language of _one Lucius_, in
narrating an occurrence which, for aught that appears, may have taken
place before the year 139. Mr. Waite also says that Justin would be but
twenty-five years of age in 139. He might have written his Apology in
139, nevertheless. And there are many who put his birth earlier than the
year 114, and some as early as the year 85. There are no certain data by
which to determine the time of his birth. Again he says that Marcion did
not come to Rome till about 140, and that Justin (c. 26) refers to him
as being “even at this day alive, and teaching his disciples to believe
in some God greater than the Creator.” But Justin meant to express his
abhorrence of his doctrines. He refers to him as “a man of Pontus,” and
again (in c. 58) as “Marcion of Pontus,” and says the devils put him
forward. He nowhere describes him as being _of_ Rome or _at_ Rome. In
his extensive travels he doubtless knew of him while he was at Pontus.
Judge Waite also says that, if in the year 139, Justin would have said
that Christ was born 140 years ago, instead of 150. But correcting the
error for the beginning of our Era, the time would have been A.D. 146,
or 144, as we allow four or six years for the error, and Justin, using
round numbers, would more naturally have taken the longer period. There
is nothing therefore in Judge Waite’s arguments to change the opinion in
what he concedes to be “the very valuable Encyclopedia of McClintock and
Strong,” and of Page, Neander, Lemisch, Roberts and Donaldson, Sears,
Fisher, Eusebius, (c. 8) and many others, assigning the year 139. See
also Canonicity, by Dr. Charteris (1880) p. lv. It is, however, not
essential to the argument from the First Apology, whether it was written
in the year 139, or 144, or 146, or even 150 of our Era. By as much as
it lengthens the period from the death of John to the date of the First
Apology, it shortens the time between that date and the year 180.
[2] “The memories of Light Infantry Poor and Yorktown Scammel.”
[A] Rev. Simeon Parmelee, D.D., celebrated his one hundredth birthday at
the house of his son-in-law Hon. E. J. Hamilton, ex-mayor of the city of
Oswego, N. Y., Jan. 16, 1882. His intellect was clear, and to those who
called he had an ever ready response, and replied happily and wittily to
the addresses. He had been in the ministry from 1808 to 1869, and, for
years after, preached occasionally. His eldest daughter is 72 years of
age, and his descendants now living, number 53. Upon his 90th birthday
he wrote a hymn of considerable merit. When 100 years old, he remembered
with vivid freshness the Inauguration of George Washington, although at
that time but in his 8th year. See _Congregationalist_, Jan. 25, 1882.
[3] See Phillips, Parker, and Greenleaf, as quoted in c. 8.
[4] Justin in his First Apology (c. 15) refers to many of sixty or
seventy years of age, who have been Christ’s disciples from childhood.
[5] Prof. Fisher (p. 69) says, that besides the few individuals called
the Alogi, or men “without understanding,” there is no allusion to the
denial of John’s authorship of the Fourth Gospel by any writer, before
the latter part of the fourth century.
[6] As to the controverted reference in Justin’s Apology to “Memoirs of
Him,” see c. 4, and c. 7, note 14. That, if correctly interpreted by
Judge Waite, could only have been Mark’s Gospel.